2 Britons, Moroccans sentenced to death by firing squad
Two Britons and a Moroccan were sentenced to death on Thursday by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine for fighting on the Ukrainian side.
The Supreme Court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic found these men guilty of a crime aimed at advancing a riot to overthrow power, an offense punishable by death in the republic only. recognized by Russia – and just days before the invasion in February. Their men were also found guilty of mercenary and terrorist activities.
Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Saaudun Brahim have one month to appeal.
Judge Alexander Nikulin told reporters: “The guilty verdict is based on the evidence provided by the prosecution, not counting the defendants’ pleas to all charges.
Prosecutors claimed that the three fighters were “mercenaries” who did not enjoy the protection afforded to prisoners of war. Aslin and Pinner’s family said the men had lived in Ukraine since 2018 and were “long-serving” members of the Ukrainian military.
Pinner and Aslin surrendered to pro-Russian forces at the southern port of Mariupol in mid-April, while Brahim did so in mid-March in the eastern city of Volnovakha.
British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called the decision a “sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy”.
“I strongly condemn the sentencing of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner organized by Russian proxy organizations in eastern Ukraine. They are prisoners of war,” she said in a statement. My thoughts are with families. We continue to do everything we can to support them.”
Another British fighter jet captured by pro-Russian forces, Andrew Hill, is awaiting trial.
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Latest developments:
►Russian residents occupying the southeastern city of Melitopol are searching for industrial freezers and refrigerators after the city’s meatpacking factory, converted into a morgue filled with Russian bodies . This week, Aron-M LLC said it was told its refrigerators would be used “free of charge to preserve the bodies of fallen servicemen.”
►Senior members of the European Union parliament are urging EU leaders to include Ukraine and neighboring Moldova as official candidates to join the 27-nation bloc. Congress in recent years has disliked Ukraine’s candidacy, citing rampant corruption.
►President Joe Biden plans to visit European allies Germany and Spain this month as he tries to put together a coalition against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The White House said Biden will attend a Group of Seven summit on June 25 in the Bavarian Alps and a meeting of NATO countries on June 28 in Madrid.
► Russia has restored fresh water supplies from southern Ukraine to Crimea via the North Crimean Canal, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a statement, an important step towards Moscow’s goal of connecting its territory territory it controls with the peninsula it annexed in 2014. Rail and road. Transportation has also been connected.
In many parts of Ukraine, children play on abandoned war tanks
More than three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the remnants of war have become a more permanent fixture in the everyday lives of Ukrainians. The photos show curious onlookers stopping to inspect damaged military vehicles. Some even let their dogs, goats and children play on top of abandoned war tanks that are publicly displayed on the streets of Kyiv and throughout the bombed-out regions. See photos here.
“To see the cars the monsters drove and what’s left of them,” said Olya Ovcharuk, a kindergarten teacher before the invasion. “There is little doubt that this is a show of death. That doesn’t stop people from taking selfies or climbing in and out of cars, feeling their coats on fire.”
– Camille Fine
‘Endless convoy of death’ in Mariupol
The true human cost of Russia’s siege of Mariupol was revealed on Thursday with the revelation that rescuers were salvaging hundreds of bodies from the rubble of bombed-out buildings across the country. Ukrainian port city. 50 to 100 bodies are being found in many buildings, city officials said. Mayor Petro Andryushchenko said on the Telegram app that bodies were being carried in an “endless death convoy” to morgues, landfills and other places.
According to Ukrainian officials’ estimates, at least 21,000 civilians in Mariupol have been killed during the weeks-long Russian siege. The Kremlin says it has used precision strikes focused on military targets, but many cities have been ravaged by incessant bombardment as Russian forces use the advantage of road attack. their long to punish Ukraine.
Mariupol, once home to 450,000 people, now has fewer than 100,000, authorities said. It was completely occupied by the Russian army.
Estimates of soldier deaths vary, but the cost of war is high
The war was shaped as a battle of attrition as both sides suffered heavy losses. Ukraine’s military says it has “liquidated” more than 30,000 Russian troops since the February 24 invasion. Russia has said little about troop losses in recent weeks. However, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych estimates that up to 150 soldiers are killed every day and 800 are wounded. That could result in more than 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed and 80,000 wounded, not to mention thousands of civilians killed.
Olga Oliker, director from Crisis Group, an NGO, told The Guardian that “both sides are competing to be the last army standing.”
Moscow’s chief rabbi lives in exile after refusing to support the invasion
Moscow’s chief cleric is living in exile after Russian authorities asked him to publicly support the war in Ukraine. Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt flew to Hungary to raise money for refugees in early March and has not yet returned to Russia, said daughter-in-law Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt of New York. in a post on Twitter. She said her husband raised funds for refugees in Eastern Europe, then visited her grandfather in a hospital in Jerusalem. Pinchas Goldschmidt was re-elected in absentia this week to another seven-year term as chief rabbi of Moscow.
“Finally can share that my brother-in-law, Chief Rabbi of Moscow @PinchasRabbi & Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, was pressured by the authorities to publicly support ‘special operations’ in Ukraine – and refused “, she wrote on Twitter. “They are now in exile from the community they loved, built and raised their children for over 33 years.”
Contribute:Deirdre Shesgreen, USA TODAY; Related press