Tag Archives: Russia

World

UN chief embarks on Moscow trip amid criticism | Antonio Guterres News

Leave a comment

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will start a difficult three-day trip to Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday amid criticism for the limited role played by the United Nations in the management of the crisis.

Three months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, UN agencies are struggling to reach civilians under siege in the east of the country, where humanitarian assistance is sporadic.

Meanwhile the UN Security Council, where Russia is one of five permanent members with veto power, has failed to pass any resolutions condemning the war.

Guterres may want to use this trip to revitalise the UN initiative in the humanitarian field, experts said, while staying away from more controversial political questions.

“Guterres will try to provide a new momentum for the UN to play a role for humanitarian access in the evacuation of civilians, especially from Mariupol, and in a broader context to allow better access of UN and other humanitarian agencies to the conflict zones,” said Jean-Marc Rickli, head of Global and Emerging Risks at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy.

Guterres is due to meet in Moscow with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin. But the Secretary-General’s decision to kick off the first leg of his trip at the Kremlin has caused upset in Ukraine.

“From the outset this trip has started off on the wrong foot,” said Rickli. “In such a polarised environment where disinformation is so facilitated by social media, anything Guterres will do or say might be weaponised from one side or the other of the conflict.”

Last month, the UN’s refugee agency UNHCR came under fire by Ukrainian officials who accused it of being unprepared to address the humanitarian crisis. Similarly, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was criticised for its alleged inaction and for visiting Russia. ICRC’s President Peter Maurer was in Moscow in a bid to negotiate access to the conflict areas.

In addition, the UN has also been sidelined diplomatically in the peace talks led by Turkey. Analysts said Guterres may wish to discuss the role the UN could provide in future peace talks with regard to UN infrastructure and services, especially in case of a future agreement where there could be peacekeeping forces deployed. Nevertheless, they agree it is premature to talk about peace.

“We should not expect any major breakthroughs out of this meeting, because the situation is not ripe for a compromise,” said Andrey Kortunov, the Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council.

UN weakness

Neither Russia nor Ukraine seem ready for serious negotiations.

Moscow has redeployed its forces to Ukraine’s east with the goal of the conquest and probable annexation of the Donbas region. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been emboldened by the success of its resistance movement since the Russians invaded on February 24.

“Mr Guterres is in a difficult position, because neither country is willing to hold peace talks,” said Rickli.

Meanwhile, Putin might want to use his meeting with Guterres to present Russia’s narrative on the invasion of Ukraine, which it has framed as a “special military operation” to the international community.

“He is likely to repeat his standard narrative about the roots of the conflict and he will try to justify his decisions,” Kortunov said.

“He might also complain about what he believes to be hypocrisy and double standards of the West.”

Putin and Guterres have very different views of the world and practice different leadership styles, Kortunov noted. Despite differences, however, Moscow has sanctioned Guterres’s election to the post, and the two men have good relations.

Last week, Guterres called for a ceasefire during Orthodox Easter that would allow for the safe passage of civilians from areas of current and expected confrontation in coordination with the ICRC. In addition, he called on the parties to allow for the delivery of life-saving aid to people in the hardest-hit areas such as Mariupol, the coastal city that has been besieged for weeks. His appeals were ignored.

Experts said the weakness of Guterres reflects the constraints of the structure he represents.

“In this environment for the UN to play a meaningful role in peacemaking is currently almost impossible. The UN’s weakness is a result of its very structure, notably the veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council which paralyses the organisation because of the ongoing polarisation between the West and the Russia-China axis.” Rickli said. Although China has called for peace talks, it has not condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

 

According to the UN, more than 12 million people need humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, of whom more than one-third are in Mariupol, Kherson, Donetsk and Luhansk.  The UN says this figure is due to increase to 15.7 million, about 40 per cent of all Ukrainians still left in the country, if the conflict continues.

Despite constraints on the ground, the UN says some 2.5 million people have been provided with assistance in the past seven weeks, including many in the east.

According to Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson at the UNHCR,  about 4.9 million refugees have fled Ukraine since February 24. Bhanu Bhatnagar of the World Health Organization said the body has delivered 218 tonnes of emergency and medical supplies to Ukraine and roughly two-thirds of that, about 132 tonnes, have reached their intended destinations in the east and north of the country.

Jakob Kern, World Food Programme emergency coordinator for Ukraine, said Mariupol would probably need about two to three trucks a day of food alone. At the moment, the agency has been able to send in 10 trucks a month.

Read original article here

World

Austin’s assertion that US wants to ‘weaken’ Russia underlines Biden strategy shift

Leave a comment

A National Security Council spokesperson said that Austin’s comments were consistent with what the US’ goals have been for months — namely, “to make this invasion a strategic failure for Russia.”

“We want Ukraine to win,” the spokesperson added. “One of our goals has been to limit Russia’s ability to do something like this again, as Secretary Austin said. That’s why we are arming the Ukrainians with weapons and equipment to defend themselves from Russian attacks, and it’s why we are using sanctions and export controls that are directly targeted at Russia’s defense industry to undercut Russia’s economic and military power to threaten and attack its neighbors.”

