A local woman looks at an apartment building damaged by a Russian military strike in May 2022. (Reuters File Photo/ Representative)Russia Ukraine War Highlights, Mariupol Fall to Russia: Russsia’s attack in the Donbas region is the largest one on European soil since WW II, Ukraine Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. Calling the attack a ‘ruthless battle,’ he urged Ukraine’s allies to speed up deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the nation.
The Russia-appointed administration of Ukraine’s Kherson region will ask Moscow to set up a military base on its territory, Russia’s RIA news agency quoted a local government official as saying on Tuesday. Russia seized the Kherson region adjacent to Crimea, has installed a new administration there and started introducing the Russian rouble as a currency.
Meanwhile, as the European Union mulled an embargo on Russian oil imports, Moscow said it saw its economic ties growing with China amid its isolation by the West. In Russia, a rare public expression of opposition to the war emerged from the ranks of the Russian elite with a veteran Kremlin diplomat Boris Bondarev resigning and sending a scathing letter to foreign colleagues in which he said of the invasion, “Never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24.”
Service members of the Ukrainian armed forces, who surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict, sit in a bus upon their arrival under escort of the pro-Russian military in the settlement of Olenivka in the Donetsk region, Ukraine May 20, 2022. (Reuters)
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The head of Moldova's pro-Russian opposition party, former President Igor Dodon, has been detained by Moldovan authorities on corruption charges, state television reported, a move likely to anger the Kremlin.
State television channel Moldova 1 and Russian state news agency RIA both reported the detention, citing senior anti-corruption prosecutor Elena Kazakov.
The prosecutor's office and a representative of Dodon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Kremlin earlier on Tuesday said it was concerned at media reports that Dodon had been detained, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling on the Moldovan authorities to respect his rights.
Moldovan investigators had been searching Dodon's home, a party official told Reuters on Tuesday. (Reuters)
A Russian-backed separatist leader in eastern Ukraine said on Tuesday that foreign representatives, including Western ones, would be invited to a trial of Ukrainian fighters there, according to an Interfax news agency report.
Prosecutors in the region are working with Russia on the composition of a tribunal to try the fighters, Interfax quoted Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic which Russia recognised three days before its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, as saying.
Russia said last week that almost 2,000 Ukrainians had surrendered after making a last stand in the ruins of Mariupol, where they had held out for weeks in bunkers and tunnels beneath the vast Azovstal steelworks (AP)
Hungary's government declared a state of emergency due to the war in Ukraine from Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a Facebook video, adding his cabinet needed room of manoeuvre to respond to challenges quickly.
Orban, who won a fourth consecutive term in elections on April 3, has used the special legal order in the past, once due to migration and later during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new state of emergency, announced on Tuesday, empowers Orban's government to approve measures fast, by decree. (Reuters)
Three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tuesday witnessed Russian forces launching an all-out attack on the eastern region of Ukraine. The region, that has Ukraine's old coal and steel-producing area, is crucial in determining Russia's success in the battle. Ukraine Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba said the atatck in Donbas region is the largest one on European soil since WW II and urged its allies to spped up deliveries of weapons and ammunition.
Other key develoments today;
*European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, at the World Economic Forum, said Russia is using food supplies as a weapon with global repercussions. She called for talks with Moscow on unlocking wheat exports that are trapped in Ukraine as a result of a Russian sea blockade.
*France's Europe minister assured that Ukraine will eventually be part of the European Union.
*Moscow was deliberately slowing its offensive in Ukraine in order to allow civilians to evacuate, RIA news agency reported quoting Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.
*Russian Foreign Minister said that Moscow will focus on developing ties with China. Lavrov said Russia will consider re-establishing ties with the West whether that is needed. Meanwhile, Germany said that European Union will likely agree an embargo on Russian oil imports 'within days.'
*US president Joe Biden said Ukraine crisis is a global issue that increased the importance of maintaining international order, territorial integrity and sovereignty.
(With inputs from agencies)
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called for talks with Moscow on unlocking wheat exports that are trapped in Ukraine as a result of a Russian sea blockade.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week accused Russia of using food as a weapon by holding 'hostage' supplies for not just Ukrainians, but also millions of people around the world. Moscow rejects this allegation.
'The most important (thing) is to deblock the Black Sea. This is a call on Russia,' von der Leyen told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. (Reuters)
(Photos: AP/Reuters)
Russian and Chinese military planes conducted joint exercises to patrol the Asia-Pacific region, Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The joint patrol lasted 13 hours over the Japanese and East China seas and involved Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and Chinese Xian H-6 jets, the defence ministry said in a statement.
