Russia-Ukraine latest updates: First M270 rocket systems arrive
- Ukraine’s defence minister says the first M270 multiple rocket launch systems have arrived in Ukraine.
- UK’s foreign office summons Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin to express “deep concern” over reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey, while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine.
- Ukraine’s defence minister says the first M270 multiple rocket launch systems have arrived in Ukraine.
- UK’s foreign office summons Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin to express “deep concern” over reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey, while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine.
- The European Union targets Russian gold exports in a seventh package of sanctions proposed by the European Commission.
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These were the updates on Friday, July 15:
Ukraine receives more than $34m in donations
The US is the biggest single donor to Ukraine in its fight to hold off the Russian invasion. It has given more than $7bn worth of weapons and equipment so far.
But for Ukraine the tiny donations are almost as valuable as the big ones. Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher reports from Kyiv, Ukraine.
US official dismisses Russia claim of military target in Vinnytsia
A US official has dismissed Russia’s claim that it targeted a meeting of the Ukrainian air force in Vinnytsia in an attack that Kyiv says killed 23 people, including children.
“I have no indication that there was a military target anywhere near that,” the senior defence official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Russia threatens residents in occupied areas with expulsions
In occupied parts of Ukraine, pro-Russian administrations are threatening residents with expulsions to Ukrainian-controlled territory if they voice criticism of the new leadership.
The measure aims to “maintain order” and counter “threats to socio-political stability,” according to decrees published in the southern Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhia and Kherson.
The deportations apply in the case of “denigration” of government organs and Russia’s foreign policy, as well as the Russian army and allied forces. Unauthorised demonstrations, disruption of school activities or and unauthorised political activity are also to be punished in this way, the dpa news agency reported.
Russian negotiator says grain agreements will not lead to Moscow-Kyiv talks: TASS
Agreements on export of the Ukrainian grain will not lead to the resumption of Russia-Ukraine talks, Leonid Slutsky, a Russian lawmaker who had taken part in peace talks with Kyiv in the past has said, according to state news agency TASS.
Russia’s proposals on how to resume Ukrainian grain exports were “largely supported” by negotiators at talks this week in Istanbul and an agreement was close, the Russian defence ministry said.
Iran reassures Ukraine that it won’t sell drones to Russia
Iran’s foreign minister has told Kyiv that his country has no intention of selling drones to Russia, despite US claims that this was a possibility.
“The American claims in this regard were baseless and more of a propaganda act ahead of US President [Joe] Biden’s [Israel] trip,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba.
His country has always been committed to a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, the Iranian chief diplomat said, according to the IRNA news agency.
First M270 rocket systems have arrived in Ukraine: Defence minister
Ukraine’s defence minister has said that the first M270 multiple rocket launch systems had arrived in Ukraine, without specifying the country which handed them over.
“They will be good company for HIMARS on the battlefield,” Minister Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter, referring to the US-donated systems that Ukraine says it has used to hit Russian ammunition depots and barracks.
Ukraine says it has hit over 30 Russian “military logistics targets” in recent weeks, hurting Russia’s assault capability.
Putin signs law seeking to help Russian investors ditch frozen assets
Russian investors will have the right to ask foreign institutions holding their frozen securities to transfer depositary accounting rights to a Russian organisation, according to a law signed by Putin late on Thursday.
Approximately six trillion roubles ($105.1bn) of foreign shares held by Russians have been frozen as a result of Western sanctions and Russia’s own authorities and platforms restricting trading in foreign assets, the central bank has estimated.
Investors have the right to submit an application for the depositary accounting rights of its foreign-held shares to be transferred to a Russian entity within 90 days from the law’s publication, the text of the law said.
Missile attack in Vinnytsia hit a military site: Russia
A missile attack that left more than 20 dead in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia this week was an attack on a military site, Russia’s defence ministry has argued, a day after Kyiv characterised it as a “terrorist attack on civilians”.
The attack was launched while the “military leadership of Ukraine’s forces and foreign weapons providers” were meeting, said Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov, who added that all people present at the meeting were dead.
Russia characterised the building as a house for officers. It lies in the middle of Vinnytsia, a city in central Ukraine.
What happened to Russia’s anti-war movement?
Thousands have been arrested on charges related to demonstrating, forcing many to find new ways to protest.
Read about it here.
UK summons Russian envoy over British aid worker’s death
The UK’s foreign office has summoned Russian Ambassador Andrei Kelin to express “deep concern” over reports of the death of a British aid worker.
“I am shocked to hear reports of the death of British aid worker Paul Urey while in the custody of a Russian proxy in Ukraine. Russia must bear the full responsibility for this,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement.
An official in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic announced Urey’s death earlier in the day.
Russia to block sale of foreign banks’ Russian subsidiaries: Ifax cites finance ministry
Russia will block the sale of foreign banks’ Russian subsidiaries while Russian banks abroad cannot function normally, the Interfax news agency has cited Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev as saying.
Raiffeisen, UniCredit and Citi are the biggest three units of Western banks in Russia. All three have been exploring options over the sale of their Russian units.
US to resume International Space Station flights with Russia
The US has said it would resume flights to the International Space Station with Russia, despite its attempts to isolate Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.
“To ensure continued safe operations of the International Space Station, protect the lives of astronauts and ensure continuous US presence in space, NASA will resume integrated crews on US crew spacecraft and the Russian Soyuz,” US space agency NASA said in a statement.
Ukraine hurrying to agree grain deal next week: Official source
Ukraine is hurrying to clinch a deal with Russia, Turkey and the United Nations next week to export grain via its Black Sea ports, a senior Ukrainian official source has said.
