Evening summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s headlines:
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia needed to fight enemy agents and improve its defences against attacks deep inside its own territory, but that there was no need to follow Ukraine’s example and declare martial law. “There is no reason to introduce some kind of special regime or martial law in the country,” Putin told a televised meeting of Russian war correspondents and military bloggers. “There is no need for such a thing today.”
Ukraine is making advances and gaining ground in its counteroffensive, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday, although he added it was still early in Kyiv’s renewed push against Russia’s invasion. In brief remarks before his meeting with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Stoltenberg said the alliance was preparing for the leaders’ summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, where it was expected to step up further support for Ukraine, Reuters reported.
A top Russian officer has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces, a Russian-backed official in Ukraine said on Tuesday, offering his condolences. Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region which is under Moscow’s control, said Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of Russia’s 35th army, had been killed on the Zaporizhzhia front on Monday where Ukrainian forces have been retaking some territory.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near the villages of Makarivka, Rivnopil and Prechystivka in the southern part of Donetsk region, the state-owned news agency RIA reported. In its daily briefing, the defence ministry also said Ukraine was continuing to mount attacks in the south Donetsk and Bakhmut areas.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said on Tuesday that he was “not sure” if Wagner would stay in Ukraine after having taken the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a months-long battle. Wagner mercenaries have in the past been active in Africa and the Middle East and still have some contracts there, Reuters reported.
A 72-year-old priest was killed by Russian shelling of the Ukrainian settlement of Bilozerka in southern Kherson region, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office said on Tuesday. Artillery fire struck the courtyard of a church and also injured a 76-year-old woman, Andriy Yermak said on Telegram messenger, Reuters reported.
The death toll from flooding in two Russian-controlled towns in southern Ukraine has risen to 17, one week after the breaching of a dam that held back a reservoir, a Russian-installed official said on Tuesday. Andrei Alekseyenko, chair of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said 12 people were confirmed dead in Hola Prystan and five in Oleshky, two small towns downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam.
At least six people were killed and 25 injured after a Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, destroyed a five-storey residential building. Russian airstrikes hit several civilian structures in the city, said the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, adding: “Likely, there are people under the rubble.”
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, has reported small incremental advances for Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut and Toretsk. She said in a message on Telegram that Ukraine had advanced 250 metres in the direction of Bakhmut in the area of the Berkhiv reservoir, and 200 metres in the Toretsk direction. She also claimed that 3 sq km of territory had been captured in the Berdiansk direction.
Russia’s defence ministry has released video footage of what it claims were German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles captured by Russian forces in a battle with Ukrainian forces. In a message on Telegram, the ministry said some of the vehicles still had their engines running, illustrating the rapid flight of the crews during the battle. The location and timing of the video footage has not been independently verified.
Russian military bloggers appear to be claiming that Makarivka, one of the villages that Ukraine said it had liberated in the last couple of days, is back in Russian hands. The claims have not been independently verified.
Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was considering withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal, saying that Moscow had been “cheated” over implementation of the parts of the accord that concerned its own exports. In a televised meeting with pro-Kremlin war correspondents, Putin said the deal was intended to help “friendly” countries in Africa and Latin America, but that Europe was the largest importer of Ukrainian grain and this was providing a key source of foreign currency to Kyiv.
France prevented an attack on its foreign ministry website that was likely carried out by Russian or Russian-speaking individuals, said a statement from the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna. Reuters reports that Colonna’s statement on Tuesday said authorities had prevented an identity-hack attempt on that site, and that France believed there was a broader campaign of spreading disinformation in France from Russian parties.
A British-led defence alliance of several European countries will strengthen its sharing of tactical intelligence, the group, known as the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), said on Tuesday. “We know since the attack on [the] Nord Stream [pipeline] that our critical infrastructure is vulnerable and needs to be protected,” said Kajsa Ollongren, the Netherlands defence minister, after a JEF meeting.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, and indeed the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
Updated
Two things stand out with Ukraine’s counteroffensive more than a week under way. Ukraine is pushing forward at several points, mostly along the southern front but also in the east. And in some places, its army is making incremental but real gains, liberating villages near the frontline.
