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Soldiers fighting for Russia in the Luhansk region of Ukraine (June 24)
Photo:
IMAGO/Viktor Antonyuk / IMAGO/SNA
What has happened in the past few hours
At least ten people were killed in
a Russian
rocket attack on an apartment building
in the southern Ukrainian region of
Odessa , according to Ukrainian sources.
The missile was fired from a Russian military aircraft over the Black Sea, said Odessa regional administration spokesman Serhiy Brachuk.
A residential building with nine floors was hit.
A fire broke out after the attack.
The rescue workers had initially spoken of six dead and seven injured.
Three children are among the injured.
"The number of dead in the rocket attack on the residential building has risen to ten," Bratschuk later explained.
The information could not be independently verified.
The fighting in the east of the country also continues.
In the
Luhansk
region , the pro-government troops in
Lysychansk say
they are in acute danger of being surrounded.
The general staff in Kyiv announced that the refinery, located almost seven kilometers west of the city, was fought over.
The Russian troops in the south had advanced north.
Fighting is also already going on on the western and southern city limits.
In the Russian media, the refinery has already been presented as completely conquered.
Lysychansk is the last major place in Luhansk under Ukrainian control.
That says Kyiv
Russian withdrawal from Snake Island puts Ukraine
in a better position , according to
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy .
"Snake Island is a strategic point, and that significantly changes the situation in the Black Sea," he said in his video speech on Friday night.
This significantly restricts the freedom of action of the Russian military, even if this does not guarantee security.
Russia occupied Snake Island shortly after the February 24 attack on Ukraine.
The fact that the few Ukrainian soldiers in front of it obscenely recommended that the Russian cruiser Moskva, which later sunk, go to hell made the small island famous - and boosted the morale of the Ukrainians.
The reconquest of the island is also a symbolic success for them.
Zelenskyy said that in this way the Russian troops would be pushed out of the entire Ukrainian territory.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that it was leaving the island as a "sign of good will".
The Ukrainian military replied that a series of artillery and air strikes drove the occupiers away.
Zelenskyi also said Ukraine had started transmitting electricity to Romania.
This is the start of a process that could help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian fuel.
Ukraine had synchronized its energy grid with the Association of European Transmission System Operators since mid-March.
The
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry
has distanced itself from statements made by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk.
In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized close cooperation with Poland.
The opinion that Melnyk expressed in an interview with a German journalist "is his own and does not reflect the position of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry," it said.
The background to this are statements by Melnyk to the journalist Thilo Jung about the Ukrainian nationalist and partisan leader Stepan Bandera.
You can read more about this here.
International Reactions
Chancellor Olaf Scholz
believes it is possible that Russian President Vladimir Putin can continue the war against Ukraine for a very long time.
Putin made the decision to wage this war a year before it started or even earlier, the Chancellor said in an interview with the US TV station CBS: "And so he will be able to fight the war for a really long time continue.« The interview was recorded on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Madrid.
When asked about the effectiveness of Western sanctions against Russia, Scholz said that Putin "wouldn't really admit it".
But: "You get an idea that he's really hurt and that [Putin] understands the profound impact of our sanctions on his economy."
The
US
has frozen the billions in assets of a Russian oligarch.
American investigators have assigned and confiscated the Delaware-based company Heritage Trust to the Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov, the Treasury Department said on Thursday.
The company is worth more than a billion dollars.
Heritage Trust was founded in 2017 and, according to the Treasury Department, funneled money into the US through shell companies and low-profile foundations set up in Europe.
Kerimov has been on US sanctions lists since 2018 over money laundering allegations and his ties to the Russian government.
Just a few weeks ago, the United States confiscated a EUR 300 million yacht that is said to belong to Kerimov.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen announced that sanctions against Russia would be enforced "even as Russian elites hide behind proxies and complex legal arrangements."
What is still happening today
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock meets her Slovenian counterpart Tanja Fajon.
The conversation is said to be about the war in Ukraine, among other things.
The Czech Republic is taking over the rotating presidency of the European Union today for the second time since the country joined the EU in 2004.
The focus is on the Russian war of aggression.
aar/dpa/Reuters