Tag: Ukraine breaking news

  • Road accident kills 26 in western Ukraine: Interior ministry

    Twenty-six individuals have been killed in a collision within the Rivne area of western Ukraine involving a bus, a minibus and a gas truck that exploded after the crash, the inside ministry stated on Wednesday.

    The bus had been heading to Poland, the ministry stated on Facebook. It didn’t say whether or not it was carrying any individuals fleeing the warfare in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

    The useless from Tuesday’s collision included 24 passengers and the drivers of each the bus and the minibus. Twelve others have been harm together with the driving force of the gas truck, the ministry stated.

  • Zelenskyy on the UN accuses Russian army of struggle crimes

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of grotesque atrocities in Ukraine and instructed the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that these accountable ought to instantly be introduced up on struggle crimes prices in entrance of a tribunal just like the one arrange at Nuremberg after World War II.

    Zelenskyy, showing by way of video from Ukraine, instructed council members that civilians had been shot at the back of the pinnacle after being tortured, blown up with grenades of their flats and crushed to demise by tanks whereas in automobiles.

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    “They cut off limbs, cut their throats. Women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out only because their aggressor did not hear what they wanted to hear from them,” he stated, recounting what he described because the worst atrocities since World War II.

    Likening the troops’ actions to these of Islamic State, Zelenskyy stated: “The Russian military and those who gave them orders must be brought to justice immediately for war crimes in Ukraine.”

    “Anyone who has given criminal orders and carried them out by killing our people will be brought before the tribunal which should be similar to the Nuremberg tribunals,” he stated.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks by way of distant feed throughout a gathering of the UN Security Council, Tuesday, at United Nations headquarters (AP/John Minchillo)

    Over the previous few days, grisly photos of what seemed to be civilian massacres carried out by Russian forces on the outskirts of Kyiv earlier than they pulled again from the capital, have stirred world revulsion and led Western nations to expel dozens extra of Moscow’s diplomats and suggest additional sanctions, together with a ban on coal imports from Russia.

    Zelenskyy harassed that Bucha was just one place and that there are extra with comparable horrors.

    The Kremlin has denounced the photographs as pretend and prompt the scenes have been staged by the Ukrainians. But high-resolution satellite tv for pc imagery from Maxar Technologies confirmed that most of the our bodies had been mendacity within the open for weeks, through the time that Russian forces have been within the city.

    The head of NATO, in the meantime, warned that Russia is regrouping its forces with a purpose to deploy them to japanese and southern Ukraine for a “crucial phase of the war,” and stated that extra horrors might come to mild as Russian troops proceed to drag again within the north.

    “When and if they withdraw their troops and Ukrainian troops take over, I’m afraid they will see more mass graves, more atrocities and more examples of of war crimes,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated.

    Ukrainian officers stated the our bodies of not less than 410 civilians have been present in cities round Kyiv that have been recaptured from Russian forces and {that a} “torture chamber” was found in Bucha.

    Zelenskyy instructed the Security Council there was “not a single crime” that Russian troops hadn’t dedicated in Bucha.

    “The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country. They shot and killed women outside their houses when they just tried to call someone who is alive. They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn the bodies,” he stated. They used tanks to crush civilians “just for their pleasure,” he stated.

    A lady watches as staff take away the our bodies of three males killed in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday (AP/Felipe Dana)

    On Tuesday, police and different investigators walked the silent streets of Bucha, taking notes on our bodies that residents confirmed them. Survivors who hid of their properties through the monthlong Russian occupation of the city, a lot of them previous center age, wandered previous charred tanks and jagged window panes with plastic baggage of meals and different humanitarian help. Red Cross staff checked in on intact properties.

    Associated Press journalists within the city have counted dozens of corpses in civilian garments. Many appeared to have been shot at shut vary, and a few had their fingers sure or their flesh burned. A mass grave in a churchyard held our bodies wrapped in plastic.

