Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy says it has been ‘a difficult night’ after wave of Russian missile strikes hits targets across Ukraine - The Guardian

From 2h ago

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted to his official Telegram about the night’s events, writing:

It’s been a difficult night. A massive rocket attack across the country. Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia regions. Attacks on critical infrastructure and residential buildings. Unfortunately, there are injured and dead. My condolences to the families.

All services are working. The energy system is being restored. Restrictions were imposed in all regions.

The enemy fired 81 missiles in an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians again, returning to their miserable tactics. The occupiers can only terrorise civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.

We thank the guardians of our skies and everyone who helps to overcome the consequences of the occupiers’ sneaking attacks.

Ukraine will take part in European Union countries’ scheme to jointly buy gas, the bloc’s energy policy chief said on Thursday.

“We have integrated Ukraine in the gas joint purchasing platform with a view to help secure 2bn cubic metres of additional gas,” Reuters reports the EU energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, told a meeting of EU lawmakers.

EU countries plan to sign their first contracts to jointly buy gas by this summer.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that there were still “a lot of questions” remaining over the Black Sea grain deal, and that there were currently no plans for a meeting with the UN secretary general, António Guterres.

The deal, which allows grain to be safely exported from Ukrainian ports despite a Russian naval blockade, expires on 18 March, but cannot be extended if Russia objects. Moscow has already signalled it is unhappy with aspects of the deal, as it seeks to expand the markets for its own agricultural products.

Ukraine has said it will seek to extend the deal for at least a year, and wishes the port of Mykolaiv to be included.

Kyiv said Russian shelling killed three people on Thursday in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, as Moscow unleashed a wave of missile strikes overnight.

“Russian terrorists shelled Kherson in the morning. They hit … a public transport stop. Three people died as a result of the shelling,” AFP reports Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on social media.

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that security services in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria claim to have foiled an assassination attempt on the internationally unrecognised leader, Vadim Krasnoselsky.

In its report Tass writes:

Assassination attempts on a number of officials of Transnistria were prepared on the instructions of the Ukrainian security service (SBU), the ministry of state security of the republic reported. Suspects of preparing an assassination attempt on the leader of Transnistria were detained and are giving confessions.

The impending assassination attempt on the leader of Transnistria is qualified as a preparation for a terrorist attack.

The prosecutor of Transnistria said that the SBU was preparing a terrorist attack using a car bomb in the center of Tiraspol.

The claims have not been independently verified. Transnistria, which attempted to break away from Moldova in the early 1990s, borders Ukraine’s west and has Russian troops stationed there.

Slovakia needs to make a decision on sending MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine, the country’s defence minister, Jaroslav Nad, said on Thursday, adding Poland has expressed willingness to act jointly in this matter.

“I think it is time to make a decision,” Reuters reports Nad said on Facebook. “People are dying in Ukraine, we can really help them, there is no room for Slovak politicking.”

The governor of Lviv region, Maksym Kozytskyi, has given further details of the strike that has killed five people. In a message on Telegram he posted to say:

Today, around 4 o’clock in the morning, an enemy missile fell in the Zolochiv district during an air raid. Three men and two women who were at home at that moment died. The fire destroyed three residential buildings, three cars, a garage and several outbuildings. The fire was extinguished. The demolition of the destroyed buildings has already been completed. 28 rescuers, five units of special equipment and a canine team were involved in the work.

Drone footage shows the aftermath of the strike.

The regional governor said air defences shot down missiles over Lviv, but “I cannot say exactly how many missiles were destroyed over our region, the relevant services have asked not to make this information public” and he urged the public not to release details.

