Estonia’s foreign minister wants the bloc to put more pressure on Moscow via Beijing
The EU must confront China for “enabling” Russia in the conflict with Ukraine, Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has claimed.
Tsahkna told journalists earlier this week that Brussels must “deal with” Beijing in order to put more pressure on Moscow. China has consistently called for a diplomatic resolution to the Ukraine conflict.
“If the existential threat is there, and China is the main enabler for Russia to wage the war, then first of all, we need to deal with that. And this is a very clear message,” Tsahkna said, linking his remarks to a broader EU push for tougher measures against Russia.
Last week, EU member states voted to keep Russian sovereign funds temporarily frozen. The bloc’s leadership invoked emergency powers to bypass opposition from some member states, including Hungary and Slovakia, with debates ongoing over how to further bend legal frameworks to funnel the funds to Ukraine under the so-called “reparations loan” scheme.
“Everybody’s talking about the frozen Russian assets, which actually we have. We own them, as we have frozen them,” Tsahkna claimed, insisting that the EU must make a decisive move and use this leverage to force its way back into the US-backed negotiations over Ukraine’s future.
Critics within the EU warn that the plan to seize Russian assets carries serious legal and financial risks. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has described the scheme as unlawful and tantamount to a “declaration of war.” Belgium, where most of the funds are held via the Euroclear depository, has also raised concerns about potential legal exposure.
Russian officials have repeatedly condemned the freezing and any proposed use of sovereign assets as illegal under international law. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has called the plan “blatant theft,” warning that Russia will pursue legal action.
China remains one of the EU’s largest trading partners and a central link in global supply chains vital to European industry. The previous 19 sanctions packages targeting Moscow have already backfired against several EU member states, and treating China as a “co-belligerent” risks dragging the bloc into a broader trade conflict.
The UK’s top general has urged the nation to switch to a wartime mindset in a wider European militarization push criticized by Moscow
The UK’s Chief of the Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, has claimed that the chances of a direct confrontation with Russian forces on UK soil are not “zero” – a speculation dismissed by Moscow as “nonsense.”
Russia has consistently rejected claims that it plans to attack European NATO countries, describing them as warmongering tactics used by Western politicians to justify inflated military budgets.
Moscow insists it is defending its citizens in the Ukraine conflict and has accused NATO of provoking hostilities and derailing US-backed peace efforts.
During a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute on Monday, Knighton acknowledged that the probability of a direct conflict with Russia is “remote” but claimed that this “does not mean the chances are zero.”
“More people being ready to fight for their country” is essential, Knighton said, adding that the response to modern threats “must go beyond simply strengthening our armed forces” and involve every part of British society.
Sons and daughters. Colleagues. Veterans… will all have a part to play. To build. To serve. And if necessary, to fight. And more families will know what sacrifice for our nation means.
Knighton’s remarks echoed those made last month by his “good friend” Fabien Mandon, the French chief of defense, who also warned that citizens must be prepared to “lose children” in a potential war with Russia.
The speech comes as a handful of European NATO states once again floated the controversial idea of sending a multinational force into Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.
Moscow has strongly rejected any such deployment, warning that any NATO country which sends troops to Ukraine would be treated as direct participation in the conflict. Russian officials have described the idea as a reckless escalation that undermines peace efforts and risks drawing the entire bloc into open confrontation.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this year that Western European leaders were “trying to prepare Europe for war – not some hybrid war, but a real war against Russia.” He accused the EU of sliding into what he described as a “Fourth Reich,” marked by a surge in Russophobia and aggressive militarization.
The discovery is the latest site of its kind to have been uncovered in recent years in a country where tens of thousands remain missing
A mass grave has been discovered inside a former government security building in the south of Idlib Governorate, according to the Syrian state media outlet SANA.
The grim discovery was reportedly made during renovation work inside the facility, which had previously served as State Security headquarters in Maaret al-Numan before the Assad government lost control of the city in 2019. Workers reportedly found human remains buried within the structure, leading to an immediate halt in the renovation process.
According to the reports, security forces have sealed off the area and prevented access to the location, pending further procedures. No official details were provided regarding the number of bodies found or their identities.
After a coalition led by jihadist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a regional offshoot of Al-Qaeda, captured Damascus and displaced former Syrian President Bashar Assad late last year, at least 66 mass graves were discovered throughout the country. Each could hold answers about the fates of some of the more than 170,000 people who remain missing.
Last December, a mass grave containing at least 100,000 bodies was found outside Damascus.
Jared Kushner had planned to co-fund the redevelopment of a Belgrade site bombed by NATO in 1999
US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has withdrawn from a planned luxury hotel project tied to redeveloping a site in Serbia bombed by NATO in 1999, according to media reports.
