Summary
It’s approaching 3 am in Ukraine. Here’s where things currently stand.
- Russian forces now control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk province has said as heavy fighting continued in and around the key city and civilians were told to stay underground. Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people.
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Zelenskiy has blasted the “madness” of bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, after an airstrike hit the factory. “Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army’s strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy...it is no longer surprising that for the Russian military, for Russian commanders, for Russian soldiers, any madness is absolutely acceptable.” Local officials said the strike hit a nitric acid tank, and posted images of pink smoke billowing.
- Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region. In late-night remarks, Zelenskiy addressed the military situation and outlined some of Ukraine’s advances.
- Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions, but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, Zelenskiy noted that 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages.
- Ukraine is working on an international United Nations-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba who said Russia is playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
- Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing from Russia forces. Read more of The Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.
- The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risks “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continue.
- Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. It was announced Tuesday as representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, met at The Hague.
- A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV he has a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister will travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
- Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
- Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe. State energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin.
The US is expected to announce on Wednesday that it will send Ukraine a small number of high-tech, medium-range rocket systems.
Associated Press reports that those are a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been begging for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in Donbas. The US has been trying to walk a delicate line: helping Ukraine, without escalating the war by providing weapons that could allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia.
President Joe Biden said on Monday the U.S. would not send Ukraine “rocket systems that can strike into Russia.”
The new leader of the European parliament’s centre-right says he backs Ukraine EU membership.
German politician Manfred Weber was elected leader of Europe’s struggling main group of conservative parties on Tuesday. AFP reports that on Ukraine’s bid for membership, he said:
“Yes, you are welcomed, yes, it’s worth to fight, yes, you can become a member of the European Union”
Kyiv has been pushing for member status, and expressed frustration at some EU countries for not wanting to fast-forward the process.
A governor in Donetsk has urged people who remain to flee and “save your lives”, as more civilians die in bombings. An overnight rocket attack left at least three people dead and six wounded in the city of Sloviansk, Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Tuesday on Telegram.
“There are no safe places in the Donetsk region, so I call again: evacuate - save your lives,” he said.
Four more civilians died and seven were injured in Donetsk on Tuesday, Kyrylenko said in a later Telegram post.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has accused Russia of “madness” after Russian troops bombed a chemical plant in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Zelenskiy condemned the bombing in a video message, saying:
“Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army’s strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy.”
But on the 97th day of such a war, it is no longer surprising that for the Russian military, for Russian commanders, for Russian soldiers, any madness is absolutely acceptable.”
According to AFP, regional authorities said on Tuesday that enemy forces had hit a nitric acid tank at a chemical plant and warning people to stay indoors. Sievierodonetsk is an industrial hub, and has come under massive fire from Russia.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, shared this image of smoke rising from the plant below - the Guardian has not independently verified the image.
⚡️The #RussianArmy launched an air strike on #Sieverodonetsk: a hit got into a cistern with nitric acid at a chemical plant.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 31, 2022
The head of the #Luhansk RMA, Haidai, urged to stay in the shelters.#UkraineUnderAttaсk pic.twitter.com/f5zMGuvlth
Updated
Catch up
- Russian forces have taken control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. The governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk province has said as heavy fighting continued in and around the key city and civilians were told to stay underground. Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people.
- Ukrraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region. In late-night remarks, Zelenskiy addressed the military situation and outlined some of Ukraine’s advances.
- Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions, but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted that 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages.
- Ukraine is working on an international United Nations-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba who said Russia is playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
- Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing from Russia forces. Read more of The Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.
- The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risks “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continue.
- Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. It was announced Tuesday as representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, met at The Hague.
- A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV he has a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister will travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
- Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
- Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe. State energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin.
– Geneva Abdul, Guardian staff
Russian troops control most of Sievierodonetsk
Russian forces have taken control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but have not surrounded it, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk province has said as heavy fighting continued in and around the key city and civilians were told to stay underground.
Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people.
Earlier, the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, said artillery bombardments were threatening the lives of the thousands of civilians still sheltering in the ruined city, with evacuations not possible.
“Half of the city has been captured by the Russians and fierce street fighting is under way,” Striuk said. “The situation is very serious and the city is essentially being destroyed ruthlessly block by block.
“The Ukrainian military continues to resist this frenzied push and aggression by Russian forces. Unfortunately … the city has been split in half. But at the same time the city still defends itself. It is still Ukrainian,” he said, advising those still trapped inside to stay in cellars.
Read more:
Updated
Russia cuts gas supplies to Netherlands and firms in Denmark and Germany
Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe, after state energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany.
The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin.
EU leaders said the ban would immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports, rising to 90% by the end of the year.
Gazprom extended its gas cuts on Tuesday by stopping supply to GasTerra, which buys and trades gas on behalf of the Dutch government.
It later said it would also cut off gas flows to the Danish energy firm Ørsted and to Shell Energy for its contract to supply gas to Germany, after both companies failed to make payments in roubles.
GasTerra said it had found contracts elsewhere for the supply of the 2bn cubic metres of gas it had been expecting to receive from Gazprom between now and October.
Ahead of the late-night talks in Brussels, Denmark had signalled it expected its Russian gas supply to end. However, Ørsted said on Monday that a gas cut would not immediately put the country’s gas supplies at risk.
Moscow has already halted supplies of natural gas to Bulgaria, Poland and Finland, after they refused to pay in Russian roubles.
Read more:
President Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near the city of Kherson and are advancing in parts of the Kharkiv region, reports Reuters.
In late-night remarks, Zelenskiy addressed the military situation and outlined some of Ukraine’s advances.
He added that the Russian army still has a significant advantage in terms of equipment and personnel:
Our defenders are showing the utmost courage and remain masters of the situation at the front despite the fact the Russian army has a significant advantage in terms of equipment and numbers.
Updated
The US announced it will not be sending long-range rockets for use beyond Ukraine, reports Reuters.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US is currently considering sending rocket systems to Ukraine as it faces military losses against Russia, but clarified that long-range rockets will not be sent for use beyond the battlefield in Ukraine.
