BNEI BRAK, Israel, March 29 (Reuters) – An Arab gunman killed at least five people in a Tel Aviv suburb on Tuesday before he was fatally shot, the national ambulance service said, in the third deadly attack in Israel in a week.
“Israel is facing a wave of murderous Arab terror,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett tweeted after the shootings in Bnei Brak, a Jewish ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Israel’s commercial capital.
The shooting raised to 11 the number of people killed by Arab gunmen in Israel over the past week, the sharpest spike in attacks on city streets in years.
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Amateur video broadcast on Israeli television stations showed a man dressed in black and pointing an assault rifle walking down a road in Bnei Brak.
Israeli media reports, quoting unidentified security officials, said the assailant was a Palestinian from a village near the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
In Bnei Brak, witnesses said the gunman began shooting at apartment balconies and then at people on the street and in a car.
The Magen David Adom ambulance service said he shot dead five people.
Israeli security and medical personnel secure the scene of an attack in which people were killed by a gunman on a main street in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, Israel, March 29, 2022. REUTERS/Nir Elias
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“The terrorist was liquidated,” ambulance spokesman Zaki Heller said. Police said officers fatally shot the gunman.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Israeli officials had cautioned about a surge in assaults in the run-up in April to the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, a period in which violence has surged in the past, with East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in a 1967 war, a focal point of tension.
“I live on Hashneim Street in Bnei Brak and I was at home when I heard gunshots,” paramedic Menachem Englander said, according to a tweet posted by Magen David Adom. “I immediately went out to the street and saw a terrorist pointing a weapon at me. By a miracle, his weapon jammed and he couldn’t shoot.”
Last week, an Arab citizen of Israel killed four people in a stabbing and car ramming attack in the southern city of Beersheba, before he was shot dead by a passerby. Israeli authorities said he was an Islamic State sympathiser.
On Sunday, as an Israeli-Arab summit convened in southern Israel, an Arab assailant, a resident of a town in the north of the country, shot and killed two police officers in Hadera, a city some 50 km (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv. Other officers shot and killed him.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Hadera attack.
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Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; editing by Grant McCool
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
LVIV, Ukraine, March 27 (Reuters) – Ukraine is prepared to discuss adopting a neutral status as part of a peace deal with Russia but such a pact would have to be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in remarks aired on Sunday.
Zelenskiy was speaking to Russian journalists in a 90 minute video call, an interview that Moscow authorities had pre-emptively warned Russian media to refrain from reporting. Zelenskiy spoke in Russian throughout, as he has done in previous speeches when targeting a Russian audience.
Zelenskiy said Russia’s invasion had caused the destruction of Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine, with damage worse than the Russian wars in Chechnya.
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“Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it. This is the most important point,” Zelenskiy said.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine refused to discuss certain other Russian demands, such as the demilitarisation of the country.
Speaking more than a month after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Zelenskiy said no peace deal would be possible without a ceasefire and troop withdrawals.
He ruled out trying to recapture all Russian-held territory by force, saying it would lead to a third world war, and said he wanted to reach a “compromise” over the eastern Donbas region, held by Russian-backed forces since 2014.
Russia says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine with the aim of demilitarising its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a pretext for an unprovoked invasion.
‘HUMANITARIAN CATASTROPHE’
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addresses the participants of the Doha Forum via videolink, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine March 26, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
Zelenskiy focused on the fate of the eastern port city of Mariupol, under siege for weeks. Once a city of 400,000 people, it has undergone prolonged Russian bombardment.
“All entries and exits from the city of Mariupol are blocked,” Zelenskiy said. “The port is mined. A humanitarian catastrophe inside the city is unequivocal, because it is impossible to go there with food, medicine and water,” he said.
“I don’t even know who the Russian army has ever treated like this,” he said, adding that, compared to Russian wars in Chechnya, the volume of destruction “cannot be compared”.
Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for a failure to open humanitarian corridors.
Zelenskiy pushed back against allegations from Moscow that Ukraine had curbed the rights of Russian speakers, saying it was Russia’s invasion that wiped Russian-speaking cities “off the face of the earth”.
He also dismissed as “a joke” allegations made by Russia that Ukraine had nuclear or chemical weapons.
Russian prosecutors said a legal opinion would be made on the statements made in the interview and on the legality of publishing the interview. [ read more ]
Commenting afterwards, Zelenskiy said Russia destroyed the freedom of speech in its own country.
“The Russian censorship agency came out with a threat,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “It would be ridiculous if it weren’t so tragic.”
