Johnson set to demand action on Ukrainian grain at G7
UK prime minister Boris Johnson will use Monday’s session at the G7 summit in Germany to call for urgent action to help get vital grain supplies out of Ukraine’s blockaded ports to support the country’s economy and alleviate shortages around the world, PA reports.
The blockade of major Ukrainian ports such as Odesa, attacks on farms and warehouses and the wider impact of the Russian invasion have all added to the problems facing food from the country reaching the global market.
Ukraine previously supplied 10% of the world’s wheat, up to 17% of the world’s maize and half of the world’s sunflower oil. Around 25 million tonnes of corn and wheat is currently at risk of rotting in Ukrainian silos.
Mr Johnson will call for an international solution to the crisis, including finding overland routes for grain supplies to beat the Russian blockade, with 10 million in materials and equipment to repair damaged rail infrastructure. The UK has also been urging Turkey, which controls access to the Black Sea, to do more to get grain supplies out by ship.
The prime minister will tell G7 leaders on Monday:
“Putin’s actions in Ukraine are creating terrible aftershocks across the world, driving up energy and food prices as millions of people are on the brink of famine. Only Putin can end this needless and futile war.
“But global leaders need to come together and apply their combined economic and political heft to help Ukraine and make life easier for households across the world. Nothing should be off the table.”
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has turned down a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on her trip to Europe, citing scheduling issues. Ardern is currently en route to the Nato leaders’ summit in Madrid, Spain.
Deputy prime minister Grant Robertson said the prime minister was invited to Ukraine to meet with Zelenskiy, but had declined.
“I understand that there was an invitation but it came quite late in the day and, unfortunately, the prime minister’s programme in Europe and indeed in Australia, where she’s leading a trade mission, was already set,” Robertson said in a radio interview with AM on Monday.
Robertson said Ardern would attempt to speak to the president by phone.
“I know she’s going to be attempting to speak to president Zelenskiy directly to continue to show New Zealand’s support for the people of Ukraine but, unfortunately, that timing didn’t quite work out.”
This trip is Ardern’s first to Europe since the Covid-19 pandemic began. She is pushing to finalise a free trade agreement with the EU, and has also made plans to visit prime minister Boris Johnson in the UK.
Putin to make first foreign trips since launching Ukraine war
Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday, in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian president Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow.
In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik president Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations including the leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan, Zarubin said.
Putin also plans to visit the Belarus city of Grodno on 30 June and 1 July to take part in a forum with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, RIA news agency cited Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, as telling Belarus television on Sunday.
Putin’s last known trip outside Russia was a visit to the Beijing in early February, where he and Chinese president Xi Jinping unveiled a “no limits” friendship treaty hours before both attended the opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games.
Summary
It’s 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- France has become the latest country to reconsider its energy options because of the war in Ukraine, announcing Sunday it was looking into reopening a recently closed coal-fired power station. The energy transition ministry said it was considering reopening the station at Saint-Avold in eastern France this winter, “given the situation in Ukraine” and the effect it was having on the energy markets.
- In a video address to Belarusians, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Belarusians to stand in solidarity with Ukraine. “Russian leadership wants to drag you into the Ukraine-Russian war because it doesn’t care about your lives. But you aren’t slaves and can decide your destiny yourself,” Zelenskiy said.
- The UN Human Rights division in Ukraine said on Sunday that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, it has “received hundreds of allegations of torture and ill-treatment, including conflict-related sexual violence.” “People were kept tied and blindfolded for several days, beaten, subjected to mock executions, put in a closed metal box, forced to sing or shout glorifying slogans, provided with no or scarce food or water, and held in overcrowded rooms with no sanitation,” the Ukrainians UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission said.
- Ukrainian forces have attacked a drilling platform in the Black Sea owned by a Crimean oil and gas company, Russian Tass news agency cited local officials as saying on Sunday, the second strike in a week. The platform is operated by Chernomorneftegaz, which Russian-backed officials seized from Ukraine’s national gas operator Naftogaz as part of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
- Canada deployed two warships to the Baltic Sea and north Atlantic on Sunday, joining a pair of frigates already in the region in attempts to reinforce Nato’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS) Kingston and Summerside will be on a four-month deployment as part of “deterrence measures in central and eastern Europe” launched in 2014 after Moscow annexed Crimea, the Canadian navy said in a statement.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand the blog over to my colleagues in Australia who will bring you the latest updates. Thank you.
Video has emerged of the ruins of a kindergarten after Russian missiles targeted the area around it this morning in Kyiv.
Kindergarten in Kyiv after russian missile strike this morning.#RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/sZppy5CjLp
— Stratcom Centre UA (@StratcomCentre) June 26, 2022
According to Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko, two residential buildings had been hit. One man was killed and six people, including a woman from Russia, were taken to the hospital. A seven-year old girl was rescued from rubble.
More residents could be trapped under rubble as rescue efforts get underway, Klitschko said.
Updated
France has become the latest country to reconsider its energy options because of the war in Ukraine, announcing Sunday it was looking into reopening a recently closed coal-fired power station.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The energy transition ministry said it was considering reopening the station at Saint-Avold in eastern France this winter, “given the situation in Ukraine” and the effect it was having on the energy markets.
“We are keeping open the possibility of being able to put the Saint-Avold station back in action for a few hours more if we need it next winter,” said a ministry statement, confirming a report on RTL radio.
But France would still be producing less than one percent of its electricity through coal power, and no Russian coal would be used, the statement added.
President Emmanuel Macron’s commitment to eventually shut all France’s coal-fired stations remained unchanged, the ministry statement said.
Saint-Avold was only closed on March 31, and the only coal-fired power station still operating in France is in Cordemais, in the west of the country.
Most of France’s electricity production comes from nuclear power: 67 percent in 2020. In the same year, coal only accounted for 0.3 percent.
Austria, Germany and the Netherlands have all announced recently that they would be making greater use of coal for their energy needs because of the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The war there has sent global energy prices soaring and raised the prospect of shortages if supplies are cut off. Russian energy giant Gazprom has already stopped deliveries to a number of European countries, including Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands.
But the shift back towards fossil fuels has caused alarm in the European Commission, and among environmental campaigners.
They point to the risk that the European Union will miss its targets for cutting back on polluting energy sources, and potentially disastrous consequences for the climate.
