The Russians are “using rape as a tool of war” as Putin’s bloody invasion of Ukraine nears its first anniversary.
Expert prosecutors in Ukraine have compiled a list of up to 65,000 war crimes committed by Russian troops, with women and girls sexually assaulted.
Iryna Didenko, a crime investigator in Ukraine, highlighted the horrors of the Kremlin’s alleged crimes.
They told the Times: “We began to see that these cases were systematic, not dishonest infantryman movements. Several victims even said they heard orders given to foot soldiers to rape. And when we visited the other places, we saw the patterns emerge very, very clearly. The same scheme for each village.
This comes as the Russian embassy in London warned that Britain would face “consequences” if it attacks Ukraine with fighter jets.
Read our blog about the war in Ukraine below for the latest news. . .
A Ukrainian figure skater who competed in the Youth Olympic Games died in the war.
Dmytro Sharpar killed near Bakhmut, the Defense Ministry showed yesterday.
The ministry said: “Russia is sending its troops to kill Ukrainians.
“He also sent his athletes to kill the reputation of the Olympics.
“We have to stop them from doing both!”
President Zelensky said it was an honor to meet King Charles and thanked His Majesty for his “warm welcome. “
Speaking to Instagram, the Ukrainian leader shared a photo of himself and wrote: “I had a meeting with King Charles III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
“I congratulated him on his recent accession to the throne and wished peace and prosperity to the British people.
“It is an honour for me to be the first president of Ukraine in Ukrainian-British history to be honoured by the British monarch with an audience.
“I am grateful to Her Majesty for her warm welcome and to the Ukrainian citizens who fled the war in the UK. “
Speaking on Thursday, Putin said Russia’s economy is expected to grow this year, despite heavy Western sanctions.
“For many of those who have tried and seek to riot us, it is marvelous to see how well we are fighting threats in the economy and in some productive sectors,” Putin said in televised remarks today.
“International establishments will have to recognize that Russia not only coped with the expected impacts. . . but a slight expansion in the Russian economy is expected this year. “
Yesterday, Volodymyr Zelensky’s stopover in the United Kingdom, King Charles received the Ukrainian president at Buckingham Palace.
Zelensky waved in the palace quadrangle before being taken to the royal apartment for an audience with the monarch.
Four other people were killed in an explosion at a former factory in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said five other people were injured.
A rescue operation, the Kyiv Independent, is underway.
Ukraine is facing a crisis of intellectual fitness as Putin continues his brutal invasion, An has said.
Michel Kazatchkine, special adviser to the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe, said one in four Ukrainians was in danger of regaining their intellectual fitness as a result of the invasion.
“Mental health is one of the main public health challenges in Ukraine,” he said Thursday.
“The war and its aftermath have led to an increase in the use of licit and illicit psychoactive substances. “
The UK Ministry of Defence said mobility across the country “will likely be at its worst, with incredibly muddy conditions, from mid-March to the end of March. “
Excessive terrain will force “commanders on both sides to schedule primary offensives at those times. “
Addressing the European Parliament the day before, Volodymyr Zelensky thanked EU leaders for their opposition in the war to Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, but asked for the source of more weapons, adding fighter jets.
President Zelensky: “I am grateful to all of you who help, grateful to all those who perceive how much Ukraine wants those opportunities lately.
“We want artillery guns, shells for them, fashionable tanks, long-range missiles, fashionable aircraft. “
He added: “We want the momentum of our cooperation to be more powerful than the aggressor can tap into its potential. “
According to former President Dmitry Medvedev, Russia will have to increase its armaments production, adding tanks, in reaction to Western countries supplying weapons to Ukraine.
During a stopover at a tank factory in Omsk, Siberia, Medvedev said: “As we know, our adversary asks for planes, missiles, tanks.
“How do we deserve to react? It is clear that in this case it is natural for us to increase the production of armaments, adding fashionable tanks. “
Russia has lost 910 foot soldiers in the past 24 hours, according to Ukraine’s armed forces, bringing the total casualties to 135,010.
Defense of Ukraine tweeted: “I think if we looked at the sky, we would end up with wings. “Gustave Flaubert
“#alasparalalibertad”
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine intercepted the Russian secret’s plans to destroy Moldova.
Addressing EU leaders at a summit in Brussels the day before, the Ukrainian president had informed Maia Sandu, the Moldovan president, of the plot.
Zelensky said: “I informed him that we intercepted the plan to destroy Moldova through the Russian secret services. “
He claimed the intercepted documents showed how Russia planned to “break Moldova’s democracy and identify with Moldova. “
Volodymyr Zelensky said today that he heard from several European leaders at a summit that they were in a position to provide Ukraine with “the obligatory weapons and support, adding the planes” to triumph over Russia’s illegal invasion.
Zelensky told a news conference: “Europe will be with us until we win.
“I heard from several European leaders. . . who were ready to provide us with the weapons and support, adding planes. . . Now I have a number of bilateral agreements, we will increase the factor of fighter jets and other aircraft. “
There has not yet been any confirmation of the Ukrainian president’s claims of European countries.
Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt has criticised Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for being the only EU leader who does not applaud Volodymyr Zelensky on his stopover at the European Parliament in Brussels today.
Verhofstatd tweeted: “Orbán even has the decency to applaud the leader of a country that is being erased from the earth through Russia.
“The spirit of ’56 has abandoned the Hungarian regime. . . “
At yesterday’s press conference, Rishi Sunak said that “there is nothing on the table” when it comes to the war effort in Ukraine.