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Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Oleksandr Oleksandr Kozhukhar;
Writing by Matthias Williams and Lidia Kelly;
Editing by Pravin Char and Stephen Coates
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BRIZE NORTON, England, March 16 (Reuters) – British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashoori arrived in Britain from Iran on Thursday, ending an ordeal during which they became a bargaining chip in Iran’s talks with the West over its nuclear programme.
They arrived at the British military airbase of Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, shortly after 1 a.m. local time, after flying back via a brief stopover in Oman. They walked off the plane together and smiled and waved as they entered an airport building.
“It has been a really difficult 48 hours,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said shortly after Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori arrived at the base. “The expectation was that they would be released but we weren’t sure right until the last minute so it’s been very emotional but also a really happy moment for the families.”
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson celebrated the pair’s release on Twitter earlier in the day.
“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the UK,” Johnson said in a tweet.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard said the long ordeal appeared to finally be over. “It’s just a relief, the idea that we can go back to being a normal family, that we don’t have to keep fighting, that this long journey is almost over,” he told Reuters outside his London home before his wife landed.
A statement from Ashoori’s family thanked everyone who had worked towards his release. “1,672 days ago our family’s foundations were rocked when our father and husband was unjustly detained and taken away from us.
“Now, we can look forward to rebuilding those same foundations with our cornerstone back in place.”
Antonio Zappulla, CEO of Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, said her release was “a ray of light and hope” at a time when the world was in turmoil. The foundation is a charity that operates independently of Thomson Reuters and its news subsidiary Reuters.
In February, as months of talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear deal inched closer to an agreement, Iran, which holds a dozen Western dual nationals, said it was ready for a prisoner swap in return for the unblocking of frozen assets and release of Iranians held in Western jails.
The nuclear talks were close to an agreement 11 days ago until last-minute Russian demands for sweeping guarantees that would have hollowed out sanctions imposed following its invasion of Ukraine threw the negotiations off track.
Russia now appears to have narrowed its demands to cover only work linked to the nuclear deal, leaving a small number of issues to be resolved between Washington and Tehran, diplomats say.
British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and dual national Anoosheh Ashoori, who were freed from Iran, gesture after landing at RAF Brize Norton military airbase, in Brize Norton, Britain, March 17, 2022. Leon Neal/Pool via REUTERS
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Separately, Britain said detained Iranian-American environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, who also holds British citizenship, had been released on furlough on Wednesday.
TANK DEBT
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori were freed after Britain repaid a historic debt.
Iran’s clerical rulers say Britain owed Iran 400 million pounds ($520 mln) that Iran’s former monarch, the Shah, paid up front for 1,750 Chieftain tanks and other vehicles, almost none of which were delivered after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 toppled the U.S.-backed leader.
Truss said Britain had been looking at ways to pay the debt.
“We have the deepest admiration for the resolve, courage and determination Nazanin, Anoosheh and Morad, and their families, have shown. They have faced hardship that no family should ever experience and this is a moment of great relief,” she said in a statement.
“In parallel, we have also settled the IMS debt, as we said we would,” she added, referring to the debt for military equipment. She said the debt had been settled in full in compliance with international sanctions on Iran and the funds would be ring-fenced for buying “humanitarian goods.”
Iran’s top diplomat Hossein Amirabdollahian on Wednesday said Britain had paid its debt a few days ago, denying any links between the payment and the release of the prisoners.
ILL-FATED VISIT
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s protracted difficulties began with her arrest by Revolutionary Guards at Tehran airport on April 3, 2016, while trying to return to Britain with her then 22-month-old daughter Gabriella from an Iranian new year’s visit with her parents.
She was later convicted by an Iranian court of plotting to overthrow the clerical establishment. Her family and the foundation denied the charge.
Ashoori was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2019 for spying for Israel’s Mossad and two years for “acquiring illegitimate wealth”, according to Iran’s judiciary.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation said that Zaghari-Ratcliffe had travelled to Iran in a personal capacity and had not been doing work in Iran.
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Reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb, Eric Beech and UK bureau; Writing by Michael Georgy and Samia Nakhoul; Editing by Jon Boyle and Gerry Doyle
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Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 11, 2022. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS
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LVIV, Ukraine, March 11 (Reuters) – Ukraine said Belarus could be planning to invade its territory on Friday and accused Russia of trying to drag its ally into the war by staging air attacks on Belarus from Ukrainian air space.
Belarus has served as a staging post for Russian troops, missiles and aircraft, both before and after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, but it has not deployed its own forces in active battle.