    The AP and the PBS sequence “Frontline” have collectively verified not less than 90 incidents through the struggle that seem to violate worldwide humanitarian regulation. The War Crimes Watch Ukraine challenge contains particulars of obvious focused assaults in addition to indiscriminate destruction of civilian buildings and infrastructure.

    U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated the photographs from Bucha revealed “not the random act of a rogue unit” however “a deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities.” He stated the stories of atrocities have been “more than credible,” and that the U.S. and different international locations will search to carry the culprits accountable.

    “Only non-humans are capable of this,” stated Angelica Chernomor, a refugee from Kyiv who crossed into Poland along with her two youngsters, and who had seen the photographs from Bucha. “Even if people live under a totalitarian regime, they must retain feelings, dignity, but they do not.”

    Chernomor is among the many greater than 4 million Ukrainians who’ve fled the nation within the wake of the Feb. 24 invasion.

    Russia has rejected comparable accusations in opposition to its forces prior to now by accusing its enemies of forging photographs and video and utilizing so-called disaster actors.

    As Western leaders condemned the killings in Bucha, Italy, Spain and Denmark expelled dozens of Russian diplomats on Tuesday, following strikes by Germany and France. Hundreds of Russian diplomats have been despatched house because the begin of the invasion, many accused of being spies.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred to as the expulsions a “short-sighted” measure that will complicate communication and warned they might be met with “reciprocal steps.”

    In one other present of assist, the European Union’s govt department proposed a ban on coal imports from Russia, in what can be the primary sanctions from the bloc focusing on the nation’s profitable power trade over the struggle. That coal imports quantity to an estimated 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) per 12 months.

    European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen denounced Moscow’s “heinous crimes” round Kyiv.

    The 27-nation EU has been a steadfast backer of Ukraine because the Russian invasion started on Feb. 24 and has already pushed via 4 rounds of sanctions — however Ukrainians officers have begged for extra.

    Just hours earlier than the most recent proposal was introduced, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that to forestall “new Buchas,” the West should impose the “mother of all sanctions” — on Russian oil and gasoline.

    “A few months of tightening your belts are worth thousands of saved lives,” he stated.

    But Western nations are divided over how far to go. Some are calling for a boycott of Russian oil and gasoline imports, whereas Germany and others concern that such a transfer might plunge the continent right into a extreme financial disaster.

    Western weapons have enabled Ukraine to mount a stiffer than anticipated resistance to Russia’s overwhelming firepower. That resistance stopped Russian forces from overrunning the capital and different cities, and lots of troops have now withdrawn from areas round Kyiv.

    But Western and Ukrainian officers say Russia is merely regrouping for one more offensive.

    “Moscow is not giving up its ambitions in Ukraine,” NATO’s Stoltenberg stated. “We expect a further push in the eastern and southern Ukraine to try to take the entire Donbas and to create a land bridge” to the Crimea Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Russia-backed separatists within the Donbas have been combating Ukrainian troops for the final eight years.

  • Ukraine says Russia planting mines in Black Sea as transport perils develop

    Ukraine accused Russia on Wednesday of planting mines within the Black Sea and stated a few of these munitions needed to be defused off Turkey and Romania as dangers to important service provider transport within the area develop.

    The Black Sea is a significant transport route for grain, oil and oil merchandise. Its waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey in addition to Ukraine and Russia.

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    Russia’s army took management of waterways when it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, in what Moscow calls a “special operation”.

    In current days Turkish and Romanian army diving groups have been concerned in defusing stray mines round their waters. Ukraine’s international ministry stated Russia was utilizing naval mines as “uncontrolled drifting ammunition”.

    “It was these drifting mines that were found March 26-28, 2022 off the coasts of Turkey and Romania,” it stated in a press release.

    The ministry stated “the deliberate use by Russia of drifting sea mines turns them into a de facto weapon of indiscriminate action, which threatens, first of all, civil navigation and human life at sea in the whole waters not only of the Black and Azov Seas, but also of the Kerch and Black Sea Straits”.

