Surrounded by body bags – Putin’s ‘war crimes’ only strengthen Ukraine’s resolve

Published

2 years ago

September 30, 2022

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There was an awful near silence as the war crime investigators went about their business and the bodies of the victims were methodically packed into body bags.

We counted at least 15 body bags being loaded one on top of each other into a succession of ambulances. The death toll is higher and includes several children, one a baby just a few months old.

The attack was so swift and so deadly, when we arrived at the scene, many of the victims were still where they had died.

An elderly man’s hand was still clasping his steering wheel, frozen in time, his body slumped sideways onto the passenger seat.

Two young women were laying on the ground outside their vehicle, their legs at grotesque angles and flies massing round open wounds in their faces.

Perhaps they’d been chatting to each other when the missiles hit. A group were all in their seats in the van they were travelling in.

Someone had covered their bodies with thin white sheeting but you could still make out the front passenger, his mouth open, head back as he’d been killed.

The vehicles were packed with suitcases and medical packs the group were taking only a few miles down the road to help relatives, the elderly and the ill inside Russian-controlled territory.

According to Vladimir Putin, all this area is now Russian after he signed a decree annexing not only Zaporizhzhia but also Kherson and the two Donbas regions, Luhansk and Donetsk.

But in this clearing which was once the site for a car parts market, the Ukrainians who were gathering the DNA of their countrymen and women were digging in once again for a fight to hold on to their territory, but also a legal war which they’re determined to win.

“These are definitely war crimes,” the Ukrainian interior minister Denys Monastyrskyi told us after visiting the site.

“And Putin should pay for what he’s done.”

The aid convoy was a routine convoy. Up to 150 people met here daily first thing in the morning having got permission from the Russian authorities to visit the areas under Russian control.

They were planning to take out elderly or ill relatives who wanted to flee as well as deliver some provisions for those who didn’t want to leave their homes. They had no reason to suspect they would be the target of any attacks.

One witness, who asked only to be called Valeriy, said he couldn’t understand the questions about who had carried out this atrocity.

“I’m in shock from the rhetoric of journalists from Germany, from France, who ask who did this,” he told us.

“I speak with Russian soldiers just there (he points in the direction of the Russian-controlled areas) and even the Russian soldiers don’t think who did this… they know the Russian army bombed this.”

We spot Olga Linik on her telephone.

She’s obviously anxious and tells us she’s trying to find her parents. Her mother and father are both doctors and were in the convoy.

“I tried to persuade them to stay with me in Dnipro but they insisted they wanted to go and help people in the Russian areas,” she explains.

“My father rang me and I don’t know what’s happened but he said he tried to save my mother for an hour but I don’t know what happened.”

She breaks off to receive a call. It’s her father who comes out from amidst all the busted vehicles in the convoy and flings his arms around her, sobbing.

Her mother hasn’t made it.

The two walk off back into the bomb site where Olga and her father say their final goodbyes, arms around each other, their mother’s black body bag at their feet.

At the time of writing, according to the Ukrainian police 30 people in the convoy have died, including children, and 88 more have been injured, a number of them critically wounded, in a string of attacks on Zaporizhzhia throughout the day.

Many Ukrainians we spoke to attributed the spike in attacks to Russian losses on the battlefield.

But the attack on the civilian convoy also came hours before the Russian President publicly declared his country’s annexation of the four Ukrainian regions.

But the devastating civilian attacks only seem to have hardened the resolve of the Ukrainians and their leader with Volodymyr Zelenskyy slapping in his application for Ukraine to become a member of NATO.

It’s a threat which was said to have prompted his Russian counterpart to mount his “special operation” in the first place. The situation on the ground in Ukraine looks set to become a lot worse.

Also by cameraman Jake Britton, and producers Chris Cunningham and Artem Lysak in Zaporizhzhia.

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World

Russian man arrested after two Ukrainians stabbed to death in Germany

Published

11 hours ago

April 29, 2024

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Russian man arrested after two Ukrainians stabbed to death in Germany

A Russian man has been arrested after two Ukrainian men were stabbed to death in southern Germany.

The two Ukrainians were killed at a shopping centre in the village of Murnau in Upper Bavaria.

They were 23 and 36 years old and lived in the southern German county of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Shortly after the killings on Saturday evening, the police arrested a 57-year-old Russian on suspicion of murder, German news agency DPA reported.

The names of the victims and the suspect were not released in line with German privacy rules. It is not clear if the three men knew each other.

More than one million Ukrainian refugees came to Germany after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The majority arrived in the first three months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Germany’s federal statistical office.

By October 2022, Ukrainian citizens were the second largest foreign population in Germany after Turkish nationals.

Germany is also home to a significant Russian immigrant community and 2.5 million Russians of German ancestry who mostly moved to the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

World

Aid charity to resume operations in Gaza following killing of seven aid workers

Published

16 hours ago

April 29, 2024

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Aid charity to resume operations in Gaza following killing of seven aid workers

An aid group is to resume its work in Gaza four weeks after suspending operations following the killing of seven workers.

World Central Kitchen (WCK) says it will restart operations in the besieged strip on Monday, delivering food to “address widespread hunger”, including in the north.

It comes following the killing of the WCK workers in an Israeli military strike on 1 April.