Ukraine’s military accused Russian aircraft of firing at Belarusian border villages from Ukrainian air space on Friday to provide an excuse for an offensive.
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“This is a PROVOCATION! The goal is to involve the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus in the war with Ukraine!” Ukraine’s Air Force Command said in an online statement.
The Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Air Force Command’s statement.
The alleged attacks took place as Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, according to Ukraine’s State Centre for Strategic Communications.
The result of this meeting could be an attack by Belarus across Ukraine’s northern border, the centre said in statement.
“According to preliminary data, Belarusian troops may be drawn into an invasion on March 11 at 21:00 (1900 GMT),” it said.
Last week, Lukashenko, a close Kremlin ally, said Belarusian armed forces were not taking part and would not take part in what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine. read more
Ukrainian senior officials said Russia was doing everything possible to draw Belarus into the conflict, after failing in what Western countries say was an initial plan for a lightning assault on the capital. read more
“We also understand that the Belarusian government has been doing everything possible to avoid joining this war,” Ukrainian deputy interior minister Yevheniy Yenin said on national television on Friday.
There was no immediate comment on the allegations from Belarus.
Ukraine’s top security official Oleksiy Danilov said Ukraine had so far shown restraint towards Belarus, despite Russia using it as a launchpad for attacks on Ukraine. But he warned on Friday if “one fighter crosses our border, we will fight back.”
Meanwhile Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy struck a more conciliatory note in a speech to the government of neighbouring Poland, which also shares a border with Belarus.
“I really want these words to be heard by our common neighbors – Belarusians. Peace between relatives, peace between neighbors, peace between brothers, we must achieve this with them too. And we definitely will,” Zelenskiy said.
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Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Pavel Polityuk and Max Hunder; Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Timothy Heritage and Daniel Wallis
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Facebook temporarily allows ‘Death to Russian invaders’ posts
Move linked to Ukraine war prompts outrage in Russia
Prosecutor asks court to list Meta as ‘extremist organisation’
LONDON, March 11 (Reuters) – Russia opened a criminal case against Facebook’s parent Meta Platforms (FB.O) on Friday and moved to designate it as an “extremist organisation” after the social network changed its hate speech rules to allow users to call for violence against Russians in the context of the war with Ukraine.
“A criminal case has been initiated … in connection with illegal calls for murder and violence against citizens of the Russian Federation by employees of the American company Meta, which owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
The committee reports directly to President Vladimir Putin. It was not immediately clear what the consequences of the criminal case might be.
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No comment was immediately available from Meta in response to a Reuters request.
Two weeks into Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Meta spokesperson said on Thursday the company had temporarily eased its rules for political speech, allowing posts such as “death to the Russian invaders,” although it would not allow calls for violence against Russian civilians.
Meta said the temporary change aimed to allow for forms of political expression that would normally violate its rules. Its oversight board said on Friday that it was closely following the war in Ukraine, and how Meta is responding.
INFORMATION WARS
Russia has for more than a year been striving to curb the influence of U.S. tech giants including Alphabet Inc’s (GOOGL.O) Google and Twitter (TWTR.N), repeatedly fining them for allowing what it deems to be illegal content.
But the invasion of Ukraine – met by a storm of international condemnation and unprecedented sanctions – has sharply raised the stakes in the information war.
Social media provide an opportunity for dissent against Putin’s line – loyally followed by the tightly controlled state media – that Moscow was forced to launch its “special military operation” to defend Russian-speakers in Ukraine against genocide and to demilitarise and “denazify” the country.
The Investigative Committee said the Facebook move could violate articles of the Russian criminal law against public calls for extremist activities.
“Such actions of the (Meta) company’s management not only form an idea that terrorist activity is permissible, but are aimed at inciting hatred and enmity towards the citizens of the Russian Federation,” the state prosecutor’s office said.
It said it had applied to a court to recognise Meta as an extremist organisation and prohibit its activities in Russia.
Internal Meta emails seen by Reuters showed the U.S. company had temporarily allowed posts that call for the death of Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
“We hope it is not true because if it is true then it will mean that there will have to be the most decisive measures to end the activities of this company,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
The United Nations human rights office said the potential change in Facebook policy was “concerning.” read more
Meta owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, all of which are popular in Russia.
Last week, Russia said it was banning Facebook in the country in response to what it said were restrictions of access to Russian media on the platform. The statement from the prosecutor’s office said the state communications regulator would now also restrict access to Instagram.
