Iran executed at least 582 people last year, a 75% increase on the previous year, according to human rights groups who say the rise reflects an effort by Tehran to “instill fear” among anti-regime protesters.

It was the highest number of executions in the Islamic republic since 2015, according to a report released Thursday by the Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) and the France-based Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM) groups.

The vast majority of the executions – at least 544 – were of people accused of murder and drug-related offenses, said the report. It added that almost 90% of the executions it recorded were not announced by Iranian authorities and some had been carried out in secret.

The two rights groups said the increase was Tehran’s way of trying to frighten protesters and prevent dissent, following a nationwide uprising sparked by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last September.

“Iran’s authorities demonstrated how crucial the death penalty is to instill societal fear in order to hold onto power,” the report said.

Iranian authorities have responded to the protests with brute force, mass arrests and hasty sham trials, drawing sharp global condemnation and sanctions from the United States.

The report documented 15 executions carried out on the vaguely defined charges of “enmity against God” and “corruption on Earth.”

Mohsen Shekari – reportedly the first person to be executed in connection with the protests – was hanged on December 8 after he was convicted of “waging war against God” for allegedly stabbing a member of the Basij paramilitary force, a wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, at a protest in Tehran on September 23. Less than a week later, Majidreza Rahnavard was also convicted for reportedly killing two members of the same paramilitary force and injuring four others on November 17.

Two other Iranian young men – Mohammad Mehdi Karami, a karate champion; and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, a volunteer children’s coach – were hanged on January 7 this year in connection with the protests, according to Iran’s judiciary news agency Mizan. They were convicted of killing a member of the Basij paramilitary force in Karaj on November 3, Mizan reported. The human rights report said they were charged with “corruption on Earth.”

Dozens of other protesters have received death sentences in recent months.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has openly praised the Basij for its role in the crackdown, describing the protesters as “rioters” and “thugs” backed by foreign forces.

But United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has criticized the crackdown as pushing Iran into a “full-fledged human rights crisis.”

An ‘execution machine’

More than half of the executions last year took place after the protests erupted in September. Some 44% of all those sentenced to death were accused of drug-related offenses, despite no evidence of a marked rise in drug use or trafficking reported by international agencies, the report said.

IHR Director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam suggested Iran would have executed even more people had it not been for “international reactions to the death sentences against protesters” which had “made it difficult for the Islamic republic to proceed” with the killings.

“To compensate, and in order to spread fear among people, the authorities have intensified executions for non-political charges. These are the low-cost victims of the Islamic republic’s execution machine,” Amiry-Moghaddam said.

“In order to stop this machine, the international community and civil society inside and outside Iran must show the same reaction to each and every execution,” he added.

In the report, the two rights groups urged the international community “to increase efforts to support the demands of the Iranian people for respect of their fundamental human rights and the abolition of the death penalty.”

Calling for peace in Ukraine from thousands of miles away, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been trying to position himself as a possible mediating force in the conflict for months now.

Without offering much detail on the plan, Lula, as he is known, seems to be fully embodying his government’s line that “Brazil is back” — that is, back to claim a role in global politics. He says he aims to form a coalition of countries willing to intervene and lead efforts for peace in Ukraine, though in the process is finding himself treading a thin line with the world’s biggest powers.

Lula’s proposal is to create “a G20 for peace” – a group of countries strong enough to be respected at the negotiating table, but that are still considered by some as neutral in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Indonesia, India, and China would play a crucial role in his vision, but Latin American countries are also invited to join the apparent initiative.

When he launched his political comeback in 2022, Lula told Time magazine that he thought both Russia and Ukraine were responsible for the conflict. Lula condemned Russia’s decision to invade its neighbor, but controversially claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could have done more to avoid the conflict. Once in office, he insisted that Brazil would not take a side.

But when German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz recently encouraged Brazil to contribute weapons to Ukraine’s defense, Lula felt compelled to do something, explains Guilherme Casarões, political scientist and professor at Fundação Getúlio Vargas’ Public Administration School.

“He was sitting on the fence, he was very comfortable where he was, and now he had to get off the fence,” Casarões said.

Lula could not contemplate sending weapons – a step that would go far beyond Brazil’s traditional foreign policy, suggested the analyst.

