Civilians urged to evacuate Sloviansk as Russia bombing intensifiesThe bombing in eastern Ukraine is becoming more intense and, with no water or electricity, 100 people or so heeded the mayor’s call on Thursday to evacuate the city of Sloviansk which sits in Russia’s crosshairs, Agence France-Presse reports.
“The situation is getting worse, the explosions are stronger and stronger and the bombs are falling more often,” 18-year-old student Goulnara Evgaripova told AFP.
Outside an administrative office, she boarded one of five minibuses earmarked to take people out of the city in the Donetsk region that Moscow wants to control.
One Russian strike killed three people, wounded six and left a trail of damage on Tuesday in Sloviansk, witnesses told AFP.
Mayor Vadim Liakh, spoke of a fresh bombardment on Thursday that damaged electricity lines on the edge of the city which boasted a population of 100,000 before the late February invasion.
“There is no electricity, the water supply is down,” Liakh posted on the Telgram messenger service.
“The best solution in this situation, is to evacuate.
“Take care of yourselves. Pack your bags,” he urged.
In 2014, when Russia grabbed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, Moscow-backed separatists also seized Sloviansk, before Ukrainian forces regained control.
Residents wait as they evacuate the city of Sloviansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 2, 2022. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty ImagesPedestrians pass by empty yellow school busses where stuffed toys symbolizing each of 243 killed Ukrainian children are displayed on seats during an action marking the International Children’s Day, in Lviv.
Pedestrians pass by empty yellow school busses where stuffed toys symbolizing each of 243 killed Ukrainian children are displayed on seats during an action marking the International Children’s Day, in Lviv.
📸 Yuriy Dyachyshyn #AFP pic.twitter.com/0jmSeTcx4v
— AFP Photo (@AFPphoto) June 2, 2022 Ukrainian forces have had some success fighting Russians in the city of Sievierodonetsk but the overall military situation in the Donbas region has not changed in the last 24 hours, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday.
In a late night video address, Ukraine’s president thanked the US president, Joe Biden, for promising to send missiles and said he expected good news about weapons supplies from other partners.
Ukraine residents of Sievierodonetsk, Lugansk Oblast, wait hidden in their basement during the heavy shelling by Russian forces and Russia-backed separatists on February 28, 2022. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty ImagesUN aid chief Martin Griffiths is in Moscow on Thursday and Friday to discuss clearing the way for exports of grain and other food from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, Reuters reports.
Griffiths will meet Russian officials days after another senior UN official, Rebecca Grynspan, had “constructive” talks in Moscow with Russia’s first deputy prime minister, Andrei Belousov, on expediting Russian grain and fertilizer exports.
The UN secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, is trying to broker what he calls a “package deal” to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertilizer exports, which were disrupted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.
“The situation remains fluid. The Secretary-General, and the two main people he has tasked to work on this, Rebecca Grynspan and Martin Griffiths – we will do and go anywhere we need to go to push this project forward,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that vessels carrying grain can leave Ukraine’s ports in the Black Sea via “humanitarian corridors” and Russia is ready to guarantee their safety, Interfax news agency said.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has fuelled a global food crisis with prices for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer soaring. Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat supplies. Russia is also a fertilizer exporter and Ukraine is a major exporter of corn and sunflower oil.
Since the invasion, Ukrainian grain shipments from its Black Sea ports have stalled and more than 20m tonnes of grain are stuck in silos, while Moscow says the chilling effect of Western sanctions imposed on Russia has hurt its fertilizer and grain exports.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said on Tuesday that the United States is prepared to give “comfort letters” to shipping and insurance companies to help facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertilizer.
But she also said: “Russia is able to get its oil out, and that’s sanctioned. They should be able to get their grain out that’s not sanctioned.”
Seeds are seen in a grain silos destroyed after it was shelled repeatedly, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Donetsk region, Ukraine May 31, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/ReutersCivilians urged to evacuate Sloviansk as Russia bombing intensifiesThe bombing in eastern Ukraine is becoming more intense and, with no water or electricity, 100 people or so heeded the mayor’s call on Thursday to evacuate the city of Sloviansk which sits in Russia’s crosshairs, Agence France-Presse reports.
