World

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Russian flagship ‘seriously damaged’ but afloat –

Ukraine claims its missiles struck the Russian navy’s Black Sea flagship, causing a fire that “seriously damaged” the vessel, according to Moscow. 

The Russian defence ministry says the warship, which has been used to launch missiles at Ukraine’s southern coast and interior, remains afloat.

The “Moskva” gained notoriety early in the war when it called on Ukrainian border troops defending the strategic Snake Island to surrender, only to be defiantly refused.

– Russia accuses Ukraine of attacks –

Kyiv rejects Moscow’s claim that it carried out attacks on Russian soil, accusing Moscow of staging “terror attacks” on its own territory to stir up “anti-Ukrainian hysteria” in the country.

Moscow claims Ukraine sent two helicopters across the border to bomb a town in Russia’s southern Bryansk region,

Russia, which initially reported seven injured in shelling, said at least six residential buildings were damaged and that a toddler was among the injured in the purported helicopter attack.

Elsewhere, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region claims the village of Spodaryushino, “came under shelling” from the Ukrainian side of the border, and that it and a nearby village had been evacuated as a precaution.

There was no way of immediately verifying the reports.

– Ukraine resumes evacuations –

Ukraine says it is reopening humanitarian corridors through nine routes in the country’s east and south, to facilitate the evacuation of civilians from war-scarred regions after a day-long pause that Kyiv attributed to Russian violations.

– Genocide debate –

Leaders on either side of the Atlantic diverge on whether to label Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “genocide”.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says US President Joe Biden, who has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of genocide, was “right” in his choice of words.

But French President Emmanuel Macron, who is campaigning for re-election, said such “verbal escalations” were unhelpful, and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz steers clear of using the term. 

Ukraine’s parliament backs a resolution recognising the actions of the Russian military in the country as “genocide”. 

– Bad weather could help Ukraine –

Rainy weather in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region could favour that country’s army in its fight against invading Russian forces, which are preparing a stronger offensive in the zone, a senior Pentagon official says.

“The fact that the ground is softer will make it harder for them to do anything off of paved highways,” said the official, who spoke under condition of anonymity.

– Diversifying Russian energy exports –

Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for diversification of energy exports towards Asia, while accusing European countries of destabilising the market by moving to cut out Russian deliveries.

Putin says at a televised government meeting on the energy sector Russia should continue in the direction it has taken in recent years and “step-by-step, shift the direction of our exports to the fast-growing markets of the South and East”.

– French embassy returns to Kyiv –

France says its embassy in Ukraine will return to the capital Kyiv from the western city of Lviv, where it had been relocated in early March after the Russian invasion.

“This redeployment will happen very soon and will allow France to deepen its backing for Ukraine even further in all spheres to face the war unleashed by Russia on February 24,” the foreign ministry says

– 4.7 million refugees –

More than 4.7 million Ukrainians have fled their country in the 50 days since Russia invaded, the United Nations says.

Britain will send migrants and asylum seekers who cross the Channel thousands of miles away to Rwanda under a controversial deal announced Thursday as the government tries to clamp down on record numbers of people making the perilous journey.

“From today… anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech near Dover in southeastern England.

“Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead,” Johnson said.

He called the East African nation with a sketchy human rights record “one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.” 

Johnson was elected partly on promises to curb illegal immigration but has instead seen record numbers making the risky Channel crossing.

He also announced that Britain’s border agency would hand responsibility for patrolling the Channel for migrant boats to the navy.

More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain having crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2021.

Around 90 percent of those were male and three-quarters were men aged between 18 and 39.

– ‘Inhumane’ –

The Rwanda plan swiftly drew the ire of opposition politicians who accused Johnson of trying to distract from his fine for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules, while rights groups slammed the project as “inhumane”.

The United Nations’ refugee agency voiced its strong opposition, with Gillian Triggs, the UNHCR assistant high commissioner for protection saying: “People fleeing war, conflict and persecution deserve compassion and empathy. They should not be traded like commodities and transferred abroad for processing.”

Ghana and Rwanda had previously been mentioned as possible locations for the UK to outsource the processing of migrants, but Ghana in January denied involvement.

Instead, Kigali on Thursday announced that it had signed a multi-million-dollar deal to do the job, during a visit by British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

“Rwanda welcomes this partnership with the United Kingdom to host asylum seekers and migrants, and offer them legal pathways to residence” in the East African nation, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said in a statement.

The deal with Rwanda will be funded by the UK to the tune of up to £120 million ($157 million, 144 million euros), with migrants “integrated into communities across the country,” it said.

In Dover, where many migrants arrive after crossing the Channel, some residents welcomed the announcement.

“They should be sent back, because it is not our responsibility,” said retiree Andy, 68. 

“Our responsibility is to look after our own people, which we aren’t doing,” the heavily tattooed army veteran told AFP.

“I understand people escaping from repression, I do. But if they’re coming over here for one thing and that is money, to me that is wrong.”

– Backlash –

Refugee Action’s Tim Naor Hilton accused the government of “offshoring its responsibilities onto Europe’s former colonies instead of doing our fair share to help some of the most vulnerable people on the planet”.

“This grubby cash-for-people plan would be a cowardly, barbaric and inhumane way to treat people fleeing persecution and war,” he said.

Nadia Hardman, Refugee and Migrant Rights Researcher at Human Rights Watch, said the plan would “complicate” the process for Syrians seeking refuge in the UK.

“Syrian refugees are desperate to reach a place of safety,” Hardman told AFP.

“The UK’s agreement with Rwanda will only complicate this pursuit.  

“They will arrive and expect to be treated according to the fundamental values the UK says it upholds, but will instead be transferred somewhere, miles away.”

