Sabtu, 17 September 2022

Bodies of Ukrainian troops 'dumped as if they were dogs in ditch' - Sky News

Rows of crosses lined the woodland, enveloped by the unmistakable smell of death.

Each makeshift wooden marker jutted out of a mound of earth where a body was buried.

Some displayed the names of the deceased, but the majority just bore numbers because the identity was unknown.

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'There's a smell of death in the air'

Police investigators and forensic experts have started the difficult process of exhuming the remains at this mass burial site on the edge of the newly-liberated city of Izyum.

They said it contained more than 440 men, women and children, all civilians, as well as a mass grave that held at least 17 Ukrainian soldiers.

The discovery was only possible after Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops out of Izyum last week, allowing the police to move in.

Dressed in light blue, plastic overalls and armed with shovels, one team was tasked with digging up the dead.

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They took it in turn to work on one of the rows of shallow graves, carefully removing the sandy earth so each body could be retrieved.

The dead appeared to have been dumped without even the dignity of a coffin.

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'Mass burial site of 440 graves'

The cause of each death will take time to document, but officials said they believed some of the victims were killed in Russian artillery and airstrikes during the past almost seven months of war.

They said others were shot dead.

There is also a suspicion of torture.

A top prosecutor said the first body to be recovered had a rope around his neck and showed signs of having suffered a "violent death".

"I have worked at the prosecutor's office for 20 years, and this is the first time in my life I have ever seen anything like this," said Oleksandr Filchakov, as he visited the woodland crime scene, located next to an actual cemetery.

Read more:
Russia will do everything it can to end Ukraine war 'as soon as possible', Putin says
Russian prisoners told they can go free if they do six months' service in Ukraine - leaked video appears to show

Journalists were also granted access on Friday.

Several bodies could be seen, either as they were being retrieved from the earth or as they lay in body bags.

Serhii Bolvinov, the top police investigator for the Kharkiv region, said that local grave diggers had buried the bodies during the Russian occupation.

Where the identity of a victim was not known, it was recorded in a book along with any specific details about the person, such as gender, he said.

Investigators now have the record book, which details all of the people buried at the site.

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City of Izyum is liberated but at a cost

The chief investigator said the total number was now believed to be 445.

In addition, at least 17 Ukrainian soldiers were buried in a single mass grave also at the site, according to the police.

"This is terrible," Mr Bolvinov said, surveying the civilian mass burial site.

"It is very painful for us… This place only appeared because of the (Russian) aggressor…. I am lost for words."

Once brought out of the ground, civilian bodies were placed in black body bags, while soldiers were put into white ones.

They will be driven away for a post-mortem to establish the cause of death.

DNA samples will also be taken to enable investigators to check identities and to work out who are in the anonymous graves - an enormous task.

The chief prosecutor said the work would be done as quickly as possible but he stressed it was a process that could not be rushed because of the need to be thorough and forensic.

Asked whether international prosecutors were also involved given the sheer scale of the challenge, he said: "Of course, our international partners are helping us.

"They are involved with our groups. They are now working in Izyum."

The burial site was also a Russian military position, with holes dug into the earth to hold tanks and other weapons. There also looked to be a fortified trench for troops.

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Across the road from the site was a row of houses.

One resident who lived through the occupation said local people had been forbidden from entering the woodland area.

Serhii Cherniak, 61, said this changed when the Russian tanks and artillery moved further back - though still during the occupation.

He said he ventured in to collect some wood and saw the mass grave for Ukrainian soldiers.

He was damning of the local grave diggers.

"They didn't even cover them (the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers) with sacks," he said.

"They were just dumped as if they were dogs. It's not even a grave, it was a ditch the Russians had used to park one of their vehicles. They came up, threw them down, and sprinkled (the sand)."

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2022-09-17 07:28:34Z
1556507455

Jumat, 16 September 2022

Ukraine war: Biden warns Putin not to use tactical nuclear weapons - BBC

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US President Joe Biden has warned Russia not to use chemical or tactical nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine.

Speaking during an interview with CBS News, Mr Biden said such action would "change the face of war unlike anything since World War Two".

He would not say what response the US would make to the use of such weapons.

Russian President Vladimir Putin put the country's nuclear forces on "special" alert following its invasion of Ukraine in February.

He told defence chiefs it was because of "aggressive statements" by the West.

Nuclear weapons have existed for almost 80 years and many countries see them as a deterrent that continues to guarantee their national security.

