Russian forces now control "most" of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after days of fierce fighting, the regional governor of Luhansk said Tuesday. Governor Sergiy Gaiday said "90 percent" of the city was destroyed and there was now no possibility of leaving Severodonetsk. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded.
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2:17am: US sending Himars multiple rocket system to Ukraine military: official
The United States is sending Himars advanced multiple rocket systems to Ukraine, a US official said Tuesday, ending days of speculation over the latest upgrade of military aid to Kyiv in its fight against Russia.
The Himars use precision-guided munitions, the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters. The range is about 50 miles (80 kilometers), with Washington deciding against sending munitions with a far longer range.
"These systems will be used by the Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory but they will not be used against Russia," the official said.
12:10am: Ukraine's Zelensky blasts 'crazy' Russia over chemical plant hit
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of "madness" Tuesday after Russian troops hit a chemical plant in their bid to complete the capture of a key eastern city.
The battle for control of Severodonetsk has been intensifying this week, with heavy casualties on both sides, as EU leaders haggle over banning Russian gas to punish the Kremlin for its three-month-old invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.
One of the industrial hubs on Russia's path to taking the eastern Lugansk region, Severodonetsk has become a target of massive Russian firepower since the failed attempt to occupy Kyiv.
Russians now control most of the destroyed city, regional authorities said Tuesday, adding that enemy forces had hit a nitric acid tank at a chemical plant and warning people to stay indoors.
"Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Severodonetsk, the Russian army's strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy," Zelensky said in a video message.
"But on the 97th day of such a war, it is no longer surprising that for the Russian military, for Russian commanders, for Russian soldiers, any madness is absolutely acceptable."
11:05pm: Exclusive: Embedded with the Karpatska Sich battalion in Donbas
The Ukrainian army is determined to slow down Russia's steady advance in the eastern Donbas region as Moscow concentrates its efforts on encircling the area. Reporting from the northwestern frontline in the Donbas, a FRANCE 24 team followed the Karpatska Sich battalion as they fight to halt the Russian advance.
10:05pm: Communication shutdown in Russian-occupied Kherson: Ukraine
Ukrainian officials are reporting a "shutdown of all communications" in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson.
In a statement, Ukraine's State Service for Special Communication and Information Protection said there was an unspecified intrusion "by the occupation regime" and equipment had been powered down and cables disconnected.
"The residents of the region are currently left without Ukrainian mobile communication and Internet access, as well as with no means to make national and international phone calls using landline phone devices," the agency said.
9:48pm: Ukrainian forces making some progress in southern region: Zelensky
Ukrainian forces have had some success near the southern city of Kherson and are advancing in parts of the Kharkiv region to the east of Kyiv, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
"Our defenders are showing the utmost courage and remain masters of the situation at the front despite the fact the Russian army has a significant advantage in terms of equipment and numbers," he said in a late-night address.
9:41pm: Ukraine calls for Macron visit before EU French presidency ends
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on French President Emmanuel Macron to visit his country before France's EU presidency ends on June 30.
"It would be good that Macron came during the French EU presidency, and the best thing would be that he comes with more weapons deliveries for Ukraine," he told French news channel LCI.
"That's the most precious aid we can receive from France."
Macron travelled to Moscow and Kyiv shortly before Russia's invasion on February 24 and has not returned to Ukraine since the outbreak of the war.
9:01pm: Russian forces hit nitric acid tank in Severodonetsk
Russian forces struck a tank containing nitric acid at a chemical plant in Severodonetsk that they are trying to seize, said the local governor, calling on people to stay in shelters.
A Russian air strike "hit a tank with nitric acid at a chemical plant", Luhansk regional governor, Sergiy Gaiday, said on Telegram.
"Nitric acid is dangerous if inhaled, swallowed and in contact with skin," said Gaiday. "Do not come out of shelters," he warned.
The Luhansk governor also asked Severodonetsk residents to "prepare protective face masks impregnated with soda solution".
7:50pm: Russia now controls 'most' of eastern city of Severodonetsk
Russian forces now control "most" of eastern Ukraine's Severodonetsk, the scene of fierce battles as the Russian army tries to seize it, the local governor said Tuesday.
"Unfortunately, today, Russian troops control most of the city," the governor of the Luhansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said in a video.
He said "90 percent" of the city was destroyed and there was now "no possibility to leave Severodonetsk".
Moscow's forces appeared to be advancing in their goal of seizing the key city, with Gaiday several hours earlier saying they controlled "half" of it.
He said that Kyiv's army still "holds the defences in their current positions" and that the Ukrainian military was not in danger of being surrounded.
7:40pm: Canada sanctions Putin's alleged girlfriend, Russian banks
Canada has added President Vladimir Putin's reputed girlfriend as well as 21 Russian officials and four financial institutions to its growing sanctions' list.
