US sending Ukraine more weapons, dozens evacuated from steelworks

Dozens of civilians were evacuated from Mariupol’s besieged steelworks, the last pocket of resistance against Russian troops in the port city. (File/AFP)
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Updated 07 May 2022
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US sending Ukraine more weapons, dozens evacuated from steelworks

  • Friday’s new batch brings the total value of US weaponry sent to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began to $3.8 billion

ZAPORIZHZHIA: US President Joe Biden announced another package of military assistance for Ukraine, as dozens of civilians were evacuated from Mariupol’s besieged steelworks, the last pocket of resistance against Russian troops in the port city.
Worth $150 million, the latest security assistance would include artillery munitions and radars, Biden said, as the country braces for fresh bombardment by Moscow’s forces ahead of May 9, the day Russia celebrates the Soviet victory over the Nazis in World War II.
A senior US official said the aid included counter-artillery radars used for detecting the source of enemy fire as well as electronic jamming equipment.
Friday’s new batch brings the total value of US weaponry sent to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began to $3.8 billion.
The president urged Congress to further approve a huge $33 billion package, including $20 billion in military aid, “to strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.”
The Pentagon meanwhile denied reports it helped Ukrainian forces sink the Russian warship Moskva in the Black Sea last month.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the US had “no prior knowledge” of the plan to strike the ship, which sank leaving a still-unclear number of Russian sailors dead or missing.
While providing Ukraine with military aid, the United States has sought to limit knowledge of the full extent of its assistance to avoid provoking Russia into a broader conflict beyond Ukraine.
Biden, other G7 leaders, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky are to meet virtually on Sunday to discuss Western support for Kyiv.

On Friday Zelensky said “diplomatic options” were also under way to rescue Ukrainian soldiers from the Mariupol steelworks, as civilian evacuations continued.
The Russian defense ministry said 50 people were evacuated from the site, including 11 children.
It added they were handed over to the UN and Red Cross, which are assisting in the operation, and that the “humanitarian operation” would continue on Saturday.
About 200 civilians, including children, are estimated to still be trapped in the Soviet-era tunnels and bunkers beneath the sprawling Azovstal factory, along with a group of Ukrainian soldiers making their last stand.
Russia announced a daytime cease-fire at the plant for three days starting Thursday but the Ukrainian army said Russian “assault operations” had continued by ground and by air.
Ukraine’s Azov battalion, leading the defense at Azovstal, said one Ukrainian fighter had been killed and six wounded when Russian forces opened fire during an attempt to evacuate people by car.
Azov battalion leader Andriy Biletsky wrote on Telegram that the situation at the plant was critical.
“The shelling does not stop. Every minute of waiting is costing the lives of civilians, soldiers, and the wounded.”

Ten weeks into a war that has killed thousands, destroyed cities and uprooted more than 13 million people, defeating the resistance at Azovstal and taking full control of strategically located Mariupol would be a major win for Moscow.
It would also be a symbolic success ahead of May 9, when Russia marks the anniversary of its 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany.
Ukrainian officials believe Moscow is planning a May 9 military parade in Mariupol, though the Kremlin has denied any such plans.
Officials have also said they expect the anniversary will coincide with an escalation of the war throughout the country.
“In the coming days, there is a high probability of rocket fire in all regions of Ukraine,” mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko said in a statement on social media.
“Be careful and follow the rules of security in wartime.”
The eastern city of Odessa will also impose a longer curfew on May 8-9, its mayor said, as will Poltava in the country’s center.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki noted that the G7 meeting will come a day before “Victory Day” and the leaders will demonstrate “unity in our collective response.”
“While (Russian President Vladimir Putin) expected to be marching through the streets of Kyiv, that’s obviously not what’s going to happen,” Psaki said.

