He hadn’t yet won enough votes to clinch Indonesia’s presidential election, but with the confidence of a man poised to take power of one of the world’s largest democracies, Prabowo Subianto gave a press conference, half-naked, from his private swimming pool on the outskirts of Jakarta.

At 72, the ex-army general, once banned from the United States over alleged human rights violations, might be decades older than his competitors – both former governors in their 50s – but he says he is more than ready to lead.

“The most important objective of democracy is giving people the leaders and representatives they want,” Prabowo told reporters from his pool. “I hope all parties understand the greater goal.”

Official results will be announced in March. But according to early figures, which historically have been accurate, Prabowo garnered an enormous 60% of the vote, avoiding a run-off in June.

He lost presidential elections twice to the wildly popular Joko Widodo, also known as Jokowi, sparking deadly riots in 2019 after he challenged the results. Now he is poised to become Indonesia’s next leader.

But speculation is rife about what a famously short-tempered military man will do when he ascends to office and what it will mean for the country’s hard-won democracy.

“Prabowo has worked really hard to whitewash his egregious past and reinvent himself with a softer, cuddlier image but it’s still too early to tell what kind of president he will be,” said Zachary Abuza, a professor in Southeast Asian politics and security issues at the National War College in Washington, DC.

“Jokowi’s focus had been on the economy. He believed that economic growth and development would resolve all conflicts,” Abuza added.

“I see Prabowo looking at problems through a military lens. Safeguarding sovereignty and national security will be his priorities.”

More recently, Prabowo has presented himself as a loyal Jokowi ally, serving as his defense minister for the past five years. Much of his 2024 election campaign focused on continuing the outgoing president’s pet projects and policies.

But the two could not be more different, political watchers say.

When Widodo won the election in 2014, he drew comparisons with Barack Obama and rode in on a platform of change – becoming the first elected president in Indonesia’s history with no ties to the political or military elite.

Experts say Prabowo, known for his fiery speeches, military background and combative past will make for a very different kind of president.

He is considerably more outspoken and confrontational than Widodo, who is known for his calm and conciliatory demeanor, they add.

“Prabowo had a reputation in the military for fighting and for his short temper,” said Tom Pepinsky, professor of government and director of the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University. “While he might not have the same crassness or brashness of politicians like Rodrigo Duterte, Javier Milei or Trump, his politics replace concern for law and order with a preference for order over the law.”

“Prabowo does have temper issues,” said Abuza. “It’s very easy to get under his skin – as we’ve seen for ourselves in the presidential debates – and don’t forget: this is someone who has justified military rule and like all politicians, knows how to turn on the charm.”

A new era in foreign policy?

As Indonesia’s defense minister, Prabowo is no stranger on the world stage.

While rights groups might criticize him, foreign leaders have been quick to congratulate him on his apparent victory. “Prabowo will be more comfortable as a world leader than Jokowi was,” said Pepinsky. “His English is stronger and he is confident moving around in international circles.”

But his appearance at a security summit in Singapore last year left audiences stunned when he delivered an impromptu peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, calling for a demilitarized zone that would have allowed Russia to keep its territorial gains.

Indonesia has long been one of Australia’s most important bilateral relationships and experts say that will not change with Prabowo in charge.

“Australia will be very careful. Its relationship with Indonesia is seen as being very politicized, one that’s always on spiky ground,” said Jacqui Baker, a Southeast Asian politics lecturer and senior fellow at the Center for Indo-Pacific Research in Perth.

“The Australian government will work very hard to maintain its partnership and good working relations with Indonesia.”

Resource-rich Indonesia, with the world’s largest nickel reserves, is also seen as a big prize for influence in Asia.

Widodo’s ambitions for the country’s economy have led him to seek out good relations with both Beijing and Washington. Indonesia will continue to maintain neutrality even after Widodo leaves office.

“We expect Indonesia, led by Prabowo, to continue a pragmatic approach and maintain neutrality by not aligning with China or the US to allow it to continue welcoming both Chinese and Western investment,” said Laura Schwartz, Senior Southeast Asia Analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.

But he “should expect” international scrutiny of his reputation, Schwartz added.