US officials traveling with Austin said that the message is one that he planned to reiterate, according to a senior administration official. Russia coming out of the conflict weaker than before is an idea that other Biden administration officials have referenced. US officials, however, had previously been reluctant to state as plainly that the US’ goal is to see Russia fail, and be militarily neutered in the long term, remaining cautiously optimistic that some kind of negotiated settlement could be reached.

One eastern European official told CNN that mentality was incredibly frustrating. “The only solution to this is for Ukraine to win,” he said.

The shift in strategy has come about over the past few weeks, evidenced by a growing tolerance for increased risk with the more complex, western weaponry being sent in, and is a reflection of the belief that Putin’s goals in Ukraine would not end if he manages to seize part of Ukraine, as they didn’t after the 2014 annexation of Crimea, a British diplomat said.

“Even if they come up with some fix where (Putin) gets a bit of the Donbas and it all goes dormant, logic would dictate there’s more road to run in this. So therefore what you can take off the battlefield in this window is not only a short-term win it’s also a longer term strategy as well.”

Now, there is a growing realization among US and Western officials — especially after the Russians’ massacre of civilians in the Ukrainian town of Bucha — that Russia needs to be hurt so much economically and on the battlefield that its aggression is stopped for good, US and Western officials told CNN.

“So it has already lost a lot of military capability,” Austin said. “And a lot of its troops, quite frankly. And we want to see them not have the capability to very quickly reproduce that capability.”

Biden administration officials are optimistic that that is an achievable goal, sources told CNN. Administration officials and congressional sources said they believe that the continued military support to Ukraine could result in significant blows to Russia that will impair their long-term military capabilities, strategically benefiting the US.

Already, the US has begun to send heavier and more sophisticated equipment to Ukraine that it had refrained from providing in the past, including 72 howitzers and Phoenix Ghost tactical drones.

“The way we are looking at this is that it’s making an investment to neuter the Russian army and navy for next decade,” said a congressional source familiar with the ongoing military assistance to Ukraine.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that while “obviously right now the war is in Ukraine,” the US and its allies are “are also looking to prevent (Russia) from expanding their efforts and President Putin’s objectives beyond that too.”

A delicate ‘balancing act’

Officials noted, though, that the US and its allies are carefully threading a needle when it comes to penalizing Russia — both because of the collateral damage harsh sanctions could have on the global economy, and because of the risk that Putin could lash out if he is backed too far into a corner.

A source familiar with the US’ intelligence assessments about Russia said “there is certainly a balancing act that needs to be taken into consideration” when punishing the country, “whether it’s in the sanctions space or in the military and intelligence support space.”

This person added that while the US still assesses that Putin’s red lines for use of nuclear weapons haven’t changed, “one of those red lines is regime stability,” they said — meaning that Putin could lash out if he feels his rule is seriously threatened.

A US official said separately that he believes Austin’s comments were not helpful for that reason, and because it could play into the Russian propaganda line that NATO and US support for Ukraine is a power play.

The goal is not to tell the Russians that “no matter what, the US and NATO are going to weaken you,” this official said, but rather that the West will aim to punish Russia as long as it is at war with Ukraine.

A State Department spokesperson said that the sanctions the US and its allies have put in place are “all in response to Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine. They are intended to prevent Putin from buying more ammo, guns, missiles — to stop him from funding his war machine, to stop the killing. They are also intended to punish those who actively support Putin’s unprovoked, brutal war. This is not about harming the Russian people.”

It is still unclear what the US would do about the sanctions if Russia reached a meaningful peace deal with Ukraine and withdrew its forces. Multiple sources told CNN that in that scenario, the US would likely consider lifting some sanctions, in a show of good faith, while keeping others. The US and allies, including the UK, have also been weighing the feasibility of a “snapback” mechanism that would allow them to quickly reimpose the sanctions should Moscow violate any agreements reached with Kyiv, the sources said.

But with the conflict still raging and the prospects of a peace deal looking increasingly dim, those options are a very long way off from being implemented, officials said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in March that Russia’s change in behavior must be “irreversible” before the US considers lifting sanctions.

“They will want to make sure that anything that’s done is, in effect, irreversible, that this can’t happen again, that Russia won’t pick up and do exactly what it’s doing in a year or two years or three years,” Blinken said in an interview with NPR.

Shifting concerns about escalation

Russia’s poor performance and significant losses on the battlefield have contributed significantly to the US’ increasingly emboldened posture, officials said.

Whereas Washington had been previously concerned that sending heavy artillery might be viewed as a provocation, Biden has announced billions of dollars in new shipments of tanks, missiles and ammunition over the past month, an indication that some initial worries about escalating the conflict have waned.

The US is also preparing to train Ukraine’s armed forces on more state-of-the-art, NATO-capable weapons systems, Austin told reporters on Monday — a move that will allow the US and its allies to provide more powerful weapons to Ukraine more quickly, since those systems are more readily available than the Soviet-era equipment the west has had to scrounge for to date.

“There are a number of shifts happening simultaneously,” the British diplomat said. “One is looking at future capabilities and that’s related to the artillery and more modern weaponry. Two, let’s take out what’s on the battlefield.”

Biden himself has been steadily ratcheting up the rhetoric in describing Putin — going from calling him a war criminal to saying he cannot remain in power to accusing him of committing genocide — despite worries among some of his advisers the language could cause Putin to lash out.

