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Russians pushed from Snake Island, Ukrainian forces say
Isobel Koshiw
Ukrainian forces say they have pushed Russian forces from Snake Island, a strategic Black Sea landmass off the southern coast near the city of Odesa.
Ukraine’s reported recapture of the island weakens any potential plans Russia may have for a future land attack on that stretch of coastline.
Russia’s ministry of defence stated that it had completed its assigned tasks and was tactically withdrawing to allow for grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports.
“In order to organise humanitarian grain corridors as part of the implementation of joint agreements reached with the participation of the UN, the Russian Federation decided to leave its positions on Zmiinyi Island,” the defence ministry said.
Ukraine said it had forced Russian troops to flee overnight on two speed boats. The statement, by Ukraine’s southern command, said explosions could still be heard and the island was covered in smoke, appearing to indicate that battles were continuing.
Snake Island was made famous when Russia first captured it in February. A Ukrainian soldier posted on the island told an attacking Russian warship to “go fuck yourself”, which has become one of the most popular Ukrainian slogans of resistance since the invasion.
The blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports by Russia has caused grain prices to soar, threatening famine in several countries.
New ‘iron curtain’ already descending between Russia and the west, says Lavrov
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said, a new “iron curtain” was descending between Russia and the west, and that Moscow would not trust Washington and Brussels “from now on”.
Speaking to reporters, Lavrov said:
As far as an iron curtain is concerned, essentially it is already descending.
The process “has begun”, he said after talks with his counterpart from Belarus, AFP reports.
Lavrov accused the EU of not being “at all” interesting in understanding Russia’s interests, adding:
It is interested in what has been decided in Brussels. And what has been decided in Washington has been decided in Brussels.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has denied that Moscow is blocking Ukrainian grain exports and downplayed the impact of missing Ukrainian agricultural goods on the world food market.
In a joint press conference after talks with visiting Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, Putin said:
We do not prevent the export of Ukrainian grain. The Ukrainian military has mined the approaches to their ports, no one prevents them from clearing those mines and we guarantee the safety of shipping grain out of there.
Instead, the Russian leader blamed western sanctions for problems in the global food market and rising prices.
Jokowi, as President Widodo is known, told reporters that Indonesia will continue cooperation with Russia and said it was important to move toward a peaceful resolution of conflict in Ukraine.
He said he had “conveyed” a message from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to Putin, while expressing his “readiness” to help start “communication” between the two leaders.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has announced that it has cut diplomatic ties with Syria, a day after the Syrian presidency officially recognised the “independence” of the two breakaway regions of Luhansk and Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
The ministry “strongly condemns the decision of the Syrian Arab Republic to recognise the so-called ‘independence’ of the temporarily occupied territories in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts”, it said in a statement.
The statement continued:
In response to this unfriendly act, Ukraine declares the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Syria without the breaking off of consular relations, in accordance with Article 2 of the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
The Ukrainian side is also initiating the procedure of imposing a trade embargo on Syria, as well as imposing other sanctions on Syrian legal entities and individuals.
From Oleg Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian foreign ministry:
Syria’s recognition of the so-called independence of Russian-occupied territories in Donbas is an unfriendly act towards Ukraine, an attack on its sovereignty, and a gross violation of the UN Charter. Ukraine will cut diplomatic ties with Syria and introduce a trade embargo.
— Oleg Nikolenko (@OlegNikolenko_) June 30, 2022
Pope Francis has implicitly accused Russia of waging a “cruel and senseless war of aggression” against Ukraine, a day after he condemned the “barbarous” bombing of a crowded shopping centre in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk.
The conflict in Ukraine had pitted Christians against one another, the pope said. He said:
Reconciliation among separated Christians, as a means of contributing to peace between peoples in conflict, is a most timely consideration these days, as our world is disrupted by a cruel and senseless war of aggression in which many, many Christians are fighting one another.
