Uvalde gunman threatened rapes and school shootings on social media app Yubo in weeks leading up to the massacre

CNN – Investigates

Uvalde gunman threatened rapes and school shootings on social media app Yubo in weeks leading up to the massacre, users say

Daniel A. Medina, Isabelle Chapman, Jeff Winter and Casey Tolan

May 28, 2022 

CNN: Salvador Ramos told girls he would rape them, showed off a rifle he bought, and threatened to shoot up schools in livestreams on the social media app Yubo, according to several users who witnessed the threats in recent weeks.

But those users – all teens – told CNN that they didn’t take him seriously until they saw the news that Ramos had gunned down 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week.

Three users said they witnessed Ramos threaten to commit sexual violence or carry out school shootings on Yubo, an app that is used by tens of millions of young people around the world.

Uvalde school shooting suspect was a loner who bought two assault rifles for his 18th birthday

The users all said they reported Ramos’ account to Yubo over the threats. But it appeared, they said, that Ramos was able to maintain a presence on the platform. CNN reviewed one Yubo direct message in which Ramos allegedly sent a user the $2,000 receipt for his online gun purchase from a Georgia-based firearm manufacturer.

“Guns are boring,” the user responded. “No,” Ramos apparently replied.

In a statement to CNN, a Yubo spokesperson said “we are deeply saddened by this unspeakable loss and are fully cooperating with law enforcement on their investigation.” Yubo takes user safety seriously and is “investigating an account that has since been banned from the platform,” the spokesperson said, but declined to release any specific information about Ramos’ account.

Use of Yubo skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic, as teens trapped indoors turned to the app for a semblance of in-person interactions. The company says it has 60 million users around the world – 99% of whom are 25 and younger – and has trumpeted safety features including “second-by-second” monitoring of livestreams using artificial intelligence and human moderators.

Despite those safety features, the users who spoke to CNN said Ramos made personal and graphic threats. During one livestream, Amanda Robbins, 19, said Ramos verbally threatened to break down her door and rape and murder her after she rebuffed his sexual advances. She said she witnessed Ramos threaten other girls with similar “acts of sexual assault and violence.”

Robbins, who said she lives in California and only ever interacted with Ramos online, told CNN she reported him to Yubo several times and blocked his account, but continued seeing him in livestreams making lewd comments.

“[Yubo] said if you see any behavior that’s not okay, they said to report it. But they’ve done nothing,” Robbins said. “That kid was allowed to be online and say this.”

Robbins and other users said they didn’t take Ramos’ comments seriously because troll-like behavior was commonplace on Yubo.

Hannah, an 18-year-old Yubo user from Ontario, Canada, said she reported Ramos to Yubo in early April after he threatened to shoot up her school and rape and kill her and her mother during one livestream session. Hannah said Ramos was allowed back on the platform after a temporary ban.

Hannah, who requested CNN withhold her last name to protect her privacy, said Ramos’ behavior turned increasingly brazen in the last week. In one livestream, she said, Ramos briefly turned his webcam to show a gun on his bed.

The users said they didn’t make recordings of Ramos’ threats during the livestreams.

Yubo’s community guidelines tell users not to “threaten or intimidate” others, and ban harassment and bullying. Content that “promotes violence such as violent acts, guns, knives, or other weapons” is also banned.

Just a week before the Uvalde attack, Yubo announced an expanded age verification process that involves users taking a photo of themselves and the app using artificial intelligence to estimate their age. The platform only allows people 13 and older to sign up, and doesn’t allow users 18 and older to interact with those under 18.

Uvalde school shooter was in school for up to an hour before law enforcement broke into room where he was barricaded and killed him

Yubo, which is based in Paris, has attracted controversy since it launched in 2015 under the name Yellow, with some local law enforcement officials warning about the possibility of abuse. Police have arrested men in Kentucky, New Jersey and Florida who allegedly used Yubo to meet or exchange sexually explicit messages with kids. Last month, Indiana police investigating the 2017 murder of two teenage girls said they were seeking information about a Yubo user who had solicited nude photos of underage girls on other social media platforms.

Ramos’ disturbing social media interactions didn’t only take place on Yubo. One user, a girl from Germany who met Ramos on Yubo, said she had some troubling interactions with him via text and FaceTime. The 15-year-old said she received text messages from him shortly after he shot his grandmother and before his assault at the elementary school, as CNN previously reported.

The girl said she thought any violent or strange comments Ramos made were in jest.

But after the shooting, she said, “I added everything up and it made sense now… I was just too dumb to notice all the signals he was giving.”

Russian auto sales plunge 83.5% in May, another historic dive

Reuters

Russian auto sales plunge 83.5% in May, another historic dive

Reuters – June 6, 2022

Cars drive along a highway in Moscow.

Cars drive along a highway in Moscow, Russia, May 17, 2017 with Moscow International Business Center also known as “Moskva-City” in the background. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

June 6 (Reuters) – Car sales in Russia plunged 83.5% in May to another historic low, the Association of European Businesses (AEB) said on Monday, as Western sanctions have decimated Russia’s auto industry with parts shortages and spiralling prices.

Russia sent troops to Ukraine on Feb. 24, and sales of new cars have been falling since March as sanctions blocked main supply chains. Last month, only 24,268 vehicles were sold, AEB said. A year earlier, sales were six times greater.

Top western carmakers led by Renault (RENA.PA) either suspended operations or left Russia since sanctions took effect. The country’s car industry depends on global supplies, and the shortage of parts has shrunk production volumes several times since Feb. 24.

According to Russian statistic agency Rosstat, car prices have jumped nearly 50% since the start of the year, slamming demand in a country where household incomes have declined while inflation has been hovering near 20-year highs.Advertisement · Scroll to continue

AEB did not provide a forecast for the Russian auto market performance this year. In April, it forecast new car sales in Russia to fall by at least 50% in 2022.

Russian general killed in Ukraine after personally leading an attack

Business Insider

Russian general killed in Ukraine after personally leading an attack, in sign that Russia is running out of colonels to do it, state journalist says

Sinéad Baker – June 6, 2022

A Ukrainian soldier speaks on his smartphone outside a residential building damaged by a missile on February 25, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.Pierre Crom/Getty Images
Russian general killed in Ukraine after personally leading an attack, in sign that Russia is running out of colonels to do it, state journalist says
  • A Russian general was killed in Ukraine, a Russian state-media journalist and Ukraine’s military said.
  • The general had led an attack himself “as if” there was no colonel to do it, the journalist said.
  • Russia has lost a high number of generals in the three months since it invaded Ukraine.

Another Russian general was killed in the fighting in Ukraine, a Russian state journalist and Ukraine’s military said.

Alexander Sladkov, a journalist with Russian state-owned media, reported Maj. Gen. Roman Kutuzov’s death in a Sunday Telegram post. Sladkov did not say when or where it happened.

Ukraine’s military also said that Kutuzov was killed, but did not provide any details, the BBC reported.

Sladkov said: “The general had led soldiers into attack, as if there are not enough colonels,” according to a translation by the BBC. “On the other hand, Roman was the same commander as everyone else, albeit a higher rank.”

The BBC reported that Sladkov is a reporter with the state-owned Russia 1. Reuters and the The Moscow Times reported that he works for a Russian state-owned outlet, but they did not specify which one.

Russia’s military has neither commented on Kutuzov nor confirmed if he died.

Russia has lost a high number of generals in its invasion of Ukraine.

James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander for Europe, said on May 1: “In modern history, there is no situation comparable in terms of the deaths of generals … Here, on the Russian side, in a two-month period, we’ve seen at least a dozen, if not more, Russian generals killed.”

It is not clear exactly how many Russian generals have been killed, and Russia has only acknowledged the deaths of a few generals.

The UK’s defense ministry said last month that senior Russian commanders had been drawn into the battlefield due to the problems Russia’s army has faced in its invasion.

“Difficulties in command and control, as well as faltering Russian performance on the front line, have drawn senior commanders onto the battlefield, likely to take personal leadership of operations,” it said.

Experts also told Agence France-Presse in March that generals may have been taking a more active role, and hence putting themselves at more risk, in a bid to motivate their troops as Russia’s invasion stalled.

Ukrainian students hold graduation dance in front of the ruins of their school destroyed by Russian strikes

Business Insider

Ukrainian students hold graduation dance in front of the ruins of their school destroyed by Russian strikes

Jake Epstein – June 6, 2022

Ukrainian students dance in front of the remains of their school.Ukrainian Foreign Ministry / Suspilne / Twitter
Ukrainian students hold graduation dance in front of the ruins of their school destroyed by Russian strikes
  • Ukraine’s foreign ministry shared a video of students performing a “prom waltz” during the war.
  • The dance took place on a basketball court in front of a bombed-out school in Kharkiv.
  • Russian troops previously used the school as an outpost, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.

