Updated June 21, 2022 at 3:33 a.m. EDT|Published
June 20, 2022 at 2:10 a.m. EDT
This live coverage has ended. For Tuesday’s live updates, click here.
The Kremlin’s top spokesman on Monday confirmed that two Americans who had disappeared after joining the war effort in Ukraine were taken into Russian custody, and he said they would not be afforded protections granted by the Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war.
Kremlin spokesman says Brittney Griner cannot be called a ‘hostage’
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said he “strongly disagreed” with the description of WNBA star Brittney Griner as a “hostage.”
The U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs is handling Griner’s case. When this approach was mentioned in an interview, Peskov said he disagreed.
Nobel Prize auctioned to help Ukrainian children sells for record $103.5 million
The Nobel Peace Prize auctioned off by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov to support children displaced by the war in Ukraine sold for $103.5 million, Heritage Auctions confirmed Monday night.
The auction set a record for the most money ever paid for a Nobel Prize medal.
State Department apologizes for error in Brittney Griner’s scheduled call
The State Department apologized Monday for a “logistical error” that caused a scheduled call between WNBA star Brittney Griner and her wife to fail.
Griner, who is detained in Russia, tried to call her wife for their fourth anniversary Saturday, but could not reach her because the phone line at the U.S. Embassy in Russia was unstaffed, the Associated Press reported Monday.
Kremlin says Americans captured in Ukraine are mercenaries and not protected by Geneva Conventions
The Kremlin’s top spokesman on Monday confirmed that two Americans who had disappeared after joining the war effort in Ukraine were taken into Russian custody, and he said they would not be afforded protections granted by the Geneva Conventions to prisoners of war.
The comments, which came in a Monday interview with NBC News, were Moscow’s first official statements on the captured U.S. citizens — Alexander J. Drueke and Andy Tai Huynh, who are both military veterans. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the two men were “involved in firing and shelling” Russian troops, and he said “they should be held responsible for those crimes that they have committed.”
Second American is reported killed in Ukraine fighting
A U.S. citizen has been killed in combat in Ukraine, according to an obituary published by his family and affirmed by the State Department, making him at least the second American to die as a result of the war.
Stephen D. Zabielski, 52, died May 15 while fighting in the conflict, said the obituary, published in the Recorder, a newspaper serving Montgomery County in Upstate New York. He left behind a wife, five stepchildren and seven siblings, among other family.
Ukraine loses more territory in Severodonetsk, but fighting goes on
Ukrainian forces continue to lose ground in the strategically important eastern city of Severodonetsk, which has seen some of the war’s fiercest fighting in recent weeks, local officials said Monday.
Early in the day, the city’s mayor reported that Russian forces control most residential neighborhoods, and the regional governor said hours later that Ukrainian-held territory had dwindled to the area around the Azot chemical plant, where fighters and civilians have been staying — the latest parallel to the now-ruined city of Mariupol, where holdouts hunkered down in a steel factory during Moscow’s relentless assault.
5:54 p.m.
More than 1,500 Ukrainian civilians are being held in Russian prisons, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday.Speaking during a news conference, she said a total of 1.2 million citizens have been deported against their will. About 214,000 are children, including about 2,000 orphans.
Brittany Shammas
,
General assignment reporter
5:03 p.m.
The Netherlands on Monday became the latest European nation to say it would need to burn more coal to compensate for dwindling gas deliveries from Russia, another signal that leaders on the continent are preparing for Moscow to wield fuel flow as a political weapon.Dutch officials declared an “early warning,” the first stage of a gas crisis, which immediately lifts production restrictions on coal-fired power plants. The aim is to conserve as much gas as possible ahead of winter, they said, while stressing that the country is not experiencing a shortage. “It is clear that Russia uses energy as a means of power,” Rob Jetten, Dutch climate and energy minister, said in a statement.The Netherlands’ move follows announcements from Germany and Austria, which said Sunday that they would bring back shuttered or converted coal-fired power plants as they seek to reduce dependence on Russia gas.
Reis Thebault
,
National and breaking news reporter
Turkey to continue talks with Finland, Sweden on NATO applications
BRUSSELS — Talks in Brussels on Monday failed to resolve Turkey’s objection to Finland’s and Sweden’s applications to join NATO, but negotiations will continue in the coming days, officials said.
“I welcome the constructive meeting held today on the historic applications by Finland and Sweden to join NATO,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
Russian tennis player changes nationality to play at Wimbledon
Natela Dzalamidze, a women’s doubles player who was born in Moscow, recently changed her nationality to Georgian to circumvent the ban on Russians at Wimbledon this year.
The 29-year-old Dzalamidze, who is listed as being from Georgia on Wimbledon’s entry list, will play with partner Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia at the tournament, which begins June 27.
Russian-backed leader accuses Ukraine of hitting Crimean drilling rigs
By Victoria Bisset1:15 p.m.
The head of Ukraine’s Kremlin-controlled Crimea region has accused Ukrainian forces of attacking offshore oil rigs in the Black Sea.
Sergei Askyonov said in a message published on his Telegram account that five people were rescued after the incident at the Chornomornaftogaz platform early Monday, three of whom were injured. He added that a search for others continued.
Biden not likely to visit Ukraine during his upcoming trip to Europe
President Biden told reporters Monday that he probably would not visit Ukraine during his next trip to Europe.
Asked by reporters if he was still planning to visit the country, Biden said, “that depends on a lot of things relating to whether or not it causes more difficulty for the Ukrainians.”
Last month, China imported more Russian crude oil than ever before
China’s imports of Russian crude oil hit a record in May, as Chinese buyers took advantage of discounted prices after Beijing pledged to continue normal economic ties with Moscow despite the geopolitical fallout over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
A year-over-year rise of 55 percent in May, to 8.42 million metric tons, meant that imports from Russia overtook those from Saudi Arabia to become China’s largest single source of crude for the month, according to Chinese customs data released Friday. In April, Saudi oil accounted for 21 percent of China’s total imports, compared with 15 percent for Russian-sourced fuel, according to an analysis from Cinda Securities.
Kazakhstan calls for elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2045
Days after the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute released an annual report warning that the post-Cold War decline in nuclear arsenals appears to be ending, Kazakhstan’s foreign minister, Mukhtar Tleuberdi, called for the elimination of all nuclear weapons by 2045.
Through the ministry’s official Telegram channel and a day ahead of the first meeting of states that are parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, scheduled to take place in Vienna, Tleuberdi urged all countries to create a plan to eliminate nuclear weapons within the next 23 years, BB-CNTV reported.
