Why parts of Good Friday worship have been controversial


Joanne M. Pierce, 

Professor Emerita of Religious Studies, 

College of the Holy Cross
Sat, April 9, 2022

People visiting a Christ sculpture at the Santa Maria Magdalena Church during the Holy Week in Granada, Spain. Álex Cámara/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Churches around the world will be holding services for their three most important days during this Holy Week: Holy Thursday, sometimes called Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Easter commemorates Christ’s resurrection from the dead, the fundamental belief of Christianity. It is the earliest and most central of all Christian holidays, more ancient than Christmas.

As a scholar in medieval Christian liturgy, I know that historically the most controversial of these three holy days has been the worship service for Good Friday, which focuses on the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Two parts of the contemporary Good Friday worship service could be misunderstood as implicitly anti-Semitic or racist. Both are derived from the medieval Good Friday liturgy that Catholics and some other Christian churches continue to use in a modified form today.

These are the solemn orations and the veneration of the cross.

Prayer and anti-Semitism

The solemn orations are formal prayers offered by the assembled local community for the wider church, for example, for the pope. These orations also include other prayers for members of different religions, and for other needs of the world.

One of these prayers is offered “for the Jewish people.”

For centuries, this prayer was worded in a way to imply an anti-Semitic meaning, referring to the Jews as “perfidis,” meaning “treacherous” or “unfaithful.”

However, the Catholic Church made important changes in the 20th century. In 1959, Pope John XXIII dropped the word “perfidis” entirely from the Latin prayer in the all-Latin Roman missal. This missal, an official liturgical book containing the readings and prayers for the celebration of Mass and Holy Week, is used by Catholics all over the world. However, when the next edition of the Latin Roman missal was published in 1962, the text of the prayer still mentioned the “conversion” of the Jews and referred to their “blindness.”


The Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, a major meeting of all Catholic bishops worldwide held between 1962 and 1965, mandated the reform of Catholic life and practice in a number of ways. Open discussion with members of other Christian denominations, as well as other non-Christian religions, was encouraged, and a Vatican commission on Catholic interaction with Jews was established in the early 1970s.

Vatican II also called for a renewal of Catholic worship. The revised liturgy was to be celebrated not just in Latin, but also in local vernacular languages, including English. The first English Roman missal was published in 1974. Today, these post-Vatican religious rituals are known as the “ordinary form” of the Roman rite.

The completely reworded prayer text reflected the renewed understanding of the relationship between Catholics and Jews mandated by Vatican II and supported by decades of interreligious dialogue. For example, in 2015 the Vatican commission released a document clarifying the relationship between Catholicism and Judaism as one of “rich complementarity,” putting an end to organized efforts to convert Jews and strongly condemning anti-Semitism.

However, another important development took place in 2007. More than 40 years after Vatican II, Pope Benedict XVI allowed a wider use of the pre-Vatican II missal of 1962, known as the “extraordinary form.”

At first, this pre-Vatican II missal retained the potentially offensive wording of the prayer for the Jews.

The prayer was quickly reworded, but it does still ask that their hearts be “illuminated” to “recognize Jesus Christ.”

Although the extraordinary form is used only by small groups of traditionalist Catholics, the text of this prayer continues to trouble many.

In 2020, on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the concentration camp at Auschwiz, Pope Francis repeated the vehement Catholic rejection of anti-Semitism. While the pope has not revoked the use of the extraordinary form, in 2020 he ordered a review of its use by surveying the Catholic bishops of the world.

The cross and what it symbolizes

There has been similar sensitivity about another part of the Catholic Good Friday tradition: the ritual veneration of the cross.

The earliest evidence of a Good Friday procession by lay people to venerate the cross on Good Friday comes from fourth-century Jerusalem. Catholics would proceed one by one to venerate what was believed to be a piece of the actual wooden cross used to crucify Jesus, and honor it with a reverent touch or kiss.

So sacred was this cross fragment that it was heavily guarded by the clergy during the procession in case someone might try to bite off a sliver to keep for themselves, as was rumored to have happened during a past Good Friday service.

During the medieval period, this veneration rite, elaborated by additional prayers and chant, spread widely across Western Europe. Blessed by priests or bishops, ordinary wooden crosses or crucifixes depicting Christ nailed to the cross took the place of fragments of the “true cross” itself. Catholics venerated the cross on both Good Friday and other feast days.

In this part of the Good Friday liturgy, controversy centers around the physical symbol of the cross and the layers of meaning it has communicated in the past and today. Ultimately, to Catholics and other Christians, it represents Christ’s unselfish sacrificing of his life to save others, an example to be followed by Christians in different ways during their lives.

Historically, however, the cross has also been held up in Western Christianity as a rallying point for violence against groups that were deemed by the church and secular authorities to threaten the safety of Christians and the security of Christian societies.

From the late 11th through 13th centuries, soldiers would “take the cross” and join crusades against these real and perceived threats, whether these opponents were Western Christian heretics, Jewish communities, Muslim armies, or the Greek orthodox Byzantine Empire. Other religious wars in the 14th through 16th centuries continued in this “crusading” spirit.

From the 19th century on, Americans and other English speakers use the term “crusade” for any effort to promote a specific idea or movement, often one based on a moral ideal. Examples in the United States include the 19th-century antislavery abolitionist movement and the civil rights movement of the 20th century.

But today certain “ideals” have been rejected by the wider culture.

Contemporary alt-right groups use what has been called the “Deus vult” cross. The words “Deus vult” mean “God wills (it),” a rallying cry for medieval Christian armies seeking to take control of the Holy Land from Muslims. These groups today view themselves as modern crusaders fighting against Islam.