Kozytskyi went on to say:

As usual, during the day, internally displaced people arrived in our region by evacuation trains, and people also left by train to Przemyśl [in Poland]. In the districts of Lviv oblast, humanitarian aid was collected and handed over to soldiers on the frontlines and to residents of frontline settlements, cars were sent to the defenders. Our foreign partners transferred aid to the communities of the region. Everyone lived yesterday, doing good deeds and getting closer to victory in their place. But we woke up to sirens, and news about the dead. We will never forget this day. We will never forgive. And we will direct all our efforts to revenge and the return of justice.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has described the overnight strikes on Ukraine as without military purpose and “just Russian barbarism”. In a tweet he said:

Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, leading to loss of lives and damaging civilian infrastructure. No military objective, just Russian barbarism. The day will come when Putin and his associates are held accountable by a special tribunal.

Reuters reports that Nato member Denmark has confirmed that Troels Lund Poulsen will continue to act as acting defence minister in the absence of Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.

Ellemann-Jensen, 49, was briefly admitted to hospital in February after making a trip to Ukraine and has been on an indefinite period of sick leave. At the time he said in a Facebook message: “I have been unusually busy for a long time. Now my body is sending me a signal that it’s time to take a break, if not it’s going to end badly.”

Here are some more of the images to come out of Kyiv today.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted to his official Telegram about the night’s events, writing:

It’s been a difficult night. A massive rocket attack across the country. Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia regions. Attacks on critical infrastructure and residential buildings. Unfortunately, there are injured and dead. My condolences to the families.

All services are working. The energy system is being restored. Restrictions were imposed in all regions.

The enemy fired 81 missiles in an attempt to intimidate Ukrainians again, returning to their miserable tactics. The occupiers can only terrorise civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them. They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.

We thank the guardians of our skies and everyone who helps to overcome the consequences of the occupiers’ sneaking attacks.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, has posted this summary to Telegram of the latest news to emerge from the overnight strikes. It reports:

In Kyiv, the alarm lasted for about seven hours. Two people were hospitalised due to falling rocket fragments.

Five people were killed in the Zolochiv district of the Lviv region due to a rocket hitting a residential area, one person was killed and two were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Energy infrastructure and industrial enterprises were also damaged in the region.

About 15 strikes were made in Kharkiv and the region, two people were injured. Critical infrastructure was targeted. Metro and electric transport are not working.

In Kirovohrad oblast, Odesa oblast and Zhytomyr oblast, energy infrastructure facilities were hit. Also, according to preliminary information, there are hits in Vinnytsia.

At night, electricity restrictions were applied preventively in all regions to reduce risks to the system. Emergency power outages were used in regions where infrastructure was damaged. Kharkiv region and Zhytomyr region are partially de-energized. Kharkiv is completely without electricity.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Here are some more images from the scene of the strike in Kyiv.

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, has announced that a fifth person has been killed in overnight strikes. He posted to Telegram to say:

The number of people killed as a result of the fall of the rocket in the Zolochiv district has increased to five. The body of another man, born in 1963, was discovered under the rubble. Sincere condolences to the relatives.

Ukraine’s air force has issued a statement via Telegram on the wave of attacks from Russia overnight. In it, it claims that “the defence forces of Ukraine destroyed 34 cruise missiles … as well as 4 ‘Shahed-136/131’ unmanned aerial vehicles”. It claims that a total of 48 Kalibr-type cruise missiles had been fired by Russia.

It described the attack as featuring “81 missiles of various types” in total, and that “the launches were carried out from 10 Tu-95 strategic aircraft, seven Tu-22M3 long-range aircraft, eight Su-35 fighters, six MiG-31K aircraft and three Kalibr KR carriers in the Black Sea”.

It adds: “As a result of organised countermeasures, 8 Kh-31P and Kh-59 guided air missiles did not reach their targets. It is worth noting that the armed forces of Ukraine do not have means capable of destroying Kh-22 and Kh-47 ‘Kinzhal’ and S-300.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that energy company DTEK has reinstated power in Dnipropetrovsk.

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2023-03-09 08:56:35Z
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China is laying out a path to conflict with the US - The New Statesman

Qin Gang holds a copy of China's constitution during a press conference at the Media Center of the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing. Photo by NOEL CELIS/AFP via Getty Images

WASHINGTON DC – Qin Gang, the new Chinese foreign minister, is not known for his subtlety, but his remarks on the sidelines of the country’s annual parliamentary session on 7 March were particularly stark. During his first press conference since assuming the role in December, he warned that the US and China were moving towards confrontation and that the “future of humanity” was at stake.

