(EXUMA, Bahamas) — An investigation is underway after three American tourists were found dead at a Bahamas resort on Friday, officials said.
The guests were staying at the Sandals Emerald Bay in Exuma, Sandals confirmed.
Resort staff contacted the George Town Police Station shortly after 9 a.m. Friday that a man was found unresponsive in a villa, and while en route it was reported that another man and women were found unresponsive in another villa, police said.
Police found the man in the first villa lying on the ground with no signs of trauma, authorities said. In the second villa, the man was found “slumped against a wall in a bathroom” and the woman was found on a bed, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement.
“Both individuals showed signs of convulsion,” police said. No signs of trauma were found on either bodies.
Police are working to confirm the identities of the deceased.
Bahamas Minister of Health & Wellness Dr. Michael Darville told ABC News that some hotel guests went to a clinic Thursday with nausea and vomiting, were treated and left. Three were later found dead, while a fourth, a woman, was flown to a hospital in New Providence and is in stable condition, he said.
Environmental health scientists, physicians and others are investigating to ensure there was not a public health hazard, said Darville, who called it an “isolated incident.”
“There’s no potential risk to any of the residents on Exuma as well as residents at the resort or any other resort on the on Exuma,” he said.
Acting Prime Minister Chester Cooper said in a statement Friday that the cause of death is unknown but no foul play is suspected.
Sandals said it was “actively working to support both the investigation as well as the guests’ families in every way possible.”
“A health emergency was initially reported and following our protocols we immediately alerted emergency medical professionals and relevant local authorities,” the company said in a statement. “Out of respect for the privacy of our guests, we cannot disclose further information at this time.”
ABC News’ Jason Volack, Caroline Guthrie and Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.
(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 last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 07, 1:02 pm
All women, children evacuated from Mariupol steel plant, Ukraine deputy PM says
All women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol which has been long besieged by Russian forces, Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said Saturday.
“The president’s order has been carried out: all women, children and the elderly have been evacuated from Azovstal. This part of the Mariupol humanitarian operation has been completed,” Vereshchuk said in a statement posted on telegram.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
May 07, 11:46 am
Jill Biden meets with refugees, humanitarian organizations on visit to Romania
First lady Jill Biden met with Ukrainian refugees on Saturday and was briefed on humanitarian efforts from United Nations agencies, nongovernmental organizations and the Romanian government during her trip to Romania.
Biden also visited a Romanian public school, Școala Gimnazială Uruguay, that is hosting Ukrainian refugee students, with Romanian first lady Carmen Iohannis.
Biden spoke with Ukrainian and Romanian educators and met with Ukrainian refugee students and Romanian students in classroom settings.
Biden met with Ukrainian and Romanian children who were making “hands” out of pieces of paper decorated as the Ukrainian and Romanian flags. Some of the children wrote messages on the hands.
Madalina Turza, the senior coordinator of humanitarian assistance for Romania told Biden they are working with the country’s Association of Psychologist to train educators in trauma-informed teaching. She also noted that they are working to make sure that all students are integrated and not segregated from Romanian children, saying that while the refugees may want to stick together at the moment, in time they will need to be with Romanian kids.
Biden also participated in a listening session with Ukrainian educators and mothers.
One mother explained that she escaped Kharkiv with her 8-year-old daughter just two weeks ago and narrowly avoided death when she chose to take one route out of the city over another that was shelled that day. She had been hiding in a basement with her daughter for over a week when they decided to flee.
-ABC News’ Allie Pecorin and Armando Garcia
May 07, 9:05 am
Italy freezes $700 million yacht allegedly belonging to Putin
Italy’s Ministry of Economy and Finance on Saturday impounded the Scheherazade, a yacht said to be worth $700 million, which allegedly belonged to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The superyacht has been under investigation for months for possible connections to Putin and other Russians sanctioned by the EU. The Scheherazade was being refurbished in the Tuscan port of Marina di Cararra.
The investigation conducted by Italian authorities found significant economic and business connections between the owner of the Scheherazade and prominent people in the Russian government and other Russians sanctioned by the EU.
Italian officials also recommended to the EU Council that the owner of the boat be added to the list of Russians sanctioned for the war in Ukraine.
