More Russian rocket attacks against Ukraine cities….
There are causalities among Russian AND Ukraine troops in the current fighting….
The Ukraine IS gaining back territory slowly….
The Ukraine past corruption issues are a focus of the West before the rebuilding starts in rthe Ukraine that will involve what could be up to $1 Trillion…..
Most of the drones and missiles were intercepted. Lviv, in western Ukraine, is far from the front line, where Ukraine’s military is making small gains in its counteroffensive.
Here’s what we’re covering:
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Russia targets Kyiv and Lviv with dozens of attack drones.
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Russia is still trying to advance despite Kyiv’s counteroffensive, Ukrainian officials say.
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With waterways polluted from the damaged dam, fishing in southern Ukraine comes to a halt.
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Russian shelling kills a flood rescue worker in Kherson, Ukrainian officials say.
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Germany’s chancellor presses China’s premier to exert more influence on Russia over the war.
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The U.K. moves to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine rebuild….
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In eastern Ukraine, residents are still grappling with water contamination and hundreds of flooded homes nearly two weeks after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, which killed dozens and displaced thousands.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Key developments
- Air defense systems took down 32 of 35 drones after Russian forces launched “another massive air and missile attack” early Tuesday, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said. Kyiv’s military administration said air raid sirens blared for at least three hours but that there were no reports of major damage.
- Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, said the drone attack hit infrastructure in the city but that public transportation facilities have been restored. Ukrainian officials said the region of Zaporizhzhia in the southeast was also shaken by an attack early Tuesday.
- More than 800 houses remain flooded as a result of the dam collapse, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said. It said 31 people were still missing as of Monday. “We are looking for everyone,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam, while Russia blames Ukraine for the damage.
- There is “significant” water contamination in areas affected by the dam collapse, according to the Ukrainian Health Ministry. There are reports of salmonella, rotavirus and E. coli, among other contaminants, and people are prohibited from swimming or fishing in the Odessa, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, it said.
Global impact
- NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is expected to meet with German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Tuesday at Schleswig-Jagel Air Base in Germany, one of the bases hosting Air Defender 23, the largest air deployment exercise in NATO history. The exercise is meant to send “a clear message that NATO is ready to defend every inch of Allied territory,” said NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak by phone as London prepares to host the Ukraine Recovery Conference on Wednesday and Thursday. The conference will focus on “mobilizing international support for Ukraine’s economic and social stabilization and recovery from the effects of war,” according to its website.
- The European Commission is proposing a more than $50 billion E.U. aid package to Ukraine over the next four years, its president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Tuesday. She did not provide details about the use of the funds. The package must still get approval from the European Union as part of its budget review.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he appealed to the Chinese government to influence Russia’s stance in the war. “It is important that China continues to not deliver weapons to the aggressor Russia,” he told a conference in Berlin alongside the Chinese Prime Minister. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday in Beijing that China reassured the United States and other governments it has not provided and will not provide lethal assistance to Russia. “We have not seen any evidence that contradicts that,” he said…..
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- Ukraine’s ministry of the interior has stated that four settlements and 818 houses remain flooded on the right bank of the Dnipro in Kherson. Authorities in Mykolaiv reported some flooding remains in their region too. One person has been killed and seven injured while they were fired upon by Russia while clearing mud in the flooded area of Kherson, Ukrainian officials have reported.
- Russian state-owned media reports that Ukraine struck the occupied settlement of Nova Kakhovka with “kamikaze” drones, injuring three people.
- Russia’s security forces, the FSB, have claimed to have detained a Ukrainian national in the Kabardino-Balkaria region on suspicion of espionage.
- Heavy casualties are being endured by both Ukrainian and Russian forces, British military intelligence has said, two weeks into the Ukrainian counteroffensive. The level of losses among Russian troops was said by British officials to be at its highest level since the peak of March’s battle for Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, with Ukraine claiming to have killed or injured 4,600 soldiers.
- Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said Monday Ukraine must prepare itself for a “tough duel” but that “the biggest blow is yet to come”. Separately she said that Russia had concentrated a significant number of units in the east, including air assault troops, but that Ukrainian forces were preventing their advance. She described the situation in the east of the country as “difficult”.
- Ukraine confirmed Monday it has recaptured the village of Piatykhatky, a settlement on a heavily fortified part of the frontline near the most direct route to the country’s Azov Sea coast. It brings the tally of settlements liberated in the past two weeks up to eight, with 113 sq km of territory said to have been seized from the occupying forces.
- The European Union is proposing to create a €50bn (£42bn/$54.5bn) financial reserve for the next four years. It took the unusual step of ringfencing potential funds after a review of the bloc’s 2021-27 budget. Since the outbreak of war it has diverted €30bn cash from other funding streams to respond to the crisis. The European Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, said it would be made up of loans and grants and would give Ukraine “predictability” and “incentivise other donors to step up too”.
- Western powers will only protect Ukraine’s multibillion-dollar postwar recovery if they agree a unified strategy to make aid conditional on clear progress on combating judicial corruption, reinstating the obligation on Ukrainian public officials to declare assets and ensuring all recovery finds can be digitally traced, according to an authoritative report from the German Marshall Fund….