Finland plans to build barriers on its border with Russia
June 9, 2022
Finnish-Russian border crossing in Imatra
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s government plans to amend border legislation to allow the building of barriers on its eastern frontier with Russia, it said on Thursday, in a move to strengthen preparedness against hybrid threats amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Finland, which is currently applying for membership in the Western military alliance NATO, has a history of wars with Russia, although currently the forest-covered border zone between the two countries is marked merely with signs and plastic lines for most of its 1,300-km (810-mile) length.
The Finnish government has rushed to strengthen border security as it fears Russia could attempt to put pressure on Finland by sending asylum seekers to its borders – as the European Union accused Belarus of doing at the end of last year when hundreds of migrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa got stuck on the Polish border.
The government’s amendments to the law include a proposal to enable concentrating the reception of asylum applications only at specific points of entry.
Under existing EU rules, migrants have the right to ask for asylum at any given entry point to an EU member country.
The amendments would also allow the building of barriers such as fences, as well as new roads to facilitate border patrolling on the Finnish side.
“Later on, the government will decide on border barriers to the critical zones on the eastern border, on the basis of the Finnish Border Guard’s assessment,” minister of internal affairs Krista Mikkonen said in a statement.
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Russia Plans to Send Detained Ukrainians Into Minefields, Says Leaked Call
Allison Quinn – June 9, 2022
Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
As Russian authorities plow full-steam ahead with a deranged PR effort to “restore” the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol that Putin’s troops nearly wiped off the face of the earth, Ukrainian citizens detained in other cities occupied by Russian troops will reportedly be used to perform the deadly task of removing landmines from the area.
That’s according to Ukraine’s Security Service, which released audio Thursday of what it described as an intercepted phone call between an officer of Russia’s FSB and a colleague apparently tasked with cleaning up the supposedly “liberated” city.
In the nearly three-minute recording, the purported FSB officer identifies himself by the call name “Kaspii” and asks his colleague if he’s been briefed on plans to de-mine Mariupol “the natural way” and send those “detained” in Russian-occupied Melitopol to complete the task.
His colleague, who says he’s located in Basan in the Zaporizhia region, responds that he had not yet been informed of that plan but “that wouldn’t be bad.”
“Kaspii” says everything has already been agreed upon with military leadership, but the logistics still need to be pinned down: “Everyone’s already aware [of the scheme], the main thing is to come up with an arrangement.”
The call ends with his colleague double-checking that he heard correctly, asking if the plan is to use those detained “from our guys, or the other ones … the Ukropy [a slur for Ukrainians].”
The man identified as an FSB officer responds, “Fuck, the locals” before appearing to add that they should “serve the motherland.”
The disturbing conversation comes as Russian authorities pull out all the stops to paint a glowing picture of occupied Mariupol, even as Ukrainian authorities sound the alarm over myriad war crimes committed by Putin’s troops there and say the Russian troops controlling the city are hiding the scale of death by dumping newly discovered bodies of civilians in landfills.
While the Russian military plans to send detained Ukrainians into literal minefields around the city, St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov says up to 1,000 Russians from his city are being bussed in to help with restoration efforts—including on a theater where Russian forces were accused of killing more than 600 civilians in an airstrike.
Wearing a blazer emblazoned with a large “Z,” Beglov claimed in an interview with the “Saint Petersburg” news channel on Thursday that Mariupol residents are “glad… they are with Russia.”
“They all speak in Russian and think in Russian,” he said of those in the city who endured weeks of relentless bombing by Russia.
Ukraine And Russia In Back-And-Forth Battle On Donbas Frontlines
Ukrainian troops drive along a road on June 08, 2022 near Sloviansk, Ukraine. In recent weeks, Russia has concentrated its firepower on Ukraine’s Donbas region, where it has long backed two separatist regions at war with the Ukrainian government since 2014. Credit – Scott Olson-Getty Images
As the war in Ukraine drags into its fourth month with no end in sight, a number of observers are beginning to ask, “Will the West grow tired of supporting Ukraine?” Some commentators have opined that “time is on Putin’s side,” and that the fierce response of NATO and other global democracies will gradually wane in the face of economic challenges stemming from inflation, Russia’s choking off of Ukrainian agrarian and hydrocarbon products from the global economy, internal political divisions (especially in the U.S.), and issue fatigue as the relentless 24/7 news cycle moves on.
I’m old enough to remember the U.S. experience in Vietnam, and Putin’s situation is increasingly reminiscent of that long, painful misadventure. His hand of cards, weak at the start of the conflict, is getting weaker by the day. Time is more on the side of Ukraine and the west than on Putin, and as the year wears on this will become more apparent.
Let’s start with the military facts on the ground. Putin’s original goal was to conquer all of Ukraine in one sweeping thrust, decapitating the Zelensky government and installing a puppet regime in Kyiv. That “Plan A” has failed, a result of over confidence, bad intelligence, worse generalship, execrable logistics, and terrible on-the-ground leadership. His “Plan B,” is a retreat to traditional Soviet/Russian tactics: grinding out small stretches of territory and terrorizing the Ukrainian civilian population with a deliberate campaign of war crimes.
