Explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Friday as Russian forces pressed on with a full-scale invasion that resulted in the deaths of at least 137 Ukrainians in the first day of fighting. The attack on Kyiv as the war entered its second day is part of what Western officials suspect is a brazen attempt by Russian President Vladimir Putin to dismantle the Ukrainian government and replace it with his own regime. Follow our liveblog for updates on the latest developments.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba condemned Russia for “horrific rocket strikes” that shook the capital Kyiv in the early hours of Friday morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Friday that Russian “sabotage groups” have entered Kyiv and urged citizens to remain vigilant.

Zelensky declared a general mobilisation early Friday morning local time, calling up conscripts and reservists nationwide to fight invading Russian forces.

Zelensky said 137 Ukrainians, both military and civilian, were killed and 316 wounded in the first day of fighting.

Russian troops fought with Ukrainian forces Thursday for control of military installations across the country. The Russian army claimed to have destroyed 74 military facilities, including 11 airfields in Ukraine, while a Ukrainian official said Russian forces had captured the Chernobyl former nuclear power plant, just 90 km north of Kyiv.

Zelensky has promised to resist the invasion, saying a “new iron curtain” now separates Russia from the rest of the world.

Source: France 24

Russian troops launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, as President Vladimir Putin cast aside international condemnation and sanctions and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere would lead to “consequences you have never seen”. World leaders decried the start of a long-anticipated invasion with far-reaching consequences and reports of casualties on both sides. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday announced a military operation in Ukraine, in a surprise televised address shortly before 6am local time. He warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with Russia’s invasion would lead to “consequences they have never seen”.

Explosions were heard in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and other Ukrainian cities. Interfax Ukraine reported rocket attacks on military facilities throughout the country, as well as staff and passengers evacuating Kyiv’s Boryspil airport.

US President Joe Biden, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, French President Emmanuel Macron and other international leaders swiftly condemned the attack.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky released an emotional video address early Thursday morning local time, appealing to Russians not to support a “major war in Europe”.

The EU on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu and military chiefs as part of a package of measures over the Kremlin’s recognition of two separatist Ukrainian regions as independent.

Source: France 24

President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into two Moscow-backed rebel regions of Ukraine on Monday, defying Western threats of sanctions in a move that could set off a potentially catastrophic war with Kyiv. 

Earlier, the Kremlin leader had recognised the independence of two rebel-held areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine, paving the way for an operation to deploy part of the potential invasion force he has massed around the country.

In two official decrees, Putin instructed the defence ministry to assume “the function of peacekeeping” in the separatist-held regions.

The recognition of the breakaway republics, which form an enclave held by Russia-backed rebels since 2014, triggered international condemnation and a promise of targeted sanctions from the United States and the European Union – with a broader package of economic punishment to come in the event of invasion.

As news of the late-night recognition hit the streets of Kyiv, many were in disbelief, but ready to defend their country if called on.

‘Scariest news’ in 8 years

“I am very shocked,” Artem Ivaschenko, a 22-year-old cook originally from Donetsk, told AFP in the capital, calling the recognition the “scariest news” since he had fled the region eight years ago.

“I live here, I already lost a part of my homeland, it was taken away, so I will protect it.”

After a flurry of calls, US President Joe Biden, France’s Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned that Moscow’s gambit “would not go unanswered”.

The US announced its first sanctions, with the White House saying Biden will issue an executive order to “prohibit new investment, trade, and financing by US persons to, from, or in” the two rebel regions.

A French presidential official said the European Union was preparing a list of Russian entities and individuals to sanction in a “proportionate” response to the recognition.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky convened a meeting of his national security council and was due to make a speech later in the night.   

Earlier, in an often angry 65-minute televised national address from his Kremlin office, Putin railed against ex-Soviet neighbour Ukraine as a failed state and “puppet” of the West, repeatedly suggesting it was essentially part of Russia.

He accused the authorities in Kyiv of persecuting Russian speakers and of preparing a “blitzkrieg” against the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk in Ukraine’s east.

“As for those who seized and hold power in Kyiv, we demand an immediate end to their military operations,” Putin said.

“Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of bloodshed will be fully on the conscience of the regime in power in Ukraine.”

