The situation in Ukraine is painful. Sighs of grief fly over.
Pentagon press secretary Adam John Kirby said on Friday that there was no “radioactive leak” from the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine and that the United States agreed with the assessment that the damage to the plant was “moderately normal”.
Kirby said in an interview with MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the Pentagon was working closely with the Department of Energy to assess the damage. He added that the attack on the plant by the Russians “speaks volumes about the indifference and dangerous atmosphere and fear created in Ukraine by this unprovoked war of aggression by Russia.”
The spokesman said the Russians had not made any changes in their military operations and commented on the situation at the plant, saying “this is an example of how dangerous this can be not only for the people of Ukraine but also for the European continent.”
Meanwhile, according to a Ukrainian lawmaker, the Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could kill at least 3 million people and affect more than 51 million.
“I want to focus on the process of a nuclear power plant attack. It could be six times more destructive than Chernobyl radiation. 51,000,000 people were affected by Chernobyl radiation, of which 3,000,000 died, not just in Ukraine, but worldwide.” As Lesia Vasylenko said in a Twitter message on Friday morning.
Confirming her statement, President Slensky said in a video on Friday that the attack could be six times more catastrophic than the 1986 Chernobyl massacre, widely considered to be the worst nuclear accident in the world.
The President of Ukraine further stated that the Russian attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant could lead to a catastrophe in Ukraine and Europe and appealed to the Russian military to remember history.
Speaking in Russian, he said: “In 1986 we struggled together with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster. Burning graphite scattered by the explosion, you must remember the victims. You have to remember the brightness above the destroyed power unit. You must remember to remove Pripyat and 30km (18.5 miles) from the zone. How do you forget it? He asked Russia.
“If you have not forgotten, you can not remain silent. You must tell your authorities, go down the street and tell them you want to live. You want to live on Earth without radioactive pollution. Radiation does not know where Russia is, Radiation does not know where your country’s borders are, “the leader added.
Three Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in a shelling attack by Russian forces on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the National Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a telegram on Friday.
Two other soldiers were wounded, according to their channel. One is said to be in critical condition. It was also stated that the staff of the railway station were not injured.
The company says that Russian invaders broke through the gate of the nuclear power plant and started firing at it last evening (04). Nuclear centers remain intact without damage.
Ukraine’s Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk has said that “Zaporizhzhya NPP is many times more powerful and dangerous than Chernobyl.” Russian forces are deliberately shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s press secretary Adam John Kirby said last night that there was no “radioactive leak” from the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine and that the United States agreed with the assessment that the damage to the plant was “moderately limited”.
The spokesman said the Russians had not changed their military operations and that the situation at the plant was “an example of how dangerous this could be not only for the people of Ukraine but also for the European continent.”
Meanwhile, further explosions in Kiev have intensified in the wake of the attack.
Dozens of explosions were heard in Kiev on Friday morning, with airstrikes sounding sirens and a sign that Russian missile strikes were intensifying in and around the capital.
In the city center of 3.4 million people, Reuters witnesses could not immediately confirm the cause of the explosions, but they were more frequent than in recent days, and some were reported to be noisy. But no immediate reports of casualties were reported.
Russian forces have not yet launched a major offensive in Kyiv, shelling the capital and launching heavy artillery fire to try to break down resistance in the nearby city of Borodyanka.
Drone footage from the northwestern city of Kyiv on Thursday showed flat houses and severely damaged apartments, some of which were still on fire. Burnt military vehicles can be seen on a main road.
In the neighborhood of Kyiv’s Borshchahivka, 18 kilometers (11 miles) west of the center, the twisted metal ruins of a missile shot down by Ukrainian air guards overnight fell in the middle of a street a few meters away.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said today that NATO had “seen the use of cluster munitions” by Russia in Ukraine.
He told a NATO meeting in Brussels that Russia’s invasion was a “blatant violation of international law.”
“We have seen cluster munitions being used and weapons being used in violation of international law,” he said.
“Indeed, NATO and its NATO allies and partners are gathering information and closely monitoring what is happening in Ukraine,” he added.
His remarks came after Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Oksana Makarova said that Russia had used a vacuum bomb in its invasion of Ukraine.
“They used the vacuum bomb today. It’s actually banned by the Geneva Conventions,” Makarova said. He was speaking at the event after briefing members of Congress. He had used that vacuum bomb on Monday.
A vacuum bomb uses oxygen from the surrounding air to generate a high-temperature explosion, which can produce an explosion wave that is significantly longer than a conventional explosive.
Meanwhile, the company announced in a blog post on Friday that Microsoft will suspend all sales in Russia. It has been linked to a number of Western companies, including other American technology giants, Apple, to suspend sales to Russia.
“As a company, we are committed to the safety of our employees in Ukraine and we are in constant contact with them to assist in various ways,” said Brad Smith, President of Microsoft.
There is no information on what will happen to Russian users who currently use Microsoft products as a subscription service.
