BELIZE CITY, April 17 – A U.S. citizen hijacked a small Tropic Air plane in Belize on Thursday at knifepoint, injuring three others before being shot and killed, police said.

The assailant pulled a knife while the plane was in air, demanding the domestic flight take him out of the country, Police Commissioner Chester Williams told journalists.

The hijacker was identified as U.S. citizen Akinyela Sawa Taylor, Williams said, adding that it appeared Taylor was a military veteran.

The plane circled the airspace between northern Belize and capital Belize City as the hijacking was underway, and began to run dangerously low on fuel, the police commissioner said.

Taylor stabbed three people on board, according to Williams, including the pilot and a passenger who shot Taylor with a licensed firearm as the plane landed outside Belize City.

That passenger was rushed to the hospital, as was Taylor, who died from the gunshot wound.

Williams said that it was unclear how Taylor boarded the plane with a knife, though he acknowledged that the country’s smaller airstrips lacked security to fully search passengers.

The attacker had been denied entry to the country over the weekend, according to police. The plane had been due to fly the short route from Corozal near the Mexican border to San Pedro, off the coast. Police said it was unclear how Taylor reached Corozal.

Belizean authorities have reached out to the U.S. embassy in the country for aid in investigating the incident. Luke Martin, public affairs officer for the embassy, told journalists that it had no details on Taylor’s background or motivation so far.

According to information released by the airport, Taylor was a teacher in the United States. He was listed online as previously being a football coach at the McCluer North High School in Florissant, Missouri.

An employee at the school told Reuters that Taylor did not currently work there.

REUTERS

April 17 – Multiple people were hospitalized on Thursday after reports of an active shooter at Florida State University and police have taken a suspect into custody, according to media reports.

The gunfire was reported at midday at the Student Union building on the FSU campus in the state capital of Tallahassee.

Students and faculty were advised to shelter in place as police responded. More than 42,000 students attend classes at the main campus.

Officers took one suspect into custody shortly after the reported shooting, two law enforcement sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.

Law enforcement agencies could not be immediately reached to confirm the reports or to comment.

Tallahassee’s WCTV reported that at least four people were hospitalized, citing Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, but the hospital would not confirm the number or if it was treating anyone for gunshot wounds.

In an earlier statement, the hospital said it was caring for patients from an incident at Florida State University.

But the statement said the situation was still unfolding, and there was no specific information to share about the number of patients and their conditions.

REUTERS

MOSCOW – Russian air defence systems destroyed or intercepted 71 Ukrainian drones over six Russian regions overnight, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

Most of the drones – 49 – were downed in the Kursk region, others – in Oryol, Ryazan, Bryansk, Vladimir and Tula regions.

In a statement posted on Telegram, the authorities in Russia’s Ivanovo region, which is east of Moscow, said that Ukrainian drones had attacked the town of Shuya, but that no casualties or damage had been inflicted.

It is the second night in a row that Shuya, which is around 1,150 km (715 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has come under attack.

The town hosts the base of a Russian missile brigade that Ukraine has blamed for a strike on the city of Sumy on Sunday that killed at least 35 people.

Russian Telegram channels were circulating videos that appeared to show the base being struck, and at least one fire burning on its premises.

Reuters could not verify the footage.
In the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, the Russian-installed management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant said that a Ukrainian drone had been downed 300 metres (985 feet) from the plant, which is Europe’s largest.

REUTERS

BEIRUI – Lebanon reported Thursday that one person was killed by an Israeli air strike in the country’s south, hours after Israel said it had attacked sites there belonging to Hezbollah.

The health ministry said: “the raid carried out by the Israeli enemy on the locality of Aitaroun left one dead,” a day after Israeli strikes in the same region killed two people.

The Israeli military said earlier that it had struck “Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites” in southern Lebanon overnight, without offering details.

The military added that it would “operate against any attempts by Hezbollah to rebuild or establish a military presence under the guise of civilian cover.”

Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon.

Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.

Rocket fire from Lebanon into Israel has also been reported since the truce was struck, although no group has claimed responsibility for the launches.
On Wednesday, the Lebanese army said it had arrested several people suspected of firing rockets at Israel from Lebanon.

A security official told AFP that three of those detained were members of Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas.

AN-AFP

LONDON – Members of the largest organization representing British Jews have said they can no longer “turn a blind eye” to the war in Gaza, adding “Israel’s soul is being ripped out.”

In a major break with the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ policy of supporting the Israeli leadership, 36 of its members criticized the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Gaza in an open letter published in the Financial Times.

