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RUSSIA SHELLED A block of flats in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, killing nine people, authorities have said, including a two-year-old boy who was rescued from the rubble but died on his way to hospital.
Yesterday’s strike on the quiet neighbourhood came as Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill that will make it easier to mobilise citizens into the army and block them from fleeing the country if drafted.
Russia also said it was pushing further into the hotspot of Bakhmut, 45 kilometres southeast of Sloviansk, which is one of the cities that will be at risk if Kyiv loses the longest and bloodiest battle of the war.
Sloviansk lies in a part of the Donetsk region that is under Ukrainian control. According to Kyiv, it was struck by seven missiles which hit five buildings, five homes, a school and an administrative building.
Vadim Lyakh, the head of Sloviansk’s military administration, said today that nine people died – including a woman whose body was recovered from the rubble overnight – and 21 were wounded.
Five people were still under the rubble and their identities were established, he said.
AFP journalists saw rescue workers digging for survivors on the top floor of the typical Soviet-era housing block, and black smoke billowing from homes on fire across the street.
“A child died in an ambulance after being pulled out from the rubble,” Ukrainian police said on Twitter.
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska sent her condolences to the child’s family during this “indescribable grief”.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier denounced Russia for “brutally shelling” residential buildings and “killing people in broad daylight”.
The street below – including a playground – was covered in concrete dust and debris, including torn pages from school books and children’s drawings.
“I live on the opposite side of the street and I was sleeping a little when I heard this huge boom and I ran out from my flat,” 59-year-old resident Larisa told AFP.
“I was really scared and in a state of shock,” she said, adding that the impact of the shelling had broken her windows and sent shards of glass flying throughout her home.
“I heard a woman screaming, ‘there’s a child here, there’s a child here’ – She was screaming so much.”
A resident nearby, who declined to give her name, told AFP the strikes had blown out her windows and dislodged her front door from its frame.
“No one from our side of the building was injured but maybe someone here was,” she said, pointing to a pool of blood next to another entrance of her building.
More than a year after Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine, fears are high in Russia that the government is planning a fresh mobilisation drive after a bill was rushed through parliament this week to create a digital draft system.
Under the legislation, which Putin signed Friday, a draftee would be banned from travelling abroad and would have to report to an enlistment office once electronic call-up papers were received.
Tens of thousands of men fled Russia last autumn after Putin announced a mobilisation to prop up the forces in Ukraine.
The strike on Sloviansk, which many residents have fled since Russia invaded, came as Moscow said it was pushing to take more districts of ravaged Bakhmut.
The town has become a fixation of military commanders despite having little strategic value, leading to a brutal nine-month war of attrition.
“Wagner assault units are conducting high-intensity combat operations to conquer the western districts of the city,” the Russian army said in a statement, referring to the private paramilitary group.
Russian airborne troops were “providing support to assault squads and halting the enemy’s attempts to deliver ammunition to the city and bring in reserves”, it added.
Separately, an intelligence source said any pullout from Bakhmut would be slow and gradual because there was only a narrow escape path left.
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Savages.
@honey badger:
what the Iraqi and Afghan people said when the USA bombed them
We should expel the Russian diplomat. Take some action. Also Ukraine should do the same back if they have the capabilities
@Brian Casey: try not to kill a poor toddler or kids or women. It’s down right awful carry on. We should expel Russian and Belarusian diplomats
@Jim Casey:
did we expel American diplomats ?
Why does our government, who are apparently in cahoots with NATO and the us not haul in mudak Filatov? Maybe he could be encouraged to offer his condolences to the child’s family.
@alan: We should also expel the Israeli ambassador.
@west awake: Yup, great whatabouttery there.
@Elrond Rivendell: Don’t Palestinian children’s lives matter?
The Kremlin trolls are already here.
Where are all the suppose Irish supporters of mr Putins war today .
@Pat Ryan: They’re probably off duty. Russian embassy closed this weekend for their Easter.
We should not rush to judgement on any story coming out of Ukraine. Just like the supposed Russian missile in Dnipro that killed dozens turned out to be a Ukranian anti missile round. Funny the Western media never corrected that story. I don’t see why the Russians would bomb, essentially their own people, in the Donbas. Amazing how this story and the beheading come out the same week as Zelensky is accused of embezzling 300 million and US classified docs leak show that NATO/US have men on the ground in Ukraine. People are too blinded by their hatred for Putin to see that Zelensky is even more of an evil dictator.
@Sran Fox: Much traffic on Orwell Road tonight?
@Sran Fox: Rubbish. Anyone who dies in a missile strike in Putins war is 100% Russias fault. If the Ukrainians weren’t trying to defend themselves against Russian aggression then no missiles would be fired. So totally Russias fault, either way.
@Sran Fox: are you for real ?
What are the Russian demands to stop the war by the way?
