Latest news with #RussiaInvasion
Telegraph
30-05-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Labour's slavish obedience to international legalism prevents us from defeating Putin
Don't you know there's a war on?' This challenge, usually directed at someone who was being selfish and demanding, was frequently thrown at people during the Second World War. I want to ask the same question today, the war being that in Ukraine. It needs to be asked of all Nato countries, both in Europe and North America. Once again, it is, sort of, a rhetorical question. Almost everyone knows there's a big war on. Nobody can state accurately how many people have died in the Ukraine war, but if you guessed more than 250,000 dead, most would say you were underestimating. Russia has invaded, massacred and tortured. It has repeatedly and deliberately bombed civilians and abducted about 20,000 children. Although the Balkan wars of the 1990s were grim, with more than 100,00 people dying, the invasion of Ukraine is much the largest and most serious war in modern Europe. It was started by a great European power. In this, it is unique since 1939. Not only is it the engine of death and destruction; it is also a massive, deliberate violation of the entire post-1945 legal, political and military European peace which was designed to prevent the alteration of borders by force. We know this, and most of us, in Britain at least, hate it. Polls show popular support for Ukraine remains very high. But there is an unresolved question about how much we believe it involves us. Shortly before he went off to appease Hitler at Munich in September 1938, Neville Chamberlain self-contradicted on precisely this point. He acknowledged Britain's responsibility for ensuring peace, yet he also lamented being dragged toward war 'because of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing.' His word 'quarrel' implied equal fault on both sides rather than identifying one side's aggression. Such what's-it-got-to-do-with-us? ideas lurk somewhere in our collective psyche about Ukraine, even though part of the answer hit us directly in 2022 when energy prices exploded. In Donald Trump's America, there is a disturbing strand which thinks the conflict was got up by President Zelensky to get the United States to pay. That mode of thought leads to dreams of some quick deal about material advantages rather than a just – and therefore lasting – peace. Even when President Trump this week rounded on Putin for bombing Ukrainian cities more heavily than ever, his tone was not that of a man repelled by wickedness, but of an exasperated friend: 'I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time.' He distributed blame equally between Putin, Zelensky and Joe Biden. Why the surprise? Russia's attempt to flatten every Ukrainian city is horribly consistent with Putin's declared war aims. Our current Labour Government, like our previous Conservative one, has not fallen into the Chamberlain/Trump trap. It is clear about the central issue. Putin is the aggressor, says Sir Keir Starmer. Britain can accept no deal which does not satisfy the people of Ukraine. We will do – the phrase endlessly repeated – 'whatever it takes'. This is not insincere, and there are some in the Government, notably the Defence Secretary, John Healey, who are really working for Ukraine to prevail. Nevertheless, if the Government believes it is doing 'whatever it takes', it has not plumbed the depth of the problem. This was brought home to me on Thursday when I attended a conference organised by Policy Exchange about the Law of Armed Conflict. Under the Ottawa Treaty, the signatories are forbidden to use anti-personnel mines. A comparable convention also restricts the use of cluster munitions. The conference, partly private, was addressed by the leading retired US general David Petraeus, by political and military leaders from frontline states such as Poland, Estonia and Finland, and by many of our own top brass and legal experts. The consensus was that these agreements, forged in the piping time of peace, now seriously disadvantage all Nato signatories. Russia ignores all such rules and tries to cover Ukraine with landmines. It was its vast use of mines which stalled the Ukrainian counter-offensive planned for late summer 2023. If Ukraine had not responded in kind, including not only landmines but its effective use of cluster munitions against Russian tanks, it would by now have been overrun. Those Nato frontline states countries with the most vivid and direct experience of Russian attitudes and tactics are now withdrawing from the relevant agreements. They know it is illegal to do so once a war has started: they think a Russian attack is likely, so they are withdrawing now. Yet Britain, though their most significantly engaged European defender, still purses its lips and reiterates its support for the treaties. This is what General Petraeus characterised as 'legal freeloading'. The need to repudiate Ottawa is, as he puts it, a 'no-brainer'. At the very same time as this highly practical, war-focussed and well-informed gathering, elsewhere in Westminster, the Attorney General, Lord Hermer, was addressing the Royal United Services Institute. Although he made much of the need to counter Putin in Ukraine, he spoke as if it would be international law, rather than allied political, economic and military strength, which would do the trick. Recalling his visit to Bucha, scene of Putin's worst massacre, he seemed to see the solution in the hope that