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Thousands rally in Slovakia to mark the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee

BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA — Thousands rallied across Slovakia on Friday to mark the seventh anniversary of the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee.

The rallies are part of a wave of protests against the pro-Russia policies of populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.

People in Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, observed a minute of silence to honor Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, both age 27. They were shot to death at their home in the town of Velka Maca, east of Bratislava, on Feb. 21, 2018.

The killings prompted major street protests unseen since the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. The ensuing political crisis led to the collapse of a coalition government headed by Fico.

Kuciak had been investigating possible government corruption, among other issues, when he was killed.

People applauded the parents of Kuciak and the mother of Kusnirova, who greeted them from the stage.

“I believe that our common fight will be successful,” said Jozef Kuciak, the father of Jan.

Marian Kocner, a businessman who had been accused of masterminding the killings, has been acquitted twice. Prosecutors have said they believe Kocner paid the convicted triggerman to carry it out and appealed.

The current anti-government protests are the biggest demonstrations since the 2018 slayings.

They are fueled by Fico’s recent trip to Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a rare visit to the Kremlin by a European Union leader since Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began almost three years ago and his recent remarks that Slovakia might leave the 27-nation EU and NATO.

“We’ve had enough of Fico,” people chanted.

The crowds at rallies in 47 towns and cities at home and 16 abroad, according to organizers, demanded Fico’s resignation.

About 10,000 protesters chanted “Resign, resign,” at Freedom Square in Bratislava.

Fico’s views on Russia have sharply differed from the European mainstream. He returned to power last year after his leftist party Smer (Direction) won a parliamentary election in 2023.

He has since ended Slovakia’s military aid for Ukraine, criticized EU sanctions on Russia and vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO. He declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an enemy after Ukraine halted on Russian gas supplies to Slovakia and some other European customers.
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Russian region holding Ukrainian Prisoners of War as ‘bargaining chip’

RFE/RL   — Iya Rashevskaya was told her husband — a member of the country’s armed forces – had gone missing in the frontline in the eastern Donetsk region, in April 2023. 

The news of Serhiy Skotarenko’s disappearance came just a month after he had joined the military, having given up his job abroad. 

Rashevskaya soon found out that her husband, a native of Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhya region, was alive and being held captive in Chechnya along with several other Ukrainian prisoners of war. 

A Ukrainian soldier who was released in a prisoner swap in June 2023 told Rashevskaya that he and Skotarenko had been held in the same jail in Chechnya. 

Rashevskaya recalls getting an unexpected, brief video call from her husband in August 2023. 

“My husband asked about me and our children. He also asked me to help him to return home, saying we were his only hope,” Rashevskaya said. “He looked awful, he has lost a lot of weight.” 

Ukrainian captives in Chechnya “were being held in a basement and survived on instant noodles, bread, and water,” according to Rashevskaya. 

Ukrainian authorities estimate that more than 150 Ukrainian POWs are currently being held in Chechnya, a Russian region ruled by authoritarian leader Ramzan Kadyrov. 

Kadyrov says the soldiers were captured by Chechen military units fighting alongside other Russian forces in Ukraine. 

But Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs has claimed that Chechnya also often “buys” Ukrainian captives from various Russian military units to use them as a bargaining chip in negotiations. 

RFE/RL cannot independently verify the claim. 

Some of the Ukrainian captives were exchanged with Chechen fighters seized by Ukrainian forces. 

Kadyrov, a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has sent thousands of Chechen fighters to Ukraine since the invasion began three years ago. 

In December 2024, Kadyrov threatened to use Ukrainian captives as human shields to protect strategically important buildings in Grozny from Ukrainian drone attacks. He said he would place them on the rooftops of buildings. 

He made the statement after Ukrainian drones reportedly hit a police campus in the Chechen capital. 

In January 2024, Kadyrov offered to release 20 Ukrainian captives in exchange for the removal of U.S. sanctions against his relatives and horses. 

Kadyrov, 48, and several of his family members, including his mother, Aymani Kadyrova, have been sanctioned by the United States and the European Union in recent years. 