“Prabowo might have successfully rehabilitated his image domestically but on a global stage, he is still perceived to be a polarizing figure and may face more scrutiny around his controversial history.”

Diplomatic relations with China have been especially important during Widodo’s final year in office, which saw him aggressively courting lucrative Chinese foreign investment deals to speed up infrastructure development.

“Prabowo will continue to seek out Chinese investment like Jokowi has but whether he has the patience and consistency that Jokowi has demonstrated is unknown at this point,” said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. “His past behavior record has included more instances of unpredictable changes in direction.”

Much of the commentary concerning Prabowo and the US has centered on a ban imposed on him back in 1998 after he was dismissed from the military over alleged human rights atrocities following the fall of the late dictator Suharto, also his former father-in-law.

Security experts have pointed out several visits Prabowo has made to the US since becoming defense minister in 2019. Past sanctions on him are unlikely to present any major hurdles when he becomes president. “Prabowo’s ban from entering the US was waived and he has been here more than once and met with very senior officials – effectively whitewashing rights abuses in his past,” noted Abuza.

“Washington is going to be looking for endeavors and ambitions in Asia, particularly vis-a-vis with Beijing, and as long as it looks at Asian countries as terrain for competition with China, it will give Prabowo some latitude to make initial goodwill.”

That said, Prabowo “won a democratic election in a huge landslide,” Slater added.

“So there’s going to be a lot of inclination on Washington’s end to try and get along with him.”

Revival of military political power

For much of his decade in office, Widodo’s focus had been on advancing Indonesia’s economy, famously pledging it would become the world’s fourth largest by 2045. Economic growth and infrastructure improved under his watch as he courted major Chinese companies and electric car giant Tesla to invest in its nickel mining industry.

Prabowo, while a very wealthy and savvy businessman with assets reportedly worth more than $125 million, is first and foremost a military man and is likely to have different priorities, experts say.

“As defense minister, he was committed to military modernization. As president, it is unclear how and if he will use the military to further his aims,” said Chong, from the National University of Singapore.

“The risk is if he seeks to re-politicize the army to serve his interests or closes an eye to corruption and abuse.”

His stance about territorial issues in the South China Sea is expected to remain the same, Chong added. “He has little incentive to escalate (tensions) but if he believes Indonesia is being provoked, he might be more willing to take risks as compared to Jokowi, as we’ve seen with his military past.”

Indonesia’s army, known by its initials TNI (Tentara Nasional Indonesia) is formally banned from politics but even with legal restrictions in place, generals remain a powerful force. “In Southeast Asia, people do tend to look to militaries as being trusted and important institutions especially if there are corrupt politicians in government,” said Abuza.

“In Indonesia, we have seen the TNI systematically claw back authority over the years and try to reassert itself in spaces that should be the purview of civil authorities… I can definitely see Prabowo going into the ranks of retired army officers and generals for many of his advisers and cabinet officials.”

“But a bigger concern is if he accelerates the return of a dual function role for the military.”

‘Papua is going to be ground zero’

On TikTok, it would seem as if Prabowo’s former life as a fearsome special forces commander never existed – the result of a successful rebranding campaign that charmed young voters and transformed him into a cuddly grandfather figure.

But not all have forgotten his bloody past. “We are dealing with the possibility of our next president being implicated in major human rights violations,” said Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia. “A Prabowo presidency could roll back our democratic reforms and the fear is that things are going to change for the worse.”

Of particular concern is Papua, the restive province where TNI troops have long maintained a strong presence. Access to the country is tightly controlled and accounts of abuse by soldiers against civilians are frequently reported.

“Papua is going to be ground zero for many of Prabowo’s policies,” said Abuza. “He has advocated a more military response to crush Papuans and I would imagine that he will not be one to seek out political solutions.”

“I just do not see him trying to reach negotiated settlements that would grant the region more autonomy. If anything, he would increase state control,” he added.

A Prabowo presidency risks a dangerous repeat of the late Suharto’s authoritarian regime, said Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman who currently lives in exile in Australia.

“And seeing Prabowo’s track record in East Timor, this can’t be underestimated.”

The widow of the Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny has accused President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his death and said she would pick up his fight for a “happy, beautiful Russia.”