“No Brazilian administration, not even Bolsonaro’s, I’d say, would send weapons to Ukraine. Brazil doesn’t engage in wars we have nothing to do with, Brazil doesn’t participate unless it’s a world war of sorts,” Casarões said.

But he couldn’t do nothing, either – after all, Lula had promised to bring Brazil “back” to the world stage.

“He could have just said ‘no’, but he did not,” says Casarões. “Instead he said, ‘Ok I’m not sending weapons to Ukraine but let’s try to broker peace, let’s use Brazil’s reputation and my own skills as a mediator to allow for a peace summit to take place, let’s try to work it out. If I am to take sides, let me take the side of dialogue’.”

A hard sell

The United States, France, and Germany have heard Lula’s pitch to create a team of peacemakers. Lula has also broached the idea with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but left Beijing earlier this month without any formal commitment.

Lula has struggled to make his proposal widely persuasive. One controversial idea that he has floated for a possible resolution would see Ukraine cede Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014 – a concession that Kyiv has ruled out and which the White House has described as “simply misguided.”

Lula’s shoot-from-the-hip approach to consensus-building has also been rocky. Until recently, the US – a close ally to Kyiv – had largely kept quiet about Lula’s comments on Ukraine. But while still in Beijing last week, Lula took aim directly at Washington, who along with the EU have been major suppliers of defensive arms and aid to Ukraine.

Lula told reporters the US should stop “encouraging” the war “and start talking about peace” – a comment that drew praise from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and anger from Washington.

Two days later, US National Security spokesman John Kirby accused Brazil of “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda.”

It is “deeply problematic how Brazil has substantively and rhetorically approached this issue by suggesting that the United States and Europe are somehow not interested in peace, or that we share responsibility for the war,” Kirby said. “Quite frankly, in this case, Brazil was parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts.”

Chastised, Lula later seemed to soften his tone; during a speech at the occasion of the visit of the president of Romania the very next day, the Brazilian leader emphasized that his government “condemns the violation of territorial integrity of Ukraine” and at the same time “defend[s] a negotiated political solution.”

“Where we start having some difficulty understanding the ideas of the Brazilian government is precisely when they place the attacker and the attacked on the same level,” he said.

Lula needs to hone his message and show his willingness to engage with Ukraine now if he hopes to maintain credibility in Europe and the US, and to ultimately claim any credit for peacemaking, says Casarões. “Lula hasn’t really thought about what kinds of things he was going to say, in this effort of building this unaligned position,” he said.

“If Lula keeps on reaffirming that Russia and Ukraine are equally responsible for the war, I think that his capital is going to wane at some point, so it’s important for Lula to take a step back, maybe reconsider some of the things that he has said on the war, and maybe change the way he puts it, even if slightly. I think that will be enough for people to understand where Brazil really stands.”

He suggests that Lula could invite a Ukrainian delegation to Brasilia, to match Lavrov’s visit last week.

“Let’s show them that we are really willing, really committed to talking to both sides,” Casarões says.

As of Friday, Lula had asked foreign policy adviser and former foreign minister Celso Amorim to travel to Ukraine, although no date has been set for the trip. Amorim also met with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month in Moscow.

But Lula’s position will remain complicated as he attempts to protect Brazil’s economic interest while catapulting himself into a fraught geopolitical arena.

China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner and a major buyer of Brazilian soy and beef. For both of these commodities, Brazilian farmers also depend on Russian fertilizers. The economic and diplomatic agendas could come crashing down, if he slips.

Andre Pagliarini, assistant professor of history at Hampden-Sydney College and a non-resident fellow at the Washington Brazil Office and Quincy Institute, says China is ultimately part of the reason why a Lula-brokered peace deal is unlikely to take shape.

“China, like Brazil, has an interest in getting Russia to end the war. Unlike Brazil, however, it has the ability to force Putin’s hand and unlike Brazil has no interest in sharing credit for peace,” Pagliarini said.

As Lula continues his world tour of “Brazil is back”, he also faces a variety of challenges at home — from the firing of his chief of security over leaked video of the January 8 riots in Brasilia, to the growing political threat of Brazil’s radical right. His country’s economy is shrinking and inflation is rising; indigenous communities in the Amazon are in crisis; and food security haunts the nation.

