Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST UPDATE | 18 Mar 2023
WIDESPREAD RUSSIAN ATTACKS are continuing in Ukraine, following the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights.
Ukraine was attacked by 16 Russian drones last night, the Ukrainian Air Force said early this morning.
Writing on Telegram, the air force command said that 11 out of 16 drones were shot down “in the central, western and eastern regions”.
Among areas targeted were the capital, Kyiv, and western Lviv province.
The head of the Kyiv city administration, Serhii Popko, said Ukrainian air defences shot down all drones heading for the Ukrainian capital, while Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskyi said on Saturday that three of six drones were shot down, with the other three hitting a district bordering Poland.
According to the Ukrainian air force, the attacks were carried out from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov and Russia’s Bryansk province, which borders Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military additionally said in its regular update today that Russian forces over the previous 24 hours launched 34 airstrikes, one missile strike and 57 rounds of anti-aircraft fire.
The Facebook update said that falling debris hit southern Kherson province, damaging seven houses and a nursery.
According to the Ukrainian statement, Russia is continuing to concentrate its efforts on offensive operations in Ukraine’s industrial east, focusing attacks on Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Marinka and Shakhtarsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, regional governor of the Donetsk province, said one person was killed and three wounded when 11 towns and villages in the province were shelled yesterday.
Further west, Russian rockets hit a residential area overnight in the city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional capital of the partially occupied province of the same name.
No casualties were reported, but houses were damaged and a restaurant destroyed, Anatoliy Kurtev of the Zaporizhzhia city council said.
Putin has visited Crimea on the ninth anniversary of the peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine, Russian state TV reported.
On the surprise visit to the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, Putin visited an arts school accompanied by local governor Mikhail Razvozhayev, according to images broadcast on the channel Rossiya-1.
“Our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin knows how to surprise. In a good way,” Razvozhayev said on messaging app Telegram.
He said Putin had been expected to take part in the opening of a children’s art school by video link.
“But Vladimir Vladimirovich came in person. Himself. Behind the wheel. Because on such a historic day, the president is always with Sevastopol and the people of Sevastopol,” the Moscow-appointed official said.
The International Criminal Court said yesterday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine, together with Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
It is the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The move was immediately dismissed by Moscow and welcomed by Ukraine as a major breakthrough.
Its practical implications, however, could be limited: the chances of Putin facing trial at the ICC are highly unlikely because Moscow does not recognise the court’s jurisdiction or extradite its nationals.
UK military officials said today that Russia is likely to widen conscription.
In its latest intelligence update, the Ministry of Defence said that deputies in the Russian Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, introduced a bill on Monday to change the conscription age for men to 21-30, from the current 18-27.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 18 March 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) March 18, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/b1caNLrk5z
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/UEtuzv53WD
The ministry said that, at the moment, many men aged 18-21 claim exemption from military service because they are in higher education.
The change would mean that they would eventually still have to serve. It said the law will likely be passed and come into force in January 2024.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Fianna Fail won’t whoosh you into the Seanad this time, Averil! The people have spoken.
Might give Eddie Murphy a vote. He’s very talented and it would be good to have a voice that represents African-Americans in the Seanad.
May as well addd Redacted, Rehab Flannery Shatter and Conlon to the list.
How many on the list voted to abolish the Seanad? Mc Dowell was one.
No Mullens, no Bacik, no Averil Power.
That would be senate reform right there. We don’t need these regressives in a modern Ireland.
So only people who share with your outlook eh Luke. Yeah that’s sounds great.
Fianna Fáil are back. How else would this waster get the nod?
Agreed. But it needs a lot more reform than just those three. All the electorate should be able to elect the Seanad not just those who have gone to certain educational institutions.
Agreed with likes comment
I dont like those candidates either but at least they came through some sort of an Election. Lorraine Higgins on the other hand represents everything that is wrong with the Seanad. That this person who has failed every election at Local , national and European level gets given a position of power in the Seanad I find absolutely repulsive. Reform needs to start by taking away party nominations for failed politicians.
Don’t vote for them Luke
Not sure I like Power but you could hardly call her regressive.
God I’m sick of Ivana Bacik. Totally unelectable yet they keep giving her a seat in the Senate to spout shite from. Hope she goes the same way as the rest of Labour
My issue with Ivana being in the Seanad is that she takes one of the few seats real people can vote for. It isn’t as obvious this time but why did she get a university seat in Seanad 2011 and then sit with the government side. She should have been nominated by labour and let someone the public might want get one of the 6 seats some former students can pick.
Anyone know if Mairia Cahill is standing again? She seems to have disappeared since she got elected.
She is not needed anymore. General Election is over. Labour have more important worries about remaining relevant then trying to have a go at Sinn Fein again.
that was just weird. I thought she would be a voice for women in the Dail. But she said nothing about the funding of the Rape Crisis Centre being cut by Labour.
And as far as I know, she has remained silent on the abuse of Grace, the special needs lady, abused for decades in her foster home.
I find that very strange. Why did she go into the Seanad, I wonder?
Her UNCLE will be pleased.
i told her to give it a rest about smearing SF every turn around and do something positive with her role – she blocked me from Twitter.
Jesus is there anything Avril Power won’t try to get into, she’s well named?
Please God she isn’t.
She used her dreadful abuse as a political tool and that was all she did. It always seemed to me that she was more damaged by SF than any actual abuse she suffered. As an abuse victim myself she certainly doesn’t speak for me. I think she is a disgrace.
