Copenhagen shooting: Gunman kills three in Field's shopping mall - BBC

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A gunman has killed three people and injured another four at a shopping mall in Denmark's capital Copenhagen.

Police said the victims were two Danish 17-year-olds and a 47-year old Russian citizen. Two Danes and two Swedes are in critical condition in hospital.

A 22-year-old man, described as "an ethnic Dane", was arrested minutes after the shooting at Field's centre.

He had mental health issues and there is no indication of a terror motive, Police chief Soeren Thomassen said.

The suspect, who has not been identified, will face questioning by a judge on Monday.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Denmark had suffered a cruel attack.

She said she wanted to encourage Danes to stand together and support each other in this difficult time.

"Our beautiful and usually so safe capital was changed in a split second," she said.

The deadly shopping mall attack took place as Denmark celebrated hosting the first three stages of the Tour de France for the first time.

Mahdi al Wazni

The suspect had a rifle and ammunition when he was arrested, police said.

They have no indication that other attackers were involved and urged shop owners to preserve any video surveillance footage they might have.

Field's has more than 140 shops and restaurants. The multi-storey mall is on the outskirts of Copenhagen, just across from a subway line that connects to the city centre.

Eyewitnesses spoke of panic among shoppers as gunfire rang out.

One of them, named Isabelle, told Danish media: "Suddenly we hear shots. I think I hear ten shots and then we run through the mall and end up in a toilet, where we huddle together in this tiny toilet, where we are around 11 people.

"It's really hot and we wait and we are really scared. It's been a terrible experience."

A concert by British singer Harry Styles at a venue less than a mile from the scene was cancelled.

Crowds had already gathered inside the venue when the show's cancellation was announced. Fans - many in their teens - were escorted by police to underground stations where parents picked them up, Danish media report.

"My daughters were supposed to go see Harry Styles," Hans Christian Stolz, a 53-year-old Swede who came to pick up his children, told AFP. "They called me to say someone was shooting. They were in a restaurant when it happened."

"We thought at first people were running because they had seen Harry Styles, then we understood that it was people in panic... We ran for our lives," his daughter Cassandra said.

Writing on Snapchat, Styles said: "My team and I pray for everyone involved in the Copenhagen shopping mall shooting. I am shocked. Love H."

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Shortly after the shooting, the Danish royal family announced that a reception due to be hosted by Crown Prince Frederik to celebrate hosting the Tour de France's first three stages had been cancelled.

Several neighbouring leaders expressed horror at the shooting and offered condolences to the families of those impacted.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin condemned what she called a "shocking act of violence" and Norwegian leader Jonas Gahr Store said his "thoughts go to the victims and their relatives and to the relief crews who are currently working to save lives".

Denmark last saw a major terror event in 2015, when two people were killed and six police officers were injured during an attack on a cultural centre and a synagogue in Copenhagen.

The gunman was later killed in a shootout with police.

The country has some of the strictest gun laws in Europe, with licences to own firearms usually only available for hunting or sport shooting following background checks - and with an almost total ban on automatic weapons. Carrying a firearm in public is strictly prohibited.

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2022-07-04 06:25:07Z
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Russia claims full control of Luhansk region after seizing last city - Financial Times

Russia claimed to have seized the entirety of Ukraine’s Luhansk region after weeks of brutal fighting, which if confirmed would hand President Vladimir Putin a significant military achievement more than four months after he launched his invasion.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, reported to Putin on Sunday that Russia’s forces had “liberated” the whole of the region after capturing Lysychansk, Ukraine’s last stronghold in Luhansk, the ministry said.

Ukraine did not immediately confirm Russia had taken control of the city, though officials had warned repeatedly in recent days that it could fall after troops retreated from neighbouring Severodonetsk, separated from Lysychansk by a river.

Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said late on Saturday that the Russian river crossing “threatened” Lysychansk.

