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Auschwitz 80 years since liberation: Ryszard Horowitz's story of survival and making the American Dream

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Auschwitz 80 years since liberation: Ryszard Horowitz's story of survival and making the American Dream

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A film shows a large group of children walking out of Auschwitz concentration camp in the company of nuns. Regina Horowitz recognized her own child and begged the camera operator to give her the frames of the film depicting Ryszard. 

There are very few survivors left as the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz. The Horowitz family’s tale of survival is one such documentation. 

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The Kraków orphanage would send her Regina Horowitz to another address, where she miraculously found her five-year-old son, who was just as shocked to see his mom alive. And not just her, but also his sister Niusia and his grandmother . . . all three women saved by German industrialist Oskar Schindler. 

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Ryszard Horowitz, Niusia Horowitz-Karakulska and Roman Polanski enjoying a day at Wawel Royal Castle in Kraków, with Roman’s uncle. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz )

Renowned photographer Ryszard Horowitz was born on May 5th, 1939, to a loving family in the historic city of Kraków, the former capital of Poland, but just four months later Nazi Germany invaded Poland, resulting in utter devastation.

Ryszard Horowitz, highlighted, behind the barbed wire of Auschwitz Concentration Camp, Liberation of the camp in 1945. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz )

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The war would turn brutal and sinister, especially for Poland’s Jews.

“When the Germans marched into Kraków,” Horowitz told Fox News Digital, “my parents’ first reaction was to run away. They packed their suitcases and left me with my non-Jewish nanny, Antosia. But soon they returned with my sister, because they did not want me to stay behind. So, we were reunited but eventually forced to relocate to the ghetto.”

Dawid and Regina Horowitz, wedding photo. Kraków, 1932. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz )

The Nazis segregated Jews from the rest of the population, forcing them into Krakow’s notorious ghetto. Life was bleak behind the fences, in constant fear of Nazi persecution. 

Kraków Ghetto, gate one, 1941. Photo from the collection of The Historical Museum of the City of Kraków, Poland.

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Fortunately for Ryszard, there was an older boy there, called Roman Liebling, known later as Roman Polanski, who attended his third birthday party. According to Polanski, although food was scarce, by some miracle Ryszard’s mother, Regina, managed to procure hot chocolate for the kids. Ryszard, however, did not care for hot chocolate and refused to drink it.

Niusia Horowitz, Roman Polanski, Ryszard Horowitz, Roma Ligocka in Kraków, 1946. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

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By 1943, the Germans were liquidating Kraków’s ghetto, and the Horowitz family was forced to relocate to a Nazi concentration camp in Plaszow. It was run by a notorious Nazi commander, Austrian officer Amon Göth.

The remnants of a wall from the Jewish ghetto in Krakow, Poland. January 11, 2023. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

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“It was a terrible camp, because the man in charge was an extremely brutal character. He created a tremendous sense of fear. He was shooting people right and left. He was like a God in terms of his power and made life there totally impossible,” Horowitz recalled. 

Göth liked to throw parties in his villa, where two of Ryszard’s musician uncles were forced to play. 

Ryszard Horowitz’s uncles had careers as entertainers before World War Two began. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

One of the men attending the parties was German industrialist Oskar Schindler. His friendship with Göth enabled him to run a business that would ultimately become a lifeline for many of the camps Jews.

“Oscar Schindler got permission to open a factory producing utensils for the German army, and my family worked there.” Horowitz explained.

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Steven Spielberg, Ryszard Horowitz, Ania Bogusz and Bronisława Horowitz-Karakulska. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

Steven Spielberg introduced Oskar Schindler to the entire world in his 1993 movie “Schindler’s List,” and Horowitz shared some observations about the famed businessman.

 “Everybody will tell you something else about him. How good he was, how bad he was, how handsome he was, how many women he had, but the bottom line is . . . somehow, he felt this urge to save people. Once, he got into trouble when he kissed my sister when she gave him a cake for his birthday,” Horowitz said. 

In 1944, the Germans decided it was time to dismantle Plaszow, disguise the traces of their atrocities, and close Schindler’s factory.  

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The Jewish Cemetery in Kraków, photocomposition by Ryszard Horowitz. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

“Schindler managed to get permission to move a certain number of workers to his factory in Brünnlitz, in Czechoslovakia,” Horowitz said. 