    Russian officers didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

    Accusations

    Earlier this month Russia’s principal intelligence company accused Ukraine of laying mines to guard ports and stated a number of hundred of the explosives had damaged from cables and drifted away. Kyiv dismissed that account as disinformation.

    A Ukrainian international ministry official advised Reuters individually that the ocean mines had been of the “R-421-75” kind, which had been neither registered with or utilized by Ukraine’s navy at present.

    The official stated mines of this kind – some 372 items – had been beforehand saved at Ukraine’s 174th armament base in Sevastopol and had been seized by Russia’s army throughout its annexation of Crimea in 2014 – a transfer not recognised internationally.

    “Russia, using sea mines seized in 2014, deliberately provokes and discredits Ukraine to international partners,” Ukraine’s international ministry added individually.

    London’s marine insurance coverage market has widened the world of waters it considers excessive danger within the area and insurance coverage prices have soared.

    Five service provider vessels have been hit by projectiles – with certainly one of them sunk – off Ukraine’s coast with two seafarers killed, transport officers say.

    “Vessels navigating in the Black Sea should maintain lookouts for mines and pay careful attention to local navigation warnings,” ship insurer London P&I Club stated in an advisory notice on Tuesday.

  • In Kyiv suburb, Ukrainian navy claims an enormous prize

    Creeping ahead block by block, Ukrainian troopers in a reconnaissance unit on Tuesday discovered indicators of a retreating Russian military in all places: a charred armored automobile, deserted physique armor adorned with an orange and black St. George ribbon, a Russian navy image, and the standard blue-and-white striped underwear issued to Russian troopers, solid apart in a forest.

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    What they didn’t encounter was the Russian military in any organized state. After a month of savage avenue combating, one of the vital pivotal battles within the conflict ended this week — at the least for now — with an unbelievable victory in Irpin for Ukraine’s outgunned and outnumbered navy. By Tuesday, Ukrainian forces had quashed any important Russian resistance on this strategic outlying city close to Kyiv, the capital.

    Pockets of Russian troopers remained, posing dangers. A firefight erupted within the afternoon when Ukrainian troopers destroyed a lone Russian armored personnel service in an in any other case empty neighborhood, in line with a commander.

    But Ukraine’s navy had primarily recaptured Irpin, a city each strategically and symbolically essential because the closest the Russian military had gotten to Kyiv, simply 3 miles away. Its success in driving the Russians away could have factored into the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Tuesday, when the 2 sides achieved what seemed to be their most substantive progress so far.

    Moscow promised to scale back “by multiples” the depth of its navy exercise round Kyiv, an space that features Irpin, in impact acknowledging that its advance towards the capital had stalled and was at the least in some locations being pushed again.

    With superior numbers and weaponry, Russia might all the time determine to mount one other assault on Irpin. And Ukrainian safety specialists expressed skepticism about Russia’s pledge to drag again. “They will not abandon plans to take the capital,” mentioned Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former secretary of Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council.

    A residential constructing broken by a navy strike, as Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues, is seen in Lysychansk, Luhansk area, Ukraine (State Emergency Service of Ukraine/ REUTERS)

    Still, some individuals noticed the recapture of Irpin as an ethical victory, even when avenue combating continues within the city and the navy beneficial properties could also be tentative.

    Kyiv was all the time the most important prize of all for the Russian navy, because the seat of presidency and a metropolis ingrained in each Russian and Ukrainian id. But the Ukrainian navy’s efficiency within the vicious avenue combating in an arc of outlying cities and villages grew to become emblematic of the challenges Russian forces would face as they tried to encircle or seize the capital.

    “Today we have good news,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in a videotaped deal with Monday. “Our defenders are advancing in the Kyiv region, regaining control over Ukrainian territory.”

    Zelenskyy mentioned the city of Irpin was “liberated.” He added, “Well done. I am grateful to everyone who worked for this result.” He mentioned some combating continued.

