KYIV: Ukraine launched long-range rocket attacks on Russian forces in southern Ukraine and destroyed an ammunition store, its military said, as Russia continued to pound the country’s east.
The strike on Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region killed 52 people, Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday. The town’s Russia-installed authorities said that at least seven people had been killed and around 70 injured, Russia’s TASS news agency reported.
The strike came after Washington supplied Ukraine with advanced HIMARS mobile artillery systems which Kyiv says its forces are using with growing efficiency.
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
“Based on the results of our rocket and artillery units, the enemy lost 52 (people), an Msta-B howitzer, a mortar and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka,” Ukraine’s southern military command said in statement.
Pro-Russian officials said the strike killed civilians.
The area is of strategic importance because of its Black Sea access, once thriving agricultural industry and location just north of Russian-annexed Crimea.
Unverified videos posted on social media showed an immense fireball erupting into the night sky. Images released by Russian state media showed a wasteland covered in rubble and the remains of buildings.
An official from the Russian-backed local administration said that Ukraine had used the HIMARS missiles and that they had destroyed warehouses containing saltpetre, a chemical compound which can be used to make fertilizer or gunpowder.
“There are still many people under the rubble. The injured are being taken to the hospital, but many people are blocked in their apartments and houses,” Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russia-installed Kakhovka District military-civilian administration, was quoted by TASS as saying.
He said that warehouses, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and a church had been hit.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the kind of weapon used.
Russia continued to pound eastern Ukraine in an effort to gain control of Donetsk province and the entire industrial Donbas region. Moscow earlier this month captured Luhansk province, which makes up the rest of the Donbas.
Russia says it wants to wrest the Donbas from Ukraine on behalf of Moscow-backed separatists in two self-proclaimed people’s republics whose independence it recognized on the eve of the war.
Ukraine is bracing for what it expects will be a massive new Russian offensive in the east. Regional Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said there was a significant buildup of Russian troops, particularly in the Bakhmut and Siversky areas, and around Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
The entire front line in the region was under constant shelling as Russian troops tried to break through but they were being repelled, he said.
Further east in Donbas, Ukrainian forces launched a “massive air strike” on an air defense unit in Luhansk, pro-Russian militia officer Andrey Marochko said in his Telegram channel, according to TASS news agency.
Russia’s campaign in Ukraine, which it calls a “special military operation,” is nearing five months old and is Europe’s biggest conflict since World War Two.
Russia says it sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24 to demilitarize the country and rid it of nationalists threatening Russian speakers there. Ukraine and Western countries say Russia’s claims are a baseless pretext to attack.
The conflict has laid waste to Ukrainian cities and caused 5.2 million people to flee the country, according to the UN.
The UN human rights office said on Tuesday that 5,024 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, adding that the real toll was likely much higher.
The conflict has blocked exports of Ukraine’s grain, exacerbating a global food crisis. More than 20 million tons of grain are stuck in silos at the key Black Sea port of Odesa.
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said military delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey would meet UN officials in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss a possible deal to resume safe exports of Ukrainian grain.
As Russia blockades Ukraine’s main Black Sea ports, Ukraine Deputy Infrastructure Minister Yuriy Vaskov said grain shipments via the Danube River had increased with the reopening of the Bystre canal, which provides access to small inland river ports.
Ukraine expects monthly grain exports to rise by 500,000 tons as a result, Vaskov said. Ukraine is also negotiating with Romania and the European Commission about increasing shipments through the Sulina canal, he said.
Kyiv strikes Russian-held area in southern Ukraine in rocket attack
https://arab.news/ywefv
Kyiv strikes Russian-held area in southern Ukraine in rocket attack
- Strike comes after Washington supplied Ukraine with advanced HIMARS mobile artillery systems
- Ukraine is bracing for what it expects will be a massive new Russian offensive in the east
Albania votes in election test for EU accession
- Vote — a first of its kind, as Albanians abroad can take part — pits outgoing Prime Minister Edi Rama against his arch-rival Sali Berisha
- Doors to Brussels, he says, are the key to ‘being able to give Albanians a European passport’ and allowing them to ‘benefit from the same rights as citizens of all other European countries’
The vote — a first of its kind, as Albanians abroad can take part — pits outgoing Prime Minister Edi Rama against his arch-rival Sali Berisha, a right-winger who heads an alliance of opposition parties.
Rama, 60, has been Socialist Party leader since 2005 and is seeking an unprecedented fourth consecutive term on a promise of European Union membership by 2030.
The doors to Brussels, he says, are the key to “being able to give Albanians a European passport” and allowing them to “benefit from the same rights as citizens of all other European countries.”
Trying to stop Rama is Berisha, 80, who is eager to return to power after 12 years in opposition.
The former president heads an opposition coalition that has adopted a Donald Trump-like slogan, “Great Albania,” based on economic revival.
“We are the only ones who can relaunch the country’s economy, the only ones able to take Albania forward. Edi Rama is counting the last days of his regime,” said Berisha.
