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Second Round Of Talks Set To Take Place As Russia Continues Shelling Ukrainian Cities
KYIV -- Russia and Ukraine will discuss a cease-fire at a second round of talks on March 3 as Russian military forces continue to press their bombardment of Kharkiv and lay siege to two Ukrainian ports.
Live Briefing: Russia Invades Ukraine
RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
The second round of talks aimed at ending the fighting are to be held in the western Belarusian region of Brest, but there appeared to be little common ground between the two sides.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Reuters and CNN that Russia must stop bombing Ukrainian cities before meaningful talks on a cease-fire could start.
Vladimir Medinsky, who is an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, said on March 2 that in addition to a cease-fire, the issue of a humanitarian corridor in Ukraine will also be discussed. The Ukrainian presidency confirmed its delegation was "on its way" to the venue.
The plans for holding another round of talks came as Moscow's isolation deepened when most of the countries in the world lined up against it at the United Nations to demand it withdraw from Ukraine, and the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (ICC) opened an investigation into possible war crimes.
The nonbinding resolution, which "deplores" Russia's "aggression against Ukraine," was supported by 141 of the UN General Assembly's 193 members. Thirty-five members, including China, abstained, and five countries, including Russia, Syria, and Belarus, voted against the resolution.
Meanwhile, Russia's Defense Ministry on March 2 gave its first casualty estimates since launching the unprovoked invasion. It said 498 of its soldiers have died since the war started last week.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov also said in a video statement posted on Twitter that another 1,597 Russian soldiers had been wounded since February 24.
The numbers could not be independently verified and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which has said Russia's casualty numbers are close to 6,000.
According to figures released by Ukraine's General Staff on March 2, Russia had also lost 30 airplanes, 31 helicopters, and 211 tanks. Updated figures relating to Ukrainian troop losses were not released, although Ukraine recently placed the number in the hundreds.
WATCH: Residents of Melitopol, a city in southern Ukraine, gathered to protest the arrival of Russian troops on March 2 as Moscow continues its military invasion for the seventh day.
Russian forces continue to bombard Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities, but Ukraine's armed forces say that in some areas of the country the tide has turned and its forces have gone on the offensive for the first time.
As the war entered its seventh day on March 2, no major Ukrainian city had fallen, although experts have warned that Moscow appeared to be turning to devastating shelling of built-up areas before entering them.
But the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces announced that in some areas Ukrainian troops "are beginning to seize the initiative from the Russian occupiers."
"The enemy is trying to maintain the fighting capacity of their units, realizing that the 'easy walk' did not work," the General Staff said in a statement. "It tries to avoid direct encounters not only with the Ukrainian army, but also with civilians who block the movement of its columns. Russian propaganda ceases to operate in Ukraine and the 'liberators' realize that no one was ready to welcome them here."
The UN human rights office said it has recorded 136 civilian deaths, and more than 870,000 people are estimated to have fled Ukraine, according to the UN refugee agency. Ukraine's State Emergency Service has said that more than 2,000 civilians died in the first week of the war. That figure has not been independently confirmed.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the human costs of Russia's invasion of Ukraine were already “staggering" as he announced plans to travel to Belgium, Poland, Moldova, and the Baltics to reaffirm Washington's support for Ukraine.
Hundreds have been killed or wounded, and Russia has launched attacks on buildings and cities that "aren't military targets," he said. "The humanitarian consequences will only grow in the days ahead."
He plans to assess the humanitarian situation in Poland, which has taken in about half the more than 870,000 people who have fled Ukraine.
With fighting going on multiple fronts across the country, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Mariupol, a large port city on the Azov Sea, was encircled by Russian forces, while the status of another port, Kherson on the Black Sea, remained unclear.
Russia claimed to have taken control of Kherson, which would make it the biggest city to fall yet in the invasion. But Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said it was "still a very contested fight" and the United States was "not in position to call it either way."
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said the attacks there had been relentless.
"We cannot even take the wounded from the streets, from houses and apartments today, since the shelling does not stop," he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Speaking at a briefing, Kirby said Russian forces were advancing, but "we don't believe they are in the city center." There is "every indication that Mariupol will be defended," he said.
Kirby said a convoy of hundreds of tanks and other vehicles appeared to be stalled roughly 25 kilometers from Kyiv and had made no real progress in the last couple of days.
