Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, on the 100th day since Russia's February 24 invasion, said his country will emerge victorious, as Russian troops pounded the Donbas region. Paris confirmed the death of a French national fighting as a volunteer in Ukraine. And at a meeting in Moscow on Friday, African Union chair Macky Sall told Russian leader Vladimir Putin that Africans are "victims" of the conflict in Ukraine. Read our liveblog below to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
9:59pm: Putin blames West for food, energy crises
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday blamed the West for emerging global food and energy crises and repeated his government’s offers of safe passage for ships exporting grain from Ukraine if mines are removed from the waters.
“Of course, we are now seeing attempts to shift the responsibility for what is happening on the world food market, the emerging problems in this market, onto Russia,” he told Russian TV. “I must say that this is an attempt, as our people say, to shift these problems from a sick to a healthy head.”
As reported by the state-run Tass news agency, Putin also said Western sanctions against Russia would only worsen world markets – reducing the harvest and driving up prices.
He said inflation stemmed from the unprecedented dollar “printing press” during the coronavirus pandemic and blamed short-sighted European policies for under-investment in alternatives to traditional energy supplies and price increases.
The Kremlin leader said Russia wasn’t blocking grain shipments from Ukraine and that the West is using Russia as a scapegoat for its problems.
6:26pm: Two Reuters reporters wounded, driver killed
Two journalists working for the international news agency Reuters were lightly wounded and their driver killed on Friday in eastern Ukraine, a company spokesperson said.
"Two Reuters journalists sustained minor injuries when they came under fire while en route to Severodonetsk," a statement from the agency said.
"They were travelling in a vehicle provided by the Russian-backed separatists and driven by an individual assigned by the separatists. The driver of the vehicle was killed."
5:21pm: France confirms volunteer fighter killed in combat in Ukraine
A French volunteer fighter in Ukraine has been killed in combat, Paris confirmed on Friday following reports that the man died in artillery fire in the Kharkiv region.
"We are aware of the sad news that a French citizen has been fatally wounded during combat in Ukraine," a spokesperson for France's foreign ministry said. "We remind everyone that the whole of Ukraine is a war zone. In this regard, travel to Ukraine is formally advised against, for whatever reason."
3:14pm: EU formally bans most Russian oil, applies sanctions on Putin's alleged girlfriend
The European Union formally adopted a ban agreed by the bloc's leaders on Monday on most Russian oil imports on Friday, hitting Moscow with its toughest sanctions over the war on Ukraine after weeks of wrangling with Hungary.
The sanctions – the sixth wave imposed by the 27-nation EU since the Kremlin launched the invasion in February – include cutting Russia's biggest bank Sberbank from the global SWIFT messaging system, the text published in the bloc's official journal said.
President Vladimir Putin's alleged girlfriend, former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, was also added to an assets freeze and visa ban blacklist, along with Russian army personnel suspected of war crimes in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
2:35pm: AU head tells Putin that Africans are 'victims' of Ukraine conflict
African Union head Macky Sall on Friday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take into account the suffering in African countries from food shortages caused by Moscow's military campaign in Ukraine.
Putin hosted Senegal's president, who chairs the African Union, at his Black Sea residence in Sochi on the 100th day of Moscow's offensive in Ukraine, with global food shortages and grain supplies stuck in Ukrainian ports high on the agenda.
Sall asked Putin to "become aware that our countries, even if they are far from the theatre (of action), are victims on an economic level" of the conflict. He said it was important to work together so that "everything that concerns food, grain, fertiliser is actually outside" of Western sanctions imposed on Moscow after Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.
Sall also said that due to Western sanctions "we no longer have access to grain from Russia and especially fertiliser" that is crucial for Africa's "already deficient" agriculture. "That really creates serious threats to the food security of the continent," Sall added.
12:57pm: Ukraine signs deal with US's Westinghouse to end Russian nuclear fuel needs
Ukraine has signed a deal for the US nuclear power company Westinghouse to supply fuel to all of its atomic power stations in an effort to end the country's reliance on Russian supplies, Ukraine's state nuclear company said on Friday.
The agreement also increases the number of new nuclear units Westinghouse will build to nine from an earlier five, and the company will establish an engineering centre in the country.
Ukraine has four working nuclear power stations, the largest of which, in Zaporizhzhia, fell under Russian control days after the Russian invasion began in February but is still operated by Ukrainian technicians.
12:50pm: Lukashenko would allow Ukrainian grain to transit Belarus in exchange for access to Baltic ports
Minsk is ready to allow the transit of Ukraine's grain to Baltic sea ports via Belarus if it is allowed to ship Belarusian goods from these ports, the Belta news agency quoted Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko as saying on Friday.
The topic was discussed in a phone call between Lukashenko and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday, Belta added.
12:12pm: Russia summons heads of US media outlets, warns of 'stringent measures'
Russia's Foreign Ministry said it was summoning the heads of US media outlets in Moscow to a meeting next Monday to notify them of tough measures in response to US restrictions against Russian media.
"If the work of the Russian media – operators and journalists – is not normalised in the United States, the most stringent measures will inevitably follow," ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.
"To this end, on Monday, June 6, the heads of the Moscow offices of all American media will be invited to the press centre of the Russian Foreign Ministry to explain to them the consequences of their government's hostile line in the media sphere," she added. "We look forward to it."
12:06pm: Putin, not West, responsible for hunger in Africa, says German foreign ministry spokesperson
Germany strongly condemns Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to create a narrative that the West is responsible for causing famine in Africa, said a Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
"We have to stress that the fact that there is a risk of famine in parts of the world, that some countries are being cut off from grain exports, is a consequence of the Russian war of aggression and not of western sanctions," added the spokesperson at a regular government news conference on Friday.
10:40am: Ukraine's ambassador says Turkey among those buying grain stolen by Russia
Kyiv's ambassador to Ankara said on Friday Turkey is among the countries that is buying grain that Russia stole from Ukraine.
Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar also told reporters he has sought help from Turkish authorities and Interpol investigating who is involved in the shipments of grains transiting Turkish waters.
10:36am: Ukraine says Russia trying to move war into 'protracted phase'
Ukraine's defence minister on Friday said he believed the Kremlin was trying to move the war into a "protracted phase" by building layered defences in occupied regions in the south of the country.
"The Kremlin is trying to move the war into a protracted phase," Reznikov told the GLOBSEC 2022 Bratislava Forum by video link.
"Instead of advancing, the Russian armies are constructing layered defences" in southern occupied regions, primarily Kherson, he said.
10am: Ukraine investigates deportation of children to Russia as possible genocide
Prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia since the invasion as they seek to build a genocide indictment, the country’s top prosecutor said in an interview.
International humanitarian law classifies the forced mass deportation of people during a conflict as a war crime.
"Forcibly transfering children" in particular qualifies as genocide, the most serious of war crimes, under the 1948 Genocide Convention that outlawed the intent to destroy - in whole or in part - a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, who is overseeing multiple war crimes inquiries in Ukraine, said "we have more than 20 cases about forcible transfer of people" to Russia from various regions across the eastern European country since the invasion began on February 24.
9:47am: Ukrainians had 'great success' in Kyiv region
The UK ministry of defence said earlier that intelligence shows Russia has failed in its objectives. However, "it's a bit funny for the British to present this as military intelligence because this is really the opinion that's presenting in all the media and which is the very widely shared opinion on the ground in Ukraine", FRANCE 24's Gulliver Cragg reported from Kyiv. "The Ukrainian forces had great success in pushing the Russians back from Kyiv region in the north of Ukraine and also to some degree from the Kharkiv region."
9:15am: Ukraine has no plans to attack Russia with US missiles, presidential advisor says
Ukraine does not plan to use multiple-launch rocket systems it receives from the United States to attack facilities in Russia, a Ukrainian presidential advisor said on Friday.
"Ukraine is waging a defensive war and does not plan to use the MLRS to attack facilities in Russia," Mykhailo Podolyak said in a Twitter post. "Our partners know where their weapons are used."
