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WASHINGTON: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given the smaller nation’s embassy in Washington an unexpected role: recruitment center for Americans who want to join the fight. Diplomats working out of the embassy, in a townhouse in the Georgetown section of the city, are fielding thousands of offers from volunteers seeking to fight for Ukraine, even as they work on the far more pressing matter of securing weapons to defend against an increasingly brutal Russian onslaught. “They really feel that this war is unfair, unprovoked,” said Ukraine’s military attaché, Maj. Gen. Borys Kremenetskyi. “They feel that they have to go and help.” US volunteers represent just a small subset of foreigners seeking to fight for Ukraine, who in turn comprise just a tiny fraction of the international assistance that has flowed into the country. Still, it is a a reflection of the passion, supercharged in an era of social media, that the attack and the mounting civilian casualties have stirred. “This is not mercenaries who are coming to earn money,” Kremenetskyi said. “This is people of goodwill who are coming to assist Ukraine to fight for freedom.” The US government discourages Americans from going to fight in Ukraine, which raises legal and national security issues. Since the Feb. 24 invasion, the embassy in Washington has heard from at least 6,000 people inquiring about volunteering for service, the “vast majority” of them American citizens, said Kremenetskyi, who oversees the screening of potential US recruits. Half the potential volunteers were quickly rejected and didn’t even make it to the Zoom interview, the general said. They lacked the required military experience, had a criminal background or weren’t suitable for other reasons such as age, including a 16-year-old boy and a 73-year-old man. Some who expressed interest were rejected because the embassy said it couldn’t do adequate vetting. The general didn’t disclose the methods used to screen people. Kremenetskyi, who spoke to The Associated Press just after returning from the Pentagon for discussions on the military hardware his country needs for its defense, said he appreciates the support from both the US government and the public. “Russians can be stopped only with hard fists and weapons,” he said. So far, about 100 US citizens have made the cut. They include veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with combat experience, including some helicopter pilots, the attaché said. They must make their own way to Poland, where they are to cross at a specified point, with their own protective gear but without a weapon, which they will get after they arrive. They will be required to sign a contract to serve, without pay, in the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine. The Ukrainian government says about 20,000 foreigners from various nations have already joined. Borys Wrzesnewskyj, a former Liberal lawmaker in Canada who is helping to facilitate recruitment there, said about 1,000 Canadians have applied to fight for Ukraine, the vast majority of whom don’t have any ties to the country. “The volunteers, a very large proportion are ex-military, these are people that made that tough decision that they would enter the military to stand up for the values that we subscribe to,” Wrzesnewskyj said. “And when they see what is happening in Ukraine they can’t stand aside.” It’s not clear how many US citizens seeking to fight have actually reached Ukraine, a journey the State Department has urged people not to make. “We’ve been very clear for some time, of course, in calling on Americans who may have been resident in Ukraine to leave, and making clear to Americans who may be thinking of traveling there not to go,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters recently. US citizens aren’t required to register overseas. The State Department says it’s not certain how many have entered Ukraine since the Russian invasion. Under some circumstances, Americans could face criminal penalties, or even risk losing their citizenship, by taking part in an overseas conflict, according to a senior federal law enforcement official. But the legal issues are only one of many concerns for US authorities, who worry about what could happen if an American is killed or captured or is recruited while over there to work for a foreign intelligence service upon their return home, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. The official and independent security experts say some of the potential foreign fighters may be white supremacists, who are believed to be fighting on both sides of the conflict. They could become more radicalized and gain military training in Ukraine, thereby posing an increased danger when they return home. “These are men who want adventure, a sense of significance and are harking back to World War II rhetoric,” said Anne Speckhard, who has extensively studied foreigners who fought in Syria and elsewhere as director of the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. Ukraine may be getting around some of the potential legal issues by only facilitating the overseas recruitment, and directing volunteers to sign their contracts, and receive a weapon, once they arrive in the country. Also, by assigning them to the territorial defense forces, and not front-line units, it reduces the chance of direct combat with Russians, though it’s by no means eliminated. The general acknowledges the possibility that any foreigners who are captured could be used for propaganda purposes. But he didn’t dwell on the issue, focusing instead on the need for his country to defend itself against Russia. “We are fighting for our existence,” he said. “We are fighting for our families, for our land. And we are not going to give up.”
