Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
We will be pausing our live reporting overnight and returning in the morning.
In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the day’s events in our summary below.
Summary
- The European Union has approved the application of Ukraine to become a candidate country for admission to the 27-strong bloc in a step Kyiv and Brussels hailed as an “historic moment”. EU leaders meeting in Brussels followed the recommendation of the European Commission, which was made on Friday 17 June.
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Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, immediately welcomed the move, saying “Ukraine’s future is in the EU”. “It’s a victory … We have been waiting for 120 days and 30 years,” he added, referring to the duration of the war and the decades since Ukraine became independent on the breakup of the Soviet Union. “And now we will defeat the enemy.”
- The United States will send another $450m in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems. The latest package includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, tens of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition as well as patrol boats, Pentagon officials announced on Thursday. With the latest shipments, the US contribution to Ukraine’s military will amount so far to $6.1 billion, White House spokesman, John Kirby, added.
- Russian forces captured two villages in eastern Ukraine and are fighting for control of a key highway in a campaign to cut supply lines and encircle frontline Ukrainian forces, according to British and Ukrainian military officials.
- The battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine is edging towards “a fearsome climax”, an adviser to the Ukrainian president has said. “The fighting is entering a sort of fearsome climax”, Oleksiy Arestovych said. Russia is now believed to control all of Sievierodonetsk with the exception of the Azot chemical plant.
- No town is safe for residents in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk as fighting intensifies, local officials claim. “There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse, citing latest intelligence data. “It is extremely dangerous for residents to stay in any places of the region,” he added.
- UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, said Britain is willing to assist with de-mining operations off Ukraine’s southern coast. Asked if Britain was ready to help Ukraine de-mine the area, Johnson said: “Yes, I don’t want to get into the technical or military details, but you can take it from what we have already done in supplying equipment to the Ukrainians to help themselves protect that we are certainly talking to them at a technical level to help de-mine Odesa.”
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The UK is also offering its expertise to help escort Ukraine’s grain from its ports, the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said. Boris Johnson added Britain was considering offering insurance to ships to move millions of tonnes of grain stuck in the country. “What the UK possibly has to offer, most of all, is expertise when it comes to maritime insurance, and a lot of expertise in moving goods through should we say contested areas of the sea,” he told Reuters.
- Over 150 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed, according to a UNESCO report. The damage includes 70 religious buildings, 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums and seven libraries.
- Ukraine is recording 200-300 war crimes committed by Russian forces on its territory everyday, the prosecutor general has claimed. “War crimes are our trouble. Every day we have 200-300 of them … we have a duty: when there is a crime, we have to start an investigation,” Iryna Venediktova told Ukrainian television.
- Ukraine has held a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian soldier charged with raping a Ukrainian woman during Moscow’s invasion, the first of what could be dozens of such cases. The suspect, Mikhail Romanov, 32, who will be tried in absentia, is accused of breaking into a house in March in a village in the Brovarsky region outside Kyiv, murdering a man and then repeatedly raping his wife while threatening her and her child.
- The Russian navy has been given orders to lay mines at the ports of Odesa and Ochakiv, and has already mined the Dnieper River, as part of a blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, according to newly declassified US intelligence.
- The US embassy in Russia this week was pressing the Kremlin to reveal the whereabouts of two Alabama men captured in Ukraine, according to the mother of one of the taken Americans. Lois “Bunny” Drueke also said that her son, Alexander Drueke, and the other captured US military veteran, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, were not mercenaries but volunteers, pushing back on statements from a Kremlin spokesperson who said the American pair are facing execution.
US pushing Kremlin to reveal location of veterans captured in Ukraine
The US embassy in Russia this week was pressing the Kremlin to reveal the whereabouts of two Alabama men captured in Ukraine while defending the country from Russian invaders, according to the mother of one of the taken Americans.
Lois “Bunny” Drueke also said late Wednesday that her son, Alexander Drueke, and the other captured US military veteran, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, were not mercenaries but volunteers, pushing back on statements from a Kremlin spokesperson who said the American pair are facing execution.
Therefore, Drueke’s mother added, he and Huynh deserve the humane treatment mandated by the treaties collectively known as the Geneva conventions despite Russia’s claims that they do not apply to the Americans who are taking part in the conflict in Ukraine.
“Alex and Andy are prisoners of war and must be afforded protections and humane treatment accordingly,” Bunny Drueke said.
Her statements came a day after Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov accused Drueke and Huynh of being soldiers of fortune who had “threatened the lives” of military service members of Russia and its controlled, self-proclaimed peoples’ republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.
UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, has said Britain is willing to assist with de-mining operations off Ukraine’s southern coast and was considering offering insurance to ships to move millions of tonnes of grain stuck in the country.
“There is a job of work to be done. We are working with the Turks and other European friends and allies to see what we can do,” Johnson told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
London’s insurance market has placed the entire region on its high risk list meaning soaring costs for shipments.
Johnson said Britain was considering all options when asked whether the government could provide sovereign guarantees for shipping insurance.
“What the UK possibly has to offer, most of all, is expertise when it comes to maritime insurance, and a lot of expertise in moving goods through should we say contested areas of the sea,” he said.
Asked if Britain was ready to help Ukraine de-mine the area, Johnson said:
Yes, I don’t want to get into the technical or military details, but you can take it from what we have already done in supplying equipment to the Ukrainians to help themselves protect that we are certainly talking to them at a technical level to help de-mine Odesa.”
Summary
It’s 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where thing stand:
- The European Union has approved the application of Ukraine to become a candidate country for admission to the 27-strong bloc. EU leaders meeting in Brussels have followed the recommendation of the European Commission, which was made on Friday 17 June. Ukraine has been seeking EU membership since the 2004 “orange revolution” and more emphatically since the 2013-14 Maidan protests.
- Over 150 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed, UNESCO announced on Thursday. The damage includes 70 religious buildings, 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums and seven libraries.
- Ukraine is recording 200-300 war crimes committed by Russian forces on Ukrainian territory everyday, Ukrinform reports. In an interview broadcast by Ukrainian television channels, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said, “War crimes are our trouble. Every day we have 200-300 of them, and it’s not because we want or don’t want to start [an investigation] and move. It’s because we have a duty: when there is a crime, we have to start an investigation.”
- The United States is sending additional military assistance to Ukraine, the White House announced on Thursday. The $450 million shipment includes additional rocket systems to use against Russian invasion forces. “This package contains weapons and equipment, including new High Mobility Artillery Rocket systems,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
- The regional governor of the eastern region of Donetsk said on Thursday that no town is safe for residents as fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops intensifies. “There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse, citing latest intelligence data.
- Ukraine, in a symbolic move, on Thursday said it had formally filed a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights to end “the mass and gross human rights violations” by Moscow’s forces during the war in Ukraine. A Ukrainian justice ministry statement said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand over the blog to my colleague in Australia, Samantha Lock, who will bring you the latest updates on Ukraine. Thank you and I’ll be back tomorrow.
Over 150 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed, UNESCO announced on Thursday.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 152 cultural sites have been partially or totally destroyed as a result of the fighting.
