Tag Archives: mountains

Tour de France leader Vingegaard digs deep but resists Pogacar’s mountains attack – Cyclingnews

  1. Tour de France leader Vingegaard digs deep but resists Pogacar’s mountains attack Cyclingnews
  2. Tadej Pogacar Attack On Jonas Vingegaard DISRUPTED By Motorbikes In Stage 14 At Tour de France 2023 FloBikes
  3. Motorbikes that foiled Tadej Pogačar attack thrown off Tour de France for one day, as UAE Team Emirates blast “unacceptable” lack of distance from riders road.cc
  4. As it happened: Pogacar-Vingegaard mountain duel on Tour de France stage 14 Cyclingnews
  5. Vingegaard hails Pogacar after latest Tour de France skirmish Arab News
  6. View Full Coverage on Google News

Read original article here

Julian Sands missing: British actor identified as hiker lost in California mountains

British actor Julian Sands has been identified as the hiker who went missing in the California mountains last week.

The 65-year-old, known for his role in the Oscar-nominated 1985 film A Room with a View, has been missing in the Mount Baldy area since Friday 13 January, according to authorities.

He was reported missing by his wife, writer Evgenia Citkowitz, on Friday evening and was thought to have been somewhere on the popular Baldy Bowl Trail in the San Gabriel Mountains. Mount Baldy is a 10,000ft peak located northeast of Los Angeles, in the Angeles National Forest.

Sands is a keen hiker and mountain-climber who once described his happiest moment as “close to a mountain summit on a glorious cold morning”.

Search and rescue crews were on the mountain looking for Sands, but had to suspend the search because of severe weather and avalanche threat, department spokesperson Gloria Huerta told CNN.

Drones have been used to continue the search but rescuers are limited with other resources because of the weather.

The Independent understands that Sands’ son Henry has joined the search, accompanied by an experienced climber. Sands shares two daughters, Imogen and Natalya, with his wife Citkowitz. He shares Henry with his ex-wife, journalist and editor Sarah Sands (née Harvey).

California has been hit by a string of violent winter storms that have brought flooding and major snowfall to the drought-stricken state.

The sheriff’s department says that over the past four weeks, it has launched 14 search and rescue missions in the Mount Baldy area alone, with two hikers dying on the mountain.

Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial

Sign up

(Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“These rescue missions have been for lost, stranded and/or injured hikers. Unfortunately, during these past 4 weeks, two hikers did not survive after falling and injuring themselves,” the agency stated on Facebook.

“The recent storms that brought the snow and ice conditions are not favourable for hikers, even those that feel they have a high level of experience.”

Sands, who lives in north Hollywood with Citkowitz, has appeared in more than 150 movies and television shows during his career.

Born in Yorkshire, England, he moved to California in the Eighties to pursue a Hollywood career, following the success of the James Ivory-directed A Room with a View, the 1985 romance adapted from E M Forster’s 1908 novel.

Sands, who had received attention for his early performance in the 1984 film The Killing Fields, was cast as lead George Emerson opposite Helena Bonham Carter’s Lucy Honeychurch. The film also starred Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench and Simon Callow in supporting roles.

(PA)

A box-office success, A Room with a View received critical praise upon its release and was nominated for eight Oscars at the 59th Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Sands’ career after A Room with a View has been an eclectic one, comprising horror, indie, romance, and action-comedy. He played the title role opposite Richard E Grant and Lori Singer in supernatural horror Warlock, reprising the role for sequel Warlock: The Armageddon.

He played composer Franz Liszt in Impromptu in 1991, with Hugh Grant starring as Frederic Chopin and Judy Davis as George Sand.

More recently, he appeared with James Bond star Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara in the Oscar-nominated English-language version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, in 2011.

Follow the latest updates here



Read original article here

Person of Interest Arrested in Pennsylvania Near Pocono Mountains – NBC10 Philadelphia

A man has been taken into custody near the Pocono Mountains in connection with the homicide of four University of Idaho students.

Bryan Kohberger, 28, is the person of interest in custody in Monroe County, Pa., sources confirm to NBC10’s Deanna Durante and Brian Sheehan.

Further circumstances regarding the nature of the arrest and the suspect’s capture are not yet known. Kohberger appeared in front of a Monroe County judge around 8:30 a.m. Friday, sources tell NBC10.

The Nov. 13 killings of the four students — Madison Mogan, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin — left their community of Moscow, Idaho in shock and garnered attention nationwide.

