Summary
Before we close today’s live blog, here is a comprehensive run-down of where things currently stand.
- EU leaders have backed a partial embargo on Russian oil after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels. The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports with the aim to ban 90% of all Russian oil imported to Europe by the end of the year, officials said. The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, hailed the deal as a “remarkable achievement” that would place “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”. The compromise excludes the Druzhba pipeline from the oil embargo and exempts deliveries arriving in Europe by pipeline, after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned halting supplies would wreck his country’s economy.
- The latest sanctions package also includes removing access to Swift payments for Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank; banning three more Russian state-owned broadcasters; and further sanctions against “individuals responsible for war crimes in Ukraine”.
- European Council president Charles Michel addressed speculation of disunity within the EU in the days leading up to the agreement. “In the recent hours and recent days there was speculation about a lack of European unity,” he told reporters. “We do not underestimate all the difficulties. We know that we needed a few weeks before we were able to take a decision.”
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier lamented the delay in EU leaders imposing heavier sanctions against Vladimir Putin. “The pause in agreeing on new sanctions in Europe has been too long,” he said.
- The European Council added it is ready to grant Ukraine €9bn to aid in its post-war reconstruction. The Council will “continue helping Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with the G7” European Council President Charles Michel said late on Monday night. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that Ukraine needed €5bn a month just to maintain basic services and “... to give Ukraine a fair chance to rise from the ashes”.
- Zelenskiy claims that Russia is blocking the export of 22m tons of grain from Ukraine’s ports and warned it posed a threat of famine. “Russia’s blockade of our exports is destabilising the situation on a global scale,” he said in his latest national address. Zelenskiy added that Russian forces “have already stolen at least half a million tons of grain” and “are now looking for ways to illegally sell it somewhere”.
- The situation in Donbas remains “extremely difficult”, Zelenskiy said, adding that Russian troops shelled Kharkiv again on Monday. “The territory of our Sumy region was also shelled across the border between Ukraine and Russia,” he said.
- Russian tanks and troops begun advancing into Sievierodonetsk, the largest city in Donbas still held by Ukraine, bringing fighting to the streets on Monday. The regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, described “heavy battles” and said the fighting was “very fierce”.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying if sanctions were lifted, then Russia could “export significant volumes of fertilisers and agricultural products”.
- Joe Biden has said the US will not supply Ukraine with long-range rockets capable of reaching Russia. Ukraine has asked for multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) with a range of about 300km (185 miles) to offset Moscow’s increasingly effective use of long-range artillery.
- France is set to boost military aid to Ukraine. Foreign minister Catherine Colonna said France will “continue to reinforce arms deliveries” while visiting Kyiv on Monday.
- Belarus will conduct military mobilisation exercises in June and July in the Gomel region, state news agency BelTA reports.
- Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands as of tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles. About 44% of Dutch energy usage is based on gas, but only about 15% of Dutch gas comes from Russia, according to government figures.
- The Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia has scrapped plans to hold a referendum on joining Russia which had been scheduled for 17 July. The Moscow-controlled enclave’s president Alan Gagloev warned of the “uncertainty of the legal consequences of the issue submitted to a referendum,” according to a report from Agence France-Presse.
- French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, 32, has been killed after an armoured evacuation vehicle in which he was travelling was hit by shrapnel from a Russian shell in the city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian and French authorities have said. France has called for an investigation into the reporter’s death as Zelenskiy offered his “sincere condolences” to his colleagues and family.
- The first alleged case of rape by a Russian soldier has been sent to court, the prosecutor general of Ukraine said. The serviceman will be tried for the alleged murder of the victim’s husband and “sexual violence against his wife”, Iryna Venediktova said.
- The Eurovision song contest winners Kalush Orchestra auctioned off their trophy to raise money for the Ukrainian army. The band, whose song Stefania was triumphant in Turin earlier this month, said they raised $900,000 (£713,000) by auctioning off the glass microphone and a further $370,000 by raffling off the pink bucket hat frontman Oleh Psiuk wore during the performance.
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.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also provided an update on Donbas, describing the situation as “extremely difficult”.
The situation in Donbas remains extremely difficult. The Russian army is trying to gather overwhelming forces in certain areas to put more and more pressure on our defenders. There, in Donbas, the maximum combat power of the Russian army is now gathered.
Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Kurakhove, Slovyansk and some other settlements remain key targets for the occupiers in this direction.”
Zelenskiy added that Russian troops shelled Kharkiv again on Monday.
The territory of our Sumy region was also shelled across the border between Ukraine and Russia.
The struggle for the Kherson region continues. Step by step, we are liberating our land and gradually approaching the point where Russia will have to lay down its arms, count all its dead and move to diplomacy.”
The Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia has scrapped plans to hold a referendum on joining Russia which had been scheduled for 17 July.
The Moscow-controlled enclave’s president Alan Gagloev warned Monday about “uncertainty of the legal consequences of the issue submitted to a referendum,” according to a report from Agence France-Presse.
The decree also stressed “the inadmissibility of a unilateral decision of a referendum on issues affecting the legitimate rights and interests of the Russian Federation”.
Gagloev ordered “to hold, without delay, consultations with the Russian side on the entire range of issues related to the further integration of South Ossetia and the Russian Federation”.
On 13 May, Gagloev’s predecessor, Anatoly Bibilov, signed a decree on holding the referendum, citing the region’s “historic aspiration” to join Russia, his office said at the time. However, Bibilov lost his bid for re-election earlier this month.
It is another blow to Russia’s hopes for further unity among its allies.
Zelenskiy says Russia is blocking export of 22m tons of grain, warns of famine
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has also claimed that Russia is blocking the export of 22m tons of grain from Ukraine’s ports.
Now, due to the fact that Russia has blocked our ports in the Black Sea and seized our part of the coast of the Sea of Azov, we cannot export 22 million tons of grain that are already in warehouses in our country.
This is the volume that was to enter the foreign market. And Russia’s blockade of our exports is destabilising the situation on a global scale. As a result, food is becoming increasingly expensive in different countries. Consequently, there is a threat of famine. In Africa, in Asia, in some European countries.
This threat could escalate into a new migrant crisis. And this is what the Russian leadership clearly wants. They are deliberately creating this problem. So that the whole of Europe faces difficulties. And so that Ukraine does not receive billions of dollars for its exports. These are the billions that our economy really needs now.
And the inhabitants of African and Asian countries are used by the Russian state simply as a bargaining chip.”
Zelenskiy added that Russian forces “have already stolen at least half a million tons of grain” and “are now looking for ways to illegally sell it somewhere”.
“To sell it in a way to make money on what was stolen and to keep the deficit in the legal market,” he added in his latest national address.
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also responded to the announcement of a partial ban of Russian oil imports.
Welcome decision of EU leaders EUCO to ban Russian oil. A landmark decision to cripple Putin’s war machine.
Our unity is our strength.”
Welcome decision of EU leaders #EUCO to ban Russian oil.
— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) May 30, 2022
A landmark decision to cripple Putin’s war machine.
Our unity is our strength. #StopPutinsWar
Here is a succinct rundown of tonight’s agreement on a sixth package of sanctions against Russia.
“The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports. And by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned,” president of the European Council, Charles Michel, has said.
Just one hour ago, EU leaders backed a partial embargo on Russian oil after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels.
The deal “immediately covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia” with the aim to effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year, officials said.
Michel hailed the deal as a “remarkable achievement” that would place “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”.
