Ukraine
Just been listening to the UN Secretary General on the radio, he has announced that Putin has order vehicles into combat with East Ukraine but has told them to put their fire arms down and go home.
How sad this is.
IAN BIRRELL: Yuri Fomichev, mayor of Slavutych, contacted the Daily Mail to warn of 'complete catastrophe' as the scores of staff being held at Chernobyl run out of food and fuel - including for the emergency generators that supply back-up control for the plant's safety systems - after being besieged for almost three weeks. Slavutych was purpose-built for staff after the 1986 disaster left widespread contamination and is home to about 20,000 people. Fomichev said the town faces 'humanitarian catastrophe' while the mental stresses on staff held at gunpoint to maintain operations risked 'a new accident'. His fears were backed by the official in charge of a 19-mile Exclusion Zone round Chernobyl, who warned that staff were 'on the edge of their human capabilities due to physical and emotional exhaustion' as they worked around the clock to protect public safety.
RICHARD PENDLEBURY:On Zhytomyrska Street this morning a man drives past in his Mazda convertible. The sun is shining - real warmth - and he has the roof down, no doubt for the first time since autumn. This, surely, is the very definition of insouciance. Because here, in Kyiv, it's getting hotter in every sense. Those Kyivans who remain here - about half the peacetime population of 3.5million - are under their second lockdown of the war; the 35-hour street curfew will run until Thursday morning. 'Today is a difficult and dangerous moment,' Mayor Vitali Klitschko has told his people.
The 109 empty prams (pictured) were arranged in solemn rows yesterday in Lviv, near the Polish border, to mark the number of children killed since Russia invaded. The haunting spectacle shows the human tragedy at the centre of the conflict: Families torn apart by war. This comes as more than 1,300 people including women and babies are still feared trapped in the bombed ruins of a theatre (inset) in the besieged city of Mariupol as rescue efforts are hampered by constant Russian shelling.
Very moving.
There was one of Ukraine's ballet dancers killed the other day also.
One of Ukraine's most famous actresses is blown up and killed as she sleeps in her Kyiv apartment by Russian rocket attack
News of Oksana Shvets' death after her Kyiv flat was attacked by Russian forces was confirmed by the Young Theatre, a Ukrainian theatre company she had previously been working with.
Tragic scenes.
Due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, nineteen newborns and their nannies are taking refuge in the Kyiv basement (left, top and bottom right) as their anguished biological parents cannot undertake the risky journey. Photographs taken in the basement show sleeping babies in cots and mattresses and cushions laid on the floor. Nannies are also seen cradling yawning babies and and rocking them while they lie in prams and bouncers. One holds a yawning baby on her lap as the group shelter from Putin's Ukraine siege above them. The volunteers are looking after the group of newborn babies around the clock.
Boris Johnson is considering a lightning trip to Kyiv to show support for Ukraine's battle against Vladimir Putin. The Prime Minister has asked officials to examine the practicality and value of the trip to the Ukrainian capital for talks with president Volodymyr Zelensky. Security officials are said to be 'having kittens' at the prospect of the PM travelling to a war zone. But a Whitehall source said Mr Johnson 'wants to go' if it can be made to work.
Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky repeated the speech of Israeli heroine Golda Meir today as he implored Israel for military help, following similar calls to the UK and US.
Western leaders have been warned against dropping their guard after Russia announced earlier today it intends to 'fundamentally scale back' military operations around the Ukrainian capital. The Kremlin's Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin said the change on the battlefield was meant to increase trust at peace talks, suggesting that the foundations of a ceasefire could be in play. His superior Sergey Shoigu meanwhile said Russian forces will now concentrate on the 'liberation' of the eastern Donbass region rather than attacking major Ukrainian cities, which represents a major tactical shift in the face of bitter resistance. But the announcement has been met with skepticism in Europe and the US, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) today declaring Vladimir Putin (inset with Shoigu) could still seek to 'twist the knife' as the war enters a new phase (right: Ukrainian soldier inspects the ruins of a Russian tank)
The blast, which took place a mere 12 miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr just outside the city of Belgorod, triggered a series of firework-like explosions which could be seen from Ukraine tonight. Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov claimed that the depot was destroyed by an OTR-21 Tochka-U ballistic missile fired by the Ukrainian 19th missile brigade, though this has not yet been confirmed by Ukrainian officials. The Governor of Belgorod Vyacheslav Gladkov meanwhile confirmed reports of the explosion and said that no Russian citizens were hurt, but refused to shed any light on the reason for the blast. However, a source from Russian news agency TASS said that four Russian military personnel were injured, suggesting the target was indeed of military significance.
Footage has emerged of a huge explosion in Belgorod, western Russia, at the site of a suspected arms depot which is believed to have been hit by a Ukrainian missile. The blast, which took place a mere 12 miles from the Russian-Ukrainian border near the village of Krasniy Oktyabr just outside the city of Belgorod, triggered a series of firework-like explosions which could be seen from Ukraine
Here's how we can end nightmare - by taking a leaf out of JFK's book: US President's dealings with Nikita Khrushchev before the 1962 missile crisis could show us the way out of Ukraine crisis, writes DAVID PATRIKARAKOS
DAVID PATRIKARAKOS: In 1962, as hawkish voices in the White House urged John F Kennedy (left with Nikita Khrushchev) to prepare for war with Russia, the President needed extraordinary skills of negotiation and statesmanship to avert the end of civilisation. JFK's genius was to remain unemotional, facing down calls from his generals who believed a nuclear exchange was inevitable, while swallowing his own repugnance at doing a deal with the devil. At all times, this master diplomat was calculating how to de-escalate the situation, always providing his Soviet counterpart, Nikita Khrushchev, with a 'way out'. Today, as the world prays for the end of Vladimir Putin's (inset) war, we need to learn from Kennedy's example (a man clears debris from a suburb on the outskirts of Kyiv, top right, and army trucks on the Ukrainian border, bottom right).