The damage includes 70 religious buildings, 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums and seven libraries.
Three-quarters of the damages sites are in three region: the Donetsk region, where the fighting is still particularly intense - with 45 damaged cultural sites - the Kharkiv region - with 40 damaged sites - and the Kyiv region - with 26 damaged sites.
“These repeated attacks on Ukrainian cultural sites must stop. Cultural heritage, in all its forms, should not be targeted under any circumstances. I reiterate my call for the respect of international humanitarian law, in particular the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict,” said Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General.
Ukraine is recording 200-300 war crimes committed by Russian forces on Ukrainian territory everyday, Ukrinform reports.
In an interview broadcast by Ukrainian television channels, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova said, “War crimes are our trouble. Every day we have 200-300 of them, and it’s not because we want or don’t want to start [an investigation] and move. It’s because we have a duty: when there is a crime, we have to start an investigation.”
“Very often we do not have access to territories or people at all. However, this does not mean that we should not start an investigation. We will always do it,” she added.
According to Venediktova, there are currently 623 suspects in the main case regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We are talking, in particular, about the three most important crimes committed during the war - war crimes, genocide, the investigation into which we began from the first days of the [all-out] war, and, of course, aggression. As for the crimes of aggression, we have more than 20 of cases. As for genocide, we already have two suspects who called for genocide,” she said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy hails decision for Ukraine EU candidacy status – video
The United States is sending additional military assistance to Ukraine, the White House announced on Thursday.
The $450 million shipment includes additional rocket systems to use against Russian invasion forces.
“This package contains weapons and equipment, including new High Mobility Artillery Rocket systems,” White House spokesman John Kirby said.
Other military equipment includes tens of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition as well as patrol boats.
The rocket systems known as HIMARS are at the top of Ukraine’s wish list as it attempts to fight off Russian forces advancing through the east of the country with the help of a significant advantage in heavy artillery.
An initial four units of the rocket system have already been delivered, kicking off the training program required for Ukrainian soldiers to operate the sophisticated and highly accurate weaponry.
With the latest shipments, the US contribution to Ukraine’s military will amount so far to $6.1 billion, Kirby said.
European Union approves Ukraine as an EU candidate country – video
The regional governor of the eastern region of Donetsk said on Thursday that no town is safe for residents as fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops intensifies.
“There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse, citing latest intelligence data.
“It is extremely dangerous for residents to stay in any places of the region,” he added, given the current scale of fighting around the towns of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.
Kyrylenko added that the priority was to prevent Russian forces from advancing into Slovyansk and Kramatosk some 80 kilometres away further west. He said around 45,000 people remained in the latter city - about one third of the pre-war population.
He also said that civilian evacuations were ongoing with 251 people taken out Wednesday from the area. According to him, deliveries of foodstuffs were continuing throughout the Donetsk region despite power outages and intermittent cuts to supplies of water and gas.
European Union approves Ukraine as an EU candidate country
The European Union has approved the application of Ukraine to become a candidate country for admission to the 27-strong bloc. EU leaders meeting in Brussels have followed the recommendation of the European Commission, which was made on Friday 17 June.
Ukraine has been seeking EU membership since the 2004 “orange revolution” and more emphatically since the 2013-14 Maidan protests. In the expectation of a positive outcome Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had said: “This is like going into the light from the darkness.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Vsevolod Chentsov, had said the move would mark “is a signal to Moscow that Ukraine, and also other countries from the former Soviet Union, cannot belong to the Russian spheres of influence.”
The move comes just one day short of the four month anniversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin ordering his troops into Ukraine for what Russia has insisted is not a war, but a “special military operation”.
The accession process to the EU can be lengthy. Until today the official list of candidate countries included Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey. Turkey gained candidate status in 1999, the Republic of North Macedonia in 2005.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen tweeted on Thursday, “Today is a good day for Europe.”
“This decision strengthens us all. It strengthens Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, in the face of Russian imperialism. And it strengthens the EU,” she added, referring to the approvals of Moldova and Georgia’s applications for membership candidacy.
Today is a good day for Europe.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 23, 2022
Congratulations to President @ZelenskyyUA President @Sandumaiamd and Prime Minister @GharibashviliGe
Your countries are part of our European family.
And today’s historic decision by Leaders confirms that. pic.twitter.com/lAkv8Bq5fs
Ukraine, in a symbolic move, on Thursday said it had formally filed a case against Russia at the European Court of Human Rights to end “the mass and gross human rights violations” by Moscow’s forces during the war in Ukraine.
Reuters reports:
The bid has no chance of substantive success, given that on June 7 the Russian parliament approved two bills ending the court’s jurisdiction in Russia.
A Ukrainian justice ministry statement said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was illegal under the European Convention on Human Rights.
“The Court will be invited to find that Russia has been guilty of the most flagrant, serious and sustained violations of the Convention ever placed before the Court, and to award just satisfaction on an equally unprecedented scale,” it said.
The filing covers the first period of the war, from Feb. 24 until April 7, the date Russia effectively withdrew its ground forces from around Kyiv and other northern cities. Subsequent filings would cover later events, the ministry said.
Moscow has denied allegations by Ukraine and Western governments of human rights violations during the war.
In March, the United Nations’ top court for disputes between states ordered Russia to stop military operations, saying it was profoundly concerned by Moscow’s use of force. The International Court of Justice was responding to a case filed by Ukraine shortly after the war started.
UK government bans export of jet fuel, banknotes to Russia
The UK government has issued an update to the list of goods that are banned from being exported to Russia. The new details include:
- Prohibitions on the export to, or for use in Russia of jet fuel and fuel additives.
- Prohibitions on the export to, or for use in, Russia, of Sterling or EU denominated banknotes; as well as prohibitions on the making available, supply, or delivery of such banknotes to a person connected with Russia.
- Prohibitions on the provision of technical assistance, financial services, funds, and brokering services relating to iron and steel imports.
Updated
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has also posted a short evening update to Telegram. In his message he says that “on 23 June, the Russians killed six civilians in Donetsk: three in Pryshib, two in Avdiivka and one in Chasiv Yar. Five more people were injured today.”
The message continues “it is currently impossible to determine the exact number of Russian victims in Mariupol and Volnovakha.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
Reuters reports that US sources have told them that the United States is expected to provide an additional $450 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including more long-range rocket systems, in a package due to be announced later today.
The officials told Reuters that details on the package could change at the last minute, but it is expected to include four additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems or “Himars”.
Earlier today Ukraine’s minister of defence announced the arrival of some of the precision-guided missile launchers on Twitter.
“Himars have arrived to Ukraine,” Oleksii Reznikov wrote. “Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.”
Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has posted what he described as “a short evening report” to Telegram. He writes:
Fighting continues in all directions. Many defensive structures have already been destroyed in the Sievierodonetsk industrial zone, we do not rule out the possibility of retreating to new, more fortified positions.
Lysychansk under heavy shelling. We continue to support the life of the city … the “quiet” evacuation continues - today about 40 people left.
In the event of the occupation of Sievierodonetsk, people hiding in the shelters of “Nitrogen” [the Azot chemical plant] will become hostages of racists. Access will be only to the occupied part of Luhansk region.
