Summary
That’s all from me, Samantha Lock, for now. Please join me a little a later when we launch our new live blog covering all the latest developments from Ukraine.
Here is a comprehensive run-down of where things currently stand as of 3.30am.
- Russia struck Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with missiles early on Sunday for the first time in more than a month. A railway depot was hit in the eastern suburb of Dniprovsky. Five cruise missiles fired from the Caspian Sea were launched from Tu-95 bombers, one of which was intercepted, Ukraine’s air force said, in an attack that represented a change of approach on the part of Russian forces.
- A Russian cruise missile “flew critically low” over the Pivdennoukrainsk nuclear power plant, in the south of the country, at about 5.30am, apparently heading for Kyiv. Ukraine’s nuclear energy company Energoatom said Russian forces “still do not understand that even the smallest fragment of a missile that can hit a working power unit can cause a nuclear catastrophe and radiation leak” in a statement on Sunday.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow will hit new targets if the west supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles. “We will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting,” Putin told Rossiya state television, without specifying what those targets were. The comments were made in response to a pledge from the US went through with the delivery of Himars rocket artillery that the White House promised last week.
- Ukrainian forces have counterattacked and retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk in the east of the country, officials said. “It had been a difficult situation, the Russians controlled 70% of the city, but over the past two days they have been pushed back,” Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai told Ukrainian television. “The city is now, more or less, divided in half.” The Institute for the Study of War, a US thinktank, also said Ukrainian forces were “successfully slowing down Russian operations” in Donbas and were making “effective local counterattacks in Sievierodonetsk”.
- President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited his troops on Ukraine’s eastern frontlines in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as well as the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia on Sunday.
- A Russian general, Maj Gen Roman Kutuzov, was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow. There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.
- Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been cancelled after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft, according to local media reports. A senior foreign ministry source told the Interfax news agency that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried Moscow’s top diplomat to Belgrade on Monday. “Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” the source said.
- Britain is to supply long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, including a handful of tracked M270 multiple launch rocket systems, which can hit targets up to 80km (50 miles) away. UK defence secretary Ben Wallace said the decision to ship the rocket launchers was justified because “as Russia’s tactics change, so must our support to Ukraine”.
- Spain is also to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and Leopard battle tanks in a step up of its military support to the country, according to government sources cited by newspaper El Pais. Spain will provide essential training to the Ukrainian military in how to use the tanks, according to the reports.
- Nato kicked off nearly a two-week US-led naval exercise on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with more than 7,000 sailors, airmen and marines from 16 nations, including Finland and Sweden whom aspire to join the military alliance. “It is important for us, the United States, and the other Nato countries to show solidarity with both Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” US Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said.
- A Ukrainian lawmaker, Yevhen Yakovenko, was detained at the Moldovan border at the request of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, Moldova’s border police said on Sunday. Viorel Tentiu, the head of Interpol in Moldova, said in a statement that Yakovenko was put on the list following accusations from Belarus of bribery and corruption.
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Russia’s sanctions against Gazprom Germania and its subsidiaries could cost German taxpayers and gas users an extra €5bn ($5.4bn) a year to pay for replacement gas, the Welt am Sonntag weekly reported, citing industry representatives.
Updated
Spain is to supply Ukraine with anti-aircraft missiles and Leopard battle tanks in a step up of its military support to the country, according to government sources cited by newspaper El Pais.
Spain will also provide essential training to the Ukrainian military in how to use the tanks, according to the reports as cited by Reuters. Training would take place in Latvia, where the Spanish army has deployed 500 soldiers within the framework of Nato’s Enhanced Advanced Presence operation.
A second phase of training could take place in Spain, according to the sources cited by El Pais.
The paper said Spain’s defence ministry is finalising a delivery to Kyiv of low-level Shorad Aspide anti-aircraft missiles, which the Spanish army has replaced with a more advanced system.
Spain has so far supplied ammunition, individual protection equipment and light weapons.
Russia’s sanctions against Gazprom Germania and its subsidiaries could cost German taxpayers and gas users an extra €5bn ($5.4bn) a year to pay for replacement gas, the Welt am Sonntag weekly reported, citing industry representatives.
In May, Russia decided to stop supplying Gazprom Germania, which had been the German subsidiary of Gazprom, after Berlin put the company under trustee management due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, the Bundesnetzagentur energy regulator, acting as trustee, has had to buy replacement gas on the market to fulfil supply contracts with German municipal utilities and regional suppliers.
Welt am Sonntag reported that Economy Minister Robert Habeck estimates an extra 10m cubic meters per day are required, which would currently cost about €3.5bn a year.
Further costs arise from the filling of the Rehden natural gas storage facility which Habeck ordered on Wednesday, it said.
The paper also said the additional costs would be passed on to energy suppliers and end customers in the form of a gas levy from October.
Nato holds Baltic Sea naval exercises with Finland and Sweden
Nato kicked off nearly a two-week US-led naval exercise on the Baltic Sea on Sunday with more than 7,000 sailors, airmen and marines from 16 nations, including two aspiring to join the military alliance, Finland and Sweden.
The annual BALTOPS naval exercise, initiated in 1972, is not held in response to any specific threat. But the military alliance said that “with both Sweden and Finland participating, Nato is seizing the chance in an unpredictable world to enhance its joint force resilience and strength” together with two Nordic aspirant nations, according to a report from the Associated Press.
Finland and Sweden decided to apply to join Nato in May as a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite repeated warnings from Moscow against joining the western military alliance.
#BALTOPS22 is kicking off.
— NATO Joint Force Command Brunssum - JFCBS (@NATOJFCBS) June 4, 2022
BALTOPS 22 provides a unique training opportunity that strengthens combined response capability critical to preserving the freedom of navigation and security in the Baltic Sea region.#StrongerTogehter#WeAreNATO pic.twitter.com/dE5LTbj1TV
Ahead of the naval drill, which involved 45 vessels and 75 aircraft, the top US military official said in Sweden the host of the BALTOPS 22 exercise that it was particularly important for Nato to show support to the governments in Helsinki and Stockholm.
It is important for us, the United States, and the other Nato countries to show solidarity with both Finland and Sweden in this exercise,” US Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Saturday during a news conference aboard the large amphibious warship USS Kearsarge, which was moored in central Stockholm.
Milley said from Moscow’s perspective, Finland and Sweden joining Nato will be “very problematic” and leave Russia in a difficult military position as the Baltic Sea’s coastline would be almost completely encircled by Nato members, except for Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and the Russian city of St. Petersburg and its surrounding areas.
The United States has never before moved such a large warship as the 843-foot USS Kearsarge in the Swedish capital, where it sailed through narrow passages in the Stockholm archipelago, Milley said.
As Nato’s close partners, Finland and Sweden have participated in the naval drill since the mid-1990s.
Vice Adm. Gene Black, commander Naval Striking and Support Forces Nato and US Sixth Fleet, added:
In past iterations of BALTOPS we’ve talked about meeting the challenges of tomorrow. Those challenges are upon us - in the here and now.”
BALTOPS 22 is scheduled to end in the German port of Kiel on June 17. Participating nations include Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
These countries will exercise a myriad of capabilities demonstrating the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. Exercise scenarios include amphibious operations, gunnery, anti-submarine, air defence, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal, unmanned underwater vehicles, and medical response, according to an official statement.
2022 #BALTOPS hosted by 🇸🇪 in conjunction with the celebration of the Swedish Navy's 500th anniversary.
— Sweden at NATO (@SwedenNato) June 1, 2022
Read more about the Swedish Navy and the #BALTOPS22 excercise https://t.co/1zPpTA5yO0 @Forsvarsmakten @NATO https://t.co/SzD5JXdcT7
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s visit to Serbia has been cancelled after countries around Serbia closed their airspace to his aircraft, according to reports.
A senior foreign ministry source told the Interfax news agency that Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Montenegro had closed their airspace to the plane that would have carried Moscow’s top diplomat to Belgrade on Monday
“Our diplomacy has yet to master teleportation,” the source said.
Serbia, which has close cultural ties with Russia, has fended off pressure to take sides over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has not joined western sanctions against Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic agreed last month that Russia would continue supplying natural gas to Serbia, while other countries have been cut off for refusing to pay for Russian gas in roubles.
Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić will address the nation on Monday night regarding the cancellation of Lavrov’s visit to Belgrade, according to local media reports.
