Tag: Ukraine news updates

  • Vladimir Putin displays follow launches by Russia’s nuclear forces

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday monitored drills of the nation’s strategic nuclear forces involving a number of follow launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, in a present of power amid the heightened tensions with the West over the battle in Ukraine.

    Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Putin that the train was supposed to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” by Russia in retaliation for a nuclear assault on the nation.

    The maneuvers adopted Putin’s warning about his readiness to make use of “all means available” to fend off assaults on Russia’s territory in a transparent reference to the nation’s nuclear arsenals.

    During the Russian drills on Wednesday, a Yars land-based intercontinental ballistic missile was test-fired from the northern Plesetsk launch website. A Russian nuclear submarine within the Barents Sea launched a Sineva ICBM on the Kura firing vary on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

    As a part of the train, Tu-95 strategic bombers additionally launched cruise missiles at follow targets.

    The Kremlin stated in an announcement that each one duties set for the train have been fulfilled and all of the missiles that have been test-fired reached their designated targets.

    The Russian drills got here as NATO was holding its personal annual nuclear workout routines in northwestern Europe that may run till October 30.

    The drills dubbed Steadfast Noon contain round 60 plane, together with US long-range B-52 bombers and fighter jets able to carrying nuclear weapons, however don’t contain any reside bombs.

    Russian maneuvers involving land, sea and air parts of the nuclear triad have taken place on an annual foundation to coach the nation’s nuclear forces and exhibit their readiness. A earlier such train was held simply days earlier than Putin despatched troops into Ukraine.

    The Biden administration stated Tuesday that Russia gave discover it supposed to stage routine drills of its nuclear capabilities. The Pentagon and US State Department stated Russia had complied with the phrases of the final US-Russia arms management settlement in notifying Washington of the upcoming exams.

    The Russian nuclear train comes amid Moscow’s warnings of a purported Ukrainian plot to detonate a radioactive gadget generally referred to as a “dirty bomb” in a false flag assault guilty Russia.

    Putin himself repeated the soiled bomb declare on Wednesday. “We know about the plans to use the so-called dirty bomb for provocations,” he stated.

    Shoigu, the Russian protection ministry, additionally referred to as his Chinese and Indian counterparts Wednesday to debate the allegation, which Ukraine and its Western allies have strongly rejected.

    The Ukrainian authorities has stated it suspects Russia is planning its personal false flag operation.

    Authorities in Poland, Ukraine’s western neighbour, stated they have been carefully watching Russia’s actions to organize for the potential use of nuclear or chemical weapons.

    Deputy Defense Minister Marcin Ociepa charged the Kremlin “may reach for nuclear or chemical weapons” within the face of army setbacks in Ukraine.

  • Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Ukraine presses on with counteroffensive; Pope begs Putin to finish ‘spiral of violence and death’

    Underlining that “escalation of rhetoric or tensions is in no one’s interest” and it’s “important that pathways are found for a return to the negotiating table”, India Saturday abstained on a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) decision, which might have condemned Moscow’s “illegal referenda” and declared its annexation of 4 Ukrainian territories as invalid. The UNSC decision was vetoed by Russia.

    The UNSC couldn’t undertake the decision as Russia — a everlasting member of the UN Security Council — vetoed it. It was supported by 10 of the 15 members of the Council, whereas China, Gabon, India, and Brazil abstained.

    Addressing the Council after the vote, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj, stated: “India is deeply disturbed by the recent turn of developments in Ukraine. We have always advocated that no solution can ever be arrived at the cost of human lives.”

    Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties Friday to illegally annex extra occupied Ukrainian territory in a pointy escalation of his seven-month invasion. Ukraine’s president countered with a shock utility to affix the NATO navy alliance.

    Putin’s land-grab and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s signing of what he stated is an “accelerated” NATO membership utility despatched the 2 leaders dashing sooner on a collision course that’s cranking up fears of a full-blown battle between Russia and the West.

    Putin vowed to guard newly annexed areas of Ukraine by “all out there means,” a renewed nuclear-backed risk he made at a Kremlin signing ceremony the place he additionally railed furiously towards the West, accusing the United States and its allies of searching for Russia’s destruction.

    Zelenskyy then held a signing ceremony of his personal in Kyiv, releasing video of him placing pen to papers he stated had been a proper NATO membership request.