Tonight #EUCO agreed a sixth package of sanctions.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) May 30, 2022
It will allow a ban on oil imports from #Russia.
The sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports. And by the end of the year, 90% of the Russian oil imported in Europe will be banned. pic.twitter.com/uVoVI519v8
Russian oil ban is 'remarkable achievement', EU President says
EU leaders have addressed reporters following the announcement of a partial ban of Russian oil imports to the 27-nation bloc.
European Council President Charles Michel described the decision to ban almost 90% of all Russian oil imports by the end of the year as a “remarkable achievement” and addressed speculation of disunity within the EU leading to the agreement.
Speaking to the media late on Monday night, Michel said:
This is a remarkable achievement by the European Council.
We do not underestimate all the difficulties. We know that we needed a few weeks before we were able to take a decision.
In the recent hours and recent days there was speculation about a lack of European unity and I think that more than ever it is important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough in order to defend our values and our interests.”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen added that the decision “expresses a united message”.
“Council should be able to now finalise a ban on almost 90% of all Russian oil imports by the end of the year,” she added. “This is an important step forward.”
Von der Leyen said the council would “soon return to the issue of the remaining 10%” while reiterating that other elements in the package are also important.
European Council to grant Ukraine €9bn
The European Council has said it is ready to grant Ukraine €9bn to aid in its post-war reconstruction.
The Council will “continue helping Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with G7” European Council President Charles Michel said late on Monday night.
EUCO is ready to grant Ukraine EUR 9 billion. Strong and concrete support to Ukraine’s reconstruction,” he added.
#EUCO will continue helping #Ukraine with its immediate liquidity needs, together with @G7
— Charles Michel (@CharlesMichel) May 30, 2022
EUCO is ready to grant #Ukraine EUR 9 billion.
Strong and concrete support to #Ukraine’s reconstruction.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted: “I am glad that tonight leaders agreed in principle on the sixth sanctions package. This is an important step forward.
We also agreed to work on a mechanism to provide Ukraine with a new, exceptional macro-financial assistance package of up to €9 billion.”
I am glad that tonight leaders agreed in principle on the sixth sanctions package. This is an important step forward.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
We also agreed to work on a mechanism to provide Ukraine with a new, exceptional macro-financial assistance package of up to €9 billion. https://t.co/La3bZl6JNp
As the Kremlin turns its military focus on Donbas, residents are evacuating whenever and however they can. Today, some displaced Ukrainians in Donetsk oblast evacuated by train.
Updated
Belarus will conduct military mobilisation exercises in June and July in the Gomel region, state news agency BelTA is reporting.
The Gomel region of Belarus borders Ukraine in the south and, in places, the exclusion zone around the site of the Chornobyl nuclear reactor disaster. To the east, it borders Russia.
On 22 June-1July, planned exercises with military commissariats – military administrative agencies – and armed forces will be conducted, BelTA reported, citing Andrey Krivonosov, military commissar of the Gomel region.
Events of this kind are traditionally held to increase the combat and mobilisation readiness of military commissariats, and improve military knowledge and practical skills of those liable for military service.”
On 28 June-16 July, military training will take place with those liable for military service for territorial defence formations, Krivonosov said.
Updated
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has offered his condolences to the family of French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, who was killed after an armoured evacuation vehicle in which he was travelling was hit by shrapnel from a Russian shell in the city of Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine.
The 32-year-old worked for the French TV channel BFM TV.
In his most recent national address, Zelenskiy said:
Today in the Luhansk region, the occupiers disrupted the evacuation from the areas of hostilities by firing at a car following the locals. French journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was killed by the shelling. He worked for the French TV channel BFM TV.
A little over a month ago, I gave an interview to this particular TV channel. This was my first interview with the French media during a full-scale war.
My sincere condolences to Frédéric’s colleagues and family.
He became the 32nd media representative killed after February 24.”
Updated
EU leaders agree to ban more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia
After hours of last-minute negotiations – and failure to come to agreement – European Union leaders have agreed to ban more than two-thirds of of all Russian oil imports.
The ban, which President Zelenskiy spent Monday advocating EU leaders for as a show of unity against Vladimir Putin, was heavily resisted by Hungary. Earlier compromises included exempting Russian oil transported through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline for Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia from the EU embargo.
While the ban will put the “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”, as Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said on Twitter, it will also probably result in a hike in the already high gas prices across Europe, which is heavily reliant on Russian oil.
#Unity
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) May 30, 2022
Agreement to ban export of Russian oil to the EU.
This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine.
Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war.
#EUCO
This sanctions package includes other hard-hitting measures:
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) May 30, 2022
de-Swifting the largest Russian bank Sberbank,
banning 3 more Russian state-owned broadcasters,
and sanctioning individuals responsible for war crimes in #Ukraine#EUCO
We agreed in Versailles to phase out our dependency on Russian gas, oil & coal as soon as possible.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
But this requires a plan: This is #REPowerEU.
It has 4 pillars:
• Saving energy
• Diversifying away from 🇷🇺 fossil fuels
• Massive investment in renewable energy
• Financing pic.twitter.com/mCKJkByFKu
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022
Updated
EU reaches partial agreement on embargo on Russian oil at summit
European Union leaders have reached a partial agreement on an embargo of Russian oil at the summit, the Associated Press is reporting.
More details to come.
Updated
The Ukrainian prosecutor general is accusing Russian forces of committing a war crime today in the Sumy Oblast: firing shells filled with flechettes.
Forensic doctors had previously discovered flechettes – small metal darts rarely used in modern warfare – embedded in people’s heads and chests in the city of Bucha.
On May 30, at 7:30, RF soldiers fired on the town of the Sumy Region🇺🇦, shells that were filled with flechettes. This is not the 1st time that RF has used such elements of indiscriminate action in shelling settlements. This is a war crime for which they will have to answer. pic.twitter.com/cO4WlJ6v6O
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) May 30, 2022
Updated
The first alleged case of rape by a Russian soldier was sent to court, the prosecutor general of Ukraine said.
The first case of rape during the war was sent to court. Mikhail Romanov, a serviceman of the 239th Regiment of the 90th Guards Tank Vitebsk-Novgorod Division of the Russian Armed Forces, will be tried for the alleged murder of husband and gang sexual violence against his wife. pic.twitter.com/u9qCEBPfn6
— Iryna Venediktova (@VenediktovaIV) May 30, 2022
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, the French journalist who was killed when the armoured evacuation vehicle he was travelling in was hit by shrapnel from a Russian shell in the city of Sievierodonetsk, was “cheerful, enthusiastic, caring, courageous and a wonderful journalist”, his colleagues said.
Leclerc-Imhoff was 32 and on his second mission to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on 24 February, according to news channel BFMTV, for which he worked for six years.
“He cared a lot and I am proud of the choices he made,” his mother said.
— SDJ BFMTV (@sdjbfmtv) May 30, 2022
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff’s mother: “He cared a lot and I am proud of the choices he made.” https://t.co/vwvM2ZU97l
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) May 30, 2022
Updated
As Russian forces turn their focus on Donbas, Bakhmut, a city of 72,000 in Donetsk oblast, is getting heavily shelled.
Talking with a few exhausted soldiers in Bakhmut, just back from the frontlines. "We don't have any new weapons here, new forces, nothing," says one of them. Another, who fought in 2014: "I'm expected to fight a tank with my Kalashnikov. We're just cannon fodder. We're fucked."
— Neil Hauer (@NeilPHauer) May 30, 2022
The Russian command has engaged all its forces and is attempting to encircle Ukrainian troops in Donetsk and Luhansk regions - 🇺🇦 Defense Ministry.
