Tag: Ukraine

The Kremlin is demanding that Ukraine arrest its security chief and send him to Russia


  • Russia is demanding that Ukraine arrest its own security chief and extradite him to Moscow.

  • The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Vasyl Malyuk of being involved in terrorist acts.

  • Malyuk said in July 2023 that his agency had destroyed a bridge in Crimea in October 2022.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded on Sunday evening that Ukraine arrest the head of its own security services and extradite him to Russia.

The ministry issued a statement blaming Vasyl Malyuk, the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine, for an explosion at a bridge in Crimea that Russia said killed five people in October 2022.

The statement called the explosion one of several “barbaric bomb attacks,” mentioning them alongside the devastating Moscow concert hall attack in March 2022 that killed at least 140 people.

Russia has accused Kyiv of facilitating the concert hall attack, with leader Vladimir Putin saying that Ukraine’s authorities allowed the gunmen to pass through its borders. No evidence was presented to support this accusation, and the terrorist group ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the killings.

As for the bridge explosion in Crimea, Malyuk said publicly in July 2023 that his agency was behind the attack.

“It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on October 8 last year,” he told Ukrainian TV, per The Associated Press.

Before this admission, Ukraine was already widely regarded as responsible for the bridge’s destruction.

Russia’s foreign ministry described the bridge attack as a terrorist act, and said it told Kyiv to “immediately arrest and extradite every person implicated.”

Moscow and Kyiv have been engaged in open war since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine’s security service told local media that Russia’s claims of Kyiv-sanctioned terrorism were “especially cynical on the anniversary of the liberation of the town of Bucha and the atrocities committed by the Russians there.”

“So any words by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry are worthless,” it said in a statement, per Ukrainska Pravda.

The security service added that Putin himself is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, over accusations of his forces carrying out war crimes against children in Ukraine.

The press team for the Security Service of Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

Read the original article on Business Insider



Source link

‘It’s possible’ Speaker Johnson could lose his job over Ukraine vote: GOP congressman


IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

  • Now Playing

    ‘It’s possible’ Speaker Johnson could lose his job over Ukraine vote: GOP congressman

    01:15

  • UP NEXT

    Rep. Clyburn defends U.S. aid to Israel: ‘Leverage has to be used’ but ‘we have to keep our word’

    02:47

  • ‘At this point, there’s not a specific crime’ to impeach Biden over, says GOP congressman

    01:05

  • GOP Rep. Bacon says federal government has a ‘role’ in Baltimore bridge rebuild: Full interview

    10:53

  • Rep. Clyburn says Clinton, Obama will appear more on campaign trail to show ‘unity’: Full interview

    12:02

  • Clyburn says he didn’t work with Republicans on gerrymandered map: ‘I offered my suggestions’

    01:53

  • Savannah Guthrie says ‘God understands’ people who’ve lost their faith: Full interview

    19:31

  • It’s ‘possible’ Dobbs could be overturned: Justice Breyer full interview

    01:09:52

  • South Carolina will use district map previously deemed illegal in 2024 House election

    04:40

  • ‘Evan is not here’: Gershkovich’s parents speak out a full year since his arrest

    06:19

  • Israeli delegation visit to Washington to be rescheduled amid diplomatic strains

    03:40

  • House Republicans plan next steps in twin impeachment inquiries

    02:50

  • Gov. Walz: Uncommitted voters were expressing ‘frustration,’ but ‘will come home’ to Biden

    06:57

  • Hunter Biden lawyers ask judge to dismiss tax charges

    02:17

  • Speaker Johnson has to ‘have the spine’ to bring Ukraine aid to floor, Democratic congressman says

    07:02

  • Brother of Baltimore bridge worker shares frustration over recovery mission

    01:57

  • Democrats optimistic about 2024 chances in North Carolina

    04:09

  • Lara Trump on 2020 election: ‘That’s in the past’

    13:32

  • Supreme Court may rely on ‘procedural punt’ in abortion pill case, says legal expert

    04:55

  • Johnson needs to compromise with Democrats to retain speakership, Rep. Quigley says

