23, April 2022
War in Ukraine: Latest developments 0
Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
Mariupol evacuation
Ukraine will make a new attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, the devastated port city now largely controlled by Russian forces, from noon on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk says.
“Today we will again try to evacuate women, children and the elderly,” Vereshchuk says on Telegram.
UN chief to meet Putin, Zelensky
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine next week after a stop in Moscow to confer with President Vladimir Putin, UN says.
Guterres will see Zelensky and Ukraine’s foreign minister on Thursday, two days after visiting Moscow.
Russia breaks silence on sunken cruiser
Russia reveals that one crew member died and 27 were missing after the Moskva missile cruiser sank last week, Moscow’s first admission of the losses following the tragedy.
“As a result of a fire on April 13, the Moskva missile cruiser was seriously damaged due to the detonation of ammunition,” the defence ministry says in a statement.
Thales accusation
A senior Ukrainian official accuses French defence electronics company Thales of violating European sanctions and selling Russia equipment that was used to kill civilians fleeing recent fighting outside Kyiv, claims strongly denied by the company.
“A family was trying to escape but was killed by Russian murderers,” tweets presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak. “Killed, as it is now proved, with French weapons sold in circumvention of sanctions in 2015.”
Russia jails opposition leader
Russian authorities declare opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza a “foreign agent” and order his pre-trial detention for allegedly spreading false information about the Russian army amid its military campaign in Ukraine.
Moscow’s Basmanny district court orders that the 40-year-old Kremlin opponent be held in jail until June 12.
US meeting on Ukraine long-term security
The Pentagon invites 40 allies to meet in Germany next week to discuss Ukraine’s longer-term security needs.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby says defence ministers and senior generals of 20 countries, NATO and non-NATO members, have already accepted the invitation for the Tuesday meeting in Germany.
Mariupol forces urged to surrender
Russia’s defence ministry says it is ready for a humanitarian ceasefire at the Azovstal steel plant if Kyiv’s soldiers holed up there surrender.
“All servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces, militants of the national battalions and foreign mercenaries who laid down their arms are guaranteed life, decent treatment in accordance with international law, and the provision of quality medical care,” Putin says, adding: “But the Kyiv regime is not allowing for this opportunity to be used.”
Source: AFP
23, April 2022
Mali army discovers mass grave near former French base 0
Malian troops have discovered a mass grave close to military base French forces handed back to the Malian army just days ago in Gossi.
The Gossi military base in the north of the country was handed over to the Forces Armées Maliennes (FAMa) on Tuesday as part of the French forces’ planned exit from the country.
Paris plans to end its failed almost decade-long military operation under the pretext of eradicating terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the Sahel country.
The army general staff revealed in a statement that “bodies in a state of advanced putrefaction were discovered in a mass grave, not far from the camp formerly occupied by the French force Barkhane.”
“The state of advanced putrefaction of the bodies indicates that this mass grave existed well before the handover. Consequently, the responsibility for this act can in no way be attributed to the FAMa,” the statement said.
The defense ministry has been assigned to conduct an investigation into the mass killings.
France and the United States were quick to blame Russian forces deployed in Mali for the killings.
The French army claimed Russian fighters buried bodies near the Gossi base with the intention of framing the French for the killings, according to French and American news agencies.
Leaders of West Africa’s Sahel region have abandoned their hopes in purported counter-terrorism efforts by France and started negotiating with armed militants to bring peace to the restive region.
France’s exit from Mali came as swathes of territory remained under the control of rebel militants linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The Sahel, a semi-arid stretch of land south of the Sahara desert, has been in turmoil since 2012, when a number of armed separatists started targeting the local population in Mali.
As a former colonial power seeking significant military presence in Africa, France decided to send thousands of soldiers in 2013 to try to prevent separatist forces from reaching Mali’s capital, Bamako.
France increased the number of its forces in the Sahel from 600 to 5,100 soldiers for its Operation Barkhane last year.
However, the military boost failed to bring the situation under control and the UN also deployed its peacekeeping forces to the region.
Militant groups with links to al-Qaeda and Daesh have strengthened their foothold across the region.
This has made the territory ungovernable, stoking ethnic violence, especially in neighboring countries Mali and Burkina Faso. The French Barkhane force is also involved in Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, and Mauritania.
Culled from Presstv