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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Samantha Lock (now); Vivian Ho, Léonie Chao-Fongand Martin Belam (earlier)

Russia gathering its forces to storm settlements near Sievierodonetsk, says Ukraine – as it happened

Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenksyy NATO
Smoke and flame rise after a military strike on a compound of Sievierodonetsk's Azot chemical plant.
Smoke and flame rise after a military strike on a compound of Sievierodonetsk's Azot chemical plant. Photograph: Reuters

Summary

Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

It is currently 3am in the capital Kyiv. We will be pausing our live reporting overnight and returning in the morning.

In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the days’ events in our summary below.

  • Russian officials have accused Ukraine of launching missile strikes against three gas rigs in the Black Sea south of Odesa, in an apparent escalation of Kyiv’s attempts to weaken Russia’s maritime dominance. Seven people were reported missing and three injured after the strikes on Monday, according to the head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov.
  • Turkey said it does not consider next week’s Nato summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance. Turkish presidential spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, reported no breakthrough in talks in Brussels but said discussions between Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki will continue.
  • Americans captured in Ukraine have been described by Moscow as “mercenaries” engaged in illegal activities and should take responsibility for their “crimes”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the detained men were not covered by the Geneva convention as they were not regular troops, according to Russia’s RIA news agency.
  • The United States is in talks with Canada and other allies to further restrict Moscow’s energy revenue by imposing a price cap on Russian oil, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on Monday. “We are talking about price caps or a price exception … that would push down the price of Russian oil and depress Putin’s revenues, while allowing more oil supply to reach the global market,” she said.
  • The former director of the British special forces said the UK must “prepare for war” as a deterrent against Russia. The comment by Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw came after the new head of the British army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, told troops they must prepare “to fight in Europe once again”.
  • Putin fears the “spark of democracy” spreading to Russia, according to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz who said the Russian president was trying to divide Europe and return to a world dominated by spheres of influence. “The Russian President must accept that there is a community of law-based democracies in his neighbourhood that is growing ever closer together. He clearly fears the spark of democracy spreading to his country,” Scholz told the Muenchner Merkur newspaper.
  • The upcoming decision whether to grant Ukraine candidacy for membership to the EU is making Russia “very nervous”, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his latest nightly address on Monday night. “We are moving towards the main decision of the European Council, which will be adopted on Friday. As I predicted, Russia is very nervous about our activity.”

Here is a quick snap from another Russian official responding to Lithuania’s ban on the transit of goods to the Russian outpost of Kaliningrad.

Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the delegation of the Russian Federation and permanent representative of Russia to the international organisations in Vienna, has spoken of “countermeasures” if the transit of goods is not restored.

Russia stated that if the transit of goods to and from Kaliningrad through Lithuania is not restored in the near future Moscow reserves the right to take countermeasures.

Very mild reaction at this stage despite the fact that Vilnius violated 2002 EU-Russia agreement.”

The United States is in talks with Canada and other allies to further restrict Moscow’s energy revenue by imposing a price cap on Russian oil, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Monday.

Speaking to reporters in Toronto alongside Canadian finance minister Chrystia Freeland, Yellen said:

We are talking about price caps or a price exception that would enhance and strengthen recent and proposed energy restrictions by Europe, the United States, the UK and others, that would push down the price of Russian oil and depress Putin’s revenues, while allowing more oil supply to reach the global market.

We think a price exception is also an important way to prevent spillover effects to low income and developing countries that are struggling with high costs food and energy.”

Yellen said a price exception is an effective cap that could be achieved through a mechanism to restrict or ban insurance or financing for Russian oil shipments above a certain amount.

The United States, Canada, Britain and some other countries have banned imports of Russian oil, but the European Union remains highly dependent on Russian crude.

Asked if US President Joe Biden planned to seek consensus on an oil price plan at the G7 leaders summit in Germany next week, Yellen said: “We are very active, actively working on this with our partners.”

Freeland said Canada “thinks it is a really good idea” to try to limit Russia’s oil revenues, but recognises that this will be challenging for European countries.

The Americans captured in Ukraine have been described by Moscow as “mercenaries” engaged in illegal activities and should take responsibility for their “crimes”, reports say.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the detained men were not covered by the Geneva convention as they were not regular troops, adding that they had shot at at Russian servicemen and put their lives in danger, according to a report from Russia’s RIA news agency.

Putin fears the “spark of democracy” spreading to Russia, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told local media, adding that he was trying to divide Europe and return to a world dominated by spheres of influence.

Scholz was responding to a question in an interview with the Muenchner Merkur newspaper, published on the government website on Monday, on whether Putin would accept Ukraine moving closer to the European Union.

The Russian President must accept that there is a community of law-based democracies in his neighbourhood that is growing ever closer together.

He clearly fears the spark of democracy spreading to his country.”

The Russian foreign ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected the comments, responding: “German sparks have spread onto us a couple of times. We will not allow any more fires.”

The upcoming decision whether to grant Ukraine candidacy for membership to the EU is making Russia “very nervous”, Ukraine’s president says.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy made the comments in his latest nightly address on Monday night.

The next days of the week will also be busy. We are moving towards the main decision of the European Council, which will be adopted on Friday.

As I predicted, Russia is very nervous about our activity.”

Providing an update on the battlefield, Zelenskiy said Russian shelling of Kharkiv and Odesa continue, as do attempts of “brutal offensive actions” in Donbas.

Ukraine continues to defend the twin eastern cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, he added.

“This whole region is the most difficult, there are the hardest battles.”

A Moscow court has rejected an appeal brought by Meta Platforms Inc, the parent company of Facebook, after it was found guilty of “extremist activity” in Russia in March, the Russian state media agency Tass reports.

Russia restricted access to Meta’s flagship platforms Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter, in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Lawyer Victoria Shakina in March told a court that Meta was not carrying out extremist activity and was against Russophobia.

Russia initially banned Facebook for restricting access to Russian media while Instagram was then targeted after Meta said it would allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages urging violence against Russian President Vladimir Putin and troops Moscow sent there.

Meta subsequently narrowed its guidance to prohibit calls for the death of a head of state and said its guidance should never be interpreted as condoning violence against Russians in general.

A lawyer representing Meta on Monday told the court that refusing to block access to content and labelling state-controlled media were not activities that qualified as extremist, according to a Kommersant reporter in the courtroom and as reported by Reuters.

The ruling caused some confusion in March because Meta’s WhatsApp service remained available and prosecutors said that individuals would not be charged simply for using Meta’s services, which are still accessible through virtual private networks (VPNs).

Today so far

It is 1:06am in Ukraine.