Asked if it was realistic for the deal to be signed next week, the source said, “We really hope so. We’re hurrying as fast as we can.” The source asked not to be identified.
Ukraine foreign fighter group says Urey was aid worker
Captured British citizen Paul Urey, who died while while he was in detention by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, was an aid worker, a group backing Kyiv has told the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
“We are saddened by the news of Mr Urey’s death … He did not fight in Ukraine. He was an employee of a humanitarian organisation,” the press service of the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine said after the separatists described Urey as a professional soldier.
EU executive proposes new gold import ban on Russia: Statement
The European Union’s executive, the European Commission, has formally proposed new sanctions on Russia, including a new import ban on Russian gold.
EU governments must still sign off on the measures, expected as early as next week.
Russia sanctions 384 Japanese legislators
Russia has imposed sanctions against 384 members of Japan’s parliament, the foreign ministry has said in a statement.
Moscow said the measures were taken against those who had “taken an unfriendly, anti-Russian position”.
Tokyo has hit Russia with harsh sanctions, joining the G7 in freezing the central bank’s assets, since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24.
Russian space chief Rogozin relieved of his duties: Kremlin
Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed the head of the country’s space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, a firebrand nationalist politician and one of the most ardent supporters of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.
A decree released by the Kremlin ordered Rogozin’s dismissal “from the post of general director of the Roscosmos state space corporation,” replacing him with Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov.
It was not immediately clear if 58-year-old Rogozin, who in May had said it would take Russia only half an hour to “destroy” NATO countries in a nuclear war, will be offered a new job.
Russia not interested in nationalising foreign enterprises: Minister
Moscow is not interested in nationalising foreign-owned enterprises operating in Russia, Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov has said, offering limited reassurance to Western businesses.
“We are not interested in the nationalisation of enterprises or their removal, God forbid,” Manturov told parliament’s lower house, the State Duma.
But he thanked deputies for giving initial approval in May to a bill allowing the state to seize control of an enterprise in the event of a “sudden departure” by a foreign partner in order to save jobs and pay wages and taxes.
“This is also a message for our foreign partners to think about how and what decisions they will take for themselves. We want a comfortable, mutually beneficial working relationship,” Manturov said.
Polish official criticises EU plan to curb gas use amid energy crisis
A top Polish official in charge of energy security has said the European Commission’s plans to encourage member states to cut gas consumption would breach national sovereignty,
“These are actions that go beyond the EU treaties,” Piotr Naimski, Poland’s top official in charge of energy security, told TV Republika in an interview.
The EU plan, due to be published next week, is expected to incentivise industries to use less gas in preparation for possible further cuts to Russian supplies.
Belarus calls Moody’s comments on eurobonds default ‘provocative’
Belarus’s finance ministry has said that a statement from rating agency Moody’s saying Minsk had defaulted on its sovereign debt was “provocative” and aimed at creating an artificial shock over its eurobonds.
“The Belarusian side has made and will make every effort and will do everything possible to ensure that these rights of the holders of Eurobonds, who trust the Republic of Belarus, are exercised on an alternative basis,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
Moody’s said on Thursday that Belarus’s move to pay Belarusian roubles on its dollar-denominated bonds constituted a default.
Russia says document on resumption of Ukraine grain exports nearly ready
The Russian defence ministry has said its proposals to bring about a resumption of Ukrainian grain exports were “largely supported” during talks this week in Istanbul and that an agreement was close.
The ministry said that work on what it calls the “Black Sea Initiative” will be finalised soon.
Turkey had said a four-way deal with Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations would be signed next week.
Producers of fries refusing to supply to Russia, McDonald’s successor says
The head of the company now running the former McDonald’s chain of restaurants in Russia has told RBC TV that producers of French fries are refusing to supply the country, amid difficulties in increasing domestic processing.
Restaurants began opening under the new name Vkusno i tochka, or “Tasty and that’s it” after McDonald’s quit Russia. “What has happened now is that due to well-known events many foreign companies, I would even say all major producers of fries, have refused to deliver this product to Russia,” CEO Oleg Paroev told RBC TV, a business channel, late on Thursday.
Paroev said that factories in both “friendly” and “unfriendly” countries belong to five or six major companies headquartered in unfriendly nations, which have therefore refused to supply to Russia.
Saudi Arabia doubles Russian fuel oil imports for power generation
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has more than doubled the amount of Russian fuel oil it imported in the second quarter to feed power stations, amid international sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has been selling fuel at discounted prices after a backlash over its “special military operation” left it with fewer buyers.
The increased sales of fuel oil, which Riyadh uses to meet summer cooling demand and free up its own crude for export, pose a challenge to US President Joe Biden as his administration seeks to isolate Russia and cut its energy export revenues.
Will Western pressure trigger Russia’s ‘merger’ with Belarus?
Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin made it sound as though Western nations were to thank for making his decades-old dream to merge Russia with neighbouring Belarus come true.
“Unprecedented political and sanctions pressure from the so-called collective West pushes us to speed up the merging processes,” Vladimir Putin said on July 1 at a forum in the western Belarusian city of Grodno, a stone’s throw away from the European Union’s border.
Read more here.
Russia says building struck in Ukraine’s Vinnytsia was military target
Russia’s defence ministry has said Thursday’s cruise missile strike on Vinnytsia was directed at a building where top officials from Ukraine’s armed forces were meeting foreign arms suppliers.
“On July 14, Kalibr [cruise] missiles were launched at the House of Officers in Vinnytsia,” Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily update.
“The facility was hosting a conference of the Ukrainian Armed Forces command with representatives of foreign arms suppliers … The attack resulted in the elimination of the participants.”
Ukraine has denied any military target was hit, saying the attack killed at least 23 people and struck a cultural centre used by retired veterans.