Instagram is a favoured tool of jailed Putin opponent Alexei Navalny, who used it in a message posted via his lawyers and supporters on Friday to call for Russians to join protests against the Ukraine war and “mad maniac Putin” this weekend. . read more
WhatsApp will not be affected by the legal moves, Russia’s RIA news agency cited a source as saying, as the messaging app is considered a means of communication not a way to post information.
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Editing by Susan Fenton and Mark Potter
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A person is carried out after the destruction of Mariupol children’s hospital as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 9, 2022 in this still image from a handout video obtained by Reuters. Ukraine Military/Handout via REUTERS
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LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) – Russia shifted its stance over the bombing of a Ukrainian hospital in the city of Mariupol, with a mix of statements on Thursday that veered between aggressive denials and a call by the Kremlin to establish clear facts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said three people including a child had been killed in the bombing on Wednesday, and rejected Russian assertions there had been no patients there.
“Like always, they lie confidently,” said Zelenskiy, who has accused Moscow of waging genocide in the war it launched two weeks ago.
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In the face of worldwide condemnation there were rare signs of inconsistency in the response from Russian officials, who since the start of Moscow’s invasion on Feb. 24 have stuck tightly to the same narrative for what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked for comment in the immediate aftermath, told Reuters on Wednesday: “Russian forces do not fire on civilian targets.”
On Thursday he said the Kremlin would look into the incident.
“We will definitely ask our military, because you and I don’t have clear information about what happened there,” Peskov told reporters. “And the military are very likely to provide some information.”
‘INFORMATION TERRORISM’
Other Russian officials took a more aggressive line, rejecting the hospital bombing as fake news.
“This is information terrorism,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
The Defence Ministry later denied having bombed the hospital, accusing Ukraine of staging the incident. It said Russian forces at the time had been respecting an agreement to hold fire to allow the evacuation of civilians.
“Russian aviation carried out absolutely no strikes on ground targets in the area,” spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
“The alleged air strike was completely a staged provocation… that can deceive the Western public but not an expert.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attacked what he called “pathetic shouting about so-called atrocities by the Russian armed forces”.
He told reporters after meeting Ukraine’s foreign minister in Turkey that the hospital building had for days been under the control of ultra-radical Ukrainian forces who had emptied out the doctors and patients – the version rejected by Zelenskiy as a lie.
Moscow says it is conducting a special military operation to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv and the West reject these as false pretexts for an invasion of a democratic country of 44 million people.
On Wednesday, the United States denied renewed Russian accusations that Washington was operating biowarfare labs in Ukraine, calling the claims “laughable”. read more
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Additional reporting by Olzhas Auyezov and Andrei Khalip
Editing by Gareth Jones
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UK sanctions seven more oligarchs it links to Kremlin
Group includes Chelsea owner Abramovich
Chelsea sale put on hold, UK might sell club
Trading suspended in Evraz shares
LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) – Britain imposed sanctions on Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich and Igor Sechin, the chief executive of Russian oil giant Rosneft, hitting them with asset freezes and travel bans because of their links to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The two billionaires plus Oleg Deripaska and four other Russian oligarchs are the most high-profile businessmen to be added to the British sanctions list since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The move follows criticism that Britain has been acting too slowly.
The action puts on ice Abramovich’s plans to sell the Premier League club, effectively placing the current European champions under government control. The team can carry on playing but the government said it was open to selling the club so long as Abramovich himself did not benefit. read more
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“There can be no safe havens for those who have supported Putin’s vicious assault on Ukraine,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
“We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.”
There had been loud calls from British lawmakers for action to be taken against Abramovich and other Russian oligarchs, with criticism that Johnson’s government was not moving fast enough compared to the European Union and the United States.
Sechin, who Britain described as Putin’s right-hand man, was already on the U.S. and EU sanctions lists and last week French authorities seized his yacht. read more
Since the invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation”, Britain has imposed sanctions on about 20 Russian-linked figures. The EU announced new sanctions on Wednesday against 14 more oligarchs, meaning its restrictions apply to 862 people and 53 entities. read more
15 BILLION POUNDS
The others added to the British list were Deripaska, who has stakes in En+ Group, Dmitri Lebedev, chairman of Bank Rossiya, Alexei Miller, the chief executive of energy company Gazprom, and Nikolai Tokarev, the president of the Russia state-owned pipeline company Transneft.
In total Britain said the seven figures, who with the exception of Abramovich had previously been sanctioned by the United States or the EU, had a collective net worth of 15 billion pounds. ($19.74 billion).
