Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko on Wednesday said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, at least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, according to local authorities. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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9:15pm: Captured Ukrainian soldiers face trial in Russia
More than 20 Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner during fighting in Ukraine went on trial in southern Russia on Wednesday.
The captured soldiers were members of the Azov battalion, an elite Ukrainian armed forces unit that fought Russian troops in the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. Russia captured Mariupol last year after a three-month battle that reduced most of the city to smoldering ruins.
The last remaining Ukrainian defenders who holed up at a giant steel mill in Mariupol surrendered to Russian forces in May 2022.
Russian authorities have designated the Azov battalion as a terrorist group. The defendants are facing charges of involvement in a terrorist organisation and taking part in action to overthrow the Russia-backed authorities in the Donetsk region.
They face sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison if convicted.
7:05pm: Hardest battles in Ukrainian counteroffensive ‘yet to come’
Reporting from Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region, FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg said battles were raging along the front lines as the Ukrainian counteroffensive attempts to breach Russia’s defence lines.
Since the main Russian line of defence appears to be in the southern region, it “means the hardest battles are yet to come”, said Cragg.
6:18pm: Russia calls Ukraine's MH17 accusations at ICJ 'fiction'
A lawyer for Russia on Wednesday dismissed Ukraine's account at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 as "fiction".
Ukraine accuses Russia before the UN's top court of violating a UN anti-terrorism treaty by equipping and funding pro-Russian forces, including militias who shot down Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, killing all 298 passengers and crew in July 2014.
Last November, a Dutch court found that Russia had "overall control" over the separatist forces and had supplied the BUK missile system which was used by militias to shoot down the plane.
Ukraine repeated the Dutch court findings in its case before the ICJ, but Russia's lawyer Michael Swainston dismissed it as "fiction".
"This did not happen, no BUK Telar came from Russia," he told the court on the final day of hearings.
In its case at the ICJ, Kyiv also claims Russia breached a UN anti-discrimination treaty by trying to erase the culture of ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Russia denies systematic human rights abuses in Ukrainian territory that it occupies. It also says it has met its obligations under the UN treaty against financing terrorism.
5:15pm: Erdogan says Sweden shouldn't expect to join NATO any time soon
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that NATO should not bet on his country approving Sweden's application to join the Western military alliance before a July summit because the Nordic nation has not fully addressed his security concerns.
Sweden and Finland applied for membership together following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. Finland became NATO’s 31st member in April after the Turkish parliament ratified its request, but Turkey has held off approving Sweden’s bid.
NATO wants to bring Sweden into the fold by the time the leaders of member nations meet for a summit in Lithuania's capital on July 11-12.
Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups that Ankara says pose a security threat, including militant Kurdish groups and people associated with a 2016 coup attempt.
4:51pm: NATO allies must arm Ukraine for offensive, says Stoltenberg
NATO Security General Jens Stoltenberg said alliance members must ensure Ukraine keeps getting enough arms to pursue its counter-offensive against Russia, as Kyiv sustains losses in its long-awaited push.
Kyiv's Western backers will meet Thursday at NATO headquarters in Brussels to get the latest update from Ukraine's defence minister on the progress of the assaults.
"The most obvious thing is to ensure they have the weapons, the supplies, the maintenance to continue to conduct the offensive," Stoltenberg told journalists.
NATO allies, spearheaded by the US, have already funnelled weaponry worth tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine to help it fight off Russia's forces since Moscow launched its war in February 2022.
Those supplies have sapped western stockpiles and sent countries scrambling to try to refill their shelves as Ukraine has fired off thousands of shells a day.
Stoltenberg said he expected NATO defence ministers at a subsequent meeting on Friday to agree to "substantially" ramp up the targets for the amount of ammunition each NATO member must have in stock.
4:44pm: Chechen leader says top commander 'alive and well'
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said one of his senior commanders was alive and well, dismissing reports that he had been killed or wounded in Ukraine.
The commander, Adam Delimkhanov, heads the Chechen division of the Russian national guard and is also a member of Russia's parliament. He is widely seen as the Caucasian region's second most senior official after Kadyrov himself.
Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007 and is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a post on the Telegram messenger app that Delimkhanov was "alive and well and not even wounded".
Delimkhanov, who has an active social media presence, with over half a million followers on Telegram, did not comment.
