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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Samantha Lock (now); Maya Yang, Léonie Chao-Fong and Martin Belam (earlier)

Russian bombardment of Sievierodonetsk ‘pushes Ukrainian troops back to city’s outskirts’ – as it happened

Russia United States Ukraine Moscow Prison Volodymyr Zelenksyy Azovstal (Organization) Mariupol Angela Merkel Kyiv
Ukrainian servicemen dig trenches near the frontline in Donetsk region
Ukrainian servicemen dig trenches near the frontline in Donetsk region Photograph: Bernat Armangué/AP

Russian president Vladimir Putin said that domestically manufacturing goods to circumvent Western sanctions over Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine was not a cure-all solution, adding that Russia is now seeking out new trade partners.

“The substitution of imports is not a panacea,” Putin told a group of young entrepreneurs. The group expressed concerns over a lack of imported goods in their attempts to develop vaccines.

“We are not trying to completely replace imports,” Putin said, adding that Russia “must collaborate with those it is possible to collaborate with”.

“But for critically important technologies, we have to have our own know-how,” he said. “We are developing them.”

After Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine in February, Western countries have imposed harsh sanctions on Russia that include import and export restrictions which have debilitated supply chains.

Russia’s pharmaceutical industry is heavily dependent on imports. Authorities announced in April that they had built three factories in Moscow to produce medicines to ease the blow of the import ban.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture with Russian young entrepreneurs and specialists during a meeting ahead of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Moscow, Russia June 9, 2022.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin poses for a picture with Russian young entrepreneurs and specialists during a meeting ahead of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Moscow, Russia June 9, 2022. Photograph: SPUTNIK/Reuters

Summary

That’s all from me, Samantha Lock, for now. Please join me a little a later when we launch our new live blog covering all the latest developments from Ukraine.

Here is a comprehensive run-down of where things currently stand as of 3am.

  • Ukrainian forces have been pushed back by a Russian bombardment in the frontline eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and now only control its outskirts. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk, said most of the city was now in Russian hands and that it was no longer possible to rescue civilians stranded there.
  • The battle for Sievierodonetsk - where the fate of Donbas is being decided - is probably the most difficult seen so far during the war, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. “Battle for Sievierodonetsk is probably one of the most difficult during this war, and in particular the fate of Donbas is being decided there,” he said in his latest national address on Wednesday night.
  • A Ukrainian journalist confronted Lavrov about grain exports from Ukraine during a visit to Ankara, Turkey. “Apart from cereals, what other goods did you steal from Ukraine and who did you sell them to?” Muslim Umerov asked.
  • The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is “threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake”. A new report by the UN said an estimated 94 countries, home to around 1.6bn people, are “severely exposed to at least one dimension of the crisis and unable to cope with it”.
  • Russian-installed officials in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region reportedly plan to stage a referendum later this year on joining Russia. A Kremlin-backed official, Vladimir Rogov, was quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass as saying: “The people will determine the future of the Zaporizhzhia region.” Ukraine says any referendums held under Russian occupation would be illegal and their results fraudulent.
  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries, who had surrendered in Mariupol, have been transferred to Russia for an investigation there, Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports. More Ukrainian prisoners of war will be taken to Russia “later on”, a Russian law enforcement source told the outlet.
  • Two British men captured by Russian forces while fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol face 20 years in prison, according to a video shared by Russian state media. Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, appeared in court in the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
  • Britain’s economy will suffer more than any other major industrial country from the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The UK will grow by 3.6% in 2022 before posting zero growth in 2023, according to the Paris-based thinktank the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).
  • Ukraine has received the first billion dollars of the $40 billion aid package that the US Congress approved last month. In a tweet on Wednesday, US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A Brink said: “Supporting Ukraine means strengthening its economy. Direct support of $1 billion is already here to help Ukraine and its people move forward.”
  • Zelenskiy said he met with American philanthropist Howard Buffet, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffet, in Kyiv to discuss rebuilding efforts. “We discussed assistance that would be valuable for our state. I offered him the chance to join projects restoring irrigation systems in the Odesa region, supporting our people, (and) mine clearance,” Zelenskiy said in a tweet.
  • Russian authorities have further cracked down against citizens who speak out about the fighting in Ukraine. A Moscow court on Wednesday extended the detention of Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., a journalist and former associate of assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, accusing him of spreading lies about the Russian military. Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, who has been accused of spreading misinformation about the Russian military, said a criminal case had been opened against him. Moscow’s chief rabbi was also confirmed to have fled the country.

Civilian evacuations continue across Ukraine as many flee in armoured cars and buses to safety.

A resident is evacuated in an armoured car in Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 8, 2022.
A resident is evacuated in an armoured car in Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 8, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
People queue to collect humanitarian aid in Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 8, 2022.
People queue to collect humanitarian aid in Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 8, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
People evacuated from Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 8, 2022.
People evacuated from Lisichansk, Luhansk Oblast, Ukraine, on June 8, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Western-supplied artillery systems are already making a difference on the ground for Ukraine and it is “just a question of time” before its forces win back significant ground in the south, the governor of the Mykolaiv region said on Wednesday.

Governor Vitaliy Kim, whose region is partially occupied by Russia but remains just one of two that retains significant access to the Black Sea, told Reuters that Ukrainian forces had “some success” in recent weeks in a counterattack in the neighbouring Kherson region.

Asked when western weapons would start to make a difference on the ground against Russian forces, he said: “It is already happening ... and we will have (more) success.”

“We are talking about artillery,” he said. “It is already working in our region.” He declined to say what specific western artillery systems were working there.

Fight for Sievierodonetsk 'most difficult' battle seen so far, Zelenskiy says

The battle for Sievierodonetsk - where the fate of Donbas is being decided - is probably the most difficult seen so far during the war, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said.

Addressing the nation late on Wednesday evening, he said:

Sievierodonetsk remains the epicentre of the confrontation in Donbas. We defend our positions, inflict significant losses on the enemy.

[The] battle for Sievierodonetsk is probably one of the most difficult during this war, and in particular the fate of Donbas is being decided there.

This is a very fierce battle, very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war.

I am grateful to everyone who defends this direction. In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there.”

Zelenskiy described Donetsk as a “ghost town that has lost most people, thousands of lives and absolutely all prospects”.

“Only the return of Ukraine, which will definitely happen, only our flag and only Ukrainian law will mean a normal life for these territories, for these cities - again. The life that was there. Peaceful, safe, open to the world,” he added.