    In its try and seize the capital, the Russian navy was bedeviled by logistical setbacks because it superior in lumbering tank columns into the city surroundings of Kyiv’s suburbs, the place armored autos are weak to ambushes. Over a month of combating, with Ukraine’s navy placing up fierce resistance, the losses piled up.

    Western and Ukrainian officers have mentioned for weeks that the Russians have taken heavy casualties in these suburban battles. That was on show Tuesday, because the Ukrainian reconnaissance unit pushed right into a scene of destruction in a neighborhood of one-story houses in Irpin.

    The vicious give-and-take of the combating for practically a month left a sprawl of burned or blown-up buildings, tank tracks within the roads and bullet cartridges scattered all about. Wires sagged from the utility poles.

    The space had been a base for Russian particular operations troopers, or Spetsnaz, and ethnic Chechens combating on Russia’s aspect, in line with Western navy analysts and Ukrainian troopers.

    Here, as elsewhere within the combating round Kyiv, the Ukrainian navy achieved its battlefield success by deploying small, fast-moving models largely on foot that staged ambushes or defended websites with the advantage of native data. Many such models are based mostly in central Kyiv, commuting to the conflict zone by automobile.

    The reconnaissance unit that patrolled Irpin on Tuesday, part of Ukraine’s navy intelligence company, makes use of as its base a shuttered bar in Kyiv, now cluttered with sleeping baggage, packing containers of ammunition and hand grenades.

    At daybreak on a transparent, chilly morning Tuesday, the troopers strapped on physique armor and pouches of ammunition, with a crackling noise of Velcro, then jumped in place to make sure their gear was effectively connected. The bar’s stereo performed Ukrainian people songs.

    Rescuers evacuate an individual from a residential constructing broken by a navy strike, as Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues, is seen in Lysychansk, Luhansk area, Ukraine (State Emergency Service of Ukraine/REUTERS)

    The entrance in Irpin was a fast drive away. The troopers filtered into the city in small teams of three or 4, to keep away from drawing Russian artillery, then regrouped in a maze of again streets.

    “We are defending our land,” mentioned a commander of one of many two squads, consisting of eight males every. He requested to be recognized solely by his first identify, Bohdan. While the Russian navy has pulled again in drive, he mentioned, Ukrainian troopers nonetheless should search home to accommodate within the metropolis to flush out pockets of remaining enemy troopers.

    “We move into a neighborhood and if there is contact, we fire or call in artillery,” he mentioned of those operations. “If there is no contact, well, then it is clear this territory is again ours.”

    The mayor of Irpin, a as soon as quiet and leafy suburb with a prewar inhabitants of about 70,000, mentioned that each one however about 4,000 civilians had fled. The patrol encountered just one aged man, who waved from behind a window of a home.

    Two hours into their rounds, the Ukrainians have been panting and sweating, dashing between partitions and into backyards, climbing out and in of damaged home windows. “They lived in these houses and they were firing on Kyiv from this neighborhood,” Bohdan mentioned of the Russians.

    The buzz of their drone was practically all the time overhead, scouting the road in entrance of them.

    Through many of the day, there have been no sounds of small-arms hearth anyplace on the town. Such hearth would point out shut engagements between the 2 armies. The troopers handed a Russian navy identification doc, fluttering within the wind on the garden of a home, however didn’t contact it to verify the identify, fearing a booby entice.

    Irpin has loomed giant symbolically within the conflict not simply due to its adjacency to the capital. In regular instances, it was a city that conveyed nothing a lot because the ordinariness and tranquility of middle-class suburban life in Kyiv, with parks for bike using and tree-lined streets. But the combating grew fiercer as Russia moved to encircle the capital, and the demise of a mom and her two kids fleeing town early within the battle — struck by a mortar as they crossed a bridge — got here to symbolize the shattered sense of safety in once-safe communities.

