World

The leaders of major EU powers France, Germany and Italy vowed Thursday to help Ukraine defeat Russia and to rebuild its shattered cities, in a visit to a war-torn Kyiv suburb.

French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian premier Mario Draghi arrived in Ukraine by train and headed to Irpin, scene of fierce battles early in Russia’s invasion.

“France has been alongside Ukraine since day one. We stand with the Ukrainians without ambiguity. Ukraine must resist and win,” Macron told journalists.

Surrounded by the wreckage left by Ukraine’s successful but hard-fought defence of its capital in the early stages of the 113-day-old conflict, Draghi said: “We will rebuild everything.

“They destroyed kindergartens, they destroyed playgrounds. Everything will be rebuilt,” he promised.

It is the first time the three have visited Kyiv since Russia’s February 24 invasion. 

Ukraine has applied to join the European Union and, although no-one in Brussels expects this to be a quick process, the leaders of the bloc’s most powerful countries were expected to bring President Volodymyr Zelensky a positive message.

Kyiv is also pleading with its western allies to step up supplies of weapons to its forces, which are outgunned by Russian artillery on the frontline in east of the country. 

– ‘Stand by Ukraine’ –

Germany, especially, has been criticised for slow weapons deliveries, but western defence ministers are meeting in Brussels to discuss what more they can do and on Wednesday US President Joe Biden announced $1 billion worth of new arms for Ukrainian forces.

Moscow was dismissive of the European visit, and of the arms supplies.

“Supporting Ukraine by further pumping Ukraine with weapons,” warned Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would be “absolutely useless and will cause further damage to the country”. 

The new US support package includes howitzers, ammunition, anti-ship missile systems, and additional rockets for new artillery systems that Ukraine will soon put in the field.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine is focused on the industrial city of Severodonetsk, and Russians forces appear close to consolidating control after weeks of intense battles.

Sergiy Gaiday — the governor of the Lugansk region, which includes the city — said Thursday around 10,000 civilians remain trapped in the city, out of a pre-war population of some 100,000. 

Kyiv’s army is “holding back the enemy as much as possible,” he said on Telegram. “For almost four months they have dreamt of controlling Severodonetsk… and they do not count the victims.”

– Civilians trapped –

Moscow’s forces have destroyed the three bridges spanning a river between the city and Lysychansk. 

Hundreds of civilians are trapped in a Severodonetsk chemical plant, which is under constant bombardment, according to Ukrainian authorities.

Russia said Ukrainian authorities had on Wednesday prevented an attempt at evacuating them.

From an elevated position in Lysychansk, an AFP team saw black smoke rising from the Azot chemical factory in Severodonetsk and another area in the city.

The head of the Severodonetsk city administration Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television on Thursday that there were about 500 civilians trapped in shelters at the plant. 

“Fighting and constant shelling have been going on there for almost a week now,” he said, warning that the shelling could damage ammonia storage and trigger a chemical disaster. “It is a miracle that the whole city has not been affected.”

The Ukrainian military was using the high ground to exchange fire with Russian forces across the river.

– Seeking more arms –

Elsewhere, Russia launched a missile strike in Ukraine’s north-east Sumy region, killing four people and injuring six others, governor Dmytro Zhyvytsky said on Telegram.

In Brussels, Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov and other officials met with around 50 countries of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group at NATO headquarters asking for a surge in weapons and ammunition.

“Ukraine is really in a very critical situation and therefore, it’s an urgent need to step up,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told journalists ahead of two days of talks. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile underscored that he was not as isolated internationally as his foes would wish with a call with China’s leader Xi Jinping, their second reported call since Russia attacked Ukraine.

China has refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and has been accused of providing diplomatic cover for Russia by criticising Western sanctions and arms sales to Kyiv.

The United Nations warned a hunger crisis that has been worsened by the war in Ukraine, traditionally a breadbasket to the world, could swell already record global displacement numbers.

