Wednesday, Jul 17th
Last update07:04:06 AM GMT
International Glance
Ukraine's top commander said on Sunday Kyiv's outnumbered troops had fallen back to new positions west of three villages on the eastern front where Russia has concentrated significant forces in several locations.
The statement by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi reflected Ukraine's deteriorating position in the east that Kyiv hopes it can stabilise once it takes delivery of U.S. weapons under a $61 billion aid package approved this week.
Israel has said it will not invade the border city of Rafah in southern Gaza until officials have spoken with U.S. leaders about their concerns, White House National Security spokesperson John Kirby said on Sunday.
“They've assured us that they won't go into Rafah until we've had a chance to really share our perspectives and our concerns with them,” Kirby said during an interview on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday.
Israel in recent days appeared poised to launch an invasion of the area, where more than one million Palestinians civilians are sheltering and which Israel says is the last Hamas stronghold in Gaza. The international community has long warned Israeli leaders of the massive humanitarian toll of targeting the area.
Russian missiles have hammered power facilities in central and western Ukraine, increasing pressure on the country’s ailing energy system. Saturday’s airstrikes, carried out with long-range missiles including cruise missiles, was the fourth large-scale aerial assault targeting the power system since 22 March. DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, said four of its six thermal power plants had suffered damage. Rescuers battled to put out fires at several energy facilities in the western regions of Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk, officials said.
He said Russia’s targets included electricity and gas transit facilities, in particular those important for gas supply to the European Union. Ukrainian air defences brought down 21 of the 34 incoming missiles, the air force’s commander said. After strikes on energy facilities in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, running water supplies were disrupted in Zelenskiy’s home town of Kryvyi Rih, officials said.
Some senior U.S. officials have advised Secretary of State Antony Blinken that they do not find "credible or reliable" Israel's assurances that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international humanitarian law, according to an internal State Department memo reviewed by Reuters.
For two sweltering days this week, as temperatures topped 100 degrees Fahrenheit, Mohammad Ayash's tent had become unbearable — so hot, he said, it was like "hell fire."
"Red-hot death. It's killing us," he said.
Like thousands of Palestinians, Ayash and his family have lived for months in a modest, hand-built tent after leaving their home to flee from Israel's seven-month military campaign.
But the tent Ayash erected — a modest triangle built against a cinder block wall, its outer walls made of blankets and cloth — was meant for the cold, rainy nights of a Gaza winter, he said. To keep him and his family dry, he had lined the tent walls with plastic, the sheets held in place by wooden boards nailed together.
Greece has rejected pressure from European allies to help Ukraine boost its air defences, arguing that Athens needs the systems for itself.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed for at least seven more Patriots or similar defence batteries to protect its cities and power plants from Russian attack.
But Greece has said it cannot spare any of its Patriot or S-300 systems.
Reports say Spain will supply some Patriot missiles but not a full system.
Spain and Greece have come under pressure to help Ukraine from both Nato and European Union allies, in response to attacks on vulnerable cities including Chernihiv and power facilities in Kharkiv and close to Kyiv.
Israel’s military says it already looked into reports of mass graves and found no wrongdoing by its forces, even as the Biden administration calls for an investigation into the matter.
Over the past few days, U.S. officials, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, have called for Israel to “thoroughly and transparently” investigate reports of mass graves at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, which Israeli forces last raided in February. The State Department came under fire from advocates for refusing to call for an independent investigation, instead saying the U.S. will press Israel for information.
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