Police say the four were stabbed to death in an off-campus house rented by the three female students in the middle of the night, some with wounds that suggest they fought back against their attacker. The investigation to this point has largely come up empty. Two roommates on the first floor who police say slept through the attack have already been ruled out as suspects.

A press conference is scheduled in Moscow, Idaho at 4 p.m. ET.

This is breaking story. Stick with NBC10 for more details as they develop.

Read original article here

See the moon’s Mare Imbrium Mountains on Sunday (Sept. 4)

On Sunday, Sept. 4, a spectacular mountain range on the moon will move into view for skywatchers. 

The mountains mark the rim of Mare Imbrium, also known as the great Imbrium Basin, a vast lava plain on the lunar surface created by a massive impact from space nearly 4 billion years ago.

The Mare Imbrium is the largest basin on the near side of the moon with a diameter of approximately 721 miles (around 1160 kilometers). Though just around half the size of the South-Pole-Aitken Basin on the moon’s far side, Mare Imbrium is still one of the solar system’s largest craters.

Related: Moon viewing guide: What to look for on the lunar surface

The arc of mountains furthest north is the Lunar Alps  —  or Montes Alpes  —  which consists of hundreds of peaks stretching 173 miles (280 kilometers). The highest of these  —  Mount Blanc  —  towers 2.2 miles (3.6 kilometers) above the lunar surface.

A break runs through the Lunar Alps called the Alpine Valley  —  or the Vallis Alpes  — which was formed when the moon’s crust dropped between parallel faults. On Sept. 4, this area should be visible with binoculars or a telescope.

Below the Lunar Alps and to the southeast of the moon are the Caucasus Mountains  —  Montes Caucasus  —  a mountain range that sinks beneath a lava-flooded plain connecting Mare Imbrium with Mare Serenitatis, also known as the ‘Sea of Serenity’ located to the southeast. 

(Image credit: Starry Night Software)

(opens in new tab)

The Apennine Mountains  —  Montes Apenninus  —  border the Mare Imbrium’s southeastern edge. This rugged mountain range, which was named for the Apennine Mountains in Italy, rises up from the nearby prominent lunar crater Eratosthenes and arcs from the east to northwest rising to meet the Mare Imbrium at the Promontorium Fresnel which itself lies between the Mare Imbrium and the Mare Serenitatis.

Circling the south side of near crater Copernicus is the Montes Carpatus mountain range. Opposite this side of the Mare Imbrium, and to the northwest of the crater, is a plain of basaltic lava called the Sinus Iridum, or the Bay of Rainbows.

An image of the Mare Imbrium basin, a massive on the moon with a mountain range at its northerly ridge was taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA)

(opens in new tab)

The Mare Imbrium, part of the moon’s violent past 

Believed to be the second youngest lunar basin, lunar scientists think the Mare Imbrium has formed 3.85 billion years ago when a proto-planet collided with the moon.

This impact corresponds with a period in the moon’s history called the Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), also known as the lunar cataclysm.

The LHB occurred between around 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago during a period in the solar system that saw the Earth system  —  including the moon  —  and the other inner planets experience a large increase in space rock impactors.

Though there is no firm explanation for this increased bombardment, some planetary scientists believe it may have been caused when the giant planets of the solar system altered their orbits as a result of interactions with loose material like gas, dust, or even small space rocks.

This may have disturbed the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and comets of the Kuiper belt at the outer edge of the solar system, giving them eccentric orbits that brought them into contact with the inner planets  —  Mars, Earth, Venus, and Mercury —  and the moon.

Following the impact that created the Mare Imbrium basin, further space rock impacts left smaller and younger craters inside it. Then over the next several hundred million years, volcanic events flooded the area with lava, leaving behind lava-filled craters called mare patches. 

As a result, the region of Mare Imbrium, its mountains, ridges, channels, plains, and craters mark a fascinating insight into the moon’s geological past. One that skywatchers have an exciting opportunity to view for themselves on Sunday.

Editor’s Note: If you snap a photo of the Mare Imbrium and would like to share it with Space.com’s readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com. 

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).  



Read original article here

The Mars Express Delivers Truly Epic Views of The Solar System’s Biggest Canyon

The biggest known canyon in the Solar System is getting the star treatment in new images from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter.

As it whooshed by in Martian orbit, the spacecraft captured a pair of gouges in the planet’s surface that make up part of the Valles Marineris, a system of canyons known as the Grand Canyon of Mars.

 

The Martian Grand Canyon, however, makes the Earth version seem like a canyon for ants.

