July 17 2022 — 14:19
Russia preparing for next stage of offensive, Ukraine says
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in "all operational areas".
As Western deliveries of long-range arms begin to help Ukraine on the battlefield, Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days.
"It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea," Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said on Saturday. "We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire front line. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters."
Clearly preparations are now underway for the next stage of the offensive.”
The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive toward Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk.
The British defence ministry said on Sunday that Russia was also reinforcing defences across areas it occupies in southern Ukraine after pressure from Ukrainian forces and pledges from Ukrainian leaders to force Russia out.
Ukraine says at least 40 people have been killed in Russian shelling of urban areas since Thursday as the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24 intensifies.
Dozens of relatives and local residents attended the funeral of 4-year-old Liza Dmytrieva in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Sunday. The girl was killed in a missile strike on central Vinnytsia on Thursday that killed 24 people, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Rockets hit the northeastern town of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv region on Friday night, killing three people including a 70-year-old woman and wounding three others, said regional Governor Oleh Synehubov.
"Three people lost their lives, why? What for? Because Putin went mad?" said Raisa Shapoval, 83, a distraught resident sitting in the ruins of her home.
To the south, more than 50 Russian Grad rockets pounded the city of Nikopol on the Dnipro River, killing two people who were found in the rubble, said Governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was continuing to sow grief and death on Ukrainian soil eight years on from the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine by what international investigators have said was a Russian surface-to-air missile likely fired by Russian-backed militia in the region.
"But nothing will go unpunished!" he said. "Every criminal will be brought to justice!"
Moscow, which calls the invasion a "special military operation" to demilitarise its neighbour and root out nationalists, says it uses high-precision weapons to degrade Ukraine's military infrastructure and protect its own security. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
Kyiv and the West say the conflict is an unprovoked attempt to reconquer a country that broke free of Moscow's rule with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered military units to intensify operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes on eastern Ukraine and other areas held by Russia, where he said Kyiv could hit civilian infrastructure or residents, according to a statement from the ministry.
His remarks appeared to be a direct response to what Kyiv says is a string of successful strikes carried out on 30 Russian logistics and ammunitions hubs, using several multiple launch rocket systems recently supplied by the West.
The strikes are causing havoc with Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia's offensive capability, Ukraine's defence ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
Russian-backed separatists said Ukraine had hit the town of Alchevsk, east of Sloviansk, with six U.S.-made HIMARS rockets on Saturday. The self-styled Luhansk People's Republic said the strikes had killed two civilians and damaged a bus depot, health camp and apartments.
Ukraine's armed forces said they had struck the bus depot because they had information it was being used to house Russian troops.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces had destroyed a launch ramp and reloading vehicle for one of the HIMARS systems deployed near the eastern city of Pokrovsk.
It also said they had shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter near Sloviansk and a SU-25 aircraft in the Kharkiv region further north and destroyed a depot in Odesa in southern Ukraine that stored Harpoon anti-ship missiles from NATO countries.
Reuters
UKRAINE WRAP | Ukraine's president fires security service chief and prosecutor general
July 17 2022 — 21:30
Ukraine's president fires security service chief and prosecutor general
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky issued executive orders late on Sunday dismissing the State Security Service head and the Prosecutor General.
The orders dismissing domestic security chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelensky, and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who leads the effort to prosecute Russian war crimes in Ukraine, were published on the president's official website.
No reason was immediately given for the sackings.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 20:44
Russia's Medvedev: Attack on Crimea will ignite 'Judgement Day' response
The refusal of Ukraine and Western powers to recognise Moscow's control of Crimea poses a "systemic threat" for Russia and any outside attack on the region will prompt a "Judgment Day" response, former president Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday.
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Moscow president in Kyiv was toppled amid mass street protests.
Moscow then also backed pro-Russian armed separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
In the event of an attack on Crimea, Medvedev was quoted by TASS news agency as saying, "Judgment Day will come very fast and hard. It will be very difficult to hide.
"Medvedev did not elaborate but has previously warned the United States of the dangers of attempting to punish a nuclear power such as Russia over its actions in Ukraine, saying this could endanger humanity.
His comments were aired a day after a Ukrainian official suggested that Crimea, which most of the world still recognises as part of Ukraine, could be a target for U.S.-made HIMARS missiles, recently deployed by Kyiv as it battles Russian forces.
Earlier on Sunday, Interfax news agency quoted Medvedev as telling World War Two veterans: "If any other state, be it Ukraine or NATO countries, believes that Crimea is not Russian, then this is a systemic threat for us."
"This is a direct and an explicit threat, especially given what had happened to Crimea. Crimea returned to Russia," said Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.