"We won't be sending long-range rockets" for use beyond the battlefield in #Ukraine, replies @PressSec when asked for a clarification of @POTUS comments. pic.twitter.com/opLdYahRz9
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) May 31, 2022
Updated
Russia’s foreign minister said today that Ukraine and western countries need to act to address food shortage concerns, reports AFP.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday it was up to the West and Kyiv to resolve a growing global food crisis provoked by the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted deliveries of wheat and other commodities from the two countries, fuelling concerns about the risk of hunger around the world.
Western countries “created a lot of artificial problems by closing their ports to Russian ships, disrupting logistics and financial chains,” Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Bahrain.
“They need to seriously consider what is more important for them: to do PR on the issue of food security or to take concrete steps to solve this problem,” he added.
Lavrov also called on Ukraine to de-mine its territorial waters to allow the safe passage of ships through the Black and Azov seas.
“If the problem of de-mining is resolved... Russia’s naval forces will ensure the unhindered passage of these ship into the Mediterranean and onwards to (their) destinations,” Lavrov said.
Russia and Ukraine produce around 30 percent of the global wheat supply.
President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday that Moscow was ready to work with Ankara to free up maritime shipping from Ukraine and blamed global food shortages on “short-sighted” Western policies.
Turkey’s top diplomat said Tuesday that Lavrov would arrive in Turkey on June 8 for talks on unblocking grain exports from Ukraine...
The US will be providing additional details on new security assistance for Ukraine, announced the state department today, reports Reuters.
New details on the security assistance will be announced “before too long”, said state separtment spokesperson Ned Price today during a press briefing.
Price added that the US is still concerned over Russian attempts to institutionalize its control over Ukrainian territory it has seized, including the city of Kherson.
Updated
The US is ready to give “comfort letters” to companies to help facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertilizer, reports Reuters.
US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said today that “comfort letters” will be given to shipping and insurance companies to help export the grain and fertilizer.
She noted that Russian grain and fertilizer are not under US sanctions but that “companies are a little nervous and we’re prepared to give them comfort letters if that will help to encourage them.”
A “comfort letter” is a document that assures the financial obligations of a company can be met.
Canada announced sanctions today on Vladimir Putin’s reputed girlfriend, former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, as well as other Russian officials and institutions over Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, reports AFP.
Canada foreign minister Mélanie Joly announced the sanctions today to reporters in Ottawa:
We’re targeting banks, oligarchs close to the Putin regime as well as his, I don’t know what to call her, his partner.
Those targeted in the new round of sanctions include Kabaeva, the Russian Agricultural Bank, Investtradebank and two fund management firms. Those affected will have their assets frozen and be banned from entering Canada, reports AFP.
Media has widely reported that Kabaeva and Putin are romantically involved, though Putin denied their involvement when it was first reported in 2008.
Nearly 1,000 people attended a service in Rome, as Pope Francis led an international prayer service for peace in Ukraine and other war-stricken places on Tuesday.
Worshippers around the world in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and countries elsewhere joined in prayer over video. Attending the service in Rome was Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican, according to Reuters.
Visiting the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the 85-year-old pope prayed before the statue of Mary Queen of Peace. Romans traditionally associate the statue, commissioned by Pope Benedict XV in 1918 to ask God to end the first world war, with peace.
That is it from me, Geneva Abdul. Gloria Oladipo will take you through the next few hours coverage from New York.
Updated
Germany has agreed to provide infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) to Greece, so Athens can send Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine.
Speaking after the two-day EU summit in Brussels, German chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters:
We will provide Greece with German infantry fighting vehicles. The defence ministries will work out the details and quickly implement this agreement.
Defence sources told Reuters that Berlin aims to deliver 100 old Marder IFVs owned by arms-maker Rheinmetall to Greece. In return, Athens would supply Soviet-style BMP IFVs to Ukraine.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Updated
Most of the city of Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, is controlled by the Russians, according to Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s regional governor.
On Telegram, Haidai wrote:
The city is not surrounded, and there are no prerequisites for this. The regional centre is approaching the level of destruction of Rubizhne and Popasna. The city’s critical infrastructure has been destroyed by almost 100%, 90% of the housing stock has been damaged, 60% of which is critical, i.e. it cannot be restored.
Haidai added that Russian shelling has made it impossible to transport humanitarian goods and evacuate people.
The message comes after Ukrainian officials said an airstrike has hit a chemical plant in the city Tuesday evening. Residents were urged not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes.
Updated
Summary
It’s past 8pm in Ukraine. Here’s where things stand:
- An airstrike has hit a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, Ukrainian officials wrote on Telegram late Tuesday. Residents were urged not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes.
- Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions, but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted that 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages.
- Ukraine is working on an international United Nations-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba who said Russia is playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
- Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing from Russia forces. Read more of The Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.
- The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risks “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continue.
- Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. It was announced Tuesday as representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, met at The Hague.
- A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV he has a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister will travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
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Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
- Ukraine is still in control of some parts of Sievierodonetsk city. Its soldiers are fighting slowly advancing Russian troops, but civilian evacuations are not currently possible, the head of the city’s administration has said. Russians now control “around half” according to reports on national television in Ukraine.
Airstrike hits chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, officials say
An airstrike has hit a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, Ukrainian officials wrote on Telegram late Tuesday afternoon.
Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s regional governor said Russians hit “a tank with nitric acid at a chemical plant”, while urging residents not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, shared a similar message on Telegram, alongside an image of large, pink clouds of smoke rising overhead buildings.
Earlier we reported Russian forces control “around half” of the city, a day after officials said Russian shelling had been so intense that it was not possible to assess casualties and damage.
Updated
Ukraine welcomes sanctions, but criticises EU’s “unacceptable” delay, Reuters reports. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:
When over 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages, the situation is not acceptable for us.
Updated
‘The west can change the outcome’: plea for heavy weapons on Ukraine frontline
A stack of deadly weapons line the corridor next to Roman Kostenko’s office in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv. Giant tube-like Javelin missiles and a powerful-looking green cylinder. “That’s an NLAW anti-tank weapon supplied by Britain,” Kostenko – a member of Ukraine’s parliament and a special forces commander – explained. “We’ve used it.”