Addressing the food insecurity crisis is “of paramount importance… to prevent a larger number of people moving,” the United Nations refugee chief Filippo Grandi told reporters.

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US coalition forces said they captured a senior Islamic State group bomb maker in a pre-dawn raid Thursday that, witnesses said, saw troops in helicopters swoop down on an isolated house in rebel-held northwestern Syria.

A war monitor and AFP correspondents said two military helicopters touched down for only a few minutes, and several shots were fired, in a village in an area controlled by Turkish-backed rebel groups.

“The captured individual is an experienced bomb maker and operational facilitator who became one of the top leaders of Daesh’s Syrian branch,” said the US-led coalition battling the jihadist group in Syria and Iraq, using another name for IS.

The coalition did not name the target in the statement, but a coalition official told AFP the man captured was Hani Ahmed Al-Kurdi, who was the IS leader of Raqa when it was the de facto capital of IS in Syria.

Such operations by US forces are rare in parts of northwestern Syria that are under the control of Turkish-backed rebels and non-IS jihadist groups.

A previous special forces raid in early February led to the death of the group’s leader Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi, who detonated a bomb vest to avoid capture.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group with a vast network of sources on the ground, could not confirm the identity of the IS operative captured on Thursday.

Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that two military helicopters landed in Al-Humayrah and took off seven minutes later, adding that only a few shots were fired.

“The US operation was quick and smooth,” he said, adding it took place in the village of Al-Humayrah, northeast of Aleppo and four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the Turkish border.

– ‘No civilians harmed’ –

The coalition said that “the mission was meticulously planned to minimise the risk of collateral damage, particularly any potential harm to civilians. 

“There were no civilians harmed during the operation nor any damage to coalition aircraft or assets.”

Mohamed Youssef, a local witness to the raid, said it targeted a house on the outskirts of the village where displaced people from the Syrian city of Aleppo were living.

He reported busy activity in the skies during he nighttime operation.

“About eight aircraft flew for more than an hour and a half,” he said. “When they left, we headed to the house and found the women tied up and the children in a nearby field.”

He said the women told them that coalition forces had arrested “a man named Fawaz”.

Other residents told AFP that about four men and six women had lived in the house, but that they did not know whether they were a family, and that they did not mix with the rest of the village.

Other eyewitnesses told AFP that a pro-Turkish Syrian group arrested the two other men after the operation.

– Desert hideouts –

After IS lost its last territory following a military onslaught backed by the US-led coalition in March 2019, its remnants in Syria mostly retreated into desert hideouts.

IS cells have since ambushed Kurdish-led forces and Syrian government or allied forces, also carrying out similar attacks in Iraq.

The group’s top leaders however often take cover in areas controlled by other forces.

Qurashi’s notorious predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed in a US special forces raid in northwestern Syria, far from IS’s area of operations.

Little is known about new leader Abu Hasan al-Hashemi al-Qurashi, the jihadist group’s third chief since its inception.

Media reports that he was captured in Istanbul last month were never confirmed, with a Turkish official only telling AFP that a senior but unidentified IS member had been detained.

Observers have long feared a resurgence of IS in the badlands that straddle the Iraqi-Syrian border and formed the heart of the group’s once sprawling proto-state.

Yet with constant coalition pressure on its leadership and its sources of financing, the jihadist group still has no fixed positions in either country and the intensity of its attacks has remained largely unchanged since 2019.

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Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey on Thursday “strenuously” denied claims that he sexually assaulted three men, as the US star appeared in a London court to face charges.

Deputy Chief Magistrate Tan Ikram granted him unconditional bail until the next hearing, set for 9:30 am (0830 GMT) on July 14 at Southwark Crown Court in south London.

Spacey, 62, smiled but made no comment to a scrum of waiting reporters, photographers and television cameras as he arrived and left Westminster Magistrates Court in bright sunshine.

