KYIV, Ukraine/WASHINGTON Jan 30 (Reuters) – The United States is not going to present the F-16 fighter jets that Ukraine has sought in its combat towards Russia, President Joe Biden stated on Monday, as Russian forces claimed a sequence of incremental gains within the nation’s east.

Ukraine deliberate to push for Western fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16 after securing provides of principal battle tanks final week, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister stated on Friday. A Ukrainian air power spokesman stated it will take its pilots about half a yr to coach on such fighter jets.

Asked if the United States would offer the jets, Biden instructed reporters on the White House, “No.”

The transient trade got here shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated that Russia had begun exacting its revenge for Ukraine’s resistance to its invasion with relentless assaults within the east.

Zelenskiy has warned for weeks that Moscow goals to step up its assault on Ukraine after about two months of digital stalemate alongside the entrance line that stretches throughout the south and east.

Ukraine received an enormous enhance final week when Germany and the United States introduced plans to supply heavy tanks, ending weeks of diplomatic impasse on the problem.

“The next big hurdle will now be the fighter jets,” Yuriy Sak, who advises Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov, instructed Reuters on Friday.

While there was no signal of a broader new Russian offensive, the administrator of Russian-controlled elements of Ukraine’s japanese Donetsk province, Denis Pushilin, stated Russian troops had secured a foothold in Vuhledar, a coal-mining city whose ruins have been a Ukrainian bastion for the reason that outset of the warfare.

Pushilin stated Ukrainian forces had been persevering with to throw reinforcements at Bakhmut, Maryinka and Vuhledar, three cities operating from north to south simply west of Donetsk metropolis. The Russian state information company TASS quoted him as saying Russian forces had been making advances there, however “not clear-cut, that is, here there is a battle for literally every meter.”

Pushilin’s adviser, Yan Gagin, stated fighters from Russian mercenary power Wagner had taken partial management of a provide highway resulting in Bakhmut, a metropolis that has been Moscow’s principal focus for months.

A day earlier, the top of Wagner stated his fighters had secured Blahodatne, a village simply north of Bakhmut.

Kyiv stated it had repelled assaults on Blahodatne and Vuhledar, and Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the conditions there. But the places of the reported combating indicated clear, although gradual, Russian gains.

Zelenskiy stated Russian assaults within the east had been relentless regardless of heavy casualties on the Russian aspect, casting the assaults as payback for Ukraine’s success in pushing Russian forces again from the capital, northeast and south earlier within the battle.

“I think that Russia really wants its big revenge. I think they have (already) started it,” Zelenskiy instructed reporters within the southern port metropolis of Odesa.

Mykola Salamakha, a Ukrainian colonel and navy analyst, instructed Ukrainian Radio NV that Moscow’s assault in Vuhledar was coming at enormous value.

“The town is on an upland and an extremely strong defensive hub has been created there,” he stated. “This is a repetition of the situation in Bakhmut – one wave of Russian troops after another crushed by the Ukrainian armed forces.”

WESTERN DELAYS

The a whole lot of contemporary tanks and armoured automobiles pledged to Ukraine by Western international locations in current weeks for a counteroffensive to recapture territory are months away from supply.

This leaves Kyiv to combat by way of the winter in what either side have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare.

Moscow’s Wagner mercenary power has despatched hundreds of convicts recruited from Russian prisons into battle round Bakhmut, shopping for time for Russia’s common navy to reconstitute models with a whole lot of hundreds of reservists.

Zelenskiy is urging the West to hasten supply of its promised weapons so Ukraine can go on the offensive.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated Western international locations supplying arms leads “to NATO countries more and more becoming directly involved in the conflict – but it doesn’t have the potential to change the course of events and will not do so.”

The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War think-tank stated “the West’s failure to provide the necessary materiel” final yr was the primary motive Kyiv’s advances had halted since November.

That allowed Russia to use strain at Bakhmut and fortify the entrance towards a future Ukrainian counter-attack, its researchers stated in a report, although they stated Ukraine may nonetheless recapture territory as soon as the promised weapons arrive.

Zelenskiy met Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Monday in Mykolaiv, a uncommon go to by a international chief near the entrance. The metropolis, the place Russia’s advance within the south was halted, had been below relentless bombardment till Ukraine pushed the entrance line again in November.

Russia’s invasion, which it launched on Feb. 24 final yr claiming it was crucial to guard itself from its neighbour’s ties with the West, has killed tens of hundreds of individuals and pushed hundreds of thousands from their houses.

Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Kevin Liffey, Ronald Popeski and Reuters bureaus; Writing by Peter Graff, Philippa Fletcher and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean and Cynthia Osterman

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STOCKHOLM, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Protests in Stockholm on Saturday towards Turkey and Sweden’s bid to affix NATO, including the burning of a duplicate of the Koran, sharply heightened tensions with Turkey at a time when the Nordic nation wants Ankara’s backing to realize entry to the army alliance.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the vile attack on our holy book … Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of freedom of expression is completely unacceptable,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry stated.

Its assertion was issued after an anti-immigrant politician from the far-right fringe burned a duplicate of the Koran close to the Turkish Embassy. The Turkish ministry urged Sweden to take needed actions towards the perpetrators and invited all nations to take concrete steps towards Islamophobia.

A separate protest befell in town supporting Kurds and towards Sweden’s bid to affix NATO. A bunch of pro-Turkish demonstrators additionally held a rally outdoors the embassy. All three occasions had police permits.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom stated that Islamophobic provocations had been appalling.

“Sweden has a far-reaching freedom of expression, but it does not imply that the Swedish Government, or myself, support the opinions expressed,” Billstrom stated on Twitter.

The Koran-burning was carried out by Rasmus Paludan, chief of Danish far-right political get together Hard Line. Paludan, who additionally has Swedish citizenship, has held various demonstrations in the previous the place he has burned the Koran.

Paludan couldn’t instantly be reached by electronic mail for a remark. In the allow he obtained from police, it says his protest was held towards Islam and what it known as Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s try to affect freedom of expression in Sweden.

Several Arab nations including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait denounced the Koran-burning. “Saudi Arabia calls for spreading the values of dialogue, tolerance, and coexistence, and rejects hatred and extremism,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry stated in an announcement.

Sweden and Finland utilized final yr to affix NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine however all 30 member states should approve their bids. Turkey has stated Sweden in specific should first take a clearer stance towards what it sees as terrorists, primarily Kurdish militants and a gaggle it blames for a 2016 coup try.

At the demonstration to protest Sweden’s NATO bid and to indicate help for Kurds, audio system stood in entrance of a giant crimson banner studying “We are all PKK”, referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party that’s outlawed in Turkey, Sweden, and the United States amongst different nations, and addressed a number of hundred pro-Kurdish and left-wing supporters.

“We will continue our opposition to the Swedish NATO application,” Thomas Pettersson, spokesperson for Alliance Against NATO and one among organizers of the demonstration, advised Reuters.

Police stated the scenario was calm in any respect three demonstrations.

In Istanbul, individuals in a gaggle of round 200 protesters set hearth to a Swedish flag in entrance of the Swedish consulate in response to the burning of the Koran.

SWEDISH MINISTER’S VISIT CANCELLED

Earlier on Saturday, Turkey stated that on account of lack of measures to limit protests, it had cancelled a deliberate go to to Ankara by the Swedish defence minister.

Jonson stated individually that he and Akar had met on Friday throughout a gathering of Western allies in Germany and had determined to postpone the deliberate assembly.

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar stated he had mentioned with Erdogan the dearth of measures to limit protests in Sweden towards Turkey and had conveyed Ankara’s response to Jonson on the sidelines of a gathering of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group.

“It is unacceptable not to make a move or react to these (protests). The necessary things needed to be done, measures should have been taken,” Akar stated, in response to an announcement by Turkish Defence Ministry.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry had already summoned Sweden’s ambassador on Friday over the deliberate protests.

Finland and Sweden signed a three-way settlement with Turkey in 2022 aimed toward overcoming Ankara’s objections to their membership of NATO. Sweden says it has fulfilled its a part of the memorandum however Turkey is demanding extra, including the extradition of 130 individuals it deems to be terrorists.

Reporting by Omer Berberoglu, Ezgi Erkoyun and Bulent Usta in Istanbul and Niklas Pollard and Simon Johnson in Stockholm
Additional reporting by Moaz Abd-Alaziz in Cairo
Writing by Ezgi Erkoyun and Niklas Pollard
Editing by Toby Chopra and Frances Kerry

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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

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

KYIV, Aug 24 (Reuters) – Ukrainians mark 31 years since they broke free from the Russia-dominated Soviet Union on Wednesday in what is definite to be a day of defiance towards the Kremlin’s six-month-old conflict to subdue the nation as soon as once more.

Ukraine’s Independence Day falls six months after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion and can be noticed with subdued celebrations underneath the specter of assault from land, air and sea.

Public gatherings are banned within the capital Kyiv and a curfew is in drive within the front-line jap metropolis of Kharkiv, which has weathered months of shelling.

The authorities laid out the hulks of burnt-out Russian tanks and armoured autos like conflict trophies in central Kyiv in a present of defiance. learn extra

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned of the opportunity of “repugnant Russian provocations”.

