Governor of the Luhansk region Sergei Haidai said that all critical infrastructure in the key city in eastern Ukraine has been completely destroyed while evacuation of civilians is impossible due to fierce fighting.
Governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Haidai said on Tuesday that most of Sievierodonetsk, a key city in eastern Ukraine, was under the control of the Russian army, as heavy fighting between Russians and Ukrainians continued.
The fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces is ongoing "in the heart of the city," Haidai said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia's blockade of Ukrainian seaports was preventing Kyiv from exporting 22 million tonnes of grain and accused the country of deliberately creating this problem to cause suffering elsewhere, as concerns grow about widespread shortages and price hikes across the African continent.
Review Tuesday's developments on the war in Ukraine as they unfolded in our blog below:
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Tuesday's key updates:
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports could be "catastrophic" for Africa, according to the chair of the African Union.
Biden administration supports the shipment of Russian grain and fertilizer exports as fears of world hunger escalate, US ambassador to the UN said.
Ukraine has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects, says the country's top prosecutor.
Russian troops are in control of most of Sievierodonetsk, with Ukrainian authorities claiming that all key infrastructure in the city has been destroyed and evacuation of civilians is impossible.
Ukrainian court sentences two Russian soldiers to jail for war crimes.
Senior Ukraine official says EU sanctions on Russia are still "not enough".
Russian foreign minister is scheduled to travel to Turkey to discuss Black Sea "grain corridor".
The team investigating war crimes in Ukraine meets in The Hague today.
Finland refused to take Turkey's security concerns seriously, Ankara official says.
The first ship leaves Russian-occupied Mariupol, according to reports.
EU leaders agree to ban 90% of Russian oil by year-end.
That's it for our live coverage on Tuesday as the blog comes to a close for the evening,
We're back on Wednesday morning with all the latest developments.
US backs Russian grain and fertilizer exports amid hunger concerns
The US ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday that the Biden administration supports the shipment of Russian grain and fertilizer to address increasing global food insecurity sparked by the war in Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters at UN headquarters that there are no US sanctions on Russian shipments of grain and fertilizer, but she said companies are “a little nervous” and have been holding back.
Thomas-Greenfield said the US is prepared to give “comfort letters” to grain and fertilizer exporters and insurance companies in an attempt to get badly needed agricultural products out of Russia.
She said the Biden administration is “very supportive” of efforts by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to allow grain exports out of Ukraine by train and the Black Sea, as well as his work to ensure Russian food and fertilizer have unrestricted access to global markets.
Russian citizens' private debt reaches an all-time high
Russia's household debt reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year, the country's central bank said in a report Tuesday.
"Just before the onset (of the sanctions) the market for loans to individuals reached the highest level of household debt at a macro level since the beginning of the observations," at 10.6% of the population's disposable income, compared with 10.2% in the same period in 2021, the report said.
The central bank notes that in the context of the deteriorated economic situation, the issuance of new consumer loans has decreased.
In March and April, the issuance of new consumer loans fell by 3.4%. The bank does not note any significant deterioration in the quality of loans to individuals.
"However, in March-April, a significant increase in the share of consumer loans for which the next payment was missed was recorded", from 5.3% to 7.5%, "which indicates a potential increase in non-performing loans in the future", the bank noted in its report.
In the wake of the first sanctions after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the central bank had drastically increased its key rate from 10% to 20%, before starting a gradual decline. It is currently at 11%.
The Russian population is likely to suffer severely from the sanctions. Inflation -- at 17.8% annually in April -- combined with a drop in income and increased lack of access to steady employment will significantly reduce the purchasing power of Russians, especially as they have little savings.
Russian troops now control most of Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk governor says
Governor of the Luhansk region Serhiy Haidai said on Tuesday that most of Sievierodonetsk, a key city in eastern Ukraine, was under the control of the Russian army, as heavy fighting between Russians and Ukrainians continued.
"Unfortunately, today, Russian soldiers (took) control of most of the city," he told Ukrainian television, stating that the city was "90% destroyed".
"The fighting is going on in the heart of the city," Haidai said.
Despite an increasingly complicated situation for Ukrainian soldiers in the face of the Russian push, "our soldiers will not be surrounded", he assured.