When Russia invaded on 24 February, Kostenko was in Kyiv. He swapped his politician’s outfit of suit and tie for a uniform and hurried to Mykolaiv on the southern frontline. By this point Russian troops had practically encircled the city and its port on the Bug River. They had seized Mykolaiv’s airport and were advancing from the north-east. “I was the last car in,” he said.
Citizens were piling up tyres and making molotov cocktails in preparation for street-to-street fighting. The Ukrainian army, however, managed to push the Russians back. Kostenko showed off a video he took of a Russian position on Mykolaiv’s outskirts. There were bodies of enemy soldiers killed in a Ukrainian artillery strike, as well as abandoned field guns and vehicles.
Read more here:
Updated
Ukraine is working on an international United Nations-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter.
Russia plays hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports with one hand and trying to shift the blame on Ukraine with the other. Ukraine is working on an international UN-led operation with navies of partners ensuring a safe trade route with no security risks.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) May 31, 2022
Updated
Earlier we reported that Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed. Here’s some of the Guardian’s recent coverage on just how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis.
All our food systems – agriculture, forestry, fisheries and aquaculture – are buckling under the stress of rising temperatures, wildfires, droughts and floods.
If no action is taken to curtail the climate crisis, crop losses will be devastating. Here’s why:
Two in five of the world’s plant species are at risk of extinction, and though researchers estimate there are at least 200,000 edible plant species on our planet, we depend on just three – maize, rice and wheat– for more than half of humanity’s caloric intake.
There are roughly 1,700 seed banks, or gene banks, around the world housing collections of plant species that are invaluable for scientific research, education, species preservation and safeguarding Indigenous cultures.
Read more on seed banks across the globe trying to safeguard biodiversity here:
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The African Union has warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risks “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises.
Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continue.
Speaking via video link to the 27 EU leaders meeting in Brussels, Sall said African countries had been hit hard by the global food crisis because of their “strong dependence” on Russian and Ukrainian wheat. The situation was “worrying” for a continent that has 282 million people that did not get enough to eat, he said.
Read more from Jennifer Rankin here:
Updated
Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed, Reuters reports.
The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing from Russia forces.
Earlier this month, a research facility was damaged near the country’s national seed bank, according to Crop Trust, a nonprofit set up by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation.
According to the trust, only 4% of the seeds in Ukraine’s store, the 10th largest of its kind in the world, has been backed up. Stored genetic material has become increasingly vital to ensure enough food is produced to feed 7.9 billion people as weather grows more extreme.
An executive director of Crop Trust told Reuters:
Seed banks are a kind of life insurance for mankind. They provide the raw materials for breeding new plant varieties resistant to drought, new pests, new diseases, and higher temperatures. It would be a tragic loss if Ukraine’s seed bank were destroyed.
Updated
Summary
It’s approaching 6pm in Ukraine. Here’s where things currently stand:
- At a Brussels press conference, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU will make available funds to help replenish “the military material that has been sent to Ukraine”. She also called for greater coordination and interoperability of the military equipment of member states.
- Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region of Donbas, posting on the Telegram messaging app said Russian forces “insidiously” hit a residential area of Slavyansk, in the region of Donetsk, overnight.
- Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. It was announced Tuesday as representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, met at The Hague.
- A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV he has a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister will travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
- A consortium of Ukrainian and international lawyers is preparing to launch a mass civil legal action against the Russian state, as well as private military contractors and businesspeople backing the Russian war effort, in an attempt to gain financial compensation for millions of Ukrainian victims of the war, the Guardian can reveal.
- Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkey with a military delegation next week on 8 June. Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said that the humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food is among topics that will be discussed.
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Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
- Ukraine is still in control of some parts of Sievierodonetsk city. Its soldiers are fighting slowly advancing Russian troops, but civilian evacuations are not currently possible, the head of the city’s administration has said. Russians now control “around half” according to reports on national television in Ukraine.
- EU leaders have backed a partial embargo on Russian oil after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels. The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports with the aim to ban 90% of all Russian oil imported to Europe by the end of the year, officials said.
Speaking to reporters following the EU summit, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said nothing could be ruled out regarding additional sanctions in the coming weeks.
According to Reuters, Macron said he hoped an agreement could be reached in the coming days and weeks to allow more food exports from Ukraine.
He added that talks between the Russian and Turkish presidents had led to “positive conclusions”.
I hope that the next few days or weeks will make it possible to resolve this situation.”
Updated
On a visit outside of Kyiv, the new US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, said in a tweet that her thoughts “are in the Donbas, where the fight is critical right now”.
My first trip outside Kyiv was to Hostomel air field, where Ukrainian soldiers fought and won one of the first major battles in the war. My thoughts are in the Donbas, where the fight is critical right now. pic.twitter.com/7Povj2k1a2
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) May 31, 2022
Yesterday, Brink confirmed her arrival in Kyiv with a tweet noting that she had visited the foreign ministry to present her credentials. “Our first priority is to help Ukraine defend itself,” she wrote.
A career diplomat who served as US ambassador to Slovakia until recently, Brink was nominated by Joe Biden in late April and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate on 18 May.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine to drop on our newswires today.
Updated
Also appearing in this Brussels press conference is Charles Michel, the president of the European Council. He spoke about the situation with food exports caused by the war. Asked about the possibility of exporting grain from Ukraine either via Belarus or via the Black Sea ports that they still control, he said:
This will be the first priority, because there are 22 millions of tonnes of grain that are blocked in Ukraine, especially in Odesa. A few weeks ago when I went to this site, to see with my own eyes, what’s the situation on the ground. And for instance, countries like Egypt and other countries in Africa, are the victim of this situation. It means that we fully support all the efforts made by the United Nations in order to find an agreement to open a maritime corridor to the Black Sea.
