As tensions around the complex rose on Tuesday, Russia and Ukraine once more accused one another of planning an attack on Europe’s largest plant.
Volodymyr Zelensky forewarned that Moscow’s troops might have planted explosives on the roof, which, when they went off, might have been attributed to Ukrainian bombardment.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov hit back at the claims, saying measures were being taken to counter the threat posed to the plant by ‘the Kyiv regime’.
‘The situation is quite tense because there is indeed a great threat of sabotage by the Kyiv regime, which could be catastrophic in its consequences,’ he said.
‘The Kyiv regime has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to do anything. Therefore, all measures are being taken to counter such a threat.’
He did not present evidence to back his assertions.
Russian troops took control of the Zaporizhzhia plant last year soon after embarking on what Vladimir Putin calls his ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine.
Each side has since regularly accused the other of shelling around the plant and of risking a major nuclear incident.
Last year, when a threat of an accident at the plant first arose, Ukraine established a crisis response headquarters.
Recently, emergency workers have been taking part in drills in preparation for a potential radiation leak.
Footage showed rescuers in yellow and white protective gear and gas masks, using dosimeters to check passenger cars and trucks for radiation levels and then cleaning wheels before vehicles underwent additional decontamination at specialised washing points. A man on a stretcher was brought into a medical tent as sirens blared.
According to the emergency services, in case of a nuclear disaster at the plant, approximately 300,000 people would be evacuated from the areas closest to the facility.
That covers four regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. The evacuation would be mandatory.
Those forced to flee will be allowed to bring their pets with them, according to the services. Buses, trains, and personal cars would be used for the evacuation from the affected zone.
A leaflet distributed online lists what to pack in case of an evacuation from a radiation zone.
It then adds: ‘Tightly wrap your suitcase or backpack with cling film or scotch tape. This will definitely ease the process of their deactivation at the sanitation units.’
Depending on the wind direction and the spread of radiation, people would be taken to safer areas within Ukraine.
‘There are different scenarios, but we are preparing for the most critical one,’ Yurii Vlasenko, the Ukranian deputy minister of energy said.
Iran is currently facing legal action at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to the tragic shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 in January 2020.
Four countries—Canada, Sweden, Ukraine, and the UK—are pursuing legal recourse to seek damages on behalf of the families of the 176 individuals who lost their lives in the incident.
The plane was struck by two missiles fired by an air defense unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards shortly after taking off from Tehran. Three days later, Iran acknowledged that it had mistakenly shot down the aircraft.
The Revolutionary Guards’ Aerospace Force stated that an air defense unit had misidentified the Boeing 737-800 as a US missile.
In April, an Iranian court sentenced ten members of the armed forces to prison terms. However, the verdicts were rejected by the families of the victims, who deemed them “meaningless and unacceptable.”
The four nations – whose citizens or residents were killed in the incident – say in the application to the International Court of Justice that Iran “violated a series of obligations” under a convention on civil aviation by shooting down the jet.
They accuse Iran of failing to take all practicable measures to prevent the downing of the plane, which happened during a time of high tension between Iran and the US.
Iran however failed to conduct an impartial, transparent and fair criminal investigation and prosecution, the group says.
The countries want the court to order that Iran publicly acknowledges its “internationally wrongful acts”, apologise to the families and provide assurances that it will not happen again.
The application also asks the court to “order full reparation for all injury caused”, calling on Iran to return the missing belongings of the victims and to provide “full compensation” to the families.
Lord Ahmad, the UK’s Middle East minister, said they were “committed to pursuing justice for the victims and their families”.
In December 2022, the group jointly requested that Iran submit to binding arbitration, arguing the missiles that hit the flight were launched “unlawfully and intentionally”.
At the time a spokesperson for Canada’s foreign affairs ministry told the BBC the Iranian government had six months to respond. This deadline has now passed, prompting the countries to move towards legal action.
Per the Russian defence ministry, Ukraine has launched a drone strike on Moscow, which has resulted in the temporary closure of one of the nation’s busiest airports.
In the attack on Tuesday, which also hit locations in the larger area surrounding the capital, five drones apparently were employed.
According to the defence ministry, no one was hurt or property was damaged while all the drones were shot down.
The alleged attack has not been attributed to Ukraine.
Some flights had to be diverted from Vnukovo Airport in response, although restrictions have now been lifted.
According to the defence ministry, four of the drones flying in the Moscow region were shot down by air defence systems. A fifth was intercepted electronically.
Russia may be preparing to launch a major spring offensive, and it could come even before the winter snows start to melt.
The time to give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself and expel the Russian invaders is now. But despite a remarkably unified commitment, some of Ukraine’s supporters in the West are throwing wrenches in the pipeline.
Ukraine believes the Kremlin could make another push to take the capital, Kyiv, and anticipates that Russian President Vladimir Putin will call up some 500,000 more troops in addition to the 300,000 mobilized late last year.
Moscow denies it’s planning a second mobilization, but the independent Russian news outlet Volya, citing sources in Russia’s military, reported that Moscow plans to recruit another 700,000 troops. In addition, Ukraine also faces more than 50,000 private-army mercenaries, most of them Russian prisoners released in exchange for fighting.
On Friday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declared, “This is a decisive moment for Ukraine, in a decisive decade for the world,” following a crucial meeting of Ukraine’s top Western allies at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Ukraine is fighting against a Russia that has been a pernicious, destabilizing force on the global stage. The West is trying to calibrate its support, but the result of the Ramstein meeting was disappointing for Kyiv and for those who believe Russia must be defeated.
Austin reiterated that the United States will continue to support Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” urging Kyiv’s friends to “dig even deeper.” Despite the exhortations, however, the defense chiefs failed in one of the principal goals of the meeting, deciding to send battle tanks, which Ukraine says it needs without delay.
The decision on tanks was blocked by Germany, reluctant to send its Leopard 2 tanks or to grant permission to other countries that own them to release them. Berlin fears that Moscow will view the presence of German tanks as a provocation and wants the US to send its tanks to give it cover.
Washington is sending armored fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons but maintains that its Abrams tanks are unsuited for this war because learning to operate them takes too long and they are difficult to maintain. They insist the German tanks are a better fit.
Blocking the transfer of needed weapons to Ukraine is, shall we say, not Germany at its best.
Ukraine’s Eastern European backers, invaded by Russia during the Cold War and earlier, were fuming. Poland’s foreign minister lambasted Germany, reminding Berlin that this is not just an exercise, “Ukrainian blood is shed for real.” The three Baltic states — Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania — demanded that Germany act “now.”
A frustrated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, “There is no rational reason why Ukraine has not yet been supplied with Western tanks.”
As it battles Russian soldiers and mercenaries, Ukraine has another worry. One Ukrainian source told CNN that Kyiv is concerned about the shift in the political balance in Washington now that Republicans — some of whom are less than wholeheartedly supportive of Ukraine — have taken control of the US House of Representatives. Ukrainians require the continuing forceful backing they have received from Washington.
Watching from afar, it’s easy to get the impression that Putin may soon end his hapless Ukraine war. After all, this conflict has been an utter disaster for Russia, even if it continues to kill scores of civilians by bombing apartment blocks, and despite an occasional symbolic advance.
Putin has no intention of stopping. He has silenced his liberal critics at home, but he is under pressure from far-right nationalists, including some who own mercenary armies and are showing off their prowess while mocking the Russian army that answers to him, as has Yevgeny Prigozhin, who runs the notorious Wagner Group.
Besides, Putin, who views himself as a clever student of history, may be looking at some of Russia’s greatest victories, which it wrested out of the jaws of defeat.
Russia managed to repel invasions by Napoleon and the Nazis, but the current Russian President may have gleaned the wrong lesson from his predecessors’ prowess. Napoleon and Hitler were the invaders. The Russian empire, and later the Soviet Union, was defending itself.
This time, Russia is the aggressor. Ukraine has the home-field advantage, including the inexhaustible determination to defeat the hated invader.
In fact, history teaches us something else: In 2008, Putin invaded neighboring Georgia and got away with capturing some of its territory. In 2014, he invaded Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and got away with that. Then, last year, he decided to take all of Ukraine.
The lesson is that when the Kremlin’s expansionist military adventures succeed, they are followed by more aggression, more wars, more illegal confiscation of its neighbors’ territory. Moscow’s victories seem to produce more wars of Russian aggression.
Defeating this assault is the best way to secure future peace, to reaffirm the notion that a rapacious country cannot simply swallow a peaceful neighbor — a notion we thought had ended after World War II.
Understandably, Germany emerged from that war with a pacifist bent. But the lesson of World War II is about the danger of allowing aggressive despots to make gains.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz may hesitate to send tanks to fight Russia, as Germanydid in the 1940s, but he too may be distilling the wrong lessons from history. German tanks invaded a sovereign country back then. This time, they would be defending one.
Some, in fact, argue that the World War II experience bestows Germany with a unique moral responsibility to provide Kyiv what it needs. (When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, by the way, they invaded Ukraine, one of its republics.)
After the defense ministers at Ramstein announced they had not decided to send tanks, Zelensky, clearly disappointed, reaffirmed that Ukraine urgently needs tanks but added an intriguing comment about what had transpired. “Not everything,” he said, “can be announced in public.”
Sooner or later, I have little doubt, the tanks will come. Already German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has ordered an inventory of the Leopards and suggested that other countries that own them start making preparations in case Germany authorizes the transfer.
Later is better than never, but there’s no reason, no excuse to delay, because Russia is about to make the war in Ukraine even deadlier. The window for preventing a much longer war may soon close.
Despite missing necessary supplies and weaponry, the chief general of Ukraine claims that its soldiers are moving forward “500 metres every day.”
The commander-in-chief of the AFU, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, voiced displeasure over criticisms of Ukraine’s sluggish progress on the front lines and claimed the ongoing counteroffensive is “not a show.”
In an interview with the Washington Post, Zaluzhnyi said, “Every day, every metre is given by blood.”
Complaining about the slow delivery of weapons promised by the West, Zaluzhny said Kyiv’s Western allies would not themselves launch an offensive without air superiority, but expect Ukraine to do so despite failing to deliver F-16 fighters promised to the country on time.
General Valerii Zaluzhnyi says Ukraine’s counteroffensive is ‘not a show’ for global audiences (Picture: AP)
‘I do not need 120 planes. I’m not going to threaten the whole world. A very limited number would be enough,’ he told the newspaper.
Ukraine started its long-awaited counteroffensive on June 8, with the bulk of fighting so far taking place in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
But unlike last autumn’s offensive, which saw Ukraine take back swathes of territory in Kharkiv and Kherson, battlefield gains have been much more modest this time around.
‘Without being fully supplied, these plans are not feasible at all,’ Zaluzhnyi told the Post. ‘But they are being carried out. Yes, maybe not as fast as the participants, the observers, would like, but that is their problem.’
However, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on June 28 that the main Ukraine’s attack is still yet to come.
Zaluzhnyi also mentioned that his forces are being outshelled by the Russians by a rate of ten to one, and that he is in constant contact with Pentagon Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley to coordinate ammo and munitions supplies.
‘We have an agreement: 24/7, we’re in touch. So, sometimes I can call up and say, “If I don’t get 100,000 shells in a week, 1,000 people will die. Step into my shoes,”’ he told the Washington Post.
‘It’s just that while that decision is being made, in the obvious situation, a lot of people die every day – a lot. Just because no decision has been made yet,’ he said.
‘This is not a show,’ he added. ‘It’s not a show the whole world is watching and betting on or anything. Every day, every metre is given by blood.’
According to a report from US-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrainian forces conducted counteroffensive operations along at least three sectors of the front line yesterday.
The operations continued in the Melitopol and Berdyansk directions in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, while troops achieved ‘partial success’ on the border of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia and north of the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, the ISW added.
According to Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar, troops are ‘confidently advancing’ on Bakhmut’s flanks and Russian forces have transferred a large number of troops to the area.
She added that Ukrainian forces are advancing with varying degrees of success in southern Ukraine, and that the counteroffensive should be evaluated by ‘a lot of different military tasks.’
Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy also ordered security to be beefed up at his country’s border with Belarus, where fighters from the Russian mercenary group Wagner have been offered exile after their attempted coup on Moscow’s military leaders last weekend.
The first evaluation of Ukraine’s $15.6 billion loan program by the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund is now complete, enabling Kyiv to promptly withdraw $890 million for budget support.
The board’s approval brings Ukraine’s withdrawals under the programme launched on March 31 to about $3.6bn so far.
The IMF said Ukrainian authorities have made “strong progress” towards meeting reform commitments under “challenging conditions,” meeting quantitative performance criteria through April and structural benchmarks through the end of June.
