(HONG KONG) — As much the rest of the world learns to live with COVID-19, the highly infectious omicron variant has finally broken through Hong Kong’s once-lauded defenses.
The city was a poster child for COVID control, after going long stretches of last year without a single reported infection. However, its death rate is now the highest in the developed world.
About 3,231 people have died as of Friday in Hong Kong’s current wave, which began at the start of this year, compared with just 213 reported deaths in the first two years of the pandemic.
China, which has exerted more direct control in the semi-autonomous territory since protests swept the city in 2019, has made it clear that Hong Kong authorities must do whatever it takes to contain the virus. China is the last major country relentlessly pursuing a “Zero COVID” policy.
Chinese President Xi Jinping last month placed Hong Kong authorities on notice, saying, “The Hong Kong SAR government must mobilize all the forces and resources that can be mobilized, and take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and health of Hong Kong citizens and the overall stability of Hong Kong society.”
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam has welcomed mainland China’s direct help, including sending health experts and medical workers, and constructing make-shift isolation facilities.
Although there has been an abundance of vaccines in Hong Kong since early 2021, just 30% of Hong Kong residents over 80 were fully vaccinated when this fifth wave began at the start of the year. Hong Kong’s unvaccinated elderly have been the vast majority of recent deaths.
Professor Ivan Hung, a frontline doctor and medical advisor of the Hong Kong government, said it was a “missed opportunity” not to get enough elderly people vaccinated.
“Now there are a lot of elderly people trying to rush in and get vaccinated. But unfortunately, it’s far too late, especially in the elderly homes. So unfortunately, there will be some casualties within this wave,” Professor Hung said.
Mixed messaging from the government has also caused confusion, prompting panicked shoppers to strip bare supermarket shelves.
Hong Kong has some of the toughest social distancing and border controls in the world, with flights still banned from eight countries, including the United States.
Local tycoon Allan Zeman has called Hong Kong home for 50 years. Under the current restrictions, Zeman’s famous Lan Kwai Fong district, where he is a major property developer, looks like a ghost town.
“It’s kind of heartbreaking,” Zeman said, “Hong Kong was always a city of hustle and bustle.”
Hong Kong’s hardline approach also appears to be fueling an exodus from the Asian financial hub. In February, a record of about 71,000 people departed Hong Kong for the month.
“It’s a lot of bankers, a lot of financial industry people. Obviously, that affects every business because if tourists aren’t coming, there’s limited shopping, there’s limited dining. This brain drain has really caused a real headache, a real problem,” Zeman said.
Zeman, who is also an adviser to the Hong Kong and Beijing governments, wants to see the city earn back its reputation as a gateway to the East and West. The businessman suggested that authorities reopen the international borders.
“What I would suggest to the government is that we look at the internationalism of Hong Kong and do whatever we can,” Zeman said.
But there is no clear sign that Hong Kong will veer from its no-tolerance approach, and whether Beijing would allow it to change tack.
China is also battling a surge of cases at the moment, with daily infections at a two-year high. The country’s aggressive measures allowed it to host the Winter Games without an outbreak.
However, experts point out that China will also need an eventual road map out of isolation.
Xi is scheduled to visit Hong Kong in July for the 25th anniversary of the city’s handover from British rule. Xi will want his first trip since the 2019 protests and first outside mainland China since the beginning of the pandemic to go as smoothly as possible.
(NEW YORK) — The two women had never met in a real life, but through social media they found a common interest: helping Africans students stranded in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.
Patricia Daley and Tokunbo Koiki, both Black British women, said they were appalled hearing reports of discrimination against minority refugees from Ukraine as they tried to cross into European countries. After seeing a Twitter thread on Africans struggling during the crisis, Daley said she reached out to people on the site to see how she could help and was connected to Tokunbo, who was doing the same.
“As soon as we found out…and the police were heavily discriminating against black and brown individuals. We started up an organization to support these individuals, make it so that they would not be prosecuted,” Daley, an attorney and activist, told ABC News.
Koiki, a social worker, says she knew she had to help because it “aligns with who I am.”
“I decided to use a blanket ‘black in Ukraine’ hashtag that was already being used previously for our campaign because I wanted to highlight and I want to put focus on the situation… I’m used to helping you know, jumping in and doing what I can where I can,” Koiki told ABC News.
So far, Daley and Koiki said they have raised over 100,000 dollars on GoFundMe, created a place for Africans in Ukraine to connect on the texting app Telegram and have helped hundreds of mostly African but also Caribbean students get out of the country safely.
They said they are also working to help another 300 individuals who are still in Ukraine, including Bukala Adu, a Nigerian medical student at Sumy State University.
“We are literally stuck here. Food is running short…So the situation here, day by day gets kind of worse. I don’t know how it’s going to be in a couple of days from now, we really need to leave here right now,” Adu told ABC News.
According to data from Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science, in 2019 there were about 80,000 international students studying in Ukraine from 158 countries. The majority of these students — about 23% — come from India, followed by Morocco, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Nigeria.
Adu says her school continued holding classes right up until the first attack.
“It’s really hard because I don’t think anybody wants to be in a condition where they can’t sleep completely because you have to [look out and see] when there is going to be an explosion,” Adu said. “So it’s actually really scary because when you hear like gunshots or explosions, you have to run to the bunker.”
While Adu has not yet tried to leave Ukraine herself, she says she was not surprised to learn of the reports of discrimination against minorities trying to cross the border into other countries.
“I would say I don’t really experience much of racism, but based on my friends and complaints, they have a darker skin complexion than I do,” Adu said. “They complain that they see racism…I feel really upset because I don’t know why people should be seeing colors. We are all human beings, so we should all be treated like human beings shouldn’t be differentiated.”
