Amnesty accuses Russia of war crimes in Kharkiv
Amnesty International has accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, saying attacks on Kharkiv - many using banned cluster bombs - had killed hundreds of civilians.
The rights group said in a report on Ukraine’s second biggest city published on Monday:
The repeated bombardments of residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks which killed and injured hundreds of civilians, and as such constitute war crimes.
This is true both for the strikes carried out using cluster (munitions) as well as those conducted using other types of unguided rockets and unguided artillery shells.
The continued use of such inaccurate explosive weapons in populated civilian areas, in the knowledge that they are repeatedly causing large numbers of civilian casualties, may even amount to directing attacks against the civilian population.”
Amnesty said it had uncovered proof in Kharkiv of the repeated use by Russian forces of 9N210 and 9N235 cluster bombs and scatterable land mines, all of which are banned under international conventions.
Cluster bombs release dozens of bomblets or grenades in mid-air, scattering them indiscriminately over hundreds of square metres (yards).
Scatterable land mines combine “the worst possible attributes of cluster munitions and antipersonnel land mines”, Amnesty said.
Unguided artillery shells have a margin of error of over 100m.
The report, entitled ‘Anyone Can Die At Any Time’, details how Russian forces began targeting civilian areas of Kharkiv on the first day of the invasion on 24 February.
The “relentless” shelling continued for two months, wreaking “wholesale destruction” on the city of 1.5 million.
People have been killed in their homes and in the streets, in playgrounds and in cemeteries, while queueing for humanitarian aid, or shopping for food and medicine,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser.
“The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking, and a further indication of utter disregard for civilian lives.
“The Russian forces responsible for these horrific attacks must be held accountable.”
Kharkiv’s Military Administration told Amnesty 606 civilians had been killed and 1,248 wounded in the region since the conflict began.
Russia and Ukraine are not parties to the international conventions banning cluster munitions and anti-personnel mines.
But, Amnesty stressed, “international humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate attacks and the use of weapons that are indiscriminate by nature.
Launching indiscriminate attacks resulting in death or injury to civilians, or damage to civilian objects, constitutes war crimes.”
Summary
We will be pausing this live blog before launching more of our live coverage in the next few hours.
In the meantime, here is a comprehensive run-down of where things stand in Ukraine as of 3.30am.
- Russia’s defence ministry said its cruise missiles destroyed a large depot containing US and European weapons in Ternopil in western Ukraine on Sunday. The strike destroyed a “large depot of anti-tank missile systems, portable air defence systems and shells provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and European countries” the ministry said, a claim disputed by Ukrainian officials who said no weapons were stored there. Ternopil regional governor said the attack destroyed a number of residential buildings, injuring 22 people, including seven women and a 12-year-old.
- Russian forces destroyed a bridge connecting the embattled city of Sievierodonetsk to its twin city of Lysychansk, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, according to local officials. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said on Sunday that the Russian military has destroyed a bridge over the Siverskyi River that linked the two cities.
- Russian forces have taken most of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine where fierce street fighting continues after a fire broke out at the Azot chemical plant where hundreds of civilians are sheltering. “The key tactical goal of the occupiers has not changed: they are pressing in Sievierodonetsk, severe fighting is ongoing there - literally for every metre,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, adding that Russia’s military was trying to deploy reserve forces to Donbas. Ukrainian troops reportedly remain in control of an industrial area.
- Security concerns raised by Turkey in its opposition to Finland’s and Sweden’s Nato membership applications are legitimate, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said. “These are legitimate concerns. This is about terrorism, it’s about weapons exports,” Stoltenberg told a news conference in Finland on Sunday.
- The bodies of many Ukrainian fighters killed during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol are still awaiting retrieval, the former commander of Ukraine’s Azov National Guard regiment said on Sunday.
- A former British soldier has died fighting Russian forces in the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. The British Foreign Office confirmed Jordan Gatley was shot and killed in Ukraine. Gatley left the British army in March “to continue his career as a soldier in other areas” and had been helping Ukrainian troops defend their country against Russia, his father Dean wrote in a statement posted on Facebook.
- Friends and family of Brahim Saadoun – the 21-year-old Moroccan sentenced to death alongside two Britons last week – have called for his freedom, telling the Guardian he was an active-duty marine and not a mercenary as claimed by Russian media and pro-Russia officials in eastern Ukraine who announced the sentence.
- Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday the possibility of new talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “Perhaps in the next week, we will talk about what steps we will take, by holding talks with both Mr Putin and Zelenskiy,” he said in regards to solutions for impeded exports as a result of the war.
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The global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the cold war, and the risk of such weapons being used is the greatest in decades, a leading conflict and armaments thinktank said. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and western support for Kyiv has heightened tensions among the world’s nine nuclear-armed states, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
- Ukraine has established two routes through Poland and Romania to export grain and avert a global food crisis although bottlenecks have slowed the supply chain, Kyiv’s deputy foreign minister said on Sunday.
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Global trade ministers gathered to tackle food security threatened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a World Trade Organisation meeting on Sunday. Ministers are expected to agree on a joint declaration on strengthening food security, in which they will “commit to take concrete steps to facilitate trade and improve the functioning and longterm resilience of global markets for food and agriculture”.
- President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called for the need to strengthen anti-corruption laws in Ukraine. After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the European Commission president said: “There still needs to be reforms implemented, to fight corruption for example, or to modernise the administration, which will also help attract investors.”
- The British defence company QinetiQ will supply Ukraine with 10 Talon sapper robots for de-mining purposes, Ukrainian authorities announced on Sunday. The first deputy head of Ukraine’s patrol police, Oleksiy Biloshitsky, said: “Talon will be deployed to de-mine Ukraine. This is a sapper robot that not only locates ‘gifts’ but also neutralises them. Before the war we had already had more than a dozen of them, now QinetiQ will deliver 10 more.”
- McDonald’s restaurants opened their doors in Moscow under new Russian ownership and a new name, Vkusno & Tochka, which translates to ‘Tasty and that’s it’. The re-openings took place on Russia Day, a holiday celebrating national pride.
McDonald’s restaurants have flung open their doors in Moscow under new Russian ownership and a new name, Vkusno & Tochka, which translates to ‘Tasty and that’s it’.
The re-openings took place on Russia Day, a holiday celebrating national pride.
On Sunday, scores of people queued outside what was formerly McDonald’s flagship restaurant in Pushkin Square, central Moscow, according to a Reuters report.
The outlet sported a new logo - a stylised burger with two fries - plus a slogan: “The name changes, love stays”.
Vkusno & tochka’s menu was smaller and did not offer the Big Mac and some other burgers and desserts, such as the McFlurry. A double cheeseburger was going for 129 roubles ($2.31) compared with roughly 160 under McDonald’s and a fish burger for 169 roubles, compared with about 190 previously.
The flagship Moscow restaurant is among 15 rebranded outlets opening in and around the capital on Sunday. Oleg Paroev, CEO of Vkusno & tochka, said the company planned to reopen 200 restaurants in Russia by the end of June and all 850 by the end of the summer.
The chain will keep its old McDonald’s interior but will expunge any references to its former name, said Paroev, who was appointed McDonald’s Russia CEO weeks before the Ukraine conflict began.
“Our goal is that our guests do not notice a difference either in quality or ambience,” Paroev told a news conference in the restaurant.
Updated
Global trade ministers gathered to tackle food security threatened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at a World Trade Organisation meeting on Sunday.
WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told journalists she was “cautiously optimistic” that the more than 100 attending ministers would manage to agree on at least one or two of a long line of pressing issues, and that would be “a success”.
Top of the agenda at the four-day meeting is the toll Russia’s war in Ukraine, traditionally a breadbasket that feeds hundreds of millions of people, is having on food security.
A number of delegates took the floor to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, including Kyiv’s envoy, who was met with a standing ovation, WTO spokesman Dan Pruzin told journalists.
Then, right before Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov spoke, around three dozen delegates “walked out”, he said.
Even before the conference began, the European Union gathered representatives from 57 countries for a show solidarity with Ukraine, with EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis slamming Russia’s “illegal and barbaric aggression”
Ministers are expected to agree on a joint declaration on strengthening food security, in which they will “commit to take concrete steps to facilitate trade and improve the functioning and longterm resilience of global markets for food and agriculture”.
According to the draft text, countries would vow that “particular consideration will be given to the specific needs and circumstances of developing country members”.
The number of nuclear weapons in the world is set to rise in the coming decade after 35 years of decline as global tensions flare amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, researchers say.
The nine nuclear powers - Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, the United States and Russia - had 12,705 nuclear warheads in early 2022, or 375 fewer than in early 2021, according to estimates by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The number has come down from a high of more than 70,000 in 1986, as the US and Russia have gradually reduced their massive arsenals built up during the Cold War.
But this era of disarmament appears to be coming to an end and the risk of a nuclear escalation is now at its highest point in the post-Cold War period, SIPRI researchers said.
Matt Korda, one of the co-authors of the report, told Agence France-Presse:
Soon, we’re going to get to the point where, for the first time since the end of the Cold War, the global number of nuclear weapons in the world could start increasing for the first time.
That is really kind of dangerous territory.”
After a “marginal” decrease seen last year, “nuclear arsenals are expected to grow over the coming decade”, SIPRI said.
During the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has on several occasions made reference to the use of nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile several countries, including China and Britain, are either officially or unofficially modernising or ramping up their arsenals, the research institute said.
It’s going to be very difficult to make progress on disarmament over the coming years because of this war, and because of how Putin is talking about his nuclear weapons”, Korda said.
These worrying statements are pushing “a lot of other nuclear armed states to think about their own nuclear strategies”, he added.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has provided an update following the Russian attack on Ternopil, claiming ten people were injured and are still in hospital.
After the missile strike at the Ternopil region, ten people are still in hospitals. There was no tactical or strategic sense in this strike, as in the vast majority of other Russian strikes. This is terror, just terror.
Among the victims is a 12-year-old girl from Kharkiv. She went to the Ternopil region to flee from the Russian army. And such facts will now determine perception of Russia in the world. Not Peter I or Lev Tolstoy, but children wounded and killed by Russian strikes.”
Summary
It’s 2am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- The British defense company QinetiQ will supply Ukraine with 10 Talon sapper robots for demining purposes, Ukrainian authorities announced on Sunday. The first deputy head of Ukraine’s patrol police, Oleksiy Biloshitsky, said “Talon will be deployed to demine Ukraine. This is a sapper robot that not only locates ‘gifts’ but also neutralizes them. Before the war we had already had more than a dozen of them, now QinetiQ will deliver 10 more.”
