Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Russia’s deadly airstrike on Ukrainian civilians, restrictive new U.S. immigration measures in Latin America, and Iran’s maritime seizures in the Gulf of Oman.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at Russia’s deadly airstrike on Ukrainian civilians, restrictive new U.S. immigration measures in Latin America, and Iran’s maritime seizures in the Gulf of Oman.
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A Russian rocket attack killed at least 23 people, including two 10-year-olds, and injured dozens more civilians in the central Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday morning. This is Russia’s first attack on civilians in more than a month and one of the Kremlin’s deadliest single strikes on civilians this year. The missile struck an apartment complex nearly 200 miles north of the front line, raising concerns among Ukrainians about Moscow’s extensive reach.
Also on Friday, a Russian missile struck Kyiv, injuring a minor. It was the first such strike on the capital in more than 50 days. In total, Ukrainian air defenses successfully shot down 21 out of 23 missiles fired on Friday. “The way to peace is to kick Russia out of Ukraine,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response to the attacks. “The way to peace is to arm Ukraine with F-16s and protect children from Russian terror.”
However, Western governments, including U.S. officials, continue to rebuff Ukraine’s pleas for F-16s and long-range rocket artillery that can reach Russian lines, FP’s Jack Detsch reported. Instead, U.S. and European leaders have hinted that F-16s would be of better use to Ukraine in a postwar scenario as a future long-term deterrent. Top Ukrainian commanders have criticized these claims, saying F-16s are vital for Ukraine’s military success, being “four or five times” more effective than the Soviet-era planes they currently use.
Military analysts predict Ukraine will launch a spring counteroffensive in the coming weeks, one only Ukrainian high command knows the details of. According to strategic studies expert Franz-Stefan Gady, the first 24 hours of the offensive will be Ukraine’s longest—and most important—day. “There is perhaps only one way for Ukraine to escape the scourge of attrition in the opening hours of the upcoming offensive: set off paralysis in the Russian military leadership and panic across the Russian rank and file,” Gady wrote. Until then, both Russia and Ukraine are hoping that wearing the other down will be enough to give them a decisive advantage.
In the meantime, reconstruction efforts are at the forefront of many Ukrainians’ minds—including many of the people impacted by Friday’s missile strike in Uman. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, around 1,900 Ukrainian cities are in need of reconstruction, adding that it’s the “largest economic project in Europe in several generations.” Total rebuilding costs are estimated to be around $400 billion, according to the World Bank, United Nations, and European Union—roughly double Ukraine’s annual GDP.
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Title 42 2.0. U.S. President Joe Biden announced the establishment of new immigration processing centers in Guatemala and Colombia on Thursday in an effort to discourage migrants from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. This comes as U.S. pandemic-era border restrictions known as Title 42 are set to expire in two weeks, when the COVID-19 public health emergency expires. Title 42, established under then-U.S. President Donald Trump in March 2020, has been used more than 2 million times to expel migrants from the United States without offering them the chance to seek asylum.
These processing centers are just the latest in a series of new controversial U.S. immigration measures. The U.S. Justice and Homeland Security departments published draft rules that could disqualify many people from seeking asylum at the U.S. southern border. And a mobile app launched in January for scheduling asylum appointments has been criticized for struggling to identify darker-skinned individuals in its facial recognition software, among other glitches. “Altogether, the new policies have caused U.S. migrant and human rights advocates to accuse Biden of replicating former President Donald Trump’s harsh immigration crackdown despite Biden’s campaign promises of a more compassionate approach,” FP’s Catherine Osborn highlighted in Latin America Brief.
Tanker tit for tat. On Thursday, Iran captured a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker carrying Kuwaiti crude oil bound for the United States. The ship, which was chartered by Chevron, was in international waters in the Gulf of Oman when it was seized.
According to Iranian state media, the country’s navy said it took the ship after it had collided with an Iranian boat, injuring several crew members. However, the Financial Times reports that the move came just days after the United States ordered a tanker carrying Iranian oil headed for China to be redirected to Washington. Thursday’s maritime seizure was the fifth commercial vessel taken by Iran in the last two years.
Unrest in Israel. Some 150,000 people took to the streets of Jerusalem on Thursday to support Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s controversial judicial reform plan. Netanyahu’s proposal, which would curb the Supreme Court’s power and give the Knesset greater control over judicial decisions, is set to be reviewed in the next few days after 16 straight weeks of protests temporarily halted the initial plan. Some Israeli cabinet members said negotiations would resume with the start of the Knesset’s summer session on April 30.
Netanyahu’s judicial reform efforts were a strategic blunder that pushed the nation toward democratic backsliding, Middle East experts Aaron David Miller and Daniel C. Kurtzer argued in Foreign Policy. “Netanyahu’s abortive effort to weaken Israel’s democracy, if not redefine the country’s character, and the public’s stunning resistance have taken Israel to a place it’s never been before,” they wrote. But like Thursday’s protest demonstrated, the fight is far from over.
Confirmation came late Tuesday night that the Taliban had killed the mastermind behind which recent terrorist attack?
A. The August 2021 bombing at the Kabul airportB. The January 2022 bombing in Lahore, PakistanC. The August 2022 Kabul mosque bombingD. The October 2021 mosque bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan
Police this week arrested 65 people for allegedly smuggling roughly 110 pounds of drugs into Vietnam from France. One of their methods of choice: tubes of toothpaste. The arrests were part of a broader investigation that began last month when four Vietnam Airlines flight attendants were found to have toothpaste tubes containing ecstasy, ketamine, and cocaine in their carry-on luggage on a flight from Paris to Ho Chi Minh City. The four individuals said they had been hired to transport the toothpaste tubes but didn’t know they contained illicit substances.
A. The August 2021 bombing at the Kabul airport
U.S. officials declined to identify the perpetrator’s identity, FP’s Robbie Gramer and Jack Detsch write in this week’s Situation Report.
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The post Ukraine Suffers Deadly Russian Airstrike on Civilians appeared first on Foreign Policy.
