Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s main news:
The centre of the fighting in Ukraine has switched to the road to Mariupol where the Ukrainian offensive is slowly pushing back Russian forces, with British Challenger tanks ready to join battle, a minister in Kyiv has said.
Vladimir Putin confirmed that Russia has deployed its first tranche of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. He said nuclear weapons would only be used in the event of a threat to the existence of the Russian state. Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, the Russian president also said there was a “serious danger” that the Nato military alliance could be pulled further into the Ukraine war. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Russia was ready for further talks on arms control.
A delegation of African leaders began a peace mission in Kyiv on Friday, undeterred by what Ukraine said was a barrage of Russian missiles intended to greet them in the Ukrainian capital. Volodymyr Zelenskiy reportedly said after meeting African leaders that peace talks with Russia would be possible only after Moscow withdraws its forces from occupied Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainian air force said on Friday it destroyed six Kinzhals, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones, with the chief of the Kyiv military administration stating they were all intercepted over the Kyiv region. Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said there was no damage in the capital and reported an explosion from air defence in the central Podil district.
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It is unclear whether water from the huge reservoir of the Kakhovka dam in Ukraine that burst last week can still be pumped to the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for cooling, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Friday.
While the reservoir was a main source of water for cooling the six reactors and spent fuel ponds at Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, the plant can fall back on other sources including a large cooling pond which the International Atomic Energy Agency says has enough water to last for months.
The bursting of the dam has, however, further complicated an already difficult situation in terms of ensuring Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia operates safely, Reuters quotes the IAEA as saying.
Shelling has repeatedly downed external power lines that are also vital to ensuring the cooling necessary to prevent a nuclear meltdown.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday questioned why a visiting delegation of African leaders planned to travel to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin after a Russian missile strike overshadowed their visit to Kyiv.
“This is their decision, how logical it is, I don’t really understand,” he was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters at a joint news conference with the African leaders.
Zelenskiy also said that he wanted to hold a Ukraine-Africa summit, and for Kyiv to step up its relations with the continent.
Kyiv has been courting the Global South and trying to challenge Russia’s influence in the region. Russia plans to hold its second Russia-Africa summit this summer.
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Focus of war shifting south towards Mariupol, Ukrainian minister says
The centre of the fighting in Ukraine has switched to the road to Mariupol where the Ukrainian offensive is slowly pushing back Russian forces, with British Challenger tanks ready to join battle, a minister in Kyiv has said.
Hanna Maliar, a deputy defence minister, said the most active fighting was no longer around Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region, but in the south and specifically in the direction of the two coastal cities of Berdiansk and Mariupol.
“If the first week the epicentre was the east, now we see that the fighting is moving to the south and now we see the most active areas are Berdiansk and Mariupol,” Maliar said.
“In the east, the enemy has turned on all the forces to stop our offensive. And they are massing forces there to stop us. In the south they are not very successful.”
The movement towards Mariupol, infamous for the devastation visited upon it in the first months of the full-scale invasion, is still incremental, with the front said to have been pushed back by about a kilometre.
You can read the full story by my colleague Daniel Boffey here:
African countries are prepared to participate further in a peace pact in Ukraine, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said after a meeting between African leaders and Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, during which he called for a free flow of grain (via Reuters).
On Friday, a delegation to Ukraine of leaders and senior officials from Africa sought ways to end the war with Russia and ensure continued food and fertiliser deliveries to their continent.
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There are no indications that Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons and the US sees no reason to adjust its own nuclear posture, US secretary of state Antony Blinken was quoted by Reuters as telling reporters on Friday.
His comments came after Vladimir Putin said Russia could “theoretically” use nuclear weapons if there was a threat to its territorial integrity or existence, but that it did not need to (See post at 15:51).
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday he had invited African leaders to take part in a global peace summit and rejected the idea of peace talks with Moscow, which he said would simply freeze the war in Ukraine.
Speaking at a news conference with visiting African leaders, Ukraine’s president said his country needed a real peace with the withdrawal of Russian troops from occupied territory, Reuters reports.
“To allow any negotiations with Russia now while the occupier is on our land is to freeze the war, to freeze everything: pain and suffering,” Zelenskiy said.
“We need real peace, and therefore, a real withdrawal of Russian troops from our entire independent land.”
