War Crimes Verdict Looms as Russian Offensive Intensifies

Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)
Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)
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War Crimes Verdict Looms as Russian Offensive Intensifies

Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)
Brussels, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged NATO to provide more weapons for his war-torn country to help prevent further atrocities like those reported in the city of Bucha. (File/AFP)

With a verdict due Monday in the conflict’s first war crimes trial, Moscow's offensive in eastern Ukraine is only intensifying, with the city of Severodonetsk under "round-the-clock" bombardment as Russian troops attempt its encirclement.

The trial in Kyiv -- seen as a public test of the Ukrainian judicial system's independence -- comes as international institutions conduct their own investigations into alleged abuses that have turned cities like Bucha and Mariupol into watchwords for destruction, AFP said.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose country is a vital staging area for Western arms shipments and host to millions of the war's refugees, pointed to the devastation in those cities as a reason for why "business as usual" with Russia was no longer possible.

"An honest world cannot return to business as usual while forgetting the crimes, the aggression, the fundamental rights that have been trampled on," he told Ukraine's parliament Sunday.

Three months after launching an invasion that failed in its initial goal of capturing Kyiv, Moscow's forces are now squarely focused on securing and expanding their gains in the Donbas region and on Ukraine's southern coast.

But as its relentless offensive continues, Russia's lead negotiator said Sunday that Moscow was willing to resume negotiations with Ukraine, which it blames for "freezing" earlier talks.

Any talks, however, will not include concessions of land, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak, who tweeted the war must end with "complete restoration of (Ukraine's) territorial integrity".

- First war crimes trial -
On Monday, Zelensky will continue his drive to rally Western support for his country's cause, targeting the world's political and business elite gathering in the Swiss mountain resort of Davos for the World Economic Forum.

As Ukraine's president addresses the forum's attendees via videoconference, a panel of judges in Kyiv will be determining the fate of Russian Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin in the conflict's first war crimes trial.

The shaven-headed 21-year-old from Siberia has admitted to killing a 62-year-old civilian in the early stages of the invasion, but told the court he was pressured into an act for which he was "truly sorry".

"I was nervous about what was going on. I didn't want to kill," he said from the glass defense box, wearing a grey and blue hoodie, as the trial concluded Friday.

Shishimarin's lawyer has argued for an acquittal, saying his client was carrying out what he perceived to be a direct order that he initially disobeyed.

Prosecutors, who have asked for a life sentence, said he was "well aware" he was executing a "criminal order".

- 'Scorched-earth tactics' -
In the eastern city of Severodonetsk, a focus of recent fighting, regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said Russian forces attempting its encirclement were "using scorched-earth tactics, deliberately destroying" the city.

Gaiday said Russia was drawing forces from a vast area -- those withdrawn from the Kharkiv region, others involved in Mariupol's siege, pro-Russian separatist militias, and even troops freshly mobilized from Siberia -- and concentrating their firepower on the Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

At least seven civilians were killed and eight others wounded in Sunday's bombardment of the Donetsk region, according to the Ukrainian army's Facebook page.

Shelling and missile strikes also continued to pound Kharkiv in the north, as well as Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia in the south, Ukrainian officials said.

With the nation under relentless assault, Ukraine's parliament on Sunday voted to extend martial law through August 23.

Millions of ordinary Ukrainians, meanwhile, face a daily struggle to survive.

"There is no work, no food, no water," said Angela Kopytsa, 52, breaking down into tears as she spoke to AFP reporters on a Russian-organized tour of captured Mariupol.

Kopytsa said her home had been destroyed during the fighting in the port and that "children at maternity wards were dying of hunger".

Once-bustling Mariupol, which has been without electricity since early March, has now been reduced to a wasteland of charred buildings

- Davos snubs Moscow -
Thousands of miles away, Monday's meeting in Davos is expected to be dominated by the political and economic fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russian business and political leaders, who once participated in debates and mingled with other A-listers at champagne parties, have been barred from this year's gathering -- dubbed "History at a Turning Point" -- over the war.

Zelensky is due to confer with Davos delegates via videoconference to mark the opening of the Ukraine House Davos, a forum for Kyiv and its international backers.

And a strong Ukrainian contingent, including the foreign minister, has made the journey to plead their case.

