Russia on Thursday began shipping grain from Ukraine’s occupied territory, with a vessel carrying 7,000 tonnes of cereal sailing from Ukraine’s occupied port of Berdyansk. Kyiv has for weeks accused Russia and its allies of stealing its grain from southern Ukraine.
Russia defence ministry said that Russia is holding more than 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war, a day after the two sides swapped imprisoned soldiers.
Russia pressed on with its offensive in eastern Ukraine on June 30 after NATO branded Moscow the biggest “direct threat” to Western security and agreed plans to modernise Kyiv’s beleaguered armed forces. Ukrainian authorities said they were trying to evacuate residents from the frontline eastern city of Lysychansk, the focus of Russia’s attacks where about 15,000 people remained under relentless shelling.
President Volodymyr Zelensky told NATO leaders on Wednesday that Ukraine needs modern weapons and more financial aid in its fight against Russia’s invasion. “We need to break the Russian artillery advantage... We need much more modern systems, modern artillery,” Mr. Zelensky told a NATO summit in Madrid via video link. He added that financial support was “no less important than aid with weapons”.
As the 30 national NATO leaders were meeting in Madrid, Russian forces intensified attacks in Ukraine, including missile strikes and shelling on the southern Mykolaiv region close to front lines and the Black Sea. The mayor of Mykolaiv city said a Russian missile had killed at least five people in a residential building there, while Moscow said its forces had hit what it called a training base for foreign mercenaries in the region.
Here are the latest updates:
UK announces further military support for Ukraine
The UK will provide another 1 billion pounds of military support to Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced at a NATO Leaders’ Summit in Madrid on June 30.
This latest funding has been dubbed a new phase in the international community’s support to Ukraine. It will go towards capabilities including sophisticated air defence systems, uncrewed aerial vehicles, innovative new electronic warfare equipment and thousands of pieces of vital kit for Ukrainian soldiers. - PTI
British PM sees signs Ukraine will prevail
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the withdrawal of Russian troops from Snake Island in the Black Sea is a sign that Ukraine will prevail in the war.
Mr. Johnson said the pullout from the island where occupying Russian troops have faced relentless Ukrainian attacks shows that “again Russia has had to cede ground.” He said that “in the end it will prove impossible for Putin to hold down a country that will not accept” occupation.
Mr. Johnson spoke at the end of a NATO summit in Madrid dominated by the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He said Russia must be driven off from all the territory it has occupied since it invaded in February and that at the moment “there doesn’t seem to be anything to talk about” regarding a cease-fire.
Mr. Johnson welcomed a commitment by many NATO members to increase defense spending and said the U.K. would raise its spending target from 2% of GDP to 2.5% by the end of the decade. - AP
NATO chief cautions Moscow as summit ends
NATO’s leader has closed a summit of the Western military alliance with a message to Moscow that the allies are prepared to “protect every inch of NATO territory” and fully back Ukraine in its battle against Russian forces.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that NATO has “made sure that there is no misunderstanding in the minds of any adversary, that if they do anything like what Russia has done to Georgia in 2008 or Ukraine now, that will trigger the full response of the whole alliance.”
Stoltenberg said the three-day summit in Madrid featured several “transformative” decisions.
Besides pledging more aid by NATO members for Kyiv, the allies agreed to boost their rapid response forces in Eastern Europe from 40,000 to 300,000, invited Sweden and Finland to join as new members, and approved a new list of top security priorities for the next decade, among other decisions.-AP
Russian Duma passes law on retaliation against foreign media
Russia’s top prosecutor will be empowered to shut down media from countries that ban or restrict Russian news organisations under a law passed by the lower house of parliament on Thursday.
The bill - following bans by some Western governments on Russian media they regard as mouthpieces for President Vladimir Putin and cheerleaders for his war in Ukraine - creates a legal basis for Moscow to retaliate against the media of any country that restricts the activity of Russian journalists.
Under the bill, such media will lose their accreditation and be banned from operating in Russia or distributing content there. These measures would only be lifted when the country in question allows Russian media to work without restrictions.-Reuters
Some captured Azov fighters will face trial, Putin ally says
Some captured members of Ukraine’s Azov Regiment will face trial, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament said on Thursday, a day after Russia’s top court postponed a decision on whether to brand the unit as a terrorist entity.
