European lawmakers and Ukrainian representatives unfurl a 30-metre-long Ukrainian flag outside EU Parliament, on the day leaders are set to meet to discuss giving Ukraine candidate status to join the European Union, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Brussels, Belgium June 23, 2022. REUTERS/Yves HermanRussia Ukraine War Crisis Highlights: Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov hailed the arrival of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the United States. European leaders will formally set Ukraine on the long road to EU membership at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. Though mainly symbolic, the move will help lift national morale at a very difficult time in a four-month conflict.
According to the British and Ukrainian military officials, the Russian military expanded its grab of territory in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. It has captured two villages and is vying for control of a key highway in an offensive that could cut supply lines and encircle some frontline Ukrainian forces
Russia has launched fresh rocket attacks on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in recent days, signalling a possible shift in tactics by Moscow. Ukraine said at least 20 people were killed on Tuesday and Wednesday in the country’s second-largest city, which lies near the Russian border. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video address that the aim of the strikes is to “terrorise the population” of the city. He also claimed the attacks are an attempt by Russia to divert Ukrainian troops from the key Donbas region where massive air and artillery strikes are in progress.
Leaders attending the upcoming G7 and Nato summits in Europe will discuss new proposals to pressure Russia amid its ongoing assault on Ukraine. US President Joe Biden will attend the G7 summit in the German region of Bavaria this weekend, along with the leaders of UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
Demonstrators supporting Ukraine gather outside the United Nations. (AP)
The US will send another $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems, US officials said Thursday.
The latest package will include a number of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. The initial four that the US sent have already gone into Ukraine and are in the hand of troops there. The package will also include ammunition and other supplies.
The new aid comes just a week after the US announced it will send an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine, as America and its allies send Ukraine the longer-range systems that they believe will allow forces to better fight back against Russia. (AP)
In this May 23, 2011, file photo a launch truck fires the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) produced by Lockheed Martin during combat training in the high desert of the Yakima Training Center, Wash. US officials will send another $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including some additional medium-range rocket systems. (Tony Overman/The Olympian via AP, File)
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday Britain was willing to assist with demining operations off Ukraine's southern coast and was considering offering insurance to ships to move millions of tonnes of grain stuck in the country.
Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine and blockade of its Black Sea ports has prevented the country, traditionally one of the world's top food producers, from exporting much of the more than 20 million tonnes of grain stored in its silos. This has helped push food prices to record highs and left tens of millions of people struggling to eat, a crisis which Western officials say could last two years.
Turkey is trying to broker talks between the United Nations, Ukraine and Russia to create a possible safe sea corridor in the Black Sea, but Moscow wants some Western sanctions lifted first to facilitate its grain and fertiliser exports. (Reuters)
Ukraine on Thursday held a preliminary hearing in its first trial of a Russian soldier charged with raping a Ukrainian woman during Russia's invasion, the first of what could be dozens of such cases.
The suspect, Mikhail Romanov, 32, who is not in Ukrainian custody and will be tried in absentia, is accused of murdering a civilian in the Kyiv capital region on March 9 and repeatedly raping the man's wife, according to court files. Moscow has denied allegations of war crimes.
Romanov is accused of raping a 33-year-old woman after he and another Russian soldier shot her husband Oleksiy at point blank in the village of Bohdanivka to the northeast of Kyiv.The two soldiers then left and later returned twice more to rape her, the court files said. The identity of the second soldier had not been established. (Reuters)
The BRICS group of emerging economies said on Thursday after a videoconference summit that they supported talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to the text of a declaration published on the Kremlin website.
The BRICS countries comprise Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Russia has looked to fellow BRICS members to replace some of the trade links that have been ruptured by sweeping Western sanctions imposed in response to its decision in February to send a huge contingent of troops into Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russia may gradually switch state export taxes for grains and sunflower seeds to the rouble currency from the U.S. dollar, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday, citing a source in one of the ministries involved in discussing the change.
