Ukraine finally deploying F-16 fighter jets, says Zelensky

Commander of the Ukrainian Air Forces Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk stands next to an F-16 fighting aircraft, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location, Ukraine August 4, 2024. (Ukraine)
Commander of the Ukrainian Air Forces Lt. Gen. Mykola Oleschuk stands next to an F-16 fighting aircraft, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in an undisclosed location, Ukraine August 4, 2024. (Ukraine)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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Ukraine finally deploying F-16 fighter jets, says Zelensky

Ukraine finally deploying F-16 fighter jets, says Zelensky
  • President Zelensky announces use of US-made fighter planes
  • Ukraine has long waited for higher-capability jets
  • Kyiv hopes they will change war, Russia vows to shoot them down

KYIV: Ukrainian pilots have started flying F-16s for operations within the nation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, confirming the long-awaited arrival of the US-made fighter jets more than 29 months since Russia’s invasion.
The Ukrainian leader announced the use of F-16s, which Kyiv has long lobbied for, as he met military pilots at an air base flanked by two of the jets with two more flying overhead.
“F-16s are in Ukraine. We did it. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these jets and have already started using them for our country,” Zelensky said at a location that authorities asked Reuters not to disclose for security reasons.
The arrival of the jets is a milestone for Ukraine after many months of waiting, though it remains unclear how many are available and how much of an impact they will have in enhancing air defenses and on the battlefield.
Russia has been targeting bases that may house them and vowed to shoot them down so they will not impact the war.

Built by Lockheed Martin, the F-16s had been on Ukraine’s wish list for a long time because of their destructive power and global availability. They are equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles.
Talking to reporters on the tarmac of an airfield, Zelensky said Ukraine still did not have enough pilots trained to use the F-16s or enough of the jets themselves.
“The positive thing is that we are expecting additional F-16s ... many guys are now training,” he said.
It was important, he said, that Kyiv’s allies found ways to expand training programs and opportunities for both Ukrainian pilots and engineering teams.
‘NEW AVIATION STANDARD’
Ukraine has previously relied on an aging fleet of Soviet-era warplanes that are outgunned by Russia’s more advanced and far more numerous fleet.
Russia has used that edge to conduct regular long-range missile strikes on targets across Ukraine and also to pound Ukrainian front line positions with thousands of guided bombs, supporting its forces that are slowly advancing in the east.
“This is the new stage of development of the air force of Ukraine’s armed forces,” Zelensky said.
“We did a lot for Ukrainian forces to transition to a new aviation standard, the Western combat aviation,” he added, citing hundreds of meetings and unrelenting diplomacy to obtain the F-16s.
“We often heard ‘it is impossible’ as an answer but we still made our ambition, our defensive need, possible,” he said.
It remains unclear what missiles the jets are equipped with. A longer range of missile would allow them to have a greater battlefield impact, military analysts say.
Zelensky said he also hoped to lobby allied neighboring countries to help intercept Russian missiles being launched at Ukraine through conversations at the Ukraine-NATO Council platform.
“This is another tool, and I want to try it, so that NATO countries can talk to Ukraine about the possibility of a small coalition of neighboring countries shooting down enemy missiles,” he said.
“I think this decision is probably difficult for our partners, they are always afraid of excessive escalation but we are fighting that.”


Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine

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Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine

Norway to increase, extend aid to Ukraine
The extension brings the aggregate aid package to 135 billion kroner from a previous total of 75 billion kroner through 2027
To get the increased package through parliament, Store’s center-left minority government will need the support of the opposition

OSLO: Norway will increase civilian aid to Ukraine by five billion kroner ($475 million) this year and extend its aid package by three years to 2030, the prime minister said Friday.
The extension brings the aggregate aid package to 135 billion kroner from a previous total of 75 billion kroner through 2027.
The Scandinavian country had already pledged 22 billion kroner in military and civilian aid for this year, and the additional five billion kroner will be dedicated to “important civilian needs, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told journalists after meeting parliamentary leaders.
“We are living through a very dangerous situation in Europe,” Store said.
To get the increased package through parliament, Store’s center-left minority government will need the support of the opposition, which has largely backed greater assistance to Ukraine.
Norway is a major gas and oil exporter, and has benefitted from the run-up in prices brought about by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
According to a finance ministry document seen by AFP Thursday, Germany is planning to increase its military aid to Ukraine by almost 400 million euros ($445 million) this year, on top of the 7.5 billion euros it had already earmarked.

Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN

Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
Updated 6 min 59 sec ago
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Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN

Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
  • Burundi is the second hardest-hit country on the continent after the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Geneva: Youngsters have been especially impacted by mpox outbreaks raging in Africa, with children under five accounting for nearly a third of the cases in Burundi, the UN children’s agency said Friday.
Burundi is the second hardest-hit country on the continent after the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Children in Burundi are bearing the brunt of the mpox outbreak, with alarming rates of infection and severe health impacts,” said Paul Ngwakum, UNICEF’s Regional Health Adviser for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Ngwakum said two-thirds of cases in Burundi concerned people aged 19 and under.
“Of particular concern is the rise of mpox among children under five years of age, representing 30 percent of the reported cases,” he told reporters in Geneva, speaking via videolink from Bujumbura.
Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
It causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions, and can in some cases be deadly.
The World Health Organization declared an international emergency last month, concerned by the surge in cases of the new clade 1b strain in the DRC that spread to nearby countries.
A total of 25,093 suspected mpox cases and 723 deaths were reported across the continent between January and September 8, WHO said.
Of those, 21,835 suspected cases and 717 deaths were reported in the DRC, while 1,489 suspected cases and no deaths have been reported in neighboring Burundi.
Research is still under way to discover how clade 1b compares to the original strain.
The outbreak in DRC has proved deadlier than previous mpox epidemics but this could be because the vulnerable populations in the conflict-torn country are now being affected.
“It may indeed be that it’s in a population who simply cannot respond immunologically to yet another threat,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters Friday.
While no deaths have been registered in Burundi yet, Ngwakum stressed that many children in the region were already weakened by low immunity and underlying illnesses and “will need critical treatment to be able to avoid them from dying.”
The last time WHO declared a global health emergency over mpox was in 2022 when the original mpox clade 2 that had long been endemic in central Africa suddenly began spreading around the world.
That outbreak mainly impacted gay and bisexual men with more than 100,000 cases reported and 222 deaths, according to the WHO.
Ngwakum said the geographical area where the virus is spreading in Burundi remains limited.
With swift action “we can limit the spread, contain the virus, and potentially end the outbreak with no lives lost,” he said.
I “think this can be stopped within a very few weeks.”
UNICEF, he said, was urgently appealing for nearly $59 million to scale up responses across six African countries, including Burundi.
Immunization with vaccines originally developed for smallpox could help stem the spread.
WHO last week for the first time prequalified an mpox vaccine, the MVA-BN, and Ngwakum said UNICEF was working to procure doses for Burundi.
On Thursday, mpox vaccines were administered in Africa for the first time, with several hundred high-risk individuals receiving jabs in Rwanda.
The DRC has said it will begin its vaccination campaign on October 2.


Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says
Updated 23 min 16 sec ago
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Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says

Militants kill 6 Pakistani security personnel in attack, military says
  • The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group
  • Five assailants were killed in the encounter, which took place in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan

ISLAMABAD: Militants opened fire on a security post in northwest Pakistan late on Thursday, killing at least six personnel, the military said in a statement on Friday, saying it had foiled an attempt by the attackers to storm the premises.
The attack was claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) Islamist militant group, and was one of two fierce encounters along the border with Afghanistan between Thursday and Friday.
The South Asian nation is faced with a resurgence of attacks by Islamist militants in the northwest as well as an intensifying ethnic separatist insurgency in the South.
“Troops fought bravely, foiling the attempts of intrusion,” the military’s information wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement, adding that six security personnel were killed in an intense exchange of fire.
Five assailants were killed in the encounter, which took place in the restive tribal district of South Wazirstan, the statement added.
In a separate incident in the neighboring district of North Waziristan, the military said it had killed a group of seven militants attempting to enter Pakistan from Afghanistan, and recovered a large quantity of ammunition and explosives.
Islamabad says TTP uses Afghanistan as a base and says the ruling Taliban administration has provided safe havens to the group close to the border. The Taliban deny this.
The TTP is separate from the Afghan Taliban movement, but pledges loyalty to the Islamist group that now rules Afghanistan after the withdrawal of US led international forces from the country in 2021.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram warned the Security Council this week that the TTP, while currently perceived as a threat only to his country, could soon become the “spearhead of global terrorist goals” including of groups such as Al-Qaeda.


Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000

Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000
Updated 40 min 21 sec ago
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Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000

Media reports put Russian military death toll at 70,000
  • The toll comes from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media

Warsaw: The BBC and the independent Russian news site Mediazona said on Friday they had documented the deaths of around 70,000 Russian soldiers since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The toll comes from publicly available information such as official statements, death notices in the media and announcements on social media, as well as tombstones in Russian cemeteries.
“We have identified the names of 70,112 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine but the actual number is believed to be considerably higher,” the BBC said.
“Some families do not share details of their relatives’ deaths publicly — and our analysis does not include names we were unable to check, or the deaths of militia in Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine,” the British broadcaster added.
The same two organizations had put the toll at 66,000 in mid-August.
Mediazona and another independent Russian news site, Meduza, have also analyzed official data from notaries on inheritance cases.
This has led them to estimate that the military death toll could be much higher — at 120,000.
The toll is considered secret in Russia.
Ukraine also communicates very little about losses for fear of demoralizing its citizens after more than two and a half years of Russia’s invasion.
In February, President Volodymyr Zelensky said around 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died, although analysts and observers have said they believe the real number to be much higher.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the war had killed or injured a total of one million soldiers on both sides.
“A confidential Ukrainian estimate from earlier this year put the number of dead Ukrainian troops at 80,000 and the wounded at 400,000, according to people familiar with the matter.
“Western intelligence estimates of Russian casualties vary, with some putting the number of dead as high as nearly 200,000 and wounded at around 400,000,” it said.


Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse

Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse
Updated 20 September 2024
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Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse

Sri Lankans ready for first presidential vote since economic collapse
  • About 17 million out of Sri Lanka’s 22 million people are eligible to vote
  • Political polarization in Saturday’s election is highest in decades

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will hold its presidential election on Saturday in a vote that will decide the future of the South Asian nation struggling to recover from its financial collapse in 2022, which spurred a popular uprising and drove former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power.

In the two years since the worst crisis in history hit the country and Rajapaksa fled, his successor, current President Ranil Wickremesinghe, has managed to introduce policy reforms to obtain an International Monetary Fund bailout.

While the austerity measures he introduced — including tax hikes — eased the shortage of essentials such as food, fuel, and medicines, they did not help his popularity.

Wickremesinghe, 75, will nevertheless be among the main figures in the election running as an independent candidate.

A six-time prime minister belonging to the old guard, which Sri Lankans blame for the 2022 crisis, he will compete with over 30 candidates running for office. Among them are Anura Kumara Dissanayake, 55, the leader of a Marxist-led coalition National People’s Power, and Sajith Premadasa, 57, Wickremesinghe’s former deputy and the leader of the largest opposition party, the United People’s Power.

“The election is significant because there is a degree of ideological polarization that we have never seen in a Sri Lankan election, at least since pre-independence really, (since) 1947,” Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka, academic and Sri Lanka’s former envoy to the UN, told Arab News.

Elections have traditionally been contested between coalitions of center-right and center-left parties but in the upcoming vote, competition will involve a boarder political spectrum.

“The sitting president is a right-wing conservative, Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. And the main challenger is the leader of the opposition, Mr. Sajid Premadasa, who has repeatedly called himself a social democrat,” Jayatilleka said.

“He’s a moderate progressive of a centrist nature, running against a sitting right-wing president, on the one hand, and a former revolutionary, still Marxist-Leninist, Anura Kumara Dissanayake … on the other. This is very, very new for Sri Lanka.”

The fourth main contender is Namal Rajapaksa, the 38-year-old heir apparent to the Rajapaksa and the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa — Gotabaya’s brother who had served several terms both as Sri Lanka’s president and prime minister.

“Namal Rajapaksa is running for the presidency now, but he’s a serious contender for the presidency next time, in five years,” Jayatilleka said.

“This is a trial run … It’s aimed to retain the vote base of the Rajapaksas and their party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (Sri Lanka People’s Front) and prevent that vote from going with certain ministers of their party, who have defected to the side of President Wickremesinghe.”

Sri Lanka has a presidential system, in which the president heads the government and can appoint and dismiss the prime minister and the other ministers.

Almost 17 million of the island nation’s 22 million people are eligible to take part in Saturday’s vote, where they can select three candidates from the ballot paper.

The first preferences will be counted first and the candidate who secures more than 50 percent of the valid votes will win. If there is no clear winner, the first two candidates will be retained, and the ballot papers will be checked again to see if either of them was a second or third preference.

Those votes will be added to the tally of the two candidates and the one who receives the highest number will be declared the winner.

While the country’s economy is the key issue in the election, Dr. B.A. Husseinmiya, a Sri Lankan historian and former professor at the University of Brunei Darussalam, said there is also a need for change due to public disillusionment with mainstream politicians.

The mass protest movement that erupted in 2022 against then-president Rajapaksa and his prime minister brother, and forced both to quit, was what gave rise to the leftist National People’s Power.

“It’s a most historic occasion when an underdog like the NPP emerges so fast, which is (the result of) all the mistakes the past regimes have made,” Husseinmiya told Arab News.

“I think people everywhere are coming to believe that change is very important if you want to move forward.”