Some white supremacy groups use versions of the cross
as symbols of protest or provocation. The Celtic cross, a compact cross within a circle, is a common example. And a full-sized wooden cross was carried by at least one protester during the Capitol insurrection in January.

Prayers and symbols have the power to bind people together in a common purpose and identity. But without understanding their context, it is all too easy to manipulate them in support of dated or limited political and social agendas.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Joanne M. Pierce, College of the Holy Cross.

Read more:

What can you do with unwanted holy cards and Grandma’s religious statues? Well, that depends

Catholic opinions on Johnson & Johnson vaccine highlight debate between hardliners on abortion and others in the church

Why Christianity put away its dancing shoes – only to find them again centuries later

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2007/04/passover-song.html

Last Nuremberg prosecutor: World still doesn't get it


Kendall Little
Sun, April 10, 2022


BOCA RATON — Benjamin Ferencz says the world still has not learned the lesson he helped lay out 75 years ago during the Nuremberg war crimes trials of Nazi officials that followed World War II.

“My hope was that we could create a more humane and peaceful world where no one would be killed or persecuted because of his race or religion or political belief,” said Ferencz, who is 102 and is the last surviving prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, which were held in Germany from 1945 to 1949.

But in late February came the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"We see it still happening today, people running with their infant children, hospitals being bombed, and we have not yet learned the lesson from Nuremberg despite the fact that we laid it out clear and unmistakable," said Ferencz, who lives in Delray Beach.

On Thursday, Ferencz received the Governor's Medal of Freedom from Gov. Ron DeSantis in a ceremony at Florida Atlantic University. DeSantis also used the occasion to sign a bill making the Governor's Medal a permanent part of Florida law.

Ferencz used his acceptance speech as an opportunity to comment on the Russia-Ukraine war.

“I am trying to change the way people think about war,” he said. “If they don’t think about it, their heart will not change, either. So you have to think about it, and ask yourself, ‘Is this the way for human beings to behave?'”

Last month, he told London's Daily Mirror that believes Russian President Vladimir Putin can and should be jailed for war crimes.

Ferencz told the small crowd at FAU that if the world’s war trends continue, humankind won’t survive. He urged the younger generation to fight for laws instead of wars.

“We have got to learn to detest settling your disputes by killing a bunch of people that have nothing to do with it,” he said. “It’s up to the new generation.”

Benjamin Ferencz at the time of his work as prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947, part of the Nuremberg trials of former Nazis for the crimes they committed in World War II. 

(Courtesy Benjamin Ferencz)

Born in Hungary in 1920, he came to the United States before his first birthday, settling in New York. He studied at the City College of New York, then Harvard Law School, where he earned his degree in 1943.

With World War II, he joined the Army, and in 1945 helped set up war crimes investigations for Gen. George S. Patton's Third Army. He was called back into service after being discharged in late 1945 to handle prosecutions of suspected Nazi war criminals.

Ferencz was 27 when he argued during the so-called Einsatzgruppen Trial in 1947 for the convictions of 22 Nazi defendants for war crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, and conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes. All were convicted, and 13 were sentenced to death.

“[It was] the biggest murder trial in human history and it was my first case,” he said.

Ferencz, a father of four, pushed in a 1975 book for the creation of what became, in 1998, the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands. That followed years of pursuing the creation of anti-war legislation. He has been honored for his efforts with France's Legion of Honor award, Germany’s military medal of honor and Holland’s Erasmus Prize.

Before receiving a standing ovation, Ferencz left the crowd at FAU with two reminders: “law, not war” and “never give up.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Nuremberg prosecutor Ferencz gets state freedom medal

2018: Last surviving Nuremberg trials prosecutor still pushes for peace

2016: Last surviving Nuremberg trials prosecutor aims to 'save the world'

2011: Nuremberg trials prosecutor speaks in Boca: 'War is a savage way for humans to behave'

Burning cars and bloody corpses: Photos show the horrific aftermath of the Russian rocket attack at a Ukraine railway station packed with fleeing civilians.


A child's toy horse was abandoned in the blast and left blood-soaked on the ground, a sad testament to the carnage left by Russian rockets shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk.

Bethany Dawson
Sat, April 9, 2022

Remains of a missile are seen near a rail station, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine April 8, 2022.REUTERS/Stringer

Two Russian rockets hit a train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on April 8, killing 52 people and injuring nearly 100.


Photos show the devastation caused by the blast that turned the station into a killing zone.


Content warning: this article contains pictures that some readers may find distressing.

Two Russian rockets hit a Ukrainian train station in Kramatorsk, a town in Donetsk, part of the Donbas region, on April 9.

Reuters reports that the train station was filled with people hoping to evacuate from the war.

The blast killed at least 52 people and injured almost 100 others. As a result, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is now demanding a "global response" in condemning Russia, AP report.

It also reports that Russia denies responsibility for the attack, but Ukrainian and Western governments have explicitly stated the attack was by Putin's forces.

Photos from the scene show the extent of the atrocity inflicted by this blast.

At least 52 people were killed when Russian rockets hit the railway station packed with Ukrainians fleeing the war.

A body lies covered after Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

A 1,000 civilians went to Kramatorsk station to escape the anticipated Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

A trail of blood leads to the railway station's booking hall.

Russia shelled the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

Ukrainian President Zelenskyy has called this attack a "war crime," and joined a number of officials in telling civilians to evacuate the eastern Ukraine, according to the Wall Street Journal.

