Summary
It’s 2am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- The Canadian senate passed prime minister Justin Trudeau’s budget on Thursday, allowing it to seize and dispose of assets sanctioned as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Canadian government will now be allowed to seize and dispose of assets of people and entities that have been sanctioned due to the invasion. The government will then be able to use the funds to support Ukraine.
- The European Council on Friday has approved 9 billion euros of financial aid to Ukraine. In a statement made by Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki at the European Council summit in Brussels, he said, “There is a war in Ukraine, and there is nothing to pay nurses, teachers, police, border guards, or many other public services.”
- Ukraine’s main domestic security agency said on Friday it had uncovered a Russian spy network involving Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach who was previously accused by the United States of being a Russian agent. The State Security Service (SBU) said Derkach, whose whereabouts were not made clear, set up a network of private security firms to use them to ease and support the entry of Russian units into cities during Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion.
- Over 3,000 dolphins in the Black Sea have died as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian scientists working in the “Tuzlovsky Lymans” reserve, a national nature park. NEXTA reports that the “work of sonar and explosions prevent them from finding food” and that dead dolphins have been increasingly found on the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania, in addition to Ukraine.
- It would require Ukraine a decade to rebuild infrastructure of its Black Sea ports, whose blockade by Russia is preventing global grain exports, according to Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister. “For alternative routes, it would take 10 years of investment to try to build the necessary infrastructure to replace this Black Sea port infrastructure, which we spent about 20 years building, starting in 2000,” Taras Vysotskiy said on Friday.
- Russia has condemned the European Union’s decision to accept Ukraine and Moldova as membership candidates. Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said, “With the decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate countries, the European Union has confirmed that it continues to actively exploit the CIS on a geopolitical level, to use it to ‘contain’ Russia,” referring to Russia’s sphere of influence within the Commonwealth of Independent States consisting of former Soviet states.
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Mass kidnappings have been occurring in Melitopol, said the mayor of the southeastern Ukrainian city. “More than 500 people have been abducted in the last four months,” Ivan Fedrov said, adding that mass kidnappings have resumed in the Russian-occupied territory last week.
- Russia has launched 70 missiles at Odesa since February 24, the southwestern city’s regional prosecution has said. According to the prosecution, the majority of the missiles have targeted residential areas and public utilities.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand the blog over to my colleagues in Australia who will bring you the latest updates on Ukraine. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.
Footage has emerged of the ruins in central Popasna in the Luhansk region of Ukraine, Euromaidan Press reports.
After two months of intensive fighting against Russian forces, Ukrainian troops left the city in early May, leaving behind numerous buildings that have been destroyed by the Russian military.
Video of ruins of central Popasna, Luhansk Oblast
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 24, 2022
Ukrainian troops left the city on 8 May after two months of heavy fighting. Most of the buildings in the city have been destroyed by the multiple Russian artillery, rocket, missile, aircraft attacks.https://t.co/IkHelKzsO2 pic.twitter.com/TkV9xcXYX8
The Canadian senate passed prime minister Justin Trudeau’s budget on Thursday, allowing it to seize and dispose of assets sanctioned as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Canadian government will now be allowed to seize and dispose of assets of people and entities that have been sanctioned due to the invasion. The government will then be able to use the funds to support Ukraine.
The European Council on Friday has approved 9 billion euros of financial aid to Ukraine.
In a statement made by Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki at the European Council summit in Brussels, he said, “There is a war in Ukraine, and there is nothing to pay nurses, teachers, police, border guards, or many other public services.”
Morawiecki added that European countries such as his are continuing to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
“The advantage [of Russia] in artillery, according to the allies and our own sources is 1:8, 1:10. How difficult it is to fight such an overwhelming enemy force. That is why Poland, as well as the United States, Great Britain, and the Baltic States, are doing everything possible to help Ukraine get the weapons,” he said.
Ukraine’s main domestic security agency said on Friday it had uncovered a Russian spy network involving Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach who was previously accused by the United States of being a Russian agent.
Reuters reports:
The State Security Service (SBU) said Derkach, whose whereabouts were not made clear, set up a network of private security firms to use them to ease and support the entry of Russian units into cities during Moscow’s Feb. 24 invasion.
Derkach could not immediately be reached for comment. He has previously denied wrongdoing and said he has been targeted for exposing corruption.
In a statement, the SBU cited testimony from Derkach’s parliamentary aide Ihor Kolykhayev. It said he was arrested at the beginning of the war, and accused him of being a go-between between Derkach and Russia’s military intelligence agency.
Kolykhayev said Derkach’s security firms “had to ensure the passage of (Russian) vehicles, get into armoured vehicles with Russian flags, and thus ensure (the Russian army’s) peaceful entry into the city.”
The SBU said Derkach received sums of $3-4 million every several months in order to fulfil the plan.
Derkach was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in September 2020 for what it said were attempts to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
The Treasury’s sanction announcement at the time said Derkach had been “an active Russian agent for over a decade.”
Over 3,000 dolphins in the Black Sea have died as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian scientists working in the “Tuzlovsky Lymans” reserve, a national nature park.
NEXTA reports that the “work of sonar and explosions prevent them from finding food” and that dead dolphins have been increasingly found on the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania, in addition to Ukraine.
At least 3,000 dolphins have died in the Black Sea because of the war, according to scientists of #Ukrainian "Tuzlovsky Lymans" reserve. The work of sonar and explosions prevent them from finding food. Dead dolphins are increasingly found on coast, even in #Bulgaria and #Romania. pic.twitter.com/C3FZzW7bWD
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 24, 2022
It would require Ukraine a decade to rebuild infrastructure of its Black Sea ports, whose blockade by Russia is preventing global grain exports, according to Ukraine’s deputy agriculture minister.
“For alternative routes, it would take 10 years of investment to try to build the necessary infrastructure to replace this Black Sea port infrastructure, which we spent about 20 years building, starting in 2000,” Taras Vysotskiy said on Friday.
Since the Russian invasion in February, millions of tonnes of wheat and other grain have been stuck in Ukrainian ports, prompting international concern surrounding food prices an hunger.