It’s 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:

  • “Russia has been waging digital war against Ukrainian since 2014,” Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation George Dubinskiy said in an interview on Wednesday. Speaking to France 24, Dubinskiy said that in addition to defending its land borders, Ukraine is also defending its digital ones.
  • The European Parliament has backed a resolution that calls for Ukraine to be a candidate for EU membership, Oleksandr Korniyenko, the first deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, tweeted on Thursday. “The majority of MEPs are together with the Ukrainian people!” he added.
  • A British man fighting in Ukraine has been captured by pro-Russian separatists, an international legion backing the Kyiv government said on Wednesday. “It was announced in the Ukrainian press that the Russians had completed a criminal investigation against three foreigners whom they were preparing to put on trial and that they risked the death penalty,” Damien Magrou, spokesman for the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine (LIDU) told AFP.
  • Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov tweeted on Wednesday that he has been placed on the country’s national and international wanted list. Soldatov is the editor-in-chief of Agentura.ru, a website that focuses on Russia’s secret services’ activities. He has been accused of spreading misinformation about the Russian military.
  • Ukraine has received the first billion dollars of the $40 billion aid package that the US Congress approved last month. In a tweet on Wednesday, US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A Brink said, “Supporting Ukraine means strengthening its economy. Direct support of $1 billion is already here to help Ukraine and its people move forward...”
  • Russian authorities kept up their crackdown against citizens who speak out about the fighting in Ukraine, extending a critic’s detention on Wednesday, confirming charges against two others and prompting Moscow’s chief rabbi to flee the country. In the latest development, a Moscow court on Wednesday extended the detention of Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., a journalist and former associate of assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, accusing him of spreading lies about the Russian military.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that he has met with American philanthropist Howard Buffet, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffet, in Kyiv to discuss rebuilding efforts. “We discussed assistance that would be valuable for our state. I offered him the chance to join projects restoring irrigation systems in the Odesa region, supporting our people, (and) mine clearance,” Zelenskiy said in a tweet.

That’s it from me, Maya Yang, today as I hand the blog over to my colleague in Australia, Samantha Lock. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.

“Russia has been waging digital war against Ukrainian since 2014,” Ukraine’s deputy minister of digital transformation George Dubinskiy said in an interview on Wednesday.

Speaking to France 24, Dubinskiy said that in addition to defending its land borders, Ukraine is also defending its digital ones.

The European Parliament has backed a resolution that calls for Ukraine to be a candidate for EU membership, Oleksandr Korniyenko, the first deputy speaker of the Ukrainian parliament, tweeted on Thursday.

Updated

A British man fighting in Ukraine has been captured by pro-Russian separatists, an international legion backing the Kyiv government said on Wednesday.

Agence-France Presse reports:

“It was announced in the Ukrainian press that the Russians had completed a criminal investigation against three foreigners whom they were preparing to put on trial and that they risked the death penalty,” Damien Magrou, spokesman for the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine (LIDU) told AFP.

“One of the three names mentioned in the article, Andrew Hill, is a legionnaire who has a contract with the Ukrainian army,” he added.

Magrou stressed that under the Geneva Convention Hill should be considered a prisoner of war, and treated as such.

According to the LIDU, Hill has been held “in captivity for some weeks” by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

“Executing prisoners is a war crime,” it said.

The international legion had given the names of a Dutchman, an Australian, a German and a Frenchman, without specifying the date or circumstances of their death.

Russia claimed this week that it had killed “hundreds” of foreign fighters in Ukraine since the start of its invasion in February.

Updated

Ukraine has received $1 billion of the $40 billion aid package from US

Ukraine has received the first billion dollars of the $40 billion aid package that the US Congress approved last month.

In a tweet on Wednesday, US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget A Brink said, “Supporting Ukraine means strengthening its economy. Direct support of $1 billion is already here to help Ukraine and its people move forward...”

Updated

Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov tweeted on Wednesday that he has been placed on the country’s national and international wanted list.

Soldatov is the editor-in-chief of Agentura.ru, a website that focuses on Russia’s secret services’ activities. He has been accused of spreading misinformation about the Russian military.

According to Russia’s interior ministry, Soldatov “is wanted for violating an article of the Criminal Code.” The ministry’s website did not include additional dertails.

Russian authorities kept up their crackdown against citizens who speak out about the fighting in Ukraine, extending a critic’s detention on Wednesday, confirming charges against two others and prompting Moscow’s chief rabbi to flee the country.

The Associated Press reports:

Russia adopted a law criminalizing spreading allegedly false information about its military shortly after its troops rolled into Ukraine in late February. The offense is punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Human rights advocates have counted dozens of cases. Russians must use the term “military operation” when speaking of the fighting in Ukraine.

In the latest development, a Moscow court on Wednesday extended the detention of Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., a journalist and former associate of assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. The court extended Kara-Murza’s detention from June 12 to Aug. 12 on accusations that he spread “false information” about the country’s armed forces. The activist rejects the charges.

Kara-Murza in 2015 and 2017 survived poisonings that he blamed on the authorities. Russian officials have denied responsibility.

Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov, who spent years exposing the activities of Russian security agencies and is now living in London, reported this week that a criminal case had been opened against him. Soldatov is accused of spreading false information about the Russian military. Soldatov reported that his bank accounts in Russia have been frozen.

Russian authorities confirmed they have filed similar charges against popular Russian fiction writer Dmitry Glukhovsky, who also now lives outside of Russia. Glukhovsky had posted a video showing a tank shelling a residential building in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, along with commentary criticizing Russia’s military operation. He is a former journalist and author of the best-selling novel “Metro-2033.”

Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian opposition activist, arrives to lay flowers near the place where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down, in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 27, 2021.
Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian opposition activist, arrives to lay flowers near the place where Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was gunned down, in Moscow, Russia, on Feb. 27, 2021. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced that he has met with American philanthropist Howard Buffet, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffet, in Kyiv to discuss rebuilding efforts.

“We discussed assistance that would be valuable for our state. I offered him the chance to join projects restoring irrigation systems in the Odesa region, supporting our people, (and) mine clearance,” Zelenskiy said in a tweet.

Buffett is a director of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, the conglomerate founded by his father, and CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. The foundation describes itself as one of the US’s biggest private charitable foundation and as of the end of 2020, had assets worth $529 million.

According to its website, the foundation’s priorities include global food security, conflict mitigation and public safety.

Updated

Summary

It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • Ukrainian forces have been pushed back by a Russian bombardment in the frontline eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and now only control its outskirts, according to the governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai. Russian forces have seized residential quarters of the key eastern city and are fighting to take control of an industrial zone on its outskirts and the nearby towns, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said.
  • A Russian-backed official in Ukraine’s partially occupied southeastern region of Zaporizhia said Russia has begun to send grain from occupied areas to Turkey and the Middle East through Crimea. A Russian official in Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, said the first train carrying grain had arrived from Melitopol, a city in Zaporizhzhia. It has not been possible to verify these claims.
  • Russian-installed officials in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region reportedly plan to stage a referendum later this year on joining Russia. A Kremlin-backed official, Vladimir Rogov, was quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass as saying: “The people will determine the future of the Zaporizhzhia region.” Ukraine says any referendums held under Russian occupation would be illegal and their results fraudulent.
  • The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, warned that the consequences for the world of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are “speeding up” and “threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake”. A new report by the UN said an estimated 94 countries, home to around 1.6bn people, are “severely exposed to at least one dimension of the crisis and unable to cope with it”.
  • Millions of people could die of hunger unless Russia lifts the blockade on Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea, Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, has warned. Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, told a meeting of Mediterranean ministers that rises in fuel and basic food stuffs were exacerbating the crisis in his country.
  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries, who had surrendered in Mariupol, have been transferred to Russia for an investigation there, Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports. More Ukrainian prisoners of war will be taken to Russia “later on”, a Russian law enforcement source told the outlet.
  • Dozens of radiation detectors around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant have started transmitting radiation data for the first time since Russia invaded, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Radiation levels in the area surrounding Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant are now back to normal after detectors came back online today, the IAEA said.
  • Russian proxy fighters in east Ukraine have said they are opening a trial against two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were captured fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol. The two men, who are serving in the Ukrainian military, and Ibrahim Saadun, a captive from Morocco, were shown sitting in a courtroom cage in a video released on pro-Russian social media channels on Tuesday.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand the blog over to my US colleague, Maya Yang. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.

