RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces advancing daily in special op, everything going according to plan — Putin

Russian forces are moving forward according to plan, this year making daily advances in all areas, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with commanders of troops of military districts.

"Work is being carried out according to the plan approved and drawn up by the command of the battlegroup, by the General Staff. All the assigned tasks are being accomplished," the president said.

"Not only last year were - I want to say it again - all enemy counterattacks repelled, but also starting this year, our troops are constantly, daily, improving their position in every area," the supreme commander-in-chief said.

Putin opened his meeting with commanders of troops of military districts by extending his greetings on the occasion of Victory Day.

"I wished to do it in person, as I know that on [May] 9th, all of you must be and were at your workplaces, marking this holiday in a combat situation," the president said.

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian forces shell central Kharkiv, two injured, governor says

Russian forces shelled the central Shevchenkivsyi district of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, on Wednesday, injuring two people and damaging a five-storey building, the regional governor said.

Oleh Syniehubov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the two men were being treated in hospital.

Reuters was unable to independently verify battlefield reports.

Kharkiv has been a frequent target of Russian forces in recent weeks. Russian troops pushed their way across the border last week in northern parts of Kharkiv region and military officials say they have captured 12 villages.

** Zelenskiy postpones travel abroad as Russian troops enter Ukraine border town

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy postponed all his foreign trips as Ukraine's battlefield situation continued to deteriorate on Wednesday and Kyiv said fighting raged in the northeastern border town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region.

The capture of the town, 5 km (3 miles) from the border, would be Russia's most significant gain since it launched an incursion into the region on Friday, opening a new front in its invasion and forcing Kyiv to rush in reinforcements.

The assault keeps Ukraine's forces, also holding the 1,000- km (600-mile) front line in east and south, off balance ahead of what Zelenskiy has said could be a big Russian offensive. Moscow has been slowly making ground in the east for months.

"The situation is extremely difficult. The enemy is taking positions on the streets of the town of Vovchansk," Oleksiy Kharkivskyi, Vovchansk's patrol police chief, said on Facebook.

Dmytro Lazutkin, a spokesman for the defence ministry, said "some" Russian infantry groups had entered the town. Ukrainian troops later managed to "partially" push them back, the general staff said, but "defensive actions" raged in the north and northwestern outskirts.

A late-night report issued by Ukraine's General Staff said its troops had repelled four Russia attacks along the border, but fighting was raging near a string of villages. Troops "continued to carry out stabilising moves" near Vovchansk.

The report said heavy fire had prompted the military to reposition some troops near Kupiansk to the southeast, an area that has seen heavy fighting in recent months.

On Tuesday, the General Staff said troops had pulled back to new positions in the Vovchansk and Lukyantsi areas due to "a consequence of enemy fire and storming action".

Russia's defence ministry said on Wednesday its forces captured two more settlements in the region, bringing the total count to 12 since Friday. The latest were Hlyboke and Lukyantsi, it said, both about 25 km from Kharkiv's outskirts.

Police remained in Vovchansk and were continuing to evacuate people, Kharkivskyi said. Nearly 8,000 people have been evacuated from Vovchansk and border areas since Friday's assault.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY

Zelenskiy has postponed all his foreign travel planned for the coming days, his spokesman Sergiy Nykyforov said, after the Ukrainian leader held a daily conference call with senior military figures to discuss the situation in Kharkiv region and the supply of weapons.

Zelenskiy later confirmed the postponements himself in a post on the Telegram messaging app, saying that "all attention now is focused on our current defence operations".

Ukraine is trying to snuff out the assault in Kharkiv region, while holding the line against Moscow's main thrust in the eastern Donbas region and guarding against potential new border incursions.

The top military spy has warned that Russia had small groups of forces located to the north of Kharkiv region along its border with the Sumy region.

Ukraine's shortage of troops is compounded by months of delayed weapons deliveries, in particular from the United States, after Congress took six months to approve a major aid package.

