Video summary of the war Ukraine - Russia: July 20 15:36
(CNN Spanish) --
As Russian troops try to break through Ukrainian defenses and seek to resume their offensive toward the eastern city of Sloviansk, the White House has warned that Russia is drawing up plans to annex more parts of Ukraine, repeating a playbook it used in the annexation of Crimea in 2014 to seize the territory.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Iran on his first international trip beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union since he launched his invasion last February.
Watch the main news of the Russian war in Ukraine for this Wednesday, July 20, 2022.
Russia plans to follow up its Crimea playbook with annexation attempts in Ukraine, White House says
Russia is drawing up plans to annex more parts of Ukraine, repeating a playbook it used in the 2014 annexation of Crimea to seize the territory, the White House said on Tuesday.
The steps Russia is planning could include "fake" referendums, installing illegitimate officials by proxy, establishing the Russian ruble as the official currency and forcing Ukrainian citizens to apply for Russian citizenship, said John Kirby, the communications coordinator at the National Security Council.
Putin arrives in Iran on his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since his invasion of Ukraine
Kirby warned that the United States would punish Russia with additional sanctions for its attempts to annex more Ukrainian territory, and said the White House would unveil additional security assistance to Ukraine later this week.
She cited US intelligence information that had been downgraded and approved for public release to make the claims about Russia's plans.
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"Russia is starting to roll out a version of what you might call an annexation playbook, very similar to what we saw in 2014," Kirby told reporters at the White House.
She stated that the potential referendums could take place soon.
"The Kremlin has not revealed the timetable for the referendums, but Russian proxies in these territories say they will take place later this year, possibly in conjunction with the Russian regional elections in September," Kirby said, listing the Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. , along with Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, as likely targets of Russia's annexation plans.
The US and its Western allies have tried to turn the situation around in Ukraine, as Russia is gaining more and more ground in the western part of the country.
Biden has approved billions in arms shipments and other security aid and has applied several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
Environment suffers consequences of the Russian invasion 3:42
CNN Exclusive: Sacked Ukrainian Prosecutor General Denies Collaborators Worked in Her Office
Ukraine's former Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, stated that she accepts President Volodymyr Zelensky's decision to remove her, but denies that there were collaborators in her office.
"Here in my office there can be no collaborators at all, because the collaboration is only from people who worked in occupied territory. Here it is not occupied territory," Venediktova said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Nic Robertson in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He said that one of his office's top priorities was working on the issues of betrayal of the state and collaborators, and that his office had been very open about it.
Ukraine's former Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova speaks to CNN on Tuesday.
(CNN)
When Venediktova was asked what the real justification for her dismissal was, she said: "You know that my professorship is politics and I have been the 16th Ukrainian prosecutor for 30 years. It is realpolitik in Ukraine. This is my answer."
Pressed on the real reasons why Zelensky had decided to remove her, Venediktova made it clear that she does not want to debate it in public because Russia would exploit it.
"The president, now, is his chief of ranks. He understands his strategy and his tactics. And he makes his decision with his point of view," she said Venediktova.
Putin visits Iran on his first trip outside the former Soviet Union since his invasion of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Iran on Tuesday for his first international trip beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union since he launched his invasion of Ukraine, effectively severing ties with the West.
Putin met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Tehran and was scheduled to hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He also met Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Tuesday, according to the Iranian state news agency IRNA.
"I am very happy to be on hospitable Iranian soil... We can boast record numbers in terms of trade growth," Putin said in a bilateral meeting with Raisi.
"We are strengthening our international security cooperation, contributing significantly to the solution of the Syrian conflict."
US kills ISIS leader in Syria in drone strike, Central Command says
Raisi also praised the "important" commitment to security cooperation between the two countries.
"There has been a good experience of the two countries in the fight against terrorism, which I think has brought security to the region," he said.
Russia's relationship with Iran has put Western officials on alert as it prepares to step up ground offensives in eastern Ukraine following its troops' seizure of the Luhansk region.
Newly declassified US intelligence services indicate that Iran is expected to supply Russia with “hundreds” of drones, including weapons-capable drones, for use in the Ukraine war, and that Iran is preparing to begin training forces. instructions on how to operate them as soon as the end of July, according to White House officials.
What are the main weapons sent by the United States to Ukraine in the midst of the war with Russia
"The fact that Russia is turning to Iran for help says a lot about the degree to which both nations, by their actions in different parts of the world, have been increasingly isolated by the international community," he told CNN last week. the strategic communications coordinator of the National Security Council, John Kirby.
Putin's trip to Iran will also see him meet face-to-face with Erdogan, the leader of NATO member Turkey, and comes after he repeated his threat to block Sweden and Finland from joining the alliance, after have conditionally agreed to green-light his candidacy in June.
Syria cuts diplomatic ties with Ukraine
Syrians wave the Russian flag and a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally of support for Russia in the Syrian capital Damascus on March 25.
(Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images)
Syria broke diplomatic relations with Ukraine, the country's government reported on Wednesday.
The news follows Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky's announcement in June that his government was cutting diplomatic ties with Syria.
"The Syrian Arab Republic has decided to sever diplomatic relations with Ukraine in accordance with the principle of reciprocity and in response to the decision of the Ukrainian government," state news agency SANA reported, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official. and Expatriates.
Zelensky announced the severing of diplomatic ties with the government of President Bashar al-Assad after Damascus recognized the independence of the two breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, supported by Russia, located in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. .
Syria was the first country after its close ally Russia to recognize the independence of the breakaway regions and declare its intention to establish diplomatic relations with them last month.
The Syrian government has been supported by Russia for more than a decade, in which Moscow has shielded the country in the Security Council and showered it with weapons, personnel and operational support.
Russia began a military operation in Syria to prop up the Assad regime six years before its invasion of Ukraine.
In 2018, the Assad government recognized two other Russian-backed breakaway republics, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which are internationally recognized as part of Georgia.
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