Moscow: Purported footage of a Ukrainian drone strike targeting the Kremlin on Tuesday night has surfaced on a local Telegram channel, media reports said.
The video shows plumes of white smoke rising into the night sky over the Grand Kremlin Palace, a 19th century building serving as the official working residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin, RT reported.
No sound can be heard in the video but witnesses claimed on Telegram that they heard at least one loud blast resembling “thunder rumbling”.
People on the Kremlin embankment also reportedly saw sparks rising into the sky over the Kremlin wall. An unverified video circulating on social media also shows a fire on the roof of the Senate Palace, the President’s second working residence in the Kremlin. Flames can be seen rising near the top of the roof.
Another unverified video published on Telegram purported to show the moment one of the drones struck the Senate Palace. The footage shows the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) approaching the building at a low altitude, before blowing up right over its dome. The blast appeared not to have dealt any significant damage to the building, as even the flagstaff with the presidential banner remained in place after the attack, RT reported.
Ukraine denies involvement with drone attack. The government in Kyiv has reacted to the Kremlin accusing Ukraine of launching an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin’s life with two drones in the early hours of Wednesday morning. An attack on the Kremlin would “change nothing… pic.twitter.com/gLj4CnV2k0
— Dénes Törteli 🇪🇺🇭🇺🇺🇦 (@DenesTorteli) May 3, 2023
Earlier on Wednesday, the Russian presidential office reported the attack, calling it a “planned terrorist act” targeting Putin’s residence. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clarified that the President was elsewhere at the time and his schedule is unaffected.
Russia reserves the right to retaliate “anywhere and anytime it deems necessary” in response to the drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence, the Kremlin has said, RT reported.
Officials said two Ukrainian drones attempted to strike the Kremlin early on Wednesday morning, but the raid was thwarted.
“It was an incredible, emotional moment for me to spend time with her,” Andriy Shevchenko says as he describes meeting a little Ukrainian girl called Maryna last month. The most famous former footballer from Ukraine, who won the Ballon d’Or in 2004 and the Champions League with Milan before he also coached his country at Euro 2020, pauses as he reflects on a simple encounter where he kicked a football back and forth in hospital with the six-year-old.
The images of their kickaround assume a grainy resonance when it is explained that Maryna had become the first child in Ukraine to receive a prosthetic limb after her leg was blown off by a Russian missile last year. For many weeks she barely moved. Finally, when she was well enough to sit up, her doctors started the slow process of her rehabilitation by using a football. Maryna learned to balance on her prosthetic leg while using her good foot to kick the ball.
For Shevchenko, Maryna represents the courageous spirit of Ukraine but he concedes: “It’s very sad to say it like that because she is so young to have been in that condition. But she shows everyone she’s very strong coming back from a terrible injury. It took her some time, especially emotionally, to recover. But she is so brave.”
The 46-year-old, who won 111 caps for Ukraine, leans forward, his eyes shining with emotion as he describes playing football with Maryna at the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. “I saw her start smiling. The doctor came to me and said: ‘Andriy, she’s been here for four months and we never saw her even smiling.’ Then she gets excited, playing with the ball, and she kicked it back to me with both legs. She was very enthusiastic.
Andriy Shevchenko with Maryna, the first child in Ukraine to receive a prosthetic limb after her leg was blown off by a Russian missile. Photograph: Andrii Yushchak/UNITED24
“I saw a lot of kids in the paediatric hospital and many of them were in a very difficult condition. The next day I went to another hospital where I met soldiers, who are really just boys of 18 or 19, and they have no legs, no arms.”
Shevchenko’s four sons are aged between nine and 18 and, on an otherwise ordinary Wednesday afternoon at his home in London, he nods gently when I ask whether this most recent visit to Ukraine made him think of his own boys. “Of course. But I think it’s good we’re speaking because I want the world to understand the damage. The images of destruction and the bombs coming can be seen on television but the personal feeling after you go inside the hospitals is absolutely different. You feel the pain of people. So I want to share with the world what Ukrainian people are feeling.
“These young soldiers are defending the frontline, risking their lives, and there are civilian [casualties] too. When you go to Ukraine you always know it can happen to anyone. You accept that. Everyone who moves inside the war zone knows. But it’s more dangerous to be close to the frontline and you see so many families and young children who stayed there. We need to support these people when they have to recover in hospital. But we also need some human relationships with them, to encourage people after such a difficult injury to have a desire to live, to continue life. Most of them, I’m sure, can recover back to normal life – like Maryna.”
