Photo : REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak
Photo : REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak
By Padmashree Anandhan
WAR ON THE GROUND
On 12 July, in an interview with Reuters, General Andriy Kostin, Ukraine’s top prosecutor called the International Criminal Court (ICC) to sue Russia over a recent missile strike on children’s hospital in Kyiv. The attack resulted in killing 38 and injuring hundreds. He said: “For the sake of international justice, cases like the intentional attack on the biggest child hospital in Kyiv [are] worth lifting to the ICC.”
On 12 July, Kherson’s military administration reported on massive shelling. According to the head of the unit, Roman Mrochko, the attack was targeted against central Dnipro district and continued for an hour. Following the attack, there was severe infrastructural damage especially in water supply was reported but no casualties were observed.
On 12 July, Ukrainian military revealed the number of Russian casualties since the war began to be 556,650. Apart from this the report also found 8,191 tanks and 15,755 armoured combat vehicles were also completely damaged. On the same day, Ukrainian air defences reported on shooting down five cruise missiles and 11 Kh-101 cruise missiles out of 19 across Mykolaiv, Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kherson, and Sumy. In a statement the air force said: “"It is likely that the enemy is using imitators of attack drones to overload air defense. There was no information on casualties or damage.”
THE MOSCOW VIEW
Claims by Russia
On 12 July, in response to the accusations on hospital attack on Kyiv, Russia denied on targeting the hospital and accused Ukraine’s anti-missile fire. As per reports from the UN, the video shows the high possibility of strike to have some from Russian missile. Till now ICC has issues arrest warrants against six including Russia’s president and defence minister.
On 12 July, in a response to Ukraine’s demand to West for granting permission to use all types of weapons, Russian government warned over “dangerous escalation.” At present, the use of weapons is restricted to limited Russian military position for Ukraine, but Russia finds Ukraine to be persistent in asking on removing the limit. Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Press Secretary said: “..the main thing is that these missiles are already hitting our territory.. As for increasing this distance, this is pure provocation, a new, very dangerous escalation of tension.”
On 12 July, Russian telecom provider, Rostelecom announced on slowing off YouTube inside Russia. According to the company, there was increase in “processed traffic” and had triggered “serious overload of existing capacities.” This was viewed as affected the download speed and quality of the videos on YouTube for all subscribers of Russian operators. Apart from this, Russia has also blocked Facebook and Instagram calling the companies as extremist. Anton Gorelkin, the deputy chairman of the committee on information policy in the Russian parliament, said that Google had stopped its servers in Russia after the war began in 2022.
THE WEST VIEW
Responses of the US and Europe
On 12 July, Petteri Orpo, Finland’s Prime Minister announced law granting the right to the border guards to send back the third-country migrants trying to enter Finland from Russia. This means rejection of their asylum application and a message to Russia to handle its own security. The law aims to bring temporary measures to cut the inflow of migrants into Finland which is seen as “hybrid warfare.” Since the increased influx, Finland had accused Russia of “weaponizing migration” through large number of migrants entering from Syria and Somalia.
On 12 July, Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister issued a statement after meeting Donald Trump. He said that Trump would “make peace” in Ukraine. He said: “We discussed ways to make #peace. The good news of the day: he’s going to solve it!”
THE GLOBAL FALLOUTS
Implications of the War
On 12 July, International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors passed a resolution condemning the Russian attack on children’s hospital in Kyiv. In the resolution: “(The Board) condemns in the strongest terms the disruption of IAEA technical assistance to Ukraine caused by the Russian Federation's recent military strike that hit the 'Okhmatdyt' National Children's Specialized Hospital.”
On 12 July, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution calling Russia to “urgently withdraw” its military and unauthorised personnel from Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant area. This was supported by 99 out 193 UNGA members, where nine voted against and 60 abstained. Although the resolution does not legally bind but Russia must cease its attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Since February 2022, the Zaporizhzhia plant has been subject to frequent shelling raising concerns over nuclear accident.
References
“Six killed, 13 hurt in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Donetsk region, officials say,” Swissinfo, 12 July 2024
Stefan Korshak, “Russian Missile Strike Targets Likely F-16 Airfield in Starokostyantyniv,” Kyiv Post, 12 July 2024
“Ukraine collecting evidence of civilian mine deaths for ICC,” Reuters, 12 July 2024
Johanna Lemola and Isabella Kwai, “Finland Passes Law to Turn Away Asylum Seekers at Border,” The New York Times, 12 July 2024
“IAEA board voices 'serious concern' over Russia strike on Kyiv hospital,” CNA, 12 July 2024
“Ukraine's Top Prosecutor Wants International Court To Open Case On Kyiv Hospital Attack,” Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 12 July 2024
“General Assembly demands immediate end to Russian aggression in Ukraine,” un.org, 11 July 2024