Russia, the world's largest wheat exporter and a major supplier of sunflower seeds, is facing a raft of US and European sanctions as a result of Moscow's decision to send troops into Ukraine.
Russia's grain exports have been constrained as the new marketing season starts on July 1 amid a high export tax, strong rouble, problems with freight and lack of forward sales caused by the sanctions. (Reuters)
Germany activated the second phase of its three-stage emergency plan for natural gas supplies Thursday, warning that Europe's biggest economy faces a ``crisis'' and storage targets for the winter are at risk after Russia reduced energy deliveries to several countries.
The government said the decision follows cuts Russia made to natural gas flows starting last week and surging energy prices stoked by the war in Ukraine. Industrial customers are being asked to reduce the amount of natural gas they use, and Germany and other countries are turning back to coal as a replacement, threatening climate goals in Europe as energy tensions escalate between Russia and the West.
"Even if we can't feel it yet - we are in a gas crisis,'' Economy and Energy Minister Robert Habeck said. (AP)
Ukrainian troops may need to retreat from the frontline city of Lysychansk to avoid encirclement after Russian forces captured two settlements to its south, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said on Thursday.
Lysychansk and nearby Sievierodonetsk have become the focus of Russia's offensive in the eastern Donbas region and the battle there is approaching a "fierce climax," a Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Wednesday.
The general staff of Ukraine's armed forces on Thursday confirmed the loss of Rai-Oleksandrivka and Loskutivka, which lie around 5 km (3 miles) from Lysychansk, and said Russian troops were trying to surround Ukrainian forces there. (Reuters)
High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) from the United States have arrived in Ukraine, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Thursday.
"Thank you to my US colleague and friend Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them," he said on Twitter. (Reuters)
The Russian military expanded its grab of territory in eastern Ukraine on Thursday, capturing two villages and vying for control of a key highway in an offensive that could cut supply lines and encircle some frontline Ukrainian forces, British and Ukrainian military officials said.
Britain's defense ministry said that Ukrainian forces had withdrawn from some areas near the city of Lysychansk, the latest major battlefield in Russian President Vladimir Putin's war against Ukraine, to avoid the possibility of being encircled as Russians sent in reinforcements and concentrated their firepower in the area.
Ukraine's General Staff said Russian forces took control of the villages of Loskutivka and Rai-Oleksandrivka, and were trying to capture Syrotyne outside Sievierodonetsk, the administrative center of the Luhansk region. (AP)
Three cruise missiles hit Ukraine's southern port city of Mykolaiv on Thursday, while air defences shot down another two missiles near the southern city of Odesa, the Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement.
It said one civilian was wounded in the strikes on Mykolaiv. (Reuters)
The Kremlin on Thursday reiterated its assertion that Russia has not stolen any grain from Ukraine as Turkey said it was probing allegations from Kyiv and would not allow any such grain to be brought to Turkey.
Kyiv's ambassador to Ankara said in early June that Turkish buyers were among those receiving grain that Russia had stolen from Ukraine, adding he had sought Turkey's help to identify and capture individuals responsible for the alleged shipments.
Asked about Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's comments that Ankara would investigate, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "You should ask the foreign ministry. Russia has not stolen any grain." (Reuters)
Three consecutive summits over the next week will test Western resolve to support Ukraine and the extent of international unity as rising geopolitical tensions and economic pain cast an increasingly long shadow.
European Union leaders on Thursday are set to grant Ukraine candidate status to join the 27-nation bloc, a first step in a long and unpredictable journey toward full membership that could take many years to achieve.
Making the war-torn country a contender now seems to be a done deal after leaders were initially divided on how fast they could move to embrace the war-torn country's bid that was launched only a few days after Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. According to several EU diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity before the summit in Brussels, Ukraine will receive the unanimous approval that is required for the launch of discussions. (AP)
Explosions were heard in Ukraine's southern city of Mykolaiv on Thursday, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said, urging residents to take shelter. He did not provide further details in his post on messaging app Telegram.
