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Live Updates: Russia Uses Surrender in Mariupol to Portray Ukrainians as Terrorists

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KYIV, Ukraine — Russia seized on the mass surrender of Ukrainian troops at a Mariupol steel plant as a propaganda gift on Wednesday, moving to falsely label them as terrorists and create a parallel narrative to Ukraine’s portrayal of Russian soldiers as heinous war criminals.

The mass surrender, which ended the longest battle of the three-month-old war, was depicted by the Russians as a glorious turning point in a conflict that Western military analysts and rights groups have described as disastrous for the Kremlin and its forces, which have bombed Ukraine indiscriminately and been accused of other atrocities.

Images of the surrendering Ukrainians were publicized by the Russians just as a Russian soldier pleaded guilty in a Ukrainian courtroom to fatally shooting an unarmed civilian, in a widely followed case.

In Brussels, Turkey complicated efforts by NATO to quickly consider membership bids by Sweden and Finland, blocking an initial vote and presenting a list of grievances related to Kurdish groups that it considers terrorists.

While Turkey indicated that it would not ultimately oppose membership for Sweden and Finland, its objections are slowing a process that the West had hoped would quickly strengthen European defenses against further aggression by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Turkey’s move came against the backdrop of a separate frustration for the West’s challenges to Mr. Putin: Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, another authoritarian leader, has stalled a proposed European Union embargo of Russian oil.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, left, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary have slowed efforts to punish Russia.Credit…Laszlo Balogh/Getty Images

Ukraine had initially described the mass surrender of the soldiers at Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, which its military ordered Monday night, as the only alternative to their near-certain death against hopeless odds, and as a prelude to a prisoner exchange.

But there was no talk from Moscow of swapping any captives, and by Wednesday it was clear that the Kremlin intended to use the prisoners for other purposes.

Russian commentators celebrated the fall of the steel plant and, in particular, the capture of members of the Azov battalion, a Ukrainian regiment with roots as a far-right group, which Mr. Putin has exploited to fictitiously portray the invasion as a battle to rid Ukraine of Nazis.

The Russian Supreme Court said it would hold a hearing next week on whether to declare the Azov group a “terrorist organization,” which could give Moscow cover to deprive the prisoners of rights. Russia has said that 959 soldiers in the plant surrendered, about 800 of them from the Azov battalion. It is believed that up to 1,000 more soldiers remain inside the plant.

Maria V. Zakharova, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said that Azov soldiers had committed war crimes by using kindergartens and medical centers to store ammunition and by using civilians as human shields — accusations that echoed those leveled against Russian troops by the West.

Some of the prisoners were transferred to pretrial detention in the town of Yelenovka, in the Russia-controlled eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, Ms. Zakharova said. She accused Ukraine’s forces of having fired rockets at the facility that held them.

Ukrainian soldiers from the Azov battalion walking through the remnants of a Russian military convoy last month in Bucha, Ukraine.Credit…Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times

Ms. Zakharova said she had no information about a prisoner exchange with Ukraine, and that those requiring medical attention were receiving it. Russia released a video of hospitalized captive soldiers in a separatist-held city east of Mariupol.

Amnesty International urged Russia to respect the rights of the captives, saying they had been “dehumanized by Russian media” and portrayed by Mr. Putin’s propagandists as neo-Nazis, which “raises serious concerns over their fate as prisoners of war.”

Ms. Zakharova said that Russia had encouraged the soldiers to leave the plant for days, and she faulted Ukraine for having waited so long to order them to surrender. “At the moment, the most important thing is that everybody exits,” she said.

Complicating efforts by Ukraine to negotiate a prisoner exchange, the speaker of the Russian Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, said lawmakers would consider a ban on “exchanges of Nazi criminals.”

Russia’s move to treat the captives as war criminals came as a Russian soldier pleaded guilty in a Kyiv court to having fatally shot a 62-year-old man on a bicycle — a killing that could be considered a war crime.

Asked by the presiding judge whether he accepted his guilt, the soldier, Sgt. Vadim Shyshimarin, 21, said: “Yes.”

“Fully?” the judge asked. “Yes,” the sergeant replied.

The sergeant had admitted to Ukrainian investigators that he fired the Kalashnikov rifle that had killed the man, Oleksandar Shelipov, prosecutors said.

He told investigators in a videotaped statement that he and four other servicemen had stolen a car at gunpoint and were fleeing Ukrainian forces when they spotted Mr. Shelipov on a bicycle, talking on a phone. Sergeant Shyshimarin said he had been ordered to kill the man so he would not report them.