“If the United States does not hit the brakes, and continues to speed down the wrong path,” Qin said, the countries were headed towards “conflict and confrontation” that would have “catastrophic consequences”.

His words were carefully chosen. Joe Biden, the US president, said during his state of the union speech in February that he had made clear to Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, that his country sought “competition, not conflict” with China. Qin hit back: “But in fact, the United States’ so-called competition is total containment and suppression, a zero-sum game in which you die and I live.”

[See also: China’s economy will rebound. But for how long?

This was not an isolated comment. His language mirrored that of Xi the previous day when he said that Western countries “led by the US” were implementing a policy of “all-round containment” against China. Li Keqiang, China’s outgoing premier, similarly warned during his speech on 5 March that “external attempts to suppress and contain China are escalating”. This is clearly becoming a key theme of this year’s parliamentary gathering.

It is striking that both Xi and Qin made specific references to the US, instead of the usual opaque references to the “dangerous storms” that are gathering in international politics and the challenges in China’s external security environment. Both are explicitly blaming Washington for the downward spiral in relations with the US.

The feeling, in parts of the US political establishment at least, is mutual. In his opening remarks at the first hearing of the new congressional select committee on China on 28 February, which was broadcast live on television in prime time, the Republican chairman Mike Gallagher warned that the outcome of the US’s “strategic competition” with China would determine the future global order. “This is an existential struggle over what life will look like in the 21st century – and the most fundamental freedoms are at stake.”

[See also: Xi Jinping lashes out at the US]

Democrats and Republicans on the committee disagree on how the US should approach this contest – some Democrats have called for the US to focus on domestic issues and end wrangling over the budget, for instance – but they agree on the scale of the geopolitical challenge posed by Beijing.

The White House has taken a more restrained approach so far, with Biden emphasising after meeting Xi in Bali in November that he believes the two sides can avoid “a new Cold War”. But as the 2024 presidential election approaches, with Biden expected to announce his candidacy in the coming months, he will be wary of being outflanked by his Republican rivals and portrayed as being weak on China. Following the Chinese spy balloon debacle last month, Antony Blinken, his secretary of state, indefinitely postponed a visit to Beijing that had been intended to help establish the “guardrails” that Qin derided in his news conference.

One immediate consequence of the hardening positions on both sides is the strengthening of China-Russia relations, with US officials warning in recent weeks that Beijing is considering supplying lethal aid to Moscow to sustain the floundering Russian offensive in Ukraine. In a section of his remarks that drew less attention, Qin claimed that China and Russia were “joining hands” to build a new model of international relations that will “move towards a multipolar world and [a] more democratic international system”.

Contrary to the periodic wishful thinking in Western capitals that Xi might eventually distance himself from Vladimir Putin, Qin stressed that: “The more turbulent the world is, the more China-Russia relations should keep moving forward.” The questions for the press conference had been submitted in advance, so it was Qin’s choince to address this issue and to signal that Beijing will not change its approach to Moscow.

Qin’s remarks, as with those of Xi and other senior politicians, are aimed at multiple audiences. They are flashing bright red warning signs to the US that Beijing has no intention of backing down and that if Washington wants to avoid open confrontation it must change its approach, although in fact the fiery rhetoric risks provoking the opposite response. Meanwhile, the message to the domestic audience at a time when economic growth remains sluggish, and to third countries, is that none of this is China’s fault.

Instead of admitting his mistakes or questioning his support for Putin, Xi is doubling down on the idea that China’s problems are all the fault of its external enemies, and that it is the US, not China, that is leading the two powers towards conflict.