A Russian missile strike killed at least one person and damaged buildings including a school in Mykolaiv on Wednesday, according to local authorities. Russia denies targeting civilians. (Reuters)
A dozen EU member states have suffered reductions in gas supply from Russia, according to Frans Timmermans, the bloc's climate policy chief.
He said 10 countries had issued an "early warning" on gas supply, the first in the three levels of crisis laid out in EU regulations on security of supply.
On Thursday, Germany moved to the second, "alarm" level of its emergency plan. All EU member states are required to have such a three-stage plan. (DW)
Leaders attending the upcoming G7 and Nato summits in Europe will discuss new proposals to pressure Russia amid its ongoing assault on Ukraine.
"We will roll out a concrete set of proposals to increase pressure on Russia," a senior US official told reporters.
US President Joe Biden will attend the G7 summit in the German region of Bavaria this weekend, along with the leaders of UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. Biden will later attend a Nato summit in Madrid on the next leg of his European tour. (DW)
A coalition of human rights groups on Wednesday called on US President Joe Biden to "make a deal" to secure the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner who has been detained in Russia.
Griner was detained at a Moscow airport on February 17 when a search of her luggage allegedly revealed multiple cannabis oil vape cartridges. She could face up to 10 years in prison.
Forty advocacy groups including the National Organisation for Women, Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD said they appreciated the Biden administration's efforts, which included labelling the 31-year-old "wrongfully detained" and assigning diplomats to work for her release. But they said more needs to be done. (Reuters)
A group of eminent Indian-Americans on Wednesday came together to express their solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Organised by American Hindu Coalition along with US India Security Council at the US Capitol, the event “Indian Americans Against Genocide in Ukraine” called for an urgent end to the human sufferings in Ukraine by Russia, which has waged a war against the country.
Observing that Indo-US relationship transcends political parties and elected leaders, Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said the heart of this relationship is an embrace of human rights and embrace of secular democracy and freedom.
“I understand that there are complications (in India-US relationship), and I hope that we can work with the Indians and the government of India to resolve those complications over time,” Krishnamoorthi said in his remarks at the event. (PTI)
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Russia is launching an economic war on Europe, according to German news agency dpa.
In a televised address, Fiala said Russia could soon cut off Europe's gas supply. He said the Kremlin's goal is to destabilize democratic states.
Fiala announced a plan to wean the Czech Republic off Russian gas over a 5-year period during the speech. The plan includes bringing critical Czech power plants under the control of the state. (DW)
Invading Russian forces have "highly likely" advanced more than 5 km toward the southern outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region since June 19, according to a UK military intelligence update.
The advance comes as the Russian military steps up pressure on the Lysychansk-Sievierodonetsk area, it said.
"However, its efforts to achieve a deeper encirclement to take western Donetsk Oblast remain stalled," said the update. It attributed Russia's higher success in the region to "recent unit reinforcement and heavy concentration of fire."
The update says some Ukrainian units have pulled out, probably for fear of becoming surrounded. (DW)
?? Tass news agency cited pro-Moscow separatists as saying they had captured most of Vovchoyarivka, a village some 12 km southwest of the city of Lysychansk.
?? Russian forces pounded Kharkiv and its surrounds, killing at least 20 people. Kyiv said Moscow was trying to force it to divert battlefield resources to protect civilians there.
?? The battle for the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians are trapped in a chemical plant, seesawed with Ukraine and Russia disputing who controlled the city.
?? A mass attack consisting of seven 'Onyx' missiles occurred in Mykolaiv, according to the 'south' district of the Ukrainian armed forces. One civilian was killed and two wounded, it said.
?? Russia's defence ministry said its missiles had hit an airfield near the port of Odesa in response to a Ukrainian attack on gas production platforms.
?? Grain group Viterra said its terminal in the port of Mykolaiv was on fire after being hit in an attack. (Reuters)
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow's massive air and artillery attacks were aimed at destroying the entire Donbas region.
