Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:
– Russia has ‘liberated’ residential areas of Severodonetsk –
Fighting continues for Severodonetsk, a key city in Ukraine’s east, which is the focus of a major Russian offensive.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu says his country’s troops have “fully liberated” the city’s residential areas but that Ukrainian forces still hold the industrial zone and surrounding settlements.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says government forces are “holding out” against the invaders, but “there are more of them and they are stronger”.
– Hundreds held prisoner in occupied south: Kyiv –
Ukraine says some 600 people are being held prisoner for resisting Russian rule in the occupied southern Ukrainian region of Kherson and claims they are being tortured.
“According to our information, some 600 people are … being held in specially converted basements in the region of Kherson,” said Tamila Tasheva, the Ukraine presidency’s permanent representative in Crimea, the peninsula south of Kherson which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Tasheva said the bulk of those being held were “journalists and militants” who organised “pro-Ukrainian gatherings” in the city of Kherson and surrounding region.
Kherson was the first major city to fall to Russian forces in early March and videos have emerged of residents staging defiant protests.
– Russia, Turkey discuss stalled grain exports –
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov begins a two-day visit to Turkey for talks on unblocking grain exports from Ukraine, which have been stalled by the war.
Turkey has offered its services to escort shipments out of Ukrainian ports that are blockaded by Russian forces.
The New York Times reported Monday that a number of freight vessels had set sail from Russian-controlled Ukrainian ports for Africa with what US officials have described as “stolen Ukrainian grain”.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the reports that Russia has been stealing Ukrainian grain are “credible”.
– Ukraine opposes visit to occupied atomic plant –
Ukraine says it opposes any visit by Rafael Grossi, head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog to its nuclear plant at Zaporizhzhia while it is under Russian occupation.
Russian forces occupied Europe’s biggest atomic power plant in the early weeks of the war.
“The visit to the plant will only become possible when Ukraine takes back control of the site,” Energoatom, Ukraine’s nuclear agency, writes on Telegram.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Grossi has been arguing the need for an inspection to ensure the plant’s safety.
– Russia votes to quit Europe rights court –
Russian lawmakers pass legislation that finalises Moscow’s exit from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Russia was expelled from the body that founded the court in March for invading Ukraine.
Campaigners have warned that the fact that the court’s rulings will no longer apply to Russia could embolden Moscow to clamp down even harder on civil rights.
– Russian superyacht handed to US –
A Fiji court hands over a superyacht linked by the US to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.
The $300-million Amadea, linked by the US to billionaire politician Suleiman Kerimov was impounded in Fiji in April at Washington’s request.
On Tuesday, Fiji’s Supreme Court dismissed a case taken by the boat’s registered owners against its seizure, meaning the yacht, which comes with a helipad, pool, jacuzzi and “winter garden”, can now leave Fiji for the US.
– Another Russian general killed –
Pro-Kremlin separatists in Ukraine confirm the death of another Russian general in the war in Ukraine.
Separatist leader Denis Pushilin sends his “sincere condolences to the family and friends” of Major General Roman Kutuzov “who showed by example how to serve the fatherland”.
Since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, Ukraine’s forces claimed to have killed around a dozen generals but Russian media have confirmed only a few deaths among the top brass.
– World Bank warns of ‘stagflation’ –
The global economy risks falling into a harmful period of 1970s-style “stagflation,” sparked chiefly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the World Bank warns as it slashes its annual growth forecast.
The toxic combination of weak growth and rising prices could trigger widespread suffering in dozens of poorer countries still struggling to recover from the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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