World

FRANKFURT — Germany will start rolling back most of its coronavirus restrictions as the country's falling infection rate suggests the Omicron-fuelled wave has peaked, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday after talks with regional leaders.

The three-step plan — which includes allowing unvaccinated people back into shops and restaurants — will see Germany reach its "freedom day" on March 20, as media have dubbed it.

"After two years we deserve for things to be better again and it looks like that's happening now," Scholz told reporters.

But he urged Germans to remain cautious and said they would have to keep wearing face masks. "The pandemic is not over," he said.

Germany is the latest European nation to attempt a return to more normality, two years after the pandemic first emerged and upended people's daily lives and routines.

As a first step, Germany will immediately drop a 10-person cap on private gatherings of people who are vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19.

For the unvaccinated however, the rule that they can only meet two people outside their household will remain in place for another month.

Access to non-essential shops will be open to all again, without checks on whether customers are vaccinated against the virus or not. Face masks will still be required, with high-protection FFP2 masks recommended.

From March 4, restaurants and hotels will be allowed to welcome the unvaccinated again, so long as they can provide a recent negative test — a system known as 3G in Germany.

Nightclubs will reopen, but not for the unvaccinated. Everyone else will have to be boosted or provide a negative test — the so-called 2G plus system.

The number of people allowed to attend large events including sports competitions, under 2G plus rules, will be increased.

In a final step, the remaining profound restrictions on social, cultural and economic life are to be gradually lifted by March 20.

That includes ditching the requirement for employees to work from home whenever possible.

After that date, Europe’s top economy will rely on “basic protection measures”, Scholz and regional leaders agreed, “in particular the wearing of medical masks” in indoor public venues and on public transport.

Social distancing is also set to be maintained.

Europe unwinds curbs 

Germany recorded almost 220,000 new coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, the Robert Koch Institute said Wednesday, and another 247 deaths.

While daily numbers remain high, Germany’s weekly infection rate has fallen in recent days, with experts saying the coronavirus wave fuelled by the highly contagious Omicron variant has peaked.

Hospitals too have coped well, having been so far spared a surge in Omicron admissions.

Those elements, combined with a 75-per cent vaccination rate among Germany’s population, have led to calls for the authorities to lift curbs and give citizens back their freedoms.

The legislation that covers Germany’s current infection protection measures runs out on March 19.

Britain, Ireland, Denmark and Norway have already dropped most of their COVID-19 restrictions.

The Netherlands, which imposed some of Europe’s toughest measures in December, plans to follow suit. Dutch bars, restaurants and nightclubs will go back to pre-pandemic opening hours and health passes will be scrapped by February 25.

France aims to remove the last of its curbs in the coming weeks, including ending the requirement for face masks indoors by mid-March if the pandemic situation allows.

Germany too stressed that its path to a more normal daily life depended on the further evolution of the pandemic.

Scholz and regional leaders also reaffirmed their support for a general vaccine mandate, a controversial topic that has divided Germany’s lawmakers who would have to approve the measure.

“Mandatory vaccination is necessary for the winter,” said Scholz, adding that it has to be put in place so that “one new variant doesn’t mess everything up”.

KYIV — Ukraine's leader vowed Wednesday that his country would stand tall against any invasion, as both he and NATO warned they could see no sign that Russia is withdrawing its forces.

President Volodymyr Zelensky watched troops training with some of their new Western-supplied anti-tank weapons on a range near Rivne, west of the capital.

Then he travelled to the frontline port city of Mariupol, and gave a speech to mark what he had declared Ukraine's "Day of Unity", wearing a military-style olive green coat and vowing resistance.

"We are not afraid of forecasts, we are not afraid of anyone, of any enemies," Zelensky said. "We will defend ourselves."

The demonstration of Ukrainian firepower and rhetoric contrasted with images on Russian state media that were said to show Moscow’s forces bringing an end to a major exercise in occupied Crimea.