Since failing to take Kyiv early on in the war, Russia has refocused its offensive on the south and east of Ukraine.
Taking full control of Mariupol would allow Moscow to create a land bridge between the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014, and separatist, pro-Russian regions in the east.
In those regions, separatists said they had removed Ukrainian and English language traffic signs for Mariupol and replaced them with Russian ones.
Locals want to see proof that “Russia has come back here forever,” said Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway region of Donetsk.
In neighboring Lugansk, Ukrainian officials said on Friday that Russian forces had almost encircled Severodonetsk — the easternmost city still held by Kyiv — and are trying to storm it.
Kherson in the south remains the only significant city Russia has managed to capture since the war began.
A senior official from the Russian parliament visiting the city on Friday also emphasised that Russia would remain in southern Ukraine “forever.”
“There should be no doubt about this. There will be no return to the past,” Andrey Turchak said.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted its first declaration on Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24.
It backed Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s efforts to find a “peaceful solution” to the war but stopped short of supporting a mediation effort led by him.
Russia then vetoed a resolution condemning the invasion and asking Moscow to move its army back to Russian soil.
Ukraine’s Western allies have supported Kyiv with financial and military assistance, and have slapped unprecedented sanctions on Russia.
As European countries have sought to clamp down on Russian assets overseas, Italian authorities impounded a mega yacht as speculation swirled it might even belong to the Russian president.
“Scheherazade,” worth an estimated $700 million, has been the subject of a probe into its ownership by Italy’s financial police, which has helped “establish significant economic and business links” between the ship’s owner and “eminent people in the Russian government.”
Researchers at the anti-corruption foundation of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny have linked the yacht to Putin.
But the European Commission’s proposal that all 27 EU members gradually ban Russian oil imports — a move that would have been its toughest yet — was dealt a blow on Friday when Hungary said it crossed a red line and should be sent back.


US envoy reassures Panamanians about contentious military deal

Updated 6 sec ago
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US envoy reassures Panamanians about contentious military deal

  • The agreement allows US military personnel to deploy to Panamanian-controlled bases along the canal

PANAMA:The new US ambassador to Panama on Thursday reassured its citizens that an agreement signed by the two countries last month does not permit the return of American military bases.
US President Donald Trump's repeated threats to "take back" control of the Panama Canal from what he calls excessive Chinese influence has caused alarm in the Central American nation.
The agreement signed by Trump's defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and President Jose Raul Mulino's administration allows US military personnel to deploy to Panamanian-controlled bases along the canal for training, exercises and "other activities."
"Nowhere" does the agreement "talk about opening military bases," Trump's ambassador, Kevin Cabrera, told a news conference.
This agreement "will strengthen our cooperation against drug trafficking and protect the canal," which the United States built and controlled until 1999, he added.
The recent deal has sparked protests from Panamanians who oppose any perceived infringement of their country's sovereignty after a 1989 US invasion to depose then-leader General Manuel Noriega.
Cabrera said that "false" information was being spread about the agreement "for political reasons."
Mulino on Thursday ruled out canceling the pact, which he said did not allow "any form" of US military base in his country.
"There is no cession of territory here," he told a news conference.


Ransomware group Lockbit appears to have been hacked, analysts say

Updated 4 min 52 sec ago
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Ransomware group Lockbit appears to have been hacked, analysts say

  • Lockbit is one of the world’s most prolific cyber extortion gangs and it has survived past disruptions

 

