Texas Weekly Online

Texas-trans-white
Menu
Menu

Author: shailender

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,280

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,280

Here are the key events on day 1,280 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Here is how things stand on Wednesday, August 27: Fighting Russian attacks killed one person and injured six in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said. One worker was killed and six others were injured in a Russian attack on a Ukrainian mine, according to the energy company DTEK, which said the attack damaged buildings and caused a power outage. “At that time, 146 miners were underground, and their ascent to the surface is ongoing,” the company said. Ukrainian attacks killed one person and injured three others in the Russian-occupied Kherson region of Ukraine, the Moscow-appointed Governor Vladimir Saldo said. Russian forces occupied Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka, in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, the Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group DeepState has reported. Russian forces also advanced near the Ukrainian settlements of Shevchenko, Bila Hora, and Oleksandr-Shultyno, according to DeepState. Russian air defences shot down 191 Ukrainian drones, six guided aerial bombs, and a long-range guided missile in one day, Russia’s state TASS news agency reports. Ukrainian men aged 18 to 22 are now permitted to cross Ukraine’s borders freely in either direction despite the continuing imposition of martial law, which had previously prevented such movement, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office told the Ukrainska Pravda news site that more than 200,000 cases have been opened into soldiers who were absent without leave (AWOL), including some 50,000 investigated for desertion. Advertisement Peace talks United States President Donald Trump said he is prepared to impose economic sanctions against Russia if its leader, Vladimir Putin, fails to agree to a peace deal in Ukraine: “We want to have an end. We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic because we’re not going to get into a world war.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged governments to work quickly on creating security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Russia, saying: “We must intensify our work to the maximum and ensure clarity and transparency in everything related to security guarantees”. The US may provide intelligence assets and battlefield oversight to assist Western powers in the provision of security guarantees for post-war Ukraine, as well as take part in a European-led air defence shield for the country, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed European and Ukrainian officials. Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and Kyiv’s national security council chief, Rustem Umerov, met with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha, where they had a “substantive conversation” on topics including “the details of security guarantees for Ukraine”, Yermak wrote on X. Exxon Mobil and the Russian energy company Rosneft secretly discussed resuming work on the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas producing project, on Russia’s Pacific coast, if Moscow and Washington give their approval as part of a Ukraine peace process, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the secret discussions. Politics and diplomacy Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s decision to veto a bill on aid to Ukrainian refugees in his country could cost Poland’s economy 8 billion zlotys ($2.20bn), in part because thousands of Ukrainians would lose the right to legal employment, Poland’s Ministry of the Interior said. Adblock test (Why?)

US envoy prompts outrage in Lebanon after telling media to ‘act civilised’

US envoy prompts outrage in Lebanon after telling media to ‘act civilised’

Tom Barrack’s remarks to journalists trigger calls for an apology and media boycott. A top US diplomat has triggered outrage and calls for an apology in Lebanon after telling a group of local journalists to “act civilised”. Tom Barrack, the United States ambassador to Turkiye and the special envoy for Syria, made the comments on Tuesday after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut to discuss plans for the disarmament of Hezbollah. Briefing local media after the meeting, Barrack, who is of Lebanese descent, chided reporters for shouting out questions all at once, and appeared to draw a link between their behaviour and conflict in the Middle East. “We’re going to have a different set of rules… please be quiet for a moment,” Barrack said. “And I want to tell you something, the moment this starts becoming chaotic, like animalistic, we’re gone. So, you want to know what’s happening? Act civilised, act kind, act tolerant, because this is the problem with what is happening in the region.” “In cadence with your kindness, your interest and your thoughtful questions, we’ll give you responses,” Barrack added. “If that’s not how you’d like to operate, we’re gone.” Barrack’s remarks prompted a swift backlash in Lebanon and farther afield, with commentators accusing the diplomat of displaying arrogance and a colonial mentality. The Lebanese Presidency expressed regret over the comments, saying in a statement on X that the government has “full appreciation for all journalists” and “extends to them its highest regards for their efforts and dedication in fulfilling their professional and national duties”. Advertisement The Union of Journalists in Lebanon called on Lebanese and Arab media outlets to boycott future events involving the envoy until he issues a formal public apology. “The union considers Barrack’s comments against journalists not as a mere slip of the tongue or an individual stance, but rather as a reflection of an unacceptable superiority in dealing with the media and an implicit disdain for the essence of journalistic work,” the media union said in a statement. “Furthermore, the content of his remarks reflects ingrained colonial arrogance towards the peoples of the region and constitutes a blatant violation of basic diplomatic etiquette and the values that diplomacy should represent – chief among them respect for press freedom and the people’s right to knowledge.” Speaking to Al Jazeera, Mohamad Hasan Sweidan, a Beirut-based columnist at The Cradle, said Barrack’s comments reflected Washington’s attitude towards the region. “Today, Tom Barrack is reminding us how they view people of the region by defining their actions as animalistic,” Sweidan said. The US Department of State did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Adblock test (Why?)