But Zelensky denied that this was a sign of a Russian pullback.

“We are seeing small rotations. I would not call these rotations the withdrawal of forces by Russia. We cannot say that,” he said in televised comments, adding: “We see no change.”

In Rivne, missiles pounded targets and armoured vehicles manoeuvred and fired on the yellowing moorland, while in Kyiv hundreds of civilians marched in a stadium with an enormous national banner.

The “Day of Unity” displays came as the Kremlin called for “serious negotiations” with Washington, and European leaders pushed hard for a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.

But NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, who hosted a meeting of the alliance’s defence ministers in Brussels, dismissed suggestions that the threat on the border had diminished.

He said the alliance would shore up its eastern defences with forward deployments in member states bordering Ukraine.

“Moscow has made it clear that it is prepared to contest the fundamental principles that have underpinned our security for decades and to do so by using force,” he said.

“I regret to say that this is the new normal in Europe.”

And on reported Russian troop movements, he said: “So far we do not see any sign of de-escalation on the ground; no withdrawals of troops or equipment.”

“Russia maintains a massive invasion force ready to attack with high-end capabilities from Crimea to Belarus.”

‘Signals give us hope’ 

Russia’s huge build-up of troops, missiles and warships around Ukraine is being billed as Europe’s worst security crisis since the Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded Ukraine be forbidden from pursuing its ambition to join NATO and wants to redraw the security map of eastern Europe, rolling back Western influence.

But, backed by a threat of crippling US and EU economic sanctions, Western leaders are pushing for a negotiated settlement, and Moscow has signalled it will start to pull forces back.

In the latest such move, on Wednesday the Russian defence ministry said military drills in Crimea — a Ukrainian region Moscow annexed in 2014 — had ended and that troops were returning to their garrisons.

Washington has demanded more verifiable evidence of de-escalation, but US President Joe Biden has nevertheless vowed to push for a diplomatic solution.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov welcomed this, telling reporters: “It is positive that the US president is also noting his readiness to start serious negotiations.”

German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht, arriving at the NATO talks, said reports of a partial Russian pullback “are signals that at least give us hope. But it is important to observe closely whether these words are followed by deeds”.

EU leaders, already gathered in Brussels for a summit with their African counterparts, are now to hold impromptu crisis talks on Russia and Ukraine on Thursday.

Zelensky has downplayed threats of an immediate Russian invasion, but is attempting to rally his people with the “Day of Unity” celebrations under Ukraine’s blue and gold banner.

On Wednesday, after the Rivne drills, he visited Mariupol, a frontline port city near a breakaway region held by Russian-backed separatists.

Ambassadors from the European Union, Germany, Estonia, Poland and Spain headed to Mariupol with the president.

Rich return 

Meanwhile, some wealthy business leaders who had been urged bby the government to show sold country announced their return.

Ukraine’s richest man, 55-year-old billionaire industrialist Rinat Akmetov, who was born in Donetsk in an area now held by separatists, was in Mariupol.

“We continue to build, we continue to invest,” he said, promising his firm would boost salaries and support a local university.

On Tuesday, Ukraine said the websites of the country’s defence ministry and armed forces as well as private banks had been hit by a cyberattack of the kind that US intelligence fears would precede a Russian attack.

“It cannot be excluded that the aggressor is resorting to dirty tricks,” Ukraine’s communications watchdog said, in reference to Russia.

Peskov denied that Moscow had any role in the cyber assault. “We do not know anything. As expected, Ukraine continues blaming Russia for everything,” he said.

THE HAGUE — An elderly Afghan man went on trial in a Dutch court on Wednesday accused of war crimes while in charge of a notorious Kabul jail for the communist regime in the 1980s.

The 76-year-old identified as Abdul R. is accused of being the commander of Pul-e-Charki jail where prisoners were allegedly held without trial, tortured and executed.

The suspect, who came to The Netherlands in 2001 and was arrested in 2019, says he is a victim of mistaken identity and is too ill to even remember his own name.

