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America's new envoy to Russia has warned that Moscow will pay a long-term "price" for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine, adding that bilateral relations are at "one of the lowest points" in memory.

Ambassador Lynne Tracy took up her post in January 2023, ending an almost three-year period in which the U.S. did not have a permanent ambassador in Moscow. Those three years have seen a bilateral nadir, in particular due to the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In an interview with Russian newspaper Kommersant, Tracy said President Vladimir Putin's decision to expand Moscow's war on Ukrainein progress since the seizure of Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region from 2014has only worsened Russia's security outlook.

"Russia made a miscalculation, judging by the way it decided to enter Ukraine, clearly expecting the Ukrainians to greet the troops that entered, and the Ukrainians did not," Tracy said.

"The Ukrainians responded with resistance, we see this resistance, it is not a product of propaganda. We see that Ukrainians demonstrate the will to fight and defend their country."

The full-scale warnow into its second year with no sign of a peace deal or even a ceasefirehas, Tracy said, "weakened Russia and forced the Russians to pay a price that will only increase over time. Sanctions and export controls have caused billions of dollars in damage to the Russian financial sector and severely slowed down the country's technological progress."

"These are immediate costs, but there are also long-term costs resulting from missed opportunities to invest in Russia's future. Lost opportunities are usually hard to get back, almost impossible. Time cannot be turned back. And again, the main question arises: how will all this help the future of Russia? Her development? The future of her youth, her next generation?"

There appears little hope of a sudden dtente between Moscow and its Western adversaries. Putin and his top allies are doubling down on their Ukrainian gambit, seemingly hoping to outlast Western support for Kyiv and retain the 20 percent or so of the country still occupied by Russian troops.

Russian officials have repeatedly framed their invasion of Ukraine as a pre-emptive defensive conflict against NATO, the expansion of which the Kremlin has repeatedly cited as a key factor in its decision to launch its so-called "special military operation."

Indeed, figures including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have openly said that Russia is now effectively at war with the U.S. and its NATO allies.

Tracy suggested Putin's attack on Ukraine has only exacerbated Moscow's long-held concerns about NATO encroachment and strategic isolation.

"Now Ukrainians are even more determined to join NATO," she said. "And not only Ukrainians, but Finland and Sweden, countries that have been neutral for a long time. Finland has just joined NATO and we expect Sweden to be next."

"When I hear how in Russia all these actions are explained by security considerations, and then I look at the current situation, I can't find an answer to the question: how did all this help to strengthen Russia's security?"

Tracy told Kommersant that the U.S. "does not consider Russians as enemies." But, she added: "Our relationship is at one of the lowest points that can be remembered for a very long time [...] It is sad to see the direction in which Russia is moving: it seems to be moving into the past, in times of repression."

"Russia has the right to prioritize its foreign policy as it sees fit," the envoy added. "Now there is a lot of talk about Russophobia, the abolition of Russia, the abolition of the future of Russia. This is not the goal of the United States. And we certainly do not want to abolish the people of Russia in any way."

"Our differences are with the government of Russia, but not with its people," Tracy said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed Tracy's interview on her Telegram channel, writing: "The people of Russia are being killed on a tip from the United States tip, with United States money, with United States weapons, by the hands of a regime brought to power by the United States as a result of a coup d'tat directed by the United States."

Zakharova was referring to the 2014 Maidan Revolution, a popular uprising by a broad coalition of pro-Western groups that toppled pro-Kremlin President Viktor Yanukovych. Protests broke out after Yanukovych suddenly abandoned an agreed cooperation deal with the European Union in favor of closer ties with Moscow.

Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia after several months of escalating protests, and after Ukrainian security forces killed more than 100 protesters. The former president is still resident in Russia, and early in the 2022 invasion was touted as a potential puppet leader to be installed by the Kremlin.

Addressing that Russian talking point, Tracy told Kommersant of Yanukovych: "A situation in which a leader who has lost support and is afraid of his own people decides to flee cannot be called a 'coup.'"

