Kremlin explains its ‘only option’ in Ukraine Ukraine's future depends on outcome in eastern battlegrounds Russian invasion of Ukraine and China's aggression over Taiwan threaten to create a world 'defined by danger', PM warns US defence budget moves near trillion dollars amid China 'threat' and Ukraine war Russian diplomacy faces task of preventing head-on collision of nuclear powers — MFA Indian Navy finalizing supersonic missile deal Philippine, U.S. troops hold ceremony before joint military drills Storm Freddy kills more than 100 in southern Africa Welcome to the international news program. Highlights related to tensions in Europe, along with many new developments around the world, will be presented to you on today's program.
Russia talked about its "only option", for the special military operation in Ukraine Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has argued. There are currently no conditions for a peace settlement in Ukraine, meaning Russia has no other option but to keep fighting “The absolute priority for us remains and will always remain reaching the goals that we’ve set for ourselves. At this point in time, they can only be achieved through military means,” Peskov was reacting to an article penned by veteran German diplomat Wolfgang Ischinger, who served as chair of the Munich Security Conference for over a decade. In a piece published by Der Tagesspiegel on Sunday, Ischinger urged Western leaders to “start thinking about a peace process now” and create a special political contact group for the Ukraine conflict.
“In addition to arms deliveries and financial support, we have to offer perspectives to the growing chorus of questions by critics,” he argued. According to Ischinger’s proposal, the contact group would be led by the US, UK, Germany and France, with other nations and international organizations, including NATO The group’s task would be to prepare a ceasefire agreement and other paperwork to form the backbone for a post-conflict period. Ischinger stressed that the new initiative would not put pressure on Ukraine to negotiate. The veteran German diplomat suggested a list of questions that the group would ask themselves, including: “Should a ceasefire agreement be endorsed by the UN Security Council?”, “Will there be a demilitarized buffer zone?”, and “Should the people in Crimea hold a referendum to decide who they belong to?”.
Kiev has declared the full return of territories it claims as Ukrainian as a precondition for peace talks Its national security council has also banned talks with Russia for as long as President Vladimir Putin remains in office. Moscow has argued that the Ukrainian government has effectively made peace talks impossible, and that Kiev has adopted its stance based on orders from the US, which is aiming to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday (March 13) that Ukraine's future depended on the outcome of battles in key points in the east of the country. Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. "It is very tough in the east -- very painful. We must destroy the enemy's military power.
And we shall destroy it," "Bilohorivka and Marinka, Avdiivka and Bakhmut, Vuhledar and Kamyanka and other places where the kind of future we are to have is being decided. Where the future of all Ukrainians is being fought for," he added. The eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut has become the main focus of a Russian winter campaign with both sides saying they have been relentless fighting in and around the small ruined city.
Moscow says taking it would be a major success, opening a path to capture the rest of the surrounding Donetsk region, a central war aim. The months-long fight for Bakhmut has become Europe's bloodiest infantry battle since World War Two. Pro-Kremlin Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has reiterated Chechen fighters in Ukraine will help Moscow “fight to the victorious end.”
During a visit at the Kremlin Monday, Kadyrov reported to Putin that “we in the Republic (Chechnya) are doing really well, thanks to you.” Kadyrov told the Russian president: “The fighters of the Chechen Republic are successfully serving in the special military operation zone, we are fulfilling all your orders and aim to act to the victorious end The residents of the region fully support the special military operation and consider it necessary to achieve its goals and objectives.” Kadyrov has been accused by international and independent observers of gross human rights violations in his home territory and beyond Earlier we reported a few lines from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's nightly address. He also spoke about demining and farming, saying he had discussed both with experts during the day. He said more than 170,000km (105,000 miles) of Ukraine remains dangerous due to Russian mines and unexploded ordnance. Much of that land is used by farmers. "The second sowing season has already started during the full-scale war," he said.
