Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 06-20-2024

The Kremlin long-range glide bombs they have touted as a war-winning weapon the Ukrainians can’t counter have one major problem – they don’t always hit Ukraine.

A Russian glider bomb campaign touted by Moscow as a relentless bombardment of precision-guided weaponry against hapless Ukrainian troops unable to defend themselves just passed the embarrassing milestone of one hundred “abnormal munitions releases” over Russian territory, according to independent news platforms.

As of Tuesday, June 18, the number of these air-launched munitions, which normally  weigh between 500 and 1500 kilograms (1100 and 3300 pounds) that Russian Air Force pilots have aimed at Ukrainian targets but have fallen on Russia’s western Belgorod Region, had climbed to 103 bombs in just the past four months, the Astra news agency reported.

The donation was made "on the condition that our country continues negotiations with allies, in particular the US, with a view to obtaining a similar or equivalent system" to protect its own air space

NATO member Romania announced Thursday that it would send a Patriot missile system to Ukraine, which Kyiv has requested to help its fight against Russia's invasion.

"Considering the significant deterioration of the security situation in Ukraine... council members decided to donate a Patriot system to Ukraine in close coordination with allies," the Supreme Council of National Defence said in a statement.

A member of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, says legislation is needed to protect society from freed convicts returning from the war in Ukraine.

Nina Ostanina, head of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, has proposed to develop a special bill to provide legal protection for Russians from former prisoners who commit new crimes after returning from the war in Ukraine.

“Law enforcement agencies must take responsibility for protecting citizens from such criminals. It is necessary to establish regular control over their movements and provide them with employment assistance,” Ostanina wrote on Telegram.

The Russian leader did not receive such a clear public declaration of support in Hanoi, but Vietnamese President To Lam indicated a desire to boost defence cooperation.

Russia and Vietnam pledged Thursday, June 20, to deepen ties as President Vladimir Putin made a state visit aimed at bolstering his alliances to counter Moscow's growing isolation over the war in Ukraine.

Putin travelled to Vietnam, a close ally of Moscow since the days of the Cold War, from a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un where he won a pledge of "full support" on Ukraine and signed a mutual defence pact.

Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway have committed to supplying Ukraine with approximately 80 American-made F-16 fighters.

General Arnu Stallman, commander of the Dutch Air Force, anticipates that F-16 fighters will be operational in Ukraine this summer, The Guardian reports. Ukrainian officials believe these aircraft will help protect Kharkiv from Russian corrected aerial bombs (KABs).

“During summertime, everything is falling into place,“ General Stallman said, speaking in front of two F-16s inside a hangar at the base, where a recent program to train Ukrainian Air Force maintenance instructors had just ended.

In echoes of the Stalin era, Russian schools responded to an apparent request by regional education authorities to compile lists of “unreliable schoolchildren.”

Pranked by an anti-Kremlin activist, a few schools in both Belarus and Russia received a fake official letter asking them to recommend children who should be sent to Soviet-era style re-education camps, with some turning in and doxing not just kids but parents.

The independent Russian news site Insider reported on the latest hoax perpetrated by the notorious Belarusian activist Vladislav Bokhan. Several Belarusian and Russian schools received a letter ostensibly from their regional authorities asking them to identify “potentially extremist” kids who should be sent to correctional camps that were currently under construction.

Ukraine’s government hasn’t reached an agreement with Eurobond holders in first round of negotiations, but talks continue – everyone should rush before August.

Ukraine’s government failed to reach a compromise with Eurobond holders during the first round of negotiations, but it’s also not interested in default – especially during a wartime economy.

For half a year at least, news from debt restructuring negotiations was a subject of intense curiosity. The news from negotiations and preparations for them were confidential until June, 17, when the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine published a press release about the first round of negotiations.

The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership on June 19 during the Russian president's first visit in 24 years to the secretive one-party state. The agreement calls for mutual assistance in the event of an attack by a third country and is intended to take cooperation between the two states to a new level. Kim said the agreement ushers in a new era, adding that their cooperation on political, military, economic, and other issues is peaceful and aimed at defending the interests of both states. "I have no doubt that it will become a driving force in the accelerated development of a new multipolar world," Kim said. A senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after the agreement was signed that North Korea was helping Russia kill Ukrainian civilians. "There is no doubt that North Korea is actively cooperating with Russia in the military sphere today and deliberately provides resources for the mass murder of Ukrainians," Mykhaylo Podolyak told the AFP new agency. He called for greater international isolation of both countries. Putin has expressed gratitude for Pyongyang's "unwavering support" at the start of a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un that began with a red-carpet welcome on June 19 as the two fiercely anti-Western leaders sought ways to boost cooperation. - RFE/RL

North Korea is a paradise that so far surpasses the rest of the world in “freedom” that even the air feels different, according to one of the Kremlin’s most devoted propagandists. Pavel Zarubin, a Kremlin pool reporter who accompanied Vladimir Putin on the Russian leader’s first visit to Pyongyang in more than two decades, can barely contain his excitement in a video clip that is hard to believe is not a parody. “I don’t know any other country where people can breathe so freely,” Zarubin declares, as crowds of North Koreans perform a choreographed dance in the background, part of the grandiose ceremony organized to welcome Putin. - Daily Beast

The new measures -- which should be formally adopted on Monday -- are aimed at further choking off Russian President Vladimir Putin's war effort against Ukraine.

EU states on Thursday signed off on a fresh package of sanctions against Russia targeting its lucrative liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector for the first time, officials said.