[See also: Qin Gang: China’s new foreign minister and the taming of “wolf warrior” diplomacy]

Topics in this article : China , pwfree , United States , Xi Jinping

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2023-03-08 12:01:47Z
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Germany searched ship suspected of transporting Nord Stream saboteurs - Financial Times

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2023-03-08 13:51:09Z
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Thousands protest at Georgian 'foreign agent' bill - BBC

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By Rayhan Demytrie

BBC News, Tbilisi

Protesters have clashed with police in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, after parliament backed a controversial draft law which critics say limits press freedom and suppresses civil society.

Riot police used water cannon and pepper spray to disperse the crowds outside the parliament building.

Some protesters were seen falling on the ground and coughing, while others waved EU and Georgian flags.

The government said 50 police officers were hurt and police gear was damaged.

Police arrested 66 people during Tuesday's action, including one of Georgia's opposition leaders, Zurab Japaridze, who was reportedly beaten.

There has been widespread international condemnation of the bill. It would require non-governmental and media organisations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to declare themselves as "foreign agents", or face hefty fines and possible imprisonment.

The opposition says the Russian-style law marks a shift towards authoritarianism and would damage Georgia's chances of joining the EU. Further protests are taking place on Wednesday.

Hours earlier, police had warned protesters to disperse with a repeated message blaring through loudspeakers. Eventually, officers in riot gear cleared the Rustaveli Avenue, the main thoroughfare outside parliament.

US state department spokesman Ned Price said the draft legislation would be a tremendous setback and "would strike at some of the very rights that are central to the aspirations of the people of Georgia".

The EU is currently considering Georgia's application for candidate status and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that the bill was "incompatible with EU values and standards".

Russia passed its own version of a "foreign agents" law in 2012, expanding it over the years to target and suppress Western-funded NGOs and media.

"The law is Russian as we all know... We don't want to be a part of the ex-Soviet Union, we want to be a part of the European Union, we want to be pro-West," one protester told Reuters news agency.

Georgia and Russia: The basics

• Georgia was invaded by Russia in 2008: It came 17 years after it gained independence from the Soviet Union, an alliance of communist states that broke apart in 1991
• Russian forces occupy two breakaway regions of Georgia: South Ossetia and Abkhazia make up about 20% of Georgian territory
• Pulled between the West and Russia: Georgia has sought to join Nato and the EU, but critics accuse current ruling party Georgian Dream of trying to return the country to Russia's influence

Speaking via video during a visit to New York, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili voiced her support for the protesters: "I am by your side. Today you represent free Georgia. Georgia, which sees its future in Europe, will not allow anyone to take away this future."

But inside the parliament building, 76 lawmakers from the governing Georgian Dream party gave their initial support to the new "transparency of foreign influence" draft law.

On Monday, scuffles broke out at a committee hearing into the proposed legislation, with one pro-government MP slapping the leader of the largest opposition party.

Passing the law would see Georgia join a list of undemocratic and authoritarian post-Soviet states such as Belarus, Tajikistan and Azerbaijan which have copied the Russian law on restricting the activities of NGOs.

Historically, the term "agent" in Russia and Georgia has the meaning of "spy" and "traitor", giving a negative connotation to the work done by civil society. It suggests they are acting in the interest of foreign forces rather than doing good for the country and society.

The US embassy issued a statement describing Tuesday's vote as a "dark day for Georgia's democracy".

It added that parliament's advancing "of these Kremlin-inspired laws was incompatible with the people of Georgia's clear desire for European integration and its democratic development".

The two bills, on the "transparency of foreign agents" and the "registration of foreign agents", were submitted to parliament by the openly anti-Western People's Power movement, a close ally of the governing Georgian Dream party.

The group has argued that the second bill was an exact analogue of the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

• Russia to label some journalists 'foreign agents'

Georgian Dream supported the drafts, saying that such laws were needed to improve transparency.

At a briefing on Tuesday evening, the chairman of the governing party, Irakli Kobakhidze, hit back at the US embassy's statement, saying it was "a dark day for the radical opposition and its supporters".

What most protesters and the country's opposition fear is that the adoption of the law would mark an end to Georgia's long-standing ambition to join the EU. More than 80% of Georgia's population supports Georgia's European perspective, which is also enshrined in the country's constitution.

Additional reporting by Emily McGarvey.

Related Topics

• Georgia
• Tbilisi

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2023-03-08 11:49:16Z
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Russia-Ukraine war live: Kremlin calls Nord Stream reports a distraction; EU will never accept Russian threats, says Von Der Leyen - The Guardian

From 2h ago

Media reports on the Nord Stream pipelines attacks are a coordinated effort to divert attention and the Kremlin is perplexed how US officials can assume anything about the attacks without investigation, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

“Obviously, the authors of the attack want to divert attention. Obviously, this is a coordinated stuffing in the media,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the state RIA news agency.

“How can American officials assume anything without an investigation?”

Peskov also said that Nord Stream shareholder countries should insist on an urgent, transparent investigation.

“We are still not allowed in the investigation. Only a few days ago we received notes about this from the Danes and Swedes,” Peskov said.

“This is not just strange. It smells like a monstrous crime.”

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is quoting Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk. In a message he has stated:

On 7 March, the Russian occupying forces shelled Kostyantynivka five times. On the morning of 8 March, they shelled Avdiivka twice. For the first time since 24 February 2022, there were no wounded or dead civilians. But residential buildings were destroyed and damaged by shelling.

Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief, reports:

“Of course we are following the reports very intensely”, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said about the investigations into the Nord Stream blasts during a state visit to Erbil, in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

She said the strength of a constitutional democracy was that it sometimes had to step back and let official bodies carry on with their investigations, “rather than come to premature conclusions based on media reports.”

Baerbock added that Denmark and Sweden had informed her their investigations were still ongoing.

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.

We are expecting UN general secretary António Guterres in Kyiv today, where he will meet with Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Yesterday Ukrainian sources said that online negotiations with partners had started on an extension of the grain deal, but talks were not directly with Russia. Ukraine has previously expressed a hope that the deal will be extended for a year, to give a guarantee of stability to importers and exporters, and for it to be expanded to include the port of Mykolaiv.

President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has tweeted in praise of Ukrainian women for International Women’s Day, saying that those who have joined the armed forces have “smashed a glass ceiling over the head of the Russian invaders”.

That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. My colleagues in London will be taking you through the rest of the day’s news.

Last night Kharkiv’s street lights were switched on for the first time since the start of the war, the city’s Mayor said.

“For more than a year, the only source of light in Kharkiv during the dark hours of the day has mainly been car headlights. During this time, there were many road accidents in which people were injured,” Ihor Terekhov wrote on Telegram.

The lights were switched on from 18:00 to 19:30 on Tuesday night. Here are some pictures:

South Korea’s government approved export licenses for Poland last year to provide Ukraine with Krab howitzers, which are built with South Korean components, a defence acquisition official in Seoul told Reuters on Wednesday.

The comments are the first confirmation that South Korea officially acquiesced to at least indirectly providing weapons components to Ukraine for its war against Russia.

Seoul officials have previously declined to comment on the Krabs, fuelling speculation over whether South Korea had formally agreed or was simply looking the other way.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration’s (DAPA) technology control bureau reviewed and approved the transfer, said Kim Hyoung-cheol, director of the Europe-Asia division of the International cooperation Bureau.

“We reviewed all the documentation and possible issues inside DAPA... then we made decision to give out export licence to Poland,” he told Reuters in an interview at DAPA headquarters on the outskirts of Seoul.

Russian forces made more than 30 unsuccessful attacks over the past day near Orikhovo-Vasylivka alone, 20 km (12 miles) northwest of Bakhmut, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in their daily update today.

They shelled the areas of 10 settlements along the Bakhmut section of the frontline, it added.

“The enemy, despite significant losses … continues to storm the town of Bakhmut,” the General Staff added.

Ukrainian farmers are likely to sow a smaller area this spring than they did following Russia’s invasion, in what could be a further blow to global food supplies after disruptions last year, Reuters reports.

Ukraine is a major supplier of wheat and corn to world markets and production and exports slumped last year due to the war, sending prices for key commodities sharply higher before stabilising.

