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LAST UPDATE | 9 May 2022
EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT Charles Michel, who made a surprise visit to Odessa today, was forced to break off a meeting and take cover when missiles again struck the southern Ukrainian city, an EU official said.
The strike took place as Michel held talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.
“During the meeting with the PM, the participants needed to interrupt the meeting to take shelter as missiles struck again the region of Odessa,” the official said.
In a video posted later, Michel said that Russia would fail to “execute” Ukraine’s “freedom” and that people in the country had been “tortured, raped and executed in cold blood”, but that its citizens were “resisting with courage”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who joined their talks by video conference, thanked Michel for visiting Ukraine on Victory Day, the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
Ukraine said both sides discussed taking “immediate measures to unblock Ukraine’s ports for grain exports”.
Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports has forced its grain exporters to look for alternatives to move their precious cargo.
The cargo is loaded onto trains, lorries or barges and taken to Romania, now a vital maritime export hub for Ukraine’s crops.
“In the port of Odessa, I saw silos full of grain, wheat and corn ready for export,” Michel said.
“This badly-needed food is stranded because of the Russian war and blockade of Black sea ports causing dramatic consequences for vulnerable countries. We need a global response,” he added.
In recent weeks, Russian forces have pushed forward in their assault on Ukraine, seeking to capture the crucial southern port city of Mariupol ahead of Victory Day.
Determined to show a success in a war now in its 11th week, Russian troops have targeted a sprawling seaside steel mill where an estimated 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were making what appeared to be their last stand to save Mariupol from falling.
The mill is the only part of the city not overtaken by the invaders, and its defeat would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Russia to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.
Zelenskyy previously warned that worsening attacks could be linked to Victory Day.
In a speech today to mark the annual commemoration of the former Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, Russian president Vladimir Putin described Moscow’s military action in Ukraine as a forced response to Western policies.
Russia had no choice, Putin said, but to undertake a pre-emptive response to aggression, calling it “the only right decision” for a “sovereign, strong and independent country”.
He also hailed the Soviet Union’s “triumph” over Nazi Germany and said that everything must be done to ensure the “horror of a global war will never be repeated”.
Putin held a minute’s silence for fallen soldiers and ended his speech with: “Glory to our glorious armed forces. For Russia, for victory.”
‘We will win’
Ahead of Putin’s speech, Zelenskyy said that his country would not allow the victory against Nazi Germany in World War II to be appropriated by Moscow.
“Today we celebrate Victory Day over Nazism. We are our proud of our ancestors who together with other nations in the anti-Hitler coalition defeated Nazism. And we will not allow anyone to annex this victory. We will not allow it to be appropriated,” he said.
Zelenskyy listed several Ukrainian towns and cities currently under control of invading Russian forces, saying that Ukrainians during World War II had ousted Nazi Germany’s forces from these regions.
“The names of these cities inspire us today. They give us faith that we will drive the occupiers from our land,” Zelenskyy said in the video address, listing Mariupol, Kherson, and the Crimean peninsula by name.
“We won then. We will win now,” the Ukrainian president added.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced she would meet with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban today to discuss plans for an embargo on Russian oil.
Landlocked Hungary relies on Russian oil from a single pipeline and Orban has warned he cannot approve the European Commission’s proposed sixth package of EU sanctions against Moscow.
“They will discuss issues related to European security of energy supply,” von der Leyen’s spokesman Eric Mamer said.
School bombed
Elsewhere in Ukraine, more than 60 people were feared dead after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter in the eastern village of Bilohorivka, Ukrainian officials said.
Authorities said about 90 people were sheltering in the school’s basement when it was attacked on Saturday. Emergency crews found two bodies and rescued 30 people, but “most likely all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead”, Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk province, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian shelling also killed two boys, aged 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, Haidai said. Luhansk is part of the Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east that Russia’s forces are working to capture.
On Ukraine’s coast, explosions echoed again across the major Black Sea port of Odessa. The Ukrainian military said Moscow was focusing its main efforts on destroying airfield infrastructure in eastern and southern Ukraine.
