Russia-Ukraine war: 19 dead after Odesa strike

The Guardian - Léonie Chao-Fong (now); Martin Belam and Samantha Lock (earlier)Fri 1 Jul 2022 16.14 BST

Zelensky hails new era as formal EU candidacy begins – live

Two children among dead after apartment building and recreation centre struck; Zelenskiy says the journey to membership ‘shouldn’t take decades’

• From 2m ago16.14

Odesa death toll rises to 21

The number of people killed in overnight Russian missile strikes on a residential building and resorts in Odesa in southern Ukraine has risen to at least 21, according to local authorities.

Odesa’s military spokesperson, Sergei Bratchuk, told Ukrainian television that 21 people had been confirmed killed. A 12-year-old boy was among the dead, he added.

Ukraine’s security service had earliest put the death toll at 19. Two children were among the dead and six others among the dozens injured, officials said.

Authorities said earlier that 41 people had been rescued from the apartment building where 152 lived.

The “very heavy and very powerful” missiles were launched by aircraft that flew in from the Black Sea, Bratchuk said. He said:

The worst-case scenario played out and two strategic aircraft came to the Odesa region.

The Kremlin has denied targeting civilians. “I would like to remind you of the president’s words that the Russian Armed Forces do not work with civilian targets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier today.

• 21m ago15.59

Today so far...

It is 6 pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• At least 19 people, including two children, have been confirmed dead after Russian missile strikes on an apartment building and resort in Odesa, Ukraine’s security service said. A further 38 people, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalised with injuries. Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Yevhenii Yenin, said there were no military targets or infrastructure in the vicinity of the areas struck by missiles. The Kremlin has denied responsibility for the strike.
• Eight people have now been confirmed dead after a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday, according to local officials. Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych had previously said eight missiles had hit the city, adding that the residential building appeared to have been hit by a Russian X-55 cruise missile.
• The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has told Ukraine that there is “a long road ahead” for its bid to become an EU member, but that “Europe will be at your side every step of the way”. After her speech, broadcast via video link, Ukrainian lawmakers watched as the EU’s flag was hoisted in the plenary hall of the parliament in Kyiv.
• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has said a new chapter had started for his country and the EU after Brussels formally accepted Ukraine’s candidacy to join the bloc. Zelensky said it was a “big honour and big responsibility” to work towards realising the “aspirations of our country” in an address to Ukraine’s parliament on Friday.
• Zelensky said Ukraine’s path to EU membership should “not take years or decades” and vowed to make Ukraine’s part of the process “perfect”. In a Telegram post, Ukraine’s president said: “We have to overcome this path quickly. Make our part of the job perfect. To enable our friends in the European Union to make another historic decision for us just as quickly and in a consolidated way.”
• Ukrainian forces said Thursday they have pushed Russian forces from Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea outpost off the southern coast. Russia portrayed the pullout from the island as a “goodwill gesture”. Ukraine’s military said the Russians fled the island in two speedboats after a barrage of Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes.
• The situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk is “extremely difficult” as Russian forces’ continuous shelling makes it impossible for civilians to evacuate, officials say. Luhansk’s regional governor, Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces remained on the city outskirts, where there was currently no street fighting.
• Ukraine’s agriculture ministry has said grain exports have fallen 43% year-on-year to 1.41m tonnes in June. Grain exports have slumped since the start of the war as its Black Sea ports – the key route for shipments – have been largely closed off. The government has previously said Ukraine could harvest up to 65m tonnes of grain and oilseeds this year, compared with 106m in 2021.
• Schools in Kyiv will reopen for classes at the start of the school year on 1 September, the city’s authorities said. Territories adjacent to the schools will be checked for explosives and bomb shelters in schools will be restocked with water, medicine and other necessities, the head of Kyiv’s education and science department said.
• Moscow has told Ukrainian teachers in occupied territories to sign a document within weeks certifying their willingness to switch to teaching the Russian school curriculum. The Guardian spoke with teachers in Russian-occupied parts of south-east Ukraine who said newly appointed local authorities told them they had until 21 July either to sign a document certifying their readiness to follow the Russian school curriculum or resign.
• Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine will begin using the death penalty in 2025, according to an updated criminal code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). A Russian proxy court in the DPR sentenced two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun to death on charges of “terrorism”. It is unclear what the new rules would mean for the men.
  
• Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has claimed pressure from the west has pushed Russia to accelerate its integration with neighbouring Belarus. Putin’s remarks at a Russia-Belarus on Friday follow comments last week by Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, who said Russia and Belarus must take urgent joint measures to improve their defence capabilities and troops’ combat readiness.
• Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, says a new “iron curtain” is descending between Russia and the west, and that Moscow would not trust Washington and Brussels “from now on”. The process “has begun”, Lavrov said after talks with his counterpart from Belarus. “As far as an iron curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending.”
• Russia has threatened to close its embassy in Bulgaria after Sofia announced that it would expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff. Russia’s ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova, said the closure of the Russian embassy would inevitably lead to the closure of Bulgaria’s embassy in Moscow. The EU said Russia’s threat to sever diplomatic ties with Bulgaria was unjustified.
  
• Finnish foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, said Finland and Turkey did not discuss the extradition of any specific individuals or groups of people during negotiations at the Nato summit. Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said yesterday that Finland and Sweden must keep promises of extraditions made during the talks, or ratification of the Nordic nations’ Nato memberships will not be sent to the Turkish parliament.
• A cargo ship left the Russian-occupied Ukrainian port of Berdiansk for the first time since the city was seized by Moscow’s troops, according to a pro-Russia official. Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russia administration, was cited by Russian state media as saying the first cargo ship to leave Berdiansk was carrying 7,000 tonnes of grain to “friendly countries”, without saying what cargo the ship was carrying.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here to bring you all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

• Updated at 16.01 BST
• 45m ago15.36

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said he has been forced to take part in “educational activities” including being made to sit for hours under a portrait of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Navalny was transferred last month to a strict-regime penal colony near the town of Vladimir east of Moscow, described by his allies as “one of Russia’s scariest prisons”.

In a post on Facebook, he described his life in the new prison where he said he had to sew for seven hours, five days a week.

Navalny said:

After work, you continue to sit. For several hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin. This is called ‘educational activities’.

Even on Sundays, his official day off, he said he was made to sit on a wooden bench in a room for 10 years. He added:

I don’t know who such activities can ‘educate’, except for a crooked invalid with a bad back. But maybe that’s the purpose.

Navalny has described his new jail as a “prison within a prison” and said he was serving time with convicted murderers.

In a Twitter thread, he compared his prison life to Putin and Russia’s former president, Dmitry Medvedev, and said there was a loudspeaker in his barrack that plays songs like “Glory to the FSB”.

• 2h ago14.41

Ukraine’s agriculture ministry has said grain exports have fallen 43% year-on-year to 1.41m tonnes in June, having slumped since the start of the war as its Black Sea ports – the key route for shipments – have been largely closed off.

Reuters reports the ministry said farmers in southern and eastern Ukraine had already started the 2022 harvest, threshing 293,800 tonnes of grain from around 1% of the sown area.

The government has previously said Ukraine could harvest up to 65m tonnes of grain and oilseeds this year, compared with 106m in 2021, due to the loss of land to Russian forces and lower grain yields.

• Updated at 14.58 BST

Support the Guardian

The truth, they say, is the first casualty of war. With correspondents on the ground in Ukraine covering the war, as well as throughout the world, the Guardian is well placed to provide the honest, factual reporting that readers will need to understand this perilous moment for Europe, the former Soviet Union and the entire world. Free from commercial or political influence, we can report fearlessly on global events and challenge those in power.

We believe everyone deserves equal access to accurate news. Support from our readers enables us to keep our journalism open and free for everyone, including in Russia and Ukraine.

Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – it only takes a minute. Thank you. Show your support

2h ago14.16

Finland says it did not discuss the extradition of any specific individuals to Turkey in Madrid

The process of Sweden and Finland joining Nato appears to have some difficulty ahead of it yet. The invitation must be ratified in parliament by all 30 allies, and they're still seems to be some conflict between the Nordic countries and Turkey over what was agreed earlier in the week in Madrid. Turkey had threatened to veto their membership bids.

Reuters reports that this morning Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said Finland and Turkey did not discuss the extradition of any specific individuals or groups of people during negotiations at the Nato summit.

“We agreed that now we have a signed a text and everything that we have signed is in the text,” Haavisto told a news conference in Helsinki. “We did not, in Madrid, discuss any individuals.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday that Finland and Sweden must keep promises of extraditions made during the talks, or ratification of the Nordic nations’ Nato memberships will not be sent to the Turkish parliament.

After four hours of talks in Madrid on Tuesday, Turkey, Finland and Sweden signed a joint memorandum on security measures in exchange for Turkey lifting its veto on their Nato memberships, imposed by Ankara in May due to its concerns about terrorism. The signed memorandum did not list any individuals for extradition.

• 2h ago13.57

Schools in Kyiv will reopen for classes at the start of the school year on 1 September, the city’s authorities said.