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 30, 2022
The most difficult situation is now observed in the Severodonetsk, Bakhmut and Kurakhov directions.
Here are some images from Bakhmut today:
Updated
In addition to the phone call with Vladimir Putin today, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the president of Turkey, spoke with Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the phone, in which they discussed food security and sea ports.
Reuters is reporting that Erdoğan specifically told Zelenskiy that he placed value on a project to create a safe sea route for exporting Ukrainian agricultural goods. “Erdoğan stated that he especially valued the project to create a secure sea route for exporting Ukrainian agricultural products,” his office said in a statement and added he welcomed, in principle, the idea of making Istanbul a headquarters for an “observation mechanism” between Moscow, Kyiv and the United Nations.
Continued dialogue with 🇹🇷 President @RTErdogan. Discussed threats to food security posed by the aggressor & ways to unblock 🇺🇦 ports. Held discussions on cooperation in the security sphere. Unanimously agree on the need to restore peace. We appreciate 🇹🇷's help in this process.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 30, 2022
While Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk in the Luhansk oblast sustained much of the Kremlin’s focus today, with Russian troops entering the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, Kharkiv in the northeast also took quite a bit of hits.
Russian forces occupy about 31% of the Kharkiv region’s territory is occupied by Russian forces, but Ukrainian defenders have liberated about 5%, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration said. “We are not yet able to fully inspect some of the liberated settlements, conduct full-fledged de-mining and begin rebuilding critical infrastructure, as shelling continues. Where we can do it remotely, we do it,” Oleg Synegubov said earlier.
Kharkiv shelled again: a teenager and two more people injured
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 30, 2022
Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the process of attaining Russian citizenship for Ukrainian children who are either orphaned or currently without parental care, particularly in the partially occupied territories in the Donbas:
Is not it a version of kidnapping?
— Iuliia Mendel (@IuliiaMendel) May 30, 2022
vladimir putin signed a decree on the simplification of turning into russian citizenship for Ukrainian orphaned children without parental care, especially in the partially occupied territories.
Putin ordered to simplify the process of attaining citizenship for kids without parental care who are from #Ukraine, or the so-called republics in occupied Donbas. Ukrainian authorities say Russia already deported around 2,000 orphans to the territories it controls pic.twitter.com/yfp1DFX8s2
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) May 30, 2022
Lysychansk is one of two cities that was hit hard today in the Luhansk oblast of Ukraine – the bombing of the other city, Sievierodonetsk, is so intense that the casualties cannot be assessed.
Here are some scenes from Lysychansk today:
Updated
Boris Yeltsin's son-in-law quits as unpaid Putin adviser
Valentin Yumashev, the son-in-law of the former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, quit his role as unpaid adviser to Vladimir Putin last month, Reuters is reporting.
Though the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and Yumashev did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Lyudmila Telen, first deputy executive director of the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, told Reuters that Yumashev had given up his Kremlin adviser role in April.
“It was his initiative,” she said, when asked why he left the position. Another person, who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, also confirmed that Yumashev had quit in April.
Yumashev, who is married to Yeltsin’s daughter, Tatyana, represented one of the few remaining links in Putin’s administration to Yeltsin’s rule – a period of liberal reforms and an opening-up of Russia towards the west. However, insiders said he did not play a major role as Putin’s adviser.
Under Yeltsin, who was president from 1991 to 1999, Yumashev also served as a Kremlin adviser and later as head of the presidential administration.
Updated
Summary
- Russia is considering paying Eurobond holders by applying the mechanism it uses to process payments for its gas in roubles. The scheme would allow Moscow to pay bondholders while bypassing western payment infrastructure. Investors, however, said the move would not enable Russia to avoid a historic default on debt.
- In talks with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said if sanctions were lifted, then Russia could “export significant volumes of fertilisers and agricultural products”.
- The new US ambassador to Ukraine has arrived in Kyiv, the Guardian understands, a symbolic move after the US withdrew all diplomats from the country before the Russian invasion in February.
- EU leaders failed to agree on a Russian oil import ban before the two-day summit in Brussels. While the leaders of the 27 countries will agree in principle to an oil embargo, the details of their draft conclusions are yet to be decided.
- Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands as of tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles. About 44% of Dutch energy usage is based on gas, but only about 15% of Dutch gas comes from Russia, according to government figures.
- A French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, was killed after an evacuation car was hit near the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “I share the pain of the family, relatives and colleagues of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, to whom I send my condolences.”
- Russian troops entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. The regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, has described the fighting as “very fierce”.
- The US president, Joe Biden, has said the US will not send Ukraine rocket systems that can reach into Russia. The comments followed reports that the Biden administration was preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Kyiv.
That is it from me, Geneva Abdul. I am handing you on to Vivian Ho.
The European Union is edging towards a partial ban on Russian oil, as leaders attempt to find a compromise to placate the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has been holding up a deal on the latest sanctions against Russia.
Arriving at the leaders’ summit, Orbán said ‘the pipeline solution is not bad’ but insisted his country needed guarantees that it could obtain oil from other sources if there was an ‘accident’ at the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through war-torn Ukraine.
Watch Orbán here:
Russia is considering paying Eurobond holders by applying the mechanism it uses to process payments for its gas in roubles, Reuters reports.
The scheme, according to Reuters, would allow Moscow to pay bondholders while bypassing western payment infrastructure. Investors, however, said the move would not enable Russia to avoid a historic default on debt.
The news comes days after the US decided against extending a license that had permitted creditors to receive bond payments while enabling Russia to dodge default.
The Russian, finance minister, Anton Siluanov, said:
As happens with paying for gas in roubles: we are credited with foreign currency, here it is exchanged for roubles on behalf of [the gas buyer], and this is how the payment takes place. The Eurobond settlement mechanism will operate in the same manner, only in the other direction.
According to Reuters, the money would be channelled through Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD), which, unlike many Russian financial institutions, is not under western sanctions.
A financial market source told Reuters Russia planned to present the scheme to investors before its next payments, on two bonds, due on 23 June.
Updated
The rumours have spanned the gamut: Vladimir Putin is suffering from cancer or Parkinson’s disease, say unconfirmed and unverifiable reports; the Russian leader has survived a coup attempt; or, as some tabloids think, he is already dead and has been replaced by a body double.
Photographs of Putin meeting top aides are inspected in microscopic detail: is he gripping the table in pain during a meeting with the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, in late April? Is his puffy face a sign of steroid use, as the former foreign secretary Lord Owen claimed in March?
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its fourth month, reports suggest that Russia’s leader may be ill. But that may be just wishful thinking for Putin’s many critics, who appear ready to embrace conspiracy theories of divine vengeance or palace coups for his unrelenting assault in Ukraine.
Photograph: SPUTNIK/Reuters
You can read the whole piece here:
Updated
Russia ready to facilitate export of grain from Ukrainian ports in coordination with Turkey
In talks with the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Russia was ready to facilitate the unhindered export of grain from Ukrainian ports, according to Reuters.
The Kremlin said of Putin’s call with Erdoğan:
During the discussion of the situation in Ukraine, emphasis was placed on ensuring safe navigation in the Black and Azov seas and eliminating the mine threat in their waters. Vladimir Putin noted the readiness of the Russian side to facilitate the unhindered sea transit of goods in coordination with Turkish partners. This also applies to the export of grain from Ukrainian ports.
Putin added, according to Reuters, that if sanctions were lifted, then Russia could “export significant volumes of fertilisers and agricultural products”.
