AFP, published Thursday 06 July 2023 at 21:22.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Sofia on Thursday evening in Prague, where he spoke on the evening of the deadly Russian attack on Lviv, which UNESCO condemned, on his country’s NATO membership and called for an acceleration of arms deliveries to Ukraine.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also assured Thursday that the sulphurous head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigoyine, is in Russia, despite an agreement in the wake of his failed uprising that called for him to go into exile in Belarus.
According to him, Wagner’s fighters are also “at the moment in their permanent camps” in eastern Ukraine and not in Belarus.
Amid Kiev’s counter-offensive against Russia, Ukraine’s president met his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel in Prague on Thursday night ahead of a key alliance summit scheduled for July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania.
In a video posted on the Ukrainian President’s Facebook page, Mr Zelenskyy, dressed in a khaki T-shirt, can be seen shaking hands with Mr Pavel during an official welcoming ceremony.
The Ukrainian President said he would meet Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the speakers of both chambers of Parliament for “substantive negotiations” during his two-day stay in Prague.
A few hours earlier, in Sofia, Ukraine’s president said he was on his way to “make up for the lack of weapons” as time was running out.
He reiterated that slow deliveries delayed Kiev’s counteroffensive and allowed Moscow to strengthen its defenses in the occupied territories, including with mines.
“Our partners must remain motivated,” he demanded. Otherwise “we lose the initiative on the battlefield”.
A “joint declaration” was signed between Ukraine and Bulgaria in Sofia ahead of the Vilnius summit scheduled for July 11-12, urging Kiev to join NATO.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy replied to Bulgarian President Roumen Radev, who vehemently opposed any deployment of military aid for fear of an escalation, that it was a matter of “defending oneself” to prevent the war from spreading to the rest of the country. “Europe.”
Bulgaria, a member of the EU and NATO but historically and culturally close to Moscow, is deeply divided on this issue.
In practice, however, the communist-era armaments factories have been operating at full capacity since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
– Friday in Türkiye –
The Ukrainian President will also travel to Istanbul for talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday as Moscow threatens to pull out of Turkey-backed Ukraine’s grain export deal.
Meanwhile, on the ground in Ukraine, a Russian attack on Lviv, a rarely attacked major city in the west, was marked Wednesday night, killing five people. This was the most destructive attack on this region since the war began, according to the authorities.
“This attack, the first in an area protected by the World Heritage Convention since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, constitutes a violation of this convention,” UNESCO responded to the Paris-based UN organization on Thursday. A historic building listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site was hit.
According to local authorities, the volley of Russian rockets that hit Lviv overnight damaged more than 30 apartment buildings and other buildings.
“This is the most devastating attack on the civilian population of the Lviv region since the beginning of the war,” noted the head of the regional military administration Maksym Kozytsky in Telegram.
At least five people were killed and 37 injured, according to the Interior Ministry.
“I woke up because of the first explosion, but we didn’t have time to leave the apartment. There was a second explosion, the ceiling started collapsing,” Olya, a local resident, told AFP.
– “My mother is dead” –
“My mother is dead, my neighbors are dead. At this point it looks like I’m the only one who survived on the fourth floor,” she added.
The Russian army claimed to have attacked targets for “temporary deployments” by Ukrainian soldiers. “All designated facilities are affected,” the Ministry of Defense said.
Barely a month after the start of the counter-offensive to drive Russian troops out of the country, the Ukrainian General Staff claimed advances “at certain locations” around the devastated town of Bachmout.
“Tensions are decreasing” at the Russian army-occupied Zaporijia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, reported Natalia Goumeniouk, spokeswoman for the Ukrainian army on the southern front, on Thursday.
For several days, Moscow and Kiev accused each other of threatening a provocation at this nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
Finally, in retaliation for similar measures taken by Helsinki in early June, Moscow announced the closure of a Finnish consulate and the expulsion of nine diplomats from that country.