"Last year, the heroic efforts of our farmers and all workers in the agricultural sector made it possible to preserve Ukrainian agricultural production and Ukraine's global role as a guarantor of food security." Mr Zelenskyy also talked about the energy situation in Ukraine The country's energy infrastructure has been hit a number of times by Russian attacks, with particular concerns for the safety of nuclear power stations. He said the energy sector "has been normalised", adding: "In fact, we are meeting the energy needs of Ukrainians throughout the entire free territory of the state, in accordance with the generation capabilities. "We continue to prepare for the next heating season, both in terms of accumulating resources and protecting our energy facilities." The UK prime minister has warned Russia's war in Ukraine and China's aggression over Taiwan threaten to create a world "defined by danger, disorder and division", Rishi Sunak predicted a "difficult and dangerous decade"as his government published a long-awaited update to a major defence, security and foreign policy review on Monday.
The 63-page document signalled that the world faced the biggest risk in decades of security threats escalating, including into "uncontrolled conflict" with nuclear weapons. Mr Sunak described the Chinese Communist Party as posing an "epoch-defining challenge". It was previously described only as a "systemic challenge".
The prime minister explained how the security environment has changed over the past two years, with threats and challenges intensifying. "Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, weaponisation of energy and food supplies and irresponsible nuclear rhetoric combined with China's more aggressive stance in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait are threatening to create a world defined by danger, disorder and division The leaders of the United States, Australia and Britain on Monday unveiled details of a plan to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines, a major step to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific Biden said at the U.S. naval base in San Diego, California. "AUKUS has one overriding objective - to enhance the stability of the Indo-Pacific amid rapidly shifting global dynamics," Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak endorsed plans for the so-called AUKUS project, first announced in 2021, at the U.S. naval base in San Diego, California, principal home port of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Under the deal, the United States intends to sell Australia three U.S. Virginia class nuclear-powered submarines, which are built by General Dynamics, in the early 2030s, with an option to buy two more if needed. At the ceremony in San Diego, Biden said the multi-stage project would culminate with British and Australian production and operation of a new class of submarine - SSN-AUKUS - a "trilaterally developed" vessel based on Britain's next-generation design that would be built in Britain and Australia and include "cutting edge" U.S. technologies.
Biden stressed that the submarines would be nuclear-powered, not nuclear armed. U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday after unveiling details of a major submarine deal with Britain and Australia aimed at countering China that he expected to speak to Chinese leader Xi Jinping soon, but would not say when. Asked at a meeting with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in San Diego if he was worried that China would see the AUKUS submarine deal as aggression, Biden replied "no." Asked if he would speak to Xi soon, Biden said "yes," but to another question as to whether he would tell journalists when they would talk, he replied "no." Biden said in mid-February he expected to speak to Xi about what the United States said was a Chinese spy balloon that flew through American airspace, worsening already tense relations, but no such call has been announced.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week the United States wanted to re-establish regular communications with China and Biden expected to speak with Xi by phone sometime after China's government returns to work following its annual National People's Congress that ended on Monday. The AUKUS agreement to provide Australia with nuclear- powered submarines is aimed at countering China in the Indo-Pacific and Beijing has condemned it as an illegal act of nuclear proliferation. The Pentagon says it intends to load up on advanced missiles, space defence and modern jets in its largest defence request in decades. It is asking Congress for 842 billion dollars (£690bn) in the 2024 budget year - the largest request since the peak of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars in the mid-2000s. This is in part to meet the higher cost of weapons and parts, but also to answer the vulnerabilities that the Ukraine war has exposed in US defence, and the strategic threat it sees from China's rapidly growing nuclear arsenal its hypersonic capabilities and its gains in space.
is also a factor that causes Washington to 'brain guard'. the Pentagon's chief financial officer said. The spending path would put the US military's annual budget over the one trillion dollar threshold in just a matter of years While the number seems astronomically high, it is only about 3% of the country's gross domestic product.
Pentagon controller Michael McCord said. For comparison, during the Second World War the country was spending about one third of its GDP on defence The budget request is part of an overall 6.8 trillion dollar spending proposal rolled out by US President Joe Biden last week, which Republicans say they will reject. Alexey Drobinin, director of the foreign policy planning department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Preventing a head-on collision of nuclear powers is now a goal for Russian diplomacy, as such a collision would be fraught with the highest risks of escalation, "Diplomacy at this stage faces a new yet old task: to prevent a ‘head-on clash’ of nuclear powers, which would be fraught with the highest risks of escalation, the probability of which has risen significantly due to the reckless actions of our opponents," he said. According to Drobinin, the West today is destroying the mechanisms of collective security that were developed in the 20th century "The arrogant and destructive behavior [of the West] has led the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe into a deep impasse, undermined the system of arms control treaties, contributed to the emergence of new hot spots and, in general, significantly increased the threat to universal security," the diplomat said.
