Vietnam's Gen-Z captivated by 50-year-old military victory

Tran Thi Minh Ha

Wed, April 30, 2025 


People camped out overnight ahead of Vietnam's military parade in Ho Chi Minh City (MANAN VATSYAYANA)MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/AFPMore


The Vietnam War ended before most of the current population was born, but like many young people Hoang Ha Linh was swept up in the excitement of the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Along with thousands of others, teenager Linh camped out overnight to watch Wednesday's military parade marking 50 years since the metropolis, now called Ho Chi Minh City, fell to communist forces to end two decades of conflict.

Communist Vietnam's tightly-controlled state media has pumped out a barrage of positive messaging about the anniversary.

But flag-waving youngsters on the streets of Ho Chi Minh City told AFP that it was TikTok and Instagram posts about preparations for the parade of red-bannered floats and goose-stepping soldiers in recent weeks that had fired their enthusiasm.

Linh, 17, admitted she knew little about the conflict, but was part of a wave of young people with no direct connection to the war who wanted to experience the spectacle.

The event made her "feel quite proud to be Vietnamese", she told AFP.

"We are grateful for what the veterans did for us, for the country, pulling us out of war," said Linh, who had travelled from the capital Hanoi to watch the parade.

"Even if we hate history lessons at school, we can learn so many things from this event that the teachers have tried again and again to tell us."

- 'Great fun' -

Communist North Vietnam's victory over the US-backed South culminated in tanks crashing through the gates of the presidential palace.

The defeat for its Cold War ally, and the chaotic scenes of helicopters desperately evacuating staff from the US embassy roof, marked a painful and humiliating blow to Washington's prestige.

Vietnam's Communist Party has huge sway over education and children are taught about the country's victories in schools nationwide.

The party also exercises complete control of the media in Vietnam, a one-party state.

"There is a non-stop barrage of propaganda about this (anniversary)," Zach Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, told AFP.

But many young people said it was pictures on social media that had got them excited.

"Vietnam doesn't really have many outward showy expressions of military strength," said Vu Minh Hoang from the Fulbright University Vietnam.

"I think most people are surprised or excited by it," said Hoang, a professor of history and Vietnam studies.

"They like to think that Vietnam has a strong military that can defend itself."

Dang Nguyen Tuan Minh, a 21-year-old student, scouted a spot to sit and wait for the parade on Tuesday evening.

"We all had great fun, staying the night together on the pavement like this," he said. "The vibe was so great."

"I think this is a very wonderful lesson for the young ones about what the older generation has done for us."

tmh-aph/pdw/rsc

Fall of Saigon: Vietnam marks 50 years since the war's end 

FRANCE 24 English

France 24 is a French public broadcast service. 

Wikipedia 

Apr 29, 2025 #Vietnam #Saigon #commemoration

Vietnam is preparing to commemorate 50 years since the fall of Saigon, which marked the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. The anniversary highlights a pivotal moment in the nation’s history, reflecting on its journey of recovery and reconciliation.

Fall of Saigon | Rare Footage of US Embassy Airlift and NVA Takeover (1975)

ITN Archive

Apr 30, 2025 #Vietnam #VietnamWar #Saigon

In the last week of April 1975, the US-backed Republic of Vietnam collapsed in the face of advancing North Vietnamese troops. Amid the turmoil, ITN journalists and an international crew documented the chaos engulfing the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon. One team escaped on an American helicopter before the city fell. Another was left behind to film the moment Communist forces entered the city. Journalist Michael Nicholson, camera operator Peter Wilkinson, and sound recordist Hugh Thomson documented the human tragedy as thousands of South Vietnamese refugees sought safe passage out of Saigon during Operation Frequent Wind, the US evacuation of the city. ITN’s Sandy Gall, after acting as an ‘evacuation warden’ for the Third Country Nationals (TCN) press, found himself left behind. On the morning of 30 April, Gall watched from the streets of Saigon as the final American helicopter lifted off from the US embassy compound. Teaming up with UPITN camera operator Lucien Botras and sound recordist Jacques Chaudenson, Gall spent the following days documenting the North Vietnamese capture of the city. 00:00 Introduction 01:28 1. Battle for Newport Bridge (28 April 1975) 05:37 2. US Embassy Airlift / Operation Frequent Wind (29 April 1975) 11:33 3. North Vietnamese Army enters Saigon (30 April 1975)

Body of Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian detention returned by Moscow with signs of torture and with missing organs

WAR CRIME  &  CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Ivana Kottasová, Victoria Butenko and Daria Tarasova-Markina, CNN
Wed, April 30, 2025 


A colleague of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna holds a photograph of her during an event in honor of her memory in Kyiv, on October 11, 2024. 