In the last week, Ukraine has attacked on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia sector, where the frontlines meet the Dnipro River at a point; again south of Orikhiv 18 miles east and, most significantly, either side of a Russian salient at the border between Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts.
It is in the last of these that the most gains have been recorded, with Ukraine’s brigades recording videos of flag-raisings in a series of villages: Velyka Novosilka, Neskuchne, Storozheve, Blahodatne and Makarivka. The last of these may still be contested, however, with Russian war bloggers reporting a successful counterattack.
That advance amounts to nearly four miles in a week, a far greater speed than Russian forces managed during their winter offensive, but it is only at one point. Nearby, about eight miles west, Ukraine says it has taken another village, Novodarivka, and Kyiv’s forces may be able to threaten Russian troops positioned in between.
Updated
A top Russian officer has been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike during Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces, a Russian-backed official in Ukraine said on Tuesday, offering his condolences.
Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in part of the southern Zaporizhzhia region which is under Moscow’s control, said major-general Sergei Goryachev, chief of staff of Russia’s 35th army, had been killed on the Zaporizhzhia front on Monday where Ukrainian forces have been retaking some territory.
There was no immediate confirmation of the news from the defence ministry, which was first reported by “Voenkor Z,” a Russian war correspondent and blogger.
Rogov, writing on his official channel on the Telegram messaging application, said:
The army has lost one of its brightest and most effective military commanders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage.
Deepest and most sincere condolences to the family and friends of the deceased!
Goryachev, 52, was a highly decorated officer.
Updated
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was considering withdrawing from the Black Sea grain deal, saying that Moscow had been “cheated” over implementation of the parts of the accord that concerned its own exports.
In a televised meeting with pro-Kremlin war correspondents, Putin said the deal was intended to help “friendly” countries in Africa and Latin America, but that Europe was the largest importer of Ukrainian grain and this was providing a key source of foreign currency to Kyiv.
Putin said he would discuss the future of the grain deal with some African leaders who were expected to visit Russia, adding that Moscow was ready to supply grain for free to the world’s poorest countries, Reuters reported.
The deal was brokered last July by the UN and Turkey, and allows for the safe export of grain from several Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea.
Updated
A British-led defence alliance of several European countries will strengthen its sharing of tactical intelligence, the group, known as the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), said on Tuesday.
“We know since the attack on [the] Nord Stream [pipeline] that our critical infrastructure is vulnerable and needs to be protected,” said Kajsa Ollongren, the Netherlands defence minister, after a JEF meeting.
The alliance – comprising Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK – also said it would accelerate cooperation to detect possible threats to critical undersea and offshore infrastructure, Reuters reported.
“We need to cooperate with the private sector, with coastguards, we need to share intelligence and capabilities, that’s the best way to deter any actor thinking of undersea sabotage. We can’t do it ourselves, [we] have to involve other countries,” Ollongren said.
Nato and the EU in January launched a taskforce to boost protection of critical infrastructure in response to last year’s attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines and Russia’s “weaponising of energy”.
Updated
Ukraine is making advances and gaining ground in its counteroffensive, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday, although he added it was still early in Kyiv’s renewed push against Russia’s invasion.
In brief remarks before his meeting with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Stoltenberg said the alliance was preparing for the leaders’ summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, where it was expected to step up further support for Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Updated
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that the quality of Russian weaponry was improving, but that the country lacked high-precision ammunition and drones.
Putin said Russia had increased its production of key weapons by 2.7 times over the past year, and he also accused the west of pumping weapons into Ukraine.
Updated
Putin: no need for martial law in Russia
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia needed to fight enemy agents and improve its defences against attacks deep inside its own territory, but said there was no need to follow Ukraine’s example and declare martial law.
“There is no reason to introduce some kind of special regime or martial law in the country,” Putin told a televised meeting of Russian war correspondents and military bloggers. “There is no need for such a thing today.”
Ukraine’s large-scale counteroffensive began on 4 June and has not been successful in any area, Putin said, adding that Ukrainian human losses were 10 times greater than Russia’s.