- Russian forces have attacked Ukraine’s Vuhledar thermal power plant in Donetsk, according to local Ukrainian outlet Novosti Donbassa. The plant is controlled by the armed forces of Ukraine. Russian forces occupy the city of Svitlodarsk, approximately 5km from the plant. Fierce fighting over the plant remains ongoing.
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Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday the possibility of new talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “Perhaps in the next week, we will talk about what steps we will take, by holding talks with both Mr Putin and Zelenskiy,” he said in regards to solutions for impeded exports as a result of the war.
- Russian forces have destroyed a bridge connecting the embattled city of Sievierodonetsk to its twin city of Lysychansk, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, according to local officials. Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said on Sunday that the Russian military has destroyed a bridge over the Siverskyi River that linked the two cities.
- The head of the Russian Committee for the Prevention of Torture announced on Sunday that he had disbanded the organization after Russian authorities labeled it as a “foreign agent”. Calling the label an “insult”, Sergei Babinets said on Telegram: “We don’t want to continue working by being labelled ‘foreign agents’. We consider this term an insult and slander.”.
- Russian forces celebrated their country’s national day by exporting stolen metal from Mariupol, according to Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor. In a statement released on Telegram on Sunday, Andryuschchenko added that Russia’s 12 June national day is a “day of a murderer and looter”.
- The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has announced the need to strengthen anti-corruption laws in Ukraine. After meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the von der Leyen said: “There still needs to be reforms implemented, to fight corruption for example, or to modernise the administration, which will also help attract investors.”
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, today as I hand the blog over to my colleague in Australia, Samantha Lock, who will bring you the latest updates. I’ll be back tomorrow, thank you.
Updated
The British defense company QinetiQ will supply Ukraine with 10 Talon sapper robots for demining purposes, Ukrainian authorities announced on Sunday.
In a statement on Facebook, the first deputy head of Ukraine’s patrol police, Oleksiy Biloshitsky, said:
Talon will be deployed to demine Ukraine. This is a sapper robot that not only locates ‘gifts’ but also neutralizes them. Before the war we had already had more than a dozen of them, now QinetiQ will deliver 10 more.
According to Ukrainian outlet Ukrinform, approximately 300,000 sq km in Ukraine require demining.
British company to hand 10 sapper robots over to Ukraine
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2022
"TALON will be deployed to demine Ukraine. This is a sapper robot that not only identifies the location of ‘gifts’ but also neutralizes them," First Deputy Head of Ukraine’s Patrol Police Oleksiy Biloshitsky reports pic.twitter.com/NTAnn2utoT
Updated
Russian forces have attacked Ukraine’s Vuhledar thermal power plant in Donetsk, according to local Ukrainian outlet Novosti Donbassa.
In videos posted online, plumes of black smoke can be seen rising from the power plant, one of Ukraine’s tallest structures.
The plant is controlled by the armed forces of Ukraine. Russian forces occupy the city of Svitlodarsk, approximately 5km from the plant. Fierce fighting over the plant remains ongoing.
Russian forces attack Vuhledar Thermal Power Plant
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2022
An administrative building on its territory has been destroyed amid fierce fighting - Novosti Donbassa https://t.co/jxGtcSoWu9
📽️ by https://t.co/XHdmQeH8Eg pic.twitter.com/2JHFz24VSl
Updated
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Sunday the possibility of new talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Turkish outlet HaberTurk reports.
Speaking in regards to snarled exports as a result of Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, the outlet cited Erdogan saying: “In fact, we will be in a work to bring this business to a very different dimension, not only to ourselves, but also to send goods to third countries by re-exporting from there.”
“Negotiations continue, and besides these meetings, we also held talks with some relevant people last night. And perhaps in the next week, we will talk about what steps we will take, by holding talks with both Mr Putin and Zelenskiy.”
Erdogan announces new talks with Zelenskyy and Putin - Haberturk
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2022
Earlier, the UN proposed a 4-way mechanism involving Russia, Ukraine, & Turkey to export grain from Ukraine's ports blocked by Russian troops https://t.co/te9R5VxN7W
Updated
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia could reach a death toll of 40,000 soldiers by early July, according to Iuliia Mendel, a former spokesperson to the president.
President @ZelenskyyUa said that Russia could reach the number of 40,000 dead soldiers by early July.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) June 12, 2022
Russian forces destroy bridge out of Sievierodonetsk
Russian forces have destroyed a bridge connecting the embattled city of Sievierodonetsk to its twin city of Lysychansk, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, according to local officials.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk province, said on Sunday that the Russian military has destroyed a bridge over the Siverskyi River that linked the two cities.
He added that Russian shelling in Lysychansk has killed one woman and destroyed four houses and a shopping centre.
According to the head of the Sievierodonetsk administration, approximately a third of the city remained under the control of Ukrainian forces and about two-thirds were in Russian hands.
Updated
The head of the Russian Committee for the Prevention of Torture announced on Sunday that he had disbanded the organization after Russian authorities labeled it as a “foreign agent.”
Calling the label an “insult,” Sergei Babinets said, “We don’t want to continue working by being labelled ‘foreign agents’. We consider this term an insult and slander,” Sergei Babinets said on Telegram.
