(UVALDE, Texas) — A small town in rural Texas is reeling after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school on Tuesday, killing 19 children.
Two teachers were also among those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, authorities said.
Prior to opening fire at the school, the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother, authorities said.
The suspect — identified by officials as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School — is dead.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 26, 7:32 am
Bodies of nine victims released to funeral homes, with more expected today
Nine of the deceased victims’ bodies were released to funeral homes in Uvalde on Wednesday evening, Uvalde County Justice of Peace Eulalio Diaz told CNN.
More — possibly all — of the remaining bodies are expected to be released at some point on Thursday, according to Diaz. It will mark the beginning of the funeral arrangement process for many grieving families in the wake of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. There are two funeral homes in Uvalde, and both are offering free services to families of the victims.
“My job is to try and get them back home as quickly as possible,” Diaz told CNN in an interview early Thursday.
In a county of less than 50,000 people, there is no medical examiner and the justice of the peace in the state of Texas assumes the responsibility of the county coroner, according to Diaz.
Diaz described his job of going in and assessing the bodies of the dead at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting. He said Irma Garcia, one of the teachers who were killed, was a former high school classmate of his.
(NEW YORK) — Gun control advocates are again calling on Texas lawmakers to restrict access to firearms after at least 19 children and two teachers were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.
The suspect, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead, authorities said. Officials told ABC News that the suspect legally purchased two AR-style rifles on May 17 and May 20, respectively, just days after his 18th birthday.
In Texas, where there are few restrictions on purchasing firearms, individuals who are 18 years or older are legally permitted to purchase long guns, which include shotguns and rifles.
Republican lawmakers, who currently control the State Legislature, have repeatedly loosened gun restrictions even after recent mass shootings in the state.
“You are doing nothing!” Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke said, confronting Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott during a press conference on Wednesday.
In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, Abbott pointed to a “mental health” problem in the community during Wednesday’s press conference and dismissed the suggestion that stricter gun laws could have prevented the shooting.
“I asked the sheriff and others an open-ended question and got the same answer from the sheriff, as well as from the mayor of Uvalde,” the governor told reporters. “The question was, ‘what is the problem here?’ And they were straightforward and emphatic. They said, ‘we have a problem with mental health illness.'”
Abbott echoed a common stance that many Republican lawmakers on both the state and national levels have repeatedly taken amid a nationwide debate on gun violence, which reaches a boiling point following each mass shooting.
According to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates for gun control and studies gun laws across the country, seven of the deadliest mass shootings in the history of the U.S. happened in the country over the past decade. And four of those shootings, including the Uvalde shooting, happened in Texas.
Most recently, 25 people were killed in a mass shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Nov. 5, 2017. And in August 2019, 23 people were killed at a Walmart in El Paso. The gunmen, like the Uvalde shooting suspect, used semi-automatic rifles in the shootings.
In the wake of these shootings, Abbott signed a series of bills into law last year designed to further ease access to firearms. He argued that each piece of legislation strengthens the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms.
“Politicians from the federal level to the local level have threatened to take guns from law-abiding citizens — but we will not let that happen in Texas,” Abbott said in a statement on June 17, 2021. “Texas will always be the leader in defending the Second Amendment, which is why we built a barrier around gun rights this session.”
Among the bills signed by Abbot last year was House Bill 1927, dubbed as “Constitutional Carry” by gun rights advocates. The law made it legal for “law-abiding Texans” to carry handguns without a license or training. The law went into effect on Sept. 1, 2021.
“I’m not here to take anybody’s rifles away. I’m not here to take anybody’s guns away. But as this next legislative session unfolds in January here in Texas, I will seek to provide restrictions on access to these types of militarized weapons,” Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents the district where the Uvalde school shooting took place in Texas, told ABC News Live on Wednesday.
“Again, nobody in this rural community uses that type of weaponry to go hunting,” he added.
Amid criticism from gun control advocates, who argued for more restrictions in the wake of the El Paso shooting, Abbott defended the law, arguing that it “safeguards” the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment.
Abbott also signed into law in 2021 an amendment that loosened restrictions on handguns based on age.
In Texas, you had to be 21 years old to get a license to carry a handgun, but the 2021 amendment made it possible for 18-year-olds to receive a license if they meet other requirements, other than age, and if they are protected under various protective orders, including having been a victim of violence, stalking or sexual abuse.
“We have a governor and a Republican-controlled legislature that has chosen to put more guns on the streets, [and] make it easier for young people to access guns and weapons of war without training, without a license,” Texas Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat, told ABC News Live on Tuesday.
Escobar criticized the passage of the legislation loosening gun restrictions after it was signed by Abbott in June 2021 and said that in the wake of the El Paso shooting, Abbott has “chosen to betray the victims of gun violence.”
Following the 2018 mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, which left 10 dead, Abbott asked the State Legislature to consider a so-called “red flag” law that would allow court-ordered removal of firearms from an individual who is deemed to be dangerous.
But the Republican governor faced pushback from gun rights advocates in his own party, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.
