Summary
Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
It is currently 3am in the capital Kyiv. We will be pausing this live blog overnight and returning in the morning.
In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the days’ events in our summary below.
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the outcome of the battle for the Donbas region will determine the course of the war, adding that Ukraine’s forces are suffering “painful losses” in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. The battle for Luhansk’s Sievierodonetsk is now the biggest fight in Ukraine as its defenders try to repel a fierce Russian onslaught in the twin eastern cities.
- Russia has told Ukrainian forces holed up in Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant to lay down their arms by early Wednesday. Fighters should “stop their senseless resistance and lay down arms” from 8am Moscow time (5am GMT), Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s national defence management centre told the Interfax news agency.
- Russia said it would set up a humanitarian corridor on Wednesday for trapped civilians seeking to flee intense fighting in the devastated east Ukraine city of Sievierodonetsk. Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk region, said about 500 civilians, 40 of them children, were sheltering from heavy Russian attacks in the Azot chemical plant in the city.
- Zelenskiy repeated his call for the west to step up the provision of heavy weapons to Ukraine. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said the country had received only 10% of what it asked for and there was no path to victory without the aid: “No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of western partners we will not be able to win this war”. Zelenskiy added that Ukraine does not have enough anti-missile systems to shoot down Russian projectiles targeting its cities. “Our country does not have enough of them ... there can be no justification in delays in providing them.”
- Nato must build out “even higher readiness” and strengthen its weapons capabilities along its eastern border, the military alliance’s chief said on Tuesday ahead of a summit in Madrid at the end of the month. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance needed a “more robust and combat-ready forward presence and an even higher readiness and more pre-positioned equipment and supplies.”
- Leaders of seven European Nato members pledged support for applications by Sweden and Finland to join the alliance. “My message on Swedish and Finnish membership is that I strongly welcome that. It’s an historic decision. It will strengthen them, it will strengthen us,” Stoltenberg told reporters after a meeting at The Hague on Tuesday.
- US President Joe Biden said temporary silos will be built along the border with Ukraine, including in Poland, in a bid to help export more grain. Referring to the 20 million tons of grain locked in Ukraine, Biden told a union convention in Philadelphia: “It can’t get out through the Black Sea because it’ll get blown out of the water ... So we’re going to build silos, temporary silos, on the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland.”
- Worried allies of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say he has been moved to “a strict-regime” penal colony. Olga Mikhailova, lawyer for the 46-year-old fierce critic of the Ukraine war, said officials told her that he was transferred from a detention facility in Pokrov, east of Moscow, to an unidentified colony with a much harsher regime elsewhere.
- Russia banned British journalists, including correspondents from the Guardian, and defence industry figures from entering the country, calling it a response to western sanctions and pressure on its state-run media outlets abroad.
- Pope Francis said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned that Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.
- Vladimir Putin probably still wants to capture much if not all of Ukraine but has had to narrow his tactical objectives in war, the US under-secretary of defence has said. “I still think he has designs on a significant portion of Ukraine, if not the whole country. That said, I do not think he can achieve those objectives,” Colin Kahl said while speaking at an event hosted by the centre for new American security.
Temporary silos to be built along Ukraine border, Biden says
US President Joe Biden said temporary silos will be built along the border with Ukraine, including in Poland, in a bid to help export more grain from the war-torn country.
Biden told a union convention in Philadelphia on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters:
I’m working closely with our European partners to get 20 million tons of grain locked in Ukraine out onto the market to help bring down food prices.
It can’t get out through the Black Sea because it’ll get blown out of the water ...
So we’re going to build silos, temporary silos, on the borders of Ukraine, including in Poland.”
Biden said the United States is working on a plan to get grain out of Ukraine by rail, but noted that Ukrainian railway track gauges are different to those in Europe, so the grain has to be transferred to different trains at the border.
He said the grain could be transferred from those Ukrainian railway cars into the new silos, and then on to Europe freight cars to “get it out to the ocean and get it across the world.”
“But it’s taking time,” he added.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and blockade of its Black Sea ports, grain shipments have stalled and more than 20m tonnes are stuck in silos. Sea mines laid by Russia has also meant some 84 foreign ships are still stuck in Ukrainian ports - many of which have grain cargoes onboard.
Nato says it needs greater readiness and more weapons
Nato must build out “even higher readiness” and strengthen its weapons capabilities along its eastern border in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the military alliance’s chief said on Tuesday.
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was speaking after informal talks in the Netherlands with Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte and the leaders of Denmark, Poland, Latvia, Romania, Portugal and Belgium ahead of a wider Nato summit in Madrid at the end of the month.
In Madrid, we will agree a major strengthening of our posture.
Tonight we discussed the need for more robust and combat-ready forward presence and an even higher readiness and more pre-positioned equipment and supplies.”
Excellent meeting with 🇧🇪🇩🇰🇱🇻🇳🇱🇵🇱🇵🇹🇷🇴 in The Hague to prepare for a historic #NATOSummit. In Madrid, Allies will take decisions to keep NATO strong in a more competitive world. Thanks to @MinPres for hosting, to @Statsmin for co-hosting, and to all for the productive discussions. pic.twitter.com/iu6AMIKNDp
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) June 14, 2022
Responding to a call by Ukrainian Ppresident Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier on Tuesday for more long-range weapons, Stoltenberg said he agreed that Kyiv should be supplied with more heavy weaponry, but provided no details.