Silos and ports across Ukraine are brimming with more than 20m metric tonnes of grain and corn that has nowhere to go, with Russia blockading the country’s Black Sea coast and the exit routes for Ukraine’s grain.
Ukraine used to export most of its goods through seaports but since Russia invaded the country, it has been forced to export by train or via its small Danube River ports.
As a result, global wheat prices leaped by 20% in March, owing to the direct impact of the war on wheat production, with the world facing a worsening state of food insecurity and malnutrition, at a time when 42 million people were already one step away from famine.
Updated
Ukraine is fed up with “special solutions” and separate models for its integration into the European Union, the country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said on Monday, Reuters reports.
After a meeting with France’s foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, in Kyiv, he said:
We need a clear legal affirmation that Ukraine is a part of the European integration project, and such an affirmation would be the granting of candidate status.
Updated
New US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, arrives in Kyiv in symbolic move
The new US ambassador to Ukraine has arrived in Kyiv, the Guardian understands, a symbolic move after the US withdrew all diplomats from the country before the Russian invasion in February.
A career diplomat who served as US ambassador to Slovakia until recently, Bridget Brink was nominated by President Joe Biden in late April and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate on 18 May.
The state department has not yet officially announced Brink’s arrival in Kyiv but it was confirmed by her biography page on the US embassy website, which notes that she arrived in the city on 29 May.
Read more here:
Updated
Summary
It’s approaching 7pm in Ukraine. Here are some of the latest developments:
- EU leaders have failed to agree on a Russian oil import ban before the two-day summit gets underway in Brussels. While the leaders of the 27 countries will agree in principle to an oil embargo, the details of their draft conclusions are yet to be decided.
- Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands as of tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles. About 44% of Dutch energy usage is based on gas, but only about 15% of Dutch gas comes from Russia, according to government figures.
- A French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, was killed after an evacuation car was hit near the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said: “I share the pain of the family, relatives and colleagues of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, to whom I send my condolences.”
- Russian troops have entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. The regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, has described the fighting as “very fierce”. Gaidai has also appeared on national television in Ukraine to say: “Unfortunately we have disappointing news, the enemy is moving into the city.”
- Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces after the three-month siege of the Azovstal steel plant may face the death penalty, AFP reports. At least 1,000 Ukrainian fighters, including members of the Azov battalion, were transferred to Russian-held territory more than a week ago.
- The US president, Joe Biden, has said the US will not send Ukraine rocket systems that can reach into Russia. The comments followed reports that the Biden administration was preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Kyiv.
- Ukraine’s former president Petro Poroshenko, who faces treason charges, has been allowed to leave the country to attend a political meeting. Poroshenko, the owner of the Roshen confectionery empire and one of Ukraine’s richest businesspeople, is being investigated for his alleged involvement in financing of Russian-backed separatists in 2014-15.
Updated
Russia will cut off gas supplies to the Netherlands on Tuesday, the Dutch-backed trader GasTerra said on Monday after the company refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles, in the latest escalation of the energy payments row with the west.
Gazprom Export has demanded that European countries pay for Russian gas supplies in roubles because of sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Gazprom had already cut off gas to Finland, Poland and Bulgaria after they refused to comply with the new payment terms.
GasTerra, which buys and trades gas on behalf of the Dutch government, said in a statement that it had “anticipated” Russia’s moves to cut off gas and has bought “elsewhere” some of the 2 billion cubic metres of gas it had expected to receive from Gazprom through October.
Around 44% of Dutch energy usage is based on gas, but only about 15% of Dutch gas comes from Russia, according to government figures. The Dutch government earlier announced the country’s plans to stop using Russian fossil fuels by the end of the year.
European nations are divided over how to respond to Moscow’s demand that all payments for the gas should be made in the local currency. Germany and Italy have reportedly told their companies they could open rouble accounts to keep buying Russian gas without breaching sanctions.
Updated
EU leaders fail to agree on Russian oil ban
Despite last-minute negotiations between EU countries, leaders have failed to agree on a Russian oil import ban before the two-day summit gotunder way in Brussels, Reuters reports.
While the leaders of the 27 countries will agree in principle to an oil embargo, the details of their draft conclusions are yet to be decided.
Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas said it was realistic to expect an agreement at the EU’s next summit on June 23-24, according to Reuters.
The draft text, seen by Reuters and which may be revised again, would include a ban on seaborne oil imports, with pipeline oil supplied to landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to be sanctioned at some later point.
“There is no compromise for this moment at all,” said Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, whose country was blocking the latest European sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
According to Reuters, Orbán later added that Hungary would be ready to back a deal if “there are solutions for the Hungarian energy supply security, we haven’t got that now”.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, who proposed the latest package of sanctions at the start of May, said “we’re not there yet”.
Latvia prime minister Krisjanis Karins said:
We’re getting a little bogged down in all of the details and we’re forgetting the big picture. It’s only money. The Ukrainians are paying with their lives.
The rest of the draft sanctions comprising the EU’s sixth package includes EU loans worth 9bn euros (or £7.67bn), an international fund to rebuild Ukraine after the war, and work to help Ukraine move its grain out of the country and ways to curb rising energy prices.
Read more from my colleague Jennifer Rankin:
Updated
Russia to stop gas supplies to Netherlands
Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands as of tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles, the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer reports.
Russia will stop supplying gas to the Netherlands as of tomorrow after the government-backed trader GasTerra refused to pay supplier Gazprom in roubles. About 15% of Dutch gas comes from Russiahttps://t.co/1HfqvTiAZc
— Pjotr Sauer (@PjotrSauer) May 30, 2022
More to come...
Updated
Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff named as French journalist killed in Ukraine
Earlier, we reported on a French journalist killed after an evacuation car was hit near Sievierodonetsk.
On Twitter, French president Emmanuel Macron said:
Journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war. On board a humanitarian bus, alongside civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombs, he was fatally shot.
Macron added: “I share the pain of the family, relatives and colleagues of Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, to whom I send my condolences.”
The newspaper Le Parisien said Leclerc-Imhoff was 32 years old and had worked for the news channel BFMTV for six years.
This morning we reported on two civilian deaths and five civilians wounded by shelling as Russian troops entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk.
The news of Leclerc-Imhoff’s death comes as France’s new foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, visits Ukraine. On Monday she called for an investigation into his death, Reuters reports.
France demands that a probe is carried out as soon as possible and in transparency on the circumstances of this drama.
Updated
In a phone call with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, on Monday, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the country was ready to take on a role in an “observation mechanism” between Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations.
Erdoğan said peace needed to be established as soon as possible and that confidence-building steps needed to be taken, Reuters reports.
Updated
Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces after the three-month siege of the Azovstal steel plant may face the death penalty, AFP reports a a pro-Moscow separatist official saying on Monday.
At least 1,000 Ukrainian fighters, including members of the Azov battalion, were transferred to Russian-held territory more than a week ago after the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol was taken by Russian forces.
The Azov battalion has played a central role in Russia’s justification for its invasion, which was originally launched with the supposed goal of “denazification”. Officials in Kyiv have suggested they could be swapped in a prisoner exchange, but some Russian officials have called for them to face trial or even execution on “terrorism” charges.
“The court will make a decision about them,” said Yuri Sirovatko, the justice minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic in eastern Ukraine, according to AFP. He said:
For such crimes we have the highest form of punishment in the DNR – the death penalty. All the prisoners of war are on the territory of the DNR.
Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
Sirovatko added there were about 2,300 soldiers from the Azovstal steel plant among them, reports AFP.
The news comes a week after the Guardian reported captured Ukrainian soldiers were being held in “satisfactory” conditions, according to a unit commander’s wife. It was not immediately clear if Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov battalion, had been able to speak freely during their brief call.
Updated
If you wanted evidence that finding an EU-wide agreement on a next set of sanctions against Russia was not going to be easy, then the differing lines coming from different leaders in Brussels is all you need to hear.
“We will always find a compromise. There are still talks going on. As long as there are talks, I am hopeful,” Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, said as he was going into their meeting this afternoon.
However, Reuters reports less encouraging words from Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. He told reporters that Hungary also needed guarantees that it could purchase oil by sea if Russian oil shipments stopped coming via the Druzhba pipeline.
“What is a problem for us, and why we have to fight today, is that if something happens to the Russian oil coming by pipeline … if there is no oil coming, then we should have the right for purchases by sea,” Orbán said. “This is the guarantee we need.”
Updated
Biden says US will not send Ukraine weapons systems that can reach into Russia
The US president, Joe Biden, has said the United States will not send Ukraine rocket systems that can reach into Russia, Reuters reports. The comments followed reports that the Biden administration was preparing to send advanced long-range rocket systems to Kyiv.
Updated
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said he expected the European Union to reach consensus on an oil embargo against Russia but did not give a time frame for when it may happen.
“Everything I hear sounds like there could be a consensus – and sooner or later there will be,” he told reporters as he arrived for an EU summit in Brussels, according to Reuters.
Updated
A quick snap from Reuters here that the Danish energy agency has said a cut-off of Russian gas to Denmark would not have any immediate impact on supply in the country. Energy firm Ørsted has warned that Gazprom could halt supply.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images from the EU summit, as protesters gather outside of the European Council’s headquarters Monday morning, pleading for a full embargo on Russian oil.
Photograph: Stéphanie Lecocq/EPA
Updated
A French journalist has been killed after an evacuation car was hit near Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk’s regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said in a statement issued on Monday.
Earlier we reported on two civilian deaths and five civilians wounded by shelling as Russian troops entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk.
Adding that the civilian evacuation has stopped, Gaidai said:
Today our armoured evacuation vehicle was going to pick up 10 people from the area and came under enemy fire. Shrapnel from shells pierced the armour of the car, a fatal wound to the neck was received by an accredited French journalist who was making material about the evacuation, a patrol policeman was rescued by a helmet.”
This morning, Gaidai said “heavy battles” were taking place as Russian troops attacked the city with all weapons and air support, and entered its south-eastern and north-eastern areas.
Updated
Russia has moved troops and equipment into Russia’s Kursk region, which borders Ukraine’s north-eastern region of Sumy, to protect its citizens, Kursk’s governor, Roman Starovoyt, said during a meeting today, Russia’s Interfax reports.
The governor said:
Everything is aimed at ensuring the life and safety of the inhabitants of the region.”
EU struggles to agree on Russia sanctions
Nearly four weeks after the European Commission proposed oil sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, EU leaders are struggling to see eye to eye.
Ahead of a two-day summit that begins this afternoon, leaders are attempting to clinch a deal, Reuters reports. The proposal for the EU’s sixth round of sanctions against Russia included an import ban on all Russian oil - sea-borne and pipeline, crude oil and refined products.
The oil embargo could cut off one of Russia’s major revenue streams, which helps finance its military action in Ukraine. Around half of Russia’s 4.7 million barrels per day of crude exports go to the EU, according to Reuters.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
To go ahead, all 27 member countries must unanimously agree on sanctions. Hungary has said halting Russian oil imports would pummel its economy. Similarly Slovakia and the Czech Republic have expressed concerns, according to Reuters. All three countries, rely on the southern Druzhba pipeline from Russia for oil supplies.
To come to an agreement, leaders on Monday proposed a compromise that would only ban Russian oil brought to the EU by tankers, with a temporary exemption for pipeline deliveries. But some EU leaders warned it weakened the sanctions, Reuters reports.
Here’s what leaders had to say ahead of the summit:
Several hours before the meeting, Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas said “I don’t think we’ll reach an agreement today”. Whereas Bulgaria’s prime minister Kiril Petkov said “I think it will pass with certain derogations”. And French president Emmanuel Macron told reporters that a long-sought-after deal was “getting closer”, AFP reports.
Read more on Hungary’s opposition from Jennifer Rankin’s Sunday story:
Updated
In a field near Odesa, Igor Shumeyko pointed to where a Russian rocket landed near his farmhouse. It blew out the glass from his windows. Three more missiles fell on a neighbouring plot but did not explode. “I was on my land when the invasion started. The Russians think we are slaves. But our guys are going to kick them out,” Shumeyko predicted.
In the meantime, the 42-year-old farmer acknowledged his industry is facing a heap of war-related problems. The biggest is what to do with this season’s crop, currently growing on his 1,000-hectare estate. The wheat is due to be harvested in late June and July. Next come sunflowers in August and September.
Before Russia’s offensive, Shumeyko would load the grain on to a truck. It would be transported 15 miles from his village of Velykyi Dalnyk to Odesa, Ukraine’s biggest commercial port. From there, food products continued their journey by ship across the Black Sea. Ukraine’s grain helped feed an estimated 400 million people. It went to Egypt, Tunisia and beyond.
Since 24 February, however, this maritime traffic has entirely ceased. Russia has blockaded and occupied all of Ukraine’s seaports. It has seized Mariupol and Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov, which is now a de facto Russian lake, and overrun Snake Island, a strategic base, allowing it to control shipping to and from the Dardanelles strait.
Read more here:
Updated
Visiting an Orthodox church in the town of Bucha outside the capital Kyiv, where Russian forces have been accused of killing civilians, France’s new foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, told reporters: “This should never have happened. It must never happen again.”
She added that France would do “everything in its power” to restore peace and hopes “legal proceedings are completed as quickly as possible, so that families can see their loved ones laid to rest in proper graves”, AFP reports.
Since Russia’s invasion, Colonna is the highest ranking French official to visit Ukraine. Later, she is poised to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and her counterpart Dmytro Kuleba to discuss Russia’s blockage of Ukrainian ports and global food security.
Updated
Germany will remove some of the red tape involved in visa processing, making it easier for critics of the Russian government to relocate to the country.
While it remains difficult to predict the number of individuals this measure will affect, those able to qualify to stay longer include human rights activists, employees of NGOs and civil society groups, and journalists who have taken a stand against the war, Reuters reports.
The change, announced by an interior ministry spokesperson on Monday, will guarantee a longer stay than the existing 90 days permitted under the Schengen tourist visa.
Ukraine’s former president Petro Poroshenko, who faces treason charges, has been allowed to leave the country to attend a political meeting, Reuters reports.
Poroshenko, the owner of the Roshen confectionery empire and one of Ukraine’s richest businesspeople, is being investigated for his alleged involvement in financing of Russian-backed separatists in 2014-15. In January, a Ukrainian judge blocked a prosecutor’s request for his arrest.
The former president has previously denied the allegations and accused the prosecution of acting “shamefully”. Prior to Russia’s invasion, he accused his successor, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who defeated him in 2019, of seeking to discredit him politically to distract from Ukraine’s widespread problems.
Poroshenko is attending a meeting of the European People’s party in Rotterdam, according to Reuters.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images that have been sent to us over the newswires from Ukraine.
