KYIV, Nov 22 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to Ukrainians to preserve vitality amid relentless Russian strikes which have halved the nation’s power capacity, as the United Nations well being physique warned of a humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine this winter.

Authorities stated thousands and thousands of Ukrainians, together with within the capital Kyiv, may face power cuts not less than till the top of March because of the missile assaults, which Ukraine’s nationwide grid operator Ukrenergo stated had wreaked “colossal” injury.

Temperatures have been unseasonably gentle in Ukraine this autumn, however are beginning to dip under zero and are anticipated to drop to -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) and even decrease in some areas through the winter months.

Russia’s focusing on of Ukrainian vitality amenities follows a sequence of battlefield setbacks which have included a pullout of Russian forces from the southern metropolis of Kherson to the east financial institution of the mighty Dnipro River that bisects the nation.

“The systematic damage to our energy system from strikes by the Russian terrorists is so considerable that all our people and businesses should be mindful and redistribute their consumption throughout the day,” Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video deal with.

Ukrenergo’s chief Volodymyr Kudrytskyi stated on Tuesday that virtually no thermal or hydroelectric stations had been left unscathed, although he dismissed the necessity to evacuate civilians.

“We cannot generate as much energy as consumers can use,” Kudrytskyi instructed a briefing, including that after a short chilly snap on Wednesday temperatures had been anticipated to rise once more, offering a possibility to stabilise the power producing system.

‘DARKEST DAYS’

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated tons of of Ukrainian hospitals and healthcare amenities lacked gasoline, water and electrical energy to fulfill individuals’s primary wants.

“Ukraine’s health system is facing its darkest days in the war so far. Having endured more than 700 attacks, it is now also a victim of the energy crisis,” Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, stated in an announcement after visiting Ukraine.

Workers are racing to restore broken power infrastructure, in line with Sergey Kovalenko, the pinnacle of YASNO, which supplies vitality for Kyiv.

“Stock up on warm clothes, blankets, think about options that will help you get through a long outage,” Kovalenko stated. “It’s better to do it now than to be miserable.”

In a Telegram message for Kherson residents – particularly the aged, ladies with kids and people who are ailing or disabled – Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk posted various methods residents can specific curiosity in leaving.

“You can be evacuated for the winter period to safer regions of the country,” she wrote.

Russia’s strikes on vitality infrastructure are a consequence of Kyiv being unwilling to barter, the state information company TASS quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying final week.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak stated Russia was bombarding Kherson from throughout the Dnipro River now that its troops had fled. “There is no military logic: they just want to take revenge on the locals,” he tweeted late on Monday.

Ukraine’s Suspilne information company reported contemporary explosions in Kherson metropolis on Tuesday.

Moscow denies deliberately focusing on civilians in what it calls a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of nationalists and defend Russian-speaking communities.

Kyiv and the West describe Russia’s actions as an unprovoked, imperialist land seize within the neighbouring state it as soon as dominated inside the former Soviet Union.

The nine-month warfare has killed tens of hundreds of individuals, uprooted thousands and thousands and pummelled the worldwide economic system, driving up meals and vitality costs. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) stated on Tuesday the world’s worst vitality disaster because the Seventies would set off a pointy slowdown, with Europe hit hardest.

Meanwhile Ukraine on Tuesday acquired a brand new 2.5 billion euro ($2.57 billion) tranche of economic help from the European Union, Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko stated.

RAID ON MONASTERY

Ukraine’s SBU safety service and police raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv early on Tuesday as a part of operations to counter suspected “subversive activities by Russian special services”, the SBU stated.

The sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complicated – or Monastery of the Caves – is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that falls underneath the Moscow Patriarchate.

Russia’s Orthodox Church condemned the raid as an “act of intimidation”.

Battles continued to rage within the east, the place Russia has despatched among the forces it shifted from round Kherson within the south, urgent an offensive of its personal alongside a stretch of frontline west of town of Donetsk held by its proxies since 2014.

“The enemy does not stop shelling the positions of our troops and settlements near the contact line (in the Donetsk region),” Ukraine’s armed forces General Staff stated on Tuesday.

“Attacks continue to damage critical infrastructure and civilian homes.”

Four individuals had been killed and 4 others wounded in Ukraine-controlled areas of the Donetsk area over the previous 24 hours, regional governor Pavlo Kyryleno stated on the Telegram messaging app.

Russian shelling additionally hit a humanitarian help distribution centre within the city of Orihiv in southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday, killing a volunteer and wounding two ladies, the regional governor stated.

Orihiv is about 110 km (70 miles) east of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station which has been shelled once more up to now few days, with Russia and Ukraine buying and selling blame for the blasts.

