Category: World

Russia says it has launched a hypersonic missile attack on Ukraine for the second consecutive day, amid claims that thousands of people trapped in a besieged city have been “forcibly deported” to Russian territory.

The weapon – known as Kinzhal, meaning dagger – hit a Ukrainian fuel depot near the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv, a Russian defence ministry official said.

It is the second day in a row that Russia says it has used the missile, which is capable of striking targets 1,250 miles away at a speed 10 times the speed of sound.

In separate attacks, an art school where 400 people were taking refuge in Mariupol was destroyed and authorities in Kharkiv said at least five civilians – including a nine-year-old boy – had been killed by Russian shelling.

People are feared trapped under the rubble of the school building in Mariupol, the city’s council said, but there was no immediate information on the number of casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the siege of Mariupol – where hundreds of thousands of people are trapped and facing relentless bombardment – is “a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-thousands-of-mariupol-residents-forcibly-taken-to-russia-mayor-claims-12570918

People are buried under rubble after a theatre in Mariupol – where hundreds of people are reported to have been sheltering – was bombed by Russian forces, local officials have said.

The city council said the number of casualties was not yet known, but Sky News has verified footage from the attack as showing the Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre.

A statement from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said: “The bomb strike demolished the central part of the theatre building, causing large numbers of people to be buried under the debris.

“The assessment of the exact number of persons affected is currently impossible due to ongoing shelling.

“By delivering a purposeful bomb attack to the place of mass gathering of civilians Russia has committed another war crime.”

Russia has targeted Peppa Pig in retaliation for the economic sanctions that have been imposed following the invasion of Ukraine.

A court has ruled that the cartoon character’s trademarks can be used by Russian businesses without punishment.

Entertainment One – which owns the rights to the popular children’s series – had taken legal action against a Russian entrepreneur who had drawn his own versions of Peppa Pig.

A Russian-born poet and Instagram favourite who fled the country after her father was murdered has called for Vladimir Putin to be arrested and tried for war crimes.

Arch Hades, a pseudonym she uses for security reasons, told Sky News the bombardment of Ukraine was “abhorrent” and insisted most Russians oppose “Putin’s war”.

The 29-year-old, whose poetry has seen her amass more than one million Instagram followers, moved to London as a child after her father was “gunned down in an alley” in St Petersburg, she said.

Her father, who she asked not to be named to protect her surviving relatives, was a businessman who embraced “democracy and liberalism”, which the Putin regime “despised”, she added.

She has now voiced fears that Russians have been “sealed in a cage” with Mr Putin as the country becomes increasingly isolated, and he will “take out his wrath on them” if he loses the war in Ukraine.

Hades told Sky News: “I hope to see Putin in The Hague. I hope to see him tried for war crimes.

“I’m afraid that when Putin doesn’t get his way, he doubles down and he might escalate his aggression.

“I really fear for the Ukrainian people. This is survival for them.

“I’m a pacifist but I know if the Ukrainians put down their weapons, there will be no more Ukraine.

“If Putin does take over, I’m afraid he won’t stop there.”

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/ukraine-war-poet-and-instagram-star-whose-father-was-murdered-in-russia-calls-for-putin-to-be-tried-for-war-crimes-12563410