With a backdrop of shattered windows and scorched walls, a handful of Ukrainian students stood in front of the rubble of their school — and danced.

In a 45-second-long video taken by Ukraine’s public broadcaster and posted to Twitter on Monday by Ukraine’s foreign ministry, students could be seen performing “their prom waltz” in front of their bombed-out school in the country’s second-largest city Kharkiv.

The students could be seen in the video doing a coordinated dance to a slow song. Behind them, a Ukrainian military vehicle sits next to a collection of troops.

Onlookers standing on the court could be seen using their phones to film and take photos before the footage cuts to a close-up view of the demolished school. 

The school was destroyed just days after Russia invaded Ukraine in late February and later became an “outpost” for Russian troops, the foreign ministry said in its tweet.

“Today, #Ukrainian alumni in #Kharkiv should happily celebrate their prom. Instead, they danced a graduation dance in the courtyard of their school, which was destroyed by the #russian MLRS,” Inna Sovsun, a member of Ukraine’s parliament and the country’s former deputy education minister, said in a tweet.

Throughout Russia’s 14-week-long war against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin’s forces have routinely targeted schools — among other civilian areas like hospitals and shelters — across the country.

Russian forces left piles of excrement in every office of the Chernobyl nuclear plant before they retreated

Business Insider

Russian forces left piles of excrement in every office of the Chernobyl nuclear plant before they retreated, Ukrainian workers say

Taiyler Simone Mitchell – June 6, 2022

Russian forces left piles of excrement in every office of the Chernobyl nuclear plant before they retreated, Ukrainian workers say
Soldiers sit inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Ukrainian soldiers sit on top of a military vehicle parked outside the hotel in Prypiat, Ukraine on February 4.Volodymyr Tarasov/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Image
  • Russian forces began their withdrawal from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster site in March.
  • But Ukrainian workers are now discovering what they left behind — including human feces.
  • “The poop was the icing on the cake,” the deputy director of the Chernobyl Ecocenter, said.

Russian forces may have evacuated the Chernobyl nuclear plant, but they destroyed the premises leaving behind mounds of defecation in each office, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Hundreds of Ukrainian workers were held hostage for weeks throughout the Russian occupation. Now workers are moving to clean up the site following the Russian troops’ withdrawal in late March after being affected by “significant doses of radiation.“

Aleksandr Barsukov, the deputy director of the Chernobyl Ecocenter, told The Journal that they have found spray-painted conference rooms, smashed computer screens, and 100 liters of high-quality vodka.

“The poop was the icing on the cake,” Barsukov said.

Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 Soviet nuclear disaster, was seized on the first day of the war for a total of five weeks.

After disturbing the soil, soldiers “panicked at the first sign” of radiation illness, which “showed up very quickly,” Ukrainian state power company Energoatom told The Guardian. The outlet reported that the panic led to the troops pulling out of the region.

“When the invasion started, the front guards got a call to fall back because a huge flow of Russian troops were coming,” said Julia Bezdizha, a spokeswoman for the plant, told WSJ. “They fled mainly because it was very dangerous to stay and engage in heavy combat because of the heavy radiation.”

Russian forces had also seized Europe’s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia, at the start of the war. The occupation of the plants had some concerned about a nuclear reaction and increased radiation levels.

The exact impact on Russian soldiers is currently unknown, but troops were reported to have dug trenches in radioactive soil and moved about the plant without protective gear.

Radiation exposure can impact an individual’s health in many different ways — including acute radiation syndrome, cancer, and mental distress — according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yevhen Kramarenko, head of the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management, said at a press conference in April that it’s unclear how radiation levels in the area have been impacted by the Russian forces.

But, he adds, “we believe very soon [the Russians] will feel the consequences of radiation that they have received. Some of them will feel it in months, some of them in years.”

“But anyway, all of the servicemen who were there will feel it at some point,” Kramarenko continued.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war against Ukraine began on February 24 and is ongoing.

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.

I prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg. Here’s how to go after Putin and his thugs.