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry to request comment.

Simon Smitha former British ambassador to Ukraine now at the Chatham House think tanktold Newsweek Tracy's interview was "what I would expect someone representing the U.S. administration to be staying," given the poor state of bilateral relations.

"Tracy has very skillfully combined the opportunity to say some pretty blunt things about how badly the Putin administration had messed up and its calculations on Ukraine, but also kept in mind the fact that she has a job to do in Russia and that you have to choose your words very carefully," explained Smith, who led the British embassy in Moscow's economic and trade departments from 1998 to 2002 and also served as the director for Russia, the South Caucuses, and Central Asia at the British Foreign Ministry.

Smith said there is little hope for a "return to normal" in Moscow-Western relations while Putinism reigns in Russia.

"While Putin is in powerand whether it's Putin or whether it's some other equally unworkable successorunless there is a fundamental change of strategy, vision, and approach from the Russian administration, I really don't see a basis for going back to the way we used to cooperate. In fact, I see a lot of arguments for a relationship which is pretty much whittled down to a minimalist one."

"I also think Putin has massively miscalculated the Western response," Smith added. "I think he probably doesn't fully grasp what is going on now, which is an accelerated process among many countries who used to have a cooperative relationship with Russia but are now in a process of accelerating their move to living without any dependence on Russia and without any need for Russia."

Smith compared Russia's trajectory to that of North Korea, with which Western powers have extremely limited relations outside of ensuring proper deterrence of Pyongyang's nuclear threats. "I'm not saying that Russia will end up as the next North Korea, but there is a similarity," he said.

"Putin has taken Russia down that path where we will not need Russia's energy exports," Smith added. "He thought that we would be chronically dependent on those for the indefinite future. We will not need industrial cooperation with Russia because the Russian economy will be in a pitiful state."

"We can do without Russia. And I think that is increasingly what is going to be the assumption of many states in the Euro-Atlantic community."

Here is the original post:
Russians Will Pay for 'Miscalculation' in Ukraine: New U.S. Envoy to Moscow - Newsweek

WASHINGTON Amnesty Internationals board has sat for months on a report critical of the group after it accused Ukrainian forces of illegally endangering civilians while fighting Russia, according to documents and a person familiar with the matter.

The 18-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, underscores the complexity of applying international law to aspects of the conflict in Ukraine and the continuing sensitivity of a matter that prompted a fierce and swift backlash to the human rights group.

In a lengthy statement on Aug. 4, Amnesty International accused Ukrainian forces of a pattern of illegally putting civilians in harms way by housing soldiers nearby and launching attacks from populated areas. Russia, which has shelled civilian buildings and killed many civilians, portrayed the finding as vindication, but it otherwise incited outrage.

In response, the group expressed deep regret for the distress and anger its statement caused and announced it would conduct an external evaluation to learn what exactly went wrong and why. As part of that, Amnesty Internationals board commissioned an independent legal review of whether the substance of what it had said was legitimate.

A review panel of five international humanitarian law experts received internal emails and interviewed staff members.

In some respects, the report by the review panel absolved Amnesty International, concluding that it was proper to evaluate whether a defender, not just an aggressor, was obeying the laws of war, and saying that Amnestys records made clear that Ukrainian forces were frequently near civilians.

Under international law, it wrote, both sides in any conflict must try to protect civilians, regardless of the rightness of their cause. As a result, it is entirely appropriate for a rights organization to criticize violations by a victim of aggression, provided that there is sufficient evidence of such violations.

But the review panel nevertheless unanimously concluded that Amnesty International had botched its statement in several ways and that its key conclusions that Ukraine violated international law were not sufficiently substantiated by the available evidence.

The overall narrative of the Aug. 4 release was written in language that was ambiguous, imprecise and in some respects legally questionable, the report found. This is particularly the case with the opening paragraphs, which could be read as implying even though this was not A.I.s intention that, on a systemic or general level, Ukrainian forces were primarily or equally to blame for the death of civilians resulting from attacks by Russia.

An earlier version of the report was harsher, according to the person briefed on the matter. But Amnesty International lobbied the panel to soften its tone, and it did so in some respects like revising its characterization of Amnestys conclusion that Ukrainian forces violated international law from not substantiated to not sufficiently substantiated.

The panel delivered its final revision in early February, the person said, and asked to be consulted if Amnesty Internationals board decided to release only excerpts. But instead, the board decided to merely use it as one of several sources for a lessons-learned document to circulate internally, the person said.

In an email, an Amnesty International spokesperson characterized the independent review as part of an ongoing internal process, and these findings will inform and improve our future work.

The statement did not indicate whether the group agreed with the reports critiques.

The panel consisted of Emanuela-Chiara Gillard of the University of Oxford; Kevin Jon Heller of the University of Copenhagen; Eric Talbot Jensen of Brigham Young University; Marko Milanovic of the University of Reading; and Marco Sassli of the University of Geneva.

Inside Amnesty International, the panel found, some staff members had expressed serious reservations about whether the group had sufficiently sought to consult with the Ukrainian government to understand why it deployed forces where it did and whether it would have been feasible to station them elsewhere.

These reservations should have led to greater reflection and pause before the organization issued its statement, the report said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Russian forces appear to have committed a series of atrocities, indiscriminately shelling and killing civilians and destroying civilian infrastructure. (The International Criminal Court recently accused President Vladimir V. Putin of the war crime of abducting and deporting thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia and issued a warrant for his arrest.)

Against that backdrop, Amnesty Internationals denunciation of Ukrainian tactics received a large amount of attention. Proponents of the Kremlin portrayed the findings as essentially showing that Ukraine was to blame for the deaths of Ukrainian civilians at Russias hands.

Russias ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, cited the findings as part of justifying Russias occupation of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

We dont use the tactics Ukrainian armed forces are using using the civilian objects as military cover, I would say, what Amnesty International recently proved in a report, which we were saying all the time in all the meetings with the Security Council, he said.

The statement did not, in fact, accuse Ukraine of using civilians as human shields, only of failing to take precautions to protect them. Still, the backlash was fierce. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused the organization of trying to shift the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim.

Inside Amnesty International, its statement was deeply contentious. Its Ukraine director, Oksana Pokalchuk, resigned in protest, noting that Russia was accused of atrocities in the towns it occupied and Ukraine was trying to prevent more such places from falling. She accused the group of giving Russia a justification to continue its indiscriminate attacks. The groups branch in Canada issued a statement expressing regret over the magnitude and impact of these failings from an institution of our stature.

While condemning Amnesty Internationals analysis, the review panel agreed that the statement which had lacked much detail was backed in part by fact.

The report said the groups researchers had documented at least 42 specific instances in 19 towns and villages where Ukrainian soldiers were operating near civilians. It also determined that several attacks by Russian forces that appeared to be targeting the Ukrainian military resulted in death or injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

That raised the question of whether the Ukrainian military had violated its legal obligations, under a 1977 expansion of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, to take precautions to protect civilians in their areas of operations to the maximum extent feasible.

Essentially, that means if there are two equally good locations for the military to station itself, one closer to civilians and one farther away, combatants should opt for the latter so that any enemy does not kill civilians as collateral damage. If there is no equally good alternative, a military force should try to evacuate civilians to a safer place.

The news release accused Ukraine of a pattern of failing to take either step, while also saying it should have warned civilians. But the report said Amnesty International failed to meaningfully engage with Ukrainian authorities about whether equally good alternative locations, evacuations or warnings were feasible.

The report also said the descriptor pattern was imprudent because it implied that generally, many or most of the civilian victims of the war died as a result of Ukraines decision to locate its forces in the vicinity of civilians, as opposed to Russias willingness to target civilians or civilian objects deliberately or indiscriminately.

