Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s main news:
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, has said alliance members must ensure Ukraine keeps getting enough arms to pursue its counteroffensive against Russia.
Ukraine is taking significant casualties and making slow progress towards the Russian main line of defence, western officials have admitted in one of the west’s first assessments of the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched on 4 June.
Ukraine reported incremental advances in its counteroffensive against Russian forces on Wednesday, in what the country’s deputy defence minister described as “extremely fierce” fighting. In the past day, Ukrainian troops had advanced 200-500 metres in various areas near the largely devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, and 300-350 metres in the direction of the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, Hanna Maliar said.
UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi delayed a trip to the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Wednesday for security reasons, as heavy fighting raged in southern Ukraine.
The Kremlin said it was concerned by unconfirmed media reports that a senior Chechen commander had been wounded in Ukraine. Earlier on Wednesday, the defence ministry’s TV channel reported that Adam Delimkhanov, head of Chechnya’s national guard, had been injured in Ukraine. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov later claimed that Delimkhanov was alive and well.
Kalibr missiles hit the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa at 2.40am on Wednesday, setting a warehouse, a business centre, an educational institution, restaurants and shops ablaze. It was a one of a number of attacks across the country on Wednesday that left 13 civilians dead and 24 injured.
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After a destructive feud between his top military chiefs and the mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin, Vladimir Putin has appeared to side with his top brass, calling for Russia’s “volunteer detachments” fighting in Ukraine to be placed under direct control of the defence ministry.
The decision severely undermines Prigozhin, who has turned Wagner’s role in the capture of Bakhmut into an outsized public profile in Russia that he uses to berate Putin’s generals and promote himself.
Speaking to a group of pro-war bloggers on Tuesday, the Russian president said he welcomed the defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s initiative to force mercenary groups to sign contracts with the ministry – an order Prigozhin has refused to follow.
You can read more on this story from my colleagues Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth here:
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The death toll from a strike on a warehouse and apartment block in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih has been raised to 12 after the death of a 67-year-old man in hospital overnight, as my colleague Daniel Boffey reports.
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The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam has led to a “dire humanitarian crisis” in flooded communities downstream, the United Nations in Ukraine has said.
The dam, part of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, was breached in the early hours of 6 June, allowing some of the 18 cubic kilometres of water it held back to surge down across a swathe of southern Ukraine.
The damage resulting from the collapse has forced the evacuation of thousands of people, flooded national parks and jeopardised water supplies to millions of people.
The Ukrainian government has now requested the UN to help launch a post-disaster needs assessment that will look in depth at the long-term implications of the devastating destruction of the dam, the United Nations in Ukraine tweeted.
The destruction of the #KakhovkaDam, a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has led to a dire humanitarian crisis in flooded communities downstream, compounding existing war effects.
— UN Ukraine (@UN_Ukraine) June 14, 2023
It will have also significant long-term impacts on a larger area and population.
🧵1/4 https://t.co/pQvyRh6Vea
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Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has said that Adam Delimkhanov, one of his senior commanders, is alive and well, dismissing reports that he had been killed or injured in Ukraine.
Kadyrov, who has led Chechnya since 2007 and is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said in a post on the Telegram messenger app on Wednesday that Delimkhanov was “alive and well and not even wounded”.
Kadyrov added that he had known Delimkhanov was uninjured from the start of what he called “a fake information attack”, but had remained silent in order to embarrass Ukrainian media outlets which had reported on the commander’s alleged injury.
There had been unconfirmed rumours on Ukrainian social media channels that the Chechen commander had been killed in an artillery strike in southern Ukraine.
Asked about the reports of Delimkhanov, head of Chechnya’s national guard, being injured, the Kremlin earlier on Wednesday said it was “worried” and was waiting for clarification about what had really happened (See post at 13:35).
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Russia appears to have doubled the number of trained dolphins defending Sevastopol naval base in Crimea, evidence seen by Naval News suggests.
Analysis indicates the number of trained dolphins has increased from 3-4 to 6-7. This means dolphin patrols might have increased in frequency and have possibly been covering a wider area.