“These alternative routes are important” but can only carry around a third of Ukraine’s exports, he said.
Ukraine’s Western allies are looking for ways to unblock the ports, particularly Odessa, the main point of departure for the country’s agricultural produce.
“Without very concrete guarantees allowing ships to enter and leave safely, we cannot allow such actions,” Vysotskiy said, adding that Russia was not ready to provide these assurances.
Meanwhile, about 20 million tonnes of grain from last year’s harvest are still stuck in Ukraine, he said. However, he noted that the grain could be “stored very efficiently for up to two years” under the right conditions.
“10 to 15 percent of the port infrastructure was destroyed by rockets from Russia,” Vysotskiy also said, referring to a recent Russian strike on one of the country’s biggest grain terminals in Mykolaiv.
Vysotskiy said that Kyiv had “evidence that about half a million tonnes were stolen from the regions partially occupied,” referring to Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Lugansk.
“We have received evidence from satellite images showing grain has been transported to Syria,” Vysotskiy added.
Russia has condemned the European Union’s decision to accept Ukraine and Moldova as membership candidates.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry said, “With the decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate countries, the European Union has confirmed that it continues to actively exploit the CIS on a geopolitical level, to use it to ‘contain’ Russia,” referring to Russia’s sphere of influence within the Commonwealth of Independent States consisting of former Soviet states.
Although it could take years for the countries to join the European bloc, the decision to accept them as candidates is a symbol of the EU’s intention to reach deep into the former Soviet Union.
“They are not thinking of the negative consequences of such a step,” she added.
By expanding to Ukraine and Moldova, two former Soviet republics, Zakharova said, the EU was sacrificing its democratic ideals at the expense of “unrestrained expansion and the political and economic enslavement of its neighbours.”
Mass kidnappings have been occurring in Melitopol, said the mayor of the southeastern Ukrainian city.
“More than 500 people have been abducted in the last four months,” Ivan Fedrov said, adding that mass kidnappings have resumed in the Russian-occupied territory last week.
⚡️Mayor: Russian occupiers kidnap people in Melitopol.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 24, 2022
According to Mayor Ivan Fedorov, mass kidnappings resumed in Russian-occupied Melitopol in Zaporizhzhia Oblast last week. “More than 500 people have been abducted in the last four months," he said.
Fedorov also said that Russian forces have been extracting harvest grain from the city’s silos.
“As for the latest crops, the rucists announce the following harvesting criteria: they either take 50% or 70% of the crops. They also announce the price at which they are willing to buy – less than $80 per tonne. This is less than the actual cost price. Meanwhile, only one person was authorized by the occupiers to run such negotiations and buy out the crops,” he said.
Russia has launched 70 missiles at Odesa since February 24, the southwestern city’s regional prosecution has said.
According to the prosecution, the majority of the missiles have targeted residential areas and public utilities.
Since February 24 Russia launched 70 missiles at Odesa targeting mainly residential areas and public utilities: Odesa regional prosecution #StopRussia #RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/XEaZTMaXMU
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) June 24, 2022
Summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- The last Ukrainian forces fighting in the heavily contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been ordered to withdraw in order to avoid being encircled. The anticipated loss of Sievierodonetsk is the latest battlefield reverse for Kyiv after its defeat in the port city of Mariupol, as fears grow that the neighbouring city of Lysychansk could also fall to Russia within days.
- A district south of the city of Lysychansk in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region has been “fully occupied” by Russian forces, a local Ukrainian official said. The loss of Hirske and several other settlements around it leaves Lysychansk in danger of being enveloped from three sides by advancing Russian forces.
- A Ukrainian goat has been hailed a national hero after it triggered a string of Russian grenades around a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, injuring at least 40 Russian soldiers. The goat, who had escaped from a farm, is said to have headed straight for the boobytrap after Russian forces pinned grenades around the edge of a local hospital in the village of Kinski Rozdory.
- Ukraine will need at least a decade to clear all the mines and explosives from its land and territorial waters after the war, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s state emergency service has said. So far Ukraine has managed to clear 620 sq km of land littered with thousands of explosive devices, Oleksandr Khorunzhiy said. Nearly 300,000 sq km are still seen as “contaminated”, he said.
- An official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination when his car exploded as he got into it. Dmitry Savluchenko was head of the families, youth and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration. The Kremlin has described the attack as “nothing but an act of terrorism”.
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An oil refinery in the south of Russia that was hit by a drone attack earlier this week has resumed operations, according to reports. Both primary crude-oil distillation units at the Novoshakhtinsk refinery were down after the attack, but at least one was back online as of Friday, according to sources.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed crowds at Glastonbury festival and asked them to “spread the truth about Russia’s war” and “prove that freedom always wins”. In a video message to festivalgoers, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians would not allow Russia’s war to break them and that he wanted to stop the invasion before it “ruined people’s lives in other countries of Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America”.
- Russia is trying but has been unable to target western weapons flowing into Ukraine, including longer-range systems that Kyiv hopes will be decisive on the battlefield, a senior US defence official said. The official also appeared to play down the significance of Russian advances in Ukraine and said a Ukrainian pullback from Sievierodonetsk would allow them to take a better defensive position.
- The UN nuclear watchdog has said it is increasingly concerned about the welfare of Ukrainian staff at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was aware of reports “indicating a deteriorating situation for Ukrainian staff” at the country’s largest nuclear power plant.
- The lawyer defending Aiden Aslin, one of two Britons sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court, said they had not yet submitted an appeal because the Britons seemed to be holding out for intervention from the UK. Appeals must be lodged by 8 July but Aslin’s lawyer said “they hope that the British authorities will still contact either the Russian Federation or the Donetsk People’s Republic”.
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European leaders have granted Ukraine candidate status nearly four months after Zelenskiy launched his country’s attempt to join the EU in the early days of the Russian invasion. Zelenskiy welcomed the move, calling it “a unique and historic moment” in relations with the 27-nation bloc. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the EU’s decision was a “domestic” matter. Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said the decision would have “negative consequences”.
