Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s main news:
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said that Russia had concentrated a significant number of units in the east, including air assault troops, but that Ukrainian forces were preventing their advance. She described the situation in the east of the country as “difficult”.
The British government announced plans to tighten its sanctions policy against Russia, including introducing legislation to keep assets frozen until Moscow has agreed to pay compensation to Ukraine. The new measures will require any individual who has been designated under the sanctions to disclose assets held in Britain.
In a phone call on Monday, the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, told the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, that it was clear the Ukrainian counteroffensive was “making good progress”, Downing Street said.
Nato leaders will not issue an invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance at a summit in Vilnius in mid-July, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, confirmed on Monday.
The Kremlin reportedly said on Monday that Russia’s decision to decline UN help in areas of Russian-held Ukraine flooded by the Kakhovka dam breach was motivated by security concerns and “other nuances”.
A special Swedish parliamentary defence committee, which is supported by security experts, said the country’s defence must adapt to focus on the threat posed by Russia, and that a military attack could not be ruled out.
In Russia, seven people, including a child, were said by local governors to have been wounded in drone attacks in the Belgorod region.
The Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, has announced that the capture of the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern part of Zaporizhzhia, brought the tally of liberated settlements up to eight, with 113 sq km of territory said to have been seized from the occupying forces.
Updated
France, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia and Hungary signed a letter of intent for the joint purchase of Mistral air defence systems, a source told Reuters.
The source said the letter was signed at the start of a defence ministers’ meeting in Paris aimed at coordinating European efforts to enhance air defence capabilities across the continent after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Updated
Germany’s armed forces only have about 20,000 high explosive artillery shells left, the magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday, citing confidential defence ministry papers.
Countries like Germany have rushed to send supplies of 155m artillery rounds used by howitzers to Ukraine after its invasion by Russia last February, running down stocks for their own defence.
Germany’s military needs to build up an inventory of 230,000 shells by 2031 to comply with Nato goals to have enough artillery to withstand 30 days of intensive combat, Reuters cited Der Spiegel as reporting.
The ministry aims to present the budget committee with nine contracts for the accelerated purchase of artillery and tank ammunition in coming months, Der Spiegel wrote.
Updated
Didier Reynders, the European commissioner for justice, has told the Kyiv Independent that the EU and its partners want to bring all perpetrators of international crimes to justice.
“Not only war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, but also the crime of aggression,” he said, adding that his team was considering what an international trial against Russian crimes in Ukraine may look like.
Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine such as wilful killings and torture, a UN mandated investigative body said in March.
The alleged crimes, including the deportation of children, were detailed in a report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, which said some acts may amount to crimes against humanity.
Updated
On Monday, Alexei Navalny’s team announced the launch of a campaign to deter Russians from supporting the war in Ukraine, AFP reports.
In a post online, Navalny’s team said it was planning a “long, stubborn and exhaustive but fundamentally important campaign where we will turn people against the war”.
“Against the dead-end that Putin crazily and dumbly put us in on 24 February 2022,” it said, referring to the day Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine. It said it planned to fundamentally change Russian public opinion within months.
Russia has introduced strict laws banning criticism of its army’s actions in Ukraine. Organisations and lawyers that have campaigned for Russians critical of the offensive have faced increasing pressure.
On Monday, Russian state media reported that Agora, a leading human rights group that provides legal help in political cases, was labelled as “undesirable”.
You can read the full story (which relates to the blog post at 16:40) here:
Updated
An EU report will this week say that Ukraine has met two out of seven conditions to start membership negotiations, two EU sources said.
In a highly symbolic move, the EU granted Ukraine formal membership candidate status a year ago – four months after Russia attacked the country amid its efforts to pursue integration with the west.
But the EU set seven conditions – including on judicial reform and curbing endemic corruption – to launch accession negotiations.
Ukraine has called for talks to start this year. The executive European Commission’s report is a milestone in that process.
Two senior EU officials who were briefed on the report, which has not been made public, have now said that Ukraine met two of the criteria, Reuters reports. One of the officials said these related to judicial reform and media law.
Updated
Russian troops hit the Beryslav district in the southern Kherson region with artillery on Monday, injuring three civilians, the regional administration wrote on Telegram, according to the Kyiv Independent.