WASHINGTON: The ransom-seeking cybercriminals behind the extortion group Lockbit appear to have suffered a breach of their own, according to a rogue post to one of the group’s websites and security analysts who follow the gang.
On Wednesday one of Lockbit’s darkweb sites was replaced with a message saying, “Don’t do crime CRIME IS BAD xoxo from Prague” and a link to an apparent cache of leaked data.
Reuters could not immediately verify the data, which appeared to capture chats between the hackers and their victims, among other things. But others who sifted through the material told Reuters it appeared authentic.
“It’s legit,” said Jon DiMaggio, the chief security strategist with the cybersecurity company Analyst1.
Christiaan Beek, senior director of threat analytics at cybersecurity firm Rapid7, agreed the leak “looks really authentic.” He said he was struck by how it showed Lockbit’s hackers hustling even for modest payouts from small businesses.
“They attack everyone,” he said.
Reuters could not immediately reach Lockbit or establish who had apparently leaked their data. Some darkweb sites associated with Lockbit appeared to be inoperative on Thursday, displaying a note saying they would be “working soon.”
Lockbit is one of the world’s most prolific cyber extortion gangs — diMaggio once called it “the Walmart of ransomware groups” — and it has survived past disruptions. Last year British and US officials worked with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies to seize some of the gang’s infrastructure. A few days later, the group defiantly announced it was back online, saying, “I cannot be stopped.”
Behind the bravado, diMaggio said this week’s hack was an embarrassment.
“I think it will hurt them and slow them down,” he said.


US military to ‘immediately’ start removing 1,000 trans troops

Updated 11 min 48 sec ago
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US military to ‘immediately’ start removing 1,000 trans troops

WASHINGTON: The US military will “immediately” start the process of removing some 1,000 transgender troops and will force out those who do not leave voluntarily by early June, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January banning transgender military service, and the US Supreme Court ruled this week that the ban could take effect while litigation challenging it plays out.
“The Military Departments will immediately begin processing for separation service members who previously self-identified for voluntary separation prior to March 26, 2025,” a memo from Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said.
Approximately 1,000 troops who identified as having gender dysphoria diagnoses fall into that category, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
There were a total of 4,240 currently serving troops with such diagnoses as of late last year, according to a senior defense official, and the memo said those who do not voluntarily leave by June 6 for active-duty troops and the following day for reserves will be removed.
“On conclusion of the self-identification eligibility window, the Military Departments will initiate involuntary separation processes,” the memo said.
In his January 27 executive order, Trump stated that “expressing a false ‘gender identity’ divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service.”
The Pentagon followed that up with a memo issued in late February stating that it would remove transgender troops from the military unless they obtain a waiver on a case-by-case basis, as well as prevent transgender people from joining.
Transgender Americans have faced a roller coaster of changing policies on military service in recent years, with Democratic administrations seeking to permit them to serve openly, while Trump has sought to keep them out of the ranks.


Trump calls for ‘unconditional’ 30-day Russia-Ukraine ceasefire

Updated 09 May 2025
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Trump calls for ‘unconditional’ 30-day Russia-Ukraine ceasefire

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump called Thursday for a month-long unconditional ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, with any breaches punishable by sanctions.
“Talks with Russia/Ukraine continue. The US calls for, ideally, a 30-day unconditional ceasefire,” Trump said on his Truth Social network shortly after speaking to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“If the ceasefire is not respected, the US and its partners will impose further sanctions.”
Trump said that “both countries will be held accountable for respecting the sanctity of these direct negotiations” to halt the conflict that started when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The US president said he wanted any ceasefire to then build to a “lasting peace.”
“It can all be done very quickly, and I will be available on a moment’s notice if my services are needed.”
Trump opened talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in February in a bid to end the war that he had previously pledged to end within 24 hours of starting his second term.
But he has shown growing impatience, first with Zelensky and more recently with Putin as the fighting has continued.
Trump and other top US officials have stepped up warnings in recent weeks that Washington is prepared to walk away from its role as a broker if there is no progress soon.
Zelensky said on social media that he had told Trump Thursday that Ukraine was ready for talks on the war with Russia “in any format” but insisted that there first had to be a full ceasefire.


US VP Vance says India-Pakistan conflict ‘fundamentally none of our business’

Updated 09 May 2025
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US VP Vance says India-Pakistan conflict ‘fundamentally none of our business’

WASHINGTON: US Vice President JD Vance on Thursday said Washington wanted to see a “de-escalation” in a worsening conflict between India and Pakistan, but that it was “fundamentally none of our business.”
“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it,” said Vance, who has been a proponent of US disengagement from international conflicts, in an interview with Fox News.