  • The Kremlin officially acknowledged today for the first time that Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two missing Americans volunteering to defend Ukraine against Russian invaders, were being held and were under investigation. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov called them “soldiers of fortune” for whom the Geneva convention does not apply.
  • The Kremlin also denied that US basketball star Brittney Griner was being held in Russia for any reason other than allegedly possessing hashish oil. “We cannot call her a hostage. Why should we call her a hostage?” Peskov said. “She violated Russian law and now she is being prosecuted. It not about being a hostage.”
  • Her wife, Cherelle Griner, said the US state department botched the one opportunity for the couple to hear each other’s voices for the first time in four months when the embassy in Moscow forgot to staff someone over the weekend to patch the call through to the US – despite the call having been scheduled for over two weeks. “I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now,” Cherelle Griner said. “If I can’t trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife’s behalf to come home? Because that’s a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call.”
  • Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, said more than 1.2m Ukrainian citizens have been forcibly deported to Russian territory since the start of the invasion.
  • European Union leaders will decide next week whether to grant Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia EU candidate status. Today, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, recommended candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova.

Updated

Reuters is reporting that the Russian foreign ministry will summon the European Union ambassador to Moscow, Markus Ederer, over the ban of the transit of goods by Lithuania through Kaliningrad.

Lithuania banned the transit of goods under EU sanctions through Lithuanian territory to and from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.

Anton Alikhanov, Kaliningrad’s governor, appeared on Russian television on Monday to discuss the situation.

“This is, of course, a situation that can be resolved by diplomatic means,” Alikhanov said. “As far as I know, tomorrow Marcus Ederer, the European Union ambassador to Russia, will be summoned to the foreign ministry … and he will be told of the appropriate conditions involved here.”

There was no immediate official confirmation from the Russian foreign ministry about the summons.

Updated

Brittney Griner, the US basketball star who has been detained since February in Russia, tried to call her wife nearly a dozen times through the American embassy in Russia on the couple’s fourth anniversary on Saturday, but they never connected since the phone line at the embassy was not staffed, the Associated Press is reporting.

The couple has not spoken by phone in the four months since Griner was arrested after Russian officials said they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in luggage. Saturday’s phone call was going to be the first time the couple could hear each other’s voices again in months.

“This was such a big moment because this would have been the first time where I truly could tell if she’s okay,” Cherelle Griner told the Associated Press. “This would have been the first time for me to actually just hear her in real time and to truly know if she’s okay or to know if she’s seconds away from not being in existence anymore.”

The call never happened. Today Cherelle Griner learned from her wife’s lawyers that her wife had actually tried to call 11 times over a period of several hours, dialling a number she’d been given at the US embassy in Moscow, which the couple had been told would then patch the call through to Cherelle Griner in Phoenix.

But each time, the call went unanswered because apparently nobody worked the desk at the embassy where the phone rang on Saturdays - even though this call had been scheduled for two weeks in advance. Cherelle Griner spent the day anguished, wondering what went wrong and suspecting at least initially that Russian authorities had thwarted the call.

“I was distraught. I was hurt. I was done, fed up,” Cherelle Griner said. She had gone to bed at 5pm that day so she could be awake and alert at midnight for the anticipated call.

The US state department said Monday that it was aware of the issue and was looking into it. Cherelle Griner said she had received an apology for the error, but the whole experience has left her with “zero trust” in the US government.

“I find it unacceptable and I have zero trust in our government right now,” she said. “If I can’t trust you to catch a Saturday call outside of business hours, how can I trust you to actually be negotiating on my wife’s behalf to come home? Because that’s a much bigger ask than to catch a Saturday call.”

In that same interview with MSNBC, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke about US basketball star Brittney Griner, who has been in custody in Russia for months.

Griner had arrived in Russia in February to promote basketball in the country. Russian officials said they found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in Griner’s luggage, but her wife, Cherelle Griner, has said she is being held as a political pawn.

“Russia is not the sole country in the world to have quite strict laws in that sense...it is prosecuted by law. We can do nothing about that,” Peskov told MSNBC.

He “strongly disagreed” with any notion that Griner was being held hostage.

“We cannot call her a hostage. Why should we call her a hostage?” he said. “She violated Russian law and now she is being prosecuted. It not about being a hostage.”

Updated

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told MSNBC that Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two missing Americans volunteering to defend Ukraine against Russian invaders, were “soldiers of fortune” who were involved in “illegal activities”. It was the Kremlin’s first formal acknowledgement that the two US military veterans were being held and were under investigation.

“They are soldiers of fortune. They were involved in illegal activities on the territory of Ukraine. They were involved in firing at and shelling of our military personnel. They were endangering their lives,” Peskov said. “They should be held responsible for those crimes that they have committed. Those crimes have to be investigated.”

When pressed about what those crimes were, Peskov stood firm that Drueke and Huynh were not members of the Ukrainian army and therefore “not subject to the Geneva convention”.

“The Geneva convention cannot be applied for soldiers of fortune,” he said.

Updated

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, held a briefing today in which she urged residents to leave the occupied Kherson oblast ahead of the counteroffensive and spoke of how more than half – 165 out of 350 – of the humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians have failed to open due to violations by Russia.

She touched on an especially chilling piece of data: since the start of the Russian invasion, Russia has deported 1.2m Ukrainian citizens to Russian territory. Of those 1.2m people, 240,000 were children.

More than 1,500 are being held in Russian prisons, Vereshchuk said.

Updated

An update on casualties:

Charles Michel recommends EU candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova

Charles Michel, president of the European Council, is calling for the European Union to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.

As expected, Michel stopped short of recommending candidate status for Georgia, another former Soviet state seeking acceptance into the EU.

Next week, EU leaders will decide whether to grant these three states EU candidate status, although full membership will likely take years.

“I believe it’s time to recognise the European perspective of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia,” Michel said in a video address posted to Twitter. “The future of these countries and their people lies within the EU. More specifically, my intention is that we decide to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova.”

Joining the EU could take years, but receiving candidate status alone would be a historic step for Ukraine, where reformers have been seeking democratic change since the Maidan protests of 2014, events that were the prelude to Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, had previously stated that Ukraine had made major strides in the past eight years, including creating a market economy and an independent judiciary and tackling corruption. However, she said, more needed to be done to allow Ukraine to progress in membership talks.

Updated

Actor and director Ben Stiller, a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Goodwill Ambassador, was in Ukraine today - World Refugee Day - to discuss the needs of Ukrainian refugees.

At least 7.7m people have fled Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on 24 February, according to UNHCR.

Kharkiv was struck hard over the past 24 hours by Russian missiles. According to Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, nine civilians were injured, including three children.

