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.
Source: Kyiv Independent- A nine-story residential building in central Kyiv was struck by a Russian missile early on June 26, 2022. (Dmytro Sanin)
Institute for the Study of War: Missile strike on Kyiv likely ‘direct response’ to meeting of G7 leaders. The U.S. think tank said on June 26 that the Russian attack on Kyiv is “likely to coincide” with ongoing talks by Western leaders at the summit about aid to Ukraine.
Russia has stolen at least 400,000 tons of grain since Feb. 24. Before the current Russian invasion, there were 1.5 million tons of grain in the territories that are currently occupied by Russia, according to Taras Vysotsky, the first deputy agriculture minister.
EU will supply Ukraine with special protection equipment against chemical, nuclear and other threats.
Reuters is reporting that the US is likely to announce this week the purchase of an advanced medium- to long-range surface-to-air missile defence system for Ukraine, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The EU’s Charles Michel evocatively describes Russia’s weaponisation of food: “Russia was blockading ports, attacking agricultural infrastructure, turning fields of wheat into fields of war”.
Today’s meeting and topics: President Zelensky joined the meeting online. Talks focused on energy, health, food, and gender equality along with Argentina, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Senegal.
The key takeaway: “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment,”- the EU’s Global Gateway Initiative, unveiled last year as an alternativeto China’s Belt and Road overseas investment strategy, comes under this umbrella. The programme will have package of $600 billionearmarked for low to mid-size developing countries.
Leaders of the G7 “will align and expand targeted sanctions” against Russia, the White House announced today.
The new sanctions aim to “further restrict Russia’s access to key industrial inputs, services, and technologies produced by our economies, particularly those supporting Russia’s armament industrial base and technology sector.”
Russia has defaulted on its foreign debt for the first time since the 1917 revolution.
The country missed a deadline of Sunday night to meet a 30-day grace period on interest payments of $100m on two Eurobonds originally due on 27 May.
Trolling Putin
The leaders of the world’s seven most industrialized nations arrived for the G7 summit in the German Alps on Sunday — and tore into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s tough-guy image.
As Russia’s aggression in Europe heats up, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab) is keeping a close eye on Moscow’s movements across the military, cyber, and information domains.
It was only after about 15 minutes, when the supposed Kyiv mayor at the other end of the line started to talk about the problem of Ukrainian refugees cheating the German state of benefits, and appeared to call for refugees to be brought back to Ukraine for military service, that Giffey grew suspicious.
The Russian president and his inner circle speak openly about retaking the vast lands that Moscow once controlled. As the war continues in Ukraine, Russia’s neighbors are taking the threats seriously.
At a ceremony honoring young geographers in 2016, President Vladimir Putin asked one boy about the capital of Burkina Faso and then quizzed another about where Russia’s borders end.