The trial in The Hague is the latest in a series of efforts in European countries to bring people to account for crimes in conflict-torn countries, including Syria and Afghanistan.

"This trial is about a man whom we believe committed a number of war crimes in Kabul," prosecutor Mirjam Blom told AFP.

"We suspect that he, as commander and chief of political affairs, was working in the prison where inmates were arbitrarily robbed of their personal freedom, and treated them inhumanely."

Prosecutors said he was head of the jail from 1983 to 1990, including a period when Afghanistan’s communist regime was fighting a Soviet-backed war against mujahideen resistance fighters.

But appearing in court in a wheelchair, father-of-four Abdul R., who now has Dutch nationality, said he was innocent.

“I am not the person you are looking for,” he told the court, before refusing to answer questions, saying that he felt unwell and wanted to return to prison.

“I don’t remember anything, not even my own name.”

‘Executed without trial’ 

Dutch authorities started investigating in 2012 after blogs said that the former commander of Pul-e-Charkhi was possibly living in The Netherlands.

“Finally we picked up his trail. The public prosecution service has the point of view that he is here [in The Netherlands] under a false name,” said Blom.

“We are convinced that we have the right person,” Blom said.

Dutch authorities spoke to 25 witnesses in various countries and used “countless” open-source materials to gather evidence about the alleged war crimes at the jail.

“Inmates were being executed without trial. At night prisoners were being shot,” said a witness statement, read before the court.

“Conditions in the prisons were very bad. There were often flies in the food. But complaining meant your tongue could be cut out,” another witness statement said.

Victim Abdul Wadood, 66, told the court that “I still have flashbacks” from his his seven years in Pul-e-Charkhi.

“A broken hand, a broken arm, that can be fixed in time, but the psychological torture, that you carry with you for your whole life,” said Wadood, adding that he had “lost many dear friends”.

“I want to tell you that the man present here was the commander... and it’s a shame that he has no remorse,” Wadood said.

Notorious for its grim conditions, Pul-e-Charkhi has remained in use under various regimes until the Taliban freed prisoners from it last August.

The Dutch proceedings are made possible by the legal principle of “universal jurisdiction” — which allows countries to try people for crimes of exceptional gravity, including war crimes, even if they were committed in a different country.

It has so far mainly been used for cases involving the Syrian conflict, including the recent trial in Germany of a Syrian refugee doctor accused of torturing detainees in his homeland.

The case is set to continue until early next week, with Abdul R.’s lawyers to speak on his behalf. A verdict is expected several weeks later.

PETRÓPOLIS, Brazil — At least 44 people were killed in devastating flash floods and landslides that hit the picturesque Brazilian city of Petropolis, turning streets into torrential rivers and sweeping away houses, officials said on Wednesday.

Rescue workers raced to find survivors buried in the mud and wreckage after heavy storms Tuesday dumped a month’s worth of rain in three hours on the scenic tourist town in the hills north of Rio de Janeiro.

There were fears the death toll could rise as firefighters and volunteer rescue workers dug through the remains of houses washed away in torrents of mud, many of them in impoverished hillside slums.

At least 21 people have been so far been rescued alive in the effort, according to the state government.

Around 300 people were being housed in shelters, mostly in schools, officials said. Charities called for donations of mattresses, blankets, food, water, clothing and face masks for victims.

Wendel Pio Lourenco, a 24-year-old resident, was walking through the streets with a television in his arms, heading to a local church in search of shelter.

He said he was trying to save a few possessions, after spending a sleepless night helping search for victims.

“I found a girl who was buried alive,” he said.

“Everyone is saying it looks like a war zone.”

Governor Claudio Castro said much the same after visiting the scene.

“It’s almost a war situation. We’ve mobilised our entire team,” he said.

Videos posted on social media from Tuesday’s rains showed streets in Petropolis, the 19th-century summer capital of the Brazilian empire, fill with gushing floods that swept away cars, trees and nearly everything else in their paths.