At 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) long and 200 miles wide, Valles Marineris is almost 10 times longer and 20 times wider than the vast canyon system found in North America. Earth has nothing that comes even close to comparing to Valles Marineris, which makes the feature intensely interesting to planetary scientists.

The segment images by Mars Express include sections of two chasmata, Ius on the left and Tithonium on the right. Close study of the details of these incredible natural structures can help scientists understand Mars’ geology and geological history.

The location of the two chasmata. (NASA/MGS/MOLA Science Team)

For example, Mars seems to be tectonically extinct now, with its crust fused into one discrete layer that encases the planetary interior. This is in contrast to Earth, the crust of which is divided into plates that can shift around, with a whole range of consequences.

Valles Marineris, scientists think, formed back when Mars did have tectonic plates. Recent research has proposed that the canyon system formed as the result of a widening crack between plates, a long time ago. This makes Valles Marineris very interesting indeed.

 

The images from Mars Express make the canyon look relatively shallow, but the two chasmata are incredibly large; the full resolution version is approximately 25 kilometers per pixel. Ius Chasma extends 840 kilometers in length in its entirety, and Tithonium Chasma 805 kilometers.

The orbiter is also equipped with 3D imaging capabilities, which reveal that, in this image, the canyon reaches about as deep as it can – around 7 kilometers, five times deeper than the Grand Canyon.

The topography of the two chasmata. (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)

There are several features of note that the images reveal in the two chasmata. Within Ius, a row of jagged mountains probably formed as the two tectonic plates pulled apart. As that was some time ago, these mountains are pretty eroded.

Tithonium is partially colored a darker hue in the top part of the image. This may have come from the nearby Tharsis volcanic region to the west of the chasma. Paler mounds arise from within this dark sand; these are actually mountains that stand more than 3 kilometers tall.

However, the mountains’ tops have been scoured off thanks to erosion. This suggests that whatever material the mountain is made of is softer and weaker than the rock around it.

That rock isn’t impervious, either, though. To the lower right of the more visible of the mountains, features suggest a recent landslide of the canyon wall to the right.

An annotated map showing various features in the chasmata. (ESA/DLR/FU Berlin)

Interestingly, Mars Express has detected sulfate-bearing minerals in some of the features within Tithonium Chasma. This has been interpreted as evidence that the Chasma was once (at least partially) filled with water.

The evidence is far from conclusive, but recent detections of hydrogen in the chasma suggest that a lot of water may be bound up with minerals beneath the surface.

 

As with most Mars science, it’s difficult to make conclusions with any certainty, since we are forced – currently, at least – to study it remotely. But identifying areas of interest could help in the planning of future Mars missions, both crewed and uncrewed; sending a rover to Valles Marineris would certainly aid scientists in answering some of the burning questions that have arisen.

Images like these are scientifically useful because they help formulate and sometimes answer those questions. But they’re also just spectacularly gorgeous.

The images have been published on the ESA website.

 

Read original article here

Rescue teams scan mountains for missing after Italian glacier collapse

CANAZEI, Italy, July 4 (Reuters) – Helicopter crews and drones flew over the Italian Alps on Monday searching for 13 people missing after part of a mountain glacier collapsed, killing at least seven people in a disaster experts linked to rising temperatures.

Much of Italy has been baking in an early-summer heatwave and scientists said climate change was making previously stable glaciers more difficult to predict. read more

Sunday’s avalanche took place on the Marmolada, which at more than 3,300 metres is the highest peak in the Dolomites, a range in the eastern Italian Alps straddling the regions of Trento and Veneto.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the disaster was linked to environmental factors.

“Today Italy weeps for these victims,” Draghi said during a visit to meet rescue teams.

“But the government must think about what has happened and take steps to ensure that what happened is unlikely to do so again or can even be avoided,” he added.

Seven people were killed and two of the eight people injured were in a serious condition, said Maurizio Fugatti, president of the Trento region.

Punta Rocca summit is seen after parts of the Marmolada glacier collapsed in the Italian Alps amid record temperatures, killing at least six people and injuring several, at Marmolada ridge, Italy, July 4, 2022. REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic

Three people from the Czech Republic were among those unaccounted for. An Austrian tourist who was earlier reported missing has now been traced, the local authorities said.

“This is the first such accident in the history of the mountain,” said Gino Comelli, who was helping to coordinate rescue efforts.

The peak was too unstable for rescuers to try to approach on foot, Comelli said, adding that recent hot weather had been a factor in the collapse.

Pope Francis said he was praying for the victims and their families.

