The debate between Russian figure skating coach Eteri Tutberidze and American journalist Dave Lees turned into a controversial subject in the two countries’ media, where the first described the second as “full of boredom”.
It came following Dave Less sparked speculation that Tutberids’ daughter Diana Davis might move with ice dancing partner Gleb Smolkin to the US national team.
It was said that Davis, who was born in the United States, married Smolkin there, but the American journalist gave the talk regarding her a character linked to the Russian dimension, in the last episodes of his TV show.
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Russian “killers” have no place at Worlds, says Ukrainian Mahuchickh
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
Ukrainian athlete Yaroslava Mahuchikh, author of the best world performance of the year in the high jump (2.03 m), told Eugene on Wednesday that Russian “killers” had no place at the World Athletics Championships which begin Friday in the city of Oregon.
The 20-year-old young woman, gold medalist at the Indoor Worlds in Belgrade in March, mentioned in particular the case of her rival and ex-Russian friend, the reigning world champion and Olympic champion Mariya Lasitskene, who will not be able to not align themselves with Eugene – the international athletics federation having followed the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from its competitions following the invasion of Ukraine.
“Before February 24 (date of the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, editor’s note), we had good relations, we spoke to each other,” Mahuchikh told reporters regarding Lasitskene. “But that day changed everything because she (Lasitskene) never wrote to our athletes. And then she wrote to Thomas Bach (IOC President, editor’s note) to be able to compete”.
“I don’t want to see killers on the trail. Because this war has killed many of our athletes,” she said once more.
Yaroslava Mahuchikh traveled to the Indoor Worlds in Belgrade in March, fleeing her hometown of Dnieper in eastern Ukraine in her own car. An experience she lived in a state of “total panic”, she said on Wednesday. “Three days in the car, the longest three days of my life”.
Mahuchikh was a bronze medalist at the last Tokyo Olympics, and a silver medalist at the 2019 Outdoor Worlds in Doha, two competitions won by Lasitskene.
Russia wants Ukraine to surrender, G7 steps up pressure
written by Alexandra Hartman Editor-in-Chief
Russia said it was aiming on Tuesday, the day following a bombing that killed 18, the capitulation of Ukraine, despite the firm support and reaffirmed unity of the G7.
“The Ukrainian side can put an end (to the conflict) during the day” if its soldiers are “ordered” to “lay down their arms”, declared Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Vladimir Putin.
But the Russian strike that killed at least 18 people on Monday at a shopping center in Kremenchuk, central Ukraine, has further invigorated Ukrainian resolve.
In unison with Western condemnations, the G7, meeting in southern Germany, denounced a “war crime”.
“18 dead… My sincere condolences to the families and loved ones. The rescuers continue to work,” the acting head of the Poltava regional administration, Dmytro Lounin, said of the bombardment that hit the city located 330 km southeast of kyiv and more than 200 km from the front.
– “Godfather of terrorism” –
The building is largely collapsed and charred, surrounded by remains of concrete structures and piles of glass, noted an AFP journalist on the spot.
Four giant cranes were installed on the site to evacuate heavy debris. The shopping center car park has been transformed into an emergency area where rescuers and firefighters work. A few green letters of the mall’s name remained on top of the building with bits of burnt plastic hanging down.
It is “one of the most shameless terrorist acts in European history”, denounced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asking that Russia be designated as a “State sponsor of terrorism” following this strike on “a peaceful city, an ordinary shopping center”.
The Russian army has for its part claimed to have struck an arms warehouse, causing explosions which, according to Moscow, set fire to a disused shopping center.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the mall was hit by Kh-22 anti-ship missiles fired by Tu-22 long-range bombers from Russia’s Kursk region.
– “Brutality” –
Ukraine has been confronted for five months with “unprecedented” brutality since the Second World War, deplored NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“Russia cannot and must not win” the war and the sanctions once morest it will be maintained “as long as necessary”, added French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of the G7 which concluded its work on Tuesday.
The Westerners, led by the United States, have thus promised to tighten the noose on Moscow by targeting the Russian defense industry in particular.