Planes from the Japanese and South Korean air force shadowed the Russian and Chinese jets for part of the exercise, the defence ministry said. (Reuters)
Finland's foreign minister on Tuesday said at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos that a delegation from his country and Sweden will travel to the Turkish capital amid pushback from Turkey on the Nordic nations' application to join NATO.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said during a geopolitical outlook panel that the representatives will head to Turkey on Wednesday for talks.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu confirmed the negotiations.
Turkey is objecting to Sweden's and Finland's historic bid to join the military alliance, citing their perceived support to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and other groups that Turkey considers to be terrorists. (AP)
Russsian attack in the Donbas region is the largest one on European soil since WWII, Ukrainian official Dmytro Kuleba said. Calling the attack a 'ruthless battle,' he urged Ukraine's allies to speed up deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the nation.
Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday lambasted President Vladimir Putin in a live court hearing, casting him as a madman who had started a 'stupid war' in Ukraine based on lies.
'This is a stupid war which your Putin started,' Navalny, 45, told an appeal court in Moscow via video link from a corrective penal colony. 'This war was built on lies.'
Navalny, by far Russia's most prominent opposition leader, was appealing against a nine-year jail sentence he was handed in March for fraud and contempt of court, on top of 2-1/2 years he is already serving. He denies all the charges against him and says they were fabricated to thwart his political ambitions. (Reuters)
Kyiv must win the war it is fighting against Moscow, making the invasion of Ukraine a strategic failure for Russia's President Vladimir Putin, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told global business leaders in Davos on Tuesday.
At the World Economic Forum that gathers more than 2,000 business and political leaders as well as experts at the Alpine resort, she described Moscow's playbook as coming straight from another century.She also said Russia is food supplies as a weapon with global repercussions acting the same way as it does in the energy sector.
(With Reuters inputs)
Russian forces were launching an all-out assault to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin cities straddling a river in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, a battle which could determine the success or failure of Moscow's main campaign in the east.
The decisive battles of the war's latest phase are still raging further south, where Moscow is attempting to seize the Donbas region of two eastern provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, and trap Ukrainian forces in a pocket on the main eastern front.
The easternmost part of the Ukrainian-held Donbas pocket, the city of Sievierodonetsk on the east bank of the Siverskiy Donets river and its twin Lysychansk on the west bank have become the pivotal battlefield there, with Russian forces advancing from three directions to encircle them. (Reuters)
Russian gas producer Gazprom said it continues to supply gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point, with volumes on Tuesday seen at 46.1 million cubic metres (mcm), up from 43 mcm on Monday.
An application to supply gas via the main Sokhranovka entry point was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said. (Reuters)
Britain is in discussions with Ukraine about how to help get grain out of the country after Russia blocked its main seaports, transport minister Grant Shapps said Tuesday.
Shapps said he was very concerned about the issue, which has seen global food prices soar as Ukraine is unable to export nearly 25 million tonnes of grains, and met Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov last week.
"We were discussing details which I can't go into but about how infrastructure could be in place to ensure the grain leaves," Shapps told Sky News.
"We're looking at all the different options ... there are lots of different potential ways to get grain and other goods out of the country," he said. "It's absolutely essential that we do, otherwise there could be a lot of hunger and indeed even famine." (Reuters)
Russia's Roscosmos space agency director-general, Dmitry Rogozin, has said that the Kuril Islands, a subject of a territorial dispute with Japan, could be renamed after Russian ships and events of the early 20th century's Russo-Japanese War.
The territorial dispute over the isles, which Russia says are part of its Kuril chain and which Japan calls its Northern Territories, has prevented Tokyo and Moscow from reaching a peace treaty formally ending World War Two hostilities.
Rogozin, a former deputy prime minister who oversaw Russia's arms industry, proposed to change the name of one of the islands to Varyag in honour of a cruiser whose sinking started the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. (Reuters)
Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia and Estonia will call on Tuesday for the confiscation of Russian assets frozen by the European Union to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, a joint letter written by the four showed on Monday.
On May 3, Ukraine estimated the amount of money needed to rebuild the country from the destruction wrought by Russia at around $600 billion. But with the war still in full swing, the sum is likely to have risen sharply, the letter said.