Russia is estimated to have around 5,977 nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

It, however, remains unlikely that it intends to use such weapons.

Tactical nuclear weapons are those which can be used at relatively short distances, as opposed to "strategic" nuclear weapons which can be launched over much longer distances and raise the spectre of all-out nuclear war.

Comparison of the estimated number of warheads held each of the nine nuclear-armed countries.

In an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley in the White House, President Biden was asked what he would say to President Putin if he was considering using weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

"Don't, don't, don't," was President Biden's response.

Mr Biden was then asked what the consequences would be for Mr Putin if such a line was crossed.

"You think I would tell you if I knew exactly what it would be? Of course, I'm not gonna tell you. It'll be consequential," Mr Biden responded.

"They'll become more of a pariah in the world than they ever have been. And depending on the extent of what they do will determine what response would occur."

The war in Ukraine has not gone as well as the Kremlin had hoped.

In recent days, Ukraine says it has recaptured more than 8,000 sq km (3,088 sq miles) of territory in the north-eastern Kharkiv region.

Despite the apparent setback, President Putin has insisted that Ukraine's successful counter-offensive will not stop Russia's plans of continuing its operations in the east of the country.

Russian forces in Kherson, Ukraine on 9 September
EPA/RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTRY PRESS SERVICE

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2022-09-17 04:45:56Z
CBMiMGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3dvcmxkLWV1cm9wZS02MjkzNjY0M9IBNGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmJiYy5jby51ay9uZXdzL3dvcmxkLWV1cm9wZS02MjkzNjY0My5hbXA

At least eight dead after 'water bomb' flash floods likened to 'earthquake' hits Italy - Sky News

At least eight people have died after devastating flash floods likened to an earthquake swept through villages in central Italy on Thursday night.

Three people are missing after deluges saw 40cm of rain dumped in the region of Marche.

Local authorities said they were unprepared for the sudden "water bomb" to drop within just two to three hours, which saw cars being washed away.

The water has submerged the streets of several towns in the region's capital, Ancona, on the Adriatic coast, and Pesaro-Urbino provinces.

Rescue workers were pictured using dinghies to bring people to safety as others attempted to clear debris.

Up to 40cm of rain fell in just two to three hours in the central region of Marche
Image: Up to 40cm of rain fell in just two to three hours in the central region of Marche
Elderly people being evacuated after heavy rains hit the east coast of Marche, Italy
Image: Elderly people being evacuated after heavy rains hit the east coast of Marche, Italy
Partially submerged cars on a flooded street in the region of Marche
Image: Partially submerged cars on a flooded street in the region of Marche

Mayor of the town of Serra Sant'Abbondio, Ludovico Caverni, said the downpours were "like an earthquake", RAI state radio reported.

Head of civil protection at Marche's regional government, Stefano Aguzzi, said the rain was far stronger than forecast.

More on Italy

"We were given a normal alert for rain, but nobody had expected anything like this," he told reporters.

The head of the national civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio, is travelling to Ancona to assess the damage.

Aerial photographs reveal the devastation unleashed in the region of Marche
Image: Aerial photographs reveal the devastation unleashed in the region of Marche
People working to clean up the debris and mud left after deadly floods hit Cantiano in Marche
Image: People working to clean up the debris and mud left after deadly floods hit Cantiano in Marche

Italian police said some villages have been isolated and many roads are closed as a result of extreme weather, which left a trail of destruction.

Meanwhile, political party chiefs campaigning for Italy's general election on 25 September also expressed their solidarity with the rescue efforts.

Leader of the centre-left Democratic Party, Enrico Letta, said it would suspend campaigning in Marche as a "sign of mourning" and to enable local activists to help flood-hit communities.

Mr Letta tweeted on Thursday morning: "Stunned and speechless in the face of the tragedy that struck Marche.

"Thinking (of) and crying for the victims."

He expressed his hope that rescue workers would be "successful in their relentless work".

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2022-09-16 09:00:00Z
1570392521

Kamis, 15 September 2022

Chinese delegation barred from viewing Queen Elizabeth’s coffin in parliament - POLITICO Europe

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LONDON — A Chinese government delegation has been refused permission by the House of Commons authorities to attend the queen’s lying-in-state, opening a fresh diplomatic rift with Beijing.

House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle has told colleagues he declined a request for Chinese officials to be allowed to access Westminster Hall, where the late queen will lie in state until her funeral on Monday, a senior parliamentary figure familiar with the matter told POLITICO. Hoyle’s office said it did not comment on security matters.