Yulia Navalnaya posted a video on her dead husband’s social media outlets Monday, saying Putin “killed the father of my children, Putin took away the most precious thing that was my closest and most beloved person.”

She said Russian authorities were “hiding” Navalny’s body in an attempt to disguise the cause of his death – “lying pathetically” and waiting for “traces of another of Putin’s Novichoks to disappear.”

Navalnaya didn’t provide any evidence to support her claim that a second poisoning was the cause of her husband’s unexplained death in an Arctic penal colony on Friday.

The Kremlin has said an investigation into the circumstances around Navalny’s death is “underway,” and the results are currently “unknown.”

This is a breaking story. More details to come

On July 20, 1969, the world watched as humankind landed on the moon for the first time.

But the perfect touchdown of the Eagle lunar lander by NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong was anything but easy.

As he and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin flew over the intended landing site, Armstrong looked out the window and saw a treacherous boulder field. Relying on his ace piloting skills, Armstrong manually navigated to a safe landing site, with only 30 seconds of fuel left.

After the lunar surface explorations conducted by the remaining Apollo missions, it’s been more than 50 years since the United States landed a spacecraft on the moon. Now, a new robotic explorer is on its way to attempt the feat.

Lunar update

After launching early Thursday morning, the Odysseus lunar lander, or “Odie,” is on a historic journey to the moon.

The mission, developed by NASA and Houston-based Intuitive Machines, will aim to land near the lunar south pole on February 22.

The spacecraft carries a camera system called EagleCam to capture its descent, an original sculpture designed in collaboration with artist Jeff Koons, and science and technology experiments that could help with future lunar landing missions such as Artemis III.

Curiosities

After naturalist Charles Darwin died in 1882, his impressive library began to dwindle, and its numerous books and pamphlets ended up elsewhere over time.

Now, the Darwin Project has virtually reassembled his library and its 7,400 titles after 18 years of painstaking research.

Researchers had to track down numerous previously unknown titles, resulting in “5,000 little detective stories” that helped them recreate his original collection, said project leader Dr. John van Wyhe, historian of science at the National University of Singapore.

Among the books were some surprising finds, including the last novel reputedly read aloud to Darwin before he died.

Ocean secrets

While surveying the seafloor of Germany’s Bay of Mecklenburg, a team of scientists made the unexpected find of an ancient sunken megastructure in the Baltic Sea.

The investigation, using diving teams and underwater robots, revealed a wall made of 1,670 stones that stretched for more than half a mile (1 kilometer).

Experts believe the wall served as one of the oldest known hunting structures from the Stone Age. The barrier was likely constructed about 11,000 years ago to help hunter-gatherers pursue reindeer amid the sparse landscape after the last ice age.

Separately, the wreckage of the SS Arlington, a bulk carrier that sank in 1940, has been found on the bottom of Lake Superior, but the discovery only solves one of the mysteries behind the ship’s sinking.

A long time ago

Researchers have pieced together the surprising story of Denmark’s earliest known immigrant from the Stone Age.

“Vittrup Man” was violently killed and thrown into a bog in Denmark 5,200 years ago, and his remains were first uncovered in 1915. By studying the bone collagen and teeth of Vittrup Man, scientists were able to establish a history of his geographical movements and diet.

Born and raised along the Scandinavian coast and subsisting on seafood, Vittrup Man suddenly crossed the sea to live and eat like a farmer in Denmark while still a teenager. He lived that way until being clubbed over the head between the ages of 30 and 40.

The team believes his brutal death may have been part of a religious sacrifice in the swamp.

Wild kingdom

The unexpected sighting of a rare golden tiger in India’s Kaziranga National Park provided an unusual experience for photographers in January. But conservationists see the animal’s appearance as a troubling sign.

The park is home to the largest tiger population in the region. Only a few golden tigers exist in the wild, and their distinct fur color comes from a genetic mutation, like “spelling mistakes in the DNA,” said Uma Ramakrishnan, a professor of ecology at India’s National Centre for Biological Sciences.

As migration routes close due to rapid development, isolation-induced inbreeding could make the park’s tiger population more prone to genetic mutations and diseases.

