VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has stepped up his pleas for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine.
Francis told the public in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday that “this cruel and senseless war” continues after more than a month, representing “a defeat for all.”
He lamented that parents are burying their children, and “the powerful decide and the poor die.” Once again, he didn’t cite Russia by name as the aggressor.
Referring to reports that about one-half of all the children in Ukraine have been displaced by the conflict, Francis said that “war doesn’t just devastate the present but also the future of society.”
The pontiff reiterated his condemnation of war as barbarous and sacrilegious. He said that “humanity must understand that the moment has come to abolish war, to cancel war from the history of man before it cancels man from history.”
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MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised Russia’s National Guard on the sixth anniversary since its creation.
Putin specially addressed the service staff of the National Guard units involved in the military operation in Ukraine.
“Comrades, indeed, combat conditions involve increased risk. I am well aware of how you act in this situation: highly courageously and professionally, skillfully and fearlessly. You resolve the most complicated tasks set before you competently and precisely while showing personal heroism,” Putin said in a video statement issued Sunday.
The National Guard, which numbers over 300,000 personnel, was established by Putin in 2016 as an internal military force to fight terrorism and organized crime, guard state facilities, control weapons turnover and to provide riot control.
The service reports directly to the president.
“Our entire vast country is rightly proud of each of you,” Putin said. “I want to thank you for your stamina and your impeccable service to Russia, for your loyalty to our Fatherland, to your oath of allegiance and your duty.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A manager at a UNESCO world heritage site in Kyiv says bombings in the capital are being felt in the landmark building and could threaten its foundations.
“We and the landmark feel the vibrations,” said Vadim Kyrylenko, an engineer who now is the most senior on-site manager at the St. Sophia Cathedral. “It’s a minimal threat but we feel it. If there would be a strike nearby as I say it would be a point of no return for our landmark because it is very fragile and vulnerable.”
The site shut its doors to visitors as soon as the war in Ukraine started last month. Kyrylenko said that the only people left on site apart from him are a cook, a carpenter and engineers who are keeping the main functions running.
The Orthodox shrine dates back nearly 1,000 years to the dawn of Christianity in the region. It is considered the heart of Ukrainian spiritual and national identity. The grand structure survived despite being in the crosshairs of numerous invaders and armies.
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A separatist leader in eastern Ukraine says that his region wants to hold a vote on joining Russia.
Leonid Pasechnik, the head of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, said Sunday that it could hold a referendum “in the nearest time” asking voters whether they support making the region part of Russia.
Russia has supported the separatist rebels in Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk regions since an insurgency erupted there in 2014 shortly after Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. Moscow recognized their independence on Feb. 21 and then cited their call for military assistance to launch the invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.
In talks with Ukraine, Moscow has urged it to acknowledge Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Pasechnik’s statement could herald a shift in the Russian position.
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BERLIN -- Germany’s president is hosting a “solidarity concert” with Ukraine featuring musicians from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The Berlin Philharmonic was playing pieces by Ukrainian, Russian and Polish composers at President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s Bellevue palace in Berlin. Steinmeier — who addressed the event by video because he tested positive for the coronavirus last week — described it Sunday as a “signal for freedom and peace.”
Steinmeier said: “Let us be vigilant against sweeping animosities, and let us not succumb to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s pseudo-historical nationalist delusion. Let us not allow Putin’s hatred to become a hatred between people … in our own society either.”
However, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany tweeted that he had spurned an invitation. Andriy Melnyk wrote that “ONLY RUSSIAN (!) SOLOISTS” were performing, “no Ukrainians.” He added: “An affront. Sorry, I’m staying away.”
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JERUSALEM — Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the U.S. is not trying to topple Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite its harsh condemnations of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken spoke a day after President Joe Biden said of Putin during a speech in Warsaw: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
At a news conference in Jerusalem, Blinken said Biden’s point was that “Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.”
He said the U.S. has repeatedly said that “we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia, or anywhere else for that matter.”
“In this case, as in any case, it’s up to the people of the country in question. It’s up to the Russian people,” Blinken said.
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BERLIN -- Germany’s president is hosting a “solidarity concert” with Ukraine featuring musicians from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
The Berlin Philharmonic was playing pieces by Ukrainian, Russian and Polish composers at President Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s Bellevue palace in Berlin. Steinmeier described it Sunday as a “signal for freedom and peace.”