Brünnlitz was a German labor camp, and as Spielberg showed in his film, a list was created with names of those who would be relocated there. 

“There is no question that there was a list, and my family was on that list. I was not, because I was too small to work, but somehow, I managed to squeeze in. There were two transports, one of men and one of women. I was traveling with my father,” Horowitz explained. 

Schindler’s men made it to Brünnlitz alive, but Ryszard’s life was about to unravel.

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“We waited for the women to follow us to Brünnlitz. But, for some reason, we do not know why, they were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp instead,” he said. 

Schindler hurried to Auschwitz to rescue his women and left Josef Leipold in charge of his factory. 

“Leipold was the exact opposite of Schindler.” Horowitz said. “From the beginning, his idea was to finish us off. And he did not want children there. So, he packed us with our fathers and shipped us to Auschwitz.”

Upon arriving at Auschwitz, Ryszard was selected to have concentration camp numbers tattooed on his forearm. Which meant he would stay alive, for a time.

Businessman Oskar Schindler speaks about saving lives during the Holocaust of Germany’s Third Reich in an interview with United Press International. (Bettmann / Contributor/Getty Images)

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Oskar Schindler managed to rescue the women. They were aboard a train that was about to depart for Auschwitz.

Horowitz recalled these heartbreaking moments, “My cousin and I saw the train, and my mother was there, my sister, my grandmother . . . and they saw us. My mother was certain this was the last time she would see me. They went to Brünnlitz, and my father and I remained in Auschwitz.”

In January 1945, with the Red Army approaching, German SS forces marched thousands of prisoners out of Auschwitz to different camps on German territory. Richard’s father, Dawid “Dolek” Horowitz, was forced to leave his son behind.

“I think that one of the reasons I survived was that a man in charge of a warehouse, Roman Gunz, agreed to look after me. Sometimes he would feed me, and when things got difficult, he would hide me in the warehouse or inside the infectious hospital ward,” Horowitz said. 

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Then one day, the nightmare of Auschwitz came to an end.

“When the Red Army came close to the camp, the Germans were in a panic. They rounded all the kids up and were ready to shoot us, but just then two German officers arrived on motorcycles screaming to drop everything and follow them, so they did,” Horowitz remembered. 

A few hours later, Soviet troops entered Auschwitz.

“The Red Army arrived, most of them on horseback,” he said. “They gave us food and sweets. They had cameras with them, and they recorded a lot of footage. The following day, nuns arrived and took us to an orphanage in Kraków. Polanski’s aunt Tosia found me there and took me to her apartment on Dluga Street. And Roman was already there.”

The Horowitz Family survivors, Szachne, Sabina, Niusia, Regina, Ryszard and Dawid. Kraków, Poland.  (Ryszard Horowitz)

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In March 1945, Brünnlitz was liberated, and the Horowitz women returned to Kraków. 

“One day, my mom was out in the market Square, where they were showing a documentary movie about the liberation of Auschwitz, and she recognized me in it,” Horowitz said. 

The Horowitz women moved in with Roman Polanski’s family. They were soon joined by Dawid Horowitz.

“We all lived under one roof for two years, until my father got us a nice apartment near Market Square,” Horowitz said. 

After the war, Poles found their country in ruins with a hostile communist regime in charge. 

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“Most of my closest friends and their families were anti-communists. Everybody’s dream was to get out of Poland as fast as possible,” Horowitz explained. 

Regina and Dawid Horowitz reunite with Oskar Schindler and Henry Rosner in Vienna. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

Dawid Horowitz managed to open a store selling tools and building materials, with Polanski’s aunt Tosia as his business partner. Life went on.

“For me and my friends, life was pretty good at the time, because we were not engaged in politics. We were artists, and we believed that we lived in a totally free society, so we did what we wanted to do, and we had this amazing outlet, a cabaret called “Piwnica pod Barnami” (The Cellar under the Rams). And we had jazz,” Horowitz recalled. 

Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond, in Kraków,1958. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

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In 1958, American jazz pianist Dave Brubeck arrived in Kraków to perform. Ryszard Horowitz was there with his camera and documented it in pictures. Little did he know that photography was his future. And that future was on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Ryszard Horowitz, aboard the Polish ocean liner “MS Batory,” departing for America in 1959. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

“I had this opportunity because my uncles here in New York were ready to offer me room and board. And I also received a scholarship from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn,” Horowitz said. 

With his father’s encouragement and some U.S. dollars hidden in the heel of his shoe, Horowitz boarded the Polish ocean liner “MS Batory.” 

Life as an immigrant in the Big Apple was a mixed bag. But at the Pratt Institute, Horowitz quickly exhibited a unique talent for photography.

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Ryszard Horowitz photo shoot for Tiffany & Co. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

“I created their first photography lab at Pratt, and I was asked to design their 75th anniversary yearbook, which I edited, and I pretty much took all the photographs for them. It was the first time in history that the New York Art Directors Club gave an award to a student. So, this became my portfolio,” Horowitz explained. 

Photocomposer Ryszard Horowitz: One-Man show in Beijing, China. (Ryszard Horowitz)

Ryszard connected with influential people who helped pave his way to success. Among them were photographer Richard Avedon, graphic artist Saul Steinberg and ballet choreographer Sergei Diaghilev, as well as his idol, disc jockey Willis Conover, who hosted the Jazz Hour on the Voice of America.

Through the lens of his camera, Horowitz saw the world somewhat differently. His photographs looked like computer-generated graphics, except that they predated the digital age. He became known as the pioneer of special effects photography. 

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“I found a way of reversing perspective and juxtaposing large objects to make them look small and vice versa,” Horowitz said. 

Horowitz was a master of light. He learned to manipulate light to photograph expensive jewelry and new cars. 

“My art education in Kraków helped me – my devotion to the great masters of painting,” Horowitz explained. 

Ryszard Horowitz receives an honorary doctorate at the University of Warsaw, Poland. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

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His iconic commercial work captivated audiences in the world of advertising, bringing him fame and prestigious awards. He received honorary doctorates from the University of Warsaw and Wrocław in Poland, and in 2014, his hometown of Kraków made him an honorary citizen.

“Some of my photographs consist of different images taken in different parts of the world, and they are merged into a single unit that’s not jarring but believable. They appear as though they are an instance of a situation that never existed except in my head. That’s why I call myself a ‘photocomposer,” Horowitz explained. 

Award-winning digital photo-composition: Allegory (1992) by Ryszard Horowitz. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz. (Ryszard Horowitz)

He achieved success in his personal life as well. Since 1974, he’s been happily married to Anna Bogusz, and they have two grown sons: Daniel and Emil.

Emil, Ania and Daniel Horowitz. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz.

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“I met Ania at a party. She was an architecture student from a Polish family living in Caracas, Venezuela. She was only passing through New York on her way to Paris to continue her studies. She never made it to Paris,” Horowitz smiled, recollecting meeting the love of his life. 

Ania Bogusz and Ryszard Horowitz, 1974. Photo courtesy Ryszard Horowitz.

So many years after he walked out of Auschwitz alive, Ryszard Horowitz feels blessed to live the American Dream with his family, and doing what he loves most – creating his photo compositions . . . and listening to jazz.

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Riverside Church Trial: 2 Ex-Players Testify to Being Sexually Abused

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Riverside Church Trial: 2 Ex-Players Testify to Being Sexually Abused

Two more former college basketball players testified Friday to being sexually abused as teens by the multimillionaire coach of New York’s esteemed Riverside Church basketball program, echoing the allegations of their boyhood teammate Daryl Powell, who’s suing the church in a state Supreme Court civil court trial in Manhattan.

Former Riverside players Byron Walker and Mitchell Shuler both took the stand on the trial’s second day, frequently choking up as they described their experiences with Ernest Lorch, who built the church basketball program into a model for the massive modern youth sports industry—but died in 2012 with a reputation tarnished by abuse allegations.

Walker described a pair of incidents in which he alleged Lorch forced himself on the player, ostensibly to discipline him. One of the alleged assaults Walker described, detailed in a joint Rolling Stone and Sportico investigation, resulted in a criminal indictment against Lorch in Massachusetts in 2010. (Lorch never stood trial in the case because of his failing health.) On Friday, Walker told the six jurors and three alternates that during halftime of a game in Springfield, Mass., in 1977, Lorch “tried to penetrate me,” ostensibly while punishing him for being late for the team van.