But the President has downplayed those concerns in private, according to people familiar with the conversations, saying that articulating what is plainly evident is more important than risking possible escalation. And he has underscored that Russia’s military capabilities don’t appear as strong as the US once believed.

Ambassador Nathan Sales, who until 2021 served as acting under secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights at the State Department, said the “bottom line” is that “a weaker Russia means a more stable world,” and that the US should prepare for its Russia policy

“As long as Putin is calling the shots, Russia is going to be a malign actor,” he said. “And so we can’t hope for Russia to be a constructive and responsible player in Europe or in the broader international system.” Sales added that the US should therefore prepare for “a prolonged period” of its Russia policy being aimed at limiting its ability “to cause mischief around the world.”

Read original article here

World

U.S. Wants to See Russia Weakened, Says Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin After Ukraine Visit

Leave a comment

U.S. Defense Secretary

Lloyd Austin

said Russia’s military capabilities should be degraded after he and Secretary of State

Antony Blinken

met with Ukraine’s President

Volodymyr Zelensky

and announced more U.S. military aid to the country.

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine,” Mr. Austin said Monday after the highest-level visit of U.S. officials to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. Mr. Blinken said: “Russia is failing, Ukraine is succeeding.”

In an attempt to stem the flow of heavy weapons from the U.S. and other allies to the front lines in Ukraine, Russia on Monday hit several Ukrainian railway hubs with missile strikes, severely disrupting rail traffic. Meanwhile, large fires broke out at fuel-storage facilities in the Russian region of Bryansk, some 60 miles from the border with Ukraine, as well as at a nearby military fuel depot, Russian state media said.

Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin said the U.S. wants Russia weakened, after meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv; a Russian oil depot caught fire; Ukrainian Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter as fighting continued. Photo: Associated Press

Russian authorities said they were investigating the fires at the facilities, which Russian state media said together contained around 15,000 tons of fuel. The blazes erupted less than a month after Russia said Ukrainian helicopters launched strikes that caused a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s Belgorod region, also bordering Ukraine. Russian state media aired security-camera footage on Monday that appeared to show a large explosion followed by a fire.

Bryansk, Belgorod and Kursk, another region of Russia bordering Ukraine, have extended a state of alert they rolled out earlier this month, citing “possible provocations” from Ukraine. Authorities in Kursk said Monday that Russian air-defense forces had shot down two Ukrainian drones in the village of Borovskoye. There were no casualties or damage, they said. Meanwhile, Russian state media reported that a series of explosions rocked the building of the Ministry of State Security of Transnistria, a breakaway region in Moldova, which also borders Ukraine. Ukraine hasn’t claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

The Russian missile strikes hit rail infrastructure in the central Ukrainian region of Rivne, local officials said. They followed other missile attacks late Sunday in Poltava that struck an electricity plant and a fuel refinery. The governor of Ukraine’s central province of Vinnytsia said early Monday that Russian missile attacks had hit critical infrastructure in the region and that there were people dead and injured, though he provided no details.

The strikes came hours after Messrs. Blinken and Austin told Mr. Zelensky that Washington would reopen its embassy in Kyiv and provide Ukraine with $322 million in foreign military assistance to allow Kyiv to buy needed weapons. Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.,

Anatoly Antonov,

demanded in a diplomatic note that Washington stop supplying weapons to Ukraine, Russian news agency RIA reported Monday.

The scene of a missile strike on a train station on Monday in Krasne, in western Ukraine.



Photo:

MAKSYM KOZYTSKYY/via REUTERS

“We believe that they can win if they have the right equipment, the right support,” Mr. Austin said, adding of Mr. Zelensky: “While he’s grateful for all the things we’re doing, he’s also focused on what he thinks he’ll need next in order to be successful.” Besides artillery, Ukraine has expressed an interest in getting more tanks, he said.

Mr. Zelensky said the $3.4 billion in defense support provided by the U.S. so far has been the biggest contribution to Ukraine’s defense efforts, adding that he had also discussed sanctions on Russia, financial support for Ukraine and security guarantees with the secretaries.

“I would like to thank President Biden personally and on behalf of the entire Ukrainian people for his leadership in supporting Ukraine, for his personal clear position,” he said on his website.

The White House said Monday that Mr. Biden planned to nominate

Bridget Brink,

the current U.S. ambassador to Slovakia, as ambassador to Ukraine. The position has been vacant since the last Senate-confirmed ambassador to the country,

Marie Yovanovitch,

was ousted by then-President

Donald Trump

in 2019.

Artificial flowers adorned a memorial wall on Sunday in Lviv, in western Ukraine, for people killed during the war.



Photo:

yuriy dyachyshyn/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

An underground parking lot in Kharkiv, Ukraine, where people have been seeking shelter from the bombing of the city.



Photo:

sergey bobok/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Messrs. Austin and Blinken hailed Ukraine’s success in fending off Russia’s initial attack on Kyiv and maintaining its sovereignty. A senior State Department official briefed reporters on the flight out of Poland about many aspects of Ukraine’s military campaign that were discussed with Mr. Zelensky, including Russia’s depleted forces and inability to devote many more resources to the war without compromising its stance against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and even Finland, which could join the alliance.