An update from the governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, who said Russian forces control most of the strategic Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk and are heavily shelling the twin city of Lysychansk, causing major damage.

In an online post, he said there was no chance of Ukrainian troops in the Luhansk region being encircled, Reuters reports.

Russian forces temporarily control 90% of the region, Haidai added.

It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.

1.6bn people ‘severely exposed’ to impact of Ukraine war, says UN

The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, warned that the consequences for the world of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are “speeding up” and “threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake”.

While this year’s food crisis is “about lack of access”, next year’s “could be about lack of food”, he said while presenting the UN’s second report on the repercussions of the war, AFP reports.

Guterres said:

The war’s impact on food security, energy and finance is systemic, severe, and speeding up.

There is “only one way to stop this gathering storm: the Russian invasion of Ukraine must end”, he urged.

He said he had asked colleagues to help find “a package deal that allows for the safe and secure export of Ukrainian-produced food through the Black Sea, and unimpeded access to global markets for Russian food and fertilisers”.

The deal is “essential” for hundreds of millions of people in developing nations, including in sub-Sarahan Africa, he said.

The UN report said an estimated 94 countries, home to around 1.6bn people, are “severely exposed to at least one dimension of the crisis and unable to cope with it”.

The report says that the war may increase the number of food-insecure people by 47m people in 2022, bringing it to 323m by the end of the year.

It is estimated that up to 58m more Africans may fall into poverty this year, the document adds.

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed comments by the former German chancellor Angela Merkel, who has insisted she was not naive in her dealings with Vladimir Putin.

In her first major interview since stepping down as chancellor in December, Merkel said she had “nothing to apologise for” despite meeting frequently with the Russian president during her 16 years in power and championing a commerce-driven, pragmatic approach towards Moscow.

Podolyak criticised Merkel for deepening Europe’s reliance on Russian energy, tweeting:

If Chancellor Merkel always knew that Russia was planning a war and Putin’s goal is to destroy the EU, then why would (Germany) build the Nord Stream 2 (pipeline)?

He said Merkel had “shoved” Europe towards increased dependency on Russian energy supplies. Podolyak asked:

Why does Germany have to fix this mistake now?

Under Merkel’s chancellorship, Germany became hugely reliant on Russian energy imports and Merkel drew criticism for her backing for the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was to double Russian gas deliveries to Germany.

Her successor, Olaf Scholz, announced that the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 project had been shelved in late February in reaction to Russia’s recognition of the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk in east Ukraine.

Updated

The Ukrainian journalist Muslim Umerow challenged the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, over accusations that Russia is stealing from Ukraine.

Lavrov responded by saying Ukrainians “are always so preoccupied with what you can steal” before returning to Russia’s official line that forces were “denazifying’ eastern Ukraine.

First trains carrying Ukrainian grain ‘departed through Crimea for Middle East’, says Russian official

A Russian-backed official in Ukraine’s partially occupied southeastern region of Zaporizhia said Russia has begun to send grain from occupied areas to Turkey and the Middle East through Crimea.

Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Moscow-installed military-civilian administration in the occupied areas, told Russia’s Rossiya 24 news channel:

We are sending grain through Russia, and primary contracts are signed with Turkey. The first trains have departed through Crimea for the Middle East.

Balitsky did not specify which Middle Eastern countries were allegedly being supplied with the wheat, only saying:

It was a traditional market for Ukraine.

A Russian official in Crimea, Oleg Kryuchkov, said the first train carrying grain had arrived from Melitopol, a city in Zaporizhzhia.

It has not been possible to verify these claims.

Updated

More than seven million people have fled Ukraine since Russian troops invaded the country on 24 February, according to the UN’s refugee agency.

Figured published today show a total of 7,023,559 border crossings have been recorded since the Russian invasion began.

Ukraine’s former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, speaks to our Luke Harding and Dan Sabbagh about “cold, cruel” Vladimir Putin and the west’s response to the Russian invasion:

Ukraine’s former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko has described Vladimir Putin as “absolutely rational, cold, cruel, black evil” and claimed he is determined to go down in Russian history alongside Stalin and Peter the Great.

In an exclusive interview, Tymoshenko dismissed the suggestion that the Russian president was “crazy”. “He acts according to his own dark logic,” she said. “He’s driven by this idea of historic mission and wants to create an empire. That’s his hyper-goal. It comes from a deep inner desire and belief.”

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Tymoshenko, a leader of the 2004 Orange revolution and twice prime minister, had several one-on-one meetings with Putin. They held negotiations in 2009 after Putin, then prime minister, turned off the gas supply to Ukraine. Tymoshenko stood for president in 2010, 2014 and 2019, finishing second twice and then third.

Close up, Putin was “always cautious” in what he said and always suspicious that he might be being taped, she said. “He is from a KGB school,” she said. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion in February, he made no secret of his belief that there was “no such nation as Ukraine, and no such people as Ukrainians”, she said.

His ambitions went beyond seizing Ukrainian territory and toppling its pro-western, pro-Nato government, Tymoshenko suggested. His geopolitical aim was to take over Belarus, Georgia and Moldova as well, and to control central and eastern Europe including the Baltic states, just as Moscow did in Soviet times, she said.

Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin in Yalta, Ukraine, in November 2009.
Yulia Tymoshenko and Vladimir Putin in Yalta, Ukraine, in November 2009. Photograph: Aleksandr Prokopenko/EPA

Tymoshenko was in Kyiv on 24 February when Russia launched a multi-pronged attack in the early hours. She said peacetime political rivalries and grudges immediately vanished. That morning she went to the presidential administration together with other senior opposition figures and met Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whom she ran against in 2019.

“We hugged each other and shook hands. Everyone was shocked, pale and afraid. None of us planned to leave Kyiv,” she said. “Everyone knew we should stand until the last. We agreed to support our president and our army and to work for victory.” Zelenskiy’s decision to remain in the capital and to “overcome his fear” was important, she said.

As Russian bombs fell, Tymoshenko took refuge in the basement of the modern office building belonging to her Batkivshchyna political party in Kyiv’s Podil district, which was hit several times by missiles. Asked if she was ready to shoot Russian soldiers, she said: “Yes. I have legal weapons. The Kremlin put me on a kill list, according to sources. We were prepared.”

Read the full interview here: Yulia Tymoshenko on war in Ukraine: ‘It’s a chance for the free world to kill this evil’

Updated

Ukraine now only controls outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, says governor

Ukrainian forces have been pushed back by a Russian bombardment in the frontline eastern city of Sievierodonetsk and now only control its outskirts, according to the governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai.

Speaking to the RBC-Ukraine media outlet, Haidai said it made no sense for Ukrainian special forces to stay inside the city after Russia started levelling the area with shelling and air strikes.

Regional leaders had said Ukrainian forces might have to “pull back” to stronger positions in Sievierodonetsk amid heavy fighting in the city and frontline villages to the south as Russia pursues a breakthrough in Donbas.

It was “impossible” to say that Sievierodonetsk had been completely seized by Russian troops, Haidai said, adding:

Our (forces) now again control only the outskirts of the city. But the fighting is still going on, our (forces) are defending Sievierodonetsk, it is impossible to say the Russians completely control the city.