In the newly occupied territories, the racists [Haidai’s term for the pro-Russian forces] have already begun so-called “filtering”. Activists and people involved in military affairs are being hunted, and relatives of such categories of people are also in sight. Men are forced to go to war against Ukraine, used as “cannon fodder”
The claims within his update have not been independently verified.
Former British Ambassador to Russia, Roderic Lyne, was interviewed earlier by Sky News in the UK about the prospect of the decision to invite Ukraine to be a candidate country for European Union membership. He told viewers:
This will be a watershed in the life of independent Ukraine. Over the past 30 years, Ukraine has made itself vulnerable to Russian pressure, because it’s been rather poorly governed.
With candidate status for the European Union, Ukraine has a very clear incentive to smarten up its act. It will be set all kinds of tough conditions and milestones. This will provide a much needed discipline towards building a really robust democracy.
If Ukraine had not been so weak, it would have been much harder for Russia to attack. So this is really a big turning point.
Asked what he felt Vladimir Putin’s response would be, Lyne said:
We’ve already had the response a week ago. He said he didn’t care because the EU wasn’t a military organisation. I think he does care, but he didn’t want to show that in public. This is another defeat for Putin.
Daniel R DePetris and Rajan Menon, who are both defence and security academics, write for us today to say that the war in Ukraine has entered a new, and more difficult, phase:
How has Russia learned from its errors in the initial stage of the war? First, instead of trying to attack all of Ukraine from multiple angles, a gambit that strained supply lines and left troops exposed to attacks from the rear, it has focused its campaign on Ukraine’s east, using long-range artillery, air and missile strikes on a massive scale against a smaller range of targets. The Russians have also been willing to destroy large parts of towns in order to seize or surround them. The agile urban fighting that the Ukrainian army excelled at is minimised in the Donbas, whose relatively flat terrain favours armoured warfare, airpower and missiles. These weapons, as well as the ratio of soldiers there, favor Russia by a wide margin.
In Sievierodonetsk, Russian tactics – which often destroy entire urban districts before sending in ground troops – have presented Ukrainian commanders with a conundrum: retreat and live to fight another day, or stand their ground and possibly see some of their best troops killed or captured. The outlook for Ukraine in Sievierodonetsk looks grim at best and preordained at worst. About 70% of the city is now under Russian control, and US defence officials assess that Russia could take all of Luhansk within weeks.
Read more here: Daniel R DePetris and Rajan Menon – The war in Ukraine has entered a new, and more difficult, phase
Here are some images we have been sent today from Chernihiv, which is to the north of Ukraine’s capital city Kyiv and approaching the border with Belarus. Parts of the region were attacked by Russian troops early in the war.
Pjotr Sauer reports for us from Kyiv on the latest situation in Ukraine:
The battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine is edging towards “a fearsome climax”, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said, as the war in Ukraine is set to enter its fourth month on Friday.
Russia’s efforts to capture Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk – the two remaining cities under Ukrainian control in Luhansk – have turned into a bloody war of attrition, with both sides inflicting heavy casualties. Moscow, over the last two weeks, has managed to make steady gains.
“The fighting is entering a sort of fearsome climax”, said Oleksiy Arestovych in an interview late on Wednesday.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, one of two in the eastern Donbas, said on Thursday morning that Russian forces have been “successful” in their advances. He added that enemy forces had captured Loskutivka, a settlement to the south of Lysychansk, which threatened to isolate Ukrainian troops.
“In order to avoid encirclement, our command could order that the troops retreat to new positions,” Haidai said in a post on Telegram. Russian state news agency Tass cited Russian-backed separatists saying Lysychansk was now surrounded and cut off from supplies after Russia captured a road linking the city to Ukrainian-held territories.
Meanwhile, Russia is now believed to control all of Sievierodonetsk with the exception of the Azot chemical plant. Hundreds of civilians and Ukrainian forces are trapped there. Footage posted on social media on Thursday showed heavy fighting outside the industrial area where the plant is located.
Relentless Russian shelling of the Azot plant echoes the earlier bloody siege of the Azovstal steelworks in the southern port of Mariupol, where hundreds of fighters and civilians had taken shelter.
Read more of Pjotr Sauer’s report from Kyiv: Fighting entering ‘climax’ in key regions, says Ukraine
Today so far …
- EU leaders will decide today whether to grant Ukraine candidate status, following a positive recommendation from the European Commission last Friday. EU leaders in Brussels are expected to sign off on last week’s recommendation by the European Commission, the EU executive.
- Russia’s Tass news agency is carrying a report that British citizens Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, alongside Moroccan Saadoun Brahim, are preparing an appeal against their death sentences. Tass quotes Pinner’s lawyer Yulia Tserkovnikova saying “my colleagues and I are preparing the full text of the appeal against the verdict in the interests of our clients”. British authorities have described the trial as a “sham”, with one MP saying the men were essentially being held as hostages. The men argue that they were part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and should be subject to the Geneva convention on prisoners of war.
- Russia’s ministry of defence claims to have killed at least 650 Ukrainian soldiers in the last 24 hours in its latest daily operational briefing. It claims that “the enemy continues to suffer significant losses” and that it “destroyed 49 tanks with fuel for military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as up to 50 multiple launch rocket systems located in the hangars.”
- Russian forces are putting the Lysychansk-Sievierodonetsk pocket under increasing pressure by steadily advancing around the fringes, according to British intelligence. Since 19 June, Russian forces have “highly likely” advanced over 5km towards the southern approaches of the Donbas city of Lysychansk, according to the latest UK ministry of defence report.
- Ukrainian troops may need to pull back from the key frontline city of Lysychansk to avoid being encircled after Russian forces captured two villages to its south, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai has said on national television. “In order to avoid encirclement, our command could order that the troops retreat to new positions,” he said. “All of Lysychansk is within reach of their fire. It is very dangerous in the city.”
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said believes Russian forces are attempting to destroy cities in the eastern Donbas region in the same way they did in Mariupol. During his nightly address, Zelenskiy said: “The goal of the occupiers in this direction remains the same - they want to destroy the whole Donbas step by step. Entire. Lysychansk, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk - they aim to turn any city into Mariupol. Completely ruined.”
- Three cruise missiles hit Ukraine’s southern port city of Mykolaiv today, while air defences shot down another two missiles near the southern city of Odesa, the Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement.
- The governor of Dnipropetrovsk, Valentyn Reznichenko, has accused Russia of using cluster munitions in the region.
- Ukraine is expected to hold a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian soldier charged with raping a Ukrainian woman during Russia’s invasion, the first of what could be dozens of such cases. The suspect, Mikhail Romanov, 32, who is not in Ukrainian custody and will be tried in absentia, is accused of murdering a civilian in the Kyiv capital region on 9 March and then repeatedly raping the man’s wife, according to court files.
- Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has said Russia and Belarus must take urgent joint measures to improve their defence capabilities and “increase the combat readiness of troop groupings and the unified regional air defence system.”
- The UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has warned that the grain crisis in Ukraine must be solved by global leaders within the next month, otherwise the world could see “devastating consequences”.
