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(NEW YORK) — At least 114 people are dead and more than 200 are injured after a fire broke out at a wedding hall in northern Iraq, Nineveh Deputy Gov. Hasan al-Allaq said.

Story developing…

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(NEW YORK) — A bride and groom were killed along with more than 100 wedding guests as a fire ripped through a wedding hall in Hamdaniyah, in northern Iraq, on Tuesday, local officials said.

At least 150 others were injured when the wedding hall’s ceiling caught fire and then collapsed, according to Hasan al-Allaq said, the deputy governor of the Nineveh region.

Fireworks set off inside the wedding hall, where as many as 1,000 were celebrating, may have caused the fire, local reports said.

Fire investigators were working at the scene on Wednesday morning.

Iraq’s prime minister has called for three days of national mourning.

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(LONDON) — At least 125 people were killed in an explosion on Monday night at a makeshift gas station being used by ethnic Armenian refugees as thousands sought to flee the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local authorities, as senior U.S. officials visited Armenia to signal concern over the humanitarian crisis affecting the region’s civilians.

Dozens of people are in a critical condition with severe burns and in urgent need of evacuation from the enclave where medical assistance was already minimal, the health ministry of the Nagorno-Karabakh’s unrecognized ethnic Armenia government, the Republic of Artsakh, said in a statement. It said many people were still missing following the blast.

The explosion and fire ripped through the fuel store on Monday night as hundreds of refugees were lining up for gas for their vehicles to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local officials.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians have been leaving the enclave following a successful military offensive last week by Azerbaijan that defeated the local Armenian authorities and restored Azerbaijan’s rule over the region.

Over 28,000 people have crossed from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia since Sunday, according to a statement from Armenia’s government. It’s feared the enclave’s entire population — estimated at 120,000 — may seek to flee in the coming days.

Armenia’s prime minister on Monday said what was happening was the “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population.

Long traffic jams of people seeking to leave were visible snaking miles along the only road out of Nagorno-Karabakh to a checkpoint in the “Lachin Corridor” that links the enclave to Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a decadeslong conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Internationally recognized as Azerbaijan’s territory, the two countries fought a bloody war over the enclave amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which Armenia backed local ethnic Armenian separatists, who succeeded in establishing control over most of the region. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were driven from the region during that war.

Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, launching a full-scale war that decisively defeated Armenia and forced it to largely abandon its claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia helped broker a truce and dispatched a peacekeeping force there that remains deployed. Last week, Azerbaijan launched a new offensive that swiftly forced the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian’s leadership to surrender.

Since then thousands of ethnic Armenians have been preparing to leave the enclave, which has been under Azerbaijani blockade for nine months, unwilling to live under Azerbaijan’s rule and fearing they will face persecution.

Western countries, including the United States, France and Germany, have expressed concern for Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population and warned Azerbaijan it bears responsibility for their rights and security.

The Biden administration has dispatched Samantha Power, currently administrator of USAID and senior another State Department official to Armenia to express U.S. support for the country amid the crisis.

Power on Tuesday visited the checkpoint at Armenia’s border with Nagorno-Karabakh where refugees have been arriving, and called for international monitors and aid groups to be given access to the enclave and for Azerbaijan to facilitate the evacuation of injured civilians from there.

“It is absolutely critical that independent monitors as well as humanitarian organizations get access to the people in Nagorno-Karabakh who still have dire needs,” Power told journalists at the checkpoint. “There are still tens of thousands of Ethnic Armenians there living in very vulnerable conditions,” announcing the U.S. would provide $11.5 million in humanitarian assistance that would include everything from food to psychiatric support.

Power, who has been a high-profile campaigner for human rights, said she was in Armenia to also hear testimonies from people fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh and that she would be reporting back to the Biden Administration as it considers how to respond to the crisis.

Power and the Acting Assistant Secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Yuri Kim met with Armenia’s prime minister Nikol Pashinyan on Monday. Power delivered a letter from President Joe Biden in which he expressed condolences for the loss of life in Nagorno-Karabakh and promised help on addressing humanitarian needs.