A strategy of maintaining Brazil’s tradition of nonalignment and charting an independent path from the great global powers could be good for both him and for Brazilians. The government’s view is that the sanctions imposed on Russia by the US, Japan, and EU countries have severely disrupted global commerce and agriculture, and this impact is outsized for developing countries whose economies are still reeling from a pandemic – Brazil included.

There is a chance Brazil can look good brokering peace while still doing what is best for its own economic growth – but the stakes are high.

“If it can deliver real material gains for Brazilians, I think it’ll be considered a success,” Pagliarini says. “If living standards don’t improve for Brazilians, however, Lula’s foreign policy will likely play into a narrative that he is too old and backward to lead Brazil into the next decade.”

Yemen’s Houthi rebels are not interested in spreading tyranny in the country and are willing to share power with other political factions if a permanent ceasefire with Saudi Arabia is reached, a top Houthi official has said.

His attempts at reassurance will likely be viewed skeptically by the Houthis’ rivals, and come amid concerns from other stakeholders that a truce with Saudi Arabia will give the heavily-armed Iran-backed rebels free rein to take over the entire country.

Yemen’s conflict began as a civil war in 2014, when Houthi forces stormed the capital Sanaa and toppled the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government. It spiraled into a wider war in 2015 when a Saudi-led coalition intervened in an attempt to beat back the Houthis. Eight years later, the coalition has been unable to dislodge the rebels, who have fired hundreds of rockets toward Saudi cities in retaliation. The war has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, leaving thousands dead and pushing parts of the country into famine.

A Saudi delegation arrived in Sanaa on Sunday for talks with the Houthis aimed at securing a permanent ceasefire. And on Friday, negotiations bore their biggest fruits yet with the beginning of a three-day prisoner swap of nearly 900 detainees from both sides. Houthi chief negotiator Mohammed Abdulsalam tweeted on Friday that talks had been “serious and positive.”

Saudi Arabia has begun mending ties with old foes of late, namely Iran, Syria and now Yemen’s Houthis as it redirects its focus on economic growth at home, which requires regional stability.

“Saudi Arabia currently needs stability on its southern border and to (eliminate) threats to it from Houthis and others,” said Ahmed Nagi, a senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, adding that it will transform its role in Yemen from a military one to one of soft power.

Escalating the civil war

Experts have argued that a Saudi deal with the Houthis that does not address the pre-existing political problems among Yemen’s disparate groups will only end the international dimension of the war and could escalate the civil conflict.

Other factions, especially the internationally recognized government and the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) that controls parts of the south, may find al-Houthi’s promises difficult to believe, experts say, as all other stakeholders in the conflict – including the United Nations – have been excluded from the current Houthi-Saudi talks.

The STC, she said, is heavily dependent on the UAE’s support and if that ends with the withdrawal of foreign forces, they don’t have a great chance to stand up to the Houthis, “who have much more sophisticated weapons, fighting experience, training, and (Iranian) commanders helping them.”

The UAE is a member of the Saudi-led coalition but partially withdrew its troops from Yemen in 2019. Abu Dhabi nonetheless retains strong influence over Yemen’s south.

War compensation

Internal matters, including demands by the STC for the south of the country to secede, will be dealt with “in the future,” he said. The STC will be given “what is rightful (to them),” he said, but not more. He did not rule out a separation of the south but stressed that any solutions to the “southern issue” must be taken without foreign influence.

Al-Houthi repeatedly stressed the importance of Saudi Arabia meeting the group’s “humanitarian demands,” referring to a compensation package that would have Riyadh pay for the rebuilding of the country and the salaries of public sector workers.

The discussions remain secretive, and it is unclear how much compensation the Houthis have demanded, but experts expect it to be substantial. The Houthis have said in the past that it is seeking compensation for 1.3 million public employees and that the war has led to a cut in salaries and other expenses of nearly 95%, according to Houthi media. But some experts are concerned that the Houthis would use the money to pay its militia members.

“Even if the Saudis agree to pay the salaries, we have no clear image of what that might look like,” Nagi said, adding that the internationally recognized government may also require payments.

Even if a Saudi-Houthi deal is reached, there’s no guarantee that other Yemeni factions will accept it, experts say.

“Based on what we see, it is clear that those who are negotiating are closer to winning,” Nagi said, “While those who are excluded from the talks are closer to losing.”