    In a city park, the Ukrainian patrol discovered a destroyed Russian armored personnel service, burned in locations to a wealthy orange shade. Beside the automobile have been the standard blue-and-white undershirts utilized by Russian troopers, known as telnyashkas. Elsewhere, they discovered a cardboard field labeled Russian military meals. “Individual Food Ration,” the label mentioned. “Not for Sale.”

    The troopers took selfies beside the incinerated armored personnel service. Some sank to the pine duff to relaxation, gazing on the spectacle of the destroyed automobile the place Russian troopers had died. The our bodies had been retrieved earlier, although by whom was unclear.

    “I don’t see the Russians as enemies,” mentioned a Ukrainian soldier who provided solely his first identify, Hennady, out of concern for his security. “They are just inert people, doing things without knowing what they are doing.”

    A rescuer works at a website of a meals warehouse broken by shelling, as Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues, in Brovary, Kyiv area, Ukraine (State Emergency Service of Ukraine/ REUTERS)

    The day had been quiet however all of the sudden shifted with a cacophony of heavy machine-gun hearth and explosions from rocket-propelled grenades because the squad led by Bohdan, which had remained behind, encountered a Russian armored personnel service. Why it remained on this place, in any other case empty of Russian troopers, was unclear. Later, a commander mentioned the automobile was destroyed.

    Serhiy, one of many troopers, provided a extra skeptical evaluation of Ukrainian beneficial properties in Irpin. While maybe the biggest occupied city was recaptured, he mentioned, Ukraine’s management was unsure. “We have a tentative front line” now outdoors Irpin, he mentioned, “but the key word is tentative.”

    “Their goal is Kyiv,” he added. “They will come back. They will need to cover this ground again.”

  • A story of ‘cruelty’ as Ukraine refugee exodus exceeds 3.6 million

    Kateryna Mytkevich endured 4 weeks residing with the worry of planes, rockets and missiles raining on her native metropolis of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine earlier than deciding to flee together with her youngster.

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    “I have never seen such cruelty before,” stated the 38-year-old, talking from the Polish metropolis of Przemysl, a transit hub close to the border with Ukraine. “Chernihiv is fully destroyed, they are approaching Kyiv. Even Poland.”

    “There is no electricity, no gas, no mobile connection in Chernihiv. We came through Kyiv, and we didn’t know whether Kyiv was still standing,” she stated, breaking into tears.

    Mytkevich is one among greater than 3.6 million refugees the United Nations says have fled Ukraine up to now, with extra anticipated because the battle confirmed no signal of abating. About 6.5 million are internally displaced throughout the nation.

    Most selected to remain in japanese Europe, the place a public outpouring of assist and volunteering has helped the reduction effort.

    “It took us three days to get here, because we had to detour,” stated Mytkevich. “We had to pass checkpoints, some areas are mined, Russian troops are in some areas and we were with children.”

    In the most recent transfer to assist deal with the variety of folks arriving, the Czech authorities was assembly on Wednesday to resolve on state contributions for individuals who home Ukrainian refugees of their dwelling or vacant flats.

    It would be a part of Britain in providing to pay residents who open their houses to the refugees.

    “We are managing (the flow of refugees) in the Czech Republic, we are managing it thanks to the great effort and dedication of state authorities, regions, municipalities, a number of non-profit organisations, and especially citizens who have offered their homes, their work, their time,” Prime Minister Petr Fiala informed parliament on Tuesday.

    At Siret, a Romanian border crossing with Ukraine, refugees continued to come back by way of, by foot, by automotive or by bus, however in fewer numbers than they did within the weeks beforehand.

    They had been greeted by Romanian firefighters and volunteers – together with one dressed as Snow White to entertain smaller youngsters – who gave them details about their onward journeys.

    While some Ukrainians are transferring to western Europe, the numbers are smaller up to now, with Germany recording 239,000 Ukrainian refugees as of Wednesday, up from some 197,000 on Friday, lower than within the Czech Republic, which has registered 300,000 refugees.

