Summary
Before we close today’s live blog, here is a comprehensive run-down of where things currently stand.
- The US will send Ukraine four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition to help try to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. The rocket systems are part of a new $700m tranche of security assistance that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more. It will take at least three weeks to get the precision weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon said.
- Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the supply of US advanced rocket systems to Ukraine increases the risk of a “third country” being dragged into the conflict. Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said that Moscow viewed US military aid to Ukraine “extremely negatively” and that it would increase the risk of a direct confrontation. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov added: “We believe that the United States is purposefully and diligently adding fuel to the fire.”
- The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Ukraine has given “assurances” that it will not use long-range weapons systems provided by Washington against targets on Russian territory.
- Following Biden’s announcement, the UK has reportedly asked the US to sign off on a plan to send advanced, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine within a few weeks. Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, spoke with Biden about the transfer of US-made M270 multiple launch rocket systems, which will be followed by a discussion between his foreign secretary, Liz Truss, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Thursday, Politico cited a source as saying.
- Russian forces now control more than two-thirds of the key eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, according to the regional governor of Luhansk. “Unfortunately, today, Russian troops control most of the city,” Serhiy Gaidai said, adding that a number of civilians are sheltering from Russian shelling under a chemical plant. The expected loss of Sievierodonetsk, the largest still held by Kyiv in the Luhansk region, “is unlikely to be the crux” of Russia’s Donbas campaign, a western official said.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, conceded that Kyiv’s forces are currently suffering up to 100 fatalities and 500 wounded every day. The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk, Zelenskiy said in an interview with the US Newsmax television channel. Western officials said Ukraine’s estimate that it is losing 60 to 100 troops a day killed is “pretty credible”.
- A Russian missile hit rail lines in the western Lviv region, a key conduit for supplies of western weapons and other supplies, officials said. Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozytskiy said five people were wounded in the strike. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the country’s interior minister, said the Russians hit the Beskidy railway tunnel in the Carpathian Mountains in an apparent effort to cut a key railway link and disrupt shipments of weapons and fuel.
- Russia said it has completed testing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it before the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet. President Vladimir Putin has described the Zircon as part of a new generation of unrivalled arms systems, travelling at nine times the speed of sound.
- Russian troops have been accused of committing acts of torture against residents in the Russian-controlled Kherson region in southern Ukraine. The BBC has gathered multiple first-hand testimonies from Kherson residents who say they were tortured while in the hands of Russian forces.
- Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he will convene a meeting in Brussels in the coming days with senior officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey to discuss Turkey’s opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance. Blinken said there was a “strong consensus within Nato, broadly, to support the rapid accession of Sweden and Finland” to Nato and he was confident it would happen.
That’s all from me, Samantha Lock, for now. Please join me a little a later when we launch our new live blog covering all the latest developments from Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has claimed 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who have been forcefully taken to Russia, including children from orphanages, children taken with their parents and those separated from their families.
Zelenskiy made note of International Children’s Day during his nightly video address to the nation on Wednesday, claiming 243 children have been killed so far in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing.
The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return.
“Ukraine cannot be conquered, that our people will not surrender and our children will not become the property of the occupiers.”
Russian forces now control more than two-thirds of the key eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, according to the regional governor of Luhansk.
Serhiy Gaidai said a number of civilians are sheltering from Russian shelling under a chemical plant while the Ukrainian head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk, said Ukrainian forces are holding just 20% of the city, the largest still held by Kyiv in the Luhansk region.
The expected loss of Sievierodonetsk “is unlikely to be the crux” of Russia’s Donbas campaign, a western official said.
Residents of the eastern city of Sloviansk in the Donetsk region fear a full Russian assault after their city came under rocket attack late on Tuesday.
The missiles struck a residential area, damaging and burning nearby vehicles. According to the regional governor, at least three people were killed and six were wounded in the eastern Donetsk region.
Summary
It’s 2am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- Brazilian football legend Pele on Wednesday called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his army’s invasion of Ukraine, as the war-torn country’s national team was set to vie for a World Cup spot. Pele recalled meeting Putin in the past and exchanging “smiles accompanied by a long handshake.” “The power to stop this conflict is in your hands. The same ones I shook in Moscow, at our last meeting in 2017,” he wrote. The match in Glasgow is the first for the Ukrainian national team since the invasion began.
- A regional governor in western Ukraine said a Russian airstrike on transport infrastructure wounded two people Wednesday. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the country’s interior minister, said the Russians hit the Beskidy railway tunnel in the Carpathian Mountains in an apparent effort to cut a key railway link and disrupt shipments of weapons and fuel.
- The Senate of Ireland passed a resolution on Wednesday declaring the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “genocide.” “The acts carried out by the Russian military meet the criteria for genocide set out in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and as such, the illegal invasion of Ukraine by by the Russian Federation is an act of genocide,” the resolution stated.
- Denmark has voted to join the EU’s defence policy. Wednesday’s referendum signals the latest shift among Nordic countries to deepen defence ties in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Denmark was the only EU member that was not part of the bloc’s defence and security policy, after the country secured several exemptions in a 1993 referendum.
- The Ukraine Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights and Children’s Rehabilitation announced on Wednesday that over 234,000 Ukrainian children have been deported since the war began. “According to open sources, as of today, more than 234,000 children have crossed the border to Russia and temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. These are forcibly deported, forcibly displaced children either to the temporarily occupied territories, or to Russia or the Republic of Belarus,” the commissioner said.
- The head of Interpol raised alarms on Wednesday about a possible uptick in weapons trafficking once the war in Ukraine end. Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock told the Anglo-American Press Association that he has “no doubt” illegal arms trafficking will increase. Stock encouraged Interpol’s 195-member countries to “intensively use available databases that can help trace and track weapons, for instance those stolen in another country.”
- The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that the US will send Ukraine four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition to help try to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region of its country. The rocket systems are part of a new $700m tranche of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, today as I hand the blog over to my colleague in Australia, Samantha Lock. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.
Brazilian football legend Pele called Wednesday for Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his army’s invasion of Ukraine, as the war-torn country’s national team was set to vie for a World Cup spot, Agence France-Presse reports.
