Here are the key events so far on Friday, July 8.
Get the latest updates here.
Fighting
- Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Kyiv and its Western allies that Moscow has not yet started its military campaign in Ukraine “in earnest”.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly video message, responded with defiance, saying the two-month operation to retake Snake Island was a warning to all Russian forces that Ukraine would not be broken.
- Three people were killed and another five wounded after Russian forces fired rockets at a district in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to Governor Oleh Synehubov. He said other attacks occurred throughout the Kharkiv region, including populated areas in the towns of Chuhuiv, Izyum and Bohodukhiv.
- At least one person was killed and several were wounded in a Russian air raid on the city of Kramatorsk, Mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said, while the nearby city of Sloviansk also came under fire.
- Russia’s more immediate “tactical objective” in the east was likely to be the town of Siversk than capturing Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the United Kingdom’s defence ministry said.
Diplomacy
- The joint summit of G20 foreign ministers opened in Bali on Thursday, with Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi urging her counterparts to find ways to end the war in Ukraine sooner rather than later.
- Russia’s Lavrov dismissed what he cast as the West’s “frenzied” criticism of the war in Ukraine at the G20 meeting, scolding Russia’s rivals for scuppering a chance to tackle global economic issues.
- Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said the economic sanctions imposed by Western sanctions against Russia had not worked.
Economy
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the “world is in big trouble” due to multiplying issues, including Russia’s war in Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic, adding that multilateralism is the only way to tackle these problems.
- Russia is ready to negotiate with Ukraine and Turkey about grain but it is unclear when such talks might take place, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the blockade of the Black Sea must stop”.
