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LAST UPDATE | 9 May 2022
EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT Charles Michel, who made a surprise visit to Odessa today, was forced to break off a meeting and take cover when missiles again struck the southern Ukrainian city, an EU official said.
The strike took place as Michel held talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.
“During the meeting with the PM, the participants needed to interrupt the meeting to take shelter as missiles struck again the region of Odessa,” the official said.
In a video posted later, Michel said that Russia would fail to “execute” Ukraine’s “freedom” and that people in the country had been “tortured, raped and executed in cold blood”, but that its citizens were “resisting with courage”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joined their talks by video conference, thanked Michel for visiting Ukraine on Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Ukraine said both sides discussed taking “immediate measures to unblock Ukraine’s ports for grain exports”.
Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has forced its grain exporters to look for alternatives to move their precious cargo.
The cargo is loaded onto trains, lorries or barges and taken to Romania, now a vital maritime export hub for Ukraine’s crops.
“In the port of Odessa, I saw silos full of grain, wheat and corn ready for export,” Michel said.
“This badly-needed food is stranded because of the Russian war and blockade of Black sea ports causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries. We need a global response,” he added.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have pushed forward in their assault on Ukraine, seeking to capture the crucial southern port city of Mariupol ahead of Victory Day.
Determined to show a success in a war now in its 11th week, Russian troops have targeted a sprawling seaside steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were making what appeared to be their last stand to save Mariupol from falling.
The mill is the only part of the city not overtaken by the invaders, and its defeat would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Zelenskyy previously warned that worsening attacks could be linked to Victory Day.
In a speech today to mark the annual commemoration of the former Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, Russian president Vladimir Putin described Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as a forced response to Western policies.
Russia had no choice, Putin said, but to undertake a pre-emptive response to aggression, calling it “the only right decision” for a “sovereign, strong and independent country”.
He also hailed the Soviet Union’s “triumph” over Nazi Germany and said that everything must be done to ensure the “horror of a global war will never be repeated”.
Putin held a minute’s silence for fallen soldiers and ended his speech with: “Glory to our glorious armed forces. For Russia, for victory.”
‘We will win’
Ahead of Putin’s speech, Zelenskyy said that his country would not allow the victory against Nazi Germany in World War II to be appropriated by Moscow.
“Today we celebrate Victory Day over Nazism. We are our proud of our ancestors who together with other nations in the anti-Hitler coalition defeated Nazism. And we will not allow anyone to annex this victory. We will not allow it to be appropriated,” he said.
Zelenskyy listed several Ukrainian towns and cities currently under control of invading Russian forces, saying that Ukrainians during World War II had ousted Nazi Germany’s forces from these regions.
“The names of these cities inspire us today. They give us faith that we will drive the occupiers from our land,” Zelenskyy said in the video address, listing Mariupol, Kherson, and the Crimean peninsula by name.
“We won then. We will win now,” the Ukrainian president added.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced she would meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban today to discuss plans for an embargo on Russian oil.
Landlocked Hungary relies on Russian oil from a single pipeline and Orban has warned he cannot approve the European Commission’s proposed sixth package of EU sanctions against Moscow.
“They will discuss issues related to European security of energy supply,” von der Leyen’s spokesman Eric Mamer said.
School bombed
Elsewhere in Ukraine, more than 60 people were feared dead after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter in the eastern village of Bilohorivka, Ukrainian officials said.
Authorities said about 90 people were sheltering in the school’s basement when it was attacked on Saturday. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, but “most likely all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead”, Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian shelling also killed two boys, aged 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, Haidai said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east that Russia’s forces are working to capture.
On Ukraine’s coast, explosions echoed again across the major Black Sea port of Odessa. The Ukrainian military said Moscow was focusing its main efforts on destroying airfield infrastructure in eastern and southern Ukraine.
In a sign of the dogged resistance that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine’s military struck Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war’s first days. A satellite image by Planet Labs showed smoke rising from two sites on the island.
But Moscow’s forces showed no sign of backing down in the south. Satellite photos show Russia has put armoured vehicles and missile systems at a small base in the Crimean Peninsula.
The most intense combat in recent days has taken place in eastern Ukraine. A Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast near Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, is making “significant progress”, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.
However, the Ukrainian army withdrew from the embattled eastern city of Popasna, regional authorities said.
With reporting from Jane Moore and © AFP 2022
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Nobody cares
@Aoife Kally Bolamba: Have you asked everybody?
@Aoife Kally Bolamba: well you cared enough to go through a comment section and read an article
@Colm Phillips: sounds like u care for her Colin :)
@Aoife Kally Bolamba: His name is clearly Colm
Londonders have suffered a lot from terrorist attacks over the last 15 years, people ran over by cars on bridges, people randomly butchered in the street, Bus Bombings, Tube Bombings…
Why does this filth think the good people there would want her back on their streets?
@David Lee: Imagine referring to anyone as ‘filth’ and thinking you’ve got the moral high ground. She was a child when she made a very bad choice. I’m not saying roll out the red carpet, but calling this person “filth” while everyone in London is “good people” reveals a lot about you.
@David Lee: How many people did the British kill when the illegally invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. Dropped bombs on Syria and Libia etc. How many of the terrorist attacks on Britain took place before they decided to destabilise the middle East? None. Perhaps if the British didn’t kill thousand of innocent civilians across the middle east there might not be attacks like there was in the UK.
