February 10, 2023 UPDATE
A roundup of domestic and international news
Newsroom, 10.02.2023, 20:00
EUROPEAN COUNCIL – European Council president Charles
Michel has expressed the EU’s firm support for Ukraine for as long as it is
necessary. On the sidelines of the European Council summit in Brussels,
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has called on EU leaders to deliver
additional support for his country, including fighter jets. Romania’s
president, Klaus Iohannis, in turn met with president Zelensky as part of a
broader meeting with EU leaders. The president highlighted the importance of
maintaining EU support for Ukraine at all levels, underscoring the need to also
maintain pressure on the Russian Federation. On the other hand, the Romanian
president called for flexible rules and procedures for the swift implementation
of the Recovery and Resilience Plans and REPowerEU, which will ensure the
sustainable modernization and competitiveness of European economy. Klaus
Iohannis said the USA remains the EU’s top partner.
WAR IN UKRAINE – Russian forces on Friday targeted
key infrastructure objectives in several regions of Ukraine by means of air
raids. Missiles hit the city of Zaporizhzhia in the early morning hours on
Friday. Air raids blared across the country, and local officials have urged the
population to take shelter as the possibility of new attacks remains high. The
air strike on Zaporizhzhia was the strongest reported since February last year,
local officials claim. Key infrastructure buildings were also targeted in the
city of Kharkiv, in northern Ukraine, as well as in Dnipropetrovsk in the
center.
MOLDOVA – Moldova’s president, Maia
Sandu, has designated Dorin Recean, presidential security adviser, to form a
new Cabinet after Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița resigned on Friday. Maia
Sandu said the top priorities include defense and security, energy supplies
over the cold season as well as the fight against corruption. Recean currently
serves as secretary of the Supreme Security Council of the Republic of Moldova.
He served as Interior Minister over 2012-2016. Outgoing Prime Minister Natalia
Gavrilița was sworn in a year and a half ago and had to cope
with multiple crises generated by the Russian aggression against Ukraine, including
energy security, rampant inflation, losing access to eastern markets and the
Ukrainian refugee crisis. Prime Minister Gavrilița said that Moldova obtaining
EU candidate status is the greatest achievement of her Cabinet. Also on Friday,
the Russian ambassador to Chișinău, Oleg Vasnetsov, was summoned at the
Moldovan Foreign Ministry after a Russian missile targeted against Ukraine
transited Moldovan air space.
EARTHQUAKE -
Chances of finding survivors in Turkey and Syria have now diminished. 22,000
dead is the provisional death toll of one of the most devastating quakes in the
region in the last century. The toll already exceeds the devastating 1999
earthquake in İzmit, northwestern Turkey and experts expect it to rise. Romania
will send disaster relief products to Turkey from the EU reserve on national
territory, including tents with electric heaters, beds, mattreses and bedheets.
The decision was taken by the National Emergency Situations Committee summoned
on Friday by Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă. At the same time, the Romanian
Defense Ministry will send experts to Turkey to train the locals how to use the
said materials.
AWARDS -
Radio Romania’s radio drama production The Sixties by Ema Stere and adapted
and directed by Mihnea Chelaru is one of the three to be shortlisted for the
BBC Radio Drama Awards in the Best European Drama category. The winners will be
announced on Sunday in London. The Sixties explores the drama of the first
generation of young people separated from the free world at a time when the communist
regime was tightening its grip on power in Romania. The other two shortlisted
productions for Best European Drama are Czech Radio’s Burning by Sudabeh
Mohafez and Polskie Radio’s Let Me Tell You by Marta Rebzda. (CM & VP)
