Thursday, March 3, 2022
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
Police in St. Petersburg arrest at least 350 anti-war protesters, according to a local monitor site - CNN
The mayor of the Ukrainian city of Kherson Ihor Kolykhaiev has said that the Ukrainian military is no longer in the city and that its inhabitants must now carry out the instructions of “armed people who came to the city’s administration” — indicating that the city has now fallen under Russian control.
The announcement on his Facebook page follows several days of pressure on Kherson by Russian forces who had surrounded the city.
Kherson is a strategically important city on an inlet from the Black Sea with a population of nearly 300,000. On Wednesday in Kyiv, the mayor had disputed Russian claims of control saying Ukrainian forces were still fighting in parts of the city. The new posting said Ukrainian forces had left.
The mayor also told the New York Times in an interview that a group of about 10 armed Russian officers, including the commander of forces attacking the city, entered the city hall building Wednesday. He said he was informed by the Russian officers that they were planning to set up a new administration similar to those in two Russian-backed separatist enclaves in eastern Ukraine, according to the NY Times interview.
What this means: If Kherson is now under Russian control, it would be a significant moment in the conflict, as it would mark the first major city seized by Russian forces.
Late Wednesday, Hennady Lahuta, the head of Kherson regional administration, issued a message saying: “I ask everyone who is not at home now, or who is planning to go outside, not to do so. The occupiers are in all areas of the city and are very dangerous.”
Without saying explicitly that the Russians controlled the city, mayor Kolykhaiev said on Wednesday night that “there were armed visitors in the city executive committee today.”
"The team and I are peaceful people, we had no weapons, there was no aggression from our side."
“I didn't make any promises to them. I just have nothing to promise. I'm only interested in the normal life of our city! I just asked not to shoot people.”
In his Facebook message, he went on to say, “We do not have Armed Forces in the city, only civilians and people who want to LIVE here!”
Kolykhaiev said that there were now new rules in the city, which included a curfew and restrictions on transport in and out of the city.
He said that another rule was that “Pedestrians walk one by one, maximum two. Don’t provoke the military.”
He finished: “Let it be for now. The flag above us is Ukrainian. And in order to keep it the same, these requirements will have to be met. I can't offer anything else.”
World - Latest - Google News
March 03, 2022 at 09:45AM
https://ift.tt/3t9uyMl
Police in St. Petersburg arrest at least 350 anti-war protesters, according to a local monitor site - CNN
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/gm6M0W1
Russia-Ukraine War Live: Latest News on Kherson, Kyiv and Kharkiv - The New York Times
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with the support of 141 countries out of 193 and a standing ovation in the chamber.
Russia voted against the measure, joined by Belarus, North Korea, Eritrea and Syria.
The vote was symbolic and is not legally binding. Still, the vote reflected Russia’s growing isolation on the international stage as war rages in Ukraine. The General Assembly’s special emergency session in New York was part of a larger U.N. effort to hold Russia accountable and to find an end to the conflict.
“The U.N. is being challenged,” the U.S. ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the assembly before the vote. “If it has any purpose, it is to prevent war and to condemn war and to stop war. That is our job here today.”
The four-page resolution calls for an immediate halt to the conflict, urges diplomatic negotiations for a peaceful resolution and says that territorial gain from the threat of force will not be recognized. It demands that Russian forces withdraw immediately, protect civilians and allow the safe passage of humanitarian aid.
The resolution also criticizes Belarus, saying it “deplores” that country’s involvement in the war.
“The Russian government stands increasingly alone,” the E.U. representative, Olof Skoog, said. “The European Union and the world stand with the Ukrainian people.”
Russia’s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, told the General Assembly that the resolution would not bring peace and accused the United States and its closest allies of “exerting pressure on countries” to support the resolution, through “open and cynical threats.”
Thirty-four countries abstained, including China, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan, Armenia and 16 African countries. In speeches to the General Assembly in the past few days, African representatives said that their citizens were being discriminated against in Ukraine and while trying to flee across European borders.
Diplomats from developing nations noted that the international community had mobilized far more quickly over the invasion of a European nation than over conflicts raging in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, told the General Assembly on Tuesday that when she called counterparts around the world to rally support for Ukraine they had said: “You are calling on us to show solidarity for Europe, but where have you been for us in the past?”
Some countries, including China, South Africa and Iran, complained that the resolution was submitted without full consultation and input from all member countries, and it therefore risked inflaming rather than de-escalating the crisis.
