LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said late on Saturday that Britain would send 14 of its main battle tanks along with additional artillery support to Ukraine, disregarding criticism from the Russian Embassy in London.
A squadron of 14 Challenger 2 tanks will go into the country in the coming weeks and around 30 self-propelled AS90 guns, operated by five gunners, are expected to follow, the British prime minister’s office said in a statement.
The UK will also begin training Ukrainian forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days.
“As the people of Ukraine approach their second year living under relentless Russian bombardment, the Prime Minister is dedicated to ensuring Ukraine wins this war,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said in a statement.
“Alongside his closest military advisors, he has analysed the military picture, looked at the strategic impact of the UK’s support and identified a window where he thinks the UK and its allies can have maximum impact.”
The announcement follows a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier on Saturday during which, Sunak “outlined the UK’s ambition to intensify our support to Ukraine, including through the provision of Challenger 2 tanks and additional artillery systems.”
Sunak’s office said earlier this week that Britain would coordinate its support with allies after Germany, France and the United States all indicated last week they would provide armoured vehicles to Ukraine.
The office also said that the defence minister would update the British parliament with details of the security support on Monday.
The Russian Embassy in London said the decision to send the tanks would drag out the confrontation, lead to more victims including civilians, and was evidence of “the increasingly obvious involvement of London in the conflict”.
“As for the Challenger 2 tanks, they are unlikely to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine turn the tide on the battlefield, but they will become a legitimate large target for the Russian artillery,” the embassy said, according to comments cited by the TASS news agency.
BATTLE TANK
The Challenger 2 is a battle tank designed to attack other tanks, and has been in service with the British Army since 1994. It has been deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Iraq, according to the army.
“The prime minister and President Zelenskiy welcomed other international commitments in this vein, including Poland’s offer to provide a company of Leopard tanks,” Sunak’s spokesperson said.
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address published before the detailed British announcement, called the expected help “important” for Ukraine’s defence.
“It’s really what is needed,” Zelenskiy said. “And I believe that similar decisions will still be made by other partners – those who understand why such evil cannot be given a single chance.”
Reporting by Michael Holden and Lidia Kelly;
Editing by Mark Heinrich, Angus MacSwan, Tomasz Janowski, and Deepa Babington
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
“I think the stress was what got them,” a family member said.
Andrea Eger
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the request Danny Nelson received in a phone call from his 34-year-old son, Brian, on Thursday.
Would you babysit at 3 o’clock?
Danny and his wife, Marilyn, frequently pitched in to watch their grandchildren. But Marilyn, 74, has health issues that keep her close to home, and there were six grandchildren to wrangle now — including a 1-year-old and 2-year-old.
Danny asked if the children could come over to their grandparents’ south Tulsa apartment instead, so he wouldn’t have to take on all six kids alone in their Broken Arrow home.
“OK,” Danny said Brian told him, “but we’ll bring them over at 5.”
“Five came and went. Then it was 6. I texted them — no responses,” Danny said. “I turned on the 6 o’clock news, and they said there had been a fire near Hickory and Galveston in Broken Arrow. That’s where my son lives.”
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Danny said he wasn’t worried — but he still felt compelled to go.
“I’ve had almost psychic feelings before, and dreams,” he said, explaining why he hopped in his car and made the 5-mile drive east.
When he pushed past the crime scene tape, he came upon a scene too horrifying even for a parent’s worst nightmares.
Broken Arrow Police said six children were found dead in a back bedroom of a 980-square-foot home that was on fire at 425 S. Hickory Ave.
But not from smoke or burns.
Two adults, whose bodies were found near the front of the house, are law enforcement’s prime suspects — meaning they could have been killing their children in the same time frame Danny was originally asked to come there to babysit.
Police have not released any more details or the identities.
But in their South Tulsa apartment home on Friday, the Nelsons told the Tulsa World in their first in-depth interview that their son Brian Nelson, 34, daughter-in-law Brittney Nelson, 32, and six grandchildren — Brian II, age 13, granddaughter Brantley, 9, grandsons Vegeta, 7, Ragnar, 5, and Kurgan, 2, and granddaughter Britannica, 1, are the deceased family.
“All night last night, I kept saying: `It’s not real! It’s not real! It’s not real!’ And I couldn’t stop. But today, I know it’s real — too real,” said Marilyn,” her voice catching in her throat. “I never dreamed this would happen.”
Financial strain and a head injury
A federal bankruptcy court listing in Tulsa reveals that Brian and Brittney Nelson had a crushing amount of debt.