Haidai had earlier insisted that a retreat was not being planned. “Do not breed betrayal. Do not spoil the mood of the armed forces! Nobody is going to surrender Sievierodonetsk!” he said, adding that Ukraine’s defenders would fight for “every inch”.

Updated

A student wearing her prom dress poses for a photo among the ruins of her school destroyed in a Russian shelling on 27 February 27, in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
A student wearing her prom dress poses for a photo among the ruins of her school destroyed in a Russian shelling on 27 February, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Today so far...

It is 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

  • Russian-installed officials in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region reportedly plan to stage a referendum later this year on joining Russia. A Kremlin-backed official, Vladimir Rogov, was quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass as saying: “The people will determine the future of the Zaporizhzhia region.” Ukraine says any referendums held under Russian occupation would be illegal and their results fraudulent.
  • Millions of people could die of hunger unless Russia lifts the blockade on Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea, Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, has warned. Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, told a meeting of Mediterranean ministers that rises in fuel and basic food stuffs were exacerbating the crisis in his country.
  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries, who had surrendered in Mariupol, have been transferred to Russia for an investigation there, Russian state-owned news agency Tass reports. More Ukrainian prisoners of war will be taken to Russia “later on”, a Russian law enforcement source told the outlet.
  • Dozens of radiation detectors around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant have started transmitting radiation data for the first time since Russia invaded, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Radiation levels in the area surrounding Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant are now back to normal after detectors came back online today, the IAEA said.
  • Russian proxy fighters in east Ukraine have said they are opening a trial against two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were captured fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol. The two men, who are serving in the Ukrainian military, and Ibrahim Saadun, a captive from Morocco, were shown sitting in a courtroom cage in a video released on pro-Russian social media channels on Tuesday.

Good afternoon from London. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Sanctions imposed on the Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov and his two sisters could be suspended after a legal challenge at the European court of justice by the businessman once described as one of Vladimir Putin’s “favourite oligarchs”.

Usmanov, as well as his sisters Saodat Narzieva and Gulbakhor Ismailova, each filed separate legal appeals in April in an attempt to overturn sanctions that have blocked them from travelling across the EU or making use of assets located in member states, including a $600m (£484m) yacht.

The Guardian understands an interim decision on whether to suspend sanctions could be issued within the next two weeks, pending a final ruling that is likely to be due by the end of the year. That would give the oligarch and his relatives access to bank accounts and assets that have either been frozen or seized.

Russian president Vladimir Putin with Alisher Usmanov, billionaire and founder of USM Holdings.
Russian president Vladimir Putin with Alisher Usmanov, billionaire and founder of USM Holdings. Photograph: SPUTNIK/Reuters

The Uzbek-born Usmanov has been subject to an asset freeze and EU travel ban since late February, after Russia invaded Ukraine. The sanctions came after the bloc identified him as one of “Putin’s favourite oligarchs”. Similar sanctions have since been applied against the metals and telecoms magnate in the US and UK, where he was a major sponsor of Everton football club.

The EU later extended sanctions to Ismailova and Narzieva, for being financially “associated” with their brother.

The move resulted in the impounding of a $600m yacht – the largest in the world – after German federal police, who investigated a complex web of holding companies, claimed to have identified Ismailova as the only beneficial owner of the vessel.

The Dilbar, a luxury yacht impounded by the German authorities.
The Dilbar, a luxury yacht impounded by the German authorities. Photograph: Yoruk Isik/Reuters

A spokesperson for Usmanov and his sisters said the yacht’s ownership “was never concealed” and that all the required documents related to the structure of ownership via a trust were provided to relevant authorities, including in the EU, US and Germany.

The EU sanctions listing for Usmanov also said the oligarch had “transferred considerable assets to his sister Soadat Narzieva [sic] including a single payment or gift of $3m”. The sanctions notice added that Narzieva “held 27 Swiss bank accounts, holding hundreds of millions of dollars, which can be linked to her brother”.

Read Kalyeena Makortoff’s full article: Decision on lifting EU sanctions against Alisher Usmanov and his sisters expected soon

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said more than 31,000 Russian troops have died in Ukraine since the start of the invasion in February.

Zelenskiy added that the war is costing Russia’s armed forces “300 lives a day” and will soon reach a level that would be unacceptable for Moscow.

It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.

Russia to stage ‘referendum’ in Zaporizhzhia on joining country

Russian-installed officials in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region plan to stage a referendum later this year on joining Russia, according to reports.

A Kremlin-backed official, Vladimir Rogov, was quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass as saying:

The people will determine the future of the Zaporizhzhia region. The referendum is scheduled for this year.

He did not give further details about the date for any such vote but said the administration would draw up plans for how to proceed with a referendum even if Russia could not gain control over the entire region.

Zaporizhzhia city, the main urban centre, is still held by Ukraine. Around 60% of the Zaporizhzhia region, with a 1.6m pre-war population, is under Russian control, part of a swathe of southern Ukraine that was seized early in the war.

In neighbouring Kherson province, Russian-installed officials have also discussed plans for a referendum.

Ukraine says any referendums held under Russian occupation would be illegal and their results fraudulent. The Kremlin says it is for people living in the regions to decide their future.

Rogov was quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency Ria as saying:

The overwhelming number of residents of our region want to quickly to return to their native harbour and become part of big Russia.

In 2014, Moscow and its proxies carried out a referendum in Ukraine’s Crimea which were condemned by western nations as being illegal.

A British former intelligence officer said he did not see Vladimir Putin still being president of Russia “three to six months from now”.

Putin’s days will be “numbered” once western sanctions on Russia, especially energy measures, begin to take effect, Christopher Steele told the BBC.

Steele pointed to “signs that Putin’s health is failing” and said if US and UK sources were correct, the Russian leader could be “incapacitated” in that time.

Updated

Oleksandr Syenkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, has posted to Telegram about humanitarian efforts aimed at improving water supplies in the city that is in the south of Ukraine, between Odesa and Kherson. He posted:

Mykolaiv received five brand new water carriers from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine. After completing all the necessary documents, we will immediately put them into operation. I sincerely thank our partners. I want to note that the Red Cross is actively helping our city to solve the problem of water supply. This organisation supplies drinking water to our residents and helps us purchase reagents for water purification.

Updated

Ukraine confirms exchange of bodies of 50 deceased soldiers with Russia

Ukraine and Russia each handed over the bodies of 50 of their deceased soldiers in an exchange that included 37 Ukrainian soldiers killed at Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, the Ukrainian ministry for reintegration has confirmed.

Reuters reports that in a statement on its website, the ministry said the exchange took place on the front lines in the southeast Ukrainian region of Zaporizhzhia. It said such exchanges would continue.

Updated

Kyiv has dismissed assurances from Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, that Moscow will not use the situation to its advantage if Ukraine allows grain shipments to leave safely via the Black Sea as “empty”.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, tweeted:

Ukraine has made its position on the sea ports clear: military equipment is required to protect the coastline and a navy mission to patrol the export routes in the Black Sea.

Russia cannot be “allowed to use grain corridors to attack” southern Ukraine, Nikolenko warned.

Communal workers clean up the rubble of a supermarket, partially destroyed by a missile attack on the southeastern outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
Communal workers clean up the rubble of a supermarket, partially destroyed by a missile attack on the southeastern outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images
A view of the destroyed shopping mall due to shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
A view of the destroyed shopping mall due to shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Italy warns Russia over blockade on Ukraine's ports

Millions of people could die of hunger unless Russia lifts the blockade on Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea, Italy’s foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, has warned.