Here’s a look at the damages:

A man stands in the crater left by a Russian rocket near the Kharkiv State Zooveterinary Academy in Mala Danylivka village, Kharkiv Region, northeastern Ukraine.
A man stands in the crater left by a Russian rocket near the Kharkiv State Zooveterinary Academy in Mala Danylivka village, Kharkiv Region, northeastern Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/Shutterstock
Workers of the Liubotinsky Lyceum of Railway Transport and local residents dismantle the ruins of an administrative building, as result of the explosion of a Russian rocket, in Lyubotyn, Kharkiv region, on June 20, 2022.
Workers of the Liubotinsky Lyceum of Railway Transport and local residents dismantle the ruins of an administrative building, as result of the explosion of a Russian rocket, in Lyubotyn, Kharkiv region, on June 20, 2022. Photograph: Sergey Bobok/AFP/Getty Images
Damaged building of the Kharkiv State Veterinary Academy is seen after the Russian army’s bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 20, 2022.
Damaged building of the Kharkiv State Veterinary Academy is seen after the Russian army’s bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 20, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
An aerial view of an explosion crater produced by the Russian army’s bombardment at the territory of the Kharkov State Animal Veterinary Academy as Russian attacks continue on Ukraine in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 20, 2022.
An aerial view of an explosion crater produced by the Russian army’s bombardment at the territory of the Kharkov State Animal Veterinary Academy as Russian attacks continue on Ukraine in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 20, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Kremlin: Americans captured in Ukraine should bear responsibility 'for crimes'

The Kremlin on Monday said any Americans captured in Ukraine were “mercenaries” who should take responsibility for their “crimes”, Reuters is reporting.

As of today, the US state department was investigating the possible capture of Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two missing Americans volunteering to defend Ukraine against Russian invaders. Last week, a photograph surfaced showing the two veterans in the back of a military truck with their hands tied behind them.

The RIA news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that the detained men were not covered by the Geneva convention, as they were not regular troops.

Last week, the family of the former Marine Corps officer Grady Kurpasi disclosed that he had been missing in the Kherson area since late April. It is unclear if the state department is investigating whether Kurpasi was captured as well.

So far in the conflict, one US citizen has been killed fighting as a volunteer.

Summary

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

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Africa was a “hostage” of Russia’s “colonial” war in his country which has led to global food shortages and famine fears across the African continent. Ukraine was engaged in “complex negotiations” to unblock the grain trapped at its Black Sea ports by Russia’s naval blockade, Zelenskiy said in an address to the African Union.

  • The pro-Russian Crimean leader, Sergey Aksyonov, has accused Ukraine of launching a missile strike on drilling platforms off the coast of the peninsula. Three people were injured and a search is underway for seven other workers after the attack on the drilling platforms of Chernomorneftegaz, Aksyonov said. It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.
  • The former director of the British special forces said the UK must “prepare for war” as a deterrent against Russia. The comment by Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw came after the new head of the British army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, told troops they must prepare “to fight in Europe once again”.
  • Turkey said it does not consider next week’s Nato summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance. Turkish presidential spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, reported no breakthrough in talks in Brussels but said discussions between Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki will continue.
  • The editor of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is auctioning his Nobel peace prize medal, with the proceeds to go to helping children displaced by the war in Ukraine. Dmitry Muratov, whose 23-carat gold medal will go on sale in New York on Monday, said the sale was “an act of solidarity” with the 14 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, which he called “a tragedy”.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today. I’ll be back tomorrow. Vivian Ho will be here shortly to continue to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Thank you.

Turkey said it does not consider next week’s Nato summit as a final deadline for resolving its objections to Finland and Sweden joining the military alliance.

Finland and Sweden formally submitted their Nato membership bids last month but have faced opposition from Turkey, which has accused Helsinki and Stockholm of supporting Kurdish militants.

Turkish presidential spokesperson, Ibrahim Kalin, said discussions between Ankara, Stockholm and Helsinki will continue following a round of talks in Brussels on the issue.

Nato leaders had hoped the Brussels talks would pave the way for the Nordic states’ formal approval to join the bloc at the Madrid summit. However, Kalin reported no breakthrough at the talks.

Kalin told reporters:

The Madrid Nato summit is not the deadline, so our negotiations will continue.

The existence of terrorist organisations must end in those countries. That is what we expect both from Finland and Sweden.

He said Ankara was expecting Sweden, especially, to take immediate steps regarding actions by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group in its country.

Any progress on the Nordic membership bids “now depends on the direction and speed at which these countries will take steps”, Kalin added.

Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, described the meeting as “constructive” while conceding that Turkey’s “legitimate” concerns had still not been fully addressed.

Stoltenberg said:

Turkey has legitimate security concerns over terrorism that we need to address. So we will continue our talks on Finland and Sweden’s applications for Nato membership, and I look forward to finding a way forward as soon as possible.

Russia 'orders troops to reach Luhansk borders by Sunday', says Ukraine

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said Russia has gathered almost all of its forces to storm the settlements near the embattled eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.

“Decisive” battles are taking place in the area of Sievierodonetsk with the Russian leadership aiming to reach the borders of the Luhansk region by the end of the week, Maliar was quoted by the Ukrainian News Agency as saying.

Maliar told reporters:

The Russian army has thrown virtually all its forces and means in order to storm the settlements around. They seek to break through the defences of our troops and are trying to encircle the grouping of our troops, which is carrying out the defence of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk.

Ukrainian troops are doing “everything possible” to hold its territory in order to prevent encirclement, she said, adding:

But we must understand that the enemy has an advantage in armament, so the situation is extremely difficult now, and at night and today, there is a maximum intensity of these decisive battles.

Updated

Africa is ‘hostage’ of Russia’s war in Ukraine, says Zelenskiy

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Africa was a “hostage” of Russia’s “colonial” war in his country which has led to global food shortages and famine fears across the African continent.

Ukraine was engaged in “complex negotiations” to unblock the grain trapped at its Black Sea ports by Russia’s naval blockade, Zelenskiy said in an address to the African Union, AFP reports.

Zelenskiy said:

This war may seem very distant to you and your countries. But the food prices that are catastrophically rising have already brought (the war) to the homes of millions of African families.

The unjust level of food prices, which has been provoked by the Russian war, is being painfully felt on all continents. Unfortunately, this can be a particular problem for your countries.

Zelenskiy said although Ukraine was trying everything to free up its ports, he admitted there has been “no progress yet because no real tool has yet been found to ensure Russia does not attack them again”.

He added:

That is why the food crisis in the world will continue as long as this colonial war continues.

President Joe Biden has said he is “not likely” to visit Ukraine when he travels to Europe this weekend.

Asked whether he was still planning to visit Ukraine, Biden told reporters: “That depends.” He added that he didn’t want to “cause more difficulty for Ukrainians”.

Asked if he was expected to travel to Ukraine while in Germany and Spain for the G7 and Nato summits, Biden responded:

On this trip, not likely.

Updated

An elderly woman evacuated from the war-hit area sits inside an evacuation train waiting for departure while a soldier passes by her in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine.
An elderly woman evacuated from the war-hit area sits inside an evacuation train waiting for departure while a soldier passes by her in Pokrovsk, eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

A food warehouse in Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa was destroyed by a Russian missile attack today, according to the Ukrainian military.

