Air strikes sirens in Kyiv as Russia intensifies long-range attacks
The sirens of the airstrikes sounded in Kyiv on Saturday as Russia intensified its long-range bombardment of Ukrainian cities that has killed at least 34 people and injured them in the past three days.
At the last minute on Friday, Russian missiles struck the central city of Dnipro, killing three people and wounding 15, said regional governor Valentyn Reznychenko. The rockets hit an industrial plant and a street next door, he told Telegram.
Reuters reported images on social media showing thick black smoke rising from buildings and cars burning.
Eight people were killed and 13 were injured in a series of shells at 10 locations in the eastern Donetsk region, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said in a television interview.
On Thursday, Kalibr cruise missiles fired from a Russian submarine into the Black Sea hit an office building in Vinnytsia, southwest of Kyiv, in an attack according to Ukraine that killed at least 23 people.
Flowers and toys placed near the site of Russia’s missile attacks in Vinnytsia, Ukraine, in which three children were among at least 23 people killed. Photo: Ed Ram / Zuma Press Wire Service / REX / Shutterstock
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Emergency personnel are working in the middle of a collapsed building in the city of Chuhuiv, Kharkiv, Ukraine, in this document image obtained by REUTERS on July 16, 2022. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Reuters People are watching a cloud of smoke from a fire in the background after a missile attack on a warehouse of an industrial and commercial company in Odessa on July 16, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Oleksandr Gimanov / AFP / Getty Images
The White House says Russian officials have visited an airfield in central Iran at least twice in recent weeks to see the attack-capable drones it wants to acquire for use in its ongoing war. in Ukraine.
The Joe Biden administration released the information when the president was due to meet on Saturday with leaders from six Arab Gulf countries, as well as Egypt, Jordan and Iraq for a summit on regional missiles and capabilities of defense.
Biden is expected to make an “important statement” at the end of a four-day trip, with the goal of “clearly exposing” his vision and strategy for U.S. engagement in the Middle East and strengthening a new unified regional axis, largely driven by shared concerns. about Iran.
The United States believes Iran showed drones to Russian officials at Kashan airfield on June 8 and July 15, according to the White House.
The administration also published satellite images of the Shahed-191 and Shahed-129 drones that were shown and in flight at the aerodrome, while a transport plane of the Russian delegation was on the ground, reports Associated Press.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement that the administration has “information that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with several hundred UAVs.”
Added:
We assess that a Russian official delegation recently received a sample of Iranian UAVs with attack capability.
We are posting these images captured in June showing the Iranian drones that the Russian government delegation saw that day.
This suggests that there is a Russian interest in acquiring Iranian UAVs capable of attacking.
Sullivan said U.S. officials believe the June visit “was the first time a Russian delegation visited this airfield in order to showcase it.”
On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, in a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, rejected reports of Iranian drone exports to Russia, calling them “unfounded.” .
“Such allegations parallel to Biden’s visit to occupied Palestine, or Israel, go in the direction of political intentions and purposes,” Amirabdollahian said on the website of Iran’s foreign ministry.
“We oppose any movement that could lead to the continuation and intensification of conflicts.”
President Biden is scheduled to announce on Saturday that the US is committing $ 1 billion in food aid to the Middle East and North Africa amid rising food insecurity caused by the war in Ukraine, a senior official said to journalists.
Updated at 09.10 BST
Saturday’s G20 will discuss post-pandemic financial stability, cryptocurrencies and climate-related financial risks, among other topics, but sources said the two-day meeting in Bali is likely to end without a formal statement. Russia’s war in Ukraine continues. divide the group.
Indonesia urged G20 financial leaders to stay focused on their goals for global economic recovery.
Senior Western officials, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, condemned the war on Friday and criticized Russian officials for the massive economic consequences of the war, Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s finance minister Serhiy Marchenko, who virtually addressed the meeting, called for “more severe selective sanctions” against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
Western countries have imposed strict sanctions on Russia and accused it of war crimes in Ukraine that Moscow has denied.
Other G20 nations, such as China, India and South Africa, have been more muted in their response.
“We are at a helpless time in the world economy with the G20 paralyzed by Putin’s war and the G7 unable to lead global public goods,” said Kevin Gallagher, who heads the Center for Global Development Policy. of Boston University.
Indonesia’s Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati had hoped that delegates at this week’s meeting could jointly address rising commodity prices, worsening the food security crisis and the effects secondary on the ability of low-income countries to pay off debt.
A Russian attack overnight hit the northeastern Ukrainian city of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv, killing three people, including a 70-year-old woman, and injuring three more, the regional governor said.
The strike damaged a residential block, a school and a shop, and rescuers were passing through the rubble, Governor Oleh Synehubov told Telegram.
Russia denies targeting civilians, Reuters reports.
Updated at 09.22 BST
Jedidajah Otte
Moldova received about 600 million euros in pledges at a donors’ conference on Friday, an official said, to help the small country overcome rising inflation and the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
More than 500,000 refugees have fled to Moldova, bordering Ukraine, since the Russian invasion on February 24th. The Associated Press reports that the situation has put a lot of pressure on resources in the poorest country in Europe, which seeks to strengthen ties with the West.
Moldova also depends entirely on Russian gas supply, with prices that have quadrupled last year, and now struggles with soaring inflation.
The donor meeting of the Moldova Support Platform was held on Friday in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, and was co-chaired by Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. French state of development, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou. The event was also attended by delegates from the Group of Seven and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Baerbock wrote online after the event:
We may not have the power to stop the war in Ukraine today or tomorrow, due to the brutality of Russia. But we do have the means to help a democratic country prevent it from being crushed by the effects of this war.
I am Jedidajah Otte and I am in charge now for the next few hours.
Russia storing weapons at the European nuclear power plant – Ukrainian official
Russia is using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as a base for storing weapons, including “missile systems” and bombing surrounding areas of Ukraine, an official at the Kyiv nuclear agency said, while almost the entire country was on air attack alert.
Agence France-Presse reports that the chairman of the Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom said on Friday that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling the plant.
“The occupiers are bringing their machinery, including missile systems, from which they are already bombing the other side of the Dnipro River and the territory of Nikopol,” Pedro Kotin said in a televised interview, referring to the city in through the water.
The plant in southwestern Ukraine has been under Russian control since the first weeks of the invasion of Moscow, although it is still being operated by Ukrainian personnel.
The most recent attack in the Dnipro region left three dead and 15 injured, regional governor Valentin Reznichenko told Telegram.
The threat of airstrikes in most of Ukraine was also raised after attacks were reported in areas far from the front lines, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said the Russian target was to “cause the maximum damage to Ukrainian cities “.
Russian forces are crossing the gates of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Energodar, Ukraine, in May. Photography: AP
Russia and Ukraine have described progress toward an agreement to lift the blockade that restricts Ukrainian grain exports.
Turkey, a mediator, has said an agreement could be signed next week.
Asked if this timeline was realistic, a senior Ukrainian official who asked not to be identified told Reuters, “We hope so. We hurry as fast as we can.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the deal was close, but the Moscow negotiator warned that a grain deal would not lead to the resumption of peace talks.
An agreement would likely involve ship inspections to make sure Ukraine did not carry weapons and guarantees from Western countries that Russia’s food exports are free of sanctions.
Moscow welcomed Washington’s written clarification Thursday that banks, insurers and shippers would not be the target of sanctions to facilitate shipments of Russian grain and fertilizer.
Air strikes sirens in Kyiv as Russia intensifies long-range attacks
The sirens of the airstrikes sounded on Saturday in Kyiv while Russia …