“Today Ukraine tries to forget, at least for 90 minutes, the tragedy that still engulfs their country,” Pele wrote in an open letter to Putin, posted on Instagram just before the Ukrainian men’s football team faced Scotland in a World Cup playoff semi-final.
“I want to use today’s match as an opportunity to make a request: stop the invasion. There is absolutely no justification for this continued violence,” added the three-time World Cup champion.
“This conflict is wicked, unjustifiable and brings nothing but pain, fear, terror and anguish... Wars only exist to separate nations, and there’s no ideology that justifies projectile missiles burying the dreams of children, ruining families and killing the innocent.”
Pele recalled meeting Putin in the past and exchanging “smiles accompanied by a long handshake.”
“The power to stop this conflict is in your hands. The same ones I shook in Moscow, at our last meeting in 2017,” he wrote.
Considered by many the greatest footballer of all time, Pele had one of the most storied careers in sport, scoring more than 1,000 goals before retiring in 1977.
His message comes as the Ukraine conflict nears its 100th day, with fierce fighting ongoing in the nation’s east, after the Russian army failed in its bid to overtake Kyiv.
The match in Glasgow is the first for the Ukrainian national team since the invasion began.
The winners will face Wales on Sunday to decide who will be the final member of Group B - alongside England, the United States and Iran.
A regional governor in western Ukraine said a Russian airstrike on transport infrastructure wounded two people Wednesday, the Associated Press reports.
Lviv region Gov. Maksym Kozytskyy didn’t name the target of the Russian strike near the city of Lviv.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the country’s interior minister, said the Russians hit the Beskidy railway tunnel in the Carpathian Mountains in an apparent effort to cut a key railway link and disrupt shipments of weapons and fuel.
The Lviv region has served as a key conduit for supplies of Western weapons and other supplies.
The Senate of Ireland passed a resolution on Wednesday declaring the Russian invasion of Ukraine a “genocide.”
“….. the illegal invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation is an Act of Genocide”
— Senator Mark Daly (@SenatorMarkDaly) June 1, 2022
Senate of Ireland passed a resolution on Genocide by Russia in Ukraine @ZelenskyyUa @r_stefanchuk @Denys_Shmyhal @mezentseva_dep pic.twitter.com/2ge88ih7th
“The acts carried out by the Russian military meet the criteria for genocide set out in the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and as such, the illegal invasion of Ukraine by by the Russian Federation is an act of genocide,” the resolution stated.
Denmark will join the EU's defence policy, public broadcaster DR projects.
Denmark will join the European Union’s defence policy after a referendum on Wednesday, public broadcaster DR projected, signalling the latest shift among Nordic countries to deepen defence ties in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Denmark is the only EU member that is not part of the bloc’s defence and security policy, after the country secured several exemptions in a 1993 referendum.
Preliminary results by DR showed 66.6% of voters were in favour of removing an opt-out to the EU’s so-called Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Almost 34 percent of voters polled were opposed, but the outcome will not change, according to DR.
“It is a completely new approach to Europe, that we are signalling to our European allies, to the whole world,” said former foreign minister and member of the Social Liberal Party, Martin Lidegaard.
“It can hardly be overestimated, the importance it has on our foreign and European policy,” Lidegaard said.
In the CSDP Denmark would be able to take part in joint military operations, such as those in Somalia, Mali and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to cooperate on acquisition of joint military capabilities.
“The United States has said it very clearly. Europe must be more responsible for security, and I think it makes good sense to be part of that cooperation instead of constantly hoping for the U.S. to come,” said Conservative People’s Party leader Soren Pape.
Daria Herasymchuk, the Ukraine Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights and Children’s Rehabilitation announced on Wednesday that over 234,000 Ukrainian children have been deported since the war began.
Russia deported 234,000 Ukrainian children to Belarus, Russian, or 🇷🇺-occupied territory - 🇺🇦 Children's Rights Commissioner
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 1, 2022
This is prohibited by Geneva Convention. "Today we can also say that the world of adults has failed Children's Day in Ukraine" https://t.co/sLNvbn4Z30
“According to open sources, as of today, more than 234,000 children have crossed the border to Russia and temporarily occupied territories of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. These are forcibly deported, forcibly displaced children either to the temporarily occupied territories, or to Russia or the Republic of Belarus,” Herasymchuk said.
“We will fight for absolutely every Ukrainian child. Today we can also say that the world of adults has failed Children’s Day in Ukraine,” she added.
The head of Interpol, an international organization that that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime control, raised alarms on Wednesday about a possible uptick in weapons trafficking once the war in Ukraine ends, the Associated Press reports.
Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock told the Anglo-American Press Association that he has “no doubt” illegal arms trafficking will increase.
“We have seen that in the Balkans region,” Stock said. “We have seen that in theaters in Africa that, of course, organized crime groups try to exploit this chaotic situation, availability of weapons and even weapons that are used by the military.”
Small weapons are the main concern, he said.
Stock encouraged Interpol’s 195-member countries to “intensively use available databases that can help trace and track weapons, for instance those stolen in another country.”
“No country in our region can deal with it in isolation because the criminals I’m talking about are operating globally,” Stock said.
Interpol, based in Lyon, France, does not carry out investigations but provides training for police and customs officers to, for instance, identify trafficking routes, Stock said.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that the US will send Ukraine four sophisticated, medium-range rocket systems and ammunition to help try to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region of its country, the Associated Press reports.
It will take at least three weeks to get the precision weapons and trained troops onto the battlefield, the Pentagon added.
The rocket systems are part of a new $700m tranche of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that also includes helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles, spare parts and more.
Asked if the weapons are arriving too late to make a difference, as Russia makes progress in the east and south, Colin Kahl, the defense undersecretary for policy, said he doesn’t think so.
“It is a grinding fight,” he said during a Pentagon briefing. “We believe that these additional capabilities will arrive in a timeframe that’s relevant and allow the Ukrainians to very precisely target the types of things they need for the current fight.”
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that the US is “deliberately and diligently pouring fuel on the fire.” He added that the Kremlin doesn’t trust Kyiv’s assurances that the multiple rocket launch systems supplied by the US will not be used to attack Russia.
