(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 05, 8:43 am
NATO completes negotiations with Sweden and Finland
NATO announced on Monday it has concluded negotiations with Sweden and Finland on their accession to the organization.
“Finland and Sweden have completed accession negotiations at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, as agreed last week by the leaders of the countries at the summit in Madrid,” a NATO press release said.
“Both countries have officially confirmed their desire and ability to fulfill their political, legal and military obligations as NATO members,” the NATO press service added.
The countries will sign their accession protocols on Tuesday. All member countries will then have to ratify the documents according to their national laws.
Finland and Sweden jointly submitted applications to join NATO on May 18, ending decades of neutrality in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
Jul 05, 7:40 am
Putin announces operational pause after capturing towns in the east
Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated the Russian seizure of Lysychansk and the majority of the Luhansk regional border in eastern Ukraine by appearing to direct his military to conduct an “operational pause”, the Institute for the Study of War reported on Monday.
Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu called the recent Russian gains in the Luhansk region as a major victory for Russian forces in Ukraine.
The Russian president also stated that the Russian units that participated in the battle for Lysychansk should rest to increase their combat capabilities, the ISW report claimed.
Putin‘s public comment was likely meant to signal his concern for the welfare of his troops in the face of periodic complaints in Russia about the treatment of Russian soldiers, the ISW experts said.
Russian troops that fought through the Luhansk region are very likely in need of a significant period in which to rest and refit before resuming large-scale offensive operations, observers noted.
It is not clear, however, that the Russian military will accept the risks associated with a long enough operational pause to allow these likely exhausted forces to regain their strength, the ISW report said.
Putin was quick to remark on Monday that “other military formations, including the East Group and the West Group, must carry out their tasks according to the previously approved plans.”
“I hope that everything will happen … in the same way as it has happened in Luhansk,” the Russian President added as quoted by local media.
Vyacheslav Volodin, who chairs the Russian Duma — the lower house of the Federal Assembly — said on Tuesday that Ukraine was “doing everything” to ensure that Moscow’s troops would not stop their “special military operation” at the borders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian state media.
Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said on Tuesday that Russian attacks in the Luhansk region destroyed more than 90% of the infrastructure in the territories that were actively defended by the Ukrainian military.
An overwhelming majority of houses were under fire, Haidai said, and most of them “can’t be restored.”
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
Jul 05, 6:12 am
Russia likely to switch focus to Donetsk after declaring victory in Luhansk
Russian forces will “now almost certainly” switch focus to capturing Donetsk Oblast after claiming control of neighboring Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, according to intelligence briefings from the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Luhansk on Monday, a day after Ukrainian troops withdrew from the city of Lysychansk — their last stronghold of resistance in the province. Ukrainian troops had spent weeks trying to defend Lysychansk and to keep it from falling to Russian forces, as the neighboring city of Sievierodonetsk did a week ago. A river separates the two cities.
“Russia’s focus will now almost certainly switch to capturing Donetsk Oblast, a large portion of which remain under the control of Ukrainian forces,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in Monday’s briefing. “The fight for the Donbas has been grinding and attritional and this is highly unlikely to change in the coming weeks.”
Putin has made capturing the entire Donbas — Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east — a key goal in his war in neighboring Ukraine. Russia-backed separatists in Donbas have battled Ukrainian forces since 2014, when they declared independence from Kyiv after the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Moscow formally recognized the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts just days before launching its Feb. 24 invasion.
“Russia’s relatively rapid capture of Lysychansk extends its control across virtually all of the territory of Luhansk Oblast, allowing it to claim substantive progress against the policy objective it presented as the immediate purpose of the war, namely ‘liberating’ the Donbas,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in Tuesday’s briefing.
“Ukrainian forces have likely largely withdrawn in good order, in line with existing plans,” the ministry continued. “The Ukrainian held areas of Sieverodonetsk-Lyschansk consisted of a bulge or salient which Russian could attack from three sides. There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces will now be able to fall back to a more readily defendable, straightened front line.”
“The battle for the Donbas has been characterised by slow rates of advance and Russia’s massed employment of artillery, levelling towns and cities in the process,” the ministry added. “The fighting in Donetsk Oblast will almost certainly continue in this manner.”
Jul 04, 6:54 am
Pope hints at possible trip to Ukraine
Speaking of the situation in Ukraine in an exclusive interview with Reuters over the weekend, Pope Francis said he might be heading to Ukraine after returning from his trip to Canada.
Francis, who has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said he “would like to go [to Ukraine],” but wanted to “go to Moscow first.”
No pope has ever visited Moscow. Last Thursday, Francis implicitly accused Russia of waging a “cruel and senseless war of aggression.”
Francis noted over the weekend that there have been contacts between Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about a possible trip to Moscow.