The chapter 7 bankruptcy petition they filed on Dec. 31, 2020, reveals they had $8,803 in assets versus nearly $138,000 in liabilities, the vast majority — $127,081 — in unpaid student loans.
Both indicated they were unemployed at the time and their only income was from SNAP benefits, some limited government utility payment assistance and rental assistance from the Oklahoma Housing Authority.
Brian Nelson reported he grossed $4,510 in income in the previous year of 2019, while Brittney reported no income.
Among what little personal property they had to their names were nine firearms — five pistols valued altogether at $1,600, one .22-caliber rifle worth $100 and two shotguns worth $150.
Marilyn said Brian always had a pistol in his pocket, but “he had a permit,” she noted.
The Nelsons said they knew their son and daughter-in-law were struggling under the weight of growing financial pressures compounded by the births of their fifth and sixth children in very short order. And in the last year or so, they were more distanced from Danny and Marilyn.
But they helped the young family with utility bills as often as they could and readily babysat, noting Brittney had suffered from gallstones and more recently, seizures, so she often needed to go to doctor’s appointments.
Where did Brian say they were going on Thursday, when he had asked Danny to come over and babysit?
A doctor’s appointment for Brittney.
“I think the stress was what got to them — trying to figure out how to make it from one month, to one month, to one month,” Danny said of Thursday’s tragedy.
Then Marilyn interjected: “Then every time one of those headaches came around, he just would lose it because it was so excruciating.”
Danny and Marilyn agree their son was forever changed after sustaining a severe concussion in a workplace accident years ago at a large retail chain.
Neither could recall exactly how many years ago, maybe Brian was in his early to mid-20s when he was working an overnight shift, stocking the dairy refrigerators.
“One night when he got there, the guy who had just gotten off work before him had spilled something and did not mop the floor and Brian fell, and he hit his head really hard. The doctor said that it was a very rare concussion and told Brian that either it would go away or it would stay — and it stayed,” Marilyn said, her voice straining. “The headaches were horrible, and he never knew when he was going to get them.”
Danny shook his head, saying he wanted Brian to be able to continue with medical treatment for his head injury, but a lawyer told him to do so indefinitely was impossible so he accepted a settlement. He and Marilyn both said Brian never laughed as easily or seemed as happy afterward, and he had “episodes” related to the pain he experienced.
Of her daughter-in-law Brittney, Marilyn said was clearly stressed from caring for six children, including home-schooling.
“She basically went along with my son Brian, but she usually was OK,” she said.
Brian and Brittney
Brittney’s mother “had issues,” her in-laws said, and died early in her childhood. Her father wasn’t around, so Brittney had to live with relatives she claimed had been “mean” to her.
She and Brian met when they were both students at Tulsa’s East Central High School and quickly formed a bond so ironclad that Brian, who was a grade ahead of her, figured out a way to remain in high school for a fifth year so they could graduate together.
Were Danny and Marilyn ever aware of any violence in the younger Nelsons’ home?
Both gave an emphatic “No,” but then Marilyn recalled, “Well, the first couple years of marriage, when they just had a baby and they were very young, they struggled. They were just out of high school.”
Public records indicate Brian and Brittney married in November 2008 and their first birth announcement, for son Brian II, appeared in the Tulsa World just four months later.
Rather than holding down a job for very long, their son had devoted a lot of time to college over his adult life, taking courses at both Tulsa Community College and Oklahoma State University, possibly as recent as this semester, the Nelsons said.
“He was very intelligent,” Marilyn said. “Maybe too much so for his own good.”
Brittney also had some college classes under her belt but never worked outside the home.
Memories of the innocents
Marilyn got weepy and Danny’s eyes welled with tears as they talked, but they said they wanted the world to know their grandchildren were beautiful, happy, normal children.
And they adored and loved them.
Their tears were interrupted by broad smiles and laughter as they picked up framed photographs from a shelf in their living room and got out their cellphones, with their wall-to-wall grandbaby photos, and recounted each child’s personality or a funny anecdote.
Brian II was the only child to ever attend school. He went to kindergarten and one semester of first grade at a Broken Arrow elementary school but, “His father didn’t get along with what they were teaching,” Danny said.
“They wanted boys to dance like girls. That was the final thing,” Marilyn recalled.
Brian and Brittney opted for home-schooling from then on.
The two oldest children, Brian II and Brantley, doted on their younger siblings, Danny and Marilyn said.
They swiped through their cellphone images to show off videos of Brian II toy sword fighting in the backyard with Ragnar, who Danny and Marilyn said was the rough-and-tumble one of the bunch, and of their son Brian in a snowball fight with Brian II and Ragnar.