Thursday’s action means Abramovich is banned from carrying out transactions with any British individuals and businesses, and cannot enter or stay in Britain. His spokeswoman declined comment.
The 55-year-old, who has Israeli and Portuguese citizenship, became one of Russia’s most powerful businessmen by earning fabulous fortunes after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. Forbes has put his net worth at $13.3 billion.
He bought Chelsea in 2003 for a reported 140 million pounds and his investment contributed hugely to the most successful era in the team’s history as they won five Premier League titles, five FA Cups and the Champions League twice.
They beat Brazilian side Palmeiras in February to become FIFA Club World Cup champions for the first time, having defeated fellow English side Manchester City to become European champions last season.
Last week, Abramovich announced he would sell Chelsea and donate money from the sale to help victims of the war in Ukraine. Johnson’s spokesman said the government was open to selling the club but it would require another licence. read more
A shop selling the merchandise of Chelsea Football Club is seen closed after Britain imposed sanctions on its Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, in London, Britain, March 10, 2022. REUTERS/Hannah Mckay
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“If the club is sold, Abramovich will not benefit,” sports minister Nadine Dorries told reporters. read more
The government has issued a special licence to allow Chelsea to play fixtures and pay staff, but will limit the sale of tickets and merchandise. read more
Anita Clifford, a lawyer who specialises in asset freezing and sanctions matters, said the measures temporarily deprived Abramovich of his assets but Chelsea could be sold with his and the government’s agreement. The money could potentially go to help Ukrainian war victims.
“The proceeds…would be frozen too and would not simply flow to the designated person unless there was a licence or agreement in place to either cover this, or cover the proceeds going to a nominated beneficiary which both parties considered appropriate,” she told Reuters.
The entry on the British sanctions list described Abramovich, who Britain said was worth 9 billion pounds, as “a prominent Russian businessman and pro-Kremlin oligarch who had enjoyed “a close relationship for decades” with Putin.
This association had brought Abramovich financial or material benefit from either Putin directly or the Russian government, it said.
It said he was “involved in destabilising Ukraine” and undermining its sovereignty and independence via the London-listed Russian steelmaker Evraz (EVRE.L) in which he is the biggest shareholder.
Britain’s financial watchdog suspended trading of shares in Evraz, which plummeted 16% after the sanctions were announced.
Evraz has been involved in providing financial services, or funds, goods or technology that could damage Ukraine’s independence including providing steel that might be used to make Russian tanks, the British treasury said.
Abramovich could apply to the foreign office for an internal review of the asset freeze, or apply to the High Court in London for a review of the decision, a process that could take 18 months or longer, Clifford said.
‘LONDONGRAD’
London has long been a top destination for Russian money, with wealthy Russians using it as a luxury playground and educating their children at fee-paying schools. It has earned the nickname Londongrad.
Johnson’s critics, who point out his Conservative Party has close ties to Russian donors who have donated about 1.9 million pounds since he came to power, say the government has been slow to impose sanctions and asset freezes on the oligarchs and those close to Putin’s administration.
Opposition lawmakers said the news of the sanctions was welcome but they had taken far too long.
“This is the right decision. But it should not have taken the government weeks,” said David Lammy, foreign affairs spokesman for the Labour Party.
“Too few oligarchs linked to Putin’s rogue regime have so far faced sanctions from the UK government. We are lagging far behind allies in the EU and the US.”
($1 = 0.7599 pounds)
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Reporting by Kate Holton, Alistair Smout, and Paul Sandle; writing by Michael Holden; editing by William James, Frank Jack Daniel and Angus MacSwan
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An aerial view from a plane shows a New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure over the old sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant during a tour to the Chernobyl exclusion zone, Ukraine April 3, 2021. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich/File Photo
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Ukraine says radiation levels not currently critical, more tests needed
Nuclear agency says movement of heavy military equipment in the area lifting radioactive dust into the air
Russia captured site of defunct Chernobyl power plant on Thursday
Feb 25 (Reuters) – Ukraine said on Friday it had recorded increased radiation levels from the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a day after the site was captured by Russian forces, due to military activity causing radioactive dust to rise into the air.
The former power plant was captured by Russian forces on Thursday after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office said. read more
The still-radioactive site of the 1986 nuclear disaster lies some 100 km (62 miles) from Kyiv.
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Experts at Ukraine’s state nuclear agency said the change was due to the movement of heavy military equipment in the area lifting radioactive dust into the air.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the radiation at the site did not pose any danger to the public.
