Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia

Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia
A man holds a large Ukrainian during a protest against Russian attacks on Ukraine at the Bolivar square in Bogota on April 2, 2022. (AFP/File)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia

Colombia seeks information on ‘mercenaries’ held in Russia

BOGOTA: Colombia’s government said Thursday it had asked Russia for information about the welfare of three of its nationals held by Moscow on suspicion of acting as mercenaries in Ukraine.

Two of the soldiers who had allegedly been fighting on the side of Ukraine reportedly disappeared in July while on their way home through Venezuela, a close ally of Moscow.

In late August, a court in Moscow said the two men — Alexander Ante and Jose Aron Medina — had been remanded in custody on charges of acting as mercenaries, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison in Russia.

The foreign ministry in Bogota said Thursday it had written to Moscow “seeking information on the legal status, current whereabouts and health status of the Colombian citizens.”

It said a third Colombian named Miguel Angel Cardenas was also being held.

The disappearance of Aron and Ante first became public in late July, when Aron’s family told Colombia’s El Tiempo newspaper the two had disappeared just before they were due to board a plane at Caracas airport for Bogota on July 19.

The next time they saw the pair was in a video released by Russia’s FSB security services on July 30, which showed them in Ukrainian uniforms, and then being interrogated in prison.

It was not clear how they had arrived in Russia, which is one of the few countries to have recognized Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s claim to have won a second presidential term in disputed July elections.

Venezuela’s opposition claims their candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia was the rightful winner, a claim backed by several Latin American countries, the United States and the European Union.

A friend of Ante’s family told El Tiempo the men were in Ukrainian uniform when they went missing in Venezuela, which borders Colombia.

Colombia, where the security forces have been combatting guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug cartels for over six decades, has one of Latin America’s largest armies.

Some retired soldiers have gone on to fight as mercenaries in foreign battlefields, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 2022, an unknown number has also enlisted with the Ukrainian army, trying to fight off a Russian invasion.

The relatives of several ex-Colombian soldiers have reported their loved ones killed, wounded or going missing in Ukraine recently.

Last month, leftist President Gustavo Petro’s administration tabled a bill in parliament to ban the training, financing and recruitment of mercenaries in the country.


Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine

Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
Updated 5 sec ago
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Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine

Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
Zelensky said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO“
Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election

DUBROVNIK: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Wednesday in Croatia for a summit with Balkan leaders as his country pushes for more military aid as it struggles to repel Russian advances.
But a key meeting with international allies planned for Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off a planned visit to Europe as millions were warned to leave their homes in Florida because of Hurricane Milton.
Zelensky announced his arrival in the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik on the X social media platform and said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO.”
Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election.
The heads of state, premiers and foreign ministers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkiye were to join Zelensky and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the talks.
The summit will show that the “whole region supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the fight for freedom,” Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
He pledged continuous “solidarity with Ukraine... including military support.”
The gathering in the Adriatic resort is the third “Ukraine-Southeast Europe” summit.
At the last one in Albania in February, Zelensky called for greater backing to help fend off Russian forces.
He has been pressing for more aid to counter Russia’s advantage in manpower and ammunition. Zelensky also wants clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies including the United States to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
A joint declaration at the end of the summit is likely to condemn Russian aggression, support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Zelensky’s peace plan, push to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine and support Kiev’s European integration and NATO membership, according to the media.
Zelensky was also to attend an international meeting of more than 50 countries to discuss military support for Ukraine in Germany on Saturday.
But the meeting at the Ramstein air base “is postponed,” the US military said in a statement, without specifying a new date.
Zelensky had also pressed for greater military support at the last Ramstein meeting in September.
The US presidential election in November could compromise the billions of dollars of support that Ukraine receives from its biggest backer.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and voiced skepticism over US funding for Kyiv.
Plenkovic, who carried out his third visit to Ukraine since the invasion in February 2022, said that in the past two years EU member Croatia’s aid to Ukraine, mostly military, totalled 300 million euros ($329 million).
The Balkans summit is Zelensky’s first visit to Croatia.
The Ukrainian leader is expected to sign an agreement with Plenkovic on long-term support and cooperation between the two countries.
It will focus on Croatia’s experiences in prosecuting war crimes and removing mines after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
But the meeting comes amid a domestic row between Croatia’s conservative government and President Zoran Milanovic over Ukraine.
Milanovic refused this month to back the government’s proposal to send Croatian officers on a NATO mission in Germany to train Ukrainian soldiers.
The president, who has limited powers but is the armed forces commander, said he would not allow Croatian soldiers to “participate in activities that push Croatia into war.”
The prime minister accused Milanovic of acting against national interests.
He called on lawmakers to reverse the president’s decision, which would require a two-thirds majority in a parliament vote.

Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence

Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
Updated 4 min 16 sec ago
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Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence

Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
  • Daniel Khalife is on trial accused of both the break-out and passing information to Iran for cash while posted in the UK and US
  • Details allegedly handed over by Khalife included the names of elite special forces personnel

LONDON: A former British Army soldier allegedly broke out of prison strapped to the underside of a food delivery truck while detained on suspicion of passing secret information to Iranian intelligence, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Daniel Khalife, 23, is on trial accused of both the break-out and passing information to Iran for cash while posted in the UK and United States.
Details allegedly handed over by Khalife included the names of elite special forces personnel, a court in southeast London heard.
Jurors were shown a photograph from Khalife’s iPhone of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers he had made, including their service number, rank, initials, surname and unit.
Khalife, who grew up in southwest London with his Iranian mother, joined the army in 2018 aged 16.
Six months after he was posted to the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford in central England, messages showed he was willing to gather information “to order,” prosecutor Mark Heywood told Woolwich Crown Court.
Nearly two years after signing up, Khalife in August 2020 spent an hour messaging a contact saved as “David Smith,” describing an internal military system which would identify service personnel.
He told his contact that he “won’t leave the military until you tell me to” before adding: “25+ years.”
Khalife allegedly remained in contact with Iranian handlers while posted to Fort Hood in Texas between February and April 2021.
During the posting he took a series of screenshots of systems marked “Secret,” including a password record sheet.
While there he was given the second highest level of NATO security, one below “cosmic top secret,” the jury was told.
Khalife denies the alleged prison escape and a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence.
He has also pleaded not guilty to gathering information of use to “a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
The case comes a day after the chief of Britain’s domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said MI5 had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots since January 2022 that presented potentially lethal threats.


Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership

Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership
Updated 11 min 33 sec ago
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Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership

Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership
  • Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join NATO

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that achieving a just peace in Ukraine would be impossible if Kyiv lost its neutrality by joining a bloc such as the US-led NATO military alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join NATO.
Zakharova, speaking about reports that the West was discussing an option in which Ukraine could join NATO in return for accepting Russian control over a swathe of Ukrainian territory, said that achieving a just peace in Ukraine would be impossible without ensuring that Ukraine’s status was neutral and non-aligned.
Zakharova said that what Moscow calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine was a reaction to NATO’s eastward expansion.


Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday

Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday
Updated 14 min 7 sec ago
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Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday

Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday
  • A calendar event sent by the Vatican to the media indicated a half-hour meeting between the pontiff and Ukrainian leader

ROME: Pope Francis will meet Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday at the Vatican, officials said, while media reported the Ukrainian leader would also meet Italy’s prime minister in Rome.
A calendar event sent by the Vatican to the media indicated a half-hour meeting between the pope and Zelensky beginning at 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on Friday at the Vatican.
Italian media reported that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would be meeting with the Ukranian president Thursday evening, although nothing has been officially confirmed.
Zelensky was in Croatia on Wednesday at a summit with Balkan leaders to seek international military support.
He had been due to attend an international meeting on UKraine at a US air base in Germany on Saturday.
But that meeting of more than 50 countries was pushed back Wednesday after President Joe Biden called off a planned state visit to Germany and Angola due to Hurrican Milton.


Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon

Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon
Updated 16 min 22 sec ago
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Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon

Marcos orders evacuation of Filipinos as Israel escalates deadly strikes on Lebanon
  • Around 1,000 Filipinos in Lebanon are waiting for the Philippine government to bring them home
  • Philippine officials say they are awaiting diplomatic clearances from Lebanese officials to evacuate Filipinos

MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered on Wednesday the evacuation of Filipinos in Lebanon as the Philippine government braced for an escalation of tensions in the region amid Israel’s invasion and increasing bombardment of civilian sites.

More than 11,000 Filipinos are living and working in Lebanon, which has faced a string of Israeli attacks that began in mid-September, with pagers exploding at shops and hospitals across the country, followed by relentless bombing targeting densely populated areas.

Israeli forces have killed more than 2,000 people across Lebanon and wounded over 9,800, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The UN estimates that over 1.2 million people across Lebanon have been displaced by escalating Israeli attacks, which include airstrikes and an expanding ground invasion that began on Oct. 1.

On Wednesday, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon could face destruction “like Gaza.”

Manila has so far evacuated at least 511 Filipinos, while around 1,000 who have applied for repatriation with the Philippine Embassy in Beirut are still waiting for the government to bring them to safety.

“We are now going to evacuate our people by whatever means — by air, or by sea,” Marcos said during a virtual meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by heads of key government agencies, including Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, National Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.

“Just make all the preparations so assets will be nearby. If we charter a ship, then it will be near Beirut so once the embassy gives us the clearance and they say that our people can go, we can bring them out as soon as possible,” Marcos said.

The government has yet to determine the method of evacuation due to the “evolving situation,” he added.

Manila has placed Lebanon under its “Alert Level 3” since last October, which calls for Filipinos there to voluntarily return home.

In the last few weeks, Filipino workers in Lebanon have been urging the Philippine government to speed up their repatriation amid deadly Israeli attacks escalating in the region.

But many are facing legal difficulties to do so, including permission from employers and official clearance to leave.

Teodoro told Marcos that the government is prepared to evacuate Filipinos but are waiting for the Lebanese government to give them clearance.

“We’re ready, willing and able (to repatriate Filipinos) at any time. We’re just waiting for the diplomatic clearances of the expatriates to be processed out of Beirut,” he said.