Brantley, they said, was the artist in the family, and Marilyn proudly showed off their refrigerator papered with Brantley’s many drawings of all manner of bears — her grandmother’s favorite. And she was over-the-moon happy to finally have a baby sister.
“She had really long eyelashes, and she knew how to bat them at you,” Danny said of baby Britannica, who was 19 months old.
The three youngest boys, they said, had rather unusual names thanks to their father’s favorite entertainment programs. “Vegeta the Prince” as he was known in the Nelson family, was named after a character in the Japanese anime television series Dragon Ball Z, while they were told Ragnar and Kurgan were named after Viking characters from something or other.
“My son has a weird sense of coming up with names,” Danny said.
Vegeta the Prince, they said, kept everyone on their toes. He was the only mechanically inclined grandchild, so he loved to watch YouTube repair videos with Danny, who prefers to figure out how to fix things around the house himself.
“I’d give him tools for his birthday instead of presents, and he liked that,” Danny said, beaming.
Both grandparents laughed hard at a picture of Vegeta from this summer, when he had gotten ahold of a pair of clippers and shaved a stripe of hair off the top of his head, from front to back.
“He asked if he could try the clippers on me and I said, `No, I’ve seen the way you give haircuts,’” Danny recalled, laughing.
Then their memories turned to their own son, because he had done something similar in kindergarten.
“He had cut clumps of hair off with scissors here and there. He wore a hat to school but apparently took it off,” Danny said. “They asked me, `Did you do that to him?’ and I said, `No, he did it to himself!’”
Never dreamed this could happen
Hindsight sometimes brings clarity, but it’s far too early for the Nelsons to have any of that.
What Danny hopes the public takes away from the senselessness that just wiped out an entire family of eight is to not put off seeking help for yourself or your loved ones.
“A lot of people say well, we’ll check into it tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow — and sometimes, tomorrow don’t ever come,” he said.
Marilyn said one memory of her son, in particular, keeps replaying in her mind.
When Brian was first attending Tulsa Community College after high school, he aspired to be an actor in plays and maybe even movies one day.
“He did a play in this big theater, and we were there to see it. In it, he played a soldier and of course, he was in an Army outfit or whatever, and he had a scene where he had broken down,” she said. “When the play was over with, people were swarming up to him telling him how great an actor he was.
“I asked my son, ‘How were you able to pull that off and it was so real?’ He said, ‘Mom, it’s those damn headaches.’”
Marilyn started to cry again just then.
“I want people to know that at one time he had all his brain together,” she said. “I just don’t understand why they did what they did. I just don’t understand why he ended up in that situation. I talk to God all the time — and I just don’t understand.”
Staff writer Curtis Killman contributed to this story.
Taniya Lumpkin, and Taniya Gholston students at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, and Takisha Duncan, a student’s parent, react to the school shooting that happened on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.
ST. LOUIS — A gunman entered a south St. Louis high school on Monday with a “long gun” and multiple high-capacity magazines, shooting a teenage girl and a health teacher to death and injuring several others before police shot and killed him, authorities said.
Police identified the suspect late Monday as Orlando Harris, 19, a graduate last year of the school, Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, at Arsenal Street and South Kingshighway near Tower Grove Park.
One survivor heard the shooter say he was “tired of everybody” in the school. Police said the damage could have been far worse. The shooter’s gun jammed at one point, one student said, giving kids time to escape. And police found more than a dozen 30-round magazines on him.
Authorities did not release the names of the woman and the teenage girl who died. But relatives of the woman identified her to the Post-Dispatch as 61-year-old Jean Kuczka, who taught health and physical education. Kuczka, a mother of five, lived in the Dittmer area of Jefferson County.
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And family and friends said sophomore Alexandria Bell, 16, loved art and dance and was constantly smiling.
Jean Kuczka
Four other students were shot and injured — two in the leg, one in the arm, and one in the hands and jaw. Two more students suffered abrasions, and a girl fractured her ankle.
Interim St. Louis police Commissioner Michael Sack said Monday evening that he was “extremely proud” of the police response. The call for an active shooter came in at 9:11 a.m., and the shooter was shot 14 minutes later on the school’s third floor. He said a security officer saw the man trying to enter the building, and police were alerted.
Several parents and St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones also commended the police response.
“This could have been much worse,” Sack said.
Sack refused to say how the gunman got into the building but said all doors were locked. The building has metal detectors and seven security officers.
Sack said the gunman had no criminal history.
