Forest fires, which broke out around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant due to hostilities, cover more than 10,000 hectares, Ukrainian Ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said Sunday.
“We have recorded 31 fires, which caused an increased level of radioactive contamination in the air,” Denisova wrote on Facebook.
Ukrainian firefighters are unable to reach the area, which is controlled by Russian forces, Denisova added.
The Chernobyl nuclear plant, some 110 km north of Kiev, suffered one of the worst nuclear accidents in human history on April 26, 1986.
On Feb. 24, Mykhailo Podoliak, advisor to the head of the President’s Office of Ukraine, said Russian forces had seized the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Myanmar’s junta chief on Sunday (March 27) said the military will not negotiate with “terrorist” opposition forces, vowing to annihilate them during a speech on Armed Forces Day, as opponents of last year’s coup vowed they will also fight on.
The military, known as the Tatmadaw, celebrated with a parade of troops and weapons in the capital, Naypyitaw, for the second year since overthrowing the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in his speech rejected any talks with “terrorists”. A five-point peace plan by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations calls for talks on all sides, but so far has seen little progress.
The junta accuses opposition armed forces of killing civilians and security forces in its resistance campaign, while activists say the military has killed hundreds in crackdowns since the coup. Myanmar has been plagued by violence since the military seized power, upending a decade of tentative democratic and economic reforms.
More than 1,700 people have been killed and almost 13,000 arrested, according to the rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).nti-coup protesters came out on streets in Myanmar on Sunday morning opposing the coup carrying signs saying “uproot the fascist military.”
Sanctions jointly imposed by the United States and other Western countries to remove some Russian banks from SWIFT – the payment system used for most international financial transactions – took effect on Saturday.
On Feb 26, the White House announced that the United States, joined by European nations and Canada, would remove some Russian banks from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a major move to escalate the West’s economic sanctions against Moscow for its ongoing military operations in Ukraine.
Starting Saturday, Russia’s largest financial institutions, including its two largest banks, VTB Bank and Sberbank, will no longer be permitted to process payments through the SWIFT system.
Saturday also marks the deadline for all U.S. financial institutions to close any correspondent or payable-through accounts and reject any future transactions with Sberbank.
The move has been followed by other countries and regions.
On March 2, the European Union announced a list of Russian banks to be excluded from SWIFT, and the relevant measures took effect on March 12.
On March 24, Washington said it would expand sanctions on Russian business entities and individuals.
The Swiss government said it had frozen over 6 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of Russian assets in Switzerland.
On March 25, Japan announced extra sanctions against Russia, including freezing more Russian assets and prohibiting exports to Russian organizations.
As part of countermeasures against these Western sanctions, Russia has said it will require Europe to pay in rubles for gas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin could not remain in power, and his war against Ukraine has been a strategic failure for Moscow, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Saturday (March 26).
“For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden told a crowd in Warsaw.
Later a White House official clarified Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia when he said Putin “cannot remain in power”.
“The President’s point was that Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region. He was not discussing Putin’s power in Russia, or regime change,” the official said following Biden’s speech in Warsaw.
U.S. President Joe Biden also said that his country stood with Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion, in a fiery speech capping off a visit to Europe.
Biden’s speech was delivered at Warsaw’s Royal Castle before hundreds of Polish elected officials, students, and U.S. embassy staff, many holding the U.S., Polish and Ukrainian flags.
Biden said NATO was a defensive security alliance that never sought Russia’s demise,
“The Kremlin wants to portray NATO enlargement as an imperial project, aimed at destabilizing Russia. Nothing is further from the truth. NATO is a defensive alliance, it has never sought the demise of Russia.” Biden told a crowd.
He added that Ukrainians “are on the frontlines” in the fight for democratic principles.
“Now, in the perennial struggle for democracy and freedom, Ukraine and its people are on the frontlines, fighting to save their nation. And their brave resistance is part of a larger fight for the essential democratic principles that unite all free people.”