Inside the courtroom, the actor, wearing a light blue suit, stood in the dock to give his full name as Kevin Spacey Fowler, his date of birth and an address in London.

No formal pleas were given at the hearing, which lasted 28 minutes. But his lawyer Patrick Gibbs told the court: “Mr Spacey strenuously denies any and all criminality in this case.

“He needs to answer these charges if he is to proceed with his life.”

The court was told that Spacey lives in the United States, where he has family and a nine-year-old dog.

The judge formally withdrew an arrest warrant issued two weeks ago after hearing that the two-time Oscar winner had arrived in London on Monday to appear in person.

“You have cooperated, I am told, with the authorities in New York and you have voluntarily attended these proceedings here today,” the judge told him.

In England and Wales, first appearances at magistrates’ courts are largely procedural, with prosecutors sketching out the charges and the judge setting bail.

Defendants are typically not obliged to enter a formal plea. More serious cases are sent to the crown court, where judges have greater sentencing powers in the event of a conviction.

– Charges –

The Crown Prosecution Service, which is responsible for bringing prosecutions in England and Wales, said last month it had authorised charges against Spacey.

The first two charges of sexual assault date from March 2005 in London and concern the same man, who is now in his 40s.

The third is alleged to have happened in London in August 2008 against a man who is now in his 30s. 

Spacey has also been charged “with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent” against the same man.

The fourth sexual assault charge is alleged to have occurred in Gloucestershire, western England, in April 2013 against a third man, who is now in his 30s.

None of the alleged victims can be identified under English law.

Reporting restrictions prevent the media going into detail about the charges to avoid prejudicing a jury at any trial.

After the prosecutors’ announcement last month, Spacey said he was “disappointed” with the decision.

But he said in a statement: “I will voluntarily appear in the UK as soon as can be arranged and defend myself against these charges, which I am confident will prove my innocence.”

The Metropolitan Police in London announced on Monday he had been formally charged.

Spacey — an Academy Award winner for “The Usual Suspects” and “American Beauty” — was artistic director of The Old Vic theatre in London between 2004 and 2015.

Allegations against him emerged in the wake of the #MeToo movement that saw numerous claims of sexual assault and harassment in the movie industry.

That prompted an investigation by the Met and a review by The Old Vic of his time in charge of the theatre.

Claims against Spacey in 2017 led to the end of his involvement in the filming of the final season of the political drama “House of Cards”.

He was also dropped from a Gore Vidal biopic on Netflix and as the industrialist J. Paul Getty in “All the Money in the World”.

Emergency services battled several wildfires Thursday as Spain remained in the grip of an exceptional heatwave that has seen temperatures reach 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Farenheit).

The most alarming blaze, near Baldomar in Catalonia, has already destroyed 500 hectares of forest but could spread to over 20,000, the government in the northwestern region said.

No-one has been evacuated yet but the Catalan authorities have cordoned off several residential areas as a precaution.

In Lerida province, where Baldomar is located, temperatures reached 41C on Thursday. 

Spanish meteorologial office AEMET also forecast temperatures above 40C in Badajoz in the southwest and Zaragoza in the northeast.

Two other wildfires were raging in Catalonia on Thursday morning, in Lerida and Tarragona provinces, and had destroyed nearly 300 hectares, the Catalan authorities said.

Another was burning in the Sierra de la Culebra mountains in Zamora, central Spain.

In the northern province of Navarra, firefighters brought two forest fires under control during Wednesday night, regional emergency services said.

The six-day-old heatwave, exceptional in Spain for this time of year, has affected the entire country and is forecast to last until Saturday, AEMET said.

Spain recorded its hottest May since the start of the 21st century and has seen four extreme temperature episodes in less than a year.

In neighbouring Portugal, last month was the hottest May since 1931.

Heatwaves have become more prevalent due to climate change, scientists say. 

As global temperatures rise over time, heatwaves are predicted to become more frequent and intense, and their impacts more widespread.