"We still assess that convoy, but more broadly speaking, the northern push by the Russians down towards the south towards Kyiv, remains stalled," Kirby said.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian troops had surrounded the Ukrainian capital and plan to strangle it through a blockade.
Klitschko told Current Time on March 2 that Ukrainian troops continue to disrupt such attempts by the Russian troops and have been finding sabotage groups operating in Kyiv.
"At this moment, our guys are returning a proper response to them. Even the groups that reach Kyiv's outskirts are being kicked several kilometers back, he said, adding that "we will do everything we can" to break any blockade.
The Ukrainian military has control of the town of Makariv in the Kyiv region, said Valeriy Zaluzhniy, commander of the armed forces.
The target of the heaviest Russian bombardments appeared to be the northeastern city of Kharkiv, where the city center was targeted by missile strikes.
Regional Governor Oleh Synyehubov said on the morning of March 2 that at least 21 people had been killed and 112 wounded due to shelling over the previous 24 hours.
On March 2, regional officials reported that Kharkiv's city council was struck by a missile, a day after the city's administration building was hit in an attack.
Ukrainian President Zelenskiy described that attack as a "war crime," and in a new video released on March 2 said Russian forces wanted to "erase our country, erase us all."
WATCH: Rescue operations were under way on March 2 in Irpin, near the Ukrainian capital, after an attack blamed on Russian forces hit a residential area:
Synyehubov said that overnight air strikes had caused multiple fires but that Ukrainian forces continued to hold the city.
"All attacks have been pushed back. The Russian enemy suffered heavy losses," Synyehubov was quoted by dpa as saying.
Reports from Kharkiv said that Russian airborne troops had landed in the city on March 2 and that Russian forces attacked a military medical center. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry said apartment blocks had been damaged by shelling and that the regional headquarters of the national police and Karazin National University were targeted.
"There is nowhere in Kharkiv where shells have not yet struck," Interior Ministry adviser Anton Herashchenko.
WATCH: Russian soldiers have been seen looting grocery stores and banks in several Ukrainian cities. Security camera footage posted on social media showed Russian soldiers grabbing food and trying to steal a safe.
In televised remarks on March 2, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that "the Russian divisions of the armed forces have taken the regional center of Kherson under full control."
However, an adviser to Zelenskiy disputed the claim, saying that street fighting was continuing as of midday on March 2. "The city has not fallen. Our side continues to defend," Oleksiy Arestovych said in a live-streamed presidential briefing.
WATCH: A Ukrainian man was filmed taking back Ukrainian flags that had been confiscated by Russian troops in the southern city of Kherson on March 2, and then waving them in front of a row of Russian tanks parked on the central square.
Early on March 2, the city council said much of Mariupol was without water and electricity as a result of massive shelling. The city is a key target of joint Russian and separatist forces from Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Russian forces also continue to mass outside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, where Russian missiles struck the city's television tower located near a Holocaust massacre site on March 2:
At least five people were killed in that attack and more explosions were reported later that evening in Kyiv and surrounding areas. A massive convoy of artillery and armored vehicles that had extended more than 65 kilometers continues to position itself within striking distance of the capital in what Ukrainian officials see as an attempt to surround and take control of the country's largest city.
Zelenskiy expressed outrage on Twitter that the Russian missile strike on the TV tower had struck so close to the Babyn Yar memorial center, which was dedicated just last year to mark the 80th anniversary of the infamous mass slaughter of Jews, Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and others by the Nazis during World War II.
Shortly after reports of the attacks, Zelenskiy spoke by phone with U.S. President Joe Biden.
"The American leadership on anti-Russian sanctions and defense assistance to Ukraine was discussed. We must stop the aggressor as soon as possible. Thank you for your support!" Zelenskiy said on Twitter.
A White House official said the two leaders spoke for about 30 minutes.
During his first State of the Union address, delivered in Washington on March 1, Biden addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine at length.
"Six days ago, Russia's Vladimir Putin sought to shake the foundations of the free world, thinking he could make it bend to his menacing ways," Biden said. "But he badly miscalculated. He thought he could roll into Ukraine and the world would roll over. Instead, he met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people."
In an interview with Reuters and CNN on March 1, Zelenskiy said Russia must "first stop bombing people" before peace talks could make any headway.
