Watching from space, satellites collect evidence of war crimes
A satellite image shows a closer view of assortment of armored vehicle in Dzhankoy, April 6, 2022.
Maxar Technologies | Reuters
Few developments in Ukraine have escaped the all-seeing eyes of satellites.
From their orbital perches, Earth-watching satellites have followed the movement of troops around the country, zeroing in on strikes in contested areas and witnessing the aftermath of attacks.
Now, these “eyes in the sky” are gathering images in greater quantities and at higher resolutions than ever before, collecting what could end up as crucial pieces of evidence in investigations into potential war crimes committed by Russia since its military assault began on Feb. 24.
Experts say satellite imagery, together with on-the-ground photos and eyewitness accounts, could be vital in providing evidence to be able to take those responsible for Russia’s alleged war crimes to court.
Read the full story here.
— Denise Chow and Yuliya Talmazan, NBC News
27 Min Ago
Ukraine ‘ready’ if Belarus joins Russian invasion
Kyiv will be ready if Belarus’ armed forces join Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian State Border Service said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Russia’s close ally Belarus announced on Wednesday that its armed forces had begun snap military drills in order to test their combat readiness. The move has raised concerns in Europe that Belarus could assist Russia’s invasion and a renewed assault on northern Ukraine where its capital Kyiv is based.
“We do not rule out that the Russian Federation could at some point use the territory of Belarus, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, against Ukraine,” said Andriy Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Service.
“Therefore, we are ready,” he said, Reuters reported.
Belarus has insisted the drills pose no threat to its European neighbors.
— Holly Ellyatt
53 Min Ago
Belarus launches snap combat-readiness drills
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko gestures during a joint news conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia February 18, 2022.
Sergey Guneev | Kremlin | Sputnik | via Reuters
Russia’s close ally Belarus has begun snap large-scale military drills on Wednesday to test the combat readiness of its army, the defense ministry said, according to state news agency BelTA.
During the inspection, military units and subunits will practice getting fully operational, marching to designated areas and performing combat and training tasks.
“The purpose of the inspection is to assess the readiness and ability of personnel to quickly respond to possible crises,” the news agency said, citing information from the ministry, with military units conducting drills “in unfamiliar areas of the terrain in a rapidly changing environment.”
The number of forces involved in the inspection will be gradually increased, the ministry reportedly said.
It added that these activities “are some of the most effective forms of troop training and do not pose any threat to the European community as a whole or to neighboring countries in particular.”
It also said the drills will involve the movement “of a significant amount of military equipment,” which may complicate traveling on public roads.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko spoke to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and the two discussed the Russian invasion — or what Russia calls its “special military operation” — in Ukraine, according to official statements.
Areas of Ukraine that are close to Belarus were under attack at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but its forces have since focused on the south and east of the country. New drills by Belarus are likely to heighten fears that Belarus’ forces could become involved in the wider conflict and be used as part of a renewed assault on northern Ukraine, and its capital Kyiv.
— Holly Ellyatt
2 Hours Ago
Russia bars entry to Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Kishida
Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks to media after a virtual meeting with the U.S. President Joe Biden (not in picture) at his official residence in Tokyo, Japan January 21, 2022, in this photo taken by Kyodo.
Kyodo | via Reuters
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has announced sanctions against 63 Japanese officials and other prominent individuals citing what it called “unacceptable rhetoric” against Moscow as a rationale for the move.
The list of sanctioned personnel includes Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi as well as various other ministers, business people, academics and journalists. A full list was announced by the ministry on its Facebook page.
In a statement on the social media network, Russia accused Kishida’s administration of launching what it claimed was “an unprecedented anti-Russian campaign, allowing unacceptable rhetoric against the Russian Federation, including slander and direct threats.”
“Tokyo is taking practical steps aimed at dismantling good-neighborhood ties, damaging the Russian economy and the international authority of our country,” the ministry said.
It said that in light of Japanese sanctions against Russia, including its leadership, it had taken the decision to ban the 63 Japanese citizens listed from entering Russia for an indefinite period.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry has yet to publicly respond to the ban.
— Holly Ellyatt
2 Hours Ago
Russian submarine fires missiles at targets in Ukraine: Report
Russia’s Defense Ministry has reportedly said that a submarine in its Black Sea fleet has attacked targets in Ukraine.
