Zelensky hails ‘country of the brave’ Ukraine

KYIV, Ukraine—President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed “brave” Ukraine on the 500th day of Russia’s invasion on Saturday, as the war’s toll mounted with eight deaths reported in Russian rocket fire.

Zelensky published on social media an undated video clip of a visit to Snake Island in the Black Sea -- a symbol of Ukraine’s defiance against Russia.

“Today we are on Snake Island, which will never be conquered by the occupiers, like the whole of Ukraine, because we are the country of the brave,” he said.

“I want to thank from here, from this place of victory, each of our soldiers for these 500 days,” he said in the video, which showed him arriving on the island by boat and leaving flowers.

The UN has documented 9,000 civilian deaths since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, including 500 children, although it estimates the real toll could be significantly higher.

That toll rose again on Saturday as Ukraine’s interior ministry said eight people were killed and 13 injured by Russian rocket fire in the eastern town of Lyman.

Russian news agencies reported two civilians were killed by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-held town of Oleshky in the south.

Noel Calhoun, deputy head of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said the 500th day of the conflict marked “another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians.”

‘Act of desperation’

Zelensky on Saturday completed a visit to Turkey in which he secured backing for his country’s NATO aspirations after winning a US pledge for cluster munitions that could inflict significant damage to Russian forces on the battlefield.

On his return to Ukraine, Zelensky also brought back five Ukrainian commanders who were supposed to have remained in Turkey until the end of the conflict under a prisoner exchange deal.

Russia denounced the release of the men, members of the crack Azov regiment celebrated in Ukraine for their stiff resistance at the Azovstal factory during the months-long siege of the port city of Mariupol.

“The return of Azov commanders from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing but a direct violation of the terms of existing agreements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

He said Ukraine and Turkey had violated the terms of the agreement and claimed their return was linked to the “failure of the counter-offensive” launched by Ukraine.

Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with cluster bombs -- banned across a large part of the world -- dramatically ups the stakes in the war.

US President Joe Biden admitted that supplying Ukraine with weapons that are capable of covering several football fields with hundreds of multiple small explosives was “a difficult decision”.

Humanitarian groups strongly condemned the decision to supply cluster munitions, which can go undetonated and potentially endanger civilians for years to come.

Russia, which itself uses cluster munitions in Ukraine, also criticised the decision, saying it was an “act of desperation” that would have “no effect” on the conflict.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also said Ukraine’s assurances it would use the ammunition responsibly “are not worth anything”.

‘Contact is possible’

Various international efforts to mediate in the conflict have so far failed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has tried to portray himself as a neutral mediator, substantially boosting wartime trade with Russia while supplying Ukraine with drones and other weapons.

But while reaffirming his longstanding call for both sides to enter peace talks, Erdogan risked drawing Russia’s ire by delivering unequivocal support for Ukraine’s NATO aspiration.

“There is no doubt that Ukraine deserves membership of NATO,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

Erdogan also said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin next month on what would be the Kremlin chief’s first visit to Turkey since the invasion. AFP

Nokor slams IAEA for Fukushima water approval

SEOUL—North Korea has slammed the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog for approving Japan’s plan to discharge treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant.

The International Atomic Energy Agency approved Tokyo’s plan to release treated water from the tsunami-hit nuclear plant into the sea over the next few decades.

The plan has raised concerns in neighboring countries, prompting China to ban some food imports and sparking protests in South Korea.

The release of the treated water will have a “fatal adverse impact on the human lives and security and ecological environment,” an official from Pyongyang’s environmental protection min-

Yellen says Beijing trip helps put US-China relations on ‘surer footing

BEIJING—US Treasury Secretary

Janet Yellen said Sunday her talks with top Chinese officials have helped put ties on “surer footing,” as she wrapped up a trip aimed at stabilizing fraught relations between the two biggest economies.

During her four-day trip—which came on the heels of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit— Yellen stressed the need for healthy economic competition and improved communication, and urged cooperation on the “existential threat” posed by climate change.

