Summary
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, praised Ukraine’s strength in the face of the Russian invasion during a visit to the Chernihiv region, which was occupied by Moscow at the beginning of the war.
Some of the victims of a deadly Russian missile attack at a busy market in eastern Ukraine yesterday were buried. At least 17 people were killed and 32 wounded in the attack in Kostiantynivka, in Ukraine’s Donestsk region.
Ireland said that about 500 Ukrainians were arriving in the country per week, joining tens of thousands of their compatrior who fled to the island over the last 18 months. But growing pressure on services will mean more will have to be temporarily housed in tents.
French president Emmanuel Macron said the Russian flag has no place at next year’s Paris Olympics because of the war crimes committed by Vladimir Putin’s regime in Ukraine.
The head of the US senate foreign relations committee has demanded that the US’s top three oilfield services companies “cease all investments” in Russia’s fossil fuel infrastructure.
British American Tobacco said it would sell its last cigarette in Russia within a month, ending its presence in the world’s fourth-largest tobacco market a year and a half after it first promised to do so in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
For the first time in nearly four years new staff have been allowed at the Russian embassy in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the delegation has said, after anti-pandemic measures blocked most travel and led many embassies to close.
Ukraine has started exporting grain via Croatian seaports, aiming to broaden its export routes while its Black Sea ports are blocked, a senior Ukrainian official said.
A US plan to send Ukraine funds seized from Russian businesspeople targeted by sanctions is illegal and any such actions will be contested, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Most of Russia’s troops who have been training in Belarus have been moved to other areas and there are no longer sufficient forces in the area to commence a viable offensive, a Ukrainian border official has said.
“Russia does not have a necessary strike group on the territory of Belarus that would be ready and able to invade the territory of Ukraine,” Andrii Demchenko, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s state border guard service of Ukraine said, according to CNN
At this point, Russia has withdrawn almost all of its units that have been trained and completed their rotation. However, no new units have been deployed there.
Russia is reported to have moved the units from Belarus to the northeastern front in Ukraine, which recently announced it would strengthen defences around its northern border.
