March 22 (Reuters) – Japan reacted angrily on Tuesday after Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Japan and froze joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril islands because of sanctions imposed by Tokyo over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia and Japan have still not formally ended World War Two hostilities because of the standoff over islands just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories. The islands were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of World War Two.
Japan has imposed sanctions on 76 individuals, seven banks and 12 other bodies in Russia, most recently on Friday, and included defence officials and the state-owned arms exporter, Rosoboronexport. read more
“Under the current conditions Russia does not intend to continue negotiations with Japan on a peace treaty,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday, citing Japan’s “openly unfriendly positions and attempts to damage the interests of our country”.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he strongly opposed Russia’s decision, terming it “unfair” and “completely unacceptable”.
“This entire situation has been created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia’s response to push this onto Japan-Russia relations is extremely unfair and completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that Japan’s attitudes towards seeking a peace treaty were unchanged and it had protested the Russian move.
“Japan must resolutely continue to sanction Russia in cooperation with the rest of the world,” he added.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Japan had lodged a protest with Russia’s ambassador in Tokyo.
Japan last week also announced plans to revoke Russia’s most-favoured nation trade status and ban imports of certain products. read more
Last year, President Vladimir Putin said that both Tokyo and Moscow wanted good relations and said it was absurd they had not reached a peace agreement. read more
Russia has also withdrawn from talks with Japan about joint business projects on the Kuril islands and ended visa-free travel by Japanese citizens, its foreign ministry said.
Russia’s false accusation that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons is a “clear sign” that a desperate Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself, Joe Biden has said.
The US president said Putin’s “back is against the wall and now he’s talking about new false flags he’s setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe – simply not true. I guarantee you,” Biden said at an event on Monday.
“They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That’s a clear sign he’s considering using both of those. He’s already used chemical weapons in the past, and we should be careful of what’s about to come.”
Putin “knows there’ll be severe consequences because of the united Nato front,” he said, without specifying what actions the alliance would take.
Putin weighing use of chemical weapons in Ukraine, says Biden – video
The remarks echo previous comments by officials in Washington and allied countries, who have accused Russia of spreading an unproven claim that Ukraine had a biological weapons program as a possible prelude to potentially launching its own biological or chemical attacks.
Biden spoke after the Pentagon said it had seen “clear evidence” Russian forces were committing war crimes and that it was helping collect evidence. Last week, the US president said he thought Putin was a “war criminal”, as well as a “murderous dictator” and “thug”, comments the Russian foreign ministry said were “unworthy of a state figure of such a high rank” and risked rupturing US-Russian ties.
The UN’s international court of justice has already ordered Moscow to halt its invasion, and a prosecutor at the international criminal court has launched a war crimes investigation.
On Monday night, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy again urged direct talks with Putin, saying: “Without this meeting it is impossible to fully understand what they are ready for in order to stop the war.”
He also said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities directly under attack, including the capital, Kyiv, and Mariupol and Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
In other developments:
The Ukrainian military claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces have stockpiles of ammunition and food that will last for “no more than three days”. Officials said the situation was similar with fuel. It also claimed about 300 Russia servicemen refused to carry out orders in the Okhtyrka district of the Sumy region. The claims have not been independently verified.
Biden talked to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy on Monday as part of his effort to maintain a unified front to Moscow, amid signs of cracks within the EU on how far to go in imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas.
Earlier in the day, Biden warned the US business community of intelligence pointing to a growing Russian cyber threat and urging companies to “immediately” prepare defences. “It’s part of Russia’s playbook” in response to sanctions, he said
Almost 10,000 Russian soldiers may have already been killed in the war in Ukraine, and more than 16,000 wounded, according to defence ministry figures reported in a pro-Kremlin tabloid newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda. Previously, the official death toll was 498. The paper later released a statement claiming it had been hacked.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, heralded new plans to develop an “EU Rapid Deployment Capacity” that could allow the bloc to swiftly deploy up to 5,000 troops for different types of crises. He insisted a “European army” will not be created.
In Kyiv, a brand new shopping centre was destroyed in a missile attack that killed at least eight people, the largest attack yet on the capital. Here, witnesses tell their story of the destruction of Retroville.
Russia’s defence ministry has accused Kyiv, without providing evidence, of planning a chemical attack against its own people in order to accuse Moscow of using chemical weapons in the invasion of Ukraine that began nearly a month ago.
‘Clear evidence’ Russia is committing war crimes, says Pentagon – video
Earlier this month, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with Nikolay Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, warning him of consequences for “any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine”. The White House did not specify what those consequences would be.
Biden also said Russia used a hypersonic missile to destroy a weapons depot on Saturday “because it’s the only thing they can get through with absolute certainty”.
An administration official clarified on Monday evening that Biden was confirming Russia’s use of such an advanced missile, but noted that the impact of the attack was unknown. One senior US defence official had earlier raised questions about the legitimacy of the Russian account.
Russia’s invasion has largely stalled, failing to capture any major city, but causing massive destruction to residential areas.
A police officer on an ATV patrols in Miami Beach, Fla.’s famed South Beach in March 2021. City of Miami Beach officials declared a state of emergency on Monday, and an upcoming curfew, bidding to curb violent incidents at spring break that saw five people wounded in two separate shootings.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
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A police officer on an ATV patrols in Miami Beach, Fla.’s famed South Beach in March 2021. City of Miami Beach officials declared a state of emergency on Monday, and an upcoming curfew, bidding to curb violent incidents at spring break that saw five people wounded in two separate shootings.
Wilfredo Lee/AP
The City of Miami Beach has declared a state of emergency in addition to implementing an upcoming curfew in order to curb violence across the city this spring break.