Ukraine has lost more than 160 of its tanks and 25%-30% of the vehicles supplied from abroad, he said, while Russia had lost 54 tanks, Reuters reported.
Putin also said Ukraine had deliberately hit the Kakhovka dam with HIMARS rockets supplied by the US, a step he said had also hindered Kyiv’s counteroffensive efforts.
Updated
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Tuesday he believed Ukraine had lost 25% to 30% of military vehicles supplied to Kyiv by western countries since the start of its counteroffensive and that Ukraine’s human losses were 10 times higher than Russia’s.
Putin made the comments during a televised meeting with military bloggers.
He said Russia had lost 50 of its tanks in the fighting, some of which could be repaired, and that Ukraine had lost more than 160.
He also said that Ukraine was responsible for the breach last week of the Kakhovka dam, which he said had been caused by Kyiv shelling the structure with US-made HIMARS missile systems.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify his assertions.
Updated
The Kyiv Post has shared these video clips that purport to show smoke rising from an explosion in Russian-occupied Luhansk.
❗️In temporarily occupied #Luhansk, there is again a massive explosion pic.twitter.com/t9Fu0dzVy5
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) June 13, 2023
The Guardian has not independently verified the location and timing of the video.
Updated
As well as reports of explosions in occupied Luhansk, there are reports of explosions in Tokmak, in the occupied portion of the Zaporizhzhia region. Vladimir Rogov, a local pro-Russian leader there, posted on Telegram to say: “The Nazis shelled the city of Tokmak. Presumably, the fire was fired from the MLRS ‘Himars’. At least six arrivals were recorded.”
About 15 minutes earlier, Ivan Fedorov, Ukraine’s exiled mayor of occupied Melitopol, had reported on Telegram five explosions which he said were in Mykhailivka, 45km to the east of Tokmak.
None of the claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Tass reports that Russian president Vladimir Putin is holding a meeting with war correspondents. Citing Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, it said that as well as TV channels and mainstream media, “bloggers and authors of Telegram channels [will] take part in it”.
Updated
The Wall Street Journal is carrying what it describes as an exclusive, that the US is set to supply depleted-uranium tank rounds for Ukraine.
Michael R Gordon and Gordon Lubold report that the Biden administration is expected to provide the ammunition after weeks of internal debate about how to equip the Abrams tanks the US is giving to Kyiv.
The armour-piercing ammunition has long raised concerns over the health and ecological impacts of its use.
Updated
Tass has a quick snap that several explosions have occurred in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk. It reports “clouds of smoke are rising over the city”.
More details soon …
France prevented an attack on its foreign ministry website that was likely carried out by Russian or Russian-speaking individuals, said a statement from French foreign minister Catherine Colonna.
Reuters reports Colonna’s statement on Tuesday said authorities had prevented an identity-hack attempt on that site, and that France believed there was a broader campaign of spreading disinformation in France from Russian parties.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday its forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near the villages of Makarivka, Rivnopil and Prechystivka in the southern part of Donetsk region, state-owned news agency RIA reported.
In its daily briefing, the defence ministry also said Ukraine was continuing to mount attacks in the south Donetsk and Bakhmut areas.
Ukraine has said its forces have recaptured a number of villages from Russian forces in the south-east since starting its long-anticipated counteroffensive last week.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said on Tuesday that he was “not sure” if Wagner would stay in Ukraine after having taken the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut after a months-long battle.
Wagner mercenaries have in the past been active in Africa and the Middle East and still have some contracts there, Reuters reported.
Updated
A 72-year-old priest was killed in Russian shelling of the Ukrainian settlement of Bilozerka in southern Kherson region, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office said on Tuesday.
Artillery fire struck the courtyard of a church and also injured a 76-year-old woman, Andriy Yermak said on Telegram messenger, Reuters reported.
The shelling damaged four residential buildings, the post office, administrative buildings, the central square as well as critical infrastructure, he added.
The death toll from flooding in two Russian-controlled towns in southern Ukraine has risen to 17 one week after a massive dam holding back a reservoir was breached, a Russian-installed official said on Tuesday.