“I think it’s very upsetting and disheartening to hear that these students not only have to deal with the fear of fleeing a war, on top of that to deal with discrimination and racial prejudices that we have to deal with every day,” Daley said.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, thousands are still struggling to find a way out, with many minorities facing additional hardships. Many Africans living in Ukraine have reported being denied entry to neighboring countries like Poland.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has affected Ukrainians and non-citizens in many devastating ways. Africans seeking evacuation are our friends and need to have equal opportunities to return to their home countries safely,” Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response to the reports of discrimination last week.
Kuleba also announced that Ukraine set up an emergency hotline for African, Asian and other students seeking to leave Ukraine.
United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees Filippo Grandi also last week said that he met with Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau who “affirmed Poland’s commitment to continue receiving all those fleeing, without distinction.”
Meanwhile, Daley and Koiki said their initial social media efforts have led to the creation of a nonprofit organization, Black Women for Black Lives, with the goal of assisting people long after the crisis in Ukraine.
“I think that’s what they’re understanding now is that this anti-Blackness is a global thing…whether you’re in the UK, whether you’re in Europe, whether you’re in the United States…And so for me, what I want people to take away is that it can happen to anybody. It can happen to any of us,” Koiki says.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance, coming within about 9 miles as of Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 11, 5:05 am
Number of refugees from Ukraine rises to 2.5 million
The number of refugees in the Ukraine crisis has increased to 2.5 million, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Commissioner Filippo Grandi called the conflict “senseless” in a tweet and said that the number of displaced people inside Ukraine had reached about two million.
Mar 11, 4:49 am
Putin orders Russian military to help volunteer fighters from Middle East travel to Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his defense minister to assist “volunteer” fighters to travel to Ukraine to join Russian forces there.
The order appears to relate to Russian efforts to recruit Syrian fighters that U.S. officials have said are underway.
Russia’s defense minister, Sergey Shoigu, claimed to Putin that 16,000 volunteers from “the Middle East” had expressed a desire to come.
Shoigu claimed that the fighters, who he said had experience fighting ISIS, wanted to come not for money but a “sincere” desire to help.
U.S. officials have said they believe Russia is recruiting Syrians experienced in urban combat from its areas held by its ally, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. They are reported to be being offered just a few hundred dollars.
Mar 10, 11:08 pm
Senate approves $1.5 trillion funding bill with supplemental aid to Ukraine
The Senate passed a $1.5 trillion government funding bill late Thursday that includes $13.6 billion in supplemental aid to Ukraine by a vote of 68-31.
The legislation will now head to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
In a statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki thanked leaders for “getting this bill done” and said Biden “looks forward to signing it into law.”
“With these resources, we will be able to deliver historic support for the Ukrainian people as they defend their country and democracy,” she said in part.
The supplemental Ukrainian aid is split between defense and nondefense funding. The $1.5 trillion also includes funding for many of the administration’s priorities as well as sizable amounts for defense spending.
Mar 10, 10:43 pm
Biden to call for end to normal trade relations with Russia: Source
President Joe Biden will call for an end to normal trade relations with Russia on Friday, following their invasion of Ukraine, according to a source familiar with the matter. The decision would give the White House clearance to increase tariffs on the Kremlin.
“Tomorrow President Biden will announce that the U.S., along with the G-7, European Union, will be calling to revoke Most Favored Nation status for Russia, or called permanent normal trade relations, ‘PNTR,’ in the U.S.,” according to the source. “Each country will implement based on its own national processes. President Biden and the administration appreciate the bipartisan leadership of Congress and its calls for the revocation of the PNTR. Following the announcement tomorrow, the Admin looks forward to working with Congress on legislation to revoke PNTR.”
A bipartisan group of lawmakers has already publicly voiced support for this move.
Russian forces move within 9 miles of Kyiv’s city center: Pentagon Ukraine update
Matt Seyler, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Here are highlights of what a senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Thursday:
Russians approaching Kyiv
The Russian forces closest to the heart of Kyiv are coming from the northwest, in the area of the Hostomel Airport. Since Wednesday, these troops fought their way three miles closer, bringing them within roughly nine miles of the city center, according to the official. The airport is only about five miles as the bird flies from the outer city limits.
Two parallel lines of advance from the northeast are also making progress on their push to the capital, the closest of these troops now about 25 miles from the center of Kyiv.
Some Russian troops from one of those lines, emanating from above the town of Sumy, seem to have turned around, heading back northeast. The official said the reason for the about-face is unclear.
Russian bombardment continues
Russian forces have now fired more than 775 missiles against Ukraine, the official said. This is up from an estimate of 710 on Wednesday.
No Patriots to Ukraine
The official said there is no talk at the Pentagon of sending Patriot systems to Ukraine, as they would require U.S. troops on the ground to operate them.
“It’s not a system that the Ukrainians are familiar with. And as we have made very clear, there will be no U.S. troops fighting in Ukraine,” the official said.
Other air-defense options for Ukraine
Security assistance continues to flow into Ukraine, even in the last 24 hours, according to the official.
While the U.S. is sending its own anti-armor and anti-aircraft weapons, it is also working with other countries to send items the U.S. doesn’t have in its arsenal but could be used effectively by Ukrainian troops.
When asked, the official said this includes air-defense systems that are “more sophisticated” than the shoulder-fired Stinger missiles being sent by the U.S. So, while the Pentagon has rejected the idea of sending Patriot missile batteries, it could be helping facilitate the transfer or replenishment of similar systems that Ukrainians are trained on.