Vadym Skibitskyi, an official at Ukrainian military intelligence, was asked on Saturday in a televised interview if HIMARS could be used on targets in Crimea.
He said Russia had carried out strikes on Ukrainian territory from Crimea and the Black Sea and so these were also justified targets.
Crimea is of particular strategic importance to Russia as it includes the headquarters of its Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 20:25
Ukraine conflict could speed up Germany's green energy transition - study says
The consequences of the Ukraine conflict could accelerate Germany's green energy transition despite Berlin's decision to reconnect coal-fired power plants to compensate for falling fossil fuel supplies from Russia, a study published on Sunday showed.
The German government has been pushing for a shift to renewable energy, aiming for renewables to contribute 80% of the country's electricity generation by 2030.
The study by credit insurer Allianz Trade found that Germany's green energy goals were likely to increase the share of renewable energies in the electricity mix in the medium term, even beyond what would be required to meet the Paris climate targets by 2035.
The study found that an increase of coal-fired power generation, which the German government approved earlier this month, will not raise CO2 emissions in the European Union because the production will be limited by the EU emissions trading system.
The study said it was unlikely that coal would become a long-term replacement for Russian gas because of the high EU emissions trading prices."(Coal-fired power generation) will be pushed out of the market," the study's author Markus Zimmer said.
He also said that planning and approval procedures for renewable energy must be simplified and accelerated to meet the German government's goals.
The study estimated that Germany's renewable energy expansion in electricity would need annual investments of around 28 billion euro up to 2035, and the industry would need some 440,000 workers from 2022 to 2035 to meet the targets.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 20:00
Ukraine c.bank has sold over $12 bn of its gold reserves during war - deputy head
Ukraine's central bank has sold $12.4 billion of gold reserves since the beginning of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, the bank's deputy head said on Sunday.
"We are selling (this gold) so that our importers are able to buy necessary goods for the country," Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova told national television. She said the gold was not being sold to shore up Ukraine's hryvnia currency.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 19:00
Ukraine c.bank has sold over $12bn of its gold reserves during war - deputy head
Ukraine's central bank has sold $12.4 billion of gold reserves since the beginning of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, the bank's deputy head said on Sunday.
"We are selling (this gold) so that our importers are able to buy necessary goods for the country," Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova told national television. She said the gold was not being sold to shore up Ukraine's hryvnia currency.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 17:52
Eight crew members killed in Ukraine cargo plane crash in northern Greece
A Ukrainian cargo plane carrying munitions from Serbia to Bangladesh crashed in northern Greece late on Saturday, killing all eight crew members on board, Greek and Serbian authorities said on Sunday.
Witnesses said the aircraft had come down in a ball of flames near the city of Kavala before exploding on impact in corn fields around midnight local time. Earlier the pilot had reported engine trouble and had requested an emergency landing.
Drone images from the scene showed smouldering debris from the Antonov An-12 aircraft strewn across fields.
Ukrainian-based airline Meridian, which operated the aircraft, confirmed that all eight crew members had died in the crash. Ukraine's foreign ministry said they were all Ukrainian citizens.
Greek authorities have recovered the body of one crew member so far, a civil protection service spokesman said. Six bodies have been located during an initial drone inspection of the area, a local mayor said.
Serbian Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said the plane had been carrying 11.5 tonnes of products, including mortar and training shells, made by its defence industry. The buyer of the cargo was the defence ministry of Bangladesh, he added.
Confirming that account, Denys Bogdanovych, Meridian's general director, said the crash had no relation to the war currently raging in Ukraine.
Greek state TV ERT said the aircraft's signal was lost soon after the pilot requested an emergency landing. Amateur video footage uploaded on ertnews.gr showed the aircraft in flames descending fast before hitting the ground in what appeared to be an explosion.
"I wonder how it didn't fall on our houses," one witness, Aimilia Tsaptanova, told reporters. "It was full of smoke, it had a noise I can't describe and went over the mountain. It passed the mountain and turned and crashed into the fields."
Greek authorities said the special disaster response unit and military staff, including mine clearance units, had been dispatched to the scene. They banned people from moving around the area and advised residents to keep doors and windows shut.
A fire brigade official said on Sunday that firefighters "felt their lips burning" and white dust was floating in the air. The substance has been examined and not found to be radioactive or biological material hazardous to public health, the mayor of the wider region, Philippos Anastasiades, told reporters.
Some businesses and households in the area suffered power cuts after the crash, possibly because the plane may have cut through cables or got burned by the explosion, local media said. More explosions occurred during the night after the crash.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 14:19
Russia preparing for next stage of offensive, Ukraine says
Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, a Ukrainian military official said, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in "all operational areas".
As Western deliveries of long-range arms begin to help Ukraine on the battlefield, Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed dozens in recent days.