Steinmeier said: “Let us be vigilant against sweeping animosities, and let us not succumb to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s pseudo-historical nationalist delusion. Let us not allow Putin’s hatred to become a hatred between people … in our own society either.”
However, Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany tweeted that he had spurned an invitation. Andriy Melnyk wrote that “ONLY RUSSIAN (!) SOLOISTS” were performing, “no Ukrainians.” He added: “An affront. Sorry, I’m staying away.”
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KYIV, Ukraine —- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again urged the West to provide Ukraine with warplanes and air defense missiles.
Speaking in a video address early Sunday, Zelenskyy said that “our partners have all that, and it’s just collecting dust. And in fact it’s necessary not just for Ukraine’s freedom, but for the freedom of Europe.”
Zelenskyy warned that the Baltic states, Poland and Slovakia could eventually face a Russian attack “just because they will have kept in their hangars just 1% of all NATO warplanes and 1% of all NATO tanks. Just 1%! We aren’t asking for more and we have been waiting for that for 31 days!”
He said that “our partners must step up their aid to Ukraine.”
The president said that “Ukraine can’t shoot down Russian missiles with shotguns and machine guns that have accounted for the bulk of supplies. And we can’t unblock Mariupol without the necessary number of tanks, other armor, and warplanes. All defenders of Ukraine know about it.”
He added that the United States and “all European politicians” also know that.
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DOHA, Qatar — The head of the International Monetary Fund is warning that the global economic strain caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine could stoke civil unrest in the Middle East and beyond.
Speaking at the Doha Forum in Qatar on Sunday, Kristalina Georgieva said Russia’s invasion and the resulting sanctions on Moscow have forced the world’s poorest to bear the worst of the crisis as they grapple with inflated food costs and scarcer jobs.
Georgieva hinted that the current situation evoked the lead-up to the 2011 uprisings known as the Arab Spring, when skyrocketing bread prices fueled anti-government protests across the Middle East.
“When prices jump, and poor people cannot feed their families, they will be on the streets,” she said. “One thing we know about trouble in one place, it travels, it doesn’t stay there.”
Georgieva called for greater global cooperation to fill the gaps in commodity and energy supplies.
“Please, work together,” she said. “Oil producers, gas producers and food producers today are in a position to help reduce this uncertainty.”
She cited Ukraine’s importance as a top wheat exporter in urging a swift resolution to the war.
“The faster the tanks are out, the faster the tractors will be in,” she said. “We need by July the harvest in Ukraine to contribute to the stability of food prices.”
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NEW YORK — The Russian military says it has struck Ukrainian military facilities with long-range missiles.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in statement on Sunday that the air-launched cruise missiles hit a fuel depot and a defense plant in Lviv near the border with Poland a day earlier.
Konashenkov said another strike with sea-launched missiles destroyed a depot with air defense missiles in Plesetske, just west of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
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ODESA, Ukraine — The Black Sea port of Odesa is mining its beaches and rushing to defend its cultural heritage from a feared Mariupol-style fate in the face of growing alarm that the strategic city might be next as Russia attempts to strip Ukraine of its coastline.
The multi-cultural jewel, dear to Ukrainian hearts and even Russian ones, would be a hugely strategic win for Russia. It is the country’s largest port, crucial to grain and other exports, and headquarters for the Ukrainian navy.
Bombardment from the sea last weekend further raised worries that the city is in Russia’s sights.
Residents say Russian President Vladimir Putin would be insane to take Odesa with the brutal approach that has left other Ukrainian cities in ruins. Once a gilded powerhouse of the Russian empire, Odesa includes one of the finest opera houses in Europe and the famed Potemkin Steps between the city and the sea, featured in Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 silent film masterpiece “Battleship Potemkin.”
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LONDON — The Russian military appears to be trying to encircle Ukrainian forces fighting in the separatist regions in the eastern part of the country, Britain’s Ministry of Defense says.
Russian forces are advancing southward from the area around Kharkiv and north from Mariupol, the ministry said in an intelligence briefing released Sunday morning.
Battlefields in northern Ukraine remain “largely static,” with Ukrainian counterattacks hampering Russian efforts to reorganize their forces, the ministry said.