Updated
A plane carrying South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s security detail and media representatives, that has been grounded in Poland since Thursday, will remain at Warsaw airport until Sunday, an airport spokesman told the BBC (See post at 15:09).
Warsaw Chopin Airport spokesman Piotr Rudzki told the BBC that some of the people onboard had now got off and gone to a hotel.
The US on Friday announced a further $205m (£163m) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine to help the country with shortages of food, drinking water and other needs as its fights against Russia’s invasion.
The aid, which will be distributed via partner NGOs in the region, was also aimed at helping victims of the war maintain contact with family members who have been separated, the US secretary of state said in a statement.
The US has provided more than $2bn (£1.56bn) in humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the war started last February, the statement added.
Antony Blinken said:
We continue to call for an immediate end to Russia’s war of aggression and for Russia to facilitate unhindered access to providers of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine and safe passage for those who seek to move to safer areas.
Russia has delivered parts of tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, says Putin
Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia has delivered parts of its first tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.
Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum on Friday, the Russian president said:
We were discussing it with president Lukashenko… we were discussing then parts of these weapons should be moved to Belarus and this has been done already. They have been moved there until the end of summer, and (by the) end of the year all this will have been completed. But this is a deterrence measure.
Putin refused to be drawn further on the matter, asking the session host: “Do you want me to frighten the whole world? No, I don’t want it.”
The comments came as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that Russia was ready for further talks on arms control, the Interfax news agency reported, without elaborating further.
Russian and Belarusian military officials signed a pact in May that provides for Moscow to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
The plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on foreign soil is Russia’s first since 1991. The Kremlin has defended the decision saying that it is being provoked by western powers supporting Ukraine.
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The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, is expected to visit Moscow next week, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing the head of Russia’s state nuclear company, Rosatom.
Grossi visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine on Thursday to assess its condition. It followed last week’s breach in the Kakhovka dam downstream on the Dnipro River.
He said the situation at the power plant in Ukraine is “serious” and that ensuring water for cooling was a priority of his visit, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of shelling near the plant, endangering its safe operation. The station’s six reactors are now in shutdown.
You can read more about the state of the nuclear power station and Grossi’s comments here:
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Summary of the day so far...
Speaking at Russia’s flagship St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin said on Friday there was a “serious danger” that the Nato military alliance could be pulled further into the Ukraine war.
A delegation of African leaders began a peace mission in Kyiv on Friday, undeterred by what Ukraine said was a barrage of Russian missiles intended to greet them in the Ukrainian capital.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had repelled numerous attempted counterattacks by the Ukrainian army at different frontline locations in the last 24 hours, inflicting heavy losses on Kyiv’s forces.
The Ukrainian air force said on Friday it destroyed six Kinzhals, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones. All were intercepted over the Kyiv region, the chief of the Kyiv military administration Sergiy Popko said. Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said there was no damage in the capital and reported an explosion from air defence in the central Podil district.
Russian troops who have destroyed German-made Leopard tanks and US-supplied armoured vehicles being used by Ukraine will receive bonus payments, the defence ministry was reported as saying.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has said Ukraine’s counteroffensive would fail as Kyiv’s troops sought to advance in several directions, including the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia.
“I think that Ukraine’s armed forces stand no chance here, as well as in other directions – I have no doubt about that,” the Russian president told an annual economic forum in St Petersburg on Friday.
Putin went on to claim Ukraine’s armed forces were suffering “heavy losses”, saying “they are using the so-called strategic reserves”. These claims could not be immediately independently verified.
Updated
Vladimir Putin says Nato could be pulled further into Ukraine war
Vladimir Putin said on Friday there was a “serious danger” that the Nato military alliance could be pulled further into the Ukraine war.
The Russian president also said that nuclear weapons would only possibly be used in case of a threat to the existence of the “Russian state”, adding “we have more such weapons than the western countries”.
Speaking at Russia’s flagship St Petersburg International Economic Forum, he said Russia’s military could destroy parts of central Kyiv but had chosen not to for various reasons, which he did not specify.
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Nato has launched a new centre for protecting undersea pipelines and cables following the still-unsolved attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, AP reports.
“The threat is developing,” Lt Gen Hans-Werner Wiermann, who heads a special unit focused on the challenge, said after Nato defence ministers gave the greenlight for the new centre, located in Northwood, north-west London.
