Kosovo clashes: NATO-led troops put up barbed wire barriers after protests in northern towns - Sky News

NATO-led peacekeeping troops have put up metal fences and barbed wire barriers in a northern town in Kosovo after clashes with ethnic Serbs left 30 international soldiers injured.

The barriers have been erected after hundreds of ethnic Serbs started gathering in front of the city hall in Zvecan, a northern Kosovo town 28 miles north of the capital Pristina.

NATO has decided to send 700 more troops to northern Kosovo to help quell violent protests after the clashes on Monday.

Violence initially broke out in the north of the country over the weekend after ethnic Albanian mayors were installed in Serbian-dominated areas.

They were elected in a vote overwhelmingly boycotted by Serbs.

Some in the country have since made repeated efforts to take over the offices in Zvecan, where the mayors took up their posts.

Kosovo police fired tear gas to disperse Serbs who tried to block officials from entering municipal buildings in the town last week.

This has lead to clashes with NATO-led troops that left 30 international soldiers injured.

Read more:
Why tensions have flared up between Serbia and Kosovo?
Novak Djokovic sends political message about Kosovo

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A statement on Tuesday by the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) said 30 soldiers - 11 Italians and 19 Hungarians - "sustained multiple injuries, including fractures and burns from improvised explosive incendiary devices".

Three Hungarian soldiers were "wounded by the use of firearms," but their injuries were not life-threatening, the statement added.

Serbia's president Aleksandar Vucic has said 52 ethnic Serbs have been injured in the clashes.

Meanwhile, ethnic Serbs have insisted that both ethnic Albanian mayors and Kosovo police must leave northern Kosovo.

Serbia has put its military on the highest state of alert and sent more troops to the border with the country.

A former province of Serbia, Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence is not recognised by Belgrade.

Ethnic Albanians make up most of the population of Kosovo, but the country has a restive Serbian minority in the north of the country.

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Violence breaks out during Kosovo clashes

NATO's secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has condemned the violence in Kosovo, saying that "such attacks are unacceptable and must stop".

He warned that NATO troops "will take all necessary actions to maintain a safe and secure environment for all citizens in Kosovo".

He urged both sides to take steps to de-escalate, refrain from "further irresponsible behaviour" and to return to EU-backed talks on improving relations.

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2023-05-31 08:25:12Z
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How Russia is expected to react to the drone attack on Moscow - The Independent

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Russia suffered a surprise attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning when as many as 30 drones zeroed in on Moscow, bringing Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war to his own doorstep after 15 months of bloody conflict.

The country’s defence ministry has only admitted to sighting eight drones, all of which it says were shot down, causing only minimal damage and injuring just two people.

Even if that is true, the incident follows an assault on the Kremlin earlier this month and creates a problem for Mr Putin, who has so far largely been able to shield Russian citizens from the realities of the war.

Life has been allowed to proceed as normal in the capital but the sight of debris hitting some of the city’s most prestigious areas – including the grand Soviet-era Leninsky Prospekt Avenue and the Odintsovsky District, in which the wealthy elite, including Mr Putin, have residences – cannot have gone unnoticed.

Residents in southwestern Moscow reported hearing loud bangs at between 2am and 3am BST on Tuesday morning, followed by the smell of petrol, while some filmed the unmanned devices being downed in smoke over the city skyline.

“It is, of course, obvious that this is an attack by the Kyiv regime,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “And this must be absolutely clearly understood.”

Kyiv has itself been under siege from drone strikes by the aggressor in recent days, but Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak denied his side was behind the attack, adding drolly: “Of course, we are pleased to watch and predict an increase in the number of attacks.”

Mr Putin is said to have been briefed early on Tuesday about the strikes and continued working in the Kremlin, later saying only that the episode was intended to “intimidate” and “clearly a sign of terrorist activity”.

He will surely respond militarily, even if his initial instinct is to downplay the extent of the damage.

Writing on Telegram, Russian political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said the president’s eerie calm was about projecting the impression that he “isn’t afraid” because his control is “built on the idea that has been voiced more than once … [that Russians are] a patient people who will understand everything and endure everything”.

Mr Putin has so far left much of the sabre-rattling following the attack to others, such as lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein, who warned his countrymen: “The sabotage and terrorist attacks of Ukraine will only increase. It is necessary to radically strengthen defence and security measures, especially in terms of countering drones.”

Another politician, Andrei Kartapolov, told local media the attack was a Ukrainian endeavour “designed to create a wave of panic”.

