Latest political events
Updates from the field on day 79 of the war
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Ukrainian officials said their forces damaged a Russian logistics ship in the Black Sea.
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Authorities said an attack on the outskirts of Kharkiv on Thursday killed at least two civilians and damaged a humanitarian aid unit, municipal offices and hospital facilities.
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The governor of Belgorod, a Russian border region, said at least one civilian had been killed and six others wounded in Ukrainian shelling.
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Ukrainian authorities say an airstrike has killed at least three people and wounded 12 others in the Chernihiv region.
Russian soldier accused of killing a civilian on a bicycle
The war crimes trial of a captured Russian soldier accused of killing an unarmed 62-year-old civilian is expected to start in kyiv on Friday.
Sergeant Vadin Shyshimarin, 21, will face his first war crimes trial since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office alleges the civilian was shot dead while riding a bicycle in February, four days after Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine began.
Shyshimarin, who served in a tank unit, is accused of shooting through a car window at the man in the northeastern village of Chupakhivka. The soldier could face up to 15 years in prison if he is convicted.
Finland tells Russia: ‘You caused this’
A day after Finland’s leadership signaled support for joining NATO, Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said membership in the military defense pact would benefit the Baltic Sea countries.
“Sweden’s membership in NATO would raise the threshold for military conflicts and thus have a conflict-preventing effect in northern Europe,” Linde told reporters.
Finland’s president and prime minister announced Thursday that the Nordic country should immediately apply to join NATO, founded in part to counter the Soviet Union.
“You [Russia] caused this. Look in the mirror,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
Finland’s parliament has yet to weigh in, but the announcement means he is almost certain to apply and gain admission. The process could take months to complete.
Public opinion in both nations shifted sharply in favor of NATO membership after the invasion, sparking fears in countries along Russia’s flank that they could be next.
School lessons held in a subway station.
As the fighting and Russian attacks continued, teachers tried to restore some sense of normalcy after the war closed Ukraine’s schools and devastated the lives of millions of children.
In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, they held lessons whenever possible, including a metro station that was used as a bomb shelter.
“It helps to support them mentally. Because now there is a war and many lost their homes… Some people’s parents are fighting now,” said teacher Valeriy Leiko. Thanks in part to the lessons, she said, “they feel someone loves them.”
Primary school children joined Leiko around a table for history and art lessons in the subway station, which has become home to many families and where children’s drawings now cover the walls.
An older student, Anna Fedoryaka, was monitoring Kharkiv professor Mykhailo Spodarets’ online lectures on Ukrainian literature from her basement.
Internet connections were a problem, Fedoryaka said. And, “it’s hard to concentrate when you have to do your homework with explosions by your window.”
Ukraine says it took out another ship
In other developments in the bitter war, Ukrainian officials said their forces have eliminated another Russian ship in the Black Sea.
The logistics ship Vsevolod Bobrov was badly damaged but is not believed to have sunk when it was hit while trying to deliver an anti-aircraft system to Snake Island, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president.
A spokesman for the Odessa regional military administration said the ship caught fire after the attack. There was no confirmation from Russia and no reports of casualties.
In April, the Ukrainian military sank the Moskva cruiser, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. In March, she destroyed the landing ship Saratov.
Ukraine said Russian forces fired artillery and grenade launchers at Ukrainian troops around Zaporizhzhia, which has been a haven for civilians fleeing Mariupol, and attacked the Chernihiv and Sumy regions in the north.
The Ukrainian military also said Russian forces were transferring additional artillery units to border areas near Chernihiv, where overnight attacks killed at least three people. He said that Russian troops fired rockets at a school and a student dormitory in Novhorod-Siversky and that some other buildings, including private houses, were also damaged.
Reference-www.cbc.ca