Category: General

A precision strike by a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile has destroyed a Patriot air defense system in Kiev, the Defense Ministry in Moscow reported on Tuesday. The Ukrainian government previously claimed that Kinzhal missiles had been intercepted by the US-made weapons platform.

The Russian military did not provide further details about the strike, which was the first time Moscow claimed to have hit the long-range system supplied to Ukraine by its Western backers.

Kiev reported that it had withstood a massive missile attack by Russian forces on Monday night. The Ukrainian military claimed to have intercepted six Kinzhal missiles, in addition to various other aerial targets.

The Russian ministry confirmed the attack in a daily briefing on Tuesday, stating that it had used long-range precision weapons to hit military targets, including “Ukrainian troops positions and places of storage of munitions, weapons and military hardware delivered from Western nations.”

A video circulating on social media purports to show a Patriot battery deployed in the Ukrainian capital firing several barrages of missiles at incoming Russian targets. Seconds later, a large explosion can be seen in the area.

The Ukrainian government claimed last week that it had used a Patriot system to achieve the first-ever downing of a Kinzhal missile. The projectile is a hypersonic weapon whose speed makes it practically impossible to be intercepted.

Speaking to Russian media, anonymous sources in the Russian Defense Ministry dismissed the Ukrainian claim as “wishful thinking.” Some outlets suggested that Kiev had misidentified debris from a slower ballistic Iskander missile, which is a ground-launched weapon that shares some design features with the air-launched Kinzhal.

Source: Russia Today

The relatives of those who lost their lives in the deadly train accident in late February in Greece have filed a lawsuit against the country’s premier, local media reported on Tuesday. Speaking to local news outlet Larissanet, Christos Konstantinidis, husband of Larisa Vasiliki Chlorou, who lost her life in the accident, said: ‘We came here to name those responsible for the crime in Tempi, elected and appointed ones in both public and private bodies.” The lawsuit is directed against 17 persons, including Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, former minister of transport, the current minister of transport, the ministers of transport of the two previous governments, and against the former and current presidents and directors of the Greek Railway Organization (OSE), and Hellenic Train company, it added. On Feb. 28, a passenger train collided with a freight train around the town of Tempi in the northern Larissa area. A total of 57 people were killed, including many university students and nine crew members.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Diplomatic relations between Russia and Poland that are already fraught, may deteriorate further or even be completely severed, Moscow’s top diplomat to Warsaw has warned. Ambassador Sergey Andreev’s comments came after the Polish prime minister suggested this week that kicking the envoy out of the country would be “easy” to do.

Andreev said there “was always a possibility” that ties could be severed, when asked about such a scenario by the Izvestia newspaper. “Whether it becomes reality depends on the decisions of our leadership and the Polish authorities,” he said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Last month, bilateral tensions between the neighboring states escalated further after authorities in Warsaw seized a school that has been operated by the Russian embassy there for decades.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki discussed a possible reduction of diplomatic representation in an interview on Monday.

“It is very easy to have an ambassador recalled. And then the Russians will have our ambassador recalled,” he told Polsat television. “In such a situation, the flow of information in both directions would be even more restrained.”

Morawiecki argued that the time for such drastic measures has not arrived, citing the policies of fellow EU and NATO states that host Russian ambassadors. He also praised the seizure of the school, describing it as a result “of effective actions” by the Polish side.

The Russian ambassador has attributed the current poor state of relations to an irrational hatred of Russia in Poland.

Assessing this phenomenon, Andreev said “the Polish political elites know no boundaries in their Russophobia, and the government competes with the opposition in inventing new ways to stick it to Russia.”

Citing the Russian equivalent of the anglophone saying ‘Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face,’ Andreev said: “They don’t care that the measures they initiate often hurt the interest of Polish businesses and citizens more than they do ours. They cling to the proverbial ‘I’ll freeze my ears off to spite my granny’ principle.”

