(NEW YORK) — More than 80 people are feared to have died in Sunday’s attack on a church in southwestern Nigeria, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.
A source with direct knowledge of the investigation said the bodies of 82 victims were in a local morgue. Another source briefed on the latest U.S. intelligence assessment said the estimate was over 80. Both sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they didn’t have authorization to speak to the press about the ongoing probe.
A spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force, which is leading the investigation, told ABC News on Wednesday that the probe is ongoing and they can not confirm the death toll at this time.
Richard Olatunde, a spokesperson for the Ondo state governor, told ABC News on Wednesday that the casualty count was 40 people dead and 86 wounded, including 61 who were still hospitalized. However, those numbers are likely an underestimate.
The bloodshed occurred at St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo in Ondo state, more than 200 miles northwest of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, and over 200 miles southwest of Abuja, the Nigerian capital. The church was holding a service for Pentecost Sunday, a Christian holiday celebrated on the 50th day after Easter, when suddenly explosives detonated and gunshots rang out at around 11:30 a.m. local time, according to police
Several gunmen who were disguised as congregants were inside the church and opened fire at worshippers, police said, while other armed men who had positioned themselves around the church fired into the building from different directions and at worshippers as they tried to escape.
The assailants fled the scene in a stolen Nissan and remain at large, according to police, who said the vehicle has since been recovered.
Police said they have also recovered three undetonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from the scene, along with fragments of detonated IEDs and pellets of expended AK-47 ammunition.
The exact number of perpetrators was unknown and police have yet to identify them. A motive for the massacre was also not immediately clear, as no group has claimed responsibility.
The Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria said in a statement on Monday that the gunmen were “suspected to be bandits.”
Meanwhile, health workers at the Federal Medical Center in Owo, which was treating victims of the attack, told ABC News on Monday that there was an urgent need for blood donations for the wounded.
Nigerian Inspector-General of Police Usman Alkali Baba has ordered a “full-scale” and “comprehensive” investigation into the incident and has deployed specialized police units to help track down the assailants, according to police.
Sunday’s attack was largely unprecedented in Ondo, which has been considered one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states. Violent attacks and kidnappings for ransom have become rife in other parts of the West African country.
(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:
Jun 09, 8:55 am
Battle in key city to determine fate of eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy says
The fight for the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk will determine the fate of the wider Donbas region, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Severodonetsk remains the epicenter of the confrontation in Donbas. We defend our positions, inflict significant losses on the enemy,” Zelenskyy said late Wednesday in his nightly address. “This is a very fierce battle, very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war. I am grateful to everyone who defends this direction. In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there.”
After launching an invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian forces failed to take control of the capital, Kyiv, and other major government centers as they faced tough resistance from Ukrainian troops. Russian forces then switched attention to Donbas, which comprises the self-proclaimed republics controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Severodonetsk, an industrial hub, is the largest city still held by Ukrainian troops in contested Donbas. In recent days, Russian forces have encircled the city as they advanced in the region, creating a pocket that could trap Ukrainian defenders there and in the neighboring city of Lysychansk.
Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are the last major cities in the Luhansk area still controlled by Ukraine. Last week, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update that Russian forces had seized most of Severodonetsk, but that the main road into the pocket likely remained under Ukrainian control.
Jun 09, 7:32 am
Mariupol residents face risk of cholera epidemic under Russian occupation
The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine is facing the risk of a cholera epidemic amid the destruction of water supplies and sanitation during the Russian invasion, city officials and health agencies warn.
“The risk of cholera is very high, like red, red level,” Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol’s mayor, told ABC News, adding that the municipality could not provide an estimation of the number of infected cases due to lack of proper access to the occupants amid the occupation by Russian forces.
While the warnings have intensified in the past few days, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on Telegram last month that due to problems with water supply, the Russian occupied city is threatened by an infectious catastrophe and more than 10,000 people may die by the end of the year.
The deteriorating water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure has set an alarmingly high risk of an outbreak, according to a report in April from the World Health Organization’s Health Cluster Ukraine agency.
The warming spring and summer weather will likely increase transmission, the report said.
“The weather is hot. There are still dead bodies on the streets of the city — especially under the debris of residential buildings. In some blocks, it is impossible to walk by — due to the stench of rotten human flesh. There was no rain for a while, and it is getting hotter,” a resident of Mariupol, who did not want to be named for security concerns, told ABC News.