  • Putin decree provides all Ukrainians path to Russian citizenship

    Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday extending a simplified Russian naturalisation course of to all residents of Ukraine, a doc printed on the federal government’s web site confirmed.

    Previously, a simplified process for buying Russian citizenship utilized solely to residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in japanese Ukraine, which Russia seeks to “liberate” from Kyiv’s management, in addition to the Russian-occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, the state information company TASS reported.

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  • Russia-Ukraine conflict: Moscow’s military kilos Ukrainian strongholds in east, features floor

    Russia-backed separatists claimed they captured a railway hub metropolis in japanese Ukraine as Moscow’s forces pushed to realize extra floor Friday by pounding one other Ukrainian-held space the place authorities say 1,500 folks have died because the conflict’s begin.

    With Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s industrial Donbas area displaying incremental progress, Ukrainian officers characterised the battle as grave and renewed their appeals for extra refined Western-supplied weaponry. Without that, the international minister warned, Ukrainian forces will not be capable of cease Russia’s advance on the east.

    Some European leaders sought dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin towards ending a conflict — now in its 93rd day — with world financial repercussions, whereas Britain’s international minister labored to rally the West’s continued assist for Ukraine.

    READ | Moscow turned out to be very dangerous at cyber: Fareed Zakaria on Russia-Ukraine conflict

    “There should be no talk of ceasefires, or appeasing Putin. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins. And that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again,” UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss mentioned.

    But in Ukraine’s east, Russia does have the higher hand. The preventing Friday targeted on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and close by Lysychansk. They are the final areas below Ukrainian management in Luhansk, one in every of two provinces that make up the Donbas and the place Moscow-backed separatists have managed some territory for eight years.

    “There are battles on the outskirts of the city. Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night,” Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press. “The city is being systematically destroyed — 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged.”

    An assault was underway in the city’s northeastern quarter, where Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to capture the Mir Hotel and the area around it Friday, Striuk said.

    At least 1,500 people have died in Sievierodonetsk because of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, he said.

    The figure includes people killed by shelling or in fires caused by Russian missile strikes, as well as those who died from shrapnel wounds, untreated diseases, a lack of medicine or while trapped under rubble, according to the mayor.

    READ | Russian soldier handed life sentence in first war crimes trial of Ukraine conflict

    About 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city — down from a pre-war population of about 100,000, he said. Those remaining are huddled in shelters, largely cut off from the rest of Ukraine.

    Volunteers hoped to evacuate about 100 people Friday from a smaller city just to Sievierodonetsk’s south. It was a painstaking process: Many of the evacuees from Bakhmut were elderly or infirm and needed to be carried out of apartment buildings in soft stretchers and wheelchairs.

    Minibuses and vans zipped through the city, picking up dozens for the first leg of a long journey west by car or train.

    “Bakhmut is a high-risk area right now,” Mark Poppert, an American volunteer working with British charity RefugEase, mentioned. “We’re trying to get as many people out as we can.”

    In Donetsk, the opposite Donbas province, the Russia-backed rebels mentioned Friday they took over Lyman, a big railway hub north of two extra key cities nonetheless below Ukrainian management.

    “We lost Lyman,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged Thursday evening. However, a Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesperson reported Friday that its troopers countered Russian makes an attempt to push them utterly out of the town.

    Ukrainian analysts mentioned Russian forces have taken benefit of delays in Western arms shipments to step up their offensive within the east and safe territory earlier than Ukraine’s fighters may repel them.

    Russia introduced in an extra 10-12 battalion tactical teams to the zone, army analyst Oleh Zhdanov mentioned.

    Throwing a lot muscle on the offensive, although, may backfire by critically depleting Russia’s arsenal. Echoing an evaluation from the British Defence Ministry, Zhdanov mentioned Russia was deploying 50-year-old T-62 tanks, “which means that the second army of the world has run out of modernized equipment”.

    Mykola Sunhurovskyi, an analyst at Kyiv’s Razumkov Centre, mentioned that going ahead, “It is in Putin’s interests to solidify the situation that has developed today at the front, biting off from Ukraine what there is still strength for, and secure this line of contact as a position in (eventual) negotiations”.

    As Ukraine’s hopes of stopping the Russian advance faded, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded with Western nations: “We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us, it’s the amount of heavy weapons they have. Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems we won’t be able to push them back.”

