Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dimitro Kuleba assured on Friday that Kyiv is “ready” to “resume exports” from the port of Odessa in the south of the country.

“Ukraine is ready to create the necessary conditions that will lead to the resumption of exports from the port of Odessa,” noted the head of Ukrainian diplomacy on his Twitter account.

He also claimed that “the question is how to ensure that Russia does not abuse this trade route to attack the city”. “So far, there are no guarantees from them. We are looking for solutions with UN partners,” he said.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastirski assured that the Ukrainian intelligence services are in communication with the fighters captured in the Azovstal steelworks and are doing everything possible to secure their release.

“It is through the intelligence services that we learn about the conditions of detention, the food and the possibility of their release,” Monastirski told Ukrainian television.

Kyiv wants the fighters back in a prisoner swap, although some senior Russian lawmakers have demanded that some of the soldiers be tried. The Kremlin said surrendering fighters would be treated according to international standards.

Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov accused the European Union of losing its independence and of “following the trend” set by the United States, referring to the various sanctions packages applied against Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, which has already begun a hundred days.

“Unfortunately, Europeans are rapidly losing their independence. They have to follow the established trend overseas,” Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said, according to the TASS news agency.

The EU on Friday formally adopted sanctions against 65 individuals and 18 entities involved in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, including several people considered to belong to Putin’s closest circle, and even relatives of politicians like Peskov’s wife and children.

The President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, published on his social networks a video he recorded himself in which he appears surrounded by his closest team and where he assures that “we are always there” to defend the country of the Russian invasion, from which Today marks one hundred days.

Prime Minister Denis Shmigalia and the head of the Ukrainian President’s office, Andriy Yermak, are among those who appear with Zelensky in this recording in which he says the struggle continues in search of victory.

Zelensky, who is waiting to receive the missile launchers promised by the United States, stressed: “Our team is much bigger. The Ukrainian armed forces are here. And, most importantly, our people are here. “We are defending Ukraine for a hundred days. Victory is with us,” he proclaimed.

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko presents his theory on the situation in Ukraine, says a ‘serious confrontation’ is beginning to take place between President Volodímir Zelensky and the army in the context of the invasion Russian, which today turns one hundred days

“According to my information, a serious confrontation and conflict is starting between Zelensky and the Ukrainian army. The army, like no one else, understands what a conflict with Russia is. Servicemen are dying there,” Lukashenko said. , according to the agency. .Belta.

In this sense, the Belarusian head of state also pointed out that the law granting special status to Polish citizens in Ukraine could cause complaints among the country’s military forces.

The European Union aspires to “intensify and accelerate” the work underway to complete the ratification of trade agreements such as Mercosur and close others under negotiation such as with New Zealand or India with the aim of redefining geopolitical balances in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the unreliable relationship with China.

The European Commission’s economic vice-president and head of trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, said after a meeting of EU trade ministers in Luxembourg that “we need to reconsider the current geopolitical landscape to guarantee the security of our chains of supply and create new opportunities for our exporters”.

Dombrovskis defended that trade policy acquires greater importance in this context when it comes to facing economic and geopolitical challenges, for which he defended the need to have a “closer and deeper relationship with trusted partners”.

“The UK will remain steadfast in its support for Ukraine so that this country can win the war against Russia,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said.

In a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry, Truss points out that “for 100 days, the barbaric and unprovoked war of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has sown death and destruction in Ukraine on a scale not seen in Europe since the Second World War”. points out that “he failed to achieve the progress he hoped for in the face of heroic resistance”.

Truss points out that the war in Ukraine “has huge ramifications for world peace, prosperity and food security and affects us all.”

“Today marks 100 dark days since Putin began his unwarranted and illegal war on Ukraine. He expected the invasion to end within days, but he has dramatically underestimated the determination of the brave Ukrainians, who bravely defended their country,” the minister said.

The head of the Luhansk regional administration, Serhiy Haidai, assured that Ukrainian troops have recovered 20% of the territory occupied by Russia in the city of Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region, located in the east of the country.

“I heard several times that Severodonetsk was completely captured by the Russian army. So I want to say no, not completely captured. Moreover, if there was a difficult situation before, there was about 70% of the occupied territory, now about 20%. has retreated”, assured the governor of Lugansk in statements collected by the Unian agency.