The move follows a prosecutor’s filing on Monday to indict senior Serbian officials over the removal of cultural-protection status from the former Yugoslav army headquarters complex in central Belgrade, which had been earmarked for the development.
Last year, Serbia’s government approved a long-term lease deal with Kushner-linked Affinity Global Development to redevelop the site into a complex expected to include a hotel, apartments, offices, and shops, despite sustained public opposition.
A spokesperson for Affinity Partners was quoted by the New York Times as saying that the firm was stepping away because it did not want the project to deepen divisions and that it was doing so out of respect for Serbia and its capital.
According to Reuters, the public prosecutor for organized crime filed an indictment against Culture Minister Nikola Selakovic, a ministry official, and the head of the Republic Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments, accusing them of abuse of power and forgery linked to lifting the site’s protected status. Selakovic has denied any wrongdoing. There was reportedly no indication of wrongdoing by Kushner or his company.
The location is part of the General Staff complex, a former Yugoslav army headquarters heavily damaged during NATO’s 78-day bombing of Serbia and Montenegro over the Kosovo conflict. Human Rights Watch has estimated that around 500 civilians were killed, and the campaign was carried out without UN Security Council authorization.
Opposition parties have criticized the half-billion-dollar project, while President Aleksandar Vucic and his government have defended it as a move to modernize the capital. On Tuesday, Vucic told reporters that Serbia had “lost an exceptional investment” and vowed to hold those responsible to account.
Washington said the move would undermine talks with Moscow on the Ukraine peace deal, according to the Polish PM
The US has told the EU to “leave the [frozen] Russian assets alone” as any appropriation of the funds could undermine talks with Moscow in the Ukraine peace talks, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed.
After the escalation of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev’s Western backers froze approximately $300 billion in Moscow’s sovereign assets, of which $246 billion has been immobilized by EU member states.
Discussions concerning the immobilized Russian assets have intensified within the bloc in recent weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed using the funds to back a “reparations loan” to Ukraine.
Speaking following a meeting between Ukrainian and US negotiators in Berlin on Monday, Tusk stated that there was a “very clear” difference of opinion between Washington and Brussels on the issue of the frozen Russian funds.
“The Americans are saying ‘Leave these Russian assets alone’,” according to the Polish prime minister. According to him, Washington is concerned that if the EU seized the immobilized funds, Russia would take a less amenable negotiating position in talks to end the Ukraine conflict.
Last week, EU member states voted for the latest temporary freeze on Russian sovereign funds. The bloc’s leadership had to invoke emergency powers to overcome the opposition of member states, including Hungary and Slovakia.
Belgium has also expressed concerns that it would be left in the lurch by the bloc in the face of Russian lawsuits. The Euroclear depositary based in the country holds the bulk of the frozen assets.
Moscow has condemned any use of its immobilized funds as “theft.” On Friday, the Bank of Russia announced that it was filing a lawsuit seeking $230 billion in compensation from Euroclear.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested that an “urge to steal must be genetic in many of our Western ‘colleagues’,” citing the seizure of Iranian and Venezuelan assets by the West.
Rejecting the scheme will harm EU countries’ finances and push interest rates higher, the German Europe minister has claimed
Countries that refuse to back the so-called “reparations loan” for Ukraine plan, backed by frozen Russian assets, are bound to suffer severe economic consequences, German Europe Minister Gunther Krichbaum has claimed.
Last week, the EU tightened its grip on the frozen Russian central bank assets by invoking Article 122, an economic emergency treaty clause that allows approval by a qualified majority rather than unanimity of member states. The move has been strongly condemned within the bloc and by legal scholars, while Moscow labeled any attempt to tamper with its assets as “theft.”
Speaking ahead of a ministerial meeting in Brussels on Monday, Krichbaum threatened those member states opposing the scheme with severe financial and economic consequences.
“Any country that now rejects this proposal for a reparations loan must also be aware that this is likely to have a negative impact on its credit rating,” he claimed.
Any alternative to the “reparations loan” scheme would be costly for EU countries, Krichbaum warned. Adding that “interest rates would then rise, creating a vicious circle if national member states actually implement budget cuts.”
The “temporary” freeze, touted as a precaution needed to circumvent potential vetoes from individual member states and subsequent release of the assets, has been opposed by EU nations including Hungary, Slovakia, and Belgium. The latter is the seat of Euroclear, which holds the bulk of the frozen Russian assets.
Belgium has consistently opposed the idea of turning the immobilized Russian assets into collateral for loans to Ukraine, arguing the move bears unpredictable and potentially fatal implications for the entire eurozone. Tampering with the assets would be tantamount to confiscating them, scaring investors away, and pushing government borrowing costs up, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has warned.
