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EU leadership calls for new sanctions against Belarus
as migrant crisis on Polish border escalates
8 Nov, 2021 19:05
Belarus, November 8, 2021. © Reuters / Leonid Scheglov
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has called for new sanctions against Belarus citing the migrant situation on Poland. The restrictions are needed to avoid “a humanitarian crisis and ensure safe returns,” she claimed.
The call for sanctions was made late on Monday after the EC chief discussed the ongoing crisis with the Prime Ministers of Belarus’ immediate neighbors – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
“I am calling on Member States to finally approve the extended sanctions regime on the Belarusian authorities responsible for this hybrid attack,” von der Leyen said in a statement.
The EU will in particular explore how to sanction, including through blacklisting, third country airlines that are active in human trafficking.
The EU Commission will also reach the UN and “its specialized agencies” to explore the options on “how to prevent a humanitarian crisis from unfolding and to ensure that migrants can be safely returned to their country of origin,” von der Leyen added.
Earlier in the day, at least 3,000 migrants approached the Polish border from the Belarusian side, seeking their way into the EU. The emergence of the crowd was blasted by Polish authorities, which branded it the biggest-ever attempt to enter the country “by force”.
Ukrainian President Zelensky slammed by Jewish MP for branding
Red Army leaders ‘soulless’ in liberating Kiev from Nazis
8 Nov, 2021 12:19
A lawmaker from Ukraine's largest opposition party has hit out at the country's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, over his comments on the anniversary of the liberation of Kiev from Adolf Hitler's forces by the Soviet Union in WWII.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Zelensky wrote that pushing out the Nazi occupation had come at a significant cost in the lives of Ukrainians, and that “human life is of the highest value.” This, he said, should be accepted by “any state, if it really is a state and not a soulless machine for which individuals are just fuel.”
The Red Army’s campaign in 1943, he said, saw “hundreds of thousands of our ancestors thrown into battle for the liberation of Kiev, to die a violent death, mobilized through the Polish Army and not registered with the military to avoid adding to casualty statistics.” Local troops, he said, were poorly equipped, while paying tribute and expressing gratitude toward those who gave their lives.
However, Vadim Rabinovich, a Jewish MP from the Opposition Platform — For Life parliamentary grouping blasted the sentiments in a Facebook post on Sunday. “The text gives the impression that the liberation of Kiev from the occupiers is not a holiday or a victory, but a great grief,” he wrote.
According to him, Zelensky “did not mention the atrocities of the Nazis in the city, but focused on the ‘soullessness’ of the Soviet high command.” In a second statement, issued hours after the first, the Ukrainian president underlined his sentiments saying that the capital’s “liberation is the story of the untold feat of the great soldiers who liberated the city from the Nazis. We will never forget them! We are forever grateful to them.”
It's a little hard to argue with Zelensky when he's talking about senior communist officers, nevertheless, Kiev would be the last holdout for Nazi's if it weren't for those soulless officers. Come to think of it, Kiev might still be the last holdout of the Nazis.
Between 1.2 and 1.6 million people are estimated to have died during the Holocaust in Ukraine, perpetrated by Nazi paramilitary organizations and local collaborators. Earlier this year, the country’s government came under fire from the Israeli ambassador in Kiev, Joel Lion, after thousands of far-right activists marched in honor of Stepan Bandera, a nationalist leader who historians say was implicated in a series of wartime pogroms against Jews and ethnic Poles. “We strongly condemn any glorification of collaborators with the Nazi regime,” Lion said. “It is time for Ukraine to come to terms with its past.”
Biting cold, dying migrants and war of words between EU and Minsk:
Poland-Belarus conflict is getting worse
9 Nov, 2021 21:38
The migrant crisis continues at the Poland-Belarus border, with hundreds of people camping in harsh conditions as they seek to get into the EU. But while the weather is getting colder, the rhetoric from both sides is heating up.
The standoff entered into its second day on Tuesday, with asylum seekers camping on the Belarusian side of the border overnight. According to Polish estimates, up to 4,000 people remain at the border, with the largest group amassed near the Kuznica-Bruzhi border crossing.
