A series of explosions were reported in Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday following Russian airstrikes. At least four explosions were reported in Ukraine’s capital around 3am, not long after Ukraine’s state special communications service had issued an alert saying: “Air alarm, Kyiv!” CBS reporter Charlie D'Agata had just finished a cross when a bright flash and large boom happened behind him
Continue reading...Category Archives: Ukraine
Ukraine authorities say seized Russian tanks don’t need to be declared on tax form
Corruption-fighting body urges citizens to ‘continue to defend the motherland’ while easing any concerns about ‘significant changes in the property status’
It’s not often that tax can lift people’s spirits but Ukrainian authorities may have done just that, assuring citizens that any Russian military equipment they seize won’t need to be declared for tax purposes.
“Have you captured a Russian tank or armoured personnel carrier and are worried about how to declare it? Keep calm and continue to defend the motherland!” Ukraine’s National Agency for the Protection against Corruption (NAPC) said, according to the Ukraine arm of the Interfax news service.
Continue reading...Moscow police detain children laying flowers at Ukrainian embassy – video
Footage has been posted on social media showing a group of children detained by Moscow police after demonstrating against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a video posted to Facebook by Alexandra Arkhipova, a young girl is seen in tears holding a woman’s hand from behind bars.
Thousands of people in cities across Russia have been defying police threats and staging protests against the invasion of Ukraine.
- Moscow police detain children for laying flowers at Ukrainian embassy
- Russian activist, 77, detained by police while protesting against Ukraine war
Russian pensioner ‘who survived siege of Leningrad’ arrested for protest against Ukraine war – video
Yelena Osipova, an elderly activist who is said to have survived the infamous wartime siege of Leningrad, was marched away by a group of police in St Petersburg while she protested against the war in Ukraine. Thousands of people have been defying police threats and staging protests across Russia. Authorities have a low tolerance for demonstrations and marches, and attending them can have serious consequences including fines, arrests and even imprisonment
- ‘Ukrainians are our friends’: the young Russian anti-war protesters defying Putin – video
- Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
Russian blasts hit civilian areas: the videos analysed as war crime evidence
Video shows Russian strikes hitting residential buildings in Ukraine, adding to mounting evidence of war crimes to be investigated by The Hague.
Footage of an attack on a car park in Kharkiv, described by a Bellingcat researcher as a cluster bomb strike, appears to show a residential park nearby, and similar bombs exploded along a road.
Intentionally targeting civilians or civilian buildings is considered a war crime under international humanitarian law. Russia routinely denies it engages in illegal attacks. Cluster munitions, which indiscriminately scatter small bombs over a wide area, are banned by more than 100 states. But neither Russia nor Ukraine (nor the US) have signed up to a treaty first introduced in 2008 that bans them
What more could the west do about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?
Analysis: From a no-fly zone to sanctions, the options that are on and off the table
Russia’s invading forces have bombed civilians in Kyiv, Kharkiv and elsewhere in Ukraine in the past 48 hours, prompting fears of rising casualties and growing questions as to whether the west could step up military, economic or other efforts to help. Here are some of the options – and the risks.
Continue reading...If you want to hit Russian economy hard, aim for energy export
Sanctions debate rapidly heading towards energy sanctions in Ukraine-Russia crisis
At the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a week ago, almost every analyst agreed that Russian oil and gas would keep flowing westwards. The state of mutual energy dependence seemed too entrenched. On one side, the EU could not decouple itself easily from the source of 38% of its natural gas imports. On the other, Russia under financial sanctions would need cash. Old hands reflected that, even in the long decades of the cold war, the Soviet Union and Europe maintained commercial relationships in energy.
A week later, such thinking looks naive. The “shock and awe” financial sanctions, especially those aimed at Russia’s central bank, exceed anything previously seen, but the shortcoming is obvious: if you really want to hit the Russian economy hard, the place to aim is its energy export sector, a part that has been spared sanctions so far and generates hundreds of millions of dollars daily. The point is made repeatedly by Ukrainian officials in their appeals for the trade to cease, and its moral force is hammered home with every fresh Russian atrocity.
Continue reading...Netflix to pause all projects and acquisitions in Russia
The streamer has halted work on four original series as a result of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine
Netflix has paused all future Russian projects and acquisitions as a result of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
According to Variety, the streamer is “assessing the impact of current events”, which has led to four Russian original series being indefinitely paused. Zato, a crime series set after the fall of the Soviet Union, directed by the Belarus-born director Darya Zhuk, was already in production but has now been put on hold.
Continue reading...Ukraine president asks Jewish people around world to speak against Russia
Nazism is born in silence, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after missile struck close to Holocaust memorial site
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has appealed to Jewish people across the world to speak out against the Russian assault on his country, a day after a missile hit close to a Holocaust memorial site in the capital, Kyiv.
The missile strike on Tuesday hit Kyiv’s television tower, reportedly killing at least five people. The tower is located close to the memorial site of Babyn Yar, the ravine where Nazi soldiers massacred up to 150,000 people during the second world war, including more than 30,000 Jews, who were shot there in the autumn of 1941 after the Nazi takeover of Kyiv.
Continue reading...UN votes to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and calls for withdrawal
In an emergency session, 141 of the 193 member states voted for the resolution, 35 abstained and five voted against
The United Nations has voted overwhelmingly for a resolution deploring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the immediate withdrawal of its forces, in a global expression of outrage that highlighted Russia’s increasing isolation.
In an emergency session of the UN’s general assembly, 141 of the 193 member states voted for the resolution, 35 abstained, and five voted against. The only countries to vote no in support of Moscow were Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria. Longstanding allies Cuba and Venezuela joined China in abstaining.