Meanwhile, a new landmark report warns that human interference could cause hundreds of Earth’s migratory species to go extinct.

Discoveries

Take a deep dive into these intriguing stories:

— The history of kissing is more complicated than it seems, but evidence from the ancient world shows humans have been romantically kissing for at least 4,500 years.

— A tiny surgical robot aboard the International Space Station successfully performed its first procedures on simulated tissue while surgeons remotely operated the device in Lincoln, Nebraska.

— A shallow, salty lake in British Columbia, called Last Chance Lake, could help scientists solve the mystery of how life appeared on Earth, and how it could form on other worlds.

— Nearly 2,000 years after it was laid, an intact egg found at an ancient Roman site still contains liquid inside.

On July 20, 1969, the world watched as humankind landed on the moon for the first time.

But the perfect touchdown of the Eagle lunar lander by NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong was anything but easy.

As he and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin flew over the intended landing site, Armstrong looked out the window and saw a treacherous boulder field. Relying on his ace piloting skills, Armstrong manually navigated to a safe landing site, with only 30 seconds of fuel left.

After the lunar surface explorations conducted by the remaining Apollo missions, it’s been more than 50 years since the United States landed a spacecraft on the moon. Now, a new robotic explorer is on its way to attempt the feat.

Lunar update

After launching early Thursday morning, the Odysseus lunar lander, or “Odie,” is on a historic journey to the moon.

The mission, developed by NASA and Houston-based Intuitive Machines, will aim to land near the lunar south pole on February 22.

The spacecraft carries a camera system called EagleCam to capture its descent, an original sculpture designed in collaboration with artist Jeff Koons, and science and technology experiments that could help with future lunar landing missions such as Artemis III.

Curiosities

After naturalist Charles Darwin died in 1882, his impressive library began to dwindle, and its numerous books and pamphlets ended up elsewhere over time.

Now, the Darwin Project has virtually reassembled his library and its 7,400 titles after 18 years of painstaking research.

Researchers had to track down numerous previously unknown titles, resulting in “5,000 little detective stories” that helped them recreate his original collection, said project leader Dr. John van Wyhe, historian of science at the National University of Singapore.

Among the books were some surprising finds, including the last novel reputedly read aloud to Darwin before he died.

Ocean secrets

While surveying the seafloor of Germany’s Bay of Mecklenburg, a team of scientists made the unexpected find of an ancient sunken megastructure in the Baltic Sea.

The investigation, using diving teams and underwater robots, revealed a wall made of 1,670 stones that stretched for more than half a mile (1 kilometer).

Experts believe the wall served as one of the oldest known hunting structures from the Stone Age. The barrier was likely constructed about 11,000 years ago to help hunter-gatherers pursue reindeer amid the sparse landscape after the last ice age.

Separately, the wreckage of the SS Arlington, a bulk carrier that sank in 1940, has been found on the bottom of Lake Superior, but the discovery only solves one of the mysteries behind the ship’s sinking.

A long time ago

Researchers have pieced together the surprising story of Denmark’s earliest known immigrant from the Stone Age.

“Vittrup Man” was violently killed and thrown into a bog in Denmark 5,200 years ago, and his remains were first uncovered in 1915. By studying the bone collagen and teeth of Vittrup Man, scientists were able to establish a history of his geographical movements and diet.

Born and raised along the Scandinavian coast and subsisting on seafood, Vittrup Man suddenly crossed the sea to live and eat like a farmer in Denmark while still a teenager. He lived that way until being clubbed over the head between the ages of 30 and 40.

The team believes his brutal death may have been part of a religious sacrifice in the swamp.

Wild kingdom

The unexpected sighting of a rare golden tiger in India’s Kaziranga National Park provided an unusual experience for photographers in January. But conservationists see the animal’s appearance as a troubling sign.

The park is home to the largest tiger population in the region. Only a few golden tigers exist in the wild, and their distinct fur color comes from a genetic mutation, like “spelling mistakes in the DNA,” said Uma Ramakrishnan, a professor of ecology at India’s National Centre for Biological Sciences.

As migration routes close due to rapid development, isolation-induced inbreeding could make the park’s tiger population more prone to genetic mutations and diseases.

