Tag Archives: INDG

World

Berlin sets condition for U.S. on supplying German-made tanks to Ukraine – source

Leave a comment

  • Germany’s Leopard tanks seen as best suited for Ukraine
  • All eyes on Germany when defence leaders meet on Friday
  • U.S. to provide $125 mln to Ukraine to support energy systems
  • Cabinet minister among dead in Ukraine helicopter crash

KYIV/BERLIN, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Germany will send German-made tanks to Ukraine so long as the United States agrees to do likewise, a government source in Berlin told Reuters, as NATO partners remained out of step over how best to arm Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Ukraine has pleaded for modern Western weapons, especially heavy battle tanks, so it can regain momentum following some battlefield successes in the second half of 2022 against Russian forces that invaded last February.

Berlin has veto power over any decision to export its Leopard tanks, fielded by NATO-allied armies across Europe and seen by defence experts as the most suitable for Ukraine.

Several times in recent days, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stressed, behind closed doors, the condition that U.S. tanks should also be sent to Ukraine, the German government source said on condition of anonymity.

When asked about Germany’s stance, U.S. President Joe Biden’s spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said: “The president believes that each country should make their own sovereign decisions on what steps of security assistance and what kinds of equipment they are able to provide Ukraine.”

NATO allies have sought to avoid the risk of appearing to confront Russia directly and have refrained from sending their most potent weapons to Ukraine.

According to a U.S. official, the Biden administration is set to approve a new aid package for Ukraine, worth more than $2 billion, which would likely include Stryker armoured vehicles for Kyiv, but not M1 Abram tanks.

The package could be announced as early as Friday during a meeting of top defence officials from dozens of countries at the U.S. Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The Pentagon is still not prepared to meet Kyiv’s request for M1 Abrams tanks, Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser who had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, has said.

“I just don’t think we’re there yet,” Kahl said. “The Abrams tank is a very complicated piece of equipment. It’s expensive. It’s hard to train on. It has a jet engine.”

Germany’s new Defence Minister Boris Pistorius will host U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday.

Austin will press Pistorius at the meeting to allow for the transfer of German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine, as several NATO countries had them and were willing to deliver them quickly, U.S. officials said.

PRESSURE ON GERMANY

Attention at Friday’s meeting will be focused on Germany, which has said Western tanks should only be supplied to Ukraine if there is an agreement among Kyiv’s main allies.

Britain has raised the pressure on Berlin this month by becoming the first Western country to send tanks to Ukraine, pledging a squadron of its Challengers. Poland and Finland have said they will send Leopard tanks if Germany approves them.

In a speech by video link to the Davos forum on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Western allies to supply his country before Russia mounts its next missile and armoured ground attacks.

“The supplying of Ukraine with air defence systems must outpace Russia’s next missile attacks,” Zelenskiy said. “The supplies of Western tanks must outpace another invasion of Russian tanks.”

Germany’s Leopard 2 is regarded as one of the West’s best tanks. It weighs more than 60 tons (60,000 kilograms), has a 120mm smoothbore gun and can hit targets at a distance of up to five kilometres (three miles).

Ukraine, which has relied primarily on Soviet-era T-72 tank variants, says the new tanks would give its troops the mobile firepower to drive out Russian troops in decisive battles.

TOUGH FRONTLINE SITUATION

The fighting has been concentrated in the south and east of Ukraine, after Russia’s initial assault from the north aimed at taking Kyiv was thwarted during the first months of an invasion that Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation”.

“The situation on the frontline remains tough, with Donbas being the epicentre of the most fierce and principled battles,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on Wednesday. “We are seeing a gradual increase in the number of bombardments and attempts to conduct offensive actions by the invaders.”

Donbas, comprised of Luhansk and Donetsk, is the industrial heartland of Ukraine’s east. Russian forces have been pressing for months for control of the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk but with limited success, and have shifted their attention to the smaller nearby town of Soledar in recent weeks.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said in a YouTube video that Ukrainian army units remained in Soledar, with heavy fighting in western districts despite Russian claims for more than a week that it now controlled the town.

Reuters could not verify battlefield reports.

HELICOPTER CRASH

Separately, a helicopter crashed in fog near a nursery outside Kyiv on Wednesday, killing 14 people, including Ukraine’s interior minister, and a child.

Ukrainian officials have not suggested that any action by Russia was responsible for the helicopter going down.

The crash was “a terrible tragedy” and “the pain is unspeakable”, Zelenskiy said on Telegram, and in his nightly video address, he said the had asked the SBU intelligence service to investigate the cause.

Reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin and Reuters bureaux; Writing by Grant McCool and Himani Sarkar; Editing by Howard Goller and Simon Cameron-Moore

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

Ukraine’s interior minister among 15 dead in helicopter crash

Leave a comment

  • No immediate explanation for helicopter crash
  • Ukraine closer to receiving Western tanks
  • Zelenskiy to address World Economic Forum in Davos
  • Moscow sees no sign of talks

BROVARY, Ukraine, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s interior minister was among at least 15 people killed on Wednesday morning when a helicopter crashed near a nursery outside Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Officials said nine people on board the aircraft and six on the ground, including three children, were killed when the French-made Super Puma helicopter crashed in a residential area in the suburb of Brovary on the capital’s eastern outskirts. Earlier, officials had given an initial death toll of 18.

The regional governor said 29 other people were injured, including 15 children.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the crash a terrible tragedy, saying the full casualty toll was still being determined and he had ordered an investigation.

“As of this minute, three children died. The pain is unspeakable,” he said in a statement.

At the scene, debris was scattered over a muddy playground and emergency workers milled about a fleet of ambulances.

In a courtyard lay several dead bodies wearing blue interior ministry uniforms and black boots, visible from under foil blankets draped over them. A large chunk of the aircraft had landed on a car, destroying it.

National police chief Ihor Klymenko confirmed that Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskyi was killed alongside his first deputy, Yevheniy Yenin, and other ministry officials flying in the helicopter operated by the state emergency service.

Ukrainian officials said it was not immediately clear what had caused the helicopter to crash. There was no immediate comment from Russia, which invaded Ukraine last February, and Ukrainian officials made no reference to any Russian attack in the area at the time.

“Unfortunately, the sky does not forgive mistakes, as pilots say, but it’s really too early to talk about the causes,” air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat said, adding it could take at least several weeks to investigate the disaster.

Monastyrskyi, 42, a lawyer and lawmaker appointed in 2021 to run the ministry with responsibilty for the police, was the most senior Ukrainian official to die since the war began.

FIGHTING

Separately, Ukraine reported intense fighting overnight in the east of the country, where both sides have taken huge losses for little gain in intense trench warfare over the last two months.

[1/18] A view shows the site where a helicopter falls on civil infrastructure buildings, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the town of Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, January 18, 2023. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Ukrainian forces repelled attacks in the eastern city of Bakhmut and the village of Klishchiivka just south of it, the Ukrainian military said. Russia has focused on Bakhmut in recent weeks, claiming last week to have taken the mining town of Soledar on its northern outskirts.

After significant Ukrainian gains in the second half of 2022, the frontlines have hardened over the last two months. Kyiv says it hopes new Western weapons would let it resume an offensive to recapture land, especially heavy tanks which would give its troops mobility and protection to push through Russian lines.

Western allies will be gathering on Friday at a U.S. air base in Germany to pledge more weapons for Ukraine. Attention is focused in particular on Germany, which has veto power over any decision to send its Leopard tanks, fielded by armies across Europe and widely seen as the most suitable for Ukraine.

Berlin says a decision on the tanks will be the first item on the agenda of Boris Pistorius, named its new defence minister this week.

Britain, which broke the Western taboo on sending main battle tanks over the weekend by promising a squadron of its Challengers, has called on Germany to approve the Leopards. Poland and Finland have already said they would be ready to send Leopards if Berlin allows it.

Lithuania’s president, attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said he was confident there would be a decision to send tanks.

“I’m confident because this is what I’m hearing here, talking with other leaders. There is momentum,” Gabrielius Landsbergis told Reuters in an interview.

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz was due to address the forum later on Wednesday, though his government is thought likely to be waiting until later in the week to unveil any decision on tanks. Ukraine’s Zelenskiy was also due to address Davos by video link.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday Moscow saw no prospects of peace talks and there could be no negotiations with Zelenskiy. Russia has said talks are possible only if Ukraine recognises Moscow’s claims to Ukrainian territory; Kyiv says it will fight until Russia withdraws from all of Ukraine.

In his remarks, Lavrov compared the West’s approach to Russia to Hitler’s “final solution”, the Holocaust plot to murder all European Jews. Lavrov was criticised by Israel last year for saying Hitler was part Jewish and the worst anti-Semites were Jews, after being asked why Moscow portrays Zelenskiy, who has a Jewish background, as a Nazi.

In the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, the civilian death toll from a missile that struck an apartment block on Saturday rose to 45, including six children, among them an 11-month-old boy, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

Ukrainian authorities called off the search for survivors on Tuesday. Around 20 other people are still missing in the rubble after the attack, the deadliest for civilians of a three-month Russian missile bombardment campaign against cities far from the front.