The move from officials comes after shootings this past weekend wounded five people.
During a news conference Monday with the Miami Beach Police Department and other city officials, Mayor Dan Gelber said that tourists had created an “unacceptable” atmosphere across the city, and that the city was “way past its endpoint.”
The mayor emphasized that he, along with city officials, don’t ask for spring break to come to Miami Beach, but simply endure it.
“It’s simply unacceptable at every level,” Gelber said. “We simply cannot endure this anymore.”
The newly implemented emergency order will allow for Miami Beach’s City Manager, Alina Hudak, to institute a curfew. Effective Thursday starting at 12:01 a.m., a midnight curfew will go into effect and will remain until 6 a.m. on March 28, said Hudak, who signed the order Monday.
Boston police on Monday announced the arrest of a bouncer in connection with the fatal stabbing of a young U.S. Marine Corps veteran, which happened outside the bar where the suspect worked, during St. Patrick’s Day weekend.
Daniel Martinez, 23, of Illinois, was found suffering from a stab wound outside of Sons of Boston on Union Street just before 7 p.m. Saturday. He was rushed to a Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Martinez served in the Marines from Sept. 2017 through Sept. 2021, attaining the rank of sergeant, the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed. He was deployed during 2019 with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and was most recently assigned to the 3rd Assault Amphibious Battalion, 1st Marine Division, at Camp Pendleton, California.
“He was so adventurous. He was fearless. He was so courageous,” Apolonia Martinez, Daniel Martinez’s mother, told NewsCenter 5. “He didn’t fear going into the Marines. He didn’t care if he was dangerous or if he was going to be uncomfortable or hungry or tired, or all the things that Marines and other military branches have to go through. He was honorable. He just wanted to make a difference.”
Martinez’s decorations included the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.
Investigators with the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said Martinez was on a visit to the city to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with friends — including a fellow Marine, according to Apolonia Martinez.
“This is not a representation of our city of Boston, who we are, and I think we need to come together in support and love,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.
Police said the suspect, 38-year-old Alvaro Larrama, of East Boston, was identified through the investigation conducted by the Boston Police Homicide Unit. He surrendered himself to Boston Police at District A15.
Larrama, who was employed as a bouncer at Sons of Boston, was arraigned Monday afternoon in Boston Municipal Court.
Prosecutors said during the hearing that investigators found video from multiple surveillance cameras that show the stabbing and the moments after, including when the suspect went back into Sons of Boston to wash his hands, get new clothes and exit through a rear door.
Larrama is being held without bail and Judge Steven Key ordered him to return to court April 28 for a probable cause hearing.
Union Street is home to several well-known bars and restaurants, including Union Oyster House, The Bell in Hand Tavern, Sons of Boston and Hennesey’s Bar. Police investigators were seen working in the area near Paddy O’s and the street in the area was closed.
Bars in the area were forced to remain closed for the night after the stabbing.
Ukrainian soldiers and rescue officers search for bodies in the debris at a military school in Mykolaiv on Saturday. Russian rockets hit the school the day before.
Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
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Ukrainian soldiers and rescue officers search for bodies in the debris at a military school in Mykolaiv on Saturday. Russian rockets hit the school the day before.
Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
As Saturday draws to a close in Kyiv and in Moscow, here are the key developments of the day:
Ukraine accused Russian forces of blocking humanitarian aid. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian forces are preventing food and medicine from reaching besieged cities like Mariupol, where he says tens of thousands of people remain trapped.
UNICEF warns child refugees are more likely to become victims of human trafficking. The group said the 1.5 million children who have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion are at high risk of being “separated from their families, exploited, and trafficked,” and urged regional governments to step up child protection measures.
Russia struck a munitions warehouse in western Ukraine. Russia’s defense ministry says it used a hypersonic missile to strike the warehouse on Friday. Ukrainian officials did confirm the strike but did not specify what type of missile was used. If confirmed, it would be the first time such a weapon was used in the conflict.
Russians on the International Space Station wore the colors of Ukraine. It’s unclear what message three Russian cosmonauts were trying to send, if any, when they boarded the spacecraft wearing yellow and blue spacesuits that also bore the Russian flag. The colors of the Ukrainian flag are often worn to protest Russia’s invasion of that country, but when asked about the suits, a cosmonaut said the crew “accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it.”
EVANSTON, Ill. — The body of a woman found on the shores of Lake Michigan in Evanston on Thursday has been identified as missing transgender rights activist Elise Malary, police confirmed.
Malary’s body was found on the shores of Lake Michigan in the 500 block of Sheridan Square at Garden Park, just blocks from her apartment. She was 31 years old.
Malary had not been seen since March 9 and was reported missing on March 15.
She was known as a prominent activist in the LGBTQ community in the area and had quit her job at the Civil Rights Bureau of the Illinois Attorney General’s office the day before she went missing.
A federal judge has ruled that a former Kentucky clerk violated the constitutional rights of two same-sex couples after she wouldn’t issue them marriage licenses – a refusal that sparked international attention and briefly landed her in jail in 2015.
The US district judge, David Bunning, issued the ruling on Friday in two longstanding lawsuits involving Kim Davis, the former clerk of Rowan county, and two same-sex couples. A jury trial will still need to decide on any damages.
Bunning reasoned that Davis “cannot use her own constitutional rights as a shield to violate the constitutional rights of others while performing her duties as an elected official”.
“It is readily apparent that Obergefell recognizes Plaintiffs’ 14th-amendment right to marry,” the judge wrote, referencing the landmark same-sex marriage Obergefell v Hodges decision from 2015. “It is also readily apparent that Davis made a conscious decision to violate plaintiffs’ right.”