“In order to trust [someone], you need to have experience with situations when such promises were kept. Regretfully, there is no such experience whatsoever,” Peskov said.
It’s the 11th package approved so far and will be the first to tap the $40bn in security and economic assistance recently passed by Congress. The rocket systems would be part of Pentagon drawdown authority, so would involve taking weapons from US inventory and getting them into Ukraine quickly. Ukrainian troops would also need training on the new systems, which could take at least a week or two.
Officials said the plan is to send Ukraine the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars, which is mounted on a truck and can carry a container with six rockets. The system can launch a medium-range rocket, which is the current plan, but is also capable of firing a longer-range missile, the Army Tactical Missile System, which has a range of about 190 miles and is not part of the plan.
Updated
Summary
It’s 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Ukraine has given “assurances” that it will not use long-range weapons systems provided by Washington against targets on Russian territory. Blinken’s remarks came after the US president, Joe Biden, confirmed he will send the more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Kyiv, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been asking for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region.
-
Following Biden’s announcement, the UK has reportedly asked the US to sign off on a plan to send advanced, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine within a few weeks. Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, spoke with Biden about the transfer of US-made M270 multiple launch rocket systems this morning, which will be followed by a discussion between his foreign secretary, Liz Truss, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Thursday, Politico cited a source as saying.
-
During a joint news conference with Blinken, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he will convene a meeting in Brussels in the coming days with senior officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey to discuss Turkey’s opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance. Blinken said there was a “strong consensus within Nato, broadly, to support the rapid accession of Sweden and Finland” to Nato and he was confident it would happen.
- Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the supply of US advanced rocket systems to Ukraine increases the risk of a “third country” being dragged into the conflict. Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said that Moscow viewed US military aid to Ukraine “extremely negatively” and that it would increase the risk of a direct confrontation.
- The regional governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai, said a number of civilians are sheltering from Russian shelling under a chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian forces are holding just 20% of the city, the largest still held by Kyiv in the Luhansk region, according to the Ukrainian head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk. The expected loss of Sievierodonetsk “is unlikely to be the crux” of Russia’s Donbas campaign, a western official said.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, conceded that Kyiv’s forces are currently suffering up to 100 fatalities and 500 wounded every day. The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk, Zelenskiy said in an interview with the US Newsmax television channel. Western officials said Ukraine’s estimate that it is losing 60 to 100 troops a day killed is “pretty credible”.
-
Russia said it has completed testing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it before the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet. President Vladimir Putin has described the Zircon as part of a new generation of unrivalled arms systems, travelling at nine times the speed of sound.
- Russian troops have been accused of committing acts of torture against residents in the Russian-controlled Kherson region in southern Ukraine. The BBC has gathered multiple first-hand testimonies from Kherson residents who say they were tortured while in the hands of Russian forces.
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand the blog over to my colleague in New York, Maya Yang. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.
Updated
Civilians sheltering under Sievierodonetsk's Azot chemical plant, says governor
Civilians are sheltering from Russian shelling under a chemical plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, according to the regional governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Gaidai.
It is possible there are still stocks of dangerous chemicals at the facility, Gaidai told Reuters.
Referring to the siege of the Azovstal steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol, Gaidai said:
There are civilians there in bomb shelters, there are quite a few of them, but it will not be a second Azovstal as that [plant] had a huge underground city – which isn’t there at Azot.
Updated
Jasper Jolly speaks to Yuriy Ryzhenkov, whose Azovstal plant was devastated by Russian bombardment:
The Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol has become one of the symbols of the brutality of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Soldiers held out for weeks in the warren of tunnels, warehouses and cooling blast furnaces as they and hundreds of civilians sheltering with them were encircled and eventually forced to surrender.
The site produced 40% of Ukraine’s entire steel output and was the key asset of the country’s biggest pre-war employer, Metinvest. Now its owner has an important role to play in the parallel battle to sustain the economy via its other plants outside occupied territory, according to its chief executive, Yuriy Ryzhenkov.
“The war effort is not only what you supply to the army, but also how [the] economy functions,” the Metinvest boss says, speaking via videolink from a company office in Lviv, western Ukraine. “So the better the economy functions, the better the country can fight a war.
In our view, in my personal view the people who are now at our steel mills are just as important to the victory of Ukraine as the soldiers on the frontline.
Ryzhenkov was in the capital, Kyiv, when he first heard Russian weaponry signalling the start of the invasion and was stunned that Vladimir Putin’s regime would launch open warfare. The company has since adjusted to operating in a warzone, but at least 153 Metinvest employees have died in the fighting.
Beyond keeping money flowing through the economy, the metals and mining group is playing a direct role in the war effort, delivering steel for 1,500 bulletproof vests a week to Ukraine’s armed forces, and importing military equipment such as drones, night-vision headsets and helmets.
It is a remarkable shift for a company whose main shareholder – Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov – was as recently as November cited by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as a target to be recruited to back a possible coup attempt. Zelenskiy said Akhmetov was not involved in the plot, and the oligarch said claims of moves to draw him in were “an absolute lie”.
Read Jasper Jolly’s full article – Boss of devastated Azovstal plant: ‘Steel is as key to Ukraine’s victory as soldiers’
Updated
The UK has reportedly asked the US to sign off on a plan to send advanced, medium-range rocket systems to Ukraine within a few weeks, following President Joe Biden’s announcement that he will send similar weapons.
Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, spoke with Biden about the transfer of US-made M270 multiple launch rocket systems this morning, Politico reports, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The meeting will then be followed by a discussion between his foreign secretary, Liz Truss, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on Thursday, the source said.
The UK would be the first country to send the US-made MLRS, the news site reports. The US must officially approve the move due to export regulations.
Updated
Interpol’s secretary general, Jürgen Stock, has warned that many of the weapons being sent to Ukraine will eventually wind up in criminal hands in Europe and beyond.
Stark urged countries to start scrutinising arms-tracking databases, telling reporters:
The high availability of weapons during the current conflict will result in the proliferation of illicit arms in the post-conflict phase.
Organised crime groups will be empowered by the availability of weapons, he said.
Criminals are already now, here as we speak, focusing on that.
Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he will convene a meeting in Brussels in the coming days with senior officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey to discuss Turkey’s opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance.
Speaking at a joint news conference with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Stoltenberg said:
I’m in close contact with President Erdoğan of Turkey and with the leaders of Finland and Sweden.
Blinken said there was a “strong consensus within Nato, broadly, to support the rapid accession of Sweden and Finland” to Nato and he was confident it would happen.
Updated
Today so far...
It is almost 7pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, conceded that Kyiv’s forces are currently suffering up to 100 fatalities and 500 wounded every day. The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk, Zelenskiy said in an interview with the US Newsmax television channel.
- The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Ukraine has given “assurances” that it will not use long-range weapons systems provided by Washington against targets on Russian territory. Blinken’s remarks came after the US president, Joe Biden, confirmed he will send the more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Kyiv, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been asking for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region.
- Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the supply of US advanced rocket systems to Ukraine increases the risk of a “third country” being dragged into the conflict. Lavrov’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, said that Moscow viewed US military aid to Ukraine “extremely negatively” and that it would increase the risk of a direct confrontation.
- Ukrainian forces are holding just 20% of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, the largest still held by Kyiv in the Luhansk region, according to the Ukrainian head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk. Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, said earlier this morning that Russia controls 70% of the city. The expected loss of Sievierodonetsk “is unlikely to be the crux” of Russia’s Donbas campaign, a Western official said.
-
Russia said it has completed testing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it before the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet. President Vladimir Putin has described the Zircon as part of a new generation of unrivalled arms systems, travelling at nine times the speed of sound.
- Russian troops have been accused of committing acts of torture against residents in the Russian-controlled Kherson region in southern Ukraine. The BBC has gathered multiple first-hand testimonies from Kherson residents who say they were tortured while in the hands of Russian forces.
-
Germany will supply Ukraine with the IRIS-T air defence system, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said, following pleas from Kyiv and German opposition parties to step up heavy weapons deliveries. Scholz said Germany had been “delivering continuously since the beginning of the war” and said talks were continuing with Germany’s partners on ways to further arm Ukraine against the Russian attack.
-
Fuel believed to be partially made from Russian crude has reportedly reached US shores despite a ban on all imports of Russian oil, gas and energy. Traders are attempting to evade US sanctions by obscuring the origins of Russian oil, concealing the oil in blended refined products such as gasoline, diesel and chemicals, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Hello. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. As always, feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
The expected loss of Sievierodonetsk “is unlikely to be the crux” of Russia’s Donbas campaign, a Western official said, in a war that could now grind on “to the end of the year” given the slow rate of Moscow’s advance.
The average gain of Russian forces in Popansa south of Sievierodonetsk has “averaged between 500m and 1 kilometre” a day in the last month, the official added, meaning capturing the remainder of the Donetsk region in the Donbas would take months more at least.
Russia would have to achieve “further challenging operational objectives” to declare victory on the Kremlin’s now reduced campaign terms, the official said. That would require taking the city of Kramatorsk, more of the M04 main road between the Ukrainian-held city of Dnipro and the Russian-held city of Donetsk, they added, and more rivers would have to be crossed in the process.
The official said in a briefing:
Although we see Russia is starting to learn from its mistakes and make advances in the Donbas, I think it’s important to stress that the battle for Sievierodonetsk is is unlikely to be the kind of the crux of the Donetsk campaign.
Russian casualty rates were dropping because of the increasingly concentrated fighting in the Donbas, and were probably “not necessarily significantly more” than a previous estimate of 15,000 killed given in April. The number of Russians wounded, since the war began, is estimated at about 40,000.
The west believes that Ukraine’s estimate that it is losing 60 to 100 troops a day killed in the current fighting is “pretty credible” although troop morale remains far higher than the invaders, where the official argued there was “growing disillusionment” with Russia’s slow-moving campaign among junior soldiers and more senior ranks.
Russia may slow down its offensive after capturing Sievierodonetsk to regroup, in what could amount to a pause.
The official said it was unlikely the Russian invaders would be “in a position to continue to exploit immediately” once the city, the last held by Ukraine in the Luhansk region, fell. Instead, Moscow’s forces could be forced into “a kind of an operational pause” to “reconstitute and resupply”, they said.
Updated
Ukraine 'will not use US weapons to strike Russia', says Blinken
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has been speaking at a joint news conference with Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, where he said Ukraine has given “assurances” that it will not use long-range weapons systems provided by Washington against targets on Russian territory.
The new weapons package heading to Ukraine is “precisely what they need” and will strengthen their hand at any negotiations in the future, he said.
Regarding concerns about Russia interpreting the weapons package to Ukraine as escalatory, Blinken said that the US president, Joe Biden, had been clear with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the consequences of the Russian invasion.
Blinken said:
There was no hiding the ball. We’ve been extremely clear about this from day one with President Biden communicating that directly to President Putin. So we have done exactly what we said we would do.
He said Putin had wanted less Nato but instead, “he is getting more Nato, more troops and more members”.
The US cannot predict how long the conflict will continue, Blinken continued, but it will make sure Ukraine is equipped with what it needs to defend itself effectively.
Blinken said:
We can’t predict how this is going to play out, when this is going to play out. As best we can assess right now, we are still looking at many months of conflict.
Updated
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the supply of US advanced rocket systems to Ukraine increases the risk of a “third country” being dragged into the conflict.
His remarks came after the US president, Joe Biden, confirmed he will send more medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems to Ukraine as part of a new weapons package to be unveiled today.
Speaking at a news conference in Saudi Arabia, Lavrov also said Russia is facing difficulties exporting grain due to sanctions against its ships, Reuters reports.
Lavrov said:
There are also problems with the export of Russian grain... Vessels that carry Russian grain have fallen under sanctions.
About 15,000 Russian troops have been killed and 40,000 wounded since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, western officials have estimated.
Our Dan Sabbagh writes that Russia’s previously high casualty rate has dropped significantly since its focus of attack has narrowed.
Officials have also supported Ukraine’s count that its forces are losing between 60 and 100 soldiers each day in the battle in the Donbas.
