Moldova President Maia Sandu signs the decree for accession talks with the European Union, Chisinau, June 21, 2024

EA on Dublin NewsTalk: “Axis of the Isolated” — Putin in North Korea

Friday’s Coverage: US Patriots to Bolster Kyiv’s Air Defenses

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1704 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defense shot down 12 of 16 missiles and all Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The Russians fired 10 Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles from Tu-95 bomber planes over Russia’s Saratov region, four Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea, and two Iskander-K cruise missiles from occupied Crimea.

The toll from a Russian missile attack on Kharkiv city in the afternoon has risen to three killed and 41 wounded, including two children.

Six of the injured are in serious condition.

UPDATE 1658 GMT:

A Ukrainian drone strike on an oil depot in southwest Russia last Tuesday destroyed three fuel tanks.

Satellite imagery confirmed that the tanks in Azov in the Rostov region burned down in a fire that lasted three days.

The drone attack targeted the Azovskaya and Azovnefteprodukt depots, which have a total of 22 storage tanks.

UPDATE 1510 GMT:

At least three civilians have been killed and 29 wounded by Russia’s latest strikes on Kharkiv city in northeast Ukraine.

At least 16 people, including two children, have been hospitalized. Four are in serious condition.

Explosions from four glide bombs, targeting a residential area, were reported around 3:15 p.m. local time. A residential building was damaged.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy commented:

Russia has targeted Kharkiv with intense drone and missile strikes on energy infrastructure and civilian sites, and launched a cross-border offensive into the region on May 10.

UPDATE 0709 GMT:

US citizen Paul Whelan, marking 2,000 days in Russian detention “for a crime that never occurred”, has urged the Biden Administration to take “decisive action” to bring him and imprisoned US journalist Evan Gershkovich home.

Calling CNN from a remote prison camp in Mordovia in western Russia, Whelan said, “When you think of 2,000 days, how long that actually is, how many years, how many months, it’s an incredible number.”

The security director was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 on espionage charges.

He told CNN:

The US needs to go out and do something – fill up Guantanamo Bay with Russian officials, arrest Russian spies, do something that makes the Kremlin sit up and take notice and say, “Okay, yeah, right, now it’s time that we’re gonna get Evan and Paul back and then we want back what you’ve got of ours, and we’ll call it a day.”

Until decisive action is taken, until there’s a strong response to this sort of behavior, they’ll keep grabbing people.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US Government “will continue to work to bring home Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan every day. It’s something that we are constantly working on and constantly pursuing.”

UPDATE 0629 GMT:

Two Ukrainian officials say that, despite the recent easing of US restrictions, they still cannot use American-supplied weapons to strike key Russian airfields.

Last month the Biden Administration revised the ban to permit attacks on Russian positions enabling the cross-border assault on the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine. This week, they expanded the permission to positions supporting attacks on other Ukrainian territory, including the Sumy region in the north.

The Ukrainian officials said there has been a reduction in Russian attacks: “[This] has definitely changed things. The enemy has certainly felt it, especially directly on the front line.”

However, Moscow’s jets can still launch deadly glide bombs from the airfields which are still immune from American-supplied weapons. One official summarized, “Neither the range nor the category [of US weapons] is sufficient.”

The officials said Ukraine can only fire on positions less than 100 km (62 milesP from the border. US officials, while declining to specify the limitation, said the assertion is incorrect.

UPDATE 0608 GMT:

Russia launched overnight missile and drone attacks targeting critical energy infrastructure in multiple Ukrainian regions.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said equipment was damaged in assaults on energy transmission systems in the south and west of the country.

In the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, two energy workers were injured and hospitalized.

In the Lviv region in the west, a Russian missile struck an energy infrastructure facility and set it afire.

A Russian drone hit a postal vehicle near the frontline in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. The driver was killed as he was delivering pensions, and another person was injured.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian President Voldoymyr Zelenskiy has hailed the confirmation that talks for the European Union accession of Ukraine and neighboring Moldova will begin on June 25.

The Belgian Presidency of the European Council confirmed on Friday that the discussions will be held in Luxembourg.

As she signed the decree for the start of the talks, President Maia Sandu said, “Moldova has implemented all the recommendations of the European Commission. Thus, two years after receiving candidate status, the first Moldova-EU intergovernmental conference will take place.”

Zelenskiy tweeted, “Millions of Ukrainians, and indeed generations of our people, are realizing their European dream.” In his nightly video address to the nation, he continued, “These are truly historic moments. Ukraine is and will always be part of a united Europe.”

On June 7 the European Commission reported that both countries — seeking to become the 28th and 29th members of the bloc — had taken all the necessary steps to meet preconditions. They included judicial and governance reforms; measures against corruption; and protections for minority rights.