Ukraine is seeking an invitation to initiate the process of joining NATO at the upcoming summit of the military alliance next month. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s aide has stated that if the leaders do not demonstrate “courage,” the president will not attend the summit.
Chief diplomatic adviser Ihor Zhovkva told Reuters that Kyiv wanted the July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania to deliver a response to the application for NATO membership that Ukraine filed on September 30, 2022.
“This application is now on the tables of the leaders of NATO allies. The Vilnius summit would be a very good start to respond to this application. And by respond, we mean invitation for membership, which is only the first stage,” he said.
In an interview in the heavily guarded president’s office in Kyiv, the Zelenskyy aide said “What we are asking for is to start the procedure,” and banged on the table at one point to drive his point home.
A Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg visited Kiev to highlight the environmental harm resulting from the conflict in Ukraine and to criticize the international response to the massive hydropower Kakhovka dam’s collapse on June 6.
“I do not think that the world reaction to this ecocide was enough,” said Thunberg, who was in Kyiv for the inaugural meeting of a new environmental group that also includes senior European political figures.
“We have to talk louder about it, we have to raise awareness about what is going on,” she said, according to a Ukrainian translation of her comments.
The group is tasked with assessing the damage to Ukraine’s environment and developing mechanisms to hold Russia accountable, said Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential staff and co-chair of the group along with former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Margot Wallstrom.
In response to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Washington was nearing the provision of ATACM long-range missiles to Kyiv, the Pentagon has stated that it is not currently aware of any imminent decision regarding this matter.
Kyiv has long sought the US Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, arguing the missiles would help them strike Russian forces far behind the front lines.
“I don’t have anything to announce regarding ATACMs and certainly I’m not aware of any imminent decisions as it relates to ATACMs,” Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told a press briefing.
Greta Thunberg from Sweden and other notable European leaders have met with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to discuss setting up a working group to remedy the ecological damage caused by the 16-month Russian incursion.
The working group on the environment includes Thunberg, former Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Margot Wallström, European Parliament Vice President Heidi Hautala, and former Irish President Mary Robinson.
Zelenskyy said forming the group is “a very important signal of supporting Ukraine. It’s really important, we need your professional help”.
Thunberg said Russian forces “are deliberately targeting the environment and people’s livelihoods and homes. And therefore also destroying lives. Because this is after all a matter of people.”
The Kremlin has denied claims made by the UN that it violated children’s rights in Ukraine, claiming that instead its armed forces were rescuing youngsters from dangerous situations.
According to a significant study published on Tuesday, since the battle started in February of last year, Russia has been accused of imprisoning more than 800 civilians, including some children, and 77 civilians have been put to death.
According to the research, 480 attacks on schools and hospitals and 518 kid maimings were committed by Russian armed forces in 2022.
It also accused them of using 91 children as human shields.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular briefing that Moscow ‘firmly rejects’ such accusations.
‘Our military, repeatedly risking their own lives, took measures to save children, to take them out from under shelling, which, by the way, was carried out by the armed forces of Ukraine against civilian infrastructure,’ he said.
Russia regularly rejects accusations of human rights abuses in Ukraine and also denies deliberately targeting civilians in what it calls a ‘special military operation’.
Tuesday’s 36-page U.N. report, based on 70 visits to detention centres and more than 1,000 interviews, also said that Ukraine had violated international law by arbitrarily detaining civilians, but on a considerably smaller scale.
Based on reports, a Russian missile strike in Ukraine resulted in the death of a 17-year-old girl and injuries to an eight-month-old infant.
The young youngster is one of four people who killed and at least 42 people were injured in the incident, according to the prosecutor general’s office in Ukraine.
Moscow launched two missiles into Ukraine today, striking a mall that was populated with restaurants and cafes in the cities of Kramatorsk and Bilenke, both close by.
A favourite dinner spot for local war reporters, according to journalists, was a pizza shop that was damaged in the assault.
Reporter Arnaud De Decker posted a photo of his pizza and beer from inside the venue, saying it was taken just 20 minutes before the explosions.
He said ‘people were still screaming underneath the rubble’ an hour after the rockets had hit.
Emergency services worked into the night to search for victims who may have still been stuck.
Governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, told Ukrainian TV: ‘This is the city centre. These were public eating places crowded with civilians.’
Iuliia Mendel, the spokesperson for President Volodymyr Zelensky, tweeted a clip of a building almost completely destroyed with smoke billowing from the top of it.
The attacks are believed to have been carried out with two S-300 missiles.
Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska said: ‘Terrorists from RF attack civilians again. Kramatorsk, missile attack on a restaurant in the city center. Crowded place, evening — enemy do not want normal life in Ukraine.
‘There are a lot of wounded. It is painful. Evil must be punished.’
She also highlighted that today’s strike has happened on the anniversary of a deadly attack on Amstor mall in the centre of Kremenchuk.
More than 20 people were killed and 59 injured in the tragedy which took place exactly a year ago.
More than 1,000 people were inside the building when it was hit by a Russian Soviet-era Kh-22 missile carrying over 900kgs of explosives, Mr Zelensky said at the time.
Following the final performance of the play he was in, an actor from Ukraine was attacked in Dublin near a theatre.
On Saturday, an assault took place near the Abbey Theatre on Eden Quay in the Irish capital against Oleksandr Hrekov, a man in his 20s.
A representative for Abbey said that although he was taken to the hospital right away with “serious” wounds that required stitches, he is “recovering well.”
Gardai are looking into what has been referred to as a “unprovoked, random act of mindless violence” despite the fact that no arrests have yet been made.
Mr Hrekov had travelled to Dublin to perform in a Kyiv theatre company’s production of Brian Friel’s Translations.
She said that the production of Translations was ‘an expression of the solidarity of the Irish people with the people of Ukraine’.
‘I hope Oleksandr makes a full recovery and returns to his craft as soon as possible,’ she wrote on Twitter.
A spokeswoman for the Abbey said: ‘We were honoured to welcome and work with our Ukrainian colleagues from the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre over the last ten days, showing their production of Brian Friel’s Translations to sold-out houses at the Abbey Theatre.
‘They are a group of incredible and resilient artists – using their art as an act of resistance to speak to their lived experience in a powerful and deeply moving way.
‘A 27-strong theatre company travelled from Kyiv to perform the canonical Irish text, which illuminates the determination of a people to persist and ensure their culture endures in the most difficult of circumstances.
‘Unfortunately, one of the cast was attacked near the Abbey on Saturday evening, after the final performance.
‘This was an unprovoked, random act of mindless violence, that left the cast member needing stitches and treatment in hospital.
‘Both the Abbey Theatre and the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre condemn this behaviour and stand together against bullying and violence of this nature.
‘The cast member is recovering well and began the journey home to Kyiv with the rest of the company yesterday.’
The spokeswoman added: ‘This incident will not overshadow the joyful and important collaboration between our two theatre companies.
‘This is only the beginning of the Abbey Theatre’s artistic relationship with our friends at the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre.’
Ukraine is launching a significant attack in the south and east by capitalising on the anarchy that has engulfed Vladimir Putin‘s government.
According to reports, Kiev generals were considering how they could gain an advantage on the front lines as the Wagner Group’s mercenaries marched towards Moscow.
In Ukraine, where there is ferocious fighting going on apart from the revolt, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar wrote earlier today that “progress is being made in all directions.”
She claimed that the army had initiated an operation in a number of eastern sites, including Bakhmut, Yagidne, Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka, Klishchiivka, and Kurdyumivka, despite earlier cautions not to divulge Ukraine’s military preparations.
This is where Russian forces and allied Wagner soldiers had made major advances in recent months.
Ms Maliar also added: ‘The enemy tried to advance in the Kupyansk, Lymansk, and Marinsk directions, but they failed to advance.
‘They launched airstrikes and artillery fire in the Avdiyiv and Shakhtar directions.’
Russian forces said they had repelled multiple attacks in four areas in the east of the country.
In the south, Ms Maliar confirmed that heavy fighting continues in all directions of the offensive.
‘The enemy is on the defensive, making great effort to stop our offensive actions,’ she added.
‘At the same time, the enemy is suffering significant losses in personnel, weapons and equipment.’
The UK Ministry of Defence said Ukrainian soldiers have been undertaking major offensive operations on three main axes in the south and east.
An update on Twitter this morning read: ‘Forces are using the experiences from the first two weeks of the counter-offensive to refine tactics for assaulting the deep, well prepared Russian defences.
‘Ukrainian units are making gradual but steady tactical progress in key areas.
‘In Luhansk Oblast, Russian forces have made their own significant effort to launch an attack in the Serebryanka Forest near Kremina.’
The MoD said Russia has made some small gains, but added that Ukrainian forces have prevented a breakthrough.
The military of Ukraine, which is waging its own counteroffensive, as well as our own people here in the Donbas, are attentively following the remarkable developments in Russia.
The very long front line is only shifting by a few meters, a few villages here and there.
Everybody is waiting to see where and when the Ukrainians may commit the bulk of their newly trained forces, with their Western-supplies weapons.
There are potential new opportunities for the Ukrainians to exploit. There are questions about where the Wagner forces have withdrawn from.
Russian forces will no doubt have heard what’s been going on and will be demoralised. There might be in-fighting between rival units in the days to come, depending on what sort of aftershocks there are back in Russia following yesterday’s remarkable events.
Right now, as well as risks of an escalation from Russia, Ukraine will be searching for opportunities from the instability across the border.
A report from Russia’s state-run Tass news agency, indicates that Chechen forces are withdrawing from Russia’s southern Rostov region and heading back to the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine.
The Chechen forces were urgently deployed to the Rostov region on Saturday, tasked with squashing a mutiny by Wagner mercenaries who had seized the local capital Rostov-on-Don.
But a deal was reportedly reached late that day to resolve the crisis, and Wagner fighters left the city shortly afterwards.
Tass quotes Apty Alaudinov, deputy commander of the Akhmat special unit, as saying his fighters are going back to the area around the Ukrainian city of Mariinka – the scene of fierce fighting in recent months.
The European Union unveiled a plan on Tuesday to safeguard the economy of the union from risks posed by unreliable suppliers in nations that do not uphold its ideals, such as China, after the conflict in the Ukraine exposed Europe’s reliance on Russia for oil and gas.
The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, is working to create regulations to safeguard commerce and investments, notably in the digital and communication sectors, which adversaries might try to use for security or military objectives.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU commission, made the announcement of the idea, which needs to be approved by members of the union. She said: “The globe has become more contested and geopolitical, and there is a restricted collection of important technologies that can be exploited in a different and aggressive way.
“Given the changing nature of the risks, we now need a strategic vision for how we are going to handle these risks.”
Von der Leyen added that the EU needed to be “more assertive” in using its existing tools to tackle the problem and develop new ones.
‘Country agnostic’
The plans are being promoted as “country agnostic” because no target nations are mentioned by name, but they dovetail with the commission’s new drive to “de-risk” its relations with China without completely “decoupling”, given it relies on the Asian giant to tackle global challenges such as climate change.
Von der Leyen said the capital, expertise and research of European companies must not be “abused by countries of concern for military applications”. She raised, in particular, concerns about the security of 5G and 6G telecoms networks.
The commission considers Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE to be high-risk suppliers. In recent days it endorsed moves by some of the 27 EU member countries to exclude the two companies from their 5G networks.
In the 2019 EU-China Strategic Outlook, Brussels for the first time called Beijing a “systemic rival.” Since then, things have gone downhill with both sides hitting each other with sanctions following increasing European criticism over China’s human rights situation, resulting in the EU cancelling a major investment deal in early 2021.
The aim of the new plan is to make European economies and supply chains more resilient to threats and to resist energy or inflation hikes produced by the war while keeping trade flowing.
Under the scheme, the EU would work with countries that share its economic security concerns.
“We cannot treat a supply dependency on a systemic rival the same as we would treat that dependency on an ally,” commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager said.
Other risks to be countered include those posed to cyber-security or to critical infrastructure such as pipelines, undersea cables, power generators and transport networks. The threats posed by countries using trade or investment to change EU policies would also be addressed.
The challenge will be to unite EU member states – each of which have their own national policies toward countries like China and Russia – around the plans.
EU leaders are expected to discuss the scheme at their June 29-30 summit in Brussels.
Russia has threatened the West with consequences if their long-range missiles touch down on its territory, especially Crimea, which it has occupied.
Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister for the Kremlin, has today warned the US and the UK that if they use their weapons beyond international borders, they would be viewed as full-fledged combatants.