A Russian rocket that struck a Ukrainian train station and killed dozens of people had 'For the children' written on its side.

Remains of a missile are seen near a rail station, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Kramatorsk, Ukraine April 8, 2022.REUTERS/Stringer

A Russian rocket that struck a train station and killed dozens in eastern Ukraine on Friday had a Russian phrase meaning "For the children" written on its side, Ukrainian officials said.

At least 52 people were killed, and over 100 were injured after two Russian rockets hit the train station in Kramatorsk, which is in the Donetsk oblast.

The phrase — seen scrawled in white on the side of a purported Russian rocket in photos and video from the scene of the attack — translates as a message that the missile was sent in vengeance for children, not that it was intended to be used on children, explainedInsider's Jake Epstein.

Russian propaganda has accused Ukrainian troops of killing children even as Russian forces fire on civilian targets.

At least five children were killed in the attack, according to a post from Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region.

Since the invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, at least 169 children have been killed, according to the UN. However, the actual figure is believed to be much higher.

Outside the station burning cars with bodies around it shows the violence of the attack.

A car burns as smoke from the fire rises after the strike.OLEKSIY MERKULOV Ð DONECHCHYNA via Reuters

Thousands of civilians – older people, women, and children – went to the Kramatorsk railway station to start a journey to safety, but it turned into a killing zone.

"Lacking the strength and courage to stand up to us on the battlefield, they are cynically destroying the civilian population," said President Zelenskyy in an Instagram post, referring to Russian forces. "This is an evil that has no limits. And if it is not punished, it will never stop."

A man holds aloft a blood-stained animal carrier after the rockets struck the railway station.

Even pets were caught in the blast

OLEKSIY MERKULOV – DONECHCHYNA via Reuters

President Zelenskyy said that there were "thousands" of people at the station hoping to flee Ukraine, and whole families — including pets — were caught in the blast.

Scores had flocked to the train station on Friday to evacuate from the eastern Donbas region, as Western intelligence and NATO warned Russian troops are repositioning away from the northern Kyiv region and will focus their efforts on the east.

Photos and videos circulating on social media from Ukrainian officials and journalists showed a blood-stained sidewalk, strewn with luggage, strollers, and other belongings.

Bodies lay covered after the Russian shelling at the railway station in Kramatorsk.

Bodies lay at the railway station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, Friday, April 8, 2022.AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko

Photos and videos circulating on social media from Ukrainian officials and journalists showed a blood-stained sidewalk, strewn with luggage, strollers, and other belongings.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted after the strike: "This was a deliberate slaughter. We will bring each war criminal to justice."

Russia lost the battle for Kyiv with its hasty assault on a Ukrainian airport


Patrick J. McDonnell
Sun, April 10, 2022

A Ukrainian soldier passes the destroyed Antonov An-225, a six-engine behemoth that had been a source of intense national pride. (Celestino Arce / Associated Press)

Days after Russian forces retreated from Kyiv, the northern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital are littered with the charred remains of blown-up and abandoned Russian tanks, armored personnel carriers and other equipment.

The debris is a stark testament to an assault that was meant to oust the Ukrainian government but became a humiliating blunder for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia's failure to take the capital came down to a series of misjudgments and strategic errors: an emphasis on vulnerable armored columns, inadequate use of air power, an attack plan that overstretched supply lines, and — most significantly — a clear miscalculation of the Ukrainians’ ability and determination to resist.

But experts say there is one place, more than anywhere else, where Putin's vision of a lightning strike victory ran aground: Antonov Airport.

A Ukrainian serviceman walks by the destroyed Antonov An-225, the largest aircraft in the world. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

This sprawling cargo airport and military base 15 miles northwest of downtown Kyiv was supposed to be the principal staging ground and logistics hub for a battle-defining Russian thrust into the heart of the capital.

The Ukrainian government was supposed to fall and President Volodymyr Zelensky was supposed to be killed, captured or forced into exile. Experts said that Putin probably planned to install a puppet leader.

The thinking was that a hasty collapse of the central government would trigger deep disarray in Ukrainian units fighting in the east and the south, possibly resulting in a broad surrender.

“They needed to get into the middle of Kyiv as quickly as possible and raise the Russian flag over a government building,” said John Spencer, a retired U.S. Army major who now chairs urban war studies at the Madison Policy Forum think tank in New York. “At that point you’ve won the war. Yes, you may start the greatest insurgency in history. But you’ve won the war.”

Parts of destroyed aircraft at the Antonov Airport in Hostomel, Ukraine. 

(Felipe Dana / Associated Press)

He said capturing the airport was “critical” to the Russian strategy. Antonov has a long runway, ideal for flying in supplies and troops on heavy transport planes.

“You need airfields to bring in force, to bring in tanks, engineers, the necessary armor,” Spencer said.

Unlike the United States in its 2003 assault on Baghdad, Russia launched its ground assault immediately, without first pounding military bases, command and control structures and other strategic sites from the air. There was no shock and awe. That decision continues to baffle many.

“We all expected that Russia would do several days of airstrikes, precision missile strikes, that kind of thing — ‘softening up,’ so to speak,” said Dmitry Gorenburg, an analyst with CNA, a think tank in Arlington, Va. “But then they launched a ground operation rather than waiting a few days. I’m not sure why they were in that kind of hurry.”

Russia did expend plenty of air power in its assault on the airfield.