All heads of state visiting London for the funeral have been invited to attend the lying-in-state in Westminster Hall ahead of Monday’s service, and to sign a book of condolences at Lancaster House.

However, Westminster Hall forms part of the Palace of Westminster, over which the Commons and Lords speakers have authority. Last year the Commons and Lords speakers banned the Chinese ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, from entering parliament after Beijing imposed sanctions on a number of British politicians who have been critical of its treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. That ban is still in place while those sanctions remain.

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At the time Hoyle said it was inappropriate for Zheng to “meet on the Commons estate and in our place of work when his country has imposed sanctions against some of our members.” The U.K. government said access to the parliamentary estate was a matter for the parliamentary authorities to decide.

One parliamentary official questioned whether Commons and Lords speakers retain total authority over access to Westminster Hall during the five-day Operation Marquee — the name used to refer to the arrangements for the queen’s lying-in-state — given Buckingham Palace and Whitehall officials are involved in logistics.

But Hoyle’s response opens the possibility that senior Chinese officials will attend the queen’s funeral at Westminster Abbey as representatives of President Xi Jinping on Monday, yet be barred from entering Westminster Hall to pay their respects just yards away.

And it exposes a clear divide between the U.K. parliament and the U.K. government, with the former once again taking a significantly tougher stance against Beijing.

The invitations to the queen’s funeral were drafted by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office last week. Xi received an official invite as China’s head of state, though is not expected to attend in person. The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that China’s Vice President Wang Qishan was likely to go in his place, arriving in London this Sunday. Wang signed a book of condolences for the queen at the British embassy in Beijing this week and observed a minute of silence, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.

Helena Kennedy, a Labour peer who is among the politicians sanctioned by Beijing, said: “I feel very strongly that Chinese government officials should be barred from participating in this occasion where the nation of Britain is celebrating the life of our queen,” she said. “They are attacking our parliamentary and constitutional system through members of our legislature.”

U.K. government attitudes toward China look likely to harden in the months ahead. Liz Truss, who became prime minister earlier this month, indicated during the Tory leadership contest that she will be more hawkish towards Beijing than her predecessor Boris Johnson.

She has suggested that she is minded to formally recognize the treatment of the Uyghurs as genocide, and plans to update the U.K. government’s integrated review — its long-term foreign and defense strategy — with stronger language on China. During the contest she attacked her rival Rishi Sunak for seeking closer economic ties with China as U.K. chancellor.

As foreign secretary in August, Truss summoned the Chinese ambassador over Beijing’s aggression towards Taiwan and said there had been “increasingly aggressive behavior and rhetoric from Beijing in recent months, which threaten peace and stability in the region.”

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2022-09-15 21:15:52Z
1567263446

Ukraine war: Dam burst causes flooding after missile strike as President Zelenskyy involved in car crash - Sky News

More than 100 homes were flooded after cruise missiles hit a dam in central Ukraine - as its president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was involved in a car crash.

The city of Kryvyi Rih was targeted by eight cruise missiles that destroyed a water pumping station and caused the Inhulets River to break through, officials said.

It came during a night in which Mr Zelenskyy's office said his car had collided with a private vehicle in the capital.

"The president was examined by a doctor, no serious injuries were found," presidential spokesman Serhii Nykyforov said in a Facebook post early on Thursday.

The driver of the other vehicle was treated by the president's medical team and was taken to hospital, he said.

The Ukrainian president, who has been key to the Ukrainian fight against the Russian invasion, spent the day on Wednesday in the Kharkiv region but had returned to Kyiv.

No more details about the crash were released, but he put out his nightly statement later than normal.

More on Ukraine

In his address, he referred to the airstrikes that hit the dam, 93 miles southwest of Dnipro.

The strikes hit the Karachunov reservoir dam, Mr Zelenskyy said, and the water system had "no military value" other than providing hundreds of thousands of civilians with water.

A view shows a hydraulic structure damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih
Image: A view shows a hydraulic structure damaged by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kryvyi Rih

Head of the Kryvyi Rih military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, said in a post on Telegram that 112 homes were flooded but that work was under way to repair the dam and "flooding was receding".

On Wednesday, Mr Zelenskyy made a surprise visit to Izyum - one of the many towns or villages the Ukrainians have retaken in recent days - where he watched the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag raised in front of the charred city council building.