- Anatoloo Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images


The body of a young Ukrainian woman who died in Russian captivity after being held incommunicado for months was returned to Ukraine showing signs of torture, Ukrainian prosecutors have said.

Kyiv said the remains of journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who went missing during a reporting trip, were returned as part of a body exchange between Ukraine and Russia in February.

Yuriy Belousov, who heads the war crimes department at the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office, said that forensic examination found “numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment… including abrasions and hemorrhages on various parts of the body, a broken rib and possible traces of electric shock.”

He said the experts have determined the injuries were sustained while Roshchyna was still alive.

Russia is known to use electric shocks as a method of torture against detained Ukrainians, and the widespread nature of the practice was documented by CNN in the past.

Belousov said that repeated DNA analyses confirmed the body belonged to Roshchyna, even though it reportedly arrived from Russia labeled as “an unidentified male.” He said the state of the body made it impossible to determine the cause of Roshchyna’s death, but added that Ukraine was working with international forensic experts to get more answers.

Roshchyna’s colleagues at Ukrainska Pravda said her body was returned from Russia with missing organs. Citing members of the investigating team who handled her remains, they said the brain, eyeballs and part of the trachea, or windpipe, were missing, in what they said could have been an attempt by Russia to disguise the cause of death

CNN has reached out to the Russian Federal Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova and to the Russian penitentiary services for comment.

Colleagues of Victoria Roshchyna attend a vigil in Kyiv, on October 11, 2024. - Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images

Held in brutal detention center

Roshchyna went missing in August 2023. Her colleagues said the reporter went to a Russian-held part of Ukraine – a dangerous ordeal for any Ukrainian – to report on the lives of people living under occupation.

Journalist Evgeniya Motorevskaya, who worked with Roshchyna as the former editor of Hromadske, a Ukrainian media outlet, said the young reporter was determined to do her job as best as she could.

“For her, there was nothing more important than journalism. Vika was always where the most important events for the country took place. And she would have continued to do this for many years, but the Russians killed her,” she said in a statement published on Hromadske’s website when Roshchyna’s death was first announced, referring to her by her diminutive.

Like thousands of other Ukrainian civilians, Roshchyna was snatched by Russian authorities in occupied Ukraine and deported into Russia where she was held without charge or trial.

By September 2024, Roshchyna, a healthy 27-year old, was dead – although her family didn’t find out until about a month later, when they received a notification from Russia.

Petro Yatsenko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Coordination Center for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said in October that Roshchyna died while being transferred from a detention facility in the southern Russian city of Taganrog to Moscow.

He said the transfer was in preparation for her release as part of a prisoner exchange.

The detention facility in Taganrog is known for its cruel treatment of detainees. CNN has previously spoken to prisoners held there, who described being subjected to physical and psychological abuse, being given insufficient amounts of food and denied access to basic health care.

Reporters with Ukrainska Pravda have partnered up with journalists from more than a dozen international media after her death was announced, to try to piece together what happened to her during the last few months of her life.

They interviewed dozens of prisoners, as well as prison guards and human rights defenders. They were able to trace her movements and describe the brutality of her detention.

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Russia and North Korea finally admit that Kim Jong Un's troops were fighting Ukraine

Matthew Loh
Sun, April 27, 2025

Moscow and Pyongyang have confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting in Russia's war.


It's the first time either government has admitted to Kim Jong Un sending soldiers to fight Ukraine.


Both praised North Korean and Russian troops as fighting "shoulder to shoulder" against Kyiv.

Moscow and Pyongyang have, for the first time, officially acknowledged that North Korean troops are fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine.

It's been widely reported for months that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had sent thousands of his elite troops to assist Russian ground assaults in Kursk.

But Russia and North Korea remained silent on the matter even as evidence mounted of Pyongyang's direct involvement, until now.