Schools in the Ukrainian capital are now on summer holiday after going online when Russia launched its invasion of the country on 24 February.

The head of Kyiv’s education and science department, Olena Fidanyan, was cited by AFP as saying that the most important task for the new school year “is the safety of students and teachers”.

Territories adjacent to the schools will be checked for explosives and bomb shelters in schools will be restocked with water, medicine and other necessities, she said.

All schools will hold “the necessary training with teachers and children on actions during an air-raid alert”, she added.

Those children who have not been able to return to Kyiv will be able to study remotely, Fidanyan said.

• Updated at 14.59 BST
• 3h ago13.46

Russia has threatened to close its embassy in Bulgaria after Sofia announced that it would expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff.

Russia’s ambassador to Bulgaria, Eleonora Mitrofanova, said the closure of the Russian embassy would inevitably lead to the closure of Bulgaria’s embassy in Moscow.

Earlier this week, Bulgaria’s prime minister, Kiril Petkov, said his country would expel 70 Russian diplomatic staff on espionage concerns. The move was the largest expulsion of Russian diplomats by Sofia in recent years and more than halved the size of Moscow’s diplomatic footprint in Bulgaria.

Mitrofanova called the expulsions an “unprecedented hostile” step and on Thursday told Sofia to reverse its decision by midday on Friday.

In a statement released by the embassy today, Mitrofanova said:

Unfortunately, our appeal to the Bulgarian foreign ministry has been ignored.

She added:

I intend to quickly put the question of the closure of Russia’s embassy in Bulgaria before my country’s leadership, which will inevitably mean the closure of the Bulgarian diplomatic mission in Moscow.

Responsibility for the “grave consequences of this step” will rest with Petkov’s government, Mitrofanova said.

• Updated at 13.48 BST
• 3h ago13.34

Moscow has told Ukrainian teachers in occupied territories to sign a document within weeks certifying their willingness to switch to teaching the Russian school curriculum.

The move puts many of them in a difficult position. If they do not sign, they will lose their jobs and be at risk of retaliation from Russian forces. If they sign, there is the risk of charges from Ukrainian authorities, which view teaching the Russian curriculum as a form of collaboration with the enemy.

The Guardian spoke with teachers in Russian-occupied parts of south-east Ukraine whose identities, for safety reasons, cannot be revealed. They said that around mid-June newly appointed local authorities told them they had until 21 July either to sign a document certifying their readiness to follow the Russian school curriculum or resign, with many of them being threatened with eviction from their homes.

The Russian education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, announced in June that when the new school year began in September all schools in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine were to work according to Russian standards.

“We will do our best to open schools on 1 September so that they are as ready as possible to function according to Russian standards,” Kravtsov said. “Integration will take place. We are already taking some steps in this direction: teacher training and the supply of textbooks.”

One teacher living in a village in the occupied area of Kharkiv said: “At the moment, only history, geography, language and primary school teachers were asked to sign the document.”

“Math, physics, biology and chemistry curriculum in Russia don’t carry propaganda, so they are left alone, at least for now,” he added.

Read the full article by Lorenzo Tondo: Moscow forcing teachers in Ukraine to sign up for Russian curriculumMoscow forcing teachers in occupied Ukraine to follow the Russian curriculum read more

• 3h ago13.24

Death toll rises to eight in Russian strike on Mykolaiv residential building

Eight people have now been confirmed dead after a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday, according to local officials.

Ukraine’s state emergency service reported late last night that the body of a man was discovered under a collapsed staircase, bringing the total death toll to eight and six wounded.

On Wednesday, mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said eight missiles had hit the city, adding that the residential building appeared to have been hit by a Russian X-55 cruise missile. Photographs from the scene showed smoke billowing from a four-storey building with its upper floor partly destroyed.

• Updated at 13.39 BST
• 3h ago13.10

Zelensky hails a new chapter for Ukraine after formal candidacy starts

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said a new chapter had started for his country and the EU after Brussels formally accepted Ukraine’s candidacy to join the bloc.

Zelensky said it was a “big honour and big responsibility” to work towards realising the “aspirations of our country” in a speech to Ukraine’s parliament, adding:

Now we’re not close. Now we are together.

He added:

We made a journey of 115 days to candidate status and our journey to membership shouldn’t take decades. We should make it down this road quickly.

• Updated at 13.20 BST
• 3h ago12.53

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has claimed pressure from the west has pushed Russia to accelerate its integration with neighbouring Belarus.