Updated
Zelenskiy visits troops on Ukraine's eastern frontlines
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited his troops on Ukraine’s eastern frontlines on Sunday to understand the position of Ukrainian defenders as Russia’s assault on Donbas continues.
According to a release from his office, Zelenskiy visited command posts and frontline positions of Ukrainian troops in the area of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region.
“The president heard information on the operational situation in these parts of the front, as well as a report on the logistics of Ukrainian defenders,” the statement read.
Earlier in the day, Zelenskiy visited frontline troops in the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia.
Oleksandr Starukh, governor of the Zaporizhzhia region told Zelenskiy that some 60% of the region’s territory is under Russian occupation, with more than 2,700 infrastructure objects either damaged or destroyed.
Humanitarian hubs have been set up in the Zaporizhzhia region to shelter residents of the temporarily occupied territories and settlements where hostilities continue.
“Over the last 15 days the largest number of people have come from the Kherson region. They also come from Mariupol,” Starukh said.
Zelenskiy’s office later said the president also visited a medical facility in the region and spoke with people forced to leave their homes, including from Mariupol, which is now in Russian hands after being under siege for weeks.
He promised action to ensure that all displaced people would be properly rehoused.
“We will truly help you tackle this issue,” the president’s office quoted him as saying.
Updated
Summary
It’s 2am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- A Ukrainian lawmaker, Yevhen Yakovenko, was detained at the Moldovan border at the request of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, Moldova’s border police said on Sunday. Viorel Tentiu, the head of Interpol in Moldova, said in a statement that Yakovenko was put on the list following accusations from Belarus of bribery and corruption.
- Russia has announced that it destroyed tanks supplied by eastern European countries in airstrikes on Kyiv. On Sunday, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that Kyiv had been targeted by “several explosions in Darnytsky and Dniprovsky districts of city”, the first such strikes on the capital since 28 April.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited frontline troops in the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, his office said on Sunday, a week after a similar trip to the north-eastern Kharkiv region. “I want to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting all of us, our state,” he said.
- Vladimir Putin said today that Moscow would strike at new targets if the west supplied Ukraine with long-range missiles, hours after several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The Russian leader said long-range missile supplies being sent to Ukraine meant that “we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms ... to strike targets we haven’t hit before”.
- A Russian general, Maj Gen Roman Kutuzov, was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow. There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.
- Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has reaffirmed the country’s need for continous military assistance from western countries in order to overcome Moscow’s military campaign. “We have already entered into a protracted war and we will need constant support,” Ganna Malyar told local media on Sunday.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, today as I hand the blog over to my colleague, Samantha Lock, in Australia. Thank you.
Updated
A Ukrainian lawmaker, Yevhen Yakovenko, was detained at the Moldovan border at the request of the International Criminal Police Organization, or Interpol, Moldova’s border police said on Sunday.
Reuters reports:
Yakovenko was placed in a pretrial detention centre, a press service representative of the border police said.
Viorel Tentiu, the head of Interpol in Moldova, said in a statement that Yakovenko was put on the list following accusations from Belarus of bribery and corruption.
A search of public records for wanted persons on the Interpol website for Yakovenko’s name did not produce any results on Sunday night.
Ukraine and Belarus officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Yakovenko was elected to the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, from the Donetsk region, according to information on the parliament’s website.
Fears have grown recently that Moldova could be drawn in to the conflict in neighbouring Ukraine, after pro-Russian separatists in a breakaway region reported a number of attacks and explosions there, which they blamed on Kyiv.
Moldova, a country of around 2.6 million people wedged between Ukraine and Romania, has taken a decisive pro-Western political turn since President Maia Sandu took office at the end of 2020, defeating a Moscow-aligned incumbent.
The country has an ethnic Romanian majority but a large and influential Russian-speaking minority, and close economic ties to Moscow.
Russia has announced that it destroyed tanks supplied by eastern European countries in airstrikes on Kyiv.
“High-precision, long-range missiles fired by the Russian Aerospace Forces on the outskirts of Kyiv destroyed T-72 tanks supplied by eastern European countries and other armoured vehicles that were in hangars,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
On Sunday, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said that Kyiv had been targeted by “several explosions in Darnytsky and Dniprovsky districts of city”, the first such strikes on the capital since April 28.