international justice would hold the guilty to account. One shares that hope, but what Lord Hermer did not acknowledge was that Putin has so far got away with these horrors precisely because the rules-based international order, which includes Nato, has let him do so. As in the 1930s, we are acting as if we do not fully accept that there is a war on. Indeed, we have even less excuse than did the Western democracies then. When Chamberlain flew to Munich, he was talking to a man who, clearly evil though his intentions were, had not yet waged aggressive war. Putin has done so for more than three years, arguably for 11 years, and still we have not concerted to stop him. Lord Hermer says he wants to 'depolarise' our disputes in this country about international law and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Even he now dimly senses that his absolutism and that of his chief legal and political patron, Sir Keir, on this point, is divisive and unpopular. Nevertheless, the strongest focus of attack in his RUSI lecture was not on warmongers abroad, such as Putin, but on what he called the 'pseudo-realists' at home. These wicked people are those Conservatives and Reform supporters who think we should leave the ECHR. Such persons, says Lord Hermer, may have patriotic motives, but are falling for the trap of the Nazi legal thinker, Carl Schmitt, who invented spurious philosophical justification for the exercise of 'raw power'. This incendiary comparison is unworthy of the sober-sided role of a law officer. It shows how the mind of the human-rights extremist – the school of thought in which Sir Keir spent his whole professional life – works. The people who disagree with you are Nazis. The threat from the true 'raw power' merchants of the modern world – Putin, Hamas, North Korea – is sidelined. Surely at the top the hierarchy of wrongs which international law is designed to prevent is aggressive war. Rules which prevent allies resisting aggression with the necessary weapons objectively assist the aggressor. There is just such a war on. If, like Lord Hermer, we apply self-righteous legalism to the problem, we cannot win it.
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Zelenskyy visits Berlin as he seeks more support for Ukraine in the war against Russia
BERLIN — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Wednesday as Ukraine seeks further military support amid a recent escalation in Russia's bombing campaign, despite U.S.-led efforts to end the war . Germany has been the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States. Merz said on Monday that Germany and other major allies are no longer imposing any range restrictions on weapons supplied to Ukraine as it fights to repel Russia's full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.
Washington Post
27-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Takeaways from AP report on Ukrainian POWs dying in Russian prisons
KYIV, Ukraine — More than 200 Ukrainian POWs have died in prison since Russia's full-scale invasion three years ago. Abuse inside Russian prisons likely contributed to many of these deaths, adding to evidence that Russia is systematically brutalizing captured soldiers, according to officials from human rights groups, the U.N. and the Ukrainian government, and a Ukrainian medical examiner who has performed dozens of POW autopsies.
ABC News
18-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Anthony Albanese tells Volodymyr Zelenskyy Australia doing 'whatever we can' to pressure on Russia
Anthony Albanese has assured Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Abrams tanks are now "on the way" to the war-torn country to help it push back Russia's invasion after meeting Ukraine's President in Rome. The prime minister has also responded cautiously to a push from the European Union to deepen defence cooperation, after European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen proposed a new security partnership with Australia. Mr Albanese held talks with both the European political heavyweights in the wake of Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass in Vatican City on Sunday morning — an event which drew dozens of leaders and top officials from across the globe. Mr Albanese also me briefly with the pope after the mass, telling the new pontiff that his late mother would be "looking down from heaven with the biggest smile she's ever had" watching him attending the mass as prime minister. Mr Albanese's talks with Mr Zelenskyy focused on how Australia could help maximise pressure on Russia in the wake of stalled peace talks in Türkiye last week. Australia has provided about $1.5 billion in support to Ukraine, but the ABC revealed last month the fleet of retired Abrams tanks pledged to Ukraine last year remained stuck in Australia. But Mr Albanese told Mr Zelenskyy at the opening of the meeting that the tanks were now "on their way". However, he declined to provide any details to journalists after the meeting, suggesting that would undermine Ukraine's war effort. Mr Zelenskyy responded by thanking Mr Albanese for the "news" about the tanks, and praised Australia's contribution to helping Ukraine resist Russian aggression. Australia has already sanctioned some 1,400 Russian individuals and entities, but the Ukrainian president suggested he would like to see even more action from the federal government. "And we're very thankful for sanctions. I want to raise with you also this topic, which is very important: Put more pressure, more sanctions on