kyiv sees red. In question: a report published Thursday, August 4 by the NGO Amnesty International, which accuses Ukraine of endangering the lives of civilians in the war with Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced this report on Thursday evening. In addition, three new shipments of cereals left Ukraine in convoy this Friday morning, August 5, beginning a series of regular rotations to supply agricultural markets, thanks to the international agreement signed in July, the ministry announced. Turkish Defense.
- Amnesty “trying to grant amnesty to the terrorist state” of Russia, according to Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelensky denounced, Thursday evening, the report of the NGO Amnesty International which accuses kyiv of endangering the lives of civilians in the war with Russia. After a four-month investigation, Amnesty International has accused the Ukrainian army of establishing military bases in schools and hospitals and launching attacks from populated areas, a tactic that the NGO says violates humanitarian law. international. “Being in a defensive position does not exempt the Ukrainian army from respecting international humanitarian law,” said Agnès Callamard, the secretary general.
Amnesty International “transfers the responsibility from the aggressor to the victim”, reacted the Ukrainian president in his daily video statement, accusing the NGO of “attempting to grant amnesty to the terrorist state” of Russia. “The aggression against our state is unjustified, invasive and terrorist. If someone writes a report in which the victim and the aggressor are in some way put on an equal footing, if some data on the victim is analyzed and the actions of the aggressor ignored, this cannot be tolerated,” added Volodymyr Zelensky.
Earlier in the day, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, said he was “outraged” by the “unfair” accusations by Amnesty International which, according to him, creates “a false balance between the oppressor and the victim , between the country that is destroying hundreds and thousands of civilians, cities, territories and the country that is desperately defending itself”. Amnesty International, however, in its report, insisted that the Ukrainian tactics “in no way justify the indiscriminate Russian attacks” which have hit the civilian populations.
- Three new grain shipments left Ukraine
Three new shipments of grain left Ukraine in a convoy on Friday morning, beginning a series of regular rotations to supply agricultural markets, thanks to the international agreement signed in July, the Turkish Ministry of Defense announced. These three vessels, loaded with corn, will serve Ireland, England and Turkey, the ministry said in a statement.
They are progressing under the watchful eye of the Joint Coordination Center (CCC), established in Istanbul. Russia and Ukraine signed two separate agreements on July 22, which were also initialed by Turkey and the United Nations. These allow grain exports from Ukraine blocked by the war since February 24.
The “Navistar”, flying the Panamanian flag, left Odessa for Ireland with 33,000 tonnes of corn. The “Rojen”, under the Maltese flag, is heading for England from the port of Chernomorsk with 13,000 tonnes. Finally, the Turkish freighter “Polarnet”, which was also waiting at the quay in Chernomorsk, is heading for Karasu, a Turkish port on the Black Sea, with 12,000 tonnes of corn. The first grain load aboard the freighter “Razoni” had left Odessa on Monday August 1 and, after its inspection by the CCC at the entrance to Bosphorus, has been heading since Wednesday August 3 to Tripoli, in northern Lebanon.
- Eight dead in a strike on a bus stop in the East
Eight people were killed and four injured on Thursday when a Russian strike hit a bus stop in Toretsk, near the front line in eastern Ukraine, the regional governor said. “According to the first information we have, it was an artillery fire that hit a public transport stop where a crowd was waiting,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, explained on Telegram. . According to him, three of the four injured are children.
On July 30, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had urged the inhabitants of this region to leave it quickly in the face of bombardments by Russian forces and problems with water and heating supplies. “I appeal to all residents of the region: do not be a target for the Russians! Evacuate without delay!” Pavlo Kyrylenko insisted in his message.
Russian bombardments also targeted several other Ukrainian towns and villages on Thursday, including Mykolaiv, in the south, where apartment buildings were damaged in two neighborhoods, according to Mayor Oleksandr Senkevich. In Kharkiv, the country’s second city, local authorities reported Russian missile attacks hitting industrial areas.
- Prisoners of war killed: Washington says Moscow will create false evidence to accuse kyiv
The White House on Thursday accused Russia of preparing to create false evidence to accuse Ukraine of bombing a prison where dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war died, and which is in territory controlled by the army. Russian.
“We expect Russian officials to attempt to tamper with evidence to attribute the strike on Olenivka prison on July 29 … to Ukrainian armed forces,” the White House spokesman said for strategic issues, John Kirby. “We believe that the Russians will try to accuse the Ukrainian armed forces before the arrival of journalists and potential investigators at the site of the attack,” he added, referring to information obtained by the services. US intelligence but not made public.
According to John Kirby, Washington believes that Russian authorities will incriminate a Himars missile, a high-precision artillery system delivered by the United States and which has become vital to the Ukrainian war effort, by disposing of missile fragments allegedly found in the rubble.
More than 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed in the destruction of this prison located in the Donetsk region. These included fighters who had surrendered after weeks of siege at the Azovstal factory in Mariupol. Moscow accuses kyiv of having bombarded this prison camp, which the Ukrainian authorities refute, who affirm on the contrary that these prisoners were massacred by Russian forces.
- EU imposes sanctions on ex-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych
European Union member countries on Thursday imposed sanctions on former pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his son Oleksandr for their alleged role in the security threat to Ukraine. The European Council said in a statement that the two men have been added to a list of European sanctions put in place “in response to the unjustified Russian military aggression against Ukraine”.
Viktor Yanukovych presided over Ukraine from February 2010 to February 2014, when he was overthrown by a popular uprising against the turn taken by his government, which had turned away from the West to get closer to Moscow. Russia reacted to the defeat of its ally by seizing the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and an enclave in the eastern region of Donbass.
The EU believes that 72-year-old Viktor Yanukovych, living in Russia, still plays “a role in undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”. The statement published Thursday in the EU’s official journal accuses him of plotting to try to return to power in Ukraine if the Russian invasion manages to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelensky. “According to different sources, Viktor Yanukovych was part of a Russian special operation to replace the Ukrainian president with him, during the early stages of the illegal military aggression against Ukraine,” the newspaper said. His son was placed under sanction for the same reason and for having “carried out transactions with separatist groups in the Donbass region”.