World

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Fight on, Putin urges troops –

Russian President Vladimir Putin orders the military to fight on after Moscow’s troops won control of the last city held by Ukrainian forces in the eastern Lugansk area on their rapid advance through the Donbas region.

Russia claimed full control of Lugansk, one of two areas making up the industrial Donbas along with neighbouring Donetsk, after capturing the city of Lysychansk at the weekend. 

The Ukrainian army said it withdrew from the city to minimise its losses in the face of superior Russian firepower.

Putin says Russian forces “must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans” and says he hopes they will continue to advance “as has happened in Lugansk”.

– $750 bn needed to rebuild Ukraine: PM –

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal estimates it will take $750 billion to rebuild his war-torn country and says confiscated Russian assets should be sold off to help offset the cost.

Shmygal announces the figure during a donor conference in Switzerland which is discussing a “Marshall Plan” for Ukraine — a huge package of aid to help it rebuild like Europe received from the United States after World War II.

Leaders from dozens of countries, international organisations and the private sector are attending the meeting in the Swiss city of Lugano.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says the reconstruction of Ukraine is a job for “the whole democratic world”, not just Ukrainians.

– Britons, Moroccan appeal death sentences –

Two British nationals and a Moroccan man who were sentenced to death last month by Russian-backed separatists after being captured while fighting for Ukraine have appealed their convictions, a court in the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic says.

The cases of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner of Britain and Brahim Saadun of Morocco have caused an international outcry.

The two Britons surrendered in April in Mariupol, a port city in southern Ukraine captured by Russian troops after a weeks-long siege.

Russia accuses them of acting as mercenaries.

They argue they were serving members of the Ukrainian military and should be treated as prisoners of war.

– Deaths in Donetsk –

As the battle for the Donbas moves west to Donetsk, the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk come under sustained Russian shelling.

Zelensky says six people were killed on Sunday in Sloviansk, including a nine-year-old girl and local authorities said two more people were killed in the nearby town of Dobropillia.

On Sunday night the city of Siversk, 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Lysychansk, was also targeted in artillery strikes, residents and an official told AFP.

Tetyana Ignachenko, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk region, urges residents to flee.

– Ukraine receives 2024 Olympics boost –

International Olympic Committee head Thomas Bach vows the Ukrainian flag will “fly high” at the 2024 Games in Paris.

Speaking during a visit to Kyiv, Bach pledges to triple IOC funding for Ukrainian athletes to ensure they can compete.

Zelensky says 89 athletes and coaches have died in the war and 13 more are being held prisoner by Russian forces.

The IOC has recommended that international sports federations ban Russian and Belarusian athletes but Russia is not currently banned from competing at the 2024 Olympics.

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Chile’s constitutional convention on Monday handed its proposed new constitution to President Gabriel Boric ahead of a planned September referendum on adopting the text.

The convention, made up of 154 members who are mostly political independents, spent a year creating the new document to replace the constitution adopted during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990).

The impetus for rewriting the constitution came from massive social unrest that erupted in October 2019, initially against a hike in metro fares but that morphed into general anti-government protests over inequality.

“We should feel proud that during the deepest crisis… in decades that our country has lived through, we Chileans have chosen more democracy, not less,” said Boric during a ceremony in Santiago.

He immediately signed a decree calling a referendum on September 4, where voting in the deeply polarized country of 19 million people will be obligatory.

Rewriting the dictatorship-era constitution was a major demand of protesters who flooded onto the streets in 2019 and kept up weekly demonstrations for months before the coronavirus pandemic curtailed them.

In the first of the new constitution’s 388 articles, Chile is described as “a social and democratic State of law,” as well as “plurinational, intercultural and ecological.”

“It recognizes the dignity, freedom, substantial equality of human beings and their indissoluble relationship with nature as intrinsic and inalienable values.”

“I think we have met the social demands, with the desires of the citizens, which is what people hoped for and wanted of this process,” Barbara Sepulveda, a convention member from the communist party, told AFP.

“It is a proposal that represents a historic advance in terms of democracy and the guarantee of social rights for our country, and on top of that, it is filled with feminism from beginning to end,” added Alondra Carrillo, from the leftist Broad Front.