"For Russians, now is actually a window of opportunity. ... The Russians feel it, they have accumulated enough resources," Serhii Rakhmanin, a lawmaker and member of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee for security and defence, told Reuters.

He said he expected the next three months to be the most critical for Ukraine, but anticipated that the situation would improve due to fresh weapons supplies, if they arrive in time.

The deteriorating situation in Kharkiv region coincided with a visit to Kyiv by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who said the U.S. was aiming to ensurethe speedy delivery of much needed weapons.

"We're rushing ammunition, armoured vehicles, missiles, air defences - rushing them to get to the front lines to protect soldiers, to protect civilians," he said.

Kyiv says the Russian assault into the northeast does not present an imminent threat to the region's city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest, which is home to 1.3 million people.

 

Tass/Reuters

After alleging his life and family were in danger, FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji, walked out on his job and the messy situation of Nigeria’s state security agents going feral on him. Their actions were not out of character. When a situation embarrasses one of the country’s many self-important “big men,” violence is always their resort. In this case, the big man with a punctured ego is the president’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila.FirstNews had written an unflattering story bordering on corruption and abuse of office about him, a civic action that turned out to be a mistake on the part of journalists who took the fact of Nigeria’s democracy as self-evident. For now, one cannot definitively state whether the case peaked with the editor’s resignation.

Some military men were said to have arrested Olatunji from his Lagos home. According to Olatunji’s narration of accounts, they arrested his wife and used her as bait to get to him. They (officers of the Army, Air Force and Defence Intelligence Agency!) burst into his home, bundled him into a van parked outside his house, and whisked him away. They blindfolded him and transported him to Abuja in a military helicopter. They also detained and tortured him. When confronted, they at first denied their involvement in his arrest. It was thanks to a sustained media campaign that Olatunji was later released. It probably helped too that the FirstNews management also apologised to Gbajabiamila stating that their report contained “falsehoods and fabricated stories handed out to us as facts by a misleading source.” Trouble is, in situations like this, you never know what constitutes a genuine apology and what was obtained under duress.

Several commentators have already addressed the issue of the journalist’s abduction. What I am curious about is the role of Gbajabiamila in all of these. Is he satisfied with the outcome? Is this how he is going to be resolving issues going forward? Notably, he was silent all through the saga (or maybe I just never came across his statement on the issue). However, we are Nigerians enough to know that the state agents would not deploy that much resources to arrest a single journalist if they were not acting on “orders from above.” The fact that he was publicly silent does not absolve his fangs of this venom.

As you might know, Gbajabiamilia is a trained lawyer with many years of practice in the United States. Yes, his career was blighted by professional misconduct but he was still a practitioner. Back home in Nigeria, he cut his political teeth by working among the breed of activists/intellectuals whose perpetual claims on the public never surpass their glorious days of challenging military despots. It is consequential of how we (mis-)attribute our freedom from autocratic government to these people that someone like Gbajabiamila eventually rose to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In short, Gbajabiamila is a man whose professional career and political credentials have been defined by the law—the rule of law, advocacy against an unruly order, and the making of the law.

So, why would a man like that fight supposed libel/slander through means that repudiate the law? Why did he abjure the path of pursuing a civil case and instead opt for the very “Gestapo” military techniques that negate the ethos of Nigeria as a democratic society? I am genuinely curious if, at any time during Olatunji’s saga, Gbajabiamila was struck by the irony of a lawyer/lawmaker defending his supposed integrity using brute despotic tactics. Is this not another instance of Nigeria as the quintessential Orwellian animal farm?

There are many disasters in Nigeria today, and Olatunji’s abduction illustrates some of them: those who boast they fought for democracy were never fully convinced of democracy’s true potential; those presently vested with power do not believe in the country enough to let us attain our true potential. At every turn, and every opportunity they get, they subvert our chances of becoming the nation where “peace and justice shall reign.” As it turns out, even the man who has worked with the law all his life does not even believe in the law enough to let the law take its course. He could have gotten FirstNews to apologise if he had filed a civil case in the court, won, and the judge ordered a retraction. Instead, he took a shortcut. For a country where insecurity is perpetually rife, security agents sure wasted resources to make a spectacle of the vindictiveness of self-vindication.