Moscow denies intentionally targetting civilians. It launched what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine last year saying Kyiv’s ties with the West posed a security threat.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions forced to flee homes in what Kyiv and the West call an unprovoked invasion to subdue Ukraine and seize its land.

Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Angus MacSwan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

Ukraine pushes for tanks as holdout Germany says new minister to decide

Leave a comment

  • New German defence minister announced as Boris Pistorius
  • Wary Berlin holding up tanks from other European allies
  • Death toll from missile strike in Dnipro rises to 44

DNIPRO, Ukraine/KYIV, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Ukraine came a step closer on Tuesday in its bid to win a fleet of modern battle tanks it hopes could turn the course of the war with Russia, after the West’s big holdout Germany said this would be the first item on its new defence minister’s agenda.

In the central city of Dnipro, authorities called an end to the search for survivors in the ruins of an apartment building destroyed during Russian missile attacks on Saturday.

Forty-four people were confirmed killed and 20 remain unaccounted for in the attack, the deadliest for civilians of a three-month Russian missile bombardment campaign, according to Ukrainian officials. Seventy-nine people were wounded and 39 rescued from the rubble.

Nearly 11 months after Russia invaded, Kyiv says a fleet of Western battle tanks would give its troops the mobile firepower to drive Russian troops out in decisive battles in 2023.

German-made Leopard battle tanks, workhorse of armies across Europe, cannot be delivered without authorisation from Berlin, which has so far demurred.

With Western allies meeting at a U.S. air base in Germany on Friday to pledge military support for Ukraine, Berlin is under intense pressure to lift its objections this week.

The decision sits on the desk of Germany’s new Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, named on Tuesday to replace Christine Lambrecht, who quit after comments critics called insensitive.

“When the person, when the minister of defence, is declared, this is the first question to be decided concretely,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told Deutschlandfunk radio broadcaster on Tuesday, before the appointment was announced.

FEARS OF ESCALATING CONFLICT

In his first comments on the job, Pistorius, a regional politician viewed as close to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, made no mention of weapons for Ukraine: “I know the importance of the task,” he said in a statement. “It is important to me to involve the soldiers closely and to take them with me.”

Pistorius will host U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday ahead of Friday’s meeting of allies at Ramstein air base.

Germany has been cautious about approving weapons that could be seen as escalating conflict.

Scholz, speaking on Tuesday in an interview for Bloomberg TV, confirmed that discussions with Germany’s allies on tanks were ongoing but should not be conducted in public.

The Kremlin said last week that new deliveries of weapons, including French-made armoured vehicles, to Kyiv would “deepen the suffering of the Ukrainian people” and would not change the course of the conflict.

Vladimir Solovyev, a pro-Kremlin presenter on Rossiya 1 state television, said any Western countries which supplied more advanced weapons to Ukraine should be considered legitimate targets for Russia.

[1/5] A view shows a kitchen inside an apartment block heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine January 15, 2023. REUTERS/Yan Dobronosov

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States and its allies have given tens of billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry including rocket systems, drones, armoured vehicles and communications systems.

Ukraine’s top general, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, said he had outlined his forces’ “urgent needs” in a first personal meeting on Tuesday in Poland with the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.

Poland and Finland have already said they would send Leopards if Berlin gives re-export approval.

Separately, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday the Netherlands would join the United States and Germany in sending Patriot missiles to Ukraine.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said NATO allies were conveying a clear message to Putin by boosting their arms supplies to Ukraine.

“The message we’re sending to Putin… is that we made a commitment to support Ukrainians until they are victorious,” Cleverly told a forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

A senior Ukrainian official blamed Russia for carrying out the bulk of more than 2,000 cyberattacks on Ukraine in 2022, speaking at a news conference he said was itself delayed because of a cyberattack. There was no immediate comment on his allegations from Moscow.

CUDDLY TOYS AT MEMORIAL

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions driven from their homes since Russia launched last February what it calls a “special military operation” to eliminate security threats in Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western backers call Russia’s actions a land grab.

Ukrainian forces drove Russian troops back during the second half of 2022, but over the past two months the front lines have largely been frozen in place despite both sides enduring heavy losses in relentless fighting.

Moscow has turned since October to a tactic of raining missiles down on Ukrainian cities far from the front lines in the east and south, mainly targeting electricity infrastructure.

Russia says it aims to reduce Ukraine’s ability to fight; Kyiv says the attacks serve no military purpose and are intended to harm civilians, a war crime.

