Closing summary
The Russian military has taken control of the village of Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday. The defence ministry said its troops “continued to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defence and liberated the settlement of Staromaiorskoye” (Staromaiorske in Ukrainian), located southwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk.
Ukraine’s military said it damaged three Russian surface-to-air defence systems overnight in missile attacks on the Moscow-occupied Crimea peninsula.
The attacks struck an S-400 system in Dzhankoi and two less advanced S-300 systems near Yevpatoriya and Chornomorske, resulting in “significant losses” for Russian air defences, Ukraine’s general staff said.Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets it is set to receive from its western allies at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes, Serhii Holubtsov, head of aviation within Ukraine’s air force, said. Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma lower house of parliament’s defence committee, was quoted as saying earlier that F-16 jets and military airfields outside Ukraine will become legitimate targets for Moscow if they take part in combat missions against Russian forces.
Nearly 90 countries and organisations, half from Europe, have confirmed attending the Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit over the weekend despite Russia’s refusal to participate in the conference, Switzerland’s president said.
Viola Amherd told reporters in the Swiss capital that the summit, on Saturday and Sunday, will aim to chart a path toward possible peace nearly 28 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea and Vietnam in the coming weeks, Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper reported on Monday, with an official telling Reuters the Vietnam visit was planned for June 19-20 (but this has not yet been confirmed). Putin’s visit to Pyongyang is being “actively prepared”, Russian ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora confirmed to the newspaper.
The head of Ukraine’s reconstruction agency has resigned a day before an international conference on the country’s long-term reconstruction, saying he had been prevented from attending after being systematically undermined by the Ukrainian government from doing his job. Mustafa Nayyem announced his resignation in a Facebook post on Monday after previously sending a strongly worded email to a number of foreign partners criticising the Ukrainian administration for a wide range of mistakes.
Thank you for following today’s latest news. This blog is closing now but you can read all our Ukraine coverage here.
Updated
Four people were injured on Monday when a mine exploded in a Russian town close to the border with Ukraine, while Ukrainian shelling hurt another three people, the regional governor said.
The people were injured in the town of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod region, which often comes under attack from the Ukrainian side.
The area is just a few kilometres from Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, where a Russian offensive last month aimed to create a “security zone” to prevent Ukrainian strikes.
“Four people – three self-defence fighters and an employee of the Rossiya-24 TV station – were blown up by a mine in the town of Shebekino,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram.
The journalist, a cameraman for the state-run TV channel, was in a serious condition and was undergoing surgery after shrapnel wounds to his abdomen and shoulder, Gladkov said, adding that one of the self-defence fighters was also hospitalised.
Three civilians were injured in an earlier Ukrainian aerial attack on the same town, Gladkov said. A man and two women were hospitalised with multiple shrapnel injuries, he said, adding that the strike had partially cut off electricity to the town.
Ukraine's air force may keep some F-16 jets abroad to protect them from Russian strikes, military officer says
Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets it is set to receive from its western allies at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes, a senior Ukrainian military officer said.
Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with over 60 US-made F-16 fighter jets to help it fend off Russian attacks. Ukrainian pilots are currently undergoing training to fly the warplanes ahead of the deliveries expected to start later this year.
Serhii Holubtsov, head of aviation within Ukraine’s air force, said that “a certain number of aircraft will be stored at secure airbases outside Ukraine so that they are not targeted here.”
Holubtsov told the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that those F-16s could be used to replace damaged aircraft as they undergo repairs as well as for training Ukrainian pilots abroad.
“This way, we can always have a certain number of aircraft in the operational fleet that corresponds to the number of pilots we have,” he said. “If there are more pilots, there will be more aircraft in Ukraine.”
Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could consider launching strikes at facilities in Nato countries if they host the warplanes used in Ukraine.
“If they are stationed at airbases outside the Ukrainian borders and used in combat, we will have to see how and where to strike the assets used in combat against us,” the Russian president said last year. “It poses a serious danger of Nato being further drawn into the conflict.”
Andrei Kartapolov, head of the State Duma lower house of parliament’s defence committee, was quoted as saying earlier that F-16 jets and military airfields outside Ukraine will become legitimate targets for Moscow if they take part in combat missions against Russian forces (see earlier post at 10.55).