When you read the FirstNews report that triggered the abduction, what you see is a case of losing a needle and invoking Sango to help retrieve it. Ultimately, the expenditure of summoning a wrathful God will outweigh the value of what was initially lost. Like millions of Nigerians, I never even heard of FirstNews until the arrest of their editor. I had to go dig up the story online, and there it was: a wishy-washy and gossipy report that lacked substance. If there was any truth to that account, it was buried deep down in the shallowness of that reporting.

You look at the article now gleefully republished on the internet and wonder, what is it about this tripe that triggered the autocratic instincts of a lawyer, lawmaker, former Speaker, and Chief of Staff to the President? It really does not take much for people with really small feathers to have them ruffled. Then you look at the whole situation again and it suddenly gets clearer why Nigeria is in a state of administrative mess: our leaders are not busy enough. Those who are tasked with carrying the elephant of national responsibilities on their heads are obsessed with using their toes to dig up crickets in the soil of Nigeria’s decaying media institutions.

Meanwhile, by descending on Olatunji so high-handedly, reasonable people are left wondering why anyone would move a muscle over something so forgettable. It had to have triggered something in a seared conscience. While we will never know the truth of what happened, the overreaction suggests that there must be a raging fire underneath the wispy smoke ofFirstNews’ report.

Olatunji’s story is yet another lesson for Nigerians who accede when government officials advocate more social media regulation. Now you can see that when people like Gbajabiamila go around whipping up a moral panic around social media, claiming social media is a menace that must be regulated, what they are actually doing is putting themselves beyond incrimination when they take certain extrajudicial actions like abducting and torturing a journalist. What they are trying to achieve by disseminating such glaring nonsense is a situation where they can justify themselves when they express their own unregulated power. Do not be beguiled, the real menace to society is those unaccountable to no one and who will observe no limits in their expression of coercive force.

Nigeria is a place where virtually everyone with a modicum of power does not hesitate to rain down abuses by using state-invested power, and here is another frightening instance. What is far more annoying is how the same state security agents who cannot protect us against crime, terrorism, banditry, and all sorts somehow always have enough resources to salvage the ego of the big man who is apparently too soft-skinned to take public criticism. For Nigerian soldiers who make videos to complain they fight Boko Haram and bandits without sufficient resources to fly a non-violent “offender” in a military helicopter shows an abject lack of seriousness in their organisation. But that imprudence is the nature of our democracy. There are never enough resources to do any public good, but they somehow manage to privatise the little that exists to assuage the feelings of puny gods who want their feelings worshipped.

 

Punch

Dropping your prices to get more customers may not lead to more profit. While this approach may have benefits in the short term, pricing psychology research reveals that lowering your prices too much can negatively impact your customer satisfaction scores and brand perception.  

Years ago, I had the chance to learn valuable lessons about pricing psychology from Brad Fallon, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur with whom I interned as a college senior.

Brad and his wife co-founded MyWeddingFavors.com in 2004. Within two years, they had turned a $2,000 investment into $32 million.

Following this success, Brad launched StomperNet, an internet marketing company, which made $12 million in 12 hours, setting a record for the highest launch day sales for an information product up to that point in history.  

Brad's insights about pricing psychology were deep because, among other things, he sold digital products. Persuading people (especially in the early 2000s) to pay a high price tag for information products is hard because you're selling an intangible solution. 

Among the most valuable lessons I gleaned from him and others about pricing psychology is this: How consumers evaluate value, the worth of a product or service, is subjective and rarely rational. 

I'll give you an example. 