“The situation is getting worse, the explosions are stronger and stronger and the bombs are falling more often,” 18-year-old student Goulnara Evgaripova told AFP.
Outside an administrative office, she boarded one of five minibuses earmarked to take people out of the city in the Donetsk region that Moscow wants to control.
One Russian strike killed three people, wounded six and left a trail of damage on Tuesday in Sloviansk, witnesses told AFP.
Mayor Vadim Liakh, spoke of a fresh bombardment on Thursday that damaged electricity lines on the edge of the city which boasted a population of 100,000 before the late February invasion.
“There is no electricity, the water supply is down,” Liakh posted on the Telgram messenger service.
“The best solution in this situation, is to evacuate.
“Take care of yourselves. Pack your bags,” he urged.
In 2014, when Russia grabbed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, Moscow-backed separatists also seized Sloviansk, before Ukrainian forces regained control.
Residents wait as they evacuate the city of Sloviansk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 2, 2022. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images10 Russian servicemen who looted the property of Bucha residents have been identified and reported on suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war, Euromaidan reports.
10 Russian servicemen who looted the property of Bucha residents have been identified and reported on suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war
The suspects will be declared on the international wanted list, Prosecutor General reported📷 t.co/5faollXwoP pic.twitter.com/hX72wMNO08
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 2, 2022 “According to the investigation, from February 24 to March 31, 2022, servicemen of the military unit of the National Guard of the Russian Federation during the occupation of Bucha looted the valuables of the local population. For the sole purpose of personal gain, the Russian military confiscated private property of citizens that could not be used for military purposes: from underwear and clothing to large household appliances,” the office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General said in a statement on Thursday.
“Pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings is carried out by investigators of…the National Police of Ukraine,” the statement added.
European Parliament bans Russian lobbyists from premisesThe European Parliament announced on Thursday that it has banned all Russian lobbyists from its premises to prevent them spreading Moscow “propaganda” about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reports.
“Effective immediately, Russian company representatives are no longer allowed to enter European Parliament premises,” the European Parliament president Roberta Metsola said on Twitter.
Effective immediately, Russian company representatives are no longer allowed to enter @Europarl_EN premises.
We must not allow them any space to spread their propaganda & false, toxic narratives about the invasion of #Ukraine.
We will remain united & strong against autocrats.
— Roberta Metsola (@EP_President) June 2, 2022 Metsola urged all other EU institutions, including the European Commission and the European Council, to follow suit.
A parliament spokesman said the ban was a response to “Russia creating and spreading false narratives about the war in Ukraine through multiple channels, including through state-owned companies”.
The prohibition applies to Russian companies listed as employing lobbyists to the EU as well as those on the bloc’s sanction blacklist.
The parliament in 2015 had already banned Russian diplomats from its premises, which include chambers and annexes in Brussels and the French city of Strasbourg, in response to Moscow banning several EU politicians vociferous over its annexation of Crimea.
German MEP Erik Marquardt, of the Greens, welcomed the ban saying that “especially oil and gas lobbyists” working on behalf of Russian companies had been trying to “spread propaganda and disinformation” in recent months.
President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola holds a press conference ahead of EU Leaders’ Summit in Brussels on May 30, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesUkraine’s state-run nuclear power operator, Energoatom, on Thursday denied it might shut down a major atomic power plant that lies in Russian-occupied territory if Kyiv loses control of operations at the site, Reuters reports.
The Zaporizhzhia facility in southeast Ukraine is Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Russian troops have taken over the plant, but Ukrainian specialists are still running it.
Russian news agency Interfax cited a Ukrainian presidential aide as saying the plant could be shut down if Kyiv lost all control.
But in a statement, Energoatom said the plant “cannot be turned off from a technical, security, economic or political point of view.”
Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator last week dismissed as “physically impossible” the suggestion by a Russian official that the plant would supply Russia with electricity.
A picture taken during a visit to Mariupol organized by the Russian military shows Russian servicemen on guard in front of the main entrance of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Enerhodar, southeastern Ukraine, 01 May 2022. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPASummaryIt’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Pro-Russian officials in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said a decree has been issued to “nationalise” state assets in the south-eastern region. The deputy head of the Moscow-imposed administration, Andrei Trofimov, said the nationalisation would affect land, natural resources, facilities in strategic sectors of the economy, as well as property owned by Ukraine as of 24 February.
Ukraine more than doubled interest rates to 25% on Thursday in a move to try to stem double-digit inflation and protect its currency, which has collapsed since Russia’s invasion. In the first interest rates intervention since Vladimir Putin’s troops attacked on 24 February, the Ukrainian central bank’s governor, Kyrylo Shevchenko, increased the benchmark interest rate from 10% to 25%. Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance was in touch with Turkey to find a “united way” forward to address Ankara’s concerns over Sweden and Finland’s bid to join the pact. Stoltenberg’s latest remarks come after he told reporters yesterday that he would convene senior officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey in Brussels in the coming days to discuss the issue. Russian forces are currently occupying about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address to the Luxembourg parliament. The front lines of battle stretch across more than 1,000km (620 miles), the Ukrainian president said, adding that 100 Ukrainians are dying on a daily basis in eastern Ukraine, and another 450-500 people are wounded. Zelenskiy said 243 children have been killed, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing so far in the war in Ukraine. Some 200,000 children have been forcefully taken to Russia, he claimed, including children from orphanages, children taken with their parents and those separated from their families. The White House announced a fresh round of sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting Russian government officials and elites as well as several yachts linked to Vladimir Putin. The sanctions were announced as Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he was “grateful” to the US and its secretary of state, Antony Blinken, for a new $700m weapons package for Ukraine.
EU ambassadors dropped the leader of Russia’s Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, from a proposed blacklist, according to diplomats. The removal of Patriarch Kirill from the list of sanctioned individuals allows the EU to agree on a new round of sanctions after opposition from Hungary. About 800 people, including children, are hiding underneath the Azot chemical factory in the key eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, according to Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk region. The UK’s ministry of defence said Russia has taken control of most of Sieverodonetsk, which has come under intense Russian shelling. Russia has accused the son of a Conservative MP of involvement in the killing of a Chechen brigade commander in Ukraine. Russia’s National Guard said one of its commanders, the Chechen fighter Adam Bisultanov, was killed on 26 May in a clash with a “group of mercenaries from the UK and the USA” that included the “son of a British parliamentarian,” Ben Grant. That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today. I’ll be back tomorrow. My colleague, Maya Yang, will be here shortly to bring you the latest developments from the war in Ukraine.
Pro-Russian officials in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine said a decree has been issued to “nationalise” state assets in the southeastern region.
The decree has been signed by officials installed by Moscow and applies to strategic firms, land and natural resources, the RIA news agency quoted the administration as saying.
The “liberated” region of Zaporizhzhia will “nationalise” the state property of Ukraine, a member of the region’s pro-Moscow military-civilian administration, Vladimir Rogov, wrote on Telegram.
The deputy head of the Moscow-imposed administration, Andrei Trofimov, said the nationalisation would affect land, natural resources, facilities in strategic sectors of the economy, as well as property owned by Ukraine as of 24 February – the day when Russia invaded.
Trofimov said:
The decree was signed in order to meet state needs related to improving the overall efficiency and social orientation of the economy, as well as to preserve the national heritage for residents of the Zaporizhzhia Region.
Russia claimed full control of the Kherson region in March and holds parts of the Zaporizhzhia region to the northeast.
In May, Putin signed a decree simplifying the procedure for residents of the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson to apply for Russian citizenship.