In a video address to Belarussians, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged Belarussians to stand in solidarity with Ukraine.
“Russian leadership wants to drag you into the Ukraine-Russian war because it doesn’t care about your lives. But you aren’t slaves and can decide your destiny yourself,” Zelenskiy said.
President #Zelensky addressed Belarussians: #Russian leadership wants to drag you into #UkraineRussiaWar, because it doesn’t care about your lives. But you aren’t slaves, and can decide your destiny yourself!#StandWithUkraine #ArmUkraineNow pic.twitter.com/ZEeQOkYoqC
— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) June 26, 2022
His address comes amid growing concerns that Belarus may invade Ukraine on Russia’s side.
Earlier this week, Russia announced that it will deliver missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the coming months, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said as he received Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin has several times referred to nuclear weapons since his country launched a military operation in Ukraine on 24 February, in what the west has seen as a warning not to intervene. Lukashenko said last month that his country had bought Iskander nuclear-capable missiles and S-400 anti-aircraft anti-missile systems from Russia.
In a gathering on Sunday, G7 leaders on Sunday joked whether it would be advisable to remove their suit jackets in order to stand up to the “formidable” and “tough” image of Russian president Vladimir Putin.
“We all have to show that we’re tougher than Putin,” said UK prime minister Boris Johnson.
In response, Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said, “We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display.”
Ukrainian president Vladymyr Zelenskiy is due to address G7 leaders via video conference in the coming days as he attempts to solidify increased Western support against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, U.S. President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel pose for a photo during the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany June 26, 2022. Photograph: Reuters
The UN Human Rights division in Ukraine said on Sunday that since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, it has “received hundreds of allegations of torture and ill-treatment, including conflict-related sexual violence.”
“People were kept tied and blindfolded for several days, beaten, subjected to mock executions, put in a closed metal box, forced to sing or shout glorifying slogans, provided with no or scarce food or water, and held in overcrowded rooms with no sanitation,” the Ukrainians UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission said.
It went on to add, “We have also documented cases when people were tortured to death.”
Ukrainian firefighters respond to an early morning missile strike by Russia on a residential complex in central Kyiv – Agence France-Presse video:
VIDEO: Ukrainian firefighters respond to an early-morning missile strike by Russia on a residential complex in central Kyiv pic.twitter.com/HpoNXzwURD
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 26, 2022
Updated
More than 4,500 buildings have been destroyed in the Kharkiv region since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Nexta reports.
More than 4,500 buildings have been destroyed in the #Kharkiv region since the beginning of the war.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 26, 2022
The photo shows the destroyed sports complex of the Kharkiv Polytechnic University. pic.twitter.com/HASDivSidK
Updated
Ukrainian forces have attacked a drilling platform in the Black Sea owned by a Crimean oil and gas company, Russian Tass news agency cited local officials as saying on Sunday, the second strike in a week.
Reuters reports:
The platform is operated by Chernomorneftegaz, which Russian-backed officials seized from Ukraine’s national gas operator Naftogaz as part of Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula in 2014.
“It’s shelling by the armed forces of Ukraine, there are no casualties,” Tass cited a member of Crimea’s emergency services as saying. It gave no further details.
Last Monday Crimean officials said three people were wounded with seven missing after a Ukrainian strike that forced the suspension of work on three platforms. Chernomorneftegaz is under US and European Union sanctions.
Updated
Canada deployed two warships to the Baltic Sea and north Atlantic on Sunday, joining a pair of frigates already in the region in attempts to reinforce Nato’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS) Kingston and Summerside will be on a four-month deployment as part of “deterrence measures in central and eastern Europe” launched in 2014 after Moscow annexed Crimea, the Canadian navy said in a statement.
Through October, the ships will participate in naval mine-sweeping exercises and maintain a “high readiness” allowing them to “quickly and effectively respond in support of any Nato operations”, it added.
HMCS Halifax and Montreal are scheduled to return to port in July from Operation Reassurance – which is currently Canada’s largest deployment abroad.
The mission also includes roughly 700 Canadian troops in Latvia with artillery and electronic warfare capabilities, as well as several military aircraft.
Updated
Responding to the Russian missiles in Kyiv which left one person dead and six injured, Andriy Yermak, head of the president’s administration, said: “The Russians hit Kyiv again. Missiles damaged an apartment building and a kindergarten.”
The deputy mayor, Mykola Povoroznyk, said explosions heard later in other parts if Kyiv were air defences destroying further incoming missiles, Reuters reports.
Updated
The RIA agency quoted a pro-Russian separatist official as saying separatist forces had evacuated more than 250 people, including children, on Sunday from Sievierodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant.
The plant’s surrounding industrial area was the last part of Sievierodonetsk held by Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s Tass news agency quoted the same official as saying forces were advancing on Lysychansk across the river from Sievierodonetsk.
Lysychansk is now the last major city held by Ukraine in Luhansk, Reuters reports.
Updated
Ukrainian folk band DakhaBrakha and Eurovision 2016 winner Jamala performed together on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage, sharing a message to “stop Putin”.
Jamala won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016, representing Ukraine, and was welcomed on stage as DakhaBrakha’s special guest for the performance on Sunday afternoon.
Jamala, full name Susana Alimivna Jamaladinova, told the PA news agency after the set: “We can stop this evil only if we are united, only if we are together.
“We are fighting for freedom, for equality … it’s my first time in Glastonbury and I see that freedom here.
“It’s a treasure to be human and to express yourself, and you even don’t know how important it is.”
On a weekend when Kyiv experienced its first Russian bombing in weeks, part of DakhaBrakha’s act featured an animation on a screen showing birds transforming into fighter jets.
Other images included Ukrainian tractors dragging Russian tanks, and crowds marching towards armoured vehicles adorned with the letter Z, a Russian pro-war symbol.
Updated
A leading historian of the outbreak of the first world war has urged admirers of his work among Germany’s political elite to stop drawing comparisons to the conflict in Ukraine, warning any parallels between 1914 and 2022 are flawed.
Cambridge academic Christopher Clark’s account of the complex logic behind each of the main actors’ entry into the global conflict, The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914, was an international bestseller after its publication in 2013. The book struck a particular chord in Germany, where it provided a counterview to a prevailing narrative of national war guilt and has sold more than 350,000 copies.