The campaign also gives him a chance to reburnish his image as a strong leader, despite being under the spotlight of Albanian justice, where he is suspected of being implicated in a corruption case that allegedly benefited his family.
Shortly before the end of a campaign marked by verbal excesses, particularly on social media, the latest polls indicated a win for Rama’s party.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe meanwhile said there was “extreme political polarization” in the Balkan nation of 2.8 million.
Berisha accuses the socialists of “vote-buying, voter intimidation, pressure, use of public funds by ministers and majority candidates for their election campaign.”
Rama has dismissed the claims as “nothing but an excuse for defeat.”
For the first time in the history of elections in Albania, the diaspora is able to vote from abroad by post, in a test for the development of democratic processes and institutions, especially in the context of EU accession negotiations, which began in 2022.
According to official data from the central electoral commission, 245,935 Albanians not resident in Albania are registered to vote.
“Albania has made significant process on the path to EU accession, demonstrating its perseverance in implementing ambitious reforms for the benefit of its citizens,” Silvio Gonzato, the EU delegation’s ambassador in Albania, told AFP.
The losers have challenged the results of every election since the end of communism at the start of the 1990s on the grounds of fraud.
But this time round the vote is being closely watched and in another first, civil servants and justice officials will be deployed alongside the electoral commission and some 300 international observers.
The special prosecutor against corruption and organized crime has meanwhile just opened a verification procedure over a $6-million contract signed in April between an Albanian-American community foundation in the United States and the US lobbying firm Continental Strategy.
Continental Strategy was founded by Carlos Trujillo, a top adviser to Trump.
“The contract aims to strengthen relations between the United States and the Democratic Party, the main opposition force,” according to the party.
For Brussels, Sunday’s vote is a major new test for Albania, which has been a member of NATO since 2009.
“The organization of free and fair elections, in line with democratic norms and democratic values, will be an essential step to reinforce Albanian democracy, boost citizens’ trust in their elected representatives and advance the country’s European integration,” said Gonzato.
Just five days after the elections, Tirana will be the venue for the next European Political Community summit.
Portugal police arrest crime ring over fraudulent permits for 10,000 foreigners
- The foreigners paid to obtain bogus labor contracts that allowed them to stay in the
- Portugal’s center-right government has toughened some immigration rules in the past year
LISBON: Portuguese police have arrested 13 people they believe provided an estimated more than 10,000 foreigners with residence permits and documents allowing them to stay in Portugal and the European Union in exchange for bribes, police said on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Police force said the bribes paid to the group, which included a foreign ministry employee, a lawyer and several entrepreneurs, averaged 15,000 euros ($16,950) per person.
The foreigners paid to obtain bogus labor contracts that allowed them to stay in the country and then get residence permits, open bank accounts and access the social security system. Many of them have since left for other EU member states, police said.
Portugal’s center-right government has toughened some immigration rules in the past year, reflecting attempts elsewhere in Europe to fend off the rise of the far-right, and on Saturday vowed to deport 18,000 illegal migrants in the coming months.
It was not immediately clear if those who benefited from the illegal scheme counted among those.
Still, the country remains relatively open to migrants, particularly from Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa and from Brazil. Many experts argue that growing immigration has stoked economic growth.
While anti-immigration sentiment is expected to play a role in an early election on May 18, far-right party Chega has been steady or declining in opinion polls after a surge in the previous election last year. The center-right Democratic Alliance of Prime Minister Luis Montenegro looks set to win the most votes.
IMF says Nigeria repays $3.4 billion COVID-19 funding
- In April 2020, the IMF provided the financing to help Nigeria
- “Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments,” Ebeke added
LAGOS: Nigeria has repaid $3.4 billion in emergency funding it received from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic five years ago, the global lender said on Thursday.
In April 2020, the IMF provided the financing to help Africa’s largest oil exporter cope with a collapse in crude prices, which hit its finances and tipped the economy into recession.
IMF resident representative to Nigeria Christian Ebeke said in a statement that, as of April 30, the country had “fully repaid the financial support” it received under the Fund’s Rapid Financing Instrument, a facility that provides urgent balance of payments funding to member nations.
“Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about $30 million annually,” Ebeke added.
The most recent data from the Debt Management Office shows that Nigeria last year spent $4.66 billion to service its foreign debt, of which $1.63 billion was to the IMF.
Greenpeace Denmark launches fake tourism ad to highlight pollution
- “We are inviting Europeans to discover the wonders of Denmark’s agricultural landscape,” Fromberg told
- Greenpeace believes that Denmark has repeatedly violated the EU Water Framework Directive
COPENHAGEN: Discover a dying sea or cycle through protected natural areas covered in asphalt? A tourism campaign by Greenpeace’s Danish branch seeks to highlight environmental pollution in the Nordic country.
“Through the campaign, which is available on social networks as well as on billboards in Brussels and Warsaw, we are inviting Europeans to discover the wonders of Denmark’s agricultural landscape,” Christian Fromberg, head of agriculture and nature at Greenpeace Denmark, told AFP Thursday.
With a tone of sarcasm Fromberg went on to describe the sights: “Here we find asphyxiated seas littered with mysterious brown sludge, car parks and golf courses that are in officially protected natural areas.”