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G7 foreign ministers have called on Russia to “cease its attacks and threatening actions” and to unblock the Ukrainian Black Sea ports for food exports. Russia is exacerbating food insecurity with its blockades and bombing attacks on key infrastructure in Ukraine, they said in a statement. The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said there could be no effective solution to the looming food crisis unless Ukraine and Russia found a way to properly resume trade.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today. My colleague Maya Yang will be here shortly to take over.
Updated
Russia’s foreign ministry has said the decision by the EU to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova will have “negative consequences”.
In a statement, the ministry’s spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said:
With the decision to grant Ukraine and Moldova the status of candidate countries, the European Union has confirmed that it continues to actively exploit the CIS on a geopolitical level, to use it to ‘contain’ Russia.
They are not thinking of the negative consequences of such a step.
Updated
An oil refinery in the south of Russia that was hit by a drone attack earlier this week has resumed operations, according to reports.
The Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in the Rostov region said the first of two drones flying from the direction of Ukraine struck on Wednesday morning, hitting a crude distillation unit and triggering a blast and ball of fire.
Video shared on social media showed what appeared to be an unmanned aerial vehicle crashing into the oil refinery, in what would be an embarrassing penetration of Russia’s air defence systems.
Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region, appeared to confirm the incident, writing that fragments of two drones had been found on the territory of the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, where a large fire broke out on Wednesday morning.
Both primary crude-oil distillation units at the refinery were down after the attack, but at least one was back online as of Friday, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
One source said:
The refinery is back online after the fire. June refining will be little affected, while in July they will have maintenance. It is not clear how much it may affect the output.
Updated
Ukraine will need at least a decade to clear all the mines and explosives from its land and territorial waters after the war, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s state emergency service has said.
So far Ukraine has managed to clear 620 sq km of land littered with thousands of explosive devices, including 2,000 bombs dropped from the air, Oleksandr Khorunzhiy said.
Nearly 300,000 sq km – roughly half the size of Ukraine’s territory – are still seen as “contaminated”, he said at a news conference.
Khorunzhiy said:
Up to 10 years, that’s the optimistic figure. Because we don’t know what’s happening on the territories where active combat is ongoing right now.
He added:
Just imagine the number of bombs that have been dropped on us by the enemy.
The first priority was to demine infrastructure, residential areas and roads, and it would take longer to clear woods, rivers and the coastline, he said.
Updated
A Ukrainian goat has been hailed a national hero after it triggered a string of Russian grenades around a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, injuring at least 40 Russian soldiers.
Russian forces were setting up a tripwire and had pinned grenades around the edge of a local hospital in the village of Kinski Rozdory, placing the trap as a “circular defence”, according to Ukraine’s chief intelligence directorate.
The goat, who had escaped from a farm, is said to have headed straight for the boobytrap, with the Russian munitions exploding in a chain reaction, injuring dozens of soldiers who were waiting in ambush.
Ukraine’s defence intelligence said:
As a result of the goat’s ‘chaotic’ movements, the animal ‘disposed of’ several grenades. As a result of a chain reaction, several [Russians] sustained injuries of varying degrees of severity.
At least 40 Russian soldiers are thought to have been injured. The condition of the animal is not currently known.
The goat has since been hailed as “the Goat of Kyiv”, a reference to the mythical pilot, the Ghost of Kyiv, who is credited to have downed as many as 40 enemy planes during Russia’s invasion of the capital.
Updated
In a video address to the Glastonbury festival, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, called on crowds to support Ukraine by sharing his message about Russia’s war on his country.
‘The more people join us in defending freedom and truth, the sooner Russia’s war in Ukraine will end,” he said.
The lawyer defending Aiden Aslin, one of two Britons sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court, said they had not yet submitted an appeal because they seemed to be holding out for intervention from the UK.
Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were sentenced on charges of “terrorism” by a court that is not internationally recognised earlier this month in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Russian state-owned news agency Tass quoted Pinner’s lawyer, Yulia Tserkovnikova, that the defence attorneys were preparing an appeal, which must be lodged by 8 July.
But Pavel Kosovan, defending Aslin, said the appeals had not yet been filed. He told Reuters:
I suspect they hope that the British authorities will still contact either the Russian Federation or the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Earlier this week, Aslin’s family said he had been told the execution will be carried out. His captures claimed there had been no attempt by UK officials to negotiate on his behalf, Aslin said.
Russia has transformed an existing life-threatening wave of food crises into a tsunami by blocking the export of 25m tonnes of grain from Ukraine’s ports, Germany’s foreign minister has said.
Speaking at the start of an inter-ministerial food conference in Berlin, a precursor to the G7 meeting in Germany starting this weekend where aid groups will demand a big financial commitment to help Africa, Annalena Baerbock said 345 million people worldwide were currently threatened by food shortages.
She said the hunger crisis was building “like a life-threatening wave before us” but it was Russia’s war that had “made a tsunami out of this wave”, and she said Russia was using hunger as a weapon of war. In an international blame game playing out across Africa, Russia claims it is western sanctions that are slowing the flow of Russian food.
As many as 25 African countries, including many of the least developed countries, import more than one-third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia, and 15 of them more than half.
Her remarks led Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and prime minister, to make a reference to the German starvation tactics in the second world war. He said: “German officials are accusing Russia of using hunger like a weapon. It is amazing to hear this from officials whose country kept Leningrad in blockade for 900 days, where almost 700 thousand people died of starvation.”
But Baerbock’s criticism of Russia was backed by Arif Husain, the chief economist at the UN World Food Programme, who said it was not sanctions that were causing the food crisis but war. “We tend to address the symptoms and forget the root cause, and the root cause is war,” he said.
Updated
Vladimir Putin said Russia was not responsible for the global food crisis, blaming the west instead for preventing the export of Russian grain.
Speaking at a Brics Plus virtual summit that brought together the leaders of 17 countries including China, India, Brazil and South Africa, the Russian leader described the food market as “unbalanced in the most serious way”.
