Briton appeals against death sentence in separatist-held east Ukraine – reportBriton Aiden Aslin, sentenced to death by a court in the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, submitted an appeal on Monday, according to the Russian Interfax agency.
“A cassation appeal against the verdict was filed today,” the lawyer representing him, Pavel Kosovan, told Interfax.
Aslin was sentenced to death last month together with fellow Briton Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun for “mercenary activities” because they had been captured while fighting as foreigners for Ukraine’s army against Russian and Russian-backed forces in Ukraine.
Tass news agency reported on Friday the breakaway region’s supreme court had received appeals from lawyers for Saadoun and Pinner but that Aslin had yet to submit an appeal, Reuters reported.
The Donetsk People’s Republic is only recognised by UN members Russia and Syria as a legitimate authority. UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has said she condemns the sentence, saying “They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.”
Ukraine PM: $100bn of direct damage to infrastructure from Russia’s invasion so farUkrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has put a price tag on the recovery of his country at the Ukraine Recovery Conference hosted by Switzerland – $750bn (£620bn).
Reuters reports Shmyhal also told the conference that there had been over $100bn of direct damage to infrastructure from Russia’s invasion so far.
Lorenzo Tondo
Ukrainian forces have raised the country’s flag on Snake Island, a strategic and symbolic outpost in the Black Sea that Russian troops retreated from last week after months of heavy bombardment.
“The military operation has been concluded, and … the territory, Snake Island, has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, told reporters.
Ukraine has considered control of the island as a critical step in loosening Moscow’s blockade on its southern ports.
However, it was not clear if Ukrainian troops would seek to re-establish a permanent presence there, as it is dangerously exposed to bombardment.
Briton appeals against death sentence in separatist-held east Ukraine – reportBriton Aiden Aslin, sentenced to death by a court in the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, submitted an appeal on Monday, according to the Russian Interfax agency.
“A cassation appeal against the verdict was filed today,” the lawyer representing him, Pavel Kosovan, told Interfax.
Aslin was sentenced to death last month together with fellow Briton Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun for “mercenary activities” because they had been captured while fighting as foreigners for Ukraine’s army against Russian and Russian-backed forces in Ukraine.
Tass news agency reported on Friday the breakaway region’s supreme court had received appeals from lawyers for Saadoun and Pinner but that Aslin had yet to submit an appeal, Reuters reported.
The Donetsk People’s Republic is only recognised by UN members Russia and Syria as a legitimate authority. UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has said she condemns the sentence, saying “They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.”
Ukraine has renewed its invitation for Pope Francis to visit the country and urged the pontiff to continue praying for the Ukrainian people, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
“It is time to deepen connections with those who sincerely desire it. We renew the invitation to Pope Francis to visit our country and urge you to continue praying for the Ukrainian people,” foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said when asked to comment on an interview Francis gave to Reuters.
The pope said in the interview that he hoped he would be able to go to Moscow and Kyiv after a trip to Canada as part of efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Pope Francis. Photograph: Remo Casilli/Reuters
Andrey Kurkov
The city of Kremenchuk is looking for blood. Last week, two Russian missiles blew apart a large shopping and entertainment centre where about 1,000 people were spending the afternoon.
The exact number of those killed is still not known, but hundreds of people were close to the explosion and of some of them, not even fragments are left. The number of wounded is known, though. The survivors were left without arms, without legs. And they need blood.
This tragedy has given fresh impetus to blood donation efforts. Blood is needed everywhere in Ukraine – wherever Russian missiles and shells explode, wherever wounded soldiers are brought from the frontlines.
In Lviv, they are waiting for blood at the military hospital, which is located on a street named after the Russian writer Anton Chekhov, as well as in the regional hospital on a street named after the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.
Turkey has halted a Russian-flagged cargo ship off its Black Sea coast and is investigating a Ukrainian claim that it was carrying stolen grain, a senior Turkish official said on Monday.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey said on Sunday the Zhibek Zholy was detained by Turkish customs authorities. Ukraine had previously asked Ankara to detain it, according to an official and documents viewed by Reuters.
Kyiv has accused Moscow of stealing grain from the territories that Russian forces have seized since their invasion began in late February. The Kremlin has previously denied that Russia has stolen any Ukrainian grain.
“Upon request, the ship named Zhibek Zholy was halted off Karasu,” a senior official said. “The allegations are being investigated thoroughly. It is not written on the grain who it belongs to.”
He said Turkey was in contact with Russia, the United Nations and third parties regarding the issue.