A girl rides a scooter near destroyed buildings during attacks in Irpin outskirts Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/APA woman stands in her house at a window in a destroyed building during attacks in Irpin. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/APNato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance was in touch with Turkey to find a “united way” forward to address Ankara’s concerns over Sweden and Finland’s bid to join the pact.
The two Nordic countries said yesterday that they would continue a dialogue with Turkey over their Nato bids but did not say whether there had been progress on overcoming Ankara’s objections.
Referring to talks that took place in Ankara last week between delegations from all three countries, Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, said:
Together with Sweden, we will do our homework and prepare for the questions Turkey has.
Stoltenberg said he would convene senior officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey in Brussels in the coming days to discuss the issue.
Turkey will donate a Bayraktar combat drone to Lithuania to be handed over to Ukraine after hundreds of Lithuanians crowdfunded nearly six million euros to buy it, Lithuania’s defence ministry said.
The manufacturer Baykar will deliver the TB2 advanced combat drone, painted in the colours of the Lithuanian and Ukrainian flags, in a few weeks, according to the ministry.
In a statement, the Lithuanian defence ministry said:
We came to Turkey to agree on conditions for the drone purchase, but they prepared the most pleasant surprise possible for us.
A total of €5.9m was raised in just days, largely in small amounts between €5 and €100, to fund the purchase of the military drone, according to Laisves TV, the Lithuanian internet broadcaster that launched the drive.
About €1.5m of the funds raised by Lithuanians will be used to pay for armaments for the drone, the defence ministry said, with the rest used to help Ukraine.
Ukraine more than doubled interest rates to 25% on Thursday in a move to try to stem double-digit inflation and protect its currency, which has collapsed since Russia’s invasion.
In the first interest rates intervention since Vladimir Putin’s troops attacked on 24 February, the Ukrainian central bank’s governor, Kyrylo Shevchenko, increased the benchmark interest rate from 10% to 25%.
It takes borrowing costs to their highest level since September 2015 – when Ukraine’s economy was reeling from Russia’s annexation of Crimea – and the highest in Europe.
The Russian invasion has devastated Ukraine’s economy, which the World Bank has forecast could shrink by at least a third this year. The war has forced businesses to close, destroyed infrastructure, blocked shipping routes and reduced whole towns to rubble.
Ukraine’s central bank governor Kyrylo Shevchenko calls for talks with the IMF after raising interest rate from 10% to 25%. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/ReutersShevchenko called for talks with the International Monetary Fund on a new aid programme. The increase was criticised by an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, who said the rate was too high and dangerous to the economy during wartime. It was not clear whether he was speaking in a personal capacity.
The National Bank of Ukraine had frozen its main rate 10% at the start of the invasion, but last week signalled it could resume regular monetary policy reviews as business activity partially recovered in safer parts of the country.
It is betting that a sharp rate rise will also nudge the government to lift the yield on domestic bonds, making assets held in its currency, the hryvnia, more attractive and preventing household incomes and savings from being eroded by inflation.
Inflation was already in double digits before the conflict began and climbed further to about 17% in May from 16.4% in April, according to central bank estimates.
It said inflation could double in 2022 from 10% in 2021, pushed up by rising global prices and the damage of the war on domestic production and supply chains.
The number of small businesses that had suspended operations in April fell to 26% from 73% in March, according to a survey by the European Business Association, the union of businesses operating in Ukraine.
Russian forces are occupying about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address to the Luxembourg parliament.
Frontlines of battle stretch across more than 1,000km (620 miles), the Ukrainian president added.
Russia now occupying 20% of Ukraine’s territory, says Zelenskiy – videoToday so far…It is just past 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Russian forces are currently occupying about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video address to the Luxembourg parliament. The front lines of battle stretch across more than 1,000km (620 miles), Zelenskiy said, adding that 100 Ukrainians are dying on a daily basis in eastern Ukraine, and another 450-500 people are wounded. Zelenskiy said 243 children have been killed, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing so far in the war in Ukraine. Some 200,000 children have been forcefully taken to Russia, he claimed, including children from orphanages, children taken with their parents and those separated from their families. The White House announced a fresh round of sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting Russian government officials and elites as well as several yachts linked to President Vladimir Putin. The sanctions were announced as Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said he was “grateful” to the US and its secretary of state, Antony Blinken, for a new $700m weapons package for Ukraine.