May 07, 8:41 am
Ukraine war taking heavy toll on some of Russia’s most capable units: UK defense ministry
The war in Ukraine is taking a toll on Russia’s military, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Saturday.
“The conflict in Ukraine is taking a heavy toll on some of Russia’s most capable units and most advanced capabilities. It will take considerable time and expense for Russia to reconstitute its armed forces following this conflict,” the ministry said in a statement.
Adding, “It will be particularly challenging to replace modernized and advanced equipment due to sanctions restricting Russia’s access to critical microelectronic components.”
At least one T-90M, Russia’s newest tank, with its strongest armor, has been destroyed in the fighting, the Ministry of Defense said.
The Russian military has approximately 100 T-90M tanks currently in service, including those in Ukraine, but the system’s upgraded armor “remains vulnerable if unsupported by other elements,” the defense ministry said.
May 06, 7:16 pm
FLOTUS visits US troops, NATO military leadership in Romania
First Lady Jill Biden kicked off the first day of her overseas trip by visiting Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania, where she met with U.S. troops and NATO military leadership.
The U.S. deployed troops to the base, which is about 60 miles from the border with Ukraine, in the leadup to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prior to departing the U.S. last night, the first lady told reporters, “It was so important to the president and to me that the Ukrainian people know that we stand with them.”
Biden drew cheers Friday when she greeted soldiers with a bottle of ketchup in hand — a commodity that has been in short supply on the base, according to her spokesperson.
Wearing a Beau Biden Foundation hat, the first lady helped serve mac and cheese and potatoes and shook hands and took photos with the service members. She also participated in a special story-time with United Through Reading, an organization that connects military families with a deployed service member through video recordings and virtual book readings.
Biden also met with members of the Delaware National Guard before departing the base for Bucharest.
May 06, 6:47 pm
Biden announces new security assistance package
The U.S. has announced another package of security assistance that will provide “additional artillery munitions, radars, and other equipment to Ukraine,” according to a Friday afternoon statement from President Joe Biden.
The U.S. will provide up to $150 million in new security assistance for Ukraine, according to a memorandum from Biden.
“With today’s announcement, my Administration has nearly exhausted funding that can be used to send security assistance through drawdown authorities for Ukraine,” Biden said in the statement. “For Ukraine to succeed in this next phase of war its international partners, including the U.S., must continue to demonstrate our unity and our resolve to keep the weapons and ammunition flowing to Ukraine, without interruption. Congress should quickly provide the requested funding to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”
The package includes 25,000 155mm artillery rounds, counter-artillery radars, electronic jamming equipment, field equipment and spare parts, according to Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby.
“Capabilities in this package are tailored to meet critical Ukrainian needs for today’s fight as Russian forces continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine,” Kirby said in a statement.
This marks the ninth drawdown of equipment from Department of Defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021, according to Kirby.
May 06, 4:11 pm
UNSC adopts resolution supporting ‘peaceful solution’ in Ukraine
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a statement voicing “deep concern regarding the maintenance of peace and security of Ukraine,” the first such message issued by the body since the war began.
The statement reminds all U.N. members of their responsibility to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means” and express “support of the efforts of the Secretary-General in the search for a peaceful solution.”
The text was drafted by envoys from Norway and Mexico and was agreed upon by all members of the council, including Russia.
The permanent representative from Mexico, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, said it demonstrated all members of the Security Council were “united” in the pursuit of “diplomatic resolution,” although he acknowledged it took over two months to reach this point.
Pressed on whether he thought Russia was earnestly seeking a peaceful end to the war, Ramón de la Fuente said the country demonstrated “a willingness to move in that direction.”
However, the UNSC’s statement is already drawing criticism from those who say it fails to hold Russia accountable for the violence.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement: “I welcome this support and will continue to spare no effort to save lives, reduce suffering and find the path of peace.”
May 06, 1:30 pm
Zelenskyy to join Biden, German chancellor in G-7 virtual leaders meeting
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will join President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a G-7 virtual leaders meeting on Sunday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Psaki noted that imposing new sanctions on Russia may also be discussed during the meeting.
“They will discuss the latest developments in Russia’s war against Ukraine, the global impact of Putin’s war, showing support for Ukraine and Ukraine’s future and demonstrating continued G7 unity in our collective response, including building on our unprecedented sanctions to impose severe costs for Putin’s war,” she said.
