A Russian military court has handed down long prison sentences to several members of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment, which led the defense of the key city of Mariupol during the early months of the war.

The defendants were convicted on Wednesday of charges including violent seizure of power and participation in a terrorist organization and given prison terms ranging from 13 to 23 years, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia.

Russia has sought to paint the Azov Regiment as made up of Nazis and nationalists, allegations the group denies, and the US last year lifted a ban on supplying them weapons.

The city of Mariupol became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, after Ukrainian soldiers, including members of the Azov unit, and residents sheltered for weeks underground in 2022 at the city’s massive Azovstal steelworks plant refusing to surrender to Russian forces.

The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don announced the verdict in absentia for 11 individuals, while 12 appeared in person. One member reportedly died in Russian detention, while others have since been exchanged.

The case involved members of the Azov regiment — now part of Ukraine’s National Guard — captured during the siege of Mariupol.

According to the prosecution, the court established the individuals took “actions aimed at the violent change of the constitutional order of Russia.” Russian authorities designated the Azov unit a terrorist group in 2022, after it started the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The trial, initially dubbed “the case of 24,” involved Ukrainian prisoner of war Oleksandr Ishchenko, who died in a Russian pretrial detention center as a result of a closed chest injury due to “contact with a blunt object,” according to Azov commander Svyatoslav Palamar citing a Ukrainian forensic expert.

Russian human rights organization Memorial designated the defendants political prisoners and said there was evidence of violations, including “cruel treatment, excruciating conditions of detention, lack of normal food and medical care, insults, bullying, beatings and torture.”

The sentencing coincided with Ukraine’s National Guard Day, which President Volodymyr Zelensky marked by praising the bravery of National Guard units and reaffirming Kyiv’s diplomatic efforts to free all Ukrainian prisoners of war, including Azov fighters.

Zelensky said Kyiv remembers “all Ukrainian warriors – in particular, National Guard warriors, defenders of Mariupol, and Azov fighters, who, unfortunately, remain in Russian captivity.”

“We are working at all levels of diplomacy to free them and bring them home,” he said.

Four US Army soldiers went missing during a training mission close to Lithuania’s border with Belarus, military officials said Wednesday, and a search is underway.

The soldiers were reported missing on Tuesday in a training area near the city of Pabrade at approximately 4:45 p.m. (10:45 a.m. ET), the Lithuanian Armed Forces said in a Wednesday statement.

“The soldiers, all from 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, were conducting scheduled tactical training at the time of the incident,” the US Army Europe and Africa said in a statement.

Search and recovery efforts involve the US Army, Lithuanian Armed Forces, Lithuanian law enforcement and others, the US Army added.

According to the Lithuanian Armed Forces, helicopters and members of the country’s border guard are also involved in the search.

The US has maintained a presence in Eastern Europe and the Baltic region since 2014, in an operation called “Atlantic Resolve,” following Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

Lithuania, a member of both NATO and the European Union, hosts hundreds of American troops, who are stationed on a rotational basis.

A US military camp named Camp Herkus was established in Pabrade in August 2021, Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence announced in a statement at the time. It is equipped to house up to 700 soldiers, or 1000 on a short-term basis, according to the Lithuanian Armed Forces.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A member of the international force battling gangs in Haiti has been reported missing, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launches a tour of the Caribbean with Haiti’s security crisis high on the agenda.

The Kenyan police officer disappeared after suspected gang members ambushed two mine-resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles on Tuesday in the town of Pont-Sondé, Artibonite region, according to a statement by the Kenya-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS).

Forces from the MSS and the Haitian National Police are now carrying out a search and rescue operation to locate the missing officer, Kenya’s National Police Service said.

The ambushed vehicles had been dispatched to recover an armored police vehicle that got stuck in a ditch – which MSS said may have been deliberately dug by gangs. During the recovery operation, one of the MRAP vehicles also got stuck and the other developed mechanical issues. As officers attempted to fix the issue, they were suddenly attacked by gang members, the MSS said in a statement.

“As a result of the incident, one MSS Kenyan contingent officer remains unaccounted for,” MSS said.

If confirmed, it would mark the latest Kenyan casualty since the security mission arrived in June. Last month, a Kenyan member of MSS was fatally wounded in an operation also in the Artibonite region, MSS said.

The US has been a key financial supporter of MSS, and the security crisis in Haiti is a focus of Secretary Rubio’s visit to the Caribbean this week.

