Closing summary
We’re pausing our live coverage now. Here are the day’s main developments so far:
Russian missile and drone attacks on Saturday morning damaged energy facilities in five regions, said Ukraine’s National Grid operator, Urkenergo. German Galuschkeno, minister for energy, said: “Energy facilities in Zaporizhzhya, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovograd, Ivano-Frankivsk regions were attacked.”
Twelve people, including eight children, have been hospitalised after a strike close to two houses where they were sheltering in the Kharkiv region, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has arrived in Singapore to address the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit.
Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas has said that there is “no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A”, helping Ukraine push back the Russian invasion.
Updated
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskiy has now arrived in Singapore for the annual Shangri-La security summit, where he will address delegates tomorrow.
He is expected to hold talks with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other leaders attending the conference, seeking support for a “peace summit” this month in Switzerland.
Exact figures for casualties on either side have been hard to verify since the start of the war, with Russia and Ukraine claiming significantly different totals.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence, however, has estimated that the number of Russian troops killed or wounded since the war’s outbreak ‘“has now likely reached 500,000”.
In May of this year, it adds, “average personnel casualties were over 1,2200 per day”.
Updated
'We have no Plan B' if Ukraine falls, says Estonia
Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas told the BBC on Saturday that: “We have no Plan B for a Russian victory, because then we would stop focusing on Plan A”, helping Ukraine push back the Russian invasion.
We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins Nato, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the Nato umbrella.
Estonia’s government has poured more than 1% of its GDP to Kyiv to stave off Russia’s ongoing invasion. The state is concerned that once the fighting stops in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin may turn his attention to the Baltics, in order to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control.
Updated
Here are some photos from Russia’s overnight attacks on Ukrainian energy facilities coming through the wires.
It is Russia’s biggest military attack in weeks. At least 19 people have been reported to be injured as a result:
At least 19 injured in Russia's barrage of Ukrainian power grid
Injuries have been reported by officials across Ukraine after Russia’s overnight strike of Ukraine’s energy facilities.
Twelve people, including eight children, have been hospitalised after a strike close to two houses where they were sheltering in the Kharkiv region, said Gov. Oleh Syniehubov.
The strikes were part of a series of sustained attacks by Russia against Ukraine’s power grid, which has been ongoing since March.
Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK said that two of its power plants had been seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company’s plants in two and a half months.
Zelenskiy to address Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, organisers say
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will address the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Sunday, the organisers of the security conference said.
“Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s presence at the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue comes at an important time,” said Bastian Giegerich, director-general and chief executive of the forum’s organisers, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
“We eagerly await his remarks.”
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian published on Friday, the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy revealed the tactics and traits that help him face the daily frustrations of leading a country at war for more than two years.
Read the wide-ranging interview here:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy: Russian troops are laughing at and ‘hunting’ Ukrainians
Joe Biden’s delay in sanctioning the use of western weapons against targets in Russia has left the Kremlin’s forces laughing at Ukraine and able to “hunt” its people, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has told the Guardian.
The Ukrainian president said that the White House’s equivocation had cost lives and he urged the US president to overcome his perennial worries about possible nuclear “escalation” with Moscow.
On Thursday night it emerged that, after months of lobbying, the US had taken a small but symbolic step – and for the first time would permit some American-made weapons to be used by Kyiv’s military to fire inside Russia in its defence of the city of Kharkiv.
But in his exclusive Guardian interview, Zelenskiy made clear he needed to be able to use “powerful” long-range weapons that could hit targets inside deep Russian territory – a red line the White House has refused to lift.
The US, he said, needed to “believe in us more”.
Read more of the story here:
Russian drones damage energy facilities in five regions across Ukraine
Russia launched a barrage of missiles and drones on Saturday morning, damaging energy facilities in five regions across Ukraine, officials have said.
Ukraine’s National Grid operator Ukrenergo said the attack damaged energy facilities in the eastern Donetsk, southeastern Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, central Kyrovohrad region, and Ivano-Frankivsk region in the west.
“Today morning the Russians launched another strike on Ukrainian energy facilities. Since March it is already the sixth massive, complex, missile and drone attack against the civilian energy infrastructure,” Ukrenergo said.
Air defences shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force commander said.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy-generating company, said that during the attack its two thermal power plants had been hit and equipment “seriously damaged.”
Regional officials reported that firefighters were extinguishing fires on several sites after the strikes. There have been no immediate reports of casualties.
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our blog covering the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russian missile and drone attacks on Saturday morning damaged energy facilities in five regions, said Ukraine’s National Grid operator, Urkenergo.
German Galuschkeno, minister for energy, said: “Energy facilities in Zaporizhzhya, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovograd, Ivano-Frankivsk regions were attacked.”
Air defences shot down 35 of 53 Russian missiles and 46 of 47 Russian drones, the Ukrainian air force commander said.
In other key developments:
As air raid alerts were issued across Ukraine, Poland said its own and other allies’ warplanes were scrambled due to “intense long-range aviation activity of the Russian Federation tonight, related to air and missile strikes on objects located in the territory of Ukraine. All necessary procedures to ensure the safety of Polish airspace have been launched.”
Air raids were declared in Russia’s Belgorod city early on Saturday morning. It came after the White House approved strikes using US-supplied weaponry into border areas of Russia used for attacks on Ukraine. Belgorod lies north of Kharkiv, which has been under intensified Russian attack.
In an interview with the Guardian, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said he still needs to be able to use “powerful” long-range weapons that could hit targets inside deep Russian territory – which the White House has refused to approve.
Zelenskiy said that the White House’s equivocation had cost lives and he urged the US president to overcome his perennial worries about possible nuclear “escalation” with Moscow.
The Kremlin has said Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US-supplied weapons against targets in Russia demonstrates Washington’s deep involvement in the conflict, as some of Vladimir Putin’s allies increased their nuclear threats against the west.
Shelling killed five people and wounded others in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Donetsk on Friday, the Russia-installed local regime said. Independent verification was not possible and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia exchanged 75 prisoners of war each on Friday in the first such swap in the past three months, officials said. Ukraine also returned 212 bodies and Russia returned 45.
China’s government said on Friday it would be “difficult” for it to take part if Russia did not attend the Swiss peace conference on Ukraine, due to be held on 15-16 June. Russia is refusing to recognise the conference. While China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticised for refusing to condemn the Russian invasion, and accused of supplying Russia with either weapons or the means to make them.
Vladimir Putin’s government on Friday labelled as “foreign agents” a women’s group campaigning for the return of mobilised men from Ukraine. The Kremlin places the same designation on Yekaterina Duntsova, who had tried to run against Putin in March’s sham presidential election.
Ukraine is set to receive US$2.2bn from the IMF after successfully meeting the terms of an existing loan programme, the Washington-based financial institution has said. The agreement forms part of a US$122bn international support package designed to help Ukraine’s economy.
The US will keep tariffs suspended on Ukrainian steel for another year, Joe Biden has announced. In 2023, Ukrainian steel accounted for less than 1% imported into the US, said the US president.
