UKRAINE WRAP | Ukraine arrests 'Russian agent' who guided strike that killed 50 troops - SBU

June 28 2022 - 21:15

Germany and Netherlands to supply six more howitzers to Kyiv

 Germany and the Netherlands will deliver six additional howitzers to Ukraine, the defence ministers of both countries said on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Madrid on Tuesday.

Each country will provide three of the artillery weapons, Germany's Christine Lambrecht and Kajsa Ollongren from the Netherlands told reporters, on top of 12 howitzers the countries have already sent to Ukraine.

"We show our resolve and our commitment to Ukraine, and not to give in to this Russian aggression," Ollongren said.

Commenting on NATO's announcement to have more than 300,000 troops at high readiness from 2023 in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Lambrecht said Germany would provide one division, some 15,000 troops, for these forces, including around 65 planes and 20 ships.

"Germany is ready to do its share, NATO must be strong and this needs to show in troop numbers as well," Lambrecht told reporters.

-Reuters

June 28 2022 - 20:04

Ukraine arrests 'Russian agent' who guided strike that killed 50 troops - SBU

Ukraine's security service said on Tuesday it arrested a former Soviet KGB agent who helped direct Russian missile strikes that killed over 50 soldiers at a military facility in the country's west in March.

The suspect sent the locations of targets at the Yavoriv military training centre to contacts in an unspecified Russian agency using the Telegram messaging app, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and local prosecutors said.

"As a result of rocket strikes on the Yavoriv training range over 50 service personnel died, and almost 150 received injuries," the SBU said on Telegram.In the aftermath of the missile strike, Ukraine had said that 35 troops were killed at the facility, which lies 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border.

The suspect, a native of the western city of Lviv, is being held in detention and investigated for treason, the prosecutor's office said. He could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

-Reuters

June 28 2022 -  18:07

US accuses Chinese companies of supporting Russia's military

The Biden administration said on Tuesday it has added 36 companies to a trade blacklist, accusing some of the targetted Chinese firms of providing support to Russia’s military and defense industrial base, following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Targets also include companies from Russia, UAE, Lithuania, Pakistan, Singapore the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, according to the Federal Register entry.

-Reuters

June 28 2022 -  17:07

Diageo to 'wind down' Russia operations - spokesperson

Diageo, the world's largest spirits maker, will wind down its business operations in Russia over the next six months, it said on Tuesday, becoming the latest Western brand to withdraw.

"Our focus will remain on supporting our employees in the region and providing them with enhanced redundancy terms, while ensuring we comply with local regulations," a spokesperson said in a statement.

-Reuters

June 28 2022 -  14:07

Russia sanctions, energy, food — what the G7 agreed

“We will explore further measures to prevent Russia from profiting from its war of aggression,” the final communique of the G7 meeting said.

“We will further reduce reliance on civil nuclear and related goods from Russia, including working to assist countries seeking to diversity their supplies.”

June 28 2022 -  13:30

Gazprom could seek to change contracts if west caps Russian gas prices

G7 leaders have agreed to study possible price caps on Russian oil and gas to try to limit Moscow's ability to fund its military campaign in Ukraine.

Western officials say they want to encourage sales of Russian oil at levels slightly above production costs to ensure Russia's earnings are reduced while it maintains production, but the full details are yet to be announced.

“It depends on the direction, depends on the decision taken by Gazprom. Probably, they may raise a question of changing the terms of existing contracts, changing the price,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said when asked about the gas cap idea.

Peskov did not elaborate on whether the changes may mean aligning the contracts with the proposed caps, or fully revising the contractual terms.

June 28 2022 -  13:18

France's Macron: next few weeks crucial regarding Ukraine's crop situation

French President Emmanuel Macron told the G7 summit in Germany that the coming weeks would be crucial regarding the crop situation in Ukraine, which has been damaged by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"The next few weeks will be crucial," said Macron, adding that stocks needed to be freed up before this year's harvest.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that G7 leaders were working on finding a way of letting Ukraine export its grain. 

Reuters 

June 28 2022 -  13:10

G7 to tackle cyber threats and disinformation from Russia: communique

The Group of Seven leaders agreed on Tuesday to strengthen their countries' defences against foreign disinformation and cyber attacks, including threats posed by Russia.

"We also commit to further strengthening our internal security in light of transnational threats including those posed by Russia and other authoritarian regimes," said the G7 communique at the end of a summit in Germany. 

Reuters 

June 28 2022 -  12:16

Ukraine digs in at Lysychansk to buy time for arms supplies 

Ukrainian forces will try to hold the line against Russia in the east from the vantage point of the city of Lysychansk, buying time for the arrival of Western weapons and the region's defenders to prepare fortifications, Luhansk province's governor said.

