Russian bombardments targeted several Ukrainian towns and villages on Thursday August 4, including Mykolaiv, in the south, where apartment buildings were damaged in two neighborhoods, according to Mayor Oleksandre Senkevich. In Kharkiv, the country’s second city, local authorities reported Russian missile attacks hitting industrial areas. Ukrainian forces are leading a counter-offensive in the south of the country, where they claim to have taken over more than 50 villages controlled by Moscow.
Eight dead in a bombing in Toretsk, in the East
Eight people were killed and four were injured when a Russian shell exploded at a bus stop in the town of Toretsk, near the front line in eastern Ukraine, the governor of the region. “According to the first information we have, it is an artillery fire, which reached a public transport stop, where a crowd of people were waiting”explained on Telegram Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region.
Kyiv denounces accusations by Amnesty International against him
The head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba, said to himself “unworthy” by the charges “unjust” of the NGO Amnesty International, which accused kyiv of endangering civilians in the context of the war with Moscow. “I am outraged just like you by the Amnesty International report. I consider it unfair”he said in a video comment posted on Facebook.
In this report published after a four-month investigation, the NGO accused the Ukrainian army of establishing military bases in schools and hospitals and launching attacks from populated areas, a tactic which it says violates the right international humanitarian. Dmytro Kouleba in turn accused Amnesty International of “to create a false balance between the oppressor and the victim, between the country which destroys hundreds and thousands of civilians, cities, territories and the country which desperately defends itself”.
More than 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in France
More than five months after the war in Ukraine, the threshold of 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in France was crossed on Wednesday evening, indicated the director general of the French office for immigration and integration (Ofii), Didier Leschi . This count is based on applicants for “allowance for asylum seekers (Ada)”he explains, confirming information published in Le Figaro. But for several weeks, “we are between 200 and 250 new temporary protection issues per day on average”a level “very low”he added.
New grain ships will depart from Ukraine
Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said three new boats carrying grain would leave Ukraine on Friday, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. “The departure of the three boats is planned thanks to the intensive work of the Joint Coordination Center”he said, without specifying the port of departure of the ships.
A first shipment of cereals exported by Ukraine left the port of Odessa on Monday. After an inspection by Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian experts off Istanbul on Wednesday, it resumed its journey to Lebanon. This inspection marked the end of a “test phase” of operations to implement the international agreement signed in Istanbul in July to stem the world food crisis, the secretariat of the Joint Coordination Center said on Wednesday.
Finland wants to reduce the number of tourist visas granted to Russians
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto has presented a plan to limit tourist visas issued to Russians, more and more of whom are traveling to this Nordic country to transit to other European countries.
Flights from Russia to the EU were indeed interrupted after the outbreak of the Russian offensive in Ukraine on February 24. Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, has therefore become an important transit country for Russian travellers. “Many saw this as a circumvention of the sanctions regime”said the minister.