Updated
Kyiv’s deputy mayor, Mykola Povoroznyk, has an update on the victims of the attack on a nine-storey residential block in the city. He confirmed one person was killed and at least six wounded and said the missile struck near the site of a similar attack in late April.
About 400 metres away, a Reuters photographer saw a large fresh crater by the playground of a private kindergarten that had smashed windows. Some privately held storage garages in the area were completely destroyed.
Blasts were heard in other parts of Kyiv on Sunday, but these were the sound of air defence destroying other incoming strikes, the deputy mayor said on national television.
There was no immediate comment from Moscow, which denies targeting civilians.
A Ukrainian air force spokesperson said between four and six long-range missiles were fired on Sunday from Russian bombers more than a thousand kilometres away in the southern Russian region of Astrakhan that looks out on to the Caspian Sea.
Updated
Summary
- One man was killed and six others injured as Kyiv came under attack for the first time since 5 June. Russian missiles struck residential buildings and a Kindergarten in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. Among the injured were a seven-year-old girl. There are unconfirmed reports that her father was killed in the attack. A Russian woman was also among the injured.
- Another civilian was killed in a missile attack on Cherkasy south-east of the capital. A bridge over the Dnipro river was also hit.
-
Both the attacks on Kyiv and Cherkasy are being seen message of defiance by Russia to G7 leaders gathering at a summit in Bavaria, Germany. Russia said it hit military targets in Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv. Joe Biden condemned the Russian attacks as “more barbarism”. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said they showed the importance of G7 unity.
- Ukraine has called for more aggressive sanctions against Russia and naval support. Andriy Yermak, the head of office to President Zelenskiy, said the G7 should respond to the attacks with a ban on Russia gas and naval help in the Black Sea.
- Members of the G7 have confirmed a ban on imports of Russian gold. The move by Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada is part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow. Gold exports were worth $15.2bn to Russia in 2021, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
- The UK and France have agreed to provide more support for Ukraine, according to Downing Street. Leaders of the G7 have spoken of their solidarity for Ukraine. “We have to stay together,” Joe Biden said.
- G7 leaders also mocked Vladimir Putin’s tough-man image during a summit lunch. They joked about whether they should go bare-chested, with Boris Johnson suggesting they needed to show their “pecs”. Justin Trudeau said:“We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display.”
- Russian forces are trying to cut off the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk is set to become the next main focus of fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on areas far from the heart of the eastern battles. Ukraine called its retreat from Sievierodonetsk a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.
- Russian news footage has shown the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, visiting troops involved in the Ukraine war. It is unclear if he visited Ukrainian territory, but the footage appeared to confirm that the colonel general Gennady Zhidko is now commanding troops in Ukraine.
- The mayors of several European capitals have been duped into holding video calls with a deepfake of their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no signs that the video conference call wasn’t being held with a real person,” her office said in a statement.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that Ukraine would win back all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we’ll get them all back,” he said in a late-night video address. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to handle emotionally.
Updated
Russian missiles struck near the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy on Sunday, killing one person and hitting a bridge that helps connect western regions with eastern battle zones, according to Reuters citing Ukrainian officials.
Cherkasy has been largely untouched by bombardment since the war started in February, but Russia has stepped up missile attacks across Ukraine this weekend.
“Today, the enemy launched missile attacks on the Cherkasy region. There are 2 strikes near the regional centre. One dead and five wounded. Infrastructure damaged,” said regional governor Ihor Taburets on the Telegram app.
He did not provide further details, but a presidential adviser told Reuters one of the missiles targeted a bridge across the Dnipro river.
The longest bridge of #Ukraine near #Cherkasy across the #Dnipro was shelled by #Russia today. Railway connection #Kyiv #Zaporizhzhia interrupted. We will rebuild infrastructure of #Ukraine #StandWithUkraine #MarshallPlanForUkraine @DUF_Forum @DB_Presse @G7 @TatjanaKiel pic.twitter.com/Ewo6dEjZt1
— Prof. Dr. Rainer Lindner (@RainerLindner) June 26, 2022
“They are trying to limit the transfer of our reserves and western weapons to the east,” adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said in a message.
“It means that these kinds of transfers are going well and causing them major issues.”
He did not say how damaged the bridge was. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
Updated
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says the Russia’s missile strikes against the city destroyed more than 220 apartments.
He also said the timing of the attack appeared to be “symbolic”.
VIDEO: A Russian missile strike that hit Kyiv is an act of "symbolic aggression" in the days leading up to a NATO summit, says the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko pic.twitter.com/A1M3eZ47dr
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 26, 2022
Meanwhile, the G7 partners and spouses have gone for an alpine hike complete with nordic ski poles.
G7 wags have gone for a hike.... pic.twitter.com/T6AptohUgO
— Harry Cole (@MrHarryCole) June 26, 2022
Updated
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, says attacks by Russia on residential buildings in Kyiv show the importance of international unity in supporting Ukraine, AP reports.
Speaking after hosting the first session of the G7 summit, Scholz emphasised the unity of G7 on Ukraine. He said:
We can say for sure that Putin did not reckon with this and it is still giving him a headache — the great international support for Ukraine but of course also the Ukrainians’ courage and bravery in defending their own country.
That this is a brutal war that Putin is waging, we have now once again seen with rocket attacks on houses in Kyiv — that shows it is right that we stand together and support Ukrainians to defend their country, their democracy, their freedom of self-determination.
Scholz said that he and US President Joe Biden were of one mind about what needs to be done.
Scholz, who has faced criticism at home and abroad for perceived reluctance to send Ukraine heavy weapons, said that “Germany and the US will always act together when it comes to questions of Ukraine’s security.”
Thousands of anti-war protesters people have taken to the streets of Madrid ahead of a Nato summit later this week.
Amid tight security, leaders of the member countries will meet in Madrid between 29-30 June as the organisation faces the unprecedented challenge of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Nato is expected to consider the bid, opposed by alliance-member Turkey, for Finland and Sweden to join.
The Nordic nations applied in the wake of the Russian assault on Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the war a special military operation he says in part responds to the accession to NATO of other countries near post-Soviet Russia’s borders since the 1990s.
“Tanks yes, but of beer with tapas,” sang demonstrators, who claimed an increase in defence spending in Europe urged by Nato was a threat to peace.
“I am fed up (with) this business of arms and killing people. The solution they propose is more arms and wars and we always pay for it. So, no Nato, no bases, let the Americans go and leave us alone without wars and weapons,” said Concha Hoyos, a retired Madrid resident, told Reuters.