“After I come back from Canada, it is possible that I will manage to go to Ukraine,” Francis said. “The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals.”
According to Francis, the Vatican first inquired about a trip to Russia several months ago, but Moscow said it was not the right time.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Fidel Pavlenko
(PARIS, FRANCE) — As construction crews race to meet the 2024 deadline set by French President Emmanuel Macron for the reopening of Notre-Dame, a jury chaired by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has revealed the winning project for the redevelopment of the area surrounding the cathedral.
The project, estimated at 52 million euros ($54 million), is being led by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets, with a team composed of urban planning agency GRAU and architecture agency Neufville-Gayet.
The plan, scheduled for completion in 2027, calls for a greener and more welcoming look for Notre-Dame.
“There were three essential points for us: it was to reveal the cathedral, second to improve the connection with the Seine, and thirdly, to multiply the uses through this climatic approach,” Smets told ABC News.
A 400-meter long park will emerge along the Seine, where “people will be able to come and picnic [and] play in this magnificent place, between the south facade of the cathedral and the Seine,” Smets said. “Behind the cathedral, we will make a very large lawn of 17,000 square meters (4,2 acres), as large as the large lawn behind the Luxembourg Gardens.”
The chestnut trees around the cathedral will be supplemented by 131 new trees, including hackberries, maples and hornbeams, as well as alders, and a few oaks — an homage to the cathedral’s oak-made frame that burned in the 2019 fire that damaged the historic structure.
The underground parking garage beneath the cathedral square will be made into a reception center, called “le passage,” which Smets said will be able to fit nearly 1,000 people and include luggage storage and meeting rooms to accommodate groups, as well as access to the cathedral’s archaeological crypt.
Along the Seine, Smets said that they are going to open the walls of the quays that line the river to provide direct access to the Seine from the passage, which will be “a critical place” in this undertaking.
Cousins Amélie Vieites, 20, from Tours, and Emma Quiquemelle, 19, from Le Mans, hailed the redevelopment while visiting the site on Saturday.
Vieites said that adding trees will be “really good” for reducing pollution, while Quiquemelle told ABC News that “there aren’t a lot of green spaces in Paris, so that could make young people want to come and sit down.”
Omar Miloudi, 36, on holiday from Algiers, agreed, noting that visiting tourist sites in the summer is “a little too hot” to be “facing this heat.”
“It’s a great idea!” 47-year-old Brian Astl said of plans for the new greenery. Astl, visiting from Toronto, Canada, with his family, said he was already excited to come back to grounds for a picnic.
Officials say they hope the new-and-improved Notre-Dame will attract 12 million visitors per year, and will appeal to both tourists and Parisians.
The work on the cathedral grounds is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2024.
(CAIRO) — Two women were killed in shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea over the weekend, prompting officials to close off a stretch of the coastline.
The Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement Sunday that the women were attacked by a shark while swimming in the Red Sea near the resort town of Hurghada. The governor of the wider Red Sea Governorate, Maj. Gen. Amr Hanafi, has issued an order to suspend all water activities in the vicinity of the deadly attacks, according to the ministry.
The ministry said a committee of specialists has been formed to investigate the circumstances of the incidents and any scientific reasons behind them. The group “is still completing its work to find out precisely the reasons for the behavior of the shark that attacked the two victims,” according to the ministry.
It was unclear whether the same shark was involved in both attacks.
“The Ministry of Environment regrets the accident and extends its deepest condolences to the families of the two victims and extends its sincere thanks and appreciation to all concerned parties for their support,” the ministry added.
The ministry did not release the identities of the two women.
A spokesperson for the Austrian Foreign Ministry confirmed to ABC News that an Austrian citizen from the western state of Tyrol had died in Egypt. The Austrian embassy in Cairo is in contact with the victim’s relatives as well as Egyptian authorities, according to the spokesperson, who would not provide further information due to “reasons of data protection and confidentiality.”
Shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea coastal region have been relatively rare in recent years. In 2020, a 12-year-old Ukrainian boy lost an arm and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg in a shark attack while snorkelling off the coast of Sharm El-Sheikh, another Red Sea resort town.
OLAFUR STEINAR GESTSSON/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
(LONDON) — At least three people were killed and four others were critically wounded in a shooting at a Copenhagen shopping mall on Sunday, authorities said.
Police responded to reports of a shooting at the Field’s shopping center in Denmark’s capital just before 5:30 p.m.local time on Sunday. A boy and girl, both 17-year-old Danish citizens, and a 47-year-old Russian man were killed when a gunman opened fire there, according to Copenhagen chief police inspector Søren Thomassen.