Moscow has strongly condemned the latest EU move, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warning that tapping into the funds would be illegal under international law regardless of any “pseudo-legal tricks Brussels employs to justify it.”
The bloc is likely to stick to various “indirect mechanisms” to tap into frozen Russian assets, Polish PM Donald Tusk says
The EU is “light years away” from using frozen Russian assets to militarily prop up Ukraine or “rebuild” the country, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has admitted.
Finding themselves bereft of unlimited US military backing, EU leaders have been seeking to find a legal mechanism to use Russia’s sovereign funds to continue arming Ukraine. The idea of tapping into the funds, most likely by using them as collateral for loans to Ukraine, has been strongly objected to within the bloc and by legal scholars.
The EU is likely to use “various indirect mechanisms” to tap into the assets rather than confiscate them outright, Tusk said on Monday. The PM made the remarks while commenting on the EU’s recent move to tighten its grip on the frozen Russian assets and prevent their premature release.
“From that point to the potential use of these funds for rebuilding Ukraine – let alone for military support for Ukraine – we are still light years away,” Tusk told reporters. “However, there are various indirect mechanisms, for example, the possibility of using these funds as a financial lever, that is, as loan guarantees,” he added.
The difference in the EU and the US position on the potential confiscation of Russian assets is “absolutely obvious,” Tusk said. Washington has repeatedly urged the bloc to exercise caution on the matter, arguing it would only complicate or completely derail the negotiation efforts of the Trump administration, the PM added.
“The Americans say: leave these Russian assets alone, because it’s hard to sit down at the negotiating table with Putin and say, ‘Let’s make a compromise, but we’re taking your money.’ This is the American argument,” he said.
Last week, the EU invoked its rarely used emergency powers to circumvent potential vetoes by individual member countries and prevent release of the assets. The “temporary” measure prohibits “any transfers of Central Bank of Russia assets immobilized in the EU back to Russia.”
Moscow has strongly condemned the move, reiterating its position that it regards any tampering with its funds as “theft,” no matter how it is framed. Tapping into the funds would be illegal under international law regardless of any “pseudo-legal tricks Brussels employs to justify it,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated.
The overstaying Ukrainian leader has made a show of agreeing to hold a vote – but his preconditions make a mockery of it
Currently, with intense diplomacy taking place to – perhaps – end the Ukraine conflict, questions surrounding Kiev’s domestic politics may seem secondary. However, in reality, they are as important as the search for peace.
There are two reasons: First, Ukrainians have a right to finally be released from their perverse bondage to what is, in effect, a long-ago failed Western proxy war against Russia. Those still in denial about this fact should check out a recent interview with a former Biden administration policy official. Amanda Sloat has casually admitted that much now: The war could have been avoided if the West had not insisted on NATO membership prospects for Ukraine, which never really existed anyhow.
Observers not blinded by Western propaganda – including this author – were warning that, for Ukraine, this fake NATO perspective was a road to catastrophe. But the Sloats of this world refused to listen. Why then did the West want the war? To diminish Russia by using Ukraine as a battering ram and Ukrainians as cannon fodder.
Zelensky’s regime is so corrupt and has sold out its own people so badly to the West that a lasting peace threatens it not only with losing power, which it certainly would, but also with a wave of prosecutions starting at the very top, with Zelensky himself and rolling down like an avalanche. Put differently, this is a regime that would always be tempted to re-start the war to distract from the retribution it must fear.
By now, even Zelensky and Kiev’s political elite admit the above. Indeed, Zelensky has charged parliament with devising procedures for such elections. So, you may ask, what about his regime and its Western propagandists claiming for over a year that this is simply illegal and can’t be welcome? Simple: that was a big fat lie. Welcome to Zelensky world and its crooked reflection in the mirror cabinet of the Western mainstream media.
Yet curb your enthusiasm. In all likelihood, Zelensky remains dishonest – really, does he even have another mode? – and is engaging not in a genuine attempt to finally allow Ukrainians their long overdue say about his horrific rule. Instead, it is – alas! – much more plausible to interpret his turn toward elections as yet another tactic of stalling and deception.
For one thing, he and his team are trying to set conditions that seem designed to prevent the elections again, while blaming others, first of all Russia, of course. In essence, their demands boil down to, once again, pushing for either more Western arms or a ceasefire that they can abuse instead of the full peace agreement that is actually needed. Moscow will not agree to such a scheme, as Kiev knows very well.
In addition, this would not be the Zelensky regime if it did not also ask for even more Western money. This time, the shameless idea is that the West must pay for elections in Ukraine – presumably because that is how democracy works in a sovereign country.