Mind over matter

In a 2008 study, participants were asked to rate wines at different price points while inside an MRI scanner, which allowed researchers to observe their brain activity. Ultimately, participants rated the wines with the heftier price tag as the best tasting.  

Researchers saw more activity in participants' orbitofrontal cortex, the brain region that processes pleasure, when people drank the pricer wines.

But here's the kicker: It was all the same wine. The only difference? The price tag. 

People believed the pricier wine tasted better and was of higher quality. As they say, perception is reality.

A pricey perspective

These insights relate to profit margins. You may have set your prices using competitive analysis or a cost-plus model. 

Competitive pricing means setting your rates based on your competitors' pricing, while cost-plus pricing involves adding a markup to your production costs to create a profit margin.

While these pricing strategies are useful, they have a drawback: They fail to consider your customers' perceptions of value and what they're willing to pay.  

In other words, these two pricing strategies overlook the most valuable person in a pricing conversation: your customer, the one who's paying you. 

Van Westendorp

Luckily, tools like the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter, developed by a Dutch economist in the 1970s, can be invaluable for analyzing what your customers would be willing to pay for your product or service.  

It can help you find the optimal price range by asking your target audience four simple questions in a survey:  

• At what price is this product or service too cheap?
• At what price is this product or service a good value or bargain?
• At what price is this product or service getting expensive but still worth considering?
• At what price is this product or service too expensive?

As you gain insight into what your customers are willing to pay for your goods and services--and why--you may discover something: Their beliefs about your solution's value and how much they're willing to pay for it may surprise you. 

It could be better or worse than you think. And it would be hard to uncover these insights with other pricing strategies. 

So use the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter to reduce the risk of underpricing or overpricing your products and services.  

Whether you're selling wine or wedding favors online, never underestimate the power perception and psychology play in shaping people's buying behavior. 

To overlook this would be a big price to pay.

 

Inc

President Bola Tinubu has officially received the report from the High Powered Presidential Committee (HPPC) on Nigeria’s Extended Continental Shelf Project. He commended the committee’s experts for their diligent efforts over the years to extend Nigeria’s maritime boundaries under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982.

At a presentation in Abuja, marine scientist Larry Awosika and Committee Secretary Aliyu Omar delivered technical details about the project. Since Nigeria's initial submission to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) in 2009, the team has worked tirelessly to gain approval for extending Nigeria's continental shelf.

The experts informed Tinubu that the UN has now approved Nigeria’s submission, granting the country sovereignty over an additional 16,300 square kilometres of maritime territory—about five times the size of Lagos State.

Omar highlighted that the official notification from the CLCS was received in August 2023, shortly after Tinubu took office. He outlined two options for Nigeria: finalizing registration with the UN Secretary-General, which would take about a year, or gathering more data and making a revised submission, which could extend the process by four years.

Awosika, a professor, detailed the scientific research and diplomatic efforts involved in securing the approval, emphasizing the economic potential of the new territory, including hydrocarbons, gas, solid minerals, and various marine species. He also cautioned against fully disclosing sensitive survey data to protect confidentiality and potential economic benefits.

Tinubu expressed his gratitude to the experts, underscoring the importance of this achievement for Nigeria's economic and strategic interests. He noted the peaceful means by which the additional territory was gained and emphasized the need to explore and capitalize on this new maritime expanse.

"This is a significant achievement for Nigeria," Tinubu remarked, recalling discussions with former President Muhammadu Buhari and other global leaders about the project's importance. He expressed pride in the team's success and reiterated Nigeria's commitment to pursuing the best options for the country's benefit.

The meeting was attended by Hassan Tukur, chairman of the HPPC, Chief of Staff to the President Femi Gbajabiamila, and the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Adegboyega Oyetola.

Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

May 14, 2024

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has criticized African countries, including Nigeria, for adopting Western liberal democracy, describing it as a mistake. Obasanjo made these remarks on Monday during a meeting with members of the House of Representatives advocating for the reintroduction of the parliamentary system of government in Nigeria. The lawmakers, led by Minority Leader Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), met with Obasanjo at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja as part of their campaign to transition Nigeria from its current presidential system to a parliamentary one.

