The EU is set to impose tougher control over companies sourcing electronic components found in Russian weapons. Meanwhile, Romania is strengthening its Eastern border amid Russian attacks in the Danube area, the U.S. stumbles over next year’s budget, and Canada argues over Ukrainian Nazi collaborators after the uproar caused by the praising of a Ukrainian veteran in parliament.
offers a digest from Western mass media at the end of the September 25–29, 2023, business week.
Western components in Shahed drones: Europe pledges harder enforcement of sanctions
According to The Guardian, Brussels has warned European companies and governments that it could ban the sale of certain components to Turkey and other countries from where Iran and Russia are sourcing parts for kamikaze drones and other weapons.
The comments from the European Commission follows a leak to the Guardian of a 47-page document in which the Ukrainian government detailed the use of western technology and appealed for long-range missiles to attack drone production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria.
The Ukrainian paper claimed there had been 600 raids on cities using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that contained components manufactured by five European companies in the previous three months.
Among the European-made items found in Shahed-131 and 136 drones used by Russia in Ukraine were fuel pumps, transistors, power management circuits, and microprocessors. Customs information was said to show that almost all the imports to Iran originated from Turkey, India, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Costa Rica.
A European Commission spokesperson said this evidence showed the effectiveness of the EU sanctions but also the need for their tougher enforcement.
"The EU sanctions envoy, David O’Sullivan, is working closely with third-country jurisdictions to ensure that our sanctions are not circumvented," the spokesperson said.
A building in Kyiv targeted by Shahed drones on July 13, 2023. Photo: Getty Images
According to him, the EU has drawn up a priority list of sanctioned goods which third countries must not export to Russia. And if these efforts don’t prove effective, the EU will prohibit the export of these goods to the countries which are used to circumvent our sanctions.
A U.K. government spokesperson also promised that the enforcement of sanctions would be controlled more strictly.
Russian drones near the NATO border: What was Romania’s response?
Romania is strengthening air defenses and is adding more military observation posts and patrols near its Danube border with Ukraine, two senior defense sources told Reuters. The measures have been prompted by Russian drones attacking Ukrainian grain facilities, which made NATO countries worry about their own territories.
Soon after pulling out of the Black Sea grain deal on July 17, Moscow began targeting Ukrainian ports, including Izmail and Reni, and warehouses along the Danube, in an apparent attempt to choke off the main alternative route for Ukraine's agricultural exports.
Isolated incidents of drone parts landing in Romania underline the risk of a misunderstanding, or worse, between Russia and NATO, prompting Romanian armed forces to increase security in the area to protect civilians, the two sources said.
The army has built two bomb shelters in the small hamlet of Plauru, just a few hundred meters from Izmail, and residents in the wider area are sent alerts on mobile phones when Russian drones are detected heading in their direction.
Reni, a Ukrainian port town on the Danube, has become one of the main transit hubs for Ukrainian grain shipped over the Danube. Photo: Getty Images
In a statement last Friday Romania's defense ministry said that around 100 U.S. troops and four U.S.-designed F-16 Fighting Falcon jets had arrived at Borcea military air base around 150 km south of Izmail. From mid-September, the ministry also expanded a no-fly zone along a section of the border with Ukraine to up to 30 km (20 miles) inside Romania and to a height of 4,000 meters.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday there was no evidence that Russian strikes near the Ukraine-Romania border were a deliberate attack on Romania, but described them as "reckless" and "destabilizing".
Romanian defense ministry spokesman Constantin Spinu also said there was no indication Russia was targeting Romania. However, as Russia launches large groups of drones at low altitudes along the course of the Danube, they are hard to intercept, and the chances for fragments falling on the Western bank increase.
As a shutdown looms, the U.S. Senate stumbles over aid to Ukraine
Congress remained on track Friday to trigger a government shutdown this weekend, CNN reports. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, appears to lack the votes to pass a GOP stopgap bill to extend government funding.
