Russia and Turkey have agreed to continue talks on safe ship departures and grain exports from Ukrainian ports, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Turkish presidency sources said yesterday that his military delegation would travel to Russia this week to discuss details of a possible safe passage in the Black Sea to export grain, Reuters reported.
Russia’s Tass State News Agency confirmed plans for talks, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Children are riding bicycles and scooters on a road in front of a destroyed building in the village of Novoselivka. Photo: Sergei Chuzavkov / AFP / Getty ImagesA young boy picks up goods from the rubble of a mall that was destroyed in Irpin in March. Photo: Anadolu / Getty Images Agency
The UK government has responded to Moscow’s accusations that members of the Russian delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had received a visa.
Russian lawmaker and member of the delegation Vladimir Dzhabarov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Russia had asked “in time” “to resolve the issue of providing guarantees by the British that visas would be issued” due to the sanctions of the United Kingdom.
Dzhabarov said:
We received an outrageous response that the British government is literally unable to issue visas to members of the Russian delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, for whatever reason they visit the country.
Asked about Dzhabarov’s comments, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry said:
There are currently no restrictions or restrictions on Russian citizens working in the UK on long-term work visas.
The spokesman said the UK was prioritizing applications from Ukrainians and that study, work and family visa applications took longer to process.
Dzhabarov said that Russia had sent a letter to all other delegations stating that “the exclusion of the Russian delegation seriously undermines the credibility of the event.”
All decisions taken in his absence “will not be recognized by us as legitimate,” the letter said, according to Dzhabarov.
The 29th annual session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will take place in Birmingham from 2 to 6 July.
Until now …
- The military situation of Ukrainian defenders in the eastern Donbas is “extremely difficult,” officials said. 568 civilians are believed to be locked up at the Sievierodonetsk Nitrogen Chemical Plant, while Russian attacks are intensifying in an effort to capture the city and neighboring Lysychansk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Lysychansk was being bombed “en masse”.
- Russian forces have captured several settlements near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. The head of the military administration of the Sievierodonetsk district, Roman Vlasenko, said that the front-line village of Toshkivka had not been under Ukrainian control since Monday. Russian forces also captured Pidlisne and Mala Dolyna, located southwest of Sievierodonetsk, and were also successful near the Hirske settlement in Luhansk.
- Moscow’s response to Lithuania’s EU-sanctioned ban on freight traffic in Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave will not be exclusively diplomatic, but practical, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
- Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said the city had been hit by seven missiles this morning.
- Victims of the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), one of Russia’s representatives in eastern Ukraine, may have reached about 55 percent of the original force, according to intelligence. British.
- One of the leaders of the authorities imposed on occupied Ukraine has described the border between Russia and Ukraine as “worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans.” “Our reunification with Russia is inevitable, there should be no borders between us,” Vladimir Rogov said.
- Vladimir Putin will mark the day Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The date is significant in Russia and is remembered as the Day of Remembrance and Pain. Putin reportedly laid flowers to honor the dead.
- A Ukrainian photojournalist and an accompanying soldier were “cold-executed” when they were killed in the first weeks of the invasion of Russia, according to a recent investigation by Reporters Without Borders. According to the agency, the couple was searching the forests occupied by Russia to find the drone taking pictures of the missing photographer, the agency said, citing the findings of an investigation into their deaths.
- Kyiv’s ambassador to Brussels has said that granting Ukraine the status of a candidate to join the EU would be a historic decision that would indicate to Russia that it can no longer claim a sphere of influence over its eastern neighbor. . Vsevolod Chentsov, the head of Ukraine’s mission to the EU, said Russia’s war had united Kyiv with the bloc, while ending what he called a “mistake” over whether his country could belong to the bloc. the union.
- Members of the Russian delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been denied a British visa to attend the next session, according to Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy of the International Affairs Committee. the Russian upper house.
- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland visited Ukraine on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s war crimes, a Justice Department official said. Garland met with Attorney General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova and announced a war crimes responsibility team to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. “There is no hiding place for war criminals,” Garland said.
Updated at 11.16 BST
The military authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have issued their daily operational report. He says he controls 239 settlements in occupied Donetsk and says 13 settlements in the region have been bombed by Ukrainian forces. He says one person died and 14 people were injured in the last 24 hours. Claims have not been independently verified.
Vitaliy Kim, governor of Mykolaiv, has just published in the Telegram that the city has been hit with seven missiles.
Russian Foreign Ministry: Response to Lithuania’s traffic ban “will not be diplomatic but practical”
Moscow’s response to Lithuania’s ban on EU-sanctioned transit of goods through the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad will not be exclusively diplomatic but practical, Maria Zakharova said.
“One of the main questions was whether the answer would be exclusively diplomatic. The answer: no, “said the Foreign Ministry’s press cover in its weekly briefing.” The answer will not be diplomatic but practical. “
Reuters reports that Zakharova would not delve into the nature of the practical measures Russia plans to take against Lithuania.
A map of the Baltic Sea showing the Kaliningrad enclave
Yesterday, while organizing a meeting in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, said: “Russia will certainly respond to these hostile actions. Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania “.
An EU ban on Russian steel and iron ore came into force on 17 June, and the Lithuanian state railway said it would no longer allow such goods to be transported by road and imported. -les in Kaliningrad.
Updated at 11.10 BST
Jennifer Rankin
Kyiv’s ambassador to Brussels has said that granting Ukraine the status of a candidate to join the EU would be a historic decision that would indicate to Russia that it can no longer claim a sphere of influence over its eastern neighbor. .
Vsevolod Chentsov, the head of Ukraine’s mission to the EU, said Russia’s war had united Kyiv with the bloc, while ending what he called a “mistake” over whether his country could belong to the bloc. the union.
Speaking to the Guardian ahead of an EU summit on Thursday, he said that for many years Ukraine had been seen as a bridge or a buffer state rather than a potential member.
A decision on candidate status “would ultimately kill this ambiguity, what is Ukraine for the EU: whether we are building a common house or not … I think now there is finally clarity.”
EU leaders will decide on Thursday whether to grant candidate status to Ukraine following a positive recommendation from the European Commission last Friday. Expectations of a yes have risen since four EU leaders, including France and Germany, who were perceived as the warmest, visited Kyiv last week in support.
Read more about Jennifer Rankin’s report from Brussels: Kyiv envoy to EU says Ukraine’s candidate status would send a clear signal to Russia
Updated at 11.08 BST
According to a statement from Reuters, members of the Russian delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) have been denied a British visa to attend the next session, according to Vladimir Dzhabarov. the first deputy head of Russia. upper house international affairs committee.
Updated at 11.05 BST
The Russian-Ukrainian border is “worse than the Berlin Wall”: a pro-Russian intermediary in Zaporizhzhia
One of the leaders of the authorities imposed on occupied Ukraine has described the border between Russia and Ukraine as “worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans,” according to a report by RIA Novosti.
Quotes Vladimir Rogov saying:
For us, the border with Russia is worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans. According to various estimates, between 60 and 68% of the population of East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic [East Germany] he had relatives in West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany [West Germany]. In Ukraine, depending on the region, 73-85 percent of residents have relatives in Russia. Consequently, this boundary should not exist.
Rogov went on to say, according to the agency, that the Germans did not hold a referendum on the wall, they took it to their …