Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy to pull Kyiv out of convention banning anti-personnel landmines

The Guardian

a day ago

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday he had signed a decree to pull Ukraine out of the Ottawa Convention banning the production and use of anti-personnel mines as a necessary step in view of Russian tactics in their 40-month-old war. Ukraine ratified the convention in 2005. Other countries bordering Russia, notably Finland, Poland and the three ex-Soviet Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – have either withdrawn from the convention or indicated that they would do so. Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that Russia had never been a party to the convention 'and is using anti-personnel mines with utmost cynicism' along with other weapons, including ballistic missiles. 'This is a hallmark of Russian killers. To destroy life by all means at their disposal … We see how our neighbours in Europe react to this threat,' he said. 'We also know the complexities of the withdrawal procedure when it is conducted during war. We take this political step and give a signal to our political partners on what to focus on. This concerns all countries that border Russia,' he said. Anti-personnel mines, Zelenskyy said, are 'often the instrument for which nothing can be substituted for defence purposes.'
Russia fired more than 500 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight to Sunday, in a barrage that Kyiv described as the biggest air attack so far of the three-year war. Ukraine's air force said that Russia had fired 477 drones and decoys as well as 60 missiles overnight. While 475 of these were shot down or lost, the onslaught marked the 'most massive airstrike' on the country since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine's air force. Officials confirmed three deaths and said another two died in Russian shelling.
A Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot died in a crash while repelling the Russian air attack. Zelenskyy praised the pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, and bestowed upon him posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest decoration. The pilot flew the damaged jet away from a settlement but had no time to eject before it crashed, the Ukrainian air force said. 'The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,' the air force said on Telegram.
The Kremlin said in remarks published on Sunday that the tougher the sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe, the more painful the recoil would be for Europe's own economies as Russia had grown resistant to such 'illegal' sanctions. The European Commission on 10 June proposed a new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry, though the United States has so far refused to toughen its own sanctions.
Russia's spy chief said on Sunday he spoke to his US counterpart, marking a new official exchange after their first call in mid-March amid rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. 'I had a telephone conversation with my American counterpart, and we agreed to call each other at any time to discuss issues of mutual interest,' Sergey Naryshkin said on Russian state television, without providing further details about his call with CIA chief John Ratcliffe.