Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 107 of the invasion

 

Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 107 of the invasion

 

Vladimir Putin compares his actions in Ukraine to conquests of Peter the Great; Zelenskiy says Ukraine ‘holding on’ to key frontline cities in Donbas

 

Samantha Lock

@Samantha__Lock

Fri 10 Jun 2022 02.22 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/russia-ukraine-war-what-we-know-on-day-107-of-the-invasion

 

• Russian president Vladimir Putin paid tribute to tsar Peter the Great, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands. After visiting an exhibition in Moscow dedicated to the 350th birthday of the 18th-century ruler on Thursday, Putin told a group of young entrepreneurs that “you get the impression that by fighting Sweden he was grabbing something. He wasn’t taking anything, he was taking it back”.
• Ukrainian troops claim they have advanced in fierce street fighting in Sievierodonetsk but say their only hope of turning the tide is with more artillery to offset Russia’s massive firepower. Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the country wa “holding on” to key frontline cities in Donbas. “Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk and other cities in Donbas, which the occupiers now consider key targets, are holding on,” he said, adding that Ukraine had had some success in Zaporizhzhia.
• Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, said that if the west could supply long-range weapons, Ukrainian forces would be able to “clean up Sievierodonetsk in two or three days”. Haidai’s remarks on Telegram came after Zelenskiy said the battle for the eastern city would decide the fate of Donbas and was seeing probably the most difficult fighting since Russia’s invasion began.
• Zelenskiy lobbied again for more weapons from the west, comparing Russia’s invasion to Covid and describing weapons and sanctions as a vaccine. “Weapons and sanctions are … a vaccine … against Covid-22 brought by Russia,” Zelenskiy said via video link at a gala to celebrate Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the year.
• Two British men and a Moroccan national captured while fighting in the Ukrainian army in Mariupol have been sentenced to death by pro-Russia officials after a days-long process described as a “disgusting Soviet-era show trial”. A court in Russian-controlled east Ukraine convicted 28-year-old Aiden Aslin, from Newark, 48-year-old Shaun Pinner, from Watford, and Saaudun Brahim on charges of “terrorism”.
• The UK government has said it is “deeply concerned” after the death sentences handed to the Britons. No 10 said it was working with Ukrainian authorities to secure the release of the men. “We are obviously deeply concerned by this. We have said continually that prisoners of war shouldn’t be exploited for political purposes,” a government spokesperson said. The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, condemned the “sham judgment”, saying: “They are prisoners of war. This is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy.”
• The number of Russian soldiers killed since Putin ordered his troops into Ukraine could now be as high as 20,000, according to the latest assessment by western officials. Previous estimates, given several weeks ago, were about 15,000. The official did not speculate on the number of Ukrainians killed in the war.
• Ukrainian military casualties are now between 100 and 200 a day, according to Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to Zelenskiy, who spoke with the BBC on Thursday. The Ukrainian president said last week that the Ukrainian army was losing 60 to 100 soldiers a day.
• The Kremlin said no agreement had been reached with Turkey on exporting Ukrainian grain shipments across the Black Sea. Turkey has been pushing for an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to ease the global food crisis by negotiating safe passage for grain stuck in Black Sea ports, but its efforts have been met with resistance. Ukraine says Russia is imposing unreasonable conditions and the Kremlin says shipment is dependent on ending sanctions.
• Finland’s government is planning to amend border legislation to allow the building of barriers on its eastern frontier with Russia, it said. The move to amend border legislation comes as the Finnish government rushes to strengthen border security amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Finland’s bid to join the Nato military alliance.
• Nearly 5 million Ukrainians have been registered across Europe since the beginning of the war, according to figures by the UN’s refugee agency. Far more will have actually left the country, with UNHCR data showing that more than 7.3m border crossings out of Ukraine had been recorded by 7 June. Another 2.3m crossings had been registered back into the country. The war in Ukraine has “caused one of the largest human displacement crises in the world”, the UNHCR said.
• Russia may be getting more revenue from its fossil fuel sales now than before its invasion of Ukraine, according to one US official. Increases in global oil prices have offset the impact of import bans, US energy security envoy Amos Hochstein told lawmakers during a Senate hearing. Russia had been able to sell more cargoes to other buyers, including major energy consumers China and India, by offering it at a discount to oil from other origins, he said.
• Zelenskiy said he had a phone conversation with French president Emmanuel Macron in which “special attention was paid to Ukraine’s path to the EU”. “We are coordinating steps,” he said.