As the war enters its 838th day, these are the main events.
Here is the situation on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
Struggle
- Ihor Terekhov, mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, said the number of Russian attacks on the city had decreased since the Ukrainian military attacked missile launch sites in Russia. As missile and drone attacks continued, Terekhov told Reuters news agency that allowing Ukrainian forces to attack sites across the border had helped bring relative “calm”.
- Russia claimed to have captured two more Ukrainian villages: Myasozharivka in the Luhansk region and Tymkivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing the Defense Ministry.
- India's Ministry of External Affairs said two Indian citizens recruited by the Russian army recently died on the battlefield. The ministry urged the Russian ambassador in New Delhi and authorities in Moscow to quickly release and return all Indian citizens who are with the Russian army and to stop any further recruitment of Indian citizens, it added in a statement.
Politics and diplomacy
- White House spokesman John Kirby said the United States will announce “shocking” new sanctions and export controls during the G7 summit in southern Italy later this week, targeting entities and networks that help Russia wage their war against Ukraine. “We are going to continue to increase the costs of the Russian war machine,” Kirby said.
- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jin said Beijing would oppose all unilateral sanctions following new warnings from G7 countries on small Chinese banks over their ties to Russia.
- Germany's far-right AfD and far-left BSW parties boycotted a parliamentary speech by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had previously warned that pro-Russian rhetoric posed a growing threat to the European Union. AfD and BSW, which oppose military support for Ukraine, made huge gains in the EU parliamentary elections.
- The United Nations' annual report on children in armed conflict said the Russian military and its “affiliated armed groups” had killed 80 children in Ukraine in 2023 and injured 339. The report, which will be published on Thursday but was seen by several news agencies, said violence against children in armed conflicts reached “extreme levels” in 2023.
- The Moscow Regional Court confirmed the sentence according to which Maksim Lypkan, 19, arrested in February 2023 while planning a protest against the Ukrainian offensive, must remain in a psychiatric hospital and undergo involuntary psychiatric treatment, independent SOTA reported . media. Lypkan was accused of spreading “false [information] about the Russian army.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin will keep his demoted ally Nikolai Patrushev, a Cold War warrior who crafted the Kremlin's national security strategy, on Russia's National Security Council, according to a decree. The council is an advisory body chaired by Putin.
Weapons
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to increase their air defense support to help protect Ukraine's energy infrastructure, telling delegates at an international conference on Ukraine's reconstruction that at least seven missile systems were needed. Patriot.
- The US State Department said it had conducted a “thorough review” of Ukraine's Azov Brigade and found “no evidence” of human rights violations, clearing the way for the unit to receive training and weapons from the United States. Joined. Washington said the current brigade was different from the “Azov battalion” that was established a decade ago and “disbanded in 2015” and was blighted by accusations that some members held openly far-right and extremist views.