Some right-wing convention members were less enthusiastic.

For Cristian Monckeberg, this is a “missed” opportunity to “build something that unites rather than divides” the country.

But with just 37 out of 154 seats in the constitutional convention, which will now be dissolved, the political right was in a minority.

The process “was not as simple and friendly as many of us would have wanted and dreamed of,” writer and journalist Patricio Fernandez, one of the 104 independent members of the convention, told AFP.

– ‘From another era’ –

If the constitution is adopted, it will make Chile one of the most progressive countries in the region.

The nationwide right to abortion — something that has been overturned in the United States — would become enshrined in law.

“It’s a constitution from another era. I’m totally convinced that if it is approved, when we look back at this process… it will be seen with a lot more tenderness and affection than we see it now,” said Fernandez.

Split equally between men and women, the constitutional convention also contained 17 seats reserved for Indigenous people, who make up around 13 percent of the population.

One of those members, Natividad Llanquileo, an activist for Chile’s largest Indigenous group, the Mapuche, said the constitutional process represented “the most democratic space that we have known in the history of this country.”

As well as recognizing the different peoples that make up the Chilean nation, the new constitution accords a certain amount of autonomy to Indigenous institutions, notably in matters of justice.

Several times in recent weeks, millennial leader Boric has reiterated his support for the constitutional project, adding that the current document represents an “obstacle” to profound social reform.

Even so, several opinion polls suggest the new constitution may yet be rejected. With the full text still to be published, many Chileans say they are unsure.

In Monday’s ceremony, Boric warned against “falsehoods, distortions or catastrophic interpretations that are alien to reality” in the lead-up to the referendum.

Claudio Fuentes, a political scientist at the Diego Portales University, told AFP that those in favor of the new constitution “have to work to convince (others) that it will genuinely change people’s lives.”

President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered Russian troops to press their offensive deeper into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine after Moscow’s forces seized the strategic city of Lysychansk.

With the war now well into its fifth month after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine told a reconstruction conference in Switzerland that it would already cost $750 billion to rebuild the country.

The loss of Lysychansk over the weekend prompted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to step up calls for an increased supply of weapons from the West so Kyiv can keep up the resistance and regain lost territories.

After giving up on its initial war aim of capturing Kyiv following tough Ukrainian resistance, Russia has focused its efforts on securing control of the Donetsk and Lugansk areas which make up the Donbas region.

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin at a meeting that Moscow’s forces were now in full control of the Lugansk region. 

In a sign there would be no let-up in the fighting and that Russia now had its eyes on the entire Donetsk region, Putin told Shoigu that troops stationed there must continue their operations.

“Military units, including the East group and the West group, must carry out their tasks according to previously approved plans,” Putin said.

“I hope that everything will continue in their direction as has happened in Lugansk so far.” 

The Ukrainian army said on Sunday it was retreating from Lysychansk to preserve the lives of its troops after finding itself outnumbered and outgunned by Russian forces there.

– ‘Most modern weapons’ –

But in a symbolic boost for Ukraine, the Ukrainian flag was raised on Snake Island, an rocky outcrop in the Black Sea, after Russia withdrew from the strategically important Ukrainian territory last week.

Moscow’s capture of Lysychansk — one week after the Ukrainian army also retreated from the neighbouring city of Severodonetsk — frees up Russian forces to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in Donetsk.

Lugansk region governor Sergiy Gayday said on Telegram that there was still fighting in the town of Bilogorivka outside Lysychansk.

“We keep defending a small part of the Lugansk region so that our army could build protective redoubts,” he added.

In an address late Sunday, Zelensky vowed Kyiv would fight on and ensure the military had “the most modern weapons”.

“Ukraine will reach the level when the fire superiority of the occupiers will be levelled.”

In Sloviansk, about 75 kilometres (45 miles) west of Lysychansk, there were few people on the streets on Monday, the day after Russian strikes that left at least six dead, among them a nine-year-old girl, and 19 injured. 

In the large downtown market largely ravaged by a fire caused by a Russian strike, a few vendors offered basic goods while others cleared charred debris. 