In a clear reference to Russia, the pope said all needed “to recognise that armed conquest, expansionism and imperialism have nothing to do with the kingdom that Jesus proclaimed”.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been speaking at a news conference in Madrid at the end of the Nato summit, where he called for intensified efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
There are “no losers in a just peace”, he said, adding that Ankara was trying to pursue “a balanced policy” because of its heavy reliance on Russian energy imports.
Turkey has supplied Ukraine with armed drones and other weapons, but its leader also enjoys a close working relationship with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.
Erdoğan said Finland and Sweden must fulfil promises made to Turkey in a deal to lift its veto on their Nato membership bids, including a pledge by Stockholm to extradite 73 “terrorists”.
Ratification of the Nordic countries’ Nato membership bids will not be sent to the Turkish parliament until they meet their promises, including completing legislative changes as soon as possible, he said.
Erdoğan said:
If they fulfil their duties, we will send it to the parliament. If they are not fulfilled, it is out of the question.
Erdoğan said he saw the signing of the trilateral accord as recognition of Ankara’s sensitivities around terrorism and a “diplomatic victory” for Turkey.
Today so far…
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- The frontline eastern city of Lysychansk is under relentless shelling as Russia presses on with its offensive in eastern Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said they were trying to evacuate residents from the city, the focus of Russia’s attacks, where about 15,000 people remained. The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, told Ukrainian television: “Fighting is going on all the time. The Russians are constantly on the offensive. There is no let-up. Absolutely everything is being shelled.”
- One person has been killed and six people have been injured, including an 11-year-old, by Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region, according to Kharkiv’s governor, Oleh Synyehubov. “The enemy is firing from tanks, mortars, artillery and jet artillery on the positions of our military and on peaceful towns and villages,” Synyehubov said in his latest update. None of the claims have been independently verified.
- Nato leaders yesterday announced a new “strategic concept” in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, describing Moscow as “the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and stability”. Leaders also pledged further help to Kyiv and agreed on a package of support aimed at modernising the country’s defence sector.
- Norway’s foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, has said her nation is not blocking Russian access to Svalbard. On Wednesday, Russia accused Norway of disrupting the delivery of critical supplies and threatened retaliation. Huitfeldt said Norway was not blocking Russian access to the Arctic archipelago, only applying international sanctions, and that Russia had other means to reach its settlements.
- The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, has arrived in Moscow, where he will urge Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire and seek ways to allow the export of grain from Ukraine. Jokowi, as Widodo is known, also met with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Wednesday during a visit he described as a “manifestation of the Indonesian people’s concern for the situation in Ukraine”.
- Russia’s defence ministry has said more than 6,000 Ukrainian fighters have surrendered or been captured, according to Russian state media. On Wednesday, Ukraine announced the largest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia invaded, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who defended the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
- Zelenskiy has announced the end of diplomatic ties between Ukraine and Syria after the Russia ally recognised the independence of eastern Ukraine’s two self-proclaimed republics in Donetsk and Luhansk. “There will no longer be relations between Ukraine and Syria,” Zelenskiy said, adding that the sanctions pressure against Syria “will be even greater”.
First cargo ship leaves Russian-occupied port of Berdiansk, says pro-Russia official
A cargo ship has left the Russian-occupied Ukrainian port of Berdiansk for the first time since the city was seized by Moscow’s troops, according to a pro-Russia local official.
Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the pro-Russia administration, said on Telegram:
After a stoppage of several months, the first cargo ship has left the Berdiansk port.
Balitsky was cited by Russian state media as saying the first cargo ship to leave Berdiansk was carrying 7,000 tonnes of grain to “friendly countries”, but an edited Telegram post by the Russian-installed official did not say what cargo the ship was carrying, Reuters reports.
He added that Russia’s Black Sea fleet was “ensuring the security” of the cargo ship, and that the Ukrainian port had been demined. He did not specify the final destination of the cargo.
Berdiansk is a port city on the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, in the region of Zaporizhzhia in south-eastern Ukraine. Earlier this month, Russia’s defence ministry said the ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol were ready to resume grain shipments.
