Here are the key events so far on Tuesday, June 14.
Get the latest update here.
Fighting
- The price for the battle for the Donbas is “very high” for Ukraine and “just scary”, and will be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- Russia’s main goal in Ukraine is to protect the breakaway self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed.
- All of the bridges in Severodonetsk have been destroyed, making it impossible to bring in humanitarian supplies or evacuate citizens, the governor said. Satellite images show destroyed bridges around Severodonetsk.
- Russian troops pushed Ukrainian forces away from the Severodonetsk city centre on Monday but did not fully capture the city, the Institute for the Study of War said.
- Russia’s defence industry could struggle to further meet the demands of the war in Ukraine, partly due to the effects of sanctions and lack of expertise, the United Kingdom’s defence ministry said.
- Ukraine will “liberate” all cities, towns and regions now occupied by Russia’s forces, its president said in an encouraging address to the nation.
- Amnesty International said Russia has committed war crimes in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as the rights body accused Moscow of using banned cluster bombs and carrying out indiscriminate attacks killing hundreds of civilians.
Diplomacy
- The European Commission will recommend granting Ukraine official status as an EU candidate country, Politico reported late on Monday, citing several unnamed officials. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday that the EU executive’s opinion would be ready in the coming week.
- German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declined to comment on Monday on reports that he is planning to visit Ukraine together with his counterparts from France and Italy.
- Pope Francis refused the distinction between “good and bad” in the war in Ukraine, Jesuit European cultural magazine reported.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with his South Korean counterpart Park Jin in Washington, DC, and discussed a wide range of issues, including Ukraine.
- Blinken held a call with UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and discussed the continued coordination of support for Ukraine.
The human cost of the war
- Ukraine’s police chief said authorities are investigating the killings of more than 12,000 Ukrainians in the war.
- Monday’s attacks on the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic have killed five and injured 33, separatist officials said, according to Moscow’s Tass news agency.
- More than 1,700 people managed to leave Russian-occupied territories of the Kharkiv region on Monday, Interfax news agency quoted the head of a regional village as saying.
- Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, said: “About 500 civilians remain on the grounds of the Azot (chemicals) plant… 40 of them are children,” he said.
- Ukrainian investigators have exhumed seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest near Kyiv, where Ukraine alleges that Russian forces who occupied the area carried out systematic executions in an abortive attempt to capture the capital. Russia denies that.
- The father of a Moroccan man sentenced to death on mercenary charges by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine said his son should be treated as a prisoner of war as he is a Ukrainian national who handed himself in voluntarily.
Economy
- Russia earned $98bn from fossil fuel exports during the first 100 days of its war in Ukraine, with the EU being the top importer, according to new research.
- Colombia is set to increase coal and petroleum production as it steps up to fill the void created by sanctions against Russia, energy minister Diego Mesa said.
- About half of Australian farmers believe the war in Ukraine will hurt farm businesses, a survey found.