"We're targeting banks, oligarchs close to the Putin regime as well as his, I don't know what to call her, his partner," Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa, referring to former gymnast Alina Kabaeva.
Those targeted – including Kabaeva, the Russian Agricultural Bank, Investtradebank and two fund management firms – face asset freezes and a ban on entry into Canada.
The EU has identified Kabaeva as the chairwoman of the board of directors of the National Media Group, a holding company with significant shares in almost all major Russian state media.
6:30pm: EU sanctions mark ‘significant reduction’ of Russian oil imports
Reporting from Brussels at the end of the EU summit, FRANCE 24’s Catherine Nicholson says the 27 leaders of the bloc’s member nations were “celebrating” their agreement on a sixth package of sanctions against Russia since the start of the invasion.
The package includes a ban on Russian oil imports via sea, although there is an exemption for pipeline imports. “Germany and Poland have said they will not use the exemption, they will entirely cut off Russian oil imports making a significant reduction of oil exports for President Vladimir Putin,” said Nicholson.
6:02pm: Zelensky welcomes EU sanctions against Russia
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed the EU's latest package of sanctions – the sixth since the launch of the Ukraine invasion – against Russia. But Zelensky also criticised what he called the bloc's "unacceptable" delay in reaching the agreement.
"When over 50 days have passed between the fifth and sixth sanction packages, the situation is not acceptable for us," said Zelensky, speaking alongside visiting Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv.
4:11pm: Macron does not exclude additional EU sanctions against Russia
French President Emmanuel Macron said that following a sixth EU package of sanctions against Russia nothing could be ruled out in terms of additional sanctions in the coming weeks.
Speaking to reporters following an EU summit in Brussels, he also said he hoped that in the next days and weeks an agreement with Russia could be found for Ukrainian food exports.
Macron hailed the new EU sanctions on Russian oil imports, noting that it was a "defining" measure that will radically change the way Europeans obtain their energy supply in the future.
4:08pm: EU summit sent ‘strong signal’ of unity: Scholz
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the aim of the EU’s latest sanctions on Russian oil imports was to convince Russia to end the war and find a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels at the end of an EU leaders’ summit, Scholz said the bloc has sent a strong signal of European unity.
The new EU-wide ban will affect Russian oil imports that arrive by sea, but not pipeline oil, following opposition from Hungary.
Scholz said Germany and Poland will continue their efforts to phase out Russian pipeline imports.
3:31pm: Ukraine identifies more than 600 Russian war crime suspects: prosecutor
Ukraine has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects and has started prosecuting around 80 of them, according to Kyiv's top prosecutor.
The list of suspects includes "top military, politicians and propaganda agents of Russia", Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague.
Venediktova said Estonia, Latvia and Slovakia had decided to join an international investigation team in Ukraine, which was originally formed by Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland in March to enable the exchange of information and investigation into suspected war crimes and crimes against humanity.
They are working with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which launched its investigation into possible war crimes in Ukraine in early March.
3:12pm: Ukraine seizes assets of Russia's Tatneft
Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has said it seized assets in Ukraine belonging to companies founded by Russia's Tatneft oil company.
"So far, 115 real estate objects have been seized: oil depots, gas stations, non-residential buildings, land plots and 118 fuel trucks and cars," the Bureau said in an online statement.
2:11pm: Russians control 'half' of eastern Severodonetsk: Ukraine
Russian forces control half of the east Ukraine city of Severodonetsk, said Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the city's military and civil administration, in a live broadcast.
"Unfortunately, the front line divides the city in half. But the city is still defending itself, the city is still Ukrainian, our soldiers are defending it," said Stryuk.
Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai earlier said the situation in the key city in the Donbas was "extremely complicated" with Russian forces taking partial control of the eastern areas of the city.
11:34am: Ukraine court convicts two Russian soldiers of war crimes
A court in Ukraine has convicted two Russian soldiers of war crimes for the shelling of civilian buildings and sentenced both to more than 11 years in prison. Tuesday's verdict concluded the country’s second war crimes trial since the Russian invasion started.
Russian servicemen Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov were charged with violating the laws and customs of war over the shelling of civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region on the first day of the Russian attack on Ukraine. They both stood trial in a court in Ukraine’s Poltava region and pleaded guilty to the charges.
Earlier this month, a court in Kyiv sentenced a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life in prison for fatally shooting a Ukrainian civilian in the first war crimes trial since Russia invaded.
11:09am: More on EU leaders' agreement to ban 90 percent of Russian oil by year's end
The European Union has spent weeks haggling over a proposed total embargo on Russian oil, but the bloc came up against stubborn resistance from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. FRANCE 24 Brussels correspondent Dave Keating discusses the ins and outs.
9:48am: Russians control 'part' of east Ukraine city Severodonetsk, governor says
Russian forces have taken partial control of the east Ukraine city of Severodonetsk, the Ukrainian official in charge of the region said Tuesday, as Moscow's army pushed deeper into the Donbas region.
