File photo of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (AP)Russia Ukraine War Live Updates: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there could be no ceasefire unless lost territory was retaken. He said this after hailing the grain export agreement that Russia and Ukraine had signed on Friday. The long-sought deal ends a wartime standoff that has threatened food security around the globe. However, representatives declined to sit at the same table and avoided shaking hands at the agreement ceremony in Istanbul, reflecting wider enmity.
“Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest,” Zelenskyy told the Wall Street Journal. “Society believes that all the territories must be liberated first, and then we can negotiate about what to do and how we could live in the centuries ahead.”
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said in Lok Sabha that there are no provisions in the law to accommodate Ukraine-returned medical students for practical training. “Therefore, no permission has been given by the NMC to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students in any Indian medical institute or university,” union minister of state for health and family welfare Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, and UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, sit as two representatives of Ukraine and Russia delegations check hands during a signing ceremony at Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul, Turkey, July 22, 2022. (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there could be no ceasefire unless lost territory was retaken.
"Freezing the conflict with the Russian Federation means a pause that gives the Russian Federation a break for rest," Zelenskyy told the Wall Street Journal. "Society believes that all the territories must be liberated first, and then we can negotiate about what to do and how we could live in the centuries ahead." (Reuters)
In late June, Ukraine announced it had destroyed a Russian military base in Izyum, in the eastern Donbas region, killing at least 40 soldiers. Another strike that night reportedly killed a commander of Russia's elite VDV paratrooper regiment.
They were the first Russian victims of HIMARS (the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System), a mid to long-range missile system that has allowed Ukraine to strike deep beyond the front lines for the first time since Russia invaded in February.
The US began to send HIMARS to Ukraine in June, as Russia continued to advance through Donbas and Luhansk in an artillery-heavy offensive. Since then, HIMARS have become a valuable tool for Ukraine's military, which says it has conducted dozens of strikes on Russian targets, including air defense systems and ammunition stores. (DW)
➡️ Washington is exploring whether it can send US-made fighter jets to Ukraine, although this would not be done immediately, a White House spokesman said.
➡️ Zelenskyy told the Wall Street Journal a ceasefire with Russia without reclaiming lost territory would only prolong the war.
➡️ Russia's defence ministry said its forces had destroyed four US-supplied high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) between July 5 and Wednesday. (Reuters)
The United States is exploring whether it can send US-made fighter jets to Ukraine, a White House spokesman told reporters, as the conflict with Russia is about to enter its sixth month and fighting rages in eastern Ukraine.
While the Biden administration was making preliminary explorations into the feasibility of potentially providing the jets to Ukraine, the move is not something that would be done immediately, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing.
"It's not something that would be executed in the near-term," Kirby said. (Reuters)
The Baltic state of Lithuania has lifted a ban on the rail transport of sanctioned goods into and out of the Russian territory of Kaliningrad, Russia's RIA news agency said on Friday.
The European Union last week said the transit ban only affected road, not rail, transit, and Lithuania should therefore allow Russia to ship concrete, wood and alcohol across EU territory to the exclave
Lithuania had stopped Russia from sending sanctioned goods via rail to Kaliningrad in June, triggering an outcry from Moscow and a promise of swift retaliation. (Reuters)
Ukraine has around $10 billion worth of grain available for sale in the wake of a deal signed with Russia to unblock supplies and will also have a chance to sell the current harvest, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
"This is another demonstration that Ukraine can withstand the war," he said in a late-night address. "Approximately 20 million tons of last year's grain harvest will be exported. There will also be a chance to sell this year's harvest ... at the moment we have about $10 billion worth of grains available," said Zelenskyy. (Reuters)
As diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the crisis in Ukraine continue, the time has come for Delhi to devote greater attention to Central Europe, which is at the heart of the contestation between Russia and the West. Delhi can’t forever view this critical region through the prism of Russia’s conflict with the West. It must come to terms with its growing strategic significance, writes C. Raja Mohan.
Two months after the West Bengal government allocated seats for practical training to 412 medical students who had returned from Ukraine to the state, the Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar told the Lok Sabha that there were no provisions in the Acts governing medical education to allow such transfers. “Therefore, no permission has been given by the NMC to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students in any Indian medical institute or university,” the minister’s reply read.
“As informed by National Medical Commission (NMC), the regulatory body of medical education in the country, no such information is available with them,” when asked about whether 400 students were accommodated by the West Bengal government in state universities. All admissions to MBBS seats – even the 85% seats under the state quota – happen according to the ranks of the students in the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET). (Read more)
More from World
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sounded a sombre note on the deal to export Ukrainian grain.
“I’m not opening a bottle of champagne because of this deal,” Kuleba told The Associated Press. “I will keep my fingers crossed that this will work, that ships will carry grain to world markets and prices will go down and people will have food to eat. But I’m very cautious because I have no trust in Russia.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy echoed Kuleba's concerns in his nightly video address, saying, “It is clear to everyone that there may be some provocations on the part of Russia, some attempts to discredit Ukrainian and international efforts. But we trust the UN.”
The White House announced Friday that the US is sending an additional $270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a package that will include additional medium-range rocket systems and tactical drones.
The latest tranche brings the total US security assistance committed to Ukraine by the Biden administration to $8.2 billion, and is being paid for through $40 billion in economic and security aid for Ukraine approved. by Congress in May.
The new package includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS and will allow Kyiv to acquire up to 580 Phoenix Ghost drones, both crucial weapon systems that have allowed the Ukrainians to stay in the fight despite Russian artillery supremacy, according to John Kirby, the White House National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications. The latest assistance also includes some 36,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and additional ammunition for the HIMARS. (AP)
Russia and Ukraine signed a landmark deal on Friday to reopen Ukrainian Black Sea ports for grain exports, raising hopes that an international food crisis aggravated by the Russian invasion can be eased.
The accord crowned two months of talks brokered by the United Nations and Turkey which U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said were aimed at restoring Ukrainian grain exports while easing Russian grain and fertilizer shipments despite tough Western sanctions on Moscow. Guterres said the deal, signed in Istanbul, opens the way to significant volumes of commercial food exports from three key Ukrainian ports – Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.