Zelenskyy says Ukraine is taking steps to prepare for winter
Refugees fleeing the Ukrainian war via Lviv to Poland.
Dan Kitwood | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Ukraine is taking steps to prepare the country for next winter, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly speech.
The country has banned gas and coal exports so that all domestic production can go to the Ukrainian people, he said.
However, Ukraine is working to increase its electricity export capacity, which will also directly help stabilize the energy situation in neighboring countries and reduce Russian energy consumption, Zelenskyy added.
Repairing thermal power plants, combined heat and power plants and boilers will also be one of the Ministry of Energy’s “main tasks,” he said.
“I would like to emphasize that I have set a very specific task for the government to do everything possible to ensure that gas and electricity tariffs do not change in the next heating season,” Zelenskyy said.
“People are already facing enough difficulties because of the war. That will be provided,” he said.
– Chelsea Ong
Ukrainian officials say Mariupol could face a deadly cholera outbreak
An avenue in Mariupol on April 12, 2022. The besieged Ukrainian city could now face a deadly outbreak of cholera, NBC News quoted local officials as saying.
Alexandre Nemenov Afp | Getty Images
The besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol could now face a deadly cholera outbreak, NBC News reported, citing local officials.
The city’s drinking water has been contaminated with decaying garbage and corpses, increasing the risk of a cholera outbreak, NBC reported, citing an adviser to the busy city mayor.
Adviser Petro Andryushchenko also added that a Russian city near the border was preparing infectious disease units in case an outbreak of cholera could affect Russian soldiers in Mariupol, NBC News reported.
“So really, this threat is not only recognized by the World Health Organization and us, but also by the occupiers,” Andryushchenko told Ukrainian television, according to NBC News.
He said in a separate interview that the Russian authorities controlling Mariupol were effectively closing the city and imposing a self-imposed quarantine.
NBC News and CNBC could not independently confirm Andryushchenko’s claim.
Cholera can kill in a few hours if left untreated, according to the WHO.
The organization warned last month of the threat of outbreaks of infectious diseases in Mariupol, citing local non-governmental organizations that the city’s wastewater and drinking water were mixing, creating “a huge danger for many infections, including cholera “.
– Chelsea Ong
The World Bank has pledged an additional $ 1.4 billion in Ukraine
The World Bank’s executive council has announced that it has approved $ 1.4 billion in additional funds for Ukraine that will be used to pay the salaries of government and social workers.
Eva Hambach | Afp | Getty Images
The executive board of the World Bank has announced that it has approved $ 1.4 billion in additional funding for Ukraine that will be used to pay the salaries of government and social workers.
The new funds are part of a larger support package of more than $ 4 billion, more than the previous estimate of $ 3 billion, the World Bank said in a statement. $ 2 billion has been disbursed from the expanded package.
The latest funding was supported by funding from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as parallel funding from Italy, planned future guarantees, including from Denmark, and contributions. of a new multi-donor trust fund, the World Bank said.
The United States last month also pledged $ 40 billion to Ukraine, while the financial leaders of the Group of Seven agreed on $ 9.5 billion in new aid.
The World Bank added that it works to support ordinary Ukrainians in areas such as access to health services, education, social protection, water supply, energy and roads.
“Maintaining these basic services, and the government’s ability to provide them, is essential to prevent further deterioration in living conditions and poverty in Ukraine beyond the suffering inflicted on the population due to the war,” he said. the director of the World Bank for Eastern Europe. , Arup Banerji.
“In addition, keeping government capabilities running will be the basis for any recovery and reconstruction in the future.”
– Chelsea Ong
German Merkel defends her approach to Ukraine
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a talk on “the challenging problems of our time” with author Alexander Osang (not pictured) at the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin, Germany, on June 7, 2022.
Annegret Greetings Reuters
Angela Merkel defended her focus on Ukraine and Russia during her 16 years as Germany’s leader, saying that a much-criticized 2015 peace deal for eastern Ukraine bought Kyiv a precious time and that he will not apologize for his diplomatic efforts.
In her first substantial comments since leaving office six months ago, Merkel said “there was no excuse” for Russia’s “brutal” attack on Ukraine and that it was “a big mistake on the part of Russia “.
