World News - Page 3

The heated words come from Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who warned that nuclear war is a possibility that all should take very seriously.

In a recent interview with Russian state TV, Lavrov claimed that NATO is going to war with Russia via proxy and is arming that proxy, referencing the multi-billion-dollar weapons shipments being sent to Ukraine from various countries. The top diplomat also went on to explain that Russia doesn't want to turn to nuclear war and that he doesn't want the risk of it to be "artificially inflated". However, Lavrov did warn that it was "serious," "real," and "cannot be underestimated."

In response to these remarks by Lavrov, his Ukrainian counterpart claimed that Russia is losing its last hopes in scaring off the world from supporting Ukraine. Notably, Lavrov went on to say that the tensions between the US and Russia are currently worse than the tensions during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. As Russia is seemingly losing at its invasion of Ukraine, many officials have turned a wary eye towards Putin, who may not think he has many other options than nuclear war in the face of defeat.

The US Naval Institute (USNI) learned that Russia was using dolphins to protect its navy in the Black Sea. The reports were confirmed by satellite images.

New satellite images from Maxar Technologies reveal what is being reported as dolphin pens located at the entrance of a key port in the Black Sea. According to the USNI website, there are two dolphin pens that were moved to the harbor in February and contain trained dolphins that are most likely there to prevent any Ukrainian divers from entering the harbor to destroy any ships.

The images were analyzed by H I Sutton, who specialized in marine mammal pens and wrote for the USNI. Sutton said that dolphins were "the most obvious type of mammal" that Russia would be using to protect its navy fleet. Sutton went on to say that Russia has previously used dolphins in war and recounted that the Kremlin deployed them in Syria in 2018 to counter enemy divers, gather objects from the seabed, and conduct military intelligence operations.

One of the most legendary stories to come out of the Ukraine and Russia conflict is the notorious tale of the "Ghost of Kyiv".

The tale began circling the internet in the early weeks of Russia's attempt at invading Ukraine's capital of Kyiv and involved a Ukrainian fighter pilot nicknamed the "Ghost of Kyiv" as his identity was hidden. This fighter pilot was rumored to have taken out as many as 40 Russian aircraft and was later shot down on March 13, according to the Times of London. Last week many publications reported the fighter pilot's name was 29-year-old Major Stepan Tarabalka.

Now, Ukraine's Air Force Command has said while Tarabalka is a real war hero that was killed in battle, he wasn't the "Ghost of Kyiv" as the story was made-up. Taking to Facebook and Twitter, Ukraine's Air Force Command states that the "Ghost of Kyiv is a superhero-legend whose character was created by Ukrainians!" and "embodies the collective spirit of the highly qualified pilots of the Tactical Aviation Brigade who are successfully defending #Kyiv and the region."

USNI News is a website run by the U.S. Naval Institute, which has learned of the recent dolphin deployment by Russia.

The dolphins have been deployed to protect Russia's Black Sea naval base amidst the country's invasion of Ukraine. Satellite imagery shows that two dolphin pens were placed at the entrance to Sevastopol harbor by the Russian Navy around February. The Sevastopol base in Crimea is Russia's most important naval base in the Black Sea.

The Soviet Union developed its own military marine mammal programs during the Cold War, including dolphin training in the Black Sea. The training was conducted at Kazachya Bukhta near Sevastopol, where it remains to this day. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the unit responsible for the programs came under Ukrainian control.

On April 26, the European Union commissioner took aim at Elon Musk over his purchase of Twitter and what the future entails when it comes to content moderation.

The EU's commissioner Thierry Breton reminded Musk that the second largest social media platform doesn't need "less moderation", which is contrary to Musk's sentiments leading up to an after the purchase of Twitter with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO pushing for free speech as he believes its "the bedrock of a functioning democracy".

Breton spoke to the Financial Times and said that Musk needs a "reality check" if his push for free speech on the platform results in less content moderation and warns that if Twitter doesn't uphold the European Union's rules for content the platform risks being banned across Europe. With the EU's commissioner warning Musk to tread lightly, the same question can be raised for the US's own rules and regulations when it comes to content guidelines.

It's not the first mass grave that's been spotted in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began.

Photographed on April 3rd, 2022, by Maxar Technologies' GeoEye-1 is a recently excavated mass grave with rows visible just below the road in a field. The grave is located in the Ukrainian town of Manhush, approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the war-torn port city of Mariupol.

Maxar Technologies' WorldView-3 satellite took a photo of the same area on March 19th, 2022, highlighting the recent grim addition. To the right of the graves in the image is a previously existing cemetery, which evidently was not sufficient to bury all of the victims of combat. The mayor of Mariupol has said that over 10,000 civilians have been killed since the invasion began on February 24th.

Vietnam's government is planning on rolling out a new law that would put a 24-hour timer on any "illegal" content posted to social media platforms.