Western officials estimate that not much more than 15k Russian forces killed and 40k wounded in war so far. Previously high casualty rate has dropped markedly as Moscow's focus of attack has narrowed
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) June 1, 2022
Current rate of Russian advance - the official said - around Popansa is 500m - 1km a day. Russia faces "further operational challenges" if it is to take the Donetsk oblast ie get to Kramatorsk
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) June 1, 2022
Also a growing feeling this war could run for many more months. Western official - "I think we're looking at a conflict which is got the potential to run at least to the end of this year."
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) June 1, 2022
Updated
Denmark is voting on whether to join the EU’s common defence policy, potentially becoming the last of the bloc’s members to sign up as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to reshape Europe’s security landscape.
The referendum on Wednesday, in which voters are thought likely to back the government’s proposal, follows historic applications by Denmark’s previously non-aligned Nordic neighbours, Finland and Sweden, to join Nato last month.
Denmark, historically critical of the EU, secured exemptions from joining both the bloc’s security and defence policy and the euro in a 1993 referendum, but the country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said it was time to change tack.
“Unfortunately we are looking forward to a time that will be even more unstable than what we are experiencing now,” Frederiksen said after casting her vote.
I believe it is the right thing for Europe, the right thing for Denmark, the right thing for our future.
Frederiksen called the referendum barely two weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after reaching an agreement with a majority of parties in the Danish parliament, also pledging to increase defence spending to 2% of GDP, in line with Nato membership requirements, by 2033.
The US military is conducting offensive hacking operations in support of Ukraine, according to the head of US cyber command, Gen Paul Nakasone.
US military hackers have “conducted a series of operations” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Nakasone confirmed in an interview with Sky News.
Nakasone said:
We’ve conducted a series of operations across the full spectrum; offensive, defensive, [and] information operations.
He did not detail the activities but said they were lawful, conducted with civilian oversight of the military and through US defence department policy.
He also said he is concerned “every single day” about the risk of a Russian cyber attack targeting the US and said “hunt forward” operations were allowing the US to search out foreign hackers and identify their tools before they were used against America.
Updated
There has been another Telegram update from Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk, this time with what he says is good news – a successful evacuation. He posted:
The mountain community suffers daily from enemy shelling, the racists level the settlements with artillery and aircraft. The hottest in Toshkivka and Zolote, orcs [a slang term for Russian forces] deliberately roam the high-rises. It was extremely difficult to drive, the road is constantly under fire, but our heroes broke through – brought in ambulances and evacuated nine people – retirees and people with limited mobility.
Haidai goes on to claim that the people are now safe.
A Ukrainian MP has warned of an impending famine if action is not taken to unblock the country’s ports and release millions of tonnes of grain.
PA Media reports Kira Rudik, leader of the liberal Voice party, was speaking to journalists at the Scottish Parliament.
“Before the war, Ukraine was top three of the countries producing grains: wheat, sunflower oil, tomatoes and corn,” Rudik said.
Exports that could feed the rest of the world, the MP said, were stuck in ports in Ukraine with “no way of getting them out”.
“In 10 weeks, we are facing famine, especially for countries in the [global] south. We need a unified approach to help unblock our ports and help get all this harvest out.”
Rudik said she raised the issue in a meeting with Westminster Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood, the chair of the defence select committee, adding: “This is a humanitarian mission that needs to happen, not for the Ukrainian good but for the good of the whole world.”
Rudik was interviewed by our defence and security editor Dan Sabbagh earlier in the week: Ukrainian MP urges west to supply long-range rockets or risk Russian victory
Updated
The UN’s secretary general, António Guterres, said he was hopeful of easing the food crisis prompted by the war in Ukraine, but warned that “we are not yet there” in terms of reaching any agreement to unblock shipments of commodities such as grain.
Speaking at a news conference with Sweden’s prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, in Stockholm, Guterres said:
I think that there is progress, but we are not yet there. These are complex things and the fact that everything is interlinked makes the negotiation particularly complex.
Guterres has been attempting to broker what he calls a package deal to resume both Ukrainian food exports and Russian food and fertiliser exports. He said:
As I said to the security council, I’m hopeful, but there is still a ways to go and we are totally committed to make things happen.
Updated
Just 20% of Sievierodonetsk in Ukrainian hands, says official
Ukrainian forces are holding just 20% of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, the largest still held by Kyiv in the Luhansk region, according to the Ukrainian head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk.
There is still hope, however, that Ukrainian forces can prevent Russia from taking full control of the city, he said.
Russian forces now control 60% of the city while the rest has become “no-man’s land”, Stryuk told Reuters.
Stryuk said:
The 20% is being fiercely defended by our armed forces. Our troops are holding defensive lines. Attempts are being made to drive out the Russian troops.
We have hope that despite everything we will free the city and not allow it to be completely occupied
Earlier today, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, said Russia now “controls 70% of Sievierodonetsk” and that Ukrainian troops had “retreated to more advantageous, pre-prepared positions”.
Between 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city and it was impossible to get food or aid in or to get people out, Stryuk said.
There was no information on how many people have died in the city in recent days, he added.
Residents of Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk, were told yesterday to remain in bomb shelters after a strike on a chemical factory created a toxic cloud.
This footage shows brown plumes of gas ascending after a container with chemicals was blown up at the Azot chemical works.
The factory, one of Ukraine’s biggest chemical works, employs about 7,000 people.
Updated
Zelenskiy: Ukraine losing up to 100 soldiers every day
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has conceded that Kyiv’s forces are currently suffering up to 100 fatalities and 500 wounded every day.
In an interview with the US Newsmax television channel that aired yesterday, Zelenskiy said:
The situation is very difficult; we’re losing 60-100 soldiers per day as killed in action and something around 500 people as wounded in action. So we are holding our defensive perimeters.
The most difficult situation is in the east of Ukraine and southern Donetsk and Luhansk, Zelenskiy added.
Ukraine and its people are the “defensive perimeter” for the world against Vladimir Putin’s aggression, he told the channel.
We have to realise who is the dark power: it’s Russia. And Russia is not going to stop in Ukraine, for sure. The other countries, the former Republics of USSR and the members of the EU – some of them are already Nato member nations – they’re already under threat.