“The inclination to avert our eyes is strong, as what is happening is unbearable, but our Jewish values compel us to stand up and to speak out,” said the letter, signed by around one in eight members of the Board of Deputies.

It is the first time since the start of the war that members of the body have publicly criticized the Israeli government.

“We cannot turn a blind eye or remain silent” about the loss of life since a two-month truce collapsed on March 18, as negotiations over the return of Israeli hostages broke down, the letter added.

Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the war, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

“Israel’s soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to,” added the letter.

The signatories accused the “most extremist of Israeli governments” of “openly encouraging violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.”

“We stand against the war. We acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life,” they added.

A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies told the Guardian that other members would “no doubt put more emphasis on the fundamental responsibility of Hamas for this ghastly situation.”

At least 1,691 Palestinians have been killed since the resumption of the Israeli offensive, bringing the death toll in Gaza since the start of the war to 51,065, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Hamas’s attack on October 7 left 1,218 dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

AN-AFP

MOSCOW – The former governor of Russia’s Kursk region, parts of which were seized by Ukrainian forces in August 2024, has been detained and charged with embezzling money earmarked for building defences, Russia’s interior ministry said on Thursday.

Alexei Smirnov was head of the western region when Ukrainian troops smashed across the border in a large-scale incursion. Since then, a Russian offensive has ejected most of the Ukrainian forces.

Smirnov led the region from May to December 2024, when he was replaced by Alexander Khinshtein. Smirnov was detained along with his former deputy, Alexei Dedov. A Moscow court placed Smirnov in pre-trial detention for two months.

In a statement posted on Telegram, the interior ministry said the charges concerned funds that had been allocated for building defensive structures in the border province.

It said the case was related to previous arrests on abuse of office charges of three Kursk region officials and businessmen responsible for building defences. At the time, media reported that the damages related to that case were around 800 million roubles ($9.64 million).

Neither Smirnov nor a representative for him could be contacted for comment.

In the first hours of Ukraine’s August incursion into Kursk, Smirnov repeatedly offered assurances that the situation was under control, even as Russian border guards were left reeling and in retreat by the surprise attack.

Days later, Smirnov was gently reprimanded by President Vladimir Putin during a televised meeting for focusing on the military situation in his report to the head of state, rather than on efforts to help civilians in the Kursk region.

Russia has in the past year detained a string of top military officials, including a former deputy defence minister, amid a flurry of high-level corruption cases.

REUTERS

A Russian mass drone attack killed three people, including a child, and injured many more on Wednesday evening in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the regional governor said.

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that 30 people had been injured, including five children. Sixteen people were being treated in hospital.

Mayor Borys Filatov said one strike came within 100 metres (110 yards) of the municipal offices. He also said at least 15 dwellings had been damaged, as well as a student residence, an educational institution and a food processing plant.

Pictures posted online showed a large blaze and firefighters working at the scene well into the night, as well as gutted vehicles and buildings with smashed windows and damaged facades.

In northeastern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said a Russian missile attack injured two people in the town of Izium. The town was captured by Russian troops in the early days of the February 2022 invasion, but was retaken by Ukrainian forces later in the year.

REUTERS

LIMA/BRASILIA – Nadine Heredia, the wife of former Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, arrived in Brazil on Wednesday as the ex-leader spent the night in jail following a 15-year sentence for money laundering.

Heredia, 48, landed in Brazil’s capital after requesting asylum, Brazil’s Foreign Ministry said. She was slapped with a 15-year sentence of her own on Tuesday in the same case as her husband.

The two were convicted of receiving funds from Brazilian builder Odebrecht, now known as Novonor, in a sweeping graft case in which the construction firm doled out bribes to politicians across Latin America.

Humala spent his first night imprisoned in the same jail where two other one-time Peruvian heads of state, Alejandro Toledo and Pedro Castillo, are also being held. The unit was built particularly to hold former leaders.

Heredia and the youngest of her three children took off for Brasilia at around 4 a.m. in a plane sent by the government of leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, lawyer Julio Espinoza told local radio RPP.

She is set to arrive at 8:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) in Sao Paulo, where she will receive cancer treatment, her Brazilian lawyer, Marco Aurelio de Carvalho, told Reuters.

Upon arrival in Brasilia, Heredia and her son sought asylum under Brazil’s Refugee Law, and were cleared by Federal Police to remain in the country as the National Committee for Refugees (CONARE) evaluates their request.

In the first two years of Lula’s term, Brazil received 126,787 asylum requests and granted refugee status to 90,904 people.

