A defiant Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announcedUkraine is formally applying for fast-track membership of theNatomilitary alliance, cranking up fears of a full-blown conflict between Russia and the West.
The Ukrainian leader’s move appeared to have been prompted by Russian president Valdimir Putin holding a ceremony in Moscow to proclaim four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions as annexed Russian land, following a series of sham referendums. The land-grab breaks international law.
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A video showed president Zelenskyy announcing the membership bid and then signing a document flanked by his prime minister and the speaker of parliament.
“De facto, we have already proven compatibility with alliance standards,” Zelenskyy said. “We trust each other, we help each other, and we protect each other. This is the alliance.”
The announcement is likely to stoke Putin, who sees Nato as a hostile military alliance bent on encroaching in Moscow’s sphere of influence and destroying it.
In his video speech, Zelenskyy accused Russia of brazenly rewriting history and redrawing borders “using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies”, something he said Kyiv would not allow.
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“We trust each other, we help each other and we protect each other.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Ukraine has formally submitted a fast-track application to join Nato. pic.twitter.com/8xq3mDr1aq
The military alliance goes by the acronym of Nato.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation was formed in 1949 to prevent a resurgence of nationalism and militarism in Europe after two world wars, and to deter the Soviet Union’s expansion.
Its membership has swelled to 30 member nations, and over the 1990s and 2000s its enlargement stretched further east to include the former Soviet republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
They agree to mutual defence – military action – in response to an enemy attack. The principle goes: “An attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies.” This is Article 5 of the Nato constitution.
Sweden and Finland, which shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia, sought membership to Nato earlier this year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but have faced a hurdle as its application needs the approval of all 30 current members, with Turkey raising objections.
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Efforts to join the US-led military alliance marked a radical break in the policy of both north east European countries given their staunch military neutrality.
Because Ukraine is not a member of Nato, Western support for Zelenskyy has fallen short of putting their troops on the ground.
Nato’s enlargement was Putin’s biggest publicly-stated grievance with the West during the build-up up to war, claiming the eastward expansion and potentially sweeping up the largest other former Soviet republic breaks promises.
Nato has been adamant it will not accept limits on the nations that it admits and has always maintained an “open door policy”.
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Will tensions flare up more?
Many will fear the countries are on a collision course that could lead to a bona fide world war.
Putin vowed to protect newly-annexed regions of Ukraine by “all available means”, a nuclear-backed threat where he also railled furiously at the West, accusing the United States and its allies of seeking Russia’s destruction.
Russia has repeatedly made clear that any prospect of Ukraine joining the world’s largest military alliance is one of his red lines and it was among the justifications he has cited for his invasion — the biggest land war in Europe since the Second World War.
Will Nato membership actually happen?
The immediate ramifications of the “accelerated” Nato application weren’t clear, since it requires the unanimous support of all members. The supply of Western weapons to Ukraine has, however, put it closer to the alliance’s orbit.
But it seems unlikely Nato will accept Ukraine’s application while a war is raging. Article 5 compels fellow members to actively defend it against Russia, a commitment that goes well beyond the supply of weapons.
Ukraine’s admission to Nato has been a stated goal going back to its constitution in 2002, but at the start of the war Zelenskyy accepted his country couldn’t join at present.
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“For years we heard about the apparently open door, but have already also heard that we will not enter there, and these are truths and must be acknowledged,” he said at the time.
Protesters in Moscow have chanted “send Putin to the trenches” amid widespread disapproval of Russia’s biggest conscription drive since World War Two.
Within hours of president Vladimir Putin ordering a partial mobilisation of reservists on Wednesday, rare protests were reported across the country that led to almost 1,200 arrests.
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Shortly after Putin’s address, Russian media reported a spike in demand for plane tickets abroad as some draft-age men headed for the border.
In the capital Moscow, hundreds of people gathered on the central Stary Arbat street amid heavy police presence. Protesters could be seen chanting “No war”, “Send Putin to the trenches” and “Let our children live” in videos published to social media.
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Putin’s risky order follows humiliating setbacks for his troops nearly seven months after they invaded Ukraine.
The first such call-up in decades heightened tensions with Ukraine’s Western backers, who derided it as an act of weakness and desperation.
Liz Truss accused Putin of “sabre rattling” as the UK prime minister addressed the United Nations General Assembly, aded that the Russian president is desperately trying to justify a “catastrophic failure” in Ukraine.
The total number of reservists to be called up could be as high as 300,000, officials said.
Despite Russia’s harsh laws against criticising the military and the war, protesters outraged by the mobilisation overcame their fear of arrest to stage protests in cities across the country.
Nearly 1,200 Russians were arrested in anti-war demonstrations in cities including Moscow and St Petersburg, according to the independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info.
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As protest calls circulated online, the Moscow prosecutor’s office warned that organising or participating in such actions could lead to up to 15 years in prison.
How many people mouthing off on Twitter would be brave enough to shout “NO WAR!” as they’re being carted off by four Russian policemen? Not many would be my guess. https://t.co/8bSpHWQRbz
Protests against mobilisation are taking place in several Russian cities today, mostly small-scale actions leading to a smattering of arrests. The woman’s sign reads “No to Mobilisation” pic.twitter.com/EbytXN2OQF
The Associated Press news agency witnessed at least a dozen arrests in the first 15 minutes of a nighttime protest in the capital.
“I’m not afraid of anything. The most valuable thing that they can take from us is the life of our children. I won’t give them life of my child,” said one Muscovite, who declined to give her name.
Asked whether protesting would help, she said: “It won’t help, but it’s my civic duty to express my stance. No to war!”
In Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, police hauled onto buses some of the 40 protesters who were detained at an anti-war rally. One woman in a wheelchair shouted, referring to the Russian president: “Goddamn bald-headed ‘nut job’. He’s going to drop a bomb on us, and we’re all still protecting him. I’ve said enough.”
So, as the country comes out of this period of national mourning, here’s a list of essential news stories you might have missed altogether over the last 11 days.
1. Community tensions soar in Leicester
Leicester is famous for its multicultural population, but a spate of clashes in recent weeks has shaken the city to its core.
Violence first broke out after the India vs Pakistan cricket match a month ago, on Sunday, August 28, and more scuffles followed in the next few weeks.
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But, locals claim that the tensions began rising long before the match, with members of both the local Hindu and Muslim communities allegedly squaring up against one another, although the exact cause is still unclear.
The tensions seemed to come to a head on the night of September 17, when around 200 people – mainly masked or hooded men – gathered for an unauthorised protests in the east of the city.
All local officers available were called to the scene, and a stand-off followed, with police having to separate rival groups as they threw bottles at one another.
Police officers were even diverted from the Queen’s funeral in London to provide back up to the force in Leicestershire. They made 47 arrests in total and 16 officers were injured in the violence on Saturday night alone.
Claudia Webb, independent MP for Leicester East, said tensions had been simmering for “months”, and has previously claimed that some social media accounts were “preying on this unease” by “spreading misinformation”.
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In a Twitter post, she wrote: “There are reports of incitement to hate being targeted at those of Muslim and Hindu faith, which is being shared on social media to cause fear.
“Places like Facebook and via WhatsApp designed to ‘entrap’ members of the local community to attend a protest, sparked by hate.”
She claimed such posts were “designed to provoke additional clashes and to cause disharmony and distrust”.
This weekend we have seen unacceptable hate-driven violence.
Ours is a community of deep faith. Our unique cultural diversity is our strength.
Right-wing fascism and toxic extremism have no place in a civil society. Our communities in Leicester stand united against it.
Mayor of Leicester Sir Peter Soulsby has said these recent events have left him “baffled”, while Labour MP for Leicester South, Jonathan Ashworth, said the troubles were a “dark episode” where he and residents “rightly pride ourselves on celebrating our diversity”.
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Extremists, territorial rivalries and the influence of people from outside the city have all been blamed for supposedly inciting violence.
Webb also warned on Tuesday that the violence could spread beyond Leicester without central government intervention.
The Hindu and Muslim communities in Leicester released a joint statement two days after the violence at the weekend, saying: “We are from one family. We settled here in this city together, we fought the racists together, we build it up together. The recent violence is not who we are as a city.”
The Indian government has also released a statement, strongly condemning the violence.
“We have strongly taken up this matter with the UK authorities and have sought immediate action against those involved in these attacks.”
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2. Mahsa Amini’s death
Protests have broken out across Iran’s capital Tehran, following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, last Friday.
She had been in a coma for three days after “morality” police held her for supposedly breaking hijab rules. She was detained outside a Tehran metro station, as part of the police’s clampdown on clothing.
Witnesses said officers beat her inside a police van which later took her to a detention centre, although police brigadier-general Hossein Rahimi dismissed such claims as “cowardly accusations”.
Police also claimed that Amini had suffered from “sudden heart failure” while at the detention centre where she was to be “educated” with other women.
Mahsa Amini, 22 yr old Iranian woman has passed away after being severely beaten by Iran’s “morality” police for improper veiling. Meanwhile, Iran w/its notorious brand of gender apartheid was elected in 2021 by the UN to its Commission on Women’s Rights.#MahsaAmini#مهساامینیpic.twitter.com/nVqZC7xngW
The authorities later released footage showing a woman they claim is Amini talking to a female official, who had tried to reach for her clothing. Amini then holds her head with her hands and falls to the floor.
The police, who described her death as “unfortunate”, said that Amini had “previous physical problems”, but her father denied such a claim, and claimed the CCTV footage is edited.
