Night strikes took place for the third consecutive night in Ukraine, mainly on its capital kyiv.
Shortly after the NATO summit, US President Joe Biden assured that Ukraine would become a member of the Alliance, but not as long as the war would rage between Moscow and kyiv. A prospect to which Russia responded, Thursday, July 13, with a series of air attacks on Ukraine, which injured at least four people in kyiv, according to the Ukrainian authorities. Franceinfo takes stock of what to remember from the day on the side of the conflict in Ukraine.
US cluster bombs already delivered to Ukrainian army
The Ukrainian armed forces have already received cluster munitions, a controversial weapon promised by Washington to Kiev to help it in its slow counter-offensive against the Russian army, military officials from the two countries said Thursday. “We just received them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can change drastically” the situation on the battlefield, said Oleksandre Tarnavsky, the commander of the counteroffensive in the south of the country, in an interview with CNN.
The United States announced last week that it would deliver the weapons to Ukraine, despite concerns over the long-term risk posed to civilians. “The enemy also understands that by obtaining this ammunition we will have an advantage”said Oleksandre Tarnavsky, while assuring that the Ukrainian forces would not use these weapons in densely populated areas. “The Russians think that we are going to use it on all areas of the front (…) This is very false”he argued.
Biden says Putin ‘has already lost the war’
Vladimir Poutine “already lost the war”, said Joe Biden. “He could end the war tomorrow, he would only have to say: ‘I quit'”said the American president during a visit to Finland, celebrating the recent accession to NATO of the Nordic country neighboring Russia. “There is no possibility for him to win the war in Ukraine (…) He has already lost it”, assured Joe Biden, underlining the lack of resources of Russia and its economic difficulties. Despite the lack of progress in the Ukrainian counter-offensive on the front, the American president said he was convinced that it would lead to a request for negotiations from Moscow. “I hope, and it is my expectation, that Ukraine will make meaningful progress in its offensive and that this will lead to a negotiated settlement at some point.”said the American leader.
A series of airstrikes on Ukraine
After discussions on Ukraine’s membership of NATO at the Alliance summit in Vilnius (Lithuania), Russia responded Thursday with a series of air attacks on Ukraine. They injured at least four people in kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities. Vladimir Putin commented on Ukraine’s possible membership, saying he “certain that this will not improve the security of Ukraine and that, in general, it will make the world much more vulnerable and will lead to additional tensions on the international scene”.
Speaking on Russian television on the sidelines of a technology forum, he added that “the threat of Ukrainian membership” to NATO was precisely “one of the reasons” of the Russian military intervention in the country in February 2022.
kyiv claims to have shot down 20 Russian drones and two cruise missiles
Ukraine said it shot down 20 Russian drones and two cruise missiles overnight from Wednesday to Thursday. “We successfully carried out an air defense operation”Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said. “Twenty Shahed drones were destroyed, all those flying were shot down. Two Kalibr cruise missiles were also destroyed”he added.
Iranian-made attack drones were shot down “mainly in the Kyiv region”, the Ukrainian Air Force said in a separate statement on Telegram. These machines were “entered the capital from different directions”the kyiv military administration had previously explained, assuring that the anti-aircraft defense had destroyed some “a dozen” over this town.
Russian demands not taken into account on Ukrainian cereals, according to Moscow
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled that “not one” Russian demands had been taken into account during negotiations to extend the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain which expires on July 17. “I want to emphasize that nothing has been done, nothing at all”he insisted during a television interview. “Everything is a one-way street.” Signed in July 2022 in Istanbul with Russia and Ukraine under the aegis of Turkey and the United Nations, the Black Sea Grains Initiative has enabled the export of nearly 33 million tonnes of grain from Ukraine despite the war.