The defense of the United States and Russia chieftains spoke by phone on Tuesday, in a rare call between the two powers and as tensions rose after Moscow blamed Washington for a deadly weekend Ukrainian attack on Russian-annexed Crimea. The two sides gave quite different accounts of the discussion, the first between US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov.
Austin initiated the call, and it was the first such call since March 2023, Pentagon spokesman Patrick Ryder told reporters. However, the Russian Defense Ministry said Belousov had warned Austin about the dangers of continuing US arms deliveries to Ukraine.
International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants issued for Russia’s former defense minister and chief of its military staff on Tuesday for an attack on civilian targets in Ukraine. The court accuses Sergei Shoigu and leading Russian general Valery Gerasimov of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Ukraine welcomes the issuance of the arrest warrants by the ICC, saying it was an “important decision.” Shoigu and Gerasimov “bear personal responsibility… [They] will be held responsible for the evil,” presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.
Russia’s Security Council said the arrest warrants were part of a hybrid war against Moscow, the state news agency TASS reported. Shoigu is the Secretary of the Security Council.
Ukrainian troops are trying to hold their positions on the eastern front in the Donetsk region they may still be outnumbered by Russian forces, but the “shell hunger” that had plagued them for months as ammunition began to run out is now behind them, Reuters reported.
An elderly woman was killed, four people were injured and dozens of buildings were damaged in multiple Ukrainian airstrikes on Russia’s southern Belgorod region, the governor said Tuesday. Russia’s defense ministry said its air defense systems had destroyed 29 drones fired by Ukraine over the region.
Russia and Ukraine each returned 90 prisoners of war on Tuesday, in the latest of several periodic swaps in their conflict, with the United Arab Emirates overseeing the exchange as a mediator. The most recent exchange took place on May 31, when each side handed over 75 prisoners of war – the first exchange in nearly four months.
Russia said it was banning access in Russia to the broadcasts of 81 different EU media outlets, including Agence France-Presse and Politico in retaliation for a similar EU ban on several Russian media outlets. Moscow has accused the media of “systematically spreading inaccurate information” about what Russia calls its special military operation in Ukraine. In May, the EU said it was suspending the distribution of what it described as four “Kremlin-linked propaganda networks”.
Moscow expects to soon sign a new comprehensive cooperation agreement with Iran, said the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister. “We expect that this agreement will be signed in the very near future, as work on the text is already close to completion,” Andrei Rudenko said in an interview published on Tuesday, as quoted by Russia’s state-run RIA news agency. “All required wording found.”