The new measures -- which should be formally adopted on Monday -- are aimed at further choking off Russian President Vladimir Putin's war effort against Ukraine.

The SBU drones continue to reduce Russia’s economic and military potential to wage war against Ukraine, according to sources in the Kyiv Post.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) drones hit the fuel and lubricants warehouse of Tambovnefteprodukt and the Enemskaya oil depot of LUKOIL-Yugnefteprodukt, located in the Tambov region and the Adygea Republic of Russia, Kyiv Post sources report.

A live broadcast on North Korean state TV saw seven members of Putin’s delegation thrown out for unknowingly breaking protocol by entering before the “Supreme Leader.”

Ahead of the bilateral meeting between delegations from Russia and North Korea, which was being broadcast live on state-run TV on Wednesday, June 19, the Moscow team was unceremoniously thrown out for entering the conference room before the two leaders, according to a report in the Moscow Times.

It is apparently customary on such occasions to wait to be summoned to join the meeting by Kim Jong Un after he and his principal guest enter.

Vietnam and Russia have close ties going back to the 1950s, but Hanoi is not likely to give Putin the public pledge of "full support" on Ukraine that he received from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi on Thursday after signing a mutual defence deal with North Korea.

AFP looks at the background to the visit and what the two sides hope to achieve.

Zelensky said this month the aerial bombardments have halved the country’s electricity production compared to a year ago, disrupting and limiting supplies for millions.

Russian forces launched another massive missile and drone strike on Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, June 20, targeting power facilities across four regions. The assault damaged infrastructure in Vinnytsia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Kyiv regions, according to the Ukrainian Air Force.

The attack involved a combination of missiles and drones, including:

Despite constant shelling and bombardment, Kherson’s residents won’t leave. On the contrary, they are digging in to grow their businesses and get on with their lives

Kherson is a major regional center and gateway to the southern regions of Ukraine, located near the very mouth of the Dnipro River. With a population of more than 300,000 people before the full-scale invasion, it was the only regional center that the Russian army was able to capture. 

Under pressure from Ukrainian forces with constant shelling of bridges across the Dnipro River in its rear, the Russian army left the settlements of the region one by one. Finally, in November 2022, they left Kherson itself – an important victory for Ukraine.

While Russian President Vladimir Putin said deliveries of F-16s to Kyiv violated unspecified “international obligations,” some have falsely connected it with Moscow’s new treaty with Pyongyang.

Some Telegram channels claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, upon his visit to Pyongyang, said he would supply the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, the official name of North Korea) with aircraft and missiles if the West were to transfer F-16s to Ukraine and enable strikes inside Russia with Western weapons.

However, while the new agreement signed by Moscow and Pyongyang did specify potential “mutual assistance in case of aggression against one of the parties,” and Putin did criticize Western F-16 deliveries to Ukraine in a statement, the two are not necessarily related.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in Pyongyang on June 19, likely aimed in part to use military-technical cooperation with North Korea as a threat against the West to discourage further support for Ukraine. Russian and North Korea largely framed the agreement as evidence of their mutual support as part of a common struggle against the West and signaled that they share a goal to challenge the West and current world order.
• Putin is pursuing a coalition of friendly states with historically warm ties to the Soviet Union to act as an alternative to the West and current world order.
• Russian government officials announced their intention on June 19 to suspend Russia's participation in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA).
• The Russian military command continues to endorse a culture of permissiveness towards war crimes perpetrated by subordinates on the battlefield in Ukraine.
• The Russian government is attempting to deflect responsibility for well-documented Russian violations of international law regarding Russia's treatment of Ukrainian children by accusing the Ukrainian Armed Forces and other security structures of committing "crimes" against children.
• Air traffic control (ATC) communications from international airspace over the northeastern Atlantic Ocean appear to show the first confirmed instance of GPS jamming on commercial trans-Atlantic routes.
• Ukrainian forces recaptured positions near Starytsya and Russian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar and Donetsk City and in east (left) bank Kherson Oblast.
• Finnish outlet Yle, citing satellite imagery and Finnish intelligence sources, reported on June 19 that the Russian military has deployed roughly 80 percent of its equipment and personnel based near the Russian-Finnish border to support its invasion of Ukraine.

Verkhovna Rada Secretary of the Committee for National Security said that if the current pace of mobilization continues until the end of the year, a draft law on demobilization could be introduced.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has said it is satisfied with the current pace of mobilization in Ukraine, and if this trend continues into the fall, it may then be possible to submit a bill on demobilization to the Verkhovna Rada, Roman Kostenko a member of the Holos party and secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence told  Ukrainska Pravda.

According to him, the General Staff is not only satisfied with the number of those mobilizing but the numbers exceed expectations. They hope that this trend will continue.

After their shocking loss on Matchday 1, the Ukrainians will hope to turn things around on Matchday 2. They will play Slovakia on Friday, June 21 in Düsseldorf.

After a poor display against Romania on Monday, the Ukrainians have a chance to redeem themselves at EURO 2024. The Ukrainians have everything to play for in their game against Slovakia this Friday.

Monday’s match against Romania produced a shocking result. Many football experts, pundits, and fans predicted that Ukraine would ease past the Romanians. What followed, however, was much different. While Ukraine maintained possession of the ball during the majority of the match, they failed to turn that statistic into something meaningful. They were punished for their inability to convert their chances, and the Romanians were more lethal in front of goal. This ultimately resulted in the shocking 3-0 victory for Romania.