The next few weeks will be crucial to resolving the global food crisis, Di Maio said after a virtual meeting that included Mediterranean countries as well as G7 president Germany and the UN’s food and agriculture organisation.

Di Maio said:

I want to say clearly, we expect clear and concrete signals from Russia, because blocking grain exports means holding hostage and condemning to death millions of children, women and men.

Lebanon’s minister for foreign affairs, Abdallah Bou Habib, told ministers that rises in fuel and basic food stuffs were exacerbating the crisis in his country.

He called for the war in Ukraine to “stop at any cost”, adding that if it could not, “concerned parties... must be pressured to allow the safe export of grains and other commodities without any delay”.

Bou Habib said:

The world cannot continue to be at the mercy of military crises in Europe or other regions of the world.

Updated

Moscow’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Goldschmidt, has left Russia after coming under pressure to support its invasion of Ukraine, according to a relative.

Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt, a New York-based journalist, tweeted that Goldschmidt had refused to publicly support what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

She said he had flown to Hungary two weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raising money for refugees in Eastern Europe before continuing on to Israel.

Our Ruth Michaelson has the full report on the meeting between Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, in Ankara:

Speaking alongside Çavuşoğlu following talks between the two, Lavrov said Russia was willing to open corridors to allow grain exports from Ukraine, but that these efforts relied on the Ukrainian side to remove mines from their ports.

Russia claims that Ukraine is responsible for mining the Black Sea, which the Ukrainians deny, saying that Russia is responsible.

Lavrov said a move by the United Nations to restore Ukrainian grain exports “could be beneficial, but this is a symbolic step”. He said:

To solve this problem, Ukraine should de-mine their ports, only after that can ships travel in the region.

The delivery of grains and cereals from Russia, western countries look at this as a catastrophe, but the share of Ukrainian grain in the international market is just one percent, so the food security crisis isn’t actually stemming from this war, we cannot say this situation will cause a food crisis.

German estimates put Ukraine’s wheat production at 11.5% of the global market.

“There is a real global food crisis,” said Çavuşoğlu, who also pointed to a crisis in the global fertiliser trade.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (R) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) in Ankara
The Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (right), and Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Ankara. Photograph: Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry/EPA

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, Turkish maritime and military experts have deactivated at least three mines that drifted down from the Black Sea into the Bosphorus strait, disrupting global shipping traffic. Floating mines have also been detected and defused off the coast of Romania, which borders the Black Sea.

In March, Russian intelligence service the FSB claimed at least 420 naval mines were drifting in the Black Sea following a storm, and claimed the mines were set by the Ukrainian side. The Ukrainians have dismissed this as disinformation, and say that Russia is likely responsible for mining the Black Sea.

“The efforts of my Turkish counterpart are of vital importance, they are doing their best to make sure the vessels and ships can be removed from the ports,” said Lavrov, in reference to a Turkish initiative to accompany ships crossing the Black Sea holding vital Ukrainian grain supplies.

On our side there are no obstacles or challenges, the Russian Federation is not creating any obstacles for the passage of ships or vessels, we are not preventing anything. We are opening corridors for grain transportation and working on that with our Turkish friends. Zelensky has said he’s against the demining process...so the ball is in their court, the problem doesn’t lay with us in that regard.

Asked by a reporter about efforts to extract grain from the Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv, where Russia recently attacked the city including striking grain silos, Lavrov replied:

Putin has said himself that we are ready to make sure those ports are operating safely and security, if the Ukrainians are cleaning and cleansing their ports from mines we will not use abuse our military powers and will make sure ships depart from those ports safely and securely.

The press conference ended abruptly following a question by a Ukrainian television reporter, who asked Lavrov about Russian efforts to reportedly resell plundered Ukrainian wheat to countries facing food shortages.

“We are not presenting any obstacles whatsoever for the transport of wheat, Zelenskiy should give order to make sure ships depart from the region,” he said, before walking away from the lectern.

Updated

Kremlin: Meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy must be 'well prepared’

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has been speaking to reporters at his regular briefing, where he restated that any meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents must be “productive and well prepared”.

Peskov said:

Our position is well known. Any meeting at the highest level must be productive and well prepared.

The Kremlin also spoke about the ongoing food crisis and said western sanctions must be lifted in order for Russian grain to be delivered to international markets.

No “substantive discussions” about lifting sanctions were ongoing, Peskov said.

He also said there are no grounds for Russia to default on its debts, as the country struggles to make interest payments to bondholders.

Peskov blamed the sanctions, which have seen almost half of the country’s foreign currency reserves frozen, for “pushing Russia into an artificial man-made debt default”.

Updated

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, spoke in a phone call and agreed that everything needed to be done to get Ukraine’s grain exports out of the country, especially by sea routes, a German government spokesperson said.

Scholz spoke about his 28 May phone call with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to Zelenskiy, the spokesperson added.

Zelenskiy tweeted that he raised the issue of Russia’s treatment of prisoners of war as well as EU integration of Ukraine.

Updated

Ukraine has filed eight more war crimes cases to court, according to its prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova.

The eight cases are in addition to the three sentences already handed down to Russian soldiers, she said.

Venediktova said on television:

Every day we see an increase (in investigations). We are talking about people who didn’t just come as military combatants … but also came to rape, kill civilians, loot, humiliate and so on.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova with US ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink in Borodyanka, outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Ukraine’s prosecutor genera,l Iryna Venediktova, with the US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, in Borodyanka, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP

In May, 21-year-old sergeant Vadim Shishimarin was found guilty of killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in the Sumy region in the first verdict in a trial related to war crimes carried out by the Russian army during its invasion of Ukraine.

So far, Ukraine has opened more than 16,000 investigations into possible war crimes by the Russian army since the conflict began, Venediktova added.

Kyiv’s top prosecutor has previously said that the list of suspects includes “top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russia” and that “200 to 300 new cases of war crimes are added every day”.

Many of the alleged war crimes have been identified in the eastern Donbas region, and include the possible forcible transfer of adults and children to Russia, and the torture and killing of civilians.

Russia has denied targeting civilians or involvement in war crimes while it carries out what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Today so far …

  • Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said “Nobody is going to surrender Sievierodonetsk”. He said that the regional centre of Luhansk is seeing the most intense fighting, saying: “Fierce battles are taking place in Sievierodonetsk, our defenders are fighting for every inch of the city.”
  • The Russian ministry of defence claims that “the Ukrainian group in the Donbas suffers significant losses in manpower, weapons and military equipment”. Russia claims to have shot down two MiG-29 aircraft and a Mi-8 helicopter in the Mykolaiv region, and also 11 unmanned drones in the last 24 hours.
  • The UK Ministry of Defence has said it is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours.
  • Dozens of radiation detectors around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant have started transmitting radiation data for the first time since Russia invaded, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Radiation levels in the area surrounding Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant are now back to normal after detectors came back online today, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.
  • Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the onus was on Ukraine to solve the problem of resuming grain shipments. Lavrov said no action was required on the Russian side. “We state daily that we’re ready to guarantee the safety of vessels leaving Ukrainian ports and heading for the Bosphorus gulf. To solve the problem, the only thing needed is for the Ukrainians to let vessels out of their ports, either by demining them or by marking out safe corridors.”
  • Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he “simply cannot see the preconditions for ending the war” in an interview with the Financial Times. Victory meant restoring “all” of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014 – and separatist-held areas, he suggested. “We have to achieve a full de-occupation of our entire territory,” Zelenskiy said.
  • Ukraine is launching a ‘Book of Executioners’, a system to collate evidence of war crimes Kyiv says were committed during Russia’s occupation, Zelenskiy said yesterday. Ukrainian prosecutors say they have registered more than 12,000 alleged war crimes involving more than 600 suspects since the Kremlin started its invasion on 24 February.
  • Russia has handed over to Kyiv the bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters, most of whom died defending the city of Mariupol from Russian forces at a vast steel works, the Ukrainian military confirmed.
  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries, who had surrendered in Mariupol, have been transferred to Russia for an investigation there, a law enforcement source told Russian state-owned news agency, Tass.
  • Vladimir Rogov, part of the Russian-imposed administration in occupied Zaporizhzhia in the south of Ukraine, has said a referendum will be held this year. He is quoted as saying “The wording of the questions will be presented in the near future. The vast majority of residents of our region want to return to their native harbour as soon as possible and become part of greater Russia.”
  • Norway has donated 22 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, including spare parts, ammunition and other gear, the Norwegian defence ministry said.
  • Laurence Boone, the chief economist at the Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) has said the world economy was paying a “hefty price” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. She said “As Russia and Ukraine are large commodity exporters, the war has sent energy and food prices soaring, making life much harder for many people across the world.”
  • Russian proxy fighters in east Ukraine have said they are opening a trial against two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were captured fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol. The two men, who are serving in the Ukrainian military, and Ibrahim Saadun, a captive from Morocco, were shown sitting in a courtroom cage reserved for defendants in a video released on pro-Russian social media channels on Tuesday.
  • The European Union needs to build warehouses and extend railway tracks across the Ukrainian border to help Kyiv in its attempts to move more grain out of the country to those who need it, says the country’s trade representative. Ukraine will not be able to export more than 2m tonnes of grain a month, around a third of pre-war levels, as long as its main trade routes through its Black Sea ports remain blockaded by Russia, said Taras Kachka.

Russia's Lavrov: onus is on Ukraine to solve problem of grain exports

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the onus was on Ukraine to solve the problem of resuming grain shipments by de-mining its ports.

Speaking in Ankara, where he was visiting his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu,
Lavrov said no action was required on the Russian side because it had already made the necessary commitments.

“We state daily that we’re ready to guarantee the safety of vessels leaving Ukrainian ports and heading for the Bosphorus gulf. We’re ready to do that in cooperation with our Turkish colleagues.”

“To solve the problem, the only thing needed is for the Ukrainians to let vessels out of their ports, either by de-mining them or by marking out safe corridors, nothing more is required.”

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu shake hands as they attend a news conference in Ankara.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, shake hands as they attend a news conference in Ankara. Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

Reuters reports Çavuşoğlu said a UN plan to open a corridor to restart Ukrainian grain exports was reasonable and requires more talks with all sides to ensure ships would be safe.

Ukraine has accused Russia of the theft of its grain, which it has begun exporting out of ports that have fallen under occupation since Russia started its latest invasion of Ukraine in February.

Updated

Laurence Boone, the chief economist at the Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), has said the world economy was paying a “hefty price” for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“A humanitarian crisis is unfolding before our eyes, leaving thousands dead, forcing millions of refugees to flee their homes and threatening an economic recovery that was under way after two years of the pandemic,” she said.

“As Russia and Ukraine are large commodity exporters, the war has sent energy and food prices soaring, making life much harder for many people across the world.”

Boone said the OECD had cut its global growth forecast for 2022 from 4.5% to 3%, while inflation in the organisation’s 38 wealthy-country members would average almost 9% – double the forecast in last December’s economic outlook. Growth in 2023 is expected to be 2.8%, down from the 3.2% forecast six months ago.

Read more from our economics editor Larry Elliott here: UK to be major economy worst hit by Ukraine war, says OECD

Updated

During that press conference in Ankara, Reuters reports Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he hoped the situation with exporting grain could be resolved, provided Kyiv de-mines the waters around Ukraine’s ports.

Updated

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in in Ankara, Turkey today, and is giving a press conference with his counterpart for the host nation, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu (R) and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov meet in Ankara.
Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (R) and Russian foreign minister Lavrov meet in Ankara. Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

Some of the key lines reported so far by Reuters:

  • Lavrov has said peace talks have to re-open before there could be any possible meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
  • Lavrov also asserted that what he termed “Russia’s special military operation” is going to plan.
  • Cavusoglu said a UN plan to open a corridor to restart Ukrainian grain exports was reasonable and requires more talks with all sides to ensure ships would be safe.
  • Cavusoglu said their meeting was fruitful, including a will to return to negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv for a possible ceasefire. Turkey hosted face-to-face talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives in the earliest stages of the war.

Updated

Ukraine suffering 'significant losses in manpower, weapons and military equipment' in Donbas, claims Russia

The Russian ministry of defence has issued its operational briefing for the day. As ever, the claims within it have not been independently verified. The ministry claims that “the Ukrainian group in the Donbas suffers significant losses in manpower, weapons and military equipment.”

Russia claims to have shot down two MiG-29 aircraft and a Mi-8 helicopter in the Mykolaiv region, and also 11 unmanned drones.

It also say that “high-precision air-launched missiles in the Kharkov region hit an armoured plant, in the workshops of which the repair and restoration of tanks and other armoured vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine was carried out.”

Russia also claims to have caused at least 480 casualties overnight.

Updated

As the battle continues for Sievierodonetsk, there is a flurry of claim and counterclaim about events on the ground. Rodion Miroshnik has posted an update to Telegram of what he says is happening in the city. Miroshnik is the ambassador to Russia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic. He writes:

Ukrainian formations retain control over only a small part of the Sievierodonetsk chemical plant AZOT. Ukrainian militants are firing indiscriminately at the quarters adjacent to the enterprise. Snipers are at work. The circle of allied troops around the remaining group is narrowing.

According to information from the field, the Sievierodonetsk airport has already been cleared of Ukrainian formations. The shelling that was carried out from there stopped. The remaining militants are hiding in forest plantations around the airport. Allied forces are searching for and clearing them.

This is how the “powerful counter-offensive” promised by Kyiv looks like in reality.

None of Miroshnik’s claims have been independently verified. Russia is the only UN member to recognise the Luhansk People’s Republic as an entity.

Updated

Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency is carrying some quotes from Vladimir Rogov, who is part of the Russian-imposed administration in occupied Zaporizhzhia in the south of Ukraine. He told the agency that there is progress towards holding a referendum on the region being annexed by Russia. RIA Novosti quotes him saying:

The referendum will be held this year. Preparations will take several months. The wording of the questions will be presented in the near future. The vast majority of residents of our region want to return to their native harbour as soon as possible and become part of greater Russia.

Rogov also said that it was planned to restore freight and passenger rail links with Crimea from Zaporizhzhia. These services were stopped eight years ago when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.

'Nobody is going to surrender Sievierodonetsk' – Luhansk governor

Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has posted to Telegram to say that “Nobody is going to surrender Sievierodonetsk”.

He writes that the regional centre of Luhansk is seeing the most intense fighting, saying: “Fierce battles are taking place in Sievierodonetsk, our defenders are fighting for every inch of the city.”

In his latest message he claims Russians “do NOT control the Lysychansk-Bakhmut route, but fire heavily. We do not use this road, it is too dangerous”.

Haidai writes:

The plans of the racists have not changed, they ‘want’ to capture Sievierodonetsk and the ‘way of life’ by 10 June. All the racist forces have been thrown into this. In addition, the orcs [slang term for Russian forces] again plan to cross the Seversky Donets River to create a bridgehead for the offensive.

Updated

Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv in western Ukraine, has said in his morning update on Telegram that overnight the region experienced one air alarm over the threat of a cruise missile strike, but “the danger did not come true”

He said that yesterday 405 internally displaced people arrived in the region by evacuation trains, and that “everything is calm in Lviv region”.

Updated

The Tass news agency is reporting a statement from the Russian Embassy in the United States which is highly critical of the US transfer of weaponry and supplies to Ukraine – claiming it is irresponsible. It states:

The [Biden] administration is also demonstrating irresponsibility regarding the transfer of long-range artillery systems to Ukraine. The main risk is an escalation of the conflict if the armed forces of Ukraine use these systems to strike at the territory of the Russian Federation. This is fraught with unpredictable consequences. In addition, Washington ignores the obvious threat of putting modern high-precision weapons into the hands of radical nationalists, terrorists and bandit formations not only on the territory of Ukraine, but also abroad.

Ukraine is launching a ‘Book of Executioners’, a system to collate evidence of war crimes Kyiv says were committed during Russia’s occupation, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.

Ukrainian prosecutors say they have registered more than 12,000 alleged war crimes involving more than 600 suspects since the Kremlin started its invasion on 24 February.

Next week, a special publication is to be launched - ‘The Book of Executioners’ - an information system to collect confirmation of data about war criminals, criminals from the Russian army,” Zelenskiy said in a video address.

Zelenskiy said this would be a key element in bringing to account Russian servicemen who have committed what Ukrainian authorities have described as murders, rape and looting.

“These are concrete facts about concrete individuals guilty of concrete cruel crimes against Ukrainians,” Zelenskiy said.

He cited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, where investigators found what they say is evidence of mass executions.

Norway has donated 22 self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine, including spare parts, ammunition and other gear, the Norwegian defence ministry said.

“The Norwegian government has waited to publicly announce the donation for security reasons. Future donations may not be announced or commented upon,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.

Zelenskiy calls for 'full de-occupation' of entire Ukrainian territory

With neither side prevailing on the battlefield, there seems little prospect of negotiations.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he “simply cannot see the preconditions for ending the war” in an interview with the Financial Times.

Victory meant restoring “all” of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014 – and separatist-held areas, he suggested.

“We have to achieve a full de-occupation of our entire territory,” Zelenskiy said by video link at an event hosted by the newspaper on Tuesday.

Most observers in Kyiv now expect the war to continue through the summer until at least the end of the year.

China has spoken against third parties’ attempts to “drag countries of the region into the conflict of world powers”, Russian state-owned media agency Tass reports.

The outlet quoted China’s foreign minister Wang Yi as saying during his meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in the city of Nur-Sultan on Tuesday:

China has always played a constructive role in the assistance to peaceful talks.

It is necessary under the present-day situation to be aware of third parties’ attempts to drag countries of the region into the conflict of world powers and to avoid their threats to take a certain side.

China will never be pursuing geopolitical interests in Central Asia and will also not permit outer powers to initiate chaos in this region.”

Stalemate with Russia ‘not an option’, says Zelenskiy

A stalemate with Russia is “not an option”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, reiterating a plea for foreign help in the war.

Ukraine’s fierce resistance of Russia’s invasion led to a stalemate in parts of the country, with Moscow re-focussing its forces in the east.

In an interview with the Financial Times newspaper on Tuesday, he said:

Victory must be achieved on the battlefield.

We are inferior in terms of equipment and therefore we are not capable of advancing.

We are going to suffer more losses and people are my priority.”

A stalemate with Russia is “not an option”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said after visiting Ukrainian troops in Soledar, Donetsk region.
A stalemate with Russia is “not an option”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said after visiting Ukrainian troops in Soledar, Donetsk region. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters

Asked what Ukraine would consider a victory, Zelenskiy said restoring the borders Ukraine controlled before Russia’s invasion on 24 February would be “a serious temporary victory”.

But he said the ultimate aim was the “full de-occupation of our entire territory”.

Asked about talks with Russia, which have been suspended since late March, Zelenskiy said he had not changed his position, adding that war should be ended at the negotiating table.

He said he was ready for direct talks with Vladimir Putin, adding that there was “nobody else to talk to” but the Russian president.

Ukraine 'holds back assault' on Sievierodonetsk, military says

According to the latest Ukrainian military operational report, Ukraine is holding back the Russian assault on its key eastern city.

Our warriors successfully hold back the assault in the city of Sievierodonetsk, the combat is ongoing.”

An attempt to capture the nearby towns of Toshkivka and Ustinivka was also unsuccessful, according to the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine.

Russian forces have been bombarding Ukrainian positions with intense artillery barrages, airstrikes and non-stop street-by-street fighting, according to the regional governor of Luhansk province.

Serhiy Haidai said earlier this week that tough street battles were continuing with varying degrees of success. “The situation constantly changes, but the Ukrainians are repelling attacks,” he said.

Between 10,000 and 11,000 civilians remain in the city.

Members of a foreign volunteers unit fighting in the Ukrainian army take positions in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region of Ukraine June 2, 2022.
Members of a foreign volunteers unit fighting in the Ukrainian army take positions in Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk region. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters

Updated

Chornobyl radiation detectors transmitting data for first time since war began

Dozens of radiation detectors around the Chornobyl nuclear power plant have started transmitting radiation data for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The IAEA said the radiation monitoring network in the area stopped functioning when Russian forces occupied the Chornobyl site in February and held it for five weeks before withdrawing on March 31.

Radiation levels in the area surrounding Ukraine’s Chornobyl nuclear power plant are now back to normal after detectors came back online today, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.

Most of the 39 detectors sending data from the Exclusion Zone ... are now visible on the IRMIS (International Radiation Monitoring Information System) map.

The measurements received so far indicated radiation levels in line with those measured before the conflict.”

“The resumption of radiation data transmission from the Exclusion Zone is a very positive step forward for nuclear safety and security in Ukraine,” the agency’s Director General Rafael Grossi said in the statement.

“It ends a long period of virtual information blackout that created much uncertainty about the radiation situation in the area, especially when it was under Russian occupation,” the agency’s director general Rafael Grossi said in the statement.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images from Ukraine to be sent across our newswires today.

Ivan Sosnin, 19, stands in front of his destroyed house in the city of Lysychansk at the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 7, 2022.
Ivan Sosnin, 19, stands in front of his destroyed house in the city of Lysychansk at the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas on June 7, 2022. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
People live in a shelter to be protected from shelling in the city of Lysychansk.
People live in a shelter to be protected from shelling in the city of Lysychansk. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
A Ukrainian senior citizen stands with the help of a walking stick at a shelter in northern Kharkiv, Ukraine.
A Ukrainian senior citizen stands with the help of a walking stick at a shelter in northern Kharkiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
An Ukrainian injured serviceman and an injured civilian wait for medical treatment in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine.
An Ukrainian injured serviceman and an injured civilian wait for medical treatment in Bakhmut, eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Bernat Armangué/AP
An injured Ukrainian servicemen is transferred to a medical facility after getting an emergency medical treatment in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, onb Tuesday.
An injured Ukrainian servicemen is transferred to a medical facility after getting an emergency medical treatment in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, onb Tuesday. Photograph: Bernat Armangué/AP

Ukraine holds Sievierodonetsk, launches counterattacks in Kherson - UK MoD

Russia continues to attempt assaults against Sievierodonetsk although Ukrainian defences are holding, the UK Ministry of Defence has said.

