A Ukrainian woman who escaped Russia’s assault on Mariupol says troops were targeting apartment buildings ‘as if they were playing a computer game’

Business Insider

A Ukrainian woman who escaped Russia’s assault on Mariupol says troops were targeting apartment buildings ‘as if they were playing a computer game’

Rebecca Cohen – April 22, 2022

A heavily damaged building is seen in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 13, 2022.AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov, File
A Ukrainian woman who escaped Russia’s assault on Mariupol says troops were targeting apartment buildings ‘as if they were playing a computer game’
  • A Ukrainian woman described her month hiding in a Mariupol basement during Russia’s assault.
  • She said when she finally escaped, she witnessed Russians targeting apartment buildings.
  • The journey to safety took 14 hours and she said she was strip-searched by Russian troops at each of the 16 checkpoints.

A Ukrainian woman who escaped Russia’s assault on Mariupol said that she witnessed Russian troops targeting apartment buildings “as if they were playing a computer game.”

Alina Beskrovna lived in a basement in Mariupol for a month as Russian troops destroyed her city outside. In a first-person account to UN News, she detailed how she went into hiding the morning of February 24 — the day Russia first invaded Ukraine — and stayed there until March 23.

She said people who could not get out within the first few days of the invasion were forced to stay because of active fighting in the streets.

“Those who tried to flee found themselves in a battlefield,” she said.

She described hope during the second week of the war when rumors spread on Telegram that there would be a humanitarian corridor opening up for civilians to go west to Manhush, but it turned out to be a false rumor, she said.

Mariupol, a port city on Ukraine’s southern coast, has been the scene of intense fighting for almost the entirety of Russia’s invasion.

The city’s mayor told the Associated Press last week that 21,000 people had been killed, and those who have fled described the city as “hell on earth.”

When Beskrovna finally decided to risk her life and flee from her hiding spot beneath the city, she said she witnessed Russian attacks with her own eyes.

“I saw with my own eyes how they aimed at apartment buildings, as if they were playing a computer game,” she recalled.

Beskrovna also said that resources quickly dwindled in the basement during her stay, and with Russia targeting the city’s electrical, water, and gas systems, they lost access to those necessities early on.

She also said communication was cut off very quickly. She said she does not know if her father is alive as they lost contact weeks ago.

“I knew why it was being done: To leave us completely helpless and hopeless, demoralized, and cut off from the outside world,” she said.

On March 23, she was able to board a train to Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, which took 14 hours. She said Russian troops strip-searched her and other passengers at all 16 checkpoints.

While she felt relief when she finally heard the Ukrainian language in Zaporizhzhia, she quickly realized that city wasn’t safe either.

“Despite feeling as though I was getting out of this black hole of destruction and death, Zaporizhzhia itself wasn’t safe; there were constant air raids,” she said. “But we had made it out of Mariupol and couldn’t believe we were alive.”

Donbas and southern Ukraine

Reuters

Russia says it plans full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine

April 22, 2022

(Reuters) -Russia plans to take full control of Donbas and southern Ukraine during the second phase of what it calls its special military operation, the deputy commander of Russia’s central military district said on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.

The statement from Rustam Minnekayev, the deputy commander, is one of the most detailed about Moscow’s latest ambitions in Ukraine and suggests Russia does not plan to wind down its offensive there anytime soon.

Minnekayev did not mention them by name, but two major Ukrainian cities in southern Ukraine, Odesa and Mykolayiv, remain under Ukrainian control.

The Interfax and TASS news agencies cited him as saying that full control of southern Ukraine would improve Russian access to Moldova’s pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria, which borders Ukraine and which Kyiv fears could be used as a launch pad for new attacks against it.

Kyiv earlier this month said that an airfield in the region was being prepared to receive aircraft and be used by Moscow to fly in Ukraine-bound troops, allegations Moldova’s defence ministry and authorities in Transdniestria denied.

“Control over the south of Ukraine is another way to Transdniestria, where there is also evidence that the Russian-speaking population is being oppressed,” the TASS news agency quoted Minnekayev as saying at a meeting in Russia’s central Sverdlovsk region.

Minnekayev was not cited as providing any evidence for or details of that alleged oppression.

He was quoted as saying that Russia planned to forge a land corridor between Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which it annexed in 2014, and Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

The last Ukrainian fighters left in the port city of Mariupol in Donbas are holed up at a vast industrial facility which President Vladimir Putin has ordered to be blockaded rather than stormed. Mariupol sits between areas held by Russian separatists and Crimea. Its capture would allow Russia to link the two areas.

Minnekayev was cited as saying by Russia’s RIA news agency that media reports of Russian military setbacks were wide of the mark.

“The media are now talking a lot about some failures of our armed forces. But this is not the case. In the first days …the tactics of Ukrainian units were designed to ensure that, having pulled ahead, individual groups of Russian troops fell into pre prepared ambushes and suffered losses,” RIA cited him as saying.

