The essentials in brief:
– Russia outraged by UN Secretary-General Guterres
– Occupied territories recognized by Russia as states
– Putin admits mistakes in partial mobilization
– Zelenskyj calls on minorities to resist
– Russian oligarch and Putin confidante Deripaska charged
Russia has reacted with outrage to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ comments on the planned annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions. Guterres does not have the right to make political statements on behalf of the United Nations as a whole, the Kremlin said.
Guterres had expressed concern about Russia’s preparations to annex parts of Ukraine. Any further move related to the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions would be “a dangerous escalation” and jeopardize prospects for peace in the region, Guterres said. “It would have no legal value and should be condemned.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously announced that the agreements on the admission of the regions were to be signed at a ceremony with President Vladimir Putin on Friday. According to the local separatists, the overwhelming majority of the “referendums” in the four Russian-controlled regions in Ukraine, which the West criticized as sham referendums, were in favor of the annexation.
Decrees were published during the night in which Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia as independent states. According to Russia’s internationally criticized approach, they are a prerequisite for the regions to be able to apply for admission to the Russian Federation this Friday.
Preparations in Moscow for the ceremony of annexation of four occupied Ukrainian territories
Guterres stressed that the “referendums” could not be considered “a genuine expression of the will of the people”. The votes were held in the midst of an armed conflict in Russian-occupied territories and outside Ukraine’s legal and constitutional framework. “The UN Charter is clear,” said the UN Secretary-General. “Any annexation of the territory of one state by another state as a result of the threat or use of force is a violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law.”
For the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin has admitted that partial mobilization was wrong
Putin admits mistakes
In addition, for the first time, Putin has acknowledged problems with partial mobilization, which was announced last week. He called for “all mistakes” to be corrected and gave examples of calls for military service that were made to fathers with many children, people with chronic illnesses or people over the age of military service.
Selenskyj calls on minorities to resist
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on minorities across Russia to oppose the partial mobilization of the Kremlin. “You don’t have to die in Ukraine,” says Zelenskyj in his evening video address. Putin will continue to try to destroy lives and no one is obliged to take part in a shameful war.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, calls on Russian minorities to resist Moscow
According to a count by the BBC broadcaster, at least 301 soldiers from the predominantly Muslim Dagestan have been killed in the Ukraine war so far. That would be the highest figure for any Russian region and more than ten times the death toll from Moscow, which has a population five times larger. There is no official breakdown of Russian losses. More than 100 people were arrested last week during protests in Dagestan against partial mobilization.
Scholz warns Putin against using nuclear weapons
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned Russian President Vladimir Putin against using nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine. Both US President Joe Biden and himself made it clear that these weapons should not be used, he says on second German television. A similar warning was given to Moscow at the beginning of the war regarding chemical and biological weapons.
Russian oligarch indicted in the US
The US judiciary has indicted the Russian oligarch and confidante of President Vladimir Putin, Oleg Deripaska, for violating US sanctions. As the US Department of Justice announced on Thursday, the 52-year-old aluminum billionaire is accused of trying to get his two children US citizenship by circumventing the sanctions.
Billionaire and Putin confidant: Oleg Deripaska
The indictment is also directed against his girlfriend and two helpers. According to the indictment, they tried to allow Deripaska’s girlfriend Ekaterina Olegovna Voronina to enter the United States so that she could give birth to their children there. In 2020 this was still successful, but in 2022 the pregnant woman was denied entry.
The US authorities had sanctioned Deripaska in 2018 because of his closeness to Putin. The oligarch tried to circumvent the sanctions “with lies and fraud,” said Lisa Monaco, number two at the Justice Department. Although he supports the Russian leadership, he has invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars” so that his child can get US citizenship and benefit from the US health care system, the ministry said.
At a press conference in Moscow at the end of June, Deripaska described the Ukraine war as a “huge mistake”. The founder of the aluminum company Rusal also used the term “war”, which the Russian leadership has banned.
mak/ack (dpa, afp, rtr, ap)
This article will be continuously updated on the day of its publication. Reports from the combat zones cannot be independently verified.