Andrei Alekseyenko, chair of the Russian-installed administration in the Kherson region, said 12 people were confirmed dead in Hola Prystan and five in Oleshky, two small towns downstream from the breached Kakhovka dam.
Reuters could not independently verify the figures. Hundreds of people were rescued by boat from the roofs of flooded houses in the wake of the disaster, but volunteers told Russian independent media outlet iStories last week that they estimated the death toll in the hundreds.
Russia controls the south bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson region, while Ukraine holds Kherson city on the opposite bank, as well as Mykolaiv region farther north.
Updated
At least 10 people killed in a Russian missile strike in Kryvyi Rih, says mayor
At least 10 people were killed in a Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday, the city mayor has said.
“As of 1300 (1000 GMT) 10 people have been killed,” Oleksandr Vilkul said in a Telegram post, adding that another person was under the rubble and a further 28 were injured.
Updated
The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, said on Tuesday that the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus would serve as a deterrent against a potential aggressor and that there should be no hesitation in using them if required.
Reuters reports his comments were carried by the Belta news agency.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Friday that Russia would start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus on 7-8 July after special storage facilities were made ready.
It will be the first time that Russian nuclear weapons have been stationed outside the country’s borders since weapons on the territories of Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan were returned to Russia after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The US has tactical nuclear weapons at six bases in five Nato member countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Updated
Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday it had arrested a group of former defence industry workers it suspects of supplying Ukraine with sensitive military information and of planning sabotage attacks.
Reuters reports the FSB accused the unnamed ex-workers of spying for Ukrainian military intelligence and of handing over technical documents and models used in the manufacture of weapons systems and equipment for Russia’s air force.
It said in a statement that the same group was also involved in plans to blow up transport infrastructure such as railway lines used to supply Russian forces fighting in Ukraine
Summary of the day so far …
At least six people were killed and 25 injured after the Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih destroyed a five-storey residential building. Russian airstrikes hit several civilian structures in the city, including a five-storey building, said the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, adding “likely, there are people under the rubble”.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has reported small incremental advances for Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut and Toretsk. She said in a message on Telegram that Ukraine had advanced 250 metres in the direction of Bakhmut in the area of the Berkhiv reservoir, and 200 metres in the Toretsk direction. She also claimed that 3 sq km of territory had been captured in the Berdiansk direction.
Russia’s defence ministry has released video footage of what it claims were German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles captured by Russian forces in a battle with Ukrainian forces. In a message on Telegram, the ministry said some of the vehicles still had their engines running, illustrating the rapid flight of the crews during the battle. The location and timing of the video footage has not been independently verified.
Russian military bloggers appear to be claiming that Makarivka, one of the villages that Ukraine said it had liberated in the last couple of days, is back in Russian hands. The claims have not been independently verified.
Forty-one people are still missing in the floods caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, while the death toll now stands at 10, Ukrainian officials have said. Regional head Oleksandr Prokudin reports there are currently 3,600 houses in 31 settlements that remain flooded on the Ukraine-controlled right bank of the Dnipro. The water level has dropped by 27cm, and in the past day water has receded from 200 houses.
On Monday, Ukraine accused Russian forces of destroying another dam with the aim of slowing Kyiv’s counteroffensive. As rescue and relief efforts entered their seventh day for victims of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, the Russian military was accused of blowing up a much smaller dam along the Mokri Yaly River, which has become the most successful axis so far for Ukraine’s advances in western Donetsk.
Russian media reported that a Ukrainian missile strike on the southern Zaporizhzhia front killed an experienced Russian general. “As a result of an enemy missile attack, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev, was killed,” the prominent pro-war blogger Voenkor said in a Telegram post. Goryachev, a decorated commander, previously led Russian troops in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria. The Russian defence ministry is yet to comment on the reports.
Early morning shelling by Ukraine on two villages in Russia’s Kursk region damaged several houses and disrupted gas and electricity supply, according to the local governor.
A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, Russia’s RBK news outlet reported, citing the local city administration. RBK reported that the fire was now contained and its cause was not immediately clear.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, will arrive in Kyiv on Tuesday to meet Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, before heading to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Updated
The US ambassador to Ukraine has commented on the overnight attacks. Bridget Brink tweeted:
Another night of Russian missiles, another morning of shattered homes. No matter the lies Russia’s mouthpieces emit about its war on Ukraine, its attacks on civilians, and the devastation it leaves behind, this morning’s images make the awful truth perfectly clear.
