Ukrainian forces destroy Russian ships

 

Smoke rises after shelling near a seaport in Berdyansk, Ukraine, on March 24. (AP)

The port of Berdyansk in southern Ukraine was rocked by a series of heavy explosions soon after dawn on Thursday.   Several Russian ships had been unloading military equipment at Berdyansk in recent days, according to reports from the port by Russian media outlets.

The Ukrainian armed forces said that, besides destroying the Orsk, "two more ships were damaged. A 3,000-ton fuel tank was also destroyed. The fire spread to the enemy's ammunition depot. Details of the damage inflicted on the occupier are being clarified."

 

Decision time for United Nations Security Council

 

Members of the US Congress rightly have been asking how countries that value security and freedom might remove Russia from the United Nations Security Council.  In fact, it’s not impkossible, as some have argued, or even unprecedented.

 

In 1990 when Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and tried to wipe that country from the face of the earth, the Security Council took action.  The Council demanded that Iraq immediately withdraw and when Iraq refused, authorised the use of force to expel the aggressor.  The Security Council today, by contrast, has not so much as censured Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine poses a far greater threat to international peace and security……

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-20/ukraine-war-how-the-un-can-expel-russia-and-remain-relevant

Toyota pulls out of Russia

 

After suspending its St Petersburg plant, Toyota is gradually letting its expatriates and their families, 48 people in total, return to Japan.  Anatoly Maltsev/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

 

Grocery store in Kiev yesterday

 

EXoMars mission cancelled

 

A Russian-European mission to land a rover on Mars has been suspended due to the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Thursday, as Moscow said it regretted the “bitter” decision.  The ExoMars mission had been set to use a Russian launcher later this year to send a European rover to drill for signs of life on the Red Planet.

 

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, called the decision a “shame”.  This is a very bitter decision for all the enthusiasts of space" Mr Rogozin said.  He said the project "would lose several years" but Russia would "conduct the research expedition on our own."  He added it would be done "without any European friends with their tails tucked because of American  shouting. 

Good friends

 

Moscow, Russia

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov (right), and his counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, attend a meeting

Photograph: Russian foreign affairs ministry/EPA

Homes destroyed in Ukraine

 

Larysa Oleksandrivna, 75, stands in front of the ruined facade of her building in the Pavlove Pole residential area. The walls of the building crumbled after an air bomb hit the yard. Oleksandrivna now lives next door, but there is no heating.

Photograph: Andrii Bashtovyi

St Patrick's Day in Dublin

 

Dublin, Ireland

A huge crowd outside the Temple Bar pub in Dublin city centre yesterday afternoon. Photograph: Sam Boal/RollingNews

 

New York Ukrainian Restaurant

  

Dmytro Kovalenko (foreground) manager of Ukrainian restaurant Streecha in New York and employees watch Ukrainian President Zelenskyy deliver an address to the US Congress. 

St Patrick's Festival in Dublin

 

TRUE COLOURS: American-Irish actor John C Reilly, posing with members of Clondalkin Youth Band, at an announcement by the St Patrick's Festival in Dublin that he is this year's international guest of honour at the event, running until March 20th. Photograph: Alan Betson

Zelensky speaks to Canadian Parliament

 

Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau stands up as Ukrainian President Zelensky who appears on a screen, addressed the Canadian parliament in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Reuters/Patrick Doyle

Ukraine now part of EU's Energy Union

 

Ukraine has become part of the European Union’s Energy Union

"The joining together of the Ukrainian and the European energy systems has now been finalised. Now our electricity can flow to Europe and European electricity to Ukraine. I am grateful to the EU member states.

Russian Prima Ballerina quits

 

The prima ballerina Olga Smirnova, one of Russia’s biggest dance stars, has quit the Bolshoi Ballet company in Moscow after denouncing the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Shell Shocked

 

Irpin, Ukraine.  Andriy Kulik is trying to comfort his dog, paralyzed by fear and refusing to walk after shelling.

President Putin declared a war criminal

 

WASHINGTON, March 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, a rare show of unity in the deeply divided Congress.

Bob Dylan with son in 1968

 

Bob Dylan with son Jesse Dylan outside his home in Woodstock, New York, 1968. Photograph Elliott Landy

The Shelling Continues in Kiev

 

Shell Shocked in Kyiv

 

SHELL SHOCKED: A woman waits in the cold after being rescued from her apartment building by firefighters after it was hit by a Russian attack in the early morning, in the Sviatoshynskyi District of Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Chris McGrath/Getty

Brave New World

 

BRAVE NEW WORLD: An elderly woman is helped from a burning apartment building in Kyiv on Tuesday after strikes on residential areas killed at least two people, Ukrainian emergency services said, while Russian troops intensified their attacks on the Ukrainian capital. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty

Woman looks at her ruined apartment

 

 A woman surveys the damage to her apartment in the aftermath of Russian shelling on 15 March 2022. Fadel Senna/AFP/Getty Images

Two Russian soldiers break down

 

Two Russian soldiers broke down crying during an interview on March 15, 2022, saying they were sorry for killing Ukrainians and that Vladimir Putin made a “terrible mistake.”

Baptism of Christ by Rubens

 

People take photos as technicians and art handlers move the “Baptism of Christ” by Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens inside a gallery at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium

Tracers fire on drone in Kyiv

 

Tracers are seen in the night sky as Ukrainian servicemen fire on a drone in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 14, 2022.

89,000 people offer homes to Ukrainians in UK

 

Almost 89,000 people have offered homes to Ukrainian refugees in the first hours of a government scheme that allows families and individuals to bring them to the UK.   The website for registering interest in the scheme crashed for a short while because of the numbers offering homes. By 9am on Tuesday, 88,712 had joined the scheme. The Foreign Office minister, James Cleverly, said “10,000 people every hour” were signing up.