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council scheduled a meeting Friday at Russia’s request to discuss what Moscow claims are “the military biological activities of the US on the territory of Ukraine,” allegations vehemently denied by the Biden administration. “This is exactly the kind of false flag effort we have warned Russia might initiate to justify a biological or chemical weapons attack,” Olivia Dalton, spokesperson for the US Mission to the United Nations said late Thursday. “We’re not going to let Russia gaslight the world or use the UN Security Council as a venue for promoting their disinformation.” The Russian request, announced in a tweet Thursday afternoon from its first deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, follows the US rejection of Russian accusations that Ukraine is running chemical and biological labs with US support. In response to this week’s accusations by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova — without evidence — White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a public warning Wednesday that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine, the neighbor it has invaded. Psaki called Russia’s claim “preposterous” and tweeted: “This is all an obvious ploy by Russia to try to justify its further premeditated, unprovoked, and unjustified attack on Ukraine.” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby on Wednesday called the Russian claim “a bunch of malarkey.” Dalton said “Russia has a well-documented history of using chemical weapons and has long maintained a biological weapons program in violation of international law” as well as “a track record of falsely accusing the West of the very violations that Russia itself is perpetrating.” Dmitry Chumakov, another Russian deputy UN ambassador, repeated the accusation Wednesday, urging Western media to cover “the news about secret biological laboratories in Ukraine.” A tweet from Russia’s Ministry of Defense, after Polyansky’s tweet calling for a council meeting, referred to a “briefing on the results of the analysis of documents related to the military biological activities of the United States on the territory of Ukraine.” The UN announced Thursday evening that the meeting will take place at 10am EST but then pushed it back to 11am EST. UN disarmament chief Izumi Nakamitsu and UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo are scheduled to brief the council. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated Thursday what he said Wednesday — that the World Health Organization, which has been working with the Ukrainian government, “said they are unaware of any activity on the part of the Ukrainian government which is inconsistent with its international treaty obligations, including on chemical weapons or biological weapons.” The United States for months has warned about Russian “false flag” operations to create a pretext for the invasion. The White House warning, and Dalton’s statement Thursday, suggested Russia might seek to create a pretense for further escalating the two-week-old conflict that has seen the Russian offensive slowed by stronger than expected Ukrainian defenders, but not stopped. The international community for years has assessed that Russia used chemical weapons in carrying out assassination attempts against Putin enemies like Alexey Navalny, now in a Russian prison, and former spy Sergei Skripal, who lives in the United Kingdom. Russia also supports the Assad government in Syria, which has used chemical weapons against its people in an 11-year-long civil war. The Security Council held its monthly meeting Thursday on Syria’s chemical weapons with disarmament chief Nakamitsu criticizing the Syrian government for repeatedly refusing to answer questions about its chemical weapons program and urging the Assad government to do so.
Last June, the head of the international chemical weapons watchdog, Fernando Arias, said its experts investigated 77 allegations against Syria and concluded that in 17 cases chemical weapons were likely or definitely used. Nakamitsu ended her statement on Thursday by saying: “The use of chemical weapons is a grave violation of international law and an affront to our shared humanity.” “We need to remain vigilant to ensure that those awful weapons are never used again, and are eliminated, not only in Syria, but everywhere,” she said. US deputy ambassador Richard Mills said that unfortunately Syria has help on the council from its ally Russia, which he said “has repeatedly spread disinformation regarding Syria’s repeated use of chemical weapons.” “The recent web of lies that Russia has cast in an attempt to justify the premeditated and unjustified war it has undertaken against Ukraine, should make clear, once and for all, that Russia also cannot be trusted when it talks about chemical weapon use in Syria,” Mills said. Britain’s deputy ambassador, James Kariuki, told the council that “the parallels” between Russia’s action in Ukraine — “besieging cities, killing civilians indiscriminately, forcing millions to flee in search of safety” — and its actions in Syria “are clear.” “Regrettably, the comparison also extends to chemical weapons, as we see the familiar specter of Russian chemical weapons disinformation raising its head in Ukraine,” he said.
