On the ground, Ukraine claimed Thursday to have “destroyed” during the night a missile launcher belonging to the Russian Black Sea Fleet and which was patrolling off the coast of Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Moscow and regularly attacked by Kiev.
Information to remember
⇒ Two French people killed in a Russian strike in Ukraine
⇒ EU aid sends clear signal to Russia, says Zelensky
⇒ Ukraine must prepare for a drop in aid
Two French people killed in a Russian strike in Ukraine
Two French “volunteers” were killed and several other people were lightly injured Thursday during a Russian strike in Beryslav, near Kherson in southern Ukraine, a Ukrainian official announced. “Foreign volunteers were killed and injured due to an enemy strike on Beryslav,” Kherson region governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
“The Russian army killed two French citizens. Three other foreigners were slightly injured” as well as a Ukrainian, he continued, without specifying the exact functions of these “volunteers” – an expression often used to designate workers of humanitarian organizations – and offering his “sincere condolences to the families of the dead”.
EU aid sends clear signal to Russia, says Zelensky
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the European Union on Thursday evening for approving 50 billion euros in aid to kyiv, seeing it as “a clear signal” sent to Russia.
“Today the EU made a long-awaited decision,” President Zelensky said in his daily message. “This is a clear message to Moscow, Europe will resist and Europe will not be broken,” he continued.
Ukraine must prepare for aid cuts
Ukraine must prepare for a possible drop in aid from its allies which would force it to adapt its military strategy, army chief Valery Zaluzhny said in an article published Thursday. The very popular commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armies, whose tensions with President Volodymyr Zelensky have sparked numerous comments, is concerned in a column for CNN about a possible reduction in support from kyiv’s allies.
“We must face a reduction in military support from our main allies, struggling with their own political tensions,” anticipates the general, in his post since 2021, a few months before the start of the Russian invasion of his country.
The US Senate will unveil its new aid plan
The American Senate will unveil its new aid plan for Ukraine this week, its leader Chuck Schumer announced on Thursday, a few hours after the validation by the European Union of 50 billion euros in assistance to kyiv.
Zaporizhzhia: employees of the Ukrainian operator Energoatom banned from access
The Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, in the hands of Moscow’s forces, has decided to ban access to any employee of the Ukrainian operator Energoatom, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday.
The director general of the UN body, Rafael Grossi, expected on site next week, “will raise the crucial question of personnel and request information about this new announcement”, according to a press release.
ICJ decides whether it can try case over Ukraine invasion
The UN’s highest court rules Friday whether it has jurisdiction to judge a case brought by Ukraine just after the Russian invasion in 2022, with kyiv seeking reparations from Moscow. In these proceedings before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which sits in The Hague, Ukraine accuses Russia of having wrongly invoked genocide.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had in fact partly justified the invasion with accusations of “genocide” orchestrated by kyiv in Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine.