Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 20 Apr 2022
A COMMANDER OF forces holding out at a steel plant in the besieged port city of Mariupol in Ukraine has issued a desperate plea for help, saying his marines are “maybe facing our last days, if not hours”.
“The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna, from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, said.
In the latest ultimatum issued in its seven-week battle to capture Mariupol, Moscow urged the city’s defenders to surrender by 2pm local time (11am Irish time).
It was today confirmed that Norway has given Ukraine around 100 French-made Mistral anti-air missiles.
The Mistral launchers and missiles, which have already been delivered, had until now been mounted on Norwegian navy vessels, the defence ministry said in a statement today.
Built from the end of the 1980s by defence group Matra, which later merged with European missile developer MBDA, the Mistral is a very short-range surface-to-air missile. It can be used on vehicles, ships and helicopters, or be portable.
In a video speech to the Norwegian parliament at the end of March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked Oslo for anti-air missiles, albeit the more modern NASAMS type made by Norway’s Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
“The (Mistral) missile is to be retired from the Norwegian military but it is still a modern and efficient weapon that will be of great use to Ukraine”, Norway Defence Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said in the statement.
“Other countries have also donated similar weapons systems”, he said.
Since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February, Norway has already provided Ukraine with some 4,000 anti-tank weapons and other smaller military equipment.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon in the US today said that Ukraine recently received fighter planes and parts to bolster its air force while declining to specify the number of aircraft and their origin.
Kyiv has asked its Western partners to provide MiG-29s, which its pilots already know how to fly, and a handful of Eastern European countries have.
In Kyiv today.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) April 20, 2022
In the heart of a free and democratic Europe. @ZelenskyyUa pic.twitter.com/7DxTeoxtMc
European Council chief Charles Michel, representing EU member states, arrived in Kyiv today.
“In the heart of a free and democratic Europe,” Michel wrote on his Twitter account, accompanied by a photo taken at a train station in the Ukrainian capital.
Hospital bombing
Ukrainian troops earlier accused Russian forces of bombing a hospital sheltering some 300 people in Mariupol.
The deputy commander of the Azov regiment, who was among the troops remaining in Mariupol, said the Russian military dropped heavy bombs on the steel plant and hit an “improvised” hospital.
Serhiy Taruta, the former governor of the Donetsk region and a Mariupol native, also reported the bombing of the hospital, where he said 300 people, including wounded troops and civilians with children, were sheltered.
The reports could not be independently confirmed.
The eastern cities of Kharkiv and Kramatorsk also came under deadly attack. Russia also said it struck areas around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro west of the Donbas with missiles.
Zelenskyy said the Russian military was throwing everything it has into the battle, with most of its combat-ready forces now concentrated in Ukraine and just across the border in Russia.
“They have driven almost everyone and everything that is capable of fighting us against Ukraine,” he said in his nightly video address to the nation on Tuesday.
Despite claims that they are hitting only military sites, the Russians continue to target residential areas and kill civilians, he said.
“The Russian army in this war is writing itself into world history forever as the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world,” Zelenskyy said.
Weeks ago, after the abortive Russian push to take Kyiv, the Kremlin declared that its main goal was the capture of the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists have been fighting Ukrainian forces for eight years.
A Russian victory in the Donbas would deprive Ukraine of the industrial assets concentrated there, including mines, metals plants and heavy-equipment factories.
Military experts said the Russians’ goal is to encircle Ukrainian troops from the north, south and east.
Key to the campaign is the capture of Mariupol, which would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized from Ukraine in 2014. It would also free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.
A few thousand Ukrainian troops, by the Russians’ estimate, remained holed up in a sprawling Mariupol steel plant, representing what was believed to be the last major pocket of resistance in the city.
Russia issued a new ultimatum to the Ukrainian defenders to surrender on Wednesday after a previous ultimatum was ignored. The Russian Defence Ministry said those who surrender will be allowed to live and given medical treatment. There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian troops, but they have repeatedly vowed not to give up.
Peace needed urgently – Coveney
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney yesterday urged the UN Security Council to do all it can to secure an urgent peace in Ukraine, amid the all-out Russia offensive in the Donbas region.
Coveney also accused Russian forces of showing an “utter disregard” for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians.
He told the Security Council that he was aware that leaders were meeting “in the shadow of a renewed offensive by Russian forces on eastern Ukraine”.
“I hear the narrative, from far too many quarters, that peace is only possible after the battle for Donbas. I can’t accept that logic – a logic that leads directly to further death, further suffering, further displacement.
“This Council must challenge that thinking, today and every day. We must demand more.”
Coveney also spoke in New York about the horrors he witnessed during a recent visit to the town of Bucha. He described the scenes he witnessed as “profoundly shocking”.
“Hundreds of family homes, shops and other civilian infrastructure: blackened, burnt, looted, damaged, and in some cases completely destroyed. Family cars, riddled with bullets, windshields smashed, bloodstains still evident.