Ukraine making little use of its fighter jets
The official repeated the Pentagon’s rejection of a Polish proposal to pass its fleet of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine by using the U.S. as an intermediary.
“We do not support a proposal whereby jets would be transferred to our custody, then to be brought into Ukraine,” the official said.
The Defense Department views sending aircraft to be an inferior form of support for Ukraine, despite Ukrainian officials’ requests.
“They are not flying their fixed-wing aircraft very much on a daily basis. We’re not making a judgment here, it’s just a fact. What they are using very effectively to slow the Russian advance, particularly in the north, are their own surface-to-air missile systems and MANPADS, as well as … anti-armor munitions,” the official said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 10, 12:54 pm
Russia claims mercenaries from US and UK attacking Russian medics
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov held another press briefing in which he accused NATO countries of committing war crimes.
Konashenkov claimed Thursday that mercenaries from the U.K. and U.S. are increasingly attacking Russian military medics who are accomplishing humanitarian missions in Ukrainian territory.
“Attacks on Russian medics and special medical vehicles by the Ukrainian nationalists and mercenaries that came earlier from the U.S., Britain and Europe to Ukraine have become more frequent over the past few days,” Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov also denied reports that the Russian military had carried out a strike on a children’s hospital in Mariupol on Wednesday, dismissing reports on the matter as an “an information provocation staged by the Kyiv regime.”
“The alleged airstrike that took place is a completely staged provocation in order to maintain the anti-Russian public outcry in the Western audience,” he alleged.
Russian forces have destroyed nearly 3,000 military installations in Ukraine since the invasion began, Konashenkov claimed. In the last 24 hours, 68 installations, including two sites of the Ukrainian troop control system, 12 material and technical support centers and three Osa air defense missile systems, were obliterated, he said.
Mar 10, 12:48 pm
Harris meets with Ukrainian refugees, US embassy staff in Poland
As part of her trip to Poland, Vice President Kamala Harris met with 7 people who fled the Russian invasion of Ukraine and some members of the U.S. embassy staff Thursday to discuss their experiences.
“I have invited in these very important people to join me for a conversation about their experiences, and also their thoughts about what we can do the United States and our allies in this region and around the world to support the many people that have been displaced through the necessity to flee Ukraine and the harm that it represents at this moment,” Harris said to the group.
Harris thanked the group for meeting with her to share their experiences.
“The conversation we will have this afternoon will help inform me, the President of the United States, and the American people about what you have experienced, so that we can best support you and your family,” Harris said to the group.
Before the press was ushered out, Harris sought to reassure the participants.
“We are here to support you and you are not alone. And I know there’s so much about the experience that you’ve had that has made you feel alone. You are not alone,” she pledged.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Mar 10, 12:39 pm
Lukashenko to meet with Putin in Moscow on Friday
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will travel to Russia on Friday for a meeting with his close ally and Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
The two leaders will meet in Moscow where they “will discuss key issues concerning bilateral relations, the development of union cooperation and economic cooperation in conditions of sanctions pressure,” according to the Pool of the First Man channel on Telegram, which is reportedly linked to Belarusian state media.
“The situation in the region and in Ukraine is on the agenda as well,” the channel said.
Mar 10, 12:18 pm
Western Union suspends operations in Russia, Belarus
Western Union announced Thursday that it is suspending its operations in Russia and close ally Belarus amid the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
The Denver-based money-transfer and payments company said in a statement that it “stands with the world in condemning the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine.”
“All of us share the shock, disbelief, and sadness around this tragedy and humanitarian disaster,” the company added. “Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine and to our colleagues, customers, agents, and partners who have been impacted.”
Company leadership have engaged in extensive dialogue with a wide variety of stakeholders “in an earnest effort to arrive at the right decision regarding our services in Russia and Belarus,” according to Western Union.
“We have thoroughly evaluated internal and external considerations, including the consequences for our valued teammates, partners, and customers,” the company said. “Ultimately, in light of the ongoing tragic impact of Russia’s prolonged assault on Ukraine, we have arrived at the decision to suspend our operations in Russia and Belarus.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 10, 12:13 pm
Harris announces $50 million in aid to UN World Food Program after meeting with Polish president
Vice President Kamala Harris announced Thursday that the U.S. will be giving $50 million in humanitarian assistance to the United Nations World Food Program.
Harris made the announcement during a joint press conference after she met with Poland’s President Andrzej Duda.
USAID will deliver the funds to the WFP, which go toward providing emergency food aid, such as high-energy biscuits, to refugees and supporting the WFP’s operations to get aid into Ukraine, according to a release from USAID.
Including the aid money announced Thursday, the U.S. has provided $107 million in humanitarian aid since Russia’s war against Ukraine started, according to USAID.
In the press conference, Harris and Duda spoke about the unified partnership between the U.S. and Poland on the war in Ukraine.
“We will do everything together in partnership, in solidarity, to support what is necessary this very moment in terms of the humanitarian and security needs of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” Harris said.
Harris and Duda also condemned the Russian attack on a maternity hospital which killed 3 people and wounded 17, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“We have been witnessing for weeks, and certainly just in the last 24 hours, atrocities of unimaginable proportions,” Harris said.
Duda went as far as saying if hospitals and residential buildings are bombed where there are no military installations, “this is an act of barbarity baring the features of a genocide.”
“We cannot accept such military activities that bare the characteristics of genocide,” Duda said.