Ukraine should have more heavy weapons and Nato allies and partners have provided heavy weapons ... and they are also stepping up,” Stoltenberg said.
Rutte told reporters in The Hague:
In terms of weaponry, we stand united here that it is crucial for Russia to lose the war.
And as we cannot have a direct confrontation between Nato troops and Russia, what we need to do is make sure that Ukraine can fight that war, that it has access to all the necessary weaponry.”
Stoltenberg said Nato will deliver a further strengthening of the alliance when all 30 members meet June 29-30 in the Spanish capital.
Russia tells Ukrainian fighters to lay down arms in Sievierodonetsk
Russia has told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant in embattled Sievierodonetsk to lay down their arms by early Wednesday.
Ukraine says more than 500 civilians are trapped alongside soldiers inside Azot, a chemical factory where its forces have resisted weeks of Russian bombardment and assaults that have reduced much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins.
Fighters should “stop their senseless resistance and lay down arms” from 8am Moscow time (5am GMT), Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defence Management Centre told the Interfax news agency.
Civilians would be let out through a humanitarian corridor, Mizintsev added.
Shelling on Azot was so strong that “people can no longer stand it in the shelters, their psychological state is on edge,” said Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai.
Here are some of the latest images to drop on our newswires from Ukraine today.
Updated
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has provided a brief update on the fighting unfolding in Donbas, maintaining the region is key to determining the course of the war.
Over the past day no drastic changes have taken place in the battle in Donbas. The fiercest fighting is in Sievierodonetsk and in all cities and communities nearby - as before.
The losses, unfortunately, are painful. But we have to hold on. This is our state. It is vital to hold on there, in Donbas.
The more losses the enemy suffers there, the less power they will have to continue the aggression. Therefore, the Donbas direction is key to determining who will dominate in the coming weeks.
We also have painful losses in the Kharkiv region, where the Russian army is trying to strengthen its position. The battles for this direction continue, and we still have to fight hard for complete security for Kharkiv and the region.”
Summary
Here’s where things stand at 1am in Kyiv on the 112th day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says Ukraine’s forces are suffering “painful losses” as they try to repel a fierce Russian onslaught in the twin eastern cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. He also said the outcome of the battle for the Donbas region would determine the course of the war.
- Zelenskiy repeated his call for the west to step up the provision of heavy weapons to Ukraine’s military as Russian forces continue to make headway in Donbas. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar said the country had received only 10% of what it asked for and there was no path to victory without the aid: “No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of western partners we will not be able to win this war”.
- Russia said it would set up a humanitarian corridor on Wednesday for trapped civilians seeking to flee intense fighting in the devastated east Ukraine city of Sievierodonetsk. Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk region, said about 500 civilians, 40 of them children, were sheltering from heavy Russian attacks in the Azot chemical plant in the city.
- Worried allies of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say he has been moved to “a strict-regime” penal colony. Olga Mikhailova, lawyer for the 46-year-old fierce critic of the Ukraine war, said officials told her that he was transferred from a detention facility in Pokrov, east of Moscow, to an unidentified colony with a much harsher regime elsewhere.
- Russia banned British journalists, including correspondents from the Guardian, and defence industry figures from entering the country, calling it a response to western sanctions and pressure on its state-run media outlets abroad.
- Pope Francis said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned that Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.
Leaders of seven European Nato members pledged support for applications by Sweden and Finland to join the alliance on Tuesday, as secretary Jens Stoltenberg urged all nations to increase military aid to Ukraine.
The developments came at an informal gathering at the residence in The Hague of Netherlands prime minister Mark Rutte, co-hosted by Denmark.
Other leaders attending were Romania’s president and the prime ministers of Belgium, Poland, Portugal and Latvia, the Associated Press reported.
Stoltenberg, in a press conference following the summit, said Ukraine was in desperate need of heavy weapons and munitions, and urged Nato members to step up:
Yes, Ukraine should have more heavy weapons because they absolutely depend on that to be able to stand up against the brutal Russian invasion.
Stoltenberg said Nato members would meet again in Brussels on Wednesday for more talks.
He also said the alliance needed to take seriously Turkey’s concerns about Sweden and Finland not doing enough to clamp down on terrorists it says use the countries as a haven.
Ankara has so far refused to back the two Nordic nations’ applications to join Nato.
Stoltenberg said:
My message on Swedish and Finnish membership is that I strongly welcome that. It’s an historic decision. It will strengthen them, it will strengthen us.
[But] there is no other Nato ally that has suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkey.
Nicaragua’s parliament has rubber-stamped a decree from the country’s Marxist president Daniel Ortega allowing Russian troops into the country for joint military exercises, AFP reports.
Tuesday’s vote in a chamber dominated by Ortega’s allies was no surprise.
The US expressed concerns about closer military ties between Moscow and Nicaragua when Ortega announced the move on Saturday, CBS reported.
Ortega said the move would allow “an exchange of experience, training exercises, and humanitarian aid operations”.
Canada’s prime minister spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier today, according to a tweet from Ukraine’s president.
The two leaders discussed “the next steps in counteracting Russia’s aggression against Ukraine”, Zelenskiy said, adding there was a “separate discussion” on further defense cooperation.
