After Sofia, Prague, here is Istanbul. The Ukrainian president is meeting, this Friday, July 7, his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This meeting takes place in the run-up to a crucial NATO summit. During this first visit to Turkey by the Ukrainian head of state since February 2022, the two men will discuss the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports, concluded in July 2022 with the sponsorship of the United Nations and the Turkey, which Russia sees “no reason” to extend until it expires on July 17. On the eve of the 500th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, its president continues to try to mobilize his allies.
Volodymyr Zelensky also said Thursday that the Ukrainian counter-offensive was “not fast” but that the troops in kyiv were advancing. “We are not backing down, like the Russians,” he told reporters during his visit to Prague. “We now have the initiative.”
IAEA ‘making progress’ in access to Zaporizhia power plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “making progress” in securing access to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, its director general, Rafael Grossi, said on Friday. The IAEA chief said inspectors had visited several sites, including the cooling pools, but had not had access to the roof, where Ukraine suspects Russian forces, which occupy the plant, of placing mines or explosives.
Ukraine needs “honesty” in its relations with NATO
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that kyiv wanted “honesty” in its relations with NATO, a few days before a crucial summit of the Atlantic Alliance in Lithuania. It is time to demonstrate “the courage and strength of this alliance […]. We need that motivation,” he insisted.
Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine wanted an “invitation” to join NATO at the Alliance summit. The Allies are still seeking a common line on the security guarantees they are ready to grant Kiev as well as on the invitation to Ukraine to eventually join the organization. At the Vilnius summit, NATO wants to hold the first meeting of the new NATO-Ukraine council with Volodymyr Zelensky.
In Prague, Zelensky is still looking for more weapons
Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in Prague on Thursday evening with Czech President Petr Pavel and other country officials, according to a video posted on the Ukrainian president’s Facebook page. In the images, the Ukrainian president, dressed in a khaki T-shirt, can be seen shaking hands with Petr Pavel during an official welcoming ceremony. Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Sofia earlier Thursday to discuss his country’s NATO membership and to plead for an acceleration of arms deliveries to Ukraine, in the midst of Kiev’s counter-offensive against Russia. .
Ukraine’s president said he would meet Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and the presidents of both parliamentary chambers for “substantive negotiations” during his two-day stay in Prague. During his visit to Sofia a few hours earlier, the Ukrainian president said he had come to fill “the lack of weapons”, while time is running out. He repeated that slow deliveries had delayed kyiv’s counter-offensive, allowing Moscow to strengthen its defenses in occupied areas, including with mines.
Romania: a training center for Ukrainian F-16 pilots
Romania has announced the launch on its territory, with the help of allied countries, of a training center for pilots, including Ukrainians, of American F-16 fighters, which Ukraine says it needs to fight the invasion Russian. “With other allies and the company manufacturing these fighters, a regional center will be created in Romania to train pilots for these aircraft,” the Romanian National Defense Council said in a statement.
“Romanian pilots of American F-16s will be trained here and the center will then be open to pilots from NATO allies and partners, including Ukraine,” added the same source. Several countries are seeking to help Ukraine train its F-16 pilots after the green light given by the United States. The head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell indicated at the end of May that Poland had already started to do so and that several countries were ready to supply Ukraine with these combat aircraft.
The toll of the attack is heavier in Lviv
Ten people were killed in this attack, announced Friday morning the mayor of Lviv, Andriï Sadovyi. A “tenth body (without life) has just been discovered. It is a woman”, wrote the chosen one on Telegram, which also announced the end of the search operations. 42 people were injured, including three children, according to a new report released Friday morning by the Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior. “This is the most destructive attack against the civilian population of the Lviv region since the beginning of the war,” the head of the regional military administration, Maksym Kozytsky, noted on Telegram.
For its part, Unesco condemned the bombing by Russia of a “historic building” in Lviv, in western Ukraine, sending its condolences to the families of the five victims. “This attack, the first in an area protected by the World Heritage Convention since the start of the war on February 24, 2022, is a violation of this convention” of Unesco, reacted the UN organization based in Paris. The Russian strike also violates “the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”.