On Saturday, the Kremlin quoted Valery Gerasimov, the chief of staff of Russia's armed forces, thanking North Korean troops at a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

"I would like to separately note the participation of the servicemen of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in the liberation of the border areas of the Kursk region," he said in Russian.

Gerasimov praised Pyongyang's troops as showing "courage and heroism," and said they had been "performing combat missions shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen."

On Monday morning, Pyongyang time, North Korea issued its own official recognition of its troops' fighting against Ukraine.

State media wrote that North Korean combat units had "participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk areas."

The North Korean report used similar wording to Gerasimov, writing that its troops had been "shedding blood in the same trench shoulder to shoulder" with Russian forces.

Neither the Kremlin nor Pyongyang outlined specific plans for any further involvement of North Korean troops in the war.

However, North Korean state media added that Kim was "determined to make the combat sub-units of our armed forces participate in the war." Kim further described strengthening ties with Russia as a "sacred mission."

North Korea's direct involvement in hostilities in Ukraine has been widely interpreted as a significant escalation to the war, and there are fears that Pyongyang's troops, who have so far been seen fighting in Russia's Kursk region, could be used to fight on Ukraine's sovereign territory.

That could create spill-over effects for South Korea's military, as well.

As reports first emerged in the fall of 2024 that Russia was receiving direct assistance from Pyongyang, South Korea had said it may consider sending lethal aid to Ukraine, which stands to pull Asia further into the war.

Ukrainian reports estimate that about 14,000 North Korean troops were sent to fight in Kursk. Many were likely killed or wounded as they were deployed in high-attrition infantry assaults.


Seoul and Washington have also repeatedly voiced concerns that North Korean troops are gaining valuable combat experience, such as lessons on how to deal with drones, from fighting in a modern war against Ukraine.

Both Gerasimov and North Korean state media reported that Kursk, which Ukraine invaded in a surprise attack in the summer of last year, had been effectively cleared of Kyiv's forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, posted on social media on Sunday that Ukraine was still fighting at "defensive positions" in Kursk.

Business Insider

Ukraine said 120,000 useless mortar rounds were sent to its front line after a manufacturer tried to cut costs

Matthew Loh

Tue, April 29, 2025 

• Ukraine said it uncovered a conspiracy that ended with 120,000 bad mortar shells sent to its troops.

• Its security service said a defense plant had tried to cut costs by knowingly using cheap parts.

• Officials made four arrests as Ukraine remains hard-pressed to keep its ammo supplies flowing.

Ukraine's internal security bureau said on Tuesday that it had detained four people after investigating the supply of 120,000 defective mortar shells to its troops.

The Security Service of Ukraine, also known as the SBU, wrote on its Telegram channel that the people arrested included a military official, a quality control official, and two heads of a defense manufacturing business.

The announcement came six months after Ukrainian media reported complaints from some frontline units that their 120 mm mortar shells weren't firing or would fail to explode.

In a video that went viral in November, one soldier said only about one in 10 rounds would make it out of its launcher and detonate effectively. At the time, Ukrainian journalists reported that up to 100,000 shells were due to be recalled.

The SBU said it investigated a defense plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region, home to the key city of Dnipro, and found that the four people arrested had conspired to "supply defective mortar shells to the frontline."

"For mass production, the suspects used substandard materials and performed faulty workmanship, causing the main charge primer to fail and resulting in unstable performance of the entire propellant charge," the SBU's statement said.

The security service didn't name the arrested persons, but it accused all four of conspiring to "reduce production costs to increase their profits."

The SBU said the military and quality control officials "deliberately ignored" the defective ammunition and falsified records to cover up the scheme.

"Consequently, 120,000 unusable shells reached the front line," it added. If found guilty, the four detainees face up to 15 years in prison, the SBU said.

Artillery ammunition has been especially key to Ukraine's defense as the war has dragged into an extended battle of attrition. One of Kyiv's most pressing issues is the war's strain on the number of soldiers it can field at a time, and it faces a dilemma of whether to lower its draft requirements to include men as young as 18.

But Ukraine is also trying to prevent a shortage of ammunition, which Europe and the US have been working in overdrive to supply. Amid the rush, Kyiv has been trying to boost its local defense manufacturing scene, which is already cranking out millions of first-person view drones.

 Business Insider