How did Shevchenko try to comfort the young soldiers who had lost limbs in the war? “I just want to give them attention. I walk in, give him a big thank you for his service, for defending Ukraine. It is one of the hardest moments, going to these hospitals, but it becomes a good feeling to say thanks to them from everyone.”
Shevchenko’s words carry even more weight after the latest wave of bombing across Ukraine. In the early hours of Friday Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Kyiv and other cities. The haunting sound of air raid sirens echoed around a darkened Kyiv for the first time since early March. There are reports of at least 25 more deaths and of children being rescued from the rubble of their destroyed homes.
We return to the early hours of 24 February 2022 when the war began. “I remember going to sleep the night before,” Shevchenko says. “I was very nervous but I still believed it would be OK because it’s impossible they start a war with no reason. Until then we believed that Russia would not attack Ukraine. But I did not feel peaceful. I left my phone close to me because I was in London and my mother was in Kyiv.”
Andriy Shevchenko playing football with children in Borodianka. Photograph: Andrii Yushchak/UNITED24
Shevchenko is briefly silent as the memories flood through him. “It was three in the morning for me,” he continues, “and 5am in Ukraine. I open my eyes because my mum phoned me. I already know what it means. You don’t know for how long we’re going to be in this war but you know something terrible has happened. When the first attack started some important military bases around the airports were hit by missiles. My mum lives pretty close to one of them and she felt that explosion and called me immediately. She was scared and disoriented. She was crying and so I knew. War had started.”
His mother and sister left Ukraine six weeks later. “My mum didn’t feel well,” he explains, “and so my sister took her and their two dogs across Ukraine, close to the border. When they could they crossed the border and went to Italy. So they are safe but they have been three times back in Ukraine. They go back and forth. We all do. I try to go to Ukraine every month.”
The family’s close links with Italy are rooted in his successful years with Milan. Shevchenko scored 173 goals in 296 gamesbetween 1999 and 2006, reaching two Champions League finals. In 2003 he scored Milan’s winning penalty in a dramatic shootout in the final against Juventus while, two years later, his spot-kick at the same stage was saved by Jerzy Dudek in the Liverpool goal. That missed penalty meant Liverpool won the shootout, having been 3-0 down at half-time of normal time and with their 3-3 draw secured only by Dudek’s incredible double save from Shevchenko in extra time.
This season has sparked such memories for Shevchenko again and it’s striking that we only stop talking about the war in Ukraine to discuss Milan’s unexpected progress to the semi-finals. Next month they play Internazionale in a Champions League derby which reminds Shevchenko of the 2003 semi-final. He scored the vital away goal against Inter which helped Milan reach the final.
Andriy Shevchenko scoring for Milan against Internazionale in their 2003 Champions League semi-final. Photograph: Phil Cole/Getty Images
“They are fantastic memories,” Shevchenko says with a smile, “and Milan have a big chance to repeat the story against Inter again.”
He is enough of a Milan supporter to believe that they could shock everyone by winning the Champions League – even though Manchester City or Real Madrid would await in the final. “I watched how Milan played those two quarter-final games against Napoli like a mature team,” he says. “I say mature because, when they had to suffer, Milan would close the gap, defend, work as a team, covering a lot of distance and fight. And then they could strike when the chances came. These games are so close but there is a maturity to the team. I think Milan could do it because they have good players and a very strong team spirit.”
Shevchenko is an astute and intelligent coach, who did excellent work in guiding Ukraine to the quarter-finals of the Covid-delayed Euro 2020, where they lost to England in Rome in the summer of 2021. When he took over as national coach they had just emerged from a miserable tournament at Euro 2016 after losing all three group games and failing to score. Shevchenko drew on everything he had learned from his managerial mentor Valeriy Lobanovskyi, who had helped Dynamo Kyiv become a force in Europe in the 70s and 80s.
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When Shevchenko played under Lobanovskyi at Dynamo he became intensely serious about football. “He gave me the understanding that there are no trifles in football,” Shevchenko said. “No detail of the work can be ignored. I listened to him with my mouth open, catching every word.”
Shevchenko’s knowledge deepened during his years in Italy when he was coached by Alberto Zaccheroni and then Carlo Ancelotti, who became his second mentor. The lessons he learned from Italian football shaped his work in revitalising Ukraine. It would have been fascinating to discover how Shevchenko might have done in club management but his brief stint at Genoa lasted just over two months, and nine league games, before he was sacked after a defeat by Milan in January 2022.
