Because the battle enters its 853rd day, these are the primary developments.
Right here is the state of affairs on Thursday, June 27, 2024.
Combating
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troopers defending the jap entrance line area of Donetsk and launched Brigadier-Normal Andriy Hnatov, the brand new joint forces commander. Hnatov’s foremost duties embrace “preserving as many fighters’ lives as potential” whereas pushing again invading Russian forces, Zelenskyy stated in a video. The clip was recorded in entrance of the signal for Pokrovsk, the place 5 folks have been killed and dozens injured in Russian assaults earlier this week.
- 5 Lithuanians have been injured when their car got here underneath hearth whereas they have been delivering assist to troops in Pokrovsk, officers and staff members stated. “All 5 of us are in hospital,” Sigitas Maliauskas, one of many Lithuanians informed the AFP information company by way of Fb. One of many volunteers had a leg amputated, a colleague stated.
- Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the northeastern Kharkiv area, stated the state of affairs within the border city of Vovchansk was “unstable” amid intense combating with invading Russian forces. He stated a number of dozen Russian troopers have been blocked inside an industrial facility within the city, and that Moscow was additionally utilizing plane to assault Vovchansk, which is about 5km (three miles) from the border.
- A Russian missile assault struck Ukraine’s southern metropolis of Odesa, damaging an administrative constructing, regional governor Oleh Kiper stated. No casualties have been reported.
Politics and diplomacy
- Wall Avenue Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich went on trial behind closed doorways in Russia on fees of espionage. Gershkovich, a US nationwide, appeared in a glass-walled dock along with his head shaved. He and the Journal have strenuously denied the allegations. The USA has designated the reporter as “wrongfully detained”. The following listening to will happen on August 13.
- Russia stated it had ordered Carola Schneider, the chief Moscow correspondent for Austrian broadcaster ORF, to depart the nation in what it stated was a “pressured retaliatory transfer” after Vienna’s resolution to revoke the accreditation of state information company TASS’s chief correspondent in Austria.
- The European Union introduced sanctions towards Belarus “to shut the largest loophole of our sanctions regime” towards Russia, the EU presidency stated in a press release. The bloc this week adopted its 14th bundle of sanctions towards Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
- The US Justice Division stated it charged 22-year-old Russian Amin Timovich Stigal with conspiring to hack and destroy pc programs and information in Ukraine and allied international locations, together with the US, and introduced a $10m reward for info on his whereabouts.
- NATO chosen Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte because the organisation’s subsequent secretary-general taking up from Jens Stoltenberg. Rutte, who’s a staunch supporter of Ukraine, will begin his new position on October 1.
- Russian pranksters who use the aliases “Vovan and Lexus”, launched footage of a video name with British Overseas Secretary David Cameron after tricking him into pondering he was chatting with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. The international ministry didn’t touch upon the video’s authenticity however acknowledged earlier this month that the decision had taken place. “Vovan and Lexus” are well-known inside Russia for having duped a string of Western politicians through the years, together with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Weapons
- The EU is predicted to signal a safety settlement with President Zelenskyy on Thursday. The settlement will lay out the EU’s dedication to assist Ukraine in 9 areas of safety and defence coverage – together with arms deliveries, navy coaching, defence trade cooperation and demining – in accordance with a draft seen by the Reuters information company.