Some 10,000 more migrants are believed to be elsewhere in Belarus, heading toward the border to try and get into the EU. Poland deployed additional police and troops, as well as assorted military hardware as the migrants tried to take the border by storm, cutting through razor wire and felling trees onto it.
Top Polish authorities said the amassment of troops was absolutely necessary to defend the country and the EU as a whole from the “attack” by the Belarusian “regime.”
“We currently have a camp of migrants who are blocked from the Belarusian side. There are about 1,000 people there, mostly young men. These are aggressive actions that we must repel, fulfilling our obligations as a member of the European Union,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Tuesday.
The ongoing military buildup has been criticized by the Belarusian authorities, with President Alexander Lukashenko condemning Warsaw’s actions. He rejected accusations of somehow “attacking” Poland, insisting he was not a “madman” to seek a conflict in the middle of Europe as it could easily spin out of control on any “misstep.”
“To conduct a war with these unfortunate people on the border of Poland with Belarus and move forward columns of tanks – it is clear that this is some kind of training or intimidation,” Lukashenko stated.
The EU, in turn, reiterated its accusations toward the Belarusian leadership of “weaponizing” the migration, with an EU Commission spokesperson stating that Lukashenko is acting like a “gangster” and effectively holding the migrants hostage.
“This is part of the inhuman and really gangster-style approach of the Lukashenko regime that he is lying to people, he is misusing people...and bringing them to Belarus under the false promise of having easy entry into the EU,” the spokesperson said. Earlier, EU Commission boss Ursula von der Leyen urged the bloc’s members to new, “extended sanctions” against Belarus over the ongoing crisis.
Top Polish officials went even further, with Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki alleging that the migrants amassed at the border were not legit asylum seekers but “human shields” deliberately brought by Minsk to “destabilize” its neighbors and the whole EU. Moreover, the ongoing “hybrid attack” is actually staged by Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Lukashenko being merely a purveyor of Russia’s alleged “neo-imperial” policy.
“The latest attack by Lukashenko, who became an executor, but with Putin as the director in Moscow, shows resolve in the scenario of rebuilding the Russian empire,” the PM claimed.
The migrant situation at the borders between Belarus and its European neighbors has gradually deteriorated over the past few months, after Minsk said it opted to stop turning back people seeking to reach the EU in retaliation to sanctions imposed by the bloc. Brussels, however, has maintained that Belarus has been deliberately stirring up the flow of migrants artificially, a charge that Minsk has consistently denied. Since August, several people attempting to cross the border have died on both sides of it, according to Polish officials.
Temporarily Closed!!!
Sweden's PM formally resigns for second time
10 Nov, 2021 12:29
Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has formally resigned from office for the second time, months after a vote of no confidence and political infighting stalled his agenda ahead of the country's upcoming 2022 general election.
Lofven was filmed on Wednesday handing his resignation letter to the speaker of the parliament, Andreas Norlen, marking the end of his seven-year tenure as prime minister.
Back in August, Lofven had announced his intention to resign from office, claiming that he wants to give his successor "the best of conditions" ahead of the 2022 general election.
"The decision has matured over time. I have been party chairman for ten years, prime minister for seven. These years have been amazing. But everything comes to an end," Lofven said.
Throughout the last year, Sweden has been dogged by political infighting that saw Lofven quit as prime minister after losing a vote of no confidence. He was later re-appointed as the country's leader after opposition parties were unable to form a government.
The dispute that led to Lofven's downfall had centered around a debate about housing market policy, which cost the Social Democrats their coalition partner, the Left Party, depriving the government of a majority.
Magdalena Andersson, the finance minister, was recently elected to replace Lofven as the leader of the Social Democrats. Lofven's resignation clears the way for her to become the nation's first female prime minister, if she can secure the backing of a majority of MPs.
It is not clear when a vote will be held in Sweden's parliament on whether to appoint Andersson as Prime Minister. The Center Party has said it will back Andersson's bid to take over from Lofven as the nation's leader. The Left Party and Green Party are expected to do the same.
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