He suggested that the EU had been discussing an alternate export route via the Baltic Sea to the north of the continent, but observed:
We discussed the different possibilities needed to develop alternative routes, but we know that it’s more difficult, it’s more expensive. It’s more difficult for obvious logistic reasons. And we try to facilitate to reduce the burdens … because better is the access towards the Baltic Sea.
Updated
In her Brussels press conference, the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has said that the EU will make available funds to help replenish “the military material that has been sent to Ukraine”.
She called for greater coordination and interoperability of the military equipment of member states, and that there will be €500m available to support “to incentivise the joint procurement by at least three member states.”
She said “This is, let’s say, a pilot for a longer term proposal that will come in the course of this year for the European defence investment programme.”
Updated
Key event
Ursula von der Leyen opened her press conference by saying:
Basically, it is solidarity and cooperation that are at the heart of any successful strategy to deal with Russia as a non-reliable supplier any more.
Co-operation for example, as has been demonstrated by Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, who, a couple of days ago showed at the joint wind summit what it means to develop offshore wind power in the North Sea.
And, of course, solidarity. This was a big topic today, showing that in case of a full disruption of gas flows from Russia, gas is indeed allowed to flow to wherever it is needed in Europe.
The second topic was defence. The war again was a stark reminder for our member states on the need to strengthen our defence capacities.
We have seen positive developments, notably of course, we are all aware of Finland’s and Sweden’s application to join Nato, the strongest military alliance in the world, and they will benefit greatly from their membership.
But also the fact that since the beginning of the war, leaders and the member states stepped up and announced €200bn in extra military spending. Now it is important that we ensure that this stepping up and additional investment, that we get the maximum value out of it.
Updated
European Union press conference on Ukraine
Ursula von der Leyen is giving a press conference in Brussels. She has tweeted out the live stream of it, saying:
In the face of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, EU member states are coming together to strengthen defense, ensure reliable & sustainable energy supply, and to mobilise against an emerging global food crisis.
In the face of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, EU Member States are coming together to strengthen defense, ensure reliable & sustainable energy supply, and to mobilise against an emerging global food crisis. https://t.co/NErkQUIHIu
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 31, 2022
Updated
In further diplomatic rumblings today, the Czech foreign ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador to express concerns about the use of Russian diplomatic properties. However both sides of the row are being cryptic about what the concerns are.
The Czech Republic expelled around 100 Russian embassy staff last year in a diplomatic row over Prague’s accusations of Russian involvement in a 2014 explosion at an arms depot.
“Diplomatic missions on the territory of a foreign state must respect not only the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but also the rules and laws of the host country,” foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said in a statement. “Russia does not do this and does not respect the rule of law.”
Russia’s embassy in Prague said it disagreed with the statements. “It would be appropriate to refrain from politicisation of and drawing media attention to this sphere of our mutual relations and return to a well-proven negotiation process,” it said on Facebook.
Earlier this year, the district of Prague where the Russian embassy is located requested that a Russian school building – unused since the Czechs expelled the Russian diplomats last year – be made available for Ukrainian refugee children. It was not clear if this building was among those that had raised concerns, Reuters reports.
Updated
Pavlo Kyrylenko, the governor of the Donetsk region of Donbas, posting a video on the Telegram messaging app on Tuesday, said Russian forces “insidiously” hit a residential area of Slavyansk, in the region of Donetsk, overnight.
He wrote:
The whole territory of Donetsk region is now a battlefield. Every civilian who remains in the region is a target for the Russians. Each such strike is a cruel reminder that there are no safe places in the Donetsk region now. Evacuate! Evacuation saves lives!
Updated
Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, said they would start to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, according to Reuters.
Earlier we reported on the meeting between representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan at The Hague.
Venediktova also announced Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia are set to join Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland in the investigation effort.
ICC prosecutor Khan said no one has a blank check to do what they want, Reuters reports. Khan hopes other countries will support the war crimes investigation and added they are working to open an office in Kyiv to investigate further.
Updated
What’s next for Ukraine after Russia’s Donbas offensive?
The recent Russian advances in the Donbas lead to an inevitable question: whether the indiscriminate tactics the Kremlin deployed there will be a template for future offensives.
With reports of large numbers of troops, artillery and rocket launchers mustering across the border near the Russian city of Kursk – in an area which borders Ukraine’s Sumy province – it is an urgent issue.
While other parts of the 300-mile frontline in Ukraine’s east lack some of the same vulnerabilities that existed around Sievierodonetsk – which sat in the midst of a Ukrainian salient that Russia exploited – in any future offensive the Kremlin is likely to offer Kyiv the same hard choices, attempting to stretch its ability to respond.
Read more from Peter Beaumont here:
Russian state television has aired footage showing what it says are separatist soldiers in the city of Sievierdonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine.
Witnesses say Russian tanks and troops have begun advancing towards the centre of the city, while artillery barrages have destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of buildings.
The Guardian has not been able to verify the date or location of the footage.
Updated
A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister in Ukraine and bringing them to Moscow, Reuters reports.
In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV:
You know, perhaps it is a fantastical plot that I have brewing ... that in the near future, at some stage, a war minister of some Nato country will go by train to Kyiv to talk with [Ukrainian president] Volodymyr Zelenskiy. But he would not get there. And would wake up somewhere in Moscow.
In the interview on the “60 Minutes” talk show late on Monday, TV host Olga Skabeyeva asked Morozov, “you mean we abduct them?”, to which he replied “yes”.
Updated
Mass civil legal action to seek compensation for Ukrainian war victims
A consortium of Ukrainian and international lawyers is preparing to launch a mass civil legal action against the Russian state, as well as private military contractors and businesspeople backing the Russian war effort, in an attempt to gain financial compensation for millions of Ukrainian victims of the war, the Guardian can reveal.
The team, made up of hundreds of lawyers and several major law firms, plans to bring “multiple actions in different jurisdictions against different targets”, including the UK and the US, said Jason McCue, a London-based lawyer who is coordinating the initiative, in an interview in Kyiv.