In addition, he stressed that the armed forces were making “heroic efforts” to prevent the passage of the enemy, and ensured that reinforcements were arriving for the Ukrainian army.

The European Commission and the US Department of Commerce agreed on Friday to strengthen coordination in the application of export controls to Russia, as reported by the EU executive in a statement.

This was decided by the two parties during a meeting in Brussels attended by the US Undersecretaries of Commerce, Don Graves, and Export Enforcement, Matthew Axelrod, as well as the US Ambassador to the from the EU, Mark Gitenstein.

On behalf of the EU, Bjoern Seibert, Chief of Staff to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen; in addition to EC Trade Director General Sabine Weyand and Tax and Customs Union Director General Gerassimos Thomas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin assured this Friday that his country will not attack Ukrainian ports which have been demined for the passage of grain and have been blocked for weeks due to the ongoing Russian military campaign.

“We are not going to take advantage of the mine clearance situation to, say, carry out some kind of attack from the sea,” Putin said in an interview on state television.

He also pointed out that the best option for Ukrainian grain production are the ports located on the Black Sea, including Odessa, which is still under Ukrainian control. “It was not us who undermined the accesses, it was Ukraine who undermined them. I have already told all our colleagues many times. Let them clear them,” he said. he says.

Russia on Friday banned 41 more Canadians from entering the country in response to sanctions announced by Ottawa against the Russians to punish Moscow for its offensive in Ukraine.

The measure, which involves “leaders of organizations that support ultra-nationalist forces in Ukraine, as well as senior military officers,” was taken “in response to new sanctions against Russia announced by Ottawa on May 8 concerning the leadership of the Russian army”. Department of Defense. “Military leaders and business representatives,” Russian diplomacy said in a statement.

Many of them are members of organizations linked to Ukraine, such as the Ukrainian Congress of Ukraine, which claims to represent the Ukrainian community in Canada to the government.

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, assured this Friday that the religious leaders who support the Russian war in Ukraine, such as the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Kirill and who have failed to sanctioning the EU in a concession to Hungary, should not be exonerated from responsibility.

“Religious leaders should not be exempt from the responsibility of supporting Putin’s war,” Borrell said in a post via his official Twitter profile.

“The withdrawal of Patriarch Kirill shows the limits of a foreign policy based on unanimity”, acknowledged Borrell, who also pointed out that the ban on 90% of Russian oil imports to the EU, included in the sanctions , “supposes a blow to Putin’s coffers.”

The European Union’s new package of measures approved sanctions against 65 individuals and 18 entities involved in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, several of whom are considered to be from Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, such as the former gymnast Alina Kavaeba, whom many refer to as a lover of the president, and many high-ranking Russian and Belarusian military commanders.

The sixth package of measures included Kavaeba, an Olympic champion in Athens in 2004 and a member of the Duma, on her “blacklist”, alleging her “close ties” with Putin.

This measure, together with the sanctions against relatives of politicians such as the wife and children of the presidential spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, and against other oligarchs, aims to strengthen the siege of those already sanctioned so that it does not there is no attempt to circumvent the measures, European sources explained.

Ukraine’s President Volodímir Zelenski has praised the resistance of Ukrainian soldiers and citizens to the offensive by Russia, which he says is the “second army in the world”.

At the end of 100 days of war, Zelenski finds that Russia has not achieved any of the strategic objectives that were set at the start of the offensive.

“During this time, the enemy was not able to achieve a single strategic objective, but tried to unload its powerlessness on civilian infrastructure and people,” the president explained on his Telegram channel.

Hello and welcome to a new direct in which we will inform you of all the news related to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The European Union agreed this Friday on a new sanctions package, in which Community operators are prohibited from transporting Russian oil by sea after a six-month adaptation period, i.e. from 2023. .

Specifically, the sixth EU sanctions package published in the EU’s “Official Journal” prohibits “the purchase, import or direct or indirect transfer of crude oil or petroleum products (…) s whether they come from Russia or are exported from Russia”, as well as any “technical assistance, brokerage services, financing or financial assistance” to this sector.