Russia's Zvezda television channel had cited the parliamentary press service as saying that Delimkhanov had been wounded in Ukraine. It followed rumours on Ukrainian social media channels that the Chechen commander had been killed in an artillery strike in southern Ukraine.
3:45pm: Germany unveils first national security strategy
The German government has unveiled the country's first national security strategy, which cites Russia as the greatest security threat “for the foreseeable future”..
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the new strategy, which his three-party governing coalition pledged to draw up when it took office at the end of 2021, had gained added importance since Russia attacked Ukraine almost 16 months ago.
The war in Ukraine has heightened anxiety in Germany about the preparedness of its own armed forces, prompting Scholz to announce a “turning point” on military spending.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in Feburary 2022 demonstrated “what many of our neighbours in Eastern Europe have warned us about — that Europe is vulnerable,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters at a news conference in Berlin also attended by Scholz and other top officials.
A 76-page document outlining the strategy states that “today’s Russia is, for the foreseeable future, the greatest threat to peace and security in the Euro-Atlantic area."
2:43pm: 'Still early days' in Ukraine's counteroffensive, says NATO's Stoltenberg
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday it was still early days in Ukraine's counteroffensive.
"We do not know if this will be a turning point in the war," Stoltenberg told a news conference.
"The more gains Ukraine makes, the stronger their hand will be at the negotiating table," he added.
2:08pm: Kremlin says 'goodwill' on Black Sea grain deal cannot last forever
Russia's "goodwill" cannot last forever when it comes to renewing the Black Sea grain deal, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia was considering withdrawing from the grain deal, saying the West had cheated Moscow by not implementing any of the promises it had made to ensure Russian agricultural goods reached world markets.
2:05pm: Kremlin to continue calling the war in Ukraine a 'special military operation'
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that it was not considering changing the status of what Russia calls its "special military operation" in Ukraine.
Observers have previously speculated that Russia might designate the conflict either as a full-fledged war or as an "anti-terrorist operation".
1:50pm: Russian parliament introduces fines and detention for martial law violations
The Russian State Duma on Wednesday introduced fines and administrative detention of up to 30 days for violating martial law, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported.
Martial law has been declared in four regions of Ukraine that Moscow claimed to have annexed last year – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Russian forces do not fully control those regions. Ukraine and its Western allies say the annexations are illegal.
1:39pm: Russia repels Ukrainian offensives on three fronts, says defence ministry
The Russian Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces had tried unsuccessfully to mount offensives on the south Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk fronts in the past 24 hours.
It said in a statement that Ukrainian forces had suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.
The ministry said it had also targeted Ukrainian weapons warehouses and reserve forces and foreign mercenaries in overnight strikes.
FRANCE 24 was not able to independently verify the claims made in the statement.
11:38am: Belarus would enter Ukraine conflict if faced with aggression, says Lukashenko
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Wednesday that Belarus would enter the conflict in Ukraine if there was aggression against it, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported.
11:30am: Ukraine making modest progress in counteroffensive, officials say
The village of Neskuchne in the Donetsk region is one of several villages the Ukrainian military claims it has retaken since launching its counteroffensive last week.
Despite footage released by Ukraine's armed forces showing the country's flag flying over the battle-scarred villages, Russia has not acknowledged any Ukrainian gains. President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that he currently saw no need to mobilise new men, although he admitted that his military was lacking in both drones and missiles.
Please click on the video player below to watch the report.
11:04am: Six people killed in northeast Ukraine by Russian shelling
Ukraine said Wednesday that Russian shelling of a car in northeast Ukraine near the border with Russia a day earlier had left six people dead.
"On June 13, Russia struck an UAZ (truck) on the Seredyna-Buda territory," Ukraine's general prosecutor's office said, referring to a border village in the Sumy region. "As a result of the strike, six people died," including four forestry workers.
11:02am: Senior commander of Chechen forces wounded in Ukraine
A senior commander of Russia's Chechen forces fighting in Ukraine has been wounded, Russia's Defence Ministry television channel Zvezda reported on Wednesday, citing the press service of the State Duma lower house of parliament.
Adam Delimkhanov, who is a member of the State Duma as well as commander of the Chechen division of the Russian national guard, is widely seen as the Caucasian region's second most senior official behind Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov.
10:42am: Macron to discuss Ukraine war with Saudi Crown Prince
French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss the war in Ukraine and other matters when he meets Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the French presidency said.