WATCH: There were emotional farewells at Kyiv's main train station as more people fled the Ukrainian capital.
Emergency services reported that at least 10 people were killed in the attack, which came after dozens were killed by Russian shelling a day earlier. Moscow has repeatedly claimed that it is not targeting civilian areas during what it calls its "military operation" in Ukraine.
On February 28, the office of the prosecutor of the ICC, the global criminal court, announced that it was launching an investigation into possible war crimes committed in Ukraine both before last week's invasion by Russia, which in 2014 illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, and since the current invasion began on February 24.
The court already has conducted a preliminary probe into crimes linked to the violent suppression of pro-European protests in Kyiv in 2013-14, as well as allegations of crimes in Crimea following its annexation by Russia.
On March 1, Canada petitioned the ICC to probe alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.
"We are working with other ICC member states to take this significant action as a result of numerous allegations of the commission of serious international crimes in Ukraine by Russian forces," Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said in a statement. "The ICC has our full support and confidence. We call on Russia to cooperate with the court."
With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and dpa
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In a post on Telegram, Lysak said the attack damaged a pair of two-story buildings, as well as 10 homes, a shop, and a gas pipeline.
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"Once again, Russia proves it is a terrorist state. The Russians will bear responsibility for everything committed against our state and people," Zelenskiy said in a post late on June 3 on Facebook.
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"We strongly believe that we will succeed,” Zelenskiy said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal published on June 3.
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"I don’t know how long it will take. To be honest, it can go a variety of ways, completely different. But we are going to do it, and we are ready,” he added.
Zelenskiy said the Ukrainian Army had not received "all the weapons it hoped for, but we can't wait any longer."
Zelenskiy said last month his country needed more weaponry, including armored vehicles, before it could launch its long-awaited counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian president has been pushing for more military aid and weapons from Western countries.
Russia has captured Ukrainian territory in the east, south, and southeast.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine urgently needed more U.S.- made Patriot missile-defense systems to protect its citizens from Russian air strikes and to shield troops fighting on the front lines.
He said a lack of protection from Russian aerial attacks means "a large number of soldiers will die”" in the counteroffensive.
Separately, Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Havrylov told Reuters on June 3 that the goal of an "unprecedented" wave of Russian missile and drone attacks across the country in recent weeks was to stop the counteroffensive.
Speaking on the sidelines of a top security conference in Singapore, Havrylov called Russia's heavy use of ballistic missiles in May a "last strategic resort" and said that his country's air-defense systems had been "more than 90 percent effective" against the attacks.
Meanwhile, Kremlin-connected Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who controls the notorious Wagner mercenary group, said on June 3 that Kremlin factions were weakening the state by trying to undermine him.
In a message posted by his press service, Prigozhin accused unnamed officials in the Russian elite of "playing dangerous games," adding that they had "opened Pandora's box."
Prigozhin repeated his past criticisms of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, saying that the Defense Ministry was "not in a state to do anything at all."
With reporting by Reuters
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The Interior Ministry reported that "over 4,800" shelters had been inspected and 252 were found to be locked, while 893 were deemed "unfit for use."
Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine
RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's full-scale invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensives, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war in Ukraine, click here.
In a post on Telegram the same day, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the authorities had received "more than 1,000" complaints from the public about locked or inadequate air-raid shelters.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered the audit of all of Ukraine's air-raid shelters after a 9-year-old girl, her mother, and another woman were killed by falling fragments of a missile after being unable to enter a Kyiv shelter that was reportedly locked during a Russian attack.
The deaths caused a public outcry.
Zelenskiy said on June 1 he had ordered the industries minister and his interior minister to conduct a "full audit of bomb shelters."
Police opened a criminal investigation into the three deaths near a medical clinic in the Desnyan district of Kyiv amid intensified Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital since the start of May.
The Prosecutor-General's Office said four people were detained in connection with the closed shelter of a medical facility. They face criminal charges.
In a video message released late on June 1, Zelenskiy said shelters "must be kept accessible. Never again should we see a repeat of the situation that occurred last night in Kyiv."
He suggested local authorities could be prosecuted for failing to make shelters available to residents.
"If this duty is not fulfilled at the local level, it is the direct duty of law enforcement bodies to prosecute,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video message.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said his government will make sure those who put people are risk due to "their negligence" will be punished.
