UKRAINE – “The EU cannot fill this gap left by others,” the European Commission told Euronews as disability NGO’s seek emergency aid from Brussels after US President Donald Trump blocked international development projects. Funding of international humanitarian aid, including to Ukrainians harmed by the Russian war of aggression, has been severely hit by the dismantling of USAID under the Trump White House, but the European Union cannot fill the gap, the European Commission has acknowledged.  NGO’s supporting people with disabilities in the Balkans and Eastern Europe have seen their work disrupted due to the US decision to halt foreign aid funding. In response, these organisations are urging the EU to step in and provide essential financial support. “From the EU perspective, our position as a major humanitarian donor remains unchanged,” a Commission spokesperson told Euronews. “We will not step back from our humanitarian commitments. Our aid will continue to save lives and alleviate suffering globally.” (Euronews)

WASHINGTON  –  US President Donald Trump suggested that Ukraine “may be Russian someday,” throwing into question the future independence of a sovereign country that, with Western backing, has defended itself against Moscow’s full-scale invasion for nearly three years. Trump discussed his administration’s effort to end the war in an interview with Fox News that aired last Monday, ahead of a meeting tabled for this week between his vice president, JD Vance, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “They (Ukraine) may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday,” Trump said. He stressed that he also wanted to see a return on investment with US aid for Ukraine, again floating the idea of a trade for Kyiv’s rare earth minerals. The US president’s comments will likely delight the Kremlin, which has illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions since launching its full-scale invasion and seeks Ukraine’s total submission.

“A significant part of Ukraine wants to become Russia, and the fact that it has already become Russia is (undeniable),” Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday, when asked about Trump’s comments. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, it believed it would capture the capital Kyiv in days and the rest of the country in weeks. With the war set to enter its fourth year later this month, Moscow holds around a fifth of Ukraine’s territory. In 2023, it held a sham referendum in four occupied regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – in an attempt to lend legitimacy to its annexation. Peskov said people had “despite many dangers, stood in line and voted” in the referendum to join Russia. “This largely corresponds to President Trump’s words,” he added. CNN reported at the time on the stage-managed referendum, which international observers dismissed as a propaganda exercise.

In the Fox News interview, Trump said his administration had made “tremendous progress” in laying the ground for potential peace talks with Russia and Ukraine. Zelensky said last Monday that “some serious people” from the Trump administration will visit Ukraine this week ahead of the Munich Security Conference in Germany, where Zelensky is set to meet with Vance. Trump repeated his interest in reaping a return on US assistance for Kyiv. “They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured,” he said.

“I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion of rare earth, and they’ve essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid. Otherwise we’re stupid. I said to them, we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money,” he added.

Whereas the Biden administration said its support for Kyiv was to defend “the right of people to determine their own futures,” and to maintain “the principle that a country can’t change its neighbor’s borders by force,” Trump’s comments reinforce his more transactional approach to geopolitics. Trump’s comments will likely come as a boon to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has sought to justify his invasion of Ukraine by falsely asserting that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people – a single whole,” and that Ukraine is not a sovereign country. With some European leaders preparing to meet senior members of the Trump administration in Munich this week, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda stressed on Tuesday that Russia “cannot draw benefit” from its war in Ukraine and should not emerge victorious.

Speaking to CNN on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai, Duda said that in a “perfect scenario Ukraine should regain all the land that is occupied by Russia today,” but conceded that the priority now is to ensure that “the war is stopped” not according to “Russian conditions”. (CNN)

Photo: US Vice President JD Vance in East Palestine and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. (AFP)

YOKOHAMA  –  A Japanese finance ministry employee on a night out with colleagues lost documents containing the personal data of 187 people suspected of drug smuggling, local media say. The employee, who has not been named, reportedly drank nine glasses of beer during a five-hour-long night out with co-workers in Yokohama on 6 February. Local media said that he did not realise he had lost his bag until after he got off his train ride home in another city, Sumida.

The finance ministry has said it was “deeply sorry” for the incident that “significantly undermined public trust”, according to public broadcaster NHK. The bag had contained documents which had the names and addresses of 187 suspected drug smugglers and recipients of marijuana seeds, the ministry said. It had also contained business laptops with the employee’s personal data. The employee, who is assigned to the customs and tariff bureau, was not named in the NHK report.

The BBC has reached out to the finance ministry for comment on Tuesday, a public holiday in Japan. Alcohol has long been seen as a social lubricant for thousands of years in Japan, where business deals and difficult issues are discussed over bottles of beer and sake. It is believed that drinking alcohol creates a more relaxed environment for such discussions. (BBC/ Getty Images)