Another night of Russian missiles, another morning of shattered homes. No matter the lies Russia’s mouthpieces emit about its war on Ukraine, its attacks on civilians, and the devastation it leaves behind, this morning’s images make the awful truth perfectly clear.
— Ambassador Bridget A. Brink (@USAmbKyiv) June 13, 2023
Updated
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has reported small incremental advances for Ukrainian forces on Telegram. She posted to say:
In the course of the offensive operation, during the past day, our troops advanced 250m in the direction of Bakhmut in the area of the Berkhiv reservoir. In the Toretsk direction – 200m. In the Berdiansk direction, between 0.5km to 1km, the area of the territory taken under control was up to 3 sq km.
She added that the situation was difficult, saying:
The enemy is doing everything to keep the positions captured by him. Actively uses assault and army aviation, conducts intense artillery fire. During the offensive, our troops encounter continuous minefields, which are combined with anti-tank ditches. All this is combined with constant counterattacks by enemy units on armored vehicles and the massive use of anti-tank guided missile and kamikaze drones.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
My colleague Dan Sabbagh notes that Russian military bloggers appear to be claiming that one of the villages that Ukraine said it had liberated in the last couple of days is back in Russian hands.
Village by village liberated south of Velyka Novosilka - Makarivka (1.5m S of Storozheve) taken says 35th, but soldiers filmed say Russians want it back. Fighting not necessarily over there https://t.co/T4XAYetm4b
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) June 13, 2023
...Rybar, Russian mil blogger, reporting village is back in Russian hands as of this morning...https://t.co/UfsZmjWPMe pic.twitter.com/a2pvey9vwi
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) June 13, 2023
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from the flooded areas of Kherson over the news wires.
Russia’s defence ministry has released video footage of what it claims were German-made Leopard tanks and US-made Bradley fighting vehicles captured by Russian forces in a battle with Ukrainian forces.
The location and timing of the video footage has not been independently verified.
In a message on Telegram, the ministry said:
Servicemen of the subdivisions of the Vostok group inspect enemy tanks and infantry fighting vehicles captured in battle.
All captured western-made equipment: German Leopard tanks and US-made BMP Bradley.
Some combat vehicles with running engines, which indicates the transience of the battle and the flight of the crews of combat vehicles of the armed forces of Ukraine from combat-ready equipment.
Updated
Russian media reports senior Russian general killed in Zaporizhzhia
Russian media reported on Monday that a Ukrainian missile strike on the southern Zaporizhzhia front killed an experienced Russian general.
“As a result of an enemy missile attack, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev, was killed,” the prominent pro-war blogger Voenkor said in a Telegram post.
Goryachev, a decorated commander, previously led Russian troops in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria.
Voenkor added that “according to representatives of the command of the United Group of Forces (S), the army has lost today one of the brightest and most effective military leaders”.
Several Russian war bloggers said Goryachev was likely killed by a UK-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missile.
The Russian defence ministry is yet to comment on the reported death of Goryachev.
More than a dozen Russian generals are believed to have been killed since Moscow invaded Ukraine.
The Zaporizhzhia region, of which about 80% is controlled by Russian forces, is believed to be one of the main focuses of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Updated
Here are some of the images from Kryvyi Rih sent to us over the news wires.
The UN humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, has strongly condemned this morning’s attack on Kryvyi Rih.
In a statement she said:
Russia’s invasion has, once again, claimed lives and brought suffering to the people of Ukraine. This morning, an attack on Kryvyi Rih has hit a residential building, killing and injuring many civilians. International humanitarian law is clear: civilians and civilian infrastructure are not a target!
“Russia’s invasion has, once again, claimed lives and brought suffering to the people of Ukraine," Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown has strongly condemned this morning's attack on Kryvyi Rih.