He told reporters at Nato headquarters in Brussels on Friday:
Russian ships have actively mapped our critical undersea infrastructure. There are heightened concerns that Russia may target undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in an effort to disrupt Western life.
In September 2022, several unexplained underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and newly-built Nord Stream 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea.
The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark and both countries say the explosions were deliberate – though they have yet to single out who was responsible.
Nato has since boosted its presence in the Baltic and North seas, with dozens of ships, supported by maritime patrol aircraft and undersea equipment such as drones.
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The South African delegation appears to have disembarked from the plane that landed in Warsaw on Thursday afternoon, after lengthy delays.
Journalist Pieter Du Toit, from South African media outlet News24, tweeted this:
We’ve disembarked, after another haranguing by Polish authorities. A South African SAPS official, clearly frustrated after 26 hours holed up in the plane, telling the Poles: “Just because we’re from Africa doesn’t mean you can disrespect us.” We’re going to the terminal. @News24 pic.twitter.com/6xMiD8PVgh
— Pieter Du Toit (@PieterDuToit) June 16, 2023
Among the group held up was Maj. Gen. Wally Rhoode, the head of Cyril Ramaphosa’s personal protection unit, who claimed the delegation faced hostile treatment from Polish authorities, including one of their female colleagues who was allegedly strip searched.
Rhoode told journalists from the steps of the plane that Polish officials were being deliberately obstructive and had tried to “confiscate” firearms from them – even though the arms were being transported in secure cases in the plane’s cargo hold, AP reports.
According to the Poland border guard agency, Ramaphosa’s security detail did not have permission for the weapons they were carrying, which resulted in a standoff. The Polish authorities have denied they were being racist.
Updated
There are two diplomatic rows brewing over the African peace visit to Ukraine today. As reported earlier, some of South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa’s entourage have been stuck in Poland. [See 12.23 BST]
Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has said “The treatment received by PPS members and journalists in Poland, on board the South African charter flight is very unfortunate and deeply regrettable. Our officials remain engaged with their Polish counterparts in trying to resolve the situation.”
However, Magwenya has himself drawn ire for a tweet this morning, following the air alert in Kyiv. He said:
Strangely, we didn’t hear the sirens or explosions. #AfricanPeaceMission program is proceeding as planned.
A picture released by Ukrainian authorities purports to show damage from this mornings attack.
US defense secretary Lloyd Austin said he urged Turkey to allow Sweden’s entry into Nato during an introductory meeting on Friday with his new Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan during a gathering of Nato defence ministers in Brussels.
“My purpose in meeting him today was an introductory meeting, just to congratulate him on being installed as minister of defence. Of course, [I] seize every opportunity to encourage him to move forward and approve the accession of Sweden,” Reuters reports Austin told a press conference at Nato headquarters.
“But it’s a very short meeting, and I don’t have anything to report out from that.”
Canada will bolster the Nato force in Latvia with the deployment of 15 Leopard 2A4M tanks, their supporting personnel and equipment, the defence minister said on Friday, Reuters reports.
The army tank squadron will be fully deployed by the autumn, defence minister Anita Anand said, speaking to reporters from Brussels.
Canada is in the process of increasing its presence in Latvia, where it has 800 members of its armed forces in its largest foreign military deployment.
The Canada-led Nato battle group in Latvia is made up from contributions from 11 nations.
Updated
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin is still speaking in St Petersburg at the economic forum, by the way. He has mostly been going into specific detail about the performance and regulation of the Russian economy.
Putin has told the gathering that Western sanctions on Russia had failed to isolate it and instead led to an “expansion” in its trade with emerging markets.
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My colleague Emma Graham-Harrison notes photographs which seems to show that the artwork house of Polina Rayko has been significantly damaged by the flooding in Kherson.
It seems the worst fears of Ukraine's art community, and art-loving community have been confirmed.
— Emma Graham-Harrison (@_EmmaGH) June 16, 2023
The extraordinary masterpiece of Polina Rayko, her sole work -- the house she only started painting aged 69 -- has been devastated by the Kharkhovka dam flood. https://t.co/jMLCCK4p7f
Volodymyr Litvinov, head of the Beryslav district administration in Kherson, reports on Telegram that one person has been injured in a village in the area. He stated:
The army of the Russian Federation struck a residential building, as a result of which the building and outbuildings were damaged. One person was injured.
Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels have failed to reach agreement over the alliance’s first defence plans since the end of the cold war, two officials told Reuters on Friday (See post at 11:43).
“While regional plans were not formally endorsed today, we anticipate these plans will be part of a series of deliverables for the Vilnius summit in July,” a senior US official said.
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Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Vladimir Putin has said that Russia’s public finances were generally balanced and that it had had to increase defence spending to reinforce its security.
The Russian president said:
Naturally, additional funds were needed to strengthen defence and security, to purchase weapons. We were forced to do this to protect our country’s sovereignty.
“I should say that on the whole this justifies itself from an economic point of view,” he added.
Updated
Vladimir Putin has said Russia’s economy may grow by up to 2% this year as it bounces back from last year’s contraction in the face of sweeping western sanctions.
Putin’s forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) growth, delivered at Russia’s flagship economic forum in St Petersburg, is similar to those of other Russian authorities, Reuters reports.
The International Monetary Fund in April forecast Russian GDP growth at 0.7%, up from 0.3% in a previous estimate, but lowered its 2024 forecast to 1.3% from 2.1%.
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Vladimir Putin has started speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
The forum, being held between 14 and 17 June, has for decades been Russia’s vehicle for touting its development and seeking investors.
The Russian president’s appearances at the forum have been highly visible and he often used the occasion to hold roundtable discussions with international news executives.
The spectre of the Russia-Ukraine war looms large over the forum this year, with many notable absentees, including no representation from Europe or the US.
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Yury Ushakov, a top Kremlin foreign policy aide, said on Friday that Russia was unlikely to quit the Black Sea grain deal before it comes up for renewal on 17 July, state media reported.
Russian officials have said, however, they see no grounds to extend it beyond that, Reuters reports.
Vladimir Putin said this week that Moscow was considering withdrawing from the deal – which enables Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports – because it had been “cheated” by the west over promises to remove barriers to Russia’s own grain and fertiliser exports.
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Two children and an elderly woman have been injured in the Kyiv region after a Russian missile attack, with more than 30 houses being damaged, the Kyiv Post cited the regional police as saying (See post at 10:58).
Updated
The South African president’s security team has been stuck on a plane in Poland for several hours, the BBC has reported.
Radio Zet, a Polish radio station, reportedly claimed that the SAA plane that has been stuck on the tarmac at an airport in Warsaw will not be able to disembark.
“It turns out that some of the delegation do not have the documents to leave the airport. Secondly, unofficially, the president’s additional bodyguards have weapons. They do not have the proper permits for them,” Radio Zet was quoted as saying.
Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya reassured people that South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa arrived safely in Kyiv by train, despite the delays experienced by some of his security team.
He said:
I would like to assure all South Africans that there has been no compromise whatsoever to the president’s safety as a result of the impasse that involved the charter flight with the presidential protection services team and the media.
We acknowledge the regrettable nature of that incident. Our officials are engaging with their Polish counterparts to resolve the impasse.
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Vladimir Putin hailed Russia’s ties with the United Arab Emirates on Friday as he met the leader of the oil-rich nation, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in St Petersburg (See post at 11:12)
“The Emirates are a very good partner,” Putin said in televised comments at the start of the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of an economic summit in Russia’s second city.
Putin thanked Sheikh Mohammed for the role the UAE has played in prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine and Russia and the US, AFP reports.
Sheikh Mohammed said he was in favour of “de-escalation” and a “political solution” to the Ukraine war during the talks, in which the pair discussed their countries’ “strategic partnership”, according to the UAE official news agency WAM.
Russia and UAE have closely cooperated as members of the OPEC+ oil alliance and Dubai is one of the rare world capitals to have maintained direct flights to Moscow following the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022.
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South Africa’s presidency has just posted some videos from Kyiv’s St Michael’s Square on Twitter. They were filmed receiving a briefing by representatives of Ukraine’s ministry of defence.
African leaders have began a peace mission, hoping to mediate between Ukraine and Russia (See post at 07:56).
#AfricanPeaceMission African Heads of State & Government participating in the Peace initiative are now at St Micheal’s Square in Mykhailivska, Ukraine, for a briefing by representatives of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence. pic.twitter.com/BmLCD6u5bV
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 16, 2023
African leaders, including South African president Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese president Macky Sall, began their trip by visiting the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv.