We reported earlier that Vladimir Putin said G7 leaders would be a “disgusting” sight if they were to undress “above or below the waist”, in response to Boris Johnson’s suggestions that leaders could take their clothes off to “show that we’re tougher than Putin”.
Here’s the video clip, where Putin goes on to reference a poem by Alexander Pushkin, who wrote that “one can still be a man of action, and mind the beauty of one’s nails”.
Joe Biden has said that he is in favour of supplying new F-16 fighters to Turkey, but needs US lawmakers to back it.
Reuters reports the US president rejected suggestions that the new planes were in return for Turkey dropping objections to Finland and Sweden joining Nato, telling the media: “What I said was, I said back in December, as you’ll recall, we should sell them the F-16 jets and modernise those jets as well. It’s not in our interest not to do that.
“And there was no quid pro quo with that. It was just that we should sell, but I need congressional approval to be able to do that. And I think we can get that.”
In another development Greece has sent an official request to the United States for the purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin-made F-35 fighter jets, according to the country’s prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Reuters reports Nato member Greece spends more than 2% of its gross domestic product on defence spending and has increased its military purchases in recent years as tensions with its neighbour and Nato ally Turkey, have resurfaced.
“Our intention is to acquire an F-35 squadron with a possible option for a second one,” Mitsotakis told reporters after the Nato summit.
Here is a reminder of why the location of Snake Island is so strategically important for control of the Black Sea and for access to the ports on Ukraine’s southern coast.
The Russian ministry of defence has used its official Telegram channel to forward a message from an account called “War on fakes”, which purports to be a fact check on the situation on Snake Island, repeating Russia’s claim that it voluntarily withdrew from the island rather than being forced off.
The message that the ministry has forwarded says that Russia withdrew from the island because “the object is indeed of strategic importance, but at the moment it has fulfilled its role of controlling the airspace.”
The message goes on to say that “given the constant attacks of the armed forces of Ukraine, large resources were spent on its retention. It is an island of a volcanic type, on which there is practically no vegetation and shelters, and it is difficult to keep it in conditions of open confrontation. At the same time, the Russian garrison successfully withstood several attacks.”
It then says “the decision was made to remove the garrison from the island in order to avoid losses.”
The Telegram channel which the Russian ministry is sharing is widely regarded as disseminating propaganda under the guise of fact-checking, and it has over 700,000 followers. The message concludes “The Ukrainian side is trying to turn this into a victory, including with the help of international media.”
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has arrived in Moscow, where he will urge Russian leader Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire and seek ways to allow the export of grain from Ukraine.
Jokowi, as President Widodo is known, also visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, and said he offered to deliver a message on his behalf to Moscow.
Cuaca cerah menyambut kedatangan saya dan Ibu Negara di Moskow, pukul 11 siang waktu setempat. Turun dari pesawat Garuda Indonesia GIA-1 di Bandara Vnukovo II, kami disambut beberapa pejabat Federasi Rusia dan KBRI. pic.twitter.com/Biuvte9fbg
— Joko Widodo (@jokowi) June 30, 2022
Indonesia maintains an “independent and active” approach to foreign policy, and generally seeks to appear neutral. Its formal response to the invasion in February avoided condemning Russia by name as an aggressor and, in April, Indonesia abstained from voting on a resolution to suspend Russia from the UN’s human rights council.
However, Indonesia relies heavily on wheat imports from Ukraine, and has seen increases in the cost of commodities such as noodles and cooking oil. It is expected Jokowi will push for a resolution to ease Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports.
Jokowi is one of six world leaders appointed as “champions” of the UN’s Global Crisis Response Group, formed to address the threat of an “unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution” resulting from the war.
Jokowi is also the chair of the Group of 20 nations and is due to host the G20 leaders’ summit in Bali in November. Some nations, including the US, have threatened to boycott the event Putin attends, and in response, Indonesia has invited Ukraine to join the summit as a special guest.
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