As of Monday, four people — two Danish and two Swedish citizens — remain hospitalized in critical but stable condition. Several others suffered minor injuries while fleeing the mall, Thomassen said.
The suspect — a 22-year-old man with a history of mental health issues — was arrested at the scene, according to Thomassen. The man was expected to be arraigned in a Danish court on Monday on preliminary charges of murder.
The deadly shooting remains under investigation. While a motive was unknown, Thomassen said the victims appeared to have been randomly targeted and the gunman was believed to have acted alone. There was also nothing to suggest terrorism, he said.
“There is nothing in our investigation, or the documents we have reviewed, or the things we have found, or the witnesses’ statements we have gotten, that can substantiate that this is an act of terrorism,” the police inspector told reporters during a press conference Monday.
(WASHINGTON) — Attending the World Cup in November? The Department of Homeland Security will be on hand to help make sure the soccer tournament is safe and secure, according to a senior department official.
“We are committed to working closely with Qatar to make sure the world can enjoy a safe and secure World Cup,” Rob Silvers, the under secretary for strategy, police and plans at DHS, told ABC News in an interview. “We’re are going to be providing security support to our partner and we’re going to be doing that in a range of ways.”
Silvers said he is headed to Qatar this week to shore up those security partnerships.
One of the ways is by providing Transportation Security Agency (TSA) personnel to provide baggage screening support for people attending the matches.
“We’re going to host a delegation from Qatar at a U.S. airport to show them our airport security practices here because obviously they are expecting a large number of visitors and we want to help them on that front,” Silvers explained.
The department has experience with large scale sporting events domestically, with the U.S. Secret Service taking the lead on security every February at the Super Bowl.
The Secret Service will be on sight helping out the Qataris at the World Cup.
“We’re going to have our Secret Service providing support on protective details and on major event security coordination,” Silvers said.
Silvers also explained they are providing cyber resources through the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
The DHS official told ABC News there is no credible threat to the World Cup but “it’s a large and prominent gathering, and we should always be prepared from a security perspective.”
(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 01, 4:25 pm
21 dead, 39 injured in missile strike near Odesa
Russian missiles struck residential areas near the key port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 21 people and wounding 39 others, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russian bombers fired a trio of X-22 missiles that hit a nine-story apartment building and two recreational areas in the small coastal town of Serhiivka, located about 31 miles southwest of Odesa, according to a statement from the Security Service of Ukraine, which noted that rescue operations were underway.
Many victims were in the apartment building, where the entire entrance was “completely destroyed,” authorities said.
One of the wounded children was a baby who was in a coma after being pulled from the charred rubble, according to authorities.
“This was a targeted Russian missile attack — Russian terror against our cities, villages, our people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The pre-dawn attacks followed the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine’s Snake Island on Thursday, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa, home to Ukraine’s biggest seaport and one of the largest ports in the Black Sea basin.
“Occupants can’t win on the battlefield, so resort to the vile murder of civilians,” Ivan Bakanov, chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in a statement Friday. “After the enemy was kicked out of Snake Island, he decided to respond with a cynical shelling of civilian objects.”
We are at the apartment building outside Odesa struck by Russia last night. The same massive anti-ship missile that hit Kremenchuk. This place was crushed as people slept in their beds. #ukrainepic.twitter.com/DpF8KXJ18l
Jul 01, 12:50 pm
Ukraine submits memo to International Court of Justice on Russian aggression
Ukraine on Friday submitted a memorandum to the International Court of Justice on Russian aggression.
“We prove that Russia violated the Genocide Convention by justifying its aggression with a false pretext of a ‘genocide’ that never was,” tweeted Dmytro Kuleba, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs.
He called it a “critical step to hold Russia accountable and make Russia pay for the harm it has inflicted.”
Today, Ukraine submitted a major filing at the ICJ. We prove that Russia violated the Genocide Convention by justifying its aggression with a false pretext of a ‘genocide’ that never was. Critical step to hold Russia accountable and make Russia pay for the harm it has inflicted.
Jul 01, 11:27 am
Most Ukrainians want to return home
Close to 90% of refugees who fled Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion plan to return home at some point, according to a recent poll by the Rating group.
Only 8% of refugees said they would never return to Ukraine, while 15% are prepared to go back as soon as possible, the poll showed.
Around half of those displaced only plan on returning when the war is over. Close to a third of people who lost their jobs because of the war are still not able to find new employment, the data revealed.
Jul 01, 9:42 am
Moscow denies targeting civilians in Odesa
Russia has dismissed reports from Ukrainian officials that Russian missiles struck residential areas in the southern town of Odesa early on Friday morning and reiterated its claim that Moscow does not target civilians.
“I would like to remind you of president [Vladimir Putin’s] words that the Russian Armed Forces do not engage with civilian targets,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters on Friday.
