Russia forcibly annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Moscow president was toppled amid mass street protests.
Kyiv has vowed to recapture the Black Sea peninsula along with all other Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces.
But the traditional pomp and sacred singing then gave way to modern realities. Francis later went up to the central balcony of St.
Peter’s Basilica to deliver his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message and blessing, addressing a crowd the Vatican estimated at about 100,000.
In his message Francis also mentioned instability in Lebanon, expressed the hope that the “martyred Rohingya people” of Myanmar “may encounter justice”, and called for more aid for the victims of earthquakes in February that killed nearly 56,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
April 8 (Reuters) – A missile fired from Ukrainian-held territory was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea, the Moscow-installed head of Crimea’s administration said on Saturday.
An aide to jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny (pictured) today suggested Putin had massively miscalculated, predicting the ‘unpopular’ war and its economic consequences would lead to the ‘demise’ of his regime within five years.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Francis has at least twice a week referred to Ukraine and its people as being “martyred” and has used words such as aggression and atrocities to describe Russia’s actions.
Boris Johnson suggested the growingly desperate leader – who has yet to make any significant inroads in Ukraine – is being ‘irrational’, while Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte described him as ‘totally paranoid’.
Ofcom said it noted new laws in Russia which “effectively criminalise any independent journalism that departs from the Russian state’s own news narrative”, particularly in relation to the invasion of Ukraine.
The 40-year-old Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, was accorded military honours including a gun salute and an army band at the funeral at Moscow’s Troyekurovskoye cemetery due to his past participation in military operations in eastern Ukraine alongside Moscow-backed separatists battling Kyiv’s forces.
In a statement, she said: “Ofcom has shown the UK public, and the regulatory community internationally, that, despite a well-constructed facade of independence, it is nothing more than a tool of government, bending to its media-suppressing will.
A statement released by the regulator on Friday said: “We consider the volume and potentially serious nature of the issues raised within such a short period to be of great concern – especially given RT’s compliance history, which has seen the channel fined £200,000 for previous due impartiality breaches.
“Vladlen has proven that today the front line passes everywhere: in the zone of military action, in the rear, and in cities, hearts and minds,” said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on the Telegram messaging app, noting he had died “in the centre of peaceful St Petersburg at terrorists’ hands”.
Putin is said to be furious at the slow pace of his campaign, which he had hoped to end within days given his country’s military superiority – on paper at least – and has fired at least eight generals since waging war on the former Soviet state, intelligence sources claim.
MOSCOW, April 8 (Reuters) – Hundreds of mourners, including the leader of Russia’s Wagner private militia group, attended the funeral on Saturday of pro-war blogger Vladlen Tatarsky, who was killed on April 2 in a cafe bomb blast that Moscow has blamed on Ukraine.
“On this day, Lord, we entrust to you the city of Jerusalem, the first witness of your resurrection. I express deep worry over the attacks of these last few days that threaten the hoped-for climate of trust and reciprocal respect, needed to resume the dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may reign in the Holy City and in the entire region,” he said.
As he has done every Easter, Francis called for peace in the Middle East, his appeal made more urgent by recent violence in Jerusalem and cross-border exchanges of fire involving Israel, Lebanon and Syria.
There, from the same spot where he first appeared to the world as pope on the night of his election in 2013, Online Study Skills 5th Grade Program he spoke of “the darkness and the gloom in which, all too often, our world finds itself enveloped”, and prayed to God for peace.
It comes after Russia used its latest hypersonic missile – known as the Kinzhal – for the first time during its attack on Ukraine, online math learning a military spokesman said today, reportedly wiping out an underground warehouse storing Ukrainian missiles and ammunition in the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had suggested the growingly desperate leader – who has yet to make any significant inroads in Ukraine – is being ‘irrational’, while Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte described him as ‘totally paranoid’.
