Summary
- The world’s chemical weapons watchdog said on Friday it is keeping a close eye on Ukraine since Russia’s invasion to monitor “threats of use of toxic chemicals as weapons”. Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons chief Fernando Arias met Ukraine’s parliamentary chairman, Ruslan Stefanchuk, to discuss “the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention”, the Hague-based organisation said.
- Russia has demolished 1,300 high-rise buildings in the city of Mariupol without removing dead bodies of residents, according to Vadym Boichenko, mayor of Mariupol.
- Russia has labelled a non-governmental organization that fights for investigations into torture allegations as a “foreign agent”. On Friday, the Russian justice ministry updated its website list of blacklisted entities to include the Committee Against Torture, a UN-linked human rights treaty body.
- Moscow announced its withdrawal on Friday from the United Nations World Tourism Organization after it suspended Russia in April as a result of its military invasion of Ukraine.The Russian government said that it “accepted a proposal from the foreign ministry ... concerning the withdrawal of Russia” from the organization, according to a decree signed by prime minister Mikhail Mishustin.
- Thirty-seven thousand women are in the Ukrainian army and over 1,000 women have become commanders, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska said on Friday. “Most of our doctors are women as well as 50% of our entrepreneurs who work to support the economy at war,” she added.
- Ihor Zhovka, diplomatic adviser to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said that Ukraine will not “cede an inch” of territory to Russia. Speaking to Bloomberg reporter Maria Tadeo, Zhovka said, “We are not going to give away territory, we won’t cede an inch - especially not in Donbas. Russia has thrown everything at it – I won’t get tired of saying Ukraine needs immediate supply of heavy weapons.”
- Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić appeared on Friday to reject calls from German chancellor Olaf Scholz for Serbia to join the European Union in imposing sanctions on Russia over its military invasion of Ukraine. Vučić said that he did not believe sanctions are “efficient” and that his country is in a complicated position, given the longstanding special relationship between Serbia and Russia.
- A video of one of many mass graveyards in Ukraine has emerged online, Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy tweeted on Friday. According to Mariupol mayor Vadym Boichenko, there are 50 to 100 killed people under every destroyed house in the city, with the number of destroyed houses reaching 1,300.
- Ukraine tried to push back Russian troops in the east and south on Friday as France offered to help ensure access to the port of Odessa and ease a global grain crisis. An adviser to French president Emmanuel Macron said France was ready to assist in an operation to allow safe access to Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odessa.
This blog is closed. You can catch up on the week in Ukraine here. A final summary follows. Live coverage will resume later.
Updated
The world’s chemical weapons watchdog said Friday it is keeping a close eye on Ukraine since Russia’s invasion to monitor “threats of use of toxic chemicals as weapons”.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons chief Fernando Arias met Ukraine’s parliamentary chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk to discuss “the implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention,” the Hague-based organisation said.
“Since the beginning of the current conflict, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has been closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine,” the OPCW said in a statement after the meeting.
Friday’s talks included “the threat of chemical weapons use and assistance and protection support from the OPCW Technical Secretariat as well as from States Parties to the convention,” it said.
The Chemical Weapons Convention is the treaty signed by most countries around the world - including Ukraine and Russia - banning the use of chemical weapons.
Stefanchuk’s visit comes in the wake of Russia’s attack on a chemical plant last week in the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk in which a nitric acid tank was hit.
The destruction of the tank prompted Ukrainian authorities to call on residents to “stay indoors and prepare protective face masks impregnated with soda solution”.
Arias said the OPCW was ready to provide technical assistance to Ukraine, “especially in the field of chemical safety and security.”
