UNESCO adds Ukraine’s ‘pearl of the Black Sea’ to World Heritage list
The historic center of the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa was named a World Heritage site Wednesday and immediately classified as “in danger,” after an accelerated inscription process by the U.N. cultural agency that may pave the way for more financial and technical assistance.
Odessa, which is often also described as Ukraine’s “pearl of the Black Sea,” has faced repeated Russian strikes since the war began last February.
“This inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always surmounted global upheavals, is preserved from further destruction,” Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCO, said in a statement after the agency’s World Heritage Committee convened for an extraordinary session in Paris. Azoulay called Odessa “a world city” that “has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts.”
Read the full story here.
The historic center of the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa was named a World Heritage site Wednesday and immediately classified as “in danger,” after an accelerated inscription process by the U.N. cultural agency that may pave the way for more financial and technical assistance.
Odessa, which is often also described as Ukraine’s “pearl of the Black Sea,” has faced repeated Russian strikes since the war began last February.
“This inscription embodies our collective determination to ensure that this city, which has always surmounted global upheavals, is preserved from further destruction,” Audrey Azoulay, director general of UNESCO, said in a statement after the agency’s World Heritage Committee convened for an extraordinary session in Paris. Azoulay called Odessa “a world city” that “has left its mark on cinema, literature and the arts.”
Read the full story here.
Analysis: Ukrainian journalists are uncovering Ukrainian corruption
In October, Ukrainian news outlet Bihus.info shared photos of Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, driving a new Chevrolet Tahoe SUV that had been donated for humanitarian aid. Two months later, the news website Ukrainska Pravda reported that Tymoshenko had been filmed multiple times driving a 2021 Porsche Taycan, worth around $100,000, through Kyiv earlier in the year.
Tymoshenko dismissed the insinuations, suggesting the Chevrolet was used for official business and that he had only been borrowing the Porsche. But with so much of the country suffering economic devastation, the ostentatious modes of transport chosen by a senior Zelensky adviser made waves.
“Can the representatives of power in this country, a quarter territory lies already in ruins, live luxuriously?” wrote Mykhailo Tkach, the Ukrainska Pravda journalist who broke the story on the Porsche.
Read the full analysis here.
In October, Ukrainian news outlet Bihus.info shared photos of Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, driving a new Chevrolet Tahoe SUV that had been donated for humanitarian aid. Two months later, the news website Ukrainska Pravda reported that Tymoshenko had been filmed multiple times driving a 2021 Porsche Taycan, worth around $100,000, through Kyiv earlier in the year.
Tymoshenko dismissed the insinuations, suggesting the Chevrolet was used for official business and that he had only been borrowing the Porsche. But with so much of the country suffering economic devastation, the ostentatious modes of transport chosen by a senior Zelensky adviser made waves.
“Can the representatives of power in this country, a quarter territory lies already in ruins, live luxuriously?” wrote Mykhailo Tkach, the Ukrainska Pravda journalist who broke the story on the Porsche.
Read the full analysis here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Officials across the country reported several Russian strikes, including in the capital and the regions of Vinnytsia and Odessa, which left at least 11 people dead and 11 injured, according to emergency services spokesman Oleksandr Khorunzhyi.
- A strike in Kyiv killed one person and injured two on Thursday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the formation of a “tank coalition” and called for allies to “expand” their support to aircraft.
- Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian tycoon behind the Wagner mercenary group, decried the new U.S. sanctions, calling them illegal.
- Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty told The Post on Wednesday that Kyiv’s forces withdrew from Soledar.
- Russia is training troops in neighboring Belarus who are likely to be “recommitted to operations in Ukraine,” according to Britain’s Defense Ministry.
More live updates here.
- Officials across the country reported several Russian strikes, including in the capital and the regions of Vinnytsia and Odessa, which left at least 11 people dead and 11 injured, according to emergency services spokesman Oleksandr Khorunzhyi.
- A strike in Kyiv killed one person and injured two on Thursday, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the formation of a “tank coalition” and called for allies to “expand” their support to aircraft.
- Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the Russian tycoon behind the Wagner mercenary group, decried the new U.S. sanctions, calling them illegal.
- Ukrainian military spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty told The Post on Wednesday that Kyiv’s forces withdrew from Soledar.
- Russia is training troops in neighboring Belarus who are likely to be “recommitted to operations in Ukraine,” according to Britain’s Defense Ministry.
More live updates here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Ten regions of Ukraine are facing emergency power outages Friday, a day after a Russian barrage, the state power grid operator said.
- Ukrenergo said the latest missile and drone attacks knocked out electricity around the capital, in Kharkiv in the northeast and in the western city of Lviv near the Polish border.