Another protester, Jaled, 29, said Nato was not the solution to the war in Ukraine.
Organisers claimed 5,000 people joined the march, but authorities in Madrid put the number at 2,200.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that the summit would also focus on the threat from Europe’s southern flank in Africa, in which he said Russia posed a threat to Europe.
“The foreign ministers’ dinner on the 29th will be centred on the southern flank,” he told El Pais newspaper.
Andriy Yermak, the head of office to Presisent Zelenksiy, has called on the G7 to respond to Russia’s missile attacks on Kyiv with more aggressive sanctions.
He tweeted that Russian gas as well as gold should be banned.
The #G7 states should respond to new Russian terror attacks on 🇺🇦 cities. Sanctions should be more aggressive. We appreciate embargo on RF gold exports, but gas embargo should be included in the new 🇪🇺 sanctions package.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) June 26, 2022
Yermak also called for naval assistance in the Black Sea, to help lift Russia grip on Ukraine’s ports.
Third parties' navy convoys to unlock our ports are a feasible response to the food crisis.
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) June 26, 2022
Russia designation a state sponsor of terrorism is absolutely necessary.
Heavy weapons for 🇺🇦 are a way to defeat a foe who understands the force language only.
Jackets stayed on for the G7 family photo, but ties were off.
World leaders at the G7 summit in Germany have gathered for the 'family photo'.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 26, 2022
The meeting is set to be dominated by the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia.https://t.co/ms5xcMX5g6
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/FY9ymQEjH2
World leaders mocked Vladimir Putin’s tough-man image at a G7 lunch, joking about whether they should strip down to shirtsleeves - or even less, AFP reports.
“Jackets on? Jackets off? Do we take our coats off?” Boris Johnson asked as he sat down at the table in Bavaria’s picturesque Elmau Castle, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz was hosting the summit of seven powerful democracies.
The leaders - from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and also the European Union - pondered the dilemma.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, suggested “let’s wait” for the official picture before disrobing, but then Johnson quipped “we have to show that we’re tougher than Putin” and the joke kept rolling.
“We’re going to get the bare-chested horseback riding display,” Trudeau said, referring to Putin’s infamous 2009 photo-op of himself riding shirtless on a horse.
“Horseback riding is the best,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, without apparently weighing in on the clothing issue itself.
The leaders posed - jackets on - for photos before reporters were hustled out of the room, leaving the sartorial debate behind closed doors.
Updated
Boris Johnson said he would be “honoured” to host Volodymyr Zelenskiy for a state visit if the Ukrainian president felt able to leave his war-torn country, PA reports.
The prime minister stressed the most important thing now for Ukraine was for western leaders at the G7 summit in Germany to remain united in support of President Zelensky.
“I think that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has done an absolutely amazing job of leading his country and leading world opinion in an appalling time,” Johnson told ITV News at the summit in Bavaria.
Asked if he wanted to offer the Ukrainian leader a state visit, Johnson said:
If he ever becomes free to leave and it makes sense for him to leave Ukraine, then obviously the UK would be only too honoured to host him.
But the most important thing is for us to continue to be united here at the G7. And we are.
The Sunday Times reported that ministers were considering offering Zelensky a state visit, including a meeting with the Queen.
Tory officials would also like him to address the party’s conference in October, possibly via a video link, the newspaper reported.
Zelenskiy, who will address G7 leaders by video link on Monday, pleaded for more air defence support from western allies.
After dozens of Russian missiles targeted Ukrainian towns and cities, he used his nightly address to say:
This confirms that sanctions packages against Russia are not enough, that Ukraine needs more armed assistance, and that air defence systems - the modern systems that our partners have - should be not in training areas or storage facilities, but in Ukraine, where they are now needed.
“Needed more than anywhere else in the world.
France on Sunday urged oil producers to cap prices to help put the squeeze on Russia, AFP reports.
Paris backs a US proposal for a maximum oil price, but the French presidency said that “it would be much more powerful if it came from the producing countries.”
To make such a measure work, it was “necessary to get into a discussion with OPEC+ and with the world’s oil producers,” said the source, referring to the 23-country group.
The United States had suggested a price cap decided by consuming countries, a proposal that is due to be discussed by G7 leaders meeting in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday.
But Germany believes that the measure would be too difficult to put in place.
A senior German official said “we are still intensively discussing how this would work and how that can fit in with the American, British, European and Japanese sanction regimes.”
EU President Charles Michel also said discussions were ongoing but “we want to go more into the details”.
“We want to make sure that ... the goal is to target Russia and not to make our life more difficult and more complex,” he said.
One civilian confirmed killed in Kyiv attack
Russian missiles struck a residential building and the compound of a kindergarten in central Kyiv on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five more, according to a Reuters update.
Firefighters put out a fire in a badly damaged nine-storey residential building in the central Shevchenkivskiy district, the emergency services said. Debris was strewn over parked cars outside a smouldering building with a crater in its roof.
“They (rescuers) have pulled out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they’re trying to rescue her mother,” Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said
“There are people under the rubble,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that several people had already been hospitalised.
At another site about 400 metres away, a Reuters photographer saw a large blast crater by a playground in a private kindergarten that had smashed windows. Some privately-held storage garages in the area were completely destroyed.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had used high-precision weapons to strike Ukrainian army training centres in the regions of Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv, an apparent reference to strikes reported by Ukraine on Saturday.
There was no immediate comment about Sunday’s strikes on Kyiv. Moscow denies targeting civilians.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on Group of Seven countries holding a three-day summit in Germany to impose further sanctions on Moscow and to provide more heavy weapons.
A Ukrainian air force spokesperson said between four to six long-range missiles were fired from Russian bombers more than a thousand kilometres away in the southern Russian region of Astrakhan that looks out onto the Caspian Sea.
He said some of the incoming missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defences.
Ukraine’s police chief Ihor Klymenko said on national television that five people had been wounded. Police later confirmed that one person had died.
Summary
- Kyiv has come under attack for the first time since 5 June, with Russian missiles striking at residential buildings and a Kindergarten in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. At least five people were injured including a seven-year-old girl. There are unconfirmed reports that her father was killed in the attack. A Russian woman was among the injured.