USA Today

I prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg. Here’s how to go after Putin and his thugs.

Ben Ferencz – June 5, 2022

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has caused immeasurable suffering and destruction. Already, extensive documentation indicates the Russian military is responsible for widespread war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Indiscriminate attacks on civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, executions and other international crimes committed in Bucha, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and many other locations are now being investigated so that the direct perpetrators and architects of these crimes can be prosecuted.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general has taken prompt action, opening 15,000 investigations so far into these atrocities. The international community’s response toward justice and accountability has also been swift and focused, with the International Criminal Court (ICC) and war crimes prosecutors in at least 10 countries making significant efforts to open investigations.

Benjamin Ferencz, 102, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, at home in Delray Beach, Fla., on June 1, 2022.
Benjamin Ferencz, 102, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, at home in Delray Beach, Fla., on June 1, 2022.

Putin’s other war: Russians like me are fleeing a totalitarian crackdown at home

I know firsthand of the magnitude of efforts required to put war criminals on trial. Seventy-five years ago, I put 22 Nazi officers on the stand for their role in killing more than a million men, women and children in cold blood in towns and villages across Eastern Europe.

The legacy of Nuremberg – of which I am the last living prosecutor – is to have shown the world that it is possible to form a court that prosecutes heads of states, who are often immune to the rule of law, for extreme, wide-scale crimes.

I have spent my life working to deter atrocities

Before heading to Nuremberg, I served as a sergeant in the U.S. Army Infantry, and I was sent to the concentration camps as American forces were liberating them, to collect evidence of the war crimes.

Columnist Connie Schultz: The Ukrainian girl who sang ‘Let It Go’ from a bomb shelter gave us all hope

The ground was covered with dead bodies and people almost dead, their eyes pleading for help. It was horror. Sadly, the evils that I saw there, and that I sought to correct at Nuremberg, are still with us today.

Print photo copies of Benjamin Ferencz, while he served as a prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials, on a table at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., on June 1, 2022.
Print photo copies of Benjamin Ferencz, while he served as a prosecutor during the Nuremberg trials, on a table at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., on June 1, 2022.

My life’s work has consisted of trying to deter the types of atrocities I prosecuted in Nuremberg. This is why I believe that, in addition to prosecuting war crimes and crimes against humanity, it is also critically important to prosecute the crime that was called “the supreme international crime” by the International Military Tribunal, which tried 21 of the most important surviving leaders of Nazi Germany: the crime of aggression.

Whole world watching: Russians’ war crimes will be documented. And prosecuted.

Russia’s unprovoked military attack on Ukraine is the clearest and most egregious instance of the crime of aggression in decades, and building a solid case against President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials is feasible, as shown by a model indictment published by the legal advocacy group Open Society Justice Initiative.

This is also the most straightforward basis on which to prosecute Putin because the crime of aggression focuses on state leaders, whereas in cases of war crimes or crimes against humanity, prosecutors must prove the linkage between the crimes carried out on the ground in Ukraine and faraway commanders in Moscow.

To prosecute Putin, we need a unique court

Ukraine announced a joint investigation team with prosecutors from Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland that focuses, in part, on gathering evidence toward Russia’s crime of aggression. Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia joined the JIT as well.

While the ICC has joined the JIT and opened an investigation into crimes committed in Ukraine, because of a limitation in its statute, the ICC does not have jurisdiction over the crime of aggression committed by Russian nationals.

Unspeakable cruelty: I saw Russians as victims of ignoble leaders. Then came the rage of their war in Ukraine.

Prosecuting the crime of aggression will require a unique court capable of handling such a trial, characterized by two crucial features:

First, it must be capable of circumventing legal immunities that could apply to Putin and other top officials. This would be the case for international courts and those formed with the support of the international community, where such immunities do not apply. Experts supporting the formation of a tribunal rightly prioritize options for an internationally backed court to prosecute Russia’s crime of aggression.

Second, such a court must have substantive real and perceived legitimacy. An internationally backed tribunal, such as through the United Nations General Assembly, would bolster impartiality and independence, which could be reinforced by ensuring that Ukrainian and international prosecutors and judges play a meaningful role. Such a tribunal could also include a broader mandate to cover war crimes and crimes against humanity cases not handled by the ICC.

