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British, French and German ambassadors to Russia urged direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in a rare meeting at Russia’s foreign ministry on Thursday. The leaders of the UK France and Germany – known as the E3 – this week met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, in London. In a joint statement after Thursday’s Moscow meeting, the three countries said they conveyed to the Russians the key conclusions of the UK summit, including “the support for president Zelensky’s urge to hold direct talks between Russia and Ukraine”.
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European ambassadors have rarely held talks with Russian officials during the war, but have been frequently summoned by the foreign ministry. The E3 grouping have been some of Ukraine’s most staunch allies. Moscow said the ambassadors had been told of their countries’ “destructive” policy on Ukraine, accusing them of wanting to “continue the war against Russia on behalf of and at the expense of” European countries.
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Several western European countries – including France – have floated the idea of restarting a dialogue with Moscow to end the war. US-led talks to end it have led nowhere and have been sidelined by the Iran war, but Russia has in the past preferred to talk to Donald Trump’s administration, with the Kremlin not wanting European countries involved.
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Peter Beaumont has documented how Ukrainian forces are crippling Russian supply lines along what has been dubbed the “highway of death”. The R-280 constitutes a crucial route for Moscow’s military convoys as it snakes through Ukrainian territories under Moscow’s occupation, linking Rostov-on-Don in Russia to Melitopol, Mariupol and Crimea via the Sea of Azov coastline. Ukrainian drone operators say dozens of trucks and tankers have been destroyed as part of an intensified effort known as the “middle strike campaign”. Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s drone forces, said military cargo traffic along the highway had fallen by 71% over the past two weeks. Traffic was suspended this week on the Chonhar Bridge – a key section of the road connecting Russia-occupied Kherson province to Crimea – after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes.
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Fuel stations on the Russian-held Crimean peninsula were out of petrol on Thursday, Reuters witnesses said. In Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city, there was no fuel at most local petrol stations, even with rationing in place. In the resort town of Yevpatoriya there was a long queue outside the single working petrol station. Trucks had been unable to bring the fuel into the city after recent Ukrainian strikes on supply routes, said the Russian-backed Sevastopol governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, delaying plans to distribute rationed petrol. Fuel supplies to Crimea by road, rail and sea barge have all been disrupted by Ukrainian drone attacks.
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In Sevastopol, the Moscow-installed governor said Ukrainian drones had caused damage overnight. The Russian-backed governor of the Moscow-held part of Kherson region, which borders Crimea to the north, said Ukraine had targeted bridges, causing some damage. A Ukrainian commander, Dmytro Filatov, told Ukrainian media on Thursday that Chonhar Bridge had “critical” damage, halting traffic. He said Kyiv’s forces also struck the town of Armiansk, which sits astride the narrow isthmus that is the only overland link between Crimea and the mainland, destroying trucks carrying fuel and ammunition. The Ukrainians also struck in southern Russia, causing damage including a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery. The governor of neighbouring Adygea also reported damage.
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The fuel crisis in Russia has reached the point that the government is trying to create a forecasting system to deal with shortages. The deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, called for its establishment after a cabinet meeting on Thursday. Shortages in around a dozen regions of Russia have been reported in the news and on social media, according to Reuters, although only Crimea and two regions of Siberia have officially confirmed them.
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Two people were killed and another two injured in Russia’s region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine as a result of shelling, the acting regional governor, Yegor Kovalchuk, said late on Thursday.
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A Russian drone attack on a railway depot in the town of Konotop in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region killed a railway worker, the chief executive of Ukraine’s state railway said on Thursday. Another four workers were injured in the attack, Ukrzaliznytsia CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi said.
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The rail operator said it had increased Ukrainian grain shipments for export by 8% since the start of June despite an intensification of Russian attacks on infrastructure. “It is difficult to bring trains up to the terminals. The enemy is targeting locomotives, and we have also started a maintenance campaign,” said Ukrzaliznytsia.
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Russia’s seaborne oil product exports fell by 0.2% on a daily basis in May from April. Russia’s southern ports have been hit by drone attacks but it has increased exports from Baltic terminals. Despite sanctions, Russian producers have been able to partly capitalise on the increase in oil prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran – though Ukraine has been attacking Russian “shadow fleet” tankers while Kyiv’s allies have been intercepting them at sea.