Kadyrova, 71, is the head of the Kadyrov Foundation, which runs reeducation programs for Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces from occupied territories. Washington imposed sanctions on Kadyrova and the Foundation in August 2023. 

Kadyrov was sanctioned by Washington in 2017 and 2020 over accusations of human rights abuses. 

PR campaign for Kadyrov 

Chechen human rights lawyer Abubakar Yangulbaev says Kadyrov directly controls any prisoner swaps involving the Ukrainians captives in Chechnya. 

“While the Chechens fighting in Ukraine are part of Russian troops, Chechnya also has its own interests. It’s important for Kadyrov to secure the release of the Chechens captured in Ukraine to protect his own reputation before his people, whom he constantly calls to go to fight in Ukraine,” Yangulbaev told RFE/RL. 

“It is a PR campaign for Kadyrov,” he added. 

Chechnya has never released the exact number or Ukrainian POWs it holds. 

According to Maria Klimik, a reporter for the Ukraine-based monitor, Media Initiative for Human Rights, in some cases the Ukrainian and Chechen sides have swapped captured soldiers “informally” in the battlefields in Ukraine without involving a third party. 

Klimik told RFE/RL that Ukrainian POWs in Chechnya are usually held in dark, windowless basements of buildings – presumably police stations. Prisoners sleep on utility shelves as there are no beds in the basements, Klimik said citing accounts of former POWs. 

RFE/RL cannot independently verify the claims. 

In his New Year address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 3,956 Ukrainian soldiers had been freed in prisoners’ exchanges between Kyiv and Moscow since the beginning of the invasion. 

There has been no public mention of any direct prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Chechnya, as the families of the captives in Grozny call for their release. 
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Vance delivers warning to Europe at conservative gathering

Vice President JD Vance sketched his conservative view of foreign affairs Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, accompanied by foreign politicians who say they support President Donald Trump’s agenda. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell reports from Washington.
Camera: Anthony LaBruto
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Pope Francis’ health condition is stable, Vatican says

Pope Francis “had a restful night,” and Thursday morning “got out of bed and had breakfast in an armchair,” the Vatican said in a statement.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital last week with bronchitis, which then developed into double pneumonia.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni said Thursday that the pope now has focal pneumonia with limited areas of infection in the lungs. Bruni said Francis is breathing on his own, and his heart is stable.

An earlier statement Thursday reported the pope’s clinical condition as “stable,” and his blood tests had shown “a slight improvement, particularly in the inflammatory indices.”

Wednesday evening, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited the pope for 20 minutes in the hospital’s special papal suite.

“We joked as always,” the prime minister said in a statement afterward. “He hasn’t lost his proverbial sense of humor.”

Francis, whose birth name is Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has been the head of the Roman Catholic Church since 2013, when his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, resigned from the papacy.

In a recent memoir, Francis addressed the possibility of his own resignation if he became incapacitated. He said such a move would be a “distant possibility,” justified only if facing “a serious physical impediment.”

“We are all worried about the pope,” Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, head of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, told Agence France-Presse. Zuppi said, however, that the reports about Francis eating and greeting people are good indications that “we are on the right path to a full recovery, which we hope will happen soon.”

Speaking at a Vatican news conference about a Mediterranean youth peace initiative, Cardinal Juan Jose Omella Omella of Barcelona compared the papacy to a train to give reassurances that the work of the papacy will continue, even with Francis’ hospitalization.

“Popes change, we bishops change, priests in parishes change, communities change, but the train continues being on the move,” the cardinal said.

Some information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Azerbaijan suspends BBC

Azerbaijan’s government has ordered the suspension of the Azerbaijani operation of BBC News, the British news agency confirmed Thursday.

In a statement, the BBC said it had made the “reluctant decision” to close its office in the country after receiving a verbal instruction from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We deeply regret this restrictive move against press freedom, which will hinder our ability to report to and from Azerbaijan for our audiences inside and outside the country,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement.

The suspension comes after Azerbaijani state-run media last week reported that the Azerbaijani government wanted to reduce the number of BBC staff working in the country to one.