"Our soldiers are on the defensive but holding their positions," he said.
In Sievierodonetsk, "all critical infrastructure is completely destroyed", and "60% of the housing cannot be restored", Haidai said, adding that "there is no longer any water, gas or electricity".
The regional governor also said there was "no possibility of leaving Severodonetsk now" as the fighting was too dangerous to allow any evacuation of civilians.
Ukraine FM praises EU decision to extend sanctions against Moscow
Ukraine has welcomed the European Union’s decision to block most imports of Russian oil.
“The oil embargo will speed up the countdown to the collapse of the Russian economy and war machine,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry estimated the ban could cost Russia “tens of billions of dollars” and praised the European Union for “not only making it harder for the Kremlin to finance the (Russian Federation’s) aggression but also shoring up its own energy security.”
Brussels urges world not to hinder farm products trade amid possible food crisis
The European Union has appealed to its international partners not to inhibit farm products with trade barriers, as Russia's war in Ukraine raises the risk of a potential food crisis.
“We call on all partners not to restrict trade on agricultural products,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, following an EU summit on Tuesday in the Belgian capital.
Russia is blocking the export of 22 million tons of its grain, some of which is bound for Africa, Ukraine has claimed.
Countries in Africa are heavily reliant on Ukraine for their wheat, which is the fifth largest producer of the crop in the world.
They imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to the United Nations.
Von der Leyen said the EU is trying to help get food out of Ukraine by road and rail, instead of the traditional shipping routes, which are under Russian blockade.
However, she said land transport assistance may only provide for a fifth of Ukraine’s usual monthly exports.
“It is of course more tedious and expensive, but it is necessary to get this wheat out,” she said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has pinned blame on the emerging food crisis on the EU’s sanctions, which he said are increasing prices.
Putin said he is willing to help ease the situation if sanctions against his country are lifted.
(AP)
Airstrike hits chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, say officials
A chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, a key city in eastern Ukraine, has been hit by an airstrike, Ukrainian officials wrote on Telegram late Tuesday afternoon.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russians hit “a tank with nitric acid at a chemical plant.”
He appealed to residents not to come out of hiding due to the acid’s toxic fumes.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs shared a similar message on Telegram, alongside an image of plumes of smoke rising from a building.
Russian forces now control "around half" of the strategic city, a day after Ukrainian officials reported that Russian shelling was so intense that it was not possible to count casualties or assess the damage.
Reports have since confirmed that a huge rose cloud can be seen above the city, with the authorities urging the residents to use gas masks or makeshift nose-and-mouth masks soaked in soda solution.
Pussy Riot member arrested at Croatian border
Aisoltan Niyazova, a member of the Russian dissident performance and art group Pussy Riot, has been arrested by Croatian border police on Monday, according to domestic press.
Niyazova, who is originally from Turkmenistan, has been placed on Interpol's wanted persons' list since April 2003 for alleged embezzlement of $20 million (€18.6m).
She is accused of stealing the money from the Central Bank of Turkmenistan and siphoning it out of the country, which Niyazova rejects, claiming that the charges have been trumped up due to her opposition to the hermit country's government.
Niyazova has already been brought in front of the court in Croatia, and the country is now deciding on whether to extradite her, other group members told Večernji List.
With the group on tour, she was already questioned in Slovenia prior to trying to enter Croatia but was released.
The band members claim she was issued an affidavit by Slovenian authorities which should allow her to travel freely, as she fears extradition would lead to politically-motivated sentencing in her home country.
Pussy Riot and its members have been targeted by the Kremlin for their opposition to human rights abuses in Russia, with several members spending time in jail or house arrest due to their activism.
Earlier in May, another member of the group Maria Alyokhina fled Russia, claiming she was able to shake her police monitors by disguising herself as a meal courier.
Macron: France will 'fight against impunity', Russia 'breaching all international laws'
French President Emmanuel Macron vowed his country will continue to “fight against impunity” after a French journalist was killed by shell shrapnel while covering a Ukrainian evacuation operation.
The French national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for war crimes.
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, was killed on Monday as he was covering a humanitarian operation near Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas region that is being hotly contested by Russian and Ukrainian forces, according to his employer, French news broadcaster BFM TV.