The meeting will happen the day before Russia’s “Victory Day,” a celebration of the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany. Western officials have warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin may ramp up his attacks on Ukraine in the lead up to the day and may want to claim a new victory.
Psaki hinted the administration was intentional about meeting before that day.
“I think it should not be lost the significance or –on anyone the significance of when the timeline when his — when this G-7 meeting is happening, which is the day before Russia’s Victory Day, which President Putin has certainly projected his desire to mark that day as a day where he is victorious over Ukraine. Of course, he’s not,” she said.
May 06, 1:18 pm
US shared intel with Ukraine that helped sink Russian flagship Moskva last month, officials say
The U.S. shared intelligence with Ukraine that helped it sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, last month, according to two U.S. officials.
The Ukrainians, who have their own intelligence capabilities, had tracked the Moskva independently, though, and the U.S. did not provide “specific targeting information,” according to one of the officials.
“We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva. We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Thursday. “We had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intent to target the ship. The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case.”
The U.S. official also noted that: “We do provide a range of intelligence to help the Ukrainians understand the threat posed by Russian ships in the Black Sea and to help them prepare to defend against potential sea-based assaults. Many of the missiles fired at Ukraine have come from Russian ships in the Black Sea, and those ships could be used to support an assault on cities like Odesa.”
NBC News first reported this intel.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Friday downplayed the role of U.S intelligence.
“We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva. We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out. We had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intent to target the ship,” she said. “The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case. And I’ve discussed this with both our national security adviser and the President and the view is that, one, this is an inaccurate over-claiming of our role and an under-claiming of the role of the Ukrainians who frankly have a greater level of intelligence and access to intelligence than we do.”
Still, she said that the U.S. is providing Ukraine with a range of intelligence, which they can use in conjunction with their own findings.
“We do provide a range of intelligence to help them understand the threat posed by Russian ships in the Black Sea and to help them prepare to defend themselves against potential sea-based assaults, but they take our intelligence and they combine that with what they have access to. And so on this specific report, it’s just not an accurate depiction of how this happened,” she added.
May 06, 8:28 am
Video shows explosions, smoke at Mariupol steel plant
Video circulating online shows explosions and smoke coming from the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol.
The footage was released Thursday by the Azov Regiment, a far-right group now part of the Ukrainian military that was among the units defending Mariupol and is holed up inside the Azovstal plant with others. In a statement alongside the video posted on Telegram, the group said that Russian forces were keeping the plant “under heavy fire,” using “aircraft, artillery and infantry.”
ABC News was unable to verify the date that the video was taken.
In recent days, Ukraine and Russia have offered conflicting accounts of what’s taking place at the Azovstal plant. Ukrainian fighters claimed that Russian forces started storming the plant this week, which Russia has denied and instead claimed that its troops have “securely blocked” the sprawling industrial site.
Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters and civilians are said to be trapped inside the Azovstal plant, the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol as Russian forces declare full control over the strategic Ukrainian port city.
May 06, 7:51 am
Russia says war in Ukraine is ‘going to plan’
Russia’s so-called special military operation in neighboring Ukraine is going according to plan, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“The operation has been going to plan,” Peskov said during a press briefing in Moscow on Friday.
When asked about reports that Putin’s inner circle was not informed about the start of the operation, Peskov told reporters: “As you understand, naturally, information about the special military operation cannot be shared widely the day before it begins.”
“That is because, clearly, such classified information is always shared with a rather limited circle of persons. This is an absolutely normal practice,” he added. “The very essence of this operation does not imply that information about it will be shared widely.”
May 05, 10:49 pm
US shared intel with Ukraine that helped sink Russian flagship Moskva last month, officials say
The U.S. shared intelligence with Ukraine that helped it sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, last month, according to two U.S. officials.
The Ukrainians, who have their own intelligence capabilities, had tracked the Moskva independently, though, and the U.S. did not provide “specific targeting information,” according to one of the officials.
“We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva. We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Thursday. “We had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intent to target the ship. The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case.”