Putin said it was necessary to “take a long overdue decision, to immediately recognise the independence” of the two regions.

He then signed partnership agreements with the rebels that declared the presence of Russian military forces “necessary to maintain peace… and ensure reliable security.”

EU ‘will react with sanctions’

The recognition effectively puts an end to an already shaky peace plan in the separatist conflict, which has rumbled on since 2014, after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine, and has left more than 14,000 dead.

Russia will now deploy troops with the support of separatist officials and Ukraine will either have to accept the loss of a huge chunk of territory or face an armed conflict against its vastly more powerful neighbour.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called the move “a flagrant violation of the sovereignty and integrity of the Ukraine”, with the UK cabinet’s emergency COBR committee due to meet Tuesday and foreign minister Liz Truss promising “new sanctions on Russia.”

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel promised the bloc “will react with sanctions against those involved in this illegal act”.

The United States and allies including France requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council later Monday.

Putin told his Security Council earlier Monday that there were “no prospects” for the 2015 Minsk peace accords aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict.

‘Very big threat’ to Russia

And he made clear the stakes were bigger than Ukraine, whose efforts to join NATO and the European Union have deeply angered Moscow.

“The use of Ukraine as an instrument of confrontation with our country poses a serious, very big threat to us,” Putin said.

The dramatic meeting – with Putin sitting alone at a desk as his government, military and security chiefs took turns addressing him from a podium – came after weeks of tensions between Moscow and the West over Ukraine.

Western leaders warned that Russia was planning to invade its pro-Western neighbour after massing more than 150,000 troops on its borders, a claim Moscow repeatedly denied.

Tensions then spiked in recent days after an outbreak of heavy shellfire on Ukraine’s eastern frontline with the separatists and a series of reported incidents on the border with Russia.

Monitors from the OSCE European security body on Monday reported more than 3,000 new ceasefire violations in east Ukraine the day before, a high for the year.

Ukrainian officials said two soldiers and a civilian died in more shelling of frontline villages Monday.

Source: AFP

A judge ruled Thursday that former US president Donald Trump must testify under oath in New York’s civil probe into alleged fraudulent practices at his family business.

The ruling is the latest legal blow to Trump as he fights numerous cases that threaten to complicate any bid for another run at the White House in 2024.

State Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, to comply with subpoenas issued by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

He said the three must sit for depositions within 21 days. The Trumps are expected to appeal.

Earlier during oral arguments, the Trumps’ lawyers said that the subpoenas should be quashed because having them give evidence in the civil case would prejudice their rights in a parallel criminal investigation.

Engoron said their argument “completely misses the mark,” noting that neither the Manhattan District Attorney, which is running the criminal investigation, nor James’s office have ordered the Trumps to appear before a grand jury.

In his ruling, Engoron added that the Trumps could invoke their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves during questioning in the civil case.

He noted that Trump’s other son, Eric, had pleaded the fifth “more than 500 times” during a deposition for James’s investigation in October 2020.

James, a Democrat, announced in January that her investigation into the Trump Organization had uncovered “significant evidence” of fraudulent or misleading practices.

She said that the civil inquiry had found that the Trump Organization fraudulently overvalued multiple assets to secure loans and then undervalued them to minimize taxes.

The Trumps have claimed the investigation is politically motivated and has urged the court to quash subpoenas against the three.

If James finds evidence of financial misconduct she can sue the Trump Organization for damages but cannot file criminal charges.

The probe, however, is running alongside a very similar criminal investigation by the Manhattan district attorney for possible financial crimes and insurance fraud.

In July last year, the Trump Organization and its long-serving finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty in a New York court to 15 felony fraud and tax evasion charges.

His trial is due to begin in the middle of this year.

Trump, 75, has so far kept the electorate and commentators guessing about whether he intends to seek the Republican nomination again.

Source: AFP

Donald Trump’s longtime accountants have ditched the former US president as a client, saying a decade’s worth of financial statements could not be relied upon, court documents showed Monday.

Mazars informed the Trump Organization in a letter last Wednesday that it would no longer work for the company, which is being probed by New York prosecutors for alleged fraud.

The letter was revealed in court by New York state attorney general Letitia James as she asked a judge to force Trump to comply with subpoenas seeking testimony in her investigation.