Five weeks later Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine and the first bombs rained down on Kyiv. Shevchenko’s determination to help raise awareness of the unjust conflict means that any return to coaching has been delayed. His immersion in the war effort is deep and so there is no time to analyse the current fiasco at Chelsea, where Shevchenko battled with injury and form during an unsuccessful spell from 2006 to 2009. We do not get a chance to discuss how Roman Abramovich, who was once close to Putin, had pursued Shevchenko relentlessly before he signed him from Milan.
We also don’t have time to reflect on his happier times at Dynamo, where he developed into the lethal striker who lit up European football. I would love to ask Shevchenko about the night in 1997 when, aged just 21, he scored a Champions League hat-trick in the first half for Dynamo against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. The war, instead, is too consuming for such memories.
“As soon as the war started,” Shevchenko says, “my mum and my sister were packed, with their small luggage, ready to go any time. My aunt also spent 10 days under the shelter, hiding from missiles in the first months of the war. I know families who didn’t even have time to pack or take their passports. They had to [flee] because danger was coming. We did this as a family when I was very young [Shevchenko was nine when his family had to leave their village near Chornobyl and move to Kyiv in 1986] but that was a nuclear disaster. This is a war and if you had asked me a few years ago if this could happen I would say: ‘No.’”
Has he lost friends in the war? “Yes,” Shevchenko says. “A few close friends. But I know people who have lost much more.”
Andriy Shevchenko with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Photograph: Alamy
Amid grief and pain he and Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ukraine’s captain who has been a revelation for Arsenal this season, have set up their Football for Ukraine initiative which aims to raise funds for the war effort. “We already did a lot of different projects together,” he says of Zinchenko and himself. “Now we’re preparing something big with this project to raise support for Ukrainian people. We already did a project in [the war-torn city of] Irpin with UNITED24.”
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy set up UNITED24 to give people around the world an easy and direct way to support Ukraine’s military efforts, enhance medical aid and help finance the rebuilding of the country. “We raised funds to rebuild the football stadium in Irpin and I think the impact of sport is very important,” Shevchenko says as an ambassador for UNITED24. “It can bring something different to people, and help them escape the war for a little bit. Oleksandr has been incredible. I’m very proud of him because he’s young and he has a very young family, with a baby, but he has given so much support to Ukraine. He’s not only tried to find the funds but he speaks loud about Ukraine. He has stayed so strong.”
As his former national‑team manager, has Shevchenko helped Zinchenko adjust to the trauma of having to address the war again and again? “When we talk I try to tell him; ‘Don’t hold the emotion. Let it out. There’s nothing to hold. We have to show the truth. We are here to show the world exactly what Ukrainian people are feeling.’ It has been difficult for everyone but, every time we speak, I always remind him: ‘We have to be a lot stronger. We have to help our people in Ukraine because they need us. We have to bring attention to the war.’”
Does the endless grind, with Russian aggression continuing no matter how heroically the Ukrainian army pushes them back, leave Shevchenko feeling depressed? “I am much stronger now. I know we have to just carry on. At the beginning of the war, and for the first four months there was a lot of hard stuff for me. But I can’t complain because I know on the frontline the soldiers have to face so much and families in Ukraine have to evacuate dangerous areas which have been hit by missiles. We went through an incredible year, the winter was so difficult, and with the first big blackout in Ukraine I was there, in Kyiv.
“But we defend our country and this gives us such power. We know the entire democratic world is behind us. But this is a good moment for me to remind everyone that the war keeps going.
“Please help share the Maryna story. These are our people, our children and our soldiers, who are losing their lives or being badly injured. It’s important the entire world keeps helping us. We still have a strong spirit – and that spirit will help us to defend Ukraine and win in the end.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping in his first phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday offered to mediate to bring about a ceasefire and political settlement to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict, saying Kyiv must “seize the opportunity” as he warned that there are no winners in a nuclear war.
Xi, who toyed with the idea of mediating to end the over-year-long conflict after his last month’s highly publicised visit to Moscow during which he referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as “dear friend”, told Zelenskyy that “dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way forward” and offered to send a special envoy to negotiate a ceasefire.
“There is no winner in a nuclear war. On the nuclear issue, all relevant parties must stay calm and exercise restraint, truly act in the interests of their own future and that of humanity, and jointly manage the crisis,” he said, apparently cautioning against a prolonged conflict.
“With rational thinking and voices now on the rise, it is important to seize the opportunity and build up favourable conditions for the political settlement of the crisis,” Xi said.