Meanwhile, a new landmark report warns that human interference could cause hundreds of Earth’s migratory species to go extinct.

Discoveries

Take a deep dive into these intriguing stories:

— The history of kissing is more complicated than it seems, but evidence from the ancient world shows humans have been romantically kissing for at least 4,500 years.

— A tiny surgical robot aboard the International Space Station successfully performed its first procedures on simulated tissue while surgeons remotely operated the device in Lincoln, Nebraska.

— A shallow, salty lake in British Columbia, called Last Chance Lake, could help scientists solve the mystery of how life appeared on Earth, and how it could form on other worlds.

— Nearly 2,000 years after it was laid, an intact egg found at an ancient Roman site still contains liquid inside.

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra was released from detention on Sunday, having served six months in prison following his return to the kingdom after more than 15 years in self-imposed exile.

Thaksin, who served as prime minister from 2001 until he was ousted in a military coup in 2006, returned to Thailand in August and was sentenced to eight years in prison for conflict of interest, abuse of power and corruption during his time in power.

His jail sentence was later reduced to one year after he submitted a request for a royal pardon. The 74-year-old was among 930 inmates granted parole earlier this month on the grounds of age or illness.

He had previously been transferred to a hospital due to tightness in his chest, high blood pressure and low oxygen levels, according to the Thai Corrections Department.

Throughout his time in power, Thaksin was hugely popular with Thailand’s rural and working class but his policies were anathema to the rich elites and conservatives who accused him of being a dangerous and corrupt populist.

During his physical absence in the country, he retained an outsized influence on Thai politics and has remained at the center of the country’s tumultuous and often violent political landscape.

His release from prison reintroduces a towering and divisive figure to Thailand at a tense political time.

Some experts believe Thaksin may have struck a deal with the country’s powerful conservative and royalist establishment for his return – given his court convictions and the charges against him – in exchange for a reduced jail term, lenient treatment, or a possible pardon.

Wearing a neck collar and arm sling, the former prime minister was seen leaving the Police General Hospital in Bangkok on Sunday in a black van alongside his daughters, Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Pintongta Shinawatra.

He returned to his residence in Bangkok where a handwritten banner had been hung on the gate welcoming him home.

At least 75 people have been rescued after being trapped on an ice floe that broke away from the shore of Sakhalin island in the Russian Far East on Sunday.

Sakhalin, Russia’s largest island, is a 1,000-kilometer strip of land (621 miles) that lies off the east coast of Russia and just north of Japan.

Emergency services said a 50-meter ice floe broke off near the village of Starodubskoye in the Sea of Okhotsk between Russia and Japan, stranding more than 80 fisherman a kilometer offshore.

Rescue operations, with the assistance of a ministry Mi-8 helicopter, are ongoing.

Local emergency services said they had originally received reports on Sunday morning that more than a dozen fishermen were stranded.

Rescue teams were then dispatched by car and motorboat.

While tourists are scarce it is not uncommon for people to become trapped on ice floes in this part of Russia.

The island has seen an increase in visitors in recent years, mostly connected to the development of offshore oil and gas fields.

In 2020, 536 ice fisherman were rescued from an ice floe that broke away from the shore near Mordvinov Bay on Sakhalin, according to Russian state media RIA Novosti.

The United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned that if the Algerian proposed resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza were to come up for a vote at the UN Security Council as drafted, it would not be adopted by Washington.

In a statement Saturday, Thomas-Greenfield said the United States has been working on a deal between Israel and Hamas which would see the release of hostages and bring a pause in the fighting for at least six weeks.

“Over the last week, President Biden has had multiple calls with Prime Minister Netanyahu, as well as the leaders of Egypt and Qatar, to push this deal forward. Though gaps remain, the key elements are on the table,” the ambassador said.

“We believe this deal represents the best opportunity to reunite all hostages with their families and enable a prolonged pause in fighting, that would allow for more lifesaving food, water, fuel, medicine, and other essentials to get into the hands of Palestinian civilians who desperately need it,” she said.

