Two people hug after a Russian missile attack on the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. Picture: Reuters
A restaurant is hit in a Russian rocket attack on the city of Kramatorsk – eight people die. The US announces more military aid in the millions. The overview.
According to Ukrainian rescue workers, eight people were killed and 56 injured. A child was among the dead, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyj in his evening video address on Tuesday. “Such terror proves to us and to the whole world again and again that Russia deserves only one thing for all its deeds: defeat and a tribunal.” Zelenskyj’s statements could not be independently verified.
The head of state also fired the head of the state-owned armaments company Ukroboronprom. The US announced further military aid to the country attacked by Russia.
Minister: Restaurant in Kramatorsk hit in attack
Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said the Russian army shelled Kramatorsk twice on Tuesday evening, hitting a restaurant among other things. Rescue workers searched under the rubble for possible victims.
Zelenskyj fires head of state-owned armaments company
The presidential office in Kiev published a decree dismissing the head of the Ukroboronprom defense company, Yuriy Hussev. He has held the post since December 2020. According to reports, the 31-year-old boss of the tank plant in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, Herman Smetanin, will be his successor. There was initially no official confirmation.
All defense companies of Ukraine are concentrated in the holding Ukroboronprom. According to the Internet newspaper Ukrajinska Pravda, Zelenskyi had expected Hussev to increase production of the short-range Sapsan (Peregrine Falcon) missile.
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US announces more military aid
The US government is providing Ukraine with further military aid to ward off Russia’s war of aggression. The Department of Defense in Washington announced a new package of military equipment worth 500 million US dollars (around 456 million euros). According to the Pentagon, this includes ammunition for Patriot air defense systems, Bradley armored personnel carriers, Stinger air defense systems, mine clearance equipment, thermal imaging systems and night vision devices.
Navalny on mercenary uprising: Nobody supported Putin
The imprisoned Kremlin opponent Alexej Navalny attested to the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lack of support among the population with regard to the mercenary uprising a few days ago. “At the moment when military columns drove to Moscow to occupy it, nobody stood up to defend Putin,” Navalny said on Tuesday through his team on social networks. “There was no national unity around him.” The Kremlin chief was apparently even more unpopular among the population than the insurgent leader of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said Navalny.
Prigozhin, whose mercenaries had been fighting alongside the regular Russian army in Ukraine for months, escalated a long-simmering power struggle within the Russian military leadership on Saturday. The Wagner fighters first occupied the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and then marched on towards Moscow. Their practically unhindered advance only stopped a good 200 kilometers from the Russian capital. Later, in a televised address, Putin claimed that Russian society had proved united in its opposition to the uprising.
Stoltenberg warns against underestimating Russia
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned against taking the threat from Russia after the mercenary uprising less seriously. It is clear that Kremlin chief Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine in Russia has deepened rifts and created new tensions, the Norwegian said in The Hague on the sidelines of preliminary talks for the NATO summit in July. At the same time, one should not underestimate Russia. It is now important to continue to support Ukraine. He expects a clear signal in this direction from the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
What will be important on Wednesday:
In eastern and southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army is continuing its counter-offensive and trying to liberate other occupied places.