LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces launched missile attacks on the western city of Lviv and pounded a multitude of other targets across Ukraine on Monday in what appeared to be an intensified bid to grind down the country’s defenses ahead of an all-out assault on the east.
At least seven people were reported killed in Lviv, where plumes of black smoke rose over a city that has seen only sporadic attacks during almost two months of war and has become a haven for civilians fleeing the fighting elsewhere. To the Kremlin’s increasing anger, Lviv has also become a major gateway for NATO-supplied weapons and foreign fighters joining the Ukrainian cause.
The attacks came as Russia continued building up troops and artillery in the east and south for the expected start of a new ground offensive in the Donbas, Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland.
In other developments, a few thousand Ukrainian troops, by Russia’s estimate, remained holed up at a mammoth steel mill in Mariupol, the last known pocket of resistance in the devastated southern port city after seven weeks of bombardment. The holdouts ignored a surrender ultimatum from the Russians on Sunday.
And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted a filled-out questionnaire in the first step toward obtaining accelerated membership in the European Union — a desire that has been a source of irritation to Russia for years. Zelenskyy, though, has offered to drop any effort to join NATO, one of the Kremlin’s key demands.
The Russian missile strikes on Lviv hit three military infrastructure facilities and an auto mechanic shop, according to the region’s governor, Maksym Kozytskyy. He said the wounded included a child.
Lviv, the biggest city and a major transportation hub in western Ukraine, is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from Poland, a NATO member.
Russia has strongly complained about the increasing flow of Western weapons to Ukraine. On Russian state media, some anchors have charged that the supplies amount to direct Western engagement in the fight against Russia.
Lviv has also been seen as a relatively safe place for the elderly, mothers and children trying to escape the war. A hotel sheltering Ukrainians who had fled fighting in other parts of the country was among the buildings badly damaged, Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said.
“The nightmare of war has caught up with us even in Lviv,” said Lyudmila Turchak, who fled with two children from the eastern city of Kharkiv. “There is no longer anywhere in Ukraine where we can feel safe.”
A powerful explosion also rocked Vasylkiv, a town south of the capital of Kyiv that is home to a military air base, according to residents. It was not immediately clear what was struck.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, was hit by shelling that killed at least three people, according to Associated Press journalists on the scene. One of the dead was a woman who appeared to be going out to collect water in the rain. She was found lying with a water canister and an umbrella by her side.
Military analysts say Russia is increasing its strikes on weapons factories, railways and other infrastructure targets across Ukraine to wear down the country’s ability to resist a major offensive in the Donbas, whose capture has become the Kremlin’s main goal since its attempt to storm Kyiv failed.
The Russian military said its missiles struck more than 20 military targets in eastern and central Ukraine in the past day, including ammunition depots, command headquarters and groups of troops and vehicles.
It also reported that its artillery hit an additional 315 Ukrainian targets and that warplanes conducted 108 strikes on Ukrainian troops and military equipment. The claims could not be independently verified.
Over the weekend, Russia also claimed to have destroyed Ukrainian air defense radar equipment.
Gen. Richard Dannatt, a former head of the British Army, told Sky News that Russia is waging a “softening-up” campaign ahead of the Donbas offensive.
“We are doing everything to ensure the defense” of eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in his nightly address to the nation on Sunday.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal assessments of the war, said there are now 76 Russian combat units, known as battalion tactical groups, in eastern and southern Ukraine, up from 65 last week.
That could translate to around 50,000 to 60,000 troops, based on what the Pentagon said at the start of the war was the typical unit strength of 700 to 800 soldiers, but the numbers are difficult to pinpoint at this stage in the fighting.
The official also said that four U.S. cargo flights arrived in Europe on Sunday with an initial delivery of weapons and other materials for Ukraine as part of a $800 million package announced by Washington last week. And training of Ukrainian personnel on U.S. 155 mm howitzers is set to begin in the next several days.
Ukraine halted civilian evacuations for a second day on Monday, saying Russian forces were shelling and blocking the humanitarian corridors.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Ukraine had been negotiating safe passage from cities and towns in eastern and southeastern Ukraine, including Mariupol and other areas in the Donbas. The government of the Luhansk region in the Donbas said four civilians trying to flee were shot and killed by Russian forces.
Vereshchuk warned Russia on social media: “Your refusal to open these humanitarian corridors will in the future be a reason to prosecute all involved for war crimes.”
The Russians, in turn, accused “neo-Nazi nationalists” in Mariupol of hampering the evacuation.
The capture of Mariupol, where Ukrainians estimate 21,000 people have been killed, is seen as key, and not just because it would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Moscow eight years ago.
The U.S. defense official said that if Russian forces succeed in taking full control of Mariupol, it could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas.
Meanwhile, a pro-Russian Ukrainian politician who was arrested last week on a treason charge appeared in a video offering himself in exchange for the evacuation of Mariupol’s trapped defenders and civilians. Ukraine’s state security services posted the video of Viktor Medvedchuk, the former leader of a pro-Russian opposition party with personal ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It was not clear whether Medvedchuk was speaking under duress.
Putin repeated his insistence that the Western sanctions “blitz” against Russia has failed.
He said the West has not managed to “provoke panic in the markets, the collapse of the banking system and shortages in stores,” though he acknowledged a sharp increase in consumer prices in Russia, saying they rose 17.5%.
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This story has been updated to correct the attribution on the first partial quote about fighting to the end to Ukraine’s prime minister, not president.
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Associated Press journalists Nico Maounis and Philip Crowther in Lviv, Ukraine, Adam Schreck in Vasylkiv, Ukraine, and Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staff members around the world.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at The Rosen Shingle Creek in February in Orlando, Fla.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at The Rosen Shingle Creek in February in Orlando, Fla.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The Florida education department has rejected 54 mathematics textbooks for its K-12 curriculum, citing reasons spanning the inclusion of critical race theory to Common Core learning concepts.
The rejected books make up a record 41% of the 132 books submitted for review, the Florida Department of Education said in a statement.
Of them, 28 were rejected because they “incorporate prohibited topics or unsolicited strategies, including [critical race theory],” the statement said.
Critical race theory has been described by scholars as an examination of racism and its impact through systems, such as legal, housing and education. However, it is typically not taught in K-12.
Twelve books were rejected because they did not meet Florida’s benchmark standards, while 14 books were rejected because they both included prohibited topics and failed to meet curriculum standards.
The names of the rejected books were not included.
Some Florida Democrats voiced their opposition to the move on Twitter.
“@EducationFL just announced they’re banning dozens of math textbooks they claim ‘indoctrinate’ students with CRT,” said State House Rep. Carlos Smith. “They won’t tell us what they are or what they say b/c it’s a lie. #DeSantis has turned our classrooms into political battlefields and this is just the beginning.”
