УКРОПИ

Trump launches diplomatic blitz to end Ukraine war

Following a successful prisoner swap with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a multifront diplomatic blitz Wednesday to end the Ukraine conflict, saying he would meet with Russia’s leader soon and dispatching a vice president-led team to meet with Ukraine’s leader on Friday. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell catches up on the latest, from Washington.
…

Russia, Ukraine trade blame for IAEA disruptions at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

KYIV, UKRAINE — Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday accused each other of blocking the rotation of staff from the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. 

Moscow’s troops seized the facility, Europe’s largest nuclear power station, in the first days of its invasion of Ukraine. Both sides have repeatedly accused the other of risking a potentially devastating nuclear disaster by attacking the site. 

Staff from the U.N. nuclear watchdog have been based there since September 2022 to monitor nuclear safety. 

Fighting meant the IAEA staff could not be swapped out as part of a planned rotation on Wednesday, the second such delay in a week, both Kyiv and Moscow said, trading blame for the incident. 

Inspectors spend around five weeks at the plant in stints before being swapped out in a complex procedure that involves traveling across the front line under supervision from the Russian and Ukrainian militaries. 

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy accused Russia’s army of opening fire near where the planned rotation was taking place, saying Moscow’s goal was to force the IAEA team to travel through Russian-controlled territory and “violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” 

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Ukrainian army blocked the IAEA team from traveling to an agreed meeting point and were attacking the area with drones, at which point the Russian military withdrew its support team and returned to the station. 

“On their return, the convoy carrying Russian military personnel and IAEA experts … came under attack by drone and mortar strikes,” Zakharova said in a statement. 

The IAEA staff members were supposed to leave the station on Feb. 5 in a rotation that was also delayed. 

IAEA head Rafael Grossi was in both Ukraine and Russia last week, where he discussed the issue of rotations with officials from both countries.
…

RFE/RL journalist released from Belarus jail

WASHINGTON — A journalist with VOA’s sister outlet, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was released from Belarus on Wednesday, after spending more than three years imprisoned in a case that was widely viewed as politically motivated.  

Andrey Kuznechyk, a journalist with RFE/RL’s Belarus service, was released from Belarus on Wednesday, the U.S. special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, said. Two other individuals were also released, including a U.S. citizen, but Boehler did not specify their identities.  

RFE/RL President Stephen Capus welcomed Kuznechyk’s release and thanked President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Lithuanian government for their help in securing the reporter’s release. 

“This is a joyous day for Andrey, his wife, and their two young children. After more than three years apart, this family is together again thanks to President Trump. We are also grateful to Secretary Rubio and his team, and to the Lithuanian government for their support,” Capus said in a statement.  

Boehler said that the release was unilateral, meaning no one was swapped with Belarus in exchange for the prisoners. Boehler attributed the release to Trump’s commitment to securing the freedom of wrongfully detailed Americans abroad.  

“He has made bringing Americans home a top priority,” Boehler said. “The smartest thing you can do to curry favor with the president of the United States is bring Americans home.”  

Kuznechyk had been jailed since November 2021. He was initially sentenced to 10 days in jail on hooliganism charges, which he rejected. When Kuznechyk was due to be released, authorities kept him in prison and added an additional charge of creating an extremist group.

In a trial that lasted only one day, a regional court found Kuznechyk guilty in June 2022 and sentenced him to six years in prison.  

RFE/RL and the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees RFE/RL and VOA, consistently rejected the charges against Kuznechyk and called for his release. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the prisoners’ release from Belarus “a remarkable victory.” 

Belarus ranks among the worst jailers of journalists in the world. As of early December, at least 31 journalists were jailed there over their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  

Another RFE/RL journalist — Ihar Losik — has been jailed in Belarus since 2020 on charges he and his employer reject.  

“We remain hopeful that our journalist Ihar Losik will also be released and look to the Trump administration for its continued leadership and guidance,” Capus said in a statement. 

Three other RFE/RL journalists are currently jailed in Russian-occupied Crimea, Russia and Azerbaijan, all on charges that are viewed as politically motivated. 

The Belarusian government has embarked on a severe crackdown on independent journalists and other critics ever since longtime President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a 2020 presidential election that was widely viewed as rigged.  

More than 1,200 political prisoners are currently detained in Belarus, according to the rights group Viasna.
…

Evacuations in eastern Ukraine’s Pokrovsk as Russian forces inch closer                    

Ukrainian forces are trying to slow down an ongoing Russian advance toward the city of Pokrovsk in Eastern Ukraine’s Dontesk region. The Ukrainian government has been evacuating civilians from the region, but constant shelling is making it dangerous. Kateryna Besedina has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. (Camera: Artyom Kokhan, Anna Rice)  
…

US teacher returns home after being freed by Russia

U.S. President Donald Trump welcomed American teacher Marc Fogel to the White House late Tuesday after Fogel was freed from Russia where he had been detained since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country.