Vyacheslav Volodin, an ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Russia would carry out a “substantial investigation” into every member of Azov to find out “who was involved in what.”
Those who are determined to have “blood on their hands” will face trial, the State Duma speaker said in a post on Telegram.-Reuters
Russia begins shipping grain from occupied Ukraine port
Russia on Thursday began shipping grain from Ukraine’s occupied territory, with a vessel carrying 7,000 tonnes of cereal sailing from Ukraine’s occupied port of Berdyansk.
Kyiv has for weeks accused Russia and its allies of stealing its grain from southern Ukraine, contributing to a global food shortage caused by grain exports blocked in Ukrainian ports.
Until now shipments have been transported by land, Kyiv says.
Thursday’s grain shipment from the port of Berdyansk marks the opening of a sea route to export wheat from Ukraine to third countries.
“After numerous months of delay, the first merchant ship has left the Berdyansk commercial port, 7,000 tonnes of grain are heading toward friendly countries,” Evgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russia administration, said on Telegram.
Russia’s Black Sea ships “are ensuring the security” of the journey, he said, adding that the Ukrainian port had been demined. -AFP
Russia says it has more than 6,000 Ukrainian POWs
Russia is holding more than 6,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war, the defence ministry said Thursday, a day after the two sides swapped imprisoned soldiers.
“The total number of Ukrainian troops captured or who surrendered is more than 6,000,” Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the ministry, said in a statement.
On Wednesday each side received 144 detained soldiers.
Ukraine said 95 of its troops who returned home were those who fought in the Azovstal steel plant in the port of Mariupol, one of the war’s bloodiest battles.-AFP
Pope implicitly accuses Russia of aggression, imperialism in Ukraine
Pope Francis on Thursday implicitly accused Russia of “armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism” in Ukraine, calling the conflict a “cruel and senseless war of aggression”.
The pope was speaking to a delegation of Orthodox leaders who had come to Rome for a religious celebration on Wednesday.-Reuters
Ukraine says Russian forces have withdrawn from Snake Island
The head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, said on Thursday that Russian forces had withdrawn from Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea outpost.
“KABOOM! No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces did a great job,” Yermak wrote on Twitter.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify Yermak’s statement. -Reuters
Russian forces fight to capture Ukraine’s eastern bulwark
Russian troops fought Thursday to encircle the last bulwark of Ukraine’s resistance in an eastern province, as funerals were to be held for those who were killed by a Russian strike on a shopping mall in central Ukraine earlier this week.
Moscow’s push to take control of the entire Donbas region from Ukraine is focused on Lysychansk, the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the Luhansk province. Russian troops and their separatist allies control 95% of Luhansk and about half of Donetsk, the two provinces that make up the mostly Russian-speaking Donbas.-AP
Sweden to send more anti-tank weapons and machine guns to Ukraine
Sweden will send more anti-tank weapons and machine guns to Ukraine, Sweden’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday. - Reuters
Russia and China slam NATO after alliance raises alarm
NATO was facing rebukes from Moscow and Beijing on June 30 after it declared Russia a “direct threat” and said China posed “serious challenges ” to global stability. The Western military alliance was wrapping up a summit in Madrid, where it issued a stark warning that the world has been plunged into a dangerous phase of big-power competition and myriad threats, from cyberattacks to climate change.
NATO leaders also formally invited Finland and Sweden to join the alliance, after overcoming opposition from Turkey. If the Nordic nations’ accession is approved by the 30 member nations, it will give NATO a new 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) border with Russia. - AP
‘We cannot pause our lives’: Ukrainians begin rebuilding
On the outskirts of a Ukrainian village stand the remnants of a small school that was partially destroyed in the early weeks of the Russian invasion.
Surrounded by tall pine trees, the school’s broken windows offer glimpses of abandoned classrooms that are unlikely to see students again anytime soon. It is just one of many buildings in Yahidne that were shattered by the war.
Indonesia’s leader visiting Kyiv, Moscow
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations, is visiting Ukraine and Russia for meetings with the leaders of the two warring nations after attending the Group of Seven summit in Germany.