    08:05

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) tells Meet the Press that there are “one or two people that are not team players” in the House Republican conference, and they may choose to vote to remove Speaker Johnson over a vote to support aid to Ukraine.March 31, 2024

  • Now Playing

    ‘It’s possible’ Speaker Johnson could lose his job over Ukraine vote: GOP congressman

    01:15

  • UP NEXT

    Rep. Clyburn defends U.S. aid to Israel: ‘Leverage has to be used’ but ‘we have to keep our word’

    02:47

  • ‘At this point, there’s not a specific crime’ to impeach Biden over, says GOP congressman

    01:05

  • GOP Rep. Bacon says federal government has a ‘role’ in Baltimore bridge rebuild: Full interview

    10:53

  • Rep. Clyburn says Clinton, Obama will appear more on campaign trail to show ‘unity’: Full interview

    12:02

  • Clyburn says he didn’t work with Republicans on gerrymandered map: ‘I offered my suggestions’

    01:53



Source link

‘It’s possible’ Johnson could lose speakership over Ukraine



Rep. Don Bacon on Sunday warned that “it’s possible” that Speaker Mike Johnson could face a vote to oust him if he moves to pass Ukraine aid in the House.

“I’m not going to deny it,” Bacon, R-Neb., said when asked by NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker whether it’s possible Johnson could lose his speakership over Ukraine aid.

“We have one or two people that are not team — they’re not team players. They’d rather enjoy the limelight, the social media,” Bacon added, though he did not name any members.

“It’s a very narrow majority, and one or two people can make us a minority,” he said.

Bacon favors some support for Ukraine and highlighted his partnership with Reps. Jared Golden, D-Maine, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Ed Case, D-Hawaii, on a Ukraine aid bill.

“We put a bill together that focuses on military aid — a $66 billion bill that provides military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan,” Bacon told Welker, calling for a “bicameral, bipartisan solution.”

“If we do this bill, and I think we will, there’s enough support in the House to get this done. And, and I want to make sure that we have support in the Senate,” Bacon said.



Source link

France to deliver hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine, defense minister says


PARIS (AP) — French Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France is to deliver “hundreds” of armored vehicles by the beginning of next year to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid for the country that just entered its third year since the Russian invasion.

In an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune’s Sunday edition, Lecornu said that “to hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armored personnel carriers. It’s absolutely key for troop mobility.”

The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armored personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armored vehicles. “This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” Lecornu said.

Lecornu also said France will provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft missiles.

The move comes as France’s government is pushing its military industry to boost its production to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition.

Lecornu on Tuesday said France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will increase its supply of shells.

___

Find more of AP’s coverage of Russia and Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine



Source link

France to supply Ukraine with more armour and missiles


France is to provide Ukraine with additional armoured vehicles and anti-aircraft missiles, taken from old but still functional equipment in French stocks, Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said in remarks published on Sunday.

The equipment includes wheeled armoured personnel carriers of the type VAB and missiles of type Aster for the SAMP/T systems.

The VABs were key to troop mobility along the long front and had been requested by Ukraine, which has previously taken delivery of vehicles of this type.

Speaking to newspaper La Tribune, Lecornu declined to stipulate the quantities being provided, beyond saying that “hundreds” of the armoured vehicles would be sent to Ukraine. They would arrive this year or at the beginning of next.

France is reported to have supplied Ukraine with materiel to the value of some €2.6 billion ($2.8 billion) since the Russian invasion in February 2022.



Source link

Germany’s Easter marchers demand end to fighting in Ukraine and Gaza


People across Germany on Saturday joined the country’s traditional Easter marches that emerged from last century’s peace movement, with marchers this year calling for an end to fighting in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.

The marches against nuclear weapons and in favour of peace have been held over Easter for more than 60 years. The main day of action is Saturday, with around 70 events scheduled to take place across the country.

In Berlin, some 3,500 people joined this year’s Easter March, according to police estimates.

More than 1,000 marched for peace in the northern city of Bremen, while several hundred joined demonstrations in Cologne, Duisburg, Saarbrücken, Leipzig and Kassel.

