On his first trip abroad since the start of the war in Ukraine around four months ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly planning to visit Central Asia in the next few days. First, the head of state will fly to Tajikistan and hold talks with President Emomali Rahmon, Russian state television reported on Sunday. An exact day was not initially mentioned. The ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan is one of Russia’s military allies.
After that, according to the report, Putin wants to travel to Turkmenistan and attend a summit of the countries bordering the Caspian Sea. According to the state agency TASS, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that was planned for Wednesday.
Putin’s last known trip abroad was to China in early February, where he took part in the opening of the Winter Olympics. At the end of February, Russia began attacking neighboring Ukraine.
The G7 summit in Bavaria continues until Tuesday. Russia was expelled from what was then the Group of Eight (G8) after capturing Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has been attacked by Russia with rockets for the first time in three weeks. There were several explosions in the metropolis early on Sunday morning. A rocket hit a nine-story apartment building, Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, wrote in the Telegram news service. Another rocket fell on the premises of a kindergarten in the Shevchenko district. There were no children there at the time.
According to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, at least four people were injured in the apartment building. A seven-year-old girl and her mother were also rescued from the rubble. The apartment building that was hit is in the immediate vicinity of the Artem armaments factory, which has been hit by rockets for the third time.
MP Oleksiy Honcharenko reported that Russian troops fired a total of 14 rockets at Kyiv and the surrounding area in the morning hours.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said while meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the G7 summit, a Downing Street spokesman said: “Ukraine is on a razor’s edge and we must turn the tide of the war in her favour.” “
After Russian troops captured the city of Sievjerodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, fighting for the city of Lysychansk continued. The enemy, with the support of artillery, is increasingly trying to block the strategically important city from the south, the Ukrainian general staff said on Sunday evening. Civil and military infrastructure were also hit. This could not be independently verified.
Russia invaded Ukraine four months ago and has since conquered large parts of the east and south of the country. In the Luhansk region, Ukrainian troops now only control the city of Lysychansk. There, too, Russian soldiers have advanced to the outskirts of the city. The Russian Defense Ministry announced the capture of Sievjerodonetsk on Saturday. Ukraine also conceded the loss.
Canada sent two warships to the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic on Sunday. According to the Canadian Navy, HMCS Kingston and HMCS Summerside joined two frigates that are already in the region to strengthen NATO’s eastern flank. The four-month deployment is part of the “deterrent measures in Central and Eastern Europe” that were initiated in 2014 after the Russian annexation of Crimea.
The Canadian ships were reportedly placed on “high alert” in order to be able to “quickly and effectively” support all NATO operations. They should therefore take part in mine clearance exercises by October.
A gas production platform has again been attacked in the Black Sea. This was announced by representatives of the Crimean Peninsula, which was incorporated by Russia, on Sunday evening, as reported by the Russian state agency Tass. They blamed Ukraine for the attack. That couldn’t be checked. There were no injuries, it said. It was unclear whether a fire broke out.
Three oil rigs in the Black Sea were attacked with rockets on Monday. The originally Ukrainian facilities were occupied in March 2014 as part of the annexation of Crimea. At the end of February this year, Russian troops invaded Ukraine. The sea area of the Black Sea is also affected by fighting.
What will be important on Monday:
The heads of state and government from seven major industrialized countries (G7) continue their summit on Monday (10:00 a.m.). The second of three summit days at Schloss Elmau will begin with a session on the Ukraine war. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, who was connected via video, also takes part in it. An assessment of the effectiveness of the sanctions of the G7 countries against Russia because of the Ukraine war was already on the agenda on Sunday.
On Monday afternoon, it will continue with consultations on climate, energy and health policy. The heads of state and government from the five guest countries Argentina, India, Indonesia, Senegal and South Africa are taking part. In the afternoon there will be another working session on food safety and gender equality, to which UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also been invited. The summit ends on Tuesday afternoon.
The military situation:
Ukraine wants to recapture all cities occupied by Russia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promised his compatriots in a video speech on Sunday night. More than four months after the start of the war, his country is in an emotionally difficult phase. Previously, Moscow had reported the capture of the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk.
Both Moscow and Kyiv confirmed the capture of the city of Sievjerodonetsk by Russian troops. An adviser to the President of Ukraine, Oleksiy Arestovych, said according to the Unian agency that fighting continued in the region. The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Strjuk, said the pro-government troops had moved into different positions. The information could not be independently verified.
According to information from Moscow, the chemical plant Azot in Sievjerodonetsk, which was recently converted into an air raid shelter, is now controlled by pro-Russian units of the Luhansk separatists. It was initially unclear how many people sought shelter there. The separatists claimed to have “evacuated” 800 civilians. Where they were taken remained unclear.
There were several explosions in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv early Sunday morning. Ambulances and rescue workers are on duty in the Shevchenko district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote in the Telegram news service. Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, wrote that eyewitnesses reported seeing rockets. It was initially unclear whether there were injuries or deaths.
According to Zelenskyy, Russia fired 45 rockets at the neighboring country within half a day on Saturday alone. There should also have been victims. According to the authorities, at least three people were killed and four others injured in an attack on the western Ukrainian city of Sarny. A car wash and a workshop were hit, the head of the military administration said, according to the Unian news agency. He blamed Russia for it.
The Neutron Source nuclear research facility in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv has again come under fire. Buildings and infrastructure such as ventilation ducts were damaged, the nuclear regulatory authority said. The part of the facility where the nuclear fuel is stored was not mentioned in the damage listing. No increased radiation was found. Ukraine blamed Russia for the attack.
The political voices and developments:
Russia plans to deploy Iskander-type missile systems to neighboring Belarus in the coming months. President Vladimir Putin promised the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko – his close ally. The Iskander-M could “carry both ballistic missiles and cruise missiles – both conventional and nuclear,” Putin said. According to the media, they have a range of up to 500 kilometers.
Ahead of the start of the G7 summit in Bavaria, the US government has lauded Germany’s role in supporting Ukraine following Russia’s attack. The fact that Germany is also supplying “lethal weapon systems” to Ukraine is very important, said the Communications Director of the National Security Council in the White House, John Kirby. He alluded to the delivery of heavy weapons, against which the federal government had initially blocked. Germany, on the other hand, had made other weapons available.
The G7 summit of democratic economic powers begins at noon. The three-day meeting chaired by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) at Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps will focus on the war and its consequences.
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