Ukrainian authorities had earlier said Russian missiles hit an apartment building and two holiday camps in the region, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens of others, including children.
To counter the threat of indiscriminate Russian strikes, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg pledged more supplies of advanced weapons and equipment to Ukraine on Thursday.
Speaking at a press conference in Madrid, Stoltenberg said NATO has a list of requested equipment and nothing would be ruled out or excluded from that list. Several NATO countries expressed reservations about the transfer of some weapons — including tanks and other heavy weapons — to Ukraine in the first months of the war.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jul 01, 8:59 am
Will Russia become a pariah state?
In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, nearly crippling its economy and isolating it from all but a few allies.
U.S. President Joe Biden and other government officials have said sanctions from the United States and its allies will make Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, pariahs on the world stage.
However, one expert who spoke with ABC News says that casting Russia out of the international community, making it a pariah state, may not be so easy.
“Russia is a member of the UN security council, it has veto power there. It is just a major actor on the world stage in so many ways. So isolating Russia, shaming it, making it a pariah is a huge challenge,” said Daniel Hamilton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute.
Yet, “Russia has not done too well with allies,” Hamilton also said.
“Today, it’s real allies are … sort of also pariah states. It’s Assad’s Syria, it’s Venezuela, it’s Cuba and that’s about it. Others tolerate Russia. They figure out ways to deal with it, in the former Soviet space. But they’re not really allies,” Hamilton said.
Russia and Belarus are yet to mirror NATO’s recent military activity, Belarusian President Oleksandr Lukashenko said in a speech on Thursday. Lukashenko also called on Russia to “be ready” for the use of nuclear weapons.
While a frontal attack on Ukraine from Belarusian territory is not perceived as an imminent threat by Ukrainian officials, roadblocks were reinforced in the capital of Kyiv due to the risk of diversionary and intelligence groups from Belarus roaming around the city, a National Guard spokesperson said Friday as reported by local media.
Belarus extended a large-scale military exercise near the Ukrainian border until at least July 9, a local monitoring group reported on Friday.
Lukashenko’s administration ordered conscripts en masse to report to military commissariats without disclosing the reason for the call-up, local media reported on Thursday.
Military officials threatened conscripts with criminal prosecution in case they failed to show up to their respective commissariats, according to local reports.
Belarusian officials maintain that the call-up is “simply training” that is part of “mobilization exercises.” “No one is taking anyone to any war,” military officials claimed as quoted by local media.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jul 01, 7:03 am
Russian missiles kill at least 19 in residential areas near Odesa
Russian missiles struck residential areas near the key port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine early Friday, killing at least 19 people, Ukrainian authorities said.
Russian bombers fired a trio of X-22 missiles that hit a nine-story apartment building and two recreational areas in the small coastal town of Serhiivka, located about 31 miles southwest of Odesa, according to a statement from the Security Service of Ukraine, which noted that rescue operations were underway.
Two children were among the 19 confirmed deaths. Another 38 people, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalized with injuries. Most of the victims were in the apartment building, where the entire entrance was “completely destroyed,” authorities said.
One of the wounded children was a baby who was in a coma after being pulled from the charred rubble, according to authorities.
The pre-dawn attacks followed the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine’s Snake Island on Thursday, a move that was expected to potentially ease the threat to nearby Odesa, home to Ukraine’s biggest seaport and one of the largest ports in the Black Sea basin.
“Occupants can’t win on the battlefield, so resort to the vile murder of civilians,” Ivan Bakanov, chairman of the Security Service of Ukraine, said in a statement Friday. “After the enemy was kicked out of Snake Island, he decided to respond with a cynical shelling of civilian objects.”
Jun 30, 7:09 pm
Snake Island ‘significantly changes’ situation in Black Sea, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation on Snake Island, which was freed of Russian forces Thursday, “significantly changes the situation in the Black Sea.”
“It does not guarantee safety yet, it does not yet guarantee that the enemy will not return. But it already limits the actions of the occupiers significantly,” he said in his latest national address.
The rocky Ukrainian island, located in the Black Sea, has been the target of Russia since day one of the invasion.
Ukrainian military officials claimed Thursday to have taken back control of Snake Island overnight following a successful military operation. Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry said Thursday that it withdrew all its forces from Snake Island as a “gesture of goodwill.”
Jun 30, 2:24 pm
Fierce fighting ongoing near last Luhansk Oblast city under Ukraine’s control
Fierce fighting is ongoing southwest of Lysychansk — the last city in Ukraine’s Luhansk Oblast that remains under Ukrainian control, Ukraine’s General Staff said. If Lysychansk falls, one of the two Donbas regions would effectively be seized by Russia.