Updated
European leaders convening in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday for an EU summit to discuss a sixth package of sanctions against Russia will not decide on imposing a cap on gas prices.
According to Reuters, leaders could mandate the commission to study the issue, the commissioner for economy said.
Speaking to reporters from Rome, Paolo Gentiloni said:
If this is agreed among member states, the commission will act very quickly to analyse this possibility.”
Updated
After weeks of conflict, a coroner in the besieged Ukrainian city of Chernihiv has become familiar with the way war mangles bodies, charting the damage caused by shrapnel, cluster bombs and bullets.
Yurii Fenenko, 44, dreaded the day he knew would surely come, when the body of someone he was close to was brought in. But he was not prepared for it to be someone he knew so well.
It was the body of a dear friend and wife of one of my best mates. The car she was driving hit a landmine as she was trying to flee a village where she lived near Chernihiv, which had been occupied by the Russians.
Read more of Lorenzo Tondo’s report from Chernihiv here:
Updated
Today so far …
- Russian troops have entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. Regional governor Serhiy Gaidai has described the fighting as “very fierce”. Gaidai has also appeared on national television in Ukraine to say “Unfortunately we have disappointing news, the enemy is moving into the city.”
- “Some 90% of buildings are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no telecommunication,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a televised speech last night about the status of Sievierodonetsk.
- European Union members should be able to reach an agreement on a new sanctions package against Russia, including imposing restrictions on Russian oil imports, during talks being held by officials, according to EU top diplomat Josep Borrell. Zelenskiy is set to address European Union leaders at an emergency summit later today to push for new sanctions against Russia.
- Russia’s ministry of defence has claimed it has killed 320 more Ukrainian fighters overnight, as well as striking a shipbuilding plant and destroying 15 tanks located there. They also claim to have shot down 15 Ukrainian drones overnight.
- There are reports that five people have died after shelling in the centre of Donetsk by the Ukrainian military. Authorities there claim that a school was targeted. There are also reports of a large explosion in Russian-controlled Melitopol, which has been blamed on Ukrainian saboteurs.
- Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the military-civilian administration that has been imposed on occupied Kherson, has said that grain is being transported from there to Russia.
- Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers in the conflict, according to the UK ministry of defence.
- The “liberation” of the Donbas was an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, Russia’s foreign minister said on Sunday, adding that other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own. “The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognised by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority,” Sergei Lavrov told French TV channel TF1.
- Lavrov also denied speculation that President Vladimir Putin is ill. Lavrov said that Putin, who will turn 70 in October, appeared in public “every day”.
- French foreign affairs minister Catherine Colonna will meet Zelenskiy in Kyiv later today to express France’s solidarity with Ukraine and offer more support for the country.
- Yesterday Zelenskiy visited troops in Kharkiv and toured the country’s second-largest city to see damage by Russian forces in the Ukrainian president’s first official appearance outside the Kyiv area since the start of the war.
- About 31% of the Kharkiv region’s territory is occupied by Russian forces while 5% has been liberated by Ukrainian defenders, the head of Ukraine’s Kharkiv regional military administration.
- Nato is no longer bound by past commitments to hold back from deploying its forces in eastern Europe, the US-led alliance’s deputy secretary general has said. Moscow itself has “voided of any content” the Nato-Russia Founding Act, by attacking Ukraine and halting dialogue with the alliance, Mircea Geoana told Agence France-Presse.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. I am handing you on to Geneva Abdul.
Updated
Russia’s RIA Novosti agency is reporting that five people have died after shelling in the centre of Donetsk by the Ukrainian military. They report:
According to the mayor of the city, Aleksey Kulemzin, the Armed Forces of Ukraine fired at two schools and a gymnasium, among other things.
On its official Telegram channel, the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic’s territorial defence HQ has told residents:
Take care of yourself and your family, try not to leave the house unnecessarily. Do not leave the shelter during the shelling.
Another post on the channel says:
According to updated information, as a result of the shelling of the AFU in Donetsk, the number of victims increased to 21 people: 5 were killed and 16 were injured. Among the dead is a teenager born in 2009.
The claims have not been independently verified. The Kremlin has described attacks on civilian infrastructure and children’s institutions in Russian-controlled territory as “outrageous”.
Russian forces have repeatedly denied deliberately targeting civilian areas in Ukraine. Ukraine’s prosecutors say they are investigating hundreds of cases of alleged war crimes against the civilian population by Russian troops.
Updated
Eurovision song contest winners Kalush Orchestra have auctioned off their trophy to raise money for the Ukrainian army.
The band, whose song Stefania was triumphant in Turin earlier this month, said they raised $900,000 (£713,000) by auctioning off the glass microphone, and a further $370,000 by raffling off the pink bucket hat frontman Oleh Psiuk wore during the performance.
Read more here: Eurovision winners Kalush Orchestra auction off trophy for Ukrainian army
Ukraine’s interior ministry has posted an update to Telegram on demining activities in the Kyiv region. They say:
Sappers of the National Guard continue to demine the territory of Kyiv region, which was liberated from the occupying forces almost two months ago. During this time, the guards sappers found and disposed of about 10,500 explosive devices.
However, the work continues, and in some areas there are still a lot of unexploded ordnance and mines that need to be disposed of.
Updated
Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational briefing. Among the claims, which have not been indepedently verified, they say:
- They killed “up to 320” Ukrainian service personnel in airstrikes.
- Russian air defence systems shot down 15 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
- Four installations of the BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system, 46 weapons and Ukrainian military equipment were destroyed.
- An ammunition depot near Novomikhailovka in the self-proclaimed Donetsk people’s republic was destroyed.
- An artillery strike on a hangar on the territory of the Okean shipbuilding plant in the city of Nikolaev destroyed more than 15 Ukrainian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
Updated
The Russian RIA Novosti news agency is carrying reports of a large explosion in Melitopol, a city in the Zaporizhzhia region that is now occupied by Russia. It quotes Vladimir Rogov, who is a member of the new military council imposed on the region, as saying:
Today, at about 7.40 am, a powerful explosion was heard in the very centre of the city. Windows and walls in the houses were trembling. The city centre was filled with black smoke.
RIA Novosti claim a source in the new local government says that a car exploded, parked near one of the city hall buildings in Melitopol. It is thought that a Ukrainian sabotage group were behind it. Rogov said in a Telegram message about the incident:
Such attacks will not stop as long as the UGIL (Ukrainian state of Ivano-Frankivsk and Lvov) terrorist entity exists. The Zelenskiy regime hates peaceful life in Melitopol and other liberated territories. Demilitarization and Denazification must be carried out to the end in the entire post-Ukrainian space!
The reports of the explosion have not been independently verified.
Updated
European Union members should be able to reach an agreement on a new sanctions package against Russia, including imposing restrictions on Russian oil imports, during talks being held by officials, according to EU top diplomat Josep Borrell.
Reuters reports he told broadcaster France Info: “We need to decide unanimously. There were tough talks yesterday afternoon, as well as this morning. I think that this afternoon, we will be able to offer to the heads of the member states an agreement.”
European Union governments failed to reach an agreement on an embargo on Russian oil on Sunday as they seek to prepare an agreement in time for an EU summit on Monday afternoon.
Asked if plans to include a ban to import Russian oil could fail over the resistance from Hungary and other eastern European states, Borrell said: “No, I don’t think so … there will be an agreement in the end.”
