Russia unleashes missile barrage on Ukraine as ground battle rages in the east

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Three Russian rockets launched against Ukraine from Russia's Belgorod region are seen at dawn in Kharkiv, Ukraine, early on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Vadim Belikov)
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Updated 09 March 2023
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Russia unleashes missile barrage on Ukraine as ground battle rages in the east

  • Smoke billows over Bakhmut, buildings burn
  • EU agrees to push ahead on joint arms buying to help Kyiv

KYIV, Ukraine: Volleys of Russian missiles struck a series of Ukrainian regions early on Thursday, including the Black Sea port of Odesa and the second city of Kharkiv, knocking out power to several areas, regional officials said.
The governor of Odesa region, Maksym Marchenko, said on Telegram that a mass missile attack had hit an energy facility in the port city, cutting power. Residential areas had also been hit, but no casualties were reported.
Kharkiv region Governor Oleh Synehubov said the city and region had been hit by 15 strikes, with targets including infrastructure. Other strikes were reported in the central city of Dnipro and regions throughout the country.
Late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said it had managed to push back intense Russian attacks on the city of Bakhmut despite a Russian claim of control over its eastern half.
As one of the bloodiest battles of the year-long war ground on in the small city’s ruins, Ukrainian defenders — who last week appeared to be preparing for a tactical retreat — remained defiant.
“The enemy continued its attacks and has shown no sign of a letup in storming the city of Bakhmut,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Facebook. “Our defenders repelled attacks on Bakhmut and on surrounding communities.”
Ukrainian military and political leaders now speak of hanging on to positions and inflicting as many casualties as possible on the Russians to grind down their fighting capability.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in late Wednesday video address that the battle for Bakhmut and the surrounding Donbas region was “our first priority.”

In a separate interview with CNN, he said: “We think that in the Donbas direction Russia has started its offensive. This is the offensive. This is what it looks like: a slow aggression, because they don’t have enough strength and forces.”
Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, said his fighters had captured the eastern part of Bakhmut. If true, Russian forces would control nearly half the city in a costly pursuit of their first big victory in several months.
“Everything east of the Bakhmutka River is completely under the control of Wagner,” Prigozhin said on the Telegram messaging app.
The river bisects Bakhmut, on the edge of Ukraine’s Donetsk province that is already largely under Russian occupation. The city center is on the west side of the river.
Prigozhin has issued premature success claims before. Reuters was not able to verify the situation on the ground.
Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said that in addition to the Zabakhmutka district on the eastern outskirts of Bakhmut, the Russians had captured Ilyinivka district on the north side.
“The situation is critical,” he said in a video commentary, adding that Russian forces had also made gains near Avdiivka to the south of Bakhmut as well as to the north around Svatovo.

Arms buying push
Russia was throwing more troops into the battle, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said before a meeting of European Union defense ministers in Stockholm.
“They have suffered big losses, but at the same time we cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days,” Stoltenberg said.
This would not necessarily be a turning point in the war but showed “we should not underestimate Russia,” he said.
EU defense ministers agreed to speed up the supply of artillery rounds and buy more shells to help Ukraine’s military, which is burning through shells faster than its allies can manufacture them.
Under the plan, EU states would get financial incentives worth 1 billion euros to send more of their artillery rounds to Kyiv, while another 1 billion euros would fund joint procurement of new shells.

Devastated cities
Russia has said it has annexed nearly 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory and says taking Bakhmut would be a step toward seizing the whole of the industrial Donbas region on its border.
Western analysts say Bakhmut has little strategic value, although its capture would be a boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his military after a series of setbacks in what they call their “special military operation.”
Kyiv says the losses suffered by Russia there could determine the course of the war, with Ukraine expected to launch a counteroffensive when the weather improves and it receives more Western military aid, including tanks.
The months of warfare in the east have been among the deadliest and most destructive since Russia invaded in February last year, adding Bakhmut’s name to a list of devastated cities that includes Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
A Ukrainian military drone showed the scale of destruction in Bakhmut, filming apartment blocks on fire and smoke billowing from residential areas.
Iryna Vereshchuk, a deputy Ukrainian premier, said fewer than 4,000 civilians — including 38 children — out of a pre-war population of some 70,000 remain in Bakhmut.
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a Senate committee that Washington did not foresee the Russian military recovering enough this year to make major gains.
Russia casts its invasion of Ukraine as a response to threats to its security from its neighbor’s ties to the West. 


