Second mass grave found outside Mariupol: Live Russia-Ukraine updates
As Russia shifts its focus to eastern Ukraine in an effort to control the Donbas region, more Western countries have pledged to send artillery to support Ukraine’s defense.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on international leaders to send more military aid, saying his country needs billions in assistance every month to offset economic losses since the start of Russia’s invasion, and hundreds of billions to rebuild its infrastructure.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron promised anti-tank missiles and howitzers. He told French newspaper Ouest France this week that France would continue to support Ukraine as much as it can without entering into direct conflict.
Canada is pledging weapons to help Ukraine, and recently delivered four M-777 howitzers, CBC News reported Friday, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said earlier this week he would send “heavy artillery.”
Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden announced additional military aid for Ukraine on Thursday totaling about $800 million, matching the same amount designated last week. Zelenskyy said it was “just what we were waiting for.”
NEW PHASE OF WAR: What a new phase of war means for Ukrainians in the east
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Latest developments:
►The Pentagon says U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting next week in Germany of defense officials and military leaders from more than 20 countries to discuss Ukraine’s immediate and long-term defense needs.
►The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday that one serviceman died, 27 more went missing and 396 were rescued after a fire on the storied Russian warship Moskva last week.
►The U.N.’s human rights office said its investigators had documented at least 50 civilian deaths, including by summary execution, in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.
►Putin declared victory in Mariupol, but that’s far from the truth. The war in Ukraine is entering a “critical window” to set the stage for the war’s next phase, President Joe Biden said.
Modern-day political disinformation has roots in centuries-old Russian myth
Russian empress Catherine the Great ruled a vast empire and, over the years, conquered many new lands.
She appointed her boyfriend, Grigory, to oversee one of those conquests – a place now called Ukraine. As time passed, he informed her the citizens were flourishing and happy. But, according to a version of the tale passed on for centuries, it was a lie.
In the legend, Catherine planned to visit and observe the thriving, joyful subjects. Fearful his deceit would be exposed and eager to please his beloved, Grigory instructed minions to build fake villages along the riverfront – freshly painted facades.
To this day, people worldwide still refer to fake news and false fronts using his name: “Potemkin villages.”
But history and politics are a tangle of lies and intrigue, especially in Russia, so there is a twist to this tale: There were no fake villages. Researchers say Grigory’s accomplishments in Ukraine were authentic, and popular claims to the contrary are fiction – a smear spewed by Russian rivals at the time and forever seared into belief and vernacular.
“The very concept of ‘Potemkin village’ is a Potemkin village,” said Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of “Catherine the Great & Potemkin: Power Love & Russian Empire.”
While the legend may be bogus, historians believe the Crimea expedition and Potemkin’s fable remain at the heart of today’s conflict in Ukraine. Put simply, they contend, thousands have been killed and millions displaced in a war based on Putin’s misrepresentation of that history.
– Dennis Wagner
Putin declared victory in Mariupol, but ‘no evidence’ fighting is over
After reducing Ukraine’s eastern port city of Mariupol to rubble, President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the military campaign there a success, something he desperately needs as the war grinds into its third month.
It’s anything but.
Russia stopped short of routing hundreds of Ukrainian fighters from the strategic city’s giant steel plant. Ukraine and President Joe Biden rejected Putin’s claim of victory.
“There is no evidence yet that Mariupol has completely fallen,” Biden said after announcing a new round of military aid to Ukraine, raising the total U.S. assistance to about $3.4 billion since Putin invaded Ukraine.
“We’re in a critical window now of time where they’re going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said.
What is clear is that Mariupol’s residents have endured some of the worst atrocities committed by the Russians even as Russia lost about a quarter of its combat forces in Ukraine – troops, aircraft, tanks, ships and other equipment – since the war began Feb. 24.
– Maureen Groppe, Tom Vanden Brook
OUTLOOK ON WAR:Putin claims a win in Mariupol. What does that mean in a war in Ukraine that Russia is losing?
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