The night of the war at a glance
Russia intensifies attacks in the east – Selenskyj wants a tribunal like the one in Nuremberg
06/23/2022, 06:46 am
As Ukraine moves towards EU candidate status, Russia is stepping up attacks in the east of the country. The strategically important city of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region is increasingly becoming the target. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is again calling for faster arms deliveries “to stop this diabolical armada and push it out of Ukraine’s borders”. The night of war at a glance:
Russian attacks in the east
The positions of the Ukrainian army in the eastern industrial area of Donbass were bombed by the Russian military with planes and shelled with rockets and artillery, the General Staff of Ukraine said. In the evening situation report, more than four dozen cities and towns were listed that had been shelled. Russia relies heavily on artillery to advance from place to place after massive shelling.
The Russian military is advancing closer to the city of Lysychansk from several directions. It is separated from neighboring Sieverodonetsk by a river. Sevierodonetsk is now largely under the control of Russian troops, although they are still meeting resistance. The Russian leadership around President Vladimir Putin named gaining control over the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk as one of the goals of the war of aggression.
Selenskyj wants a tribunal on war crimes like the one in Nuremberg
In his daily TV speech, Zelenskyy called for Russian war crimes to be investigated by a special court. Russia must be held accountable for all the evil it has brought to Ukraine, he said. On the anniversary of Hitler’s Germany attacking the Soviet Union in 1941, he referred to the Nuremberg trials after the Second World War.
Ukraine database of war-damaged assets to come in July
The Ukrainian government wants to start a database of assets destroyed by Russian troops in mid-July. For example, residential buildings destroyed in the war should be listed, as Deputy Digital Minister Anatoly Komirnij said. The aim is to collect data that all Ukrainians can use to claim compensation in international courts, among other things.
Movement in negotiations on Russian grain blockade
Negotiations to break the Russian grain blockade in Ukraine appear to be making progress. UN Security Council circles confirmed the possibility of a meeting between the conflicting parties together with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Turkey – possibly as early as next week. The international community has been demanding that Russia allow the export of Ukrainian grain for weeks. Ukraine complains that its ports in the Black Sea are blocked by the Russian Navy. Both countries are among the largest wheat exporters and play an important role in global food security. The United Nations recently warned of the worst famine in decades.
Microsoft: Ukraine’s allies targeted by Russian hackers
According to Microsoft, Russian hackers are attacking Ukraine’s western allies on a large scale. The software company warned during the night that they were targeting government computers in NATO countries in particular. Target number one is the United States, but overall Microsoft’s experts have identified attacks by Russian hackers on 128 organizations in 42 countries outside of Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, they have succeeded in penetrating the attacked networks in 29 percent of the attacks, it said. At least every fourth successful attack has demonstrably siphoned off data. At the same time, Microsoft emphasized that Russia had attacked Ukraine’s IT infrastructure with both cyber attacks and missiles since the beginning of the war. However, thanks to protective measures, the systems have proven to be largely resilient.
Moscow accuses US of blocking flights for diplomats
Russia accuses the United States of blocking a flight for expelled Russian diplomats. The Russian plane was supposed to fly out diplomats who were instructed by the US government to leave the United States by the end of the month, the State Department in Moscow said. However, Washington did not allow this. Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova therefore threatened unspecified countermeasures on Wednesday. The US State Department did not comment in detail. However, it complained that Russia did not present the situation correctly.
That brings the day
- At a summit in Brussels, the European Union intends to decide whether Ukraine will be granted EU candidate status. Before the deliberations, broad support for the corresponding recommendation of the EU Commission emerged. However, a decision must be taken unanimously by all 27 states.
- At the same time there is a video summit of the so-called BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) with the participation of Kremlin chief Putin.
- Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also visiting Tehran.
You can read all further developments in our live ticker on the Ukraine war.