The ultra-sophisticated Patriot air defense system delivered to Ukraine by the US has been damaged but is operational, an unnamed US Defense Department official said.
"The Patriot system remains operational," a Pentagon official told AFP, adding that an assessment of the damage caused by an unidentified missile that landed nearby was continuing.
The Russian military said on Tuesday that it had destroyed the Patriot defense system during a highly accurate attack by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile.
Ukrainian authorities today rejected Russian claims, saying that an advanced anti-aircraft missile system, along with one of the most capable radars in the world, is operational and in use.
"Don't worry, everything is fine with the Patriot," Ukrainian military sources said.
(BETA)
The agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea has been extended by two months, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today.
"It was decided to extend the grain agreement reached in July 2022 for two more months," Erdogan said.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that "many unanswered questions" needed to be resolved before the deal could be extended.
The agreement of the UN, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, signed in July last year, enabled the export of more than 30 million tons of Ukrainian grain in the last ten months and helped alleviate the world food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. It was previously renewed for 19 days on March 60.
The current renewal is supposed to be valid for 120 days, but the Russian authorities agreed to only 60 days.
Moscow said that while Ukraine's grain exports are continuing, Russian fertilizer and food exports continue to be hampered by obstacles linked to sanctions imposed by Western countries over Russia's offensive against Ukraine.
(BETA)
The British and German defense ministers said today in Berlin that it is up to the White House to decide on the possible delivery of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine.
"We don't have F-16s and we won't supply Typhoon aircraft, but obviously we can contribute training and support, but within the limits because we don't have F-16 pilots," British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said in Berlin at a joint press conference with his German colleague Boris Pistorius.
Wallace was responding to a question about the "international coalition" proposed by London to supply Western technology fighter jets to Ukraine.
According to him, such a coalition is "political support" and "a signal to Russia" that there are no objections to providing Ukraine with what it needs.
British authorities have previously announced that they intend to train Ukrainian pilots soon.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been asking his Western allies for months to provide him with planes that would allow the Ukrainian military to attack Russian forces in depth, adding that this is not a "magical solution" to the conflict.
But the German minister said that "we cannot play an active role in such an alliance, in such a coalition, because we have neither the training capacities, nor the skills, nor those planes."
Pistorius added that, as far as he knew, it was up to the White House to decide whether the F-16 fighter jets would be delivered and that it was "not an issue that will be resolved in Berlin."
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said today at the summit of the Council of Europe in Reykjavik that he had not received "requests" for the delivery of fighter jets.
The German government is focusing on tanks, ammunition, anti-aircraft defense and establishing a "repair system" for weapons, Scholz added.
(BETA)
Russia is ready to consider the proposals of African and Latin American countries to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, while the West insists only on the plan of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today.
He told reporters after the conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, Sergej Aleynik, that there are peace initiatives by Brazil and South Africa, reports TASS.
"We responded to the appeals sent to us from Latin America and African friends that we are ready to consider any of their proposals, but until now, apart from China, neither Brazil nor South Africa have submitted a plan on paper," Lavrov said.
The head of Russian diplomacy added that Western countries insist that they are ready to consider only Zelensky's peace plan for the solution of the war in Ukraine and that they will not accept any initiatives that Moscow is ready to discuss.
"Europe is not trying to hide its attitude towards the Chinese peace initiative on Ukraine, its attitude is the same as Washington's: not to discuss what suits Russia," Lavrov said, TASS reports.
He added that the only plan that the West will support is "Zelenski's ten-point plan".
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Tuesday that the presidents of Russia and Ukraine have agreed to discuss a plan to end the war in Ukraine with a delegation of African heads of state in separate meetings, the Associated Press reports.
Asked what he thinks about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky hosting African leaders in Moscow and Kiev, Ukrainian President's Deputy Chief of Staff Igor Zhovkov told Sky News yesterday that the Ukrainian solution is the only appropriate one.
"The war is being fought on the territory of Ukraine. Therefore, the only acceptable plan is and will be the Ukrainian plan. We are ready to listen to the proposals of other countries. We know about Chinese ideas. Last Sunday, a representative of the Brazilian president visited Kiev. But the only plan that Ukraine would implement is the plan Zelensky," he said.
(BETA)
Over the past 24 hours, Russia has continued to pressurize the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian army announced on May 17.
Russian forces shelled civilian targets in the south a day after one of the heaviest air strikes on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities.