McCarthy is opposed by the far-right faction in his party, which argues that Congress should focus on passing full-year spending bills instead of a one-month stopgap. House GOP leadership can seek help from Democrats but this could prompt conservatives to try to oust McCarthy from the speakership.
Republican leader McCarthy fails to make his party come to terms about the 2024 budget. Photo: Getty Images
The federal government is scrambling to prepare for a shutdown, which is presently set to arrive at midnight on Saturday. It could have enormous impacts across the country, in consequential areas ranging from air travel to clean drinking water, as many government operations would come to a halt, while services deemed "essential" would continue.
House GOP leaders brought a series of spending bills to the floor Thursday evening. The House passed several of those spending bills, but the measures have no hope of passing in the Senate before the deadline.
Meanwhile, the Senate is working to advance a bipartisan stopgap bill that would keep the government open through November 17 and provide additional aid to Ukraine and disaster relief. McCarthy has so far dismissed that bill. Moreover, GOP Senator Rand Paul slows down the process over his demand that the bill drop the $6.2 billion in aid to Ukraine it contains. Paul’s sabotage will cause the Senate stopgap bill to be passed as late as Monday.
Canada debates over the role of Ukrainians in WWII
In Canada, controversies have been around Ukraine’s history and its memorialization, stirred up by the praising of a Ukrainian veteran in the parliament, BBC reports.
Yaroslav Hunka, who was applauded in parliament this week, served with a Nazi unit called the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (also known as the Galicia Division) that was formed in 1943. MP Anthony Rota, who invited him, was criticized by Jewish groups and other parliamentarians and eventually resigned as the Speaker of the House of Commons, saying he deeply regretted the mistake.
This is not the first time that Ukraine's role in WWII has sparked a debate in Canada, which is home to the largest Ukrainian diaspora outside of Europe. Several monuments dedicated to Ukrainian WWII veterans who served in the Galicia Division exist across the country. Jewish groups have long denounced these dedications, arguing soldiers in the Galicia Division swore allegiance to Adolf Hitler, and were either complicit in Nazi Germany's crimes or had committed crimes themselves.
During the war, more than one million Jews in Ukraine were killed. Most of them were shot to death near their homes by Nazi Germans and their collaborators.
The SS chief Heinrich Hillmer (center) meets with the Galicia Division
Following the defeat of Germany, some of the Galicia Division soldiers were allowed entry to Canada after surrendering to the Allied forces. Some Canadians of Ukrainian descent view these soldiers and the broader Galicia Division as "national heroes" who fought for the country's independence. They also argue that their collaboration with Nazi Germany was short-lived, and that they had eventually fought both the Soviets and the Germans for a free Ukraine.
According to David Marples, a professor of eastern European history at the University of Alberta, thousands of Ukrainians who fought on the German side under the Galicia Division believed it would grant them an independent state free from Soviet rule. At the time, Ukrainians resented the Soviets for their role in the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, also known as Holodomor, the historian explained. Far-right ideologies were also gaining traction in most European countries in the 1930s — including the UK — and Ukraine was no exception.
However, the Jewish community views this differently.
A special commission in 1985 was assigned to investigate allegations that Canada had become a haven for Nazi war criminals. It found no evidence tying Ukrainians who fought with Nazi Germany to specific war crimes.
However, Professor Marples said that at the time of the report, some WWII archives in Ukraine and Russia were not accessible. Their later examination revealed that some of those who served within the Galicia Division were involved in war crimes, although none were ever convicted.
Professor added that while far-right extremism still exists in Ukraine, it is much smaller than what Russian propaganda tries to make people believe.
Taras Podilsky, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex in Edmonton, said Mr Hunka's swift renunciation by Canadian politicians is the latest effect of Russia's disinformation campaign.
Mr Mostyn of B'nai Brith said he acknowledged the complicated nature of this history but he insisted that any ties to Nazism "is not something that we can allow future generations to celebrate or whitewash".
He and others within the Jewish community in Canada have called for a renewed examination of the history of Nazi crimes in WWII.
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