- The type of American tank going to Ukraine will be the M1A2 Abrams, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh. The M1A2 has more advanced electronics and targeting ability than the M1A1 Abrams, according to U.S. military specifications.
- U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Moscow is giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption.
- U.S. government auditors are in Kyiv this week as part of steps to ensure that “no aid or weapons” are diverted, Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department, told lawmakers Thursday.
More live updates here.
- Ten regions of Ukraine are facing emergency power outages Friday, a day after a Russian barrage, the state power grid operator said.
- Ukrenergo said the latest missile and drone attacks knocked out electricity around the capital, in Kharkiv in the northeast and in the western city of Lviv near the Polish border.
- The type of American tank going to Ukraine will be the M1A2 Abrams, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh. The M1A2 has more advanced electronics and targeting ability than the M1A1 Abrams, according to U.S. military specifications.
- U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said Moscow is giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption.
- U.S. government auditors are in Kyiv this week as part of steps to ensure that “no aid or weapons” are diverted, Victoria Nuland, the undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department, told lawmakers Thursday.
More live updates here.
Ukraine faces logistics hurdles ahead of tank deliveries
Nearly a year into the war in Ukraine, Western allies finally agreed to send Kyiv the battle tanks it says it so desperately needs.
The first battalion will have roughly 40 tanks, including newer German Leopard 2A6s, and could arrive by spring.
But the broader package pieced together this week by the United States and other European nations includes a hodgepodge of tank models, each with different delivery times and unique logistical hurdles. Military experts are unsure if they will have a decisive effect on the battlefield — and Ukrainian forces still need to be trained on how to use them.
Read the full story here.
Nearly a year into the war in Ukraine, Western allies finally agreed to send Kyiv the battle tanks it says it so desperately needs.
The first battalion will have roughly 40 tanks, including newer German Leopard 2A6s, and could arrive by spring.
But the broader package pieced together this week by the United States and other European nations includes a hodgepodge of tank models, each with different delivery times and unique logistical hurdles. Military experts are unsure if they will have a decisive effect on the battlefield — and Ukrainian forces still need to be trained on how to use them.
Read the full story here.
In home of Kalashnikov, Russians fight plan to turn mall into drone factory
As Russia seeks to mobilize its industries and citizens to fight its war on Ukraine, a group of angry small-business owners and residents in one city has shown there are limits to the sacrifices they are willing to make as they fight to keep a shopping mall from turning into a drone-production plant.
With Russia’s economy under pressure from Western sanctions and its war effort faltering after major setbacks last year, the Defense Ministry has demanded that arms and weapons producers work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to increase military production.
Izhevsk, 620 miles east of Moscow, famous as the home of the Kalashnikov weapons plant, is part of Russia’s drive to dramatically increase the production of rockets, shells and drones.
Read the full story here.
As Russia seeks to mobilize its industries and citizens to fight its war on Ukraine, a group of angry small-business owners and residents in one city has shown there are limits to the sacrifices they are willing to make as they fight to keep a shopping mall from turning into a drone-production plant.
With Russia’s economy under pressure from Western sanctions and its war effort faltering after major setbacks last year, the Defense Ministry has demanded that arms and weapons producers work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to increase military production.
Izhevsk, 620 miles east of Moscow, famous as the home of the Kalashnikov weapons plant, is part of Russia’s drive to dramatically increase the production of rockets, shells and drones.
Read the full story here.
Here is the latest from Ukraine:
- Ten regions of Ukraine were hit by emergency power outages Friday, a day after a Russian barrage, the state power grid operator said.
- In the latest attempt to cement its illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, Russia announced Friday that it will impose Moscow time in the parts of four Ukrainian regions now under control of its invading forces.
- The type of American tank going to Ukraine will be the M1A2 Abrams, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
- The U.N. refugee agency said Moscow is giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption.
- Poland will deliver 60 tanks to Ukraine, including 30 of the Polish PT-91 Twardy and 14 of the German-made Leopard 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.
- The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said inspectors reported “powerful explosions” outside the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine.
More live updates here.
- Ten regions of Ukraine were hit by emergency power outages Friday, a day after a Russian barrage, the state power grid operator said.
- In the latest attempt to cement its illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, Russia announced Friday that it will impose Moscow time in the parts of four Ukrainian regions now under control of its invading forces.
- The type of American tank going to Ukraine will be the M1A2 Abrams, according to Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
- The U.N. refugee agency said Moscow is giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption.
- Poland will deliver 60 tanks to Ukraine, including 30 of the Polish PT-91 Twardy and 14 of the German-made Leopard 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday.
- The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said inspectors reported “powerful explosions” outside the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine.
More live updates here.
What is the Wagner Group, the Russian mercenary outfit in Ukraine?
The United States has designated the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, a network of private security contractors that have taken up arms in Ukraine, as a “significant transnational criminal organization,” the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
“Today’s expanded sanctions on Wagner, as well as new sanctions on their associates and other companies enabling the Russian military complex, will further impede Putin’s ability to arm and equip his war machine,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement.
Treasury noted that Wagner had been accused of “mass executions, rape, child abductions, and physical abuse in the Central African Republic and Mali,” and it placed sanctions on a number of organizations the department said provided support for the group, including a Chinese satellite imagery company and an aviation firm based in the United Arab Emirates.
Here are some facts about the Wagner Group and what it’s doing in Ukraine.
The United States has designated the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group, a network of private security contractors that have taken up arms in Ukraine, as a “significant transnational criminal organization,” the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
“Today’s expanded sanctions on Wagner, as well as new sanctions on their associates and other companies enabling the Russian military complex, will further impede Putin’s ability to arm and equip his war machine,” Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said in a statement.
Treasury noted that Wagner had been accused of “mass executions, rape, child abductions, and physical abuse in the Central African Republic and Mali,” and it placed sanctions on a number of organizations the department said provided support for the group, including a Chinese satellite imagery company and an aviation firm based in the United Arab Emirates.
Here are some facts about the Wagner Group and what it’s doing in Ukraine.
Western Ukraine, distant from the front lines, feels the burdens of war
LVIV — Alina Pidchenko, her husband, Serhii, and their three children now live in a single room in a camp of prefabricated housing for displaced Ukrainians on the edge of Lviv, the main city in western Ukraine, about an hour’s drive from the border with Poland.
When the family escaped here nine months ago — from their home some 500 miles east in Kramatorsk, where Moscow’s troops were regularly shelling the civilian population — they thought they were moving to a safe haven. But the war has followed them.
On Jan. 14, dozens of Russian missiles rained down across Ukraine, including in the west, where strikes severely damaged an electrical substation and a power plant in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, plunging hundreds of thousands of people, including the Pidchenko family, into cold and darkness. The power and heating went out for five hours, Alina said, and then again overnight as they slept.
Read the full story here.
LVIV — Alina Pidchenko, her husband, Serhii, and their three children now live in a single room in a camp of prefabricated housing for displaced Ukrainians on the edge of Lviv, the main city in western Ukraine, about an hour’s drive from the border with Poland.
When the family escaped here nine months ago — from their home some 500 miles east in Kramatorsk, where Moscow’s troops were regularly shelling the civilian population — they thought they were moving to a safe haven. But the war has followed them.
On Jan. 14, dozens of Russian missiles rained down across Ukraine, including in the west, where strikes severely damaged an electrical substation and a power plant in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, plunging hundreds of thousands of people, including the Pidchenko family, into cold and darkness. The power and heating went out for five hours, Alina said, and then again overnight as they slept.
Read the full story here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his plea for Western nations to supply Ukraine with more potent weapons, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, to help Kyiv defend against Russian attacks from places far from the front line.
—Intense fighting continues on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Western and Ukrainian officials and military analysts have warned that Moscow is probably gearing up for a major offensive in the spring.
— Recent Russian ground attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine “may be intended to disperse Ukrainian forces and set conditions for an offensive in Luhansk,” analysts at D.C. think tank the Institute for the Study of War said in their latest battleground update.
Read more updates here.
— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has renewed his plea for Western nations to supply Ukraine with more potent weapons, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, to help Kyiv defend against Russian attacks from places far from the front line.
—Intense fighting continues on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Western and Ukrainian officials and military analysts have warned that Moscow is probably gearing up for a major offensive in the spring.
— Recent Russian ground attacks in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeast Ukraine “may be intended to disperse Ukrainian forces and set conditions for an offensive in Luhansk,” analysts at D.C. think tank the Institute for the Study of War said in their latest battleground update.
Read more updates here.
These Russians, evading call-up to Ukraine, live in a Seoul airport
INCHEON AIRPORT, South Korea — The Russian men now have inside jokes with the South Korean staff they see at 6 p.m. every day at the Burger King in Terminal 1. They spend their days walking around, smoking cigarettes or learning Korean. They wash their clothes with bathroom soap.
For these five men who fled Russia to avoid conscription in the war against Ukraine, Incheon International Airport has been their temporary home for the past three months.
They arrived at the airport, located about 32 miles west of Seoul, in October and November seeking asylum. But South Korea, which has a low rate of accepting refugees, deemed them unqualified to even apply and rejected their applications. The men appealed the decision, and three of them will find out on Jan. 31 whether their appeal will be accepted.
Read the full story here.