Many shops were completely inundated by the rising waters, which gushed down the streets of the historic city center.

Officials said more than 180 firefighters and other rescue workers were responding to the emergency, aided by 400 soldiers sent in as reinforcements.

City hall declared a “state of disaster” in the city of 300,000 people, which sits 68 kilometres north of Rio.

The city council declared three days of mourning for victims.

Petropolis is a popular destination for tourists fleeing the summer heat of Rio, known for its leafy streets, stately homes, imperial palace — today a museum — and the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains.

Tuesday’s storms dumped 258 millimetres of rain on the city in three hours, nearly equal to all the rainfall from the previous month, the mayor’s office said.

The heaviest downpour had passed, but more moderate rain was expected to continue on and off for several days, authorities said.

President Jair Bolsonaro, on an official trip to Russia, said on Twitter he was keeping abreast of “the tragedy”.

“Thank you for your words of solidarity with the people of Petropolis,” he told President Vladimir Putin after meeting the Russian leader.

“May God comfort [the victims’] families.”

Brazil has been swept by heavy rains in the past several months that have caused a series of deadly floods and landslides.

Experts say rainy season downpours are being augmented by La Nina — the cyclical cooling of the Pacific Ocean — and by the impact of climate change.

Because a warmer atmosphere holds more water, global warming increases the risk and intensity of flooding from extreme rainfall.

Last month, torrential rain triggered floods and landslides that killed at least 28 people in south-eastern Brazil, mostly in Sao Paulo state.

There have also been heavy rains in the north-eastern state of Bahia, where 24 people died in December.

It is not the first time the mountains around Rio have been the scene of deadly storms.

In January 2011, more than 900 people died in the region due to heavy rains that caused flooding and landslides in a large area, including Petropolis and neighbouring cities Nova Friburgo and Teresopolis.

MOSCOW — Western leaders said Tuesday they were seeing positive signs that Russia was looking to ease tensions over Ukraine, after Moscow announced it was pulling back some of the troops deployed on its neighbour's borders.

In the first announced withdrawal from among more than 100,000 troops Russia amassed on the Ukrainian border, the defence ministry in Moscow said some soldiers and hardware were returning to bases at the end of planned exercises.

Western leaders had accused Moscow of positioning the troops in advance of a possible invasion of pro-Western Ukraine, warning that any attack would be met with severe economic sanctions.

After a meeting Tuesday with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin said Russia "of course" did not want war, and was willing to look for solutions with the West.

"We are ready to work further together. We are ready to go down the negotiations track," Putin told a joint press conference with Scholz, confirming a "partial pullback of troops".

The German leader joined others in the West in expressing hope that steps were being taken towards de-escalation in the crisis.

"That we are now hearing that some troops are being withdrawn is in any case a good sign," Scholz said.

"For Europeans it is clear that lasting security cannot be achieved against Russia but only with Russia."

'Reason for hope' 

Moscow released few details about the troop withdrawal and there was no immediate outside confirmation.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in Brussels there was not yet “any sign of de-escalation on the ground” but that there were “grounds for cautious optimism”.

A French government spokesman said it was a “positive signal” if Russian forces were indeed withdrawing, while Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said “every real step of de-escalation would be a reason for hope”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were “signs of a diplomatic opening” with Russia, but that intelligence on a possible invasion was “still not encouraging”.

The crisis, the worst between Russia and the West since the Cold War ended, reached a peak this week, with US officials warning that a full-scale invasion, including an assault on Kyiv, was possible within days.

Washington took the dramatic step on Monday of relocating its embassy in Kyiv to the western city of Lviv, after previously urging US citizens to leave Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry announced the partial withdrawal on Tuesday morning, saying some forces deployed near Ukraine had finished their exercises and were packing up to leave.