The fight for the twin cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in Ukraine's Luhansk region is "entering a sort of fearsome climax", said Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Zelenskyy. Russia is seeking to capture both Luhansk and Donetsk, which make up the Donbas region which is the nation's industrial heartland. (Reuters)
Ukraine has said it has caused “significant losses” to the Russian military in airstrikes on Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, in the Black Sea. The hit on the island is believed to be the second major military success using missiles given to Ukraine by the West. The Ukrainians had last week claimed their first successful use of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, British Military Intelligence said on June 21, Reuters reported.
Snake Island strike
The Guardian quoted from a video address by the Ukraine military’s southern operational command: “The island of Zmiinyi was dealt a concentrated blow with the use of various forces and methods of destruction… The military operation continues and requires information silence until it is over.” (Read more)
Countries should ask the United States for help if they have any problems importing Russian food and fertilizer, a senior US official said on Wednesday, stressing that such goods were not subject to US sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine.
"Nothing is stopping Russia from exporting its grain or fertilizer except to own policies and actions," US State Department Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Assistant Secretary, Ramin Toloui, told reporters.
But he added that concerns had been raised about "so-called over compliance with sanctions." Washington has slapped Moscow with a broad range of sanctions since Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine on February 24. (Reuters)
Russia has launched fresh rocket attacks on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv in recent days, signalling a possible shift in tactics by Moscow.
Ukraine said at least 20 people were killed on Tuesday and Wednesday in the country's second-largest city, which lies near the Russian border.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a video address that the aim of the strikes is to "terrorise the population" of the city. He also claimed the attacks are an attempt by Russia to divert Ukrainian troops from the key Donbas region. "The idea is to create one big problem to distract us and force us to divert troops," Arestovych said. "I think there will be an escalation." (DW)
Wednesday was the "Day of Remembrance and Sorrow" in Russia and Ukraine, commemorating the day Hitler's Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Russian President Vladimir Putin laid flowers at a memorial flame for the dead.
World War Two, which killed 27 million Soviet citizens, plays a prominent role in Russian commentary on the Ukraine invasion, which Putin calls a "special operation" to root out "Nazis."
Kyiv and the West call that a baseless justification for a war to wipe out Ukraine's identity as a separate nation. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the European Union's expected offer of candidate status for his battle-weary nation.
European leaders will formally set Ukraine on the long road to EU membership at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. Though mainly symbolic, the move will help lift national morale at a very difficult time in a four-month conflict that has killed thousands, displaced millions and flattened towns and cities.
Zelenskyy said he had spoken to 11 European Union leaders on Wednesday about Ukraine's candidacy and will make more calls on Thursday. He said earlier he believed all 27 EU countries will support Ukraine's candidate status.
"We deserve it," Zelenskiy told crowds in Amsterdam via video link. Diplomats say it will take Ukraine a decade or more to meet the criteria for joining the EU. But EU leaders say the bloc must make a gesture that recognises Ukraine's sacrifice. (Reuters)
Holed up in a bombed-out house in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian troops keep a careful accounting of their ammunition, using a door as a sort of ledger. Scrawled in chalk on the door are figures for mortar shells, smoke shells, shrapnel shells, and flares.
Despite the heavy influx of weapons from the West, Ukrainian forces are outgunned by the Russians in the battle for the eastern Donbas region, where the fighting is largely being carried out by way of artillery exchanges. Read more
A Ukrainian photojournalist and a soldier who was accompanying him when they were killed in the first weeks of Russia's invasion appear to have been ``coldly executed'' as they were searching Russian-occupied woodlands for the photographer's missing image-taking drone, Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday, citing its findings from an investigation into their deaths.
The press freedom group said it went back to the spot where the bodies of Maks Levin and serviceman Oleksiy Chernyshov were found April 1 in woods north of the capital, Kyiv. The group said it counted 14 bullet holes in the burned hulk of their car still at the scene.
The group said disused Russian positions, one of them still bobby-trapped, were found close by. Also found were the remains of food rations, cigarette packets and other litter seemingly left by Russian soldiers.