Still, U.S. officials said they recognized that Russian President

Vladimir Putin

could choose to escalate the war, including possibly with weapons of mass destruction.

“I suspect that May is going to be very much in his mind in wanting to show something, so we fully anticipate that he’s going to press the accelerator the best he can,” the senior official said. “We’re trying to be prepared for everything.”

Having struck Odessa in recent days, the senior official said, Mr. Putin is “looking at the entire expanse of the Black Sea coastline.”

The official declined to comment on the explosions in Bryansk in the absence of sufficient information or analysis.

At a briefing in Poland after his return from Kyiv, Mr. Blinken said he spoke to United Nations Secretary-General

António Guterres

on Friday and that the U.N. chief, set to visit Moscow and Kyiv this week, would send a “clear, direct message” on behalf of most of the world that Russia should agree to a cease-fire, provide needed aid to civilians and stop the war.

Rescuers cleared debris on Monday from a damaged building in Odessa, on Ukraine’s Black Sea coast.



Photo:

Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images

A child stood next to a wrecked vehicle in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, on Sunday.



Photo:

ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS

Mr. Guterres had appealed for a four-day truce during the Orthodox Holy Week to allow for the evacuation of civilians from front-line towns and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The cease-fire proposal was rejected by Moscow, which said it was a ruse to allow Ukraine’s military to rest and regroup.

Senior U.S. military officers at a facility in Poland described an accelerating logistical network for supplying weapons and materiel to Ukraine, as well as a regional effort to increase troop levels and exercises with NATO members along the alliance’s eastern flank.

Seven 155-mm artillery pieces, along with their tow vehicles, are being processed through the facility, adding to the 18 howitzers the U.S. has already provided to Ukraine, a senior defense official said. Six dozen U.S. howitzers are being sent to Ukraine under a new aid package, and rounds of 155-mm artillery were visible on pallets at the Polish facility.

The focus on heavy artillery and armored vehicles comes as Russia removes some of its forces from around cities in northern Ukraine and focuses instead on the eastern Donbas region, in what is expected to be a high-stakes conflict on wide-open terrain.

Mr. Austin on Tuesday will join other defense ministers, including Ukraine’s

Oleksii Reznikov,

and NATO Secretary-General

Jens Stoltenberg

at a gathering at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. The topics to be discussed will include updating the representatives of more than 20 countries about the latest intelligence from the battlefield in Ukraine, security assistance to Kyiv and strengthening NATO’s defense-industrial base in the long term to support Ukraine’s defense, the defense official said.

One problem to be addressed at the gathering is Ukraine’s need for what NATO considers to be nonstandard ammunition and weapons systems, as well as discussions about whether the former Soviet republic could shift toward standard NATO equipment, the official said. For example, howitzers designed to fire 152-mm rounds can’t accommodate the 155-mm caliber.

The return of a U.S. diplomatic presence to Ukraine, which follows moves by the U.K., Italy, France and other countries, will help American and Ukrainian officials to coordinate aid and other efforts in person and to prepare for a future consular operation to address the needs of citizens of both countries, a State Department official said. The defense official declined to say whether U.S. Marines would help guard the embassy in Kyiv, saying the military would respond to the State Department’s needs.

Asked whether the increased U.S. focus on Ukraine risks increasing tensions with Russia, the State Department official said Washington has no plans to involve its troops in the conflict.

—Mauro Orru in Barcelona contributed to this article.

A resident of Hostomel, Ukraine, surveyed the remains of her home on Monday after fighting in the Kyiv-area suburb.



Photo:

John Moore/Getty Images

Write to William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com and Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

US

Russia warns United States against sending more arms to Ukraine

Leave a comment

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attend a meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 24, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

  • Russia warns West over arms supplies to Ukraine
  • U.S. pouring oil on fire of Ukraine conflict – ambassador
  • U.S. pledges more security aid
  • Blinken, Austin visit Kyiv

LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) – Russia told the United States to stop sending more arms to Ukraine, warning that large Western deliveries of weapons were inflaming the conflict and would lead to more losses, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington said.

Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the United States – by far the world’s two biggest nuclear powers.

The United States has ruled out sending its own or NATO forces to Ukraine but Washington and its European allies have supplied weapons to Kyiv such as drones, Howitzer heavy artillery, anti-aircraft Stinger and anti-tank Javelin missiles.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

Anatoly Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, said such arms deliveries were aimed at weakening Russia but that they were escalating the conflict in Ukraine while undermining efforts to reach some sort of peace agreement.

“What the Americans are doing is pouring oil on the flames,” Antonov told the Rossiya 24 TV channel. “I see only an attempt to raise the stakes, to aggravate the situation, to see more losses.”

Antonov, who has served as ambassador to Washington since 2017, said an official diplomatic note had been sent to Washington expressing Russia’s concerns. No reply had been given, Antonov said.

“We stressed the unacceptability of this situation when the United States of America pours weapons into Ukraine, and we demanded an end to this practice,” Antonov said. The interview was replayed on Russian state television throughout Monday.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kyiv on Sunday.

They told Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy of more than $322 million in new military financing for Ukraine, taking total U.S. security assistance since the invasion to about $3.7 billion, a U.S. official said. read more

U.S. President Joe Biden pledged $800 million in more weaponry for Ukraine on Thursday and said he would ask Congress for more money to help bolster support for the Ukrainian military.