Jun 08, 12:53 pm
Russian-occupied Mariupol faces ‘catastrophic lack of medical staff’
The Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, Ukraine, is facing a “catastrophic lack of medical staff,” Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said on the Telegram app.
He said Russians are trying to convince locals who are over 80 years old to go back to work at hospitals.
He warned, “In this state of medicine, any infectious disease turns into a deadly epidemic.”
Jun 08, 8:36 am
Putin-Zelenskyy meeting not possible, Kremlin says
A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not currently possible, the Kremlin said.
When asked about a recent comment from Zelenskyy that he’s willing to meet with Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Our position is well-known here: good preparations need to be made for a top-level meeting. We know that the Ukrainian side has withdrawn from the negotiation track, and therefore it is currently not possible to prepare for this sort of top-level meeting.”
Jun 08, 5:06 am
Ukrainian defenses in key eastern city ‘holding,’ despite Russian attacks
Ukrainian troops defending the eastern city of Sieverodonetsk are “holding,” despite attacks in three directions from Russian forces, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
“Russia continues to attempt assaults against the Sieverodonetsk pocket from three directions although Ukrainian defences are holding,” the ministry said. “It is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours.”
Sieverodonetsk, an industrial hub, is the largest city still held by Ukrainian troops in the contested Donbas region of Ukraine’s east, which comprises the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. In recent days, Russian forces have encircled the city as they advanced in Donbas, creating a pocket that could trap Ukrainian defenders there and in the neighboring city of Lysychansk.
Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk are the last major cities in the Luhansk area still controlled by Ukraine.
Last week, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Russian forces had seized most of Sieverodonetsk, but that the main road into the pocket likely remained under Ukrainian control.
With the frontage of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine stretching for over 300 miles, “both Russia and Ukraine face similar challenges in maintaining a defensive line while freeing up capable combat units for offensive operations,” according to the ministry.
“While Russia is concentrating its offensive on the central Donbas sector, it has remained on the defensive on its flanks,” the ministry said in its intelligence update Wednesday. “Ukrainian forces have recently achieved some success by counter-attacking in the south-western Kherson region, including regaining a foothold on the eastern bank of the Ingulets River.”
Jun 07, 3:12 pm
At least 3 dead in shelling in Kharkiv
At least three people were killed and six others were injured in the Kharkiv area from ongoing shelling by Russian forces, according to the Kharkiv regional governor, Oleg Synegubov.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 07, 11:48 am
Ukraine official: Hard to win ‘without speeding up the supply of modern weapons’
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told ABC News that “it will be difficult for Ukraine to win this war without speeding up the supply of modern weapons.”
He added, “The country is ready for long-term resistance, because we are fighting for our freedom.”
This comes as the Donetsk People’s Republic claims an advance in territory.
DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova told reporters, “We can say that the allied forces — the DPR militia and units of the Russian Defense Ministry — are in control of over 70% of the territory.”
Jun 07, 11:02 am
Ukrainian grain may be leaving ports — but on Russian ships
There is evidence of Russian vessels departing “from near Ukraine with their cargo holds full of grain,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told ABC News on Monday night.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that Russia seized at least 400,000 to 500,000 tons of grain worth over $100 million, according to the State Department spokesperson.
“Ukraine’s MFA also has numerous testimonies from Ukrainian farmers and documentary evidence showing Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain,” the spokesperson said.
The news of Ukrainian grain aboard Russian ships partly confirms a recent report by The New York Times that Moscow is seeking to profit off of grain plundered from Ukraine by selling the product while subverting sanctions. Ukraine has already accused Russia of shipping the stolen grain to buyers in Syria and Turkey.
Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but Kyiv has been unable to ship exports due to Moscow’s offensive. A Russian blockade in the Black Sea, along with Ukrainian naval mines, have made exporting siloed grain virtually impossible and, as a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jun 06, 12:26 pm
Two planes owned by Russian oligarch grounded by US prosecutors
Two planes — a Gulfstream G650 and a Boeing 787 — have been grounded after federal prosecutors said their owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, violated U.S. sanctions by flying the aircraft to Moscow in March.
The sanctions require a license for any U.S.-made aircraft to fly to Russia. The sanctions also prohibit an aircraft that is owned, controlled or under charter or lease by a Russian national from being flown to Russia.