Russian forces have launched 55 artillery attacks on Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut during the past few days, the daily bulletin of the General Staff states, adding that the heaviest fighting continues on the Bakhmut-Avdijivka-Marjinka front line, where the center of Russian pressure is in the east of Ukraine.
Russia targeted both Ukrainian military positions and civilian targets with 57 airstrikes and 96 missile attacks during the same period, the military said, adding that Ukrainian air defenses shot down 10 drones of Iranian origin.
Radio Free Europe
The Council of Europe (CoE) has set up a reparations register which would reportedly record Russia's destruction of Ukraine for future compensation.
Leaders of the 46-member Council, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, stressed that Moscow will be held accountable for the damage and destruction it has caused in the fifteen-month invasion of its neighbor.
The compensation register, which will be filed in The Hague, aims to record the "tangible costs" that Russia inflicted on Ukraine during that period, reports AFP.
"Without justice, there will be no reliable peace, and the registry lays the foundation for a full compensation mechanism," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address to the summit participants.
He warned that the ballistic missile and drone attacks on Ukraine show that Russia is "trying very hard to improve its ability to kill."
"Ukraine needs additional air defense systems and missiles, as well as more fighter planes, without which no air defense system will be perfect," Zelensky said.
The call came just after Zelenskiy toured major European capitals to persuade them to provide warplanes ahead of an expected offensive against Russian positions in Ukraine.
According to reports, Zelensky was promised additional military supplies from Germany, France and Britain, which have also announced that they will train Ukrainian fighter pilots.
As reported by Radio Free Europe, Western countries, however, are wary of supplying advanced fighter jets to Ukraine, fearing that their use could escalate the war.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte agreed at the summit to build "an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, with support in everything from training to the procurement of F-16 aircraft."
Other leaders at the summit in Iceland highlighted the damage register as an important one, saying that it appears that the decision to expel Russia from the SE a year ago because of its war in Ukraine was justified.
Scholz said the registry would play a central role in "punishing and demanding accountability for war crimes committed by the Russian occupiers," while Macron called on other countries to join the initiative.
The United States of America, which is at the summit as an observer, supported the establishment of the registry.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the registry would play a role in deterring further Russian war crimes and called it important for the future.
"Only justice can be the foundation of lasting peace in Ukraine," von der Leyen said.
(MINE)
Ukraine today denied that a Russian hypersonic missile destroyed the US-made Patriot defense system during an airstrike on Kiev, Reuters reports.
The Russian Defense Ministry made the claim on Tuesday after an airstrike on the Ukrainian capital.
Two US officials later said the Patriot system was likely damaged but did not appear to be destroyed.
"I want to say: don't worry about the fate of the Patriots," Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ikhnat told Ukrainian television.
He dismissed the possibility that the Russian "Kinzhal" missile could destroy the Patriot system.
"Destroying the system with some kind of 'Dagger' is impossible. Everything they say there can remain in their propaganda archive," he said.
The Patriot system is one of a number of sophisticated air defense units supplied by the West to help Ukraine repel Russian airstrikes following Moscow's invasion last year.
The Supreme Labor of Ukraine announced today that since the beginning of the Russian invasion, 501 children have been killed, 961 injured, while 401 are missing, and called on the international community to consolidate efforts to protect and free Ukrainian children.
The statement cites data collected by UNICEF, estimating that "about 20 children were forcibly deported to the territory of Russia from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or territories that were under Russian occupation."
"According to the available information, more than 1.000 Ukrainian children are on the territory of Belarus within the framework of the decisions of the self-proclaimed president of the Republic of Belarus, as well as individual decisions of the federal state," the statement said.
The parliament states that the crimes against Ukrainian children are a gross violation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child from 1989 and that Russia is taking children supposedly for vacation and rehabilitation, but in reality forcibly imprisons them, not allowing them to return to their parents.
"Russia does not provide lists of deported children and refuses to conduct negotiations regarding their return. Due to the opposition of the Russian side, only 361 children have been returned since the beginning of the Russian Federation's comprehensive armed aggression against Ukraine," the announcement reads.
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine therefore calls on the international community to adopt appropriate decisions regarding the resolute condemnation of the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and to express public support for the activities of the International Criminal Court, especially with regard to the investigation and prosecution of crimes of genocide.
"The Ukrainian parliament calls on the law enforcement authorities of other countries to assist the state authorities of Ukraine and the International Criminal Court in gathering evidence related to the involvement of Russia and its officials in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children," the statement said.
The Parliament also called on the Government of Ukraine to take all possible measures to provide the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child with complete lists of deported children from 2014 until now.
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