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New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet is due to hold a press conference shortly to address the flood crisis in the north of the state.
It comes after Lismore residents were forced to leave their homes after the NSW State Emergency Service ordered all citizens to evacuate before 5am on Monday morning due to “extremely dangerous” floods.
Lismore’s levee breached after being hit with 406 millimetres of rain between 9am on Sunday and 4am on Monday with evacuation orders in place for several areas across northern NSW. They include parts of South Murwillumbah, Kyogle, Mullumbimby and Coraki, with the town of Casino also told to prepare for evacuation.
By noon on Monday, the Wilsons River at Lismore had reached 14.2 metres - almost two metres above the previous 1954 record of 12.27 metres.
Watch the press conference below:
In a post to Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko called on Kyiv residents to spend the night in shelters.
Klitschko on Telegram warned: “This night will be difficult again. That is why our defenders are preparing to protect the capital. And I urge Kyiv residents to spend this night in shelters,” according to a machine translation of a story in Pravda.ua.
A civilian member of a Territorial Defence unit rests in a bomb shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine. Credit:Getty
“Because the enemy is getting angry. They shoot peaceful homes. They continue destroying our infrastructure.”
“Despite the fact that they bear heavy losses - both human and military ones. It appears that Russians did not expect such resistance and spirit from Ukrainian people, both military and civilian.”
Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp says Melbourne is back with foot traffic sensors showing a 30 per cent rise in foot traffic in key areas like Flinders street Station and Parliament Station on Monday.
It came on day one of working from home orders lifting with Cr Capp dubbing the day “Mask-free Monday” with masks also no longer required in most situations.
“We really are moving into COVID confidence and competence,” she said. “There’s a different sense to the city we’re feeling more confident about the future.”
Peak hour commuters at Southern Cross Station as office workers return to the CBD. With the government having ditched its remote working recommendation, some workers will return to their city offices for the first time in almost two years.Credit:Justin McManus
Cr Capp said she believed people were happy to be back in the city.
“It’s feeling that sense of enjoyment, of actually walking around the city and feeling good about where they’re going and feeling confident that they can manage all of that in the pandemic environment,” she said.
A seat on the train, a rare luxury in pre-COVID-19 times, was still available for most commuters heading into Southern Cross Station during the morning.
Though many office workers opted to keep working from home despite the official stay at home recommendation being lifted.
Pharmaceutical sales worker Naoko Okimura was back for her second day in the office since last year and said her train was “starting to get a bit busier” and she expected to be joined by an increasing number of commuters as she prepared to return to the office four days a week.
Metro trains employee Gagandeep Singh said while some trains were reasonably full others were only at 5 per cent occupancy.
“There used to be a queue of people waiting to go up there each morning,” he said, gesturing to Southern Cross station’s escalators.
“This is not a normal Monday. The work culture has changed.”
Disaster relief for Australia’s affected by the flood crisis in parts of Queensland and New South Wales will be made available for new areas from Tuesday as rising flood waters cause evacuations across two states.
Eight people have now died after a man and his dog were found in a submerged car in the Currumbin Valley, which borders the two states on the Queensland side, on Monday.
It comes as 200 officers from the Australia Defence Force are dispatched to northern NSW to assist with urgent evacuations in Lismore with a specialist helicopter expected to arrive in the impacted area later today.
Residents try to evacuate the areas around Lismore, NSW.Credit:Elise Derwin/ SMH
Prime Minister Scott Morrison addressed the media in Brisbane on Monday morning, along with Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, where he said the federal government’s disaster recovery payment would be $1000 per adult and $400 per child in eligible local government areas.
These payments were made available earlier to the cities of Gympie and North Burnett, which experienced the effects of the flooding earlier, he said.
“Right now the crisis has not yet passed. There may be glimpses of sunshine, which is welcome…but remember those flood waters will remain at their peaks for some days yet. It may look tranquil on the surface, but underneath it is very different,” Mr Morrison said.
The country’s disaster recovery allowance is also available which provides up to 13 weeks compensation.
The Brisbane River broke its banks across the city.Credit:Fairfax Media
In Brisbane, the river there peaked at 3.85 metres at about 8am Monday after the city’s wettest three days on record caused water to inundate about 15,000 homes.