This is the first contact between Xi and Zelenskyy since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
Xi is trying to enlarge China’s diplomatic outreach after Beijing successfully negotiated a peace deal between arch-rivals in the Middle East – Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Avoiding any direct reference to Russia, Xi told Zelenskyy that “it is hoped that all parties would seriously reflect on the Ukraine crisis and jointly explore ways to bring lasting peace and security to Europe through dialogue”.
“China will continue to facilitate talks for peace and make its efforts for an early ceasefire and restoration of peace. China will send the Special Representative of the Chinese Government on Eurasian Affairs to Ukraine and other countries to have in-depth communication with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis,” an official statement here quoted Xi as saying.
The official statement made no mention of Russia. China has not condemned Russia after it started the war against Ukraine over disputed territories but did not recognise Moscow’s claims but firmed up political, trade and military ties.
In his careful reaction, Zelenskyy tweeted saying that he “had a long and meaningful phone call with President Xi Jinping. I believe that this call, as well as the appointment of Ukraine’s ambassador to China, will give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relations”.
Putin has already welcomed China’s mediation.
Observers say that Zelenskyy, who is closely coordinating with the US and EU and received abundant support in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, has little room to accept a settlement without Russia forgoing its claims over the areas claimed by both countries.
Ahead of Xi’s visit to Russia, China released a 12-point paper calling for a ceasefire followed by peace talks to end the Ukraine war. It, however, struck a nuanced stand of respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and legitimate security concerns of Moscow and expressed its firm opposition to the use of nuclear weapons.
Significant points of China’s stand in its position paper were a call for ceasing hostilities and global support for the resumption of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine to end the war, respect for Ukraine’s sovereignty and Moscow’s legitimate security concerns and Beijing’s opposition to threat or use of nuclear and biological weapons.
In his meeting with Xi, Putin said Chinese proposals could be used as the basis of a peace settlement in Ukraine, but that the Western countries and Kyiv were not yet ready.
In a joint statement, both Xi and Putin cautioned against any steps that might push the Ukraine conflict into an “uncontrollable phase,” adding that there could be no winners in a nuclear war.
Xi commended Zelenskyy for stating, on multiple occasions, the importance he attaches to developing the bilateral relationship and advancing cooperation with China.
“Mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity is the political foundation of China-Ukraine relations. The two sides need to look to the future, view and handle the bilateral relations from a long-term perspective, carry forward the tradition of mutual respect and sincerity, and take the China-Ukraine strategic partnership forward,” he said.
“China’s readiness to develop relations with Ukraine is consistent and clear-cut. No matter how the international situation evolves, China will work with Ukraine to advance mutually beneficial cooperation,” Xi said.
One side will say that Ukraine’s advances would’ve worked had the administration given Kyiv everything it asked for, namely longer-range missiles, fighter jets and more air defenses. The other side, administration officials worry, will claim Ukraine’s shortcoming proves it can’t force Russia out of its territory completely.
That doesn’t even account for the reaction of America’s allies, mainly in Europe, who may see a peace negotiation between Ukraine and Russia as a more attractive option if Kyiv can’t prove victory is around the corner.
Inside the administration, officials stress they’re doing everything possible to make the spring offensive succeed.
“We’ve nearly completed the requests of what [Ukraine] said they needed for the counteroffensive as we have surged weapons and equipment to Ukraine over the past few months,” said one administration official who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive internal considerations.
But belief in the strategic cause is one thing. Belief in the tactics is another — and behind closed doors the administration is worried about what Ukraine can accomplish.
Those concerns recently spilled out into the open during a leak of classified information onto social media. A top secret assessment from early February stated that Ukraine would fall “well short” of its counteroffensive goals. More current American assessments are that Ukraine may make some progress in the south and east, but won’t be able to repeat last year’s success.
Ukraine has hoped to sever Russia’s land bridge to Crimea and U.S. officials are now skeptical that will happen, according to two administration officials familiar with the assessment. But there are still hopes in the Pentagon that Ukraine will hamper Russia’s supply lines there, even if a total victory over Russia’s newly fortified troops ends up too difficult to achieve.
Moreover, U.S. intelligence indicates that Ukraine simply does not have the ability to push Russian troops from where they were deeply entrenched — and a similar feeling has taken hold about the battlefield elsewhere in Ukraine, according to officials. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the U.S. hasn’t adequately armed his forces properly and so, until then, the counteroffensive can’t begin.
