Italian Police Detain Hundreds In Major Anti-Mob Sweep

IL TEMPO, ANSA (Italy)

ROME - Italian police arrested at least 116 people Friday, in two major anti-mafia operations in Rome and the southern Calabria region.

In pre-dawn raids along the coast near Rome, some 500 police officers apprehended 51 people. A helicopter, dog units and maritime police took part in what the Italian news agency, Ansa, calls the largest anti-mafia operation undertaken in and around the Itallian capital.

Also on Friday, a separate blitz was launched in Lamezia Terme, in Calabria - the heartland of ‘Ndrangheta mob syndicate – Rome daily, Il Tempo, reports. Another 65 arrest warrants were issued in this southern region from where the clan runs an international crime network.

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Lamezia Terme, where 65 people were arrested - photo: Lametino

Investigators told Ansa, these long-prepared operations targeted "" the "holy of holies' of the Roman and Sicilian crime."" Businessmen, politicians, lawyers, doctors and prison employees are among those targeted. Some of the suspects are believed to be involved in an insurance fraud system that financed the purchase of arms and drugs, while others are linked to murders and conspiracy to commit murder.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

negotiations

Finally Time For Negotiations? Russia And Ukraine Have The Exact Same Answer

The war in Ukraine appears to have reached a stalemate, with neither side able to make significant progress on the battlefield. A number of Western experts and politicians are now pushing for negotiations. But the irreconcilable positions of both the Russian and Ukrainian sides make such negotiations tricky, if not impossible.

photo of : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, presents a battle flag to a soldier as he kisses it

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presents a battle flag to a soldier at the Kyiv Fortress, October 1, 2023.

Ukraine Presidency/Ukrainian Pre/Planet Pix via ZUMA

Yuri Fedorov

-Analysis-

The Russian-Ukrainian war appears to have reached a strategic impasse — a veritable stalemate. Neither side is in a position at this point to achieve a fundamental change on the ground in their favor. Inevitably, this has triggered no shortage of analysts and politicians saying it's time for negotiations.

Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.

These conversations especially intensified after the results of the summer-autumn counteroffensive were analyzed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhny, with not very optimistic details.

Though there are advances of the Ukrainian army, it is mostly “stuck in minefields under attacks from Russian artillery and drones,” and there is a increasing prospect of trench warfare that “could drag on for years and exhaust the Ukrainian state.”

Zaluzhny concluded: “Russia should not be underestimated. It suffered heavy losses and used up a lot of ammunition, but it will have an advantage in weapons, equipment, missiles and ammunition for a long time," he said. "Our NATO partners are also dramatically increasing their production capacity, but this requires at least a year, and in some cases, such as aircraft and control systems, two years.”

For the Ukrainian army to truly succeed, it needs air superiority, highly effective electronic and counter-battery warfare, new technologies for mining and crossing minefields, and the ability to mobilize and train more reserves.

China and most countries of the so-called global South have expressed their support for negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Meanwhile in the West, certain influential voices are pushing for negotiations, guided by a purely pragmatic principle that if military victory is impossible, it is necessary to move on to diplomacy.

The position of the allies is crucial: Ukraine’s ability to fight a long war of attrition and eventually change the situation at the front in its favor depends on the military, economic and political support of the West. And this support, at least on the scale necessary for victory, is not guaranteed.

Still, the question of negotiations is no less complicated, as the positions of Russia and Ukraine today are so irreconcilable that it is difficult to imagine productive negotiations.