Putin accused western countries, in particular the US, of “destabilising global agricultural production” with restrictions on the delivery of fertiliser from Russia and Belarus, and by making it difficult for Moscow to export grain.
He said rising prices on agricultural staples such as grain have most affected developing countries, “where bread and flour are a necessary means of survival for the majority of the population”.
He dismissed the “hysteria” surrounding grain that has been trapped in Ukrainian ports, and claimed it would not solve any problems on the global grain market.
Russia was a “responsible actor” in the global food market, he claimed.
Updated
Today so far...
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- The last Ukrainian forces fighting in the heavily contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been ordered to withdraw in order to avoid being encircled. The anticipated loss of Sievierodonetsk is the latest battlefield reverse for Kyiv after its defeat in the port city of Mariupol, as fears grow that the neighbouring city of Lysychansk could also fall to Russia within days.
- A district south of the city of Lysychansk in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region has been “fully occupied” by Russian forces, a local Ukrainian official said. The loss of Hirske and several other settlements around it leaves Lysychansk in danger of being enveloped from three sides by advancing Russian forces.
- No town is safe for residents in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk as fighting intensifies, local officials claim. “There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse, citing the latest intelligence data. “It is extremely dangerous for residents to stay in any places of the region.”
- An official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination when his car exploded as he got into it. Dmitry Savluchenko was head of the families, youth and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration. The Kremlin has described the attack as “nothing but an act of terrorism”.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed crowds at Glastonbury festival and asked them to “spread the truth about Russia’s war” and “prove that freedom always wins”. In a video message to festivalgoers, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians would not allow Russia’s war to break them and before it “ruined people’s lives in other countries of Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America”.
- Ukraine is running out of shells for the majority of its artillery in part because of an eight-year-long clandestine Russian campaign of bullying and sabotage, according to Ukrainian experts. Russia spent years targeting Ukrainian and other eastern European ammunition storage facilities and suppliers before launching its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the Washington Post reports.
- Russia is trying but has been unable to target western weapons flowing into Ukraine, including longer-range systems that Kyiv hopes will be decisive on the battlefield, a senior US defence official said. The official also appeared to play down the significance of Russian advances in Ukraine and said a Ukrainian pullback from Sievierodonetsk would allow them to take a better defensive position.
- The UN nuclear watchdog has said it is increasingly concerned about the welfare of Ukrainian staff at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it was aware of reports “indicating a deteriorating situation for Ukrainian staff” at the country’s largest nuclear power plant.
- European leaders have granted Ukraine candidate status nearly four months after Zelenskiy launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion. Zelenskiy welcomed the move, calling it “a unique and historic moment” in relations with the 27-nation bloc. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said the EU’s decision was a “domestic” matter.
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G7 foreign ministers called on Russia to “cease its attacks and threatening actions” and to unblock the Ukrainian Black Sea ports for food exports. Russia is exacerbating food insecurity with its blockades and bombing attacks on key infrastructure in Ukraine, they said in a statement. The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said there could be no effective solution to the looming food crisis unless Ukraine and Russia find a way to properly resume trade.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you today to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
At least 71,000 Ukrainians have entered the US since March, with Joe Biden’s pledge to welcome 100,000 people fleeing the Russian invasion on track to be met over the summer.
So far more than 15,000 Ukrainians have entered the country after being approved for sponsorship through the Uniting for Ukraine program, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) data reported by NBC. Another 23,000 people have been approved but have not yet made the journey. Travel arrangements are down to the Ukrainians or their sponsors.
Since the programme launched in April, sponsors – including friends, relatives, NGOs and church groups – have applied online to support more than 60,000 Ukrainians seeking to enter the country. There are about 1,400 new online applications to sponsor individual Ukrainians, according to a breakdown of figures by the Washington Post.
The US has become an increasingly hostile environment for many migrants and refugees in recent years, but Ukrainians have been largely welcomed without controversy.
Updated
Germany’s economic minister, Robert Habeck, has admitted the country would face “difficult societal decisions” in the event of a gas shortage.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, Habeck said some industries that need gas “will have to be turned off” when there is not enough in Germany.
He has raised the alert level under Germany’s emergency gas plan after supplies of gas from Russia were slashed. Last week the Russian energy firm Gazprom reduced deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany by 60%, blaming the move on a delayed repair.
The reduction had put Germany in a position it had never been in before, Habeck said, with German industries and households reliant on energy imports to meet their needs.
Germany would “have to make difficult societal decisions”, Habeck said, adding that there were “no good decisions only less wrong ones”.
The consequences for some sectors could be “catastrophic” with the effects felt for “a long time”, the minister said.
Updated
Russia is trying but has been unable to target western weapons flowing into Ukraine, including longer-range systems that Kyiv hopes will be decisive on the battlefield, a senior US defence official has told Reuters.
The official also appeared to play down the significance of Russian advances in Ukraine and said a Ukrainian pullback from Sievierodonetsk would allow them to take a better defensive position, the agency reported.
“In moving the Ukrainian armed forces from Sievierodonetsk back, what they are doing is putting themselves in a position where they can better defend themselves,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Russian ministry of defence has repeatedly claimed in its daily operational briefings to have successfully targeted and destroyed foreign-supplied weapons arriving in Ukraine. Neither set of claims have been independently verified.
Updated
Last Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk ordered to withdraw
The last Ukrainian forces fighting in the heavily contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been ordered to withdraw in order to avoid being encircled, as fears grow that the neighbouring city of Lysychansk could also fall to Russia within days.
The anticipated loss of Sievierodonetsk is the latest battlefield reverse for Kyiv after its defeat in the port city of Mariupol. According to some estimates about 12,000 civilians remain in Sievierodonetsk, out of a prewar population of 160,000.
All three bridges offering escape routes west over the Siverskyi Donets River to the twin city of Lysychansk have been destroyed in fighting, and the mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, says the humanitarian situation is critical.
The Luhansk governor, Serhiy Haidai, said on Friday: “The situation right now is as such that staying at these destroyed positions just for the sake of being there doesn’t make sense.” He said Ukrainian forces had “received the order to retreat to new positions and continue fighting there”, but did not give further details.
