irefighters work at the scene of a residential building following explosions, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 26, 2022. (AP)Russia-Ukraine War News Highlights: Powerful explosions rocked the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv early on Saturday, the mayor said, a day after authorities said at least 21 people were killed when Russian missiles struck an apartment building near the Black Sea port of Odesa. Explosions flattened part of an apartment building while residents slept on Friday, the latest in a series of what Ukraine says are Russian missile attacks aimed at civilians.
In his nightly video address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the strikes as “conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike.” Kyiv says Moscow has intensified its long-range missile attacks, hitting civilian targets far from the frontline. Russia says it has been aiming at military sites. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov cited President Vladimir Putin’s statements “that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets”.
In another development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday over the ongoing situation in Ukraine, reiterated India’s long-standing position favouring dialogue and diplomacy. Speaking over phone on the phone, the two leaders also discussed the state of global energy and food markets, PM Modi’s office said in a statement.
A woman covers her ears reacting to a Russian air raid in Lysychansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2022. (AP)
Russian forces are pounding the city of Lysychansk and its surroundings in an all-out attempt to seize the last stronghold of resistance in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk province, the governor said Saturday.Ukrainian fighters have spent weeks trying to defend the city and to keep it from falling to Russia, as neighboring Sievierodonetsk did a week ago.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took control of an oil refinery on Lysychansk's edge in recent days, but Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai reported Friday that fighting for the facility continued. “Over the last day, the occupiers opened fire from all available kinds of weapons,” Haidai said Saturday on the Telegram messaging app.Luhansk and neighboring Donetsk are the two provinces that make up the Donbas region, where Russia has focused its offensive since pulling back from the northern Ukraine and the capital, Kyiv, in the spring.
Global hunger, already reeling from the effects of climate change and Covid-19, suffered another blow when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2021. In import-dependent countries of Africa, prices of food staples reached levels never seen before, amplifying inequality, hunger, and poverty.
The region saw bread prices increase over 50 per cent after one month of the war. The UN’s Food Price Index, which measures the change in international food prices, said food commodity prices increased 12.6 per cent from February to March. This is the sharpest increase in prices since the 1990s.
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Russian forces are pounding the city of Lysychansk and its surroundings in an all-out attempt to seize the last stronghold of resistance in eastern Ukraine's Luhansk province, the governor said Saturday.
Ukrainian fighters have spent weeks trying to defend the city and to keep it from falling to Russia, as neighboring Sievierodonetsk did a week ago. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took control of an oil refinery on Lysychansk's edge in recent days, but Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai reported Friday that fighting for the facility continued.
“Over the last day, the occupiers opened fire from all available kinds of weapons,” Haidai said Saturday on the Telegram messaging app. (AP)
The chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, has inspected divisions of Russian troops involved in Moscow's "special military operation" in Ukraine, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
The ministry published still photographs of Gerasimov at work. It was not immediately clear when the visit took place or if Gerasimov had visited Ukraine itself.
The ministry issued a similar statement about Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu last week. (Reuters)
?? US basketball star Brittney Griner went on trial in Moscow to face drug charges that could see her face up to 10 years in prison.
?? Two Britons were charged with "mercenary activities" in the Russian-backed separatist region of Donetsk, Russian agency TASS reported. Last month, another two Britons accused of the same charge were sentenced to death.
?? Russia's ambassador to Bulgaria said she would ask Moscow to close its embassy in Sofia after 70 Russian diplomatic staff were expelled.
?? Ukraine's nuclear power operator said it had re-established its connection to surveillance systems at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, which is occupied by Russian forces.
A German official has warned that Russia could be planning to use a regular maintenance break on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline as an opportunity to cut the gas supply to Germany completely.
Klaus Müller, the head of the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzwerkagentur), said that made it crucial to save as much gas as possible. He told Saturday newspapers from the Funke Media Group that the question was whether the planned 11-day maintenance period, due to start July 11, will "become a longer [period] of political maintenance."
He said that if the gas supply from Russia "was reduced longer for political reasons, we have to talk more seriously about ways to cut consumption." Russia has already cut or reduced its gas supply to several European countries amid tensions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. (DW)
Russian gas producer Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was seen at 42.15 million cubic metres (mcm) on Saturday compared with 42.1 mcm on Friday.
An application to supply gas via the Sokhranovka entry point had again been rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said. (Reuters)
In his nightly video address on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the strikes as "conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror and not some sort of error or a coincidental missile strike."
?? Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "I would like to remind you of the president's words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets."
?? Russians have been shelling the eastern city of Lysychansk from different directions, the regional governor said. Russian forces have captured an oil refinery, one report said, citing Russia's defence ministry.
Authorities said at least 21 people were killed when Russian missiles struck an apartment building near the Black Sea port of Odesa.
Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration, said 21 people had been confirmed killed, including a 12-year-old boy. Among the fatalities was an employee of the Children's Rehabilitation Center set up by Ukraine's neighbour Moldova in the resort.
The strike on Serhiivka took place shortly after Russia pulled its troops off Snake Island, a strategically important outcrop about 140 km (85 miles) southeast of Odesa that it seized on the war's first day. (Reuters)
According to the EU Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius, plans to rebuild Ukraine will need to address restoring the country's war-torn ecosystems.
"The [environmental] price tag every day is increasing, because we see the barbaric actions of the Russian side [are] not stopping," Sinkevicius said.
"They bomb chemicals facilities" and have put nuclear power plants at risk, he said, adding that "hundreds of thousands of tons" of destroyed Russian military machinery would need to be cleared.
He said environmental damage was "a crime of the biggest scale" that would "take generations to deal with." (DW)
The US Defense Department does not believe there is any credence to Russia saying its retreat from Snake Island was a gesture of goodwill, said a senior American official on Friday.
"We view this development as that the Ukrainians were very successful at applying significant pressure on the Russians, including by using Harpoon missiles that they recently acquired to attack a resupply ship," the official said.
According to him, the Ukrainians made it very hard for the Russians to sustain their operations there and made them very vulnerable to Ukrainian strikes. "So, that of course, is why Russia left the island," the official said.
The official, who was not named but whose comments were published on the DOD website, said that reclaiming Snake Island would make it easier for Ukraine to defend Odesa and to open shipping lanes in the future with Russia no longer controlling the island in the Black Sea. (DW)
Powerful explosions were heard in early hours on Saturday the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, mayor Oleksandr Senkevich said in a social media post.
"There are powerful explosions in the city! Stay in shelters!" Senkevich wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
It was not immediately known what caused the explosions. Air raid sirens sounded across the whole Mykolaiv region before the blasts. (Reuters)
Satellite image from June 8 shows the impacts of artillery strike in a field near Krasnopillia, in eastern Ukraine.
Norway on Friday pledged 1 billion euros ($1.04 billion) to help Ukraine defend itself, support people in need and for reconstruction in the wake of Russia's invasion. Addressing a news conference in Kyiv alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Norway wanted to express its solidarity with Ukraine's fight for survival.
"I'm here to say that Ukraine's fight is not only for Ukraine. This is about some fundamental principles of the world we are going to offer to our children. This is about security in Europe, this is about the fate of your neighbour," he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that France will deliver swiftly the equipment Ukraine needs to defend it self. This will include six more Caesar howitzers and a significant number of armoured vehicles. "France, the allies and European partners are and will be there," he said on Twitter.
An international film festival in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary kicked off Friday amid controversy following a protest by Ukraine over the screening of a Russian film alongside Ukrainian-made movies. Prior to the start of the 56th edition of the festival, several leading Ukrainian filmmakers along with Ukraine’s ambassador to Prague protested the scheduled screening of “Captain Volkonogov Escaped.”
Ukrainian Ambassador Yevhen Perebyinis said in an open letter that it would be “inhuman" to screen Ukrainian films alongside a Russian movie made with support from Russia's Culture Ministry at a time when Russian troops had “committed atrocities" during their invasion of his country.Organizers said they consider the Russian movie - whose world premiere was at last year’s Venice Film Festival - as being indirectly critical of the current Russian leadership.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said political pressure from the West was pushing Russia to accelerate its integration with neighbouring Belarus. Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu last week said the two countries must take urgent joint measures to improve their defence capabilities and troops' combat-readiness.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday over the ongoing situation in Ukraine, reiterated India’s long-standing position favouring dialogue and diplomacy.
Speaking over phone on the phone, the two leaders also discussed the state of global energy and food markets, PM Modi’s office said in a statement. “They exchanged ideas on how bilateral trade in agricultural goods, fertilisers and pharma products could be encouraged further,” the statement said. “The leaders also discussed global issues, including the state of the international energy and food markets.”
Russia rained missiles near Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa on Friday, hitting an apartment building and a resort and killing at least 19 people, Ukrainian officials said, hours after Russian troops were driven off the nearby Snake Island.
President Vladimir Putin has raised the stakes in an economic war with the West by signing a decree to seize full control of the Sakhalin-2 gas and oil project in Russia's far east, a move that could force out Shell and Japanese investors.
The decree, signed on Thursday, creates a new firm to take over all rights and obligations of Sakhalin Energy Investment Co, in which Shell and two Japanese trading companies Mitsui and Mitsubishi hold just under 50%.
The five-page decree, which follows Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine, indicates the Kremlin will now decide whether the foreign partners can stay. State-run Gazprom already has a 50% plus one share stake in Sakhalin-2, which accounts for about 4% of the world's liquefied natural gas (LNG). (Reuters)
Ukraine has "launched a significant export of electricity to the territory of the EU, via Romania," President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, as Russia reduces gas deliveries to the bloc.