Humanitarian efforts: My dad and I went to Poland and Ukraine to help refugees, including teens just like me

That is why states must come together to join the Ukrainian government in supporting the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Putin and his inner cadre for the crime of aggression. This would provide a powerful demonstration of the international community’s resolve to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and to insist that acts of aggression be prosecuted.

Ben Ferencz, 102, is the last living prosecutor at Nuremberg. He was chief prosecutor for the United States in the Einsatzgruppen case, which charged 22 Nazi officers with murdering more than a million people across Eastern Europe. The Associated Press called it “the biggest murder trial in history.”

Russia says strikes on Kyiv destroyed tanks donated by West

Politico

Russia says strikes on Kyiv destroyed tanks donated by West

Associated Press – June 5, 2022

AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia’s defense ministry said a barrage of airstrikes on Ukraine’s capital destroyed tanks donated by the West and other armor in an attack on Sunday that shattered five weeks of eerie calm in Kyiv, as President Vladimir Putin warned the West about supplying long-range rocket systems to Ukraine.

Putin said that Moscow would hit targets “we haven’t yet struck” if it went ahead with such deliveries. It wasn’t immediately clear if Putin was referring to new targets within or outside Ukraine’s borders.

Russian forces pounded railway facilities and other infrastructure early Sunday in the capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s nuclear plant operator, Energoatom, said one cruise missile buzzed the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear plant, about 350 kilometers (220 miles) to the south, on its way to the capital — citing the dangers of such a near miss.

There was no immediate confirmation from Ukraine that the Russian airstrikes had destroyed tanks.

Kyiv hadn’t faced any such strikes since the April 28 visit of U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. The early morning attack triggered air raid alarms and showed that Russia still had the capability and willingness to hit at Ukraine’s heart since abandoning its wider offensive across the country to instead focus its efforts in the east.

The strikes appeared aimed at thwarting the resupplying of Ukrainian fighters, a rising concern in Moscow.

In a posting on the Telegram app, the Russian Defense Ministry said high-precision, long-range air-launched missiles were used. It said the strikes destroyed on the outskirts of Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by Eastern European countries and other armored vehicles located in buildings of a car-repair business.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has led to untold tens of thousands of civilian and troop deaths, driven millions from their homes, sparked vast sanctions against Putin’s government and allies, and strangled exports of critical wheat and other grains from Ukraine through Black Sea ports — limiting access to bread and other products in Africa, the Middle East and beyond.

In a television interview on Sunday, Putin lashed out at Western deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, saying they aim to prolong the conflict.

“All this fuss around additional deliveries of weapons, in my opinion, has only one goal: To drag out the armed conflict as much as possible,” Putin said, alluding to U.S. plans to supply multiple launch rocket systems to Kyiv. He insisted such supplies were unlikely to change much for the Ukrainian government, which he said was merely making up for losses of rockets of similar range that they already had.

If Kyiv gets longer-range rockets, he added, Moscow will “draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have plenty of, in order to strike at those objects that we have not yet struck.”

The missiles hit Kyiv’s Darnytski and Dniprovski districts, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app, punctuating the Kremlin’s recently reduced goal of seizing the entire Donbas region in the east. Moscow-backed separatists have fought Ukrainian forces for eight years in the Donbas and established self-proclaimed republics.

In recent days, Russian forces have focused on capturing the city of Sievierodonetsk.

A billowing pillar of smoke filled the air with an acrid odor in Kyiv’s eastern Darnystki district, and the charred, blackened wreckage of a warehouse-type structure was smoldering. Police near the site told an Associated Press reporter that military authorities had banned the taking of images. Soldiers also blocked off a road in a nearby area leading toward a large railway yard.

The sites struck included facilities for the state rail company, Ukrzaliznytsia, said Serhiy Leshchenko, an adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, on Telegram.

Energoatom said a Russian cruise missile came dangerously close to the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant at 5:30 a.m., seemingly tearing toward Kyiv. It said the missile “flew critically low” and that Russian targeters “still do not understand that even the smallest fragment of a missile that can hit a working power unit can cause a nuclear catastrophe and radiation leak.”

Russian strikes have repeatedly targeted railway facilities, seemingly aimed at slowing the provision of weapons to Ukrainian forces on the front lines. The cruise missiles appeared to have been launched from a Tu-95 bomber flying over the Caspian Sea, the Air Force Command said on Facebook. It said air defense units shot down one missile.

