(HONG KONG and NEW YORK) — As countries around the world slowly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, China is battling its worst outbreak as the last holdout of a hardline “Zero-COVID” policy.
Residents are growing increasingly weary in Shanghai, where a lockdown of 25 million people is entering its fifth week. Cases in the economic powerhouse fell to their lowest levels in weeks on Thursday, raising hope that authorities might ease lockdown measures.
Kenie, a Shanghai resident whose last name ABC News is not including for privacy reasons, has been confined to her home with her two kids and elderly parents since March.
Like others in Shanghai, they are facing a shortage of food and finding it difficult to get deliveries. Kenie said in her neighborhood in the suburbs of Shanghai, the government rations are sparse, and she’s been forced to eat one meal a day so her kids and parents can eat more.
“I cannot cook because we have nothing to cook. I have only instant noodles left,” said Kenie. “Actually, I feel very disappointed and depressed.”
Kenie was finally able to source some insulin for her diabetic father through a friend, but she said authorities weren’t helping her find the medicine.
She was once supportive of the Chinese government’s policies, but her view has changed since she’s had to endure such tough conditions in lockdown.
“I’m angry, but I have no choice,” she told ABC News. “You feel helpless. I have no power to use. I’m angry, but I’m here. I don’t have any right to do something.”
Kenie said she’s more fearful of being sent to the city’s isolation facilities where everyone who tests positive must be sent than of the virus itself. The official death toll is comparatively low. In Shanghai, there have been nearly 300 deaths from more than half a million infections since the lockdown began.
Alessandro Pavanello, who moved to Shanghai several years ago to study and now lives there with his girlfriend, recorded his experience at one of the isolation facilities this month where he said he had no showering facilities or privacy.
While some expats have chosen to remain quiet out of concern for the consequences, Pavanello said he felt the need to share something he “was not OK with.”
“Sure, people have been quiet about this issue, presumably because they are maybe interested in staying in China after all this happens or they are afraid of repercussion,” he said.
Pavanello said that while in quarantine for six days, he lost weight and gained new grey hairs. He said that only sleeping for four hours each night and being constantly surrounded by loud sounds affected his mental well-being.
“A lot of other people that I have talked with that have been going to these places suffered in a variety of different ways, but mostly on their mental health, which I think is one of the aspects that was never taken into consideration when they decided here to start creating these isolation centers,” he said.
Other residents are also questioning a policy in which the social and economic costs are mounting.
Yet Chinese President Xi Jinping appears determined to stick with the country’s no-tolerance “Zero-COVID” policy, whatever it takes.
The toolkit of lockdowns, testing and surveillance helped China suppress infections to relatively low levels in the first two years of the pandemic, but with each new variant, maintaining the approach has become difficult.
China political expert and former State Department official Susan Shirk told ABC News’ “Nightline” last week that “Zero-COVID” required “a system of social control that was much more invasive, expansive, than anything that most other countries would be able to carry out.”
Shirk said the consequences of China locking down its economic powerhouse will be felt globally. Shanghai is home to one of the world’s major shipping ports, and cargo ships are currently backed up around the coast.
“We should care because it definitely is going to affect our ability of our economy to function smoothly,” Shirk said, “The disruption of the supply chains, aggravating inflation, is going to make our economic lives more difficult too.”
Two weeks ago, American writer Jamie Peñaloza, who lives in Shanghai, was remaining optimistic. The former chef made the most of the situation, getting creative with government food rations by making ricotta cheese out of milk supplies.
Now, Peñaloza’s tone has shifted after losing her main freelance job and seeing videos of harsh life in lockdown.
“It’s a bit like Groundhog Day in a bad way. It’s a bit surreal,” she told ABC News.
Peñaloza said she’s lucky compared with others who have experienced food shortages, but she feels a sense of helplessness.
Pavanello is now back at home in Shanghai, but he’s tested positive again and is worried he may be sent back to a facility.
The residents ABC News spoke with shared a common sense of helplessness, as if they were on a merry-go-round of restrictions and easing, with no end in sight.
Peñaloza said she is sticking it out in China for the near future, while Kenie and Pavanello both expressed plans to leave because of what they’d experienced under lockdown.
“I don’t know when this is going to end, and there’s nothing I can do about this,” said Pavanello.
As Peñaloza said, “One person can test positive and that just sets the score back to zero.”
(NEW YORK) — As Russians seek to subtly protest the invasion of Ukraine amid a crackdown on anti-war sentiment, “Swan Lake” has been a go-to symbol.
The famous Russian ballet may seem like an unlikely choice to foreigners, but it is a powerful historical reference for Russians that is being used as one of several coded forms of protest during the war, according to Russian State University anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.
“It’s quite dangerous now to protest in Russia,” Arkhipova, who was abroad when the invasion started and has decided not to return to Moscow, told ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” from Berlin.
Anti-war demonstrations in Russia have been shut down by authorities and led to mass arrests. A law passed by the Russian parliament in early March criminalizes public opposition to the war — and makes it illegal to call the “military operation” a war.
“It’s almost impossible now in Russia to protest in direct forms, like to go in street and say, ‘Putin, go away,'” Arkhipova said. “But people are trying to invent as many other ways to protest as possible.”
One of those ways is through the image of ballerinas from “Swan Lake.” Graffiti depicting the line of four ballerinas in the “Dance of the Cygnets” has been popping up on walls in Russian cities. Earlier last month, when independent Russian news outlet TV Rain signed off indefinitely due to pressure over its coverage of the conflict, it did so with a clip from “Swan Lake.”
The moment was a nod to when Soviet state TV interrupted programming by airing the ballet on a loop after the death of Premier Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 while Soviet leaders selected a successor. The same thing happened again after the deaths of Yuri Andropov in 1984 and Konstantin Chernenko in 1985, as well as during a failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 — becoming a sign of political instability and upheaval.
“In the late Soviet times, this ballet was a symbol of all of the deaths of the Soviet leaders,” Arkhipova said. “And so that’s why it became a sign that we are waiting for Putin to die.”