In Dnipro, residents left flowers and cuddly toys at a makeshift memorial near the apartment block devastated during a wave of missile attacks on Saturday.

Hundreds of mourners bade farewell to boxing coach Mykhailo Korenovskyi, killed in a strike, while footage showed the kitchen of his apartment, decorated in bright yellow colours, now exposed to the air after the external wall was torn off.

A recent family video, filmed in the same kitchen, showed Korenovskyi’s daughter smiling and blowing out four candles on her birthday cake while he stood behind her, holding another child in his arms.

Moscow denies intentionally targeting civilians, and blamed Ukraine’s air defences for the missile that hit the apartment block. Kyiv says it was hit by a notoriously inaccurate Russian anti-ship missile for which Ukraine has no defences.

Writing by Peter Graff and Gareth Jones; Editing by Nick Macfie, Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich;

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

Nepal plane crash searchers rappel, fly drones to find last two people

Leave a comment

KATHMANDU, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Searchers used drones and rappelled down a 200 metres (656 feet) deep gorge in Nepal’s second-biggest city on Tuesday to search for two people unaccounted for after the country’s deadliest plane crash in 30 years killed at least 70 people.

Difficult terrain and inclement weather was hampering rescue efforts near the tourist city of Pokhara, where the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 turboprop carrying 72 people crashed in clear weather on Sunday just before landing.

“There is thick fog here now. We are sending search and rescue personnel using ropes into the gorge where parts of the plane fell and was in flames,” Ajay K.C., a police official in Pokhara who is part of the rescue efforts, told Reuters.

Searchers found two more bodies on Monday before the search was called off because of fading light.

“There were small children among the passengers. Some might have been burnt and died, and may not be found out. We will continue to look for them,” K.C. said.

An airport official said 48 bodies were brought to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday and sent to a hospital for autopsies, while 22 bodies were being handed over to families in Pokhara.

Medical personnel in personal protective equipment and masks helped transport shrouded bodies from stretchers to a vehicle before they were flown to Kathmandu, Reuters pictures showed.

Television channels showed weeping relatives waiting for the bodies of their loved ones outside a hospital in Pokhara.

On Monday, searchers found the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the flight, both in good condition, a discovery that is likely to help investigators determine what caused the crash.

Reuters Graphics

Under international aviation rules, the crash investigation agencies of the countries where the plane and engines were designed and built are automatically part of the inquiry.

ATR is based in France and the plane’s engines were manufactured in Canada by Pratt & Whitney Canada (RTX.N).

French and Canadian air accident investigators have said they plan to participate in the probe.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Jamie Freed

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

Nepal finds black boxes of aircraft after deadliest crash in 30 years

Leave a comment

  • Searchers find bodies of two of four missing passengers
  • Rescue efforts paused after poor weather hampers operation
  • Cockpit voice, flight data recorders found in good shape
  • Nepal observes day of national mourning, launches probe

KATHMANDU, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Searchers found the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder on Monday from a passenger flight that crashed, killing at least 70 people in Nepal’s worst plane accident for 30 years, officials said.

The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 aircraft, carrying 72 people, to go down in clear weather on Sunday just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara.

Reuters Graphics

Both recorders were in good shape and will be sent for analysis based on the recommendation of the manufacturer, Teknath Sitaula, a Kathmandu airport official, told Reuters.

Under international aviation rules, the crash investigation agency of the country where the plane was designed and built is automatically part of the inquiry.

ATR is based in France and the plane’s engines were manufactured in Canada by Pratt & Whitney Canada (RTX.N).

Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority has inspected all ATR 72 and ATR 42 aircraft operating in the country since the crash and found no technical faults in them, it said in a statement on Monday.

There are currently 16 ATR 72 aircraft and three ATR 42s with multiple airlines in the country, an aviation authority official said.

Rescuers battled cloudy weather and poor visibility on Monday as they scoured a river gorge for passengers who are unaccounted for, more than 24 hours after the crash.

Two more bodies were recovered on Monday, taking the death toll to 70, said Navin Acharya, an official at the rescue coordination centre at Kathmandu airport. The search was called off for the remaining two missing people as darkness descended and will resume on Tuesday, he said.

Pokhara police official Ajay K.C. said all bodies had been sent to a hospital.

In the capital Kathmandu around 100 people lit candles at a gathering in memory of the crash victims and called on the government to ensure proper safety standards, witnesses said.

Condolences poured in from around the world, including the Vatican.

“His Holiness Pope Francis sends his condolences to you and to all affected by this tragedy, together with his prayers for those involved in the recovery efforts,” Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin said in a message to Nepal’s president.

