Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 699
As the war enters its 699th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Tuesday, January 23, 2024. Fighting Russia said it would take all “necessary measures” to defend its citizens and key infrastructure from Ukrainian attacks. On Sunday, two alleged Ukrainian drones hit a major Baltic Sea terminal starting a fire. Towns near the border, including Belgorod, have also come under fire with at least 21 people killed in an attack at the end of last year. Kyiv said it shot down eight Russian attack drones launched against southern and central regions of the country. Politics and diplomacy Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clashed with the United States and Ukraine at a United Nations Security Council meeting where Moscow ruled out any peace plan backed by Kyiv and its Western allies, and China warned that further global chaos could impact the slowing global economy. Lavrov dismissed Kyiv’s peace plan as a “road to nowhere”. On a visit to Kyiv, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk promised to keep supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, which he described as a battle between “good and evil“. He also said he wanted to resolve differences over grain shipments and trucking that had recently soured ties between the neighbours. The website for Russian politician Boris Nadezhdin, who has criticised the invasion of Ukraine as a “fatal mistake”, said he had so far secured some 85,000 signatures backing him as a candidate in the March presidential election. Under Russian electoral law, Nadezhdin needs 100,000 signatures by the end of January to be allowed to run. Russia’s parliament began considering a bill that would allow the state to seize the property of those convicted of defamation of the security forces, including by criticising the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Ukrainians abroad for their support during Russia’s invasion and proposed changing the constitution to allow for dual citizenship. Weapons The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading think tank, said the war in Ukraine had undermined Russia’s confidence in its conventional forces and increased the importance of non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs) as a means of deterring and defeating NATO in any potential future conflict. NSNWs include all nuclear weapons with a range of up to 5,500km (3,400 miles). IISS said the logic of using such weapons would be to escalate a conflict in a controlled fashion, “either to prevent the US and NATO from engaging, or to coerce them into war termination on Russian terms”. Adblock test (Why?)
US denies Yemen’s Houthis claim of attack on US military cargo ship
The armed group says it conducted its attack on the Ocean Jazz in response to US and UK attacks on Houthi positions. The United States has rejected a claim made by Yemen’s Houthi rebels that they attacked the US military cargo ship Ocean Jazz in the Gulf of Aden. “The Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists’ report of an alleged successful attack on M/V Ocean Jazz is patently false,” the US Naval Forces Central Command said in a statement on Monday. “NAVCENT has maintained constant communications with M/V Ocean Jazz throughout its safe transit.” The Iran-aligned armed group, which controls much of Yemen, did not say when or precisely where the attack took place, or if any damage was caused. “The Yemeni Armed Forces affirm that retaliation against American and British attacks is inevitable, and any new aggression will not go unpunished,” the Houthis said earlier in a statement. British maritime security firm Ambrey said the vessel named by the Houthis on Monday had been contracted by the US military. US and United Kingdom forces have launched attacks across Yemen against Houthi forces in recent weeks in response to months of Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping that the Iran-backed fighters say is a response to Israel’s war on Gaza. Since November, the Houthis have attacked dozens of commercial vessels navigating on the Red Sea, disrupting international maritime trade. The group initially said it was attacking vessels affiliated with Israel, but has since widened its targets to include vessels linked to the US and UK. The Houthis say their attacks in the Red Sea are part of their support for Palestinians under siege and bombardment by Israeli forces in Gaza for more than three months. Israel’s bombing campaign and ground offensive in Gaza have killed more than 25,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian officials in the territory. Israel launched the assault and imposed a siege on Gaza after Hamas fighters carried out a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7, killing at least 1,139 people, according to an Al Jazeera tally based on official Israeli statistics. Some 240 others were seized as captives during the attack. So far, Houthi activity has been concentrated in the narrow strait of Bab al-Mandeb, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea. Approximately 50 ships sail through the strait daily, heading to and from the Suez Canal – a key artery for global maritime trade. Some of the world’s largest shipping companies have suspended transit in the region, forcing vessels to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Adblock test (Why?)
Can the EU develop a shared foreign policy?
The divisions between EU member states over Israel’s war on Gaza contrast with near unity on the Russia-Ukraine war. European Union foreign ministers have met to discuss the Red Sea crisis, the Gaza war and Ukraine. There’s unity on some issues – but sharp division on others. Is it possible for the bloc of 27 states to have a shared or meaningful foreign policy? Presenter: Nastasya Tay Guests: Suzanne Lynch – chief Brussels correspondent, Politico Julien Barnes-Dacey – director of the Middle East and North Africa programme of the European Council on Foreign Relations Ben Aris – founder and editor-in-chief of bne IntelliNews, a business media company focusing on emerging markets Adblock test (Why?)
