“The Russians turned Mariupol into a city of nameless graves,” says Ukraine
An unexploded FAB-250 aviation bomb is shown in front of a destroyed building in the city of Mariupol on June 2, 2022, amid ongoing Russian military action in Ukraine.
Stringer | AFP | Getty Images
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said Russian forces “turned Mariupol into a city of nameless graves” as the coastal city struggles with months of Russian occupation.
“The worst thing is that the graves have no name, only numbers and it is not known at all how many bodies were buried in a grave,” he said, adding that the relatives of the deceased may not be able to receive the remains.
“Those guilty of these war crimes will be held to the strictest and most just responsibility,” he said, adding that Russian troops have tried to destroy “the traces of their own crimes.”
Lubinets said that after the liberation of Mariupol, Ukraine will exhume the bodies and work to properly identify those who were killed and buried without respect.
— Amanda Macias
Nearly 8 million Ukrainians have become refugees from Russia’s war, UN estimates
A man holds his son as families, who fled Ukraine due to the Russian invasion, wait to enter a refugee camp in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on March 3, 2022.
Nikolai Doychinov | Afp | Getty Images
More than 4.4 million Ukrainians have applied for temporary resident status in neighboring Western European countries since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the United Nations Refugee Agency estimates.
Almost 8 million Ukrainians have become refugees and moved to neighboring countries, according to data collected by the agency.
“The escalating conflict in Ukraine has led to civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, forcing people to flee their homes in search of safety, protection and assistance,” the UN Refugee Agency wrote.
— Amanda Macias
WHO records more than 630 attacks on vital health services in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began
Members of the Ukrainian military receive treatment for bruises and minor injuries from Ukrainian military medics at a front-line field hospital on May 10, 2022 in Popasna, Ukraine.
Chris McGrath | Getty Images
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, there have been at least 631 attacks on vital health services in the country, as estimated by the World Health Organization’s Health Care Attack Monitoring System.
The organization reports that health facilities were damaged 549 times, ambulances were targeted in 82 cases and at least 158 attacks affected crucial medical supplies. The group also estimated that attacks on health services resulted in at least 100 deaths and 129 injuries.
The Kremlin has previously denied that it targets civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, schools and apartment buildings.
— Amanda Macias
Nearly 400 ships carrying 9 million metric tons of agricultural products have left Ukrainian ports
The Barbados-flagged general cargo ship Fulmar S is pictured in the Black Sea, north of the Bosphorus Strait, in Istanbul, Turkey, on August 5, 2022.
Mehmet Caliskan Reuters
An aerial view shows ships at the anchorage area of the southern entrance of the Bosphorus in Istanbul on October 12, 2022.
Yasin Akgul | AFP | Getty Images
The organization that monitors the export of agricultural products from Ukraine said 399 ships have left the besieged country since the ports reopened.
The Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal agreed in July by Ukraine, Russia, the United Nations and Turkey, said ships have transported a total of 9 million metric tons of grain and other food products so far.
In August, three of Ukraine’s ports were reopened to exports under the UN-backed deal.
Read more about the Black Sea Grain Initiative here.
— Amanda Macias
Workers repair power lines destroyed by a Russian missile attack
Workers repair power lines and electrical equipment destroyed in a Russian missile attack on a power plant in an undisclosed location in Ukraine.
Workers repair a power line destroyed after a missile attack on a power plant, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on October 27, 2022, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY/AFP) (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
A worker examines the destruction as he repairs power line equipment destroyed after a missile attack on a power plant, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on October 27, 2022, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY/AFP) (Photo by SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
Workers repair power line equipment destroyed after a missile attack on a power plant, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on October 27, 2022, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
Workers repair power line equipment destroyed after a missile attack on a power plant, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on October 27, 2022, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sergey Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
Workers walk as they repair equipment near power lines destroyed after a missile attack on a power plant, in an undisclosed location in Ukraine, on October 27, 2022, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sergey Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images
— Methane Acta | AFP | Getty Images
Ukraine governors announce blackouts as Russia targets energy systems
Firefighters work to put out a fire at an energy infrastructure facility, damaged by a Russian missile attack, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on October 18, 2022.
State Emergency Service of Ukraine | via Reuters
Kharkiv Governor Oleg Synegubov announced that the region will experience hourly power cuts starting Monday as Russian strikes damage energy infrastructure.
“These actions are necessary for the stabilization of power grids, because the enemy continues to attack our energy infrastructure,” Synegubov said in a Telegram post. Power supply restrictions in the northeastern region will follow a 12-shift schedule to “at least slightly reduce discomfort for residents,” he said.
Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv region, also urged citizens to use energy sparingly.
“The situation remains tense and, unfortunately, it is too early to talk about the stabilization of the system,” he said in a Telegram post. He noted that there will be “harder and longer” power outages in and around the nation’s capital.
Blackouts will continue in major cities to try to preserve power as Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure persist.
– Rocío Fabbro
Ukraine says it has shot down more than 300 Iranian drones
A drone flies over Kyiv during an attack on October 17, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sergei Supinsky | Afp | Getty Images
Ukrainian military spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said the country’s air force has shot down more than 300 Iranian Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones.
Moscow has carried out several devastating missile and drone strikes against what Kyiv said were civilian targets and critical infrastructure such as energy facilities.
The representatives of Iran and Russia at the United Nations have strongly denied reports that Tehran supplied Moscow with a fleet of drones for use in Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied that it uses Iranian-made drones to attack residential and other high-level civilian areas.
— Amanda Macias
‘Isolation, grueling work and psychological torment’ await WNBA star Griner in penal colony, experts say
US Women’s National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball player Brittney Griner, who was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport and later charged with illegal possession of cannabis, is inside the cage of ‘a defendant before a court hearing in Khimki, outside Moscow, on August 4, 2022. .
Kirill Kudryavtsev | AFP | Getty Images
Brittney Griner will enter a system of solitary confinement, hard labor and psychological torment when she is transferred to a penal colony, the successor to Russia’s notorious gulag, to serve a nine-year sentence handed down Tuesday in Moscow, former prisoners and advocates said.
Human rights violations are a regular feature of many of the camps, according to the US State Department, human rights groups and others who have maintained regular contact with prisoners in Russia. That the WNBA star, who lost her appeal Tuesday, is a gay black woman could add unknown variables to a penal system known to be remote and chilling.
“Conditions in prisons and detention centers varied, but were often harsh and life-threatening,” said a 2021 State Department report on Russian human rights abuses. “Overcrowding, abuse by guards and inmates, limited access to health care, food shortages, and inadequate sanitation were common in prisons, penal colonies, and other detention facilities.”
The report notes that “physical and sexual abuse by prison guards was systemic,” that torture of prisoners was widespread, sometimes resulting in death or suicide, and that discriminatory protections against women and people of color. The law also does not prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Read the full story from NBC News.
— NBC News
Germany says Russia threatens Europe after Putin predicts ‘dangerous’ decade.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has plunged Europe into an era of insecurity, Germany said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin predicted a “dangerous” decade ahead.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is from a wing of Germany’s Social Democrats that has long advocated closer economic ties with Moscow, said the February 24 invasion had dashed those hopes.
“When we look at Russia today, there is no place for the old dreams,” Steinmeier said, referring to former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s dream of a “common European home.”
“It has also immersed us in Germany in another time, in an insecurity that we thought we had overcome: a…