Lacking sufficient information, it said, the group should have used more cautious language.

Here is the original post:
Amnesty International Sat on a Report Critical of Its Ukraine Concerns - The New York Times

Chinese President Xi Jinping at a signing ceremony at the Grand Kremlin Palace, on March 21, 2023, in Moscow, Russia. China has been eager to position itself as a peace broker to end the Ukraine war, but has appeared to be allied with Moscow throughout.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

After months of apparent reluctance to engage with Kyiv on the same level as Moscow, China said Wednesday that it will send special representativesto Ukraine and hold talks with all parties on reaching an end to the conflict.

Chinese state media said that President Xi Jinping told his Ukrainian counterpart President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a phone call the first that the leaders have held since the war began in February 2022 that Beijing will focus on promoting peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.

State media added that Beijing would make efforts for a cease-fire to be reached as soon as possible, in order to end what China called a "crisis" rather than a conflict.

Commenting on the call, which hedescribed as "long and meaningful,"Zelenskyy said he believed it would "give a powerful impetus to the development of our bilateral relation."

The timing of the call and China's decision to send emissaries to Ukraine has raised eyebrows among political and defense analysts, particularly as Ukraine is widely known to be preparing to launch a large-scale counteroffensive against Russian forces in a bid to retake territory in the east and south.

A number of analysts believe China is eager to halt the conflict before there's a massive escalation in the fighting as the spring's muddy season passes, allowing offensive operations to begin again in earnest, and as Ukraine receives more military hardware from its Western allies.

"The spring months are basically coming to an end and it's time for counter attacks to begin so I think China wants to be seen as immediate mediator before that escalation," Max Hess, fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNBC Thursday.

That's a view shared by Oleksandr Musiyenko, a military expert and head of theCentre for Military and Legal Studies in Kyiv. He was, however, surprised at the timing of China's call, as he expected it might wait and see how the counteroffensive proceeded before intervening.

"I was confident that China would wait for the results of Ukrainian counteroffensive and would then probably propose something [on a cease-fire and peace talks]," he told CNBC Thursday.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks with Chinese President Xi Jinping via phone line, in Kyiv on April 26, 2023.

Ukrainian Presidential Press Service | Reuters

"But I think the Russians are afraid of the future Ukrainian counteroffensive, they are afraid that they will lose some territory that they are occupying right now ... so I think that they asked Xi to call Zelenskyy to ask him to stop this counteroffensive," he said.

China has been eager to position itself as a peace broker to end the war, but has appeared to be allied with Moscow throughout, refusing to condemn the invasion, holding frequent calls with Moscow and having no direct diplomatic contact with Ukraine during the war until now.

And when Xi visited Russia in March, he said he would hold a phone call with Kyiv but no arrangements had been forthcoming, making yesterday's announcement even more surprising.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg made that point on Thursday when he "welcomed" the call between Xi and Zelenskyy, but he noted it does not change the fact China still hasn't condemned Russia's invasion.

The Kremlin, for its part, said it welcomes anything that could bring the end to the conflict closer, but said that it still needs to achieve the stated aims of its so-called "special military operation," such as the complete takeover of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping attend a welcome ceremony before Russia-China talks in Moscow, Russia, on March 21, 2023. Analysts are generally skeptical about China's positioning of itself as a mediator and its ability to help bring an end to the war, questioning how much sway Beijing has over Moscow.

Mikhail Tereshchenko | Sputnik | via Reuters

Analysts are generally skeptical about China's positioning of itself as a mediator and its ability to help bring an end to the war, questioning how much sway Beijing has over Moscow.

Musiyenko said China doesn't appear to understand the conflict, noting it's "unbelievable" for Beijing "to call the war a political crisis."

He was afraid that any cease-fire or peace agreement deal put forward by China would include Russian-proposed conditions such as territorial boundary changes.

It wasn't lost on analysts that China's call on Wednesday took place just days after a diplomatic gaffe last week, when its ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, told French media that countries that were part of the Soviet Union, like Ukraine, lacked status in international law.