- The Kremlin has reiterated its assertion that Russia has not stolen any grain from Ukraine, as Turkey said it was probing allegations from Kyiv and would not allow any such grain to be brought to Turkey. Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Turkey was taking the claims seriously.
- US donations of its new “Himars” multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS, have arrived in Ukraine. Ukraine’s minister of defence announced the arrival of the precision-guided missile launchers on Twitter. “Himars have arrived to Ukraine,” Oleksii Reznikov wrote. “Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.”
- Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has accused Vladimir Putin of “wholly immoral” behaviour, saying the Russian president has “weaponised” food, energy and migration as part of his war effort.
- Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda has said the country must raise defence spending to 3% of GDP to enable it to host a much larger number of Nato troops.
- The European Union and Norway have agreed to cooperate to bring more gas from western Europe’s biggest producer to the EU’s 27 countries, nearly half of which are now facing cuts to their Russian gas supplies.
- Dramatic footage emerged on Wednesday from Russia of what appears to be a drone flying into an oil refinery and causing an explosion in what could be an attack inside Russia’s borders. Video shared on social media showed the unmanned aerial vehicle crashing into the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Rostov region, in what would be an embarrassing breach of Russia’s air defence systems.
- Residents and workers at a nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a city in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, are being abducted by Russian occupiers, according to the region’s mayor. “Whereabouts of some unknown. The rest are in very difficult conditions: they are being tortured with electric shock, bullied physically and morally,” said mayor Dmytro Orlov.
- A television tower in the Ukrainian separatist-held city of Donetsk has been badly damaged by shelling and broadcasting has been interrupted, the local Donetsk news agency reported. The Petrovskiy television centre is still standing, but part of its equipment has been damaged, while some equipment has been moved out, the agency said.
It is undoubtedly not the most pressing concern for Ukraine, but the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) has issued a statement this afternoon re-affirming its decision that Ukraine will not be able to host the Eurovision song contest in 2023.
On Friday the EBU had said it was opening talks with the BBC to host next year’s contest in the UK, after ruling out the event being hosted by this year’s winners, Ukraine, as is traditional. Ukraine’s culture minister demanded further talks. Today the EBU has said:
The EBU fully understands the disappointment that greeted the announcement that the 2023 Eurovision song contest (ESC) cannot be staged in Ukraine. The decision was guided by the EBU’s responsibility to ensure the conditions are met to guarantee the safety and security of everyone working and participating in the event.
At least 10,000 people are usually accredited to work on, or at, the ESC including crew, staff and journalists. A further 30,000 fans are expected to travel to the event from across the world. Their welfare is our prime concern.
The EBU outlined the security advice it had taken, noted that no major acts are touring Ukraine in 2013, and said that Ukraine’s own security assessment noted “the ‘severe’ risk of air raids/attacks by aircraft or attacks by drones or missiles. The statement concludes:
Taking all of this into account the EBU, with regret, made its decision to move the event to another country and will continue discussions on finding a suitable location for next year’s Eurovision Song Contest. We are happy to engage further with our Ukrainian Member UA:PBC on all these issues.
Interfax has reported some words from Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu. He has said Russia and Belarus must take urgent joint measures to improve their defence capabilities and troops’ combat readiness. Interfax quotes him saying:
Circumstances dictate the need to take urgent joint measures on strengthening the defence capabilities of the union state, increase the combat readiness of troop groupings and the unified regional air defence system.
Ukrainian troops may need to pull back from the key frontline city of Lysychansk to avoid being encircled after Russian forces captured two villages to its south, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai has said on national television, Reuters reports.
“In order to avoid encirclement, our command could order that the troops retreat to new positions,” he said. “All of Lysychansk is within reach of their fire. It is very dangerous in the city.”
The Ukrainian military almost never shares details concerning its strategy, but chief commander of the armed forces Valery Zaluzhny conceded that Ukraine was having to make defensive adjustments.
“We are forced to conduct a mobile defence, to occupy more advantageous lines and positions,” Zaluzhny said in an online post that did not name specific areas. “The price of freedom is high.”
Here are some of the pictures we have been sent from Brussels, where European Union leaders are meeting to discuss Ukraine’s status as a possible candidate country for entry to the EU.
The European Union and Norway have agreed to cooperate to bring more gas from western Europe’s biggest producer to the EU’s 27 countries, nearly half of which are now facing cuts to their Russian gas supplies.
Norway and the European Commission will “step up cooperation in order to ensure additional short-term and long-term gas supplies from Norway,” they said in a statement, after the EU climate policy chief, Frans Timmermans, and Norway’s energy minister, Terje Aasland, met in Brussels.
Reuters notes that the EU imports roughly a fifth of its gas from Norway, compared with the 40% it got from Russia before Moscow’s latest invasion of Ukraine. Russia has been cutting gas supplies to countries refusing to pay it in roubles.
Today’s statement said Norway will remain a “large supplier” to Europe beyond 2030 and expressed support to increase its oil and gas exploration. It also pledged to cooperate on renewable energy and green technologies such as hydrogen. Moves by some countries to invest in new gasfields have raised fears that the Ukraine war could derail climate commitments.
Updated
Telecoms equipment maker Cisco will wind down its business in Russia and Belarus, the company has told Reuters. The US company stopped business operations, including sales and services, in the region in March.
Ahead of the expected decision that Ukraine is to become a candidate country for EU membership, the German chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned that the bloc must ready itself for expansion.
Reuters reports he told the media in Brussels: “We need to set the conditions that are necessary for Ukraine to continue its promising road ahead and at the same time we need to understand that we need to make ourselves ready for expansion.”
Scholz said that in order for a larger union to work, more decisions should be made by majority, instead of requiring unanimity.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has singled out the “ill-conceived, selfish actions of individual states” as an issue of concern in his speech at the 14th Brics summit.
The event is being held virtually, and is being hosted by President Xi Jinping of China. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti quotes the Russian president saying:
Only on the basis of honest and mutually beneficial cooperation can we look for ways out of the crisis situation that has developed in the world economy due to the ill-conceived, selfish actions of individual states, which, using financial mechanisms, in fact, spread their own mistakes in macroeconomic policy to the whole world.
The Brics group of economies is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Updated
The city of Melbourne in Australia is considering using a purpose-built quarantine hub to house hundreds of refugees fleeing Ukraine and Afghanistan.
A largely vacant centre was opened as a 500-bed site and initially hosted unvaccinated international travellers, before the state dumped its seven-day quarantine requirement, according to the Australian Associated Press.
It is believed the centre would only temporarily house refugees as more permanent accommodation is sought.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion in late February, more than 3,200 Ukrainian visa holders have arrived in Australia, the AAP news agency said.
However, the plan is to house only some of about 500 refugees coming to Australia from Afghanistan and about 200 from Ukraine.
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US donations of its new “Himars” multiple launch rocket system, or MLRS, have arrived in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s minister of defence announced the arrival of the precision-guided missile launchers on Twitter.
“Himars have arrived to Ukraine,” Oleksii Reznikov wrote. “Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.”
HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine.
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) June 23, 2022
Thank you to my 🇺🇲 colleague and friend @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools!
Summer will be hot for russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them. pic.twitter.com/BTmwadthpp
Himars will give Ukraine’s forces the ability to strike further behind Russian lines, and at distances better protected from Russia’s own long-range weaponry.
More details here:
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us from Ukraine over the newswires.
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Three cruise missiles hit southern Ukraine port city of Mykolaiv
Three cruise missiles hit Ukraine’s southern port city of Mykolaiv today, while air defences shot down another two missiles near the southern city of Odesa, the Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement.
Reuters reports that the military said one civilian was wounded in the strikes on Mykolaiv. The claims have not been independently verified.
Ireland’s taoiseach: Putin's 'wholly immoral' behaviour has weaponised food, energy and migration
Ireland’s taoiseach, Micheál Martin, has accused Vladimir Putin of “wholly immoral” behaviour, saying the Russian president has “weaponised” food, energy and migration as part of his war effort.
Commenting in Brussels ahead of the EU-western Balkans leaders’ summit, he said the EU was very clear it had not applied any sanctions against the movement of food. Martin stated “we do not want to, in any shape or form, be a catalyst for any famine or hunger.
“And that’s the big fear at the moment because of the fact that grain is not getting out of Ukraine, that there could be very significant impacts in terms of famine and that’s a big worry, particularly around the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and so on.”
He placed the blame for the Ukraine grain export crisis firmly at Russia’s door, saying:
Putin has weaponised food, he’s weaponised energy, he’s weaponised migration as part of his overall war effort, which I think is wholly immoral and wrong.
Martin went on to say that Europe is sending a message of solidarity to Ukraine by granting the country EU candidate status. PA Media quotes him saying:
This is a very significant European Council meeting. It’s historic in the sense of the enlargement of the European Union and I’m particularly pleased as a long-standing advocate for Ukraine’s application to candidate status to become a member of the European Union.
It’s very significant for Ukraine, very significant for Moldova and, indeed, Georgia, in terms of European perspective.
We in Ireland know what the European Union means, being a member of the European Union. It’s the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s decision to join the European Union, probably the single most transformative decision and event that happened in modern Irish history.
So, I always cannot comprehend how we could ever refuse accession to other member states, because we know that membership itself can be transformative.
It can spur on reforms, can spur on economic development, and notwithstanding that Ukraine is going through a terrible, terrible, inhumane war, their cities and towns have been levelled, their people have been terrorised – the greatest humanitarian crisis since the second world war.
I think today the European Union is sending a message of solidarity to the people of Ukraine that you belong to the European family, you belong to the European Union, and the decision will be taken today to facilitate your application and you will have candidate status to join the European Union.
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There have been a few developments today ahead of the Nato summit in Madrid next week. Lithuanian president Gitanas Nauseda has said the country must raise defence spending to 3% of GDP to enable it to host a much larger number of Nato troops.
Nauseda told Reuters in an interview “Infrastructure-wise, we are not ready to deploy a brigade-sized unit in Lithuania because there is no accommodation infrastructure here. I hope that by 2027 we will be ready. We are talking about hundreds of millions of euros for that purpose.”
Meanwhile Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas told Reuters that she expects Nato to designate additional units for its defence, but the troops would not be hosted on its soil in a compromise from demands for boots on the ground.
“Considering how mobile the forces right now are, and how very difficult it is to send permanent troops, we have proposed such a structure of allocated forces. The troops are, for example, in the United Kingdom or other allies, but if something happens, they are immediately able to come here and defend us from the first day.”
In an interview with the FT yesterday, Kallas expressed concern that the current Nato “tripwire” strategy would allow Russia time to ensure Estonia was “wiped off the map, including our people, our nation”.
In a third development, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has announced he will meet US president Joe Biden in Madrid on Tuesday ahead of the summit.
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The Kremlin has reiterated its assertion that Russia has not stolen any grain from Ukraine, as Turkey said it was probing allegations from Kyiv and would not allow any such grain to be brought to Turkey.
Kyiv’s ambassador to Ankara said in early June that Turkish buyers were among those receiving grain that Russia had stolen from Ukraine, adding he had sought Turkey’s help to identify and capture individuals responsible for the alleged shipments.
Reuters reports that, asked about Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s comments that Ankara would investigate [see 9.20am], Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “You should ask the foreign ministry. Russia has not stolen any grain.”
Peskov has previously described reports in the buildup to the war that Russia planned to invade Ukraine as “hollow and unfounded” and in February asserted that Russian troops in Belarus would be “pulled back to their permanent bases” after the conclusion of joint military drills.
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Jennifer Rankin is in Brussels for us, and here she sets the scene for today’s expected announcement about Ukraine’s candidacy for EU membership:
European leaders are poised to grant Ukraine candidate status, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels are expected to approve Ukraine’s candidate status later on Thursday, nearly four months after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion.
The move from applicant to candidate usually takes years, but the EU has dramatically accelerated the process, amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack, and to show solidarity with Ukraine’s defenders.
“Ukraine is going through hell for a simple reason: its desire to join the EU,” tweeted the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on the eve of the summit. The commission last week called on EU leaders to grant Ukraine’s candidate status. “Our opinion acknowledges the immense progress that [Ukrainian] democracy has achieved since the Maidan protests of 2014,” Von der Leyen said.
Welcoming the expected positive decision, Zelenskiy said: “This is like going into the light from the darkness.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said candidate status would “draw a line under decades of ambiguity and set it in stone: Ukraine is Europe, not part of the ‘Russian world’”.
Read more of Jennifer Rankin’s report here: EU leaders to grant Ukraine candidate status in blow to Putin
Today so far …
- EU leaders will decide today whether to grant Ukraine candidate status, following a positive recommendation from the European Commission last Friday. EU leaders in Brussels are expected to sign off on last week’s recommendation by the European Commission, the EU executive.
- Russia’s Tass news agency is carrying a report that British citizens Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, alongside Moroccan Saadoun Brahim, are preparing an appeal against their death sentences. Tass quotes Pinner’s lawyer Yulia Tserkovnikova saying “my colleagues and I are preparing the full text of the appeal against the verdict in the interests of our clients”. British authorities have described the trial as a “sham”, with one MP saying the men were essentially being held as hostages. The men argue that they were part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and should be subject to the Geneva convention on prisoners of war.
- Russia’s ministry of defence claims to have killed at least 650 Ukrainian soldiers in the last 24 hours in its latest daily operational briefing. It claims that “the enemy continues to suffer significant losses” and that it “destroyed 49 tanks with fuel for military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as up to 50 multiple launch rocket systems located in the hangars.”
- Russian forces are putting the Lysychansk-Sievierodonetsk pocket under increasing pressure by steadily advancing around the fringes, according to British intelligence. Since 19 June, Russian forces have “highly likely” advanced over 5km towards the southern approaches of the Donbas city of Lysychansk, according to the latest UK ministry of defence report.
- Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said Lysychansk “suffers from heavy fire from Russian invaders. And there are so many artillery and mortars here that the Russians are simply covering entire neighbourhoods with heavy fire. Numerous casualties among civilians.”