Russians were also advancing toward Lysychansk from Zolote and Toshkivka, and Russian reconnaissance units had been conducting forays on the city edges but were driven out by its defenders, he added.
Haidai said Sievierodonetsk had been “nearly turned to rubble” by continual bombardment. “All critical infrastructure has been destroyed. Ninety per cent of the city is damaged, 80% [of] houses will have to be demolished.”
Read more of Peter Beaumont’s report here: Last Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk ordered to withdraw
The UN nuclear watchdog has said it is increasingly concerned about the welfare of Ukrainian staff at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said: “The IAEA is aware of recent reports in the media and elsewhere indicating a deteriorating situation for Ukrainian staff at the country’s largest nuclear power plant.”
Reuters reports it added it was “increasingly concerned about the difficult conditions facing staff”.
It said two units at the plant had been refuelled in recent months, and this would require a physical inspection.
Ukraine has previously objected to the idea that the IAEA might visit and inspect the plant, Europe’s largest, while it is under Russian occupation, because of the legitimacy that would confer on the current operators.
Updated
G7 foreign ministers called on Russia to “cease its attacks and threatening actions” and to unblock the Ukrainian Black Sea ports for food exports.
Russia is exacerbating food insecurity with its blockades and bombing attacks on key infrastructure in Ukraine, they said in a statement.
Foreign ministers from the G7 countries agreed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had brought about the current global food crisis and that Moscow was responsible for the matter, Japan’s foreign minister, Yoshimasa Hayashi, told reporters.
Meanwhile, the UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said the world was facing “an unprecedented global hunger crisis” with a “real risk” of multiple famines this year.
There could be no effective solution to the crisis unless Ukraine and Russia, which produce about 29% of global wheat exports, find a way to properly resume trade, he said.
Guterres did not elaborate on talks with Russia and Ukraine in Turkey to discuss a UN plan over a possible Black Sea corridor for exporting Ukrainian grains, saying: “Public statements could hinder success.”
Updated
Ukraine says Russian forces are attempting to surround the embattled city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine and are mounting assaults on its sister city of Sievierodonetsk to establish full control, Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s defence ministry spokesperson, Oleksandr Motuzyanyk, declined to comment on the governor’s earlier remarks that Ukrainian troops would “have to be withdrawn” from Sievierodonetsk. Information was “closed to the public”, he told reporters.
Ukraine is running out of shells for the majority of its artillery in part because of an eight-year-long clandestine Russian campaign of bullying and sabotage, according to Ukrainian experts.
Russia is firing more than 60,000 shells per day, which is 10 times more than the Ukrainians, according to Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maylar. Most of Ukraine’s artillery relies on the same 122mm- and 152mm-calibre rounds that Russia uses, but outside of Russia very little supply exists, the Washington Post reports.
Ukraine’s shortage of shells is in large part because Russia spent years targeting Ukrainian and other eastern European ammunition storage facilities and suppliers before launching its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, the paper reports.
A “shadow war” is taking place for the limited number of 152mm shells on the global market, the paper said. According to an arms broker, officials in an eastern European country were unable to purchase artillery rounds because Russians had warned them that they would “kill them if they sold anything to the Ukrainians”.
Countries that still have stocks of 152mm rounds are largely ex-Soviet nations and some African and Middle Eastern countries, many of which are hesitant to sell to Ukraine because of their close ties with Russia.
In some cases, Ukraine thought it had made a deal to buy these shells but then a Russian-backed buyer would swoop in at the last minute and aggressive outbid, the arms broker said.
Malyar told the paper that “the Russians are working very hard to ensure that we can’t sign contracts for this — and then if we sign a contract, to prevent us from getting the shells delivered here”.
According to military analysts, Russia has long known that in a drawn-out war of attrition against Ukraine, Kyiv would risk running out of ammunition. A former Ukrainian defence minister, Andriy Zagorodnyuk, said there were “constant discussions that we need to produce the ammunition ourselves”.
Ukrainian officials suspect Russian and separatist saboteurs as well as Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, were engaged in a campaign across Europe and inside Ukraine to destroy arms depots and suppress the supply of munitions to Ukraine, the paper reports.
Updated
Zelenskiy addresses crowds at Glastonbury
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addressed crowds at Glastonbury festival and asked them to “spread the truth about Russia’s war” and “prove that freedom always wins”.
In a video message to festivalgoers, Zelenskiy said people in Ukraine wanted to “live the life as we used to, enjoy freedom and this wonderful summer”.
Zelenskiy said:
But we cannot do that because the most terrible has happened. Russia has stolen our peace.
Ukrainians would not allow Russia’s war to break them and before it “ruined people’s lives in other countries of Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America”, adding that “they are all under threat now”.
A message from President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy was just played on the big screens at The Other Stage, shortly before The Libertines’ stage-opening set. #Glastonbury2022 pic.twitter.com/LuXf2FfEBf
— Glastonbury Festival (@glastonbury) June 24, 2022
Zelenskiy said:
That is why I turn to you for support. Glastonbury is the greatest concentration of freedom these days and I ask you to share this feeling with everyone whose freedom is under attack.
Spread the truth about Russia’s war. Help Ukrainians who are forced to flee their homes because of this war.
He finished the video address by saying that time was “priceless” and “every day measured in human lives”.
Updated
A district south of the city of Lysychansk in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region has been “fully occupied” by Russian forces, a local Ukrainian official said.
Speaking on television, the municipal head of Hirske, Oleksiy Babchenko, said:
Unfortunately, as of today … the entire Hirske district is occupied. There are some insignificant, local battles going on at the outskirts, but the enemy has entered.