“We are fighting against the most terrible threat to our statehood and also at a time when we have achieved the greatest level of national unity,” Zelenskiy mentioned in a Tuesday night handle.

Ukraine’s army urged folks to take air raid warnings severely.

“Russian occupiers continue to carry out air and missile attacks on civilian objects on the territory of Ukraine. Do not ignore air raid signals,” the overall workers mentioned in a press release on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy informed representatives of about 60 nations and worldwide organisations attending a digital summit on Crimea on Tuesday that Ukraine would drive Russian forces out of the peninsular by any means obligatory, with out consulting different nations beforehand. learn extra

The conflict has killed hundreds of civilians, compelled over a 3rd of Ukraine’s 41 million folks from their houses, left cities in ruins and shaken world markets. It is essentially at a standstill with no quick prospect of peace talks.

In addition to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, Russian forces have expanded management to areas of the south together with the Black Sea and Sea of Azov coasts, and chunks of the jap Donbas area comprising the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Ukraine’s armed forces have mentioned virtually 9,000 army personnel have been killed within the conflict.

Russia has not publicised its losses however U.S. intelligence estimates 15,000 killed in what Moscow calls a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine. Kyiv says the invasion is an unprovoked act of imperial aggression.

Ukraine broke freed from the Soviet Union in August 1991 after a failed putsch in Moscow and an amazing majority of Ukrainians voted in a referendum to declare independence.

‘INTENSIVE’ TALKS ON PLANT

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi mentioned the U.N. nuclear watchdog hoped to achieve entry to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant in southern Ukraine inside days. learn extra

Both sides have accused the opposite of firing missiles and artillery dangerously near the plant, Europe’s greatest, elevating fears of a nuclear disaster.

“I’m continuing to consult very actively and intensively with all parties,” Grossi mentioned in a press release on Tuesday. “The mission is expected to take place within the next few days if ongoing negotiations succeed.”

Pro-Moscow forces took over the plant quickly after the invasion started however Ukrainian technicians are nonetheless working it. The United Nations has known as for the world to be demilitarised.

Russia on Tuesday accused Ukraine of attacking the plant with artillery, guided munitions and a drone, drawing a denial from Ukraine’s U.N. ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya.

“Nobody who is at least conscious can imagine that Ukraine would target a nuclear power plant at tremendous risk of nuclear catastrophe and on its own territory,” Kyslytsya mentioned at an emergency U.N. Security Council assembly in New York known as by Russia.

Ukraine’s allies supplied extra army help on Wednesday.

Norway and Britain will collectively provide micro drones price as much as 90 million Norwegian crowns ($9.3 million) to assist with reconnaissance and goal identification, the Norwegian defence ministry mentioned.

The United States, which has despatched $10.6 billion in safety help to Ukraine, will announce a brand new bundle of about $3 billion as early as Wednesday, a U.S. official mentioned. learn extra

Advanced U.S. missile methods seem to have helped Ukraine strike deep behind the entrance traces in latest months, taking out ammunition dumps and command posts.

In the newest mysterious hearth at a Russian army facility, Russian officers mentioned ammunition saved in southern Russia close to the border with Ukraine spontaneously combusted on Tuesday.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod area, blamed scorching climate for the fireplace, drawing ridicule from Ukraine.

“In a few months we will find out whether Russian ammunition can explode because of the cold,” Ukraine’s defence ministry mentioned on Twitter.

“The five main causes of sudden explosions in Russia are: winter, spring, summer, autumn and smoking.”

Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Stephen Coates; Editing by Robert Birsel

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MADRID/KYIV, June 29 (Reuters) – NATO on Wednesday branded Russia the most important “direct threat” to Western safety after its invasion of Ukraine and agreed plans to modernise Kyiv’s beleaguered armed forces, saying it stood totally behind Ukrainians’ “heroic defence of their country”.

At a summit dominated by the invasion and the geopolitical upheaval it has induced, NATO additionally invited Sweden and Finland to hitch and pledged a seven-fold improve from 2023 in fight forces on excessive alert alongside its jap flank in opposition to any future Russian assault.

In response, President Vladimir Putin stated Russia would reply in sort if NATO set up infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they be a part of the U.S.-led military alliance. learn extra

Putin was quoted by Russian information businesses as saying he couldn’t rule out that tensions would emerge in Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm over their becoming a member of NATO.

U.S. President Joe Biden introduced extra land, sea and air drive deployments throughout Europe from Spain within the west to Romania and Poland bordering Ukraine.