He noted the growth of military spending by the US and its allies as well as their military assistance to Ukraine and Washington's "accelerated remilitarization of Germany and Japan." "Let's be frank: The Ukrainian crisis and what preceded it clearly demonstrate the unwillingness of our Western colleagues to jointly work on building a system of collective security He noted that the construction of a more stable security architecture can occur only if "the US and its satellites refrain from placing bets on domination by force" and the West realizes that there is no alternative to peaceful coexistence with other countries including Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. "It won’t be easy to achieve this. So far, geopolitical circumstances are not conducive to this," Drobinin concluded. Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said in a telegram he sent on Monday to the Chinese counterpart to congratulate Li Shangfu’s performance as China’s defense minister is set to help the development of military and military-technical cooperation between Russia and China In addition, Shoigu thanked Colonel-General Wei Fenghe, the outgoing Chinese defense minister for his contribution to strengthening Russian-Chinese military cooperation. He added, this is one of the main factors preventing aggressive activities by the US and its allies in the Asia-Pacific.
Shoigu reminded that China was traditionally a co-organizer of the International Army Games competitions, as well as annual air and sea patrols in the Asia-Pacific region and the first Russian-Chinese operational and strategic exercise "Sibu/Interaction" in China. the country’s Defense Ministry has said. A deal to purchase in excess of 200 extended-range BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles for the Indian Navy is at an “advanced stage”, The deal is estimated to be in the region of $2.5 billion.
ANI quoted a senior defense official as saying. “The Indian Navy proposal to acquire more than 200 of these BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles is at an advanced stage and is expected to be cleared by the Defense Ministry soon,” Final approval of the purchase rests with India’s Cabinet Committee on Security, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Once the deal is official, the weapons will be delivered to India “over a long period,” the Times of India reported. It comes after India’s Defense Ministry signed a deal last September to acquire 38 BrahMos missiles for its navy.
The weapons system, which was developed in a joint venture by Russia’s NPO Mashinostroyenyia rocket design bureau and the Indian Defense Research and Development Organization, is to be deployed on all frontline warships of the Indian Navy, The missiles are also expected to be used in mobile coastal defense battery systems. Continued development of the BrahMos over the past 20 years has seen its strike range increase to more than 250 miles (400km) Testing is underway to further increase its range. The missile, which travels at Mach 2.8 – almost three times the speed of sound
offers a precision strike option on high value targets such as warships, or command centers and bunkers on land. The Indian Navy tested the missile from a ship in the Arabian Sea on March 5 saying afterwards that doing so boosted the navy’s commitment to India’s policy of “Aatma Nirbharta”, or “self-reliant India”, a phrase popularized by Modi’s government. Philippine and U.S. army officers held a ceremony in Nueva Ecija province on Monday (March 13)
to officially open their three-week annual joint military exercises. Named “Salaknib” meaning “shield” in the local dialect, it is an annual army-to-army joint exercise aimed at strengthening the interoperability of American and Filipino soldiers in various military operations. according to the Philippine Army Commanding General Romeo Brawner. Over 3,000 soldiers from the Philippine and U.S. armies are taking part in this year’s iteration which will focus its exercises from internal security to territorial defence, “Of course the scenarios would involve the defence of the Philippine archipelago from potential foreign aggressors,” said Brawner.
This will include, because this is an army-to-army exercise, we will focus on defence operations, such as air defence and also our defence from the shorelines.” The exercises underscore improved ties with the United States under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and come as the Philippines condemns China's "aggressive" actions in the disputed waterway.