Ukraine says Russian occupiers carried out executions, rapes and torture in Bucha, and international investigators are collecting evidence of war crimes. Russia denies the allegations.
Updated
As Ukraine pushes on with its counteroffensive, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, and other senior officials from Nato member countries are continuing into a second day of ministerial meetings in Brussels.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s general secretary, left open the prospect that his term may be extended as senior officials from alliance member countries openly endorsed the idea on Thursday.
Ben Wallace, Britain’s defence secretary, was previously tipped as a contender owing to his role in supporting Ukraine after Russia’s invasion.
Updated
Russia says it has inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian forces over the last 24 hours
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its forces had repelled numerous attempted counterattacks by the Ukrainian army at different frontline locations in the last 24 hours, inflicting heavy losses on Kyiv’s forces.
Ukraine says its forces have recaptured at least seven villages and 100 square km in the early stages of a counteroffensive it hopes will gather greater momentum as it commits more soldiers, Reuters reports.
In its daily update on fighting, Russia’s defence ministry said it had inflicted significant losses on Ukrainian troops during what it described as unsuccessful Ukrainian counteroffensive operations in the South Donetsk and Donetsk directions.
It said Russia had used ground troops, air strikes and artillery fire to repel Ukrainian troops, and that in the last 24 hours at various locations had killed about 500 Ukrainian soldiers and destroyed five tanks.
Many armoured vehicles and other items of Ukrainian military hardware had also been destroyed, it added. These claims could not be immediately independently verified.
Updated
There are bridges being built to strengthen the partnership between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Russia, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE’s president, told Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of a forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.
“I am pleased to be here today with you, your excellency, and we wish to build on this relationship and we put our trust in you to do so,” Sheikh Mohammed was quoted by Reuters as saying.
When Putin makes his annual keynote speech at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, he will reportedly be joined on stage only by the president of Algeria, as Western companies have almost universally shunned the self-styled “Russian Davos”.
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Summary of the day so far …
Kyiv’s mayor reported there was no damage to Ukraine’s capital after a missile attack by Russia on Friday morning. According to information provided by the Ukrainian air force, the city’s defences shot down six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones.
Explosions from the action of air defences were reported in Ukraine’s capital as the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and other African leaders were in Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy as part of a peace initiative. The leaders are due to head to Moscow and meet Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, said “The Russian missile attack took place just when the leaders of African countries arrived in the capital. Putin wants to demonstrate that he is willing to disregard the safety of foreign leaders, he actually doesn’t care because he feels complete impunity.”
Kherson’s regional authority has said that 1,649 houses in 17 settlements on the right bank of the Dnipro remain flooded after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam. They also claim that 17 settlements remain flooded on the opposite bank, which is occupied by Russian forces.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi has posted a video which claims to show Ukrainian forces taking out Russian positions near the town of Bakhmut. In a short message on Telegram, the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces said “The enemy is steadily losing equipment near Bakhmut, our soldiers are knocking the Russians out of their positions.”
Russian troops who have destroyed German-made Leopard tanks and US-supplied armoured vehicles being used by Ukraine will receive bonus payments, the defence ministry said on Friday. The ministry said this was part of a wider reward scheme under which more than 10,000 Russian servicemen had received individual bonuses since the start of the war nearly 16 months ago.
150 children have been illegally taken from the Luhansk region to Russia, according to Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre. It said the children were taken from the occupied region’s Starobilsk district on 8 June to two centres in the Prikuban district of Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess republic.
Ukraine has regained control of more than 100 sq km (38 sq miles) of territory in its counteroffensive, senior Ukrainian military commander Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov has claimed. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said there was a “gradual but steady advance” but that Russian forces were putting up “powerful resistance” on the southern front.
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No damage occurred in Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv – mayor
Suspilne reports that Kyiv sustained no damage or injuries in this morning’s Russian missile attack. On its official Telegram channel it wrote:
Mayor Klitschko clarified that the explosions in the Podilsky district of Kyiv were heard due to the work of the air defence forces in the region. There is no damage in Kyiv after the missile attack.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has commented on Telegram about this morning’s attack on Kyiv by Russia.
The Russian missile attack took place just when the leaders of African countries arrived in the capital.
Putin wants to demonstrate that he is willing to disregard the safety of foreign leaders, he actually doesn’t care because he feels complete impunity. And anyone can be in the place of the leaders of African countries.