In protest to Amini’s death and the strict regime of Iran, women have since been seen removing their headscarves and cutting their hair while shouting “death to the dictator”, in what is believed to be a reference to the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Demonstrations in Tehran and western Iran over the weekend reportedly led to the death of two people during a clash with riot police.
Protests in Saqez, a western part of Iran, led security forces to allegedly open fire on a crowd as they tried to move towards the local governor’s office.
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Further demonstrators took place in Kurdistan’s capita, Sanandaj. Amini was an ethnic Kurd from Saqez.
Waving headscarves in #Iran’s protests is a brave act of defiance by women who are fed up of 44 yrs of suppression & abuse. Today, they are leading the protests. I’ve heard many mothers joined their daughters today to shout their anger and to say: enough is enough… #Mahsa_Aminipic.twitter.com/EddK4gnU0F
A devastating storm, Hurricane Fiona, has swept across parts of the Caribbean in recent weeks – and it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon.
Residents on the Turks and Caicos Islands were urged to seek shelter on Tuesday, after Fiona had already wrecked havoc in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The hurricane is expected to reach the southern Bahamas too, and the eastern Bahamas by Wednesday.
In Puerto Rico, the storm killed at least three people and caused significant flooding with more than 75cm of rain falling.
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It also caused a total blackout which isn’t expected to be fixed any time soon, especially as the territory is still struggling with its power grid after the brutal category 5 storm, Hurricane Maria, which knocked out 80% of power lines in 2017.
The weather in the US territory was still chaotic on Monday, with frequent lightning and rain. Torrential rain and wind then hit the Dominican Republic too, and it now seems to be building up in power.
The category 2 storm is expected to become a category 3 with winds beyond 111mph, which will make it the first “major hurricane” of the 2022 season, according to the National Hurricane Centre. By the time it reaches the eastern Bahamas, it could be category 4.
4. Typhoon Nanmadol
At least two people were killed as record winds and rain hit the west of Japan on Monday.
Prime minister Fumio Kishida even delayed his flight to New York for the UN General Assembly so that he could look at the damage of the 14th typhoon Japan has faced this season.
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There was major landfall near Kagoshima city on Sunday, before it hit the islands of Kyusha and Honshu, while rivers overflowed and roofs were ripped off by the strong wind.
“We need to remain highly vigilant for heavy rains, gales, high waves and storm surges,” a Japanese Meteorological Agency official said, according to Reuters news agency. At least 115 people have been reported injured and around 340,000 households lost power.
5. Putin moves submarines away from Crimea – but nuclear fears continue
Russian president Vladimir Putin has allegedly moved the country’s submarines away from the annexed peninsula Crimea.
As Crimea was seized by Russia in 2014 (and seen by some as the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine), it was thought to be secured under Moscow’s rule.
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But, as the UK’s defence ministry tweeted on Tuesday, Russia’s Black Sea Fleet “has almost certainly relocated” its submarines from Crimea to southern Russia.
The officials explained: “This is highly likely due to the recent change in the local security threat level in the face of increased Ukrainian long-range strike capability. In the last two months, the fleet headquarters and its main naval aviation airfield have been attacked.
“Guaranteeing the Black Sea Fleet’s Crimea basing was likely one of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s motivations for annexing the peninsula in 2014. Base security has now been directly undermined by Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine.”
“The occupiers are clearly in a panic,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed on Monday.
Russia has also sparked fears of a nuclear war once again, after a missile exploded less than 900 feet from reactors of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant, the second largest nuclear plant in the country.
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This is separate to the worries around the Zaporizhzhia power plant, which sits on the frontline of the fight between Ukraine and Russia.
The South Ukraine plant is far from the frontline, but the attack demonstrates the extent of Russia’s reach (if it did indeed come from Moscow).
Still, there was no damage to safety equipment, and the exact source of the explosion could not be independently confirmed.
Last night russian terrorists attempted to strike the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in the Mykolaiv region. A missile fell 300 meters from the plant. kremlin’s nuclear terrorism continues. russia is the threat to the whole world. pic.twitter.com/aWhz8yNXWp
On the anniversary of two other significant earthquakes, dating back to 1985 and 2017, Mexico was hit by yet another earthquake which killed at least two people.
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The National Autonomous University of Mexico said there is no scientific explanation for why all three quakes would happen on the same day.
A 7.6 magnitude hit western Mexico on Monday, knocking out power and leaving people in Mexico City desperately seeking safety.
Hospitals were damaged, and other buildings collapsed onto the people within.
The US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre also issued a warning for coastal areas, saying waves reaching up to three metres above the tide level were possible.
The September 19, 1985 earthquake killed thousands, and more than 350 died in September 19, 2017.
Here are three of the major events which unfolded over the last seven days.