“No licenses were applied for or issued. Nor was any license exception available, including because the Boeing and the Gulfstream were each owned and/or controlled by a Russian national: Roman Abramovich,” said the affidavit supporting a seizure warrant.
The Boeing plane is believed to be among the most expensive private aircraft in the world, worth $350 million, the affidavit said.
Jun 06, 9:05 am
Russia beefs up air defense on Snake Island
Russia has likely moved multiple air defense assets, including SA-15 and SA-22 missile systems, to Snake Island in the western Black Sea, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday in an intelligence update.
The move follows the loss of the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“It is likely these weapons are intended to provide air defence for Russian naval vessels operating around Snake Island,” the ministry added. “Russia’s activity on Snake Island contributes to its blockade of the Ukrainian coast and hinders the resumption of maritime trade, including exports of Ukrainian grain.”
Russian forces captured Ukraine’s Snake Island in the early days of the invasion, memorably when Ukrainian soldiers defending the tiny islet told an attacking Russian warship to “go f— yourself.” Ukrainian troops have failed in their attempts to retake the previously inconsequential territory.
Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine’s contested Donbas region, heavy fighting continues in the war-torn city of Sieverodonetsk, according to the ministry.
“Russian forces continue to push towards Sloviansk as part of their attempted encirclement of Ukrainian force,” the ministry said.
And in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Russian air-launched cruise missiles struck rail infrastructure Sunday in the early morning hours, “likely in an attempt [to] disrupt the supply of Western military equipment to frontline Ukrainian units,” according to the ministry.
Jun 05, 3:39 pm
Russian missiles target Kyiv
After five weeks of relative calm in Kyiv, Russian rockets hit Ukraine’s capital city on Sunday as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of strikes on “new targets” if the United States goes through with plans to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said the war is still in its “hot phase” and “capturing Kyiv is still Russia’s main goal.”
An ABC News crew visited Kyiv’s Darnytskyy district, where several Russian cruise missiles slammed into a railway repair plant. One building was still on fire when the ABC News crew arrived. Nearby, another missile strike left a creater on a cement path.
It took hours before Ukrainian authorities permitted media access to the site, saying the area needed to be cleared for safety first.
The Russians claimed the attack in Darnystskyy destroyed military vehicles and armaments. Ukrainian officials said the missiles hit a railway repair plant where no tanks were stored.
Speaking on Russian TV on Sunday, Putin issued a warning to the West on supplying the Ukrainians with high-powered rocket systems. He said if the West carried through with it, Russia would hit “new targets they had not attacked before.”
Jun 05, 7:05 am
Putin warns of strikes if West supplies longer-range missiles
President Vladimir Putin warned that Russian forces would strike new targets if the West began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
“But if they [missiles] are actually delivered, we will draw appropriate conclusions and apply our own weapons, which we have in sufficient quantities to carry out strikes on targets we aren’t striking yet,” Putin told Rossyia 1 TV Channel in an interview on Sunday.
(LONDON) — The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine is facing the risk of a cholera epidemic amid the destruction of water supplies and sanitation during the Russian invasion, city officials and health agencies warn.
“The risk of cholera is very high, like red, red level,” Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol’s mayor, told ABC News, adding that the municipality could not provide an estimation of the number of infected cases due to lack of proper access to the occupants amid the occupation by Russian forces.
While the warnings have intensified in the past few days, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on Telegram last month that due to problems with water supply, the city is threatened by an infectious catastrophe and more than 10,000 people may die by the end of the year.
The deteriorating water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure has set an alarmingly high risk of an outbreak, according to a report in April from the World Health Organization’s Health Cluster Ukraine agency.
The warming spring and summer weather will likely increase transmission, the report said.
“The weather is hot. There are still dead bodies on the streets of the city — especially under the debris of residential buildings. In some blocks, it is impossible to walk by — due to the stench of rotten human flesh. There was no rain for a while, and it is getting hotter,” a resident of Mariupol, who did not want to be named for security concerns, told ABC News.
The condition of hospital staffing is also “catastrophic,” Andriushchenko wrote on his official Telegram channel on Wednesday.
“Visual demonstration of complete paralysis and collapse of medical system… In this state of medicine, any infectious disease turns into a deadly epidemic,” he said.
Andryushchenko told ABC News that swimming has been banned in the sea [of Azov] as a means to control the spread of the disease. Russian occupation authorities were beginning to quarantine the captured city of Mariupol, he said.