Moscow is pouring in forces to try to surround Lysychansk, a vital stronghold for Kyiv in the eastern Donbas region, Governor Serhiy Gaidai said in an interview.

Ukrainian forces pulled back from neighbouring Sieivierodonetsk last week after holding out for weeks, Kyiv's biggest battlefield setback for more than a month.

It will be harder for Russia to capture Lysychansk which lies on elevated ground, but it is difficult to say how long it will hold, Gaidai said late on Monday.

"What are the Russians doing? They just shell positions for days, weeks and months from long range...How long can it hold? This is less a question for the soldiers and more a question of concrete. How long will the fortifications last," he said.

Lysychansk is the last major Ukrainian-held urban area in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the industrial Donbas heartland that Russia is trying to capture on behalf of separatist proxies.

Ukrainian forces held onto Sievierodonetsk, just across the Siverskyi Donets River from Lysychansk for weeks, weathering a ferocious Russian assault."They'll achieve nothing in several days (in Lysychansk) like they're saying (they will)," Gaidai said.

"The geography of (Lysychansk) is difficult. It's very spread out. It has a private (residential) sector, there are 9-storey apartment blocks, it has drops, there are lowlands and there are rises," he said.

The city's pre-war population of 100,000 has dwindled to just 15,000, people who simply do not want to leave despite the pleas of the authorities and repeated evacuations, he said.

"With the loss of Lysychansk, we will unfortunately be able to say that Luhansk region is lost," he said. "But...this would be a lost battle but not war."

"Our task is to hold back the enemy as long as possible and to inflict maximum damage on them... As long as Russia's army remains in one place, time is on our side. We will receive weapons from the West..." he said.

Asked if the Western arms supplies were already having an impact, he said "they are helping" but that "they are far from the critical amount" needed. 

Reuters 

June 28 2022 -  12:00

Ukraine mourns shopping mall attack victims, war crimes team on the scene

War crimes investigators on Tuesday inspected the charred remains of a shopping mall devastated by a Russian missile strike as Ukraine mourned the victims of what the Ukrainian prosecutor general called "crimes against humanity".

A day after the attack in which at least 18 people were killed, the city of Kremenchuk in central Ukraine declared a day of mourning and fire fighters cleared away rubble.

Residents left flowers in black vases on a wall near what was left of the mall. A small yellow and blue national flag jutted out of one of the vases, and a row of stuffed toy animals sat beside them.

Exhausted fire fighters sat on a curb alongside another of the shopping centre's walls. Others lay on a grass embankment, smoking and scrolling on their phones.

"We pulled out five bodies. We didn’t find anybody alive," said a fire fighter who gave his name only as Oleksandr.

Members of a team of international legal experts gathered beside the mall and briefed Ukrainians wearing uniforms identifying them as "war crimes police."

"It's a question about crimes against humanity," Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova told Reuters in Kremenchuk.

She said one missile had struck a factory near the shopping centre but that it was closed and could not be considered a military target.

Wayne Jordash, a British lawyer working with an international initiative to assist Ukraine's war crimes investigations, said the first indications were that the factory that was hit had "nothing to do with the military".

"On the face of this, this looks like a war crime. It looks like it's a deliberate attack on a civilian object," Jordash, speaking from Kremenchuk, said.

Russia said the incident was caused by a strike on a legitimate military target. Its defence ministry, quoted by the RIA state news agency, said Russian forces had fired missiles at a storage depot for Western weapons in Kremenchuk, and the detonation of stored ammunition there had caused the fire at the nearby mall.

Russia denies intentionally targeting civilians in its "special military operation" in Ukraine which has destroyed cities, killed thousands of people and driven millions from their homes.

Reuters 

June 28 2022 - 11:16

Iran applies to join China and Russia in BRICS club

Iran, which holds the world's second largest gas reserves, has applied to join the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and SA that Beijing and Moscow cast as a powerful emerging market alternative to the West.

The term BRIC was coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001 to describe the startling rise of Brazil, Russia, India, China. The BRIC powers had their first summit in 2009 in Russia. SA joined in 2010.

Iran's membership in the BRICS group “would result in added values for both sides”, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. Russia said Argentina had also applied to join.

Russia cast the applications as evidence that the West, led by the US, was failing to isolate Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine.

June 28 2022 - 11:07

Russia expands US sanctions list to include Biden's wife and daughter

Russia on Tuesday expanded its US 'stop-list', including in it the wife and daughter of President Joe Biden as well as other prominent figures.

