Live War in Ukraine: Putin’s arrest ‘declaration of war’, Moscow warns

According to the American Institute of War, Russian forces have been dusting off old tanks to make up for significant losses of armored vehicles since the 1950s. Trains loaded with old T-54/55 tanks were seen in western Russia. They may be employed in Ukraine. According to estimates, the Russians have lost around 1,871 tanks since the start of the conflict. According to the ISW, Russian armored vehicle losses “currently limit” the Russian military’s ability to conduct effective mechanized maneuver warfare.

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin pointed out that the mass deportation of Ukrainian children is part of Russia’s criminal strategy. In a recent report, the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine confirmed Russia’s systematic approach to war crimes in Ukraine. “A war of aggression is the cause of these massive crimes. Stopping the occupation and bringing to justice the organizers of this “highest international crime” is the duty of the civilized world and the key to achieving lasting peace,” Kostin noted.

“Let’s imagine. A nuclear head of state goes to Germany and is arrested. What is that? A declaration of war against Russia,” introduced former President Dmitry Medvedev, current No. 2 of the Russian Security Council.

If that happens, he added, “our capabilities, missiles and so on, will land in the Bundestag, the chancellor’s office and so on.” Yesterday, the ICC condemned “threats” emanating from Moscow against it after a Russian judge announced that he would open criminal investigations against several of its judges.

Belarusian dissident Svetlana Tikanovskaya traveled to Washington on Wednesday to urge her country to cut ties with its “colonial” Russian neighbor. “It’s time to resist Russian interference in the internal affairs of Belarus,” the 40-year-old opponent of Alexander Lukashenko’s 2020 presidential bid pleaded during a press conference in Congress.

Forced into exile, he is now the face of democratic forces in Belarus and an opponent of a regime whose brutal abuses he has relentlessly denounced.

At the Paris Olympics in 2024, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is defending the IOC’s plan to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag. He stressed that the IOC cannot be the “arbiter of political disputes”.

Prince William visits Poland. He met Ukrainian refugees and British forces on the Ukrainian border. He is to meet President Andrej Duda.

Six weeks after the last meeting of EU leaders in Brussels, EU leaders meet again for two days. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joins the summit on the first day. Among the items on the agenda for the next two days are, in particular, the use of frozen Russian assets, global food security, military support for Ukraine, but also the fight against inflation… Since the start of the war, the EU has given Ukraine a total of €67 billion, or 27% of Ukraine’s total GDP in 2021. made available.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not get half of what he wanted in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, said Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Sovkva. “In fact, no military alliance or partnership, no new agreement to supply some type of weapons, no clear stance in favor of Russia has been taken by the Chinese leader.” Earlier, the US Institute of War Research suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin could not guarantee an unlimited bilateral partnership with China. “Putin may have failed to get the right kind of partnership he needs and wants, and Xi will leave Moscow after receiving more unilateral guarantees than Putin expected,” the report said. ISW.

Vladimir Putin plans to attend the BRICS summit in South Africa in August 2023. South Africa has said it wants to consult Russia about the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against Putin.

Due to the war, coal mines in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are not fully operational. According to Ukraine’s Deputy Energy Minister Yaroslav Temchenkov, losses from the disruption of coal mining operations in these regions could exceed $300 million.

The situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhia plant “remains dangerous” after a Russian missile attack this month, the head of the UN’s nuclear agency said. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant needs reliable electricity to run pumps that circulate water to cool the reactors and the pools that contain the reactors. However, the plant relies on an emergency power line, which is “cut and repaired,” says Rafael Croci, director of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Lack of access to the plant’s grid and necessary repair work on its last backup power line will lead to a total loss of electricity, the seventh time since Russia’s seizure a year ago that it relies on diesel generators.

In his daily video message, Volodymyr Zelensky assured the local Muslim community of Crimean Tatars on Wednesday evening that Ramadan, which begins on Thursday, would be the last they would experience “under the threat of Russian repression”.

President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Kharkiv near Bakhmout on Wednesday.

“Here in the Donbass, in the Kharkiv region, wherever the Russian evil comes, it is clear that there is no other way to stop this terrorist state than our victory,” the Ukrainian president said after Russian strikes killed or wounded civilians. “Russia will lose this war,” he said.

In Chasiv Yar, a small town west of Bagmouth, under constant Russian bombardment, AFP journalists saw convoys of Ukrainian tanks and armored vehicles, particularly of British and French manufacture, sitting on armed soldiers as they drove from and back from Bagmouth. Armor. In the center, a large crater tore through the courtyard of an apartment building. Also, a school was destroyed.

Residents board minibuses to escape. “We can’t take it anymore. Our nerves are going out,” says a man leaving the city with his parents.

Welcome to this live, dedicated to the evolution of the war in Ukraine and its consequences, after more than a year of conflict.