“Swan Lake” graffiti has popped up before the war as well, including when Russian President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated to his fourth presidential term.
Another type of coded message that’s been popping up “everywhere,” including on the walls of buildings, is a slogan with eight asterisks that stands for “no war,” or “net voyny” in Russian, Arkhipova said.
“Very often, people are changing their avatars in social media to these eight asterisks,” she said. “It’s the way to say no war instead of saying no war.”
Despite the risk of fines or possibly jail, protesters persist in an attempt to cut through the misinformation and “informational blockades” about the circumstances of the war, Arkhipova said.
“Many Russian people, they even don’t know what is going on because the blockage is quite severe,” she said. “The more people can hear about massacre in Bucha, about violence, about soldiers killed from both sides, about bombing and so on, the harder for them to accept the fact that we are not saviors anymore, we are aggressors.”
(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 earlier this month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 30, 3:02 pm
Angelina Jolie visits refugees in Ukraine
Actress Angelina Jolie visited Lviv, Ukraine, on Saturday, meeting with officials and posing for photos with children at a railway station.
Jolie is a special envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. More than 12 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine and more than 5 million have fled to neighboring countries, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday.
The Lviv Regional State Administration shared photos of Jolie being informed about the situation in the area as did several residents of the city, including those at a bakery, Lviv Croissants, where the actress stopped.
Apr 30, 8:26 am
7,000 disappearances reported since the war began, Ukraine says
In just two months, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have received over 7,000 reports of disappearances. About half of them were found, according to Mary Akopyan, Ukraine’s deputy minister of internal affairs.
The number of people in Ukraine who have disappeared due to the war is unprecedented in modern world history, Hakobyan claimed in a meeting with a delegation of the International Commission on Missing Persons, an intergovernmental organization that addresses the issue of missing persons as a result of armed conflict, human rights violations and natural disasters.
The government received 2,000 unrecognizable bodies, 1,282 of which were later identified, according to the ministry.
An ICMP group of specialists will be arriving in Kyiv in a few weeks to provide help in identifying victims, according to the ministry.
Apr 29, 4:03 pm
Russian troops behind schedule by ‘at least several days’: U.S.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russia’s military has weakened since invading Ukraine.
“They have suffered thousands of casualties. They have lost airplanes. They have lost tanks. They have certainly lost battles,” he said.
Russian forces are now trying to avoid mistakes they made around Kyiv earlier in the invasion, but stiff Ukrainian resistance and a more cautious approach seem to be slowing their advance, a senior U.S. defense official said.
The Russians, who were plagued by fuel and food shortages during earlier fighting in the north, are now wary of getting too far ahead of their supply lines, the official said.
Another factor slowing their progress is that their tactic of launching artillery and airstrikes to soften areas before moving ground troops forward is not working well.
“Their ground movements are fairly plodding because the artillery and airstrikes that they’re launching against Ukrainian positions are not having the effect that they want them to have,” the official said. “Ukrainians are still able to resist.”
The Pentagon believes Russian forces are behind schedule by “at least several days” on their various lines of approach, the official said.
“We believe they meant to be much further along in terms of the total encirclement of Ukrainian troops in the east, and they have not been able to link north with south. In fact, they’re nowhere close to linking north and south as the Ukrainians continue to fight back,” the official said.
But Russia retains certain advantages in the eastern Donbas region, where its forces have high numbers and benefit from shorter lines of communication because they’re fighting closer to their own border.
And while there is already fighting in Donbas, the Pentagon believes Russia is still setting conditions “for a sustained and larger and longer offensive” in the region, the defense official said.
“It could go on for some time. We’ve described it as a potential knife fight, and I think it’s beginning to shape up to be exactly that,” the official said.
Almost 20 shipment flights have arrived from seven different nations in the last 24 hours carrying mines, small arms ammunition, rockets and body armor, according to the official.
Over the next 24 hours, more than 12 flights carrying U.S. military aid for Ukraine are expected to arrive in the region, including howitzers, 155mm artillery rounds and the first shipment of Phoenix Ghost drones, the official said.
Apr 29, 3:39 pm
American killed while fighting in Ukraine
U.S. citizen Willy Joseph Cancel was killed in Ukraine while fighting alongside Ukrainian troops against invading Russian forces, his family confirmed to ABC News early Friday. The news was first reported by CNN.
Cancel, a 22-year-old former U.S. Marine, “was eager to volunteer” when he learned about the war in Ukraine, according to his wife, Brittany Cancel.
“He went there wanting to help people, he had always felt that that was his main mission in life,” Brittany Cancel told ABC News in a statement. “My husband was very brave and a hero.”
Before going to Ukraine, Cancel was working as a detention officer in Kentucky. He also had dreams of becoming a police officer or firefighter, according to his wife.
“I did not expect to be a widow at 23 years old or for our son to be without a father,” she said. “All I want is for him to come home, and to give him the proper burial he deserves.”
An official with the U.S. Department of State told ABC News on Friday morning that they “are aware of these reports and are closely monitoring the situation,” but declined to comment further “due to privacy considerations.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told MSNBC later on Friday that the department is “in the process of reaching out to the family … to learn more details, to ascertain how we might be in a position to best support the family.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed her condolences to Cancel’s family at Friday’s briefing, saying he “certainly sounded like a very passionate young man.”
“A wife is mourning and our hearts are with them,” she said.
Psaki also urged Americans not to travel to Ukraine.
“We know people want to help, but we do encourage Americans to find other ways to do so rather than traveling” to Ukraine, she said.
Apr 29, 2:36 pm
Pentagon spokesman emotional while speaking about Putin’s ‘depravity’
When Pentagon press secretary John Kirby was asked at Friday’s briefing whether he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is a rational actor, he first responded by saying he couldn’t speak to his psyche, adding, “It’s hard to look at what he’s doing in Ukraine, what his forces are doing in Ukraine, and think that any ethical, moral individual could justify that.”