“A substantial part of costs of rebuilding Ukraine, including compensation for victims of the Russian military aggression, must be covered by Russia,” said the letter, that is to be presented to EU finance ministers on Tuesday. (Read more)
Some 62 million barrels of Russia's flagship Urals crude oil, a record amount, are sitting in vessels at sea, data from energy analytics firm Vortexa showed, as traders struggled to find buyers for the crude.
The United States and other countries have banned imports of Russian crude and oil products over its invasion of Ukraine, and others have avoided acquiring cargoes out of fear of future sanctions. The European Commission is considering an embargo of Russian oil.
The volume of Urals crude oil on the water is triple the pre-war average, Vortexa said, even as Russian seaborne oil exports fell to 6.7 million barrels per day (bpd) so far in May, down about 15% from the 7.9 bpd in February. "The headline numbers, showing Russian exports are still relatively strong, don't tell the full story," said Houston-based energy strategist Clay Seigle. "Russian oil at sea is continuing to accumulate." (Reuters)
?? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed Ukraine's worst military losses from a single attack of the war, saying 87 people had been killed last week when Russian forces struck a barracks at a training base in the north.
?? A total of 12,500 Russians were trying to seize Luhansk, the region's governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said on Telegram. The town of Sievierodonetsk is being destroyed, but Ukraine has forced Russian troops out of Toshkivka to its south, Gaidai added.
?? A Ukrainian court sentenced a young Russian soldier to life in prison for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.
?? Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready for an exchange of prisoners with Russia "even tomorrow" and called on his allies to put pressure on Moscow, which calls it actions in Ukraine "a special military operation".
?? Russia would normally have its own 'house' at the World Economic Forum in Davos as a showcase for business leaders and investors, but this year the space has been transformed by Ukrainian artists into a "Russian War Crimes House". Russia has denied allegations of war crimes in the conflict.
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the crisis in Ukraine was a global issue which heightened the importance of maintaining international order, territorial integrity and sovereignty.
Biden's comments delivered at the opening of the "Quad" meeting of Indo-Pacific leaders in Tokyo come a day after he broke with convention and volunteered US military support for Taiwan, the self-governed island claimed by China.
"This is more than just a European issue. It's a global issue," Biden said of the crisis in Ukraine at the Quad meeting of the United States, Japan, India and Australia. (Reuters)
A veteran Russian diplomat to the UN Office at Geneva says he handed in his resignation before sending out a scathing letter to foreign colleagues inveighing against the “aggressive war unleashed” by President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine.
Boris Bondarev, 41, confirmed his resignation in a letter delivered Monday morning at the Russian diplomatic mission after a diplomatic official passed on his English-language statement to The Associated Press.
“For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24 of this year,” he wrote, alluding to the date of Russia’s invasion. (Read more)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says last week's attack on the town of Desna resulted in 87 deaths. Desna is 55 kilometers north of Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said the debris removal in Desna, in the Chernihiv region, has been completed and the deaths and destruction was cause by only four missiles.
Zelenskyy made the comments in his nightly address Monday, the eve of the three-month anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Since February 24, Zelenskyy said the Russian army has launched 1,474 missile strikes on Ukraine, using 2,275 different missiles.
The vast majority hit civilian targets and there have been more than 3,000 Russian airstrikes over that period, according to Zelenskyy, who said Russia is waging “total war” on his country and that includes inflicting as many casualties and as much infrastructure destruction as possible. (AP)
Russia's foreign minister said that Moscow would consider offers from the West to re-establish ties and determine whether that is needed, but will focus on developing relations with China.
Sergei Lavrov, in a question and answer session at an event in Moscow, said Western countries had espoused "russophobia" since Russia launched its incursion into Ukraine - described by Moscow as a "special military operation".
Russia was working to replace goods imported from Western countries, he said, and in future, would rely only on "reliable" countries not beholden to the West. "If they (the West) want to offer something in terms of resuming relations, then we will seriously consider whether we will need it or not," Lavrov said, according to a transcript on the foreign ministry's website.
Lavrov set down grievances with Western countries that he said were determined to change the rules of international relations to Russia's detriment. "We must cease being dependent in any way on supplies of absolutely everything from the West for ensuring the development of critically important sectors for security, the economy or our homeland's social sphere," he said. (Reuters)
The Russia-appointed administration of Ukraine's Kherson region will ask Moscow to set up a military base on its territory, Russia's RIA news agency quoted a local government official as saying on Tuesday.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February, seizing in particular the Kherson region which is adjacent to Crimea, the peninsula which Moscow has controlled since an earlier conflict in 2014. It has installed a new administration there and started introducing the Russian rouble as a currency.