Continue reading...Israel tries to balance backing for Ukrainians and not offending Russia
Analysis: Criticism of invasion has been muted and officials yet to condemn Moscow for attack on Holocaust memorial
A week ago the sight was unthinkable: a memorial at the site of one of the worst massacres of the Holocaust, engulfed in smoke and flame from an airstrike.
Yet on Tuesday a Russian attack near the Babyn Yar memorial complex in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, achieved exactly that. Five people died in the strike targeting the television broadcast tower next door, while firefighters battled to extinguish a fire caused by the explosion in a building inside the Jewish cemetery.
Continue reading...People of colour fleeing Ukraine attacked by Polish nationalists
Non-white refugees face violence and racist abuse in Przemyśl, as police warn of fake reports of ‘migrants committing crimes’
Police in Poland have warned that fake reports of violent crimes being committed by people fleeing Ukraine are circulating on social media after Polish nationalists attacked and abused groups of African, south Asian and Middle Eastern people who had crossed the border last night.
Attackers dressed in black sought out groups of non-white refugees, mainly students who had just arrived in Poland at Przemyśl train station from cities in Ukraine after the Russian invasion. According to the police, three Indians were beaten up by a group of five men, leaving one of them hospitalised.
Continue reading...‘There’s no other choice,’ says 35-year-old Ukrainian volunteer joining fight against Russia – video
Thousands of Ukrainians have volunteered to defend their country and to fight Russia’s invasion. ‘History is happening right now. I don’t want to be on the sidelines,’ Vitali, the 35-year-old boss of a Lviv startup, said at an assembly point. ‘The truth, the good, everything is on our side. We have the whole world’s support.’ Vitali said he and his company’s 15 employees had begun weapons training five days before Russia’s attack. He volunteered on the day of the invasion
- ‘We are a huge amount of ants’: the united front of Ukrainian volunteers
- Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news
‘Constant shelling’ as Russian forces lay siege to key Ukrainian cities
Officials say Russian troops shelling civilian sites, including residential blocks and hospitals
Russian forces in Ukraine moved on Wednesday to tighten their siege of key cities, including the capital, Kyiv, and the southern port of Mariupol, as one mayor told residents he had been given an ultimatum to surrender or the city would be razed by shelling.
At an outdoor meeting, Artem Semenikhin, the mayor of Konotop, in the eastern Sumy region, told residents: “They have given us an ultimatum. If we start resisting, they’ll wipe out the town using artillery.”
Continue reading...‘Ukrainians are our friends’: the young Russian anti-war protesters defying Putin – video
Thousands of people in cities across Russia have been defying police threats and staging protests against the invasion of Ukraine. Authorities have a low tolerance for demonstrations and marches, and attending them can have serious consequences, including fines, mass arrests and even imprisonment.
Despite the crackdown, Apollinaria Oleinikova, along with her husband, Arshak Makichyan, and fellow protester Arina Adju have been attending anti-war rallies in Moscow and St Petersburg since the conflict began. As the death toll continues to rise, they say they feel like they have no choice but to publicly oppose the Kremlin and stand in solidarity with Ukraine
Continue reading...Germany unites behind chancellor’s historic U-turn on arming Ukraine
Olaf Scholz accused of failing to consult over volte-face on military policy, but coalition partners and public back him
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, ambushed his own party and coalition partners when he announced a historic 180-degree policy turn on defence spending and exporting lethal weapons, but for now he seems to be riding a wave of broad public support.
In a speech in front of the Bundestag on Sunday, Scholz crossed several red lines held by his own party in less than half an hour, when he announced that Germany would send missiles and anti-tank weapons to help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression and set up a special €100bn (£83bn) fund to modernise its own forces. “A turning point in the history of our continent” called for an appropriate response, he said.
Continue reading...Could the international criminal court bring Putin to justice over Ukraine?
Even if Russian leader were charged, he would have to be arrested in a state that accepts the court’s jurisdiction
The prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague announced this week that he would launch an investigation into possible war crimes or crimes against humanity in Ukraine. How likely are Putin or other Russian political or military leaders to be brought to justice and what are the obstacles that must be overcome for that to happen?
Continue reading...Starmer questions why Roman Abramovich is not facing UK sanctions
Labour calls for tougher action against Russian oligarchs at PMQs as Ukrainian ambassador watches from gallery
Keir Starmer has questioned why Roman Abramovich has not faced UK sanctions over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as Boris Johnson appeared to accept a Labour offer to strengthen a new bill cracking down on illicit assets.
At a prime minister’s questions that began with the rare sight of MPs standing in unison to applaud the Ukrainian ambassador, Vadym Prystaiko, who was watching from the public gallery, Starmer repeatedly called for tougher action against Russian oligarchs.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s bid for fast-track membership of EU likely to end in disappointment
Analysis: There is significant sympathy in the bloc for President Zelenskiy’s cause, but it may lead to no more than warm words
In his latest video address to the nation on Wednesday morning, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was seeking to erase Ukraine, its history and people as he reiterated his appeal for the EU to fast-track its membership application: “This is no time to be neutral.”
There is an urgency to the Ukrainian president’s calls and, naturally, as images of the carnage in Ukraine’s cities beam back to Brussels, there is significant sympathy with his cause.
Continue reading...Russian armoured vehicles and soldiers patrol Kherson, Ukraine – video
Heavy fighting has been reported in Kherson, a city along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, where the mayor said Russian forces had taken control of the railway station and the port by the early hours of Wednesday. Videos shared on social media show Russian military vehicles and soldiers patrolling the streets
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