By The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden mentioned in a visitor essay Tuesday night in The New York Times that he’s determined to offer the Ukrainians with extra superior rocket techniques and munitions that can allow them to extra exactly strike key targets on the battlefield.
The expectation is that Ukraine might use the rockets within the jap Donbas area, the place they might each intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in cities the place combating is intense, resembling Sievierodonetsk.
That city 90 miles (145 kilometers) south of the Russian border is in an space that’s the final pocket beneath Ukrainian authorities management within the Luhansk area of the Donbas.
In his New York Times’ essay, Biden mentioned the U.S. will not be encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike past its borders and doesn’t wish to lengthen the battle “just to inflict pain on Russia.”
U.S. officers accustomed to the choice didn’t element how a lot the help will price, however it is going to be the eleventh package deal accredited thus far and would be the first to faucet the $40 billion in help just lately handed by Congress.
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR:
— Sievierodonetsk mayor says Russian forces seize half of metropolis
— In large bid to punish Moscow, EU bans most Russia oil imports
— A ‘terrible nightmare’: Treating Ukraine’s wounded civilians
— War crimes assembly held at Hague over Russia-Ukraine battle
— Hungary’s Orban wins exemption in EU Russian oil embargo
— Turkish chief writes on ‘risks’ of Sweden, Finland in NATO
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Follow AP’s protection of the battle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
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OTHER DEVELOPMENTS:
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration introduced on Tuesday that it’ll ship Ukraine a small variety of high-tech, medium-range rocket techniques.
That’s a important weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been begging for as they battle to stall Russian progress within the Donbas area.
The U.S. plan tries to strike a stability between the will to assist Ukraine battle ferocious Russian artillery barrages whereas not offering arms that might permit Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia and set off an escalation within the battle.
In a visitor essay printed Tuesday night in The New York Times, Biden confirmed that he’s determined to “provide the Ukrainians with more advanced rocket systems and munitions that will enable them to more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
U.S. officers say the help package deal anticipated to be unveiled Wednesday would ship what the U.S. considers medium-range rockets — they typically can journey about 45 miles (70 kilometers).
The expectation is that Ukraine might use the rockets within the jap Donbas area, the place they might each intercept Russian artillery and take out Russian positions in cities the place combating is intense, resembling Sievierodonetsk.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A regional governor on Tuesday mentioned Russian troops have received management over most of a metropolis that has been the epicenter of combating in jap Ukraine.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai mentioned “most of Sievierodonetsk is under the Russian control.” He added in a messaging app assertion that Ukrainian forces continued to struggle the Russians in fierce avenue battles and mentioned the town has not but been surrounded.
Sievierodonetsk, the executive heart of the Luhansk area, has been the main target of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s jap industrial heartland of Donbas. It has come beneath relentless Russian bombardment.
Haidai mentioned that Tuesday’s Russian air strike hit a tank with nitric acid at a chemical manufacturing unit, releasing poisonous fumes.
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UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday mentioned the Biden administration helps the cargo of Russian grain and fertilizer to handle growing international meals insecurity sparked by the battle in Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield instructed reporters at U.N. headquarters that there are not any U.S. sanctions on Russian shipments of grain and fertilizer, however she mentioned corporations are “a little nervous” and have been holding again.
Thomas-Greenfield mentioned the United States is ready to provide “comfort letters” to grain and fertilizer exporters and insurance coverage corporations in an try to get badly wanted agricultural merchandise out of Russia.
She mentioned the Biden administration is “very supportive” of efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to permit grain exports out of Ukraine by practice and the Black Sea, in addition to his work to make sure Russian meals and fertilizer have unrestricted entry to international markets.
A U.N. spokesman mentioned Tuesday that Rebeca Grynspan, the secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, visited Moscow on Monday and held “constructive discussions” with First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports.
Grynspan was in Washington on Tuesday assembly with U.S. officers, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned.
Global starvation ranges are at a brand new excessive, Guterres mentioned. He mentioned Ukraine and Russia collectively produce virtually a 3rd of the world’s wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil, whereas Russia and its ally Belarus are the world’s quantity two and three producers of potash, a key ingredient of fertilizer.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A regional Ukrainian governor on Tuesday mentioned the Russian bombardment has precipitated a leak of poisonous nitric acid from an industrial facility.
Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai mentioned a Russian air strike on Sievierodonetsk hit a tank with nitric acid at a chemical manufacturing unit, inflicting an enormous leak of its fumes.
He posted an image of an enormous rose cloud hanging over the town and urged residents to not depart their properties and put on gasoline masks or make improvised masks from material soaked in soda resolution.
Sievierodonetsk has been the main target of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine’s jap industrial heartland of Donbas.
It has come beneath intensive artillery barrage and airstrikes because the Russian forces fought Ukrainian troops for management of the town in violent avenue battles.
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WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday mentioned the nation is on a “good path” to obtain new financing from the European Union to assist Ukrainian refugees and compensate for weapons Poland gave to Ukraine.
More than 3 million refugees have entered Poland from Ukraine. While some handed via and others returned residence, most are nonetheless in Poland and receiving authorities assist.