Using such missiles “outside the zone of the special military operation would signify their full-fledged involvement in the conflict and will lead to immediate strikes on decision-making centres in Ukraine,” he emphasised.
Shoigu said: ‘According to our information, the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is planning to launch strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Crimea, with HIMARS and Storm Shadow missiles.
’The use of these missiles outside the area of the special military operation would mean a full-fledged involvement of the US and UK in the conflict entailing immediate strikes on the decision-making centres in Ukraine.’
His comments come as Russian regions bordering Ukraine and Crimea have been hit by drones.
Though Kyiv has not commented on its involvement, these attacks include one on Putin’s residency in Moscow.
Shoigu’s claim that Crimea is part of Russia is disputed by the West – and international law – which regards it as Ukrainian.
Putin invaded and forcibly annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 – the biggest land-grab in Europe since World War II.
The minister appears clearly rattled at the power of the British-supplied Storm Shadow with a range of 155 miles, which has been fired from Ukrainian Su-24 war planes.
So far Ukraine has used the Storm Shadow and US-provided HIMARS to hit targets in Russian-occupied areas of mainland Ukraine, not including Crimea.
Russia admitted today that it had lost another colonel in an earlier Storm Shadow strike close to Crimea, on the Arabat Spit.
Col Sergei Postovalov, 53, is due to be buried tomorrow after he was fatally wounded in June 10 strike which hit a Russian command post close to Henichesk minutes after Putin’s deputy premier Denis Manturov had visited.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Russian missiles targeted the capital city of Kyiv and several other cities, causing significant damage to critical infrastructure in Lviv, located in the west of Ukraine.
The attacks on Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia in the south were reported as massive in scale.
Ukraine’s air force reported that they successfully intercepted and shot down all but three of the 35 drones that were launched during the attack.
Fortunately, no casualties were reported in Lviv, although there were explosions heard in the city during the early morning hours. However, the head of the regional authority, Maksym Kozytskyi, stated that an important target was struck three times by Iranian Shaheed drones, resulting in a fire outbreak.
According to the Ukrainian air force, more than 20 drones were launched in waves from Russian territory in the north and from the coastal region of the Sea of Azov in the southeast, targeting the capital city. Kyiv authorities stated that this was the first such incident in 18 days.
In addition to the drone attacks, Zaporizhzhia was struck by a number of Iskander-M ballistic missiles, but thankfully no injuries were reported. Furthermore, three drones were shot down over the southern region of Mykolaiv, as confirmed by the governor.
It is worth noting that the Zaporizhzhia region has been a focal point of the Ukrainian military’s ongoing offensive to reclaim territory that was captured by Russia during its full-scale invasion, which began in February 2022.
Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said hours earlier that Ukrainian forces had recaptured the village of Piatykhatky as they try to break through Russia’s front line in the southern region. She said it was the eighth Ukrainian village to be recaptured in the past week. There has been no independent confirmation of the latest developments.
In his nightly TV address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in some areas the military was moving forward while in others they were holding positions against Russian attack.
The defence minister said Ukraine’s push had advanced some 7km (4.3 miles) in two directions in Zaporizhzhia, towards the occupied southern cities of Melitopol and Berdyansk.
The exiled mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, said residents had seen Russian forces leave the Kherson region further west for the front line in Zaporizhzhia.
Melitopol and Berdyansk lie on a coastal route from Russia to Crimea seen as critical to the Russian military because the bridge over the Kerch Strait from Russia to occupied Crimea is largely avoided by supply lorries. A Russian MP said earlier this month that the bridge was not considered secure but the “land corridor” was operating normally.
Western intelligence officials say Russian troops have moved away from the front line in Kherson since areas around the Dnipro river were flooded after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed on 6 June.
If NATO members continue to provide military equipment to Kiev, there is a “serious danger” that the conflict in Ukraine may escalate. This is according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Putin stated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday that NATO was “obviously being drawn into the war in Ukraine.”
“The supplies of heavy military equipment to Ukraine are still being made, and they are currently considering supplying Ukraine with jets.”
The comment appeared to be a reference to the F-16 fighter jets some members of the NATO alliance are making plans to supply Ukraine with.
NATO, or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, was formed in the aftermath of World War II to defend Western nations from the Soviet Union and the alliance contains a mutual defense clause where an attack on any one member is considered an attack on all. While Ukraine is not a member of NATO, some NATO members have been supplying Kyiv with tanks, armored vehicles and other weaponry – prompting threats of retaliation from Russia.
German Leopard 2 tanks, British Challenger 2 tanks and American Bradley and Stryker vehicles are among the Western equipment that has been sent to Ukraine.
In late April, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO allies and partners had delivered more than 1,500 vehicles and 230 tanks to the country.
During his speech in St. Petersburg, Putin said Russia had destroyed tanks “including Leopards” at the front lines.
“And if they are based abroad, but used in fighting we’ll see how to hit them, and where we can hit those means that are used against us in fighting,” Putin said.
“This is a serious danger of further drawing NATO into this military conflict,” he added.
During his speech to the forum, Putin also suggested Russia’s large number of nuclear weapons would “guarantee” its security – noting that Russia had more such weapons than NATO countries.
Russia has a total stockpile of around 6,250 nuclear warheads as of January 2021, according to the Arms Control Association. The US has more than 5,500 while two other NATO member states, Britain and France, have about 220 and 290 nuclear warheads, respectively.
“Nuclear weapons are created to guarantee our security in the broader sense and the existence of the Russian state,” Putin said.
“But first of all, there is no need and secondly the very fact of talking about it reduces the possibility of the threshold for using these weapons being reduced.”
“Also, we have more weapons like this than the NATO countries. They know it and they keep driving towards negotiation on reduction.”
In February, Putin said he would suspend Russia’s participation in the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, imperiling the last remaining pact that regulates the world’s two largest nuclear arsenals. Russia’s Foreign Ministry subsequently said the decision was “reversible.”
The treaty puts limits on the number of deployed intercontinental-range nuclear weapons that both the US and Russia can have. It was last extended in early 2021 for five years.
Under the key nuclear arms control treaty, both the United States and Russia are permitted to conduct inspections of each other’s weapons sites.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine will soon run out of its own military equipment and will be completely reliant on hardware supplied to them by Western countries.
He also claims that that Ukraine hasn’t made any progress in its counter offensive and says the country had “no chance” against Russia’s army.
President Putin made the comment at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg today.
Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia has already moved some warheads to Belarus.
Earlier this month, Russia said it would deploy tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian soil from July.
Kyiv remains “absolutely calm” over the prospect, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov previously told the BBC.
According to Putin, nuclear weapons would only be used in the event of a threat to the existence of the Russian state.
But Russia has “no such need” to use them, he added.
But he refuses to be drawn further on the matter, asking the session host: “Do you want me to frighten the whole world? No, I don’t want to.”
Putin closed the discussion by saying Russia was using “all the power in our hands” against use of nuclear weapons.
A tiny village on the outskirts of Kyiv, Stari Petrivtsi which is about 50 minutes from the city center, has become the most recent location to bear the scars of Russia’s assault on Ukraine.
Houses on both sides of a dirty street have been totally destroyed, rooves blown in, and fences blasted off their posts.
But miraculously, no-one was killed, although four people were injured, according to local authorities.
It’s not yet clear whether the damage was caused by a direct missile attack or whether it was collateral damage from Ukraine’s air defence systems.
People were going about their daily business: a 12-year-old boy was at home alone while his mother was at work. He had the sense to go to the cellar, but he thought in the moment of the blast that he could die, and that everything they have here could be destroyed.
He’s long used to living in fear, but today was the worst he’s experienced.
As African leaders embark on a peace mission to Ukraine, the city of Kyiv has come under attack from drones and missiles.
The delegation, comprised of seven leaders including representatives from South Africa and Egypt, will hold discussions with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv before proceeding to Russia tomorrow.
Their primary objective is to engage in dialogue with both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the aim of achieving a ceasefire and fostering lasting peace.
However, this mission unfolds amidst Kyiv’s launch of a counter-offensive against the ongoing Russian invasion, leading to a surge in intensified fighting.
As tensions escalate, it becomes imperative for the African leaders to navigate the complex landscape in pursuit of a resolution.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived in Kyiv as part of his "African Peace Mission". Meanwhile, air raid sirens are sounding across the city, as another Russian air raid is detected. pic.twitter.com/GeNOuKJk2r
In a separate development, a recent investigation by the BBC has uncovered that the number of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine is significantly higher than the figure officially released by Moscow.
The investigation estimates that at least 25,000 Russian soldiers have lost their lives, four times the reported number. This revelation adds further gravity to the conflict and underscores the urgent need for diplomatic efforts to quell the violence.
Simultaneously, in Brussels, NATO defense ministers are convening to discuss the situation, emphasizing the international community’s concern over the escalating crisis.
Meanwhile, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum is underway, with President Putin anticipated to deliver a pivotal keynote address, likely addressing the ongoing conflict and its impact on the regional and global economies.
His colleagues have confirmed that a British guy was hurt while attempting to rescue animals in southern Ukraine.
John Carl, an Odessa Cat Crew volunteer, drove to Kherson to help organisations rescue thousands of animals from the devastation floods caused by the explosion of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
Teams from UAnimals have spent more than a week exploring remote places on motorboats in order to rescue pets and wild animals from rooftops and drowned homes.
John was on one of these boats when Russian forces shelled it on Wednesday night, UAnimals said in a post on Instagram.
‘On the evening of June 14, Russians shelled the UAnimals boat,’ it read.
‘At that moment, there was a volunteer from the charitable foundation Kyiv Tails and foreign volunteers from the organization Odessa Cat Crew on board.
‘The girl, Oksana, sustained a minor leg injury, while British volunteer, John Carl, was injured and taken to the hospital.
‘Russians are deliberately destroying all living beings in Ukraine.’
UAnimals, which has been working to shelter and rehabilitate animals during the war, added his condition is now stable and that he is conscious.
Separately, Odessa Cat Crew said John had been operated on in Kherson and that he is currently recovering from his injuries.
For more than a week, volunteers just like John and Oksana have been escaping Russian missiles and bullets to help stranded residents and animals in the region.
The region’s Ukrainian-appointed governor, Oleksander Prokudin said on Sunday the enemy was ‘deliberately trying to disrupt rescue efforts’.
‘Today, terrorists opened fire on three boats that were used to rescue 21 people from the flooded bank,’ he said on Ukrainian television.
‘Almost all of them were elderly and people with limited mobility. Russian soldiers fired at these people in the back.’
He said three people were killed and 10 injured, including two law enforcement officers, during the evacuation.
After the dam in Nova Kakhovka was blown up, entire neighborhoods of Kherson were left underwater, only further underscoring the horrors of the invasion.
The city was liberated by Ukrainian troops in early November, but since then has been regularly shelled by Russian forces from the east side of the Dnipro River.
Metro.co.uk caught up with Oleksandr Todorchuk, an ex-journalist who foundedUAnimals, hours after the dam explosion.
By the time his teams had arrived in Nova Kakhovka, the water levels had raced up by metres.
Videos shared online show them wading through waist-deep water to rescue pets and livestock left behind.
At the time, Oleksandr said: ‘We are doing our best to save the animals, but more will die than we can save.
‘When people are evacuating, they have no time or ability to take the animals, or even unlock rooms where they are sleeping, so this creates a huge problem.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for a comment.
Ghanaian medical students studying inUkrainemust present proof of active enrollment to the Scholarship Secretariat in order to receive payment for their fees, according to the head of international relations for the scholarship secretariat, Richard Gyamfi.
Some students say they are facing the threat of being expelled as the government has failed to pay their fees since 2021.
But speaking to the media, Mr Gyamfi said the students have been notified to send proof for payment.
“We have asked the students to provide documents that can provide proof that they are students and still in education because when we compiled the list of beneficiaries, one of their own came to tell us that most of the names on the list are not in school. Some decided to go to Germany while others went to Hungary, so we said instead of making a blanket payment, they should prove to us that they are still in school because the scholarships are renewed yearly.”
The students however insist that the needed information has been submitted but ignored by the Secretariat.
A spokesperson for the aggrieved students said many of their letters to both the Secretariat and the Ghanaian Embassy have gone without any response.
“I have personally sent an email to him [Head ofInternational Relations for the Scholarship Secretariat] and he replied and told me that I should never send an email to him again because he is not responsible for the students.
“I pleaded with him and told him that my situation is critical and it is true that it is not all the 25 of us that are still studying in Ukraine but those that are in a critical situation and they asked that we provide evidence that we were still studying in Ukraine, we did that but those that they have paid are only people who are politically linked.