There are two magnet high schools on the campus — Central Visual and Performing Arts, with about 400 students, and Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, with about 300 students.
David Williams, a math teacher at the school, said the school principal came over the loudspeaker around 9 a.m. and said the code phrase that indicates a shooter in the building. Williams heard multiple shots outside his classroom, and one of the windows on the classroom door was shot out. He then heard a man say, “You are all going to (expletive) die.”
Police haven’t said how many shots were fired inside the school.
Elijah Pohlman, a 15-year-old sophomore, said it was chaos when the code came over the loudspeaker. He said he texted his parents that he loved them, then heard four gunshots and took off running. He said he almost ran into a body in the hallway on his way out.
“I don’t even know how to deal with it,” he said later. “I’m scared.”
Raymond J. Parks, a dance teacher at the school, said he was about to teach a ballet class when he saw the shooter wearing all black with a long gun out of the corner of his eye. Parks said the man pointed the gun at him but did not fire for some reason.
Taniya Gholston, 16, was in the dance class when the shooting started.
“He said like, ‘I’m tired of this damn school,’ and, ‘I’m tired of everybody in this damn school,'” she said.
Taniya said the shooter’s gun eventually jammed and that she was able to run for safety.
Ranaiyah Cole was in the dance class too, stretching, when she heard a gunshot.
“We hid in a corner behind a mat,” said Ranaiyah, 16.
Once the gunman ran off, Ranaiyah and her classmates darted out of the school and to a vacant Walgreens building.
Nylah Jones, a ninth grader at the school, said she was in math class when the shooter fired into the room from the hallway but could not get into the classroom. Students piled into the corner of the room and tried not to move as the shooter banged on the door, she said.
Ryane Owens, 18, a senior at CVPA, said students “thought it was a drill at first. Then we heard noises.”
“Once you heard the boom,” said teacher Michael De Filippo, “all the chuckling and laughing in the back of the room stopped.”
Taniya Lumpkin was in speech and debate class at the time. She said a staff member told them to close and lock the door as they do for an intruder drill, but they “didn’t know if it was real or not.”
“Next thing you know, we just heard gunshots,” Taniya said. First single shots rang out, then multiple, then single again, she said.
Ja’miah Hampton, 16, was in vocal class on the fourth floor of the building when she heard gunshots on the third floor.
“I heard one big one, and then there were so many I stopped counting,” she said. “I’m confused why people are so cruel.”
Scene of a school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.
By 9:30 a.m., the area around the school was blocked off by police, ambulances and a SWAT van. Students and staff streamed from the buildings with hands in the air, filing up Hereford Street toward the Schnucks grocery store on Arsenal, where hundreds of evacuees gathered.
There, students and their parents reconnected, hugging and crying.
One boy was consoling his mother.
“I’m glad it’s over. My friends are alive. It’s OK, Mom. It’s OK, I’m here,” he said.
Earlier Monday, Mayor Jones and Rep. Cori Bush spoke at the first news conference of the day.
“It’s so unfair,” Jones said, choking up. “I’m heartbroken for these families. Our children shouldn’t have to experience this.”
Bush said it is vital to get help if you need it in the shooting’s aftermath: “If you don’t know who to talk to, you can call our office,” she said. “It’s OK to not be OK.”
In Washington, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre addressed the shooting with reporters: “In the wake of Newtown, Parkland, Buffalo, Uvalde and countless other shootings in communities across the country, we need additional action to stop the scourge of gun violence,” calling on the U.S. Senate to approve an assault weapons ban and take “other commonsense actions.”
CVPA was Southwest High School for decades until 1992.
Steph Kukuljan and Katie Kull of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this story.
Photos: School Shooting at CVPA High School in St. Louis
High school students console one another in the parking lot of Schnucks on Arsenal, after fleeing Central Visual and Performing Arts High School after a shooting at the school on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.
