‘No Country Should Give Putin a Platform’ – Ukraine at War Update for June 20

After departing North Korea, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived on Wednesday on a two-day state visit to Vietnam. Much like he did in Pyongyang the day before, Putin will sign agreements with the leader of that country as well, and attempt to show a front of solidarity with a second Asian nation supporting his invasion of Ukraine.

Putin will meet with Nguyễn Phú Trọng, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam; Tô Lâm, President of Vietnam; Phạm Minh Chính, Prime Minister of Vietnam; and Trần Thanh Mẫn, Chairperson of the Vietnamese Parliament.

Vietnam did not send a representative to the Peace Summit in Switzerland last week, nor did China, nor, of course, North Korea. A Vietnamese contingent led by its deputy foreign minister went instead to a meeting in Russia of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.)

Kremlin media outlets RIA Novosto and TASS reported that Putin and the administration in Hanoi will discuss their partnership.

While Russia is Vietnam’s leading arms supplier, the United States is its largest trading partner. US President Joe Biden visited Hanoi last September, and his administration voiced its strong disapproval of the welcome given to the Russian dictator, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes.

“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalize his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Hanoi said this week.

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SBU nabs alleged informant for Russia in Kharkiv, as another in Odesa jailed for 15 years

On Wednesday, the Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) announced it had detained a Ukrainian man allegedly recruited by Russian agents using the online Telegram platform on charges of passing along information and images of Ukrainian Armed Forces and installations near Kharkiv.

Russian agents had targeted the man, who was described as sympathetic to Moscow, to get on-the-ground information to launch targeted strikes on the Kharkiv region.

“The SBU seized the man’s phone, used by the suspect to communicate with his Russian ‘friend’ and take photos of military facilities,” the SBU stated in a release. “SBU officers detained the informant [caught] red-handed when he was taking pictures of special vehicles of Ukrainian soldiers.”

The man faces eight years in prison. His is one of thousands of criminal cases against alleged and convicted informants since the Russian invasion began.

Also on Wednesday, in an unrelated case, the SBU announced that a man arrested in March on charges of high treason, and found guilty of helping Russia’s FSB spy service identify targets for strikes in the southern Odesa region, had been jailed for 15 years.

“He adjusted Russian air strikes on the territory of the southern region of Ukraine, primarily, missile and drone attacks on the civilian infrastructure of the city of Odesa,” the SBU said.

Russian shells kill civilian in Kherson, injure others

Russian artillery fired at Kherson killed a 52-year-old civilian and wounded another on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, a 52-year-old man injured today as a result of enemy shelling died in the hospital,” the head of the Kherson City Military Administration, Roman Mrochko, announced on social media.

The man suffered closed head injuries and shrapnel wounds as a result of the attack on the Dniporvskyi district of the city, which injured another.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Russian and Ukrainian forces continued to fight along the left bank of the Dnipro in the Kherson region near Krynky and Kozachi Laheri this week, with Ukrainian forces recapturing some positions near there.

A movement for Russian LNG sanctions in Europe grows in France

On Wednesday, a committee of the French Senate proposed an end to the country’s importation of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG). It urged the EU to impose sanctions on those fuels, which currently are not included on the list.

Near the beginning of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Western nations imposed sanctions on crude oil and its products and stopped deliveries of Russian gas through pipelines. Still, LNG, used especially in heating, was not targeted.

AFP reported that the committee's report called on France to take a leading position within the EU “by proposing the inclusion of Russian LNG to the list of sanctioned energy products and lead by example by halting as soon as possible the import of Russian LNG into France.”

Currently, the leading French energy company, TotalEnergies, is still transporting gas from Siberian oil fields to Europe. The committee’s report proposed that the state obtain special voting shares in the company to have a greater say in TotalEnergies’ strategic decisions. AFP noted that North American shareholders make up a large percentage of the corporation’s ownership.

The investigation, initiated by the Green Party but soon supported by others in the Senate, also called for French companies to cease existing and planned oil and gas projects in Azerbaijan, which is a major oil refining hub, and incidentally (and perhaps incongruously), will host the UN climate conference in November.

TotalEnergies has stressed that the US supply of LNG for Europe will be crucial to replace Russian sources, but there is a long way to go to increase that capacity.