Soon after the supreme court decision in which same-sex couples won the right to marry, Davis, a Christian who has a religious objection to same-sex marriage, stopped issuing all marriage licenses.
A judge ordered Davis to issue the licenses. She was sued by gay and straight couples and spent five days in jail over her refusal. She was released only after staff issued licenses on her behalf but removed her name from the form. The Kentucky legislature later enacted a law removing the names of all clerks from state marriage licenses.
Davis, a Republican, lost her bid for reelection in 2018. The Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr is now the county clerk.
Davis argued that a legal doctrine called qualified immunity protected her from being sued for damages by two couples, David Ermold and David Moore and James Yates and Will Smith. The US supreme court in October 2020 left in place a decision that allowed the lawsuit to move forward, declining to take the case.
Michael Gartland, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told WKYT-TV: “They could not be more happy that they’re finally going to get their day in court and they’re confident justice will be served.”
Liberty Counsel, the law firm that represents Davis, said the case could return to the supreme court. The group pointed to comments on the 2020 ruling by the conservative justice Clarence Thomas, when he wrote for himself and another conservative, Samuel Alito.
Thomas wrote that while he agreed with the decision not to hear the Davis case regarding sovereign immunity claims in 2020, it was a “stark reminder of the consequences” of the 2015 decision in the same-sex marriage case.
Because of that case, he wrote, “those with sincerely held religious beliefs concerning marriage will find it increasingly difficult to participate in society without running afoul” of the case “and its effect on other anti-discrimination laws”.
The court is now dominated by conservatives, 6-3.
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman, said: “Kim Davis is entitled to protection to an accommodation based on her sincere religious belief. This case raises serious first amendment free exercise of religion claims and has a high potential of reaching the supreme court.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its fourth week without capturing Kyiv or toppling Ukraine’s government, but the bombardment of Ukrainian cities continues — a move western defense experts warn could be a sign of a cruel and intentional strategy.
Russia stepped up its attacks Friday, saying it used its first hypersonic missile to destroy a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition in the village of Deliatyn. Missiles and shelling struck at the edges of Kyiv, and an aircraft repair installation was attacked outside the western city of Lviv. Hospitals, schools and buildings where people sought safety have been attacked around the country.
Britain’s defense intelligence chief described it as an emerging ”strategy of attrition.” Without major cities captured, Russia seems to be turning to the “reckless and indiscriminate use of firepower” that will worsen the humanitarian crisis, Lt. Gen. Jim Hockenhull said Friday.
Russian forces are besieging Ukrainian cities, relying increasingly on bombarding them from a distance with artillery, missiles and air strikes, according to the Pentagon.
“This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increased civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis,” British Defense attache Mick Smeath said in a statement Saturday.
Meanwhile in Russia, President Vladimir Putin is reinforcing his control of domestic media, attempting to obscure high casualties amid fierce resistance encountered in his invasion of Ukraine, according to a British Defense Ministry intelligence estimate.
The assessment was echoed by the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based foreign policy think tank, in a report this week. The group warned that since Russia’s “lightning offensive designed to take the capital” had failed, the military appeared to be settling in for an extended campaign “designed to suffocate Ukraine.”
The strategy would likely involve attacking civilian areas, destroying cities and blocking off supplies, possibly leading to famine, according to the analysis. The organization later drew parallels to an artificial famine engineered by the Kremlin in the 1930s that killed millions of Ukrainians — a Soviet attempt to “subjugate the Ukrainian nation.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. is pressuring China, which has kept its ties with Moscow and avoided taking a firm stance on the conflict. China’s position is in stark contrast to many western nations that have swiftly acted to condemn Russia and cut off its economy.
During a nearly two-hour video call on Friday, President Joe Biden warned Chinese President Xi Jinping of the “consequences if China provides material support to Russia,” according to the White House.
► Russia says it used its first hypersonic missile in the war to destroy an ammo depot in southwestern Ukraine.
► On Saturday, Ukraine and Russia agreed to open 10 humanitarian corridors to assist in the evacuation efforts, according to Ukraine’s deputy prime minster.
►The U.N. migration agency says the fighting has displaced nearly 6.5 million people inside Ukraine, on top of the 3.2 million refugees who have already fled the country. Ukraine says thousands have been killed.
► The Ukraine military claims to have killed another Russian general – the fifth since the invasion began.
► Pope Francis on Friday denounced what he called the “perverse abuse of power” in Russia’s war in Ukraine. The comments were some of his strongest yet in support of Ukraine.
Russia says it used hypersonic missiles for the first time
Hypersonic missiles are missiles that can move at five times the speed of sound. The Russian military said these missiles are capable of hitting targets at a range of more than 1,200 miles, or roughly the distance from New York City to Kansas City.
“The Kinzhal aviation missile system with hypersonic aero ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground warehouse containing missiles and aviation ammunition in the village of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” the Russian defense ministry said Saturday.
This is the first known use of hypersonic missiles since Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
– Ana Faguy
10 humanitarian corridors agreed to, Ukraine announces
A corridor from Mariupol — a town decimated by the Russians — to Zaporizhia is among the corridors that were announced. Corridors in the Kyiv and Luhansk regions, are also part of the agreement. Along with buses to evacuate residents, Vereshchuk said food and medicine would be delivered to any towns decimated by the Russians.
Vereshchuk urged residents to use the corridors quickly as “the enemy insidiously breaks our agreements.”
– Ana Faguy
On Poland visit, senators reaffirm US support for Ukraine, call Putin ‘weak’
A bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visited a refugee center in Poland on Saturday and met with officials from several countries to reinforce U.S. support for providing humanitarian assistance and lethal aid to Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.
