Russia Attacks Ukraine - 23 Feb 2022 **Media Thread** NO DISCUSSION #2

[PommyMommy]

TODAY, 05:51

"Russian army approaches Kyiv, explosions also heard"

The Russian army has again moved closer to the Ukrainian capital Kiev, according to the American space technology company Maxar, according to new satellite images. The army would fire artillery fire towards residential areas. Several city blocks and buildings in Mosjoen, a city northwest of Kiev, are on fire, according to Maxar.

CNN reporters heard explosions in or near the capital last night. It is not known whether explosions actually took place, and where exactly they were. A correspondent for the US news channel describes the sound as "a non-stop volley of only heavy thumps in the distance".

The CNN correspondent goes on to say that she sees Ukrainian soldiers "all over the city". "They have defensive positions along all the main roads leading into the city. And they have set up tank traps," she says. "Even if the Russian forces are able to surround the city, it will still be a fierce battle to get to the center."

Air- raid sirens went off again in several cities across the country last night, according to the BBC . That happened in Kiev, but also in Odessa, Kharkov and Lviv, among others:

Satellite images from yesterday showed that the huge Russian convoy that had been stationed near Kiev since last week has split up. Parts of the 60-kilometer convoy are now centered around Kiev, further encircling the capital.

The convoy had previously been stationary for a few days. According to experts, this may be due to logistical problems, such as too little food, a lack of fuel and poor maintenance of the equipment.

 

[PommyMommy]

NEXTA on Twitter - 2 hrs ago, Video
The village of Yatskovka in the #Kharkiv region now looks like this.

NEXTA on Twitter - 1 hr ago
At least eight explosions were heard in #Vasylkiv. Presumably, #Russian aviation bombed the local airport.

NEXTA on Twitter
#Dnipro on this morning.

NEXTA on Twitter
As a result of shelling by #Russian troops, a frozen food storage warehouse caught fire in the #Brovary district. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties - State Emergencies Service.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 21 min ago
Explosions reported in Dnipro. The city’s mayor Borys Filatov says Ukraine’s air defense systems repelled the early morning attack. No casualties were reported.

The Kyiv Independent on Twitter - 8 min ago
Russia begins mobilizing troops in Donbas and Crimea. According to the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov, Russia is also transferring new units from the central and eastern parts of Russia to replenish reserves.

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 8, 2022
In nod to Russia, Ukraine says no longer insisting on NATO membership

"I have cooled down regarding this question a long time ago after we understood that ... NATO is not prepared to accept Ukraine," Zelensky said in an interview aired Monday night on ABC News.

"The alliance is afraid of controversial things, and confrontation with Russia," the president added.

Referring to NATO membership, Zelensky said through an interpreter that he does not want to be president of a "country which is begging something on its knees."

He said these two regions "have not been recognized by anyone but Russia, these pseudo republics. But we can discuss and find the compromise on how these territories will live on."

"What is important to me is how the people in those territories are going to live who want to be part of Ukraine, who in Ukraine will say that they want to have them in," Zelensky said.

"So the question is more difficult than simply acknowledging them," the president said.

"This is another ultimatum and we are not prepared for ultimatums. What needs to be done is for President Putin to start talking, start the dialogue instead of living in the informational bubble without oxygen."

 

[PommyMommy]

MAR 8, 2022
Where Zelensky is open to "compromise" on Russia's 4 demands to end war

He acknowledged that NATO is not "ready to accept Ukraine" and that he has no plans to beg for admittance. However, Zelensky won't give in to every demand Russia has and so far, peace talks have yielded few results.

"I'm ready for a dialogue," Zelensky told ABC News. "We are not ready for that capitulation because it's not about me, this is about the people who elected me."

Russian officials put out four demands for Ukraine, many of which aren't surprising because they've been on Russia's wish list for years. To end the war, Ukraine must not pursue NATO or European Union membership, acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory and recognize the Lugansk and Donetsk regions as independent states.

Zelensky told ABC News giving in to Russia's demands regarding the areas isn't as simple as it may seem. He said it's "important" for him as president to consider how the people in those territories will live, including those who want to be part of Ukraine.

The fourth demand on the list is that Ukraine stops all military action. Peskov said Russia is committed to "finishing" the demilitarization of Ukraine and if Ukraine ceases its military, "then no one will shoot." However, it's unlikely Ukraine agrees to giving up its military because it's the main reason the country's been able to mount a resistance to Russian forces.