At least five residential buildings, two private residences and an administrative building were said to have been damaged in the attack.
These claims could not be immediately independently verified.
Updated
Russian politician Alexei Navalny announced the start of a new mass campaign against Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine on Monday as he began his latest trial in prison, facing a potential sentence of several more decades behind bars.
Reuters reports:
Navalny, 47, is already serving sentences totalling 11½ years, and is now facing an array of charges linked to alleged “extremist” activity. Acquittals of opposition figures are practically unheard of in Russia.
Journalists who had travelled to the penal colony where Navalny is imprisoned in Melekhovo, about 145 miles east of Moscow, were barred from the courtroom but could initially follow proceedings by video from a room nearby, though the sound was barely audible.
Navalny, looking thin with cropped hair and dressed in a black prison uniform, stood and spoke loudly for three minutes.
He unsuccessfully demanded access to the courtroom for his elderly parents, and contested the authority of the judge from Moscow to try him in a prison far from the capital.
But the feed was later cut, and a court spokesperson said further proceedings would take place behind closed doors … Navalny’s supporters accuse Moscow of trying to break him in jail, where he has had long spells in solitary confinement, to silence his criticism of Putin.
The Kremlin says his case is purely a judicial matter. “We are not following this trial,” Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters.
Updated
Ukraine is seeking up to $40bn (£31.2bn) to fund the first part of a “Green Marshall plan” to rebuild its economy, including developing a coal-free steel industry, a senior Ukrainian official said before an international summit.
Politicians and financiers will discuss short-term funding issues and look at long-term reconstruction efforts at the two-day meeting, starting in London on Wednesday and co-hosted by Ukraine and Britain, Reuters reports.
It is expected to launch a “war risk” insurance scheme to cover companies that begin investing in Ukraine again.
Updated
Russia has deployed more forces to Ukraine’s eastern frontline in an effort to advance toward Lyman and Kupiansk and seize the initiative, the Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, was mentioned by the Kyiv Independent as reportedly saying.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The UK is introducing new laws that will allow ministers to maintain Russian sanctions until compensation is paid to Ukraine, thus introducing a way for frozen Russian assets to be donated to Ukrainian reconstruction.
Rishi Sunak told Volodymyr Zelenskiy that it was clear the Ukrainian counteroffensive was “making good progress” when the two leaders spoke on Monday morning.
Nato leaders will not issue an invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance at a summit in Vilnius in mid-July, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, confirmed on Monday.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia’s decision to decline UN help in areas of Russian-held Ukraine flooded by the Kakhovka dam breach was motivated by security concerns and “other nuances”, Reuters reported.
A special Swedish parliamentary defence committee has said the Nordic country’s defence must focus on the threat posed by Russia, and that a military attack could not be ruled out.
In Russia, seven people, including a child, were said by local governors to have been wounded in drone attacks in the Belgorod region.
Ukraine has recaptured the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, has confirmed.
Updated
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has just tweeted about his phone call with Ajay Banga, the president of the World Bank, on Monday.
Ukraine’s president said he thanked the World Bank for its “unwavering support” shown to his country since Russia invaded last February, noting its “rapid response” to the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam.
He added:
I invited the World Bank to reopen its representative office in Ukraine and emphasised that we are interested in cooperation during the post-war transformation of Ukraine, in particular, in overcoming corruption and reducing the share of cash in the Ukrainian economy.
Had a phone call with @WorldBank President Ajay Banga. Thanked for the World Bank's unwavering support since the first days of Russia's full-scale aggression. We discussed further development of cooperation, in particular, mobilization of international support.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 19, 2023
I noted the rapid…
Updated
Russia’s deputy foreign minister has said that even if a deal allowing shipments of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea ends, Russia’s agreement with the UN to ease its own exports will stay in force, the Russian state news agency RIA reported on Monday.
Moscow has repeatedly said it sees little chance of agreeing an extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative beyond 18 July, because it says western sanctions are thwarting its own UN-backed attempts to export grain and fertiliser.
Reuters reports that when asked by RIA if the collapse of the grain deal would invalidate its memorandum with the UN, Alexander Grushko, the deputy foreign minister, said: “No, it will not.”