“This invasion of Russia into Ukraine is abhorrent and we cannot stand for it,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. “The goal is a free and sovereign Ukraine. We want peace, but we want a free and sovereign Ukraine.”
The lawmakers displayed part of a missile that struck close to the Polish border. Ernst said lawmakers didn’t visit the border, but did stop in at a refugee center where people rested before resettling elsewhere in Poland or other countries.
“We do need to find new ways of getting much needed material into Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Ernst said after the delegation met with leaders from Poland, Ukraine and Germany.
Ernst, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Iowa Army National Guard who served in the Iraq war and sits on the Armed Services Committee, said Russian President Vladimir Putin should be held accountable for the war and for targeting women, children and the elderly.
“It’s a truly weak man that targets children, elderly, women. Putin is a weak leader,” Ernst said. “He may be trying to project strength, but he is a weak man when he is going after weak individuals. We need to hold him accountable for the crimes that he is committing in Ukraine. This is abhorrent. It is an illegal war and he needs to held accountable.”
– Bart Jansen
UNICEF: 1.5M Ukrainian refugee children at risk of human trafficking
The more than 1.5 million children who have fled Ukraine as refugees face a higher risk for exploitation and trafficking, UNICEF said Saturday.
Women and children represent nearly all of the refugees who have left Ukraine since Feb. 24. UNICEF said that increases the proportion of potential trafficking victims.
“The war in Ukraine is leading to massive displacement and refugee flows – conditions that could lead to a significant spike in human trafficking and an acute child protection crisis,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia. “Displaced children are extremely vulnerable to being separated from their families, exploited, and trafficked. They need governments in the region to step up and put measures in place to keep them safe.”
With more than 500 unaccompanied children identified crossing from Ukraine into Romania as of March 17, UNICEF warned that separated children are especially vulnerable to trafficking.
– Ana Faguy
Russian cosmonauts board space station in blue and yellow spacesuits
Three Russian cosmonauts on Friday boarded the International Space Station donning spacesuits in the Ukrainian flag’s colors. Images of the cosmonauts wearing the striking yellow and blue suits sparked speculation online that the colors were worn in protest of Russia’s invasion.
The cosmonauts are Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveev and Sergey Korsakov. They docked at the station in their Russian Soyuz spacecraft at 3:12 p.m. EDT and are scheduled to stay aboard the station until September, according to Space.com.
When asked about the colors in a live-streamed press conference after the docking, Artemyev indicated they were a coincidence, according to the BBC.
“It became our turn to pick a color,” Artemyev said. “We had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it. That’s why we had to wear yellow.”
But some on social media weren’t convinced.
Former NASA astronauts Scott Kelly and Terry Virts suggested on Twitter that the colors were in support of Ukraine, and astronomer Jonathan McDowell speculated on Twitter that the colors were meant as an homage to the cosmonauts’ alma mater, Bauman University, which also has blue and yellow colors.
There are seven people already on the orbiting lab, according to Space.com: cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov, Matthias Maurer of the European Space Agency, and NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn, Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei.
– Ella Lee
Ukraine claims fifth Russian general killed
Russian Lt. Gen. Andrei Mordvichev was killed during fighting, Ukraine’s armed forces said Saturday.
Mordvichev, who commanded the 8th Combined Arms Army, is the fifth Russian general to be killed since Feb. 24.
Zelenskyy calls on Swiss government to freeze assets of Russian oligarchs
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy urged the Swiss government to freeze the bank accounts of all Russian oligarchs, Swiss public broadcaster SRF reported.
Zelenskyy spoke to thousands of antiwar protestors in Bern, Switzerland via livestream on Saturday where he called on the Swiss government to take away privileges from those who are involved in the war.
“In your banks are the funds of the people who unleashed this war,” Zelenskyy said. “Help to fight this. So that their funds are frozen.”
The Swiss Bankers Association (SBA) estimates that Switzerland’s secretive banks hold up to $213 billion of Russian wealth.
– Ana Faguy
Former presidents Bush, Clinton lay flowers at Ukrainian church in Chicago
Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited a Ukrainian church in Chicago this week.
The pair brought sunflowers to Saints Volodymyr & Olha Catholic Church. Chicago, a sister city of Kyiv, is home to many Ukrainian Americans.
Clinton shared a video of the visit on Twitter with the caption, “America stands united with the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom and against oppression.”
Bush posted the video on Instagram with the caption, “America stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine as they fight for their freedom and their future.”
– Ana Faguy
6.5 million displaced within Ukraine, UN reports
Nearly 6.5 million people have been displaced inside Ukraine, the U.N. migration agency said Friday.
The paper noted that an additional 12 million people are thought to be stranded, unable to leave for security purposes or for lack of resources and information.
– Ana Faguy
Poland urges EU trade ban on Russia
Poland is recommending the European Union impose a total ban on trade with Russia.
On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateus Morawiecki proposed more stringent sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. He said that a trade blockade should be added “as soon as possible,” and should include trade from Russia’s seaports as well as land trade.
“Fully cutting off Russia’s trade would further force Russia to consider whether it would be better to stop this cruel war,” he said.
On Tuesday the E.U. agreed to a fourth sanctions package that included restrictions on the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex, an E.U. import ban on those steel products currently under EU safeguard measures and an E.U. export ban on luxury goods.
Ukraine: It will take ‘years’ to defuse unexploded shells, mines from war
KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky says it will take years to defuse the unexploded ordnance once the Russian invasion is over.
Monastyrsky told The Associated Press in an interview on Friday that the country will need Western assistance to carry out the massive undertaking after the war.
