Russian forces fired missiles and shells at cities and towns across Ukraine on July 17 after Russia’s military announced it was stepping up its onslaught against its neighbour. Ukraine reported at least 17 more civilians killed. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave “instructions to further intensify the actions of units in all operational areas, in order to exclude the possibility of the Kyiv regime launching massive rocket and artillery strikes on civilian infrastructure and residents of settlements in the Donbas and other regions,” his ministry said Saturday.
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Ukraine’s atomic energy agency accused Russia of using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and shell the surrounding regions of Nikopol and Dnipro that were hit on July 16. More than 20 weeks since Russia invaded its neighbour, leading to thousands of deaths and millions of displaced Ukrainians, the war-ravaged nation’s President Volodymyr Zelensky blamed Moscow for seeking to cause maximum damage, but pledged that Ukraine will “endure” in the conflict.
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Ukrainian authorities across the country reported new Russian missile strikes and shelling on July 16 that killed at least 16 more civilians, deaths that came after Russia’s top military announced it was stepping up its onslaught against its neighbour.
Here are the latest updates:
Russia strikes south Ukraine city, presses attacks in east
Russian missiles hit industrial facilities at a strategic city in southern Ukraine Sunday as Moscow continued efforts to expand its gains in the country’s east.
Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said that the Russian missiles struck an industrial and infrastructure facility in the city, a key shipbuilding center in the estuary of the Southern Bug river. There was no immediate information about casualties.
Mykolaiv has faced regular Russian missile strikes in recent weeks as the Russians have sought to soften Ukrainian defences.
The Russian military has declared a goal to cut off Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast all the way to the Romanian border. If successful, such an effort would deal a crushing blow to the Ukrainian economy and trade and allow Moscow to secure a land bridge to Moldova’s separatist region of Transnistria, which hosts a Russian military base.
Early in the campaign, the Ukrainian forces fended off Russian attempts to capture Mykolaiv, which sits near the Black Sea Coast between Russia-occupied Crimea and the main Ukrainian port of Odesa. - AP
Ukraine war shows West’s dominance is ending as China rises, Blair says
The Ukraine war shows that the West’s dominance is coming to an end as China rises to superpower status in partnership with Russia at one of the most significant inflection points in centuries, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
The world, Mr. Blair said, was at a turning point in history comparable with the end of World War Two or the collapse of the Soviet Union: but this time the West is clearly not in the ascendant.
“We are coming to the end of Western political and economic dominance,” Mr. Blair said in a lecture entitled
“After Ukraine, What Lessons Now for Western Leadership?” according to a text of the speech to a forum supporting the alliance between the United States and Europe at Ditchley Park west of London. - Reuters
Russia preparing for next stage of offensive, Ukraine says
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”.
Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days.
“It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea,” Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said on Saturday. “We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire front line. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters.” - Reuters
Russia reinforces defensive positions in occupied southern Ukraine: U.K. military
Russia is reinforcing its defensive positions across the areas it occupies in southern Ukraine, the British defence ministry said on July 17.
The reinforcements include movement of manpower and equipment, defensive stores between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kherson, while Russian forces in Melitopol are also increasing security measures, the ministry wrote on Twitter in a regular bulletin. - Reuters
Ukraine war must not blind West to African needs: French minister
The war in Ukraine “concerns the West as a whole” but at the same time must not lead to “forgetting Africa’s security” needs, France’s armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu said Saturday.
“We have a form of myopia in Europe and France, where the Ukraine war mobilises all our energy, and that is natural — it is a conflict that concerns the West as a whole,” said Mr. Lecornu in Ivory Coast after a visit to Niger.
“Yet it should not lead to forgetting about news on security in Africa,” he argued ahead of meeting with Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara. - AFP
G20 finance talks overshadowed by Ukraine end without joint communique
A two-day meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 20 major economies ended Saturday in Indonesia without a joint communique after Russia’s war in Ukraine divided the global forum.
During talks on the Indonesian resort island Bali, the finance chiefs looked for solutions to food and energy crises, while accusing Russian technocrats of exacerbating the problems.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on Friday blamed the invasion of Ukraine for sending a shockwave through the global economy. - AFP
Russia remains barred from international soccer as sports court upholds bans
Russia remains barred from international soccer competitions including the Champions League after the Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected appeals by the national soccer federation and four clubs on Friday.
CAS upheld decisions by UEFA and FIFA which excluded Russian national teams and clubs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia steps up missile attacks across Ukraine
Ukrainian authorities across the country reported new Russian missile strikes and shelling on July 16 that killed at least 16 more civilians, deaths that came after Russia’s top military announced it was stepping up its onslaught against its neighbour.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave “instructions to further intensify the actions of units in all operational areas, in order to exclude the possibility of the Kyiv regime launching massive rocket and artillery strikes on civilian infrastructure and residents of settlements in Donbas and other regions.”
