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🔴Live: Russia seeks UN Security Council meeting on Nord Stream blasts
Russia has requested a new meeting of the UN Security Council for July 11 to discuss last September’s explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a senior Russian diplomat at the United Nations said on Saturday. Russia has unsuccessfully demanded access to investigations by Sweden and other countries into the blasts, which severely damaged the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea. Follow our live blog for all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
Issued on: 08/07/2023 – 07:13
Modified: 08/07/2023 – 11:20
4 min
The photo shows an unexplained leak in the Nord Stream pipeline linking Russia and Europe, raising suspicions of sabotage.
The photo shows an unexplained leak in the Nord Stream pipeline linking Russia and Europe, raising suspicions of sabotage. © Handout, AFP
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FRANCE 24
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11:41am: Russia seeks UN Security Council meeting on Nord Stream blasts
Russia has requested a new meeting of the UN Security Council for July 11 to discuss last September’s explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a senior Russian diplomat at the United Nations said on Saturday.
Russia has unsuccessfully demanded access to investigations by Sweden and other countries into the blasts, which severely damaged the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea.
“We requested a new open meeting of the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream blasts for July 11,” Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, said on the Telegram messaging platform.
He also said Russia would invite “a couple of interesting impartial speakers” to the meeting.
Russia failed in March to get the UN Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry.
11:15am: Six killed in Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine city Lyman, says governor
Six people were killed on Saturday in Lyman in eastern Ukraine after the town came under fire from Russian rockets, the regional governor said.
“At least six people were killed and five injured … At around 10:00 am, the Russians struck the town with multiple rocket launchers,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on social media.
9:12am: Zelensky visits symbolic Snake Island on 500th day of invasion
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday visited a tiny Black Sea island whose few defenders famously defied a Russian warship at the beginning of the invasion, as the conflict reaches its 500th day.
“500 days of the full-scale war. Snake Island. The free island of free Ukraine. I am grateful to everyone who fought here against the occupiers,” Zelensky said on social media.
8:12am: Kyiv wins Ankara’s support for NATO bid
FRANCE 24’s Jasper Mortimer is in Ankara on Saturday, the morning after discussions between Ukraine’s President Zelensky and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“President Erdogan declared Turkey’s support for Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. That is exactly what President Zelensky wanted to hear,” says Mortimer.
Mortimer also discussed the likelihood of Russia renewing the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a perennial issue in the war that could have repercussions for global food supplies.
03:55
6:20am: ‘The decision was made reluctantly by Joe Biden’
US President Joe Biden on Friday said sending cluster munitions to Ukraine was a “difficult decision”.
“[Biden] admitted it took him a while to be convinced to send cluster munitions to Ukraine,” says FRANCE 24’s Kethevane Gorjestani reporting from Washington.
01:34
4:31am: UN slams civilian toll as Russia’s war in Ukraine reaches day 500
The United Nations condemned the civilian cost inflicted by Russia’s war in Ukraine as the fighting passed the 500-day mark with no end to the conflict in sight.
More than 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion, the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said in a statement on Friday, though UN representatives have previously said the real count is likely to be much higher.
“Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians,” Noel Calhoun, the deputy head of HRMMU, said in the statement marking the 500th day since the invasion.
Key developments from Thursday, July 7:
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The United States announced that it will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time as Kyiv’s forces push ahead with a counteroffensive against Russian forces.
In an interview with FRANCE 24, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “we are moving Ukraine closer to NATO, the final decisions are still to be negotiated and agreed by allies.” He added that he expected important decisions to be made during the NATO summit in Vilnius next week.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday described the deals allowing the safe Black Sea export of food and fertilizer from Ukrainian ports and facilitating Russia’s own such exports as playing an “indispensable role” in global food security.
