World

Japan’s foreign minister on Wednesday urged Beijing to “play a responsible role” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his first talks with his Chinese counterpart in six months.

Japan has joined Western allies in implementing tough sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis, while Beijing has declined to condemn Moscow’s invasion.

Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi that Russia’s invasion “is a clear violation of the UN Charter and other international laws,” Japan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

He “urged China to play a responsible role in maintaining international peace and security,” it added.

The talks were the first between the two foreign ministers since November, according to Japan, coming as concerns ramp up about geopolitical tensions.

China and Russia are perceived to be stepping up coordination, with Beijing pointedly refusing to join the outcry over Moscow’s invasion, though it has pledged not to circumvent sanctions over the war.

The talks come as US President Joe Biden is set to arrive in Japan this week after a stop in Seoul.

He will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and attend a meeting of the Quad grouping that includes Australia and India. 

The grouping has been seen as intended to pressure China as it builds its economic and military weight in the region.

China’s foreign ministry hit back after the talks on Wednesday, saying it hopes Japan “will learn from the lessons of history, focus on regional peace and stability, and act cautiously”.

“Bilateral cooperation between Japan and the United States should not provoke confrontation between camps, let alone harm China’s sovereignty, security and development interests,” it said in a statement.

Japan views Beijing’s growing military assertiveness with concern, and Hayashi raised issues including islands disputed between the countries and the situation in the East and South China Seas in talks with Wang.

But China is also Tokyo’s largest trading partner and Japan is keen to avoid being drawn into disputes between Beijing and Washington.

Hayashi said both China and Japan “should say what needs to be said and engage in dialogue”, warning that bilateral ties “face various difficulties and that public opinion in Japan is extremely severe towards China.”

A war crimes court in The Hague jailed two Kosovo former separatist fighters to four-and-a-half years on Wednesday for intimidating witnesses, in its first verdict over Kosovo’s 1990s independence war from Serbia.

Hysni Gucati and Nasim Haradinaj, the head and the deputy head of a group of veterans from the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), were found guilty of revealing the details of hundreds of witnesses after receiving classified files from the court.

The two men, who were arrested in September 2022, called witnesses “traitors, spies and collaborators” in a bid to scare them off testifying to the Netherlands-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers, the court found.

“This judgment clearly paints those acts for what they are: criminal and not patriotic,” presiding judge Charles Smith said as he handed down the sentences at the high-security court.

“The message of the accused to these witnesses was: now that everyone knows who you are, no one can protect you.”

The time the men have already served in detention since their arrest will be deducted from the sentence, Smith said. They were also fined 100 euros each.

Gucati and Haradinaj, who had denied the charges, listened to the judgment through headphones and stood to be sentenced.

They were found guilty on five counts including intimidating witnesses and violating the secrecy of the court and cleared of one charge of “retaliation”.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers operates under Kosovo law but is based in the Netherlands to shield witnesses from intimidation in Kosovo, where former KLA commanders have long dominated political life.

The court has issued war crimes charges against several senior members of the KLA, an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group that waged a 1998-99 independence struggle against Serbia.

They include Kosovo’s former president Hashim Thaci, who resigned after being indicted.

– ‘Traitors, spies, collaborators’ –

Gucati and Haradinaj were arrested by heavily armed EU police in a raid on the veterans’ headquarters Pristina in September 2020 and sent to The Hague for trial.

The veterans’ association said it had received anonymous packages of the court’s confidential files including information about protected witnesses and upcoming indictments.

Judges said Gucati and Haradinaj received three batches of classified information from the court and revealed them during three press conferences between September 7 and 25, 2020.

They also handed out the information to journalists and gave interviews, the judges said. 

“These acts took place in a climate of witness intimidation,” judge Smith said.

“The accused referred to witnesses and potential witnesses using derogatory and threatening language, calling them traitors, spies, collaborators.”

