As the war enters its 838th day, these are the main developments.
Here is the situation on Wednesday, June 12, 2024.
Fighting
- Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, said the number of Russian attacks on the city had fallen since Ukraine’s army struck missile launch positions in Russia. While missile and drone attacks were continuing, Terekhov told the Reuters news agency that enabling Ukrainian forces to target sites across the border had helped bring relative “calm”.
- Russia claimed to have seized two more Ukrainian villages – Myasozharivka in the Luhansk region and Tymkivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region – Russia’s state TASS news agency reported, citing the Ministry of Defence.
- India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said two Indian nationals recruited by the Russian army were killed recently on the battlefield. The ministry urged the Russian ambassador in New Delhi and authorities in Moscow to quickly release and return all Indian nationals who are with the Russian army, and stop any further recruitment of Indian nationals, it added in a statement.
Politics and diplomacy
- White House spokesman John Kirby said the United States will announce new “impactful” sanctions and export controls during the G7 summit in southern Italy later this week, targeting entities and networks helping Russia fight its war against Ukraine. “We’re going to continue to drive up costs for the Russian war machine,” Kirby said.
- China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jin said Beijing would oppose all unilateral sanctions after new warnings from G7 countries on small Chinese banks about their links to Russia.
- Germany’s far-right AfD and far-left BSW parties boycotted a parliamentary address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who earlier had warned that pro-Russian rhetoric posed a growing threat to the European Union. The AfD and BSW, which are both opposed to military support for Ukraine, made huge gains in the EU parliamentary elections.
- The United Nations annual Children in Armed conflict report said the Russian army and its “affiliated armed groups” had killed 80 children in Ukraine in 2023 and injured 339. The report, due to be published on Thursday but seen by multiple news agencies, said violence against children in armed conflict reached “extreme levels” in 2023.
- The Moscow Regional Court upheld a ruling that 19-year-old Maksim Lypkan, who was arrested in February 2023 as he planned a protest against the Ukraine offensive, must remain in a psychiatric hospital and be subjected to involuntary psychiatric treatment, according to SOTA independent media. Lypkan was charged with spreading “fake [information] on the Russian army”.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin will keep demoted ally Nikolai Patrushev, a Cold War warrior who crafted the Kremlin’s national security strategy, on Russia’s national Security Council, according to a decree. The council is a consultative body chaired by Putin.
Weapons
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on allies to increase their air defence support to help protect Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, telling delegates at an international conference on rebuilding Ukraine that at least seven Patriot missile systems were needed.
- The US State Department said it had conducted a “thorough review” of Ukraine’s Azov brigade and found “no evidence” of human rights violations, clearing the way for the unit to receive training and weapons from the US. Washington said the current brigade was different from the “Azov battalion” that was established a decade ago and “disbanded in 2015” and was blighted by accusations that some members held openly far-right and extremist views.