“We had no choice but to abstain,” China’s ambassador, Zhang Jun, said.
Iraq’s ambassador, Bahr Aluloom, said that his country, which was invaded by the U.S. in 2003, had abstained “because of our sufferings resulting from the continuing wars against our people.”
Before the vote, the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, took the podium and held up a blue booklet containing the U.N. charter. He invited all countries voting in support of the resolution to sign it, and said he would give it to the U.N. secretary general, Antonio Guterres.
After the vote, Mr. Guterres told reporters: “The message of the General Assembly is loud and clear. End hostilities in Ukraine, now. Silence the guns, now. The ticking clock is a time bomb.”
World - Latest - Google News
March 03, 2022 at 05:49AM
https://ift.tt/ZhGe4KA
Russia-Ukraine War Live: Latest News on Kherson, Kyiv and Kharkiv - The New York Times
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/gm6M0W1
U.N. General Assembly vote sends clear message to Russia: The world is against the war in Ukraine - CBS News
United Nations – The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly during an extraordinary emergency session on Wednesday to pass a resolution condemning Russia's military action against Ukraine. The resolution — which passed with 141 votes in favor, 35 abstentions and just five votes against — demands that Russia "immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine."
"Russia is preparing to increase the brutality of its campaign against Ukraine," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote. "We've seen videos of Russian forces moving exceptionally lethal weaponry into Ukraine, which has no place on the battlefield, that includes cluster munitions and vacuum bombs, which are banned under the Geneva convention."
"The truth is that this war was one man's choice and one man alone: President Putin. It was his choice to force hundreds of thousands of people to stuff their lives into backpacks and flee the country. To send newborn babies into makeshift bomb shelters. To make children with cancer huddle in hospital basements, interrupting their treatment, essentially sentencing them to death. Those were President Putin's choices. Now it's time for us to make ours," Thomas-Greenfield said.
"The message of the General Assembly is loud and clear: End hostilities in Ukraine — now. Silence the guns — now. Open the door to dialogue and diplomacy — now," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told diplomats after the vote, adding: "The territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine must be respected in line with the UN Charter."
The U.S. Mission to the U.N. and Albania, the only eastern European nation on the Security Council, passed a procedural resolution to allow for Wednesday's emergency session of the General Assembly — the first in 40 years and only the 11th in history. The U.S. then worked hard to ensure a convincing vote from the 193-nation General Assembly's members.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the vote, saying those who backed the Resolution had "chosen the right side of history."
Thomas-Greenfield quoted President Biden's Tuesday night State of the Union address, saying Putin had "met a wall of strength he never imagined. He met the Ukrainian people."
"The brazen and indiscriminate nature of Russia's attacks has had devastating, horrific consequences for the entire country," she added. "Russia has bombed residential apartment buildings. It has bombed sacred burial grounds. It has shelled kindergartens and orphanages and hospitals. Russia has spurred mass hunger and caused so many to flee their homes – the latest UN estimates are marching toward a million people."
World - Latest - Google News
March 03, 2022 at 01:59AM
https://ift.tt/Kd1WsXM
U.N. General Assembly vote sends clear message to Russia: The world is against the war in Ukraine - CBS News
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/gm6M0W1
Biden State of the Union missed mark on energy independence amid Russian war on Ukraine, critics say - Fox News
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
President Biden's State of the Union speech included tough talk against Russia, a push for Congress to pass more of his economic policies and a call to fund police – but some critics are saying it didn't focus nearly enough on energy independence.
"Certainly not the right approach at this moment," Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, said of Biden's lack of comments on energy in the speech. "I'm all the above energy, philosophy… I'm okay using all these different things, but not at the expense of natural gas and oil."
PSAKI PUSHES RENEWABLE ENERGY TO STOP DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL INSTEAD OF INCREASING US PRODUCTION
"These are things that are tangible today," Gonzales added, underscoring the urgency o the Russian war on Ukraine. "People in Ukraine, they're trying to live through today, not trying to, you know, 100 years from now change different things."
President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, March 1, 2022, in Washington. (Julia Nikhinson/Pool via AP)
Biden mentioned energy sparingly in his speech Tuesday. He said he is releasing oil from the United States' strategic oil reserves as a way to lower gas prices in the U.S. And he mentioned green energy and electric vehicles while discussing his "plan to fight inflation."