“Russia and Belarus continue to grow in their cooperation in the political, trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian spheres,” Putin said in a video message at a Russia-Belarus forum. He continued:

The unprecedented political and social pressure from the so-called collective west is pushing us to speed up the unification process.

Together it is easier to minimise the damage from the illegal sanctions, it is easier to set up the production of demanded products, develop new competencies and expand cooperation with friendly countries.

Last week, Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Russia and Belarus must take urgent joint measures to improve their defence capabilities and troops’ combat readiness.

• Updated at 13.20 BST
• 4h ago12.41

Odesa death toll rises to 19

At least 19 people, including two children, have been confirmed dead after Russian missile strikes on an apartment building and resort in Odesa in southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian officials.

A further 38 people, including six children and a pregnant woman, were hospitalised with injuries, Ukraine’s security service said.

Nearly all of the victims were in a nine-storey building hit by one missile in the village of Serhiyivka at 1 am local time on Friday. At least two people, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed in a separate strike on a holiday resort in the village.

Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister, Yevhenii Yenin, said there were no military targets or infrastructure in the vicinity of the areas struck by missiles.

Speaking at the scene, Yenin said rescue operations were ongoing but “we don’t expect to find anyone alive”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied that Russia was hitting civilian targets. “I would like to remind you of the president’s words that the Russian armed forces do not work with civilian targets,” Peskov told reporters.

• Updated at 13.21 BST
• 4h ago12.21

Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine will begin using the death penalty in 2025, according to an updated criminal code of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

A Russian proxy court in the DPR sentenced two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun to death on charges of “terrorism”. The ruling has been condemned as a “sham judgment” in Britain.

The new criminal code, in effect from Friday, states that the death penalty should be carried out by firing squad and that the head of the Russian-controlled DPR has the final say on issuing pardons to anybody sentenced to death.

It is unclear what the new rules would mean for the captured men, Reuters reports.

On Thursday, the European court of human rights (ECHR) said it had issued an order to Russia to ensure that the men do not face the death penalty.

In response, the Kremlin said it was not bound by rulings from the ECHR, from which Russia pulled out after its troops invaded Ukraine on 24 February.

• Updated at 13.21 BST
• 5h ago11.49

The EU’s flag was hoisted in the plenary hall of Ukraine’s parliament after an address by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.

During her speech, Von der Leyen congratulated Ukraine on becoming an EU candidate state.

“You have gained the endorsement and respect of all EU member states,” she said.

Ukraine now has a very clear European perspective, it is a candidate country for the EU.

• Updated at 11.49 BST
• 5h ago11.39

US basketball star Brittney Griner has arrived at a courtroom on the outskirts of Moscow for the beginning of her criminal trial, more than four months after she was arrested at an airport for cannabis possession.

Griner, 31, was seen wearing a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt as she arrived at Khimki city court in handcuffs, with US embassy staff in attendance.

The Phoenix Mercury star and two-time US Olympic gold medalist could spend 10 years in prison if convicted on charges of large-scale transportation of drugs.

The trial will be partially closed and with a limited media presence, which a court spokesperson said was “on the request of the defence, the request of Griner herself”.

During his press briefing today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied Griner’s case was politically motivated.

Peskov told reporters:

I can only operate with known facts, and the facts indicate that the eminent athlete was detained with illegal drugs that contained narcotic substances. There are articles in Russian legislation that provide for punishment for such crimes. Only the court can pass a verdict.

At a closed-door preliminary hearing on Monday, the court in Khimki extended Griner’s detention for a further six months after she appeared for a preliminary hearing held behind closed doors. Griner had previously been ordered to remain in pretrial detention until 2 July.