The military said Russian forces fired 14 missiles at southern Ukraine during a three-hour barrage “in impotent anger at the successes of our troops”, Reuters reports.

No civilians were killed, it said.

Today so far...

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

  • The pro-Russian Crimean leader, Sergey Aksyonov, has accused Ukraine of launching a missile strike on drilling platforms off the coast of the peninsula. Three people were injured and a search is underway for seven other workers after the attack on the drilling platforms of Chernomorneftegaz, Aksyonov said. It has not been possible to independently verify his claims.
  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he expected Russia would intensify attacks on Ukraine and possibly other European countries after the uropean Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” he said in a nightly video address. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries.”
  • Ukraine’s forces remain on the defensive in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting continues in Sievierodonestsk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russia was massing forces in an attempt to take full control of the city after weeks of fighting, adding: “All Russian claims that they control the town are a lie”. He told Ukrainian television: “They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town.”
  • The former director of the British special forces said the UK must “prepare for war” as a deterrent against Russia. The comment by Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw came after the new head of the British army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, told troops they must prepare “to fight in Europe once again”.
  • Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow should wait until Americans “crawl back” and beg to hold nuclear arms reduction talks. Medvedev, who served as president from 2008-to 2012, said Russia-US relations “are at zero on the Kelvin scale” and that there was no point in having any nuclear arms reduction talks.
  • A senior Ukrainian official has said wheat farmers in Russian-occupied territory are being paid less than half what they were paid before the war – and in Russian roubles. The claim, by the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, comes amid fears that some crops will not be planted for next year’s harvest because it is uneconomical.
  • The editor of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is auctioning his Nobel peace prize medal, with the proceeds to go to helping children displaced by the war in Ukraine. Dmitry Muratov, whose 23-carat gold medal will go on sale in New York on Monday, said the sale was “an act of solidarity” with the 14 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, which he called “a tragedy”.

Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still with you with all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. I’m on Twitter or you can email me.

Updated

Russian emails appear to show ‘network’ holding $4.5bn assets linked to Putin

Palaces, yachts and vineyards reportedly provided to Vladimir Putin by friends and oligarchs can now be linked to what appears to be an informal network holding assets worth more than $4.5bn (£3.7bn), Daniel Boffey, Olesya Shmagun and Miranda Patrucic report.

A digital paper trail appears to suggest that an array of holiday homes and other assets reportedly used by the Russian president, which according to available records belong to or have been owned by separate individuals, companies and charities, are linked through a common email domain name, LLCInvest.ru.

A snapshot of leaked email exchanges from last September further suggests directors and administrators associated with some of the separate entities that hold and manage these assets have discussed day-to-day business problems as if they were part of a single organisation.

An anti-corruption expert in Russia, who requested anonymity given the political situation in Moscow, said the findings raised questions as to whether there was a level of “common management”.

“LLCInvest looks most of all like a cooperative, or an association, in which its members can exchange benefits and property,” they suggested.

For nearly two decades, Putin has been accused of secretly accumulating vast wealth through proxies, fuelled by a series of disclosures in leaks such as the Pandora papers about the fortunes of those closest to him.

Alexei Navalny has claimed this £1bn palace was built for Putin’s personal use in Gelendzhik on the Black Sea.
Alexei Navalny has claimed this £1bn palace was built for Putin’s personal use in Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. Photograph: AP

Sergey Kolesnikov, a businessman, claimed 10 years ago that he had been behind a scheme that allowed a group of Russia’s top oligarchs to pool billions of roubles into a type of “investment fund” for the benefit of Putin, who was then serving as prime minister. The claims were denied and Kolesnikov fled from Russia.

Last month the UK government contrasted Putin’s “lavish lifestyle” with official Russian records that listed “modest assets” including a small flat in St Petersburg, two Soviet-era cars from the 1950s, a trailer and a small garage.

Read the full story: Russian emails appear to show ‘network’ holding $4.5bn assets linked to Putin

Updated

Former Russian president and now deputy chair of the Russian security council, Dmitry Medvedev, said Moscow should wait until Americans “crawl back” and beg to hold nuclear arms reduction talks.

While president from 2008-to 2012, Medvedev signed a new arms reduction treaty with Barack Obama that was extended for five years until 2026.

Russian security council deputy chair and the head of the United Russia party, Dmitry Medvedev.
Russian security council deputy chair and the head of the United Russia party, Dmitry Medvedev. Photograph: Yekaterina Shtukina/AP

Writing on Telegram, he said there was no point in having any nuclear arms reduction talks with the US. Medvedev said:

Now everything is a dead zone. We don’t have any relations with the United States now. They are at zero on the Kelvin scale.

He said there was “no need” to negotiate with the US on nuclear disarmament, adding:

Let them run or crawl back themselves and ask for it.

Updated

Further to that dispute over the transit of Russian goods through Lithuania to the Kaliningrad, an exclave of Russia [see 13.18], Lithuania’s foreign ministry has issued a statement. It writes that during the meeting with Russia’s chargé d’affaires Sergei Riabokon:

A note was issued to a Russian diplomat explaining the application of European Union (EU) restrictive measures to certain categories of goods in transit through Kaliningrad. During the meeting, the information disseminated by Russian representatives that Lithuania has banned transit through the Kaliningrad region was denied.

The transportation of passengers and goods not subject to the EU sanctions regime to and from the Kaliningrad region continues through the territory of Lithuania. Lithuania has not imposed any unilateral, individual or additional restrictions on this transit. Lithuania is consistently implementing EU sanctions, which have different transition periods and deadlines.

Updated

Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the newswires of the consequences of the war within Ukraine and beyond.

Smoke rises over the city following recent shelling in Donetsk.
Smoke rises over the city following recent shelling in Donetsk. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
The result of shelling on the Saltiv streetcar depot in Kharkiv.
The result of shelling on the Saltiv streetcar depot in Kharkiv. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/Shutterstock
A woman walks in front of a theatre building in central Moscow adorned with the letter Z formed by Russia’s patriotic black and orange Saint George’s ribbon.
A woman walks in front of a theatre building in central Moscow adorned with the letter Z formed by Russia’s patriotic black and orange Saint George’s ribbon. Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
A Ukrainian child paints on paper at a refugee camp’s school in Dnipro.
A Ukrainian child paints on paper at a refugee camp’s school in Dnipro. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Hungary has offered its territory as a possible route for Ukrainian grain exports due to disruption of usual routes via the Black Sea caused by Russia’s invasion, Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó has said.

Reuters reports that Szijjártó, who made the proposal at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, also said he expected no disruption in Russian gas supplies to Hungary.