He said the invasion was a strategic failure for Russia, but that it was nevertheless a challenge to the rules-based international order which threatened to return Europe to “decades of war”.
After more than four weeks of fighting, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city.
The conflict has killed thousands of people, sent nearly 3.8 million abroad, and driven more than half of Ukraine’s children from their homes
Intense fighting raged in several parts of Ukraine on Saturday, suggesting there will be no swift let-up in the month-old war.
A retired U.S. military colonel who helped train and reform Ukraine’s military following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 said on Saturday (March 26) that Ukraine’s military has gone from a ‘decrepit’ state to becoming effective at fending off Russian advances in major cities.
Retired Colonel Liam Collins served as retired Army General John Abizaid’s executive officer for his Secretary of Defense appointment as the Senior Defense Advisor to Ukraine in 2016 at the end of the Obama administration, when Collins helped Ukraine reform its defense establishment, according to ‘The Conversation, an independent journalism publication.
Collins recently wrote a column in that publication titled, ‘In 2014, the ‘decrepit’ Ukrainian army hit the refresh button. Eight years later, it’s paying off, where he opens by writing that Ukrainian General Victor Muzhenko described Ukraine’s military in 2014 as ‘decrepit.’ It was a characterization he echoed when he spoke with Reuters on Saturday.
“Ukraine’s military in 2014 was decrepit, it didn’t have a lot of training capability, they weren’t effective at the tactical level,” the retired colonel said.
“So, it wasn’t a surprise to see how poorly they performed at that time (during Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea), given their level of training.”
Collins said that one success from that ‘reset’ was reassessing the Ukrainian command structure, noting that played an “effective” role in Ukrainian forces fending off Russian advances during the present conflict. He said that is due to the new culture of giving junior Ukrainian leaders more battlefield decision-making capabilities, rather than a top-down command approach.
“It allows them to take initiative on the battlefield, right? You might be given some orders, ‘Go take this hill,’ for example, and if you can’t adjust on that, you’re just going to keep running up the hill into the hornet’s nest,” he said. “It also requires a trained professional military to do that.'”
Collins said the Russian military appears to have taken a less flexible approach at allowing junior leaders to inherit decision-making at the tactical level.
“It appears that they [Russia] are still more regimented,” he said. “If you have a conscript army, which a lot of the Russians are, you’re not going to be capable of executing that same kind of discipline initiative at the tactical level.”
All 132 people – 123 passengers and nine crew members – onboard the China Eastern Airlines flight MU5735 that crashed on March 21 in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have perished, an official of the Civil Aviation Administration of China said Saturday night.
The crash took place on Monday when a China Eastern Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft, which was flying from Kunming to Guangzhou, nose-dived in a mountainous area in Tengxian County, Guangxi.
“By the relevant requirements of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council on the handling of the flight accident of China Eastern Airlines MU5735 aircraft, the national emergency response command has organized multiple departments, including members of fire rescue, People’s Liberation Army commanders and soldiers, members of armed police, public security, health and quarantine, transportation and natural resources, to carry out a thorough search at the site for six consecutive days,” said Hu Zhenjiang, on-site deputy commander-in-chief from the national emergency response command on handling the plane crash.
“And after organizing experts to analyze the video content in various monitoring and recording devices and the key data recorded by air traffic control radar, ADS-B and other facilities and equipment, especially though investigation, judgment, and analysis of the distribution of the wreckage at the crash site, we can confirm that there are no signs of life at the search site. One hundred and twenty of the 132 victims have been identified through DNA analysis,” said Hu, who is also the deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce here that all 123 passengers and nine crew members on Flight MU5735 of China Eastern Airlines on March 21 have perished,” added Hu.
To continue to respect life and take responsibility for the family members of every victim, the teams will redouble their efforts to search the accident site for the remains and belongings of the victims and aircraft wreckage, to provide strong support for accident investigation and evidence collection said, Hu.