“The city is on fire,” Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s Ukrainian governor, wrote in a post on social media app Telegram. “The occupiers have likely thrown all their forces at Lysychansk. They attacked the city with incomprehensibly cruel tactics.”

Haidai said the destruction in Lysychansk was even worse than in Severodonetsk, which was largely levelled during artillery bombardment.

Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s Ukrainian governor, said on social media that Lysychansk had been attacked ‘with incomprehensibly cruel tactics’ © AP

“If some homes and government buildings survived a month of street battles, then those same government buildings were razed to the ground after a short period,” Haidai wrote. He said Russia’s troops were “sustaining significant losses, but stubbornly progressing”.

Pro-Russian social media accounts posted videos showing Chechen troops posing in the centre of Lysychansk and a Soviet flag flying from the town hall. The posts were geolocated by open source intelligence and western analysts.

The advance, if confirmed, would mark the first time Russia had established full control over a Ukrainian region since the early weeks of the war in March.

It also puts Russia closer to capturing eastern Ukraine’s Donbas border region, which is made up of Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk.

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Putin has claimed the war’s main goal is to “liberate” the Donbas, where Russia began fuelling a separatist proxy war that killed more than 15,000 people in 2014 after a pro-western revolution in Kyiv.

Pro-Moscow accounts on social media posted footage of what they claimed were overjoyed locals greeting their “liberators.” Ukraine has already evacuated most of the population further west.

The industrial region is mostly controlled by Moscow-backed separatist groups whose independence is only recognised by Russia and Syria.

Russia shook up its command and switched its focus to a gruelling offensive in the Donbas in late March after its initial attempt to capture Kyiv and most of the rest of Ukraine east of the Dnipro river failed. It also controls Kherson and some of neighbouring Zaporizhia in the south, as well as parts of Kharkiv to the north of the Donbas.

On Sunday, Russia claimed Ukraine launched missile and drone attacks at the border cities of Kursk and Belgorod. The defence ministry said it shot down all the missiles but that shrapnel hit residential buildings in Belgorod, which is just over the border from Kharkiv.

Viacheslav Gladkov, Belgorod’s governor, said four people died in the apparent attack and that dozens of buildings were damaged. He claimed three of the victims were Ukrainian citizens, who state media said were refugees from Kharkiv.

Russia has blamed Ukraine for carrying out several attacks on border cities and nearby infrastructure for its supply routes since the war began. Though Ukraine has not admitted to any of the attacks, it has mocked them in social media posts suggesting Russia was getting its just deserts for the invasion.

Neighbouring Belarus, which is letting Russia use its territory to attack Ukraine but has so far resisted Putin’s efforts to drag it into the war, said on Saturday it had also intercepted Ukrainian missiles launched at military targets.

Ukraine did not confirm those claims but said it had destroyed a Russian base in Melitopol, a city in Zaporizhia, in a rocket strike.

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2022-07-03 12:08:24Z
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Ukraine war: Russia claims to have 'liberated' Lysychansk but defence forces deny that Kremlin forces are in 'full control' - Sky News

Russia claims it has taken full control of Lysychansk, Ukraine's last bastion in the eastern province of Luhansk.

The assertion has been denied by the Ukrainian defence ministry, which said fighting in the key city has been "very intense for quite a while now".

The war in Ukraine has been focused on the south and east of the country in recent weeks, as Kremlin forces seek to consolidate control of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that the city has been "liberated" and that Moscow is in "full control".

Russian media showed footage of Luhansk militia fighters marching in the streets, waving flags and cheering.

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But the Ukrainian defence ministry has told the BBC that the eastern Ukrainian city is not under the "full control" of Russian troops.

It comes just days after Russian troops took Lysychansk's sister city Severodonetsk, on the opposite side of the Siverskiy Donets river.

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Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, previously said that Russian soldiers had crossed the river and were coming towards Lysychansk from the north.

He said: "This is indeed a threat. We shall see.

Image: Day 128 of the war in Ukraine

"I do not rule out any one of a number of outcomes here.

"Things will become much more clear within a day or two."