David Carson, Post-Dispatch
“He looked at me, he pointed the gun at me,” said Ray Parks, second from right, a dance teacher who came face to face with the gunman. Parks was prayed over by student Messiah Miller, 16, center, a junior at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, and others outside the school where a shooting took place on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
People embrace in the Schnucks Arsenal parking lot following the shooting at Central Visual Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
People race across Kingshighway at Arsenal Street after a shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
St. Louis police officers work outside the scene of a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
People embrace in the Schnucks Arsenal parking lot following the shooting at Central Visual Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
A third floor window is shot out at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams steps away after speaking at a news conference outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
Concerned parents arrive at the scene of a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Police cars assemble at Arsenal and Kingshighway on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, at the scene of a shooting at CVPA and Collegiate high schools. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones hugs U.S. Rep. Cori Bush, D-St. Louis, before a news conference outside Central Visual and Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, in the Southwest Garden neighborhood.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
A parent embraces his child at the evacuation point for students who were at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School after a shooting at the school in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Takisha Duncan (left) embraces her child Taniya Lumpkin, a senior at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, at the evacuation point on the Schnucks parking lot after a shooting at the school in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Messiah Miller, 16, a junior at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School, is reunited with his mother Bridget Morrow following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Messiah studies music at the school. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
High School students were evacuated to the Schnucks parking lot from the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School after a reported shooting at the school in in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
People embrace at the evacuation point on the Schnucks parking lot after a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Law enforcement arrives at the scene of a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
St. Louis interim Police Chief Michael Sack speaks at a news conference watched by Public Safety Director Dan Isom and U.S. Rep. Cori Bush outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
St. Louis interim Police Chief Michael Sack speaks at a news conference outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
St. Louis police officers work the scene outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Teacher Debbi Cox, center right, shares hugs with a student following a shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
U.S. Rep. Cori Bush steps away after speaking at a news conference with St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones and interim Police Chief Michael Sack outside Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a school shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Law enforcement officers gather on the football field behind Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
An ATF agent works at the scene of a shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Parents and students walk across Kingshighway at Arsenal Street after a shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
An ATF agent passes under police tape at the scene of a shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Teacher Debbi Cox, center left, stands with a student following a shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
A Central Visual Performing Arts High School employee, left, hugs her sister in the Schnucks parking lot following the shooting at the high school on in St. Louis Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
Schnucks Arsenal frozen foods manager Steven Bunting, left, hands out water bottles to police officers in the Schnucks parking lot following the shooting at Central Visual Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
Kit Roesch, right, a junior at Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, hugs her father Don Roesch in the Schnucks Arsenal parking lot following the shooting at the school in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
People check their phones as they walk towards the Schnucks Arsenal parking lot following the shooting at Central Visual Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
People embrace in the Schnucks Arsenal parking lot following the shooting at Central Visual Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
Bethlehem Lutheran Church pastor Gerard Bowling, right, leads students, teachers and family members in a prayer in the Schnucks Arsenal parking lot following the shooting at Central Visual Performing Arts High School in St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Bowling arrived at the scene after receiving a text from one of the youth members of the church who attended the high school. Photo by Jordan Opp, jopp@post-dispatch.com
Jordan Opp
A side entry door, shot out at the bottom, is guarded by St. Louis police following a school shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School.
Robert Cohen, Post-Dispatch
A side school entry door, shot out at the bottom, is processed by a St. Louis police crime scene officer following a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kimberly M. Gardner, second from left, and her staff arrive at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 at Kingshighway and Arsenal Street. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
A man brings flowers to Central Visual & Performing Arts High School following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 at Kingshighway and Arsenal Street. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
A friend of the student killed in a school shooting at Central Visual & Performing Arts High School is helped leaving the school grounds on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 in the Southwest Garden neighborhood. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Teachers and staff members of Central Visual & Performing Arts High School talk at the front entrance and prepare to leave following a shooting on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 at Kingshighway and Arsenal Street. A teacher, student and the suspected shooter were killed in the morning attack. Photo by Robert Cohen, rcohen@post-dispatch.com
Robert Cohen
Police block off the streets around the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School as they investigate the area after a shooting inside the school in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Teacher Octavio Nieto-Jacobo consoles fellow teacher Debbi Cox outside the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. The teachers and staff returned to the school to pick up personal items like car keys, jackets, and computers. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Police gather outside the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School after a shooting inside south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
Police block off the streets around the Central Visual & Performing Arts High School as they investigate the area after a shooting inside the school in south St. Louis on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022. Photo by David Carson, dcarson@post-dispatch.com
David Carson
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Tajik civilian killed, authorities say
Kyrgyz authorities evacuate villages
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BISHKEK, Sept 16 (Reuters) – Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan accused each other on Friday of using tanks and mortars in an escalating border conflict that has killed at least three people and injured 27 since fighting broke out two days ago.
Kyrgyzstan’s border guard service said Tajik forces once again opened fire on several of its outposts early on Friday in a disputed mountainous frontier area. It said the Tajik forces used tanks, armoured personnel carriers and mortars. read more
Tajik forces then entered at least one Kyrgyz village and shelled the airport of the Kyrgyz town of Batken and adjacent areas, it said.