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said believes Russian forces are attempting to destroy cities in the eastern Donbas region in the same way they did in Mariupol. During his nightly address, Zelenskiy said: “The goal of the occupiers in this direction remains the same - they want to destroy the whole Donbas step by step. Entire. Lysychansk, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk - they aim to turn any city into Mariupol. Completely ruined.”
- The governor of Dnipropetrovsk, Valentyn Reznichenko, has accused Russia of using cluster munitions in the region.
- Ukraine is expected to hold a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian soldier charged with raping a Ukrainian woman during Russia’s invasion, the first of what could be dozens of such cases. The suspect, Mikhail Romanov, 32, who is not in Ukrainian custody and will be tried in absentia, is accused of murdering a civilian in the Kyiv capital region on 9 March and then repeatedly raping the man’s wife, according to court files.
- The UK’s ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Neil Bush, has said Russia had “miscalculated” their aggressive actions, and that “credible evidence of systematic rape, torture, abduction and butchery of innocent Ukrainian civilians by Russian armed forces is an affront to humanity.”
- The UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has warned that the grain crisis in Ukraine must be solved by global leaders within the next month, otherwise the world could see “devastating consequences”.
- Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Turkey was taking seriously claims Ukrainian grain was stolen by Russia, and is investigating those allegations. He said Turkey would not allow grain stolen by Russia or any other country to be brought to Turkey.
- Dramatic footage emerged on Wednesday from Russia of what appears to be a drone flying into an oil refinery and causing an explosion in what could be an attack inside Russia’s borders. Video shared on social media showed the unmanned aerial vehicle crashing into the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Rostov region, in what would be an embarrassing breach of Russia’s air defence systems.
- Residents and workers at a nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a city in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, are being abducted by Russian occupiers, according to the region’s mayor. “Whereabouts of some unknown. The rest are in very difficult conditions: they are being tortured with electric shock, bullied physically and morally,” said mayor Dmytro Orlov.
- A television tower in the Ukrainian separatist-held city of Donetsk has been badly damaged by shelling and broadcasting has been interrupted, the local Donetsk news agency reported. The Petrovskiy television centre is still standing, but part of its equipment has been damaged, while some equipment has been moved out, the agency said.
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Russia's defence ministry: 'The enemy continues to suffer significant losses'
Russia’s ministry of defence claims to have killed at least 650 Ukrainian soldiers in the last 24 hours in its latest daily operational briefing.
It claims that “the enemy continues to suffer significant losses” and that near the settlement of Mirnaya Dolina in Luhansk “junior command staff abandoned their subordinates and deserted from the combat area”.
The statement also claims that “less than 50% of the personnel remained in the units of the 30th mechanized brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine” near Klinovoye in Ukraine, and that “more than 170 more soldiers and officers were evacuated from the combat area with severe wounds.”
Among other claims, the Russian military says “aerospace forces in the Mykolaiv region destroyed 49 tanks with fuel for military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine, as well as up to 50 multiple launch rocket systems located in the hangars” and “high-precision weapons also hit three bases for the repair of armoured vehicles in the Mykolaiv region, four command posts, manpower and military equipment in 18 districts”.
None of the claims have been independently verified.
Updated
UK ambassador: Russia 'miscalculated in Ukraine' and actions are 'an affront to humanity'
The UK’s ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Neil Bush, has issued a statement this morning of his speech on Russia and Ukraine, in which he said Russia had “miscalculated” its aggressive actions. He said:
Firstly, they have underestimated the resolve and heroism of the Ukrainian people, who successfully defended their capital and forced Russian invaders into retreat.
Secondly, they have underestimated the resolve of the international community; the result of this aggression has been to unite the free world in support of Ukraine, bolstering international cooperation and isolating Russia politically and economically.
And finally, they have underestimated the strength of the principle of sovereignty in the 21st century; President Putin’s actions have only brought into sharper focus the right of all countries to determine their own foreign, defence and security policy.
Bush went on to say:
The Russian military’s urban warfare tactics, which are reliant on heavy use of artillery, have generated extensive destruction. With every day that passes, evidence grows of the unspeakable savagery of President Putin’s war of choice.
The OSCE has played, and will continue to play, a pivotal role in fact-finding efforts. Credible evidence of systematic rape, torture, abduction and butchery of innocent Ukrainian civilians by Russian armed forces is an affront to humanity. The international community has made clear that we will not rest until those responsible for atrocities are brought to justice – however long it takes.
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Earlier this morning, Ukraine’s former deputy defence minister Alina Frolova appeared on Sky News in the UK. She said that her country was determined to win the war, suggesting that they have something to fight for, and that the invading Russian forces do not.
She also spoke about the potential for Ukraine joining the EU, saying that a declaration that Ukraine could become a candidate country was important as it was “about the political declaration that Ukraine is acknowledged as a European nation”. She said:
We understand this is not membership, and that we have a long period in front of us to implement the requirements, but for us it is important from the moral point of view.
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In the months since the invasion of Ukraine, Estonians, who share a border with Russia, are increasingly concerned about potential Kremlin aggression. More than 1,000 ordinary women have volunteered to join the Women’s Defence Organisation since the conflict began.
Car mechanic Mari Klandorf is one. She now spends her weekends training in first aid, guerrilla warfare and firearms and says: “Russia might not be coming tomorrow, or the next day, but I want to be prepared.”
Here is our video report from Kyri Evangelou:
Ukraine is expected on Thursday to hold a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian soldier charged with raping a Ukrainian woman during Russia’s invasion, the first of what could be dozens of such cases.
The suspect, Mikhail Romanov, 32, who is not in Ukrainian custody and will be tried in absentia, is accused of murdering a civilian in the Kyiv capital region on 9 March and then repeatedly raping the man’s wife, according to court files.
Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a written request from Reuters for comment, and the agency says it was unable to reach the soldier. Moscow has denied allegations of war crimes.
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The UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has warned that the grain crisis in Ukraine must be solved by global leaders within the next month, otherwise the world could see “devastating consequences”.
During a visit to Ankara, Truss said she had spoken to Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu about cooperation between the two countries to ensure grain can leave Ukraine.
“This grain crisis is urgent and needs to be solved within the next month, otherwise we could see devastating consequences,” she said during a press conference.
PA Media reports Truss added that the UK is offering its own “expertise” on ways to bypass a Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain. “It is going to require an international effort,” she warned.
Çavuşoğlu said Turkey was taking seriously claims Ukrainian grain was stolen by Russia, and is investigating those allegations. He said Turkey would not allow grain stolen by Russia or any other country to be brought to Turkey.
Truss accused Russia of “weaponising hunger” and using food security as a “callous tool of war” with its blockade of Ukrainian grain. Reuters quotes her saying:
Putin is weaponising hunger. He is using food security as a callous tool of war. He has blocked Ukrainian ports, and is stopping 20 million tonnes of grain being exported across the globe, holding the world to ransom
We’re clear that commercial vessels need to have safe passage to be able to leave Ukrainian ports, and that Ukrainian ports should be protected from Russian attacks.
We support the UN talks, but Russia cannot be allowed to delay and prevaricate. It’s urgent that action is taken within the next month ahead of the new harvest. And we’re determined to work with our allies to deliver this.
