Scholz supports continued EU aid to Ukraine – DW – 10/19/2023

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated the importance of financial aid for Ukraine on Thursday.

“We have a clear stance here: This aid for Ukraine, for the financial stability of the country, we will have to provide this jointly as Europeans,” Scholz told the German parliament.

However, he added that such aid was not a long-term solution.

He added that “this cannot all be solved with additional funds.”

Scholz also took a swipe at Russian President Vladimir Putin for condemning the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza as Israel attacks Hamas — deemed a terrorist group by the US, the EU, Germany and others — while himself presiding over the invasion of Ukraine, in which thousands of Ukrainian civilians were killed.

“It makes me more than furious to hear the Russian president repeatedly warning that there could be civilian casualties from an armed conflict,” Scholz told lawmakers.

“It doesn’t get more cynical than that,” he said.

A Russian-American Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) journalist has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, her employer said Wednesday. 

Alsu Kurmasheva works as an editor with the US-funded Tatar-Bashkir service. She “needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately,” RFE/RL acting president Jeffrey Gedmin said in a statement.

“Alsu is a highly respected colleague, devoted wife and dedicated mother to two children,” Gedmin added. 

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Kurmasheva was being held at a temporary detention center. CPJ was told by the Russian human-rights news website OVD-Info that she would likely be transferred to pre-trial detention.

Kurmasheva, who normally lives in Prague, had traveled to Russia for a “family emergency,” RFE/RL said. Authorities fined her as she was trying to return to Prague for failing to notify them about her US passport. 

She was detained on the new charges while waiting for her documents to be returned. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov thanked North Korea for supporting his country’s war in Ukraine and praised their close relations, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We highly value your principled, unambiguous support for Russia’s actions in connection with the special military operation in Ukraine,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Russian news agency RIA.

Lavrov was in Pyongyang to set the stage for a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is making efforts to strengthen ties with Pyongyang.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited Putin during a high-level summit in Russia last month.

“After the landmark summit … we can say confidently that [Russia-North Korea] relations have reached a qualitatively new, strategic level,” Lavrov said.

The White House has said that North Korea has supplied Russia with weapons, calling it a troubling development.

The Biden administration is considering sending $60 billion in assistance to Ukraine, along with $10 billion for Israel.

President Joe Biden is expected to submit a supplemental spending request to Congress on Friday, a source told Reuters news agency.

Biden is expected to ask Congress to pass a supplemental spending bill quickly, due to the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza. 

Republicans in the House of Representatives previously blocked Ukraine spending from the US last-minute budget agreement.

Two people died and one was injured when a Russian missile struck a residential area in Ukraine’s southern Mykolaiv region on Wednesday evening, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said. 

The missile reportedly struck a “food establishment” situated in a residential neighborhood. 

“Two individuals lost their lives, and another person was trapped under the debris,” authorities said.

The governor of Mykolaiv, Vitaliy Kim, wrote earlier on the messaging app that the incident happened in a small village called Stepove, 45 kilometers (28 miles) northwest of the city of Mykolaiv. He later added that there had been two explosions.

Kim said one of those killed was a woman. “The rescuers dislodged her body from under the rubble of the destroyed building,” he wrote.

tg/ab (AFP, Reuters, dpa, AP)