Correction: This story has been updated to more accurately characterize al-Houthi’s comments on the group’s demand that all foreign forces leave Yemen.

It was one of those perfect, historic nights for Adolis García on Saturday as he slugged three home runs in his five hits and added eight runs as the Texas Rangers dismantled the Oakland Athletics 18-3.

Each homer was projected at 400+ feet, combining for an incredible 1,252 feet of home run distance. It capped the Rangers’ dominant night, after they lost the series opener 5-4 on Friday, and marked a career-best performance for García as well as the first eight RBI game by a Ranger since Nelson Cruz more than a decade ago.

“It was an incredible night for me,” García said through interpreter Raul Cardenas, according to MLB.com. “I didn’t expect something like this to happen, but I’m really blessed and thankful for it.

“I was just looking for certain pitches, in a certain zone. I wasn’t trying to do too much and not overthinking it, just trying to make good contact.”

It was an astonishing night for the right fielder. He hit a two-run home run in the first, letting it fly high into the crowd to tie the score, was hit by a pitch in the second, then hit another couple of two-run homers in the third and fifth.

And that was all only by the bottom of the fifth inning. García still had two opportunities to match the major league record for home runs in a game, but his fourth hit rolled to the wall for a double followed by another double.

Those hits still made history as he became the first player in American League history to finish a game with three home runs and two doubles, per MLB Stats, and the fourth to reach the landmark in Major League history.

“I wanted to hit the home run [in the last at-bat], but a double is just as good,” Garcia added. “I’ll take it.”

Such was the Rangers’ dominance that eight of their nine starters reached base at least once and Josh Jung extended his hit streak to 10 games.

“I’ve been fortunate to manage great players,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said, according to MLB.com.

“I will say I had a player that was similar with the way he plays, with the joy that he plays with, and that was Pablo Sandoval. He hit three home runs in the World Series. They just love baseball and they play the game the way you want them to play. They play with passion. They love being out there, and they’re smiling all the time. That’s Adolis.”

St James’ Park was delirious with joy after just 21 minutes, barely believing its eyes as Newcastle United took a 5-0 lead against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, eventually cruising to a 6-1 victory against its top four rival.

It was difficult to imagine a worse start for Spurs. In fact, there had only been one worse in the entire history of the Premier League, when Manchester City scored five goals in 19 minutes against Watford in September 2019, according to the statistics website OptaJoe.

But that year, City finished second and Watford were relegated. Newcastle against Spurs was supposed to be an evenly poised game, a showdown between fourth and fifth place, separated by just three points, and with a place in next season’s Champions League on the line.

Far from being evenly matched, it seemed as if Newcastle was playing in a different league in that opening 20 minutes as Tottenham manager Cristian Stellini’s experiment of playing with a back four backfired.

With their victory, the Magpies move up to third in the league, now with a six-point buffer and a game in hand over Spurs, and they take a big step towards their first qualification in the Champions League for two decades.

“It’s not often you have a start like that in a game, especially one of such importance,” Newcastle manager Eddie Howe told BBC Sport.

“I’m delighted with the whole group, a real team effort.”

The floodgates opened at the first instance of pressure, barely a minute in when Joelinton drifted into the box, rifled the ball towards the net, and Lloris’ parry fell at Joe Murphy’s feet who made no mistake with the finish.

Every attack seemed to yield a corner, an opportunity, a shot on goal and Newcastle continued to press while Tottenham’s defense continued to buckle. Less than five minutes later, Fabian Schär hoofed the ball upfield from the halfway line and found Joelinton in space who beat Lloris with a brilliant finish.

Stunned, Tottenham began backing off the ball and Murphy capitalized when Spurs lost possession deep in their own half, firing the ball into the goal past Lloris for a third goal in less than 10 minutes.

“I wasn’t surprised, I was just happy to see it go in, when I struck it I knew it was a clean strike,” Murphy told Sky Sports.

“It means everything, I always want to add value whether I’m starting or coming off on the bench, everyone wants to do it.”

Ten minutes later, a single pass once again unlocked Tottenham’s defense, this time Joe Willock found Alexander Isak with a floated pass from the halfway line and the Swede found the back of the net.

And then, barely two minutes after kickoff, there was another for Isak who made it five goals for the Tyneside club in 21 minutes.