“The readings reported by the regulator – of up to 9.46 microSieverts per hour – are low and remain within the operational range measured in the Exclusion Zone since it was established,” the IAEA said.
Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi added it was of vital importance that the safe and secure operations of the zone’s nuclear facilities should not be affected or disrupted in any way.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Friday that the critical infrastructure of the plant has not been damaged and essential maintenance work was ongoing.
Ukraine’s neighbour Poland said it had not recorded any increase in radiation levels on its territory.
France-based independent nuclear watchdog CRIIRAD said in a statement Friday it was trying to verify and cross-check the information at their laboratory.
“If the dose rates recorded correspond to real values, the situation is extremely worrying,” CRIIRAD said, adding that further research is needed to interpret the data.
The resuspension of soil from military activities, or damage to nuclear facilities, being either storage of waste or the containment structure, could be one of the reasons for the rise in radioactivity levels, CRIIRAD spokesperson Bruno Chareyron said.
Another possibility was that the readings were inaccurate as a result of interference from cyberattacks, he said.
The area has many high-risk installations, including radioactive waste processing and storage facilities, most of them unsecured, CRIIRAD said.
Other reactors in Ukraine also pose a safety risk in case of an accident, the watchdog said. While it was possible to reduce the potential risk by shutting down the reactors, Ukraine depends on nuclear power for more than 50% of their electricity supply, it said.
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Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Gabriela Baczynska, Forrest Crellin and Nina Chestney; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Jonathan Oatis
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AMSTERDAM, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Dutch police ended a hostage taking in an Apple flagship store in Amsterdam after a man armed with two guns held at least one person hostage for hours, police said on Wednesday.
Police arrested the suspected hostage taker, a 27-year old man from Amsterdam, after he ran out of the building at the central Leidseplein square, shortly after 10:30 p.m. (2130 GMT) on Tuesday.
“We managed to end the situation by hitting the hostage taker with a car when he ran outside,” police said on Twitter, adding that the man was being treated for serious injuries.
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The man had carried a pistol and an automatic rifle, with which he fired at least four shots when police arrived at the square around 6 p.m., Amsterdam police chief Frank Pauw told a news conference early on Wednesday.
The man, who had a criminal record, had contacted the police himself during the hostage taking, demanding a ransom of 200 million euros ($226 million) in crypto currencies and a safe passage out of the building, Pauw said.
“He threatened a hostage with a gun and threatened to blow himself up, so we took it very seriously”, Amsterdam newspaper Parool quoted the police chief as saying.
The situation ended when the hostage, reportedly a 44-year old British man, fled from the building when a police robot delivered water at the door of the store at the request of the hostage taker.
The hostage taker ran after the man and was quickly hit by the car.
“The hostage played a heroic role by forcing a breakthrough,” Pauw said. “Otherwise, this could have been a long night.”
During the evening, about 70 people were able to leave the store while the hostage-taking was going on. There were no reports of any other injuries.
The hostage taker was seriously injured, but able to speak when he was arrested, police said.
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Reporting by Toby Sterling, Bart Meijer and Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Franklin Paul, Mark Heinrich and Robert Birsel
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AMSTERDAM, Feb 22 (Reuters) – Dutch police said on Tuesday they had sent special units to a central square in Amsterdam because a man with a gun had taken one or more people hostage at an Apple store there.
Several video clips on broadcaster AT5’s website appeared to show a person being held in the store at gunpoint.
“There is a person with a firearm in the store … police forces are there with many units and specialist units at the scene to get the situation under control,” Amsterdam police tweeted.
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“We are restricting information about the situation in the Apple Store … in order not to upset our investigation and efforts there,” they said. They later confirmed the situation is a hostage-taking, without specifying how many hostages there were.
Police cleared the square and asked neighbors to remain inside and not come outside to watch.
The Apple store is located at one end of the upscale Leidseplein, a square at the south side of Amsterdam’s centre.
The Netherlands’ biggest city saw a spate of four armed robberies of mobile phone stores in 2021, prompting some stores to remove most of their phone supplies, which were being targeted. None of the robberies had been in the city centre however.
Gun violence is not uncommon in the Netherlands, but hostage takings are extremely rare.
In 2015 a man with a gun broke into a TV studio demanding screen time. No one was injured and the man was later convicted of hostage taking.
And in 2002 a gunman took hostages at an office building he mistakenly thought belonged to Philips Electronics. He killed himself and did not harm any hostages.
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Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Howard Goller and Jonathan Oatis
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