Russia announces casualties after Kakhovka dam collapse, China evacuates 5,000 citizens from Ukraine are some of the latest developments on the situation in Ukraine.
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| Moscow has announced casualties after the Kakhovka dam burst, causing flooding in areas of Ukraine currently controlled by Russia. |
On June 21, in a speech broadcast on Russian state television, President Vladimir Putin said that the country had seen a “lull” in Ukraine’s counter-offensive. At the same time, the Moscow leader said that Kiev had suffered heavy losses in the offensive in the south.
According to Mr. Putin, although Ukraine still has enough capacity to attack, the country has understood that it “has no chance” in its counterattack.
* On the same day, Russian Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov said that 41 people had died and 121 had been hospitalized due to the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, an area that belongs to Ukraine but is currently controlled by Russia. However, the official also clarified that more than 8,000 people had been evacuated from the flooded area.
* On the other side, in an interview with the BBC (UK) on the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the counterattack was progressing “slower than expected”. He emphasized: “Some people believe that this is a Hollywood movie and expect results right now. However, that is not the case”.
Earlier, on June 20, Russia announced attacks on a series of military targets in the capital Kiev and other regions of Ukraine. The country's Defense Ministry said its forces had attacked and destroyed eight ammunition depots across Ukraine in the previous 24 hours and repelled Ukrainian attacks in three regions.
* Regarding the issue of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), speaking at an online conference organized by the Atlantic Council's advisory experts, Chief of Staff of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak said: "We hope that Ukraine will be invited to join NATO with an open date. This could create a signal." According to him, the alliance's failure to make a "strong" decision at the upcoming July 11-12 meeting in Lithuania will demoralize the Ukrainian people, while Kiev soldiers have shown courage in the past.
Mr. Yermak also said that the US and Ukraine are actively consulting on the measures that NATO leaders will adopt in Vilnius, aimed at strengthening Ukraine's security until the country receives NATO's common security guarantees.
* On reconstruction efforts, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the country is expected to receive nearly $7 billion in aid, the largest amount of funding for reconstruction since the post-World War II Marshall Plan. “The main goal is to mobilize resources to finance a rapid recovery,” he said in a Telegram post. Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian prime minister said the country needed just over $6 billion in the next 12 months to help recover from the conflict.
* In related news, Wu Bi, head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's consular department, said on June 21: "Last year, we evacuated more than 5,000 Chinese citizens from Ukraine. However, for various reasons, some (citizens) did not leave. According to the data we have, there are still several hundred Chinese (citizens) there. This number is not very large."
* Speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, UK, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the country will hold a conference to encourage companies to invest in Ukraine between the end of this year and early 2024. He said that private sector entities will be able to "strongly support the recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine".
In addition, Foreign Minister Hayashi said Tokyo planned to support Kiev mainly through mine clearance projects, building basic infrastructure such as electricity, agriculture and promoting democracy. According to him, the above projects will exceed the more than 7.6 billion USD in aid that Japan has previously provided to Ukraine.
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