Macron, speaking after a European summit in Brussels, said “journalists, humanitarian workers must be protected in war zones. Civilians must be protected.”
Russia “is breaching all international laws,” he said.
Greece and Germany working out a deal to supply weapons to Ukraine
Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany is working on an arrangement with Greece that would see Athens deliver old military equipment to Ukraine and get armoured personnel carriers from Germany to fill the gap.
Germany has faced criticism for a perceived reluctance to deliver heavy weapons to Ukraine, which the government rejects. It points, among other things, to arrangements for NATO allies to provide older equipment — particularly of Soviet design — to Kyiv and then have modern material supplied by Germany.
Scholz pointed to an arrangement already made with the Czech Republic, saying he had agreed with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to draw up a similar deal after the EU summit.
He did not give details but said it would be finalised by the countries’ defence ministries and could be implemented quickly.
Scholz said he also spoke to his Polish counterpart about such arrangements.
Civilians in Sievierodonetsk 'in dire need of aid', humanitarian organisation says
The Norwegian Refugee Council says thousands of civilians caught in Sievierodonetsk are “in dire need of aid.”
It is calling for humanitarian organisations to be allowed to access the eastern Ukrainian city “with lifesaving assistance and to enable safe evacuations of civilians who wish to leave.”
The council's secretary-general, Jan Egeland, said Tuesday: “We fear that up to 12,000 civilians remain caught in crossfire in the city, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity."
He added that “the near-constant bombardment is forcing civilians to seek refuge in bomb shelters and basements," with “only few precious opportunities” to escape.
He added that the organisation “cannot save lives under the hail of grenades”.
Ukraine has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects
Ukraine has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects and has started prosecuting around 80 of them, Kyiv's top prosecutor said on Tuesday.
The list of suspects includes "top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russia", prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague.
Venediktova said Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia had decided to join an international investigation team in Ukraine.
(Reuters)
Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports could be 'catastrophic' for Africa
The chair of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, has told European Union leaders that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports is paving the way for a “catastrophic scenario” of widespread shortages and price hikes across his continent.
In an address to leaders gathered in Brussels Tuesday for a summit focused on helping Ukraine, Sall said that a halt to grain and fertiliser exports via the Black Sea is very worrying for a continent hosting 282 million undernourished people. He said that the price of fertiliser across Africa has already tripled compared to 2021.
“According to some estimates, cereal yields in Africa will fall by 20 to 50% this year,” Sall said. “We would like to see everything possible done to free up available grain stocks and ensure transportation and market access.”
Charles Michel, the EU Council president, said that "the EU is sparing no efforts to free Ukraine’s exports over land and exploring alternative sea routes.”
African countries imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to UN figures. The African Development Bank is already reporting a 45% increase in wheat prices on the continent.
(AP)
Ukraine’s historic monuments conserved using cutting-edge technology
Many of Ukraine's historic monuments have been destroyed in the three months since Russia invaded the country, but cultural experts are working to conserve their memory using cutting-edge technology and 3D scans.
Find out more about it below.
'Hatred' at heart of sanctions, claims former Russian president
Russia's last president has alleged that international sanctions against his country are motivated by 'hatred' in a Telegram post on Tuesday.
Dmitry Medvedev, who now heads Russia's Security Council, claimed sanctions, including the new measures targeting oil exports, do not affect the Russian political elite and wont be "fatal" for big business.
They are instead "directed precisely against the people of Russia," he alleged.
"At the heart of these decisions is hatred for Russia - for Russians, for all its inhabitants. Hate [for] our culture. Hence the cancellation of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich. Hatred for our religion. Hence the desire to destroy the Russian Orthodox Church," he wrote. "And so it was almost always."
His remarks comes as EU leaders agreed this morning to ban Russian oil, although pipeline imports to some Central and Eastern European countries remain exempt.
Of embargos on purchasing Russian gas and oil, Medvedev said the intension was to to "reduce budget revenues and force the state to abandon social obligations, including including indexation of incomes.
"Again, against ordinary citizens, in order to make them uncomfortable. Not to mythical bosses, not to moneybags, but to them," he added.