“The tragedies that we are experiencing with climate change should force us urgently to pursue new ways that respect people and nature,” he said on Twitter.

Rising average temperatures have caused the Marmolada glacier, like many others around the world, to shrink steadily over recent decades.

“The Marmolada glacier collapse is a natural disaster linked directly to climate change,” said Poul Christoffersen, a professor in Glaciology at the University of Cambridge.

“High elevation glaciers such as the Marmolada are often steep and relying on cold temperatures below zero degrees Celsius to keep them stable,” he added.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

Additional reporting by Emilio Parodi and Angelo Amante; Writing by Giulia Segreti and Keith Weir; Editing by Janet Lawrence

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

NASA probe snaps an image of a solar eclipse showing ‘lunar mountains backlit by solar fire’

A solar eclipse… from SPACE! NASA probe snaps the moon passing in front of the sun in stunning images capturing the ‘lunar mountains backlit by solar fire’

  • NASA spacecraft has captured the moon passing in front of the sun from space in a stunning series of images
  • Solar eclipse was not visible from Earth, and lasted only 35 minutes, but it was caught on camera from space
  • Close-up images by Solar Dynamics Observatory show lunar mountain ranges backlit by swirling solar flames
  • The Leibnitz and Doerfel ranges near the moon’s south pole have been identified by NASA experts

Advertisement

A NASA satellite captured stunning images of a partial solar eclipse from its unique vantage point in space – the only place where it was visible.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) photographed the moon passing in front of the sun yesterday from about 05:20 BST (01:20 ET).

The transit lasted for about 35 minutes and at its peak, the moon covered 67 percent the fiery surface. 

The spacecraft then returned a series of images of the event that showed ‘lunar mountains backlit by solar fire’, according to experts at SpaceWeather.com.

Bumps and irregularities can be seen on the moon’s surface it passed by that have been identified as part of the Leibnitz and Doerfel mountain ranges.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured images of a 35-minute-long partial solar eclipse from its unique vantage point in space – the only place where it was visible

The Solar Dynamics Observatory photographed the moon passing in front of the sun yesterday from 05:20 BST (01:20 ET)

The spacecraft returned a series of images of the event that showed ‘lunar mountains backlit by solar fire’, according to experts at SpaceWeather.com. 

WHAT IS A SOLAR ECLIPSE? 

Solar eclipses occur when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow on the Earth. 

There are various types, depending on how much of the sun appears to be obscured to a viewer in a given location.

Solar eclipses only occur roughly every six months – a consequence of how the moon doesn’t quite orbit in the same plane around the Earth as the planet does in its path around the sun.

<!- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/de/sciencetech/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_1 - ->

Advertisement

Patricio Leon, from Santiago, Chile, compared the close-up images of the moon moving across the sun to a topography map from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

He was able to identify the Leibnitz and Doerfel mountain ranges near the moon’s south pole during the eclipse.

Experts at SpaceWeather.com said: ‘At the peak of the eclipse, the Moon covered 67 per cent of the sun, and lunar mountains were backlit by solar fire. 

‘High-resolution images like these can help the SDO science team better understand the telescope. 

‘They reveal how light diffracts around SDO’s optics and filter support grids. 

‘Once these are calibrated, it is possible to correct SDO data for instrumental effects and sharpen images of the sun even more than before.’

Launched in 2010, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory monitors the sun with a fleet of spacecraft, snapping pictures of it every 0.75 seconds.

It also studies the sun’s magnetic field, atmosphere, sunspots and other aspects that influence activity during the 11-year solar cycle.

The sun has been experiencing heightened activity for some months as it appears to be moving into a particularly active period of its 11-year cycle of activity, which began in 2019 and is expected to peak in 2025.    

The sun’s magnetic poles flip at the peak of the solar activity cycle, and a solar wind composed of charged particles carries the magnetic field away from the sun’s surface and through the solar system. 

This accompanies an increase in solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) from the sun’s surface.

A CME is a significant release of plasma and accompanying magnetic field from the sun’s corona – the outermost part of the sun’s atmosphere – into the solar wind. 

CMEs only impact Earth when they’re aimed in our planet’s direction, and tend to be much slower than solar flares as they move a greater amount of matter.  

Patricio Leon, from Santiago, Chile, compared the close-up images of the moon moving across the sun to a topography map from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter He was able to identify the Leibnitz and Doerfel mountain ranges near the moon’s south pole during the eclipse

Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), pictured here in illustration, studies how solar activity is created and how space weather results from that activity

AThe energy from a flare can disrupt the area of the atmosphere through which radio waves travel, which can lead to temporary blackouts in navigation and communications signals.

