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Ukraine continues counteroffensive with small but steady gains, US to send $500m in military aid
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Ukraine continues counteroffensive with small but steady gains, US to send $500m in military aid

27 June 2023
Ukraine's counteroffensive against occupied Russian positions in the east and south of the country have continued in recent days, with Ukraine making small but steady gains in all directions, according to Ukrainian authorities. On Monday (26 June), Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar confirmed that Ukrainian forces had liberated one of two settlements in Donetsk Oblast called Rivnopil, with the liberated one being located close to the border with the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The Kyiv Independent writes that Rivnopil is the ninth settlement liberated by Ukrainian forces, in what has been a slow but steady counteroffensive that began in the early days of June. The other settlements recaptured by Ukraine include Lobkove, Levadne, Piatykhatky, and Novodarivka in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Donetsk Oblast's villages of Neskuchne, Storozheve, Makarivka, and Blahodatne. Elsewhere, on the Bakhmut axis in the eastern Donetsk Oblast, both the U.K. Ministry of Defense and Maliar reported Ukrainian advances.
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Russian airstrike on Idlib market in Syria kill at least 13, injures dozens
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Russian airstrike on Idlib market in Syria kill at least 13, injures dozens

26 June 2023
A Russian airstrike launched on a market in the north-western Syrian city of Idlib on Sunday (25 June) have killed 13 people, reports Arab News. At least nine civilians are among the dead, including two children. Around 30 people are understood to have been injured in the Russian strike on the rebel-held city, and it is expected that the death toll will rise. The regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad - backed by Russia and Iran - has won back most of the territory that it lost to various groups in the early years of the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011 after the regime violently surpressed pro-democracy protests that had swept through a number of Arab countries. The violent repression of the protests led to President Assad and Syria being a pariah state for a number of years, although a process of the country's rehabilitation has recently taken place with Syria re-joining the Arab League in May this year, at the 32nd summit of the group in Jeddah. You can read more about this here. Over the years, Russia has repeatedly launched airstrikes across rebel-held regions of Syria. Although deadly Russian airstrikes on civilians in Syria have been limited this year - likely due to its ongoing invasion of Ukraine - Sunday's strike is the deadliest attack on Syria this year.
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Georgian President Zourabichvili pardons Nika Gvaramia
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Georgian President Zourabichvili pardons Nika Gvaramia

23 June 2023
The Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili on Thursday (22 June) pardoned Nika Gvaramia, the head of the pro-opposition TV channel Mtavari who had been convicted in a Tbilisi court for allegedly embezzling money as the director of another TV company, Rustavi 2.  His imprisonment had widely been seen as politically motivated, with the EU and the US having previously expressed concern over his sentence.  President Zourabichvili had recently come under increasing pressure from opposition groups and civil society to pardon Gvaramia, as she possesses the right to do so as President. Announcing her decision on Thursday evening, President Zourabichvili declined to comment further on her reasons for issuing a pardon while also "aiming a thinly-veiled barb at those attempting to influence her", according to OC Media. "I just want to remind you of what I also said in Brussels, that such a decision, the discretionary right of the president, is not subject to anyone’s pressure, advice, recommendation or any other type of threat […] this is the president’s decision", President Zourabichvili said. "I made this decision after all legal steps were exhausted on 19 June, when the Supreme Court did not accept the cassation appeal. I am not going to give any explanation for this decision, because it is my discretionary right that I use today."
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Editorial: Baku and Stepanakert need to talk; now is the time for Azerbaijan to show magnanimity and generosity
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Editorial: Baku and Stepanakert need to talk; now is the time for Azerbaijan to show magnanimity and generosity

22 June 2023
"The question that remains unanswered is if there are Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh who are determined enough not to want to live in an Azerbaijani state that they will resist violently. Such thinking may exist, probably only amongst marginal groups, but nothing will come out of it unless it is abetted by the Government of Armenia, and/or by Russia, or in a less tangible way by radical groups within the Armenian diaspora. The latter can provide some money and possibly some human resources, but do not have the logistical capacity necessary for anything more than isolated incidents," writes commonspace.eu in this editorial. "Whilst a detailed future vision for Karabakh may have to wait until the negotiations are more advanced, now is the time for Baku to send positive signals. By tightening the noose around Nagorno-Karabakh Azerbaijan has forced the issue, so time is no longer on its side." 
commonspace.eu editorial team