“The crew of a submarine of the Black Sea Fleet … carried out a salvo launch of two Kalibr cruise missiles at designated ground targets on the territory of Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, Interfax news agency reported.
The ministry said the strike was carried out on Ukrainian military infrastructure and published video footage of the launch of Kalibr missiles.
CNBC was unable to independently verify the information from the ministry.
— Holly Ellyatt
4 Hours Ago
Russian economy will feel a ‘devastating blow’ from EU oil embargo, strategist says
Timothy Ash, emerging markets senior sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, discusses the implications of the EU’s proposals to gradually ban Russian oil imports.
5 Hours Ago
EU proposes gradual ban on Russian oil imports
The European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, has put forward new sanctions against the Kremlin which will include a six-month phase out of Russian crude imports.
Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and evidence of war crimes, has pushed the EU to take bolder steps on energy sanctions. But imposing measures that could reduce, or fully cut, Russian energy supplies to the EU have been a complicated task for the bloc which is heavily reliant on Russian energy.
“Let us be clear: it will not be easy,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference Wednesday.
“Some Member States are strongly dependent on Russian oil. But we simply have to work on it. We now propose a ban on Russian oil. This will be a complete import ban on all Russian oil, seaborne and pipeline, crude and refined.”
— Silvia Amaro
6 Hours Ago
EU expected to announce sanctions on Russian oil
The EU is expected to announce further sanctions on Russia on Wednesday, this time targeting Russian oil imports.
The move is difficult for the bloc as some member states, particularly Hungary and Slovakia, are heavily reliant on oil imports from Russia, prompting expectations that these countries could be spared an embargo for now.
On Tuesday, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country would not support sanctions that would make it impossible to receive oil from Russia, Reuters reported, creating the potential for further division between the country — which has cultivated warm relations with Russia in recent years — and Brussels.
An embargo on Russian oil imports would be the bloc’s sixth round of sanctions against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine began in late February.
— Holly Ellyatt
7 Hours Ago
U.S. and Sweden discuss Europe’s security situation
Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on April 14, 2022. Sullivan met with Oscar Stenstrom, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Prime Minister of Sweden, to discuss the security situation in Europe in view of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan met with Oscar Stenstrom, state secretary for foreign affairs to the prime minister of Sweden, according to a statement from U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson.
The two discussed the security situation in Europe as well as efforts to support Ukraine and impose costs on Russia.
Sullivan and Stenstrom also pledged to continue close coordination on the full range of security issues.
— Chelsea Ong
6 Hours Ago
Mariupol steel plant evacuees arrive safely in Zaporizhzhia city after months underground
Evacuees arrive at an evacuation point in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on May 3, 2022. The evacuation point is for those fleeing the Azovstal plant, Mariupol, Melitopol and the surrounding towns under Russian control.
Chris Mcgrath | Getty Images News | Getty Images
A group of civilians who were evacuated earlier this week from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, a last stronghold for Ukrainian fighters in the besieged port city, have reached the relative safety of the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia.
“We finally have a result, the first result of our evacuation operation from Azovstal in Mariupol, which we have been organizing for a very long time,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Telegram.
“It took a lot of effort, long negotiations and various mediations. Today 156 people arrived in Zaporizhzhia. These are women, children,” he said.
Some of those evacuated had been sheltering beneath the steelworks for more than two months, the president noted, adding that there would be more efforts to evacuate “everyone who remains there, both civilians and military, from Mariupol, from Azovstal.” Several hundred civilians are believed to remain trapped in the steel plant complex.
Zelenskyy accused the Russian military of not holding up its end of the agreement to allow the evacuation — carried out under the auspices of the United Nations and Red Cross — to go ahead, claiming Russian forces are “continuing to conduct mass strikes at Azovstal. They are trying to storm the compound.”
He also said the Russian shelling of areas of western Ukraine is “evidence that Russia does not have any special military objective. Hitting Zakarpattya [the most western part of Ukraine]. What specifically can it give to Russia?” he said.
— Holly Ellyatt
7 Hours Ago
UK says Russia intends to capture cities to consolidate control in northeastern Donbas
Russia intends to capture the cities of Kramatorsk and Severodonetsk to help consolidate control in northeast Donbas, the U.K. Defence Ministry said in an intelligence update.
