Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy yesterday secured Turkey’s backing for Ukraine’s NATO aspirations after winning a US pledge for cluster munitions.
Zelenskiy’s talks in Turkey were being watched closely by the Kremlin, which has tried to break its international isolation by cultivating strong relations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
While reaffirming his call for both sides to enter peace talks, Erdogan delivered unequivocal support for Ukraine’s NATO aspiration.
Photo: AP
“There is no doubt that Ukraine deserves membership of NATO,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.
Erdogan said that he would brief Russian President Vladimir Putin on the negotiations when Putin next month makes his first visit to Turkey since the invasion began.
The Turkish leader said that he and Putin would discuss possible prisoner swaps, as well as a possible extension of a deal brokered last year under which Ukraine shipped grain to the global market.
The deal expires on July 17 unless Russia agrees to its renewal.
However, While Zelenskiy is pressing for NATO membership “now,” the White House has urged restraint and said it would not happen at next week’s summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
Meanwhile, Washington’s decision to deliver the cluster weapons — which are banned across a large part of the world, but not in Russia or Ukraine — increases the stakes in the war, which entered its 500th day yesterday.
Zelenskiy has been traveling across Europe to secure bigger and better weapons for his army, which has launched a counteroffensive that is progressing less swiftly than Ukraine’s allies had hoped.
He called the latest US arms package “timely, broad and much-needed,” in a message on Twitter, adding that it “will provide new tools for the de-occupation of our land.”
US President Joe Biden said that that supplying Ukraine with weapons that can cover large areas with hundreds of small explosives was “a difficult decision.”
“And by the way, I discussed this with our allies,” Biden told CNN. “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.”
Humanitarian groups strongly condemned the decision to supply cluster munitions, which can go undetonated and potentially pose a danger for civilians for years.
As the war passed the 500-day mark, the UN condemned the civilian cost.
More than 9,000 civilians, including more than 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 last year, the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said on Friday.
That toll went up yesterday as authorities in the Donetsk region said six people were killed by Russian rocket fire in Lyman.
MAKING WAVES: China’s maritime militia could become a nontraditional threat in war, clogging up shipping lanes to prevent US or Japanese intervention, a report said About 1,900 Chinese ships flying flags of convenience and fishing vessels that participated in China’s military exercises around Taiwan last month and in January last year have been listed for monitoring, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-chin (謝慶欽) said yesterday. Following amendments to the Commercial Port Act (商港法) and the Law of Ships (船舶法) last month, the CGA can designate possible berthing areas or deny ports of call for vessels suspected of loitering around areas where undersea cables can be accessed, Oceans Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. The list of suspected ships, originally 300, had risen to about
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
Japan’s strategic alliance with the US would collapse if Tokyo were to turn away from a conflict in Taiwan, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said yesterday, but distanced herself from previous comments that suggested a possible military response in such an event. Takaichi expressed her latest views on a nationally broadcast TV program late on Monday, where an opposition party leader criticized her for igniting tensions with China with the earlier remarks. Ties between Japan and China have sunk to the worst level in years after Takaichi said in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could bring about a Japanese
The WHO ignored early COVID-19 warnings from Taiwan, US Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Jim O’Neill said on Friday, as part of justification for Washington withdrawing from the global health body. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that the US was pulling out of the UN agency, as it failed to fulfill its responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO “ignored early COVID warnings from Taiwan in 2019 by pretending Taiwan did not exist, O’Neill wrote on X on Friday, Taiwan time. “It ignored rigorous science and promoted lockdowns.” The US will “continue international coordination on infectious
RSS