But like the U.S. in Vietnam, the majority of the population in Ukraine is deeply opposed to the outside aggressor. Instead of being greeted with promised bottles of vodka when they invaded, Russian soldiers were greeted with Molotov cocktails. The revelations about war crimes will only stiffen the resistance and will of the Ukrainians, and time will only strengthen their resolve.
Thus Putin’s chances of truly upending the situation on the ground and gaining a significant additional amount of territory appear small. In essence, he started with control of 15% of Ukraine before the invasion, set of goal of gaining nearly 100%, and may end up at best at with 20-25%. That’s a failing grade on any test.
Also similar to the U.S. experience in Vietnam, Putin faces a determined foe with access to outside sanctuaries and bases. The U.S. never successfully cut off the flow of weapons to the Vietcong, and the Russians will likewise be unable to stop significant assistance headed to the Ukrainians. Indeed, the Ukrainians enjoy vastly greater weapons flows across their borders, superb intelligence and cyber support, and far more significant financial resources than the Vietcong ever did.
Casualties are also mounting rapidly, both to Russian soldiers and to their equipment. Reliable estimates indicate Russian killed in action heading toward 20,000—a staggering number almost triple what the US lost in 20 years of the forever wars. The sinking of the Black Sea flagship Moskva was a dagger in the heart of the Russian navy. Over a thousand Russian tanks have been destroyed. This level of loss is unsustainable without Putin putting Russia on a full war footing, something over time that will impact his hold at home, regardless of his media control. LBJ would understand the painful choices ahead for Putin.
In some ways, Putin’s situation is worse than the U.S. in Vietnam. Putin’s democratic opponents—the U.S., most of Europe, all of NATO, Japan, Australia and others—represent nearly 60% of the world’s GDP. Russia’s economy is only around 10%, and they are thus seriously outgunned in the economic sphere. China is showing little appetite to provide Russia a lifeline, and if the U.S. imposes secondary sanctions of those doing business with Russia, the economic situation will only become more dire over time for Putin.
Fortunately for Kyiv, the cost of support to the Ukrainians—set against the huge size of Western economies—is quite small. Compared to the billions per day pumped into Afghanistan and Iraq at the peak of operations, the cost of Ukraine at current standards of support, is modest.
Finally, strategic communications are working against Putin. President Zelensky has proven a master communicator, easily outstripping the ham-handed and implausible Russian narrative of toppling the “Nazi regime” in Kyiv. Over time, Zelensky’s skills in promoting the cause of his nation will strengthen his case.
Putin’s most likely course of action will be to secure as much territory as he possibly can before the “burn rate” in terms of Russians killed in action, destroyed equipment, crushing sanctions, and international opprobrium really kicks in. As an exit strategy, he is probably hoping the west will simply pressure the Ukrainian people into accepting an armistice that gives Russia de jure control over 20% of their nation.
That appears unlikely at this point, given all the war crimes and the Ukrainian’s spirited resistance. Both of those factors will harden in the months to come. Putin holds a bad hand of cards, and like the U.S. in Vietnam, is headed for a significant defeat. Time is not on his side.
What can an AR-15 do to the human body? A trauma surgeon explains.
Laura Ramirez-Feldman and Kate Murphy – June 9, 2022
A wave of mass shootings has shaken the country in recent weeks. One in particular — the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead — became one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history and has sparked an increase in calls for stricter gun control measures across the country.
As was the case in many other high-profile mass shootings in recent U.S. history, such as the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, the 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas, church shooting and the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Fla., the Uvalde gunman used an AR-15-style rifle to carry out the crime.
An AR-15 or similar rifles are semiautomatic, military-style weapons that can fire at least 30 rounds, the number of bullets a magazine typically carries, according to NPR. The term semiautomatic means that the shooter must pull the trigger to fire each shot, as opposed to an automatic weapon, which continues to fire for as long as the shooter holds down the trigger. Fully automatic weapons were heavily restricted for civilians in the United States in 1986, when Congress passed the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act.
But AR-15-style rifles, which are easily accessible in many parts of the country, can be just as destructive. “This is a gun whose purpose it is to shoot a lot of high-caliber bullets very, very quickly and do a lot of damage,” Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, said on MSNBC earlier this month.
Dr. Bindi Naik-Mathuria, a pediatric trauma surgeon at Baylor College of Medicine, told Yahoo News that injuries from this type of weapon are “almost unsurvivable, essentially,” because of the significant damage the bullets cause to the victims.
How wounds from an AR-15-style rifle compare to wounds from handguns
Naik-Mathuria, who is also a fellow at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, told Yahoo News that some of her colleagues treated patients of the Uvalde school shooting, but that few of the victims survived. “They received very few patients, because unfortunately, this is what happens with assault weapons,” she said.
She explained that “the blast effect, or the cavitation effect” that a handgun shot causes is not as wide and devastating to internal organs as the one inflicted by high-velocity weapons such as the AR-15 and similar rifles. “When you see handguns, you often just see a little hole on the outside on both sides; shotguns, which are a little bit higher velocity, a little bit bigger. But assault weapons, it’s much bigger,” she said, adding that as a bullet from this type of weapon penetrates the body, it typically creates a large cavity that can cause significant bleeding from vessels and completely destroy soft tissue, as well as organs.
“The organs, for example, like the liver or the spleen, that aren’t very elastic, they can’t handle that. They would basically rupture,” Naik-Mathuria said.