There is belief that Kyiv is willing to consider adjusting its goals, according to American officials, and a more modest aim might be easier to be sold as a win.
There has been discussion, per aides, of framing it to the Ukrainians as a “ceasefire” and not as permanent peace talks, leaving the door open for Ukraine to regain more of its territory at a future date. Incentives would have to be given to Kyiv: perhaps NATO-like security guarantees, economic help from the European Union, more military aid to replenish and bolster Ukraine’s forces, and the like. And aides have expressed hope of re-engaging China to push Putin to the negotiating table as well.
But that would still lead to the dilemma of what happens next, and how harshly domestic critics respond.
“If the counteroffensive does not go well, the administration has only itself to blame for withholding certain types of arms and aid at the time when it was most needed,” said Kurt Volker, the special envoy for Ukraine during the Trump administration.
A counteroffensive that doesn’t meet expectations will also cause allies in foreign capitals to question how much more they can spare if Kyiv’s victory looks farther and farther away.
“European public support may wane over time as European energy and economic costs stay high,” said Clementine Starling, a director and fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, D.C. “A fracturing of transatlantic support will likely hurt U.S. domestic support and Congress and the Biden administration may struggle to sustain it.”
Many European nations could also push Kyiv to bring the fighting to an end. “A poor counteroffensive will spark further questions about what an outcome to the war will look like, and the extent to which a solution can really be achieved by continuing to send military arms and aid alone,” Starling said.
Biden and his top aides have publicly stressed that Zelenskyy should only begin peace talks when he is ready. But Washington has also communicated to Kyiv some political realities: at some point, especially with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives, the pace of U.S. aid will likely slow. Officials in Washington, though not pressing Kyiv, have begun preparing for what those conversations could look like and understand it may be a tough political sell at home for Zelenskyy.
“If Ukraine can’t gain dramatically on the battlefield, the question inevitably arises as to whether it is time for a negotiated stop to the fighting,” said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations. “It’s expensive, we’re running low on munitions, we’ve got other contingencies around the world to prepare for.”
“It’s legitimate to ask all these questions without compromising Ukraine’s goals. It’s simply a question of means,” Haass said.
Earlier this month, Andriy Sybiha, a deputy head in Zelenskyy’s office, told the Financial Times that Ukraine would be willing to talk if its forces reach Crimea’s doorstep. “If we will succeed in achieving our strategic goals on the battlefield and when we will be on the administrative border with Crimea, we are ready to open [a] diplomatic page to discuss this issue,” he said.
That comment was quickly rebuffed by Tamila Tasheva, Zelenskyy’s Crimea envoy: “If Russia won’t voluntarily leave the peninsula, Ukraine will continue to liberate its land by military means,” she told POLITICO earlier this month.
It doesn’t help America’s confidence that the war has slowed to a brutal slog.
Both sides have traded punishing blows, focused on small cities like Bakhmut, with neither force able to fully dislodge the other. The Russian surge ordered up earlier this year, meant to revitalize Moscow’s struggling war effort, seized little territory at the cost of significant casualties and did not do much to change the overall trajectory of the conflict.
The fighting has taken a toll on the Ukrainians as well. Fourteen months into the conflict, the Ukrainians have suffered staggering losses — around 100,000 dead — with many of their top soldiers either sidelined or exhausted. The troops have also gone through historic amounts of ammunition and weaponry, with even the West’s prodigious output unable to match Zelenskyy’s urgent requests.
U.S. officials have also briefed Ukraine on the dangers of overextending its ambitions and spreading its troops too thin — the same warning Biden gave then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani as the Taliban moved to sweep across the country during the U.S. military withdrawal in 2021.
But the chances of Ukraine backing down from its highest aspirations is, to say the least, unlikely. “It’s as if this is the only and last opportunity for Ukraine to show that it can win, which of course isn’t true,” said Alina Polyakova, president and CEO of the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The pope’s Easter message is known by its Latin name, ”Urbi et Orbi,” which means “to the city and the world.”
Since Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine in February 2022, Francis has repeatedly called for the fighting to end and sought prayers for the “martyred” Ukrainian people.
Ukrainian diplomats have complained that he hasn’t come down hard enough in his statements on Russia and particularly Russian President Vladimir Putin as the Vatican tries to avoid alienating Russia.
“Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia,″ Francis implored God in his Easter speech, which he delivered while sitting in a chair on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica facing the square. ”Comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones because of the war, and grant that prisoners may return safe and sound to their families.”
