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world news Diaranson 31 augustus 2022

Danube drought reveals parts of hidden World War II history

PRAHOVO, Serbia (AP) using the river, and now the
— The worst drought in Serbian government, with
Europe in decades hasn't European Union support,
only scorched farmland is planning to do something
and hampered river traf- about them.
fic, it also has exposed a
part of almost forgotten Some of the wrecks were re-
World War II history: The moved from the river by the
hulks of dozens of World Communist Yugoslav au-
War II German battleships thorities right after the war.
have emerged from the But most of them remained,
Danube River as its water hampering shipping, espe-
levels have dropped. cially in summer when water
levels are low. For years there
In the middle of the mighty were plans to take the ships
river separating Serbia and out of the muddy waters, but
Romania near the Serbian the operation was consid-
port of Prahovo, a rusty ered too risky because of the
hull, a broken mast where explosives they carried and
the swastika flag used to fly, there were no funds to do it
an upper deck where a com- until recently.
mand bridge used to be, a
barrel that could have been Now, the European Union
holding fuel — or even ex- vance in the Balkans. But it many rivers on the continent, and the European Invest-
plosive materials — lean on Historians say up to 200 Ger- didn't help as Nazi Germany including the Danube, Eu- ment Bank have agreed to
a pebblestone dune that has man warships were scuttled surrendered months later, in rope's second-longest river provide loans and grants to
emerged from the water. in September 1944 near Pra- May 1945. that flows through 10 na- finance the operation to re-
hovo in the Danube gorge tions. Authorities in Serbia move some of the vessels
The ships, some still laden known as The Iron Gate on The unusually hot weather have used dredging to keep near Prahovo in order to im-
with munition, belonged to the orders of the fleet's com- across Europe this summer vessels moving. prove the traffic capacity of
Nazi Germany's Black Sea mander as they came under was linked by scientists to the Danube. The total cost
fleet that was deliberately heavy fire from the Soviets. global warming and other The wrecks appearing from of the operation is estimated
sunk by the Germans as they The idea behind the delib- factors. The dropping wa- the depths are an impressive at 30 million euros ($30 mil-
retreated from Romania as erate sinking was to at least ter levels created dangerous sight, but they have caused lion), of which about 16 mil-
Soviet forces advanced. slow down the Soviet ad- conditions for shipping on decades of trouble for those lion are grants.

EU split over Russia visa ban, weighs Ukraine army training

PRAGUE (AP) — Euro- talks, has said that a visa ban 10% of their usual number sia that are "irrational and term requirements, ranging
pean Union nations were on all Russian citizens is un- from Sept. 1. bordering on madness." He from basic military training
divided Tuesday over likely to be agreed on. Ger- warned that Moscow will re- and organizing resistance
whether to slap a broad many and France are leading As of Thursday, Finland, taliate if Russian citizens are to high-level instruction on
visa ban on Russian citi- a push to tighten visa restric- which has the longest border targeted. the use of equipment or de-
zens, torn between a de- tions, rather than impose with Russia of all EU coun- fending against nuclear and
sire to ramp up pressure an outright ban. German tries, will only allow Russian In talks earlier Tuesday, EU chemical weapons.
on President Vladimir Foreign Minister Annalena citizens to apply for tourist defense ministers weighed
Putin and concern about Baerbock expressed support visas on one day a week, and the possibility of setting Several countries already
punishing people who for suspending more parts of only in four cities in Russia. up a training mission for provide military training on a
may not even support his the 2007 EU agreement with Ukraine's beleaguered armed bilateral basis, but some feel
war on Ukraine. Russia, and to halt the issuing Kremlin spokesman Dmi- forces, but the bloc's coun- that it's important to throw
of multiple-entry or multi- try Peskov said Tuesday that tries disagree over what add- the EU's combined weight
The 27-nation EU already year visas. Moscow was closely follow- ed value such an effort might behind the effort. The Neth-
tightened visa restrictions on ing the EU visa discussions bring. erlands highlighted new de-
Russian officials and busi- But Baerbock said it's impor- and described them as part of Ukraine has provided the EU mining training that it's pro-
nesspeople in May, but calls tant "that we don't deprive Western moves against Rus- with a list of short- and long- viding with Germany.
have mounted from, notably, ourselves of what made it
Poland and the Baltic coun- possible for us to allow per-
tries — Estonia, Latvia and secuted people in Russia to
Lithuania — for a broader leave very quickly."
ban on tourists.
"We should not punish those
"There must be more restric- who have the courage to stand
tions on travel for Russian up against this regime," Baer-
citizens," Latvian Defense bock said at a Cabinet gath-
Minister Artis Pabriks said. ering north of Berlin, from
where she is due to travel to
"We cannot simply give bo- Prague on Wednesday.
nuses to people which are
supporting such presidents Finland's foreign minis-
as Putin," he told reporters in ter, Pekka Haavisto, said his
Czech capital Prague, where country is worried about
EU defense and foreign min- a kind of Russian "tourist
isters are meeting. route" through Helsinki air-
port. He said Finland will
EU foreign policy chief Josep unilaterally slash the granting
Borrell, who is chairing the of tourist visas to Russians to