United Nations member states have voted to make an exception to allow Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address next week’s general assembly by video, despite Russian opposition. Of the 193 member states, 101 voted on Friday to allow Ukraine’s president to “deliver a pre-recorded statement” rather than in person as is usually required. Seven members voted against the proposal, including Russia. Nineteen states abstained.
Virtually all the bodies exhumed in Izium had signs of violent death, the head of Ukraine’s regional administration said of the mass burial site discovered after Kyiv forces retook the eastern Ukrainian city. Exhumers had discovered several bodies with their hands tied behind their backs and one “with a rope around his neck,” Oleg Synegubov, head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said on Friday. “Among the bodies that were exhumed today, 99% showed signs of violent death,” he said on social media.
The European Union was “deeply shocked” by the mass graves discovered by Ukrainian officials in Izium, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. “We condemn these atrocities in the strongest possible terms.” French President Emmanuel Macron also condemned what he called “atrocities” committed at Izium, adding to growing outrage in Western countries over the burial site.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have struck four areas occupied by Russian troops, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The military also targeted a unloading station, he said, in turn preventing Russian forces from deploying additional reserves.
Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out targeted attacks in the cities of Kherson and Luhansk against senior local officials who have collaborated with Moscow. At least five Himars missiles have crashed into the central administration building in Kherson, which Russian troops have occupied since March after arriving from Crimea. Video from the scene showed smoke billowing from the complex. In the eastern city of Luhansk, a pro-Russian prosecutor was killed along with his deputy when his office was blown up. The cause of the explosion was not immediately clear. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mikhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine was not behind the blast.
Further south, the Russian-backed separatist authority of Berdiansk also blamed Kyiv for the “double murder” of a deputy head of the civil-military administration and his wife, who headed the city’s territorial election commission for the referendum.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast there were also reports on Friday of a “powerful explosion” in Russian-occupied Melitopol, said Ivan Fedorov, Melitopol’s mayor. “I expect that the Russian fascists have suffered losses, between their personnel and equipment,” he said. “Waiting for good news from the armed forces of Ukraine.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first public comments since his troops were forced to withdraw from territories they held in the northeast, a move that drew unusually strong public criticism from military commentators Russians Putin said he invaded Ukraine because the West wanted to break up Russia. Asked about Ukraine’s recent military success, he smiled and said, “Let’s see how it plays out, how it ends.” Putin said nothing had changed with the ultimate goal of Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine, which was to capture the Donbas.
The US Department of Defense has announced that it is providing an additional $600 million in military assistance to Ukraine to meet the country’s “critical security and defense needs.” In total, the Biden administration has committed about $15.8 billion in security aid to Ukraine, $15.1 billion since Russia’s invasion began in February.
Switzerland aligned itself with the European Union on Friday by suspending a 2009 deal that eased rules for Russian citizens to enter the country. “The suspension of the agreement does not mean a general visa freeze for Russians, but they will have to use the ordinary visa procedure to enter Switzerland,” the country’s federal council said in a statement. The EU took a similar step earlier, suspending a visa facilitation deal with Russia but stopping short of a broader visa ban in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.