He urged the international community to work to end the war in Ukraine and “all conflict and bloodshed in the world, beginning with Syria, which still awaits peace.” Francis also prayed for those who lost loved ones in an earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey two months ago, claiming tens of thousands of lives.
With a renewal in deadly violence affecting both Israelis and Palestinians in recent days, Francis called for a “resumption of dialogue, in a climate of trust and reciprocal respect, between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may reign in the Holy City and in the entire region,″ a reference to Jerusalem.
But Francis also noted progress on some fronts.
“Let us rejoice at the concrete signs of hope that reach us from so many countries, beginning with those that offers assistance and welcome to all fleeing war and poverty,” he said, without naming any particular nations.
How to care for asylum-seekers, migrants and refugees, and whether to allow them entrance, is a raging political and social debate in much of Europe, as well in the United States and elsewhere.
The bloody conflicts cited by Francis contrasted with a riot of bright colors lent by orange-red tulips, yellow sprays of forsythia and daffodils, hyacinths and other colorful seasonal flowers that decorated St. Peter’s Square. The blooms were trucked in trucks from the Netherlands and set up in planters to decorate the Vatican square.
Some 45,000 people had gathered by the start of the mid-morning Mass, according to Vatican security services, but the crowd swelled to some 100,00 ahead of the noon appointment for the pontiff’s speech from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica overlooking the square.
A canopy on the edge of steps on the square sheltered the pontiff, who was back in the public eye 12 hours after a 2.25-hour long Easter vigil ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica the night before.
Still recovering from bronchitis, Francis, 86, skipped the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum due to unseasonably cold nighttime temperatures.
Francis has generally rebounded following a three-day stay last week at a Rome hospital where he was administered antibiotics intravenously for bronchitis. He was discharged on April 1.
But near the end of the more than two-hour-long Easter Sunday appearance, Francis seemed to start running out of steam. His voice grew hoarse and he interrupted his speech at one point to cough.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Moscow: Russia on Friday termed plans by NATO members Poland and Slovakia to send their Soviet warplanes to Ukraine attempts to dispose of antiquated equipment.
“This is another example of how a number of NATO member states, including Poland, are raising their direct involvement in the conflict,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his Friday press briefing, in a response to the recent announcements that Warsaw and Bratislava would send Soviet-designed MiG-29 warplanes to Kiev, RT reported.
It would not affect the outcome of Russia’s military operation but instead “may lead to additional suffering for Ukraine itself and its people”, he added.
“It seems like these countries (Poland and Slovakia) are just disposing of old equipment they no longer need,” Peskov said. The MiG-29 was designed in the 1970s and entered service in the 1980s.
Warsaw’s plan to transfer four of the MiG-29 fighters to Kiev “in the next few days” was announced by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki earlier this week. This makes Poland the first NATO country to pledge warplanes to Ukraine. The country has 28 MiG-29s, but it is unclear how many of them are in working condition, as the country has sought to update its air force with US- and South Korean-made fighters.
Slovakia, also a NATO member, similarly announced on Friday that it would send 13 of its MiGs to Kiev. However, the jets were retired last year, and several reports suggested that they were mostly not in operational condition.
Ukraine has been requesting warplanes, specifically American-made F-16s for its military, but US President Joe Biden said in January that they were not planning to send any over. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz similarly stated the same month that Berlin was not even discussing transferring its own F-16s.
French President Emmanuel Macron has sounded more vague, saying in January that he would not rule out sending fighter jets to Ukraine. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced in February that London would be training Ukrainian pilots, adding that there was still no decision on actually sending Western-made fighter jets to Kiev.
“The program involves watching how Ukrainian pilots conduct their mission planning and execution in flight simulators in order to determine how we can better advise the Ukrainian Air Force,” the U.S. official said.
A Defense Department official and another person familiar with the program said the aim is to evaluate how long it will take Ukrainian pilots to learn to fly modern fighter aircraft, including F-16s. The program was supposed to begin late last year, but was delayed, the people said.
The pilots have been at the base for a week and will stay for at least one more week. A Defense Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The news, first reported by NBC News, comes as top Biden administration officials repeatedly bat down the idea of sending the jets anytime soon.
“F-16s are a question for a later time,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a recent interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that’s why President Biden said that, for now, he’s not moving forward with those.”
Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy official, told the House Armed Services Committee last week that the U.S. has not started training Ukrainians on F-16s, and that the timeline for delivering the aircraft is estimated at 18 months.