Harry Kane pulled one back for Spurs after halftime, a glorious solo effort as he danced down the wing and found the back of the net with effortless ease.

But it was no matter, as Callum Wilson restored Newcastle’s five-goal advantage midway through the second half with his team’s sixth.

The result leaves Tottenham teetering on the brink of missing out on European football next season as the club sits within striking distance of Aston Villa, Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League table.

“It’s very embarrassing,” Lloris told Sky Sports afterwards. “We should apologize to the fans. We didn’t show a good face and we could not match the performance of the Newcastle players.”

FC Barcelona scraped by Atlético Madrid 1-0 at the Camp Nou to extend its lead at the top of La Liga over eternal rival Real Madrid to 11 points.

Ferrán Torres’ goal in the 44th minute made the difference, ensuring Atlético continued its 17-year winless drought – with 8 draws and 15 losses – at the Camp Nou.

While the Blaugrana were still missing Ousmane Dembélé, Sergi Roberto and Andreas Christensen, the return of Frenkie de Jong from a hamstring strain strengthened Barça manager Xavi’s squad ahead of what was expected to be a stern test on a warm, sunny afternoon in northeastern Spain.

After his team’s 0-0 draw with Getafe in Madrid, Xavi said his team played poorly because it was “accustomed to playing without sun.”

After being derided on social media throughout the week, the Barça legend doubled down on Friday ahead of the match, saying, “Even if they make a bunch of memes about me, the sun bothers me … I’m not going to stop (complaining).”

The sunny conditions did indeed seem to be getting the better of Barça as Atlético bolted right out of the gate with Antoine Griezmann hitting the crossbar with an effort not even a minute into the match, but the ball was just centimeters too high to bounce into Marc-André ter Stegen’s net.

Barça’s first real threat of the match came in the 24th minute as Robert Lewandowski played the ball through to Torres, whose dangerous cross was fortuitously deflected by Atleti keeper Jan Oblak out of the danger zone.

In the 35th minute, the Colchoneros again seemed to be gaining control of the match as the ball dropped to Griezmann whose great shot on the half-turn was brilliantly saved by ter Stegen to keep the scoreline level.

Just when Barça’s domination of possession in the first half seemed to be fruitless, the first goal materialized near the stroke of half-time. Raphinha passed the ball back into the middle of the pitch to an unmarked Torres at the top of the area, who took his time before finishing past Oblak to score Barcelona’s first goal in 334 minutes since its 4-0 victory over Elche on April 1.

A back-and-forth second half

But Atlético didn’t back down and pushed for an equalizer after the half-time break; Yannick Carrasco had his curving shot, which was heading towards goal, tipped over the bar in the 54th minute.

Barcelona seemed to turn its game up another notch when star midfielder Pedri made his long-awaited return from injury in the 60th minute, giving the Blaugrana a more fluid and creative attack.

Raphinha missed a sitter in the 72nd minute after Lewandowski teed him up with a brilliant cross, which almost came to haunt Barcelona as Ter Stegen was forced to make another brilliant save just one minute later to deny Griezmann’s back heel effort off a good Álvaro Morata cross into the box.

READ: Vinícius Jr. is being racially abused during LaLiga matches. Why is nobody being punished?

Atlético players clamored for a penalty in the 91st minute after a headed ball was deflected off Sergio Busquets’ arm in the area, but the video assistant referee refused to review the play.

A flurry of Barça fouls allowed several Atleti attacks in the final minutes of time added on, but the Colchoneros couldn’t make the most of the opportunities.

Oblak told reporters after the match that the wasted chances left the team ruing an otherwise a solid performance.

“The feelings we get aren’t the best. In the first half, we didn’t play badly, we were pretty good and they scored one in the last minute,” Oblak said. “In the second half, there were chances, but the feeling we have aren’t the best. We lost and we can’t say much more than that.”

“The team worked really hard, the crowd supported us and we won,” goalscorer Torres told reporters after the match. “The win gives us a lot of confidence. Atlético was on a good run of form and it’s important for us to have won this match.”

The win means Barcelona remains in firm control in the La Liga title race with eight matches remaining and an 11-point lead ahead of Real Madrid.

After the match, Pedri told reporters that Barça has “eight finals left” and that the Blaugrana “have to go match by match,” with Xavi adding that it was an important win towards securing the title against a strong team.

