MOSCOW (Reuters) - The official website of the Kremlin, the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin, kremlin.ru , was down on Saturday, following reports of cyberattacks on various other Russian government and state media websites. (Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Catherine Evans)
By Matthias Williams
LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - The morning after Russian missiles rained down on Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the nation in his favourite style: the selfie video.
Unshaven, wearing a khaki jacket and flashing a smile, he told the nation that contrary to reports of him trying to flee, he was staying put in the capital.
"Good morning to all Ukrainians! Lately there has been a lot of fake information online that I am calling on our army to lay down their arms and to evacuate. Listen. I am here," he said, in a video that received 3 million views on Instagram in an hour.
The setting was suitably eerie, with Zelenskiy standing in the morning light in front of the "House with Chimeras", an Art Nouveau landmark covered in otherworldly animal figures across the road from his presidential office in Kyiv.
It has been an unlikely transformation for the 44-year-old, who was a comedian and actor with no political experience before he was elected as president in 2019 - except when he played a fictional president in a satirical TV series.
At the beginning of the crisis, some Ukrainians on social media feared Zelenskiy was out of his depth against veteran Russian President Vladimir Putin, as Moscow massed troops on the border to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
He had been criticised for taking public swipes at the United States and other friendly powers when he felt they were not being sufficiently supportive.
But Zelenskiy's refusal to evacuate with Russian troops closing in on Kyiv and his calm presence in social media videos has won plaudits, even from self-described sceptics.
"Whatever happens next, history will remember the simple physical courage Volodymyr Zelens’kyi displays in remaining in his capital, with his people, amidst a horrible invasion, knowing that he is its target," Timothy Snyder, a history professor specialising in Ukraine at Yale said on Twitter.
Olena Halushka, an activist at a well-known Ukrainian anti-corruption organisation, said on Twitter she had misjudged him. "I couldn't imagine I'll be proud of him as the supreme commander. He is worthy of our incredible nation."
THE PRESIDENT STAYS
Zelenskiy has been a prolific social media user throughout his time in politics, goading his rivals during the election campaign in 2019, snapping pictures and videos of himself at the gym, in his office or addressing the nation with instructions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Critics and political rivals have often sought to label him as a "clown" unsuited for high office.
Before 2019, he dressed up in buffoonish costumes on stage, performed song and dance acts and, as the fictional president on TV, drunkenly fell into a swimming pool after a meeting with the head of the International Monetary Fund.
Now, he is posting videos trying to give reassurance.
In a previous selfie video, he stood on the street with his inner circle, showing them that his chief of staff, prime minister and closest advisers had also not left the capital.
His style stands in contrast with Putin, who has often kept even close officials on the other side of a long table during meetings during the coronavirus pandemic.
Nassim Taleb, the best-selling author of the book "The Black Swan", compared Zelenskiy to the images that Putin has used in the past to project strength, including images of him riding bare-chested on horseback.
"Putin the poseur on horseback is hiding in his remote bunker, while Zelenski, the former comedian, is risking his life on the frontline," he said.
On camera, Zelenskiy has spoken mainly in Ukrainian but also switched to Russian to address the Russian people, urging them to come out into the streets to protest the war.
Vyachslav Volodin, speaker of Russia's lower house of parliament, asserted on Saturday without evidence that Zelenskiy had fled to the western city of Lviv and that his self-recorded video appearances were in fact pre-recorded.
There was heavy fighting in several parts of the country on Saturday including clashes in the capital, and there have been media reports of Zelenskiy declining offers from foreign governments to be evacuated.
Asked to comment on the reports, Zelenskiy's spokesman said: "The president stays in Kyiv, the president stays with his people. No one will run away or drop weapons."
(Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by David Clarke)
Fearing a major attack by Russian troops, the Ukrainian capital Kyiv is extending its night curfew.
According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, it will apply from as early as 5 pm (1500 GMT) on Saturday until 8 am the next morning. Previously, it applied from 10 pm.
In addition, the metro stopped operating, Klitschko wrote on the Telegram news channel.
The metro stations are currently used by residents as shelters during air raids.
Hundreds of anti-war protesters were detained in Russia on Friday following over 1,800 arrests the previous day, as Russian President Vladimir Putin directed a brutal and long-anticipated invasion of Ukraine.