Germany to buy 35 F-35 fighter jets

 

BERLIN, March 14 (Reuters) - Germany will buy 35 U.S. F-35 fighter jets to replace its ageing Tornado, it said on Monday, announcing a first big defence deal since Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a 100-billion-euro upgrade to the military in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Firemen rescue people in Kyiv

 

RESCUER'S ARMS: An elderly woman hugs a fireman after being rescued from an apartment building hit by shelling in the Obolon district of Kyiv, Ukraine. A Russian air strike killed one and wounded several others, emergency services said. Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty

 

 

Putin's bombs arrive in Kyiv

 

A woman reacts as she stands outside destroyed apartment blocks following Russian shelling in the northwestern Obolon district of Kyiv.

Russian mansion taken over by squatters in London

 

 

Police officers prepare to enter a mansion reportedly belonging to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska who was placed on Britain’s sanctions list last week as squatters occupy it in Belgravia, London. 

Zelensky visits military hospital

 

President Zelensky visits an injured Ukrainian serviceman at a military hospital in Kyivm Ukraine.  Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/via Reuters

Putin punishes Kyiv

 

Medics assist a wounded resident of an area in Kyiv destroyed through shelling as Russia’s assault on Ukraine continues. Gleb Garanich/Reuters

Kyiv Ukraine:

 

A firefighter rescues a dog from an apartment building after it was shelled.  Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

Poppy field in Afghanistan

 

Kandahar, Afghanistan
A farmer works in a poppy field in Zhari district.

Photograph: Javed Tanveer/AFP/Getty Images

Cold Response kicks off in Norway

 

NATO has amassed 30,000 troops and 50 warships near Russia's border for military exercises.  The drill, named Cold Response, kicked off yesterday in Norway.  Troops from more than 25 countries will take part.   

Cold Response is a Norwegian-led military exercise held in northern Norway every second year.

Don't believe the propaganda

 

During Russian Channel 1’s evening news broadcast, a woman ran onto the set with a sign: “No war…Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here.”

 

Sils, Switzerland

 

DRIFT ALONG: A pack of skiers on its way from Maloja to S-Chanf as part of the 52nd annual Engadin skiing marathon in Sils, Switzerland. Photograph: Peter Klaunzer/Keystone via AP

My job is bombs

 

"My job is bombs. If I find dead people, I call in their location and get on with my work defusing anything that hasn’t gone off. I am trying to prevent more people dying. There isn’t much I can do for those who’ve already gone”.  Source:  The Times

Ukrainians flee to Poland

 

Ukrainians walk to take further transportation after crossing the Ukrainian border into Poland in Medyka. Photograph: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP via Getty Images

Civilians fleeing Irpin

 

A Ukrainian soldier in position as civilians evacuate the Ukrainian town of Irpin on March 13, 2022 (AFP/Aris Messinis)

Military Chaplain blesses Ukrainian soldier

 

Military Chaplain Nikolay Medynsky blesses a Ukrainian soldier before he is deployed to the frontline, as Russia's attack on the Ukraine continues, in Kyiv.

Berlin, Germany

 

An elevated view shows thousands of protesters taking part in a demonstration against Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine, along the Strasse des 17. Juni street, near the landmark Brandenburg Gate

 

Russians leaving for the west

 

Russians are fleeing to the West in what may be their last chance before a new Iron Curtain falls, with some desperately walking across borders in the middle of the night.  A growing number of Russians, mostly members of the well-educated, urban middle class, have snapped up plane tickets.

Two nights ago, Russian state TV viewers were told

 

Source:  Steve Rosenberg BBC Twitter

Clive Palmer's Boat

 

And despite being named “Australia” it’s registered in Gibraltar to avoid taxes.

President Putin sings Blueberry Hill

 

 

https://youtu.be/ekeq4szDmJo

The video, taken from a charity concert in St. Petersburg in 2010, also shows celebrities including Sharon Stone, Goldie Hawn, and Kevin Kostner watching the performance.

 

 

Roman Abramovich plans to sell Chelsea Football Club

 

Mr Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, turning the perennial also-rans into serial winners with unlimited transfer funds after he became rich on the chaotic privatization of state assets in 1990s Russia.  He has denied claims that he bought the London club on Putin's orders, to expand Russia's influence abroad in the early 2000s.

 

Kykolaiv, Ukraine

 

MYKOLAIV:  He was throwing Molotov cocktails when the Russians caught him. They tied his hands and executed him. Outside, in the courtyard of the forensic institute where the morgue is located, the snow is constantly falling on corpses wrapped in grey plastic body bags, waiting to be evacuated. Photograph: Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty

 

Ukrainian volunteers join up for training

Civilians who volunteered to join the Territorial Defence Forces train on weapons in Odessa, Ukraine

Kharkiv, Ukraine

 

A soldier walks past the vertical tail fin of a Russian Su-34 bomber in a damaged building

Photograph: Andrew Marienko/AP

Irpin, Ukraine

 

Soldiers help an elderly woman in a wheelchair as they evacuate the city

Photograph: Emilio Morenatti/AP

Hiding under destroyed bridge in Kyiv

 

Kyiv, Ukraine
People crowd under a destroyed bridge as they try to flee by crossing the Irpin river on the outskirts of Kyiv

Photograph: Felipe Dana/AP

Russia recruits convicted prisoners

 

To replenish the forces waging war against the Ukrainian people, the Russian occupiers are now recruiting convicted prisoners in correctional facilities.  Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces.

The convicts are being offered the chance to join the occupying forces in exchange for an amnesty. The Russian Armed forces will accept everyone, even those who have no experience in military service."