Ukraine says it hit Russian air defence systems in occupied Crimea
Ukraine’s military said it damaged three Russian surface-to-air defence systems overnight in missile attacks on the Moscow-occupied Crimea peninsula.
The statement came after a series of explosions were reported in the peninsula at night.
One S-400 anti-aircraft missile unit was hit near Dzhankoi, and two more S-300 anti-aircraft missile units were attacked near occupied Chornomorske and Yevpatoria, according to the military.
The radars of the systems reportedly stopped working “immediately” after the strikes.
“None of our missiles fired were intercepted by the enemy’s ‘highly effective’ air defence,” the General Staff said.
“In addition, further detonations of ammunition were observed in all three areas of the launching positions of the Russian anti-aircraft missile divisions.”
The General Staff did not provide further details on the consequences of the attack or what weaponry was used.
Updated
Ukraine reconstruction agency chief quits day before recovery conference
The head of Ukraine’s reconstruction agency has resigned a day before an international conference on the country’s long-term reconstruction, saying he had been prevented from attending after being systematically undermined by the Ukrainian government from doing his job.
Mustafa Nayyem announced his resignation in a Facebook post on Monday after previously sending a strongly worded email to a number of foreign partners criticising the Ukrainian administration for a wide range of mistakes.
Nayyem said the final straw was when his permission to travel to Berlin was revoked.
The two-day Ukraine recovery conference starts in Berlin on Tuesday and is due to be addressed by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
My colleagues Kate Connolly, Shaun Walker and Patrick Wintour have the full story here:
We have some more information on Russia claiming its forces captured a village in the south of the eastern Donetsk region (see earlier post at 11.48).
The defence ministry said its troops “continued to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defence and liberated the settlement of Staromaiorskoye” (Staromaiorske in Ukrainian), located southwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk. This claim has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Ukrainian troops retook the village, close to the southern Zaporizhzhia region, in July last year during its summer counter-offensive, which had limited success but enabled it to retake some territory in the south.
Staromaiorske is located on the southern front on the south-western edge of the Donetsk region, where there is now fierce fighting after a successful ground assault in the Kharkiv region last month.
Vladimir Putin told an economic forum last week that Russia has taken 47 Ukrainian towns and villages so far this year.
US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday that Russia’s advance on the Kharkiv border region has “stalled out” after Washington partially lifted restrictions on using US-donated weapons to strike inside Russia.
Russia has shifted its focus to two strategic towns in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian soldiers fighting there told AFP at the weekend.
“The fiercest fighting is taking place in this area: Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar. This is the direction they really want. This is their idee fixe,” said Oleksandr, a 36-year-old tank crewman.
Another soldier, Danylo Madiar, 33, said Russia has been advancing “very strongly” since autumn and “it became very difficult to hold this frontline” with many losses.
Updated
The US announced on Monday that it is setting up an operation in Warsaw, the Polish capital, to help neighboring Ukraine counter Russian disinformation.
The US state department’s Global Engagement Centre, which works to highlight disinformation by what it considers hostile states, said in a statement that the US and Poland have jointly launched a Ukraine Communications Group “to support Ukraine against Russia’s aggression in the information space”.
Increasingly, Polish officials say Poland is also a target of sabotage and other disruptive measures by the Russian secret services.
Poland is a member of Nato along the military alliance’s eastern front. It has been a hub for western weapons sent to Ukraine. It has also been a place of refuge for a significant number of Ukrainians who have fled Russia’s full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.
The state department said the new group would bring together allies to “coordinate messaging, promote accurate reporting of Russia’s full-scale invasion, amplify Ukrainian voices and expose Kremlin information manipulation”.
It said that the Kremlin “repeatedly uses lies and manipulation to peddle false pretexts for its unjustifiable invasion, obfuscate its war aims and attempt to fracture worldwide solidarity with the Ukrainian people”.
A top Ukrainian reconstruction official known for his reform efforts resigned on Monday, citing budget cuts and bureaucratic delays, at a time when Kyiv seeks crucial international investment to rebuild after Russia’s invasion.
The resignation of Mustafa Nayyem, head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, comes a day before a major international conference in Berlin dedicated to mobilising international support for Ukraine’s reconstruction.
“I made the decision on my own due to systemic obstacles that do not allow me to continue to effectively exercise my powers,” Nayyem said on Telegram.
“Starting from November last year, the Agency’s team began to face constant opposition, resistance and the creation of artificial obstacles,” he said, which included delays in payment for defence fortifications.
Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Nayyem hailed his agency’s work on restoring roadways and bridges in recaptured areas, building a critical water pipeline after the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and protecting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure amid Russian air strikes.
The prominent former lawmaker also criticised a government decision to prevent him from travelling to the event in Berlin, as well as the dismissal of the deputy prime minister for infrastructure, another critical wartime official, last month.
Four people were injured by a landmine in Russia’s Belgorod, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Monday on the Telegram messaging app.
Among the injured was a cameraman for Russian state TV channel Rossiya 24, who suffered shrapnel wounds to his abdomen Gladkov said.
Russian politicians gloated on Monday over heavy defeats for the parties of French president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in European Parliament elections, and the Kremlin said right-wing parties were on the rise in Europe.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said the results reflected, in part, both leaders’ “inept policy” of backing Ukraine in the war with Russia.
“Time to retire. To the ash heap of history!” Medvedev posted on social media platform X.
Valentina Matviyenko, head of the upper house of parliament, said Macron and Scholz had “suffered a crushing defeat with their parties (that) once again confirms their failure as both national and European politicians.
“Moreover, in their case this is a well-deserved result, arising from many years of complete disregard for the real needs of people and society,” she wrote on Telegram.
Russia has long courted leaders on Europe’s political right such as Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban and France’s Marine Le Pen, and is keen to exploit any signs of division in Europe that could weaken support for Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that after the EU elections, the majority in the European Parliament would still be pro-EU and pro-Ukraine, but the rise of right-wing parties was clear.
“This dynamic is visible to the naked eye and of course, despite the fact that the pro-Europeans retain their leading positions for the time being, over time the right-wing parties will step on their heels,” he said.
“We are closely tracking these processes.”
Is the risk of nuclear escalation rising between Russia and the west?
For Opinion, Rajan Menon writes of the risk that is notoriously hard to predict
Warnings about nuclear escalation in Ukraine are now being issued with increasing frequency and urgency, due to dramatic changes in policy by some of Kyiv’s main western supporters.
Some European countries, including Britain, France, the United States and Germany, have changed course, giving Ukraine the green light to use their weapons against sites within Russia. The latter two limited their permission to Ukrainian strikes aimed at defending Kharkiv province – although, according one report, Joe Biden may even lift that geographic restriction, as well. These steps are responses to devastating Russian strikes on Ukraine, many from points beyond its reach.
These changes in western policy – plus the French president Emmanuel Macron’s plans to send French troops to train Ukrainian forces on site and even possibly to fight – have heightened anxieties that Russia may undertake nuclear escalation in retaliation.
Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea in the coming weeks - report
Vladimir Putin will visit North Korea and Vietnam in the coming weeks, Russia’s Vedomosti newspaper reported on Monday, with an official telling Reuters the Vietnam visit was planned for June 19-20 but has not yet confirmed.
Putin’s visit to Pyongyang is being “actively prepared”, Russian ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora confirmed to the newspaper. The newspaper reported that Putin could visit Vietnam as early as June and most likely immediately after his visit to North Korea.
An official in Vietnam told Reuters the dates of the Hanoi visit had been agreed, but the agenda was still under discussion. Energy, military cooperation, settlement of payments and an agreement in the education field are among the main issues expected to be discussed, the official said.
Vedomosti quoted Russia’s trade representative in Vietnam as saying last month that the most pressing trade issue between the two countries was banking support for settling payments.
Vietnam’s foreign ministry did not reply to a request for comment.
Updated
Russia claims to have taken Donetsk village
The Russian military has taken control of the village of Staromaiorske in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said on Monday.
Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports.
Updated
Belarus said on Monday its army was taking part in the second stage of Russian exercises to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons, Reuters reports.
The first phase of the drills, ordered by president Vladimir Putin, took place last month.
The Belarus defence ministry said the exercises were being held “in the interests of guaranteeing our own security” and were not intended as a threat to other countries.
The Kremlin said on Monday that it would closely watch forthcoming snap elections in France called by president Emmanuel Macron given what it called the French leadership’s “openly hostile” attitude towards Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was following the results of the European parliamentary elections in which far-right and eurosceptic parties made major gains.