1. Counteroffensive
Ukraine long-awaited counterattack in the south began this week, as the Ukrainian armed forces tried to take back territories seized by Russia.
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It comes after spending several weeks building up the attacks on Russia’s supply lines, weakening Vladimir Putin’s army behind the scenes.
Ukraine’s military hit out in eight directions at the same time, and claim to have broken through their opponent’s “first line of defence” and retaking small Ukrainian villages.
However, the second line of defence has been much harder to break.
Greece’s honorary consul in Kherson, Pantelis Boubouras told Al Jazeera: “The villages along the front line – these the Ukrainians broke easily. In the second line of defence, there was blood spilled. I heard 1,000 Ukrainians and 1,500 Russians [were killed].”
He added: “The second line isn’t falling easily. There are 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers, they’ve been there for five months and are very well-equipped and dug in.”
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Russia has denied that any territory lost, and claims 1,200 Ukrainians died in a single day during Ukraine’s attempts to recapture some areas.
But the Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Vadym Skibitsky said Russia is looking to mobilise 90,000 troops in the country, after losing more than 47,000 throughout the war.
These would likely be made up of volunteers, reservists, and soldiers recruited over the summer, although low morale is thought to be affecting Russian ranks.
The offensive also came after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned: “If they want to survive, it is time for the Russian military to flee.”
But, for the most part, the country is keeping its cards close to its chest when it comes to this offensive.
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It’s also worth remembering that this is not the case everywhere in Ukraine.
Citizens are still under attack elsewhere – Kharkiv city, in the northeast, is facing intense shelling, particularly in residential areas.
2. Mysterious death
Ravil Maganov, the chair of Russia’s largest private oil company, fell to his death from a Moscow Central Clinic hospital on Thursday.
The independent news agency, Interfax, claimed he “fell from a window at Central clinical hospital,” and then “died from injuries sustained”.
As head of Lukoil, he was one of the country’s business elite.
Maganov supposedly “passed away following a severe illness” but the news agency did not say what he was being treated for.
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Amid conflicting reports about his health prior to his death, it’s worth pointing out that Maganov is just one of several people with ties to the Russian energy industry who has died under unusual circumstances over the last six months.
One of the former top manages of Maganov’s company was found dead in May.
However, none of the deaths have been considered murders.
Lukoil was one of the few Russian energy companies which criticised the invasion of Ukraine, having called for a ceasefire just a week after it began.
Maganov also died on the same day Putin went to visit the same hospital to mark the death of former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
It comes as the consequences of the war are starting to play out within Russia’s energy industry too. The Kremlin briefly cut off all Russian gas exports to Europe this week to squeeze countries which are providing financial aid to Ukraine throughout the war.
However, this does will Russia will have seen a fall in profits, on top of the extensive list of sanctions from the rest of the world imposed against it.
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3. Memes
In true 2022 fashion, memes have become a key part of keeping morale up for many Ukrainians over the last six months.
But it was only this week that the official Twitter account for the Defence of Ukraine (the government branch) retweeted one.
It wrote: “We usually express gratitude to our internationals partners for the security assistance. But today we want to give a shoutout to a unique entity – North Atlantic Fella Organisation #NAFO.
“Thanks for your fierce fight against [the] Kremlin’s propaganda and trolls. We salute you, fellas!”
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NAFO is a play on NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. Ukraine is not part of Nato but did attempt to join.
Many believe that it was fears Ukraine was getting too close to western organisations such as Nato and the EU (for which it is now officially a candidate for membership) prompted Putin to launch his invasion. After all, the Russian president did demand that Ukraine give up its attempts to join Nato just before the war.
But NAFO is not just a parody of a defence organisation, but uses memes to mock Russia’s military performance and take down its attempts to spread misinformation about the war online.
Always using an image of a Shiba Inu dog (from an older meme), the organisation has no formal name or leadership, according to The Economist, but activists online rally together to use it.
Jeremy Fleming, the head of the GCHQ, recently claimed that Putin has already lost the information war in the West. Writing for The Economist, Shashank Joshi concluded: “The self-appointed warriors of NAFO might claim a little credit for that outcome.”
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We usually express gratitude to our international partners for the security assistance. But today we want to give a shout-out to a unique entity – North Atlantic Fellas Organization #NAFO. Thanks for your fierce fight against kremlin’s propaganda &trolls. We salute you, fellas! pic.twitter.com/AfDnXf7pfc
From claims about how Russia is managing the “information” war to unexpected events on the frontline, here are the major developments from the last week.
The plant is under Russian control but still has Ukrainian technicians operating it, and Kyiv wants to take it back.
Guterres said he was “gravely concerned” about the ongoing fighting in the area, claiming: “Any potential damage to Zaporizhzhia is suicide.”
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan was also at the meeting, and expressed his fears on Thursday that there would be “another Chernobyl” by the nuclear power plant if fighting continued.
