Two British citizens and a Moroccan were sentenced to death on June 9 by pro-Moscow rebels in eastern Ukraine for fighting on Ukraine’s side.
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A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic found the three men guilty of working toward a violent overthrow of power, an offense punishable by death in the unrecognized republic. They were also convicted of mercenary activities and terrorism.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fate of the whole Donbas region hinges on the "very fierce" battle with Russian troops for the flashpoint eastern city of Severodonetsk. Moscow's forces are concentrating their firepower on the strategically important industrial hub as part of efforts to capture a swathe of eastern Ukraine.
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Read more news on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis here.
‘Russia looks for weak points in Ukrainian defences near key river’
Russia is looking for weak points in Ukrainian defences near the Siverskyi Donets River in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesperson Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on Friday.
He told national television that Russian forces had not abandoned attempts to launch storming operations in the area. - Reuters
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Russia must take responsibility for trial: UK
The British Government says Russia must take responsibility for the “sham trial” of two Britons who have been sentenced to death for fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were convicted along with a Moroccan man by a court run by Russia-backed rebels in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which is not recognized internationally. - AP
Ukraine says struck Russian positions in Kherson
Ukraine said on Friday it had struck Russian military positions in the southern Kherson region where Kyiv’s army is fighting to reclaim territory captured by Moscow’s troops early in their invasion.
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“Our aircraft carried out a series of strikes on enemy bases, places of accumulation of equipment and personnel, and field depots around five different settlements in the Kherson region,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement. - AFP
UK says Mariupol at risk of Cholera outbreak
Ukraine‘s southern city of Mariupol is at risk of a major cholera outbreak as medical services are likely already near collapse, Britain’s Defence Ministry said on June 10.
There is likely also a critical shortage of medicines in Kherson, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a Twitter update.
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Russia is struggling to provide basic public services to the population in Russian-occupied territories, it added. - Reuters
West denounces death sentences for 3 who fought for Ukraine
Ukraine and the West denounced a pro-Moscow court that sentenced two British citizens and a Moroccan to death for fighting for Ukraine, calling the proceedings a sham and a violation of the rules of war. - AP
Intense fighting in Ukraine’s bombed-out Sievierodonetsk
Ukrainian forces were holding their positions in intense street fighting and under day and night shelling in Sievierodonetsk, officials said, as Russia pushes to control the bombed-out city, key to its objective of controlling eastern Ukraine.
Sievierodonetsk and its twin city Lysychansk, on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, are the last Ukrainian-controlled parts of Luhansk province, which Russia is determined to seize as one of its principal war objectives. - Reuters
Ukraine dependent on arms from allies after exhausting Soviet-era weaponry
Ukraine has depleted its Soviet and Russian-designed weaponry and is now completely dependent on allies for arms to defend against Russia‘s invasion, US military sources say.
Once part of the Soviet Union, Ukraine‘s army and its defence industry were built around Soviet and Russian-standard equipment, small arms, tanks, howitzers and other weapons not interchangeable with those of neighbors to the west.
More than three months into the conflict sparked when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, that equipment has been used up or destroyed in battle, the US sources said.- AFP
Russia still attacking eastern city, says Ukraine
The Ukrainian army says Kyiv’s forces continue to frustrate Russian attempts to take the fiercely contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.
“The occupiers, with the help of motorized rifle units and artillery, conducted assault operations in the city of Sievierodonetsk. They were not successful; the fighting continues,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a regular operational update on Thursday evening.
It added that Ukrainian forces had successfully repelled a Russian attack on the village of Toshkivka, on the northwestern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk. - AP
Canada cracks down on more than C$400 ml in Russian assets, transactions
Canadian police said on Thursday they had cracked down on more than C$400 million ($314.81 million) in Russian assets and transactions involving people sanctioned as a result of Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement that from February 24 to June 7, C$123 million of Russian assets in Canada had been effectively frozen and a further C$289 million in transactions had been blocked. It gave no details. - Reuters
AU chair urges Ukraine to demine Odessa to ease wheat exports
Senegalese President and African Union Chair Macky Sall on Thursday urged Ukraine to demine waters around its Odessa port to ease much needed grain exports from the war-torn country.
Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted grain deliveries from the two countries, fuelling fears of hunger around the world. - AFP
Hailing Peter the Great, Putin draws parallel with mission to ‘return’ Russian lands
Russian President Vladimir Putin paid tribute on Thursday to Tsar Peter the Great on the 350th anniversary of his birth, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands.
“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned (what was Russia‘s),” Mr. Putin said after a visiting an exhibition dedicated to the tsar.
In televised comments on day 106 of his war in Ukraine, he compared Peter’s campaign with the task facing Russia today. - Reuters