NATO calls Russia ‘most significant and direct threat’
Pentagon unveils $820 million Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative
$30B from Russian oligarchs frozen under REPO seizure effort
Kyiv: Russian missile attacks on residential areas killed at least 21 people early Friday near the Ukrainian port of Odesa, a day after the withdrawal of Russian forces from Snake Island in the Black Sea.
Video of the attack before daybreak showed the charred ruins of buildings in the small town of Serhiivka, about 50 kilometers from Odesa. The Ukrainian president’s office said three Kh-22 missiles fired by warplanes struck an apartment building and a campsite.
Ukrainian authorities interpreted the attack as payback for Russian troops being forced from Snake Island a day earlier. However, Moscow portrayed their departure as a “goodwill gesture” to help unblock exports of grain from the country.
Russian missiles struck the Kyiv region last weekend after weeks of relative calm around the capital, and an airstrike Monday on a shopping mall in the central city of Kremenchuk killed at least 19 people. However, after Friday’s attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that Moscow is not targeting residential areas.
In eastern Ukraine, Russian forces kept up their push to encircle the city of Lysychansk, the last stronghold of resistance in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas region.
Ukraine’s presidential office said a series of Russian strikes in the past 24 hours also killed civilians in eastern Ukraine — four in the northeastern Kharkiv region and another four in Donetsk province. In other developments, President Zelenskyy asked Ukrainian lawmakers to fast-track the legislation needed for the country to join the European Union. His government applied for EU membership after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. EU leaders made Ukraine a candidate last week, acting with unusual speed and unity.
EU prepares plan to do without Russian energy
The European Union’s executive arm on Friday pledged to draft an emergency plan this month aimed at helping member countries do without Russian energy in the wake of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the initiative would build on EU moves to ditch Russian coal, oil and natural gas and would complement a bloc-wide push to accelerate the development of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.
“We are preparing emergency plans for Europe,” von der Leyen said in the Czech town of Litomysl, where she marked the start of the country’s six-month stint as holder of the rotating EU presidency. “Energy prices are high. People — rightly so — expect us to do something about it.”
She said the contingency plan, due around mid-July, would focus on two key points including having a “clear idea” of where to cut back on Russian energy supply and to do it “in a smart way” as well as to rally around EU countries facing supply squeezes.