@Dave: For Ukraine to be a vassal state of Russia and for Russia to illegally annex large portions of Ukraine. All perfectly reasonable demands if you’re a dictator who is losing his absolute mind.
@Dave: You might enlighten us?
@Seán Ó Briain: Where do you get your “information”?
@west awake: There you go, straight from the Kremlin mouth piece Tass:
@Fr. Fintan Stack: I thought you didn’t believe anything the Russians say?
@Dave:
What is the reason for conflict between Russia and Ukraine?
Relations between the two countries became hostile after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which was followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and the war in Donbas, in which Russia backed the separatist fighters of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.
Isn’t it terrible to see people still dying in this war?
President Lula of Brazil has the right idea..
It is time to negotiate peace!
@Fr. Fintan Stack….I’m not sure you are really a priest as you seem to have no interest in the truth. Are you aware of what took place in the Donbas region between 2014 and 2022??? Right years of indiscriminate slaughtering of men, women and children of Russian ethnicity by the western aligned puppet government installed after the US led Maidan uprising in 2014. How long more do you think Putin was going to sit idly by and watch his kin be butchered by the Azov nazis. Do only some lives matter to you father? Like the majority of other posters on this site, you have been brainwashed by western media and have lost all ability to critically think for yourself.
@Tom H: I’m well aware what took place in Donbass 2014-2022. If you want to talk about slaughtering, look up Viktor Yanukovych and go back to 2013 and how he enriched himself and slaughtered innocent protestors on the streets before he ran to Russia.
14000 dead as a result of a Russian proxy war followed, Then an illegal invasion of Crimea. Like a couple of other posters here you have been brainwashed by Russian propaganda about Nazis. Also maybe look up Russian Nazis while you are at it. Start with Rusich.
@Tom H: The usual distortions from Moskow. ‘Asov Nazis ‘comment gives you away.
@paul burke: Yes, “I’m not sure you are really a priest”….. Another give away. Everybody who is Irish knows who Fr Fintan Stack is.
@Fr. Fintan Stack….I am well aware of the corruption under Yanukovych. The innocent protesters you refer to were armed insurrectionists marching on the capital to overthrow the government. What ensued was wrong on all levels. They should never have been fired on but the order was not given by Yanukovych. As for the 13,000 killed in a proxy war by Russia, that’s an outright lie. The 10,000s of thousands who were slaughtered were killed by the Ukrainians in an attempt to ethnically cleanse Ukraine of Russians. As for Crimea, that has been ethnically Russian for hundreds of years. Annexing it was merely following the will of the people there. Putin was left no choice in 2022. Russia was facing an existential threat from the west. Putin wouldn’t have lasted a day if this wasn’t the case as the Oligarchs lost billions due to sanctions and seizures. Even they could see the ultimate goal was the break up of the Russian state and western control of all state assets and natural resources. You cannot have a one world government with a glaring elephant in the room like Russia controlling such a large land mass controlling a vast swathe of natural resources. Russia did not want this war. They had absolutely nothing to gain from war. Just take a look at the Donbas and you can see the lies we were sold that Russia wouldn’t stop at conquering the Ukraine. They weren’t even in a position to conquer the Donbas never mind having imperialistic designs on western Europe. This is a US/NATO proxy war designed to weaken Russia with the ultimate goal of overthrowing Putin and installing a western allied puppet government and then do as they have done in every other country they came to “help”. Plunder it for what it’s worth and leave behind a broken, vassal state.
@Tom H: More lies direct from Orwell Road. Amazing that Russia has been unable to present one shred of evidence about these so called 10′s of thousands of people ethnically cleansed to any UN body including the UN Office On Genocide Prevention. And neither can you I bet.
14000 people died 2014-2022, most were “combatants” from both sides. 3000 civilians died as a result of Russias proxy war there. And that doesn’t include the 298 innocents on Malaysian Flight MH17 murdered by the so called Ukrainian separatists sponsored by Putin.
Putin used the same lies to the Russians and the world to justify his invasions of Georgia and Crimea.
Amazing that 14 ex Eastern block countries have joined NATO since the break up of the USSR in order to be protected against Russia. They know the real truth as most of them have lived through it.
So you have now got a narrative that works for you. By the way NATO is a defensive organisation and no country in the ‘west’ has any designs on invading Russia to get at China…delusional ideas .
So all the reasons you mention make it ok to murder thousands of innocent Ukraine civilians and attack them daily ?
At least I dont hide my name but keep repeating your story and some misinformation might stick. The only nuance I see is that a war criminal initiated an insane ‘ special military operation ‘ aka ‘ a war’ against a sovereign nation
@Fr. Fintan Stack: You are either completely ill informed or intentionally obfuscating the truth. Even CNN was reporting on the genocide being committed by the Poroshenko administration up until they were instructed by their pay masters to change the script.
Do a little bit of research and check out some excellent independent journalists who have been on the ground there during the 8 years of the Ukranian onslaught. You could start with Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal of the GrayZone, a left wing independent news source. You might actually find out some actual truths as opposed to the propaganda you are being fed by the MSM.