The U.S. official also noted that: “We do provide a range of intelligence to help the Ukrainians understand the threat posed by Russian ships in the Black Sea and to help them prepare to defend against potential sea-based assaults. Many of the missiles fired at Ukraine have come from Russian ships in the Black Sea, and those ships could be used to support an assault on cities like Odesa.”
NBC News first reported this intel.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
May 05, 9:05 pm
US ambassador to UN calls out countries for remaining neutral
Presiding over her first open meeting of the United Nations Security Council since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield implored representatives still clinging to neutrality to speak out against Russian aggression.
“The truth is well known. Russia is the only perpetrator of this war. So it’s hard to understand why some council members continue to call on all parties to desist,” Thomas-Greenfield said, calling out countries like Brazil, India, and to some extent — China.
“Let’s call a spade a spade. Members should call on Russia explicitly to stop its aggression against Ukraine,” she said.
Speaking in her capacity as the United States’ permanent representative and not as the temporary president of the council, Thomas-Greenfield lamented that Russian envoys had repeatedly used the body to spread disinformation.
“Three months ago, Russian representatives told this council they had no intention to invade Ukraine. Now, Russia claims the attacks aren’t real or never happened,” she said. “Russia even claims that Ukraine is attacking itself, that they bombed their own buildings, attacked their own people and assaulted their own democracy. These lies defy all logic, all evidence and common sense.”
(HAVANA) — At least 18 people are dead, including one minor, from an explosion at a hotel in Havana, Cuba, apparently caused by a gas leak, officials said.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was at the scene of the Saratoga Hotel in Havana with other officials.
Search and rescue work continues to see if people are trapped, according to Luis Antonio Torres Iribar, first secretary of the Party in Havana.
The president’s office said Friday evening that 64 people hospitalized, including 14 minors.
“It wasn’t a bomb or an attack, it’s an unfortunate accident,” Diaz-Canel said, in Spanish, of the explosion.
The hotel, a popular tourist destination in the capital city, had been closed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its Facebook page. It was currently working to get ready to reopen on May 10.
The five-story building is located in the Old Havana neighborhood and was remodeled as a hotel in the 1930s. It is located just across the street from Cuba’s National Capitol building.
Authorities said a nearby school was evacuated and no children were harmed.
(LONDON) — On May 9, Russia will celebrate Victory Day, its huge national holiday commemorating the anniversary of the defeat of the Nazis during World War II with a military parade through the streets of Moscow.
Reports suggest that, in terms of firepower, it will be a less extravagant display, with fewer tanks and other military hardware set to take part, but this year’s event carries extra significance.
“The original significance of V Day was the same for the USSR as for the other allies,” Catriona Kelly, a professor of Russian and Soviet Culture at Trinity College, Cambridge, told ABC News. “In the 1990s, on the other hand, commemoration became much less important, and was revived again, on an unprecedented scale, in the Putin era.”
What to expect
Under Putin, Victory Day has become Russia’s central national holiday and veneration of the Soviet victory a cornerstone of his regime. Putin revived the military parades marking the holiday, and they have grown in size almost each year since 2014, becoming a showcase of Russian military might.
War commemoration serves as a “basis of an aggressive patriotism based on the perception of an external threat to the country’s survival,” Kelly said.
An estimated 27 million people from the Soviet Union died during the Second World War, an enormous death toll that dwarfs that of other countries, and memory of the war still holds deep personal significance for many Russians.
Putin’s avowed goal to “de-Nazify” Ukraine is directly linked to the Kremlin’s efforts to cultivate that history for its political ends, according to Mark Galeotti, a security expert on Russian affairs.
“Largely the whole point was exactly to try and wrap this war in the mantle of what they call the Great Patriotic War,” Galeotti said. “Remember, Putin expected this to be a quick and easy victory in two weeks. I think this was going to be his kind of claim to historical fame. You know, this is going to be his moment, he wanted it to be comparable to victory over Nazis.”
Ukraine and Western countries, as well as independent experts, believe the Kremlin had hoped to set Victory Day as a deadline to achieve a military victory in the war with Ukraine or at least to declare the conquest of the Donbas region.
But the disastrous course of the war so far for Russia — that has seen it retreat from Kyiv and its current offensive on east Ukraine now stalled — has forced the Kremlin to approach the day differently.
