World

When Ukrainian medic Tetyana Vasylchenko was released from Russian captivity and, on the bus back to freedom, handed a Ukrainian flag, she finally broke down.

“I had never cried, even when I lost comrades,” Vasylchenko told journalists. “But when I was given a Ukrainian flag on the bus, I burst out crying.” 

Vasylchenko and 107 other women were freed from Russian detention last week as part of a long-negotiated prisoner exchange with Moscow.

Four of the women spoke to journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday to recount what they have lived through: packed prison cells, hunger, physical abuse and humiliation.

“The conditions in detention were horrendous,” said Viktoria Obidina, a military nurse, who was captured at the Azovstal steel plant that became the symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

Inmates were “packed like sardines” in jail, food was repulsive and they were rarely allowed to go outside for walks, she said.

Speaking to AFP earlier this week, Obidina said she had been held in the notorious prison in the Russian-occupied town of Olenivka.

Her captors told her that her daughter, who left the steel plant with Ukrainian civilians, had been sent to an orphanage.

– ‘These people are monsters’ –

Women prisoners were subjected to “intense psychological pressure” and constantly humiliated, said Vasylchenko.

“Their favourite thing was to say ‘Ukraine doesn’t want you. No one is swapping you because everyone forgot about you. Who needs you, women?'” Vasylchenko recalled.

The detainees were held “in an information vacuum, they were telling us how everything in our country was going badly.”

Authorities in Kyiv estimate that a few thousand Ukrainians are still being held by Russia as prisoners of war.

Guseynova, a volunteer from the eastern Donetsk region, spent three years in captivity. She was detained in 2019 by pro-Russian separatists, accused of making pro-Kyiv statements to orphaned children she was taking care of.

Guseynova was too traumatized to speak about what she had lived through.

“Too little time has passed since I was liberated, it’s difficult,” she said.

The trauma was also painfully fresh for Inga Chikinda, an army marine.

“I am not ready to speak about physical abuse just yet,” Chikinda, who lost eight kilos and started stuttering after being detained, said. 

“These people are monsters.”

Burkina Faso’s new government on Wednesday declared its top priority would be to secure the nation’s territory, after the latest coup to rock the jihadist-torn Sahel state.

A UN envoy warned in New York that around 4.9 million, or a fifth of the population, need urgent aid in Burkina Faso as many “mothers were forced to feed their children with leaves and salt”.

Prime Minister Apollinaire Kyelem de Tembela outlined the nation’s priorities at the first cabinet meeting chaired by Captain Ibrahim Traore, who seized power this month.

“It’s a government on a war footing that has been formed. It’s not a gala dinners government,” Tembela said in the capital Ouagadougou.

“The main and priority objective is securing the territory,” Tembela said.

“The second will be to do what is needed to improve the quality of life for the Burkina people,” he said.

The third aim will be to “improve the system of governance”, he added.

“Every Burkinabe who calls himself a patriot can contribute,” the prime minister said.

Named premier on Friday, the 64-year-old lawyer heads a 23-member government — including three military officers and five women — to lead the country until its promised return to civilian rule.

Of the key positions in the cabinet unveiled late Tuesday, Colonel Kassoum Coulibaly was appointed minister of defence and military veterans, a key post in a country ravaged by jihadist violence.

The two other officers are Colonel Boukare Zoungrana who oversees territorial administration, decentralisation and security, and Colonel Augustin Kabore for the environment.

– ‘Leaves and salt’ diet –

Five ministers in the previous government under Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who was toppled in the latest coup, have stayed on.

Traore mounted the coup at the head of group of disgruntled junior officers on September 30, although his tussle for control with Damiba lasted several days.

He was sworn in as interim president last Friday, vowing to win back territory and support a transition leading to elections in July 2024. At 34, he is the world’s youngest leader.

Damiba, who has fled to Togo, had seized power only in January, forcing out elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

The motive for both coups was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly two million people from their homes.