Talked with 🇨🇦 Prime Minister @JustinTrudeau. On the eve of important international events, coordinated the next steps in counteracting Russia's aggression against 🇺🇦. Thanked Canada for its leadership in supporting our state. Further defense cooperation was discussed separately.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 14, 2022
Zelenskiy: Donbas losses 'painful'
Volodymyr Zelenskiy conceded on Tuesday that his forces were suffering “painful losses” as they defended the Donbas region against a fierce Russian onslaught, and warned their success or failure would determine the course of the war.
The comments came in the Ukraine president’s nightly address to the nation, in which he said fighting for control of the eastern twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk was particularly intense:
The fiercest battles, as before, are in Sievierodonetsk and other nearby towns and communities. The losses, unfortunately, are painful.
But we have to hold strong. Hanging in there in Donbas is crucial. Donbas is the key to deciding who will dominate in the coming weeks.
The more losses the enemy suffers there the less strength it will have to pursue its aggression.
Russian forces have advanced in Donbas and control most of the Luhansk region, and are pushing back Ukraine defenders in Sievierodonetsk, the largest Luhansk city still under Ukrainian control.
Capturing the twin cities would allow Russia to target Sloviansk further west in the Donetsk region, analysts believe.
Battles are also raging near Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, and Kherson in the south, Zelenskiy said, with more “painful” losses in the northeastern Kharkiv region:
Fighting continues there and we need to continue fighting hard for full security in the Kharkiv region.
We continue pressuring the enemy in the south. Our key goal is to free Kherson.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which make up the mainly Russian-speaking Donbas, were already partly controlled by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014.
The Ukraine president, according to AFP and Reuters, repeated his request for the west to send modern anti-missile weapons, declaring there could be “no justification” for partner countries to delay.
Russian rockets were evading defences and causing casualties, he said.
Updated
The United Nations is again warning against the forced adoption of Ukrainian children in Russia, where thousands are believed have been moved since Moscow’s February invasion.
“We’re reiterating, including to the Russian Federation, that adoption should never occur during or immediately after emergencies,” Afshan Khan, the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef) regional director for Europe and Central Asia, told reporters, according to AFP.
The level of destruction I witnessed in Zhytomyr, #Ukraine, was unimaginable.
— Afshan Khan (@AfshanKhan_) June 13, 2022
War has had a devastating impact on the lives of children.
No child should have to witness or go through this type of suffering. pic.twitter.com/xBBLl0pvX3
Such children cannot be assumed to be orphans, and “any decision to move any child must be grounded in their best interests and any movement must be voluntary. Parents need to provide informed consent,” said the official, who had just returned from a visit to Ukraine.
“Regarding children that have been sent to Russia, we’re working closely to see with ombudspersons and networks how best we can document those cases,” Khan said, adding that there is currently no access to those children.
The UN expressed concern in March about the risk of forced adoption of Ukrainian children, especially the some 91,000 who were living in institutions or boarding schools at the beginning of the war.
Worried allies of jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny say he has been moved to “a strict-regime” penal colony, a partial update from the earlier news that his whereabouts were unknown.
Olga Mikhailova, lawyer for the 46-year-old fierce critic of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, said officials told her that he was transferred from a detention facility in Pokrov, east of Moscow, to a colony with a much harsher regime elsewhere, AFP reports.
The officials, however, declined to say where.
Navalny is serving a two-and-a-half sentence for violating parole on a fraud charge, but his supporters insist he is being persecuted for his political challenges to Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime.
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeperson, said on Twitter she was worried for his safety.
“The problem with his transfer to another colony is not only that the high-security colony is much scarier,” she wrote.
“As long as we don’t know where Alexei is, he remains one-on-one with the system that has already tried to kill him, so our main task now is to locate him as soon as possible.
Alexei Navalny @navalny was transported away from the penal colony No. 2.
— Кира Ярмыш (@Kira_Yarmysh) June 14, 2022
His lawyer, who came to see him, was kept at the checkpoint until 14.00, and was then told: "There is no such convict here."
We do not know where Alexei is now and what colony they are taking him to.
The US called on Russia to grant Navalny access to his lawyers and medical care and condemned “politically motivated” actions against him.
Russia “will be held accountable by the international community or anything to befall Mr Navalny,” state department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in Washington DC.
Russia offers 'humanitarian corridor' for trapped civilians
Russia says it will set up a humanitarian corridor for trapped civilians seeking to flee intense fighting in the devastated east Ukraine city of Sievierodonetsk.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk region, said about 500 civilians, 40 of them children, were sheltering from a fierce Russian onslaught in the Azot chemical plant in the city.
The Russian defence ministry said it was “ready to organise a humanitarian operation” on Wednesday to evacuate civilians from the plant to the separatist-controlled part of the Luhansk region, AFP reports.
It was not immediately clear if Ukraine would accept the offer.
Haidai said Ukraine’s troops were attempting to evacuate citizens during any lull in the fighting, but Monday’s destruction of the last of three bridges out of the city made the situation next to impossible:
The shelling is so powerful that people can no longer stand it in the shelters, their psychological state is on the edge. The last few days, the residents are ready to go.
Oleksandr Stryuk, mayor of Sievierodonetsk, described the situation as “very difficult”:
Every possible chance is taken [to evacuate civilians] every minute when there is a lull and there is a possibility of transportation.
Here’s my colleague Pjotr Sauer’s report on Russia’s decision to ban 29 British journalists, including Guardian correspondents, from the country.