“A huge number of shells and mines have been fired at Ukraine, and a large part haven’t exploded. They remain under the rubble and pose a real threat,” Monastyrsky said in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. “It will take years, not months, to defuse them.”
In addition to the unexploded Russian ordnance, Ukrainian troops have planted land mines at bridges, airports and other key locations to prevent the Russians from using them.
“We won’t be able to remove the mines from all that territory, so I asked our international partners and colleagues from the European Union and the United States to prepare groups of experts to demine the areas of combat and facilities that came under shelling,” Monastyrsky told the AP.
– The Associated Press
Experts: Graham’s call for Putin’s assassination is ‘dangerous’ for US
Sen. Lindsey Graham’s continued calls that Putin be “taken out” are alarming researchers and academics who warn the South Carolina Republican’s comments are reckless because they could be interpreted as the U.S. disregarding international law and be used to fuel disinformation in Russia.
“There are so many dangerous aspects to his comments,” said Anthony Arend, co-founder of the Institute for International Law & Politics at Georgetown University. “It sets the possible precedent that others will be able to look at the United States and say, ‘Well, they’re advocating it. Why don’t we simply move to a foreign policy that more broadly incorporates assassinations or targeting regime leaders?'”
Nika Aleksejeva, a Latvia-based researcher with the Digital Forensic Research Lab at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, warned Graham’s comments fuel a Kremlin narrative that portrays the U.S. as a violent and lawless sponsor of terrorism out to get Russia.
“The U.S. is painted as the great evil in Russia,” she said. “One of the disinformation narrative lines is that Ukraine is our brother nation, and Russia is forced to carry out this military operation because the U.S. made Ukraine go away from Russia – that the U.S. is to blame in all these problems that are now between Russia and Ukraine.”
Graham, who tweeted in early March that “the only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” doubled down on his comments Wednesday.
“Yeah, I hope he’ll be taken out, one way or the other,” he told reporters during a Capitol Hill news conference. “I don’t care how they take him out. I don’t care if we send him to the Hague and try him. I just want him to go.”
– Grace Hauk
Putin appears at large rally as troops press attack in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin appeared at a huge flag-waving rally at a Moscow stadium Friday and lavished praise on his troops fighting in Ukraine, three weeks into the invasion that has led to heavier-than-expected Russian losses on the battlefield and increasingly authoritarian rule at home.
“Shoulder to shoulder, they help and support each other,” the Russian president said of the Kremlin’s forces in a rare public appearance since the start of the war. “We have not had unity like this for a long time,” he added to cheers from the crowd.
The show of support amid a burst of antiwar protests inside Russia led to allegations in some quarters that the rally — held officially to mark the eighth anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which was seized from Ukraine — was a manufactured display of patriotism.
Several Telegram channels critical of the Kremlin reported that students and employees of state institutions in a number of regions were ordered by their superiors to attend rallies and concerts marking the anniversary. Those reports could not be independently verified.
Moscow police said more than 200,000 people were in and around the Luzhniki stadium. The event included patriotic songs, including a performance of “Made in the U.S.S.R.,” with the opening lines “Ukraine and Crimea, Belarus and Moldova, it’s all my country.”
In response to the rally, American conservative commentator Sean Hannity suggested on his radio show that Putin was “channeling his inner Donald Trump,” Business Insider reported. During his Fox News show later in the day, Hannity again accused Putin of making his “best attempt to look like Donald Trump” at the rally.
Contributing: The Associated Press, Ella Lee
Zelenskyy says Russia is creating ‘humanitarian catastrophe’
LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russian forces are blockading Ukraine’s largest cities to create a “humanitarian catastrophe” with the aim of persuading Ukrainians to cooperate with them.
He says Russians are preventing supplies from reaching surrounded cities in the center and southeast of the country.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation, filmed outside in Kyiv, with the presidential office in the lamplight behind him.
He said more than 9,000 people were able to leave besieged Mariupol in the past day, and in all more than 180,000 people have been able to flee to safety through humanitarian corridors.
He again appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold talks with him directly. “It’s time to meet, time to speak,” he said. “I want to be heard by everyone, especially in Moscow.”
He noted that the 200,000 people Putin gathered in and around a Moscow stadium on Friday for a flag-waving rally was about the same number of Russian troops sent into Ukraine three weeks ago.
Zelenskyy then asked his audience to picture the stadium filled with the thousands of Russians who have been killed, wounded or maimed in the fighting.
— Associated Press
Jimmy Hill, American killed in Ukraine, stayed with sick partner
Even as Russian forces massed on the border with Ukraine and the U.S. government urged Americans to leave the country, Jimmy Hill didn’t flee. Instead, he drove even closer to Russian territory in search of treatment for his life partner, who was sick.
James Whitney Hill, 67, was killed by Russian artillery fire in Ukraine this week, at least the second American to die there since the invasion began Feb. 24. Before his death, he touched lives around the world through teaching and storytelling, friends and family told USA TODAY.
“He had worked tirelessly to find her treatment and refused to leave her bedside when the invasion began in Ukraine,” his family said in a statement Friday about his life partner, Irina Teslenko, who has multiple sclerosis. READ MORE.
Fighting has reached the centre of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where 350,000 civilians have been stranded with little food or water. The Russian defence ministry said its forces were “tightening the noose” around the city, and that “fighting against nationalists” was taking place in the city centre. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said fighting was “very active”.Hundreds of people remain buried under the rubble of a theatre that was hit by a Russian airstrike on Wednesday, Zelenskiy said. In a video address, he said more than 130 people had been rescued so far.