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The daily military update from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has been published. They claim that two people were killed and five more civilians were injured when Ukrainian forces shelled 14 of the 239 settlements the DPR claim to control. The claims have not been independently verified.
Jonathan Powell writes for us today. He was chief of staff to Tony Blair and Blair’s chief negotiator on Northern Ireland. He says that Putin is not yet ready to end the Ukraine war, but when he is, we must be prepared:
The greatest guarantee of Ukraine’s secure future lies in the EU’s hands. If Ukraine is offered candidate status now and a clear track to membership, even if lengthy, then it will be far harder for Russia to invade again. This would also give Ukraine’s government the levers and incentives it needs to fundamentally reform a system still too dominated by a corrupt Soviet-era legacy of oligarchs and kleptocrats. It is difficult for the EU, which is very aware of its past mistakes in letting countries in too early. But it knows Ukraine is a special case.
We also need to expand the current negotiation agenda. Early Russia-Ukraine talks were too stacked towards Russian demands in terms of territory and the neutrality of Ukraine. A new agenda needs to be balanced with Ukraine’s priorities: justice for the crimes committed, rebuilding the country and recognition of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. The issue of territory is, in the end, a zero-sum game. We will need to increase the pie to find ways to allow trade-offs. That requires a wider negotiation on the future of European security, including a new conventional forces agreement and a new relationship between Nato and Russia.
Read more here: Jonathan Powell – Putin is not yet ready to end the Ukraine war. When he is, we must be prepared
Also speaking out today is Dmitry Medvedev. The deputy chairman of the security council of Russia, and long-time ally of Vladimir Putin, has published a 600 word essay on the decline of western politicians, saying:
I have been communicating with foreign leaders for a long time and I see how much the level of western politicians has fallen. This has been happening right before my eyes for the last twenty years. It is obvious that in Europe there is not even a trace of political figures of the level of Helmut Kohl, Jacques Chirac or Margaret Thatcher.
No offence to anyone, but it is clear to everyone that Mario Draghi is not Silvio Berlusconi, and Olaf Scholz is not Angela Merkel. These are new people and a new, in my opinion, far from the best era of public administration.
Medvedev, who is often seen to be a mouthpiece for what the Kremlin is thinking, asks “would the current president of Ukraine show up for a meeting with president Chirac in a green t-shirt? Of course not. Absurd.”
His verdict?
The problem of the degeneration of European politics is primarily due to the fact that it has become a pale backing vocal for American soloists. Charles de Gaulle could object to any American president. And now which of the Europeans will do it without shaking hands? They don’t think about the future. They are limited only by their electoral prospects. The American leaders of the new wave also do not shine with fresh ideas and mental stability. And so it will continue.
Russia’s foreign ministry has just published some typically combative words from foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, on the occasion of his meeting with the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi. It quotes Lavrov saying:
All countries experiencing the negative influence of the egotistical policies of the United States and its satellites have an objective need to “reconfigure” their economic ties in such a way as not to depend on the whims and vagaries of our western partners.
Britons sentenced to death in Donetsk preparing appeals – reports
Russia’s Tass news agency is carrying a report that British citizens Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, alongside Moroccan Saadoun Brahim, are preparing an appeal against their death sentences.
Tass quotes Pinner’s lawyer Yulia Tserkovnikova saying “my colleagues and I are preparing the full text of the appeal against the verdict in the interests of our clients.”
British authorities have described the trial as a “sham”, with one MP saying the men were essentially being held as hostages. The men argue that they were part of Ukraine’s armed forces, and should be subject to the Geneva convention on prisoners of war.
The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) charged the men with “mercenary activities and committing actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order of the DPR.”
Lviv’s governor, Maksym Kozytskyi, has posted his status update for the day, saying on Telegram that there was one air alarm in the area in the last 24 hours, and that 191 people arrived in Lviv via evacuation trains from the east of the country. He also stated that two people had been evacuated from the Donetsk region into hospitals in Lviv, one of them in a severe condition.
The governor of Dnipropetrovsk has accused Russia of using cluster munitions in the region. Valentyn Reznichenko posted to Telegram earlier:
Night again with shelling. The enemy struck the Kryvyi Rih district six times, insidiously aiming at residential neighbourhoods. There is the destruction of housing. The city is partially without light and water.
Cluster munitions remained in the streets and courtyards after the shelling. Rescuers took people to safety. I ask residents to be careful. And under no circumstances touch suspicious objects.
The claims have not been independently verified.
There has been an update from Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk. He has posted to Telegram the latest in Lysychansk, saying:
The city suffers from heavy fire from Russian invaders. In this direction, the racists concentrated more than a hundred multiple launch rocket system units. And there are so many artillery and mortars here that the Russians are simply covering entire neighbourhoods with heavy fire. Numerous casualties among civilians. Despite the total fire, the city is at the forefront of Ukrainian resistance to the occupiers. Lysychansk is defending itself!
The claims have not been independently verified.
- This is Martin Belam in London taking over the live blog from Samantha Lock. You can reach me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Russian forces advance 5km towards Lysychansk: UK MoD
Russian forces are putting the Lysychansk-Sieverodonetsk pocket under increasing pressure by steadily advancing around the fringes, according to British intelligence.
Since 19 June, Russian forces have “highly likely” advanced over 5km towards the southern approaches of the Donbas city of Lysychansk, according to the latest UK ministry of defence report.
Some Ukrainian units have withdrawn, probably to avoid being encircled. Russia’s improved performance in this sector is likely a result of recent unit reinforcement and heavy concentration of fire.
Russian forces are putting the Lysychansk-Sieverodonetsk pocket under increasing pressure with this creeping advance around the fringes of the built-up area. However, its efforts to achieve a deeper encirclement to take western Donetsk Oblast remain stalled.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 23 June 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 23, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/IMlKAZ5Kay
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/El9tqwfNba
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Russian forces have reportedly captured the settlements of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka south of Ukraine’s twin eastern cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk.
The cities have been the focus of the Russian offensive in the region for the past few weeks.
An update released early this morning by Ukraine’s general staff of the armed forces reads:
The enemy captured the settlements of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka. Conducts assault operations in order to establish control over the settlement of Syrotyne. Carries out preparatory measures for the forcing of the Siversky Donets River.”
Ukrainian forces continue the defence of Sievierodonetsk and the nearby settlements of Zolote and Vovchoyrovka, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai added.
A dog search team in the UK which specialises in recovering human bodies is stepping up its training ahead of an expected deployment to Ukraine.
Springer spaniel Bracken, sprocker Bramble and Dougal, a Labrador-springer spaniel mix, are travelling to Italy on Thursday to hone their skills while on standby for a trip to the war zone, PA Media reports.
Handlers John Miskelly, a British army veteran, and NHS nurse, Emma Dryburgh, have received a request to help in Ukraine but are waiting to receive confirmation that it is safe enough for them to travel.
They are part of Response Rescue International Scotland and their cadaver dogs, who are trained to detect the scent of human remains, would be assisting the work of the European Association of Civil Protection Volunteer Teams (Evolsar).
Miskelly, 54, told the PA news agency:
A request was put into us directly by a search, rescue and recovery team in Ukraine if we could assist in the recovery of bodies.”