"It was important for me to show that Putin's decision is not the people's decision."
The independent monitoring group OVD-Info said on its website that "622 people have already been detained in 28 cities" as of 4:03 am in Moscow on Saturday.
"I felt extremely ashamed and helpless," one Russian demonstrator said of the invasion. The 20-something school teacher asked The Moscow Times for anonymity to protect against reprisals.
"It was important for me to show that Putin's decision is not the people's decision," she said of protesting in Moscow. "Not even close."
Protesters knew they risked arrest as they took to the streets across Russia, with authorities warning "negative comments" about the invasion would be treated as "treason."
In a Friday statement denouncing the invasion, a spokesperson for United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said that "we are also disturbed by the multiple arbitrary arrests of demonstrators in Russia who were protesting against war yesterday."
"We understand more than 1,800 protesters were arrested," the spokesperson noted. "It is unclear whether some have now been released. Arresting individuals for exercising their rights to freedom of expression or of peaceful assembly constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of liberty. We call on the authorities to ensure the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained for exercising these rights."
Despite that call from the U.N. and similar criticism from around the world, arrests of anti-war protesters in Russia continued Friday.
Russians' protests and arrests came as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) activated parts of its Response Force, calls mounted for an investigation of Russia's alleged war crimes, and civilians in Ukraine sought safety as their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, warned that Friday night "will be very difficult" while Putin's forces advanced on the capital city of Kyiv.
The United States and European Union also ramped up sanctions in response to the ongoing assault, specifically targeting Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
In a series of tweets on Friday, Anton Barbashin, editorial director of Riddle, an online journal on Russian affairs, explained the risks that protesters face.
For years, the "Russian legal and political system has been repressing the most active civic society leaders, those capable of gathering support for street activity," and the government adapted a "multitude of laws that penalize protests of any kind," he wrote.
"Despite all that… we are seeing massive protests all across the country for the second day in the row," he noted. "That is both inspiring and astonishing. I would like this to be known and reported. That Russians showed their disagreement with what Putin does to Ukraine."
Some public figures around the world recognized the bravery of Russian anti-war protesters.
"Now is the time to stand in solidarity with the incredibly brave Russian people who are bravely resisting this aggression by holding huge anti-war protests," said U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). "In an authoritarian country like Russia, protest is an extraordinary act of courage."
"In my view, the most important thing we can do right now is stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian people against this war, and with the Russian people who are risking so much to demonstrate against this corrupt, reckless president who started it," he added. "Putin and his oligarch friends seek a divided world and the destruction of democracy. We seek a different world."
"Everyone is shocked and heartbroken," Alina, a 24-year-old in Moscow, told VICE. "I am half Ukrainian and so are many of my friends."
"My father's family is from a town that sits on the border between Russia and Ukraine, near Donetsk and Lugansk," she noted, referencing territories in eastern Ukraine that have become self-declared "people's republics" formally recognized as independent by Putin.
"This conflict feels very personal to me," she said. "My friends and I are going to the protest in Moscow today. It scares me a lot because you can go to jail for at least 15 days for this—and sometimes the consequences are even worse. But we can't sit and watch how our government is basically killing people and ruining lives."
Russian police detained not only demonstrators but also journalists covering the protests.
The Associated Press reported Friday that "Yelena Chernenko, a journalist with the Kommersant daily, said she was kicked out of the Foreign Ministry pool over an open letter condemning the attack on Ukraine that has been signed by nearly 300 reporters."
According to the AP:
Chernenko said on the messaging app Telegram that the ministry cited her 'lack of professionalism,' and she urged officials not to retaliate against journalists who signed the letter."
"Apparently such are the times," Chernenko wrote of the ban she now faces.
Another journalist facing trouble was Yury Dud. Like many others on Thursday, Dud, a vocal Kremlin critic who runs one of the most popular YouTube blogs in Russia, wrote an elaborate social media post decrying the invasion of Ukraine.
On Friday, an influential Kremlin-backed internet watchdog group, the League of Safe Internet, filed a request with the Prosecutor General's office and the Justice Ministry to consider labeling Dud a "foreign agent"—a crippling designation that implies additional government scrutiny and strong pejorative connotations that would discredit him.
The Russian government also partially restricted access to Facebook.