After invading Ukraine, a leading grain exporter, last year, Russia blockaded its Black Sea ports, contributing to a global surge in food prices.
To help persuade Russia to allow grain ships safe passage under the Black Sea initiative last July, a separate three-year agreement was also struck in which the UN agreed to help Russia with its food and fertiliser exports.
But Moscow has repeatedly complained that western sanctions imposed in response to the invasion continue to create financial, logistical and insurance obstacles to its shipments.
Updated
Here are some of the latest pictures on the newswires from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital.
Updated
During a call with Rishi Sunak on Monday, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU Commission president, spoke about continuing financial support for Ukraine after 2023, among other topics.
They also discussed efforts to galvanise international support for Ukraine and drive long-term public and private investment, Downing Street said.
Updated
Kyiv has accused Hungary of barring access to eleven Ukrainian prisoners of war that Russia handed over to the EU country, AFP reports.
The Russian Orthodox church said earlier this month that a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war of Hungarian origin had been transferred to Budapest.
The prisoners are of Transcarpathian origin – a region in western Ukraine bordering Hungary – where about 100,000 ethnic Hungarians live.
On Monday, Kyiv said Ukrainian officials had not been able to get access to the returned detainees.
“All attempts by Ukrainian diplomats over the past few days to establish direct contact with Ukrainian citizens have not been successful,” Oleg Nikolenko, a foreign ministry spokesperson, said in a statement on Facebook.
“Essentially they are being kept in isolation,” he said.
They communicated with relatives in the presence of third parties and were denied contact with the Ukrainian embassy, Nikolenko added.
Updated
'Difficult situation' in Ukraine's east as Russia deploys more troops to frontline, minister says
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister has described the situation in the east of the country as “difficult”, saying that Russia has not given up its ambition to occupy the whole of the Donbas, and that is where it is concentrating its offensive forces.
In a post on Telegram, Hanna Maliar wrote:
The situation in the east is now difficult. The enemy has raised its forces and is conducting an active offensive in the Lyman and Kupyan directions, trying to seize the initiative from us. High activity of enemy shelling is recorded. Intense battles continue.
The enemy does not abandon his plans to reach the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Currently, this is the enemy’s main offensive line. Therefore, it has concentrated a significant number of units in the east, in particular the airborne assault units.
Our troops act courageously in the face of the enemy’s superiority in forces and means, and do not allow the enemy to advance.
Updated
In Moldova, which borders Ukraine, the pro-Russian Shor party that has led months of protests has been banned today by the constitutional court.
The court declared the party led by Ilan Shor, who lives in Israel, unconstitutional. Its decision triggered an immediate ban and the justice ministry will set up a special commission to complete all legal procedures for the party’s dissolution.
At times, Moldova has accused Russian missiles destined for Ukraine of overflying its territory. Russia has troops stationed in the breakaway Transnistria region which is sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine.
Rueters reports Shor did not immediately comment on the court’s decision, under which lawmakers from the party will retain their parliamentary mandates as independents, without the right to join other factions in the assembly.
The party’s vice-chairman, Marina Tauber, had condemned the court proceedings before the ruling.
Since last summer, the party has organised protests in the capital Chişinău at which demonstrators called for the resignation of the president, Maia Sandu, and her pro-western government. Sandu has accused Shor of attempting to destabilise Moldova. Shor has denied that the protests are part of a Russian threat.
Updated
Ukraine will not be formally invited to join Nato at the forthcoming Vilnius summit [See 11.58 BST], but Sweden is hoping to be a full member by the time the 11-12 July gathering is held.
Reuters reports that Sweden’s defence minister has said his country is “very determined” to be admitted to the alliance. Pål Jonson said: “We are very determined to become a full-fledged member of the alliance as soon as possible and by Vilnius at the latest. That’s our objective.”
Objections from Turkey and Hungary have held up the process of Sweden becoming a member.
Updated
The US defence manufacturer Lockheed Martin has said it stands ready to help Ukrainian pilots fly and maintain its F-16 fighter jets if Nato states agree to send them to help the country against Russian aggression, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing the company’s chief operating officer, Frank St John.
