标签： Europe

Across the entire island of Ireland, communities and political leaders gathered this week to mark the 110th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, a defining moment in Ireland’s long push for sovereign independence that continues to shape modern political discourse around unification.

The Easter Rising, a coordinated rebellion launched to end centuries of British rule in Ireland, remains one of the most consequential events in Irish history. On Easter Monday 1916, rebel leader Pádraig Pearse stood on the steps of Dublin’s General Post Office (GPO) — the rebellion’s central headquarters — and read a proclamation declaring an independent Irish republic. What followed was six days of urban fighting concentrated in Dublin, which ultimately ended with the rebels’ surrender to British forces. More than 450 people lost their lives in the conflict, and 16 rebel leaders were executed in the weeks after the surrender. Though the rising itself was militarily defeated, historians widely credit the harsh British response, particularly the executions, with shifting Irish public opinion from initial hostility to widespread sympathy for the republican cause, ultimately laying the groundwork for the creation of the Irish Free State and later the fully independent Republic of Ireland.

This year’s commemorative events centered on the GPO in Dublin, the symbolic heart of the 1916 rising. Irish presidential official Catherine Connolly opened the proceedings by laying a ceremonial wreath at the site, a tradition that honors all those who lost their lives in the rebellion. Dignitaries from across the island joined the event, including Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Simon Harris, Defence Minister Helen McEntee, Dublin Lord Mayor Ray McAdam, and Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald. More than 200 personnel from the Irish Defence Forces took part in the ceremonial proceedings, and Captain Eva Houlihan delivered a reading of the original 1916 proclamation, exactly 110 years after Pearse’s historic reading from the same location.

Later in the day, speakers addressed crowds at Arbour Hill Cemetery, where 14 of the executed 1916 leaders are buried. McDonald, who serves as leader of the Irish opposition in the Dáil, used the anniversary to frame the next phase of Irish political history, tying the legacy of the Easter Rising to the contemporary push for Irish unification. With the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement approaching — the 1998 peace deal that ended decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland and formalized provisions for unification via public vote — McDonald argued that the time has come for tangible progress toward a united Ireland. “We have secured the peace. Now is the time to write the next chapter of our national story — the reunification of Ireland,” she said. “This is the decade when Irish unity can be won — decided by people north and south in referendums. The conversation is underway, but conversation alone is not enough. We need vision, determination, and leadership. We need action.”

In Northern Ireland, thousands of people turned out for a major commemorative parade along the Falls Road in west Belfast, ending at Milltown Cemetery, a key site for republican remembrance. Deirdre Hargey, Sinn Féin’s South Belfast Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), addressed the assembled crowds, echoing McDonald’s call for progress toward unity. “While we must never forget, we must also look forward with confidence and hope in building a new and united Ireland,” she said. Hargey also drew a connection between the 1916 fight for Irish self-determination and modern global struggles for sovereignty, noting that “as we continue working towards this, we must reflect on those countries whose own sovereignty and self-determination is being threatened throughout the world.” She added that upcoming 2027 regional and local elections are expected to energize the growing campaign for Irish unification.

The anniversary commemorations come at a moment of shifting political dynamics across Ireland. Opinion polling in recent years has shown growing support for unification in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, and the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next year is expected to bring renewed focus to the issue. For republicans across the island, the 110th anniversary of the Easter Rising serves not just as a time to honor the sacrifice of the 1916 rebels, but as a catalyst to advance the goal of completing the Irish independence project that Pearse and his fellow rebels first proclaimed a century ago.

In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press held in Istanbul on the evening of April 4, 2026, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy laid out a stark warning: a drawn-out U.S.-led war against Iran risks diverting critical Western military backing from Kyiv, just as Ukraine prepares to fend off a new large-scale Russian spring offensive. More than four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s most pressing gap in air defense capabilities remains a chronic shortage of U.S.-manufactured Patriot air defense systems, the only tool Kyiv currently has to reliably intercept Russian ballistic missiles targeting civilian and infrastructure sites.

Zelenskyy emphasized that Russia has maintained relentless, devastating airstrikes on Ukrainian rear-area urban centers, killing thousands of civilians and systematically targeting national energy infrastructure. These attacks are designed to disrupt domestic production of Ukrainian-built drones and missiles, while also leaving civilian populations without heating or clean water during the cold winter months. Despite Ukraine’s ongoing diplomatic outreach to Washington for continued security support, Zelenskyy acknowledged that Kyiv is no longer the top foreign policy priority for the United States amid a growing conflict in the Middle East. “That’s why I am afraid a long [Iran] war will give us less support,” he told AP.

