June 17, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Conditions in Russian-occupied Mariupol are now “medieval,” an advisor to the city’s Ukrainian mayor said Friday.

“Mariupol is now in the medieval,” Petro Andriushchenko told national television. “Water supply is only available in 2-3% of the city’s households. People wash their clothes in puddles on the streets.”

“The risk of disease spreading is rising day by day. There is information that people come to doctors with symptoms similar to dysentery or cholera,” he said.

The World Health Organization last month said that it too was concerned about the risk of cholera in Mariupol, calling the hygienic situation there “a huge hazard.”

Andriushchenko is not in the city but has been a reliable conduit for information from Mariupol.

He said that Russia was in the process of building a “military camp” at the city.

“Departure from Mariupol is possible only to Russia,” Andriushchenko said. “We advise people to leave, but on their own and not in official columns, and then go towards the Baltic countries or Georgia. We advise people to drive non-stop and cross the border ASAP.”

Crossing from Russian-occupied Mariupol to Ukrainian-held territory, he said, was impossible.

On May 20, the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol -- the final stand and a powerful symbol of Ukrainian resistance in an otherwise Russian-occupied city -- fell to Russian troops after nearly three months of brutal fighting.

At least 1,348 civilians were killed during the battle of Mariupol, including 70 children, a top United Nations official said Thursday.

“The actual death toll of hostilities on civilians is likely thousands higher,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said. 

French President Emmanuel Macron said that the possible granting of European Union candidate status to Ukraine was a result of Russia’s invasion.

In an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV Friday on board a train leaving Ukraine after his visit to Kyiv, Macron said, “Ukraine normally should not be a candidate” and that they were “doing it because of the war and because we think it’s good.”

Macron was in Ukraine's capital alongside his German, Italian and Romanian counterparts to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a trip to smooth tensions over what Ukrainian officials perceive as a lukewarm support of their defense against Russia.

While Macron said most of western Europe was supportive of the plan, “we have countries that are more reticent,” he said. 

The French leader added that the question of Ukraine’s candidacy for the EU will be decided at the European Council summit next Thursday and Friday. 

“The path is long to join the EU,” he added.

He also said that Moldova can also become a candidate for EU accession. The French president visited the eastern European country on Wednesday as part of a two-day trip to Moldova and Romania before his unannounced trip to Ukraine. 

Some background: Part of joining the EU means abiding by the Copenhagen Criteria, which entails that a candidate state must have a functioning free-market, if it can uphold European values such as on human rights and law, and if the country has a functioning democracy.

As well as currently being at war, Ukraine is 122nd on the Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index out of 180, highlighting a main reason that the country would not usually be considered an EU candidate member.

Read more here.

The Ukrainian military says it has sunk a Russian tugboat in the Black Sea on its way to resupply occupying forces on the strategically important Snake Island.

“The tugboat of the Black Sea Fleet ‘Vasiliy Bekh’ was hit in the Black Sea during the transportation of ammunition, weapons and personnel of the Black Sea Fleet to Snake Island,” the Ukrainian Navy said via its official Telegram channel on Friday.

The Navy claimed that the tug had a “TOR” anti-aircraft missile system on board.

According to the website Marine Traffic, the boat left Sevastapol, in Crimea, Tuesday night.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that Ukraine would never have peace if the ultimate aim of the conflict in the country is to “crush Russia." Macron said he had heard some say that “the goal of this war is to crush Russia. And that's where I say you're wrong. If you do that, you'll never get a negotiated peace.”

The president was speaking in an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV on Friday on board a train leaving Ukraine following meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders in Kyiv on Thursday.

He added that crushing Russia is not Zelenksy's goal either.

“And so it has been the role of France to put a limit to this question,” he said, adding: “we have sometimes won the war and lost the peace.”

Macron affirmed France’s support for Ukraine and countered charges that his previous comments about not wishing to “humiliate Russia” had hampered relations with Ukraine’s president. 

He also defended France’s efforts to broker discussions between Moscow and Kyiv.

"The role of the France is to have possible links for discussion with Russia,” he said, conceding that currently, "there’s no availability on the Russian or Ukrainian side for real discussions” following the discovery of war crimes in Bucha.

