As the war between Russia and Ukraine enters its 105th day, we take a look at the main events.
Here are the key events so far on Wednesday, June 8.
Get the latest updates here.
Struggle
- Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that 97 percent of the Luhansk region, one of the two provinces that make up Ukraine’s Donbas, is under Russian control, adding that Russian forces “liberated” the neighborhoods. Severodonetsk residential.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russian forces have made no significant gains in the eastern Donbas region over the past day and “absolutely heroic defense of Donbas continues.”
- Soldiers are “successfully holding off the assault on the city of Severodonetsk” and were delaying attacks on Toshkivka and Ustynivka, Ukraine’s general staff said.
- However, Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai said the defenders were finding it difficult to repel Russian attacks in the center of Severodonetsk.
- At least three people were killed and six more wounded after Russian forces shelled Kharkiv and its regional villages of Cherkaska Lozova, Slatyne and Korobochkyne on Tuesday, Governor Oleh Synyehubov said.
- A standoff with Russia is “not an option” and “victory must be achieved on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy told Britain’s Financial Times, repeating the call for Western military support.
- The coming winter will be “the most difficult” since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv was setting up a headquarters to centralize winter heating operation.
- More than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for investigation, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
- Russia has returned the bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters, most of whom died defending Mariupol at a large steel mill, Ukraine’s military said.
Diplomacy
- US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with Ukraine’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dmytro Senik in Seoul on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the war on global food security and how to bring Ukraine’s grain to international markets, according to a statement from the US State Department.
- Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Ankara for a two-day visit to Turkey to discuss the unblocking of Ukraine’s grain exports. The Russian parliament passed two bills that ended the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights in the country.
- Russia’s former president and deputy chairman of its security council, Dmitry Medvedev, made some strong comments against his enemies, calling them “b******s” and saying he would do everything to make them disappear, but did not specify. To whom were his words addressed?
- Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her record on Russia, saying she had “nothing to apologize for” and had tried to prevent the situation in Ukraine from reaching its current state. She added that she had been against allowing Ukraine to join NATO because she wanted to avoid escalation with Russia and Ukraine was not ready for NATO.
Economy
- Ukraine will only be able to export a maximum of 2 million tons of grain per month if Russia does not lift the blockade of its Black Sea ports, Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food has said.
- The World Bank said its executive board had approved $1.49 billion in additional financing for Ukraine to help pay government and social worker salaries, expanding the bank’s total pledged support for Kyiv to more than $4 billion.
- US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said it is “virtually impossible” for the US to protect itself from oil market shocks such as those caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, so it is important to change to renewable energy sources.
- The United States seized command of the Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji and seized it after winning a legal battle to seize the $325 million vessel, amid a move to seize assets from Russian oligarchs.
- Russian state flag carrier Aeroflot plans to raise up to 185.2 billion rubles ($3 billion) in an emergency stock issue triggered by Western sanctions and airspace bans, Reuters reported.
- The first 15 outlets of the renamed “McDonald’s” will open in and around Moscow on June 12 after McDonald’s pulled out of Russia in May and sold the license for all 850 restaurants across the country to local businessman Alexander Govor.
Reference-www.aljazeera.com