Read more from Shaun Walker and Isobel Koshiw here:
Representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes in the invasion of Ukraine are meeting in The Hague, AP reports.
Tuesday’s meeting between a joint investigations team – made up of Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland – and international criminal court prosecutor Karim Khan, comes after Russian forces have been accused of killing civilians in Bucha, and attacks on civilian infrastructure in Mariupol.
In attendance will be Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, whose office has already opened more than 8,000 criminal investigations and identified upwards of 500 suspects spanning Russian ministers, military and commanders, according to AP.
Earlier, we reported on two captured Russian soldiers, sentenced to jail on Tuesday for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine. It was the second war crimes verdict since the start of the invasion.
The joint investigations team was first established in late March, shortly after the ICC opened an investigation. However, beyond The Hague, prosecutors in Poland, Germany, France, Norway, Switzerland, and elsewhere have opened investigations of their own.
Updated
Earlier, we reported that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkey with a military delegation next week on 8 June.
According to CNN, Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, speaking to the Anadolu news agency on Tuesday, said the humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food is among topics that will be discussed.
During a visit to Bahrain on Tuesday, Lavrov said it was up to the west and Kyiv to resolve the growing food crisis fuelled by the conflict in Ukraine.
According to AFP, Lavrov told reporters on Tuesday that the west has “created a lot of artificial problems by closing their ports to Russian ships, disrupting logistics and financial chains”.
He added: “They need to seriously consider what is more important for them: to do PR on the issue of food security or to take concrete steps to solve this problem.”
On Wednesday, Lavrov will visit Saudi Arabia where he is expected to meet foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) headquarters, Reuters reports.
While the focus of Wednesday’s talks remain unclear, officials told Reuters the six Gulf ministers would also hold an online meeting with the Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, later on Wednesday.
Updated
Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said.
Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
The statement comes after EU leaders on Monday agreed to measures that would immediately cut more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, and 90% by the end of the year.
Medvedev said oil and gas sanctions are aimed at the taxpayer and forcing the government to introduce budget cuts.
Medvedev served as president between 2008 and 2012, before Putin reassumed the presidency. The deputy chair of Russia’s security council, which is headed by Putin and advises the president on national security, wrote:
The conclusion suggests itself disgusting – these sanctions are directed precisely against the people of Russia. And no matter what American and European grandparents mutter that we are punishing your bosses, but we love you, ordinary citizens, is pure nonsense. What is the purpose of the arrest of assets of the Central Bank of Russia and other state assets? Simple. To make the economy worse, to hit the rouble, increase inflation and unwind prices in stores, which means dropping the standard of living of an ordinary Russian. An embargo on the purchase of oil and gas from Russia? The same thing: to reduce budget revenues and force the state to abandon social obligations, including indexation of incomes. Hit the taxpayer in town and country.
Updated
Jennifer Rankin in Brussels has this explainer for us on what the EU’s partial oil ban means for Russia and rest of Europe:
What’s been agreed?
After nearly a month of wrangling, the European Union has agreed to a partial ban on Russian oil, with the aim of cutting off funding to the Kremlin’s war machine. According to the European Council president, Charles Michel, three-quarters of Russian oil imports will be immediately affected, rising to 90% by the end of the year.
Which countries have been exempted and why?
The EU is banning seaborne oil immediately, which covers about two-thirds of Russian imports to the EU. Oil transported through the critical Druzhba (“friendship”) pipeline will be exempt from the ban, a key concession to Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian oil.
How will the embargo affect Russia’s war machine?
The EU is paying Russia about €1bn a day for oil and gas, an invaluable source of hard currency for the Kremlin in funding its war against Ukraine. A sharp cut in those financial flows deepens Russia’s economic problems in the long term.
What will the impact be on consumers and businesses in Europe?
Motorists and businesses will see higher prices at the pumps, as the embargo feeds into higher oil prices.
Read more of Jennifer Rankin’s explainer here: What does EU’s partial oil ban mean for Russia and rest of Europe?
Today so far …
- Ukraine is still in control of some parts of Sievierodonetsk city and its soldiers are fighting slowly advancing Russian troops, but evacuations of civilians are not currently possible, the head of the city’s administration has said. Russians now control “around half” according to reports on national television in Ukraine.
- Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk, said “The situation is extremely complicated – part of Sievierodonetsk is controlled by the Russians. They cannot move freely through the city – our fighters still remain in the settlement.”
-
EU leaders have backed a partial embargo on Russian oil after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels. The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports with the aim to ban 90% of all Russian oil imported to Europe by the end of the year, officials said. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, hailed the deal as a “remarkable achievement” that would place “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”. The compromise excludes the Druzhba pipeline from the oil embargo and exempts deliveries arriving in Europe by pipeline, after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán warned halting supplies would wreck his country’s economy. Russia has hit back at the EU’s latest round of sanctions on oil imports, saying Moscow will find other importers.
- The latest sanctions package also includes removing access to Swift payments for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank; banning three more Russian state-owned broadcasters; and further sanctions against “individuals responsible for war crimes in Ukraine”.
- The sanctions on Russia, which ban most imports of its oil, are “not enough” and the pace of sanctions so far has been too slow, a senior official in the Ukrainian president’s office, Ihor Zhovkva, said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier lamented the delay in EU leaders imposing heavier sanctions against Vladimir Putin. “The pause in agreeing on new sanctions in Europe has been too long,” he said.
- Zelenskiy claims that Russia is blocking the export of 22m tons of grain from Ukraine’s ports and warned it posed a threat of famine. “Russia’s blockade of our exports is destabilising the situation on a global scale,” he said in his latest national address. Zelenskiy added that Russian forces “have already stolen at least half a million tons of grain” and “are now looking for ways to illegally sell it somewhere”.
- A Ukrainian court sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11-and-a-half years in jail for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, the second war crimes verdict since the start of Russia’s latest invasion in February.
- The Russian ministry of defence claims to have shot down an Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force and destroyed the Ukrainian battery of the Uragan multiple launch rocket system, the battery of the Grad multiple launch rocket system, two ammunition depots, and a fuel depot in overnight operations.
