At least three people were killed and five injured in Russian shelling of residential areas in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson. local authorities said. The Kherson Regional Military Administration said on its Telegram channel that Russian forces attacked a hospital, a school, a bus station, a post office, a bank and residential buildings in a strike on Sunday.
A rocket hit an apartment building in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, killing one person and injuring others, the regional governor said. Oleh Synehubov said the rocket hit the city center on Sunday.
Both the Ukrainian military and private military group Wagner claim control of the Blahodatne area in eastern Donetsk region. “Units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelled the occupiers’ attacks in the areas of … Blahodatne … in the Donetsk region,” reported the Ukrainian military, adding that its forces also repelled attacks in 13 other settlements in the Donetsk region. Wagner, described by the US as a transnational criminal organization, said Saturday via messaging app Telegram that its units had taken control of Blahodatne.
President Tayyip Erdoğan signaled that Turkey could agree to Finland joining NATO without Sweden, amid rising tensions with Stockholm. “Perhaps we are bringing a different message to Finland [on their Nato application] and Swedes would be shocked to see our message. But Finland should not make the same mistake that Sweden made,” Erdoğan said in a televised address aired on Sunday. Sweden and Finland applied to join NATO last year and need the consent of all member countries to join. Turkey and Hungary are holding back.
Vladimir Putin was open to contacts with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, although no call was planned, a Kremlin spokesman told state news agency Ria Novosti. Scholz told the Berliner Tagesspiegel: “I will also speak to Putin again – because it is necessary to speak.”
Kyiv and its western allies are in “accelerated” talks on the possibility of arming Ukraine with long-range missiles and military aircraft, said a top adviser to the Ukrainian president. Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine’s supporters in the west “understand how the war is developing” and the need to deliver aircraft capable of providing protection for armored vehicles, which the US and Germany have pledged.
US military are reportedly urging the Pentagon to deliver F-16 jets to Ukraine So it can better defend itself against Russian missiles and drones.
Olaf Scholz confirmed on Sunday that Germany would not send any fighter jets. “I can only advise against getting involved in a constant bidding war for weapon systems,” Scholz said in an interview with the Tagesspiegel. “If, as soon as a decision [on tanks] is done, the next debate begins in Germany, that doesn’t come across as serious and undermines the trust of the citizens in government decisions.”
The Russian Ministry of Education has released more details on plans to include basic military training in secondary schools, according to British intelligence. Britain’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Sunday the module will include “training with AK-series assault rifles and hand grenades, military drills and gun salutes”. It added that the initiatives, due to come into effect in September, were most likely a deliberate “incantation of the Soviet Union,” given that similar training was taking place in schools up until 1993.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stepped up his campaign to keep Russian athletes out of the Paris 2024 games. Ukraine’s president said he had sent a letter to Emmanuel Macron and that allowing Russia to compete would be tantamount to showing that “terror is somehow acceptable”.
Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 182 Russian and Belarusian companies and three individuals, in the latest in a series of steps to block Moscow and Minsk’s links with Ukraine. The sanctioned companies are mainly engaged in goods transportation, vehicle leasing and chemical production, according to the list published by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
Mourners gathered in Kyiv on Sunday to commemorate a British volunteer who was killed during a rescue mission from the eastern Ukrainian city of Soledar. British volunteer Andrew Bagshaw and his colleague Chris Parry were killed during an attempted humanitarian evacuation.