Kirby then appeared to get choked up and paused for several seconds. He said, “Sorry, it’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious, mature leader would do that. So I can’t talk to his psychology, but I think we can all speak to his depravity.”
Kirby later apologized, saying, “I didn’t mean to get emotional. I apologize for that. I don’t want to make this about me. But I’ve been around the military a long, long time and I’ve known friends who didn’t make it back. It’s just hard.”
He went on, “It’s difficult to look at that and it’s hard to square his — let’s just call it what it is, his BS: This is about Nazism in Ukraine, and it’s about protecting Russians in Ukraine, and it’s about defending Russian national interests when none of them, none of them were threatened by Ukraine. It’s hard to square that rhetoric by what he’s actually doing inside Ukraine to innocent people. Shot in the back of the head, hands tied behind their backs. Women, pregnant women being killed. Hospitals being bombed. I mean, it’s just unconscionable.”
Kirby announced at Friday’s briefing that the U.S. has started “training with Ukrainian armed forces on key systems at U.S. military installations in Germany.”
“These efforts build on the initial artillery training that Ukraine’s forces have already received elsewhere, and also includes training on radar systems and armored vehicles that have been recently announced as part of security assistance packages,” Kirby said.
Apr 29, 9:14 am
Pentagon spokesman: Putin ‘absolutely shouldn’t be’ welcome at G-20
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told CNN Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “absolutely shouldn’t be” at the G-20 summit, set for November in Bali.
“He has isolated Russia by his own actions and he should continue to be isolated by the international community,” Kirby said.
“I can’t speak for President Biden or what the schedule might offer for the president, for United States attendance. But it’s inappropriate, I think, for the entire international community to keep treating Russia as if things were normal, because it’s not,” Kirby said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 29, 5:53 am
Journalist killed by Russian bombardment in Kyiv
At least one person — a journalist — was killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv on Thursday evening, ABC News has learned.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Kilitschko said Friday that rescuers had found the body of a victim amid the rubble.
Radio Liberty, a service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, reported that one of its employees, Vira Gyrych, was killed when a Russian missile hit her apartment in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday. Her body was found beneath the wreckage Friday morning, according to the report.
Gyrych had worked as a journalist and producer for Radio Liberty’s Kyiv bureau since 2018. Prior to that, she worked for leading Ukrainian television channels, according to Radio Liberty.
“The editorial staff of Radio Liberty expresses its condolences to the family of Vira Gyrych and will remember her as a bright and kind person, a true professional,” Radio Liberty said in its report.
Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky also confirmed Gyrych’s death in a Twitter post, saying she was a former employee of the Israeli embassy in Kyiv.
Thursday’s rocket attack came as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv. Five Russian missiles flew into the city, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At least 10 people were injured, including four who were hospitalized, according to the Kyiv City Council.
Apr 29, 5:02 am
UN chief pledges to ‘fight with the use of force’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted Thursday that “the U.N. Security Council has not been able to do everything in its power” to resolve the war in Ukraine, as he pledged to “fight with the use of force.”
“We will not give up,” Guterres said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
According to Guterres, U.N. staff are already providing on-site assistance in 30 locations across Ukraine. The U.N. chief called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a violation of the U.N. Charter.” One of the organization’s values, he said, “is the need that territorial integrity of the countries must be respected.”
“This is fundamental,” Guterres added.
Guterres visited Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital was hit by two missile strikes on Thursday evening. Five missiles flew into the city, according to Zelenskyy. At least 10 people were injured, including four who were hospitalized, according to the Kyiv City Council.
“This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions. About the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the U.N. and everything that the organization represents,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly broadcast.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Western countries of openly calling on Ukraine to attack Russian territory with the weapons they supply to Kyiv.
“We have already commented the other day on statements by British Deputy Defense Minister [James] Heappey about okaying Ukraine’s strikes on Russian military targets,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow, according to Russian state media. “In other words, the West is openly calling on Kiev to attack Russia, even with weapons received from NATO countries.”
According to Zakharova, Kyiv has taken this as a guide to action, evidenced by the Ukrainian military’s shelling of Russian border territories over the past few weeks that resulted in casualties and destruction. Zakharova said the Ukrainian strikes were “further evidence that Zelenskyy’s regime is not independent in its decisions and is completely dependent on external handlers.”
Zakharova also stressed that such “criminal activity” of the Ukrainian military against Russian territory cannot go unanswered.
“I would like Kyiv and Western capitals to take seriously the statements of our country’s defense ministry that further Ukrainian provocations to strike Russian targets will definitely lead to a harsh response from Russia,” she said.
At a press conference in Vienna on Thursday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi warned that Russian missiles over Ukrainian power plants could cause a nuclear accident. Grossi, who recently visited Ukraine and its Chernobyl nuclear power plant, said the Ukrainian government officially informed his agency, the nuclear watchdog of the U.N., of a video surveillance camera recording the flight of a missile directly over the South Ukraine nuclear power plant near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk on April 16.
“The IAEA is studying the evidence and if it is confirmed, the incident will have extremely serious consequences,” Grossi said. “If such a missile changed its trajectory, it could seriously affect the physical integrity of the nuclear power plant, which could lead to a nuclear accident.”
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Uliana Lototska and Nataliia Kushnir
Apr 28, 6:41 pm
Russia could be ‘intensifying’ forced displacement of civilians: US official
The U.S. has “credible information” that Russia could be “intensifying” the forced displacement of civilians as it plans to overthrow local governments in southern and eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday.
Michael Carpenter, the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters there is “credible reporting” that after failing to topple the central government in Kyiv, Russian forces are forcibly removing Ukrainian civilians from areas in the south and east — and could be “intensifying” those efforts as they seek to set up proxy local governments.
Carpenter said he has also now deemed “credible” the reports that Russian forces are forcibly displacing Ukrainian civilians, often through “filtration camps” where many are “brutally” interrogated, to tamp down on Ukrainian support in these parts of the war-torn country.
