The major headline today in the western world is Roe v. Wade being overturned. A landmark ruling that has been in force for 50 years gave women the freedom to choose whether to have a child or not. A politically biased SCOTUS has ignored the stare decisis doctrine and it will fundamentally change the US, and politics.
The G7 summit will be held this weekend (26-28 June 2022) where a number of issues will be discussed, but most importantly the energy crisis as countries must prepare for winter. They need to balance this with the issue of global warming, as countries have opted not to be dependent on Russian energy supplies. This means even when the war has ended, countries will not deal with Russia, or will avoid doing so.
Many media outlets are not covering the war as it is not affecting their countries directly. I have no doubt that Russia and Belarus will be planning some kind of retaliatory action over the next few days.
Day 121 (24 June)
Zelenskyy addresses the audience at Glastonbury to urge them to pressure their governments into supporting democracy.
The Russians have reacted to the EU candidate status employing low tactics. Through filtration camps, they are sifting out family members of those in the Ukrainian army and effectively holding them as hostages. In order for them to be released, the soldiers must show themselves and collect them—technically giving themselves up to be captured.
The EU is giving Ukraine 9 billion euros to help keep the country afloat during the war.
A Ukranian MP, Andrii Derkach has been outed as a Russian proxy, and has sanctions imposed against him by Ukraine and the US. Apparently, he was accused of attempting to interfere with the 2020 elections. The GRU (Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravlenie, military intelligence office) also funded him so that he could set up structures in Ukraine, in order for them to occupy the country.
China and India continue to buy crude oil from Russia, effectively supporting and financing the war by failing to impose sanctions against Russia. This undermines the efforts of the rest of the international community.
Ukrainians troops have been ordered to retreat from Severodonetsk. This seems to be in order to save troops, and to prevent them being trapped by the Russians. It also means that the Russians have captured the city for now.
A Russian soldier is to face trial for torturing 9 hostages in Irpin . No further details have been released but the solider was not alone.
It's been reported today (June 25) at the conclusion of the Commonwealth meeting, that while Justin Trudeau and Boris Johnson have condemned Russia, the Commonwealth "nations" fall short of condemning Russia, even though some nations are suffering food shortages. It would appear to me that Russian lobbying has paid off.
The grim numbers shown in the tally of the cost to Ukraine since the invasion four months ago is horrendous and I fear the numbers could be merely a conservative estimate of the tragedy; very troubling, while China and India continue to support Russia.