June 20, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Addressing the African Union Commission via video link on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Africa has been “taken hostage by those who started the war against our country.”

Zelensky warned the global food crisis will continue “as long as this colonizing war goes on,” affecting the lives of as many as 400 million people all over the world who depend on Ukrainian exports.

“Our main task right now is to eliminate the threat of famine. In the 21st century this threat simply cannot be, thanks to Ukraine and thanks to our agrarian industry,” he said.

According to Zelensky, Ukraine is attempting to build new supply logistics, but 25 million tonnes of grain still remain on hold as Russia continues to block Ukrainian ports.

More background: Russia's war in Ukraine could push up to 49 million people into famine or famine-like conditions because of its devastating impact on global food supply and prices, the United Nations has said.

With its fertile soil and sprawling agricultural lands, Ukraine has long been described as one of the world's breadbaskets. But Russia's unprovoked assault is now putting a huge strain on Ukraine's food production and exports. The ripple effects are being felt around the world.

Russia's blockade of Ukrainian ports has already raised global food prices and threatens to cause a catastrophic food shortage in parts of the world, the UN said.

The Russian invasion has affected Ukraine's entire food production and supply chain: From sowing to harvesting to exports. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that between 20% and 30% of Ukraine's agricultural land will remain either unplanted or unharvested this year because of the war.

With regards to food that is already harvested, Ukrainian authorities, and some international officials, have accused Russia of robbing the country of grain and other commodities in areas it occupies.

Read more here.

CNN's Ivana Kottasová contributed reporting to this post.

In a nationwide first, German authorities have seized three flats belonging to a sanctioned Russian parliamentarian and his wife.

The Munich flats owned by the Duma representative and his wife were seized together with a bank account used to facilitate rental payments worth 3,500 euros ($3,700) per month to the couple, Munich's public prosecutor said Monday.

The case was the first in Germany in which assets belonging to a sanctioned individual were seized rather than frozen. 

The owner of the flat was only identified by his initial L., as is customary in Germany. The Duma member was sanctioned by the European Union on Feb. 23, 2022 – one day before Russia invaded Ukraine – over his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's move to recognize breakaway eastern Ukrainian territories as independent, Munich's public prosecutor said.

Two of the flats were owned by both the Duma member and his unidentified wife, while one apartment was only in his wife's name. As the spouse of a sanctioned individual, the man's wife was also subject to sanctions, Munich's public prosecutor argued.

With the seizure of the apartments coming into effect Monday, while the tenants are allowed to remain in their flats, they must deposit their rental payments with a Munich court rather than making these to their sanctioned landlords.

Meanwhile, the Duma member and his wife are under further investigation by German authorities for a breach of sanctions in several cases.

Russia's blockade of Ukrainian grain is a "real war crime," says the European Union's foreign policy chief. And two American volunteers fighting for Ukraine were taken into detention by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk after being captured last week, according to Russian state media.

Here are the latest headlines on the war in Ukraine:

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaches the four-month mark, one airline has announced plans to change its livery amid concern from passengers that its current look could suggest that it supports the invasion.

Tokyo-based Zipair -- a lowcost subsidiary of JAL, Japan Airlines -- has announced that it'll be removing the "Z" from its tailfins as of June 18, replacing them with a geometric pattern of stripes.

The redesign was originally planned as a revamp before the invasion, to mark Japan's loosening of its pandemic travel restrictions, and was presented at a press conference announcing the airline's new route from Tokyo to San Jose, California.

However, Shingo Nishida, Zipair's president, revealed at the press conference that Zipair clients had already been in touch with the airline, expressing their concern over the airline's existing logo, which had been in use since 2018.

Russia has used "Z" to symbolize a putative victory in its invasion. The letter has been daubed on tanks and uniforms on the ground, and those supporting the Kremlin have used it to make their support public.

Read the full story here.

The leader of the Russian-annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, has accused Kyiv of targeting drilling platforms in the Black Sea.

“Today at 8 a.m. in the morning the enemy has struck our struck at the drilling platforms of Chornomorneftegaz, Aksenov wrote in his telegram channel on Monday. “I am in touch with colleagues from the Ministry of Defense [of the Russian Federation] and the FSB, we are working on saving people.”

According to Aksenov, five people were rescued after the strike, three of which were injured, but search and rescue efforts for the remaining workers are ongoing.

CNN reached out to Ukraine’s Southern Command on the accusation but they declined to comment.

