ukraine. it is 5 pm. it s been nearly one year since russia s unprovoked invasion of this country. i was in ukraine last spring, in lviv, in the west of the country. i am back now to see what s changed, what s stayed the same, and what is next for this war and for this country, and for the global fight for democracy. the ukrainians what the rest of the world to know it s a critical part of this fight. one thing that remains the same as russia continues to rain terror from the skies in the form of missiles, rockets, airstrikes, and drones, both near the battlefield in the east and in places far from the front. in places like lviv, and right here in the capital, kyiv. it is something that is very evident. the air raid sirens have become a part of everyday life here. there have been multiple air raid sirens each day, and while most ukrainians have come to live with them, they hear, they acknowledge, them and they largely continue on with their day. for my team and me on the grou
The increased securitisation of migration in the EU is all but a new phenomenon that has been discussed in a multitude of fora – particularly in the context of 9/11 and its aftermath. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, alongside with the EU’s confrontation with Russia’s ally Belarus, however, has opened up a whole new chapter in this area. The developments in EU Member States sharing a land border with Belarus and Russia – namely, Poland, the Baltic States and Finland, - give reason for particular concern and, perhaps, have no analogy in the EU’s history. Highly politicised conflict-related securitisation narratives have rarely found their way so swiftly into Member States’ domestic migration and asylum laws, leading to open and far-reaching violations of EU and international human rights law. Hardly ever before have ill-defined concepts and indiscriminate assumptions been so broadly accepted and used to shift from an individual-focused approach to blanket me
Belarusian Security Council State Secretary Alexander Volfovich said Thursday that Belarusian border guards prevented the displacement of about 35,000 undocumented migrants into the territory of the republic by the security forces of neighboring European countries in 2023.
Latvia has been beefing up its security measures along the Belarusian border since the arrival of the Wagner mercenary group fighters. Riga has also accused Minsk of helping migrants enter Latvia illegally.