(UVALDE, Texas) — Members of a special committee of the Texas state legislature met with family members of the victims on Sunday to present their findings.
A scathing 77-page report by a joint committee of the Texas Legislature contained new details of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and slammed the police response to the incident and the school district’s lack of preparation for such an attack.
The report, which was made public Sunday after the committee reviewed it with many of the loved ones of the 19 students and two teachers killed in the May 24 shooting, detailed a number of major lapses in measures to fortify the school from intruders and the slow manner in which multiple law enforcement agencies mobilized to confront the heavily armed gunman.
While the committee said it found no “villains” other than the gunman to blame for the deadly attack, it found “systemic failures and egregious poor decision making” that prevented a speedy response to the rampage.
Here are five key takeaways from the committee’s investigation of one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
School was unprepared
In the report’s opening pages, the committee cited the lack of preparation by the school district and the Robb Elementary staff to prevent an active shooter from getting onto the campus and into the school building.
“With hindsight, we can say Robb Elementary did not adequately prepare for the risk of an armed intruder on campus,” the committee wrote.
The panel said the school’s 5-foot-tall exterior fence, which surveillance video showed the gunman easily climbing to get onto the campus, was “in adequate to meaningfully impede an intruder.”
More importantly, the committee found that while the school had adopted security policies to ensure exterior doors and internal classroom door were locked while school was in session, those protocols were mostly ignored.
“There was a regrettable culture of noncompliance by school personnel who frequently propped doors open and deliberately circumvented locks,” the committee said.
Such behavior, according to the committee, was “tacitly condoned” by the school administrators.
“In fact, the school actually suggested circumventing the locks as a solution for the convenience of substitute teachers and others who lacked their own key,” the committee wrote.
School staff knew doors were unlocked
The gunman entered the school through a door on the west side of the campus that didn’t latch properly after a teacher had propped it open with a rock to bring in food from her car, investigators said.
“In violation of school policy, no one had locked any of the three exterior doors to the west building of Robb Elementary. As a result, the attacker had unimpeded access to enter,” the committee reported.
The committee also faulted the school district for failing to treat the maintenance of doors with known faulty locks with “appropriate urgency.”
“In particular, staff and students widely knew the door to one of the victimized classrooms, Room 111, was ordinarily unsecured and accessible,” according to the committee’s report. “Room 111 could be locked, but an extra effort was required to make sure the latch engaged,” the report said.
No incident commander at the scene
The committee found numerous “shortcomings and failures of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District and of various agencies and officers of law enforcement” in the response to the shooting. Chief of among them was that there was no designated incident commander at the scene as the massacre was unfolding.
“At Robb Elementary, law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” the committee reported.
UCISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo and the commander of the Uvalde Police Department’s SWAT team were among the first wave of law enforcement officers to arrive at the school. However, neither of them assumed the role of incident commander to coordinate the 376 law enforcement officers from local, state and federal agencies who quickly responded to the shooting, the committee said.
“The Uvalde CISD’s written active shooter plan directed its police chief to assume command and control the response to an active shooter,” according to the report.
But as the massacre unfolded, Arredondo allegedly failed to take on the role of incident commander or transfer the responsibility to another officer on scene, despite it being an “essential duty” he had assigned himself in the active shooter plan he helped write, the committee said.
“Yet it was not effectively performed by anyone,” the committee wrote. “The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life as injured victims waited for over an hour for help, and the attacker continued to sporadically fire his weapon.”
It took 73 minutes between the time the suspect entered the school to when officers breached the door of the classroom and killed him, according to the report.
Lack of communication
The committee found that by simply setting up a command post, which was not done, the chaos of the moment could have been transformed into order by the incident commander assigning tasks and aiding in the flow of information that could have been used to “inform critical decisions,” according to the report.
“Notably, nobody ensured that responders making key decisions inside the building received information that students and teachers had survived the initial burst of gunfire, were trapped in Rooms 111 and 112, and had called out for help,” the committee wrote. “Some responders outside and inside the building knew that information through radio communications. But nobody in command analyzed this information to recognize that the attacker was preventing critically injured victims from obtaining medical care.”
Arredondo, however, erroneously believed the shooter was barricaded and that responding officers had time on their side to deal with the situation.
“Instead of continuing to act as if they were addressing a barricaded subject scenario in which responders had time on their side, they should have reassessed the scenario as one involving an active shooter,” the committee wrote. “Correcting this error should have sparked greater urgency to immediately breach the classroom by any possible means, to subdue the attacker, and to deliver immediate aid to surviving victims.”
The report also said of the hundreds of first responders who quickly arrived on the scene, many were better trained and better equipped than the school district police, “yet in this crisis, no responder seized the initiative to establish an incident command post.”
“Despite an obvious atmosphere of chaos, the ranking officers of other responding agencies, did not approach the Uvalde CISD chief of police or anyone else perceived to be in command to point out the lack of and need for a command post, or offer that specific assistance,” the report states.
“The entirety of law enforcement and its training, preparation, and response shares systemic responsibility for many missed opportunities on that tragic day,” the report said.
The attacker’s motive
For the first time since the massacre occurred, information on a possible motive was included in the report.