Several cruise missiles were fired towards Kyiv by Russian TU-95 planes from the Caspian Sea, one of which was destroyed, said the Ukrainian air force.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited frontline troops in the south-eastern region of Zaporizhzhia, his office said on Sunday, a week after a similar trip to the north-eastern Kharkiv region.
Reuters reports:
“I want to thank you for your great work, for your service, for protecting all of us, our state,” the statement quoted the Ukrainian president as saying, adding that he held a minute of silence for fallen troops.
Zelenskiy’s office later said the president also visited a medical facility in the region and spoke with people forced to leave their homes, including from Mariupol, which is now in Russian hands after being under siege for weeks.
He promised action to ensure that all displaced people would be properly rehoused.
“We will truly help you tackle this issue,” the president’s office quoted him as saying.
Updated
Vladimir Putin said today that Moscow would strike at new targets if the west supplied Ukraine with long-range missiles, hours after several explosions rocked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
The Russian leader said long-range missile supplies being sent to Ukraine meant that “we will draw the appropriate conclusions and use our arms ... to strike targets we haven’t hit before”.
He did not specify which targets he meant.
Updated
Images have emerged from the Russian missile attack this morning that struck a facility working on railway cars used for grain transport.
The target of the Russian missile attacked in Kyiv this morning was a facility that works on railway cars to transport grain. Officials let us in to have a look. The place is gutted pic.twitter.com/uqeppwbLjn
— Simon Shuster (@shustry) June 5, 2022
A Russian general was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow.
Reuters reports:
The report, published on the Telegram messaging app by state television reporter Alexander Sladkov, did not say precisely when and where Maj Gen Roman Kutuzov was killed.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.
Updated
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has reaffirmed the country’s need for continous military assistance from western countries in order to overcome Moscow’s military campaign.
“We have already entered into a protracted war and we will need constant support,” Ganna Malyar told local media on Sunday.
“The west must understand that its help cannot be a one-time thing, but something that continues until our victory,” she said.
Earlier this week, the US announced that long-range weapons were being sent to Ukraine as part of a $700m (£560m) package that includes air-surveillance radar, additional Javelin short-range anti-tank rockets, artillery ammunition and helicopters.
Russia has said the new military deliveries put Washington at risk of being directly involved in the conflict with Moscow.
Updated
An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol has said that the shortage of drinking water has reached a critical level.
Petro Andrushenko said people had to register to get drinking water and could only get it every two days.
Basic infrastructure and services like water, gas and electricity are yet to be restored to the city after the prolonged siege from Russian forces as they tried to take it over.
According to CNN, Andrushenko said: “The amount of water was small before, but now it has decreased altogether. It is necessary to register in the queue ... In the future, the temperature will rise, the water level will fall, and the water will be less.”
He said that water being provided is “very conditional drinking water”, which needs boiling.
He added that he feared illnesses could break out in the south-eastern city because of the amount of rubbish and dead bodies buried in shallow graves.
“We expect cholera [or] any viral epidemic related to the gastrointestinal tract. As a result of unsanitary conditions, this can happen. The worst thing is that such a basic thing as dysentery in the current conditions and with the dysfunctional medical system, lack of drugs, lack of laboratories and everything we are used to, lack of vaccines in Mariupol ... Even dysentery can kill tens of thousands.”
Updated
Away from the conflict, but linked to the invasion, Ukraine are due to kick off against Wales shortly for the right to play at this year’s men’s football World Cup in Qatar.
Their recent playoff game against Scotland, which was won by Ukraine was originally due to take place in March, but was delayed by the war.
My colleague Will Unwin will be bringing you live updates with kick-off a few minutes away.
Updated
Earlier today, in his weekly address from St Peter’s Square at the Vatican, Pope Francis called for “real negotiations” to end the “increasingly dangerous” war.
“I renew my appeal to the leaders of nations: please do not lead humanity to destruction,” the 85-year-old said.
Updated
US congress member Victoria Spartz has been on a two-day visit to Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, being pictured with the governor of the region, Viacheslav Chaus.
