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By Robert Plummer
BBC News
Controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are to be moved from custody to house arrest with immediate effect, a Romanian judge has ruled.
The ruling by the Court of Appeal in Bucharest replaces the latest period of custody, which was to end on 29 April.
Two associates, Georgiana Naghel and Luana Radu, are also being released.
All four have been ordered to stay in the buildings where they live, unless they have judicial permission to leave.
A spokeswoman for the Tate brothers told the BBC the brothers were "ecstatic".
The brothers have been detained since December and are being investigated on allegations of rape, people trafficking and forming an organised crime group. Both have denied wrongdoing.
Lawyers for Mr Tate have argued that keeping him in preventative custody is unnecessarily harsh, when other judicial options such as house arrest are available.
Leaked court documents, seen by the BBC, outlined testimony from alleged victims claiming to be forced to earn €10,000 (£8,800) a month on social media platforms, under the alleged threat of physical violence.
Court papers also described debts being used as "a form of psychological coercion".
Since investigations began last April, six women have been identified by prosecutors as victims.
However, no charges have yet been brought against the brothers or the two Romanian associates who were arrested alongside them.
In 2016, Mr Tate, a British-American former kickboxer, was removed from British TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to show him attacking a woman.
He went on to gain notoriety online, with Twitter banning him for saying women should "bear responsibility" for being sexually assaulted. He has since been reinstated.
Despite social media bans, he gained popularity, particularly among young men, by promoting what he presented as a hyper-masculine, ultra-luxurious lifestyle.
Mass graves were found after its recapture by Ukraine
Ukraine accuses Russian troops of carrying out atrocities
Russia denies the allegations
BUCHA, Ukraine, March 31 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday Ukraine would never forgive Russian troops responsible for atrocities in Bucha, as the town near Kyiv marked the anniversary of its recapture after 33 days of occupation.
Ukrainian forces took back control of the small towns of Bucha and Irpin to the northwest of Kyiv in late March last year as Russian invasion forces abandoned their attempt to seize the capital.
Moscow denies accusations of executions, rapes and torture by its occupying troops who left bodies in the streets when they fled.
"Russian evil will collapse right here in Ukraine, and will never be able to rise again. Humanity will prevail," Zelenskiy said, leading a ceremony at which the Ukrainian flag was raised in Bucha.
The president handed out medals to soldiers involved in recapturing the town, and relatives received medals on behalf of fallen soldiers who were awarded them posthumously.
"When Bucha was de-occupied, we saw that the devil was not somewhere out there but on the ground. The heinous truth about what was happening in the temporarily occupied territories was revealed to the world," Zelenskiy said.
Images of dead bodies lying in the street were beamed across the world after Ukraine regained control. Kyiv says more than 1,400 people were killed in Bucha during the occupation including 37 children, more than 175 people were found in mass graves and torture chambers, and 9,000 Russian war crimes have been identified.
International investigators are now collecting evidence of war crimes in Irpin, Bucha and other places. Zelenskiy described Bucha as a "symbol of the atrocities" of Russian occupying forces.
"We will never forget the victims of this war, and we will certainly bring all Russian murderers to justice," Zelenskiy wrote on social media. "We will never forgive. We will punish every perpetrator."
PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDS
Bucha has become a stop for international visitors to Ukraine. Moldova's president and the prime ministers of Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia also attended Friday's ceremony.
"We honour and grieve the innocent. Democracies must work together to ensure that these atrocities are investigated and punished," said Moldovan President Maia Sandu, who has joined with Zelenskiy in seeking European Union membership for her country.
Fighting rages on in the east and south of Ukraine, where Russian forces hold swathes of territory captured after they invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.
Russia has been conducting a winter offensive to make small advances in the east at huge cost of life. Ukrainian forces have dug in and held out for now in the city of Bakhmut and are expected to launch a counteroffensive soon.
Tensions have mounted between Russia and the West over the war. Relations between Washington and Moscow plunged further on Thursday when Russia arrested a Wall Street Journal correspondent, Evan Gershkovich, on allegations of spying, which the paper denied and the White House called "ridiculous".
