Russia-Ukraine war – live: Putin says there’s no need for more ‘massive strikes’
The UN has apparently verified over 100 cases of rape and sexual assaults in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February
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Russian president Vladimir Putin has said that there is no need for more massive strikes on Ukraine.
He said that most of the designated targets had been hit and said that it was not his aim to destroy the country.
Vladimir Putin also said on Friday that he expects his mobilization of army reservists for combat in Ukraine to be completed in about two weeks.
Speaking to journalists after a summit in Kazakhstan, Mr Putin said: “There’s no need for massive strikes. We now have other tasks.”
It comes after a UN envoy said that Moscow’s forces are using rape and sexual violence as part of their “military strategy.”
Speaking during an interview with AFP, Pramila Patten, UN envoy, said that Moscow’s forces were using a "deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims.”
The Independent reported in June that Ukraine claimed to have documented 15,000 suspected war crimes, including rapes by ill-equipped Russian soldiers who used sexual violence to strike fear into the local population.
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Zelensky hints at further war crimes
The situation in the liberated Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine was “just as terrible” as it was in the reclaimed towns of Irpin and Bucha, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said – hinting at evidence of more Russian war crimes.
Russia was accused of genodical intent after images and footage emerged documenting the killing and abuse of Ukrainian civilians from the northern town of Bucha in April.
International outrage over the so-called Bucha massacre was reignited several weeks later after terrifying accounts of underground confinement, violence, shootings and summary executions against civilians in Irpin, another Kyiv suburb, began to dominate headlines.
Mr Zelensky gave no further details in comments made in a video link with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Russia has vehemently denied its forces have committed war crimes in Ukraine.
Russia summons European diplomats over Nord Stream pipeline rupture investigation
Diplomats from Germany, Denmark and Sweden have been summoned by Russia to complain that representatives from Moscow and Gazprom had not been invited to join an investigation into ruptures of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
“Russia will obviously not recognise the pseudo-results of such an investigation unless Russian experts are involved,” Moscow’s foreign ministry said.
The cause of the ruptures in the Nord Stream pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea, remains unclear, but European Union countries have pointed to sabotage.
Belgorod governor says building damaged by Ukrainian shelling
A multi-storey residential building in the Russian city of Belgorod has been damaged by shelling from Ukrainian armed forces, the region’s governor said on Thursday.
He said an apartment had been struck and shared a picture appearing to show rubble next to a partially collapsed portion of a building.
There has been no information about casualties or injuries, so far, he added. Belgorod is about 40 km (25 miles) away from the Ukrainian border.
Turkey ‘most reliable route’ for gas to the EU, says Putin
Turkey is the most reliable route to deliver gas to the EU, president Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, before proposing to build a “supply hub” there.
Speaking at a bilateral meeting with Mr Erdogan, Mr Putin said energy supplies from Russia to Turkey were in “full flow” and in accordance with requests.
Putin’s war on Ukraine part of ‘larger crusade against liberal democracy’, says Scholz
The war in Ukraine is part of a larger crusade by Russia against the west and liberal democracy, German chancellor Olaf Scholz in a speech on Thursday.
“(Russian President) Vladimir Putin and his enablers have made one thing very clear: this war is not only about Ukraine. They consider their war against Ukraine to be part of a larger crusade, a crusade against liberal democracy,” he said in a recorded speech at the Progressive Governance Summit in Berlin.
Lavrov calls UN stand against Moscow annexations ‘anti-Russian’
The UN resolution condemning Moscow’s annexation of four Ukrainian territories was “anti-Russian” and achieved using “diplomatic terror”, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has declared.
On Wednesday, the UN general assembly overwhelmingly condemned Russia’s move to annex four partially occupied regions in Ukraine, calling on all countries not to recognise it.
Iodine tablet stocks run out in Finland amid nuclear incident warnings
Swathes of pharmacies across Finland have seen their stocks of iodine tablets run dry after health officials recommended people stock up amid fears a nuclear incident could occur due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Nordic country’s health ministry announced the new recommendation on Tuesday that households buy a single dose of iodine – which can protect the thyroid from radiation – in an oblique acknowledgement of a potential nuclear event in Ukraine, to the nation’s south.
When announcing the new recommendations, however, it did not mention the ongoing Russian invasion, nor did it disclose where such nuclear accidents could potentially take place.
Kherson residents told to flee as fighting advances
Residents in Ukraine’s Kherson region have been urged to evacuate by its Russian-installed governor amid fighting between Russian and advancing Ukrainian forces.
In a video statement on the Telegram app, Vladimir Saldo also publicly asked for Moscow’s help in transporting civilians into Russia.
Kherson is one of four Ukrainian regions that Russia formally incorporated into its territory this month, a move denounced by Kyiv and the West as an illegal annexation.
Moscow claims several arrested in foiled attack on TurkStream pipeline
Several people hved been arrested during a foiled attack on the TurkStream gas pipeline on Russian territory, the Kremlin has claimed.
Russia said it is stepping up security on the TurkStream pipeline, which carries Russian gas to Turkey, amid unexplained ruptures on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea and an oil leak on the Druzhba pipeline in Poland.
Erdogan and Putin ‘do not discuss Ukraine war resolutions’
President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan did not discuss ways to resolve the conflict in Ukraine during a bilateral meeting on Thursday, according to the Kremlin.
“The topic of a Russian-Ukrainian settlement was not discussed,” news agency RIA cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.
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