“Since we haven’t made the decision to provide F-16s and neither have our allies and partners, it doesn’t make sense to start to train them on a system they may never get,” Kahl said.
The decision to bring Ukrainian pilots over to the U.S. for an assessment does not change the thinking on whether to provide F-16s to Kyiv, the U.S. official said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
The fight against the air defense system (air defense) of Ukraine is one of the essential elements, without which it is impossible to gain superiority, and even more so air supremacy, military expert Vladislav Shurygin told Izvestia.
“Now the task is to constantly catch and destroy enemy air defenses. We manage to do this because the losses of our aviation have dropped sharply. But we cannot yet work on the whole of Ukraine and, moreover, fly somewhere far away. Therefore, this work must be continued constantly. We have all means for this. For example, kamikaze drones do this job very well. There are several options for identifying air defense systems. The first is with the help of radar reconnaissance. Secondly, this is air reconnaissance, observation from our high-altitude drones, which analyze the terrain, identify enemy radars and air defense systems, ”the expert emphasized.
The Russian armed forces destroyed a Ukrainian Buk-M1 self-propelled anti-aircraft missile system in the Andreevka region, and a 36D6 low-flying air targets detection radar not far from Dobropolye in the DPR. The strikes were delivered by operational-tactical and army aviation, missile forces and artillery, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on February 27.
According to the Russian military department, as of February 27, since the beginning of the special military operation, 390 aircraft, 211 helicopters, 3,248 unmanned aerial vehicles and 406 Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile systems have been destroyed.
Read more in the exclusive Izvestia article:
Fly hunting: the Russian army is actively destroying enemy air defenses
The yellow-and-blue flag of Ukraine has become a powerful symbol for millions of people across the Western world who want to express their solidarity with the victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression.
Adopted officially in 1992, the year after Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union, the banner represents the country’s pride in its status as Europe’s bread basket — just picture endless wheat fields under blue skies.
In the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the colors were displayed on some of Europe’s most famous landmarks, from the Eiffel Tower to the Brandenburg Gate.
Over the course of the year since, the flag has spread to all corners of the Continent and beyond, in the hands of protesters, on official government buildings in London and Washington, and in the windows of private homes and cars.
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin | John Mcdougall/AFP via Getty ImagesEuropean Commission headquarters | Nicolas Maeterlinck/AFP via Getty ImagesMunich’s television tower | Christof Stache/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Eiffel Tower | Bertrand Guay/AFP via Getty Images
The flag not only came to signify Ukraine’s brave resistance in a war that ended decades of peace in Europe — it quickly became the hallmark of European unity in the face of the biggest state-backed threat to the Continent’s security this century.
On a visit to Kyiv in January, Charles Michel, the European Council’s president, captured the point.
“With the Maidan uprising, 22 years after gaining your independence, you, Ukrainians said: We are European,” Michel said. “So today, I have come to Ukraine to tell you: We are all Ukrainian.”
Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty ImagesNancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris and Volodymyr Zelenskyy | Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesJulien De Rosa/AFP via Getty ImagesBulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
Beyond political symbols, Putin’s invasion triggered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.
Within weeks, European governments rushed to welcome in millions of Ukrainians, skipping administrative procedures at a speed that caused some to raise eyebrows.
Benedicte Simonart was one of the founders of a Brussels-based NGO BEforUkraine, whose logo features the Belgian and Ukrainian flags side by side. She was “struck” by the solidarity of those early days. “It was unbelievable: People kept coming to us, they were so eager to help,” she said.
“We felt very close to the Ukrainians,” she added. “Ukraine is the door to Europe, it’s almost as if it was our home.”
As the war has dragged on, European resolve has remained stable at a political level and in surveys of public opinion. The question is how long this will last if the conflict continues.
“One year ago, Europe came together very strongly and very supportively,” said Erik Jones, director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute.
“I’m very interested to see what this is going to do over the longer term in the way Europeans think about themselves,” Jones added. “As we approach this one-year anniversary, I think it’s really important to ask: Do we have the same power as a community to support Ukraine through what may be a very long conflict?”
For now at least, Europe and Ukraine seem closer than ever. Ukrainians, through the voice of their President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, make no secret of their desire to join the EU — the sooner, the better.
And the powerful symbolism of the flag continues to color European towns and cities, a gesture that’s welcomed by Ukrainians who are now living in Europe.
“The flag is very important: it’s the symbol of Ukraine, and we need to keep displaying it, to talk about it, to remind people,” said Artem Datsii. “Because the war goes on.”
