???? Live: S. Korean president visits Bucha massacre site while in Ukraine for talks with Zelensky
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol made a surprise visit to Ukraine on Saturday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky and a visit to Bucha, a town north of Kyiv and the site of a massacre by Russian forces last year. A US ally and rising arms exporter, Seoul has faced pressure to provide weapons to Ukraine but has so far resisted in favour of sending humanitarian and financial aid. Follow our liveblog for the latest developments. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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10:08am: South Korea’s Yoon visits Bucha massacre site ahead of Zelensky meeting
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol visited the town of Bucha Saturday morning ahead of a summit with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky. Hundreds of prisoners of war and civilians are suspected to have been killed in the small town north of Kyiv during its occupation by Russian forces following Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.
“The president first toured the Bucha city massacre site near the capital Kyiv and the city of Irpin, where missile attacks were concentrated on civilian residential areas,” his office said, adding he would meet Zelensky later in the day.
9:14am: South Korean president makes first visit to Ukraine
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol was visiting Ukraine for the first time on Saturday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Yonhap news agency said, citing the South Korean presidential office.
The surprise trip came after Yoon attended a NATO summit in Lithuania and visited Poland this week, where he expressed solidarity with Ukraine and explored ways to support its fight against Russia’s invasion.
A US ally and rising arms exporter, South Korea has faced renewed pressure to provide weapons to Ukraine, which Yoon’s administration has resisted in favour of humanitarian and financial aid, wary of Russia’s influence over North Korea.
8:42am: Beijing ‘committed to promoting peace talks’, says top diplomat
China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said that Beijing was “committed to promoting peace talks” during a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, according to a statement released by China’s foreign ministry on Saturday.
“China supports the establishment of a balanced, effective and sustainable European security architecture,” he said.
2:24am: Ukraine’s counteroffensive encountering heavy resistance on southern and eastern fronts
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Ukrainians that Russia was throwing all its resources into a campaign to stop Kyiv’s troops from pressing their counteroffensive.
“We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address after chairing a meeting with top commanders on Friday.
“And every thousand metres we advance, every success of every combat brigade deserves our gratitude.”
General Oleksander Tarnavskyi, commander of Ukrainian forces in the south, said after the meeting that his troops were “systematically moving the enemy out of their positions”.
Enemy losses over the past 24 hours were equivalent to at least 200, he wrote on Telegram.
Russia’s defence ministry in its daily report said its forces had repelled 16 Ukrainian attacks on the eastern front, including near the long-contested town of Maryinka and in the strategic village of Klishchiivka, on Bakhmut’s southern fringe.
Neither side’s battlefield reports could be independently verified.
2:04am: Macron bestows Legion of Honour award on French journalist killed in Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron gave a posthumous Legion of Honour award to French journalist Arman Soldin in this year’s Bastille Day celebrations on Friday. Soldin was killed in Ukraine earlier this year while reporting for French news agency AFP.
Key developments from Friday, July 14:
Mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the Belarusian defence ministry said on Friday.
“(Wagner) fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines,” the ministry said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he offered the Wagner private military company the option of continuing to serve as a single unit under their same commander after their short-lived rebellion that posed the most serious threat to Putin’s 23-year rule.
Earlier that day, the Russian president had said that the Wagner private military company “simply doesn’t exist” as a legal entity.
Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
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