Dorit Nitzan, the WHO’s Ukraine incident manager, told reporters last month the international agency’s partners on the ground in Mariupol are observing “actual swamps in the streets.”
Sewage water and drinking water are getting mixed, Nitzan said at a press briefing in Kyiv.
“This is a huge hazard for many infections, including cholera,” she said.
“Accessing Mariupol is an issue, but we are looking for opportunities via partners on the ground,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told ABC News.
To take necessary measures in controlling the risk of spreading the disease, the international body “has provided Ukraine with guidance on prevention, preparedness, case definitions, detection — including in wastewater monitoring– [and] standards of care and case management,” Harris added.
Due to the lack of water, the city’s residents have drawn untreated water from rivers and lakes, the April report warns, saying Ukraine was also the last European country to declare a cholera epidemic, with 33 cases in Mariupol in 2011.
“There is still no water supply – it is delivered by trucks, and people on the streets are staying in the lines to fill some bottles,” the Mariupol resident who spoke to ABC News said, adding that people in the city have no information about possible affected cases.
Besides facilitating readiness for the use of cholera vaccines in Ukraine, the WHO says it is working with the Ministry of Health to provide risk communication materials advising people on “how to protect themselves, on prevention, but also on treatment, including on what to do at-home.”
The international body has also offered medical supplies, including WHO cholera kits with rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs), Harris said.
The city was reportedly home to over 400,000 people before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. While there are no accurate statistics on the number of current residents, Ukrainian officials estimate that 100,000 to 150,000 people are still living in the occupied city, many in hiding in the basements and bomb shelters.
Harris underlined the critical psychological condition of the people left in the city and how it would contribute to the likely outbreak.
“The fact that people have to be on the move, the fact that they often have close together, that they’re huddling in basements, in bomb shelters, and the incredible trauma, psychological pressure they are under has got to be having a severe effect on their immune systems, weakening their immune system,” she said.
“So even what’s normally just a mild infection for you or me is a much more serious infection in somebody under those conditions,” she added.
(BERLIN) — A teacher was killed and 14 schoolchildren were injured when a car plowed into a crowd in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday morning, police said.
The deadly incident took place along the busy shopping street Tauentzienstrasse in the west of Germany’s capital at around 10:30 a.m. local time. The students and their teacher were there on a class field trip from the central German state of Hesse when a small car drove into the group and crashed into a storefront, according to the Berlin Police.
A police spokesperson told ABC News on Wednesday that eight of the injured were in serious condition.
The alleged driver — a 29-year-old German-Armenian man living in Berlin — has “suspected psychological problems” and was detained at the scene, police said.
A motive was unknown and it was unclear whether the incident was terror-related, according to police.
“It is not yet known whether it was an accident or intentional action,” the Berlin Police said in a statement via Twitter on Wednesday.
The scene was near the Breitscheidplatz, a public square in Berlin where 13 people were killed when an extremist deliberately drove a truck into a Christmas market in 2016.
U.S. officials have been told that German authorities are actively trying to determine whether Wednesday’s incident was an intentional ramming. There was concern given the proximity to the 2016 attack, ABC News has learned.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz took to Twitter to condemn the incident, which he described as a “cruel rampage.”
“The cruel rampage on Tauentzienstrasse leaves me deeply saddened,” Scholz tweeted Wednesday. “The trip of a Hesse school class to Berlin has ended in a nightmare. Our thoughts are with the relatives of the dead and the injured, including many children. I wish them all a speedy recovery.”
(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:
Jun 08, 12:53 pm
Russian-occupied Mariupol faces ‘catastrophic lack of medical staff’
The Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, Ukraine, is facing a “catastrophic lack of medical staff,” Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said on the Telegram app.
He said Russians are trying to convince locals who are over 80 years old to go back to work at hospitals.
He warned, “In this state of medicine, any infectious disease turns into a deadly epidemic.”
Jun 08, 8:36 am
Putin-Zelenskyy meeting not possible, Kremlin says
A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not currently possible, the Kremlin said.
When asked about a recent comment from Zelenskyy that he’s willing to meet with Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Our position is well-known here: good preparations need to be made for a top-level meeting. We know that the Ukrainian side has withdrawn from the negotiation track, and therefore it is currently not possible to prepare for this sort of top-level meeting.”