US congresswoman visits Ukraine
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 5, 2022
"For 2 days in Chernihiv, we studied with US Congresswoman Victoria Spartz possibilities of rebuilding our city & region. We have good prospects for implementing them," Chernihiv Obl Mil.Adm.Head Viacheslav Chaus informed https://t.co/l5AuALmMds pic.twitter.com/GyZuYdaSOm
Updated
Summary
- President Vladimir Putin said Russia would strike new targets if the US started supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles, the Russian state Tass news agency reported on Sunday.
- Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power operator Energoatom said a Russian cruise missile flew “critically low” on Sunday morning over an important nuclear power plant.
- As of this morning, 262 children have been killed and 467 injured, according to the latest figures from Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.
- Control of Sievierodonetsk is split in half between Ukrainian and Russian forces, Serhiy Gaidai, governor or the Luhansk region where the eastern city is located, said on Sunday.
- Ukraine’s air force and the Kyiv mayor have said Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers launched missiles at Kyiv from the Caspian Sea early on Sunday and two of the Ukrainian capital’s eastern districts were rocked by explosions in an attack that targeted railway infrastructure in Kyiv.
- Russian strikes destroyed tanks and other armoured vehicles on the outskirts of Kyiv that had been provided to Ukraine by European countries, Russia’s defence ministry said
- Ukraine’s gas transit system operator has said the volume of Russian gas nominations at Sudzha transit point has totalled 40.08 mcm for 6 June.
- Britain’s Ministry of Defence says Ukraine has counterattacked in the contested city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, “blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower”.
- France is in talks with the United Arab Emirates to replace Russian oil purchases, which will stop after the imposition of a European Union ban on Russian crude after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, said Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister.
Updated
Ukrainian police on Sunday shared video showing the aftermath of Russian shelling in the city of Lysychansk, in the Luhansk region. The video shows damaged administrative buildings, residential buildings and roads.
Police said the headquarters for distributing humanitarian aid had been burned to the ground. They said more than 40 people had been living permanently in the building but no information on casualties was provided.
Luke Harding and Isobel Koshiw in Bakhmut have the following dispatch from Ukraine:
In eastern Ukraine there was intense fighting on Sunday all across the Donbas frontline. Ukrainian forces deployed their existing Smersh multiple launcher rocket system near the city of Bakhmut. Sepia streaks were visible in the sky as rockers were fired at Russian army positions.
Another - or possibly the same - Smersh system was seen on Sunday morning on the road between Slavyansk and Bakhmut. Ukrainian army sources admitted their Smersh MLRS were older than the modernised version used by Russia, and had a range of just 40kms.
There was no evidence this weekend that the advanced MLRS promised by the Biden administration had reached the eastern theatre. Armoured personnel carriers, ammunition trucks and ambulances could be seen on the roads, as well as battered civilian vehicles painted in military green.
There was also a spectacular 220mm 2S7 heavy artillery piece, nicknamed Godzilla. It was mounted on a long lorry.Doctors in Bakhmut’s military hospital said the battle for the Donbas had become a grinding artillery war, seven weeks after Vladimir Putin abandoned his attempt to seize Kyiv.
Most of the soldiers brought in for treatment were suffering from shrapnel wounds, they said, with relatively few bullet injuries. Outgoing artillery could be heard near continuously, as well as the odd burst of unexplained gunfire. Most of the city’s 100,000 residents have fled. The city is 10km from the frontline.
Denis Babenko, a pastor turned soldier, now evacuating civilians, said morale on the Ukrainian side was high. “We have soul but we don’t have the arms. They have the arms but no spirit or motivation. To win this war we need more heavy weapons.”
Updated
Ukraine’s gas transit system operator has said the volume of Russian gas nominations at Sudzha transit point has totalled 40.08 mcm for 6 June.
More soon...
Columns of smoke rise over Kyiv after airstrikes early on Sunday. Missiles hit eastern areas of the Ukrainian capital and injured at least one person, according to the city’s mayor, Vitaly Klitschko. Russia’s defence ministry said the strikes had targeted tanks and other armoured vehicles on the outskirts of the city.
Updated
Ed Vulliamy has written a column about why he is supporting Ukraine in this year’s Fifa World Cup, despite his Welsh heritage.
On Sunday evening, every football fan in the world – apart from the Welsh – will be joined by many others who do not even care for the game in rooting for the national team of battered and besieged but resilient Ukraine as they face Wales for a place in the World Cup in Qatar later this year.