“We are standing by, ready to not only backfill need as it arises with new F-16 builds but also any modifications to F-16s as well as training, equipment and systems,” he said.
Updated
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said in Beijing that China had renewed promises not to send arms to Russia to fight in Ukraine, although he voiced concern at the actions of private Chinese firms, AFP reports.
On Monday, Blinken told reporters:
We – and other countries – have received assurances from China that it is not and will not provide lethal assistance to Russia for use in Ukraine. We have not seen any evidence that contradicts that. What we do have ongoing concerns about, though, are Chinese firms – companies – that may be providing technology that Russia can use to advance its aggression in Ukraine.
“We have asked the Chinese government to be very vigilant about that,” he added.
Blinken said, after two days of talks, that China had offered assurances on Russia in “recent weeks” and not exclusively during his visit.
Updated
UK plans to maintain Russian sanctions until Ukraine is compensated
The UK government is taking powers to maintain its sanctions on Russia until compensation is paid to Ukraine.
The new legislation, announced by foreign secretary, James Cleverly, means that sovereign assets will remain immobilised until Russia pays for damage it has caused to Ukraine.
The package of measures enables the government to keep sanctions in place by altering the purposes of the UK’s sanctions on Russia.
It will now say that sanctions can also be used for the specific purpose of promoting the payment of compensation by Russia.
Cleverly said:
As Ukraine continues to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, the terrible impacts of Putin’s war are clear. Ukraine’s reconstruction needs are – and will be – immense. Through our new measures today, we’re strengthening the UK’s sanctions approach, affirming that the UK is prepared to use sanctions to ensure Russia pays to repair the country it has so recklessly attacked.
Since the invasion of Ukraine last year, Britain has frozen more than £18bn in assets and sanctioned over 1,550 Russian individuals including Roman Abramovich, former owner of Chelsea Football Club.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia would continue to talk to a group of African countries seeking to mediate in the conflict with Ukraine, and that some of their ideas were workable, Reuters reports.
Vladimir Putin on Saturday gave the seven-country African delegation that had come to see him in St Petersburg a list of reasons why he believed many of their proposals were misguided, pouring cold water on a plan already largely dismissed by Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that talks with the delegation would, nonetheless, continue as some of its suggestions could in theory be implemented. He did not say which proposals he was referring to.
With Kyiv and Moscow courting the global south, some African leaders have seen a chance to mediate in a war that has hit African countries by disrupting grain and other food supplies and aggravating price inflation.
Updated
Nato leaders will not issue an invitation for Ukraine to join the alliance at a summit in Vilnius in mid-July, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, confirmed on Monday.
“At the Vilnius summit and in the preparations for the summit, we are not discussing to issue a formal invitation,” he told reporters after meeting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, adding leaders would talk about how to move Ukraine closer to the alliance.
At the same time, Stoltenberg warned against accepting a frozen conflict in Ukraine in return for an end to the war.
All sides have long accepted that Ukraine cannot become a Nato member in the middle of a war but Kyiv, backed by Baltic states and Poland, would like a date or a timeline by which it could join once the conflict ends.
Scholz, meanwhile, said that Germanywas prepared for the possibility that the war in Ukraine could still last for a while.
“We are preparing for that and adjusting our policies based on that,” he told the news conference, adding that Germany would continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary.
Updated
Heavy casualties are being endured by both Ukrainian and Russian forces, British military intelligence has said, as Kyiv celebrated the liberation of an eighth settlement in the south of the country, two weeks into its offensive.
The level of losses among Russian troops was said by British officials to be at its highest level since the peak of March’s battle for Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, with Ukraine claiming to have killed or injured 4,600 troops.
The progress of Ukraine’s forces in both the east and south of the country has been slow with much of the heavy western weaponry and new brigades yet to be committed to battle.
The deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar announced that the capture of the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern part of Zaporizhzhia, brought the tally of liberated settlements up to eight, with 113 sq km of territory said to have been seized from the occupying forces.
You can read more from my colleague Daniel Boffey on this story below:
Ukraine counteroffensive making 'good progress', says Sunak
Rishi Sunak told Volodymyr Zelenskiy it was clear the Ukrainian counteroffensive was “making good progress” when the two leaders spoke this morning on the phone, PA Media reports.