Andreev noted that the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has distanced itself from the row over diplomatic buildings and is pointing the finger at local authorities, which are seeking to expropriate them. Moscow says it’s a clear violation of the 1964 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

That neither the government nor the courts of law in Poland see any wrongdoing “clearly shows the level of legal culture and basic decency” that obtains there, the Russian envoy highlighted. He suggested that at some point Moscow will respond in kind and target Polish diplomatic property.

Source: Russia Today

It was a “nightmare scenario” when Cyclone Mocha hit such “vulnerable, already distraught areas” in Rakhine State, affecting an estimated 5.4 million people in its path, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Myanmar said on Tuesday. Speaking at a UN press briefing via video link from Myanmar, Ramanathan Balakrishnan said the cyclone struck Rakhine State with “brutal force” on Sunday. “It had been a truly terrifying experience for those in the path of the cyclone, who were now facing a massive cleanup and reconstruction effort,” Balakrishnan said, adding that 5.4 million people are estimated to have been in the path of the cyclone, with 3.9 million of those considered most vulnerable. After hitting the coast, he explained, the storm moved inward, causing flooding in areas where millions of people had already been displaced by conflict. According to him, as many as 17 million people in Myanmar are in need of humanitarian assistance, which is “as many as in Ukraine.” Olga Sarrado of the UN refugee agency, for her part, described the situation in Bangladesh and the severely affected Rohingya refugee camps. Over 21,000 Rohingya and more than 4,000 households had been affected in the camps, Sarrado said, adding that no casualties had been reported. The cyclone hit at a particularly difficult time for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, she said. According to post-disaster assessments of humanitarian workers, the top needs were shelter, clean drinking water, sanitation, and medical supplies, she said. Sarrado noted that only 16% of the funding appeal was funded currently. On Sunday, Cyclone Mocha ripped through the coast between Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh and Kyaukpyu township in Myanmar, reportedly killing at least nine people in both countries.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Education is one of the major issues affecting approximately 150,000 ethnic Turkish minority in Greece, said a parliament candidate associated with the main opposition party, who blamed the incumbent government for some decisions that exacerbated the situation. Ozgur Ferhat, a parliament member candidate from the main opposition SYRIZA party, told Anadolu in an interview that the majority of the country’s ethnic Turkish minority live in Western Thrace – Bulgaria to the north, Trkiye to the east, the Aegean Sea to the south, and the Greek region of Macedonia to the west – where the quality of education in schools for minorities does not meet modern standards. Ferhat, who is running in the May 21 parliamentary elections in the Rhodope province, has pledged that his party will improve the education level and update it according to contemporary needs. “During the SYRIZA government, bilingual kindergartens were introduced. However, this government denied minority children a comfortable education in their native language by reversing that policy,” he said, blaming the ruling New Democracy government for the poor education system in the Western Thrace. He also criticized a mufti law in Western Thrace governing the appointment of Muslim clerics (muftis), claiming that the government did not consult the minority before enacting it last year. Many articles of the law were not accepted by the country’s Turkish minority, he said. Underlining that the government should take decisions by communicating with the minority on important issues, Ferhat accused the Greek government of also violating the freedom of association in the 2007 and 2008 rulings by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the minority associations that were closed due to the word “Turkish” in their names. This should be corrected, and the minority associations that pose no threat to the country should be allowed to operate freely, he emphasized. He also slammed the government’s economic policies, claiming that they accelerated people’s migration to other European countries. Their region is already one of the poorest in Greece, Ferhat said, pledging that SYRIZA would create more jobs and bring prosperity to Western Thrace, which is critical for the peaceful coexistence of minorities in the region. The Western Thrace region near the border with Trkiye is home to a substantial, long-established Muslim Turkish minority of approximately 150,000 people. The rights of Turks are guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, but the situation has deteriorated significantly in recent decades, with Greece refusing to implement ECHR rulings. Despite a 2008 ECHR ruling against Greece, associations with the word “Turkish” in their names are still banned in Western Thrace.