“I have asked Samantha Power, a key member of my cabinet, to personally convey to you the strong support of the United States and my Administration for Armenia’s pursuit of a dignified and durable regional peace that maintains your sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and democracy,” the letter read.

Pashinyan told Power the international community and Armenia had failed to prevent the “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.

“Unfortunately, at the moment the process of the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is continuing, it is happening right now. It’s a very tragic fact. We tried to inform the international community that this ethnic cleansing would happen, but, unfortunately, we did not manage to prevent it,” Pashinyan told Power and Yuri Kim, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, according to the prime minister’s press service.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were due to hold talks mediated by the European Union in Brussels on Tuesday, the first talks between the sides since Azerbaijan’s retook Nagorno-Karabakh.

Monday’s blast at the fuel station added a horrific complication to the exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh, with local authorities pleading for people to hold off leaving as the traffic-choking the roads out was preventing the evacuation of the severely injured.

Helicopters from Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, were reported to have flown to Nagorno-Karabakh to help evacuate some of the worst injured. A long line of ambulances was also filmed by Russian media crossing into the enclave.

The enclave’s Armenian health authorities said the hospitals in the enclave, already short of medicine and other equipment, were not equipped for the disaster.

Russia’s peacekeeping contingent said it was also providing medical assistance and showed videos of its soldiers evacuating some of the injured.

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(LONDON) — At least 20 people were killed and nearly 300 were injured in an explosion on Monday night that tore through a makeshift gas station being used by ethnic Armenian refugees amid their exodus from the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to the enclave’s local Armenian authorities.

Dozens of people are in a critical condition with severe burns and in urgent need of evacuation from the enclave where medical assistance was already minimal, the health ministry of the region’s unrecognized government, the Republic of Artsakh, said in a statement. It said many people were still missing following the blast.

The explosion and fire ripped through the fuel store on Monday night as hundreds of refugees were lining up for gas for their vehicles to leave Nagorno-Karabakh, according to local officials.

Thousands of ethnic Armenians have been leaving the enclave following a successful military offensive last week by Azerbaijan that defeated the local Armenian authorities and restored Azerbaijan’s rule over the region.

Over 13,500 people have crossed from Nagorno-Karabakh into Armenia since Sunday, according to a statement from Armenia’s government quoted by the Russian news agency Interfax. It’s feared the enclave’s entire population — estimated at 120,000 — may seek to flee in the coming days.

Armenia’s prime minister on Monday said what was happening was the “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population.

Long traffic jams of people seeking to leave were visible on the only road out of Nagorno-Karabakh to a checkpoint in the “Lachin Corridor” that links the enclave to Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the center of a decades-long conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Internationally recognized as Azerbaijan’s territory, the two countries fought a bloody war over the enclave amid the collapse of the Soviet Union, in which Armenia backed local ethnic Armenian separatists, who succeeded in establishing control over most of the region. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were driven from the region during that war.

Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, launching a full-scale war that decisively defeated Armenia and forced it to largely abandon its claims to Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia helped broker a truce and dispatched a peacekeeping force there that remains deployed. Last week, Azerbaijan launched a new offensive that swiftly forced the Nagorno-Karabakh Armenian’s leadership to surrender.

Since then thousands of ethnic Armenians have been preparing to leave the enclave, which has been under Azerbaijani blockade for nine months, unwilling to live under Azerbaijan’s rule and fearing they will face persecution.

Western countries, including the United States, France and Germany, have expressed concern for Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian population and warned Azerbaijan it bears responsibility for their rights and security.

The Biden administration on Monday dispatched Samantha Power, currently administrator of USAID and a high-profile campaigner for human rights, and another senior State Department official to Armenia to meet with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and express U.S. support for the country amid the crisis.

Power delivered a letter to Pashinyan from President Joe Biden in which the president expressed condolences for the loss of life in Nagorno-Karabakh and promised help on addressing humanitarian needs.

“I have asked Samantha Power, a key member of my cabinet, to personally convey to you the strong support of the United States and my Administration for Armenia’s pursuit of a dignified and durable regional peace that maintains your sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and democracy,” the letter read.

Pashinyan told Power the international community and Armenia had failed to prevent the “ethnic cleansing” of Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians.

“Unfortunately, at the moment the process of the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh is continuing, it is happening right now. It’s a very tragic fact. We tried to inform the international community that this ethnic cleansing would happen, but, unfortunately, we did not manage to prevent it,” Pashinyan told Power and Yuri Kim, the State Department’s acting assistant secretary for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, according to the prime minister’s press service.

Armenia and Azerbaijan were due to hold talks mediated by the European Union in Brussels on Tuesday, the first talks between the sides since Azerbaijan’s retook Nagorno-Karabakh.

Monday’s blast at the fuel station added a horrific complication to the exodus from Nagorno-Karabakh, with local authorities pleading for people to hold off leaving as the traffic-choking the roads out was preventing the evacuation of the severely injured.

Helicopters from Armenia’s capital, Yerevan, were reported to have flown to Nagorno-Karabakh to help evacuate some of the worst injured. A long line of ambulances was also filmed by Russian media crossing into the enclave.

The enclave’s Armenian health authorities said the hospitals in the enclave, already short of medicine and other equipment, were not equipped for the disaster.

Russia’s peacekeeping contingent said it was also providing medical assistance to the injured.

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(LONDON) — Nelson Mandela’s granddaughter, Zoleka Mandela, has died at the age of 43.

“The Nelson Mandela Foundation extends its heartfelt condolences to the Mandela family on the passing of Zoleka Mandela, tragically last night,” the Nelson Mandela Foundation said in a statement released on Tuesday morning. “We mourn the loss of a beloved grandchild of Mum Winnie and Madiba and a friend of the Foundation.”

Zoleka Mandela — born April 9, 1983 — was an outspoken writer and activist for healthcare and justice throughout her life.

“Her work in raising awareness about cancer prevention and her unwavering commitment to breaking down the stigma surrounding the disease will continue to inspire us all,” the Nelson Mandela Foundation said.

A statement posted to Zoleka Mandela’s Instagram account detailed her ongoing recent struggles with cancer.

“On Monday, September 18th, Zoleka Mandela was admitted into hospital for ongoing treatment for metastatic cancer to the hip, liver, lung, pelvis, brain and spinal cord,” the statement attributed to family spokesperson Zwelabo Mandela read. “Recent scans revealed significant disease progression including fibrosis in the lungs as well as several emboli.”

“Zoleka passed away on the evening of Monday, September 25th, surrounded by friends and family. Our sincerest gratitude to the medical team that took care of her,” the message read.

Mandela was 43.

Said the Nelson Mandela Foundation: “Our thoughts are with her family and friends at this most difficult time. Hamba kahle Zoleka, we will remember you.”

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(NEW YORK) — Climbing Mount Everest is one of the most difficult feats known to humankind, but the treacherous expedition is getting even more challenging due to climate change, according to experts.

Warming temperatures around the globe are making both the topography of the glaciers in the Himalayas and the weather patterns mountaineers rely on to plan the timing of their journeys more unpredictable, climbing experts and climatologists told ABC News.

A record number of people died while attempting to climb Mount Everest this year. While the Nepalese government blamed climate change for the extraordinary number of deaths, experts say global warming may not be entirely responsible.

This is how climate change is affecting climbing in the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain ranges:

The topography of the glaciers, mountains are less reliable

Research in recent years has overwhelmingly shown that glaciers in the Himalayas are thinning, Joseph Shea, an associate professor of environmental geomatics at the University of Northern British Columbia, told ABC News. Climate change is roasting the Himalaya region, causing glaciers to retreat and permafrost to melt, according to a 2019 report authored by Shea.

Several of the routes that climbers use to gain access to higher peaks rely on the stability of glaciers, such as the Khumbu Icefall, located near the Everest base camp and used to trek up to Camp 1, Shea said.

“The Khumbu Icefall, which is already really difficult to navigate, that becomes less reliable,” said Shea, who was been researching the Himalayas since 2012.

Researchers have drilled into the Khumbu Glacier near the Everest base camp and found that it is “very close to the melting point,” Duncan Quincey, a professor of glaciology at the University of Leeds, told ABC News.

With just a small increase in atmospheric temperatures, the Khumbu Glacier won’t be far from being in a scenario where it will start to melt rapidly, Quincey said.

Climate change can also exacerbate other risks like rockfall events, especially in the high mountain areas because many of the formations in the highest levels are held together by alpine permafrost, or frozen ground that then thaws, Shea said.

Before the region began to warm rapidly, climbers could have more confidence in passing some of these treacherous areas because everything was “very much frozen” and much more stable, Quincey said.

Many of the slopes are becoming exposed for the first time, and rock avalanche events will be increasingly unpredictable, Quincey said.

Snow and ice avalanches in the Himalayas are also increasing risks for climbers as global temperatures warm, a study published in the European Geosciences Union in July found.

“And as we go forward, I think we can expect the whole region to become a lot more hazardous,” Quincey said.

Everest’s perfect weather window is becoming more unpredictable

Weather patterns in the region are also becoming more erratic, making it difficult for climbers to plan safe expeditions from more than a few days out, research shows.

Everest experts know that there is a “magical” window in May in which the winds die down below 30 mph, typically between May 15 and May 30, Chris Tomer, a Colorado-based meteorologist and weather forecaster for mountaineering expeditions, told ABC News.

The window tends to appear as the monsoon season approaches and the jet stream, an area of high wind that typically sits on the summit, gets pushed off, allowing the winds in the region to drop dramatically and improving conditions for climbing, Tomer said. But that timing has been changing.

Typically, if winds are above 30 mph, most people will not climb, Alan Arnette, a seasoned mountaineer who is the oldest American to climb K2 at 58 years old, told ABC News.

“It’s just too dangerous, and it increases the chance of frostbite and other problems,” he said.

“What I’ve noticed is that it’s become a little bit harder to predict, and it’s a little bit more erratic,” Tomer said.

In 2019, there were only three days — as opposed to the typical 11 to 14 days — where winds were suitable for climbing, Arnette said. But in May 2022, nearly the entire month had favorable wind conditions, something that has never happened before, he said.

“That shows you the extremes that are happening,” he said.

It’s not clear what will happen in the future in terms of jetstream position and the timing of the wind switch, Shea said.

While the long-term forecasts for the perfect window may ultimately change in the future, the short-term forecasts will remain accurate, Shea said.

“Once you’re up there, you have to decide if you’re going to make that call to go for it or not,” he said.

Himalayas region a key indicator of climate change

Most glacier mountain regions around the world are exhibiting clear examples of climate change, the experts said.

Research shows that if greenhouse gas emissions are not drastically reduced, glaciers will keep losing mass and retreating drastically, Shea said.

“This is a very clear climate change signal,” Shea said. “And models that we use to look at what happens in the future predict the same thing, like big declines in total glacier volumes, glacier extents.”

For those who have studied the region for years, the changes are apparent to the naked eye, including exposed slopes on the flanks of the main glaciers and lakes of water pooling on the ice surfaces that were free of meltwater, Quincey said.

“It’s very, very difficult not to see the impacts of climate change,” Quincey said. “There’s some very clear visual indicators of the impact that climate is having in that region.”

Climate change likely not the culprit for majority of deaths on Everest this year

Seventeen climbers died while trying to Everest this year, an extraordinary figure compared to the average of four to six climbers per season, Arnette said.

While the Nepalese government blamed the steep increase in Everest fatalities on climate change, inexperienced and ill-equipped or unqualified guides is likely to blame for the majority of the deaths, the climbing experts said.