Vendors and residents who spoke to AFP, some still in shock, expressed concern for the days and weeks to come, as sounds of shelling were heard again.

– ‘Task of democratic world’ –

The city of Siversk, 30 kilometres west of Lysychansk, also saw overnight shelling, residents and an official told AFP.

But Zelensky’s address Sunday evening was defiant, pointing to Ukrainian troops would “win back” territory in the Donbas just has they had in other regions earlier in the war.

On Monday, leaders from dozens of countries and international organisations met in the Swiss city of Lugano with the aim of hashing out a roadmap for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

At the gathering Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal put the cost of rebuilding Ukraine at $750 billion and said: “the key source of recovery should be the confiscated assets of Russia and Russian oligarchs”.

Lugano is not a pledging conference but will instead attempt to lay out the principles and priorities for a rebuilding process aimed to begin even as the war rages.

The meeting could help usher in a modern version of “The Marshall Plan”, the US-devised giant economic rescue scheme to rebuild Europe after World War II.

In a video address to the conference Zelensky described rebuilding Ukraine as the “common task of the whole democratic world” and the “biggest contribution to the support of global peace.”

But for residents in Bucha — a Ukrainian town synonymous with war crimes blamed on Moscow’s forces after their retreat in April — fear remains even as talk begins of reconstruction. 

“We’re going to bed without knowing if we’ll wake up tomorrow,” said Vera Semeniouk, 65. 

“Everyone has come back, is starting to repair houses, many are putting in new windows. It would be terrible if it started again, and we had to leave everything again.”

Italy’s prime minister on Monday linked the collapse of the country’s biggest Alpine glacier to climate change, as hopes faded of finding further survivors from a disaster that killed at least seven people.

Eight people were injured and another 14 were reported missing, authorities said, cautioning that it was not clear how many climbers were caught when the glacier gave way on Sunday.

Ice and rock thundered down Marmolada, the highest mountain in the Italian Dolomites, at 300 kilometres an hour (185 miles per hour), according to the head of Trento province, Maurizio Fugatti.

Rescuers used thermal drones to seek heat from potential survivors, although chances of finding them were “slim to nothing”, the region’s Alpine Rescue Service head Giorgio Gajer told AGI news agency.

The bodies recovered so far were found “torn apart”, rescuer Gino Comelli said.

The disaster struck one day after a record-high temperature of 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded at the summit of the glacier, the largest in the Italian Alps.

Prime Minister Mario Draghi said it was “without doubt linked to the deterioration of the environment and the climate situation”.

Alpine Rescue spokeswoman Michela Canova told AFP an “avalanche of snow, ice and rock” hit an access path at a time when there were several roped parties, “some of whom were swept away”.

– ‘Heard a roar’ –

She said the total number of climbers involved was “not yet known”.

The civil protection agency said there were four cars at base camp unaccounted for: two Czech, one German and one Hungarian.

“I heard a roar, I turned to my left and saw a mass of ice coming down from the mountain,” ski instructor Luca Medici, 54, told AFP.

Bodies dug out of the ice and rock were taken to the village of Canazei.

A physical search of the disaster scene was impossible on Monday due to fears the glacier may still be unstable, and helicopters could only fly part of the time due to bouts of bad weather.

“It is difficult for the rescuers in (such) a dangerous situation,” Canazei mayor Giovanni Bernard told AFP.

Images of the avalanche filmed from a nearby refuge show snow and rock hurtling down the mountain slopes.

“It’s a miracle we’re alive,” Stefano Dal Moro, an engineer who was hiking with his Israeli partner, told Corriere della Sera.

“It’s useless to run. You can only pray that it doesn’t come your way. We crouched down and hugged each other tightly as the ice passed”.

– Heat ‘beyond normal’ –

Massimo Frezzotti, a science professor at Roma Tre University, told AFP the collapse was caused by unusually warm weather linked to global warming. Last winter was very dry, with precipitation down 40 to 50 percent.

“The current state of the glacier is something we’d expect to see in mid-August, not early July,” he said.

Glacier specialist Renato Colucci told AGI the phenomenon was “bound to repeat itself” because “for weeks the temperatures at altitude in the Alps have been well above normal values”.