Aftermath of Moscow drone attack

(Telegram)

Speaking to The Independent, Tim White, a Ukraine expert and journalist, commented: “Putin’s only response is violence, we’ve seen it time and time again.

“The problem is how much of his arsenal is left? I strongly suspect there was another large shipment of drones from Iran recently, hence the big uptick in drone strikes.

“But I believe this tactic is primarily to locate Ukraine’s air defence systems, especially its Patriot [missile] systems, and get Ukraine to exhaust its own air defence missile stocks. The Kremlin is not able to manufacture missiles as quickly as it is using them.”

Among the residents of Moscow, the episode is likely only to entrench existing attitudes towards the war, Mr White said, noting the stranglehold exerted by state media.

“I think opinion in Russia will be even more anti-Western rather than anti-Putin,” he said. 

“The absolute control of the media ensures most people believe the indoctrination, wrongfully describing Ukraine as a nation of Nazis.”

That observation has already been borne out, with one woman, Natalia, 59, telling news agency Reuters: “The Kyiv regime is already crossing all the lines. This is very sad, especially since they are directing these drones at residential buildings, at the city, at civilians, where there are no military facilities.”

More surprisingly, another resident told the same outlet: “All of this is because of our ruler. It’s no surprise it’s bounced back to here.”

As for what might happen next, Mr White is in little doubt that there will be a retaliation, perhaps targeting a region the Kremlin had expected to welcome its “special military operation” with open arms.

“My best guess is that there will be a strike on a city, masquerading as a military hit, with what we describe as ‘plausible deniability’,” he said.

“But it won’t be Kyiv, which is too well protected judging by the last month’s bombardment. Lviv is a target, but more at risk is likely to be Odesa or Mykolaiv in the south. These are areas that previously spoke almost exclusively Russian and Putin believed would welcome his illegal invasion.”

The Russian foreign ministry has already made threats to that effect, declaring: “Russia reserves the right to take the harshest possible measures in response to the terrorist attacks by the Kyiv regime.”

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2023-05-31 07:55:32Z
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North Korea says spy satellite launch crashed into sea - BBC

Reuters

By Jean Mackenzie in Seoul & Oliver Slow in London

BBC News

North Korea has said an accident happened as it planned to send up its first space satellite, causing it to crash into the sea.

Pyongyang announced earlier it planned to launch a satellite by 11 June to monitor US military activities.

It now says it will attempt a second launch as soon as possible.

The launch sparked a false alarm in the South Korean capital Seoul, while in Japan a warning was issued to residents of Okinawa, in the south.

There was chaos and confusion in Seoul as people awoke to the sound of an air raid siren and an emergency message telling them to prepare for an evacuation - only to be told 20 minutes later it had been sent in error.

The stakes are high on the Korean Peninsula, where tensions have existed between the two countries for 70 years, and this false alarm could seriously damage people's trust in the alert system.

North Korea poses a threat to South Korea, and if there is an alert in the future one question being asked is whether it will be taken seriously, or brushed off as another mistake.

Kim, a 33-year-old mother living in Seoul, told the BBC she was "very scared" when she received the emergency alert and started packing her bags to evacuate.

"I didn't believe there would be a war, but after the war in Ukraine it made me think that North Korea or China might invade [South] Korea," she said, adding she thought Pyongyang had "lost its mind" and launched an invasion.

In a press conference, Seoul mayor Oh Se-hoon acknowledged the emergency text "may have been an overreaction" but said "there can be no compromise on safety".

He said the city would improve its warning system to avoid confusion, AFP news agency reports.

South Korea's military said the rocket might have broken up in mid-air or crashed after it vanished from radar early. It released pictures of wreckage found in the sea.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said North Korea appeared to have fired a ballistic missile and that the government was analysing the details.

He added that there were currently no reports of damage following the launch. Japan said previously it was ready to shoot down anything that threatened its territory.

On Tuesday, Ri Pyong Chol, vice-chairman of North Korea's ruling party's central military commission, announced the launch plan, saying it was in response to "reckless military acts" by the US and South Korea.

He accused the countries of "openly revealing their reckless ambition for aggression".

The United States joined South Korea and Japan in condemning the launch, calling it a "brazen violation" of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.

"The door has not closed on diplomacy but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement," said Adam Hodge, National Security spokesman.