The court is investigating claims that the Kosovo rebels waged a campaign of revenge attacks on Serbs, Roma and ethnic Albanian rivals during and after the war.

Thaci — the rebels’ former political chief — was accused by prosecutors of being “criminally responsible for nearly 100 murders”.

He pleaded not guilty when he appeared in court in November 2020.

Another former commander, Salih Mustafa, compared the court to Nazi Germany’s Gestapo secret police when he appeared in the dock in September last year.

Many KLA veterans fiercely oppose the tribunal’s mandate, defending their “just” liberation war against Belgrade’s oppression of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian population.

The conflict left 13,000 people dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and saw several top Serbian politicians and generals later jailed for war crimes.

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have remained high.

Serbia as well as its powerful allies China and Russia still do not recognise Kosovo’s 2008 independence declaration, which has been recognised by more than 100 countries.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Finland, Sweden submit NATO bids –

Finland and Sweden submit their highly anticipated bids to join NATO, sealing their decision to jettison decades of military non-alignment, despite threats of reprisals from Moscow.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg calls the move a “historic step”. He has promised to welcome them “with open arms” despite Turkey’s threat to veto their membership over its claim that the Nordic neighbours harbour members of armed groups opposed to Ankara.

NATO ambassadors are expected to discuss the applications on Wednesday.

Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden fear they could be future targets of Russian aggression following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Public support in the two countries for NATO membership skyrocketed after the war began.

– 959 Mariupol fighters have surrendered: Russia –

Russia says that a total of 959 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol, including 80 wounded.

The defence ministry in Moscow said that a further 694 fighters had surrendered in the past 24 hours after a first group of 265 laid down arms and left the plant on Monday.

It said that the injured are being treated in a hospital in a part of the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

It is unclear if any troops are continuing to hold out at the sprawling steel mill, which has become a symbol of resistance to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine, which had yet to confirm the second wave of departures, says it hopes to exchange Azovstal troops taken prisoner for Russian soldiers it is holding.

– First war crimes trial – 

A 21-year-old Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian on his bicycle is due to go on trial in Kyiv for war crimes, in the first such case to go to court since the start of the offensive.

Vadim Shishimarin from Irkutsk in Siberia is accused of gunning down the 62-year-old man near the central village of Chupakhiva to prevent him reporting a carjacking by fleeing Russian troops.

He faces possible life imprisonment on charges of war crimes and premeditated murder. In a video shot in custody he said he was ordered to shoot the cyclist, who has not been named.

“By this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every perpetrator, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine shall not avoid responsibility,” prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said. 

– Peace talks on hold –

Ukraine says that peace talks to end the war have been suspended, blaming Moscow for failing to find areas for compromise.

“The negotiation process is on hold,” Mykhaylo Podolyak, a presidential aide is cited as saying in a statement issued by the presidency.

The two sides reported progress at talks in Istanbul in late March but have stalled since the discovery of hundreds of bodies of civilians allegedly massacred by Russian forces around Kyiv.

– ICC sends investigators –

The International Criminal Court says it is sending a team of 42 investigators, forensic experts and support staff to Ukraine to probe war crimes and crimes against humanity.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan says it is the largest ever deployment of investigators by the court since its establishment.

– Zelensky calls Cannes –

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky makes a surprise video address to the opening ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival in France.

“In the end, hatred will disappear and dictators will die,” he tells the audience who give him a standing ovation.

The Ukrainian leader also addressed the Grammys in  April.

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Finland and Sweden on Wednesday submitted a joint application to join NATO as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forces a dramatic reappraisal of security in Europe.

The reversal of the Nordic countries’ longstanding policy of non-alignment came as the war nears its third month and Ukraine strives to evacuate the last of its soldiers holed up at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. 

Azovstal has become emblematic of the fierce Ukrainian resistance that has forced Russian President Vladimir Putin to reorient his military goals after a devastating campaign strewn with alleged war crimes.

In Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, the first war crimes trial of a Russian soldier since the invasion began was set to get under way at 1100 GMT.

“By this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every perpetrator, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine shall not avoid responsibility,” prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said. 

At NATO headquarters in Brussels, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg formally received the applications from the Finnish and Swedish ambassadors, calling them “an historic step”.

“All allies agree on the importance of NATO enlargement. We all agree that we must stand together and we all agree that this is an historic moment which we must seize,” he said.

The membership push could represent the most significant expansion of NATO in decades, doubling its border with Russia, and Putin has warned it may trigger a response from Moscow. 

But the applications face resistance from NATO member Turkey, which has threatened to block them over accusations the Nordic neighbours act as safe havens for armed groups opposed to Ankara. 

Western allies remain optimistic they can overcome Turkey’s objections and for now, several including Britain have offered security guarantees to Finland and Sweden to guard against any Russian aggression.

– Mediators for Azovstal –

On the ground, in the ruined port city of Mariupol, a unit of soldiers had been holding out in Azovstal’s underground maze of tunnels, but Moscow said Wednesday that 959 of the troops had surrendered this week.

Kyiv’s defence ministry said it would do “everything necessary” to rescue the undisclosed number of personnel still in the steelworks, but admitted there was no military option available.

“The evacuation mission continues, it is overseen by our military and intelligence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. 

“The most influential international mediators are involved.”

Zelensky’s aide, Oleksiy Arestovich, said he would not comment further while the operation was ongoing. “Everything is too fragile there and one careless word can destroy everything,” he said. 

Those who have left Azovstal were taken into Russian captivity, including 51 who were heavily wounded, the Russian defence ministry said.

The ministry, which published images showing soldiers on stretchers, said the injured were transported to a hospital in the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Kremlin rebels.

The defence ministry in Kyiv said it was hoping for an “exchange procedure… to repatriate these Ukrainian heroes as quickly as possible”.

But their fate was unclear, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refusing to say whether they would be treated as criminals or prisoners of war.

Putin had “guaranteed that they would be treated according to the relevant international laws”, Peskov said.

– ‘My war is not over’ –

Despite their last-ditch resistance in places such as Mariupol, and their successful defence of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces are retreating across swathes of the eastern front.

White smoke from burning fields marks the pace of Russia’s advance around the village of Sydorove, on the approaches to the militarily important city of Slovyansk and Ukraine’s eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk.

Army volunteer Yaroslava, 51, sat on a slab of concrete jutting out from the remains of a school in Sydorove where her husband’s unit had set up camp before it was hit by a Russian strike.

She stared at a spot where rescuers and de-miners had spotted a motionless hand reaching out from the rubble.

“We had settled in London before the war but felt like we had no choice but to come back,” Yaroslava said.

“My two sons have just signed three-year contracts with the army. We will fight. We will still fight,” she said without moving her eyes. 

“My war is not over.”

The war crimes trial in Kyiv, expected to be followed by several others, will test the Ukrainian justice system at a time when international bodies are also conducting their own investigations.

Vadim Shishimarin, 21, from Irkutsk in Siberia, is accused of shooting an unarmed 62-year-old man in Ukraine’s Sumy region on February 28 — four days into the invasion.

Shishimarin faces a possible life sentence. Prosecutors said he was commanding a unit in a tank division when his convoy came under attack.

He and four other soldiers stole a car and encountered the man on a bicycle, shooting him in cold blood, according to the prosecutors.

The International Criminal Court said Tuesday it was deploying its largest-ever field team to Ukraine, with 42 investigators, forensic experts and support staff being sent into the field to gather evidence of alleged atrocities.

The US State Department also announced it was creating a special unit to research, document and publicise Russian war crimes.

The Conflict Observatory will “capture, analyse, and make widely available evidence of Russia-perpetrated war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine”, the department said Tuesday.

Retired sergeant Neim Shehaj spends his days repairing a Soviet-era submarine, a witness to Albania’s tumultuous communist past that is now rusting, half-submerged, at an Adriatic naval base.