    In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had some harsh words for the European Union, which has not agreed on a sixth round of sanctions that includes an embargo on Russian oil. Hungary, one of Moscow’s closest allies in the EU, is obstructing the deal.

    “Pressure on Russia is literally a matter of saving lives,” Zelenskyy mentioned. “And every day of delay, weakness, various disputes or proposals to appease’ the aggressor at the expense of the victim is new killed Ukrainians. And new threats to everyone on our continent.”

    READ | Russia-Ukraine conflict: West prone to permit Russian oligarchs to purchase means out of sanctions

    Zelenskyy mentioned Russia’s offensive within the Donbas may go away its communities in ashes and uninhabitable. He accused Moscow of pursuing “an obvious policy of genocide” via mass deportations and killings of civilians.

    On Thursday, Russian shelling of Kharkiv, a northeastern metropolis that has been below assault whereas Ukrainian forces maintain the invading troops out, killed 9 folks, together with a father and his 5-month-old child, the president mentioned.

    AP reporters noticed the our bodies of at the least two useless males and 4 wounded at a central subway station, the place the victims had been taken as shelling continued exterior.

    To the north, neighbouring Belarus introduced Friday that it was sending troops towards the Ukrainian border, elevating considerations in Ukraine’s army command. Russia used Belarus as a staging floor earlier than it invaded Ukraine.

    Germany’s improvement minister travelled to Ukraine on Friday to pledge additional civilian assist and focus on the nation’s rebuilding.

    Meanwhile, European leaders have been talking with Putin about easing the rising world meals disaster exacerbated by Kyiv’s lack of ability to ship hundreds of thousands of tons of grain and different agricultural merchandise whereas below assault.

    Italian Premier Mario Draghi mentioned there have been no breakthroughs throughout his Thursday dialog with Putin about unblocking Ukrainian ports.

    “If you are asking me if there are openings for peace, the answer is no,” Draghi informed reporters.

    Moscow has sought to shift the blame for the meals disaster to the West, calling upon its leaders to elevate present sanctions.

    Putin informed Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday that Ukraine ought to take away Black Sea mines to permit secure transport, in line with a Kremlin readout of their dialog; Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the mines close to Ukraine’s ports.

    Nehammer’s workplace mentioned the 2 leaders additionally mentioned a prisoner change and that Putin indicated efforts to rearrange one can be “intensified”.

  • Russia-Ukraine struggle: West more likely to permit Russian oligarchs to purchase method out of sanctions

    Western allies are contemplating permitting Russian oligarchs to purchase their method out of sanctions and use that cash to rebuild war-torn Ukraine.

    Western allies are contemplating permitting Russian oligarchs to purchase their method out of sanctions. (Photo: AP/File)

    Western allies are contemplating whether or not to permit Russian oligarchs to purchase their method out of sanctions and use the cash to rebuild Ukraine, based on authorities officers accustomed to the matter.

    Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the concept at a G-7 finance ministers’ assembly in Germany final week.

    Freeland raised the difficulty after oligarchs spoke to her about it, one official stated. The Canadian minister is aware of some Russian oligarchs from her time as a journalist in Moscow.

    READ | Ukraine ought to surrender territory to achieve peace cope with Russia, says former US secretary of state

    The official stated the Ukrainians had been conscious of the discussions. The official stated it is also within the West’s pursuits to have outstanding oligarchs dissociate themselves with Russian President Vladimir Putin whereas on the similar time offering funding for Ukraine.

    The officers spoke on situation of anonymity as they weren’t approved to talk publicly about inner G-7 discussions.

    READ | Russian soldier handed life sentence in first struggle crimes trial of Ukraine battle

  • Russian troops ill-prepared for conflict with Ukraine, says ex-Kremlin mercenary

    The Russian army’s failure to grab the Ukrainian capital was inevitable as a result of within the previous years they’d by no means instantly confronted a strong enemy, in keeping with a former mercenary with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group who fought alongside the Russian military.

    Marat Gabidullin took half in Wagner Group missions on the Kremlin’s behalf in Syria and in a earlier battle in Ukraine, earlier than deciding to go public about his expertise contained in the secretive personal army firm.