“One motive that drove the man behind the massacre at Robb Elementary School was a desire for notoriety and fame,” the committee stated in its report, refusing to use his name.
The committee delved into the suspect’s background, finding he had been a good student up to the eighth grade. He then quickly took a dark path and became a serial truant that eventually got him kicked out of school in the ninth grade, according to the report.
The suspect attended school at Robb Elementary up to the fourth grade.
“The shooting took place in his former fourth grade classroom, and he discussed bad memories of fourth grade with an acquaintance just weeks beforehand,” the committee reported.
The suspect’s fourth grade teacher testified before the committee, acknowledging she knew he needed extra help in her class because “he claimed to be a victim of bullying.”
The suspect’s ex-girlfriend told the committee they broke up in mid-2021 and she described him as “lonely and depressed, constantly teased by friends who called him a ‘school shooter.'” She said he also claimed that he was sexually assaulted as a child.
“She said that he told her repeatedly that he wouldn’t live past eighteen, either because he would commit suicide or simply because he ‘wouldn’t live long,'” the report states.
On social media platforms, he expressed an interest in gore and violence, sharing videos online of beheadings and horrific accidents, and sending explicit messages to other online users, the report said.
“Finally, the attacker developed a fascination with school shootings, of which he made no secret,” according to the report.
The committee also heard testimony that the suspect told acquaintances he was hoarding money for “something big” and that they would all see him on the news one day, according to the report.
None of his statements were ever reported to authorities, the committee found.
The committee wrote that the suspect began to formulate his plan to attack the school in early 2022 after he got into a “blowout argument” with his mother that he livestreamed on Instagram.
Investigators believe the suspect began stockpiling firearm accessories, including 60- and 30-round magazines, holographic weapon sights and snap-on trigger systems in February 2020. He legally purchased ammunition and guns, including two AR-15 rifles, when he turned 18 in May, according to the report.
The committee included in the report an incident that occurred at Robb Elementary School on March 23, in which a suspicious person dressed in black and with a backpack was seen canvassing the school. The person was never identified, according to the committee.
(SALT LAKE CITY) — The Great Salt Lake has lost two-thirds of its size due to rising temperatures and scientists say this is already causing a dangerous ecological ripple effect throughout Utah.
The water body, which is approximately 75 miles long and 30 miles wide, is known to be the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and feeds into nearby rivers, but it’s now one-third its usual size and still shrinking.
Ecologists who have been watching this climate change-induced trend told ABC News that the dry-up is already affecting Utah’s fauna, flora and human populations, and the problem is only going to get worse without outside help.
“I don’t know how much time we have,” Joel Ferry, the director of Utah’s Department of Natural Resources, told ABC News.
More than 800 square miles of the river have been exposed due to the dry-up, according to experts. Ferry, a fifth-generation rancher and state representative, said he has personally been affected by the drought.
Ferry’s land is on the Bear River, which is the largest tributary to the Great Salt Lake, and normally the river flows enough water to rise lake levels up to 3 feet during the peak of the season.
This year the water only went up 1 foot, which is problematic because the water levels usually drop 2 feet during the end of the season, according to Ferry.
“The problem is a shallow lake. There are not many more feet to go,” he said.
Kyle Stone, a wildlife biologist for the state of Utah, told ABC News that animals and plants near the lake are already bearing the burden of the dry-up.
As the water goes down, its salinity goes up which kills algae, a food source for brine shrimp, he said. The shrimp is food to more than 10 million birds that depend on the lake during migrations, according to Stone.
“They’ve got to get from central Canada to central Argentina or southern Mexico without a stopover point,” Stone told ABC News. “You just can’t do it. You’ve gotta refuel somewhere.”
Birds that do stop in the area are now prone to attacks from coyotes or other predators who have more land to traverse, according to Stone.
Robert Gillies, a climatologist from Utah State University, told ABC News that the dry-up also affects people, even those who don’t live near the water.
When the lake dries up harmful particulates that are at the bottom of the lake, both ones that occur naturally and ones that formed from decades of mining in the area, are exposed and kicked up in the wind, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources.
Gillies said arsenic is the most troubling particulate that gets airborne, particularly in the wintertime. During colder weather, particles are trapped in an inversion and, during winter storms, they are released into the air, he said.
Gillies warned that this can be harmful to people’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems.
“If you have been compromised on any of those fronts, it’s just going to be worse,” he said.
Some Utah residents are taking some efforts to mitigate the damage.
Ferry has guided farmers to install drip irrigation systems into their soil. The system pushes water in a small row directly to the plants, he said.
“So it’s a really good practice for things like lettuce and tomatoes, pumpkins, those kinds of plants,” he said.
The Utah state legislature also passed a $40 million plan earlier this year to create a water trust to maintain and improve waterflow to the lake and U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-UT, introduced the Great Salt Lake Recovery Act, which would “study historic drought conditions and protect the long-term health.”
Ferry said more work needs to be done and said the federal and state governments need to make more years of investments to prevent the problem from getting worse.
“Without managing our water appropriately, life in the West doesn’t exist,” he said.
(GREENWOOD, Ind.) — Police identified and applauded the 22-year-old who shot and killed a gunman who opened fire on a Greenwood, Indiana, shopping mall.