On the other hand, CMEs have the power to jostle Earth’s magnetic fields, creating currents that drive particles down toward Earth’s poles. 

When these react with oxygen and nitrogen, they help create the aurora, also known as the Northern and Southern Lights. 

Additionally, the magnetic changes can affect a variety of human technologies, causing GPS coordinates to stray by a few yards and overloading electricity grids when power companies are not prepared.

There hasn’t been an extreme CME or solar flare in the modern world – the last was the Carrington Event in 1859 – creating a geomagnetic storm with an aurora appearing globally, as well as fires at telegraph stations.

WHAT IS NASA’S SOLAR DYNAMICS OBSERVATORY SATELLITE?

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a Nasa mission that has been observing the sun since 2010.

Its ultra-HD cameras convert different wavelengths of light into an image humans can see, and the light is then colourised into a rainbow of colours.

The satellite launched on February 11, 2010, from Cape Canaveral.

The SDO contains a suite of instruments that provide observations that will lead to a more complete understanding of the solar dynamics that drive variability in the Earth’s environment. 

One of the many incredible images the SDO has provided

Among the tasks this set of instruments can achieve is measure ultraviolet light, variances in the sun’s magnetic filed, take images of the chromosphere and inner corona and capture solar variations that may exist in different time periods of a solar cycle.

It does so, using three separate pieces of equipment: the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager; Atmospheric Imaging Assembly; and Extreme Ultraviolet Variability Experiment.

Science Teams receive this data, which they then process, analyse, archive, and release to the public.

<!- - ad: https://mads.dailymail.co.uk/v8/de/sciencetech/none/article/other/mpu_factbox.html?id=mpu_factbox_2 - ->

Advertisement

Read original article here

6 People Killed in Helicopter Crash in West Virginia Mountains

Six people were killed, the authorities said, when a helicopter being flown during a reunion for enthusiasts of historical aircraft crashed on Wednesday evening in Logan County, W.Va.

The helicopter came down on Route 17 near Blair Mountain, said Sonya Porter, the deputy director of the Logan County Office of Emergency Management. The mountainous area in the southern part of the state is known as Kelly Hollow.

Ms. Porter was not sure what might have caused the crash.

“At the time the crash occurred, I think the weather was clear,” she said.

The aircraft was a Bell UH-1B helicopter manufactured in 1962, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Ray Bryant, who was at the scene of the crash and is the chief of operations for the Logan Emergency Ambulance Service Authority, said its tail number was N98F.

The N98F helicopter is owned by Marpat Aviation, which was holding an annual reunion this week for “Huey” helicopters, a nickname for the aircraft. Its website said people could make a reservation to fly the helicopter without being a pilot.

Flying the helicopter for 30 minutes required a $250 donation to pay for fuel, according to the website, while others could ride along by making a small donation. The helicopter that crashed had been used during the Vietnam War and appears in movies including “Die Hard,” “The Rock” and “Baywatch.”

Mike Holbrook, the owner and operator of Marpat Aviation, did not return a call requesting comment. Two people who answered phone numbers connected with the company hung up on a reporter.

The helicopter, which had taken off from Logan County Airport, crashed into the roadway and guardrail of a rural two-lane road, Mr. Bryant said. He said that the helicopter was still on fire when he arrived, and that in his 35 years with the county’s emergency services, he had seen “no crashes of this magnitude.”

One woman said she ran as quickly as possible to the scene after the crash, ducking under the guardrail. “I went up to the helicopter, but the fire was just so hot, so intense,” the woman, Bobbi Childs, told WSAZ-3, a television station in Huntington.

The F.A.A. and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash. The victims’ names have not been publicly released.

Read original article here

Wreckage of plane with 22 on board found in Nepal mountains

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — The wreckage of a plane carrying 22 people that disappeared in Nepal’s mountains was found Monday scattered on a mountainside, the army said. There was no word on survivors.

The Tara Air turboprop Twin Otter was on a 20-minute flight Sunday when it the lost contact with the airport tower while flying in an area of deep river gorges and mountaintops just before it was scheduled to land.

The army said the plane crashed in Sanosware in Mustang district close to the mountain town of Jomsom where it was heading after taking off from from the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu.

An aerial photo the army posted on Twitter of the crash site showed parts of the aircraft scattered around the mountainside.

No other details were given.