    He stop the Wagner group in 2019, however a number of months earlier than Russia launched the invasion on Feb. 24 Gabidullin, 55, mentioned he obtained a name from a recruiter who invited him to return to preventing as a mercenary in Ukraine.

    He refused, partially as a result of, he mentioned, he knew Russian forces have been less than the job, though they trumpeted their arsenal of recent weapons and their successes in Syria the place they helped President Bashar al-Assad defeat an armed revolt.

    “They were caught completely by surprise that the Ukrainian army resisted so fiercely and that they faced the actual army,” Gabidullin mentioned about Russia’s setbacks in Ukraine.

    READ | Russia preventing for motherland in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin on Victory Day

    He mentioned individuals he spoke to on the Russian aspect had informed him they anticipated to face rag-tag militias once they invaded Ukraine, not well-drilled common troops.

    (Photo: AP/File)

    “I told them: ‘Guys, that’s a mistake’,” mentioned Gabidullin, who’s now in France the place he’s publishing a ebook about his experiences preventing with the Wagner Group.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned he didn’t know who Gabidullin was and whether or not he has ever been a member of personal army firms.

    “We, the state, the government, the Kremlin can not have anything to do with it,” he mentioned.

    The Russian defence ministry didn’t reply to a request for remark.

    Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is just not designed to occupy territory however to destroy its southern neighbour’s army capabilities and seize what it regards as harmful nationalists.

    Gabidullin is a part of a small however rising cohort of individuals in Russia with safety backgrounds who’ve supported President Vladimir Putin’s international incursions however now say the way in which the conflict is being performed is incompetent.

    Igor Girkin, who helped lead a pro-Kremlin armed revolt in jap Ukraine in 2014, has been vital of the way in which this marketing campaign is being performed. Alexei Alexandrov, an architect of the 2014 revolt, informed Reuters in March the invasion was a mistake.

    READ | Putin channels reminiscence of Hitler’s defeat to induce victory in Ukraine

    Gabidullin took half in among the bloodiest Syrian clashes in Deir al-Zor province, in Ghouta and close to the traditional metropolis of Palmyra. He was significantly injured in 2016 when a grenade exploded behind his again throughout a battle within the mountains close to Latakia.

    Gabidullin spent per week in a coma and three months in a hospital the place he had surgical procedures to take away considered one of his kidneys and a few intestines. Reuters has independently verified he was within the Wagner Group and was in fight in Syria.

    Wagner Group fighters have been accused by rights teams and the Ukrainian authorities of committing conflict crimes in Syria and jap Ukraine from 2014 onwards. Gabidullin mentioned he had by no means been concerned in such abuses.

    DIFFERENT PROPOSITION

    Moscow’s involvement helped flip the tide of the Syrian conflict in favour of al-Assad, however Gabidullin mentioned Russia’s army restricted itself primarily to assaults from the air, whereas counting on Wagner mercenaries and different proxies to do the lion’s share of the preventing on the bottom.

    The Russian army’s job was simpler too. Its opponents — Islamic State and different militias — had no anti-aircraft programs or artillery.

    Fighting Ukraine, he mentioned, was a distinct proposition.

    “I’ve seen enough of them in Syria… (The Russian military) didn’t take part in combat directly,” he mentioned in an interview in Paris to advertise his ebook, which shall be revealed by French publishing home Michel Lafon this month.

    READ | Ukraine’s mine-sniffing canine will get a medal after discovering over 200 explosives

    “The military forces …. when it was needed to learn how to fight, did not learn how to fight for real,” he mentioned.

    Wagner Group is an off-the-cuff entity, with — on paper not less than — no places of work or workers. The U.S. Treasury Department and the European Union have mentioned the Wagner Group is linked to Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin has denied any such hyperlinks.

    Concord Management and Consulting, Prigozhin’s principal enterprise, didn’t reply to a request for remark.

    Russia’s Vladimir Putin. (Photo: AP/File)

    President Vladimir Putin has mentioned personal army contractors have the suitable to work and pursue their pursuits anyplace on the planet so long as they don’t break Russian regulation. Putin has mentioned the Wagner Group neither represented the Russian state nor was paid by it.

    Gabidullin mentioned though he had recognized the Russian invasion of Ukraine was coming, he didn’t anticipate it to be on such a scale.