We remember that rockets flew also when US president Joe Biden and UN secretary general António Guterres arrived in Ukraine.
Yermak continued:
The world must understand that consolidation and the toughest possible position towards Russia are now necessary. It is necessary to show strength to the state that undermines global security and acts with terrorist methods.
We must unite around the peace formula of president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. There is no alternative to it. And we must discuss further steps at the Global Peace Summit.
Only strong diplomacy and a strong position can put an end to Russian terrorism. Because it concerns everyone, every state that wants to exist and preserve the world order.
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Ukraine claims to have shot down six Kinzhal and six Kalibr missiles in morning attack on Kyiv
Daniel Boffey reports from Kyiv for the Guardian:
The all clear has sounded in Kyiv. According to information just provided by the Ukrainian air force, the city’s defences shot down six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, six Kalibr cruise missiles and two reconnaissance drones. And life goes on as normal on the streets of the Ukrainian capital.
Updated
The all clear has sounded in Kyiv.
We are getting some pictures over the news wires of leaders from the African peace delegation visiting the site of mass graves discovered in Bucha, outside of Kyiv, which was temporarily occupied by Russian troops as part of their failed bid to seize Ukraine’s capital in the earliest days of the war.
Updated
Daniel Boffey is in Kyiv for the Guardian:
Two rockets from Kyiv’s anti missile defence systems were launched moments ago to intercept Russian missiles coming from the south-east of the city.
They streaked over the Guardian’s accommodation in Ukraine’s capital and explosions were heard shortly afterwards.
Further attempted strikes on Kyiv are expected in the coming hour. Ballistic missiles are said to have been launched and incoming from the north of the city.
Kyiv’s mayor has reported an explosion in the Podilskyi district of the capital.
Explosions reported in Kyiv while African leaders visiting on peace mission
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that its correspondents have heard explosions in Kyiv. The local authority has said that air defence is in operation. The attack comes shortly after South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa arrived in the capital as part of a peace delegation which is also expected to visit Moscow. An air alert is in place across much of Ukraine with reports of Kalibr cruise missiles being fired from the Black Sea.
More details soon …
The Kyiv city administration says that air defence is “working on the approaches to Kyiv in the region”, reports Suspilne.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, citing Ukraine’s air force command, reports that “several Kalibr-type missiles were headed north” from the Black Sea.
Ukrainian diplomat Olexander Scherba points out on Twitter that the air alert in Kyiv comes as Ukraine is welcoming a peace delegation from Africa.
Sirens now. Putin welcoming African leaders in Kyiw.#StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/xx9cFqUZmo
— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) June 16, 2023
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An air alert has been declared in Kyiv and other regions of Ukraine.
Nato allies may be ready to remove some hurdles on Ukraine’s path to the military alliance, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Friday.
“There are increasing signs that everyone will be able to agree on this,” he told reporters in Brussels when asked about reports that the US is open to permitting Kyiv to forgo a formal candidacy process required of some other nations in the past.
“I would be open for this,” Reuters reports he said.
Nato has ruled out Ukraine joining while it is actively at war.
Kherson’s regional authority has said that 1,649 houses in 17 settlements on the right bank of the Dnipro remain flooded after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam. They also claim that 17 settlements remain flooded on the opposite bank, which is occupied by Russian forces.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, offers this news update on Telegram of events overnight. It reports:
At night, air defence forces destroyed two “Shahed” drones over the Mykolaiv region, the air force reported.
Also at night, the Russian army fired artillery at residential buildings in Novoberyslav in the Kherson region: a couple died, reported the regional .
In the last 24 hours, due to Russian shelling in Kherson oblast, two people were killed, two were injured, ten were injured in Donetsk oblast, and a resident of Orikhov was injured in Zaporizhzhia.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Cyril Ramaphosa arrives in Ukraine as part of African peace mission
The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, arrived in Ukraine on Friday as part of an African peace mission, the South African presidency said on Twitter.
Ramaphosa is expected to meet the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Friday and then travel to Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday.
The South African presidency posted footage of Ramaphosa arriving after travelling via Poland.
