Page 5 - aruba-today-20220331

A5
WORLD NEWS Thursday 31 March 2022
Number of Ukraine refugees passes worst-case U.N. estimate

By BASSAM HATOUM and not working, so how can
JAMEY KEATEN we call it peace talks if they
Associated Press are shooting and bombing
MEDYKA, Poland (AP) — our cites during and after
The number of people who the talks?” Kovalyova said.
have fled Ukraine since Rus- “There is no trust in Russia,
sian troops invaded has sur- but also I hope for peace
passed 4 million, the United and calm, but unfortunate-
Nations reported Wednes- ly this is the situation.”
day as shelling continued in The U.N. refugee agency,
places where Moscow had UNHCR, said Wednesday
vowed to ease its military that more than 4 million
operations. people have left Ukraine
“I do not know if we can still since Russia launched its
believe the Russians,” refu- invasion on Feb. 24 and
gee Nikolay Nazarov, 23, sparked Europe’s largest
said as he crossed Ukraine’s refugee crisis since World
border into Poland with his War II. That number ex-
wheelchair-bound father. ceeds the worst-case pre-
Despite Russia’s announce- dictions made at the start
ment during talks on Tues- Refugees, mostly women and children, wait in a crowd for transportation after fleeing from the of the war.
day that its forces would Ukraine and arriving at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland, on March 7, 2022. Half of the refugees from
ease their assault near Associated Press Ukraine are children, ac-
Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and cording to UNHCR and the
elsewhere, Nazarov said reducing military activity 8-year-old son a month ter in Romania’s central city U.N. children’s agency UNI-
he expects “more escala- near Kyiv and in Chernihiv, ago. She says they will only of Brasov, where she says CEF.
tion” in the country’s east, a besieged northern city. return when “bombs stop they will stay until the war “I think it’s a tragic mile-
including the city he and “We can call those signals exploding in my city” and is over. “It’s still very scary, stone,” Alex Mundt, the
his father fled. “That is why that we hear at the nego- “when Russian troops com- every day we get messag- UNHCR senior emergency
we cannot go back to tiations positive,” Zelen- pletely leave our territory.” es from home that there is coordinator in Poland, said.
Kharkiv,” he said. “We are skyy said in his address to Elena Litvinova, a 33-year- shooting and bombing.” “It means that in less than
afraid of a new phase of the Ukrainian people. “But old accountant from Myko- Olha Kovalyova, who ar- a month or in just about
war in eastern Ukraine.” those signals don’t silence laiv, is also skeptical of Rus- rived in Poland with her two a month, 4 million people
Nazarov, like other refu- the explosions of Russian sia’s promises and will only children, said she didn’t have been uprooted from
gees interviewed by The shells.” For Diana Konstan- head home with her two trust Moscow because their homes, from their fam-
Associated Press, echoed tynova, a 45-year-old ac- young children when “our it had failed to fulfill ear- ilies, their communities, in
the opinion of Ukrainian countant from Vinnytsia president says that the war lier promises made in the what is the fastest exodus
President Volodymyr Zel- in south Ukraine, Russia’s is over.” framework of 2014 and of refugees moving in re-
enskyy. In his nightly video promise to scale back its “During the negotiations, 2015 agreements aimed at cent history.”
address, Zelenskyy said that attacks is not a signal she the city administration and ending fighting between More than 2.3 million refu-
given what was happen- can safely return home. children’s educational insti- Russia-backed separatists gees from Ukraine entered
ing on the ground, there “I do not believe in a truce,” tutions where my children and Ukrainian forces in the Poland, but some have
was no reason to believe said Konstantynova, who studied were destroyed,” eastern Donbas region. since traveled on to other
Russia’s statement about fled to Romania with her she said at a refugee cen- “The Minsk agreement is countries. q

Defense seeks acquittal of Russian suspect in MH17 downing

By MIKE CORDER sile Brigade that was driven Ukrainian has been arrest-
Associated Press to the launch location “by ed, so they are being tried
THE HAGUE, Netherlands orders of and under guid- in their absence.
(AP) — A lawyer for a Rus- ance of the suspects.” All Prosecutors in December
sian on trial in a Dutch court 298 passengers and crew sought life sentences for
for his alleged role in the were killed. all four suspects. Judges
2014 downing of Malaysia “Our client this much is are expected to deliver
Airlines flight MH17 argued clear is not the one who verdicts by the end of the
Wednesday that prosecu- pressed the button, not the year.
tors failed to prove he was one who ordered the but- The flight was shot down
involved. ton to be pressed, not the amid the conflict between
Defendant Oleg Pulatov’s one who authorized the pro-Russian rebels and
legal team has attempted button to be pressed and Ukrainian forces in eastern
to cast doubt on the pros- not the one who provided Ukraine in 2014. Last month
ecutors’ case, accusing the weapon,” said defense Moscow launched a full-
them of tunnel vision and lawyer Sabine ten Doess- scale invasion of Ukraine
not adequately investigat- chate. that has become bogged Judges and lawyers view the reconstructed wreckage of
ing other possible scenarios Pulatov is the only one of down into a war of attrition Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, at the Gilze-Rijen military Airbase,
for the shooting down of four suspects indicted in that forced more than 4 southern Netherlands, on May 26, 2021.
MH17 on July 17, 2014, over the downing of the Amster- million refugees to flee the Associated Press
eastern Ukraine. dam-to-Kuala Lumpur flight country and triggered a
Prosecutors say the Boeing being represented by law- war crimes investigation at Dutch and Australian gov- Organization seeking to
777 was hit by a Buk mis- yers at the trial that began the International Criminal ernments launched a legal hold Moscow accountable
sile belonging to the Rus- two years ago. None of the Court. case against Russia at the for its alleged role in the
sian 53rd Anti Aircraft Mis- men three Russians and a Earlier this month, the International Civil Aviation downing of MH17.q