Category Archives: Europe

Russia’s trolling on Ukraine gets ‘incredible traction’ on TikTok

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US social media researcher says authentic-seeming accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers

Russia’s online trolling operation is becoming increasingly decentralised and is gaining “incredible traction” on TikTok with misinformation aimed at sowing doubt over events in Ukraine, a US social media researcher has warned.

Darren Linvill, professor at Clemson University, South Carolina, who has been studying the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency (IRA) troll farm operation since 2017, said it was succeeding in creating more authentic-seeming posts.

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Republican: Biden’s $33bn Ukraine aid request likely to get swift approval

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Michael McCaul’s comments come while Nancy Pelosi leads a congressional delegation to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian president

Joe Biden’s $33bn request to Congress for more aid for Ukraine is likely to receive swift approval from lawmakers, a senior Republican said on Sunday, as the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a surprise visit to the war-riven country.

The president on Thursday had asked for the money for military and humanitarian support for Ukraine as it fights to repulse the Russian invasion now in its third month.

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‘I don’t feel safe here’: Transnistria fears could spark Moldova exodus

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Explosions in separatist-controlled region have heightened worries that country could be drawn into the Ukraine war

When a string of mysterious explosions hit government buildings in Transnistria, the Moscow-backed separatist region of Moldova, there was no immediate claim of responsibility. But for Pasha, a 24-year old journalist from the breakaway region’s capital, Tiraspol, this week’s blasts were a clear sign that it was time to get out.

“There was a chance that there would be more attacks, and it’s no fun waiting to find out where would be hit next,” he said. Adding to the uncertainty were growing rumours that men in the region would be mobilised to fight alongside Russian troops across the border in Ukraine.

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Ukraine hopes to evacuate more civilians from besieged Mariupol steelworks

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Zelenskiy said about 100 civilians evacuated after weeks sheltering in the Azovstal complex would arrive in Zaporizhzhia on Monday

Ukrainian authorities are planning to evacuate more civilians from Mariupol on Monday, after dozens were finally brought to safety following weeks trapped under heavy fire in the strategic port city’s Azovstal steel complex.

The civilians had been sheltering in bunkers beneath the steelworks that is the last redoubt for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol.

Two explosions were reported in the early hours of Monday in Belgorod, the southern Russian region bordering Ukraine. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the region’s governor, said in a social media post there were no casualties or damage. On Sunday Gladkov had said one person was injured in a fire at a Russian defence ministry facility in Belgorod, while seven homes had been damaged.

Russia’s top uniformed officer, General Valery Gerasimov, visited dangerous frontline positions in eastern Ukraine last week in a bid to reinvigorate the Russian offensive there, the New York Times has reported citing Ukrainian and US officials. The Guardian could not immediately confirm the report.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said that the county is working to prevent nuclear war, Reuters reported. In an interview with Italian TV, Lavrov said: “Western media misrepresent Russian threats. Russia has never interrupted efforts to reach agreements that guarantee that a nuclear war never develops”.

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Angelina Jolie makes surprise visit to Ukraine

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Hollywood actor and UN envoy met refugees in the western city of Lviv on Saturday, its regional governor said

Hollywood actor and UN humanitarian Angelina Jolie made a surprise visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday, the Lviv regional governor said on Telegram.

According to Maksym Kozytskiy, Jolie – who has been a UNHCR special envoy for refugees since 2011 – had come to speak to displaced people who have found refuge in Lviv, including children undergoing treatment for injuries sustained in the missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in early April.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows ‘Ukraine will be free’; Moscow says threat of nuclear war must be kept to minimum – live

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Russia’s foreign ministry says nuclear war ‘should never be unleashed’, as its forces regroup for battle for eastern Ukraine

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that its artillery units had hit 389 Ukrainian targets overnight.

The figure, reported by Russian news agency Interfax, includes 35 control points, 15 arms and ammunition depots, and several areas where Ukrainian troops and equipment were concentrated, it said.