James announced last month that her civil inquiry into Trump’s family firm had uncovered “significant evidence” of misleading business practices, including the fraudulent valuation of assets.

Mazars wrote that James’s findings had contributed towards it deciding that accounts for Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 to June 30, 2020 “should no longer be relied upon.”

The accounting firm added that an investigation of its own and “information received from internal and external sources” had also played a part in it reaching that conclusion.

“While we have not concluded that the various financial statements, as a whole, contain material discrepancies, based upon the totality of the circumstances, we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,” it said.

The letter added that in part because of the decision regarding the statements, Mazars “are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”

The financial records are at the heart of James’s investigation and a criminal probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

The twin inquiries are investigating whether the Trump Organization defrauded lenders into providing favourable loans.

James, a Democrat, said in January that her ongoing inquiry had found that the Trump Organization fraudulently overvalued multiple assets to secure loans and then undervalued them to minimise taxes.

She said the company had “misrepresented” the valuation of assets to financial institutions including the Internal Revenue Service, banks and insurers for “economic benefit.”

Parallel investigations

If James finds evidence of financial misconduct she can sue the Trump Organization for damages but cannot file criminal charges.

The probe, however, is running alongside a similar criminal investigation by the Manhattan DA for possible financial crimes and insurance fraud.

Last July the Trump Organization and its long-serving finance chief, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded not guilty to 15 felony fraud and tax evasion charges.

The DA’s office in January 2021 finally received roughly eight years of Trump tax returns from Mazars following a marathon legal battle that went to the Supreme Court.

Trump has slammed both probes as politically motivated.

A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said in a statement Monday evening that they were “disappointed” by Mazars’ decision to cut ties.

The firm’s “letter confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies,” the spokesperson said, calling both investigations in New York therefore “moot.”

In her filing Monday, James repeated her request that the former president, Donald Trump Jr, and Ivanka Trump give evidence under oath. Her office has already questioned Eric Trump.

The legal woes could make a second White House run more difficult for the 75-year-old Trump, who has kept Americans guessing about his plans.

Source: AFP

North America’s busiest trade link reopened for traffic late Sunday evening, ending a six-day blockade, Canada Border Services Agency said, after Canadian police cleared the protesters fighting to end COVID-19 restrictions.

Canadian police made several arrests on Sunday and cleared protesters and vehicles that occupied the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ontario, after a court order on Friday.

The blockade had choked the supply chain for Detroit’s carmakers, forcing Ford Motor Co, the second-largest U.S. automaker, General Motors Co and Toyota Motor Corp to cut production.

The bridge carries about $360 million a day in two-way cargoes – 25% of the value of all U.S.-Canada goods trade. A Windsor Police official told reporters that 20 to 30 arrests had been made. Police also seized vehicles within the demonstration area, according to an earlier statement.

Police stepped up their presence on Sunday with more than 50 vehicles, including cruisers, buses and an armoured car, as the number of protesters dropped to around 45 from roughly 100 on Saturday. Windsor Police tweeted “there will be zero tolerance for illegal activity”.

In Ottawa, counter protests started blocking vehicles trying to join the protests on Sunday, with residents losing patience over the three-week-old demonstrations.

In the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the Pacific highway border crossing in Surrey was temporarily closed on Sunday afternoon, for a second day, by a group of about 200 protesters, according to a Reuters photographer on the scene. A small group of protesters gathered on the U.S. side of the border, blocking incoming vehicles.

The “Freedom Convoy” protests, started in the national capital Ottawa by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, entered its 17th day on Sunday. But it has now morphed into a rallying point against broader COVID-19 curbs, carbon tax and other issues, with people joining in cars, pick-up trucks and farm vehicles.

“We’re fed up, we’re tired. We want Ottawa to be boring again,” said an Ottawa resident at a counter protest in front of the city’s police headquarters.

The Canadian government had discussed whether to invoke special emergency powers to deal with the protests in the capital, Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair told CBC News on Sunday. Blair said the lack of police enforcement in Ottawa was “inexplicable.”

The rarely used Emergencies Act would allow the federal government to override the provinces and authorize special temporary measures to ensure security during national emergencies anywhere in the country. It has only been used once in peacetime – by Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – in 1970.

