Seven people killed in Lviv missile strike; US considering sending cluster munitions to Ukraine
At least seven people were killed after a Russian missile slammed into a residential building in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, far from the frontline of the war. The youngest was 21 years old and the oldest was a 95-year-old woman, according to Lviv province governor Maksym Kozytskyi. Lviv’s mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, called the attack the biggest so far of the war on civilian areas of Lviv.
The US is weighing whether to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine, the White House said. Two US officials told Reuters that the Biden administration will announce a new Ukraine weapons aid package on Thursday that will include cluster munitions.
Human Rights Watch urged the US not to supply the cluster munitions to Ukraine, and called on Moscow and Kyiv to stop using the controversial weapons. Transferring cluster bombs to Ukraine would inevitably cause long-term suffering for civilians, the group said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy admitted in Prague Thursday that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was “not fast” but said Kyiv’s troops were advancing. Zelensky arrived in Prague as part of a diplomatic push for Ukraine to join Nato and woo allies for more weapons for its mounting pushback against Russia. “The offensive is not fast, that’s a fact. But nevertheless, we are advancing, not retreating, like Russians,” Zelensky told reporters alongside Czech leader Petr Pavel. “We now have the initiative.”
US president Joe Biden’s administration did not sanction or support secret meetings that former top US national security officials held with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other Russians on potential talks to end the Ukraine war, the White House and state department said on Thursday. NBC News reported that the former US officials met Lavrov in New York in April, joined by Richard Haass, a former US diplomat and outgoing president of the Council on Foreign Relations, and two former White House aides.
Zelenskiy will visit Turkey on Friday for talks with president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the Black Sea grain deal and developments in the war in Ukraine. Zelenskiy visited the Czech Republic and Bulgaria today.
Ukraine’s military spy chief says that the threat of a Russian attack on the vast Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is receding. The intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, warned that it could easily return as long as the facility remained under occupation by Moscow’s forces.
Romania is reportedly considering opening a regional training hub for F-16 fighter jet pilots which would ultimately be available to its Nato allies and partners, including Ukraine. Romania, both an EU and Nato member, is host to a US ballistic missile defence system and, as of last year, has a permanent alliance battlegroup stationed on its territory.
The Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin has returned to Russia, the Belarusian president has said, despite a peace deal with the Kremlin under which Prigozhin had agreed to move to Belarus. “As for Prigozhin, he’s in St Petersburg. He is not on the territory of Belarus,” Alexander Lukashenko said. “Where is Prigozhin this morning? Maybe he left for Moscow.”