Both men will speak at a conference in London this week on Ukraine’s recovery.
A Downing Street spokesman said Sunak “paid tribute to the bravery of the Ukrainian soldiers on the frontline”.
“He told President Zelenskiy that the UK was firmly behind Ukraine as it continued to push back invading Russian forces,”he added.
The Ukrainian president tweeted to say that he had discussed steps to prepare for security guarantees for Ukraine during the phone conversation (See post at 10:24).
Updated
Nearly 7,000 Ukrainians have been married in “distance” ceremonies since the Russian invasion of their country, following a change to civil ceremony rules, the Kyiv Post reports.
In 2022, rules were simplified to allow military personnel to be able to marry or register their partnership by distance, meaning one of the partners did not have to be physically present during the ceremony for it be valid.
A special Swedish parliamentary defence committee has said the country’s defence must focus on the threat posed by Russia and a military attack could not be ruled out, Reuters reports.
The Nordic nation has been scrambling to bolster its defences, having applied to join Nato last year as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, though Turkey and Hungary have so far held up Swedish entry into the Western alliance.
The committee said the war in Ukraine could escalate into attacks on other countries or even the use of nuclear weapons.
In the report, the all-party committee, which includes security experts, said:
Russia’s aggressive actions have led to a structural and greatly deteriorated security situation. Russia has further lowered its threshold for military use of force and exhibits a high risk propensity.
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 7pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
Summary of the day so far …
The UN has accused Moscow of continuing to block humanitarian aid deliveries to Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine that have been affected by the recent Kakhovka dam rupture. “We urge the Russian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law. Aid cannot be denied to people who need it,” the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said in a statement.
Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to bring down the dam, according to exclusive drone photos and information obtained by the Associated Press newswire. Images taken from above the dam appeared to show an explosive-laden car atop the structure, and two officials said Russian troops were stationed in a crucial area inside the dam where the Ukrainians say the explosion that destroyed it was centred, AP reported.
Ukraine has recaptured the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has confirmed.
The Russian military has “highly likely” started relocating troops from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River to Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has reported that minor damage was sustained in the village of Balki after cross-border shelling from Ukraine. He reported no casualties.
Russia’s FSB security service said on Monday it had thwarted a series of Ukrainian “sabotage and terrorist plots” targeting Russian-installed officials in Russian occupied territory in Ukraine, and had arrested one woman as part of its investigation.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday. It was the first time a US secretary of state has met the Chinese leader since 2018.
All of the Patriot air and missile defence systems provided by the US to Ukraine in April are still working, contrary to claims by Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.
Kremlin: security concerns for UN workers made it 'difficult' for aid to be delivered to flooded occupied Kherson
The Kremlin has responded to UN claims that Moscow was blocking aid being provided to flooded areas of Ukraine which Russia occupies in Kherson. Reuters reports it said the decision was motivated by security concerns for UN workers and “other nuances”.
Tass quotes Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying that from the Ukrainian-controlled right bank of the Dnipro “constant shelling is going on, constant provocations, civilian objects are being shelled, people and the population are being shelled, people are dying, so it’s all very difficult here – it’s very difficult to ensure their safety.”
Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us over the news wires from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence claims that overnight the air force shot down four Kalibr cruise missiles and four “Shahed” drones. The claims have not been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that he has spoken to Rishi Sunak. Ukraine’s prime minister posted to his social media channels to say that in a call to the British prime minister, they “discussed the defence needs of Ukraine and our further cooperation to expand Ukraine’s capabilities on the battlefield, in particular through long-range weapons.”
I had a phone call with the Prime Minister of the UK @RishiSunak.
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 19, 2023
We discussed the defense needs of 🇺🇦 and our further cooperation to expand Ukraine's capabilities on the battlefield, in particular through long-range weapons.
We coordinated our positions with @RishiSunak on…
Zelenskiy went on to say:
We have coordinated our positions on the eve of the Nato summit in Vilnius. It is important to provide Ukraine with concrete membership prospects. We also discussed steps to implement the peace formula and prepare security guarantees for Ukraine.
Russia is ramping up production of missiles with western components. During the conversation, I emphasised the need to increase sanctions pressure.