“Despite the obvious importance of our mission, the authorities have been trying for many years to portray it as foreign and harmful,” he said.
“The authorities are sending a signal that torture is becoming (or has already become) a part of government policy,” he added.
The organization was founded 22 years ago and has launched multiple campaigns to urge authorities to investigate mistreatment by seurity forces and implement preventative measures.
Already branded a “foreign agent” in 2015 and again in 2016, the organisation decided to dissolve itself before reforming to try to shake off the designation.
“Foreign agents” are subject to numerous constraints and tedious procedures, or they face heavy penalties. They must indicate their status in all publications.
Updated
Russian forces celebrated their country’s national day by exporting stolen metal from Mariupol, according to Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the city’s mayor.
In a statement released on Telegram on Sunday, Andryuschchenko added that Russia’s national day, which is on June 12, is a “day of a murderer and looter.”
Russia celebrates its national holiday with another shipment of looted metal from Mariupol - advisor to mayor Petro Andriushchenko
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2022
Russia's Day - is the day of a murderer and a looter, he added https://t.co/M6sx0fpm5V pic.twitter.com/WKm06MnyMl
Updated
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has announced the need to strengthen anti-corruption laws in Ukraine.
After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the European Commission president said, “There still needs to be reforms implemented, to fight corruption for example, or to modernize the administration, which will also help attract investors.”
Ursula von der Leyen announces need to strengthen anti-corruption law in 🇺🇦
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2022
The commission's president said 🇺🇦 has done a lot to ensure the rule of law, now country needs to fight corruption & modernize the administration which will help attract investors-https://t.co/RnOwgggD6f
Updated
Summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 8pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s main headlines:
- Fighting is continuing in the city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, where Russian shelling caused a huge fire at a chemical plant yesterday.
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said no one knows how long the war in his country will last. However, he said his forces were defying expectations by preventing Russian troops from overrunning eastern Ukraine.
- The bodies of many Ukrainian fighters killed during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol are still awaiting retrieval, the former commander of Ukraine’s Azov National Guard regiment said on Sunday.
- The British Foreign Office has confirmed that a former British soldier has been shot and killed in Ukraine. Jordan Gatley was named in a social media tribute post by his father, who described him as a “hero” who will “forever be in our hearts”.
- The leader of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk region of Ukraine has said there is no reason to pardon two British nationals who were sentenced to death last week after being captured while fighting for Ukraine.
- Friends and family of Brahim Saadoun – the 21-year-old Moroccan sentenced to death alongside two Britons last week – have called for his freedom, telling the Guardian he was an active-duty marine and not a mercenary as claimed by Russian media and pro-Russia officials in eastern Ukraine who announced the sentence.
- Russian forces fired cruise missiles to destroy a large depot containing US and European weapons in western Ukraine’s Ternopil region, Interfax reported.
- As of 12 June, more than 795 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine, the country’s government has said in its regular update.
- Ukraine has established two routes through Poland and Romania to export grain and avert a global food crisis although bottlenecks have slowed the supply chain, Kyiv’s deputy foreign minister said on Sunday.
That’s it from me, Tom Ambrose, for today. My colleague Maya Yang will be along shortly to continue bringing you all the latest news from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Security concerns raised by Turkey in its opposition to Finland’s and Sweden’s Nato membership applications are legitimate, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said on Sunday during a visit to Finland.
“These are legitimate concerns. This is about terrorism, it’s about weapons exports,” Stoltenberg told a joint news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto while visiting him at his summer residence in Naantali, Finland.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the Western defence alliance last month, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported.
But they have faced opposition from Turkey, which has accused them of supporting and harbouring Kurdish militants and other groups it deems terrorists.
Stoltenberg said Turkey was a key ally for the alliance due to its strategic location on the Black Sea between Europe and the Middle East
Fierce fighting has continued in the strategic city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, where Russian shelling caused a fire at a chemical plant in which hundreds of civilians are believed to have taken shelter during some of the most intense bombardment of the war.
The governor of Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said in an interview with local television that the Azot chemical plant remained under Ukrainian control, adding that fighting was under way on Sunday on the “outskirts of the city, in the streets directly near the plant”.
On Saturday, Haidai said Russian shelling caused a powerful fire to break out after a leak of radiator oil at the chemical plant. He did not say whether the fire had been extinguished.
A view of the damaged Nika-Tera grain terminal, as Russia’s attacks on Ukraine continues, in Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
Former British soldier Jordan Gatley killed fighting in Ukraine, UK Foreign Office confirms
The British Foreign Office has confirmed that a former British soldier has been shot and killed in Ukraine (see post at 14.28 BST).
Jordan Gatley was named in a social media tribute post by his father, who described him as a “hero” who will “forever be in our hearts”. Dean Gatley said his son had left the British Army in March “to continue his career as a soldier in other areas”.
He went to Ukraine to help “after careful consideration”, his father added, saying that on Friday the family received the “devastating” news of his death. Gatley said his son had been been shot and killed in the city of Sievierodonetsk, in eastern Ukraine.
In the Facebook post, he said: “After careful consideration, he went to the Ukraine to help. “We have had several messages from his team out there telling us of his wealth of knowledge, his skills as a soldier and his love of his job. His team say they all loved him, as did we, and he made a massive difference to many peoples lives, not only soldiering, but also by training the Ukrainian forces.”