The debate: Most of the United States spends 34 weeks on daylight saving time. Changing the clocks twice a year has become widely viewed as not only an inconvenience, but also as a serious health and public safety concern.
How DST originated: For roughly two decades, nobody had any clue what time it was, with some localities observing daylight saving, some not — until President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Time Act in 1966.
Around the world: Brazil eliminated daylight saving time. Now it’s light out before 5 a.m., and people aren’t happy.
March 19 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise need generations to recover from losses suffered during the war.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had always offered solutions for peace and wanted meaningful and honest negotiations on peace and security, without delay.
“I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk,” he said in a video address released in the early hours of Saturday.
“The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits people who were injured while fleeing from Kyiv’s outskirts as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at a hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine March 17, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
The two sides have been involved in talks for weeks with no sign of a breakthrough.
Zelenskiy said Russian forces were deliberately blocking the supply of humanitarian supplies to cities under attack.
“This is a deliberate tactic … This is a war crime and they will answer for it, 100%,” he said.
Zelenskiy said there was no information about how many people had died after a theatre in the city of Mariupol, where hundreds of people had been sheltering, was struck on Wednesday. More than 130 people had been rescued so far, he said.
Four U.S. Marines were killed when their Osprey aircraft crashed in a Norwegian town in the Arctic Circle during a NATO exercise unrelated to the Ukraine war, authorities said Saturday.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere tweeted that they died in the crash on Friday night. The cause was under investigation, but Norwegian police reported bad weather in the area.
“It is with great sadness we have recived the message that four American soldiers died in a plane crash last night,” the Norwegian prime minister tweeted. “Our deepest sympathies go to the soldiers’ families, relatives and fellow soldiers in their unit.”
The Marines, assigned to 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, II Marine Expeditionary Force, were taking part in a NATO exercise called Cold Response. The U.S. says their identities wouldn’t be immediately provided in keeping with U.S. Defense Department policy of notifying relatives.
The aircraft was an MV-22B Osprey. It “had a crew of four and was out on a training mission in Nordland County” in northern Norway, the country’s armed forces said in a statement.
It was on its way north to Bodoe, where it was scheduled to land just before 6 p.m. Friday. The Osprey crashed in Graetaedalen in Beiarn, south of Bodoe. Police said a search and rescue mission was launched immediately. At 1:30 a.m. Saturday, the police arrived at the scene and confirmed that the crew of four had died.
The annual NATO drills in Norway are unrelated to the war in Ukraine. This year they include around 30,000 troops, 220 aircraft and 50 vessels from 27 countries. The exercises began on March 14 and end on April 1.
The V-22 Ospreys have been involved in a number of deadly crashes in recent years. In 2017, three U.S. Marines were killed when a MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft crashed off the coast of Australia.
In April of 2000, a V-22 Marine tilt-rotor Osprey crashed during a night landing in Arizona. The horrific fireball was recorded by a camera on a second V-22. Nineteen people on board were killed.
Vladimir Putin was “channeling his inner Trump” when he staged a huge rally in Moscow to trumpet his invasion of Ukraine, Sean Hannity said on Friday.
On a day when the Russian foreign minister praised Fox News for “trying to present some alternative point of view”, and amid controversy over Fox News hosts and guests repeating Russian disinformation, Hannity also mocked Joe Biden and read out a Kremlin statement attacking the US president.
First, on his his radio show, Hannity said: “It looks like Vladimir Putin is channeling his inner Donald Trump. He had a what looked like, it almost looked like the big house in Michigan – their football stadium I think holds 110,000 people.”
The Putin rally was staged in the Luzhniki Stadium, which holds 81,000 and which hosted the 2018 World Cup final.
As the Guardian reported, Putin spoke from a stage featuring slogans such as “For a world without Nazism” and “For our president”, and told “a large flag-waving crowd” Russia “hasn’t seen unity like this in a long time”.
Trump has repeatedly praised Putin for being “smart” regarding Ukraine, though he has also condemned the invasion.
Hannity is an ardent supporter of the former president with close knowledge of Trump’s rallies, having appeared at one in Missouri in 2018. That earned him a reprimand from his employer, as did his endorsement of Trump in a campaign video in 2016. In the 2020 campaign, Hannity reportedly wrote Trump a campaign ad.
On his primetime show on Fox News on Friday night, Hannity said the Moscow rally was Putin’s “best attempt to look like Donald Trump”.
He also called Putin a “murderous thug” whose invasion of Ukraine, he said, was turning out to be a “humiliating disaster”.
But he also attacked Biden.
Referring to technical problems at the Moscow rally, Hannity said: “Vladimir Putin can’t get through speech without screwing that up – kind of like Joe Biden.
“Anyway, according to reports, the stadium was filled with thousands of government workers who were required to attend. Unlike a Trump rally, anyone in Russia voices opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine they are thrown in jail.
“Vladimir Putin is not in a good place. And right now the world is facing an extremely dangerous and critical tipping point. And what happens in Russia and Ukraine will have reverberations all over the world. But guess what? Our fearless leader Joe Biden, he’s taken another weekend and Delaware ice cream, a lot of nap time.”
Figures including the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have strongly criticised the airing on Fox News of Russian talking points and outright conspiracy theories.
On his show on Friday night, Hannity read a statement which was issued by Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, after Biden called Putin a war criminal.
“Given such irritability from Mr Biden,” Hannity read, “his fatigue and sometimes forgetfulness … fatigue that leads to aggressive statements, we will not make harsh assessments, so as not to cause more aggression.”
Earlier this week, Hannity came under fire for saying Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, was “begging Joe Biden for help” but the US president was too “weak” and “frail” to properly come to his aid.
