On Sunday, as the war approached its six-month mark, artillery shells poured down on a city near Europe’s largest nuclear facility and Russian missiles struck close to the Black Sea port of Odesa. Ukraine warned of the possibility of more significant Russian strikes at the time.
On this day, which also marks 31 years since Ukraine gained its independence from Soviet control and six months since the invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged caution, warning that Moscow might try “something really unpleasant.”
Zelenskiy claimed he had reviewed “all the threats” with French President Emmanuel Macron and that word had also been sent to other world leaders, including Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in his evening video address on Sunday.
Erdogan attempted to encourage communication, according to Gennady Gatilov, the Russian ambassador to the UN in Geneva, who was reported by The Financial Times in a piece that was published on Sunday. But he denied rumours that Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin had discussed it, claiming that “there was no practical platform for having this meeting,” according to the newspaper.
To demilitarise its smaller neighbour and safeguard Russian-speaking people, Putin issued an order for a “special military operation.” Moscow is charged with pursuing an imperial-style war of conquest by Ukraine and its Western sponsors.s.