Experts of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) toured the location on Monday. The company, which has repeatedly referred to as for an instantaneous cessation of hostilities within the space to keep away from a significant catastrophe, stated the specialists discovered widespread injury however nothing that compromised the plant’s important techniques.

The Kremlin stated on Tuesday that no substantive progress had been made in the direction of making a safety zone across the nuclear reactor complicated, Europe’s largest.

Reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar and Maria Starkova in Kyiv, Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg; Writing by Shri Navaratnam and Gareth Jones; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Alex Richardson and Mark Heinrich

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AMSTERDAM, Nov 17 (Reuters) – Dutch judges convicted two Russian males and a Ukrainian man in absentia of homicide for their function in the capturing down of Flight MH17 over Ukraine in 2014 with the loss of 298 passengers and crew, and handed them life sentences.

Ukraine welcomed the ruling, which could have implications for different court instances Kyiv has filed in opposition to Russia, whereas Moscow known as the ruling “scandalous” and stated it could not extradite its residents.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam and was sure for Kuala Lumpur when it was shot down over jap Ukraine on July 17, 2014, as preventing raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of this yr’s battle.

The ruling got here as a reduction to victims’ members of the family, greater than 200 of whom attended the court in particular person, wiping away tears because the judgement was learn.

“Only the most severe punishment is fitting to retaliate for what the suspects have done, which has caused so much suffering to so many victims and so many surviving relatives,” Presiding Judge Hendrik Steenhuis stated.

The three males convicted have been former Russian intelligence brokers Igor Girkin and Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko, a Ukrainian separatist chief.

The three have been all discovered to have helped to prepare the transport into Ukraine of the Russian army BUK missile system that was used to shoot down the aircraft, although they weren’t those that bodily pulled the set off.

They are fugitives and believed to be in Russia. A fourth former suspect, Russian Oleg Pulatov, was acquitted on all costs.

The incident in 2014 left the aircraft’s wreckage and victims’ stays scattered throughout fields of corn and sunflowers.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February and claims to have annexed the Donetsk province the place the aircraft was shot down.

“The families of victims wanted the truth and they wanted justice to be done and those responsible to be punished and that is what happened. I am pretty satisfied,” Piet Ploeg, who heads a basis representing victims, advised Reuters. Ploeg’s brother, his brother’s spouse and his nephew died on MH17.

Meryn O’Brien of Australia, who misplaced her 25-year outdated son Jack, stated she felt relieved. “Everyone was relieved the process has come to an end, and it is very fair, and it has been meticulous.”

“There’s no celebration,” stated Jordan Withers of Britain, whose uncle Glenn Thomas died. “Nothing is going to bring any of the victims back.” They got here from 10 totally different international locations.

The judgment included a 16 million euro damages award.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the primary sentences handed down over MH17 as an “important decision” by the court in The Hague.

“But it is necessary that those who ordered it also end up in the dock because the feeling of impunity leads to new crimes,” he wrote on Twitter. “We have to dispel this illusion. Punishment for all Russian atrocities – both then and now – will be inevitable.”

The ruling discovered that Russia had “overall control” over the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine from mid May 2014.

“This is groundbreaking,” stated Marieke de Hoon, assistant professor of worldwide legislation at Amsterdam University. The ruling was “authoritative” and would doubtless increase Ukraine’s different worldwide instances in opposition to Russia relating to the 2014 battle.

‘NO REASONABLE DOUBT’

Judge Steenhuis stated there was ample proof from eyewitness testimony and images which tracked the missile system’s actions into and again out of Ukraine to Russia.

“There is no reasonable doubt” that MH17 was shot down by a Russian missile system, Steenhuis stated.

Moscow denies any involvement or accountability for MH17’s downing and in 2014 it additionally denied any presence in Ukraine.

In a press release, the Russian overseas ministry stated “throughout the trial the court was under unprecedented pressure from Dutch politicians, prosecutors and the media to impose a politically motivated outcome”.

“We deeply regret that the District Court in The Hague disregarded the principles of impartial justice in favour of the current political situation, thus causing a serious reputational blow to the entire judicial system in the Netherlands,” it added.

Prosecutors had charged the 4 males with capturing down an airplane and with homicide in a trial held underneath Dutch legislation, as greater than half of the victims have been Dutch. Phone name intercepts that fashioned a key half of the proof urged the boys believed they have been concentrating on a Ukrainian fighter jet.

Steenhuis stated that, whereas that counted for one thing in phrases of lessening the severity of their prison accountability, they nonetheless had a murderous intent and the results of their actions have been large.