“I feel like the luckiest man on Earth right now,” Fogel said as he stood next to Trump.

Fogel praised the president, U.S. diplomats and lawmakers for working to secure his release.

“I am in awe of what they all did,” Fogel said.

Trump said he appreciated what Russia did in letting Fogel go home but declined to specify the details of any agreement with Russia beyond calling it “very fair” and very reasonable.”

Trump also said another hostage release would be announced Wednesday.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said earlier Tuesday the United States and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange. 

Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides. 

Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April. 

“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances. 

Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained.
…

Russia frees American serving 14-year marijuana sentence

Marc Fogel, an American teacher detained in Russia since August 2021 for bringing medically prescribed marijuana into the country, was freed by Moscow on Tuesday and headed back to the United States, the White House announced.

The 63-year-old history teacher, who had been serving a 14-year sentence, was expected to be reunited with his family in the eastern state of Pennsylvania by the end of the day.

He left Russian airspace aboard the personal aircraft of Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s foreign affairs envoy who helped negotiate his release.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia “negotiated an exchange” to free Fogel but gave no details about what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. In such deals in recent years, the U.S. has often released Russian prisoners that Moscow wanted in exchange.

Instead, Waltz cast the deal for Fogel’s release in broader geopolitical terms, saying it was “a show of good faith from the Russians and a sign we are moving in the right direction to end the brutal and terrible war in Ukraine,” an invasion Russia launched against its neighbor in February 2022, with hundreds of thousands killed or wounded on both sides.

Trump had vowed to broker an end to Russia’s war on Ukraine before taking office Jan. 20, but his aides more recently have said he hopes to do it within the first 100 days of his new administration, roughly by the end of April.

“Since President Trump’s swearing-in, he has successfully secured the release of Americans detained around the world, and President Trump will continue until all Americans being held are returned to the United States,” Waltz said. The recent release of six Americans held in Venezuela and Fogel’s freeing are the only publicly known instances.

Fogel had been traveling with a small amount of medically prescribed marijuana to treat back pain. Once convicted by a Russian court, he began serving his 14-year sentence in June 2022, with the outgoing administration of former President Joe Biden late last year classifying him as wrongfully detained.

Witkoff is a billionaire New York real estate executive and close friend of Trump’s. He previously had helped negotiate the six-week Israel-Hamas ceasefire in Gaza initiated by Biden in the last months of his presidency.

Witkoff also had been secretly negotiating the deal for Fogel’s release. Online flight trackers spotted his presence in Moscow when he flew there on his private jet.

With the U.S. leading the way in the West’s opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the first known trip to Moscow by a senior U.S. official since William Burns, then the Central Intelligence Agency director, flew to the Russian capital in November 2021, in an unsuccessful attempt to keep Russia from invading Ukraine.
…

EU, Canada vow to stand firm against Trump’s tariffs on metals

The 27-nation European Union and Canada quickly vowed Tuesday to stand firm against U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to impose 25% tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, verbal sparring that could lead to a full-blown trade war between the traditionally allied nations.

“The EU will act to safeguard its economic interests,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. “Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers.

“Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered — they will trigger firm and proportionate countermeasures,” she said.

Trump said the steel and aluminum tariffs would take effect on March 12. In response, EU officials said they could target such U.S. products as bourbon, jeans, peanut butter and motorcycles, much of it produced in Republican states that supported Trump in his election victory.

The EU scheduled a first emergency video on Wednesday to shape the bloc’s response.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland, which holds the EU presidency, said it was “important that everyone sticks together. Difficult times require such full solidarity.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a conference on artificial intelligence in Paris that Trump’s steel and aluminum levy would be “entirely unjustified,” and that “Canadians will resist strongly and firmly if necessary.”

Von der Leyen is meeting Tuesday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance in Paris, where they are expected to discuss Trump’s tariff orders.

“We will protect our workers, businesses and consumers,” she said in advance of the meeting.

Trump imposed the steel and aluminum tariff to boost the fortunes of U.S. producers.

“It’s a big deal,” he said. “This is the beginning of making America rich again.”

Billionaire financier Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to lead the Commerce Department, said the tariff on the imports could bring back 120,000 U.S. jobs.

As he watched Trump sign an executive order, Lutnick said, “You are the president who is standing up for the American steelworker, and I am just tremendously impressed and delighted to stand next to you.”

Trump’s proclamations raised the rate on aluminum imports to 25% from the previous 10% that he imposed in 2018 to aid the struggling sector. And he restored a 25% tariff on millions of tons of steel and aluminum imports.

South Korea — the fourth-biggest steel exporter to the United States, following Canada, Brazil and Mexico — also vowed to protect its companies’ interests but did not say how.