"There should be a Russian military base in the Kherson region," Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of what Russia calls the "civil-military regional administration" of Kherson, told RIA. "We will ask for this and this is what the whole population wants. This is essential and will be a guarantor of security for the region and its inhabitants." (Reuters)
Starbucks Corp said on Monday it will exit the Russian market after nearly 15 years as the coffee chain joins McDonald's Corp in marking the end of the presence of some of the top Western brands in the country.
Seattle-based Starbucks has 130 stores in Russia, operated by its licensee Alshaya Group, with nearly 2,000 employees in the country.
Starbucks' decision to wind down its operation in Russia is different to the approach some other foreign companies have taken.
McDonald's last week said it was selling its restaurants in Russia to its local licensee Alexander Govor to be rebranded under a new name, but will retain its trademarks, while France's Renault is selling its majority stake in Russia's biggest carmaker with an option to buy back the stake. (Reuters)
Ukraine Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said there were about 13,000 cases of Russian alleged war crimes being probed as of Monday.
"As of this day, we have more than 13,000 cases (being probed) only about war crimes," Venediktova said in an interview to the Washington Post.
Kyiv has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians during Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied targeting civilians or involvement in war crimes while it carries out what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine. (Reuters)
Britain and Lithuania signed a joint declaration on Monday to boost defence and security collaboration, stepping up London's support of nations that fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will not stop at Ukraine in trying to redraw Europe's borders.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Baltic states such as Lithuania, a NATO member and former Soviet state, have become increasingly concerned they could be next to face Russian aggression.
Britain said the declaration would build on the defence cooperation the countries share as NATO allies and would increase resistance to threats, including from Russia and China. It gave no further details. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin quipped on Monday that he would have a serious talk to the West about its assertions that he was to blame for all the economic chaos sown by the conflict in Ukraine and the West's crippling sanctions.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands and displaced 14 million people, while the West's attempt to isolate Russia as punishment and Moscow's blockade of grain shipments from Ukraine's Black Sea ports, have sent the price of oil, natural gas, grains, cooking oil and fertilisers soaring.
At a televised meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin told Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko that Russia's economy was doing well, despite the Western sanctions. (Reuters)
Boris Bondarev, Russia's counsellor to the UN, has resigned over Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The leader of Ukraine's breakaway Donetsk People's Republic on Monday said the fighters who surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol will a face trial in the separatist region, Interfax news agency reported.
"The prisoners from Azovstal are being held on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic," Interfax quoted Denis Pushilin as saying. "Organising an international tribunal on the republic's territory is also planned."
The report did not specify what charges the fighters would face. (Reuters)
Russia will be ready to return to negotiations with Ukraine "as soon as Kyiv shows a constructive position", RIA cited Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying.
Speaking on the subject of Russia exchanging prisoners from the Azovstal steelworks, RIA reported that Rudenko did not rule out that discussions are taking place. (Reuters)
A Ukrainian court sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison on Monday for killing an unarmed civilian in the first war crimes trial arising from Russia's Feb. 24 invasion.
Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old tank commander, had pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in the northeastern Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on Feb. 28 after being ordered to shoot him.
Judge Serhiy Agafonov said Shishimarin, carrying out a "criminal order" by a soldier of higher rank, had fired several shots at the victim's head from an automatic weapon. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for 'maximum' sanctions against Russia during a virtual speech on the first day of the World Economic Forum gathering of corporate executives, government officials and other VIPs in Davos, Switzerland.
He said sanctions need to go further to stop Russia's aggression, including an oil embargo, blocking all of its banks and cutting off trade with Russia completely."This is what sanctions should be: They should be maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor that wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbor would clearly know the immediate consequences of their actions," Zelenskyy said. (AP)
The Kremlin on Monday said it was concerned by the trial of a Russian serviceman in Kyiv charged with war crimes, adding that it could not defend his interests in person.
Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian tank commander, has plead guilty to killing an elderly unarmed civilian in the northeast Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on Feb. 28. The case is the first war crimes trial against a Russian soldier who took part in Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion.
"Of course we are concerned about the fate of our citizen, but, I repeat, we do not have the capacity to protect his interests in person," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. (Reuters)
Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or any territorial concessions to Russia, and Poland's president said any loss of Ukrainian territory would be a "huge blow" to the entire West as he warned against appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Reuters)
The Russian-appointed head of the occupied Ukrainian town next to Europe's largest nuclear power plant was injured in an explosion on Sunday, a Ukrainian official and a Russian news agency said.