Of the suspects, solely Pulatov had pleaded not responsible through attorneys he employed to signify him. The others have been tried in absentia and none attended the trial.

The police investigation was led by the Netherlands, with participation from Ukraine, Malaysia, Australia and Belgium.

Thursday’s ruling will not be the ultimate phrase on holding folks accountable for MH17, Dutch and Australian authorities stated.

Andy Kraag, the top of the police investigation, stated analysis was persevering with into attainable suspects larger in the chain of command. Investigators are additionally trying on the crew of the missile system which launched the deadly rocket.

The Dutch and Australian governments, which maintain Russia accountable, have began a continuing in opposition to the Russian Federation on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Reporting by Toby Sterling, Stephanie van den Berg and Bart Meijer; Editing by Jon Boyle, Alex Richardson, Toby Chopra, Alexandra Hudson

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PARIS, Oct 10 (Reuters) – A French felony court docket opened the historic manslaughter trial of Air France (AIRF.PA) and planemaker Airbus (AIR.PA) on Monday, with angry kin demanding justice greater than 13 years after an A330 jetliner ploughed into the Atlantic, killing everybody on board.

The heads of each corporations pleaded not responsible to “involuntary manslaughter” after officers learn out names of the 228 individuals who died when flight AF447 plunged into the darkness throughout an equatorial storm en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009.

Several kin shouted protests together with “shame” and “too little, too late” as Air France Chief Executive Anne Rigail after which Airbus SE CEO Guillaume Faury expressed condolences throughout opening statements in the nine-week trial.

“Thirteen years we have been waiting for this day and we have prepared for a long time,” Daniele Lamy, who misplaced her son in the accident, informed Reuters earlier than the listening to.

After a two-year seek for the A330’s black bins utilizing distant submarines, investigators discovered pilots had responded clumsily to an issue involving iced-up pace sensors and lurched right into a freefall with out responding to “stall” alerts.

But France’s BEA accident company additionally revealed earlier discussions between Air France and Airbus about rising issues with exterior “pitot probes” that generate the pace readings.

Summarising prosecution findings, a Paris decide stated Airbus was suspected of reacting too slowly to the rising variety of pace incidents with the introduction of an up to date probe.

Preliminary findings had in the meantime known as into query the efforts taken by the airline to make sure pilots had been nicely educated.

The relative roles of pilot or sensor error shall be key to the trial, exposing bitter divisions which have raged behind the scenes between two of France’s iconic corporations for over a decade.

Airbus blames pilot error for the crash whereas the French provider claims complicated alarms and information overwhelmed the pilots.

Lawyers warned in opposition to permitting the long-awaited trial – which goes forward after a call to desert the case was overturned – to sideline kin of the 33 nationalities represented on AF447, primarily French, Brazilians and Germans.

“It’s a trial where the victims must remain at the centre of debate. We don’t want Airbus or Air France to turn this trial into a conference of engineers,” stated lawyer Sebastien Busy.

It is the primary time French corporations have gone on trial for “involuntary manslaughter” following an air crash. Victims’ families say particular person managers also needs to be in the dock.

Relatives additionally dismissed the utmost tremendous of 225,000 euros ($220,612) every firm might obtain – equal to simply two minutes of pre-COVID-19 income for Airbus or 5 minutes of passenger income for the airline. Undisclosed bigger sums have additionally been made in compensation or out-of-court settlements.

“It’s not the 225,000 euros that will worry them. It’s their reputations… that’s what’s at stake for (Air France and Airbus),” stated families lawyer Alain Jakubowicz.

“For us it is about something else, the truth… and ensuring lessons are learned from all these great catastrophes. This trial is about restoring a human dimension,” he informed reporters.

TRAINING AND SYSTEMS IN SPOTLIGHT

AF447 sparked a rethink about coaching and know-how and is seen as one in all a handful of accidents that modified aviation, together with industry-wide enhancements in recovering misplaced management.

Centre-stage is the thriller of why the crew of three, with greater than 20,000 hours of flying expertise between them, failed to grasp that their trendy jet had misplaced carry or “stalled”.

That required the fundamental manoeuvre of pushing the nostril down as a substitute of yanking it up as they did for a lot of the deadly four-minute plunge in the direction of the Atlantic in a radar dead-zone.

France’s BEA has stated the crew responded incorrectly to the icing drawback, but additionally didn’t have coaching wanted to fly manually at excessive altitude after the autopilot dropped out.

It additionally highlighted inconsistent indicators from a show known as the flight director, which has since been redesigned to change itself off in such occasions to keep away from confusion.