Hannity did not mention that Trump was impeached for withholding military aid to Ukraine, in an attempt to extract dirt on opponents including Biden.
His lapses rarely hurt him at the polls. He was elected to 25 consecutive terms, usually facing moderate to light opposition and winning more than 70 percent of the vote five times. In 2020, he turned back a strong challenge from Alyse Galvin, a politically independent community organizer, who campaigned on discontent with the state’s economy during the coronavirus crisis.
After the election, Mr. Young announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He was hospitalized for three days in Anchorage and isolated at home. He said that he regretted dismissing the seriousness of the pandemic and that he supported the use of masks, though he refused to wear one himself.
As news broke of Mr. Young’s death Friday evening, lawmakers and aides related stories about him, some noting that he had often sat in the back aisle of the House chamber and heckled his colleagues, particularly when a vote had dragged on for too long.
“His absence will leave Congress less colorful and certainly less punctual,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, said in a statement. “But his decades of service have filled every room and touched every member.”
Donald Edwin Young was born in Meridian, Calif., on June 9, 1933, the youngest of three children of James and Nora (Bucy) Young. He had two sisters, Beatty and Jane. His father was a Sutter County rancher. Donald graduated from Sutter Union High School in 1950 and earned an associate degree in education from Yuba Community College in 1952 and a bachelor’s degree in teaching from Chico State College (now University) in 1958. From 1955 to 1957, he was in the Army and served in a tank battalion.
At 26, Mr. Young moved to Alaska soon after it attained statehood in 1959. He admitted being drawn by Jack London’s 1903 novel “The Call of the Wild,” about a powerful, 140-pound dog named Buck, a St. Bernard-Scotch collie who is stolen from a ranch in the Santa Clara Valley and sold as a sled dog in the Yukon.
Mr. Young settled in Fort Yukon, a town of 700 just above the Arctic Circle. He tried fishing, trapping and panning for gold, as if resurrecting London’s Klondike wilderness life of 1897. In town, he taught elementary school classes and coached high school basketball and track teams for several years at a Bureau of Indian Affairs school, where wood-burning stoves warmed the students through freezing winter days. With the breakup of the Yukon River ice in spring, he piloted his own tug and barge, carrying supplies to villages along the river.
A Ukrainian soldier fires a U.S.-made Javelin missiles during a training exercise in January. The Ukrainians have used the Javelins to repeatedly take out Russian tanks and other armored vehicles.
Ukrainian Defense Ministry via AP
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Ukrainian Defense Ministry via AP
A Ukrainian soldier fires a U.S.-made Javelin missiles during a training exercise in January. The Ukrainians have used the Javelins to repeatedly take out Russian tanks and other armored vehicles.
Ukrainian Defense Ministry via AP
Russia has a huge firepower advantage in its war on Ukraine. In keeping with its military tradition, Russia is relying on heavy weapons such as tanks, artillery guns and fighter jets.
Yet the Ukrainians have far exceeded expectations on the battlefield by making the most of smaller, but more mobile weapons systems, including a number of key ones provided by the United States.
Here are some commonly asked questions regarding Ukraine’s weapons:
Q. What has been the most important weapon in Ukraine’s arsenal?
Javelin missiles. Outside military circles, these weapons first received widespread attention in 2019 when then-President Donald Trump held his infamous phone call with Ukraine’s new elected president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy pleaded for more Javelins, which the U.S. was already supplying, to defend against the pro-Russia military forces already in the east of Ukraine.
The Trump administration was delaying the delivery of military assistance, and the U.S. president asked for a political favor — an investigation of the Bidens.
That call set off a chain of events that led to Trump’s first impeachment. Zelenskky got the additional Javelins, which have made a huge difference in the fighting.
Q. How are the Ukrainians using the Javelins on the battlefield?
The Javelins are largely responsible for the daily scenes of burned out Russian tanks and other armored vehicles strewn along the roads of Ukraine.
The weapons are simple and deadly. A soldier puts it on his shoulder, then points and shoots.
To date, Russian armored columns have been unable or unwilling to push into Ukrainian cities, and the Javelin missiles appear to be a key reason.
President Biden on Wednesday authorized an $800 million package of military assistance for Ukraine. They include 9,000 anti-armor weapons, many of them believed to be Javelins.
Lithuanian servicemen load Stinger anti-aircraft systems into military cargo plane at the Siauliai airbase on Feb. 12. The weapons were part of Lithuania’s assistance to Ukraine. The Stingers have been used to bring down low-flying Russian planes and helicopters.
Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense via AP
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Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense via AP
Lithuanian servicemen load Stinger anti-aircraft systems into military cargo plane at the Siauliai airbase on Feb. 12. The weapons were part of Lithuania’s assistance to Ukraine. The Stingers have been used to bring down low-flying Russian planes and helicopters.
Lithuanian Ministry of National Defense via AP
Q. That’s on the ground. We’re hearing a lot about Russia’s advantage in air power. How are the Ukrainians countering that?
Stinger missiles. These work on the same basic principal as the Javelins, but are for aircraft.
They are portable, shoulder-fired missiles that have brought down low-flying Russian planes and helicopters. Most accounts say the Russians have lost more than two dozen aircraft, though reliable figures are hard to come by.
Russian pilots are well aware of how deadly the Stingers can be. The U.S. gave them to Afghan rebels during the Soviet war there in the 1980s.
The Soviets relied heavily on helicopters in Afghanistan, and the Stingers made it much more dangerous for the Soviets to use them. Many military analysts say the Stingers changed the tide of the war, which ended with the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.
The Biden administration’s aid package includes 800 anti-aircraft weapons, many believed to be Stingers.