Jun 08, 5:06 am
Ukrainian defenses in key eastern city ‘holding,’ despite Russian attacks
Ukrainian troops defending the eastern city of Sieverodonetsk are “holding,” despite attacks in three directions from Russian forces, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
“Russia continues to attempt assaults against the Sieverodonetsk pocket from three directions although Ukrainian defences are holding,” the ministry said. “It is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours.”
Sieverodonetsk, an industrial hub, is the largest city still held by Ukrainian troops in the contested Donbas region of Ukraine’s east, which comprises the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. In recent days, Russian forces have encircled the city as they advanced in Donbas, creating a pocket that could trap Ukrainian defenders there and in the neighboring city of Lysychansk.
Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk are the last major cities in the Luhansk area still controlled by Ukraine.
Last week, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Russian forces had seized most of Sieverodonetsk, but that the main road into the pocket likely remained under Ukrainian control.
With the frontage of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine stretching for over 300 miles, “both Russia and Ukraine face similar challenges in maintaining a defensive line while freeing up capable combat units for offensive operations,” according to the ministry.
“While Russia is concentrating its offensive on the central Donbas sector, it has remained on the defensive on its flanks,” the ministry said in its intelligence update Wednesday. “Ukrainian forces have recently achieved some success by counter-attacking in the south-western Kherson region, including regaining a foothold on the eastern bank of the Ingulets River.”
Jun 07, 3:12 pm
At least 3 dead in shelling in Kharkiv
At least three people were killed and six others were injured in the Kharkiv area from ongoing shelling by Russian forces, according to the Kharkiv regional governor, Oleg Synegubov.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 07, 11:48 am
Ukraine official: Hard to win ‘without speeding up the supply of modern weapons’
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told ABC News that “it will be difficult for Ukraine to win this war without speeding up the supply of modern weapons.”
He added, “The country is ready for long-term resistance, because we are fighting for our freedom.”
This comes as the Donetsk People’s Republic claims an advance in territory.
DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova told reporters, “We can say that the allied forces — the DPR militia and units of the Russian Defense Ministry — are in control of over 70% of the territory.”
Jun 07, 11:02 am
Ukrainian grain may be leaving ports — but on Russian ships
There is evidence of Russian vessels departing “from near Ukraine with their cargo holds full of grain,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told ABC News on Monday night.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that Russia seized at least 400,000 to 500,000 tons of grain worth over $100 million, according to the State Department spokesperson.
“Ukraine’s MFA also has numerous testimonies from Ukrainian farmers and documentary evidence showing Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain,” the spokesperson said.
The news of Ukrainian grain aboard Russian ships partly confirms a recent report by The New York Times that Moscow is seeking to profit off of grain plundered from Ukraine by selling the product while subverting sanctions. Ukraine has already accused Russia of shipping the stolen grain to buyers in Syria and Turkey.
Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but Kyiv has been unable to ship exports due to Moscow’s offensive. A Russian blockade in the Black Sea, along with Ukrainian naval mines, have made exporting siloed grain virtually impossible and, as a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jun 06, 12:26 pm
Two planes owned by Russian oligarch grounded by US prosecutors
Two planes — a Gulfstream G650 and a Boeing 787 — have been grounded after federal prosecutors said their owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, violated U.S. sanctions by flying the aircraft to Moscow in March.
The sanctions require a license for any U.S.-made aircraft to fly to Russia. The sanctions also prohibit an aircraft that is owned, controlled or under charter or lease by a Russian national from being flown to Russia.
“No licenses were applied for or issued. Nor was any license exception available, including because the Boeing and the Gulfstream were each owned and/or controlled by a Russian national: Roman Abramovich,” said the affidavit supporting a seizure warrant.
The Boeing plane is believed to be among the most expensive private aircraft in the world, worth $350 million, the affidavit said.
Jun 06, 9:05 am
Russia beefs up air defense on Snake Island
Russia has likely moved multiple air defense assets, including SA-15 and SA-22 missile systems, to Snake Island in the western Black Sea, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday in an intelligence update.
The move follows the loss of the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“It is likely these weapons are intended to provide air defence for Russian naval vessels operating around Snake Island,” the ministry added. “Russia’s activity on Snake Island contributes to its blockade of the Ukrainian coast and hinders the resumption of maritime trade, including exports of Ukrainian grain.”