Poland has additionally been supplying numerous weapons to Ukraine.
“Albeit slowly, but this (EU) support for Poland is coming … and we are on the good path to receive new means for the help for the refugees as well as linked to the weapons that we have handed to Ukraine,” Morawiecki mentioned.
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BRUSSELS — Italian Premier Mario Draghi mentioned Tuesday that Italian power firm ENI is ready to pay Russia for gasoline with out violating sanctions as a result of Russia considers the fee accomplished as quickly because the euro fee goes via.
“Then it’s transformed to rubles available on the market by an agent of Gazprom, not via the Russian central financial institution,’ Draghi mentioned.
He mentioned it seems that Russia has imposed totally different circumstances on totally different international locations, and “in some cases where there were suspensions they asked payments in rubles, period.”
ENI additionally intends to go to a tribunal in Sweden and ask if this type of fee violates the contract. So far the court docket has not made a ruling, as this simply modified final week, Draghi mentioned.
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BRUSSELS — The European Union urged its worldwide companions to keep away from inserting commerce boundaries on farm merchandise as Russia’s battle on Ukraine dangers additional fueling a attainable international meals disaster.
“We call on all partners not to restrict trade on agricultural products,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned after an EU summit Tuesday in Brussels.
Ukraine has mentioned Russia is obstructing the export of twenty-two million tons of its grain, a few of it destined for Africa. African international locations imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, in response to the U.N.
Von der Leyen mentioned the EU is making an attempt to assist get meals out by highway and rail, however land transport help may solely present for a fifth of Ukraine’s regular month-to-month exports.
“It is of course more tedious and expensive, but it is necessary to get this wheat out,” she mentioned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has mentioned the EU’s sanctions are making issues worse. Putin mentioned he’s keen to assist ease considerations if the restrictive measures are lifted.
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KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine has welcomed the European Union’s determination to dam most imports of Russian oil.
“The oil embargo will speed up the countdown to the collapse of the Russian economy and war machine,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba mentioned in an announcement.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry estimated the ban might price Russia “tens of billions of dollars” and praised the European Union for “not only making it harder for the Kremlin to finance the (Russian Federation’s) aggression but also shoring up its own energy security.”
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BRUSSELS — French President Emmanuel Macron vowed France will proceed to “fight against impunity” after a French journalist was killed by shell shrapnel whereas protecting a Ukrainian evacuation operation.
The French nationwide anti-terrorism prosecutor’s workplace opened an investigation for battle crimes.
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, was killed Monday as he was protecting a humanitarian operation close to Sievierodonetsk, a key metropolis within the Donbas area that’s being hotly contested by Russian and Ukrainian forces, in response to his employer, French information broadcaster BFM TV.
Macron, talking after a European summit in Brussels, mentioned “journalists, humanitarian workers must be protected in war zones. Civilians must be protected.”
Russia “is breaching all international laws,” he mentioned.
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BRUSSELS — Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany is engaged on a cope with Greece that might see Athens ship previous army tools to Ukraine and get armored personnel carriers from Germany to fill the hole.
Germany has confronted criticism for a perceived reluctance to ship heavy weapons to Ukraine, which the federal government rejects. It factors amongst different issues to preparations for NATO allies to ship older tools — notably of Soviet design — to Kyiv after which have fashionable materials equipped by Germany.
Scholz pointed Tuesday to an association already made with the Czech Republic. He mentioned he had agreed with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to attract up the same deal after a European Union summit. He didn’t give particulars, however mentioned it is going to be finalized by the international locations’ protection ministries and might be applied rapidly.
Scholz mentioned he additionally spoke to his Polish counterpart about such preparations.
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BRUSSELS — The chair of the African Union, Senegal’s President Macky Sall, has instructed European Union leaders that Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports is paving the way in which for a “catastrophic scenario” of widespread shortages and value hikes throughout his continent.
In an handle to leaders gathered in Brussels Tuesday for a summit centered on serving to Ukraine, Sall mentioned {that a} halt to grain and fertilizer exports by way of the Black Sea could be very worrying for a continent internet hosting 282 million undernourished folks. He mentioned that the worth of fertilizer throughout Africa has already tripled in comparison with 2021.
“According to some estimates, cereal yields in Africa will fall by 20 to 50 percent this year,” Sall mentioned. “We would like to see everything possible done to free up available grain stocks and ensure transportation and market access.”
Charles Michel, the EU Council president, mentioned that “the EU is sparing no efforts to free Ukraine’s exports over land and exploring alternative sea routes.”
African international locations imported 44% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, in response to U.N. figures. The African Development Bank is already reporting a forty five% enhance in wheat costs on the continent.
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Russia’s prime diplomat has once more blamed the hampering of exports of Ukrainian grain and a world meals disaster on Kyiv and the West.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov mentioned Tuesday that Russia ensures “free export of Ukrainian grain by ships that are now locked in Ukrainian ports,” however first Ukraine must “de-mine the coastal waters that are in the territorial sea of Ukraine.”
