IOC triples support fund for Ukrainian athletes
Kyiv: After his meeting with International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach in Kyiv on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated the need to continue efforts to prevent Russian representatives from participating in international sports competitions.
Bach confirmed that the IOC’s position of not allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes remains unchanged. “The time to lift such a ban has not yet come,” he said.
According to Zelenskyy, due to the Russian invasion, “more than 100,000 Ukrainian athletes cannot train, hundreds of sports facilities have been destroyed.”
He added that “89 athletes and coaches died as a result of hostilities, 13 are in Russian captivity.”
Bach also said that the IOC tripled the support fund for Ukrainian athletes. “It was $2.5 million (€2.4 million), now it’s $7.5 million. It gives us the opportunity to support more than 3,000 Ukrainian athletes,” he said.
Ukraine confirms that Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from Lysychansk
Ukrainian troops were forced to withdraw from the eastern city of Lysychansk, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement published on Facebook on Sunday.
“After heavy fighting for Lysychansk, the Defense Forces of Ukraine were forced to withdraw from their occupied positions and lines,” the statement said.
“We continue the fight. Unfortunately, steel will and patriotism are not enough for success — material and technical resources are needed,” the military said.
Lysychansk was the last city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk region.
Russia had previously announced that it had completely captured Luhansk region. The capture of the region, a key Russian war objective, gives Moscow a boost after weeks of slow advances and shifts the focus of the battlefield to neighboring Donetsk region, where Kyiv still controls considerable territory.
Steinmeier says Ukraine should not be pushed to the negotiating table
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has spoken out against urging Ukraine to negotiate an end to the war that Russia had started.
“Ukraine must regain its sovereignty, its territorial integrity, its independence,” Steinmeier said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF on Sunday.
According to Steinmeier, the decision on how to end the war now seems to have been made on the battlefield. However, experience shows that every war ends at the negotiating table.
“We need to put Ukraine in a position where they have something to negotiate by making them strong before negotiations begin,” Steinmeier said.
“We will not push Ukraine. It remains and is a decision for Ukraine when to go this route,” he added.
Russian ship carrying Ukrainian grain detained by Turkey
Turkish customs authorities have detained a Russian cargo ship carrying grain which Ukraine says is stolen, Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey said on Sunday.
Turkish customs confirmed to the Russian news agency RIA that the ship was detained. Ukraine had previously asked Turkey to detain the Russian-flagged Zhibek Zholy cargo ship.
“We have full co-operation. The ship is currently standing at the entrance to the port, it has been detained by the customs authorities of Turkey,” Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said on Ukrainian national television.
Bodnar said the ship’s fate would be decided by a meeting of investigators on Monday and that Ukraine was hoping for the confiscation of the grain.
Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing grain from the territories that Russian forces have seized since Moscow’s invasion began in late February. The Kremlin has previously denied that Russia has stolen any Ukrainian grain.
Australia’s PM pledges military aid to Ukraine during visit to Kyiv
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday pledged further military support to Ukraine, including armored vehicles and drones, while meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
In the first visit to Ukraine by an Australian premier, Albanese told reporters in Kyiv that his country would give Ukraine “a hundred million dollars of military support,” without specifying if he meant Australian dollars. This figure in Australian dollars would amount to US$68 million (€65 million).
The prime minister specified that Australia would provide extra military equipment requested by Ukraine including 14 armored personnel carriers, 20 Bushmaster armored vehicles and a number of drones.
Albanese also said Australia would impose sanctions and travel bans on 16 more Russian ministers and oligarchs, bringing the total number of Russian individuals sanctioned by Australia to 843.
Kremlin accuses Western countries of blocking peace talks with Ukraine
Moscow has accused the Western nations of preventing peace negotiations with Ukraine and thus dragging out the war.
“Now is the moment when Western countries are betting everything on a continuation of the war,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told state television.
Under the leadership of the United States, the West was not allowing Ukrainians “to think about peace, nor to talk about it, nor to discuss it,” Peskov said, referring to statements by Western politicians who had said they did not want to pressure Ukraine into negotiations.
Nevertheless, the moment for negotiations will come, he said. For peace, however, Ukraine must accept Russia’s demands, which include the recognition of the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea as Russian territory and the cession of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Peskov said.
Czech fighter jets will guard Slovakia’s air space
Czech fighter jets will start guarding neighboring Slovakia’s air space from September, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Sunday.
Slovakia asked its NATO allies to patrol its skies as it decided to ground its Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets, which could be sent to neighboring Ukraine to help Kyiv defend itself against Russia’s invasion.
“I don’t see any problem there, the government will certainly approve it,” Fiala said in a televised debate with his Slovak counterpart Eduard Heger.
Slovakia ordered F-16 fighter jets from the United States in 2018. The first planes were expected to arrive this year and the shipment to be completed in the next year, but the delivery is now assumed to take place in 2024.
Russian troops shell Slovyansk in Donetsk region
The eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk was hit by powerful shelling from multiple rocket launchers on Sunday.
“The biggest shelling of Slovyansk in recent times. There are up to 15 fires, as well as many dead and wounded,” the head of the military-civilian administration of Slovyansk, Vadym Lyakh said in a video message.
As a result of the shelling, at least six people were killed and 15 people were injured, a spokeswoman for the Donetsk regional administration said.
Slovyansk is one of the largest Ukrainian-controlled cities in the Donetsk region, which is the target of the Russian offensive.