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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy warned late on Tuesday of the possibility of “repugnant Russian provocations” and authorities urged people to take air raid warnings seriously.
“We are fighting against the most terrible threat to our statehood and also at a time when we have achieved the greatest level of national unity,” Zelenskiyy said in an evening address,
Earlier on Tuesday, he told representatives of about 60 states and international organizations attending a virtual summit on Crimea that Kyiv would drive Russian forces out of the peninsular by any means necessary, without consulting other countries beforehand.
The war has killed thousands of civilians, forced over a third of Ukraine’s 41 million people from their homes, left cities in ruins and shaken global markets. It is largely at a standstill with no immediate prospect of peace talks.
As Ukraine marks its Independence Day on Wednesday amid the six-month mark of the war with Russia, the takes a look at “some of Ukraine's major political and military victories and cultural achievements starting from the founding of the proto-Ukrainian state – Kyivan Rus, in the mid-9th century – to the successful counteroffensive near Kyiv in March-April 2022.”
Economists say although Russia is feeling the effects of sanctions, and they will exact a heavier toll on Russia’s economy in the longer term, it’s a “mixed” picture for now, .
There are over warnings Russia might disrupt the nation’s Independence Day holiday Wednesday and punctuate the war’s six-month mark with major attacks.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany has a shipment of weaponry and ammunition to Ukraine worth more than $499 million, according to government officials, .
the United States is set to announce a roughly $3 billion package of new long-term military aid to Ukraine.
U.S. officials who spoke to AP said the package would be announced Wednesday. The officials said the money will fund contracts for drones, weapons “and other equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two.”
Besides further bolstering Ukraine’s long-term capabilities, “the new package is intended to reassure Ukrainian officials that the United States intends to keep up its support, regardless of the day-to-day back and forth of the conflict,” says the report.
In pre-recorded remarks released Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated the U.S. position on the Crimea region – and called for increased pressure on Russia to make it withdraw all troops from Ukraine.
Germany’s natural gas storage facilities are now more than 80 percent full in spite of a drastic reduction in deliveries from Russia,
Natural gas is a key energy source for heating homes and powering industry. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the German government has been attempting to build up gas reserves to avoid rationing during the coming winter months.
Russia has said the reduction in gas supply is due to technical issues, but Germany says the Kremlin is trying to exert economic pressure on European countries who have backed the Ukrainian government in the war.
Just under 1 million war refugees from Ukraine have come to Germany since Russia invaded its neighbor six months ago, .
The ministry said in a statement Tuesday that 967,546 refugees from Ukraine have been recorded in Germany’s Central Register of Foreigners. It said over a third, about 351,000, are under the age of 18. Women make up the large majority of the adults.
The ministry noted that many other war refugees who entered Germany may have traveled to other European Union countries or returned to Ukraine.
The flow of refugees has slowed but not stopped. “The federal police assume that around 700 refugees from Ukraine are currently entering Germany every day,” the ministry said
Western sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine are hurting but not crushing the Russian economy, according to a
The newspaper says the sanctions have impaired Russian manufacturing, reduced international flights to near zero and caused shortages of imported goods. At the same time, it says, unemployment hasn’t noticeably surged, and Russia continues to earn the equivalent of billions of dollars every month from its oil and gas exports.
One economist tells the Post that sanctions “are working, definitely, but unfortunately much slower than everybody was expecting six months ago.”
that authorities in Latvia have begun work to remove a huge Soviet-era monument, in a rebuke to Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.