Russia has banned 29 members of the British media, including five Guardian journalists, from entering the country, its foreign ministry has said.
Moscow said the sweeping action was a response to western sanctions and the “spreading of false information about Russia”, as well as “anti-Russian actions of the British government”.
“The British journalists included in the list are involved in the deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information about Russia and events in Ukraine and Donbas,” the ministry said in a statement.
Twenty individuals it described as “associated with the defence complex”, including military figures, senior aerospace figures and MPs, were also banned.
Read more here:
Ukraine defence official: We can't win without more western aid
It’s Richard Luscombe in the US. I’ll be guiding you through the next few hours of our live news blog on the Ukraine conflict. Thanks for joining me.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister says her country has received only 10% of the arms it requested from western allies, and is warning that unless those countries step up their support the war against Russia will be lost.
In televised remarks on Tuesday, Hanna Malyar repeated a plea made regularly by Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the US, the UK, European and other global allies to send more military aid, AFP reports:
From what we said we need, we got about 10%. No matter how hard Ukraine tries, no matter how professional our army is, without the help of western partners we will not be able to win this war.
Malyar said there needed to be “a clear timeframe” for such deliveries as every delay risked more territory falling into Russian hands:
We need to know clear deadlines because every day there’s a delay, we’re talking about the lives of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
We can’t wait very long because the situation is very complicated.
Zelenskiy has called Russia’s advances in Donbas region “terrifying” and fears its forces are poised to take over the entire Luhansk region.
Earlier, he again appealed for heavy weapons from the west, criticising the “restrained behaviour” of some European leaders which he said had “slowed down arms supplies very much”.
Speaking with Danish journalists during an online briefing, he said:
I am grateful for what is coming, but it must come faster. [Russia has] hundreds of times more equipment and weapons.
If there’s no speeding-up of weapons deliveries, there will be stagnation... people will continue dying. If we are given weapons, we’ll move forward.
Summary
Here are all the major events from the past eight hours:
- Russia banned British journalists and defence industry figures from entering the country, calling it a response to western sanctions and pressure on its state-run media outlets abroad.
- Pope Francis said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned that Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called for more long-range weapons to support Ukraine’s military, which he said had enough ammunition and other weapons. Western countries have promised Ukraine Nato-standard weapons but deploying them is taking time. Germany’s defence minister said the training of Ukrainian troops on German howitzers would soon be completed, but didn’t give a date for when these would be dispatched.
Thanks for tuning in today. I’m handing over to my colleague Richard Luscombe who will keep you updated on everything happening in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Updated
Russia bans British journalists
Russia has banned dozens of British journalists, media representatives and defence industry figures from entering the country.
In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said this was a response to western sanctions and pressure on its state-run media outlets abroad.
The list of those banned includes 29 journalists and members of British media organisations such as the BBC, Sky News, the Guardian and the Times.
More than a dozen British figures who Moscow said were linked to the defence industry were also banned from entering Russia.
The statement said that as a result of the “anti-Russian actions” of the British government and sanctions imposed against “leading journalists of our country and heads of domestic defence companies”, Russia has added media and defence figures to its “stop list”. It accuses the journalists of “deliberate dissemination of false and one-sided information about Russia and the events in Ukraine and Donbas”, and of contributing to Russophobia in British society.
Britain’s media regulator revoked RT’s licence to broadcast in March, saying it could not comply with the impartiality rules in Britain’s broadcasting codes because of its links to the Russian state, which had sent troops into Ukraine and cracked down on independent journalism.
The full list in Russian is here.
The Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent Shaun Walker tweeted his reaction to the news he has banned:
I wasn't racing to visit Z-land Russia, but it is still a very strange/sad feeling to be put on their sanctions list along with other British colleagues. I lived in Russia for more than a decade and have been at least once every year since 2000. https://t.co/IMvTJqlw73
— Shaun Walker (@shaunwalker7) June 14, 2022
Foreign correspondent Luke Harding has also tweeted to say he is “sad” to be included on the list eleven years after he was deported by the FSB.
Eleven years after the #FSB deported me from Moscow I’m on a #Russian foreign ministry list of banned journalists, together with four @Guardian colleagues including editor @KathViner. Sad - but no regime lasts forever and I hope one day to go back https://t.co/mro26uSKTr
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) June 14, 2022
Harding has also posted the Guardian’s response:
Guardian statement: “This is a disappointing move by the Russian government and a bad day for press freedom. Trusted, accurate journalism is more important now than ever and despite this decision we will continue to report robustly on Russia and its invasion of Ukraine”
— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) June 14, 2022
Updated
Vladimir Putin probably still wants to capture much if not all of Ukraine but has had to narrow his tactical objectives in war, the US under-secretary of defence has said.
Colin Kahl said:
I still think he has designs on a significant portion of Ukraine, if not the whole country. That said, I do not think he can achieve those objectives.
They may make tactical gains here and there. The Ukrainians are holding up. I do not think the Russians have the capacity to achieve those grandiose objectives.
Updated
Russia will restrict public access to some government data to protect the country from additional sanctions, the finance ministry has said.
In a statement, the ministry said it would partially restrict the information about budget spending it makes public in response to the “negative consequences” of sanctions on the Russian economy.
Boosted by high energy prices for Russia’s vital oil and gas exports, the country’s budget surplus came in a 1.49tn roubles (£21bn) for the first five months of the year, finance ministry data showed.
