Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and US counterpart Joe Biden at the G7 summit, Puglia, Italy, June 13, 2024

Thursday’s Coverage: Another Russian Mass Killing in Kryvyi Rih

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1704 GMT:

Germany has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine that includes three HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, 20 Marder infantry fighting vehicles, and 10 Leopard main battle tanks.

Berlin is also sending two IRIS-T air defense systems, 21,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition, and two Beaver bridge-laying vehicles.

Germany announced last month that it planned to increase its military aid to Ukraine by another €3.8 billion ($4.13 billion) in 2024.

UPDATE 1649 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Vladimir Putin’s latest ultimatum is a “revival of Nazism”, similar to Adolf Hitler’s invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939.

Trying to steal the news cycle from Friday’s first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland — and facing stricter sanctions on Russia’s economy and increased support for Ukraine — Putin said Kyiv must give up four regions occupied by Russia during the 27-month invasion as a condition for “peace negotiations”.

Putin declared the annexation of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine and Donetsk and Luhansk in the east in September 2022. Over ensuing weeks, a Ukrainian counter-offensive regain parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk.

The Russian demanded that Ukraine recognize the illegal annexation and abandon any intention to join NATO.

Zelenskiy responded:

These messages are ultimatums, and they are no different from any other ultimatums he made in the past.

What he’s doing is a revival of Nazism. He wants us to renounce our occupied territories but he also wants our unoccupied territories. He… doesn’t intend to stop, and there will be no frozen conflict.

Before travelling from the G7 summit in Italy, Zelenskiy met Pope Francis to discuss a just and lasting peace for Ukraine and the return of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.

He thanked the Pope “for his prayers for peace in Ukraine, spiritual closeness to our people, and humanitarian aid to Ukrainians” Then he “informed the Pope about the consequences of Russian aggression, its air terror, and the difficult energy situation”.

UPDATE 1006 GMT:

North Korea has sent Russia up to 4.8 million artillery shells for Moscow’s assault on Ukraine, says South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik.

Wonsik said South Korea had detected the movement of at least 10,000 shipping containers.

North Korea’s supplies to Russia have accelerated since a September 2023 meeting between Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in eastern Russia.

In return for the munitions, Russia has provided North Korea with technology to assist deployment of spy satellites; tanks; and aircraft.

Shin said Putin is expected to seek even closer security cooperation, requesting more military supplies like artillery shells, when he goes to Pyongyang as early as next week in his first visit since July 2000.

UPDATE 0816 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed all 17 Iran-type attack drones and 7 of 14 missiles launched by Russia overnight.

Drones and missiles were intercepted over the Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, and Kirovohrad regions.

UPDATE 0704 GMT:

Netherlands’ Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that an international coalition will send Ukraine around €350 million worth of 152mm artillery shells.

The Ministry noted, “In previous ammunition deliveries, Ukraine has so far received mainly 155mm shells for howitzers donated by the west. However, the country also has many 152mm guns. With the new delivery, these weapons can also be better utilized.”

UPDATE 0703 GMT:

Russian attacks on Thursday killed a civilian near Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region in eastern UKraine, and a 40-year-old man in the Kherson region in the south.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: On a Thursday marked by support for Ukraine, the G7 nations agreed a $50 billion fund for Kyiv’s resistance and reconstruction after the Russian invasion.

The G7 — France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, the US, and the UK — announced the plan to use loans against profits from frozen Russian assets. The fund will be created under an international organization such as the World Bank, providing “Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration” loans.

Ukraine had pressed for months for provision of $300 billion in frozen Russian assets, but its partners had disagreed over distribution, citing legal and economic issues raised by seizure of the entire amount.

New Security Agreements

Kyiv confirmed its latest 10-year bilateral security agreements. The pacts with the US and Japan add to those with 13 European countries and with Canada.

Biden said a lasting peace rests on Ukraine’s ability to defend itself now and to deter aggression in the future: “We are putting our money to work for Ukraine, and giving another reminder to Putin that we are not backing down…Everything we have is going to Ukraine until its needs are met.”

The US will help ensure this by sending American troops and training Ukrainians; finding new weapons and ammunition; expanding intelligence sharing; developing bases in Europe and the US; and investing in Ukraine’s defense industrial base.

Significantly, Biden said arrangements were being made to provide Ukraine with five Patriot missile defense systems.

Zelenskiy has asked for seven more systems amid Russia’s intense missile and drone strikes trying to break Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and civilian morale. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz committed this week to provision of a third US-made Patriot and Washington said it was sending a second.

Zelenskiy thanked Biden for the strongest agreement since Ukraine’s independence in 1991:

I’m proud of our people and what Ukraine can do. And I’m very grateful to all Americans, to everyone in America, who stresses American leadership….

This is an agreement on security and thus on the protection of human life. This is an agreement on cooperation and thus on how our nations will become stronger. This is an agreement on steps to guarantee sustainable peace and therefore it benefits everyone in the world

He added, “[The agreement] states that America supports Ukraine’s future membership in NATO and recognizes that our security agreement is a bridge to Ukraine’s membership in NATO.”

Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy and signed Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kushida their security agreement with .

Tightening Sanctions on Moscow

Amid signs that this week’s toughened US sanctions are already having an effect inside Russia, the UK joined Washington in restrictions on the Moscow Stock Exchange and 50 other Russian entities.

The US’s measures against the Exchange, including secondary sanctions against any foreign entity trading on it, sparked a run on foreign currency in Moscow on Thursday morning. The branches of several large banks had no dollars or euros by noon.

The UK also followed the US with its first restrictions on ships in Russia’s shadow fleet — used by the Kremlin to circumvent Western sanctions on oil exports — and on suppliers of munitions, machine tools, microelectronics, and logistics to Russia’s military. The suppliers include entities based in China, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkey, and ships that transport military goods from North Korea to Russia.