The British armed forces minister recently said that Russia will “probably” use Victory Day as an opportunity to formally declare war on Ukraine, but the Kremlin has denied this.
“That would be a great irony if Moscow used the occasion of Victory Day to declare war, which in itself would allow them to surge conscripts in a way they’re not able to do now,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters recently. “In a way, that would be tantamount to revealing to the world that their war effort is failing, that they are floundering in their military campaign and military objectives.”
Controlling the narrative
During the past ten weeks of war, many analysts have pointed to May 9 as a key marker, a date where Putin will have to show the Russian people a “prize” from the war, which is only referred to in the country as a “special military operation.”
That “prize” could be Mariupol, the beleaguered port city that has been the site of some of the worst fighting and bombing since the war began, though there is no hiding that the war has not gone to plan.
“Any Russian victory that can be proclaimed at this stage will look like an approximation at best, though the onslaught on Azovstal in Mariupol in recent days suggests that complete capture of the city will be represented as a prize” on May 9, Kelly said.
Ukraine’s military has claimed that the streets of the city, where tens of thousands are feared to have been killed under the Russian assault, are being cleared of debris in preparation for a parade there on Victory Day.
Russian intelligence assessments initially said that the capital of Kyiv would fall within a matter of days of the invasion, but stiff Ukrainian resistance and a united front in the West have now changed the kind of Victory Day the Kremlin will be commemorating. Even so, Putin retains a tight control of the narrative around the war, and so far, the impact that could reverberate at home when news of the thousands of Russians killed emerges, has not been felt.
“I’m sure Putin would have loved to have had the victory to announce for Victory Day,” Galeotti told ABC News. “But … when you have all the state media under your control and you’ve squeezed out every element of independent media, in some ways you get to write the narrative, and then the narrative will be that Mariupol is won, that this was never about taking all of Ukraine.”
From the information available, public opinion seems to be narrowly in favor of the war in Russia, though Galeotti said the image projected of the “special operation” in the Russian media has “nothing at all to do with the reality of what’s happened.”
Whatever Putin says in his speech on Victory Day, there has been no suggestion that Russia will be winding down its war anytime soon, even if their war aims have now changed to create a land corridor to Crimea.
“Putin has to ‘win’, or to put it differently, he has no reverse gear,” Kelly said. “That means his only means of reacting to a miscalculation is to fight back. All the evidence suggests that he expected a rapid collapse of the Ukrainian armed forces of the kind that happened in Crimea in 2014. And he didn’t expect pushback from Western countries on the level there has been. Ukraine has been a shock from both points of view and is the biggest challenge of his political career.”
(NEW YORK) — At least eight people are dead from an explosion at a hotel in Havana, Cuba, apparently caused by a gas leak, officials said.
Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel is now at the scene of the Saratoga Hotel in Havana with other officials.
Search and rescue work continues to see if people are trapped, according to Luis Antonio Torres Iribar, first secretary of the Party in Havana.
The president’s office said 30 people have also been hospitalized.
The hotel, a popular tourist destination in the capital city, had been closed for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its Facebook page. It was currently working to get ready to reopen on May 10.
The five-story building is located in the Old Havana neighborhood and was remodeled as a hotel in the 1930s. It is located just across the street from Cuba’s National Capitol building.
Authorities said a nearby school was evacuated and no children were harmed.
Colombian Presidency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — An alleged Colombian drug lord believed to control the “largest and most powerful cocaine trafficking and paramilitary organization in Colombia” arrived in New York Thursday to face multiple criminal charges, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.
Dairo Usuga, who is also known as Otoniel, was flown from Colombia to John F. Kennedy Airport overnight and made his initial appearance Thursday in Brooklyn federal court where he has been accused of overseeing the production, purchase and transfer of multiton cocaine shipments from Colombia and Mexico into the United States over many years, according to court records.
Usuga pleaded not guilty to federal charges and was ordered detained during his brief first court appearance.
“His face said it all,” said Ricky Patel, deputy agent in charge from Homeland Security Investigations. “He walked off the jet a defeated man.”
Usuga was arrested in Colombia in October 2021 at the request of the United States.