The search for the plane had been suspended due to bad weather and darkness Sunday night but resumed Monday.

According to tracking data from flightradar24.com, the 43-year-old aircraft took off from Pokhara at 9:55 a.m. (04:10 GMT) and transmitted its last signal at 10:07 a.m. (04:22 GMT) at an altitude of 12,825 feet (3,900 meters).

Four Indians and two Germans were on the plane. The three crew members and other passengers were Nepali nationals.

The plane’s destination is popular with foreign hikers who trek the mountain trails and also with Indian and Nepalese pilgrims who visit the revered Muktinath temple.

The Twin Otter, a rugged plane originally built by Canadian aircraft manufacturer De Havilland, has been in service in Nepal for about 50 years, during which it has been involved in about 21 accidents, according to aviationnepal.com.

The plane, with its top-mounted wing and fixed landing gear, is prized for its durability and its ability to take off and land on short runways.

Production of the planes originally ended in the 1980s. Another Canadian company, Viking Air, brought the model back into production in 2010.

Read original article here

Zelenskyy says UN, Red Cross order Russia to take its ‘mountains of corpses’

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have directed Russian President Vladimir Putin to remove his “mountain of corpses,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday. 

“They abandoned their military,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with a Ukrainian news outlet. “They were dying, but they didn’t care. Recently I was told that they are only now thinking about taking the corpses. 

“When the war started…they used to pretend that there were no corpses,” he continued. “The UN and the Red Cross said – take these bags away. Mountains of corpses of their military.”

A Russian Armoured personnel carrier (APC) burns next to an unidentified soldier’s body during a fight with the Ukrainian armed forces in Kharkiv.
(Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images)

UKRAINE’S ZELENSKYY PUSHES FOR NEW SECURITY AGREEMENTS WITHOUT RUSSIA, APART FROM PEACE TALKS

Moscow has long relied on its propaganda machine to fuel support for its conflict in Ukraine and Putin has refused to declare open war on Kyiv, instead calling it a “special military operation.”

Reports surfaced early in the invasion that Russia was potentially relying on a “mobile crematorium” to dispose of dead soldiers to help cover the evidence of mounting causalities. 

The Pentagon has assessed that Russia is behind schedule in eastern Ukraine, where it intends to gain “full control.”

But press secretary John Kirby said Friday that the U.S. has assessed that Russian forces are still making “incremental gains” in the Donbas and a senior U.S. defense official told reporters this week the U.S. believes Moscow is making some headway in the Black Sea as well.

“The Russians are still well behind where we believe they wanted to be when they started this revitalized effort in the eastern part of the country,” Kirby said from the Pentagon. “And while they have made, and we have been very honest about this, they have made some incremental progress in the Donbas. It is incremental, it is slow, it’s uneven, and the Ukrainians continue to push back.”

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife Olena Zelenska attend the funeral of Leonid Kravchuk, independent Ukraine’s first president, at the International Convention Center Ukrainian House, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Kravchuk led Ukraine to independence amid the collapse of the Soviet Union and served as its first president. He died on May 10 at the age of 88. 
(AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

UKRAINE MORALE IS ‘HUGE’ BOOST IN WAR WITH RUSSIA, NATO MILITARY CHIEFS SAY

Zelenskyy said Ukrainians are fighting to protect their independence and championed that 700,000 Ukrainians are fighting against Russian forces across the war-torn nation. 

The Ukrainian president said he signed a decree in early 2022 to add 100,000 additional troops to its fighting force by next year, but warned he is not sure that this will be enough to take on the entire might of Russia.

Western defense officials have argued Russia does not appear to have properly planned for its major offensive against Ukraine, and Zelenskyy said Saturday his nation had been bracing for an attack since September 2021 as Russia started to amass troops along its southern border.

But Zelenskyy said that Ukraine is fighting more than just Russia and has Belarus to contend with as it has backed Putin’s deadly campaign.

Soldiers place the Ukrainian flag on the coffin of 41-year-old soldier Simakov Oleksandr, during his funeral ceremony, after he was killed in action, at the Lychakiv cemetery, in Lviv, western Ukraine, Monday, April 4, 2022. 
(AP)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Zelenskyy said he could not predict when the war with Russia would end, but said Ukrainians have already psychologically “broken” Russia’s forces by prolonging a fight Putin apparently believed would last a matter of weeks.

“We have to look at the cost of this war,” he said. “We broke the back of one of the world’s strongest armies. We have already done it. Psychologically we have done it. 

“They will not stand on their feet for the next few years,” he added.

Read original article here