BIDEN'S STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH: TOP 5 MOMENTS
"Let’s provide investments and tax credits to weatherize your homes and businesses to be energy efficient and you get a tax credit," Biden said, "Double America’s clean energy production in solar, wind, and so much more; lower the price of electric vehicles, saving you another $80 a month because you’ll never have to pay at the gas pump again."
American Petroleum Institute president and CEO Mike Sommers said Biden's green energy and electric car plan was not enough. He also emphasized that the U.S. oil industry is capable of stepping up its production quickly depending on the administration's policies.
"What we've actually seen going on in Europe is a demonstration of why we need to continue to invest in oil and gas here in the United States and really around the world," Sommers said. "Being dependent on another country for your energy needs is not the way to provide for security for your people."
Oil wells outside of Williston, North Dakota, on August 24, 2021. The U.S. oil industry is producing approximately 1.5 million barrels per day less than it did at its pre-panedmic highs. (Tyler Olson/FOX Business) (Tyler Olson/FOX Business)
BIDEN SAYS ZELENSKYY ‘INSPIRES THE WORLD’ AMID BRUTAL RUSSIAN WAR ON UKRAINE
"Today we're still about 1.5 million barrels a day off from where we were pre-pandemic, in terms of American oil supply. So we have the capacity to produce more," Sommers added. "The missing link here is a stable policy that is that seeks to advance American energy leadership. And unfortunately, at this point, the administration has pursued policies that are actually meant to hamper American energy leadership."
The White House has pushed back against the idea that the best way to remove the United States and its partners from dependence on Russian oil is through producing more in the U.S. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on ABC's "This Week" that moving away from oil completely will solve that problem.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, made the House Appropriations Committee. (Official Photo)
"I would also note that, on oil leases, what this actually justifies, in President Biden's view, is the fact that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general," she said. "We need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
But Gonzales said green energy is not going to successfully replace fossil fuels fast enough to protect against the threats the United States faces today. He panned the White House's "utopian… 100-year-plan."
"Energy independence equals national security, not only for the United States, but globally," he said. "The part that the President is missing is what are the emissions like in Kyiv? Pretty bad when there's bombs dropping on your head."
World - Latest - Google News
March 03, 2022 at 01:12AM
https://ift.tt/ju8gELG
Biden State of the Union missed mark on energy independence amid Russian war on Ukraine, critics say - Fox News
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/gm6M0W1
Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Burning cargo ship carrying Porsches, Lamborghinis finally sinks - New York Post
A massive cargo ship carrying 4,000 luxury sports including Lamborghinis, Porsches, Audis, and Bentleys worth an estimated total of $400 million sank off the coast of Europe on Tuesday.
The Felicity Ace, a 60,000-ton merchant ship that caught fire on Feb. 17, ran aground about 253 miles from the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the mid-Atlantic Ocean.
The ship’s owner, MOL Ship Management Singapore Pte Ltd, said that the Panama-flagged vessel sank at around 9am local time.
The Felicity Ace started to tilt to one side and take on water after it caught fire. There was no loss of life as all 22 sailors on board the ship were rescued after the fire started last month.
There were 3,965 Volkswagen AG vehicles on board, including 1,100 Porches, according to Bloomberg. The ship set sail from Emden, Germany, on Feb. 10 and was headed to Davisville, Rhode Island.
Volkswagen’s parent company manufactures its Volkswagen brand, as well as Porsche, Audi, and Lamborghini models, all of which were on board, an internal company email seen by the outlet said.
While Volkswagen declined to assess the value of the luxury cars that were lost, an incident insurance group told The Wall Street Journal that it estimates the vehicles were worth around $401 million.
Car dealerships in Michigan and Rhode Island fielded calls from nervous customers who followed the news about the ship.
One man tweeted that his custom-ordered Porsche Boxster Spyder was on the doomed ship. Base models of the vehicle sell for $100,000.
European carmakers declined to discuss how many vehicles and what models were on board, but Porsche customers in the United States were being contacted by their dealers, the company said.
“We are already working to replace every car affected by this incident and the first new cars will be built soon,” Angus Fitton, vice president of PR at Porsche Cars North America, Inc., told The Associated Press in an email.
World - Latest - Google News
March 02, 2022 at 01:45AM
https://ift.tt/EnVLfyM
Burning cargo ship carrying Porsches, Lamborghinis finally sinks - New York Post
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/pfbxc8z
Ukraine War Sets Off Europe’s Fastest Migration in Decades - The New York Times
At least 660,000 people, mostly women and children, fled Ukraine in the five days after Russia invaded — the most intense wave of European migration since at least the 1990s.