US demands ‘urgent’ Israeli probe into Palestinian-American child’s death
US calls for a quick investigation into the killing of 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaq in the occupied West Bank. The United States has urged Israel to launch an investigation into the death of Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old Palestinian-American who Palestinian authorities say was killed by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank. At a press briefing in Washington, DC on Monday, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that the US is “devastated about the killing” and is continuing “to engage closely with the Government of Israel to ascertain as much information as possible”. “We have called for an urgent investigation to determine the circumstance of his death,” Patel said. He added that the head of the US Office of Palestinian Affairs had visited Ajaq’s family to offer condolences and would continue assisting them together with the US Embassy in Jerusalem. Ajaq was born in Gretna, Louisiana, near New Orleans, and was brought to the West Bank by his parents last year. Ajaq’s relative, Joe Abdel Qaki, said Tawfiq and a friend were having a barbecue in a village field when he was shot. Speaking at his son’s funeral on Saturday, Tawfiq’s father, Hafez Ajaq, said Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank were “killer machines”. Israeli police have said they received a report on Friday regarding a “firearm discharge, ostensibly involving an off-duty law enforcement officer, a soldier and a civilian”. Police did not identify who fired the shot, though they said the shooting targeted people “purportedly engaged in rock-throwing activities along Highway 60″, the main north-south thoroughfare in the occupied West Bank. “This is not the first time Defense for Children Palestine hasn’t been able to confirm whether a settler or soldier killed a child. One aids and abets the other,” Miranda Cleland, an advocacy officer with Defense for Children Palestine, said in a post on X. Tawfiq is an American child who was chased & shot at by an Israeli settler, THEN Israeli forces pulled up and continued shooting. This is not the first time @DCIPalestine hasn’t been able to confirm whether a settler or soldier killed a child. One aids and abets the other. https://t.co/hvwD8LYuZM — Miranda Cleland (@MirandaCleland) January 20, 2024 At least 369 people have been killed by Israeli troops and settlers in the occupied West Bank since October, including 95 children. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also noted that 2023 was the deadliest year for children in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, with 124 Palestinian and six Israeli children killed there since the start of the year. Mustafa Barghouti, the general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative party, told Al Jazeera that the growing raids and attacks in the occupied West Bank are an attempt by Israel to reoccupy the territory “completely”. “This is a clear message from [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu,” Barghouti said. “He’s saying there’s no place anymore for any independent Palestinian authority here. He’s reoccupying the West Bank as he is trying to reoccupy Gaza.” Adblock test (Why?)
Could a divided Jewish base upend US Democrats’ presidential hopes?
Dearborn, Michigan – Raised in a Jewish American household, Dana Kornberg was in her early 20s when she started to become critical of the Israeli government. It was 2006, and Kornberg was touring Israel, as part of what is called a birthright trip, a tradition for Jewish teens and young adults. During her travels, she saw Israeli construction workers building a tall concrete barrier to fence in parts of the occupied West Bank, a landlocked Palestinian territory. She also heard Israeli comments about Palestinians that made her uncomfortable: “They were alluded to as being dangerous.” Those experiences made her concerned about Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — something that evoked in her parallels to Jewish oppression throughout history. “To me, it was horrific,” said Kornberg, now a 41-year-old assistant sociology professor. “What lessons have we learned from what our people have gone through?” Dana Kornberg addresses protesters in front of a federal building in Detroit, Michigan, in October [Stephen Starr/Al Jazeera] Now, as Israel’s war in Gaza continues to rage, Jewish American voters such as Kornberg are grappling with the US’s role in the conflict — and how it will affect their voting preferences in the upcoming presidential election. Jewish American voters have long been seen as a reliably Democratic voting bloc: The Pew Research Center dubbed them “among the most consistently liberal and Democratic groups in the US population”. During the last presidential election cycle, eight out of 10 Jewish people identified as Democratic. But US policy towards Israel and the war in Gaza has since divided Jewish Americans, as well as the broader Democratic base, leading to fears of a depressed turnout. On one hand, President Joe Biden has continued to rally strong support among Jewish voters by pledging his “rock-solid and unwavering” support to Israel, as it leads a months-long military campaign in Gaza. That stance, however, has provoked outcry among more progressive Jewish organisations, as the death toll in the Palestinian enclave soars past 25,200. Questions of rising anti-Semitism in the US have also mobilised Jewish advocacy groups, ahead of what is expected to be a tightly fought race for the White House in November. A January poll from USA Today and Suffolk University showed narrow margins separating Biden from his chief Republican rival, former President Donald Trump. Biden received 37 percent support in the poll, compared with Trump’s 39. Other surveys have shown foreign policy to be a top issue for voters this year, with a majority of Americans backing a ceasefire in Gaza, something Biden has refused to call for. Kornberg, a member of the progressive