“I’ve been around long enough to know the difference between truth and staged propaganda when I see it. There was nothing fabricated about what I witnessed.
“I stood at the edge of one of the mass graves, where the work of carefully exhuming bodies continued. Five hundred and three civilians had been identified at that stage – and just four soldiers.”
At #UNSC meeting on #Ukraine today, Minister @simoncoveney🇮🇪 spoke to the critical role of #SecurityCouncil, its membership & the United Nations Charter.🇺🇳
— Ireland at UN (@irishmissionun) April 19, 2022
Ireland will not remain silent while this senseless war continues, and neither should any member of this Council. ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/c3OaYAbcJ7
He said that what he witnessed during the visit “speaks to an utter disregard by Russian forces for international humanitarian law and the protection of civilians”.
“There’s no spinning that reality away with disinformation.”
Coveney said that Ireland will not remain silent on the “senseless and devastating” war in Ukraine nor on the impact it is having on some of the poorest countries around the world.
He said that the UN Security Council cannot afford to remain silent either. He referenced depleted wheat reserves in Palestine, as well as the economic impact of the war on the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
Coveney had confirmed earlier that just under 25,000 Ukrainians had arrived in Ireland as refugees, with 85% of that number women and children.
“Ireland is a small country,” he said. “We’re not a member of any military alliance. We’re no superpower. But we fought to take a seat at this table and we earned the right to be here.
“We did so because we fundamentally believe that, despite all the well documented flaws of this Council and there are many, it is the ultimate arbiter on matters of war and peace.”
Coveney took the opportunity to call on Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, to end the war.
“As it was on the 25th of February, so it is today – this is a war of choice. It can end immediately if president Putin so decides.
“And yet, instead we are seeing a renewed and upscaled offensive in eastern Ukraine. This is madness that history will judge very harshly.
“We have to find a way to stop this war. I want to call today on Russia directly – agree to an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, commit to negotiations, respect this Charter.
“We know that some progress was made in Istanbul between the key parties. There is clearly a basis for a peace agreement.”
Contains reporting from Press Association
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
They are the lowest of the low.
It’s not even a shock anymore. The Russian army have no morals. Savages.
It’s very hard to see through the propaganda in this war. If you believe the Ukrainians, the Russians are nearly beaten. Listen to Russian side and the Ukrainians are surrendering in droves. As for asov, I wouldn’t believe anything they say.
@Bart Teeling: are you talking to the azov lads much ?
@Rian Lynch: nah, don’t really get on with nazis who drag civilians into their bunkers as human shields. If they want to go to Valhalla, fine, but let the civilians go.
@Bart Teeling: human shields dont work on russians though do they.
@Bart Teeling: the Russians lie about everything. From the Malaysian flight, to Salisbury, to no plans to invade and just running war games. Also lied about not using the rocket that blew up the station. Odious regime
@John Comerford: they’re no different to the other major aggressors, the US and UK lie to invade countries too. War is a horrific and shameful constant in our world, young lives snuffed out by the decisions of greedy old men.
@Bart Teeling: I think @Rian Lynch has your logic by the neck there…
@Bart Teeling: why would Ukrainians drag their countryman into their bunkers? To shield themselves from Russian “soldiers”!? Its painful how some people are brainwashed by putlers propaganda. Glory to Ukrainians
@Bart Teeling: Bart how do you know they are doing this? Believe everything Russia tells you?
my but the bots are out in force this morning
@Rian Lynch: noticed that myself. Definitely at least 3 on here already
@Rian Lynch: John ” there’s a worse crisis in Yemen” Maloney is up early to head to the bookies.
@Dave Johnston: have a look at declan gilsenan below . hes trying to make it a jewish conspiracy
@Rian Lynch: i don’t understand any Irish person siding with the Russians in this conflict. Hoping that they are based in Orwell road. Would be sad to think that these are Irish. To Declan there are a lot of very powerful Russian Jews. Not sure what he is trying to imply but not good.
With all due respect to those fighters, they are now fighting a losing battle in that steel plant and must fully realise that those animals are not going to just pack up and head back to Russia. Time to call it a day and let those women and children have a chance to live. Ukraine have somewhere between 600-800 russian pow’s, so it’s possible the fighters could get back as part of a prisoner swap. Although perhaps Russia would not be keen on swaps involving Azov.
@Tommy Roche: which is probbaly why they wont surrender. they know theyll be paraded out for some show trial and then either executed or imprisoned forever in some hell hole in Russia.
@Tommy Roche: Russia have kidnapped many thousands of Ukrainian civilians from Eastern Ukraine. Removing them against their will to “camps” in Russia and they are playing this off to Russian TV as Ukrainian refugees seeking shelter from Ukrainians Nazi government. They hold the upper hand. Do you think they care about their soldiers being held as POWs? They sent them to war under false pretences. Also we have seen Russian troops targeting and killing civilians in towns right across Ukraine including Mariupol, why do we think they’d allow them to live if they surrendered? The west should have responded militarily when it was clear what was happening. As much as Russia will be judged by history for their actions the west will be judged for our inaction.