"The punishment will be severe so that such egregious cases do not happen again," Shmyhal said on June 1.
Officials said they were also auditing shelters in Lviv, Vinnytsya, and Mykolayiv in southern Ukraine.
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Report: Secretive Real Estate Holdings On Moscow's Outskirts Linked To Putin Family
Family members of Russian President Vladimir Putin quietly acquired several plots of real estate in Moscow’s tony western suburbs near his residence, where a series of luxury homes have been built, a new investigation found.
The findings, by the Russian news site Proyekt, were the latest documenting what some experts believe is a vast, secretive, and lucrative network of assets linked to Putin, his allies, and his family.
Putin officially earns an annual salary of around $140,000, while his publicly declared assets include a 75-meter foot apartment, a trailer, and three cars. But some analysts estimate his wealth -- hidden behind complex financial schemes organized by close associates -- at some $200 billion or more.
In its report released on June 1, Proyekt found that, in 2006, several plots of land near the official government residence of Novo-Ogaryovo, where Putin lives much of the time, were acquired by offshore companies based in Panama and elsewhere.
Putin’s two daughters from his now ex-wife Lyudmila later received the real estate as a form of dowry, Proyekt said.
Putin’s eldest daughter, Maria, settled in one of the locations. Maria, who has used the surname Vorontsova, was married to a Dutch man for several years, though they reportedly have since split and she remarried a Russian oil and gas executive.
Kirill Shamalov, the now ex-husband of Putin’s other daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, reportedly received title to another plot, Proyekt said, not long after he and Tikhonova married in 2013. The couple then conducted extensive renovations on the property worth millions of euros.
Among the refurbished house’s decorations were a handmade gilded chandelier with an estimated value of 72,000 euros ($77,576) and a 19th century painting by revered Russian artist Ivan Shishkin, Proyekt said.
Another plot that was titled to Shamalov was expected to have a house built on it for Lyudmila Putin. She and Putin announced in 2013 that they were ending their marriage, and she later remarried.
According to Proyekt’s findings, in 2013, Shamalov sent a power of attorney regarding the plot to the man whom Lyudmila ultimately remarried.
Shamalov and Tikhonova later separated, and Shamalov has since been hit with financial sanctions starting in 2018 by the United States, Britain, and other countries, for his close ties to Putin.
Shamalov then transferred ownership of the plots he owned to a firm allegedly associated with Arkady Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Putin and billionaire businessman.
Shamalov reportedly sold the properties for significantly less than their estimated land values, Prokyekt said.
Putin’s wealth and assets have been the subject of numerous investigations by Western governments, reporters, and other researchers.
Researchers at Aleksei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation have documented a massive mansion on the Black Sea that Putin uses regularly.
And the 2016 “Panama Papers” report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, found luxuries linked to Putin and his friends and families, including yachts and real estate inside and outside of Russia.
- By RFE/RL
Navalny's Bizarre Requests, Including Pet Kangaroo, Denied By Russian Prison Authorities In Stilted Language
Imprisoned Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny on June 2 released excerpts of his correspondence with prison administrators, detailing sarcastic demands for outlandish things such as a bottle of moonshine and a pet kangaroo.
Prison officials denied all of his requests, according to the correspondence often in stilted bureaucratic Russian.
Navalny, 46, is serving sentences that add up to 11 1/2 years for violating the terms of a parole, contempt of court, and embezzlement through fraud that he and his supporters have repeatedly rejected as politically motivated and designed to silence him.
He is currently in a punitive solitary confinement at a penal colony in the Vladimir region east of Moscow.
“When you are sitting in a punishment isolation cell and have little entertainment, you can have fun with correspondence with the administration,” Navalny said on Twitter in a series of tweets posted on June 2 apparently by his team.
Among the items he requested was a megaphone to be given to the prisoner in a nearby cell “so he can yell even louder.” Another was a request for an inmate who “killed a man with his bare hands” to be awarded with the highest rank in karate.
"The question of awarding eastern martial arts qualifications is not handled by the administration," the prison wrote back on April 28.
Prison officials also turned down requests for moonshine, tobacco for rolling cigarettes, a balalaika, and the kangaroo.