[ARRIVAL]: His Excellency President @CyrilRamaphosa has arrived at Nemishaeve Railway Station in Ukraine and is received by Ukraine's Special Envoy for Africa & the Middle East Ambassador Maksym Subhk and South African Ambassador to Ukraine Mr Andre Groenewald.… pic.twitter.com/Jk8V8n2v9O
— Presidency | South Africa 🇿🇦 (@PresidencyZA) June 16, 2023
Along with the Senegal president, Macky Sall, Ramaphosa is heading a delegation including leaders from Zambia and the Comoros, and Egypt’s prime minister.
The peace mission could propose a series of “confidence building measures” during initial efforts at mediation, according to a draft framework document seen by Reuters.
The document states that the objective of the mission is “to promote the importance of peace and to encourage the parties to agree to a diplomacy-led process of negotiations”.
Those measures could include a Russian troop pull-back, removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of implementation of an international criminal court arrest warrant targeting Putin, and sanctions relief, it indicated.
Updated
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi has posted a video which claims to show Ukrainian forces taking out Russian positions near the town of Bakhmut, an area which was fiercely contested for months. In a short message on Telegram, the commander of the Ukrainian ground forces said:
The enemy is steadily losing equipment near Bakhmut, our soldiers are knocking the Russians out of their positions.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Russian troops to receive bonuses for destroying Nato-supplied tanks
Russian troops who have destroyed German-made Leopard tanks and US-supplied armoured vehicles being used by Ukraine will receive bonus payments, the defence ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said this was part of a wider reward scheme under which more than 10,000 Russian service personnel had received individual bonuses since the start of the war nearly 16 months ago.
On the basis of reports from Russian field commanders, “payments are currently being made to servicemen of the Russian Federation armed forces who in the course of military operations destroyed Leopard tanks, as well as armoured fighting vehicles made in the US and other Nato countries”, Reuters reports the ministry said.
The ministry said that up to 31 May, a total of 10,257 service personnel had been rewarded for destroying 16,001 items of Ukrainian and western military equipment. The claims have not been independently verified.
An enemy armoured vehicle was worth 50,000 roubles (£465/$596) and a tank 100,000 roubles (£930/$1192), it said.
Updated
Ukraine plans to send “several dozen” combat pilots for training to fly US-manufactured F-16 fighter jets, the Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat has said, as western allies prepared the necessary training programmes.
“Everything is being done to get it started as early as possible,” Reuters reports that Ihnat told Ukrainian national television, adding that the pilots picked for training would have combat experience. “It’s not training, it’s retraining,” Ihnat said.
Dutch defence minister Kajsa Ollongren told Reuters this week that training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s could begin as soon as this summer.
She said the aim would be to have the training programme fully operational within six months. Denmark, where there are flight simulators, is a possible location to host the programme.
Ukraine’s attempt to retake any territory currently occupied by Russia is hampered by the fact that Ukraine does not have air superiority.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
The senior Russian general killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in the Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday was possibly acting commander of Russia’s 35th combined arms army (CAA) at the time of his death, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
The ministry said in its latest intelligence briefing that Gen-Maj Sergei Goryachev, the CAA’s chief of staff, was “almost certainly” killed in a strike on a command post in southern Ukraine.
A Russian-installed official in Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, confirmed the death on Tuesday, offering his condolences.
The UK defence ministry said in its briefing, posted on Twitter, that Goryachev was the first Russian general confirmed killed in Ukraine this year.
With 35 CAA’s nominated commander, General-Lieutenant Alexandr Sanchik, reported to be filling a gap in a higher HQ, there is a realistic possibility that Goryachev was the acting army commander at the time of his death.
The ministry said Goryachev’s death “continues a war record which has been both difficult and controversial for 35th CAA”.
In March 2022 elements of the army were present during the massacre of civilians in Bucha, and in June 2022 the force was largely wiped out near Izium.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 16 June 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 16, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/E9VhzMxGKM
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/AdwCj6WsQC
Updated
African leaders could propose a series of “confidence-building measures” during their initial efforts to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to a draft framework document seen by Reuters.
The Senegalese and South African presidents are heading a delegation including the Egyptian prime minister and leaders from Zambia and the Comoro which is to travel to Kyiv on Friday and St Petersburg on Saturday, the news agency reported.
They are expected to meet the Ukrainian and Russian presidents.
The framework document, which has not been made public, states the objective of the mission is “to promote the importance of peace and to encourage the parties to agree to a diplomacy-led process of negotiations”.
The conflict, as well as the sanctions placed on Russia by major trading partners of the [African] continent, have had an adverse effect on African economies and livelihoods.
