Latest news with #easternUkraine
France 24
14-07-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Zelensky talks air defence in 'productive' meeting with US envoy
Kellogg's visit -- more than three years into the Kremlin's invasion -- comes as Russian forces killed three civilians in eastern Ukraine and launched dozens of long-range drones at targets across the country. The envoy arrived in Kyiv just one day after US President Donald Trump announced new Patriot air defence systems supplies to Ukraine, in a U-turn that has underscored concerns in Kyiv over the consistency of American support. "We discussed the path to peace and what we can practically do together to bring it closer," Zelensky wrote on social media. "This includes strengthening Ukraine's air defense, joint production, and procurement of defence weapons in collaboration with Europe," he added. The Ukrainian president also called for fresh sanctions on Russia and countries that aid its war efforts, and urged US leadership on confronting Moscow. "It is clear that Moscow will not stop unless its unreasonable ambitions are curbed through strength," Zelensky said. Washington said this month it would pause some arms deliveries to Kyiv but Trump has changed tack, criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin for intensifying attacks as US-led peace talks stalled. 'Better late than never' Trump said this weekend Washington would also supply Kyiv with more Patriot air defence batteries, but added that the United States would not pay for them. One Ukrainian solider deployed in the war-scarred east of the country, who identified himself by his call sign Grizzly, welcomed Trump's announcement. "Better late than never," he told AFP. "Because while we are here defending the front line, our families are unprotected. Thanks to the Patriots they are giving us, our families will be safer," the 29-year-old added. Kellogg's visit comes as the US president is set to meet with NATO's Secretary General Mark Rutte in Washington later on Monday. Trump has said he would issue a "major statement" on the war on Monday. Russian forces meanwhile said on Monday they had claimed new territory in eastern Ukraine with the capture of two villages, one in the Donetsk region and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. Moscow claimed to have annexed both almost three years ago despite not having full military control over them. Its forces also killed at least three civilians in the eastern Kharkiv and Sumy regions on Monday, regional Ukrainian officials announced. Moscow has stepped up aerial strikes on Ukraine over recent months, launching hundreds of drones almost on a daily basis. The Ukrainian air force said Monday Russia had launched 136 drones and four missiles at Ukraine.
SBS Australia
10-07-2025
- Politics
- SBS Australia
Russia was behind downing of MH17: EU rights court
Listen to Australian and world news, and follow trending topics with SBS News Podcasts . In July 2014, a commercial flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur - Malaysian Airlines flight M-H-17 - was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 253 people on board - including 38 Australians. At the time, anti-Kyiv separatists, backed by Russia, were fighting Ukrainian forces after the Russian invasion and annexation of Crimea. It was these Russian-backed separatists who shot down the Boeing 777, using a Russian-made missile. More than a decade on, Europe's top human rights court has ruled that Russia was responsible. President of the European Court of Human Rights Mattias Guyomar, says Russia violated the right to life of passengers on board. 'The court found that the missile that downed the flight MH17 was fired by a member of the Russian military crew of the Buk Telar, or by a member of the DPR. It was not necessary for the court to decide exactly who fired the missile since Russia was responsible for the acts of the Russian armed force and of the armed separatists. No measures were taken by Russia to accurately identify the intended target of the missile in breach of international human law. The killing of the civilians onboard flight MH17 could not be described as a lawful act of war and violated the right to life under the Convention." The decision comes as part of a broader ruling examining four complaints filed to the court between 2014 and 2022, three from Ukraine and one from the Netherlands. The panel of 17 judges have found that since 2014, Russia has committed a series of flagrant and unprecedented violations of the European Human Rights Convention. These violations include, but are not limited to, the extrajudicial killing of civilians and military personnel outside combat, torture, forced labour, and the unlawful detention of civilians. Mattias Guyomar says these findings present the scale of violations carried out by the Russian state. "Taken as a whole, the evidence presented a picture of interconnected practices of manifestly unlawful conduct by agents of the Russian state on a massive scale across Ukraine. This included a practice of military attacks that were variously indiscriminate, disproportionate and targeted residential areas in breach of international humanitarian law." Russia left the European Human Rights Convention in September 2022, shortly after being expelled from the Council of Europe for its invasion of Ukraine. The decision is therefore largely symbolic, and Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says Moscow plans to ignore them. But, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the ruling is a historic judgement and an undeniable victory for Ukraine and families of the victims hailed the decision as an important milestone in their 11-year quest for justice. Meanwhile, Russia has conducted its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the war began, with 728 drones and 13 missiles fired in a single night. Over 10 Ukrainian regions were hit, with the hardest hit being Lutsk, a critical hub used for receiving foreign military aid. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Russia's escalation is no longer about military targets. "Russia is now massively and deliberately bombing Ukrainian cities from the air night after night. Last night, we experienced some of the most massive bomb and rocket attacks since the beginning of the war. They are practically only targeting civilian sites; it is terrorism against the civilian population and has nothing to do with a war against military targets anymore." Responding after the attacks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to make a point about the recently stalled U-S led peace efforts. With an increasing number of decoy drones fired by Russia in recent weeks, it appears Russia is seeking to overwhelm Ukraine's air defence systems. This comes as U-S President Donald Trump announced the U-S would resume weapons shipments to Ukraine after a brief pause. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova says the resumption of shipments from the US will make matters worse. "After Washington's previously announced decision to suspend military supplies to the Kyiv regime during the inspection of Pentagon warehouses, the United States made statements about their resumption. The consequences of such moves are yet to be assessed, but it can be said with certainty that the continuation of sending weapons to Ukraine wouldn't help, to put it mildly, bring about a peaceful settlement of the conflict, which the world community, including the West Wing, seemingly calls everyone for." Mr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, is urging Ukraine's partners to impose stricter sanctions on Russian oil and those who help finance Russia's war by buying it. Visiting Italy ahead of an international conference on rebuilding Ukraine, he met with U-S Ukraine Envoy Keith Kellogg for what he describes as "substantive" conversations about weapon supplies and strengthening air defences. It's the first time the U-S is taking part in a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, a European dominated group of countries backing Ukraine. Kyiv is seeking to purchase more Patriot air defence systems from Washington, which are considered key to defending its cities. Donald Trump says he is considering the sale. "They would like it. They've asked for it. They're very rare, indeed, you know, because a lot of systems have been sent to Ukraine. But they would like to. I know they made the request. We're going to have to take a look at it. Very expensive. Very expensive system. It's a shame that we have to spend so much money on a war that would have never happened if I were president. That's a terrible, terrible war over there. And it's really a shame. It's, uh... Very sad. You know, when you talk about a system like that, highly sophisticated, tremendous amount of money, and they're doing it because they want to prevent death. They're getting hit hard, very hard. So we're looking at it."
Malay Mail
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Malay Mail
Farming the front line: How Ukraine's villagers are risking it all to bring life back to landmine-riddled fields
KAMYANKA (Ukraine), July 10 — There were so many mines on Larisa Sysenko's small farm in Kamyanka in eastern Ukraine after the Russians were pushed out that she and her husband Viktor started demining it themselves — with rakes. Further along the front line at Korobchyne near Kharkiv, Mykola Pereverzev began clearing the fields with his farm machinery. 'My tractor was blown up three times. We had to get a new one. It was completely unrepairable. But we ended up clearing 200 hectares of minefields in two months,' he said. 'Absolutely everyone demines by themselves,' declared Igor Kniazev on his farm half an hour from Larisa's. Ukraine is one of the great bread baskets of the world, its black earth so rich and fertile you want to scoop it up in your hands and smell it. But that dark soil is now almost certainly the most mined in the world, experts told AFP. More than three years of unrelenting artillery barrages — the biggest since World War II — have sown it with millions of tons of ordnance, much of it unexploded. One in 10 shells fail to detonate, experts estimate, with as much as a third of North Korean ordnance fired by Russia failing to go off, the high explosives moulding where they fall. Yet the drones which have revolutionised the way war is fought in Ukraine may also now become a game-changer in demining the country. Ukraine itself and some of the more than 80 NGOs and commercial groups working there are already using them to speed the mammoth task of clearing the land, with the international community pledging a massive sum to the unprecedented effort. Gallows in the garden But on the ground it is often the farmers themselves — despite the dangers and official warnings — who are pushing ahead on their own. Like the Sysenkos. They were among the first to return to the devastated village of Kamyanka, which was occupied by the Russian army from March to September 2022. Two weeks after its recapture by Ukrainian soldiers, Larisa and Viktor went back to check their house and found it uninhabitable, without water or electricity. So they let the winter pass and returned in March 2023 to clean up, first taking down the gallows Russian soldiers had set up in their yard. And they began demining. With their rakes. 