In response to his wish for a pet kangaroo, the prison wrote: "The animal identified in your request relates to the double crested-marsupial.... Your request is left without satisfaction."
In mock outrage over the refusal, Navalny said he would continue to fight for his “inalienable right to own a kangaroo." The politician said inmates can have a pet if the prison administration allows it.
Navalny will mark his 47th birthday on June 4, and there have been calls by his team for protests to support him.
Navalny has been in prison since February 2021 following his arrest one month earlier after he returned from Germany where he was treated for a near-fatal poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin, which has denied any involvement.
He and his team have said the charges against him are were trumped-up because of his efforts to expose corruption in the Russian government.
A Moscow court has set a June 6 date for a hearing for a new trial for Navalny on a charge of extremism, which could keep him in prison for 30 years. He also said an investigator told him that he would also face a separate military court trial on terrorism charges that potentially carry a life sentence.
With reporting by Reuters and AP
Iranian Student Beaten Amid Fears That Growing Wave Of Attacks Is Related To Protests
Security personnel at a university in southwestern Iran appear to have severely assaulted a student, the latest in a series of violent attacks on school campuses amid anti-government protests led by young Iranians angered at the regime's intrusions on their rights.
The incident took place on May 30 at Chamran University in the southwestern Iranian city of Ahvaz, where a video shows several security personnel cornering and severely assaulting a student near the university dormitory.
The Union Council of Iranian Students reported the incident, sharing a video of the attack on June 2.
"According to numerous reports, on May 30, security agents for Chamran University in Ahvaz attacked a male student after a football match, beat him, and then took him away in a car," the council said.
As of June 2, no information has been made available about the condition of the student who was assaulted.
The incident comes days after a a video was released showing a female student being injured when someone pulled a knife on her at Tehran’s Soore University and another on the campus of Kerman University in central Iran where a female student was stabbed.
The Union Council said that in the Kerman University attack, security forces failed to intervene to aid the student, who was rescued instead by other students. The woman who was attacked was seriously injured and is currently in the intensive care unit at a local hospital.
It added that security forces have since tried to "cover up" the incident and "have not accepted any responsibility for it."
Iranian universities have become a hotbed for unrest since the death of Mahsa Amini in Tehran. The 22-year-old died while in police custody for an alleged violation of the country's mandatory head-scarf law.
Police have tried to shift the blame onto Amini's health, but supporters say witnesses saw her being beaten when taken into custody. Her family says she had no history of any medical issues and was in good health.
There have been clashes at universities and schools between protesters and the authorities, prompting security forces to launch a series of raids on education facilities across the country, violently arresting students, especially female students, who have defiantly taken off their head scarves, or hijabs, in protest.
The Union Council blasted campus authorities for pushing security officers to focus on enforcing dress codes "lest a strand of hair disgrace the university," instead of ensuring safety.
Another group, the Student Guild Council, noted that since the student protests started, "increasing the budget, increasing power, and an extensive recruitment for the university’s security office" have become the main focus of school administrators.
Meanwhile, it says there has also been an influx of people, thought to be security agents, "in civilian clothes roaming universities, taking pictures of students, and engaging with them" as officials try to enforce the hijab law.
The situation has prompted some to say these attacks are intentional and a scare tactic being used to intimidate students so they will end their protests.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
- By Reuters
Belarusian Player Sabalenka Skips French Open Press Conference Citing Mental Health
Belarusian tennis star Aryna Sabalenka skipped the post-match press conference at the French Open on June 2, citing mental health reasons. After defeating Russian Kamilla Rakhimova, the world No. 2 instead released an interview with the tournament organizers in which she said she had not felt safe at a press conference two days earlier during which she was asked about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and her country's role as a staging ground for Moscow's troops and weapons. Sabalenka said that her choice not to take part in the press conference was supported by the French Open organizers. To read the original story by Reuters, click here.
Online Tatar Language School To Close As International Educator Leaves Russia
The popular online Tatar language school Ana Tele (The Mother Tongue) has announced its closure as of June 30. The Education Ministry in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan explained on June 2 that the closure is linked to the international Education First (EF) group's decision to leave Russia. The online school was launched in 2013 on the order of the president of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov. Hosted by the EF's website, the online school had more than 100,000 users from Russia's regions and various countries who registered to study Tatar, which is a Turkic language. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service. click here.