@Rian Lynch: So they’re going to sit in some hole in Avozstol until a Russian bunker buster comes through the roof and kills not only them, but the hundreds of women and children stuck in there with them ? They are definitely going to die if they stay there but have at least some chance if they surrender. Just reading telegram now and they are saying the Russians have proposed a ceasefire from 2pm (12pm GMT). Also putting up names, photos, dates of birth of those still alive inside.
@Tommy Roche: yeah because the russians can be trusted to protect civilians.
@Gerry McCaughey: They have swapped many POW’s already, plus swapped Ukrainian POW’s for the return of the bodies of Russian troops. This is all 100% Russia’s fault and I’m in no way defending what they have done. Just pointing out that they do seem to care about their POW’s, or at least some of them.
@Tommy Roche: maybe some of them. But they also turned down a temporary ceasefire offered by the Ukraine a few weeks ago so that Russia could collect the bodies of their fallen soldiers to send them home to their mothers. There seems to be a large rogue element in Russias military. Some soldiers I’m sure are obeying the rules of law and we have seen many surrender because they were ordered to target civilians. It seems the troops attacking Mariupol have no principles from what we’ve seen. They have bombed almost every civilian building in the city and attacked convoys of civilians leaving during the first short lived ceasefire. I don’t know if I’d trust them to behave if Ukrainians surrendered to them.
@Gerry McCaughey: Definately agree with you that some units of the Russian military are out of control. Seems that many of them actually believe that they are doing good by killing those they believe to be nationalists, and that the majority of civilians wanted them to invade to save them from the ‘nazis’. Crazy stuff that shows the damage that has been caused by exposing russians to years of state media, RT talk shows etc. The likes of our own MEP’s appearing on those shows telling the ‘truth’ about what the EU and NATO were up to certainly didn’t help matters.
@Tommy Roche: totally agree. The scary thing is that this has really exposed Russian society. The amount of anti West hate and blind belief in Putin is scary. It’s also made me think that all those landslide victories for Putin in elections weren’t vote rigging. Once he got rid of any opponent he was worried about he probably did get all those votes. It’s going to take a major change in the political status quo in Russia after this is over and maybe a generation of living under proper freedom before Russia isn’t a threat. Hard to believe that the current Putin supporters were young people when Gorbachev was in power with his openness and freedom.
@Gerry McCaughey: gerry I spent a lot of time in Russia. Worse place I ever worked. They hate the west it is ingrained in them. Didn’t matter I was Irish – my crime was western.
People on here cheering them on are clueless. They want to destroy the west
Some talk about the 9th May that Putin and the Russians will celebrate Victory day. Will we and the Russian people have to witness the Obscenity of what they have done to their neighbours in Ukraine been celebrated. Absolutely not
@Declan Gilsenan: youre wearing all the tinfoil arent you
@Declan Gilsenan: Zelensky was an actor/ comedian who played the part of the president in a Ukrainian sitcom. He then ran for office and was elected president. Other than Putin (who might be a tad biased) nobody has suggested that his election was anything other than fair and free.
It does seem that a high proportion of artists, actors writers etc are of the Jewish faith. I can’t be sure why that is, perhaps the Jewish faith promotes intelligence, creativity etc.
Have you another theory?
@Declan Gilsenan: isn’t it odd that Putin talks about how the country is run by Nazis despite Zelensky being Jewish and having ancestors who were killed by the actual Nazis? Stop trying to make this about anything other than Putin being a land grabbing psychopath.
@Declan Gilsenan: what an absolute bell end you are.
@Declan Gilsenan: he won the election run off getting over 70% of the vote. The candidate in second place stated that the election was fair and had no complaints. Putin on the other had jailed/poisoned his opponents and murdered dozens of journalists.
@Gerry McCaughey: that’s all he is after I think the land and the population that comes with it.
@Declan Gilsenan: — If you’re worried about the number of Jews, there must be quite a few in the Kremlin, not to mention in the ranks of the Russian Oligarchs. It would have been more than dense to disband NATO, as your psycho employer would have sent his forces into the former Iron Curtain countries so that the people in Kaliningrad wouldn’t feel so isolated. Actually, I think the Russians should leave Kalinigrad so that it could revert to Konigsberg, which was never Russian.
@shligo boyzz: yup and the notoriety. He wants go down in history as the man who tried to reunite the old Soviet Union. I have no doubt that he will continue if he gets away with this. Unless rumours about his health are true and he kicks the bucket.
Anything Russian throw it off your shelves
Death,loss, material damage and plunder Putin inflicted cant be measured with anything. Not to mention filtration camps.Ukraine will win though.
.
have your say