Month: April 2022

Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, was being towed to port when “stormy seas” caused it to sink, according to a ministry message.

The 510-crew missile cruiser was a symbol of Russia’s military power, leading its naval assault on Ukraine.

Kyiv says its missiles hit the warship. Moscow has not reported any attack – it says the vessel sank after a fire.

The blaze caused the explosion of the warship’s ammunition, Russia says, adding that the entire crew were later evacuated to nearby Russian vessels in the Black Sea.

After saying initially the warship was afloat, late on Thursday the Russian defence ministry announced that the Moskva had been lost.

The 12,490-tonne vessel is the biggest Russian warship to be sunk in action since World War Two.

“While being towed… towards the destined port, the vessel lost its balance due to damage sustained in the hull as fire broke out after ammunition exploded. Given the choppy seas, the vessel sank,” the Russian defence ministry said.

Ukrainian military officials said they struck the Moskva with Ukrainian-made Neptune missiles – a weapon designed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, and the naval threat to Ukraine in the Black Sea grew.

The ship’s sinking was described by the US as a “big blow”, but American officials were unable to confirm whether Ukrainian Neptune missiles were responsible.

“It’s certainly plausible and possible that [Ukraine] did in fact hit this with a Neptune missile or maybe more,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said to CNN.

A senior Ukrainian official said as many as 510 crew could have been on board the Moskva.

On the first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the Moskva gained notoriety after calling on a small garrison of Ukrainian border troops defending Snake Island in the Black Sea to surrender – to which they memorably radioed an expletive-laden message of refusal.

Originally built in the Soviet-era, the Moskva entered service in the early 1980s. The vessel was actually laid down in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv, which has been heavily bombed by Russia in recent days.

By Jenny Hill, BBC News, Moscow

This is a significant and humiliating loss for Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly insisted that his “special military operation” in Ukraine is going according to plan.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Russian state media are not dwelling on the loss of the pride of the Black Sea fleet.

Morning TV bulletins limited themselves to briefly reporting the statement issued by the authorities, who claim the ship sank in stormy seas after fire and explosions on board caused significant damage to its hull.

Some newspaper commentators appeared to support that, arguing that the fire extinguishing systems on board the forty-year-old warship were out of date and inefficient but several writers agree that the development won’t change the course of war.

It is however a blow to national pride; the Moskva, once a symbol of Russian might and ambition, now lies at the bottom of the sea.

While one TV talk show host didn’t speculate on Ukraine’s claims that it had struck the ship, a clearly emotional studio guest – film director and ex-MP Vladimir Bortko – said the fate of the Moskva was grounds for war.

“It’s more about psychological damage than material damage,” Mykola Bielieskov from Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies told the BBC.

“It won’t remove Russia’s naval blockade on Ukraine completely,” he said. “But it’s a powerful symbol that we can employ sophisticated weaponry effectively.”

But Mr Bielieskov, who advises the Ukrainian government on military strategy, did predict that “Russian ships will now be forced to move further from the Ukrainian shore, where they can no longer feel secure.”

The Moskva didn’t itself fire missiles at Ukrainian land targets, but military experts told the BBC that it offered crucial support to other vessels that did.

The remaining vessels in Russia’s Black Sea fleet will now be more vulnerable to aerial attacks – although it’s not clear that Ukraine’s depleted forces have the resources to take advantage of this.

“The Moskva was the only ship in the fleet which had long-range air defences on board,” said Sidharth Kaushal, a sea power expert at the Royal United Services Institute.

“While smaller vessels were conducting bombardments of Ukrainian cities, the Moskva was providing them with wide-area air cover.”

The guided missile cruiser was previously deployed by Moscow in the Syria conflict where it supplied Russian forces in the country with naval protection.

It is the second major vessel Russia has lost since the start of its invasion.

Admiral Lord West, former First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, said that as well as being a military blow the vessel’s loss was “very embarrassing”.

“This has a huge impact,” Lord West said, speaking to BBC Radio 4’s PM before confirmation that the Moskva had sunk.

