Refugees fleeing the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, now under Russian control, are heading to the cities of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro to find safety. In Dnipro, the city has opened a special center to accommodate the newcomers. Yaroslava Movchan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera – Oleksandr Khoroshun.
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Генеральне казначейство Франції внесло віллу Copab в Сен-Тропе до переліку «заморожених» російських активів у Франції
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«Там непроста ситуація… Генеральний штаб уважно моніторить ситуацію і слідкує за тим, що там відбувається»
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«Маячнею» в Кремлі також назвають інформацію, що президент Росії може оголосити мобілізацію 9 травня
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Stanislav Shushkevich, the first leader of an independent Belarus and one of the signatories of the accords that formally dissolved the Soviet Union, has died at the age of 87.
His wife Irina told Agence France-Presse that Shushkevich passed away Tuesday in the capital Minsk. He had been hospitalized in intensive care last month after contracting COVID-19.
The former electrical engineer was serving as interim chairman of the Supreme Soviet, or parliament, of what was then known as Byelorussia when the country voted to secede from the Soviet Union in September 1991, one month after the failed coup to remove then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev from power. Shushkevich was elected permanent chairman of the Supreme Soviet on September 18.
Nearly three months later, on December 8, Shushkevich met then-Russian President Boris Yeltsin and then-President Leonid Kravchuk at a resort in western Belarus and co-signed the Belavezha Accords, which ended the Soviet Union’s existence after nearly 70 years while creating the Commonwealth of Independent States. Gorbachev subsequently resigned as the final leader of the USSR more than two weeks later on Christmas Day.
In an interview with VOA in 2016, Shushkevich dismissed Gorbachev’s accusation that the men signed the accord because they were power hungry as “complete rubbish.”
Shushkevich served as head of state until January 1994, when he was removed by a vote of confidence after he was accused of corruption by Alexander Lukashenko, then chairman of a parliamentary anti-corruption committee. Several months later, Shushkevich came in a distant fourth place in Belarus’ first presidential election behind Lukashenko, who won the second round in a landslide.
Shushkevich became a strident critic of Lukashenko and his autocratic regime, which has remained in power since 1994.
In an interview with VOA in 2016, Shushkevich said the Belavezha Accords averted a civil war in the Soviet Union similar to the one that led to the demise of Yugoslavia. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to restore the old Russian Empire, instead of the Soviet Empire.
“He wants to make Russia dominate those lands and those countries that it used to dominate,” Shushkevich said.
Some information for this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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France’s Socialist Party and the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party reached an agreement in principle on Wednesday to form an alliance for June’s parliamentary election.
The coalition pact, which the Greens and Communists agreed to earlier this week, is an attempt to deprive Macron of a majority in parliament in the June 12-19 vote and block his pro-business agenda, after he was re-elected president in April.
“We can and will beat Emmanuel Macron and we can do it with a majority to govern for a radical program,” LFI lawmaker Adrien Quatennens told Franceinfo radio.
If the agreement between the LFI and the Socialists is confirmed, the French left will be united for the first time in 20 years.
The deal was shaped under the leadership of LFI’s firebrand chief Jean-Luc Melenchon, who broke from the Socialist Party in 2008 after failing to dilute its pro-European Union stance. He wants to “disobey” the bloc’s rules on budget and competition issues and challenge its free-market principles.
A source in the Socialist Party (PS) said that there was agreement on who would run in what constituency and on overall strategy, but that negotiators still needed to finalize details of the joint program itself.
In particular, the wording on what the platform for the new alliance, which will run under the banner of the “Social and Ecological People’s Union,” would say on Europe was still being debated, sources said.
The deal would then need to be approved by the PS’s national committee.
‘Complicated’
Policies of the new alliance include plans to lower the retirement age to 60, raise the minimum wage and cap prices on essential products.
If confirmed Melenchon’s success in striking a deal with the Socialists, so far, the dominant force on the left, would mark a turning point for a party that gave the country two presidents since World War Two and has been a driving force for European integration.
PS veterans, including former party leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis, have already called on fellow members to block the deal, saying it could mark the end of a pro-EU force on the left.
“It will be complicated to get it approved in the national committee,” Corinne Narassiguin, a former PS lawmaker, told Reuters.
But the Socialists had little leeway in the talks. Their candidate, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, garnered a meager 1.75% of votes cast in last month’s presidential ballot. However, they still control many local authorities.
In a sign of the Socialist Party’s collapse, a source close to the talks said the deal — which sees only one lawmaker from each party that joins the alliance run in any constituency — foresees that the PS would only have 70 candidates in mainland France, and possibly a few more in overseas territories.
The French lower house has 577 lawmakers.
A recent Harris Interactive poll showed a united left and an alliance between Macron’s party and the conservatives neck and neck, with each garnering 33% of the legislative vote. However, in France’s two round election system, projections show this could still translate into a majority of seats for Macron.
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Cars stuck on the assembly line. Delays in the delivery of dishwashers, refrigerators and game consoles. Consumers and businesses are feeling the pinch of the semiconductor shortage. The war in Ukraine could make the situation worse. Michelle Quinn reports.