On the morning of Feb. 24 — the first day of what Putin called his "special operation" — low-flying Russian Mi-8 assault helicopters appeared over the airport and began firing rockets. Plumes of smoke rose from the airfield. Russian paratroopers ferried in by helicopter were soon redirecting civilian traffic outside the airport gates.

A satellite photo of the Antonov Airport, which was supposed to have been the principal staging ground and logistics hub for a Russian thrust into the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. But those plans failed in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. (Maxar Technologies)

By all accounts, attempting to grab the air base at the very outset of the war made a lot of sense, helping to complement a prospective pincer movement on the capital with nearby motorized columns.

“The initial idea was that cargo planes with paratroopers and vehicles would land here and it should have been an entry point to Kyiv,” said Denys Monastyrsky, Ukraine’s internal security minister, speaking to reporters Friday.

Once the airfield was secured, Russia “could start pouring in a lot of other troops, and start manning checkpoints in the middle of Kyiv,” said Jonathan Eyal, associate director of the Royal United Services Institute, a think tank in London. “If you think about it, had they succeeded, I think the war may have gone very differently.”

A day after the initial attack, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, a Russian defense ministry spokesman, announced that Moscow had sent 200 helicopters to take control of the airfield.

In fact, authorities here said fighting at the airport continued for days, and Ukrainian forces shot down several helicopters, even as Moscow ferried in wave after wave of paratroopers.

Weeks of fierce combat transformed the airport into a dystopian post-battle debris field, strewn with spent ammunition, rockets, Russian ration boxes, gas masks, and burned and tattered uniforms.

The most conspicuous monument to the fighting is the smashed hulk of an Antonov An-225.

The six-engine behemoth, long the world’s largest aircraft, is known in Ukrainian as Mriya, or Dream, and was a source of intense national pride. No more.

A Ukrainian serviceman touches the nose of the Antonov An-225 destroyed in fighting at the Antonov Airport in Ukraine. (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

The plane looks like it was gouged by a giant can opener, its fuselage sheared in a blackened jumble of wires and metal, the yellow and blue Ukrainian colors still visible outside the cockpit.

Russia finally secured the airfield, but its forces remained under constant fire, according to Ukrainian officials.

Russia was never able to land large transport aircraft to reinforce besieged forces here and elsewhere in the Kyiv area. Rather than thrusting forward to the heart of the capital, Russian troops at the air base were stuck fighting for their survival.

“That was a turning point,” Eyal said.

With Zelensky and the Ukrainian government still in power, Russian attack columns — lacking anticipated resupply and reinforcement — got bogged down in the capital’s dense northern suburbs.

Ukrainian troops used Western-provided Javelin portable antitank systems and Turkish-supplied drones to pick off the Russian armor, much of which is now rusting away in the suburbs of the capital.

Moscow somehow didn't anticipate the effect of the sophisticated equipment, and training, that Ukrainian forces had received from the West in recent years. Experts said that Russia’s multi-pronged attack across several fronts was clearly undermanned against a well-armed opponent.

“They tried to do too much,” Gorenburg said. “If they had focused on one objective, like taking Kyiv, they might have done better.”

A Ukrainian serviceman uses his weapon to hold up a Russian beret he retrieved from a destroyed Russian military vehicle at the Antonov Airport.

 (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Putin may have more success as his troops shift their efforts to the east, where pro-Russia separatists have been fighting for years. But Russia’s retreat here has also bolstered Ukrainian confidence that its troops can hold off, and even defeat, its colossal adversary.

Such a notion would undoubtedly draw derision from Putin. The Russian leader has long questioned Ukraine’s status as an independent state, publicly declaring its territory, and people, as an extension of historic Russia.

In the view of some, it is Putin’s distorted view of Ukraine that may have led him to misjudge what it would take to win this war — and to disregard the notion that Ukrainians would staunchly resist the Russian onslaught.

“I think the bottom line, the essence of the story, is that Mr. Putin believed the nonsense that he was spouting, which is that Ukraine is a fake state hijacked by a small clique — and the moment you put a finger on it the entire thing would collapse like a house of cards, with the Ukrainian president running away,” Eyal said. “Everything else followed this original error.”

On the streets of Kyiv, where the retreat was greeted with relief and pride, many agree: Putin underestimated people’s willingness to stand up to Russian force.

“I can't get inside Putin’s head, but I think that, yes, he really expected to take Kyiv in like three days,” said Vitalii Hemych, 28, a restaurant owner. “But our nation is now united. That is the main reason why his plan failed.”

Special correspondent Ilona Shubovych in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Putin takes ‘nuclear football’ to funeral of Russian politician

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a far-right politician and head of the ultranationalist Liberal-Democratic Party 

Aisha Rimi
Sat, April 9, 2022

(AP)

Russian president Vladimir Putin was spotted with the Russian “nuclear football” as he attended the funeral of a far-right politician on Friday.

Mr Putin was accompanied by a man in a dark suit who was carrying a briefcase, which contains the codes needed to authorise a nuclear attack remotely.

Mourners were cleared from the Christ the Saviour Cathedral as the Russian leader paid his respects to the ultranationalist, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, amid fears of an assassination attempt.

At the open casket, Mr Putin picked up a bunch of roses and placed them at the bottom of the coffin and then made the sign of the cross. No armed guards were standing by the coffin when he approached to pay his respects.

Mr Putin placed flowers on Mr Zhirinovsky’s coffin as he paid his respects (AP)

“For Vladimir Putin, the hall where people bade farewell to Zhirinovsky was completely emptied of people – even from relatives on chairs,” reported Telegram channel VCHK-OGPU.