For places like Bucha hundreds of miles away from the frontline, the war is still felt, with regular air raid sirens telling residents to take cover from missile and drone strikes that have caused major power outages.
Residents in Bucha speak of the deep psychological wounds left by the occupation and say it would take generations to get over it. Some buildings remain battered in the town and a scrapyard is full of cars and military vehicles destroyed during last year's fighting.
"We should understand that it's easy to rebuild walls, but it's much harder to rebuild a wounded soul," said Andriy Holovin, a priest at a Ukrainian Orthodox parish.
Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said his office had identified almost 100 Russian soldiers suspected of war crimes in Bucha and indictments against 35 of them had been sent to court.
They include a three-star general who commands Russia's Central Military District, he said. Two Russian servicemen captured in Ukraine have been jailed for illegally imprisoning civilians and looting, he added.
The vast majority of Russian suspects are not in Ukrainian custody, but Kyiv says it hopes they can be prosecuted some day.
"I'm convinced that all these crimes are not a coincidence. This is part of Russia's planned strategy to destroy Ukraine as a state and Ukrainians as a nation," he said.
Additional reporting by Max Hunder and Dan Peleschuk, Writing by Tom Balmforth, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Peter Graff
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has lost tens of thousands of its fighters — possibly up to half of its 50,000-strong force — during months of bloody battles to capture the key Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, according to analysts.
The Institute for the Study of War think tank reported in its latest update on the war that according to Western officials, the Wagner Group has likely lost a “substantial” amount of manpower, which is expected to hobble Moscow’s offensive in the eastern region.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley reported Wednesday that the Wagner Group has around 6,000 professional personnel and 20,000 to 30,000 recruits, mostly convicts, fighting in the Bakhmut area.
In late December, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby put the size of Wagner’s force at 50,000 fighters, more than three-quarters of them inmates recruited from Russia’s prisons.
The mercenaries have spent months trying to capture Bakhmut, where fighting has been so fierce that it has come to be known as a “meat grinder.”
“It is likely that the difference between Kirby’s 50,000 figure in Ukraine and Milley’s 26,000 to 36,000 figure in the Bakhmut area is the result of casualties from Wagner’s attritional offensive on Bakhmut,” ISW analysts concluded.
Think tank analysts have reported that Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group has sustained tens of thousands of casualties in Ukraine since July.concordgroup_officialThe mercenaries, among them thousands of convicts, have been leading the fight to capture the key city of Bakhmut.AP
Ian Stubbs, senior military adviser to the United Kingdom’s mission to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, said Thursday that 30,000 Russian military and Wagner personnel have been killed or injured in the Bakhmut area since July.
“Stubbs stated that Russian and Wagner forces have particularly suffered significant losses in and around Bakhmut in recent weeks and that they urgently need to replenish their personnel,” the ISW update stated.
“These losses in manpower will continue to constrain Russian offensive operations in the Bakhmut area as well as the wider theater, and Wagner’s significant losses will likely threaten its ability to maintain its influential role among Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.”
In December, an estimated 50,000 Wagner mercenaries were fighting in Ukraine. By this week, that number had dropped to 26,000 to 36,000.ZUMAPRESS.com
This information from the Western analysts appeared to have been confirmed by the founder of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, who publicly acknowledged Wednesday that fighting in Bakhmut had inflicted severe losses on his forces — as well as on the Ukrainian side.
“The battle for Bakhmut today has already practically destroyed the Ukrainian army, and unfortunately, it has also badly damaged the Wagner Private Military Company,” Prigozhin said in an audio message.
Despite making steady territorial gains in street-by-street fighting in recent weeks, including capturing a metal processing plant in the city earlier this week, Moscow’s forces have yet to take full control of Bakhmut.
Wagner forces have been making gains in Bakhmut and captured a metal plant this week, but they still do not fully control the city.ZUMAPRESS.com
British military intelligence reported the Ukrainians had successfully pushed the Russians back from one of the city’s main supply routes.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this month ordered more troops to defend the city to deny the enemy a victory.
