Chernobyl radiation detectors are back online for the first time since Russia’s invasion.
Radiation detectors at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine are back online for the first time since the Russian invasion more than 100 days ago, and radiation levels are normal, the head of the international nuclear watchdog agency said.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called the resumption of radiation data transmission “a very positive step forward for nuclear safety and security in Ukraine.”
“It ends a long period of virtual information blackout that created much uncertainty about the radiation situation in the area, especially when it was under Russian occupation,” he said.
The detectors stopped working on Feb. 24, the first day of the invasion. Russian forces set up encampments and dug trenches in the forests around the plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986. Russian troops left on March 31. Read more
@nytimes
Radiation detectors at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine are back online for the first time since the Russian invasion more than 100 days ago, and radiation levels are normal, the head of the international nuclear watchdog agency said.
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called the resumption of radiation data transmission “a very positive step forward for nuclear safety and security in Ukraine.”
“It ends a long period of virtual information blackout that created much uncertainty about the radiation situation in the area, especially when it was under Russian occupation,” he said.
The detectors stopped working on Feb. 24, the first day of the invasion. Russian forces set up encampments and dug trenches in the forests around the plant, the site of the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 1986. Russian troops left on March 31. Read more
@nytimes
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As Russia tries to solidify its ‘land bridge,’ Ukraine attempts to push back in the south.
As Russia wages a destructive war in eastern Ukraine, its forces have been busy trying to restore transportation links and other key infrastructure in the vast stretch of land it occupies in the south.
Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu said on Tuesday that Russia’s military, working with Russian Railways, had repaired about 750 miles of track in southeastern Ukraine and set the conditions for “full-fledged traffic” to flow from Russia, through Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, to occupied territory in Kherson and on to Crimea.
He also said that water was once again flowing to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal — an essential source of freshwater that Ukraine cut off in 2014 after the Kremlin annexed the peninsula.
Russia’s claims could not be verified, and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment. Read more
@nytimes
As Russia wages a destructive war in eastern Ukraine, its forces have been busy trying to restore transportation links and other key infrastructure in the vast stretch of land it occupies in the south.
Defense Minister Sergei K. Shoigu said on Tuesday that Russia’s military, working with Russian Railways, had repaired about 750 miles of track in southeastern Ukraine and set the conditions for “full-fledged traffic” to flow from Russia, through Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, to occupied territory in Kherson and on to Crimea.
He also said that water was once again flowing to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal — an essential source of freshwater that Ukraine cut off in 2014 after the Kremlin annexed the peninsula.
Russia’s claims could not be verified, and Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment. Read more
@nytimes
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From the Graveside to the Front, Ukrainians Tell of Grim Endurance
Nearly 600 graves stretch to the edges of the military cemetery outside the city of Dnipro, marked by ranks of yellow and blue Ukrainian flags snapping in the wind.
The graves represent just a small percentage of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have died in eight years of war since Russia first began to annex parts of their country in 2014, but the rapid expansion of this graveyard in eastern Ukraine is telling.
Almost half the graves are fresh. Draped in wreaths of artificial flowers or marked with a wooden cross stuck in the bare mud, they belong to soldiers killed in the last three months, since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The number of Ukrainian casualties remains a closely guarded secret. The media-conscious government of President Volodymyr Zelensky has carefully controlled the flow of information in an apparent attempt to keep public morale high. Read more
@nytimes
Nearly 600 graves stretch to the edges of the military cemetery outside the city of Dnipro, marked by ranks of yellow and blue Ukrainian flags snapping in the wind.
The graves represent just a small percentage of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have died in eight years of war since Russia first began to annex parts of their country in 2014, but the rapid expansion of this graveyard in eastern Ukraine is telling.
Almost half the graves are fresh. Draped in wreaths of artificial flowers or marked with a wooden cross stuck in the bare mud, they belong to soldiers killed in the last three months, since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The number of Ukrainian casualties remains a closely guarded secret. The media-conscious government of President Volodymyr Zelensky has carefully controlled the flow of information in an apparent attempt to keep public morale high. Read more
@nytimes
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Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said his troops were continuing to inflict losses on Russian forces in a “very fierce battle” over the city of Sievierodonetsk, which he called the center for the fight for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly address on Wednesday.
The British Defense Ministry said on Thursday in its latest intelligence assessment that Moscow’s troops were trying to renew a push into Donbas from the occupied city of Izium, and warned that progress there could “put further pressure on Sievierodonetsk.”
In other developments:
- The European Parliament recommended that Ukraine be granted candidate status for membership in the E.U., according to Ukraine’s prime minister. The E.U.’s decision on Ukraine’s candidacy is expected in late June.