    “I could not even think that Russia will wage a war on Ukraine. How could that be? It’s impossible,” he mentioned.

    READ | Elon Musk says Russia ‘ramping up’ cyber conflict amid studies Moscow downed Ukraine’s web

  • As Vladimir Putin marks Victory Day, Russian troops make little positive aspects in Ukraine

    A Ukrainian National Guard soldier enters a underground shelter at a place close to Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

    Russian President Vladimir Putin marked his nation’s greatest patriotic vacation Monday with no main new battlefield success in Ukraine to boast of, because the battle floor on by its eleventh week with the Kremlin’s forces making little or no progress of their offensive.

    The Russian chief oversaw a Victory Day parade on Moscow’s Red Square, watching as troops marched in formation and navy {hardware} rolled previous in a celebration of the Soviet Union’s position within the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.

    While Western analysts in latest weeks had extensively anticipated Putin to make use of the vacation to trumpet some form of victory in Ukraine or announce an escalation, he did neither. Instead, he sought to justify the battle once more as a vital response to what he portrayed as a hostile Ukraine.

    “The danger was rising by the day,” Putin stated. “Russia has given a preemptive response to aggression. It was forced, timely and the only correct decision.”

    He steered away from battlefield specifics, failing to say the doubtless pivotal battle for the very important southern port of Mariupol and never even uttering the phrase “Ukraine.”

    On the bottom, in the meantime, intense combating raged in Ukraine’s east, the very important Black Sea port of Odesa within the south got here underneath repeated missile assault, and Russian forces sought to complete off the Ukrainian defenders making their final stand at a metal plant in Mariupol.

    A Ukrainian National Guard soldier sits inside a tank at a place close to Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, May 9, 2022. (Photo: AP)

    Putin has lengthy bristled at NATO’s creep eastward into former Soviet republics. Ukraine and its Western allies have denied the nation posed any menace.

    As he has completed all alongside, Putin falsely portrayed the combating as a battle in opposition to Nazism, thereby linking the battle to what many Russians think about their most interesting hour: the conquer Hitler. The Soviet Union misplaced 27 million folks in what Russia refers to because the Great Patriotic War.

    READ | Nearly 60 feared useless after Russia bombs Ukraine college

    After unexpectedly fierce resistance compelled the Kremlin to desert its effort to storm Kyiv over a month in the past, Moscow’s forces have targeting capturing the Donbas, Ukraine’s jap industrial area.

    But the combating there was a back-and-forth, village-by-village slog, and plenty of analysts had urged Putin would possibly use his vacation speech to current the Russian folks with a victory amid discontent over the nation’s heavy casualties and the punishing results of Western sanctions.

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    Others urged he would possibly declare the combating a battle, not only a “special military operation,” and order a nationwide mobilization, with a call-up of reserves, to replenish the depleted ranks for an prolonged battle.

    In the top, he gave no sign as to the place the battle is headed or how he would possibly intend to salvage it. Specifically, he left unanswered the query of whether or not or how Russia will marshal extra forces for a seamless battle.

    “Without concrete steps to build a new force, Russia can’t fight a long war, and the clock starts ticking on the failure of their army in Ukraine,” tweeted Phillips P. O’Brien, professor of strategic research on the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

    Nigel Gould Davies, former British ambassador to Belarus, stated: “Russia has not won this war. It’s starting to lose it.”

    He stated that except Russia has a serious breakthrough, “the balance of advantages will shift steadily in favor of Ukraine, especially as Ukraine gets access to growing volumes of increasingly sophisticated Western military equipment.”

    READ | In shock go to to war-torn Ukraine, Jill Biden meets first woman

    Despite Russia’s crackdown on dissent, antiwar sentiment has seeped by. Dozens of protesters have been detained across the nation on Victory Day, and editors at a pro-Kremlin media outlet revolted by briefly publishing just a few dozen tales criticizing Putin and the invasion.

    In Warsaw, antiwar protesters splattered Russia’s ambassador to Poland with what gave the impression to be purple paint as he arrived at a cemetery to pay respects to Red Army troopers who died throughout World War II.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin (centre) attends a wreath-laying ceremony marking the 77th anniversary of the top of World War II, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, May 9, 2022. (Photo: AP)

    As Putin laid a wreath in Moscow, air raid sirens echoed once more within the Ukrainian capital. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared in his personal Victory Day tackle that his nation would finally defeat the Russians.

