Ukraine war intensifies; Bangladesh announces next election date: The week that was in international affairs

Welcome back to another edition of My Take 5, your weekly round-up of international news. It has been a while so let’s quickly get to the top global developments over the past week:Ukraine war intensifies: Recent weeks have seen the war intensify with Russia sending waves of drones and missiles to Ukrainian towns and cities spread across almost all regions of the country.

This comes after Ukraine’s stunning Operation Spiderweb on June 1, when Kyiv’s intelligence service SBU was able to send covert drones deep into Russia – concealed in trucks – and take out Russia’s strategic bombers across at least four airfields.

A total of 41 aircraft were seriously damaged or completely destroyed, representing 34% of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, which also represents one leg of Moscow’s nuclear triad.

Ukraine says the bombers were specifically targeted because they were being directly used to hit Ukrainian cities, civilian infrastructure and people. Russia, after all, has not differentiated between civilian and military targets in this war. Hence, the Russian attacks since Operation Spiderweb are being dubbed as part of Moscow’s retaliation. In fact, Trump spoke to Putin after Spiderweb where the Russian leader said that he had to retaliate.

But the thing is it’s not as if Ukraine wasn’t being bombarded by Russia every day before Spiderweb. It wasn’t as if Ukrainian civilians, hospitals, residential buildings, schools, playgrounds, cafes, offices and nursing homes were being spared before the SBU operation. Russia has refused to accept a ceasefire proposal since March despite Ukraine agreeing to it.

And Trump’s kid-glove approach towards Putin is clearly not working.

Trump, ironically, but perhaps not surprisingly, has put all the pressure on Ukraine and none whatsoever on Russia, except for some vague threats of sanctions that remain in his head. And now comes the news that US has diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally intended for Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East. Unless Trump actually does something to put Putin under pressure, this war will continue. Inaction will only confirm what Kamala Harris said of Trump during the presidential election debate last year: “Putin will eat you for lunch”. Poland’s presidential election: Poland elected a new conservative President in Karol Nawrocki in a narrow vote, complicating matters for its centrist government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Apart from internal tensions in Polish politics, there is the added matter of Nawrocki opposing Ukraine’s accession to Nato and EU. Nawrocki is also backed by Trump. This presents a delicate situation for Kyiv. Poland, no doubt, has done a lot to support Ukraine during the course of the war, taking in a huge number of Ukrainian refugees in the initial months.

But fissures have arisen over historical issues such as the Volyn massacre and agriculture exports from Ukraine. In fact, Polish farmers have long been protesting against the flow of Ukrainian grains over the land border after trade through the Black Sea was disrupted, thanks to Russia. All these issues had animated the Polish presidential polls. However, policy-making is still the primary prerogative of the Polish government led by the PM.

And in that there is hope that Polish policies of support for Ukraine won’t end. PM Tusk has called for a vote of confidence in his government. And Nawrocki, at the very least, supports Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Polish-Ukrainian solidarity in the war is vital for Kyiv. Bangladesh announces next election date: The interim government of Muhammad Yunus has announced that the next general election in Bangladesh will be held in April 2026.

This will be the first polls in Bangladesh after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster in August last year. Since then, elements of the new regime have been systematically cleansing Bangladeshi institutions of all vestiges of the erstwhile Awami League dispensation. In fact, Awami League itself has been banned and Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal that was set up by Hasina in 2009 to try Pakistani collaborators, or razakars, during Bangladesh’s Liberation War is now trying Hasina for crimes against humanity.

Considering all this, there are serious doubts whether the next Bangladeshi polls will be free and fair. And minus Awami League, one of the two main political parties in Bangladesh and the flag-bearer of Bangladesh’s liberation, there can be no credibility to any polls. Chinese spying ring in Taiwan: In a shocking case, Taiwan last week was rocked by a Chinese spying scandal, implicating people who were connected to the ruling Democratic Progressive Party.

Taiwanese authorities found a specially developed app used to communicate with Chinese intelligence operatives on the cellphone of former DPP staffer Huang Chu-jung. Along with Huang, former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu, former DPP staffer Chiu Shih-yuan and former foreign ministry assistant Ho Jen-chieh are suspected of spying for the Chinese Communist Party while working for the Taiwanese government.

This is a serious intelligence breach and Taiwanese prosecutors have determined that the alleged culprits had sent information to Beijing about President William Lai’s itinerary during the 2023 presidential campaign and separate information about Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim. This information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party could have had disastrous consequences. The episode goes to show the kind of constant multidimensional threats Taiwan faces from China.

The latter’s ‘united front’ tactics are operational 24x7 to undermine Taiwan through espionage, disinformation, influence operations, etc. Add to this naked Chinese military threats through aggressive military manoeuvres around Taiwan. Therefore, Taiwan needs to be extra careful, shore up its defences further, and strictly prosecute those living in Taiwan but working for the Chinese government.

Beijing is trying to win by sowing chaos in Taiwanese society.

Taiwan must stand strong and become internally stronger. UK recognised Morocco's Sahara Autonomy Plan: In yet another victory for Morocco, UK became the latest country, and permanent member of the UNSC, to recognise Morocco's Autonomy Plan for the Moroccan Sahara. The latter, it will be recalled, is a long-festering issue from Morocco's colonial past. A separatist group called the Polisario Front, backed by Algeria, has tried to establish an artificial Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Morocco's Sahara region.

But in 2020, the US recognised Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara with the Autonomy Plan as the only credible solution to the issue. France followed suit last year. And now UK is legitimising Morocco’s position. This means that now three members of the UNSC endorse Rabat on this matter. This is important because Morocco is a long-time US ally playing a crucial geopolitical role in North Africa. Algeria is allied to Russia. And given Moscow’s Wagner operations in Africa, Morocco is at the forefront of ensuring stability in the Sahara and Sahel regions. Therefore, it’s vital that Morocco's Western partners support Rabat's role as a regional stabiliser and uphold its just, historical and legal position on the Moroccan Sahara.