UN says Ukraine bears share of blame for nursing home attackThe United Nations has said Ukraine’s armed forced bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for an assault that took place at a nursing home in Luhansk, where dozens of elderly and disabled patients were trapped inside without water or electricity, two weeks after Russia launched it’s invasion.
According to AP, Ukrainian authorities placed the fault on Russian forces, accusing them of killing more than 50 civilians in an unprovoked attack. At least 22 of the 71 patients survived the assault, but the exact number of people killed remains unknown, according to the UN.
However, the United Nations has now said Ukraine’s armed forces bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for what happened in the village of Stara Krasnyanka.
The report by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights did not conclude that either side committed war crimes, but said the battle at the nursing home was an example of concerns over the potential use of “human shields” to prevent military operations in certain areas.
Key events:
Show key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature
An investigation by the Times has found 18 properties in England owned by the Russian state that it says could be seized and given to Ukraine.
The Times said Ukraine was also considering legal action to take possession of the 18 properties, which could be worth up to £100m.
Vadym Prystaiko, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, said:
We appreciate Britain and the EU said they would help us rebuild Ukraine but it’s Russia that needs to pay for that … For us, this would be a straightforward way of doing it.
On Saturday, following his departure from Indonesia, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the US’s “commitment to the people of Ukraine is resolute” while announcing more than $360mn in aid.
Our commitment to the people of Ukraine is resolute. The United States is providing nearly $368 million in additional humanitarian aid to support people inside Ukraine and refugees forced to flee their country to seek safety in the midst of Russia’s brutal war.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 9, 2022 Earlier, we reported on Blinken’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, during which they discussed Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and Blinken raised concerns over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow.
“I don’t believe China is acting in a way that is neutral,” Blinken said.
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine and elsewhere over the newswires.
Rescuers sort through the rubble of an apartment building after a Russian missiles hit a residential building in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesMuslims eat after praying during Eid al-Adha in Odesa, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesServicemen observe the damage caused in the House of Culture in Druzhkivka following a suspected missile attack. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty ImagesNew recruits to the Ukrainian army being trained by UK armed forces personnel at a military base near Manchester. Photograph: Louis Wood/The Sun/PAUN says Ukraine bears share of blame for nursing home attackThe United Nations has said Ukraine’s armed forced bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for an assault that took place at a nursing home in Luhansk, where dozens of elderly and disabled patients were trapped inside without water or electricity, two weeks after Russia launched it’s invasion.
According to AP, Ukrainian authorities placed the fault on Russian forces, accusing them of killing more than 50 civilians in an unprovoked attack. At least 22 of the 71 patients survived the assault, but the exact number of people killed remains unknown, according to the UN.
However, the United Nations has now said Ukraine’s armed forces bear a large, and perhaps equal, share of the blame for what happened in the village of Stara Krasnyanka.
The report by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights did not conclude that either side committed war crimes, but said the battle at the nursing home was an example of concerns over the potential use of “human shields” to prevent military operations in certain areas.
A Ukrainian MP, Kira Rudik with the centrist Golos party, said rockets have struck central Kharkiv, injuring and hospitalising 4 civilians, including a child.
Rocket attacks on the centre of #Kharkiv. 4 civilians were injured and hospitalised. One of them is a child. And a young woman who suffered shelling in #KryvyiRih died in hospital. We ask the whole world to help us stop the #russian terrorists!#StopPutinNOW
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) July 9, 2022 Anna MacSwan
In case you missed it earlier, British forces have begun training Ukrainian soldiers in a new programme to help in their fight against Russia.
Up to 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers will arrive in the UK for specialist military training lasting several weeks. The first cohort met the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, on Thursday, the Ministry of Defence confirmed.
Wallace, widely expected to launch a campaign to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party, described the programme as the next phase of Britain’s support to the Ukrainian army.
“Using the world-class expertise of the British army, we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale up its resistance as they defend their country’s sovereignty and their right to choose their own future,” he said.
Ukraine is losing up to 200 soldiers every day, meaning that training reinforcements away from the threat of Russian attacks is critical to the country’s war effort.
Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesperson for the Odesa regional military administration, has said Russia forces are “purposefully” destroying crops in the Kherson region.
Sharing photos from local police of fields on fire and scorched, Bratchuk said:
Due to shelling with incendiary shells, large-scale fires occur every day in the fields, in protective strips and forests throughout the territory of the region. In addition, Russian troops do not allow locals to put out fires, destroying granaries and equipment.