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In turn, Tajikistan accused Kyrgyz forces of shelling an outpost and seven villages with “heavy weaponry” in the same area, which is famous for its jigsaw-puzzle political and ethnic geography and became the site of similar hostilities last year, almost leading to a war.
A civilian was killed and three injured, authorities in the Tajik city of Isfara said. Kyrgyzstan reported 31 wounded overnight in its southern Batken province which borders Tajikistan’s northern Sughd region and features a Tajik exclave, Vorukh, a key hotspot in recent conflicts.
Kyrgyz authorities said they were evacuating nearby villages as “intense fighting” raged on.
Kyrgyz and Tajik foreign ministers have discussed the matter, the Bishkek government said, but the border guard service said two ceasefire agreements have already failed.
Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon are both attending a regional security summit in Uzbekistan and neither mentioned the conflict in their speeches at the event.
Clashes over the poorly demarcated border between the two former Soviet republics are frequent, but usually de-escalate quickly, although last year they almost led to an all-out war.
Both host Russian military bases and have close ties with Moscow, which urged a cessation of hostilities this week.
The Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russian-led security bloc of which Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are members, said its leadership was in touch with both governments on Friday.
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Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Additional reporting by Nazarali Pirnazarov in Dushanbe; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Guy Faulconbridge, Frank Jack Daniel and Raju Gopalakrishnan
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Lapid suggests pledge is a way to avert open conflict
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons
JERUSALEM, July 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid signed a joint pledge on Thursday to deny Iran nuclear arms, a show of unity by allies long divided over diplomacy with Tehran.
The undertaking, part of a “Jerusalem Declaration” crowning Biden’s first visit to Israel as president, came a day after he told a local TV station that he was open to “last resort” use of force against Iran – an apparent move toward accommodating Israel’s calls for a “credible military threat” by world powers.
“We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” Biden told a news conference following the signing of the declaration.
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Washington and Israel have separately made veiled statements about possible preemptive war with Iran – which denies seeking nuclear arms – for years. Whether they have the capabilities or will to deliver on this has been subject to debate, however.
Thursday’s statement reaffirmed U.S. support for Israel’s regional military edge and ability “to defend itself by itself”. Widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arms, Israel sees Iran as a existential threat.
“The United States stresses that integral to this pledge is the commitment never to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon, and that it is prepared to use all elements of its national power to ensure that outcome,” the statement added.
Lapid cast this posture as a way of averting open conflict.
“The only way to stop a nuclear Iran is if Iran knows the free world will use force,” he said after the signing ceremony.
Speaking alongside him, Biden described preventing a nuclear Iran as “a vital security interest for Israel and the United States and, I would add, for the rest of the world as well”.
Biden, who also met former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, received Israel’s Presidential Medal of Honor from Israeli President Isaac Herzog and reiterated America’s “iron-clad commitment” to Israel’s security.
There was no immediate comment from Tehran.
In 2015, Iran signed an international deal capping its nuclear projects with bomb-making potential. In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump quit the pact, deeming it insufficient, a withdrawal welcomed by Israel.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid attend the first virtual meeting of the “I2U2” group with leaders of India and the United Arab Emirates, in Jerusalem, July 14, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
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Iran has since ramped up some nuclear activities, putting a ticking clock on world powers’ bid to return to a deal in Vienna talks. Israel now says it would support a new deal with tougher provisions. Iran has balked at submitting to further curbs.
SANCTIONS PRESSURE
Biden has pushed for a return to talks but said it was up to Iran to respond.
“We are not going to wait forever,” he said.
Beyond enhancing the allies’ sense of deterrence and mutual commitment, Thursday’s power-projection may also offer Biden a boost when he continues on to Saudi Arabia on Friday. Riyadh has its own Iran worries, and Biden hopes to parlay that into a Saudi-Israeli rapprochement under U.S. auspices.
Biden said he and Lapid had discussed how important it was “for Israel to be totally integrated into the region”. Lapid, in turn, deemed Biden’s Saudi trip “extremely important to Israel”.
Hamas, an Islamist group that has helped spearhead the Palestinian struggle against Israel, decried the moves.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh issued a statement calling for the formation of “a political alliance to protect the region from domination, normalization and the seizure of its wealth”.
Some Israeli as well as Gulf Arab officials believe the nuclear deal’s sanctions relief would provide Iran with far more money to support proxy forces in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq. They are also skeptical about whether the Biden administration will do much to counter Iran’s regional activities.
A U.S. official, asked if Thursday’s declaration was about buying some time with Israel as Washington pursues negotiations with Iran, said: “If Iran wants to sign the deal that has been negotiated in Vienna, we have made very clear we’re prepared to do that. And, at the same time, if they’re not, we will continue to increase our sanctions pressure, we will continue to increase Iran’s diplomatic isolation.”