The Ukrainian electricity grid was connected to the European network in mid-March, helping to keep supplies flowing despite the Russian invasion.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the Ukrainian exports "will provide an additional source of electricity for the EU. And much-needed revenues to Ukraine." (DW)
Eastward flows of Russian gas via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Poland from Germany fell on Friday morning in line with nominations or requests for gas, data from pipeline operator Gascade showed.
Russian gas producer Gazprom this month said that capacity through the pipeline would be cut to only 40% owing to the delayed return of equipment being serviced by Germany's Siemens Energy in Canada.
Exit flows at the Mallnow metering point on the German border stood at 799,300 kilowatt hours per hour (kWh/h) around 0600 GMT on Friday, down from about 2,732,330 kWh/h earlier in the morning. (Reuters)
Russian missile attacks on residential buildings in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Friday killed at least 18 people, including two children, authorities reported, a day after Russian forces withdrew from a strategic Black Sea island.
Video of the pre-dawn attack showed the charred remains of buildings in Odesa.
The deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Kirill Tymoshenko, said 18 people died, including two children. A spokesman for the Odesa regional government, Serhiy Bratchuk, said on the Telegram messaging app that another 30 had been injured. (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron told the Nato summit in Spain that France would soon deliver six further CESAR guns to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden pledged more American troops, warplanes and warships for Europe as Nato agreed the biggest strengthening of its deterrents since the Cold War in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters)
As the Russian bombing of Ukrainian cities gained traction, civilians previously shielded from the war are now among the casualties. Here, a paramedic helps a man wounded by the Russian shelling at the man's house in Slovyansk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, June 30, 2022.
Ukrainian emergency services say missile attacks have struck residential buildings in Ukraine’s Odesa region, causing deaths and injuries. Video of the pre-dawn Friday attack showed the charred remains of buildings in Odesa.
The assault comes after Russian forces withdrew from Snake Island, a key Black Sea island, on Thursday, potentially easing the threat to the vital Ukrainian port city of Odesa. But they kept up their push to encircle the last stronghold of resistance in the eastern province of Luhansk. (AP)
The Czech Republic will take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on Friday, the second time it has done so since the country joined the EU in 2004.
During its six-month chairmanship, the Czech Republic plans to focus on the war in Ukraine and its consequences. This includes coping with the influx of refugees and improving energy security.
To mark the occasion, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala are meeting on Friday at Litomysl Castle, about 160 kilometers east of Prague.
France held the rotating presidency for the first half of this year. (DW)
Ukrainian forces have taken control of Snake Island in the Black Sea, which was occupied by Russia very early in the war. Western commentators said on Thursday (June 30) that the retreat of the Russians marks a major setback, and likely weakens their control over shipping routes that are key to Moscow’s strategic objectives.
Last week Ukraine had said it had caused “significant losses” to Russia in airstrikes on the island. That hit was believed to be the second major military success using missiles given to the regime in Kyiv by the West.
The Ukrainians had earlier claimed a first successful use of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, Reuters had reported, quoting British Military Intelligence. (Read more)
Ukraine on Friday celebrated driving Russian forces from the strategic Black Sea outpost of Snake Island while struggling to hold off intense assaults in the eastern industrial city of Lysychansk.
Russia said on Thursday it had decided to withdraw from Snake Island as a "gesture of goodwill" to show Moscow was not obstructing UN attempts to open a humanitarian corridor allowing grains to be shipped from Ukraine. However, Ukraine said it had driven Russian forces off the outcrop after an artillery and missile assault, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailing the strategic win.
"It does not yet guarantee security. It does not yet ensure that the enemy will not come back," he said in his nightly video address. "But this significantly limits the actions of the occupiers. Step by step, we will push them back from our sea, our land and our sky." (Reuters
The United States has not seen China evade sanctions or provide military equipment to Russia, a senior US official said on Thursday, adding that enforcement measures taken earlier in the week targeted certain Chinese companies, not the government.
"China is not providing material support. This is normal course-of-business enforcement action against entities that have been backfilling for Russia," a senior Biden administration official told Reuters, referring to the Commerce blacklist.
"We have not seen the PRC (People's Republic of China) engage in systematic evasion or provide military equipment to Russia," the official said on condition of anonymity. (Reuters)
A Russian missile struck a nine-story apartment building in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odesa early on Friday, killing at least 10 people, a local official said.
"The number of dead as a result of a strike on a multi-story apartment building has now risen to 10," Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odesa regional administration said on his Telegram channel.
Bratchuk also told Ukrainian state television that seven people have been wounded, including three children. (Reuters)