The leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has dismissed the commander who was in charge of its operations in the Donetsk region in the East of the country, where the Ukrainian army is under threat from Russia, in areas close to the transport port of the region.

Oleksandr Lutsenko has been removed from his post as head of the Donetsk regional operations unit, a military commander confirmed to the Financial Times on Friday.

The Ukrainian army, under the command of Lutsenko, failed to stop the Russian invasion which reached an area equal to almost half of the City of London in just one month. The official said that Lutsenko will be given another position in the national army. He was soon replaced by Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi.

Netherlands: Court approves arms exports to Israel

A court in The Hague in the Netherlands has dismissed a lawsuit filed by 10 Palestinian rights groups, which demanded an end to arms exports to Israel and an end to illegal trade with Israelis living in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On Friday, the court pointed out that the government has the freedom to implement its policies, so the courts should not rush to interfere with its decisions.

In a statement issued by the court, it said, “The court finds no reason to order a permanent freeze on the export of military equipment. All claims are dismissed.”

The plaintiffs, based on the high number of civilian deaths in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, said that the Dutch government, as one of the signatories of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention of Genocide, had a duty to take all possible measures to prevent it.

Wout Albers, the lawyer of the 10 sued families, said in court that “Israel has committed crimes of genocide and extreme discrimination.”

The non-profit organizations recalled the January order issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordering Israel to stop its genocidal actions in Gaza.