“Apparently CRT is being taught in mathematics in Florida, so the @EducationFL has banned some of the math books. No, this is not 1963, it’s 2022 in the ‘Free State of Florida,'” said State Sen. Shevrin Jones.
Among grade levels, 70% of the math materials for kindergarten through fifth grades were rejected. Twenty percent of the materials for grades 6-8 were rejected, and 35% of materials for grades 9-12 were rejected.
“It seems that some publishers attempted to slap a coat of paint on an old house built on the foundation of Common Core, and indoctrinating concepts like race essentialism, especially, bizarrely, for elementary school students,” said Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
In 2020, DeSantis removed Common Core concepts, a group of national academic targets in reading and math, from the state’s curriculum. They were replaced by the Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or BEST, standards, also dedicated to reading and math.
In 2021, DeSantis banned the teaching of critical race theory, which he described as “the theory that racism is not merely the product of prejudice, but that racism is embedded in American society and its legal systems in order to uphold the supremacy of white person.”
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has accused Russia of wanting to “destroy” the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared to stage a final defence of the city.
With missiles hitting Lviv on Monday morning and Kharkiv subject to further shelling, Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the southern city as it works to wrest control of Donbas and forge a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea.
Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian ultimatum on Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender.
Ukrainian authorities have urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbas,” Zelenskiy said in an evening statement, in which he repeated a plea for foreign governments to send weapons for his troops.
Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine’s unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on 24 February.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy: the situation in Mariupol is ‘inhuman’ – video
“The city still has not fallen,” the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said on Sunday. “There’s still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end,” he told ABC’s This Week. “We will not surrender.”
While several large cities were under siege, he said, not one – with the exception of Kherson in the south – had fallen, and more than 900 towns and cities had been recaptured.
Following Ukrainian fighters’ refusal to surrender Mariupol, Russian troops will reportedly close the city for entry and exit on Monday and issue “movement passes” to those who remain, an adviser to the mayor has said.
Petro Andriushchenko made the claim in an update over the Telegram messaging app on Sunday, sharing a photo that appeared to show a line of people waiting for passes.
The governor of Luhansk, Sergiy Gaiday, said the coming week would be “difficult”. “It may be the last time we have a chance to save you,” he wrote on Facebook.
Russian forces continued to shell the eastern Luhansk region and two people died in the town of Zolote, Gaiday told Ukrainian media earlier in the day.
Two people also died and four were wounded in attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk, the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on Telegram. An air strike hit an armaments factory in the capital, Kyiv.
Five missiles reportedly struck Lviv on Monday morning, according to the city’s mayor, adding that authorities were seeking more detailed information.
In Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, at least five people were killed and 20 wounded in a series of strikes 21km (13 miles) from the Russian border.
Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region’s health department, confirmed the deaths there following a series of strikes that journalists on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and torn roofs from buildings.
“The whole home rumbled and trembled,” 71-year-old Svitlana Pelelygina told Agence France-Presse as she surveyed her wrecked apartment. “Everything here began to burn.”
“I called the firefighters. They said: ‘We are on our way but we were also being shelled.’”
Meanwhile, Ukraine has completed a questionnaire that will form a starting point for the European Union to decide on its membership.
“Today, I can say that the document has been completed by the Ukrainian side,” Ihor Zhovkva, the deputy head of Zelenskiy’s office, told the Ukrainian public broadcaster on Sunday.
The European Commission would need to issue a recommendation on Ukraine’s compliance with the necessary membership criteria, he added. “We expect the recommendation … to be positive, and then the ball will be on the side of the EU member states.”
Zhovkva said Ukraine expected to acquire the status of a candidate country for EU accession in June during a scheduled meeting of the European Council meeting.
Residents of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine have been urged to evacuate immediately. The head of the region’s military administration, Sergei Gaidai, maintained that the “decision is yours” but warned that the cemetery was “getting bigger by the day”.
“Next week may be difficult. [This] may be the last time we still have a chance to save you,” he said in a statement late on Sunday.
In the city of Kramatorsk, also in the east, Orthodox Palm Sunday granted its residents some respite before the expected Russian onslaught. In the Orthodox Svyato-Pokrovsky church, about 40 people – mostly women wearing colourful headscarves – attended the service.
“It’s very hard and scary right now,” a congregant said as she arrived at the red-brick church topped with four gleaming domes.
One young mother, Nadia, said she refused to be evacuated for fear of travelling alone with her two children and leaving her relatives in Kramatorsk. “We don’t go to the basement each time there’s a [bomb] siren. It’s too stressful for them [the children],” she said.
“We have our spot in the basement just in case, but we prefer to stay in the house if possible. We dim the lights.”
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has urged Russian forces to let residents flee besieged Mariupol, saying that humanitarian corridors allowing civilians to escape would not open on Sunday after failing to agree terms with Moscow forces.
The UN World Food Programme says more than 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine and lack water and heating. Ukraine’s minister of digital transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, said the city was on “the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe”, adding there was compiling evidence of alleged Russian atrocities there.
“We will hand everything over to The Hague. There will be no impunity.”
The mayor of Bucha – a town near Kyiv where the discovery of dead civilians sparked international condemnation and war crimes accusations – said Russian troops had raped men as well as women and children there.
Zelensky said he had invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed “genocide” – a term president Emmanuel Macron has avoided.
“I talked to him yesterday,” Zelensky told CNN in an interview recorded on Friday but broadcast on Sunday. “I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity. He’ll come and see, and I’m sure he will understand.”
But Russia has warned the US of “unpredictable consequences” if it sent its “most sensitive” weapons systems to Ukraine.
Its defence ministry claimed on Saturday to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane in the Odessa region carrying weapons supplied by western nations.
On Sunday, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles had destroyed ammunition, fuel and lubricant depots in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian military facilities, including command posts.
He said Russian air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft in the Kharkiv region and a drone near the city of Pavlograd.
After two unsuccessful attempts to dislodge it, and the subsequent removal of roughly 500 of the 5,000 containers it was carrying, the Ever Forward was refloated just before 7 a.m. Sunday by two barges and five tugboats.
A full moon and high spring tide helped provide a lift to the salvage vessels as they pulled and pushed the massive ship from the mud, across a dredged hole and back into the shipping channel.
Once refloated, the Ever Forward was weighed down again by water tanks to ensure safe passage under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on its way to an anchorage off Annapolis, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Marine inspectors will examine the ship’s hull before the Coast Guard allows it to return to the Port of Baltimore to retrieve the offloaded containers.
The cargo ship, operated by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp., was traveling from Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, on March 13, when it ran aground just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Barges are seen near the container ship Ever Forward, right, which ran aground last month, as workers remove containers from it in efforts to lighten the load and refloat the vessel, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, in Pasadena, Maryland.
