(Vatican Radio) Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine claim that one of their top commanders has been assassinated by Ukrainian government forces. Lugansk People's Militia commander Oleg Anashchenko died early Saturday when his automobile exploded amid the worst clashes in the region since 2015. Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: Security forces and investigators surrounded a burned out vehicle in snow covered eastern Ukraine. The rebels' official Lugansk Information Center also said that a second, unidentified person in the car, was also killed in the explosion in Lugansk city.Lugansk is one of two Ukrainian republics where separatist rebels have been fighting government forces since April 2014 in a war that has killed more than 9800 people.Among those arriving at the scene was Leonid Tkachenko, the leading investigator of the prosecutor's office in the self-declared Lugansk Peoples Republic. "The vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser, ex...
(Vatican Radio) Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine claim that one of their top commanders has been assassinated by Ukrainian government forces. Lugansk People's Militia commander Oleg Anashchenko died early Saturday when his automobile exploded amid the worst clashes in the region since 2015.
Listen to the report by Stefan Bos:
Security forces and investigators surrounded a burned out vehicle in snow covered eastern Ukraine.
The rebels' official Lugansk Information Center also said that a second, unidentified person in the car, was also killed in the explosion in Lugansk city.
Lugansk is one of two Ukrainian republics where separatist rebels have been fighting government forces since April 2014 in a war that has killed more than 9800 people.
Among those arriving at the scene was Leonid Tkachenko, the leading investigator of the prosecutor's office in the self-declared Lugansk Peoples Republic. "The vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser, exploded today at around 7:58am [local time]," he told reporters. "The explosive device had been placed under the hood," he added.
KIEV BLAMED
A militia spokesman, Andrei Marochko, said Ukrainian special services were responsible for the blast. Fighting in eastern Ukraine sharply escalated this week. The Ukrainian command said Saturday that three of its soldiers were killed in the past day.
More than 30 people, including civilians, are now known to have died and several dozen injured in fighting this week in eastern Ukraine between government forces and the pro-Russia separatist rebels.
Fighting is especially reported around the town of Avdiivka. A deputy chief monitor of Europe's security organization OSCE, Alexander Hug, urged the warring sides to immediately end the worst violence in the region since 2015. "The heavy weapons that have been used by the other side to hit this this part of Avdiivka, and by this side to hit [nearby] Donetsk," he said while visiting the troubled region and meeting desperate residents.
"They [the heavy weapons] should not be there where they have been fired from," Hug explained. "And there were moments when it was not possible to count the violations [of the ceasefire and peace agreements] because they were overlapping and constant," he noted. "The sides have to stop firing immediately. We know they can. We have seen many times that they have full command and control. It is not an impossibility," Hug stressed.
Yet, his appeal has done little to ease tensions and many civilians now suffer in freezing temperatures amid power and food shortages.
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...