The former player also went into detail about a second allegation during a tournament in Arizona, where, Walker said, Lorch threatened to prevent him from talking to a college recruiter because he broke curfew and was drinking with teammates. After issuing that threat, Walker said on the stand, Lorch forced him to pull down his pants and sexually assaulted him. “There’s this back and forth motion,” the former point guard at the University of Texas-El Paso testified, “like I was being raped.”

Walker’s testimony followed that of Mitchell Shuler, who played on the same late-1970s Riverside elite high-school-age travel teams with Walker and Powell. Shuler, whose play with Riverside helped him gain a scholarship to the University of New Orleans, broke down several times when describing Lorch’s use of a paddle to punish him for indiscretions ranging from not working hard in practice to struggling in a high school French class. “I got down on my knees, like a dog, and got hit,” said Shuler, who last year retired as a project manager at Harlem Hospital after a 40-year career. “My bare butt was exposed.”

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Shuler also described being stared at by Lorch while showering and enduring “jockstrap checks” in which the coach groped his testicles.

Both players were called as witnesses by attorneys for Powell, whose case is the first of 27 lawsuits filed against Riverside to go to trial under New York’s 2019 Child Victims Act. He alleges that Riverside was negligent in supervising Lorch over his 40-year run at the head of the basketball program, which ended in 2002 after the first public allegations of abuse by a former player.

But Shuler and Walker are also suing Riverside, which Riverside attorney Phil Semprevivo pointed out to the jury. Earlier in the day, Powell faced tough questions on cross-examination by Semprevivo, who sought to poke holes in his case against the church—including differences in the plaintiff’s trial testimony Thursday and an earlier sworn deposition in the case in 2023.

For example, Powell testified Thursday that Lorch “stroked” the player’s penis as part of jockstrap checks and inserted his finger in Powell’s anus. Semprevivo pointed out that Powell never used those terms or descriptions at any point in his earlier deposition.

He also questioned Powell’s stated rationale for quitting basketball completely after a successful junior season at Marist College in 1982. On Thursday, Powell emphasized that he quit Marist with a year left on his full scholarship because he was “fed up” with the sport after his history with Riverside. Semprevivo pointed to other deposition testimony that Powell said he quit school to be with his future wife. Under questioning Friday, Powell said both reasons factored in his decision.

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The former player also said some discrepancies in his testimony were a result of his diminished hearing. But Semprevivo, pointing out several contradictions or inaccuracies on things like dates, said Powell had ample opportunity to correct the deposition record and failed to do so.

One such instance: Powell said in his deposition that he never mentioned being abused by Lorch to any Riverside assistant coaches, including Kenny “Eggman” Williamson, who died in 2012. But in his trial testimony, Powell gave a detailed account of telling Williamson that Lorch was looking down his shorts and paddling him. Powell testified that he remembered it vividly because, he said, he told Williamson on the day of the infamous, riot-plagued 1977 New York City blackout.

Powell said on Thursday that Williamson told him, “If you know what I know, you better not say anything, or you’re not playing for this team anymore.”

Powell continued: “I was devastated. I shut my mouth up. I wanted to stay on the team.”

Semprevivo pointed out on Friday that Powell signed a statement in 2024 that corrected some errors in his deposition, but never amended his statement that he’d never said anything to Williamson.

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UAE cuts funding for citizens studying at UK universities over campus radicalization fears: report

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UAE cuts funding for citizens studying at UK universities over campus radicalization fears: report

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The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is removing funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom, citing concerns they could be radicalized abroad. 

The move means the UAE has removed British universities from a list of higher education institutions eligible for state scholarships amid growing tensions over London’s decision not to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, The Financial Times reported. 

“[The UAE] don’t want their kids to be radicalized on campus,” a person directly involved with the decision told the outlet. 

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A “Welcome to the People’s University for Palestine” banner at King’s College at the University of Cambridge May 11, 2024, in Cambridge, U.K.  (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)

Since then, Emirati students who have applied to their government for scholarships to study in the U.K. have been denied. 

