• Meloni: “Keep helping without jeopardizing our safety.”
• Finland’s front line: the exercise to neutralize Russian invaders and the vast network of shelters
• New: “Moscow, Nuclear Missile Test Hypothesis”.
7:51 a.m. – London: “Moscow wants to destroy ships carrying Ukrainian grain”
The United Kingdom accuses Russia of trying to sabotage ships carrying Ukrainian grain by placing sea mines near its Black Sea ports: British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said Moscow had “maliciously targeted” the ships. Concrete: “The world is watching us, we can clearly see Moscow’s cynical attempts to shift responsibility for its attacks on Kiev.” The Guardian reports on this. Based on declassified information, London said Russia did not intend to attack the ships directly with missiles but was trying to destroy them secretly. Cleverly said he wanted to make it public to dissuade Moscow from implementing the plan.
7:36 a.m. – Kiev: At least 70 Russian re-education camps for Ukrainian minors
Ukraine’s Ombudsman Dmitro Lubinets denounced the existence of “at least 70 camps” where Ukrainian children deported to Russia or occupied Ukrainian territories are re-educated. “They are mandatory. Our children cannot decide whether they participate or not. “Everyone is registered and it is an official educational program,” Lubinets said, quoted by the Ukrinform news agency, about these types of camps where minors receive “patriotic-military” training. According to Lubinets, Moscow wants to “train a new generation of soldiers among Ukrainian children” who in the future “will probably have to fight against Ukraine itself or other countries.”
About 20,000 minors would participate in this program. In March of this year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Putin and his child protection officer Maria Lvova-Belova over the massive and illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
7:17 a.m. – The US sends Iranian weapons to Ukraine
(from Andrea Nicastro, sent to Kiev) No need to worry. It is the American president who is saying this directly to key allies. Including Italy. Congress’s failure to approve new funding for Ukraine will not stop the flow of aid. It was an accident in parliamentary procedure, but Biden will find a way to fix it. The president wants to address the nation directly. It will be an important speech, the White House says, to explain why it is important to support Ukraine. “The economic measures already adopted – explains National Security Council spokesman John Kirby – will be enough for a few weeks or months.” It depends on the clashes. It certainly doesn’t help to give Putin the idea that he can wait for us unarmed at the gate.
The bottom of the barrel is now being scraped off and the weapons confiscated in the Middle East are being used. Ammunition for Iranian-made 7.62 mm Kalashnikovs has already arrived in Kiev. They were intended for the Houthi rebels in Yemen, in violation of the international embargo. According to UN rules, they should be destroyed, but Washington claims to have acquired the property as part of the legal dispute with the Tehran Revolutionary Guard. However, this is a million bullets, a drop in the ocean of the 300 million small-caliber ammunition already delivered.
Read the full article here.
6:50 a.m. – Cluster bombs in the Kursk region of Russia, one woman injured
The city of Rylsk in Russia’s Kursk region was bombed by Ukraine with cluster munitions: one woman was injured and unexploded bombs were found in the city where bomb squads operate. This was written by regional governor Roman Starovoyt on his Telegram channel. “The border town of Rylsk was bombed with cluster munitions from Ukraine. A woman was injured by shrapnel, she was taken to the Rylsk Central District Hospital and is receiving the necessary medical treatment,” Starovoit wrote. The governor clarified that houses, some infrastructure and cars were damaged in several parts of the city.
6:28 a.m. – Ukrainian drones attack the Kursk region of Russia
A swarm of Ukrainian drones attacked three districts of Russia’s Kursk region overnight. This was announced by the governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoyt, via Telegram. During the night, Ukrainian drones attacked some infrastructure in Sudzhansky, Korenevskij and Glushkovsky districts. There were power outages,” Starovoit wrote, explaining that emergency teams had begun restoring power.
5:06 a.m. – UN report on Ukraine: six civilian deaths and twenty injured per day
Civilians continue to pay a terrible price in the war in Ukraine: there have been nearly ten thousand casualties and tens of thousands injured since the conflict began in February 2022 with the Russian invasion. On average, there were almost six deaths and twenty injuries per day among the civilian population alone. This emerges from the report of the UN human rights monitors in Ukraine. “In the six months we analyzed,” explained Danielle Bell of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission, “there were more than a thousand deaths and almost four thousand injured.” The Russian missiles, according to the UN mission study, hit residential areas and vital infrastructure and grain production facilities. “Meanwhile – the dossier says – citizens in the Russian-occupied territories are subjected to torture, sexual violence and arbitrary detention.” The war has pushed millions of Ukrainians below the poverty line, in a situation that is “compromised by the economic and social damage, caused by attacks on key infrastructure and agricultural facilities is exacerbated.”
05:02 a.m. – Anti-aircraft warning at night in five Ukrainian regions
According to local media reports, air alerts were raised in five regions of Ukraine in the early hours of today. Sirens sounded in Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Poltava, Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
4:54 a.m. – Russia denies the IAEA unrestricted access to the Zaporizhzhia power plant
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Russian administrators of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) continue to deny IAEA technicians full access to the plant’s facilities. “The IAEA team – we read in a statement – continues to request access to all six turbine halls one by one on the same day to confirm the absence of materials and equipment that may violate the five basic principles of protection” of the Znpp . This application has not yet been approved and the team can only confirm the status of one turbine hall at a time. The IAEA experts – the agency’s statement published yesterday evening continues – continue to request access to the roofs of the buildings of reactors 1, 2, 5 and 6, which they had expected to be granted this week. “We will hold out until we have the access we need to monitor compliance with the five basic principles protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant,” said Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. IAEA teams at Ukraine’s three other nuclear power plants and at the Chernobyl site report “safe operation of these nuclear facilities despite the continuation of the armed conflict.” These are the “Five Basic Principles” that Grossi identified: 1) No attacks of any kind may occur from or against the facility, 2) The facility may not be used as a depot or base for heavy weapons or military personnel to attack from the facility system, 3) Electrical energy outside the system must not be endangered, 4) All structures and components essential for the safe operation of the system must be protected from attack or sabotage, 5) No measures must be taken that would jeopardize this could jeopardize principles.