A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Ukraine.”
Updated
Friends and family of Brahim Saadoun – the 21-year-old Moroccan sentenced to death alongside two Britons last week – have called for his freedom, telling the Guardian he was an active-duty marine and not a mercenary as claimed by Russian media and pro-Russia officials in eastern Ukraine who announced the sentence.
Friends and family in Ukraine and Morocco are rallying under the banner #SaveBrahim to raise awareness for the soldier, whose fate is tied to the two Britons, 28-year-old Aiden Aslin, from Newark, 48-year-old Shaun Pinner, from Watford, also sentenced to death by the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk.
“Basically, everyone who met Brahim, they all loved him,” said Dasha Oleynik, a friend who has known Saadoun for several years and kept in touch with him during his deployment. “Everyone who knows him is heartbroken.”
The leader of the Russian-backed separatist Donetsk region of Ukraine has said there is no reason to pardon two British nationals who were sentenced to death last week after being captured while fighting for Ukraine.
A court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic on Thursday found Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner - and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun - guilty of “mercenary activities” seeking to overthrow the republic.
Britain says Aslin and Pinner were regular soldiers and should be exempt under the Geneva Conventions from prosecution for participation in hostilities.
The pro-Russian separatists who control Donetsk say they committed grave crimes and have a month to appeal, Reuters reported
“I don’t see any grounds, prerequisites, for me to come out with such a decision on a pardon,” Denis Pushilin, the leader of the breakaway republic, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.
Former British soldier 'shot dead' in fighting in Severodonetsk
A former British soldier has been “shot and killed” after fighting against the Russians in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, his family have said.
Jordan Gatley left the British Army in March to “to continue his career as a soldier in other areas” and had been helping Ukrainian troops defend their country against Russia, according to reports.
In a statement on Facebook, his dad Dean Gatley wrote:
Yesterday (10/06/22) we received the devastating news that our son, Jordan, has been shot and killed in the city of Severodonetsk, Ukraine.
Jordan left the British Army in March this year to continue his career as a soldier in other areas. The war against Europe had begun so, after careful consideration, he went to the Ukraine to help.
We have had several messages from his team out there telling us of his wealth of knowledge, his skills as a soldier and his love of his job.
His team say they all loved him, as did we, and he made a massive difference to many peoples lives, not only soldiering, but also by training the Ukrainian forces.
Jordan and his team were so proud of the work they were doing and he often told me that the missions they were going on were dangerous, but necessary.
He loved his job and we are so proud of him. He truly was a hero and will forever be in our hearts.
The city of Severodonetsk is at the centre of the Russian offensive in the conflict and is one of the last areas in the occupied eastern Luhansk region still under Ukrainian control.
Updated
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said no one knows how long the war in his country will last.
However, he said his forces were defying expectations by preventing Russian troops from overrunning eastern Ukraine, where the fighting has been fiercest for weeks, the Associated Press reported.
In his daily video address, Zelenskiy said he was proud of the Ukrainian defenders managing to hold back the Russian advance in the Donbas region, which borders Russia and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled much of the territory for eight years.
“Remember how in Russia, in the beginning of May, they hoped to seize all of the Donbas?” the president said. “It’s already the 108th day of the war, already June. Donbas is holding on.”
Updated
Ukraine has established two routes through Poland and Romania to export grain and avert a global food crisis although bottlenecks have slowed the supply chain, Kyiv’s deputy foreign minister said on Sunday.
Dmytro Senik said global food security was at risk because Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had halted Kyiv’s Black Sea grain exports, causing widespread shortages and soaring prices, Reuters reported.
Ukraine is the world’s fourth-largest grain exporter and it says there are some 30 million tonnes of grain stored in Ukrainian-held territory which it is trying to export via road, river and rail.
Ukraine was in talks with Baltic states to add a third corridor for food exports, Senik said.
He did not give details on how much grain has already moved or would be moved through these routes.
A shield deters an enemy and signifies resolve. It is also something to hide behind, in order to avoid a fight. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation has been used for both purposes by US and European politicians of varying degrees of valour.
But what if the shield is broken or fundamentally flawed? The western powers may be about to find out. Nato’s summit in Madrid this month is billed as its most consequential, “transformative” gathering since the cold war era.
Expect much self-congratulation over how the 30-country alliance united to protect the “free world” against Russian aggression. Yet huge question marks remain.
Updated
Bodies of Ukrainian fighters killed in siege of Azovstal still awaiting retrieval from Mariupol
The bodies of many Ukrainian fighters killed during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in the southern city of Mariupol are still awaiting retrieval, the former commander of Ukraine’s Azov National Guard regiment said on Sunday.
Maksym Zhorin said that under the terms of a recent exchange, about 220 bodies of those killed in Azovstal had already been sent to Kyiv but “just as many bodies still remain in Mariupol”, Reuters reported.
“Talks are continuing about further exchanges, to return home all the bodies. Absolutely all bodies must be returned and this is something we will work on,” Zhorin added in a video posted on his Telegram channel.
He said a third of the dead were of the Azov battalion, while the others belonged to border patrol and naval officers as well as the police.
Hundreds of fighters holed up in the steelworks were taken into Russian custody in mid-May and many were killed during Russian attacks on the plant and the city of Mariupol.