Ukrainian flag raised on Snake Island as it returns to Kyiv’s jurisdictionThe Ukrainian flag has been raised again on Snake Island in the Black Sea, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said on Monday, after Russian troops withdrew from the strategic outpost last week.
“The territory [Snake Island] has been returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine,” Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, told a news conference.
An image tweeted by the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine purporting to show the Ukrainian flag raised on Snake Island. Photograph: DPSU UkraineWestern envoys in China have criticised Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, with the US ambassador saying China should not spread Russian “propaganda”, during an unusual public forum in a country that has declined to condemn Moscow’s attack.
Speaking at the World Peace Forum, organised by Tsinghua University, US ambassador Nicholas Burns called the Russian war against Ukraine “the greatest threat to global world order”, Reuters reported.
Burns said he hoped China’s foreign ministry spokespeople would stop repeating “Russian propaganda” blaming Nato for the war.
“I hope foreign ministry spokespersons would also stop telling lies about American bioweapons labs, which do not exist in Ukraine,” he said.
Burns was flanked by the British and French ambassadors to his left and a Chinese government adviser and the Russian ambassador to his right.
Today so far … Leaders from dozens of countries, international organisations and the private sector are gathering in Switzerland today to hash out a “Marshall plan” to rebuild war-ravaged Ukraine. The Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who will take part virtually, earlier warned that the work ahead in the areas that have been liberated alone was “really colossal”. “And we will have to free over 2,000 villages and towns in the east and south of Ukraine,” he said.
Ukrainian forces have retreated from Lysychansk as Russia claims it is now in control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Moscow’s forces had established “full control” over Lysychansk and several nearby settlements. Ukraine’s military command confirmed on Sunday evening that its troops had been forced to pull back from the city, saying there would otherwise be “fatal consequences”. Lysychansk was the last Ukrainian-controlled city in the Luhansk region. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, vowed to regain Lysychansk with the help of long-range western weapons. “We will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons. Ukraine does not give anything up,” he said in an evening address. Russia will shift the main focus of its war in Ukraine to trying to seize all of the Donetsk region after capturing neighbouring Luhansk, the Luhansk region’s governor Serhai Haidai has said. He claimed about 8,000 civilians remain in occupied Sievierodonetsk and about 10,000 in newly occupied Lysychansk. A map of the latest developments in the invasion of Ukraine Russian forces hit a secondary school in the Kharkiv district at 4am on Monday morning, according to a report from Oleh Synyehubov, governor of the region. There were no reported casualties. He also said three people were killed and six injured in an attack on the village of Bezruky in his region. The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has claimed that in the last 24 hours Ukrainian forces have shelled 15 of the 240 settlements they say they control. They claim that “five people were killed and another 20 civilians were injured”. The eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region was hit by powerful shelling from multiple rocket launchers on Sunday, killing six people and injuring 20 others, the city’s mayor Vadim Lyakh said. In the post-2014 regional capital of Kramatorsk, a missile destroyed a hotel, according to its mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko. He said three rockets hit the town on Sunday and that there were no reported victims so far. At least three people were killed and dozens of residential buildings damaged in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border on Sunday, the region’s governor said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said at least 11 apartment buildings and 39 private residential houses were damaged, including five houses destroyed. Russian president Vladimir Putin will not congratulate his US counterpart Joe Biden on Monday’s US independence day celebrations because of Washington’s “unfriendly” actions towards Moscow, the Kremlin has said. The Russian cosmonauts who were lauded at the outset of the war on Ukraine in February for appearing to show their support for their invaded neighbours with yellow and blue spacesuits, have been pictured on the International Space Station (ISS) holding the flags of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, alongside a message celebrating what Russian space agancy Roscosmos termed the “liberation” of Luhansk. Europe faces a rising risk of recession because of rising oil and gas prices amid concerns that Russia could turn off supplies completely, economists have said. Europe’s economy will be hit by a variety of factors including falling demand in the US – its biggest export market – the continued fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and related increases in food and energy prices, according to Nomura, a Japanese investment bank with significant operations in London. Australia will send more than $100m in new aid to Ukraine including military equipment, as well as levelling sanctions on 16 new Russian officials, after prime minister Anthony Albanese’s secret trip to Kyiv. Albanese visited Bucha, Hostomel and Irpin, three towns in the Kyiv region where evidence of mass killings and torture was uncovered after the withdrawal of Russian forces. Britain will host a 2023 recovery conference to help Ukraine rebuild from the damage caused by Russia’s invasion. The Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) will begin on Monday in Lugano, Switzerland, to discuss how to rebuild Ukraine, bringing together a Ukrainian delegation with representatives of other countries, international organisations and civil society, the UK Foreign Office said. The UK may follow the example of Canada and seize the assets of Russians in Britain in order to give them to Ukraine. The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, told MPs she was supportive of the idea that the government could seize frozen Russian assets in the UK and redistribute them to victims of Russia’s war in Ukraine. That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back with you later. Tom Ambrose will be with you for the next few hours.