Ethnic Serbs Again Gather In North Kosovo As West Pushes Diplomatic Solution To Crisis
Protesters have again gathered in front of municipal buildings in several cities in northern Kosovo as Western diplomats ratchet up pressure on Pristina to hold fresh elections to defuse tensions over the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors that sparked clashes between ethnic Serbs and NATO peacekeepers earlier this week.
The ethnic Albanian mayors were installed with the help of Kosovar police in three towns with overwhelming ethnic Serbian majorities -- Zvecan, Leposavic, and Zubin Potok -- following by-elections in April with a turnout of under 3.5 percent amid a boycott by ethnic Serbs.
Reports from the towns said hundreds had showed up to protest again, though the situation remained calm four days after violence flared -- injuring dozens, including peacekeepers -- when the new officials were brought to their offices with the help of special police units. NATO's KFOR peacekeeping troops have since erected a cordon to keep ethnic Serb protesters from accessing the buildings.
The presidents of Kosovo and Serbia held talks on measures to lower tensions between the Balkan neighbors late on June 1, and sources told RFE/RL that the Special Representative of the European Union (EU) for dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, and the American envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, will visit Pristina and Belgrade next week to push for a diplomatic solution.
The president of Kosovo confirmed that the European Union, France, and Germany have all suggested holding new elections in four municipalities in as a means of defusing tensions over the forced installation of ethnic-Albanian mayors.
So far, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has appeared to be against fresh elections, but on June 2 he acknowledged that another vote could happen at some point.
"Removing violent mobs in front of municipality buildings & full implementation of the [Brussels] Agreement is the way toward de-escalation until new elections," he said, referring to a 2013 deal struck by the country in Brussels to normalize relations some five years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.
But later, in a speech at parliament, Kurti seemed to fan the flames by blaming the escalation of the situation on Serbia.
"The escalation of the situation on May 29 was planned, well-organized and had an author," Kurti told lawmakers in parliament.
"The author is official Belgrade," he added.
That prompted an immediate response by the Serb minority political party Serbian List (Srpska Lista).
"How much of a farce is everything that Kurti said today in the assembly, and the fact that he labeled honorable people, women, disabled people, and even some who are in the hospital, and have not been in the north of Kosovo for weeks now, as criminals and protest organizers," the party said.
The by-elections at the center of the current unrest were sparked by mass resignations in November 2022 by influential Serbian mayors, police, and other officials essential to the "parallel system" that helps local Serbs avoid recognizing Kosovar institutions.
The mayoral buildings in all but North Mitrovica have been controlled for years by the so-called "parallel" institutions run by Serbs and backed by neighboring Serbia, which 15 years after Kosovo's declaration of independence still doesn't recognize its former province's sovereignty. Neither do Russia or China.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic used a major rally in Belgrade last week to condemn Kosovo's swearing-in of ethnic Albanian "alleged mayors" in the north without local Serbs' votes.
Officials in neighboring Serbia have demanded as part of EU- and U.S.-mediated talks over the past decade that Pristina fulfill the 2013 Brussels Agreement to establish an association of Serb municipalities to represent the majority-Serb communities.
Kurti came to power in 2020 and again in 2021 pledging to impose greater “reciprocal” measures on Serbia and accelerate efforts to achieve full international recognition for his country. He has resisted forming the association.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Kosovar and Serbian leaders to ease tensions, warning they were putting their aspirations of European integration at risk.
Security Forces Fire On Protesters In Abdanan Demonstrating Over Student's Death
A group of citizens in the western Iranian city of Abdanan, took to the streets chanting anti-government slogans on June 1 to protest the suspicious death of 21-year-old student Bamshad Suleimankhani. Several protesters were injured when security forces opened fire on them, local sources reported.
Suleimankhani reportedly died earlier this week following his release from prison. Authorities said he had committed suicide.
According to videos shared on social media, protesters chanted slogans such as "Death to Khamenei," a reference to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They also blocked some streets of Abdanan by setting fires and continued their protest with slogans like " We don't want a child-murdering government.”
The Twitter account "Voice of Shahrivar," which covers protests in Iran, reported hours before the night protests in Abdanan that the seventh-day memorial service for the “government murder" of Bamshad Suleimankhani, who died “after continuous threats by government institutions” was attended by many of the city’s residents.