“But the Russian armed forces very quickly adapted to this and changed tactics.”

According to RIA, he also said that daily missile and other strikes against Ukrainian forces meant Russia could do serious damage without losing troops.

Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 in what it called an operation to degrade its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and root out people it called dangerous nationalists.

Ukrainian forces have mounted stiff resistance and the West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia in an effort to force it to withdraw its forces.

Russian General Lets Slip a Secret Plan to Invade Another Country and Seize Ukraine’s Entire Coastline

Daily Beast

Russian General Lets Slip a Secret Plan to Invade Another Country and Seize Ukraine’s Entire Coastline

Barbie Latza Nadeau – April 22, 2022

As Russian troops tighten their grip on the strategic port town of Mariupol, their strategy is finally becoming clear. Russian military commander Rustam Minnekaev now says the second phase of President Vladimir Putin’s “special operation” is focused on establishing a “land corridor” from the Donbas all the way to Moldova, which would cut off the rest of Ukraine from the sea.

“One of the tasks of the Russian army is to establish full control over the Donbas and southern Ukraine. This will provide a land corridor to the Crimea, as well as influence the vital objects of the Ukrainian economy,” Minnekaev said Friday at a meeting with the Union of Defense Industries, as reported by the Russian state-owned Interfax. “Control over the south of Ukraine is another way out to Transnistria, where there are also facts of oppression of the Russian-speaking population.” Transnistria is a separatist region of Moldova that has so far not been officially involved in the war despite hosting a Russian military base since the 1990s.

The general’s words suggest that Moldova’s sovereign borders would also come under threat from further Russian expansion. Phony efforts to protect Russian-speaking peoples have often foreshadowed Putin’s imperial invasions.

In reality, Russian speakers have been struck down in the hundreds in eastern Ukraine during the brutal invasion.

If successful, the strategy would include taking the port of the former seaside resort town of Odesa near the Moldovan border, which has suffered sporadic bombardments but no full-fledged invasion so far. Russia’s warship Moskva was hit about 75 miles off the coast of Odesa two weeks ago, before it sank en route to Crimea.

The refocusing of troops from northern Ukraine to the southern regions of the country has further choked Mariupol, where Ukrainian troops and civilians are holed up in a steel factory surrounded by Russian troops. Satellite imagery identified a growing number of graves outside the port city, where Ukrainian officials say up to 200 new graves have been dug since April 3.

While the Russian military has largely now left northern Ukraine alone save for sporadic missile strikes, fresh evidence of Russia’s ruthless tactics there in recent weeks continue to build a case for widespread war crimes. Andrii Nebytov, the head of police for Kyiv region, told CNN that they are examining 1,084 bodies found in the region outside Kyiv, including Bucha, for signs of torture. “These are civilians who had nothing to do with territorial defense or other military formations,” he said. “The vast majority—between 50 percent and 75 percent—are people killed by small arms, either a machine gun or a sniper rifle, depending on the location.”

Among the atrocities are evidence of widespread rape and sexual mutilation. The youngest victim who survived to tell her story is just 15, according to CNN. Several female bodies in mass graves show evidence of horrific crimes as well.

On Friday, the United Nations Human Rights Office described Russian atrocities against Ukrainians as a “horror story of violations against civilians” that shows no sign of abating.

Best, worst cities for air quality: California ranks among worst, East Coast is cleaner

USA Today

Best, worst cities for air quality: California ranks among worst, East Coast is cleaner

Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY – April 22, 2022

A report released by the American Lung Association revealed millions of Americans are breathing unhealthy levels of air pollution across the country.

State of the Air 2022, based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2018 to 2020 also revealed which cities had the best and worst air quality.

The rankings are based on three categories: ozone pollution, year-round particle pollution and short-term exposure particle pollution over 24 hours.

The report, released Thursday, listed climate-change-driven wildfires as one of the biggest contributors for the rise in air particle pollution, a factor reflected in the rankings. Western cities have been plagued by historic wildfires in recent years.

Most of the cities with the cleanest air quality were on the East Coast.

Here are are the best and worst cities for air quality, according to the American Lung Association:

Los Angeles ranked poorly in multiple categories in this year's State of the Air report.
Los Angeles ranked poorly in multiple categories in this year’s State of the Air report.

‘Very unhealthy’: US air quality remains ‘hazardous’ for millions of Americans, new report says

Worldwide: These countries have the most polluted air in the world, new report says

Worst air in the United States

It isn’t West Coast best coast when it comes to air.

California dominated the worst-air rankings, with three of the state’s cities topping each of the categories for worst air. The Los Angeles-Long Beach area had the worst air by ozone, Bakersfield had the worst year-round particle pollution, and the Fresno-Madera-Hanford area had the worst air by short-term particle pollution.