These included a everlasting military headquarters with accompanying battalion in Poland – the primary full-time U.S. deployment on NATO’s jap fringes. learn extra

“President Putin’s war against Ukraine has shattered peace in Europe and has created the biggest security crisis in Europe since the Second World War,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg instructed a information convention.

“NATO has responded with strength and unity,” he stated.

‘FIGHTING EVERYWHERE’

As the 30 nationwide NATO leaders had been assembly in Madrid, Russian forces intensified attacks in Ukraine, together with missile strikes and shelling on the southern Mykolaiv area near entrance traces and the Black Sea.

The mayor of Mykolaiv metropolis stated a Russian missile had killed at the least 5 individuals in a residential constructing there, whereas Moscow stated its forces had hit what it known as a coaching base for international mercenaries within the area.

The governor of jap Luhansk province reported “fighting everywhere” in a battle across the hilltop metropolis of Lysychansk, which Russian forces are attempting to encircle as they progressively advance in a marketing campaign to beat all of Ukraine’s industrialised jap Donbas area on behalf of separatist proxies. Donbas includes Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

Regional Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko instructed Ukrainian tv that Russian attacks killed one civilian and wounded eight on Wednesday.

Also in Donetsk, a video clip aired on Russia’s RIA state information company confirmed captured former U.S. soldier Alexander Drueke saying he didn’t fireplace a single shot whereas combating for the Ukrainian facet, in a plea for leniency from separatist authorities who will decide his destiny. learn extra

“My combat experience here was that one mission on that one day,” stated Drueke, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, referring to the day he was captured exterior Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis. “I didn’t fire a shot. I would hope that would play a factor in whatever sentence I do or don’t receive.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as soon as once more instructed NATO that Ukrainian forces wanted extra weapons and cash, and sooner, to erode Russia’s large edge in artillery and missile firepower, and stated Moscow’s ambitions didn’t cease at Ukraine.

The prime U.S. intelligence official Avril Haines stated on Wednesday the almost definitely close to time period situation is a grinding battle through which Moscow makes solely incremental positive factors, however no breakthrough on its aim of taking most of Ukraine.

The Russian invasion that started on Feb. 24 has destroyed cities, killed 1000’s and despatched thousands and thousands fleeing. Russia says it’s pursuing a “special military operation” to rid Ukraine of harmful nationalists. Ukraine and the West accuse Russia of an unprovoked, imperial-style land seize.

‘FULL SOLIDARITY’

In a nod to the precipitous deterioration in relations with Russia for the reason that invasion, a NATO communique known as Russia the “most significant and direct threat to the allies’ security”, having beforehand categorized it as a “strategic partner”.

NATO issued a brand new Strategic Concept doc, its first since 2010, that stated a “strong independent Ukraine is vital for the stability of the Euro-Atlantic area”.

To that finish, NATO agreed a long-term monetary and military aid bundle to modernise Ukraine’s largely Soviet-era military.

“We stand in full solidarity with the government and the people of Ukraine in the heroic defence of their country,” the communique stated.

Stoltenberg stated NATO had agreed to place 300,000 troops on excessive readiness from 2023, up from 40,000 now, beneath a brand new drive mannequin to guard an space stretching from the Baltic to the Black seas. learn extra

Zelenskiy, in a video link-up with the summit, stated Ukraine wanted $5 billion per thirty days for its defence and safety.

“This is not a war being waged by Russia against only Ukraine. This is a war for the right to dictate conditions in Europe – for what the future world order will be like,” he stated.

NATO’s invitation to Sweden and Finland to hitch the alliance marks one of the vital momentous shifts in European safety in a long time as Helsinki and Stockholm drop a convention of neutrality in response to Russia’s invasion. learn extra

Russia’s stepped-up missile attacks in Ukraine and its forces had been making sluggish however relentless progress.

In Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych stated eight Russian missiles had struck the town, together with an house block. Photographs confirmed smoke billowing from a four-storey constructing with its higher flooring partly destroyed.

Russia’s defence ministry stated its forces carried out strikes on a military coaching base for “foreign mercenaries” close to Mykolaiv and likewise hit ammunition gas storage. Reuters was not in a position to independently confirm the stories.

A river port and ship-building centre simply off the Black Sea, Mykolaiv has been a bastion in opposition to Russian efforts to push westward in direction of Ukraine’s important port of Odesa.

Oleksander Vilkul, governor of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, stated Russian shelling had elevated there too.

Reporting by Reuters bureaux; writing by Angus MacSwan, Mark Heinrich and Deepa Babington; enhancing by Frank Jack Daniel, Gareth Jones and Grant McCool

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OSLO, June 25 (Reuters) – Terrified revellers at a gay bar in Oslo hid in a basement and desperately known as family members as a gunman went on the rampage, killing two folks and injuring 21 on the day town was because of have fun its annual Pride parade.