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Ukraine and Russia have been trading blame over the attacks around the nuclear plant in recent weeks, with Zelenskyy claiming that Moscow was responsible for “deliberate” heavy artillery fire over the plant.
Moscow has rejected calls to demilitarise the area (calling it “unacceptable”) despite pleas from Guterres, Erdogan and Zelenskyy.
Ukrainian staff still at the plant also claim the area has become “the target of continuous military attacks”. Kyiv believes Russia wants to disconnect the nuclear complex’s power from the grid too, and could be planning a “provocation” by the plant.
Zelenskyy has warned that “the world is on a verge of nuclear disaster”, in case the plant is hit during battle, and he lashed out at “Russia’s irresponsible actions and nuclear blackmailing”.
Erdogan was also reportedly considering setting up a negotiation between Zelenskyy and Russian president Vladimir Putin, but the Ukrainian president said Moscow must withdraw troops first.
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A Russian diplomat sparked hopes on Friday that Putin could allow nuclear inspectors to check on the plant next month, to secure its safety.
2. The 25th cargo ship left Ukraine
The world’s bread basket, as Ukraine is often dubbed, was able to export its grain supply to other countries once again back in July.
It came after a surprise deal was struck between Ukraine and Russia, following months of Moscow blockading Ukrainian ports.
Although there initial fears that the agreement would be short-lived and the food crisis in various parts of the world would continue, the 25th cargo ship left Ukraine on Thursday.
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Guterres praised the agreement during his visit to Ukraine this week, and called for more compromise between Ukraine and Russia.
“I appeal for this to continue and for them to overcome all obstacles in a spirit of compromise and permanently settle all difficulties.”
3. Putin ‘losing’ information war
On Thursday, Jeremy Fleming, the head of the UK’s GCHQ’s intelligence service wrote in The Economist: “So far, president Putin has comprehensively lost the information war in Ukraine and in the West.
“Although that’s cause for celebration, we should not underestimate how Russian disinformation is playing out elsewhere in the world.”
He claimed that Russia’s online plans have fallen short. Despite Moscow’s attempts to destroy and deface Ukrainian government systems, GCHQ said it has been able to intercept and warn Ukraine of such attacks ahead of time.
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4. Kharkiv explosion
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, continues to be the subjected to heavy artillery, months after Russia tried – and failed – to capture it.
Seventeen people were killed and 42 injured in two separate Russian attacks this week, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday.
Zelenskyy said the attack on Wednesday night was a “devious and cynical strike on civilians with no justification” and was the latest evidence Russia was targeting civilians to destroy Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president promised: “We cannot forgive. We will avenge it.”
The city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said: “Russian troops shell Kharkiv with such hatred, with such aggressiveness, such cynical destruction of the city occurs because Kharkiv does not give up, Kharkiv is a Ukrainian city that continues to live.”
But, Russia’s “most expensive plane” was reportedly shot down over Kharkiv this week by the Ukrainian forces.
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In #Kharkiv province, #Ukraine‘s military shot down the recent (2018 year of manufacturing) & most expensive Russian multi-role jet Su-30CM which costs $50 mln. The pilot ejected & disappeared. (Photos shared by Ukr. journo Andrei Tsaplienko via Unian news website) pic.twitter.com/bKbGWUgs0j
Videos circulated on social media of large explosions in the Russian occupied Crimea peninsula on Thursday.
The area was taken over by Russian forces back in 2014, so it was widely believed that the fires and explosions stemmed from Ukrainian fire.
The Ukrainian defence ministry did not confirm any involvement, but joked about how many explosions in the occupied land were caused by “careless smokers”.
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At least four explosions were detected near the airbase of Belbek, near Crimea’s largest city of Svastopol.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, Russian installed governor of Sevastopol, said there were not injuries or damage from the blasts.
This was just one of several attacks this week – further explosions were detected by a major airbase and munitions depot.
Zelenskyy also hinted that more attacks could be on the way, saying he hoped Russians would realise Crimea is “not a place for them”.
More things blowing up at military sites in Crimea, where the Russian defense ministry admits “a fire took place” and “munitions detonated” near the village of Maiske – without explaining how.
TalkTV’s Piers Morgan and BBC presenter Huw Edwards are among the latest UK politicians and journalists to be banned from Russia.
The Russian foreign ministry issued a list of 39 newly sanctioned individuals it said are no longer allowed to enter the Russian Federation.
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It said the action was in response to UK sanctions issued against Russian ministers, officials and members of influential families linked to the Kremlin following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian foreign ministry claimed those individuals sanctioned have contributed to “London’s hostile course aimed at the demonisation of our country and its international isolation”.
Other than Morgan and Edwards, journalists including ITV’s Robert Peston and head of Sky News, John Ryley, are also listed alongside reporters at various outlets.