“Units of the southern and western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and today they will begin moving to their military garrisons,” the ministry’s chief spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear how many units were involved and what impact the withdrawals would have on the overall number of troops surrounding Ukraine.

Konashenkov said “large-scale” Russian military drills were continuing in many areas, including joint exercises in Belarus and naval exercises in the Black Sea and elsewhere.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the pullback was the “usual process” after military exercises and blamed the West for the crisis.

“This is nothing but a totally unprecedented campaign to provoke tensions,” he said, calling decisions to move embassies to western Ukraine “ostentatious hysteria”.

Ukraine said deterrence efforts against Russia appeared to be working but that it would watch to see if any Russian withdrawal was real.

“We have a rule: Don’t believe what you hear, believe what you see. When we see a withdrawal, we will believe in a de-escalation,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told reporters.

In a separate move likely to anger Kyiv, Russian lawmakers on Tuesday voted to urge Putin to recognise two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine as “sovereign and independent states”.

This would allow Russia to abandon the Minsk agreements peace plan for eastern Ukraine and potentially move in Russian troops — giving Putin a strong hand to play in any future negotiations with Kyiv.

The European Union “strongly” condemned the move, saying it would violate the Minsk agreements that Moscow had signed up to.

Russia has repeatedly blamed the Ukraine crisis on the West, saying the United States and western Europe are ignoring Russia’s legitimate security concerns.

The Kremlin insists NATO must give assurances Ukraine will never be admitted as a member and roll back its presence in several eastern European and ex-Soviet countries.

Russia already controls the Crimean Peninsula that it seized from Ukraine in 2014 and supports separatist forces who have taken control of parts of eastern Ukraine, in a conflict that has claimed more than 14,000 lives.

MOSCOW — Russia said Monday that a diplomatic solution to Moscow's standoff with the West was still possible and that some of its military drills were ending, after tensions over Ukraine reached fever pitch.

The comments came after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz landed in Kyiv for crisis talks ahead of a visit to Moscow to head off what Berlin said was the "very critical" threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

During a televised meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said "there is always a chance" to reach an agreement with Western countries over the standoff.

He told Putin that dialogue with leaders in European capitals and Washington should continue and that "opportunities are far from exhausted" for a resolution.

"I would suggest continuing" talks, Lavrov said.

On his arrival in Ukraine, the German leader headed directly to see President Volodomyr Zelensky, whose government has demanded an urgent meeting with Russia to explain why it has deployed more than 100,000 soldiers to Ukraine's borders.

European leaders warn that the troop build-up is the worst threat to the continent's security since the Cold War, as Putin demands a rollback of Western influence in eastern Europe and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO.

'Critical' threat 

Western allies have prepared what they warn would be a crippling package of economic sanctions in response.

Earlier, a German government source had said: "We assess the situation as very critical, very dangerous."

Western alarm over Ukraine has been fuelled by recent Russian military exercises, including Belarus, where the US said Moscow had dispatched 30,000 troops for more than a week of drills.

Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin in a meeting Monday that some of the drills were “ending” and some would end “in the near future”.

In Kyiv, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov hailed “positive” talks with his Belarusian counterpart. He said he had been assured “there are no threats to Ukraine from Belarus”.

US intelligence officials worry that weeks of crisis talks have given Russia the time to prepare a major offensive should Putin make the ultimate decision to attack Ukraine.

“We are digging trenches that Ukrainian soldiers could quickly jump into and defend in case the Russians attack,” 15-year-old Mykhailo Anopa told AFP.

He was speaking near the frontline separating Kyiv-held territory from that under the control of Moscow-backed insurgents in the separatist east.

Ukraine demands answers 

Washington reaffirmed its warning on Sunday that Russia was now ready to strike at “any moment”. It said the assault was likely to start with “a significant barrage of missiles and bomb attacks”.

Ukraine requested a formal meeting with Moscow and other members of the pan-European security body, the OSCE, that might explain “the reinforcement and movement of Russian forces along our border”.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian presidency said Zelensky had also urged US President Joe Biden to visit Kyiv “in the coming days” to show moral support.