“We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive,” she told journalists at the US embassy in Beijing on Sunday. “Both nations have an obligation to responsibly manage this relationship: to find a way to live together and share in global prosperity,” she added.

While it did not produce specific breakthroughs, Yellen’s trip furthers a push by President Joe Biden’s administration to steady ties with China. Beijing’s official Xinhua news agency said Saturday that Yellen’s meeting with Vice Premier He Lifeng yielded an agreement to “strengthen communication and cooperation on addressing global challenges.”

Both sides also agreed to continue exchanges, the readout added.

Yellen said Sunday that while there are “significant disagreements” between the countries, her talks had been “direct, substantive, and productive.”

“My bilateral meetings—which totalled about 10 hours over two days —served as a step forward in our effort to put the US-China relationship on surer footing,” she said.

“I feel confident that we will have more frequent and regular communication.” Sources of tension

Topping the laundry list of disagreements are Washington’s trade curbs, which it says are crucial to safeguard national security.

On Sunday, Yellen said she had stressed that Washington’s measures “are not used by us to gain economic advantage.” AFP istry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

“What matters is the unreasonable behavior of IAEA actively patronizing and facilitating Japan’s projected discharge of nuclear-polluted water, which is unimaginable,” the statement added.

Some 1.33 million cubic metres of groundwater, rainwater and water used for cooling have accumulated at the Fukushima nuclear plant, where several reactors went into meltdown after the 2011 tsunami overwhelmed cooling systems.

The plant operator treats the water to remove almost all radioactive elements except tritium, and plans to dilute it before discharging it into the ocean over several decades.

The statement comes as IAEA head Rafael Grossi is wrapping up his threeday visit to Seoul with a meeting with opposition lawmakers, who have criticized the planned release.

On Saturday, Grossi met with South Korean foreign minister Park Jin to brief him on his agency’s findings, Seoul’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Park requested “active cooperation from the IAEA for safety verification and public reassurance,” it added. Following that meeting, Grossi said the IAEA will remain at the Fukushima plant to ensure safety “every step of the way”, tweeting: “What starts now is even more important than the work done so far - the continuous monitoring of the plan’s implementation.”

France protesters defy bans to rally vs. police violence

PARIS—Around 2,000 people defied a ban to join a weekend memorial rally in central Paris for a young black man who died in police custody, while marches took place throughout France to denounce police brutality.

This, as tensions run high after days of rioting engulfed the country.

Nationwide, around 5,900 people took to the streets, according to the interior ministry.

Seven years after the death of Adama Traore, his sister had planned to lead an annual commemorative march north of Paris in Persan and Beaumont-sur-Oise.

But fearful of reigniting recent unrest sparked by the police killing of 17-yearold Nahel M. at a traffic stop near Paris, a court ruled the chance of public disturbance was too high to allow the march to proceed.

In a video posted on Twitter, Assa Traore, Adama’s older sister, denounced the decision.

“The government has decided to add fuel to the fire” and “not to respect the death of my little brother”, she said.

She instead attended a rally in central Paris’s Place de la Republique.

“We are marching for the youth to denounce police violence. They want to hide our deaths,” she said at the rally, also attended by several lawmakers. “They authorise marches by neoNazis but they don’t allow us to march. France cannot give us moral lessons. Its police is racist and violent,” she said.

Worried about a resurgence of rioting as France celebrates Bastille Day on July 14, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told the daily Le Parisien that the government would deploy “massive means to protect the French” during the national holiday. While she said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin would give specifics, Borne announced a ban on the sale of fireworks, which had been used by rioters to target police.

The Paris rally for Traore had also been banned on the grounds that it could disrupt public order and a legal case has been opened against Assa Traore for organising the event, police said.

Youssouf Traore, another of Assa Tarore’s brothers, was arrested and taken into custody on suspicion of violence against a person holding public authority, public prosecutors told AFP. AFP