10:05am: UN nuclear chief delays Zaporizhzhia power plant trip to Thursday over security concerns
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi will visit the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Thursday, a day later than previously planned, Interfax news agency cited a Russian-installed local official as saying on Wednesday.
The delay was attributed to safety concerns, according to a senior official.
9:26am: Ukraine slowly gains ground in counteroffensive
Ukrainian forces have gained ground south of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhzhia region since launching a counteroffensive against Russia last week, FRANCE 24's Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports.
Save for official announcements, news regarding advances made remain scarce as Ukraine maintains a tight-lipped policy surrounding its military operations, Cragg said.
Please click on the video player below to watch the report.
8:31am: Russia's Medvedev says Moscow has free hand to destroy enemy cables
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday there were no longer any "moral limits" to stop Moscow from destroying its enemies' undersea communication cables given what he said was Western complicity in the Nord Stream pipeline blasts.
Medvedev made the comments on his official channel on the Telegram messaging application.
US media reports have suggested that Washington was aware of a Ukrainian plot to blow up the gas pipelines. Kyiv has denied it destroyed them.
Unexplained explosions ruptured both Nord Stream 1 and the newly built Nord Stream 2 pipelines, carrying gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, last September.
7:50am: Belarus receives delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, says Lukashenko
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
"We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia," Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency's Telegram channel.
"The bombs are three times more powerful than those (dropped on) Hiroshima and Nagasaki," he said.
7:15am: Three people killed in Russian missile strike on Odesa
At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, authorities said.
Russia fired four Kalibr missiles from a ship in the Black Sea, Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the region's military administration, said on Telegram.
A strike on a retail chain's warehouse killed three employees and wounded seven others, he said.
"There may be people under the rubble," he added.
Six other people were wounded after a business centre, shops and a residential complex in the city centre were damaged "as a result of air combat and the blast wave", he said.
The attack came a day after missile strikes on the hometown of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky killed 11 people.
06:00am: Russia urges 'transparent' investigation into Nord Stream blasts
A "transparent and objective" international investigation in the blasts at the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines is needed, a high-ranking Russian diplomat to the United States said early on Wednesday.
Commenting on reports that the US reportedly warned Ukraine not to attack the pipelines under the Baltic Sea, Andrey Ledenev, minister-counsellor at the embassy, said the role of the United States in the blasts should also be "clarified".
"It would be useful to think about the reasons for the stubborn unwillingness of the collective West to launch a transparent and objective international investigation under the auspices of the UN Security Council in the terrorist attacks in the Baltic Sea," Ledenev was quoted as saying in a post on the embassy's Telegram messaging channel.
03:25am: Fire breaks out in Ukraine's Odesa from Russian missile attack
A fire broke out near a business centre and the warehouse of a retail chain was hit in a Russian missile attack overnight on the Black Sea port of Odesa, Ukraine's officials said early on Wednesday.
Air defence forces shot down two missiles over the city, the city's administration said on its Telegram messaging app. It was not immediately clear how many missiles targeted the city.
"Information about the scale of destruction and casualties is being clarified," the administration said.
12:20am: Zelensky seeks tougher sanctions on Russian missile components
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for tougher sanctions to halt the flow of components used in Russian missiles, saying it was cheaper to stop their transfer than to improve anti-aircraft systems against their deployment.
It was the second time in a little more than a week that Zelensky had called for tightened rules to halt what Ukrainian authorities call "missile terror" against civilian targets.
The missile used in the assault contained about 50 components produced in other countries and that the issue had been discussed on Tuesday with diplomats in Kyiv, Zelensky said.
"Unfortunately, Russia still has the opportunity to receive critical components for the production of missiles, manufactured by companies from different countries, including partner countries," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
All Ukraine's partners have the list of companies that supply Russia with the components, he said.
Key developments from Tuesday, June 13:
Russian air strikes hit several buildings in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih early Tuesday, leaving at least eleven dead and dozens wounded, local authorities said, as drone and missile attacks were reported in Kyiv and other cities.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday alternated threats of a new Russian offensive to grab more Ukrainian land with statements about the Kremlin's readiness for peace talks. Speaking during a wide-ranging meeting with Russian military correspondents and war bloggers, he made some of his most extensive comments about the conflict since sending the troops into Ukraine more than 15 months ago.
Read yesterday's liveblog to see how the day's events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