“It seems like there’s coalescence around the notion of not supporting what’s categorized as a ‘red flag’ law,” Abbott said in July 2018, according to the Texas Tribune. “What is important is … that we work together as a legislative body towards a solution to make our schools safer and to make our communities safer.”
After the Santa Fe shooting, Abbott announced a “school safety” plan and later signed into law bills that would, among other things, strengthen mental health access in schools, heighten police presence, hire more school safety marshals and remove the cap on how many can carry firearms in public schools.
Abbott also signed House Bill 2622 into law last year, making Texas a “Second Amendment Sanctuary State by protecting Texans from new federal gun control regulations.”
A 1994 federal assault weapons ban expired in 2004 — a measure that Democrats and gun control advocates have long fought to restore.
According to the Giffords Center, a study of mass shootings in which four or more people were killed found that more than 85% of these fatalities were caused by assault rifles. Seven states and the District of Columbia prohibit assault weapons. In Texas, assault weapons are legal.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Americans have turned their attention to Uvalde, Texas, after the devastating shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 children and two adults dead on Tuesday.
The mass shooting marked the second-deadliest school shooting in recent U.S. history behind the 2012 attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut that left 26 victims dead.
As onlookers search for ways to get involved and help those affected, local and national efforts are in place to support the victims, families and others coping with the trauma of yet another mass shooting in this country.
Blood Drives
Even for people not in the immediate local area, organizations like the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center are able to connect blood donors with those in need at local Uvalde hospitals.
“Thanks to generous blood donors, we were able to send 15 units of blood to Uvalde via helicopter to be available at the site of the shooting and at the area hospitals,” the organization announced Wednesday morning. “Later this afternoon, we received a request and sent an additional 10 units of blood to a hospital in Uvalde.”
The critical need comes on the heels of a months-long blood supply shortage.
With the center’s supply is running low, the organization said, “This tragedy highlights the importance of always having blood available on the shelf and before it’s needed.”
An emergency blood drive was scheduled for Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time at the Herby Ham Activity Center in Uvalde. As of time of publication, all appointments were booked through Saturday but the center stressed that help would still be needed and encouraged people to reserve appointments through Memorial Day.
Verified Fundraisers
Online and virtual donations are highly-visible, immediate ways to financially support victims’ families, first responders and local communities impacted by mass shootings, but it’s vital to ensure the source is trusted, vetted and honestly managing funds.
According to the school’s website, First State Bank of Uvalde has set up a memorial fund account for the victims of Tuesday’s shooting. Those looking to donate may contribute funds at any First State Bank branch or mail checks to P.O. Box 1908, Uvalde, TX, 78802, with checks payable to the Robb School Memorial Fund.
VictimsFirst is a nonprofit network of families of the deceased and survivors from the last two decades of mass shootings. It originated in 2012 to protect victims, educate communities and fund first responders and victims.
The VictimsFirst fund created in the wake of the Uvalde tragedy is supported by the National Compassion Fund in partnership with GoFundMe and the San Antonio Area Foundation. The National Compassion Fund is a subsidiary of the National Center for Victims of Crime, and states on its website that it collects donations and is in charge of forming a “local Steering Committee to determine eligibility and distribution of funds.”
Anita Busch, president of VictimsFirst and co-founder of the National Compassion Fund, whose own family has suffered through two mass shootings — the 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado, and the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting — helped create a new model for charitable giving to ensure that 100% of donations collected for victims of mass casualty crime actually go directly to the victims.
“For Uvalde, we’ll continue to collect and set it up very similar to El Paso,” she told ABC News, referencing the group’s work after the 2019 Walmart shooting. “The National Compassion Fund will also be administering those funds. We will make sure that it’s a separate bank account, that everything is transparent and once we’re satisfied as victims of previous mass shootings, we’ll go ahead and put the funds into the NCF.”
“We’re very transparent about what we collect and if there’s any question [about what someone gives], we ask and get that in writing — put that in the correct bank accounts and go from there,” she said. “We are so grateful that public intent will be very transparent.”
Busch added that donors could “give to the victims or you can give to the community or both, just as we did in Buffalo,” referring to the May 14 mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead.
Busch also serves as a Mass Violence Relief Specialist and adviser to the National Compassion Fund, and has personally helped victims, survivors and communities behind the scenes in more than 30 mass casualty crimes.
There are also two Uvalde area funeral homes that posted on social media about covering the cost of services for families of the shooting victims.
“For over 60 years, we have supported Uvalde and beyond,” Rushing-Estes Mortuary Uvalde wrote in a Facebook post. “Today, our resolve is stronger than ever. We are here for the people of Uvalde and our professionals are currently at Robb Elementary assisting law enforcement. As the situation develops and we have the opportunity to assist our community, not one family will be charged for our services.”
Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home also said in a Facebook post that it would handle any services for victims free of charge.
“We have fought together as a community and we will pull together as one now in our time of need,” the post read. “Hillcrest will be assisting families with NO COST for funerals for all involved in today’s horrific events. Prayer for our small amazing town.”
Grief Counseling
There are also resources available for people not in the immediate Uvalde area who may be caring for others coping with anxiety and residual trauma, or who may be affected themselves.