The comment sparked indignation in the EU as well as Ukraine and other ex-Soviet states. China was forced to issue a statement distancing itself from Lu's comments, insisting that "China respects the status of the former Soviet republics as sovereign countries after the Soviet Union's dissolution."

After the incident, Timothy Ash, senior emerging markets sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, said the timing of Xi's call to Zelenskyy cannot be overlooked.

"The timing looks very suspicious, coming after that incredible diplomatic faux pas/catastrophe by the Chinese ambassador to Paris, by commenting to the effect that post Soviet states have not right to exist," Ash said in emailed comments.

"These may have been his actual views about Ukraine but in one interview I think he offended all of the 14 non-Russian states that secured independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. And this includes the states in Central Asia and Transcaucasia that China relies on for critical commodities. They must be absolutely furious, as is most of the post Communist space, ex Russia, in Emerging Europe," he noted.

Ash said the gaffe could have caused immeasurable damage to bridge-building with former Soviet states and showed a lack of understanding that could be shared more widely by those in Beijing, though it was only shown by one official.

"This one comment has undermined 30-odd years of oh-so-careful Chinese diplomacy in the region," Ash said, adding that "actually it shows that Chinese officials fundamentally don't understand Europe."

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China just called Ukraine for the first time in the war. The timing wasn't accidental, analysts say - CNBC

New satellite images offer a window into the aftermath of prolonged Russian shelling

Thu 27 Apr 2023 23.55 EDT

For more than 80 days, Mariupol endured a brutal and unrelenting bombardment, as Russian forces determined to take the port city reduced much of it to rubble.

In March 2022, a few days after the war began, Russian forces cut off electricity, water and gas supplies, forcing residents to melt snow for water and cook outside over open flames. Mariupol was encircled and the relentless bombing of the city began.

After a maternity ward was shelled and images of bloodied, heavily pregnant women were broadcast across the world, the siege of Mariupol became emblematic of the brutality of the Russian invasion.

Updated satellite imagery from Google Maps has revealed the scale of the destruction across large sections of the Ukrainian city and the Russian efforts to erase any evidence of the atrocities that took place there.

Weeks into the siege, as homes became uninhabitable and routes out of the city were closed off, many residents moved into public shelters. More than a thousand took refuge in the central drama theatre, which had once been a focal point of city life.

As more residents gathered in the basement, someone spelled out the word DETI children in giant Russian letters in front of the building.

Around 10am on 16 March, Russia bombed the building. Its thought that about 1,200 people were inside. At the time, authorities said 300 people had been killed, but the Associated Press said their investigations put the number closer to 600.

Amnesty International condemned the bombing as a clear war crime. By December, Russia had begun to demolish the buildings remains. Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the citys exiled mayor, has said Russia destroyed what remained of the theatre to hide war crimes.

In mid-April, all remaining Ukrainian troops defending the city were ordered to regroup at Azovstal, the citys huge steel plant. The factorys employees and their families also took refuge there, where they became the target of heavy bombardment for a number of weeks.

After some time, food and water began to grow scarce and the plight of those sheltering at Azovstal became the centre of international attention. On 1 May, the UN and Red Cross facilitated an agreement that secured the release of the civilians; and then two weeks later the remaining troops were ordered to surrender.

A total of 2,439 fighters gave themselves up to the Russian forces outside the plant and with that, the city of Mariupol had finally fallen.

Mariupols suburbs were not spared, with the latest images showing the extent of the damage to residential areas.

46% of the citys building were damaged or destroyed in the siege, according to one estimate. In a city that was once home to more than 400,000, the UN estimates that up to 90% of its multi-storey residential building have been damaged or destroyed.

Andryushchenko estimates that the updated Google satellite images were captured on different dates after March 2022. Writing on Telegram, he has claimed that the pictures reveal a new mass burial site at the citys Novotroitsky cemetery.

