Three people were killed and 22 were wounded on Monday after Russian shelling hit the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the regional governor said.
An official from the President’s office said residential areas had been struck when Russia fired rockets from multiple rocket launchers at the city.
Explained | Is NATO stronger after Ukraine invasion?
Earlier, rescuers picked through the rubble of an apartment building in eastern Ukraine searching for two dozen people, including a child, feared trapped after a Russian rocket strike on the five-storey building killed 15 people on Sunday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said the attack in the town of Chasiv Yar in the Donetsk region was “another terrorist attack” and Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Explained | The impact of the Ukraine-Russia crisis on global agricultural markets
The biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two has killed thousands, left cities and towns in ruins and seen more than 5.5 million Ukrainians flee their country.
Here are the latest updates
Russia strikes 'absolute terrorism': Ukraine official
Russian missiles pounded Ukraine's second-largest city early on July 11, local administrator said, describing the attacks as “absolute terrorism.” Governor of the Kharkiv region Oleh Syneihubov said on Telegram that the Russian forces only hit civilian targets in three missile strikes on the northeastern city.
“All (three were launched) exclusively on civilian objects, this is absolute terrorism!” Mr. Syneihubov said. One of the missiles destroyed a school, another a residential building while the third landed near warehouse facilities, said Mr. Syneihubov. He said latest reports were that three people died and 28 were wounded in the attacks. - AP
Russian shelling kills three, wounds 22 in Kharkiv
Three people were killed and 22 were wounded on Monday after Russian shelling hit the northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the regional governor said.
An official from the president’s office said residential areas had been struck when Russia fired rockets from multiple rocket launchers at the city.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, denies targeting civilians. - Reuters
Number of Ukrainians entering EU back to pre-war levels, says bloc’s migration chief
The number of Ukrainians crossing into European Union countries has returned to levels from before Russia’s invasion and more people will be coming - and going - before school starts, the senior EU official for migration said on Monday.
Since Moscow attacked Ukraine - a neighbour of both Russia to the east and the EU to the west - in February, more than 6 million Ukrainians have fled to the bloc, border guard agency Frontex said at the end of June. About 3.1 million of them had already returned home, it said.
“When it comes to the refugee flows, the situation now is stable. The crossings between the EU and Ukraine, the numbers are pre-war, pre-COVID level, so we are back to like a normal number of people crossing,” Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters. - Reuters
Lithuania widens curbs on Kaliningrad trade despite Russian warning
Lithuania on Monday expanded restrictions on trade through its territory to Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, as phase-ins on earlier-announced European Union sanctions against Moscow took effect.
Additional goods barred from Monday morning include concrete, wood, alcohol and alcohol-based industrial chemicals, a spokesperson for Lithuanian customs said. Russia warned Lithuania and the European Union on Friday that it could adopt “harsh measures” against them if the transit of some goods to and from Kaliningrad did not resume “within the coming days”.
The trade curbs have been upgraded as governments, markets and companies worry that Russia could choose to extend the shut-off of the biggest single pipeline carrying Russian gas to Germany beyond a planned 10-day maintenance period. - Reuters
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising prices to be top priority of Japan PM Kishida
Boosted by a new mandate in weekend elections, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met Monday with the U.S.’s top diplomat, who delivered condolences over the death of influential former leader Shinzo Abe and reassurances of a strong bilateral alliance.
Mr. Kishida welcomed the victory but also acknowledged that unifying the party will be a hard task without Abe, who even after resigning as Prime Minister in 2020 had led a powerful party faction. In media interviews late on Sunday, Mr. Kishida repeated: “Party unity is more important than anything else.” He said responses to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rising prices will be his priorities. - AP
Gas pipeline shutdown starts amid German suspicion of Russia
A major gas pipeline from Russia to Germany was shutting down for annual maintenance on Monday amid German concern that Russia may not resume the flow of gas as scheduled.
The Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Germany’s main source of Russian gas, is scheduled to be out of action until July 21 for routine work that the operator says includes “testing of mechanical elements and automation systems.” The operator said the gas flow was reduced progressively starting at 6 a.m., German news agency dpa reported.
German officials are suspicious about Russia’s intentions, particularly after Russia’s Gazprom last month reduced the gas flow through Nord Stream 1 by 60%. Gazprom cited technical problems involving a gas turbine powering a compressor station that partner Siemens Energy sent to Canada for maintenance and couldn’t be returned because of sanctions imposed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. - AP
Ukrainian students seeking new lives in Taiwan see parallels in Russia, China
When Ukrainian student Anna Fursyk first moved into her Taiwanese university dormitory, the roar of passing military jets made her flinch, reminding her of the war she had fled.
She is among the eight young Ukrainians who recently arrived in central Taichung city to study on full scholarships, drawn by Taiwan’s democracy and a sense of kinship born of living under the constant threat of invasion from a much bigger, increasingly aggressive neighbour.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine, he gave form to the darkest fears of many Taiwanese -- that China will act on its pledge to annex the island, which it sees as a part of its territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary.
A top Chinese official recently warned that Beijing would “not hesitate to start a war” if the island declares independence.
Roman Koval, 28, a former flight attendant from Ukraine’s eastern Lugansk region, said he decided to relocate to Taiwan partly because of what he called the “similar threats” it shared with his home country.
He called on Taiwan to learn from Ukraine’s experience and to “be always ready and be always prepared”.
“All the time Ukrainians were thinking... the U.S. will come to save us, Europe will come to save us. But it turned out that no one is going to come to save us,” he said.
“We are the ones who are going to protect ourselves and we are the ones who are fighting.” - AFP
Death toll rises to 15 in rocket attack on apartment block in Ukraine’s Donbas
Rescuers on Sunday recovered 15 bodies after a Russian missile strike hit a residential building in Chasiv Yar town, eastern Ukraine, officials said.
“During the rescue operation, 15 bodies were found at the scene and five people were pulled out of the rubble,” alive, the local branch of the Ukrainian emergency service said on Facebook, adding that rescuers were in contact with three people alive under the rubble.