Morgan, writing on Twitter, said: “It wasn’t on my immediate vacation to-do list.”
Edwards tweeted: “Huw’ve been banned! I made the Kremlin cut (39/39).”
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Former prime minister David Cameron is the first name on the list, followed by Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, a former Nato secretary-general, while Labour leader Keir Starmer and shadow cabinet ministers Lisa Nandy, David Lammy and Nick Thomas-Symonds also feature.
SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford, Scottish government economy secretary Kate Forbes and transport minister Wendy Morton, previously in the foreign office, are also among those included.
The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement: “As has been noted more than once, the pernicious actions of the UK in planting Russophobia, spreading false information about our country and supporting the Kyiv neo-Nazi regime will receive an adequate and decisive response from the Russian side.
“The choice in favour of confrontation is a conscious decision of the British political establishment, which bears all responsibility for the consequences.”
The statement also said it will continue work to expand the list.
Earlier this year, Russia said it was taking action against 287 MPs in retaliation for sanctions against Russian politicians.
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But the list included several former MPs.
Prime minister Boris Johnson said in April that MPs should regard their inclusion on the list as a “badge of honour”.
Then, fashion magazine Vogue put the couple on its cover.
While Zelenska led the shoot – and in one photo was photoshopped into a scene with Ukrainian soldiers – she also posed with her husband in his army clothes for a couple of other images.
And something about the shoot rattled some on Twitter:
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However, many Ukrainians on the same platform have been keen to defend Zelenska and remind these critics what war really looks like.
In a Twitter thread, Oleksandra Povoroznyk pointed out: “Most of the English-speaking people on the internet are lucky enough to have no clue what a war actually looks like.”
Through a follow-up exchange with HuffPost UK, she added that she was “genuinely surprised that so many non-Ukrainians saw the photoshoot as something controversial”, and not a “reflection of how strong Ukrainian women actually are”.
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“Most Ukrainians I’ve spoke to see the photos and the interview as an important part of what Zelenska’s doing to draw more attention to our country,” Povoroznyk explained.
“In fact, a lot of Ukrainian women are super happy that Zelenska wasn’t portrayed as some kind of dainty and shy tradwife [traditional wife] hiding behind her husband.”
She added that “a lot of Eastern European women are portrayed as very stereotypically feminine”, even though there are still female volunteers in the Ukrainian army right now.
Povoroznyk, who is based in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv according to her Twitter profile, said, “nothing about the photoshoot is ‘glamourising’ the war”.
Instead, she said it was a “pretty accurate representation of what the war feels and looks like to many Ukrainians who are lucky enough to be in cities controlled by Ukraine”.
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She claimed that while it was clear those in occupied cities would face a different reality, people in cities are trying to find “some kind [of] war-life balance”.
The Ukrainian explained that plenty of people still do their best to work, to go out with friends, get their nails done, put makeup on under the “constant threat of air strikes”.
She added: “And yet we keep going, because there’s literally nothing else we can do. And sure, a photoshoot for Vogue might not seem like work for the average lurker on Twitter, but it is part of Zelenska’s duties as First Lady.
“Her job is to keep the world’s attention on Ukraine, and that’s why she ’s giving interviews and speeches and yes, even having her photos taken by huge publications like Vogue.”
She also pointed out in a subsequent tweet that Britain’s Queen – back when she was Princess Elizabeth – also took part in photoshoots during World War 2, to raise awareness of the war effort.
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Lots of foreigners are baffled by this amazing digital cover shot by Annie Leibovitz for @voguemagazine and are claiming it’s “tone-deaf” or is “glamorising the war”. Now, I’d like to believe that every insensitive commentator is a bot paid directly from Putin’s piggy bank, but https://t.co/5g3siGMPpg
— Oleksandra Povoroznyk 🇺🇦 (@rynkrynk) July 27, 2022
She was not the only person to defend the images either, both in and out of Ukraine.
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Love how nobody questions how russians can go have fun every day and not care how their government kills ukrainians and Syrians on their money, but as soon as ukrainian takes one photo with their face/body not covered in blood the war is fake and ukrainians are hypocrites https://t.co/NkrO71F85B
Two Russian cruise missiles hit the port’s infrastructure on Saturday, while Ukraine’s air defences brought down two others missiles.
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Odessa’s regional governor, Maksym Marchenko, said an unspecified number of people were injured in the attack.
Russia has admitted responsibility for the strike, saying the missiles “destroyed a military infrastructure target” at the port.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow’s actions and said “the invaders can no longer deceive anyone”.
And Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said: “It took less than 24 hours for Russia to launch a missile attack on Odesa’s port, breaking its promises and undermining its commitments before the UN and Turkey under the Istanbul agreement.
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“In case of non-fulfilment, Russia will bear full responsibility for a global food crisis.”
