Cover photo: Volodymyr Zelenskyy receives an African delegation to a peace mediation on Friday, June 16, 2023, in Kiev. Photo provided by the Press Office of the President of Ukraine. PA
- Ukrainian forces have advanced up to two kilometers in several directions but are encountering stiff resistancesaid Deputy Secretary of Defense Hanna Maliar overnight, summarizing the situation on the front lines. She said the army was conducting both offensive and defensive operations, with some success despite Moscow’s air and artillery superiority.
- The Russian army admits to fighting on the southern front in Ukraine and, for the first time, half admits to having ceded territory. “In the area of the Vremivka ledge, the most active fighting is taking place in the districts of the towns of Rivnopil and Urozhain,” the Russian Defense Ministry wrote on Friday, claiming to have repelled five attacks there in the last 20 – four hours with the help of its air force and its Artillery.
- Germany will “immediately” deliver 64 additional Patriot surface-to-air missiles to Kiev, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Friday, the second day of a NATO meeting in Brussels. It was “crucial to step up support for Ukraine,” said Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, welcoming “the new contributions from allies.”
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy again ruled out any negotiations with Moscow. “Today at our meeting I clearly said that any negotiations with Russia now that the occupier is on our country means freezing the war, freezing pain and suffering,” the Ukrainian president said at the end of a meeting in Kiev with a delegation of African mediators on Friday.
- South African President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier called on Ukraine and Russia to “de-escalate”.. “Today when we were here we heard about rocket attacks and this kind of hostilities are not good for promoting peace,” he said. The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down six Kinyal ballistic missiles, six cruise missiles and two drones in the Kyiv region.
- ” The first nuclear warheads were delivered on the territory of Belarus ‘ Vladimir Putin announced on Friday. “These are just the first ones. By the end of the summer, by the end of the year, we will have completed this work,” continued the Russian President during the International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg, which was broadcast live on television.
- The United States has “no reason” to change its nuclear stanceDespite the stationing of Russian nuclear warheads in Belarus, the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken, reacted. “We see no signs that Russia is preparing to use a nuclear weapon,” he added.
- The Atlantic Alliance will not invite Ukraine to participate in the Vilnius summit on July 11-12but would like to take this opportunity to organize the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine Council in the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, announced Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the organization.
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