Video footage has emerged from the city of Mariupol in Ukraine showing the bodies of more than 20 civilians lying along a main road.
The graphic videos, posted on social media in recent days, come as the United Nations has confirmed that it is investigating hundreds of allegations of killing of civilians during the invasion of Ukraine.
The southern port city of Mariupol has been the scene of weeks of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces attacked a steel plant in the shattered Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said, apparently seeking to eliminate the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic city the Kremlin claims its military has otherwise seized.
The assault was reported by an advisor to Ukraine’s presidential office as an estimated 1,000 civilians sheltered in the Azovstal plant alongside the remaining Ukrainian fighters, while Russian forces pressed their offensive elsewhere in the eastern Donbas region amid fierce Ukrainian counterattacks.
Video of Russian T-80BV tanks conducing a tank carousel firing on Ukrainian positions in Mariupol from a few days ago.
Video: Rob Lee#Mariupol #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/us2HVR2EEd
— Qinglian Jushi (@catminh17) April 23, 2022
Alexander Dugin has endowed Putin’s brutal imperialism with an almost spiritual significance.
In 2014, a Foreign Affairs article described Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin as ‘Putin’s brain’.
At the time, it seemed a fitting epithet. The then 52-year-old Dugin was championing Russia’s annexation of Crimea and urging on the further conquest of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine. Superficially, at least, he seemed to be uncannily in tune with the Kremlin.
It’s a huge, hangar-like building, disused and decrepit, on the outskirts of Lviv. But for Mykola Piddubnyi and his colleague Irina Gavrilova, the local entrepreneur’s gift was a godsend, allowing them to move their expanding wartime supply operation out of Gavrilova’s tiny apartment. The day I visited, there were dozens of wooden pallets spread out across the big space: one cluster—maybe 40 cardboard boxes—for baked goods, another for large plastic buckets filled with dumplings, still other areas for canned food and toiletries, even a pallet piled high with crutches and wheelchairs.
Canada is expected to send four of its relatively new M-777 howitzers to Ukraine to help it face down a renewed Russian offensive from the east, CBC News has learned.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the plan to ship “heavy artillery” earlier this week, but offered no details on what the Canadian military would be donating.
“Their most recent ask was exactly for that, for heavy artillery, for reasons of operational security,” Trudeau said on Wednesday. “I can’t go into the details at this point on how and what we’re getting to them exactly.”
Eye opener – The shipment is expected to include an unspecified amount of ammunition, including precision-guided Excalibur rounds left over from the Afghan war, said a third source. The GPS-guided shells are worth about $112,000 US per round.
WASHINGTON, April 22 (Reuters) – Canada’s Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Friday said that it was impossible to collaborate with Russia in the G20, a group of countries that meets to discuss ways to foster global economic growth, as long as Moscow is waging war in Ukraine.
“The G20 can’t function effectively with Russia at the table,” Freeland said in a joint news conference with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko in Washington, where G20 countries held talks on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.
Police across Canada are investigating alleged acts of vandalism, theft and even arson against Ukrainian Canadians or those showing their support amid Russia’s invasion of the neighbouring country.
Alexandra Chyczij of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress said these kinds of incidents across Canada are “a growing phenomenon.”
“It’s a very troubling tendency and has frankly a lot of people frightened,” Chyczij told CTV National News’ John Vennavally-Rao.
Russia aims to seize southern Ukraine and to open a route to the separatist region of Transnistria in Moldova, a senior Russian general says.
Maj Gen Rustam Minnekayev specified that Moscow would seek to take “full control” over the south in addition to the eastern Donbas region – the stated objective of the Russian authorities.
Transnistria is a small Russian-backed region that borders Ukraine.
It is unclear if Gen Minnekayev’s comments were officially sanctioned.
Russian commander suggests plan is for permanent occupation of south Ukraine
A senior Russian military commander has said that the goal of Russia’s new offensive is to seize control of southern Ukraine and form a land bridge to Crimea, indicating that Russia plans a permanent occupation of Ukrainian territory taken in the war.
Rustam Minnekayev, acting commander of the central military district, also told members of a defence industry forum on Friday that control over southern Ukraine would give Russia access to Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway region of Moldova, indicating that Russia may attack the port city of Odesa.
