WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Ukraine's place is in NATO, alliance chief says
North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief Stoltenberg said Ukraine's rightful place was in the military alliance and that membership and security guarantees for Ukraine would be high on the agenda of its summit in July.
REACTION ON NATO
* Germany's defence minister rejected a quick decision on Ukraine's membership, saying, "The door is opening a crack, but this is not the time to decide now."
* Ukrainian President Zelenskiy told Stoltenberg on his visit to Kyiv that it was time for NATO to offer his country membership and that Kyiv needed more weapons to fight Russia.
* The Kremlin reiterated that Moscow opposed NATO admitting Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.
GRAIN
* Almost nothing has been done to address Russia's concerns over the Black Sea grain deal, Foreign Minister Lavrov said, the latest in a series of downbeat comments by top Moscow officials about the pact that enabled Ukraine to resume exports.
* Hungary banned imports of honey and certain meat products from Ukraine, in addition to grains, until June 30, adding to pressure to broaden proposed EU-wide measures. Poland joined in calls for more food imports to be banned including milk.
DIPLOMACY
* Zelenskiy, in a speech to Mexican lawmakers by video, urged Mexico to help make the case in Latin America for his peace plan for Ukraine. Mexico's government has said it wants to remain neutral in the war.
* French President Macron discussed topics including Ukraine, China and Sudan during a phone call with U.S. President Biden, his office said.
* Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the city had terminated the Russian Embassy's deal to lease land in the capital and wanted the property to be returned to the Ukrainian state.
MILITARY
* A Russian warplane accidentally fired a weapon into the city of Belgorod near Ukraine late on Thursday, causing an explosion and damaging buildings, Tass cited the defence ministry as saying.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
People in new Russian regions have fought for many years to be part of Russia — Putin
People in the Donetsk and Lugansk people’s republics, as well as the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions have fought for many years for the right to be a part of Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
People in the new territories "have fought for many years for the right to be with Russia," he said at a meeting of the Local Self-Government Council.
"For many years they have lived in absolutely different conditions of regional and municipal government, which are not like the conditions in Russia," he went on to say.
The president said municipal officials working in the new territories should be treated with warmth and consideration and provided with "all the necessary assistance for the integration of the new regions into the unified system of Russia’s public government."
Putin also said "there are many volunteers among the municipal community, who decided for themselves to be there (in the area of the special military operation - TASS), where things are tough."
"They are an example of loyalty to the Motherland and its interests and are now defending our historical territories, protecting people in these territories," the president continued.
** Explosion in Russian city revealed as accident – military
The Russian Defense Ministry has identified the cause of the explosion in Belgorod as the unintended release of an aerial bomb. The projectile left a massive crater in a residential area and destroyed several vehicles, but did not cause any injuries.
The “unusual descent of an aviation munition” took place around 10:15 pm Moscow time, as a Su-34 of the Russian Aerospace Forces flew over Belgorod, the ministry said in a statement. The Russian military has launched an investigation into the incident.
According to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, the blast left a 20-meter crater in the street, destroying several cars and shattering windows at nearby buildings. One vehicle was thrown into the air and onto the roof of a nearby one-story building.
CCTV footage circulating online showed the unidentified projectile striking the ground. After penetrating the street, the object detonated a few moments later, sending a fountain of dirt and pieces of pavement high into the air.
Local authorities did not attribute the attack, amid rampant speculation on social media that Ukraine had sent another drone to target Belgorod’s power supply, following a similar attack earlier this week.
Belgorod is only 25 kilometers from the border with Ukraine. The city and the eponymous region have frequently been targets of Ukrainian artillery, drones and missiles since Moscow launched its military operation in February 2022. Earlier on Thursday, Gladkov had told local officials that 30 civilians have died and another 120 have been injured as the result of Ukrainian attacks.
The Russian military has stepped up airstrikes against Ukrainian targets over the past several weeks, using specially modified FAB-500 glide bombs dropped from strike aircraft such as the Su-34.
** EU ‘done’ with Russia sanctions – official
The European Union has exhausted its options for further economic restrictions against Russia, the Financial Times reported on Thursday, citing EU officials.
The bloc has so far adopted ten rounds of sanctions in response to the Ukraine conflict and is currently working on an eleventh package of punitive measures against Moscow. Meetings between the European Commission and member state officials to informally discuss new actions will start on Friday, FT wrote.
Officials working on further sanctions told the outlet that they are likely to be limited to expanding the list of individuals subject to asset freezes and travel bans, as well as steps to scale up existing measures by closing loopholes.
Most officials reportedly admitted that those parts of the Russian economy that were left unsanctioned are parts that one or more EU member states “can’t live without,” and thus measures targeting them would be vetoed.
“We are done,” one of the officials told FT, adding: “If we do more sanctions, there will be more exemptions than measures.”
New restrictions could reportedly target Russia’s nuclear fuel and services exports, but those would be opposed by some member-states, such as France, Hungary, and others.
Sweeping EU sanctions have targeted various sectors of the Russian economy as well as individuals and entities. According to FT, almost 1,500 people and more than 200 entities are currently subject to asset freezes and travel bans. The report indicated that the bloc’s restrictive measures have banned bilateral trade flows worth more than €135 billion ($148 billion), including energy imports from Russia, as well as exports of technology, machinery, and electronic goods. Some €21.5 billion worth of assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities has been frozen, alongside €300 billion of Russian central bank reserves.
Many economists and politicians, however, have argued that the embargos harm the West more than Moscow.
Hungarian President Viktor Orban has repeatedly called for “the failed policy of Brussels” to be changed, noting that the sanctions “didn’t fulfill the hopes that were pinned on them,” while Europe is “slowly bleeding.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has likened the bloc’s attempts to cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels to economic “suicide.”
Reuters/TASS/RT