- Later there were further reports of attacks on the outskirts of Kyiv and in Cherkasy south-east of the capital. The attacks are being seen as a defiant signal by Russia to G7 leaders gathering at a summit in Bavaria. Russia said it hit military targets in Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv.
-
Members of the G7 have confirmed a ban on imports of Russian gold. The move by Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada is part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow. Gold exports were worth $15.2bn to Russia in 2021, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
- The UK and France have agreed to provide more support for Ukraine, according to Downing Street. Leaders of the G7 have spoken of the their solidarity over Ukraine. “We have to stay together,” Joe Biden said.
- Russian forces are trying to cut off the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk is set to become the next main focus of fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on areas far from the heart of the eastern battles. Ukraine called its retreat from Sievierodonetsk a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.
- Russian news footage has showed defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s visiting troops involved in the Ukraine war. It is unlcear if he visited Ukrainian territory, but the footage appeared to confirm that Colonel-General Gennady Zhidko is now commanding troops in Ukraine.
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The mayors of several European capitals have been duped into holding video calls with a deepfake of their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no signs that the video conference call wasn’t being held with a real person,” her office said in a statement.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that Ukraine will win back all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we’ll get them all back,” he said in a late-night video address. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to emotionally handle.
Updated
The UK and France have agreed to provide more support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, Boris Johnson’s office said on Sunday as the leaders met on the sidelines of the G7 summit.
“They agreed this is a critical moment for the course of the conflict, and there is an opportunity to turn the tide in the war,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.
Both men “stressed the need to support Ukraine to strengthen their hand in both the war and any future negotiations. President Macron praised the Prime Minister’s ongoing military support to Ukraine and the leaders agreed to step up this work,” the spokesperson said.
A French presidency official said France backs banning Russian gold exports.
The official said Paris was not opposed to a cap on Russian oil prices, but wanted the G7 to discuss a price shield that would cap oil and gas prices to rein in inflation.
The official added that the G7 were fully united in intensifying their support for Ukraine after the intensification of the conflict in recent days.
Updated
Ukraine fears Russia could attack Kyiv throughout the day.
Zelensky advisor Arestovych warns that Russia could attack Kyiv throughout the day. This morning a Russian rocket hit a residential building, injuring a little girl and reportedly killing her father. Just over an hour ago, two more explosions were heard in the capital. https://t.co/ZQo2dNCsiY
— Isobel Koshiw (@IKoshiw) June 26, 2022
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday it had used high-precision weapons to strike Ukrainian army training centres in the Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv regions of Ukraine, Russian news agencies reported, Reuters reports.
Earlier on Sunday Ukraine had said that Russian missiles struck the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has accused Ukraine of trying to cancel its Russian history. The Russian embassy in London tweeted Lavrov saying that Ukraine has no history at all without Russia.
FM #Lavrov: #Ukraine tried to build its sovereignty by cancelling its own history. But it does not have a history without the Russian people, none at all. pic.twitter.com/fJzOoFebgC
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) June 26, 2022
US President Joe Biden on Sunday praised Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz for his leadership in the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine and urged the West to stay united, AFP reports.
“We have to stay together,” Biden told Scholz at a meeting ahead of the G7 summit in the German Alps.
Russian President Vladimir Putin had been hoping “that somehow NATO and the G7 would splinter,” Biden said. “But we haven’t and we’re not going to.”
Biden met his German host in the picturesque Elmau Castle where the G7 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - was holding a three-day summit dominated by the crisis in Ukraine.
Biden praised Scholz’s leadership as current chair of the G7 at a time of upheaval in Europe triggered by Russia’s war and subsequent global economic fallout.
“I want to compliment you for stepping up as you did when you became chancellor” and “the way you had a great impact on the rest of Europe to move, particularly relating to Ukraine,” Biden told Scholz.
The 79-year-old Democrat also fondly recalled his skiing days, telling Scholz that the Alpine setting was “beautiful.”
A senior US official said Washington has been “investing very heavily” in the relationship with Germany since Biden took office almost two and a half years ago.
Their talks were “a good opportunity to affirm the deep and enduring ties between our two countries. In terms of the meeting agenda, expect that Russia and Ukraine are going to be at the top of the list, including our continued close coordination on the political and diplomatic front,” the official said.
The BBC’s Myroslava Petsa puts today’s missile strikes against Kyiv in context.
Putin hit Lviv as Biden was giving a speech in Warsaw.
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) June 26, 2022
Putin hit Kyiv when Guterres was in the city after Bucha trip.
Putin hits Kyiv on a massive scale as G7 leaders are gathering in Elmau for a summit.
And he's going to do it over and over again. This is his way of negotiating
Meanwhile, at the G7 summit in Bavaria:
We stay united, we stay together. This is our clear message to President Putin. Good to have you here at the @G7 Summit, @POTUS Joe Biden. pic.twitter.com/xvzJm7DnHU
— Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz (@Bundeskanzler) June 26, 2022
Updated
Speaking at the G7 summit in Germany, Boris Johnson stressed the need for continued unity in response to the war in Ukraine. He said: “Realistically there is going to be fatigue in populations and politicians.”
Asked if he was worried about that support fracturing, the prime minister said:
I think the pressure is there and the anxiety is there, we’ve got to be honest about that.
But the most incredible thing about the way the West has responded to the invasion of Ukraine by Putin has been the unity - Nato has been solid, the G7 has been solid and we continue to be solid.
But in order to protect that unity, in order to make it work, we’ve got to have really, really honest discussions about the implications of what’s going on, the pressures that individual friends and partners are feeling, that populations are feeling - whether it’s on the costs of their energy or food or whatever.
Ahead of a meeting with Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson was asked whether France and Germany are doing enough over Ukraine.
In his response, Johnson focused on the German response without mentioning France.
Just look at what the Germans alone have done.
I never believed in my lifetime that I would see a German Chancellor stepping up in the way that Olaf Scholz has and sending weaponry to help the Ukrainians to to protect themselves.
He’s made huge, huge strides. We have 4% of our gas comes from Russia, in Germany, it’s 40%.
They’re facing real, real pressures, they’re having to source energy from elsewhere. But they’re doing it. They’re making the effort. They’re making the sacrifice. That’s because they see that the price of freedom is worth paying.
This is something that it’s worth us standing up for together. And that is the principle that a free, independent sovereign country like Ukraine should not be violently invaded and should not have its boundaries changed by force.