The White House made no mention of the invitation in its readout of the 50-minute call.

The United States on Saturday ordered all non-emergency staff to leave its embassy in Kyiv.

Tough trip 

Germany plays a central role in efforts to mediate in eastern Ukraine, where a gruelling conflict with Russian-backed separatists has claimed more than 14,000 lives.

But Germany’s close business relations with Moscow and heavy reliance on Russian natural gas imports have been a source of lingering concern for Kyiv’s pro-Western leaders and Biden’s team.

Scholz has warned Russia it should “not underestimate our unity and determination” but also hedged against unequivocally backing Biden’s pledge to “bring an end” to Russia’s new Nord Stream 2 gas link to Germany.

Kyiv is also upset with Berlin for not having joined some of its NATO allies in starting to send weapons to Ukraine.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin, Andriy Melnik, fumed at “German hypocrisy” in a tweet on Sunday, saying Germany was exporting “dual-use goods to Russia” but offering “no weapons for Ukraine’s self-defence”.

Scholz’s visit to Moscow on Tuesday follows tit-for-tat closures of the German-language service of Russia’s RT network and the Moscow bureau of Germany’s Deutsche Welle.

Airline worries 

A growing number of Western countries are withdrawing staff from their Kyiv embassies and urging their citizens to leave Ukraine immediately.

But departures may be complicated by the looming threat of the skies over Ukraine closing due to rising risks for airlines.

Dutch carrier KLM became the first major airline over the weekend to suspend flights to Kyiv indefinitely.

On Monday morning, ahead of the potential shutdown, Kiev’s international airport was busy but there were no signs of panic despite long queues to depart.

Ukraine’s budget airline SkyUp said European leasing companies were demanding that Ukrainian carriers return their planes to EU airspace within 48 hours.

Industry analysts believe other international airlines may soon also ban flights into Ukraine because of the growing cost to insurers.

WASHINGTON — Amid mounting warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could come any day, the Pentagon said on Sunday that the latest top-level US-Russian contacts did not provide "any cause for optimism".

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby offered a grim assessment of the one-hour phone conversation Saturday between US President Joe Biden and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

"It's certainly not a sign that things are moving in the right direction. It's certainly not a sign that Mr Putin has any intention to de-escalate. And it's certainly not a sign that he is recommitting himself to a diplomatic path forward," Kirby told "Fox News on Sunday" when asked about the lack of fundamental change after the call. So, it does not give us any cause for optimism."

US officials in recent days have issued a series of increasingly blunt warnings that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, and foreign countries have been rushing to evacuate their nationals.

US National Security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN on Sunday that "a major military action could begin by Russia in Ukraine any day now".

Sullivan used some of the most specific, and chilling, language yet employed by an American official, warning that an invasion is "likely to begin with a significant barrage of missiles and bomb attacks... so innocent civilians could be killed".

That, he said, would be followed by a ground invasion in which "innocent civilians could get caught in the crossfire".

Sullivan said Russia might yet opt for a diplomatic solution, but its forces near Ukraine's borders are "in a position where they could launch a military action very, very rapidly".

The growing drumbeat of warnings has infused diplomatic contacts with a sense of intense urgency.

Biden was set to speak to President Volodymyr Zelensky "in coming hours", the Ukrainian leader's office said Sunday.

And German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was preparing to leave for talks in Kyiv and Moscow, vowed "tough" and immediate sanctions by Germany and its NATO and European allies should a Russian attack threaten Ukraine's "territorial integrity and sovereignty".

Tensions are now at a "very critical, very dangerous" point, a German government source told reporters.

In London, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace expressed concern that diplomacy was having any effect.

"The worrying thing is that despite the massive amount of increased diplomacy, that military build-up has continued," he told The Sunday Times. "It has not paused, it has continued."