Associated Press has reported that at least 10,000 new graves are scattered across the city and the death toll is estimated to be at least 25,000.

In March, Vladimir Putin travelled to Mariupol for the first time since the war began. Russian media reported that he visited several sites, spoke to residents and was presented with a report on the citys reconstruction.

Russian authorities have said they hope to entice some of the hundreds of thousands who fled to return. They claim that hundreds of apartments have already been rebuilt, but reports from former residents who have returned show that many of the new buildings were built hurriedly and are of poor quality.

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Mariupol before and after: updated Google maps reveal destruction in Ukraine city - The Guardian

An Hour Ago

Russia's Central Bank left its key interest rate unchanged at 7.5% at a policy meeting Friday.

It marks the fifth consecutive time the bank has held rates steady. However, policymakers hinted that they may raise rates should inflation continue to move higher.

Russia's annual inflation rate slowed to 2.55% in April, but it is expected to rise to between 5% and 7% later this year, the bank said.

"Given gradually rising inflationary pressures, the Bank of Russia's forthcoming board meetings will consider the necessity of a key rate increase to stabilize inflation close to 4% in 2024 and further on," the central bank said.

Karen Gilchrist

2 Hours Ago

Russia's sanctioned Deputy Defense Minister, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, has been fired, according to Reuters, which cited reports from a military blogger and a leading news website.

Mizintsev, dubbed the "Butcher of Mariupol," was sanctioned by the West in June 2022 for orchestrating the siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol near the beginning of the war last year.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov has been sanctioned by the West and dubbed the "Butcher of Mariupol."

Andre Pain | Afp | Getty Images

He was later appointed as Russia's deputy defense minister in charge of logistics and supplies in September 2022.

His sacking was reported by a Russian military blogger, Alexander Sladkov, and by the RBC news site. Neither outlets offered a reason or explanation for his removal, according to Reuters.

Russia's defense ministry did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

Karen Gilchrist

2 Hours Ago

Ukraine is finalizing plans for a counteroffensive against Russian forces, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday, noting that it could be launched imminently.

"As soon as there is God's will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it," Reznikov told an online news briefing, according to Reuters, without providing a specific timeline.

Karen Gilchrist

3 Hours Ago

Rescuers work in the rubble of a damaged residential building in Uman, in southern Kyiv, on April 28, 2023, after Russian missile strikes targeted several Ukrainian cities overnight.

Sergei Supinsky | Afp | Getty Images

Russian missile attacks on residential buildings in cities across Ukraine killed at least 12 people on Friday, according to regional officials, with many others injured.

The airstrikes killed 10 people and injured 17 civilians in the central city of Uman, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported. The airstrikes affected 10 residential buildings.

In the city of Dnipro, a residential building was hit by Russian missiles, killing a woman and child and injuring three civilians, according to the city mayor.

Kyiv's regional military administration reported 11 missiles and two unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in its airspace, with the debris hitting a residential building in the town of Ukrainka.

Sam Meredith

4 Hours Ago

Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko told CNBC that the country should use China as leverage to help bring an end to the conflict with Russia.

His comments come shortly after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese President Xi Jinping held their first phone call since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.

"I am not fully convinced that we can emphasize something particular after this conversation but what I truly can tell you is that it is important to continue dialogue between our countries," Marchenko told CNBC's Silvia Amaro.

"We really understand the importance of China and we really understand the importance for us to create our own relationship with China and to prevent China to [fully] support Russia."

Asked whether China could be seen as Ukraine's best friend in the bid to find a compromise for peace, Marchenko replied, "Of course not. Our best friend is the United States, the G-7 nations and all our partners which is supporting Ukraine."

He added that Kyiv "should use China as leverage to win this war," saying the country must use every opportunity "to convince Russia to stop this bloody war in Ukraine."

Sam Meredith

4 Hours Ago

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reflected on what he described as another night of Russian terror, saying 10 residential buildings were damaged by missile attacks in the central Ukrainian city of Uman.