“The resolution put forward in the Security Council, in contrast, would not achieve these outcomes, and indeed, may run counter to them … For that reason, the United States does not support action on this draft resolution. Should it come up for a vote as drafted, it will not be adopted,” Thomas-Greenfield went on to say.

Last Wednesday, Arab countries in the UN reaffirmed their support for the Algerian draft resolution, which calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and unimpeded humanitarian relief amid Israel’s looming ground invasion of Rafah.

In a press briefing alongside other members, Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, urged the UN to act and said the group believes there is “massive” support for the proposed resolution.

In her statement Saturday, Thomas-Greenfield called on the UN Security Council to instead ensure “any action we take in the coming days increases pressure on Hamas to accept the proposal on the table” and that the US would continue to engage in diplomacy, adding that the US “will be candid” with Israeli and regional leaders regarding expectations for the protection of Rafah’s more than one million civilians.

“It is critical that other parties give this process the best odds of succeeding, rather than push measures that put it — and the opportunity for an enduring resolution of hostilities — in jeopardy,” the statement said.

When Natalia Kyrkach-Antonenko’s husband Vitalii was killed on the frontlines fighting Russia, she was 13 weeks pregnant with their daughter, Vitalina.

Despite his death, Kyrkach-Antonenko found some new meaning, hope and purpose with the birth of their child.

“My child is my whole life now. By taking care of my daughter, in a sense, I continue to take care of my husband. This is his continuation. Our continuation.”

The couple had always planned to have a large family, even after Vitalii joined the army in the run-up to Putin’s 2022 invasion.

After having a pregnancy that failed to develop in the opening days of the war – which she attributes to the stress of the invasion – Kyrkach-Antonenko and her husband decided to freeze his sperm. In his brief interludes away from the frontline, she ended up falling pregnant with Vitalina before they eventually managed the cryofreezing.

After his death in November 2022, Kyrkach-Antonenko didn’t hesitate to pursue using her husband’s frozen sperm for a further child.

She was shocked to discover that legally she wasn’t allowed to use the sperm after her husband’s death, despite having his written permission.

That should soon change.

The Ukrainian parliament passed legislation in February to allow and fund the use of soldiers’ frozen sperm in case of their death. Once President Volodymyr Zelensky signs the bill into law, it will for the first time allow the widows of Ukrainian soldiers to use their dead partners’ reproductive cells – both sperm and eggs – to have children.

It will also enable wounded soldiers to use their preserved reproductive cells to have children where their injuries would normally make that impossible.

Additionally, the state will pay to store these frozen cells for three years after a male or female soldier’s death, with clauses specifically recognizing the deceased biological parent on the child’s birth certificate. Currently, the government will pay for the initial freezing of reproductive cells.

Cryopreservation has been an “urgent but difficult issue” MP Olena Shulyak, co-author of the bill, said in a post on Telegram.

“The reality is that the military, whose normal life and plans were interrupted by the war, often did not have time to leave behind their progeny,” she said.

It’s a law that will likely benefit many.

Ukraine’s battlefield losses are a closely guarded secret but US officials estimates some 70,000 soldiers have been killed and nearly twice that number wounded.

This legislation may go some way to providing a lifeline for families beyond the grave.

Kyrkach-Antonenko plans to use her husband’s sperm to have at least one more child: a playmate for Vitalina. It’s what her husband wanted, she said.

“He was fighting for the hope that we would have a family,” Kyrkach-Antonenko said of Vitalii.

Protection of soldiers’ chance to have families has long been on the minds of some Ukrainians.

Iryna Feskova, a fertility doctor at a Kharkiv reproductive center “SANA MED”, has offered free freezing and storage of reproduction cells for soldiers since the very first months of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.

Feskova said interest in cryopreservation among soldiers has boomed since 2022, from a handful before to dozens of people a year. She said her clinic currently stores sperm from dozens of servicemen, while other clinics hold hundreds of samples.

‘Worthy child of Ukraine’

While cryopreservation may not be a taboo subject in Ukraine, it’s certainly a novel one, given newfound prominence by the war.

Fertility doctor Feskova said that her clinics works to spread awareness of cryopreservation – which is working – but the numbers that have taken it up suggest it’s still far from universal.