In an earlier briefing released overnight, the ministry said Russia continued to strike targets across Ukraine, including many in densely populated areas, the ministry said.
Russia is relying on “stand-off” missiles launched from within its own territory to reduce aircraft exposure to Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire, the ministry said. But it said limited stocks of these weapons will force Russia to “revert to less sophisticated missiles or accepting more risk to their aircraft.”
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy angrily warned Moscow that it is sowing a deep hatred for Russia among his people, as constant artillery barrages and aerial bombings are reducing cities to rubble, killing civilians and driving others into shelters, leaving them to scrounge for food and water to survive.
“You are doing everything so that our people themselves leave the Russian language, because the Russian language will now be associated only with you, with your explosions and murders, your crimes,” Zelenskyy said in an impassioned video address late Saturday.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s nuclear watchdog says that a nuclear research facility in Kharkiv again has come under shelling by Russia and the fighting makes it impossible to assess the damage.
The State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate said that the neutron source experimental facility in the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology came under fire Saturday.
Ukrainian authorities have previously reported that Russian shelling damaged buildings at the Kharkiv facility, but there has been no release of radiation. The newly built neutron source facility is intended for the research and production of radioisotopes for medical and industrial needs. The International Atomic Energy Agency has said that the nuclear material in the facility is always subcritical and the inventory of radioactive material is very low, reducing the risks of radiation release.
Kharkiv has been besieged by Russian forces since the start of the invasion and has come under repeated shelling of its residential buildings and critical infrastructure.
Ukraine’s nuclear facilities have been threatened by the Russian invasion.
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LVIV, Ukraine — The governor of the Lviv region says a man was detained on suspicion of espionage at the site of one of the two rocket attacks that rattled the city on Saturday.
Maksym Kozytskyy said police found the man had recorded a rocket flying toward the target and striking it. Police also found on his telephone photos of checkpoints in the region, which Kozytskyy said had been sent to two Russian telephone numbers.
Rockets hit an oil storage facility and an unspecified industrial facility, wounding at least five people. A thick plume of smoke and towering flames could be seen on Lviv’s outskirts hours after the attacks.
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WARSAW, Poland — In a forceful speech in Warsaw denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin and voicing strong support for Ukraine, President Joe Biden also appeared to have a message for his Polish hosts.
Speaking of a “perennial struggle for democracy,” Biden mentioned the rule of law and freedom of the press among the principles that are essential in a free society.
He spoke in a speech attended by President Andrzej Duda and his political allies in the conservative ruling Law and Justice party. Since they won power in 2015, the European Union has accused them of undermining the rule of law in Poland by eroding the independence of the judicial branch of government.
The Polish authorities were also in conflict with Washington last year over legal attempts to silence TVN, a broadcast network owned by U.S. company Discovery. The aim was to strip Discovery of its control of TVN, which produces independent news programs that are critical of the nationalist government.
Duda late last year vetoed the legislation, but concerns about press freedom in Poland remain due to the government’s use of public media as a party mouthpiece.
Biden also paid homage to Poland’s long struggle for democracy in his speech at the Royal Castle, which like most of Warsaw was destroyed by occupying Nazi German forces during World War II and later rebuilt.
He said Warsaw “holds a sacred place in the history of not only of Europe but humankind’s unending search for freedom. For generations, Warsaw has stood where liberty has been challenged and liberty has prevailed.”
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LVIV, Ukraine — Several rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday in what officials say were two separate attacks that occurred the same day President Joe Biden was visiting the capital of Poland, whose border is just 45 miles away.
The powerful explosions frightened a city that had been a haven for hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the Russian assault on other parts of Ukraine.
The regional governor, Maksym Kozytskyy, said on Facebook that preliminary indications were five people were injured in the first attack but did not specify what the two rockets hit. Hours later, he reported three more explosions outside the city, again with no details.
Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi called the second round of explosions a rocket attack, saying it did significant damage to an unspecified “infrastructure object.”
Lviv had been largely spared since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the international airport a week ago.
The back-to-back attacks on Saturday brought a chill to residents and displaced Ukrainians who had seen Lviv as a relatively safe place to rebuild their lives. Home to about 700,000 people before the invasion, the city has absorbed many more.