- American citizens and companies are now prohibited from buying Russian stocks. Read more
@nytimes
President Volodymyr Zelensky said his troops were continuing to inflict losses on Russian forces in a “very fierce battle” over the city of Sievierodonetsk, which he called the center for the fight for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.
“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” the Ukrainian leader said in his nightly address on Wednesday.
The British Defense Ministry said on Thursday in its latest intelligence assessment that Moscow’s troops were trying to renew a push into Donbas from the occupied city of Izium, and warned that progress there could “put further pressure on Sievierodonetsk.”
In other developments:
- The European Parliament recommended that Ukraine be granted candidate status for membership in the E.U., according to Ukraine’s prime minister. The E.U.’s decision on Ukraine’s candidacy is expected in late June.
- American citizens and companies are now prohibited from buying Russian stocks. Read more
@nytimes
Nytimes
Zelensky cites a ‘very fierce battle’ over the city of Sievierodonetsk. (Gift Article)
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Street fighting and fires: The scene as fighting pummels Sievierodonetsk.
From the high ground across the river from the contested city of Sievierodonetsk, the precariousness of the Ukrainian position is clear.
The city is burning. As smoke rises, the boom of artillery thunders unceasingly. The clatter of small-arms fire from urban street battles echoes in the distance. Ukrainian soldiers still in control of Lysychansk, the twin city of Sievierodonetsk, scramble from bunkers to basements, seeking cover as mortars, artillery and rockets pound their position.
This is what a war of attrition looks like — both sides inflicting as much pain as they can while trying to hold their resolve. And in recent days Ukrainian officials have said that while there may be a need to withdraw from certain positions, the battle over the twin cities could prove pivotal in the war for the eastern region known as Donbas.
“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” President Zelensky said. Read more
@nytimes
From the high ground across the river from the contested city of Sievierodonetsk, the precariousness of the Ukrainian position is clear.
The city is burning. As smoke rises, the boom of artillery thunders unceasingly. The clatter of small-arms fire from urban street battles echoes in the distance. Ukrainian soldiers still in control of Lysychansk, the twin city of Sievierodonetsk, scramble from bunkers to basements, seeking cover as mortars, artillery and rockets pound their position.
This is what a war of attrition looks like — both sides inflicting as much pain as they can while trying to hold their resolve. And in recent days Ukrainian officials have said that while there may be a need to withdraw from certain positions, the battle over the twin cities could prove pivotal in the war for the eastern region known as Donbas.
“In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there,” President Zelensky said. Read more
@nytimes
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Russia Opens 1,100 Cases Against Ukrainian P.O.W.s, Raising Fears of Show Trials
Russian investigators on Thursday said they had opened more than 1,100 cases into “crimes against peace” committed by the Ukrainian government, paving the way for what could turn into a mass show trial of hundreds of Ukrainian service members.
From the start, Russia has justified its invasion of Ukraine with a false claim that the government in Kyiv is controlled by far-right, pro-Nazi groups that have perpetrated “humiliation and genocide” against the Ukrainian people.
Announcing the invasion in February, President Vladimir Putin claimed the purpose of the offensive was to “demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians.” Read more
@nytimes
Russian investigators on Thursday said they had opened more than 1,100 cases into “crimes against peace” committed by the Ukrainian government, paving the way for what could turn into a mass show trial of hundreds of Ukrainian service members.
From the start, Russia has justified its invasion of Ukraine with a false claim that the government in Kyiv is controlled by far-right, pro-Nazi groups that have perpetrated “humiliation and genocide” against the Ukrainian people.
Announcing the invasion in February, President Vladimir Putin claimed the purpose of the offensive was to “demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians.” Read more
@nytimes
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Putin the Great? Russia’s President Likens Himself to Famous Czar.
Among President Putin’s motives for invading Ukraine, his view of himself as being on a historic mission to rebuild the Russian Empire has always loomed large. Mr. Putin went further, comparing himself directly to Peter the Great.
It was a new, if carefully staged, glimpse into Mr. Putin’s sense of his own grandeur.
Mr. Putin on Thursday marked the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth by visiting a new multimedia exhibit about the czar in Moscow. He then held a town-hall-style meeting with young Russian entrepreneurs and opened it by reflecting on Peter’s conquest of the Baltic coast during his 18th-century war with Sweden.
Mr. Putin described the land Peter conquered as rightfully Russian.
“He was returning it and strengthening it,” Mr. Putin said, leaning back in his armchair. “Well, apparently, it has also fallen to us to return and to strengthen.” Read more
@nytimes
Among President Putin’s motives for invading Ukraine, his view of himself as being on a historic mission to rebuild the Russian Empire has always loomed large. Mr. Putin went further, comparing himself directly to Peter the Great.
