The Kremlin chief speaks again of NATO “aggression”: You want to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia. The Ukrainian leadership insists on taking back Crimea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has again made serious accusations against the US and European NATO countries: The West wants to liquidate and destroy Russia, Putin told state television channel Rossiya 1 on Sunday. “They have one goal: the former Soviet Union and its essential part – the Russian Federation – to fall apart.” Because of this “aggression” from the West, Russia has no choice but to include the Western military alliance’s nuclear weapons capability in its calculations, Putin asserted. main purpose of inflicting a strategic defeat on us so that our people suffer, as they say, how can we ignore their nuclear capabilities under these conditions?”

Meanwhile, heavy fighting took place on the eastern Ukrainian front – a year after the start of the great Russian offensive. According to Ukrainian sources, recent operations by Russian forces near Yahidne have been unsuccessful in recent days. The general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces contradicted the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which claimed to capture the village near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Russian troops continued to concentrate their offensive across the front line near the town of Bakhmut, he said.

Spring counter-offensive?

The deputy head of the Ukrainian military intelligence service, Vadym Skibizkyj, expects the Ukrainian army to launch a counter-offensive against the Russian occupiers this spring. “I think we will be ready for a counter-offensive in the spring,” Skibizkyj told newspapers of the Funke media group. However, the exact timing of the offensive depends on several factors – such as the delivery of Western weapons, which are very important for Kiev.

Skibizkyj stressed that Ukraine’s goal is the liberation of all of its territory – including the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. “We will not stop until we have our country back to the 1991 borders. our message to Russia and the international community”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated his country’s statement on Sunday: “This is our country. This is our people. This is our history,” the 45-year-old said, according to a statement distributed on the Sunday. With the repatriation of Crimea, “peace” will also return to Ukraine. “We will bring back the Ukrainian flag to every corner of Ukraine.”

The US government has also made it clear once again that it will never recognize Moscow’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea. “Nine years ago, Russia invaded Ukraine and occupied Crimea in clear violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Sunday.

((APA/dpa/Portal))

Tyla Wanstall, 26, found her mother and sister dead on her birthday Reproduction / Social Networks (Facebook)

Tyla Wanstall, 26, found the bodies of her mother, Leah Churchill, 50, and her sister, Brooke Wanstall, 17, when she arrived for work on February 27. When he entered the Meat ‘N’ Greet Snack Wagon, the van the family uses to prepare and sell hamburgers, in Whitstable, Kent, UK, he found the two already overturned lifeless. They were among balloons and other party favors, decorating the place to surprise him who had his birthday that day.

Authorities believe they died from carbon monoxide poisoning, which has yet to be confirmed. The gas is said to have leaked after the mother turned on a petrol generator to keep the two warm.

“Mom used that generator every day, but I don’t think she thought for a second how disastrous it would be to turn it on in the van,” Tyla said.

It is surprising to the young man that they were poisoned by “just breathing in the poisonous gas air a few times”.

“I had no idea how quickly carbon monoxide can kill. It’s enough to breathe in the contaminated area even a few times,” Tyla told British newspapers.

Leah Churchill, 50, and Brooke Wanstall, 17, mother and sister of Tyla Reproduction / Social Networks (Facebook)

“I hope that when people find out what happened, they will leave their homes and spend a few pounds buying a carbon monoxide (CO) leak detector to protect their families and loved ones.”

Tyla, who has a fourmonthold son, said he initially believed the family was trying to prank him.

He only became aware of the reality when he touched his mother and felt that she was “cold”. Then he understood “what had happened”.

“It’s heartbreaking to think that they spent their final moments putting a smile on my face,” she said.

He described Leah, his mother, who worked in hospitality, as “a kind woman who would do anything for anyone.” She is survived by two other sons: Ocean, 23, and Sonny, 12.

These organizations, which claim to defend Indigenous communities, the environment, public health and education, say they have witnessed an attack on Ontario’s key public services since Doug Ford took office in 2018.

“We cannot stand idly by while this government threatens the future of this province. »

– A quote from the Coalition of Organizations Against the Ford Government

According to these activists, the prime minister has deliberately undermined and underfunded Ontario’s public health and education systems, leading to staffing shortages and lack of access to basic services.

The protesters also denounced the privatization and control of companies [les] Health and education systems, leading to the diversion of public funds to businesses.

Against a private health system

Faile Bobier, protester and member of Ontario Health Coalition, mobilizes against privatization of public hospitals. She admits she was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and would never have been able to pay for her medical exams if the healthcare system had been penalized. If we don’t fight now, that’s what awaits us, she warns.

Ms Bobier says she rejects a system where rich and poor don’t have equal health rights.

“That is inhumane! Health care should be a public good for everyone, not just those who can pay. »

– A quote from Faile Bobier, protester and member of the Ontario Health Coalition

The same story from Ontario Health Coalition Executive Director Natalie Mehra. In your opinion, the Ford administration has no mandate to undermine and privatize our public hospital system.

“It’s destroying our healthcare, not innovation. »

– A quote from Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition

Against unbridled urban development

Regarding the environment, protesters castigated the passage of the housing promotion bill. Activists believe Bill 23 will limit the powers of conservation agencies and the ability of citizens to oppose proposed developments in their own communities.

These measures undermine our democratic rights and serve to enrich wealthy donors at the expense of the future of our province, the coalition said in a press release.

The demonstrators complained about “unbridled urban development in the green belt” and a lack of consultation with indigenous peoples.

Photo: Radio Canada / Robert Krbavac

Kim Bradshaw, co-founder of Greenbelt Guardians, which fights to protect the green belt, says the Ford administration is encouraging rampant urban development that threatens farmlands, wetlands and green spaces.

On this issue, the organizations also lament the lack of consultation with indigenous peoples, as these developments directly affect their lands and their treaty rights.

For his part, Fuyuki Kurasawa, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at York University, recalled that the Ford administration is trying to get people to accept [ce projet de développement urbain dans la ceinture de verdure] as one of the key solutions to solving the real estate crisis in Ontario, particularly in the greater Toronto area.

For Mr. Kurasawa, what has harmed the Ford administration and what partly explains this mobilization is an apparent scandal surrounding Doug Ford’s invitation to party donors to his daughter’s wedding.

“Any opposition to a government in power hinges on a small incident that is not significant as such but symbolizes the way the government is handling things. »

— A quote from Fuyuki Kurasawa, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at York University

This sociology professor doubts that popular discontent will make the government back down, but he believes the demonstrations may still allow the opposition to change its original plan.

Fuyuki Kurasawa adds that Ottawa’s intervention in the province’s political scene could handicap the Ford government.

Ontarians also listen to the federal government. When he asks questions, it makes people think. That could worry Conservative Party strategists in Ontario.

With information from Yanick Lepage