Monday’s Coverage: Russia Murders Award-Winning Writer Victoria Amelina

Map: Institute for Study of War

UPDATE 1712 GMT:

The toll from a Russian Iskander missile strike on a military funeral in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine has risen to 38 wounded, including 12 children.

Among the injured is a 3-month-old infant.

In the small town of Pervomaiskyi, windows were smashed in a 9-story residential building, with black smoke pouring out. Cars were twisted and set on fire. A man sat in an ambulance with blood over his face.

UPDATE 1700 GMT:

A large crowd has paid tribute to author and war crimes researcher Victoria Amelina, one of 13 people murdered by a Russian missile strike on a pizzeria in Kramotorsk in eastern Ukraine on June 27.

UPDATE 1458 GMT:

Ukraine’s Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories, Irina Vereshchuk, has urged Ukrainians living near the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to evacuate, citing the growing threat of Russian sabotage of the facility.

Speaking on Ukrainian TV on Monday, Vereshchuk said Russian forces could use the civilian population as “human shields”. She referred to the June 6 demolition of the Nova Kakhovka Dam and subsequent flooding of the Kherson region neighboring Zaporizhzhia.

Find any opportunity to leave.

Do not wait for the occupiers who, as we observed after the [Kakhovka[ hydroelectric station explosion, provided no assistance to the civilian population. I anticipate the same in this case.

Ukrainian Military Intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov has reported that Russian forces have finished preparations for a potential attack on the nuclear plant, placing explosive devices near four of the six reactor buildings.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy followed up on June 22 with the warning that “Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist attack”.

UPDATE 1427 GMT:

Threatening yet again to end the July 2022 lifting its blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, Russia has rejected a UN proposal to establish a special communications channel between JP Morgan and the Russian State agricultural bank.

A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said the proposal is no alternative to reconnecting the bank with the international SWIFT payments system.

The current extension to the Black Sea deal, ensuring that Ukraine can ship grain, foodstuffs, and other goods, expires on July 18.

UPDATE 1212 GMT:

Russian shelling has wounded 12 people, including five children, in the town of Pervomaisk in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

UPDATE 0932 GMT:

In a crackdown by Chechnya leader Ramzan Kadyrov, the acolyte of Vladimir Putin, the mother of prominent Chechen activists has been given a long prison sentence and a journalist and lawyer have been beaten.

A Grozny court sentenced Zarema Musaeva, the mother of human rights activists Abubakar and Ibragim Yangulbaev, to 5 1/2 years in prison.

Musayeva was kidnapped by Chechen security forces in January 2022 and sent to a special detention center on charges of using violence against a representative of the authorities.

On Monday morning, just before the verdict, lawyer Alexander Nemov and Novaya Gazeta journalist Elena Milashina were attacked by masked men. They were severely beaten with truncheons and kicked, their phones were taken, and all their equipment and documents were destroyed.

Nemov was stabbed. Milasheva’s head was shaved and she was doused with green paint as she lost consciousness. She has a head injury and her fingers are broken.

Sergei Babinets, head of the Team Against Torture, said the attackers “reminded Milashina and Nemov of all the trials and cases” in which they were involved. “This is clearly not a gang attack, but an attack for their activities,” he emphasized.

UPDATE 0839 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered the temporary expulsion of Georgia’s Ambassador over the state of health of former Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, imprisoned since October 2021.

“Right now, Russia is using the Georgian government to kill a Ukrainian national,” Zelensky said.

Saakishvili was detained over his support for opposition candidates in local elections. On Sunday, he made his first appearance in months, in a video link with a meeting of the Tbilisi City Court. He was emaciated, haggard, and exhausted, calling on the Georgian authorities to apologize for putting him in that state.

Saakashvili’s brother David has warned that the case is “heading towards death”. The ruling Georgian Dream party has accused the former president of faking his condition.

UPDATE 0830 GMT:

Rob Bauer, head of NATO’s Military Committee has said that fighter jets will not be delivered to Ukraine until after the current counteroffensive against Russian occupiers.

Bauer told London’s LBC Radio on Sunday:

The discussion on the fighters is an important one, but it will not be solved in the short term….Training those pilots, training the technicians, making sure there is a logistic organization that can actually sustain these aircraft will not be available before this counteroffensive.

He said it was “important and understandable” that Ukraine was seeking the jets, but “we should not mix it with the counteroffensive discussion now”.