“There should be an encouraging message from society that it is necessary to do this, that it is normal,” he said.

“You are a good soldier, you have shown that you are a worthy son or daughter of Ukraine, so leave your descendants behind,” he added.

“Iron” put his and his wife’s plans to have a family on hold when he joined up following the 2022 invasion. While he likes the idea of cryopreservation, he has asked his wife to find happiness and a family with another man if the worst happens.

“We are at the front not for ourselves, but for the future, for our descendants,” he said.

Currently, most of the clients the fertility doctor Feskova sees are men, but she expects more and more women to opt for cryopreservation as the war drags on.

There’s been a 20% increase in the number of women in the Ukrainian armed forces in both military and civilian roles since war with Russia began in the eastern Donbas region in 2014, according to Ukraine’s Armed Forces Personnel Center.

As the  Ukrainian army has lifted any restrictions on the appointment and service of women soldiers in all positions (including combat), women are at a greater risk than ever of death and injury on the frontlines.

Mariia, 25, a Ukrainian soldier, is considering cryopreservation of her eggs now that the law is being passed.

She is currently on maternity leave and her husband is serving in the armed forces too.

“We live in a very uncertain time and my husband and I are thinking about having a second child later. We want to have this option if something happens,” she said of cryopreservation.

“It is a memory, a tribute to those fallen heroes who defend the country. They have the right and dignity to be reborn in their children,” she said.

With civilian and military losses and refugees abroad, Ukraine has, she said, a “demographic problem.”

Kyrkach-Antonenko’s husband Vitalii, a volunteer in a local defense unit before the 2022 invasion, who signed up to the army the week before Putin invaded, told her he somehow knew that he wouldn’t survive the war.

“I knew his character, that he would save people, not hide, he was very positive, heroic,” she said of her husband.

With his daughter Vitalina – and perhaps more children in the future – she said, “In a sense, it’s as if he’s still alive, his life goes on, he has children, something exists after his death. It’s not like a person just disappeared, was buried and forgotten.”

As Ukrainians fights for the life of their country, the births made possible by this new law herald a new future:, though one tinged with sadness.

“It is joy,” Kyrkach-Antonenko said, “joy through the prism of grief.”

Israel said Sunday it is summoning the Brazilian ambassador to the country over what it says were “shameful and serious” remarks by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Speaking earlier Sunday in Addis Ababa at the African Union summit, Lula called what is happening in the Gaza Strip a “genocide.”

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in history. Indeed, it occurred when Hitler decided to kill the Jews,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on X that Lula was “trivializing” the Holocaust and “trying to harm the Jewish people and Israel’s right to defend itself,” saying that “comparing Israel to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line.”

“Israel fights for its defense and securing its future until complete victory and it does so while upholding international law,” he added. Israel has said its goal is to completely eliminate Hamas after they attacked Israel on October 7.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz also posted on X saying, “No one will harm Israel’s right to defend itself. I have ordered the people of my office to summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand call tomorrow.”

Lula also made comments about the death of Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny.

Speaking at the summit, he called for a proper investigation into the cause of his death.

While many Western nations immediately condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin, Lula said, according to Reuters, “I understand the interests of the person making the accusation immediately, but it is not my style. I hope that a coroner will provide an explanation for why the individual died, that’s all.”

The death of Alexey Navalny has been met with an outpouring of grief across the world, and even inside Russia – where the smallest acts of political dissent carry great risk – people have been honoring his memory.

Russians have been turning out at makeshift memorials, with hundreds reportedly detained in the largest wave of arrests at political events in the country in two years.

In contrast to the public, Russian state media has largely ignored his death.

Navalny, the 47-year-old fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died on Friday after becoming unwell on a walk at his prison and falling unconscious, according to the Russian prison service. The cause of his death is unclear and his team have accused the authorities of lying in order to delay the process of returning his body to his family.

The incident sparked protests worldwide, with many gathering outside Russian embassies in European capital cities including Berlin and Paris, waving banners reading “Putin is a killer” and “Putin to the Hague.”

In Russia, protests need authorization from government officials. The prosecutor’s office in Moscow warned that any demonstrations in the capital over the death of Navalny were forbidden.

