Here are the latest developments from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict on June 29, 2022
Here are the latest developments from the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict on June 29, 2022
Dozens of people were still missing on Wednesday after a Russian missile strike on a shopping mall in central Ukraine two days ago that killed at least 18, while a regional governor said the situation was “very difficult” in Lysychansk in the east. Ukraine said Russia had killed civilians deliberately when it pounded the mall in Kremenchuk. Moscow said the mall was empty and it had struck a nearby arms depot.
“Russian missile hit this location precisely. De-li-be-ra-te-ly… It is clear that Russian killers received those exact coordinates,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening video address. “They wanted to kill as many people.” Authorities said around 36 people were still missing.
Mr. Zelensky accused Russia of being a “terrorist state” at the United Nations on Tuesday, prompting Russia to charge that he was using a Security Council address as a “remote PR campaign” to solicit more Western weapons. He pushed the Security Council to expel Moscow from the United Nations and to create a tribunal to investigate actions of the Russian military in Ukraine. However, Russia is a council veto power and can shield itself from any such action.
“Russia does not have the right to take part in discussing and voting in regard to the war in Ukraine, which is unprovoked and simply colonialist of the part of Russia,” Mr. Zelensky told the council. “I urge you to deprive the delegation of the terrorist state of its powers.”
Germany
G7 urges China to press Russia to stop its Ukraine invasion
G7 leaders urged China on Tuesday to uphold the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes by pressing Russia to stop its invasion of Ukraine and to drop its “expansive maritime claims” in the South China Sea.
In a communique concluding their three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps, the G7 leaders also said they were gravely concerned by the human rights situation in China and that they were consulting on collective approaches to challenges posed by non-market economic policies. – Reuters
Ukraine
Russia security forces detain mayor of Ukrainian city of Kherson: Officials
Russia-installed officials in Ukraine’s Kherson region said their security forces had detained Kherson city mayor Ihor Kolykhayev on Tuesday after he refused to follow Moscow’s orders, while a Kherson local official said the mayor was abducted.
Kherson, a port city on the Black Sea, sits just northwest of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula. It was occupied during the first week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, and a large part of the local population has left the region.
“I can confirm that Kolykhayev was detained by the commandant’s (military police) office,” Ekaterina Gubareva, the Moscow-appointed deputy head of the Kherson region, said on the Telegram messaging app. Halyna Lyashevska, an adviser to Kolykhayev, said the mayor was abducted after refusing to cooperate with Russian occupiers of the Ukrainian. – Reuters
Ukraine
Macron says Russia can’t win in Ukraine after strike on mall
A still image from handout CCTV footage shows the explosion as a Russian missile strike hits a shopping mall amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a location given as Kremenchuk, in Poltava region, Ukraine on June 28, 2022.
| Photo Credit: Instagram/@zelenskiy_official/Reuters
France’s president denounced Russia’s fiery airstrike on a crowded shopping mall in Ukraine as a “new war crime” Tuesday and vowed the West’s support for Kyiv would not waver, saying Moscow “cannot and should not win” the war.
The strike, which killed at least 18 people in the central city of Kremenchuk, came as leaders from the Group of Seven nations met in Europe. It was part of an unusually intense barrage of Russian fire across Ukraine, including in the capital, Kyiv, that renewed international attention as the war drags on.
Speaking at the end of the G7 summit in Germany, French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to address that concern, vowing that the seven leading industrialised democracies would support Ukraine and maintain sanctions against Russia “as long as necessary, and with the necessary intensity.”
“Russia cannot and should not win,” he said. He called Monday’s attack on the mall “a new war crime.” – AP
Ukraine
Ukraine’s president: Russia has become ‘a terrorist’ state
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Tuesday of becoming “a terrorist” state carrying out “daily terrorist acts” and urged Russia’s expulsion from the United Nations.
In a virtual address to the U.N. Security Council, Mr. Zelensky urged the U.N. to establish an international tribunal to investigate “the actions of Russian occupiers on Ukrainian soil” and to hold the country accountable.
“We need to act urgently to do everything to make Russia stop the killing spree,” Mr. Zelensky said, warning that otherwise Russia’s “terrorist activity” will spread to other European countries and Asia, singling out the Baltic states, Poland, Moldova and Kazakhstan. – AP
Ukraine
16 killed, 59 wounded in missile strike on Ukraine mall
A Russian missile strike on a crowded mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk killed at least 16 people, the head of emergency services said early Tuesday, sparking international outrage.
“The Russian strike today on the shopping centre in Kremenchuk is one of the most brazen terrorist acts in European history,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening broadcast posted on Telegram.