She added that the reason the AR-15 is so deadly is that victims are hit by more than one bullet, with multiple injuries at a time.
A Stag Arms AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images)
Children are less likely to survive AR-15 wounds
The leading cause of death in children between the ages of 1 and 19 in the U.S. is gun violence, according to a recent New England Journal of Medicine report, which analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Naik-Mathuria says that treating and saving anyone from AR-15 wounds is difficult, but that for children, the chance of surviving these injuries is slim. One reason is that victims of AR-15-style rifles lose large amounts of blood very quickly, and children, she says, don’t have as much blood in their bodies as adults.
“Children have half the blood volume that adults do,” the Baylor surgeon told Yahoo News. “So you can imagine that the amount of blood that they lose, for that to stop their hearts, is a lot faster than it would be for an adult.”
Chances of survival for both adults and children also depend on the location of the wounds. Naik-Mathuria says that if the bullets hit extremities like the arms or the legs, there’s a higher chance of survival. Again, she says the blood loss children would experience from these injuries, regardless of their location, could be enough to kill them.
Why minutes and location matter for injuries from an AR-15 rifle
Another challenge in the race to save children from AR-15 rifle injuries is that they require immediate, specialized medical attention. “It can’t just be any person who sees them. They have to be in a trauma center, a Level I trauma center, where there’s massive amounts of blood available and all the equipment that you need, and many surgeons and different techniques that you might need,” Naik-Mathuria explained.
The U.S. has fewer than 50 pediatric trauma centers, she added, mostly located in urban areas. The time it takes to transport victims of these injuries to the hospital can make the difference between life and death.
“I wish as surgeons, we could just wave a magic wand, and those injuries would just be solved, but it’s very, very complicated. They have to be in the right place at the right time and be injured in the right location, essentially in order [for us] to save them,” Naik-Mathuria said.
Wooden crosses at a memorial to the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
What recovery looks like for those who survive AR-15 injuries
The road to recovery for those who survive injuries from an AR-15-style weapon is long, and many survivors spend several months in intensive care, according to the surgeon.
“I had a child, a 4-year-old with a handgun injury that was in the hospital for seven months recovering. So imagine something five times the size,” Naik-Mathuria said.
Quite apart from the physical injuries, these patients and their families have to face the psychological trauma. Many U.S. hospitals have teams of crisis counselors and social workers available to help gunshot victims the moment they are out of the intensive care unit.
Doctors call for action to reduce gun violence
Naik-Mathuria is one of many doctors in the nation taking part in a social media movement thatuses the hashtag #ThisIsOurLane to demand action to reduce gun violence. The hashtag was created in 2018 in response to an NRA tweet that read, “Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane,” after several reports on gun violence were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine. Most of the articles called for policies to reduce the rate of firearm injuries and deaths in the country.
The social media campaign was also created in the wake of two mass shootings: one at a California bar that year that ended in 12 deaths and another at a Pittsburgh synagogue, where 11 people were killed. It recently resurfaced after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.
“We take care of these patients. We operate on them. We have a very close bond with them. We take care of their families,” Naik-Mathuria said, adding that doctors feel responsible for these patients. She also said that gun violence is a public health problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
“There is no place for assault-style weapons, high-velocity weapons, in civilian life. I really believe that and think most people in my society and most surgeons believe that — trauma surgeons especially, because we just know how destructive they are,” she said.
Intense fighting in Ukraine’s bombed-out Sievierodonetsk
Pavel Polityuk and Abdelaziz Boumzar – June 9, 2022
Russian artillery damage of civic buildings in LysychanskRussia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in Mykolaiv region
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in intense street fighting and under day and night shelling in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia pushes to control the bombed-out city, key to its objective of controlling eastern Ukraine.
Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, are the last Ukrainian-controlled parts of Luhansk province, which Russia is determined to seize as one of its principal war objectives.
Ukraine’s Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on Thursday the situation in Sievierodonetsk was “extremely complicated” and Russian forces were focusing all of their might in the area.
“They don’t spare their people, they’re just sending men like cannon fodder … they are shelling our military day and night,” Danilov told Reuters in an interview.
Ukraine says its only hope to turn the tide in its favour in the small industrial city is more artillery to offset Russia’s massive firepower.
In a rare update from Sievierodonetsk, the commander of Ukraine’s Svoboda National Guard Battalion, Petro Kusyk, said Ukrainians were drawing the Russians into street fighting to neutralise their artillery advantage.
“Yesterday was successful for us – we launched a counteroffensive and in some areas we managed to push them back one or two blocks. In others they pushed us back, but just by a building or two,” he said in a televised interview.
But he said his forces were suffering from a “catastrophic” lack of counter-battery artillery to fire back at Russia’s guns, and getting such weapons would transform the battlefield.
Reuters could not verify the battlefield reports.
In the south, where Russia is trying to impose its rule on a tract of occupied territory spanning Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had captured new ground in a counter-attack in Kherson province.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an evening address that Ukraine had “some positive developments in the Zaporizhzhia region, where we are succeeding in disrupting the occupiers’ plans”. He did not provide details.
Reuters could not independently verify the situation on the ground in Zaporizhzhia or Kherson. Russian-installed proxies in both provinces say they are planning referendums to join Russia.