Julio Cortez / AP
Officials have said the grounding did not result in reports of injuries, damage or pollution. The Coast Guard has not said what caused the Ever Forward to run aground.
The ship became stuck outside the shipping channel and did not block marine navigation, unlike last year’s high-profile grounding in the Suez Canal of its sister vessel, the Ever Given. That incident disrupted ship traffic and the global supply chain for days.
Salvage crews continued to offload containers from the Ever Forward until 10:30 p.m. Saturday. The containers were placed onto barges and taken to Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal.
After two failed efforts to free the more than 1,000-foot vessel, salvage experts determined earlier this month that unloading some of the containers offered the best chance to refloat it. Crews also continued dredging to a depth of 43 feet around the vessel.
Incoming — Charlie Crist is notching a notable endorsement in his bid to become the Democratic nominee who will challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall.
D.C. delivery — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is backing the three-term congressman, who is in a primary competing with Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and state Sen. Annette Taddeo.
On camera — In a campaign video shared first with Playbook, Pelosi says “I’ve worked with Charlie the past six years in Congress and I’ve seen him fight for Floridians every single day. He always puts people first. He’ll be a champion for women’s reproductive rights, create opportunities for small business owners, and always show empathy and compassion for our working families. It’s a stark contrast to the current governor.”
Primary colors — The Pelosi endorsement comes at a pivotal time as Fried has been ratcheting up her criticism of Crist, pouncing on his recent convoluted attempt to insist he’s “pro-life” even though Crist has been supportive of abortion rights after changing parties a decade ago. Fried has insisted that she is a “true” Democrat in contrast to Crist.
Speaking up — In a statement about the endorsement, Crist said “Speaker Pelosi is a beacon of Democratic values, and her leadership uplifts the voices of all Floridians that are ready to put divisive, inflammatory rhetoric behind us and truly get to work for the people.”
The downside — While Pelosi’s endorsement could aid Crist in his push to lock up the Democratic nomination in August, it also gives something for Republicans to hammer him about. DeSantis remains in positive territory in polls and has been constant in his criticism of President Joe Biden, the federal government and “lockdown Democrats.” The DeSantis campaign will probably have little hesitation in repeatedly linking Crist to Pelosi in the months to come.
— WHERE’S RON? — Nothing official announced for Gov. DeSantis
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for Playbook? Get in touch: [email protected]
CAMPAIGN MODE
‘THAT WOULD BE ZERO’ — “Rick Scott became the Senate GOP’s election general, then went to war,” by Washington Post’s Michael Schrer and Josh Dawsey: “But during the seven weeks of turmoil since [Sen. Rick] Scott dropped a provocative conservative policy bomb on an unsuspecting party — a plan that called for tax increases and expiration dates for all federal laws, including those establishing Social Security and Medicare — he has not once expressed regret. Instead, the former hospital chain CEO and two-term governor, the richest man in the Senate, argues that he owes his detractors nothing. ‘My whole life has been people telling me that, you know, you’re doing it the wrong way. You can’t, you shouldn’t be doing this,’ he said in a recent interview at NRSC headquarters. ‘I’ve been up here for three years. Do you know how many people have come to me and asked me, before they vote, what my opinion is on something and whether it’s good for my state? That would be zero.’”
WHAT’S IN YOUR WALLET? — “‘Making a lot of money’: DeSantis campaign taps red-hot Florida real estate industry,” by POLITICO’s Matt Dixon: When real estate investor Moshe Popack wanted to host a political fundraiser for Gov. Ron DeSantis, he spared no expense. He threw one of the most expensive donor events in Florida political history. Popack, chairman and CEO of YMP Real Estate Management, had DeSantis and a handful of top contributors to his 10,000-square-foot Miami Beach home in February, an event DeSantis’ political committee reported as a $200,000 non-monetary or in-kind contribution from Popack. That eye-popping number makes it the most expensive reported fundraiser from an individual — not a company or political organization — in at least the past decade, according to state campaign finance reports.
Always be closing — Popack does, however, have one thing in common with a new breed of DeSantis donors: He’s part of Florida’s red-hot real estate market. Over the past year, DeSantis and his aligned political committee have raised more than $7 million from real estate developers, investors and realtors, making that industry one of the governor’s biggest donor groups as he prepares to run for reelection.
VIEW FROM DOWN UNDER — “Meet Ron DeSantis, the Trump rival taking on ‘woke’ Disney in the culture wars,” by Sydney Morning Herald’s Farrah Tomazin: “Ron DeSantis wants to liberate Australia. It’s shortly after midday in Orlando, Florida, and the Republican governor – a Donald Trump disciple who is fast becoming Trump’s biggest presidential rival – is standing on a red and blue stage, soaking up the cheers of his hometown crowd.”
Letter time — “Now, DeSantis insists, countries like Australia are desperate to follow suit.‘There are people who look to Florida as the citadel of freedom, who are chafing under authoritarian rule from all across the world,’ he tells the die-hard fans who have gathered for the opening day of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference. ‘I recently got a letter from Samuel from Australia, and he said, quote: ‘There isn’t much hope right now here, and many of us are fearful of what our leaders have in store for us. I look to you and your great state of Florida for hope during this dark time. Thank you for standing up for us.’ ‘Had Florida not led the way,’ DeSantis adds, ‘this country could look like Canada or Australia.’”
SPECIAL SESSION PUSH — State Sen. Jeff Brandes’ push to bypass legislative leadership and force a special session this year on property insurance was always viewed as a longshot, but he is going to force a lot of legislators to take a public stance during a critical time. The St. Petersburg Republican got enough support to trigger an official poll of legislators by the Secretary of State’s office. The simple math is that it requires a three-fifths vote — a supermajority — for the session to be called.
Uphill — Similar efforts to use this unique device to trigger a special session have not succeeded. There was a divide between House and Senate Republicans over how to deal with property insurance during the regular session and it’s not clear if there is a willingness to deal with this issue right now. Gov. Ron DeSantis recently suggested this may not get resolved until after House Speaker Chris Sprowls is no longer in charge even though the property insurance market is teetering — a fact that could quickly have serious ramifications for the state’s real estate market.
The bite — It works like this: No insurance = no loans, no mortgages = a major part of the state’s economy sidelined. If the situation unravels — and if Florida gets hit by a major hurricane in the months ahead — it could suddenly change the positive political environment that DeSantis and Republicans enjoy. Some Republicans — including Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who helps regulates the insurance industry — have remained largely quiet as this crisis keeps getting worse. “You can treat me like the boy who cried wolf but at the end of the story the wolf comes, and the wolf is here,” Brandes told Playbook this weekend.
The tally — DeSantis for his part has already said he supports Brandes’ effort — and some Republicans have already voted yes in the first batch of votes released Friday evening. That count was 10-1 in the 40-member Senate and 32-2 in the 120-member House.