SummaryIt’s past 1pm in Ukraine. Here’s a summary of the day so far:
The governor of the Luhansk region has said Russian forces are creating “hell” in shelling the Donetsk region. Serhiy Haidai said Russian forces fired 8 artillery shells, 3 mortar shells and launched 9 rocket strikes overnight. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken expressed concerns about China’s alignment with Russia, after meeting with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Indonesia. Blinken said the US saw no signs “at this moment in time” that Russia was willing to engage in meaningful diplomacy.
Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region was also shelled on Saturday, according to the region’s governor. Pavlo Kyrylenko said the cities of Druzhkivka, Slovyansk, Chasovoy Yar, Hirnyk and Svitlodar had been attacked. Russia is moving forces across the country and assembling them near Ukraine for future offensive operations, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence. The latest intelligence update said a large proportion of the new infantry units were “probably” deploying with MT-LB armoured vehicles taken from long-term storage. The first cohort of Ukrainian soldiers have arrived in the UK to be trained in combat by British forces. The programme will train up to 10,000 Ukrainians over the coming months to give volunteer recruits with little to no military experience the skills to be effective in frontline combat. About 1,050 UK service personnel are being deployed to run the programme, which will take place at Ministry of Defence sites across the the UK. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister has asked all residents in the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to “evacuate by all possible means”. “Please leave – our army will begin retaking these areas. Our determination is rock solid. And it will be very difficult later to open humanitarian corridors when children are involved,” said Iryna Vereshchuk, according to Ukrainian media. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, left the G20 meeting of leading economies early on Friday after telling his counterparts that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was not responsible for a global hunger crisis and that sanctions designed to isolate Russia amounted to a declaration of war.
Watch more here:
Lavrov retreats from G20 with world leaders, blaming Ukraine for negotiation failures – videoHere are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine and elsewhere over the newswires.
Servicemen and residents look at a crater at the House of the Culture, in Druzhkivka, eastern Ukraine, following a suspected missile attack. Photograph: Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty ImagesUkrainian servicemen ride on a military vehicle as a local resident rides a bicycle in the Donetsk region. Photograph: Gleb Garanich/ReutersUkrainian servicemen embrace after surviving an ambush in which all the other members of their unit were killed. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesNew recruits to the Ukranian army being trained by British armed forces at a military base near Manchester. Photograph: Louis Wood/The Sun/PAThe governor of the Luhansk region has said Russian forces are creating “hell” in shelling the Donetsk region.
In a Telegram post on Saturday, Serhiy Haidai said:
It may seem that the invaders are conducting an offensive operation west of Lysychansk and that’s all. However, we are trying to contain the armed formations of the Russians along the entire frontline. They do not stop trying to break into the neighbouring region along the administrative border. They attack from several directions. Where it is inconvenient for them to go forward, they create real hell, shelling the territories on the horizon. Therefore, danger is coming everywhere – from Kreminnaya to Popasnaya.
Haidai said Russian forces fired 8 artillery shells, 3 mortar shells and launched 9 rocket strikes overnight.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, were holding talks on the Indonesian island of Bali on Saturday, a day after they both attended a gathering of top diplomats from the G20 countries.
Blinken discussed Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and raised concerns over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow, AP reports.
Speaking to reporters after talks with Wang, which lasted more than five hours, he said:
We are concerned about the PRC’s alignment with Russia. I don’t believe China is acting in a way that is neutral.
Blinken said they saw no signs “at this moment in time” that Russia was willing to engage in meaningful diplomacy, according to Reuters.
The aggression is not only against Ukraine, he said but against the basic principles of the world order. “We will see in coming days if Russia got the message at G20.”
Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia. Photograph: Made Nagi/EPAUkraine restores Danube River ports in emergency effort to get grain out
Ukraine is restoring and expanding some of its long-decommissioned river ports on the Danube to facilitate the exportation of grain amid Russia’s Black Sea blockade.
Before the war, Ukrainian river ports on the Danube were seldom used, with some of them in complete disrepair. However, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its control of exit routes to the Black Sea, Kyiv is resuscitating its old river harbours in order to avoid the sea blockade and accelerate the exportation of the country’s wheat.
“Take the example of the Reni River port,’’ Alla Stoyanova, the head of the department of agricultural policy of the Odesa region, told the Guardian. The port was among the most important of the Danube region during the Soviet Union and a passageway to Romania. “It wasn’t used at all recently. So now we are working to expand it, alongside other river ports, to increase capacity. As we speak, over 160 ships are awaiting in the Black Sea to enter the Sulina canal, but they can’t because the capacity of that canal is only 5-6 ships a day.”
Read more from my colleagues Lorenzo Tondo in Odesa and Pjotr Sauer:
Russian shelling of the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has killed two people and injured three, according to the governor of Dnipropetrovsk.
In a Telegram post, Valentyn Reznichenko also said:
A 43-year-old man is in the hospital. This is the father of the dead girl. How to tell him that his child is no longer there…