Obasanjo, who oversaw the implementation of the American-style presidential system in the 1979 Constitution during his tenure as military head of state, expressed his support for the lawmakers' initiative. He was later elected as president in 1999 and served for eight years.

In his address, Obasanjo argued that Western liberal democracy is inconsistent with African values and history. He noted that Western democracy, with its concept of "loyal opposition," is a product of European culture and monarchical traditions, which do not align with African political systems. "We ruled ourselves before colonialism with empires and kingdoms, not through opposition," Obasanjo stated. He proposed that Africa should develop its own form of democracy, which he termed "afro-democracy."

Regarding the lawmakers' proposal, Obasanjo advised them to avoid using the term "parliamentary system" and instead advocate for a homegrown democratic model. He emphasized the need for a strategic and long-term approach to gain widespread support for the change.

In response, Kingsley Chinda explained that the term "parliamentary" was used due to the lack of a better term, but assured that their proposed system is uniquely tailored for Nigeria. Abdulsamad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), the group's spokesperson, announced plans for a national dialogue on the project, scheduled for July 1.

The push for a parliamentary system by the Parliamentary Group aims to return Nigeria to the governmental structure it had before the 1966 coup, which saw a military takeover and the suspension of civil governance until the reintroduction of democracy in 1979. The group's proposal includes the establishment of a prime minister as the head of government, accountable to the legislature, thus fostering a closer relationship between the executive and legislative branches for more efficient governance.

The lawmakers have introduced several constitutional amendment bills to facilitate this transition, targeting 2031 for the implementation of their proposed changes.

Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, has criticized the current state of the Nigerian judiciary, calling it weak and compromised by the executive branch and the highest bidder. Speaking at the Justice Anthony Aniagolu Memorial Lecture organized by the Aniagolu family and hosted by Godfrey Okoye University (GOUNI) in Enugu, Obi reflected on his past experiences with the judiciary when it was more robust and independent.

During his lecture titled “The Judiciary and The Future of Nigeria,” Obi recounted his political battles in Anambra State. He explained that after winning the governorship election, another candidate was declared the winner, prompting him to seek justice in court. "I spent three years in court, and justice was given to me. After a few months, I was impeached, but the judiciary restored me to power. After one year in office, another election was conducted, and a different person was elected. I went to the Supreme Court, where judges with respect for the rule of law reinstated me to complete my tenure," Obi said, attributing these successes to incorruptible and independent judges.

Obi lamented that such jurists are rare in today's Nigeria, asserting, "Our judiciary is weak and compromised by the executive and the highest bidder."

He emphasized that the future of society is at risk because the judiciary's independence has been undermined. "We need a strong judiciary to fight criminality. The rule of law is the foundation on which any society survives and develops, and the only thing that makes it sacrosanct is the independence of the judiciary. A strong judiciary is essential for businesses, investments, and democracy to thrive," Obi stated.

He argued that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not Nigeria's primary problem but rather the judiciary, which often disappoints those seeking justice. Obi noted that weak institutions result from a lack of a strong judiciary where litigants can report wrongdoings and expect fair outcomes.

As a solution, Obi advocated for the judiciary's independence and non-interference from the executive. He highlighted his own tenure as governor, during which he refrained from appointing judges, leaving that responsibility to the Chief Judge. "I bought cars for them but never appointed any judge throughout my tenure," he noted.

Obi also praised Justice Anthony Aniagolu's exemplary life and career, noting his significant contributions to Nigerian law.

Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah, represented by Health Commissioner Emmanuel Obi, described the lecture as timely and highlighted the state's efforts to create an enabling environment for businesses through legal reforms.

