🔴Live: Ukraine says destroyed ‘significant’ ammunition depot in Russian-occupied Kherson

Issued on: 18/06/2023 – 11:13Modified: 18/06/2023 – 11:32

11:09am: Britain to help Ukraine expand its cyber defences

Britain said on Sunday it would expand its programme to help Ukraine’s cyber defences as it launches a counter-offensive against Russia.

In the announcement, the British government said it would provide another £16 million (€18.7 million) in funding with the potential for a further £9 million to come from international allies.

“Russia’s appalling attacks on Ukraine are not limited to their barbaric land invasion, but also involve sickening attempts to attack their cyber infrastructure that provides vital services, from banking to energy supplies, to innocent Ukrainian people,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

“This funding is critical to stopping those onslaughts,” he said.

11:05am: Ukraine claims destruction of Russian ammunition depot in Kherson

Ukrainian forces destroyed a “significant” ammunition depot near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk in the southern region of Kherson, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said on Sunday.

“Our armed forces dealt a good blow in the morning – and a very loud one – in the village of Rykove, Henichesk district, in the temporarily occupied territory of the Kherson region,” Bratchuk said in a morning video message on Sunday. “There was a very significant ammunition depot. It was destroyed.”

FRANCE 24 could not immediately verify the report on the ground. There was no immediate comment from Russia on the alleged attack.

Ukrainian media posted videos showing a vast plume of smoke rising far on the horizon with sounds of blasts.

Rykove is about 20 kilometres from Henichesk, a port city along the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine, which has been occupied by Kremlin forces since the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

10:05pm: Kyiv says 16 died, 31 missing in Kherson, Mykolaiv after dam flooding

Ukrainian authorities on Saturday reported 16 dead and 31 missing from the devastating floods triggered by the destruction of a Russian-held dam, for which Kyiv and Moscow blame each other.

“Sixteen people died: 14 in the Kherson region and two in the Mykolaiv region. Thirty-one people are still missing,” the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs said, after Russia announced 29 dead in areas it controls.

8:54pm: Russia says African peace deal difficult to realise, despite Putin’s interest

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday in televised remarks that Moscow shared the main approaches of an African peace plan, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying it was difficult to realise.

Peskov was quoted as saying Russia would continue dialogue with the African countries whose representatives brought their proposals to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday. Putin showed interest in the plan, he said.

Lavrov said the African leaders had not brought Putin any message from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whom they had met in Kyiv on Friday.

8:45pm: Russia’s Putin lectures African leaders over mediation attempt

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday interrupted opening remarks by African leaders seeking to mediate in the Ukraine conflict to deliver a list of reasons why he believed many of their proposals were misguided.

After presentations from the Comoran, Senegalese and South African leaders, he stepped in to challenge the assumptions of the plan before the round of comments from all the representatives could go any further.

Putin reiterated his position that Ukraine and the West had started the conflict long before Russia sent its armed forces over the border in February last year.

The African plan includes a call for all children caught up in the conflict to be returned to where they came from, but Putin said Russia was not preventing any Ukrainian children from returning home. “We took them out of a conflict zone, saving their lives,” he said.

6:35pm: South Africa’s Ramaphosa tells Putin ‘war’ has to have an end

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is in Russia as part of a peace-seeking delegation, on Saturday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the conflict in Ukraine had to stop.

“This war must be settled… through negotiations and through diplomatic means,” said Ramaphosa, who added that “we would like this war to be ended. We say so because this war is having a negative impact on the African continent and indeed on many other countries around the world.”

We have come to listen to you and through you to hear the voice of the Russian people,” said Comoros President Azali Assoumani, who currently heads the African Union. “We wanted to encourage you to enter into negotiations with Ukraine,” he said.

Key developments from Saturday, June 17:

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa, who on Saturday visited St Petersburg as part of an African peace-seeking delegation, told Russia’s Vladimir Putin that the war in Ukraine must come to an end. The Kremlin said Russia was open to dialogue and that Putin had showed interest in the African peace plan, but that it would be difficult to realise.

Also on Saturday, Ukrainian authorities reported that 16 people had died, and 31 were still missing, from the devastating floods triggered by the destruction of the Russian-held Kakhovka dam earlier this month. Russia, meanwhile, announced a death toll of 29 in the areas it controls.

Kyiv and Moscow blame each other for the destruction of the dam

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day uynfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)