[1/7] A rescue team recovers the body of a victim from the site of the plane crash of a Yeti Airlines operated aircraft, in Pokhara, Nepal January 16, 2023. REUTERS/Rohit Giri

Reuters footage from the crash site showed rescuers looking at the charred remains of the plane near a mountain gorge.

The plane, on a scheduled flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, gateway to the scenic Annapurna mountain range, was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia and France.

The aircraft had flown more than 1,700 times in the past one year.

Minutes before the aircraft was to land on Sunday, the pilot asked for a change of runway, a spokesperson for Pokhara airport said on Monday. “The permission was granted. “We don’t ask (why), whenever a pilot asks we give permission to change approach,” spokesperson Anup Joshi said.

Sunday’s crash underlined the need for the government to break up the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), which both regulates airlines and manages airports, experts said.

“The government must immediately separate the regulatory body and service provider by splitting the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) which is doing both works now,” K.B. Limbu, an aviation expert and a retired pilot, told Reuters.

“This leads to a conflict of interests.”

Asked for comment, Sitaula, the Kathmandu airport official, denied there was any such conflict in the functioning of CAAN.

“The regulatory and service provider (airport management) officials are separate and there is no cross-movement between the two bodies operating under the same organisation,” he said, referring to the CAAN.

There are nine domestic airlines in Nepal, including Yeti Airlines and its unit Tara Air. Yeti and Tara plane crashes have killed at least 165 people in Nepal since 2000 out of a total of 359 dead from aviation accidents, according to data from CAAN.

Reuters Graphics

An additional 75 people have died in helicopter crashes this century in Nepal, which is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, and where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.

Experts say air accidents are usually caused by a combination of factors, and investigations can take months or longer.

Anju Khatiwada, the co-pilot of Sunday’s ill-fated aircraft, lost her husband Dipak Pokhrel in a similar crash in 2006. Khatiwada’s remains have not been identified but she is feared dead.

Nepal observed a day of national mourning on Monday and set up a panel to investigate the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in future.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar and Shivam Patel; Editing by Gerry Doyle, Raju Gopalakrishnan and Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

At least 64 killed in Nepal’s worst air crash in 30 years

Leave a comment

KATHMANDU, Jan 15 (Reuters) – At least 64 people were killed on Sunday when a domestic flight crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, the small Himalayan country’s worst air crash in three decades.

Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Yeti Airlines flight, carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu, went down.

Local TV showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible.

“We have sent 31 bodies to the hospital and are still taking out 33 bodies from the gorge,” said police official Ajay K.C., adding that rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site in a gorge between two hills near the tourist town’s airport.

Reuters Graphics

The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, the Aviation Safety Network database showed, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hillside upon approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board.

The plane made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. (0505 GMT), the aviation authority said in a statement. “Then it crashed.”

“Half of the plane is on the hillside,” said Arun Tamu, a local resident, who told Reuters he reached the site minutes after the plane went down. “The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river.”

Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.

“I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly its nose dived and it went into the gorge,” Chhetri told Reuters, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital.

The government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the crash and it is expected to report within 45 days, the finance minister, Bishnu Paudel, told reporters.

SERIES OF CRASHES

At least 309 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal – home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest – where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.

The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013, citing safety concerns.

Those on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft included two infants and four crew members, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.

The journey to Pokhara, Nepal’s second largest city tucked under the picturesque Annapurna mountain range, from the capital Kathmandu is one of the Himalayan country’s most popular tourist routes, with many preferring a short flight instead of a six-hour-long drive through hilly roads.

The weather on Sunday was clear, said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority.

Passengers included five Indians, four Russians and one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentine national.

The ATR72 of European planemaker ATR is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus (AIR.PA) and Italy’s Leonardo (LDOF.MI). Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.

“ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer,” the company said on Twitter, adding that its first thoughts were for those affected, after having been informed of the accident.

Airbus and Leonardo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said on Twitter the Yeti Airlines aircraft was 15 years old and equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.

“We are downloading high-resolution data and verifying the data quality,” it said.

On its website, Yeti describes itself as a leading domestic carrier. Its fleet consists of six ATR 72-500s, including the one that crashed. It also owns Tara Air, and the two together offer the “widest network” in Nepal, the company says.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Aditya Kalra; Editing by William Mallard and Susan Fenton

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

Britain to send 14 of its main battle tanks, more weaponry to Ukraine

Leave a comment

LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said late on Saturday that Britain would send 14 of its main battle tanks along with additional artillery support to Ukraine, disregarding criticism from the Russian Embassy in London.

