Sweden pledges additional $1.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine
Sweden will donate 16 billion kronor ($1.6 billion) in military aid to Ukraine, the government said on Monday -- the largest military aid package from the Nordic country since Russia's 2022 invasion.
"The aid package we are presenting today is the largest so far that we will have donated to Ukraine. We want to send the message now that we are both intensifying our support and increasing its strength and scope," Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson told reporters.
AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Nahar Net
an hour ago
- Nahar Net
After decades in Assad jails, political prisoner wants justice
by Naharnet Newsdesk 05 June 2025, 11:51 Syrian fighter pilot Ragheed Tatari was 26 when he was arrested. Now 70, the country's longest-serving political prisoner is finally free after Bashar al-Assad's fall, seeking justice and accountability. Tatari, arrested in 1981 and sentenced to life behind bars, was among scores of prisoners who walked free when longtime ruler Assad was overthrown on December 8 in an Islamist-led offensive. He has made it out alive after 43 years in jail, but tens of thousands of Syrian families are still searching for their loved ones who disappeared long ago in Syria's hellish prison system. "I came close to death under torture," Tatari told AFP in his small Damascus apartment. Since a military field court gave him a life sentence for "collaborating with foreign countries" -- an accusation he denies -- Tatari was moved from one prison to another, first under late president Hafez al-Assad and then his son Bashar who succeeded him in 2000. Showing old pictures of him in his pilot uniform, Tatari said he was not seeking revenge, but stressed that "everyone must be held accountable for their crimes". "We do not want anyone to be imprisoned" without due process, said Tatari. More than two million Syrians were jailed under the Assad dynasty's rule, half of them after anti-government protests in 2011 escalated into civil war, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor. The Britain-based monitor says around 200,000 died in custody. Diab Serriya, co-founder of the Association of Detainees and Missing Persons of Saydnaya Prison, said that Tatari was "the longest-serving political prisoner in Syria and the Middle East". Rights group Amnesty International has called the notorious Saydnaya prison outside Damascus a "human slaughterhouse". Tatari had been detained there, but he said his 15 years in the Palmyra prison in the Syrian desert were the most difficult. - 'Wished for death' - The Palmyra facility operated "without any discipline, any laws and any humanity", Tatari said. Detainees were "not afraid of torture -- we wished for death", he added. "Everything that has been said about torture in Palmyra... is an understatement." "A guard could kill a prisoner if he was displeased with him," Tatari said, adding that inmates were forced under torture to say phrases like "Hafez al-Assad is your god", although he refused to do so. In 1980, Palmyra witnessed a massacre of hundreds of mostly Islamist detainees, gunned down by helicopters or executed in their cells after a failed assassination attempt on Hafez al-Assad. Tatari said he was completely disconnected from the outside world there, only learning of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union through a prisoner who had returned from a hospital visit. In Sweida prison in the south, where Tatari was transferred after the 2011 revolt began, some inmates had phones that they would keep hidden from the guards. "The cell phone gets you out of prison, it makes you feel alive," he said, recalling how he used to conceal his device in a hole dug in his cell. But after his phone was discovered, he was transferred to a prison in Tartus -- his final detention facility before gaining freedom. - Dreams of escape - Tatari was one of several military officers who were opposed to Syria's intervention in Lebanon in 1976, and to the violent repression in the early 1980s of the Muslim Brotherhood, Syria's main opposition force at the time. "Many of us were against involving the army in political operations," he said. After two of his fellow pilots defected and fled to Jordan in 1980, he escaped to Egypt and then on to Jordan. But he returned when security forces began harassing his family and was arrested on arrival. His wife was pregnant at the time with their first and only son. For years, the family assumed Tatari was dead, before receiving a proof of life in 1997 after paying bribes, a common practice under the Assads' rule. It was then that Tatari was finally able to meet his son, then aged 16, under the watchful eye of guards during the family's first authorized prison visit that year. "I was afraid... I ended the meeting after 15 minutes," Tatari said. His wife has since died and their son left Syria, having received threats at the start of the protest movement, which had spiraled into war and eventually led to Assad's overthrow. During his time behind bars, Tatari said he "used to escape prison with my thoughts, daydreams and drawing". "The regime getting toppled overnight was beyond my dreams... No one expected it to happen so quickly."
MTV Lebanon
21 hours ago
- MTV Lebanon
Geagea meets Swedish Christian Democrats in Maarab
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea met in Maarab with a delegation from Sweden's Christian Democratic Party, including MPs Yousef Aydin, Magnus Jacobsson, and Magnus Bernetsson. The meeting focused on opportunities for cooperation between Sweden, Europe, and Lebanon, with an emphasis on shared values and political priorities. Bernetsson described the talks as fruitful, highlighting common perspectives on global and Middle Eastern affairs and calling Lebanon a 'model of hope' for the region. Aydin, who oversees minority rights within his party, emphasized Sweden's commitment to supporting Lebanon's stability, pluralism, and peaceful coexistence. Jacobsson underlined the importance of decentralization, noting potential collaboration between Sweden and Lebanon on local governance and educational initiatives. The Swedish MPs praised the Lebanese Forces' pivotal role in national politics and their commitment to inclusive governance. Separately, Geagea continued his local outreach, meeting with newly elected municipal councils from the towns of Batloun and Bmahray in the Aley district.
LBCI
a day ago
- LBCI
EU gives Bulgaria green light to adopt euro in 2026
The EU gave the green light on Wednesday for Bulgaria to adopt the euro from January 1, 2026, meaning it will become the 21st member of the single currency area. The European Commission said that Bulgaria had fulfilled the strict criteria "intended to ensure that a country is ready to adopt the euro and that its economy is sufficiently prepared to do so". AFP