Updated
The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been abruptly transferred from the prison where he is serving an 11-and-a-half year sentence to an undisclosed location, according to a post on the Telegram app by his chief of staff, Leonid Volkov.
Reuters reports that when Navalny’s lawyer arrived at Correctional Colony No 2, a prison camp in Pokrov, he was told: “There is no such convict here.”
“Where Alexei is now, and which colony he is being taken to, we don’t know,” Volkov said in the Telegram message.
Last month Navalny lambasted Vladimir Putin via video link in a Russian court, casting the president as a madman who had started a “stupid war” that was butchering innocent people of Ukraine and Russia.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images of the impact of the war in Ukraine that have been sent to us over the newswires.
Updated
Germany will establish a national register for assets that are subject to sanctions or are of unclear origins as part of efforts to make sanctions against Russia more effective, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said.
Germany is also planning to set up a special hotline for whistleblowers, Scholz added during a speech to a financial action taskforce meeting in Berlin.
Updated
Ukraine will have to sharply cut public spending if more external financial assistance doesn’t arrive, as the country’s budget revenues cover less than half the expenditures after Russia’s invasion.
The head of the Ukrainian parliament’s financial committee, Danylo Hetmantsev, said:
We have to borrow $5bn [£4.1bn] monthly. If we do not get it, we will have to cut spending.
He said the government had collected 101bn hryvnias (£2.8bn) in taxes in May, but had to spend 250bn hryvnias financing the army and supporting people who had been forced to leave their homes or whose homes had been destroyed.
Updated
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will create a global wheat shortage for at least three seasons by keeping much of the Ukrainian crop from markets, pushing prices to record levels.
Reuters reports:
Ukraine, sometimes known as Europe’s bread basket, has had its maritime grain export routes blocked by Russia and faces a maelstrom of other problems, from mined wheat fields to a lack of grain storage space.
“Ukraine will fall out of the market for a long time,” the agriculture minister, Mykola Solskyi, predicted in an interview with Reuters.
“Now we are talking about three wheat harvests at the same time: we cannot take out last year’s crop, we cannot harvest and take out the current one, and we do not particularly want to sow the next one.
Updated
Pope Francis says Moscow's invasion of Ukraine was 'perhaps somehow provoked'
Pope Francis has said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine was “perhaps somehow provoked” as he recalled a conversation in the run-up to the war in which he was warned that Nato was “barking at the gates of Russia”.
In an interview with the Jesuit magazine La Civiltà Cattolica, conducted last month and published on Tuesday, the pontiff condemned the “ferocity and cruelty of the Russian troops” while warning against what he said was a fairytale perception of the conflict as good versus evil.
He said:
We need to move away from the usual Little Red Riding Hood pattern, in that Little Red Riding Hood was good and the wolf was the bad one. Something global is emerging and the elements are very much entwined.
Full report is here:
Updated
Ukraine needs more long-range weapons, Zelenskiy says
Ukraine’s military has enough ammunition and weapons, but needs more long-range weapons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Danish journalists during a press briefing.
Zelenskiy said:
We have enough weapons. What we don’t have enough of are the weapons that really hits the range that we need to reduce the advantage of the Russian Federation’s equipment.
Meanwhile, Germany’s defence minister has said that the training of Ukrainian troops on German howitzers would soon be completed, paving the way for the use of the weapons in the war in Ukraine.
Western countries have promised Ukraine Nato-standard weapons but deploying them is taking time.
Germany is sending Ukraine the Panzerhaubitze 2000, which is one of the most powerful artillery weapons in Bundeswehr inventories and can hit targets at a distance of 40 km (25 miles).
Germany pledged in May to supply Kyiv with seven self-propelled howitzers, adding to five such artillery systems the Netherlands have promised.
Defence minister Christine Lambrecht gave no details on when the howitzers would be sent to Ukraine.
Kyiv needs 1,000 howitzers, 500 tanks and 1,000 drones among other heavy weapons, Presidential Adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on Monday.
Updated
The Guardian’s Russia affairs correspondent, Pjotr Sauer, has spoken to the Russians who are fighting for Ukraine, including those who have joined a special military unit in the Ukrainian armed forces that is made up entirely of Russian nationals.
One fighter said of his decision:
I made compromises with myself for a long time … But on the 24 February [the day Russia launched its invasion], any talk of compromise became impossible. I could not be part of this crime.
Updated
The Kremlin is “sure” that pro-Russian separatist leaders in the Donbas would be willing to listen to an appeal from the UK over the fate of two Britons sentenced to death for fighting for Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a conference call that London had not contacted Moscow about the issue.
A court in the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine last week sentenced Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun to death, saying they were guilty of “mercenary activities”.
Their families deny the trio, who were contracted by the Ukrainian armed forces, were mercenaries. Russia alone recognises the independence of the DPR.
Peskov also restated one of Moscow’s justifications for sending troops into Ukraine: that it had to protect the mostly Russian speaking people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as the Donbas.
Kyiv rejects the accusation of oppression of Russian-speakers as a baseless pretext for a land grab.
Rachel Hall here taking over the blog for the rest of the day - please do send over anything we’ve missed to rachel.hall@theguardian.com.
Updated
Today so far …
- The intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen and is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening, as Russian forces move closer to capturing the strategic eastern city.