Datsii, 21, is a student at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), where he moved before the war. He has not seen his parents, who live in Kyiv, for a year, but they speak regularly over the phone.
“At home, everyone is afraid that something will happen on the 24th,” Datsii said, referring to the invasion’s one-year marker. “The Russians love anniversaries.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )
The latest album by Heinali is a rather beautiful piece created from field recordings made around his home city – recordings from rail stations, the sound of traffic and birdsong, the dripping of water in a tunnel, the rumbling of trains on a track, the babble of voices in a shopping mall – all sliced up, manipulated, accompanied by synthesisers and transformed into a piece of compelling ambient music. What transforms this niche arthouse project into an urgent piece of work is the fact that the city in question is Kyiv. “These are recordings of a world that has disappeared,” says Heinali, AKA Ukrainian musician Oleh Shpudeiko. “The album documents a city that has changed for ever.”
The album, Kyiv Eternal, was completed after the Russian invasion, but the project dates back more than a decade. “I bought myself a handheld digital tape recorder in 2012 and started to record sounds around Kyiv,” says Shpudeiko. “I had hundreds of these sound sketches on my hard drive when I had to flee the city in February last year.”
He relocated to Lviv while the battle of Kyiv raged in the early months of the war, and briefly returned after the Russian army’s advances were successfully repelled. “Kyiv was more alive than ever, but I wanted to protect it from harm, to console it,” he says. “This was a city where I had spent 37 years of my life. So this album became a hymn to this part of my identity.”
Heinali: Kyiv Eternal – stream Spotify
Shpudeiko describes the audio loops he works with as “memory loops”. He explains: “When we remember things, we only remember certain parts. We might change parts of that memory in our brain: we’ll add or remove or amplify a piece of information. It is very similar to a musical loop. A fragment performed over and over again will change slightly with each repetition.”
Kyiv Eternal is released exactly a year after the Russian invasion, and comes not long after the release of another Heinali album, Live From a Bomb Shelter in Ukraine, which documents a performance live-streamed from a Lviv basement as Russian missiles rained down upon the nation. That album featured music from a project called Organa which he has been working on for several years, in which medieval liturgical music is reconfigured for modular synths and non-classical vocalists.
“Early music and contemporary music have a lot in common,” says Shpudeiko. “Medieval music is less about harmonic development and more about creating a certain atmosphere and a feeling. Drone and ambient music is the same. It is designed to invoke certain religious experiences, mystical experiences.”
Shpudeiko is now living temporarily in Germany, one of hundreds of Ukrainian artists relocated around Europe (thanks to the support of Ukraine’s ministry of culture) who aim to preserve and further Ukrainian art in exile. He would have loved to have come to the UK: his English is flawless, London is his favourite city and he has long been influenced by British electronic artists such as Coil, Psychic TV, Current 93 and Death in June. But the UK’s asylum policy made this almost impossible. “It is incredibly hard to get a UK visa – it costs a lot of money and British embassies demand your passport for the duration of the application process, which can take as long as three months.”
‘Early music and contemporary music have a lot in common’ … Oleh Shpudeiko pictured in 2020. Photograph: Ksenia Popova
Shpudeiko was brought up in a Russian-speaking family but he rejects the myth – promulgated by Putin and his “Vatnik” apologists – that Ukraine’s Russian speakers are pro-Moscow. However, the invasion has changed his attitude towards the Russian language. “I used to read a lot in Russian. Things I wanted to read – the literature, or the books about music history or sound studies – were only available in English or Russian, never translated into Ukrainian.
“But after 24 February, I haven’t been able to read a single Russian book. I switched off that part of my brain. It was quite painful. I still speak Russian occasionally in non-official situations, like with my family, but officially I only use Ukrainian or English. I think we have all had to put Russian on pause for the duration of the war. It is extremely traumatic for any of us to deal with even the greatest Russian culture right now, knowing what they did in Bucha or Mariupol. I understand that this is not a healthy reaction, but there can be no healthy reactions to war.”
How does he see the war panning out? “I am the worst person to ask about this,” he says. “This time last year I was arguing with my girlfriend: ‘No of course there won’t be a full-scale invasion.’ Worst-case scenario was that there would be another active phase of war in the east. The Russians trying to take Kyiv seemed insane.”
Will he be touring Kyiv Eternal? “My live shows are much more improvised affairs. I’m not sure if I should ever perform this material outside of Ukraine. It is so closely connected with my home town. Maybe it can exist as a sound art installation, but it is too personal to think of doing this live.”
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