The National Disaster Distress Helpline, a year-round disaster crisis counseling hotline, is available to anyone in the U.S. experiencing distress or other mental health concerns related to recent mass shootings.
The free, confidential services are available 24/7 and offered in over 100 languages, including Spanish and American Sign Language (ASL) for those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
“It is common to feel distress before, during, and after a disaster. Emotional distress is second only to death and injury in terms of the toll disasters take within impacted communities,” the organization said in a press release. “Most distress symptoms are temporary, but for some individuals and families these symptoms may last for weeks or months after a natural or human-caused disaster, including incidents of mass violence.”
Anyone experiencing distress or other mental health concerns related to disaster can call or text 1-800-985-5990 to connect with a trained counselor. Spanish-speakers can call or text the hotline and press “2” for 24/7 bilingual support.
Deaf or hard of hearing American Sign Language users experiencing disaster distress can contact the hotline by dialing 1-800-985-5990 through a direct videophone option via any videophone-enabled device, or by selecting the “ASL Now” option on the hotline’s website at disasterdistress.samhsa.gov. Videophone calls are answered 24/7 by trained crisis workers fluent in ASL from the hotline’s crisis center partner DeafLEAD.
The National Disaster Distress Helpline also has Online Peer Support Communities for survivors of mass violence in the U.S.
Victims’ loved ones and emergency responders with experience from mass violence can connect with one another in a private, moderated Facebook group to offer or receive emotional support in the aftermath of a mass shooting. This can include methods to cope, memorial dates, self-care strategies and support through daily living challenges.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The mother of the 18-year-old gunman accused of killing 21 at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week told ABC News in an interview that her son was “not a monster,” but that he could “be aggressive.”
“I had an uneasy feeling sometimes, like ‘what are you up to?'” Adriana Reyes told ABC News’ Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman in an interview at her home. “He can be aggressive… If he really got mad.”
Reyes’ son, accused shooter Salvador Ramos, allegedly purchased two assault rifles in the days after he turned 18 and used them to carry out the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history — all within a span of eight days, authorities said.
Twenty-one people, including 19 third- and fourth-grade children, were killed in the attack, law enforcement officials said. Two teachers were killed, as well. Another 17 people were wounded, including three law enforcement officers. Ramos’ grandmother, who police say was the accused gunman’s first victim, is hospitalized in stable condition.
“We all have a rage, that some people have it more than others,” Reyes said.
Reyes expressed sympathy for the children who were killed and the parents who lost them multiple times during the interview, but said she was not aware that her son had been buying the weapons.
“Those kids… I have no words,” Reyes said through tears. “I don’t know what to say about those poor kids.”
Some classmates told ABC News that Ramos was known for fighting and threatening fellow students. They said he exhibited increasingly disturbing behavior over the past two years, threatening at least one classmate and stalking others, and that he claimed to have cut scars into his face.
Ramos is accused of shooting his grandmother at their home in Uvalde before driving his grandparents’ car to Robb Elementary School and opening fire.
“Anyone who shoots his grandmother in the face has to have evil in his heart,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a press conference Wednesday. “But it is far more evil for someone to gun down little kids.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — The accused mass shooter who carried out the deadly attack at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, allegedly committed animal abuse and displayed videos of the cruelty to users on a social media platform, according to two users who spoke to ABC News.
In some instances, the alleged animal abuse was committed in public and then posted for online viewing, and the 18-year-old suspect, Salvador Ramos, allegedly boasted about how he and his friends did it “all the time,” according to one user.
Ramos was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers inside the Robb Elementary School after he allegedly killed 19 students and two faculty members. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that 17 other people were injured in the episode, including three law enforcement officers.
Abbott said the rampage started when the suspect shot and critically wounded his grandmother at her home before driving several blocks to the school, where he crashed a vehicle and engaged in a gunfight with law enforcement officers outside the school before going in and allegedly committing the massacre.
The allegations of animal abuse are similar to what authorities have learned about Payton Gendron, the white 18-year-old suspect who allegedly committed the May 14 racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York supermarket that left 10 Black people dead.
According to a document authorities said the Buffalo suspect allegedly posted online and obtained by ABC News, Gendron allegedly detailed taking part in animal abuse in which he killed a cat, according to the document. Within the writings reviewed by ABC News, Gendron alleged that his mother gave him a box to bury the cat he said he killed.
The two users familiar with online posts attributed to Ramos told ABC News the suspect aired his alleged acts of animal abuse on the social media platform Yubo. They said an account they believed belonged to the accused gunman would go on live video on the platform and play videos of him abusing animals, including cats.
One of the users identified herself to ABC News as Maya Xenokostas, while the other did not share their name.
A law enforcement source told ABC News that investigators are aware of the Yubo profile and are looking at it but can’t definitively confirm the account belongs to the suspect. ABC News has not independently confirmed that the alleged account belonged to the accused shooter.
Yubo describes itself as “a social live streaming platform,” according to its website.
In a statement, a Yubo spokesperson said, “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the families of the victims of the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Due to privacy regulations, we are not able to release specific user information outside of direct requests from law enforcement.”