Authorities mentioned the suspect, a 42-year-old Norwegian citizen of Iranian origin, was believed to be a radicalised Islamist with a historical past of psychological sickness who had been recognized to intelligence providers since 2015. learn extra

The suspect shall be subjected to a psychiatric analysis within the coming days as a part of the investigation, police mentioned.

The assault passed off within the early hours of Saturday, with victims shot inside and out of doors the London Pub, a longstanding hub of Oslo’s LGBTQ scene, as nicely as within the surrounding streets and at one different bar within the centre of the Norwegian capital.

The deceased had been two males of their 50s and 60s, police mentioned.

“Everything indicates that this has been an attack by an Islamist extremist,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere informed a information convention.

“We don’t (yet) know if the queer community was the intended target, but we know it is a victim.”

Bili Blum-Jansen, who was within the London Pub, mentioned he fled to the basement to flee the hail of bullets and hid there together with 80 to 100 different folks.

“Many called their partners and family, it felt almost as if they were saying goodbye. Others helped calm down those who were extremely terrified,” he informed TV2.

“I had a bit of panic and thought that if the shooter or shooters were to arrive, we’d all be dead. There was no way out.”

Rainbow flags symbolising the Pride group had been on distinguished show throughout Oslo this week, however Saturday’s deliberate parade was cancelled at the recommendation of police.

“Last night the rainbow was coloured black,” mentioned Anette Trettebergstuen, Norway’s minister of tradition and equality and herself a distinguished campaigner for LGBTQ rights.

‘CRYING AND SCREAMING’

While the official parade was known as off, a number of thousand folks held a spontaneous march in central Oslo, waving rainbow flags and chanting in English: “We’re here, we’re queer, we won’t disappear.”

Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, his spouse Crown Princess Mette-Marit and their youngest youngster, 16-year-old Prince Sverre Magnus, later joined the prime minister and different officers to put pink and white roses close to the London Pub.

“We must protect the right in Norway to love whomever we want,” Haakon informed reporters.

The suspect was detained minutes after embarking on the taking pictures spree, in line with police, who mentioned they believed he acted alone. Two weapons, together with a completely computerized gun, had been retrieved from the crime scene, they added.

The man has declined to be interrogated by police, his lawyer John Christian Elden informed public broadcaster NRK.

Witnesses described the chaos that erupted inside and out of doors the London Pub, which has been open since 1979.

“Many people were crying and screaming, the injured were screaming, people were distressed and scared – very, very scared,” mentioned Marcus Nybakken, 46, who had left the bar shortly earlier than the taking pictures and returned later to assist.

“My first thought was that Pride was the target, so that’s frightening.”

Journalist Olav Roenneberg of broadcaster NRK mentioned he was within the space at the time and noticed a person arrive with a bag, take out a gun and begin to shoot: “Then I saw windows breaking and understood that I had to take cover.”

WIDESPREAD CONDEMNATION

European leaders condemned the taking pictures, as did the White House.

“I am shocked by the heinous attack on innocent people in Oslo,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted.

“No-one should have to fear for their life or well-being simply for who they are.”

French President Emmanuel Macron, writing in each French and Norwegian on his official Twitter account, expressed his sympathies. “We stand stronger against hate if we stand together,” he mentioned.

John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, informed reporters on board Air Force One the Biden administration had been in contact with Norway to supply condolences and help.

“We’re all horrified by the mass shooting in Oslo today targeting the LGBTQI+ community there and our hearts obviously go out to the all the families of the victims, the people of Norway, which is a tremendous ally, and of course the LGBTQI+ community there and around the world,” he mentioned.

Norwegian safety authorities raised the nation’s terrorism risk evaluation to its highest degree following the assault, wherein 21 folks had been additionally wounded, 10 of them severely.

The police, who aren’t usually armed, will carry weapons till additional discover, it mentioned.

Other main occasions within the capital went forward as deliberate on Saturday, police and organisers mentioned, together with a big outside music competition and a soccer match between the ladies’s groups of Norway and New Zealand.

The taking pictures passed off simply months after Norway marked 50 years for the reason that abolition of a legislation that criminalised gay intercourse.

The Nordic nation of 5.4 million has decrease crime charges than many Western international locations, although it has skilled hate-motivated shootings, together with when far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 folks in 2011.

Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Gwladys Fouche in Oslo, further reporting by Andrea Shalal aboard Air Force One, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Foo Yun Chee in Brussels; Editing by Pravin Char, Frank Jack Daniel, Peter Graff

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