The step was taken "as a response to the ever-expanding U.S. sanctions against Russian political and public figures," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Reuters 

June 28 2022 - 11:00

UK's army chief: we need to be able to mobilise faster to deter Russia threat

The British army's Chief of the General Staff Patrick Sanders said on Tuesday that the army needed to be able to mobilise faster to deter the threat from Russia.

Reuters 

June 28 2022 - 10:55

Russia pushed into historic default by sanctions

Russia defaulted on its international bonds for the first time in more than a century, the White House said, as sweeping sanctions have effectively cut the country off from the global financial system, rendering its assets untouchable.

The Kremlin, which has the money to make payments thanks to oil and gas revenues, swiftly rejected the claims, and has accused the West of driving it into an artificial default.

Earlier, some bondholders said they had not received overdue interest on Monday following the expiry of a key payment deadline on Sunday.

Russia has struggled to keep up payments on $40 billion of outstanding bonds since its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

June 28 2022 - 10:45

Britain's Johnson: We're working on getting Ukraine's grain out

G7 leaders are working on finding a way of letting Ukraine export its grain, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.

"We're working on it, we're all working on it," he said at the start of a five-way meeting with France's Emmanuel Macron, Italy's Mario Draghi, Germany's Olaf Scholz and the US's Joe Biden, when asked if they were going to get the grain out of Ukraine.

Ukraine's bulk grain exports are being hindered by a Russian blockade of its Black Sea ports, forcing exporters to use less efficient land routes.

Reuters 

June 28 2022 - 07:26

Rescuers search for survivors after Russian missiles pound Ukrainian shopping mall

Firefighters and soldiers searched on Tuesday for survivors in the rubble of a shopping mall in central Ukraine after a Russian missile strike killed at least 16 people in an attack condemned by the UN and the West.

Family members of the missing lined up at a hotel across the street where rescue workers had set up a base after Monday’s strike on the busy mall in Kremenchuk, southeast of Kyiv.

More than 1,000 people were inside when two Russian missiles slammed into the mall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. At least 16 people were killed and 59 injured, Ukraine's emergency services said.

June 28 2022 - 07:24

How Ukrainian defenders left Sievierodonetsk in boats under cover of night

One of the last Ukrainian defenders of Sievierodonetsk said he withdrew in a boat, bitter to be leaving after weathering a weeks-long Russian onslaught on the ruined city but happy to be alive as he and others crossed the river to higher ground.

Russian forces fully occupied the front-line eastern city on Saturday, both sides said, confirming Kyiv's biggest battlefield setback for more than a month following some of the war's bloodiest fighting.

“It was a shame of course because a lot of effort was put into defending it — it went on for months,” Danylo, a 24-year-old soldier who said he was among almost the last to leave, said.

“But... we're not too upset as we also want to live.”

June 28 2022 - 06:15

Turkey's Baykar to donate three UAVs to Ukraine after crowdfunding campaign

Turkish defence firm Baykar said on Monday it would donate three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to Ukraine, after a crowdfunding campaign there raised enough funds to buy "several" of the Bayraktar TB2 model.

The TB2 has been hugely popular in Ukraine, where it helped destroy Russian artillery systems and armoured vehicles. It even became the subject of a patriotic expletive-strewn hit song in Ukraine that mocked Russian troops, with the chorus "Bayraktar, Bayraktar".

Baykar said the crowdfunding campaign in Ukraine had reached the milestone in a few days and that business leaders as well ordinary people contributed to the fund.

"Baykar will not accept payment for the TB2s, and will send three UAVs free of charge to the Ukrainian war front," the company said in a statement.

"We ask that raised funds be remitted instead to the struggling people of Ukraine," it said.

Russia has previously complained to Turkey over its sale of Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to Ukraine, a high level Turkish bureaucrat said, but added that the sales by Baykar, a private company, were not state-to-state deals.

Turkey has forged close ties with Russia in energy, defence and trade, and relies heavily on Russian tourists. Baykar had sold the drones to Kyiv despite Russian objections and signed a deal to co-produce more before the invasion, angering Moscow.

The TB2, which has also been used in the conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, now spearheads Turkey's global defence export push.

Lithuania's defence ministry said earlier this month that Turkey's Defence Industry Agency would donate a TB2 to Lithuania for transfer to Ukraine after Lithuanians crowdfunded nearly 6 million euros to buy it.

Reuters 

June 28 2022 - 06:00

Shopping mall hit by Russian missiles, Ukraine says

Two Russian missiles slammed into a crowded shopping center in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, killing at least 10 people. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said more than 1,000 people were in the mall at the time of the attack.