"Yesterday, Russian authorities ordered us to stop the independent fact-checking and labeling of content posted on Facebook by four Russian state-owned media organizations. We refused. As a result, they have announced they will be restricting the use of our services," said Nick Clegg, president of global affairs a Meta, the social media network's parent company.
"Ordinary Russians are using our apps to express themselves and organize for action. We want them to continue to make their voices heard, share what's happening, and organize through Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger," he added, referencing other Meta platforms.
More than 620,000 people have signed a Change.org petition for Russians opposed to Putin's military action, calling for an immediate withdrawal from Ukraine and appealing to "all sane people in Russia" to join the anti-war movement.
Russian celebrities are speaking out against the deadly invasion.
Rapper Oxxxymiron—who canceled six sold-out concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg to protest Putin's assault of Ukraine—said, "I know that most people in Russia are against this war, and I am confident that the more people would talk about their real attitude to it, the faster we can stop this horror."
"This is a crime and a catastrophe," he said of the invasion, according to The New York Times. "I cannot entertain you when Russian missiles are falling on Ukraine… When residents of Kyiv are forced to hide in basements and in the metro, while people are dying."
Pitchfork reported Friday that "several other Russian musicians—including Kasta, Shym, Vladi, Khamil, Zmey, and Noize MC—voiced their opposition to the attack on Ukraine."
After defeating Polish competitor Hubert Hurkacz in the Dubai Tennis Championships on Friday, Russian 24-year-old Andrey Rublev wrote "No war please" on a television camera.
"In these moments you realize that my match is not important. It's not about my match, how it affects me. What's happening is much more terrible," Rublev said of the invasion on Thursday, according to Reuters.
"You realize how important [it] is to have peace in the world and to respect each other no matter what, to be united. It's about that," he added. "We should take care of our Earth and of each other. This is the most important thing."
Afghanistan's main universities reopened Saturday six months after the Taliban returned to power, but only a trickle of women returned to now-segregated classes.
Most secondary schools for girls and all public universities were shuttered following the Taliban's August 15 takeover, sparking fears women would be barred from education -- as happened during the first rule of the hardline Islamists, from 1996-2001.
The Taliban insist they will allow girls and women to be educated this time around -- but only in segregated classes and according to an Islamic curriculum.
On Saturday Kabul University, the country's oldest and biggest with a student body of around 25,000 last year, re-opened without fanfare -- and few students in attendance.
Taliban guards refused journalists access to the sprawling campus and chased away media teams lingering near the entrance.
AFP, however, spoke to some students away from the gates, who expressed mixed feelings after their first day back.
"I am happy that the university resumed...we want to continue our studies," said an English major who asked to be identified only as Basira.
But she said there were "some difficulties" -- including students being scolded by Taliban guards for bringing their mobile phones to class.
"They did not behave well with us... they were rude," she said.
Another English student, Maryam, said only seven women attended her class.
"Before we were 56 students, boys and girls," she said.
There was also a shortage of lecturers, she said, adding: "Maybe because some have left the country."
A similar picture emerged from campuses across the country, although no students returned to class at Panjshir University, in the heartland of a nascent resistance to the Taliban's rule.
"I do not know if they will come tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, or not," said Professor Noor-ur-Rehman Afzali.
Panjshir was the last province to fall to the Taliban, and Jaber Jibran, a faculty head, said several classrooms destroyed in that fighting had still not been repaired.
In Herat, the ancient Silk Road city near the Iranian border and once one of the Islamic world's most important intellectual centres, students also complained about a lack of tutors.
"Some of our professors have also left the country, but we are happy that the university gates are open," said Parisa Narwan, studying arts.
Tens of thousands of Afghans fled the country as the Taliban stormed back to power -- among them teachers and lecturers who had been vociferously critical of the hardline Islamist group.
No country has yet recognized the new regime, which has imposed several restrictions on women -- including banning them from many government jobs.
In Kabul, student Haseenat said campus life for women was now very different to before.
"We are told not to go out of our classes," she told AFP.
"There is no cafeteria anymore... we are not allowed to go to the university's courtyard."
© 2022 AFP
Russia's drive to seize control of Ukraine quickly has lost momentum amid resistance from Ukrainian fighters on the ground and in the air, a senior US defense official said Friday.
"Their momentum, particularly as it comes to Kyiv, has slowed over the last 24 hours," the official said.
