Here is the situation on Thursday, June 13, 2024.
Fighting
- At least nine people were killed and 29 injured, including five children, after Russian missiles hit an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- Ukraine’s air force said it shot down more than two dozen air targets, including cruise missiles, a Kinzhal ballistic missile and Shahed drones that Russia launched across Ukraine. The governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region said the attack injured three people and damaged nine private homes, while the governor of the Kyiv region said more than 100 people were working to extinguish a fire started by the attack.
- Ukraine’s military said it struck three Russian surface-to-air missile systems in Russian-occupied Crimea near Belbek and Sevastopol. The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol said air defences repelled the missile attack and that no damage had been done.
- The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, the chief of the military’s General Staff, General Valery Gerasimov, and the commanders of Russia’s five military districts, who presented him with “plans to continue the hostilities”.
Politics and diplomacy
- The United States dramatically expanded sanctions on Russia, targeting more than 300 individuals and entities in Russia and beyond, including in Asia, Europe and Africa, along with China-based companies allegedly selling semiconductors to Moscow. The US Treasury said it was also raising “the risk of secondary sanctions for foreign financial institutions that deal with Russia’s war economy”, effectively threatening them with losing access to the US financial system.
- National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said US President Joe Biden and Zelenskyy would sign a bilateral security agreement between the US and Ukraine when they meet on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Italy on Thursday.
- British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce up to 242 million pounds ($309.7m) in bilateral assistance to Ukraine at the summit to support Ukraine’s immediate humanitarian, energy and stabilisation needs, his office said.
- Zelenskyy made an unscheduled visit to Saudi Arabia, where he said he had “productive and energetic” talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman focusing on preparations for the June 15-16 peace summit in Switzerland as well as bilateral ties. Zelenskyy said he was grateful for Saudi Arabia’s support but did not say whether the crown prince would attend the summit. Some 90 delegations are expected.
- Ukrainian lawmakers announced a bill that would allow businesses to exempt their employees from military service by paying $500 a month for each exempted worker.
Weapons
- Russia practiced the electronic launch of missiles as part of a second stage of drills on how to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, the defence ministry said. Footage released by the defence ministry showed Russian sailors focusing on a dummy target and then counting down to launch, including pressing the “launch” button.
- Hungary agreed not to block NATO financial and military support for Ukraine but said it would not participate either. Earlier this year, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the security alliance wanted to guarantee long-term weapon deliveries to Kyiv and establish a 100-billion-euro ($108bn) fund for arms. The Hungary agreement opens the way for an agreement on the package at next month’s NATO summit in Washington.
- Russia said soldiers and sailors from its northern Leningrad military district bordering NATO members Norway, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined drills to deploy tactical nuclear weapons that started with Belarus this week. The move appears to broaden the disclosed geography of the exercises to include soldiers from military districts along almost all of Russia’s European border, which stretches from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea.