— OCHA Ukraine (@OCHA_Ukraine) June 13, 2023
Civilians and civilian infrastructure are #NotATarget! pic.twitter.com/gqmr7yyA6B
Yesterday the Russian Federation president, Vladimir Putin, in comments carried by Tass, accused Ukraine of targeting civilians, saying it made no military sense. He said:
Why, frankly, is the enemy hitting residential areas? No logic. For what, why, what’s the point? And obviously humanitarian targets – it’s amazing. And there is no military sense, it’s zero.
Updated
Here is a video report from Kryvyi Rih, where at least six people are now known to have died.
Kryvyi Rih death toll rises to six
The death toll in the Kryvyi Rih strike has risen to six, Reuters reports, citing the local mayor.
This video clip is being shared on social media which purports to show the result of the impact in one of the apartments near the strike.
A resident of the building in Kryvyi Rih hit by a Russian rocket showed the aftermath in her apartment.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 13, 2023
📹: snezhkabyuvol/Instagram pic.twitter.com/RJpKL4DVKS
Updated
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the office of the president of Ukraine, has cautioned that “key decisions” still have to be taken by the international community, highlighting the overnight deaths in Kryvyi Rih. He posted to Twitter to say:
Kryvyi Rih. An apartment building was hit. 3 dead, 25 wounded, unknown number of people under the rubble. And this kind of thing happens every night. Because the Russian Federation is blatantly destroying Ukraine.
I understand that sitting thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine you can talk about “geopolitics”, “settlement” and the undesirability of escalation for months. And allow the rampage of the “Russian world”. But the key decisions will still have to be made – Russia is bound to lose and sit in the dock …
Kryvyi Rih. An apartment building was hit. 3 dead, 25 wounded, unknown number of people under the rubble. And this kind of thing happens every night. Because the #RF is blatantly destroying #Ukraine...
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) June 13, 2023
I understand that sitting thousands of kilometers away from Ukraine you can… pic.twitter.com/YhpqmXcP0H
Early morning shelling by Ukraine on two villages in Russia’s Kursk region damaged several houses and disrupted gas and electricity supply, according to the governor of the local region.
Roman Starovoyt claimed nine houses were damaged and gas and power supplies disrupted in the village of Tyorkino, while several houses were damaged in the village of Glushkovo. Both sit close to the border with Ukraine.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
A fire broke out at an oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, Russia’s RBK news outlet reported, citing the local city administration.
RBK reported that the fire was now contained and its cause was not immediately clear.
Last month, the region’s local governor said a Ukrainian drone was the likely cause of a fire that broke out in the area’s Afipsky oil refinery. Ukraine denied responsibility.
The Afipsky refinery is not far from the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, near another refinery that has been attacked several times.
Citing regional head Oleksandr Prokudin, Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports there are currently 3,600 houses in 31 settlements that remain flooded on the Ukraine-controlled right bank of the Dnipro. It reports that the water level has dropped by 27cm, and that in the past day water has receded from 200 houses in the Kherson region.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog will arrive in Kyiv on Tuesday to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy, before heading to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Rafael Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of the potential for a nuclear accident at the plant, which he has previously visited twice and where a permanent IAEA team is based.
The Russian-held Kakhovka dam – which was breached last week in an incident blamed by Kyiv on Moscow – forms a reservoir that provides the cooling water for the Russian-occupied plant.
The IAEA has warned that the Kakhovka dam disaster has “[complicated] an already precarious nuclear safety and security situation”.
Grossi said he would “present a programme of assistance in the aftermath of the catastrophic Nova Kakhovka dam flooding”.
Updated
Rescue operations are under way in Kryvyi Rih, at the site of the five-storey apartment building and destroyed warehouse that were hit by Russian strikes overnight, the governor of the local region has said.
The city’s mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, said at least seven people were believed to be trapped under the rubble, without providing more details. Previously, governor Serhiy Lysak said “there are still people under the rubble of a building. There was a fire there.”
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was born in Kryvyi Rih, condemned the attack on his home town.
Updated
On Monday, Ukraine accused Russian forces of destroying another dam with the aim of slowing Kyiv’s counteroffensive.