Harris also announced that the U.S. has delivered Patriot missile systems to Poland, which it had promised earlier this week, and noted the recent deployment of 4,700 U.S. troops to Poland.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Conor Finnegan
Mar 10, 11:40 am
At least 549 civilians, including 41 children, killed in Ukraine: OHCHR
At least 549 civilians, including 41 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
Meanwhile, at least 957 civilians, including 52 children, have been injured, OHCHR figures show.
The tallies are civilian casualties that occurred in Ukraine from Feb. 24 to March 9 and have been verified by OHCHR, which cautioned that “actual figures are much higher.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 10, 11:31 am
Goldman Sachs shutting down its operations in Russia
Goldman Sachs announced Thursday that it will be shutting down its operations in Russia.
“Goldman Sachs is winding down its business in Russia in compliance with regulatory and licensing requirements,” Goldman Sachs said in a statement.
The company added, “We are focused on supporting our clients across the globe in managing or closing out pre-existing obligations in the market and ensuring the wellbeing of our people.”
-ABC News’ Victor Ordoñez
Mar 10, 11:19 am
Samaritan’s Purse opens outpatient clinic in Lviv
Samaritan’s Purse opened an outpatient clinic just outside the train station in Lviv on Thursday and has already treated its first patients.
Some people have evacuated so quickly they left their homes without their medicine — and by the time they made it to Lviv they were in desperate need, Mark Agness, an emergency room doctor from California, told ABC News. Pregnant women and newborns are also common.
“That’s why we do this … it’s really the parable of the Good Samaritan. Help thy neighbor — well they’re my neighbor,” said Agness.
Chelsea Musick, a nurse from Iowa, has been with the organization for years and said working in Ukraine is different. Unlike other humanitarian disasters, this was entirely man made, she said. She described the patients she’s seeing as having a “haunted” look in their eyes.
Samaritan’s Purse is also building a large field hospital, which they expect to be operational by the weekend, in the parking garage of a local mall, a few minutes away from the train station. The hospital will have enough room for 15 surgeries a day and will be able to increase beds as needed.
The operation is primarily funded by individual donors from the U.S., the organization said. Two airlifts of supplies have already been coordinated from the U.S.
-ABC News’ Irene Hnatiuk, Maggie Rulli and John Templeton
Mar 10, 11:07 am
For one Ukrainian poet, the sword is mightier than the pen
In a college gym-turned-shelter, Kyrill Nodikov, a Ukrainian poet who has been published in Ukraine and Russia, told ABC News he and his 20-year-old son are ready to enlist in the war.
Nodikov was seeking refuge in a shelter with his wife, their three kids, a dog and a tabby cat.
There are thousands of families struggling with the same dilemma: whether to take their animals, which makes their exodus far more complicated, or leave them behind. Most have stayed loyal to their animals.
When asked what it would be like to take care of her twins and pets by herself, Oksana, Nodikov’s wife, started crying.
Sitting on mats on the floor of the gymnasium, the family gathered in a huddle, hugging, holding and comforting Oksana. And then they did the Ukrainian version of a pinky promise: hooking their pinkies and saying, “Peace, friendship, bubble gum.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Brandon Baur and Scott Munro
Mar 10, 10:27 am
Small number of UK soldiers allegedly join fight in Ukraine against orders
A “small number” of soldiers from the United Kingdom may have “disobeyed orders” by joining Ukraine’s fight against invading Russian forces, according to a spokesperson for the British Army.
“We are aware of a small number of individual soldiers who have disobeyed orders and gone absent without leave, and may have travelled to Ukraine in a personal capacity,” the British Army spokesperson told ABC News in a statement Wednesday night. “We are actively and strongly encouraging them to return to the U.K.”
Personal information on the individuals is not being released for privacy reasons, according to the spokesperson.
The U.K. is advising against all travel to Ukraine and warned that going to fight or assist others engaged in the conflict may be against the law or could lead to prosecution. The U.K., along with its allies, is providing a range of support to Ukraine, including enhancing the country’s defense capability. But that support is fundamentally defensive in nature and neither NATO nor Ukraine pose any aggressive threat to Russia, according to a spokesperson for the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
“All Service Personnel are prohibited from travelling to Ukraine until further notice,” the U.K. defense ministry spokesperson told ABC News in a statement. “This applies whether the Service Person is on leave or not. Personnel travelling to Ukraine will face disciplinary and administrative consequences.”
The spokesperson noted that the U.K. has incredibly limited consular support in Ukraine and is unlikely to be able to offer assistance to any citizens there. There are many ways people can support Ukraine, including through charitable donations, according to the spokesperson, who acknowledged the strong desire to want to help defend freedom and democracy in Europe.
-ABC News’ Guy Davies
Mar 10, 9:22 am
Harris meets with Polish leaders in Warsaw
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris met with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and President President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Thursday morning, reaffirming the United States’ commitment to Poland and other NATO allies.
During a joint press conference with Morawiecki following their bilateral meeting, Harris thanked the Polish people for inviting “with such courage and generosity the refugees who have fled Ukraine.”
“As we have said from the beginning, if Russia were to take aggressive action, there would be consequences,” Harris added. “And those consequences I believe have been evident but a result of our work together that we have been doing together as a unified force.”
Later Thursday, during another joint press conference, reporters asked Harris and Duda about the U.S. rejecting Poland’s offer to hand over all its MiG-29 fighter jets to an American air base in Germany to boost Ukraine’s fight against Russia. Harris largely dodged the questions on whether the U.S. has an alternative plan for delivering the better air power that Ukraine has requested. She pointed to the $13 billion in funding Congress is in the process of passing to give to Ukraine for humanitarian and security needs, in addition to the ongoing support the U.S. has been delivering.