“It will be a difficult trial and we are here to offer compassion… but also our contribution to truth and understanding,” Airbus CEO Faury informed reporters after the opening listening to.

Rigail expressed “the deepest compassion” after telling the court docket Air France would always remember its worst-ever accident.

Grieving the the lack of his daughter on AF447, retired German government Bernd Gans likened the crash – with its concentrate on people versus machines – to a current security disaster over Boeing Co’s 737 MAX.

“They changed the world and the view of public towards these big companies and (regulatory) agencies, which have a great power but should use it,” he stated.

“They can’t restore trust with such declarations.”

Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Kirsten Donovan

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KYIV, Aug 9 (Reuters) – Ukraine reported intense Russian shelling throughout the frontlines on Tuesday as either side traded blame for the weekend strike on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear complicated which triggered worldwide concern a few potential atomic catastrophe.

Heavy fighting was reported in frontline cities close to the jap metropolis of Donetsk, the place Ukrainian officers stated Russian troops had been launching waves of assaults as they attempt to seize management of the industrialised Donbas area.

“The situation in the region is tense – shelling is constant throughout the front line … The enemy is also using air strikes a great deal,” Donetsk regional Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko instructed Ukrainian tv.

“The enemy is having no success. Donetsk region is holding.”

Around Kharkiv in the northeast, Ukrainian troops captured the city of Dovhenke from Russian occupiers and had been advancing towards Izium, Ukrainian Presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych stated in a video posted on YouTube.

“The situation is very interesting. Ukraine’s forces are moving very successfully. Attempts by Russia to regain lost ground were not successful. Ukraine may end up encircling them,” he stated.

In the southeast, the important thing Antonovskyi bridge over the Dnipro river in Kherson area was focused once more by Ukrainian forces making an attempt to disrupt Russian provide traces.

Yuri Sobolevsky, deputy head of Kherson regional council ousted by Russian occupation forces, stated on Telegram the bridge had been significantly broken after “overnight actions”.

Reuters was unable to confirm the experiences.

U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl on Monday stated Russia had suffered between 70,000 and 80,000 casualties, both killed or wounded, since its invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24. Russia calls the struggle a “special military operation”.

NUCLEAR PLANT

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres on Monday known as any assault on a nuclear plant “suicidal” and demanded U.N. nuclear inspectors be given entry to Zaporizhzhia, the most important nuclear energy complicated of its variety in Europe.

Russia’s invading forces seized the southern Ukrainian area containing Zaporizhzhia in March, when the positioning was struck with out harm to its reactors. The space, together with town of Kherson, is now the goal of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. learn extra

Ukraine appealed for the world across the complicated to be demilitarised and for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, to be let in. Russia stated it too favoured an IAEA go to, which it accused Ukraine of blocking. learn extra

Both sides blamed the opposite for weekend assaults across the complicated, which remains to be being run by Ukrainian technicians. Ukraine stated three radiation sensors had been broken and two staff injured by shrapnel.

Petro Kotin, head of Ukraine’s state nuclear energy firm Energoatom, stated 500 Russian troopers and 50 items of heavy equipment, together with tanks, vans and armoured infantry automobiles had been on the web site. learn extra

He known as for peacekeepers to run the plant, and warned of the chance of shells hitting the plant’s six containers of extremely radioactive spent nuclear gas.

Russia’s defence ministry stated Ukrainian assaults had broken energy traces servicing the plant and compelled it to cut back output by two of its six reactors to “prevent disruption”. learn extra

Reuters couldn’t independently confirm both facet’s account.

In a night video shared on-line, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy known as for brand new Western sanctions on Russia’s nuclear trade “for creating the threat of a nuclear disaster.”

Dr Mark Wenman, a nuclear professional at Imperial College London, performed down the chance of a serious incident, saying the Zaporizhzhia reactors had been comparatively strong and the spent gas nicely protected.

U.S. AID

Stepping up its fiscal help and army spending on Ukraine, Washington introduced it is going to ship $4.5 billion in budgetary help and $1 billion in weapons, together with long-range rocket munitions and armoured medical transport automobiles.

Overall, the United States has contributed greater than $18 billion to Ukraine this 12 months. learn extra

While pouring arms and cash into Ukraine, the United States was additionally imposing monetary sanctions in opposition to the Kremlin and the rich elites who help President Vladimir Putin.