As rescue and relief efforts entered their seventh day for victims of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, the Russian military was accused of blowing up a much smaller dam along the Mokri Yaly River, which has become the most successful axis so far for Ukraine’s advances in western Donetsk.
Ukrainian troops have moved along both sides of the river over the last week, liberating villages along the way.
Valeriy Shershen, a Ukrainian military spokesperson for that sector of the front, told the Ukrainska Pravda news agency that a dam upstream along the Mokri Yaly had been blown up by occupation forces, causing flooding on both banks.
Shershen said the Russian aim had been to “slow down Ukraine’s counteroffensive” but claimed it had failed. The dam appears to have been at the village of Klyuchove but its destruction could not be independently verified.
Death toll in Kakhovka dam disaster rises
Forty-one people are still missing in the floods caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, while the death toll now stands at 10, Ukrainian officials have said.
The dam, in Russian-controlled territory along the frontline in the Kherson region, was destroyed on 6 June, forcing thousands to flee and sparking fears of a humanitarian as well as environmental catastrophe.
“Currently, we know about 10 dead in Kherson and the region,” Ukrainian interior minister Igor Klymenko said on Telegram. “We are also reporting 41 people as missing.”
The governor of the Kherson region, the area most affected by the flooding, said two bodies were found on Monday in the regional capital.
“Today, an unidentified woman and a 50-year-old man were found drowned in one of the city’s districts,” Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
A day earlier, Prokudin said three people were killed as Russia shelled a rescue boat evacuating people after the devastating floods.
Updated
Ukraine making small gains in 'tough' counteroffensive
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has described fighting in the long awaited counteroffensive as “tough” but added “we are moving forward”.
“I thank our guys for every Ukrainian flag that is now returning to its rightful place in villages on the newly de-occupied territory,” he said in his nightly address.
The country’s defence ministry said “seven settlements were liberated” in the last week of fighting in Donetsk.
“The area of the territory taken under control amounted to 90 square kilometres,” the deputy defence minister said.
In the last few days, Ukrainian forces have declared the liberation of a string of villages along the Mokri Yaly river: Blahodatne, Neskuchne, Makarivka and Storozheve among them.
However, sources reported that Russian troops launched a large counterattack against Ukrainian forces on Monday, according to thinktank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Some Russian sources reported that the village of Makarivka was retaken in this operation, the ISW reports.
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At least three dead in Russian strike on Kryvyi Rih
At least three people were killed and 25 injured after the Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih destroyed a five-storey residential building, Serhiy Lisak, the governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region said on Tuesday.
“There are still people under the rubble,” Lisak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Four people were injured at another location in the city, he added.
President Zelenskiy shared video footage of the aftermath of the Kryvyi Rih strike, saying “unfortunately, there are dead and wounded … Terrorists will never be forgiven, and they will be held accountable for every missile they launch.”
Чергові ракети терористів, російські вбивці продовжують свою війну проти житлових будинків, звичайних міст і людей. На жаль, є загиблі, є поранені. Рятувальна операція у Кривому Розі триває. Мої співчуття усім, хто втратив рідних! Ніколи не буде прощення 🇷🇺 терористам, і за кожну… pic.twitter.com/0uxN8wyk8M
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 13, 2023
City of Kryvyi Rih hit by 'massive' Russian missile strike
Russia launched a “massive missile attack” overnight on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, killing and wounding people and damaging civilian infrastructure, officials said early on Tuesday.
“There are dead and wounded,” Serhiy Lisak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region where Kryvyi Rih is located, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian airstrikes hit several civilian structures in the city, including a five-storey building, said the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul, adding “likely, there are people under the rubble”.
The governor posted a photograph of a five-storey apartment block with all windows blown out and smoke coming out of the building.
Photograph: Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration/Reuters
During the early hours of Tuesday, air raid sirens blared across the whole of Ukraine. Kyiv military officials said air defence systems destroyed all Russian missiles targeting the Ukrainian capital.
Ukraine’s top military command said 10 out of the 14 cruise missiles Russia launched on the country were destroyed, as well as one of the four Iranian-made drones.