Andrei Shevchik, who was named mayor of Enerhodar by Russia following its occupation of the town, was in intensive care following the blast, Russia's RIA news agency said, citing a source in the emergency services.
"We have accurate confirmation that during the explosion the self-proclaimed head of the 'people's administration' Shevchik and his bodyguards were injured," Dmytro Orlov, who Ukraine still recognises as the legitimate mayor of the town said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Orlov wrote on Telegram on Sunday evening that Shevchik had been taken to the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol to recover from his injuries, and that he would be temporarily replaced as leader of the town. --Reuters
Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow while Russia intensified an offensive in the eastern Donbas region and stopped sending gas to Finland in its latest salvo in response to Western sanctions and its deepening international isolation.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, who met President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv last month, was back to address the Ukrainian parliament on Sunday, the first foreign leader to do so in person. --Reuters
Russia pounded Ukrainian forces with airstrikes and artillery in the east and the south, targeting command centres, troops, and ammunition depots, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.
Major General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the defence ministry, said air-launched missiles hit three command points, 13 areas where troops and Ukrainian military equipment amassed, as well as four ammunition depots in the Donbas.
In Ukraine's southern region of Mykolaiv, Russian rockets hit a mobile anti-drone system near the settlement of Hannivka, around 100 km northeast of Mykolaiv city, Konashenkov said. --Reuters
Russian gas producer Gazprom said it continues to supply gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point, with volumes on Sunday seen at 44.7 million cubic metres (mcm) down from 45.9 mcm on Saturday.
An application to supply gas via the main Sokhranovka entry point was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said. (Reuters)
The ripple effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have been devastating for families of all kinds — including those who have seen their prospective adoptions put on hold.
Ukraine was once one of the U.S.’s most frequent partners on international adoptions, but the war changed all that: The embattled country has halted all international adoptions as the country copes with the turmoil unleashed on its courts and social services. Many children, including orphans, have also fled or been displaced. Read more
Ukrainian director Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk criticised the Cannes Film Festival for including a Russian director in its line-up, as the debut filmmaker's "Pamfir" was shown at Cannes' Directors Fortnight.
The festival has banned official Russian delegations from attending, but Russian dissident Kirill Serebrennikov, who has spoken out against the invasion of Ukraine, premiered his in-competition film "Tchaikovsky's Wife" at the festival on Wednesday. "When he's here, he is part of the Russian propaganda, and they can use him," Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk told Reuters on Saturday.
The Russian director Serebrennikov had said earlier this week that Russian culture should not be boycotted, saying that Russian culture "has always promoted human values." (Reuters)
Ukraine ruled out a ceasefire or concessions to Moscow while Russia intensified an offensive in the eastern Donbas region and stopped providing gas to Finland, as Polish President Andrzej Duda prepared to address the Ukrainian parliament.
After ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol, Russia is waging a major offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas.
Russian-backed separatists already controlled swathes of territory in Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk province before the Feb. 24 invasion, but Moscow wants to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in Donbas.
"The situation in Donbas is extremely difficult," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. The Russian army was trying to attack the cities of Sloviansk and Sievierodonetsk, but Ukrainian forces were holding off their advance, he said. (Reuters)
With Russia claiming to have taken prisoner nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Mariupol steel plant, concerns grew about their fate as a Moscow-backed separatist leader vowed they would face tribunals.
Russia has declared its full control of the Azovstal steel plant, which for weeks was the last holdout in Mariupol and a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the strategic port city, now in ruins with more than 20,000 residents feared dead. The seizure gives Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly wanted victory in the war he began nearly three months ago.
The Russian Defence Ministry released video of Ukrainian soldiers being detained after announcing that its forces had removed the last holdouts from the Mariupol plant's extensive underground tunnels. It said a total of 2,439 had surrendered.
Family members of the fighters, who came from a variety of military and law enforcement units, have pleaded for them to be given rights as prisoners of war and eventually returned to Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Saturday that Ukraine “will fight for the return" of every one of them.
A prominent member of Russia's parliament, Leonid Slutsky, said Moscow was studying the possibility of exchanging the Azovstal fighters for Viktor Medvedchuk, a wealthy Ukrainian with close ties to Putin who faces criminal charges in Ukraine, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. (AP)
Russia stopped providing gas to Finland in an escalation of a row over energy payments with the West on Saturday, and intensified an offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. After ending weeks of resistance by the last Ukrainian fighters in the strategic southeastern city of Mariupol, Russia is waging what appears to be a major offensive in Luhansk, one of two provinces in Donbas.
