A pro-Russian Ukrainian politician was found dead near Moscow, Russian agencies said on Wednesday, with a source in the Ukrainian defense sector claiming an operation by kyiv led to his “liquidation”. The lifeless body of Illia Kyva was found with “a head injury” in the Odintsovo district, located near Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing local authorities. The Ukrainian security services (SBU) killed him “using small arms”, a source with knowledge of their operations told AFP.
Information to remember:
– Pro-Russian Ukrainian politician found dead in Moscow, Ukraine claims his assassination
– Local pro-Russian official killed in car explosion in eastern Ukraine
– Volodymyr Zelensky expected at the G7 meeting, by teleconference
– kyiv reports a new Russian drone attack during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday
Putin counting on ‘collapse’ of Western support for Ukraine: Zelensky
Russian President Vladimir Putin is counting on the “collapse” of Western support for Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky told G7 leaders on Wednesday, reporting that the Russian army had “significantly increased pressure” on the front.
“Russia only hopes for one thing: that the unity of the free world will collapse next year. Russia believes that America and Europe will show weakness and will not maintain their support for Ukraine at the appropriate level,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a teleconference between the leaders of the G7 countries.
Financial aid to Ukraine ‘can’t wait any longer,’ Biden urges
The release of funding to support Ukraine “can no longer wait” in the face of the danger represented by Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden warned on Wednesday, addressing elected officials in the American Congress, where Democrats and Republicans are unable to agree. agree on a new envelope for kyiv.
The failure of a vote on additional funds would be “the greatest gift” offered to the Russian president, Mr. Biden added, asserting that the master of the Kremlin, if he managed to seize Ukraine, “won’t stop there”.
Pro-Russian local official killed in car explosion in eastern Ukraine
A local pro-Russian official was killed Wednesday by the explosion of an “unidentified device” placed in a car in Lugansk, an occupied city in eastern Ukraine, the Russian Investigative Committee announced in a statement . Oleg Popov, a former local deputy, died “following the detonation of an unidentified device in a car”, said this source, adding that the circumstances are “in the process of being established”, while officials of the Russian occupation are regularly targeted in Ukraine by attacks.
Four members of the Russian forces in Ukraine prosecuted by American justice for war crimes
Four members of Russian forces in Ukraine are indicted in the United States for war crimes against an American citizen, judicial authorities announced Wednesday, noting that these were the first prosecutions launched under the American Crimes Act. war of 1996.
“The Department of Justice has initiated the first-ever prosecutions under the U.S. War Crimes Act against four members of the Russian-affiliated military forces for heinous crimes against a U.S. citizen,” the Justice Secretary said Merrick Garland at a press conference. The alleged acts, including torture and inhumane treatment, took place in April 2022 in southern Ukraine.
New Russian night attack with 48 drones
Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it had suffered a new night attack from Russia with 48 Iranian-made Shahed drones. “A total of 48 Shahed 136/131 drones were launched,” of which 41 were destroyed by anti-aircraft defenses, the Ukrainian Air Force said on Telegram messaging. Russia launches drone and missile attacks against Ukraine almost every night.
kyiv accuses the Kremlin of seeking to terrorize the civilian population and destroy its energy infrastructure in order, like last winter, to plunge the population into darkness and cold. kyiv has since reinforced its air defense systems with Western weapons which have so far destroyed the majority of explosive drones or missiles sent by Russia. At the same time last winter, millions of people had already been deprived of power in the middle of a cold snap, something Ukraine wants to avoid at all costs this year.
Zelensky to take part in teleconference of G7 leaders on Wednesday
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to take part in the start of a teleconference between the leaders of the G7 countries later on Wednesday, Japanese government spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno said. Volodymyr Zelensky unexpectedly canceled on Tuesday a planned intervention by videoconference before the American Congress, where negotiations are tense over new American funds to help Ukraine in war against Russia.
This teleconference will be held under the aegis of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, explained Hirokazu Matsuno, as Japan holds the rotating presidency of the G7 this year. “Mr Zelensky will participate at the start” of the meeting, he said. This online summit is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. GMT, according to the White House daily agenda. On this occasion the G7 leaders will “discuss important topics for the international community such as the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East” and also discuss artificial intelligence (AI), added Hirokazu Matsuno.
Three dead in Russian strikes on southern Ukraine, according to kyiv
Three people were killed by Russian shell fire around Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine which has been under intense Russian bombardment for months, Ukrainian authorities announced Tuesday. This regional capital was retaken by Ukrainian forces just over a year ago, but is constantly bombarded by Moscow’s army positioned nearby, across the Dnieper River.
“In the morning, the Russian army relentlessly shelled the city center of Kherson. The occupiers killed two people,” said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson region. He also released images showing a blood-stained sidewalk and the blurred body of one of the victims.
The head of the Kherson military administration, Roman Mrochko, later clarified that six people were injured, including four medical workers. A woman was also killed in her garden in Bilozerka, about 15 kilometers from Kherson, the prosecutor general’s office later said.
kyiv claims attacks on Russian military sites in annexed Crimea
Ukraine on Tuesday claimed drone attacks against Russian military sites in the eastern part of Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow and which serves as a rear base for the Russian invasion. Drones “hit several important military installations in Crimea” including a radar system near the village of Baguerové, in the Kerch peninsula (eastern Crimea), a source in the Ukrainian defense sector told AFP having knowledge of the operations of the security services (SBU).
Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, is regularly targeted because it is the rear base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and a key supply route for Russian forces in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry assured that it had neutralized dozens of Ukrainian drones over the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Sea of Azov. According to the Ukrainian source, the attack also hit a helicopter landing site, another radar system, and an anti-aircraft missile control system located on the Arabat spit, a strip of sand in the Sea of Azov which connects Crimea with the surroundings of the occupied city of Genitchesk in Ukraine’s Kherson region.
The SBU and the GUR (Ukrainian military intelligence services) also inflicted “considerable” damage to a maritime oil terminal in Feodossia, which “supplies fuel to Russian troops”, according to the same source.