MOSCOW: Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of deliberately shooting down a Russian military transport plane carrying 65 captured Ukrainian soldiers to a prisoner exchange in what it called a barbaric act of terrorism that had killed a total of 74 people.
Ukraine called for full clarification of the circumstances of the incident and did not directly confirm it had shot down the plane.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his evening address said: “It is clear that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, the feelings of their loved ones and the emotions of our society.”
The Russian defense ministry said six Russian crew members and three Russian soldiers had been on the Ilyushin Il-76 military transport plane shot down near the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border.
After a long pause, the Ukrainian military said it would continue to destroy Russian military transport aircraft it believed were carrying missiles with which to strike Ukraine.
It said it had noticed more Russian military transport aircraft landing in Belgorod, something it linked to Russian missile strikes on Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk accused Russia of trying to undermine international support for Ukraine.
“Ukraine has the right to defend itself and destroy the means of the aggressors’ aerial attack,” he said.
The Russian defense ministry said the exchange was to have taken place on Wednesday afternoon at the Kolotilovka border checkpoint and Ukraine knew a transport plane carrying captured Ukrainian soldiers was expected at the Belgorod airfield.
“By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leadership has showed its true face. It disregarded the lives of its own citizens,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a meeting of the UN Security Council and said Russia sought to establish “the reasons behind the Ukrainian criminal act.”
A French spokesperson at the UN said the meeting would be held at 5 p.m. (2200 GMT) on Thursday.
Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency said Ukraine had not been asked to ensure airspace security around Belgorod unlike previous swaps and had not been informed about what means of transport would be used and which routes.
“On this basis, we may be talking about planned and deliberate actions by Russia to destabilize the situation in Ukraine and weaken international support for our state,” GUR said in a statement on Telegram.
Russia’s defense ministry said radar operators had detected the launch of two Ukrainian missiles at the time of the crash.
If the details are confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident of its kind inside Russia’s internationally recognized borders during the almost two-year-old war.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency confirmed a prisoner swap had been planned for Wednesday and said the captured Russian servicemen had been delivered to the agreed exchange point on time and were safe.
“Landing a transport plane in a 30-km combat zone cannot be safe and in any case must be discussed by both sides, because otherwise it jeopardizes the entire exchange process,” it said.
It had no reliable information about who was on the downed plane, it added.
Video footage posted on Telegram by Baza, a channel linked to Russian security services, and verified by Reuters, showed a large aircraft falling to the ground near the village of Yablonovo in Belgorod region and exploding in a fireball.
Andrei Kartapolov, a member of Russia’s parliament and a retired general, told the SHOT news outlet it was impossible for operators of Ukrainian surface-to-air missile systems to mistake transport planes for military planes or helicopters as targets.
“It was done deliberately to sabotage the prisoner exchange,” said Kartapolov, saying a second Russian Il-76 transport plane carrying around 80 Ukrainian soldiers to the exchange had managed to turn around.
Kartapolov, who has close links to the Russian defense ministry, said the plane had been downed by three missiles of either US or German manufacture.
Reuters could not immediately verify details of who was on board the downed plane, but Moscow and Kyiv have regularly swapped prisoners since Russia began what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022.
The Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, has come under frequent attack from Ukraine in recent months, including a December missile strike which killed 25 people.
Russia accuses Ukraine of killing 65 of its own POWs by shooting down plane
https://arab.news/cg9uh
Russia accuses Ukraine of killing 65 of its own POWs by shooting down plane
- Ukrainian president: Russia “playing with the lives” of POWs
- Russia says 74 killed after military plane shot down
Palestinian girls arrive in UK for medical treatment
- The pair, aged 5 and 12, have serious health issues that cannot be treated in Gaza
- They are the first people from the enclave to be given temporary British visas since the start of the war
LONDON: Two young Palestinian girls have arrived in the UK for medical treatment of serious health conditions.
The girls, named by the BBC as Ghena, aged 5, and Rama, 12, are the first Gazans to be given temporary UK visas since Oct. 7, 2023.
They flew from Egypt, where they have been living with complex conditions after Gaza’s healthcare system collapsed during Israel’s invasion.