Carpenter repeatedly declined to provide more details to back up these claims, saying only, “We have very credible information from a variety of different sources that point to Russia’s plans.”
Just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was offered the chance by the U.S. government to leave the city of Kyiv for his own safety. What he is said to have responded has come to embody the defiance of the former comedic actor turned wartime leader: “The fight is here,” he reportedly said, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
Early U.S. intelligence assessments suggested that Russia would take Kyiv within days of attacking Ukraine, but a succession of setbacks for the Russian military, and fierce resistance on the Ukrainian side, means the war is now dragging into its third month. Throughout it all, President Zelenskyy has been the face of Ukrainian resistance – addressing his people on social media daily, as well as parliaments and leaders around the world.
The Ukrainian government’s communications strategy has proved important in both rallying morale and helping the country secure key military aid as the war has progressed, experts and analysts say.
‘A man on the street’
In the early phase of the war, the defiant message of Zelenskyy’s early addresses, often filmed by himself in front of his office in the heart of the capital and posted on his social media accounts, was “critical,” according to Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the think tank Chatham House.
“The very first weeks of war were very dark times where there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about Kyiv, whether it will be able to stand Russian assault,” she said. “And that voice of Zelenskyy, almost like it was breaking that darkness, gave a communication channel to the world.”
Zelenskyy has appeared in a constant stream of addresses since the war started, often decked out in combat fatigues, directly addressing the Ukrainian people but also the international media, who relied on these broadcasts as a daily source of information that would be reached by millions in the west.
By remaining in Kyiv at the time, Zelenskyy also faced personal danger, broadcasting from the capital despite Russian missiles hitting targets in the city every night and Russian saboteur units allegedly sent to kill him.
“We are all here. Our military are here, as are our people and whole society,” Zelenskyy said in one of his characteristic selfie-style videos posted at the time. “We’re all here defending our independence and our country. And we’ll go on doing that. Glory to our defenders! Glory to Ukraine.”
It’s a style which now seems familiar, but at the time was a clear indication that the current Ukrainian government had appreciated the importance of wartime messaging, according to David Patrikarakos, a contributing editor at the online magazine UnHerd and author of the book “War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.”
“You see in those videos that Zelenskyy is both the President of Ukraine and a literal man in the street,” Patrikarakos told ABC News. “And the Ukrainian messaging at the beginning of the war was really focused on one message, which is, we will fight, but we are civilians who do not want to fight. The war has imposed this upon us.”
While Zelenskyy has a background as a performer — famously playing a teacher who accidentally become president in the sitcom ‘Servant of the People’ — as a leader on the international stage he was perhaps best known as a figure in the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump, during which he was notably quiet. Now, he has drawn praise for rising to the challenges of a wartime communicator.
“I think what is interesting is that he is metamorphosing, right, how he changed and completely and blended with the new reality fast,” Lutsevych said. “That transformation happened quickly, partially because he is an actor, he understands the new setting, the new scene and he plays it.”
Channeling Churchill, Shakespeare and MLK
Yet for all his success as a communicator, at the core of Zelenskyy’s success as been the moral authority he carries in the face of the Russian invasion, according to John Herbst, the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
“His prominence is a result of his what I would call his sound and statesmanlike response to, again, this absolutely dreadful circumstance in which he found himself,” Herbst told ABC News. “He’s demonstrated courage, boldness and, of course, the ability to frame his dilemma and his needs for all who want to listen, which includes the entire Western world.”
That framing, as seen during his addresses to parliaments and legislatures around the world, has made his calls for international aid particularly effective. For the American people Zelenskyy invoked Pearl Harbor and quoted Martin Luther King. For the British, he quoted Shakespeare and Winston Churchill.
Zelenskyy’s tour was met with widespread acclaim, with tearful legislators resonating with his country’s struggle as Zelenskyy appealed for more armaments and aid. He has not held back his criticism too, particularly for the U.N. Security Council, who he accused of failing to stand up to the Russian veto.
“What he’s done is humanize the conflict,” Patrikarakos. “He made people care about Ukraine. And that’s what affects policy.”
The U.N. General Assembly has since adopted a procedure requiring a meeting of the body within 10 days if a veto is used in the Security Council by one of the five permanent members, including Russia.
“In an ideal world, if you have extraordinary needs, which Zelenskyy most definitely has, and you have nations that are sympathetic to you, they will meet your extraordinary needs when their interests require it,” Herbst said. “And then you do everything behind closed doors. The problem is that with this administration in Washington and with other governments in the West, you had the sympathy, but you had a certain nearsightedness that prevented them from doing what Ukraine needed. So he appealed publicly others in the United States and elsewhere to find satisfaction of his needs.”
Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, found a more mixed reception in the Israeli Knesset, where his evocation of the actions of Nazi Germany drew criticism from some lawmakers and the media.
“The war is terrible but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the final solution is outrageous,” one Israeli minister tweeted.
And his performances when being questioned by journalists have not been as strong as his pre-written speeches, according to Lutsevych, but Zelenskyy and his small team of advisers essential to shaping the communications strategy have largely been successful.
The regular communications of the government via social media, as well as the provision of translation and logistical services to news outlets, has proved important in disseminating their messages wider, according to Diane Nemec Ignashev, professor of Russian and the liberal arts at Carleton College.
“In terms of outreach, my estimation would be that Ukrainian official sources, insofar as they feed the Ukrainian news agencies, which in turn feed social media and the foreign media, are doing an excellent job getting information out to diverse audiences,” Ignashev told ABC News.
The future
For the most part, Zelenskyy has found a receptive audience in the west. Ukraine has also found a friendly reception in other key areas of diplomacy, with Politico reporting last month on Ukraine’s network of lobbyists — some of whom are working pro bono — who have pushed for military aid and sanctions on Russia in Washington, D.C., and London.
Now, the war looks set to drag on much longer than anticipated, with some analysts now suggesting the fighting could continue through to the end of the year, and with that the focus of messaging has already changed. Early on, Ukraine’s messaging highlighted its defiance, hammering home that there was a war that they believed they can win. Now the focus is on evidence of war crimes to keep the international community focused on meeting their obligations to Ukraine, Lutsevych said.
Russia has defended itself vigorously against accusations of war crimes, even alleging that photographs and videos published by the Ukrainian authorities alleging “crimes” by Russian troops in cities like Bucha were a “provocation.”
“That is important because that could also lead to defections and splits within the elite inside Russia,” Lutsevych said on Ukrainian efforts to demonstrate evidence of war crimes. “So I think we’ll see more and more information on war crimes and also what is happening on the occupied territories, temporarily occupied territories Russia controls.”
And the problem the Ukrainian authorities face is how to keep the international community fixed on their interests, continuing to send the arms and financial aid the country needs to fight and stay afloat.
“The challenge for the Ukrainians is how do you keep all this fresh. News cycles are fickle things, especially in this day and age,” according to Patrikarakos.
“In the final analysis, the war on the ground is the most important thing, that’s how people are getting killed,” he said. “But let’s not forget this: communications, information warfare, whatever you want to call it, affects policy. Policy affects war. If policy brings you Stingers and Javelins and N-LAWs, all those things that have faced the Russian army for the last two months, that’s what they’ve done very well.”
(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 earlier this month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 29, 6:37 am
American killed while fighting in Ukraine
U.S. citizen Willy Joseph Cancel was killed in Ukraine while fighting alongside Ukrainian troops against invading Russian forces, his family confirmed to ABC News early Friday.
Cancel, a 22-year-old former U.S. Marine, “was eager to volunteer” when he learned about the war in Ukraine, according to his wife, Brittany Cancel.
“He went there wanting to help people, he had always felt that that was his main mission in life,” Brittany Cancel told ABC News in a statement. “My husband was very brave and a hero.”
Before going to Ukraine, Cancel was working as a detention officer in Kentucky. He also had dreams of becoming a police officer or firefighter, according to his wife.
“I did not expect to be a widow at 23 years old or for our son to be without a father,” she said. “All I want is for him to come home, and to give him the proper burial he deserves.”
An official with the U.S. Department of State told ABC News on Friday morning that they “are aware of these reports and are closely monitoring the situation,” but declined to comment further “due to privacy considerations.”
-ABC News’ Caroline Guthrie and Conor Finnegan
Apr 29, 5:53 am
Journalist killed by Russian bombardment in Kyiv
At least one person — a journalist — was killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv on Thursday evening, ABC News has learned.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Kilitschko said Friday that rescuers had found the body of a victim amid the rubble.
Radio Liberty, a service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, reported that one of its employees, Vira Gyrych, was killed when a Russian missile hit her apartment in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday. Her body was found beneath the wreckage Friday morning, according to the report.
Gyrych had worked as a journalist and producer for Radio Liberty’s Kyiv bureau since 2018. Prior to that, she worked for leading Ukrainian television channels, according to Radio Liberty.
“The editorial staff of Radio Liberty expresses its condolences to the family of Vira Gyrych and will remember her as a bright and kind person, a true professional,” Radio Liberty said in its report.
Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky also confirmed Gyrych’s death in a Twitter post, saying she was a former employee of the Israeli embassy in Kyiv.
Thursday’s rocket attack came as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv. Five Russian missiles flew into the city, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At least 10 people were injured, including four who were hospitalized, according to the Kyiv City Council.
Apr 29, 5:02 am
UN chief pledges to ‘fight with the use of force’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted Thursday that “the U.N. Security Council has not been able to do everything in its power” to resolve the war in Ukraine, as he pledged to “fight with the use of force.”
“We will not give up,” Guterres said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
According to Guterres, U.N. staff are already providing on-site assistance in 30 locations across Ukraine. The U.N. chief called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a violation of the U.N. Charter.” One of the organization’s values, he said, “is the need that territorial integrity of the countries must be respected.”
“This is fundamental,” Guterres added.
Guterres visited Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital was hit by two missile strikes on Thursday evening. Five missiles flew into the city, according to Zelenskyy. At least 10 people were injured, including four who were hospitalized, according to the Kyiv City Council.
“This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions. About the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the U.N. and everything that the organization represents,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly broadcast.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Western countries of openly calling on Ukraine to attack Russian territory with the weapons they supply to Kyiv.
“We have already commented the other day on statements by British Deputy Defense Minister [James] Heappey about okaying Ukraine’s strikes on Russian military targets,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow, according to Russian state media. “In other words, the West is openly calling on Kiev to attack Russia, even with weapons received from NATO countries.”
According to Zakharova, Kyiv has taken this as a guide to action, evidenced by the Ukrainian military’s shelling of Russian border territories over the past few weeks that resulted in casualties and destruction. Zakharova said the Ukrainian strikes were “further evidence that Zelenskyy’s regime is not independent in its decisions and is completely dependent on external handlers.”
Zakharova also stressed that such “criminal activity” of the Ukrainian military against Russian territory cannot go unanswered.
“I would like Kyiv and Western capitals to take seriously the statements of our country’s defense ministry that further Ukrainian provocations to strike Russian targets will definitely lead to a harsh response from Russia,” she said.
At a press conference in Vienna on Thursday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi warned that Russian missiles over Ukrainian power plants could cause a nuclear accident. Grossi, who recently visited Ukraine and its Chernobyl nuclear power plant, said the Ukrainian government officially informed his agency, the nuclear watchdog of the U.N., of a video surveillance camera recording the flight of a missile directly over the South Ukraine nuclear power plant near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk on April 16.
“The IAEA is studying the evidence and if it is confirmed, the incident will have extremely serious consequences,” Grossi said. “If such a missile changed its trajectory, it could seriously affect the physical integrity of the nuclear power plant, which could lead to a nuclear accident.”
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Uliana Lototska and Nataliia Kushnir
Apr 28, 6:41 pm
Russia could be ‘intensifying’ forced displacement of civilians: US official
The U.S. has “credible information” that Russia could be “intensifying” the forced displacement of civilians as it plans to overthrow local governments in southern and eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday.