Read more:
Behind Russia's abandoned lines, ammunition, scattered clothes and wrecked vehicles found
Ukraine live updates - Russia's Putin and China's Xi to meet today
Liberated but still desperate - Balakliya freed from the Russian yoke, but left with nothing

After his return, Mr Zelenskyy said on Telegram: "History is written by people, never by savages.

A Ukrainian soldier stands near the sign reading "Kupiansk" in the recently retaken Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Pic: AP
Image: A Ukrainian soldier stands near the sign reading "Kupiansk" in the recently retaken Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region. Pic: AP

"Events show that the only way out for Russian soldiers is to surrender to Ukrainian forces. This is the only option that guarantees them life and attitude in accordance with all conventions.

"Striking targets that have no military value at all, in fact hitting hundreds of thousands of ordinary civilians, is another reason why Russia will lose. And not just this war, but history itself."

He added in his nightly video address that towns and villages recaptured from Russian forces he visited had been devastated.

He said overnight: "They only destroyed, only deprived, only took away. They left behind devastated villages, and in some of them, there is not a single undamaged house.

"The occupiers left schools turned into garbage dumps, and churches - broken, literally turned into toilets."

Later, in his first post of the morning, he said he had had a virtual meeting with British actor Benedict Cumberbatch.

The Marvel star told Sky News in April he was waiting for a Ukrainian family to arrive in the UK to live at his property after joining the scheme to rehouse refugees.

Mr Zelenskyy posted on his Telegram feed after the meeting: "I've had a conversation with the British actor Benedict Cumberbatch. I am sincerely grateful to him for solidarity with our state and our people.

"It is important that the topic of Ukraine remains the key one. And such famous people help us get through to those nations whose government does not support Ukraine."

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What next for the war in Ukraine?

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military claimed it killed a number of Russian troops and destroyed equipment in the Bakhmut area in the eastern Donetsk region. It added that Russian troops were trying to bolster their defensive positions in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping to discuss Ukraine and Taiwan at a meeting in Uzbekistan which the Kremlin said would hold "special significance" given the geopolitical situation.

As they do so, at a summit that involves a number of Asian and Arab countries, Ukraine has asked the United Nations General Assembly to allow Mr Zelenskyy to address world leaders via video.

In the US, Democratic and Republican senators introduced legislation that would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, a label opposed by the administration of President Joe Biden.

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2022-09-15 08:00:43Z
1568067664

Ukraine war: Behind Russia's abandoned lines, ammunition, scattered clothes and wrecked vehicles found - Sky News

The Ukrainian soldier stooped over an ammunition box and picked up what looked like a giant, metal cork. "Russian landmine," he said.

He walked to another discarded crate inside a large warehouse.

"This is a mortar," the serviceman, 39, said, holding up the deadly weapon, which was the shape of a stretched, grey-coloured balloon.

The haul was part of a stockpile of ammunition found at a sprawling, mud-splattered repair yard, which Russian soldiers had apparently used as a base on the edge of the Ukrainian city of Izyum.

It had been left behind, along with shabby-looking bits of body armour, boots and jars of food - signs of a hasty Russian retreat in the face of a Ukrainian offensive to take the city back.

Ukraine war latest updates: President Zelenskyy accuses Russia of turning occupied areas 'into toilets'

The soldier - who went by the name Granitsya, the call-sign he said he used for the war - was part of the operation.

More on Ukraine

"They just ran away," he said, describing the advance, launched last week. "There was small arms fire but not the big combat that we saw in the first days or months of the invasion."

Sky News met the volunteer soldier as he stood next to an abandoned Russian tank on a street leading further into Izyum.

Asked how he felt before the operation to attack Russian positions across the Kharkiv region started, he said: "I wasn't scared because of what they did to our country. They killed our women, our children, there is no fear. It is only hatred and a desire to tear them apart.

"We are a special unit - Kraken - everyone knows us. We are working to defend our country."

map

Abandoned Russian equipment

The Kraken Regiment is a relatively well-known group of military volunteers within the Ukrainian armed forces.

Behind him, members of his unit were climbing over the top of the discarded tank, making sure it was safe. The vehicle will be given a wartime makeover, effectively switching sides.

Granitsya took Sky News to the nearby repair yard.

Inside one enormous hanger, were two Russian military trucks. At least one had the tell-tale letter 'Z' daubed in white paint on a door.

Russian troops used the place to repair their military vehicles, the Ukrainian soldier said.

His side appeared to have been aware. A giant hole in the roof marked the point where a projectile looked to have struck the site, presumably as part of Ukraine's offensive.