In a sign of the dogged resistance that has sustained the fighting into its 11th week, Ukraine’s military struck Russian positions on a Black Sea island that was captured in the war’s first days. A satellite image by Planet Labs showed smoke rising from two sites on the island.
But Moscow’s forces showed no sign of backing down in the south. Satellite photos show Russia has put armoured vehicles and missile systems at a small base in the Crimean Peninsula.
The most intense combat in recent days has taken place in eastern Ukraine. A Ukrainian counteroffensive in the northeast near Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, is making “significant progress”, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.
However, the Ukrainian army withdrew from the embattled eastern city of Popasna, regional authorities said.
With reporting from Jane Moore and © AFP 2022
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This government has been an abject failure on almost every performance indicator so far and judging by the waffle above, even Martin knows it. The only success story has been our vaccination program but they continue to fail us on so many issues that are critical to the lives of citizens. This country can’t afford another 3 years of this government and there’s no way we can accept Leo back as Taoiseach when he’s under a criminal investigation for leaking documents while previously in the role. Here’s hoping 2022 brings the end of covid but also the end of this sham of a government. We need better.
@Declan Doherty: the roll out of the booster has been a bit of a disaster the be fair, no need to book a slot, o wait you do need a slot, message portal crashing, back to no need to have a slot, etc. Many folk don’t have hours to waste trying to get it.
@Declan Doherty: what’s your solution Declan?
@Ian McDonald: how about a general election??? Most of us are sick to death of FFG bull and they have been exposed as being one of the most corrupt governments we’ve ever had. Even big Charlie wasn’t as bad as these guys
@Ian McDonald: The solution is an end to FFG monopolising power as they have done for the last 100 years. I don’t believe SF will be the answer to all our problems but FFG are too comfortable and too complacent and a government led by anyone but them will signal a change to the revolving door system that they’ve taken for granted and abused for far too long. TD’s need to be accountable to the people that elect them and an end to FFG power sharing will send a clear message that we demand better and that power is no longer a given in this country as a new generation of voters vote with their conscience and not just blindly vote the way their fathers voted before them.
@Declan Doherty: well said ! They have sold ireland , banks , forests , fishing , privatised our water . Etc . Our roads are privatised and now they want farmers to reduce herds ?? , getting rid of our agricultural.
@Declan Doherty: Two parties can’t have a monopoly….
@Lee King Buckett: I’d suggest you Google the definition and understand it’s wider use before making incorrect statements like that. Scarlet for you as you’d say yourself.
@Declan Doherty: thanks for replying. So no FFG, and no SF. So your solution is a coalition of Labour + Greens + Others. Not sure that’s a great solution
@Declan Doherty: Have you ever wondered why it’s one of either FF or FG that have been in government? It’s rather simple they are the only parties that ever ran enough candidate to win enough seats to govern. You cant have change if no other party was willing to step up and actually run a genuine campaign to govern backed up with enough candidate to win enough seats.
@Declan Doherty: I’d suggest you Google the word ‘duopoly’
There are differences in characateristics between a Monolpoly and a Duopoly which are important.
Morer scarletter for ya
@Declan Doherty: I can’t argue with your good intentions, but 2 wrongs won’t make a right, unfortunately. In the next election SF will fill the ballot papers as much as possible with inexperienced people, and will buy votes with promises to cut PRSI for low income people, which they will offset with higher taxes on employers, leading to inflation, unemployment and wage stagnation. Eoin O’Broin is great, and their benchmark talent. The rest of them just moan without offering viable solutions.
@Lee King Buckett: I used the term “monopolising”.
The dictionary definition is..
To have or take the greatest share of.
“the bigger clubs monopolize the most profitable sponsorships and TV deals”
Note the use of the word “clubs” which is plural.
Are ye done now ?
@Declan Doherty: That’s not a definition, that an example of usage.
The actual definition is:
obtain exclusive possession or control of
Note the word ‘exclusive’. If there is more than one party, then possession of power cannot, by definition, be exclusive.