The move also means that the UAE will not recognize qualifications from academic institutions that are not on its accredited list, rendering degrees from U.K. universities less valuable than others, according to the report. 

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The skyline in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where funding for its citizens to study in the United Kingdom has been halted.  (Vidhyaa Chandramohan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

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“All forms of extremism have absolutely no place in our society, and we will stamp them out wherever they are found,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said in a statement. “We offer one of the best education systems in the world and maintain stringent measures on student welfare and on-campus safety.”

The UAE has taken a hardline approach to Islamist movements abroad and at home. 

During the 2023-24 school year, 70 students at U.K. universities were reported for possible referral to the government’s deradicalization program, the report states. 

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UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has repeatedly questioned the U.K.’s decision to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. 

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Starmer’s administration last year said the matter was under “close review.”

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416

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Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,416

These are the key developments from day 1,416 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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Here is where things stand on Saturday, January 10:

Fighting:

  • The death toll from a massive Russian attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv that began on Thursday night has risen to four, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service wrote in an update shared on Facebook on Friday. At least 25 people were also injured, including five rescuers, the service added.
  • The attack left thousands of Kyiv apartments without heat, electricity and water as temperatures fell to minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and other local officials said.
  • Klitschko called on people to temporarily leave the city, saying on Telegram that “half of apartment buildings in Kyiv – nearly 6,000 – are currently without heating because the capital’s critical infrastructure was damaged by the enemy’s massive attack”.
  • Russian forces shelled a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kherson just after midday on Friday, damaging the intensive care unit and injuring three nurses, the regional prosecutor’s office wrote on Telegram.
  • “As a result of the attack, three nurses aged 21, 49, and 52 were wounded. At the time of the shelling, the women were inside the medical facility,” the office said in a statement.
  • The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, condemned attacks on healthcare in Ukraine in a statement shared on X, saying that there had been nine attacks since the beginning of 2026, killing one patient, one medic and injuring 11 others, including healthcare workers and patients.
  • Tedros said that the attacks further “complicated the delivery of health care during the winter period” and called for “the protection of health care facilities, patients and health workers”.
  • Russian forces attacked two foreign-flagged civilian vessels with drones in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region, killing a Syrian national and injuring another, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Kuleba and other officials said on Friday.
  • A Ukrainian drone attack on a bus in Russia’s Belgorod region injured four people, the regional task force reported, according to Russia’s TASS state news agency.
  • Russian forces seized five settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region, including Zelenoye, the Russian Ministry of Defence said, according to TASS.
  • Ukrainian battlefield monitoring site DeepState said on Friday that Russian forces advanced in Huliaipole and Prymorske in the Zaporizhia region, but did not report any further changes.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Russia’s Oreshnik missile strike late on Thursday was “demonstratively” close to Ukraine’s border with the European Union.
  • The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun consultations to establish a temporary ceasefire zone near Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after military activity damaged one of two high-voltage power lines, Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in a statement on Friday.

Sanctions

  • US forces seized the Olina oil tanker and forced it to return to Venezuela so its oil could be sold “through the GREAT Energy Deal”, United States President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday. According to The Associated Press news agency, US government records showed that the Olina had been sanctioned for moving Russian oil under its prior name, Minerva M.
  • Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said that Ukrainian nationals were among members of the crew of the Russian-flagged tanker Marinera seized earlier this week by US forces over its links to Venezuela, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency.
  • The Russian Foreign Ministry separately said on Friday that the US had released two Russian crewmembers from the Marinera, expressing gratitude to Washington for the decision and pledging to ensure the return home of crewmembers.

Politics and diplomacy

  • Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “deep regret” over damage to its embassy in Kyiv, confirming that no diplomats or staff were hurt, in a statement on Friday. The ministry underscored the importance of protecting diplomatic buildings and reiterated its call for a “resolution to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis through dialogue and peaceful means”.
  • British Defence Secretary John Healey said that the United Kingdom was allocating 200 million pounds ($270m) to fund preparations for the possible deployment of troops to Ukraine, during a visit to Kyiv on Friday.
  • The leaders of Britain, France and Germany described Russia’s use of an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in western Ukraine as “escalatory and unacceptable”, according to a readout of their call released by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office on Friday.
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