Russian forces, which entered Ukraine early Thursday, have yet to seize any major cities, or gain control of airspace, the official said.
"They have not achieved the progress that we believe they anticipated they would," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"A good indicator of that is no population centers have been taken. None," the official said.
The Pentagon believes that Moscow wants to seize control of Kyiv and replace the Western-leaning government with allies of the Kremlin.
And many worry that the powerful Russian force, with massive backup still awaiting on Ukraine's border, could conquer Kyiv within days.
But so far, while Russian forces have focused on military targets, they have not been able to disrupt the Ukrainian military structure.
"As we see it right now that Ukrainian command and control is intact," the official said.
Nor have they been able to command air space. The Pentagon says that Ukrainian air defense systems are still working and the country's air force is still able to fly and threaten Russian aircraft.
"They're meeting more resistance than they expected," the official said.
"We continue to have indications that it's not going quite the way that they had anticipated."
Starting with a massive missile barrage, Russia launched its invasion along three axis: the first a push from Belarus directly north toward Kyiv; the second from Russia's Belgorod region toward the major city of Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine; and the third, from Crimea in the south towards Kherson.
While Russian forces have reached the outskirts of Kyiv, they have not been able to enter, and fighting remains heavy around Kharkiv, which also has not fallen.
In the south, Russians continue to push to Kherson but are also widening the front, landing amphibious forces to Crimea's east to threaten Mariupol.
Russians have also sought to take control of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant on the Dnieper river north of Crimea, launching cyberattacks on the plant, the official said.
The Pentagon would not estimate how many Russian forces had entered Ukraine, after having amassed more than 150,000 along the country's borders before attacking.
The official said that they had moved "about a third of their combat power" into Ukraine, and the rest remain in place just outside.
While anti-war protestors flood the streets throughout Russia, and Ukrainian citizens are conscripted to fight off a foreign invasion, Donald Trump Jr., Ben Shapiro, and Steve Bannon are using the attack on Ukraine as a springboard to voice their right-wing views on anti-LGBTQ+ inclusion in the U.S.
This article first appeared in Salon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been vocal in his anti-LGBTQ+ politics for years, is finding his opinions on the matter boosted by right-wing conservatives. Rather than touting Donald Trump's recycled "America First" ethos to defuse a war already at hand, his eldest son is fueling further aggression and intolerance in the world.
On Thursday morning, Trump Jr. took to Twitter to say:
Last year, Putin revitalized his warpath beating down "Western liberalism." In a speech given at the annual meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club held at the Black Sea resort of Sochi said that Russia should stick to its own "spiritual values and historical traditions," according to coverage of the speech that year by The Washington Post. During that same speech, Putin went on to say that the idea of children being "taught that a boy can become a girl and vice versa" is monstrous and "on the verge of a crime against humanity."
Related: From Russia with hate: How Putin's anti-LGBT crackdown led to the persecution of gay men in Chechnya
Putin's views on the LGBTQ+ community, and his belief that the modern push towards inclusion and acceptance of those who shirk the social, sexual, and emotional confines of gender binary, have an audience here in America in the form of public-facing right-wingers like Trump Jr. and his peers. The strained consensus is that our nation's efforts to strengthen inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community make the U.S. in some way "weak" and a target for foreign aggression.
Ben Shapiro was in the same mindset on Thursday morning when he shared his own views on the matter:
Steve Bannon, ex-advisor to former President Trump, preceded these statements by Shapiro and Trump Jr. during Wednesday's episode of his show "War Room." During the segment joined by Erik Prince, a private military contractor, Bannon said "Putin ain't woke. He is anti-woke." From there Bannon and Prince went on to have a lively exchange about bathroom policies.
Watch the "War Room" exchange below:
By Luc Olinga The U.S. and Europe have begun to impose financial sanctions on Moscow and its banks. Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted a barrage of financial sanctions aimed at isolating and punishing Moscow. President Joe Biden, for example, has limited exports to Russia and imposed sanctions on Russian banks and other state-owned enterprises. But neither the U.S. nor Europe has yet threatened to block Russia's access to the SWIFT system, a consortium financial institutions worldwide use as a crucial communications line for global commerce. If Russia were ever excluded from SWIFT, many won...