A proposal under discussion among EU countries on Sunday evening would ban Russian oil delivered to the EU by sea by the end of the year, but exempt oil delivered by the Russian Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
“We have to take the individual circumstances of everybody into account,” Borrell said, adding that a EU-wide solution should give the three countries which accounted for 7% to 8% of Russian oil imports “more time to adjust.”
This is how Reuters has summed up the latest developments in Ukraine, reporting that Russian troops have entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk. Regional governor Serhiy Gaidai has described the fighting as “very fierce”.
Gaidai has also appeared on national television in Ukraine to say “Unfortunately we have disappointing news, the enemy is moving into the city.”
Incessant shelling has left Ukrainian forces defending ruins in Sievierodonetsk, but their refusal to withdraw has slowed a massive Russian offensive across the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.
“Some 90% of buildings are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no telecommunication,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a televised speech.
“Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a fundamental task for the occupiers ... We do all we can to hold this advance.”
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday said the “liberation” of the Donbas, an industrial region which includes Luhansk and Donetsk, was an “unconditional priority” for Moscow.
A series of portraits by the award-winning British photographer Lewis Khan from the Romanian border documents the stories of mothers and children who fled Ukraine as bombs and bullets rained down on their homes. You can see our photo essay here:
Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk, has posted to his social media a further update about the situation in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk. He writes:
[Russians] are consolidating on the outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, the killed Russians are not taken away, the corpse smell filled the regional centre. Two residents were killed, five injured.
[Russians] are trying to surround Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, further continue to storm the direction of the “road of life”, to cut it off.
Over the past 24 hours, 14 enemy attacks have been fought back, two artillery systems have been destroyed, 11 units of combat armoured equipment and 10 enemy vehicles. Air defence units shot down two winged missiles and three Cube-type Bpla.
Yesterday, the [Russians] were hard at Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk. In the regional centre in the old area of the city, two were killed, five more were injured, including in a village near the city. All [now] at the hospital. About 50 houses were destroyed in the area per day.
The Tass news agency is reporting that grain is being shipped from Kherson, which the Russians now occupy, to Russia.
They quote Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the military-civilian administration that has been imposed on Kherson, as saying “We have space to store (the new crop) although we have a lot of grain here. People are now partially taking it out, having agreed with those who buy it from the Russian side.”
He is quoted as saying that the administration was working on the supplies of sunflower seeds to local and Russian processing plants.
Ukraine has previously accused Russia of stealing its grain.
Russia likely suffered 'devastating losses' amongst junior officers, UK MoD says
Russia has likely suffered devastating losses amongst its mid and junior ranking officers in the conflict, according to the UK ministry of defence.
The latest intelligence report reads:
Brigade and battalion commanders likely deploy forwards into harm’s way because they are held to an uncompromising level of responsibility for their units’ performance.
Similarly, junior officers have had to lead the lowest level tactical actions, as the army lacks the cadre of highly trained and empowered non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who fulfil that role in Western forces.
The loss of large proportion of the younger generation of professional officers will likely exacerbate its ongoing problems in modernising its approach to command and control.
More immediately, battalion tactical groups (BTGs) which are being reconstituted in Ukraine from survivors of multiple units are likely to be less effective due to a lack of junior leaders.
With multiple credible reports of localised mutinies amongst Russia’s forces in Ukraine, a lack of experienced and credible platoon and company commanders is likely to result to a further decrease in morale and continued poor discipline.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 30 May 2022
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) May 30, 2022
Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/ZlY83BdoL1
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/A9VVmuIBU4
Nato has the right to deploy in eastern Europe, deputy chief says
Nato is no longer bound by past commitments to hold back from deploying its forces in eastern Europe, the US-led alliance’s deputy secretary general has said.
Moscow itself has “voided of any content” the Nato-Russia Founding Act, by attacking Ukraine and halting dialogue with the alliance, Mircea Geoana told Agence France-Presse.
Under the 1997 Founding Act, intended to reset the relationship between Russia and the Alliance, both sides agreed to work to “prevent any potentially threatening build-up of conventional forces in agreed regions of Europe, to include Central and Eastern Europe”. Geoana, speaking in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, said:
They took decisions, they made obligations there not to aggress neighbours, which they are doing, and to have regular consultations with Nato, which they don’t.
So I think that in fact this founding act is basically not functioning because of Russia,” he added.
Russia, he said, had effectively moved away from the terms of the 1997 agreement.
Now we have no restrictions to have robust posture in the eastern flank and to ensure that every square inch of Nato’s territory is protected by Article 5 and our allies.”
Nato’s article 5 is the one referring to collective defence, which says that an attack on one member is an attack on all of them.
Geoana did not give details of any such planned deployment, but said he anticipated “a robust, flexible and sustainable presence”.
Lavrov denies speculation that Putin is ill
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has denied speculation that president Vladimir Putin is ill.
Answering a question from France’s broadcaster TF1, Agence France-Presse quotes Russia’s top diplomat as saying:
I don’t think that sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment.”
Lavrov said that Putin, who will turn 70 in October, appeared in public “every day.
In comments released by the Russian foreign ministry, Lavrov said:
You can watch him on screens, read and listen to his speeches.
I leave it to the conscience of those who spread such rumours.”
Putin’s health and private life are taboo subjects in Russia, and are almost never discussed in public.
The 'liberation' of Donbas is 'unconditional priority' for Moscow: Lavrov
The “liberation” of the Donbas was an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, Russia’s foreign minister said earlier on Sunday, adding that other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own.
“The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognised by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority,” Sergei Lavrov told French TV channel TF1 in an interview on Sunday.
For the rest of the territories in Ukraine, he said: “I do not believe that they will be happy to return to the authority of a neo-Nazi regime that has proven it is Russophobic in essence. These people must decide for themselves.”
Russia’s incursion, he said, became “inevitable” after western countries failed to heed what he described as warnings about Ukraine’s disregard for, and military attacks on, its Russian-speaking citizens.
“Yes, people are being killed,” Lavrov said. “But the operation is taking so much time primarily because Russian soldiers taking part are under strict orders categorically to avoid attacks and strikes on civilian infrastructure.”
French foreign affairs minister Catherine Colonna will meet Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv later today to express France’s solidarity with Ukraine and offer more support for the country.
According to a statement issued by the French foreign affairs ministry, Colonna has just arrived in Ukraine to show France’s support for the Ukrainian people.
Щойно прибула до України, щоб виявити підтримку Франції 🇫🇷 українському народові 🇺🇦. pic.twitter.com/5BFHYHDWmF
— Catherine Colonna (@MinColonna) May 30, 2022
Two killed as Russian troops enter outskirts of Sievierodonetsk, mayor says
Two civilians have been killed and five wounded by shelling as Russian troops entered the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Sievierodonetsk, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said in a statement issued early on Monday morning.
Gaidai said “heavy battles” were taking place as Russian troops attack the city with all weapons and air support, and have entered its southeastern and northeastern areas.
The enemy has used all possible weapons, uses aircraft. However, our military is firmly defending itself to prevent the enemy from entering the country.
Russian shells killed two Severodon residents and wounded five others. Most of them are residents of one block in the old part of the city. They were preparing food in the yard when the shelling suddenly started. Two residents of Sirotyn were seriously injured. All the wounded received home care and are already in hospitals in Donetsk region.
Overnight, at least 12 houses were destroyed in Sievierodonetsk and 18 in neighbouring Lysychansk, he added.
Russian forces are transferring ammunition and equipment in large numbers to the Sievierodonetsk area, the mayor said.
In its most recent operational update as of 6am this morning, Ukraine’s military appeared to confirm that Russian troops were focusing on the city’s northeastern and southeastern outskirts.