“I can tell you that the issue facing the Ukrainian people and our allies in Eastern flank is something that occupies one of our highest priorities in terms of paying attention to the needs, understanding it is a dynamic situation, and requires us to be nimble and to be swift,” she said.
While Duda acknowledged that the situation was an “extremely complicated” one, he argued his country was trying to be a “responsible” and “reliable member of NATO” by addressing the requests made to Poland while working with their partner nations.
“We decided to put those jets at the disposal of NATO, not expecting anything in return,” Duda said, “because we stressed very clearly that as a gap filler for the donated equipment, we were able to buy something that we would need as a replacement and we ourselves were ready to provide our equipment free of charge.”
Mar 10, 8:24 am
Over 2.31 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 2.31 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations refugee agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 5% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 15 days.
More than half of the refugees are in neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 10, 8:19 am
UK sanctions Chelsea FC owner, other Russian oligarchs
The United Kingdom has added Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea Football Club, to its list of sanctioned individuals as part of its response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Abramovich was one of seven prominent Russians to be hit with fresh sanctions on Thursday, including travel bans and asset freezes. Igor Sechin, head of Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft, Alexei Miller, head of Russian state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom, and Oleg Deripaska, who owns part of Russian mining company En+ Group, were also targeted. The measures are worth an estimated 15 billion pounds ($20 billion), according to a press release from the U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “there can be no safe havens” for those who support Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in neighboring Ukraine.
“Today’s sanctions are the latest step in the U.K.’s unwavering support for the Ukrainian people,” Johnson said in a statement Thursday. “We will be ruthless in pursuing those who enable the killing of civilians, destruction of hospitals and illegal occupation of sovereign allies.”
The move effectively derails Abramovich’s plan to sell his London-based professional soccer team, which he had announced earlier this month. Under the sanctions, Chelsea won’t be able to sell new tickets for matches, including games in the upcoming UEFA Champions League, and the club’s merchandise stores will be closed. Player transfers and new contracts are also banned.
According to the updated list of sanctions targets published by the U.K. Treasury’s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, Abramovich is allegedly “associated with a person who is or has been involved in destabilizing Ukraine and undermining and threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine,” namely Putin, with whom Abramovich allegedly “has had a close relationship for decades.” Abramovich has denied having strong ties to the Russian leader.
“This association has included obtaining a financial benefit or other material benefit from Putin and the Government of Russia,” the document alleges. “This includes tax breaks received by companies linked to Abramovich, buying and selling shares from and to the state at favourable rates, and the contracts received in the run up to the FIFA 2018 World Cup.”
Mar 10, 7:47 am
Russia, Ukraine fail to reach cease-fire during talks in Turkey
The top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine failed to reach a deal for a cease-fire during talks in Turkey on Thursday.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba held separate press conferences after their meeting in the southern Turkish city of Antalya. Kuleba told reporters they were unable to agree on a cease-fire and that Russia was still demanding Ukraine change its constitution to formally give up its ambitions to join the European Union or NATO. He described the meeting with his Russian counterpart as “difficult.”
“We can’t end the war if the country that carried out the aggression is not willing to do so,” Kuleba said. “Today, I heard that the issue of a cease-fire is linked to Putin’s demands. Ukraine has not surrendered and will not surrender.”
“We are ready for diplomacy,” he added. “But while there isn’t one, we will firmly defend ourselves, protecting our people from Russia aggression. I hope that today’s format will continue if Russia is ready for a constructive dialogue.”
Lavrov, however, told reporters that “nobody actually planned to negotiate a cease-fire” during the meeting.
“If the goal of the meeting was to ask these questions, let’s stop firing and let’s arrange humanitarian corridors — not the way Russia has proposed, but the way the Ukrainian side wants this,” Lavrov said. “And if all of this is being done just to tell journalists later that all their good intentions failed, then perhaps this fits the logic of Ukrainian policy and diplomacy of which I’ve spoken: outward effects are designed for the public’s momentary perception and substitute real work.”
Meanwhile, Lavrov continued to blame Ukraine and the West for the crisis. He claimed that Russian forces “did not attack Ukraine” and “do not plan to attack other countries.”
“But we just explained to Ukraine repeatedly that a situation had arisen that posed direct security threats to Russia,” he told reporters. “Despite our years-long reminding, persuasion, calls, no one listened to us.”
He said the agreement on the daily opening of humanitarian corridors in Ukraine “still stands,” but that the evacuation routes and timings are determined by the Russian commanders on the ground. He also made clear that Russia considers the peace talks with Ukraine taking place in neighboring Belarus are the main format for any negotiations. While Moscow hasn’t ruled out direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Lavrov said there must first be substantial progress at the meetings between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Belarus. A fourth round of those talks in Belarus is planned, but an exact date and time was unclear.
“We stand for any contacts in regard to the problems, which constitute the core of the current Ukrainian crisis, and the search for a way out of it,” Lavrov told reporters. “These contacts must have an added value, we believe they will never be used … to replace or depreciate the real, principal negotiating track, which is developing in the Belarusian territory at the level of two delegations.”
“Today’s conversation confirms there is no alternative to this track,” he added.
Mar 10, 7:12 am
Ukraine again attempts to evacuate civilians through humanitarian corridors
Ukrainian officials said Thursday they are — once again — trying to evacuate thousands of civilians through humanitarian corridors under temporary cease-fires, if they will hold.
