In pictures: Portsmouth people out in force to pay respects on Remembrance Sunday amid heavy police and security presence
Steve Deeks
Updated ·3-min read
Pictured is: Veterans are cheered and clapped off the parade Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-233)
The Remembrance service was preceded by a parade of veterans, military personnel and youth groups in the Guildhall Square at 10.30am before a two-minute silence was held at 11am.
A moving service then followed with a wreath laying ceremony at the Cenotaph concluding the morning’s events.
Hundreds of people packed into Guildhall Square with police – including the Royal Navy police – and security seen across the civic space. However, the event passed peacefully despite fears protesters could clash.
Pictured is: Veterans take the salute Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-219)
Home secretary and Fareham MP Suella Braverman, who has been accused of stoking divisions in the country this week, has today condemned “sick” antisemitic chants and placards at the Armistice Day pro-Palestinian march in London yesterday while praising police who faced “violence and aggression” from protesters and counter-protesters.
Those who attended in Guildhall today were pleased to see no trouble. Stuart Venables, 55, of Southsea, said: “It was a good service with a strong turn out from locals to pay tribute. I’m glad it went off peacefully. Today is about remembering those who gave their life for their country.”
Margaret Harrington, 60, of Portsmouth, said: “It was an incredible service and so good to see all the veterans. I’m glad there was no trouble.”
Veteran Gavin Williams, 46, added: “It was a special occasion that lived up to its billing. I’m pleased lots of people turned out to pay their respects and there were no incidents to overshadow the occasion.”
Pictured is: Standard Bearers led the veterans off the parade Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-216)
Police said there were no reported incidents.
Pictured is: The Wreaths Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-185)
Pictured is: A Red Beret lays his wreath Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-180)
Pictured is: Stephen Morgan MP ad Penny Mourdant MP lay their wreaths Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-165)
Pictured is: Adm. Jonathon Band, Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor Tom Coles, Commodore John Voyce OBE ADC, Naval Base Commander and the Lord Lieutenant of Hampshire. Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-156)
Pictured is: Penny Mourdant MP and Stephen Morgan MP during the national anthem Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-136)
Pictured is: Salute Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-134)
Pictured is: A Veteran Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-131)
Pictured is: Standard Bearers and Veterans Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-130)
Pictured is: The Act of Commitment is read by Captain Sarah Listers of the Salvation Army Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-129)
Pictured is: Mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor Tom Coles Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-127)
Pictured is: Veteran Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-123)
Pictured is: Veteran Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-122)
Pictured is: Veterans Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-116)
Pictured is: Two veteransPicture: Keith Woodland (121121-114)
Pictured is: Allen Parton of Hounds for Heroes Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-111)
Pictured is: A veteran Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-110)
Royal Navy Police were also at the Guildhall (Photo: nw)
Pictured is: The Very Rev Cane leads the prayers Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-107)
Pictured is: Tony Cooper, President of the Portsmouth and Southsea Synagogue Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-96)
Pictured is: Veterans during hymns. Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-94)
Pictured is: During the two minute silence Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-88)
Pictured is: Veterans Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-86)
Pictured is: Veterans Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-85)
Pictured is: Veterans Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-82)
Pictured is: During the two minute silence Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-81)
Pictured is: During the two minute silence Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-78)
Police (Photo: nw)
Pictured is: The Standards are lowered Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-77)
Pictured is: Veterans Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-44)
Pictured is: The Guildhall square. Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-29)
Pictured is: Rodney & Angela Cave with Raymond & Pauline Mayhew. Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-4)
Pictured is: Veterans await the start of the service Picture: Keith Woodland (121121-1)
Police on the scene at the Remembrance Sunday event (Photo: nw)
Israel Defense Forces says depot was found near a clinic and school in northern Gaza and contained “hundreds of RPG missiles,” amongst other weaponry (Credit: IDF)
Ukraine’s Armed Forces have broken through two of the three Russian defense lines, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov stated in an interview U.S. entertainment channel Fox News on Dec. 5.
Now that fierce fighting has resumed in Gaza, international pressure is building on Israel to curb its military campaign and abandon its objective of crushing Hamas. The humanitarian goal of these demands is to protect innocent Palestinians. The political goal is to appease some Muslim states and appeal to anti-Israel “progressives” and Muslims in Europe and North America.
The U.S. is sending a $175 million package of military aid to Ukraine, including guided missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armor systems and high-speed anti-radiation missiles, the Pentagon and State Department announced on Wednesday. The latest aid comes as Congress remains stalled on legislation that would provide new funding for Ukraine as it battles to push back Russian forces, as well as money for Israel's war with Hamas and other security needs. The Biden administration has said funding to aid Ukraine is running out, and the Pentagon packages of weapons and other equipment for the war have become much smaller in recent months.
“Ukraine's allies are collaborating to increase the number of F-16 fighter jets provided to Ukraine”, announced Ukraine's Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba, during a joint press conference with Dutch counterpart, Hanke Bruins Slot, in Kyiv on December 5.
The number of Russian military personnel seeking help to desert from their units has nearly doubled since the summer, The Moscow Times reported on Dec. 4, citing data from “Idite Lesom” (Get to Forest), an organization that helps Russians avoid participating in the war against Ukraine.
Ukraine's latest list of U.S. weapons it says it needs to fight the Russian military includes sophisticated air defense systems, F-18 "Hornet" fighter jets, drones, Apache and Blackhawk helicopters, according to documents seen by Reuters. Officials from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense presented a "list of armaments to meet the needs of defense forces of Ukraine" during a closed-door session of a conference in Washington on Wednesday attended by government officials and defense industry executives. The comprehensive list included weapons Ukraine already has in stock like Abrams tanks and 155 millimeter artillery, as well some weaponry such as F-16s, drones and long-range ATACMS missiles that it has asked for in the past.
Two Russian servicemen, Colonel Anatoliy Bondarev and Major Dmytriy Dmytrakov, have been sentenced to four years in prison by the 2nd Western Military District Court in Moscow, Russian propaganda outlet Kommersant reported on Dec. 6.
A group of men wearing white camouflage against a blanket of fresh snow run drills to hit back against Russian saboteurs who might infiltrate behind Ukrainian lines.Yevgen Sylkin, a military spokesman responsible for Chernigiv, said Ukrainian forces respond to around 10 attempted Russian incursions a month from groups made up of around 10 or so people.
STORY: More than 21 months into the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two, fierce fighting rages in Ukraine with no end in sight.Ukrainians hoped 2023 would be the year the country drove Russian forces out of swathes of occupied land. But the frontline has barely budged.Reuters Ukraine Chief Correspondent Thomas Balmforth:"The main takeaway of the year is probably there haven't been a great deal of advantages by either side during the war." The war in Ukraine has already killed or wounded hundreds of thousands of people, destroyed cities and villages, forced millions from their homes and placed hundreds of thousands more under the Russian occupation.Kyiv's much-anticipated counteroffensive has so far proved unable to punch through Russian defensive lines in the south and east."Russia controls about 17.5% of Ukrainian territory. Russian forces are back on the offensive in the east, and they've been mounting pressure on the town of Avdiivka. Many of the Ukrainian soldiers are exhausted and many of them will be fighting at the front for almost two years. Ukraine's own commander in chief has already described the war as a stalemate. President Zelenskiy has rejected that characterization, but it really does look very hard to imagine that either side could quickly forge a breakthrough and change things very quickly on the battlefield.”Ukrainians know they must secure Western military aid to carry on and that it will be harder with the war in Gaza distracting global attention."It's clear that there is increasing fatigue in the West on the matter of providing military and other support to Ukraine. The White House has asked Congress to approve a roughly $60 billion assistance program for Ukraine that would come through next year. At the moment it hasn't passed."Meanwhile in Europe, a four-year €20 billion EU military aid proposal has also run into resistance from some bloc members.Some Ukrainians believe Russian leader Vladimir Putin will use any let-up in fighting to build further defenses and regenerate the Russian army for a new assault."Russia is expected to hold an election in March that is widely expected to hand Vladimir Putin another six years in the Kremlin. Some observers think that he may feel his hands are more untied after that election to escalate his war effort. That could include, for instance, mobilizing more Russian men to fight in the army. He may also decide to invest even more effort into the defense industry in Russia.”The strain of the war is likely to weigh on everyday Ukrainians, for many of whom war fatigue has become a fact of life."I spoke to an internally displaced person from the Kherson region, Oleksii. He fled his hometown of Kherson in April 2022 when it was still under occupation. He's now currently living in Kiev and he has no plan to go back home to Kherson because he fears that it's still getting pounded by artillery and he thinks that it's too dangerous. So I think there's a lot of frustration, a lot of fatigue and also a sense that it's gonna be a long, long time until anything goes back to anything resembling normal." "Currently, if everything stays as it is, it doesn't look like Russian forces have any appetite for peace talks. The Ukrainians themselves, their official position is that they want all of their country back. Every single inch of occupied territory to be returned to Ukraine and their position is that peace talks cannot take place until Russia has left their territory. So it really it really does seem that neither side is ready for peace talks, and therefore it seems unlikely that you know the war are good to end anytime soon."Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces via Telegram / State Border Service of Ukraine / National Police of Ukraine / Reuters / Concord Press Service / 35th Separate Brigade of Marines via Facebook / Donetsk Region Police
Freshly conscripted Russian soldiers have been appearing on the Kupyansk front and are being deployed alongside professional military personnel during assaults on Ukrainian positions, Nadia Zamryha, the spokesperson for the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, revealed in an interview with Radio Svoboda on Dec. 6.