When asked if he understood the position of the United States, Zelensky told ABC News that Ukraine is a "zone of freedom" and that if his country falls, other countries will be next.

"Everyone thinks we're far away from American and Canada," Zelensky said. "The more this beast eats, he wants more and more and more."

 

[PommyMommy]

[URL='https://www-hellenicshippingnews-com.translate.goog/imo-council-decisions-on-black-sea-and-sea-of-azov-situation/?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=nl&_x_tr_hl=nl&_x_tr_pto=op,wapp']IMO Council decisions on Black Sea and Sea of Azov situation | Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide[/URL]

Russia-Ukraine war latest news: attacks intensify around Kyiv as Russian forces close in on the capital – live
Local media in Ukraine report that two oil depots near Kyiv are on fire after Russian attacks.

Children going missing amid chaos at Ukrainian border, aid groups report

Children are going missing and cases of human trafficking are being reported by aid groups and volunteers along Ukraine’s borders amid the chaos of the refugee crisis triggered by the Russian invasion.

Charities and rights groups working in neighbouring countries to receive refugees said they had seen cases of trafficking, missing children, extortion and exploitation as more than 2.5 million people crossed into neighbouring countries to escape the escalating violence.

Karolina Wierzbińska a coordinator from Faber, a human rights organisation based in Lublin, Poland, said the charity had seen cases of children being sent alone by desperate parents to meet relatives or friends across the Ukrainian border and arriving without anyone to meet them.

 

[PommyMommy]

Italian police have seized a superyacht from Russian billionaire Andrey Igorevich Melnichenko

Sailing Yacht A, which has a price tag of 530 million euros ($578m), has been sequestered at the northern port of Trieste, the government said.

Melnichenko owns major fertiliser producer EuroChem Group and coal company SUEK.

Russian troops push towards Kyiv, key cities blockaded

 

[PommyMommy]

“The Russian Foreign Ministry reiterates the warning that a Swedish accession to NATO will lead to "retaliatory measures". It writes the news agency TT with reference to the Russian news agency Interfax.

Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, Russia demanded that NATO not approve new membership applications, including from Sweden.

"It is clear that Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO, which is primarily a military organization, would have serious military and political consequences that require a revision of the entire scale of relations with these countries and retaliatory measures," said Russian diplomat Sergei Belyaev. to Interfax.”

Kriget i Ukraina

 

[PommyMommy]

Flour rationing in Lebanon, grain hoarding in Hungary: How the Ukraine war is lurching the globe toward a new food crisis

'1300 Ukrainian soldiers killed since invasion' • Scholz and Macron call for ceasefire | NOS
Kiev encirclement 'does not mean it will go very soon'
Satellite images show that the Russian army has moved closer to Kiev again. "We see that the predicted, steady advance of the Russian troops is now slowly taking shape," says Frans Osinga by special professor of war studies in the NOS Radio 1 Journaal . "But that doesn't mean that now will go very quickly."

Osinga expects the battle for Kiev to last a long time for various reasons. He explains, among other things, because of the logistics and communication problems within the Russian army. The defense expert also thinks that the Ukrainian army has prepared the city well.

British intelligence suggests that Russian units find it difficult to work together. According to Osinga, this is a logical consequence of the course of this war. "They are all separate units of about a thousand men. If part of it is eliminated and another team is added, it is difficult to work together. Imagine that Ajax and Feyenoord have to play together, each with a half-team."

 

[PommyMommy]

Premier League board disqualifies Chelsea owner Abramovich as director - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)
[...]

"Following the imposition of sanctions by the UK Government, the Premier League Board has disqualified Roman Abramovich as a Director of Chelsea Football Club," the Premier League said.

[...]

The entry on the British sanctions list described Abramovich as "a prominent Russian businessman and pro-Kremlin oligarch" who had enjoyed "a close relationship for decades" with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Abramovich has denied having such ties.

The leader of the Jewish community in Portugal's northern city of Porto responsible for issuing a document that allowed Abramovich to get Portuguese citizenship last year has been detained, newspaper Publico said on Friday.

Officers from the criminal investigation agency PJ detained Rabbi Daniel Litvak as part of an ongoing inquiry by public prosecutors into the granting of citizenship to Chelsea soccer club owner Abramovich, Publico said.

[...]