Elsewhere, Russian forces continued their push to take ground in eastern Ukraine, with missile and airstrikes carried out on cities and villages of the Luhansk region, with the war now past the 100-day mark.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram that “airstrikes by Russian Ka-52 helicopters were carried out in the areas of Girske and Myrna Dolyna, by Su-25 aircraft – on Ustynivka,” while Lysychansk was hit by a missile from the Tochka-U complex.

A total of 13 houses were damaged in Girske, and five in Lysychansk. Another airstrike was reported in the eastern city of Kramatorsk by its mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko. No one was killed in the attack, he said, but two of the city’s enterprises sustained “significant damage.”

On Sunday morning, Ukraine’s General Staff accused Russian forces of using phosphorus munitions in the village of Cherkaski Tyshky in the Kharkiv region. The claim couldn’t be independently verified.

The update also confirmed strikes on Kyiv, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday. It wasn’t immediately clear from the statement which infrastructure facilities in Kyiv were hit.

The General Staff said Russian forces continue assault operations in Sievierodonetsk, one of two key cities left to be captured in the Luhansk region of the Donbas. The Russians control the eastern part of the city, the update said, and are focusing on trying to encircle Ukrainian forces in the area and “blocking off main logistical routes.”

The U.K. military said in its daily intelligence update that Ukrainian counterattacks in Sieverodonetsk were “likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower.” Russian forces previously had been making a string of advances in the city, but Ukrainian fighters have pushed back in recent days.

The statement also said Russia’s military was partly relying on reserve forces of the Luhansk region.

“These troops are poorly equipped and trained, and lack heavy equipment in comparison to regular Russian units,” the intelligence update said, adding that “this approach likely indicates a desire to limit casualties suffered by regular Russian forces.”

Far from the battlefield, Ukraine’s national soccer players are hoping to secure a World Cup spot when the team takes on Wales later Sunday in Cardiff.

On the diplomatic front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was heading to Serbia for talks with President Aleksandar Vucic early this week, followed by a visit to Turkey on Tuesday, where the Russian envoy is expected to discuss Ukraine with his Turkish counterpart.

Turkey has been trying to work with U.N. and the warring countries to help clear the way for Ukrainian grain to be exported to Turkish ports, though no deal on the issue appeared imminent.

A Ukrainian presidential adviser urged European nations to respond with “more sanctions, more weapons” to Sunday’s missile attacks.

Mykhailo Podolyak referenced remarks Friday by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said Putin had made a “historic error” by invading Ukraine, but that world powers shouldn’t “humiliate Russia” so that a diplomatic exit could be found when the fighting stops.

“While someone asks not to humiliate, the Kremlin resorts to new insidious attacks,” Podolyak tweeted. “Each of such terrorist attacks must face a tough response from European capitals: more sanctions, more weapons.”

Ukrainian officials have denounced the remark, and have criticized France and some other European countries for continuing to speak to Putin and talking about diplomatic solutions instead of working to push Russia out of Ukraine militarily.

