A Ukrainian serviceman looks at a crater and damaged school after Russian shelling in a residential area in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, July 16, 2022. (AP)Russia Ukraine War Crisis Highlights: Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed ammunition depots for weapons supplied by the US and European countries in Ukraine’s Odesa region, news agency Reuters said quoting Russian news agency Ifax. Meanwhile, the British intelligence, in their daily update, said that Russian planners are facing a dilemma as to whether they should prioritise deploying reserve forces to capture Donbas or to defend against Ukraine attacks in the Kherson sector.
This comes amidst reports that the Russian troops have stepped up their bombardment of cities across Ukraine, with intense shelling of Sumy in the north, cluster bombs targeting Mykolaiv and a missile strike in Odesa in the south. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had fired more than 3,000 cruise missiles and uncountable artillery shells during the five-month conflict.
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has revamped his commanding line, firing Ukraine’s security chief and top prosecutor. Zelenskyy accused them of failing to get rid of Russian spies from their organisations. Despite his disclosure of Russian penetration of the SBU, US officials on Monday said Washington would continue sharing intelligence that US officials have said Kyiv uses to respond to Moscow’s attacks.
Paievska is contending with the toll of the Mariupol siege and her captivity. (Source: AP/ File photo)
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said Moscow did not see any desire from Ukraine to fulfil the terms of what he described as a preliminary peace deal agreed to in March.
Putin, speaking to reporters in televised comments after a visit to Iran, said Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were offering to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, which Moscow’s forces invaded in late February.
There was no immediate response from the Ukrainian government to Putin’s remarks in the early hours of Wednesday.
Ukraine's parliament dismissed the domestic security chief and prosecutor general on Tuesday, two days after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suspended them for failing to root out Russian spies.
Ivan Bakanov was fired from his position at the helm of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) by a comfortable majority, several lawmakers said on the Telegram messaging app.
The head of Zelenskyy's political faction said Iryna Venediktova had also been voted out as prosecutor general. (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Kremlin leader's first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow's February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In Tehran, Putin will also hold his first face-to-face meeting since the invasion with a Nato leader, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss a deal aimed at allowing the resumption of Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports as well as peace in Syria.
Putin's trip, which comes just days after US President Joe Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, sends a strong message to the West about Moscow's plans to forge closer strategic ties with Iran, China and India in the face of the Western sanctions.
"The contact with Khamenei is very important," Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. "A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda."
"On most issues, our positions are close or identical," he added. Putin will also meet Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi who was elected last year. (Reuters)
Russia's defence ministry said it has destroyed ammunition depots for weapons supplied by the US and European countries in Ukraine's Odesa region, news agency Reuters said quoting Russian news agency Ifax.
Russia's former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that Russia will prevail in Ukraine and will set the terms for a future peace deal with Kyiv.
"Russia will achieve all its goals. There will be peace - on our terms," Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said in a post on Telegram.
The former leader, once held up in the West as a possible partner, has becoming increasingly hawkish and outspoken in his criticism of the West since Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24. (Reuters)
In his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran for a summit with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts on the Syrian conflict, Iranian state TV said on Tuesday.
The three countries are working together to try to reduce the violence in Syria despite supporting opposing sides in the war. Russia and Iran are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's strongest backers, while Turkey supports anti-Assad insurgents.
Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to launch another operation in Northern Syria, which Tehran and Moscow oppose. In Tehran, Putin and Erdogan will meet to discuss a deal aimed at resuming Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports. (Reuters)
Russia has defaulted on the supply of at least 5 cargoes or shiploads of LNG to India after its retaliatory sanctions hit one of the companies that supply gas to India, sources said.
India's largest gas firm GAIL has a long-term deal to import 2.85 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per annum from a Singapore-based unit of Russian gas producer Gazprom.
The company has since June defaulted on the supply of 5 cargoes of LNG under that contract citing difficulty in sourcing gas due to sanctions, two sources briefed on the matter said. While the contract provides for making up of the volumes not supplied later, the Russian firm has so far nor indicated how and when it will make up for the lost volumes. (PTI)
The British intelligence, in their daily update, said Tuesday that Russian planners are facing a dilemma as to whether they should prioritise deploying reserve forces to capture Donbas or to defend against Ukraine attacks in the Kherson sector.
➡️ Russian missile strike in Odesa injured at least four people, burned houses to the ground, cluster shell strikes in Mkoliav injured at least two and more than 150 mines and shells fired on Sumy region, said Ukraine authorities.
➡️ Ukraine said Russian troops tried unsuccessfully to advance towards the city of Avdiyivka north of Donetsk, but were pushed back after several days fighting, suffering heavy losses, with some 40 dead.
➡️ Ukraine's top military commander said US-supplied long-range rocket systems "stabilize the situation" through "major strikes at enemy command points, ammunition and fuel storage warehouses."
➡️ Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered generals to prioritise destroying Ukraine's long-range missile and artillery weapons after strikes on Russian supply lines. (Reuters)
For the first time since the war began, the Stanislavchuk family was together again.
Yehor was leading his parents, Natasha and Sasha, his sister, Tasya, and his grandmother, Lyudmila, on a tour of Bucha, the quaint suburb of Kyiv that has become synonymous with Russian savagery.
Here was the school where Yehor had hid for two weeks as Russian troops bombed and murdered their way through the town. There, at the entrance to the school basement, was where a Russian soldier had shot a woman in the head just because he could. And over there, on top of the yellow crane, was where the sniper sat, picking off civilians as they scrounged for food and water.
Yehor, 28, spoke calmly, and no one expressed surprise. These stories are well known now in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday as she began a series of high-profile appearances in Washington that will include a session with U.S. counterpart Jill Biden.
Blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flew alongside American ones on Pennsylvania Avenue as Zelenska headed for her first announced event in the United States, the meeting with Blinken. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the secretary of state assured Zelenska of the United States’ commitment to Ukraine.
Russian forces kept up their bombardment of cities across Ukraine, with intense shelling of Sumy in the north, cluster bombs targeting Mykolaiv and a missile strike in Odesa in the south, authorities said on Tuesday.
Ukraine says Russian forces have intensified long-distance strikes on targets far from the front, killing large numbers of civilians. Moscow says it is hitting military targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia had fired more than 3,000 cruise missiles and uncountable artillery shells during the five-month conflict. (Reuters)
Russia’s parliament moved Monday to tighten already stringent restrictions on the discussion of LGBTQ rights and relationships.
A draft bill calling for the broadening of a 2013 ban on the “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” to minors, widely referred to as the “gay propaganda” bill, was announced on the website of the parliament, or Duma. Introduced by a cross-party group of six Communist and socially conservative deputies, the bill would ban public discussion of LGBTQ relationships in a positive or neutral light, and any LGBTQ content in cinemas.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the parliament speaker and an ally of President Vladimir Putin, proposed similar measures earlier this month. On July 8, he spoke in favour of a broad ban on disseminating information on LGBTQ relationships after Russia had withdrawn from the Council of Europe, a human rights watchdog, in March. (AP)