The gunman, who killed three people before being killed, was identified Monday as 20-year-old Jonathan Sapirman.
Elisjsha Dicken shot and killed Sapirman two minutes after the rampage started, Greenwood Police Chief James Ison said at Monday’s news conference.
“Our city, our community and our state is grateful for his heroism in this situation,” Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said. “He’s a young man processing a lot. I ask that you give him space and time to be able to process what he’s gone through last night.”
The Johnson County coroner also identified the three people who were killed in the shooting: 30-year-old Victor Gomez and married couple Pedro Pineda, 56, and Rosa Rivera de Pineda, 37.
“I am 100% certain many, many more people would’ve died last night if it was not for his heroism,” Ison told ABC News. “The young man had his wits about him, acted very quickly.”
The suspect had over 100 rounds of ammunition on him, but fired just 24 bullets before being shot by Dicken, police said.
The suspect brought three guns with him to the mall, but only used a Sig Sauer M400 rifle, which he purchased legally in March. Sapirman allegedly left behind another semi-automatic rifle in the mall bathroom, where he was seen on surveillance footage for an hour before the shooting. He purchased that weapon legally in March 2021. A pistol was also found on his body, police said.
Gomez was shot outside the restroom, while the Pinedas were shot while eating dinner in the food court, according to police.
In addition to those who were killed, a 22-year-old woman was shot in the leg and a 12-year-old girl suffered a minor wound after a bullet fragment ricocheted off the wall and hit her in the back.
ABC News’ Alex Perez and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — With Joe Manchin’s stamp of approval in the closely divided Senate, President Joe Biden and Democratic Party leaders are ready for the chamber to move forward before the next recess on a slimmed-down spending bill that focuses on health care. But not all Senate Democrats feel the same.
One day after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., castigated West Virginia’s Sen. Manchin for rejecting the Democratic package on climate and taxes — saying he was sabotaging “future generations” — Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden said he wants to keep a path open for adding climate policies into the upcoming reconciliation package, including those put on ice by Manchin.
“Conversations on clean energy must continue to preserve our options to move forward,” Wyden, of Oregon, said in a statement on Monday. “While I strongly support additional executive action by President Biden, we know a flood of Republican lawsuits will follow. Legislation continues to be the best option here. The climate crisis is the issue of our time and we should keep our options open.”
Wyden stopped short of threatening to revoke support for a health care-only bill and no other Senate Democrat appears to have drawn such a red line. But progress requires consensus in the 50-50 chamber, given GOP opposition: Democrats intend to pass their reconciliation bill using a fast-track budget tool that needs only a simple majority.
Manchin has agreed to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices, potentially saving the federal government $288 billion and bringing down costs for seniors, in addition to a two-year extension of pandemic-era premium subsidies for lower-income Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act.
But, citing concerns about historically high inflation, Manchin last week pumped the breaks on climate proposals in the Democratic legislation. He said then that he needed to see July’s inflation data before he could determine how to proceed on the climate component.
As for Sanders’ criticism that he was “intentionally sabotaging the president’s agenda,” Manchin was asked Monday to respond and said: “I’ve been at this a long time. People say things some times they might not mean, and I don’t take it personally.”
Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, of Illinois, said Monday that he can “live with” moving forward on a bill focused only on health care if that’s the best that Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, can achieve in discussions with Manchin.
“My major frustration is I think Joe should have made his position clear a hell of a long time ago,” Durbin said, echoing Sanders’ criticism Sunday that “the problem was that we continue to talk to Manchin like he was serious. He was not.”
“If they do prescription drugs, give them credit, that’s a good issue,” Durbin said Monday. “But we’ve spent a lot of time wasted in negotiation.”
Other Democrats also signaled Monday that they’re prepared to swallow a package that excludes climate and spending.
“We have a 50-50 Senate. It is what it is,” Sen. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii said. “Any improvement to me is something to be considered.”
It’s unlikely Republicans would pick up the slack for Democratic defectors. In floor remarks Monday, Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the health care-focused plan “reckless.”
“Washington Democrats are working right now to find a way to put more bureaucracy between American patients and the treatments they rely on. They want to put socialist price controls between American innovators and new cures for debilitating diseases,” McConnell said Monday. “With one-party Democratic control of government they just might get away with it, but our colleagues need to think again.”
Manchin: ‘I haven’t walked away’
Manchin, in conversation with reporters on Monday, insisted he was continuing to negotiate on climate and other provisions. He was firm on waiting for the July inflation numbers before proceeding.
“I haven’t walked away from anything, and inflation is my greatest concern,” he said. “I don’t know what tomorrow brings.”
But Democrats are running out of time and know that after the monthlong August recess they must return with a focus on funding the government by Oct. 1, nearly always a fraught process. November’s midterm elections come soon after that.
And with both health care premiums in many states set in August and pandemic-era ACA subsidies set to expire by year’s end, Democrats could be facing angry voters if costs skyrocket — amid the pain of inflation — ahead of the midterms where control of Congress is at stake.
On Friday, Biden backed moving forward with a health care bill while promising executive action on climate.