At the same time, China will earnestly and properly handle any problems concerning the victims in the aftermath of the crash, added Hu.
“We are deeply saddened by the accident. We mourn the loss of the 132 lives and express deep sympathy to the bereaved families,” said Hu.
At the press conference, all rose and paid a silent tribute to the victims.
At present, search efforts are still ongoing at the site for the second black box which could contain crucial flight operational data to help establish the cause of the crash.
China’s emergency response command had dispatched 10,723 personnel to the site as of noon Saturday, said Zhu Tao, director of the Aviation Safety Office under the Civil Aviation Administration of China, at a press briefing in Wuzhou, Guangxi on Saturday.
A total of 24,047 pieces of plane wreckage and debris have so far been recovered and a storage facility has been set up for wreckage categorization and analysis, he said.
Rescuers, consisting of firefighters, armed police officers, and militiamen, recovered a black box and the cockpit voice recorder, on Wednesday afternoon and immediately send them to a laboratory in Beijing for decoding.
Rescuers on Saturday started their third round of combing the core area of the plane crash site, trying to search and collect plane wreckage, human remains, and other possible evidence, and hoping to find the second black box.
Lumbermen joined in the rescue Saturday, as lush woods pose a challenge to the search efforts.
A search operation is also being carried out in the vicinity of the core area, where rescuers are using infrared thermal imaging drones to locate suspected plane wreckage and then guide the operation with the help of 3D modeling.
As of Saturday afternoon, the scope of the search efforts has been expanded to cover nearly 240,000 square meters, according to Zheng Xi, head of the fire brigade in Guangxi.
Additionally, over 200 vehicles, five helicopters, and a batch of other facilities have also been involved in the search operation.
Four rockets hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on March 26, local officials said, in the most significant attack on the city since the start of the war with Russia.
Lviv, just 60 kilometres (40 miles) from the Polish border, has so far escaped the heavy bombardment and fighting that has devastated some Ukrainian cities closer to Russia since Moscow launched its invasion on Feb. 24.
Governor Maksym Kozytskyy said five people had been wounded after two rockets hit a fuel depot and two others later hit a military factory. Earlier he reported powerful explosions in Lviv’s eastern outskirts from the strikes.
The rockets fell as U.S. President Joseph Biden, speaking in Warsaw during a visit to Poland, condemned Russian aggression and assured Ukraine of the United States’ unwavering support.
“With today’s blows, the aggressor sends greetings to President Biden, who is in Poland,” Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said in a televised briefing, saying Russia had fired the rockets from Sevastopol in Crimea which it annexed in 2014.
There was no immediate comment on the Lviv attacks from the Russian authorities, who refer to the invasion as a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarising Ukraine.
The city authorities did not give the exact locations of the strikes but said they damaged critical infrastructure, set fire to the fuel depot, and blew out the windows of a school building. No residential buildings were hit, according to the mayor.
Yemen’s Houthi group said on Saturday (March 26) it was suspending missile and drone strikes on Saudi Arabia for three days, in a peace initiative it said could be a lasting commitment if the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen stopped air strikes and lifted port restrictions.
The group also announced a three-day suspension of ground offensive operations in Yemen, including in the gas-producing region of Marib, said Mahdi al-Mashat, the head of the Houthis’ political office, in a speech broadcast on television.
The unilateral initiative came as violence between the Iran-aligned group and the Saudi-led coalition, which have been at war since 2015, escalated dramatically this month.
Airstrikes of the Saudi-led coalition pounded the Houthi-controlled seaports of Hodeidah and Salif on Saturday (March 26), a day after the group launched broad attacks on Saudi Arabia, including on an oil facility in Jeddah, causing a massive fire and a huge plume of black smoke.
Lifting restrictions imposed by the coalition’s warships on the Red Sea Yemeni ports has been a major condition from the Houthis for a ceasefire.
Saudi Arabia says there is no blockade on the ports and it is only preventing arms smuggling.