@JusticeForJoe: Go & ask some random people in London if they want her back on their streets & see what they’ll tell you, you’ll hear a lot worse than filth.
Also, would you take her into your neighbourhood or home if she’s so deserving and feel safe around her
@David Lee: Did she have anything to do with any of the attacks on London. If was to go to London 99.9% of the population if London wouldn’t have a clue who she is or where she went.
@David Lee: Imagine thinking a random racist Londoner’s bigoted and hateful opinion means anything. You may accuse her of the same thing, but at least she had the excuse of being an actual child.
I don’t own my “neighbourhood” but I would never object to anyone moving into it and it’s not up to me (or my neighbours) to decide what she deserves. Rotten mob mentality doesn’t equate to righteousness in any way.
@Roy Dowling: very valid points
.
@JusticeForJoe: defending somebody who joined isis tells us a lot about you. Some people are bad people. The word is appropriate. That said I wouldn’t remove her passport because I don’t want governments to have that power.
@Roy Dowling: what’s that gotta do with this woman joining isis. When she joined isis in Syria she joined a rebel faction opposed to Assad, in other words she was on the side of British/US imperialism who also wanted him gone. As I recall so did most of the commentators on here at the time. It’s possible however to oppose both isis and US/U.K. involvement in the Middle East.
@David Lee: she was 15 when she did what she did. I don’t condone what she did but calling her “filth” says a lot more about you than her.
@john smith iv: Oh yeah? What does it tell you about me, John?
@JusticeForJoe: Why should we or the Brits allow people to come back and pretend nothing has happened. She may have only been 15, so what accountability do the parents have. Who is to say that her loyalties are not still with her mates. Because she says so?? They have committed atrocities beyond imagination and expect us to put their human rights before the rights and security of the masses.
@Barrycelona: Who said anything about “pretend nothing has happened”?? I think she should maybe serve some prison time in the UK. I realise there are lots of people who like to shout “you’re not welcome in my country” at other people. Personally, I’d like a lot of THOSE people removed from MY country, but I don’t go around shouting it at them.
Believe her or not, she is state less and needs to go home. Personally I dont believe a word out of her, but she needs a country to live in and the Brits need to take her back.
@Jonathan O’Riordan: brilliant
@Valentine Kane: legally speaking Bangladesh needs to take her in. Britain did not leave her state-less, so there’s no legal foundation for the re-instatement of British citizenship.
@PJ Beatty: why would Bangladeshis would take her in theire country she was apparently born in london and she was as British as any others so is up to British government to decide.
Commissions are needed to examine the teachings and behaviour of the various groups active in Europe to determine if they are indoctrinating people with divisive doctrines masquerading as religions.
@Tom Molloy: Ah leave the Legion of Mary alone, will ya.
@Francis Devenney: brilliant!
We were all indoctrinated at school.
@Francis Devenney: Being asked to say a few prayers and visit the sick is the least of worries for non sectarian people.
@Tom Molloy: Anyone who teaches children that they have the only true way and all others will burn in hell for all eternity are by definition ” indoctrinating people with divisive doctrines masquerading as religions”.
@Shedonny: I barely got a religious message at school. And that was 20 years ago.
@Francis Devenney: The colourful language used to describe invisible attributes good and bad are dated I admit. Painters depicting literature have been a disastrous influence.
@Tom Molloy: Not so much about the language or the images. It’s that the core belief of all monotheistic religions is “We have the one true God,” If that’s not divisive I don’t know what is. In fact the pharaoh Akenaton who invented monotheism caused such hardship with his new religion that when he died his name was struck from all the stele and pillars. “We are right and everybody else is (at best) wrong or (at worst) damned” is inherently divisive, It’s baked into fabric of it.
@Francis Devenney: I agree with you. If it could be kept to “There is a God”. it would be best.
Booooo whoooooo
She joined ISIS, awful. But she was raised and born in Britain. Her citizenship shouldn’t have been revoked. She should be in jail
@Аня Владимировна:
Shamima Begum is a citizen of Bangladesh
@Frank Jasper: no she isn’t. She wasn’t born or raised there.
@Аня Владимировна:
Only when she has been tried and found guilty.
Contrast with Ireland’s treatment if Lisa Smith. She will get a fair trial, her citizenship was not revoked and will not be even if she is found guilty.
Guess which is the civilised state.
@Shedonny: my understanding of international law is that its illegal to strip a person of citizenship unless they already hold dual citizenship. You cannot make a person stateless.
Good show on Netflix called Caliphate. Based in Denmark and shows how easy it was for ISIS to brainwash vulnerable teenagers to join them. Really quite shocking how easy it is.
A 15 year old is not mature enough to make a life changing decision such as her one.
@Over the top: The fact that she felt the need to say she does not hate Britain shows/demonstrates an awareness that hate is floating around in belief systems.
Generation Accept No Personal Responsibility
Britain need to take her back. The SDF and the NES administration can’t afford to keep IS members in Al Hol, Al Roj and other facilities. I’ve been to both these camps in the past few years and they’re pretty scary and are breeding grounds for extremists much like Abu Ghraib in Iraq was before them. Every few months there are attempted mass breakouts and should one be successful we’ve got a problem. SDF have even resorted to freeing militants if they pay 8-20 grand. History will definitely repeat itself if SDF don’t get international help with this situation
She’d say anything at this stage ..
have your say