“After decades of fierce opposition from powerful special interests, Democrats have come together, beaten back the pharmaceutical industry and are prepared to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices and to prevent an increase in health insurance premiums for millions of families with coverage under the Affordable Care Act,” the president said. “Families all over the nation will sleep easier if Congress takes this action.”
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors in New York and the Department of Labor are inspecting Amazon warehouses around the country as part of a civil investigation into unsafe and unseemly workplace conditions.
The inspections began Monday morning, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
“This morning, the United States Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration entered Amazon warehouses outside New York City, Chicago and Orlando to conduct workplace safety inspections in response to referrals received from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York concerning potential workplace hazards related, among other things, to Amazon’s required pace of work for its warehouse employees,” a spokesman for the office, Nicholas Biase, said in a statement provided to ABC News.
“The Civil Division of the SDNY is investigating potential worker safety hazards at Amazon warehouses across the country, as well as possible fraudulent conduct designed to hide injuries from OSHA and others,” Biase added.
Workers at Amazon warehouses, which the company calls fulfillment centers, have complained of a grueling pace, uncomfortable heat and the potential for injury.
In recent years, Amazon has also confronted a lawsuit by New York State Attorney General Letitia James that alleged the company failed to protect workers from COVID-19.
Drivers have said the demand to meet quotas caused them to skip bathroom breaks and urinate in plastic bottles, a practice first reported in a 2018 book, “Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain,” by James Bloodworth.
After first denying the claim, Amazon wrote in a 2021 blog post, “We know that drivers can and do have trouble finding restrooms because of traffic or sometimes rural routes, and this has been especially the case during COVID when many public restrooms have been closed.”
The complaints led some Amazon employees to seek to unionize, with mixed results.
The U.S. Attorney’s office pointed members of the public who want to report workplace safety and injury-related issues at Amazon warehouses to the Justice Department’s website.
Current and former Amazon warehouse workers who have information about safety issues — including safety issues related to the pace of work — or a failure to report injuries, or who were injured and did not receive adequate care at Amazon’s onsite first-aid center or at a clinic recommended by Amazon, were urged to share that information with the SDNY.
Amazon did not immediately respond to ABC News about the inspections and investigation.
(OXFORD, Miss.) — The search continues for 20-year-old Ole Miss student Jimmie “Jay” Lee, who has now been missing for 10 days.
Lee was last seen on the morning of July 8 after leaving the Campus Walk Apartments dressed in “a silver robe or housecoat, gold cap, and gray slippers,” according to authorities.
Three days later, Lee’s vehicle was found at a local towing company after it was removed from the Molly Barr Trails Apartment complex, where he was believed to be visiting someone, according to Oxford, Mississippi, police.
Lee’s family, meanwhile, is desperate for answers as the search drags on without success.
“We’re just holding in strength with faith the size of a mustard seed. That’s all we’re holding onto — that faith in that strength and staying strong. Not only for ourselves, but we’re staying strong for Jay Lee,” Lee’s sister, Tayla Carey, told Meridian, Mississippi ABC affiliate WTOK.
Lee’s father spoke out in a Facebook video on July 13 urging anyone with any new information to reach out to authorities.
“I’m asking that if anyone knows anything, or sees anything, say something,” Lee’s father, Jimmie Lee Sr., said.
Lee’s father described Lee as a hard worker and said his son was working to increase access to baby formula during the current nationwide shortage.
“My son, he’s currently working on an effort to provide infant formula for children that didn’t have it available to them,” Lee’s father said. “It doesn’t matter who you are, he was there to help if he saw the need.”
The Oxford, Mississippi, and University of Mississippi police departments are currently collaborating on the investigation to search for Lee.
“The departments are utilizing all available resources to track tips, potential witnesses, speaking with friends, running search warrants, canvassing areas, and collecting evidence,” the police departments said in a press release.
Crimestoppers has pledged $1,000 to anyone who brings forward information that leads to Lee being found.
The two police departments said on Thursday that “over a dozen search warrants have been executed on both physical and digital entities.”
Lee’s vehicle is now in the Mississippi State Crime Laboratory for processing, police said, but authorities and the Lee family continue to emphasize the need for more information to help locate Lee.
“This is my plea that you help find my child,” Lee’s father said.
(WASHINGTON) — The House is set to vote on a bill Tuesday that would codify same-sex marriage into federal law — the move coming in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last month, after which Justice Clarence Thomas announced the court should “reconsider” its past rulings on rights to contraception access, same-sex relationships and same-sex marriage.
Thomas, in his concurrence to Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the decision that struck down Roe v. Wade, wrote that the Supreme Court should reconsider decisions involving a constitutional right to privacy that guarantees fundamental rights — including same-sex marriage and access to contraception.
His opinion sparked alarm among activists and Democratic lawmakers.
In response, bipartisan group of House members and senators introduced the bill, the Respect for Marriage Act on Monday, which would enshrine marriage equality for the purposes of federal law and provide additional legal protections for marriage equality.
“The Supreme Court’s extremist and precedent-ignoring decision in Dobbs v. Jackson has shown us why it is critical to ensure that federal law protects those whose constitutional rights might be threatened by Republican-controlled state legislatures,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said in a statement Monday.