EU ambassadors dropped the leader of Russia’s Orthodox church, Patriarch Kirill, from a proposed blacklist, according to diplomats. The removal of Patriarch Kirill from the list of sanctioned individuals allows the EU to agree on a new round of sanctions after opposition from Hungary. About 800 people, including children, are hiding underneath the Azot chemical factory in the key eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, according to Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk region. The UK’s ministry of defence said Russia has taken control of most of Sieverodonetsk, which has come under intense Russian shelling. Russia has accused the son of a Conservative MP of involvement in the killing of a Chechen brigade commander in Ukraine. Russia’s National Guard said one of its commanders, the Chechen fighter Adam Bisultanov, was killed on 26 May in a clash with a “group of mercenaries from the UK and the USA” that included the “son of a British parliamentarian,” Ben Grant. The Kremlin has confirmed that Valentin Yumashev, the son-in-law of former Russian leader Boris Yeltsin, has quit his role as an adviser to Vladimir Putin. Yumashev was an unpaid adviser with a limited influence on Putin’s decision-making but he did represent one of the last links inside the Putin administration to Yeltsin’s rule, a period of liberal reforms and Russia’s opening up towards the west.
Weapons sent to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February will end up in the global hidden economy and in the hands of criminals, the head of Interpol has said. Jürgen Stock says once the conflict ends, a wave of guns and heavy arms will flood the international market and he urged Interpol’s member states, especially those supplying weapons, to cooperate on arms tracing.
Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong here to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Pjotr Sauer
Russia has accused the son of a Conservative MP of involvement in the killing of a Chechen brigade commander in Ukraine, after footage emerged of the British national fighting in the country.
Russia’s National Guard, a force also known as Rosgvardia, said in a statement posted on its website that one of its commanders, the Chechen fighter Adam Bisultanov, was killed on 26 May in a clash with a “group of mercenaries from the UK and the USA” that included the “son of a British parliamentarian,” Ben Grant.
Ben Grant shortly before departing for Ukraine on 5 March. Photograph: ReutersGrant first arrived in Ukraine in March, when he told the Guardian he was moved to volunteer after seeing footage of a Russian bombing of a house where a child could be heard screaming. He said he went without telling his mother, MP Helen Grant, he was going.
In dramatic footage posted online this week, Grant, who is a veteran of Afghanistan and a former Royal Marine, can be heard saying “go, go” as he and his unit exit a patch of woods and fire a Matador anti-tank missile at what is believed to be a Russian BTR-80 armoured personnel carrier.
Rosgvardia in its statement said that the Chechen commander Bisultanov was killed when his BTR-80 vehicle was hit three times by the foreign fighters, posting a picture of the vehicle’s carcass online.
Ben Grant (right) and other foreign fighters from the UK posing for a picture as they prepared to depart for Ukraine on 5 March. Photograph: Kai Pfaffenbach/ReutersIn separate video, published by the Telegraph, Grant is seen dragging another British volunteer to safety after a Russian ambush in a woodland north of Kharkiv.
Grant told the newspaper that his unit of 15 British and American volunteers and two Ukrainian interpreters had been preparing an assault on a Russian-held target when they came under heavy Russian fire earlier this month.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that in my life. I was terrified but driven to complete my most important goal, which at the time was getting him and my team out of the danger,” Grant said.
Since Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced the creation of the International Legion of Ukraine in March, thousands of people from around the world, some with a military background and many without, have arrived in Ukraine.
In a briefing on Thursday, the Russian Ministry of Defence said that it had “eliminated hundreds of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine,” adding that 3,500 foreign fighters were currently in the country. The ministry also warned that captured foreign soldiers will not be treated under the standards of international humanitarian law.