What happens next — Brandes may get the supermajority he needs in the state Senate — no small feat — but still fall short. “My hope is we get enough members who have the courage of their convictions and back of the people they represent to call a special session immediately,” Brandes said. But he added that if he can’t get enough legislators to act, he hopes DeSantis will “be ready to call it if this doesn’t pan out.”
BAD MATH? — “Florida education agency rejects math books it claims contain Critical Race Theory,” by Orlando Sentinel’s Leslie Postal: “Florida rejected 42 math textbooks publishers wanted to sell to the state’s public schools, claiming the books contained ‘critical race theory’ or other ‘prohibited topics’ and ‘unsolicited strategies,’ the Department of Education said Friday. A press release announcing the move did not say which textbooks — many meant for elementary schools — had been rejected for containing CRT, nor provide examples of the lessons the education department found objectionable.”
HMM — “DeSantis nominee for Florida wildlife commission was fined for manatee violation,” by Sun Sentinel’s David Fleshler: “A Coral Gables healthcare executive who had been fined for speeding in a boat in a manatee-protection zone was named this week to the Florida board in charge of protecting wildlife. Albert Maury, chief executive officer of Leon Medical Centers, which is a major Republican contributor, was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to the board of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.”
MARCHING FORWARD — “DeSantis takes over redistricting. Outcome could reshape Florida political landscape,” by Miami Herald’s Mary Ellen Klas: “Assuming the governor signs the map legislators approve next week, the configuration will serve as the political boundaries in Florida for the next decade, unless a court ruling invalidates them — a process that could take years. ‘Gov. [Ron] DeSantis is clearly starting a war and firing a first shot,’ said Michael Li, an expert on redistricting law at the Brennan Center for Justice. “It’s hard to see how this doesn’t end up in court litigation. And, as with any war, once you’ve started, it’s hard to control what happens.”
PALM BEACH STORY — “Mar-a-Lago Machine: Trump as a modern day party boss,” by The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher: “For 15 months, a parade of supplicants — senators, governors, congressional leaders and Republican strivers of all stripes — have made the trek to pledge their loyalty and pitch their candidacies. Some have hired Mr. Trump’s advisers, hoping to gain an edge in seeking his endorsement. Some have bought ads that ran only on Fox News in South Florida. Some bear gifts; others dish dirt. Almost everyone parrots his lie that the 2020 election was stolen. Working from a large wooden desk reminiscent of the one he used in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump has transformed Mar-a-Lago’s old bridal suite into a shadow G.O.P. headquarters, amassing more than $120 million — a war chest more than double that of the Republican National Committee itself.”
SANCTUARY — “South Florida Ukrainians, afflicted by the war back home, find solace in this Cooper City church,” by Miami Herald’s Syra Ortiz-Blanes: “As the golden domes of St. Nicholas Ukrainian Orthodox Church glistened in the evening sun, South Florida Ukrainians gathered in late March in the Cooper City sanctuary to remember the young victims of the Russian invasion of their homeland. Women, men and children dressed in yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Others donned traditional shirts embroidered in flower patterns. Long, thin candles burned in two large silver bowls by the church doors, where the priest and a group of worshippers led the memorial service for the children of Mariupol, the southeastern Ukraine city that has been besieged.”
JOLT — “Florida utilities submit plans to spend $24B on storm hardening,” by POLITICO’s Bruce Ritchie: Florida’s three largest electric utilities this week proposed spending more than $24 billion over 10 years — with much of it likely paid for by customers — on plans to harden their transmission systems against storms. Florida Power & Light Co., Duke Energy Florida and Tampa Electric Co. submitted the plans to the Public Service Commission on April 11 under 2019 legislation that allows utilities to charge customers separately for storm-hardening. FPL, the state’s largest utility with 5.7 million customers across 43 counties, proposes spending $14.9 billion through 2032, with more than half of that for hardening distribution lines.
PENINSULA AND BEYOND
IT’S A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL — “Disney, built on fairy tales and fantasy, confronts the real world,” by The New York Times’ Brooks Barnes: “In trying to offend no one, Disney had seemingly lost everyone. ‘The mission for the Disney brand has always been really clear: Do nothing that might upset or confuse the family audience,’ said Martin Kaplan, the Norman Lear professor of entertainment, media and society at the University of Southern California and a former Walt Disney Studios executive. ‘Fun for all. Nothing objectionable. Let’s all be transformed by the magic wand. But we are so divided today, so revved up, that even Disney is having a hard time bringing us together.’”
CHARGES FILED — “TPD: Gay rights activist was murdered in his apartment, dumped in trash can outside,” by Tallahassee Democrat’s Jeff Burlew: “The man charged in the murder of Jorge Diaz Johnston allegedly got rid of his body by tossing it in a dumpster outside the apartment the two men shared and wheeling it down the street. That grisly detail was included in newly released search warrant affidavits that Tallahassee police filed in early January, after Diaz Johnston went missing and was found dead in a Jackson County landfill. It also contradicts previous accounts from law enforcement that the body was first dumped in an Okaloosa County landfill and hauled to Jackson County. Steven Yinger, a felon with a long history of burglary and theft convictions, was indicted Thursday on first-degree murder and other charges in the death of Diaz Johnston. Yinger, who allegedly strangled Diaz Johnston to death, is being held without bail in the Leon County Detention Facility.”
— “Actor Dave Bautista opens tattoo marvel in Tampa,” by Tampa Bay Times’ Sharon Kennedy Wynne: “On busy Kennedy Boulevard across the street from the University of Tampa athletic fields, three tall black flags with “Tattoo” emblazoned on them flap in the wind outside of a nondescript building. It’s the only indication that inside the shop, one of the world’s most famous movie stars has realized his dream of bringing a tattoo clubhouse to life. Once inside, the name is revealed: DC Society Ink. Set in bold block letters against a charcoal brick wall with red backlighting, the logo looks like the cover of a comic book. It’s fitting, since the shop is the brainchild of Marvel actor Dave Bautista.”
BIRTHDAYS: The one and only Christine Sexton with Florida Politics … Derrick Brooks, EVP of Corporate and Community Business Development with Vinik Sports Group … Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany …. Evan Philipson, Florida political director for AIPAC
Foreign military aid has been so pivotal to Ukraine’s defense against Russia that one Ukrainian business is paying tribute with new products: plush toy versions of weapons breaking the back of Russian forces.
Kopytsia, an online store founded in 1998 in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region, has released a line of what it calls “patriotic soft toys” to honor the country’s resistance against Russia and the help it has received.
Among the toys on offer are huggable versions of Bayraktar TB3s, the Turkish-made drones that have played a major role in Ukraine’s defense, and Javelins, the anti-armor weapons that Ukraine has used to wipe out Russian tanks on the battlefield.