Two Ukrainian drilling platforms, the “Petro Godovanets” and “Ukraina” were seized by Russian troops in March 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea. The platforms are used not only for drilling but also for reconnaissance, and in 2015 they were moved to the Halitsynske gas field, which lies 130 kilometers (80 miles) away from the Ukrainian city of Odesa.

Lithuania's decision to ban the transit of sanctioned materials to Russia through the Kaliningrad region -- Russia’s exclave in the European Union -- is "unprecedented" and Russia considers it "illegal," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“We also consider it illegal," Peskov said, adding that the Kremlin will need to analyze the situation carefully. “It is part of a blockade, of course,” he said.

The list of the banned goods includes construction material, cement, metals and "a number of other goods important both for construction and for production," according to Alikhanov.

Some background: Lithuania's decision is the latest by an EU member state to sanction Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February.

At the end of May, the European Union agreed to ban 90 percent of Russia oil imports by the end of the year, alongside other measures, European Council leaders said at the time.

“Agreement to ban export of Russian oil to the EU. This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine,” Michel announced in a tweet.

Meanwhile in the United States, the White House announced another round of sanctions targeting Russian government officials and elites close to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a series of new financial and diplomatic sanctions at the start of June.

The White House said in a statement that the latest sanctions are designed “to crack down on evasion and tighten our sanctions to enhance enforcement and increase pressure on Putin and his enablers.”

CNN's Niamh Kennedy, Jeremy Diamond, Betsy Klein and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.

Russian-born tennis player Natela Dzalamidze has changed her nationality to Georgian to avoid the ban Wimbledon imposed on all Russian players following the country's invasion of Ukraine.

The doubles specialist, ranked No. 43 in the world, is now officially listed as having Georgian nationality on the WTA website and is eligible to compete with doubles partner Aleksandra Krunić of Serbia when Wimbledon gets underway on June 27.

After Wimbledon announced the ban on all Russian and Belarusian athletes back in April, the ATP and WTA responded by removing all rankings points that players would have otherwise earned for their performance at the All England Club.

Some of tennis' biggest stars, including men's world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and women's world No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka, will not be competing at SW19.

In a statement published by The Times, a Wimbledon spokesperson said they were unable to stop Dzalamidze, who competed under the neutral flag at the French Open, from changing her nationality.

Read the full story here.

As Russia's war in Ukraine rages on, Western leaders have made clear that the country, and the rest of the world, must brace itself for the long haul.

Who said what?

In separate comments published Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated that Western governments must continue to support Ukraine to deter future aggression by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that nobody knew how long the conflict would last but "we need to prepare for the fact that it could take years."

"We must not cease to support Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices."

Johnson, writing in the Sunday Times after his second visit to Kyiv on Friday, said Western allies must "steel ourselves for a long war, as Putin resorts to a campaign of attrition, trying to grind down Ukraine by sheer brutality."

Both men stressed the need to avert future Russian aggression.

Stoltenberg said: "If Putin learns the lesson from this war that he can just carry on as he did after the Georgia war in 2008 and the occupation of Crimea in 2014, then we will pay a much higher price."

Johnson asked what would happen if President Putin was free to keep all the areas of Ukraine now controlled by Russian forces. "What if no one was willing to lift a finger as he annexed this conquered territory and its fearful people into a greater Russia? Would this bring peace?"

The British Prime Minister added that through firm long-term support for Ukraine, "we and our allies will be protecting our own security as much as Ukraine's and safeguarding the world from the lethal dreams of Putin and those who might seek to copy them."

Read the full story here.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has called the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain exports a "real war crime," adding that the bloc's sanctions on Russia have played no part in the global food crisis.

Speaking to journalists on his way to a EU Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy said that "it's not the European sanctions" that are "creating this crisis."

Some background: Russia's war in Ukraine could push up to 49 million people into famine or famine-like conditions because of its devastating impact on global food supply and prices, the United Nations has said. Countries are scrambling to find a way around the blockade, and the US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “absolutely has weaponized food” by blockading grain exports out of Ukraine.

Borrell's remarks comes after Putin said that Russia's actions in Ukraine are not responsible for the global food crisis and accused the United States of driving up food prices in his speech to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday.

“Famine in the poorest countries will be on the conscience of the US administration and the Eurocrats,” he said.

Minister hits back at Putin's remarks: Borrell countered these claims Monday, saying that the "the problem comes from the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain." Countries who want to buy Russian fertilizers are free to so, Borrell said, reiterating that the bloc's sanctions do not target food or fertilizers.

He added that he didn't see the food crisis lasting "much longer," expressing his hope that the UN "reaches an agreement" with Russia soon to unblock Ukrainian grain exports.