The mayor of Kharkiv said Russian drones hit civilian infrastructure there, striking a warehouse and a utility firm’s building. There was no immediate information about casualties.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the ongoing war in Ukraine. I’m Jonathan Yerushalmy – first here’s a round-up of all the latest news.
A number of people were killed and injured after Russia launched a “massive missile attack” overnight on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, officials said early on Tuesday.
Russian airstrikes hit several civilian structures in the city, including a five-storey building, said the mayor of Kryvyi Rih, Oleksandr Vilkul. “Likely, there are people under the rubble,” he added.
Elsewhere, Ukraine’s defence ministry has said 90 square km of territory has been retaken in Donetsk in the last week, adding that “seven settlements were liberated”. Over the same period, Ukrainian troops have recaptured 16 square km in the area around Bakhmut, the deputy defence minister said.
More on these stories shortly, before that, here are the other key developments today:
Ukraine accused Russian forces of destroying another dam with the aim of slowing Kyiv’s counteroffensive. Valeriy Shershen, a Ukrainian military spokesperson, said the Russian military blew up a dam along the Mokri Yaly River, which has become the most successful axis so far for Ukraine’s advances in western Donetsk.
“The fighting is tough, but we are moving forward, this is very important,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in his daily evening address. “I thank our guys for every Ukrainian flag that is now returning to its rightful place in villages on the newly de-occupied territory.”
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said the long-awaited counteroffensive would be under way for weeks if not months. “We want it to be as successful as possible so that we can then start a negotiation phase in good conditions.”
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Monday it was too soon to say exactly where Ukraine’s counteroffensive was going, but Washington was confident of its success in trying to take back land seized by Russia. Speaking at a press conference in Washington, Blinken said the US was determined to maximise its support for Ukraine so that it could succeed on the battlefield.
Forty-one people were still missing in the floods caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, while the death toll stood at 10 people, Ukraine’s interior minister said.
One man was killed and another was wounded in a Russian attack on the small town of Orikhiv, in the Zaporizhzhia region of south-eastern Ukraine, the regional governor, Yuri Malashko, said on Monday. Malashko said three bombs damaged private houses and communications in the small town, about 8km from frontlines. The man killed was 48 and the one who was wounded was 32, Reuters reported Malashko as saying.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Monday he was concerned that Russia would on 17 July quit a deal allowing the safe wartime export of grain and fertilisers from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports. Moscow has been threatening to walk away from the deal, known as the Black Sea grain initiative, brokered by the UN and Turkey in July last year, if obstacles to its own grain and fertiliser shipments are not removed.
The Group of Seven (G7) rich nations are working on a scheme to combat the suspected theft of Ukraine’s grain by using chemical identification of its origin, Britain’s food and farming minister, Mark Spencer, said on Monday. Spencer told an International Grains Council (IGC) conference in London that Britain was leading on the scheme and that G7 countries were also working closely with Ukraine, the world’s fourth largest grains exporter.
Nato’s largest military jet exercise since its founding took place on Monday in the skies over Germany, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. About 10,000 soldiers from 25 countries were involved, making use of 250 military jets – 70 from Germany – to prepare for an attack on one of Nato’s members. Although the exercise was planned long before Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, it is nevertheless being viewed as a signal towards the Kremlin.
Vladimir Putin marked Russia’s national day on Monday by appealing to Russians’ patriotic pride at what he said was a “difficult time”. Speaking at a lavish award-giving ceremony in the Kremlin, Putin made no direct comment on the latest developments in Ukraine, where Kyiv’s forces have launched a long-awaited counteroffensive.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday it had signed a contract with the Akhmat group of Chechen special forces, a day after the Wagner mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, refused to do so. The signing followed an order that all “volunteer units” should sign contracts by 1 July bringing them under the control of the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, as Moscow tries to assert its control over private armies fighting on its behalf in Ukraine.
The former Russian president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev celebrated Russia Day by posting an edited image to Telegram that showed Kyiv’s central Maidan square with the Russian flag flying on it and the message “Independence Square. Coming soon – Russia Square”.
Work has started in an investigation by the international criminal court over the breach of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine and the vast flood it triggered, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said. Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that the flood water level in Kherson had dropped by 64cm.
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