Some of Levin and Chernyshov's belongings, including the soldier's ID papers and parts of his bulletproof vest and the photographer's helmet, were also recovered, it said.
A Ukrainian team with metal detectors also uncovered a bullet buried in the soil where Levin's body had lain, it said. The group said that finding suggests ``he was probably killed with one, perhaps two bullets fired at close range when he was already on the ground.`` A jerrycan for gasoline was also found close to where Chernyshov's burned body had been recovered, it added.
Reporters Without Borders said its findings ``show that the two men were doubtless coldly executed.'' Levin and Chernyshov were last heard from on March 13. A GPS tracker in their vehicle gave their last position, in woods north of Kyiv, the group said. ---Reuters
European leaders and businesses are sweating over fears that Russia’s manipulation of natural gas supplies will lead to an economic and political crisis next winter or perhaps sooner. Here are key things to know about the energy pressure game over the war in Ukraine.
Russia last week reduced gas supplies to five European Union (EU) countries, including Germany, the biggest economy of the bloc that is heavily dependent on Moscow’s gas to generate electricity and power industry. Read More
Germany faces certain recession if already faltering Russian gas supplies completely stop, an industry body warned on Tuesday, as Italy said it would consider offering financial backing to help companies refill gas storage to avoid a deeper crisis in winter.
European Union states from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Adriatic in the south have outlined measures to cope with a supply crisis after Russia's invasion of Ukraine put energy at the heart of an economic battle between Moscow and the West.
The EU relied on Russia for as much as 40% of its gas needs before the war - rising to 55% for Germany - leaving a huge gap to fill in an already tight global gas market. Some countries have temporarily reversed plans to shut coal power plants in response. (Reuters)
US Attorney General Merrick Garland will visit Ukraine on Tuesday to discuss efforts to identify, arrest and prosecute those involved in war crimes and other atrocities committed during Russia's invasion, a Justice Department official said.
Garland will meet with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, the official said. (Reuters)
A top ally of President Vladimir Putin told Lithuania on Tuesday that Moscow would respond to its ban on the transit of goods sanctioned by the EU to Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad in such a way that citizens of the Baltic state would feel the pain.
With relations between Moscow and the West at a half-century low over Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Lithuania banned the transit of goods sanctioned by the European Union across its territory to and from the exclave, citing EU sanction rules.
Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB spy who is now the secretary of Russia's Security Council, said Lithuania's "hostile" actions showed that Russia could not trust the West, which he said had broken written agreements over Kaliningrad. (Reuters)
The British government is determined to impose further sanctions on Russia and will continue to do so until Moscow fully withdraws from Ukraine, foreign minister Liz Truss said on Tuesday.
"We are determined to provide more weapons, impose more sanctions and back Ukraine in pushing Russia out of their territory," Truss told parliament.
Truss said she would be travelling to Turkey on Wednesday to discuss options to help get grain out of Odesa, saying that there was only a matter of weeks to find a solution.
Britain, the United States and the European Union have coordinated in imposing massive sanctions on Moscow for what they call an invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed it a military operation.
The Russian defence ministry said on Tuesday that its missiles had struck an airfield near the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, Russian news agencies reported.
It said it had carried out the strikes in response to a Ukrainian attack on gas production platforms in the Black Sea.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the report.
The Russian-installed leader of Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, said on Monday that Kyiv had struck Black Sea drilling platforms owned by a Crimean oil company. (Reuters)
Ukraine has detained a senior government official and a business leader suspected of being part of an alleged Russian spy network, the Security Service of Ukraine said on Tuesday.
The Security Service (SBU) did not name the two suspects but identified them as a senior official in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers and a department head at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a business lobby.
It said in a statement on the Telegram app that it had carried out a "multi-stage special operation" to neutralise the alleged spy ring.