And the consequences of what’s happening for the world are tough, but the price of backing down, the price of allowing Putin to succeed , to hack off huge parts of Ukraine, to continue with his programme of conquest, that price will be far, far higher and everybody here understands that.
Updated
Kyiv was hit by four Russian missile strikes early on Sunday morning for the first time in three weeks, during which life had been slowly returning to the Ukrainian capital in the relative calm.
Columns of smoke rose over the central Shevchenkivskyi district, home to a cluster of universities, restaurants and art galleries at 6.22am. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said two residential buildings had been hit in what he called an attempt to “intimidate Ukrainians” before a Nato summit in Madrid beginning on Tuesday.
Around 11am, there were at least several unconfirmed reports of two more explosions in Kyiv.
Read the full story here:
A price cap on Russian oil, deferral of climate change commitments, a potential famine in Africa and the further supply of weapons to Ukraine are to crowd into a meeting of G7 world leaders over the next three days held against the backdrop of the biggest geopolitical crisis since 1945.
The agenda reveals how the world has been turned upside down since leaders of the industrialised nations last met in Cornwall a year ago in a summit chaired by Britain, largely to focus on the threat posed by China.
Before the summit in Germany, Boris Johnson issued a warning for the west not to show war fatigue, a point that will be echoed when the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, addresses the meeting by video link. He is expected to emphasise the difficulties his troops are facing in eastern Ukraine as well as the need for heavier long-range weapons.
Read the full story here:
Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, confirms that one of those injured in the missile strike against an apartment block in Kyiv was a Russian woman. “Russians shoot Russians,” he tweeted.
I am on the site where the Russian rocket hit since early morning.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 26, 2022
It is horrible.
The woman that rescuers got out of the debris is a Russian citizen. She is in the hospital now.
Russians shoot Russians.#Kyiv #UkraineRussiaWar pic.twitter.com/WU6vk4eCHu
Ukrain’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said G7 countries must respond to new missile strikes against Ukraine on Sunday by imposing further sanctions on Russia and providing more heavy weapons to Ukraine.
This 7 y.o. Ukrainian kid was sleeping peacefully in Kyiv until a Russian cruise missile blasted her home. Many more around Ukraine are under strikes. G7 summit must respond with more sanctions on Russia and more heavy arms for Ukraine. Russia’s sick imperialism must be defeated. pic.twitter.com/0kn2hl7A4x
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) June 26, 2022
Members of the G7 have confirmed a ban on imports of Russian gold at the start of their summit in the Bavarian Alps, Reuters reports.
The move by Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada is part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow.
Boris Johnson said in a statement:
The measures we have announced today will directly hit Russian oligarchs and strike at the heart of Putin’s war machine.
“We need to starve the Putin regime of its funding. The UK and our allies are doing just that.
A senior US administration representative said the G7 would make an official announcement on the gold import ban on Tuesday.
“This is a key export, a key source of revenue for Russia in terms of their ability to transact with the global financial system,” the US official said.
Russian gold exports were worth £12.6bn ($15.45bn) last year and wealthy Russians have been buying bullion to reduce the financial impact of Western sanctions, the British government said.
As well as the gold import ban, G7 leaders were also having “really constructive” talks on a possible price cap on Russian oil imports, a German government source said.
Explosions were heard in the central Ukrainian city of Cherkasy on Sunday, regional governor Oleksandr Skichko said on the Telegram app, according to Reuters.
He did not give further details. Cherkasy, which is 200km south-east of Kyiv, has been largely untouched by bombardment since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, says the EU will “stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes”.
We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) June 26, 2022
The negative global impact of Russia’s war will be front and centre of our exchanges at the G7. pic.twitter.com/nLm8aLOuWP
Boris Johnson, who is also in Bavaria for the G7 summit made a similar statement of solidarity with Ukraine.
Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine, they need the support and resolve of the @G7 more than ever.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 26, 2022
The UK will continue to back Ukraine every step of the way, because we know that their security is our security, and their freedom is our freedom. pic.twitter.com/hXJ4jhCN1I
There are several unconfirmed reports of more explosions in Kyiv.
A Reuters reporter heard two explosions in the southern outskirts of the capital.
Reports of more explosions in Kyiv and Cherkasy. Belarusian telegram channels reporting several missiles have been launched from their territories in last few minutes.
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) June 26, 2022
Two more explosions in #Kyiv
— Anastasia Magazova (@a_magazova) June 26, 2022
Just now AGAIN air raid on #Kyiv. Colleagues report explosions.
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) June 26, 2022
⚡️Explosions heard in Kyiv, Kyiv Oblast and Cherkasy.
— Oleksiy Sorokin (@mrsorokaa) June 26, 2022
It looks like more missiles are launched from Belarus.
Updated
Carl Bildt, Sweden’s former prime minister and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, sees this morning’s attack as an escalation of the conflict and a signal to today’s G7 summit in Bavaria.
It’s difficult to see this morning’s missile attack against residential areas of Kyiv 🇺🇦 as anything but a deliberate 🇷🇺 escalation and a signal to the G7 meeting in Elmau today. pic.twitter.com/NvTftqyHPd
— Carl Bildt (@carlbildt) June 26, 2022
One person reported killed in missile attack on Kyiv
One person was killed in the Russian missile attack on Kyiv, according to an unconfirmed update from Iuliia Mendel, a former presidential spokesperson.
Russian missile hit a residential building in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. One dead. A kid was saved from under the rubble. Ironically a Russian citizen who was in this building also suffered. There are more wounded #StopPutin #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/B88JKv3smG
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) June 26, 2022
The Ukraine MP, Lesia Vaylenko, said the victim was the father of a seven-year-old girl who was injured in the attack.
7 yo girl was pulled out from the rubble in #Kyiv this morning. Her father was killed and her mother stuck under the debris for hours. pic.twitter.com/qdz5cw181J
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) June 26, 2022
Bombed #Kyiv area is Lukyanivka. 10 minutes from historic center. It was a new residential block next to an old unused military production facility. Rocket left huge hole in the middle of kids playground and fires burning in the city pic.twitter.com/GSYrjHepo2
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) June 26, 2022
Updated
Analysts have been examining Russian news footage of defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s troop visit to try work out who is now in command of Russian forces.
Rob Lee of the Foreign Policy Research Institute tweets: “It appears to confirm that Colonel-General Gennady Zhidko is the commander.”