- Russian forces have cut off all last routes out of Sievierodonetsk by destroying all three bridges to the embattled eastern city, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai. In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control.
- Russian artillery was hitting an industrial zone where 500 civilians were sheltering in the eastern Ukrainian city, Haidai added. Ukrainian troops in the city must “surrender or die”, a Russian-backed separatist leader in the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk warned.
- Russia’s ministry of defence has again claimed today that surrendering Ukrainian forces in the Donbas have been fired on by their own side, in a move it described as “the Kyiv nationalist regime trying to stop the retreat and surrender of its units by punitive actions of detachments”. The claims have not been independently verified.
- The deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration of the occupied Kherson region in Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, has said it will remain forever Russian.
- Ukrainian authorities said they discovered a new mass grave of civilians near Bucha in the Kyiv region. Investigators exhumed seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest outside the village of Vorzel, less than 10km from Bucha, the scene of previous alleged Russian atrocities. Kyiv region’s police chief, Andriy Nyebytov, said: “This is another sadistic crime of the Russian army.” One man, he said, “has two injuries. He was shot in the knee with a gun. The second shot was into his temple.”
- The UK’s ministry of defence has issued its daily assessment of the situation on the ground in Ukraine, suggesting “Russia’s operational main effort remains the assault against the Sievierodonetsk pocket in the Donbas and its Western Group of forces have likely made small advances in the Kharkiv sector for the first time in several weeks.”
- The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has refused to be drawn on whether she would negotiate directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic over the situation of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner. The two British men have been sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine by what Truss called a “sham trial”.
- Zelenskiy accused the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, of being too concerned about the repercussions his support for Ukraine would have for Berlin’s ties with Moscow. “We need from Chancellor Scholz the certainty that Germany supports Ukraine,” he said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF. “He and his government must decide: there can’t be a trade-off between Ukraine and relations with Russia.”
- The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has accused “traitors” of passing on vital information to Russian forces during the bombardment of the southern port city at the beginning of the invasion. Boychenko said the destruction of the city’s critical infrastructure, including power supplies, was well-coordinated because Russia was provided with the coordinates.
- About 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko. Criminal proceedings had been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead were men, 2% children and the rest women, he said.
- Russia earned €93bn in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the war, according to research by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). With 61% of these exports, worth €56bn (£48bn), going to the member states of the European Union, the bloc of countries remains Russia’s largest export market.
- Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since the Russian invasion, notably in the south and east, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said. At a news conference on Monday, Vysotskiy insisted food security for the country’s population was not under immediate threat: “Crop planting this year is more than sufficient [and] the current situation of crop planting areas … does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security”.
- The UN’s rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, described the “arbitrary arrests” of a “large number” of anti-war protesters in Russia as “worrying”. Speaking at the UN’s human rights council in Geneva, Bachelet also expressed concern about the “increase of censorship and restrictions on independent media” in Russia.
- Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, has said he expects the war in Ukraine could last up to two years. Kasyanov, who championed close ties with the west while prime minister, said he felt that Vladimir Putin was already not thinking properly and that he was convinced Russia could return to a democratic path.
That is it, from Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Rachel Hall will be with you shortly to continue our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Updated
Here are some of the most recent images from Ukraine that have been sent to us over the newswires.
Yesterday evening Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskiy claimed that the intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen. Peter Beaumont puts that claim into context here:
The claims by Zeleinskiy that the battles in the Donbas are among the most brutal and violent ever seen in Europe is best described as somewhat hyperbolic with considerable competition for that distinction.
It comes nowhere close to the attrition of some of the battles of the first world war - not least the Somme, where the British suffered almost 58,000 casualties on the first day alone of the battle including 19,240 killed.
In the battle for the Selow Heights outside Berlin in April 1945, the Soviets saw 30,000 killed, most in the space of less than a week. All of which was dwarfed by the losses on both sides at Stalingrad – seen as a key turning point in the war in Europe - which saw some 2 million casualties suffered by both sides during the course of the battle, including 40,000 Soviet civilian deaths.
Updated
Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operations briefing for today. In it, they claim:
- High-precision long-range Kaliber missiles destroyed an arsenal of artillery weapons and ammunition of the armed forces of Ukraine in Chernihiv region
- Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 101 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment, leading to the loss of 350 lives, three command posts, 13 tanks and other combat armoured vehicles
- Russian air defence systems shot down a MiG-29 aircraft and a Mi-24 helicopter
The claims have not been independently verified.
In addition to the regular update, today’s operational briefing also carries an additional message, in which the Russian ministry of defence claim that 30 Ukrainians who were in the process of surrendering in the occupied self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic were shot in the back by other Ukrainian forces. The claim has not been independently verified, but the message reads:
This incident, like many others like it, clearly shows that against the backdrop of growing military failures and the demoralisation of Ukrainian troops, the Kyiv nationalist regime is trying to stop the retreat and surrender of its units by punitive actions of detachments.
The lives of Ukrainian servicemen and mobilised fighters of territorial defence units mean nothing to the current leadership of Ukraine.
The deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration of the occupied Kherson region in Ukraine has said it will remain forever Russian.
The Russian RIA Novosti news agency reports Kirill Stremousov saying:
We are already irrevocably the Russian Federation. We need to remember this, rebuild, get passports of citizens of the Russian Federation and remember that we will really feel at home there and feel good.
Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has confirmed that as usual there will be a free evacuation train for civilians from Pokrovsk to Lviv at 4.30pm local time today.
The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has refused to be drawn on whether she would negotiate directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic over the situation of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner. The two British men have been sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine by what Truss called a “sham trial”. She told listeners of the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme:
The two people were fighting for the Ukrainian army. They were permanently located in Ukraine and they are prisoners of war. And the case is being taken up by the Ukrainians, by the Ukrainian foreign minister.
I am doing everything I can, in the best way I can, in the way that I judge is most effective, to deliver these people’s release.
Pressed on whether that would include direct talks with the pro-Russian group, she said she would not “go into our strategy live on air”, explaining:
These people are prisoners of war, fighting for the Ukrainian army. And it’s important to maintain that principle. And the Russian proxies are violating the Geneva Convention. And we need to be very, very clear about that.
That’s why the best route is through the Ukrainians, and I can’t go into the details of my discussions with the Ukrainians, but I can assure you, and I can assure the families, that we’re working flat out on this.
Updated
Russia’s ministry of defence has issued a statement and video this morning about the activities of their air forces in Ukraine. They claim:
Crews of ground attack aviation launched rocket air strikes on military facilities and equipment of units of the armed forces of Ukraine. Missile launches were carried out in pairs from low altitudes. As a result of the combat use of aviation weapons, camouflaged fortified field positions and armoured vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed.
The video depicts a row of Su-25, all marked with the ‘Z’ insignia.
The claims have not been independently verifed, and the footage does not make clear where or when it was filmed.
Two of Ukraine’s regional leaders have posted status updates this morning on Telegram. Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, said that there were no air raid warnings in his region overnight. Oleksandr Syenkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, reported that there had been shelling on various districts and settlements, but that there had been no casualties.
The UK’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational report of how it perceives the situation to be on the ground in Ukraine. It writes:
Russia’s operational main effort remains the assault against the Sievierodonetsk pocket in the Donbas and its Western Group of forces have likely made small advances in the Kharkiv sector for the first time in several weeks.
The ministry also passed comment on the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on its own domestic economy, stating:
On 10 June, the first deputy chairman of Russia’s military industrial commission predicted that state defence spending will increase by 600-700bn roubles (£8.5-10bn), which could approach a 20% increase in Russia’s defence budget.
Russian government funding is allowing the country’s defence industrial base to be slowly mobilised to meet demands placed on it by the war in Ukraine.
However, the industry could struggle to meet many of these requirements, partially due to the effects of sanctions and lack of expertise.
Russia’s production of high-quality optics and advanced electronics likely remain troubled and could undermine its efforts to replace equipment lost in Ukraine.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 14 June 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 14, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/yLAMUTwSGK
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/R1qjlpdsue
- This is Martin Belam taking over the blog from Samantha Lock. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Mass grave of civilians found in Kyiv
In case you missed this disturbing report from earlier, Ukrainian authorities said they have discovered a new mass grave of civilians near Bucha in the Kyiv region.
The bodies of seven civilians were found near the village of Myrotske, many with their “hands tied and their knees shot”, according to Kyiv region police chief, Andrii Niebytov.
The victims had been tortured, he said in a statement.
Work is currently under way to exhume the bodies at the site and to identify the individuals, he added.
Kyiv region, another burial of civilians with tied hands was detected - the investigation has been launched
A war crimes investigation is underway, according to a release from Ukraine’s prosecutors office.
During the investigation in the trenches, the bodies of seven civilians with gunshot wounds and hands tied behind the back were discovered.”
Meanwhile, about 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko.
Criminal proceedings have been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead are men, about 2% are children and the rest are women, he said.
In Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, Borodianka there were a lot of killed people lying right on the streets – snipers shot them from tanks, from armoured personnel carriers, despite the white armbands that the Russian military forced people to wear.
In Bucha, 116 people were buried in one mass grave, according to Klymenko. Other graves contained between five and seven bodies, he said:
Residents collected the bodies of the dead and buried them in parks.
He added:
About 1,200 bodies have not been identified so far. This is a long process, quite laborious because many bodies are in a state of decay, who were buried, shot, who could not be identified. We take DNA only from direct relatives – father, mother, children. This is the only way we work.”
Satellite images obtained by Maxar Technologies purport to show the three bridges destroyed by Russian forces in Sievierodonetsk.
The images are reported to have been taken on 11 June.
All bridges out of Sievierodonetsk destroyed, says governor
Russian forces have cut off all last routes out of Sievierodonetsk by destroying all three bridges to the embattled eastern city, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai.
In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control.
Earlier in the day, Haidai said Russians were continuing to storm the embattled city and “having a significant advantage in artillery” pushed back Ukrainian soldiers. “The Russians are destroying quarter after quarter,” Haidai said, adding that the Russian army had been “partially successful at night” and controlled 70% of the city.
The destruction by Russian forces of the remaining two bridges over the Siverskyi Donets River over the last two days leaves stranded civilians with no escape west to the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, which is also being shelled but remains in Ukrainian hands.
“Evacuation and transport of human cargo is now impossible,” Haidai said.
Donbas battles ‘most brutal’ Europe has seen: Zelenskiy
The intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen and is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening, as Russian forces move closer to capturing the strategic eastern city.
Ukraine’s president made the comment during his nightly address to the nation, noting the fighting was having a severe effect on civilians and his country’s military:
The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying.