President Vladimir Putin says the “special military operation” in Ukraine is necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Moscow had to defend against the persecution of Russian-speaking people.

Putin, who says Ukraine and Russia are essentially one people, casts the war as an inevitable confrontation with the United States, which he accuses of threatening Russia by meddling in its backyard and enlarging the NATO military alliance.

Ukraine says it is fighting an imperial-style land grab and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. Zelenskiy has been pleading with U.S. and European leaders to supply Kyiv with heavier arms and equipment.

Putin warned in February that there would be no winners in a conflict between NATO and Russia, which has the world’s biggest arsenal of nuclear warheads.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

Writing by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

Business

Coca-Cola (KO) Q1 2022 earnings

Leave a comment

A person wearing a mask pushes a dolly cart past a Coca-Cola truck as the city continues Phase 4 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus on September 16, 2020 in New York City.

Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images

Coca-Cola on Monday reported quarterly earnings that topped analysts’ expectations as consumers drank more of its trademark soda, Powerade and other beverages.

Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

  • Earnings per share: 64 cents adjusted vs. 58 cents expected
  • Revenue: $10.5 billion vs. $9.83 billion expected

Coke reported first-quarter net income attributable to shareholders of $2.78 billion, or 64 cents per share, up from $2.25 billion, or 52 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the beverage giant earned 64 cents per share, beating the 58 cents per share expected by analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

Net sales rose 16% to $10.5 billion, topping Wall Street’s expectations of $9.83 billion. Organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, climbed 18% in the quarter.

Despite the suspension of its Russian business, the company reiterated its full-year outlook of revenue growth of 7% to 8% and comparable earnings per share growth of 5% to 6%.

Read the full earnings report here.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

Read original article here

World

Ukraine warns Moscow is running ‘parallel’ evacuation routes from Mariupol into Russia

Leave a comment

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Ukraine on Saturday announced there were humanitarian evacuation corridors opened around Mariupol, but warned Moscow was running “parallel” routes headed for Russia.

“Just received information that the occupiers may try to organize their corridor in parallel with us for evacuation to Russia,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk took to Facebook to warn. “So please be careful. Do not surrender to deception and provocation.”

ZELENSKYY WARNS RUSSIA WILL LIKELY INVADE OTHER COUNTRIES IF SUCCESSFUL IN UKRAINE

 A resident looks at a damaged apartment building in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Saturday. 
(AP/Alexei Alexandrov)

Vereschuk has been working for days to secure an evacuation route from the partially besieged city, but her attempts have repeatedly been foiled by Russian troops.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory over Mariupol this week despite the thousands of civilians and resistance fighters holed up under the city’s Azovstal steel plant. 

Invading forces have repeatedly attempted to root out the fighters bunkered deep in the tunnels beneath the plant by alleging they will allow them to live if they voluntarily surrender. 

UKRAINE SAYS RUSSIA LOOKS TO ‘REPLENISH’ TROOPS BY CONSCRIPTING UKRAINIANS

A convoy of pro-Russian troops moves along a road in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Thursday, April 21.
(REUTERS/Chingis Kondarov)

But Vereschuk criticized Russian claims Friday that a separate evacuation route was unnecessary for civilians stuck in the war-torn city. 

Additionally, reports have surfaced for weeks that Russian troops are forcibly deporting Ukrainians to camps in Russia.

The deputy prime minister clarified that Kyiv’s organized evacuation routes will head to Zaporizhzhia by way of four additional stops along the Sea of Azov before heading inland. 

Zaporizhzhia, which sits directly west of Donetsk above the Sea of Azov, has become a destination for evacuees fleeing the port city of Mariupol in Donetsk.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Local residents gather near a generator to charge their mobile devices in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)
(AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

But on Friday it also became a target of further Russian aggression,

A Ukrainian spokesperson from its Ministry of Defense warned Moscow is looking to annex Zaporizhzhia along with its neighboring region Kherson – which sits directly above the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula. 

Ukrainian officials warned Russia is looking to not only draft a referendum to take over portions of southern Ukraine, but will forcibly conscript Ukrainian men in the regions to “replenish” its personnel losses. 

Read original article here

World

Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Leave a comment

Russia resumes Azovstal offensive, says Ukraine presidential advisor

A destroyed administration building at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.

Chingis Kondarov | Reuters

Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said Saturday that Russia has resumed its offensive against forces in Azovstal, a steelworks and the last Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol.

“The enemy is trying to strangle the final resistance of the defenders of Mariupol in the Azovstal area,” Arestovych said on national television, according to Reuters.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this week ordered his military to ditch a plan to storm the Azovstal steel plant, where several thousand Ukrainian troops as well as civilians are encamped, opting instead to continue to seal off the facility via blockade.

—Matt Clinch

Evacuations from Mariupol to start at midday, deputy PM says

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said Saturday that evacuations from the besieged city of Mariupol would commence at midday local time if all went to plan, according to Reuters.

“Today, we again will be trying to evacuate women, children and the elderly,” she said in a social media post.

Moldova expresses deep concern over Russian military commander comments

Moldova’s Foreign Ministry says it has summoned its Moscow ambassador and has expressed deep concern about comments made by a top Russian military commander.