Thousands of people have been killed and millions have fled since Russia launched its “special military operation” to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour on Feb. 24. Ukraine and its allies call the invasion an unprovoked war of aggression.
Speaking in Moscow to mark the 350th anniversary of Russian Tsar Peter the Great’s birth, President Vladimir Putin drew a parallel between what he portrayed as their historic quests to win back what he called Russian lands.
“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned (what was Russia’s),” Putin said.
‘WE ARE STAYING’
Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said about 10,000 civilians were still trapped in the city – roughly a tenth of its pre-war population.
To the west of Sievierodonetsk, Russia is pushing from the north and south, trying to trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, comprising Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk province.
Russia shelled more than 20 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk on Thursday, destroying or damaging 49 homes, several manufacturing plants, farm buildings and a rail station, said the Ukraine military. Two civilians were killed, it said.
Russia says it does not target civilians.
In Soledar, a salt-mining town near Bakhmut close to the front line, buildings had been blasted into craters.
Remaining residents, mostly elderly, were sheltering in a crowded cellar. Antonina, 65, had ventured out to see her garden. “We are staying. We live here. We were born here,” she sobbed. “When is it all going to end?”
GRAIN
In the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, one of Russia’s proxies in eastern Ukraine, a court sentenced to death two Britons and a Moroccan who were captured while fighting for Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported.
Britain condemned the court’s decision as a “sham judgment” with no legitimacy.
Ukraine is one of the world’s biggest grain and food oil exporters, and international attention has focused in recent weeks on the threat of international famine seen as caused by Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
“Millions of people may starve if the Russian blockade of the Black Sea continues,” Zelenskiy said in televised remarks.
Russia blames the food crisis on Western sanctions restricting its own grain exports. It says it is willing to let Ukrainian ports open for exports if Ukraine removes mines and meets other conditions. Ukraine calls such offers empty promises.
(This story refiles to remove garble in first paragraph.)
(Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Robert Birsel)
Ukraine and Navalny’s allies share ‘common enemy’, says Kremlin foe
Max Hunder – June 9, 2022
* Aide to jailed Kremlin critic on visit to Ukraine
* Says Navalny will stay in jail as long as Putin in power
* Dismisses Russian polls showing Ukraine invasion popular
KYIV, June 9 (Reuters) – Top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny will remain in prison as long as Vladimir Putin is in power and Russia’s opposition and Ukraine share a “common enemy” in the Russian president, one of Navalny’s top lieutenants said.
Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of Putin’s pre-eminent domestic critic, spoke in an interview in Kyiv. He said he had come to Ukraine to see for himself the impact of Moscow’s invasion and to be able to report a true picture back to Russians.- ADVERTISEMENT -https://s.yimg.com/rq/darla/4-10-1/html/r-sf-flx.html
“Putin is a common enemy for us, and we have already been fighting against him for many years,” Zhdanov, head of Navalny’s embattled Anti-Corruption Foundation, told Reuters on a central square in the Ukrainian capital.
He said Navalny’s team were interested in striking up a dialogue with the Ukrainian government.
Navalny, already serving a jail term of two and half years, received a new nine-year sentence in March for fraud and contempt of court. He said last week he had been charged in a new criminal case and could face up to 15 more years in prison.
Zhdanov delivered a bleak assessment of Navalny’s chances of being released, linking his lengthening jail sentence and new charge to the Russian invasion.
“He will stay in prison as long as Putin is in power, as long as Putin’s circle is in power,” he said.
“If Navalny was free right now…, he would be saying all the time that this war must be stopped immediately. Does Putin need such a person right now?”
Despite the huge stakes of the war in Ukraine and the Kremlin’s spiralling confrontation with the West, Putin looks politically unassailable at home for now. The Kremlin leader, in power since the turn of the century, turns 70 this October.
Zhdanov, 33, left Russia last year during a sweeping Kremlin crackdown on associates of Navalny, whose nationwide political network was declared extremist and banned.
Zhdanov heads Navalny’s exiled Anti-Corruption Foundation, which continues to produce YouTube investigations about alleged graft in Russia and helped Western governments compile sanctions lists of individuals associated with the Kremlin.
“There is no court right now, but the sanctions mechanism is a mechanism for accountability,” said Zhdanov, who is now based in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
RUSSIAN SENTIMENT
Despite his bleak outlook, Zhdanov dismissed as “absolutely untrue” polling figures from March suggesting that 81% of Russians support the actions in Ukraine.
He said a huge portion of Russians simply fear answering the polls honestly: “In fact, the figures are much lower.”
Zhdanov estimated that around 25-30% of people actively support the war, while 40-50% avoid taking a strong position. More than 20% are clearly opposed, he said.
The Kremlin says it is carrying out a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid it of threats to Russian security. Ukraine and its Western supporters call it an unprovoked war to grab territory.
“Russia will be carrying the cost of this war for many decades. Reputationally, financially, and in lots of other ways,” Zhdanov said.
He said he believed that Russia’s actions in Ukraine constituted genocide, citing allegations of Russian war crimes in formerly occupied towns near Kyiv. Moscow denies the allegations and has accused Ukraine of staging a “provocation”.