Mr. Widodo has sought to maintain a neutral position since the start of the war, and he hopes his efforts will lead to a cease-fire and eventual direct talks between the two leaders. - AP
Russians behind ‘war crime’ bombing of Mariupol theatre: Amnesty
A theatre sheltering civilians destroyed in March in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol was likely hit by a Russian airstrike in a war crime, Amnesty International said in a report published Thursday.
“Until now, we were speaking about an alleged war crime. Now we can clearly say it was one, committed by the Russian armed forces,” Oksana Pokalchuk, head of Amnesty’s Ukraine branch, told AFP.
“These explosions were caused by something really big: two 500-kilogramme [1,100-pound] bombs” dropped from a plane, she added, dismissing Russian claims that the theatre was hit in a false-flag attack by the city’s Ukrainian defenders. - AFP
Putin still wants most of Ukraine, war outlook grim, says U.S. intelligence chief
Russian President Vladimir Putin still wants to take most of Ukraine and the picture for the war remains “pretty grim,” U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Tuesday. - Reuters
Ukrainian troops train in Britain to use advanced rocket systems
Hundreds of Ukrainian troops have completed military training in Britain, including on the Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) the British government is supplying to help counter Russian artillery tactics.
Media were invited to film Ukrainian troops loading and firing 105mm light guns during exercises in Salisbury, southern England — one part of a British-led programme that has been undertaken by more than 450 Ukrainian armed forces with support from New Zealand. The MLRS systems were also shown in use.
The training is part of a wide-ranging international support package following Russia’s invasion, as the West seeks to help Ukraine repel Russian forces by providing increasingly advanced weapons systems and skills to use them.
Moscow says it is conducting a “special military operation” to disarm Ukraine and rid it of “fascists”. Ukraine and its Western allies say Russia is waging an unprovoked war of aggression. - Reuters
Russians fight to encircle Ukraine’s last eastern stronghold
A woman lays flowers and a toy to commemorate victims of a shopping mall hit by a Russian missile strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kremenchuk, in Poltava region, Ukraine on June 28, 2022. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Russian forces battled Wednesday to surround the Ukrainian military’s last stronghold in a long-contested eastern province, as shock reverberated from a Russian airstrike on a shopping mall that killed at least 18 in the center of the country two days earlier.
Moscow’s battle to wrest the entire Donbas region from Ukraine saw Russian forces pushing toward two villages south of Lysychansk while Ukrainian troops fought to prevent their encirclement.
Britain’s defence ministry said Russian forces were making “incremental advances” in their offensive to capture Lysychansk, the last city in the Luhansk province under Ukrainian control following the retreat of Ukraine’s forces from the neighbouring city of Sievierodonetsk. - AP
U.S. disburses $1.3 bn of promised aid to Ukraine
The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday the transfer of $1.3 billion in economic aid to Ukraine as part of the initial $7.5 billion promised to Kyiv by the Biden administration in May.
“With this delivery of economic assistance, we reaffirm our resolute commitment to the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against Putin’s war of aggression and work to sustain their economy,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.
The payment, part of the $7.5 billion aid package signed by President Joe Biden in May, is set to be made through the World Bank.
According to World Bank estimates, the war, which began with Russia’s invasion of its former Soviet neighbour in February, could cause the Ukrainian economy to contract by up to 45% in 2022. - AFP
Zelensky asks NATO summit for modern artillery, money
President Volodymyr Zelensky told NATO leaders on Wednesday that Ukraine needs modern weapons and more financial aid in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
“We need to break the Russian artillery advantage... We need much more modern systems, modern artillery,” Mr. Zelensky told a NATO summit in Madrid via video link.
Alliance faces biggest challenge since WWII: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg
NATO leaders were sitting down on June 29 to try to turn an urgent sense of purpose triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into action — and to patch up any cracks in their unity over money and mission.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the Alliance was meeting in Madrid “in the midst of the most serious security crisis we have faced since the Second World War.”
Macron says Russia can’t win in Ukraine after strike on mall
France’s president denounced Russia’s fiery airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine as a “new war crime” Tuesday and vowed the West’s support for Kyiv would not waver, saying Moscow “cannot and should not win” the war.
Zelensky urges action in U.N. address; Russia calls it ‘PR campaign’ for weapons
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of being a “terrorist state” at the United Nations on Tuesday, prompting Russia to charge that he was using a Security Council address as a “remote PR campaign” to solicit more Western weapons.