The Ghana Scholarship Secretariat’s head of diaspora relations, Richard A. Gyamfi, has stated that the Secretariat cannot be held liable for the failure to pay on time the stipends and tuition fees owed to Ghanaian medical students enrolled at Ukrainian universities.
He said the Secretariat is helpless if the Ministry of Finance fails to release funds for the students on time.
Some Ghanaian medical students studying in Ukraine are facing the threat of expulsion due to a lack of payment from the government for their monthly stipends and tuition spanning over months.
One of the students, Seth Ofori Nyazu in an interview with the media, said all efforts to get their allowances have proved futile.
“The government has not paid our tuition fees, after several meetings, this tuition fees we are crying for help to cover the 2021/2022 academic year. 2020/2021, we were not paid in full, and the secretariat is not responding to our calls, messages and emails,” he lamented.
Responding to this on the Eyewitness News, Mr. Gyamfi, stated that it’s not deliberate that government hasn’t paid the tuition fees.
“It’s not deliberate that the secretariat is unable to pay the tuition of the students. Releasing funds to the embassy was affected by the war. We had 13 beneficiary students who are under the scholarship secretariat. We understand, and we know that we are owing the students, in terms of stipends and tuition. And that is not the fault of the secretariat, because it’s just a vehicle. The Ministry [of Finance] releases funds to us, and we disburse to the students,” he pointed out.
He said some of the students are out of school, yet they are demanding tuition fees, hence they have been asked to provide evidence of documents proving that they are still in school.
“After the war, when we had a meeting with the students, almost all of them were displaced. Unfortunately, we had no money then, it’s only last week we received some funds. And we have been able to pay 3 students who are still studying in Ukraine. We have 13 students on our list. We have asked the students to provide documents to prove to us that they are still in education, because when we compiled their documents, one of their own told us that, most of the students are not in school.
“So we decided that instead of making a blanket payment which will come with repercussions, prove to us that you are in school. If we are satisfied that you are in school, the scholarship award will be renewed,” Mr. Gyamfi said.
The current military operation launched by Ukraine to reclaim its eastern and southern territories, which have been under Russian occupation for the past 18 months, is now fully underway.
Playing a crucial role in the planning and execution of this operation is General Valery Zaluzhny, a 49-year-old commander-in-chief of Ukraine.
Until recently, Gen Zaluzhny remained relatively unknown, but he has quickly gained popularity, now rivaling that of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Gen Zaluzhny, affectionately referred to as “our Valera” by friends and old classmates, assumed the position of commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military in July 2021.
His appointment, personally endorsed by President Zelensky, came as a surprise to both the general himself and many others, as it involved a significant advancement in his career, requiring him to climb several steps on the military hierarchy.
The founder of the renowned Winneba Youth Choir, Dr. George Mensah Essilfie, has expressed grave concern about the dwindling interest in Ghanaian folk music, calling it a dangerous situation that could result in the extinction of this unique genre.
Due to the government’s failure to pay their monthly stipends, students in Ukraine face the prospect of expulsion.
According to the renowned composer, the decline in the popularity of folk music in recent years can be attributed to the impact of globalization, urbanization, and religious activities, which have influenced the perspectives of indigenous people towards traditional music. In light of this, he has urgently called for action to reverse this trend.
In an interview with an Accra-based media house, Dr. Essilfie stressed the importance of increased attention and initiatives from various stakeholders, including musicologists, historians, and music enthusiasts.
He urged them to actively engage in capturing, digitizing, and archiving traditional music and historical sounds to preserve and protect the genre.
“It is astonishing how frequently foreign tunes dominate our airwaves. Our artistic landscape has been inundated with these songs, leaving little room for our own compositions. Taking deliberate steps to safeguard our indigenous music will help us preserve it in the face of these challenges and ensure that future generations can cherish the magnificent legacy of African folk music,” emphasized Dr. Essilfie.
He further highlighted the misconceptions surrounding traditional music, stating, “Some people wrongly perceive our traditional music as evil and choose not to associate with it. However, traditional folk songs are not evil; they embody elements of our societal existence and impart great wisdom. If we fail to exercise caution, there will come a time when we will have little to say about our traditional music, eradicating what defines us as a people.”
Dr. Essilfie’s passionate plea serves as a wake-up call to protect and promote Ghanaian folk music, which holds profound cultural significance. By taking proactive measures to preserve and revive this musical heritage, it is hoped that the vibrancy and essence of Ghanaian traditional music will be safeguarded for generations to come.
Some Ghanaian students inUkrainewho are already traumatised by the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war seem doubly burdened as they simultaneously find themselves grappling with financial hardships due to unpaid allowances.
In a heartfelt plea to the Ghanaian government, these students expressed deep concern over the unusual delay in the release of their scholarship funds by the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
The students find themselves at risk of being withdrawn from their studies and potentially expelled from their educational institutions due to multiple notices received.
Seth Ofori Nyanzu, a final year student atDonetsk National Medical Universityin Ukraine, voiced his grievances and called upon the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat to intervene.
Nyanzu shared his personal experience, stating, “I’m a final year student in Ukraine and I happen to be a beneficiary of the Scholarship Secretariat in the year 2019/2020 when I was in my third year.
At that time, I had already been put on the expulsion list, and due to the fact that I did not pay my tuition fee, the school at that time – Donetsk National Medical University, had put me on the expulsion list. During that period, the Scholarship Secretariat had engaged us and had promised that they were going to offer some scholarships to needy students.
Fortunately, I was connected and I got that opportunity to benefit from the secretariat. That year, though the money came very late – that was when we entered 2020, but we were paid in full for 2019/2020, so I didn’t have any issues,” he said.
However, the situation worsened when the Russia-Ukraine war began. Nyanzu explained,
“The one for the 2020/2021 academic year also came but during that time, we didn’t receive the money until we got to the end of the academic year in 2021. They told us they were going to give us the stipend and the book allowances so we waited until that academic year was over and we entered into the 2021/2022 academic year. That was in my 5th year.
“We waited the whole of 2022 but the money didn’t come until we entered into 2022 and they promised they were going to pay. By then, we had had a series of meetings with the secretariat, with our coordinator, even with the scholarship administrator himself. There was even a time he was travelling and at the airport, he promised us that they were going to pay and that already, the money had been sent to the Ghana embassy in Berne and that they were going to pay us within that week that he was speaking with us. That was in January, and unfortunately in February, the war came,” he said.
Additionally, Nyanzu emphasized that due to financial constraints, he and many other disadvantaged students were unable to afford returning to Ghana.
“So, when the war came, there were issues with people moving from places to another, and about two weeks after the war, all lectures resumed normally in Ukraine but online, and for them, they were expecting us to pay our fees because they were offering us lectures. We communicated this to the Scholarship Secretariat, but through it all, after the several, countless meetings with promises after another, then there was an issue of they did not know whether to pay us or not, and that they did not know if we were attending the lectures and the fact that some had returned home and so there was no need for them to pay us.
“They then requested for evidence from us to show that we were still in school and we gave all the necessary documents and evidence, to the extent that we gave them the expulsion lists from the schools. In fact, we tried every other means but the secretariat, led by Hon Kingsley and Hon Joseph Djaba, who’s responsible for the Schengen countries and that of Ukraine, and they added another coordinator, Mr. Richard Gyamfi, several emails have been sent.”
He said while some of his colleagues have received approval for payment, those without political links have been left hanging.
“Sometimes, they have even told us not to text them again and that we should talk to the secretariat. Even those responsible to us are not ready to answer question, they are not willing to talk to us. Unfortunately for us, we only heard that some people among us have been given approval for payment, but for some of us without any strong political links, or someone to make a good case for us, we are left hanging.
“For me, for instance, I am a final year student and I’m just about to write my final exams and graduate, but because I’ve not paid my fees, my school wants to expel me to prevent me from writing my final exams, and for that matter, I may have to repeat one more year. For some of us, we couldn’t come back to Ghana to finish our studies because we only had one more year to complete, and the conditions for people to come to Ghana was that they were not going to admit anybody beyond third year or fourth year,” he added.
In an interview with the media, Nyanzu expressed hope that the Scholarship Secretariat would urgently provide assistance to enable them to complete their education. He pleaded, “…We are pleading through your medium, please the Scholarship Secretariat should pay, at least, some of us that we are depending on this for our survival. The money that is needed if our fees so that we can just graduate in peace because I can’t spend six, seven years in school and because of a year or two – and for two years now, the Scholarship Secretariat has not paid us students from Ukraine anything… and to some extent, we are even being threatened that we shouldn’t go to the media, but yet nothing has been done,” he said.
The Black Sea port of Odesa experienced a rare attack, resulting in the death of at least three individuals and injuring 13 others.
Simultaneously, in the eastern Donetsk region, three civilians were also killed in overnight incidents. Moscow has yet to provide an official response regarding the alleged strikes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin recently declared that Ukraine’s counter-offensive was unsuccessful, causing significant losses for their army.
These statements coincided with Kyiv’s efforts to push back against Russian forces, leading to the recapture of seven settlements according to Ukrainian sources.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine emphasized progress and advancements in several areas during the counter-offensive, highlighting a positive movement forward.
The Ukrainians say they’ve liberated just over 3 sq km (one square mile) of territory over the last three days.
Spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Kovalyov, told the United News TV marathon that troops had advanced by distances ranging from 200m to 1.4km (0.9 miles).
Alluding to the situation in the south, Kovalyov added: “In the Berdyansk direction, hostilities continue in the vicinity of the village of Makarivka. Fighting is also under way in the vicinity of Novodanylivka and Novopokrovka.”
Following a suspected drone or sabotage attack from Ukraine, a massive explosion has shook a Russian oil refinery.
The factory in the city of Krasnodar was shown to be on fire and emitting thick, foul-smelling black smoke on video footage.
Only 80 miles to the southwest of the facility, on the Black Sea coast, is Vladimir Putin’s infamous £1 billion clifftop home, which features an underground bunker, pole-dancing boudoir, and vineyard.
The major blast comes as Ukraine continues to ramp up its counter-offensive with three villages liberated and one of Putin’s top generals killed in a missile attack this week.
Krasnodar is the capital of the south Russian region of the same name and is linked to the annexed Crimea across the Kerch Strait.
It’s a key link in Putin’s war effort and a hub for supplying occupied Crimea.
More than 130 firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze at Krasnodar Oil Refinery at a diesel processing facility, according to local reports.
Thick black smoke billowed from the facility (Picture: East2West)
The Krasnodar region also suffered a radio hack this week from anti-Putin partisan group Freedom of Russia Legion.
The message threatened to destroy Putin’s ‘war criminals’ in Crimea but would not pose a threat to the civilian population.
Earlier today, at least three people were killed and 25 wounded after a Russian missile strike hit president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
Serhiy Lysak, head of the regional administration, said the strike hit a five-storey residential building early on Tuesday and the area was engulfed in fire.
He said in a Telegram post that rescue operations were ongoing.
Images from the scene relayed by Mr Zelensky on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the fire as charred and damaged vehicles littered the ground.
He wrote on the app: ‘More terrorist missiles. Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.’
The aerial assault was the latest barrage of strikes by Russian forces that targeted various parts of Ukraine overnight.
The Kyiv military administration reported that the capital came under fire Tuesday but the incoming missiles were destroyed by air defence.
Despite the chances of a decisive Ukrainian victory increasing since the long-awaited counter-offensive was launched, Putin is reportedly refusing to listen to battlefield reports from his generals.
Some Ghanaian medical students training abroad have a desperate concern about their futures as there has been an unusual delay in the release of their scholarship monies from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat.
For a number of these students, several notices from their schools of studies have been given them, and soon, they could be withdrawn from their studies, and eventually from the school.
Speaking in an interview, one of the desperate students, Seth Ofori Nyanzu, a final year student of Donetsk National Medical University in Ukraine, pleaded with the secretariat to help him graduate.
He fears if the secretariat does not intervene soon, his six to seven years in medical school would have all gone to waste and that would mean that his life would become a mess.
Explaining the genesis of all these issues, Seth said that all seemed to be going well until the Russia-Ukraine War started in 2021.
“I’m a final year student in Ukraine and I happen to be a beneficiary of the Scholarship Secretariat in the year 2019/2020 when I was in my third year. At that time, I had already been put on expulsion list, and due to the fact that I did not pay my tuition fee, the school at that time – Donetsk National Medical University, had put me on expulsion list.
“During that period, the Scholarship Secretariat had engaged us and had promised that they were going to offer some scholarships to needy students. Fortunately, I was connected and I got that opportunity to benefit from the secretariat. That year, though the money came very late – that was when we entered 2020, but we were paid in full for the 2019/2020, so I didn’t have any issues,” he said.
