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Russia-Ukraine War: That happened on Thursday night (June 23)

2022-06-23T03:12:14.504Z


Ukrainian troops are increasingly getting into trouble in Luhansk. The US government wants to make proposals to support Kiev at the G7 summit. And: Is there movement in the grain blockade? The overview.


Enlarge image

Ukrainian soldier in Seyerodonetsk

Photo: OLEKSANDR RATUSHNIAK / EPA

What has happened in the past few hours

The Ukrainian troops are in an increasingly difficult situation in the

Luhansk

region : According to the Russian news agency TASS, Russia is about to capture the village of Vovchoyarivka, which is about twelve kilometers southwest of

Lysychansk

.

In the report, Tass cites people familiar with the matter who are close to the troops of the Luhansk separatist region.

The village is near a main road leading from Lysychansk to the south-west town of Bakhmut.

The information could not be independently verified.

The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hayday, said that Russian forces are continuing to concentrate reserves in the twin city of

Sieverodonetsk

across the river to encircle Ukrainian troops.

He dismisses Russian claims that Russian forces already control the city.

"The fighting continues," he said on Ukrainian television.

"Russian forces are not in full control."

In its most recent analysis, the "Institute for the Study of War" reported on "successful advances" by the Russian armed forces on June 21 into settlements south-east of Sievjerodonetsk.

In the coming days they may be able to

"

threaten Lysychansk."

According to its own statements, Ukraine now only controls the territory of the Azot chemical plant in Sievjerodonetsk.

With a capture of the area and the two cities, Russia would control the entire Donbass sub-region of Luhansk.

Meanwhile, negotiations to break the Russian

grain blockade

in Ukraine appear to be making progress.

UN Security Council circles confirmed to the dpa news agency that the conflicting parties could meet with

UN Secretary-General António Guterres

in Turkey – possibly as early as next week.

The talks are at a point where the UN chief would negotiate directly with the Russians and Ukrainians to secure a deal.

However, diplomats in New York warned against too much optimism: So far there has been no agreement on the export of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea.

The mistrust between Moscow and Kyiv is still very high and there are still a number of hurdles in the negotiations.

Another open question is whether Russia is sincere about its involvement in the talks, a Western diplomat said.

The United Nations only officially announced that the negotiations were going on.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

has arrived in

Iran

for a visit .

In the capital, Tehran, he met

President Ebrahim Raisi

on Wednesday , the state news agency IRNA reported.

According to official information, the talks are about bilateral relations.

Russia is also involved in negotiations to revive the 2015 international nuclear deal aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

The effort has been stuck for many months.

Lavrov is scheduled to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Hussein Amirabdollahian in Tehran on Thursday.

The war against Ukraine should also be a topic.

Iran demands an end to the conflict but supports Russia.

Moscow says so

Russia accuses the

United

States

of blocking a flight carrying

expelled Russian diplomats.

The Russian plane was supposed to fly out diplomats who were instructed by the US government to leave the United States by the end of the month, the State Department in Moscow said.

However, Washington did not allow this.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova therefore threatened unspecified

countermeasures on Wednesday.

The US State Department did not comment in detail.

However, it complained that Russia did not present the situation correctly.

International Reactions

According to the White House, the USA wants to increase the

pressure

on

Russia at the

G7

summit

in Bavaria .

A senior US government official said the United States would make "a number of concrete proposals" at the meeting that begins this Sunday.

This should also demonstrate the common support for Ukraine.

He did not give details of the measures.

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala

has accused Russia of waging an

economic war against the West

in addition to the war against Ukraine .

The aim is to weaken and destabilize the democratic states, said the liberal-conservative politician in a television speech on Wednesday evening.

There is a real danger that Russia could turn off the gas supply in the coming weeks or months.

Fiala announced a five-year plan to significantly reduce his country's dependence on Russian gas and oil.

He also announced government relief measures against rising energy costs.

Estonia

has demanded more

military aid

to Ukraine in the war against Russia from the larger EU states .

Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday that her country had "already done a lot for the people of Ukraine and can't really do much more".

However, she believes "there are still opportunities to help them, from the larger member states".

Kallas also advocated officially declaring Ukraine a candidate for EU membership.

"We must give hope to Ukraine," she said.

Economic Reactions

According to the technology company

Microsoft ,

Russian hackers

are attacking

Ukraine's western allies on a large scale.

The company warned that they were targeting government computers in NATO countries in particular.

Target number one is the United States, but overall Microsoft's experts have identified attacks by Russian hackers on

128 organizations

in

42 countries

outside Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, they have succeeded in penetrating the attacked networks in 29 percent of the attacks, it said.

At least every fourth successful attack has demonstrably siphoned off data.

Russia attacked Ukraine's IT infrastructure with both

cyber attacks

and

missiles

.

However, thanks to protective measures, the systems have proven to be largely resilient.

What is happening today

  • At the

    EU summit

    , which

    begins in

    Brussels , the Ukraine war is a central topic.

    The 27 EU heads of state and government want to discuss, among other things, the

    EU candidate status

    for Ukraine and Moldova.

  • The

    NRW

    District

    Council Conference

    takes place in Berlin.

    It also deals with the consequences of the Ukraine war.

    The President of the Bundestag

    Bärbel Bas

    (SPD), Federal Finance Minister

    Christian Lindner

    (FDP), Federal Minister of the Interior

    Cem Özdemir

    (Greens) as well as the chairmen of the SPD and Greens parliamentary groups in the Bundestag, Rolf Mützenich and Britta Haßelmann, will be there.

  • A press conference on the

    Potsdam Conference on National Cyber ​​Security

    at the Hasso Plattner Institute has been announced for 10:30 a.m.

    The topic is cyber attacks on authorities, organizations and companies, also against the background of the Russian war of aggression.

bbr/dpa/Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-06-23

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