Flooding in eastern Congo kills 62 people with 50 missing

Updated 2 sec ago
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Flooding in eastern Congo kills 62 people with 50 missing

Witnesses described the floods surging at around 5 a.m. Friday
The rescue operation was hampered by a lack of services

BUKAVU, Congo: Heavy flooding following torrential rains in eastern Congo washed away several villages along the shores of Lake Tanganyika, leaving at least 62 dead and 50 missing, authorities said Saturday.

Witnesses described the floods surging at around 5 a.m. Friday and sweeping away the village of Kasaba on the edge of the lake in the Ngandja sector.

The South Kivu provincial health minister, Théophile Walulika Muzaliwa, said by phone that the rescue operation was hampered by a lack of services and a shutdown of telephone lines due to the flooding.

“Sector chiefs, village chiefs and locality chiefs, who are also members of the local government, are on site. The only humanitarian organization currently present is the Red Cross. It is not possible to give an assessment as body searches are continuing,” he said.

Last month, flooding in the capital, Kinshasa, killed 33 people.

Decades of fighting between government troops and rebels in eastern Congo escalated in February, worsening what is already one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

UK pro-Israel group slammed for suggesting war could reduce Gaza obesity

Updated 10 May 2025
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UK pro-Israel group slammed for suggesting war could reduce Gaza obesity

  • Comments follow warnings by UN, aid agencies that enclave faces imminent famine
  • Council for Arab-British Understanding, Palestine Solidarity Campaign label remarks ‘atrocious’, ‘utterly sickening’, ‘repulsive’

LONDON: A pro-Israel pressure group in the UK has been condemned for suggesting that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip may benefit from a reduction in obesity levels arising from the war, The Guardian reported on Saturday.

The comments — made by Jonathan Turner, head of UK Lawyers for Israel — followed a series of warnings by the UN and aid agencies that Gaza faces imminent famine.

Turner, on behalf of UKLFI, was responding to a motion set to be debated at the annual general meeting of the Co-operative Group, a major British retailer.

The motion calls for the Co-operative to stop stocking Israeli products, as part of the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. UKLFI urged the Co-operative council to withdraw the motion.

In doing so, Turner highlighted the motion’s reference to a letter published last year by The Lancet, a leading medical journal, which said the death toll in Gaza could be far higher than the 52,000 put forth by the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Turner said the letter “ignored factors that may increase average life expectancy in Gaza, bearing in mind that one of the biggest health issues in Gaza prior to the current war was obesity … These factors include the possible reduction in the availability of confectionery and cigarettes.”

Chris Doyle, director of the Council for Arab-British Understanding, said on X that Turner’s comments represent “atrocious views,” adding: “How very kind of Israel to put 2.3 million Palestinians on an enforced diet to improve their obesity levels.”

The Lancet has published several studies relating to Israel’s war in Gaza. One found that life expectancy in the enclave plunged by 34.9 years during the first year of the war. Gaza’s pre-war life expectancy was 75.5 years.

Since March, Israel has implemented a total blockade on the entry of humanitarian goods to the enclave.

Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “As children in the Gaza Strip face the growing risk of starvation, illness and death, the suggestion by the head of UK Lawyers for Israel that they might benefit from weight loss is utterly sickening.

“These repulsive comments illustrate exactly what it means to be ‘for Israel’ and how low its apologists are prepared to sink in their attempts to justify genocide in Gaza.”

UKLFI previously faced controversy over the removal of artwork made by Palestinian children in a London hospital.

The organization submitted a complaint to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in 2023, claiming that artwork created by Palestinian children and displayed in the facility made Jewish patients feel “vulnerable, harassed and victimized.” The hospital removed the works.