From the Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske:
Russian troops completely occupied the Hirske community of Luhansk Oblast. As of the morning of June 24, fighting continues in some settlements, the head of the community Oleksiy Babchenko said on the air of Espresso. According to him, the community was seized from two directions
— Hromadske Int. (@Hromadske) June 24, 2022
Lysychansk is the last major Ukrainian-controlled city in the eastern region of Luhansk. The loss of Hirske and several other settlements around it leaves Lysychansk in danger of being enveloped from three sides by advancing Russian forces.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had encircled about 2,000 Ukrainian troops, including 80 foreign fighters, at Hirske. It has not been possible to independently verify this claim.
Updated
More from the Kremlin’s Dmitry Peskov, who said he could not comment on a report that Germany was looking at expropriating part of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
The magazine Der Spiegel reported that Germany’s economy ministry was considering converting parts of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, built by Russia’s Gazprom, into a connection for a liquefied natural gas terminal on the Baltic Sea coast.
If Germany took concrete steps to do so, those would be a matter for lawyers, Peskov told reporters.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has been at his regular briefing, where he said the decision by the European Union to grant Ukraine official candidate status was a “domestic” matter.
Peskov said Russia’s relations with the European bloc would be “very difficult to spoil further”.
He said:
It is very important for us that all these processes do not bring more problems to us and more problems in the relations of these countries with us.
Turning to Moldova, which was also granted EU candidate status this week, Peskov said the ex-Soviet country “wants to become European more than the Europeans themselves”. He added:
It seems to them that the more anti-Russian they seem, the more Europeans should like them.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Today so far …
- The battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine is edging towards “a fearsome climax” as Russian forces attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops defending Lysychansk, officials say. Russia’s efforts to capture Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk – the two remaining cities under Ukrainian control in Luhansk – have turned into a bloody war of attrition, with both sides inflicting heavy casualties. Moscow, over the last two weeks, has managed to make steady gains.
- Ukrainian troops defending Sievierodonetsk will “have to be withdrawn”, the regional governor confirmed this morning. “Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense,” Sergey Haidai told Ukrainian television. Ukrainian troops have, however, repelled an attack on the southern outskirts of Lysychansk, according to Haidai.
- No town is safe for residents in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk as fighting intensifies, local officials claim. “There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse, citing the latest intelligence data. “It is extremely dangerous for residents to stay in any places of the region.”
- An official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination when his car exploded as he got into it. Dmitry Savluchenko was head of the families, youth and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration. The Kremlin has described the attack as “nothing but an act of terrorism”.
- European leaders granted Ukraine candidate status late on Thursday, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin. EU leaders meeting in Brussels approved Ukraine’s candidate status nearly four months after the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion. The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, declared it was “a good day for Europe”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said it was historic decision that sent “a strong signal towards Russia in the current geopolitical context”.
- Zelenskiy welcomed the move, saying: “Ukraine’s future is in the EU.” He added: “It’s a victory … we have been waiting for 120 days and 30 years,” referring to the duration of the war and the decades since Ukraine became independent on the breakup of the Soviet Union. “And now we will defeat the enemy.”
- Moscow’s foreign ministry blamed the United States for a Lithuanian ban on sanctioned goods crossing from the Russian mainland to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Lithuania has prevented goods that are banned by EU sanctions from transiting its territory by rail. Russia has threatened repercussions.
- The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said Europe needs to ramp up efforts to cut its dependency from Russian fossil fuel imports.
- The US will send another $450m in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems. The latest package includes four high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and tens of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition as well as patrol boats, Pentagon officials announced on Thursday. With the latest shipments, the US contribution to Ukraine’s military will amount to $6.1bn so far, the White House spokesperson John Kirby said.
- More than 150 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed, according to a Unesco report. The damage includes 70 religious buildings, 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums and seven libraries.
- Ukraine is recording 200 to 300 war crimes committed by Russian forces on its territory every day, the prosecutor general has claimed. “War crimes are our trouble. Every day we have 200 to 300 of them … We have a duty: when there is a crime, we have to start an investigation,” Iryna Venediktova told Ukrainian television.
Updated
Kremlin: occupied Kherson car bomb attack 'nothing but act of terrorism'
The Kremlin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov has responded to the news of that car bomb attack in occupied Kherson which appears to have claimed the life of Dmitry Savluchenko, a member of the Russian-imposed administration there. Peskov is quoted by Tass as saying:
I can only say: our military is there, and, of course, this terrorist activity requires special attention. These are nothing but acts of terrorism. And, accordingly, they can only be treated that way
Car bomb in occupied Kherson kills official from Russian-imposed administration – reports
An official in the Russian-installed administration of Ukraine’s occupied Kherson region was killed in an apparent assassination, the deputy head of the administration has told Reuters.
Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the families, youth, and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration, was killed in a bomb blast.
Russia’s Tass news agency said there were two burnt-out cars in a courtyard of Kherson, the regional capital where the blast took place, and that the windows of one four-storey house had been shattered.
RIA Novosti are reporting that the car was blown up when Savluchenko got into it.
Kherson sits just north-west of the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula and was occupied during the first week of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February.
Savluchenko’s reported death has been hailed by some on social media, who described him as “local traitor”. He had, it is claimed, run pro-Russian youth groups in the region, before being appointed to the new administration. There are some unverified images of the scene of the explosion on social media.
Updated
Olaf Scholz has said Europe needs to ramp up efforts to cut its dependency from Russian fossil fuel imports.
Reuters quotes the German chancellor telling reporters in Brussels: “All together, we are very, very well prepared for the difficult challenge linked to Russian fossil fuel imports. This is an effort that we need to speed up further now – and of course this is linked to big challenges but we will support each other.”
He said the bloc had imposed sanctions on Russian coal and oil at an early stage, and had as well worked on adjusting its infrastructure so that European countries can import gas from other countries, too.
Updated
Moscow’s foreign ministry on Friday blamed the US for a Lithuanian ban on sanctioned goods crossing from the Russian mainland to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Lithuania has prevented goods that are banned by EU sanctions from transiting its territory by rail. Russia has threatened repercussions.
The foreign ministry also said in a statement that it was “impossible” to hold expert level consultations with Washington on a number of bilateral issues that had been due to take place in the near future. Reuters notes it did not specify which issues it was referring to, or when talks were supposed to take place.
