June 12 Events in Babelʼs review: People are being evicted from homes in Mariupol, explosions in Berdyansk and Melitopol, Ukraine will export grain through Poland and Romania

Author:
Dmytro Rayevskyi
Date:

From the very beginning of Russiaʼs full-scale war against Ukraine, Babel has been conducting daily live text coverage and promptly informing the main news on the Telegram channel. We also make a daily digest of the most important events of the day in case you have not been able to follow live.

The day before, the Ukrainian military in the southern direction destroyed three field ammunition depots of the Russians. The occupiersʼ aircraft hit Kamyansky, Zaporizhzhia oblast. In other villages of the oblast, they fired from "Grad", "Smerch" and tanks. As a result of yesterdayʼs Russian attack on Chortkiv, Ternopil oblast, 23 people were injured, including a 12-year-old girl. Russian missiles destroyed a military facility and four houses. In Kharkiv oblast, the occupiers shelled the Kharkiv district, in particular the Malolanyliv community, the Chuhuiv and Izium districts. As a result, fires broke out in private homes, non-residential premises and forest belts. Russian troops fired on two districts of Dnipropetrovsk oblast — Synelnykiv and Kryvyi Rih. A woman died in the Pokrovsk community, and shelling destroyed a house.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine control a third of the city of Sieveirodonetsk in Luhansk oblast, and street fighting continues. It is possible to leave the outskirts of the city, but it is dangerous. There is no evacuation from Sievierodonetsk itself.

All partially destroyed houses in Mariupol were reported by the occupiers to be demolished within two weeks. People are being evicted, but the Russians do not answer the question of where Mariupol residents will live. There will be no compensation for the cityʼs residents, the statements of Mariupol residents are being changed from "compensation" to "repair assistance".

During two exchanges of bodies of the dead, the bodies of 220 Azovstal defenders were given to Ukraine, a third are Azov defenders, and the identification process is underway. The same number of bodies from Azovstal must be returned, and negotiations are underway.

In the morning, three explosions took place in occupied Berdyansk. In addition, an explosion took place near the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the captured city of Melitopol. The Russian propaganda publication RIA writes about two injured people and declares a "terrorist attack". According to the publication, the explosive was allegedly planted in an urn near the police station.

The UN Commission has arrived in Ukraine to investigate war crimes. Vice Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olena Kondratyuk stated that the purpose of the commission is to record war crimes and human rights violations.

Ukraine has established routes through Poland and Romania for grain exports, and negotiations are underway with the Baltic states. Ukraine is the fourth largest exporter of grain in the world. As Russia blocks Ukrainian ports, 23.5 million tons of grain and oilseeds remain in Ukraine.

The German company Rheinmetall announced that it is ready to immediately hand over several Marder infantry fighting vehicles to Ukraine. They have been removed from storage and modernized, now awaiting only permission from the government.

The British company QinetiQ will hand over 10 TALON sapper robots to Ukraine. Oleksiy Biloshitskyi, Deputy Chief of the National Police Patrol Police Department, said that before the war, Ukrainian sappers had 12 such robots at their disposal, now there will be 22.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced new talks with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Putin. Preparations for the talks will begin next week. The main topic will be the unblocking of maritime exports of Ukrainian grain.