Julian Borger
The US decision to supply Ukraine with high-precision multiple launch rocket systems was marked with some fanfare in Washington including a rare newspaper commentary by Joe Biden himself.
The Himars (High mobility artillery rocket system) and the ammunition that Washington is sending with them, will allow Ukrainian forces to hit targets nearly 80km away with high accuracy. That’s twice the range of the US howitzers they have now, and about the same as the most powerful Russian rocket systems. US officials suggested they would help turn the withering artillery duel underway in the Donbas into a fairer fight.
However, the small print of the deal was underwhelming. This first Himars delivery comprises just four systems, and although they have been pre-positioned in the region for fast delivery, it will take three weeks to train Ukrainian gunners to use them, and another two weeks to train maintenance crews.
The US High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars) is expected to help level the field in the Russia-Ukraine war, but the deal comes with strings attached. Photograph: Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty ImagesIn the meantime, Russian artillery is blanketing Ukrainian positions in the east. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an interview on Wednesday that up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed a day and another 500 are wounded. Without stand-off weapons that can target the Russian guns from afar, Ukrainian lines are being pummelled and national morale, one of the decisive factors in the successful defence of Kyiv, is also taking a beating.
Zelenskiy’s government has been screaming for multiple launch rockets for weeks, as it became clear that the battle for the east and south had become one of attrition, so why did it take this long for Biden to make the decision to respond?
Read Julian’s full analysis: Biden’s pledge to send rocket systems to Ukraine is no silver bullet
Kim Willsher
Weapons sent to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February will end up in the global hidden economy and in the hands of criminals, the head of Interpol has said.
Jürgen Stock says once the conflict ends, a wave of guns and heavy arms will flood the international market and he urged Interpol’s member states, especially those supplying weapons, to cooperate on arms tracing.
“Once the guns fall silent [in Ukraine], the illegal weapons will come. We know this from many other theatres of conflict. The criminals are even now, as we speak, focusing on them,” Stock said.
“Criminal groups try to exploit these chaotic situations and the availability of weapons, even those used by the military and including heavy weapons. These will be available on the criminal market and will create a challenge. No country or region can deal with it in isolation because these groups operate at a global level.”
Volunteers undergo weapons’ training outside Lviv, Ukraine. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty ImagesHe added:
We can expect an influx of weapons in Europe and beyond. We should be alarmed and we have to expect these weapons to be trafficked not only to neighbouring countries but to other continents.
He said Interpol urged members to use its database to help “track and trace” the weapons. “We are in contact with member countries to encourage them to use these tools. Criminals are interested in all kinds of weapons … basically any weapons that can be carried might be used for criminal purposes.”
Ukraine’s western allies have sent shipments of high-end military weapons to Ukraine since the Russian invasion more than three months ago. On Tuesday, the American president, Joe Biden, announced the US would supply Kyiv with advanced missile systems and munitions. After the US pulled out of Afghanistan in 2021, following 20 years of war, huge amounts of often highly sophisticated military equipment was left behind and fell into the hands of the Taliban.
US sanctions Russian elites and yachts in fresh sanctionsThe White House has announced a fresh round of sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, targeting Russian government officials and elites close to Vladimir Putin as well as several yachts linked to the president.
The sanctions target Russian individuals including Sergei Roldugin, a close associate of Russian president Vladimir Putin who is already under EU sanctions.
The treasury department also targeted 16 entities, seven vessels and three aircraft. Among them were two yachts, the “Russia-flagged Graceful and the Cayman Islands-flagged Olympia,” which the treasury identified as “blocked property in which President Vladimir Putin has an interest.” Putin has “taken numerous trips” on the yachts as recently as last year, the treasury said.
In his State of the Union address in March, Joe Biden said the US would work to seize the yachts, luxury apartments and private jets of wealthy Russians with ties to Putin.
The White House said in a statement that the latest sanctions are designed “to crack down on evasion and tighten our sanctions to enhance enforcement and increase pressure on Putin and his enablers”.