Marchers called for negotiations and diplomatic solutions to the Ukraine war, started by Russia on February 24, 2022, and fighting in Gaza, as well as an end to weapons deliveries for Kiev and Israel.

Israel launched a military operation in the Palestinian coastal area following the October 7 massacres led by the Palestinian extremist organization Hamas.

Participants in Berlin carried placards with slogans like “Friendship with Russia – Viva Palestine,” and “Genocide in Gaza,” referring to the high number of civilian deaths caused by Israel’s military incursion.

Others criticized the government in Berlin and people waved Russian and Palestinian flags.

The Easter Marches emerged from last century’s pan-European peace movement calling for nuclear disarmament and protesting the arms race, with the first Easter march held in Britain in 1958.

This year, marchers in Germany are also demanding a more fundamental rejection of the logic of war and militarization.

Pro-Palestinian activists take part in a demonstration, as part of an Easter march with the slogan "Leipzig wants peace". Sebastian Willnow/dpa

Pro-Palestinian activists take part in a demonstration, as part of an Easter march with the slogan “Leipzig wants peace”. Sebastian Willnow/dpa

People take part in the traditional Easter march under the motto "Warlike - Never Again" with signs reading "The 180 Degree Greens, Plowshares to Tanks", "Warmongers to the Front". Fabian Sommer/dpa

People take part in the traditional Easter march under the motto “Warlike – Never Again” with signs reading “The 180 Degree Greens, Plowshares to Tanks”, “Warmongers to the Front”. Fabian Sommer/dpa

People gather on Roncalliplatz for the Easter march under the slogan "For a civil turnaround - end wars, stop rearmament!". Christian Knieps/dpa

People gather on Roncalliplatz for the Easter march under the slogan “For a civil turnaround – end wars, stop rearmament!”. Christian Knieps/dpa

Sabine Rosenbrock (L) holds a placard at Roncalliplatz during the Easter march under the motto "For a civil turnaround - end wars, stop rearmament!". Christian Knieps/dpa

Sabine Rosenbrock (L) holds a placard at Roncalliplatz during the Easter march under the motto “For a civil turnaround – end wars, stop rearmament!”. Christian Knieps/dpa

People holding Palestinian flags and flags with doves of peace gather on Roncalliplatz for the Easter march under the motto "For a civil turnaround - end wars, stop rearmament!". Christian Knieps/dpa

People holding Palestinian flags and flags with doves of peace gather on Roncalliplatz for the Easter march under the motto “For a civil turnaround – end wars, stop rearmament!”. Christian Knieps/dpa



Source link

Zelenskyy fires more aides in a reshuffle as Russia launches drones and missiles across Ukraine



KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight.

Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months. It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on Feb. 8. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia launched 12 Shahed drones overnight, nine of which were shot down, and fired four missiles into eastern Ukraine.

Russia unleashed a barrage of 38 missiles, 75 airstrikes and 98 attacks from multiple rocket launchers over the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces said in social media posts.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest thermal power plants in the eastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 people had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions.

Officials in the Poltava region said Saturday there had been “several hits” to an infrastructure facility, without specifying whether it was an energy facility.

Meanwhile, the toll of Friday’s mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across Ukraine came to light on Saturday, with local officials in the Kherson region on Saturday morning announcing the death of one civilian. A resident of the Dnipropetrovsk region died in a hospital from shell wounds, according to regional Gov. Serhiy Lisak.



Source link

Zelenskyy fires more aides in a reshuffle as Russia launches drones and missiles across Ukraine


KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight.

Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months. It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on Feb. 8. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Ukraine’s air force said Saturday that Russia launched 12 Shahed drones overnight, nine of which were shot down, and fired four missiles into eastern Ukraine.

Russia unleashed a barrage of 38 missiles, 75 airstrikes and 98 attacks from multiple rocket launchers over the last 24 hours, Ukraine’s armed forces said in social media posts.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest thermal power plants in the eastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 people had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions.