Humala, 62, a retired military officer who led the Andean nation from 2011 to 2016, is Peru’s second former president to be jailed in the Odebrecht case and the fourth to be implicated in the scandal. His defense plans to appeal the conviction.

Former Odebrecht executives have said in Peruvian court that the firm had bankrolled almost every presidential candidate in the country for a nearly 30-year period.

‘ROOM FOR ONE MORE’

Humala has already been assigned a cell at Peru’s police prison for ex-presidents, Javier Llaque, the head of the nation’s penitentiary system, told journalists.

Beyond the three currently held there, former president Alberto Fujimori was also imprisoned at the site until his release in 2023, before his death last year.

The number could rise even further. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, who served from 2016 to 2018, and Martin Vizcarra, who served between 2018 and 2020, are also under investigation for corruption.

Current President Dina Boluarte, whose term comes up next year, faces investigations for illicit enrichment for wearing flashy Rolex watches, abandoning her post during a rhinoplasty and for the death of dozens of anti-government protesters after she took office.

“There’s always room for one more inmate,” Llaque said.

REUTERS

MOSCOW – Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has foiled a terrorist attack that was being plotted in the southern city of Pyatigorsk, the agency said on Wednesday.

According to the FSB, the suspect is a native of one of the Central Asian countries and a member of an international terrorist organization banned in Russia. He was allegedly preparing to carry out a terrorist act at a local leisure center.

The suspect was identified and arrested before he could carry out the act, the FSB stated, adding that bottles containing flammable mixtures were found and seized in his residence.

Local investigative authorities have opened a criminal case on charges related to a terrorist act, the agency said.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM – The Israeli military said Wednesday it is expanding the “Morag Corridor,” a new dividing line in the southern Gaza Strip, and has turned roughly a third of the enclave into “security zones” under full Israeli military control.

An infographic video released by the military showed the “Morag Corridor” running through an area between Rafah and Khan Younis, cutting off Rafah from Khan Younis and central Gaza.

In the video, Khan Younis, southern Gaza’s largest city, appeared almost completely razed, with only a few severely damaged buildings left.

“As part of the operation, the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) has achieved full operational control over several key areas and routes throughout Gaza. Approximately 30 percent of the strip’s territory is now designated as an Operational Security Perimeter,” the military said in a statement.

Apart from the “Morag Corridor,” Israel has also established the “Netzarim Corridor” during the war, a military buffer zone in central Gaza aimed at isolating Gaza City and northern Gaza from the rest of the enclave.

Israel has blocked the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza since March 2. It then ended a two-month ceasefire with Hamas on March 18 and resumed deadly air and ground assaults on the enclave.

The military said since March 18, it has carried out airstrikes on about 1,200 targets in Gaza using approximately 350 fighter jets and other aircraft.

The renewed Israeli attacks have so far killed 1,652 Palestinians and injured 4,391 others, Gaza health authorities said Wednesday, adding the death toll in the enclave since the war began in October 2023 has risen to 51,025, with 116,432 injured.

XINHUA

JOHANNESBURG – South Africa on Wednesday condemned Israel’s continuous bombing of civilian targets, including hospitals in Gaza, calling it a “flagrant violation” of international humanitarian law.

This came after the missile strike by Israeli forces on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital — reportedly the last functional hospital in Gaza City — on Sunday, according to a statement issued by the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO). It said the attack on the hospital forced the evacuation of dozens of wounded people and left Gaza critically short of emergency care.

“South Africa joins the global condemnation of the bombing, which is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” said DIRCO. “Israel has bombed, burned, and destroyed at least 35 hospitals in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023. Attacks on health facilities, medical personnel, and patients are considered a war crime under the IV Geneva Convention of 1949.”

According to the department, Israeli military forces also killed 15 humanitarian personnel in Gaza, eight Palestinian Red Crescent Society health workers, one staff member from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and six members of the Palestinian Civil Defense who were on a rescue mission on March 23.

“Deliberate attacks on medics and humanitarian workers are prohibited by international law and constitute war crimes. First responders like civilians and other non-combatants are never legitimate targets,” DIRCO stressed.

“We are also concerned that Israel has halted the entry of all aid into Gaza since March 2. This is in defiance of the binding provisional orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Israel to ensure unhindered access of humanitarian aid in Gaza,” said the department. “The international community must hold Israel accountable through effective counter-measures, as the impunity enjoyed by Israel has emboldened its genocidal actions in Palestine.”