Michael Carpenter, the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters there is “credible reporting” that after failing to topple the central government in Kyiv, Russian forces are forcibly removing Ukrainian civilians from areas in the south and east — and could be “intensifying” those efforts as they seek to set up proxy local governments.
Carpenter said he has also now deemed “credible” the reports that Russian forces are forcibly displacing Ukrainian civilians, often through “filtration camps” where many are “brutally” interrogated, to tamp down on Ukrainian support in these parts of the war-torn country.
Carpenter repeatedly declined to provide more details to back up these claims, saying only, “We have very credible information from a variety of different sources that point to Russia’s plans.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Speaker’s Dining Room in the Capitol is usually filled with photographs of Nancy Pelosi’s home state of California.
But for the next six weeks, on display instead will be shocking images of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion.
Pelosi unveiled the photo exhibit Thursday, joined by other lawmakers and the Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.
“It is a manifestation — an emotional time to the people of Ukraine, with a praise for their heroism that is just almost unimaginable, but so is the brutality they are suffering,” Pelosi said, describing the scenes.
The photographs showed streams of desperate civilians fleeing Ukraine amid charred and collapsed buildings, paramedics trying to save the wounded, and mass graves.
“I wish I could tell you about our talented children well on the way to their amazing successes,” the Ukrainian ambassador said. “Instead, this photographs that you see here today tell the stories of children who will never grow up. The children who were subjected to torture.”
Pelosi thanked Markatova for allowing the photos to be displayed, saying they will allow House members and their guests to witness close-up the brutality of the Russian invasion.
“It is very emotional for us to see, but that motivates us to do so much more,” Pelosi said.
The exhibit opening came as the House approved a measure 417-10 Thursday making it easier for the United States to “lend” military aid and equipment to Ukraine. All 10 votes against were cast by Republicans. It now heads to the president’s desk.
“It’s outside the circle of civilized human behavior what the Russians are doing,” Pelosi said, getting emotional as she made her way around the room taking in the photos. “You would think unimaginable, but then here it is.”
(COPENHAGEN, Denmark) — Denmark is the first country to announce it is temporarily stopping its COVID-19 vaccination program due to high rates of immunization and falling infection numbers.
In a statement, the country’s National Board of Health said it would not be issuing invitations to citizens to get vaccinated after May 15.
Health officials said the country, which was the first in the European Union to lift mitigation measures in February, “is in a good place” following the omicron wave.
The Danish Health Authority on Thursday announced additional measures easing COVID restrictions in the country, including the easing of mask rules in healthcare, elderly care or in parts of the social sector. Patients admitted to hospitals will only be tested if they are exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
Data from the Danish Health Authority shows that, as of April 20, 89% of those in Denmark aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 76% have received a booster. About 37% of those aged 5 to 11 are also fully vaccinated.
“Spring has come and we have good control of the epidemic, which seems to be subsiding,” Bolette Søborg, director of the department of preparedness and infectious diseases at the DHA, said in a statement. “Admission rates are stable, and we also expect them to fall soon. Therefore, we are rounding up the mass vaccination program against COVID-19.”
Danish health authorities said people can still get vaccinated over the spring and summer if they want to, with Søborg highlighting the increased risk for serious COVID complications in unvaccinated people over age 40 or who are pregnant.
Additionally, a second booster is being offered to those who are immunocompromised or at high risk of severe disease.
COVID-19 cases and deaths have been trending downward since the end of the omicron wave. Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show Denmark recorded 1,484 new infections Tuesday, a 65% decrease from the 4,322 recorded one month ago. New deaths also fell 73% over the same period from 41 to 11.
However, Danish health authorities said the vaccination program will resume in the fall, when COVID-19 cases are expected to increase.
“The Danish Health and Medicines Authority’s assessment is that there will probably be a need to vaccinate against COVID-19 again in the autumn,” the release read. “This is because the virus that causes COVID-19 is an unstable virus that can mutate, just as we saw with the omicron variant.”
Denmark’s decision to halt its vaccination campaign comes as countries around the world have had vastly different responses to the pandemic in recent weeks.
Most European countries and the United States have lifted COVID-19 restrictions while China has implemented lockdown measures in its two largest cities — Beijing and Shanghai — following outbreaks of the virus.
DEA / C.DANI / I.JESKE/De Agostini via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — More than a fifth of the world’s reptiles are at risk of extinction in the coming decades due to human activity, according to a new study.
Researchers applied criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species to more than 10,000 species around the world and found that over 21% are at risk — with nearly 58% of species of crocodiles and and 50% of species of turtles requiring urgent conservation efforts to prevent them from being wiped out from the planet, according to a study published Thursday in Nature.
Human activity, such as agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, are the main drivers of the threat to reptiles, according to the researchers. While climate change is assumed to be a factor, the exact risk it poses has not yet been determined due to the lack of long-term studies.
“Climate change is a looming threat to reptiles, for example, by reducing thermally viable windows for foraging, skewing offspring sex ratios in species that have temperature-dependent sex determination and contracting ranges,” the study states.
However, disease does not seem to be a prominent factor for loss of species, as only 11 species of reptiles were found to be at risk of widespread disease, the authors said.
Although previous findings have proposed reptiles to be most at risk in arid environments, such as deserts and scrubland, the researchers found that species inhabiting forests were more threatened, perhaps because of greater exposures to certain threats in forest environments. The study found that 30% of forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14% of reptiles in arid habitats.
Threatened reptiles were more concentrated in southeastern Asia, West Africa, northern Madagascar, the northern Andes and the Caribbean, according to the study.
Many of the risks that reptiles face are similar to those faced by other animal groups that have been assessed, such as birds, mammals and amphibians, and reptiles will also benefit from conservation efforts directed toward those other animals, according to the study. The paper, a joint venture by NatureServe, the IUCN and Conservation International, is the first risk-assessment study ever conducted for reptiles, the authors said.