Rama, who has a serious bowel condition, previously lived in Khan Younis and told the BBC: “We were so scared. We were living in tents and shrapnel from airstrikes used to fall on us.
“Mum used to suffer so much going to hospitals while bombs were falling and would stand in long queues just to get me a strip of pills. Here I’ll get treatment and get better and be just like any other girl.”
Her mother told the BBC: “I’m very happy for Rama because she’ll get treatment here. As a mother, I felt so sorry in Gaza because I couldn’t do anything to help her.
“To see your daughter dying in front of your eyes, day by day, watching her weaken and get sicker — it pained me.”
Ghena has fluid pressing against her optic nerve, which could cause blindness if left untreated.
Her mother Haneen told the BBC: “Before the war, Ghena was having medical treatment in Gaza, in a specialised hospital. She was getting tests done every six months there and treatment was available.”
Haneen said the hospital was destroyed in the first week of Israel’s invasion, leaving the family with little choice but to seek help elsewhere.
“She began complaining about the pain,” Haneen said. “She would wake up screaming in pain at night.”
Haneen added: “I hope she gets better here. In Gaza there are thousands of injured and sick children who need medical treatment. I hope they get a chance like Ghena.”
The girls were assisted by Project Pure Hope and the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, which worked with the World Health Organization to get them to the UK for treatment.
PCRF Chairwoman Vivian Khalaf told the BBC: “We came across these cases through an ongoing list that is getting longer and longer of children who need urgent medical treatment outside of Gaza.
“The current physicians and hospitals that continue to be operating to whatever extent have determined that the treatment isn’t available within Gaza.”
Khalaf said 200 children from Gaza have so far been taken abroad for medical treatment, including to the US, Jordan, Qatar and European countries.
The WHO has condemned the state of Gaza’s health system as “beyond description” after 18 months of conflict that has killed more than 50,980 Palestinians in the enclave, according to its Health Ministry.
Over 200 killed in at least 243 Myanmar military attacks since quake
- Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter”
- A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
GENEVA: The United Nations decried Friday continuing deadly attacks by Myanmar’s military despite a ceasefire declared following a devastating earthquake that killed nearly 3,800 people.
“The unremitting violence inflicted on civilians, despite a ceasefire nominally declared in the wake of the devastating earthquake on 28 March, underscores the need for the parties to commit to, and implement, a genuine and permanent nationwide halt to hostilities and return to civilian rule,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
A multi-sided conflict has engulfed Myanmar since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Following the 7.7 magnitude quake, the junta joined opponents in calling a temporary halt to hostilities on April 2 for relief to be delivered.
But Turk said that since the quake and up to April 29, “the military has reportedly launched at least 243 attacks, including 171 air strikes, with over 200 civilians reportedly killed.”
“The vast majority of attacks,” he added, had happened after the ceasefire took effect.
While the military renewed once its “largely unobserved ceasefire,” the truce had been allowed to expire on April 30, Turk said.
“It is imperative that the military immediately stop all attacks on civilians and civilian objects,” he insisted.
The UN rights chief decried how “the relentless attacks affect a population already heavily beleaguered and exhausted by years of conflict,” compounded by the impact of the quake.
Nearly 20 million people in the country already rely on humanitarian assistance, he said, stressing that people in Myanmar “need food, water and shelter.”
“They need, and must have, peace and protection,” he said.
“International law is clear that humanitarian aid must be able to reach those in need without impediment.”
Turk urged the military to “put people first, to prioritize their human rights and humanitarian needs and to achieve peaceful resolution to this crisis.”
“Instead of further futile investment in military force, the focus must be on the restoration of democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.”
Japan’s finance minister calls US Treasury holdings ‘a card’ in tariff talks with Trump
- Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February
- The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff
TOKYO: Japan’s massive holdings of US Treasurys can be “a card on the table” in negotiations over tariffs with the Trump administration, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato said Friday.
“It does exist as a card, but I think whether we choose to use it or not would be a separate decision,” Kato said during a news show on national broadcaster TV Tokyo.