Officials in the Poltava region said Saturday there had been “several hits” to an infrastructure facility, without specifying whether it was an energy facility.

Meanwhile, the toll of Friday’s mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across Ukraine came to light on Saturday, with local officials in the Kherson region on Saturday morning announcing the death of one civilian. A resident of the Dnipropetrovsk region died in a hospital from shell wounds, according to regional Gov. Serhiy Lisak.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine



Source link

Israeli airstrikes kill 44 people in Syria, war monitor says


Israeli airstrikes kill 44 people in Syria, war monitor says – CBS News

Watch CBS News


A U.K. war monitor says Israeli airstrikes killed 44 people near the Syrian city of Aleppo early Friday. Human rights groups have called it the deadliest attack in Syria in years. CBS News national security contributor Sam Vinograd joins with analysis.

Be the first to know

Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.




Source link

1 year after Evan Gershkovich’s arrest in Russia, Biden vows to “continue working every day” for his release


Washington — President Biden pledged Friday to “continue working every day” to secure the release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from Russian detention, as the American journalist’s time imprisoned in Russia hit the one-year mark.

“We will continue to denounce and impose costs for Russia’s appalling attempts to use Americans as bargaining chips,” Mr. Biden said in a statement released Friday that also mentioned the case of Paul Whelan, another U.S. citizen who has been held in Russia since 2018.

Gershkovich — whom the U.S. State Department deemed “wrongfully detained” soon after his arrest — is still awaiting a trial on espionage charges that the White House, his family and his employer all insist are fabricated, but which could still see him sentenced to decades in prison.

The U.S.-born son of Soviet emigres covered Russia for six years, as the Kremlin made independent, on-the-ground reporting increasingly dangerous and illegal.

TOPSHOT-RUSSIA-US-JOURNALIST
Journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands inside a defendants’ cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow, April 18, 2023.

NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty


His arrest in March 2023 on charges of spying — the first such charge against a Western journalist since the Soviet era — showed that the Kremlin was prepared to go further than ever before in what President Vladimir Putin has called a “hybrid war” with the West.

The Journal and the U.S. government dismiss the espionage allegations as a false pretext to keep Gershkovich locked up, likely to use him as a bargaining chip in a future prisoner exchange deal.

Putin said last month that he would like to see Gershkovich released as part of a prisoner swap, but the Biden administration has said Moscow rejected the most recent exchange offer presented to it.

The 32-year-old, who has been remanded in custody until at least the end of June, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

The Gershkovich family said in a letter published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday that they would pursue their campaign for his release.

“We never anticipated this situation happening to our son and brother, let alone a full year with no certainty or clear path forward,” they said. “But despite this long battle, we are still standing strong.”

Gershkovich reported extensively on how ordinary Russians experienced the Ukraine conflict, speaking to the families of dead soldiers and Putin critics. Breaking stories and getting people to talk was becoming increasingly hard, Gershkovich told friends before his arrest.

But as long as it was not impossible, he saw a reason to be there.


Zelenskyy on Ukraine’s ability to win war against Russia

02:15

“He knew for some stories he was followed around and people he talked to would be pressured not to talk to him,” Guardian correspondent Pjotr Sauer, a close friend, told AFP. “But he was accredited by the foreign ministry. I don’t think any of us could see the Russians going as far as charging him with this fake espionage.”

Speaking to CBS News’ Leslie Stahl last week, the reporter’s sister Danielle said the family back in the U.S. was still worried, despite Gershkovich’s repeated assurances to them of his accreditation, which he thought would keep him safe, as it always had.

But as Stahl reported, what used to be unprecedented in Russia has become almost routine under Putin. Gershkovich is only the most recent American to inadvertently become a pawn on Putin’s geopolitical chessboard against the West.

Whelan, a U.S. Marine veteran, has been jailed in Russia for five years. Russian-American ballerina Ksenia Karelina was arrested in January, accused of treason for helping Ukraine. And basketball star Brittney Griner, imprisoned for nine months on drug charges, was finally freed in an exchange for a notorious arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.”



Source link