Here are the key events so far on Friday, July 15.
Get the latest updates here.
Fighting
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admonished Moscow for carrying out a missile attack in the central city of Vinnytsia, calling it an “act of terrorism” and saying no other country in the world represents a greater “terrorist” threat than Russia.
- Authorities said at least 23 people have been killed, including three children under 10, while about 100 more were wounded in the attack. There was no immediate comment by Russia.
- In Ukraine’s east, Russian forces continue to slowly advance westwards from the town of Lysychansk in the Luhansk region towards Siversk in Donetsk, the United Kingdom’s defence ministry said.
- Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region suffered a “tense night of alarms and shelling”, Governor Valentyn Reznichenko said.
Diplomacy
- United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen condemned Russia’s “brutal and unjust war” in Ukraine and said Russian finance officials taking part in the G20 meeting in Bali shared responsibility for its “horrific consequences”.
- Canada’s finance minister told Russian officials at the G20 meeting that she held them personally responsible for “war crimes” committed during Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Western official told Reuters news agency.
- More than 40 countries agreed to work together to investigate suspected war crimes by Russian forces in Ukraine during a conference at the headquarters of the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
- A top Russian official said Moscow would respond positively should Kyiv be ready to resume peace negotiations, but that Ukraine must accept the “territorial realities” of the situation, the Interfax news agency reported.
Economy
- The International Monetary Fund expects Ukraine to continue to service its foreign debt, a spokesperson said, as speculation grows that Ukraine could default on its debt as the battle against Russia’s invasion rages on.
- Germany is earmarking an additional 2.4 billion euros ($2.4bn) this year to cover the financial expenses of caring for Ukrainian refugees in the country, labour minister Hubertus Heil said, adding approximately 800,000 people from Ukraine have sought refuge in Germany so far, of which 30 percent are under the age of 14.
- France must quickly learn to do without Russian gas, as Moscow is using cuts in supplies to Europe as a weapon in its war with Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron said, urging everyone to rein in their energy consumption.
- The US sought to facilitate Russian food and fertiliser exports by reassuring banks, shipping and insurance companies that such transactions would not breach sanctions. This is part of attempts by United Nations and Turkish officials to broker a package deal that would also allow for shipments of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa to resume.