“In Bucha, people didn’t die from artillery or mortar fire. People died there after they were arrested in the street, tied up, interrogated, and then taken to be shot. How is that not genocide?” said Zhdanov. (Reporting by Max Hunder Writing by Tom Balmforth Editing by Mark Heinrich)
War will cost Russia 15 years of economic gains; UN says ‘global cost-of-living crisis’ worsening: Live updates
John Bacon and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY – June 8, 2022
The ripple effects of Russia’s audacious invasion of Ukraine will wipe out 15 years of economic gains by the end of 2023, a global banking trade group reported Wednesday.
The Institute of International Finance estimated the Russian economy will shrink by 15% this year and another 3% in 2023. Historically high oil and and natural gas prices have provided some protection from global sanctions, and the Russian central bank has raised interest rates and imposed capital controls to keep money from fleeing the country.
But the institute said the sanctions, partly by encouraging foreign companies to abandon Russia, “are unraveling its economy, wiping out more than a decade of economic growth, and some of the most meaningful consequences have yet to be felt.’’
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that sanctions have failed to deter Russia’s military ambitions in his country. But sanctions have yet to reach the “top rung of the escalation ladder,” the report says.
“Western allies could take additional steps in coming weeks and months to keep up pressure on the Russian government,” the report says.
Debris hangs from a residential building heavily damaged in a Russian bombing in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine. Fighting has raged around Lysychansk and neighboring Sievierodonetsk, the last major cities under Ukrainian control in Luhansk region.
Latest developments:
►President Joe Biden plans to visit European allies Germany and Spain in late June as he tries to hold together the coalition opposing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The White House said Biden will attend a Group of Seven summit June 25 in the Bavarian Alps and a meeting of NATO countries June 28 in Madrid.
►Russia has restored fresh-water supply from southern Ukraine to Crimea through the North Crimean Canal, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement, a significant step toward Moscow’s goal of connecting territory it controls to the peninsula it annexed in 2014.
►Almost 30% of Poles favor allowing Ukrainians fleeing the war to settle in Poland permanently and another 64% support providing protection until they can return home, according to a University of Warsaw survey.
►Slovakia’s government has approved a long-term plan to modernize and to increase the number of troops in its armed forces. The NATO member with a population of 5.5 million people should have 22,000 service members by 2035, up from 14,100 this year.
War curtails efforts to end extreme poverty as prices of food, energy soar
The U.N.’s goal of ending extreme poverty globally by 2030 is taking a major hit from the war in Ukraine, which has contributed to a steep rise in food and energy prices, according to a report the organization released Wednesday.
The report by the U.N. Global Crisis Response Group says the war “has exacerbated a global cost-of-living crisis unseen in at least a generation.” With much of the world still dealing with the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, the war has made conditions nearly untenable for millions of people not directly involved in it.
“The war’s impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe and speeding up,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
The U.N. is trying to arrange a deal that would allow grain exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea and unimpeded access to world markets for Russian food and fertilizers. Guterres said hundreds of millions of people in developing countries could face severe hunger without such an agreement.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of weaponizing food supplies by preventing Ukraine from exporting more than 22 million tons of grain. “This is a cold, callous and calculated siege by Putin on some of the most vulnerable countries and people in the world,” she said.
‘Elite’ Russian regiment routed, but Ukraine struggles in Donbas
The Ukraine military claims it routed an elite Russian regiment in the Donbas region amid conflicting reports on the fate of the crucial city of Sievierodonetsk. The “invaders” were trying to cut through a strategically important highway in eastern Ukraine when paratroopers from Ukraine’s 80th Brigade halted the advance, the brigade said in a Facebook post.
“The enemy has not gotten through! Units of the 80th separate paratrooping brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to inflict losses on Russian occupants,” the post claimed. “This ‘striped elite’ retreated, leaving in the forest the bodies of their dead.”
The Russians made their own claims of success, saying they have restored railways, roads and a canal to connect territory they control in southern Ukraine with the Crimean Peninsula, which they illegally annexed in 2014.
The focus of the war has turned to the eastern Donbas, which includes the Luhansk and Donetsk territories. Russia claims to control 97% of Luhansk. Sievierodonetsk is one of just two Luhansk cities not yet completely under Russian control. Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai told the Associated Press that “maybe we will have to retreat, but right now battles are ongoing in the city.” Haidai suggested that positions across the river, in Lysychansk, could be easier to defend.
But in a social media post, Haidai wrote that “nobody is going to surrender Sievierodonetsk!”
In Mariupol, an ‘endless caravan of death’
A search of the bombed-out high-rises in the port city of Mariupol has yielded between 50 and 100 bodies in each, prompting workers to carry them to morgues and landfills in what a mayoral aide called an “endless caravan of death.”
Petro Andryushchenko said on the Telegram app that about two-fifths of the damaged buildings in the heavily shelled city have been searched.
Ukrainian authorities estimate at least 21,000 civilians were killed and hundreds of buildings destroyed during a weekslong Russian siege of Mariupol. Reports have surfaced of mass graves holding thousands of bodies.
Mariupol fell to the Russians in May, but not before several weeks of dogged resistance from fighters holed up in a sprawling steel mill that came to symbolize the Ukrainian spirit of defiance against a larger foe.