Jets and airfields outside Ukraine could be legitimate target says Russian lawmaker
F-16 jets and military airfields outside Ukraine will become legitimate targets for Moscow if they take part in combat missions against Russian forces, the RIA state news agency quoted a senior lawmaker as saying on Monday.
Andrei Kartapolov, the lawmaker cited, is head of the State Duma lower house of parliament’s defence committee.
Updated
Nearly 100 countries and organisations register for peace summit
As reported earlier, nearly 90 countries and organizations, half from Europe, have confirmed attending the Swiss-hosted Ukraine peace summit over the weekend despite Russia’s refusal to participate in the conference, Switzerland’s president said Monday.
Viola Amherd told reporters in the Swiss capital that the summit, on Saturday and Sunday, will aim to chart a path toward possible peace nearly 28 months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine and the war grinding on.
“This is not propaganda,” said Amherd. “This is about the basis of humanitarian aid provided by Switzerland … and to initiate a dialogue.”
The Swiss president added that most participants — about half of which will be represented at the level of head of state or government — are country leaders, but “a handful” are from organizations like the United Nations.
Some, including French president Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are expected to attend the summit at the Buergenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. About 160 invitations have been sent out and Amherd said it was not a “disappointment” for the Swiss government that fewer than 100 have so far announced participation in the first phase of the peace process.
Swiss authorities said the final list of participants was expected by Friday, but key developing countries like Turkey, South Africa and Brazil haven’t indicated whether they would attend. India they said, will take part but it isn’t clear at which level.
Brazil and China said they wouldn’t take part unless both sides – including Russia – were at the table, according to Swiss officials. Beijing has been one of the top supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin since the war started.
Updated
The urban eye of Russian–Ukrainian photographer Boris Savelev – in pictures
Extensive retrospective celebrates the work of Boris Savelev, a leading independent Russian–Ukrainian photographer who first worked in the Soviet Union. He lived in Moscow before returning in 2010 to his native Ukraine, where he remained until moving to Spain as a refugee at the start of the 2022 invasion
Russia’s budget deficit narrowed in May to 0.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 0.8% in April, the finance ministry said on Monday, supported by higher revenues as Moscow sharply raises expenditure.
Revenues for the first five months of the year were 45.5% higher than the same period of 2023, the ministry said, citing preliminary data. Oil and gas revenues were 73.5% higher and non-oil and gas revenues were up 34.1%, supported by higher than planned tax receipts.
In early 2023, Western sanctions over the conflict in Ukraine that included an oil price cap and oil embargo, squeezed Russia’s energy revenues.
Moscow expects budget revenues and expenditure to sharply increase this year. The finance ministry tweaked its budget plan for 2024 earlier this month, now expecting to spend more and see slightly lower energy revenues to leave a full-year deficit of 1.1% of GDP, or 2.12 trillion roubles ($23.81 billion).
A young woman from Ukraine who sought sanctuary in the UK has been asked by the Home Office to separate from her parents who are living here and return to her war-torn home country.
Anastasiia Drevynytska, 20, came to the UK in December 2023 from her home in western Ukraine to join her mother, Svitlana, and father, Volodymyr, who had already arrived after finding sponsors under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Drevynytska had searched for a sponsor so that she could join them under the same scheme. A Ukrainian man offered to sort out the paperwork for her application if she paid him, allowing her to travel to the UK to join her parents. But when she arrived, she found that the paperwork the man had given her was incorrect and that she had been scammed.
Ukraine denies claims that Russian forces have seized village
A local Ukrainian official on Monday denied a claim by the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region that Russian forces led by a Chechen-based special forces unit had seized control of a border village in northeast Ukraine.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday the Akhmat-Chechnya unit spearheaded Russian troops in taking control of Ryzhivka in Sumy region, Reuters reports. The “large-scale planned advance” inflicted “significant losses on the Ukrainian side, which was forced to retreat,” Kadyrov said.
However, Yuriy Zarko, a local official in Sumy, denied the presence of Russian troops in Ryzhivka on Monday in a comment to Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian government’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram that Russian forces had tried to test Ukraine’s defences on the Ryzhivka front. Ukrainian forces are in control of the situation but the threat of Russian actions in the border area remains, he added.
Russia’s Defence Ministry issued no statement on the action.
Ukraine’s military has warned in recent weeks of a buildup of Russian forces around Sumy region in preparation for military action. A big Russian push in the northern region would stretch Ukraine’s troops and open a new front in the war.