Trump’s Ukraine impeachment shadows war, risks GOP response

Associated Press

Trump’s Ukraine impeachment shadows war, risks GOP response

Lisa Mascaro – June 5, 2022

FILE - President Donald Trump holds up a newspaper with a headline that reads "Trump acquitted" during an event celebrating his impeachment acquittal, in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington. The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower's complaint over Trump's call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
President Donald Trump holds up a newspaper with a headline that reads “Trump acquitted” during an event celebrating his impeachment acquittal, in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 6, 2020, in Washington. The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower’s complaint over Trump’s call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
FILE - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers media questions during a press conference in a city subway under a central square in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 23, 2022. Zelenskky had just been elected when he asked then-President Donald Trump during a July 25, 2019, phone call for a meeting to strengthen U.S.-Ukraine relations and ensure military aid, according to a transcript released by Trump's White House. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy answers media questions during a press conference in a city subway under a central square in Kyiv, Ukraine, April 23, 2022. Zelenskky had just been elected when he asked then-President Donald Trump during a July 25, 2019, phone call for a meeting to strengthen U.S.-Ukraine relations and ensure military aid, according to a transcript released by Trump’s White House. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)
FILE - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after leading the impeachment acquittal of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2020. When Trump was impeached after pressuring Ukraine’s leader for “a favor,” all while withholding $400 million in military aid to fight Russia, even the most staunch defense hawks in the Republican Party stood virtually united by Trump’s side. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after leading the impeachment acquittal of President Donald Trump, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2020. When Trump was impeached after pressuring Ukraine’s leader for “a favor,” all while withholding $400 million in military aid to fight Russia, even the most staunch defense hawks in the Republican Party stood virtually united by Trump’s side. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE - In this image from video, the vote total, 52-48 for not guilty, on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, is displayed on screen during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2020. The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower's complaint over Trump's call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern. (Senate Television via AP, File)
In this image from video, the vote total, 52-48 for not guilty, on the first article of impeachment, abuse of power, is displayed on screen during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Feb. 5, 2020. The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower’s complaint over Trump’s call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern. (Senate Television via AP, File)
FILE - In this image from video, a video is displayed as House impeachment manager Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 24, 2020. The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower's complaint over Trump's call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern.(Senate Television via AP, File)
 In this image from video, a video is displayed as House impeachment manager Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., speaks during the impeachment trial against President Donald Trump in the Senate at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 24, 2020. The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower’s complaint over Trump’s call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern.(Senate Television via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump was impeached in late 2019 after pressuring Ukraine’s leader for “a favor,” all while withholding $400 million in military aid to help confront Russian-backed separatists, even the staunchest defense hawks in the Republican Party stood virtually united by Trump’s side.

But as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military marched toward Kyiv this February, threatening not only Ukraine but the rest of Europe, Republicans and Democrats in Congress cast aside impeachment politics, rallied to Ukraine’s side and swiftly shipped billions to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s defense.

The question ahead, as Ukrainians battle Russia’s grinding invasion now past its 100th day, is whether the rare bipartisanship on Capitol Hill is resilient enough to withstand Trump’s isolationist influences on his party or whether Republicans who yielded to Trump’s “America First” approach will do so again, putting military and humanitarian support for Ukraine at risk.

“Maybe there is a recognition on both Republican side and Democratic side that this security assistance is very important,” said Bill Taylor, a former ambassador to Ukraine, in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

“And maybe neither side is eager to crack that coalition.”

The fraught party politics comes at a pivotal moment as the Russian invasion drags on and the United States gets deeper into the conflict before the November elections, when lawmakers face voters with control of Congress at stake.

A recent AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll shows public support in the U.S. for punishing Russia over the war is wavering if it comes at the expense of the economy.

While Congress mustered rare and robust bipartisan support to approve a $40 billion Ukraine package, bringing total U.S. support to a staggering $53 billion since the start of the war, opposition on the latest round of aid came solely from the Republican side, including from Trump.

That is a warning sign over the sturdiness of the bipartisan coalition that the top Republican in Congress, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, tried to shore up when he led a delegation of GOP senators to stand by Zelenskyy’s side in a surprise trip to Kyiv last month.

“There is some isolationist sentiment in my party that I think is wrongheaded, and I wanted to push back against it,” McConnell told a Kentucky audience this past week, explaining his Ukraine visit.

The divisions within the GOP over Ukraine are routinely stoked by Trump, who initially praised Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as a “genius” negotiating strategy. Trump has repeatedly lashed out against the U.S. aid to Ukraine, including last weekend at a rally in Wyoming. Before the Senate vote on the $40 billion in assistance, Trump decried the idea of spending abroad while America’s “parents are struggling.”

As Trump considers whether to run for the White House in 2024, the persistence of his “America First” foreign policy approach leaves open questions about the durability of his party’s commitment to U.S. support for a democratic Ukraine. Senators are poised this summer to vote to expand NATO to include Sweden and Finland, but Trump has repeatedly criticized U.S. spending on Western military alliance.

Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, among 11 Republican senators who voted against the Ukraine package, called the tally an “astronomical number” at a time when foreign policy should be focused elsewhere, including on China.

“That is nation-building kind of number,” Hawley said in an interview. “And I think it’s a mistake.”

It was nearly three years ago that Ukraine was at the center of U.S politics with the 2019 Trump impeachment proceedings that rocked Washington.

Zelenskky, a comedian turned politician, had just been elected when he asked Trump during a July 25, 2019, phone call for a meeting to strengthen U.S.-Ukraine relations and ensure military aid, according to a transcript released by Trump’s White House.