Sgt. Vadim Shyshimarin, a Russian soldier who was captured by Ukrainian forces, in court to face murder charges on Wednesday in Kyiv.Credit…Nicole Tung for The New York Times

The sergeant, who is facing 10 to 15 years in prison, was charged under Ukrainian statutes with violating “the laws and customs of war, combined with premeditated murder,” prosecutors said. He was not charged with a war crime under international law.

The trial, part of Ukraine’s effort to document atrocities and identify perpetrators, drew intense interest. On Wednesday, the courtroom and an overflow room were crowded with members of the local and international news media, and the proceedings were broadcast on YouTube.

Legal experts said war crimes prosecutions against senior commanding officers are more difficult and can take far longer because their connections to the crime must be proved in court. In this case, Sergeant Shyshimarin had been accused of actually firing the fatal shot.

The prosecution was extraordinary partly because it proceeded despite its potential to disrupt or even halt future prisoner exchanges between Ukraine and Russia.

“The Russians may now decide to bring cases against Ukrainian P.O.W.s,” said Alex Whiting, a war crimes prosecutor who is a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. “This shows how the atrocity crimes being committed by Russian forces, and Ukraine’s commitment to prosecute them, are so much the center of attention right now.”

The Ukrainian prosecutor in the trial, Andriy Sinyuk, described it as an “unprecedented procedure” in which “a serviceman of a different country is accused of murdering a civilian of Ukraine.”

A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, dismissed the proceedings, telling reporters that the accusations leveled against Russian soldiers by Ukraine were “simply fake or staged.”

“We still have no information,” Mr. Peskov said. “And the ability to provide assistance due to the lack of our diplomatic mission there is also very limited.”

Even as Turkey raised concerns about quickly admitting Sweden and Finland to NATO, President Biden on Wednesday formally endorsed both of their applications. He also issued a carefully worded warning to Russia that the United States would help defend both countries while their applications are pending.

In blocking an early procedural vote on the applications, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, seemed to be calculating that his cooperation was at a premium at a moment of global crisis. NATO operates by consensus, giving any member political leverage over key decisions.

Mr. Erdogan has criticized Sweden as a haven for Kurdish separatists who he sees as terrorists.Credit…Adem Altan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Soner Cagaptay, director of the Turkish Research Program at the Washington Institute, said Mr. Erdogan was likely angling for concessions before a NATO summit in June, and was likely looking for Sweden to take a stronger stand against Kurdish groups that Turkey regards as linked to the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K., which launched a violent separatist movement in Turkey in the early 1980s.

Mr. Erdogan may also be seeking to unlock sales of American F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, Mr. Cagaptay said.

In an address to lawmakers in Turkey’s Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Erdogan said the outpouring of support for Ukraine, which he has generally supported, was “bittersweet.”

“Because we, as a NATO ally who struggled with terror for years, whose borders were harassed, big conflicts occurred just next door, have never seen such a picture,” he said.

Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, signaled that his country would not stop Sweden and Finland from joining NATO and would work to “overcome the differences through dialogue and diplomacy.”

“We understand their security concerns, but Turkey’s security concerns should be also met,” Mr. Cavusoglu told Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ahead of a meeting at the United Nations in New York.

Valerie Hopkins reported from Kyiv, Neil MacFarquhar from Istanbul, Ivan Nechepurenko from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Michael Levenson from New York. Reporting was contributed by David E. Sanger and Lara Jakes from Washington, Carlotta Gall from Kharkiv, Ukraine, Steven Erlanger from Warsaw and Rick Gladstone from New York.

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Filed Under: WORLD Tagged With: Crime, European Union, Finland, Georgia, Hungary, Information, Kyiv, Law, Media, Military, Moving, Nato, nazi, New York, Next, Oil, Propaganda, Research, Russia, State, Sweden, Turkey, Ukraine, United Nations, United States, Walking, War crimes, Washington, York, YouTube

KB Home Announces the Grand Opening of Three New-home Communities in the Highly Desirable and Thriving Valencia Master Plan

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VALENCIA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–KB Home (NYSE: KBH) today announced the grand opening of three new-home communities in the highly desirable Valencia® master plan in Valencia, California. Sage, Vesper and Crimson feature spacious single-family homes, paired homes and townhomes in Valencia’s scenic high country. The new neighborhoods are situated just off West Magic Mountain Parkway near the Interstate 5 and Highway 126 interchange, providing easy access to the area’s major employment centers as well as shopping, dining and entertainment at Westfield Valencia Town Center. The three communities are also minutes to outdoor recreation, including hiking/biking trails and several popular golf courses. Additionally, the new neighborhoods are convenient to the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area, popular beaches and other attractions.