It was a new, if carefully staged, glimpse into Mr. Putin’s sense of his own grandeur.
Mr. Putin on Thursday marked the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth by visiting a new multimedia exhibit about the czar in Moscow. He then held a town-hall-style meeting with young Russian entrepreneurs and opened it by reflecting on Peter’s conquest of the Baltic coast during his 18th-century war with Sweden.
Mr. Putin described the land Peter conquered as rightfully Russian.
“He was returning it and strengthening it,” Mr. Putin said, leaning back in his armchair. “Well, apparently, it has also fallen to us to return and to strengthen.” Read more
@nytimes
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3 Foreign Fighters in Ukraine’s Army Sentenced to Death in Russian-Held Territory
Two Britons and a Moroccan who had fought for the Ukrainian armed forces were sentenced to death Thursday by a court in Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine after being accused of being mercenaries, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
The death sentences were the latest ominous step in a trial that has alarmed human rights advocates and Western governments, raising questions about the protections afforded to thousands of foreign-born fighters serving in Ukraine, some of whom have been taken prisoner on the battlefield.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, wrote on Twitter that the court verdict was a “sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.” One British member of Parliament called the proceedings a “Soviet-era-style show trial.” Read more
@nytimes
Two Britons and a Moroccan who had fought for the Ukrainian armed forces were sentenced to death Thursday by a court in Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine after being accused of being mercenaries, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.
The death sentences were the latest ominous step in a trial that has alarmed human rights advocates and Western governments, raising questions about the protections afforded to thousands of foreign-born fighters serving in Ukraine, some of whom have been taken prisoner on the battlefield.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, wrote on Twitter that the court verdict was a “sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.” One British member of Parliament called the proceedings a “Soviet-era-style show trial.” Read more
@nytimes
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‘Dead Cities’ Become the Flashpoint for the Fierce War in the East
Just to move about town, Ukrainian soldiers accelerate to breakneck speeds in their SUVs, screech around corners, zip into courtyards, then pile out and run for cover.
“They see us and they open fire,” Colonel Yuriy Vashchuk said of the need to move quickly or become a vulnerable target for Russian artillery. “There’s no place in this town that is safe.”
He was careering around on the high ground of Lysychansk, across the river from Sievierodonetsk, the site of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine’s East. To be prepared, he placed a hand grenade in the cup holder between the front seats of his vehicle. A box of pistol ammunition slid back and forth on the dashboard as he drove.
Signs of Ukraine’s tenuous military positions are everywhere: On the hills overlooking Sievierodonetsk, smoke from a dozen or so fires testify to weeks of seesaw urban combat. Read more
@nytimes
Just to move about town, Ukrainian soldiers accelerate to breakneck speeds in their SUVs, screech around corners, zip into courtyards, then pile out and run for cover.
“They see us and they open fire,” Colonel Yuriy Vashchuk said of the need to move quickly or become a vulnerable target for Russian artillery. “There’s no place in this town that is safe.”
He was careering around on the high ground of Lysychansk, across the river from Sievierodonetsk, the site of the fiercest fighting in Ukraine’s East. To be prepared, he placed a hand grenade in the cup holder between the front seats of his vehicle. A box of pistol ammunition slid back and forth on the dashboard as he drove.
Signs of Ukraine’s tenuous military positions are everywhere: On the hills overlooking Sievierodonetsk, smoke from a dozen or so fires testify to weeks of seesaw urban combat. Read more
@nytimes
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Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military and its government renewed their pleas for more Western arms as fierce fighting continued in the city of Sievierodonetsk, which President Volodymyr Zelensky has said is pivotal to the fight for the eastern region of Donbas.
While the U.S. and other countries have sent Ukraine many weapons and promised more, officials say they are not coming fast enough to hold off Russian forces.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Mr. Zelensky, told the BBC that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian military personnel were now dying each day. Mr. Zelensky said last week that the army was losing 60 to 100 soldiers a day.
In other developments:
- There are now at least 4.8 million refugees from Ukraine across Europe, the U.N.’s refugee agency reported on Thursday. The war has caused “one of the largest human displacement crises in the world today,” the agency said. Read more
@nytimes
Ukraine’s military and its government renewed their pleas for more Western arms as fierce fighting continued in the city of Sievierodonetsk, which President Volodymyr Zelensky has said is pivotal to the fight for the eastern region of Donbas.
While the U.S. and other countries have sent Ukraine many weapons and promised more, officials say they are not coming fast enough to hold off Russian forces.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Mr. Zelensky, told the BBC that between 100 and 200 Ukrainian military personnel were now dying each day. Mr. Zelensky said last week that the army was losing 60 to 100 soldiers a day.
