(Reuters) – Senior Western officials directly accused their Russian counterparts of war crimes after Russian missiles struck a Ukrainian city far behind the frontlines in an attack Kyiv officials said killed at least 23 people.
ECONOMY/DIPLOMACY
* G20 finance leaders meeting in Bali must make progress tackling the global economic threats sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine or the humanitarian consequences would be catastrophic, host Indonesia said.
* U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen condemned Russia’s “brutal and unjust war” in Ukraine and said Russian finance officials taking part in a G20 meeting in Indonesia shared responsibility for the “horrific consequences” of the war.
* Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told Russian officials at a meeting of G20 finance officials that she held them personally responsible for “war crimes” committed during Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Western official told Reuters.
* The United States sought to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports by reassuring banks, shipping and insurance companies that such transactions would not breach sanctions. This is part of attempts by UN and Turkish officials to broker a package deal that would also allow for shipments of Ukraine grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa to resume.* A top Russian official said on Thursday that Moscow would respond positively should Kyiv be ready to resume peace negotiations, but that Ukraine must accept the “territorial realities” of the situation, the Interfax news agency reported.
FIGHTING
* Ukrainian forces hit two military checkpoints and a landing in the second strike this week on a Russian-held area in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said. The attack on Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region killed 13 “occupiers”, Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesperson for the Odesa regional administration, quoted the Operational Command South as saying.
* Two people were killed when Ukrainian forces shelled a bus station in the separatist-held city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, a separatist leader said.
* Ukraine is using Western-supplied long-range weapons and 155mm “smart” shells to hit Russian ammo dumps and supply lines, forcing Moscow to rethink how it supplies fuel and ammunition to the front line, a Ukrainian general said.
* Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts.
(Compiled by Cynthia Osterman & Simon Cameron-Moore)