Russian forces have secured positions in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the Lysychansk Oil Refinery and are firing artillery on Ukrainian forces around the refinery and in nearby settlements, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk RMA, said Russian forces are shelling the city from several directions, but there’s no street fighting in Lysychansk and the city is not yet encircled.
Jun 30, 10:09 am
Biden announces $800M more in aid, ‘going to support Ukraine as long as it takes’
President Joe Biden at his press conference in Madrid Thursday announced $800 million more in aid for Ukraine, including air defense systems and offensive weapons.
A reporter asked how to explain to the American people a joint statement from Biden and other G-7 leaders Monday that read: “We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Asked if that meant indefinite support from the U.S., or whether there would be a time support from the U.S. would stop, Biden replied: “We are going to support Ukraine as long as it takes.”
“I don’t know what — how it’s going to end,” Biden added, “But it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine in Ukraine.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recently that the war needs to end by the winter. But Biden said that, “no,” that assessment hadn’t changed his calculation in terms of the pace and kind of assistance the U.S. is sending Ukraine.
Biden was also pressed on record high gas prices that he has attributed to the war in Ukraine. “How long is it fair to expect American drivers and drivers around the world to pay that premium for this war?” he was asked by a reporter.
“As long as it takes,” he replied. “Russia cannot, in fact, defeat Ukraine and move beyond Ukraine. This is a critical, critical position for the world.”
Biden highlighted his domestic efforts to bring down the price at the pump, like releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and asking Congress and states to approve a gas tax holiday to help save consumers money at the pump.
“So I think there’s a lot of things we can do, and we will do, but the bottom line is ultimately the reason why gas prices are up is because of Russia,” he said. “Russia, Russia, Russia. The reason why the food crisis exists is because of Russia. Russia not allowing grain to get out of Ukraine.”
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Molly Nagle
Jun 30, 8:10 am
Nearly all released Azov defenders return wounded
Almost all soldiers of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment who were released from Russian captivity return home wounded, a representative of the Association of Families of Azovstal Defenders told local media on Wednesday.
“Almost everyone – 99% – were left without arms, without legs. Some do not hear, some do not see, but their eyes are happy,” Tetiana Kharko said.
According to Kharko, the sister of a captured Marine commander, some troops “talk with tears in their eyes, some can’t [speak].” The representative added that the soldiers from the latest exchange of prisoners need urgent medical care and an examination.
In his Wednesday evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 95 Azovstal defenders returned home from Ukrainian captivity, along with dozens of other troops.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Natalya Kushnir and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 30, 7:07 am
Mariupol theater airstrike was ‘a clear war crime’ by Russian military: Amnesty International
The Russian military committed “a clear war crime” when its forces bombed a packed drama theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol in March, Amnesty International said Thursday.
The London-based international human rights group published a new report documenting how the deadly blitz on the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater unfolded, citing interviews with numerous survivors and witnesses as well as “extensive digital evidence,” which included photographs, videos, radio intercepts, satellite imagery and radar data. The report concluded that the evidence indicates the attack “was almost certainly an airstrike carried out by the Russian military,” with the theater as “the intended target.”
“After months of rigorous investigation, analysis of satellite imagery and interviews with dozens of witnesses, we concluded that the strike was a clear war crime committed by Russian forces,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a statement Thursday.
Jun 30, 7:01 am
War outlook remains ‘grim,’ top US intelligence officer says
Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to seize most of Ukraine, and the outlook for the war remains grim, Avril Haines, the top U.S. intelligence officer, said Wednesday as reported by Reuters.
“In short, the picture remains pretty grim and Russia’s attitude toward the West is hardening,” Haines said at a Commerce Department conference.
The intelligence officer added that U.S. spy agencies expect the war to grind on “for an extended period of time.” But the Russian forces are so degraded by combat, Haines said, that they likely can only achieve incremental gains in the near term.
Haines also said it will take years for Russia to rebuild its forces. Still, U.S. intelligence agencies foresee three possible scenarios in the war, according to Haines, the most likely being a grinding conflict in which Russian forces “make incremental gains, with no breakthrough.”
The other scenarios include a major Russian breakthrough and Ukraine succeeding in stabilizing the frontlines while achieving small gains, perhaps near the Russian-held city of Kherson and other areas of southern Ukraine.
Ukraine is likely to rely on more NATO support as the conflict drags on, with Ihor Zhovkva, the Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, stating Wednesday that Ukraine believes it already meets NATO standards and maintains a course to continue integration.
“No one removes Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration from the agenda,” Zhovkva said at the NATO summit in Madrid.
Zhovka, who headed the Ukrainian delegation in Madrid, said he was satisfied with the results of the summit. The official also stressed that Ukraine maintains its course to join NATO.
Russia warned Tuesday that Ukraine joining NATO could lead to World War III should Kyiv then attempt to encroach on the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Natalya Kushnir and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 29, 3:20 pm
Zelenskyy addresses NATO summit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the NATO summit Wednesday, commending the decision to invite Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
Zelenskyy told the NATO leaders, “The goals of Ukraine are exactly the same as yours: We are interested in security and stability on the European continent and in the world.”
“This is not a war of Russia only against Ukraine, this is a war for the right to dictate conditions in Europe,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Jun 29, 1:37 pm
Biden, Erdogan meet after Turkey drops opposition to Finland, Sweden joining NATO
President Joe Biden met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the NATO summit in Madrid Wednesday, where he thanked Erdoğan for dropping his objections to Finland and Sweden becoming NATO members.
“I want to particularly thank you for what you did putting together the situation with regard to Finland and Sweden and all the incredible work you’re doing to try to get the grain out of Ukraine and Russia,” Biden said.
“We think your pioneering in this regard is going to be crucial in terms of strengthening NATO for the future,” Erdoğan said. “And it’s going to have a very positive contribution to the process between Ukraine and Russia.”
Senior administration officials told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. made no formal offer in exchange for Erdoğan dropping Turkey’s resistance to Finland and Sweden becoming NATO members.
The U.S. Department of Defense earlier came out in support of Turkey’s plans to modernize its aircraft fleet with American-made F-16s.
(NEW YORK) – Brittney Griner appeared in a courtroom in Khimki, a suburb of Moscow, on Friday morning for the first day of the WNBA star’s trial in Russia, where she has been in custody for 134 days.
Griner was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport in Russia on Feb. 17 after she was accused of carrying vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in Russia.
The first witness at Griner’s trial was a customs officer who was at the airport when she was arrested.
According to a Russian reporter inside the courtroom, who spoke with ABC News, Griner said through a translator that she understood the accusation but declined to comment on the charge, saying she will share her thoughts at a later time.
The judge began the examination of evidence with the interrogation of witnesses. Representatives of the U.S. Embassy, as well as two representatives from Russian and foreign media were allowed into the courtroom.
An American reporter inside the courtroom, who spoke with Griner, told ABC News on Monday that Griner said she is fine, but she misses her ability to work out like she used to. She also said that since she doesn’t speak Russian, the court appearances are difficult for her, but she has been provided an interpreter.
As Griner left the courtroom, she did not respond to ABC News’ question when asked how she’s doing. The Phoenix Mercury player is expected to appear in court again for the second day of the trial on July 7.
Griner’s detention in Russia was extended repeatedly, most recently through Dec. 20, which is the expected length of her trial. If convicted, Griner, 31, faces up to 10 years in prison.
Ahead of the trial, friends and family members of Griner gathered for a vigil in New York City in honor of the detained athlete on Wednesday.
“Feb 17th was the last time I talked to my sister,” said Janell Roy, Griner’s childhood friend. “I haven’t been in communication with her, I haven’t been able to talk to her and it hurts.”
“… The fact remains that the U.S. Government has determined that Brittney Griner is wrongfully detained and being used as a political pawn,” Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, wrote in a series of tweets on Monday . “The negotiation for her immediate release regardless of the legal proceedings should remain a top priority and we expect [President Joe Biden] and [Vice President Kamala Harris] to do everything in their power, right now, to get a deal done to bring her home.”
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that Griner is “unjustly detained” and called on the Russian government to release the American basketball star.
Sullivan further stressed that the U.S. is “actively engaged” in working to secure Griner’s release, but added that the diplomatic efforts are “sensitive matters.”
“But I will tell you it has the fullest attention of the President and every senior member of his national security and diplomatic team, and we are actively working to find a resolution to this case, and will continue to do so without rest until we get Brittney safely home,” he said. “We also are trying to work actively to return all unjustly detained Americans and hostages being held overseas, whether that be in Iran or Afghanistan or Russia or Venezuela, or China or elsewhere.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began one week after Griner was detained. Some officials are concerned that Americans jailed in Russia could be used as leverage in the ongoing conflict.
Calls to free Griner escalated following the release of U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed in April, who was freed from a Russian prison as part of a prisoner exchange. Former Marine Paul Whelan has also been detained in Russia since 2019.
Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, told “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts in May that she would like to speak with President Joe Biden.
“I just keep hearing that, you know, he has the power. She’s a political pawn,” she said. “So if they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it.”
Asked about a potential meeting between Cherelle Griner and President Biden last week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We don’t have anything to share about a potential phone conversation or meeting.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(HONG KONG) — In a speech celebrating the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to China, Chinese President Xi Jinping strongly reaffirmed the territory’s autonomy under the promise of “One Country, Two Systems” but with one very strong caveat: Beijing has full jurisdiction and Hong Kong must respect that.
“One Country, Two Systems is an unprecedented great initiative of historical significance,” Xi declared in a victory lap of a speech now that the opposition in the city has either been silenced or behind bars. “There is no reason to change such a good system, and it must be maintained for a long time.”
Xi’s words run counter to the view of many in the city who supported the now-silenced pro-democracy activists and Western politicians around the world who view Beijing’s increasing direct influence in the city as reneging on the agreement made between the United Kingdom and China that led to the handover on July 1, 1997.
Also marking the occasion, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a video statement on Twitter saying, “We made a promise to the territory and its people and we intend to keep it, doing all we can to hold China to its commitment”
“We simply cannot avoid the fact that for some time now, Beijing has been failing to comply with its obligations. It’s a state of affairs that threatens both the rights and freedoms of Hong Kongers and the continued progress and prosperity of their home.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken added, “it is now evident that Hong Kong and Beijing authorities no longer view democratic participation, fundamental freedoms, and an independent media” as a part of its promise.
In Xi’s view, the Chinese government is fulfilling its obligations in allowing the former British colony to choose its path and thrive economically, if not politically, over the past quarter century.
“Hong Kong will maintain the original capitalist system unchanged for a long time and enjoy a high degree of autonomy” Xi, who is on a two-day visit to the city, told a 1,300-strong gathering of Hong Kong’s political and business elite at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Center. But he warned that residents must “consciously respect” the rule of Chinese Communist Party and its socialist system in the mainland.
Having implemented a far-reaching security law two years ago to silence dissent, Xi mostly sidestepped security and political concerns and focused on Hong Kong’s economic development, signaling an intention to turn the page on the turmoil of the last decade.
The Chinese government has long believed that the vast chasm of economic inequality in the city, exacerbated by unaffordable housing costs, was the chief reason for popular discontent which, in Beijing’s telling of events, were then exploited by “foreign forces” to foment anti-government protests.
“Hong Kong cannot afford more chaos,” Xi told the newly inaugurated administration led by Hong Kong’s former security official John Lee.
“The public has good expectations to have better livelihoods, that they can live in a wider and bigger home, with more job opportunities, better education for the children, and can be better taken care of when they are old,” Xi continued.
“The new government should not disappoint them and should place these expectations as top priorities,” stressed the Chinese leader.
“The major issue for John Lee is to deliver better housing and relieve economic inequality and poverty and if possible, find new engines for economic growth,” David Zweig, Professor Emeritus at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, told ABC News.
“Economic problems that Hong Kong has faced for past 20 years were due largely to the [real estate] tycoons who would not allow [the Hong Kong leader and legislature] to resolve these core issues,” Zweig explained, which led to the younger generation insisting on a more representative system which, in Beijing’s eyes, threatened to shift the power in the legislature.
In the wake of the 2019 protests, Zweig believed that when the popular opposition was positioned to take over the legislature and replace Beijing’s “executive-led government” with a de-facto parliamentary one, the Chinese government was unwilling to take that risk.
In response, Beijing reformed the electoral system to ensure “only patriots can govern Hong Kong.”
“Our mistake as observers was not to realize that, while China could support a more open system, under ‘One country, Two systems’ it would never let the opposition take over,” said Zweig.
At an event earlier this week, the last British governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten recalled a pro-Beijing businessman explaining this dynamic to him as the two governments were hashing out the final details before the handover. “You don’t understand the Chinese,” Patten remembered the individual telling him, “they don’t want to rig the elections, they just want to know the result in advance. Well, yes, I see that, but it’s not what’s called democracy.”
“John Lee and Beijing, having established an authoritarian regime, must deliver on the core economic issues,” Zweig told ABC News.
After spending less than 10 hours in the city over two days, Xi and his wife left Hong Kong via the high speed rail link that physically ties the center of Hong Kong to the mainland.
The new Hong Kong chief executive has his work cut for him. Hong Kong’s strict COVID measures and sealed borders over the past two years has endangered Hong Kong’s status as an aviation hub and international financial center. Its economy contracted 4% in the first quarter of this year — one of the worst performances in 30 years.
Coupled with the security crackdown, Hong Kong residents have been voting with their feet. Since the beginning the year there has been 154,000 net departures from the city, the highest rate since Hong Kong returned to China.
“We won’t let President Xi down,” Lee told the press after the Chinese president’s departure. “We won’t let the people down.”
(SEOUL, South Korea) — Authorities in North Korea have instructed its people to avoid “alien things” falling near its border with South Korea.
North Korea’s state newspaper Rodong Sinmun published a news report on where the COVID-19 virus came from and pointed the finger at materials that flew in from South Korea. The paper said that two local townspeople showed COVID-19 symptoms after touching “alien things” at the border.
“State Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters saw to it that an emergency instruction was issued stressing the need to vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders,” Rodong Sinmun said Friday.
The influx of non-native objects, especially from the southern half of the Korean peninsula, has put North Korea’s border at the highest level of alert for the longest amount of time since the two Koreas separated in 1953. Sending propaganda leaflets and materials in air balloons has been common practice from both sides but Seoul has made it illegal in 2020.
“It appears to be an attempt to raise suspicion among North Korean citizens about the propaganda leaflets, an attempt to spread the false idea that the leaflets are carrying COVID-19,” Hyung Joong Park, head researcher at the Korea Institute of National Unification, told ABC News.
Park also explained that they are forming the narrative that COVID was caused not by failures by the Party but by a premeditated move from the outside.
North Korea has reported over 4,750 cases of “fever” on Friday and claims that, as of Thursday evening, since the pandemic began more than 99.827% of the people who had “fever” have recovered. There is an extremely limited number of COVID test kits in North Korea as the regime has refused to accept foreign assistance to help identify patients.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry responded to North Korea’s accusation and that they see zero possibility of viruses entering North Korea through leaflets from the South, explaining that the timing of the North’s claim of contact with “alien materials” at the beginning of April does not match the timing of leaflet-sending that activists in South Korea say took place in late April.
“South Korea’s Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization is on the same page that it is impossible to be infected with COVID-19 through the virus remaining on the surface of an object, not to mention there isn’t any officially confirmed case of COVID-19 infection through mail or other supply,” Cha Duck Chul, the deputy spokesperson of South’s Unification Ministry told reporters Friday.
On Tuesday, the defector group Fighters For North Korea based in Seoul claim to have flown 20 unauthorized balloons carrying masks, pain relief pills, and doses of Vitamin C in order to send support to pandemic-hit North Korea.
“Accusing the balloon and leaflets from South Korea of spreading virus lays a foundation for North Korea taking extreme measures against balloon launches on the grounds that it is a national security threat,” John Delury, professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies, told ABC News.
ABC News’ Eunseo Nam and Hyerim Lee contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — In response to the invasion of Ukraine, the West has imposed unprecedented sanctions on Russia, nearly crippling its economy and isolating it from all but a few allies.
President Joe Biden and other government officials have said sanctions from the U.S. and its allies will make Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, pariahs on the world stage.
However, one expert who spoke with ABC News says that casting Russia out of the international community, making it a pariah state, may not be so easy.
“Russia is a member of the UN security council, it has veto power there. It is just a major actor on the world stage in so many ways. So isolating Russia, shaming it, making it a pariah is a huge challenge,” said Daniel Hamilton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institute.
Yet, “Russia has not done too well with allies,” Hamilton also said.
“Today, its real allies are … sort of also pariah states. It’s Assad’s Syria, it’s Venezuela, it’s Cuba and that’s about it. Others tolerate Russia. They figure out ways to deal with it, in the former Soviet space. But they’re not really allies,” Hamilton said.
China has also kept a relationship with Russia, which Hamilton called “pro-Russian neutrality,” with China falling short of giving Russia its full support, he said
An analysis of American policymakers found that the U.S. punishes pariah states committing one of five acts: the development of weapons of mass destruction, involvement in terrorism, posing a military threat, challenging international norms and, most recently, cyberthreats.
The U.S. currently designates Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism, according to the Department of State.
Russia’s gross domestic product, a metric used to gauge the size of an economy by quantifying all the goods and services it produced, will be hard hit, according to Andrew Lohsen, a fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Russian GDP, by their own estimates, is expected to to fall by between eight and 12%. This is the sharpest contraction since 1994,” said Lohsen.
“Other former finance officials in Russia put that number close to 30%,” Lohsen said.
Lohsen also told ABC News the way Russia has conducted its war warrants a strong response from the international community.
“I think the images of civilians with their hands tied behind their back or shot execution style is an indication that Russia simply cannot be treated the way it has before, that this is a war crime,” Lohsen said.
“The way that Russia has fought this war in a way that is so obviously meant to terrorize and inflict pain and suffering on civilian noncombatants,” Lohsen added.
Putin considers Ukraine not as a sovereign country, but rather, a lost tribe of Russia, Hamilton said.
“He really is determined to either cripple it or to absorb it, if possible. He’s having some trouble doing that,” Hamilton said.
As it moves to isolate Russia, the U.S. is softening relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, despite Biden’s campaign promise to make Saudi Arabia a pariah for its killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
While the U.S. has been able to cut out Russian oil, the European Union still relies on Russia for 25% of its oil and 40% of its natural gas.