South Korean acting President Choi Sang-mok said Seoul would seek to reduce uncertainties “by building a close relationship with the Trump administration and expanding diplomatic options.”

The spokesperson of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said London was “engaging with our U.S. counterparts to work through the detail” of the planned tariffs.

In Monday’s executive order, Trump said “all imports of aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, EU countries and the UK” would be subject to additional tariffs.

The same countries are named in his executive order on steel, along with Brazil, Japan and South Korea.

“I’m simplifying our tariffs on steel and aluminum,” Trump said. “It’s 25% without exceptions or exemptions.”

Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament’s international trade committee, warned that previous trade measures against the U.S. were only suspended and could legally be easily revived.

“When he starts again now, then we will, of course, immediately reinstate our countermeasures,” Lange told rbb24 German radio. “Motorcycles, jeans, peanut butter, bourbon, whiskey and a whole range of products that of course also affect American exporters” would be targeted, he said.

In Germany, the EU’s largest economy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz told parliament that “if the U.S. leaves us no other choice, then the European Union will react united.”

But he warned, “Ultimately, trade wars always cost both sides prosperity.”

The European steel industry expressed concerns about the Trump tariffs.

“It will further worsen the situation of the European steel industry, exacerbating an already dire market environment,” said Henrik Adam, president of the European Steel Association.

He said the EU could lose up to 3.7 million tons of steel exports. The United States is the second-largest export market for EU steel producers, representing 16% of the total EU steel exports.

“Losing a significant part of these exports cannot be compensated for by EU exports to other markets,” Adam said.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
…

Vance tells Europeans that heavy regulation could kill AI 

Paris — U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Europeans on Tuesday their “massive” regulations on artificial intelligence could strangle the technology, and rejected content moderation as “authoritarian censorship.”

The mood on AI has shifted as the technology takes root, from one of concerns around safety to geopolitical competition, as countries jockey to nurture the next big AI giant.

Vance, setting out the Trump administration’s America First agenda, said the United States intended to remain the dominant force in AI and strongly opposed the European Union’s far tougher regulatory approach.

“We believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry,” Vance told an AI summit of CEOs and heads of state in Paris.

“We feel very strongly that AI must remain free from ideological bias and that American AI will not be co-opted into a tool for authoritarian censorship,” he added.

Vance criticized the “massive regulations” created by the EU’s Digital Services Act, as well as Europe’s online privacy rules, known by the acronym GDPR, which he said meant endless legal compliance costs for smaller firms.

“Of course, we want to ensure the internet is a safe place, but it is one thing to prevent a predator from preying on a child on the internet, and it is something quite different to prevent a grown man or woman from accessing an opinion that the government thinks is misinformation,” he said.

European lawmakers last year approved the bloc’s AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive set of rules governing the technology.

Vance is leading the American delegation at the Paris summit.

Vance also appeared to take aim at China at a delicate moment for the U.S. technology sector.

Last month, Chinese startup DeepSeek freely distributed a powerful AI reasoning model that some said challenged U.S. technology leadership. It sent shares of American chip designer Nvidia down 17%.

“From CCTV to 5G equipment, we’re all familiar with cheap tech in the marketplace that’s been heavily subsidized and exported by authoritarian regimes,” Vance said.

But he said that “partnering with them means chaining your nation to an authoritarian master that seeks to infiltrate, dig in and seize your information infrastructure. Should a deal seem too good to be true? Just remember the old adage that we learned in Silicon Valley: if you aren’t paying for the product, you are the product.”

Vance did not mention DeepSeek by name. There has been no evidence of information being able to surreptitiously flow through the startup’s technology to China’s government, and the underlying code is freely available to use and view. However, some government organizations have reportedly banned DeepSeek’s use.

Speaking after Vance, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he was fully in favor of trimming red tape, but he stressed that regulation was still needed to ensure trust in AI, or people would end up rejecting it. “We need a trustworthy AI,” he said.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen also said the EU would cut red tape and invest more in AI.

In a bilateral meeting, Vance and von der Leyen were also likely to discuss Trump’s substantial increase of tariffs on steel.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was expected to address the summit on Tuesday. A consortium led by Musk said on Monday it had offered $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit controlling OpenAI.

Altman promptly posted on X: “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want.”

The technology world has closely watched whether the Trump administration will ease recent antitrust enforcement that had seen the U.S. sue or investigate the industry’s biggest players.

Vance said the U.S. would champion American AI — which big players develop — he also said: “Our laws will keep Big Tech, little tech, and all other developers on a level playing field.”
…

EU’s AI push to get $50 billion boost, EU’s von der Leyen says

PARIS — Europe will invest an additional $51.5 billion to bolster the bloc’s artificial intelligence ambition, European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.