So far, evacuations in some cities are managing to go ahead while others are already failing, as Ukrainian officials accuse Russian forces of blocking or deliberately firing on the routes.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said seven humanitarian corridors — from several besieged cities as well as areas north of Ukraine’s capital — have been agreed upon with Russia for Thursday. The question is whether Russian forces will uphold their end of the deal.
An attempt to evacuate the areas north of Kyiv was underway, with buses trying to reach the towns of Irpin, Bucha, Hostomel and Borodyanka. The Kyiv region’s administration told ABC News that they were able to evacuate 15,000 people — primarily from Irpin and the town of Vorzel — but Russian troops refused to allow access to Bucha, Hostomel or Borodyanka.
Ukrainian officials were also hoping an evacuation would take place Thursday from Mariupol, the hard-hit southeastern port city where the humanitarian situation is arguably the worst, after Russian airstrikes destroyed a children’s hospital and maternity ward there on Wednesday. But Petro Andrushenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor, told ABC News that no evacuation can happen Thursday because Russian warplanes have launched multiple airstrikes in the city center since the early morning. At least four aircraft had been spotted and around a dozen bombs had fallen, according to Andrushenko.
He said it was “physically impossible” right now to evacuate people “under bombs and bullets.” Nevertheless, there were reports that buses have set off in an attempt to reach Mariupol.
Russia has made clear that, despite the alleged humanitarian corridors, it is continuing its operation to “liberate” Mariupol.
Meanwhile, thousands of people are independently leaving Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, without a humanitarian corridor because the trains are still running and there are ways out of the besieged city.
Mar 10, 5:49 am
At least four killed by airstrikes in Kharkiv overnight, authorities say
Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, was hit with several powerful airstrikes overnight that killed at least four people, local authorities said Thursday.
Russian bombardment have destroyed 280 civilian buildings in Kharkiv, including schools and kindergartens, since Russia began invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to the regional interior ministry department in Kharkiv.
Kharkiv has come under heavy attacks as Russian forces try to seize the city.
Mar 10, 4:56 am
Russia says operation to ‘liberate’ Mariupol ongoing
The Russian military alleged Thursday that its forces have managed to capture more of the outer neighborhoods of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, saying the operation to “liberate” the strategic port city is ongoing.
The claim came a day after a Russian airstrike destroyed a children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, where heavy fighting has been taking place in recent days.
Local authorities in the besieged city have accused Russian forces of waging a “medieval siege” against them.
Mar 10, 4:14 am
Foreign ministers from Russia and Ukraine meet in Turkey
The top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine are meeting now in Antalya, Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in the southern Turkish resort on Thursday morning ahead of the meeting — the highest level talks between their two countries since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Both officials first met separately with their Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, upon arrival. Cavusoglu is expected to attend their talks.
Lavrov and Kuleba are expected to talk for about 90 minutes. They will hold separate press conferences afterwards.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 10, 5:49 am
At least four killed by airstrikes in Kharkiv overnight, authorities say
Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, was hit with several powerful airstrikes overnight that killed at least four people, local authorities said Thursday.
Russian bombardment have destroyed 280 civilian buildings in Kharkiv, including schools and kindergartens, since Russia began invading Ukraine on Feb. 24, according to the regional interior ministry department in Kharkiv.
Kharkiv has come under heavy attacks as Russian forces try to seize the city.
Mar 10, 4:56 am
Russia says operation to ‘liberate’ Mariupol ongoing
The Russian military alleged Thursday that its forces have managed to capture more of the outer neighborhoods of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine, saying the operation to “liberate” the strategic port city is ongoing.
The claim came a day after a Russian airstrike destroyed a children’s hospital and maternity ward in Mariupol, where heavy fighting has been taking place in recent days.
Local authorities in the besieged city have accused Russian forces of waging a “medieval siege” against them.
Mar 10, 4:14 am
Foreign ministers from Russia and Ukraine meet in Turkey
The top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine are meeting now in Antalya, Turkey.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba arrived in the southern Turkish resort on Thursday morning ahead of the meeting — the highest level talks between their two countries since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Both officials first met separately with their Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, upon arrival. Cavusoglu is expected to attend their talks.
Lavrov and Kuleba are expected to talk for about 90 minutes. They will hold separate press conferences afterwards.
(MARIUPOL, Ukraine) — A children’s hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, was destroyed Wednesday in what Ukrainian officials said was a targeted attack by Russian airstrikes, as the deputy mayor warned the hard-hit city is on the “brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video on social media Wednesday that he said showed the heavily damaged children’s hospital and maternity ward in the southeastern Ukrainian port city.
“Direct strike of Russian troops at the maternity hospital,” he said, calling on the international community again to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. “People, children are under the wreckage. Atrocity! How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?”
Pavlo Kirilenko, the head of the Donetsk regional military administration, claimed in a post on Facebook that a Russian aircraft deliberately targeted the 600-bed hospital.
“City center maternity hospital, hospital, children’s ward and therapy — all destroyed during a Russian aviation flight to Mariupol,” he said. “The Russians! You have not only crossed the border of unacceptable relations between states and peoples. You have crossed the line of humanity.”
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova claimed during a daily briefing Wednesday that Ukraine had put firing positions inside the children’s hospital in Mariupol, though there is currently no evidence to support that allegation. The comment, however, appears to be an implicit acknowledgment that Russia deliberately targeted the hospital, as Kirilenko had claimed.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said she was “horrified” by the reported attack on the hospital.
“We do not yet know the number of casualties but fear the worst,” she said in a statement. “This attack, if confirmed, underscores the horrific toll this war is exacting on Ukraine’s children and families. In less than two weeks, at least 37 children have been killed and 50 injured, while more than 1 million children have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries.”