Merkel, who dealt with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout her chancellery, rejected a suggestion that she and others were engaged in appeasement that eventually allowed the invasion.
“I tried to work to avoid the calamity, and diplomacy was not wrong if it was not successful,” he said in an interview on stage at a Berlin theater that was broadcast live. “I don’t see what I should say now that I was wrong, so I won’t apologize.”
“It’s a great pity I didn’t succeed, but now I don’t blame myself for trying,” Merkel said.
– Associated press
Chornobyl radiation detectors are back in line, normal levels
A satellite image shows a closer look at a sarcophagus at the Chornobil nuclear power plant in the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine, on March 10, 2022.
Maxar Technologies | Reuters
Radiation detectors in the exclusion zone around the defunct Chornobil nuclear power plant are back online for the first time since Russia seized the area on February 24, and radiation levels are normal, he said. say the UN nuclear control body.
“Most of the 39 detectors that send data from the exclusion zone … are now visible on the International Radiation Monitoring Information System (IRMIS) map,” the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. “The measurements received so far indicated radiation levels in line with those measured before the conflict.”
– Reuters
The US is beginning to train Ukrainian troops to use rocket systems
The U.S. military has begun training Ukrainian forces in the sophisticated rocket systems that the Biden administration agreed to provide last week, but which Russia has said could trigger broader airstrikes in Ukraine.
Navy Lt. Col. Anton Semelroth, a Pentagon spokesman, said Ukrainian troops are training with the high-mobility artillery rocket system, or HIMARS, at Grafenwoehr’s training base in Germany. other places in Europe.
The United States has agreed to send four of the medium-range precision rocket systems to Ukraine as part of a $ 700 million package approved last week, and officials said it would take about three weeks of training before they could go to the battlefront.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Sunday that any Western delivery of long-range rocket systems would lead to Moscow hitting “objects we have not yet hit.”
– Associated press
Fiji is suing the US forfeiture of a Russian-owned mega yacht by OK
The 106 m long and 18 m high super luxury motor yacht Amadea is seen after anchoring at the Pasatarlasi dock for 9 fuel trucks on February 18, 2020 in the Bodrum district of the Mugla province in Turkey. .
Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
The Fiji High Court allowed U.S. authorities to take possession of a $ 235 million, 350-foot yacht that is said to be owned by Russian billionaire Suleiman Kerimov.
Superhero Amadea quickly left a port in Fiji bound for the United States, the Justice Department said.
The confiscation is the latest in a series of actions taken against Russian elite property as punishment for their country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The United States has argued in Fiji’s courts that Kerimov, who is under US sanctions, is the real owner of the Amadea, despite documentation proving that it was owned by Eduard Khudainatov, the company’s former CEO. Russian oil and gas company Rosneft.
The Fiji Supreme Court said it was in the public interest for Amadea to be left in the possession of the United States, saying her berth there “was costing the Fiji government a lot.”
– And manganese
US Navy warship USS Gravely docks in Poland in support of Ukraine
The U.S. Navy warship USS Gravely docked in the Baltic port city of Gdynia, Poland, in what officials described as a show of support for Ukraine.
A machine gun is seen on the deck of the US Navy’s warship USS Gravely, which docked in the port city of Gdynia on the Baltic Sea in what officials described as a show of support for the country as war breaks out. neighboring Ukraine, Poland, June 7, 2022..
Kacper Pempel | Reuters
The U.S. Navy is on the deck of the US Navy’s warship USS Gravely, which docked in the port city of Gdynia on the Baltic Sea in what officials described as a show of support for the country. war broke out in neighboring Ukraine, Poland, on June 7, 2022.
Kacper Pempel | Reuters
U.S. Marines are near the radar aboard the US Navy’s warship USS Gravely, which docked in the Baltic Sea port city of Gdynia in what officials described as a show of support for the country. while war breaks out in neighboring Ukraine, Poland, on June 7, 2022.
Kacper Pempel | Reuters
A U.S. Navy holds U.S. and Polish flags after a conference in front of the US Navy’s warship USS Gravely that docked in the port city of Gdynia on the Baltic Sea, in which officials they described it as a show of support for the country as war broke out in neighboring Ukraine. Poland, June 7, 2022.
Kacper Pempel | Reuters