July 25 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s ruling military has executed four democracy activists accused of helping to carry out “terror acts”, it said on Monday, sparking widespread condemnation of the Southeast Asian nation’s first executions in decades.

Sentenced to death in closed-door trials in January and April, the men had been accused of helping a resistance movement to fight the army that seized power in a coup last year and unleashed a bloody crackdown on its opponents.

Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration outlawed by the junta, called for international action against the military.

“The global community must punish their cruelty,” Kyaw Zaw, the spokesman of the NUG president’s office, told Reuters in a text message.

Among those executed were democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Jimmy, and former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

Kyaw Min Yu, 53, and Phyo Zeya Thaw, a 41-year-old ally of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, lost their appeals against the sentences in June. The two others executed were Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw. read more

“These executions amount to arbitrary deprivation of lives and are another example of Myanmar’s atrocious human rights record,” said Erwin Van Der Borght, regional director of rights group Amnesty International.

“The four men were convicted by a military court in highly secretive and deeply unfair trials.”

Thazin Nyunt Aung, the wife of Phyo Zeyar Thaw, said by telephone prison officials had not let the families retrieve the bodies.

The men had been held in the colonial-era Insein prison and a person with knowledge of the events said their families visited it last Friday.

Only one relative was allowed to speak to the detainees via an online platform, the source added.

“I asked (prison officials) why didn’t you tell me or my son that it was our last meeting… I feel sad about it,” Khin Win Tint, the mother of Phyo Zeyar Thaw, told BBC Burmese.

State media reported the executions on Monday and junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun later confirmed the sentences to the Voice of Myanmar. Neither gave details of the timing.

Previous executions in Myanmar have been by hanging.

An activist group, the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP), said Myanmar’s last judicial executions were in the late 1980s and that since the coup 117 people had been sentenced to death.

INTERNATIONAL OUTCRY

The junta spokesman last month defended the death penalty, saying it was justified and used in many countries.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), appealed in a letter in June to junta chief Min Aung Hlaing not to carry out the executions, relaying deep concern among Myanmar’s neighbours.

“Not even the previous military regime, which ruled between 1988 and 2011, dared to carry out the death penalty against political prisoners,” said Malaysian lawmaker Charles Santiago, chair of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights.

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the executions went against Japan’s repeated urging for a peaceful resolution and release of detainees, and would further isolate Myanmar.

The U.S. embassy in Yangon condemned the executions of “pro-democracy leaders and elected officials”.

China’s foreign ministry urged all parties in Myanmar to properly resolve conflicts within its constitutional framework.

Myanmar has been in chaos since last year’s coup, with conflict spreading nationwide after the army crushed mostly peaceful protests in cities.

The AAPP says more than 2,100 people have been killed by security forces since the coup. The junta says that figure is exaggerated.

The true picture of violence has been hard to assess as clashes have spread to more remote areas where ethnic minority insurgent groups are also fighting the military.

The executions have shattered hopes of any peace agreement, said the Arakan Army (AA), a major ethnic militia in Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State.

Last Friday, the World Court rejected Myanmar’s objections to a genocide case over its treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority, paving the way for a full hearing. read more

The latest executions close off any chance of ending unrest in Myanmar, said analyst Richard Horsey, of the International Crisis group.

“This is the regime demonstrating that it will do what it wants and listen to no one,” Horsey said. “It sees this as a demonstration of strength, but it may be a serious miscalculation.”

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

KYIV, July 24 (Reuters) – Ukraine pressed ahead on Sunday with efforts to restart grain exports from its Black Sea ports under a deal aimed at easing global food shortages but warned deliveries would suffer if a Russian missile strike on Odesa was a sign of more to come.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced Saturday’s attack as “barbarism” that showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement a deal struck just one day earlier with Turkish and United Nations mediation.

The Ukrainian military, quoted by public broadcaster Suspilne, said the Russian missiles did not hit the port’s grain storage area or cause significant damage. Kyiv said preparations to resume grain shipments were ongoing.

“We continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports,” Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said in a Facebook post.