EU leaders have said sanctions imposed on Russia - now in their sixth round - are necessary to punish the Russian leadership and limit funding available for their war machine, following the country's deadly invasion of Ukraine.
The EU has not introduced an embargo on Russian gas.
Norwegian Refugee Council calls for humanitarian access to Sievierodonetsk
The Norwegian Refugee Council says thousands of civilians caught in Sievierodonetsk are “in dire need of aid.” It is calling for humanitarian organisations to be allowed to access the eastern Ukrainian city “with lifesaving assistance and to enable safe evacuations of civilians who wish to leave.”
The council's secretary-general, Jan Egeland, said Tuesday: “We fear that up to 12,000 civilians remain caught in crossfire in the city, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity."
He added that “the near-constant bombardment is forcing civilians to seek refuge in bomb shelters and basements," with “only few precious opportunities” to escape.
He added that the organisation “cannot save lives under the hail of grenades.”
(AP)
Russian troops in control of up to half of Sievierodonetsk
Ukrainian forces were still holding out in Sievierodonetsk on Tuesday, resisting Russia's all-out assault to capture a bombed-out wasteland that Moscow has made the principal objective of its invasion in recent days.
Both sides said Russian forces now controlled between a third and half of the city. Russia's separatist proxies acknowledged that capturing it was taking longer than hoped, despite one of the biggest ground assaults of the war.
Western military analysts say Moscow has drained manpower and firepower from across the rest of the front to concentrate on Sievierodonetsk, hoping a massive offensive on the small industrial city will deliver something Russia can call a victory in one of its stated aims in the east.
The Ukrainian head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk, said the Russians now controlled half of the city.
"Unfortunately ... the city has been split in half. But at the same time the city still defends itself. It is still Ukrainian," he said, advising those still trapped inside to stay in cellars.
(Reuters)
Ukrainian court sentences two Russian soldiers to jail for war crimes
A Ukrainian court sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11 and a half years in jail on Tuesday for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, the second war crimes verdict since the start of Russia's invasion in February.
Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, who listened to the verdict standing in a reinforced glass box at the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, both pleaded 'guilty' last week.
A defence lawyer had asked for leniency, saying the two soldiers had been following orders and repented.
Bobikin and Ivanov have acknowledged being part of an artillery unit that fired at targets in the Kharkiv region from the Belgorod region in Russia. The shelling destroyed an educational establishment in the town of Derhachi, the prosecutors said.
The servicemen, described as an artillery driver and a gunner, were captured after crossing the border and continuing the shelling, the prosecutor general's office said.
(Reuters)
Russia's Sberbank says exclusion from SWIFT will have limited impact
Russian bank Sberbank said on Tuesday that its exclusion from the international financial system SWIFT, decided by the European Union, will only have a limited effect, with the group having already been hit by other sanctions since the beginning of the Russian offensive against Ukraine.
"We are working normally - the main restrictions are already in force,” the bank said in a press release, after the latest round of EU sanctions was announced.
"SWIFT exclusion does not change the situation for international regulations," it said. "Internal operations in Russia do not depend on SWIFT, and will be carried out by the bank normally,” it added.
On Monday, the 27 EU member states reached an agreement on a sixth package of sanctions against Russia.
As well as agreeing to ban an estimated 90% of Russian oil by year-end, the sanctions also expanded the blacklist to around 60 individuals linked to the Kremlin and excluded three Russian banks from the SWIFT international financial system, including Sberbank.
SWIFT is one of the largest banking and financial messaging networks, and allows the transit of payment orders between banks, among other services.
(Euronews / AFP)
Senior Ukraine official says EU sanctions on Russia still 'not enough'
The latest European Union sanctions on Russia, which ban most imports of its oil, are "not enough" and the pace of sanctions so far has been too slow, a senior official in the Ukrainian president's office said in a speech in Madrid on Tuesday.
In the bloc's toughest reprisals against Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine three months ago, an EU summit in Brussels on Monday agreed measures that officials said would immediately cut more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, and 90% by the end of the year.
"If you ask me, I would say far too slow, far too late and definitely not enough," Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, said.
Ukraine is also not happy with the pace of weapons deliveries from the West, he added.
"We are definitely not satisfied," Zhovkva said in response to a question after his speech.