Russian president Vladimir Putin will not congratulate his US counterpart Joe Biden on Monday’s US independence day celebrations because of Washington’s “unfriendly” actions towards Moscow, the Kremlin has said.
“Congratulations this year can hardly be considered appropriate,” Reuters reports Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the media on his regular daily conference call. “The United States’ unfriendly policies are the reason.”
The Russian cosmonauts who were lauded at the outset of the war on Ukraine in February for appearing to show their support for their invaded neighbours with yellow and blue spacesuits have been pictured on the International Space Station (ISS) holding the flags of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic, alongside a message celebrating what Russian space agancy Roscosmos termed the “liberation” of Luhansk.
Russian cosmonauts pose with a flag of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic at the International Space Station. Photograph: ROSCOSMOS/ReutersIn a message posted to the official Roscosmos Telegram channel, Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov are shown holding each of the flags of the two occupied territories, which are only recognised as legitimate authorities by Russia and Syria among UN member states.
The message accompanying the pictures says “Liberation Day of the Luhansk People’s Republic! We celebrate both on Earth and in space.”
Roscosmos goes on in the statement to say:
Roscosmos and our cosmonauts, who are working today at the International Space Station, join the congratulations of the head of the LPR, Leonid Pasechnik, on the ‘new Day of the Great Victory.’
This is a long-awaited day that residents of the occupied areas of the Luhansk region have been waiting for eight years. We are confident that 3 July 2022 will forever go down in the history of the Republic. Citizens of the allied Donetsk People’s Republic, wait!
The three men were the first Russian crew to join the ISS since Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February, and when they emerged from their Soyuz capsule in yellow uniforms it was widely seen as a message of solidarity. However, the cosmonauts had been coy about interpretations of their yellow uniforms as tacit support for Ukraine. Asked about the suit at the time, Artemyev said every crew chose their own.
Korsakov, Artemyev and Matveyev were the first new faces in space since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine and emerged from the Soyuz capsule in February wearing yellow flight suits with blue stripes, widely interpreted as the colours of the Ukrainian flag at the time. Photograph: AP“It became our turn to pick a colour. But, in fact, we had accumulated a lot of yellow material so we needed to use it,” he said. “So that’s why we had to wear yellow.”
It is unclear how the flags of the two self-declared republics came to be on board the ISS. Also on board the station at the moment working with the three Russian cosmonauts are Nasa’s American astronauts Jessica Watkins, Robert Hines and Kjell N. Lindgren, as well as the European Space Agency’s Italian Samantha Cristoforetti.
The Luhansk People’s Republic now claims to control almost all of Ukraine’s eastern oblast of Luhansk, which borders Russia, after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the city of Lysychansk on Sunday.
Here are some of the latest images that have been sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
First responders work on the scene where a school was destroyed by early morning shelling as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues in Kharkiv. Photograph: Leah Millis/ReutersA Ukranian soldier is seen near a destroyed Antonov transporter plane at Hostomel airport on the outskirts of Kyiv. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAPAustralian prime minister Anthony Albanese (third right) tours damaged residential areas in Irpin yesterday. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPAUkrainian platoon commander Mariia walks in a position in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Saturday. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/APSymbolic Ukrainian flags with names of soldiers killed in the war with Russia at Maidan Nezhalezhnosti Square in Kyiv. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPAThe self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic has claimed on Telegram that in the last 24 hours Ukrainian forces have shelled 15 of the 240 settlements they say they control. They claim that “five people were killed and another 20 civilians were injured.”
The claims have not been independently verified. Russia and Syria are the only UN member states that recognise the Donetsk People’s Republic as a legitimate authority.
Russia will shift the main focus of its war in Ukraine to trying to seize all of the Donetsk region after capturing neighbouring Luhansk, the Luhansk region’s governor has told Reuters.
Serhiy Gaidai said in an interview that he expected the city of Sloviansk and the town of Bakhmut in particular to come under attack as Russia tries to take full control of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
About 8,000 civilians remain in occupied Sievierodonetsk and about 10,000 in newly occupied Lysychansk, according to Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk.
In a status update to Telegram, Haidai said: “We maintain the defence of a small part of Luhansk region so that our military has time to build defences.”
The claims have not been independently verified.