“Putin loves the navy. When he came into power, the first bit of the old Soviet forces that he put effort into was the navy. He’s always had a soft spot for it.”

Israeli police said officers entered the site after coming under attack with fireworks, stones and other objects.

Three Israeli police were hurt, they said.

The flashpoint site is deeply important to Muslims and Jews, who know it as the Temple Mount, and is at the heart of competing historical claims.

Israeli-Palestinian tensions have soared recently after deadly attacks in Israel and Palestinian deaths during subsequent Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank.

A 17-year-old Palestinian wounded on Thursday during an Israeli operation in the area of Jenin in the northern West Bank died on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

More than 20 Palestinians, many identified as gunmen, have been killed since Israel stepped up sweeps in the West Bank, centring on Jenin district, after a Palestinian killed three Israelis in Tel Aviv last Thursday.

That attack was the fourth in Israel by Israeli Arabs and Palestinians in just over two weeks. The killings have left 12 Israelis and two Ukrainians dead, marking the deadliest period of attacks in Israel for more than 15 years and leaving the country on edge.

Israeli police said dozens of Palestinians, some carrying flags of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, marched on the compound at about 04:00 (01:00 GMT) then started throwing stones and fireworks.

The police said they waited until Muslim Friday prayers had ended before entering the site to disperse the rioters, who had started throwing stones towards the Western Wall below the compound, where Jewish worshippers were.

The police tweeted video showing fireworks exploding inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, and masked youths throwing stones towards officers.

Israel’s foreign ministry tweeted video showing masked Palestinians inside the Qibli mosque (also known as al-Aqsa Mosque) throwing objects with the sound of a bang followed by a spray of sparks.

The foreign ministry denied reports on social media that police had entered the mosque building itself during the violence. Hours later footage from inside the mosque building showed Israeli police and Palestinians there with the scene more calm.

The Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Israel’s actions at the compound, saying it held it “fully and directly responsible for this crime and its consequences”.

The clashes come after militant groups in Gaza called for “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians to converge on the compound on Friday “to protect our nation and our mosque”.

Last year Hamas, which governs Gaza, fired rockets towards Jerusalem following clashes at the mosque compound after weeks of unrest in the city, triggering a devastating 11-day war with Israel.

The compound is known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and is also considered, in its entirety, as al-Aqsa Mosque. It is the third holiest site in Islam.

The same ground is sacred to Jews as the location of two biblical temples, and is the holiest site in Judaism. The question of rights there is one of the most contentious issues of the Israel-Palestinian conflict and between Israel and the wider Muslim world.

The recent surge in violence comes at a particularly volatile time, with the start of the Jewish festival of Passover on Friday night coinciding with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Christian festival of Easter.

Passover traditionally sees an increase in visits by religious Jews to the site, which are viewed by Palestinians as provocative.

The game allows to earn crypto through game play or trading their avatars.

The hack is likely one of the biggest ever to hit the crypto world.

US officials say they linked the breach to a group called “Lazarus”, believed to be controlled by North Korea’s primary intelligence bureau.

“Through our investigations we were able to confirm Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with [North Korea], are responsible for the theft,” the FBI said in a statement on Thursday.

Lazarus Group gained notoriety in 2014 after they were accused of hacking into Sony Pictures and publicly leaking confidential data.

The group demanded that Sony withdraw its then-upcoming film The Interview, a satirical comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

A United Nations panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea has accused Pyongyang of using stolen funds to support its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes as a way to avoid international sanctions.

“The United States is aware that the DPRK has increasingly relied on illicit activities – including cybercrime – to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs as it tries to evade robust US and UN sanctions,” Reuters quoted a Treasury Department spokesperson as saying.

A 2020 US military report says North Korea’s hacking programme dates back to at least the mid-1990s and has grown to a 6,000-strong cyber warfare unit, known as Bureau 121, which operates from several countries including Belarus, China, India, Malaysia and Russia.