Watching here in St Davids, Pembrokeshire, even I, with a substantial quotient of Welsh DNA, will be wearing my official Ukraine yellow football shirt with “Malinovskyi 8” on the back.
You can read the article here:
Updated
Updated
Dan Sabbagh reports from Kyiv that Russia launched airstrikes into Kyiv for the first time in five weeks on Sunday, claiming it had destroyed western-supplied tanks – while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned more targets would be struck if weapons deliveries continued.
Perhaps signalling the new approach, Putin told Rossiya state television that Russia would hit fresh targets in Ukraine if the US delivered the longer-range rockets that it had promised to Kyiv last week.
If such missiles were supplied, “we will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting”, said Putin, who is believed to be closely involved in military decision-making. The Russian leader did not specify what would be struck, although logistics points would be amongst the most logical targets.
Russia has been irritated by the US decision to supply Ukraine with Himars truck mounted multiple-launch rocket systems, with missiles that have a range of about 20 to 40 miles, greater than anything in Kyiv’s armoury.
You can read more of the reporting below:
Updated
Russia’s strike on Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, has been the first attack in over a month on the city. Ukrainian officials have said that a counterattack in the east had retaken half of the city of Sievierodonetsk.
Reuters reports:
Dark smoke could be seen from many miles away after the attack on two outlying districts of Kyiv. Moscow said it had hit a repair shop housing tanks sent from eastern Europe.
Ukraine said Russia had carried out the strike using long-range air-launched missiles fired from heavy bombers as far away as the Caspian Sea – a weapon far more valuable than the tanks Russia claimed to have hit.
At least one person was hospitalised but there were no immediate reports of deaths from the strike - a sudden reminder of war in a capital where normal life has largely returned since Russian forces were driven from its outskirts in March.
“The Kremlin resorts to new insidious attacks. Today*s missile strikes at Kyiv have only one goal - kill as many as possible,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak wrote in a tweet.
Ukraine’s nuclear power operator said a Russian cruise missile had flown “critically low” over the country’s second largest nuclear power plant.
The attack was the first big strike on Kyiv since late April, when a missile killed a journalist. Recent weeks have seen Russia focus its destructive might mainly on frontlines in the east and south, although Moscow occasionally strikes elsewhere in what it calls a campaign to degrade Ukraine’s military infrastructure and block Western arms shipments.
Updated
Matthew Cantor has spoken to Lee Zion, a journalist in Minnesota who plans to fly to Europe to help Ukrainians “in any way he can”.
Lee Zion is preparing to head to Ukraine this summer.
“I have gotten all my shots. I have started putting personal possessions into storage, giving other things away. I’ve adopted out two cats,” he said. “And minor things – I’m trying to learn the language. I can at least communicate some basic needs. Like ‘me want cookie,’” he said.
For four years, Zion has worked seven days a week at a small-town Minnesota newspaper. But now, disgusted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he plans to fly to Europe and help the Ukrainians in any way he can.
You can read more here:
Maya Yang and Leonie Chao-Fong have a summary on what we know on day 102 of the invasion which you can read here:
Updated
Simon Tisdall has said Nato has ensured that the Ukraine conflict will continue by not standing up to Russia.
Nato’s reluctance to seize the initiative, rather than passively reacting to Russian actions, is unfathomable, too. Proposals for a no-fly zone and safe havens in western Ukraine are repeatedly rejected as too risky. So dare to try something else! Nato has the muscle and means. It could do much more to stop the systematic killing of civilians and push Russia back, as previously argued here.
Left to fight alone, Zelenskiy pleads for heavy weapons but his pleas still often go unmet or responses are delayed. “We need to get serious about supplying [Ukraine’s] army so that it can do what the world is asking it to do: fight a world superpower alone on the battlefield,” says US Gen Philip Breedlove, formerly Nato commander in Europe. He’s right.
You can read more here:
Updated
Russian strikes destroyed tanks and other armoured vehicles on the outskirts of Kyiv that had been provided to Ukraine by European countries, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday.
The ministry’s statement came after the Ukrainian capital experienced by several explosions early on Sunday.
Ukraine’s air force and the Kyiv mayor have said Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers launched missiles at Kyiv from the Caspian Sea early on Sunday and two of the Ukrainian capital’s eastern districts were rocked by explosions in an attack that targeted railway infrastructure in Kyiv. The mayor, Vitaly Klitschko said at least one person was taken to hospital; no deaths were immediately reported.