With farmers hurting from soaring costs including fertiliser, Ukraine’s export capacity severely limited because of Russia’s occupation of some areas and unexploded ordnance near former frontlines, supply could be squeezed further.

Denys Marchuk, deputy chair of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council, the biggest farmer organization, expects plantings of corn, a fertiliser-intensive crop, to plummet 20% from last year, which itself saw a 27% decrease in harvested area.

Overall, the government expects spring plantings to fall only 5% from last year, underlining a more sanguine official assessment of potential losses.

The smaller spring crop would come as Ukraine’s harvest of wheat grown over winter is expected to fall sharply, although not enough to spur export curbs.

Russia’s Wagner group of mercenaries has taken full control of the eastern part of Bakhmut, Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Wednesday. “Units of the private military company Wagner have taken control of the eastern part of Bakhmut,” Prigozhin said in a voice recording on the Telegram messaging platform of his press service.

“Everything east of the Bakhmutka River is completely under the control of Wagner,” he said.

On Tuesday, Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned in an interview with CNN that it would be an “open road” for Russian troops to capture cities in Ukraine should they seize control of Bakhmut.

“This is tactical for us, we understand that after Bakhmut they could go further,” said Ukraine’s president.

Prigozhin has issued premature success claims before, Reuters reports. The Guardian has not verified the claims independently.

The battle for Bakhmut has been the deadliest of the war and has caused tens of thousands of people to flee. The city in the Donbas region had an estimated prewar population of about 70,000.

The Ukrainian deputy prime minister told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children, remained in Bakhmut.

The Institute for the Study of War said on Tuesday that Ukraine’s defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russia to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”.

European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addressing Canada’s parliament on Tuesday during a visit to bolster support for Ukraine, said Europe would never accept Russian threats to its security.

“We will never accept that a military power with fantasies of empire rolls its tanks across an international border,” she said in a speech more than one year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The 27-nation bloc, she added, “will never accept this threat to European security and to the very foundation of our international community,” she added.

Von der Leyen urged “steadfast military and economic support” for Ukraine while also renewing calls for Russia to “pay for its crime of aggression” after proposing in November to set up a specialised court to prosecute such crimes.

The Kremlin was responding to a report in the New York Times saying that intelligence reviewed by US officials indicates that a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines that carried natural gas from Russia to Europe, but they have found no evidence of Kyiv government involvement in the September 2022 attack.

The US and Nato have called the attacks, which occurred seven months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and destroyed three of the four pipelines running under the Baltic Sea, “an act of sabotage”.

Moscow has blamed Ukraine’s western supporters and has called on the UN security council to independently investigate. Neither side has provided evidence.

Citing US officials, the New York Times said there was no evidence that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy or his top aides were involved in the operation or that the perpetrators were acting at the behest of any Ukrainian government officials.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that Washington was waiting for ongoing investigations in Germany, Sweden and Denmark – all in the Baltic region – to conclude, “and only then should we be looking at what follow-on actions might or may not be appropriate”.

Responding to the report, senior Zelenskiy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters that the Kyiv government was “absolutely not involved” in the sabotage strike, and had no information about what had happened.

Media reports on the Nord Stream pipelines attacks are a coordinated effort to divert attention and the Kremlin is perplexed how US officials can assume anything about the attacks without investigation, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

“Obviously, the authors of the attack want to divert attention. Obviously, this is a coordinated stuffing in the media,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the state RIA news agency.

“How can American officials assume anything without an investigation?”

Peskov also said that Nord Stream shareholder countries should insist on an urgent, transparent investigation.

“We are still not allowed in the investigation. Only a few days ago we received notes about this from the Danes and Swedes,” Peskov said.

“This is not just strange. It smells like a monstrous crime.”

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest.

Our top story this morning: media reports on the Nord Stream pipelines attacks are a coordinated effort to divert attention and the Kremlin is perplexed how US officials can assume anything about the attacks without investigation, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

“Obviously, the authors of the attack want to divert attention. Obviously, this is a coordinated stuffing in the media,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the state RIA news agency.

