News
Ukraine launches ambitious drone attack. Vanuatu to review Andrew Tate citizenship. South Korea’s post-coup election By Jonathan Pearlman.
Israeli shootings force closure of Gaza aid centre
Great power rivalry
Ukraine: Ukraine bombed a Russian bridge to Crimea and launched an ambitious drone attack against Russian planes this week as direct talks between the two countries failed to secure a ceasefire deal.
In an operation Ukraine said took 18 months to organise, 117 drones were smuggled into Russia and placed near air bases across the country, including in Siberia and the Arctic. Last Sunday, Ukraine launched the drones and damaged or destroyed 20 long-range bombers, according to US officials.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said the attack – launched a day ahead of talks in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine – was designed to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate. At the talks, the two sides agreed to their biggest prisoner exchange of the war, involving the release of at least 1000 prisoners by each side as well as the remains of 6000 dead soldiers. The talks failed to make progress towards a ceasefire.
Russia’s delegation presented a memorandum outlining its demands, including that Ukraine withdraw from four Russian-claimed regions, end its military mobilisation, abandon its bid to join NATO, and recognise Russian as its official language alongside Ukrainian. Kyiv said it will respond this week but is almost certain to reject the demands.
A day after the talks, Ukraine detonated explosives alongside a bridge that connects Russia to Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed in 2014. The attack aimed to destroy the bridge’s underwater pillars but appeared to fail. Russian authorities said the bridge was shut for three hours.
Ukraine’s security service said in a statement: “Previously, we hit the Crimean Bridge twice, in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater.”
The neighbourhood
Vanuatu: Vanuatu’s government this week stood by its decision to grant citizenship to Andrew Tate, a social media influencer and self-described misogynist who received a passport through the country’s controversial citizenship-for-sale scheme.
A report published on Monday by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) revealed Tate received a Vanuatu passport in 2022 while under investigation in Romania. Vanuatu’s Development Support Program fast-tracks citizenship for a minimum investment of US$130,000.
“Tate bought into a ‘golden passport’ scheme that has been taken advantage of by a colourful collection of figures, ranging from the ultra-rich to spies, fugitives, and sanctioned oligarchs,” the report said.
Tate, a British–American former kickboxer, was arrested in Bucharest in December 2022 along with his brother, Tristan. The pair were also charged last week with rape, assault and trafficking charges in the United Kingdom, where they already faced separate allegations of sexual assault and tax evasion.
Vanuatu’s citizenship commissioner, Charles Maniel, told the OCCRP that the country could block citizenship requests for foreign applicants who were found guilty of criminal charges but not if they were under investigation.
A Vanuatu government spokesperson told The Guardian that the government had examined Tate’s citizenship and could not now revoke it because “he was cleared by Interpol, and the UK, so that was the decision at the time”.
Vanuatu’s government launched an inquiry last year into the citizenship scheme but has yet to release its response.
War zone
Gaza: A controversial new Gaza aid group backed by the United States and Israel suspended operations this week after a series of Israeli shootings of civilians who were approaching an aid distribution site.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), whose operations have been boycotted by the United Nations and international aid groups, suspended distributions on Wednesday after Gazans approaching the site in Rafah were shot and killed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defence agency said at least 27 people were killed on Tuesday by Israeli tanks and drones.
Israel said it shot at “suspects” who deviated from the designated aid route and had not responded to warning shots. An Israeli military official told the Axios website that Gazans seeking aid had “got lost” and approached the soldiers by mistake.
Mohanned Qishta, a journalist in Gaza who went to the distribution centre to seek aid on Tuesday about 4.30am, told The Washington Post he was unable to get any food due to the chaos at the centre.
“I couldn’t even get a single can of beans,” he said. “It was extremely crowded, with people fighting among themselves.”
The GHF said it suspended operations on Wednesday to prepare safer access to the distribution site.
The organisation began operating last week, ending a block on supplies entering the enclave that was imposed by Israel in early March. The UN and aid groups have warned that Gaza’s entire population is at risk of famine.
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, called for the killings this week to be investigated, saying people should not have to risk their lives to receive aid.
Spotlight: South Korea’s post-coup election
Lee Jae-myung, the candidate of South Korea’s left-wing Democratic Party, won a snap presidential election this week following the disastrous attempt by his conservative predecessor to impose martial law.
Promising to protect South Korea’s democracy, Lee said he would ensure “the military never again uses weapons entrusted to it by the people to stage a coup”.
Lee’s victory follows the short-lived declaration of martial law last December by former president Yoon Suk Yeol, from the People Power Party. The introduction of military rule – in a country that endured decades of military-backed dictatorships and became a democracy only in the late 1980s – prompted public outrage and was rescinded by Yoon after six hours. He was subsequently impeached and removed from office and faces criminal charges for abusing his power.
On Tuesday, Lee, a 61-year-old scandal-prone former human rights lawyer, easily defeated Kim Moon-soo, the PPP candidate and one of few politicians to support Yoon remaining president. Lee won 49 per cent of votes, compared with 41 per cent for Kim.
The Democratic Party controls South Korea’s national assembly and is now in a position to provide much-needed stability to a country facing fierce political divisions and an economic downturn.
During the campaign, Lee abandoned former policy proposals such as a universal income and presented himself as a market-oriented centrist who would boost public investment in the manufacturing sector.
But his career has been marred by personal and political scandals. He faces criminal trials for alleged corruption and bribery over a development project and a separate legal battle over alleged false statements in 2021 about whether he knew an executive at a development firm.
South Korea, a close ally of the US, faces the threat of President Donald Trump’s proposed 25 per cent tariffs and has already suffered an 8 per cent drop in exports to the US due to Trump’s tariffs on cars and steel.
A day before the election, Lee told a radio interviewer: “I will crawl between [Trump’s] legs if necessary, if that’s what I have to do for my people. But I am not a pushover, either.”
This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on June 7, 2025 as "Israeli shootings force closure of Gaza aid centre".
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