One Yubo user graphically described to ABC News how Ramos would allegedly publicize the abuse, and would “put cats in plastic bags, suspend them inside, throw them at the ground and throw them at people’s houses.”
The user, who did not share their name with ABC News, said the alleged gunman “would display these videos while laughing and boasting about how him and his friends did it ‘all the time.'”
(UVALDE, Texas) — The Texas school district where 19 children elementary school children and two adults were killed appeared to have security measures in place in the event of a school shooting, records show.
Included in the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District preventative security measures plan were lockdown protocols, a system in place to report threats and bullying, threat assessment teams, as well as the monitoring of social media, according to school district documents featured on the school district’s website.
The school district also has its own police force with four officers and partners with local law enforcement, according to the document. Secondary campuses have staff who patrol door entrances, parking lots and perimeters of campuses.
The standard response plan to reunify parents with students after an incident was provided in a handout for parents with pickup instructions as well as a “Reunification Information” form for parents to complete that identifies the student and the person who is to pick them up, the documents show.
Other preventative measures include motion detectors and alarm systems, a classroom door policy that requires keeping doors locked at all times, and staff training for emergency protocols. In addition, case managers, social workers and licensed professional counselors are on hand to support students and families, according to the documents.
The suspect, 18-year-old Uvalde High School student Salvador Ramos, allegedly shot his grandmother at a separate scene before crashing a car outside of the Robb Elementary School and emerging from the vehicle with an AR-15-style rifle, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. His grandmother was airlifted to the hospital and is in critical condition, authorities said.
As Ramos approached the school, he was engaged by a school district police officer, who was then allegedly shot by Ramos, sources said.
At one point, students heard banging on a window before their teacher saw the shooter with a “big gun,” a fourth-grade student who was inside the school at the time said in an interview with ABC News, describing the “nonstop” gunshots that followed.
Ramos then entered the school, barricaded himself in a classroom and opened fire, killing 19 students and a teacher, law enforcement sources said.
There, Ramos was shot and killed after trading gunfire with an Uvalde ISD officer and Border Patrol Tactical Unit agents, sources said. Investigators are going through ballistics to determine who fired the shot that killed the suspect.
Authorities have not detailed how Ramos was able to enter the school and classroom despite the security measures in place. Ramos entered the school through a back door, officials said during a press conference Tuesday.
Every door around the building of the school should be locked, and visitors should only be able to access the building from a single point of entry through a secure vestibule that remains locked until they are authorized, security expert Paul Timm, vice president of Facility Engineering Associates, told ABC Chicago station WLS-TV.
Timm said that all classroom doors should remain locked as well, but added that schools often resist that measure because it gets in the way of operations, such as students needing to use the restroom.
Two responding police officers were also injured, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The students killed were mainly third and fourth graders, according to law enforcement sources.
The father of a 10-year-old Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the shooting, blamed the school district for not having locked doors and lacking training and protocol and police for not responding fast enough.
“There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth, but didn’t do a darn thing till it was far too late,” Jacinto Cazares told ABC News in a statement.
A 2017 to 2020 school district audit by the Texas School Safety Center found that only 200 of the districts reviewed had viable active shooter plans. Of the remaining 822 districts, 626 districts in the state did not have a policy in place, and 196 districts had an insufficient policy, the audit found.
The report did not list specific school districts in Texas and what they ranked.
“Significant appropriations” are provided to ensure that the local school systems around the state have resources for the school safety allotment under Texas Senate Bill 11, Mike Morath, commissioner of education for the Texas Education Agency, said during Tuesday’s press conference.
The Texas School Safety Center and the Texas Education Agency provide technical assistance and training to school district leaders to ensure that the threat assessment protocols and these procedures, including threat response plans of the operational multi hazard plans, are practiced on recurring basis, Morath said.
“There have been, essentially, fairly significant efforts to bolster those managerial practices and these detective or preventative practices in schools all over the state of Texas,” Morath said. “And we will continue to do more.”
The shooting in Uvalde, a small town about 90 minutes west of San Antonio, comes just days after a deadly mass shooting in Buffalo, New York and amid a rapid rise in active shooter incidents in the country.
Ramos legally purchased two AR-style rifles just days after his 18th birthday, law enforcement officials said.
(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:
May 24, 4:47 pm
Drone footage shows devastation inside Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol
Drone footage released by Russian media shows the devastation inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces fended off Russian troops for weeks amid intense fighting before surrendering.
The drone footage released by the Russian news outlet MIC Izvestia showed the collapsed walls of the plant and twisted metal and debris strewn about the entire facility.
The Russian Defense ministry on Friday said the last Ukrainian fighters defending Azovstal had surrendered, giving Russia full control of the port city of Mariupol.
The seizure of Mariupol, gives Russia command of a land route linking the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow seized in 2014, with mainland Russia and parts of eastern Ukraine held by pro-Russian separatists.
May 24, 4:21 pm
Canada announces plans to send artillery to Ukraine
Canada’s Defense Minister Anita Anand announced Tuesday that her country is sending Ukraine more than 20,000 artillery rounds of 155mm NATO-standard ammunition, to further support Ukraine’s military response to Russian leadership’s “illegal, and unjustifiable invasion.”
