Russia keeps shooting missles into civilian area’s creating milliomns of homeless Ukrainian ‘s….
The first shipment of Ukraine grain reaches Turkey…..
It appears that Ukraine military action has forced the Russians to consolidate troops in the South of the Ukraine away from the Eastern front….
Authorities are bracing for more devastation, and this week they began coordinating mandatory civilian evacuations from the eastern region of Donetsk, where some of the war’s fiercest fighting is now raging. An estimated 200,000 people must make the trip west, racing Russian advances.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- The United States and Canada on Tuesday announced new rounds of sanctions on Russian business elites, a yacht and the majority owner of one of the world’s largest steel producers.Canada’s measures target 43 military officials and 17 entities “that are complicit in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s senseless bloodshed,” including atrocities in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in March.
- Included on the Treasury Department’s list of sanctioned Russian nationals: Putin’s reported romantic partner, Alina Kabaeva. The 39-year-old retired Russian gymnastics star has been linked to Putin for more than a decade. The Kremlin has long denied that Putin and Kabaeva have a romantic relationship. The Biden administration signaled in April that it was considering sanctioning Kabaeva.
- The first ship to leave Ukraine carrying grain arrived safely in Turkish waters Tuesday evening, the country’s defense ministry said. The cargo vessel, carrying more than 26,000 metric tons of corn, is en route to Lebanon under a deal brokered by the United Nations. On Tuesday, it anchored at the Black Sea entrance to the Bosporus strait, which it will pass through on its way to Lebanon. A second ship, carrying 50,000 tons of grain, will sail to Turkey.
- Brittney Griner appeared in a Moscow court Tuesday for the first time since news broke of a possible prisoner swap between the United States and Russia to bring the WNBA player home. The countries’ top diplomats have discussed the proposal, but have not made any major breakthroughs. Griner is likely to be convicted, but her lawyers have urged a lenient sentence, arguing that she unwittingly brought a cannabis product into the country.
- Russia’s Supreme Court designated the Ukrainian Azov Battalion as a terrorist group, Russian state media reported. The designation paves the way for Russian authorities to charge some of the fighters captured from Mariupol with terrorism, which could lead to longer prison sentences, according to the Associated Press. The regiment protested the ruling and urged countries to declare Russia a terrorist state.
Battlefield updates
- Russian shelling hit a minibus carrying civilians near Dohove, Kherson, killing at least three, Ukraine’s military said Tuesday. Local media reported that the bus was carrying people fleeing the village of Starosillia in the Kherson region. The village is under Russian control.
- Mykolaiv came under fresh shelling early Tuesday. Russian rocket attacks destroyed a student dormitory and damaged other civilian buildings, Oleksandr Senkevych, the city’s mayor, said in a Telegram post. The southern port city has come under heavy bombardment in recent days.
- Ukrainian agriculture magnate Oleksiy Vadatursky and his wife, Raisa, were killed in an earlier strike on Mykolaiv, when a missile hit their home over the weekend. On Tuesday, the region’s governor said the couple may have been killed inadvertently since a military base was previously located at the site of their house, local media reported, but prosecutors have not ruled out the possibility that it was premeditated.
- Russian forces may be stopping their campaign to take the eastern city of Slovyansk for now so that they can concentrate on defending occupied areas in southern Ukraine, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. The report, citing Ukrainian military intelligence, says Russian forces continue to move troops from the northern Donetsk region to the south….