Jun 21 Buonasera Mag
Day 118 of War: Severodonetsk, Kaliningrad, Russian reactions, Ukraine-EU, Azot plant, German emergency measures, Khodorkovsky, Bagarre in the Italian parliament, Lithuania, coining new language
Catching up…
EA Worldview’s Ukraine Up-date- hop over to Scott’s amazing hourly Ukraine up-date page. I’ll fill in with some bits and bobs.
Stories we’re following…
The military situation for Ukraine’s defenders in the eastern Donbas is “extremely difficult”, the governor of the Luhansk region has said. Some 568 civilians are thought to be holed up in Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant, as Russian attacks intensified in an effort to capture Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
President Zelensky will speak online at the first session of the NATO summit on June 29-30 in Madrid.
Ukrainian coastal defence capability has largely neutralised Russia's ability to establish sea control and project maritime force in the north-western Black Sea.
Ukraine's armed forces confirmed having conducted a massive strike on the Zmiyinyi island "as a result of which the unit that Russians proudly call the island's garrison is busy counting the heavy losses."
Defense Minister Reznikov said Ukraine had received Panzerhaubitze 2000s with trained Ukrainian crews and thanked Germany for support. This appears to be the first delivery of German heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Ukraine is poised to get backing of EU states on membership path: The European Union’s 27 member states are set to formally grant Ukraine candidate status later this week, following a Monday meeting of EU ambassadors where nobody opposed the decision, as reported by Bloomberg.
Russia is holding more than 1,500 Ukrainian civilians in prisons, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said during a briefing on June 20. “They are in Rostov, Kursk, they are in jail, they are being held as prisoners of war, although they should not be,” she said.
EU aims to finalize $9.5 bn Ukraine loan package this week: the new macro-financial assistance program for Kyiv would consist of 25-year loans, with a 10-year grace period to reimburse the principal, as reported by Bloomberg.
President Zelensky stated that he sees no progress in the grain corridors in his speech to the African Union: Africa “is held hostage by those who started the war against Ukraine.” As a result of Russia’s Black Sea blockade, Ukraine cannot export 25 million tons of grain.
The deal based on Slovakia donating 30 modernized T-72 tanks to Ukraine in exchange for being given Leopard 2A4 tanks from Germany has collapsed after Berlin notified Bratislava that it could only provide 15 tanks. The Slovaks say they need 30 for a tank battalion.
The mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov stated that 90% of the 2,700 employees of the local education department did not want to work for the enemy. "And those 10% who agreed are technical specialists - janitors and so on. Therefore, almost no teacher agreed to cooperate with collaborators.”
The Baltic states have asked for more financial support from the EU to handle Ukrainian refugees, the Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda has said. “We must share the financial burden, which at the moment is unproportionally assigned to national budgets.”
Russian security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev has arrived in the Kaliningrad region, where he will chair a meeting on national security.
Russian news agency RIA Novosti has reported that Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, has launched integration projects with the occupied areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Germany reported it was receiving 60 percent less of Russian gas through its Nord Stream 1 pipeline, with Economy Minister Robert Habeck warning he did not believe Moscow’s official explanation, which blamed repair works for the cut.
Germany is preparing to face the reduction of gas supplies from Russia by emergency measures as reported by sources for Welt.
Russia says it has reconfigured communications infrastructure in Ukraine's Kherson region and is now broadcasting Russian television channels to the region as Moscow continues to impose control on the southern area near Crimea.
Georgians for the European Union
Khodorkovsky: Next step is air blockade of Lithuania
The Kremlin's "next step is going to be the air blockade of Lithuania", Russia's once-richest man, now one of its most prominent dissidents, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, told the FT in an interview. "It will allow Russian aviation to fly right through between Russia and Kaliningrad. Then Nato will face a question of what to do", he said.
Decode 39, How Atlanticism is splitting Italian politics
After intense negotiations within the majority-ruling parties, the Italian Parliament has authorized a support package for Ukraine, including military aid. “The mandate received from parliament is to seek peace, overcome the crisis,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said. But the vote signaled a rupture within the 5-Star Movement: on one side Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, the party’s former leader, supporting the choice for Atlanticism, on the opposing side ex Premier Giuseppe Conte, current leader of the 5-Star.
Politico, The Rashists from Mordor vs. the Tractor Troops: Ukraine’s new language of war
Can you tell an orc from a Macronite? With Russia’s war on Ukraine nearing its fifth month, a litany of new words have entered the local lexicon to describe the invading forces, their collaborators and frenemies.
Remembering Roman Ratushnyy
Stories
US State Department has published an excellent and effective report about Russian disinformation campaigns on the war in Ukraine.
We’re signing off. Thanks for reading…
Mo & Scott