The ammunition, Anand said, has been sourced from the United States at a cost around $98 million and that work is underway to deliver it to Ukraine as quickly as possible.
The ammunition can be fired from M777 howitzer cannons that Canada and its allies have donated to Ukrainian forces.
“Canada stands with Ukraine and its people as they resist Putin’s illegal and unjustifiable assault,” Anand said. “Today’s announcement is another example of our unwavering commitment to provide Ukraine with the comprehensive military aid it needs to defend its sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence.”
May 24, 10:33 am
Tone in Kyiv shifts as Ukraine sharpens its language in pursuit of more US arms
The language being used by Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in relation to the war has changed significantly in the past couple of days and, to some extent, reflects the pressure Ukrainian forces are currently under as Russian forces make progress in the eastern Donbas region.
Marking the third month of the war, Zelenskyy’s said in a speech Monday night that the toughest battles in recent days have been in the Donbas, Bakhmut, Popasna and Severodonetsk areas of eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated most of its efforts and is “trying to destroy everything living there.” He warned that the coming weeks of the war “will be difficult.”
“Yet we have no alternative but to fight — fight and win,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenksyy’s admission of 50 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers dying every day as of this past weekend and his revelation that more than 70 troops were killed in a single attack on a military base near Kyiv a week ago are a departure from the broad Ukrainian messaging up until now, which has been to stay silent on casualty numbers.
The shift in language on the Ukrainian side over the number of troops lost comes amid multiple reports in recent days suggesting Russia is making small but incremental gains in the Donbas. The latest assessment from the British Defense Ministry is that Russia has achieved “some localized successes.”
Zelenskyy and his top officials have ramped up calls for more weapons from Western nations, specifically the United States. As ABC News has reported, multilaunch rocket systems are at the top of the Ukrainians’ wish list. They also want Western-made fighter jets, such as F-16. However, training time and maintenance issues make the supply of fighter jets more complicated.
Ukrainian officials have publicly addressed Western concerns that Ukraine might use medium-range missile systems to hit targets in Russia, saying that Ukraine will only use them to hit targets within Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders. There has been no suggestion that Ukraine would strike targets in Crimea, which presumably would be seen by Western officials as carrying a similar risk of escalation with Russia.
The United States and some of its allies are concerned that Russia would use strikes in Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons as a pretext for direct confrontation with the West.
-ABC News’ Ian Pannell, Dragana Jovanovic and Tom Soufi Burridge
May 23, 4:49 pm
Russian troops have 20 times the military equipment of Ukraine: Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is outgunned 20-to-1 on the eastern front in a virtual speech to the Ukraine House in Davos, Switzerland, where the World Economic Forum is currently taking place.
“We do not have enough technical supplies because we are fighting against such a big country with a big army,” Zelenskyy said. “They have 20 times more equipment. Just imagine, now in Donbas, we have 1 to 20. You can just imagine what kind of people we have, how strong they are, what strong warriors we have.”
Zelenskyy has continuously pushed Western countries to increase the amount of military aid coming into the country to stave off the attack from Russia. He sent special thanks over the weekend to President Joe Biden for approving $40 billion in additional aid last week.
“I just don’t want hundreds of thousands of people to die, so we need weapons that will allow us to fight at a great distance,” Zelenskyy added in his speech to the Ukraine House.
Zelenskyy said over the weekend that 50 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are dying every day in the fighting.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
May 23, 4:24 pm
Russian UN diplomat resigns over Ukraine war: ‘Never have I been so ashamed of my country’
Boris Bondarev, Russia’s counselor to the United Nations in Geneva, has resigned, becoming the Kremlin’s most senior diplomat to defect since his country’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, according to a report from U.N. Watch, a nongovernment organization based in Geneva.
“Never have I been so ashamed of my country,” Bondarev wrote in a statement shared with diplomats in Geneva and published by U.N. Watch.
He said he started his diplomatic career in Russia’s ministry of foreign affairs in 2002 and began his most recent role at the U.N. in 2019.
“I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time,” Bondarev said in his statement. “However, in most recent years, this has become simply catastrophic.”
He added, “Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.”
ABC News has not independently verified the statement’s authenticity with Bondarev. The Associated Press spoke with him by phone and he confirmed his statement.
Kira Yarmysh, a spokesperson for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, shared the statement on her verified Twitter account and wrote, “It seems that there was one honest person in the entire Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
-ABC News’ Josh Margolin
May 23, 2:55 pm
Canadian artist turns bullet holes into beautiful flowers in Bucha
Canadian artist Ivanka Siolkowsky is trying to restore some beauty to the war-ravaged Ukrainian city of Bucha.
A former school teacher, Silokowsky has been painting flowers and butterflies around bullet holes she finds in fences, walls of buildings and homes, frequently soliciting children and other local residents to help her.
“The project began a few weeks ago. I only painted 5 fences, but my hope is that the people of Bucha and other formerly occupied cities in Ukraine will continue this project further,” Siolkowsky recently wrote on her Instagram page.