ON THE UKRAINIAN-MOLDOVAN BORDER — The war in Ukraine has set off the fastest mass migration in Europe in at least three decades, prompting comparisons with the Balkan wars of the 1990s and providing echoes of the vast population displacement that followed World War II.
At least 660,000 people, most of them women and children, fled Ukraine for neighboring countries to the west in the first five days of Russia’s invasion, according to the United Nations refugee agency, which collated statistics recorded by national immigration authorities. And that figure does not include those displaced within Ukraine, or who fled or were ordered to evacuate to Russia.
In less than a week, the flight of Ukrainians is at least 10 times as high as the one-week record of people entering Europe during the 2015 migration crisis, and nearly double the number of refugees recorded by the United Nations during the first 11 days of the Kosovo war in 1999.
The historic westward movement of people has caused lines of up to 24 hours at border checkpoints along Ukraine’s borders with Poland, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, and prompted a vast humanitarian response by both governments and civilians. Refugees have been sheltered in repurposed schools as well as private apartments, makeshift camps, conference centers, upscale wineries and even the home of a Moldovan lawmaker.
“We don’t know where we’re going,” said Anna Rogachova, 34, a homemaker from Odessa, a city on the Black Sea, minutes after crossing into Moldova with her 8-year-old daughter on Tuesday morning. “And we don’t know when we’re coming back.”
“Let the world know,” Ms. Rogachova said, pointing at a multicolored suitcase in the back of her car. “We left everything. We put all our lives in this single bag.”
Then, as the snow began to fall, she started to cry.
Some refugees believe the war will end soon, allowing them to return quickly. Ms. Rogachova wasn’t so sure.
If the displacement stretches out for years, it would present long-term challenges for Ukraine, which would face a brain drain of rare proportions, and for host countries where resources are limited and anti-immigrant sentiment has run strong. But it could mean opportunities; Eastern European countries like Moldova, which have experienced depopulation for decades, could suddenly find themselves boosted by a large, educated immigrant population.
Migration statistics can be imprecise, particularly in the opening stages of a chaotic new crisis, Peter Gatrell, a historian of European migration at the University of Manchester in Britain, said in a phone interview.
But to leading migration historians like Professor Gatrell, the scenes nevertheless already summon echoes of the great migrations in European history, including those in the 1940s, when several million people were displaced throughout Europe at the end of World War II.
United Nations officials have said the war could produce as many as four million refugees. If the fighting becomes protracted and Ukrainians continue to migrate at the current rate, that could be a conservative estimate, said Philipp Ther, professor of Central European history at the University of Vienna, and the author of a history of refugees in Europe since 1492.
“That would be on the scale of the postwar situation,” Professor Ther said in a telephone interview.
Large numbers of civilians on the move could restrict the Ukrainian military’s ability to maneuver, just as huge refugee flows hindered armies at the end of World War II, he said.
Such was the extent of the migration this week that secondary logjams also occurred at subsequent crossings far beyond Ukraine’s borders, including on the Moldovan-Romanian border, 70 miles west of Ukraine, as some Ukrainians attempted to push on to friends and family based in Central Europe and beyond.
In some ways, the crisis was no surprise. In Moldova, the government had planned for months for a sudden influx, the Moldovan interior minister, Ana Revenco, said in a phone interview. But the scale of the crisis was shocking: By Monday night, 70,000 people — more than double the government’s projections — had entered Moldova, a nation of just 2.6 million and one of Europe’s poorest.
The flows include hardly any men aged between 18 and 60, whom the Kyiv government has barred from leaving Ukraine unless they have a medical condition that would restrict their ability to fight.
“In terms of the intensity,” Ms. Revenco said, “it was probably something nobody was prepared for.”
Lost in the grand narratives were the small and sad stories of individual people. Many were in shock — not only at the war itself, but also at the suddenness with which they had been ripped from a life of normalcy.
When war broke out on Thursday, Ms. Rogachova had just returned from a figure-skating competition in Kharkiv, where her daughter, Maria, 8, took first place.
A 17-year-old high school student had just celebrated her birthday in Odessa.
A 34-year-old singer had just come back to Ukraine from Russia, dismissing the talk of war.
On Tuesday morning, all three were in the Moldovan snow, unsure when or if they would return.