Mashat said Saturday’s initiative would last if the coalition reopened the ports and stopped its airstrikes.
In exchange for extending the suspension of ground offensive operations, he said Saudi Arabia must announce a withdrawal of foreign troops from Yemen and stop supporting local militias.
It is unlikely that the kingdom would agree to such conditions, as Riyadh seeks an inclusive ceasefire simultaneously with reopening the ports and Sanaa airport.
Mashat added the group was ready to release all prisoners, including the brother of Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
The United Nations is also trying to secure a temporary truce for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts in April, and ahead of Riyadh’s hosting Yemeni parties for consultations later this month.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visibly irritated, on March 26 demanded Western nations provide a fraction of the military hardware in their stockpiles and asked whether they were afraid of Moscow.
Several countries have promised to send anti-armour and anti-aircraft missiles as well as small arms but Zelenskiy said Kyiv needed tanks, planes, and anti-ship systems.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly insisted that Russia will seek to expand further into Europe if Ukraine falls.
NATO though does not back his request for a no-fly zone over Ukraine on the grounds this could provoke a wider war.
Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy talked to Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda and expressed disappointment that Russian-made fighter aircraft in Eastern Europe had not yet been transferred to Ukraine, Zelenskiy’s office said in a statement.
“The price of procrastination with planes is thousands of lives of Ukrainians,” the office quoted him as saying.
Zelenskiy said Poland and the United States had both stated their readiness to make a decision on the planes.
Earlier this month, Washington rejected a surprise offer by Poland to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. base in Germany to be used to replenish Ukraine’s air force.
As prices at the gas pump reach record highs across the United States, many American families are being forced to cut back financially. A Chicago-based businessman is trying to lighten the load people are facing.
As prices at the gas pump reach record highs across the United States, many American families are being forced to cut back financially.
“I’m trying not to drive as much,” said Sandra Sanchez. “I just got to go to work and back, just trying to make it through.”
Sanchez says despite the negative impact rising fuel costs are having on her family, she still feels grateful as the Russian invasion of Ukraine nears the 1-month mark.
“I feel like we’re in a better situation than other countries right now,” said Sanchez. “If I’ve got to pay a little bit extra for gas, that’s still a blessing compared to what other people are going through.”
A Chicago-based businessman is trying to lighten the load people like Sanchez are facing.
“Some people in Russia were wealthy, people in Ukraine were wealthy,” said Willie Wilson. “Come the next day, they’re in the bread line. So here in America, this is Chicago and the suburbs. This is my town and these are my neighbours. So, if we’ve got some dollars to help out, then we’re going to do just that.”
Initially, Wilson donated $200,000 in free gas to motorists across Chicago last Friday (March 18), creating traffic gridlocks in several parts of the city with motorists parked on the street for hours ahead of the giveaway.
The 73-year-old claims that after witnessing the overwhelming demand for his first outing, he wanted to give away another $1 million in free gas Thursday (March 24).
“People struggle a lot, don’t have income,” said Wilson. “I get gas every day myself, it’s just a need. Whether people are poor and don’t have resources or are middle class, it still hurts your pockets, you know?”
Sanchez says she arrived too late to get free gas during Wilson’s first giveaway, so she woke up at 4:30 in the morning this time.
By 7 o’clock, her tank was full, with Wilson giving $50 in free fuel to every motorist in line at one of nearly 50 gas stations throughout the Chicago area until the grand total reached $1 million.
“Gas is too expensive, so this is a blessing for sure,” said Sanchez. “I’m just grateful.”
And she wasn’t alone.
“It feels great because money is tight especially when you have a family and you’ve got to move around,” said Jose Nieves, another free gas recipient. “I’m sure I’m not the only one, I’m sure there are many families that need this help. This is very much appreciated, I mean, I thank God for this.”
“Some need the gas and they appreciate it,” said Wilson. “We may have to do this again if gas prices go higher. So, let’s hope prices come down.”
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