'There were a lot of mines and our guys (in the Ukrainian army) didn't have time to take care of us. So slowly we demined ourselves with rakes,' said Larisa cheerily. Boxes of Russian artillery shells are still stacked up in front of their house — 152mm howitzer shells to be precise, said Viktor with a mischievous smile. 'I served in the artillery during Soviet times, so I know a bit,' the 56-year-old added. That summer a demining team from the Swiss FSD foundation arrived and unearthed 54 mines in the Sysenkos's field. They were probably laid to protect a 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled gun — which looks like a big tank — with which the Russians could hit targets up to 24 kilometres (15 miles) away. Deadly 'flowers' The PFM-1 anti-personnel mines they found are sensitive enough to detonate under the weight of a small child, exploding under only five kilograms of pressure. Known as the 'flower petal' or 'butterfly' mine, they blend horrifyingly well into fields and forests, with their petal shape and khaki colour. They are banned under the 1997 Ottawa International Convention, to which Russia never signed up. Ukraine said last week it was withdrawing from the treaty. The deminers told the Sysenkos 'to evacuate the house'. 'Under their rules, we couldn't stay there. So we obeyed. The demining machine went back and forth and there were tons of explosions under it.' With its gutted homes, Kamyanka still looks like a ghost village but about 40 people have moved back. (Its pre-war population was 1,200.) Many fear the mines and several people have stepped on them — '99 percent on the flower petal ones', said Viktor. Yet farmers cannot afford to wait and are back at work in the vast fields famous for Ukraine's intensely black and fertile 'chernozem' soil, which is rich in humus. 'If you look at the villages around here, farmers have adapted tractors themselves to clear their land and they are already planting wheat and sunflowers,' Viktor added. Most mined land Ukraine's 'cereal production fell from 84 million tons before the war to 56 million tons' last year, a drop of one-third, agriculture minister Vitaliy Koval told AFP. 'Ukraine has 42 million hectares (103 million acres) of agricultural land. On paper, we can cultivate 32 million hectares. But usable, uncontaminated land not occupied by Russia — (we have) only 24 million hectares,' he added. A fifth of Ukraine's total territory (123,000 square kilometres, 48,000 square miles) is 'potentially contaminated' by mines or explosives, according to government data. That's an area roughly the size of England. So does that make Ukraine the most mined country in the world? 'I think that is probably true in terms of the most unexploded bombs and shells and the most mines in the ground,' said Paul Heslop, the United Nations Mine Action Service adviser in Ukraine. Like all experts AFP talked to, he said it was impossible to make an accurate count in a country at war with a front line stretching 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) and its Russian-controlled areas inaccessible. '(But) if you have got maybe four to five million unexploded shells or munitions, and three to five million mines, you potentially have 10 million explosive devices in the ground.' Pete Smith, who leads the HALO Trust's 1,500 staff in Ukraine, is a veteran of demining Iraq and Afghanistan. But 'I can say with a large degree of certainty' that no other country has been strewn with so many explosives, he said. Tractors blown up Some semblance of normal life has returned for the Sysenkos. Their two dogs frolic around a sign marked 'Danger Mines'. Birds now nest in the bullet and shell holes in the peach-coloured walls of their farmhouse. But the demining will be going on for some time around them. To get some idea of how thankless it can be, the Swiss FSD team found only the remnants of three explosives after two years of searching a nearby 2.6-hectare plot (about the size of three football fields). 'Metal contamination was so intense that our detectors became unusable. They were constantly going off,' their site chief told AFP. But after checking the thousands of metal fragments they had found, almost all turned out not to be dangerous. The snail's pace of the meticulous process exasperates farmer Kniazev, who rattles off his gripes with the demining groups at machine gun pace. 'Every year they promise: 'Tomorrow, tomorrow, we'll clear all the fields.'' So in the end, he did it himself. Like the Sysenkos, Kniazev went back to his land as soon as the Russians withdrew and has since demined 10 hectares by himself. He hopes to finish the final 40 within a year. How? 'I took a metal detector and cleared the mines,' he shot back. 'I was on my tractor when the harrow (being dragged behind) hit a mine and it exploded.' Lost leg, went back to work Kniazev managed to repair the tractor but the harrow was a write-off. 'I was lucky,' he said with a twinkle in his steel blue eyes. Others not so much. 