"As a result: in Kyiv, the head of a department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers and the head of one of the directorates of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry were detained," the SBU said. (Reuters)
The Baltic states on Tuesday asked for more financial support from the EU to handle Ukrainian refugees, the Lithuanian president's office said.
"We must share the financial burden, which at the moment is unproportionally assigned to national budgets. EU solidarity is very important to assure proper support to war refugees from Ukraine", Lithuania's president Gitanas Nauseda said in a statement. (Reuters)
Luhansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday described the 'catastrophic destruction in Lysychansk' on Tuesday.
The eastern industrial city has come under intense shelling from Russian forces, including 'heavy' strikes on Monday, according to Gaiday, who added that one person had been killed.
'We are determining the final number of victims, because yesterday it was almost impossible to move inside the city safely,' he said. (DW)
European countries are united in their support for granting Ukraine the status of European Union member candidate, Luxembourg's foreign affairs minister said on Tuesday.
"We are working towards the point where we tell Putin that Ukraine belongs to Europe, that we will also defend the values that Ukraine defends," Jean Asselborn told reporters before a meeting with other EU ministers. (Reuters)
Indonesian President and current chair of the G20 Joko Widodo is due to visit Moscow later this month to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Indonesia's state news agency cited the country's security minister as saying.
"Yes, that is the president's agenda," the coordinating security minister Mahfud MD told reporters at the presidential palace on Monday.
The Antara news agency reported that the Indonesian leader, widely known as Jokowi, was scheduled to meet Putin on June 30. (Reuters)
The European Union ambassador to Russia has arrived at the Russian foreign ministry, the RIA news agency said on Tuesday.
The governor of Kaliningrad region said on Monday that the ministry would summon EU ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer over Lithuania's ban on the transit of goods under EU sanctions through Kaliningrad. (Reuters)
Russian television has begun to air in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, the Russian army said on Tuesday in an area where Moscow has already implemented its currency — the ruble — and started handing out Russian passports.
Moscow's forces have "reconfigured the last of the seven television towers in the Kherson region to broadcast Russian television channels" for free, the army said.
Bordering the Crimea peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014, the Kherson region became occupied by Russian forces shortly after the Kremlin's offensive got underway on February 24.
One of the pro-Moscow officials in the region, Kirill Stremousov, said Tuesday that the territory could join Russia "before the end of the year." (DW)
The Danish Energy Agency issued a first level "early warning" alert over gas supplies.
The European Union has three levels of alerts to allow member states to signal energy supply issues: "early warning," "alert," and "emergency." The system allows for mutual assistance from EU countries.
Danish Energy Agency deputy director Martin Hansen said that "this is a serious situation we are facing and it has been exacerbated by the reduction in supplies." Currently Denmark's stocks are around 75% full.
Danish energy company Orsted announced at the end of May that delivery of Russian gas would be suspended after June 1, after the company refused to settle the payment in rubles as Moscow had requested. (DW)
Ukrainian forces last week claimed their first successful use of Western-donated Harpoon anti-ship missiles to engage Russian forces, the British Military Intelligence said on Tuesday.
"The target of the attack was almost certainly the Russian naval tug Spasatel Vasily Bekh, which was delivering weapons and personnel to Snake Island in the north-western Black Sea," the defence ministry said in its daily Twitter update.
The war has entered a brutal attritional phase in recent weeks, with Russian forces concentrating on Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas, which Russia claims on behalf of separatists. (Reuters)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Africa was a "hostage" in the war with Russia, which had contributed to rising food prices on the continent. In a speech to African Union leaders, Zelenskyy said the continent had been caught up in a situation not of its making.
"(I) address you in a state of emergency, when we have a war. In an emergency for the whole world, when Africa is actually taken hostage. Hostage of those who started the war against our state," Zelenskyy said in a video speech to the Bureau of the Assembly of the African Union.
"This war may seem very distant to you and your countries. But catastrophically rising food prices have already brought it home to millions of African families." (Reuters)
Russian President Vladimir Putin fears the "spark of democracy" spreading to his country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, 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 said. "He clearly fears the spark of democracy spreading to his country."