Reuters reports:
Dark smoke rose into the sky above the Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts where the explosions rang out.
The missiles were the first to hit the capital since late April when a Radio Liberty producer was killed when a Russian missile hit the building she lived in.
According to preliminary data, Russia launched missiles from Tu-95 aircraft from the Caspian Sea,” the Ukrainian air forces said in a statement.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak called on the west to impose more sanctions on Russia to punish it for the strikes and to supply more weapons to Ukraine.
The Kremlin resorts to new insidious attacks. Today*s missile strikes at Kyiv have only one goal: kill as many as possible,” he wrote.
The mayor of the historic town of Brovary some 12 miles (12km) from Kyiv’s centre, urged people to remain inside their houses as there had been reports of the smell of soot coming from the smoke.
Updated
President Vladimir Putin said Russia would strike new targets if the United States started supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles, the TASS news agency reported on Sunday.
The TASS news agency reports:
Putin said that if such missiles are supplied, that Russia will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting”, in an Rossiya-1 state television channel
Putin did not name the targets Russia planned to pursue if western countries began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
He said the “fuss” around western weapon supplies to Ukraine was designed to drag out the conflict. Ukraine has been seeking Multiple Rocket Launch Systems (MLRS) such as the M270 and M142 HIMARS to strike troops and weapons stockpiles at the Russian forces’ rear.
Updated
France is in talks with the United Arab Emirates to replace Russian oil purchases, which will stop after the imposition of a European Union ban on Russian crude following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday.
“There are discussions with the United Arab Emirates. We have to find an alternative to Russian oil,” Le Maire told Europe 1 radio.
Ukraine’s state-run nuclear power operator Energoatom said a Russian cruise missile flew “critically low” on Sunday morning over a major nuclear power plant.
Reuters, although they could not immediately verify the claim, reports:
“It’s probable that was the missile that was fired in the direction of Kyiv,” the operator of the Pivdennoukrainska plant, also called the South Ukraine Nuclear Plant, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Early on Sunday, several explosions rocked Kyiv. Pivdennoukrainska is Ukraine’s second largest nuclear plant located near in the Mykolaiv region, about 350 km (220 miles) south of Kyiv.
As of this morning, 262 children have been killed and 467 injured, according to the latest figures from Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament.
Those figures are not final, the parliament said on Telegram:
Work is underway to establish them in places of active hostilities, in the temporarily occupied and liberated territories.
The true number is likely significantly higher. In parts of Ukraine that are occupied or under active attack by Russia, local authorities have said it is impossible to clear bodies from the street, or count the numbers of citizens killed or injured.
The parliament said 1938 schools or educational facilities had been damaged by bombing, and 182 were completely destroyed.
Control of Sievierodonetsk is split in half between Ukrainian and Russian forces, Serhiy Gaidai, governor or the Luhansk region where the eastern city is located, said on Sunday.
Reuters reports that Gaidai said on Ukrainian television:
It had been a difficult situation, the Russians controlled 70% of the city, but over the past two days they have been pushed back.”
“The city is now, more or less, divided in half.”
Reuters could not immediately verify Gaidai’s claims.
If you’d like a fuller report on fight for territory in Sievierodonetsk, here’s a report from our Ukraine-based correspondents:
For a little more context on these strikes in Kyiv, they come after a period of relative calm in the city, after Moscow turned its military focus to the east and south.
Politico’s Ukraine-based correspondent Christopher Miller said “It was eerily silent this morn, save for the birds. Then came the explosions in the distance.” He called it “the first attack on Kyiv in weeks”.
Kyiv awoke to ~5 Russian missiles strikes at 5am. Mayor Klitschko said they hit on the left bank near Darnytsia railway station and Pozniaky. This is the first attack on Kyiv in weeks. It was eerily silent this morn, save for the birds. Then came the explosions in the distance.
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) June 5, 2022
An update on the explosions that shook Kyiv in the early hours of this morning - Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said that so far there have been no deaths reported. The mayor said on Telegram on Sunday morning:
Friends! Regarding the morning explosions in Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital. There are currently no casualties from missile strikes on infrastructure. One victim was hospitalized. Services are still working in the affected areas
This morning, Kyiv Regional Military Administration said that as well as the missiles that hit, one “enemy missile was shot down over Obukhiv district by air defense forces”. It asked residents to remain in shelters during air raids.