In December 2023, South Africa approached the ICJ seeking an interdict for the court to compel Israel to halt attacks on Palestine and declare these acts as genocide. In January 2024, the UN court ordered Israel to take all possible measures to prevent acts of genocide and ensure humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip.

XINHUA

JERUSALEM – Israel said Wednesday it would keep blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, where a relentless military offensive has turned the Palestinian territory into a “mass grave,” a medical charity reported.

Air and ground attacks resumed across the Gaza Strip on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas that had largely halted hostilities in the territory.

However, Israel has halted the entry of aid into Gaza since March 2, as the humanitarian crisis continues to grow amid ongoing military assaults which rescuers said killed at least 11 people Wednesday.

Defense Minister Israel Katz said Israel would continue preventing aid from entering the besieged territory of 2.4 million people.

“Israel’s policy is clear: no humanitarian aid will enter Gaza, and blocking this aid is one of the main pressure levers preventing Hamas from using it as a tool with the population,” Katz said in a statement Wednesday.

“No one is currently planning to allow any humanitarian aid into Gaza, and there are no preparations to enable such aid.”

Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have cited military pressure as the only way to secure the release of the 58 hostages held in Gaza.

“Hamas will continue to suffer blow after blow. We insist that they release our hostages, and we insist on achieving all of our war objectives,” Netanyahu told troops in northern Gaza Tuesday.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian foreign ministry denounced his Gaza visit, calling it a “provocative intrusion intended to prolong and intensify the crimes of genocide and forced displacement” of Gazans.

Medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Israeli military operations and the blockage of aid had transformed Gaza into a graveyard for Palestinians and those who help them.

“Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance,” said MSF coordinator Amande Bazerolle.

“With nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them, the humanitarian response is severely struggling under the weight of insecurity and critical supply shortages, leaving people with few, if any, options for accessing care,” she said.

The UN had warned on Monday that Gaza is facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began in October 2023.

“The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” said the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

In a statement, OCHA said no supplies had reached the territory for a month and a half, and medical supplies, fuel, water and other essentials are in short supply.

Israel firmly controls the entry of vital international aid to Gaza.

On April 28, the International Court of Justice is set to open hearings on Israel’s humanitarian obligations toward Palestinians.

The UN General Assembly approved a resolution in December requesting that The Hague-based top court give an advisory opinion on the matter.

It calls on the ICJ to clarify what Israel is required to do to “ensure and facilitate the unhindered provision of urgently needed supplies essential to the survival of the Palestinian civilian population.”

Although ICJ decisions are legally binding, the court has no concrete way of enforcing them. They increase the diplomatic pressure, however.

Israel continued to pound Gaza on Wednesday.

A pre-dawn air strike in Gaza City killed 11 people, including women and children, the civil defense agency said.

The renewed assault has so far killed at least 1,652 people in Gaza, the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory reported.

AN-AFP, 16.4.2025

BEIRUT – The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced Wednesday that one person was killed in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the southern border region, bringing the total number of deaths from Israeli attacks to three within approximately 24 hours.

A statement issued by the ministry said that “the drone strike carried out by the Israeli enemy on a vehicle … resulted in one fatality.”

It added, “Today, the death toll from yesterday’s Israeli strike on the village of Aitaroun rose to two, after a 17-year-old boy who had been seriously injured succumbed to his wounds.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in an updated report that “at least 71 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect on November 27 of last year.”

“Among the victims were 14 women and 9 children, and over 92,000 people remain displaced from their homes,” it added.

Since Nov. 27, 2024, a ceasefire agreement between Hezbollah and Israel has been in place, ending over a year of clashes sparked by the war in Gaza.

Despite the agreement, the Israeli army continues to carry out occasional strikes in Lebanon, claiming they are aimed at eliminating “Hezbollah threats,” and has maintained a military presence at five key points inside Lebanese territory along the border.

XINHUA

RAMALLAH – Two Palestinian men were shot and killed by the Israeli forces in the town of Qabatiya, northern West Bank, on Wednesday morning, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

The Ramallah-based ministry identified the killed victims as Muhammad Omar Muhammad Zakarneh, 23, and Yasser Rateb Khuzaimiya, 19.

According to the Palestinian official news agency WAFA, the Israeli forces on Wednesday morning surrounded a cave in a quarry area and fired intensely at it. Bulldozers were later deployed to dredge the area.

In a statement released the same day, Israeli Police said the raid targeted a cave in the Jenin area where a militant allegedly involved in a January attack that killed three Israeli civilians was hiding. During the operation, Israeli forces exchanged fire with the suspect and two other militants.

According to the statement, two militants were killed in the exchange, and weapons were recovered from their bodies.