• Updated at 11.48 BST
• 5h ago11.20

• 5h ago11.02

Today so far …

• Two children were among 19 people killed by a missile strike in Odesa, according to the latest update from regional governor Maksym Marchenko. He said “As a result of a night missile strike by Tu-22 strategic aircraft from the Black Sea in the Belgorod-Dniester district of Odesa region, three X-22 missiles hit an apartment building and a recreation centre. 31 people were hospitalised, including 4 children and a pregnant woman. 8 people were rescued from the rubble, including 3 children. Rescue work continues.” The Kremlin has denied responsibility for the strike.
• Ursula von der Leyen has told Ukraine that there is “a long road ahead” for its bid to become a European Union member, but that “Europe will be at your side every step of the way”. In a speech via video link to Ukraine’s parliament this morning, the president of the European Commission said: “There is a long road ahead but Europe will be at your side every step of the way, for as long as it takes, from these dark days of war until the moment you cross the door that leads into our European Union.”
• Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine’s path to European Union membership should “not take years or decades” and vowed to make Ukraine’s part of the process “perfect”. He said “Our path to membership should not take years or decades. We have to overcome this path quickly. Make our part of the job perfect. To enable our friends in the European Union to make another historic decision for us just as quickly and in a consolidated way.”
• Ukrainian forces said Thursday they have pushed Russian forces from Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea outpost off the southern coast. Russia portrayed the pullout from the island as a “goodwill gesture”. Ukraine’s military said the Russians fled the island in two speedboats after a barrage of Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes.
• The situation in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk is “extremely difficult” as Russian forces’ continuous shelling makes it impossible for civilians to evacuate, officials say. “There is a lot of shelling and from multiple directions. The Russian army is approaching from different directions towards Lysychansk,” Luhansk’s regional governor, Serhiy Haidai said, adding that Russian forces remained on the city outskirts, where there was currently no street fighting.
• Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, says a new “iron curtain” is descending between Russia and the west, and that Moscow would not trust Washington and Brussels “from now on”. The process “has begun”, Lavrov said after talks with his counterpart from Belarus. “As far as an iron curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending.”
• Russia is using inaccurate missiles from old Soviet stocks for more than 50% of its strikes in Ukraine, leading to significant loss of civilian life, a brigadier general in Ukraine’s armed forces said. The rate of Russian strikes in Ukraine has more than doubled in the past two weeks, Brig-Gen Oleksii Hromov said at a news conference.
• A cargo ship left the Russian-occupied Ukrainian port of Berdiansk for the first time since the city was seized by Moscow’s troops, according to a pro-Russia official. Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russia administration, was cited by Russian state media as saying the first cargo ship to leave Berdiansk was carrying 7,000 tonnes of grain to “friendly countries”, without saying what cargo the ship was carrying.
• Hungary will speed up its defence development programme, prime minister Viktor Orbán told state radio. “We must radically increase our defence capabilities,” Orbán said. He reiterated that Hungary’s interest was for the war in neighbouring Ukraine to end as soon as possible.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will guide you through the next few hours of our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

• Updated at 12.10 BST
• 6h ago10.48

Kremlin spokesperson says 'Russian armed forces do not work with civilian targets' after Odesa strike kills 18

The Kremlin has dismissed allegations that Russian missiles had struck an apartment building near the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa early on Friday.

Ukrainian authorities said Russian missiles had hit an apartment building and recreation centres, killing at least 18 people and wounding dozens. Regional governor Maksym Marchenko said the dead included two children.

“I would like to remind you of the president’s words that the Russian armed forces do not work with civilian targets,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on a conference call with reporters, according to Reuters.

Last year, Peskov described suggestions that Russia was planning to attack Ukraine as a “hollow and unfounded” invention of the western media, and prior to Russia’s latest invasion in February, he said Russian troops taking part in military exercises in Belarus would be “pulled back to their permanent bases” after their conclusion. Instead, they advanced into northern Ukraine on 24 February in an apparent attempt to capture Kyiv.

• Updated at 10.59 BST
• 6h ago10.25

The European Union said Russia’s threat to sever diplomatic ties with Bulgaria in response to its decision to expel 70 Russian diplomats is unjustified.

Reuters reports the EU said Bulgaria’s action was “fully in line with international law”, as the diplomats of the Russian embassy were acting in violation of international treaties.

“The European Union stands in full support and solidarity with Bulgaria in these circumstances and will follow this matter closely,” the EU said in a statement.

Bulgaria’s outgoing prime minister Thursday already called on Russia to withdraw its diplomatic ultimatum, which included a threat to close Russia’s embassy in the Balkan nation.

© 2022 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. (modern)

Commentary:

HUMAN SYNTHESIS

COPYRIGHTS

Copy & Paste the link above for Yandex translation to Norwegian.

WHO and WHAT is behind it all? : >

The bottom line is for the people to regain their original, moral principles, which have intentionally been watered out over the past generations by our press, TV, and other media owned by the Illuminati/Bilderberger Group, corrupting our morals by making misbehaviour acceptable to our society. Only in this way shall we conquer this oncoming wave of evil.

All articles contained in Human-Synthesis are freely available and collected from the Internet. The interpretation of the contents is left to the readers and does not necessarily represent the views of the Administrator. Disclaimer: The contents of this article are the sole responsibility of the author(s). Human-Synthesis will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. Human-Synthesis grants permission to cross-post original Human-Synthesis articles on community internet sites as long as the text & title are not modified.

HUMAN SYNTHESIS