"The major request to the whole world here is: do not stop backing Ukraine," Ukrainian lawmaker Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze told reporters on the eve of the summit.

More than 50 heads of state or government will be among the 2,500 delegates, ranging from business leaders to academics and civil society figures.



Pandemic Accord, Tightened Budget on Menu at Big WHO Meet

The World Health Assembly is taking place at WHO headquarters in Geneva from May 19 to 27. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The World Health Assembly is taking place at WHO headquarters in Geneva from May 19 to 27. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
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Pandemic Accord, Tightened Budget on Menu at Big WHO Meet

The World Health Assembly is taking place at WHO headquarters in Geneva from May 19 to 27. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP
The World Health Assembly is taking place at WHO headquarters in Geneva from May 19 to 27. Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP

Next week promises to be a crucial one for the World Health Organization, with member states coming together in Geneva to adopt a landmark pandemic agreement and a slimmed-down budget amid US funding cuts.

Dozens of high-ranking officials and thousands of delegates are set to gather for the United Nations health agency's annual decision-making assembly, due to last from May 19 to 27.

"This huge gathering comes... at a pivotal moment for global health," Catharina Boehme, WHO's assistant director-general for external relations and governance, told reporters.

It comes as countries are confronting "emerging threats and major shifts in the landscape for global health and international development", she said.

More than five years after the emergence of Covid-19, which killed millions of people, much of the focus next week will be on the expected adoption of a hard-won international agreement on how to better protect against and tackle future pandemics.

After more than three years of negotiations, countries reached consensus on a text last month but final approval by the World Health Assembly is needed -- a discussion expected to take place on Tuesday.

'Without the US'

The United States, which has thrown the global health system into crisis by slashing foreign aid spending, was not present during the final stretch of the talks.

US President Donald Trump ordered a withdrawal from the WHO and from the pandemic agreement talks after taking office in January.

The agreement "is a jab in the arm for multilateralism, even if it is multilateralism in this case without the US", said a European diplomat who asked not to be named.

The WHA will be called upon to ratify the adoption of the agreement and to launch an intergovernmental working group to negotiate technical details of the so-called Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing System (PABS), said negotiations co-chair Anne-Claire Amprou.

Core to the agreement, that system will be aimed at allowing the swift sharing of pathogen data with pharmaceutical companies, enabling them to quickly start working on pandemic-fighting products.

Once the PABS annex is completed and adopted at the 2026 WHA, "the whole (agreement) will open for signature", Steven Solomon, WHO's principal legal officer, told reporters.

Ratification by 60 states will be needed for the accord to come into force.

Deep cuts

Also high on the agenda next week will be the dramatic overhaul of WHO operations and finances.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told member states last month that the agency would need to slim down due to deep US funding cuts.

The agency has been bracing for Trump's planned full withdrawal of the United States -- by far its largest donor -- next January.

The United States gave WHO $1.3 billion for its 2022-2023 budget, mainly through voluntary contributions for specific projects rather than fixed membership fees.

"The loss of US funding, combined with reductions in official development assistance by some other countries, mean we are facing a salary gap for the next biennium of more than $500 million," Tedros said on Wednesday.

Tedros has not said how many jobs will be lost, but on Wednesday he announced the organization would cut its leadership team nearly in half.

Budget gap

Next week, member states will vote on a proposed 20-percent increase of WHO's mandatory membership fees for the 2026-27 budget period, Boehme said.

Members already agreed in 2022 to increase the mandatory fees to cover 50 percent of the WHO budget.

Without that decision, Tedros said Wednesday that "our current financial situation would be much worse -– $300 million worse".

"It is essential, therefore, that member states approve this next increase, to make another step towards securing the long-term financial sustainability and independence of WHO."

Countries will also be asked to adopt the 2026-2027 budget, at a time when development assistance funding, including for health resources, are dwindling globally.

"We have proposed a reduced budget of $4.2 billion for the 2026-2027 biennium, a 21-percent reduction on the original proposed budget of 5.3 billion," Tedros said.

If the increase in membership fees is approved, the WHO estimates it can raise more than $2.6 billion, or more than 60 percent of the budget.

"That leaves an anticipated budget gap of more than $1.7 billion," Tedros said.