The Philippines has granted Washington greater access to its military bases as part of the latter's efforts to deter China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea and tension over self-ruled Taiwan. North Korea should realise that there is nothing they can earn from escalating tensions on the Korean peninsula, the South Korean government said on Monday (March 13) after the North test-fired two strategic cruise missiles from a submarine a day before the U.S.-South Korea joint military drills begin. The submarine launches on Sunday (March 12) aimed to show North Korea's determination to control a situation in which, North Korea's official news agency KCNA said, "the U.S. imperialists and south Korean puppet forces are getting evermore undisguised in their anti-Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) military maneuvers." South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the military was on high alert and the country's intelligence agency was working with its U.S. counterpart to analyse the specifics of the launch, adding that not everything North Korea claimed was accurate.
South Korean and American troops were scheduled to begin 11 days of joint drills on Monday, in an exercise dubbed Freedom Shield 23 to held on a scale not seen since 2017. The drills will strengthen the allies' combined defensive posture, the two militaries have said and will feature field exercises including amphibious landings. Mozambique and Malawi on Monday (March 13) were counting the cost of Tropical Storm Freddy, which killed more than 100 people, injured scores and left a trail of destruction as it ripped through southern Africa for the second time in a month over the weekend A grim search for victims was underway on Monday in the Malawian city of Blantyre after Tropical Storm Freddy tore through the region for the second time in a month. “So far we have recovered 30 bodies,” says this rescuer. “We are still looking for more victims.”
At least 60 bodies were brought to the central hospital in Blantyre, according to Doctors Without Borders. Another 200 people were being treated in hospital for injuries For others -- the loss is starting to set in. Freddy is one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the southern hemisphere.
It could be the longest-lasting tropical cyclone, according to the World Meteorological Organization. It pummeled central Mozambique on Saturday. before moving inland towards Malawi with torrential rains that caused landslides. The total number killed by storm Freddy in Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar since it first made landfall last month is now around 136.
Officials have warned flooding and destroyed crops in Mozambique could raise the risk of waterborne disease. About 200 people were settled in at the evacuation center at the Santa Cruz Fairgrounds by Monday. Residents in central California's flooded coastal community of Pajaro sheltered at an evacuation center in Watsonville, California on Monday (March 13), just days after a levee broke on the Pajaro River and flooded their neighborhoods. Pedro Rangel, 42, returned to his neighborhood on Monday to check on his home after evacuating over the weekend.
"There's a lot of water still, tons of waterI wasn't able to make it all the way to the house because some parts are still way too deep." "It's really sad for all of us who live here, you lose everything, it's hard to replace everything." California is reeling from a month-long string of winter storms, and the state suffered on Monday for another bout of rain, wind and snow. A state of emergency was declared on Monday (March 13) Brazilian city of Manaus after a landslide caused by heavy rains killed at least eight people, local media reported. Drone footage of the landslide aftermath showed the destruction caused in a housing area located in a high-risk zone at the capital city of the Amazonas state, in the Brazilian Amazon. "Those people were there because they had nowhere else to go," said a victim of the downpour, Edineusa Soares.
During the early hours of Monday, locals and rescue workers worked together to look for survivors amongst the debris. Four of the mortal victims were adults and four were children and three survivors were rescued, according to local media. As commuters across Dubai exit at their metro stop, they may be greeted with the faint sounds of Arabic or international tunes. The sounds are by musicians from the UAE and beyond, taking part in the third edition of the Dubai Metro Music Festival.
The event aims at encouraging people to use public transport, and hopes to make their journey home from work more pleasant. This year marks the third year of the Dubai Metro Music Festival organized by Brand Dubai, in partnership with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority. Amina Taher, senior executive at Brand Dubai.
"The idea came to have it in the afternoon, after they finish their work, by that they will end their work day with a nice spirit, a nice gesture from our side, The week-long festival in collaboration with the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), kicked off on March 6th and featured 20 musicians from the region and beyond. “I feel people see it’s maybe something different, and it’s really awesome to be a part of 20 musicians all playing different music from different cultures around the world, and it just shows that Dubai is a very inclusive place,” said musician John Buttigiejg, Many busy residents gathered in the various stations, looking on and filming on their phones as artists played instruments commuter Abdul Qadeer Bangura said “I was just passing by, I just heard the music and I came to listen to the music. I really felt good after listening to the music, I felt relaxed,”
2023-03-19