Of the 17 people who died, 11 of the deaths were preventable, Arnette said. Several of the deaths were blamed on natural causes, which is typical, Arnette said.

“It is to be expected that you’re going to have people that are going to die from natural causes when climbing Everest because the lower amount of oxygen, and then the exertion that the body goes through climbing at that altitude is stresses the body,” Arnette said.

The only year that saw just as many deaths was in 2014 when 17 people also died — but the majority of the deaths were sherpas who were killed in a single avalanche.

In addition, there were a record number of climbers in 2023, Shea said, which increased the likelihood of more deaths.

Nepal issued a record 478 climbing permits to foreigners for 2023, Arnette wrote in his blog. When accounting for the number of sherpas accompanying the foreigners, the number jumps to about 1,200 climbers pursuing Everest’s summit over the spring.

The unpredictability of the weather patterns could also lead to overcrowding on the summit. If forecasters can only predict conditions with certainty four or five days out, it forces everybody into a smaller summit window, Tomer said.

“Instead of being able to spread 400 people out over five days, everybody gets crammed into a one or two-day window,” Tomer said.

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(LONDON) — A large explosion has reportedly torn through a fuel store being used by ethnic Armenia refugees amidst their exodus from the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Thousands of ethnic Armenians have started fleeing from Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s successful military offensive to retake control of the region last week.

The explosion occurred at a fuel depot close to the Stepanakert-Askeran highway that leads from the enclave’s capital, according to the enclave’s ethnic Armenian authorities. The explosion caused a large fire, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Local authorities said casualties and injuries were still being recorded, but local media reported it was feared dozens could be dead and injured.

Gas was reportedly being handed out to refugees trying to leave the enclave, that has been suffering fuel shortages.

At least 6,650 people had crossed the border into Armenia by Monday evening, according to an Armenian government statement quoted by the Russian state news agencies, with over three thousand arriving in just several hours.

An adviser to the enclave’s ethnic Armenians leadership on Sunday told Reuters that virtually its entire population — estimated at 120,000 — would now leave. If they stayed, they would be “ethnically cleansed” by Azerbaijan, he said.

“Our people do not want to live as part of Azerbaijan,” David Babayan, the adviser, told Reuters on Sunday. “Ninety-nine point nine percent prefer to leave our historic lands.”

Reporters on the border reported dozens of civilian cars and other vehicles have been driving to the crossing since Sunday, when Azerbaijan begin permitting some people to exit. Reuters reported that groups of civilians in the region’s capital, called Stepanakert by Armenians, were seen loading and packing belongings onto buses. Armenian authorities said they are prepared for tens of thousands of families to flee.

Azerbaijan has blockaded Nagorno-Karabakh for nine months prior to last week’s offensive and controls the only main route out. On Sunday it allowed the first civilians to leave, reportedly escorted by Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijan launched an offensive last week that in just two days of fighting defeated the ethnic Armenia authorities in the enclave, who laid down their arms and agreed to disband their military forces. Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians for most of the last 35 years following a bloody war between Armenia and Azerbaijan amid the break up of the Soviet Union. Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were also driven out of Karabakh by Armenian forces during the war in the 1990s.

Azerbaijan reopened the conflict in 2020, launching a full-scale war that decisively defeated Armenia and forced its government to largely abandon its claims to it. Last week’s new offensive, that killed and wounded hundreds, finally defeated the enclave’s ethnic Armenian authorities, restoring Azerbaijan’s control.

Amid the crisis, Samantha Power, the head of USAID and a vocal campaigner on human rights, landed in Armenia’s capital on Monday.

“At this important moment for the country and region, I’m here to reiterate the U.S.’s strong support & partnership with Armenia and to speak directly with those impacted by the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Power wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The U.S. and other western countries have expressed concerns for the ethnic Armenians in the enclave, warning Azerbaijan it must ensure their security and rights.