Amnesty International says at least 30 dead in separatist attack in southeastern Nigeria

Updated 10 May 2025
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Amnesty International says at least 30 dead in separatist attack in southeastern Nigeria

  • No group has claimed responsibility for the attack
  • The rights group said “international law requires the Nigerian government to promptly investigate unlawful killings”

ABUJA: At least 30 people have been killed after gunmen attacked travelers on a major highway in the southeastern part of Nigeria, rights group Amnesty International said.

The rights group said more than 20 vehicles and trucks were set ablaze during the Thursday attack along the Okigwe-Owerri highway in Imo state. Police confirmed the attack but not the death toll.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police suspect the Eastern Security Network, the paramilitary wing of the proscribed separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra.

The secessionist campaign in southeastern Nigeria dates back to when the short-lived Republic of Biafra fought and lost a civil war from 1967 to 1970 to become independent from the West African country. An estimated 1 million people died in the conflict, many from starvation.

The rights group said “international law requires the Nigerian government to promptly investigate unlawful killings with a view to bringing perpetrators to justice.”

One suspect connected to the attack was killed in a joint operation by law enforcement agencies, police spokesperson Okoye Henry said in a statement.

“An intensive manhunt is ongoing to apprehend the fleeing suspects and bring them to justice,” Henry said.

Two of the group’s prominent leaders, Nnamdi Kanu and Simon Ekpa, are in custody in Nigeria and Finland, respectively.

Kanu is standing trial on a seven-count charge bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Nigerian government said Friday it has not begun extradition proceedings but is in talks with Finnish authorities to ensure Ekpa is held accountable for his alleged actions.

For many years Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation with at least 210 million people — has been wracked by violence related to the activities of armed extremist groups.


Polish nationalists stage anti-immigration demo ahead of polls

Updated 10 May 2025
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Polish nationalists stage anti-immigration demo ahead of polls

  • The protest, organized by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland
  • Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election

WARSAW: Several thousand people demonstrated in Warsaw on Saturday against illegal immigration and the pro-European government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a week before the EU member chooses a new president.

The protest, organized by the nationalist opposition, drew demonstrators from across Poland, who carried the red and white national flag and chanted slogans such as “no to immigration.”

Immigration is a central issue in the central European country ahead of the May 18 election.

Poland currently hosts around one million refugees from the war in neighboring Ukraine, and has accused Russia and Belarus of orchestrating a wave of immigration into the European Union member.

The protesters made their way toward the seat of government in central Warsaw, chanting the name of nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.

The 42-year-old fan of US President Donald Trump has the backing of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party and outgoing President Andrzej Duda.

He is polling second in the presidential race, with around 25 percent support.

The frontrunner, Warsaw’s pro-European Union Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Tusk’s Civic Coalition and is polling on 32 percent.

“Poland has to defend itself against illegal immigration. These migrants have their own countries. They should stay there,” 66-year-old farmer Boguslaw Uchmanowicz told AFP.


Taliban arrest 14 people for playing music and singing

Updated 10 May 2025
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Taliban arrest 14 people for playing music and singing

  • Those detained were under investigation
  • Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music

KABUL: Taliban authorities have arrested 14 people in northern Afghanistan for playing musical instruments and singing, activities they restricted since taking power, provincial police said on Saturday.

The Taliban government has steadily imposed laws and regulations that reflect their austere vision of Islamic law since seizing power in 2021.

This includes cracking down on music in public, from live performances to playing at gatherings, in restaurants, in cars or on radio and TV.

The police said in a statement that on Thursday night in the capital of northern Takhar province “fourteen individuals... took advantage of the nighttime to gather in a residential house where they were playing musical instruments and singing songs, which caused disturbance to the public.”

Those detained were under investigation, it added.

After their takeover, Taliban authorities shuttered music schools and smashed or burned musical instruments and sound systems, saying music caused “moral corruption” and public disturbance.

Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music, though segregated women’s sections often do so secretly.

Many Afghan musicians fled the Taliban takeover out of fear or in need of work after losing their livelihoods in one of the world’s poorest countries.

The Taliban authorities have encouraged former musicians to turn their talents to Islamic poetry and unaccompanied vocal chants — the only forms of music allowed under their previous rule from 1996-2001.