Much like the nuclear football carried by presidential military aides in the US, the Russian nuclear briefcase, known as the “cheget”, was designed to be within reach for the president at all times. A similar briefcase is thought to accompany the minister of defence and chief of general staff.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky was a far-right politician and head of the ultranationalist Liberal-Democratic Party. He died from Covid 15 weeks after predicting in advance the date of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

World War ‘Z’: What’s the meaning behind Russian propaganda symbol emerging as ‘the new swastika’?


Megan Sheets
Sun, April 10, 2022

The letter “Z” has emerged as a prominent propaganda symbol in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, drawing comparisons to swastikas worn by Nazi soldiers in World War II.

At the start of Russia’s invasion, the letter – which does not exist in the Russian alphabet – was inexplicably painted on the rear of its tanks and other vehicles.

In the more than two weeks since, backers of the invasion have adopted “Z” as a logo to wear their support on their sleeves.

The origin of the letter’s connection to the war is murky, according to Kamil Galeev, a Galina Starovoitova Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center who has been compiling photos of the symbol on Twitter since before the invasion began.

“Some interpret ‘Z’ as ‘Za pobedy’ (for victory). Others – as ‘Zapad’ (West),” Mr Galeev explained.

“Anyway, this symbol invented just a few days ago became a symbol of new Russian ideology and national identity.”

Experts initially speculated that the marking indicated where a military unit was headed before deployment as a means to distinguish it and lessen the risk of friendly fire.

“It’s vital that any attacking force can be distinguished, particularly from the air where Russian forces will have complete control,” a source in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv told The Sun.

“The Ukrainians have very similar tanks and vehicles and will want to reduce the risk of friendly fire.”

Michael Clarke, former director of the defence think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Sky News that the symbols are likely to be connected to the geographic location of where the units would be deployed for combat.

"Often these symbols will be location-based – they will be communicating where a unit is heading. If they were only to mark the vehicles as being Russian, you could just use one symbol," Mr Clarke said.

A service member of pro-Russian troops in a uniform without insignia walks past a truck with the symbol

But now that the invasion is well underway, the letter “Z” has taken on new meaning, according to Mr Galeev.

“To put it simply, it’s going full fascist,” he wrote in a Twitter thread on Sunday.

“Authorities launched a propaganda campaign to gain popular support for their invasion of Ukraine and they’re getting lots of it.”

The thread included several photos of civilians and cars with the marking.

“Putin took a decision to start this war. But he got a wide support of the Russian people,” he wrote. “Nobody’s forcing them to participate in these shows of support, they could totally skip it. But they cheer. They cheer, because they feel good, they feel proud. Russia became great again.”

Merchandise with the letter “Z” is being sold online by Russia Today, with proceeds purportedly going to a charity which supports “children of war”. Amazon also appears to be selling similar items, according to The Times.

Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak used the symbol to show his support for the invasion on Saturday, when he wore it as he accepted a bronze medal at the Gymnastics World Cup event in Doha on Saturday.

The stunt was made even more jarring by the fact that Kuliak was next to Ukraine’s Kovtun Illia, who took home gold.

The International Gymnastics Federation said it had opened disciplinary proceedings against Kuliak.

Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak stands in a shirt that shows letter Z to receive his bronze medal (Screengrab/Video)

And in the Russian city of Kazan, children at a hospice were apparently forced to stand outside in the snow lined up in a “Z” formation to show their support.

The propaganda stunt captured on camera by a drone was reportedly organised by Vladimir Vavilov, chairman of a cancer charity who runs the hospice.

Mr Vavilov said 60 participants – including patients and staff – held one hand in a fist and leaflets with the flags of Russia, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) and Russian republic Tatarstan in the other.

Children at a hospice centre stand in a “Z” formation to show support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (Kamil Galeev via Twitter)

Several politicians have also donned clothing and badges with the insignia, including Mikhail Delyagin and Maria Butina.

Ms Butina, who was convicted in the US of acting as a foreign agent in 2018, posted a picture of her and colleagues in “’Z” T-shirts with the caption: “The team in support of our army and president! Let’s get to work guys!”

The Independent has a proud history of campaigning for the rights of the most vulnerable, and we first ran our Refugees Welcome campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and launch this petition in the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we are calling on the government to go further and faster to ensure help is delivered. To find out more about our Refugees Welcome campaign, click here. To sign the petition click here. If you would like to donate then please click here for our GoFundMe page.

Inside a Ukrainian village where farmers stay for the wheat harvest but fear Russian attack



Mon, April 11, 2022
By Thomas Peter

YAKOVLIVKA, Ukraine (Reuters) - The wheat has been sown for the coming season but nobody in Yakovlivka, a small farming village outside Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, knows if it will be harvested.

A week after Russian forces launched their invasion on Feb. 24, the village was bombed. The head of the village administration said four people were killed and 11, including children, were wounded in the attack.

"We were sitting in our cellar for four hours and read the Lord's Prayer. We wrapped the kids into blankets and just couldn't fall asleep until three or four in the morning," said Nina Bonderenko, who works on her cousin's farm.

Villagers said the attack may have been aimed at a unit of Ukrainian soldiers camping temporarily in the village school, although apart from some broken windows, the building was undamaged by the blasts.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the villagers' account of the bombing.

Russia has denied targetting civilians in what it calls a "special operation" to demilitarise and "denazify" its neighbour. Ukraine and its allies dismiss that as a baseless pretext for war.

Since the village was bombed, residents say all certainty has been lost.