Australia has a policy of sending asylum seekers arriving by boat to detention camps on the Pacific island nation of Nauru, with Canberra vowing no asylum seeker arriving by boat would ever be allowed to permanently settle in Australia.

Since 2015 the UK has “offered a place to over 185,000 men, women and children seeking refuge… more than any other similar resettlement schemes in Europe,” Johnson said.

According to the UN refugee agency, Germany received the highest number of asylum applicants (127,730) in Europe in 2021, followed by France (96,510), while the UK received the fourth largest number of applicants (44,190).

El Shafee Elsheikh, convicted on all charges in the deaths of four American hostages, went to Syria a decade ago with two childhood friends from London to wage jihad against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Elsheikh, Alexanda Amon Kotey and Mohamed Emwazi ended up joining the Islamic State and forming a notorious kidnap-and-murder cell known as the “Beatles.”

“They grew up together, radicalized together, fought as high-ranking IS fighters together and tortured and terrorized hostages together,” prosecutor Raj Parekh said in his closing arguments at Elsheikh’s trial.

Elsheikh was born in Sudan in 1988 but moved to Britain as a child. His father left the family when he was seven years old, according to the non-profit Counter Extremism Project (CEP).

Elsheikh studied mechanical engineering at Acton College in London, according to CEP, and was stabbed in a fight with a gang member when he was 19.

He married an Ethiopian woman in Canada when he was 21, but was not allowed to bring her to Britain, allegedly deepening his anger at the British government.

Elsheikh became increasingly radicalized and took part in a “Muslims Against Crusades” demonstration outside the US Embassy in London on September 11, 2011, according to the US indictment.

He traveled to Syria in 2012 to “wage violent jihad on behalf of radical Islamic groups,” first joining an Al-Qaeda affiliate there and then IS, US prosecutors said.

Between 2012 and 2015, Elsheikh and the other “Beatles” seized more than two dozen American, European, Japanese and Russian hostages — mostly journalists and relief workers.

Ten former European and Syrian hostages testified at Elsheikh’s trial accusing the “Beatles” of months of brutal treatment including beatings, electric shocks, waterboarding and mock executions.

– ‘Terrifying’ –

A French journalist said that he and other hostages were forced by their captors to sing a depraved parody of the Eagles song “Hotel California” called “Hotel Osama.”

“It was terrifying for us, a joke for them,” Nicolas Henin told the jury.

“George was into boxing. John kicked a lot. Ringo talked a lot about how he liked wrestling, putting people in headlocks,” said Federico Motka, an Italian relief worker using the nicknames the hostages gave to their captors.

Prosecutors said Elsheikh was the “Beatle” the hostages called “Ringo.”

Elsheikh’s defense attorneys argued that the government had failed to prove he was one of the “Beatles” but the 12-person jury disagreed, convicting him of all charges.

Elsheikh, who was dressed in beige or yellow pants with light and dark blue shirts for his trial, declined the opportunity to testify in court but it was his own words that helped convict him.

Prosecutors repeatedly played excerpts for the jury of interviews Elsheikh gave to media outlets after his capture by Kurdish forces in Syria in January 2018.

He acknowledged interacting with some of the hostages but said he only collected information about them such as email addresses so the captors could be in touch with their families to discuss ransoms.

Elsheikh, who Britain stripped of his nationality, denied ever torturing captives but acknowledged he did not always show them “compassion.”

Elsheikh was convicted of hostage-taking, conspiracy to murder US citizens — journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and relief workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller — and supporting a foreign terrorist organization.

Kotey, 38, pleaded guilty in September 2021 to similar charges and is facing life in prison.

Emwazi, the IS executioner known as “Jihadi John” who beheaded Foley, Sotloff and Kassig, was killed by a US drone in Syria in November 2015.

A new aid convoy of 47 trucks and three fuel tankers was on its way to Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region, the UN’s World Food Programme said Thursday, following a conditional humanitarian truce between the government and Tigrayan rebels.

The 17-month war between government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) has created a humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia and sparked famine fears in Tigray, which has been under a de facto blockade for many months according to the UN.

On April 1, the WFP said 13 trucks loaded with food supplies had reached the Tigrayan capital Mekele, the first aid convoy to reach the stricken region by road since mid-December.

It was followed by another convoy a day later by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), carrying medical aid, food and water treatment supplies.

On Thursday, the WFP said on Twitter that its second convoy was on its way to Mekele.

“47 trucks with food, nutrition & other life-saving supplies Plus 3 fuel tankers – fundamental to deliver these items to communities in #Tigray,” it said.

The convoy had encountered a “smooth journey so far with support from all authorities,” it added, as the truce between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the TPLF continues to hold, allowing aid to reach the battered region.

A second convoy from the ICRC also arrived in Mekele on Thursday, carrying food and medical supplies, along with household items, the organisation said on Twitter.

“The convoy also carried essential equipment for the orthopedic rehabilitation centre,” it said.

The war has driven hundreds of thousands of people to the brink of famine, displaced more than two million and left more than nine million in need of food aid, according to the UN.

Nearly 40 percent of Tigray’s six million inhabitants face “an extreme lack of food”, the UN said in January, with fuel shortages forcing aid workers to deliver medicines and other crucial supplies sometimes by foot.

Both the warring sides have issued demands in connection with the truce that was announced last month.

The government has called on the rebels to “desist from all acts of further aggression and withdraw from areas they have occupied” in the neighbouring regions of Afar and Amhara.

The rebels have in turn urged the Ethiopian authorities “to go beyond empty promises and take concrete steps to facilitate unfettered humanitarian access” to Tigray.

The conflict erupted in November 2020 when Nobel Peace laureate Abiy sent troops into Tigray to topple the TPLF, the region’s former ruling party, saying the move came in response to rebel attacks on army camps.