Two people remain missing including a man who fell in the Brisbane River last week and a man who went missing near Esk, about 114 kilometres from Brisbane
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk compared the floods to ex-cyclone Oswald in 2013 and ex-tropical cyclone Debbie in 2017.
“What we’re seeing is the system pushing south to Logan, the Gold Coast and seeing some tragedies unfolding in NSW,” she said.
“No-one has seen this amount of rain in such a short time in our entire southeast catchment zone.”
People and animals being rescued as severe flooding hits Lismore in northern NSW on Monday.Credit:Elise Derwin
There have been 2200 requests for assistance and 113 water rescues around the Gold Coast, Beenleigh and Brisbane areas with more than 1500 people in evacuation centres.
Ms Palaszczuk the state was focusing on recovery efforts with 200 defence personnel on standby.
It comes as the Wilsons River at Lismore reached 14.2 metres, almost two metres above the previous record of 12.27 metres from 1954, creating the worst flood disaster in Lismore’s history on Monday.
The Bureau of Meteorology said Lismore recorded 181 millimetres of rain in 30 minutes to 9.15am today alone.
Floodwaters there have risen so rapidly that residents have been left trapped on rooftops as they seek help.
Eight people have died due to heavy floods across Queensland and NSW.
Warning: graphic photo.
Scattered fighting has been reported in Kyiv, as well as ongoing missile attacks.
Battles also broke out in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and strategic ports in the country’s south came under assault from Russian forces.
A woman and a child wait for a call to cross the passport control after arriving from Kyiv in Przemysl, Poland.Credit:Omar Marques / Getty
By late Sunday, Russian forces had taken Berdyansk, a Ukrainian city of 100,000 on the Azov Sea coast, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Zelensky’s office.
Russian troops also made advances toward Kherson, another city in the south of Ukraine, while Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov that is considered a prime Russian target, is “hanging on,” Arestovich said.
Ukraine is also releasing prisoners with military experience who want to fight, and training people to make firebombs.
In Mariupol, where Ukrainians were trying to fend off attack, a medical team at a city hospital desperately tried to revive a 6-year-old girl in unicorn pajamas who was mortally wounded in Russian shelling.
During the rescue attempt, a doctor in blue medical scrubs, pumping oxygen into the girl, looked directly into the Associated Press video camera capturing the scene.
“Show this to Putin,” he said angrily. “The eyes of this child, and crying doctors.”
Their resuscitation efforts failed, and the girl lay dead on a gurney, her jacket spattered with blood.
AP
A referendum in Belarus has approved a new constitution ditching the country’s non-nuclear status at a time when the former Soviet republic has become a launch pad for Russian troops invading Ukraine, Russian news agencies said.
The agencies on Monday AEDT cited the Belarus central elections commission as saying that 65.2 per cent of those who took part voted in favour. The result came as little surprise, given the tightly controlled rule of President Alexander Lukashenko.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko casts his ballot.Credit:AP
The new constitution could see nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil for the first time since the country gave them up after the fall of the Soviet Union.
It raises the stakes at a time when Lukashenko has fallen behind Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military assault on Ukraine after earlier playing an intermediary role between the two neighbours.
The West has already said it will not recognise the results of the referendum, which is taking place against the background of a sweeping crackdown on domestic opponents of the government. According to human rights activists, as of Sunday, there were more than a thousand political prisoners in Belarus.
The referendum sparked anti-war protests in several cities. At least 290 people were detained, rights activists said.
Protests had largely died down in Belarus after Lukashenko launched a violent crackdown on dissent against his 28-year-long rule. Mass protests had erupted in 2020 following a disputed election that opponents say Lukashenko rigged.
On Sunday, speaking at a polling station, Lukashenko said he could ask Russia to return nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Reuters
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Russia must “pay a price” for it’s war on Ukraine, calling on other countries to impose sanctions.
Australia has now issued 370 sanctions against individuals, including 339 members of the Russian parliament who voted for the country’s “illegal war” on Ukraine, he said.
Speaking during a press conference out of Brisbane on the country’s floods, Mr Morrison said the Australian-imposed sanctions also affected 12 members of the Russian Security Council including the country’s foreign and defence ministers, President Vladimir Putin himself and Russian army commanders.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit:Louie Douvis
“I am pleased that we’ve seen an accelerating and increasingly strengthened response from western democracies in standing up against what is thuggish brutality for which this there’s no justification,” he said.