"The situation is extremely complicated. Part of Severodonetsk is controlled by the Russians," Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said in a statement on social media.
He said Ukrainian forces still retain some areas within the east Ukraine industrial city and that Moscow's troops "cannot move freely through the city".
Haidai also claimed "the enemy is planning an operation to clear the surrounding villages".
After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the early stages of the war, Russia has shifted its focus to the eastern Donbas region and is attempting to consolidate areas under its control.
Severodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of around 100,000 people, is one of several important urban hubs that lie on Russia's path to capturing the entire Luhansk region and east Ukraine's de-facto administrative centre, Kramatorsk.
8:39am: First cargo ship leaves Mariupol since Russia took city, Moscow-backed separatist leader says
A ship has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia took the city and is headed east to Russia with a load of metal, the Russian-backed separatist leader of a breakaway region in Ukraine's Donetsk said on Tuesday.
“Today 2,500 tons of hot-rolled sheets left the port of Mariupol,” Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “The ship headed for (the Russian city of) Rostov.”
Ukraine said that the shipment of metal to Russia from Mariupol amounted to looting.
Russia seized full control of Mariupol earlier this month when more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters surrendered at the besieged Azovstal steelworks. Russia said last week that the port had been demined and was open again to commercial vessels.
The capture of Mariupol gave Moscow an overland bridge from mainland Russia through Ukrainian territory occupied by Russian forces and Russia-backed separatists to annexed-Crimea.
7:30am: Paris demands probe after French journalist killed in Ukraine
France has called for an investigation after a French journalist was killed in Ukraine on Monday. The vehicle that 32-year-old BFMTV cameraman Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was travelling in, which was being used to evacuate civilians near the city of Severodonetsk, was hit by shelling.
"France demands that a probe be carried out as soon as possible and in transparency on the circumstances of this tragedy," Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who was in Ukraine on Monday, said in a statement.
In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered his “sincere condolences” to Leclerc-Imhoff’s family and colleagues.
1:30am: EU to exclude Russia's biggest bank from SWIFT
EU leaders agreed Monday that their sixth sanctions package targeting Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine will include a measure to exclude Russia's Sberbank from the SWIFT financial messaging system.
Sberbank is Russia's biggest lender, and adding it to the sanctions list will further isolate the country's financial system as sanctions begin to bite, more than three months after its forces invaded Ukraine.
12:40am: Relatives of Ukraine's evacuated Azovstal fighters seek news
Relatives of Ukrainian fighters who remained for weeks under the besieged Azovstal steel works said on Monday they had received no news of the whereabouts of their loved ones since they were evacuated to Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine.
Uncertainty surrounds the fate of hundreds of fighters, most from the Azov battalion, taken into Russian custody in mid-May after essentially being ordered to give themselves up as Russian forces pounded the plant and the city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine.
The relatives, all women, said they had formed a Council of Wives and Mothers, to ensure the fighters were treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war.
"We were asked to stay silent in order not to make things worse," Tetyana Horko, sister of marine commander Serhiy Horko, told a news conference.
"But one mustn't think that the story of Azovstal heroes is over. They need support, they need to be brought back home."
Sandra Krotevich, sister of the Azov regiment's first deputy commander, Bohdan Krotevich, said relatives had no idea what was happening to the detained fighters.
"Where they are, what's happening to them, in what condition they are, we do not know," Krotevich said.
12:05am: EU leaders agree to ban 'more than two thirds' of Russian oil imports
EU leaders agreed on Monday to ban 'more than two thirds' of Russian oil imports into the 27-nation bloc, EU Council President Charles Michel said.
"This immediately covers more than two thirds of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine," Michel wrote on Twitter.
The leaders also agreed to cut off the largest Russian bank Sberbank from the SWIFT system and to ban three more Russian state-owned broadcasters, he added.
9:08pm: Gazprom to halt gas sales to Dutch supplier
Russian state gas giant Gazprom confirmed it will halt gas supplies to a Dutch gas trader starting Tuesday due to its refusal to pay for deliveries in roubles, a requirement President Vladimir Putin put forward earlier this year.
GasTerra, based in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, announced the shutoff Monday. It said the move means Gazprom will not deliver some 2 billion cubic metres of gas through October 1, the date the supply contract ends.
In its statement cited by the Russian state news agency TASS, Gazprom said that GasTerra has not paid for the gas supplied in April.
The Dutch trader said it has bought gas from other providers in anticipation of a possible Gazprom shutoff and Dutch Climate and Energy Minister Rob Jetten said in a statement that the government understands the cutoff will “have no effect on the physical delivery of gas to Dutch households”.
GasTerra is a private company that is owned by the Dutch arms of energy giants Shell and Esso and the Dutch government.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)