“LGBTQ Americans and those in interracial marriages deserve to have certainty that they will continue to have their right to equal marriage recognized, no matter where they live, should the Court act on Justice Thomas’ draconian suggestion that the 2013 United States v. Windsor and 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges rulings be reconsidered or if it were to overturn Loving v. Virginia,” Hoyer said.
The Respect for Marriage Act also would officially repeal the Defense Against Marriage Act, which specifically defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman and allowed individual states to not recognize same-sex marriage that were recognized under other states’ laws.
The law was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in cases as recently as 2013 and 2015, but it remains “on the books,” Democrats have said. The House will would repeal the statute once and for all.
The bill also requires, for federal law purposes, that an individual be considered married if the marriage was valid in the state where it was performed, which would give same sex and interracial couples additional certainty that they will “continue to enjoy equal treatment under federal law as all other married couples.”
The bill also prohibits any person acting under color of state law from denying full faith and credit to an out of state marriage based on the sex, race, ethnicity or national origin of the individuals in the marriage, provides the Attorney General with the authority to pursue enforcement actions, and creates a private right of action for any individual harmed by a violation of this provision.
“Maine voters legalized same-sex marriages in our state nearly a decade ago, and since Obergefell, all Americans have had the right to marry the person whom they love,” Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said in a statement. “During my time in the Senate, I have been proud to support legislation prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, from strengthening hate crime prevention laws, to repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,’ to ensuring workplace equality. This bill is another step to promote equality, prevent discrimination, and protect the rights of all Americans.”
The bill is expected to pass along party lines in the House later this week. It’s unclear, at this point, how many Republicans will vote with Democrats on the bill.
Later this week, the House is also set to vote on a bill that would protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.
The votes this week come after the House passed two bills related to abortion access on Friday.
It’s unclear if the Senate will take any of the bills up for consideration ahead of the planned August recess at the end of this month.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 18, 4:20 PM EDT
Ukraine’s first lady to meet with Jill Biden
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska will meet with first lady Jill Biden in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Biden’s office said, one day before Zelenska addresses Congress.
Jul 18, 1:45 PM EDT
Ukraine’s first lady to address Congress on Wednesday
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska will make remarks Wednesday before members of Congress on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced.
All members of the House and Senate are invited to the event, which is set for 11 a.m ET.
Jul 18, 8:56 AM EDT
Russia orders troops to eliminate Ukraine’s long-range missiles
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the East group of Russian forces involved in the fighting in Ukraine and ordered his troops to eliminate the Ukrainian army’s long-range missiles and artillery ammunition it uses to shell targets in the Donbas region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
Shoigu instructed the group’s commander to give priority to the use of precision-guided weapons to destroy Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery assets, the ministry added. Russia has accused Ukraine of using its long-range weapons to shell residential neighborhoods in Donbas communities and set fire to wheat fields and grain storage facilities.
Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles struck targets across much of eastern Ukraine on Sunday and early Monday.
Six people were killed in the town of Toretsk in the Donetsk region after Russian shelling, the state emergency service said. Missiles also struck civilian infrastructure, including a school in the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.
Russia also carried out 55 strikes on the Sumy region on Sunday. Around 60 projectiles landed in Nikopol, a dozen residential buildings were damaged and one elderly woman was wounded, local officials said.
The southern city of Mykolaiv was subjected to a massive missile strike in the early hours of Sunday as 10 missiles, presumably launched by an S-300 system, hit various parts of town.
Russian officials said on Monday that no clear timeframes have been set for the war in Ukraine, and priority should be given to its efficiency.
“We have no doubts that the special military operation will be completed after all of its objectives are attained. There are no clear timeframes, what counts most is this operation’s efficiency,” Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said as quoted by Russian media.
Officials from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic claimed on Monday that DPR territory will be liberated from the Ukrainian military this year.
“The liberation of Donbas will be completed this year,” Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the police department of the DPR, said according to Russian media.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, and Max Uzol
Jul 17, 6:20 PM EDT
Number of Ukrainian public officials accused of treason, collaborating with Russia: Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, in Crimea, who was dismissed in the beginning of the Russian invasion, has been notified he is being charged with treason.
“Everyone who together with him was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable,” Zelenskyy said during his evening address Sunday. “It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with the Russian special services.”
A number of Ukrainian public officials have been notified they will be charged for treason and for collaborating with Russia.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Jul 17, 2:20 PM EDT
‘Evil cannot win’: Priest breaks down at funeral for 4-year-old Ukrainian girl
A funeral service was held Sunday for a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was among two dozen Ukrainian civilian’s killed last week in a Russian missile attack in the west-central Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia.
During the open-casket funeral for Liza Dmytrieva, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest broke down in tears as he told the little girl’s father and other relatives, “evil cannot win,” according to The Associated Press.
Liza was pushing a stroller in a park as she and her mother were headed to a speech therapist appointment when the attack unfolded Thursday afternoon in Vinnytsia, a city close to the front lines in west-central Ukraine, officials said.
The girl and 23 others Ukrainian civilians were killed, including two boys ages 7 and 8. At least 200 other civilians, including Liza’s mother, were injured, officials said.
“Look, my flower! Look how many people came to you,” Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, said, as she caressed the child lying in an open casket filled with teddy bears and flowers.