The besieged city, which sits on the Sea of Azov, has been without power or water amid steady Russian bombardments.
In a video conference Wednesday, Mariupol deputy mayor Serhiy Orlov said the city is on the “brink of a humanitarian catastrophe” and that “‘Russia is trying to wipe Mariupol from the face of the earth.”
Orlov reported that 1,207 have died in the city because of shelling and aerial attacks — and that half of those killed were ethnic Russians. Among the casualties was a child who died from dehydration, according to Zelenskyy.
The city has been burying its dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol as its endures heavy shelling.
New satellite imagery collected by commercial satellite company Maxar Technologies on Wednesday morning, before the reported shelling of the hospital, showed extensive damage to civilian infrastructure in and around the city, including residential homes, high-rise apartment buildings, grocery stores and shopping centers.
Orlov accused Russia of indiscriminately bombarding the city because its forces were unable to break through its defenses, but he said that Mariupol would not surrender. He also called on the international community to impose a no-fly zone, an escalation that the White House and NATO allies have opposed.
“The Russian army cannot break our defenses and win on the ground, and this is why they are just bombing us relentlessly to break our spirit,” he said. “Our spirit is strong but we need help. To the outside world we say: Help us save our city! Close the skies! Impose a no-fly zone!”‘
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — When one Ukrainian woman woke up and answered a frantic call from her mother on the morning of Feb. 24 — before the sun had even risen — she heard screams and tears on the other side of the line, telling her what she feared the most.
“My mom called me crying and screaming: ‘Run away right now to the bomb shelter, because the war has been started,'” she said.
The woman looked through her kitchen window and saw half the sky had already been overtaken by dust from explosions in the region. Since that day, when her life shifted drastically, she and other four women have been documenting video diaries of their journeys to safety as they escape the war.
“My country is at war right now,” one woman said. “We forgot what is sleep. We forgot what is food. We forgot what is normal life. We forgot what is work. We forgot what is not to shake with any noise outside. We now know what is death.”
In less than two weeks since the invasion started, more than 2 million Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with their lives packed in a few bags on the way to neighboring countries.
Out of the 2 million refugees, approximately 1 million are children — including 8-year-old Eva.
“On Feb. 24, I woke up to the sounds of sirens,” she said. “For five days, I haven’t slept in my bed. My dad does everything to keep me safe. None of this would have happened if the Russian president did not start the war.”
Poland has welcomed the highest number of refugees since Feb. 24, with over 1.2 million Ukrainians having crossed the border, according to the UNHCR. Others have fled to the nearby countries of Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Moldova.
The agency also reported that almost 100,000 Ukrainian refugees have fled to Russia since the invasion began.
Some, though, have no other choice except to seek shelter as their cities are bombarded with Russian missiles. The sound of explosions, buildings falling and screams of fear have been a constant, they said.
A 19-year-old woman was forced to leave her flat in Kyiv to seek safer shelter amid the Russian shelling.
“Rockets, tanks, gunfire. It’s no longer nightmare. It’s my reality. The reality of all Ukrainians now,” she said. “We are strong nation and we will not give up. I would like to convey to the world we are at war now, and tomorrow, it can be with you. Let’s stop it together.”
Others have decided to join the fight to defend their country.
On the front lines of the war, some women are taking up arms and making Molotov cocktails.
When Russia began its invasion, the Ukraine State Border Guard Service announced that all men between the ages of 18-60 were banned from leaving the country and must instead join the troops.
Women make up close to 15% of Ukraine’s military personnel — over 30,000 soldiers — according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
In one video diary, another woman said she has friends who have taken on the responsibility to defend their country against Russian troops. She said she is afraid of whether she will ever see her friends again.
“We just can’t close eyes and let the authoritative regime do anything they like,” she said.
“I have friends who are 90 years old, 20 years old, and they are now defending Kyiv. No one knows whether they will be alive and that’s horrible,” she said. “I can’t imagine how it can happen in the civilized world when everyone should obey international law.”
As of March 9, the U.N. has verified more than 1,400 civilian casualties in Ukraine, including 516 deaths and 908 injuries, but says the real toll is much higher.
Fear continues to rage as the conflict escalates. The unity among the citizens of Ukraine, however, has been a source of motivation for many, according to one woman.
“We are scared. We’re really scared. But more than we are scared, we are motivated. We are motivated to defend our lands, to defend our country and to defend the ones who we love,” she said. “It is horrible [and] I would never wish for anyone to experience.”
(SEOUL, South Korea) — Yoon Suk-yeol, of the conservative People Power Party, won the presidential race in South Korea after a bitter nail-biting vote count overnight. Results show a deeply divided country with 48.56% of ballots going to Yoon, and his rival Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party garnering 47.83%.
The race had been marred by negative campaigning plagued by a series of scandals involving corruption, malfeasance and even rumors about wives and a child.
Yoon, set to serve a five-year term, will lead Asia’s fourth-largest economy which has been hit hard by the pandemic, surging home prices and still faces threats from North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. His biggest foreign policy challenge will be to navigate his country stuck in between growing rivalry among two of its biggest trading partners, the U.S. and China.
As president he is likely to revive conservative foreign policies by taking a tougher stance against North Korea centered around a stronger U.S. alliance.
“Peace can only be maintained when there is strong deterrence. A war can only be prevented by securing a preemptive strike capability and showing the will to pursue it. As we have seen in Ukraine, a country’s national security and peace cannot be protected by paper and ink,” he said during a presidential debate last month.
A newcomer into politics, Yoon spent 27 years of his entire career as a prosecutor rising to prominence by prosecuting big political players.