organisation Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), is among those protesting Biden’s stance on the war in Gaza, where United Nations experts have warned of the risk of genocide and famine. In recent months, Kornberg has travelled from Michigan to Washington, DC, and Chicago to join demonstrations calling for a ceasefire. She was one of nearly 100 protesters arrested in November for blocking the Israeli consulate in Chicago. Kornberg questioned whether Biden would be able to rally Jewish American voters before the general election. Even the prospect of a second Trump presidency, she warned, might not be enough to unite the Democratic base. “I’m just not convinced that the fear of Trump is going to be enough to get [Democratic voters] to go to the polls,” Kornberg said. She also criticised Biden for statements he made downplaying the Palestinian death toll and tying Jewish wellbeing worldwide to Israel. “When Biden says things like, ‘The only place Jews can feel safe is Israel’, that’s a severely anti-Semitic comment because a lot of us heard it as if Jewish people shouldn’t be safe in this country,” she said of the US. President Joe Biden has rallied support among the majority of Jewish voters, but younger voters are more sceptical of his track record in Gaza [Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Photo] But the question of how Israel is perceived — and whether its actions in Gaza are justified — is an issue that has split Jewish American communities along generational lines. A poll in November from the Jewish Electorate Institute found that Biden retains strong Jewish support overall: Three-quarters of participants approved of his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza. That number dropped, however, when young Jewish Americans were viewed in isolation. Only 53 percent of Jewish voters ages 18 to 35 approved of Biden’s stance, compared with 82 percent for other voting age groups. Still, participants overwhelmingly backed Biden. An estimated 68 percent said they would vote for the Democratic incumbent, compared with 22 percent for Trump and 11 percent who were undecided. Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, a pro-Israel advocacy group, credited that high level of support to shared values. “Overwhelmingly, Jewish voters support President Biden because he represents the interests and values of the Jewish community, including — but not limited to — support of Israel,” Soifer told Al Jazeera. She also named “abortion, democracy, gun safety, climate change, the economy [and] anti-Semitism” as “key issues driving the Jewish vote”. But Soifer added that she saw renewed party engagement after October 7, the day the Palestinian group Hamas launched attacks on southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people. “Jewish voters self-identify as Democrats over Republicans by a nearly 50-point margin. This has only been solidified in the aftermath of October 7,” Soifer explained. Her organisation has also seen an uptick in support following the Hamas attack, she added. Progressive and anti-Zionist Jewish American advocacy groups have likewise reported a significant bump in membership following the start of the war in Gaza. “Since October 7, our following and base has doubled or more by nearly every measure,” said Liv Kunins-Berkowitz of Jewish Voice for Peace. “We now have over 1.8 million followers on our social media accounts and over 720,000 people that JVP counts as our base. They subscribe to our email list and regularly engage in JVP’s campaigns, demonstrations and workshops.” House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority
Russian lawmakers consider bill to seize property of Ukraine war critics
The bill would allow the state to seize property from Russians who might have left the country and criticised the war in Ukraine. Russia’s parliament has begun considering a bill that would give the state the power to seize the property of those convicted of defamation of the security forces. “The State Duma has introduced amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes on the confiscation of property for public calls for activities directed against the security of the state, for discrediting the army and a number of other articles,” a statement by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said on Monday. The statement said multiple officials, including Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, co-authored the bill. The bill would allow the state to seize property from Russians who might have left the country and have criticised the war in Ukraine but still rely on revenue from renting out their houses or apartments in Russia. Since the beginning of the war in February 2022, criticising what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine has effectively become a crime. Still, the new bill aims to make penalties harsher. Volodin, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, has called the new bill “the scoundrel law”. Vyacheslav Volodin speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament [File: State Duma via AP] “Everyone who tries to destroy Russia, betrays it, must suffer the deserved punishment and compensate for the damage inflicted on the country at the cost of their property,” Volodin said. He added that under the law, those found guilty of “discrediting” the army also face being stripped of honorary titles. The existing law against “discrediting” the Russian military, which covers offences such as “justifying terrorism” and spreading “fake news” about the army, is regularly used to target Putin’s critics. Multiple activists, bloggers and other Russians have received lengthy jail terms due to the law. Last month, Russian state media reported that one of the country’s best-selling novelists, Boris Akunin, had been charged under the law and added to a register of “extremists and terrorists”. Another famous writer, Dmitry Glukhovsky, was given an eight-year sentence in absentia after a Moscow court found him guilty of spreading false information about the army in August. Adblock test (Why?)