The top 10 cities in each of the three categories were in Western states; the most eastern city was Houston. Here are the worst air cities:

Worst air by ozone:

  1. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
  2. Bakersfield, California
  3. Visalia, California
  4. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
  5. Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona
  6. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, California
  7. Denver-Aurora, Colorado
  8. Houston-The Woodlands, Texas
  9. Sacramento-Roseville, California
  10. Salt Lake City-Provo-Orem, Utah

Worst year-round particle pollution:

  1. Bakersfield, California
  2. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
  3. Visalia, California
  4. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California
  5. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
  6. Medford-Grants Pass, Oregon
  7. Fairbanks, Alaska
  8. Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona
  9. Chico, California
  10. El Centro, California

Short-term particle pollution:

  1. Fresno-Madera-Hanford, California
  2. Bakersfield, California
  3. Fairbanks, Alaska
  4. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, California
  5. Redding-Red Bluff, California
  6. Chico, California
  7. Sacramento-Roseville, California
  8. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
  9. Yakima, Washington and Visalia, California
Best air in the United States

While the Pacific states had the worst air, the East Coast and some Midwest cities are breathing better.

But Cheyenne, Wyoming, is an outlier from the West. The Wyoming capital ranked first in cleanest cities for year-round particle pollution, despite being roughly 95 miles away from Denver, which had the seventh-worst ozone air pollution. Casper, Wyoming, also made the top 10.

Another exclusion from the Pacific is Hawaii. Two areas – Honolulu and the Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina region – were in the top five.

Best cities in year-round particle pollution:

  1. Cheyenne, Wyoming
  2. Wilmington, North Carolina
  3. Urban Honolulu, Hawaii
  4. Kahului-Wailuku-Lahaina, Hawaii
  5. Bangor, Maine
  6. Casper, Wyoming
  7. Bellingham, Washington
  8. Bismarck, North Dakota, Elmira-Corning, New York, Sioux Falls, South Dakota and St. George, Utah

Numerous cities were tied for first in ozone air (64) and short-term particle pollution (80). Here are some of the biggest cities in each category:

Best cities for ozone air

  • Charlottesville, Virginia
  • Cheyenne, Wyoming
  • Eugene-Springfield, Oregon
  • Jacksonville-St. Marys-Palatka, Florida-Georgia
  • Lexington-Fayette-Richmond-Frankfort, Kentucky
  • Lincoln-Beatrice, Nebraska
  • Shreveport-Bossier City-Minden, Louisiana
  • Urban Honolulu, Hawaii
  • Virginia Beach-Norfolk, Virginia-North Carolina

Best cities for short-term particle pollution

  • Boston-Worcester-Providence, Massachusetts-Rhode Island-New Hampshire-Connecticut
  • Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
  • Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina
  • Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut
  • Knoxville-Morristown-Sevierville, Tennessee
  • Milwaukee-Racine-Waukesha, Wisconsin
  • Montgomery-Selma-Alexander City, Alabama
  • New Orleans-Metairie-Hammond, Louisiana-Mississippi
  • Richmond, Virginia

What are howitzers? A look at the cannons in latest U.S. military aid to Ukraine

Yahoo! News

What are howitzers? A look at the cannons in latest U.S. military aid to Ukraine

Niamh Cavanagh, Producer – April 22, 2022

LONDON — The first shipments of the Biden administration’s $800 million military aid package have arrived in Ukraine. Included among the first round of weapons are 18 155 mm howitzers, in addition to another 72 cannons that were announced this week. The howitzers heading to Ukraine will have a “significant” impact on Ukrainian firepower, according to a senior U.S. defense official, as the war with Russia enters its third month.

What is a howitzer?
Spanish army soldiers fire a 155 mm howitzer artillery cannon during training exercises in Germany.
Spanish army soldiers fire a 155 mm howitzer artillery cannon during training exercises at the Grafenwoehr military training grounds in Germany in May 2021. (Lennart Preiss/Getty Images)

A howitzer is a short cannon, placed at a steep angle of descent, used to fire at relatively high trajectories. The cannons can fire up to four rounds per minute, according to the U.S. Army. The weapons can be traced back to the 15th century when similar models were used by the Czechs and were known as “houfnice” cannons. Since World War I, the word “howitzer” has been used to describe these weapons.

How many are the U.S. sending to Ukraine?

The Department of Defense confirmed that 18 155 mm howitzers would be sent to Ukraine as part of the $800 million in military aid. In a second $800 million military aid package, announced by Biden on Thursday, an additional 72 howitzers, 72 tactical vehicles to tow the cannons and 144,000 rounds will be sent to Ukraine. The weapons are from U.S. Army and Marine Corps stocks.