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LONDON — Britain has seized two jet aircraft belonging to Russian billionaire Eugene Shvidler as Western governments seeking to end the war in Ukraine put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin by targeting the luxury lifestyles of his closest supporters.
Treasury Secretary Grant Shapps said Saturday that the two aircraft would be detained “indefinitely” after three-week investigation that had already grounded the planes. The Times of London described the aircraft as a $45 million Bombardier Global 6500 and a $13 million Cessna Citation Latitude.
“Putin’s friends who made millions out of his regime will not enjoy luxuries whilst innocent people die,” Shapps said on Twitter.
The U.K. froze Shvidler’s U.K. assets last week as it announced a new round of sanctions on Russian companies and wealthy individuals. Shvidler was sanctioned because of his links to those who have backed the war in Ukraine and because he has profited from his support for the Putin regime, the U.K. said.
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LVIV, Ukraine — Air raid sirens sounded Saturday afternoon in the western city of Lviv, and governor of the region Maksym Kozytskyy reported “three powerful explosions near Lviv.” Footage shot by The Associated Press showed thick plumes of smoke rising above the city.
Lviv, a city of over 700,000 roughly 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of Ukraine’s border with Poland, has been largely spared from major Russian attacks in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, the Russian forces fired missiles on a military training center near Lviv, which at the time was the most westward target, and killed 35 people.
Since the beginning of the invasion, Lviv has become a safe harbor for some 200,000 displaced Ukrainians.
The explosions Saturday came as U.S. President Joe Biden was wrapping up a visit to neighboring NATO ally Poland in which he told Poland’s president that “ your freedom is ours.”
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WARSAW — President Joe Biden on Saturday spent time with Ukrainian refugees in Poland as he wrapped up his four-day visit to Europe, marveling at the spirit of their resolve in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of their homeland.
The president listened intently to young Ukrainian children tell them about their parents. He picked up a young Ukrainian girl in a pink coat, smiling broadly and telling her she reminded him of his own granddaughters.
He also held hands and gave hugs to their parents, as he heard their stories during a visit to a stadium in Warsaw where Ukrainian refugees go to obtain a Polish identification number that gives them access to social services such as health care and schools.
Some of the women and children told Biden that they fled for Poland without their husbands and fathers, men of fighting age that were required to remain behind to assist in the fight against Russian forces.
“What I am always surprised by is the depth and strength of the human spirit,” Biden told reporters after his conversations. “Each one of those children said something to the effect of ‘Say a prayer for my dad or grandfather or my brother.’”
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WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s President Andrzej Duda welcomed President Joe Biden’s assurances while visiting the Polish capital on Saturday that NATO would guarantee his country’s security.
He said the assurances were all the more important as Russia is carrying out brutal assaults in Ukraine, just across Poland’s eastern border.
“I think that for us Poles, in the situation we have today, in our part of Europe, in the era of Russian aggression against Ukraine, this is a very important element,” Duda said.
Duda, speaking after meeting Biden, said that he also urged the United States to speed up its planned delivery of weapons to Poland.
Duda noted that under contracts already concluded with the U.S., Poland is set to receive Patriot missile sets, artillery rocket launchers, F-35 fighter jets and 250 Abrams tanks.
“I asked the U.S. president, Joe Biden, to accelerate, as much as possible, those purchasing programs that are already being implemented in order to strengthen our security,” the Polish leader said.
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A Winona, Minnesota man taken into custody by Russian forces in Ukraine has been released, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said.
Tyler Jacob had been detained earlier this month while trying to cross from Ukraine into Turkey. Klobuchar said she reached out to the U.S. State Department and connected with John Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, who discussed the situation with the Russian government.
The 28-year-old Jacob went to Ukraine in November, where he took a job teaching English to be with his longtime girlfriend, a Ukrainian, the Star Tribune reported. The couple married in January and lived in Kherson, a southern port on the Black Sea. Jacob stayed even after Russia invaded last month, but finally decided he should try to get out.
Along with some friends from Turkey, he got on a bus headed for the Turkish border but was taken into custody at a checkpoint in Armiansk.
Jacob is now safe with his wife and daughter and they are all planning to travel to Minnesota. The family declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Jacob’s detainment. Klobuchar said they “want to be really careful” and “at some point ... the whole story will be told.”