US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later on Monday, Reuters reports. It will be the first time a US secretary of state has met the Chinese leader since 2018, and it could help to facilitate a summit between Xi and US President Joe Biden later in the year.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, citing the regional authority, reports that Kherson and four other settlements remain submerged on the Ukraine-controlled right bank of the Dnipro, and almost 850 houses are still under water.
This is a video which purports to show Ukrainian forces in control of Piatykhatky, the eighth southeastern village that Kyiv says it has liberated in the last fortnight.
“Today, 18 June, the forces of 128 assault brigade chased out the Russians from the village of Piatykhatky. The Russians ran away leaving equipment and ammunition. Glory to Ukraine!” an unidentified soldier says in the video, Reuters reports.
Українські військові у звільнених Пʼятихатках на Запоріжжі pic.twitter.com/bGyCQ2ZS6K
— hromadske (@HromadskeUA) June 19, 2023
The Guardian has not independently verified the location and time the video was made.
Seven people injured in drone attacks in Russia’s Belgorod region, says governor
In Russia, seven people, including a child, were said by local governors to have been wounded in drone attacks in the Belgorod region.
The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, wrote: “The Valuisk municipal district is under attack from from Ukrainian forces. According to preliminary information, seven people were wounded, among them a child.”
Gladkov reported that minor damage was sustained in the village of Balki after cross-border shelling from Ukraine. He reported no casualties. These claims could not be immediately independently verified.
Updated
Ukrainian officials and advisers have been sharing a video clip of the fire in Kherson after Russian shelling which has damaged buses and an emergency vehicle.
The aftermath of Russian shelling on Kherson: 10 buses burned down and a rescue services excavator damaged.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 19, 2023
Terrorist state continues terrorizing civilians.
📹: Presidential office pic.twitter.com/MAaDiWoJyN
Russia’s FSB security service said on Monday it had thwarted a series of Ukrainian “sabotage and terrorist plots” targeting Russian-installed officials in Russian occupied territory in Ukraine and had arrested one woman as part of its investigation.
Reuters reports the FSB said in a statement that the attacks had targeted Russian law enforcement officials and Russian-installed government officials in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, one of four Ukrainian areas that Moscow has claimed to have annexed after staging what Ukraine termed “sham referenda” last year.
The FSB said it had opened criminal cases against an unnamed woman it described as “an accomplice” on charges related to terrorism and the illegal possession of explosives.
Reuters reports Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Monday its forces had thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to take the village of Novodonetske in the eastern Donetsk region. The claims have not been independently verified.
Suspilne correspondents have reported they have heard explosions in Kherson. This is not an infrequent occurrence, as Russian forces on the occupied left bank of the Dnipro continue to shell Ukrainian held positions on the right bank, and vice versa.
Here is a map outlining what we know of the Zaporizhzhia front. Deputy defence minister of Ukraine Hanna Maliar earlier confirmed that Ukraine had retaken the village of Piatykhatky on the western edge of it, the eighth settlement to return to Ukrainian hands in the past fortnight. Her statement confirmed claims about the village that were being reported yesteday by Russian military bloggers and Russian-installed officials in the region.
She also said that the battle continues around Bakhmut, writing:
In the east, the enemy made a lot of efforts to stop the advance of our troops in the direction of Bakhmut. The overall intensity of fighting in this direction decreased last week, but the fighting continued.
Ukraine’s state emergency service has issued an image of firefighters battling a blaze in Kherson. Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that “As a result of Russian shelling in Kherson, a gas tank at one of the city’s gas stations and a company warehouse were on fire at night. Three units of equipment and 15 personnel of the state emergency service went to the scene of the fire.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
The Russian military has “highly likely” started relocating troops from the eastern bank of the Dnipro River to Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.
“The DGF [Dnipro Group of Forces] redeployment likely reflects Russia’s perception that a major Ukrainian attack across the Dnipro is now less likely following the collapse of Kakhovka Dam and the resulting flooding,” the MoD writes.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 19 June 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 19, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/vwV6Pe2K1I
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/tlnuet4ZoW
All of the Patriot air and missile defence systems provided by the US to Ukraine in April are still working, contrary to claims by Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said in his latest evening address.