“We are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes,” Zelenskyy told Trump, referring to anti-tank weaponry Ukraine relies on from the West.

Trump replied: “I would like you to do us a favor, though.”

Trump asked Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden, a chief Democratic rival to Trump at the time and now the American president, and Biden’s son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.

The impeachment investigation, sparked by a government whistleblower’s complaint over Trump’s call, swiftly became a milestone, the first in a generation since Democrat Bill Clinton faced charges over an affair with a White House intern.

During weeks of impeachment proceedings over Ukraine, witnesses from across the national security and foreign service sphere testified under oath about the alarms that were going off in Washington and Kyiv about Trump’s conversation with Zelenskyy.

Complicated stories emerged about the scramble by Trump allies to secure the investigations of the Bidens — and of the civil servants pushing back against what they saw as a breach of protocol.

Yet American opinions over the gravity of the charges against Trump were mixed, polling at the time by the AP showed.

Trump was impeached by the Democratic-led House and acquitted by the Senate, with just one Republican, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, joining Democrats to convict.

“The allegations were all horse hockey,” said Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., recalling his decision not to impeach.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., brushed back questions about whether Trump’s actions then played any role in Russia’s decision to invade Ukraine this February.

“It wasn’t like Putin invaded right after. It’s been almost two years,” Rubio said.

Republicans are quick to remind that Trump was, in fact, the first president to allow lethal arms shipments to Ukraine — something Barack Obama’s administration, with Biden as vice president, declined to do over worries of provoking Putin.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, the co-chair of the Senate’s Ukrainian Caucus who persuaded Trump in a phone call to ultimately release the $400 million in aid, stood by his decision not to convict Trump over the delay of that assistance.

“As long as it was done,” Portman said about the outcome.

But Romney said people need to remain “clear-eyed” about the threat Putin poses to the world order. “I did the right thing at the time, and I haven’t looked back,” he said.

Democrats are blistering in their criticism of Republicans over the impeachment verdict.

“It’s a shame,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“Every single Republican who voted in support of Donald Trump’s geopolitical shakedown and blackmail of Volodymyr Zelenskky and the Ukrainian people should be ashamed of themselves,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., “because the consequences of Donald Trump’s actions were understood to us then, and now the world understands.”

Russian general killed in eastern Ukraine, Russian state media reporter says

Reuters

Russian general killed in eastern Ukraine, Russian state media reporter says

June 5, 2022

LONDON, June 5 (Reuters) – A Russian general was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow.

The report, published on the Telegram messaging app by state television reporter Alexander Sladkov, did not say precisely when and where Major General Roman Kutuzov was killed.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.

Russian forces have intensified attacks to capture Sievierodonetsk, a key city in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region that Moscow is targeting after failing to take the capital Kyiv early in the war.

Russia already classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures in Ukraine since March 25, when it said that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed since the start of its military campaign on Feb. 24.

Russia says it is carrying out “special military operation” designed to demilitarise Ukraine and rid it of nationalists threatening the Russian-speaking population. Ukraine and Western countries dismiss Russia’s claims as a pretext to invade.

Britain’s defense ministry said on Monday that Russia appeared to have suffered significant losses amongst mid- and junior-ranking officers in Ukraine. (Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Zieminski)

Russian general killed in eastern Ukraine, Russian state media reporter says

Reuters

Russian general killed in eastern Ukraine, Russian state media reporter says

June 5, 2022

FILE PHOTO: A view shows destroyed military vehicles in Rubizhne

LONDON (Reuters) – A Russian general was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow.

The report, published on the Telegram messaging app by state television reporter Alexander Sladkov, did not say precisely when and where Major General Roman Kutuzov was killed.

There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.

Russian forces have intensified attacks to capture Sievierodonetsk, a key city in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region that Moscow is targeting after failing to take the capital Kyiv early in the war.

Russia already classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures in Ukraine since March 25, when it said that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed since the start of its military campaign on Feb. 24.

Russia says it is carrying out “special military operation” designed to demilitarise Ukraine and rid it of nationalists threatening the Russian-speaking population. Ukraine and Western countries dismiss Russia’s claims as a pretext to invade.

Britain’s defence ministry said on Monday that Russia appeared to have suffered significant losses amongst mid- and junior-ranking officers in Ukraine.

(Reporting by Reuters; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Nick Zieminski)