A U.S. Army soldier carrying a 155 mm mortar round.
A U.S. Army soldier carrying a 155 mm mortar round during a training exercise in Afghanistan in 2013. (Andrew Burton/Reuters)

A senior U.S. defense official told reporters on Wednesday that howitzer rounds, ammunition for the cannons, arrived in Europe on Tuesday to be sent to Ukraine. The official added that more were arriving on Wednesday and in the “coming days.”

Will Ukrainians be trained to use them?

Training of Ukrainian soldiers on how to use the howitzers — expected to last about a week — “has begun,” a defense official said this week. The official declined to say where the training was taking place, but said it was not in Ukraine. “This is training the trainers,” the official told the Washington Examiner. “It’s a smallish number of Ukrainians, a little bit more than 50.”

A round is fired from an M777 howitzer cannon.
A round is fired from an M777 howitzer cannon during a mission in Afghanistan in 2011. (David Goldman/AP)

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the Military Times on April 14 that there were no more plans to deploy U.S. troops to handle the training and instead, the trainees will return home to train other soldiers.

Why send howitzers?

The U.S. sent howitzers after Ukrainian officials asked for artillery. It is believed the cannons will play a significant role in Russia’s new battle for the Donbas region, which consists of flat, rolling plains, a defense official told Stars and Stripes. “We knew from talking to Ukrainians that artillery was going to be a critical need because of the way the terrain lays,” the official said. “And so we saw early on the Russians were moving artillery [for the battle in the Donbas].”

Soldiers fire a 155 mm howitzer at insurgent positions in Afghanistan.
Soldiers fire a 155 mm howitzer at insurgent positions in Afghanistan in 2012. (Tim Wimborne/Reuters)

Meanwhile, the Pentagon spokesman reiterated on Thursday that sending the assistance has been in full “consultation” with Ukraine, and that the weapons sent by the U.S. “provide enough artillery now to equip five battalions for Ukraine for potential use in the Donbas.”

“I want to stress again that what we’re providing is done in full consultation with the Ukrainians and that they believe that these systems will be helpful to them in the fight,” Kirby said. “Where and when they employ them and how they employ them is, of course, up to them.”

Ukraine now has more tanks on the ground than Russia does, US defense official says

Business Insider

Ukraine now has more tanks on the ground than Russia does, US defense official says

Sophia Ankel – April 22, 2022

hostomel ukraine tanks
Ukrainian troops are seen after the liberation of Hostomel, Ukraine, on April 6, 2022.Jana Cavojska/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
  • Western allies are sending heavier weaponry to Ukraine as Russia launches a new offensive.
  • A US defense official told The Washington Post that Ukraine now has more tanks than Russia does.
  • Russia is still feeling the losses it sustained earlier in the conflict, UK intelligence said.

Ukraine now has more tanks on the ground than Russia does, a senior US defense official told The Washington Post.

“Right now, the Ukrainians have more tanks in Ukraine than the Russians do … and they certainly have the purview to use them,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Post.

Insider was unable to independently verify this claim, and it is unclear exactly how many tanks both Russia and Ukraine have eight weeks into the war.

But the report comes as Western nations pledged to dispatch more heavy weaponry to Ukraine to help it defend itself against a renewed Russian offensive in the eastern Donbas region.

On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million military aid package that will equip Ukraine with heavy artillery, howitzers, and tactical drones. The first such package, announced on April 13, included hundreds of armored vehicles and Mi-17 helicopters.

Earlier this month, a Pentagon official told The New York Times that the US will help with the transfer of Soviet-made tanks to the Donbas. The official declined to say how many tanks would be sent, or from which countries they would come.

European countries have also said they will provide heavy-duty weapons to Ukraine, including tanks.

In total, Ukraine’s allies have sent more than $3 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion on February 24, the BBC reported.

On top of this, Russian troops are still losing military equipment.

Ukraine’s armed forces said Friday that Russian troops had lost more than 800 tanks and more than 2,000 combat armored machines since the start of its invasion on February 24.

An intelligence briefing published by the British Ministry of Defence on Friday said that “despite Russia’s renewed focus [in Donbas], they are still suffering from losses sustained earlier in the conflict.”

“In order to try and reconstitute their depleted forces, they have resorted to transiting inoperable equipment back to Russia for repair,” the briefing said.

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has been asking allies for months to send over weapons. In a speech on Tuesday, he said Ukraine would have already beaten Russia if it had been given more war supplies.

UN rights chief sees ‘horror story’ of violations in Ukraine

UN rights chief sees ‘horror story’ of violations in Ukraine

April 22, 2022

FILE - Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaks to the media about the Tigray region of Ethiopia during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 3, 2021. The United Nations' human rights office on Friday, April 21, 2022 set out what it said is growing evidence of war crimes since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, declaring that international humanitarian law appears to have been “tossed aside.” Michelle Bachelet said that “our work to date has detailed a horror story of violations perpetrated against civilians.”(Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)

FILE – Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaks to the media about the Tigray region of Ethiopia during a press conference at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Nov. 3, 2021. The United Nations’ human rights office on Friday, April 21, 2022 set out what it said is growing evidence of war crimes since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, declaring that international humanitarian law appears to have been “tossed aside.” Michelle Bachelet said that “our work to date has detailed a horror story of violations perpetrated against civilians.”(Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, File)

BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations’ human rights office on Friday pointed to what it said is growing evidence of war crimes since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, declaring that humanitarian law appears to have been “tossed aside.”

Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said that “our work to date has detailed a horror story of violations perpetrated against civilians.”

Her office’s mission in Ukraine so far has verified 5,264 civilian casualties, including 2,345 deaths, since the war began on Feb. 24. It said that 92.3% of those were recorded in Ukrainian government-controlled territory. The office uses strict methodology and has long acknowledged that its confirmed figures are far short of the real numbers.

“The actual numbers are going to be much higher” as more details emerge from places such as Mariupol where there is intense fighting, Bachelet said.

“Over these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside,” she added.

Her office said in a statement that “Russian armed forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and wrecking hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure — actions that may amount to war crimes.” It added that the U.N. mission also has “documented what appears to be the use of weapons with indiscriminate effects, causing civilian casualties and damage to civilian objects, by Ukrainian armed forces in the east of the country.”

Bachelet said that “the scale of summary executions of civilians in areas previously occupied by Russian forces” is emerging.

On April 9, U.N. human rights officers visiting Bucha documented the unlawful killing, including by summary execution, of some 50 civilians, her office said. The U.N. mission has received more than 300 allegations of killings of civilians in previously occupied towns in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

Russian officials have denied that their soldiers killed any civilians in Bucha and other towns around Kyiv from which they retreated three weeks ago, and accused Ukraine of staging the atrocities.

The U.N. rights office said its mission also has recorded 114 attacks on medical facilities “although the actual figure is likely to be considerably higher.”

“We estimate that at least 3,000 civilians have died because they couldn’t get medical care and because of the stress on their health amid the hostilities,” Bachelet said. “This includes being forced by Russian armed forces to stay in basements or not being allowed to leave their homes for days or weeks.”

The U.N. mission so far has received 75 allegations of sexual violence against women, men, girls and boys by Russian soldiers, most in the Kyiv region. The human rights office said detention of civilians “has become a widespread practice” in areas controlled by Russian forces and affiliated groups, with 155 such cases reported so far.

It said it also received information about “alleged arbitrary and incommunicado detentions” by Ukrainian forces or people aligned with them. And it pointed to videos put out by both sides apparently showing the intimidation, interrogation, torture or killing of prisoners of war.

Russia renews Mariupol attack, missiles hit Odesa, Ukraine says

Reuters

Russia renews Mariupol attack, missiles hit Odesa, Ukraine says

Pavel Polityuk and Natalia Zinets – April 22, 2022

KYIV (Reuters) -Russia resumed its assault on the last Ukrainian defenders holed up in a giant steel works in Mariupol on Saturday, days after Moscow declared victory in the southern city and said its forces did not need to take the plant.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country’s army was not ready to try to break through the siege of the port city. But he said America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin would visit Kyiv on Sunday and discuss the types of weapons Ukraine needs to battle the Russian invasion.

“As soon as we have (more weapons), as soon as there are enough of them, believe me, we will immediately retake this or that territory, which is temporarily occupied,” Zelenskiy told an evening news conference in the Kyiv metro.

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration has not confirmed any travel plans for Blinken and Austin. The State Department and Pentagon declined comment.

The attack on Mariupol, the biggest battle of the conflict, has raged for weeks as Russia seeks to capture a city seen as vital to its attempts to link the eastern Donbas region with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014.

Moscow-backed separatists have held territory in the Donbas region for years.

In the Black Sea port city of Odesa, at least eight people were killed, Zelenskiy said. Two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings and two more were destroyed on Saturday, the Ukrainian armed forces said.

The death toll could not be independently verified. The last big strike on or near Odesa was in early April.

‘MISSILE TERROR’

Zelenskiy said Russia had already fired most of its missile arsenal at Ukraine.

“Of course, they still have missiles left. Of course, they can still continue the missile terror against our people,” he said in a video address later on Saturday.

“But what they have already done is a powerful enough argument for the world to finally recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and the Russian army as a terrorist organization,” he said.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in its “special military operation” that began on Feb. 24.

The Russian defence ministry said it used high-precision missiles to destroy a logistics terminal in Odesa containing weapons supplied by the United States and European nations.

It also said Russian forces had killed up to 200 Ukrainian troops and destroyed more than 30 vehicles on Saturday.

Russian General Rustam Minnekayev on Friday said Moscow wanted control of the whole of southern Ukraine, comments Ukraine said indicated Russia had wider goals than its declared aim of demilitarising and “denazifying” the country. Kyiv and the West call the invasion an unjustified war of aggression.