Because the majority of the bodies were in a terrible state, “it will take a very long time to identify each person personally,” Zhorin said.
Updated
Russia using overmatch in military strength to seize territory Sievierodonetsk, UK intelligence says
Russia is using its overmatch in force ratio and artillery to gradually seize territory in and around Ukraine’s Sieverodonetsk, Britain’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday.
Russia has likely started preparing to deploy the third battalion from some combat formations in recent weeks, the ministry said in its latest intelligence update posted on Twitter.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 12 June 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 12, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/WiKk8bK2ge
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/9FRFoEPFBm
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Unable to flee Russian-occupied cities such as Mariupol and Kherson westward into Ukrainian-held territory, many Ukrainians are left with a terrible dilemma: stay in your besieged city, or flee to the country that has destroyed your home.
To enter Russia, many Ukrainians are forced through so-called filtration, a process during which they are photographed, interrogated, their fingerprints taken, and the contents of their phones scrutinised, Nadia Beard reports.
Men are ordered to strip to their underwear, their bodies searched for tattoos that could reveal a link to Ukrainian nationalist groups. Everyone is questioned on whether they or anyone they know has served in the Ukrainian army.
Russian forces fired cruise missiles to destroy a large depot containing US and European weapons in western Ukraine’s Ternopil region, Interfax reported on Sunday, as street fighting raged in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.
The governor of the Ternopil region said a rocket attack on the city of Chortkiv fired from the Black Sea had partly destroyed a military facility, injuring 22 people. A local official said there were no weapons stored there.
Reuters could not independently confirm the differing accounts.
Moscow has repeatedly slammed the United States and other nations for supplying Ukraine with weapons. President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Russia would strike new targets if the West supplied longer-range missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.
Ukrainian leaders have renewed pleas to Western countries in recent days to speed up deliveries of heavy weapons as Russian forces pound the east of the country with artillery.
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A specialist gang is smuggling valuable historic artefacts out of Ukraine and into Russia, according to an international team of academics and digital technology experts who are tracking thefts.
“There is now very strong evidence this is a purposive Russian move, with specific paintings and ornaments targeted and taken out to Russia,” said Brian Daniels, an anthropologist working with archaeologists, historians and digital imaging specialists.
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UK minister condemns 'despicable' death sentences for British men and Moroccan national captured fighting with Ukraine army
The UK’s Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has condemned the death sentences given to two British men and a Moroccan national captured while fighting in the Ukrainian army in Mariupol.
Speaking on the Sophie Ridge show on Sky News Lewis called the move “despicable” and said the men had been put through a “sham trial”
He said:
Really I think it backs up what we’ve all seen in this abhorrent process that Putin has followed in terms of an unwarranted attack on Ukraine in the general way that Putin’s regime is acting. It’s pretty despicable actually.
He said the Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and the Prime Minister Boris Johnson were “fully engaged” in the men’s cases, who he added were protected under the Geneva Convention.
I do know the foreign secretary is in close contact with her counterparts in Ukraine to do everything we can to support the individuals and support and work with Ukraine to get the right outcome to this what is a disgraceful situation.
It sums up pretty much the whole way that Putin and his regime have acted over the last few months.
Asked if there was anything the UK government could actually do to hellp the men, he said:
Well, as I say, it’s difficult to go into the details of any particular case and obviously particularly without the consent of those individuals but the foreign secretary and the Prime Minister, I know are fully engaged on this, working with the Ukrainians, because they were serving Ukrainian armed forces and therefore they are protected by the Geneva Convention.
It’s something that all governments around the world have respected for decades now, and it’s something that Russia should respect as well.
But [...] we’ve seen Putin act in a pretty abhorrent and illegal way consistently over the last few months. We’ve got to keep that pressure on and do anything we can, not just these families, but actually everybody who’s fighting for democracy, actually, in Ukraine.
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The friend of a Moroccan soldier condemned to death for fighting Russian forces alongside two Britons has described the sentence as “inhuman”.
The Press Association reports:
Saaudun Brahim, a 21-year-old originally from Casablanca, Morocco, was sentenced to death in a Russia proxy court alongside Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner on Thursday.
Dmytro Khrabstov, 20, is one of a group of Mr Brahim’s friends from Kyiv’s underground club scene who have been working to raise awareness about his situation and campaigning for his release with the hashtag SaveBrahim on social media.
Khrabstov said Brahim is known to friends in the Ukrainian capital as “Brian” and joined the Ukrainian military last summer when he told them he wanted to “die as a hero”.
Khrabstov told the PA news agency:
[He] is a bright and enthusiastic guy, dreaming about the technology of the future and how he could change things. He told me and a few other guys that he wants to die as a hero.
There is no place in this world for execution. It’s inhuman. I (have) lost all words.
Brahim was studying at the Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute when the pair met at a club in Kyiv’s Podil District in January 2021.
Khrabstov said:
Not all students who come here at 20 years old are going into the military to defend somebody else’s border.
As he described it to me, and as I feel it myself, (he is not) a common human being who is happy doing an office job.
He felt himself a warrior, a defender; that’s why he wanted to join the military. He wanted to become a part of it.
Brahim joined the 36th Separate Marines Brigade - the same group as the two Britons Pinner and Aslin.