Ribbons in the colors of the Ukraine flag are tied to a building destroyed by attacks in Gorenka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, June 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) ORG XMIT: XNP504
British soldiers held by Russian separatists could face death penalty
The families of two British soldiers held captive and possibly facing execution at the hands of Russian separatists in Ukraine say the men are not mercenaries and should be treated as prisoners of war.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 24, had brief court appearances this week in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. They could face the death penalty if convicted on charges of commission of crime by a group, violent seizure of power or retention of power by force, mercenarism and training for terrorist activity. Both families say they are working with the British and Ukraine governments in hopes of winning release.
Denis Pushilin, president of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian TV “the crimes they committed were monstrous.”
“Aiden is a much-loved man and very much missed,” his family statement said. “We hope that he will be released very soon.”
Sides clash over efforts to begin shipping Ukraine grain
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that his nation was willing to provide security for a shipping corridor for Ukrainian agricultural products. An estimated 22 million tons of grains are sitting in silos in Ukraine, aggravating food shortages across much of the developing world.
Russia says commercial shipping could resume in the Black Sea if Ukraine removes mines from the area near the port of Odesa – and pledged not to use any cleared corridor to attack Ukraine. Kyiv has voiced doubt about that promise. Ukrainian Grain Union chief Serhiy Ivashchenko said Wednesday it was the Russians who mined the area and that it would take 3 to 4 months to remove sea mines.
“Turkey doesn’t have enough power in the Black Sea to guarantee security of cargo and Ukrainian ports,” he said.
Russia suspends fishing deal with Japan as their relations turn sour
Russia’s relationship with Japan continues to deteriorate because of the war in Ukraine. A day after Japan agreed to increased military cooperation with NATO, Russia said it would suspend a deal that allowed Japanese boats to fish in waters near disputed islands in exchange for payment.
The fishing agreement in place since 1998 permits Japanese fishing around the Russian-held Kurils, which Japan also claims and calls the Northern Territories. Japan has joined the U.S., the European Union and others in imposing sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine, and the deal’s suspension appears to be retribution for that and the closer military ties with NATO.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said it was “regrettable that Russia one-sidedly announced it is suspending the cooperation in this manner.”
WNBA star Griner’s freedom could be linked to another American
WNBA star Brittney Griner remains locked in a Russian prison, her case tangled up with that of lesser-known American Paul Whelan. He has been held in Russia since his December 2018 arrest on espionage charges he and the U.S. government say are false. Whelan was left out of a prisoner exchange in April that brought home yet another detainee, Marine veteran Trevor Reed. That has escalated pressure on the Biden administration to avoid another one-for-one swap that does not include Whelan in favor of Griner, an Olympic gold medalist whose case has drawn global attention.
“It’s still very raw,” Whelan’s sister, Elizabeth Whelan, said of her brother being excluded from the Reed deal. “And to think we might have to go through that again if Brittney is brought home first is just terrible.”
Western artillery already making difference for Ukraine -regional governor
June 8, 2022
Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk region
MYKOLAIV, Ukraine (Reuters) – Western-supplied artillery systems are already making a difference on the ground for Ukraine and it is “just a question of time” before its forces win back significant ground in the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region said on Wednesday.
Governor Vitaliy Kim, whose region is partially occupied by Russia but remains just one of two that retains significant access to the Black Sea, told Reuters that Ukrainian forces had “some success” in recent weeks in a counterattack in the neighboring Kherson region.
Asked when Western weapons would start to make a difference on the ground against Russian forces that invaded the country on Feb. 24, he said: “It is already happening … and we will have (more) success.”
“We are talking about artillery,” he said. “It is already working in our region.” He declined to say what specific Western artillery systems were working there.
While both Russia and Ukraine have focused much of their resources in recent weeks on the fight for control of the eastern industrial Donbas region, the fate of Ukraine’s remaining Black Sea coastline in Odesa and Mykolaiv is crucial to ensure the country’s economic future.
To make significant breakthroughs in the south of the country, like taking back the pocket of Kherson Region controlled by Russia above the Dnipro River, Ukraine will likely need more manpower – either by freeing up forces in the east or through additional mobilization, Kim said.
And Kyiv realizes there is still a risk that Russia will make a fresh assault on major cities Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia.
“In the coming months, I think they have some opportunities to attack on Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. But for now we don’t see any regrouping, any big armies to attack,” Kim said.
While things are moving very slowly at present, “the situation could move very fast,” he said.
(Writing by Conor Humphries; editing by Grant McCool)
House Republican leaders told their members to vote against 8 gun-safety bills, citing opposition from the NRA and Gun Owners of America
Bryan Metzger – June 8, 2022
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP members at a press conference on Capitol Hill on March 1, 2022.Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images House Republican leaders told their members to vote against 8 gun-safety bills, citing opposition from the NRA and Gun Owners of America
The House is set to vote Wednesday on a package of gun-related bills dubbed the “Protect Our Kids Act.”
GOP leaders told members to vote against the package, calling it the “Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions Act.”
The notice sent to GOP offices included links to talking points from the NRA and Gun Owners of America.
House Republicans are poised to vote against eight bills aimed at preventing gun violence on Tuesday, in part due to opposition from powerful pro-gun groups on the right.
House Democratic leaders have scheduled votes for Wednesday evening on the “Protecting Our Kids Act” — a package of seven gun violence-related measures that includes raising the age for legal purchase of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns to 21, closing the “bump stock” loophole, and other measures aimed at preventing the illegal trafficking of guns.