The singer, Julia Kondratieva, was even planning to press further west, fearing the war would spill over into Moldova. “It’s not a good idea to stay,” she said. “Maybe there will be fighting here.”
Leaving in such a rush, many had forgotten or abandoned their most prized belongings. Apart from clothes, food and essential documents, Ms. Rogachova had packed just her daughter’s skates.
As is common at the start of mass migrations, the earliest arrivals were often those with the money and the means to move quickly. At the Palanca border crossing in Moldova on Tuesday, the cars leaving Ukraine included four-by-fours and German-made sedans. At a nearby winery-cum-resort, most of the guests were Ukrainians, waiting to see if the war would ebb before deciding whether to push onward.
But there were also many without such options.
Trudging across the snowy border, there were mothers pushing strollers, a schoolgirl clutching her books, a woman carrying a bag of toilet paper and another carrying a small dog.
Some had decided to leave only hours before, after an increase in air raids around a previously calm Odessa.
Russia-Ukraine War: Key Things to Know
Civilians under fire. Russian forces targeted Ukrainian cities with increasingly powerful weapons on the sixth day of the invasion, inflicting a heavy toll on civilians. Explosions shook Kyiv and Kharkiv, while Russian troops moved to capture Mariupol in the south, a critical port city.
Pushing her 1-year-old son in a stroller, Anna Hak, 28, said she’d initially tried to make a game of hiding in the air-raid shelters. “At first we played ‘Let’s hide from the thunder!’” said Ms. Hak, a teacher. “But then you see your hands are shaking and you realize you can’t pretend anymore.”
For some foreign nationals, particularly from the developing world, escaping from Ukraine was particularly traumatic. A group of Vietnamese workers were quickly housed in a makeshift government camp in Moldova on Tuesday. But African refugees have reported widespread discrimination making it especially hard for them to leave; on the Polish border, a Times reporter observed that Africans were being processed far slower than Ukrainians.
Christian, 30, an electrical engineer from Congo, who only gave his first name to avoid problems with the authorities, said he had been waiting 20 hours to pass. After traveling by train from Odessa, he was worried what was to come. After eight years studying and working in Ukraine, he said, he did not know where he could go. “There is war here and there is war in Congo.”
But at least he had documents, he said. “There are many here without papers,” he said. “What will happen to them?”
One Ukrainian woman went into labor while on a bus to the border, forcing her to stay in Ukraine, according to an Israeli charity, United Hatzalah, that assisted her.
Another pregnant woman, Maria Voinscaia, made it to Moldova just in time, and was scheduled to give birth by cesarean section on Wednesday.
Did she wonder when her child might first see Ukraine? “I don’t even want to think about it,” Ms. Voinscaia, 31, said in a phone interview from a hospital. “Last week I couldn’t even imagine it.”
For some, the thought of a permanent rupture from their homeland had deepened their sense of Ukrainian identity.
On the night before they all left for Moldova, Ms. Rogachova hunkered down with her daughter, Maria, and mother, Viktoria Tkatchenko — all native Russian speakers.
“Never, ever forget you’re Ukrainian,” Ms. Tkatchenko had told Maria.
“We’ll speak Ukrainian at home,” Maria had promised.
But now it wasn’t clear where home was.
Ms. Tkatchenko was heading to Chisinau, the Moldovan capital, to stay with an aunt. Ms. Rogachova and her daughter were heading to Germany to stay with friends of friends.
And standing in the snow, Ms. Rogachova was again in tears.
Carlotta Gall contributed reporting from Medyka, Poland, and Irina Perciun from Palanca, Moldova.
World - Latest - Google News
March 02, 2022 at 09:29AM
https://ift.tt/Smh6p0u
Ukraine War Sets Off Europe’s Fastest Migration in Decades - The New York Times
World - Latest - Google News
https://ift.tt/pfbxc8z
Featured Post
Qatar 'appalled' by reported criticism from Israel's Netanyahu - BBC.com
By David Gritten BBC News Reuters Qatar's foreign ministry said the Israeli prime minister's reported remarks were ...
Popular Posts
-
DENVER — Even if he isn’t lighting the baseball world on fire as he did two years ago, Pete Alonso reminded everyone Monday night that he re...
-
Rep. Liz Cheney Elizabeth (Liz) Lynn Cheney Trump says he believes Scarborough 'got away with murder' Hillicon Valley: House FISA b...
-
Military & Defense Iran ups the ante against US, proxies strike Iraq military base with ballistic missiles Rebecca Rommen 2024...
