Russian Forces Reported to Control Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have taken control of Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia, near the Ukrainian city of Enerhodar, after shelling it and sparking a fire in a building in the plant compound.

Ukraine’s nuclear inspectorate said here has been no radiation leak at the plant and added that plant personnel are continuing to operate the facility safely. Ukrainian officials said firefighters were able to get the blaze at the facility under control.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency said a Russian “projectile” hit a training center at the plant. Russia’s Defense Ministry Friday, without citing evidence, accused “Ukrainian saboteurs” of the attack, calling it a “monstrous provocation.”

Enerhodar is a crucial power-generating city on the Dnieper River nearly 700 kilometers southeast of Kyiv. The Zaporizhzhia facility produces about 25% of Ukraine’s power.

Enerhodar, Ukraine

Nuclear safety experts have expressed concern that fighting so close to the power station could cut off the plant’s power supply, which would adversely affect the ability to keep the nuclear fuel cool, and increase the possibility of a nuclear meltdown.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and received an update on the fire at the nuclear power plant, according to a White House statement released late Thursday.

The Biden administration has requested $10 billion in supplemental funding from Congress “to deliver additional humanitarian, security, and economic assistance in Ukraine and the neighboring region in the coming days and weeks,” said a statement from Shalanda Young, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget. That money, she said, will cover defense equipment, emergency food aid, U.S. troop deployments to neighboring countries and stronger sanctions enforcement.

More sanctions on oligarchs

Also Thursday, Washington heaped another round of sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle.

“Today I’m announcing that we’re adding dozens of names to the list, including one of Russia’s wealthiest billionaires, and I’m banning travel to America by more than 50 Russian oligarchs, their families and their close associates,” Biden said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting. “And we’re going to continue to support the Ukrainian people with direct assistance.”

Among the newly sanctioned Putin allies is Alisher Usmanov, one of Russia’s wealthiest individuals. German authorities have seized his 512-foot yacht, estimated to be worth nearly $600 million. Under the directive, his private jet is also open to seizure. The directive also bans more than 50 wealthy Russians from traveling to the United States.

The sanctions list also includes some of Putin’s oldest friends, a former judo partner and others with connections to the mercenary Wagner Group, and Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov.

“One of the big factors is, of course, the proximity to President Putin,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “We want him to feel the squeeze. We want the people around him to feel the squeeze. I don’t believe this is going to be the last set of oligarchs.”

She also, again, ruled out Zelenskyy’s request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

“A no-fly zone requires implementation,” she said. “It would require, essentially, the U.S. military shooting down Russian planes and causing — prompting — a potential direct war with Russia: the exact step that we want to avoid.”

On the ground

Moscow’s attempt to quickly take over the Ukrainian capital has apparently stalled, but the military has made significant gains in the south in an effort to sever the country’s connection to the Black Sea and Sea of Azov.

Local government officials and the Russian military confirmed the seizure of the strategic port of Kherson, the first city to fall in the invasion, following days of disputed claims over who was in control. A U.S. defense official said Washington was unable to confirm the development.

Despite Russian assaults on Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol, they all remained in Ukrainian hands, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Thursday.

“We are a people who in a week have destroyed the plans of the enemy,” Zelenskyy said in a video address early Thursday. “They will have no peace here. They will have no food. They will have here not one quiet moment.”

Russian troops were besieging the port city of Mariupol, east of Kherson, an attempt Mayor Vadym Boichenko said was aimed at isolating Ukraine.

“They are trying to create a blockade here,” Boichenko said Thursday in a broadcast video. He said that the Russians were attacking rail stations to prevent civilian evacuations and that the attacks have cut off water and power.

Giving peace a (second) chance

Also Thursday, the two sides held a second round of peace talks in Belarus and agreed to set up humanitarian corridors with cease-fire zones so that civilians could safely flee. Ukraine had pushed for a general cease-fire.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — who is also under direct U.S. sanctions — told reporters Thursday that Russian forces would continue their effort to destroy Ukraine’s military infrastructure and would not allow its neighbor to represent a military threat to Russia.

In a 90-minute telephone conversation Thursday with French President Emmanuel Macron, Putin told Macron that Russia would achieve its goals, including the demilitarization and neutrality of Ukraine, by any means necessary, the Kremlin said in a statement.

Macron told his Russian counterpart that the war he started against Ukraine was a “major mistake,” according to a French official. “You are lying to yourself,” Macron told Putin regarding the feasibility of his goals, the official said.

Poland has taken in half of the more than 1 million refugees who have fled Ukraine in the past week, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The U.N. body says it expects 4 million people could leave Ukraine because of the conflict.