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Depleted Russian units that failed to take Kyiv are merging, says MoD

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Forces to be redeployed over smaller areas with simplified command structure, says UK military report

Russian troops have been forced to merge and redeploy units from their “failed advances” in Ukraine’s north-east, the UK Ministry of Defence has said, as both Kyiv and Moscow deal with serious losses on the frontline in the Donbas region.

“Russia hopes to rectify issues that have previously constrained its invasion by geographically concentrating combat power, shortening supply lines and simplifying command and control,” a British military intelligence report released early on Saturday said.

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Ukraine refugees flock to Germany after being put off by UK red tape

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Ease of finding accommodation and work lures 10 times the number who have made it to Britain

When it became clear to Liliia Fomina that the war raging outside her hometown of Zaporizhzhia would continue not just for days, but months or even years, she decided that she wanted to flee to the UK. A sponsor in Windsor was found, and on 18 March the 29-year-old applied for a British visa for herself and her five-year-old son Lev.

The pair sheltered with friends of friends in a village near Chernivtsi, in western Ukraine, and waited: one week, two weeks, three weeks. By the time her visa finally came through, after almost a month of uncertainty, the lawyer had changed her mind.

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Foreign Office investigates reports of captured Briton paraded on Russian TV

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Footage shows injured man, who gives his name as Andrew Hill, being questioned by Russian forces

The Foreign Office is investigating reports that a British national has been detained by Russia after a video emerged showing a man in camouflage clothes being questioned.

In the video, reportedly shown on Russian television, the man appears to give his name as Andrew Hill. He speaks with an English accent, has his arm in a sling, a bandage around his head, and blood can be seen on his hand.

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Ukraine claims ‘colossal’ Russian losses have taken place in the effort to fully capture the eastern Donbas region – as it happened

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This blog has now closed. You can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blog

A checkpoint at the Russian village of Krupets in the Kursk region came under fire, according to Kursk’s governor Roman Starovoyt. The RIA news agency reports he said there were no casualties, and fire was returned. Krupets is close to the Ukrainian border, near the Sumy region in the north-east of the country.

The UK’s international trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has been interviewed on Sky News in the UK. She stressed again that the UK government did not support British people going over to Ukraine to fight.

The Foreign Office is working very closely with those in Ukraine, both to make sure that, you know, the identification is correct. And indeed to work with local authorities and to support families here. As we’ve set out right from the beginning, we don’t want British nationals to go and fight.

But there are many, many ways in which so many people, and I think the heartfelt, genuinely heartfelt, anxiety and appalment that Putin has illegally invaded and is now continuing to bombard those areas where he had stepped away from, is something that quite rightly horrifies the British public.

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Facebook moderators call on firm to do more about posts praising Bucha atrocities

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Company insists any content glorifying violence against Ukrainians not allowed, but moderators say lack of guidance means they feel forced to leave up some content

Facebook moderators have called on the company to let them take action against users who praise or support the Russian military’s atrocities in Bucha and across Ukraine.

Almost a month after evidence of widespread murder and mass graves was uncovered by Ukrainian forces taking the suburb of Kyiv, the social network still has not flagged the atrocity as an “internally designated” incident, the moderators say.

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Head of EU border agency Frontex resigns amid criticisms

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Fabrice Leggeri under fire over agency’s human rights record and anti-fraud investigation

The head of the EU border agency Frontex has resigned after being investigated by the union’s anti-fraud agency, amid numerous reports of its complicity in illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers.

Fabrice Leggeri, who has been criticised by the European parliament for failure to protect the human rights of people seeking asylum in the EU, announced his resignation shortly before Frontex’s management board were to decide whether to take disciplinary action against him.

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Ukraine accuses Russian forces of seizing 2,000 artworks in Mariupol

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City council is reportedly preparing materials to initiate criminal proceedings over mass cultural looting

Ukrainian officials have accused Russian forces of seizing “over 2,000 artworks” from museums in the occupied city of Mariupol and moving the pieces to areas of the Russian-controlled Donbas region.