According to a new exclusive report from Reuters, the new law will make Vietnam one of the leading countries when it comes to tight laws around content posted to social media platforms and comes at a time when the controlling Communist Party is attempting to decrease any "anti-state" activity.

Furthermore, the 24-hour timer on any content that is deemed "illegal" won't have a grace period of two days as social media platforms currently have, and "illegal livestreams" are required to be removed within three hours.

Reports indicate that the Biden administration is expected to announce an additional aid package for Ukraine sometime this week.

According to five officials close to the matter that spoke with NBC News, the Biden administration is expected to announce a security assistance package that is similar in size to last week's package, worth $800 million. Biden's $800 million contained various military equipment from Howitzers, radars, artillery rounds, drones, Javelins, and multiple vehicles.

CNBC reports when asked on April 19 if he would send more military aid to Ukraine, Biden replied with a simple "Yes." Pentagon spokesman John Kirby declined to reveal the contents of the upcoming weapons package, as naming the contents would cause several security concerns. However, Kirby did say that the contents of the package comes "directly out of multiple conversations with the Ukrainians."

The Moskva was a Russian cruiser class warship that Ukraine has allegedly sunk.

Ukraine claims to have sunk the warship while it was in the Black Sea after striking it with a Neptune anti-ship cruise missile. However, Russia has disputed this, admitting the Moskva has sunk but not that Ukraine attacked it and caused it to sink.

According to Russian news agency TASS in 2020, the Russian Orthodox Church acquired a piece of the True Cross, the cross upon which Jesus Christ was crucified. The Russian Orthodox Church told TASS that it would place the piece aboard the Moskva, in keeping with the church's close ties with the Russian military. Previously, members of the clergy has blessed Russian weapons of all sizes, even up to nuclear weapons.

A biolab located in Ukraine is involved in unethical human experiments conducted by American scientists, according to Russia's ministry of defense.

Russia's ministry of defense announced last week on Thursday that it has evidence of "American scientists from the lab" conducting a series of experiments on humans between the dates of 2019 and 2021. Russia's military alleges that the American scientists involved in the experimentation used psychiatric patients from a hospital ward in the Kharkiv region as their subjects. The ministry claimed that the experiments and research was "potentially dangerous biological preparations", but didn't actually describe what those "biological preparations" are.

Additionally, Russia's defense ministry said that the subjects were chosen based on their age, nationality, immunity status to disease, and more. Furthermore, the ministry said that there was no documentation for the subjects, and they were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements that stopped them from discussing anything they were involved in or saw. The trials also didn't have any records, but according to the Russian military, it has eyewitness testimonies that account "inhuman experiments".

The Russian embassy in DC has been hit with a projection of the Ukraine flag, which wasn't appreciated by members inside.

The video has gone viral on the Ukraine subreddit and was originally posted to Twitter by Benjamin Wittes, an American legal journalist and Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he said, "We lit up the Russian embassy in blue and yellow but the Checkists inside had a surprise for us. They are using their own spotlights to wash us out."

From the above video, a projection of the Ukrainian flag can be seen moving onto a wall of the Russian embassy which was quickly followed by a spotlight from somewhere close to the base of the building beaming upwards and following the flag around in an attempt to drown out the colors with white light. The group broadcasted the entire event for 42 minutes, and the video has since been viewed nearly 140,000 times since being posted.

The United States has announced it will be providing Ukraine with an $800 million aid package that will include various types of weapons and defenses.

US President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the $800 million in military assistance headed to Ukraine will provide Ukrainian resistance with a variety of defensive systems that include heavy artillery, drones, vehicles, radars, and helicopters. Additionally, the package contains chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear protective equipment.

The Department of Defense website reveals what the US has already provided Ukraine, and judging by the list, this is the first time the US has provided Ukraine with protective equipment for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear scenarios. President Biden said that the equipment provided by the US "has been critical" in Ukraine's defense against Russia's invasion, and that "I assured President Zelenskyy, the American people will continue to stand with the brave Ukrainian people in their fight for freedom."

The United States has sent more than $2.5 billion in military aid to Ukraine, and within those packages have been Javelin anti-tank missiles that have been used to great effect.

The Javelin anti-tank missiles have been a staple weapon of the war as the Russian military have suffered great losses at the hands of Ukrainians firing these expensive weapons. Now reports state that the US has given 33% of its total stockpile of Javelins to Ukraine and will soon need to stop supplying the country to maintain a reasonable amount for any of its own future plans.

BusinessInsider writes that the production of the anti-tank missiles is slow, and replenishing the stock supplied to Ukraine will take "years". If the US decides to halt the transferring of Javelins, it would essentially be taking away Ukraine's most-effective anti-tank weapon, which raises the question; "Can Ukraine force a stalemate with Russia before Javelin supplies begin to dry up?"

The United States government is expected to announce a new weapons assistance package for Ukraine as soon as Wednesday, according to an exclusive report from Reuters.