Russian forces have besieged and bombarded Mariupol for weeks, leaving in ruins a city usually home to more than 400,000 people. A new attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday, an aide to Mariupol’s mayor said.

Russia’s defence ministry on Friday said Mariupol’s last fighters had been “securely blockaded” at the steel plant. On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin had declared the city “liberated,” declaring that troops would not storm Azovstal.

Oleksiy Arestovych, a political adviser to Zelenskiy, said Ukrainian troops in the steel complex were holding out and attempting counterattacks. More than 1,000 civilians are also in the plant, according to Ukrainian authorities.

‘I WANT TO SEE THE SUN’

The Azov battalion, a nationalist militia prominent in the defence of Mariupol, released a video it said showed women and children sheltering in the complex. Reuters could not independently verify where or when the video was shot.

One woman holding a young child said food was running out, while an unnamed boy in the video said he was desperate to get out after two months in the bunker.

“I want to see the sun because in here it’s dim, not like outside. When our houses are rebuilt we can live in peace. Let Ukraine win because Ukraine is our native home,” he said.

Ukraine estimates tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in Mariupol and says 100,000 civilians are still there. The United Nations and Red Cross say the civilian toll is at least in the thousands.

Russia’s current offensive is focused on the Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Gaidai said Ukrainian forces were pulling back to preserve their units in the face of an intensifying barrage on all cities in the region.

Ukrainian forces fighting in Luhansk and Donetsk said in a Facebook post they had repelled 12 Russian attacks on Saturday, destroying four tanks and 16 other armoured vehicles as well as five artillery systems.

Reuters could not independently verify that statement.

Three people were killed and seven were wounded by Russian shelling in the eastern region of Kharkiv on Saturday, the region’s governor said.

The governor of a Russian border region said on Saturday that Ukraine had shelled a crossing point on Russia’s territory, causing a fire but no casualties. It was not immediately possible to confirm details or assess responsibility.

Russia said it had shot down a Ukrainian fighter jet and destroyed three Ukrainian helicopters at an airfield in Kharkiv.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on the Russian assertion. The Ukrainian military said on Saturday it had destroyed 177 Russian aircraft and 154 helicopters since the start of the war. Reuters could not verify the figures.

(Additional reporting by Maria Starkova, Natalia Zinets, Alessandra Prentice and other Reuters journalists; Writing by Angus McDowall, Emma Thomasson and Patricia Zengerle, Editing by William Mallard, Frances Kerry, Timothy Heritage, Paul Simao and Daniel Wallis)

Climate change: ‘We are not backing down,’ White House climate advisor says

Yahoo! Finance

Climate change: ‘We are not backing down,’ White House climate advisor says

Akiko Fujita, Anchor/Reporter – April 22, 2022

White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy defended the Biden administration’s policies to ease record energy prices, even as the president struggles to balance the immediate threat of inflation with long-term challenges posed by climate change.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance Live, McCarthy said the president’s commitment to halve U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from 2005 levels remains “absolute.”

“We’re not backing down,” McCarthy said. “Nor are we giving up on our targets. They are aggressive. But we are on target domestically to do what we need to do.”

McCarthy’s comments come amid growing unease among environmentalists that the White House is backing off of ambitious climate pledges set one year ago in the face of public frustration over rising energy costs.

President Biden addresses a press conference at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 2, 2021. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP)
President Biden addresses a press conference at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow on November 2, 2021. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP)

The president rejoined the Paris Agreement on his first day in office, and vowed to lead global leaders in putting countries on path to carbon neutrality by 2050.

At the White House’s first Leaders Summit on Climate last year, Biden announced the U.S. would nearly double its commitment to reducing emissions, while aiming to eliminate fossil fuels from the country’s electric grids by 2035.

However, higher energy prices brought on by pandemic-related supply shortages and the Russia-Ukraine War have threatened to derail those policies. Gas prices have climbed nearly 20% between February and March, though they have moderated in recent weeks.

Under pressure to act, the president has publicly accused oil companies of holding back production to keep prices high. In March, Biden announced a record release of 1 million barrels of oil a day by tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He followed that by issuing an emergency waiver to allow for the year long sale of fuel with higher ethanol content, typically banned during the summer because of higher smog levels.

Last week, the Interior Department announced it would resume selling leases to drill in 145,000 acres of federal land across nine states, reversing his campaign pledge.

White House Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy speaks at a news conference about the American Jobs Plan on April 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
White House Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy speaks at a news conference about the American Jobs Plan on April 22, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“The problem is that we have a Putin war that has actually created an emergency, which the president is making sure he takes control of,” McCarthy said. “We believe we can still get [to the climate targets] but we need Congress to help.”