Also on Friday, a New York-based global trading association representing major financial markets, including NASA, said it would suspend the Moscow exchange.
“The board decided to suspend Russian members and affiliates,” a spokesman for the World Exchange said in an e-mail, “that this decision was not taken lightly in line with the global response to the matter.”
The Moscow exchange, which first joined the London-based World Exchange Conference in 2009, is Russia’s largest stock exchange. Russia closed on Friday for the fifth day in a row as the global economy plunged into crisis.
In the midst of all this, FedEx Corporation announced on Friday that it would suspend all services in Ukraine for the safety of its employees and in Russia and Belarus in support of the country.
“First and foremost, we focus on the safety of our team members in Ukraine, and we know you share our concerns for their well-being,” said Frederick Smith, Chairman and CEO of the company, and Raj Subramaniam, Chairman and CEO. Releasing said. “This is our priority. Our team in Europe maintains close contact with them on a daily basis, and for their safety we have temporarily suspended all services in Ukraine. We have also decided to suspend all FedEx services in Russia and Belarus in support of the people of Ukraine. ” As. FedEx also said it would provide resources to its employees in Ukraine, including direct financial assistance and emergency assistance.
The company said it would provide more than $ 1.5 million in humanitarian aid, a “$ 1 million shipping to delivery organizations in the region” and a $ 550,000 donation to European NGOs.
Meanwhile, according to an internal NBC message, the US State Department has sent an “urgent message” to US embassies in Europe not to retweet a note from the US embassy in Kiev calling Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant in Europe a “war crime.” . news. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The U.S. embassy in Kyiv’s official Twitter account tweeted that “an attack on a nuclear power plant is a war crime” and that “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is another step in his terrorist regime.”
The State Department immediately sent a message to US embassies in Europe and their public affairs offices urging them not to approve the statement.
Russia’s efforts for a swift offensive have not brought its troops into the capital and seat of the western-leaning government, which appears to be seeking to oust the Kremlin. Instead, the strategy extends to supply lines and a breakdown in morale, with Russian tanks and military equipment sometimes stuck in the mud or running out of gas.
That is the decision of government officials and Russian military experts.
Videos confirmed by NBC News show a Ukrainian civilian making jokes to stranded Russian soldiers before leaving, a young Russian soldier talking on the phone with his crying mother, and a group of Russian soldiers looting a Ukrainian store for food How.
According to Western officials and experts, the biggest challenge for the Russian military is the unwillingness of Moscow to repatriate Ukrainian citizens.
Meanwhile, according to two sources, Vice President Kamala Harris is reportedly planning to visit Poland and Romania next week. The move comes as the Biden administration seeks to support Ukraine without provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Internationally, thousands of refugees are fleeing to Poland and Romania in an attempt to escape the invasion, according to international media.
As Russian troops continue their offensive throughout Ukraine on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selensky called on Europe to “stay with our country and support our fight.”
“I urge you not to remain silent,” Volodymyr Selensky said in a speech in Kyiv, where civilians continued to flee before the Russian army advanced. “I want you to take to the streets and support Ukraine,” he said.
“If Ukraine does not stand up, Europe will not stand up,” he said. “If we fall you fall.” He also stated yesterday.
But “if we win, we will blossom like Europe, and after this important victory, Europe will be more prosperous than ever,” he said.
People around the world book rooms at Airbnb in Ukraine as a way to donate money directly to residents.
Russia’s defense minister said that “during the special operation, only the military infrastructure designed to militarize Ukraine and carry out brutal punitive operations against civilians in southeastern Ukraine was deactivated with high precision.”
“The Russian military does not threaten civilians, does not shell civilians, and fully complies with the requirements of international humanitarian law,” said the ministry, which continues to falsely accuse Ukrainian fighters of being neo-Nazis.
The United Nations says Friday that 1,006 civilians have been killed and 331 wounded, including 19 children, and 675 wounded since the war began last week.
Senator Lindsay Groham, R-S.C, defended the Russian call for the assassination of President Vladimir Putin on Friday, saying it would be the quickest way to end the war in Ukraine.
In an interview with Fox News and Fox News, Graham said he hoped Putin would understand that Putin was “destroying Russia and that you must take this man out in any way you can.”
The announcement came after he was interviewed by Fox News on Thursday night and re-posted on Twitter. “Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian army?” Graham released a Twitter message mentioning the assassin of Julius Caesar and the German officer who tried to assassinate Hitler.
Russian officials have attacked Graham’s statements, calling them “criminal,” and some Republicans have criticized his remarks.
On Friday, Russian companies, including the index S&P Dow Jones, continued to push themselves out of the global financial markets, saying on Friday that they would remove all listed or occupied shares in Russia from its benchmark.
In addition, the S&P Dow Jones, which oversees the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500, said before opening on Wednesday that Russia was re-classifying itself as “independent” from the emerging market, the Russian market.
