By The Related Press
Julian Lennon has defined why he determined to sing his father’s track “Think about” for the primary time publicly.
He’s posted on social media that he at all times mentioned he would solely sing the track if it was the Finish of the World. He says it’s the best track to sing now as a result of “the Conflict on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy,” and he felt compelled to reply in essentially the most vital means he might.
The son of John Lennon says murderous violence in Ukraine is forcing tens of millions of harmless households to go away the consolation of their houses. He says the lyrics replicate our collective need for peace worldwide, and since “inside this track, we’re transported to an area, the place love and togetherness change into our actuality, if however for a second in time.”
Lennon joined celebrities around the globe calling on world leaders to do extra to help refugees within the Stand Up For Ukraine marketing campaign.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Extra civilians flee jap Ukraine after lethal station strike
— Conflict Crimes Watch: A devastating stroll by means of Bucha’s horror
— Intel: Putin might cite Ukraine struggle to meddle in US politics
— Go to https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine for extra protection
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
KYIV, Ukraine — Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer says the Austrian embassy employees will return to Kyiv from western Ukraine.
The Austria Press Company reported that Nehammer introduced the transfer throughout a go to on Saturday to Kyiv, the place he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Nehammer mentioned that “for the reason that state of affairs round Kyiv has now stabilized considerably, the Austrian embassy’s group will resume its work within the Ukrainian capital.” He mentioned it’s an indication of Austria’s “full help for Ukraine at this very troublesome time.”
The group had been moved firstly of the struggle to an outpost in Uzhhorod, close to the Slovak border in Ukraine’s far west.
The European Union additionally has returned its ambassador to Kyiv and Italy additionally reportedly plans to reopen its embassy there.
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BOSTON — The Worldwide Financial Fund has created an account to offer donor international locations a safe solution to funnel monetary help on to war-ravaged Ukraine.
The multilateral lender mentioned in a press release Friday that it’s launching the account on the request of a number of member international locations.
The objective is to assist Ukraine meet its fee obligations and assist stabilize its economic system utilizing loans or grants from pooled assets.
The IMF says Canada has proposed routing as much as 1 billion Canadian dollars ($795 million) to Ukraine by means of the brand new account.
Two weeks after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the IMF authorised a $1.4 billion emergency mortgage to Ukraine.
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BOSTON — S&P International Scores has downgraded its evaluation of Russia’s capacity to repay international debt, signaling elevated prospects that Moscow will quickly default on such loans for the primary time in additional than a century.
The credit score scores company issued the downgrade to “selective default” Friday night time after Russia organized to make international bond funds in rubles final week once they had been due in dollars. It mentioned it didn’t anticipate Russia to have the ability to convert the rubles into dollars inside a 30-day grace interval.
S&P mentioned it believes sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine are prone to improve, impeding its willingness and skill to honor its obligations to international debtholders.
The Kremlin has signaled it’s keen to pay its money owed however warned it might accomplish that in rubles if its abroad accounts in foreign currency echange stay frozen.
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KYIV, Ukraine — U.Ok. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has traveled to Ukraine to fulfill with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in present of solidarity.
The 2 leaders assembly Saturday mentioned the “U.Ok.’s long run help to Ukraine’ together with a brand new bundle of economic and army assist, the prime minister’s workplace mentioned. The go to was not introduced upfront. A picture of the 2 leaders at a convention desk was posted on-line by the Ukrainian Embassy in London. The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential workplace, Andrij Sybiha, mentioned they had been assembly in Kyiv.
The go to comes a day after Johnson pledged one other 100 million kilos ($130 million) in high-grade army tools to Ukraine, saying Britain needs to assist Ukraine defend itself from persevering with Russian assaults.
Talking Friday at a information convention with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Johnson mentioned he would give Ukraine’s army extra Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, one other 800 anti-tank missiles and precision munitions able to lingering within the sky till directed to their goal.
Johnson additionally promised extra helmets, night time imaginative and prescient and physique armor. The gadgets had been along with 200,000 items of non-lethal army tools from the UK that had already been promised.
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WARSAW, Poland – The pinnacle of the European Union’s govt department says 10.1 billion euros ($11 billion) have been raised globally in a fundraising occasion for Ukraine and individuals who have fled the nation invaded by Russia.
European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen was joined on the occasion in Warsaw by Polish President Andrzej Duda and — remotely — by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
On the finish of the 90-minute occasion, a smiling von der Leyen mentioned the donations will go to assist refugees, each inside and outside Ukraine.
“We'll proceed offering help. And as soon as the bombs have stopped falling, we are going to assist the individuals of Ukraine rebuild their nation,” von der Leyen mentioned.
Saturday’s pledging occasion was held in Warsaw as a result of greater than 2.5 million of the 4.4 million individuals who have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion started Feb. 24 have entered Poland. Many have stayed, although some have moved on to different international locations. The occasion aimed to immediate political leaders and world celebrities to offer funding and different donations for the individuals of Ukraine.
It ended with Julian Lennon singing his father John Lennon’s peace track “Think about.”
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MOSCOW — YouTube has banned the channel of Russia’s decrease home of parliament, the State Duma, prompting authorities officers to resume longtime threats in opposition to the platform.