Russia’s Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekayev had claimed, without evidence, that the Russian-speaking population in Transnistria was being oppressed. Transnistria is an unrecognized breakaway state that is officially part of Moldova, which borders Ukraine to the south. Russian forces have been stationed in Transnistria since the 1990s, and Kyiv has warned that Moscow could stage false flag operations there to justify an invasion.

Moldova’s Foreign Ministry updated a statement onto its website saying “these statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, within its internationally recognized borders.”

—Matt Clinch

Zelenskyy says Ukraine invasion ‘only the beginning’

In his regular nightly address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed comments made by a Russian military official on Friday.

Russia’s Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekayev had earlier disclosed that Moscow’s goal is to fully control Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as well as southern Ukraine as part of the second phase of the invasion. It was, however, unclear if the comments reflected official policy from Russia.

Minnekayev claimed, without evidence, that the Russian-speaking population in Transnistria was being oppressed. Transnistria is an unrecognized breakaway state that is officially part of Moldova, which borders Ukraine to the south. Russian forces have been stationed in Transnistria since the 1990s, and Kyiv has warned that Moscow could stage false flag operations there to justify an invasion.

Zelenskyy said late Friday that the comments meant that Russia had ambitions to invade other nearby nations. “The invasion of Ukraine is only the beginning. Then they want to invade other countries,” he said, according to a NBC News translation. 

“Of course, we will defend ourselves for as long as necessary in order to break this ambition of the Russian Federation. But all the peoples that believe in the victory of life over death like we do, have to fight alongside us, have to help us,” he added.

“Because it’s us who became the first ones on this path. But who is next? If those who can be next want to remain neutral today in order to not lose something, in reality it is the riskiest bet, because you will lose everything.” 

—Matt Clinch and Natasha Turak

Ukrainian officials say another mass grave was discovered near Mariupol

Ukrainian officials say another mass grave has been discovered near the devastated southern port city of Mariupol.

Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol’s mayor, said in a Telegram post that there was “new information about the mass burial of dead Mariupol residents” in Vynohradne — a village about 7 miles east of Mariupol.

Maxar satellite imagery of another mass grave site expansion just outside of Vynohradne, Ukraine, just east of Mariupol.

Maxar | Maxar | Getty Images

“This confirms again that the occupiers arrange the collection / burial / cremation of the dead Mariupol residents in every district of the city,” he said, accusing Russia of trying to “hide the consequences of war crimes.”

Separately, U.S. defense contractor Maxar said that high-resolution satellite imagery of the Mariupol area “reveals the existence of a second cemetery that has expanded over the past month and includes several long trenches that are/will likely become new grave sites.”

CNBC and NBC were not able to independently confirm those claims, and Russian officials have yet to respond to CNBC queries about those allegations.

— Joanna Tan

Russia will continue bombardment until ‘new methods of warfare’ are introduced, UK says

Maxar satellite imagery of buildings on fire in eastern Mariupol, Ukraine on April 9, 2022.

Maxar | Getty Images

Russia will likely “continue to be frustrated” by its inability to overcome Ukrainian defenses quickly, according to British intelligence.

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has said he will introduce “new methods of warfare” — a “tacit admission” that the war is not progressing as intended, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in a tweet.

Moscow new plans will take time to implement, and until then, “there is likely to be a continued reliance on bombardment as a means of trying to suppress Ukrainian opposition,” the report said.

— Joanna Tan

Zelenskyy says allies are delivering the weapons Ukraine wanted

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said allies were finally delivering the weapons that Kyiv had asked for, adding the arms would help save the lives of thousands of people.

— Reuters

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:



Read original article here

World

Ukraine Accuses Russia of Digging Mass Graves for Civilian Victims

Leave a comment

KHARKIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian officials accused Russia of burying thousands of civilians in mass graves outside Mariupol, a city now mostly under Russian control, as a senior Russian military official said Moscow’s territorial goals extend well beyond Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Moscow stopped considering Donbas as part of Ukraine—including areas controlled by Kyiv—when President

Vladimir Putin

in February recognized the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, statelets created with Moscow’s help in part of the region in 2014.

Maj. Gen. Rustam Minnekayev, deputy commander of Russia’s Central Military District, said in remarks at a conference carried by state media on Friday that Moscow sought to control all of southern Ukraine to secure a land corridor to Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow annexed in 2014, and to Moldova’s Transnistria region, where he said Russian speakers suffer from discrimination.

To achieve these goals, Russia, in addition to capturing the parts of Donbas that remain under Ukrainian control, would also have to seize the coastal regions of Mykolaiv and Odessa. Russian forces came close to overrunning Mykolaiv in early March, but since have been repelled and control a sliver of the region.

Ukraine’s second-largest city has been under increased Russian shelling after nearly two months of heavy fighting. WSJ’s Yaroslav Trofimov reports on the dire conditions in Kharkiv as residents survive on little food and shelter in basements. Photo: Felipe Dana/Associated Press

Moscow, however, occupies most of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine and a large part of the Zaporizhzhia region. Russia’s RIA state news agency Friday ran interviews with a member of the Russian parliament, Dmitriy Belik, and a pro-Moscow Crimean Tatar leader, Eyvaz Umerov, calling for absorbing these occupied territories into a new Crimean federal district within Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the possibility of Russia expanding its military aims in southern Ukraine. It wasn’t clear to what extent Gen. Minnekayev’s remarks—which also included the false claims that Russia fought “against the entire world” in World War II and that Russian armed forces are suffering no casualties in Ukraine—reflected the Kremlin’s policy.

A satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows an overview of graves in Manhush, near Mariupol.



Photo:

Maxar Technologies/Associated Press

In Mariupol—much of which has been leveled by shelling, bombing and street fights—Ukrainian municipal authorities said mass graves for residents killed by the Russian army were being dug outside the city in an area that is already twice as large as the local cemetery.

“The worst war crime of the 21st century has been committed in Mariupol,” Mayor

Vadym Boychenko

said in remarks posted by the municipality on social media. “Putin is exterminating Ukrainians. He has already killed tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol.”

Satellite images released Thursday by

Maxar Technologies

showed what appeared to be more than 200 mass graves in the town of Manhush, just outside Mariupol. These graves could contain between 3,000 and 9,000 people, the municipality said. Russia didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In general it ascribes all civilian casualties in Mariupol to Ukrainian forces.

Russia on Thursday announced a victory in the strategic port city even though Ukrainian forces were still blockaded inside its vast Azovstal steel plant. A spokesman for Ukrainian President

Volodymyr Zelensky

said while nearly all of Mariupol was under Russian control, the fight for the plant continued.

A rare acknowledgment of Moscow’s deliberate strategy to level Mariupol, which used to be home to about 400,000 people, came from a Thursday address by Adam Delimkhanov, a Russian lawmaker from Chechnya who led Chechen units of the Russian National Guard in battles for the city.

“We can say that the special operation to destroy and cleanse Mariupol has now been concluded,” Mr. Delimkhanov said alongside a unit of Chechen Russian National Guard troops in front of a burning Mariupol building. The troops in the video chanted, “Russia is strength” and “Allahu akbar.”

Chechen fighters, led by Russian lawmaker Adam Delimkhanov, near the administration building of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.



Photo:

CHINGIS KONDAROV/REUTERS

Smoke rises above the Mariupol steel plant where Ukrainian troops are holed up.



Photo:

ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO/REUTERS

Mr. Peskov said Russian troops had sealed off the Azovstal steel plant, where an estimated 1,500 Ukrainian troops were holed up. Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol said they would be ready to withdraw with their arms if their safety were guaranteed by a third party.

British Prime Minister

Boris Johnson

on Friday said he agreed with a Western intelligence assessment that the war in Ukraine could continue until the end of next year and that Russia could win.

“I think the sad thing is it is a realistic possibility,” Mr. Johnson said. “Putin has a huge army, he has a very difficult position because he’s made a catastrophic blunder—the only option he has now is to continue to try to use his appalling, grinding approach.”

The British government also said it would reopen its embassy in Kyiv next week, joining a host of nations returning to the Ukrainian capital after Russian forces pulled back from Kyiv and other cities in the north. And Mr. Johnson said the government proposes sending tanks to Poland.

The U.S. doesn’t have diplomatic personnel in Ukraine and hasn’t outlined any plans for American diplomats to return.

As part of an effort to pursue an end to the war, United Nations Secretary-General

António Guterres

will travel to Moscow and meet with Mr. Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday and will travel to Ukraine and meet with Mr. Zelensky and Ukrainian Foreign Minister

Dmytro Kuleba

on Thursday, according to Mr. Guterres’s office.

Mr. Putin ordered Russian forces to focus on seizing the parts of Donbas that remain under Ukrainian control, after his initial plan to swiftly conquer the capital, Kyiv, and other major cities of eastern and central Ukraine failed because of fierce resistance. Russia’s new strategy, Ukrainian and Western officials say, is to encircle Ukraine’s best forces in Donbas through a pincer movement, with offensives pushing north from the Zaporizhzhia region and south from the town of Izyum.

So far, Russian forces have made incremental gains, taking a handful of small villages since seizing the town of Kreminna last weekend. Russian forces on Friday pushed toward Slovyansk, one of the main cities in Ukrainian-controlled Donbas, and took over the village of Lozove, according to Ukraine’s general staff.

Ukraine’s military has been able to curtail Russia’s overwhelming advantage in aircraft by using Western-supplied antiaircraft missiles, such as Stinger and Starstreak, to down several Russian jet fighters, helicopters and drones in recent days, according to footage of wreckage posted by Ukrainian troops and verified by military analysts. Ukraine said Friday it lost an An-26B transport plane that hit a power line in the Zaporizhzhia region, leaving at least one crew member dead.

With the battle for Donbas pitting conventional forces against each other, Ukraine is struggling to make up for its disadvantage in artillery and its shortage of Soviet-standard ammunition—one reason why Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly asked the U.S. and allies to supply NATO-standard heavy weapons.

The U.S. has been the first to provide Ukraine with NATO-standard 155-mm howitzers. President Biden said Thursday that Washington’s latest $800 million military-aid package would include 72 of these towed artillery pieces in addition to 18 pledged the previous week.

