In a major policy reversal, the Biden administration has this week greenlighted Ukrainian request to strike inside Russia with American weapons, TURAN’s Washington correspondent reports citing two senior officials.
The move comes as Russia has been increasing its troop concentration in the Kharkiv region where it has made some significant advances in a spring offensive.
While the administration’s decision is “purely about Kharkiv offensive”, as one official put it, believing that it will help Ukraine better defend its second-largest city, the term and conditions of the U.S. permission is “yet to be finalized,” another source told TURAN when asked whether the Ukrainians will be able to hit back at Russia by using all of American weapons at its disposal, including the ATACMS.
Biden last month signed a major foreign aid package providing $61 billion in assistance for Ukraine, and the administration is currently working on announcing its next tranche in the coming days.
Politics
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The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (OPHRD), a joint program of the World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has called for the urgent release of activist Rufat Safarov from prison in Azerbaijan. It has launched a campaign in support of the Azerbaijani human rights defender. https://www.omct.org/en/resources/urgent-interventions/arbitrary-detention-and-judicial-harassment-against-rufat-safarov
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This year, the laureate of the annual Nargiz Prize, awarded for efforts in the fight for democracy, was Akif Gurbanov, chairman of the board of the Resplatforma (Platform of the III Republic) movement, who is under arrest.
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The U.S. will prohibit the issuing of visas for nearly a dozen more individuals responsible for undermining democracy in Georgia, bringing the total number to over 100, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
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The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has expressed condolences to the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, following the tragic incident in the city of Magdeburg. "We are deeply shocked by the news of the deaths and injuries resulting from the tragic incident that took place at the Christmas market in Magdeburg," the message reads.
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