Strangling bilateral trade, protests have spread to three border points, including in Alberta and Manitoba. Canadian police have said the protests have been partly funded by U.S. supporters, and Ontario froze funds donated via one U.S. platform GiveSendGo on Thursday.

The estimated loss so far from the blockades to the auto industry alone could be as high as $850 million, based on IHS Markit’s data, which puts the 2021 daily flow in vehicles and parts at $141.1 million a day.

“Today, our national economic crisis at the Ambassador Bridge came to an end,” Windsor City Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a tweet.

In Europe, a convoy of 150 cars protesting COVID-19 restrictions left Paris on Sunday morning and headed towards Brussels, protesters told Reuters.

Source: REUTERS

The US general in charge of American forces in the West Asia region has arrived in the United Arab Emirates after a string of Yemeni counterstrikes that caught Abu Dhabi off-guard.

Marine General Frank McKenzie, the head of the United States Central Command, traveled to the Emirates on Sunday ahead of the schedule, after Yemen’s defense forces carried out at least three rounds of retaliatory attacks against the UAE’s sensitive spots in the space of a single month.

“I think it’s a very worrisome time for UAE. They’re looking for support. We’re here to help them to provide that support,” McKenzie said shortly before landing in Abu Dhabi, Reuters reported.

Queen Elizabeth II made a rare public appearance on Saturday, chatting and cutting cake at a party, a day before she enters her 70th year as monarch.

The 95-year-old Queen has rarely appeared in public and has cancelled major engagements since spending a night in hospital for tests last October.

Wearing a blue dress and pearls, the Queen talked to people from local community and volunteer groups at a morning reception at her Sandringham residence in Norfolk in eastern England.

She is about to mark a major milestone in her reign, as Sunday will be the 70th anniversary of the day her father, King George VI, died, and she became queen aged 25.

The nation will take part in Platinum Jubilee celebrations this summer including a four-day weekend.

On Saturday, the Queen cut a cake with the Jubilee emblem iced on top and received a posy of flowers at the reception in Sandringham’s Ballroom, which included a band playing the song “Congratulations”.

The guests included Angela Wood, a woman who helped create the recipe for coronation chicken, first served at a banquet in 1953.

Wood told the BBC in January that she helped fine-tune the recipe for the bright yellow dish of chicken, boned and coated in a curry cream sauce, while a 19-year-old student at a Cordon Bleu cookery school.

The Queen was also photographed out walking out at Sandringham. She has used a stick in public appearances since October, but royal officials said it was not linked to any specific health condition.

The Queen traditionally spends her Accession Day at Sandringham, where her father died of cancer while she was on a visit to Kenya.

She is set to become the first UK monarch to reign for 70 years.

Source: AFP

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has slammed protests that took place in the capital Ottawa to demand an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Supporters of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” rallied in Ottawa on Monday for the third consecutive day to protest against a vaccine requirement for cross-border truckers.

The protests have been largely peaceful but investigations have been opened into some incidents, including a video showing a woman dancing on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the National War Memorial.

Some participants in the protest likened the COVID-19 restrictions to Jews under Nazi persecution, using Nazi symbols on protest signs.

The incidents drew condemnation from Trudeau, who refused to meet the protesters, describing them as “an insult to memory and truth”.

“Freedom of expression, assembly and association are cornerstones of democracy, but Nazi symbolism, racist imagery and desecration of war memorials are not.”

“This is not the story of our pandemic, our country, our people,” the premiere said, adding that his focus was on “standing with Canadians and getting through this pandemic.”

Candice Bergen, deputy leader of the Conservative Party, said the demonstrators represented millions who “have had enough of lockdowns and broken promises”.

“They deserve to be heard and they deserve respect,” she said in a tweet.

The supporters of the “Freedom Convoy” see the coronavirus health measures as government overreach of COVID-19 restrictions, demanding an end to all vaccine mandates nationwide.

Source: Presstv

North Korea conducted its largest missile test since 2017 on Sunday, sending a suspected intermediate-range ballistic missile soaring into space, seen as taking the nuclear-armed country a step closer to resuming long-range testing.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that a projectile believed to be a single ballistic missile was launched about 7:52 a.m. (2252 GMT) from North Korea’s Jagang Province toward the ocean off its east coast.