Orthodox priest Vitalii Holoskevych gave the eulogy at Liza’s funeral struggling through tears.
“I didn’t know Liza, but no person can go through this with calm because every burial is grief for each of us,” Holoskevych said. “We are losing our brothers and sisters.”
Jul 15, 10:01 AM EDT
Grandma of 4-year-old girl killed in missile strike: ‘I hate them all’
The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl killed in Thursday’s Russian missile attack in Vinnytsia told ABC News, “They took the most precious [person] I had in my life.”
Four-year-old Liza was among 23 people, including three children, killed in the strike.
Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, called her a “wonderfully sunny child.”
“She was the most wonderful girl in the world and it is so painful that her mother cannot even bury her,” she said.
Asked how she feels about Russia, Dmytryshyna, replied, “I hate them all.”
“We did not ask them to come here. They have caused so much sorrow,” she said of the Russians. “I would give my own life to extinguish the entire country.”
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Ibtissem Guenfoud and Natalya Kushnir
Jul 15, 9:04 AM EDT
Demand for artificial limbs surges in Ukraine
One of Ukraine’s leading medical experts on developing prosthetic limbs for amputees says there has been a dramatic surge in demand for artificial arms and legs since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Dr. Oleksandr Stetsenko told ABC News that financial support or donations of prosthetic parts are needed from abroad to meet the increased demand.
External support, he said, is vital so that people have the chance to continue with their lives.
“With good prosthetics people can come back to life again,” Stetsenko told ABC News.
There is currently no official figure for how many people in Ukraine have undergone surgery to remove limbs because of injuries sustained from the war but Dr. Stetsenko estimates that around 500 people have had limbs amputated since the end of February with the majority of those cases being soldiers and around a fifth being civilians.
While the number of patients in Ukraine needing artificial limbs has increased, the domestic supply of components to make prosthetic arms and legs has reduced.
That is because a third of the companies which were previously producing components in Ukraine are now located in territory which has recently been occupied by Russian forces or in areas near to the frontline, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.
A director at the health ministry, Oleksandra Mashkevych, confirmed that Ukraine is no longer able “to cover all of the demand relating to artificial limbs.”
Mashkevych told ABC News that children who need artificial limbs are sent abroad to Europe or to the United States and that around 20 children in Ukraine are thought to have had limbs amputated since the start of the war in February.
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Ibtissem Guenfoud, Natalya Kushnir and Kuba Kaminski
Jul 15, 6:49 AM EDT
Unprecedented rescue operation underway in Vinnytsia
At least 18 people are still missing after a deadly missile strike on downtown Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday, the Ukrainian National Police said.
Three Russian Kalibr missiles launched from a submarine struck an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, located about 155 miles southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday morning.
At least 23 people — including 3 children — died in the attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said, and more than a 100 were wounded, some critically. The bodies of 2 children and 11 adults were yet to be identified on Friday morning, local authorities said.
The strike in the heart of Vinnytsia is “part of a systematic Russian campaign of attacks on residential areas of cities in Ukraine”, the Institute for the Study of War said.
The search continued on Friday morning for at least 18 people who were still missing after the attack. The ongoing rescue operation has been unprecedented in its scale, local officials said, with more than 1,000 rescuers and 200 pieces of equipment being involved in clearing the rubble and searching for those still missing.
Several dozen people were reportedly detained in Vinnytsia on Thursday for questioning under the suspicion of acting as local spotters or aimers on the ground for the Russian strikes.
The eastern city of Mykolaiv also reported 10 powerful explosions on Friday morning. The city’s two biggest universities were hit in the attack, wounding at least four people, local authorities said. Russia also struck a hotel and a shopping mall in Mykolaiv on Thursday.
Russian shelling also targeted Kharkiv, another eastern city, on Thursday night. Local officials claimed 2 schools were damaged in the attack.
The European Union and the United Nations strongly condemned Russia for what the EU called a “long series of brutal attacks against civilians.”
Russia’s missile strikes hit more than 17,000 facilities of civilian infrastructure as opposed to around 300 military facilities since the start of the war, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jul 14, 4:02 PM EDT
Russian missile strike kills at least 23 in Vinnytsia
Russian missiles hit the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday morning, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Three children were among the dead, the agency said.
The missiles struck an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, located about 155 miles southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The strike also ignited a massive fire that engulfed 50 cars in an adjacent parking lot, according to the National Police of Ukraine. Burned-out vehicles are peppered with holes from the missiles.
The State Emergency Service said about 115 victims in Vinnytsia needed medical attention, with 64 people hospitalized — including 34 in severe condition and five in critical.
Forty-two people are listed as missing, the agency said.
Many Ukrainians moved to Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, to get away from the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Until now, Vinnytsia had been seen as a city of relative safety.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “an open act of terrorism” on civilians.
“Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism?” Zelenskyy said in a statement via Telegram on Thursday.
War crimes investigators are at the scene studying missile fragments.
Russian missile strikes targeted several other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday and early Thursday, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv.
At least 12 people died in the Zaporizhia strike, which hit two industrial workshops on Wednesday, according to local authorities.