But Mr Arestovych also said that if Russia takes Lysychansk, it will find its forces spread very thinly, as it tries to keep control of the six major cities it has taken in the Donbas, a region made up of Luhansk and neighbouring Donetsk.

He added: "The more Western weapons come to the front, the more the picture changes in favour of Ukraine."

Other developments:
• In his nightly address, Mr Zelenskyy praised those defending Ukraine and called for the truth about the war to be spread
• Eight Ukrainian city and village leaders are being held captive in Russia, according to The Association of Cities of Ukraine
• Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian advances in Novomykhailivka, Bohorodychne, and Ivanivka
• A Russian mine detonated, killing one civilian and injuring another in the Odesa region
• Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed Ukraine tried to strike military facilities on Belarusian territory three days ago, although he provided no evidence

Meanwhile, Russia said it had hit army command posts in Mykolaiv, near the Black sea port of Odesa, where powerful explosions were also reported.

At least three people were killed in Belgorod, a Russian city near the Ukrainian border, in the early hours of Sunday.

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Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said that at least 11 apartment buildings and 39 houses were damaged.

Ukraine has not commented on the reports.

It comes after a Russian attack on an apartment block near Odesa on Friday, which killed at least 21 people, and on a shopping centre in the central city of Kremenchuk on Monday, which killed at least 19.

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2022-07-03 11:15:00Z
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Ukraine war: Ukraine and Russia both claim control over Lysychansk - BBC

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Ukraine's eastern city of Lysychansk is at the centre of competing claims, with both Russian and Ukrainian forces saying they are in control.

Ukraine says its forces are enduring intense Russian shelling there but insists the city has not been seized.

However, Russian-backed separatists say they have successfully entered the city and reached its centre.

Russian media showed videos of separatist or Russian forces apparently parading through the streets.

Russian sources have also tweeted video of the Soviet flag allegedly being placed on the city's ruined administrative centre, but that has not been verified.

It is the last Ukrainian-held city in Luhansk, part of the industrial Donbas region. Russia captured the nearby city of Severodonetsk last month.

The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haida, said there had been no let-up in the assault on Lysychansk, with Russian forces approaching the besieged city from all sides.

Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Russia of the pro-Moscow breakaway Luhansk People's Republic, told Russian television that Lysychansk had been "brought under control" but was "not yet liberated".

Images of Chechen Russian soldiers inside the city were shared by defence blogger Rob Lee.

More photos of Chechen Rosgvardia troops in front of the city administration building. 2/https://t.co/eDX2VT2V3Qhttps://t.co/nLV7txFxbs pic.twitter.com/rbuiX9sAyb

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) July 2, 2022

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.View original tweet on Twitter

Since Russia invaded on 24 February, claiming it wanted to "demilitarise" and "de-Nazify" Ukraine after it moved closer to Nato, thousands of civilians and combatants have been killed or wounded, while at least 12 million people have fled their homes.

Western states have responded by arming Ukraine and placing unprecedented sanctions on Russia, a nuclear superpower and global energy supplier.

• Can we say how many people have died in Ukraine?
• What weapons are being supplied to Ukraine?
• Why Russia couldn't hold Snake Island

In another development, railway tracks and electricity lines in the northern city of Kharkiv were damaged in a series of attacks. No casualties were reported.

The southern city of Mykolaiv - on a key route to the port city of Odesa - was shaken by several explosions.

The Russian defence ministry said its air force had destroyed five Ukrainian command posts and several ammunition dumps, but that claim has not been independently verified.

The blasts came a day after the Russians were accused of killing more than 20 people in a missile strike on a block of flats near Odesa.

Later on Saturday, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said his country's air defences had shot down Ukrainian missiles, though he did not specify where. He is a close ally of Russia's Vladimir Putin and allowed Russian troops to invade Ukraine from Belarus in February.