- The ministry also, without providing evidence, said that it had recovered 152 bodies of Ukrainian fighters from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol that had been booby-trapped with mines “on direct orders from Kyiv” to create a “provocation”.
- Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkey with a military delegation next week on 8 June.
- Oleg Kryuchkov, who is an advisor to the Russian-appointed government in annexed Crimea, has said that the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions have switched to using Russian mobile communications and internet networks.
- A ship loaded with metal has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, becoming the first to do so since the besieged Ukrainian city was taken by Russian forces. Ukraine said the shipment amounted to looting.
- The European Council has said it is ready to grant Ukraine €9bn to aid in its post-war reconstruction. The Council will “continue helping Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with G7” European Council President Charles Michel said late on Monday night.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Geneva Abdul will take you through the next few hours coverage.
Russian troops control 'around half' of Sievierodonetsk
Russian forces now control “around half” of the east Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, the head of the city’s administration told national television within the last hour, Reuters reports.
The BBC also reports quotes from the head of the city. It writes that Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian TV: “Unfortunately, the front line has cut the city into two halves, but the city is still defending [itself], the city is still Ukrainian.”
“The evacuation is suspended. Unfortunately, it’s impossible [to evacuate civilians]... because street fighting is continuing,” he said.
Updated
Ivan Philippov writes for us today, explaining that like others ashamed by the invasion of Ukraine, he has left Russia, asking “What does it mean to be Russian?”:
I loved my country, but I never waved a Russian flag at a demonstration or publicly expressed my patriotism – it was just not something that people like me did. We thought about patriotism in terms of politics – if you care for your country you try to make it better. So I tried. For over a decade I went to all the opposition rallies, I protested against injustice. Like-minded people and I tried our best to make our country a better place. But I never fell for the patriotic mantras about how great Russia is or how great it used to be and should be again.
Why should I be proud that the Soviet Union was the first country to launch a man into space? Yuri Gagarin or Sergei Korolev should be proud of that, it was their achievement, not mine. Why should I be proud that the Soviet Union won the great patriotic war? My grandfathers fought in it. The war broke them, but they won: they should be proud of that. I know they were. These achievements were certainly never part of my identity in the same way that they are for the “Putin majority”, my compatriots who build their sense of self on past victories to which they are associated only by an accident of birth.
Read more here: Ivan Philippov – What does it mean to be Russian? For many of us, it’s no longer a simple question
Two Russian soldiers sentenced to jail in Ukraine for war crimes
A Ukrainian court sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11-and-a-half years in jail on Tuesday for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, the second war crimes verdict since the start of Russia’s latest invasion in February.
Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, who listened to the verdict standing in a reinforced glass box at the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, both pleaded guilty last week, Reuters reports.
Updated
EU sanctions package 'not enough' – Ukrainian official
The latest European Union sanctions on Russia, which ban most imports of its oil, are “not enough” and the pace of sanctions so far has been too slow, a senior official in the Ukrainian president’s office said in Madrid.
An EU summit in Brussels on Monday agreed measures officials said would immediately cut more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, and 90% by the end of the year.
“If you ask me, I would say far too slow, far too late and definitely not enough,” Reuters reports Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, said.
Ukraine is also not happy with the pace of weapons deliveries from the west, he said.
“We are definitely not satisfied,” Zhovkva said in response to a question after his speech. “Had we been satisfied, we would have begun the liberation of Mariupol immediately and thrown away Russian forces from Donbas.”
Updated
As well as the claims about the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, the daily Russian operations briefing also claims that in the last 24 hours:
- “An Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force was shot down in the Mykolaiv region.”
- “36 units of weapons and military equipment were destroyed, including the Ukrainian battery of the Uragan multiple launch rocket system, the battery of the Grad multiple launch rocket system, two ammunition depots, and a fuel depot.”
- “Russian air defence systems shot down six Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.”
None of the claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Russia's defence ministry claims bodies of fighters left in Azovstal were mined by Ukrainians
Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational briefing and has claimed that Ukrainian forces that had been besieged in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol deliberately mined the bodies of their colleagues in order to create an atrocity.
The ministry offered no evidence in the update to support the claims, which reads:
During a survey in Mariupol of the underground structures of the Azovstal metallurgical plant, where the Nazis of the Ukrainian Azov formation who surrendered were hiding, Russian military personnel discovered an isothermal van.️
In a van with a broken cooling system, 152 bodies of dead militants and servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were stored. Let me remind you that before being taken prisoner, the Azov command publicly appealed to Zelenskiy to take the bodies of the dead so that the families could bury them in the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime.
However, no requests from Kyiv to receive the bodies of the dead from the Azovstal plant have been received. Moreover, during the inspection of the van, Russian sappers found four mines placed under the bodies of the dead Ukrainian servicemen. The cumulative mass of the explosive in them was sufficient to destroy all the remains of the bodies remaining in the van.
Based on the results of interrogations of captured Azov militants, it is known that the mining of the bodies was carried out on direct orders from Kyiv.
The purpose of the provocation is to accuse Russia of deliberately destroying the remains of the bodies and preventing them from being taken out for transfer to relatives in order to save the political ‘reputation’ of the Kyiv regime and Zelenskiy personally.
In the near future, the Russian side plans to hand over the bodies of Ukrainian militants and servicemen found on the territory of the Azovstal plant to representatives of Ukraine.
Updated
There are some additional quotes from Latvia’s prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš from Brussels this morning. He said keeping the EU united was the prime goal. “The important news is that the EU is still united in its purpose; the purpose is to stop Russia’s aggressive war in Ukraine,” Reuters quotes Kariņš saying.
Updated
We’ve been sent some pictures from yesterday, illustrating the conditions under which people where being evacuated from Kupiansk town.
Updated
Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas has spoken in Brussels, telling reporters that the European Union should push ahead with a seventh package of sanctions against Russia, that included gas. She said: “I think that gas has to be in the seventh package but I am realistic as well. I don’t think it will be there.”
She described the oil ban agreed yesterday as “a fair compromise”.