The reason that I’m being pedantic is that duopolys are, in many cases, harder to break. With a monopoly, there is always the chance that someone bigger can seize power. With a Duopoly, both actors can set the rules of the game in such a way that its extremely difficult for a new entrant to grow to the size where they can challenge for power.
Quite a bit of research has been done in this area looking at the likes of Coca Cola/Pepsi, McDonalds/Burger King, Microsoft/Apple etc etc
Correct usage of words is important when making points, don’t get so salty when someone points it out.
Now I’m done.
@Lee King Buckett: I used the term correctly. Now run along and find someone else to troll or better yet, something more constructive to do with your time.
@Ian McDonald: And you call the Sinn Fein candidates inexperienced? Maybe take a look around you at the shambles that the Garda investigations that are in hand and the secrecy surrounding the motives of those in power and I’ll take inexperience any day
@IamEggBot: Are you suggesting a change to the constitution so we have an election every 18 months?
@Declan Doherty: Its reached a point where we can probably conclude that they’ve over focused on the vaccine program to the detriment of other measures. We were all told by the WHO that vaccines were never going to be a silver bullet but in Ireland we seemed to treat them like they were.
Meanwhile we continue with no emphasis on better air filtration, were late to the party with the use of antigen, no advocation for vitamin D and Zinc to improve our immune systems, no use of circuit breakers before inevitable carnage on consecutive Christmas periods, no advise to upgrade our masks from cloth etc etc.
@Lee King Buckett: they have after 2 became 1!
@Ian McDonald: inexperienced people u gotta be joking….now if u said inexperienced with dealing with the bloated civil service maybe then yeah…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpmTWZFVdJg
The man is living in the clouds if that is his honest assessment of his ministers performances.
@David Corrigan: Martin cannot take all the credit for Ireland’s success. FG were in power for much of the success story. Let’s hope the Irish people don’t get fooled into voting for poverty and chaos by media.
“IRELAND HAS been ranked second in the world for quality of life, according to a new study from the United Nations. The new Human Development Index from the UN places Ireland second-highest in the world for quality of life, which is based on health, education and income in each country.4 Oct 2021
https://www.irishpost.com › news › i…
Ireland has second-highest quality of life in the world, according to UN report | The …
@Tom Molloy: Alright Tom. The next time you are flying by Earth, give us a shout and we will make you a nice cup of tea.
I have lived all over the world and I can assure you that Ireland is not a nice place to live due to the extremely high cost of living. I honestly don’t know how a lot of people survive here on the mickey mouse wages that are offered.
@David Corrigan: Today is the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power, which led to the establishment of a communist regime in Russia and eventually in many other nations around the world. It is an appropriate time to remember the vast tide of oppression, tyranny, and mass murder that communist regimes unleashed upon the world. While historians and others have documented numerous communist atrocities, much of the public remains unaware of their enormous scale. It is also a good time to consider what lessons we can learn from this horrendous history.
I. A Record of Mass Murder and Oppression.
Collectively, communist states killed as many as 100 million people, more than all other repressive regimes combined during the same time period.
By far the biggest toll arose from communist efforts to collectivize agriculture and eliminate independent property-owning peasants. In China alone, Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward led to a man-made famine in which as many as 45 million people perished – the single biggest episode of mass murder in all of world history. In the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin’s collectivization – which served as a model for similar efforts in China etc. – took some 6 to 10 million lives. Mass famines occurred in many other communist regimes, ranging from North Korea to Ethiopia. In each of these cases, communist rulers were well aware that their policies were causing mass death, and in each they persisted nonetheless, often because they considered the extermination of peasants a feature rather than a bug.
@Tom Molloy: What has all this to do with Martin??? Are you trying to distract attention or what. By the way, have a close look at what Russia was like before the revolution.