Also in the video are Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff Sergey Rudskoy and Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. No sign of Colonel General Alexander Lapin or Army General Sergey Surovikin, the commanders of the central and southern groupings.2/ pic.twitter.com/5ByDGlgSTB
— Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 26, 2022
Present in the footage, however, is Col. Gen. Gennadiy Zhidko, the commander of the Eastern military district. There has been speculation that he is now the overall Russian theater commander in Ukraine after Gen. Dvornikov’s failures. https://t.co/QoJfKq4wCT
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) June 26, 2022
Updated
Another Ukraine MP, Lesia Vasylenko, says seven people may have been injured in the Kyiv missiles strikes. She said at least eight missiles were fired. Earlier a fellow MP said 14 missiles were launched.
Instead of Sunday morning lie-ins #Kyiv has been up since 5 am with air raids, explosions and fires courtesy of #Russia. At least 8 missiles were launched on 🇺🇦 capital. Residential buildings hit and 7 #civilianCasualties so far pic.twitter.com/57alS1pwbn
— Lesia Vasylenko (@lesiavasylenko) June 26, 2022
Euromaidan Press has video of one of those injured in the Kyiv missile strike being taken away on a stretcher by rescue workers.
Another victim was taken out from under the rubble of a building in Kyiv - probably the mother of a 7-year-old girl who is already in hospital.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 26, 2022
Russia shelled Kyiv at 6:30 am today June 26th.https://t.co/isFp1OKCEg pic.twitter.com/5od1RAxDac
At least five people were wounded when a missile hit a building in central Kyiv on Sunday, the head of Ukraine’s police force Ihor Klymenko said on national television.
And the Ukraine MP Oleksiy Goncharenko has more detail on the scale of Russia’s missile attack against Kyiv this morning.
AP quoted him saying:
According to prelim data 14 missiles were launched against Kyiv region and Kyiv.
#Russian invaders bomb #Kyiv again.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 26, 2022
Since this morning, explosions were heard in the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv. Klitschko stated that there were four arrivals. MP Goncharenko said that the Russians fired 14 rockets at Kyiv and the region. pic.twitter.com/dcmjeXTOwU
Updated
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has inspected Russian troop units involved in Ukraine, Reuters reports citing the defence ministry.
“At the command posts of Russian units, Army General Sergei Shoigu heard reports from the commanders on the current situation and actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the main operational areas,” the ministry said in a statement.
It was not immediately known when the visit took place.
The Wall Street Journal’s Yaroslav Trofimov reckons this is the first time Shoigu has visited Ukraine since the war began.
On month five of the war, Russia’s defense minister Sergei Shoigu visits Ukraine for the first time. pic.twitter.com/h3dNr0LuuX
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) June 26, 2022
Update: Reuters later clarified that it was unclear from the footage if Shoigu actually visited Ukraine.
Updated
Summary
- Kyiv has come under attack for the first time since 5 June, with Russian missiles striking at least two residential buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that two people had been taken to hospital and rescuers were working to free people trapped under rubble. “They (the rescuers) have pulled out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they’re trying to rescue her mother,” Klitschko said.
- The UK, US, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold in the latest stage of the effort to cripple Russia’s economy in response to the war in Ukraine, the Press Association reports. Gold exports were worth $15.2bn to Russia in 2021, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Russian forces are trying to cut off the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk is set to become the next main focus of fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on areas far from the heart of the eastern battles. Ukraine called its retreat from Sievierodonetsk a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.
- Russia will send missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the next few months, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said on Saturday while hosting the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko. “In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin said.
- The mayors of several European capitals have been duped into holding video calls with a deepfake of their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no signs that the video conference call wasn’t being held with a real person,” her office said in a statement.
- Ukrainian shelling on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, just hours after Moscow’s forces took the city, Reuters reported the Tass news agency as saying. Separately, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk, directing artillery fire against the Russians. The adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, spoke in a video address.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson urged G7 leaders to not “give up” on Ukraine as he pledged additional financial support for Ukraine as it attempts to fight the Russian invasion. “Ukraine can win and it will win. But they need our backing to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine,” Johnson said on Saturday. Britain stands ready to provide another $525m in loan guarantees, a statement from Downing Street.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that Ukraine will win back all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we’ll get them all back,” he said in a late-night video address. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to emotionally handle.
UK, US, Canada and Japan to ban imports of Russian gold
The UK, US, Canada and Japan will ban imports of Russian gold in the latest stage of the effort to cripple Russia’s economy in response to the war in Ukraine, the Press Association reports.
Gold exports were worth $15.2bn to Russia in 2021, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, as oligarchs have rushed to buy bullion to avoid the impact of sanctions, Downing Street said.
Officials believe that because London is a major gold-trading hub, UK sanctions will have a huge impact on Putin’s ability to raise funds to finance his war effort.
Boris Johnson confirmed the move as he arrived at the G7 summit in Bavaria, Germany.
The ban is due to come into force shortly and will apply to newly mined or refined gold. It will not affect Russian-origin gold that has been previously exported from Russia, the British government added.
Updated
Indonesian president to press for peace talks in visit to Ukraine, Russia
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, said on Sunday that he would urge his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts to open room for dialogue during a peace-building mission to the warring countries, and ask Russia’s Vladimir Putin to order an immediate ceasefire.
“War has to be stopped and global food supply chains need to be reactivated,” Jokowi, as the president is popularly known, said before leaving for Germany to attend the G7 summit on Monday.
The president also said he will encourage the G7 countries to seek peace in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, and find an immediate solution to global food and energy crises. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation”.
Separately, Indonesia’s foreign minister, Retno Marsudi, said food and fertiliser products from Russia and Ukraine need to be “reintegrated into the global market, despite the war”.
“It is necessary to secure a grain corridor from Ukraine and open food and fertiliser exports from Russia. All countries must refrain from actions that further exacerbate this food crisis,” Marsudi said in a statement on Sunday.
Indonesia has condemned the war and expressed sympathy to Ukrainians. However, Jokowi in April said he had declined a request for arms from Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Updated
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says two people have been taken to hospital after Sunday morning’s missile strikes, with search and rescue operations continuing. In a Telegram post, Klitschko said people may still be trapped under rubble at a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district.
Updated
Some of the dozens of long-range Russian missile strikes on Saturday were, for the first time, launched from Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus, Ukraine’s military says.