He said at the time of sharing his message via Twitter that seven people were killed, while others were injured in the attacks.

"Evil can be stopped by weapons our defenders are doing it. And it can be stopped by sanctions global sanctions must be enhanced," Zelenskyy said.

Sam Meredith

5 Hours Ago

The rubble of a house after shelling at a settlement in the Russian controlled territory of Donetsk, Ukraine, on April 27, 2023.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

A wave of Russian missile attacks early on Friday hit several cities across Ukraine, killing at least five people and injuring others, according to Ukrainian officials.

The barrage comes at a time when analysts see the potential for an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive, with the Eastern European country bolstered by billions of dollars worth of Western military and economic support.

In Uman, in central Ukraine's Cherkasy Oblast, a rescue mission is underway after two cruise missiles hit residential and warehouse buildings, killing three people and injuring eight others, Ihor Taburets, the head of the Cherkasy Regional Military Administration, said via Telegram.

In the central city of Dnipro, the city's mayor said a Russian missile attack killed a young woman and child.

Air raid sirens were heard in Kyiv after a Russian airstrike hit the capital for the first time in 51 days, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration. No casualties were reported among the civilian population; a local power line was said to have been cut off because of falling debris.

Sam Meredith

5 Hours Ago

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Friday said the real aim of the West in Ukraine is to strategically defeat Russia, to pose a threat to China, and to maintain its own monopoly position, state-owned news agency RIA reported.

RIA cited him as adding that "almost all" NATO countries had deployed their military capabilities against Russia.

Reuters

20 Hours Ago

Curators at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv display a variety of items left by Russian soldiers when they occupied areas around Kyiv during the first part of Russia's 2022 invasion.

Russia ultimately retreated from the capital area, concentrating its land war in the east.

Exhibited items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

Visitors look at exhibited items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

A man walks down the steps next to exhibited items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

Boxes of Russian army meals, with Ukrainian text written on one, reading "The trophy. The owner was eliminated by Ukraine's Armed Forces", are exhibited on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

Exhibited parts of military vehicles and items of the Russian army on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

A museum worker sits next to the portraits of members of the 'Azov' unit that were killed last year in Mariupol during the Russian attack, at the part of the exhibition dedicated to defending of Mariupol's Azovstal on April 26, 2023 at the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Roman Pilipey | Getty Images

18 Hours Ago

US journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands inside a defendants' cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on April 18, 2023.

Natalia Kolesnikova | Afp | Getty Images

The Biden administration announced a first round of sanctions targeting Russia and Iran for engaging in hostage-taking and the wrongful detention of U.S. citizens abroad.

The U.S. sanctions take aim at Russia's Federal Security Service, often known as the FSB, and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization, or IRGC IO.

"Our action is a warning to those around the world who would wrongfully detain U.S. nationals, the potential consequences of their actions," a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said on a call with reporters.

The administration has identified at least two American citizens wrongfully detained in Russia and three in Iran along with one legal permanent U.S. resident.

During opening remarks before Monday's U.N. Security Council meeting, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield spoke directly to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and called for the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine PaulWhelan, both detained in Russia.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is being held on suspicion of spying, in the courtroom cage after a ruling regarding extension of his detention, in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 22, 2019.

Shamil Zhumatov | Reuters

Thomas-Greenfield invited Elizabeth Whelan, the sister of Paul Whelan, to attend a U.N. Security Council meeting.

"I wantministerLavrovtolookintohereyesandseehersuffering.I want you toseewhat it's like tomissyourbrotherforfour years.To know he islocked up, in aRussianpenalcolony, simply because you want touse himfor yourown ends," Thomas-Greenfield said.

Whelan was arrested on espionage charges in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian penal colony in 2020.

Read the full story here.

Amanda Macias

5 Hours Ago

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Ukraine war live updates: Russian airstrikes in Ukrainian cities kill at least 12; Kyiv to use China as leverage to win war - CNBC