Brahim left Kyiv to go to the east of the country in November 2021.
On February 24, he wrote on Instagram that his position in Mariupol was being hit with Grad multiple rocket launchers.
Khrabstov said that the last time the two were in touch was the end of March:
He told me that he was in a complicated situation and was surrounded, but that he was in a defensive position.
Two weeks later, Khrabstov saw a video posted online of Brahim being interrogated after his capture.
Khrabstov and his friends are calling on the Ukrainian government to grant citizenship to foreigners helping to defend the country against Russian aggression.
An online petition on the issue has amassed 13,100 votes so far and points to the vulnerable position of foreign fighters from Belarus and other countries, who are less likely to be considered eligible by Russia for prisoner swaps.
Khrabstov said:
We’re trying to help our friend, help our defenders. They feel they need to be there, they have a sense of justice... and we need to do our job and not look (away).
He described the media coverage of the men’s sentencing as “a difficult political game”, and said Russia has “gained too much value” from the capture of foreigners serving in the Ukrainian army:
[The Russians] are raising their value by providing the information that they were captured, are in jail, that they could get executed. They are just blackmailing us.
Khrabstov described his time with Brahim in Kyiv:
We met almost every weekend. It was common to take a car to a lake, with a company of 10 friends, have a BBQ, have some rest.
The moment he decided to join our military, I told him that I do not have any doubt you will survive, and that I will see you at least one more time, that we will meet each other and have a good party with all of our friends.
It’s not the thing (we should do) when I’m 20 and you’re 21.
Fierce fighting in Sievierodonetsk after chemical plant sheltering civilians hit
Fighting is continuing in the city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, where Russian shelling caused a huge fire at a chemical plant yesterday.
In a video address on Sunday the regional head of the area has said fighting was ongoing.
Serhiy Haidai said Saturday’s blaze started after tens of tonnes of oil leaked from damaged radiators at the Azot plant.
Hundreds of civilians were taking shelter at the plant. Haidai did not say if the blaze had been brought under control.
⚡️Luhansk Oblast Governor: Intense fighting continues in Sievierodonetsk.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 12, 2022
In his video address on June 12, Luhansk Oblast Governor Serhiy Haidai said fighting continues in the key eastern city of Sievierodonetsk.
The governor said the situation remained very difficult in the village of Toshkivka, on the northwestern outskirts of Sievierodonetsk. But he added that Ukrainian forces had successfully blocked Russia’s advance near Popasna, according to the Kyiv Independent.
On Saturday Haidai admitted most of Sievierodonetsk was now under Russian control. The Russian military said that all of Sievierodonetsk’s residential areas were under its control.
Ukrainian officials estimate that as many as 800 civilians are hiding in underground bomb shelters at the Azot plant.
Also on Saturday Haidai said the situation in Sievierodonetsk was “difficult, but under control”.
The Luhansk regional head said:
Our soldiers are winning in street fights, but, unfortunately, the enemy’s artillery is simply dismantling - floor-by-floor - the houses used by our troops as shelters.
So, when we push the enemy out of one street, they start using their tanks and artillery to destroy the area house-by-house.
Sievierodonetsk is currently the epicentre of Russian efforts to advance in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has lasted more than three months.
Following its failure to capture Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Russian offensives have focused instead on taking the Luhansk and the Donetsk regions - a large, industrial area known as Donbas.
Taking Sievierodonetsk and its twin city of Lysychansk would give them control over Luhansk.
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Russian gas producer Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was seen at 41.9 million cubic metres (mcm) on Sunday, unchanged from Saturday, Reuters reports.
An application to supply gas via another major entry point, Sokhranovka, was rejected by Ukraine, Gazprom said.
Meanwhile Ukraine remains in control of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering, the region’s governor said on Sunday.
“Azot is not blocked, fighting is going on in the streets next to the plant,” Serhiy Gaidai said on Ukraine’s television.
He added that he expects Russian forces to use all their efforts to try to capture the city either on Sunday or on Monday.
My thanks to Helen, who has been at the helm. This is Lexy Topping and I’ll be keeping you up to date this morning from the UK.
Ukraine’s war with Russia is heading towards its fifth month amid increasing local concern that dwindling media attention could lead to a gradual loss of western support just as Moscow is making slow but steady gains on the frontline.
The anxiety reflects a growing normalisation of the conflict in which large parts of the country feel distant from the war in eastern Donbas – as it becomes clear that casualties are mounting and economic costs soaring. “It’s a very real threat, that people get tired psychologically,” said Lesia Vasylenko, an opposition MP with the liberal Holos party.
International media coverage has dropped markedly in the past two months, she added, and “as that number goes down further, there’s a very high risk of the support from the west going down”.
Ukraine has become increasingly dependent on western help as the war has continued, both in terms of weaponry and humanitarian support, and will need international aid money to help rebuild towns and cities destroyed by the Russians in the early phase of fighting. Its treasury is bare.
Russia, meanwhile, appears close to taking the shattered Donbas city of Sievierodonetsk, after a failed counterattack by Ukraine’s forces.
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A really interesting story here from AFP, on Dmytro Firtash, a sanctioned Ukrainian oligarch who says he now supporting the war effort.
Sanctioned by Ukraine in the past over his close ties to Russia, Dmytro Firtash, one of the country’s wealthiest citizens, made international headlines this week for saying he is sheltering hundreds of Ukrainians in his chemical factory.