More than a third of national territory remains outside government control.

On Monday, at least 10 soldiers were killed and 50 wounded in Djibo, a northern city that has been under a jihadist blockade for three months. 

The authorities have launched a drive to recruit 50,000 civilian defence volunteers to help the army fight the militants.

UN envoy Martin Griffiths painted an alarming picture of Djibo, whose population has tripled to 300,000 with people displaced by jihadist attacks.

“There were no goods in the market,” as little food could grow in the area and cattle had been driven out, the undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs said in New York following a trip to Djibo.

“Mothers were forced to feed their children with leaves and salt,” he said.

But trees were becoming bare and women were now risking “attacks, rape and death” to travel to nearby villages under cover of darkness to find leaves for their “sick and hungry children,” he said.

Dozens of other parts of Burkina Faso, he added, were experiencing a similar fate. 

He spoke of “road closures due to the presence of armed groups, leaving people without food, medicine and other vital services.”

Even though the UN had been able to provide food to 1.8 million people this year, he said, “Nearly 4.9 million men, women and children in Burkina Faso ….need urgent assistance.” 

That amounts to more than a fifth of the population.

And nearly 10 percent have been forced to leave their homes.

When Ukrainian medic Tetyana Vasylchenko was released from Russian captivity and, on the bus back to freedom, handed a Ukrainian flag, she finally broke down.

“I had never cried, even when I lost comrades,” Vasylchenko told journalists. “But when I was given a Ukrainian flag on the bus, I burst out crying.” 

Vasylchenko and 107 other women were freed from Russian detention last week as part of a long-negotiated prisoner exchange with Moscow.

Four of the women spoke to journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday to recount what they have lived through: packed prison cells, hunger, physical abuse and humiliation.

“The conditions in detention were horrendous,” said Viktoria Obidina, a military nurse, who was captured at the Azovstal steel plant that became the symbol of Ukrainian resistance.

Inmates were “packed like sardines” in jail, food was repulsive and they were rarely allowed to go outside for walks, she said.

Speaking to AFP earlier this week, Obidina said she had been held in the notorious prison in the Russian-occupied town of Olenivka.

Her captors told her that her daughter, who left the steel plant with Ukrainian civilians, had been sent to an orphanage.

– ‘These people are monsters’ –

Women prisoners were subjected to “intense psychological pressure” and constantly humiliated, said Vasylchenko.

“Their favourite thing was to say ‘Ukraine doesn’t want you. No one is swapping you because everyone forgot about you. Who needs you, women?'” Vasylchenko recalled.

The detainees were held “in an information vacuum, they were telling us how everything in our country was going badly.”

Authorities in Kyiv estimate that a few thousand Ukrainians are still being held by Russia as prisoners of war.

Guseynova, a volunteer from the eastern Donetsk region, spent three years in captivity. She was detained in 2019 by pro-Russian separatists, accused of making pro-Kyiv statements to orphaned children she was taking care of.

Guseynova was too traumatized to speak about what she had lived through.

“Too little time has passed since I was liberated, it’s difficult,” she said.

The trauma was also painfully fresh for Inga Chikinda, an army marine.

“I am not ready to speak about physical abuse just yet,” Chikinda, who lost eight kilos and started stuttering after being detained, said. 

“These people are monsters.”

In his first full day as Britain’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak on Wednesday delayed a crunch budget and rebuffed renewed demands for an early general election as he began trying to rebuild the Conservatives’ poll standing.

Following the fiscal chaos seen under his short-lived predecessor, Liz Truss, Sunak’s government said it needed more time to present the full budget — deferring a Treasury statement due next Monday to mid-November.

He also jettisoned a signature stance taken by Truss, which he also backed during their summer battle for the leadership. After taking office, she had made good on the promise to overturn a ban on fracking — drilling on land for natural gas — but Sunak said the ban would return.