“They are still here, they are working, all of them are shooting down Russian missiles. As efficiently as possible. Not a single Patriot has been destroyed!” Zelenskiy said.
The comment appeared to be a response to remarks made by Russian president Vladimir Putin at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum last week in which he suggested Moscow had destroyed five Patriot systems near Kyiv.
Zelenskiy also thanked “our defenders of the sky”, including Ukraine’s pilots, saying they had launched “more than a hundred group air strikes on enemy positions and rear” over the past week while almost three dozen missiles and about fifty attack drones had been destroyed.
Eight settlements have been liberated over the past two weeks in Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the Berdyansk and Melitopol regions, including the village of Piatykhatky, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said in a Telegram post.
A Russian blogger had reported the capture of the village on the western edge of the Zaporizhzhia front on Sunday after what he described as fierce fighting.
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny is set to go on trial on Monday on charges of “extremism” that could keep him behind bars for decades, AFP is reporting.
The new case against the opposition leader comes as Moscow ramps up its crackdown, more than a year into its offensive in Ukraine, with most key opposition figures behind bars or in exile.
Navalny, who used to mobilise massive anti-Kremlin protests, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges that his supporters see as punishment for his political work.
The 47-year-old was arrested in 2021 upon returning from Germany, where he recovered from a poison attack the previous year that he blamed on the Kremlin.
He has suffered from major weight loss in prison, and now faces up to another 30 years behind bars.
Navalny said that prosecutors provided him with 3,828 pages describing all the crimes he is alleged to have committed while in prison.
“Although it is clear from the size of the tomes that I am a sophisticated and persistent criminal, it is impossible to find out what exactly I am accused of,” Navalny quipped.
He has been charged with financing extremist activity, publicly inciting extremist activities and “rehabilitating the Nazi ideology”, among other crimes.
This will be the first formally political case against him, his team said.
The trial will take place at the maximum security IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 250 kilometres (155 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny is jailed.
Wagner leader and regular Kremlin critic Yevgeny Prigozhin says 32,000 former prisoners have returned home after the end of their contracts with Wagner in Ukraine, AP has reported.
According to Prigozhin, 83 crimes have been committed by those who had returned home, which he claimed was “80 times less” than the number committed by those released from prison over the same period without having served with Wagner.
The early return of former prisoners to their communities has caused some controversy in Russia, as the Guardian’s Pjotr Sauer reported in April, with at least two already accused of murder since their release:
Ukrainian forces may be “temporarily pausing counteroffensive operations to reevaluate their tactics”, the Institute for the Study of War says in its latest assessment of the conflict.
It quoted the head of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center, Colonel Margo Grosberg, as saying on Friday that he believes “we won’t see an offensive over the next seven days.”
The thinktank noted: “Operational pauses are a common feature of major offensive undertakings, and this pause does not signify the end of Ukraine’s counteroffensive.”
It said Ukraine had “continued counteroffensive actions on at least four sectors of the front” on Sunday and “made limited territorial gains”.
Russia had the “means, motive and opportunity” to bring down the Kakhovka dam earlier this month, the Associated Press newswire has reported, citing access to exclusive photos and drone footage.
It writes:
In the days leading up to the single explosion, Ukrainian military drone videos showed dozens of Russian soldiers encamped on a bank of the Dnieper, relaxed as they walked back and forth to the dam with no cover – suggesting their confidence in their control of the area and especially the dam, which was strategically crucial.
The photos, taken from Ukrainian drone footage, obtained by the AP and dated May 28, showed a car parked on the dam, its roof neatly cut open to reveal enormous barrels, one with what appears to be a land mine attached to the lid and a cable running toward the Russian-held side of the river. It’s not clear how long the car remained.
A Ukrainian special forces communications official, who also noted the car appeared to be rigged, said he believed the purpose of that was twofold: to stop any Ukrainian advance on the dam and to amplify the planned explosion originating in the machine room and destroy the top of the dam. The car bomb itself would not have been enough to bring down the dam. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to preserve operational secrecy.
The explosion detected at 2:54 a.m. local time [on 6 June] registered on Norwegian seismic monitors at nearly magnitude 2. By comparison, a catastrophic explosion at Beirut’s port that killed scores of people and caused widespread destruction registered at a 3.3 on the seismic scale and involved at least 500 tons of explosives.