'Demining will take a long, long time because people keep detonating mines,' he said. 'Dozens (of farmers) around here have already hit TM anti-tank mines. Many of our folks also stepped on OZM mines.' These Soviet-era 'jumping' anti-personnel mines are particularly dangerous, leaping up a metre (three feet) when triggered and spraying 2,400 bits of shrapnel at everything within 40 metres. Kniazev has been turning the remnants of Russian shells into pipes. 'I'll make a lamp' with that empty cluster bomb on the floor, he said. A prosperous farmer before the war, he is slowly getting back on his feet despite losing a large part of his agricultural machinery. He had just planted wheat after growing potatoes last year. He plans to diversify into mushrooms, which are highly profitable, he said. Andriy Ilkiv lost his left leg below the knee when an anti-personnel mine exploded under his foot on September 13, 2022. 'I returned to work about four months later,' said the head of a Ukrainian Interior Ministry demining team, even though the father-of-five was eligible for an office job because of his disability. 'I'm used to this work, I like it,' he told AFP. 'Staying in an office isn't for me,' he added, his colleagues gently ribbing him as they begin their day's work, the engine of their huge 12.5-ton German-made excavator already humming. Hairdresser turned deminer Kniazev said many Ukrainians work in demining for the good pay and to avoid conscription. Former hairdresser Viktoria Shynkar has been working for HALO Trust, the world's biggest non-governmental demining group, for a year. And she happily admitted the pay was one part of what drew her to this field in Tamaryne near Mykolaiv, not far from the Black Sea. The €1,000 (US$1,180) monthly wage she gets after the three weeks of training is as much as a young doctor is paid. And despite the heavy body armour and helmet, it is much less tiring than being a hairdresser, where she hated making small talk with customers and was always on her feet. 'Before I used to cut hair. Now I cut grass (looking for mines). Before I cut to the millimetre. Now it's to the centimetre,' the 36-year-old said. You need to be precise. In a field nearby, Shynkar and her colleagues uncovered 243 TM-62 Russian landmines, each armed with enough high explosive to blast through the armour of a battle tank and kill its crew. The Ukrainian government wants to clear 80 per cent of its territory by 2033, despite some questioning how the work will be funded and coordinated, never mind problems with corruption. 'I've seen contracts worth millions that made no sense,' a foreign expert, who asked to remain anonymous, told AFP. 'So there are clearly things going on under the table.' Drones armed with AI But some 'of the most significant innovations in mine clearance in 20 to 30 years' are also happening in Ukraine, said Smith of the HALO Trust. 'Drones have been incredibly useful, particularly in areas we can't enter safely but they still allow us to survey the area,' said Sam Rowlands, the trust's survey coordinator in Ukraine. It uses 80 drones with various sensors depending on the ground conditions. The images are sent to their headquarters near Kyiv to map out the minefield and are used to train AI in detecting different types of mines. Volodymr Sydoruk, a data analyst there, works on the algorithms from partner company Amazon Web Services. He enters multicoloured code for each type of mine that appears on his giant screen. It is still early days for their machine learning but it is 'already around 70 per cent accurate, which is not bad,' said Sydoruk. And AI is likely to make drones a lot more effective in the future, experts say. 'One day we will see demining robots working 23 hours a day, with no risk to human lives,' the UN's Heslop said. 'In five or 10 years, everything will be much more automated, thanks to what is happening today in Ukraine,' he added. Then Viktor and Larisa will finally be able to retire their rakes. — AFP
News.com.au
09-07-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Top European rights court finds Russia committed abuses in Ukraine
A top European court on Wednesday ruled Russia committed a string of human rights violations in backing anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014, in the downing of the MH17 flight that year and in invading Ukraine in 2022. The European Court of Human Rights, part of the Council of Europe rights body, is tasked with implementing the European human rights convention in signatory countries. Wednesday's largely symbolic ruling comes after the Council of Europe excluded Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow dropped out of the European rights convention in September that year. The ECHR however still handles cases against Russia that were brought before that date. A panel of 17 judges found Russia violated the convention through "extrajudicial killing of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel" outside of combat, "torture", "forced labour", "unlawful and arbitrary detention of civilians" as well as looting. The judges also ruled that Russia had violated the European rights convention through "the transfer to Russia and, in many cases, the adoption there of Ukrainian children". The court said Russia "must without delay release or safely return all persons who were deprived of liberty on Ukrainian territory under occupation by the Russian and Russian-controlled forces." It added that Moscow should cooperate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism to help identify "all children transferred from Ukraine to Russia and Russian-controlled territory" before September 2022 to restore contact between them and their families, and enable their safe reunification. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Russia had no intention of complying with the decision of the court, whose rulings it considered to be "null and void". - 'Historic' - The court issued its verdict in response to four complaints. Ukraine had filed three of these over events from 2014 to 2022, and the Netherlands had filed a fourth over the downing over eastern Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The UN's aviation agency has blamed Moscow for the tragedy that killed all 298 on board. The ECHR found that "the suffering of the next of kin of the victims of the downing of flight MH17" violated the right to freedom from torture and punishment. Ukraine celebrated what it said was a "historic decision". Its justice ministry said the court's recognition of "systematic and widespread human rights violations committed by Russia" was a "victory on the international stage". Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said it was "an important step toward justice". "The court has designated Russia as responsible for the downing of MH17 and the death of its passengers, including 196 Dutch nationals," he said. Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, step-sister and nephew in the tragedy, said it was an "important day". "I don't think Russia will pay anything but it is not about money today," he said. "It is about getting justice and recognition and maybe getting apologies... You never know." Usually individuals file cases at Europe's top human rights court, appealing to it as a last resort in cases where they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues. But governments also can file complaints in what are known as inter-state cases.
Al Arabiya
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Top European rights court finds Russia committed abuses in Ukraine
A top European court on Wednesday ruled Russia committed a string of human rights violations in backing anti-Kyiv separatists in eastern Ukraine from 2014, in the downing of the MH17 flight that year and in invading Ukraine in 2022. The European Court of Human Rights, part of the Council of Europe rights body, is tasked with implementing the European human rights convention in signatory countries. Wednesday's largely symbolic ruling comes after the Council of Europe excluded Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow dropped out of the European rights convention in September that year. The ECHR however still handles cases against Russia that were brought before that date. A panel of 17 judges found Russia violated the convention through 'extrajudicial killing of civilians and Ukrainian military personnel' outside of combat, 'torture,' 'forced labor,' 'unlawful and arbitrary detention of civilians' as well as looting. The judges also ruled that Russia had violated the European rights convention through 'the transfer to Russia and, in many cases, the adoption there of Ukrainian children.' The court said Russia 'must without delay release or safely return all persons who were deprived of liberty on Ukrainian territory under occupation by the Russian and Russian-controlled forces.' It added that Moscow should cooperate in the establishment of an international and independent mechanism to help identify 'all children transferred from Ukraine to Russia and Russian-controlled territory' before September 2022 to restore contact between them and their families, and enable their safe reunification. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said Russia had no intention of complying with the decision of the court, whose rulings it considered to be 'null and void.' 'Historic' The court issued its verdict in response to four complaints. Ukraine had filed three of these over events from 2014 to 2022, and the Netherlands had filed a fourth over the downing over eastern Ukraine of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014. The UN's aviation agency has blamed Moscow for the tragedy that killed all 298 on board. The ECHR found that 'the suffering of the next of kin of the victims of the downing of flight MH17' violated the right to freedom from torture and punishment. Ukraine celebrated what it said was a 'historic decision.' Its justice ministry said the court's recognition of 'systematic and widespread human rights violations committed by Russia' was a 'victory on the international stage.' Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said it was 'an important step toward justice.' 'The court has designated Russia as responsible for the downing of MH17 and the death of its passengers, including 196 Dutch nationals,' he said. Piet Ploeg, who lost his brother, step-sister and nephew in the tragedy, said it was an 'important day.' 'I don't think Russia will pay anything but it is not about money today,' he said. 'It is about getting justice and recognition and maybe getting apologies... You never know.' Usually, individuals file cases at Europe's top human rights court, appealing to it as a last resort in cases where they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues. But governments also can file complaints in what are known as inter-state cases.
