Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a Russian-launched missile attack that partially destroyed a children’s hospital in Kyiv as part of a barrage of strikes across the country that killed at least 36 people.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent trips to Moscow and Beijing had one thing in common: They blindsided his country’s Western allies.
Former Ukrainian tycoon Gennady Bogolyubov has fled the country to avoid potential prosecution related to a criminal probe, Ukrayinska Pravda reported on Monday.
Zelensky denounces Kyiv hospital attack in Russian barrage
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced a Russian-launched missile attack that partially destroyed a children’s hospital in Kyiv as part of a barrage of strikes across the country that killed at least 36 people.
Ukraine’s Air Force said 30 of 38 missiles were intercepted in the attack, with damage caused by the remaining missiles and from falling debris. In the capital, images emerged of crowds outside the Okhmatdyt paediatric hospital in the city centre trying to remove rubble from the scene. The missile struck a building where children were undergoing dialysis, said Zelensky.
“We will restore everything that was destroyed by these terrorists,” Zelensky said in Warsaw as he made his way to a Nato summit in Washington. “Undoubtedly, we will respond.”
The attack came as military alliance leaders were set to gather to discuss their future cooperation with Kyiv as the war stretches well into its third year. Although Zelensky will fall short in his ambition to join the alliance, Nato leaders will offer a range of security guarantees. The latest was signed in Warsaw on Monday, with Poland offering its backing.
Ukraine’s State Security Service said a preliminary investigation showed that Russian forces deployed an X-101 cruise missile in the hospital strike, which killed at least four people and injured many others — including two children. The agency opened a probe into war crimes.
“The Security Service will do its best to compel the enemy to face the maximum revenge for any of its crimes, including the one against Ukraine committed today,” it said in a statement.
Kyiv, where explosions could be heard from the morning hours, announced a day of mourning for Tuesday as the death toll there rose to at least 22. In the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, steelmaker Metinvest said 10 workers were killed when a missile struck an administrative building. Some 140 people were injured across the country, authorities said.
Downed rockets include a high-precision Kinzhal ballistic missile and three Iskander-M ballistic rockets, the Air Force said.
The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, denounced the barrage as she cited the Nato meeting.
“This callous aggression — a total disregard for human life, jeopardising European & Transatlantic security — is why leaders will make significant security commitments to Ukraine this week,” Brink said in a statement on social platform X.
Russian forces have intensified aerial assaults on Ukraine this year, primarily targeting the country’s energy infrastructure. The attacks have decimated the country’s power-generating capacity, including knocking out some 80% of thermal power production. They’ve triggered widespread blackouts, which previously were only common during the winter.
The attack on Kryvyi Rih, Zelensky’s hometown, injured 47, Mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said on Telegram.
The missile barrage over Kyiv was the first such strike since late March. Missile debris fell in seven city districts, causing damage and setting fire to a business centre, a hospital, private homes, garages and cars, according to Ukraine’s emergency services.
Orbán’s shuttle diplomacy angers Europe and whiplashes allies
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent trips to Moscow and Beijing had one thing in common: They blindsided his country’s Western allies.
European Union and Nato partners woke up on Monday to learn that Orbán had paid a visit to President Xi Jinping in China. That followed a surprise meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week which caught out countries working to present a united front on Ukraine.
EU leaders sought to distance themselves from Orban’s visit to Moscow and underscored that he wasn’t representing the bloc when he said he was working to open up lines of communication to bring peace to Ukraine.
But their attempts to denounce his freelancing were complicated by the fact that on 1 July, Hungary took over the EU’s rotating presidency — something both Putin and Xi were quick to point out.
Orbán has a history of leveraging his country’s Western alliances to sow divisions, hold up aid to Ukraine and seal business deals with Russia and China. But now he’s looking to do so under the EU’s official imprimatur, leaving those who have sought to push Xi to dial back his “no limits” alliance with Russia gazing on with exasperation.
In a letter dated 5 July and seen by Bloomberg, Orbán told fellow leaders that he had not articulated any opinion on behalf of the EU. A Monday statement by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk suggests they might not have been convinced by those assurances.
No official had the right to broker peace in Ukraine on the bloc’s behalf without first gaining its approval, Tusk said at a news conference alongside Zelensky in Warsaw. “History remembers politicians who said they were working toward a just peace but were in fact working toward capitulation,” he added.
None of that is deterring a populist leader who has long relished his role as a disruptor.
Former Privatbank co-owner Bogolyubov reportedly flees Ukraine
Former Ukrainian tycoon Gennady Bogolyubov has fled the country to avoid potential prosecution related to a criminal probe, Ukrayinska Pravda reported on Monday.
A longstanding partner of an influential businessman Igor Kolomoisky, Bogolyubov left the country allegedly after finding out that he would be served with a notice of suspicion related to the case of nationalised Privatbank, the country’s largest lender.
Bogolyubov’s press office told Ukrayinska Pravda that he had left the country legally and that there was no ban on him travelling abroad. Bogolyubov’s spokesperson didn’t respond to requests for comment from Bloomberg News on Monday.
Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov were Privatbank’s major co-owners. The government seized the lender in 2016 after it discovered a $5.5-billion hole in its balance sheet. Kolomoisky has been in detention since September 2023 on suspicion of fraud.
Bogolyubov and Kolomoisky have sued the Ukrainian government including in international courts in an attempt to regain control over Privatbank.
Poland and Moldova seek to help Ukraine boost power security
Poland and Moldova were looking for ways to help Ukraine boost its electricity security amid a barrage of recent Russian attacks on power facilities.
Poland, which has abundant coal, was discussing a plan that would allow its generators to burn fuel at home and send it to Ukraine using existing connections, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“At least it will partially help Ukraine survive the winter,” he said at a press conference on Monday in Warsaw, alongside Zelensky. Under the proposal, Poland would be exempt from European Union emissions payments for the electricity sent to Ukraine, though the details were still being worked out, he added.
Moldova was working on a plan to generate electricity in its territory using Ukrainian gas, though the project was technically complex and probably could not begin until winter, Moldovan Energy Minister Victor Parlicov told Bloomberg. “This is not a commercial project, it’s dedicated to helping Ukraine,” he added.
Russia has stepped up its strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities this year, causing blackouts and destroying vast swathes of the country’s power-producing infrastructure. Zelensky is seeking investment to build as much as one gigawatt of decentralised generating capacity in the coming months.
Germany nears decision on future of seized Russian oil assets
Germany was nearing a decision on what to do with the local units of Russian oil major Rosneft that the government seized two years ago after Moscow invaded Ukraine.
The future of the assets would be determined soon, a government official familiar with the matter told reporters on Monday. The state-controlled Russian energy giant agreed with Germany earlier this year to try to find a buyer for its local subsidiaries, but a deadline to do so will expire in two months.
Two to three interested parties have started sounding out a possible investment, according to people familiar with the discussions. Talks about a potential purchase of Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing had already been held in Berlin, the people added, asking not to be named because the matter was private.
In September 2022, at the height of an energy crisis, Germany put Rosneft’s local units under temporary trusteeship, which has since been extended three times. The deal that closed in March allowed the company to find its own buyers for the entities while avoiding nationalisation. That option is not off the table, with parts of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition supporting such a move.
The Rosneft units have shares in three refineries in Germany, including the PCK Raffinerie in Schwedt near Berlin, which was cut off from Russian crude supplies two years ago.
Russian oil deliveries keep getting cheaper despite sanctions
Group of Seven sanctions aimed at depriving the Kremlin of petrodollars are failing in one of their key objectives: driving up the cost of delivering Russian oil.
The price of delivering the nation’s flagship Urals crude to customers in Asia from Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk has tumbled to the lowest since October, according to data from Argus Media. Even a theoretical cost — attributable only to sanctions — has sagged, the pricing agency estimates.
The slump allows Russian firms to grab a bigger slice of the revenue from every barrel of oil that they sell to customers in China and India, now by far the nation’s biggest markets since Europeans stopped buying to pressure Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
The weakness may disappoint Western policymakers given that dozens of tankers previously engaged in the Russian oil trade have ground to a halt in the wake of sanctions imposed on the vessels by Group of Seven nations and their allies since October.
It now costs $7.2-million to deliver a million-barrel Russian Urals oil cargo to north China from Novorrossiysk, down by $3.2-million since early April, Argus’s data show.
The firm also splits out precisely how much of that cost is directly attributable to sanctions. That has slumped to $2.8-million, a plunge of $4-million over the same period.
Putin hosts Modi after hailing ties with India’s rival China
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Russia on Monday for the first time in five years at a time when Moscow is deepening its embrace of New Delhi’s rival, China.
Modi was set to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin during the visit, which will stretch into Tuesday. India’s foreign secretary, Vinay Kwatra, told reporters in New Delhi that given the lack of recent summits, several issues on the bilateral agenda “have piled up, which need to be addressed”.
Senior Indian diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while major announcements were unlikely, Modi’s visit was intended to send a signal that the two sides remained close. Russia’s ties to India stretch back to the Cold War, and the country is India’s biggest supplier of weapons and oil. That relationship had remained “resilient” said Kwatra.
Hailing his friendship with Putin, Modi said on Monday the two countries had made progress on several fronts in the past decade, including in energy, security, trade and investment.
“I look forward to reviewing all aspects of bilateral cooperation with my friend President Vladimir Putin and sharing perspectives on various regional and global issues,” Modi said in a statement as he departed for Moscow. “We seek to play a supportive role for a peaceful and stable region.”
India is watching carefully as Russia draws closer to China, which has served as an economic and diplomatic lifeline amid sanctions over the Kremlin’s gruelling war on Ukraine. During a security summit in Kazakhstan last week, Putin described relations with China as the “best in history”.
Relations between India and China have been stuck at a low point since a border dispute erupted into violence in 2020, though the two sides have agreed to talks to resolve the disagreement.
Russia and India were likely to agree on a long-term uranium supply pact for a nuclear power plant coming online in the southern state of Tamil Nadu during Modi’s visit, said senior officials with knowledge of the matter.
India and Russia were also expected to sign an agreement allowing the military to use each other’s facilities for training, port calls and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, said the officials, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter. DM