Just shows you what kind of a yoke she is. You gave her good advice.
I can hear the slurping of gravy from here.
Get rejected by the electorate? Not to worry, you can have power without accountability, by being elected by a few thousand non accountable nobodies to the unelected Seanad. By the looks of this list, we should have abolished it
Ivana Bacik? Ronan Mullen? Micheal McDowell? Seriously?
Am I an unaccountable nobody?
Marylou thinks so.
J
ust looked at your twitter Marylou. Can see you are against just about everything. Was wondering what are you actually for, besides North Korea, Anarchy, don’t pay for anything, hand out for everything life style?
Am I? That’s news to me. Perhaps you could elaborate. I don’t know anything about North Korea, so have no idea what you are trying to infer there.
And what does it have to do with the Seanad election?
Do you think I should not have an opinion, as well as no vote?
The franchise should undoubtedly be expanded. It’s unfair that I get to vote and you don’t. But that doesn’t make me an unaccountable nobody.
Well yeah it does hun. Because you have been elevated over the likes of me, but you are a nobody just like me.
Why should you get a vote just because you went to university? In what way, are you accountable for who you vote to rule over the rest of us?
If you had any integrity you would boycott it. It is an elitest misnomer in a modern democracy.
As I said elsewhere, I’m thinking of spoiling my ballot. I haven’t decided yet.
Alice Mary Higgins daughter of Michael D. Cosy!
Can we have that referendum again to abolish it Got the result wrong the last time Retirement home for failed politicians They should be signing on instead
People said no to abolishing it so nobody to blame but the electorate
I voted to abolish, who can I complain to?
Ronan bloody mullen enough said .wants to take us back to a 50′s church dominated state
Has Ronan Mullen ever had a real job? He lists his occupation as Senator.
Same for David Norris?
According to Wiki, Mullen is a lecturer in IT Blanchardstown. Norris was a lecturer in TCD, but was on disability payment from 1994-2010 before giving up his post. Two charlatans if you ask me.
Thanks Ben, I had forgotten about Norris. Mullen and Bacik are enough to make the case, that no one should be able to do more than one stint on the gravy train.
All looking for seats on the gravy train.
What ever happened to our reform of the Senate? A nation of idiots
Handy job for them,, a shower of wasters
What happened to seanad reform? One man one vote. If you went to an IT no vote. If you don’t go to college no vote.
The same feninist and ex nuns pushing there moral agenda down people’s throats. It’s a retirement home or a holding centre for the unelectable. It’s has never held any government to account only rubber stamps legislation written by lobbists to enrich themselves. We are no longer a sovereign country we are a small second class state of Europe with .04% of the European population paying back 44% of the debt from bankers fraud. On top of that we pay over 3 billion a year for the privilege of having a Seanad.
Sigh the people had a chance to rid themselves of this waste of money motel talking shop. The total reform promise of the Dail and Seanad that the people demanded and that was disgracefully reneged on by FG/Lab must now be implemented by any future government.
Imagine what Enda and Joan would have got up to without the Seanad to put some manners on them. And yes I know it would only have disappeared after the election
The Seanad in its current form has never put manners on anyone or anything it’s packed mostly with a bunch of cronies and patsies and losers and some extreme left bubbling pseudo intellectuals. The people wanted total reform of these institutions but Kenny the arrogant fool decided to snub the electorate as anyone in their right mind would have known given his form.
First time Trinity voter here, does anybody know where we actually get information on the candidates?
Google. ;)
They’ll send information to you.
I’d spoil it if I were you in protest of the fact there has been no reform. Show a bit of solidarity with us saps who don’t have a Senate vote.
They send it out to ya…
Ladies and gentleman I give you trinity graduates.
There’s this thing called the internet. Ask one of your lecturers about it. It’s great!
I have used google. It’s not the same as a general election where I’m going to be swarmed with canvassers, posters and TV coverage. It’s going to be harder to find out about the candidates and seeing as I’m not in Trinity anymore, I was wondering how they were planning on communicating with me as a voter and trying to get my vote.
If Trinity are sending it out, grand. And Ron, I am actually thinking about spoiling the ballot. I did vote to keep the Seanad, but only in the hope that they’d reform it to give everyone the franchise. Even the fact that Trinity has far more senators per student than the National University system is a disgrace.
You’ll get the election literature in the post from the candidates. 30 candidates for NUI panel. That’s just plain stupid. When I first voted in this there were 6 candidates.
How many were elected by the graduates back then though?
Why do the ordinary joe soap not allowed to pick the eejits they want instead of snobby lazy students?
Snobby lazy students don’t get to vote, just graduates
Just snobby lazy graduates then lol.
Cahill on her way out , Fine Gael / Labour used her as a monkey last year, she is no good to them now. So she can crawl back under her rock.
I think Lynne Ruane would be a good choice! No nonsense approach and got where she is through courage, perseverance and damn hard work.
I don’t give a damn what anyone else here thinks.
I’m voting for Ronan Mullen just to piss all you mofos off.
Scrap it for all the good it does more jobs for the boys
Unfair that I can vote for some of these candidates while many cannot.
What does Carol Hunt know about ANYTHING?
Senate a spare wheel
i am eligible to vote in the seanad elections maynooth panel. how do i get a rundown on the candidates?
a lot of talent there…
have your say