WAR IN UKRAINE: June 16, 2022
From left to right: Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hold a joint news conference in Kyiv on June 16, 2022. © Valentyn Ogirenko, REUTERS
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 116
U.S. President Joe Biden yesterday announced a further $1-billion in weapons and aid for Ukraine. But western weaponry pledges fall far short of what Ukraine says it needs.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis traveled to Kyiv on Thursday where they met and held a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelensky. Despite some pledges of new and advanced weaponry initial reaction to the leaders’ visit suggested there were more words than actions.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that all four European Union leaders present in Kyiv supported the idea of granting an “immediate” EU candidate status to Ukraine. “We all four support the immediate EU candidate status”, said Macron, adding however that it’d be subject to strict conditions.
The UN’s human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, on Thursday said her staff have been able to verify 1,348 civilian deaths in Mariupul, including 70 children, but that “the actual death toll of hostilities on civilians is likely thousands higher..Between February and the end of April, Mariupol was likely the deadliest place in Ukraine,” she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in an update on the situation in the strategic port city, now held by Moscow. “The intensity and extent of hostilities, destruction and death and injury strongly suggest that serious violations of international... law have occurred,” she said - France 24
For the past several weeks—ever since life began to return to a more normal pace following the Ukrainian victory in the battle for Kyiv—the capital’s tattoo artists have gatheredin an abandoned factory in Kyiv’s Podil neighborhood to offer their talents in support of their country’s war effort. Scores of young Kyivans—students, soldiers, young professionals—line up for their “tattoos of courage,” a sign of patriotism and solidarity. Read the full article here