– Oil price capped –
They also intend to develop a “mechanism to cap the price of Russian oil at the global level”. Another lever operated by the West: the G7 will “coordinate to use customs duties on Russian products to help Ukraine”.
The overall goal is to “increase” the costs of war for Russia, summed up German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, host of the summit.
The G7 also promises to participate in the reconstruction of the country via an international conference and plan.
Russia has banned 25 Americans, including the wife and daughter of President Joe Biden.
Despite the heaviness of the sanctions hitting the Russian economy, the Kremlin assured that there was “no reason” to mention a default of payment from Russia.
The Russian authorities, however, admitted that because of the sanctions, two installments had not reached creditors by the deadline on Sunday. This constitutes in fact a “default” of payment, estimated Tuesday the rating agency Moody’s.
In New York, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric recalled that the belligerents were bound by international law to “protect civilians and civilian infrastructure”, judging the new strike “totally deplorable”.
An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on the latest Russian bombings once morest civilian targets in Ukraine is scheduled for Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. GMT.
– City in “ruins” –
A few hours following the announcement of the bombardment of Kremenchuk, the Ukrainian authorities announced another deadly Russian strike once morest civilians in Lyssychansk, a strategic pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the Donbass basin (east).
In this twin town of Severodonetsk, recently taken by the Russians, at least eight Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 20 others, including two children, injured while “collecting water from a cistern “, announced the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergei Gaïdaï. “The Russians fired into a crowd of people with multiple Hurricane rocket launchers,” he said.
Lysytchansk is the last major city left to conquer for the Russians in this province. “Our defenders hold the line, but the Russians reduce the city to ruins with artillery, aviation … The infrastructure is completely destroyed,” detailed Mr. Gaïdaï.
The conquest of Donbass, already partly held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, has been the Russians’ priority objective since they evacuated the area around kyiv at the end of March.
Russia also launched 11 rockets overnight at Mykolaiv (south), according to the district chief of this city. Some of them were intercepted but three people died in Ochakiv, including a 6-year-old girl.
– Diplomatic marathon –
While kyiv continues to demand more arms deliveries, the United States is now considering supplying it with a sophisticated “medium and long range” surface-to-air missile system.
The leaders of the G7 wrap up their summit on Tuesday, the day Vladimir Putin must make his first trip abroad to Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, since the February 24 launch of the offensive in Ukraine.
The diplomatic marathon of Westerners continues Tuesday evening with a NATO summit in Madrid, an appointment in which Mr. Zelensky must also participate remotely.
This meeting of the Atlantic Alliance must also send a “message of unity and strength”, pleaded Emmanuel Macron.
burx-mat/smk/sg
French Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Senegalese Macky Sall shared their concerns on Friday in Paris regarding the actions of the Russian private military company Wagner in Mali, and in particular regarding its “crimes” once morest “certain communities” such as the Fulani, according to the Elysée.
During an interview at the Elysée, the French president insisted on the need to maintain “pressure” on the ruling junta in Bamako. Because “the more time passes, the more she eliminates her opponents and the more she settles in the relative comfort that goes with the protection that Wagner brings her”, explained the presidency.
MM. Macron and Sall, who currently chairs the African Union (AU), were “very converging” on the fact that “Wagner is the praetorian guard of a regime whose primary objective is to protect itself”, she said. added.
And they “shared their concerns regarding Wagner’s way of doing things, and in particular the crimes he is committing” once morest “certain communities” such as the Fulani, “at the risk that terrorist groups capitalize on this violence” , continued the Elysée. “Wagner must leave” Mali, according to the presidency.
The Malian army and the Russian paramilitaries have been accused in particular of having carried out a massacre of civilians in the locality of Moura where, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch, some 300 civilians were executed at the end of March.
In February, France, which has very difficult relations with the junta, announced that it was reducing its military presence in Mali following a nearly 10-year-long operation to fight the jihadists.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Paris of having a “colonial mentality” towards Mali and claimed that Wagner was present in this country on a “commercial basis”.