Azerbaijani troops have been halted on the edge of the enclave’s capital since end of the offensive, during which Azerbaijan already seized a number of villages and cut off roads leading to some. Power cuts and shortages of food, medicine and water have been reported, with thousands of displaced people sheltering in the city.

Azerbaijan has said it wants to “reintegrate” the Armenian population but has not presented any plan for doing so or for safeguarding their rights. In areas of Nagorno-Karabakh that it has previously retaken, Azerbaijan has encouraged Azerbaijanis to come resettle and some Armenian cultural sites have been erased or damaged.

Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev on Monday hosted Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has strongly backed Azerbaijan, including providing weapons and military advisors. The two met in Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan enclave, which is separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by southern Armenia and that Aliyev has threatened to use force to reconnect with a corridor.

“I am certain that the process of integration of the Armenian population of Karabakh will go successfully,” Aliyev said at the meeting, according to the Russian news agency TASS. He added that all residents of the enclave were “Azerbaijan citizens.”

A second round of talks between Azerbaijan and Karabakh Armenian leadership was held on Monday in the Azerbaijani city of Yevlakh, in which the sides reportedly discussed establishing facilities for urgent medical in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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(NEW YORK) — No movie can capture the sweat, blood, pain and tears, said Serhiy.

“The scariest things you can imagine and can’t imagine, you find here,” Serhiy, a commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, added.

Amid the destroyed villages and desolate landscape in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces are slowly advancing, inch by bloody inch.

It was troops from the 3rd Assault Brigade who spearheaded the final stages of a monthlong operation to recapture the ruined village of Andriivka this month.

The battles in eastern Ukraine are “a living hell,” according to Victoria Torri, a 23-year-old combat medic in the region who only 10 months ago was working as an investment banker in New York.

“You lose someone you know every single day,” she told ABC News, describing the Russian enemy as “a living evil” which is “much bigger than you and has unlimited resources.”

The 3rd Assault brigade is one of Ukraine’s most formidable fighting forces.

It has been at the forefront of steady Ukrainian advances near Bakhmut which, to date, is one of the Ukrainian army’s clearest areas of success since it launched its counteroffensive around four months ago.

During that time Ukrainian forces have not been able to achieve any decisive breakthrough on the battlefield.

Today, Ukrainian commanders a few say they are preparing for a long fight.

The commander of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Assault Brigade, who goes by the callsign “Rolo” and who planned the successful assault on the village of Andriivka, described the war today as one of “attrition.”

“It’s going to be a long and hard war and we need to get ready for that,” he told ABC News, adding that his Russian enemy was “technologically advanced” and calling Russia’s superiority in the air “a huge problem.”

One soldier warned that Russia has a large stockpile of its feared Lancet explosive attack drones, which have been used to kill Ukrainian forces.

Rolo also said his men had little way of responding to Russia’s advanced Ka-52 “Alligator” attack helicopters, which can fire armor-piercing missiles from a range of several miles.

As Rolo acknowledged, his men are now facing a formidable Russian enemy.

That said, Ukrainian troops stationed to the south and north of Bakhmut have been making slow but steady progress toward encircling the ruined city, which Russia finally captured in May after a year of bitter fighting.

Given the huge losses Russia sustained in the battle for Bakhmut, President Vladimir Putin cannot afford to give the city up and Ukrainian attacks, officials said, have forced the Kremlin to send reinforcements into that area.

The hope is that forcing Russia to commit more resources in the east will help Ukraine on its main axis of attack in the south.

In Ukraine’s Southeasterly Zaporizhzhia region, there are small but significant signs of progress by Ukrainian forces, with a military spokesperson claiming troops are advancing “on some days by 300 to 400 meters.”

Recent videos verified by ABC News which are circulating online show Ukrainian armored vehicles operating beyond three formidable layers of Russian defenses, close to the settlement of Verbove.

Military analysts from the Institute for the Study of War assessed that Ukrainian forces had indeed “broken through Russian field fortifications.”

They cautioned, however, that it was “too soon to forecast if Ukraine will achieve an operational breakthrough” in that area of the front lines.