Russian forces captured Ukraine’s Snake Island in the early days of the invasion, memorably when Ukrainian soldiers defending the tiny islet told an attacking Russian warship to “go f— yourself.” Ukrainian troops have failed in their attempts to retake the previously inconsequential territory.
Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine’s contested Donbas region, heavy fighting continues in the war-torn city of Sieverodonetsk, according to the ministry.
“Russian forces continue to push towards Sloviansk as part of their attempted encirclement of Ukrainian force,” the ministry said.
And in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Russian air-launched cruise missiles struck rail infrastructure Sunday in the early morning hours, “likely in an attempt [to] disrupt the supply of Western military equipment to frontline Ukrainian units,” according to the ministry.
Jun 05, 3:39 pm
Russian missiles target Kyiv
After five weeks of relative calm in Kyiv, Russian rockets hit Ukraine’s capital city on Sunday as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of strikes on “new targets” if the United States goes through with plans to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said the war is still in its “hot phase” and “capturing Kyiv is still Russia’s main goal.”
An ABC News crew visited Kyiv’s Darnytskyy district, where several Russian cruise missiles slammed into a railway repair plant. One building was still on fire when the ABC News crew arrived. Nearby, another missile strike left a creater on a cement path.
It took hours before Ukrainian authorities permitted media access to the site, saying the area needed to be cleared for safety first.
The Russians claimed the attack in Darnystskyy destroyed military vehicles and armaments. Ukrainian officials said the missiles hit a railway repair plant where no tanks were stored.
Speaking on Russian TV on Sunday, Putin issued a warning to the West on supplying the Ukrainians with high-powered rocket systems. He said if the West carried through with it, Russia would hit “new targets they had not attacked before.”
Jun 05, 7:05 am
Putin warns of strikes if West supplies longer-range missiles
President Vladimir Putin warned that Russian forces would strike new targets if the West began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
“But if they [missiles] are actually delivered, we will draw appropriate conclusions and apply our own weapons, which we have in sufficient quantities to carry out strikes on targets we aren’t striking yet,” Putin told Rossyia 1 TV Channel in an interview on Sunday.
(LONDON) — The U.K. has authorized charges of indecent assault against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, according to the Crown Prosecution Service.
He is facing two charges of indecent assault against a woman from an incident that allegedly took place in August 1996 in London. The unnamed victim is now in her 50s, according to the CPS.
“Charges have been authorised against Harvey Weinstein, 70, following a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation,” the CPS said in a statement. “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against the defendant are active and that he has the right to a fair trial.”
Weinstein would need to be formally charged in the U.K. before a trial could begin. It’s unclear when that could happen, as Weinstein is serving 23 years in prison after being convicted of first-degree criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape in February 2020. He was sentenced in March 2020.
A New York appeals court just upheld his conviction last week.
Weinstein, who co-founded the movie production company Miramax along with his brother, became the focus of the #MeToo movement in October 2017 when The New York Times published a story alleging Weinstein had paid at least eight settlements to women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Dozens of women publicly accused Weinstein of similar misconduct in the following weeks. He was fired from his own production company less than a week later.
In addition to the charges he was convicted of in New York, Weinstein was extradited to Los Angeles in July 2021 and charged with four counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation.
(BERLIN) — At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured when a car plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday morning, police said.
“It is not yet known whether it was an accident or intentional action,” the Berlin Police said in a statement via Twitter.
The incident took place along the busy shopping street Tauentzienstrasse in the west of Germany’s capital. The alleged driver of the vehicle was detained at the scene, according to police.
A police spokesperson told ABC News it was unclear whether the incident was terror-related. Further details were not immediately available.
The scene was near the Breitscheidplatz, a public square in Berlin where 13 people were killed after an extremist deliberately drove into a Christmas market in 2016.
(BERLIN) — A car plowed into a crowd of people in a popular shopping district in Berlin on Wednesday morning, police said.
“A man is said to have driven into a group of people,” the Berlin Police said in a statement via Twitter. “It is not yet known whether it was an accident or intentional action.”
The incident took place along the busy shopping street Tauentzienstrasse in the west of Germany’s capital. The alleged driver of the vehicle was detained at the scene, according to police.
Further details on the incident were not immediately available.
The scene was near the Breitscheidplatz, a public square in Berlin where 13 people were killed after an extremist deliberately drove into a Christmas market in 2016.