A squadron of 14 Challenger 2 tanks will go into the country in the coming weeks and around 30 self-propelled AS90 guns, operated by five gunners, are expected to follow, the British prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The UK will also begin training Ukrainian forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days.

“As the people of Ukraine approach their second year living under relentless Russian bombardment, the Prime Minister is dedicated to ensuring Ukraine wins this war,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said in a statement.

“Alongside his closest military advisors, he has analysed the military picture, looked at the strategic impact of the UK’s support and identified a window where he thinks the UK and its allies can have maximum impact.”

The announcement follows a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier on Saturday during which, Sunak “outlined the UK’s ambition to intensify our support to Ukraine, including through the provision of Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems.”

Sunak’s office said earlier this week that Britain would coordinate its support with allies after Germany, France and the United States all indicated last week they would provide armoured vehicles to Ukraine.

The office also said that the defence minister would update the British parliament with details of the security support on Monday.

The Russian Embassy in London said the decision to send the tanks would drag out the confrontation, lead to more victims including civilians, and was evidence of “the increasingly obvious involvement of London in the conflict”.

“As for the Challenger 2 tanks, they are unlikely to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine turn the tide on the battlefield, but they will become a legitimate large target for the Russian artillery,” the embassy said, according to comments cited by the TASS news agency.

BATTLE TANK

The Challenger 2 is a battle tank designed to attack other tanks, and has been in service with the British Army since 1994. It has been deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq, according to the army.

“The prime minister and President Zelenskiy welcomed other international commitments in this vein, including Poland’s offer to provide a company of Leopard tanks,” Sunak’s spokesperson said.

Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address published before the detailed British announcement, called the expected help “important” for Ukraine’s defence.

“It’s really what is needed,” Zelenskiy said. “And I believe that similar decisions will still be made by other partners – those who understand why such evil cannot be given a single chance.”

Reporting by Michael Holden and Lidia Kelly;
Editing by Mark Heinrich, Angus MacSwan, Tomasz Janowski, and Deepa Babington

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

Science

Russia to rescue ISS crew on backup rocket after capsule leak

Leave a comment

Jan 11 (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday it would launch another Soyuz spacecraft next month to bring home two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut from the International Space Station after their original capsule was struck by a micrometeoroid and started leaking last month.

The leak came from a tiny puncture – less than 1 millimetre wide – on the external cooling system of the Soyuz MS-22 capsule, one of two return capsules docked to the ISS that can bring crew members home.

Russia said a new capsule, Soyuz MS-23, would be sent up on Feb. 20 to replace the damaged Soyuz MS-22, which will be brought back to Earth empty.

“Having analysed the condition of the spacecraft, thermal calculations and technical documentation, it has been concluded that the MS-22 must be landed without a crew on board,” said Yuri Borisov, the head of Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Russian cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitry Petelin and U.S. astronaut Francisco Rubio had been due to end their mission in March but will now extend it by a few more months and return aboard the MS-23.

“They are ready to go with whatever decision we give them,” Joel Montalbano, NASA’s ISS program manager, told a news conference. “I may have to fly some more ice cream to reward them,” he added.

“SPACE IS NOT A SAFE PLACE”

The MS-23, which had been due to take up three new crew in March, will instead depart from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as an unmanned rescue mission next month.

If there is an emergency in the meantime, Roscosmos said it will look at whether the MS-22 spacecraft can be used to rescue the crew. In this scenario, temperatures in the capsule could reach unhealthy levels of 30-40 degrees Celsius (86-104 degrees Fahrenheit).

“In case of an emergency, when the crew will have a real threat to life on the station, then probably the danger of staying on the station can be higher than going down in an unhealthy Soyuz,” Sergei Krikalev, Russia’s chief of crewed space programs, said.

The incident has disrupted Russia’s ISS activities, forcing its cosmonauts to call off spacewalks as officials focus on the leaky capsule, which serves as a lifeboat for the crew.

The leak is also a problem for NASA. The U.S. agency said last month it was exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could offer an alternative ride home for some ISS crew members, in case Russia was unable to launch another Soyuz.

Both NASA and Roscosmos believe the leak was caused by a micrometeoroid – a small particle of space rock – hitting the capsule at high velocity.

“Space is not a safe place, and not a safe environment. We have meteorites, we have a vacuum and we have a high temperature and we have complicated hardware that can fail,” Krikalev said.

“Now we are facing one of the scenarios … we are prepared for this situation.”

Reporting by Caleb Davis and Joey Roulette, editing by Mark Trevelyan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

US

U.S. airports rumble back to life after FAA computer outage

Leave a comment

WASHINGTON, Jan 11 (Reuters) – U.S. flights were slowly beginning to resume departures and a ground stop was lifted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage overnight that had forced a halt to all U.S. departing flights.