The last round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian envoys concluded in February with no substantive progress, a standoff Zelenskyy blames on Russia’s deliberate strategy of dragging out talks while continuing offensive operations. Ukraine has remained engaged with U.S. mediators and continues to push for binding, long-term security guarantees from Western allies, but even these diplomatic efforts are being sidelined by the shifting global focus to the Iran conflict, he said.

Patriot systems were never delivered to Ukraine in quantities sufficient to cover the country’s entire territory, Zelenskyy noted. With the Iran conflict now entering its sixth week, he projected that the already small military aid packages destined for Kyiv will shrink even further if the war drags on. “The package — which is not very big for us — I think will be smaller and smaller day by day,” he said. “That’s why, of course, we are afraid.”

Zelenskyy had previously pinned hopes on European partners to fill gaps in Patriot supplies, even amid tight global stockpiles and limited U.S. production capacity. But the Iran war has roiled global defense supply chains, diverted already scarce missile stockpiles to Middle East allies, and left major Ukrainian population centers far more exposed to Russian ballistic missile attacks. Beyond eroding military support, the conflict has handed Russia unexpected economic benefits: the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has driven a sharp spike in global oil prices, while the U.S. has issued temporary sanctions waivers for Russian crude to avoid global energy shortages. These developments have boosted Kremlin oil revenues, strengthening Moscow’s ability to sustain its invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia gets additional money because of this, so yes, they have benefits,” Zelenskyy said. As one of the world’s top oil exporters, Russia has seen growing demand for its crude from Asian nations amid the unfolding global energy crisis, giving Moscow a substantial financial windfall that it can redirect to its war effort. In response to this windfall, Ukraine has ramped up long-range drone strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, attacks that have disrupted Russian energy operations and rattled Kremlin officials. Over the weekend, Russian authorities reported one drone strike that sparked a fire at a key oil refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region, and a second attack that damaged an oil pipeline at the major Baltic export terminal of Primorsk, with no reported casualties.

To keep Ukraine at the center of global security discussions and shore up much-needed air defense supplies, Zelenskyy has launched a new diplomatic outreach campaign, positioning Ukraine as a critical security partner for Western and Middle Eastern nations grappling with Iranian threats. Drawing on years of frontline experience countering Iranian-made Shahed drones (modified by Russia into the Geran-2 loitering munition with enhanced capabilities to evade air defenses), Ukraine has developed low-cost, highly effective interceptor drones that have proven far more accessible than traditional high-end air defense systems. Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine is ready to share this proven technology and battlefield expertise with Gulf Arab states targeted by Iran, in exchange for much-needed anti-ballistic missile systems to reinforce Kyiv’s air defenses.

The Ukrainian president also offered Ukraine’s experience securing the Black Sea grain initiative to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global trade chokepoint whose closure has disrupted energy markets worldwide. In late March, Zelenskyy completed a tour of Gulf Arab states focused on promoting this counter-drone expertise, which resulted in new bilateral defense cooperation agreements. Even as the Iran war siphons attention and resources away from Kyiv, Zelenskyy is working to build new security partnerships to fill gaps left by shifting Western priorities.

Zelenskyy traveled to Istanbul to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meeting just one day after Erdogan held a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pair discussed the status of peace negotiations, the possibility of a new leaders’ peace summit in Istanbul, and upcoming new bilateral defense agreements between Ankara and Kyiv. Following the Istanbul talks, Zelenskyy and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan made an official visit to Damascus on Sunday, where Zelenskyy met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. In a post on X, Zelenskyy noted that the two leaders discussed the interconnected conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and agreed there is strong mutual interest in exchanging military and security expertise.

Back on the 1,250-kilometer front line stretching across eastern and southern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces are bracing for a new, large-scale Russian spring offensive. As weather warms each year, Russia typically ramps up its grinding war of attrition, though it has failed to capture major Ukrainian cities and has only made incremental territorial gains in rural areas over the past year. Russia currently occupies roughly 18 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory, including the Crimean Peninsula seized in 2014. Ukraine’s armed forces Commander-in-Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi confirmed that Russian troops have launched simultaneous attempts to break through Ukrainian defensive lines at multiple key strategic points in recent days. For Zelenskyy, any compromise that would require Ukraine to cede sovereign territory remains completely off the table, a non-negotiable position he says he will maintain regardless of shifting global priorities.

Over the weekend, Russia continued its airstrike campaign across Ukraine: overnight drone attacks killed at least one civilian and seriously wounded another in the southern city of Nikopol, while a separate strike on the Black Sea port of Odesa left three civilians wounded.