GOUNI Vice Chancellor Christian Anieke lauded Aniagolu as an "erudite jurist and incorruptible judge" and thanked Obi for delivering the memorial lecture, noting the shared values and commitment to integrity and democracy between Obi and the late Aniagolu.

Chukwuemeka Aniagolu, the late jurist's son, expressed gratitude to Obi, the university, and the guests for honoring his father’s legacy and contributions to Nigeria's judiciary.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled a bundle of steep tariff increases on an array of Chinese imports including electric vehicle (EV) batteries, computer chips and medical products, risking an election-year standoff with Beijing in a bid to woo voters who give his economic policies low marks.

China immediately vowed retaliation. Its commerce ministry said Beijing was opposed to the U.S. tariff hikes and would take measures to defend its interests, urging the United States to cancel the measures.

Biden will keep tariffs put in place by his Republican predecessor Donald Trump while ratcheting up others, including a quadrupling of EV duties to over 100% and doubling the duties on semiconductor tariffs to 50%, the White House said in a statement. It cited "unacceptable risks" to U.S. economic security posed by what it considers unfair Chinese practices that are flooding global markets with cheap goods.

The new measures affect $18 billion in imported Chinese goods including steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, critical minerals, solar cells and cranes, the White House said.

The announcement confirmed earlier Reuters reporting.

The United States imported $427 billion in goods from China in 2023 and exported $148 billion to the world's No. 2 economy, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, a trade gap that has persisted for decades and become an ever more sensitive subject in Washington.

"China's using the same playbook it has before to power its own growth at the expense of others by continuing to invest, despite excess Chinese capacity and flooding global markets with exports that are underpriced due to unfair practices," Biden economic adviser Lael Brainard told reporters on a conference call.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the revised tariffs were justified because China was stealing U.S. intellectual property. But Tai recommended tariff exclusions for hundreds of industrial machinery import categories from China, including 19 for solar product manufacturing equipment.

Financial market reaction was muted. U.S. stock index futures were little changed. The announcement came after Chinese markets closed for the day, but in U.S. premarket trading shares of Chinese EV makers Li Auto (2015.HK) and Xpeng (9868.HK) were around 3% lower. Treasury yields were fairly flat, suggesting little worry that the move would aggravate U.S. consumer price pressures.

FREE TRADE NO MORE

Even as Biden's steps fell in line with Trump's premise that tougher trade measures are warranted, the Democrat took aim at his opponent in November's election.

The White House said Trump's 2020 trade deal with China did not increase American exports or boost American manufacturing jobs, and it said the 10% across-the-board tariffs on goods from all points of origin that Trump has proposed would frustrate U.S. allies and raise prices. Trump has floated tariffs of 60% or higher on all Chinese goods.

Administration officials said their measures are "carefully targeted," combined with domestic investment, plotted with close allies and unlikely to worsen a bout of inflation that has already angered U.S. voters and imperiled Biden's re-election bid.

Biden has struggled to convince voters of the efficacy of his economic policies despite a backdrop of low unemployment and above-trend economic growth. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last month showed Trump had a 7 percentage-point edge over Biden on the economy.

Analysts have warned that a trade tiff could raise costs for EVs overall, hurting Biden's climate goals and his aim to create manufacturing jobs.

Biden has said he wants to win this era of competition with China but not to launch a trade war. He has worked in recent months to ease tensions in one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Both 2024 U.S. presidential candidates have departed from the free-trade consensus that once reigned in Washington, a period capped by China's joining the World Trade Organization in 2001. Trump's broader imposition of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency kicked off a tariff war with China.

As part of the long-awaited tariff update, Biden will increase tariffs this year under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 from 25% to 100% on EVs, bringing total duties to 102.5%, from 7.5% to 25% on lithium-ion EV batteries and other battery parts and from 25% to 50% on photovoltaic cells used to make solar panels. Some critical minerals will have their tariffs raised from nothing to 25%.