The Duma TV channel reported the ban on the messaging app Telegram, noting that it had 145,000 subscribers and over 100,000 million complete views. In feedback to the Russian information company Interfax, Google didn’t give an actual cause for the transfer, however mentioned the corporate follows “all relevant sanction and commerce compliance legal guidelines.”
Russia’s state communications watchdog Roskomnadzor demanded that YouTube unblock the channel. International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mentioned Saturday that the service “has handed itself a sentence” and urged its customers to “obtain content material, switch it onto Russian platforms. And quick.”
State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin known as the transfer in opposition to the parliament’s YouTube channel “one other proof of violations of the rights and freedoms of residents by Washington.”
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MILAN — Italy’s international minister has reportedly informed employees that Italy will reopen its embassy within the Ukrainian capital after Easter.
Information company ANSA quoted International Minister Luigi Di Maio on Saturday as telling his ministry’s disaster unit that Italy “might be among the many first to return” to Kyiv.
He known as it “one other gesture to exhibit help for the Ukrainian inhabitants, a concrete solution to affirm that diplomacy should prevail.”
Di Maio mentioned the return can be coordinated with different European Union nations.
The EU itself introduced the return of its ambassador on Friday. On Saturday, EU ambassador Matti Maasikas tweeted an image of an EU flag atop a flagpole with the phrases “First issues first.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — Austria’s chief says he expects extra European Union sanctions in opposition to Russia however is defending his nation’s opposition to this point to slicing off deliveries of Russian fuel.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer spoke Saturday after turning into the most recent of a number of European leaders to fulfill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
Nehammer mentioned at a information convention that “we are going to proceed to ratchet up sanctions contained in the European Union till the struggle stops” and that a bundle of sanctions imposed this week “gained’t be the final one.” He acknowledged that “so long as individuals are dying, each sanction continues to be inadequate.”
Austria, which will get most of its fuel from Russia, is among the international locations which have been resisting a halt to deliveries. Questioned about that Saturday, Nehammer mentioned that EU sanctions have gotten more and more “correct” however that “sanctions are efficient once they hit these they're directed in opposition to, and don’t weaken these imposing sanctions in opposition to the one who's conducting struggle.”
Austria is militarily impartial and never a member of NATO.
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LONDON — Britain’s Ministry of Protection says Russian naval forces are launching cruise missiles into Ukraine to help army operations within the jap Donbas area and across the cities of Mariupol and Mykolaiv.
In its Saturday morning briefing, the ministry mentioned Russia’s air forces are anticipated to extend exercise within the south and east of Ukraine to additional help these operations.
The ministry mentioned these actions come as makes an attempt to ascertain a land hall between Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and Russian-controlled components of the Donbas area “proceed to be thwarted by Ukrainian resistance.”
U.Ok. officers additionally say Russia is continuous to assault non-combatants, equivalent to these killed on the Kramatorsk railway station in a rocket strike on Friday.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s railway operator says operations are halted on the prepare station in Kramatorsk, which was broken in a missile strike Friday, however evacuations of civilians will proceed by means of different stations in jap Ukraine.
The corporate mentioned Saturday that evacutions will proceed from the stations in Slovyansk and Pokrovsk within the Donetsk area and Novozolotarivka within the Luhansk area.
The assertion on the messaging app Telegram mentioned that “the railways don't cease the duty of taking everybody to security.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ten humanitarian corridors for civilian evacuations are to open in Ukraine’s east on Saturday, in response to Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. The corridors will enable residents to go away a quantity cities within the areas of Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.
These in Mariupol, Enerhodar, Tokmak, Berdyansk and Melitopol will be capable of evacuate to town of Zaporizhzhia, whereas these in Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Popasna, Girske and Rubizhne can evacuate to town of Bakhmut within the Donetsk area.
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WASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned his nation’s safety service has intercepted communications of Russian troops that present proof of struggle crimes.
“There are troopers speaking with their dad and mom about what they stole and who they kidnapped. There are recordings of prisoners of struggle who admitted killing individuals,” Zelenskyy mentioned in an excerpt of an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that aired Friday.
“There are pilots in jail who had maps with civilian targets to bomb. There are additionally investigations being performed primarily based on the stays of the useless,” he mentioned in a translation supplied by CBS.
Zelenskyy mentioned “everybody who decided, who issued an order, who fulfilled an order” is responsible of a struggle crime. Requested whether or not he held Russian President Vladimir Putin accountable, he mentioned: “I do imagine that he’s one among them.”
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LVIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the missile strike on an jap prepare station as one other Russian struggle crime and mentioned Ukraine expects a tricky world response.
“Just like the massacres in Bucha, like many different Russian struggle crimes, the missile assault on Kramatorsk ought to be one of many expenses on the tribunal that should be held,” he mentioned throughout his nightly video handle to the nation Friday.
The president informed Ukrainians that nice efforts can be taken “to ascertain each minute of who did what,” in order that these behind the assault can be held accountable.
Zelenskyy mentioned he spoke with EU Fee President Ursula von der Leyen Friday and urged the EU to impose a full embargo on Russian oil and fuel.
“It's power exports that present the lion’s share of Russia’s earnings and permit the Russian management to imagine of their impunity,” Zelenskyy mentioned.