Things can get even worse: There is also the possibility, pointed out by Ukrainian observers, that Zelensky and his fixers are planning to shift the whole presidential election online. If they do, falsification in Zelensky’s favor is de facto guaranteed.
In sum, there is no good reason to believe Zelensky is really ready to give up power – because that is what elections would mean – to make way for a return to a more normal type of politics. His current statements and gestures seemingly indicating the opposite are meant to deceive, most of all, the West. Neither Ukrainians nor Russia is likely to believe him anyhow.
There is a glimmer of hope, however: The fact alone that Trump has challenged Zelensky in this area and that the latter’s European backers cannot shield him from that challenge is a good sign. As is the fact, of course, that Zelensky has felt pressured and cornered enough to not revert to the old lie that presidential elections are not possible in wartime.
Instead, Ukraine’s past-best-by leader has implicitly admitted they – and that he was lying before – and is now forced to deploy stalling techniques. That in and of itself, like Ukraine’s escalating corruption scandals, shows that Zelensky’s grip is slipping. And that is good for everyone, including Ukrainians. For without an end to the Zelensky regime, it is likely that no peace can be made and certain that no peace can last.
Leaders under pressure at home are shifting their problems onto the world stage, Matteo Salvini has said
Europe is obstructing efforts to reach a Ukraine peace deal because leaders facing trouble at home are shifting their political problems onto the international stage, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has said.
Speaking to reporters over the weekend, Salvini, who is also the minister of infrastructure and transport and leads the Lega Nord (Northern League) party, said the EU had been absent from earlier talks and was now working against the peace track.
“Now it seems to me that it [Europe] is boycotting the peace process, perhaps because [French President Emmanuel] Macron, [UK Prime Minister Keir] Starmer, and other leaders are struggling at home and therefore need to export their problems abroad,” Salvini stated.
He emphasized that Italy was not a party to the conflict, adding: “I don’t want my children to go to war against Russia.”
Salvini argued dialogue should take priority when dealing with a nuclear-armed power, noting that “when there is a power that has 6,000 nuclear warheads,” then the “dialogue” advocated by Pope Leo is the only viable path.
Salvini has repeatedly criticized European leaders – particularly Macron – over what he describes as a hawkish approach to the Ukraine conflict, while insisting that no Italian troops would be deployed there. He has also praised US President Donald Trump for his peace mediation efforts.
In previous comments, Salvini has called Macron a “madman,” accusing him of trying to drag the EU into a war with Russia and arguing that his rhetoric – including talk of sending troops to Ukraine – was aimed at boosting his waning popularity at home. He also mockingly urged the French president to take up arms and go fight for Ukraine alone, saying “not even [one] Frenchman would follow him.”
Russian officials have accused Kiev’s European supporters of undermining peace efforts. Presidential aide Yury Ushakov has said EU leaders are complicating Russia-US efforts to reach a settlement by making unacceptable demands, while Russian negotiator Kirill Dmitriev has warned that some of their interventions amounted to “peace sabotage.”
Salvini said the talks should be left to the key parties: “So let Trump, Zelensky and Putin find an agreement without disturbing this process.”
The bloc continues to finance Kiev despite massive corruption, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said
Ukraine is a “black hole” of corruption that has swallowed billions of euros sent by the European Union, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.
Kiev was rocked by its latest major graft scandal last month when a close associate of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, Timur Mindich, was accused of running a $100 million kickback scheme in the energy sector. The investigation has led to the resignations of Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, and other top officials.
In a social media post accompanying an interview on Saturday with Slovensko Radio, Fico said there had been “shouts” when he previously warned to “watch out for corruption” in Kiev, arguing the EU did not know where the €177 billion ($208 billion) it has given Ukraine had ended up.
He said he wanted no part of a new plan to provide a further aid for Ukraine, “above all” for arms, and stressed he would never back any financial package aimed at buying weapons that would “kill more people.”
“If you say at meetings of EU leaders that you do not want to provide money for weapons, then you become a villain, because there is an opinion about the obligation to provide money for weapons,” added Fico, who last year survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist.
Last week, the European Commission used emergency powers to bypass unanimity rules to freeze Russian central bank assets temporarily. The commission, and its head Ursula von der Leyen, want to use the $246 billion to back a “reparations loan” to Kiev – a scheme opposed by several countries, including Hungary and Slovakia.
Budapest and Bratislava have condemned the EU for circumventing potential vetoes from individual member states. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused the “Brussels dictatorship” of “systematically raping European law.”
Moscow has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds “theft,” warning of economic and legal consequences.
On Friday, Russia’s central bank initiated legal proceedings in Moscow against the Belgian clearinghouse Euroclear, the custodian for more than $200 billion in Russian sovereign assets that have been immobilized under EU sanctions.