The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Maria Zakharova rejected the comments, writing on social media: "German sparks have spread onto us a couple of times. We will not allow any more fires." (Reuters)
?? Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine's Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was "extremely difficult" along the entire front line and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.
?? Gaidai said Russian forces controlled most of the city of Sievierodonetsk, apart from the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of civilians have been sheltering for weeks. He also said the road connecting Sievierodonetsk and sister city Lysychansk to the city of Bakhmut was under constant shell fire.
?? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. In his nighttime address to the nation on Monday, he was defiant, while also referring to "difficult" fighting in Luhansk for Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk.
?? Ukrainian officials reported three civilian deaths in Russian shelling in the Donetsk region on Monday and another three in shelling in the Kharkiv region.
?? A Russian missile destroyed a food warehouse in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa after the Russia-installed leader of the annexed Crimea peninsula said Ukrainian forces had attacked drilling platforms owned by a Crimean oil and gas company. (Reuters)
Moscow's separatist proxies claimed to have captured Toshkivka, a town on the mostly Ukrainian-held western bank of the Siverskyi Donets river, south of Sievierodonetsk.
Gaidai acknowledged a Russian attack on Toshkivka had "had a degree of success" and confirmed Russia's claim to have captured Metyolkine.
Russia's military kept grinding down Ukraine's defenses Monday, with combat in eastern areas said to be entering a "decisive" phase, as the war's consequences for food and fuel supplies increasingly weighed on minds around the globe.
Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press on Monday that the situation in Sievierodonetsk was "very difficult," with the Ukrainian forces maintaining control over just one area... the Azot chemical plant, where a number of Ukrainian fighters, along with about 500 civilians, are taking shelter.
The Russians keep deploying additional troops and equipment in the area, he said. "It's just hell there. Everything is engulfed in fire, the shelling doesn't stop even for an hour," Haidai said in written comments. (AP)
Dmitry Muratov, the co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize and the editor of one of Russia's last major independent newspapers, auctioned off his Nobel medal for a record $103.5 million to aid children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
According to US media reports, the auction of Muratov's prize shattered the record for any Nobel medal that has been auctioned off, with reports saying that the previous highest sale fetched just under $5 million.
"This award is unlike any other auction offering to present," Heritage Auctions said in a statement before the sale. "Mr. Muratov, with the full support of his staff at Novaya Gazeta, is allowing us to auction his medal not as a collectible but as an event that he hopes will positively impact the lives of millions of Ukrainian refugees."
A US citizen was killed in combat in Ukraine last month, according to an obituary and the State Department, after he joined thousands of foreign fighters who have volunteered to help Ukraine fend off invading Russian forces.
Stephen Zabielski, 52, was killed in fighting on May 15, according to an obituary published in The Recorder, an upstate New York newspaper, earlier this month. Media reports of his death circulated on Monday. Zabielski, who was from New York and had moved to Florida in recent years, is survived by his wife, five stepchildren, and a grandchild, among other family.
In a statement, a State Department spokesperson confirmed Zabielski's death in Ukraine and said the agency has been in touch with his family and provided "all possible consular assistance." (Reuters)
What’s the price of peace? That question could be partially answered Monday night when Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov auctions off his Nobel Peace Prize medal. 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. (Read more)
Ukraine acknowledged difficulties in fighting in the east of the country as Russian forces captured territory and intensified pressure on two key cities ahead of an EU summit this week expected to welcome Kyiv's bid to join the bloc.
The governor of the Luhansk region, scene of the heaviest Russian onslaughts in recent weeks, said the situation was "extremely difficult" along the entire front line as of Monday evening and the Russian army had gathered sufficient reserves to begin a large-scale offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had predicted Moscow would escalate attacks ahead of the EU summit on Thursday and Friday.
"We are defending Lysychansk, Sievierodonetsk, this whole area, the most difficult one. We have the most difficult fighting there," he said. "But we have our strong guys and girls there." (Reuters)