Despite the heavy human toll from each battle, and the fact that rain forecast for the coming weeks is likely to slow any progress down, soldiers of the 3rd Assault Brigade remained optimistic and highly motivated for a fight which one commander predicted could last “one to two years.”

Torri said she felt angry and sad when people criticized the slow pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.

“We are fighting the biggest evil in the world right now,” she said. “And if we lose, the rest of the world will lose, because Russia will not stop.”

Asked if he felt frustrated by the fact that Ukraine did not get more help to combat Russia’s dominance in the air, Commander Rolo said Ukraine was fighting for western civilization and democracy and against “Russia’s dictator-led fascism.”

“If the western world is not willing to defend its values, this disappoints me,” he added.

 

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(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are allegedly committing continuous war crimes in Ukraine, including rape and “widespread and systematic” torture, the latest Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found.

The Russians are allegedly torturing people accused of being Ukrainian army informants in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and in one case, the torture was so extreme that it caused a victim’s death, the commission said in its latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.

One torture survivor said, “Every time I answered that I didn’t know or didn’t remember something, they gave me electric shocks,” according to the commission.

“Well into the second year of the armed conflict, people in Ukraine have been continuing to cope with the loss and injury of loved ones, large-scale destruction, suffering and trauma as well as economic hardship that have resulted from it,” Eric Mose, chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, wrote in the report. “Thousands have been killed and injured, and millions remain internally displaced or out of the country.”

In the Kherson region, members of the Russian forces allegedly sexually assaulted women as their relatives were forced to listen from nearby rooms, the commission said. Sexual assault victims ranged in age from 19 to 83.

The commission also found evidence of “unlawful attacks with explosive weapons,” including attacks on residential buildings, shops, a restaurant and a medical facility.

Konstantin Yefremov, a senior Russian army lieutenant who fled Russia, told ABC News in February he witnessed his country’s troops torture prisoners in Ukraine, including beating and threats to rape.

Yefremov, 33, spent three months as an officer in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region and said he personally witnessed the torture of Ukrainian prisoners during interrogations, including the shooting of one POW in the arms and legs and threats of rape.

The commission stressed “the need for accountability” for Russia’s “scale and gravity of violations,” as well as “the need for the Ukrainian authorities to expeditiously and thoroughly investigate the few cases of violations by its own forces.”

ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.

 

 

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(LONDON) — Thousands of ethnic Armenian refugees have started fleeing from the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, amid growing fears of an exodus following Azerbaijan’s successful military offensive to retake control of the region last week.

Nearly 3,000 people have already crossed the border into Armenia as of Monday morning, according to an Armenian government statement quoted by the Russian state news agency TASS.

Reporters on the border reported dozens of civilian cars and other vehicles have been driving to the crossing.

Azerbaijan blockaded the region for nine months prior to its offensive and controls the only main route out. On Sunday it permitted the first civilians to leave, reportedly escorted by Russian peacekeepers.

Azerbaijan launched a lightening offensive last week that defeated the ethnic Armenia authorities in the enclave within two days of fighting, prompting them to lay down their arms and agree to disband their military forces. Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians for most of the last 35 years since a war amid the break up of the Soviet Union.

Hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani civilians were also driven out of Karabakh by Armenian forces during the war in the 1990s when the Armenians were able to establish control.

Ethnic Armenians in the enclave have said they are unwilling to remain there under Azerbaijani rule, saying they fear persecution.

Western countries, including France, Germant and the United States, have expressed fears for the security of the Armenian population.

Armenian authorities said they are prepared for tens of thousands of families to flee.

Azerbaijani troops have been halted on the edge of the region’s capital since end of the offensive, which saw Azerbaijan already seize a number of villages.

Azerbaijan has said it wants to “reintegrate” the Armenian population but has not presented any plan for doing so or for safeguarding their rights. In areas of Nagorno-Karabakh that it has previously retaken, Azerbaijan has encouraged Azerbaijanis to come resettle.

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