Photograph: Martial Trezzini/EPA
The document lists a number of measures that could be proposed by the African leaders as part of the first stage of their engagement with the warring parties. The measures could include a Russian troop pullback, removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, sanctions relief and suspension of the implementation of an international criminal court arrest warrant targeting Vladimir Putin.
The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, said Cyril Ramaphosa, the South African president, had given him a description of the African efforts.
Ukraine says 150 children illegally deported from Luhansk to Russia
Ukraine says 150 children have been illegally taken from the occupied Luhansk region to Russia.
The National Resistance Centre of Ukraine said the children were taken from the Luhansk’s Starobilsk district on 8 June to two centres in the Prikuban district of Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess republic.
It said 19,393 children had so far been illegally transferred to Russia from Ukraine’s occupied territories, quoting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as saying last month.
The international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in March for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children.
In granting the request for warrants by the ICC prosecutor, a panel of judges agreed that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
On Thursday, the National Resistance Centre said 750 children from Luhansk were expected to arrive this month at the two centres in Karachay-Cherkess.
It also said “so-called medical examinations” of children were being conducted in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and we’ll start with a rundown of the latest developments.
One-hundred-and-fifty children have been illegally taken from the Luhansk region to Russia, according to Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre. It said the children were taken from the occupied region’s Starobilsk district on 8 June to two centres in the Prikuban district of Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess republic.
It added that 750 children from Luhansk were expected to arrive at the centres in June.
In other news:
Ukraine has regained control of more than 100 sq km (38 sq miles) of territory in its counteroffensive, senior Ukrainian military commander Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov has claimed. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said there was a “gradual but steady advance” but that Russian forces were putting up “powerful resistance” on the southern front.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said the situation is “serious” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant but a number of measures have been taken to stabilise it. Rafael Grossi said after visiting Europe’s largest atomic power plant that inspectors would stay at the Russian-occupied facility but that signing a document on security on the site was “unrealistic” while the two sides were still fighting. Ensuring water for cooling the plant was a priority, he said, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.
Gunfire briefly halted Grossi’s convoy as it headed back to Ukrainian-held territory following the visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant, but the delegation was in no immediate danger, a spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
Ukrainian fighter pilots are being trained to fly F-16 jets, Nato’s secretary general has revealed. Nato allies have yet to agree on delivering the so-called fourth-generation US fighters to Ukraine, but Jens Stoltenberg said the training of Ukrainian personnel was under way.
A group of UN experts said they had written to Moscow raising concerns about the use of torture by Russian military forces on Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war.
Republican and Democratic members of the US Congress introduced legislation that would make it easier for Ukraine to fund its fight against Russian invaders by using seized and frozen Russian assets.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned a Canadian diplomat in Moscow in protest over the confiscation of an Antonov plane in Toronto, and warned that Russian-Canadian relations were on the “verge of being severed”.
The Russian and Algerian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, pledged to deepen their two countries’ “strategic partnership” during a three-day state visit by Tebboune as the Kremlin seeks to pivot towards Asia and Africa.
A Russian anti-war activist died in a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where he had alleged he was being mistreated, his lawyer said.
The US, the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark announced they would partner to send defence equipment, including hundreds of missiles, to Ukraine. A joint statement released by the British government said delivery of the equipment had already begun and should be completed “within several weeks”.
As many as 100 Russian troops gathered for a motivational speech near Ukraine’s eastern frontline may have been killed in a strike earlier this week, prompting fury among Russian military bloggers.
Members of the European Parliament called on Nato allies to honour their commitment to Ukraine by inviting the country to join the defence alliance and support opening EU accession negotiations this year.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged Switzerland to allow the re-export of weapons to Ukraine, telling its parliament that the move would be vital in combating the Russian invasion.
Russian missiles hit two industrial facilities in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Thursday, and an elderly woman was killed by Russian fire in the southern Kherson region, local officials said. The Kryvyi Rih mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, reported no deaths in the latest attack on Zelenskiy’s home town but said a 38-year-old man was reportedly wounded.
Russian forces claimed they successfully hit drone production facilities in Ukraine using high-precision, long-range weapons.
The defence ministry and the Federal Security Service considered it possible to hold elections on 10 September in the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claims to have annexed, the state news agency Tass reported the head of Russia’s electoral commission as saying.