Biden’s key climate and social spending bill, Build Back Better (BBB), remains stalled in Congress amid opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a crucial swing vote. McCarthy said lawmakers are looking to break up the $500 billion in climate initiatives tied up in BBB to ensure passage of policies that are critical to keeping the administration’s policies on track.

Manchin has held informal talks with the administration, and told staff that the legislation must be voted on before the August recess, according to the Washington Post.

“We know that Congress is interested in moving,” McCarthy said. “What we want to make sure we do is have enough conversations with Senator Manchin that we can be assured that we can move this forward in reconciliation.”

McCarthy has faced speculation about her own future within the administration as the climate agenda she helped craft sputters. Earlier this week, she released a statement amid reports she was planning to step down next month. McCarthy, who previously led the National Resources Defense Council, said she had no plans to return to the private sector just yet.

“I’m sticking around because there’s still so much more work to do,” she said. “I wouldn’t be staying around if I didn’t think that work was available to us.”

Akiko Fujita is an anchor and reporter for Yahoo Finance. 

Russians shift elite units to the new battleground

Associated Press

Ukraine: Russians shift elite units to the new battleground

By David Keyton and Yesica Fisch – April 22, 2022

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Some 80 people who escaped the besieged city of Mariupol finally made it to Zaporizhzhia on Thursday after more than 24 hours. According to the Red Cross, 1,500 people had been expected to be evacuated by bus, but the Russians allowed only a few dozen to leave and pulled some people off the buses. (April 22)
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to Washington one day after President Joe Biden announced a new package of military aid for the embattled country. (April 22)
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Rockets struck a neighbourhood in Kharkiv on Thursday, and at least two civilians were burned to death in their car. A school and a residential building were also hit. (April 21)
People walk near an apartment on fire after it was hit during a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
People walk near an apartment on fire after it was hit during a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a shop following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at a shop following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A firefighter opens the door of a burning apartment after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A firefighter opens the door of a burning apartment after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A man wearing a gas mask helps firefighters extinguish a fire on a residential building following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A man wearing a gas mask helps firefighters extinguish a fire on a residential building following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A man takes cover with his dog under a building as the sound of rockets is heard following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
A man takes cover with his dog under a building as the sound of rockets is heard following a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Destroyed vehicles and buildings are seen in the town of Trostsyanets, Ukraine, Monday, March 28, 2022. Trostsyanets was recently retaken by Ukrainian forces after being held by Russians since the early days of the war. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Destroyed vehicles and buildings are seen in the town of Trostsyanets, Ukraine, Monday, March 28, 2022. Trostsyanets was recently retaken by Ukrainian forces after being held by Russians since the early days of the war. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)
Residents look at their house destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Residents look at their house destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Firefighters work inside a building destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Firefighters work inside a building destroyed by a Russian bomb in Chernihiv on Friday, April 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a cemetery before the expansion of graves near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 22, 2022. Since April 1 until mid-April, additional trenches have been excavated at the Vynohradne cemetery. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a cemetery before the expansion of graves near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 22, 2022. Since April 1 until mid-April, additional trenches have been excavated at the Vynohradne cemetery. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows an expansion of graves at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. From mid-March through mid-April, there are new excavations at Vynohradne that consist of parallel trenches, with each trench approximately 40-meters long. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows an expansion of graves at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. From mid-March through mid-April, there are new excavations at Vynohradne that consist of parallel trenches, with each trench approximately 40-meters long. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 29, 2022. From mid-March through mid-April, there are new excavations at Vynohradne that consist of parallel trenches, with each trench approximately 40-meters long. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on March 29, 2022. From mid-March through mid-April, there are new excavations at Vynohradne that consist of parallel trenches, with each trench approximately 40-meters long. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. From mid-March through mid-April, there are new excavations at Vynohradne that consist of parallel trenches, with each trench approximately 40-meters long. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)
This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a closer view of new graves being dug at a cemetery near Vynohradne, approximately 12 kilometers east of Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 15, 2022. From mid-March through mid-April, there are new excavations at Vynohradne that consist of parallel trenches, with each trench approximately 40-meters long. (Satellite image ©2022 Maxar Technologies via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia shifted a dozen crack military units from the shattered port of Mariupol to eastern Ukraine and pounded away at cities across the region, Ukrainian authorities said Friday, as the two sides hurtled toward what could be an epic battle for control of the country’s industrial heartland.

Meanwhile, Russia reported that one serviceman was killed and 27 others were left missing after the fire on board the warship Moskva, which sank a week ago following what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack. Moscow previously reported everyone aboard had been rescued.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not acknowledge an attack on the ship. It continued to say a fire broke out after ammunition detonated, without explaining how that happened. The loss of the guided missile cruiser — the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet — was a humiliating setback for Moscow.