Blockchain analysis company Chainalysis said North Korean hackers stole almost $400m (£291m) worth of digital assets in at least seven attacks on cryptocurrency platforms in 2021- one of most successful years on record for cyber-criminals in the closed-off east Asian state.

More than 100 activists from the 40 Days of Life group gathered on a road approaching the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital on Sunday.

In a letter to Women’s Health Minister Maree Todd, 76 consultants from the hospital accused the group of intimidation and harassment.

The BBC has contacted the 40 Days for Life group for comment.

The group, which was founded in Texas in 2004, has previously said its members were staging public prayers for a “culture of life” over the Christian period of Lent, and it was not their intention to upset people.

The letter, written by the campaign group Back Off and signed by doctors working at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, says thousands of woman having an abortion in Scotland have been subject to protests over the years.

The doctors are backing calls for clinics to have protest-free buffer zones similar to those being introduced in Northern Ireland.

The letter reads: “As well as being our patients, these women are our sisters, daughters and colleagues. They deserve compassion and support.

“They should be spared the deplorable intimidation and harassment which they currently receive from protesters. This group seeks to restrict women’s access to healthcare.”

The letter called on the Scottish government to pass a Safe Access Zone Bill, banning activities intended to deter or prevent women from accessing abortion care within 150 metres of a clinic entrance.

Similar measures have been introduced in Spain, Australia and most recently in Northern Ireland.

Ealing Council in London was the first authority in the UK to use anti-social behaviour laws to create “buffer zones” outside abortion clinics – using legislation available in England.

Lead signatory and consultant paediatric radiologist Dr Greg Irwin said he was seriously concerned about the protests taking place outside the Glasgow hospital, and their impact on the delivery of care.

He said: “We know first-hand how distressing this harassment is for our patients, which makes it infuriating for us as clinical staff to have to pass these groups day-in-day-out.

“These women may well be feeling vulnerable and upset. They should not have to put up with judgement or intimidation outside our hospital.

“How can we offer our patients the standard of care and support they deserve in this situation? Implementing buffer zones is essential to deal with this problem, both in Glasgow and throughout Scotland.”

Woman’s Health Minister Maree Todd said she looked forward to Green MSP Gillian Mackay bringing forward a members’ bill on buffer zones.

She said she had also convened a working group to consider the issue of protests outside abortion clinics.

She added: “The Scottish government is committed to women being able to access timely abortion without judgement. I condemn, in the strongest possible terms, any attempts to intimidate women as they choose to access abortion services.”

It follows the announcement of a pilot that will see people sent to the east African country to claim asylum there.

That scheme will initially focus on single men crossing the Channel in boats or lorries from France.

The prime minister said it would “save countless lives” and break the business model of traffickers, but campaigners have called the plan “inhumane”.

Andrew Griffith MP – director of the No 10 policy unit – said the scheme would not require new legislation and could be implemented under “existing conventions”.

He told BBC Newsnight it could therefore be launched “in weeks or a small number of months”.

He added that, if the flow of illegal migration could be stopped, it would leave “lots of capacity for the very generous safe and legal routes” into the UK.

The Rwanda scheme is part of a broader strategy to reduce the number of people entering the UK by crossing the Channel in small boats.

The Royal Navy has taken operational command of the Channel from UK Border Force in an effort to detect every boat headed to the UK.

Last year, 28,526 people made the crossing, up from 8,404 in 2020.

Tony Smith, former director general of UK Border Force, said it could be weeks before it became clear if the “radical” new scheme was feasible.

He told BBC Breakfast the government was likely to face a legal challenge when people are put on aircraft bound for Rwanda.

“But then I’m not sure what the answer is to stopping the boats… because if we don’t do something, then more people are going to drown,” he said, adding the UK was potentially facing its biggest asylum intake ever.

In a speech on Thursday, Boris Johnson said the agreement with Rwanda would provide “safe and legal routes for asylum”.

“Economic migrants taking advantage of the asylum system will not get to stay in the UK, while those with genuine need will be properly protected,” he said.

He said the scheme would cover anyone who had arrived in the UK illegally since the start of this year.