The tariffs on ship-to-shore cranes will rise to 25% from zero, those on syringes and needles will rise to 50% from nothing now and some personal protective equipment (PPE) used in medical facilities will rise to 25% from as little as 0% now. Shortages in PPE made largely in China hampered the United States' Covid-19 response.

More tariffs will follow in 2025 and 2026 on semiconductors, as well as lithium-ion batteries that are not used in electric vehicles, graphite and permanent magnets as well as rubber medical and surgical gloves.

A step Biden previously announced to raise tariffs on some steel and aluminum productswill take effect this year, the White House said.

A number of lawmakers have called for massive hikes on Chinese vehicle tariffs or an outright ban over data privacy concerns. There are relatively few Chinese-made light-duty vehicles being imported now.

The United Auto Workers, a politically important union that endorsed Biden, said the tariff moves would ensure that "the transition to electric vehicles is a just transition."

 

Reuters

Israeli tanks push deeper into Rafah; battles rage in northern Gaza

Israeli tanks pushed deeper into Rafah on Tuesday, reaching some residential areas of the southern Gazan border city where more than a million people had sought shelter, and its forces pounded the enclave's north in some of the fiercest attacks in months.

Israel's international allies and aid groups have repeatedly warned against a ground incursion into Rafah, where many Palestinians fled and Israel says four Hamas battalions are holed up. Israel says it must root out the remaining fighters.

The White House said U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan will visit Israel and Saudi Arabia this weekend. The Biden administration declined to comment on a report by Axios that Israel agreed not to expand its Rafah operation significantly before Sullivan's visit.

A U.S. official who declined to be identified told Reuters that Israel promised not to make a major move in Rafah without advising Washington.

Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said in a briefing that Israeli forces had killed about 100 militant fighters, located 10 tunnel routes and found many weapons in Rafah since the start of the operation a week ago.

Fighting has intensified elsewhere across the Gaza Strip in recent days, including in the north, with the Israeli military returning to areas where it had claimed to have already dismantled Hamas. The clashes on Tuesday were the fiercest in months, residents and militant sources said.

"We are operating with determination in all three parts of the Gaza Strip. Forces from the air, land and sea are simultaneously striking terrorist targets," Hagari said, referring to the enclave's north, centre and south.

The Palestinian death toll in the war has now surpassed 35,000, according to Gaza health officials, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. They said that 82 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, the highest death toll in a single day in many weeks.

Fierce gun battles raged late on Tuesday in northern Gaza's Jabalia, a sprawling refugee camp built for displaced Palestinians 75 years ago. "Many people are being trapped in their houses," Nasser, 57, a father of six, said by phone.

Israel killed about 80 militant fighters and destroyed rocket launchers and weapons manufacturing facilities in the heart of Jabalia on Tuesday, Hagari said. He said 13 Israeli soldiers were injured on Tuesday, four seriously.

In Gaza City, also in the enclave's north, an Israeli air strike on a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood killed four people and wounded several others late on Tuesday, medics said.

In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, Israeli bulldozers demolished houses to make a new road for tanks. The Israeli military said it had eliminated about 150 fighters and destroyed 80 structures used by Hamas there.

With fighting intensifying, Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, mediated by his country and Egypt, were at a stalemate.

 

Reuters

 

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Putin backs China's Ukraine peace plan, says Beijing understands the conflict

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview published early on Wednesday, said he backed China's plan for a peaceful settlement of the Ukraine crisis, saying Beijing had a full understanding of what lay behind the crisis.

Putin, speaking to China's Xinhua news agency ahead of his visit to Beijing this week, said Russia remained open to dialogue and talks to solve the more than two-year-old conflict.

China's plan and further "principles" made public by President Xi Jinping last month took account of factors behind the conflict, Putin said.

"We are positive in our assessment of China's approach to solving the Ukrainian crisis," Putin said, according to a Russian-language transcript on the Kremlin website. "In Beijing, they truly understand its root causes and its global geopolitical meaning."

