June 3, 2022 UPDATE

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Newsroom, 03.06.2022, 20:20

Ukraine — On Friday it’s 100 days since Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine, during which time the Russian military failed to achieve any of its initial campaign goals, according to the British Military Intelligence Service. The Russians were unable to capture the capital, Kyiv, or the Ukrainian power centers. After losing the battle for Kyiv, Moscow decided to focus its efforts on Donbas, an area made up of ​​two regions of Ukraine where the Russian army has been pressing for weeks. The Russians have resorted to heavy artillery fire there, including on the localities, and have made some tactical progress, the British experts show. The Russian army has advanced not only into eastern Ukraine but also into the southern region. All in all, the attackers managed to occupy about 20% of Ukraines territory, according to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. He added that the entire Russian-occupied territory was a disaster area and that Moscow was solely responsible for it. The Russians have destroyed cities, bombed homes and civilian targets, and have been charged with numerous war crimes. They have also been subjected to a number of international economic and political sanctions. Ukraine hopes to turn the tide of battle, with the arrival of heavy weapons promised by the West, especially high-performance missile systems.

Drill – Romanian soldiers and allies from five European countries and the United States are participating in a multinational exercise at the NATO Smârdan Center in eastern Romania. Both ground and air combat equipment is used. The exercise, which has been taking place since May 24, is attended by over 1,000 Romanian soldiers along with comrades-in-arms from France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy, Portugal and the United States. The training aims to increase interoperability through computer-assisted command exercises, field troop training and tactical training with real combat ammunition. Through such training events, the Command of the Southeast Multinational Brigade is being trained to be able to command forces deployed in the NATO Southeast region, in order to ensure the contribution of this structure to the collective defense of the Alliance, the Romanian Defense Ministry says.

Film – The 3rd edition of the Romanian Film Festival in Washington, the largest event promoting Romanian cinema in the USA, begins on June 3rd at Miracle Theatre. Organised by the Embassy of Romania to Washington and the Romanian Cultural Institute in New York, the festival is devoted to the 25 years since the signing of the Strategic Partnership between Romania and the USA. Screened as part of the event, under the heading “Reinventing realism: the Romanian New Wave,” are 12 feature films: “Blue Moon”, “Berliner”, “The Windseeker”, “Poppy Field”, “Mikado”, “Unidentified”, “#dogpoopgirl”, “Luca”, “Man and Dog”, “Lebensdorf”, “Otto the Barbarian”, and “Miracle”. The festival will come to an end on June 19.

School — For the Romanian 8th graders, Friday was the last day of school, and also the last day of enrollment for the National Assessment Exam, the high school final exam that is the basis for high school admission. The tests are scheduled for the middle of this month. However, the high school graduates will be the first ones to take the Baccalaureate exam, which starts on Monday with the oral examination in the Romanian language subject. The school year ends on June 10, and the next one, with a radically modified structure, will begin on September 5.

Prize — On Saturday, the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis will be awarded the European Charlemagne Prize of the Sudeten German Homeland Association for 2020. The ceremony will take place in Hof, Germany. The association decided to award him the distinction in recognition of his merits in terms of the understanding and cooperation between the peoples and countries of Central Europe. In the context of the pandemic, the ceremony could not be held, being rescheduled for June 4 this year, when the Day of Sudeten Germans is also celebrated. (LS)