    “Very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine,” he stated in a video. He added: “We are fighting for freedom, for our children, and therefore we will win.”

    Russia has about 97 battalion tactical teams in Ukraine, largely within the east and the south, a slight improve over final week, in accordance with a senior U.S. official, talking on situation of anonymity to debate the Pentagon’s evaluation. Each unit has roughly 1,000 troops, in accordance with the Pentagon.

    The official stated that total, the Russian effort within the Donbas hasn’t achieved any vital progress in latest days and continues to face stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.

    The Ukrainian navy warned of a excessive likelihood of missile strikes across the vacation, and a few cities imposed curfews or warned folks to not collect in public locations.

    More than 60 folks have been feared useless over the weekend after Russian bombardment flattened a Ukrainian college getting used as a shelter within the jap village of Bilohorivka, Ukrainian officers stated.

    Russia is probably closest to a victory in Mariupol. The U.S. official stated roughly 2,000 Russian forces have been round Mariupol, and town was being pounded by airstrikes. As many as 2,000 Ukrainian defenders have been believed to be holding out on the metal plant, town’s final stronghold of resistance.

    The fall of Mariupol would deprive Ukraine of a significant port, permit Russia to finish a land hall to the Crimean Peninsula, and unlock troops to battle elsewhere within the Donbas. It would additionally give the Kremlin a badly wanted success.

    Russian bomb hits college in Ukraine’s Luhansk killing 60. (Photo: Reuters)

    Odesa, too, has more and more been bombarded in latest days. The Ukrainian navy stated Russian forces fired seven missiles from the air at Odesa on Monday night time, hitting a shopping mall and a warehouse. One particular person was killed and 5 have been wounded, the navy stated.

    “While seeking strategic targets, obsolete missiles managed to hit an ‘extremely dangerous’ shopping center and a warehouse for consumer goods,” navy spokeswoman Natalya Gumenyuk stated on Facebook. Photos on the publish confirmed what gave the impression to be the warehouse engulfed in flames.

    The battle within the nation lengthy referred to as the “breadbasket of Europe” has disrupted international meals provides.

    “I saw silos full of grain, wheat and corn ready for export,” Charles Michel, president of the European Council, lamented in a tweet after a go to to Odesa. “This badly needed food is stranded because of the Russian war and blockade of Black sea ports. Causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries.”

    ALSO READ | Ukraine metal mill vacated as final civilians depart fearing for all times

  • Russia combating for motherland in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin on Victory Day

    Russia’s Vladimir Putin in the course of the tackle on Victory Day parade stated Russia was combating for motherland. He went on to sentence the exterior threats to weaken and cut up Russia.

    Russia combating for motherland in Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin at Victory Day parade in Moscow. (Photo: Reuters)

    Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday drew parallels between the Red Army’s battle throughout World War II in opposition to the Nazi troops and the battle in Ukraine.

    Speaking at a navy parade to mark the World War II victory over Nazis, Putin stated the marketing campaign in Ukraine was a well timed and needed transfer to chase away potential aggression.

    During an tackle on the 77th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany, Putin condemned what he known as exterior threats to weaken and cut up Russia. He reiterated that NATO was creating threats for Russia proper subsequent to its borders.

    He addressed the troopers combating in japanese Ukraine’s Donbas area, saying, “You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War Two. So that there is no place in the world for executioners, punishers and Nazis.”

    Putin promised that the demise of every of the Russian troopers and officers was a shared grief and an irreparable loss. He assured that the state would take care of their kids and households.

    The Russian chief didn’t point out Ukraine by title, gave no battle evaluation and supplied no indication of how lengthy the invasion would possibly proceed.

    (With inputs from AP)

    READ | Nearly 60 feared lifeless after Russia bombs Ukraine college

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  • On World War Two anniversary, Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says evil has returned

    As Europe commemorated the World War Two anniversary, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his emotional handle stated evil had returned to Ukraine.

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. (Photo: REUTERS/File)

    Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Sunday evil has returned to Ukraine as he gave an emotional handle for Victory Day, when Europe commemorates the formal give up of Germany to the Allies in World War Two.

    The life that troopers fought for in that conflict got here to an finish on Feb. 24 when Russian forces invaded, he stated in a video message.