Reuters reports she added: “This was the best we could get. Yesterday I was very sceptical that we would reach an agreement so that’s a positive thing that we did.”
Austria’s chancellor, Karl Nehammer, has already ruled out a gas embargo being on the table. He told reporters: “The gas embargo will not be a topic, German chancellor Olaf Scholz has made this clear as well. Russian oil is much easier to compensate. Gas is completely different.”
Updated
Still with Turkey for a second, there is a quick snap on Reuters that Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Turkey with a military delegation next week on 8 June.
Turkish complaints about Kurdish activity in European countries have been the driving force behind its opposition to Sweden and Finland’s proposed entry into Nato. The tension has increased slightly today, with Reuters reporting that the German and French ambassadors to Ankara were summoned to the Turkish foreign ministry to protest about events organised by Kurds in those countries.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, told the state-run Anadolu news agency the ambassadors were informed of Turkey’s discomfort with the events organised by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist organisation by Turkey, as well as by the US and the EU.
Updated
There is more reaction coming in from EU leaders about the latest sanctions package proposals. Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, has said: “We are the most important client for Russia.”
Reuters reports he said the European Union deal to cut most of Russian oil imports would force Moscow to offer crude at a lower price to others. “The purpose is to make Russia have less financial resources to feed its war machine.”
Updated
Civilian evacuations 'not possible' in Sievierodonetsk due to fighting
Ukraine is still in control of Sievierodonetsk city and its soldiers are fighting slowly advancing Russian troops, but evacuations of civilians are not currently possible, the head of the city’s administration has said.
“The city is still in Ukrainian hands and it’s putting up a fight... (but) evacuations are not possible due to the fighting,” Reuters reports Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television.
Earlier, Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk, posted some additional details on Telegram. He told his followers:
The situation is extremely complicated – part of Sievierodonetsk is controlled by the Russians. They cannot move freely through the city – our fighters still remain in the settlement. The enemy is planning an operation to clear the surrounding villages. Wounded volunteers were taken out of Sievierodonetsk.
The current situation in Sievierodonetsk has not been independently verified.
The UK’s ministry of defence has issued its daily assesement of the situation in Ukraine, saying that in order to pursue their likely objective of the complete occupoation of the Donbas, Russia has further challenging targets ahead of it. The assesment says:
Russia’s capture of Lyman supports its operational main effort, which likely remains the encirclement of Sieverodonetsk and the closure of the pocket around Ukrainian forces in Luhansk Oblast.
Heavy shelling continues, while street fighting is likely taking place on the outskirts of Sieverodonetsk town.
Routes into the pocket likely remain under Ukrainian control. Russia has achieved greater local successes than earlier in the campaign by massing forces and fires in a relatively small area. This forces Russia to accept risk elsewhere in occupied territory.
Russia will need to secure further challenging operational objectives beyond Sieverodonetsk, including the key city of Kramatorsk and the M04 Dnipro-Donetsk main road.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 31 May 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 31, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/IQeojTdiEP
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/EL8MZDZ4WH
Oleg Kryuchkov, who is an advisor to the Russian-appointed government in annexed Crimea, has told the RIA Novosti news agency that the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions have switched to using Russian mobile communications and internet networks. It quotes him saying:
Another terrorist attack in Kyiv brought down communications in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russia played ahead of the curve. In the liberated territories, it is now exclusively Russian internet and communications. In fact, this is the end of Ukrainian propaganda, Zelenskiy’s towers of lies have fallen.
Kryuchkov said that SIM cards for Russian mobile operators had already gone on sale.
The governor of Lviv, Maksym Kozytskyi, has posted to Telegram to say that there were no air alerts over the western Ukrainian region overnight.
A ship loaded with metal has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol, becoming the first to do so since the besieged Ukrainian city was taken by Russian forces.
Reuters reports a spokesperson for the port said last week that the ship would be loading 2,700 tonnes of metal before travelling east to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.
Ukraine said the shipment amounted to looting.
Russian troops are slowly advancing towards the centre of the city of Sievierodonetsk in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, regional governor Serhiy Haidai has told Ukrainian state television.
Reuters reports Gaidai said Ukrainian troops defending Sievierodonetsk were not at risk of being encircled, as they could retreat to Lysychansk across the river.
- This is Martin Belam taking over from Samantha Lock. You can get me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine to drop on our newswires today.
Russia has hit back at the EU’s latest round of sanctions on oil imports, saying Moscow will find other importers for its oil.
Russian permanent representative to international organisations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov took to Twitter in president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
As she rightly said yesterday, Russia will find other importers.
Noteworthy that now she contradicts her own yesterday’s statement. Very quick change of the mindset indicates that the EU is not in a good shape.”
As she rightly said yesterday, #Russia will find other importers. Noteworthy that now she contradicts her own yesterday’s statement. Very quick change of the mindset indicates that the #EU is not in a good shape. https://t.co/MEtjlphv2U
— Mikhail Ulyanov (@Amb_Ulyanov) May 30, 2022
European Council to grant Ukraine €9bn for reconstruction
The European Council has said it is ready to grant Ukraine €9bn to aid in its post-war reconstruction.
The Council will “continue helping Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with G7” European Council President Charles Michel said late on Monday night.
EUCO is ready to grant Ukraine EUR 9 billion. Strong and concrete support to Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he added.
#EUCO will continue helping #Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with @G7
— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) May 30, 2022
EUCO is ready to grant #Ukraine EUR 9 billion.
Strong and concrete support to #Ukraine’s reconstruction.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted: “I am glad that tonight leaders agreed in principle on the sixth sanctions package. This is an important step forward.
We also agreed to work on a mechanism to provide Ukraine with a new, exceptional macro-financial assistance package of up to €9 billion.”
I am glad that tonight leaders agreed in principle on the sixth sanctions package. This is an important step forward.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
We also agreed to work on a mechanism to provide Ukraine with a new, exceptional macro-financial assistance package of up to €9 billion. https://t.co/La3bZl6JNp
Russia claims a third of Sievierodonetsk under its control
Russian forces claim to have seized control of about a third of the key eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, but their assault is reportedly taking longer than they had hoped.
