RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: LIST OF KEY EVENTS, DAY 126

Here are the key events so far on 

Wednesday, June 29.

A Russian missile strike killed three people and injured five in the port city of Mykolaiv on Wednesday morning, local authorities said, a day after strikes killed three people including a six-year-old girl in nearby Ochakiv.

There is a real possibility Russia’s missile that hit a crowded shopping centre in Kremenchuk and killed at least 18 people was intended for a nearby target, the British defence ministry said.

Russia-installed officials in Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region said their security forces had arrested Kherson city mayor Ihor Kolykhayev on Tuesday after he refused to follow Moscow’s orders, while a Kherson local official said the mayor was abducted.

A referendum for the mostly occupied Donetsk region to be absorbed into Russia will be held on September 11, the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol said.

Diplomacy

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the UN Security Council that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is a “terrorist” and called for Russia to be expelled from the United Nations.

Western sanctions against Russia will only end when Putin accepts that his plans in Ukraine will not succeed, Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

Turkey has lifted its veto over Finland and Sweden’s bids to join the Western alliance after the three nations agreed to protect each other’s security, ending a weeks-long drama that tested allied unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Russia could not be allowed to win the war and Western powers will support Kyiv for as long as necessary.

Economy

The Group of Seven economic powers agreed to explore measures to impose a price cap on Russian oil imports.

US President Joe Biden’s administration has added five companies in China to a trade blacklist for allegedly supporting Russia’s military and defence industrial base.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that Japan will provide an additional $100m in humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

Canada will provide an additional 151.7 million Canadian dollars ($118m) to Ukraine for humanitarian, development and security support, according to a statement from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES