Latest from Ukraine war can Zlelnksyy turn around his PR disaster after being lambasted by global media outlets? He is seeking to repair his image, by travelling to pose with the first Turkish vessel leaving Ukraine.
It is now the sixth month of Russia’s attack on Ukraine and time to conduct an interim audit into the progress of the war.
The question is often asked as to who is winning and who is losing, but such binary questions are confounded by the complexity of the situation. Indeed, one wonders whether winning or losing is a meaningful concept at all.
However, as painful as it may seem to some, This war is as much a PR war as one being fought on the ground.
Latest from Ukraine war
Moscow and Kyiv trade accusations over prison bombing
Russia and Ukraine accused one another on Friday of bombing a prison in separatist-held eastern Ukraine, which killed scores of Ukrainian prisoners of war.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukrainian forces “fired on the prison where members of the Azov battalion are being held, using American projectiles from the Himars system.”
It reported that at least 40 Ukrainian POWs were killed and 84 others wounded in the strike on Olenivka prison, while pro-Russian separatist authorities in the Donetsk region put the death toll at 53.
Ukraine denied targeting civilian infrastructure or prisoners of war, stressing that its army “fully adheres to the principles and standards of international humanitarian law.”
Russia hits Kyiv for the first time in weeks
The Russian army has launched a missile attack on the Kyiv and northern Chernihiv regions for the first time in weeks today.
At least fifteen people, including five civilians, were reportedly injured in the Russian strikes, according to the Ukrainian capital’s regional governor, Oleksiy Kuleba.
Russia hits Kyiv region with six missiles launched from the Black Sea, hitting a military unit in the village of Liutizh on the outskirts of the capital in the latest from Ukraine war.
Zelenksyy was accused of using the war to build his personal profile
Zelenskyy’s latest media appearance with first lady, Olena Zelenska, has split opinions, with many claiming the images shot for Vogue magazine undermine the severity of the war. And the Ukrainian leader is using the war to build his personal profile.
He has never been shy of the public spotlight, posing for pictures in military colours and lambasting the Russians on his nightly address.
However, many have criticised his leadership, which seems to be serving his needs more than those of the country. Personifying the disparity in Eastern European countries, between the rich and poor.
It has been a PR disaster, at the very least it was a tasteless move and the best it takes away the focus of the war from the soldiers on the ground who are fighting.
Zelenskyy's latest media appearance with first lady, Olena Zelenska, has split opinion, with many claiming the images shot for Vogue magazine undermine the severity of the war. #EU #eunews #Zelenskyy #VogueMagazine #Ukraine #UkraineWillWin #RussiaUkraineWar pic.twitter.com/0pIKuiVCPk
— EU NEWS 🇪🇺 (@wtx_EU_news) July 29, 2022
Grain exports to begin shortly
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited a port in southern Ukraine to oversee grain being loaded for export onto a Turkish ship, following a deal with Russia brokered by the UN and Turkey.
“The first vessel, the first ship is being loaded since the beginning of the war. This is a Turkish vessel,” Zelenskyy said, according to a statement from the presidency.
Video footage from the Chornomorsk port released by the presidency showed him in front of a ship called Polarnet.
Blinken has ‘frank’ discussion with Lavrov about US prisoners
Top US diplomat Antony Blinken said Friday he had a “frank” discussion with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, regarding his country’s offer to exchange Americans detained in Russia with Russian prisoners.
“We had a frank and direct discussion”, said the US Secretary of State during a press conference. “I called on the Kremlin to accept the sizeable offer we made to them.”
This is the first meeting between the two men since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The head of US diplomacy announced on Wednesday that he planned to contact his Russian counterpart in a bid to secure the freedom of basketball player Brittney Griner and ex-soldier Paul Whelan.
North Macedonia donates tanks to Ukraine amid modernisation drive
North Macedonia has said it will donate an unknown number of Soviet-era tanks to Ukraine as it seeks to modernise its own military, its defence ministry said on Friday.
In a statement, the ministry said Ukraine will receive tanks belonging to the western Balkan country’s tank battalion which is in the process of being upgraded to meet NATO standards.
“Taking into account this situation and the requirements of the Ukrainian defence ministry, the government has decided that a certain quantity of these [tank] capacities will be donated to Ukraine, in line with its needs,” the statement said.
The ministry did not specify the number of tanks, but it said they belonged to the so-called third generation of main battle tanks from the 1970s and 1980s.
Outrage at pro-Putin chants at Turkey-Ukraine football match
Ukrainian officials have expressed their anger at Turkish football fans who chanted pro-Putin chants at a Champions League kick-about in Istanbul.
Thousands of Fenerbahce supporters joined in the chant after their team conceded a goal to Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kyiv.
Ukrainian Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar said the incident had “saddened” him deeply, with one football journalist branding the chart “absolutely tasteless.”
Footage of the controversial chant has been viewed more than seven million times on social media.
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