And the additional principles, set down by Xi in talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, were "realistic and constructive steps" that "develop the idea of the necessity to overcome the cold war mentality".

Beijing put forward a 12-point paper more than a year ago that set out general principles for ending the war, but did not get into specifics.

It received a lukewarm reception at the time in both Russia and Ukraine, while the U.S. said China was presenting itself as a peacemaker but reflecting Russia's "false narrative" and failing to condemn its invasion.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov last month called the proposal a "reasonable plan that the great Chinese civilization proposed for discussion."

Xi's additional principles call for a "cooling down" of the situation, conditions for restoring peace and creating stability and minimising the impacts on the world economy.

Russia views the conflict as a struggle pitting it against the "collective West" which took no account of Moscow's security concerns by promoting the eastward expansion of NATO and military activity close to its borders.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.

Russia and China proclaimed a "no limits" relationship just days before Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Beijing has so far avoided providing actual weapons and ammunition for Russia's war effort.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's peace plan calls for a withdrawal of Russian troops, the restoration of its 1991 post-Soviet borders and bringing Russia to account for its actions.

A "peace summit" is scheduled for Switzerland in June. But Russia is not invited, dismisses the initiative as meaningless and says talks must take account of "new realities".

China has attended some preparatory talks for the summit and Ukraine has deployed great efforts to persuade it to attend.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

‘No’ deal between Moscow and Kiev – London

Britain will not support any solution to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine that involves what it sees as concessions to Moscow, Defense Secretary Grant Chapps told Times Radio on Tuesday.

The UK has been among the largest arms donors to Kiev. In recent weeks, London has stepped up its rhetoric by saying that the British weapons supplied to Ukraine may be used for attacks deep inside Russia. Moscow recently summoned the UK ambassador over the matter and warned of possible retaliation, including strikes targeting “any British military facilities and equipment” in Ukraine and beyond.

Earlier on Tuesday, Chapps confirmed that Kiev could use British-supplied weapons to strike Russia’s Crimean Peninsula. London considers the region, which joined Russia in 2014 following a referendum, to be an “integral part of Ukraine,” the defense secretary stated.

When asked by Times Radio about whether London would consider any agreement between Moscow and Kiev, Chapps simply answered: “No.” He then further elaborated that the UK sees “no sense at all” in persuading or “strong-arming” Ukraine into accepting any peace conditions and “giving up some of their territory.”

Apart from Crimea, four other former Ukrainian territories – two Donbass Republics and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions – joined Russia in autumn 2022 following a series of referendums. Kiev branded the votes a “sham”and claims as its own all four regions and Crimea.

On Tuesday, Chapps maintained that the only way to end the conflict was by inflicting a military defeat on Russia. “I do not think it is plausible at all for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to win this war,” he said, calling for increased arms shipments to Ukraine.

“It is very, very important that the US follows the UK lead. Remember: we’ve just increased our money to Ukraine this year to £3 billion ($3.78 billion), our biggest-ever package,” the defense secretary said, referring to an earlier announcement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who committed to spend that sum on military support for Ukraine per year.

Chapps also indirectly compared modern Russia to Nazi Germany by saying that “we have been in this position before in Europe and we will simply not allow that to happen again.”

“If you give a bully like Putin an inch, he will take a mile. In this case, he will probably take quite a lot, not just Ukraine. I’m not sure he will stop there either,” Chapps added.

In the years prior to World War II, Western nations are seen as having sought to appease Adolf Hitler, most notably through the infamous 1938 Munich Agreement, under which Germany, Italy, Great Britain, and France coerced Czechoslovakia into surrendering its border regions to Germany.

Russia has repeatedly stated throughout the conflict that its goals are to protect the people of Donbass against persecution by Kiev and ensure its own security in light of constant NATO expansion toward its borders. Moscow has also repeatedly pointed to the nationalist nature of the Western-backed post-Maidan governments in Kiev that have persecuted Russian-speaking minorities in Ukraine.

 

Reuters/RT