A U.S. decide authorised prosecutors to grab a $90 million Airbus (AIR.PA) aircraft owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Andrei Skoch, prosecutors stated on Monday. learn extra

Skoch, a member of the Duma, the decrease home of the Russian parliament, was initially sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018 for alleged ties to Russian organised prison teams. He was hit with additional sanctions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The aircraft is now in Kazakhstan, court docket papers present. Kazakhstan’s embassy in the United States didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Russia says it’s waging a “special military operation” in Ukraine to rid it of nationalists and shield Russian-speaking communities. Ukraine and the West describe Russia’s actions as an unprovoked struggle of aggression.

The battle has displaced hundreds of thousands, killed hundreds of civilians and left cities, cities and villages in ruins.

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore

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LONDON/PARIS July 19 (Reuters) – Firefighters in southwestern France battled on Tuesday to comprise massive forest wildfires and Britain recorded its highest ever temperature as a heatwave rising from the south settled over western Europe.

Southern and western Germany and Belgium had been additionally braced for doubtlessly record-breaking temperatures because the heatwave, which scientists attribute to local weather change, edged north and east.

A temperature of greater than 40C (104F) was provisionally recorded on Tuesday for the primary time ever in Britain, the Met Office stated.

Authorities have put Britain, which regularly struggles to keep up key transport providers when hit by surprising climate similar to heavy snow or excessive winds, on a state of “national emergency” over the unprecedented temperatures.

Transport minister Grant Shapps stated it might take a few years to totally improve Britain’s infrastructure to deal with increased temperatures, after at the very least two airport runways confirmed indicators of injury and a few practice tracks buckled.

“We’ve seen a considerable amount of travel disruption,” he advised the BBC. “Infrastructure, much of which was built from the Victorian times, just wasn’t built to withstand this type of temperature.”

In southwestern France, the wine-growing Gironde area noticed its greatest wildfires in over 30 years and authorities stated a person had been detained on suspicion of arson.

The fires have unfold throughout 19,300 hectares (about 75 sq miles) within the countryside surrounding Bordeaux since July 12, forcing a complete of 34,000 folks to evacuate their properties.

About 2,000 firefighters, supported by eight water-bomber plane, had been battling the blazes.

“Despite attacks from the ground and from the air, the situation has still not stabilised,” the state prefecture stated in an announcement, including there had been no experiences of demise or damage.

A research printed by local weather scientists in June within the journal “Environmental Research: Climate” concluded it was extremely possible that local weather change was making heatwaves worse. learn extra

With human-caused local weather change triggering droughts, the variety of excessive wildfires is predicted to extend 30% inside the subsequent 28 years, in line with a February 2022 U.N. report.

“We are seeing more frequent heat waves, and the heat waves are hotter than they would have been without climate change,” Friederike Otto, Senior Lecturer in Climate Science at Imperial College London, advised Reuters.

FLAMES AND SMOKE

Although the mercury dipped again in direction of extra regular summer season ranges in Spain and Portugal, firefighters in each international locations had been nonetheless battling a number of blazes.

More than 30 wildfires continued to ravage components of Spain, with authorities paying particular consideration to 4 blazes in Castile and Leon and Galicia.

In Losacio, in northwestern Zamora province, the place two folks have died and three critically injured, greater than 6,000 folks in 32 villages have been evacuated.

Dramatic TV footage confirmed flames and plumes of smoke billowing into the evening sky close to the Zamora city of Tabara.

On Monday, a person making an attempt to guard his city from wildfire had a detailed brush with demise when the blaze engulfed his digger, forcing him to run for his life whereas patting out flames on his garments. learn extra

In Galicia, greater than 1,500 folks have been evacuated from the trail of 4 fires, which broken a number of buildings.

So far this yr 70,000 hectares (173,000 acres) have been burned in Spain, round twice the common of the final decade, official knowledge confirmed earlier than the heatwave.

In neighbouring Portugal, round 50 municipalities, primarily in central and northern areas, nonetheless confronted “maximum risk” of wildfires, in line with the IPMA climate institute.

More than 1,000 firefighters had been battling 5 major wildfires, the most important of which began within the northern municipality of Murça and unfold to 2 close by municipalities.

Hundreds of individuals have been evacuated from villages and an aged couple was discovered useless on Monday inside a burned-out automotive. learn extra

In Greece, firefighters tackled 73 fires inside 24 hours, the fireplace brigade stated on Monday. The civil safety authority has warned of a really excessive danger of fires throughout the nation on Tuesday.

A wildfire that started in Slovenia’s Karst area had been contained by firefighters on Tuesday, authorities stated, two days after the blaze started. There had been no casualties.

Additional reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian in London, Catarina Demony in Lisbon, Dominique Vidalon in Paris and Renee Maltezou in Athens, Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade, Editing by Nick Macfie, Gareth Jones and Bernadette Baum

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