Though it is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours, the department added.

Regarding the unfolding situation in the eastern frontline city of Sievierodonetsk, the full report, released just after 6am BST, reads:

Russia continues to attempt assaults against the Sieverodonetsk pocket from three directions although Ukrainian defences are holding. It is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours.

While Russia is concentrating its offensive on the central Donbas sector, it has remained on the defensive on its flanks.”

Referring to Ukraine’s south-western Kherson region, British intelligence said Ukrainian forces have recently achieved some success through counterattacks, including regaining a foothold on the eastern bank of the Ingulets River.

With the frontage of the occupied zone stretching for over 500km, both Russia and Ukraine face similar challenges in maintaining a defensive line while freeing up capable combat units for offensive operations.

In the occupied Kherson region, Russia is forcibly aligning its administration with that of the Russian Federation by introducing the Russian rouble as legal tender and employing Russian teachers to introduce the Russian curriculum and language to schools.

Russia will highly likely claim its occupation of Kherson as evidence of delivering improved governance and living standards to the Ukrainian people.”

Updated

Russia hands over bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters

Russia has handed over to Kyiv the bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters, most of whom died defending the city of Mariupol from Russian forces at a vast steel works, the Ukrainian military confirmed.

Ukraine’s defence intelligence directorate issued a statement late on Tuesday:

The process of returning the bodies of the fallen defenders of Mariupol is under way.

To date, 210 of our troops have been returned – most of them are heroic defenders of Azovsta.

Work continues on bringing home all of the captured Ukrainian defender.”

Updated

1,000 Ukrainian soldiers taken to Russia for investigation - reports

More than 1,000 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries, who had surrendered in Mariupol, have been transferred to Russia for an investigation there, a law enforcement source told Russian state-owned news agency, Tass.

More Ukrainian prisoners of war will be taken to Russia “later on”, the outlet cited a the Russian law enforcement source as saying.

Over 1,000 people from Azovstal have been transferred to Russia. Law enforcement officers are working with them.

Investigators also plan to send a number of other captives to Russia in the future, following a series of face-to-face confrontations.”

Russian service members seen on the the territory of Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol after Ukrainian defenders surrendered last month.
Russian service members seen on the the territory of Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol after Ukrainian defenders surrendered last month. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Ukraine’s president Zelenskiy previously said he thought more than 2,500 Azovstal defenders - who also include border guards, police and territorial defence - were being held by Russia.

Kyiv is seeking the handover of all the estimated defenders in a prisoner swap, but Russian lawmakers have demanded that some of the soldiers be put on trial

The Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer previously reported that more than 900 Ukrainian troops who had been trapped at Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainian forces held out for weeks, had been sent to a prison colony on Russian-controlled territory within Ukraine.

Some residents who managed to escape are also saying they were given no choice but to travel to Russia in what Kyiv regards as “deportations”, Agence France-Presse added.

Summary and welcome

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I will be bringing you all the latest news for the next few hours.

Ukrainian forces are struggling to hold their ground in bloody street-to-street fighting in the eastern frontline city of Sievierodonetsk as president Zelenskiy calls for a “full de-occupation” of Ukrainian territory.

If you’re just waking up, or just dropping in to find the latest information, here’s a summary of the main points you might have missed:

  • Ukrainian forces are finding it hard to stave off Russian attacks in the centre of Sievierodonestk but Moscow’s forces do not control the frontline eastern city, regional officials say. Russian forces have seized residential quarters of the key eastern city and are fighting to take control of an industrial zone on its outskirts and the nearby towns, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said. The Luhansk governor, Serhiy Haidai, conceded that Russian forces control the industrial outskirts of the city. Satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed significant damage in Sievierodonetsk and nearby Rubizhne.
  • Some 800 civilians have taken refuge in a chemical factory in Sievierodonetsk, according to a lawyer for Dmytro Firtash, whose company owns the facility. “These 800 civilians include around 200 out of the plant’s 3,000 employees and approximately 600 inhabitants of the city of Sievierodonetsk,” Lanny J. Davis, a US lawyer, noted in a statement published on the company website.
  • More than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered in the southern port city of Mariupol have been transferred to Russia, according to Russian state-owned news agency, Tass. More Ukrainian prisoners of war will be taken to Russia “later on”, the outlet cited a Russian law enforcement source as saying. Some residents who managed to escape are saying they were given no choice but to travel to Russia in what Kyiv regards as “deportations”, Agence France-Presse added.
  • A stalemate with Russia is “not an option”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, reiterating a plea for foreign help in the war. “Victory must be achieved on the battlefield,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday, adding that he “simply cannot see the preconditions for ending the war”. Victory meant restoring “all” of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea – annexed by Russia in 2014 – and separatist-held areas, he suggested.
  • Russian proxy fighters in east Ukraine have said they are opening a trial against two Britons, Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who were captured fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol. The two men, who are serving in the Ukrainian military, and Ibrahim Saadun, a captive from Morocco, were shown sitting in a courtroom cage reserved for defendants in a video released on pro-Russian social media channels on Tuesday.
  • Ukraine’s first deputy minister of agrarian policy and food, Taras Vysotskyi, said it would take six months to clear the coast of Russian and Ukrainian mines. His remarks dealt a blow to a proposal under discussion where ships leaving Ukrainian ports would be given safe escort by Turkish naval vessels.
  • The European Union needs to build warehouses and extend railway tracks across the Ukrainian border to help Kyiv in its attempts to move more grain out of the country to those who need it, says the country’s trade representative. Ukraine will not be able to export more than 2m tonnes of grain a month, around a third of pre-war levels, as long as its main trade routes through its Black Sea ports remain blockaded by Russia, said Taras Kachka.
  • The World Bank has approved $1.49bn of additional financing for Ukraine to help pay wages for government and social workers, expanding the bank’s total pledged support for Kyiv to over $4 billion. The latest round of funding is supported by financing guarantees from Britain, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Latvia.
  • Russia is ramping up oil exports from its major eastern port of Kozmino as it aims to offset the impact of EU sanctions with the surging demand from Asian buyers. Sources told Reuters that Russia has already increased the amount of crude pumped to Kozmino on its main Asian oil route, the East Siberia Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, by 70,000 barrels per day (bpd).
  • The United States Treasury Department has banned US money managers from buying any Russian debt or stocks in secondary markets, on top of its existing ban on new-issue purchases, in its latest sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
  • Former German chancellor Angela Merkel said she tried to prevent the situation in Ukraine and has no regrets while in office. “It’s a great sadness that it didn’t work out, but I don’t blame myself for not trying,” Merkel said about talking to Vladimir Putin during a televised interview on Tuesday.
  • Moscow’s Chief Rabbi has reportedly fled Russia, after coming under pressure to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Journalist Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt tweeted late on Tuesday: “Can finally share that my in-laws, Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt and Rebbetzin Dara Goldschmidt, have been put under pressure by authorities to publicly support the ‘special operation’ in Ukraine — and refused.”

Updated

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