He added that, “The one for the 2020/2021 academic year also came but during that time, we didn’t receive the money until we got to the end of the academic year in 2021. They told us they were going to give us the stipend and the book allowances so we waited until that academic year was over and we entered into 2021/2022 academic year. That was in my 5th year.
“We waited the whole of 2022 but the money didn’t come until we entered into 2022 and they promised they were going to pay. By then, we had had a series of meetings with the secretariat, with our coordinator, even with the scholarship administrator himself. There was even a time he was travelling and at the airport, he promised us that they were going to pay and that already, the money had been sent to the Ghana embassy in Berne and that they were going to pay us within that week that he was speaking with us. That was in January, and unfortunately in February, the war came,” he explained.
The final year medical student further stated that although the war brought a lot of people back to Ghana, he and a number of very needy students could not afford such a move.
He explained that such a move would have meant that they would have to backtrack another two years just so they can continue their education in Ukraine.
Besides, he added, he and others like him were already in their final years and the conditions presented by the Ukrainian authorities would not have helped them.
“So, when the war came, there were issues with people moving from places to another, and about two weeks after the war, all lectures resumed normally in Ukraine but online, and for them, they were expecting us to pay our fees because they were offering us lectures. We communicated this to the Scholarship Secretariat, but through it all, after the several, countless meetings with promises after another, then there was an issue of they did not know whether to pay us or not, and that they did not know if we were attending the lectures and the fact that some had returned home and so there was no need for them to pay us.
“They then requested for evidence from us to show that we were still in school and we gave all the necessary documents and evidences, to the extent that we gave them the expulsion lists from the schools. In fact, we tried every other means but the secretariat, led by Hon Kingsley and Hon Joseph Djaba, who’s responsible for the Schengen countries and that of Ukraine, and they added another coordinator, Mr. Richard Gyamfi, several emails have been sent.”
He said while some of his colleagues have received approval for payment, those without political links have been left hanging.
“Sometimes, they have even told us not to text them again and that we should talk to the secretariat. Even those responsible to us are not ready to answer question, they are not willing to talk to us. Unfortunately for us, we only heard that some people among us have been given approval for payment, but for some of us without any strong political links, or someone to make a good case for us, we are left hanging.
“For me, for instance, I am a final year student and I’m just about to write my final exams and graduate, but because I’ve not paid my fees, my school wants to expel me to prevent me from writing my final exams, and for that matter, I may have to repeat one more year. For some of us, we couldn’t come back to Ghana to finish our studies because we only had one more year to complete, and the conditions for people to come to Ghana was that they were not going to admit anybody beyond third year or fourth year,” he added.
Seth Nyanzu is hopeful that the Scholarship Secretariat would urgently come to their aid and help them complete this long journey of training to be doctors.
He also expressed great worry because he said that there have been instances where they have been warned against speaking with the media, but he said this is the only way he can get the attention of the right authorities in redressing his issue.
“So, we are pleading through your medium, please the Scholarship Secretariat should pay, at least, some of us that we are depending on this for our survival. The money that is needed if our fees so that we can just graduate in peace because I can’t spend six, seven years in school and because of a year or two – and for two years now, the Scholarship Secretariat has not paid us students from Ukraine anything… and to some extent, we are even being threatened that we shouldn’t go to the media, but yet nothing has been done,” he explained.
Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, appears to have acknowledged the launch of his country’s long-awaited counter-offensive against Russia.
“Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place,” he said.
But he added that he would not talk in detail about which stage or state the counter-offensive was in.
The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and speculation about progress of the widely anticipated push.
Ukrainian troops are reported to have advanced in the east near Bakhmut and in the south near Zaporizhzhia, and have carried out long-range strikes on Russian targets.
But assessing the reality on the front lines is difficult, with the two warring sides presenting contrasting narratives: Ukraine claiming progress and Russia that it is fighting off attacks.
Meanwhile in Russia’s Kaluga region – which borders the southern districts around Moscow – governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram that a drone crashed near the village of Strelkovk early on Sunday. The BBC has not independently verified the report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video interview published Friday that Ukrainian forces had certainly begun their offensive but that attempted advances had failed with heavy casualties.
Speaking in Kyiv on Saturday after talks with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Mr Zelensky described the Russian leader’s words as “interesting”.
Shrugging his shoulders, raising his eyebrows and pretending not to know who Mr Putin was, Mr Zelensky said it was important that Russia felt “they do not have long left”.
He also said that Ukraine’s military commanders were in a positive mood, adding: “Tell that to Putin.”
Mr Trudeau announced 500 million Canadian dollars (£297m) in new military aid for Ukraine during the unannounced visit.
A joint statement issued after the talks said Canada supports Ukraine becoming a Nato member “as soon as conditions allow for it”, adding that the issue would be discussed at the Nato Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
Meanwhile, fighting has escalated in recent days in the key southern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian officials say. Ukrainian forces are thought to be trying to push south to split Russian forces in two, breaking through the occupied territory which connects Russia to Crimea.
Ukraine’s hope of advances in the region could be hindered by huge flooding in the south of the country after the Nova Khakovka dam was destroyed last week.
The flooding has covered around 230 square miles (596 sq km) either side of the Dnipro River.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said 3,000 people have been evacuated from the flooded Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
And Kherson’s regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said water levels had dropped by 27cm, but more than 30 settlements on the right bank of the river – which is Ukrainian-held territory – were still flooded and almost 4,000 residential buildings remained underwater.
Nato and Ukraine’s military have accused Russia of blowing up the dam, while Russia has blamed Ukraine.
However, it seems highly likely that Russian forces, which controlled the dam, decided to blow it up in order to make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to cross the river as part of their ongoing counteroffensive, the BBC’s Paul Adams says.
Rumours that Kyiv’s long-awaited counterattack is ready to begin are being fed by the heavy fighting that is taking place today in southeast Ukraine.
In the heaviest fight since Kyiv started its campaign to liberate captured regions, Ukrainian artillery “came in waves,” according to Russian sources operating in southern Zaporizhia.
Russians were told to depart the nearby occupied city of Berdyansk after hearing blasts and a major fire starting at a nearby facility.
‘At the moment, active combat is ongoing in the region between Orekhovo and Tokmak,’ Vladimir Rogov, an official with Russian occupation authorities, said, referring to a locality known in southern Ukraine as Orikhiv.
Alexander Sladkov, a correspondent for Russian media, also wrote of ‘intense fighting’ in the area on Telegram.
It comes as Ukraine sent Western tanks into battle for the first time in a major assault on the southern front that marked the launch of its long-awaited counter-offensive.
US officials confirmed the engagements in the Zaporizhzhia region yesterday appeared to be the start of a main thrust.
The heavy fighting resulted in losses on both sides, with US officials noting the Russians had put up ‘stiff resistance’.
Last night, the Ukrainian government offered scant details about the long awaited counter-offensive.
But Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar confirmed fighting was taking place in southern Ukraine: ‘Battles continue for Velyka Novosilka in the Novopavlovsk direction,’ she said.
‘In the Orikhiv area, the enemy is already on the defensive.’
However, Maliar also downplayed the scale of the fighting in the south, and said the east was Ukraine’s real target.
‘The situation is tense in all areas of the front line. The east is the epicentre,’ she wrote on Telegram.
‘The enemy continues to concentrate its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Maryinka directions’, she added, referring to eastern cities where fighting has been raging for months.
President Volodymyr Zelensky also hailed what he described as ‘results’ in heavy fighting in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.
‘There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,’ President Zelensky said in his daily video message, following a visit to the areas affected by the breach of the Nova Kakhovka power dam.
‘But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step.’
However, some Russian sources are sceptical of Kyiv’s claims that the main thrust of the counterattack has begun in earnest.
Pro-Kremlin blogger Zapiski Veterana (Notes of a Veteran) said: ‘I think we can already talk about the beginning of Ukraine’s long-announced offensive.
‘There hasn’t been such movement on the front for a long time. The Ukrainians came in waves.’
The angle of the attacks suggested Ukraine’s objective priority was to piece through Russia’s defences to reach the cities of Tokmak, Melitopol and Berdyansk on the Black Sea coast and cut off the Crimean peninsula.
Veterana added: ‘All their [Ukrainian] forces are being thrown forward. The enemy has managed to seize several heights but they did not manage a deep breakthrough.’
A third advance around the heavily bombarded settlement of Bakhmut also took place yesterday, with Ukrainian sources saying its troops had gained a mile of ground around the city.
Unverified photos from last night appeared to show a German-made Leopard tank which had been destroyed by the Russians.
Russian reports also claim a column of tanks was destroyed at Novopokrovka in Zaporizhia, although these claims are also unconfirmed.
On a visit to Kherson today Volodymyr Zelensky criticised the international response to the incident, in particular the United Nations which is responsible for providing flood relief.
The Ukrainian president praised rescue workers for their exhaustive efforts and said today’s priority was to ‘protect lives’.
He said to them: ‘You are going through this difficult ordeal now. We will help you and rebuild everything which needs to be restored. I thank you and wish you good health.’
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has revealed that he had a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the forthcoming peace mission involving six African leaders to Russia and Ukraine.
“The leaders agreed that they would engage with both President Putin and President [Volodymyr] Zelensky on the elements for a ceasefire and a lasting peace in the region.”
The two presidents’ foreign ministers are currently working on finalizing a roadmap for peace, according to the statement.
Additionally, a Russia-Africa summit is set to occur in St. Petersburg at the end of July, as announced by the presidency.
After a dam in Ukraine was blown up, volunteers fought all night to save thousands of animals from devastating flooding.
Nova Kakhovka, in Kherson Oblast, which Russia has occupied since February 2022, was awakened early yesterday morning by an explosion in the hydroelectric power plant’s engine room.
In footage, water was seen rushing through the ruins and rising by metres in a couple of hours.on.
Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the destruction of the massive dam, which has put 42,000 people at risk from flooding.
As more than 17,000 residents fled their houses on the banks of the Dnipro River, wading through knee-deep water, many had to abandon their pets and livestock to save themselves.
This is where UAnimals, which works to shelter and rehabilitate animals during the Russian invasion, has stepped in.
Founder Oleksandr Todorchuk told Metro.co.uk that so far 10 buses and about 20 volunteers have been deployed to the scene of the catastrophe to help domestic and wild animals.
‘Kherson Oblast is rich in wild animals, like deer. Floodwater can kill thousands of animals, from domestic to wild ones,’ he said.
‘We deployed 10 buses to the flooded region in the morning. We work not only with pets like cats and dogs, but also wild and domestic animals, like cattle.
‘We are doing our best to save them, but more animals will die than we can save.
‘When people are evacuating, they have no time or ability to take the animals, or even unlock rooms where they are sleeping, so this creates a huge problem.
‘Street animals also present a huge difficulty. It is the same for wild animals. No one helps them as usual, so we are trying to do our best.’
UAnimals has also brought several tonnes of pet food to distribute to shelters and owners whose belongings have perished in the floodwater.
Mr Todorchuk admitted this will be a ‘very difficult’ week for his volunteers who he described as ‘heroes’.
The founder has previously warned wild and domestic animals are dying en masse in bombings and minefield explosions during the invasion.
Since the beginning of the war, his volunteers have travelled to some of the most treacherous parts of the frontline to evacuate animals, and thousands have been relocated to shelters in Kyiv and abroad, including 20 lions.
Currently, a large part of the team is coordinating the rescue efforts in villages on the right bank of the Dnipro River – Mykolayivka, Olhivka, Tyahynka, Ponyativka, Lyovo, Ivanivka, Tokarivka, Prydniprovske, Sadove, and part of Kherson – Korabel Island.
More than £250,000 has been raised in the last 24 hours to help their work after the dam explosion.
Mr Todorchuk was unsure how many animals can be rescued in the region. It all depends on the level of devastation, how long it takes the teams to capture them and how quickly they can be rehomed.
‘I think we can save hundreds of animals,’ he said. ‘There is also the question of how many days we will be able to work there because of the war.
When Metro.co.uk spoke with him on Tuesday afternoon, his volunteers had just started their work, so there was no update on the number of animals they’ve saved so far.
Mr Todorchuk said fewer than 100 had been helped at the time, but he insisted that by this morning this number will have grown.
What has only worsened the already dire situation is that Russian forces began shelling flooded areas where evacuation efforts were ongoing, injuring at least two police officers.
‘For more than a year we have operated under a full-scale invasion, often working in occupied territories,’ he said.
‘It is really hard and dangerous because of constant bombings and mines, but we have learnt to work in such situations and Ukrainian soldiers guide us.