Lavrov instructed a information convention after assembly along with his Bahraini counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani that if that’s executed, “in the open sea … Russia’s naval forces will ensure the unimpeded passage of these ships to the Mediterranean Sea and further to their destinations,”
He additionally blamed Western nations for creating “a flurry of artificial problems with closing their ports for Russian vessels, with cutting logistical and financial chains.” He added that they have to “seriously think what is more important for them — to do PR on the issue of the food security or solve the problem with concrete steps.”
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MOSCOW — The deputy head of Russia’s Security Council is alleging that sanctions in opposition to the nation, together with new measures focusing on oil exports, are geared toward hurting strange Russians and motivated by hatred.
Dmitry Medvedev, who can be a former president and prime minister, wrote on Telegram Tuesday that sanctions don’t have an effect on the Russian political elite and received’t be “fatal” for giant enterprise, however are “directed precisely against the people of Russia.”
He claimed that measures affecting oil and gasoline are geared toward forcing the federal government to introduce funds cuts.
“An embargo on buying oil and gas from Russia? The same thing: to reduce the budget incomes and force the state to abandon its social obligations” resembling elevating funds in keeping with inflation, he wrote.
The European Union has agreed on a ban affecting all Russian exports of oil by sea to the EU, however not by a key pipeline to some Central and Eastern European international locations together with Hungary. The EU hasn’t launched an embargo on Russian gasoline.
After itemizing sanctions in numerous sectors, Medvedev wrote, “They hate us all! The basis for these decisions is hatred for Russia, for Russians and for all its inhabitants.”
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — The Norwegian Refugee Council says hundreds of civilians caught in Sievierodonetsk are “in dire need of aid.” It is looking for humanitarian organizations to be allowed to entry the jap Ukrainian metropolis “with lifesaving assistance and to enable safe evacuations of civilians who wish to leave.”
The council’s secretary-general, Jan Egeland, mentioned Tuesday: “We fear that up to 12,000 civilians remain caught in crossfire in the city, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity.” He added that “the near-constant bombardment is forcing civilians to seek refuge in bomb shelters and basements,” with “only few precious opportunities” to flee.
He added that the group “cannot save lives under the hail of grenades.”
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KYIV, Ukraine — The mayor of Sievierodonetsk says Russian forces have taken round half of the town in jap Ukraine.
Oleksandr Striuk instructed The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday that heavy combating is ongoing and artillery bombardments threaten the lives of the hundreds of civilians nonetheless sheltering within the ruined metropolis.
“Half of the city has been captured by the Russians and fierce street fighting is under way,” Striuk mentioned. “The situation is very serious and the city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block.”
He added that “the Ukrainian military continues to resist this frenzied push and aggression by Russian forces.”
Striuk estimated that round 13,000 folks remained within the metropolis out of a pre-war inhabitants of round 100,000 however mentioned it was inconceivable to maintain observe of civilian casualties amid round the clock shelling. He mentioned greater than 1,500 folks within the metropolis who died of assorted causes have been buried because the battle started in February. Evacuation efforts have been halted due to the hazard of shelling.
He mentioned that “civilians are dying from direct strikes, from fragmentation wounds and under the rubble of destroyed buildings, since most of the inhabitants are hiding in basements and shelters.”
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ISTANBUL – Turkey’s international minister says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will go to Turkey on June 8 for talks that can handle amongst different issues opening a Black Sea hall for Ukrainian grain exports.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu additionally mentioned in a video interview Tuesday with the state-run Anadolu information company that the French and German ambassadors had been summoned to the Foreign Ministry over demonstrations of their international locations by teams thought of to be terrorist by Ankara.
Turkey has mentioned actions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are one in all its objections to Sweden and Finland becoming a member of NATO. The PKK is designated a terrorist group by the European Union and U.S.
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KYIV, Ukraine — A court docket in Ukraine has convicted two Russian troopers of battle crimes for the shelling of civilian buildings and sentenced each to 11 1/2 years in jail. Tuesday’s verdict concluded the nation’s second battle crimes trial because the Russian invasion began.
Russian servicemen Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov have been charged with violating the legal guidelines and customs of battle over the shelling of civilian infrastructure within the Kharkiv area on the primary day of the Russian assault on Ukraine. They each stood trial in a court docket in Ukraine’s Poltava area and pleaded responsible to the fees.
Earlier this month, a court docket in Kyiv sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in jail for fatally capturing a Ukrainian civilian within the first battle crimes trial since Russia invaded.
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark says its embassy in Moscow will now not settle for functions for visas or residence permits. It’s citing a workers scarcity after Russia expelled 4 diplomats and three different workers earlier this month.
The Foreign Ministry mentioned Tuesday that “it is not possible to maintain the usual level of activity.” It mentioned it desires to prioritize giving help to Danish residents. It mentioned that the transfer was non permanent, however didn’t specify how lengthy it can final.
Moscow’s tit-for-tat transfer got here after Denmark in April expelled 15 Russian embassy workers, recognized as intelligence officers, from the diplomatic mission in Copenhagen in keeping with related steps taken by different European Union international locations.
The Netherlands additionally shut down its visa division in Moscow as a result of workers have been expelled.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”