The battle for the Donbas will without doubt be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe.
Zelenskiy, who has expressed fears of losing support from the west as the conflict drags on, repeated earlier pleas for more and heavier military weapons from allies including the US and UK:
We are dealing with absolute evil. And we have no choice but to move forward and free our territory.
We draw the attention of our partners on a daily basis to the fact that only a sufficient number of modern artillery for Ukraine will ensure our advantage and finally the end of Russian torture of the Ukrainian Donbas.
Zelenskiy reiterated Ukraine’s desire to free its entire territory and “drive the occupiers out of all our regions”.
Although now the width of our front is already more than 2,500km, it is felt that the strategic initiative is still ours.”
Lithuania to buy howitzers from France
Lithuania has agreed to buy 18 howitzers from France, both sides’ defence ministers announced on Monday.
Lithuania, a European Union and Nato member, will inject an additional €300m ($312m) into its 2022 defence budget as the Ukraine war ramped up security fears.
Lithuanian defence minister Arvydas Anusauskas tweeted alongside a photo with his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu:
Lithuania will buy 18 Caesar MarktII howitzers from France.
They will significantly strengthen the Lithuanian armed forces’ defence capabilities.”
🇱🇹 will buy 18 Caesar MarktII howitzers from 🇫🇷. Today me and my colleague DefMin of 🇫🇷 @SebLecornu signed a letter of intent for acquisition of the systems. They will significantly strengthen @LTU_Army defence capabilities. ✅ It is the largest acquisition project of 🇱🇹 with 🇫🇷. pic.twitter.com/wHNHCl3gEW
— Arvydas Anušauskas (@a_anusauskas) June 13, 2022
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - all Nato members and part of the former Soviet Union - have come to Ukraine’s defence with military hardware and humanitarian aid.
Lithuania has said it sent military supplies worth “tens of millions” of euros, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, mortars, rifles, ammunition and other equipment. Lithuanians also crowdfunded over five million euros to buy Ukraine another Bayraktar drone.
Updated
Summary and welcome
Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you on the Guardian’s live blog as we cover all the latest developments from Ukraine.
Ukrainian defenders are being pushed further out of Sievierodonetsk - a key eastern city that has become the epicentre of the wider battle for control over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
Russian forces have destroyed all three bridges out of the city, leaving stranded civilians trapped.
If you’re just waking up, or dropping in to find the latest information, here’s a summary of the main points you might have missed:
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the intense battle for Sievierodonetsk is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine. “The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying. The battle for the Donbas will without doubt be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe,” he said in an address to the nation late on Monday.
- All three bridges to the embattled eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been destroyed, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai. In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control. Russian artillery was hitting an industrial zone where 500 civilians were sheltering in the eastern Ukrainian city, Haidai added. Ukrainian troops in the city must “surrender or die”, a Russian-backed separatist leader in the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk warned.
- Ukrainian authorities said they discovered a new mass grave of civilians near Bucha in the Kyiv region. Investigators exhumed seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest outside the village of Vorzel, less than 10km from Bucha, the scene of previous alleged Russian atrocities. Kyiv region’s police chief, Andriy Nyebytov, said: “This is another sadistic crime of the Russian army.” One man, he said, “has two injuries. He was shot in the knee with a gun. The second shot was into his temple.”
- Ukraine has called on the west to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers before a key meeting on Wednesday. The request was made publicly by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, amid concern in some quarters it is pushing its demands for Nato-standard weapons to the limit.
- Zelenskiy accused the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, of being too concerned about the repercussions his support for Ukraine would have for Berlin’s ties with Moscow. “We need from Chancellor Scholz the certainty that Germany supports Ukraine,” he said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF. “He and his government must decide: there can’t be a trade-off between Ukraine and relations with Russia.” Local media reports have speculated that Scholz could on Thursday make his first trip to Kyiv since the start of the war.
- The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has accused “traitors” of passing on vital information to Russian forces during the bombardment of the southern port city at the beginning of the invasion. Boychenko said the destruction of the city’s critical infrastructure, including power supplies, was well-coordinated because Russia was provided with the coordinates.
- About 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko. Criminal proceedings had been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead were men, 2% children and the rest women, he said.
- Russia earned €93bn in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the war, according to research by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). With 61% of these exports, worth €56bn (£48bn), going to the member states of the European Union, the bloc of countries remains Russia’s largest export market.
- Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since the Russian invasion, notably in the south and east, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said. At a news conference on Monday, Vysotskiy insisted food security for the country’s population was not under immediate threat: “Crop planting this year is more than sufficient [and] the current situation of crop planting areas … does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security”.
- The UN’s rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, described the “arbitrary arrests” of a “large number” of anti-war protesters in Russia as “worrying”. Speaking at the UN’s human rights council in Geneva, Bachelet also expressed concern about the “increase of censorship and restrictions on independent media” in Russia.
- Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, has said he expects the war in Ukraine could last up to two years. Kasyanov, who championed close ties with the west while prime minister, said he felt that Vladimir Putin was already not thinking properly and that he was convinced Russia could return to a democratic path.
- More than 15,000 millionaires are expected to flee Russia this year, as wealthy citizens turn their back on Putin’s regime, according to an analysis of migration data by London-based firm Henley & Partners.
- The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The foundation arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war and that removing information is a violation of human rights.