    “The evil has returned. Again!” Zelenskyy stated. “In a different form, under different slogans, but for the same purpose.”

    But he stated Ukraine and its allies will win.

    “No evil can escape responsibility, it cannot hide in a bunker,” he added.

    Nazi chief Adolf Hitler spent the final days of his life in a bunker in Berlin the place he dedicated suicide within the last days of the conflict.

    Moscow calls its actions since Feb. 24 a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it what it calls “Nazis” and anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and the West say Russia launched an unprovoked conflict of aggression.

    The invasion in Ukraine has killed hundreds and displaced almost 10 million individuals. It has left Russia within the grip of robust Western sanctions, and has raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the West.

    In Russia, Victory Day on May 9 is among the nation’s most vital nationwide occasions – a remembrance of the large sacrifices made by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany.

    READ: Donbas stays the main target as Russia’s conflict on Ukraine enters third month | Ground Report

    ALSO READ | Russia says no nuclear intentions for Ukraine

  • Russian bomb hits faculty in Ukraine’s Luhansk, 60 feared lifeless, says governor 

    As many as 60 individuals had been feared to have been killed within the Russian bombing of a village faculty within the japanese Ukrainian area of Luhansk, the regional governor stated on Sunday.

    Governor Serhiy Gaidai stated Russian forces dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on the varsity in Bilohorivka the place about 90 individuals had been sheltering, inflicting a fireplace that engulfed the constructing.

    “The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found,” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

    “Thirty people were evacuated from the rubble, seven of whom were injured. Sixty people were likely to have died under the rubble of buildings.”

    Reuters couldn’t instantly confirm the report.

    Ukraine and its Western allies have accused Russian forces of focusing on civilians within the battle, which Moscow denies.

    READ | Russia’s propaganda that West is forcing Ukraine into one other Holodomor holds no water

    In the ruined southeastern port metropolis of Mariupol, scores of civilians have been evacuated from a sprawling metal plant in a week-long operation brokered by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in an tackle late on Saturday that greater than 300 civilians had been rescued from the Azovstal steelworks and authorities would now concentrate on making an attempt to evacuate the wounded and medics. Other Ukrainian sources have cited completely different figures.

    Russian-backed separatists on Saturday reported a complete of 176 civilians evacuated from the plant.

    The Azovstal plant is a final hold-out for Ukrainian forces within the metropolis now largely managed by Russia, and lots of civilians had additionally taken refuges in its underground shelters. It has change into a logo of resistance to the Russian effort to seize swathes of japanese and southern Ukraine.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the invasion he launched on Feb. 24 a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of anti-Russian nationalism fomented by the West. Ukraine and its allies say Russia launched an unprovoked battle.

    READ: Donbas stays the main target as Russia’s battle on Ukraine enters third month | Ground Report

    Mariupol is vital to blocking Ukrainian exports and linking the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Russia in 2014, and components of the japanese areas of Luhansk and Donetsk which have been managed by Russia-backed separatists since that very same yr.

    VICTORY DAY

    In an emotional tackle on Sunday for Victory Day, when Europe commemorates the formal give up of Germany to the Allies in World War Two, Zelenskyy stated that evil had returned to Ukraine with the Russian invasion, however his nation would prevail.

    US President Joe Biden and different G7 leaders had been to carry a video name with Zelenskyy on Sunday in a present of unity forward of Victory Day celebrations on Monday in Russia.

    Underlining Western assist for Ukraine, Britain pledged to supply an extra 1.3 billion kilos ($1.6 billion) in army assist and assist, double its earlier spending commitments.

    Victory Day is a serious occasion in Russia and Putin will preside on Monday over a parade in Moscow’s Red Square of troops, tanks, rockets and intercontinental ballistic missiles, exhibiting army would possibly whilst his forces struggle on in Ukraine.

    His speech might supply clues on the way forward for the battle. Russia’s efforts have been stymied by logistical and gear issues and excessive casualties within the face of fierce resistance. Read full story

    US Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns stated on Saturday that Putin was satisfied “doubling down” on the battle would enhance the result for Russia.

    “He’s in a frame of mind in which he doesn’t believe he can afford to lose,” Burns advised a Financial Times occasion in Washington on Saturday.

    READ | Russia says no nuclear intentions for Ukraine

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