“I was surprised by the degree to which mammals, birds and amphibians, collectively, can serve as surrogates to reptiles,” said Dr. Bruce Young, co-leader of the study and chief zoologist and senior conservation scientist at NatureServe. “This is good news because the extensive efforts to protect better-known animals have also likely contributed to protecting many reptiles. Habitat protection is essential to buffer reptiles, as well as other vertebrates, from threats such as agricultural activities and urban development.”
The study also highlighted the biodiversity that would be lost if such a large number of reptiles were to go extinct. If each of the 1,829 threatened reptiles were lost, the world would lose a combined 15.6 billion years of evolutionary history — including countless adaptations for living in diverse environments, the researchers said.
“Reptiles in the study include turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara, the only living member of a lineage that evolved in the Triassic period approximately 200-250 million years ago,” according to a press release by NatureServe, a wildlife conservation nonprofit.
Urgent and targeted conservation efforts, such as habitat restoration and controlling invasive species, are needed to restore the populations of many reptile species, the researchers said.
(LUBLIN, Poland) — The Majdanek death camp located in Lublin, Poland was the site of one of the largest mass executions recorded during the Holocaust.
Over 18,000 Jews were killed on one day, Nov. 3, 1943.
Today, the State Museum at Majdanek is located at the site of the former concentration camp, and provides visitors with the raw remnants of the horrors of the Holocaust.
ABC News’ Phil Lipof took a tour of the museum with Łukasz Myszala, one of its archivists who highlighted some of the location’s disturbing artifacts.
“Most of the 78,000 people who perished here at Majdanek rest right here at your side,” Myszala told Lipof, referencing a mausoleum covering a mound of ashes recovered from bodies buried there.
The site remains surrounded by barbed wires and fences, which were electrified during the Holocaust. Myszala said that the Nazis took great lengths to conceal their genocide.
“Although the gas chambers were so close to the prisoners, it was a very well concealed crime,” he said. “They didn’t want anybody to see what was happening…that was meant to remain a secret.”
Myszala said that the barracks were designed to keep 250 prisoners, but there were likely much more held inside those rooms. Shoes that belonged to the concentration camp prisoners are on display at the museum.
“They’re crammed together in cages,” he said. “Just like the people who wore them were when they worked here, and died here.”
And the gruesome task of getting the bodies of those killed in the gas chambers into crematoria fell to other prisoners, according to Myszala. This group, known as the “Geheimnisträgern,” or the carriers of the secret, would eventually be shot by Nazi soldiers and be replaced with a new prisoners, Myszala said.
“Usually, the lifespan of those prisoners [in those camps] was between four to six weeks,” he said.
Myszala said the Nazis also went to even greater lengths to hide the mass executions that took place on Nov. 3, 1943.
Prisoners were brought out of their barracks in groups to ditches and systemically shot. Roughly 18,400 Jews were killed on that day, according to Myszala.
The Nazis dubbed the executions “Operation Erntefest,” or “harvest festival,” because of the way they masked the killings, Myszala said.
The archivist said prisoners who were inside the barracks during the executions recalled hearing music being played, including waltzes, foxtrots and marches.
“The Germans played loud music to conceal this crime, first of all, to cover up the noises, drown out the machine guns. But secondly, it was meant to provide an appropriate aura for the harvest festival,” Myszala said.
The archivist said it was important that the world never forget the violence that took place at the site and, more importantly, make sure that atrocities never happen again.
“May our fate be a warning to you,” Myszala said as he translated the inscription engraved at the front of the mausoleum where prisoners’ ashes are kept.
(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 earlier this month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 28, 4:58 pm
House approves lend-lease measure to help expedite aid
The House voted 417-10 approving a measure that will make it easier for the U.S. to send military aid and equipment to Ukraine.
The Senate approved the measure by voice vote last month. It now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
The lend-lease program was created during WWII and was seen as a game-changer in the conflict, allowing the U.S. to quickly resupply Allies.
This enhanced lend-lease authority would be specific to helping remove obstacles to lending arms to Ukraine. It would not create a new program but would streamline the president’s current authority to lend the defense articles necessary to defend civilian populations.
The legislation would also require Biden to establish expedited delivery procedures for any military equipment loaned or leased to Ukraine to ensure timely delivery.
It would remain in effect for two years with the possibility of Congress extending the authority if needed.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
Apr 28, 4:02 pm
Kyiv targeted in shelling as UN chief visits
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Ukraine’s capital was hit by two missile strikes in the Shevchenkivsky district on Thursday.
At least one Russian missile struck a residential building. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister who was at the scene following the attack, told journalists at least six people were injured.
This came as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the city.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted that the attack came right after Guterres visited Russia.
“The day before he was sitting at a long table in the Kremlin, and today explosions are above his head. Postcard from Moscow? Recall why [Russia] still takes a seat on the UN Security Council?” he tweeted.
This was the first strike on central Kyiv in over a week.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Apr 28, 2:35 pm
UN chief: Discussions ongoing on ways to evacuate civilians from Mariupol plant
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “intensive discussions” are ongoing on proposals to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol.
“Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” Guterres said in a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday. “Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly, in need of medical care or have limited mobility. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse.”
Guterres said that during his visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to the involvement of the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the plant.
Guterres said he and Zelenskyy had the opportunity to address the issue Thursday.
“As we speak, there are in intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 28, 1:25 pm
UN chief visits sites of suspected war crimes
United Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited sites of suspected war crimes in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka.
In Irpin, Guterres visited the destroyed Irpinsky Lipki residential complex and said that the “horrific scenario demonstrates something that is unfortunately always true: Civilians always pay the highest price.”
Guterres urged Russia to cooperate with the investigation launched by the International Criminal Court.
Guterres, speaking from Bucha, said, “When we see this horrendous site, it makes me feel how important it is [to have] a thorough investigation and accountability.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 28, 12:46 pm
Slow Russian progress in Donbas, more training for Ukrainians on US weapons
There are now 92 operational Russian battalion tactical groups — each made up of about 700 to 1,000 troops — inside Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.