"We have planted all the wheat. But will we be able to grow anything and harvest it under the current circumstances?" said Vadim Aleksandrovich, director of "Granary of Sloboda" - a farming company that emerged from a former Soviet-era collective farm.

"Only God knows. We are doing our best."

With the country at war, the uncertainty facing Yakovlivka is shared across the country by farmers who produce the grain that has historically made Ukraine, the world's fifth biggest wheat exporter, one of the great breadbaskets of the world.

DANGER IN THE FIELDS

Last season, Granary of Sloboda's harvest amounted to 3,000 tons of wheat, 3,000 tons of sunflower and 1,000 tons of corn. But at the moment, 80% of the firm's 7,000 hectares (17,300 acres) are not accessible because of mines or combat operations, Aleksandrovich said.

Only the fields immediately around Yakovlikva village can be reached relatively safely and there is heavy fighting around the firm's seed storage facility at its base in Izyum, some 140 km (85 miles) away, he said.

Before farm workers can go out to the fields, they call emergency services to find out if the area is safe. When rockets land in the fields, explosives disposal services remove any projectiles.

"The situation is very tense, and it is unclear what will happen to us," Aleksandrovich said. "We don't even know what will happen in one hour."

Despite the uncertainty, most of the villagers have remained, refusing to join a national exodus that has seen around a quarter of the country's population of 44 million flee their homes.

Of 533 permanent residents before the war, 380 have stayed, with refugees from outside boosting the population to 436, according to local authorities.

Although the village shop has closed, people have started to patch up the damaged houses that can still be repaired.

"I thought I could live my last days in peace and then this," said 66-year-old Vera Babenko, picking a bowl out from under a pile of rubble by her now door-less refrigerator.

She said a bomb landed just beside her house, about 200 metres (yards) from the school the attack was apparently supposed to hit but she said she had no plans to leave.

"I want to rebuild my kitchen."

(Editing by James Mackenzie and Frances Kerry)

The network protecting Ukraine's cultural heritage

As persistent attacks from Russia continue to destroy Ukrainian cities and age-old cultural sites, German experts are getting together to save the country's valuable heritage.

Sandbags protect a monument in Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine

In addition to the immense human suffering that has occurred since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the ongoing war also means that Ukraine's cultural heritage is under threat.

This includes the country's churches, historical sites, museums, monuments and traditions. A week ago, UNESCO, the UN agency responsible for culture, estimated that more than 50 sites have already been damaged.

Beate Reifenscheid, president of the German branch of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), believes that number is much higher.

"From Mariupol, we don't even know what substantial damage there is," Reifenscheid told DW. "You have to assume that everything is lost there."

In March, Claudia Roth, the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, launched the Network for the Protection of Cultural Property in Ukraine together with the German Foreign Office.

The aim is to better protect cultural treasures, gather information and coordinate aid measures. Much of the work will be done from Germany, with ICOM Germany serving as the central contact point.

Too much going on at the same time

ICOM, founded in 1946 along with UNESCO, consists of 151 national committees. "Thanks to this international network, we didn't have to start from scratch," says Reifenscheid.

During protests against the Belarus dictatorship in 2020, she says cultural institutions had also asked for help. "[However] the fact that such a situation could occur in Ukraine was not on our radar," Reifenscheid added.

The difficult task now is to maintain a clear overview of the situation amid a confusing and constantly changing war scenario.

"Because everyone wants to help as quickly as possible, there is still too much going on all at once; we need to coordinate measures more closely."

ICOM Germany's President Beate Reifenscheid

Funds are currently limited to helping institutions on the ground in Ukraine. There are no immediate plans to evacuate objects across borders as "this would deprive Ukraine of cultural assets," explains Reifenscheid.

Moreover, in the case of temporary storage of artworks outside Ukraine, a significant and ominous question would be raised: What would happen if Russia won the war and occupied Ukraine? Would the art then have to be returned to the aggressor?
Protecting wood from flames

The Network for the Protection of Cultural Property includes numerous institutions such as the German National Library, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the Federal Archives who decide about measures in digital meetings with other ICOM committees.

At the beginning of the war, it was agreed that packaging materials should be sent.

"They were brought to the Polish-Ukrainian border, and then sent through new routes to respective destinations," Reinfenscheid explains.

Currently, material is needed with which new boxes can be made to store and transport movable material, as well as fire extinguishers, fireproof blankets and non-flammable pastes to paint the wood.

It is more complicated to find technical equipment, for example air-conditioning for objects that need to be protected from heat or humidity.

"These devices cannot be provided by local museums because they are being used," Reinfenscheid says, adding that costs are high and financial support for the network is not finalized.

Participating institutions are supporting Ukraine with different kinds of expertise. The German Archaeological Institute is helping in the evaluation of satellite photos to document and verify damaged cultural sites. The Ukrainian Ministry for Culture and Information policy has created a website through which eyewitnesses and residents can report damages.

Already, 166 entries have been listed, though they have not yet all been verified. Photographs show bullet holes or bombings on museum or church facades.

"Windows, facades, the roof and the inner rooms of the old building of the cultural palace have been severely damaged by bombing," according to an entry from Mariupol.
Documenting war crimes

The documentation is also important because the destruction of cultural goods is considered a war crime. The General Director of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, wrote to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in March demanding that cultural heritage in Ukraine be protected.

Russia is a signatory to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Goods in armed conflict. According to international law, the signatories commit to protecting cultural heritage during a war or armed conflict from damage, destruction, robbery, plundering and illegal occupation.

"The signing was not even worth the ink that was used," says Beate Reifenscheid, pointing at Russia, which denies Ukraine's cultural identity. "They want to destroy the soul and DNA of Ukraine," she says, and cultural heritage of a country is essentially a part of that.