“The occupiers ‘liberated’ Mariupol from its historical and cultural heritage. They stole and moved more than 2,000 unique exhibits from museums in Mariupol to Donetsk,” the Mariupol city council said in a statement posted on its Telegram channel on Thursday.

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Dutch football pundit’s sexual abuse story on live TV sparks national outcry

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Former player Johan Derksen appeared to make comments about historic drunken incident to amusement of presenter

The Netherlands has been forced again to face questions about attitudes to sexual violence towards women after one of the country’s most famous football pundits appeared to admit live on air to assaulting an unconscious woman with a candle 50 years ago.

Dutch prosecutors opened an investigation after Johan Derksen, 73, made the comments on Tuesday on the talkshow Today Inside, to the amusement of presenter Wilfred Genee and fellow pundit René van der Gijp.

In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support for rape and sexual abuse on 0808 802 9999 in England and Wales, 0808 801 0302 in Scotland, or 0800 0246 991 in Northern Ireland. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

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UK to send 8,000 soldiers to eastern Europe on expanded exercises

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British army also deploying tanks in joint action with Nato and Joint Expeditionary Force

About 8,000 British army troops will take part in exercises across eastern Europe to combat Russian aggression in one of the largest deployments since the cold war.

Dozens of tanks will be deployed to countries ranging from Finland to North Macedonia this summer under plans that have been enhanced since Russia invaded Ukraine.

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Ukraine names 10 Russian soldiers in alleged human rights abuses in Bucha

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Prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova says ‘more than 8,000 cases’ of suspected war crimes identified

Ukraine’s prosecutor general has named 10 Russian soldiers allegedly involved in human rights abuses during the month-long occupation of Bucha.

Iryna Venediktova also told German TV that that Ukranian investigators had identified “more than 8,000 cases” of suspected war crimes since Russia’s invasion, which included accusations of “killing civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture” and “sexual crimes”.

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Tories ‘bending the rules’ after missing deadline for publishing Lebedev advice

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Not releasing MI5 advice on granting peerage makes government look like it has something to hide, Labour says

Ministers have been accused of “bending the rules to dodge scrutiny” after Downing Street missed the deadline for publishing the security advice it received about granting Evgeny Lebedev a peerage.

MPs voted last month for the material to be released after reports that MI5 raised security concerns when the Evening Standard owner and son of a KGB officer was nominated by Boris Johnson to join the House of Lords in March 2020.

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Biden asks Congress for $33bn Ukraine aid package

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President’s request includes over $20bn in military aid, $8.5bn in economic aid to Kyiv and $3bn in humanitarian relief

Joe Biden has called for a giant $33bn package of military and economic aid to Ukraine, more than doubling the level of US assistance to date, in an emphatic rejection of Russian threats of reprisals and escalation.

A few hours after Biden spoke, Kyiv was shaken by two powerful cruise missile strikes, while the UN secretary general, António Guterres, was visiting the Ukraine capital following a meeting with Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.

More artillery and armored vehicles, as well as anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft systems.

Help to build up Ukraine’s cyber warfare capabilities.

More intelligence sharing.

Support to increase Ukraine’s ability to produce munitions and strategic minerals.

Assistance in clearing landmines and other explosives and in Ukraine’s defence against chemical, biological and dirty bomb attacks.

A further buildup in the US military presence on Nato’s eastern flank.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv rocked by missile strikes during UN chief’s visit, Ukraine responds to ‘heinous act of barbarism’ – live

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Two cruise missiles strike Ukrainian capital, injuring at least ten; officials respond to attack

More than 8,500 alleged war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine are under investigation, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office has said.

A total of 8,653 cases have been reported and 217 children have been confirmed to have been killed, the office added.

Unfortunately this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponising energy supplies that we had predicted that Russia could take in this conflict.

And we have been working for some time now, for months, with partners around the world to diversify natural gas supply to Europe to — in anticipation of and to also address near-term needs and replace volumes that would otherwise come from Russia.”

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