“Prior to his capture by the Colombian National Police, the defendant was the principal leader of a transnational criminal organization known as the Clan del Golfo (‘CDG’), the largest and most powerful cocaine trafficking and paramilitary organization in Colombia,” prosecutors said in a March court filing.
“In furtherance of its drug trafficking activities, the CDG, at the direction of the defendant, also engaged in repeated acts of violence, including murders, assaults, kidnappings, torture and assassinations against Colombian law enforcement officers, Colombian military personnel, rival drug traffickers and paramilitaries, potential witnesses and civilians,” the filing continued.
Usuga is charged with supervising and managing a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution conspiracy and use of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.
CDG “uses violence and intimidation to control the narcotics trafficking routes, cocaine processing laboratories, speedboat departure points, and clandestine landing strips,” according to the State Department.
For 20 years, Usuga sat atop Colombia’s most powerful drug cartel as it flooded the United States with cocaine and made billions, federal prosecutors said.
Under Usuga’s leadership, Clan del Golfo had what prosecutors called a “staggering capacity” for violence.
“His paramilitary organization, thousands of soldiers, including sicarios, or hitman as they’re called, murdered, assaulted, kidnapped and tortured,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said during a news conference announcing the extradition.
During a turf war with a rival criminal organization for drug trafficking routes, homicides shot up 443% over two years, according to the federal government.
Prior to his capture, the State Department had been offering a reward of $5 million.
(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 last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 06, 8:28 am
Video shows explosions, smoke at Mariupol steel plant
Video circulating online shows explosions and smoke coming from the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol.
The footage was released Thursday by the Azov Regiment, a far-right group now part of the Ukrainian military that was among the units defending Mariupol and is holed up inside the Azovstal plant with others. In a statement alongside the video posted on Telegram, the group said that Russian forces were keeping the plant “under heavy fire,” using “aircraft, artillery and infantry.”
ABC News was unable to verify the date that the video was taken.
In recent days, Ukraine and Russia have offered conflicting accounts of what’s taking place at the Azovstal plant. Ukrainian fighters claimed that Russian forces started storming the plant this week, which Russia has denied and instead claimed that its troops have “securely blocked” the sprawling industrial site.
Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters and civilians are said to be trapped inside the Azovstal plant, the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol as Russian forces declare full control over the strategic Ukrainian port city.
May 06, 7:51 am
Russia says war in Ukraine is ‘going to plan’
Russia’s so-called special military operation in neighboring Ukraine is going according to plan, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“The operation has been going to plan,” Peskov said during a press briefing in Moscow on Friday.
When asked about reports that Putin’s inner circle was not informed about the start of the operation, Peskov told reporters: “As you understand, naturally, information about the special military operation cannot be shared widely the day before it begins.”
“That is because, clearly, such classified information is always shared with a rather limited circle of persons. This is an absolutely normal practice,” he added. “The very essence of this operation does not imply that information about it will be shared widely.”
May 05, 10:49 pm
US shared intel with Ukraine that helped sink Russian flagship Moskva last month, officials say
The U.S. shared intelligence with Ukraine that helped it sink the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, last month, according to two U.S. officials.
The Ukrainians, who have their own intelligence capabilities, had tracked the Moskva independently, though, and the U.S. did not provide “specific targeting information,” according to one of the officials.
“We did not provide Ukraine with specific targeting information for the Moskva. We were not involved in the Ukrainians’ decision to strike the ship or in the operation they carried out,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement Thursday. “We had no prior knowledge of Ukraine’s intent to target the ship. The Ukrainians have their own intelligence capabilities to track and target Russian naval vessels, as they did in this case.”
The U.S. official also noted that: “We do provide a range of intelligence to help the Ukrainians understand the threat posed by Russian ships in the Black Sea and to help them prepare to defend against potential sea-based assaults. Many of the missiles fired at Ukraine have come from Russian ships in the Black Sea, and those ships could be used to support an assault on cities like Odesa.”
NBC News first reported this intel.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
May 05, 9:05 pm
US ambassador to UN calls out countries for remaining neutral
Presiding over her first open meeting of the United Nations Security Council since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield implored representatives still clinging to neutrality to speak out against Russian aggression.
“The truth is well known. Russia is the only perpetrator of this war. So it’s hard to understand why some council members continue to call on all parties to desist,” Thomas-Greenfield said, calling out countries like Brazil, India, and to some extent — China.