“We have subsidized this rhetoric with actions,” he added.
He said Challenger tanks will be deployed through March.
During his stay in the UK yesterday, President Zelensky joined Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as they visited Ukrainian troops with the British army.
Asked if he was personally willing to send some of Britain’s Typhoon jets to Ukraine, Sunak said it was “totally to say there had been reluctance. “
“I don’t think there is any reluctance at all, and I think we were the most complex country in the pursuit of a Ukrainian victory,” he added.
Zelensky told lawmakers that “anyone who invests in terrorism will be held accountable. “
“Whoever invests in violence will have to compensate those who have suffered terror,” he said to applause.
He said Ukraine’s call for a “special reimbursement mechanism, which will compensate for war losses at the expense of Russian assets” is based on “those principles. “
He thanked Rishi Sunak and the UK for offering war tanks: “Thank you very much for this tough defensive step. “
But he continued: “It’s just that I’m just talking about weapons.
“We are demonstrating in combination that the global is helping those who are brave to protect freedom and therefore pave the way for a new history,” he said.
“A history of the global who knows how to be in help, who knows how to be effective in defense.
“Who knows how to stay true to their principles in the dark hours. Who implements his treaties and arrangements with intelligent faith. That does not allow the authors immunity.
“Whoever knows how to triumph over the veto when it is abused. Who does not know how to worry and who knows how to win. That will be the new truth of the loose world, I’m sure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be in Paris on Wednesday night, the French presidency announced.
This will be the last stop on an air tour from Europe after yours to the UK today.
EU officials expect him to travel to Brussels on Thursday to meet EU leaders on a largely symbolic but highly anticipated stopover after months of Europe over Ukraine.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the resolution to send fighter jets to Ukraine must be approved by NATO as a whole.
Speaking to reporters before Volodymyr Zelensky delivered his speech at the European Parliament, Mr Morawiecki said: “Our position is clear, we can act within the entire NATO formation.
“We will not be the first to deliver the fighter jets, but we will respond positively, provided that those with the maximum of those aircraft can give them to Ukraine. “
On the new sanctions for Russia, he added: “We want to introduce very express provisions that will show Russia that we are determined in the fight for victory. “
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who was a staunch supporter of Ukraine during her brief tenure, said it was a “privilege” to pay attention to Mr. Zelensky.
“His courage in the face of Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine is an inspiration as we stand firm in our defense of the Ukrainian people.
“As he said, ‘freedom will win. ‘”
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) has released its latest intelligence update, with a map appearing in Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry tweeted: “The unprovoked invasion of Ukraine continues.
“The map below is the latest defense intelligence update on the scenario in Ukraine: February 9, 2023.
“Read about the UK government’s response: http://ow. ly/NW2u50MMNNz
“#StandWithUkraine”
Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters addressed the UN Security Council at Russia’s request, calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine.
The Russian delegation invited Waters to speak after an interview with the Berliner Zeitung in which he praised Vladimir Putin and said Ukraine and the West were largely to blame for the Russian invasion.
However, while addressing the UN Security Council, he also blamed Russia.
He said: “The invasion of Ukraine through the Russian Federation was illegal. I condemn it in the strongest terms imaginable.
“Moreover, the Russian invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked, so I also condemn the provocateurs in the strongest terms imaginable. “
But Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said the veteran rocker is “one more brick on the wall” of Russian propaganda.
Referring to the Soviet Union’s ban on Pink Floyd for protesting the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Kyslytsa said: “It is ironic, even hypocritical, that Mr Waters is now trying to cover up another invasion.
“How unhappy it is for his former enthusiasts to see him settle for the brick paper on the wall: the wall of Russian disinformation and propaganda.
“Keep playing guitar, Mr. Waters. That suits you better than lecturing the protection council on how to do your job. There are no flying pigs here, please. “
Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was “the world’s greatest anti-European force” in his speech to MEPs at the European Parliament in Brussels today.
The Ukrainian president also described Russian President Vladimir Putin as “a dictator with large stockpiles of Soviet weapons and weapons of dictatorial regimes, Iran in particular. “
Zelensky said: “In order to be able to fight like this, the Kremlin has cynically and deliberately tried, year after year, step by step, to eliminate our values in Europe,” he said.
“The price of human lives has been destroyed in Russia. For the government there, no one is priceless, those who are in the Kremlin and have their own wallets at heart.
“The 140 million Russian citizens for Russia’s leaders are bodies capable of using weapons for Russia. “
He ended his speech by noting that the “victorious Ukraine” will belong to the bloc.
Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the European Parliament in Brussels today.
Zelensky earned a standing ovation before addressing the assembly.
The Ukrainian president asked leaders for more weapons, especially fighter jets, and called for talks on Ukraine’s bloc club.
Former UK ambassador to Kyiv Simon Smith said: “So far, Putin’s armed forces have handled the war very badly. “
When asked by Kay Burley of Sky News about Russia’s possible reaction if the UK supplied fighter jets to Ukraine, Smith replied: “I know Putin has already signaled to say, well, you never know what will happen if he provides this and that. “, if you supply fighter jets, etc.
“It’s perfectly understandable that I need to do a kind of messaging almost like King Lear saying, I’ll do those things, I still don’t know what it is.
“That’s the kind of goosebumps he has to do right now.
“We have to remain very open, very lucid about it.
“Putin’s armed forces have behaved incredibly badly in the war so far. “
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