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC), which convened a rare emergency meeting presided over by President Moon Jae-in, said the test appeared to involve an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM), which North Korea has not tested since 2017.

The launch takes North Korea a step closer to fully scrapping a self-imposed moratorium on testing its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), Moon said.

He noted that this month’s flurry of missile tests was reminiscent of the heightened tensions in 2017, when North Korea conducted multiple nuclear tests and launched its largest missiles, including some that flew over Japan.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said he is no longer bound by that moratorium, which included a stop to nuclear weapons tests and was announced in 2018 amid a flurry of diplomacy and summits with then-U.S. President Donald Trump.

North Korea’s rulers suggested  this month they could restart those testing activities because the United States and its allies had shown no sign of dropping their “hostile policies.”

“The United States condemns these actions and calls on (North Korea) to refrain from further destabilizing acts,” the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement after Sunday’s launch.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said the launch demonstrates the threat posed by North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes, and called on Pyongyang to engage in “sustained and substantive” dialogue.

Bigger missiles

It is unclear if IRBMs were included in Kim’s moratorium, but those, too, have not been tested since 2017.

South Korea’s JCS and Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno separately said the missile is estimated to have reached an altitude of 2,000km and flown for 30 minutes to a distance of 800km. IRBMs typically have ranges of 600 to 3,500 miles, while ICBMs have ranges exceeding 3,500 miles.

Missile experts said the data could indicate a test of an IRBM such as the Hwasong-12, which was last tested in 2017, or a new type.

“Regardless of whether it’s a IRBM or ICBM, this is a strategic missile of some sort and clearly not the same as the prior tests in the January 2022 test series to date,” George William Herbert, an adjunct professor at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a missile consultant, said on Twitter.

The launch could make January the busiest ever for North Korea’s missile programme, which analysts say is expanding and developing new capabilities despite strict sanctions and United Nations Security Council resolutions that ban the country’s ballistic missile tests.

Its latest launches included a test of two short-range ballistic missiles and their warheads on Thursday, and an updated long-range cruise missile system tested on Tuesday.

‘Ramping up tests’

The test comes less than a week before the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, which is North Korea’s main political and economic partner. Pyongyang has said it would be skipping the Games because of the COVID-19 pandemic and “hostile forces.”

“Kim seems to be ramping up tests in bid to pressure both Washington and Beijing over sanctions just ahead of the Olympics,” said Uk Yang, research fellow at Center for Foreign Policy and National Security.

The tests would also appear to be the final nail in the coffin for Moon’s last-ditch push for a peace deal with North Korea before he leaves office in May, Uk added.

“It’s clear that North Korea is saying inter-Korean relations will need to start from scratch,” he said.

In an address ahead of the New Year, Kim Jong Un called for bolstering the military with cutting-edge technology at a time when talks with South Korea and the United States have stalled.

Since then, North Korea has tested a dizzying array of weapon types, launch locations, and increasing sophistication as denuclearisation talks remain stalled.

Jagang Province was the site of two launches this month of what North Korea said was a “hypersonic missile,” which could reach high speeds while flying and maneuvering at relatively low altitudes, but the ranges reported on Sunday were higher and farther than those earlier tests.

“The ballistic missile launch and the ones before it are a threat to our country, the region and the international community,” Matsuno said. “This series of launches violate U.N. resolutions and we strongly protest this action by North Korea.”

South Korea’s NSC condemned the launch as a violation of the resolutions and a challenge to international peace efforts, using stronger language than previous tests, when it typically expressed “strong regret.”

The tests appear aimed at modernizing North Korea’s military, bolstering national pride ahead of several major North Korean holidays, and sending a message of strength as the country grapples with economic crises caused by sanctions and COVID-19 lockdowns, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul.

“The Kim regime hears external discussions of its domestic weaknesses and sees South Korea’s growing strength,” he said.

“So it wants to remind Washington and Seoul that trying to topple it would be too costly.”

Kim visited a munitions factory last week, where he called for “an all-out drive” to produce “powerful cutting-edge arms,” and its workers touted his devotion to “smashing … the challenges of the U.S. imperialists and their vassal forces” seeking to violate their right to self-defence.

Source: REUTERS