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Tractor next to destroyed Russian army equipment near Kyiv (April 15)
Photo: Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto / Getty Images
What has happened in the past few hours
Two
US citizens
who fought on the side of Ukraine have been
missing
for a week .
Both last had contact with their families on June 8 and did not return from a deployment in the
Kharkiv
region .
Relatives share that.
Reports that the two men were taken prisoner by
Russia
have
not
yet been confirmed, the US State Department said.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(You'll find more about it here.)
If held in Russian captivity, they would be the first confirmed US citizens taken as prisoners of war in the conflict.
This could have significant diplomatic consequences.
Last week, two Britons and a Moroccan who had fought on the side of Ukraine were captured and sentenced to death by a court in the pro-Russian separatist region of Donetsk.
That says Kyiv
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked
the
US
for
continuing to pledge
military aid
to his country
.
He was grateful for the new aid package announced by US President
Joe Biden
worth
one billion dollars
(960 million euros), the politician said in a video speech on Wednesday evening after a phone call with the US President.
The aid is "particularly important for our defense in the Donbass".
He is also grateful to the United States for their "
leading role
in mobilizing aid from all partners," Zelensky said.
According to the Ukrainian President, he also spoke to Biden about the “tactical situation on the battlefield” and “how we can accelerate our victory”.
Fierce fighting has been going on in eastern Ukraine's Donbass for weeks.
Zelenskyi said he "fights every day for Ukraine to have the necessary weapons and equipment" to defend itself against Russian attacks.
Washington and its allies pledged additional arms supplies to Kyiv on Wednesday.
The new aid package announced by Biden brings the total value of arms deliveries Washington has pledged to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion to a total of $5.6 billion.
Overall, Zelenskyy sees
progress
in
international support
for his country.
In his evening video for Wednesday, he listed all of the international contacts for the day: phone calls with Biden and
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
, a meeting with
Albanian
and
Montenegrin
leaders Edi Rama and Dritan Abazović.
Zelenskyy also
accepted invitations
to the
G7
and
NATO
summits at the end of June.
He wrote that on Twitter.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz
(SPD) invited him to
the group of seven leading Western industrial nations.
The invitation to NATO came from Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
Selenskyj did not say whether he would leave his capital Kyiv or how to connect to other conferences via video link.
He also left this point open in his evening video address.
He spoke literally of "appearances" at the summit meetings.
The G7 meeting is to take place from June 26th to 28th for the second time after 2015 in the alpine luxury hotel Schloss Elmau in Bavaria.
In addition to the USA and Germany, the G7 also includes Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy and Canada, and the EU is also represented at all meetings.
Moscow says so
Russia
has
accused Ukraine of
preventing the
evacuation
of civilians from a chemical plant in the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of
Sieverodonetsk
.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow said Russia had created a corridor to bring civilians from the Azot factory to safety.
However, the “Kiev authorities” “cynically caused the humanitarian operation to fail”.
On Tuesday, Russia announced a humanitarian corridor that would be open for twelve hours.
According to Russian information, civilians entrenched in the Azot plant were to be given the opportunity to leave Sievjerodonetsk in the direction of the Luhansk region controlled by pro-Russian separatists.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian forces
broke the ceasefire "several times"
and abused the humanitarian operation to move their own soldiers to more favorable positions.
The claims could not be independently verified.
According to Ukrainian sources,
hundreds of civilians
are currently seeking shelter at the Azot chemical plant.
The factory is constantly being bombed.
During its siege of Sieverodonetsk, Russia had repeatedly announced ceasefires in order to set up evacuation corridors for civilians.
However, the ceasefires were broken several times, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of breaching their word.
humanitarian situation
The
UN
Refugee
Agency (
UNHCR) presented its
world refugee
report last night.
According to the paper, more than
100 million people are fleeing for the
first time, more than at any time since World War II.
The UNHCR spoke of a "dramatic milestone" that was not least achieved by the Russian war of aggression against
Ukraine
.
The expulsion from Ukraine is the fastest growing such crisis since UNHCR was founded in 1951. Within weeks, Ukrainians had become the second largest refugee group in the world, after Syrians.
So far, 4.9 million people have
fled
Ukraine and
almost seven million from Syria.
(Read more about the report here.)
International Reactions
Turkey
has agreed to organize a
four
-party summit on grain exports
from
Ukraine
.
"If Russia gives a positive answer, there will be a four-party summit in Istanbul," said Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu on Wednesday.
Ukraine and the United Nations should also be involved in the negotiations.
Çavuşoğlu referred to a UN plan to create
safe corridors in the Black Sea
to allow grain exports from Ukraine.
According to Çavuşoğlu, demining in the Black Sea would not be necessary for the establishment of such corridors.
UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said the United Nations was working closely with the Turkish authorities on the issue.
"I think the role of the Turkish military will play a crucial role in this context," he added.
The
US
has
criticized
China
for
announcing
increased
cooperation
with
Russia
.
"China claims to be neutral, but its behavior makes it clear that it still invests in close ties with Russia," a US State Department spokesman said on Wednesday.
“Nations that side with (Russian President)
Vladimir Putin
will inevitably find themselves on the wrong side of history.”
Putin spoke to Chinese President
Xi Jinping
on Wednesday .
According to the Kremlin, they agreed to step up their cooperation in the face of "unlawful sanctions from the West."
According to Chinese state media, Xi promised Putin support on questions of Russia's "sovereignty and security".
It was the second phone call between the two heads of state since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
China has so far refused to condemn Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
economic consequences
The Russian
energy group Gazprom
is again reducing the
gas delivery volumes
through the
Baltic Sea pipeline
Nord Stream 1 to Germany.
Gazprom had announced that from Thursday night only a maximum of 67 million cubic meters would be pumped through the pipeline every day.
The state-owned company once again justified the step with delays in repair work.
The Federal Network Agency was concerned and called Moscow's actions "technically unjustifiable".
Gazprom had already announced on Tuesday that it would reduce the previously planned daily volume by around 40 percent from 167 million to 100 million cubic meters of gas per day and pointed to delays in the repair of gas compressors.
According to calculations by Kiev calculations,
Ukraine
's
agriculture
has suffered
damage of 4.3 billion US dollars
(4.1 billion euros) as a result of the Russian war of aggression.
According to a report by researchers commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture in Kyiv, large areas have been damaged or polluted by mines.
So a
harvest
worth 1.43 billion US dollars could not be brought in.
The cost of the necessary survey and mine clearance has been estimated at US$436 million.
In addition,
agricultural technology
was destroyed for 926 million US dollars.
Irrigation systems
worth US$ 225 million were damaged in
the Russian-occupied areas of southern Ukraine .
The damage to
grain silos
was estimated at 272 million euros.
In addition, Russia had transported
grain
worth 613 million US dollars from the occupied territories.
what is happening today
From 9:30 a.m., the
defense ministers
of the
30 NATO countries
will discuss outstanding issues in connection with the major summit meeting in Madrid at the end of June.
At this meeting, the heads of state and government are to decide how the alliance will react to the threats posed by Russia's war policy in the medium and long term.
In addition, it is planned, among other things, to agree on an increase in community expenditure
jok/Reuters/dpa