The U-turn was back in line with the 2019 manifesto that last brought his Conservative party to power.

No company had yet come forward to take advantage of Truss’s offer, which risked arousing serious opposition from locals in prospective drilling sites.

Following a meeting of his new cabinet, Sunak engaged in his first parliamentary joust with opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is riding high in the polls and says the new Conservative leader lacks a democratic mandate.

“The only time he ran in a competitive election he got trounced by the former prime minister, who herself got beaten by a lettuce,” Starmer said, challenging Sunak to face UK voters.

After the scandal-tarred Boris Johnson announced in July that he was quitting, Truss beat Sunak in a vote by Tory members. 

But her right-wing economic programme, based on unfunded tax cuts, collapsed and she lasted only 49 days — with a lettuce lasting longer in one newspaper stunt. 

Sunak then beat off an audacious comeback bid by Johnson to become Tory leader on Monday.

“We will have to take difficult decisions to restore economic stability and confidence,” he told MPs, brushing off Starmer’s election call.

“I will always protect the most vulnerable. We did it in Covid and we will do it again,” the former finance minister added.

– ‘Test of time’ –

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt — retained in Sunak’s cabinet along with several other senior ministers — said that Monday’s planned “medium-term fiscal statement” was no longer so pressing.

Instead, there will be a full budget statement on November 17 to lay out the new government’s tax and spending plans, Hunt told reporters.

The new plan will be accompanied by fresh economic forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which were lacking from Truss’s own aborted plan, and will “stand the test of time”, he said.

Hunt said he had discussed the delay with Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey. The central bank was forced to make several emergency interventions in recent weeks after Truss’s tax-slashing plans sent markets into a tailspin. 

Markets were unperturbed by the postponement, suggesting Hunt and Sunak have successfully calmed investors’ nerves.

Truss left office as the UK’s shortest-serving premier in history, replaced by its youngest since 1812 and first Hindu leader.

Sunak triumphed in a 96-hour Tory leadership contest after rival contender Penny Mordaunt failed to secure enough nominations from Tory lawmakers and Johnson dramatically aborted his own bid.

After appointing his top team Tuesday, Sunak spoke to the presidents of Ukraine and the United States to vow continuity on UK foreign policy, including ongoing support for Kyiv’s resistance following Russia’s invasion.

– ‘Grubby’ –

Sunak has vowed to restore “trust” and “integrity” in government after months of tumult under Johnson and then Truss.

But critics claimed the new leader had immediately undermined the pledge by reappointing hardline right-winger Suella Braverman as interior minister, days after she was forced to resign for a security breach.

Braverman emailed classified government documents outside her department that reportedly included market-sensitive information from the OBR.

Sunak told parliament that she had “made an error of judgement” but had “accepted her mistake” and so he was “delighted to welcome her back”.

Starmer said her return was “grubby” payback after Braverman backed Sunak against Johnson’s attempt to return to Downing Street.

“There’s a new Tory at the top but as always with them, party first, country second,” the opposition leader said.

As well as mending Britain’s wounded finances, Sunak is also pledging to reunite the Conservatives after another bruising leadership contest, mere weeks after Johnson was forced out.

He has kept Truss’s defence, trade and culture ministers among others, as well as re-hiring some older faces from the Johnson cabinet.

French President Emmanuel Macron hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for lunch Wednesday, with both sides saying they made progress towards easing differences on energy and defence dogging the European Union’s vital double act.

The two leaders were “of one mind on the major directions” of policy, a German diplomatic source said after the meeting, while a source in the French presidency called it “very constructive”.

“Today was a very good and important conversation on European energy supply, rising prices and joint arms projects,” Scholz tweeted.

“Germany and France stand close together and are tackling challenges jointly”.

Macron and Scholz were at pains to put on a show of friendliness as Scholz climbed out of his black Mercedes on arrival, with both smiling and shaking hands.