The House will also vote on the “Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act,” a federal “red flag” bill that would allow family members and law enforcement officials to temporarily block firearm access to those who a court determines pose a danger to themselves or others.
In a “whip notice” sent to rank-and-file members on Tuesday afternoon, House GOP leadership urged a “no” vote on all eight bills, referring to the seven-bill package as the “Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions Act.” They wrote that House Democrats had “thrown together this reactionary package comprised of legislation that egregiously violates law-abiding citizens’ 2nd Amendment rights and hinders Americans’ ability to defend and protect themselves and their families.”
The email also noted the opposition of the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America, including links to talking points from the NRA about both the gun package and the red flag law. Leaders also noted the opposition of Heritage Action for America, an advocacy group tied to the conservative Heritage Foundation.
“Due to the importance of this issue, votes on this legislation will be considered in future candidate ratings and endorsements by the NRA Political Victory Fund,” declares one of the memos shared by party leaders.
Screenshot of the end of the June 7th whip notice, including links to talking points from the NRA and Heritage Action for America.House Republican Whip Steve Scalise
It’s not uncommon for party leaders to note the opposition of outside groups to major pieces of legislation. For example, in a February whip notice urging Republicans to vote against a major piece of legislation aimed at boosting the US semiconductor industry, GOP leaders noted the opposition of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, National Taxpayers Union, and Americans for Prosperity.
But the two gun groups’ inclusion — and the NRA’s threat to downgrade candidate ratings or withhold endorsements should any Republicans back the measures — underscores the enduring influence of pro-second amendment groups on the right, despite the NRA’s recent financial troubles and shrinking membership.
NRA talking points distributed by House GOP leadership, including a warning that candidate ratings and endorsements are at stake.National Rifle Association
Meanwhile, Democrats are planning to stage a striking visual contrast to Republicans — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked her caucus members on Tuesday to be present on the House floor for debate on the gun measures on Wednesday, when the floor would otherwise be empty.
“On behalf of the survivors of gun violence, and out of respect for those who lost their lives, I am asking all Members of our Caucus to be present on the Floor of the House for the two hours of debate, which should begin at approximately 2:30 p.m. following the vote on the Rule,” she said.
Climate-driven flooding poses well water contamination risks
Michael Phillis and John Flesher – June 8, 2022
Homes are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey in Spring, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017. Experts say more intense storms driven by climate change are boosting contamination risks for privately-owned drinking water wells. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)This photo provided by Stefanie Johnson shows Johnson’s private well in Blandinsville, Ill. Her well was contaminated during major flooding in 2013. Johnson’s family was without drinking water for nearly two months. She says contaminated wastewater likely drained in through the top, causing her well to test positive for E. coli. (Stefanie Johnson via AP)Neil and Bea Jobe pose in their home March 8, 2022, in Primm Springs, Tenn., which sits near Lick Creek. Several times a year, when there is heavy rain and a nearby creek floods, their well water turns “dingy,” Bea Jobe said. While estimates vary, roughly 53 million U.S. residents, about 17% of the population, rely on private wells, according to a study done in part by Environmental Protection Agency researchers. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) ASSOCIATED PRESSAn oil sheen drifts between a sunken shrimp boat and pieces of a destroyed home along Bayou Pointe au Chien in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida in Pointe-aux-Chenes, La., on Sept. 14, 2021. Experts say more intense storms driven by climate change are boosting contamination risks for privately-owned drinking water wells. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)n this photo taken in September 2017, Sandy Wynn-Stelt, of Belmont, Mich., stands in a wooded area near her home where industrial wastes containing PFAS chemicals were dumped for many years. High levels of the toxic compounds later were detected in drinking water from her well. While estimates vary, studies say roughly 53 million U.S. residents rely on private wells. While many provide safe water, experts say some are vulnerable to contamination from bacteria or other impurities from floodwaters or from groundwater tainted with PFAS or other pollutants. (Nic Antaya/The Grand Rapids Press via AP)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — After a record-setting Midwestern rainstorm that damaged thousands of homes and businesses, Stefanie Johnson’s farmhouse in Blandinsville, Illinois, didn’t have safe drinking water for nearly two months.
Flood water poured into her well, turning the water a muddy brown and forcing Johnson, her husband and their two young children to use store-bought supplies. Even after sediment cleared, testing found bacteria — including E. coli, which can cause diarrhea. The family boiled water for drinking and cooking. The YMCA was a refuge for showers.
“I was pretty strict with the kids,” said Johnson, who works with a private well protection program at the local health department. “I’d pour bottled water on their toothbrushes.”
Though estimates vary, roughly 53 million U.S. residents — about 17% of the population — rely on private wells, according to a study conducted in part by Environmental Protection Agency researchers. Most live in rural areas. But others are in subdivisions near fast-growing metro regions or otherwise beyond the reach of public water pipes.
While many private wells provide safe water, the absence of regulation and treatment afforded by larger municipal systems may expose some users to health risks, from bacteria and viruses to chemicals and lead, studies have found.