‘It is heartbreaking that we cannot help the entire southern region as part of it is still occupied by the Russian army, but we are communicating with shelters in that territory.’
Yesterday, Metro.co.uk reported that a zoo called Kazkova Dibrova, located on the bank of the Dnipro River, was completely flooded.
All of the animals drowned, apart from birds that could escape, Mr Todorchuk said.
Volodymyr Zelensky declared the dam destruction an ‘environmental bomb of mass destruction’, while the UN warned of ‘grave and far-reaching consequences’.
Residents on Nova Kakhovka were urged to take documents, food for three days and drinking water, and leave residential buildings. Thousands have already been evacuated.
Millions of people have been forced to evacuate the country as a result of the war in Ukraine, and it has devastated countless houses, hospitals, and schools. The violence is also contributing to a global calamity at a time when the world is already having trouble meeting its climate goals, a new report claims, in addition to the immediate, visceral effects.
The first year of the conflict, which began in February 2022, has been assessed by a team of experts in carbon accounting.
They found that a total of 120 million metric tons of planet-heating pollution can be attributed to the first 12 months of the war, according to the report published Wednesday. That’s equivalent to the annual emissions of Belgium, or those produced by nearly 27 million gas-powered cars on the road for a year.
“It’s the first time that the emissions of a war have been mapped on such a comprehensive scale,” Lennard de Klerk, the report’s lead author and an expert in war-related emissions, told CNN.
The report, titled Climate Damage Caused by Russia’s War in Ukraine, follows on from a first interim assessment presented at the UN COP27 climate conference in November 2022.
Data was drawn from a wide range of sources, including satellites, scientific papers, expert interviews, industry reports and open-source intelligence.
The team of researchers looked at the climate impact of the planet-heating pollution produced directly from warfare, including fuel use for tanks, planes and other equipment, construction of fortifications and production of weapons. They also examined impacts from the consequences of the war, such as fires, destruction – and required reconstruction – of infrastructure and changes to the European energy mix.
Nearly 22 million metric tons of planet-heating pollution came from warfare, almost 20% of the total emissions attributable to the conflict, the report found.
But this may be a conservative estimate. The emissions of the military were challenging to calculate, de Klerk told CNN. It’s not possible, for example, to just get in touch with Russia to ask them how much fuel they are using in their tanks and planes, he said.
“We probably will only be able to really get a more accurate estimate once the war is over,” de Klerk said.
Others were easier to calculate, especially the amount of planet-warming pollution from fires caused by shelling, bombing and explosions. Using remote monitoring tools based on satellite data, the researchers concluded that these fires produced nearly 18 million metric tons, accounting for 15% of the total war emissions
The number of fires burning over an area larger than one hectare (2.5 acres) increased 36-fold in the first year of the war compared to the 12 months before it started, according to the report. While the winter months saw fire activity dip, it is expected to pick up again as summer approaches, de Klerk said.
The biggest climate impact, however, accounting for almost half the pollution from the war, will come from the post-war reconstruction of damaged and destroyed buildings and infrastructure, the report found.
Rebuilding will require vast amounts of materials such as cement and concrete, which produce very high levels of carbon pollution.
Over the course of the conflict, increasing Russian attacks on and destruction of energy infrastructure has pushed up the planet-heating pollution estimated to be produced during reconstruction, the report found.
“The biggest chunk of the emissions are still in the future reconstruction of Ukraine,” de Klerk said.
The report also looked at impacts outside of Ukraine, including the methane pollution released after the sabotage of the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 in September 2022. “We had an enormous release of methane emissions… that was really a surprise,” de Klerk said.
Changes to Europe’s energy mix were also analyzed but found a mixed outcome.
Very high prices for gas and oil following Russia’s invasion caused Europe to make some decisions, including burning more coal, which increased levels of planet-heating pollution. But the conflict also helped usher in a faster transition to renewables, as countries looked to lessen their dependence on Russian oil and gas.
The report authors even calculated the extra planet-warming pollution created by airlines rerouting flights to avoid Russian and Ukrainian airspace.
“If you look at the environmental costs of what’s happening in Ukraine, that war is a catastrophe when it comes to carbon emissions,” James Appathurai, NATO’s deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges, told Reuters.
As the war continues to unfold in Ukraine, “the human catastrophe and the damage that’s being done to the country is overwhelming,” de Klerk said. Climate considerations will not be what’s occupying Ukrainians at the moment, he acknowledged, adding: “It’s a matter of survival.”
But it is still important to analyze and document the often overlooked, longer-term climate impacts of the conflict, he said.
“We want to show the world that the damage that Russia is doing with these acts of aggression is not only within Ukraine, but impacts the whole world through the additional emissions of greenhouse gases, which is everyone’s problem,” he said.
Global commitments to keep warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels are already slipping out of reach.
Rachel Kyte, dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts University, who was not involved in the research, said the report highlighted the crucial impact of war on the world’s ability to tackle climate change
“The report raises important questions about including warfare in countries’ climate reporting and their transitions to net-zero and to greater resilience,” she told CNN. “For the whole of Europe, and the world, Ukraine’s reconstruction, following a just peace, must be green.”
The war in Ukraine has shown the importance of understanding the climate impact of warfare, de Klerk said, adding: “It’s something that we simply cannot continue to ignore.”
The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine has raised worries of an ecological disaster, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describing the situation as “an environmental bomb of mass destruction.”
Water levels on Wednesday continued to rise after the Russian-occupied dam and hydro-electric power plant was damaged early Tuesday, forcing more than 1,400 people to evacuate their homes and jeopardising essential water supplies as flooding flooded towns, cities and countryside.
Kyiv and Moscow have swapped accusations over the dam’s collapse, without giving tangible proof that the other is involved. It is not yet apparent if the dam was purposefully assaulted or whether the breach was the result of structural failure.
Zelensky, however, said Russia bears “criminal liability” and Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating the dam incident as a case of “ecocide.”
“The consequences of the tragedy will be clear in a week. When the water goes away, it will become clear what is left and what will happen next,” he said.
Concerns are now turning to the dangers to wildlife, farmlands, settlements and water supplies from the floodwaters and possible contamination from industrial chemicals and oil leaked from the hydropower plant into the Dnipro River.
The head of Ukraine’s main hydropower generating company told CNN the environmental consequences from the breach will be “significant” and damaged equipment at the plant could be leaking oil.
“First of all, the Kakhovka reservoir is likely to be drained to zero, and we understand that the number of fish will gradually go down,” said Ihor Syrota, the CEO of Ukrhydroenergo.
“Four-hundred tons of turbine oil is always there, in the units and in the block transformers that are usually installed on this equipment,” Syrota said. “It all depends on the level of destruction of the units and this equipment… If the damage is extensive, then all the oil will leak out.”
Ukrainian Environment Minister Ruslan Strilets said at least 150 metric tons of oil from the dam have leaked into the Dnipro and the environmental damage had been estimated at 50 million euros ($53.8 million), according to Reuters.
Strilets said downstream wildlife species found nowhere else in the world were in jeopardy, including the sandy blind mole-rat. Ukraine’s Black Sea Biosphere Reserve and two national parks were also likely to be heavily damaged, he added, Reuters reported.
The flooding has already killed 300 animals at the Nova Kakhovka zoo, according to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Tuesday the dam collapse was an “ecological catastrophe” with the destruction of newly planted crops and massive flooding “another devastating consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Before its collapse, the critical Nova Kakhovka dam was the largest reservoir in Ukraine in terms of volume.
It’s the last of the cascade of six Soviet-era dams on the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine, and supplied water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula that was annexed by Russia in 2014.
There are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, the UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said its collapse is possibly the “most significant incident of damage to civilian infrastructure” since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The dam, Griffiths said, is a lifeline in the region, being a critical water source for millions of people in Kherson as well as the Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia regions, and a key source of agricultural irrigation in southern Kherson and the Crimean peninsula – impacting farming and food production.
Severe impact is also expected in Russian-occupied areas where humanitarian agencies are still struggling to gain access, he added.
“The damage caused by the dam’s destruction means that life will become intolerably harder for those already suffering from the conflict,” Griffiths said.
Between 35 and 80 settlements were expected to be flooded due to the breach, Zelensky said, and aid efforts are ongoing to get drinking water, hygiene kits and other supplies to affected neighborhoods.
In the low lying districts of Kherson, a CNN team on the ground saw residents evacuated from their homes carrying their possessions and pets in their arms as rising floodwaters penetrated one city block in less than an hour.
As the area is on the front lines of the conflict, the rising water brought with it an added danger of mine and explosive ordnance contamination.
“This is both a water element and a mine hazard, because mines float here and this area is constantly under fire,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Kherson’s regional military administration, who has been overseeing rescue efforts.
Griffiths said projectiles like mines risk being displaced to areas previously assessed as safe.
Mohammad Heidarzadeh, senior lecturer in the department of architecture and civil engineering at the University of Bath in England, said the Kakhovka reservoir is one of the largest dams in the world in terms of capacity.
“It is obvious that the failure of this dam will definitely have extensive long-term ecological and environmental negative consequences not only for Ukraine but for neighboring countries and regions,” Heidarzadeh told Science Media Centre on Tuesday, adding the facility was an “embankment” dam, which means it was made of gravel and rock with a clay core in the middle.
“These types of dams are extremely vulnerable, and are usually washed away quickly in case of a partial breach… a partial damage is sufficient to cause a complete collapse of the dam because water flow can easily wash away the soil materials of the dam body in just a few hours,” he added.
Both Moscow and Kyiv noted the humanitarian and environmental consequences, while blaming each other for the dam’s destruction.
The Russian-appointed acting governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said the collapse of the dam led to “a large, but not critical” amount of water flowing down the Dnipro which resulted in the washout of agricultural fields along the coast and disruption of civilian infrastructure.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday the dam breach “has caused devastating damage to the farmland in the region and the ecosystem at the mouth of the Dnieper river.”
“The inevitable drop in the water level of the Kakhovka reservoir will affect Crimea’s water supply and will hinder the improvement of agricultural land in the Kherson region,” it said.
Several Ukrainian regions that receive some of their water supply from the reservoir of the Nova Kakhovka dam are making efforts to conserve water.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, where about 70% of the city of Kryvyi Rih was supplied by the reservoir, Ukrainian authorities have asked people to “stock technical water and drinking water” and businesses to limit consumption and banned the use of hoses.
The reservoir also supplies water to the upstream Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said there was “no immediate nuclear safety risk” at the plant, water from the reservoir is used to cool its reactors and emergency diesel generators.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the UN nuclear watchdog’s staff on site have been told the reservoir is draining at 5 centimeters (2 inches) an hour and it is “estimated” that water used for the mainline of cooling “should last for a few days.”
However, should the reservoir drop below the pumping level there “are a number of alternative sources of water,” Grossi said, with the main one being the “large cooling pond next to the site.”
“It is estimated this pond will be sufficient to provide water for cooling for some months,” he added.0275019147
The city of Bakhmut in easternUkraine is once again at the center of conflicting claims and counter-claims.
The city has been at the heart of fierce fighting for many months – experiencing the longest and bloodiest battle of the Russian invasion so far.
Military analysts have suggested the city is of little strategic value – but control of the former mining hub has become important symbolically both for Kyiv and Moscow.
There is little of Bakhmut still standing – after heavy shelling devastated the city’s buildings and drove out its residents – but the Russianmercenary group Wagner claimed to have captured what remained of it late last month.
In recent weeks, some have suggested Kyiv’s forces have been attempting to encircle Bakhmut and trap Russian units. Military activity in the area has stepped up significantly over the last few days.
Ukrainian offensives near Bakhmut unsuccessful – Russia
As has been typical of the battle for Bakhmut so far, both sides have claimed victory in offensives around the devastated city in eastern Ukraine.
While the Ukrainians say they’ve made advances of up to 1.1km (0.7 miles) in the direction of the city, Russia says it has defeated its enemy’s attacks near the city.
The defence ministry says Ukrainian forces mounted a series of “unsuccessful offensives” in the area – which has seen some of the deadliest fighting of the war.
The BBC has not been able to independently verify either side’s claims.
What are Russian media organisations saying?
The Kakhovka dam disaster was front-page news in most Russian media this morning, except for Rossiyskaya Gazeta – the official newspaper of the Kremlin – which relegated the story to page three in favour of a story about rubbish.
The paper sticks to the Russian government’s line that Ukraine is responsible for blowing up the dam.
Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, has taken a look at how Russian media have covered the story.