7:55am: UK says on 100th day of Ukraine invasion Russia misses objectives
Britain's defence ministry said that on the 100th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine that Moscow failed to achieve its initial objectives to seize Kyiv and Ukrainian centres of government but was achieving tactical success in the Donbas.
"Measured against Russia's original plan, none of the strategic objectives have been achieved," Britain's Ministry of Defence said in a Twitter update, but it said it was achieving tactical success in the eastern region of the Donbas and was controlling more than 90% of Luhansk Oblast.
Russia is close to capturing all of Luhansk, one of two Ukrainian regions that make up the swathe of land known as the Donbas.
06:12am: War enters 100th day with Russia controlling ‘fifth of Ukraine’
Ukraine marked 100 days since Moscow’s invasion on Friday with Russian forces hammering the Donbas in their push to capture the country’s east.
The somber milestone came less than 24 hours after Kyiv announced Moscow was now in control of 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea and parts of the Donbas seized in 2014.
After being repelled from around the capital, President Vladimir Putin’s troops have set their sights on capturing eastern Ukraine, prompting dire warnings the war could drag on.
Following White House talks with US President Joe Biden, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Thursday that Ukraine’s allies needed to brace for a gruelling “war of attrition”.
“We just have to be prepared for the long haul,” Stoltenberg said, while reiterating that NATO does not want direct confrontation with Russia.
While the advance has been much slower than Moscow expected, Russian forces have expanded control beyond the 43,000 square kilometres (16,600 square miles).
“Today, about 20 percent of our territory is under the control of the occupiers,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an address to Luxembourg lawmakers.
Since Russia’s February 24 invasion, thousands of people have been killed and millions forced to flee, with Ukraine’s east now bearing the brunt of Russia’s assault, which Zelensky said was killing up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers every day.
Street battles were raging in the industrial hub of Severodonetsk in Lugansk, part of the Donbas.
Russia already controls about 80 percent of the strategic city but its defenders are putting up stiff resistance, with Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday vowing Ukrainian forces will fight “until the end”.
Severodonetsk’s Azot factory, one of Europe’s biggest chemical plants, was targeted by Russian soldiers who fired on one of its administrative buildings and a warehouse where methanol was stored.
Ukrainian troops were still holding an industrial zone, Gaiday said, a situation reminiscent of Mariupol, where a huge steel works was the southeastern port city’s last holdout until Ukrainian troops finally surrendered in late May.
In the city of Sloviansk, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Severodonetsk, residents said there were constant bombardments by Russian troops.
“It’s very difficult here,” said paramedic Ekaterina Perednenko, 24, who only returned to the city five days ago but realises that she will have to leave again.
“Shooting is everywhere, it’s scary. No water, electricity or gas,” she said.
In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Russian shelling killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian military officials said late Thursday.
5:11am: Russian Pacific fleet begins week-long exercises
Russia’s Pacific Fleet launched a week-long series of exercises with more than 40 ships and up to 20 aircraft taking part, Russian news agencies quoted the defence ministry as saying.
The ministry statement said the exercises, taking place from June 3-10, would involve, among other matters, “groups of ships together with naval aviation taking part in search operations for (enemy) submarines”.
The exercises were taking place amid Russia’s three-month-old incursion into Ukraine, described by Moscow as a “special military operation”. Ukraine lies thousands of kilometres to the west of where the exercises are occurring in the Pacific.
3:36am: Russia seeks to portray return to normalcy in war-scarred Mariupol
Some children are returning to school in Mariupol after Russian troops captured the Ukrainian port city in a bloody, weeks-long siege. Trucks pass through the streets playing videos from Russian state television as the occupying forces seek to portray a return to normalcy. But signs of death and devastation are everywhere, including in backyard grave sites and massive new cemeteries on the city’s outskirts. A census of those killed in the battle for Mariupol has yet to even begin.
FRANCE 24’s Jennie Shin reports with our colleagues at France 2:
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