In an interview published Friday by newspaper Ouest-France, French President

Emmanuel Macron

said Paris is providing Ukraine with Caesar self-propelled 155-mm artillery pieces. The newspaper, citing military sources, reported that Paris was transferring 12 Caesars, which have a range of some 40 kilometers, equivalent to about 25 miles, and that Ukrainian soldiers would begin training Saturday in France.

Ukrainian officials have warned recently that Moscow plans in the coming weeks to conduct a sham referendum on severing Russian-controlled parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson from Ukraine and possibly proclaiming a so-called Kherson people’s republic, similar to what it did in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014. That would allow Russia to start forcibly drafting local men, as has happened with the mandatory mobilization of men up to 65 years old in Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russia already has replaced most mayors in occupied areas of southern Ukraine with handpicked allies, with the exception of the mayor of the city of Kherson. Moscow hasn’t commented publicly on referendum plans. “Not a single person in the Kherson region, which awaits liberation, will come to that referendum,” the Ukrainian governor of Kherson, Hennadiy Lahuta, said in a TV appearance. “Anything they may conduct will be unlawful and falsified.”

A partially damaged cross in the region of Hostomel.



Photo:

Mikhail Palincha/REUTERS

—Georgi Kantchev contributed to this article.

Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com

Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

Read original article here

World

Transnistria: What is the breakaway region of Moldova that Russia may be interested in?

Leave a comment

Two months into the invasion of Ukraine, a Russian military commander suggested Friday that Moscow aims to establish a corridor through southern Ukraine to Transnistria, a breakaway republic in eastern Moldova.

“Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population,” said Rustam Minnekaev, acting commander of Russia’s Central Military District, according to the Russian news agency Interfax.

It was unclear whether Minnekaev’s statement reflects the official Kremlin line. The comment surprised some analysts, since Russia tried and failed in the early weeks of the war to advance on southwestern Ukraine — the area it would need to secure to reach the border with Transnistria.

Nonetheless, it sparked global conversation about the separatist enclave and represents the most direct challenge to Moldova to date. Moldova summoned Russia’s ambassador later Friday to express “deep concern” over Minnekaev’s comments.

“These statements are unfounded and contradict the position of the Russian Federation supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova, within its internationally recognized borders,” the Moldovan foreign ministry said in a statement provided to The Washington Post.

Analysts say it’s unlikely that the Russian military, embroiled in a fight to take eastern Ukraine, is capable of carving out such a path. And even though Transnistria is backed by Moscow and hosts Russian troops, that may not mean its residents want to get involved in the war.

Here’s what to know about the breakaway republic.

Read original article here

World

Scholz says top priority is avoiding NATO confrontation with Russia

Leave a comment

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz makes a statement after talks with European leaders and U.S. President Joe Biden, in Berlin, Germany, April 19, 2022. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner/Pool

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

  • Scholz warns Germany may be considered party to war if it sends tanks
  • Scholz could soon be forced to decide on approving exports
  • Says top priority is avoiding nuclear war
  • Does not believe banning Russian gas would end war

BERLIN, April 22 (Reuters) – NATO must avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia that could lead to a third world war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview with Der Spiegel when asked about Germany’s failure to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Scholz is facing growing criticism at home and abroad for his government’s apparent reluctance to deliver heavy battlefield weapons, such as tanks and howitzers, to Ukraine to help it fend off Russian attacks, even as other Western allies step up shipments.

Asked in an extensive interview published on Friday why he thought delivering tanks could lead to nuclear war, he said there was no rule book that stated when Germany could be considered a party to the war in Ukraine.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

“That’s why it is all the more important that we consider each step very carefully and coordinate closely with one another,” he was quoted as saying. “To avoid an escalation towards NATO is a top priority for me.

“That’s why I don’t focus on polls or let myself be irritated by shrill calls. The consequences of an error would be dramatic.”

This was a departure from his previous statements on the topic, focusing on the fact that the stocks of Germany’s own military were too depleted to send any heavy battlefield weapons while those the German industry has said it could supply could not easily be put into use.

Asked why he would not explain that his government’s reluctance was due to the threat of nuclear war, he said such “simplifications” were not helpful.

However, Scholz could soon be forced to take a clear position on whether heavy weapons can be sent directly from Germany to Ukraine. The Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported that defence contractor Rheinmetall had applied for a licence to sell 100 Marder armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine.

According to the contractor, the Marders could be delivered quickly, but all military exports have to be approved by a committee on which the chancellor sits.

Germany has in the past allowed other countries, including the Netherlands, to send heavy weapons it made to the Ukraine.

Separately, Scholz defended his decision not to immediately end German imports of Russian gas in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

“I absolutely do not see how a gas embargo would end the war. If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin were open to economic arguments, he would never have begun this crazy war,” Scholz said.

“Secondly, you act as if this was about money. But it’s about avoiding a dramatic economic crisis and the loss of millions of jobs and factories that would never again open their doors.”

Scholz said this would have considerable consequences not just for Germany but also for Europe and the future financing of the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Russia calls its invasion a “special military operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject that as a false pretext for a war that has killed thousands and uprooted a quarter of Ukraine’s population.

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

Register

Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Kirsti Knolle; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Jonathan Oatis

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Read original article here

The Ultimate News Site