The cause of the problem, which delayed thousands of flights in the United States, was unclear, but U.S. officials said they had so far found no evidence of a cyberattack.

“Normal air traffic operations are resuming gradually across the U.S. following an overnight outage to the Notice to Air Missions system that provides safety info to flight crews. The ground stop has been lifted. We continue to look into the cause of the initial problem” the FAA said in a Tweet.

More than 4,300 flights had been delayed and 700 canceled as officials said it will take hours to recover from the halt to flights.

The FAA had earlier ordered airlines to pause all domestic departures after its pilot alerting system crashed and the agency had to perform a hard reset around 2 a.m., officials said.

The FAA said shortly before 8:30 a.m. departures were resuming at Newark and Atlanta airports.

The FAA is expected to implement a ground delay program in order to address the backlog of flights halted for hours. Flights already in the air had been allowed to continue to their destinations during the ground stop.

U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the Transportation Department to investigate the outage and said the cause of the failure was unknown at this time. Asked if a cyber attack was behind the outage, Biden told reporters at the White House, “We don’t know.”

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg pledged “an after-action process to determine root causes and recommend next steps.”

The FAA said it was working to restore the Notice to Air Missions system that alerts pilots to hazards and changes to airport facilities and procedures that had stopped processing updated information.

A total of 4,314 U.S. flights were delayed as of 9:04 a.m. ET, flight tracking website FlightAware showed. Another 737 were canceled.

MODERNIZATION NEEDED

United said it has resumed operations. The Chicago-based carrier, however, warned that customers might continue to see some delays and cancellations.

Shares of U.S. carriers fell in Wednesday’s premarket trading. Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) was down 2.4%, while Delta Air Lines Inc (DAL.N), United Airlines (UAL.O) and American Airlines (AAL.O) were down about 1%.

“America’s transportation network desperately needs significant upgrades … We call on federal policymakers to modernize our vital air travel infrastructure.” said Geoff Freeman, President and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, a group representing U.S. airlines, hotels, car rental companies, and theme parks.

FAA’s system outage comes weeks after an operational meltdown at Southwest at the end of last year left thousands of passengers stranded.

A severe winter storm right before Christmas coupled with the Texas-based carrier’s dated technology led to over 16,000 flight cancellations last month.

The DOT, FAA’s parent agency, heavily criticized Southwest’s failures and pressured the airline to compensate passengers for missed flights and other related costs. There is no legal requirement that the FAA must compensate passengers for flight delays caused by agency computer issues.

ESSENTIAL INFORMATION

A NOTAM is a notice containing information essential to personnel concerned with flight operations, but not known far enough in advance to be publicized by other means.

Information can go up to 200 pages for long-haul international flights and may include items such as runway closures, bird hazard warnings and construction obstacles.

United Airlines (UAL.O) said it had temporarily delayed all domestic flights and would issue an update when it learned more from the FAA.

Germany’s Lufthansa and Air France both said they were continuing to operate flights to and from the United States, while the French airline said it was monitoring the situation.

The operator of Paris international airports – Paris Charles de Gaulle airport and Orly airport – said it expects delays to flights.

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport said on Twitter that ground stops across the country were causing delays. A ground stop is an air traffic control measure that slows or halts aircraft at a given airport.

In an earlier advisory on its website, the FAA said its NOTAM system had “failed”, although NOTAMs issued before the outage were still viewable. Earlier this month, a problem with a different airline computer control system delayed dozens of flights in Florida.

A total of 21,464 flights are scheduled to depart airports in the United States on Wednesday with a carrying capacity of nearly 2.9 million passengers, data from Cirium shows.

American Airlines has the most departures from U.S. airports with 4,819 flights scheduled, followed by Delta and Southwest, Cirium data showed.

Reporting by Doina Chiacu and David Shepardson in Washington, Abhijith Ganapavaram in Bengaluru, Jamie Freed in Sydney and Rajesh Kumar Singh in Chicago; Additional reporting by Nathan Gomes and Steve Holland in Washington
Writing by Shailesh Kuber and Alexander Smith Editing by Edmund Blair and Nick Zieminski

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

World

Fierce fighting in Ukraine’s Soledar leaves battlefield strewn with corpses – Zelenskiy

Leave a comment

  • Zelenskiy says no walls left standing in Soledar
  • Wagner Group sending waves of fighters, Ukraine says
  • Fight for cavernous salt mining tunnels beneath town

KYIV/SIVERSK, Ukraine, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Russia has stepped up a powerful assault on Soledar in eastern Ukraine, officials in Kyiv said, forcing Ukrainian troops to repel waves of attacks led by the Wagner contract militia around the salt mining town and nearby fronts.

