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War In Ukraine: Latest Developments

Published

3 years ago

May 10, 2022

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

Putin ready for ‘prolonged conflict’

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not end the Ukraine war with the campaign in the eastern Donbas region, says United States Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, warning he could make a play for the breakaway region of Transnistria in Ukraine’s neighbour to the west, Moldova.

“We assess President Putin is preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas,” Haines tells a Senate hearing.

She also says Putin could order martial law in Russia to support his ambitions in Ukraine but will use nuclear weapons only if he considers Russia faces an “existential threat.”

‘Over 1,000’ fighters holding out in Mariupol

Ukraine says that “more than 1,000” fighters are still holding out at the Azovstal steelworks in the south-eastern city of Mariupol, the last pocket of resistance to Russian control in the ruined port.

Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk denies reports that around 100 civilians are still in the steel mill, but says “hundreds” of fighters are wounded and require “urgent evacuation.”

Russian forces have besieged the plant but the fighters have refused to surrender.

At the weekend, Ukraine said all the women, children and elderly people that had been sheltering at the plant had been evacuated.

EU oil embargo possible ‘this week’

France, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, says Hungary could agree to an EU-wide embargo on Russian oil as early as “this week.”

Landlocked Hungary, a Moscow ally that relies on Russian oil, has been holding up the embargo, saying it needs more time to find new energy sources.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said she made “progress” during talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday in Budapest.

“I think we could have a deal this week, we’re working hard to achieve that,” France’s European affairs minister Clement Beaune told France’s LCI broadcaster.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba says that his country’s EU membership bid is a question of “war and peace” for Europe.

He is speaking a day after French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to rule out Ukraine joining the European Union in the near future.

Macron says joining the bloc would take “decades” and suggests instead that Ukraine and other EU hopefuls like Moldova and Georgia be integrated into a new, yet-to-be-created “European political community.” The EU says it will give an opinion on Ukraine’s accession bid next month.

German foreign minister in Bucha

German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, makes a surprise visit to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where Russian forces are accused of massacring civilians before withdrawing from the region in late March.

Baerbock is the highest-ranking German official to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion.

Ukraine’s foreign minister says Kyiv is grateful to Berlin for reviewing its policy of appeasement towards Moscow, and for backing a Russian oil embargo and agreeing to send heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Baerbock’s Dutch counterpart, Wopke Hoekstra, meanwhile visits the nearby town of Irpin.

Kyiv residents return en masse

Kyiv Mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says nearly two-thirds of the capital’s residents have returned to the city two-and-a-half months after the start of the war, which sparked a mass exodus.

“Before the war, 3.5 million people lived in Kyiv. Almost two-thirds of the capital’s residents have returned,” Klitschko says.

PUNCH.

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Judge In Maradona Negligence Case Resigns Amid Scandal

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

The Argentine judge who caused the collapse of a trial over the 2020 death of football legend Diego Maradona has resigned, her lawyer said Tuesday.

Julieta Makintach’s involvement in a clandestine documentary about the trial of Maradona’s medical team led to the proceedings being scrapped in May after two months of hearings.

No date has yet been set for a new trial.

“I have the honor of addressing you in my capacity as judge (…)in order to submit my resignation from my position,” Makintach wrote in a letter to the governor of Buenos Aires that was shared by her lawyer.

Makintach was facing impeachment proceedings over her participation in the documentary about the case against seven medical staff accused of manslaughter over Maradona’s death.

Maradona — considered one of the world’s greatest ever players — died in November 2020 at the age of 60 while recovering from brain surgery.

He died of heart failure and acute pulmonary edema — a condition where fluid accumulates in the lungs — two weeks after going under the knife.

Prosecutor say the conditions of his home convalescence were grossly negligent.

Makintach was one of three judges hearing the case.

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Netanyahu Vows To Thwart ‘Any Attempt’ By Iran To Rebuild Nuclear Programme

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Tuesday to crush any attempt by Iran to rebuild its nuclear programme in a national address to the country after 12 days of war.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Netanyahu said after a ceasefire put a halt to airstrikes by the two countries against each other.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

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Netanyahu Hails ‘Historic Victory’ In Iran War

Published

16 hours ago

June 24, 2025

Editor

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday hailed a “historic victory” in his country’s 12-day war against Iran and vowed to prevent Tehran rebuilding its nuclear facilities.

“We have achieved a historic victory,” Netanyahu said in a televised address to the nation after the start of a ceasefire agreed to by both countries.

“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” he told viewers in the near-10-minute speech.

“We have thwarted Iran’s nuclear project. And if anyone in Iran tries to rebuild it, we will act with the same determination, with the same intensity, to foil any attempt,” he added.

The head of Israel’s military Eyal Zamir said earlier on Tuesday that its strikes had set back Iran’s nuclear programme “by years” and the campaign against the country was now “entering a new phase”.

Iran said on Tuesday that it was ready to return to nuclear negotiations with the United States as the ceasefire took hold.

But Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country would continue to “assert its legitimate rights” to the peaceful use of atomic power.

Israel’s government said in a statement earlier Tuesday that it had removed the “dual existential threat” of Iran’s nuclear programme and missiles during its strikes.

Netanyahu claimed that Israel’s attack on Iran, named “Operation Rising Lion”, would be “recorded in the annals of Israel’s wars, and will be studied by armies all over the world.”

It included repeated strikes on Iran’s nuclear and missile sites, assassinations of military and domestic security service leaders, as well as the bombing of state media and Evin prison in Tehran.

After the United States joined in the conflict with strikes on Sunday, President Donald Trump said his forces had “totally obliterated” Iran’s main nuclear sites.

Analysts said, however, that it remained unclear whether the strikes had put the nuclear threat out of reach, with the possibility that Iran had moved its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium away from the targeted sites.

Tehran has always denied seeking a nuclear weapon.