Also on offer is a miniature, 20-inch-long version of the Mriya cargo aircraft that was the heaviest plane ever built until it was destroyed in the battle for Antonov Airport outside Kyiv in the first days of Russia’s invasion in February.
Maria Kopytsia, who runs the family business alongside her father Anatoly, said the goal was “to uphold the patriotic mood of our nation and to support the armed forces of Ukraine.”
Ms. Kopytsia, who has stayed in Ukraine throughout the war, said the family launched the morale-boosting product line in the first two weeks of the war but heavy fighting across north Ukraine, including in the Chernihiv region, made it impossible to deliver to the capital and other major cities.
Prices range between $8 and $12 for each toy. Ms. Kopytsia said sales of the toys will go towards paying their workers.
On Sunday, a photo posted by Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk showing Ms. Kopytsia’s toys on sale at a store in Western Ukraine went viral, and Ms. Kopytsia says interest in them has skyrocketed–despite some online criticism that they risk militarizing Ukrainian kids.
Ms. Kopytsia said she is grateful for Western assistance to Ukraine.
“If we can safeguard our country with their help, and I can live in an independent Ukraine, then I’m all for it,” she said.
Because of the falsehoods, families of the victims have found themselves routinely accosted by those who believe those false claims. Among those are the parents of Noah Pozner, who have moved nearly 10 times since the shooting, and live in hiding.
The Sandy Hook families maintain that Mr. Jones profited from spreading lies about their relatives’ murders. Mr. Jones has disputed that, while for years failing to produce sufficient records to bolster his claims.
Last month, a Connecticut judge found the radio host in contempt for failing to sit for a deposition and ordered that he be fined $25,000 for the first weekday he fails to appear for testimony, with the fine rising by $25,000 every day thereafter that he did not appear.
In trials scheduled to begin this month in Texas, juries will determine how much Mr. Jones must pay the families in damages. The Connecticut case is the last scheduled trial, set to begin on Sept. 1.
In its court filings, Infowars said that it had up to 49 creditors, as much as $50,000 in estimated assets and up to $10 million in estimated liabilities. The two other companies said they also had up to 49 creditors, with IWHealth stating it had up to $1 million in assets while Prison Planet TV said it had up to $50,000.
SHANGHAI, April 18 (Reuters) – The tensions of lockdown have exposed divisions among Shanghai residents, pitting young against old, locals against outsiders, and above all, COVID-negative against COVID-positive people.
Shanghai’s 25 million people, most of whom live in apartment blocks, have forged new communal bonds during the city’s coronavirus outbreak, through barter and group buying and setting up food-sharing stations.
But with no end in sight to a lockdown that for some has lasted four weeks, frustrations are also mounting behind the shuttered gates of the city’s tower blocks, often playing out within WeChat message groups.
In one, conflict erupted when a woman who had been taken to centralised quarantine – where she tested negative – accused her neighbour of reporting her to authorities.
It is not unusual for test results to be shared and positive cases announced in building WeChat groups, as authorities try to get to grips with China’s largest outbreak since the virus was first identified in Wuhan in late 2019.
One U.S. citizen was told she would be sent to a quarantine centre after results from a mixed test, including hers, came back positive last week, sparking panic. Three others whose samples were in the batch were taken to quarantine, but her own at-home tests continued to be negative.
“In the group chats, they were saying things like, ‘oh are the positive people still here, are the positive people still here?’,” she said, declining to give her name.
Older residents, more vulnerable to COVID-19, have also been more likely to call for the immediate expulsion of positive cases from their compound.
“Because of the media’s exaggeration about the disease, and since old people have weaker immune systems, they are more afraid of the virus than young people,” said one resident who had seen this happen.
Another foreign resident, who only wanted to be identified as Alexy, was suspected by neighbours of being COVID-positive when his test result failed to upload to his health app.
His building’s management tried to block his family’s food deliveries unless they shared home test results with the rest of the residents – a demand that several Shanghai residents have said is widespread and violates privacy.
“They have no guidelines and CDC (Center for Disease Control) services are overwhelmed,” he said. “They felt invested with the most important mission of their life, being able to play doctor, policeman and judge at the same time.”
LOCKED-OUT
Some people were refused entry into their homes and ordered to stay in hotels after release from central quarantine, violating state guidelines.
Another foreign resident who tested positive said she was confined in her apartment rather than sent to central quarantine, much to the chagrin of her neighbours, who asked her to leave, tried to exclude her from group grocery orders and even demanded she make a formal apology.
One neighbour called her “foreign trash” while another spread lies about her mental health, and the residential committee was no help, she said.
“I saw screenshots of them telling the residents to continue calling to get me out,” she said, adding that she would move out as soon as she could.
President Biden speaks to reporters prior to boarding Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 12.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
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President Biden speaks to reporters prior to boarding Air Force One at Des Moines International Airport in Des Moines, Iowa, on April 12.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images
Cities are being bombed, warships sunk and tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed. And as the real struggle in Ukraine continues to intensify, so does the accompanying war of words.
This past week, President Biden again ratcheted up his rhetoric when he told an audience in Iowa President Vladimir Putin was “a dictator [who] commits genocide.”
In previous remarks since Putin’s armed forces invaded Ukraine in February, Biden had called the atrocities reported from that country “war crimes.” He had called Putin a “war criminal” who said he needed to be removed from power. (The White House subsequently walked back the latter comment.) Nonetheless, his use of the word genocide detonated in the media and spread shock waves through the international community.
Many observers have suggested that if Ukraine is right about the systematic murder of its civilians, these acts fit the definition of “war crimes” or “crimes against humanity” as understood by international courts for generations. Deliberate targeting of civilians is definitionally a war crime.
But Biden went further: “Yes, I called it genocide. It has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being – being able to be Ukrainian.”
Each presidential turn of the rhetorical ratchet in recent weeks has made news, catching NATO allies off guard and prompting “clarification” from the White House. Yet each has also set a tone for much of the war debate that followed.
It should also be noted that in each instance of provocative language Biden has been essentially been following the lead of his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president has also personalized the struggle, calling Putin out for war crimes and labeling the killing of civilians in Ukraine as genocide.
Most recently, Zelenskyy has called on the U.S. to add Russia to its list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” which now includes the regimes in Syria, Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
That list, too, is often misunderstood and subject to interpretation, but it was begun in 1979 and used by subsequent presidents in both parties to justify various acts against several countries – including Iraq, Sudan, Libya and South Yemen.
Appropriating Putin’s own language
There is a degree of irony in the use of the word “genocide” at this stage of the war because it figured so prominently in Putin’s own rhetoric prior to the invasion. In February, Putin accused Ukrainian forces of killing Russian-speaking separatists in the eastern part of the country (known as the Donbas for its geographic role as the basin of the Don River).