“We normally don’t concede very much, but Atlético is on an extraordinary run of form lately and that shows you the state of our team. It’s a crucial victory for us,” the manager said.

A Russian man who said he had killed children and other civilians while serving with the Wagner private military company in Ukraine appears to have recanted the claim, suggesting he was blackmailed into making it.

Azamat Uldarov, a former convict, made his retraction in a video call with Russian news agency RIA-FAN. It’s unclear if there were any conditions to the interview.

He and another former convict, Alexey Savichev, previously gave long and rambling interviews to Russian human rights group Gulagu.net, saying they were among the tens of thousands of Wagner fighters recruited from Russian jails to fight in Ukraine.

Speaking with Gulagu founder Vladimir Osechkin, Uldarov said he shot and killed a young girl, calling it “a management decision.”

“I wasn’t allowed to let anyone out alive, because my command was to kill anything in my way,” he said, estimating that the girl was five or six years old.

In his interview with RIA-FAN – which is associated with Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin – Uldarov said he was drunk when he gave the interview, and alleged that Osechkin had blackmailed him about his time in prison.

Asked by RIA-FAN: “They made you say what you said in the video, correct?” Uldarov replied: “Not only correct, it’s [expletive] correct. I had to say it because I had no choice.”

“I said whatever I was told to say,” Uldarov then said.

“Prigozhin is a great guy,” he added, giving a thumbs up. “He saved our lives.”

He also claimed – without specifying who – that “they have a video of me,” adding: “They are exploiting me, using my past life and my previous conviction.”

The call appeared to end with Uldarov saying: “What was said there was said under dictation. Is this enough? Have you got enough?”

Osechkin also claimed that both interviewees, Uldarov and Savichev, had been threatened with murder if they didn’t retract their statements to him. Savichev told Gulagu that his unit was ordered to kill any men 15 years old or older.

Wagner has been seeking Savichev for the past 24 hours, according to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Savichev “must get in touch with the Wagner PMC call center, and I guarantee that he will not be persecuted, neither judicially nor otherwise. He must get in touch with the Wagner PMC call center and explain why he provided this falsehood, who is behind it, how he was blackmailed and whether he was given any other objectives,” Prighozhin said in a statement on social media app Telegram.

“Get in touch with the Wagner PMC call center, come, tell us everything. I guarantee that you will leave safe and sound,” he added.

In another statement, Prigozhin said that according to “information we are receiving from convicts and former convicts, a group of people including former convicts and Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) employees, are actively cooperating with foreign groups including Gulagu.net.”

Prigozhin claimed: “This group collects compromising material on convicts and former convicts,” and he suggested that they might react by committing “quite major unlawful acts as a result of their recruitment, such as assassination of various persons protecting the interests of the Russian Federation, acts of sabotage including in frontline areas, and acts of sabotage and terrorism in the Russian Federation.”

Two Russian men who claim to be former Wagner Group commanders have told a human rights activist that they killed children and civilians during their time in Ukraine.

The claims were made in video interviews with Gulagu.net, a human rights organization targeting corruption and torture in Russia.

In the video interviews posted online, former Russian convicts Azamat Uldarov and Alexey Savichev – who were both pardoned by Russian presidential decrees last year, according to Gulagu.net – described their actions in Ukraine, during Russia’s invasion.

Uldarov, who appears to have been drinking, details how he shot and killed a five- or six-year-old girl.

“(It was) a management decision. I wasn’t allowed to let anyone out alive, because my command was to kill anything in my way,” he said.

According to Gulagu.net, the testimonies were given to founder and Russian dissident Vladimir Osechkin over the span of a week. It said Uldarov and Savichev were in Russia when they spoke.

“I want Russia and other nations to know the truth. I don’t want war and bloodshed. You see I’m holding a cigarette in this hand. I followed orders with this hand and killed children,” Uldarov said, describing his motivation for the interview.

The Wagner Group is a Russian private mercenary organization fighting in Ukraine, headed by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin.

It has recruited tens of thousands of fighters from Russian jails, offering freedom and cash after a six-month tour. It’s estimated by Western intelligence officials and prison advocacy groups that between 40,000 and 50,000 men were recruited.

Uldarov said in the eastern Ukrainian cities of Soledar and Bakhmut – which have seen some of the fiercest fighting – Wagner mercenaries “were given the command to annihilate everyone.”