Updated
Zelenskiy to address EU leaders at Brussels summit
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to address European Union leaders at an emergency summit later today to push for new sanctions against Russia.
EU leaders will meet in Brussels to declare their continued support for Ukraine but have so far failed to agree on a new sanctions package against Moscow.
Over two days, leaders of the 27-nation bloc are to discuss how best to aid Ukraine and how to deal with the conflict’s impacts: high energy prices, an impending food shortage and the EU’s defence needs.
But draft conclusions of the meeting, seen by Reuters, showed that while the EU will be generous with verbal support for the government in Kyiv, there will be little in terms of new decisions on any of the main topics.
German economy minister, Robert Habeck, had a slightly more pessimistic stance on Sunday.
After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let’s hope it continues like this. But it is already starting to crumble and crumble again.”
The most tangible will be the leaders’ political backing for a €9bn package of EU loans, with a small grants component to cover part of the interest, so that Ukraine can keep its government going and pay wages for around two months, according to Reuters.
‼️ TIME CHANGE - The OFF the record virtual press briefing ahead the special #EUCO meeting of 30-31 May will take place today Sunday 29 May at 18:30 https://t.co/PA2hMloONX
— EU Council Press (@EUCouncilPress) May 29, 2022
However, the decision will be only made later, after the European Commission makes a proposal on how to raise the money.
Despite efforts since the start of May, EU governments cannot agree on the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow because one of the elements - an embargo on buying Russian oil - is not acceptable to Hungary and a big problem for Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
Other elements, such as disconnecting Russia’s biggest Sberbank from the SWIFT messaging system, banning Russian broadcasters from the EU and adding more people to a list whose assets are frozen and who cannot enter the EU, are all held up by the lack of agreement on the oil ban.
Updated
Russia intensifies assault on Sievierodonetsk
Officials in eastern Ukraine have said Russian shelling of Sievierodonetsk has been so intense that it has not been possible to assess casualties and damage, as Moscow closes in on the largest city still held by Ukraine in the Donbas.
Fighting is believed to be taking place in the streets and “the entire critical infrastructure” of the city has been destroyed, according to president Zelenskiy.
Ukrainian authorities have described conditions in Sievierodonetsk as reminiscent of Mariupol.
In Zelenskiy’s latest national address, the Ukrainian president said:
As a result of the Russian strikes at Sievierodonetsk, the entire critical infrastructure of the city has already been destroyed. 90% of houses are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no mobile connection. Constant shelling.
Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a fundamental task for the occupying contingent. And they don’t care how many lives they will have to pay for this attempt to raise the Russian flag on 32 Druzhby Narodiv boulevard (Friendship of Nations - ed.) - no matter how bitter the name sounds now - where the Sievierodonetsk administration is located.
We are doing everything to repel this offensive.”
The battle for Sievierodonetsk, which lies on the eastern bank of the Siverskyi Donets River, about 145km (90 miles) south of the Russian border, is in the spotlight as Russia grinds out slow but solid gains in the industrial Donbas, which comprises the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
“They don’t care how many lives they will have to pay for this,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address, referring to Russian forces in the region.
Regional officials reported that Russian forces were “storming” Sievierodonetsk and that fighting was taking place street by street, knocking out power and mobile phone services.
Sievierodonetsk’s mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, said those residents remaining in the city, which had a prewar population of about 100,000, risked exposure to shelling when they left their homes to access water. Striuk has estimated that 1,500 civilians have already died either from Russian attacks or from a lack of medicine and diseases that couldn’t be treated.
Updated
Summary and welcome
Hello. I’m Samantha Lock and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
European Union leaders will meet in Brussels today in an attempt to make progress on an embargo of Russian oil. Officials have so far failed to come to an agreement, debating whether to water down a ban on Russian oil imports to placate Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, who is blocking the latest sanctions. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set address the summit by video link.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has denied speculation that president Vladimir Putin is ill. “I don’t think that sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment,” Russia’s top diplomat said.
If you’re just waking up or dropping in to catch up on what’s been happening, here are some of the latest developments:
- Officials in eastern Ukraine say Russian shelling of Sievierodonetsk has been so intense that it has not been possible to assess casualties and damage, as Moscow’s forces close in on the largest city still held by Ukraine in the Donbas. Fighting is believed to be taking place in the streets and “the entire critical infrastructure” of the city has been destroyed, according to president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukrainian authorities have described conditions in Sievierodonetsk as reminiscent of Mariupol.
- The “liberation” of Ukraine’s Donbas region is an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said, according to a release from Russia’s foreign ministry.
- Zelenskiy visited troops in Kharkiv and toured the country’s second-largest city to see damage by Russian forces in the Ukrainian president’s first official appearance outside the Kyiv area since the start of the war. “Kharkiv suffered terrible blows from the occupiers … One third of the Kharkiv region is still under occupation,” he said. According to local officials, more than 2,000 apartment blocks have been wholly or partially destroyed by Russian shelling in the region.
- About 31% of the Kharkiv region’s territory is occupied by Russian forces while 5% has been liberated by Ukrainian defenders, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration said. “We are not yet able to fully inspect some of the liberated settlements, conduct full-fledged de-mining and begin rebuilding critical infrastructure, as shelling continues. Where we can do it remotely, we do it,” Oleg Synegubov said, according to a release from the president’s office.
- Zelenskiy said he has fired the head of the state security service in Kharkiv for not working to defend the city, adding that “law enforcement officers” are now involved. “I came, figured out and fired the head of the security service of Ukraine of the [Kharkiv] region for the fact that he did not work on the defence of the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thought only about himself,” the president said in his daily national address. “On which motives? The law enforcement officers will figure it out.”
- The European Union failed to agree on an embargo of Russian oil during talks on Sunday while debating whether to water down a ban on Russian oil imports to placate Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, who is blocking the latest European sanctions. However, diplomats said they would still try to make progress ahead of a Monday-Tuesday summit on an exemption for pipeline deliveries to landlocked Central European countries. Zelenskiy is set to speak by video link to EU leaders in Brussels on Monday.
- The German economy minister, Robert Habeck, raised concerns that European Union unity on new sanctions against Russia was “starting to crumble”. “After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let’s hope it continues like this,” he told a news conference on Sunday. “But it is already starting to crumble.”
- Russia will continue to supply gas to Serbia, after a phone call between the Russian president and his Serbian counterpart. Aleksandar Vučić said he agreed a three-year gas supply contract with Putin, with further details to be finalised with producer Gazprom.
- Russia is continuing to ship gas to Europe through Ukraine, Gazprom has confirmed. The Russian gas producer said its supply via the Sudzha entry point stood at 44.1m cubic metres, up from 43.95m on Saturday.
- Lavrov has denied speculation that president Vladimir Putin is ill. Answering a question from France’s broadcaster TF1, Agence France-Presse quotes Russia’s top diplomat as saying: “I don’t think that sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment.”
- Zelenskiy said he believed Russia would agree to talks if Ukraine could recapture all the territory it had lost since the invasion. However, he ruled out the idea of using force to win back his land. “I do not believe that we can restore all of our territory by military means. If we decide to go that way, we will lose hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
- Nato is no longer bound by past commitments to hold back from deploying its forces in eastern Europe after Moscow “voided of any content” the Nato-Russia Founding Act, the US-led alliance’s deputy secretary general, Mircea Geoana, told Agence France-Presse.
- Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the US. “The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams,” Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.
- Poland has also agreed to send artillery to Ukraine, Polish state media reported.