The company says it made the decision after discussions with market participants over recent sanctions and economic turmoil following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Former Vice President Mike Pence will tell Republican donors on Friday that “there is no room for those who apologize for Putin at this party,” he was quoted as saying by NBC News.
“For those who argue that the NATO expansion was somehow responsible for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ask yourself, if they were not in NATO, where would our friends be in Eastern Europe today?” Pence is expected to say. “Where are the Russian tanks? If NATO did not expand its borders freely today? There is no room in this party for those who apologize for Putin. Only the freedom fighters are allowed.”
ROME – The head of the World Food Program says the United Nations is deploying search systems to feed about 5 million people in Ukraine.
Speaking from Warsaw, Poland, David Beasley said the organization was gathering groups around the border in Ukraine to reach “those who cannot leave and those who need immediate food aid.” He said the program leases stores trying to find out how much food can be bought in Ukraine and how much can be shipped outside.
He praised the response of the Polish people to the Ukrainians fleeing across the border, “making sure they get hot food and taking them where they need to go,” calling it “really, really great.”
Earlier on Friday, Zelenskyy and US President Joe Biden spoke by phone after a shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant.
The pain of the people leaving Ukraine has become an unmistakable soundtrack to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, a 10-second TikTok video posted by a frightened but naughty girl in Kyiv on the day Russia invaded her homeland has captured the nation’s heart.
As the full weight of the Russian invasion fell on Ukraine, for many refugees, 17-year-old Elizabeth Lysova, David Gutta, lip-synching and gesturing to the dance floor, was a balm that pained us in the midst of many tearful farewells.
The caption with her video, which has been viewed nearly 15 million times since February 24, reads: “When the Russians attack us, we leave at 8 am.” Referred to as.
Now, Lysova is one of more than 1.2 million Ukrainians fleeing her country.
Meanwhile, CNN Russia has stopped broadcasting amid expanding media restrictions, blocking access to information.
It has also announced that a growing number of newspaper organizations will limit their work in Russia amid government repression of news coverage of the invasion, which the Kremlin disagrees with.
The Bloomberg news agency also said it would suspend work in the country.
Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Mickletwhite said on Friday, “We regret the decision to suspend our news gathering in Russia. “Changing the criminal code, which is designed to make any independent journalist a criminal by the union alone, makes it impossible to maintain any resemblance to ordinary journalism in the country.”
Other media outlets have also been dragged back or obscured. BBC News reports that Russia will suspend reporting after a law is passed criminalizing the distribution of what it describes as “fake” information about Russia’s armed forces.
Russia’s communications regulator has restricted access to Voice of America, Radio Liberty and other foreign media, the RIA state news agency reported.
On Friday, the Independent Moscow Times said it would stop publishing in its homeland. The Moscow radio broadcaster’s independent Echo and TV show also said they would suspend operations.
The chief correspondent of Sky News said that a Russian “spy team” had shot at his news crew earlier this week, injuring him while covering northwest Kiev and assaulting his cameraman.
In a post posted on the UK store’s website on Friday, Chief Correspondent Stuart Ramsey said the crew was “completely attacked” as they tried to reach Bucha, where a convoy of Russian cars was said to have been wrecked the day before. .
However, NBC News did not independently confirm that the account belonged to Ramsey. A graphic video of the story shows how the shells hit their vehicle and the crew shouting that they are journalists.
Ramsey said the attack happened when they were traveling on a deserted road. There was a small explosion and the car’s tire exploded, he said, “and then our world turned upside down.” As.
“Bullets exploded all over the car, tracer, bullet flash, windscreen glass, plastic seats, steering wheel and dashboard exploded,” he wrote in his account.
Ramsey said he was shot in the lower back. Cameraman Richie Mokler hit his suit twice. The other three members of their crew escaped unharmed.
The store has now returned to the UK, the store reports.
The hashtag, which became popular on Twitter in the wake of the Ukraine invasion, was banned a few days later by more than 100 accounts that pushed the pro-Russian #IStandWithPutin hashtag to participate in “non-coordinating untrue behavior”.
A Twitter spokesman said on Friday that it was still investigating the origins and links between the accounts and that the accounts had been suspended for violating its “platform manipulation and spam policy”.
The most retweeted accounts about the hashtag on Wednesday had only a few dozen followers, used as stock photo profile pictures, and led misinformation researchers to question how the tweet went viral.
Russian forces are now occupying the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine, and the country’s nuclear inspector general said the nuclear facilities would remain intact and not be damaged. Nuclear scientists called the attack “astonishing” and unprecedented. The bomber struck shortly after noon in front of a Russian military base in southern Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis continues to escalate and more than a million people have been displaced. Ukraine and Russia reached a tentative agreement during talks on Thursday to create a humanitarian corridor that would allow civilians to travel safely. The Biden administration is granting temporary immigration protection to Ukrainians already in the United States.