The Switchblade is a small drone that can be carried in a backpack and weighs just a few pounds. The operator guides it to the target, where it explodes. For this reason, it’s also known as a ‘kamikaze drone.’ It’s shown here at a U.S. Marine Corps training exercise at Twentynine Palms, Calif., last year.
Cpl. Alexis Moradian/U.S. Marine Corps via AP
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Cpl. Alexis Moradian/U.S. Marine Corps via AP
The Switchblade is a small drone that can be carried in a backpack and weighs just a few pounds. The operator guides it to the target, where it explodes. For this reason, it’s also known as a ‘kamikaze drone.’ It’s shown here at a U.S. Marine Corps training exercise at Twentynine Palms, Calif., last year.
Cpl. Alexis Moradian/U.S. Marine Corps via AP
Q. Still, Ukraine doesn’t have much air power of its own, right?
True. According to the U.S., Russian pilots are flying an average of 200 missions a day in fighter jets, compared to 10 or fewer for the Ukrainians.
But Ukraine does have drones it got from Turkey, and they have been effective, according to military analysts.
The new U.S. package will include 100 drones, reportedly a model known as Switchblades. One model is small enough for a solider to carrying in a backpack, weighing just five or six pounds and requiring minimal training.
They are often referred to as “Kamikaze drones” because they don’t actually fire their weapon, which is similar to a hand grenade. Instead, a soldier remotely guides the drone into the target and it explodes.
Q. The fighting is now in its fourth week, and has already been devastating. What should we expect in the coming days?
Expect battles for the capital Kyiv and other big cities. The Russian forces are stalled on the outskirts. They are using their heavy weapons — tanks, artillery guns and fighter jets — to shell the cities, hoping to pound the Ukrainians into submission.
The Ukrainians can’t stop this bombardment. But they have been able to use their highly mobile, portable weapons to keep the Russians out of the urban areas. The Ukrainians still hold all the major cities.
Greg Myre is an NPR national security correspondent who reported from Moscow from 1996-99. Follow him @gregmyre1.
Smoke billows over a street near the airport in Lviv, Ukraine.
Claire Harbage/NPR
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Claire Harbage/NPR
Smoke billows over a street near the airport in Lviv, Ukraine.
Claire Harbage/NPR
As Friday draws to a close in Kyiv, Ukraine, and in Moscow, here are the key developments of the day:
Russian missiles hit a plant on Lviv’s outskirts in western Ukraine, an area that has served as a relative safe haven. The strike targeted a repair facility for fighter jets. Ukrainian officials said missiles were launched from the Black Sea. On Lviv’s historic square, 109 empty strollers were lined up in a visual installation, representing children killed in the war.
At least 130 people have been pulled from the Mariupoltheater that was hit earlier this week by a Russian airstrike. Hundreds more remain under the rubble as rescue crews work to find them, Ukrainian officials said.
President Biden spoke with Chinese leader Xi Jinping about the implications for Beijing if it decides to provide material assistance to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. The White House has not publicly described those implications.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare public appearance at a stadium in Moscow,packed with thousands of flag-waving people and banners reading “For Russia” and “For a World without Nazism.” He praised Russian fighters in what he calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine, saying the effort had united the country.
March 19 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Saturday called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise need generations to recover from losses suffered during the war.
Zelenskiy said Ukraine had always offered solutions for peace and wanted meaningful and honest negotiations on peace and security, without delay.
“I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk,” he said in a video address released in the early hours of Saturday.
“The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia’s losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visits people who were injured while fleeing from Kyiv’s outskirts as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, at a hospital in Kyiv, Ukraine March 17, 2022. Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via REUTERS
The two sides have been involved in talks for weeks with no sign of a breakthrough.
Zelenskiy said Russian forces were deliberately blocking the supply of humanitarian supplies to cities under attack.
“This is a deliberate tactic … This is a war crime and they will answer for it, 100%,” he said.
Zelenskiy said there was no information about how many people had died after a theatre in the city of Mariupol, where hundreds of people had been sheltering, was struck on Wednesday. More than 130 people had been rescued so far, he said.
At about the same time that President Joe Biden was on the phone discussing Russia with China’s Xi Jinping, and as Russian troops pounded Ukrainian cities, Vladimir Putin gathered close to 200,000 Muscovites in a soccer stadium to put his spin on things.
It was billed as concert to mark the 8th anniversary of the referendum on Crimea’s so-called reunification with Russia, but it was also a chance for Putin to try and rally support for his war on Ukraine. But all did not go as planned.
Putin, standing on a stage with no one else near him, was about to wrap his speech when the TV feed jumped to a dolly shot swinging out over the crowd. Audio from Putin’s speech was suddenly replaced by music and cheering. You can see it below.
State-run RIA news said the Kremlin blamed “a technical failure on the server” for the interruption. According to Financial Times Moscow Bureau Chief Max Seddon, state-run TV quickly reran the entirety of Putin’s speech, glitch-free, including the ending.
It wasn’t the only technical huccup.
CNN’s Bianna Golodryga tweeted video of the sound cutting out during the speech of the Director of the Information and Press Department in Putin’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova. Unlike her boss, it wasn’t just Zakharova’s audio that dropped out, all audio on the telecast went out, and for about 30 seconds there was silence as she mouthed words onscreen.
“Can’t think of a more effective way to showcase what things in a post-Western technology Russia will look like,” wrote Golodryga.
Oh man. So after Putin’s feed cuts out, so does Maria Zakharova’s mic.
Can’t think of a more effective way to showcase what things in a post-Western technology Russia will look like… https://t.co/RzX3APp1zJ
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