The Jerusalem Declaration further committed the United States and Israel to cooperating on defence projects such as laser interceptors, as well as mixed-use technologies, including artificial intelligence and quantum technology.
“We work together as one team, not only in missile defence, we have many different ways of defence cooperation with the U.S,” said Daniel Gold, head of the Directorate of Defense Research and Development in the Israel Ministry of Defense.
The United States was open to future defence grants to Israel, the statement said.
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Writing by Dan Williams; Additional reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Arshad Mohammed and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Editing by Howard Goller, Nick Macfie, William Maclean
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German lawmakers on Thursday voted to send “heavy weapons and complex machinery” to Ukraine just one week after claiming its arms reserves were tapped.
The vote in the lower house of parliament signifies a completed stance reversal after it passed with 586 votes in favor, 100 against, and seven abstentions first reported German news outlet DW.
Members of the Ukrainian Territorial Defence Forces examine new armament, including NLAW anti-tank systems and other portable anti-tank grenade launchers, in Kyiv on March 9, 2022, amid the ongoing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
TREVOR REED LANDS IN US AFTER PRISONER SWAP WITH RUSSIA
Germany has faced criticism for its reservations on sending significant defensive support to Ukraine, notoriously sending 5,000 helmets in the lead up to the invasion.
Just last week German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock claimed that Berlin’s armed services have said it “can no longer supply weapons from its own reserves.”
German leadership instead pledged to provide training, spare parts for machinery and facilitate continued arms supplies with other allies.
But now German will look to send anti-aircraft systems and armored vehicles as Russia looks to ramp up its offensive not only in Ukraine but is signaling it may launch a campaign in neighboring Moldova.
German lawmakers also approved the deployment of heavy weaponry and soldiers to NATO nations in the eastern bloc.
Ukrainian servicemen ride atop an armoured fighting vehicle Tuesday as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues at an unknown location in Eastern Ukraine. (Press service of the Ukrainian Ground Forces/Handout via REUTERS)
GERMANY TO AUTHORIZE TANK SHIPMENT TO UKRAINE, BENDING TO INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE
Some lawmakers, including members of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, voted against the measure over concerns it could be interpreted as a declaration of war by Russia.
Similarly, members of the socialist Left Party reportedly pointed to comments made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz regarding fears that enhanced NATO support could escalate the conflict and prompt a greater nuclear threat.
The Thursday vote comes just two days after a summit at the U.S. Ramstein airbase in Germany attended by 40 allied nations from NATO and beyond, where German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht agreed to send tanks to Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin championed the stance reversal and said he thinks their heavy weaponry “will provide real capability for Ukraine.”
Soldiers walk amid destroyed Russian tanks in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. (AP/Rodrigo Abd)
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He said he would not speculate on what else Germany may agree to give Ukraine.
But the defense secretary added, “Based upon everything that I’ve seen, in my interaction with the Minister of Defense, and how intently she has been focused on making sure that she can do everything that she can to help and work alongside our partners and allies, that she’ll continue to look for ways to be relevant and provide good capability to the Ukrainians as they continue to prosecute this fight.”
The discussions about the proposed lethal aid package are happening as Ukraine has begun to warn publicly that an invasion could happen as soon as January. The package could include new Javelin anti-tank and anti-armor missiles as well as mortars, the sources said.
Air defense systems, such as stinger missiles, are also under consideration, and the Defense Department has been pressing for some equipment that would have gone to Afghanistan — like Mi-17 helicopters — to instead be sent to Ukraine. The Mi-17 is a Russian helicopter that the US originally purchased to give to the Afghans. The Pentagon is now weighing what to do with them after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August.
But others in the administration are concerned that sending stingers and helicopters could be seen by Russia as a major escalation. And while they are prepared to send some military advisers into the region, it is unclear whether any would go into Ukraine itself, the people said.
Retired Lt. Col. Cedric Leighton told CNN that Javelin antitank missiles “are quite effective against the T-80 tanks which the Russians are actually employing in these efforts against Ukraine right now.” But he noted that any additional assistance to Ukraine undoubtedly risks “further heightening tensions” with Moscow.
Sanctions discussions
Meanwhile, US officials have been holding discussions with European allies about putting together a new sanctions package that would go into effect if Russia invaded Ukraine, the sources said. And lawmakers are also jockeying over new sanctions language to include in the National Defense Authorization Act.