The attack was also condemned in the UK, with foreign secretary Liz Truss branding it “absolutely appalling”.
“It is absolutely appalling that only a day after striking this deal, Vladimir Putin has launched a completely unwarranted attack on Odessa,” she said.
“It shows that not a word he says can be trusted.”
The strike came just hours after Moscow and Kyiv signed a deal to allow grain exports to continue through the Black Sea in a move the UN described as a “beacon of hope” for ending the global food crisis.
The war in Ukraine — which supplies much of the world with products such as wheat and corn — has halted Ukrainian sea shipments and caused grain prices to rise dramatically.
Under the deal signed on Friday, a path opened for significant volumes of commercial food to leave the ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
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A key element of the deal was the agreement by both Russia and Ukraine that there would be no attacks on any of the vessels.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack cast serious doubt on Russia’s commitment to the deal and warned of a deepening of the global food crisis.
“Russia must stop its aggression and fully implement the grain deal to which it has agreed,” he said.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, also denounced the strike “outrageous” and accused the the Kremlin of “weaponising” food.
It’s difficult to stay across all of the news at the best of times, never mind when a Tory civil war is unfolding.
Boris Johnson’s resignation and the battle for his place in No.10 has definitely dominated the news cycle for the last two weeks.
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And while the appointment of the new prime minster is important, the government turmoil means other stories may have slipped under the radar.
So here are four other bits of news that you may have missed.
1. Russia makes progress in Ukraine
On Thursday, Russia targeted a densely populated area in Kharkiv, killing at least two people and injuring 21 more. It looks as though the shelling him a market, a bus stop, a gym and a residential building.
It comes after Moscow’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia was expanding its military objectives in Ukraine on Wednesday.
This means it is essentially looking to take control of the entire southern regions of Ukraine, and that the Russian Armed Forces are moving beyond the so-called “People’s Republics” of Donestk and Luhansk in the east.
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The invasion is now in its fifth month, and continues to take much longer than Russia initially predicted. But, despite the slow start and the strong resistance from Ukrainian forces and the repelling of Russian troops from other corners of the country (including the capital Kyiv), it seems Putin is not giving up.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted in response to the expansion of the Kremlin’s military aims that “Russians want blood, not talks”, and called for more help from allies.
Lavrov has warned the West that the Kremlin will continue expanding its objectives if Nato allies continue supplying the country with long-range weapons.
More than 115,000 employees who are part of the Communication Workers Union supported the action, which – if it goes ahead – could amount to the largest walkout ever by its members.
When Royal Mail tweeted that it was “disappointed” by the strike action, the CWU replied: “Dry your eyes mate.”
Shoppers across the UK will soon see their annual grocery bills for the year jump up by £454 due to food and drink inflation.
Grocery price inflation increased to 9.9% in the four weeks leading up to July 10, according to retail research firm Kantar, having been at 8.3% the previous month.
Fraser McKevitt, the head of retail and consumer insight at Kantar, told PA news agency that he expects the record for grocery inflation to be broken “come August”.
4. NHS not coping with Covid
While the worst of the heatwave has passed (for now), the health service is still having to grapple with Covid infections, more than two years on from the first lockdown.
Editor of the British Medical Journal, Dr Kamran Abbasi, and Health Service Journal editor, Alastair McLellan, wrote an alarming editorial on Monday, warning that the NHS might buckle under the ongoing Covid pressures.
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This is down a range of factors, including periods of underfunding over the last decade, “lack of an adequate workforce plan” and “a cowardly and short-sighted failure to undertake social care reform”.
Now, it seems the government’s “living with Covid” strategy might be the final straw with yet another wave of infections washing across the UK.
Abbasi and McLellan claimed that the government is “pretending it is not happening or implying it is all under control”, and said the health service was actually “dying” from Covid.
They called for the government to “stop gaslighting the public” and be honest that the pandemic is still very much looming over the NHS.
As the war enters its third month, it’s clear the Russian invasion has not gone entirely to plan – but that doesn’t mean victory for the Ukrainian resistance is on the horizon.
Further horrors have been unfolding in the east of Ukraine recently, particularly in the besieged city of Mariupol, suggesting Russia has no intention of giving up or going quietly.
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The Ukrainian president has laid out exactly the kind of help the country needs from the west to prevent the war from spilling over into the rest of Europe. So will Nato step up, or will it continue holding back?
The war took a turn for the worse this week
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Russia has focused its efforts on the east of Ukraine, while its attacks become more merciless.
Newly released satellite images suggest haunting mass graves have been dug near the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which has been under siege for more than a month. The graves could hold as many as 9,000 bodies according to the local authorities.
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Around three-quarters of Mariupol’s residents have already fled, and a shocking 20,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed.
Despite all of this, Ukrainian forces allege they are still in control of the city – even as Russia declares its first substantial victory in the war.