As for the 14 Eastern Block countries joining NATO for protection against Russia??? What a crock of manure. Russia up until recently was only a husk of it’s former self and posed no risk to any countries to the west. Russia was only interested in trading with the west and building alliances, which helped them to dig themselves out of the abject poverty the country was in in the 90′s and 00′s. The 14 Eastern Block countries joined due to being pushed to do so by the US/NATO war machine to provoke Russia. This went against everything that was agreed upon after the break up of the former USSR and reunification of Germany where Russia were given assurances that NATO would not expand one foot east of Poland. Even as Russian forces were on the border of Ukraine, Kamala Harris was saying in Poland saying that Ukraine would become a member of NATO. And of course in recent days, Sweden and Finland were admitted to NATO, for protection against a foe that can’t capture a small corner of the Ukraine.
And then of course there was the Maidan coup and the role the Americans played in ousting the Yanukovych admin. I suppose that is conspiracy too despite Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt talking about who they were going to install after the US sponsored insurrection was complete.
And then of course there was the Minsk Agreements which sought to bring peace to the Donbas which were signed in bad faith by NATO. Angela Merkel recently confessed to this when she said they had no intention of honouring the agreement. It was merely buying time to arm the Ukraine for a proxy war with Russia.
All in all, this war is completely about the US/NATO’s desire to overthrow Russia. They have multiple reasons for doing this but I will just state a few here:
1. Russia stands in the way of a one world government, the absolute number one goal of Klaus Schwab and his globalists buddies in the WEF. Heck they talk about it openly in Davos every year.
2. Russia’s cheap oil and gas is a huge stumbling block for their green utopia.
3. Russia has a vast amount of mineral wealth which are needed to drive the push towards this green utopia.
4. Russia is in general a conservative, Orthodox country that is a complete anathema to the liberal lifestyle that is consuming the west. I won’t go into here as it will probably be removed.
5. A foothold in Russia gives them the option of a land based assault on China when that conflict inevitably come to fruition.
@Paul Burke…..I think your perspective on the war is inverted. It was the Ukraine who was slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians in the Donbas which led to Russias special military operation (along with NATO expansion to the doorstep of Russia). A small bit of due diligence on your part would show you this. Since the SMO has started, civilians casualties have been kept to a minimum. A lot of the atrocities we do hear about have turned out to be wayward Ukranian missiles. And most of these are a direct result of Ukraine breaking with the norms of warfare and setting up military positions in civilian neighbourhoods.
As for NATO being defensive, give me a break. They have been expanding ever eastward with the US putting down military roots in every country along the way with the ultimate goal of surrounding Russia and initiating regime change and then seizing control via a western aligned administration. It is inevitable in the end. Putin’s resistance is only a temporary log jam. They probably already have a young globalist leader within Russia ready to take over.
And if you think China isn’t on the menu after that, then you are beyond naive. Control Russia and you control China’s energy supply. You can not have one world governance without China becoming subservient to the global dictates of Klaus Schwab and his merry band of globalists.
Anyway I’m done with this futile back and forth. Btw I have no skin in this game I just did the necessary research required to understand the nuances of this war. As a wise man once said, never argue with a fool as they’ll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience so I’ll leave it at that. Good evening good sirs.
@Paul Burke….ah the old misinformation nugget. It doesn’t take long for that to crop up when you can’t win an argument on facts. There has been a one way flow of misinformation for years and it hasn’t been from the right. When you control the MSM you get to control the narrative. Especially when you have the power to deplatform and silence dissenting voices. Steele dossier anyone??? Hunter Biden laptop??? 100% safe and effective??? Natural origin of Covid??? Russia blew up their own pipeline??? And the deception goes on and on and on….always remember today’s conspiracy theories are tomorrow’s news. I would bet my house on it that you will think back on this conversation in years to come when you are freezing in your home in the middle of winter due to inadequate electricity generation, in a fifteen minute city where the shops are half empty due to hysteria over a non existent threat and think….that guy was actually right. Good night my friend.
@Tom H:
Tamera Luzzatto , former Chief of Staff to Hillary Clinton
a Primary Liaison at a major advisory panel, the National Commission on Children
the infamous “Pool Entertainment” email found in the WikiLeaks batch of John Podesta’s “leaked” emails.
The email is from Tamera Luzzatto and send out to a group of Washington DC power brokers and lobbyists, including John Podesta.
In the email she invites them to a pool party at a Lovettsville farm
she obscurely mentions that 3 children (Ruby, Emma, and Maeve) will be Ubered as “further entertainment” while specifying their ages.
This email is very strange, and gets stranger
Tech Lobbyist Drew Littman jokes about affairs and running for Speaker of the House, at about the same time the Dennis Hastert abuse scandal was being publicized
these jokes were within the Pool Entertainment email exchange
have your say