At least five civilians were killed and 30 others injured in Mykolaiv on Wednesday after Russian missiles destroyed a hotel and a shopping mall, the local mayor said. The southern Ukrainian city was shelled again on Thursday morning, but no casualties were immediately reported.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Fidel Pavlenko, Max Uzol, and Yulia Drozd
Jul 14, 1:49 PM EDT
At least 18 Russian filtration camps along Russia-Ukraine border
Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is calling the forcible relocation of Ukrainians to Russian filtration camps is “a war crime.”
In an interview with ABC News Live on Thursday, Carpenter said the Russians are “trying to take away Ukrainians who might have Ukrainian civic impulses, who are patriots, who want to defend their country.” Carpenter said the Russians want to “erase Ukrainian identity” and “the Ukrainian nation state, as the entity that governs people’s lives in these regions.”
Carpenter said there are at least 18 filtration camps along the Russia-Ukraine border, adding that it’s impossible to get an exact total because many are located in Russia’s far east.
-ABC News’ Malka Abramoff
Jul 14, 12:04 PM EDT
Russian missile strike kills at least 17 in Vinnytsia
Russian missiles hit the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday morning, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 30 others, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.
Two children were among the dead, the prosecutor’s office said.
The missiles struck an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, located about 155 miles southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The strike also ignited a massive fire that engulfed 50 cars in an adjacent parking lot, according to the National Police of Ukraine. Burned-out vehicles are peppered with holes from the missiles.
The national police said about 90 victims in Vinnytsia sought medical attention, and 50 of them are in serious condition.
Many Ukrainians moved to Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, to get away from the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Until now, Vinnytsia had been seen as a city of relative safety.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “an open act of terrorism” on civilians.
“Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism?” Zelenskyy said in a statement via Telegram on Thursday.
War crimes investigators are at the scene studying missile fragments.
Russian missile strikes targeted several other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday and early Thursday, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv.
At least 12 people died in the Zaporizhia strike, which hit two industrial workshops on Wednesday, according to local authorities.
At least five civilians were killed and 30 others injured in Mykolaiv on Wednesday after Russian missiles destroyed a hotel and a shopping mall, the local mayor said. The southern Ukrainian city was shelled again on Thursday morning, but no casualties were immediately reported.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Fidel Pavlenko, Max Uzol, and Yulia Drozd
Jul 13, 6:30 PM EDT
State Department aware of reports on another American detained by Russian proxies
The State Department said Wednesday it is aware of unconfirmed reports that another American has been detained by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
The statement follows a [report from the Guardian] () on 35-year-old Suedi Murekezi, who is believed to have gone missing in Ukraine in early June.
According to the Guardian, Murekezi was able to make contact with a family member on July 7 and told them he was being held in the same prison as Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two American veterans captured while volunteering for Ukrainian forces. Murekezi has lived in Ukraine since 2020 and was falsely accused of participating in pro-Ukraine protests, according to the report.
“We have been in contact with the Ukrainian and Russian authorities regarding U.S. citizens who may have been captured by Russia’s forces or proxies while fighting in Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday. “We call on Russia to live up to its international obligations to treat all individuals captured fighting with Ukraine’s armed forces as prisoners of war.”
Another American — Grady Kurpasi — is also missing in Ukraine. A family spokesperson said the veteran was last seen fighting with Ukrainian forces in late April and is feared to have been either killed or captured.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jul 13, 8:27 AM EDT
Shelling continues throughout Donbas region
Shelling from both Russian and Ukrainian forces caused damage to the landscape and destroyed structures throughout the Donbas region on Tuesday and Wednesday, local officials said.
Russian strikes reportedly targeted the eastern town of Bakhmut, killing one person and wounding 5 others, the local governor said. Explosions were heard in several nearby towns too, with one missile falling near a kindergarten.
Shelling also continued in Izyum, Mykolayiv and Kharkiv on Tuesday. Russian troops reportedly conducted unsuccessful attacks north of Slovyansk and the town of Siversk on Tuesday, despite repeated rhetoric of an “operational pause” that Russia allegedly maintains, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest report.
Russian forces continue to bomb critical areas in preparation for future ground offensive, with air and artillery strikes reported along the majority of the frontline, the experts added.
Ukrainian forces on Tuesday responded to the Russian attacks and claimed to have destroyed six Russian military facilities on occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukrainian officials claimed to have destroyed several ammunition depots, as well as a larger military unit.
Russian media reported on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops launched a “massive attack” on an air defense unit in the Luhansk region.
Ukrainian military officials also claimed to have killed at least 30 Russian troops on Tuesday, along with destroying a howitzer and a multiple rocket launcher, among other weaponry.
But the U.K. Defense Ministry in its latest intelligence update said it still expects Russian forces to “focus on taking several small towns during the coming weeks” in the Donbas region.
These towns are on the approaches to the larger cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk that likely remain the principal objectives for this phase of the Russian military operation, the ministry said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Yulia Drozd and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jul 12, 10:27 PM EDT
US transfers $1.7 billion in economic assistance to Ukrainian government
The United States transferred $1.7 billion to Ukraine’s government Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced.
It’s the second tranche of money the Treasury transferred to Ukraine’s government as part of $7.5 billion approved for this purpose in the $40 billion Ukraine aid package Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in May.