    In Przemysl, Anna Zhorova, 21, was planning to hitch a buddy in Lithuania, collectively together with her two sisters and her nephew after fleeing Kramatorsk in japanese Ukraine. They left their mother and father behind. “They did not want to leave,” she stated.

  • Mariupol City Council says Ukrainians being pressured into Russia

    The Mariupol City Council has issued an announcement claiming that its residents are being evacuated to Russia towards their will and one Ukrainian lawmaker says these individuals are being taken for pressured labour in distant components of Russia.

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    “The occupiers are forcing people to leave Ukraine for Russia. Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been taken to the Russian territory,” the town assertion mentioned.

    The Russia-backed separatists in jap Ukraine mentioned Sunday that 2,973 individuals have been evacuated from Mariupol since March 5, together with 541 over the past 24 hours.

    The assertion by the Mariupol City Council additionally claimed that cellphones and paperwork of evacuees have been inspected by Russian troops earlier than sending Mariupol residents to the “remote cities in Russia.” Ukrainian lawmaker Inna Sovsun advised Times Radio that in accordance with the mayor and metropolis council in Mariupol, these residents are going to so-called filtration camps and “then they’re being relocated to very distant parts of Russia, where they’re being forced to sign papers that they will stay in that area for two or three years and they will work for free in those areas.” The besieged metropolis of Mariupol, which has suffered below heavy Russian forces’ shelling, has been lower off from meals, water and vitality provides.

  • Putin vows Russia will prevail in Ukraine however glitch hinders TV

    Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the invasion of Ukraine earlier than a packed soccer stadium on Friday however protection of his speech on state tv was unexpectedly interrupted by what the Kremlin stated was a technical drawback with a server.

    Speaking on a stage on the centre of Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, Putin promised to tens of hundreds of individuals waving Russian flags and chanting “Russia, Russia, Russia” that all the Kremlin’s goals could be achieved.

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    “We know what we need to do, how to do it and at what cost. And we will absolutely accomplish all of our plans,” Putin, 69, advised the rally from a stage decked out with slogans akin to “For a world without Nazism” and “For our president”.

    Dressed in a turtleneck and coat, Putin stated the troopers preventing in what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine had illustrated the unity of Russia.

    People maintain a banner studying “For Putin!” throughout a live performance marking the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea (RIA Novosti Host Photo Agency/Pavel Bednyakov by way of REUTERS)
    Russian President Vladimir Putin waves on the supporters throughout the live performance in Moscow (RIA Novosti Host Photo Agency/Alexander Vilf by way of REUTERS)

    “Shoulder to shoulder, they help each other, support each other and when needed they shield each other from bullets with their bodies like brothers. Such unity we have not had for a long time,” Putin stated.

    As he was speaking, state tv briefly minimize away from his speech and confirmed earlier pre-recorded footage of patriotic songs, however he later appeared again on state tv.

    RIA information company cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying a technical fault on a server was the rationale state tv had instantly minimize away from Putin.

    Putin says the operation in Ukraine was mandatory as a result of the United States was utilizing the nation to threaten Russia and Russia needed to defend in opposition to the “genocide” of Russian-speaking individuals by Ukraine.

    Ukraine says it’s preventing for its existence and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. The West says claims it desires to tear Russia aside are fiction.

    Before Putin spoke, Russia’s stirring nationwide anthem, with the phrases “Russia is our sacred state” boomed out throughout the stands of the stadium used within the 2018 Soccer World Cup together with extra fashionable pop hits akin to “Made in the U.S.S.R.”.

    Pan-Slavist poetry by Fyodor Tyutchev, whose verses warned Russians that they’d at all times be thought-about slaves of the Enlightenment by Europeans, was learn out.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers a speech throughout the live performance at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow (Sputnik/Alexander Vilf/Kremlin by way of REUTERS)

    Putin quoted Russia’s good 18th century naval commander, Fyodor Ushakov.

    “He once said that these thunderstorms will go to the glory of Russia,” Putin stated. “That is the way it was then, that is the way it is now and it will always be that way. Thank you.”