Updated

Explosions have been reported in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa, a spokesperson for the regional administration said.

The explosions were heard after air raid sirens blared. No official information has been published yet.

From the Kyiv Independent:

A senior Ukrainian official has said that wheat farmers in Russian-occupied territory are being paid less than half what they were paid before the war – and in Russian roubles – raising fears that some crops will not be planted for next year’s harvest because it is uneconomical.

The claim, by Luhansk governor, Serhiy Haidai, came amid mounting concern over global wheat shortages because of the Russian war on Ukraine, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell calling Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain shipments “a real war crime”.

According to Haidai, Russian occupation authorities are offering farmers 8,000 roubles per ton of grain for the future sowing season, and Ukraine paid twice as much – 8.6 thousand UAH at current exchange rates.

Haidai said:

In fact, producers will be paid only 30% of the cost of grain. Specialists understand that it is impossible to carry out a sowing campaign for the 2023 harvest with these funds.

Pre-war, Ukraine was the world’s fifth-largest exporter of wheat globally and the absence of Ukrainian wheat from the market has pushed up prices around the world.

The latest issue threatening global grain supplies comes as Berlin plans to host a food security conference on Friday with US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, among those attending.

The gathering on Friday under the title “Uniting for Global Food Security” will address looming shortages caused by the war, the spokesman told a press conference in Berlin.

The German government spokesperson said:

The government is particularly committed in its presidency of the G7 to finding joint answers to the looming global hunger crisis triggered by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock tweeted that the conference would aim to “stabilise food supplies worldwide”.

The west has demanded Moscow stop blockading Ukraine’s Black Sea ports to allow vast stores of grain to be taken to world markets as fears rise of famines in vulnerable regions.

Moscow has denied responsibility for the food crisis and blames western sanctions for the disrupted deliveries that have pushed up cereal prices and fanned fears of famines in vulnerable regions.

Updated

Russia accuses Lithuania over transit of goods to Kaliningrad

Russia has demanded that Lithuania immediately lift a ban on the transit of some goods to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

Russia’s foreign ministry summoned Lithuania’s top envoy in Moscow to warn that unless the transit was swiftly restored, Russia would respond to protect its interests.

Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, described the situation as “more than serious”, telling reporters:

This decision is really unprecedented. It’s a violation of everything.

Lithuanian authorities have banned the transit of goods on an EU sanctions list across its territory, which includes the only rail route between mainland Russia and the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea. Banned goods include coal, metals, construction materials and advanced technology.

Kaliningrad’s governor has estimated that the ban could affect up to half of all goods that are brought to the region by rail.

Russia’s foreign ministry demanded Vilnius reverse what it cast as an “openly hostile” move immediately. It said:

If cargo transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the Russian Federation via Lithuania is not fully restored in the near future, then Russia reserves the right to take actions to protect its national interests.

Lithuania said it was merely implementing EU sanctions. Its foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, told reporters:

It’s not Lithuania doing anything: it’s European sanctions that started working from 17 of June.

Updated

The Guardian journalist Luke Harding chronicles the defining moments in Vladimir Putin’s early presidency that helped turn Russia into a “mafia state” – from the clampdown on the independent media, to shocking assassinations and the emergence of pro-western democratic movements in neighbouring Georgia and Ukraine.

Updated

The editor of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is auctioning his Nobel peace prize medal, with the proceeds to go to helping children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

Dmitry Muratov led one of the last major independent media outlets critical of Vladimir Putin’s government after others either shut or had their websites blocked following the invasion of Ukraine. In March, it announced it was suspending operations for the duration of the war after it became a crime to report anything on the conflict that veered from the government line.

Muratov was awarded the Nobel peace prize medal last October. He later announced he would donate the $500,000 prize money to charity “to give the children refugees a chance for a future”. On Monday, to coincide with World Refugee Day, his 23-karat gold Nobel medal will go on sale in New York. All proceeds will go to Unicef, to help children who are refugees from Ukraine.

Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov.
Russian investigative newspaper Novaya Gazeta’s editor-in-chief Dmitry Muratov. Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

In a video released by Heritage Auctions, which is handling the sale, Muratov said it had to become “a beginning of a flash mob as an example to follow so people auction their valuable possessions to help Ukrainians”.

In an interview last month, Muratov said the sale was “an act of solidarity” with the 14 million Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion, which he called “a tragedy”.

“If we look at the number of refugees, we basically have world war three, not a local conflict,” he said. “This has been a mistake, and we need to end it.”

Novaya Gazeta was established in 1993 after the break-up of the Soviet Union and investigated corruption inside and outside Russia, as well as the long wars in Chechnya. Muratov dedicated his award to the memory of six of his paper’s journalists who were murdered for their work.

Updated

Ukrainian missile strike hits oil rigs off Crimea, says pro-Russian official

The pro-Russian Crimean leader, Sergei Aksyonov, has accused Ukraine of launching a missile strike on drilling platforms off the coast of the peninsula.

Three people were injured and a search is underway for seven other workers after the attack on the drilling platforms of Chernomorneftegaz, Aksyonov said in a post on Telegram.

Aksyonov said:

I am in contact with our colleagues from the defence ministry and the FSB (security agency), we are working on saving people.

He did not specify which platforms had been hit, but the oil and gas company operates several gas and oil fields in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

It has not been possible to independently verify these claims.

Updated

Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, is to be banned from Parliament’s estate in Westminster “until further notice” according to a message sent out by the Commons Speaker and the Lord Speaker this morning.

The ban, which also applies to all other accredited Russian diplomats and officials in the UK, has been operating informally since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, but has now been confirmed in writing for the first time.

The note to parliamentarians from Sir Lindsay Hoyle and Lord McFall reads:

As the formally accredited representative of the Russian government, the ambassador will not be welcomed onto the parliamentary estate until further notice.

The email was accompanied by a Foreign Office guidance note for the 265 MPs and 154 peers recently banned by Moscow from entering Russia. It said:

We anticipate that if a sanctioned individual applied for a Russian visa it would be refused, and if they arrived at the border they would be prevented from entering Russia and deported at the earliest opportunity.

Travel is also not advised to areas under Russian “control or influence” including Belarus, Transnistria in Moldova, Crimea, along the Armenia/Azerbaijan border and the occupied Donbas region of Ukraine, the note added.

Updated

US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, is due to meet with Canada’s finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, in Toronto today where they will discuss the war in Ukraine and joint efforts to deal with the food and fuel price inflation it is causing.

The two finance ministers will discuss sanctions and other joint efforts to increase economic pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, the US treasury said in a statement.

The statement continued:

They’ll also discuss joint efforts to mitigate the global consequences being felt because of Russia’s aggression, including the need to boost production of fossil fuels in the short term to address high gas and energy costs, and reiterate the importance of adopting clean energy technologies that break our dependence over the medium-term.