The BBC said it has received nothing in writing about the suspension from the Azerbaijani government. While the news agency seeks clarification, its team of journalists in the country have stopped their journalistic activities, according to the BBC.

Neither Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry nor its Washington embassy immediately responded to VOA’s emails seeking comment.

The BBC has operated in Azerbaijan since 1994. The news agency says its Azerbaijani service reached an average of 1 million people every week.

The BBC suspension marks the continuation of a harsh crackdown on independent media that the Azerbaijani government has engaged in for years.

Azerbaijan is among the worst jailers of journalists in the world. As of last week, at least 23 journalists were jailed in the former Soviet country in retaliation for their work, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

Many of the journalists jailed in Azerbaijan are accused of foreign currency smuggling, which media watchdogs have rejected as a sham charge.

Among those jailed is Farid Mehralizada, an economist and journalist with the Azerbaijani Service of VOA’s sister outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Jailed since May 2024, Mehralizada faces charges of conspiring to smuggle foreign currency and “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion and document forgery.” He and his employer reject the charges, which carry a combined sentence of up to 12 years behind bars.
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Ivory Coast takes control of last remaining French base

ABIDJAN, IVORY COAST — Ivory Coast officially took control of the last remaining French military base in the country Thursday as most French forces departed from countries across West Africa.

Some 80 French troops will stay in the country to advise and train the Ivorian military, Tene Birahima Ouattara, the Ivorian defense and state minister, said at a news conference with the French minister of the armed forces.

“The world is changing and changing fast,” Ouattara said. “It’s clear that our defense relationship also had to evolve and be based more on future prospects in the face of the realities of threats and those of a world that has become complex in terms of security, and not on a defense relationship inspired by the past.

“France is transforming its presence. France is not disappearing,” he said.

Ivory Coast’s announcement follows that of other leaders across West Africa, where the French military is being asked to leave. Analysts have described the requests as part of a broader structural transformation in the region’s engagement with Paris amid growing local sentiments against France, especially in coup-hit countries.

French troops who have long been on the ground have in recent years been kicked out of several West African countries, including Niger, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Chad, considered France’s most stable and loyal partner in Africa.

France has now been asked to leave more than 70% of African countries where it had a troop presence since ending its colonial rule. The French remain only in Djibouti, with 1,500 soldiers, and Gabon, with 350 troops.

After expelling French troops, military leaders of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have moved closer to Russia, which has mercenaries deployed across the Sahel who have been accused of abuses against civilians.

However, the security situation has worsened in those countries, with increasing numbers of extremist attacks and civilian deaths from armed groups and government forces.

The French government has been making efforts to revive its waning political and military influence on the continent by devising a new military strategy.
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EU approves $960 million in German aid for Infineon chips plant

BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Thursday it had approved 920 million-euro of German state aid, or $960 million, to Infineon Technologies for the construction of a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Dresden.

The measure will allow Infineon to complete the MEGAFAB-DD project, which will be able to produce a wide range of different types of computer chips, the Commission said.

Chipmakers across the globe are pouring billions of dollars into new plants, as they take advantage of generous subsidies from the United States and the EU to keep the West ahead of China in developing cutting-edge semiconductor technology.

The European Commission has earmarked 15 billion euros for public and private semiconductor projects by 2030.

“This new manufacturing plant will bring flexible production capacity to the EU and thereby strengthen Europe’s security of supply, resilience and technological autonomy in semiconductor technologies, in line with the objectives set out in the European Chips Act,” the Commission said in a statement.

The Commission said the plant — which is slated to reach full capacity in 2031 — will be a front-end facility, covering wafer processing, testing and separation, adding that its chips will be used in industrial, automotive and consumer applications.

The aid will take the form of a direct grant of up to 920 million euros to Infineon to support its overall investment, amounting to 3.5 billion euros. Infineon, Germany’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, which was spun off from Siemens 25 years ago, has said the plant will be the largest single investment in its history.

Infineon has agreed with the EU to ensure the project will bring wider positive effects to the EU semiconductor value chain and invest in the research and development of the next generation of chips in Europe, the Commission said.