INCHEON AIRPORT, South Korea — The Russian men now have inside jokes with the South Korean staff they see at 6 p.m. every day at the Burger King in Terminal 1. They spend their days walking around, smoking cigarettes or learning Korean. They wash their clothes with bathroom soap.
For these five men who fled Russia to avoid conscription in the war against Ukraine, Incheon International Airport has been their temporary home for the past three months.
They arrived at the airport, located about 32 miles west of Seoul, in October and November seeking asylum. But South Korea, which has a low rate of accepting refugees, deemed them unqualified to even apply and rejected their applications. The men appealed the decision, and three of them will find out on Jan. 31 whether their appeal will be accepted.
Read the full story here.
The U.S. imports uranium from Russia. What if sanctions end that?
Russia’s state-owned nuclear power conglomerate, Rosatom, is suspected of supplying the Russian arms industry with components, technology and raw materials for missile fuel, The Washington Post reported Friday. The military goods were sent to more than half a dozen major weapons makers, aiding Moscow’s continuing assault on Ukraine.
That has elevated prospects that the United States, and possibly the European Union, might place sanctions on Rosatom, which exports uranium for use in nuclear reactors.
U.S. reliance on Russian nuclear fuel is substantial, but American companies have some options if Rosatom is hit with sanctions.
Read the full story here.
Russia’s state-owned nuclear power conglomerate, Rosatom, is suspected of supplying the Russian arms industry with components, technology and raw materials for missile fuel, The Washington Post reported Friday. The military goods were sent to more than half a dozen major weapons makers, aiding Moscow’s continuing assault on Ukraine.
That has elevated prospects that the United States, and possibly the European Union, might place sanctions on Rosatom, which exports uranium for use in nuclear reactors.
U.S. reliance on Russian nuclear fuel is substantial, but American companies have some options if Rosatom is hit with sanctions.
Read the full story here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea for Western nations to supply Ukraine with more potent weapons, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, to help Kyiv defend against Russian attacks from places far from the front line.
- Germany and Poland are set to begin tank training programs for Ukrainian forces in days as they rush deliveries for spring. Ukraine has said that it needs at least 300 tanks to support a large-scale spring offensive.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the decision to supply tanks, but he said Germany would avoid sending troops or bringing NATO into a war against Russia, according to a government readout of Scholz’s interview with Tagesspiegel.
- Britain’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian tank operators have arrived in the United Kingdom to receive training on how to use the Challenger 2 tanks that London recently pledged to send Kyiv.
More live updates here.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky renewed his plea for Western nations to supply Ukraine with more potent weapons, including the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, to help Kyiv defend against Russian attacks from places far from the front line.
- Germany and Poland are set to begin tank training programs for Ukrainian forces in days as they rush deliveries for spring. Ukraine has said that it needs at least 300 tanks to support a large-scale spring offensive.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended the decision to supply tanks, but he said Germany would avoid sending troops or bringing NATO into a war against Russia, according to a government readout of Scholz’s interview with Tagesspiegel.
- Britain’s Defense Ministry said Ukrainian tank operators have arrived in the United Kingdom to receive training on how to use the Challenger 2 tanks that London recently pledged to send Kyiv.
More live updates here.
Here's the latest from Ukraine:
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for Russian athletes to be barred from competing in next year’s Olympics while his country remains under attack.
- Zelensky described the situation on the front lines in the eastern Donetsk region as “very tough.” Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the region are under “constant Russian attacks,” he said, as Russian forces attempt to break through Ukraine’s defense.
- Ukrainian tank operators have arrived in the U.K. to receive training on how to use the Challenger 2 tanks that London recently pledged to send Kyiv.
- Delays by Western allies in sending high-end military materiel to Ukraine — including long-range weapons, advanced air defense systems and battle tanks — have hampered Kyiv’s ability to mount larger counteroffensive operations and take advantage of opportunities offered up “by flaws and failures in Russian military operations,” analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said.
More live updates here.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for Russian athletes to be barred from competing in next year’s Olympics while his country remains under attack.
- Zelensky described the situation on the front lines in the eastern Donetsk region as “very tough.” Bakhmut, Vuhledar and other areas in the region are under “constant Russian attacks,” he said, as Russian forces attempt to break through Ukraine’s defense.
- Ukrainian tank operators have arrived in the U.K. to receive training on how to use the Challenger 2 tanks that London recently pledged to send Kyiv.
- Delays by Western allies in sending high-end military materiel to Ukraine — including long-range weapons, advanced air defense systems and battle tanks — have hampered Kyiv’s ability to mount larger counteroffensive operations and take advantage of opportunities offered up “by flaws and failures in Russian military operations,” analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said.
More live updates here.