His team of conservative policy specialists will likely advocate a militarily stronger South Korea with heavy investments in national defense. “A sense of national security crisis have heightened in South Korea as North Korea’s nuclear threat intensifies and also especially after Russia invaded Ukraine. Yoon will make a rational decision,” Bong Youngshik of Yonsei Institute for North Korean Studies told ABC News.
Yoon was also open to seeking additional deployment of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system into his country as deterrence from North Korea’s nuclear threats.
“He will demand North Korea to denuclearize before any negotiations. Instead of pursuing dialogue, Yoon intends to deploy additional units of the U.S. THAAD anti-missile system and strengthen joint South Korea-U.S. military exercises in proportion to North Korea’s missile threats.” Cheong Seong-Chang, researcher at the Seoul-based Sejong Institute, told ABC News.
“Yoon’s government will take a different stance from the Moon administration in dealing with North Korea. He won’t be offering sanctions relief unless North Korea makes significant steps to denuclearize, if there happens to be any.” Shin Beom Chul, director of the Center for Diplomacy and Security at the Korea Research Institute for National Strategy, told ABC News.
ABC News’ Hakyung Kate Lee, Eunseo Nam and Hyerim Lee contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Twin Ukrainian boys who were born shortly after Russia began its attack in the country have been safely evacuated to Poland.
The twins’ father, Alexander Spektor, who lives in Chicago with the boys’ mother, Irma Nuñez, was able to meet his sons for the first time after their rescue Monday. The boys were born 10 days premature on Feb. 25.
“My sister told me that she never saw me spring that fast toward anything,” Spector said of his rush to see his twin sons, Lenny and Moishe. “We saw the pictures and the videos before but just to see the little tiny human bodies in front of us was just out of this world.”
The past two weeks have been agonizing for Nuñez and Spector, who was born in Kyiv and came with this family to the U.S. as a refugee.
Nuñez and Spektor, who is now an American citizen, worked with a surrogacy agency to have a surrogate in Ukraine carry their sons.
When the surrogate went into early labor on Feb. 25, she got stuck in military traffic for three hours trying to make it to a hospital in Kyiv that was equipped to handle the delivery, according to Spektor.
The boys were born safely, weighing around 4 pounds each, but had to remain in the hospital due to their medically sensitive status as premature babies.
Nuñez and Spektor, an associate professor of Russian at the University of Georgia, spent the days and nights following their sons’ birth trying to evacuate them to safety.
“We haven’t slept in about 14 days,” Spektor said of himself and Nuñez. “We were taking shifts, and we were constantly making phone calls.”
He continued, “The hospital where the babies were before they were transferred to a different hospital didn’t have food for premature babies so we had to organize a food delivery for them. They didn’t have a shelter, so the agency we were doing the surrogacy with helped to transfer the babies to another hospital that had a shelter. It was just harrowing and horrible.”
Spektor and Nuñez had been unsuccessful in getting their twins out of Ukraine until Vecina, a Texas-based immigration rights organization, connected them with Project Dynamo, a volunteer-run organization in Florida that works independently to rescue people in war zones.
Bryan Stern, the founder of Project Dynamo, agreed to go into Kyiv with a team of doctors, neonatal specialists and a nurse to rescue Lenny and Moishe, as well as another premature baby not related to the family but also in need.
Stern and his team partnered with a Ukrainian ambulance crew to drive a three-vehicle convoy through Kyiv to the hospital and back across the border into Poland, dodging traffic and checkpoints along the way, according to Stern.
The vehicles were equipped with not just medical equipment but also extra gasoline, hot water bottles and hand warmers to protect the babies if anything happened.
“We were moving as expeditiously as we could,” Stern said of the 14-hour journey. “We were driving on the wrong side of the road. We were bypassing all the checkpoints and all the traffic with the checkpoints.”
Stern and his team successfully evacuated the three babies and the boys’ surrogate, who was not named. The surrogate was reunited with her biological son in Ukraine and they are now working to safely evacuate her out of the country, according to Spektor and Stern.
Stern said this was his first time rescuing premature babies from a war zone, adding, “I really can’t articulate in words the anxiety that I had for for about three, four days culminating with pulling into the hospital of Poland.”
“It was pretty amazing,” he said of the rescue.
Spektor met his sons for the first time near the border in Poland, and then traveled with them to a hospital in Rzeszow, Poland, where they are now being cared for by hospital staff.
“We visit them in the hospital every day now and just touch them,” he said, adding that the babies are doing well medically. “I changed my first diaper yesterday and that was tough. I almost passed out.”
“It was almost as scary as waiting for them,” Spektor added with a laugh.
Describing his and his partner’s joy, Spektor said, “We had two happiest days of our lives — when they were born and two days ago, when they were brought into the hospital.”
The twins will remain in Poland for a few more weeks, until they gain more weight and are able to bottle feed, according to Spektor.
Then they will return to Chicago where “a lot of people are waiting for them,” according to Spektor, who said family and friends are preparing the boys’ nursery at home.
“You never expect a war to break out when when you’re preparing for the baby, so a lot of our stuff is in storage now,” he said. “But there’s so many people who are willing to help, and they’re painting the babies’ room as we speak right now.”
Though he is overjoyed to have his sons with him, Spektor said he cannot forget about the children who remain in Ukraine.
More than 4,300 babies have been born in the country since the conflict with Russia began, according to a Facebook post from Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice.
“Our babies are [in Poland] now, they’re safe, but there’s so many other children in Ukraine,” said Spektor. “It’s heartbreaking.”