“This war is completely pointless and cannot be justified in any way, it only brings suffering and misery on all sides. This humanitarian tragedy is intolerable,” the 57-year-old said in a statement on his company’s website.
A one-time ally of ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Firtash, who is currently in Austria and fighting extradition to the US on bribery accusations, has a controversial history. In June 2021, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree imposing sanctions on Firtash, including the freezing of his assets and withdrawal of licences from his companies, after accusing him of selling titanium products to Russian military companies.
But now some 800 civilians, including 200 factory workers, have taken refuge in the bunkers of the Azot chemical plant, owned by Firtash’s Group DF, in Ukraine’s strategic eastern city of Severodonetsk, the tycoon’s lawyer Lanny Davis said this week.
Russian troops have been pushing for control of the key city over the past weeks as part of their effort to conquer eastern Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin “is never going to come out victorious... No matter what happens, Russia will lose,” Firtash said in an NBC News interview in April.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Firtash’s Inter has also joined the pool of several main Ukrainian news channels, which broadcast news 24/7 and fully reflect the official position of the Ukrainian authorities. Before the invasion, Inter, one of the largest Ukrainian national TV channels, was considered pro-Russian. Firtash insists he has always been pro-Ukrainian, telling NBC that he was “never pro-Russian”.
“But you have to understand that I am a businessman. And my goal is to earn money. That’s my job,” he said in the interview.
An AFP request to interview Firtash is pending.
Firtash is also wanted on bribery and racketeering charges in the United States. In the case, Indian officials allegedly received $18.5 million in bribes to secure titanium mining licences in 2006. Firtash, who denies the charges and says he is the victim of a smear campaign, was detained in Austria in March 2014.
He had to pay bail of 125 million euros ($130 million) - reportedly a record high for Austria - and has since not been able to leave the country. Austria’s supreme court ruled in 2019 that he could be extradited. But Firtash is still fighting the extradition and can remain in Austria while court proceedings continue.
In an interview with CNN in May, Firtash said he had requested prosecutors to be allowed to return to Ukraine while the war is going on - but his request was denied.
He has also been accused of being involved in alleged efforts by Rudy Giuliani, former New York mayor and a personal lawyer of former US president Donald Trump, to dig up dirt on Joe Biden before he became president, but Firtash denies ever having met with Giuliani.
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Ukraine’s armed forces has released its daily statement on Russian military losses. The Guardian has not independently verified these claims, but they are as follows:
Since the beginning of the invasion, about 32,150 Russian soldiers have been killed. Among military assets Ukraine claims to have destroyed about 1430 tanks, 2455 tank trucks and other automotive equipment, 3484 armoured vehicles, about 1,000 artillery systems, multiple rocket launcher systems, and other air defence assets, 212 aircraft, 178 helicopters and almost 600 drones, 13 sea vessels and 125 cruise missiles.
Of those stats, about 100 soldier deaths, and the destruction of 11 tanks, 18 APVs and a half a dozen other assets were recorded in the last day.
The statement said Russia suffered its greatest losses in the Severodonetsk and Bakhmut regions.
As of 12 June, more than 795 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine, the country’s government has said in its regular update.
It said at least 287 children had died, and 508 injured in the conflict, adding the caveat that confirmation of incidents was difficult in areas of active hostilities and the occupied territories.
The report said most of those affected were in Donetsk (2017 children), Kharkiv (149), and Kyiv (116).
The latest from Ukraine
Welcome to our rolling coverage of the war in Ukraine.
- Bitter fighting is raging in Sievierodonetsk but Ukraine remains in control of an industrial area and chemical plant in the eastern city where hundreds of civilians are sheltering from incessant Russian shelling, the region’s governor says. Ukraine has said about 800 people were hiding in several bomb shelters underneath the Azot plant, including about 200 employees and 600 residents of Sievierodonetsk.
- Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Ukraine’s military was gradually liberating territory further west in the Kherson region and had some successes in Zaporizhzhia, too.
- The EU executive will this week make a recommendation on whether Ukraine should be given candidate status, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen has said during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday. Such a recommendation would be a step on a long road to full membership. Speaking alongside Von der Leyen, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said that the EU’s decision on Ukraine would “determine” the future of Europe.
- The US president, Joe Biden, has said that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “didn’t want to hear” warnings of the Russian invasion. Speaking at a fundraising reception in Los Angeles, Biden said “there was no doubt” Vladimir Putin had been planning to “go in”. “I knew we had data to sustain [Putin] was going to go in, off the border. There was no doubt … and Zelenskiy didn’t want to hear it.”
- The family of a British man sentenced to death for fighting Russian forces have said they are “devastated” and called for “urgent cooperation” to secure his release.
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Russia’s military has set up another field hospital due to heavy casualties, Kyiv Independent reports. It is in the village of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, according to the general staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
- A United Nations commission arrived in Ukraine on Saturday to investigate war crimes. The deputy speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Olena Kondratyuk, said the commission’s goal was to record war crimes and human rights violations.
- Approximately 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion of the country in February, according to a military adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He added that in terms of daily Ukrainian casualties, around “200 to 300 die, no less”.
- The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is planning a visit to Kyiv alongside the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi. The leaders want to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy prior to the G7 summit.