Risks are elevated after flooding or heavy rainfall, when animal and human feces, dirt, nutrients such as nitrogen and other contaminants can seep into wells. And experts say the threat is growing as the warming climate fuels more intense rainstorms and stronger and wetter hurricanes.
“Areas that hadn’t been impacted are now. New areas are getting flooded,” said Kelsey Pieper, a Northeastern University professor of environmental engineering. “We know the environment is shifting and we’re playing catch-up, trying to increase awareness.”
Pieper is among scientists conducting well testing and education programs in storm-prone areas. After Hurricane Harvey caused widespread flooding along the Texas coast in 2017, sampling of more than 8,800 wells in 44 counties found average E. coli levels nearly three times higher than normal, she said.
Sampling of 108 wells in Mississippi following Hurricane Ida in 2021 produced a similar bump in E. coli readings. Other studies turned up higher levels in North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018.
The following year, above-average snowfall and a March storm unleashed flooding in Nebraska. Levees and dams were breached. Fremont, a city of more than 25,000, turned into an island when the nearby Platte and Elkhorn rivers overflowed.
The municipal system continued to supply drinking water but some nearby private wells were damaged or contaminated. Julie Hindmarsh’s farm was flooded for three days, and it took months to make the well water drinkable again. At times, the cleanup crew wore protective suits.
“They didn’t know what was in that floodwater,” she said.
CONTAMINATION RISK
Groundwater is often a cleaner source than surface supplies because soil can provide a protective buffer, said Heather Murphy, an epidemiologist at the University of Guelph in Canada. But she said that can give well owners a false sense of security, leading them to forgo testing, maintenance and treatment.
“There’s a big misconception that it’s underground, therefore it’s safe,” said Murphy, who estimates 1.3 million cases of acute gastrointestinal illness in the U.S. are caused annually by drinking untreated water from private wells.
Old, poorly maintained wells are especially vulnerable to floodwaters entering through openings at the top. “It just runs right in and it’s full of bacteria,” said Steven Wilson, a well expert at the University of Illinois.
It doesn’t always take a flood or hurricane to pollute wells. Industrial contamination can reach them by seeping into groundwater.
Around 1,000 residential wells in Michigan’s Kent County were tainted for decades with toxic per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in landfill sludge from footwear company Wolverine World Wide. The pollution, discovered in 2017, spurred lawsuits and a $69.5 million settlement with the state that extended city water lines to affected houses.
“We thought we were getting this pristine, straight-from-nature water and it would be much better for us,” said Sandy Wynn-Stelt, who has lived across from one of the dump sites since the early 1990s.
She said tests detected high levels of PFAS chemicals in her water and blood, leaving her fearful to drink or even brush her teeth with well water. In a suit later settled, she blamed the contamination for her husband’s 2016 death from liver cancer. She was diagnosed with thyroid cancer four years later.
LITTLE REGULATION FOR WELL OWNERS
While many well owners don’t have the option of hooking up to a public water system, others are happy with well water. They might favor the taste or want to avoid monthly bills and government regulation.
“What I hear from people is freedom,” said Jesse Campbell, private well coordinator for the Midwest Assistance Program Inc., which addresses rural water needs.
Private well owners are responsible for them. While public water systems must meet federal safety standards, those rules don’t apply to wells that have fewer than 15 connections or serve fewer than 25 people.
State and local standards usually involve only construction and design, although some states set tougher rules.
New Jersey requires water quality testing before sales of property with private wells. Rhode Island requires testing when new wells are built and when property with a well is sold.
But many states rely on public outreach and voluntary action to protect private well users.
“There’s an overall lack of education,” Campbell said. He meets with well owners from Montana to Missouri, providing free inspections and advice.
A lot of harm can be prevented if owners make sure the well’s top keeps out debris and that the pump is turned off before a storm to keep out floodwaters. Experts recommend testing after a flood and decontaminating wells with chlorine if a problem is found.
“People aren’t regularly testing,” said Riley Mulhern, an environmental engineer at the research group RTI International.
Indiana’s health department offers testing for bacteria, lead, copper, fluoride and other contaminants. Some land-grant universities and private labs provide similar services.
While many owners know how to maintain their wells, others ignore problems even if the water isn’t sanitary. Water that tastes fine can still be contaminated.
“I wish I had a nickel for everyone who’s walked into a workshop and said, ‘I’ve been drinking this water forever and it’s fine,’” said Jason Barrett, who directs a Mississippi State University program that educates well owners.
It provides free testing. But where such assistance isn’t available, costs can run to a few hundred dollars, according to experts. Some owners avoid testing because they are concerned it will reveal an expensive problem.
Johnson, the Illinois resident whose well was fouled by the 2013 downpour that killed four people and caused $465 million in flood damage, paid about $3,500 for repairs and upgrades.
“Luckily, none of us became ill,” she said.
Even ordinary rainstorms can carry diseases into groundwater, said Mark Borchardt, a microbiologist formerly with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“A lot of times people say, ‘Well, no one got sick,’” Borchardt said. “It’s hard to see when people get sick unless it is a huge outbreak.”
Bea and Neil Jobe live in Primm Springs, Tennessee, an hour’s drive from Nashville. Several times a year, when there is heavy rain and a nearby creek floods, their well water turns “dingy,” Bea Jobe said.
The discoloration disappears after a few days but Jobe takes precautions such as keeping bottled water available.