Bucha, which is northwest of Kyiv, is one of the most heavily bomb cities in Ukraine, where residents have told ABC News of witnessing numerous killings and torture at the hands of Russian forces.
Siolkowsky conceded that her paintings are not masterpieces and said someone commented on one of the Instagram posts, writing, “the paintings aren’t even good.”
“Believe me, I’m aware,” she wrote on Instagram. “But the point of this wasn’t to create masterpieces — it was to bring joy back into a city filled with darkness after the Russian occupation.”
May 23, 12:32 pm
Defense Secretary Austin convenes 2nd Ukraine Contact Group meeting
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin convened the second monthly meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group Monday morning, during which more than 40 nations participated virtually.
“This gathering is virtual, but our efforts together are making a very concrete difference on the battlefield,” Austin told the group as he faced two large monitors showing the virtual participants. “We’re all here today because of the extraordinary valor and resilience of Ukraine soldiers and citizens.”
The group was formed last month to help coordinate international efforts to support Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invaders.
“For three months, Ukraine has been fighting with grit and tactical ingenuity against an entirely unprovoked invasion by its far larger neighbor,” Austin said. “And we’re here to help Ukraine for the long haul.”
Defense leaders from 44 countries and representatives of NATO and the European Union participated in the meeting. Several new nations joined the group since its first meeting, including Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, Ireland and Kosovo.
Ukrainian officials, including Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov, also logged on to the virtual meeting.
“My friends, we’ve got your back — all of us,” Austin told the Ukrainian representatives. “President Zelenskyy and Ukraine’s leaders have made history, and your forces have inspired the free world with their courage and skill.”
May 23, 12:06 pm
Starbucks announces complete withdrawal from Russia
Starbucks announced on Monday its decision to exit the market in Russia.
“We continue to watch the tragic events unfold and, today, we have decided to suspend all business activity in Russia, including shipment of all Starbucks products,” Starbuck CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement. “Our licensed partner has agreed to immediately pause store operations and will provide support to the nearly 2,000 partners in Russia who depend on Starbucks for their livelihood.”
The announcement comes after the company suspended all business activity in Russia on March 8. Going forward, Starbucks said it will continue to pay its employees in Russia for six months.
Starbucks is one of multiple major U.S. and international companies that have put operations on hold in Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine. Other companies that have suspended operations there include Pfizer, Apple, FedEx, McDonald’s and Amazon.
May 23, 11:26 am
Russian soldier sentenced to life in prison in first war crimes trial in Ukraine
A Ukrainian court in Kyiv sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison in the first war crimes trial since Russia’s invasion began in February.
Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin pleaded guilty and confessed in court last week to killing a 62-year-old Ukrainian man a few days into the Russian invasion.
During the trial, the widow of the man Shishimarin killed testified that her husband meant everything to her and said she believes the Russian soldier deserves life in prison.
However, the widow said she would support exchanging Shishimarin for any of the Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner this month by Russia at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine.
“I feel very sorry for him,” the widow testified. “But for a crime like that I can’t forgive him.”
May 23, 10:08 am
Zelenskyy calls for preventative sanctions in virtual address at World Economic Forum
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling on the West to recognize as a mistake the refusal to impose preventive sanctions on Russia and take decisive steps in that direction.
“We must not react, but act preventively,” Zelenskyy told the forum in a virtual address. “And not only adapt what we have to the new realities, but create new tools. … Do not wait for fatal shots. Do not wait for Russia to use chemical, biological or, heaven forbid, nuclear weapons. Do not give the aggressor the impression that the world allegedly will not offer sufficient resistance. Protect immediately to the maximum freedom and a normal, useful world order.”
Zelenskyy said there are still no such sanctions against the Russian Federation, and listed them:
Complete embargo on Russian oil.
Complete blocking of all Russian banks.
Complete rejection of the Russian IT sector.
And complete cessation of trade with the aggressor.
Zelenskyy also called for freezing and confiscating Russian assets around the world and sending them to a special fund to pay compensation and restore Ukraine.
“There should be a precedent for punishing the aggressor. … Russian assets scattered across different jurisdictions should be found, arrested or frozen, and then confiscated and sent to a special fund, from which all victims should receive compensation,” Zelenskyy said.
He warned it will not be easy, but added that various aggressors will definitely not be motivated to do what Russia has done and continues to do in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said he believes the world is at a turning point and that the future of not only Ukraine, but the whole world, depends on the resistance to brutal force.
“This year, the words ‘turning point’ are not just a rhetorical figure of the speech,” Zelenskyy said. “Now is really such a moment when it is decided whether brutal force will dominate the world. If it dominates, then our thoughts are not interesting to it, and we can no longer gather in Davos. For what? Brutal force is looking for nothing but subjugation of those whom it wants to subdue, and it does not debate, but kills immediately, as Russia is doing in Ukraine right now — at this time when we are talking to you.”
May 22, 3:21 pm
Lithuania becomes first EU country to suspend all Russian energy imports
Lithuania is suspending all imports of Russian oil, natural gas and power, the country’s energy minister Dainius Kreivys announced in a statement Sunday, making it the only country in the European Union to suspend all imports on Russian energy.