The pair spoke for around an hour longer than planned, including a one-on-one session without advisors.

The German source said they discussed issues including “European energy policy, national energy policies, economic development, defence, space and foreign policy”.

Meanwhile the French presidency said the talks were “in a spirit of very close cooperation for the medium- and long-term”.

But Macron and Scholz did not appear before journalists to announce any joint decisions or take questions.

Recent weeks had seen growing signs of discord between Berlin and Paris, under pressure from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its knock-on effects especially on energy markets.

Berlin’s move to spend up to 200 billion euros ($200 billion) subsidising soaring gas prices and refusal to consider an EU-wide energy price cap nettled Paris and other European capitals, who fear the effect on their energy costs.

On defence, France is rattled by German plans for a shared missile shield with other NATO nations using American equipment, while longer-term projects to jointly develop new fighter jets and tanks appear stalled.

A big-spending “new era” of German defence policy announced by Scholz following the Russian attack has not translated into major contracts within Europe, especially for French firms as Macron hoped.

– ‘Motor has to work’ –

Wednesday’s meeting came instead of a postponed joint cabinet meeting between Paris and Berlin, which would have been Scholz’s first as chancellor.

So far, the German leader — in office for less than a year — has not developed the same warmth with Macron as his predecessor Angela Merkel, who “texted every day”, one French diplomatic source said ahead of the talks.

Strained ties between the EU’s two largest and most populous economies — in the past often the brokers of compromise among the bloc’s 27 members — have come at exactly the wrong time.

Russia’s invasion and the resulting disruption to the energy system have coincided with rising tensions between China and the West, as well as fears that more isolationist forces could return to power in Washington.

Berlin and Paris also differ on how to make the EU more agile faced with the new challenges, and how quickly to admit new members.

Macron warned that “both of us, together with the EU as a whole, are confronted with one of the biggest, furthest-reaching crises ever experienced by Europe,” with “a lot of work ahead,” the German diplomatic source said.

“Agreement between France and Germany is not sufficient, because everyone else has to agree, but it is necessary,” said Stephane Dion, Canadian ambassador to France and former envoy to Germany.

“They remain the motor of Europe. For Europe to work, that motor has to work,” he added.

– Tight deadline –

France’s Europe minister Laurence Boone told the Senate Wednesday that the two countries should aim to resolve their differences “by the 60th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty” on January 22.

Signed by post-war leaders Charles De Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, the pact forms the foundations of French-German cooperation.

For now the two sides have agreed to set up “working groups… that will have the two governments working closely together towards the next steps in the coming days,” the Elysee said.

The groups cover topics including defence and security, energy and innovation, the German source said.

Macron and Scholz also agreed to talk “before and after” the German leader’s upcoming visit to China and the French president’s visit to the US, the German source said.

The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on two Moldovan oligarchs and others for corruption or allegedly working with Russia to undermine the frontline country’s democracy.

The sanctions come as Western powers seek to bolster support for Moldova amid fears of a spillover from the war in neighboring Ukraine, with Russia maintaining troops in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.

The United States said it was blocking any US assets and criminalizing transactions with Ilan Shor, an Israeli-born businessman turned populist politician in Moldova which he fled in 2019.

Married to a pop singer decorated by President Vladimir Putin, Shor was convicted over stealing $1 billion from Moldovan banks in 2014.

The US Treasury Department said Shor worked with Russia to create an alliance ahead of 2021 elections and later coordinated with Moscow to blunt Moldova’s efforts to join the European Union.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on another powerful oligarch, Vladimir Plahotniuc, who fled the country in 2020 under the shadow of graft allegations and has already been refused entry by the United States.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States was “promoting accountability for systemic efforts to undermine Moldova’s democratic institutions and elections.”  

“The United States will continue to hold accountable those threatening democracy abroad,” he said in a statement.

The Treasury Department also targeted seven other people and 12 entities over alleged Russian efforts to meddle in Moldovan politics.