“It is unwarranted and it is absolutely essential that Russia abandons these illegal acts of brutality and violence… against its neighbour. I call on all countries to denounce it in the strongest possible terms, and to join the sanctions.
“Russia must pay a price for this behaviour.”
Hundreds of people arrive to Hungarian train station after crossing the border at Zahony-Csap as they flee Ukraine.Credit:Janos Kummer, Getty Images
Mr Morrison said overnight Ukraine had passed on its thanks for Australian-supplied lethal aid, which is being distributed through NATO, with a national security committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday to discuss and enact those aid plans.
The prime minister also reiterated the warning for Australians to avoid travelling to Ukraine, indicating he expected to speak with Ukraine’s prime minister later today.
“Ukrainian people have shown tremendous strength. But the situation remains terribly concerning,” he said.
London: Ukraine’s government has raised almost $US8 million ($11.3 million) in cryptocurrencies after posting appeals on social media for donations of bitcoin and other digital tokens, according to blockchain analysis company Elliptic.
Ukraine’s official Twitter account made the appeal for cryptocurrency donations on Saturday following the country’s invasion by Russia, posting digital wallets addresses for tokens including bitcoin and ether.
Ukraine’s Vice-Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov Tweeted the wallet addresses. “Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations,” wrote Fedorov, who is also minister of digital transformation.
The donations came as Russian military vehicles pushed into Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv on Sunday and explosions rocked oil and gas installations on a fourth day of fighting in the biggest assault on a European state since World War II.
By 1030 GMT Sunday, the wallet addresses had received crypto worth $US7.9 million across almost 11,500 donations, London-based Elliptic said. The company tracks the movement of digital coins on the blockchain, a public ledger that records crypto transactions.
Its crypto crowdfunding appeal is unprecedented. Though some states such as El Salvador have embraced cryptocurrencies, Ukraine’s appeal for direct donations is among the first of its kind. It was not clear what Kyiv would use the funds for.
Crypto donations to Ukrainian volunteer and hacking groups have also spiked since Russia launched its invasion on Thursday, Elliptic said this week.
The donations to such groups, some of which have supplied equipment to government forces, grew strongly in January as Russia massed troops near Ukraine’s border ahead of its invasion.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, after a gruelling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, Mayor Vitali Klitschko was silent for several seconds when asked if there were plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv.
“We can’t do that, because all ways are blocked,” he finally said, speaking in English. “All ways are blocked and right now we are encircled — everywhere is Russians and we don’t have a way to evacuate the people. And everyone who had plans to evacuate himself already moved.”
Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv Mayor.Credit:AP
The AP was not able to immediately verify the mayor’s report that Kyiv was surrounded, and his spokesperson later tweeted that the mayor had misspoken.
Klitschko himself later backed away from his earlier assessment, saying on his Telegram channel that “In the evening, Russian Internet publications spread information with reference to me that Kyiv is allegedly surrounded and evacuation of people is impossible. ... Do not believe lies! Trust information only from official sources.”
The mayor confirmed to the AP that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry says 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during Russia’s invasion, including 14 children. It says an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded.
The ministry’s statement Sunday does not give any information on casualties among Ukraine’s armed forces.
Russia has claimed that its troops are targeting only Ukrainian military facilities and says that Ukraine’s civilian population is not in danger.
AP
All French citizens on short-term visits to Russia should leave the country immediately, the French government said on Sunday, citing tightening restrictions on air travel resulting from sanctions punishing Moscow for invading Ukraine.
“Due to the increasing restrictions on air traffic between Russia and Europe, it is strongly recommended that French nationals visiting Russia make arrangements to leave the country without delay using existing air links,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
The US Embassy in Moscow urged American citizens in Russia to think about leaving the country immediately on Sunday, as well.
“US citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available,” the Embassy said in a statement on its website.
The Czech Foreign Ministry warned against travel to Russia on Sunday and called on its citizens to leave the country given the threat of deteriorating security, especially for citizens of European Union and NATO countries.
The ministry said its citizens who are already in the country and decide to stay should take maximum precautions and have plans ready to leave in case of an emergency.
Reuters, AP
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2022-02-28 12:41:51Z
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