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Catch up quickly with the stories from Central and Eastern Europe that matter, this week led by news of NATO’s summit in Washington and its implications for Ukraine.
Russia’s war on Ukraine
NATO members this week pledged their support for an “irreversible path” to future membership for Ukraine, as well as more aid.
While a formal timeline for it to join the military alliance was not agreed at a summit in Washington DC, the military alliance’s 32 members said they had “unwavering” support for Ukraine’s war effort.
NATO also announced further integration with Ukraine’s military and members have committed 40 billion euros in aid in the next year, including F-16 fighter jets and air defence support.
The bloc’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said: “Support to Ukraine is not charity—it is in our own security interest.”
The ongoing invasion of Ukraine was top of the agenda at the summit, and a declaration agreed by all members said Russia “remains the most significant and direct threat” to security.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed US-built F-16 jets are in the process of being transferred to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands. It will be the first time Ukraine has received the advanced aircraft, something which Kyiv has long called for. Blinken told the summit the jets will be in use “this summer”.
NATO’s show of support came just days after Russian missiles blasted cities across Ukraine, damaging the country’s largest children’s hospital and other buildings in a fierce assault that interrupted heart surgeries and forced young cancer patients to take their treatments outdoors.
At least 31 people were killed, officials said.
The daytime barrage targeted five Ukrainian cities with more than 40 missiles of different types, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media. Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted 30 missiles. More than 150 people were wounded.
It was Russia’s heaviest bombardment of Kyiv in almost four months, hitting seven of the city’s 10 districts. At least seven people were killed in the capital, including two staff members at the hospital.
The attack on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital caused debris to fall into heart patients’ open chests in the middle of surgery. Cancer patients had their beds wheeled into parks and onto the streets.
Ukraine’s best high jumper captured a world record on Sunday to go with her world championship, and now she has a good reason to think she might bring home an Olympic gold medal to her war-torn country.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh erased a mark that had stood for 37 years at a Diamond League meet in Paris, jumping 2.10 meters (6.88 feet) in one of the last big tuneups leading into the Olympics.
The previous record of 2.09 was set by Bulgaria’s Stefka Kostadinova in Rome in 1987.
“Coming into this competition, I had feelings that I could jump 2.07 meters and maybe 2.10 meters,” Mahuchikh said. “Finally I signed Ukraine to the history of world athletics.”
Other news from the region
Georgia’s accession to the European Union has been halted, and some of the bloc’s financial support to the South Caucasus country has been frozen after the Georgian authorities adopted a new law that critics feared would curb democratic freedoms, the EU Ambassador in Georgia said on Tuesday. According to Paweł Herczyński, EU leaders made the decision to halt the process during the last summit of the European Council in the wake of the Georgian authorities adopting a law on “foreign influence” despite weeks of protests.
A specialist website focused on naval activities around the world this week shared an image it says shows a Russian Navy support ship docked at a Black Sea port in occupied Georgia where Moscow has vowed to establish a permanent naval base despite Tbilisi’s objections. Naval News reported that the Russian Project 22870 craft shown in the satellite imagery it published on July 10 was “observed in Ochamchire on July 4 and 5.” It did not cite a source. There does not appear to have been any official reaction from either Russia or Georgia to the ship’s alleged presence.
Moldova’s Socialists, the country’s largest opposition party, this week put forward Alexandr Stoianoglo, a dismissed prosecutor general, as a “unified opposition” candidate to challenge pro-European incumbent Maia Sandu in an October presidential election. Sandu, who has made securing EU membership the cornerstone of her policies, is seeking a second mandate in a poll held alongside a referendum on joining the 27-nation bloc. The pro-Russia Socialists say they do not oppose the campaign for European integration, but accuse Sandu of using the referendum as a vehicle to win the election.
Thousands of people gathered on Thursday in Srebrenica to commemorate the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims during the country’s civil war, two months after the UN created an annual day of remembrance of the genocide. On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces captured the eastern Bosnian town —which was then a UN-protected enclave—and killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the following days. In May, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring July 11 the “International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica”.
The European Commission this week issued a positive opinion on the technical and nuclear safety aspects of the construction of Units 3 and 4 at Cernavoda nuclear power plant in Romania. Under the Euratom Treaty, developers are required to notify the EC of planned investments and to demonstrate compliance with the highest safety standards. Cernavoda, the only nuclear power plant in Romania, comprises two 650-MWe CANDU-6 reactors. Unit 1 entered commercial operation in 1996 and Unit 2 in 2007. Cernavoda-3 is scheduled to start commercial operation in 2030 and Unit 4, the following year.
TBC Bank Uzbekistan, the country’s largest mobile-only bank and part of TBC Group Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s leading digital banking ecosystem, this week announced a record 38.2 million US dollars equity investment from its shareholders to leverage its rapid and profitable growth. London-listed TBC Bank Group PLC, the parent company of TBC Bank Uzbekistan, is investing 23 million US dollars, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World Bank, are investing 7.6 million US dollars each.
Lithuania fined crypto company Payeer a record 9.3 million euros this week for sanctions and money laundering violations involving Russian clients. Payeer allowed Russian customers “to carry out transactions in Russian rubles by transferring them from European Union-sanctioned Russian banks,” the country’s Financial Crimes Investigation Service said in a statement on Tuesday. Russian individuals and legal entities were “given the opportunity to receive cryptocurrency wallet, account management or storage services,” the service said.
A young Romanian woman was killed in a bear attack on Tuesday during a hike in the Carpathian Mountains, rescuers said. The 19-year-old woman’s body was recovered by rescuers in the Bucegi area in southern Romania, authorities said. The woman was attacked by the bear on the Jepii Mici mountain path. Mountain rescuers said she was dragged and torn to pieces by the bear in the attack. Following the attack, rescuers intervened and shot the animal, which was described as “extremely aggressive”. Romania has more bears than any other country in Europe than Russia.
Photo: NATO.
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