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KYIV: The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas said Monday that Russia was “gambling with war,” after a spate of Russian drones and military jets crossing into the bloc’s airspace.
NATO has boosted its defenses along its eastern borders as it accused Moscow of testing the alliance’s air defenses with drone incursions into several members and by flying military jets in Estonian airspace.
“Every time a Russian drone or plane violates our airspace, there is a risk of escalation, unintended or not. Russia is gambling with war,” Kallas said during a visit to Kyiv.
“To keep war at bay, we must translate the economic power of Europe into military deterrence,” she added.
Kallas was in Kyiv for talks on military and financial support for Ukraine, and especially its energy infrastructure, as Russia has resumed attacks on power plants ahead of winter.
Ukraine on Monday was forced to introduce power cuts across seven central and eastern regions as a result of the attacks, which Kyiv has called “cynical.”
“The enemy wants to affect the spirit and mood of our population,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said during a joint press conference with Kallas.
“This is especially cynical on the eve of winter,” he added.
Ukraine retaliates by targeting Russian oil refineries, aiming to hamper funding of its war machine.
It has launched more than 30 strikes on Russian energy sites since the beginning of August, also triggering a spike in petrol prices inside Russia.
An oil depot was struck overnight in Russian-occupied Crimea, sparking a large fire, according to the region’s Moscow-installed governor and a source in Ukraine’s security services.
Meanwhile, a Russian drone struck a car carrying a married couple in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, killing them both, local authorities said.
Kallas also indicated that Brussels backed the delivery of US long-range Tomahawk missile supplies to Ukraine.
“We welcome all tools that make Ukraine stronger and Russia weaker,” she said.
US President Donald Trump said Sunday he may warn Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that Ukraine could get the cruise missiles if Moscow does not end its invasion.
Moscow has warned against supplying Ukraine with Tomahawks, saying it would be a major escalation.

KARACHI: From the age of 10, Amina has been scrubbing, sweeping and cooking in a middle-class home in Pakistan’s megacity of Karachi.
Like millions of Pakistani children, she is a household helper, an illegal but common practice that brings grief to families often too poor to seek justice.
“Alongside my mother, I cut vegetables, wash dishes, sweep the floor and mop. I hate working for this family,” said the 13-year-old, who leaves her slum neighborhood in Karachi at 7 am and often returns after dark.
“Sometimes we work on Sundays even though it’s supposed to be our only day off, and that’s really unfair.”
One in four households in a country of 255 million people employs a child as a domestic worker, mostly girls aged 10 to 14, according to a 2022 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
Sania, 13, earns $15 a month helping her mother maintain a sprawling luxury home in the city, where she has been explicitly forbidden to speak to her employer’s children or touch their toys.
AFP is not publishing the full names of children and parents interviewed to protect their identities.
Sania gets half the salary of her mother for the same hours, together earning $46 — far below the minimum wage of 40,000 rupees ($140).
“I dreamed of finishing school and becoming a doctor,” said the eldest of five siblings who, according to the law, should be in school until the age of 16.

- ‘I know it’s immoral’ -

A university professor who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity employs a 10-year-old boy because children are “cheaper and more docile.”
“I know it’s immoral and illegal to employ a child, but at least he has a roof and is well fed here,” he said.
Hamza was sent by his parents to live with the professor in Karachi — a 450-kilometer (280-mile) journey from his impoverished village, to which he returns only a few times a year.
His monthly salary of $35 is paid directly to his father.
“In the village, his poor parents would likely have sent him to the fields without even being able to feed him,” the professor said, while also acknowledging that he feels “uneasy” when his own children go to school and Hamza stays behind to clean.
There is no unified definition of a child or child labor in Pakistan, although a federal law prohibits children under the age of 14 from working in unsafe and hazardous environments, such as factories.
In Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, employing a child as a domestic maid can lead to a maximum of one year in jail or a fine of up to 50,000 rupees ($177). However, few are prosecuted.
Kashif Mirza from the NGO Sparc, one of the leading child rights organizations, described it as a form of “modern slavery widely accepted in Pakistani society that makes them particularly vulnerable.”
“Society prefers to hire child domestic labor because they are cheap and more obedient, and employers make the argument that they are also safeguarding them, which is not true and illegal,” he told AFP.

- ‘I had no choice’ -

Iqra, a 13-year-old child worker, died in February from blows by her wealthy employers in Rawalpindi, Islamabad’s twin city, because chocolate had disappeared from their kitchen.
Her father, Sana, who said after her death that he would seek to prosecute the employers, instead told AFP that he forgave them.
Under Islamic law, which operates alongside common law in Pakistan, the family of a killed relative can accept financial compensation from the perpetrators in exchange for forgiveness, leaving them free from prosecution.
“I had no choice. Where would I have found the money to pay legal fees? I already have more than 600,000 rupees ($2,120) in debt,” he said.
“There was also some pressure from the family’s relatives to pardon them, and I eventually agreed,” he said.
He told AFP that he had not taken any money from the family, highly unusual under Islamic law.
He brought home his other two daughters and two sons after Iqra’s death.
“I stopped sending them because I cannot bear the thought of losing another child,” he said.

- Burned with an iron -

“The penalties are not strict enough,” for both employers and parents, said Mir Tariq Ali Talpur, the social affairs minister for rural and impoverished Sindh.
He told AFP that authorities regularly conduct checks and take charge of young children employed illegally, but the courts often return them to their parents after a small fine of around $3.50.
“That’s why these incidents keep happening again and again,” he said.
A Karachi couple accused of burning a 13-year-old domestic worker named Zainab with an iron was given bail for a fee of around $105 each in September.
“I don’t understand how they could be free. Doesn’t anyone see Zainab’s injuries?” said the teen’s mother Asia, pointing to severe burns on her daughter’s arms, legs, back and stomach.
Asia, who is pursuing the offenders legally, acknowledges that they are “rich and think they’re untouchable.”
“The poor like us have no power,” she said.