Russia-Ukraine war updates: Air strikes kill two in Kherson region

Kyiv, Ukraine – The very names of suburbs where Marina Krasnolenska sells real estate may make one tear up.

Bucha, Irpin, Vorzel and nearby areas north of the Ukrainian capital are where Russian servicemen were accused of killing, wounding, robbing or raping thousands of civilians.

Shelling during Moscow’s invasion destroyed or damaged hundreds of buildings, often burying residents alive, and the shock waves made thousands of roofs leaky.

Selling property in the area in the months following the withdrawal of Russian troops last year was tricky.

Read more here.

A large red buzzer has replaced the bang of a pistol to start Berlin’s annual marathon amid concerns a gunshot was too crass a way to launch a sporting event while thousands were being killed in Ukraine.

“A start signal by buzzer is much more appropriate when war is being waged in Ukraine,” Berlin’s Mayor Kai Wegner told dpa, expressing his support for the organiser’s decision not to start the race with a pistol shot.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was recently in the United States to meet President Biden, legislators, and defence officials in an effort to rally continued funding from Washington for the fight against Russia’s invasion.

The US has sent about $114bn in security and humanitarian aid to help Zelenskyy’s government since the beginning of the conflict in February 2022.

However, Zelenskyy’s visit on Thursday comes amid signs that the sands could be shifting, with some high-profile Republicans expressing growing scepticism over the steep price of continued US support for Ukraine’s defences.

Here is what US legislators have recently said about more US aid to Ukraine:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat

Reflecting the position of the Democratic Party and the White House, Schumer has decried efforts by some Republicans to pass a spending bill that does not include further aid to Ukraine.

Senator Rand Paul, Republican

Paul has gone a step further than many of his colleagues, saying he would seek to slow roll any government funding bill if it contains further funding for Ukraine.

Read more here.

The M1 Abrams tank is considered a state-of-the-art weapon and more powerful than many Soviet-era tanks currently operated by Russian and Ukrainian forces.

Washington originally promised 31 Abrams battle tanks would be delivered to Kyiv at the start of the year.

A delivery date for the Abrams was then adjusted with the Pentagon speaking of a date later in the year. But last week when he met with Zelenskyy in Washington, DC, President Joe Biden said they will be delivered this coming week.

Washington’s decision to provide Abrams tanks to Ukraine represented a considerable U-turn after US defence officials had repeatedly said the Abrams was ill-suited for Kyiv’s forces due to the complexity of logistics to keep them supplied with parts, fuel and ammunition and the complex nature of their operation.

Read more here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he met leading US entrepreneurs and financiers during a visit this week to the United States, where investment opportunities in Ukraine were discussed.

“The American entrepreneurs and financiers confirmed their readiness to make large-scale investments in our country immediately after the end of the war and the receipt of security guarantees,” he posted on Telegram, along with photos of the meeting.

“We are working for the victory and reconstruction of Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy said the businessmen, who included Michael Bloomberg, Larry Fink and Bill Ackman, were prepared to make major investments in rebuilding Ukraine.

A jailed Russian opposition figure has been transferred to a maximum security prison in Siberia and placed in a tiny “punishment cell,” his lawyer has revealed.

Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr, 42, earlier this year was convicted of treason for publicly denouncing Russia’s war in Ukraine and sentenced to 25 years in prison as part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on critics.

On Thursday, he arrived at IK-6 – a maximum security penal colony in the Siberian city of Omsk, his lawyer Vadim Prokhorov said in a Facebook post.

A year has passed since explosions rocked the Nord Stream pipelines, cutting off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe and fuelling geopolitical tensions already at a fever pitch after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

However, despite official investigations in three countries, the question of who is responsible for the act of sabotage remains unanswered.

Read more here.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has signalled a major foreign policy shift away from Russia following Moscow’s refusal to enter the latest conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in the South Caucasus.

Pashinyan told the nation in a major television address that his former Soviet republic’s current foreign security alliances were “ineffective” and “insufficient”.

He added that Armenia should join the International Criminal Court, a tribunal that has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over his actions in Ukraine.

Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a Russian-dominated group comprised of six former Soviet states. The group pledges to protect other members that come under attack. But Russia is bogged down in a war in Ukraine and has grown more isolated on the international stage.

Poland remains ready to help export grain from Ukraine to global markets outside Europe despite an ongoing dispute over access to the Polish market, according to President Andrzej Duda.

Duda, a conservative nationalist, defended his government’s decision to maintain a ban on the sale of Ukrainian grain in Poland. Speaking in an interview with broadcaster TVP1, he said radical measures were necessary to support Poland’s farmers and agricultural market.

But Duda said his country would do everything possible to ensure as much Ukrainian grain as possible could be transported through Poland to reach the poorest countries in the world, where Duda said it is most needed.

He said special transport corridors could be used to move grain from neighbouring Ukraine to ports.

Two people have been killed and several injured in Russian air strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson, according to local authorities.

A woman was killed in Beryslav city, and a man died in Lvove village. Several people were injured in the Russian shelling.

According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia also carried out air attacks on the Black Sea region of Odesa and other regions in southern Ukraine.

Russian shelling has killed one woman and injured three people in Kherson province over the past 24 hours, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reports on his Telegram channel.

Photographers have been the world’s lens into the Russia-Ukraine conflict for the past year. They have captured shocking scenes – from refugees and front-line battles to portraits of bravery and resilience.

But the photographers behind these images have also found themselves in the middle of an information war to establish what is really happening on the ground and how this war will be seen in the future.

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The Russian-installed head of the Russian-annexed Ukrainian region of Donetsk has imposed a curfew, according to a published decree.

Denis Pushilin banned the presence of civilians on streets and at public places from 11pm until 4am from Monday to Friday, according to the decree.

The decree forbade assemblies, rallies and demonstrations as well as other mass events in Russia-controlled parts of Donetsk unless they are permitted by the Operational Headquarters for Military Threat Response in what Russia and Russian-supported separatists call the Donetsk People’s Republic.

The decree signed by Pushilin introduced “military censorship of postal mail and messages transmitted via telecommunications systems as well as control of telephone conversations”.

Other items in Pushilin’s order include the establishment of checkpoints and security posts at borders with the Luhansk and Zaporizhia regions, which have also been annexed by Russia but like Donetsk are only partially occupied by the Kremlin’s forces.

A Ukrainian drone has hit an administrative building in the centre of Russia’s southern Kursk city, authorities say.

Kyiv has targeted Russian cities with almost daily attacks in recent months of Moscow’s offensive, ongoing for 19 months.

Kursk is about 90km (50 miles) from the border with Ukraine.

“In Kursk, a Ukrainian drone attacked an administrative building in the central district,” Governor Roman Starovoyt said on Telegram. “The roof was slightly damaged. Employees of the emergency services are working at the scene.”

Zelenskyy says he met leading American entrepreneurs and financiers, including Michael Bloomberg, during his visit this week to the US, where they discussed investment opportunities in Ukraine.

“The American entrepreneurs and financiers confirmed their readiness to make large-scale investments in our country immediately after the end of the war and the receipt of security guarantees,” he posted on Telegram, along with photos of the meeting.

“We are working for the victory and reconstruction of Ukraine.”

Ukraine might not look like a good financial investment after more than a year at war, with no end in sight, but Harvard, Saudi Arabia, a handful of oligarchs, and the United States investment manager The Vanguard Group see it differently.

They are just a few of the investors who have been buying up Ukrainian land – and its rich, fertile soil – en masse, while many Ukrainian farmers argue it should stay in Ukrainian hands.

Listen to The Take’s podcast here:

A year has passed since explosions rocked the Nord Stream pipelines, cutting off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe and fuelling geopolitical tensions already at a fever pitch after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

However, despite official investigations in three countries, the question of who is responsible for the act of sabotage remains unanswered.

Without hard evidence, many theories have emerged, pointing the finger at Ukraine, Russia or the United States, all of which have denied involvement.

Read about it here.

Russia’s Gazprom says it will send 41.8 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Sunday, the same volume as the previous day.