Uldarov has since appeared to recant his account in a video call with Prigozhin-linked Russian news agency RIA-FAN.

At one point in the interview, Savichev described how they “got the order to execute any men who were 15 years or older.”

He also talked about getting orders to ‘sweep’ a house. “It doesn’t matter whether there is a civilian there or not. The house needs to be swept. I didn’t give a f**k who was inside,” he said.

“Whether a hut or a house, the point was to make sure that there wasn’t a single living person left inside,” he said. “You can condemn me for this. I will not object. It’s your right. But I wanted to live, too.”

Savichev said Wagner fighters who did not follow orders were killed.

Wagner Group chief Prigozhin confirmed on his Telegram channel that he had watched parts of the video, and threatened retribution against the two former Wagner fighters. “As for what (Osechkin) filmed, I looked at the pieces of video I managed to see,” he said. “I can say the following: if at least one of these accusations against me is confirmed, I am ready to be held accountable according to any laws.”

But Prigozhin said that “if none is confirmed, I will send a list of 30-40 people who are spitting at me like Osechkin (there is a whole list of them, including the scum that fled Russia) that the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine is obligated to hand over to me for a ‘fair trial,’ so to speak.”

“They will not be “civilians” for us, and especially not children, whom we have never touched and do not touch. This is a flagrant lie. These people (spreading the lies) are our enemies, and we will deal with them in a special way.”

Earlier, Prigozhin said on Telegram: “Regarding the execution of children, of course, no one ever shoots civilians or children, absolutely no one needs this. We came there to save them from the regime they were under.”

Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, said in a tweet Monday that the group must be held accountable.

“Russian terrorists confessed to numerous murders of Ukrainian children in Bakhmut and Soledar. Confession is not enough. There must be a punishment. Tough and fair. And it will definitely be. How many more crimes like these have been committed?” he said.

In January, US Treasury Department designated Wagner Group as a significant transnational criminal organization, and imposed a slew of fresh sanctions on a transnational network that supports it.

The US Department of State concurrently announced a number of sanctions meant to “target a range of Wagner’s key infrastructure – including an aviation firm used by Wagner, a Wagner propaganda organization, and Wagner front companies,” according to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Six Leopard 2 tanks bound for Ukraine have left the Spanish port city of Santander in northern Spain and are en route to their destination, the Spanish Minister of Defense Margarita Robles said Saturday.

Robles told journalists the tanks left Santander “along with 20 heavy transport vehicles” and the trip by sea would take from five to six days.

“In six days, going through another country, they will be in Ukraine,” she said.

Robles said last week that four more Leopard tanks, in addition to the current six, would be sent to Ukraine following repairs, “as soon as possible.”

A total of 40 tank crew members and 15 mechanics have also been trained in Spain, Reuters reported.

Ukraine has been reliant on outdated Soviet-era tanks throughout the Russian invasion and has appealed to the West for modern battle tanks to bolster Kyiv’s forces.

The Leopard’s relatively low maintenance demands compared to other tank models means it will be particularly well-suited to the Ukrainians’ needs, experts have said.

Several armies around the world use Leopards and there are believed to be around 2,000 Leopard 2 vehicles spread across Europe, at different levels of readiness.

In recent months, the US, along with countries such as Poland, Finland and the UK – pledged to send tanks to Ukraine.

Following international pressure, Germany announced a major decision in January that it would send Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv’s troops – raising anger from Kremlin officials who sought to cast the move as an act of aggression against Russia.

Police in India say they have arrested alleged Sikh separatist leader Amritpal Singh, bringing to an end a massive months-long manhunt.

The news was announced in a tweet on Punjab Police India’s official Twitter account.

Singh is a leading ideologue within the Waris De Punjab group, an outlawed separatist movement that seeks to establish a sovereign state called Khalistan for followers of India’s minority Sikh religion.

Police have been searching for Singh since March 18, when he was accused of attempted murder, obstruction of law enforcement, and creating “disharmony” in society.

The manhunt has revived calls for an independent Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab state, stoked fears of violence, and revived painful memories of a bloody insurgency that killed thousands.

In March, while police searched for Singh, Indian authorities blocked internet access for about 27 million people in the state of Punjab, one of the country’s most extensive blackouts in recent years.