Russia continues to suffer logistical problems, as it has since early in the invasion. This, on top of the Ukrainian defense, is slowing their progress.
“They’re only able to sustain several kilometers or so progress on any given day just because they don’t want to run out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines,” the official said.
The official added, “We would assess that Russian forces are making slow and uneven, and frankly, we would describe it as incremental progress, in the Donbas.”
More than 54 of the 90 howitzers the U.S. is sending Ukraine have arrived in the country, the official said.
The first batch of 50 Ukrainians taken out of the country for training on U.S. artillery systems is back in Ukraine, where they can teach others what they’ve learned, the official said. A second group of 50 Ukrainians has begun its six days of training, the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 28, 11:20 am
Biden asking Congress for $33 billion in supplemental aid for Ukraine over the next 5 months
President Joe Biden is asking Congress for a total of $33 billion in supplemental aid for Ukraine over the next five months, administration officials previewed in a Thursday morning call ahead of the president’s remarks.
Over $20 billion of the $33 billion will be for military and other security systems.
“The cost of this fight is not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly,” Biden said in remarks later in the morning.
Biden stressed, “We’re not attacking Russia — we’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.”
The administration is also asking for an additional $8.5 billion in economic assistance to help provide basic services to the Ukrainian people.
Part of the package also includes targeted funding to address economic disruptions in the U.S. as a result of the war in Ukraine, like helping increase U.S. production of wheat and soybeans, “and funding to allow the use of the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of critical reserves – of reserves of critical minerals and materials that have been disrupted by Putin’s war and are necessary to make everything from defense systems to cars,” a senior administration official said.
Biden insisted that, despite Russia’s claims, the U.S. is not fighting a proxy war.
“It shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure in being able to do what they set out to do in the first instance,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 28, 8:00 am
Russia retains ability to strike Ukrainian coastal targets, UK says
The Russian Navy still has the ability to strike coastal targets in Ukraine, even after the “embarrassing losses” of two warships, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
In an intelligence update posted Thursday, the ministry said approximately 20 Russian naval vessels, including submarines, are currently in the “Black Sea operational zone.” But the ministry said Russia isn’t able to replace the missile cruiser Moskva because the Bosphorus strait remains closed to all non-Turkish warships.
The Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sunk in the Black Sea earlier this month while being towed to port after a fire onboard, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Ukrainian officials, however, claimed that ship was struck by Ukrainian missiles, which the Russian defense ministry has denied.
Russia also lost the landing ship Saratov, which was destroyed by explosions and fire on March 24.
Apr 28, 6:48 am
Separatist forces arrest over 100 captured Ukrainian troops in Donetsk
Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast claimed Thursday that they have arrested more than 100 captured Ukrainian troops suspected of being involved in crimes.
“Facts of involvement in crimes have been brought to light following investigators’ works. There are already more than 100 people who have been arrested by investigators,” Yury Sirovatko, justice minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian state-owned television channel Rossiya 24 on Thursday.
Sirovatko on Wednesday told Channel One, a Russian state-controlled TV channel, that there are about 2,600 captured Ukrainian servicemen in the region.
Apr 28, 5:01 am
Russia accuses Ukraine of war crimes
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of committing war crimes by indiscriminately attacking civilian areas in Ukrainian cities.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces “launched a massive attack” using ballistic missiles and multiple rocket launchers on residential areas of Kherson in southern Ukraine late Wednesday.
“The indiscriminate missile attack launched by the nationalists targeted kindergartens, schools and various social facilities in residential areas near Ushakova avenue,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday. “Russian air defense units have repelled the attack of the Ukrainian troops launched at the residential districts of Kherson.”
The ministry also claimed that Ukrainian troops had launched indiscriminate attacks on residential areas of Izyum in eastern Ukraine.
“The Kyiv nationalist regime’s indiscriminate attacks on residential areas of Izyum and Kherson are a war crime and a gross violation of international humanitarian law,” the ministry added.
Ukraine did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Apr 28, 4:55 am
Putin ramps up nuclear threats, as US weapons head to Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at the possibility of nuclear warfare during his Wednesday address to the council of legislators.
“If someone from outside moves to interfere in the current developments, they should know that they will indeed create strategic threats to Russia, which are unacceptable to us, and they should know that our response to encounter assaults will be instant, it will be quick,” Putin said, according to Russian state media.
Putin claimed Russia’s response to strategic threats from outside Ukraine would be “immediate.”
“We have all the tools to do it, tools that others can’t boast of at the moment, but as for us, we won’t be boasting,” Putin said.
Putin said that Russia is prepared to use those “tools” if “the need arises,” adding that he “would like everyone to be aware of it.” A nuclear attack has been on the table since the onset of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Putin said. He had ordered his nuclear forces to be put on high alert on Feb 27.
Putin’s remarks came as Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced that “more than half” of the 90 howitzers the U.S. agreed to send to Ukraine were now in the country, adding that around 50 Ukrainian troops have already been trained to operate the weapons.
“We finished up earlier this week, the first tranche of more than 50 trainers that are going to go in and train their teammates,” Kirby said during a press briefing on Wednesday, a moment later adding, “But there was another tranche of more than 50 that we’re going to go through training in the same location outside Ukraine.”
The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday tweeted pictures of more howitzers “bound for Ukraine” that were being loaded onto US Air Force aircraft. Additional training opportunities on Howitzers and other weapons systems were also being explored, Kirby said.
As U.S. weapons head to Ukraine, Russia is increasing the pace of its offensive in almost all directions, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Thursday.
The U.S. is considering the legal aspects of officially listing Russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told lawmakers on Wednesday. Officials said they haven’t yet determined whether Russia’s actions meet the legal standard required for the designation, Blinken said.
The designation, called for by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, would further cripple Russia’s trade potential, including bans on defense exports and limits on foreign aid.