The Kakhovka dam disaster is front-page news in most Russian media this morning, except for Rossiyskaya Gazeta – the official newspaper of the Kremlin – which has relegated the news to page three in favour of a story about rubbish.
The paper sticks to the Russian government’s line that Ukraine is responsible for blowing up the dam.
Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, has taken a look at how Russian media are covering the dam’s collapse.
As our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams wrote earlier, the breach of the Kakhovka dam came just a day after Ukraine’s long-anticipated counter offensive appeared to get under way. And the country’s deputy defence minister has given a fresh update on troop movements today.
Forces have advanced from 200 to 1,100 metres in “various sections of the Bakhmut direction”, Hanna Maliar writes on the Telegram messaging app. She says her forces have switched from being on the defensive to the offensive in the area.
Maliar issued a similar update yesterday, without confirming whether the long-anticipated counter-offensive had officially begun.
We can’t independently verify the situation on the battlefield. There’s there’s been intense fighting in Bakhmut in recent months – and both Kyiv and Moscow have claimed to be in control of the city.
Deaths reported as fighting continues across Ukraine
Let’s look more broadly at the situation across Ukraine now. Officials have given reports of fresh Russian attacks, with some deaths reported.
At least one person was killed and another injured in a shelling attack on Kherson, while the southern city deals with flooding and evacuations, according to the regional governor.
And a separate attack, using drones, has killed two civilians and wounded one other in the Sumy region in the north-east, according to Andriy Yermak, the head of the president’s office.
On Tuesday morning, a major dam in Kherson, southern Ukraine, suffered severe damage, putting approximately 42,000 people at risk of flooding.
Due to the rising floodwaters, some individuals in affected areas were left with no choice but to spend the night on their rooftops or seek refuge in trees.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has issued a warning, stating that hundreds of thousands of people are now without access to clean water. The flood levels in certain affected regions are expected to reach their highest point later today.
According to reports from Russia’s state media, at least seven individuals are currently missing, and a state of emergency has been declared in the annexed part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.
Both Ukraine and Russia have engaged in a blame game regarding the dam collapse. President Zelensky has accused Russia of deliberately triggering an “environmental bomb of mass destruction.”
Conversely, Russia claims that Ukraine orchestrated the attack on the dam to divert attention from what Moscow perceives as Kyiv’s failures in its counter-offensive.
The remaining structure of the Kakhovka dam is likely to deteriorate further over the next few days, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said.
In an intelligence update posted on Twitter, the MoD says the dam partially failed shortly before 03:00 local time on Tuesday and the entire eastern portion of the structure was swept away by midday.
It also says the water level in the Kakhovka reservoir was at a record high shortly before the breach, which led to a “particularly high volume of water inundating the area downstream”.
But the MoD also says the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is “highly unlikely” to face immediate safety issues over the dropping water levels in the reservoir.
As worries mount that hundreds of communities could be submerged by floodwater, Ukraine has accused Russia of detonating a dam on the Dnipro River in Nova Kakhovk.
At least 24 distinct communities in Kherson, the Ukrainian province occupied by Moscow, are currently undergoing evacuations.
This morning, a dam wall fell, putting drinking water supplies and Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant in peril.
She took to Instagram and Twitter and posted a video about what happened.
She said: ‘They [Russia] blew up the dam in Nova Kakhovk.
‘Not a lot of people know how much suffering and ecological upheaval they have caused when they built it in the 1950s.
‘Today with no warning to people to anyone, they just blew it up creating another ecological disaster, another human disaster.
‘My heart is broken. How can they hate life so much?
‘And today apart from urging everyone to continue supporting us, I appeal to all the eco-warriors of the world because I feel like there hasn’t been enough support from you.
‘They [Russia] are ecological terrorists, they are terrorists in every sense of the word.
‘Right now cattle are being drowned, people are of course losing their homes.
‘There has been irreversible damage. I cannot even explain what has been happening. It is just horrible.’
Locals have been told by Russian authorities to collect personal belongings and documents, take food for 3 days and drinking water.
They’ve also been told to ‘turn off gas and water before leaving your residential buildings’.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Nova Kakhovka district with reports of Russian soldiers patrolling the streets.
Already a zoo called Kazkova Dibrova, located right on the bank of the Dnipro, was completely flooded and all 300 animals were dead.
The water level in the district is reported to have risen by more than 11 metres since the dam explosion.
Ukraine’s interior ministry has also claimed the southern region of Kherson – where people are being evacuated – is being shelled.
Intelligence chief Olexsiy Danilov accused Russia’s 205th Motorized Rifle Brigade, who were stationed nearby, of carrying out the attack.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes serious crimes, says it has launched a criminal investigation following the dam breach after both sides blamed one another for the explosion.
The breach has been called an ‘ecological disaster’ with the Dnipro River now contaminated with industrial substances.
Ukraine’s military has accused Russia’s forces of blowing up the dam and President Zelensky said: ‘This is just one day of Russian aggression. This is just one Russian act of terrorism.
‘This is just one Russian war crime. Now Russia is guilty of brutal ecocide.
‘Any comments are superfluous. The world must react. Russia is at war against life, against nature, against civilisation.
‘Russia must leave the Ukrainian land and must be held fully accountable for its terror.’
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on Twitter the dam’s rupture ‘clearly qualifies as a war crime’ because it is the destruction of civilian infrastructure.
He promised to hold Russia and its proxies accountable.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly described the act as a ‘catastrophe’ and ‘abhorrent’ act.
He said: ‘The destruction of Kakhovka dam is an abhorrent act.
‘Intentionally attacking exclusively civilian infrastructure is a war crime.
‘The UK stands ready to support Ukraine and those affected by this catastrophe.’
The foreign secretary visited Kyiv this week, where he met his counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and Zelensky.
Ukrainian forces were widely seen to be moving forward with a long-anticipated counteroffensive in patches along more than 1,000-kilometers of frontline in the east and south of Ukraine.
But this damage could hinder Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and distract its government, while at the same time Russia depends on the dam to supply water to Crimea.
The Nova Kakhovka dam is not the first to have been targeted since the start of the conflict.
A missile attack destroyed the dam at Karachunivske reservoir near the city of Kryvyi Rih in southern Ukraine last September.
This caused widespread flooding and people were told to evacuate.
A month later, there were missile attacks on hydroelectric dams at Zaprorizhzhia, Kremenchuk, and on the Dniester river, in the west of the country.
The destruction of a significant dam and hydroelectric power plant early on Tuesday in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine led to widespread evacuations and fears of widespread destruction, with Kiev accusing Moscow’s forces of committing an act of “ecocide.”
According to the head of Ukraine’s Kherson area military administration, residents downstream from the Nova Kakhovka dam on the Dnipro River in Kherson were advised to “do everything you can to save your life” as video showed a torrent of water spilling through a significant breach in the dam.
Fast-moving torrents of water were seen pouring out of the broken dam wall in two videos that were geolocated by CNN and shared on social media. Several structures near the dam’s entrance also suffered significant damage.
The critical Nova Kakhovka dam spans the Dnipro River, a major waterway running through southeastern Ukraine and there are multiple towns and cities downstream, including Kherson, a city of some 300,000 people before Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
Multiple senior Ukrainian officials and military figures accused Russia of sabotaging the dam.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who convened an emergency meeting of his security chiefs, said its destruction “only confirms for the whole world” that Russian forces “must be expelled from every corner of Ukrainian land.”
“This is ecocide,” added Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
“The Russians will be responsible for the possible deprivation of drinking water for people in the south of Kherson region and in Crimea, the possible destruction of some settlements and the biosphere,” he said.
European Council President Charles Michel also appeared to blame Moscow, writing on Twitter that “Russia and its proxies” will be held accountable.
“Shocked by the unprecedented attack of the Nova Kakhovka dam,” he said, adding the attack on “clearly qualifies as a war crime.”
In recent days Ukraine’s forces have increasingly taken the fight to Russia’s entrenched frontlines in the south and east ahead of a widely expected summer counter-offensive.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior aide to Zelensky, said the dam’s destruction would “create obstacles for the offensive actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
“This once again confirms that the Kremlin is not thinking strategically, but rather in terms of short-term situational advantages. But the consequences are already catastrophic,” he told CNN.
Ukraine’s military accused Russia’s forces of blowing up the dam “in panic”.
Ukrainian authorities urged residents living downstream to escape the area, with about 80 settlements in the zone of potential flooding, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.
As of 10:00 a.m. local time, 742 people have been evacuated from the Kherson region, the ministry said.
“We are helping citizens in the liberated west-bank part of the Kherson region. We are worried about our people who remained in the temporarily occupied east bank part of the region,” said Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko.
Evacuations were disrupted as water began to inundate some settlements, the ministry said.
“Water is coming. The situation is complicated by the fact that some roads are being washed away. This makes it impossible to drive to some settlements. Evacuation teams are looking for other ways,” it continued.
Around 16,000 people on the west bank of Kherson region are in a “critical zone,” Oleksandr Prokudin, the Ukraine-appointed head of the Kherson region military administration, said.
He had previously urged citizens to “collect your documents and most needed belongings and wait for evacuation buses.”
“I ask you to do everything you can to save your life. Leave the dangerous areas immediately,” he added.
Units of Ukraine’s National Police and the state emergency service of the Kherson region have been put on alert to warn and evacuate civilians from potential flood zones, Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said.
With the water level rising, authorities urged everyone in the flood zone to turn off all electrical appliances, take documents and essentials, take care of loved ones and pets, and follow the instructions of rescuers and police.
In contrast, regional Russian officials were less urgent in their statements.
The Russian-installed mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontiev, initially denied the dam had collapsed in an interview with Russian state media RIA Novosti, calling it “nonsense.”
He later confirmed the destruction of parts of the dam in what he called “a serious terrorist act” but said there was “no need to evacuate.”
“Overnight strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant destroyed gate valves, causing water to be spilled downstream uncontrollably,” Leontiev said.
Andrey Alekseenko, another Russian-installed Kherson official, also played down the threat saying the situation along the banks of Dnipro was “under control.”
“There is no threat to people’s lives,” Alekseenko said, adding that Ministry of Emergency Situation staff are in control of water levels in the river.
“If necessary, we are ready to evacuate the residents of embankment villages, buses are prepared,” Alekseenko added.
CNN was not immediately able to verify the claims made by Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Throughout the course of the war in Ukraine both Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of plotting to blow up the Soviet-era dam.
A critical piece of infrastructure, the dam holds back around 18 cubic kilometers in the Kakhovka Reservoir, about equal to the Great Salt Lake in the US state of Utah, according to Reuters news agency.
The 30-meter-high, 3.2-kilometer (2 miles)-long structure is one of six dams along the Dnipro and supplies water for much of southeastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
It also supplies water for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies upstream and is also under Russian control.
On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern command said the dam’s destruction will “certainly” affect the operation of the nuclear power plant but there was “no need to escalate the situation now and draw the most critical conclusions.”
“Because all experts are involved and will try to create better conditions to avoid the next technogenic catastrophe,” said Natalia Humeniuk, adding that “the situation is currently under control.”
And the International Atomic Energy agency said “no immediate nuclear safety risk” exists at the Zaporizhzhia plant and their experts are “closely monitoring the situation.”
Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said that while water from the reservoir is needed for the “replenishment for turbine condensers and safety systems” of the plant, the cooling pond is “full” and as of 8:00 a.m. local time “the water level is 16.6 meters, which is sufficient for the plant’s needs.”
In November, the Nova Kakhovka dam was damaged in shelling and satellite images from Maxar Technologies obtained by CNN showed water flowing out of three sluice gates at the dam.
The Ukrainian military has leveled allegations against Russian forces for deliberately causing the destruction of a significant dam in the southern region of Kherson, which is currently under Russian control.
According to a local military official, this act has resulted in the flooding of numerous settlements, affecting at least eight different areas.
As a consequence, evacuation efforts have commenced, aiming to safeguard the lives of approximately 16,000 individuals who are now at risk due to the rising floodwaters.
In contrast, a local official appointed by the Russian administration has disputed these claims, asserting that only the upper portion of the power plant was damaged by shelling, denying any destruction of the dam itself.
Another war crime of the occupiers, a real #ecocide.
Failure to stop the terrorists means endangering entire planet, because they use the same methods in every corner of the Earth.… pic.twitter.com/zTvuNvx613
— Партія «Слуга Народу» (@sluganarodu_pp) June 6, 2023
Kherson’s regional head Oleksandr Prokudin has accused Russia of committing “yet another act of terror”.
In a video message posted on social media, he warns that water levels in the Dnipro river will be “critical” within five hours.