The publication states that US President Joe Biden is expected to announce in the coming day/s a new $750 million weapons aid package aimed at providing relief for Ukraine and its fight against Russia. Two unnamed US officials close to the matter told Reuters that the equipment would be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, which essentially gives the US president the power to transfer articles and services from US stocks without official approval from Congress.

Furthermore, one of the officials told Reuters that the specifics on what types of equipment will be included in the package have yet to be determined but would likely have similar content to past supply packages that the US has sent (ground to air artillery systems, defensive anti-aircraft Stinger, anti-tank Javelin missiles, ammunition, and body armor.) Since February 24, the White House has provided $1.7 billion in aid to Ukraine, and with this coming new package, the total will be brought to $2.4 billion.

Millions of people have fled Ukraine after Russia began its invasion, and now some of those refugees are seeking asylum in the United States via Mexico's border.

Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and triggered what is now considered to be the largest displacement crisis since World War II, causing 4.4 million refugees to flee the country to neighboring European countries. Not all refugees went to neighboring countries to flee Putin's war, as CBS reports that US border officials have processed nearly 10,000 undocumented Ukrainian refugees who traveled to Mexico and then to the US.

More specifically, between the dates of February 1 and April 6, the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported 9,926 Ukrainians that failed to have any legal documentation that is required to enter the US, according to unpublished CBS statistics. Notably, an individual close to the data told the publication that the Ukrainian refugees were attempting to cross the border through legitimate ports of entry and not illegally.

3D modeling technology is being used in Ukraine to preserve culturally important heritage sites before a Russian attack potentially destroys them.

The initiative to map Ukraine's heritage sites was created by the smartphone app Polycam and is called "Backup Ukraine". The project aims to maintain Ukraine's cultural heritage and protect Ukraine's national identity through its citizens mapping out anything that has significant cultural value. So far, the project has created an archive that stores full 3D models of any object that anyone can view for at least the next five years, according to Polycam.

The website states that the project's goal is to "put this new technology in the hands of the citizens of Ukraine so that they may capture anything and everything that they deem culturally significant to preserve forever in 3D." Looking at the website, it can be seen that individuals have scanned a variety of different items from Russian tanks, cars, and classrooms to scooters and more.

Ukrainian troops and members of parliament have spoken out to say that Russian troops are now using chemical weapons in Ukraine.

A sub-unit of the National Guard of Ukraine known as the Azoz Regiment claimed on April 11th that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was used to drop chemicals on civilians in the southeastern city of Mariupol. Symptoms of vestibular-atactic syndrome victims suffer from include dizziness, headaches, nausea, and vomiting.

Ukrainian officials have said that Russian soldiers have moved radioactive material from dangerous areas around the defunct Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Within the first couple of weeks of Russia's invasion into Ukraine, the Kremlin's forces took the Chernobyl nuclear power plant that has been abandoned since the catastrophic disaster that happened in 1986. Ukrainian officials claimed that Russian soldiers weren't wearing the correct protective equipment and entered the dangerous Red Forest that contains radioactive soil. These claims were later backed up by drone footage that showed Russian had dug trenches near the nuclear site.

Recently Ukrainian forces took back Chernobyl after Russia backed out of the region and has now moved onto eastern Ukraine. According to a report from CNN, Ukrainian officials are now detecting radioactive material all over the nuclear site, and according to soldiers at the site, when the Russian forces went into the Red Forest, they brought back radioactive material on their shoes and tracked it all throughout the plant, causing radiation levels to be increased. Furthermore, the soldier said that Russian soldiers would have taken radioactive dust with them when they left.

The Twitter account Ukraine Weapons Tracker has been "debunking & tracking usage/capture of material in Ukraine."

The footage shows a lone T-64BV tank operated by the Ukrainian army (shown in the video with the Ukrainian flag) firing on an unsuspecting Russian convoy passing by. The Ukrainian tank destroyed a Russian BTR-82A, slowing the convoy's movement and allowing Ukrainian forces to continue attacking it, ultimately forcing the convoy to retreat.

Reports show the engagement happened on March 31st, and the footage first appeared on Telegram. According to the original video, the T-64BV tank belongs to the Dmytro Korchynsky Brotherhood Battalion. The T-64BV weighs about 38 tonnes with between14.76-inch (375mm) and 19.69-inch (500mm) thick armor plating.

Ukrainian officials have announced that Russia has launched an attack against a Ukrainian military airbase located in eastern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian head of the Poltava Regional Military Administration, Dmytro Lunin, Russia launched an attack against the Myrhorod Air Base located in central-eastern Ukraine, destroying a MiG-29 fighter jet and a Mi-8 helicopter.

Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for the Poltava Regional Military Administration, said to the independent Russian news agency Interfax that the Russian attack also destroyed an ammunition depot and injured at least two individuals. The attacks from Russia in eastern Ukraine come after the Kremlin began to withdraw its forces from the surrounding regions around Ukraine's capital of Kyiv. Now, Russia is focusing on eastern Ukraine and specifically the region around Donbas that's located on the eastern border.