Russia struck multiple targets across Ukraine on Saturday, including the port city of Mykolaiv in the south, the Chernihiv region in the north and a “military object” near Lviv in the west. About 30 Russian missiles were also fired on the Zhytomyr region in central Ukraine, killing one Ukrainian soldier.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said the Russian bombers’ use of Belarusian airspace for the first time was “directly connected to attempts by the Kremlin to drag Belarus into the war”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address on Saturday that as a war that Moscow expected to last five days moved into its fifth month, Russia “felt compelled to stage such a missile show”.
Photographer Alessio Mamo and I had just arrived in Kyiv on a night train from Lviv, and as soon as we set foot out of the railway station, we saw four missiles hitting an area of the capital about 5km away from us.
Columns of smoke were rising over the city which has not not come under Russian bombardment for nearly three weeks, and we decided to go right away to the spot to see what happened.
The site of the explosion looked really familiar. And the closer we got to the site, the more I realised that I had already been there. The same area (the same road actually) was hit almost 2 months ago, on 28 April, in a menacing display of defiance while at the time the UN secretary general was visiting the city and a few hours after Joe Biden had announced a doubling of US military and economic aid to Ukraine.
That day, journalist Vira Hyrych, who worked for Voice of America and lived in the apartment hit by the strike, was killed in the attack. And I was there, exactly two months ago, reporting from that spot.
Updated
The latest UK defence intelligence briefing says Russia’s capture of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine was a “significant achievement” for Moscow’s ambitions in the Donbas region.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 26 June 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 26, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/k7vGhVBw2Y
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/vVFHH72lXr
Pictures of the aftermath of the missile strikes are coming in from our photographer Alessio Mamo.
Updated
The Kyiv Independent reports that Kyiv Oblast governor Oleksiy Kuleba posted on Telegram that the local air defence system downed a Russian missile early on 26 June. Missile fragments fell in the outskirts of one of the region’s villages.
Russia hit Kyiv on Sunday with four cruise missile strikes. At least one struck the lower floors of a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital.
The area was previously hit almost two months ago, on 28 April, in a menacing display of defiance while the UN secretary general was visiting the city and a few hours after Joe Biden had announced a doubling of US military and economic aid to Ukraine.
At the time, journalist Vira Hyrych, who worked for Voice of America and lived in the apartment hit by the strike, was killed in the attack.
There was no immediate information on the cause of the latest explosions or casualties.
The historic district, one of Kyiv’s central, is home to a cluster of universities, restaurants and art galleries.
Updated
G7 leaders are gathering in Germany in a meeting set to be dominated by Ukraine and its far-reaching consequences, from energy shortages to a food crisis.
The leaders are expected to seek to show a united front on supporting Ukraine for as long as necessary and cranking up pressure on the Kremlin – although they will want to avoid sanctions that could stoke inflation and exacerbate the global cost-of-living crisis.
The partners are set to agree to ban imports of gold from Russia, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. A German government source later said that leaders were having “really constructive” conversations on a possible price cap on Russian oil imports.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s ongoing coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. We are now on day 123 of the invasion and you can find a summary of the latest developments here, and shown below:
- Russian forces are trying to cut off the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk is set to become the next main focus of fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on areas far from the heart of the eastern battles. Ukraine called its retreat from Sievierodonetsk a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.
- Russia will send missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Belarus in the next few months, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said on Saturday while hosting the Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko. “In the coming months, we will transfer to Belarus Iskander-M tactical missile systems, which can use ballistic or cruise missiles, in their conventional and nuclear versions,” Putin said.
- The mayors of several European capitals have been duped into holding video calls with a deepfake of their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no signs that the video conference call wasn’t being held with a real person,” her office said in a statement.
- Ukrainian shelling on Saturday forced Russian troops to suspend the evacuation of people from a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, just hours after Moscow’s forces took the city, Reuters reported the Tass news agency as saying. Separately, a senior adviser to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said special forces were still in Sievierodonetsk, directing artillery fire against the Russians. The adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, spoke in a video address.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson urged G7 leaders to not “give up” on Ukraine as he pledged additional financial support for Ukraine as it attempts to fight the Russian invasion. “Ukraine can win and it will win. But they need our backing to do so. Now is not the time to give up on Ukraine,” Johnson said on Saturday. Britain stands ready to provide another $525m in loan guarantees, a statement from Downing Street.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that Ukraine will win back all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we’ll get them all back,” he said in a late-night video address. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to emotionally handle.
- Russian attacks have killed three civilians on Saturday in Bakhmut, New York and Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, according to the region’s governor Pavlo Kyrylenko. Additionally, Russian missile strikes have killed at least three and injured four others in Sarny, a city in Rivne, a western region in Ukraine.
- The US has announced that it will provide 18 patrol boats to Ukraine as part of the 13th security package promised on Thursday. “Included in the package announced Thursday are two 35-foot, small-unit riverine craft; six 40-foot maritime combat craft; and ten 34-foot, Dauntless Sea Ark patrol boats,” the defense department said on Thursday.
Residential buildings hit as Russian missiles strike Kyiv
Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Sunday morning, striking at least two residential buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko said.
Emergency services said that as a result of the Russian shelling a fire broke out in a nine-storey residential building, which had been partially damaged in the attack.
Klitschko said that residents are being rescued and evacuated from two buildings.
“There are people under the rubble,” Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. He added that several people had already been hospitalised.
“They (the rescuers) have pulled out a seven-year-old girl. She is alive. Now they’re trying to rescue her mother.”
Air raid sirens regularly disrupt life in Kyiv, but there have been no major strikes on the city since 5 June, when a rail car repair facility was hit on the outskirts, and a late April shelling when a Radio Liberty producer was killed in a strike that hit the building she lived in.
The historic district, one of Kyiv’s central, is home to a cluster of universities, restaurants and art galleries.
The blasts occurred around 6.30am local time, half an hour after air raid sirens sounded in the capital.
Our correspondent, Lorenzo Tondo, tweeted this.
We just arrived in #Kyiv by train & as soon as we got out of the railway station, city was hit by 4 missile strikes. #war #Russia #invasion #Ukraine @AlessioMamo pic.twitter.com/Rsm7067tnK
— Lorenzo Tondo (@lorenzo_tondo) June 26, 2022
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