The Russian army said on Thursday it killed two generals and dozens of other Ukrainian officers, as well as around 20 foreign military instructors in a recent strike on Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.
“As a result of a high-precision strike (…), two generals, up to 50 officers of the Ukrainian forces and up to 20 mercenaries and foreign military instructors who participated in a meeting (…) were eliminated,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
This announcement comes two days after a strike on Kramatorsk – an important railway hub and home to military sites, which destroyed a restaurant, killing 12 people and injuring around 60 people according to the Ukrainian authorities. The Russian Ministry of Defense for its part said on Wednesday that it had hit a “temporary deployment point” of the 56th mechanized infantry brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces.
The main information:
- The Russian army claims to have killed two generals and dozens of Ukrainian officers in a strike on Kramatorsk.
- Two weeks before a NATO summit in Vilnius, Ukraine hopes for “clarity”.
- The Pope’s envoy for peace in Ukraine, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday evening, will meet Patriarch Kirill.
Ukraine in NATO: “the time has come for clarity”, says Kouleba in Stoltenberg
“The time has come for clarity” on Ukraine’s NATO membership, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kouleba told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday, less than two weeks away. from a summit in Vilnius.
“Ukraine continues to work actively with all NATO allies to convince them that the time has come for clarity on (its) membership of the Alliance,” the Ukrainian minister said on Twitter. from a telephone interview with Mr. Stoltenberg.
Pope’s envoy for peace in Ukraine to meet Patriarch Kirill
The Pope’s envoy for peace in Ukraine, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday evening, will meet on Thursday afternoon Patriarch Kirill, head of the Orthodox Church in Russia and ally of President Vladimir Putin, the Vatican ambassador announced to Moscow. “This afternoon (Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi) will meet His Holiness Patriarch Kirill,” the Apostolic Nuncio to Russia, Giovanni D’Aniello, was quoted as saying on the Holy See’s Telegram group to some reporters.
“The mission that Pope Francis has entrusted to Cardinal Zuppi is to identify and encourage humanitarian initiatives that allow us to begin a journey that, we hope, can lead to the much desired peace”, he affirmed, adding that the cardinal also met Thursday morning with the Russian commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova.
The International Criminal Court issued a historic arrest warrant in March against President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, finding them responsible for the “war crime of illegal deportation” of Ukrainian minors.
Cardinal Zuppi, close to the pope and from the Sant’Egidio community which plays the role of informal diplomatic channel for the Holy See, had already visited Kiev on June 5 and 6. In Moscow, he also met on Wednesday with the Kremlin’s diplomatic adviser Yuri Ouchakov. He is also due to attend a Catholic religious service on Thursday evening in the Russian capital’s Catholic cathedral, before returning to Rome early Friday afternoon.
The Kremlin on Wednesday praised the Vatican’s “efforts” to find a solution to the conflict in Ukraine, in the first visit to Moscow by a senior Vatican official since the start of Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.