TIJUANA, Mexico: US authorities allowed a Ukrainian woman and her three children to seek asylum Thursday, a reversal from a day earlier when she was denied entry under the Biden administration’s sweeping restrictions for seeking humanitarian protection. The 34-year-old woman and her children — ages 14, 12 and 6 — entered San Diego for processing after authorities blocked her path hours earlier, triggering sharp criticism from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats. Blaine Bookey, legal director of the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, was returning to San Diego Wednesday from Tijuana, where she was helping Haitian migrants. She saw the Ukrainian woman crying with her children, looking “very uncomfortable” with a reporter “in her face.” Bookey’s tweets and media coverage sparked renewed criticism of a Trump-era order to deny people a chance to seek asylum under an order to prevent spread of COVID-19 known as Title 42 authority. Schumer raised the Ukrainian woman’s case as he called for an end to use of Title 42, which the Biden administration has defended as health risks from COVID-19 have subsided. “They requested refuge in one of the ports of entry on our southern border, but were turned away because of Title 42,” Schumer said on a conference call with reporters. “This is not who we are as a country. Continuing this Trump-era policy has defied common sense and common decency.” US Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Migrants have been expelled more than 1.6 million times since Title 42 was introduced in March 2020. The Ukrainian woman, who identified herself to reporters only as Sofiia, tried entering the US in a car with a relative this week but was blocked, Bookey said. Another attempt on foot Wednesday was also stopped but Bookey found her before she returned to her Tijuana hotel to wait for news. Erika Pinheiro, litigation and policy director for Al Otro Lado advocacy group, said she got a call from CBP early Thursday, telling the woman to pack her bags and be ready on short notice. She was told to come hours later. “She’s just been very stoic for her kids and I think she let herself get emotional,” Bookey said. The woman left Ukraine with her children Feb. 27 as friends warned her that Russia might invade. She went to Moldova, Romania and Mexico, arriving in Tijuana on Monday. She plans to settle with family in the San Francisco area and seek asylum. The woman pulled a small red suitcase and carried a pink backpack patterned with tiny dogs as she walked into the US with her 6-year-old daughter beside her and her older children behind. Mexico accepts citizens from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who are expelled under Title 42 authority. People of other nationalities are subject to expulsion but many are released in the United States to seek asylum due to difficulties flying them home. They must be on US soil to claim protection, though, and authorities often block their path. Thousands of Russians have sought asylum at San Diego border crossings in recent months after flying to Mexico. People from Ukraine and other former Soviet republics use the same route but in much lower numbers. In January, 248 Ukrainians crossed the US-Mexico border, with three out of four in San Diego. A 27-year-old Ukrainian who asked to be identified only as Kristina was left behind on the Mexican side of the border Thursday with her fiancé, a US citizen. She said she had been living in Kyiv when the fighting started. “It was so scary,” Kristina said. “We just woke up and there was bombing. We never expected this.” Kristina fled to Poland but hotels and apartments were full. She flew to Mexico where her fiancé was trying to help her get into the US They spent hours waiting at the border. “They don’t listen to us,” she said. ___ Associated Press writers Ben Fox in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed.