Valencia is an exciting and thriving master plan with several new amenities, including a pool with cabanas and lounge areas as well as open space and walking trails. Future planned amenities will include shops, restaurants, additional pools and over 30 miles of interconnected trails and multimodal pathways to explore by foot, bike or Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs). Homeowners will also enjoy 10,000 acres of parks and open space and schools in the popular Newhall School District.

The single-family homes at Sage at Valencia showcase desirable design characteristics like open kitchens and great rooms perfect for entertaining, generous bedroom suites with retreats, walk-in closets and ample storage space. The community offers one- and two-story floor plans that feature up to five bedrooms and three baths, and range in size from approximately 2,300 to 2,800 square feet. Pricing begins from low $1M.

Vesper at Valencia offers a selection of paired homes that blend attractive design features like beautiful kitchens and large bedroom suites with walk-in closets as well as loft spaces and covered patios. The community’s floor plans feature up to four bedrooms and two-and-a-half baths, and range in size from approximately 1,700 to 2,200 square feet. Pricing begins from the low $800,000s.

The beautiful new townhomes at Crimson at Valencia offer spacious kitchens overlooking large great rooms, expansive bedroom suites and optional downstairs bedrooms or dens. The community’s floor plans feature up to four bedrooms and three-and-a-half baths, and range in size from approximately 1,800 to 2,000 square feet. Pricing begins from the mid $700,000s.

“Our three new communities, Sage, Vesper and Crimson, feature spacious single-family homes, paired homes and townhomes in a picturesque setting that offer a wide selection of floor plans. The new neighborhoods are compelling additions to the highly desirable Valencia master plan, which showcases several family friendly amenities, including a pool with cabanas and lounge areas as well as open space and walking trails,” said Keltie Cole, President of KB Home’s Los Angeles and Ventura County division. “The new communities are also convenient to Interstate 5 and Highway 126, providing access to the Los Angeles metropolitan area’s major employers and attractions. As with other KB Home communities, Sage, Vesper and Crimson provide home shoppers with the opportunity to purchase a personalized, new KB home at a price that fits their lifestyle and needs.”

KB Home stands out from other homebuilders as the company gives homebuyers exceptional choice and control. KB Home starts by offering a wide variety of homes at an affordable price. From there, the builder gives buyers the ability to personalize their homes from floor plans to exterior elevations, from design options to where they live in the community. The KB Home team works hand in hand with homeowners every step of the way, so they have a real partner in the process.

Every KB home is designed to be ENERGY STAR® certified thanks to the quality construction techniques and materials utilized that ultimately deliver significant savings on utility bills compared to used homes. Additionally, all new KB homes are designed to deliver an enhanced indoor environment and include high performance ventilation systems, low- or zero-VOC products and other features guided by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Indoor airPLUS standards.

The Sage, Vesper and Crimson sales offices and model homes are open for walk-in visits and private in-person tours by appointment. Homebuyers also have the flexibility to arrange a live video tour with a sales counselor. Pricing begins from low $1M, low $800,000s and mid $700,000s, respectively.

For more information on KB Home, call 888-KB-HOMES or visit kbhome.com.

About KB Home

KB Home is one of the largest and most recognized homebuilders in the United States and has built over 655,000 quality homes in our more than 65-year history. Today, KB Home operates in 47 markets from coast to coast. What sets KB Home apart is the exceptional personalization we offer our homebuyers — from those buying their first home to experienced buyers — allowing them to make their home uniquely their own, at a price that fits their budget. As the leader in energy-efficient homebuilding, KB Home was the first builder to make every home it builds ENERGY STAR® certified, a standard of energy performance achieved by fewer than 10% of new homes in America and has built more ENERGY STAR certified homes than any other builder. An energy-efficient KB home helps lower the cost of ownership and is designed to be healthier, more comfortable, and better for the environment than new homes without certification. We build strong, personal relationships with our customers, so they have a real partner in the homebuying process. As a result, we have the distinction of being the #1 customer-ranked national homebuilder in third-party buyer satisfaction surveys. Learn more about how we build homes built on relationships by visiting kbhome.com.

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Filed Under: REAL ESTATE Tagged With: Beaches, budget, Business, California, Communities, Design, Dining, Energy, Environment, Family, Golf, History, Homes, Information, kitchens, Lifestyle, Los Angeles, National, Relationships, Restaurants, Savings, Schools, Space, United States, Walking

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