(NEW YORK) — There is evidence of Russian vessels departing “from near Ukraine with their cargo holds full of grain,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told ABC News on Monday night.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that Russia seized at least 400,000 to 500,000 tons of grain worth over $100 million, according to the State Department spokesperson.
“Ukraine’s MFA also has numerous testimonies from Ukrainian farmers and documentary evidence showing Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain,” the spokesperson said.
The news of Ukrainian grain aboard Russian ships partly confirms a recent report by The New York Times that Moscow is seeking to profit off of grain plundered from Ukraine by selling the product while subverting sanctions. Ukraine has already accused Russia of shipping the stolen grain to buyers in Syria and Turkey.
Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but Kyiv has been unable to ship exports due to Moscow’s offensive. Earlier this month, the Ukrainian Grain Association warned that Ukraine’s wheat harvest is expected to plummet by 40%.
In recent weeks, there has been an all-out push from the United States and the United Nations to facilitate exports from war-torn Ukraine, desperate to offset what they foretell is a looming global food crisis with the potential to devastate the developing world. A Russian blockade in the Black Sea, along with Ukrainian naval mines, have made exporting siloed grain virtually impossible and, as a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
As part of ongoing efforts to assist food exports, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to meet with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara this week. But State Department spokesperson Ned Price has set low expectations for the meeting.
“I don’t know if we should expect breakthroughs,” Price told reporters during a press briefing on Monday afternoon. “Of course, we’ll be watching closely. We’ll be talking with our Turkish allies in the aftermath of that visit.”
Price underscored the pain the world is feeling because of Russia’s crunch on its food supply.
“This is a war that not only has brutalized — and, in many ways, terrorized — the people of Ukraine, but it has put at risk food security around the world,” he said.
Currently, there are approximately 84 merchant ships and 450 seafarers trapped at Ukrainian ports, according to Price.
“Not only is there grain aboard these vessels, but there are about 22 million tons of grain sitting in silos near the ports that also needs to move out to make room for the newly harvested grain,” he said. “In addition, Russia has actually taken aim at ships at sea. They have taken aim at grain silos. They are continuing to effectively implement what amounts to a blockade of Ukraine’s ports.”
(LONDON) — Some of the gunmen who attacked a church full of worshippers in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday were disguised as congregants, police said.
Dozens of people, including women and children, were killed in the late-morning attack at St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo in Ondo state, more than 200 miles northwest of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, and over 200 miles southwest of Abuja, the Nigerian capital. The church was holding a service for Pentecost Sunday, a Christian holiday celebrated on the 50th day after Easter, when suddenly explosives detonated and gunshots rang out at around 11:30 a.m. local time, according to Olumuyiwa Adejobi, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force’s headquarters in Abuja.
“Further investigations revealed that some of the gunmen disguised as congregants, while other armed men who had positioned themselves around the church premises from different directions fired into the church,” Adejobi said in a statement on Monday night.
An unknown number of gunmen had approached the church during the service and began shooting at worshippers as they tried to flee, according to Funmilayo Ibukun Odunlami, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Police Force’s command in Ondo state, adding that several gunmen were firing from inside the building.
A motive for the massacre was not immediately clear, as no group has claimed responsibility. Police have yet to identify the perpetrators or release the number of casualties.
“Some lives were lost and some sustained varying degrees of injuries,” Odunlami said in a statement on Sunday evening, later telling ABC News that police do not yet have an estimate.
Health workers at the Federal Medical Center in Owo told ABC News on Monday that at least 35 bodies had been transported to the hospital from the scene of Sunday’s attack. They said there was also an urgent need for blood donations for the wounded.
Meanwhile, the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria said in a statement on Monday that “more than 50 parishioners” had died and the gunmen were “suspected to be bandits.”
The suspects fled the scene in a stolen Nissan and remain at large. The vehicle has since been recovered by police, according to Adejobi.
Police have also recovered three undetonated improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from the scene, along with fragments of detonated IEDs and pellets of expended AK-47 ammunition, Adejobi said.
Nigerian Inspector-General of Police Usman Alkali Baba has ordered a “full-scale” and “comprehensive” investigation into the incident and has deployed specialized police units to help track down the assailants, according to Adejobi.
“He equally assures that the heartless killers of the harmless victims, particularly innocent children, would be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Adejobi said.