Kato did not elaborate and he did not say Japan would step up sales of its holdings of US government bonds as part of its talks over President Donald Trump’s tariffs on exports from Japan.
Earlier, Japanese officials including Kato had ruled out such an option.
Japan is the largest foreign holder of US government debt, at $1.13 trillion as of late February. China, also at odds with the Trump administration over trade and tariffs, is the second largest foreign investor in Treasurys.
Kato stressed that various factors would be on the negotiating table with Trump, implying that a promise not to sell Treasurys could help coax Washington into an agreement favorable for Japan.
Trump has disrupted decades of American trade policies, including with key security allies like Japan, by i mposing big import taxes, or tariffs, on a wide range of products.
A team of Japanese officials was in Washington this week for talks on the tariffs.
The US is due to soon begin imposing a 25 percent tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts, as well as an overall 10 percent baseline tariff. The bigger tariffs will hurt at a time when Japanese economic growth is weakening.
Asian holdings of Treasurys have remained relatively steady in recent years, according to the most recent figures.
But some analysts worry China or other governments could liquidate their US Treasury holdings as trade tensions escalate.
US government bonds are traditionally viewed as a safe financial asset, and recent spikes in yields of those bonds have raised worries that they might be losing that status due to Trump’s tariff policies.
Greece arrests man on suspicion of spying for Russia
- The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary
- The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military
THESSALONIKI: Greek authorities have arrested a man in the strategic port city of Alexandroupolis on suspicion of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia, police said.
The suspect, a 59-year-old Greek citizen of Georgian descent, was arrested in the northeastern city on Tuesday and on Friday was taken before an investigating magistrate, according to police and media reports.
The man “confessed to taking photos and video of military material, acting on behalf of another person to whom he sent the footage via an encrypted application,” the police statement said in a statement released on Tuesday.
A police source told AFP this week that the man, who has identified himself as a house painter, was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his cellphone.
The source added that the suspect, who had served in the Russian army in his youth, had apparently been enlisted by Russia’s GRU military intelligence service via an intermediary.
Greek media have reported that this intermediary was a Georgian man with organized crime links living in Lithuania.
Despite historic ties to Russia, Greece has supported Ukraine since the start of the invasion.
The Greek port of Alexandroupolis has been a key gateway for the American military, used to transport supplies into Europe under a mutual defense pact.
Thailand reports first anthrax death, hundreds potentially exposed
- A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province, in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos, died on Wednesday after contracting anthrax
- There are plans to vaccinate 1,222 cattle, though no animals have shown signs of illness or unexplained death, it added
BANGKOK: Thailand has reported its first anthrax-related death with two infections nationwide, prompting a public health alert after authorities identified hundreds potentially exposed to the deadly bacteria, officials said on Thursday.
A 53-year-old man in Mukdahan province, in northeastern Thailand near the border with Laos, died on Wednesday after contracting anthrax, the government said, with a second case confirmed in the same province and three additional suspected cases under investigation.
Authorities have identified at least 638 people as being potentially exposed after eating raw meat. Among them, 36 had participated in butchering livestock while the rest had consumed raw or undercooked beef, health officials said. All are receiving antibiotics as part of containment measures.
“All individuals who may have been in contact with infected meat are being monitored,” the health ministry said.
The Livestock Department is overseeing containment efforts in the affected area, including a 5-km (3.2-mile) quarantine zone around the infection site, the agriculture ministry said.
There are plans to vaccinate 1,222 cattle, though no animals have shown signs of illness or unexplained death, it added.
Anthrax is a rare but serious disease caused by bacteria often transmitted through contact with infected animals or consumption of contaminated meat. It is not spread person-to-person.
Thailand last reported human anthrax cases in 2017, when two people were infected without fatalities. In 2000, 15 cases were recorded, also without deaths.
Wednesday’s death, the first fatality from anthrax in Thailand, follows a rise in regional infections. Laos reported 129 anthrax infections last year, including one death, while Vietnam confirmed 13 cases in May 2023.
Thai authorities are continuing investigations into the source of the infection and said they would maintain heightened surveillance in border areas.