XINHUA

KABUL – An earthquake of magnitude 5.6 struck the Hindu Kush region in Afghanistan on Wednesday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Center (EMSC) said.

The quake was at a depth of 121 km (75 miles), EMSC said, and the epicenter 164 km east of Baghlan, a city with a population of about 108,000.

EMSC first reported the quake at a magnitude of 6.4.

AN-REUTERS

LIMA – A Peruvian court on Tuesday sentenced former President Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) and his wife, Nadine Heredia, to 15 years in prison “after finding them guilty of money laundering.”

The decision was handed down by the Third National Collegiate Criminal Court presided by Judge Nayko Coronado, with a majority of the judges voting in favor of the sentence. The time the former president and his wife have spent in pretrial detention, approximately nine months, is to be considered time served.

The money laundering charges against the former president and his wife stemmed from alleged illegal contributions that Brazilian construction company Odebrecht made to the Nationalist Party to finance electoral campaigns between 2006 and 2011.

XINHUA

ZAGREB – Croatian President Zoran Milanovic and visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda reaffirmed on Tuesday that their countries will not deploy troops to Ukraine.

“Poland clearly does not want to take part in that, and neither will Croatia,” Milanovic told reporters following his meeting with Duda. He emphasized that while such discussions should not be considered taboo, they must be approached with caution.

Meanwhile, Milanovic emphasized the need for Europe to pursue greater independence from the United States. “We need autonomy in foreign policy and increased solidarity wherever possible,” he said.

Milanovic has repeatedly voiced his opposition to sending Croatian soldiers to Ukraine. He has accused the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of engaging in a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine, and has criticized Western sanctions on Russia as “absurd” and “useless.”

XINHUA

DEIR AL-BALAH – An Israeli airstrike hit the northern gate of a field hospital in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, wounding 10 people, including three medics and seven patients, a spokesman for the hospital said.

The strike hit the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the Muwasi area, where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter in sprawling tent camps. Saber Mohammed, a spokesman for the hospital, said two of the patients were critically wounded.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The military has struck hospitals on several occasions during the 18-month war, accusing Hamas militants of hiding out in them or using them for military purposes. Hospital staff have denied the allegations and accused Israel of recklessly endangering civilians and gutting the territory’s health system.

On Sunday, Israel struck the last major hospital providing critical care in northern Gaza after ordering an evacuation. A patient died during the evacuation, and the strike severely damaged the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings, according to Al-Ahli Hospital.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs the hospital, condemned the strike.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the UN chief is “deeply alarmed” at Sunday’s strike by Israeli forces on the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza.

“Under international humanitarian law, wounded and sick, medical personnel and medical facilities, including hospitals, must be respected and protected,” the UN chief’s spokesperson said Tuesday.

Israel said it targeted a Hamas command and control center within the facility, without providing evidence. Hamas denied the allegations.

AN-AP

MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that it was not easy to agree with the United States on the key parts of a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and that Russia would never again allow itself to depend economically on the West.

US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the “bloodbath” of the three-year war in Ukraine, though a deal has yet to be agreed.

“It is not easy to agree the key components of a settlement. They are being discussed,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper when asked if Moscow and Washington had agreement on some aspects of a possible peace deal.

“We are well aware of what a mutually beneficial deal looks like, which we have never rejected, and what a deal looks like that could lead us into another trap,” Lavrov said in the interview published in Tuesday’s edition.

The Kremlin on Sunday said that it was too early to expect results from the restoration of more normal relations with Washington.

Lavrov said that Russia’s position had been set out clearly by President Vladimir Putin in June 2024, when Putin demanded Ukraine must officially drop its NATO ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed by Russia.

“We’re talking about the rights of the people who live on these lands. That is why these lands are dear to us. And we cannot give them up, allowing people to be kicked out of there,” Lavrov said.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and parts of four other regions Moscow now claims are part of Russia — a claim not recognized by most countries.

Lavrov praised Trump’s “common sense” and for saying that previous US support of Ukraine’s bid to join the NATO military alliance was a major cause of the war in Ukraine.

But Russia’s political elite, he said, would not countenance any moves that led Russia back toward economic, military, technological or agricultural dependence on the West.

The globalization of the world economy, Lavrov said, had been destroyed by sanctions imposed on Russia, China and Iran by the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine describe Russia’s 2022 invasion as an imperial-style land grab, and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Putin casts the war in Ukraine as part of a battle with a declining West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging the NATO military alliance and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence.

AN-AFP/REUTERS