"They are provoking us... Three days ago, maybe a bit more, an attempt to strike military facilities on Belarusian territory was made from the territory of Ukraine," he said. "But, thank God, the Pantsir anti-aircraft systems managed to intercept all the missiles."

He added that "we are not seeking to fight in Ukraine".

In its latest intelligence update, the UK Defence Ministry accuses Russia of using Soviet-era anti-ship missiles "in a secondary land attack role" - not what they were designed for. The Kh-22 and Kh-32 missiles were "likely" the ones that killed many civilians in Kremenchuk and Odesa, the ministry says.

Slovyansk, a major Donbas city held by Ukrainian forces, has also been shelled again by the Russians. Its mayor Vadym Lyakh said banned Russian cluster munitions killed four people there - another claim the BBC was unable to verify.

War in Ukraine: More coverage

• STOLEN GRAIN: Tracking where Russia takes Ukraine's grain
• ANALYSIS: Why Russia couldn't hold Snake Island
• FACT CHECKED: Russia's claims about shopping centre attack
• READ MORE: Full coverage of the crisis

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2022-07-02 23:32:07Z
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'It's hard to leave': Moscow's fresh wave of missile attacks rekindle Kyivans' fear - Financial Times

Viktoriia Vasylieva, a wedding photographer, and her eight-year-old daughter returned to their home in Kyiv in recent weeks — enjoying the relative peace in a city that felt distant from the brutal artillery war raging in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

But the calm was shattered again this week in a deadly rocket attack. In a series of missile strikes across Ukraine from Kremenchuk to Odesa, Moscow sent a message: it is still willing to kill civilians, wherever they live. Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine became the latest city to face bombardment, in a barrage on Friday and early Saturday morning.

“I understand that remaining here can be dangerous,” said Vasylieva, who moved to Kyiv from Crimea years ago. “But I feel that this is my home.”

She and her daughter have grown familiar with the “rule of two walls” for when air-raid sirens sound, scurrying for shelter in a corridor or bathroom. But having fled Kyiv three days after Russia invaded in February, they are not about to up sticks again. “There is nothing worse than being a refugee,” said Vasylieva.

Months after Russian troops shelled parts of the capital and brutally occupied Irpin and Bucha, two leafy north-western suburbs, Kyivans are trying to restore something resembling normality.

Viktoriia Vasylieva, with her daughter

Cafés and bars in the city centre — which before the war were a magnet for a growing middle class and foreigners seeking a Berliner hipster vibe at Ukrainian prices — are beginning to hum again. By 6pm, cocktail drinkers on Reitarska Street are spilling on to the pavement. The 11pm curfew means some parties start a little earlier.

But escaping signs of war is impossible.

A display of destroyed Russian military hardware brings gawkers to the central Mykhailivska Square. Murals honour war dead. A huge banner on mayor Wladimir Klitschko’s administrative building calls — in English — for the fighters captured by Russia after it destroyed Mariupol to be freed.

Cars must still weave in and out of antitank barricades of spiked steel known as “izhaki”, or hedgehogs, which are scattered along the capital’s streets. Sandbags cover statues and buttress official buildings.

Some of the city’s leading creative lights wonder if a candle has been snuffed out by Putin’s invasion.

“Everything was flourishing, the whole country was booming. Kyiv was the new Berlin. The art scene was huge,” said Darko Skulsky, who moved to the city from Philadelphia and became executive producer of Radioaktive Film, one of the companies behind the Chernobyl HBO series. “It had the coolest bars and nightclubs in the world, great restaurants. Then this happened.”

Skulsky now lives in Warsaw. “There’s definitely tears. All the time,” he said.

Moments after a missile strike on Kyiv on Sunday 26 June © Derek Brower/FT

Almost 4mn people lived in Kyiv before the invasion on February 24. The population plunged as Russian troops neared. It has recovered to around 2.7mn now, but the trauma lingers.

“The city is different. It’s empty,” said Vladyslav Piontkovskyy, a 29-year-old analyst who left Kyiv with his wife and infant daughter in March. They returned a few weeks ago.