"It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea," Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, said on Saturday. "We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire front line. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters."
Clearly preparations are now underway for the next stage of the offensive.”
The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive toward Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk.
The British defence ministry said on Sunday that Russia was also reinforcing defences across areas it occupies in southern Ukraine after pressure from Ukrainian forces and pledges from Ukrainian leaders to force Russia out.
Ukraine says at least 40 people have been killed in Russian shelling of urban areas since Thursday as the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb. 24 intensifies.
Dozens of relatives and local residents attended the funeral of 4-year-old Liza Dmytrieva in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Sunday. The girl was killed in a missile strike on central Vinnytsia on Thursday that killed 24 people, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Rockets hit the northeastern town of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv region on Friday night, killing three people including a 70-year-old woman and wounding three others, said regional Governor Oleh Synehubov.
"Three people lost their lives, why? What for? Because Putin went mad?" said Raisa Shapoval, 83, a distraught resident sitting in the ruins of her home.
To the south, more than 50 Russian Grad rockets pounded the city of Nikopol on the Dnipro River, killing two people who were found in the rubble, said Governor Valentyn Reznichenko.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russia was continuing to sow grief and death on Ukrainian soil eight years on from the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine by what international investigators have said was a Russian surface-to-air missile likely fired by Russian-backed militia in the region.
"But nothing will go unpunished!" he said. "Every criminal will be brought to justice!"
Moscow, which calls the invasion a "special military operation" to demilitarise its neighbour and root out nationalists, says it uses high-precision weapons to degrade Ukraine's military infrastructure and protect its own security. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.
Kyiv and the West say the conflict is an unprovoked attempt to reconquer a country that broke free of Moscow's rule with the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered military units to intensify operations to prevent Ukrainian strikes on eastern Ukraine and other areas held by Russia, where he said Kyiv could hit civilian infrastructure or residents, according to a statement from the ministry.
His remarks appeared to be a direct response to what Kyiv says is a string of successful strikes carried out on 30 Russian logistics and ammunitions hubs, using several multiple launch rocket systems recently supplied by the West.
The strikes are causing havoc with Russian supply lines and have significantly reduced Russia's offensive capability, Ukraine's defence ministry spokesperson said on Friday.
Russian-backed separatists said Ukraine had hit the town of Alchevsk, east of Sloviansk, with six U.S.-made HIMARS rockets on Saturday. The self-styled Luhansk People's Republic said the strikes had killed two civilians and damaged a bus depot, health camp and apartments.
Ukraine's armed forces said they had struck the bus depot because they had information it was being used to house Russian troops.
The Russian defence ministry said its forces had destroyed a launch ramp and reloading vehicle for one of the HIMARS systems deployed near the eastern city of Pokrovsk.
It also said they had shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter near Sloviansk and a SU-25 aircraft in the Kharkiv region further north and destroyed a depot in Odesa in southern Ukraine that stored Harpoon anti-ship missiles from NATO countries.
Reuters
July 17 2022 — 13:31
Russia says it shot down Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter, SU-25 aircraft
Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday its aircraft shot down a Ukrainian MI-17 helicopter near the eastern town of Sloviansk and a SU-25 aircraft in Kharkiv region, as Moscow has stepped up its military operation.
The army also said that its long-range air-based missiles have destroyed a depot in an industrial zone in southern Ukrainian city of Odesa that stored Harpoon anti-ship missiles delivered to Ukraine by NATO countries.
Reuters could not immediately verify the claims.
-Reuters
July 17 2022 — 12:02
Russia raises quota for sunflower oil exports
Russia has increased the quota for its exports of sunflower oil and sunflower meal, the government said on Sunday, citing sufficient domestic supplies.
The country banned exports of sunflower seeds from the end of March until the end of August and imposed an export quota on sunflower oil to avoid shortages and ease pressure on domestic prices.
The government on Sunday said that the export quota for sunflower oil has been increased by 400,000 tonnes from the previous cap of 1.5 million tonnes while the restriction on exports of sunflower meal was raised by 150,000 tonnes from a previous limit of 700,000 tonnes.
The restrictions are in place until August 31.
The decision to ease restrictions was made because the domestic market has sufficient supplies, the government said, adding that producers will benefit from increased exports.
-Reuters
July 17 2022 — 08:19
Russia reinforces defensive positions in occupied southern Ukraine - UK military
Russia is reinforcing its defensive positions across the areas it occupies in southern Ukraine, the British defence ministry said on Sunday.
The reinforcements include movement of manpower and equipment, defensive stores between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kherson, while Russian forces in Melitopol are also increasing security measures, the ministry wrote on Twitter in a regular bulletin.
-Reuters