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Як зауважили журналісти, «рупор Кремля» Дмитро Кисельов також майже перестав говорити про «денацифікацію» і у квітні використав це слово раз за увесь випуск програми
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3 травня Верховна Рада законодавчо заборонила діяльність проросійських партій в Україні
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Раніше сьогодні штаб ООС повідомив, що минулої доби армія РФ обстріляла 18 населених пунктів Донбасу, 19 людей загинули
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Австралія однією з перших почала вводити санкції проти Росії після вторгнення російських військ на територію України
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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen unveiled a new package of sanctions that includes a ban on all Russian oil, with crude oil imports stopping within six months and imports of refined products by the end of the year.
The package must be unanimously approved by EU members.
“Let’s be clear, it will not be easy because some member states are strongly dependent on Russian oil, but we simply have to do it,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament.
She said the phased approach would allow for EU members to find alternatives to Russian imports and blunt negative effects on the global energy markets, helping to maximize pressure on Russia while minimizing collateral economic damage.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed for more extensive European actions to cut off imports of Russian energy, and said earlier this week that a new EU package “should include clear steps to block Russia’s revenues from energy resources.”
The proposed EU sanctions also include removing Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, from the international SWIFT transaction and messaging system, and listing high-ranking military officers “who committed war crimes in Bucha and those responsible for the inhuman siege of Mariupol.”
“This sends another important signal to all perpetrators of the Kremlin: We know who you are, we will hold you accountable, you are not getting away with this,” von der Leyen said.
She added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “must pay a high price for his brutal aggression.”
“Putin wanted to wipe out Ukraine from the map and he will clearly not succeed. On the contrary. Ukraine has risen in bravery and in unity, and it is his own country, Russia, that Putin is sinking,” von der Leyen said.
Inside Ukraine, Russia intensified its shelling in the eastern and southern parts of the country, actions that Zelenskyy characterized as Russian forces reacting “with great anger to our successes.”
“The sheer scale of today’s shelling clearly does not indicate that Russia has any special sort of specific military aim,” he said in a Tuesday evening address.
Russia’s targets included the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, where the last remaining Ukrainian troops have been holed up in the Azovstal steel plant along with several hundred civilians.
The United Nations said Tuesday that 101 people had been safely evacuated from the site and taken, along with other civilians from the town of Manhush, to the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, about 230 kilometers northwest of Mariupol where they are receiving initial humanitarian assistance and health care.
Osnat Lubrani, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said she was “pleased and relieved” that the civilians, including older men and women and children, had been evacuated from Azovstal plant.
“Over the past days, traveling with the evacuees, I have heard mothers, children and frail grandparents speak about the trauma of living day after day under unrelenting heavy shelling and the fear of death, and with extreme lack of water, food, and sanitation,” Lubrani said.
“They spoke of the hell they have experienced since this war started, seeking refuge in the Azovstal plant, many being separated from family members whose fate they still don’t know,” she said. “I saw the tears of joy as family members trapped in different parts of the plant for two months were reunited.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss discussed support for Ukraine in a telephone call. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the diplomats talked about “additional security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and continued transatlantic unity,” as well as “economic consequences for those who continue to provide financial or material support that aids the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.”
Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters.
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The European Union considered new sanctions against Russia on Wednesday, including measures targeting Russia’s oil and banking industries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed for more extensive European actions to cut off imports of Russian energy, and said earlier this week that a new EU package “should include clear steps to block Russia’s revenues from energy resources.”
Inside Ukraine, Russia intensified its shelling in the eastern and southern parts of the country, actions that Zelenskyy characterized as Russian forces reacting “with great anger to our successes.”
“The sheer scale of today’s shelling clearly does not indicate that Russia has any special sort of specific military aim,” he said in a Tuesday evening address.
Russia’s targets included the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, where the last remaining Ukrainian troops have been holed up in the Azovstal steel plant along with several hundred civilians.
The United Nations said Tuesday that 101 people had been safely evacuated from the site and taken, along with other civilians from the town of Manhush, to the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia, about 230 kilometers northwest of Mariupol where they are receiving humanitarian assistance and health care.
Osnat Lubrani, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said she was “pleased and relieved” that the civilians, including older men and women and children, had been evacuated from Azovstal plant.
“Over the past days, traveling with the evacuees, I have heard mothers, children and frail grandparents speak about the trauma of living day after day under unrelenting heavy shelling and the fear of death, and with extreme lack of water, food, and sanitation,” Lubrani said.
“They spoke of the hell they have experienced since this war started, seeking refuge in the Azovstal plant, many being separated from family members whose fate they still don’t know,” she said. “I saw the tears of joy as family members trapped in different parts of the plant for two months were reunited.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss discussed support for Ukraine in a telephone call. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the diplomats talked about “additional security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and continued transatlantic unity,” as well as “economic consequences for those who continue to provide financial or material support that aids the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.”
Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Press and Reuters.
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За понад два місяці російські загарбники вбили понад двадцять українських та іноземних журналістів
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«Повідомлення, які ми отримуємо від високого керівництва, вказують, що обладнання йде, куди потрібно»
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Найближчими днями очікується додаткове обговорення, під час якого мають розглянути перелік того, що можна відправити в Україну
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Володимир Зеленський вважає, що «чим більше таких ударів, тим далі Росія від цивілізації, від того, що називається цивілізованістю»
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