Lithuania is now receiving liquified gas from the U.S. after becoming the first EU country to suspend Russian gas imports in April, Kreivys said. The country is now generating electricity via local power generation and local EU imports via existing connections with Sweden, Poland and Latvia.
It is unclear what alternate source of oil Lithuania will rely on, but Kreivys’ statement indicates that its sole importer of oil, Orlen Lietuva, refused to import Russian oil more than a month ago, Kreivys said.
The move is an expression of solidarity with Ukraine, Kreivys said, adding that it cannot allow its money to finance a Russian war machine.
The EU stated in March that it would end its dependency on fossil fuels imports from Russia and made plans to phase out Russian oil, gas and coal. The European Commission presented details on how it plans to achieve that last week.
May 22, 2:54 pm
50 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers killed every day, Zelenskyy says
While Ukraine has rarely reported on its combat losses since the Russian invasion began in late February, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced during a press briefing Sunday that 50 to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day.
The last time Zelenskyy revealed military death toll figures was in April, when he said that around 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in action and around 10,000 wounded. Zelenskyy did not provide a total figure for combatants killed in action on Sunday.
Since the start of the invasion, most Ukrainian men ages 18 to 60 have been banned from leaving the country. On Friday, a petition calling for the government to cancel the ban was registered with the president’s office.
The petition surpassed the 25,000-signature threshold that requires the president to address it on Sunday. Zelenskyy acknowledged the petition during Sunday’s briefing.
“How would I explain that to relatives of our defenders who are fighting at the most difficult positions in the East, where 50 to 100 troops lose their lives every day?” he said.
Ukraine’s parliament voted to extend martial law through Aug. 23. Zelenskyy’s office has a few weeks to consider the petition.
May 22, 12:41 pm
Zelenskyy welcomes president of Poland amid Ukraine’s bid to join EU
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy extended a warm welcome to Polish President Andrzej Duda on Sunday amid his bid to have his country join the European Union.
During a parliamentary session, Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude to all Poles for their support, making it clear that he’s pushing full steam ahead to ensure Ukraine is granted candidate status.
“I am sure that all the necessary decisions will be made first for the status of a candidate for Ukraine, and then for full membership,” he said. “In particular, thanks to Poland’s many years of protection of Ukrainian interests on the European continent.”
Shortly after Zelenskyy and Duda addressed lawmakers, the parliament session was briefly interrupted when air sirens sounded in Kyiv, and members of parliament were moved to a shelter. The Ukrainian regional military administration later confirmed a Russian missile was intercepted over the Kyiv region.
France’s Minister for European Affairs Clément Beaune in his interview with France TF1 radio said on Sunday that it could take 15 to 20 years for Ukraine to become an EU member state, adding that Kyiv could enter the European political community proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron in the meantime.
May 22, 12:07 pm
Recent attacks have killed more than 200 Ukrainians, Russian military claims
The Russian Defense Ministry provided updates to what it described as the “special military operation in Ukraine” on Sunday, saying that hundreds of Ukrainians were killed in recent attacks.
High-precision air missiles and other attacks launched in Donetsk, Lugansk and Krasnyi on Sunday hit command posts, areas where Ukrainian manpower and military equipment are concentrated and ammunition depots, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The attacks killed more than 210 Ukrainian nationals and destroyed as many as 38 armored motor vehicles, the ministry claimed.
Russian air defense also shot down 11 Ukrainian aircraft and intercepted “multiple launch rockets” in the Kharkov region, according to the defense ministry.
The ministry claimed that, in total, 174 Ukrainian aircraft and 125 helicopters, 977 unmanned aerial vehicles, 317 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,198 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 408 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,622 field artillery and mortars and 3,077 units of special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation.
Rick Mave/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(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:
May 26, 6:06 am
Russia’s airborne forces suffer ‘heavy casualties’ after ‘tactical failures,’ UK says
The Russian military’s airborne forces, known as the VDV, “have been heavily involved in several notable tactical failures since the start of Russia’s invasion” of neighboring Ukraine, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
“This includes the attempted advance on Kyiv via Hostomel Airfield in March, the stalled progress on the Izium axis since April, and the recent failed and costly crossings of the Siverskyi Donets River,” the ministry said Thursday in an intelligence update.
“Russian doctrine anticipates assigning the VDV to some of the most demanding operations,” the ministry added. “The 45,000-strong VDV is mostly comprised of professional contract soldiers. Its members enjoy elite status and attract additional pay. The VDV has been employed on missions better suited to heavier armoured infantry and has sustained heavy casualties during the campaign.”
The VDV’s “mixed performance likely reflects a strategic mismanagement of this capability and Russia’s failure to secure air superiority,” according to the ministry.
“The misemployment of the VDV in Ukraine highlights how Putin’s significant investment in the armed forces over the last 15 years has resulted in an unbalanced overall force,” the ministry said. “The failure to anticipate Ukrainian resistance and the subsequent complacency of Russian commanders has led to significant losses across many of Russia’s more elite units.”