Russian ballistic missile hit the Saltiv streetcar depot as a result of another shelling of Kharkiv, northern Ukraine.
Russian ballistic missile hit the Saltiv streetcar depot as a result of another shelling of Kharkiv, northern Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/Shutterstock
Russian ballistic missile hit the Saltiv streetcar depot in Kharkiv, northern Ukraine.
Russian ballistic missile hit the Saltiv streetcar depot in Kharkiv, northern Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/Shutterstock

The former director of the British special forces said the UK must “prepare for war” as a deterrent against Russia.

The comment by Gen Sir Adrian Bradshaw came after the new head of the British army, Gen Sir Patrick Sanders, told troops they must prepare “to fight in Europe once again”.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Sir Adrian said:

Yeah, he is absolutely right. The point is that, by preparing for war properly, by building really solid deterrence, we will stop war happening.

Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has shown “he is prepared to take the risk of indulging in open warfare in Europe”, Sir Adrian said, adding:

He’s doing that in Ukraine, with terrible, terrible consequences.

What we must absolutely ensure is that he doesn’t see an avenue, an opportunity to launch something against Nato to his advantage.We must not give him that opening, and what General Saunders is saying is something that’s been said by military commanders for a thousand years - if you want peace, prepare for war.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Today so far …

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he expected Russia will intensify attacks on Ukraine and possibly other European countries after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” he said in a nightly video address. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”
  • Ukraine’s forces remain on the defensive in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting continues in Sievierodonestsk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russia was massing forces in an attempt to take full control of the city after weeks of fighting but maintained that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie”. “They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town,” he told Ukrainian television.
  • Russia’s blockade of the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain is a war crime, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said. “We call on Russia to deblockade the ports … It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger,” he told the media as he arrived at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
  • Germany says it supports Poland and Romania in adapting their railways to enable the export of millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to a Russian sea blockade. European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free the millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine at today’s meeting
  • Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the security council of Russia and long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has posted to Telegram to advise against nuclear negotiations with the US, saying that the relationship between the two countries is at “zero Kelvin”.
  • The UK ministry of defence has said in its latest intelligence report that “In the conflict to date, Russia’s air force has underperformed. Its failure to consistently deliver air power is likely one of the most important factors behind Russia’s very limited campaign success.”
  • Russia has become China’s top oil supplier amid Ukraine war sanctions. China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared by 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
  • The war in Ukraine could last for years and will require long-term military support, according to Nato and other western leaders. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild on Sunday. British prime minister, Boris Johnson, added: “I am afraid that we need to steel ourselves for a long war.”
  • Ukraine’s parliament voted through two laws on Sunday which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music. Proposed laws will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens, banning the commercial import of books printed in Russia and prohibiting the playing of music by post-1991 Russian citizens on media and on public transport in the latest attempt to break cultural ties between the two countries.
  • A German government source has said that the country is “very confident” Nato will successfully reach an agreement with Sweden and Finland over their bid for membership, although possibly not in time for the Madrid summit at the end of June.
  • Australia has sent the first four of 14 armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as part of a $285m aid package. The M113AS4s were loaded into a Ukrainian aircraft last week after the former defence minister Peter Dutton promised the personnel carriers and 20 additional Bushmaster protected infantry vehicles in May.
  • Germany has said it will limit the use of natural gas for electricity production and increase its reliance on coal-fired power plants amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a cut in supplies from Russia. “That’s bitter, but in this situation it’s almost necessary to reduce gas consumption,” Robert Habeck, minister for economic affairs, said in a statement on Sunday.
  • Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal later today, pledging the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later on. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours.

Updated

A German government source has informed Reuters that the country is “very confident” Nato will successfully reach an agreement with Sweden and Finland over their bid for membership, although possibly not in time for the Madrid summit.

It quotes the source saying “As nice as it would be to announce concrete steps … it would not be a catastrophe if it needed a few more weeks. What is decisive from our point of view is there are no unsurmountable problems.”

Turkey has indicated it would not welcome Sweden and Finland into the Nato alliance, accusing the two countries of supporting and harbouring Kurdish militants and other groups it deems terrorists. They both deny this.

Updated

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the security council of Russia and long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has posted to Telegram to say that the relationship between the US and Russia is at “zero Kelvin”.

Speaking about the prospect for further negotiations on nuclear treaties, Medvedev posted:

As a person who had a direct relationship with START-3 and signed it in 2010, I consider the time for new negotiations to be the most inopportune.

We don’t have any relations with the USA now. They are at zero Kelvin. And you don’t need to defrost them today. And there is no need to negotiate with them yet. Let them run or crawl and ask for it. And they appreciate it as a special favour.

Updated

Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operation briefing. In it, they claim to have:

  • destroyed a drone control centre at the Artsyz airfield in Odesa
  • destroyed a Buk-M1 launcher in Donetsk
  • destroyed key elements of a S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in Luhansk
  • shot down a MiG-29 aircraft in Dnipropetrovsk
  • killed 450 members of the Ukrainian armed forces

Today they also devote a section to claims that Ukrainian forces are suffering for desertions, “mass disobedience to the command”, and that some commanders have “withdrawn from the management of their units and evade combat missions” using any pretext of illness.

None of the claims have been independently verified.

The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has claimed this morning on Telegram that in the last 24 hours, 32 houses and 8 “civil infrastructure facilities” were damaged by shelling from Ukrainian forces on 13 of the 238 settlements that the DPR claims to control. Russia is the only UN state that recognises the legitimacy of the DPR. The claims have not been independently verified.

German foreign minister: 'we will certainly not be able to get out all grain' from Ukraine

Germany says it supports Poland and Romania in adapting their railways to enable the export of millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to a Russian sea blockade, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said.

“The railway tracks need to be modernised, we need the right cargo wagons - the German government is working on this with many other actors,” she told reporters as she arrived for a meeting with her European Union counterparts in Luxembourg.

Reuters reports she added “It is clear that, in the end, we will certainly not be able to get out all grain but if we even just manage to free part of it, on various routes, then this will help as we are facing this global challenge.”

EU's Borrell: Russian blockade of grain exports is 'a real war crime'

Russia’s blockade of the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain is a war crime, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.

“We call on Russia to deblockade the ports … It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger,” Reuters reports he told the media.

“This is a real war crime, so I cannot imagine that this will last much longer,” he said on arriving to a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

Our audio long read podcast today has its focus on how Germany became so dependent on Russian oil and gas. You can find it here:

Oleh Synyehubov, the governor of Kharkiv, has posted to Telegram to report:

During the past 24 hours in Kharkiv, the enemy was beating on the outskirts of the city and in the Kholodnohirsky district. According to preliminary information, no one was injured. The Russians continue to terrorise the civilian population.