“What is happening in the Donbas today is genocide,” Putin told his country on Feb. 15. Thereafter, a chorus of other Russian voices in government and the media took up the theme. Russia even complained to the United Nations Security Council that Ukraine was “exterminating the civilian population” in the Donbas.
Putin provided no evidence for this claim at the time and has not since. But the accusation has been part of the Russian media campaign against the government in Kyiv since a popular uprising deposed a pro-Putin autocrat there in 2014. It is often invoked in discussions of Russian ethnicity and the importance of protecting culturally Russian people wherever they may live.
Still, the sudden prominence of the genocide term this past winter seemed a warning that Putin was about to make a move. And indeed, a little more than a week later, Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine — not only in the Donbas but on the highway to Kyiv.
The latter thrust was stymied well shy of its objectives by the now-famous resistance of the Ukrainian armed forces and armed civilians. But as the Russians retreated they left evidence of a massacre, widely documented by Western journalists, that included women and children and men who had been bound.
Cities and towns in Ukraine had already been pounded by Russian bombs and missiles fired indiscriminately at densely populated areas. But it was the emergence of atrocities in towns such as Bucha that caught the world’s attention, spawned a fresh round of international sanctions and prompted renewed talk of war crimes and genocide.
What it means
Genocide was a term first used in the 1940s, describing the Holocaust — Nazi Germany’s effort to eradicate all the Jews in Europe and elsewhere (along with other categories of people deemed undesirable). The United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948 characterized several “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious people.” Others have used somewhat broader categories or groupings.
Whatever differences of interpretation there may be, genocide connotes the most egregious offense imaginable in law or morality. Given the monstrous model of the Holocaust, most scholars, jurists and international leaders have preferred to use the term genocide judiciously.
“We’re going to learn more and more about the devastation,” Biden said. “And we’ll let the lawyers decide internationally whether or not it qualifies. But it sure seems that way to me.”
In the past, such determinations have taken time. There is a formal process by which the U.S. Department of State grants “recognition” of a genocide that has taken place or is taking place in some part of the world. The word recognition conveys a sense that these events are often disputed or covered up, or that they have not been widely acknowledged.
The idea that the U.S. government would make a judgment on such events Is profoundly political, both in contemporary and historical terms. Just since coming to office, the Biden administration has made two such recognitions – one for a genocide more than a century ago and one happening right now.
Rohingya and Armenians
The current secretary of state, Anthony Blinken, made reference to this process and the situation in Ukraine when he spoke at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on March 22. Blinken was there to announce the completion of the recognition process with regard to Myanmar.
“Beyond the Holocaust, the United States has concluded that genocide was committed seven times,” said Blinken. “Today marks the eighth, as I have determined that members of the Burmese military committed genocide and crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.”
The Rohingya are Muslims who had lived in Burma and often been persecuted before elements of the military began trying to eliminate them entirely in 2016. Thousands have been killed and more than a million have fled the country, many to neighboring Bangladesh where they live as refugees.
But in the same speech, Blinken talked about the “unprovoked, brutal war” Russia was waging against Ukraine and “innocent men, women and children.”
He noted that some of the deaths had taken place in the Kyev area on a site known as Babyn Yar, where more than 33,000 Jews were killed by Nazis in just two days in 1941.
The case of the Rohingya was considered through the years of the Trump administration but no final decision was made. However, on his last day in office, Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo did announce the recognition of genocide in another long-running and similar situation. This involved China and the systematic abuse and relocation of its Muslim Uyghurs, the largest ethnic minority group in the western Xinjiang province.
Pompeo’s last-minute recognition regarding the Uyghurs was the sixth such genocide recognition made by the U.S. State Department. The seventh was added not long after, in March 2021, when a newly inaugurated President Biden ended a century-long argument about the treatment of the Armenian people by Turkey, then still known as the Ottoman Empire in 1915-16.
Although many different governments have held power in Turkey since, all have strenuously objected to calling the deaths of more than a million Armenians a genocide. Millions of dollars were spent over the years on American lobbyists, including some former members of Congress, to argue against such a recognition. largely because it was presumably damaging to U.S.-Turkish relations.
Many other mass killings throughout history have not been formally recognized by the U.S. for a variety of reasons. Some of these have been prosecuted by international courts, sometimes with U.S. support. One example is the untold loss of life in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot in the 1970s.
The other five genocides that have received official recognition by the U.S. since the formal process began in 1989 are noted here in the order of their official recognition.
Bosnia (1993) based on the massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the town of Srebrenica by Serbian soldiers and militia. The killings were part of a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” conducted under Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic and carried out largely by his army’s commander Ratko Mladic.
Rwanda (1994) This recognition was based on events in a civil war that had lasted for several years. In an organized campaign lasting several months, the dominant Hutu in this central African country sought to wipe out or drive out the minority ethnic Tutsi, as well as some of their own people who tried to defend the Tutsi and a third ethnic group called the Twa. More than half a million Tutsi are believed to have been killed.
Iraq (1995) The recognition came well after Ba’athist Party strongman Saddam Hussein’s campaign against Iraqi Kurds began in the previous decade and lasted into the new century. Saddam at one point used poison gas against a Kurdish city named Halabja in northern Iraq. Captured after the Second Persian Gulf War, he was executed in 2006 while still on trial for earlier crimes against the Kurds.
Darfur (2004) A civil war in the western parts of Sudan pitted two rebel groups against the government in Khartoum. The government armed militias, including the Janjaweed, to counter the rebellion. The United Nations estimated this resulted in the deaths of at least 200,000 and the displacement of more than two million. The leader of Janjaweed went on trial before the International Court in the Hague this spring.
ISIS occupied territories (2016-2017) Yazidi, Kurds and some Christians who lived in parts of Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya held by the Islamic State in the second decade of this century were the victims of systematic attacks and efforts to eliminate them.
LVIV/KYIV, April 18 (Reuters) – Ukrainian authorities condemned Russian artillery attacks on cities in the northeast and the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, following almost two months of bloody fighting.
After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv.
Eighteen people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in shelling in the past four days in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.
“This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians,” he said late on Sunday.
Russia denies targeting civilians and has rejected what Ukraine says is evidence of atrocities as staged to undermine peace talks. It calls its action a special military operation to demilitarise Ukraine and eradicate what it calls dangerous nationalists.
The West and Kyiv accuse Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverised port of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday, despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn.
“The city still has not fallen,” he told ABC’s “This Week” programme, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the southeastern city.
On Saturday, Russia said it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov.
Capturing Mariupol, the main port in the Donbas region, would be a strategic prize for Russia, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the neighbouring region of Luhansk, which has seen heavy fighting, repeated a plea for people to evacuate.
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A man walks near a residential building destroyed during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 17, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
“The next week will be difficult,” he said in a post on his Facebook page. “It may be the last time we have a chance to save you.”