(NEW YORK) — The alleged suspect in the unprovoked fatal shooting of 48-year-old Daniel Enriquez on a Q train in New York City was ordered held without bail on Wednesday.
Andrew Abdullah, 25, of Brooklyn, was arrested Wednesday after arranging a surrender through his pastor to officers at the 5th precinct, according to law enforcement sources.
During a court appearance Wednesday, prosecutors described Abdullah as a man with an extensive criminal history who, after allegedly shooting Enriquez in the chest, told the other passengers to put their cell phones away, according to ABC New York station WABC-TV.
Abdullah’s attorney, Kristin Braun of Legal Aid Society, told the judge that only one of six witnesses in a lineup could identify the suspect, whom officials have said was wearing a mask on the train, WABC reported.
Abdullah did not speak during the arraignment, according to WABC. His next court date is scheduled for Friday.
Abdullah has about 20 prior arrests, including an outstanding gun charge from last year, according to sources. He also has prior arrests for assault, robbery, menacing and grand larceny, sources said.
Abdullah has three cases that are still pending, including an April arrest for fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property for allegedly being found with a stolen motorcycle, as well as a June 2021 arrest for violating a protective order and March 2021 arrest for assault.
“We moved over 2,900 illegal guns off our streets,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a Tuesday press conference on the arrest. “As soon as we placed them on, more return with bad guys who feel comfortable enough even after we arrest them, that they can come back out and wreak havoc on our city. The industry pumps guns into the community faster than we can take them out. The rest of the shooter doesn’t change what is going on every day in this industry.”
Detectives have also recovered the gun used in the shooting.
It is believed the suspect handed the gun to a homeless man as he fled the Canal Street station. The homeless man then apparently sold the gun for $10 to a third person, who reported it to police, the sources said.
The New York Police Department released surveillance photos Monday of the suspect believed to have shot Enriquez taken shortly after he exited the subway.
The motive for the shooting is still unknown.
In January 2020, Abdullah was arrested as part of a gun-related case and in May 2017 he was charged with second-degree attempted murder as part of an 83-count federal indictment of the Harlem-based street gangs Fast Money and Nine Block. Abdullah was sentenced to three years in federal prison, but served just four months before being released in 2019.
Witnesses say the suspect, alleged to be Abdullah, was pacing back and forth in the last car of a Manhattan-bound train around 11:45 a.m. when he pulled out a gun and fired it at Enriquez unprovoked, according to NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey.
The shooting comes a little over a month after a Brooklyn subway rider opened fire on a train car, wounding 10 people. The suspect in that shooting, Frank James, was arrested one day later in lower Manhattan.
Transit crime is up 62.5% in the city year-to-date from 2021, according to NYPD statistics.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Police will be barred from wearing their uniforms at the June 26 Pride march in San Francisco, one of the biggest Pride celebrations in the world. Instead, officers are being advised to march in T-shirts that represent their local law enforcement agency.
The decision has caused a heated debate in the city. However, the discourse stretches across the country, as cities reconsider the presence of police at LGBTQ-led events.
Last year, New York City’s Pride parade organizers banned officers from marching in the parade for the first time in decades.
Police presence was reduced at the event, as organizers say they are reckoning with the legacy of police brutality and abuse against LGBTQ people that the community says continues today.
The heated relationship between San Francisco police and others in the LGBTQ community came to a head in 2019 when a protest on the parade route ended with people being arrested, shoved and allegedly injured by police.
“Some members of our community, the presence of the police in the parade is difficult for them, given their history with the police department,” San Francisco Pride Director Suzanne Ford has said on the impact of the march on the community. “So we want to honor and make sure that we protect and make people feel safe.”
The difficult relationship between police and members of the LGBTQ community has a longstanding history. In 1969, a police raid on patrons at The Stonewall Inn in New York City led to an uprising that gave rise to the gay-rights movement. The bar is now a National Historic Landmark. However, that raid was just one of many examples of police violence against the LGBTQ community, according to historians.
There was a time when every state in America criminalized same-sex sexual behavior. That changed in 1962 and, in 2003, the landmark case Lawrence v. Texas led to the nationwide decriminalization of sexual activity between same-sex couples.
San Francisco officers have responded to the uniform ban by collectively refusing to march in the parade, which will take place on June 26, 2022.
In a statement, the San Francisco Police Department said it “supports the decision of our LGBTQ+ officers” but will still be in attendance for security reasons.
“The San Francisco Police Department is committed to not only serving the diverse communities of San Francisco, but to embracing the diversity of our members,” the statement read. “We recognize the struggles that our LGBTQ+ members have overcome, both within the department as well as outside the department.”
San Francisco Mayor London Breed denounced the event organizers’ decision to bar police uniforms from the parade. She said she loves the parade, but will refuse to join the festivities if parade organizers don’t reverse their decision, according to a statement sent to ABC News
“I’ve made this very hard decision in order to support those members of the LGBTQ community who serve in uniform, in our Police Department and Sheriff’s Department, who have been told they cannot march in uniform, and in support of the members of the Fire Department who are refusing to march out of solidarity with their public safety partners,” Breed said.