No safe places left to go in Gaza, Palestinians say
NewsFeed A surgeon in Gaza says his family couldn’t find space to stay in Rafah, so they’re sheltering at his hospital, as Israel’s new offensive on Khan Younis has forced thousands of displaced people into Gaza’s southernmost city. Published On 22 Jan 202422 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Virat Kohli to miss India’s first two Tests vs England for personal reasons
Kohli will miss the Tests in Hyderabad and Rajkot, after missing the first T20 against Afghanistan for the same reason. India batter Virat Kohli will miss the his side’s first two Test matches against England due to personal reasons, the country’s cricket board has confirmed. The former national-team captain missed the opening game of the recent T20 series with Afghanistan citing the same reason but returned for the second and third matches. Kohli, 35, has been a regular fixture for India’s Test side and the last time he missed a game was in January 2022, when he was ruled out of the second match of the series against South Africa in Johannesburg through injury. The five-match series against England begins in Hyderabad on Thursday, while the third Test starts on February 15 in Rajkot. “Virat has spoken to captain Rohit Sharma, the team management and the selectors and has emphasised that while representing the country has always been his top priority, certain personal situations demand his presence and undivided attention,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said in a statement on Monday. “The BCCI respects his decision and the board and team management has extended its support to the star batter. “The BCCI requests the media and fans to respect Kohli’s privacy during this time and refrain from speculating on the nature of his personal reasons.” The board said a replacement for Kohli will be added to the squad for the first two matches. Prior to the T20 series against Afghanistan, Kohli had only been playing Test cricket for India since the Cricket World Cup final defeat by Australia in December to manage his workload. 🚨 NEWS 🚨 Virat Kohli withdraws from first two Tests against England citing personal reasons. Details 🔽 #TeamIndia | #INDvENGhttps://t.co/q1YfOczwWJ — BCCI (@BCCI) January 22, 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Relatives of Israeli captives storm Knesset
NewsFeed A group of relatives of Israelis believed to be held captive by Hamas in Gaza stormed a Knesset meeting demanding lawmakers do more to try and free their loved ones. Published On 22 Jan 202422 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Dutch court convicts Syrian fighter on war crimes charges
Mustafa A, 35, is sentenced to 12 years in prison for war crimes in Syria by a district court in The Hague. A district court in The Hague has convicted a member of a Syrian pro-government armed group of crimes against humanity for complicity in torture and illegal arrest in Syria and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. Judges ruled on Monday that the 35-year-old man, identified in court only as Mustafa A, was involved in the arrest of a man in 2012 in Syria. He later handed the man over to Syrian Air Force intelligence officials who ran a prison where he was tortured. The court said the defendant was a leading member of the Liwa al-Quds, or the Jerusalem Brigade. Liwa al-Quds is an armed group, comprised mostly of Palestinian refugees living in Syria and founded during the early years of Syria’s more than 12-year war. Mustafa A was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity for complicity in torture, inhumane treatment and illegal arrest and also for membership in a criminal organisation. Arrested in 2022, he had been living in the Netherlands since 2020 and had applied for asylum there. During the trial’s first session in early November, judges quoted witnesses who said he was involved in their violent arrests and gave details of beatings and torture they endured in prison. Back then, despite being asked numerous times for a reaction to the declarations and excerpts from his own police interviews and intercepted phone calls, Mustafa A invoked his right to remain silent at every turn. Monday’s judgement marks the first time a Dutch court has convicted someone for crimes committed while fighting on the side of President Bashar al-Assad’s government during the war in Syria. There have been a handful of similar convictions in Germany. In recent years, Dutch courts have issued war crimes convictions to several Syrian nationals who were members of opposition militias and other armed groups in Syria. Adblock test (Why?)