It’ll go, in part, to helping Ukraine’s government provide “essential health care services” and health care workers’ salaries, the Treasury Department said.
The U.S. transferred the first tranche, $1.3 billion, to Ukraine’s government two weeks ago.
-ABC News Benjamin Gittleson
Jul 12, 1:59 AM EDT
Ukraine destroys Russian ammo depot in occupied Kherson region
Ukrainian forces hit and likely destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region on Monday night, local officials said.
The strike resulted in a massive blast, videos of which soon circulated online. According to local reports, more than 40 trucks filled with gasoline were destroyed. Russian media didn’t verify the claims, saying instead that pro-Russian forces had destroyed a series of saltpeter warehouses.
“People’s windows are blown out, but they are still happy … because this means that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are close,” Sergey Khlan, from the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in the aftermath of the attack.
Monday’s strike marked at least the fourth time Ukrainian forces destroyed ammunition depots in Nova Kakhovka, local media reported.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Tatiana Rymarenko, Max Uzol and Yulia Drozd
(DALLAS) — Residents in Texas are being asked to conserve water as drought conditions and a looming heat wave pose a potential shortage in the region’s water supply.
The North Texas Municipal Water District has called for customers to reduce their water use “immediately,” especially for outdoor water use, according to an alert released Saturday.
The utility company, which serves about 2 million people in northern Texas, including the city of Plano and North Dallas County, was forced to cease water production at one of its four treatment plants unexpectedly on Saturday to perform critical maintenance “to return the plant back to full water purification capacity,” according to the alert.
That maintenance, combined with regional drought and “increasing discretionary outdoor use and irrigation,” is what prompted the utility company to request a precautionary reduction in water usage until at least Wednesday.
The majority of Texas is currently experiencing drought conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Cities like Plano and Dallas are experiencing moderate to severe drought, a map showing drought conditions across the state released Thursday shows.
The request for conservation comes as temperatures reach all-time highs in parts of the U.S. and Europe. The Dallas and Fort Worth areas are expected to reach up to 110 degrees from Monday through Wednesday, forecasts show.
But even as the triple-digit temperatures move east, hot conditions and the continuation of the current drought are expected to remain for the rest of the summer, according to the utility company.
The critical maintenance will involve taking particles out of the water in six sedimentation basins used to treat the water and produce up to 210 million gallons per day, according to the utility company.
“We’re seeing a stress on our system because of peak demands with peak weather conditions,” NTMWD Director of Communications Wayne Larson told ABC Dallas affiliate WFAA.
Larson continued, “We are enduring a long, hot, dry summer. The forecast doesn’t seem like it will change. We are trying to manage and meet the rising peak demands of our customers.”
Water is not the only utility service in the state facing pressure due to current climate conditions.
Last week, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas called for Texans to voluntarily conserve electricity amid a surge of energy demands due to the scorching temperatures. Despite the heat, cloud cover at some points is limiting the state’s access to essential solar-generated polar.
The pressure on the state’s power grid is a continuation of weather-related incidents that occurred in 2021, including the Texas freeze in February 2021 that left millions in the dark and a similar request by ERCOT in June 2021 following tight grid conditions and a significant number of forced outages due to heat waves in the region.
Water supplies in the western U.S. are beginning to dwindle as a decades-long megadrought continues to dry up some of the most important water sources, including the Colorado River as well as Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the largest reservoirs in the country.
As the commodity becomes more precious, customers could soon see an uptick in their water bills, according to experts.
(SAN DIEGO) — Indoor mask mandates returned Monday for the San Diego Unified School District schools and offices as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations tick up in the county.
Mandatory masking in indoor public spaces will be required for all students, teachers and staff at least through the end of summer school.
“As a district, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been intentional in implementing strategies to keep our community safe and reduce absences due to illness — all in service of our students, staff and community,” the district said in a letter sent to staff, parents and students Friday.
“If your student is participating in summer school or other summer enrichment program, please send them to school or their program with a mask. If they do not have one, masks will be provided. Students and staff will be required to wear their masks while indoors only,” the letter said.
The district added in the letter it will continue to monitor data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the county over the next two weeks and let the community know if there are any changes.
SDUSD dropped its mask mandate in April following a decrease in COVID-19 cases, hospitalization and deaths. However, in May, the district said the mandate would return as long as the county was classified by the CDC as having high transmission levels of COVID, which is determined by case counts and hospital admissions.
Over the last seven days, San Diego has recorded 383.01 new cases per 100,000, a nearly 5% jump from the previous week, according to CDC data. Additionally, the county has seen a hospital admission rate of 11.8 per 100,000 over the last seven days, which is a 31% spike compared to the previous seven days.
The district has not stated whether the indoor mask mandate will continue into the fall semester. District officials did not immediately return ABC News’ request for comment.
Schools in San Diego are not the only locations seeing the return of masks. Naval Base Coronado and Naval Base San Diego both announced on social media that mask mandates will go into effect Monday.
“Effective TODAY, mask wearing is required indoors on all Naval Base Coronado Installations and training sites until further notice,” the base wrote in a Facebook post. “Please do your part to reduce the spread by wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, increased hygiene practices and vaccinations.”