Russian-backed separatists already controlled swathes of territory in Luhansk and the neighbouring Donetsk province before the Feb. 24 invasion, but Moscow wants to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in Donbas. ---Reuters
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Saturday he had held 'open and direct' talks with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan to discuss Finland's bid for NATO membership.
Erdogan has publicly questioned whether Finland and Sweden should be allowed to join the military alliance. 'I stated that as NATO allies Finland and Turkey will commit to each other's security and our relationship will thus grow stronger,' Niinisto tweeted after the call. 'Finland condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations. Close dialogue continues.' ---Reuters
Russia said on Saturday it was banning entry to 963 Americans including U.S. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA chief William Burns. The travel bans have only symbolic impact but form part of a constant downward spiral in Russia's relations with the United States and its allies since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. ---Reuters
President Biden on Saturday signed legislation to support Ukraine with another USD 40 billion in U.S. assistance as the Russian invasion approaches its fourth month.
The legislation, which was passed by Congress with bipartisan support, deepens the U.S. commitment to Ukraine at a time of uncertainty about the war’s future.
Ukraine has successfully defended Kyiv, and Russia has refocused its offensive on the country’s east, but American officials warn of the potential for a prolonged conflict. The funding is intended to support Ukraine through September, and it dwarfs an earlier emergency measure that provided USD13.6 billion. Read more
The Russian military said Saturday it had destroyed a major western arms consignment in Ukraine's Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, using sea-launched Kalibr missiles, Interfax news agency reported. (Reuters)
Representatives of the United States and several other nations walked out of an Asia-Pacific trade ministers meeting in Bangkok on Saturday to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, officials said.
The walkout was "an expression of disapproval at Russia's illegal war of aggression in Ukraine and its economic impact in the APEC region," one diplomat said.
Representatives from Canada, New Zealand, Japan and Australia joined the Americans, led by Trade Representative Katherine Tai, in walking out of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, two Thai officials and two international diplomats told Reuters.
Last week, Ukraine's Kalush Orchestra rode a wave of popular support to win the Eurovision Song Contest, giving their compatriots a much-needed morale boost. The band said that they are planning a tour of Europe to raise money for the army.
Kalush Orchestra's song "Stefania", which fused rap with traditional folk music, was lying fourth after national juries voted, but stormed into the top spot thanks to a record score during voting by viewers.
Russian forces continued attacking the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in Ukraine's eastern region of Luhansk to try to cut the area off from the rest of Ukraine, the region's governor said.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press Russian forces were focused on the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway, which he said is the only road for evacuating people and delivering humanitarian supplies.
“The road is extremely important because it's the only connection to other regions of the country,” he said via email. “The Russians are trying to cut us off from it, to encircle the Luhansk region.” Russian forces are constantly shelling the road from multiple directions, but Ukrainian armoured transports are still able to get through, Haidai added.
The Russian Justice Ministry added ex-world chess champion Garry Kasparov and former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, both prominent critics of the government, to the list of individuals acting as foreign agents, according to the ministry's website.
The term "foreign agent" carries negative Soviet-era connotations.
According to the website, Ukraine was mentioned as a source of financing for Khodorkovsky, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It said Kasparov's funds have been sourced from Ukraine and the Human Rights Foundation. (Reuters)
?? Russia's defence ministry said the last group of Ukrainian forces holed up in Mariupol's Azovstal steel works had surrendered, marking an end to a weeks-long attack that left the city in ruins.
?? The commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment said in a video that civilians and heavily wounded fighters had been evacuated from Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks, giving no further clue about the fate of the rest of its defenders.
?? The Pentagon said there were no indications Russia had used laser weaponry in Ukraine, following claims by Moscow that it was fielding a new generation of powerful lasers there to strike enemy drones.
?? Russia's President Putin said the number of cyber attacks on Russia by foreign 'state structures' had increased several times over and Russia must bolster its cyber defences.
A woman who stripped off her clothes to reveal a message against rape written on her body crashed the Cannes Film Festival red carpet premiere of George Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing on Friday.
The unidentified woman tore off her clothes during the film's red carpet procession to reveal the message “Stop raping us” written across her torso next to the blue and yellow colours of the Ukraine flag. Red was also painted on her legs and groin. While she yelled “Don't rape us!” security quickly encircled her and took her off the red carpet. (AP)