Prokudin says evacuation of those residents living in the threatened areas on the Ukraine-controlled right (western) bank of the Dnipro river has already started.
And he also appeals to the residents on the opposite bank – currently under Russian control – to immediately leave their homes.
500 children have been slain during Russia‘s war with Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed.
The Ukrainian president disclosed the figure hours after rescue workers uncovered the body of a two-year-old girl who perished in a Russian strike on Saturday.
Two young children were murdered during the bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday, amid a rise in attacks on Ukraine’s capital city with 17 missile strikes throughout the month of May.
Mr Zelensky said that ‘Russian weapons and hatred, which continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day’, had killed the hundreds who had perished since Russia’s invasion began last February.
He continued: ‘Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine’s history.’
‘We must hold out and win this war!
‘All of Ukraine, all our people, all our children, must be free from the Russian terror.’
Mr Zelensky said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children killed because there are still some areas under Russian occupation.
Flowers and toys left at the scene of a destroyed apartment building where several people, including children, died (Picture: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Rescuers found the two-year-old’s body in the rubble of two residential buildings in the suburbs of the city of Dnipro.
The regional governor said five children were among 22 people injured in Saturday’s attack.
Russia launched more drones and cruise missile strikes on Sunday, targeting Kyiv as well as other parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said two missiles struck a military air base in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine’s Kyrovohrad province.
The Russian military said it has conducted a series of strikes in recent days on Ukrainian air defence batteries, air bases and troop depots.
Concerns about the safety of civilians have increased after officials found nearly a quarter of 4,800 air raid shelters were locked or unusable.
A 33-year-old woman in Kyiv died on Thursday while waiting outside a shuttered shelter.
Four people were arrested as part of the criminal investigation into her death and a security guard who allegedly failed to unlock the doors remained in custody.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city had received more than 1,000 complaints about locked, dilapidated or insufficient air raid shelters.
Ukraine has requested a period of operational quietness concerning their counter-attack against Russian-enforced land, in an effort to regain control.
Anticipation has risen around what is supposed to be an attack in the east and south, but president Volodymyr Zelensky finally suggested in an interview released on Saturday that ‘we are ready’ for it.
As expected, there have been no formal statements, but this morning Russia claimed to have repelled a ‘major offensive’ at five frontline points in the eastern Donetsk region.
Though it is yet unclear whether this was the beginning of a counter-offensive, the defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said his forces had killed 250 Ukrainian soldiers.
Three infantry fighting vehicles, 16 tanks and 21 armoured combat vehicles were destroyed, the statement said.
‘The enemy’s goal was to break through our defences in the most vulnerable, in its opinion, sector of the front,’ said Mr Konashenkov.
‘The enemy did not achieve its tasks. It had no success.’
Ukrainian officials made no comment, and have emphasised the need for secrecy about their military operations.
It comes as Ukraine’s defence minister posted a tweet on Sunday quoting music band Depeche Mode, specifically their song titled Enjoy the Silence.
‘Words are very unnecessary… They can only do harm,’ Oleksii Reznikov tweeted alongside a video referring to the counter-offensive.
Posted on Official Telegram channels, and on Crimean TV, a voiceover says: ‘Plans love silence. There will be no announcement of the start.’
Authorities have repeatedly discouraged public speculation, insisting it could help the enemy.
In recent days, there has also been a crackdown on citizens sharing footage of air defence systems shooting down Russian missiles.
For months, Ukrainian officials have spoken about plans to reclaim strategically significant territory from Russians.
The attacks come as people living in Russian villages on the border with Ukraine have started to flee their homes.
Russia’s western Belgorod region has recently been under attack from a sabotage group made up of pro-Ukraine Russian partisan fighters.
The Kremlin has appeared to downplay the situation in border regions, despite intense shelling in recent days.
But the mayor of Belgorod, Valentin Demidov, on Friday told AFP that some 5,000 people who fled border villages have registered with city authorities, with several hundred in temporary housing.
In its fight to expel the invader from Russia, Ukraine has established a new front in that country. Yet it is strangely reticent to acknowledge that it has sent troops, shot artillery, and flown drones into its neighbor’s land.
Officially, there is no information available about the activities of Russian nationals who attack from Ukraine while wearing Ukrainian military ID or uniforms. It is Kyiv’s contribution to “hybrid warfare” in the “grey zone” of current conflict.
At the time of Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the two words sparked books and a wave of enraged commentary from a host of analysts.
In its fight to expel the invader from Russia, Ukraine has established a new front in that country. Yet it is strangely reticent to acknowledge that it has sent troops, shot artillery, and flown drones into its neighbor’s land.
Officially, there is no information available about the activities of Russian nationals who attack from Ukraine while wearing Ukrainian military ID or uniforms. It is Kyiv’s contribution to “hybrid warfare” in the “grey zone” of current conflict.
At the time of Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, the two words sparked books and a wave of enraged commentary from a host of analysts.
There is no evidence that Russia’s stumbling invasion of Ukraine has altered Beijing’s perceptions of “the timescale or methodology” for any potential attack on Taiwan, according to a leading strategic think tank, which was released ahead of a regional security summit in Singapore. China continues to be the “leading long-term challenge” to the current international order.
According to a report released on Friday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which is holding its annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this weekend, the protracted conflict in Europe may also hasten trends towards increased military spending and efforts to develop military capabilities in the Asia-Pacific region.
The war and its reverberations in the Asia-Pacific region – as well as the growing contest between the United States and China – will be overarching themes at the security summit, the sidelines of which have long provided a platform for top security officials to meet face-to-face.
Attendees are expected to include US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
US and Chinese defense chiefs are not expected to meet this year – a mark of the depth of the fracture in relations between the two countries.
Austin on Thursday said it was “unfortunate” China declined a US offer to meet at the conference and warned the ongoing lack of communication could result in “an incident that could very, very quickly spiral out of control.”
Beijing earlier this week refuted the claim it was blocking American defense officials’ efforts to communicate, instead blaming the US for creating “artificial obstacles, seriously undermining mutual trust between the two militaries.”
Concerns from the US and across the region over China’s increasing assertiveness have grown in recent years as Beijing rapidly expanded its navy, militarized islands in the South China Sea, sought to forge security pacts in the South Pacific and ramped up rhetoric around disputed territorial claims.
Those concerns have sharpened over the past year, as Beijing twice staged extensive military drills around the island of Taiwan and refused to condemn Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
That invasion has also drawn increased attention to Taiwan as a potential security flashpoint in Asia.
Despite broad differences with the geopolitical circumstances of Russia and Ukraine, the optics of a seemingly more powerful aggressor launching an attack driven by a vision of unification have heightenedfocus on China’s intentions toward Taiwan.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims the self-governing democracy as its own, despite never having controlled it, and has vowed to unify the island with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The IISS report released Friday, an annual assessment on Asia-Pacific security written by the think tank’s experts, said there is no evidence the war in Ukraine has “altered Chinese thinking on the timescale or methodology” for a possible attack on Taiwan.
“Beijing’s view of Taiwan as an internal challenge has shaped its assessment that a Chinese use of force to regain the island would be utterly dissimilar to the Ukraine war,” the report said.
Chinese military thinkers had, however, analyzed the implications of Western support for Ukraine and the factors that contributed to Russia’s poor military performance, according to the report.
It added that it was “impossible to determine whether China will use force to take Taiwan at some point in the future,” and that Beijing’s decision-making would be shaped not just by “an assessment of military capability but also by a consideration of likely US and allied non-military reactions,” including potential economic impacts.
“There is no evidence that China has a fixed timetable for invading Taiwan,” the report added.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s rhetoric around Taiwan was one of several key triggers accounting for Japan’s growing concern over China, the report said.
China was continuing to develop its “blue-water” capabilities to operate on the high seas far away from its ports, according to the report.
But the efforts of the US and its most important regional allies to increase their naval funding and readiness “could facilitate a shift in the naval balance in their favor,” it said.
The US has made concerted efforts to bolster its security alliances and footprint in the region in recent years in the face of a rising China.
That has included strengthening trilateral cooperation with allies South Korea and Japan and revamping the Quad security grouping with Australia, Japan and India, widely seen as a counter to China’s military rise.
Earlier this year, the US, the United Kingdom and Australia agreed to build a combined fleet of elite nuclear-powered submarines.
However, many regional states prefer to avoid taking sides in the “growing confrontation” between the US and China, the IISS report said, adding there is “no region-wide trend towards alignment with the US,” due to economic dependencies and fear of escalation.
Beijing has repeatedly claimed its People’s Liberation Army is a defensive force meant to safeguard world peace and development – a point China’s defense chief Li is expected to emphasize at the conference, where he will also discuss Beijing’s vision for regional security.
It is Li’s first time attending the conference since stepping into his role as defense minister earlier this year. Li was sanctioned by the US in 2018 over China’s purchase of Russian weapons.
Both he and Austin are scheduled to deliver addresses to the conference, which runs from Friday to Sunday.
Around noon, a massive column of smoke could be seen rising above the Berdyansk docks in the Zaporizhzhia area of southeast Ukraine.
In late February, Russia annexed Berdyansk, saying that Ukrainian soldiers had shelled the city on the Sea of Azov.
‘The port came under fire and there seem to be no people killed or wounded,’ Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram, according to the Russian news agency TASS.
‘The air defences were at work, shooting down some of the incoming shells.’
The Berdiansk City Military Administration said in on Telegram that Ukraine was behind the attack, the Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported.
Berdyansk is a port city and key strategic hub for Russia (Picture: Twitter)Local officials say there are no reported casualties (Picture: Twitter)
‘We thank the [Ukrainian Armed Forces] for bringing the liberation of the city closer,’ it said.
Ivan Fedorov, the Mayor of Melitopol, added on Telegram that the ‘loud’ blast was felt in the ‘whole suburb’.
Berdyansk is only 100km from the front line and has given the Kremlin an easy way to bring in supplies and troops to Mariupol and eastern Ukraine.
Zaporizhzhia is one of five regions Russia has claimed to have annexed that includes the Crimea peninsula.
Moscow also suffered another setback today when two women were reportedly killed amid intense shelling in Belgorod, only 40km north of the Ukrainian border.
An explosive device was dropped on the Shebekinsky district, shaking homes and wounding a child and an adult, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The two women were struck by shrapnel as they were travelling in a car near the village of Maslova Pristan.
Officials in neighbouring Kursk and Bryansk said buildings had been damaged by the shelling and an overnight drone attack.
Thousands of locals in the area have been evacuated along the border amid the grinding conflict.
On Thursday, Russia’s defence ministry said it had downed three cross-border attacks near the town of Shebekino.
Ukrainian’s military denied any involvement in the strike, claiming it is the work of Russian anti-government volunteer fighters.
The assaults are the latest attacks against Russia – that included a drone attack on Moscow itself – as tension rises ahead of Ukraine’s counter-offensive.
A former British soldier who was assisting border dwellers between Ukraine and Poland was murdered in a car accident.
The war-torn nation was visited by Julian Thorn, commonly known as Jay, who had come to “share the skills” he had acquired while serving in the Fusiliers and on tours in Afghanistan.
The 36-year-old, a native of Hexham, Northumberland, has been assisting refugees and instructing Ukrainian soldiers on how to handle weapons delivered by the UK.
His death was confirmed by a colleague in Ukraine and the Foreign Office, and his family said he had died ‘instantly’ in the crash.
Louise and Julian had been going out for four years (Picture: PA)
Mr Thorn’s fiancée Louise Lathbury is now facing costs of thousands of pounds to bring his body back from Ukraine.
She said: ‘It would mean everything because we need to bring him back whole.
‘He needs to come back and he needs to be him and so then we can do what’s right for him when we get him home.
‘I want him to have a nice send-off and be where he loved – he loved Hadrian’s Wall and he loved Northumberland and I just want him to come back and be in the place he loved so much.’
Julian served in tours in Afghanistan (Picture: PA)
Ms Lathbury was told of her partner’s death on May 21 – the day she had made a wedding ring as a surprise – and she now wonders if she had ‘tempted fate’.
She said: ‘To be honest I didn’t believe it was real and I did ask, “Are you sure it’s him? Are you sure it’s him?”
‘But the other thing is we were talking about the wedding and everything and I’d made his wedding ring on that Sunday – and then you think, did I tempt fate by making it?
‘You do, you think silly things like that when it happens. I was devastated – it was a surprise and I was going to give it to him when he got back.’
Ms Lathbury, who had been going out with Mr Thorn for four years, has now set up a GoFundMe, hoping to raise £15,000 for the repatriation of his body.
Any money left over from the campaign would be donated to another family also attempting to repatriate a loved one’s body, and to an animal charity.