Three British nationals, who were part of WCK’s security team, an Australian, a Polish national, an American-Canadian dual citizen, and a Palestinian, were killed in the strike.

An Israeli investigation found that incorrect assumptions, decision-making mistakes and violations of the rules of engagement had resulted in their deaths.

Middle East latest: Hamas releases hostage video

WCK suspended its operations in Gaza following their deaths. They had previously distributed more than 43 million meals in Gaza and accounted for more than 60% of all international non-governmental aid.

Erin Gore, the group’s chief executive, said the humanitarian situation in Gaza “remained dire”.

“We are restarting our operation with the same energy, dignity, and focus on feeding as many people as possible,” she said.

“We will continue to get as much food into Gaza, including northern Gaza, as possible – by land, air, or sea.”

She said despite assurances by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) of changes to their rules of operations in the wake of the workers’ deaths, their staff still faced the threat of being threatened or killed.

“We have been forced to make a decision: Stop feeding altogether during one of the worst hunger crises ever, ending our operation that accounted for 62% of all International non-governmental-organisation (NGO) aid, or keep feeding knowing that aid, aid workers and civilians are being intimidated and killed,” Ms Gore said.

“These are the hardest conversations, and we have considered all perspectives when deliberating.

“Ultimately, we decided we must keep feeding, continuing our mission of showing up to provide food to people during the toughest of times.”

Strikes on Rafah and Blinken’s visit

It comes as medics said 13 people had been killed in Israeli airstrikes on three houses in the southern city of Rafah on Monday.

The strikes on Rafah, where over a million people are sheltering from months of Israeli bombardment, came hours before Egypt was expected to host leaders of Hamas to discuss prospects for a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

On Sunday, Hamas officials said a delegation, led by Khalil al Hayya, the group’s deputy Gaza chief, would discuss a ceasefire proposal handed by Hamas to mediators from Qatar and Egypt, as well as Israel’s response.

Mediators, backed by the US, have stepped up their efforts to conclude a deal amid threats by Israel to invade Rafah.

Meanwhile, US secretary of state Antony Blinken is beginning his seventh diplomatic mission to the Middle East since the Israel-Hamas war began more than six months ago.

He will visit Saudi Arabia, where Arab and European foreign ministers have gathered in Riyadh for a meeting of the World Economic Forum, before making stops in Jordan and Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Jordan and Israel, Mr Blinken will focus largely on aid, meeting with various relief organisations, as well as officials in both countries, to underscore the urgent need for more humanitarian assistance into Gaza.

On Sunday, the IDF said the amount of aid going into Gaza had increased “significantly” and would be scaled up “even more” in the coming days.

IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said: “Getting aid to the people of Gaza is a top priority – because our war is against Hamas, not against the people of Gaza.”

World

Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2024

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Ireland pledging emergency legislation to send asylum seekers back to UK in wake of Rwanda bill being passed

Ireland is pledging emergency legislation enabling it to send asylum seekers back to the UK.

More than 80% of recent arrivals in the republic came via the land border with Northern Ireland, Irish justice minister Helen McEntee told a parliamentary committee last week.

Rishi Sunak told Sky News it showed the UK’s Rwanda scheme was already working as a deterrent after it finally became law last week.

Ireland’s deputy prime minister has said the threat of deportation to Rwanda is causing migrants to head for Ireland instead of the UK.

Micheal Martin said the policy was already affecting Ireland because people are “fearful” of staying in the UK.

The former taoiseach told The Daily Telegraph: “Maybe that’s the impact it was designed to have.”

Simon Harris, Ireland’s latest leader, has asked Ms McEntee to “bring proposals to cabinet to amend existing law regarding the designation of safe ‘third countries’ and allowing the return of inadmissible international protection applicants to the UK”, a spokesman said.

Ms McEntee said she will be meeting UK Home Secretary James Cleverly in London on Monday.

“There are many reasons why we have seen an increase in migration towards Ireland,” she told RTE.

“My focus as minister for justice is making sure that we have an effective immigration structure and system.

“That’s why I’m introducing fast processing, that’s why I’ll have emergency legislation at cabinet this week to make sure that we can effectively return people to the UK, and that’s why I’ll be meeting with the home secretary to raise these issues on Monday.”

People are now “worried” about coming to the UK, Rishi Sunak has said.

He told Sky News: “If people come to our country illegally, but know that they won’t be able to stay here, they are much less likely to come, and that’s why the Rwanda scheme is so important.”

Mr Sunak said the comments from Irish politicians show that “illegal migration is a global challenge”.

“[That] is why you’re seeing multiple countries talk about doing third country partnerships, looking at novel ways to solve this problem, and I believe [they] will follow where the UK has led,” he said.

Shadow minister Wes Streeting said it was unlikely a Labour government would bring people back from Rwanda if some are sent there.

“Once people are settled in Rwanda, they’re settled in Rwanda,” he told Sky News, adding it was doubtful that Labour would “unpick that situation”.

Regarding illegal migration in general, he said it required “putting the money that’s gone to Rwanda into the National Crime Agency so we can have proper cross-border policing to tackle the criminal gangs, speeding up the processing of decision-making, making sure we’ve got serious returns agreements with other countries”.

He added: “Those are solutions that can work.”