Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,222

On Monday, June 30th, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• The Ukrainian air force reports that Russia fired its biggest aerial assault on Ukraine since its full-scale invasion overnight and on Sunday, firing 537 total aerial weapons, including 477 drones, decoys, and 60 missiles.
• 475 of the weapons were intercepted by Ukrainian forces, but the military claimed Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Ustimenko of the F-16 was killed “while repelling” the “massive enemy air attack.”
• According to local officials and the Associated Press news agency, at least four people were also killed in the air raids, which occurred in the regions of Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kostiantynivka.
• A drone attack in the city of Drohobych caused a large fire at an industrial facility, causing electricity to parts of the area, and the aerial attacks were far-reaching as well.
• Poland claimed that in order to protect Polish airspace during the attack, it flew aircraft with other NATO members. According to the command, none of the Russian missiles entered Poland’s airspace.
• Additionally, two people were killed by Russian shelling, including a 70-year-old woman who was discovered hidden beneath the rubble of a nine-story building in the Zaporizhia region, according to AP.
• The Russian Defense Ministry asserted control of Novoukrainka in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region after claiming control of three Ukrainian drones over the course of one night.
• One person was killed by a Ukrainian drone in the Luhansk region of Russia, according to the RIA Novosti news agency, and two others were hurt in a Ukrainian attack on the border region, according to Kursk, the acting governor of Russia.

Weapons

• Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine, said the air attacks underscored the need for additional assistance from American and Western allies to strengthen the nation’s air defenses.
• He also signed a decree directing Ukraine to leave the anti-personnel mines’ use and production, claiming that Russia has never joined the treaty and uses thems with the utmost cynicism.
• Senior Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko claimed that the treaty’s withdrawal was still required with parliamentary approval. He claimed that the move would be voted on by legislators.
• The Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that because of this, Russia has “made the difficult but necessary political decision to stop the implementation of irrelevant obligations under the Ottawa Convention.”

diplomacy and politics

• After President Donald Trump told him, “It’s time to move your bill,” US Senator Lindsey Graham informed ABC News that the country’s Congress would begin casting a vote on new Russian sanctions.
• Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, reported to state television that sanctions against Russia would have a negative impact on Europe. The recoil from a gun to the shoulder will be the more serious package of sanctions, which, I repeat, we consider to be illegal. He claimed that this was a double-edged sword.
• Russian spy chief Sergei Naryshkin claimed in remarks made on Sunday that he had spoken with John Ratcliffe, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and that they had agreed to call each other at any time.

Source: Aljazeera