Asked about the Russian military activity, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday that the administration is concerned and has “had extensive interactions with our European allies and partners in recent weeks, including with Ukraine.” She added that the US has “also had held discussions with Russian officials about Ukraine and US-Russian relations in general.” The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, also spoke by phone with the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Lt. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny on Monday.
The discussions reflect how seriously the Biden administration and Congress is taking the possibility that Russia could move to invade Ukraine, a strategic US ally, for the second time in under a decade. And US officials are determined not to be caught by surprise by a Russian military operation, as the Obama administration was in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea and powered an insurgency in parts of eastern Ukraine.
“Our concern is that Russia may make a serious mistake of attempting to rehash what it undertook back in 2014, when it amassed forces along the border, crossed into sovereign Ukrainian territory and did so claiming falsely that it was provoked,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week.
Russia’s foreign intelligence service, the SVR, pushed back on the US’ warnings about a potential invasion, calling them “absolutely false” in a statement on Monday.
“The US State Department through diplomatic channels brings to its allies and partners absolutely false information about the concentration of forces on the territory of our country for a military invasion of Ukraine,” said Sergei Ivanov, head of the SVR’s press bureau.
For weeks, the US has been sharing intelligence with NATO partners and European allies on unusual Russian troop movements near the Ukrainian border that US military and intelligence officials believe could be a precursor to a military operation on the country’s eastern flank. The briefings have gone much further than in the past in terms of the level of alarm and specificity, US, European, and Ukrainian sources familiar with the discussions said.
Ukraine’s tone has also changed significantly since being briefed by the US. At the beginning of the month, Ukrainian officials downplayed reports that Russia was massing forces near the border. Now, following extensive meetings between US and Ukrainian officials, Ukraine’s defense intelligence chief Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov is publicly warning that Russia is building a capacity to attack as soon as January — a timeline in line with the US’ assessments.
‘No smoking gun’
Still, officials say Russia’s ultimate plan remains unclear. “There is no smoking gun or decisive indicator of Putin’s intentions,” said one defense official. And it is possible that the maneuvers are an effort to sow confusion or to coerce the west into making concessions, rather than a precursor to an invasion.
But the US is still warning of the possibility of the worst-case scenario that Moscow attempts regime change in Kiev, spurred largely by Putin’s determination to keep Ukraine from growing closer to the West and potentially joining NATO.
“You don’t achieve that goal by carving out another chunk of the eastern Donetsk region,” said one person familiar with the intelligence. “It’s got to be something more than that. If that’s [Putin’s] goal, then you don’t do that by doing something small.”
US officials have also shared with senior Ukrainian officials evidence that Russia, through the FSB — Russia’s successor to the KGB — is engaging in destabilizing activities inside Ukraine to foment dissent against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s administration. They have also pointed to the presence of Spetsnaz special forces and GRU and SVR intelligence operatives near Ukraine’s borders.
Ukrainian defense officials have projected that Russia could use the dozens of battalion tactical groups currently stationed near Ukraine’s borders to launch an attack from multiple sides, including from annexed Crimea, according to Ukrainian military assessments provided to The Military Times.
US officials are closely watching the Russian activity in Crimea, where Russia sent troops and military units in the spring as part of what it claimed were exercises. Although Russia’s defense ministry ordered at least some of the troops to withdraw in April, some elements remained, according to the Ukrainian assessments and sources familiar with the matter.
Moves in Congress
Democratic and Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, have added proposed amendments to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act that would address Russia’s latest provocations, but they have yet to sign off on a final version.
An amendment proposed by Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Menendez, reviewed by CNN, says that “substantial new sanctions should be imposed” by President Joe Biden against senior Kremlin officials — including Russian President Vladimir Putin — in the event of a Russian military escalation against Ukraine. The amendment also calls for additional sanctions on the Russian gas pipeline Nord Stream 2, which Ukraine has been pushing for.
The committee’s Republicans see the Nord Stream sanctions language as a positive step, sources said, but want the amendment to trigger sanctions automatically in the event of a Russian incursion rather than leave the determination in the hands of the administration.
Germany, which has been engaged in the pipeline project with Russia, recently announced that it is temporarily pausing the pipeline’s certification process. But Ukraine also wants to see the US do more to stymie the pipeline, which it says Russia is weaponizing to weaken Ukraine by cutting it off from energy supplies and revenue heading into winter, an adviser to Zelensky told CNN.
“While the Biden administration is warning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, its most senior officials are on Capitol Hill trying to protect Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline by lobbying against the inclusion of sanctions against it in the annual defense bill,” the adviser said.