"Had we been satisfied, we would have begun the liberation of Mariupol immediately and thrown away Russian forces from Donbas," he said. "We believe in promises."
(Reuters)
Russian foreign minister to travel to Turkey to discuss Black Sea 'grain corridor'
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will travel to Turkey on 8 June to discuss the establishment of "secure corridors" for the transport of Ukrainian grain, his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu announced on Tuesday.
"Lavrov will come to Turkey on June 8 with a military delegation to discuss, among other things, the establishment of secure corridors for the transport of grain. This is the most important question,” said Cavusoglu.
He did not specify what form this observation could take, or the exact role of Turkey.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday he is ready to work with Turkey on the free movement of goods in the Black Sea, including grain from Ukraine, during a telephone conversation with Turkish Head of State Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to Putin, "the Russian side is ready to facilitate unhindered maritime transit of goods, in coordination with Turkish partners. This also applies to the export of grain from Ukrainian ports."
Maritime traffic has been made difficult since the beginning of the conflict by the blockade imposed by the Russian navy on Ukrainian ports, and by the presence of sea mines.
Although an ally of Ukraine, to which it provides combat drones, Ankara has managed to maintain relations with Moscow, on which it depends in particular for its energy supplies.
(Euronews / AFP)
Team investigating war crimes in Ukraine meets in The Hague today
Representatives of a group of nations working together to investigate war crimes in Russia's invasion of Ukraine are meeting in The Hague amid ongoing calls for those responsible for atrocities to be brought to justice.
Tuesday's coordination meeting at the European Union's judicial cooperation agency, Eurojust, of members of a Joint Investigation Team and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan comes as Russian forces continue to pound Ukrainian towns.
Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been widely condemned as an illegal act of aggression. Russian forces have been accused of killing civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha and of repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure including hospitals and a theatre in the besieged city of Mariupol that was being used as a shelter by hundreds of civilians.
Russia staunchly denies its troops are responsible for atrocities.
The joint investigation team, made up of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, that is meeting Tuesday in The Hague was established in late March, a few weeks after the ICC opened an investigation in Ukraine.
Ukraine's prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, will be among those at the meeting. Her office has already opened more than 8,000 criminal investigations related to the war and identified over 500 suspects, including Russian ministers, military commanders and propagandists.
Last week, in the first case of its kind linked to the war, a Ukrainian court sentenced a captured Russian soldier to the maximum penalty of life in prison for killing a civilian.
(Euronews / AP)
Russia aims to close pocket around forces in Luhansk, says British MoD
Russia’s capture of Lyman supports its operational main effort, which likely remains the encirclement of Sieverodonetsk and the closure of the pocket around Ukrainian forces in Luhansk Oblast, according to the latest defence intelligence update published by the British Ministry of Defence.
“Elements of Russia’s Southern Grouping of Forces are likely leading the most successful axis in the sector, supported by the Central Grouping of Forces attacking from the North. Progress has been slow but gains are being held,” it said.
Even so, routes into the pocket appear to remain under Ukrainian control.
Russia’s political goal is likely to occupy the full territory of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, it said.
“To achieve this, Russia will need to secure further challenging operational objectives beyond Sieverodonetsk, including the key city of Kramatorsk and the M04 Dnipro-Donetsk main road.”
Finland refuses to take our security concerns seriously, says Turkish official
Finland has to stop "protecting" what Turkey considers a terrorist organisation and take Turkey's security concerns seriously if it wants Turkey to accept it in NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesperson told a Finnish newspaper on Tuesday.
"The problem is not that Finland would not understand Turkey. Finland refuses to take Turkey's security concerns seriously," Communications Director of the Turkish President, Fahrettin Altun, told Finland's largest daily Helsingin Sanomat.
Turkey has objected to Finland's and Sweden's joining the Western defence alliance on the grounds they harbour people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and others it deems terrorists, and because Finland and Sweden halted arms exports to Turkey in 2019.
Altun's words echoed what Erdogan's chief foreign policy adviser Ibrahim Kalin told his US counterpart on Monday, calling for the two Nordic countries to "take concrete steps regarding the terrorist organisations that threaten Turkey's national security".