THREATENED BY WAR: UKRAINE'S UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES

Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and related monastic buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra

This 11th-century Eastern Orthodox church was built to rival the Hagia Sophia, in present-day Istanbul. Its mosaics and frescoes are prized for their impressive condition. The church greatly influenced subsequent temples, and together with the nearby monastic complex known as Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, or Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, it helped the area become a center of Orthodox faith and thought.

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This article was originally written in German.

Trudeau pledges to take more Ukraine refugees as nations bolster support

By Adam Schrader

A refugee child from Ukraine upon arrival at the Humanitarian Aid Center in Przemysl, Poland, on Saturday. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged further support on Sunday as countries continue taking refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

 Photo by Darek Delmanowicz/EPA-EFE

April 10 (UPI) -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged further support Sunday as countries continue taking refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Trudeau told CNN that Canada has already taken in more than 14,000 refugees from Ukraine and will continue to take "many, many more."

"When I was in Warsaw a few weeks ago, I heard from people who don't want to go too far from their husbands, their families back in Ukraine," Trudeau said.

"But [they] are also looking at, if this does go on as long as it might, they need solace and a secure place to go and Canada will always be there for as many as choose to come to Canada."

RELATED Rep. McCarthy leads bipartisan lawmakers to Poland to discuss Ukraine

Filippo Grandi, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, has praised Canada for its "generous support to refugees, everywhere."

"My deepest gratitude to you, Canada," Grandi said in a tweet Wednesday, which included a picture with Trudeau. "In a troubled world, this is needed -- more than ever."

Assistant High Commissioner of Operations Raouf Mazou on Saturday also praised Romania and Moldova for "the remarkable solidarity displayed in both countries towards people fleeing Ukraine." More than 686,000 have fled to Romania while more than 410,000 have fled to Moldova

"In the past days, I have witnessed first-hand the generosity that has thus far characterized the response to the arrival of refugees from Ukraine," Mazou said.

"We must all express our deep appreciation to the governments and the people of both Romania and the Republic of Moldova for opening their hearts and their homes to those in need, in these very difficult times."

Their statements come as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., led a bipartisan group of lawmakers to Warsaw to meet with the prime minister of Poland and officials from Ukraine to discuss the ongoing war.

Data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees shows that more than 2.5 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland since the start of the Russian invasion. The lawmakers were pictured speaking with some of the Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

Another 419.000 refugees have fled to Hungary while more than 314,000 have fled to Slovakia, according to the UNHCR. Hungary and Slovakia, like Poland, are members of the Schengen area which allows travel within Europe. Many of the refugees may have since continued on to other countries

More than 4.5 million refugees have fled Ukraine in total since the start of the invasion, the data shows.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv after visiting the town of Bucha on Friday.

Von der Leyen said that the European Union would increase its support to Ukraine amid the Russian invasion and presented him with an envelope that contained steps on moving Ukraine toward EU membership.

Von der Leyen announced that the European Union issued "five waves" of sanctions against Russia and is "already preparing the next wave."

"We are now moving into a system of rolling sanctions. And these sanctions are biting hard. Exports in goods to Russia have fallen almost 71%. Inflation is around 20% -- and rising," von der Leyen said.

The European Union has also allocated 1 billion euross, which is $1.09 billion, to support the Ukrainian military and "will now propose another 500 million."

"In addition, EU member states are delivering military equipment on an unprecedented scale. Slovakia is a shining example for that," she said. "With this we support the brave Ukrainian soldiers, fighting for Ukraine´s freedom. And for everyone's freedom."

On Sunday, it was revealed that the governors of Iowa and Nebraska had announced in March that they would donate military-grade police protective gear to Ukrainian civilians.

"The state is providing 146 protective helmets and 714 ballistic vests to Ukraine through donations from the Department of Public Safety and 18 other law enforcement agencies," Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement.

"The retired equipment is past the manufacturers' recommended service life but still in usable condition. Nebraska contributed additional helmets and vests to send with Iowa's donation."

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian aid organization called Everything Will Be Fine has amassed around 1,000 volunteer bus drivers to operate a fleet of more than 400 buses and vans to shuttle Ukrainian civilians out of the war-torn Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, The New York Times reported.

"In my estimation, the Donetsk region could be encircled in three to four days," Yuroslav Boyko, who heads the organization, told the Times. "We need to make sure everyone who is looking to leave can get out."

German arms maker offers weapons to Ukraine - German government source


Sun, April 10, 2022

BERLIN (Reuters) - Ukraine has received an offer of a sizeable shipment of self-propelled howitzer weapons from a German armaments company, a German government source said on Sunday.

German weekly Welt am Sonntag had reported on Saturday that armaments manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann offered 100 howitzers, a type of artillery weapon, to Ukraine, quoting anonymous government sources in Kyiv.

"This offer exists," the German source said to Reuters, without providing further details.

The Welt am Sonntag report said that the manufacturer did not currently have the weaponry ready for delivery and so had suggested that Germany's military offer 100 of its own howitzers to Kyiv and the manufacturer would then deliver the new weapons to Germany's army once ready - likely from the second half of 2024

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann was not immediately available for comment. A spokesperson for the German defence ministry declined to comment.

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Germany reversed its long-held policy of not sending weapons to conflict zones and said it would supply Strela missiles, among other arms, to Ukraine.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday it was important that Germany supply only weapons that Ukraine's army will know how to use, such as older equipment from the army of former Communist East Germany.