I appeal to Kharkiv residents: do not ignore alarms, stay in the shelters. Do not be unnecessarily in the fields, on the roadsides, do not visit the forest belts.

On the line of contact in the Kharkiv region, the enemy is mainly focused on defence. Our defenders hold their positions firmly. We have repeatedly said that the enemy does not abandon plans for Kharkiv, but our armed forces are ready for any scenario on the part of the occupiers.

In the weeks after the Russian invasion, the Guardian spoke to five Ukrainian families who had fled the country. Nearly four months on from the invasion, the families talk about the realities of their new lives.

Back in March, Liudmyla Abdo was fresh out of a war zone. Fatigued, dazed and suffering from acute stress, she sat in Paris’s Buttes-Chaumont park and recounted her experience of fleeing Kyiv in the dead of night.

Three months later, Abdo seems like a new woman, welcoming me with a grin to the apartment she shares with her son, Marsel. “My heart is calm,” she says.

Around the corner, a Ukrainian flag hangs from a neighbour’s window, emblazoned with the word solidarity. Abdo says she has received an outpouring of support from the French people she meets. “Whenever anyone hears I’m from Ukraine, they offer to help.”

If the French people have been helpful, the government has been less so. Due to a mistake on her paperwork, Abdo has not yet received a cent of the payments she is entitled to as a “beneficiary of temporary protection” in France. In the absence of that, she has been supported by her two sons

Read more of the accounts here: ‘I will stay until Kharkiv is rebuilt’: we revisit five Ukrainian families rebuilding their lives in the EU

The UK ministry of defence has issued its latest intelligence report. It states:

Russian ground and tactical air operations have remained focussed on the central Donbas sector over the weekend.

It also provides an assessment of Russia’s performance in the skies over Ukraine since the latest invasion began on 24 February.

In the conflict to date, Russia’s air force has underperformed. Its failure to consistently deliver air power is likely one of the most important factors behind Russia’s very limited campaign success.

It cannot gain full air superiority and has operated in a risk-adverse style, rarely penetrating deep behind Ukrainian lines. Some of the underlying causes of its difficulties echo those of Russian ground forces.

For years, much of Russia’s air combat training has highly likely been heavily scripted and designed to impress senior officials, rather than to develop dynamic initiative amongst air crews.

Summary so far

Before I hand you over to my colleague, Martin Belam, here are all the major developments as of 9am in Kyiv.

  • Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he expects Russia will intensify attacks on Ukraine and possibly other European countries after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” he said in a nightly video address. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”
  • Ukraine’s forces remain on the defensive in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting continues in Sievierodonestsk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russia was massing forces in an attempt to take full control of the city after weeks of fighting but maintained that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie”. “They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town,” he told Ukrainian television.
  • European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. It is hoped a deal can be struck to resume Ukraine’s sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertiliser exports but remains unclear if the EU would get involved in militarily securing such a deal. “Whether there will be a need in the future for escorting these commercial ships, that’s a question mark and I don’t think we are there yet,” an EU official said.
  • Russia has become China’s top oil supplier amid Ukraine war sanctions. China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared by 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
  • The war in Ukraine could last for years and will require long-term military support, according to Nato and other western leaders. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild on Sunday. British prime minister, Boris Johnson, added: “I am afraid that we need to steel ourselves for a long war.”
  • Ukraine’s parliament voted through two laws on Sunday which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music. Proposed laws will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens, banning the commercial import of books printed in Russia and prohibiting the playing of music by post-1991 Russian citizens on media and on public transport in the latest attempt to break cultural ties between the two countries.
  • The New York Times identified over 2,000 munitions used by Russian forces in Ukraine, “a vast majority of which were unguided.” According to the newspaper, over 210 weapons that were identified were types that have been widely banned under a variety of international treaties.
  • Australia has sent the first four of 14 armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as part of a $285 million aid package. The M113AS4s were loaded into a Ukrainian aircraft last week after the former defence minister Peter Dutton promised the personnel carriers and 20 additional Bushmaster protected infantry vehicles in May.
  • Germany has said it will limit the use of natural gas for electricity production and increase its reliance on coal-fired power plants amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a cut in supplies from Russia. “That’s bitter, but in this situation it’s almost necessary to reduce gas consumption,” Robert Habeck, minister for economic affairs, said in a statement on Sunday.
  • Austria’s government also announced that it will reopen a mothballed coal power station because of power shortages arising from reduced deliveries of gas from Russia. The authorities would work with the Verbund group, the country’s main electricity supplier, to get the station in the southern city of Mellach back in action, the chancellery said on Sunday.
  • Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal later today, pledging the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Firefighters work at the site of fire after Russian shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine on Saturday, 18 June.
Firefighters work at the site of fire after Russian shelling in Mykolaiv, Ukraine on Saturday, 18 June. Photograph: George Ivanchenko/AP

Russia becomes China’s top oil supplier

China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared by 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the east Siberia Pacific pipeline and seaborne shipments, totalled nearly 8.42m tonnes, according to data on Monday from the Chinese general administration of customs.

The shipments are equivalent to almost 2m barrels per day (bpd) and up a quarter from 1.59m bpd in April. China is the world’s biggest crude oil importer.

Chinese firms, including state refining giant Sinopec and state-run Zhenhua Oil, have ramped up purchases of Russian oil, enticed by steep discounts after western oil majors and trading houses pulled back due to sanctions.

The discounts of up to 30% have helped Russia to keep its coffers filled despite the sanctions from the west that are designed to cripple the country’s economy. The Kremlin raked in around $20bn (£16.6bn) from oil exports in May.

Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal later today, pledging the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

Muratov, awarded the gold medal in October 2021, helped found the independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was the publication’s editor-in-chief when it shut down in March amid the Kremlin’s clampdown on journalists and public dissent in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The journalist shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year with journalist Maria Ressa of the Philippines and said he wanted to auction off his prize and would donate the accompanying $500,000 cash award to charity.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov from Russia will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal, pledging the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Dmitry Muratov from Russia will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal, pledging the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

The two journalists were honoured for their battles to preserve free speech in their respective countries, despite coming under attack by harassment, their governments and even death threats.

Muratov has been highly critical of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the war launched in February.

Muratov’s medal is being sold by Heritage Auctions on June 20, World Refugee Day, with the support of the prize committee.

Australia has sent the first four of 14 armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as part of a $285 million aid package.

The M113AS4s were loaded into a Ukrainian aircraft last week after the former defence minister Peter Dutton promised the personnel carriers and 20 additional Bushmaster protected infantry vehicles in May.

Ukraine ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko called for further military aid, particularly long-range missiles that can strike targets at a range of 150km as well as ammunition as stockpiles dwindle.

“We will continue to look at ways we can best help the people of Ukraine. Australia stands with Ukraine, and again calls on Russia to cease its unprovoked, unjust and illegal invasion of Ukraine,” defence minister Richard Marles said.