He added that the US will take "all necessary measures" to protect itself and its allies.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres also condemned the move, saying any launch by Pyongyang using ballistic missile technology was "contrary" to the relevant security council resolutions.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has identified the development of military satellites as a key component of his country's defence.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said the North Korean government "likely sees itself in a space race", and that whether or not its current satellite mission is a success it "can be expected to issue political propaganda about its space capabilities".

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Related Topics

• North Korea-US relations
• North Korea weapons programme
• Japan
• North Korea missile tests
• South Korea
• North Korea

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2023-05-31 04:45:39Z
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Ukraine war latest: Fire engulfs Russian oil refinery after drone attack - The Telegraph

A large fire that broke out at an oil refinery in southern Russia was caused by a Ukrainian drone strike, the local governor has claimed.

The fire at the Afipsky oil refinery was soon put out and there were no casualties, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

The refinery is close to the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, near another refinery that has been attacked several times this month.

It comes a day after a suspected Ukrainian drone fleet hit Moscow’s wealthiest neighbourhoods in the first apparent attack on civilian targets since the war began.

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2023-05-31 07:09:59Z
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Vladimir Putin vows retaliation for drone attack on Moscow - Financial Times

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2023-05-30 15:46:40Z
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Japan government under renewed pressure to end same-sex marriage ban - The Guardian

Pressure is building on Japan’s government to legalise same-sex unions after a court ruled that a ban on them was unconstitutional.

Rights advocates said the ruling on Tuesday by Nagoya district court was a step forward in the campaign to end Japan’s status as the only G7 country not to fully recognise same-sex unions.

It is the second time a court in Japan has ruled the ban unconstitutional, while two other courts have decreed the ban is in line with the postwar constitution, which defines marriage as based on “the mutual consent of both sexes”.

But the Nagoya court, ruling on a lawsuit filed by two men who are in a relationship, rejected the couple’s demand that the state pay each of them 1m yen (£5,715) in compensation for denying them the right to marry.

“This ruling has rescued us from the hurt of last year’s ruling that said there was nothing wrong with the ban, and the hurt of what the government keeps saying,” the couple’s lawyer, Yoko Mizushima, told journalists and supporters outside the court.

Mizushima was referring to a ruling in Osaka last year that the ban was not unconstitutional. A court in Tokyo later reached a similar conclusion but said the lack of legal protection for same-sex families violated their human rights.

While the courts cannot compel the government to act, the latest ruling is expected to reignite the debate over same-sex unions, less than a fortnight after it submitted an LGBTQ+ rights bill designed to avert criticism ahead of the G7 leaders’ summit in Hiroshima.

The government had promised to pass a law to promote “understanding” of LGBTQ+ people before the G7, but opposition from conservatives in the ruling Liberal Democratic party (LDP) forced it to submit a watered-down bill the day before the summit began.

The bill initially said “discrimination is unacceptable” but now says that “unfair discrimination” should not be tolerated – wording that campaigners said had rendered the legislation meaningless.

While lifting the ban on same-sex unions is opposed by “family values” conservatives in the LDP, opinion polls show public support for same-sex marriage as high as 70%.

More than 300 municipalities in Japan allow same-sex couples to enter partnership agreements – covering about 65% of the population – but their rights are limited.

Same-sex couples are unable to inherit their partner’s assets – such as the house they may have shared – and have no parental rights to any children their partners may have. Hospital visits are often possible only at the discretion of medical staff.

The prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has provoked anger by claiming that Japan’s ban on same-sex marriage was “not discriminatory” and that legalising it would “fundamentally change society” and challenge so-called traditional family values.

In February, he sacked a senior aide who said he “would not want to live next door” to an LGBTQ+ couple and did “not even want to look at them”.

Agencies contributed reporting

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2023-05-30 13:01:00Z
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Ten people killed after 'overloaded' bus falls into gorge in India - Sky News

At least 10 people were killed and 55 injured when a bus carrying Hindu pilgrims fell into a gorge in India.

The bus skidded off a bridge and fell into a Himalayan gorge near the city of Jammu in Indian-controlled Kashmir on Tuesday.

It was travelling to the town of Katra from Amritsar in the northern state of Punjab.

Those killed were from India's eastern Bihar state, police said.

Officer Chandan Kohli told reporters the bus was overloaded.

Image: The crash site Pic: AP

The passengers were visiting the shrine of Vaishno Devi in Katra, which is highly revered by Hindus. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims visit it every year.

India has one of the highest road death rates in the world, with thousands of people killed and injured annually.

Most crashes are blamed on reckless driving, poorly maintained roads and old vehicles.

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2023-05-30 08:07:53Z
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