In Mariupol, reduced largely to smoking rubble by weeks of bombardment, Russian state TV showed the flag of the pro-Moscow Donetsk separatists raised on what it said was the city’s highest point, its TV tower. It also showed what it said was the main building at Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel plant in flames.

The Kremlin has thrown over 100,000 troops and mercenaries from Syria and Libya into the fight in Ukraine and is deploying more forces in the country every day, said Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

“We have a difficult situation, but our army is defending our state,” he said.

Numerous cities and villages came under bombardment in the Donbas — the industrial region in the east that the Kremlin has declared the new, main theater of war — as well as in the Kharkiv region just to the west, and in the south, authorities said.

Russian forces pummeled an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters holed up inside the sprawling Azovstal plant, the last known pocket of resistance in the strategic southern port city, the mayor’s office reported.

“Every day they drop several bombs on Azovstal,” said Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol’s mayor. “Fighting, shelling, bombing do not stop.”

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the battle for Mariupol despite the steel-mill holdouts. He ordered his forces not to storm the plant to finish off the defenders but to seal it off instead in an apparent bid to force them to surrender.

Mariupol has taken on outsize importance in the war. Capturing it would deprive the Ukrainians of a vital port and complete a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Putin seized from Ukraine in 2014.

It would also allow Putin to throw more of his forces into the potentially climactic battle for the Donbas and its coal mines, factories and other industries, or what the Kremlin has now declared to be its main objective.

Danilov reported that some 12 to 14 of Russia’s elite military units have, in fact, left Mariupol and begun moving to the east to take part in the fighting there.

“It will now be difficult for our forces, because our guys in Mariupol were taking (those units) on themselves. It is their courage and feat,” he said.

Danilov also said Kyiv managed to deliver weapons via helicopter at great risk under cover of night to the Mariupol steelworks, which have been bombarded for weeks.

Putin said Russia gave Ukrainian forces inside the plant the option to surrender, with guarantees to keep them alive, and offered “decent treatment and medical care,” according to an account of a phone call with European Council President Charles Michel, provided by the Kremlin.

“But the Kyiv regime does not allow them to take this opportunity,” Putin charged.

More than 100,000 people — down from a prewar population of about 430,000 — are believed trapped in Mariupol with little food, water or heat, and over 20,000 civilians have been killed in the nearly two-month siege, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Most attempts to evacuate civilians from the city have failed because of what the Ukrainians said was continued Russian shelling.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said no humanitarian corridors for civilian evacuations would be open in Ukraine on Friday because it was too dangerous. She urged civilians to “be patient” and “hang in there.”

Days into the Russian offensive to take the east, the campaign has yet to become a full-out assault, with military analysts saying Moscow’s forces are still ramping up and have not achieved any major breakthroughs in the Donbas or gained any significant ground.

But shelling attacks killed three civilians in a small town and two villages Friday in the Donetsk region, which is part of the Donbas, the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, posted on a messaging app. Kyrylenko said the Russians opened fire on at least 20 of the region’s settlements.

In other developments, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said talks between the two countries have “ground to a halt” because Moscow hasn’t received a response from Kyiv to its latest proposals, the details of which have not been released.

Putin’s lead negotiator at the talks, Vladimir Medinsky, said he held several lengthy conversations Friday with the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He gave no details.

Also, Rustam Minnekayev, a senior Russian military official, publicly outlined Russian war aims that appeared to be wider than what the Kremlin has stated in recent weeks. He said Russia’s forces aim to take full control of not just eastern Ukraine but southern too.

He said such a move would open the way to the nation of Moldova, where Russia backs the breakaway region of Transnistria. Moldovan officials are warily watching Putin’s actions in Ukraine.

In his nightly video address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine was assumed to be just the beginning; further, they want to grab other countries.”

Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak added that Russia “was always lying to everyone and that, in fact from the very beginning, it wanted stupidly to steal some of Ukraine’s territory to secure an outlet to Transnistria.”

Satellite photos released Friday by Maxar Technologies revealed what appeared to be a second mass grave site excavated recently near Mariupol. The site at a cemetery in the town of Vynohradne has several newly dug parallel trenches measuring about 40 meters (131 feet) long, Maxar said in a statement.

A day earlier, Maxar made public satellite photos of what appeared to be rows upon rows of more than 200 freshly dug mass graves next to a cemetery in the town of Manhush, outside Mariupol. That prompted Ukrainian accusations that the Russians are trying to conceal the slaughter of civilians in the city.

“This confirms again that the occupiers arrange the collection, burial and cremation of dead residents in every district of the city,” Andryushchenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainians estimated that the graves seen in the photos released on Thursday could hold 9,000 bodies.

The Kremlin did not respond to the satellite pictures.

The U.N. Human Rights office again condemned the Russian invasion.

“Over these eight weeks, international humanitarian law has not merely been ignored but seemingly tossed aside,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.

___

Fisch reported from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Inna Varenytsia in Kviv and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world.