Conflict and Peace

A Ukrainian man who survived imprisonment in three Nazi concentration camps in World War II, was killed when his house in Kharkiv was destroyed by the bombs of the Russian invaders. The administration of the Buchenwald memorial centre in Germany has said a man who survived a number of concentration camps during World War Two was killed in the bombing on his home in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv on Friday, according to his relatives. Boris Romantschenko, who was 96, "actively campaigned for the memory of the crimes of Nazism and was vice president of the Buchenwald-Dora International Committee", they said in a series of tweets. Romanchenko survived the Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Dora-Mittelbau and Bergen-Belsen camps. Information about the man's death was confirmed by his granddaughter.

Armenia is one of the countries that have had to make difficult decisions whilst positioning itself in the current stand-off between Russia and Ukraine. Despite the fact that it has little room for manoeuvre, and is very dependent on Russia in many spheres, Armenia has taken a pragmatic but principled position, writes Bojan Stojkovski in this op-ed for commonspace.eu

“EU soft power will still be a factor, but I think the EU now recognises that this works more with like-minded countries that aspire to join the EU... The notion that soft power works on countries with different political systems – I think that has been, if you like, the victim of the Ukrainian crisis” says Prof Jamie Shea in this episode of our Global Europe Unpacked podcast.

United Nations (UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters at the UN Headquarters, that the conflict in Ukraine can turn into a nuclear one. "The possibility of nuclear conflict, which was once unthinkable, is now possible again," he said. Noting that Russia's raising the nuclear alert level is a "creepy" development, Guterres said, "The possibility of nuclear conflict, which was once unthinkable, is now possible again. "Ukraine is on fire. The country is being destroyed before the eyes of the world."  Saying that the impact of Russia's war against Ukraine on civilians has reached "terrible dimensions", Guterres told the assembled journalists, "Whatever the outcome, there will be no winners in this war, only losers."