On Wednesday, Rubio is scheduled to meet with the president of Haiti’s Presidential Transitional Council Fritz Jean in Jamaica. The Haitian government said the meeting is meant to strengthen regional cooperation related to its challenges.

Over 80% of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince has been estimated to be under gang control. Since the MSS arrived, gangs have spread increasingly into rural areas, seizing swathes of territory in the agriculturally critical Artibonite region.

In October, the UN said least 70 people, including women and children, were massacred by the Gran Grif gang in the same Artibonite town where the officer disappeared on Tuesday.

European Union citizens should stockpile enough food and other essential supplies to sustain them for at least 72 hours in the event of a crisis, the EU Commission has said.

In new guidance released Wednesday, the commission stressed the need for Europe to shift its mindset, to foster a culture of “preparedness” and “resilience.”

The 18-page document warns that Europe is facing a new reality marred with risk and uncertainty, citing Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, rising geopolitical tensions, sabotage of critical infrastructure, and electronic warfare as prominent factors.

The Brussels initiative appears to serve as a wake-up call for members states to the gravity of the bloc’s security situation.

An ever-present threat from Russia has prompted European leaders to stress the need for war-readiness. As has the Trump administration’s confrontational approach towards Europe, particularly on contributions to NATO and on the war in Ukraine, which has sparked a race on the continent to shore up its own military readiness.

The Commission’s European Preparedness Union Strategy says citizens across the continent should adopt practical measures to ensure they are ready in case of an emergency. This includes having enough essential supplies to last them for a minimum of three days, the document says. “In the case of extreme disruptions, the initial period is the most critical,” it says.

Overall, civilians should be encouraged to foster self-reliance and psychological resilience, the document states.

The commission also calls for the introduction of “preparedness” lessons in the school curricula, including giving pupils the skills to fight disinformation and information manipulation.

“New realities require a new level of preparedness in Europe,” President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said in a statement. “Our citizens, our Member States, and our businesses need the right tools to act both to prevent crises and to react swiftly when a disaster hits.”

The European Commission’s guidance on Wednesday comes after individual counties have been updating their contingency plans.

In June last year, Germany updated its Framework Directive for Overall Defense, giving direction on what to do should conflict break out in Europe. Unveiling the plans at the time, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said they were necessary for her country to arm itself better in the face of Russian aggression.

Belal Abu Zaid, a Palestinian from northern Gaza, took to the streets alongside hundreds of others on Tuesday to protest against Israel’s war and the Palestinian militant group Hamas – both of which he blames for bringing destruction to the enclave.

Israel, he says, is primarily to blame for Gaza’s misery, but Hamas also carries responsibility.

Palestinians demonstrated against Hamas in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, on Tuesday, in what appeared to be the largest protest against the militant group since the October 7 attacks.

A message shared on social media appeared to call for nine anti-war and anti-Hamas demonstrations across Gaza on Wednesday, with the protest organizers saying, “our voices must reach all the spies who sold our blood.”

More than 1,200 people were killed in the October 7 attacks on Israel and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry there, flattened large swathes of the territory and spurred a devastating humanitarian crisis.

The death toll in the enclave has surged in recent days following the collapse of a two-month ceasefire, with Israel relaunching its ground operation in Gaza and pledging to intensify its operations. The crisis has been compounded by Israel’s decision to halt all aid from entering the enclave.

Many Palestinians who don’t support Hamas often refrain from criticizing it publicly, fearing social ostracization, as the militant group is seen by some as the only party actively resisting Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. Others hide their support for the group, wary of being targeted by Israel.

“The people’s voices must come before the sound of gunpowder,” Abu Hamouda said, adding that Palestinians should have one unified government that can receive international and regional support.

“People have long wanted to protest,” he said. Many were reluctant, however, fearing “lack of protection” on the streets and “accusations of treason” by other Palestinians, he added.

Abu Hamouda also worried that the Israeli government might take advantage of the protests, which would undermine their movement.

In a Wednesday speech at Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to the Gaza protests, saying this “shows that our policy is working.”

“In recent days, we have seen something we’ve never seen before – open protests in the Gaza Strip against Hamas rule,” Netanyahu said.

An Islamist organization with a military wing, Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007, after it beat rival political party Fatah in elections and expelled the Palestinian Authority from the enclave. The group first came into being in 1987. It was an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, a Sunni Islamist group that was founded in the late 1920s in Egypt.