Ukraine counterattacks blunt Russian momentum, says UK defence ministry
Britain’s Ministry of Defence says Ukraine has counterattacked in the contested city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, “blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower”.
The intelligence report backs up claims by Ukrainian officials on Saturday that their forces had recaptured parts of the city.
The MoD said on Sunday morning:
Over the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have counterattacked in the contested city of Sieverodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 5 June 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 5, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/8afxKwSwSn
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Sy8NG76Fa8
Updated
Explosions shake Kyiv, says mayor
Several explosions shook the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Sunday, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
“Several explosions in Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi districts of the capital,” Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “Services are already working on site. More detailed information - later.”
A Reuters witness saw smoke in the city after the explosions.
Air raid sirens had gone off earlier across much of Ukraine, including in the Kyiv region
Welcome
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
If you’re just waking up, or just dropping in to find the latest information, here’s a summary of the main points of the past few hours.
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Powerful explosions were heard early on Sunday in Kyiv, a Reuters witness said. Smoke was seen in the Ukrainian capital following the explosions. Earlier, air raid sirens were going off across much of Ukraine, including in the Kyiv region.
- Ukrainian forces have been managing to push back against Russian troops in fierce fighting in Sievierodonetsk despite Moscow “throwing all its power” into capturing the key eastern city, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday. In an interview aired online, the Luhansk regional governor, Sergiy Gaiday, said the Russian army has taken control over most of Sievierodonetsk, but that Ukrainian forces were still pushing them back.
- But the Russian army claimed some Ukrainian military units have been withdrawing from Sievierodonetsk. “Some units of the Ukrainian army, having suffered critical losses during fighting for Sievierodonetsk, are pulling out towards Lysychansk”, Sievierodonetsk’s twin city, which sits just across a river, the defence ministry said in a statement.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said Moscow’s anti-aircraft forces have shot down dozens of Ukrainian weapons and are “cracking them like nuts”, in an interview that aired on Saturday. According to Reuters, Russian news agency RIA, which first cited the comments, quoted Putin as responding to a question about US-supplied arms by saying Russia was coping easily and had already destroyed the weapons by the dozen.
- Kyiv has rebuked the French president, Emmanuel Macron, for saying it was important not to “humiliate Russia”. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, tweeted in response: “Calls to avoid humiliation of Russia can only humiliate France and every other country that would call for it. Because it is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.”
- Western sanctions would not have an effect on Russia’s oil exports, the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said. Lavrov also predicted a significant increase in profits from energy shipments this year, Russian news agency Tass reported.
- A EU decision to extend sanctions against Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko to his wife is “irrational” because she has never held Russian citizenship or resided in Russia, a representative for the couple said. The EU sanctioned Melnichenko’s wife on Friday as part of a sixth round of sanctions against Russia for waging a war against Ukraine.
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Negotiations with Russia will only resume after new weapons arrive from the west and Ukraine’s position is “strengthened”, said David Arakhamia, a member of Ukraine’s negotiation group with Russia. Another negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said there was no point in talks with Russia until Moscow’s forces are pushed back as far as possible towards Ukraine’s borders.
- Ukraine’s intelligence services are in communication with hundreds of captured Azovstal steelworks fighters and Kyiv is doing all it can to ensure their release, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Denys Monastyrskiy. Ukraine wants the fighters to be returned in a prisoner swap. However, some Russian officials have said forces could be tried or executed.
- The US expressed support for international investigations into war crimes committed in Ukraine, the US embassy in Kyiv announced. “Those responsible for war crimes – including direct perpetrators and those who ordered them – must face justice,” the embassy tweeted on Saturday.
- A famous monastery in eastern Ukraine, Svyatohirsk Lavra, caught fire after it was hit by Russian shelling. The monastery is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, which is run by Putin’s ally Patriarch Kirill. There were reports that four monks were killed as a result of the attack .
- The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, and other officials commemorated 261 children killed by the Russian war against Ukraine by hanging bells near St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv. The bells symbolise the voices of killed children, Euromaidan Press reported.