“That means it’s a significant explosion,” said Anne Strømmen Lycke, CEO of the Norwegian earthquake monitoring agency NORSAR.
Within a few minutes, water from the Kakhovka reservoir began cascading through the shattered dam, submerging the river’s sand bar islands and flooding much of southern Ukraine, including Russian-controlled territory.
UN accuses Russia of blocking access to flood-hit areas
The UN has accused Russia of refusing to allow aid deliveries to Moscow-controlled areas affected by flooding following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam almost two weeks ago.
“The government of the Russian Federation has so far declined our request to access the areas under its temporary military control,” Denise Brown, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, said in a statement.
“The UN will continue to engage to seek the necessary access. We urge the Russian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law.
“Aid cannot be denied to people who need it.”
The statement comes as Ukrainian and Russian authorities said the death toll from the flooding had risen to 52. Russian officials said 35 people had died in Moscow-controlled areas and Ukraine‘s interior ministry said 17 had died and 31 were missing, Reuters reported. More than 11,000 have been evacuated on both sides.
The collapse of the Moscow-controlled dam on 6 June unleashed floodwaters across southern Ukraine and Russia-occupied parts of the Kherson region, destroying homes and farmland, and cutting off supplies to residents.
A team of international legal experts assisting Ukraine’s prosecutors in their investigation said it was “ highly likely” the dam’s collapse was caused by explosives planted by Russians.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
The UN has accused Moscow of continuing to block humanitarian aid deliveries to Russian-occupied areas in eastern Ukraine that have been affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam earlier this month.
“We urge the Russian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law. Aid cannot be denied to people who need it,” the UN humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine, Denise Brown, said in a statement.
The death toll from flooding caused by the collapse of the dam has risen to 52, with authorities in Kyiv reporting 17 dead and 31 missing and Russian officials saying 35 people had died in Moscow-controlled areas.
In other key developments:
Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to bring down the dam, according to exclusive drone photos and information obtained by the Associated Press newswire. Images taken from above the dam appeared to show an explosive-laden car atop the structure, and two officials said Russian troops were stationed in a crucial area inside the dam where the Ukrainians say the explosion that destroyed it was centred, AP reported. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the news agency.
Ukraine has recaptured the village of Piatykhatky, in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, reports suggest. It would be the second gain in the area since Kyiv launched its counteroffensive earlier this month. A Russian-installed official said Ukrainian forces had taken the settlement and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery, Reuters reported. If confirmed, this is Ukraine’s first village gain for nearly a week, and marks an apparent escalation of the offensive on the most direct route to Crimea.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed in its daily update its forces had repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks across three sections of the 1000-km-long frontline and made no mention of Piatykhatky, Reuters reports. The battlefield reports could not be independently verified.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has praised Ukrainian forces for their “very effective” repelling of enemy assaults near Avdiivka, one of the focal points of fighting in the east, in his nightly video address. The head of the military administration in Avdiivka, a mining town shattered by months of fighting, told national television that Ukrainian forces had advanced about one km (two-thirds of a mile) around the town over the past two weeks.
The EU is speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine to support the counteroffensive against Russian forces, the EU industry chief Thierry Breton told the French daily Le Parisien. He said the EU would be stepping up its efforts, pledging that 1m high-caliber weapons must be provided within the next year.
The UK Ministry of Defence said heavy fighting continues to be focused in Zaporizhzhia oblast, western Donetsk oblast and around Bakhmut. It says both sides are taking high casualties, with Russian losses likely to be the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March. It also noted that Russian defence operations had been “relatively effective in the south”.
Ukrainian forces have destroyed an ammunition depot near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk, in the southern region of Kherson, a spokesperson for the Odesa military administration said on Sunday.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa sought to present an African peace mission to Moscow and Kyiv in a positive light, tweeting “Africa Peace Initiative has been impactful and its ultimate success will be measured on the objective, which is stopping the war”. The Kremlin has said the plan will be “difficult to realise” while Zelenskiy said allowing negotiations now would just “freeze the war”. The African delegation is the first since the start of the war to hold separate face-to-face talks with both leaders on their peace initiative.