It said its officers raided homes, a lawyer's office and others spaces on Friday as part of the investigation into various crimes, such as money laundering, corruption and falsification of documents. Evidence was collected and would be analyzed, it added.

[...]

 

[PommyMommy]

Help and advice for Ukrainian refugees in Ireland

As the number of Ukrainian refugees arriving in Ireland continues to rise, arrangements have been made to welcome those people who have completed the final leg of their gruelling journey.

A new processing facility at Dublin Airport for people seeking refuge has been described as the "first port of call" for Ukrainians arriving to Ireland and a translator is also available to help with their applications.

By Thursday, the number of Ukrainians that had arrived in Ireland stood at 3,468 and that the number is expected to grow in the coming days.

Here are some of the things they need to know:

(List at link)

 

[PommyMommy]

Ukraine war: Protests after Russians 'abduct' Melitopol mayor - BBC News

U.S. Security Cooperation With Ukraine - United States Department of State

 

[PommyMommy]

Deutsche Bank withdraws from the Russian market, Commerzbank follows | NOW - The latest news first on NU.nl

Last update: 5 hours ago
Deutsche Bank now wants to withdraw from the Russian market because of the war in Ukraine and the harsh Western sanctions against Russia. As a result, the financial group changes course. Earlier this week, the bank said it would not turn its back on Russia.

The turnaround follows reports that industry peers did choose to leave Russia. Major US banks Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase announced such a move on Thursday. At that time, Deutsche Bank did not want to do it yet.

"We are often asked why we are not completely withdrawing from Russia," chief executive Christian Sewing said in a memo to staff on Thursday. "The answer is that this goes against our values. We have customers who cannot leave Russia overnight."

In a new statement, Deutsche Bank reports that the group is now in the process of phasing out its ties with Russia. This will help non-Russian clients to divest their Russian interests. It is a financial withdrawal.

A spokesman said the bank's move does not apply to a dedicated information technology hub in Russia. However, the majority of the company's seventeen hundred employees work in Russia.

 

[PommyMommy]

Burgemeester Mariupol: 'Ze vermoorden zo veel burgers als ze kunnen' | NU.nl
Mayor in Mariupol, they kill as many citizens they can.

Drones in Rotterdam als steunbetuiging aan Oekraïne | NU.nl
An art company released hundreds of light drones into the air in Rotterdam during the night from Thursday to Friday.

Wil je zien! Toffe droneshow voor wereldvrede met De Hef in Rotterdam als decor
The Rotterdam organizations Mothership, Anymotion Productions and Video Agency have joined forces and created a light artwork that screams for world peace. The performance with the title 'ASAP', which stands for 'as soon as possible', asks for attention for world peace and that as soon as possible.

The hopeful performance has resulted in a work of art of a hundred drones with a dove of peace in the leading role, conceived and developed by Jeroen Everaert of Mothership. The drone show has been secretly recorded in the middle of the night for the past few days, at the iconic De Hef bridge in Rotterdam.

(...)

The performance shows how a dove of peace defecates on a war tank, which then dissolves and from which a flower arises that symbolizes new life. With this powerful statement they show how the dove of peace, the international icon for peace, ultimately conquers all and creates new life

In the video you can hear music by, among others, the Rotterdam pianist Kevin van Genderen.

 

[PommyMommy]

Russia-Ukraine war updates for March 12, 2022 (cnbc.com)
''Russia warned the West against sending further arms to Ukraine, saying such arms convoys could now be considered “legitimate targets” for the Russian armed forces.

Speaking to Russia’s Channel One broadcaster earlier, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov issued a warning to the West that could lead to a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

“We warned the United States that pumping Ukraine with weapons from a number of countries orchestrated by them is not just a dangerous move, but an action that turns the corresponding convoys into legitimate targets,” the deputy minister said, according to comments reported by Russia’s state news agency TASS.

Ryabkov said there could be consequences to what he called the West’s “thoughtless transfer” to Kyiv of weapons such as portable anti-aircraft missile systems and anti-tank missile systems, both of which have been supplied to Ukraine by several NATO members including the U.S. and U.K.

— Holly Ellyatt''

 

[PommyMommy]

Fighting rages outside Kyiv, Ukraine says evacuations threatened again | Reuters

• Bulk of Russian ground forces outside Kyiv, says UK
• Ukraine says humanitarian corridors threatened
• U.S. sanctions hit top Kremlin staff, oligarchs
• EU to impose new sanctions on Russia

LVIV, Ukraine, March 12 (Reuters) - Conflict raged near Kyiv on Saturday and Ukrainian officials said heavy shelling and threats of Russian air attacks were endangering attempted evacuations of desperate civilians from encircled towns and cities elsewhere.''