(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Victoria Waldersee; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Germany ‘refused’ arms company’s offer to refurbish tanks to send to Ukraine

Jorg Luyken
Sun, April 10, 2022

Arms manufacturer Rheinmetall said 100 Marder tanks standing around in its factory could be made battle-ready for Ukraine - Jens Schlueter/Getty Images Europe

The German government is facing renewed criticism after it reportedly rejected an offer by an arms firm to repair 100 tanks to send to the Ukrainian front line.

Rheinmetall, an arms manufacturer, said 100 Marder tanks standing around in its factory could be made battle-ready, enabling the German armed forces to send an equivalent number of operative vehicles to Ukraine.

According to a report in Bild newspaper, the defence ministry responded that the decommissioned tanks would take too long to refurbish, leaving its own forces unable to meet their Nato obligations.

However, the ministry did not send anyone to inspect the tanks before refusing the offer, according to Bild.

“If it is true that the defence ministry has not yet even inspected the Marder tanks, then this is a scandal,” Ukrainian ambassador to Berlin Andrij Melnyk told the tabloid.

Mr Melnyk added that “Berlin is showing no urgency although this war of extermination by Russia against the Ukrainian population has been raging for 45 days.”

Kyiv is desperate for Germany to start delivering heavy weaponry as its outnumbered army prepares to face an intensified Russian offensive in the east.

The Ukrainians have identified the Marder, a light tank that is gradually being decommissioned by the Bundeswehr, as a suitable fix.

Germany's defence ministry said decommissioned tanks would take too long to repair - but Bild newspaper claimed the ministry did not send anyone to inspect the tanks before refusing the offer - Sean Gallup/Getty Images Europe

The 100 tanks in question are currently parked on the premises of a Rheinmetall factory and the company has said that it could refurbish 20 of them within the next eight weeks and a further 50 within half a year.

Military experts have cautioned that it could take months before Ukraine’s mechanised infantry would be able to use the Marder tanks owing to the time it takes to re-train soldiers and the need to set up effective lines of logistics.

At the same time, the Marder’s speed and agility would potentially hand the Ukrainians a battlefield advantage over the more cumbersome Soviet-era BMP light tanks that the Russians rely on, experts say.

Military analysts have also questioned the defence ministry’s argument that sending 100 outdated tanks to Ukraine would damage Germany’s own defensive capabilities.

“If the German national defence could really fail because of a few missing Marder tanks, then we might as well shut up shop altogether,” Frank Sauer, an expert from the Bundeswehr Academy in Munich, told Spiegel magazine.

Germany still has 370 operational Marder tanks. The fighting vehicle was first introduced into the Bundeswehr’s arsenal half a century ago and was supposed to be largely replaced by the cutting-edge PUMA tank by 2020.

But production delays and technical issues have plagued the new tanks, meaning that German soldiers still rely heavily on the Marder during training exercises.



Berlin is facing increasing domestic anger over its sluggishness in supplying Ukraine with arms.

Die Welt newspaper declared at the weekend that Berlin’s pledge to support Ukraine militarily as part of a “new era” of defence strategy was “a fairytale”.

Soon after the Russian invasion started, Chancellor Olaf Scholz gave a historic Bundestag speech in which he said that Berlin would abandon its age-old refusal to deliver weapons to war zones, while also spending an extra €100 billion (£83 billion) on its own armed forces.

But six weeks on, Die Welt said that Mr Scholz was only interested in improving Germany’s own defensive capabilities.

Der Spiegel was also scathing, pointing out that Estonia had so far committed to more arms deliveries than Germany. The political magazine declared that Mr Scholz had “lost his political courage immediately after his Bundestag speech”.

The German Defence Ministry has refused to discuss specifics of its arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that Kyiv has asked for secrecy in order to keep the Kremlin guessing about its exact capabilities - a claim that has been denied by the Ukrainians.

Kyiv has become increasingly frustrated at delays in decision making in Berlin, where requests for the delivery of specific military hardware often take weeks to receive an answer.



Up until now Berlin has delivered weapons with a value of €186 million (£155 million), mainly anti-tank and surface-to-air missiles.

Mr Scholz has insisted that the delays are due to the fact that Germany is determined to deliver weapons that will be of real benefit.

During a visit to London last week, he said that “we strive to provide weapons that are helpful and effective. We have done that in the past, we will continue to do that.”

Defending Berlin’s record, Mr Scholz added that “the successes that the Ukrainian army has achieved shows that the weapons that we have supplied are particularly effective.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted on Sunday that he had discussed possible additional sanctions on Russia in a call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Mr Zelensky has called for an embargo on imported gas and oil from Russia, but Germany so far resisted pressure to do so.

Meanwhile, Pro-Russia protesters rallied in Germany demanding an end to discrimination they say they have been subjected to since the war began.

Pro-Russia supporters get a thumbs-down from an onlooker as they march through Frankfurt - YANN SCHREIBER

Around 600 people descended on Frankfurt on Sunday amid a sea of Russian flags.

Police threw up a large cordon to separate the protesters - marching behind a banner that read "Truth and diversity of opinion over PROPAGANDA" - from a pro-Ukraine counter-demonstration of around 100 people near the city's central banking district.

Germany is home to 1.2 million people of Russian origin and 325,000 from Ukraine. Authorities fear the conflict could be imported into Germany and the protests used to promote Moscow's war narrative.

Police have recorded 383 anti-Russian offences and 181 anti-Ukrainian offences since the Kremlin's invasion started on February 24.