Still, crowds attended vigils and rallies. At events across the country, people paid their respects to Navalny, laying down flowers and carrying posters, social media and news agency videos show.

Even this, apparently, seemed too much for authorities, with video showing police carrying some attendees into police vans.

In Moscow, people brought flowers to the Wall of Grief, a memorial to the victims of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin, video from independent outlet SOTA’s Telegram channel showed.

About 50 people had gathered at the Wall of Grief for a rally in memory of Navalny Saturday before police began to drive people away from the monument, the independent news outlet Mozhem Obyasnit (MO) reported.

In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk on Friday, police detained activists grieving for Navalny and cordoned off the memorial dedicated to the victims of political repression, SOTA reported.

Since Navalny’s death more than 366 people have been detained, according to OVD-Info, an independent Russian human rights group that monitors Russian repression.

More than 200 detentions occurred in St Petersburg alone, the organization said. There were detentions in 32 different cities in total, including Murmansk, Moscow, Rostov-on-Don and Nizhny Novgorod. OVD-Info reported that some detainees were released, though it’s unclear how many.

Meanwhile, the hundreds of flowers and candles laid in Moscow were mostly taken away overnight on Saturday in black bags, Reuters reported.

The wave of arrests marks the largest in Russia since September 2022, when there were demonstrations against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “partial mobilization” of reservists for his war in Ukraine.

One 36-year-old man who laid a carnation at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument on Lubyanka Square in Moscow, spoke to Reuters from the shelter of an underpass.

“Navalny’s death is terrible: hopes have been smashed,” he said.

“Navalny was a very serious man, a brave man and now he is no longer with us. He spoke the truth – and that was very dangerous because some people didn’t like the truth.”

Other Muscovites’ reactions varied. One Moscow resident, Alexander, told Reuters he thought Navalny’s death was “expected.”

“The news said he was being kept in bad conditions that weren’t fit to live in,” he said.

Navalny was jailed after returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had been treated after being poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-era nerve agent. On arrival, Navalny was swiftly arrested on charges he dismissed as politically motivated.

Navalny has been incarcerated ever since, with longstanding concerns for his welfare growing more intense after he was transferred to a penal colony north of the Arctic Circle. He spent his last weeks in the Siberian prison, where he said he slept under a newspaper for warmth.

Another Moscow resident, Mikhail, said he believed “enemies” of Russia “should be dealt with the sooner the better.”

There have been reports of those detained being beaten.

OVD-info reported that one young man was detained after laying flowers in Surgut, western Siberia, and told lawyers from the group that he was beaten at the police station.

He also claimed that officers held a gun to his head, forced him to lie on the floor and stretched his arms up, demanding he confess why he brought the flowers, according to OVD-info.

MO said there were two cases of beatings during arrest, in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

State media silence

Navalny’s death made headlines around the world.

On some of Russia’s state media channels, however, reports of Navalny’s death have been scant.

News channel Russia-24 did not offer any on-air reports in the hours after his death was announced, nor was it mentioned in the channel’s news ticker. It instead reported on the latest situation in the border town of Belgorod – which has seen deadly Ukrainian shelling – and Putin’s visit to the city of Chelyabinsk.

Russia’s Channel One first reported on Navalny’s death at just before 3 p.m. local time, reading out a statement from Russia’s prison services which took 25 seconds of airtime. No image of Navalny was aired.

A commentator on propaganda channel Soloviev Live claimed that Navalny’s death was orchestrated by the CIA and would be used by the West as ammunition against Russia.

The claims follow condemnation from Russia’s foreign ministry over the West’s response to Navalny’s death.

In a statement on social media, Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the reaction from NATO leaders – many of whom pointed the figure directly at Putin – “reveals their true colours.”

“There is no forensic examination yet, but the West’s conclusions are already ready.”

None of the media reports offered contextual information on Navalny, who posed one of the most serious threats to Putin during his rule, organized anti-government street protests and used his blog and social media to expose alleged corruption in the Kremlin and in Russian business. The Kremlin has denied the allegations.

And there has been no comment yet from Putin himself, although that is unsurprising. The Russian leader has consistently refused to even name the man who became one of his most high-profile opponents.