It will also contribute to crisis preparedness by committing to implement priority-rated orders in the case of a supply shortage, in line with the European Chips Act. 
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Thousands without power, heat in Odesa 

Thousands of residents in Ukraine’s city of Odesa were without electricity or heating after Russia launched a massive drone attack for the second night in a row. 

In his address to the nation on Wednesday night, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said repair work was underway after 80,000 people lost power and the same number lost heating.  

Governor Oleh Kiper, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said drone strikes damaged an administration building and triggered a fire at a restaurant and a storage facility. One person was injured. 

During the Tuesday attack, four people were injured, including a child. Officials said 500 apartment buildings, 13 schools, a kindergarten, and several hospitals lost heating. 

In Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kupiansk, one person was killed Wednesday by a Russian guided bomb, Regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Two others were injured in an attack on a village south of the city. 

Guided bombs also hit an apartment building in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, the head of the city’s military administration posted on Telegram. Three people, including 13-year-old twins, were injured. 

One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s border region of Belgorod, the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Wednesday.   

Some information for this story was provided by Reuters 
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US figures do not support Trump claims on Ukraine spending

President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated a claim that the United States has spent $350 billion on Ukraine’s war — a figure that far eclipses the amount recorded by the Department of Defense and the interagency oversight group that tracks U.S. appropriations to Ukraine.

Since Russia’s illegal invasion in February 2022, the U.S. Congress has appropriated about $183 billion for Ukraine, according to the interagency oversight group that is charged with presenting reports to Congress.

Of that, the Pentagon confirmed to VOA that the U.S. has sent $65.9 billion in military aid to Ukraine, and an additional $3.9 billion that Congress has authorized in military aid to Kyiv remains unspent.

About $58 billion of the $183 billion in total aid for Ukraine was spent in the U.S., going directly toward boosting the U.S. defense industry, either by replacing old U.S. weapons given to Kyiv with new American-made weapons, by procuring new U.S.-made weapons for Kyiv or by making direct industrial investments.

VOA asked the White House to clarify Trump’s comments, specifically seeking any documentation for the mathematical discrepancy. The White House replied by referring VOA back to the president’s comments.

In a post Wednesday on his social media site Truth Social, Trump said, “Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn’t be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle.”

Zelenskyy on Wednesday told Ukrainian reporters the total cost of the war since February 2022 was about $320 billion.

“One hundred and twenty billion of that comes from us, the people of Ukraine, the taxpayers, and $200 billion from the United States and the European Union,” Zelensky said. “This is the cost of weapons. This is the weapons package — $320 billion.”

Trump, who has mentioned the $350 billion figure several times, also said in his Wednesday social media post: “The United States has spent $200 Billion Dollars more than Europe, and Europe’s money is guaranteed, while the United States will get nothing back.”

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a Germany-based nonprofit that tracks military, financial and humanitarian support to Ukraine, says European nations —specifically the EU, United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland — have allocated about $140 billion in total in aid for Ukraine, while the United States has allocated about $120 billion in total aid. Total aid includes military, humanitarian and financial aid to Ukraine.

The U.S. has provided about $2 billion more than Europe in military aid for Ukraine, but “European donors have been the main source of [total] aid to Ukraine since 2022, especially when it comes to financial and humanitarian aid,” the institute said in its latest report last week.

The aid to Ukraine constitutes a very small amount of GDP for several nations. For example, the U.S., Germany and the U.K. have mobilized less than 0.2% of their GDP per year to support Kyiv, while contributions from France, Italy and Spain to Ukraine have amounted to about 0.1% of their annual GDP. 

U.S. government math is complex, and spending is massive in scale. A live tracker of U.S. government spending says that the U.S. government has spent about $2.4 trillion in the early part of the 2025 fiscal year. The previous year’s spending was $6.75 trillion. 

Still, scholars were quick to dismiss the accuracy of Trump’s numbers.

“This figure is not true,” said Liana Fix, fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s possible to track how much the United States has spent for Ukraine.” 
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