IT Blinken sostiene diritto dell’Ucraina di colpire in territorio Russo 🗞️ Rassegna del 24/05/2024

Israele

(New York Times) Israeli Forces Push Deeper Into Rafah

• Israel’s military said on Thursday that it was fighting in neighborhoods near the heart of the city of Rafah in southern Gaza, apparently expanding its campaign against Hamas in a week when Israel has faced mounting diplomatic and legal pressure over its war effort

• Around 815,000 people have already left Rafah as a result of the fighting and Israeli warnings to flee, the United Nations said this week, amounting to well over half the number of Palestinians who had crowded into the city in recent months to escape fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
   
• Israeli forces had dismantled several tunnels and killed fighters in “close-quarters encounters,” the military said. It was not possible to independently verify Israel’s account of the fighting. Hamas did not immediately comment on the fighting on Thursday.

Ucraina

(New York Times) Inside the White House, a Debate Over Letting Ukraine Shoot U.S. Weapons Into Russia

• Propelled by the State Department, there is now a vigorous debate inside the administration over relaxing the ban to allow the Ukrainians to hit missile and artillery launch sites just over the border in Russia — targets that Mr. Zelensky says have enabled Moscow’s recent territorial gains.
   
• The proposal, pressed by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken after a sobering visit to Kyiv last week, is still in the formative stages, and it is not clear how many of his colleagues among Mr. Biden’s inner circle have signed on. It has not yet been formally presented to the president, who has traditionally been the most cautious, officials said.
   
• Officials involved in the deliberations said Mr. Blinken’s position had changed because the Russians had opened a new front in the war, with devastating results. Moscow’s forces have placed weapons right across the border from northeastern Ukraine, and aimed them at Kharkiv — knowing the Ukrainians would only be able to use non-American drones and other weaponry to target them in response.

(Kyiv Independent) Ukrainian court releases first prisoners to join army under new conscription rules

• A court in Ukraine's Khmelnytskyi Oblast ruled on May 22 to release two prisoners who have volunteered to join the army, marking the first instance in which prisoners were freed from detention on the condition they enter military service.

• Ukraine's parliament passed a bill on May 8 that permits those convicted of certain offenses to serve in the military, paving the way for the voluntary mobilization of prisoners. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the bill into law on May 17.

• Justice Minister Denys Maliuska said earlier in May that Ukraine could fill its ranks with as many as 20,000 convicts in a move that would also help ease overcrowding in Ukrainian prisons.

• Under the new rules, the list of convicted citizens who were allowed to be drafted does not include those convicted of premeditated murder, sexual violence, drug trafficking and production, or crimes against national security. Based on suggestions of the anti-corruption parliamentary committee, the measure will also exclude lawmakers and top officials imprisoned for corruption, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.

Russia

(Kyiv Independent) Russia wants to unilaterally change maritime border with Lithuania, Finland in Baltic Sea

• Russia has unilaterally moved to change the maritime border with Lithuania and Finland in the Baltic Sea, according to a draft decree from May 21 published on the Russian government's website.
• Lithuania and Finland have not yet reacted to Russia's decision toward the maritime border, nor has Russia's unilateral decision been recognized internationally.
• Russia intends to appropriate inland sea waters in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and near the cities of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in Kaliningrad Oblast, according to a decree prepared by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

(New York Times) China Launches Military Drills Around Taiwan as ‘Punishment’

• China launched on Thursday two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan in what it called a “strong punishment” to its opponents on the self-governing island, after Taiwan’s new president pledged to defend its sovereignty.
• The drills were the first substantive response by China to the swearing-in of President Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing dislikes, in Taipei on Monday. Mr. Lai’s political party asserts Taiwan’s separate status from China, and in a high-profile inaugural speech, he vowed to keep Taiwan’s democracy safe from Chinese pressure.
• China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, had mainly responded to Mr. Lai’s speech with sharply worded criticism. But it escalated its response Thursday by announcing that it was conducting sea and air exercises that would encircle Taiwan and draw close to the Taiwanese islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin in the Taiwan Strait.