In other developments:
- There are now at least 4.8 million refugees from Ukraine across Europe, the U.N.’s refugee agency reported on Thursday. The war has caused “one of the largest human displacement crises in the world today,” the agency said. Read more
@nytimes
Nytimes
Ukraine reiterates pleas for more weapons from the West. (Gift Article)
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‘We Are Still in Shock’: A Month Trapped in a Basement by Russian Forces
More than two months after the residents of Yahidne kicked down the bolted basement door where the Russian army had held them hostage, the village is being rebuilt but the memories remain fresh — and deeply painful.
On March 3, eight days after the full-scale invasion began, Russian forces swept into Yahidne, a village on the main road north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. For nearly a month, until March 31, when Ukrainian troops liberated the town, more than 300 people, 77 of them children, were imprisoned in several rooms in the dank basement of the village school — a human shield for the Russian troops based there. Ten of the captives died. Among those held inside were a baby and a 93-year-old, Ukrainian prosecutors said.
“This is our concentration camp,” said Oleh Turash, 54, one of those imprisoned, who helped bury the people who perished there. Read more
@nytimes
More than two months after the residents of Yahidne kicked down the bolted basement door where the Russian army had held them hostage, the village is being rebuilt but the memories remain fresh — and deeply painful.
On March 3, eight days after the full-scale invasion began, Russian forces swept into Yahidne, a village on the main road north of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. For nearly a month, until March 31, when Ukrainian troops liberated the town, more than 300 people, 77 of them children, were imprisoned in several rooms in the dank basement of the village school — a human shield for the Russian troops based there. Ten of the captives died. Among those held inside were a baby and a 93-year-old, Ukrainian prosecutors said.
“This is our concentration camp,” said Oleh Turash, 54, one of those imprisoned, who helped bury the people who perished there. Read more
@nytimes
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Russia defends death sentences for 3 foreign fighters in Ukraine as outrage grows in the West.
As Western governments condemned the death sentences given to two Britons and a Moroccan by a court in Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine, Moscow defended the decision, saying the men were mercenaries who did not have the right to be treated as prisoners of war.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, speaking during a news conference in Yerevan, Armenia, said the “crimes” the men were convicted of had been committed in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, adding that he would not “hinder the operation of the judiciary and law enforcement authorities” in the territory.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, asserted on Friday that the Britons sentenced to death were not defined as combatants under international law and, as such, were not entitled to prisoner of war status — a contention vehemently rejected by experts in international law and the British government. Read more
@nytimes
As Western governments condemned the death sentences given to two Britons and a Moroccan by a court in Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine, Moscow defended the decision, saying the men were mercenaries who did not have the right to be treated as prisoners of war.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, speaking during a news conference in Yerevan, Armenia, said the “crimes” the men were convicted of had been committed in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, adding that he would not “hinder the operation of the judiciary and law enforcement authorities” in the territory.
Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, asserted on Friday that the Britons sentenced to death were not defined as combatants under international law and, as such, were not entitled to prisoner of war status — a contention vehemently rejected by experts in international law and the British government. Read more
@nytimes
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Shortage of Artillery Ammo Saps Ukrainian Frontline Morale
Nearly four months after Russia invaded, the Ukrainian military is running low on ammunition for its Soviet-era artillery and has not received enough supplies from its allies to keep the Russians at bay, Ukrainian officials and artillery officers in the field say.
The shortage has put Ukrainian troops at a growing disadvantage in the artillery-driven war of attrition in the country’s east, with Russia’s batteries now firing several times as many rounds as Ukraine’s. While the West is sending in weapons, they are not arriving fast enough or in sufficient numbers to make up for Ukraine’s dwindling arsenal.
The Western weapons, heavy, long-range artillery pieces and multiple-launch rocket systems, are more accurate and highly mobile, but it takes time to deploy them and train soldiers to use them. In the meantime, Ukraine is running out of ammunition for the older weapons. Read more
@nytimes
Nearly four months after Russia invaded, the Ukrainian military is running low on ammunition for its Soviet-era artillery and has not received enough supplies from its allies to keep the Russians at bay, Ukrainian officials and artillery officers in the field say.
The shortage has put Ukrainian troops at a growing disadvantage in the artillery-driven war of attrition in the country’s east, with Russia’s batteries now firing several times as many rounds as Ukraine’s. While the West is sending in weapons, they are not arriving fast enough or in sufficient numbers to make up for Ukraine’s dwindling arsenal.
The Western weapons, heavy, long-range artillery pieces and multiple-launch rocket systems, are more accurate and highly mobile, but it takes time to deploy them and train soldiers to use them. In the meantime, Ukraine is running out of ammunition for the older weapons. Read more
@nytimes
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