The fate of the Cold War submarine at the Pashaliman base — from where Moscow once hoped to control the Mediterranean — hangs in the balance as authorities remain undecided over what to do.

“This submarine is like a church to me… I arrived here as a young sailor and now my hair is grey,” Shehaj, 63, who served on it for about three decades, tells AFP.

If the submarine is not taken out of the sea soon “it risks sinking to the bottom, and all its history with it”, he warns.

The vessel was part of the so-called Project 613 consisting of the first submarines that the Soviet Union built after World War II. 

It is the only remaining one out of 12 that Moscow deployed at the Pashaliman base in Vlora Bay in the late 1950s when Albania and the USSR were still close allies.

“From there I could control the Mediterranean to Gibraltar,” retired submarine commander Jak Gjergji recalls Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as saying in 1959 during a visit to the base.

Khrushchev hoped to install long-range missiles, warships and an airport at the base in Albania’s southwest.

– ‘Tore it with rage’ – 

But Albania’s paranoid communist dictator Enver Hoxha eventually broke off close ties with the USSR, accusing Moscow of deviating from true Marxism.

That complicated matters for the mixed Albanian-Russian submarine crews.

“The sailors of the two countries no longer spoke to each other and incidents were frequent,” recalls the 87-year-old Gjergji.

“When a Russian sailor wanted to raise (his country’s) red flag with the hammer and sickle, an Albanian one immediately tore it with rage.”

After the 1961 split between Tirana and Moscow, the latter recalled eight submarines.

In 1997 almost a decade after the fall of communism, as unrest swept Albania after several bogus savings schemes collapsed, the base was looted and submarines were stripped of their weapons, engines and even the sailors’ beds.

The authorities dismantled three of the four remaining submarines and sold them for metal in 2009.

Just one survived — thanks to literature.

Albania’s most famous writer Ismail Kadare in his 1973 novel “The Winter of Great Solitude”, about the break between Moscow and Tirana, arbitrarily assigned the submarine the number 105.

– Saved by a novel –

“This is the only number that came to my mind while I was writing” the novel, Kadare tells AFP.

“Ever since, the submarine is known by this number. It is also thanks to this number… that it is alive today!”

Through the book, the sub’s historical notoriety and cultural significance took on symbolic value.

Its fame was further cemented when a film based on the novel was made, for which the number 105 was painted on the submarine and still remains.

But its survival is also largely down to the determination of Shehaj, who for years has been refurbishing the 76-metre (250-foot) submarine, its electrical network, ventilation system, command post and torpedo room.

He tends to the tiniest of details, while also filling holes in the hull to stop the submarine from sinking for good. 

“The authorities have to decide quickly what to do with it, the risks are major, the sea water accelerates the corrosion considerably,” the 63-year-old warns.

The culture ministry, which pledged for years to restore the submarine, told AFP that it would “forward the file” to the defence ministry, which could include it in a future Cold War museum.

– Submarine tunnel –

Albania embraced the West after the fall of communism in 1990, joined NATO and aspires to join the European Union.

The base has been of “great importance since antiquity due to its geostrategic position… all maritime traffic in the Adriatic Sea but also in the Mediterranean can be controlled” from it, flotilla commander Sabri Gjinollari says.

At the nearby base of Porto Palermo, an abandoned vast anti-atomic submarine tunnel, dug into the rock in the late 1960s, was intended for Chinese missile boats that never arrived.

Hoxha broke ties with Beijing in 1978 and the tunnel, accessed by AFP, was used for a while as a shelter for submarines and other vessels.

Now, a giant red star painted on a dilapidated wall is the only hint of its past under communism.

Some would also like the site, in one of the most beautiful corners of the Albanian coast, to be turned into a museum.

But, the base commander Shkelqim Shytaj disagrees.

“We would prefer it to be used by the army, even in a reduced capacity.”