“Subtle things have changed. Your favourite restaurant is no longer selling your favourite dish . . . We did a rabies jab for our pets, and the vet told us they were running out of everything.”

Like many others, his anxieties stretch far beyond Kyiv. As the Russians invaded, his grandparents chose to remain near Kharkiv, in a town now occupied by Russia. The family lost contact with them in March.

Many in the city have similar stories of a country ripped apart by war. But the mood is also defiant.

Just hours after the missile strike on Sunday, music was pumping just down the road at HVLV, a “pre-party” hang-out, where hipsters smoked rolled cigarettes, browsed vinyl records and shared cocktails with sunburned soldiers.

The men had been involved in the retreat from Severodonetsk a few days earlier, but were preparing to return to Lysychansk, another town where Russians are pressing their Donbas offensive.

“We are going back to take the Donbas,” said Serhii Filimonov, a soldier with a “Victory or Valhalla” tattoo across his chest.

Anti-tank ‘hedgehogs’ on Independence Square in central Kyiv © Sergei Chuzavkov/SOPA/Zuma Press/eyevine

In the central Brodsky Synagogue, Rita Korol and her husband Viktor Prister talked of living through the second world war and Nazi invasion, when both lost relatives. Many members of their synagogue left Kyiv this time, too, fearing Putin’s army. Few had returned. Korol and Prister remained.

“It’s hard at our age to leave,” she said. Did they feel safe? “No.” The couple have no bunker to hide in. “When I hear the sirens, I am scared.”

While many foreign brands have closed stores or suspended operations, local businesses are showing more steel. The kosher deli next to the synagogue is still managing to sell goods imported from the US and Israel. Inside the Gulliver shopping mall up the road, which remained open during the invasion, the high-end Silpo supermarket is stocked with ripe fruit, choice meats and fine wines.

Piontkovskyy, the analyst, is one of many native Russian speakers in Kyiv trying to switch to speaking Ukrainian, eschewing the invaders’ language, literature and music. It is another identity adjustment for people who never believed Russia posed a threat.

Vasylieva, the photographer, says she now picks up business taking pictures of Kyivans who return briefly for one final visit to their city.

She has fallen out with her Russian-supporting father in annexed Crimea, who denies the news of Russian atrocities and missile strikes. But her daughter’s mental state, not her father’s, is her priority.

“I don’t want her to see something awful,” she says. “Her psychological condition depends on me.”

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2022-07-02 13:44:38Z
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Texas migrant deaths: Truck driver 'unaware air conditioner had stopped working' - BBC

Reuters

The suspected driver of a truck where 53 migrants died from heat in Texas did not know that the air conditioner had stopped working, an informant says.

According to charging documents filed in federal court, Homero Zamorano did not know of the issue. Officials say he was found hiding near the truck.

The Texan is one of four people charged in the deadliest human trafficking incident in US history.

Several children found in the vehicle are still being treated in hospital.

In another development, another truck carrying migrants has been found in the same part of Texas.

Mr Zamorano, 45, and alleged conspirator Christian Martínez, 28, are accused of sending text messages to each other about the smuggling operation both before and after the truck was discovered in sweltering temperatures.

A confidential government informant working for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Texas police told officials that the two had spoken after the deaths were reported.

Mr Martínez allegedly told the informant: "The driver was unaware the air conditioning unit stopped working and was the reason why the individuals died," according to court documents.

The documents add that the informant and Mr Martínez were standing within several metres of each other when the conversation with the driver took place.

• 'How could I let this happen to my children?'

Mr Zamorano was found hiding in bushes near the truck. Mexican officials say he initially tried to pass himself off as one of the survivors.

He was arrested when surveillance photos showed him driving the truck past a US Border Patrol checkpoint in Laredo, Texas, on Monday. According to one Texas congressman, he was high on methamphetamine when he was caught.

Both men face the death penalty if found guilty of smuggling and conspiracy charges.