In the Scandinavian country, which prides itself on being a leader in the combating climate change, human activities, particularly waste from agriculture, have suffocated marine ecosystems.
The equivalent of 7,500 square kilometers (2,896 square miles) of the waters around the country, or 17 percent of the surface area of mainland Denmark, has been affected by deoxygenation, leading to the disappearance of marine flora and fauna, according to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.
“The campaign is a cry for help to the European Union to enforce the environmental regulations systematically violated by the Danish government,” Fromberg said.
Greenpeace believes that Denmark, which takes over the presidency of the European Union in July, has repeatedly violated the EU Water Framework Directive, which requires member states to implement measures to ensure healthy aquatic ecosystems.
“The current government will not take the necessary measures to revitalize our seas and protect our environment,” Fromberg said.
At the same time, a broad majority of Danish politicians have agreed to introduce a carbon tax on livestock farming by 2030.
Denmark has also committed to make agriculture greener, aiming to reduce nitrogen emissions by 13,780 tons a year by 2027.
Russia and Ukraine report attacks despite Moscow-declared truce as Kyiv ratifies minerals deal
- Russian bombs meanwhile struck northeast Ukraine in the opening hours of Moscow’s unilateral ceasefire
- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of violating its own ceasefire 734 times between midnight and midday Thursday
KYIV: Russia and Ukraine both reported attacks on their forces on the first day of a 72-hour ceasefire called by Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Ukraine’s parliament unanimously approved a landmark minerals deal with the US.
The ratification is a key step in setting the deal in motion. It would allow Washington access to Ukraine’s largely untapped minerals, deepen strategic ties and create a joint investment fund with the US for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Parliament approved the agreement with 338 members voting in favor out of the required 226 votes, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak wrote on his Telegram account. No lawmaker voted against it or abstained.
“This document is not merely a legal construct, it is the foundation of a new model of interaction with a key strategic partner,” Ukrainian Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko wrote on X.
Russian bombs meanwhile struck northeast Ukraine in the opening hours of Moscow’s unilateral ceasefire, killing at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said. Artillery assaults took place across the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, although with less intensity than in the previous 24 hours, officials said.
The ceasefire coincides with Russia’s biggest secular holiday, the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. Kyiv has pressed for a longer-term ceasefire.
Putin on Thursday welcomed Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin. Xi, who Putin earlier described as “our main guest” at Friday’s Victory Day festivities, arrived in Russia on Wednesday for a four-day visit.
Both sides list attacks since the Moscow-declared truce
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of violating its own ceasefire 734 times between midnight and midday Thursday. He called the ceasefire a “farce” on the social media platform X.
He said Russia carried out 63 assault operations along the front line, 23 of which were still ongoing as of midday. Ukraine “responds appropriately” and is actively sharing information about the attacks with the U.S, the European Union and others. “We will not let Putin fool anyone when he does not even keep his own word,” Sybiha said.
Russian attacks also took place near Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region on Thursday morning, a press officer of Ukraine’s 24th Mechanized Brigade, Oleh Petrasiuk, told The Associated Press via phone.
One person died and two were wounded when Russian forces dropped guided air bombs on residential areas near the border in the northeast Sumy region, the regional prosecutor’s office said.
Large-scale missile and drone attacks, which have been a near-daily occurrence in Ukraine in recent weeks, were not recorded since 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Ukraine’s air force said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously cast doubt on the ceasefire, calling it “manipulation” as US-led peace efforts stalled. “For some reason, everyone is supposed to wait until May 8 before ceasing fire — just to provide Putin with silence for his parade,” Zelensky said.
In March, the United States proposed a 30-day truce in the war, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for ceasefire terms more to its liking.
Russia’s Defense Ministry meanwhile accused Ukrainian forces of attacking its positions and said its forces would continue to “mirror” Ukraine’s actions during the Kremlin’s ceasefire.
The regions of Belgorod, Lipetsk, Orenburg, Ryazan and Tambov came under a drone threat alert overnight, but there were no reports of any drones being shot down or intercepted. Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia also briefly imposed restrictions on flights to and from the airport in Nizhny Novgorod.
Putin praises relations with Xi
In welcoming Xi, Putin said that “the brotherhood of arms between our peoples, which developed during the harsh war years, is one of the fundamental foundations of modern Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation.”
He added that Moscow and Beijing were developing ties “for the benefit of the peoples of both countries and not against anyone.”
Xi, in turn, said that “history and reality have fully proved that the continuous development and deepening of China-Russia relations is a necessity for the friendship between the two peoples from generation to generation.” He also called for safeguarding “international fairness and justice.”
Putin and Xi have met over 40 times and developed strong personal ties that bolstered the countries’ “strategic partnership” as both face tensions with the West.
China has offered robust diplomatic support to Moscow after its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has emerged as a top market for Russian oil and gas, helping fill the Kremlin’s war coffers. Russia has relied on China as the main source of machinery and electronics to keep its military machine running after Western sanctions curtailed high-tech supplies.