And European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says Europe will never accept Russian threats to its security. Addressing Canada’s parliament on Tuesday during a visit to bolster support for Ukraine, she said, “We will never accept that a military power with fantasies of empire rolls its tanks across an international border”.

Europe “will never accept this threat to European security and to the very foundation of our international community,” she said.

We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantine, here are the other key recent developments:

• It will be an “open road” for Russian troops to capture cities in Ukraine should they seize control of Bakhmut, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned in an interview with CNN. “This is tactical for us, we understand that after Bakhmut they could go further,” said Ukraine’s president. The Ukrainian deputy prime minister told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children, remained in Bakhmut. The city, the focus of fierce fighting in the Donbas region, had an estimated prewar population of about 70,000.

• Russia has sustained “20,000 to 30,000 casualties’’ – killed and wounded – in trying to capture the city, western officials estimated at a briefing on Tuesday. While no firm figure was offered for Ukrainian losses, the official said it was “significantly less”. Ukraine’s defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russia to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

• Intelligence reviewed by US officials suggested a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, the New York Times has reported. There was no evidence Zelenskiy or his top lieutenants were involved, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, said the report, citing US officials.

• Russia said media reports about Nord Stream underscored the need to answer Moscow’s questions about what happened. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said those responsible for leaks to the media wanted to divert the public’s attention and avoid a proper investigation.

• Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, said 130 prisoners of war had been returned home in an exchange. Russia’s ministry of defence said 90 prisoners of war had been returned by Ukraine.

• A court in Moscow has jailed a student activist for eight and a half years for social media posts criticising Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dmitry Ivanov was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian army, AP reported.

• Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, as the president delivered an overnight message resolving to “find the murderers”. In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram on Monday, a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette before apparently being shot with automatic weapons.

• Ukraine has started talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said. The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.

• Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services to carry out sabotage at a Belarusian airfield. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital, Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk. Ukraine’s foreign ministry has denied Kyiv was involved.

• China’s foreign minister, Qin Gang, has said China must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US. In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.

• A 14-year-old Ukrainian girl who died after she was found unconscious on a beach in south Devon on Saturday has been named as Albina Yevko. The teenager was found on Dawlish town beach, near where she was living, on Saturday evening after a search involving a police helicopter and the coastguard.

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2023-03-08 05:40:00Z
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Mexico kidnapping — live: Americans seized by drug cartel asked for directions before deadly Matamoros attack - The Independent

Related: Drug cartels using to pinpoint Border Agents’ locations

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Two Americans were found dead and two others alive after they were kidnapped in Matamoros, Mexico, in what officials have described as a drug cartel attack captured on video

The group - identified by family as Latavia “Tay” McGee, Shaeed Woodard, Zindell Brown and Eric James Williams - were attacked on 3 March shortly after entering Matamoros, an area dominated by the Gulf cartel.

Video showed the group being thrown into a truck by armed men in broad daylight after a shootout. Authorities confirmed on Tuesday that the group had been found.

Ms McGee and Mr Williams were rescued alive and have since been returned to the US. Mr Woodard and Mr Brown were killed.

Ms McGee’s mother previously revealed the group had travelled to Mexico so her daughter could undergo a tummy tuck procedure.

US officials have vowed to secure justice for the victims, as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and US Attorney General Merrick Garland pointed blame at drug cartels. At least one suspect has been arrested, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said.

1678262400

GOP calls for military intervention following deadly kidnapping

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told Fox News that he would introduce legislation to “set the stage” for using military force in Mexico to combat the drug cartel.

Mr Graham made the remarks on Jesse Watters’s show on Monday evening, saying he would “introduce legislation to make certain Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations under US law and set the stage to use military force if necessary.”

The Independent’s Eric Garcia has the story:

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 08:00

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Video allegedly shows kidnapping

A video widely shared on social media, allegedly filmed in the city on Friday, shows people being dragged and dumped into the rear of a white flatbed truck parked in the middle of a busy street by armed men wearing bulletproof jackets.