"We have never negotiated on the part of the Ukrainians. Never,” he said.

Ukraine's bid to move politically closer to the West may receive a boost today.

The European Commission is expected to offer its opinion that Ukraine should be considered a candidate state to join the European Union, meaning it will then be up to the 27 EU member states to decide whether or not they agree with the Commission's opinion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially applied for the country to join the European Union on February 28, four days after Russia invaded the country.

He asked that the EU "urgently admit Ukraine using a new procedure ... our goal is to be with all Europeans and, to be equal to them. I am sure we deserve it. I am sure it is possible."

On Thursday, Zelensky said Ukraine is ready to work to become a full EU member.

Speaking alongside him at a press conference in Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that Germany is in favor of a positive decision for Ukraine’s EU candidacy, and that Ukraine “belongs to the European family."

Also on Thursday, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said “there is no time for hesitancy," inviting the European Union to grant Ukraine candidacy status.

But while the early signs from some quarters are positive, Ukraine's accession to the EU is far from a fait accompli.

For political and procedural reasons, it is possible that the EU ultimately decides that now is not the right time. And even if they did agree with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's opinion that Ukraine should be considered for membership, it could take years, even decades, for it to become a reality.

Known as the Copenhagen Criteria, these are fairly opaque requirements.

They focus on whether or not that country has a functioning free-market economy, if the country's institutions are fit to uphold European values such as human rights and the EU's interpretation of the rule of law and whether the country has a functioning, inclusive democracy.

Only then can work begin on the EU's 35 chapters of negotiation, the final three of which return to some areas of the Copenhagen Criteria.

Then, when the leaders of the EU member states have agreed, which seems unlikely, it must then be ratified in the EU Parliament and by the legislative branches of each member state's government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia is "not squeaky clean" and "not ashamed of showing who we are," in an interview with the BBC released Thursday.

When pushed further to comment on the victims of war in Ukraine, Lavrov said: “No, Russia is not squeaky clean. Russia is what it is. And we are not ashamed of showing who we are." 

Lavrov went on to comment on the UK citizens who were sentenced to death in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Russia’s responsibility for this verdict.

At least 1,348 civilians were killed during the battle of Mariupol, including 70 children, a top United Nations official said on Thursday.

As many as 90% of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the southern city, Bachelet said. She called Mariupol “likely the deadliest place in Ukraine” from the start of the war through April.

Bachelet added that right now it is "impossible to know" the exact death toll.

A third American whom the State Department has identified as missing in action in Ukraine is a US Marine veteran, Grady Kurpasi, his wife confirmed to CNN.

The last time Heeson Kim and other close friends heard from Kurpasi was between April 23 and 24, George Heath, a family friend of Kurpasi's told CNN. Kurpasi served in the US Marine Corps for 20 years, retiring in November 2021. He chose to volunteer alongside Ukrainians in Ukraine but initially did not envision himself fighting on the front lines of the war, Heath said.

The State Department said it was aware of reports of a third American who traveled to Ukraine to fight against Russia who has been identified "in recent weeks" as missing, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during a press briefing on Thursday. Price did not give the name of the third reportedly missing American, but said the State Department was in touch with the family.

Read more here.

A photo emerged on Thursday of two American fighters in the back of a Russian military truck apparently confirming they had been captured by Russian forces north of Kharkiv, Ukraine, last week.

The men are Alexander John-Robert Drueke, age 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, age 27, from Hartselle, Alabama. The photo shows the two men looking up at the camera with hands behind their backs as if bound.

The undated photo was posted on Telegram on Thursday by a Russian blogger, The V, whose full name is Timofey Vasilyev, from Moscow. CNN cannot verify when it was taken.

Bunny Drueke, the mother of one of the Americans reportedly captured, said in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that the US State Department told her that they are working to verify the alleged photo.

More background: The two Americans fighting alongside Ukrainian forces north of Kharkiv, in Ukraine, have been missing for nearly a week and there are fears they may have been captured by Russian forces, according to their families and a fellow fighter.

There is very little to identify the location of the vehicle but a white box of food with tin cans falling out has been identified by CNN's Russia desk as being "mackerel with vegetables" made by Russian food producer Fregat.

CNN has reached out to Russia's Ministry of Defense for comment.