Ukraine’s emergency agency said Wednesday that Russia’s attacks have killed more than 2,000 people across the country.

Faithful gather to pray for peace in Ukraine, amid Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, March 2, 2022.

Russia’s Defense Ministry put out its first casualty report, saying 498 of its troops were killed in Ukraine, with more than 1,500 wounded.

Russians ‘stalled’ outside Kyiv

A senior U.S. defense official said Thursday the Russian forces in northern Ukraine and outside Kyiv remained “largely stalled,” despite U.S. assessments that 90% of the combat power that Russia prepared for the invasion had entered Ukraine.

The official said that the cities in northern and eastern Ukraine, including Kyiv, Chernihiv and Kharkiv, were subjected Thursday to “heavy bombardment” but that Russian forces in the north were still facing stiff resistance.

“We continue to see them resist and fight and defend their territory and their resources quite effectively,” said the official, who added that Russia has launched more than 480 missiles since the invasion began.

Putin offered a more optimistic assessment Thursday, telling members of his security council on a video call that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is progressing “according to plan.”

“All tasks are being successfully carried out,” he said.

VOA State Department Bureau Chief Nike Ching, national security correspondent Jeff Seldin, Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb, Istanbul foreign correspondent Heather Murdock and White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

Snow Forces Cancellation of Women's Downhill Training

BEIJING — 

The latest on the Beijing Winter Olympics:

The second women’s downhill training run for American Mikaela Shiffrin, Italian Sofia Goggia and other Alpine skiers has been canceled because of snowfall.

The men’s giant slalom race is still supposed to take place Sunday, Beijing time.

A downhill has faster speeds than the giant slalom and so is more dangerous to ski when visibility is poor.

Snow began falling Saturday at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center during the first women’s downhill practice session and continued into Sunday morning.

There is another downhill training scheduled for Monday ahead of Tuesday’s race.

Court to decide Russian skater’s fate

Russian figure skating superstar Kamila Valieva was at a practice session Sunday, hours before the Court of Arbitration for Sport was scheduled to meet to decide whether she’ll be allowed to compete.

The meeting of CAS is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. Sunday and a decision is expected sometime Monday, less than 24 hours before Valieva is scheduled to skate in the women’s short program at the Beijing Games.

Valieva has been allowed to practice since Monday, when a drug test she took in December was flagged for traces of a banned heart medication. That was the same day Valieva helped Russia win the team gold medal with a dynamic free skate in which she became the first woman to land a quad lutz in Olympic competition.

The practices have become increasingly uncomfortable, though, as Valieva continues to prepare with dozens of reporters and camera crews watching her every move. She briefly burst into tears during her Friday session.

US Special Forces Launch Night Raid in Northwestern Syria

WASHINGTON — 

The Pentagon said Thursday U.S. special forces carried out a “successful” counterterrorism mission in northwestern Syria.

A statement from Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby did not give any specifics about the mission or its target, only saying that there were no U.S. casualties and that the military would later provide more information.

Residents told reporters the roughly two-hour operation included helicopters, gunfire and explosions, and that several civilians were killed.

The nighttime raid took place in Idlib province, the last rebel-held part of Syria, near the border with Turkey. The area is also home to several top operatives from al-Qaida and other militant groups.

The U.S. military has previously targeted high-ranking al-Qaida leaders in the region, often relying on airstrikes from armed drones.

In October 2019, U.S. special forces carried out a raid in Idlib that killed former Islamic State group leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this story. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters.

China's Worldwide Dragnet Forces Fugitives to Return Home

WASHINGTON — 

“China’s long arm is everywhere in its own society, and it’s now coming abroad,” said Li Gang, a former real estate developer in China’s central city of Wuhan.

Involved in planning disputes with local authorities, Li told VOA Mandarin that the Wuhan officials accused him of corruption and threatened him with prison.

The disputes, starting in 2002, lasted five years, and in 2009, Li moved to an undisclosed location in the United States with his family. In 2017, Chinese authorities formally charged him with corruption and inciting subversion of state power, a move that required him to return to China to stand trial.

Li refused. And once the charges had been filed, men claiming to be from the FBI showed up at his home. Li told VOA Mandarin in a 2020 interview that FBI officials had told him they had done no such thing.

Li is one target of Sky Net, Beijing’s global crackdown on Chinese officials suspected of corruption, financiers suspected of wrong dealings and citizens suspected of money laundering. Beijing launched Sky Net in 2015, and according to China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the number of “voluntarily returned” people has increased annually, from 1,023 in 2015 to 1,229 in 2020.

A new report says Sky Net uses methods outside the international legal framework to identify and repatriate individuals targeted by Chinese authorities.

The report, titled Involuntary Returns: China’s Covert Operation to Force ‘Fugitives’ Overseas Back Home, was published Tuesday by Safeguard Defenders, a Madrid-based group focused on promoting human rights in Asia. Last year, the nongovernmental organization spoke out against China’s airing of forced confessions on TV.

‘Involuntary returns’

China claims that from 2014-21, more than 10,000 “fugitives” have “voluntarily returned” to China from 120 countries, according to the Safeguard Defenders report. In its Sky Net campaign, Beijing almost never uses formal legal procedures, such as requesting extradition.

“Instead, these involuntary returns (IR) account for the vast majority of Sky Net’s track record: in 2018, IR stood for some 64% of the claimed successful returns, while extradition — the appropriate judicial channel for such returns — represented but 1%,” the report said. As used in the report, the term “involuntary returns” refers to people who have been forced through nontraditional means to come back to China.

And although Sky Net’s official targets are businesspeople and officials suspected of economic crimes, the report said it found many cases of Beijing using extrajudicial tactics to repatriate dissidents and human rights defenders.

China’s tactics are like those used by the U.S. During the 1980s, U.S. officials “developed an alternative approach to circumvent the proper diplomatic channels” to accomplish renditions, according to the Human Rights Policy Lab at the University of North Carolina School of Law. After the 9/11 attacks, the practice transformed “into what is now referred to as the extraordinary rendition program,” which has drawn international condemnation.

Russia also operates a rendition program.

Preferred strategies

China favors three tactics: threatening family in China, targeting victims outside China by using threatening agents in the target’s country, and kidnapping the people it wants repatriated, according to Safeguard Defenders, whose report examined 62 cases of attempts, successful and unsuccessful, to engineer involuntary returns.

Chen Yen-Ting, an author of the report, told VOA Mandarin in a phone interview on Monday that these tactics might be carried out separately or together to pressure the targeted individual. “In some cases, the Chinese government sends agents to the host country and at the same time puts pressure on the targeted individual’s family in China,” he said.

The report cited the case of Xie Weidong, a onetime Supreme Court judge who resigned in 2000 and ended up in Canada in 2014, the year the Huanggang Municipal Public Security Bureau charged him with accepting a bribe of 1.4 million yuan ($221,000) to settle a 1999 civil case in favor of a particular company, according to a 2019 article by Canada’s National Post.

Xie claimed Beijing targeted him “when he failed to abide by government interventions in cases he heard. Then after leaving China he spoke out about problems in its legal system,” according to an Interpol ruling dismissing China’s request. The Post reported that Interpol found China’s request for Xie’s arrest was politically motivated.

To persuade Xie to return to China voluntarily, Chinese police detained his sister and then his son, according to the Safeguard Defenders report. Chinese authorities also contacted his ex-wife and his former business partner, hoping to use them as leverage.

Li Jinjin, a New York-based lawyer who represents some targets of the Sky Net operation, told VOA Mandarin on Monday that the Chinese government often freezes the property in China of the target’s family members.

In other cases, Li said, Beijing will send its police or hire agents to visit an overseas target. Using promises or threats, their goal is to force the target to return to China.

In 2020, this tactic backfired when the U.S. Justice Department charged eight people with conspiring to act as illegal agents for the Chinese government and force U.S. residents to return to Beijing. These people were “allegedly acting at the direction and under the control of PRC (People’s Republic of China) government officials, conducted surveillance of and engaged in a campaign to harass, stalk, and coerce certain residents of the United States to return to the PRC,” the Justice Department said.

Safeguard Defenders expect China will intensify its Sky Net efforts in 2022 if the Western governments fail to act against Beijing, Chen told VOA Mandarin. “It will be a significant obstacle to legitimate judicial cooperation to counter cross-border crime,” he said.

The Chinese government has hailed Sky Net’s success. The Xinhua News Agency, a state-controlled news outlet, published on Saturday a piece saying that the operation was recovering people and stolen goods, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The legal net is vast, you can escape the country, but you can’t escape the law,” Xinhua said.

Li Gang decided to talk to the media to counter reports on Beijing-controlled outlets. “I used to be very fearful of the Chinese government’s retaliation, so I refused all media interviews before,” Li said told VOA Mandarin in 2020.

“But now I realize the more fearful I am, the more power they have on me,” he said. “So that’s why I decide to stand out and tell my story.”