Israel, under international law, has been the occupying power in Gaza since long before the October 7 attack, as it has always controlled the points of entry and exit. Hamas, like most Palestinian factions and political parties, says that it is trying to liberate the Palestinian territories.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Israel.

Protests are ‘spontaneous,’ Hamas says

Hamas’ Government Media Office (GMO) in Gaza has said that anti-Hamas slogans chanted at a demonstration on Tuesday were “spontaneous” and “do not reflect the general national position.”

The Hamas office said Palestinians’ right to express their opinions and participate in peaceful demonstrations is a “legitimate right, and an essential part of the national values we believe in and defend,” adding that the protests were reflective of the “tremendous pressure and daily massacres our people are subjected to.”

Abdullah Ahmed, an activist from Jabalia, said there are concerns Hamas will crack down on protests if they continue.

Ahmed said that pressure has nonetheless mounted on Gazans, and that many were further devastated to return north and find their homes turned to rubble.

“Why now? Because people are squeezed.”

Then-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in January that “Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it is lost.”

“Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and re-emerge because there’s nothing else to fill the void,” he said at in a speech at the Atlantic Council just days before his term as top US diplomat came to an end.

Gazans’ support for the October 7 attack appears to have oscillated in recent months. A survey conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research said in June that 57% of Gazans believed that the attack was the right decision, down from 71% just three months earlier.

As the war has dragged on, living conditions have only deteriorated further in Gaza.

Asked whether he feared retribution from Hamas for protesting, Abu Zaid said it is hard to fear persecution when the enclave is rampant with suffering.

“There is no more fear. Death can happen at any minute, we’ve seen death with our eyes,” he said. “The smell of blood is everywhere.”

“Enough war, enough exhaustion, enough humiliation.”

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.

Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”

The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while human rights activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses.

At the prison, Noem toured an area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members. In the sweltering building, the men in white T-shirts and shorts stared silently from their cell without making a sound.

When Noem exited the building, the men could be heard shouting an indiscernible chant.

In a cell block holding Salvadoran prisoners, about a dozen were lined up by guards near the front of their cell and told to remove their T-shirts and face masks. The men were heavily tattooed, some bearing the letters MS, for the Mara Salvatrucha gang, on their chests.

After listening to Salvadoran officials, Noem turned her back to the cell and recorded a video message.

If an immigrant commits a crime, “this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem said. “First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”

In a post on X Wednesday, Homeland Security indicated it would continue working with El Salvador, saying that Noem was slated to discuss how the US can “increase the number of deportation flights and removals of violent criminals from the US” during her visit with President Nayib Bukele.

Since taking office, Noem has frequently been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown. She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.

Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She’ll also travel to Colombia and Mexico.

The Venezuelans were removed from the US this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the US was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.

In a setback for the administration, an appeals court Wednesday kept in place an order barring the administration from deporting more Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.

A central outstanding question about the deportees’ status is when and how they could ever be released from the prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, as they are not serving sentences. They no longer appear in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator and have not appeared before a judge in El Salvador.

The Trump administration refers to them as the “worst of the worst” but hasn’t identified who was deported or provided evidence that they’re gang members.

Relatives of some of the deportees have categorically denied any gang affiliation. The Venezuelan government and a group called the Families of Immigrants Committee in Venezuela hired a lawyer to help free those held in El Salvador. A lawyer for the firm, which currently represents about 30 Venezuelans, said they aren’t gang members and have no criminal records.

The US government has acknowledged that many do not have such records.

Flights were in the air March 15 when a federal judge issued a verbal order temporarily barring the deportations and ordered planes to return to the US.

The Trump administration has argued that the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the US.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that about 261 people were deported on the flights, including 137 under the Alien Enemies Act.

Bukele opened the prison in 2023 as he made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.

Prisoners can’t have visitors. There are no workshops or educational programs.

El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have consular support from their government.

Video released by El Salvador’s government after the deportees’ arrival showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down.

They were later shown at the prison kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform – knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs – and placed in cells.

For three years, El Salvador has been operating under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights as Bukele wages an all-out assault on the country’s powerful street gangs. During that time, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties and jailed, often without due process.

Bukele offered to hold US deportees in the prison when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited in February.

At the prison Wednesday, El Salvador Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro showed Noem a cell holding Salvadorans he said had been there since the prison opened. “No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” he said.