@Jim O’Sullivan: “Two wrongs don’t make a right”
@Tom Molloy: Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras ,Porto Rico, Panama, Grenada, Iraq ,Afghanistan. Just a few countries that were destroyed by U.S. intervention. You conveniently fail to mention the overthrow of Democratically elected governments such as the coup in Iran when the U.S. brought back a despot call the Shah. A bit of balance please .
Any chance “getting work done” means retiring and taking up gardening….DIY?
@Sandra Molloy: Big job in Brussels coming.
@Dave Barrett: Is there a big garden in Brussels?
B.S
Absolute.
He has not provided one extra hospital bed and nothing done about the rent
@trebloc01: I’m not a government apologist or even a supporter (they are shambolic really and should resign if they have any concern at all for the country)
That said, they did increase icu beds last year and have now linked rent increases to an inflation cap.
Poor measures for sure but its not correct to say that they’ve done nothing.
@Lee King Buckett: “I’m not a government apologist” “and have now linked rent increases to an inflation cap.” oh really?
Rent increased from 70 last year to 80 this year. Paying now 1800 for the rent in Dublin.
You sure must be not a gov apologist Lee
@Lee King Buckett: not a govt apologist just a bot on the journal, and don’t even deny it
@Lee King Buckett: The ICU beds were decreased a few years ago… The increase from last year doesn’t even go beyond the previous level.
@John Johnes: I voted SF in the last election and will probably do so in the next. I have some issues with them but overall, the country is paying a heavy price for consecutive FF & FG governments who tend to be a bunch of self obsessed dynastic career politicians.
None of that changes the fact that the original comment was incorrect.
They did so something about rent (if I recall, it was actually SF who suggested a rent cap linked to inflation in the first instance)
They did increase ICU beds last year.
They may be a rubbish government and they may be just tinkering around the edges as opposed to fixing anything but that doesn’t change the fact that the original comment was incorrect.
Absolutely the worst Taoiseach in Irish history, to be followed by the next in Leo
@Michael McGrath: nah, Enda was the worst but MM is a very close 2nd
@Derek Lyster: Worse than Brian Cowen?
@Michael McGrath: when was the last good Taoiseach? Kenny was awful, Cowen was awful, even tho people liked Ahern and he did some good things he completely wrecked the country for generations. Bruton was awful.. we’re any of em good?
What an absolute chancer—not a single affordable house delivered on his watch. No need to think very long about whose interests he serves.
First thing he did was hand over the running of the country to nphet
Not sure if true but I heard they gave themselves three pay increases since he took the rails. Shame on them when so many Irish citizens struggling on many fronts. They need to abolish the TD travel expenses culture also. They get paid enough tax payers money to cover that.
A nice little party political broadcast, he must have requested no questions to be asked of him.
Oh… he will get the “work” done all right,no bother to FF and their cronies but our grandkids will end up picking up the tab or face emigration.
History repeating it’s self, aided and abetted by a soup slurping “journalists”.
Christ we have to endure another year of this arm waving bluffer.
Fair play to his mates in the press association for not asking him any questions….the soup must be tasty.
@joe oneill: a nice little catch up before Christmas,no hard questions and the journal will feed an extract every few days to keep mehole relevant over the holidays…journal gone to the dogs
@Brian Burns: any incoming non FFG government will have to scrutinise this government’s spend on various state departments media advertising campaigns, the press association knows what side their bread is buttered on and will not rock the boat.
@Brian Burns: the government’s departmental spend/budget on media advertising has brought journalism to its knees in this country, alot of media outlets relying on state advertising to keep the lights on, pay their wages.
This Government has failed the people of this country in every way they could.
Oh he’s some man for learning lessons and getting work done. Maith an buachaill
There isn’t a future for him.
So the journal is presenting FF party political press releases as journalism now!?
A few lip fillers?
What work is that exactly? Sitting back and watching while people tear each other apart trying to get PCR tests like its Squiid Game?
So Leo the Leak must be going to get away with what he done,Garda investigation another waste of our hard earned money,God Help Us All when he is put in charge,he will be able to do what he likes,and help his Cronies without any consequences..
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