Source: Anadolu Agency

At least seven people were killed and three others injured after an illegal mining pit collapsed Monday in Ghana’s eastern region, National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) confirmed Tuesday. Douglas Adomako, NADMO’s deputy director for the Birim district, told local media that about 18 miners were working in the mine at the Korley Teye site when it collapsed Monday morning, leading to seven deaths. The Korley Teye site is a bustling location where many local youths engage in small-scale illegal mining activities. Rescue efforts are underway to rescue the trapped miners. An eyewitness, Frank Owusu Amoah, who promptly rushed to the scene, said local people tried to rescue the trapped miners, using whatever tools were available. However, with darkness descending upon the area and rain, the rescue efforts became increasingly challenging. By late afternoon, no official rescue team had arrived at the scene, leaving the miners and locals to rely solely on their own resources, he added.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The EU on Monday approved Microsoft’s acquisition of video games giant Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. ‘An in-depth market investigation indicated that Microsoft would not be able to harm rival consoles and rival multi-game subscription services,’ the European Commission said in a statement. According to the statement, Microsoft’s offer of 10-year free licensing deals – which promise European consumers and cloud game streaming services access to Activision’s PC and console games – would ensure fair competition in the market. “The commitments fully address the competition concerns identified by the Commission and represent a significant improvement for cloud gaming as compared to the current situation,’ it added. In April, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority moved to block the purchase, arguing that would crush the cloud gaming market. Activision Blizzard is a US-based video games giant which produces some of the world’s best-known games, including Call of Duty, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft.

Source: Anadolu Agency

US Democratic Representative Gerry Connolly said Monday man wielding a baseball bat entered his northern Virginia office and proceeded to commit ‘an act of violence’ that targeted two staffers. ‘This morning, an individual entered my District Office armed with a baseball bat and asked for me before committing an act of violence against two members of my staff,’ the Democratic congressman said in a statement. The suspect was taken into police custody and the staffers are currently receiving treatment for their injuries in a local hospital, he said. ‘I have the best team in Congress. My District Office staff make themselves available to constituents and members of the public every day. The thought that someone would take advantage of my staff’s accessibility to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating,’ he added. US Capitol Police and the Fairfax City Police Department have launched a joint investigation into the attack. Capitol Police described the injuries to the staffers as ‘non-life threatening.’ It identified the suspect as Xuan Kha Tran Pham, a 39-year-old resident of Fairfax. He is being charged with Aggravated Malicious Wounding and Malicious Wounding. A motive was not immediately clear.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Jordan on Monday dispatched a cargo plane loaded with humanitarian aid for the victims of the Feb. 6 twin earthquakes that killed thousands in Trkiye. The cargo plane carries 14 tons of foodstuffs for the quake victims, the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO) said in a statement. “We continue to provide aid to those affected by the devastating earthquake,’ JHCO Secretary-General Hussein Shibli said. ‘The collected donations are sent to the quake victims in coordination with the authorities, through the Jordanian Armed Forces and the Royal Air Force,’ he added. Jordan has so far sent 14 planes loaded with humanitarian aid to Trkiye since the earthquake disaster. More than 50,000 people were killed and over 107,200 injured in two powerful earthquakes that rocked southern Trkiye on Feb. 6, according to the latest official figures. The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Kahramanmaras, Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

Source: Anadolu Agency

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday that talks to extend the Black Sea grain deal will continue over the coming days as Russia’s deadline nears. The deal is set to expire on May 18. Trkiye, Russia, Ukraine, and the UN held a two-day high-level meeting in Istanbul last week to discuss extending the grain deal, but no agreement was reached. “Continuation of the Black Sea Initiative is critically important,” Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, told the UN Security Council. “In recent weeks, we have engaged in intensive discussions with the parties to the Black Sea Initiative, to secure agreement on its extension and the improvements needed for it to operate effectively and predictably. This will continue over the coming days.” In order to agree to another extension of the grain deal, which was signed in Istanbul last July among the four parties, Russia is seeking the removal of obstacles to its fertilizer exports. There are no Western sanctions on Russian exports of food and fertilizer but Russia says banking restrictions impact its exports. Trkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement last July in Istanbul to resume grain exports from the Ukrainian ports, which were paused after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February, to help tackle a global food crisis. Over 30 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs have been exported from Ukraine since last August, according to the UN.

Source: Anadolu Agency