Two other men accused of being involved, Juan Claudio D'Luna-Méndez and Francisco D'Luna-Bilbao, have been charged with firearms possession and with being in the US illegally. Both are Mexican citizens.

Mexican authorities say a total of 67 migrants were inside the lorry, while prosecutors in San Antonio have put the number at 64.

On Friday, the Bexar County medical examiner's office said it had "conclusively identified" six of the 53 victims from Monday's incident.

In addition, 42 "potential identifications" have been made. Five remain unidentified.

The victims have so far included 27 Mexican citizens, as well as 14 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and two Salvadorans.

Also on Friday, the Bexar County Sheriff's office began investigating an apparently abandoned 18-wheel truck found in a residential area just a few miles north of where the first vehicle was found.

About 13 migrants were found in the most recent truck, officials tell CBS, the BBC's partner in the US.

"Preliminarily, it appears no individuals have suffered any major injuries," the sheriff's office posted on Facebook, adding that more details would be released once they were available.

People-smuggling is a major industry along the US-Mexico border.

In May, a record 239,000 undocumented migrants were detained crossing into the country from Mexico.

Mass deaths of this kind have been uncovered on a number of occasions around the world in recent times. Among the worst cases are:

• Austria, 27 August 2015: An abandoned Hungarian-registered lorry was found containing the bodies of 71 Iraqi, Syrian and Afghan migrants. Three years later, four men received 25-year jail terms in Hungary in connection with the deaths
• Libya, 20 February 2017: Dozens of African migrants were found locked in a shipping container, including 13 people who had suffocated to death
• UK, 23 October 2019: A total of 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex. Four men were jailed for their manslaughter in January 2021

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2022-07-01 23:25:23Z
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Brittney Griner: 'No higher priority' than bringing her home - BBC

Reuters

There is "no higher priority" than bringing basketball star Brittney Griner home, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Friday, as her drug trial in Russia begins.

Ms Griner, a three-time WNBA league champion and seven-time All-Star, was seen arriving handcuffed at a court in the town of Khimki, outside Moscow.

She faces 10 years in prison.

The US says she is being wrongfully held. Russia denies that her detention is motivated by US-Russia tensions.

Speaking outside the courthouse, a senior US embassy official said she had spoken to Ms Griner who was "as well as can be expected".

"She asked me to convey that she is in good spirits and is keeping up the faith," said Elizabeth Rood, the deputy chief of mission in Moscow.

Ms Griner was detained on 17 February at a Moscow-area airport after cannabis oil was allegedly found in her luggage.

A veteran of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), she is considered one of the most dominant players in her sport's history.

Colin Allred, a Democratic congressman involved with her case, told the BBC on Friday that Ms Griner was "being used as a political pawn".

"This is a sham trial," he said. "But I do think that we're going to get Brittney home".

On the eve of Ms Griner's trial, her wife Cherelle Griner, told CNN the Biden's administration had not done enough to bring her partner home.

"I have to push people to make sure the things they are telling me are matching their actions," she said. "It's really really difficult."

• Players step up calls for Griner's release from Russian prison
• The troubling tale of a vanished basketball star

The US State Department declined to comment.

On Friday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in tweet that US officials attended Ms Griner's trial in Moscow.

"We - and I personally - have no higher priority than bringing her and other wrongfully detained Americans, including Paul Whelan, home," he said. Mr Whelan, a US citizen and former marine, was first detained in Russia in December 2018.

Ms Griner had travelled to Russia to play for EuroLeague team UMMC Ekaterinburg, where she had worked since 2014 during the US off-season. Roughly half of WNBA players compete overseas in the off-season.

For most, it's a way to augment their domestic income, with WNBA players being paid roughly five times more in Russia than they do in the US.

The 10-year maximum prison sentence faced by Ms Griner applies to "large-scale transportation of drugs".

However, even if acquitted at the trial, the government in Russia has the authority to overturn any decision and still send her to prison.

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2022-07-01 16:48:22Z
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