Russia." The prime minister signalled he was open to that, saying Australia would "continue to look at whatever we can do to place pressure on Russia". The two men also discussed Australian Oscar Jenkins, who was sentenced to 13 years in a high-security Russian jail after being captured fighting for Ukraine in December last year. Mr Albanese said Australia continued to "seek his freedom and his return to Australia and we thank you for the assistance in that", suggesting Ukraine might be open to trying to secure his release through a broader prisoner swap with Russia down the track. Russia's invasion of Ukraine also featured in the prime minister's talks with Ms von der Leyen. The European Commission chief opened the meeting by saying that the EU saw Australia not just as a "trading partner" but as a "strategic partner" as well. She also suggested that the sharp deterioration of the global strategic environment should compel Australia and the EU to develop stronger defence and strategic ties. "We would very much like to broaden this strategic partnership," she told Mr Albanese. "For example, we have signed security and defence agreements with South Korea and with Japan [and] soon with the UK." "We would be very pleased if we could develop such a security and defence partnership too, just to broaden the strategic partnership in many topics that we have in common." The agreements set a broad framework to bolster security cooperation across a range of fields. For example, the security partnership between the EU and Japan commits both sides to "concrete cooperation in maritime security, space, cybersecurity, hybrid threats including foreign information manipulation and interference". But the prime minister responded cautiously, saying that while Australia was "certainly interested" in the idea, it was at the "very early stages" at this point. "I wouldn't over-read what [the] Ursula von der Leyen statements were," he said. "It was a suggestion by the president that the relationship was based upon not just economic relations, but based upon our values." The prime minister also told reporters that he met privately with members of his Italian family in Rome yesterday, after they travelled from Italy's Puglia region to see him, including his half-brother and his wife and daughter. "That was a great privilege," Mr Albanese said "They came up to Rome and it was very nice to spend a short period of time. with them. "They are very proud that someone who shares their name [is prime minister] … It was a really nice moment for them".
ABC News
13-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Australian labourer Caleb List feared dead in Ukraine
A Queensland labourer who travelled to Ukraine three years ago to join the fight against Russia's invasion is feared to have been recently killed in battle, but authorities are yet to locate his remains. Sources in Ukraine have told the ABC that former Gladstone resident Caleb List, who signed up with Ukraine's armed forces in 2022, is believed to have died last month during heavy fighting in the Kharkiv region. In an interview last year with German international public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), the young Australian outlined his motivation for volunteering with Ukraine's Foreign Legion shortly after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion. "I wanted to test myself; I wanted to join the French Foreign Legion, I wanted to push myself to the extreme — so I came here with the same motivation, and I've basically done that and now I just do this because it's the only thing I'm really good at," he told DW. During the interview, the soldier who was previously rejected by the Australian Army, described his experience serving alongside other international recruits in Ukraine's Foreign Legion. "When you go to a Ukrainian unit you notice the whole place is clean, they have people who cook and just set up and it's nice so when you come off mission the place is nice, it's spotless," he said. "With the [foreign] legion because they're new and new people, and because people leave and come back, they remake a lot of the mistakes — so the place is sometimes dirty, it's not as well organised, they'll leave stuff behind." A figure connected to Ukraine's Armed Forces has told the ABC Mr List is believed to have been killed by artillery fire in heavily contested territory near the city of Izyum late last month, but his remains have not yet been recovered by his unit. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has declined to comment on the case, but in a statement, it reminded Australians that travel to Ukraine was considered extremely dangerous. "The Australian government has consistently advised Australians not to travel to Ukraine or Russia since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022," a DFAT spokesperson told the ABC. Before travelling to Europe, Mr List worked as a trade assistant at Queensland's Yarwun refinery. While at school he joined the army cadets but his subsequent application to become an Australian soldier was rejected. This week the ABC confirmed former Australian soldier Nick Parsons was killed in Ukraine earlier this month while working for a charity organisation dedicated to removing land mines from the war-torn country. On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his "deepest condolences and sympathies" to Mr Parsons' family, whom he did not name citing DFAT advice, while reminding Australians to follow official warnings and not travel to Ukraine.
