Ukraine live briefing: Strikes hit Kyiv residential blocks, mayor says; Zelensky outlines peace conditions to G-20
The moment has come for Russia to completely withdraw from Ukraine’s sovereign territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said via video link to a meeting of Group of 20 countries, which include Russia, and he asked for the world’s support in pursuing what he presented as Kyiv’s “formula for peace.” The alternative, he said, would mean allowing Russia to “build up its forces,” then renew its “terror and global destabilization,” according to a transcript from Ukraine’s presidential office.
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
1. Key developments
- In his G-20 address, Zelensky demanded the full withdrawal of Russian forces from all of Ukraine as a necessary condition for any “real” end to hostilities, alongside nine other demands he made of Moscow, including guarantees for food and energy security and freeing Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians.
- Zelensky likened the liberation of Kherson to the 1944 Normandy landings that set the stage for the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, telling the G-20 summit: “It was not yet a final point in the fight against evil, but it already determined the entire further course of events. This is exactly what we are feeling now." Zelensky visited Kherson on Monday days after Russian troops withdrew from the strategic southern city.
- Most G-20 countries are expected to sign a strong condemnation of Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Biden administration official said Tuesday morning to offer an assessment of G20 talks. “It’s going to be a very strong statement,” the official added, “really isolating Russia, making clear that their war is causing immense consequences and suffering around the world.” The official would not address which countries have signed on to that language.
- Western leaders are unfairly trying to blame the conflict on Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, referring to the summit’s draft declaration. “The West added there the phrase that many delegations condemned Russia — we added that there were also alternative points of view,” he told reporters at the summit, which he attended in place of President Vladimir Putin. The Biden administration official did not say whether China was among those siding with Russia in arguing against a condemnation.
2. Battleground updates
- Russia is redeploying some troops to the Henichesk area of Kherson, Britain’s Defense Ministry said. “It is well positioned to coordinate action against potential Ukrainian threats. … Above all, it is currently out of range of Ukrainian artillery systems which have inflicted heavy damage” on the Kremlin’s forces, the ministry said.
- The U.S. Army awarded over half a billion dollars’ worth of contracts to Lockheed Martin to produce Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, known as GMLRS, to replenish the U.S. arsenal, the Pentagon said. The surface-to-surface missile system, which has a range of approximately 50 miles, has been a centerpiece of the advanced military assistance that the United States has been giving to Ukraine.
- A senior U.S. official claimed to be unaware “at this stage” of any Ukrainian operation crossing the Dnieper River, the war’s new front line after Kherson’s liberation. Speaking on the condition of anonymity under terms set by the Pentagon, the official could not say with absolute certainty, however, that every last Russian has left the western side of the Dnieper. The official cited media reports indicating that some small bands of troops loyal to Moscow might have stayed behind.
- Russia “intensified offensive operations” in the eastern Donetsk region and unsuccessfully tried to seize territory in the northeastern part of the Kharkiv region, according to the Institute for the Study of War. The think tank said late Monday that the Kremlin was claiming gains in Donetsk in an effort to divert attention from its pullback from Kherson.
3. Global impact
- U.S. prisoners in Russia were a point of discussion when CIA Director William J. Burns met with Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, on Monday in Ankara, Turkey. The Russian ambassador in Washington is expected to meet with White House officials Tuesday on the same issue. These meetings come less than a week after reports that Brittney Griner, the WNBA star detained in Russia, was being moved to a penal colony.
- Banksy has created seven works of art in Ukraine, a representative for the anonymous graffiti artist confirmed to The Washington Post over email, ending days of speculation over whether some of the works were Banksy originals. The artist confirmed on Saturday that he had produced a mural of a female gymnast balancing on the rubble of a destroyed building in the town of Borodyanka, in the Kyiv region.
- A 23-year-old Zambian student serving a prison sentence in Russia died in Ukraine, Zambia’s Foreign Ministry announced. The southern African nation’s foreign minister demanded an explanation from Moscow for how Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda came to be recruited from a medium-security prison near Moscow, where he was serving an almost 10-year prison sentence, to fight on the Ukrainian front line. Russia’s deputy foreign minister told journalists that officials are investigating the circumstances of Nyirenda’s September death, the state-run Tass news agency reported.
- Recovery and rebuilding in Ukraine could cause up to 49 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, Ukraine’s minister of environmental protection, Ruslan Strilets, said at COP27, the BBC reported. He added that Ukraine plans to collect evidence and seek compensation from Russia. The war has already led to 33 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
4. From our correspondents
Prosecutors do not plan criminal charges against Rudy Giuliani over Ukraine: Justice Department officials do not plan criminal charges against the former New York mayor in connection with his dealings in Ukraine while serving as a personal attorney for President Donald Trump, according to a letter made public Monday.
The decision was disclosed in a one-paragraph letter, filed by the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, indicating that the investigation into Giuliani’s interactions with Ukrainian individuals is finished and “that based on information currently available to the Government, criminal charges are not forthcoming.”
Giuliani has repeatedly said he did not commit any violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Shayna Jacobs reports. The investigation into the matter resulted in an April 28, 2021, seizure of devices at his Manhattan home and offices. His engagements in Ukraine during Trump’s presidency were a prominent theme in Trump’s first impeachment proceeding. Giuliani was said to be making contacts there in an effort to dig up incriminating information about Joe Biden and his son Hunter before the 2020 election.
Matt Viser and Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.
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