WASHINGTON/BOGOTA: President Joe Biden told Colombian President Ivan Duque on Thursday he plans to designate Colombia as a major non-NATO ally, granting the strategic status to a key country in a turbulent region as the United States seeks to isolate Russia. In White House talks, Biden and Duque said they would work toward signing a regional migration agreement at the Summit of the Americas in June in Los Angeles. Colombia is currently home to 1.9 million migrants from neighboring Venezuela. Major non-NATO ally status is a designation bestowed by the US to close allies that have strategic working relationships with Washington but are not members of NATO. Argentina gained this status in 1998 and Brazil in 2019. “Colombia is the linchpin” in the Southern Hemisphere, Biden told Duque. The two countries have had diplomatic ties for 200 years. The two leaders gave no details on the shape of the expected framework on migration. The United States has struggled to contend with thousands of migrants seeking asylum on its southern border with Mexico. Their meeting took place days after secret negotiations between senior US officials and representatives of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro arranged the release of two American detainees. The move had raised eyebrows in Colombia, which has tense relations with Venezuela. There was no sign of tension in their public remarks. Both presidents condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Duque said Colombia was offering assistance to countries in that region on handling the mass of people evacuating “the bloodbath” in Ukraine. Asked about the contacts between the United States and Maduro representatives after the meeting, Duque told reporters, “I’m not going to start questioning” US policy. “We will maintain our same foreign policy, condemning the dictatorship, calling Nicolas Maduro what he is, a criminal who has committed crimes against humanity, and we will continue to support our Venezuelan brothers in Colombia with fraternity,” Duque said. In a joint statement following the meeting, the two leaders underscored their mutual commitment to “support the restoration of democracy” in Venezuela. The US delegation’s weekend visit to Venezuela and talks with Maduro focused on the fate of the detained Americans and the possibility of easing US oil sanctions on OPEC member Venezuela to fill a supply gap if Biden banned Russian oil imports — something he did on Tuesday. Venezuela is Russia’s closest ally in South America, and the United States is gauging whether the country would distance itself from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Maduro’s management of Venezuela has caused a humanitarian crisis that has affected Colombia. Duque’s visit came ahead of legislative elections and presidential primaries in Colombia on Sunday, where several left-leaning candidates have floated changes to the cornerstone of the US-Colombia relationship — the fight against drug trafficking. Duque, who will leave office in August, came under sustained pressure from the Trump administration to decrease cultivation of coca, the base ingredient in cocaine. Colombia has long been a top producer of the drug, despite billions in US funds meant to combat it. In their joint statement, Biden and Duque agreed to work on a more holistic approach to counternarcotics that includes better access to prevent, treatment and recovery services, and renewed efforts to block money-laundering and beef up interdiction. During the meeting, Biden also pledged to donate an additional two million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Colombia.
JAIPUR: The Jaipur Literature Festival, known as the “greatest literary show on Earth,” returned to the Rajasthan capital on Thursday for its 15th edition.
The festival, which has put the northern Indian city of Jaipur on the world map of literature events, was held virtually last year due to COVID-19 restrictions.
This year, it began online on March 5 with “A Life in Stories,” a session in which Abdulrazak Gurnah, Tanzanian-born laureate of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, took attendees on a chronological tour of his life.
On Thursday, the festival moved to its on-ground venue at Hotel Clarks Amer in Jaipur, where it will run through March 14.
“It’s a pleasure to be back in the physical form and hosting the festival in the presence of the people,” Sanjoy K. Roy, the festival’s managing director, told Arab News. “We thought we would have to host the festival online again, but we are happy that we managed to find a conducive atmosphere to host the festival in the physical format, too. The festival this year is happening in the hybrid mode and people have the option to watch the sessions both online and offline.”
Addressing the audience during the inaugural session, festival co-director Namita Gokhale said: “Coming back again to the festival makes me emotional as I remember previous editions of the literary extravaganza featuring various writers and their stories.”
Author and historian William Dalrymple, who also serves as the festival’s co-director, said the pandemic had been an “existential threat” to artists, whose livelihoods were upended by lockdowns.
“But now we are back,” he said, “with four Nobel Prize winners!”
Besides Gurnah, the festival features Abhijit Banerjee, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences in 2019; Daniel Kahneman, who won the same prize in 2002; and Giorgio Parisi, who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021.
Visitors were welcomed in the morning with a performance of “Raag Miya Ki Todi” by Ujwal Nagar, a maestro of Hindustani classical music.
Thursday’s sessions covered the issues of climate change and geopolitics.
German Ambassador to India Walter J. Lindner, who took part in a discussion on the importance of world peace, told Arab News that he visited the event because of the panel.
“This is my first time at this literature festival and I was thinking whether I should come because of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine,” he said. “I thought I should come because there was a panel on war and peace.”
WASHINGTON: The White House said on Thursday the United States would continue to have diplomatic talks with Iran about a nuclear deal. “Our view is that we are close. We have been close for some time now,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said. “The end of negotiations is always when the difficult and challenging parts of the conversation typically take place.”