A man stands outside a damaged residential building located in Panfilova street following recent shelling in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Donetsk, Ukraine June 20, 2022. (Reuters)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Live: Ukraine acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east of the country as Russian forces captured territory and intensified pressure on two key cities (Sievierodonetsk and its sister city Lysychansk) ahead of a European Union summit this week expected to welcome Kyiv’s bid to join the bloc.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces last week claimed their first successful use of Western-donated Harpoon anti-ship missiles to engage Russian forces, the British Military Intelligence said on Tuesday. “The target of the attack was almost certainly the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which was delivering weapons and personnel to Snake Island in the north-western Black Sea,” the defence ministry said in its daily Twitter update.
On Monday, the Kremlin said two Americans detained in Ukraine were mercenaries not covered by the Geneva convention who should face responsibility for their actions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments were the first formal acknowledgment that the two were being held. A US State Department spokesperson said they had been in touch with Russian authorities regarding any US citizens who may have been captured.
Demonstrators supporting Ukraine gather outside the United Nations. (AP)
European countries are united in their support for granting Ukraine the status of European Union member candidate, Luxembourg's foreign affairs minister said on Tuesday.
"We are working towards the point where we tell Putin that Ukraine belongs to Europe, that we will also defend the values that Ukraine defends," Jean Asselborn told reporters before a meeting with other EU ministers. (Reuters)
Indonesian President and current chair of the G20 Joko Widodo is due to visit Moscow later this month to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indonesia's state news agency cited the country's security minister as saying.
"Yes, that is the president's agenda," the coordinating security minister Mahfud MD told reporters at the presidential palace on Monday.
The Antara news agency reported that the Indonesian leader, widely known as Jokowi, was scheduled to meet Putin on June 30. (Reuters)
The European Union ambassador to Russia has arrived at the Russian foreign ministry, the RIA news agency said on Tuesday.
The governor of Kaliningrad region said on Monday that the ministry would summon EU ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer over Lithuania's ban on the transit of goods under EU sanctions through Kaliningrad. (Reuters)
Russian television has begun to air in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the Russian army said on Tuesday in an area where Moscow has already implemented its currency — the ruble — and started handing out Russian passports.
Moscow's forces have "reconfigured the last of the seven television towers in the Kherson region to broadcast Russian television channels" for free, the army said.
Bordering the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, the Kherson region became occupied by Russian forces shortly after the Kremlin's offensive got underway on February 24.
One of the pro-Moscow officials in the region, Kirill Stremousov, said Tuesday that the territory could join Russia "before the end of the year." (DW)
The Danish Energy Agency issued a first level "early warning" alert over gas supplies.
The European Union has three levels of alerts to allow member states to signal energy supply issues: "early warning," "alert," and "emergency." The system allows for mutual assistance from EU countries.
Danish Energy Agency deputy director Martin Hansen said that "this is a serious situation we are facing and it has been exacerbated by the reduction in supplies." Currently Denmark's stocks are around 75% full.
Danish energy company Orsted announced at the end of May that delivery of Russian gas would be suspended after June 1, after the company refused to settle the payment in rubles as Moscow had requested. (DW)
Ukrainian forces last week claimed their first successful use of Western-donated Harpoon anti-ship missiles to engage Russian forces, the British Military Intelligence said on Tuesday.
"The target of the attack was almost certainly the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which was delivering weapons and personnel to Snake Island in the north-western Black Sea," the defence ministry said in its daily Twitter update.
The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Russia claims on behalf of separatists. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Africa was a "hostage" in the war with Russia, which had contributed to rising food prices on the continent. In a speech to African Union leaders, Zelenskyy said the continent had been caught up in a situation not of its making.
"(I) address you in a state of emergency, when we have a war. In an emergency for the whole world, when Africa is actually taken hostage. Hostage of those who started the war against our state," Zelenskyy said in a video speech to the Bureau of the Assembly of the African Union.
"This war may seem very distant to you and your countries. But catastrophically rising food prices have already brought it home to millions of African families." (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin fears the "spark of democracy" spreading to his country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, adding that he was trying to divide Europe and return to a world dominated by spheres of influence.
Scholz was responding to a question in an interview with the Muenchner Merkur newspaper, published on the government website on Monday, on whether Putin would accept Ukraine moving closer to the European Union.
"The Russian President must accept that there is a community of law-based democracies in his neighbourhood that is growing ever closer together," he said. "He clearly fears the spark of democracy spreading to his country."
The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected the comments, writing on social media: "German sparks have spread onto us a couple of times. We will not allow any more fires." (Reuters)
➡️ Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was "extremely difficult" along the entire front line and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.
➡️ Gaidai said Russian forces controlled most of the city of Sievierodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering for weeks. He also said the road connecting Sievierodonetsk and sister city Lysychansk to the city of Bakhmut was under constant shell fire.
➡️ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. In his nighttime address to the nation on Monday, he was defiant, while also referring to "difficult" fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
➡️ Ukrainian officials reported three civilian deaths in Russian shelling in the Donetsk region on Monday and another three in shelling in the Kharkiv region.
➡️ A Russian missile destroyed a food warehouse in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa after the Russia-installed leader of the annexed Crimea peninsula said Ukrainian forces had attacked drilling platforms owned by a Crimean oil and gas company. (Reuters)
Moscow's separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk.
Gaidai acknowledged a Russian attack on Toshkivka had "had a degree of success" and confirmed Russia's claim to have captured Metyolkine.
Russia's military kept grinding down Ukraine's defenses Monday, with combat in eastern areas said to be entering a "decisive" phase, as the war's consequences for food and fuel supplies increasingly weighed on minds around the globe.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press on Monday that the situation in Sievierodonetsk was "very difficult," with the Ukrainian forces maintaining control over just one area... the Azot chemical plant, where a number of Ukrainian fighters, along with about 500 civilians, are taking shelter.
The Russians keep deploying additional troops and equipment in the area, he said. "It's just hell there. Everything is engulfed in fire, the shelling doesn't stop even for an hour," Haidai said in written comments. (AP)
Dmitry Muratov, the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and the editor of one of Russia's last major independent newspapers, auctioned off his Nobel medal for a record $103.5 million to aid children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
According to US media reports, the auction of Muratov's prize shattered the record for any Nobel medal that has been auctioned off, with reports saying that the previous highest sale fetched just under $5 million.
"This award is unlike any other auction offering to present," Heritage Auctions said in a statement before the sale. "Mr. Muratov, with the full support of his staff at Novaya Gazeta, is allowing us to auction his medal not as a collectible but as an event that he hopes will positively impact the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees."
A US citizen was killed in combat in Ukraine last month, according to an obituary and the State Department, after he joined thousands of foreign fighters who have volunteered to help Ukraine fend off invading Russian forces.
Stephen Zabielski, 52, was killed in fighting on May 15, according to an obituary published in The Recorder, an upstate New York newspaper, earlier this month. Media reports of his death circulated on Monday. Zabielski, who was from New York and had moved to Florida in recent years, is survived by his wife, five stepchildren, and a grandchild, among other family.
In a statement, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Zabielski's death in Ukraine and said the agency has been in touch with his family and provided "all possible consular assistance." (Reuters)
What’s the price of peace? That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. The proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east of the country as Russian forces captured territory and intensified pressure on two key cities ahead of an EU summit this week expected to welcome Kyiv's bid to join the bloc.
The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was "extremely difficult" along the entire front line as of Monday evening and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
"We are defending Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, this whole area, the most difficult one. We have the most difficult fighting there," he said. "But we have our strong guys and girls there." (Reuters)