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