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures sent to us this morning from Ukraine over the news wires.
The Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour writes for us this morning:
Speaking at a private dinner in London recently, a senior serving British military officer argued the west had no choice but to see Ukraine as just one phase in a decade-long battle with Russia. “If Ukraine wins, Russia will never accept that. If Russia wins, it will go further,” he warned.
Yet in Whitehall they fear the “F word” – fatigue – and worry that the west with its TikTok-attention span and bias towards instant gratification does not have the resolve for the years-long sacrifice required to defeat Russia, or even stem the military tide in the villages of eastern Ukraine.
That anxiety is shared by Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, who in a speech to marketing professionals in Cannes this week pleaded with them to use their creative ingenuity to keep the world focused on his country’s struggle: “Don’t let the world switch to something else,” he said.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s analysis: Why the west risks condemning Ukraine to slow strangulation
The military channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has posted to Telegram to to say that the Russian Federation has opened up criminal cases against large numbers of commanders of brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces. It then goes on to say:
As a result of the shelling of the cities of Donetsk, Dokuchaevsk, Makeevka, Gorlovka and Svetlodarsk, as well as the settlements of Vladimirovka, Zaitsevo, Yasinovka and Ivanovka of the DPR, two civilians were killed, five civilians were injured, 30 houses and civilian infrastructure were damaged, including a school building
As a result of artillery attacks in the cities of Popasnaya and Stakhanov, a civilian was injured in the LPR [the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic], and the equipment of a water pumping station was damaged.
The messages says that “according to the investigation, in the period from 22 June to 23 June, 2022, [the named] servicemen gave and executed criminal orders for targeted artillery attacks from heavy weapons on civilian infrastructure.”
The claims have not been independently verified.
There are accusations and counter-accusations flying across Telegram this morning. The official Ukrainian account for the occupied city of Mariupol is accusing Russian forces there of building fortifications “under the guise of residential buildings”. It quotes mayor Vadym Boychenko saying:
The occupiers begin to build alleged residential buildings. The works are underway in the north-western part, almost on the outskirts of the city. That is, from the approximate direction of a counter-offensive. There is information from Mariupol residents that the occupiers are immediately digging trenches and deploying equipment behind these new buildings.
At the same time, Rodion Miroshnik, the ambassador to Russia of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic, has claimed of a missile shot down overnight that “based on the flight path and calculated data, the target was the administration of the head of the Luhansk People’s Republic.”
Neither of the sets of claims have been independently verified. Russia is the only UN member state to recognise the Luhansk People’s Republic as a legitimate authority.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has just posted another comment on the decision of the EU to grant Ukraine candidate country status to Telegram. He writes:
It is officially recognized that Ukraine is not a bridge, not a pillow between the West and Russia, not a buffer between Europe and Asia, not a sphere of influence, not a “grey” zone, not a transit territory. Not the border between orcs and elves. Ukraine is a future equal partner for at least 27 EU countries. Ukraine is a candidate for accession to the European Union!
Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has given an interview to state television in Belarus, and the Russian foreign ministry has put out what they regard as the key lines on social media, with Lavrov talking about “cancel culture” again. It quotes Lavrov saying:
The West fears honest competition. Hence, a desire to cancel the culture of any country that stands on its own, nationally-oriented positions.
When at last the Ukrainians have the grace to suggest resuming the diplomatic process, we will see what situation has emerged on the ground.
Ukraine tried to build its sovereignty by cancelling its own history. The West encouraged that approach and that conceptual vision of the Ukrainian state just to harm Russia.
Ukrainian troops will be forced to leave Sievierodonetsk - official
Ukrainian troops defending the key eastern city of Sievierodonetsk will “have to be withdrawn”, the regional governor confirmed this morning.
“Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense,” Sergey Haidai told Ukrainian television.
Haidai earlier released a morning report to Telegram, writing:
Unfortunately, we will have to remove our military from Sievierodonetsk, because staying in broken positions makes no sense - the number of dead is growing.”
The governor added that 90% of homes in Sievierodonetsk had been damaged or destroyed.
Updated
Ukraine repels attack on outskirts of Lysychansk - officials
Ukrainian troops have repelled an attack on the southern outskirts of Lysychansk, according to the region’s governor.
The city of Lysychansk is the last fully Ukrainian-controlled city in the region of Luhansk and has been a target for Russian forces in recent weeks.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, one of two in the eastern Donbas, took to his Telegram account early this morning, saying:
The attack on Lysychansk was repulsed ... the bodies of two victims were found.”
Haidai said Lysychansk and the neighbouring village of Borivske were hit by Russian air strikes overnight resulting in multiples houses being destroyed.
He added that a Russian offensive in the Borivskyi area was also successfully stopped.
Russia had, however, taken control of the village of Mykolaivka, located near a key highway to Lysychansk, which has been the focus of heavy fighting, he added.
Updated
Russian forces trying to encircle troops in Lysychansk
The battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine is edging towards “a fearsome climax” as Russian forces attempt to encircle Ukrainian troops defending Lysychansk, officials say.
Russia’s efforts to capture Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk – the two remaining cities under Ukrainian control in Luhansk – have turned into a bloody war of attrition, with both sides inflicting heavy casualties. Moscow, over the last two weeks, has managed to make steady gains.
“The fighting is entering a sort of fearsome climax”, Oleksiy Arestovych said.
Russian forces are trying to encircle Ukrainian troops defending Lysychansk, senior Ukrainian defence official Oleksiy Gromov said in a briefing on Thursday.
Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, one of two in the eastern Donbas, added that Russian forces had been successful in their advances.
He said that enemy forces had captured Loskutivka, a settlement to the south of Lysychansk, which threatened to isolate Ukrainian troops.
The official also said that all Lysychansk was within reach of Russian fire and that Ukrainian troops there might retreat to new positions to avoid being trapped.
“In order to avoid encirclement, our command could order that the troops retreat to new positions,” Haidai said in a post on Telegram.
