Crimea under missile attack; US and Vietnam discuss boosting cooperation

The US and Vietnam discussed ways to develop their strategic partnership, according to a statement from the Hanoi government, in a meeting that followed a visit to the Southeast Asian nation last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck called on China to stop diverting exports of European goods to Russia that could be used in the war on Ukraine.

Crimea under attack after Ukraine shoots down missiles near Kyiv

Russia’s defence ministry reported multiple deaths and injuries from what it called a Ukrainian Atacms missile attack using cluster munitions on the occupied Crimean peninsula.

Four missiles were taken down by Russian air defences, while a fifth was struck and diverted from its trajectory before exploding over Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city, the ministry said.

Five people were killed and more than 100 wounded from falling debris, the ministry said. The claims could not be confirmed and Ukrainian authorities had not commented. Images on social media showed beachgoers running for cover.

Two of the victims were children, according to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the local Kremlin-appointed governor. Russia has occupied the Crimean peninsula since 2014.

The incident came hours after Ukraine said it shot down two of three Russian Kalibr cruise missiles launched toward the capital region from the Sea of Azov on Sunday.

Explosions were heard early on Sunday morning in Kyiv and its southern suburbs. Two people sustained minor injuries and at least 20 residential houses, as well as several small enterprises, were damaged by missile debris, regional governor Ruslan Kravchenko said.

One person was killed and at least nine injured in Kharkiv in a Sunday afternoon strike. Half of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, lost power and the city’s underground was out of service.

Sunday’s attacks followed glide-bomb strikes on Kharkiv on Saturday, which left three people dead and 56 injured.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in June alone, Kremlin forces used more than 2,400 guided aerial bombs against Ukraine, mostly in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.

Separately, Ukraine’s Navy claimed it had destroyed a training facility for Geran-2 drones in Krasnodar Krai in southern Russia, east of the annexed Crimean peninsula.

“New satellite images confirm the destruction of the Shahed-136/Geran-2 storage and preparation facilities, training buildings, control and communication points,” the Navy said on X. It said the operation was conducted with the Ukrainian State Security Service, also known as SBU. Russia hasn’t commented.

Also on Sunday, Russia’s defence ministry said it destroyed 33 Ukrainian drones overnight. Most were in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus, and others in the Smolensk, Lipetsk and Tula regions.

Russian troops appeared to be intensifying the tempo of their offensive operations in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine while scaling back the rate of attacks in the Kharkiv region, the Institute of Study of War said in a daily update.

That was “consistent with ISW’s assessment that Russian offensive operations in Kharkiv oblast are primarily intended to fix and distract Ukrainian forces in order to allow Russian forces to intensify elsewhere,” the US-based military analysts said.

US, Vietnam discuss boosting cooperation in wake of Putin visit

The US and Vietnam discussed ways to develop their strategic partnership, according to a statement from the Hanoi government, in a meeting that followed a visit to the Southeast Asian nation last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink met Vietnam’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son on 21 June, the government said in the statement. The diplomat’s trip to Vietnam came after Putin’s visit drew criticism from the US.

The US reiterated its commitment to supporting a strong and prosperous Vietnam, the statement said. Kritenbrink also affirmed that the US welcomed and appreciated Vietnam’s increasingly important role at multilateral and regional forums, it said.

Read more: US to send East Asia diplomat to Vietnam after Putin visit

The Vietnamese minister said the US had always been a strategically important partner, and added the nation was ready to work together to promote the comprehensive strategic partnership, according to the statement.

In a separate briefing, Kritenbrink said the trust between the two countries had never been stronger and deeper than now, Dan Tri news website reported, citing the US diplomat.

Earlier, the US criticised Vietnam’s decision to host Putin, who was given the red-carpet treatment after visiting North Korea, where Kim Jong-un pledged to “unconditionally support” Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

Germany urges China to stop circumventing EU sanctions on Russia

German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck called on China to stop diverting exports of European goods to Russia that could be used in the war on Ukraine.

The EU would not accept the circumvention of sanctions imposed on Russia, Habeck told reporters in Shanghai after talks with Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao and industry and technology minister Jin Zhuanglong in Beijing.

“If products that are used in the military complex would no longer be imported from China, this would also help the economic relationship between our two countries,” Germany’s economy and climate minister added.

Habeck pointed out that China’s trade with Russia increased by more than 40% last year and that only a little more than half of this increase was due to energy, with the rest made up by so-called dual-use goods.

He raised the issue in talks with Chinese government officials after they complained that Germany was making it more difficult for Chinese investment in the tech sector and also imposing stricter controls on exports of critical products like dual-use goods, the vice chancellor said.

Nato and EU ‘provoked’ Ukraine war, says Reform UK’s Farage 

The expansion of Nato and the European Union into eastern Europe was to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to Nigel Farage, leader of the populist Reform UK party surging in the polls.

In a BBC interview on Friday, Farage stood by comments he made previously pointing the finger at the West, saying “it was obvious” more eastern European countries joining the pacts would provoke Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the statement “completely wrong,” warning on Saturday that “this kind of appeasement is dangerous for Britain’s security, the security of our allies that rely on us and only emboldens Putin further”.

Conservative Home Secretary James Cleverly said Farage was “echoing Putin’s vile justification for the brutal invasion of Ukraine.” Speaking to broadcasters, Labour leader Keir Starmer said the comments were “disgraceful” while shadow defence secretary John Healey called Farage a “Putin apologist”.

Farage’s party has seized on anti-immigration sentiment and jumped in the polls at the expense of the ruling Conservatives ahead of the 4 July election. That is splitting the right-wing vote and surveys show Sunak’s Tories on course for a historic defeat to Starmer’s opposition Labour Party.

Farage’s comments come after a string of controversies involving Reform election candidates, including one who apologised after saying the UK should have “taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality”.

In the BBC interview, Farage was pressed on his previous comments suggesting he admired Putin and that the West had provoked the Russian leader.

“Why did I say that? It was obvious to me that the ever-eastward expansion of Nato and the European Union was giving this man a reason to his Russian people to say, ‘They’re coming for us again,’ and to go to war,” he said, according to a transcript of the interview.

Farage said he “disliked” Putin but repeated that he “admired him as a political operator because he’s managed to take control of running Russia”.

“We provoked this war,” Farage said. “Of course it’s his fault, he’s used what we’ve done as an excuse.” DM