Pock marks caused by shrapnel dented the walls and twisted pieces of metal littered the floor.

HAYNES UKRAINE VT
Image: More hastily discarded Russian military vehicles

On another part of the compound, inside a dingy, unlit cluster of makeshift rooms, was where the Russians slept and ate, according to Granitsya. "Russian, Russian, Russian," he said, pointing to a heap of shabby green body armour and dirty boots.

There was also a long box containing jars of what could have been pickles.

HAYNES UKRAINE VT
Image: Abandoned Russian food supplies

'There is no one to fear them'

Stepping back outside, he exclaimed again: "Russian", picking up parts of a rusty gun that he said had been fitted to a vehicle.

Granitsya had been a full-time soldier fighting in eastern Ukraine between 2017 and 2020, following Russia's first invasion in 2014.

He had decided to leave the armed forces but joined the Kraken unit on 24 February after President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war.

The soldier was scathing about the quality of the Russian military. "Their army is not big and powerful," he said.

"It is a big fake. They create this fake [impression of strength] to make other countries afraid. But in reality there is no one to fear them."

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2022-09-15 05:28:41Z
1560875820

Ukraine war: Behind Russia's abandoned lines, ammunition, scattered clothes and wrecked vehicles found - Sky News

The Ukrainian soldier stooped over an ammunition box and picked up what looked like a giant, metal cork. "Russian landmine," he said.

He walked to another discarded crate inside a large warehouse.

"This is a mortar," the serviceman, 39, said, holding up the deadly weapon, which was the shape of a stretched, grey-coloured balloon.

The haul was part of a stockpile of ammunition found at a sprawling, mud-splattered repair yard, which Russian soldiers had apparently used as a base on the edge of the Ukrainian city of Izyum.

It had been left behind, along with shabby-looking bits of body armour, boots and jars of food - signs of a hasty Russian retreat in the face of a Ukrainian offensive to take the city back.

Ukraine war latest updates: President Zelenskyy accuses Russia of turning occupied areas 'into toilets'

The soldier - who went by the name Granitsya, the call-sign he said he used for the war - was part of the operation.

More on Ukraine

"They just ran away," he said, describing the advance, launched last week. "There was small arms fire but not the big combat that we saw in the first days or months of the invasion."

Sky News met the volunteer soldier as he stood next to an abandoned Russian tank on a street leading further into Izyum.

Asked how he felt before the operation to attack Russian positions across the Kharkiv region started, he said: "I wasn't scared because of what they did to our country. They killed our women, our children, there is no fear. It is only hatred and a desire to tear them apart.

"We are a special unit - Kraken - everyone knows us. We are working to defend our country."

map

Abandoned Russian equipment

The Kraken Regiment is a relatively well-known group of military volunteers within the Ukrainian armed forces.

Behind him, members of his unit were climbing over the top of the discarded tank, making sure it was safe. The vehicle will be given a wartime makeover, effectively switching sides.

Granitsya took Sky News to the nearby repair yard.

Inside one enormous hanger, were two Russian military trucks. At least one had the tell-tale letter 'Z' daubed in white paint on a door.

Russian troops used the place to repair their military vehicles, the Ukrainian soldier said.

His side appeared to have been aware. A giant hole in the roof marked the point where a projectile looked to have struck the site, presumably as part of Ukraine's offensive.

Pock marks caused by shrapnel dented the walls and twisted pieces of metal littered the floor.

HAYNES UKRAINE VT
Image: More hastily discarded Russian military vehicles

On another part of the compound, inside a dingy, unlit cluster of makeshift rooms, was where the Russians slept and ate, according to Granitsya. "Russian, Russian, Russian," he said, pointing to a heap of shabby green body armour and dirty boots.

There was also a long box containing jars of what could have been pickles.

HAYNES UKRAINE VT
Image: Abandoned Russian food supplies

'There is no one to fear them'

Stepping back outside, he exclaimed again: "Russian", picking up parts of a rusty gun that he said had been fitted to a vehicle.

Granitsya had been a full-time soldier fighting in eastern Ukraine between 2017 and 2020, following Russia's first invasion in 2014.

He had decided to leave the armed forces but joined the Kraken unit on 24 February after President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale war.

The soldier was scathing about the quality of the Russian military. "Their army is not big and powerful," he said.

"It is a big fake. They create this fake [impression of strength] to make other countries afraid. But in reality there is no one to fear them."

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2022-09-15 04:38:33Z
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