Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 28440.html
Russia has passed a new law meaning citizens who spread what it described as "fake" information about the military can be jailed for up to 15 years.
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Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is continuing to crack down on protesters taking to the streets to demonstrate against the conflict, which entered its ninth day on Friday.
Meanwhile, schools and media organisations have been ordered not to describe the invasion as a "war". Several outlets were shut down following negative coverage of the fighting.
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Earlier this week, Mr Putin ordered the shut down of Russia’s only independent TV channel and a liberal radio station as the president ramped up efforts to censor coverage of the war, leaving citizens with propaganda from state-run outlets as their only source of information.
Historians of the future should condemn Russia very harshly indeed for its invasion of Ukraine; but they will also not forgive the West if we fail to promote a reasonable peace.
"Forget the cheese–let’s get out of the trap." — Robert A. Lovett, U.S. Secretary of Defense 1951-53.
The talks now underway in Belarus between Ukraine and Russia provide the possibility of a peace agreement and an end to the criminal Russian invasion of Ukraine — which thanks to brave and united Ukrainian resistance and bad Russian planning is not going as the Kremlin had hoped.
The United States and its allies should give their full support to this peace process, while supporting Ukraine in insisting that no aspect of any treaty should hinder Ukraine’s development as an independent market democracy.
(Common Dreams) We were in the middle of writing about GOP idiocy at home when news broke of the fire at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant, the largest in Europe, which stopped us cold. Such is relativity: Even the most heinous of God-awful news somehow pales before the specter of a nuclear plant on fire amidst a madman's mindless war against a besieged civilian population. News of the latest catastrophe prompted a ragged, emotional Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to declare, "The end for everyone, the end for Europe" - an entirely understandable conclusion, given the brutal insanity of the last few weeks.But according to multiple reports and updates, thanks to better technology and perhaps the last living splinter of reason in otherwise deranged minds, we wish we could be glad to report: Probably not yet, possibly getting there.
The fire at the Zaporizhzhya plant, which contains six 950 megawatt pressurized-water nuclear reactors, apparently began from Russian shelling; it burned for several hours, reportedly across several floors of a five-story training complex. Earlier reports said Russian troops were blocking Ukrainian emergency teams: "The occupiers do not allow (us) to start eliminating (the) fire." Later, Ukrainian officials confirmed crews were on site and working to put out the fire; they told the International Atomic Energy Agency the fire had not affected "essential" equipment, and they had seen "no elevated radiation readings." In their latest update, Ukraine's State Emergency Services said the fire was extinguished, and "there were no victims."
Even before the fire had been put out, various experts had weighed in on the dangers this plant posed compared to the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl. Many said the Zaporizhzhya reactors are "a lot safer," arguing the chances of explosion, nuclear meltdown or radioactive release were far lower thanks to the plant's "robust containment structures," back-up emergency cooling systems and built-in fire protection systems - though one expert did concede, "Obviously, it's not a good idea if you start shooting massive missiles at reactors." In the fraught here and now, the experts' assurances did little to calm a world on edge, and a nation fighting for its life. A sign in Ukrainian at a burned-out Russian tank on a rubble-strewn city street said it best: "Welcome to Hell." If they still lurk, may better angels prevail.
Of course, partisans of Putin's Russia might insist that it was a Ukrainian helicopter that was being shot down. Reports I have heard are that Ukraine still does have an air force.This video, shared by Ukrainian armed forces, showing the moment a Russian helicopter crashes after being hit by a missile.
(BBC) Oleksandra and her four rescue dogs have been sheltering in the bathroom of her flat in Kharkiv since the shelling began.
"When I heard the first explosions, I ran out of the house to get my dogs from their enclosures outside. People were panicking, abandoning their cars. I was so scared," she says.
The 25-year-old has been speaking regularly to her mother, who lives in Moscow. But in these conversations, and even after sending videos from her heavily bombarded hometown, Oleksandra is unable to convince her mother about the danger she is in.
"I didn't want to scare my parents, but I started telling them directly that civilians and children are dying," she says.
"But even though they worry about me, they still say it probably happens only by accident, that the Russian army would never target civilians. That it's Ukrainians who're killing their own people."
(Axios) Shelling by Russian forces halted the civilian evacuations in two Ukrainian cities on Saturday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, AP reports.
Driving the news: The firing comes hours after the Russian defense ministry agreed on evacuation routes with Ukrainian forces for Mariupol, a strategic port in the southeast, and the eastern city of Volnovakha, per AP.
“The Russian side is not holding to the cease-fire and has continued firing on Mariupol itself and on its surrounding area,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office, said.
“Talks with the Russian Federation are ongoing regarding setting up a cease-fire and ensuring a safe humanitarian corridor,” he added.
Russian forces also broke the cease-fire agreement in Volnovakha.
Also:Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Moscow will consider any country that sought to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine as having entered the conflict.
“Any movement in this direction will be considered by us as participation in an armed conflict by that country,” the Russian leader said during a meeting with Aeroflot employees reported by Reuters.
Imposing a no-fly zone would have “colossal and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe but also the whole world”, Putin said.
Putin also dismissed rumours that Moscow plans to declare martial law. “Martial law should only be introduced in cases where there is external aggression ... we are not experiencing that at the moment and I hope we won’t,” he said.
So is Russia at war with almost every country in the world? What's next for Putin? Nuclear missile launch?President Vladimir Putin said western sanctions on Russia were akin to a declaration of war, reports Reuters.
