War in Ukraine: one dead in a bombing in Kherson, kyiv ready to negotiate with Moscow on one condition… an update on the situation

Ce qu'il faut retenir ce mercredi. MAXPPP – Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Avalon

Tous les jours, Midi Libre fait le point sur la situation en Ukraine. Ce mecredi 24 juillet 2024, découvrez les dernières actualités autour de ce conflit.

One dead in a bombing in Kherson

A Russian bombing in Kherson, in southern Ukraine, killed one person overnight, the head of the local military administration reported Wednesday morning.

"During the night, the Russian army shelled the city's Dnipro district. As a result of this attack, a woman born in 1947 was killed. Rescuers found his body under the rubble", Roman Mrotchko communicated on the social network Telegram.

The town of Kherson, located on the banks of the Dnieper River, which demarcates the front line in this area, is very regularly the target of Russian fire. Part of the region is occupied by Russia, which claims annexation.

Ukrainian authorities also accused Russia of targeting Kharkiv (north-east), the country's second city, on Wednesday morning.

According to regional police, the attack, which occurred around 5:15 a.m. (02:15 GMT), partially damaged an industrial building and vehicles without causing any casualties.

"A residential building in the Nemychliansky district was also hit. A fire broke out, added the police on Telegram, indicating that they had dispatched agents to the scene of these "strike".

Two people were also injured in Mala Danylivka, in the Kharkiv region, during a strike that hit a stable, regional governor Oleg Synegoubov reported.

EU wants to extend deadline for renewing sanctions against frozen Russian assets

Member states of the European Union (EU) will discuss on Wednesday how the period for renewing sanctions imposed on the assets of the Russian central bank can be extended, an essential factor in allowing a significant loan to Ukraine, according to a European working document.
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries and the EU decided in June to use interest paid on frozen Russian assets to provide a $50 billion loan to Kyiv.

Some G7 members, including the United States, fear that this loan will not be granted if EU member states do not reach unanimity, according to European diplomats.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is closer to Russia than most EU leaders, has regularly blocked support for Ukraine and sanctions against Moscow.

EU ambassadors will discuss two options on Wednesday to limit that risk, the first being an “indefinite” extension of the sanctions regime that immobilizes Russian assets. Currently, sanctions on such assets must be reviewed every six months and approved by all 27 member states.

"This will be reviewed by the Council at regular intervals (every twelve months, for example), on the basis of predefined and clear criteria (end of the war of aggression, guarantees that' 39;it will not happen again, payment of compensation by Russia…)", indicates the document.

The second option is to extend the sanction regime by up to three years.
These two options "aim to give more legal confidence and more predictability to G7 partners on the management of interest flows, which will be made available to the & #39;Ukraine for the servicing and repayment of bilateral loans granted by the EU and G7 partners", details the document.

In both cases, unanimity will be necessary within the Member States and these extensions will only concern the freezing of assets held by the central bank.

Most of the $300 billion in assets held by the Russian central bank are placed in European financial institutions.

Ukraine tells China to be ready to negotiate when Moscow is "in good faith"

Ukraine will only negotiate with Russia when Russia is ready to do so in "good faith", declared this Wednesday in China, where he is on an official trip, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kouleba.

Despite its strong economic, diplomatic and military ties with Moscow, further strengthened since the launch in February 2022 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Beijing has for many months intended to play mediator between the two belligerents. Mr. Kouleba's visit, which is scheduled to last until Friday, is in this regard the first by a Ukrainian official at this level since the start of this conflict.

During his meeting on Wednesday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, the head of Ukrainian diplomacy "reiterated the position of Ukraine which is of& #39;be ready to negotiate with the Russian side (…) when Russia is ready to negotiate in good faith", according to a Ukrainian press release, insisting that'"currently the Russian side is not willing to do so".

Russian authorities have set draconian conditions for peace talks. As a preliminary step, they demand four Ukrainian regions, in addition to Crimea annexed in 2014, and that Ukraine renounces entering NATO.

Asked about the meeting in the morning in Canton, in southern China, between Wang Yi and Dmytro Kouleba, Mao Ning, a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, simply said that&#39 ;they had "exchanged their points of view" on the Ukrainian file.

"Wang Yi stressed that the crisis in Ukraine has entered its third year, the conflict continues, and there is a risk of ;#39;escalation and overflow.

"China believes that the resolution of all conflicts must, ultimately, go through the negotiating table" , she added to the press.