The Ukrainian president called out the “weakness” of Putin and Russia, not only in failing to occupy a smaller neighbouring nation but also in attempts to take him out as leader.
He said:
Attempting to kill the leader of this or that country is a weakness, I would say. If you can’t talk, then it’s a weakness.
Putin cannot win, and the world must stop defending him amid the latest “atrocities” committed by Russian troops, he continued, while also calling out the lack of fully enforcing sanctions.
Now, he’s almost isolated. The world always keeps giving him a chance, because the sanctions are not imposed completely. There’s gaps in some of the leaders saying the Russian leader should be offered with a way out.
Russian troops accused of torture of Kherson residents, reports say
Russian troops have been accused of committing acts of torture against residents in the Russian-controlled Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
The BBC has gathered multiple first-hand testimonies from Kherson residents who say they were tortured while in the hands of Russian forces. In one case, Olexander Guz, a deputy in the village of Bilozerka in the Kherson region, said he was left with severe bruising after being beaten.
“They put a bag on my head,” he said.
The Russians threatened that I would not have kidneys left.
Oleh Baturin, a journalist for an independent newspaper in the Kherson region, said he was kidnapped and imprisoned by Russian forces for more than a week.
During his imprisonment, he said he heard others being tortured and witnessed a young man’s mock execution. He himself was beaten “on the back, ribs and legs” with “the butt of a machine gun” and suffered four broken ribs.
The BBC spoke to a doctor who worked in a hospital in Kherson, who said he has seen signs of electrocution, traces of binding on the hands and strangulation marks on the neck, as well as burns on people’s feet and hands.
Updated
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has been speaking at his regular conference call with reporters, where he blamed “illegal restrictions” imposed on Russia by western countries for a potential “very deep” food crisis.
Russia has been blockading Ukrainian ports but is trying to pin the blame for the lack of grain shipments on western sanctions and on Kyiv itself.
Peskov told reporters today:
We are potentially on the verge of a very deep food crisis linked to the introduction of illegal restrictions against us and the actions of Ukrainian authorities who have mined the path to the Black Sea and are not shipping grain from there despite Russia not impeding in any way.
His remarks come after European leaders appealed to African countries, who are facing “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises, not to fall for the Kremlin’s propaganda campaign that paints the impending global food crisis as the result of western sanctions against Russia.
Peskov also warned that the EU’s sanctions on Russian oil would hit the global energy market, but said Moscow could re-route exports to limit its own losses.
He did not rule out a meeting between Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but said talks needed to be prepared in advance.
Peskov said work on a peace document with Ukraine had stopped a long time ago and had not restarted.
Updated
Fuel believed to be partially made from Russian crude reached US shores despite a ban on all imports of Russian oil, gas and energy, according to reports.
Traders are attempting to evade US sanctions by obscuring the origins of Russian oil, concealing the oil in blended refined products such as gasoline, diesel and chemicals, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The cargoes that landed in New York and New Jersey last month were brought through the Suez Canal and across the Atlantic from Indian refineries, which have been big buyers of Russian oil.
One analyst who has been tracking Russian fossil fuel exports and their role in funding the Ukraine war told the paper:
It does look like there’s a trade where Russian crude is refined in India and then some of it is sold to the US.
Oil is also being transferred between ships at sea in the Mediterranean, off the coast of west Africa and the Black Sea, and then taken toward China, India and western Europe, the paper reports.
In March, the US president, Joe Biden, announced that “Russian oil will no longer be acceptable at US ports”. The UK announced a similar move to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022.
Updated
Today so far …
- Russia has said that a US decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine was extremely negative and would increase the risk of a direct confrontation. Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said that Moscow viewed US military aid to Ukraine “extremely negatively”. “Attempts to present the decision as containing an element of ‘self-restraint’ are useless,” Ryabkov said. “The fact that the United States, at the head of a group of states, is engaged in a purposeful pumping of weapons into the Kyiv regime is an obvious thing.”
- The US president, Joe Biden, has confirmed he will send the more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Kyiv, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been asking for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. The medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems are part of a new $700m (£555m) tranche of security assistance from the US.
- Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said that Russia now controls 70% of the city of Sievierodonetsk, which is the main crucible of Russia’s attack at the present time, and a key objective if Russian forces are to control the whole of the Donbas region. Haidai posted to Telegram claiming that “the Russians control 70% of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian troops retreated to more advantageous, pre-prepared positions. Another part continues fighting inside the city.”
- President Zelenskiy has blasted the “madness” of bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk. “Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army’s strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy.” Local officials said a nitric acid tank was hit and posted images of pink smoke billowing.
- Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region.
- The UK’s ministry of defence latest assessment of the situation on the ground in Ukraine says: “Russian ground operations remain tightly focused, with the weight of fire power concentrated within a small sector of Luhansk oblast. Over 30-31 May, fighting intensified in the streets of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian forces pushing closer to the town centre. Over half of the town is likely now occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters. Beyond the Donbas, Russia continues to conduct long-range missile strikes against infrastructure across Ukraine.”
- Overnight a video depicting children alleged to have been killed by Ukrainian forces in the Russian-occupied Donbas region of Ukraine was projected on to the US embassy in Moscow as part of a protest to coincide with International Children’s Day.
- Germany will supply Ukraine with the IRIS-T air defence system, the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said, following pleas from Kyiv and German opposition parties to step up heavy weapons deliveries.
- Switzerland’s government has vetoed Denmark’s request to send Swiss-made armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine. Denmark votes today in a referendum asking the nation whether it wants to end its decades-long opt-out from common European Union defence policies. Denmark’s foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, has said he will ask parliament tomorrow for Denmark’s support of the accession of Sweden and Finland to Nato.
- Ukraine is working on an international UN-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who said Russia was playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
- Pope Francis appealed to authorities to lift the block on wheat exports from Ukraine, saying the grain cannot be used as a “weapon of war”.
- The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risked “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continued.
- Russia says it has has completed testing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it before the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet.
- Ukraine will face Scotland tonight in what is set to be a highly emotionally charged football match in Glasgow. The winners will play Wales on Sunday for the final berth at the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, until later on. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here with you shortly.