As the Russian army struggles in Ukraine, the West braces for what Putin might do next | CBC News
''Russia has a grim, well-established playbook for fighting its wars.
Every country has one, but Moscow is notoriously iron-fisted in the way it wages its military campaigns. Just ask the Georgians and the Chechens.

From the use of massed artillery to turn cities into dust to the indiscriminate bombing of hospitals and apartment blocks to terrorize civilians and break their will, Russia's military tactics have stayed roughly the same for decades, with the occasional modification for new technologies.

Western leaders and military experts who make it their business to study how Russia fights all agree on one thing — the war in Ukraine has not gone the way Moscow anticipated. And that raises the spectre of brutal escalation.
The question they're all asking themselves now is — what comes next?''

''Western intelligence estimates that up to 5,000 Russian troops are dead, with an unknown number wounded. The Kremlin, which rarely talks about casualties in military operations, surprised many observers recently by acknowledging almost 600 dead. (Defence analysts like to say that whenever Moscow issues a casualty estimate, the real number is usually about ten times higher.)''

 

[PommyMommy]

What Was the Winter War?

In December 2021, Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs pressured Finland and Sweden to refrain from joining NATO.

Finland–Russia relations - Wikipedia

 

[PommyMommy]

The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent
2m
Zelensky: 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers killed by Russia. This is the first time President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned Ukraine’s estimated military casualties. Ukraine’s Armed Forces estimate Russian casualties to be over 12,000.

 

[PommyMommy]

Russia conducts missile drill on disputed islands off Hokkaido

“The ministry said it conducted an exercise with the S-300 surface-to-air missie system.The S-300 is designed to shoot down fighter jets and missiles with a range of 400 kilometers.The system intercepted all air targets during the drill,according to the report.”
Russia conducts missile drill on disputed islands off Hokkaido

Japanese and South Korean leaders agree to boost ties with US to tackle North Korea - CNN

https://twitter.com/mit_obe/status/1502523385183494144
“The warships, belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy, had been previously seen in February operating in the southern part of the Sea of Japan and in the Sea of Okhotsk, according to the Friday release from Japan’s Joint Staff Office.

The ships were the destroyer RFS Admiral Panteleyev (548), corvettes RFS Sovershennyy(333), RFS Gromkiy (335), RFS Gremyashchiy (337), RFS Hero of the Russian Federation Aldar Tsydenzhapov (339), RFS Metel (323), RFS Koryeyets (390), an Altay class replenishment ship, Search and Rescue ship Igor Belousov and a Sorum class tugboat (MB-99).”
Japan Again Raises Concern Over 10 Warship Russian Navy Surface Group - USNI News

 

[PommyMommy]

Russia-Ukraine war: Who are Chechens? Why are they targeting Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

The Second Chechen War, Guises of “International Terrorism,” and Putin’s Power Consolidation

Russia Chechnya Cry Stockfoto's en -beelden - Getty Images Very sad pictures....we are all going to see again in this war.

Chechen Corpse Photos and Premium High Res Pictures - Getty Images shocking images.

 

[PommyMommy]

March 12, 2022 6:38AM EST
Russia strikes near Ukraine's capital; mosque reported hit
''LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces pounding the port city of Mariupol shelled a mosque sheltering more than 80 people, including children, the Ukrainian government said Saturday as fighting also raged on the outskirts of the capital, Kyiv.

There was no immediate word of casualties from the shelling of the mosque. Mariupol has seen some of the greatest misery from Russia's war in Ukraine as unceasing barrages have thwarted repeated attempts to bring in food and water and to evacuate trapped civilians.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Turkey said that a group of 86 Turkish nationals, including 34 children, were among the people who had sought safety in the mosque of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roksolana.

Elsewhere, air raid sirens rang out across the capital region and artillery barrages sent residents scurrying for shelter. Fighting erupted in multiple areas around Kyiv.

Russia's slow, grinding apparent attempt to encircle the city and the bombardment of other population centers with artillery and air strikes mirror tactics that Russian forces have previously used in other campaigns, notably in Syria and Chechnya, to crush armed resistance.''