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Dozens feared dead after Ukrainian school is bombed
At least two people have been killed and 60 more are feared dead after Russian bombs hit a school in the Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka, Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said on Sunday.
Gaidai said Russia dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on the school where about 90 people were sheltering, causing a fire that engulfed the building. Thirty people have been rescued.
“The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and, unfortunately, the bodies of two people were found,” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Sixty people were likely to have died under the rubble of buildings.”
Separately, Gaidai said that according to preliminary information, shelling in the village of Shypilovo destroyed a house and 11 people remained under the building’s debris.
Civilians from Azovstal arrive in Zaporizhzhia
After weeks of living under siege, more than 170 civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have arrived in Zaporizhzhia.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday that more than 300 civilians had been rescued from Azovstal. But Reuters is reporting that captain Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov regiment, cannot say for certain if all civilians have been evacuated from the plant as Ukrainian fighters are not able to check and clear all the bombed areas.
New US visa bans for accused Bucha attackers
Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, said on Sunday that the new US visa bans on more than 2,600 Russian and Belarusian military officials include personnel believed to have operated in Bucha, the town outside Kyiv that has become synonymous with war crimes.
Images that emerged from Bucha after Ukrainian forces retook the region showed bodies lying in the streets or half-buried in mass graves. The corpses of civilians displayed signs of torture, some blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs when they were shot and killed in an execution style.
Reuters reported that when announcing the visa restrictions on 2,596 Russian military officials and 13 Belarusian ones, Blinken made a point to say that “included among this group are personnel who reportedly took part in Russian military activities in Bucha, the horrors of which have shocked the world”.
Russian officials have said the killings were faked.
G7: world must intensify economic pressure on Putin
Volodymyr Zelenskiy met today with G7 leaders via video conference to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Downing Street has just released a readout from the meeting, noting that Boris Johnson “agreed with G7 leaders that the world must intensify economic pressure on Putin in any way possible, and said the west must not allow the war to turn into a stalemate that only magnified suffering.”
“Ukraine needed to receive military equipment that allowed them to not just hold ground in Ukraine, but recapture it, the Prime Minister told the leaders,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said.
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Emmanuel Macron, president of France, said the objective of the video conference was the “respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. This war must end!”
“Sanctions taken by G7 members against Russia are unprecedented,” Macron said. “They will get even stronger. We pledge today to phase out our dependence on Russian energy.”
The ministry of culture and information policy of Ukraine has an ongoing thread on the churches and temples destroyed so far in the Russian invasion.
The list is lengthy and the damaged holy sites are spread all around the country. They include a burned-down church in the Kyiv region that was built in 1873, a wooden 160-year-old church that was destroyed in the Zhytomyr Oblast and the chapel of the Holy Martyr Tatiana that was damaged in the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.
Russian airstrikes on Sunday wounded one woman and knocked out electricity to six settlements in the Odesa oblast, authorities said.
U2’s Bono and the Edge performed in a bomb shelter in Kyiv today. Here’s some video of their performance:
As expected, the atmosphere in Germany continues to be tense, with police in Berlin confiscating a Ukrainian flag today as part of the city’s decision to include Ukrainian flags in their suppression of public displays of support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender in World War II.
The Guardian’s Philip Oltermann reported earlier that politicians were avoiding gatherings marking the anniversary, amid fears that commemorative events could be used for propaganda purposes.
Vladimir Putin has tried to justify his invasion Ukraine by claiming he was going to “de-nazify” the country. Meanwhile, Germany has been criticized for not taking a hard enough stance against Russia, especially in divesting from Russian oil.
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, called the ban on the Ukrainian flag “a slap in the face of the Ukrainian people”.
Here’s a summary of the latest developments…
- The US has announced new sanctions on Russia – including against three Russian television stations, Gazprombank executives and a ban on Americans providing accounting and consulting services to Russians.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy met with G7 leaders today to discuss the war in Ukraine and new measures to punish Moscow. The US president, Joe Biden, was due to meet leaders at 11am ET (3pm GMT) from his home in Delaware.
- The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, made an unannounced visit today to the Ukrainian town of Irpin. Irpin was retaken from Russian troops in late March following fierce fighting.
- Jill Biden has made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine to visit the Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska to show US support on Mother’s Day.
- Ukrainian forces at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have vowed to continue fighting for “as long as we are alive”. Capt Sviatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, also pleaded with the international community to help evacuate wounded soldiers.
- Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs has strongly condemned Russian shelling of a school in Bilohorivka, which is thought to have been sheltering 60 people. In a post on Twitter the ministry said: “#Russia committed this brutal war crime shortly before the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, constantly repeating the tragedy of World War II. #StopRussianWar”
- President Zelenskiy has compared Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to the actions of the Nazis in the second world war, as Ukraine marks its 8 May Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation.
- At least two people have been killed and 60 more are feared dead
- after Russian bombs hit a school in the Ukrainian village of Bilohorivka, Serhiy Gaidai, governor of Luhansk, said on Sunday. Gaidai said Russia dropped a bomb on Saturday afternoon on the school where about 90 people were sheltering, causing a fire that engulfed the building. Thirty people have been rescued.
That’s it from me, Miranda, for today. Handing over now to Vivian Ho. Thanks for reading.
G7 leaders have released a joint statement in which they pledged to reinforce Russia’s economic isolation and “elevate” a campaign against Russian elites who support its president, Vladimir Putin, reports Reuters.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said that today was an 8 May “like no other”, as he condemned Russia’s “barbaric” invasion of Ukraine.
“We support Ukraine in the fight against the aggressor,” he said, in comments marking Victory in Europe day. “Not doing so would mean capitulating to sheer violence and empowering the aggressor.”
He told the German public that “fear must not paralyse us” and said he was “deeply convinced” that Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, will not win the war.
“Ukraine will survive,” he said. “Freedom and security will prevail – just as freedom and security triumphed over lack of freedom, violence and dictatorship 77 years ago.”
US unveils new raft of sanctions against Russia – including tv stations and Gazprombank executives
The US has announced new sanctions on Russia – including against three Russian television stations, Gazprombank executives and a ban on Americans providing accounting and consulting services to Russians.
The latest effort to increase pressure on Vladimir Putin came as Joe Biden and other G7 leaders met virtually with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy to discuss the war.
“This is not a full block. We’re not freezing the assets of Gazprombank or prohibiting any transactions with Gazprombank,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters. “What we’re signalling is that Gazprombank is not a safe haven, and so we’re sanctioning some of their top business executives … to create a chilling effect.”
Eight executives from Sberbank, which holds one-third of Russia’s banking assets, were added to the sanctions list, reports Reuters. Moscow Industrial Bank and its 10 subsidiaries were also added.
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