Updated
In case you missed it, here’s Charlotte Higgins’ interview with Ukrainian author turned soldier Oleksandr Mykhed on his powerful account of the past two years
Before 24 February 2022, writer Oleksandr Mykhed, then 33, and his wife, Olena, had an enviable life. In 2018 they’d bought a three-storey townhouse in Hostomel, a suburb of Kyiv. On Saturdays, they’d go out for brunch – poached eggs for him, cottage cheese pancakes for her – and walk their dog, Lisa, in the forest. Their weekend ritual involved cleaning the house, and for Mykhed, that often meant being pleasurably distracted by one of their many books. Life was full of things to look forward to: tickets for a Nick Cave concert; his new book, on classic Ukrainian authors, nearly finished. On weekend evenings they’d cook something delicious. Olena was perfecting her shrimp curry.
Just over two years later, I meet Mykhed at a Georgian cafe near Kyiv’s central railway station. He’s late because of an air raid alert: when the siren’s sour notes rise through the rush-hour bustle, Kyvians, as usual, look at their phones, discover it’s just planes loaded with ballistic missiles taking off in Russia, and by and large decide to get on with life. When Mykhed arrives, wearing a hoodie and cargo pants, he looks pale and tired, his once floppy blond hair shaved to a scalp-revealing military buzzcut. He volunteered for the armed forces as soon as the full-scale invasion started. He’s not allowed to tell me anything about his service, except that he’s just back after an exhausting 40-day training exercise. What he can tell me is that his old life is irretrievably lost. “I live with the feeling that I don’t have a past. I live with the feeling that I don’t have a future. I feel like my memories don’t belong to me,” he says. He doesn’t even know how old he is, he says – 36, officially. The war has made him feel both way older than that, and way younger.
Opening Summary
It has gone 10.30am in Kyiv and in Moscow. This is our latest Guardian blog covering all the latest developments over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Ninety states and organisations have so far registered to take part in a summit aiming to pave the way for peace in Ukraine that Switzerland will host from June 15-16, the Swiss government said on Monday.
Russia has not been invited to the summit, but the government said in a statement that the gathering will aim to “jointly define a roadmap” on how to involve both it and Ukraine in a future peace process.
Ukraine’s forces have hit an advanced Su-57 warplane on an airbase in Russia nearly 600km from the frontlines, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. The GUR shared satellite photos appearing to show an aircraft among scorch marks and craters. “The pictures show that on June 7th, the Su-57 was standing intact, and on the eighth, there were ruptures from the explosion and characteristic spots of fire caused by fire damage near it,” the GUR said.
The strike took place on Saturday at the Akhtubinsk base in southern Russia, the GUR said. The plane, capable of carrying stealth missiles, was among “a countable few” of its type in service. Russia’s Su-57 fleet has been largely absent from the skies over Ukraine, and has instead been used to fire long-range missiles from across the border.
The UK Ministry of Defence has said Russia is likely trying to avoid “reputational damage, reduced export prospects, and the compromise of sensitive technology” that would come from losing any Su-57 jets in enemy territory. For its part, the Russian defence ministry said its forces downed three Ukrainian drones in the Astrakhan region, home to the Akhtubinsk airstrip. Russian officials routinely say all enemy threats were shot down, regardless of the actual outcome.
Russian forces appeared to be making headway in their assault on the strategic Ukrainian town of Chasiv Yar, according to reports on Sunday from both sides.
Chasiv Yar stands on high ground about 20km (12 miles) to the west of Bakhmut, a town Russian forces seized a year ago, and is seen as a potential staging point for Russia to advance on Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda quoted a military source and a blogger as saying that Russian forces had begun occupying a district of Chasiv Yar alongside a canal. The source said Russian troops were using guided aerial bombs to clear areas along a major road and had begun to move forward and build up their forces.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address on Sunday made no mention of Chasiv Yar, but said the area around the town of Pokrovsk, to the south-west, remained the most difficult sector and “the one where pressure from the occupiers is the greatest”.
Ukraine’s electricity grid operator, Ukrenergo, said it would impose hour-long cuts on Monday from 4pm to 10pm. The restrictions would not apply to “critical infrastructure” sites providing vital services. Ukraine’s government ordered all ministries and regional authorities last Friday to stop using air conditioning and switch off external lighting.