#Ukraine: In Polohy, #Zaporizhzhia Oblast a Russian BMP infantry fighting vehicle was damaged by a RKG-1600 (RKG-3 based) projectile, dropped from a Ukrainian R18 Octocopter. pic.twitter.com/tca4kyrscL
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 21, 2022
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this week that Canada will send artillery to Ukraine in response to a request from President Volodymyr Zelensky — which would mark a shift in the nature of the military aid Canada is offering the embattled nation.
Though Trudeau hasn’t said what type of artillery Canada plans to provide, he called the move a response to the shifting state of the war as Russia concentrates its forces in eastern Ukraine.
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto says Finns ‘on the streets’ are concerned with nuclear question
The prospect of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine is a key factor behind Finland’s debate over whether to join Nato, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Pekka Haavisto is having a busy few weeks. As Finland’s foreign minister, Haavisto, 64, may soon oversee the biggest political shift the country has experienced since it joined the EU almost three decades ago. “Finland is currently making its choices. And among those choices, Nato membership is one,” Haavisto told the Guardian in an interview on Thursday.
This could make Putin Go Nuke! Report: Chinese credit card processor rebuffs Russian banks
BEIJING (AP) — China’s credit card processor has refused to work with banks in Russia for fear of being targeted by sanctions over its war on Ukraine, cutting off a possible alternative after Visa and Mastercard stopped serving them, according to the Russian news outlet RBC.
UnionPay’s decision affects Sberbank, Russia’s biggest commercial bank, and smaller institutions, RBC reported Wednesday. It cited five unidentified sources in large Russian banks.
On April 15, 2022, Russian defense authorities announced that the Moskva, a guided-missile cruiser, had sunk while under tow following an onboard blaze caused by an ammunition fire. Before the first official announcements from Moscow, Ukraine claimed to have hit the ship with a pair of locally-developed, shore-based Neptune anti-ship missiles, a claim that was corroborated by U.S. officials. The Russian Navy armada off Ukraine’s coast was observed pulling back farther south, a potential sign of concerns about the threat posed by Ukraine’s missiles.
A group of 61 Canadians will be “indefinitely prohibited” from entering the Russian Federation, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced Thursday.
Among the Canadians banned are foreign and defence policy adviser to the prime minister of Canada Dan Costello, Toronto Mayor John Tory, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Premier of Alberta Jason Kenney, chairman of the Bank of Canada Tiff Maclem, and president and CEO of CBC/Radio Canada Catherine Tait.
The latest battle zone in the Russia-Ukraine war was in the quiet, mostly mannerly halls of the United Nations. There, in the UN’s iconic New York headquarters, the world voted on Russia’s largest invasion since World War II — revealing fractures and fissures in global support for democracy.
Suspending Russia from the UN Human Rights Council was technically the issue put before the delegates. But every diplomat knew it was really a vote on Russia’s assault on Ukraine. The consensus for democracy and self-determination was fragile: only 93 states (out of 193) voted for removing Russia from the UNHRC, and therefore condemning its actions against its smaller, weaker neighbor. Another 24 nations (including China) voted with Russia. Most worrisome, 58 countries abstained, refusing to take sides in what many see as a duel between the great powers. Others feared that energy, food, and fertilizer prices might continue to climb if the conflict escalates. (Both Russia and Ukraine are major producers of oil, gas, wheat, and fertilizing petrochemicals — all of which are a matter of life and death for developing nations.) Fear and food are more important to many developing nations than democratic ideals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million in military aid to help Ukraine fight back in its strong but increasingly difficult battle against the Russian invasion, but he also warned that Congress will need to approve even more assistance if the U.S. is to keep up its crucial support.
The new military package includes much needed heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones for the escalating battle in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. It builds on roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance that Biden had previously approved.
… A poll published Thursday by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows Americans’ desire to get involved has waned somewhat. Some 32% say the U.S. should have a major role in the conflict. That’s ticked down from 40% last month, though it’s slightly higher than the 26% who said so in February. An additional 49% say the U.S. should have a minor role.
