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Debris after attack in Kharkiv (photo from 08/03/2022)
Photo Credit: IMAGO/Daniel Carde / IMAGO/ZUMA Wire
What has happened in the past few hours
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strongly denied Amnesty International allegations.
The human rights group is trying to "shift the responsibility from the attacker to the victim," he says during his video address on Friday night.
Anyone who makes such a connection "has to admit that they are helping terrorists," said Zelenskyj.
In a report, Amnesty International accused the Ukrainian army of often operating out of homes, schools or hospitals, thereby provoking Russian fire on these civilian objects.
This is a violation of international humanitarian law.
However, the Ukrainian violations "in no way justify the many indiscriminate strikes by the Russian military with civilian casualties" that Amnesty has documented in recent months.
In response to the report, Russia's Defense Ministry in Moscow on Thursday identified alleged examples of Ukrainian troops holed up in homes or schools.
Military situation – says Kyiv
According to President Zelensky, in the face of the Russian offensive, Ukraine is forced to give up some areas in the east of the country.
Ukrainian General Oleksiy Gromov told the press that Russian forces could launch an offensive in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson.
Russia has massed troops in the area, he says.
Ukraine improved its tactical position around the eastern city of Sloviansk and recaptured two villages.
However, the Russian troops tried to capture the city of Avdiivka and the village of Pisky to the east.
The Ukrainian soldiers were forced to fall back to defending the outskirts of Avdiivkaz.
According to the authorities, the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkov was shelled by Russian artillery on Thursday evening.
Three parts of the city were the target of the attacks, Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram news channel.
According to initial findings, three people were injured.
"I ask everyone to stay in shelters and be as careful as possible!" he wrote.
In the Luhansk region occupied by Russian troops, Ukrainian partisans allegedly fired on and injured two collaborators in a car.
The Ukrainian governor of the region, Serhiy Hajday, wrote on Thursday that it was the mayor of the city of Bilovodsk and his deputy.
Financial aid to Kyiv
In his video speech, Zelenskyj also complained about the delayed payment of billions in EU financial aid.
This "artificial delay" is either a crime or a mistake, said the head of state.
Every day he reminds EU politicians that Ukrainian pensioners, refugees, teachers and others must not be held hostage by "indecisiveness or bureaucracy".
"I don't want to say which European country is braking now," he said.
He still assumes that there is a mistake that can be corrected.
Two days ago, the deputy chief of the Ukrainian presidential office, Ihor Zhovkwa, blamed Germany for the slow payment.
Only one billion out of nine billion in macro-financial aid from the EU has been paid out.
The Federal Ministry of Finance had rejected this accusation.
According to the EU Commission, guarantees from member states may be necessary for the outstanding amount because it is not possible to secure it via the EU budget.
Visit for Putin
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan travels to Russia on Friday for talks with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.
Putin receives Erdoğan in Sochi on the Black Sea.
It is the second meeting between the two heads of state since Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine began in February.
Erdoğan has repeatedly offered to mediate between Moscow and Kyiv.
Erdoğan and Putin last met in Tehran in mid-July.
Three days later Moscow, Kyiv, Ankara and the UN signed an agreement to allow Ukrainian grain exports across the Black Sea again.
Last Monday, the first ship loaded with corn left the port of Odessa.
Other ships are to follow.
Because of the war, all Ukraine's grain exports from its Black Sea ports have been blocked in recent months.
Sanctions against ex-head of state
EU member states have imposed sanctions on Ukraine's former pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr.
Among other things, it is about an EU visa ban, and possible assets in the EU are also being frozen.
The European Council said on Thursday that the 72-year-old Yanukovych was still playing a “role in undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and the stability and security of the state”.
With the same justification, the EU countries also imposed sanctions on the 49-year-old son of the former head of state.
They accuse Oleksandr Yanukovych of "transactions with the separatist groups in the Ukrainian Donbass region."
He is said to have become wealthy through connections to his father's former retainers, owning energy companies and real estate in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.
jul/dpa/Reuters/afp