Updated
Germany will supply Ukraine with the IRIS-T air defence system, the Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said, following pleas from Kyiv and German opposition parties to step up heavy weapons deliveries.
Scholz said Germany had been “delivering continuously since the beginning of the war”, pointing to more than 15m rounds of ammunition, 100,000 grenades and more than 5,000 anti-tank mines sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on 24 February.
“Most recently, the government has decided that we will deliver the most modern air defence system that Germany has in the form of the IRIS-T,” Reuters reports Scholz told lawmakers in the Bundestag.
Responding to critics in his speech to parliament, Scholz said his government had responded to the Russian attack with a “massive change of policy in Germany” by opting to send heavy weapons into a war zone.
Ukraine’s requests for heavy weapons intensified in recent weeks when Moscow turned its fiercest firepower on the country’s east after failing to take the capital, Kyiv.
Scholz said talks were continuing with Germany’s partners on ways to further arm Ukraine against the Russian attack.
Updated
Russia says it has has completed testing of its hypersonic Zircon cruise missile and will deploy it before the end of the year on a new frigate of its Northern Fleet.
Reuters report Aleksandr Moiseyev, commander of the Northern Fleet, said the Admiral Golovko frigate would become the first to be armed full-time with the Zircon.
President Vladimir Putin has described the Zircon as part of a new generation of unrivalled arms systems, travelling at nine times the speed of sound.
Updated
Russia now controls 70% of Sievierodonetsk – Luhansk governor
Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has said that Russia now controls 70% of the city of Sievierodonetsk, which is the main crucible of Russia’s attack at the present time, and a key objective if Russian forces are to control the whole of the Donbas region.
Haidai posted to Telegram claiming that “the Russians control 70% of Sievierodonetsk. Ukrainian troops retreated to more advantageous, pre-prepared positions. Another part continues fighting inside the city.”
He also said: “Lysychansk is completely under Ukrainian control. All free settlements of Luhansk region are constantly under fire. Evacuation is suspended.”
Updated
Pope Francis appealed to authorities to lift the block on wheat exports from Ukraine, saying the grain cannot be used as a “weapon of war”.
Reuters reports that speaking at his general audience to thousands of people in St Peter’s Square, he said the block should be lifted because many millions of people depend on wheat from Ukraine, particularly in the world’s poorest countries.
Oleh Synyehubov, Ukraine’s governor of Kharkiv, has posted to Telegram a situation update. He writes:
Kharkiv, Izium, Bohodukhiv and Chuhuiv districts of the region were shelled en masse. As a result of these shellings, four civilians were killed. A woman died in Zolochev, and a 12-year-old boy died in Ivanivka, Izium district. In the village Shestakove, Chuguiv district – two dead. A total of seven civilians were injured.
Fighting continues in Kharkiv region. The enemy is focused on defense and trying to hold his ground. In the Izium direction, the Russian occupiers are regrouping and preparing for new offensive attempts. Our defenders hold positions and inflict losses on the enemy. Last night, the Ukrainian armed forces shot down a Russian Ka-52 “Alligator” helicopter.
The enemy is acting insidiously, striking at civilians and civilian infrastructure. But he will answer for all his crimes! Ukraine will win!
The claims have not been verified.
Updated
Russia criticises US decision to supply Ukraine with medium-range rocket systems
Russia has said that a US decision to supply advanced rocket systems and munitions to Ukraine was extremely negative and would increase the risk of a direct confrontation.
Reuters reports that the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, told the state news agency RIA Novosti that Moscow viewed US military aid to Ukraine “extremely negatively”.
Ryabkov singled out US plans to supply Kyiv with its high mobility artillery rocket system (Himars) – a multiple rocket launcher system that Washington said it would supply to Ukraine as part of its latest military aid package.
“Attempts to present the decision as containing an element of ‘self-restraint’ are useless,” Ryabkov said. “The fact that the United States, at the head of a group of states, is engaged in a purposeful pumping of weapons into the Kyiv regime is an obvious thing.”
Updated
Russia’s RIA Novosti agency is reporting that overnight a video depicting children alleged to have been killed by Ukrainian forces in the Russian-occupied Donbas region of Ukraine was projected on to the US embassy in Moscow. The agency writes:
A video was projected on the walls of the US embassy in Moscow, stating that the US military “bears full responsibility for all the dead children of Donbas”.
The activists who organised the action timed it to the International Children’s Day.
The performance participants explained that they wanted to remind the world community that the White House has been sponsoring the Ukrainian authorities for many years.
Also from last night is this image of Gazprom’s building in Moscow, which is lit up at night with the letter “Z” in support of Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.
Updated
The Swiss government has vetoed Denmark’s request to send Swiss-made armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine, citing its neutrality policy of not supplying arms to conflict zones, the Swiss broadcaster SRF has reported.
The Swiss War Material act requires foreign countries that buy Swiss arms to seek permission to re-export them.
Reuters notes that in April Switzerland vetoed the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition used in anti-aircraft tanks that Germany is sending to Ukraine. It has also rejected Poland’s request for arms to help neighbouring Ukraine.
There has been some debate about amending the War Material act.
Updated
With the referendum on whether to join the European Union’s common defence policy today, and the question over gas supplies from Russia, there is a lot of news coming out of Denmark this morning. And there is more – Denmark’s foreign minister, Jeppe Kofod, has said he will ask parliament tomorrow for Denmark’s support of the accession of Sweden and Finland to Nato. Before the two nations can formally join, their membership has to be ratified by every current member state, which includes founding member Denmark.
- Initially this block incorrectly said that Kofod would speak to parliament on Wednesday. It was amended at 8.40am after Reuters issued a correction. Apologies.
Updated
There is a quick snap from Reuters here about the gas supply situation in Denmark. The Danish system operator Energinet has said that the flow of natural gas to Denmark via Germany remained steady today, despite Gazprom’s decision to halt supplies.
Updated
Away from the war in their homeland, Ukraine’s men’s football team are competing for a place in this year’s Fifa World Cup in Qatar. Nick Ames writes for us:
When Ukraine face Scotland at Hampden Park tonight it will be less a rebirth than a reminder that, much as Russia might wish to erase the country’s cultural identity, its football heritage remains truly alive. The act of playing for a World Cup place on Wednesday night, and over the next five days if all goes well, is both one of defiance and of expectation that, despite everything, good things can lie ahead.