The video has not been officially verified and the FBI has made no public comment on it.

Matamoros is notorious as a centre for gang violence and illegal migrant smuggling.

Tamaulipas state police said on its social media channel that people had been killed and injured in two shootouts in Matamoros on Friday in which neither the military nor police had been involved but did not offer any further detail on the shootings or say whether the kidnappings were connected.

“There have been two armed incidents between unidentified civilians,” it said. “The exact number of the fallen is being corroborated.”

Photographs of the abandoned car, with visible bullet holes, have since been released.

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 07:00

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Mexican authorities working on repatriation of slain American tourists’ bodies

The bodies of two Americans killed in Matamoros, Mexico, will be repatriated after local authorities conduct forensic evaluations, a source close to the investigation told CNN.

Tamaulipas Governor Américo Villareal said on a televised call with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that two individuals, Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown, were killed.

Two other American citizens, one unharmed and one wounded, are back on US soil.

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 06:00

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Photos show rescue of two American tourists from drug cartel stash house as dead friends identified

Photos by the Associated Press showed the moment the two surviving American citizens were rescued by Mexican authorities.

They were found at a stash house in a rural area east of Matamoros called Ejido Longoreño on the way to the local beach known as Playa Baghdad, a source close to the investigation told the AP.

Read more:

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 05:00

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Zindell Brown had been wary about travelling to Mexico

Zindell Brown, one of the two Americans killed in the kidnapping, was concerned about the risks involved in travelling to Mexico, his sister told the Associated Press.

“Zindell kept saying, ‘We shouldn’t go down,’” Zalandria Brown told the news organisation.

And she added: “This is like a bad dream you wish you could wake up from. To see a member of your family thrown in the back of a truck and dragged, it is just unbelievable.”

Graeme Massie8 March 2023 04:31

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White House reacts to fatal kidnappings of American citizens in Mexico

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday that any attacks on American citizens under any circumstances were unacceptable.

Ms Jean-Pierre said more information will be released after family members of the two fatal victims and two kidnapping survivors are updated by US officials on any developments made in the case. She also noted that the Biden administration remains committed to “disrupting transnational criminal organizations including Mexican drug cartels and human smugglers.”

“We remain committed to applying the full weight of our efforts and resources to counter them,” Ms Jean-Pierre said.

“Right now. our immediate concerns are for the safe return of our citizens, the health and well-being of those who survived this attack, and the support which must be rendered to the families of those who need it.”

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 04:00

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Mexican officials reveal picture of person arrested in operation to recover four Americans

A picture of Jose Guadalupe “N” the person detained in the rescue operation is displayed during a press conference to give details after two American citizens were found dead in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, at Auditorium of Secretaria de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana on March 07, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico.

(Getty Images)

Graeme Massie8 March 2023 03:30

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Americans advised against travelling to area where kidnapping took place

The US Consulate in Matamoros issued a warning to its employees on Friday in response to the latest outbreak of violence.

Anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI San Antonio Division at 210-225-6741 or to submit tips anonymously online here.

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 03:00

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Officials show images of where Americans found in Mexico

Images of the place where four American citizens were rescued are displayed on a screen during a press conference to give details after two American citizens were found dead in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, at Auditorium of Secretaria de Seguridad y Protección Ciudadana on March 07, 2023 in Mexico City, Mexico.

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

(Getty Images)

Graeme Massie8 March 2023 02:27

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Suspect arrested in death of Mexico ‘tummy tuck’ tourists

Governor of Tamaulipas Américo Villarreal said during a press conference that the group was moved from different locations, including a clinic, during the three days that their kidnapping lasted in an attempt to throw off investigators.

Mr Villareal said that the “Clan del Golfo” is the cartel known to operate and control the area. Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios Mojica also said that Mexican officials believe members of the Gulf drug cartel are behind the attack.

Andrea Blanco8 March 2023 02:00

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2023-03-08 07:00:00Z
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