Referring to search teams currently on the ground in Ukraine, he added:
Those people are tired, weary, their dogs are wrecked, they’re shattered. We’re fresh handlers with fresh dogs and we even have a partner team in the Czech Republic in Prague who we will bring with us - so fresh handlers, fresh dogs. They’re pleading for our help.”
Miskelly said the team will undergo five days’ training in Italy to help prepare them for the Ukraine deployment.
Russia aims to turn Donbas into Mariupol - Zelenskiy
Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy believes Russian forces are attempting to destroy cities in the eastern Donbas region in the same way they did in Mariupol.
During a nightly address, Zelenskiy said:
In Donbas there are massive air and artillery strikes.
The goal of the occupiers in this direction remains the same - they want to destroy the whole Donbas step by step. Entire.
Lysychansk, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk - they aim to turn any city into Mariupol. Completely ruined.”
Zelenskiy also called for parity on the battlefield in plea for more heavy weapons.
That is why we repeatedly emphasise the acceleration of weapons supplies to Ukraine. Parity is needed on the battlefield as soon as possible to stop this devilish armada and move it beyond the borders of Ukraine.”
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EU leaders to decide on Ukraine candidate status
EU leaders will decide today whether to grant Ukraine candidate status, following a positive recommendation from the European Commission last Friday.
EU leaders in Brussels are expected to sign off on last week’s recommendation by the European Commission, the EU executive.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had spoken to 11 EU leaders on Wednesday about Ukraine’s candidacy and will make more calls on Thursday, believing all 27 EU countries would support Ukraine’s candidate status.
“We deserve it,” he told crowds in Amsterdam via video link.
That is a very crucial moment for us, for some people in my team are saying this is like going into the light from the darkness.
In terms of our army and society, this is a big motivator, a big motivational factor for the unity and victory of the Ukrainian people.”
Expectations for a yes have grown since four EU leaders, including France and Germany, which had been perceived as among the most lukewarm, visited Kyiv last week in a show of support.
Zelenskiy filed an application to join the EU five days after Russia’s attack began. On a day when blasts were heard in Kyiv, he called for “immediate accession under a new special procedure”. While the initial response from about 10 EU states was deeply sceptical, opposition has fallen away, although questions remain about the long road ahead.
Ukraine has been seeking EU membership since the 2004 “orange revolution” and more insistently since the 2013-14 Maidan protests, when the pro-Kremlin president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted after he refused to sign an association agreement with the bloc.
Granting Ukraine candidate status to join the EU would be a historic decision signalling to Russia it can no longer claim a sphere of influence over its eastern neighbour, Kyiv’s ambassador to Brussels has said.
Vsevolod Chentsov, the head of Ukraine’s mission to the EU, said Russia’s war had united Kyiv with the bloc, while ending what he called a “mistake” about whether his country could belong to the union.
A survey published this week by the European Council on Foreign Relations, a thinktank, showed 57% of Europeans backed Ukraine’s membership bid.
EU candidate status, which can be granted only if the existing member countries agree unanimously, is the first step toward membership. It does not provide any security guarantees or an automatic right to join the bloc.
Ukraine’s full membership will depend on whether the war-torn country can satisfy political and economic conditions.
Updated
Summary and welcome
Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you as we continue to report all the latest news from Ukraine.
Here are all the other major developments as of 8am in Kyiv.
- Russian forces are edging closer to seizing the last pocket of resistance in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region. Sievierodonetsk and its neighbouring city, Lysychansk, continue to be battered by intense Russian shelling. Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, said on Wednesday that Russian forces were moving towards Lysychansk, targeting the buildings of police, state security and prosecutors.
- Dramatic footage has emerged from Russia of what appears to be a drone flying into an oil refinery and causing an explosion in what could be an attack inside Russia’s borders. Video shared on social media showed the unmanned aerial vehicle crashing into the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Rostov region, in what would be an embarrassing breach of Russia’s air defence systems.
- A Russian missile strike has left at least one person dead in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, according to its mayor, Oleksandr Senkevych. The attack caused several fires and damaged a number of buildings including a school, Senkevych said. The regional governor, Vitaliy Kim, said seven missiles had hit Mykolaiv.
- Residents and workers at a nuclear power plant in Enerhodar, a city in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, are being abducted by Russian occupiers, according to the region’s mayor. “Whereabouts of some unknown. The rest are in very difficult conditions: they are being tortured with electric shock, bullied physically and morally,” said mayor Dmytro Orlov.
- A television tower in the Ukrainian separatist-held city of Donetsk has been badly damaged by shelling and broadcasting has been interrupted, the local Donetsk news agency reported. The Petrovskiy television centre is still standing, but part of its equipment has been damaged, while some equipment has been moved out, the agency said.
- British intelligence predicts that Russia’s momentum will slow over the next few months.“Our defence intelligence service believes, however, that in the next few months, Russia could come to a point at which there is no longer any forward momentum because it has exhausted its resources,” British prime minister, Boris Johnson, told reporters.
- Leaders at the upcoming G7 summit in Germany will announce new measures aimed at pressuring Russia as well as new commitments to shore up European security, a senior US official has said. “We will roll out a concrete set of proposals to increase pressure on Russia,” the official said. The G7 is also likely to discuss the fate of a Russian turbine blocked in Canada and blamed for reducing gas supplies to Germany, Canada’s natural resources minister said.
- The Kremlin said the EU sanctions that led Lithuania to block the transit of some goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad were “absolutely unacceptable”. Moscow was working on retaliatory measures in response to the “illegal sanctions” by the EU, it said. Russia’s foreign ministry said Moscow’s response to Lithuania’s ban would not be exclusively diplomatic but practical in nature.
- Ukraine has played down the chances of reaching an agreement with Russia that could allow blocked grain shipments to start sailing across the Black Sea. Consultations are ongoing, Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said. Russia’s defence ministry said Moscow and Ankara had agreed to continue discussions on safe vessel departures and grain exports from Ukrainian ports.
- Finland’s armed forces chief said his country was prepared for a Russian attack and would put up stiff resistance in the event that one should occur. Finns are motivated to fight and the country has built up a substantial arsenal, Gen Timo Kivinen said, adding: “The most important line of defence is between one’s ears.”
- Russian president Vladimir Putin has called for a strengthening of ties with countries from the Brics group of emerging economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China South Africa– after western sanctions over Ukraine. Putin said discussions were continuing on the “opening of Indian chain stores in Russia, increasing the share of Chinese automobiles” on the Russian market.
- Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov visited in Iran on Wednesday. The Iranian foreign ministry said Lavrov’s visit was aimed at “expanding cooperation with the Eurasian region and the Caucasus”.
- Europe needs to prepare immediately for Russia to turn off all gas exports to the region this winter, according to the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol. He called on governments to work on reducing demand and keeping nuclear power plants open.
- A Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier who was accompanying him were “coldly executed” when they were killed in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion, according to Reporters Without Borders. Maks Levin and Oleksiy Chernyshov were reportedly searching Russian-occupied woodlands for the photographer’s missing image-taking drone, the agency said, citing its findings from an investigation into their deaths.
