Welcome back to World Brief, where we look at Ukrainian Attacks on Russian Area, Houthi Rebels storm in United Nations Office for Human Rights and Sierra LeoneProposal to restructure the UN Security Council.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we look at Ukrainian Attacks on Russian Area, Houthi Rebels storm in United Nations Office for Human Rights and Sierra LeoneProposal to restructure the UN Security Council.
PS: If you’re considering getting a FP subscription, now is the best time to do it: first-time subscribers can get three months of access for just $20. Time is running out to take advantage of this introductory offer. Subscribe now to get our best price and unlock everything on ForeignPolicy.com.
Moscow’s newest battlefield
A week after Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, Russian forces are still struggling to repel Kiev’s attack. According to Ukrainian army spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy on Tuesday, Moscow has moved some of its troops from the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson to Kursk to repel Kiev’s offensive there. “Russia has brought war to others,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday, “and now it is coming home.”
The Ukrainian operation, which began last Tuesday, is the largest foreign incursion into Russian territory since World War II. Local Russian authorities have evacuated nearly 200,000 people over the past week, and Kursk’s acting governor, Alexei Smirnov, said at least 12 civilians had been killed and another 121 injured.
According to Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi on Monday, Kyiv now controls 1,000 square kilometers (or 386 square miles) of Russian soil, significantly more than Russian officials’ public estimates. Smirnov said Ukrainian troops had advanced 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) into the Kursk region, along a 40-kilometer (25-mile) front, and now controlled 28 Russian settlements. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi said on Monday that Kyiv was not interested in “taking” the region.
The attack on Kursk adds a new front to the nearly 30-month-long war and represents a fundamental shift in Ukrainian tactics. In 2022, Kyiv successfully recaptured large swathes of Russian-occupied territory, but Kyiv’s counteroffensives in 2023 largely failed to break through Russian lines. Zelensky told Ukrainians in a public address late Monday that the attack on Kursk was a matter of Ukrainian security. He accused Moscow of using the region to launch some 2,000 attacks on Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy Oblast.
In a televised briefing on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his top security officials and regional governors that Kyiv’s attack was an attempt to divert Russian attention from Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region and gain influence for possible future peace talks. “It is obvious that the enemy will continue to try to destabilize the situation in the border zone in order to destabilize the internal political situation in our country,” Putin said.
The Kremlin has tried to downplay the attack and distract from the poor preparation of the Russian military. Putin reiterated previous accusations that Western nations are “fighting against us with the hands of Ukrainians.” He also claimed that Ukraine’s actions had increased the number of Russian volunteers.
On Tuesday, the Russian Defense Ministry released images of Sukhoi Su-34 bombers apparently attacking Ukrainian troops in Kursk. Putin said Russian forces would continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine regardless of the Kursk invasion and stressed that it would not weaken his negotiating position.
Most read today
What we pursue
Under siege. A senior UN official said Tuesday that Houthi rebels stormed the headquarters of the UN human rights office in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on August 3. The militants seized documents and destroyed UN property in an attempt to punish those working with the organization and foreign governments. UN human rights chief Volker Türk called on the rebels, who still control the building, to vacate the premises immediately and return all stolen items. It is unclear why the UN office did not issue a public statement on the takeover until Tuesday.
The move is part of a broader crackdown by the Houthis in recent months against individuals working with the United Nations, foreign aid groups and foreign embassies. In June, Houthi rebels arrested more than 60 UN and nonprofit employees as part of a larger arrest campaign targeting an alleged “US-Israeli spy network.” Since then, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has suspended its operations in Sanaa and other areas controlled by the Houthis. The Iran-backed group supports Hamas’ war against Israel and has regularly attacked ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden that it says support Israel’s efforts. On Tuesday, there were at least three attacks on a Liberian-flagged oil tanker.
Meanwhile, tensions remain high in the Middle East after Hamas fired two rockets at the Israeli city of Tel Aviv on Tuesday for the first time in months. No casualties were reported. The attack followed the killing of at least 19 Palestinians by Israeli forces on Tuesday in central and southern Gaza, just two days before an Israeli delegation is due to attend talks on a ceasefire and the release of hostages in either the Egyptian capital Cairo or the Qatari capital Doha.
Hamas announced on Sunday that it would not participate in this week’s talks, accusing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of setting new conditions to deliberately prevent a ceasefire. But mediators stressed that an agreement was still possible and essential, especially after three senior Iranian officials said only a ceasefire in Gaza could stop Iran from directly attacking Israel over the killing of Hamas politician Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.
Restructuring of the P-5. Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio on Monday called for Africa to be given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, arguing that such a seat would help ongoing efforts to right historical injustices against the continent, which was largely colonized when the council was founded. “The world has changed since 1945. But the composition of the council, despite some changes, has not kept pace,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in support of Bio’s candidacy.
The African Union had previously advocated for the continent to have two permanent and two non-permanent seats on the Council. The current composition includes five permanent seats (held by China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) and 10 non-permanent seats allocated by region, including three for Africa.
“We cannot accept that the world’s most important peace and security organ does not have a permanent voice for a continent of well over a billion people,” Guterres said. “Nor can we accept that Africa’s views are undervalued on issues of peace and security both on the continent and globally.”
New capital in the works. Indonesian President Joko Widodo convened his first cabinet meeting in the planned capital of Nusantara on Monday. The venue of the meeting showed that the huge $32 billion construction project is still on track despite concerns from foreign investors and Widodo’s resignation in October. Almost all 34 cabinet ministers were present.
“The new Nusantara capital is a canvas on which we can build the future,” Widodo said. “Not every country has the opportunity or ability to build a new capital from scratch.” The years-long project will move the capital from Jakarta, which suffers from overpopulation, to Nusantara within four to five years, where it will function “functionally.” But economists doubt whether incoming President Prabowo Subianto will pay as much attention to the project, given his campaign promise to prioritize funding for social services.
Odds and ends
Londoners can enjoy the benefits of a zoo – without the smells. Anonymous street artist Banksy unveiled his ninth animal-themed artwork on Tuesday, after new works appeared every day for over a week. The collection now includes a gorilla opening a shutter to release other animals, piranhas painted on a police station and three monkeys swinging along a railway line, among others. One of the works, showing a wolf on a satellite dish, has already been stolen, and another, showing a rhinoceros appearing to climb a car, has been defaced. Whether London will find another Banksy work on Wednesday remains a mystery.