Ukraine thanked Australia for the military aid.

Ukraine will not forget this. Another batch of Australian armoured vehicles are on their way to Ukraine.

These are four of the 14 M113 armoured personnel carriers promised by the Australian government. A half-world-long aviation aid bridge unites our people in these difficult times for Ukraine.”

Prime minister Anthony Albanese condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as he pledged further support.

“Our nation has stood by Ukraine since the beginning of this unlawful conflict and we are proud to be able to provide access to significant capabilities such as the armoured personnel carriers that have travelled in the past week.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has invited Albanese to visit Kyiv but Albanese has yet to confirm if he has accepted the invitation.

Germany to limit use of gas, increase burning coal

Germany has said it will limit the use of natural gas for electricity production amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a cut in supplies from Russia.

Germany relies on Moscow for most of its gas, but says it is seeking to fill its gas storage facilities and phase out Russian energy imports to prepare for the next winter, when it fears Russia, which has cut deliveries in recent days, could reduce or even completely halt supplies.

Germany’s economy ministry said the new measures would include increased reliance on coal-fired power plants as well as an auction system starting in the coming weeks to incentivise industry to consume less.

Robert Habeck, a member of the environmentalist Green party, said in a statement on Sunday:

In order to reduce gas consumption, less gas is to be used to produce electricity. Instead, coal-fired power plants will have to be used more...

That’s bitter, but in this situation it’s almost necessary to reduce gas consumption. We must and we will do everything we can to store as much gas as possible in summer and autumn. The gas storage tanks must be full in winter. That has top priority.”

Habeck pointedly placed the blame on Russian president, Vladimir Putin:

The tense situation and high prices are a direct consequence of Putin’s war of aggression against Ukraine. There is no mistake.

What’s more, it’s obviously Putin’s strategy to unsettle us, drive up prices and divide us. We won’t allow that. We defend ourselves resolutely, precisely and thoughtfully.”

It also includes €15bn ($15.8bn) in credit lines for Germany’s gas market operator, via state lender KfW, to fill gas storage facilities faster, a government source told Reuters, asking not to be named.

Habeck said that depending on the situation, the ministry, which is in charge of security of energy supply in Europe’s top economy, will take further measures.

Two people familiar with the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that could include launching the second phase under Germany’s gas emergency plan.

The second phase, which kicks in when there is a high risk of long-term supply shortages of gas, would enable utilities to pass on high gas prices to customers and thereby help lower demand

In view of the throttling of gas supplies from Russia, the federal government is taking additional measures to save gas. In this way, the use of gas for power generation and industry will be reduced and storage tanks will be filled.”

European ministers to meet on grain blockade

European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to Russia’s Black Sea port blockade at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

Ukraine is one of the top wheat suppliers globally, but its grain shipments have stalled and more than 20m tonnes have been trapped in silos since Russia’s invaded the country and blocked its ports.

The EU supports efforts by the United Nations to broker a deal to resume Ukraine’s sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertiliser exports, but that would need Moscow’s green light.

Scattered grain sits inside a warehouse damaged by Russian attacks in Cherkaska Lozova, on the outskirts of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
Scattered grain sits inside a warehouse damaged by Russian attacks in Cherkaska Lozova, on the outskirts of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Bernat Armangué/AP

Turkey has good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, and has said it is ready to take up a role within an “observation mechanism” based in Istanbul if there is a deal.

It is unclear if the EU would get involved in militarily securing such a deal.

Whether there will be a need in the future for escorting these commercial ships, that’s a question mark and I don’t think we are there yet,” an EU official said.

Zelenskiy predicts Russia will escalate attacks, warns Europe

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has predicted Russia will intensify its attacks this week, warning European partners that they too should be prepared for an increase in hostilities as Kyiv awaits a decision on its bid to join the EU.

The caution follows a European Commission recommendation to grant Kyiv candidate status to join – a diplomatic blow to Moscow.

Tomorrow a historic week begins,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on Sunday night, adding: “There have been few such fateful decisions for Ukraine.

And in such a week, we should expect greater hostile activity from Russia. And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”

European leaders are due to meet this week to give their final decision regarding Ukraine’s fast-tracked membership application.

Although Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has said Moscow has “nothing against” the move, a Kremlin spokesperson said Russia was closely following Kyiv’s bid, especially in light of increased defence cooperation among member countries.

Summary and welcome

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you to deliver all the latest developments from Ukraine.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has predicted Russia will intensify its attacks this week, warning European partners that they too should be prepared for an increase in hostilities as Kyiv awaits a decision on its bid to join the EU.

Here are all the other major developments as of 8am in Kyiv.

  • Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he expects Russia will intensify attacks on Ukraine and possibly other European countries after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” he said in a nightly video address. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”
  • Ukraine’s forces remain on the defensive in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting continues in Sievierodonestsk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russia was massing forces in an attempt to take full control of the city after weeks of fighting but maintained that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie”. “They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town,” he told Ukrainian television.
  • European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. It is hoped a deal can be struck to resume Ukraine’s sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertiliser exports but remains unclear if the EU would get involved in militarily securing such a deal. “Whether there will be a need in the future for escorting these commercial ships, that’s a question mark and I don’t think we are there yet,” an EU official said.
  • The war in Ukraine could last for years and will require long-term military support, according to Nato and other western leaders. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild on Sunday. British prime minister, Boris Johnson, added: “I am afraid that we need to steel ourselves for a long war.”
  • Ukraine’s parliament voted through two laws on Sunday which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music. Proposed laws will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens, banning the commercial import of books printed in Russia and prohibiting the playing of music by post-1991 Russian citizens on media and on public transport in the latest attempt to break cultural ties between the two countries.
  • The New York Times identified over 2,000 munitions used by Russian forces in Ukraine, “a vast majority of which were unguided.” According to the newspaper, over 210 weapons that were identified were types that have been widely banned under a variety of international treaties.
  • Austria’s government announced that it will reopen a mothballed coal power station because of power shortages arising from reduced deliveries of gas from Russia. The authorities would work with the Verbund group, the country’s main electricity supplier, to get the station in the southern city of Mellach back in action, the chancellery said on Sunday.
  • Morocco’s national human rights body has urged Russian authorities to guarantee a “fair trial” for a young national appealing a death sentence imposed by a pro-Russian court in Ukraine. Amina Bouayach, president of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), has contacted the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation and urged the Russian body to take “the necessary steps to ensure Brahim Saadoun receives a fair trial during his appeal.”
A Ukrainian serviceman mans a position in a trench on the front line near Avdiivka, Donetsk region on 18 June.
A Ukrainian serviceman mans a position in a trench on the front line near Avdiivka, Donetsk region on 18 June. Photograph: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP/Getty Images
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