On the streets of Mariupol, small groups of bodies were lined up under colourful blankets, surrounded by shredded trees and scorched buildings.
Residents, some pushing bicycles, picked their way around destroyed tanks and civilian vehicles while Russian soldiers checked the documents of motorists.
Among them was Irina, who was evacuating with a niece wounded in the shelling.
“I have a daughter in DNR,” she said, referring to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. “Maybe we will try to move there for the time being.
“I hope they will re-build (Mariupol). The most important thing is utility systems. Summer will pass fast and in winter it will be hard.”
‘EASTER OF WAR’
About four million Ukrainians have fled the country, cities have been shattered and thousands have died since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24.
The economic damage is significant. Shmyhal said Ukraine’s budget deficit was about $5 billion a month and urged Western governments for more financial aid.
On Twitter, Zelenskiy said he had discussed ensuring Ukraine’s financial stability and preparations for post-war reconstruction with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, quoting her as having said support was essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding. read more
Ukraine pressed on with efforts to swiftly join the European Union, as officials completed a questionnaire that is a starting point for the EU to decide on its membership. read more
On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis implicitly criticised Russia, pleading for an end to the bloodshed and lamenting the “Easter of war” in a speech in St Peter’s Square after Mass.
“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” he said. read more
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Pittsburgh Police are investigating after 10 people were shot and two juveniles were killed in a mass shooting early Easter Sunday in the East Allegheny neighborhood of the North Side.
Police initially said that 11 people were shot, but they updated those numbers at a noon news conference. They now say that 10 people were shot, 2 were killed, and 5 others had other related injuries such as broken bones while attempting to escape the shooting.
Pittsburgh Police say they received multiple ShotSpotter alerts just after 12:30 a.m. in the 800 block of Suismon Street.
When police arrived in the area, more shots were being fired and several young people were running on foot and leaving in cars from an Airbnb property at Suismon Street and Madison Avenue.
Police say a large party was happening at the Airbnb with as many as 200 people in attendance. Police say many of the attendees were underage.
HELSINKI (AP) — Swedish police said they fired warning shots during a riot in an eastern city to disperse protesters angry about demonstrations over the past several days by a Danish anti-Islam group in Sweden. Three people were slightly injured during the clashes.
A crowd of about 150 people threw stones at officers and police vehicles, and set fire to cars. Police said they responded by firing warning shots and “three people seem to have been hit by ricochets” and were hospitalized in Norrkoping, which has around 130,000 residents and is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of Stockholm.
“All three injured are arrested on suspicion of crime,” police said, adding that none of them had serious injuries.
A photographer for Swedish news agency TT at the scene reported that several riot police officers were seen carrying a wounded man to an ambulance.
The riot broke out following Danish far-right politician Rasmus Paludan’s meetings and planned Quran burnings in various Swedish cities and towns since Thursday.
Paludan and his Stram Kurs party had planned a demonstration in Norrkoping on Sunday but he never showed up in the city, Swedish media reported. Unrest was also reported in the nearby city of Linkoping.
Paludan said on the party’s Facebook page that he decided to cancel Sunday’s demonstrations in the two locations as the Swedish authorities in the region have “shown that they are completely incapable of protecting themselves and me. If I was seriously injured or killed due to the inadequacy of the police authority, then it would be very sad for Swedes, Danes and other northerners.”
Apart from Norrkoping and Linkoping, unrest and violent clashes have been reported in Stockholm, Orebro, Landskrona and Malmo, Sweden third-largest city, in the past three days.
On Friday evening, violent clashes between demonstrators and counterprotesters erupted in the central city of Orebro before Paludan’s plan to burn a Quran there, leaving 12 police officers injured and four police vehicles set ablaze.
In Landskrona, southern Sweden, a few hundred mostly young people threw stones and set cars, tires and dustbins on fire. They also erected a barrier fence that obstructed traffic on Saturday evening. Similar unrest took place in nearby Malmo, where a city bus was set on fire, among other things, late Saturday.
Paludan, a Danish lawyer who also holds Swedish citizenship, set up Stram Kurs, or “Hard Line” in 2017. The website of the party, which runs on an anti-immigration and anti-Islam agenda, says “Stram Kurs is the most patriotic political party in Denmark.”
The United Nations refugee agency said 4,869,019 Ukrainians had left the country since Russia invaded in February – up 32,574 from Saturday’s total, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees chief, Filippo Grandi’s, said on Sunday.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Sunday suggested that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine if the U.S. provided weapons to Kyiv sooner.
“This is going to get stronger and rougher and what really needs to happen is, Ukraine is not asking for American men and women to fight, all they’re asking for is the weapons to defend themselves,” McCarthy told Fox News chief Washington correspondent Mike Emanuel on “Fox News Sunday.”
“If we would have taken those actions earlier instead of waiting till after Russia invaded, they probably never would’ve invaded had we done that sooner,” he added.
He later said sending weapons to Ukraine earlier could have saved thousands of lives.
“Ukraine was craving the ability to defend themselves. Had we moved the weapons to Ukraine earlier, that they could defend themselves, it would have saved thousands of lives and probably the decision of Putin not to enter,” McCarthy said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The claim came in the seventh week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24.
The Biden administration has provided Ukraine with more than $3.2 billion in security assistance, which includes $2.6 billion since the invasion began.
That aid has included anti-tank weapons, unmanned drones, small arms, ammunition and defense equipment.
McCarthy on Sunday also took aim at the administration for rejecting Poland’s proposal to transfer MiG-29 fighter jets to a U.S. air base in Germany, which would then to go Ukraine to help their forces fight Russia.
“The president denied Ukraine and denied Poland for providing MiGs to Ukraine to protect themselves on a flyover. All of that is a wrong action going forward,” McCarthy said.
The showdown at the Azovstal steel plant, near Mariupol’s port, has become the last line of Ukraine’s defense in preventing Russia from securing a strategically important land bridge between its stronghold in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, which Russia has been struggling to control. Capturing Mariupol would be a major victory for Russia that could strengthen its push to command Ukraine’s east, cut off an important Ukrainian port and bolster flagging morale among Russian troops.
But Ukrainian officials said on Sunday that the struggle was not over for Mariupol, which for two months has tied up Russian troops and resources that are badly needed elsewhere.
Damaged buildings in front of the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol this month.Credit…Reuters
“The city still has not fallen,” Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, told ABC News on Sunday. “There is still our military forces. So they will fight to the end, and as for now, they are still in Mariupol.”
Taking Mariupol would be one of the first major victories for Russia over the past several weeks, a period in which it withdrew from the area around Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and lost one of its most important warships, the Moskva. The Moskva’s sinking drew fierce reaction in some corners of the Russian news media, which called for harsh retaliation. Russia has recently shifted its focus to eastern Ukraine, and on Sunday, it continued to unleash missiles into Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city after Kyiv, in the country’s northeast.