The human rights website Hengaw reported that security forces and special units had attacked protesters in Abdanan, firing "live ammunition, pellet guns, and tear gas."
Images and videos from the protests appear to show that several demonstrators were injured by the pellet guns of security forces during the protests on June 1. Dozens of security forces and special unit vehicles were reportedly stationed in the main square of Abdanan and various streets of the city in the late hours of June 1. However, reports said protests continued in different neighborhoods of the city.
Issa Baziar, a civil activist from Abdanan who now resides outside the country, said on Twitter on May 28 that Suleimankhani returned home on May 26, “with signs of beating and cigarette burns on his hand, and due to severe injuries, he fell into a coma that night and his death was announced by doctors on May 28."
Baziar said Suleimankhani had received “serious warnings” from security forces. He also said that Suleimankhani’s family have been threatened by authorities and warned not to speak to the media.
Judicial and law enforcement officials in Abdanan in Ilam Province did not provide any explanation about the manner of Suleimankhani's death until the start of a strike by some merchants in the city, the widespread presence of people marking a week since his death, and the beginning of nighttime protests in Abdanan.
Speaking on June 1, Omran Ali Mohammad, the head of the Ilam Province judiciary, was quoted by the Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), as saying that Suleimankhani died as a result of “suicide.”
Mohammad said that the student “had not been accused or summoned by any law enforcement, military and security institutions, or the judiciary of Ilam Province."
Universities and students have long been at the forefront of the struggle for greater social and political freedoms in Iran.
According to the Human Rights Activists Organization, more than 750 students have been arrested by security forces, mostly by kidnapping accompanied by assault and battery in the streets around universities amid the nationwide antiestablishment protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in September.
Written by Ardeshir Tayebi based on an original story in Persian by RFE/RL's Radio Farda
Days After Belgium Released Iranian Diplomat, Iran Frees One Danish And Two Austrian-Iranian Citizens
European governments confirmed on June 2 that one Danish and two Austrian-Iranian citizens have been released by Iran after mediation efforts by Oman and Belgium.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry issued a statement expressing "satisfaction" with the release of Kamran Ghaderi and Massud Mossaheb, confirming that the two men were returning to their homeland.
Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on Twitter he was “very relieved” that Ghaderi and Mossaheb were released after years “of arduous imprisonment” in Iran.
“They are already on their way to Austria, where their families are eagerly waiting for them,” Schallenberg said.
Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said earlier that he had informed the governments of Denmark and Austria about the release of the prisoners, which came a week after Tehran freed a Belgian aid worker in exchange for an Iranian diplomat who was convicted on terrorism charges.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry also praised Belgium and Oman for their role in the release and called the years of detention in Iran "excruciating."
Ghaderi was jailed for more than seven years and Mossaheb more than four years. Both men had been tried and convicted on espionage charges.
The identity of the Danish national who was released was not disclosed.
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said he was "pleased" at his return to his home country and to his family but said he could not name the man because it was "personal" and it was not possible to give further details.
A Belgian government statement said the Danish citizen was arrested in the autumn of 2022 in the midst of nationwide protests in Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody for an alleged infraction of the country's mandatory head-scarf law.
The Iranian Intelligence Ministry said on September 30 that it had identified and detained people it called "seditious" and "destructive agents," including nine foreign nationals at the scene of or behind the scenes of the recent protests.
Neither the Austrian Foreign Ministry nor the Danish Foreign Ministry elaborated on the manner of support of the Belgian government or on the role of Oman. However, the release of the three Europeans came five days after Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said arrived in Tehran for a two-day visit.
Oman also played a role in negotiations that resulted in Iran and Belgium exchanging two prisoners last week.
The swap involved Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian aid worker jailed in Iran, and Asadollah Assadi, an Iranian diplomat imprisoned in Belgium.
Assadi was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year in connection with a plot to bomb a rally of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an exiled opposition group, outside Paris in June 2018. Tehran considers the NCRI a terrorist group and has called the Paris attack plot a "false flag" move by the group.
The NCRI called the release of Assadi a "shameful ransom to terrorism and hostage-taking."
Western countries have repeatedly charged that Iran is trying to take advantage of foreign countries by taking dual and foreign nationals hostage and then using them in prisoner swaps.
With reporting by Reuters and AFP
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