United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Russia, as expected, vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Friday that deplored "in the strongest terms" the country's "aggression" against Ukraine and demanded the immediate withdrawal of its troops.
Eleven of the council's 15 members voted for the motion, which was co-written by the United States and Albania. China, India and the UAE abstained.
The resolution was always doomed to fail because of Moscow's veto power as a permanent member of the council.
However the debate offered member nations an opportunity to voice condemnation of President Vladimir Putin's decision to launch a full-scale offensive against Russia's neighbor.
"Let me make one thing clear," US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote. "Russia, you can veto this resolution, but you cannot veto our voices, you cannot veto the truth, you cannot veto our principles, you cannot veto the Ukrainian people."
The wording of the draft text put before the Security Council was watered down in the hours before the vote to gain more support.
The word "condemns" was replaced by "deplores" and a reference to Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows members to take military action to restore peace, was deleted.
The resolution reaffirmed the sovereignty of Ukraine and called for Russia to "immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine."
Ultimately, almost 70 countries co-sponsored the resolution.
"Make no mistake, Russia is isolated. It has no support for the invasion of Ukraine," said Britain's ambassador to the UN, Barbara Woodward.
Before the vote, Thomas-Greenfield described Russia's attack as "so bold, so brazen, that it threatens our international system as we know it.
"We have a solemn obligation to not look away... At the very minimum, we have an obligation to object," she said.
"Vote yes if you believe Russia should be held to account for its actions. Vote no or abstain if you do not uphold the charter and align yourselves with the aggressive and unprovoked actions of Russia.
"Just as Russia had a choice. So do you," she pleaded.
Russia, which currently holds the rotating Security Council presidency, will likely face another vote on a similar resolution before the wider UN General Assembly which is all formed of all 193 member countries.
Moscow does not have a veto there and the resolution could be passed by a substantial margin, although it would be non-binding.
The General Assembly held a similar vote in 2014 condemning Russia's seizure of Crimea, which obtained 100 votes in support.
Moscow had earlier vetoed a Security Council resolution condemning its actions in Crimea. Thirteen countries supported it with China abstaining.
The Kremlin accused Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Facebook of censoring Russian media and has limited access to the platform. According to Russia’s communication regulator, Facebook is ignoring requests to cancel restrictions and the fact-checking of information provided by four media outlets. Q4 2021 hedge fund letters, conferences and more Media RestrictionsAs reported by Reuters, Facebook is facing pressure from Moscow to lift the restrictions on RIA news agency, the Defense Ministry's Zvezda TV, and gazeta.ru and lenta.ru. By not complying with the Kremlin’s request, Meta is being accus...
SEOUL (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the significance of cooperation between the two countries, North Korea's state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a message to Kim, Xi said China is ready to work, together with the Korean side, to steadily develop the China-DPRK relations of friendship and cooperation ... "under a new situation", KCNA said. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is North Korea's official name. KCNA did not further elaborate on the nature of "a new situation." Xi made the remarks in response to Kim's congratul...
NATO is deploying units of the rapid reaction NATO Response Force (NRF) on land, at sea, and in the air, to respond quickly to any contingency, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
He did not initially state where the troops would be deployed, in comments that followed a video conference with NATO leaders. Ground troops could be sent to Romania, dpa has learned.
Meanwhile, NRF units are due to head to Norway, for an exercise, in the first deployment of parts of the NRF in the course of deterrence and defence of the alliance area, Stoltenberg said.
The NATO members said the measures were "preventive, proportionate and non-escalatory" in a statement.
At a meeting of the United Nations on Friday, Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytskya stood up to his Russian counterpart amid the invasion of his country — and invited him to pray for his own salvation.
"Pray for souls of those who have been already killed," said Kyslytskya. "For souls of those who may be killed. And I invite the Russian ambassador to pray for salvation. Please, ladies and gentlemen, let us spend a moment in complete silence."
The Russian ambassador immediately demanded that the "moment of silence" include the lives of the Russian-backed separatists in Donbas, whose supposed safety was the pretext Russia used to initiate the invasion of Ukraine.
The invasion has already resulted in hundreds of deaths and a burgeoning refugee situation at the borders of NATO countries, as Russian forces move in and attempt to seize the capital city of Kyiv — where already people are being forced to use subway stations as bomb shelters.
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