In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Zelensky argued that if Russia were to seize Bakhmut, President Vladimir Putin would exploit the situation to create an international coalition that would force a cease-fire deal on Ukraine on his terms.
Wagner Group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin admitted this week that his force had suffered major damage in the fighting.AP
“If he will feel some blood — smell that we are weak — he will push, push, push,” Zelensky said of Putin.
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Vice President Kamala Harris became visibly emotional Tuesday during a visit to a colonial-era African slave fort, lamenting the fate of millions of captives who passed through a “door of no return” to be carried away on ships and sold in the Americas.
“The horror of what happened here must always be remembered,” Harris told reporters in off-the-cuff remarks at the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. “It cannot be denied. It must be taught. History must be learned.”
Harris, the first vice president of African ancestry, threw out her prepared remarks after touring the site alongside her husband, Doug Emhoff.
The 58-year-old said her visit was “immensely powerful and moving” and called the fortress a “place of horror.”
“There are dungeons here where human beings were kept — men, women and children,” the veep said.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke Tuesday of the horrors of the West African slave trade.AFP via Getty Images“The horror of what happened here must always be remembered,” Harris said in her speech at a former slave fortress in Ghana.AP
“They were kidnapped from their homes. They were transported hundreds of miles from their homes, not really sure where they were headed. And they came to this place of horror — some to die, many to starve and be tortured, women to be raped — before they were then forcibly taken on a journey thousands of miles from their home to be sold by so-called merchants and taken to the Americas, to the Caribbean to be an enslaved people.
“And yet, they survived,” she added, her voice cracking with emotion.
“And they tell another history — a history of endurance, a history of faith, a history in believing what is possible, a history not only that tells about the ability that each individual has to survive, but to thrive.”
“All of us, regardless of our background, have benefited from their fight for freedom and justice,” Harris concluded her remarks.
Harris spoke to thousands near Black Star Gate in Accra about the “special significance” of her African trip.AFP via Getty Images
Earlier Tuesday, during a speech in Accra’s Independence Square, Harris said the African trip carried “special significance.”
“Because of this history, this continent of course has a special significance for me personally, as the first black vice president of the United States,” she told a supportive crowd of thousands. “And this is a history, like many of us, that I learned as a young child.”
Harris also pledged a new era of partnership with Africa, envisioning “a future that is propelled by African innovation.”
The vice president is touring Africa this week to strengthen US ties to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia — three nations also being courted by China as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.
Second gentleman Doug Emhoff joined Harris on the Tuesday visit to Cape Coast Castle.REUTERSWhile touring the fortress, Harris and Emhoff were told about songs that captive slaves sang.REUTERS
Harris has yet to mention efforts by China or Russia to spread their influence in West Africa, but did announce $100 million in US aid to the region, some of which will have to be approved by Congress amid ongoing negotiations with the White House to increase Washington’s debt limit.
“What an honor it is to be here in Ghana and on the continent of Africa,” she said on Monday. “I’m very excited about the future of Africa.”
Cape Coast Castle is one of dozens of fortresses in West Africa that held slaves, many of them in Ghana.
The government here has viewed preserving them as part of its historical responsibility.
On their tour of the fortresses, Harris and Emhoff walked past a plaque commemorating a visit by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama — the nation’s first black president and first lady.
At one point, Harris made her way down a darkened path leading through the infamous “door of no return,” through which slaves left the coast and never came back.
The vice president choked back tears at the entrance to a women’s dungeon.APHarris is touring Africa this week to strengthen US ties to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia.AP
The vice president, her hand on her mouth, placed a white bouquet of flowers given to her during the arrival ceremony, at the entrance to a women’s dungeon nearby.
“There are a number of things on the issue of the economy as a whole that we must do … and a lot of that work is the work that I am here to do on the continent,” she said during a news conference with Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo.
“As you have mentioned, we have had today, this afternoon, a wide-ranging discussion,” Harris also said. “We have discussed a number of important topics, including the importance of concepts and priorities such as freedom and liberty.”
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