Read more here: Ukraine players show their nation’s culture is alive and kicking
Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of Lviv, has confirmed on Telegram that again overnight there were no air raid warnings in the region, which is to the west of Ukraine and away from the main Russian theatre of operations.
The UK’s ministry of defence has published their latest assessment of the situation on the ground in Ukraine. It says:
Russian ground operations remain tightly focused, with the weight of fire power concentrated within a small sector of Luhansk oblast. Over 30-31 May, fighting intensified in the streets of Sievierodonetsk, with Russian forces pushing closer to the town centre.
Over half of the town is likely now occupied by Russian forces, including Chechen fighters. Beyond the Donbas, Russia continues to conduct long-range missile strikes against infrastructure across Ukraine.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 1 June 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 1, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/eyvBTJ9Q1Y
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/GxpDQY3ua2
Denmark votes today in a referendum asking the nation whether it wants to end its decades-long opt-out from common European Union defence policies. The referendum was called on 6 March in the wake of Russia’s latest invasion of Ukraine.
Agence France-Presse reports that analysts’ predictions of the result have been cautious, given a low voter turnout expected in a country that has often said “no” to further EU integration. Eleven of Denmark’s 14 parties have urged voters to say “yes”, representing more than three-quarters of seats in parliament.
“We must always cast our ballots when there is a vote”, prime minister Mette Frederiksen urged Danes in the final televised debate of the campaign on Sunday.
“I believe with all my heart that we have to vote ‘yes’. At a time when we need to fight for security in Europe, we need to be more united with our neighbours”, she said.
The defence opt-out means the Nato founding member does not participate in EU foreign policy where defence is concerned, and does not contribute troops to EU military missions.
Polls close at 8pm local time (7pm BST) with the result expected about three hours later.
Ukrainian hospitals are coming under enormous pressure, with trains carrying hundreds of injured people west from the front lines. Associated Press reports from Pokrovsk, where already-strained hospitals are trying to deal with an influx of trauma injuries from eastern cities like Sievierodonetsk, which are under heavy Russian bombing:
In wheelchairs and on stretchers, in ambulances and on train station platforms, they wait. Medical workers pull out ramps and wheel the patients onto the specially equipped train that will carry them westwards, away from the fighting raging in eastern Ukraine.
The train is a lifeline for the overwhelmed hospitals in cities and towns near Ukraine’s front lines that are struggling to cope with an influx of war wounded on top of their usual flow of sick patients.
Some hospitals in the east are buckling under the pressure of growing victim numbers, with already-reduced staff. From Pokrovsk:
Before the war “when there was normal work, we had 10 surgeons, now we have five,” said Dr. Ivan Mozhaiev. In his department, the 32-year-old is the only surgeon who remained out of five.
Updated
689 children have been injured or killed in Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion, the Verkhovna Rada - Ukrainian parliament - said this morning, in a post to its official Telegram.
As of the morning of June 1, the official number of child victims was 243, and the number of injured was 446.
It noted that those figures are not final, as work was still underway to try and confirm deaths in occupied territories and areas with active fighting. The true number is likely much higher: in cities like Sievierodonetsk, the mayor has said it is impossible to keep track of civilian casualties amid round-the-clock shelling.
For more insight into why Ukraine has been pleading for arms like the missiles just promised by the US, I recommend our correspondent Luke Harding’s report from Mykolaiv. He spoke there to Ukrainian forces under constant fire, desperate for heavier weaponry. Roman Kostenko, a Ukrainian MP and special forces commander said this:
“Victory now depends on our international friends,” he said. “We have plenty of kalashnikovs and machine guns. If we get enough heavy arms Russia will not be able to go any further.” He stressed: “The west can change the outcome of this war.”
Reuters reports that Russia’s nuclear forces are holding drills in the Ivanovo province, northeast of Moscow. The report comes from Interfax news agency, citing the Russian defence ministry on Wednesday.
Some 1,000 servicemen are exercising in intense manoeuvres using over 100 vehicles including Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, it said.
The report came shortly after Biden announced the US would be sending a $700m package of security assistance, including medium range missiles, to Ukraine.
Biden to send mid-range rockets to bolster Ukraine defences
Some more detail on the military aid package announced by president Joe Biden:
The medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems are part of $700m of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that will include helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, tactical vehicles and more.
Biden said the United States the advanced rocket systems and munitions would allow Ukraine to “more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield”. The US is trying to strike the balance of assisting Ukraine without risking escalating the war further.
Senior US administration officials said Ukraine gave assurances the missiles would not be used to strike inside Russia:
These systems will be used by the Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used on targets in Russian territory.”
Read the full story on that arms package here:
Summary and welcome
Hello. I’m Tess McClure and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
This morning, Joe Biden confirmed he will send more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Kyiv, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been asking for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. The medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems are part of a new $700m tranche of security assistance from the US.
That missiles package is an attempt for the US to strike a balance - providing meaningful assistance, while avoiding escalating the war by providing weapons that could allow strikes deep into Russia.
It’s just after 7am in Ukraine. If you’re just waking up or dropping in to catch up on what’s been happening, here are some of the latest developments from overnight:
- Russian forces now control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Serhiy Gaidai, the local governor, said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people. Civilians were told to stay underground.
- President Zelenskiy has blasted the “madness” of bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk. “Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army’s strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy.” Local officials said a nitric acid tank was hit and posted images of pink smoke billowing.
- Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region.
- Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, Zelenskiy noted that 50 days had passed between the fifth and sixth sanction packages.
- Ukraine was working on an international UN-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who said Russia was playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
- Ukraine’s giant seed bank is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing. Read more of the Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.
- The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risked “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continued.
- Ukraine would prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. Representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes have met with the international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, at The Hague.
- A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. Oleg Morozov from the United Russia party said on Rossiya-1 state TV he had a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister would travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
- Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security, said on Telegram that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have brought losses for big business.
- Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe. Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification follows the EU’s decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports.