If successful, this would provide a staging point for Moscow’s efforts to cut off Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine, the ministry said.
Still, the agency said Russian troops are struggling to break through Ukrainian defenses and build momentum.
— Christine Wang
14 Hours Ago
Israel is ‘inclined’ to provide more military aid to Ukraine, reports Haaretz
Demonstrators wave a giant Ukrainian national flag during a protest against Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, in front of the Russian embassy in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, on February 26, 2022.
Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images
Officials in Israel are reportedly preparing to send more military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine.
Among the items being considered are “defensive systems that protect troops on the ground, personal combat gear and warning systems,” according to the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
The discussions come as Israel faces growing pressure from the U.S. and the European Union to take a firmer stance on Russia’s brutal invasion, which is now in its third month.
Notably, the talks also coincide with the rapid deterioration in recent days of Israel’s diplomatic relations with Russia.
The breakdown began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tried to defend Russia’s claim that it is “de-Nazifying” Ukraine — a country whose president is Jewish — by saying that “the biggest antisemites were Jewish,” including “Hitler.”
The remarks infuriated officials in Jerusalem. But instead of backing away from Lavrov’s comments, Russia’s Foreign Ministry doubled down on Tuesday, accusing Israel of supporting a “neo-Nazi regime” in Kyiv.
Despite the breakdown in relations between Moscow and Jerusalem, Haaretz reported that as of Tuesday, Israel was not yet ready to provide its most sophisticated and lethal weapons systems to Ukraine.
— Christina Wilkie
15 Hours Ago
Portraits of war: Photos from Russia’s war and its impact on Ukrainians
Lyubov Lenko, 61, stands at the yard of her house that according to her was destroyed by shelling, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Budy, Chernihiv region, Ukraine May 3, 2022.
Zohra Bensemra | Reuters
Inna, 53, cries inside her burnt house on April 25, 2022 in Ozera, Ukraine. The towns around Kyiv are continuing a long road to what they hope is recovery, following weeks of brutal war as Russia made its failed bid to take Ukraine’s capital.
Alexey Furman | Getty Images
Residents react as they are evacuated from a village retaken by Ukrainian forces, next to a frontline, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, near Kharkiv, Ukraine, May 2, 2022.
Ricardo Moraes | Reuters
Klavidia, 91, is carried on an improvised stretcher as she boards a train, fleeing the war in Severodonetsk at a train station in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, Monday, April 25, 2022.
Leo Correa | AP
Andrii Kihitov is comforted by a mourner following the funeral of his son, 21 year-old Yegor Kihitov, on April 26, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine.
Leon Neal | Getty Images
Children depict a Soviet monument to a friendship between Ukrainian and Russian nations after its demolition, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in central Kyiv, Ukraine April 26, 2022.
Gleb Garanich | Reuters
— Amanda Macias and Adam Jeffery
15 Hours Ago
Biden pushes Congress to pass $33 billion Ukraine aid package after touring Javelin production line
RT: Joe Biden travels to Alabama and tours a Lockheed Martin weapons factory May 3, 2022.
Reuters
President Joe Biden called on Congress to quickly pass $33 billion in additional U.S. assistance to Ukraine, as the war-weary country approaches its 10th week of fighting off a Russian invasion.
“I urge the Congress to pass this funding quickly to help Ukraine continue to succeed against Russian aggression, just as they did when they won the battle of Kyiv and to make sure the United States and our allies can replenish our own stock of weapons to replace what we’ve sent to Ukraine,” Biden said.
“This fight is not going to be cheap, but caving to aggression would even be more costly,” added Biden, flanked by Javelin missiles at a Lockheed Martin facility in southern Alabama.
Last month, Biden requested roughly $13 billion more in funding from Congress after exhausting his presidential drawdown authority.
Biden’s latest military aid package of $800 million was announced on April 21, the eighth such installment of security assistance. It brought the U.S. weapons and security commitment to Ukraine up to $3.4 billion just since Russia’s late February invasion.
The new funding from Congress would add another $20 billion in weapons and security assistance, in addition to funds to help Ukraine run its government and money for additional humanitarian and food aid.
— Amanda Macias
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