Russia is rallying its troops in Ukraine for a full-scale attack on the Donbass city of Sloviansk. Ukraine, meanwhile, will not negotiate again until it is in a stronger position. what happened in the night
“Exactly 100 days ago we woke up to a new reality,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an address. He described the experience of the war in 100 words that Ukrainians should have learned, including terrifying terms like rocket hits, Ruins, deportation Place names associated with war atrocities have been added, such as Hostomel, Bucha or Mariupol, the names of Russian, Ukrainian and foreign weapon systems, but there are also positive words: reconstruction, return, liberation
Before the attack, the Russian army had a reputation as the second strongest in the world, Zelenskyy said. “What’s left of her?” he asked: “War crimes, shame and hatred.” But Ukraine existed, it exists and will exist.
An Aeroflot airliner has been detained in Sri Lanka because of international sanctions against Russia. The Foreign Ministry therefore summoned the ambassador of the island state in the Indian Ocean to Moscow on Friday. The government of Sri Lanka should clarify the situation as soon as possible, the Russian side demanded.
The Airbus A330 plane was supposed to be taking Russian tourists home but was detained Thursday at Colombo airport until at least June 16. According to the information, the trigger was a court order at the request of an Irish leasing company that claims the aircraft. No information was given on the number of stranded passengers. Because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, not only have many western states closed their airspace to Russian planes; More than 700 machines leased abroad had their approval revoked.
Aeroflot is trying to repatriate passengers stranded in Sri Lanka, the company announced on Friday. However, the sale of new airline tickets to Colombo has been halted.
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the Russian army is gathering forces for an attack on the city of Sloviansk. The military spoke on Facebook on Friday evening of up to 20 Russian tactical battalion groups (BTG). These are combat units with armored infantry, artillery and anti-aircraft defenses; they number from 600 to 800 soldiers.
Sloviansk is part of the eastern Ukrainian administrative region of Donetsk, which Russia is committed to conquering completely. The city is also in the rear of the city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Luhansk region, which has been fought over for days.
The enemy is advancing there under cover of heavy artillery fire in the residential areas, but has only had partial success, the Ukrainian side said. Russian forces have announced that they have almost complete control of the city. On the other hand, the Ukrainian regional administration reported that its own army had won back a fifth of the city with counterattacks. As always, the military information was initially not independently verifiable.
The chief negotiator in Kiev, Arakhamiya, said on Ukrainian television: “Negotiations should continue when our negotiating position is strengthened.” Ukraine will become stronger primarily because “the weapons that international partners are constantly promising us finally arrive in sufficient quantities “.
The faction leader of the presidential party Servant of the People led the Kiev delegation in talks with Russia in the first weeks of the war. However, the contact ebbed away when, following the withdrawal of Russian soldiers, atrocities in Kiev suburbs such as Bucha became known. Selenskyj does not want to negotiate again until Russian troops withdraw to their pre-war positions. He also wants to speak directly to Putin, which Russia has so far refused to do.
According to a CNN report, the USA, Great Britain and European allies have been discussing how the war could be ended through a negotiated solution in the past few weeks. According to the information, it was also about a proposal that Italy had submitted in May. According to this, Ukraine should remain militarily neutral, i.e. not join NATO and receive security guarantees in return. Kyiv and Moscow should agree in negotiations on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia and the separatist areas in the Donbass.
One consequence of the war is the loss of grain supplies from Ukraine, which threatens to lead to famine, especially in Africa. At a meeting with Putin on Friday, African Union (AU) President Macky Sall insisted on ending the blockade on exports. According to his interpretation of the conversation, Putin was ready to ensure the export of wheat and fertilizers to the African continent.
Putin denied any responsibility for the shortage of grain on the world market. The crisis had already begun before the war, which, according to official terminology in Russia, is called a special military operation. It is not his country that is preventing wheat exports from Ukraine, Putin said on television. Ukraine should remove the mines off its ports on the Black Sea coast. The Russian army will not use this for attacks, he promised.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine is ready to start exporting grain again through the port of Odessa. But there is no guarantee from Russia that this will not be used for an attack. “We are looking for solutions with the UN and other partners.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to visit Belgrade on Saturday – the capital of Serbia, which has had close ties with Russia since the 1990s. For energy sources such as gas and oil, the Balkan country is heavily dependent on the eastern superpower. So far, it has not joined the EU sanctions against Russia. The European Union, on the other hand, views the close ties between accession candidate Serbia and Moscow with suspicion.
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