Russian president Vladimir Putin previously told the forces in the area they had to either surrender or die but he has since called off an attack on the final stronghold, a steel mill where around 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are reportedly hiding.
Instead, he ordered such an unshakable blockade of the plant “so that a fly can’t get through”, which gave the Kremlin a chance to declare a win without significant casualities.
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The city is a significant battleground in the war because it is the last hurdle in Moscow’s bid to create a land bridge between its territories in the eastern Donbas region and the Crimean Peninsula.
The Ministry of Defence has warned that Putin’s decision to blockade the steel plant “likely indicates a desire to contain Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol” so the Russian forces can be spread across the east of the country.
Meanwhile, eastern Donbas still faces intense shelling by the Russians, even as its troops “are still suffering from losses sustained earlier in the conflict”.
Detective chief superintendent Dominic Murphy from the Met War Crimes police also told PA new agency that it had received approximately 50 referrals from people with UK links about the Russian invasion.
As the war continues to escalate, he explains: “What we’re seeing is incredibly harrowing, beyond comprehension.
“In not far off 17 years in counterterrorism, (it is) some of the worst possible footage you could imagine seeing.”
He said it is possible that he has seen evidence of war crimes in these referrals, along with evidence of “other international crimes”.
So what kind of help does Ukraine want?
The main request coming from Ukraine now is for more money.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the World Bank and IMF that the country needs $7 billion (£5.4 billion) per month to supplement its losses caused by Russia.
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It comes after the country has already suffered around $60 billion (£46.6 billion) in physical damage from the Russian invasion.
He explained: “We will need hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild all this later and recover from this war.”
The Ukrainian president also called for Russia to be excluded from the World Bank and IMF, saying such bodies are “definitely not the place for a country which is trying to ruin the lives of its neighbours”.
Ukraine used to want to join Nato so that its forces would help defend the country, but it has since abandoned this effort.
In mid-March, Zelenskyy said: “Ukraine is not a member of Nato. We understand that. We have heard for years that the doors were open, but we also heard that we could not join. It’s a truth and it must be recognised.”
Ukraine used to plead for a no-fly zone, but to the country’s disappointment, this was rejected by the west over fears it would be seen as an escalation of tensions with Russia and officially pull Nato into the war.
Instead, Zelenskyy now asks for weapons which are “comparable” with Moscow’s, including fighter jets.
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has also called for more humanitarian corridors, explaining: “We need only one thing – the full evacuation of the population. About 100,000 people remain in Mariupol.”
So what is the west actually doing?
The UK supplied Kyiv with 4,000 anti-tank weapons and anti-tank Javelin missiles, while another batch of 6,000 firearms is on its way now.
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Around £25 million in financial support was announced in March, along with body armour, helmets and combat boots.
The US and the EU have pledged to send more weapons, while France has sent £83 million worth of equipment.
Canada, Norway and even Sweden – famously neutral – have chipped in too to support Ukraine with weapons.
Since Zelenskyy’s plea, the US has promised to pass an extra $800 million (£615 million) to supply Ukraine with more equipment, ammunition and drones while. The UK is now training some Ukrainian soldiers to use armoured vehicles.
Boris Johnson said earlier this week: “They need support with more artillery, that is what we will be giving them.”
Why stop there?
The west has been extremely reluctant to interfere with the war out of fear that the war would escalate.
But, critics claim what Ukraine’s allies have offered so far is simply not enough.
Tory MP Tobias Ellwood told Radio 4′s Today programme: “The bigger question, not answered by Nato or indeed us, is what does success look like?
“We are doing enough to prevent Ukraine from losing but not enough to ensure they win.
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“So what does our long-term mission objective look like? Is it pushing Russia back to pre-February lines or is it liberating the entire Donbas region? That’s absolutely critical in how we choose to up-arm the Ukrainians.”
Now more than five million Ukrainian refugees have now fled from the country, primarily to the rest of Europe, there is also an argument that the west is already involved.
Russian propagandists have already claimed that “World War 3” has started and that Russia is “fighting Nato”.
The Kremlin has even warned Washington recently that continued military aid could lead to “unpredictable consequences”.
Former vice chief of staff at Nato’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Michel Yakovleff, also called for the west to take further action this week.
Asked if the west has done enough to help Ukraine, he told French broadcaster France24: “Very bluntly, and that is my personal opinion, no, not since 2014.
“Ukraine is paying now for our desire not to escalate since 2014.”
He said that while the UK and the US’ actions now “have helped massively”, the influx of new materials has come at a time when both sides are exhausted.
“Will Ukraine have time to integrate this new equipment before utter exhaustion? I don’t know.”
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He concluded that Nato, which calls itself the “most powerful alliance in history”, should not be “frightened” of Putin and “cower” in the face of the potential “consequences”.