Asked if Ukraine can defeat the Russian invasion without fighter jets, he replies: “I think Ukraine is in an advantage because it has the western weapon systems, it has the better training, and it has, very importantly, the much higher morale and motivation.”

UPDATE 0815 GMT:

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke of the deadly Russian drone attack on Sumy (see 0648 GMT) to seek more support for air defenses:

Unfortunately, our state does not yet have enough high-quality air defense systems to protect our entire territory and shoot down all enemy targets. The enemy is taking advantage of this, as it did today, when it launched another terrorist attack on the city of Sumy with an Iranian drone, hitting residential buildings and the building of the Security Service of Ukraine. As a result of these strikes, there are wounded and killed….

The goal is for the Ukrainian sky shield to be able to protect our entire territory from Russian terror, and in the future, to become the basis for the European sky shield. This is absolutely necessary and absolutely possible.

Zelenskiy noted that during the Russian invasion, “More than 3,000 targets have been shot down: more than 180 aircraft, more than 130 helicopters, nearly 40 ballistic and more than 1,000 cruise missiles, and more than 1,600 drones of various types.

UPDATE 0759 GMT:

The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has reconnected to the only available power transmission line for the first time in four months.

However, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi said the situation at Europe’s largest nuclear complex, which has been relying on diesel generators for cooling and other essential operations, remains extremely fragile.

Grossi noted that the plant is reliant on a 330 kV line. Before Russia’s invasion in February 2022, four 750 kV lines were operational.

UPDATE 0750 GMT:

A memorial has been unveiled in Bucha, near Kyiv, to 501 civilians killed by Russian invaders in March 2022.

Bucha Mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk told the gathering, “We cannot forget this. We cannot forgive.”

UPDATE 0721 GMT:

The International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression, established in March in response to Russia’s war crimes, began its work on Monday in The Hague.

The ICPCA is embedded in the European Union’s Agency for Criminal Justice (Eurojust). It brings together national prosecutors to exchange evidence; draw from Eurojust’s expertise, technology and logistics; and develop a common prosecution strategy.

Ukriane Chief Prosecutor Andriy Kostin tweeted:

UPDATE 0657 GMT:

Oleksiy Danilov, the Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, reports success for the Ukrainian counteroffensive in destroying the resources of Russian units.

Ukraine’s defense forces are fulfilling the number one task – the maximum destruction of manpower, equipment, fuel depots, military vehicles, command posts, artillery and air defense forces of the Russian army.

The last few days have been particularly fruitful….More destroyed means more [area] liberated. The more effective the former, the more the latter. We are acting calmly, wisely, step by step.

On Monday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy cited progress after a “difficult” week. Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported the liberation of another 65.8 square km (25.4 square miles) of territory: 37.4 square km on the eastern front near Bakhmut, and 28.4 square km on the southern front.

UPDATE 0648 GMT:

The toll from Monday’s Russian drone attack on Sumy in northern Ukraine has risen to three killed and 21 injured, with four people in hospital.

An official building and two residential buildings were damaged. Tuesday has been declared a day of mourning.

Russian shelling of Kherson city in southern Ukraine killed a man and a woman on Wednesday morning. The number of injured is being established.

Three people have been injured by shelling in the Chernihiv region in northern Ukraine.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport was attacked by drones on Tuesday morning, prompting the Russian Foreign Ministry to declare “terrorism”.

Officials said five drones, launched at different times, were intercepted over the Moscow region.

The State news agency RIA said two drones were downed near the village of Valuevo near Vnukovo, about 30 km (19 miles) southwest of central Moscow. One drone crashed on a military facility near Kubinka, east of the capital.

Landings and takeoffs at Vnukovo were restricted “for technical reasons beyond the control of the airport,” the Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsiya, posted on Telegram.

The measures were in place until 8 a.m. (0500 GMT). Flights were diverted, with Moscow’s other airports operating normally.

There was no claim of responsibility. The Foreign Ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin blamed Ukraine.

On May 3, two drones were downed as they approached the Kremlin. The Zelenskiy Government denied responsibility. However, US officials later said it was likely that a unit directed by the Ukrainian military carried out the operation, although there was no evidence that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered an attack.

Ukraine has also carried out a series of strikes, including drones, in Russia’s border region of Belgorod. The attacks have hit oil and ammunition depots, transport lines, and other supply and logistic positions, disrupting the Russian invasion and preparing for Ukraine’s counter-offensive.