Ukraine war in Newsblog | Mayor: Russian missiles attack Kharkiv

Day 423 since the beginning of the war: Rocket attacks are said to have taken place on Kharkiv. Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Melnyk is calling for more military aid. All information in the blog.

3.20 a.m.: Russia advises its citizens not to travel to Canada. There have been numerous cases of discrimination against Russians and physical violence against them, the Foreign Ministry said. Anyone who is already in Canada should be vigilant, especially in public places. Canada is one of Ukraine’s biggest supporters in the war against Russia, and for the past year has advised its citizens to avoid all travel to Russia. Canada has also imposed sanctions on Russian officials and companies, as well as sweeping trade bans. Most recently, Russia had imposed sanctions on Canadian officials and celebrities, among others.

11.30 p.m.: Italy has frozen the assets of a Russian businessman who fled to Russia in March before being extradited to the US. The Ministry of Finance announced that it had approved a corresponding decree. This includes the participation of the businessman Artem Uss in a company, his villa and a bank account with more than 160,000 euros.

Uss faces charges of illegal oil shipments from Venezuela and bank fraud in the United States. A day after a court approved his extradition to the US, he fled his home in Milan, where he was under house arrest. His electronic tracking device had sounded the alarm. By the time the police got to the house, he had already disappeared. According to insiders, the Italian justice minister has initiated disciplinary proceedings against three judges who had granted Uss house arrest.

10:45 p.m.: The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is under fire, Mayor Ihor Terekhov reports, according to the media site Nexta. According to the Ukrainian news site Kyivindependent, S-300 rockets were fired at the city. Both the city itself and the region were attacked. Local media counted at least three loud explosions in the city. “In the Nowobavarsky district, a fire broke out in a civil infrastructure facility as a result of rocket attacks. Rescue workers are working on the spot. Information about the victims is being specified,” Terekhov is quoted as saying.

10:23 p.m.: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for tougher sanctions and enforcement of existing sanctions against Russia during the war. “The tougher the sanctions against Russia and against the entire Russian war economy, the faster the war will end,” he said in his video message that was broadcast in Kiev on Saturday evening. On the other hand, Russia repeatedly stresses that the sanctions are ineffective. They neither ended the war nor destroyed the economy of the resource superpower.

Zelenskyj once again complained that Russia was circumventing the existing sanctions imposed by the West. It is a central task internationally to end this circumvention of the punitive measures imposed in the course of the war. Russia, for example, imports many goods via parallel imports and third countries. In addition, despite the blockades by the West, the country continues to earn billions from oil and gas exports and is thus keeping its war economy running.

Zelenskyi announced that he had signed new sanctions decrees to harm Russia and, in particular, the military-industrial complex. He did not give any details on the possible effect of these steps. Zelenskyy says he sees progress in Ukraine’s efforts to impose sanctions on Russia’s nuclear industry. He again accused Russia of using nuclear power as a weapon, like all forms of energy. Specifically, the head of state referred to the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which was occupied by Russian troops and used by Moscow for nuclear blackmail. Zelenskyj said that an alliance of Western countries, including the US, Great Britain and Japan, is now working to remove the “terror state” Russia from the world market for nuclear energy.