Soledar, in the industrial Donbas region, lies a few miles from Bakhmut, where troops from both sides have been taking heavy losses in some of the most intense trench warfare since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly 11 months ago.

Ukrainian forces repelled an earlier attempt to take the town but a large number of Wagner Group units quickly returned, deploying new tactics and more soldiers under heavy artillery cover, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.

“The enemy literally step over the corpses of their own soldiers, using massed artillery, MLRS systems and mortars,” Malyar said.

Russia’s defence ministry did not mention either Soledar or Bakhmut in a regular media briefing on Monday, a day after facing criticism for an apparently false claim of a missile strike on a temporary Ukrainian barracks.

Wagner was founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Drawing some recruits from Russia’s prisons and known for uncompromising violence, it is active in conflicts in Africa and has taken a prominent role in Russia’s war effort in Ukraine.

Prigozhin has been trying to capture Bakhmut and Soledar for months at the cost of many lives on both sides. He said on Saturday its significance lay in a network of cavernous mining tunnels below the ground, which can hold big groups of people as well as tanks and other war machines.

Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said fighting in Bahkmut and Soledar is “the most intense on the entire frontline”, with little advancement by either side in the freezing conditions.

“So many (pro-Russian fighters) remain on the battlefield … either dead or wounded,” he said on YouTube.

“They attack our positions in waves, but the wounded as a rule die where they lie, either from exposure as it is very cold or from blood loss. No one is coming to help them or to collect the dead from the battlefield.”

Reuters could not immediately verify battlefield reports.

NO BUILDINGS INTACT

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in nightly video remarks on Monday that Bakhmut and Soledar were holding on despite widespread destruction.

He cited new and fiercer attacks in Soledar, where he said no walls have been left standing and the land is covered with Russian corpses.

“Thanks to the resilience of our soldiers in Soledar, we have won for Ukraine additional time and additional strength,” Zelenskiy said. He did not spell out what he meant by gaining time or strength.

[1/8] General view of railway lines, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Siversk, Ukraine, January 9, 2023. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

But Ukrainian officials, led by the commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhniy, have warned that Russia is preparing fresh troops for a new, major offensive on Ukraine, possibly on the capital Kyiv.

Zelenskiy also appears to be banking on securing more, sophisticated weapons from Ukraine’s Western partners to beat off attacks and eventually expel Russian troops.

On Monday, he pressed on with diplomatic efforts, speaking to Petr Fiala, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, current chair of the 27-member European Union.

“I am certain that our soldiers at the front will get these weapons and equipment. Very soon,” he said.

France, Germany and the United States all pledged last week to send armoured fighting vehicles, fulfilling a long-standing Ukrainian request. Britain is considering supplying Ukraine with tanks for the first time, Sky News reported, citing a Western source. Britain’s Defence Ministry did not comment.

Iran could be contributing to war crimes in Ukraine by providing drones to Russia, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.

The United States has imposed sanctions on companies and people it accused of producing or transferring Iranian drones used by Russia. The White House said last week it is considering ways to target Iran’s production of the unmanned weaponised aircraft through sanctions and export controls.

WAVES OF ATTACK

Military analysts say the strategic military benefit for Russia of capturing Bakhmut and Soledar would be limited.

Taras Berezovets, a Ukrainian journalist, political commentator and officer in the Ukrainian army, said capturing Soledar made little sense, except as a personal victory for Prigozhin, however it would be easier to take than Bakhmut.

“It’s his personal war,” Berezovets said on YouTube.

A U.S. official has said Prigozhin is eyeing the salt and gypsum from the mines, believed to extend over 100 miles underground and contain auditorium-scale caverns.

Berezovets said Ukrainian troops fighting in Bakhmut and Soledar say attacks come in waves of small groups, no more than 15, with the first wave usually wiped out. The pro-Russian forces retrench and leave white ribbons for the next wave to follow.

“The complexity of fighting in cities like Bakhmut and Soledar is that it is hard to determine who is with you and who is the enemy,” he said.

In an evacuee centre in nearby Kramatorsk, Olha, 60, said she had fled Soledar after moving from apartment to apartment as each was destroyed in tank battles.

“There isn’t one house left intact. Apartments were burning, breaking in half,” said Olha, who gave only her first name.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel, Doina Chiacu and Michael Perry; Editing by Grant McCool, Lincoln Feast and Himani Sarkar

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here