KYIV (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Following is a short summary of the events of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, day 67.
- Twenty wounded civilians were able to flee Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel complex, and were most likely on their way to Zaporizhzhia. Satellite photographs released on Sunday revealed that practically every building at the steel complex had been demolished.
- Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the United States House, paid a surprise visit to Kyiv. She visited with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and assured him that the US will continue to help Ukraine until the conflict is resolved.
- Ukrainian soldiers, according to Zelenskiy, destroyed around 1,000 Russian tanks, 2,500 armoured vehicles, and over 200 aircraft. He predicted Ukraine would be free in a speech on Saturday night. “All … temporarily occupied cities and communities in which the occupiers are now pretending to be masters will be liberated.”
- Russia is using a troll factory, according to the British Foreign Office, to spread incorrect information about the Ukraine conflict on social media and target foreign politicians.
- Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners, with seven soldiers and seven civilians returning home. A woman who was five months pregnant was among the soldiers.
- The runway at Odesa airport was destroyed by a Russian missile strike, making it unusable, but no one was hurt.
- In two months of war, twice as many Mariupol people have been killed by the Russian military as Nazi Germany did during its two-year occupation of the city during WWII.
- Angelina Jolie, the Hollywood actress and UN humanitarian envoy, paid a surprise visit to the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday, according to the regional governor’s Telegram account. Jolie, who has served as a UNHCR special envoy for refugees since 2011, visited Lviv to interact with displaced individuals, including children who were injured in a missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station in early April. Maksym Kozytskyy writes, “She was profoundly moved by [the children’s] story.”
- After a video emerged showing a guy in camouflage clothing being questioned, the UK Foreign Office is examining accusations that a British national has been arrested by Russia. The man appeared to provide his name as Andrew Hill in the unverified video, which was purportedly broadcast on Russian television. He had an English accent, a sling on his arm, a bandage on his head, and a bloody hand.
- The remains of three civilian men were discovered tied up and in some cases gagged by Ukrainian police in the Bucha district north of Kyiv, according to the regional police chief. Several gunshot wounds and signs of torture were discovered on the victims, he said.
- As both Kyiv and Moscow grappled with heavy losses in the Donbas region, Russian troops were compelled to merge and redeploy units from their “failed advances” in Ukraine’s north-east, according to the UK Ministry of Defence. “By geographically concentrating combat force, shortening supply lines, and streamlining command and control, Russia intends to address obstacles that have previously hampered its invasion.”
- According to Ukraine’s deputy agricultural minister, Russian forces have stolen “several hundred thousand tonnes” of food from the territories they control in Ukraine.
- As part of its renewed drive in Ukraine’s east, Russia bombarded Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city, while stating that a draft of a future treaty between the two nations was being negotiated on a daily basis.
