| Dear readers,
As debate continues over the assertion of French President Emmanuel Macron that the deployment of international troops in Ukraine should not be ruled out, we interviewed Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, who stated that is not Kyiv’s goal. “We didn’t ask for troops. We have our own military and defense forces. And we have enough troops. We are very grateful to the European Union and partners for training tens of thousands of our soldiers in Europe. We propose to our European partners to send instructors to Ukrainian territory, to make this process faster, since it would facilitate logistics and communication.” Shmyhal also addressed those who have been calling for Ukraine to enter negotiations for a diplomatic end to the war, noting that over 100 countries will participate in an upcoming peace forum in Switzerland “to pressure Russia to stop the war, to get out of our sovereign, internationally recognized territories, and thus end this war at the diplomatic table, with guarantees, with documents. Ending it militarily is impossible, because Russia is a nuclear country.”
In a week that saw Vladimir Putin extend his reign over Russia after presidential elections in which he ran practically unopposed, subsequently announcing “grandiose plans” for the country’s future, EL PAÍS analyzed the global network that allows the Kremlin to maintain its war machine and sidestep Western sanctions. From explicit political backing from states such as North Korea, Belarus, and Syria, to China’s economic support and military backing from Iran, in addition to a swathe of countries that offer trade options, black market opportunities and access to dual-use goods or financial services, Putin has established a diverse web of sympathizers to his cause. “The West’s sanctions policy has failed to deter Russia and is currently struggling to succeed in containing it. The main loopholes are centered around oil and battlefield goods,” notes the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
We also spoke to neurologist Josep Dalmau, of the Idibaps-Hospital Clínic in Barcelona, who in 2007 discovered the mechanisms behind a type of swelling of the brain called “anti-NMDAR encephalitis,” a milestone that would lead the scientist and his team of researchers to describe 12 of the 16 forms of autoimmune encephalitis that have been described since then. “It was the key that opened the door to new knowledge about many forms of autoimmune encephalitis,” he explained. “Twenty years ago, only one group was known. They were related to cancer and usually affected people over 50 years of age. But we saw that there were others that were equally serious, but that the patients could be much younger and included adolescents and children. Sometimes they did not have a tumor or, if they did, it was benign. All of this had a great impact on neurology, pediatrics, psychiatry, and intensive care, which were the branches of medicine that were dealing with these cases without really knowing how.”
We hope you enjoy this selection of articles from El País USA Edition.
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