In Mariupol, in the southeast, it was unclear how many Ukrainian troops were still fighting. Russian officials said there were 2,500 soldiers aligned with Ukraine at the steel plant, including “400 foreign mercenaries.” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told news outlets on Saturday that getting accurate numbers out of Mariupol had been difficult, because “many people have disappeared.” But he said that Ukrainian officials believe Russian troops outnumber the Ukrainian forces in the city by six to one.
One of the groups leading the defense of Mariupol is the Azov Battalion, a unit of the Ukrainian National Guard that has drawn far-right fighters from around the world. Moscow has used the presence of far-right movements in Ukraine as a pretext for invading the country. Russian troops also include many far-right fighters.
Mr. Zelensky said that Ukrainian officials were speaking with the soldiers at the steel plant several times a day. “We support them as much as we can,” he said. “But they know that they are carrying out one of the most powerful and important missions today.”
Azovstal Iron and Steel Works is one of the world’s largest metallurgical factories and is run by Metinvest, a steel and mining conglomerate owned by the billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man. The plant, stretched over more than four square miles, is a maze of rail tracks, blast furnaces and industrial mills. A military official aligned with Russian forces has called the plant a “fortress in the city,” according to Reuters.
A satellite image showing the sprawling Azovstal steel factory, where a few thousand Ukrainian soldiers are holding out against Russian forces.Credit…Maxar Technologies, via Associated Press
Communications systems have been destroyed across Mariupol, making it hard to speak with soldiers at the plant or others in the city.
Russia’s deadline on Sunday raised concerns of further carnage in Mariupol, which before the war was a thriving port city on the Sea of Azov, an extension of the Black Sea, and home to roughly 450,000 people. Mariupol has been under near-constant bombardment since late February, including bombings of a maternity ward and a theater that was being used as a civilian bomb shelter, and many parts of the city have been destroyed.
Mr. Zelensky said that Russian attacks had already killed tens of thousands of people in Mariupol and that more than 100,000 people remained trapped there with little access to food or water. He vowed on Saturday to halt all peace talks with Moscow if Russian forces committed further atrocities there. Russia “is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there,” he said.
For more than a month, Russians have blocked humanitarian convoys taking food and medicine to Mariupol, exacerbating the crisis there, said Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman. Russian forces who control much of the city are giving residents just a loaf of bread and bottle of water each day, she said, and starting on Monday, they will begin requiring residents to have special permits to leave their homes.
The United Nations has called for Russia to enable civilians to flee Mariupol, so far without success. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said on Sunday that talks with Russia on a cease-fire along civilian evacuation routes had failed. “That is why, unfortunately, we are not opening humanitarian corridors today,” she said in a statement.
A rocket attack by Russian forces killed at least five people and wounded 13 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on Sunday.Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Yet the governor of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, Serhiy Haidai, still encouraged people across the region to evacuate on scheduled trains and buses. “Hurry to save yourself while we can help you,” he wrote in a post on Telegram.
Russia’s new focus on Ukraine’s east suggests that Moscow wants to secure full control of the vast region along its border as a tangible sign of success. Crucial to that strategy will be taking Mariupol in the Ukraine’s southeast and Kharkiv in the northeast.
Over the weekend, Russia continued its bombing of Kharkiv. A rocket barrage slammed into central Kharkiv on Sunday, setting apartment buildings and a market on fire. The attack left at least five people dead and 13 wounded. On Saturday, Russian missiles hit near José Andrés’ World Central Kitchen operation in the city, wounding four people working for the nonprofit group.
The organization, which creates community kitchens in places struck by natural disaster or conflict, said on April 4 that it had delivered nearly 300,000 meals in Ukraine, including to bomb shelters, hospitals and churches.
Smoke rising after a Russian rocket attack in Kharkiv on Sunday.Credit…Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Despite Russia’s military might, Ukrainian forces have continued to have success defending their country. Last week, two Ukrainian Neptune missiles struck and sunk the Moskva, a warship that was the pride of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and that had been used to launch cruise missiles deep inside Ukraine. It was one of the biggest naval losses anywhere in the world since World War II, and it prompted new questions within Russia about what was happening across the border.
Russia said the ship sank because of an accidental fire, while Ukrainian and American officials credited the Ukrainian missiles. The ship had more than 500 personnel, but the death toll was unclear. Days after the Moskva sank, Russia’s Ministry of Defense released a video that purported to show dozens of uniformed crew members still alive.
On Saturday, Vladimir Solovyov, the host of a popular prime-time talk show in Russia whose pronouncements often reflect the Kremlin line, began asking what went wrong. If the ship caught fire before sinking, as the Russians assert, then why did it not have a system to extinguish such blazes, Mr. Solovyov wondered aloud. If the ship was sunk by two Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles, then why did it lack an antimissile system?
“Just explain to me how you managed to lose it,” Mr. Solovyov asked rhetorically on his Saturday program, “Solovyov Live.”
The Russian Black Sea fleet flagship Moskva in Sevastopol earlier this month, before it sank.Credit…Maxar Technologies, via Associated Press
The segment was unusual not least because Mr. Solovyov broached the idea that Ukraine had managed to sink the Moskva. It comes as more pundits and others on television in Russia have started referring to the fighting in Ukraine as a “war” — although they have tended to use the term when suggesting that the whole of NATO, including the United States, is ganging up on Russia. They do not describe Russia’s invasion itself as part of a war, nor do they mention that the Kremlin started it.
The Kremlin has squelched open discussion of the conflict by promulgating a law in early March that criminalized spreading any “false information” about what Russia calls its “special military operation,” including calling it a war, with violators facing up to 15 years in prison.
While carefully scripted television news programs still use the “military operation” formula, guests in the heat of the shouting that is a trademark of Russian TV talk shows often yell about “war.”
The even angrier tone than usual, when discussing the sinking of the Moskva, indicated that many commentators found Ukraine culpable. Skipping the official explanation that it caught fire, for example, Vladimir Bortko, a film director and former member of the Duma, Russia’s Parliament, said last week that the assault on the vessel should be treated as an assault on Russia itself.
“The special military operation has ended; it ended last night when our motherland was attacked,” he said. He suggested that possible responses included bombing Kyiv or the transportation networks that allowed foreign dignitaries to visit — or something even more sinister: “Bomb them once and that is it.”
Michael Schwirtz reported from Kyiv; Jack Nicas from Rio de Janeiro; and Neil MacFarquhar from Istanbul. Reporting was contributed by Jane Arraf from Lviv, Ukraine; Cora Engelbrecht from Warsaw; Thomas Gibbons-Neff from Kharkiv, Ukraine; and Eduardo Medina from New York.
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