“Let’s call a spade a spade. Members should call on Russia explicitly to stop its aggression against Ukraine,” she said.
Speaking in her capacity as the United States’ permanent representative and not as the temporary president of the council, Thomas-Greenfield lamented that Russian envoys had repeatedly used the body to spread disinformation.
“Three months ago, Russian representatives told this council they had no intention to invade Ukraine. Now, Russia claims the attacks aren’t real or never happened,” she said. “Russia even claims that Ukraine is attacking itself, that they bombed their own buildings, attacked their own people and assaulted their own democracy. These lies defy all logic, all evidence and common sense.”
(NEW YORK) — Prince Harry and Meghan plan to travel to the United Kingdom next month to attend the public celebrations for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee, a first for the couple since stepping down from their senior royal roles two years ago.
Harry and Meghan, the duke and duchess of Sussex, also plan to bring their children, 3-year-old Archie and 10-month-old Lilibet, a spokeswoman for the Sussexes confirmed Friday.
“Prince Harry and Meghan, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are excited and honoured to attend The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children,” the spokeswoman said in a statement to ABC News.
The trip will mark the first time the California-based family has traveled to the U.K. together.
Archie, who is celebrating his third birthday Friday, was born in the U.K. but has not traveled back there publicly with his parents since they moved to California in 2020.
Lilibet was born last June in Santa Barbara, California, making her the first senior royal baby born in the United States, and the first great-grandchild of the queen to be born outside of the United Kingdom.
The Sussexes’ attendance at The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebration in June will also mark Harry and Meghan’s first public, joint return to the U.K.
The couple made a private stop in the U.K. earlier this month to visit Queen Elizabeth, their first in-person visit with the queen together in two years.
The celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s 70 years on the throne will be a multi-day celebration that is scheduled to include, among other things, a public concert, a church service and the annual Trooping the Colour parade.
Because they are no longer senior working royals, Harry and Meghan will not be part of the traditional Buckingham Palace balcony appearance royal family members make during Trooping the Colour, according to a Buckingham Palace spokesperson.
Harry’s uncle, Prince Andrew, who in February agreed to settle a sexual assault lawsuit, will also not be present on the balcony as he is also no longer a senior working member of the royal family.
“After careful consideration, The Queen has decided this year’s traditional Trooping the Colour balcony appearance on Thursday 2nd June will be limited to Her Majesty and those Members of the Royal Family who are currently undertaking official public duties on behalf of The Queen,” a palace spokesperson said in a statement.
Among the royals who will join Queen Elizabeth on the balcony will be Harry’s father, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, duchess of Cornwall, and Harry’s older brother, Prince William, and his wife, Kate, duchess of Cambridge, and their three children, according to the palace.
Harry and Meghan’s return to the U.K. will undoubtedly put a spotlight on the tensions Harry has faced with his father and brother, whom he is known to have seen in-person only a few times since leaving his royal role.
When interviewed earlier this month while at the Invictus Games in the Netherlands, Harry did not answer a question about his relationship with his brother, William, and their father, Charles.
“He completely avoided the question. He changed the subject,” said ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy. “That really gives us a huge amount of insight into the fact that, clearly, significant bridges still need to be built there.”
Harry also raised questions and drew some backlash from the British press with his comments in the same interview about protecting the queen. The interview took place just a few days after he and Meghan visited her in the U.K.
When asked about his visit with the queen, Harry told NBC News, “Being with her, it was great. It was just so nice to see her. … She’s on great form.”
“I’m just making sure that she’s, you know, protected and got the right people around her,” said Harry, who described his relationship with his grandmother as “really special,” adding, “We talk about things that she can’t talk about with anybody else.”
The royal family has so far not issued any official response to Prince Harry’s comments.
(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 last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 05, 7:48 am
Ukrainian shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region damages homes, power line, governor claims
Ukrainian forces continued to shell villages in neighboring Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, the regional governor claimed Thursday.
In a statement via Telegram, Belgorod Oblast Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov alleged that Ukrainian shelling had damaged at least five homes and a power line in the villages of Zhuravlevka and Nekhoteevka, which share a border with eastern Ukraine. There were no casualties reported among civilians in the area, according to Gladkov.