The Russian state news agency, Tass, cited Russian-backed separatists saying Lysychansk was surrounded and cut off from supplies after Russia captured a road linking the city to Ukrainian-held territories.
‘Ukraine’s future is in the EU’: Zelenskiy
Zelenskiy immediately welcomed the move to grant Ukraine EU candidate status, calling it “a unique and historic moment” in relations with the 27-nation bloc.
“Ukraine’s future is in the EU,” he tweeted.
“It’s a victory,” he later added on Instagram. “We have been waiting for 120 days and 30 years,” he said, referring to the duration of the war and the decades since Ukraine became independent on the breakup of the Soviet Union. “And now we will defeat the enemy.”
In a televised address shortly after the announcement from Brussels, Zelenskiy said:
I believe this is what will always be the starting point of Europe’s new history. Europe without division. Europe without ‘grey’ zones. Europe that is truly united and that knows how to defend itself, its values, its future.
Today you have adopted one of the most important decisions for Ukraine in all 30 years of independence of our state.
However, I believe this decision is not only for Ukraine. This is the biggest step towards strengthening Europe that could be taken right now, in our time and in such difficult conditions, when the Russian war is testing our ability to preserve freedom and unity.”
EU approves Ukraine for candidacy
European leaders granted Ukraine candidate status late on Thursday, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin.
EU leaders meeting in Brussels approved Ukraine’s candidate status nearly four months after the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion. Moldova was also given candidate status.
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, declared it was “a good day for Europe”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said it was historic decision that sent “a strong signal towards Russia in the current geopolitical context”.
Today is a good day for Europe.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 23, 2022
Congratulations to President @ZelenskyyUA President @Sandumaiamd and Prime Minister @GharibashviliGe
Your countries are part of our European family.
And today’s historic decision by Leaders confirms that. pic.twitter.com/lAkv8Bq5fs
The move from applicant to candidate usually takes years, but the EU has dramatically accelerated the process, amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack, and to show solidarity with Ukraine’s defenders.
“Ukraine is going through hell for a simple reason: its desire to join the EU,” von der Leyen had tweeted on the eve of the summit. The commission last week called on EU leaders to grant Ukraine’s candidate status.
Earlier, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said candidate status would “draw a line under decades of ambiguity and set it in stone: Ukraine is Europe, not part of the ‘Russian world’”.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Vsevolod Chentsov, said earlier this week that the EU had moved at “lightning speed” by its standards.
Summary and welcome
Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you as we continue to report all the latest news from Ukraine.
Here are all the major developments as of 8am in Kyiv.
- The European Union has approved the application of Ukraine to become a candidate country for admission to the 27-strong bloc in a step Kyiv and Brussels hailed as an “historic moment”. EU leaders meeting in Brussels followed the recommendation of the European Commission, which was made on 17 June.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, immediately welcomed the move, saying: “Ukraine’s future is in the EU.” “It’s a victory … we have been waiting for 120 days and 30 years,” he added, referring to the duration of the war and the decades since Ukraine became independent on the breakup of the Soviet Union. “And now we will defeat the enemy.”
- The US will send another $450m in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems. The latest package includes four high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) and tens of thousands of rounds of artillery ammunition as well as patrol boats, Pentagon officials announced on Thursday. With the latest shipments, the US contribution to Ukraine’s military will amount to $6.1bn so far, White House spokesperson, John Kirby, added.
- Russian forces captured two villages in eastern Ukraine and are fighting for control of a key highway in a campaign to cut supply lines and encircle frontline Ukrainian forces, according to British and Ukrainian military officials.
- The battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine is edging towards “a fearsome climax”, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president, has said. Russia is now believed to control all of Sievierodonetsk with the exception of the Azot chemical plant.
- No town is safe for residents in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk as fighting intensifies, local officials claim. “There is no place, no town in Donetsk region where it would be safe,” Pavlo Kyrylenko told Agence France-Presse, citing latest intelligence data. “It is extremely dangerous for residents to stay in any places of the region.”
- The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, said Britain was willing to assist with de-mining operations off Ukraine’s southern coast. Asked if Britain was ready to help Ukraine de-mine the area, Johnson said: “Yes, I don’t want to get into the technical or military details, but you can take it from what we have already done in supplying equipment to the Ukrainians to help themselves protect that we are certainly talking to them at a technical level to help de-mine Odesa.”
- The UK is also offering its expertise to help escort Ukraine’s grain from its ports, the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said. Boris Johnson added Britain was considering offering insurance to ships to move millions of tonnes of grain stuck in the country, telling Reuters: “What the UK possibly has to offer, most of all, is expertise when it comes to maritime insurance, and a lot of expertise in moving goods through should we say contested areas of the sea.”
- More than 150 cultural sites in Ukraine have been partially or totally destroyed, according to a Unesco report. The damage includes 70 religious buildings, 30 historical buildings, 18 cultural centres, 15 monuments, 12 museums and seven libraries.
- Ukraine is recording 200 to 300 war crimes committed by Russian forces on its territory every day, the prosecutor general has claimed. “War crimes are our trouble. Every day we have 200 to 300 of them … We have a duty: when there is a crime, we have to start an investigation,” Iryna Venediktova told Ukrainian television.
- Ukraine has held a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian soldier charged with raping a Ukrainian woman during Moscow’s invasion – the first of what could be dozens of such cases. The suspect, Mikhail Romanov, 32, who will be tried in absentia, is accused of breaking into a house in March in a village in the Brovarsky region outside Kyiv, murdering a man and then repeatedly raping his wife while threatening her and her child.
- The Russian navy has been given orders to lay mines at the ports of Odesa and Ochakiv, and has already mined the Dnieper River, as part of a blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, according to newly declassified US intelligence.
- The US embassy in Russia has been pressing the Kremlin this week to reveal the whereabouts of two Alabama men captured in Ukraine, according to the mother of one of the taken Americans. Lois “Bunny” Drueke also said that her son, Alexander Drueke, and the other captured US military veteran, Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, were not mercenaries but volunteers, pushing back on statements from a Kremlin spokesperson who said the American pair were facing execution.
Updated