It will come on top of the European AI Champions Initiative, that has already pledged 150 billion euros from providers, investors and industry, von der Leyen told the Paris AI Summit.

“Thereby we aim to mobilize a total of 200 billion euros for AI investments in Europe,” she said.

Von der Leyen said investments will focus on industrial and mission-critical technologies.

Companies which have signed up to the European AI Champions initiative, spearheaded by investment company General Catalyst, include Airbus, ASML, Siemens, Infineon, Philips, Mistral and Volkswagen.
…

US senior advisers to talk with Zelenskyy on Munich sidelines

Senior advisers in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump are preparing to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, according to an Associated Press interview with retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg.

Kellogg, a special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said planning continues for talks with Zelenskyy at the annual conference. 

Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Kellogg are among those who could participate in the sideline conversations with Ukraine’s president, AP reported. 

Trump has been critical about how much the war is costing the U.S. and has said European countries should repay the U.S. for helping Ukraine. 

During his campaign, Trump said if he were elected president, he would bring a swift end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, but he did not specify how he would accomplish that. 

Recently, he has said that he wants to make a deal with Ukraine to continue U.S. support in exchange for access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.  

On Monday, AP reported the president said there are people currently working on a money-for-minerals-deal with Ukraine.  

“We have people over there today who are making a deal that, as we give money, we get minerals and we get oil and we get all sorts of things,” Trump said. 

Kellogg told AP that “the economics of that would allow for further support to the Ukrainians.”

Meanwhile, Russian drone attacks caused a fire in Kyiv, injured a woman in Sumy and damaged several homes, according to Ukrainian officials. 

The Russian military reported downing 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, including seven in the Krasnodar region.

Nobody was hurt as a result of the fire in Kyiv, which was sparked in a non-residential building, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

Five houses were damaged and a woman was reportedly injured in the northeastern city of Sumy, regional governor Ihor Kalchenko said on Telegram.

Material from the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse was used in this report.
…

On sidelines of AI Summit in Paris, unions denounce its harmful effects

PARIS — In front of political and tech leaders gathered at a summit in Paris, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a strategy on Monday to make up for the delay in France and Europe in investing in artificial intelligence (AI) but was faced with a “counter-summit” that pointed out the risks of the technology. 

The use of chatbots at work and school is destroying jobs, professions and threatening the acquisition of knowledge, said union representatives gathered at the Theatre de la Concorde located in the Champs-Elysees gardens, less than a kilometer from the venue of the Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence. 

Habib El Kettani, from Solidaires Informatique, a union representing IT workers, described an “automation already underway for about ten years,” which has been reinforced with the arrival of the flagship tool ChatGPT at the end of 2022. 

“I have been fighting for ten years to ensure that my job does not become an endangered species,” said Sandrine Larizza, from the CGT union at France Travail, a public service dedicated to the unemployed. 

She deplored “a disappearance of social rights that goes hand in hand with the automation of public services,” where the development of AI has served, according to her “to make people work faster to respond less and less to the needs of users, by reducing staff numbers.” 

Loss of meaning 

“With generative AI, it is no longer the agent who responds by email to the unemployed person but the generative AI that gives the answers with a multitude of discounted job offers in subcontracting,” said Larizza. 

This is accompanied by “a destruction of our human capacities to play a social role, a division into micro-tasks on the assembly line and an industrialization of our professions with a loss of meaning,” she said, a few days after the announcement of a partnership between France Travail and the French startup Mistral. 

“Around 40 projects” are also being tested “with postal workers,” said Marie Vairon, general secretary of the Sud PTT union of the La Poste and La Banque Postale group. 

AI is used “to manage schedules and simplify tasks with a tool tested since 2020 and generalized since 2023,” she said, noting that the results are “not conclusive.” 

After the implementation at the postal bank, La Banque Postale, of “Lucy,” a conversational robot handling some “300,000 calls every month,” Vairon is concerned about a “generative AI serving as a coach for bank advisers.” 

‘Students are using it’ 

On the education side, “whether we like it or not, students are using it,” said Stephanie de Vanssay, national educational and digital adviser of the National Union of Autonomous Unions (UNSA) for primary and secondary school. 

“We have indifferent teachers, worried teachers who are afraid of losing control and quality of learning, skeptics, and those who are angry about all the other priorities,” she said. 

Developing the critical thinking of some 12 million students is becoming, in any case, “an even more serious concern and it is urgent to explain how to use these tools and why,” de Vanssay said. 

The Minister of National Education Elisabeth Borne announced on Thursday the launch of a call for tenders for an AI for teachers, as well as a charter of use and training for teachers. 

“No critical thinking without interactions and without helping each other to think and progress in one’s thinking, which requires intermediation,” said Beatrice Laurent, national secretary of UNSA education. “A baby with a tablet and nursery rhymes will not learn to speak.”
…