On Monday, Russian tanks and troops begun advancing into the city, the largest in Donbas still held by Ukraine, bringing fighting to the streets.
We can state it already that one third of the city is under our control already,” Leonid Pasechnik, head of the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic, told Russian state media agency TASS on Tuesday morning.
Pasechnik said fighting is still raging across the city, but Russian forces were not advancing as rapidly as they might have hoped.
“But we want, above all, to maintain the city’s infrastructure,” he added.
However, Ukrainian officials say critical infrastructure in the city has been destroyed by Russian shelling, reducing much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins with 90% of buildings damaged.
Updated
EU backs 'landmark' Russian oil embargo
EU leaders have backed a partial embargo on Russian oil after talks stretched late into Monday night at a summit in Brussels.
The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, hailed the deal as a “remarkable achievement” that would place “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”.
The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports. And by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned,” Michel said.
Tonight #EUCO agreed a sixth package of sanctions.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) May 30, 2022
It will allow a ban on oil imports from #Russia.
The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports. And by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned. pic.twitter.com/uVoVI519v8
Speaking to the media late on Monday night, Michel said:
This is a remarkable achievement by the European Council.
We do not underestimate all the difficulties. We know that we needed a few weeks before we were able to take a decision.
In the recent hours and recent days there was speculation about a lack of European unity and I think that more than ever it is important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough in order to defend our values and our interests.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added that the decision “expresses a united message”.
“Council should be able to now finalise a ban on almost 90% of all Russian oil imports by the end of the year,” she added. “This is an important step forward.”
Officials compromised to exclude the Druzhba pipeline from the oil embargo and exempt deliveries arriving in Europe by pipeline for Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned halting supplies would wreck his country’s economy.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, later tweeted:
A landmark decision to cripple Putin’s war machine.
Our unity is our strength.”
The latest sanctions package also includes removing access to Swift payments for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank; banning three more Russian state-owned broadcasters; and further sanctions against “individuals responsible for war crimes in Ukraine”.
Summary and welcome
Hello. I’m Samantha Lock back with you on the blog as we continue to cover all the latest news from Ukraine.
- EU leaders have backed a partial embargo on Russian oil after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels. The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports with the aim to ban 90% of all Russian oil imported to Europe by the end of the year, officials said. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, hailed the deal as a “remarkable achievement” that would place “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”. The compromise excludes the Druzhba pipeline from the oil embargo and exempts deliveries arriving in Europe by pipeline, after Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán warned halting supplies would wreck his country’s economy.
- The latest sanctions package also includes removing access to Swift payments for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank; banning three more Russian state-owned broadcasters; and further sanctions against “individuals responsible for war crimes in Ukraine”.
- European Council president Charles Michel addressed speculation of disunity within the EU in the days leading up to the agreement. “In the recent hours and recent days there was speculation about a lack of European unity,” he told reporters. “We do not underestimate all the difficulties. We know that we needed a few weeks before we were able to take a decision.”
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier lamented the delay in EU leaders imposing heavier sanctions against Vladimir Putin. “The pause in agreeing on new sanctions in Europe has been too long,” he said.
- The European Council added it is ready to grant Ukraine €9bn to aid in its postwar reconstruction. The Council will “continue helping Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with the G7” European Council President Charles Michel said late on Monday night. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that Ukraine needed €5bn a month just to maintain basic services and “ … to give Ukraine a fair chance to rise from the ashes”.
- Zelenskiy claims that Russia is blocking the export of 22m tons of grain from Ukraine’s ports and warned it posed a threat of famine. “Russia’s blockade of our exports is destabilising the situation on a global scale,” he said in his latest national address. Zelenskiy added that Russian forces “have already stolen at least half a million tons of grain” and “are now looking for ways to illegally sell it somewhere”.
- The situation in Donbas remains “extremely difficult”, Zelenskiy said, adding that Russian troops shelled Kharkiv again on Monday. “The territory of our Sumy region was also shelled across the border between Ukraine and Russia,” he said.
- Russian tanks and troops begun advancing into Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine, bringing fighting to the streets on Monday. The regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, described “heavy battles” and said the fighting was “very fierce”.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying if sanctions were lifted, then Russia could “export significant volumes of fertilisers and agricultural products”.
- Joe Biden has said the US will not supply Ukraine with long-range rockets capable of reaching Russia. Ukraine has asked for multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) with a range of about 300km (185 miles) to offset Moscow’s increasingly effective use of long-range artillery.
- France is set to boost military aid to Ukraine. Foreign minister Catherine Colonna said France will “continue to reinforce arms deliveries” while visiting Kyiv on Monday.
- Belarus will conduct military mobilisation exercises in June and July in the Gomel region, state news agency BelTA reports.
- Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands as of tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles. About 44% of Dutch energy usage is based on gas, but only about 15% of Dutch gas comes from Russia, according to government figures.
- The Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia has scrapped plans to hold a referendum on joining Russia which had been scheduled for 17 July. The Moscow-controlled enclave’s president Alan Gagloev warned of the “uncertainty of the legal consequences of the issue submitted to a referendum,” according to a report from Agence France-Presse.
- French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, has been killed after an armoured evacuation vehicle in which he was travelling was hit by shrapnel from a Russian shell in the city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and French authorities have said. France has called for an investigation into the reporter’s death as Zelenskiy offered his “sincere condolences” to his colleagues and family.
- The first alleged case of rape by a Russian soldier has been sent to court, the prosecutor general of Ukraine said. The serviceman will be tried for the alleged murder of the victim’s husband and “sexual violence against his wife”, Iryna Venediktova said.
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The Eurovision song contest winners Kalush Orchestra auctioned off their trophy to raise money for the Ukrainian army.The band, whose song Stefania was triumphant in Turin earlier this month, said they raised $900,000 (£713,000) by auctioning off the glass microphone and a further $370,000 by raffling off the pink bucket hat frontman Oleh Psiuk wore during the performance.