According to the Ukrainian military, two Kalibr missiles fired from Russian warships hit the area of a pumping station at the port and two others were shot down by air defence forces.

Russia said on Sunday its forces had hit a Ukrainian warship and a weapons store in Odesa with its high-precision missiles.

The deal signed by Moscow and Kyiv on Friday was hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough that would help curb soaring global food prices by restoring Ukrainian grain shipments to pre-war levels of 5 million tonnes a month. read more

But Zelenskiy’s economic advisor warned on Sunday the strike on Odesa signalled that could be out of reach.

“Yesterday’s strike indicates that it will definitely not work like that,” Oleh Ustenko told Ukranian television.

He said Ukraine could export 60 million tonnes of grain over the next nine months, but it would take up to 24 months if its ports’ operations were disrupted. read more

WAR ENTERS SIXTH MONTH

As the war entered its sixth month on Sunday there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting.

The Ukrainian military reported Russian shelling in the north, south and east, and again referred to Russian operations paving the way for an assault on Bakhmut in the eastern Donbas region.

Its air force command said three Russian Kalibr cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea and aimed at the western Khmelnytskiy region were shot down early on Sunday.

While the main theatre of combat has been the Donbas, Ukraine’s military said its forces have moved within a firing range from Russian targets in the occupied eastern Black Sea region of Kherson where Kyiv is mounting a counter-offensive.

“Several transport infrastructure objects in the temporarily occupied territory have been taken under fire control, which significantly limits the manoeuvrability and logistics of the enemy’s troops,” the southern military command said in a Facebook post.

It said it had also destroyed a Russian S-300 anti-air battery in the region. read more

Reuters could not immediately verify the battlefield reports.

SAFE PASSAGE

The strikes on Odesa drew condemnation from the United Nations, the European Union, the United States, Britain, Germany and Italy. read more

Russian news agencies quoted Russia’s defence ministry as saying that an Ukrainian warship and U.S. supplied anti-ship missiles were destroyed. read more

“A docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse with U.S.-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missiles were destroyed by long-range precision-guided naval missiles in Odesa seaport on the territory of a ship repair plant,” it said.

On Saturday, Turkey’s defence minister said Russian officials told Ankara that Moscow had “nothing to do” with the strikes.

Friday’s deal aims to allow safe passage in and out of Ukrainian ports, blocked by Russia’s Black Sea fleet since Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion, in what one U.N. official called a “de facto ceasefire” for the ships and facilities covered.

Ukraine and Russia are major global wheat exporters and the blockade has trapped tens of millions of tonnes of grain, worsening global supply chain bottlenecks.

Along with Western sanctions on Russia, it has stoked food and energy price inflation, driving some 47 million people into “acute hunger,” according to the World Food Programme.

Moscow denies responsibility for the food crisis, blaming the sanctions for slowing its food and fertiliser exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its ports.

Ukraine has mined waters near its ports as part of its war defences but under Friday’s deal pilots will guide ships along safe channels. read more

A Joint Coordination Center staffed by members of the four parties to the agreement are to monitor ships passing the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosporus Strait and on to world markets. All sides agreed on Friday there would be no attacks on them.

Putin calls the war a “special military operation” aimed at demilitarising Ukraine and rooting out dangerous nationalists. Kyiv and the West call this a baseless pretext for an aggressive land grab.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

MOSCOW, July 24 (Reuters) – Russia said on Sunday that its cruise missiles had struck military infrastructure of Ukraine’s Odesa port, destroying a military boat a day after Moscow reached a grain deal with the United Nations, Turkey and Ukraine.

“Kalibr missiles destroyed Odesa port’s military infrastructure, sending a Ukrainian military boat to the Kiev regime’s favourite address in a precision strike,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

The “favourite address” is an ironic reference to the exhortations of Ukrainian forces on Snake Island in the Black Sea who reportedly told a Russian ship to “go fuck” itself before a Russian strike in February. read more

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy denounced the strikes on Odesa as blatant “barbarism” that showed Moscow could not be trusted to implement Friday’s deal, mediated by Turkey and the United Nations.

The Ukrainian military had said Russian missiles hit the southern port on Saturday. read more

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.