“We will start working within an hour to resume power supply,” Gladkov said, noting that the shelling had stopped for now. “We will also carry out the necessary measurements to restore every damaged house. No one will be left without help.”
May 05, 6:19 am
Mariupol men are being ‘forcibly detained’ in Russian ‘filtration camps,’ deputy mayor claims
The deputy mayor of embattled Mariupol claimed Thursday that some of the city’s residents are being “forcibly detained in appalling conditions” in Russian “filtration camps” in a nearby village.
“Filtration camps in the village of Bezymyanne have been turned into a real ghetto for Mariupol residents,” Mariupol Deputy Mayor Petro Andryushchenko said in a statement via Telegram. “This is the most horrible story that needs to be told to the whole world. Without exaggeration, this is a new page in Russia’s war crime that is happening right now.”
Andryushchenko alleged that, about a month ago, Russian forces took thousands of men from several Mariupol neighborhoods, confiscated their passports and placed them in filtration camps in Bezymianny, about 20 miles from Mariupol. As for the women who were left behind, they don’t leave their homes because they fear being raped by Russian troops who have settled in the area, according to the deputy mayor.
“All this once again shows the realities of the occupation,” he said.
Andryushchenko posted videos on Telegram alongside his statement, purportedly showing a school in Bezymianny that he alleged Russian force are using as a filtration camp. He claimed that the detainees are forced to sleep on the floor, don’t have access to medical care and can only wash themselves in a single sink with cold water. He alleged that all detainees, including the sick and those with disabilities, are forced to do landscaping work in the village. He also claimed that at least one man has died because he was refused medical assistance and another has been diagnosed with tuberculosis.
The deputy mayor alleged that the Russian military is planning to dress the detainees in the uniform of the Ukrainian military and parade them as “prisoners” during a celebration in Mariupol on Monday to coincide with Moscow’s Victory Day Parade, which celebrates Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.
The Russian military claimed Wednesday to have taken complete control of Mariupol, a strategic port city in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk Oblast that has been under heavy Russian bombardment since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24. Ukrainian fighters and civilians who remain in Mariupol are holed up inside the sprawling Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant, which has a network of underground tunnels and bunkers.
ABC News recently spoke to Denys Prokopenko, a commander of the Azov Regiment, a far-right group now part of the Ukrainian military that was among the units defending Mariupol. Prokopenko is now trapped inside the Azovstal plant with others and said the fighters there have tried to initiate a cease-fire with Russian force to create conditions that would allow people to flee. But he said there are grave concerns about where those who choose to leave will end up because Russian authorities have said that all civilians will be allowed to choose to go to either Ukrainian- or Russian-controlled territory, but only after processing through Russian filtration camps.
“If our people are captured against their will and forcefully, forcibly relocated to the Russians, it’s unacceptable,” Prokopenko told ABC News.
May 05, 4:39 am
Russian shelling on residential areas of Kramatorsk injures 25, officials say
At least 25 civilians were injured by Russian shelling on residential areas and the central part of Kramatorsk on Wednesday night, according to the local city council.
Six of the wounded required hospitalization, and at least nine homes, a school as well as various civilian infrastructure sustained damaged, the Kramatorsk City Council said in a statement via Telegram.
Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko confirmed in a statement via Facebook that a kindergarten was seriously damaged.
Kramatorsk is a city in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk Oblast.
May 05, 3:50 am
Over 300 civilians evacuated from Mariupol, surrounding areas
More than 300 civilians have been evacuated from the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and surrounding areas, officials said late Wednesday.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it facilitated the safe passage of the civilians in coordination with the United Nations and both sides of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The evacuees arrived Wednesday in Zaporizhzhia, a Ukrainian government-controlled city about 140 miles northwest of Mariupol.
“We are relieved that more lives have been spared,” Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s head of delegation in Ukraine, said in a statement Wednesday night. “We welcome the renewed efforts of the parties with regards to safe passage operations. They remain crucial and urgent in light of the immense suffering of the civilians.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk confirmed that 344 people were evacuated to Zaporizhzhia from the Mariupol area, Manhush, Berdyansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka.
The evacuation did not include civilians trapped inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant, the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