The recent warm temperatures had generated a large quantity of water from the melting glacier. It had accumulated at the bottom of the block of ice and caused it to collapse, he added.

Pope Francis tweeted his prayers for the victims, saying tragedies provoked by climate change such as this, “must push us to seek urgently new ways to respect people and nature”.

The Trento public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy.

UN scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in March that melting ice and snow was one of 10 major threats caused by global warming, disrupting ecosystems and infrastructure.

Jonathan Bamber, director of the Glaciology Centre at Bristol University, said glacier decline was “making the high mountains of Europe an increasing dangerous and unpredictable environment to be in”.

The chief suspect in a Copenhagen mall shooting was Monday remanded into a psychiatric care facility, one day after three people, including two teenagers, were shot dead.

“The court remands the 22-year-old in a closed psychiatric ward,” Copenhagen police said in a statement, following a two-hour hearing involving the suspect.

The suspected perpetrator of the attack, which took place late on Sunday afternoon, would be kept in custody for at least 24 days, which can then be extended, according to police.

The young man was brought before a judge at midday at the Copenhagen district court on Monday.

Wearing a blue T-shirt, he listened as the indictment for murder was read out, before the hearing continued behind closed doors.

According to public broadcaster DR, citing several unnamed sources, the suspected gunman had tried to reach a psychological help line shortly before the attack, but authorities would not confirm this.

Copenhagen police chief Soren Thomassen had already told a morning press conference that the “suspect is also known among psychiatric services”, but declined to comment further. 

The attack occurred on the heels of the city playing host to the start of the Tour de France cycling competition and seeing the return of the Roskilde music festival after being cancelled due to Covid-19 curbs.

– ‘Violent contrast’ –

“I think we have rarely experienced such a violent contrast as yesterday,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said as she arrived to pay tribute to the victims at the scene.

“But today I think we must pay tribute to the victims, show our sympathy, our help and support, and support all those who have been affected,” she told reporters.

Copenhagen’s mayor Sophie H. Andersen announced Monday a memorial service was being prepared.

The three killed have been identified as two Danish teens, a girl and boy both aged 17, and a 47-year-old Russian living in Denmark.

Speaking at an afternoon press conference, Copenhagen police inspector Dannie Rise said that in total 10 people had been injured by gunfire, including the three dead, with another four being seriously injured.

Rise also said police had received a large amount of witness accounts and videos from the public, and were in the process of “putting the puzzle together” to establish a motive.

Given the victims’ varied ages and genders, Thomassen said they appeared to have been randomly targeted and there was nothing to indicate it was an act of terror.

The police chief said there seemed to have been preparation ahead of the attack and that he was not aided by anyone else.

– No licence –

About 20 more sustained light injuries in the panicked evacuation after the shooting.

Thomassen added that they believed videos of the suspect, which have circulated since late Sunday on social media, to be authentic.

In some of the images, the young man can be seen posing with weapons, mimicking suicide gestures and talking about psychiatric medication “that does not work”. 

Three videos believed to have been posted to YouTube by the suspect were all titled “I don’t care”.

YouTube and Instagram accounts believed to belong to him were closed overnight, AFP noted.

The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon at the busy Field’s shopping mall, located between the city centre and Copenhagen airport. 

According to police, the shooter was armed with a rifle, a pistol and a knife, and while the guns were not believed to be illegal, the suspect did not have a licence for them.

– ‘Are you OK?’ –

Eyewitnesses told Danish media they had seen more than 100 people rush towards the mall’s exit as the first shots were fired.

The mall was busy because of a planned concert with British singer Harry Styles at the nearby Royal Arena that had sold 13,500 tickets but was cancelled at the last minute.

“We got dressed for the concert, we were on our way,” Maria Enevoldsen, who had returned to the mall Monday to pick up her car, told AFP.

“Our friend (in the mall) called, asking ‘are you OK?’ and then we heard gunshots over the phone,” she said.

The shooting came just over a week after a gunman opened fire near a gay bar in Oslo in neighbouring Norway, killing two people and wounding 21 others, though on Monday Norwegian police said they saw no link between the events.

In February 2015, two people were killed and five injured in Copenhagen in a series of Islamist-motivated shootings.