Month: September 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised what he called “good news” from the Kharkiv region, saying Ukrainian forces had recaptured some towns from Russian troops. Zelenskyy singled out several Ukrainian units in his latest video address, praising “their bravery and heroism displayed during the execution of combat mission.” He also said Ukrainian artillery had carried out successful strikes against Russian forces in southern Ukraine. U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl told an event hosted by Defense News on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces are “making slow but meaningful progress.” “I certainly think things are going better on the Ukrainian …

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Iranian embassy staff in the Albanian capital worked through the night after they were given 24 hours to leave the country over a major cyberattack that the Albanian government blames on Iran. It is the first known case of a country cutting diplomatic relations over a cyberattack. Movement inside the Iranian embassy in Tirana continued nonstop from Wednesday into Thursday. An empty barrel was seen taken into the compound and later a fire was started in it, apparently burning documents. A diplomatic car went in and out, while an Albanian police officer communicated with the embassy before two officers entered …

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A senior U.N. human rights official said Wednesday that her office has verified that Russian soldiers and affiliated groups subject Ukrainian civilians to an invasive process called “filtration,” and called for access to those being detained by Russia. “In cases that our office has documented, during ‘filtration,’ Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups have subjected persons to body searches, sometimes involving forced nudity, and detailed interrogations about the personal background, family ties, political views and allegiances of the individual concerned,” Ilze Brands Kehris, assistant secretary-general for human rights, told the U.N. Security Council. “They examined personal belongings, including mobile …

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Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, voiced frustration that Russia remains in control of his nation’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in an interview with VOA’s Ukrainian Service. He also warned of the risk of a nuclear catastrophe similar to the Chernobyl nuclear accident in April 1986 that killed dozens of people and forced more than 100,000 to evacuate their homes. An inspection team from the International Atomic Energy Agency visited the Zaporizhzhia plant last week amid rising fears prompted by the placement of Russian military assets around the plant and weeks of shelling in the …

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Albania has ordered Iranian officials out of the country and severed diplomatic relations with Tehran following an investigation into a cyberattack that it concluded was Iranian “state aggression” when it hit the Adriatic coast nation in July. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the expulsion of all Iranian diplomats and embassy staff and gave them 24 hours to leave. Rama’s official website said there was “irrefutable” evidence that Tehran had backed “the act of a serious cyberattack against the digital infrastructure of the government of the Republic of Albania.” “The government has decided, with immediate effect, to end diplomatic …

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