"Eventually Finland's government must decide which is more important, to join NATO or protect these kinds of organisations," Altun told the paper.
(Reuters)
First ship leaves Russian-occupied Mariupol
A ship has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia took the city and is headed east to Russia with a load of metal, the Russian-backed separatist leader of the Ukrainian breakaway region of Donetsk said on Tuesday.
Ukraine said the shipment of metal to Russia from Mariupol, whose capture gave Moscow an overland bridge linking mainland Russia and pro-Russian separatist territory to annexed-Crimea, amounted to looting.
"Today 2,500 tons of hot-rolled sheets left the port of Mariupol," Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "The ship headed for (the Russian city of) Rostov."
Russia seized full control of Mariupol earlier this month when more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steelworks. Russia said last week that the port had been de-mined and was open again to commercial vessels.
(Reuters)
Pro-Russian forces claim to control a third of Sievierodonetsk
Russian forces have seized control of about a third of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, but their assault is taking longer than they had hoped, according to a Moscow-backed separatist leader quoted in a TASS news agency report.
Russian shelling has reduced much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins and Russian troops have entered the city's southeastern and northeastern fringes, but the Ukrainian defence has slowed the wider Russian campaign across the Donbas region.
"We can say already that a third of Sievierodonetsk is already under our control," TASS quoted Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the Luhansk People's Republic, as saying in a report on Tuesday morning.
Pasechnik told the Russian state news agency that fighting was raging in the city, but Russian forces were not advancing as rapidly as might have been hoped.
"But we want, above all, to maintain the city's infrastructure," he said.
The advance of Russian troops was complicated by the presence of several large chemical plants in the Sievierodonetsk area, TASS reported.
Luhansk was recognised as independent by Russia when Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, although Kyiv and its Western allies consider it part of Ukraine.
Russia has been pressing to seize the entire Donbas region, consisting of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions which Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
(Reuters)
32 journalists killed so far in Ukrainian conflict
A total of 32 media workers have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion, according to the Ukrainian president.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Monday that the number includes French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff.
The French news broadcaster BFM TV says Leclerc-Imhoff was hit by shrapnel while covering a Ukrainian evacuation operation.
In his talk, Zelenskyy said: “A little more than a month ago I gave an interview to this very TV channel. It was my first interview to the French media during the full-fledged war. My sincere condolences to colleagues and family of Frédéric."
(Euronews / AP)
Bitter street fighting in Sievierodonetsk
Russian troops pushed deeper into a key eastern Ukrainian city Monday, fighting street by street with Kyiv's forces in a battle that has left Sievierodonetsk in ruins.
As Moscow's advance on Sievierodonetsk increased in intensity, Russian forces also shelled parts of Ukraine's northeast, and a struggle continued for control of a southern region.
Military analysts described the fight for Sievierodonetsk as part of a race against time for the Kremlin. The city is important to Russian efforts to quickly complete the capture of the eastern industrial region of the Donbas before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defence.
Moscow-backed separatists already held territory in the region and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.
“The Kremlin has reckoned that it can’t afford to waste time and should use the last chance to extend the separatist-controlled territory because the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine could make it impossible," Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.
(AP)
EU leaders agree to ban 90% of Russian oil by year-end
After several hours of face-to-face wrangling, and many weeks of back and forth discussions, EU leaders have agreed to ban most Russian oil from the bloc's markets by the end of the year.
The embargo will target only seaborne imports, excluding supplies coming in by pipelines.
The breakthrough was announced on Monday by Charles Michel, president of the European Council, shortly before midnight on the first day of an extraordinary summit in Brussels.
"This is a remarkable achievement," said Michel. "We need political leadership in these extraordinary times."
Zelenskyy says Russia hopes for famine crisis
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia's blockade of Ukrainian sea ports was preventing Kyiv from exporting 22 million tons of grain.
Zelenskyy said that the result is the threat of famine in countries dependent on Ukrainian grain, and could create a new migration crisis. “This is something the Russian leadership clearly seeks,” he said.
Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “deliberately creating this problem so that the whole of Europe struggles and so that Ukraine doesn’t earn billions of dollars from its exports.”
He called Russia’s claims that sanctions don’t allow the country to export more of its food produce “cynical” and a lie.
(AP)