May 13, 2023 UPDATE

A roundup of local and international news.

Newsroom, 13.05.2023, 18:46

EU.
Romania’s foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu supports the creation of a special
tribunal to investigate the crimes committed in Ukraine by the invading Russian
troops. Aurescu attended on Saturday an informal meeting of EU ministers with
their Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba held in Stockholm, where he highlighted
the need to find a solid legal basis for the creation as soon as possible of a
special tribunal to sanction the war started by Russia. According to a
statement from the Romanian foreign ministry, Dmytro Kuleba welcomed the
proposal of minister Aurescu for a meeting of the EU external affairs council
to be held in Kyiv and reiterated his invitation to all EU foreign ministers to
visit Ukraine’s capital in this format.

Ukraine. The European Union must step
up the supply of ammunition to Ukraine, which needs 1,000 shells of artillery
per day in the Bakhmut area alone, said the EU foreign policy chief Josep
Borrell on Saturday in Stockholm. He added that Ukraine especially needs
long-range ammunition because the Russians are bombing from far away. In
March, European Union ministers approved a plan worth at least two billion euros
to supply Ukraine with one million rounds of artillery ammunition and missiles
over 12 months. The plan is based on the
availability of EU countries to send ammunition from existing stocks and future
orders placed jointly. Meanwhile, Germany announced a new package of military
equipment for Ukraine worth 2.7 billion euros, the largest since Russia’s
invasion. This would also include air defence systems, battle tanks, infantry
vehicles, artillery ammunition and hundreds of surveillance drones.

Moldova.
A former chief of police from the Republic of Moldova, Gheorghe Cavcaliuc, who
lives in London, is recruiting paramilitary forces to topple the regime of the
pro-western president Maia Sandu and replace it with a pro-Kremlin government,
according to a report received by the British foreign ministry and obtained by
The Times. Radio Chișinău says the accusations
were confirmed by Maia Sandu’s government. The latter also says the UK is yet
to approve the extradition of the ex-police chief as requested by the Moldovan
authorities. The chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood said it was
baffling why the UK has not extradited Cavcaliuc. Ellwood is quoted as saying
that London has for years built a reputation as a safe haven for east-European
oligarchs with often strong links with president Putin, but that this is
changing after Ukraine’s invasion. He also said one should not limit to Ukraine
if one is serious about supporting democracy in Europe.

Elections. Turkish voters are going to the polls on Sunday in the first
round of presidential elections. The current head of state, the Islamist and
conservative Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for over twenty years,
will face what the media have described as the toughest challenge in his
career. His secular rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu leads in opinion polls ahead of
the vote. He promised to restore democracy and improve Turkey’s relations with
the West. If none of the candidates wins over 50% of the votes in the first
round, a second ballot will be held in two weeks’ time. (CM)