Russia has a history of training dolphins for military purposes, using the aquatic mammal to retrieve objects or deter enemy divers.
The Sevastopol naval base is crucial for the Russian military, as it sits in the southern tip of Crimea which Moscow seized in 2014.
Ukraine had also trained dolphins at an aquarium near Sevastopol, in a program born out of a Soviet-era scheme that fell into neglect in the 1990s.
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Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, has said alliance members must ensure Ukraine keeps getting enough arms to pursue its counteroffensive against Russia.
Kyiv’s Western backers will meet on Thursday at Nato headquarters in Brussels to get the latest update from Ukraine’s defence minister on the progress of the assaults, AFP reports.
“The most obvious thing is to ensure they have the weapons, the supplies, the maintenance to continue to conduct the offensive,” Stoltenberg told journalists.
He added that there was always recognition that Ukraine would suffer losses as it seeks to breach heavily fortified Russian lines.
Stoltenberg said:
There will be casualties, also, when it comes to modern Nato equipment. No one expected there to be zero casualties. The realities of this is fierce, fierce fighting.
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Summary of the day so far …
Ukrainian troops have advanced 200-500 meters at various sections of the front line around the small eastern city of Bakhmut and 300-350 meters in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said.
The UN nuclear chief, Rafael Grossi, delayed a planned trip to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant until it is safer to travel, a senior Ukrainian government official said on Wednesday.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was concerned by unconfirmed media reports that a senior Chechen commander had been wounded in Ukraine and was awaiting clarification about what had really happened. Earlier on Wednesday, the defence ministry’s TV channel reported that Adam Delimkhanov, head of Chechnya’s national guard, had been injured in Ukraine.
Overnight, Russian missile attacks killed three people in the Black Sea city of Odesa and three in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
Ukraine taking significant casualties and making slow progress towards Russian line of defence, say western officials
Ukraine is taking significant casualties and making slow progress towards the Russian main line of defence, western officials have admitted in one of the west’s first assessments of the Ukrainian counteroffensive launched on 4 June.
The officials’ sombre tone was clearly designed to lower expectations of a transformative breakthrough. However they nevertheless insisted the counteroffensive was “going in the right direction” and the losses were not unexpected.
They said the counteroffensive was still in its early days and involved a form of warfare not seen in decades as Ukraine forces are forced to build single lanes of armoured vehicles through mines heading to main Russian defences that in some cases may be still as far as 20km away.
“The vulnerability of the classic single lanes through the minefields make the Ukrainian armoury very vulnerable to attack,” the officials said. The officials denied Ukraine had lost as many as 120 armoured vehicles – a figure touted by Moscow.
One official said: “The Russian manoeuvre and defence approach is proving challenging for the Ukraine and costly to attacking forces hence the advance at the moment is slow”.
The officials suggested there is likely to be “grinding costly warfare likely for many months to come. This is incredibly difficult. They are going against a well-prepared line that the Russians have had months to prepare. Russia has generally put up a good defence from their well-prepared positions and falling back to tactical lines. Whilst they are inflicting casualties on the Russians they are not significant because the Russians are choosing the time to withdraw in a manner similar to the way the Ukrainians defended themselves against Russian vehicles.
“The idea that the Russians were just going to melt away and the Ukrainians were going to drive straight through their defensive line was in people’s wildest dreams.
“In this conflict the advantage has always been with the defender”.
The officials said it may not be clear for as long as three months whether the offensive could be classified as a success.
Most of the vehicles that have been damaged have been hit by mines. As the Ukrainians advance they are also more exposed to drone assaults.
The officials played down suggestions that this assault was likely to give Ukraine a tactical advantage as early as September, and so give it space to reopen talks with Vladimir Putin. “We are a long way away from Ukraine being in a position to reopen negotiations”, the officials said.
The slow progress is likely to place greater pressure on the west to signal to Putin that it is prepared for a long haul, and will not treat the counteroffensive as Ukraine’s one shot at reclaiming its territory. Ukraine has long feared support may decline in the west if the supply of western arms does not produce early tangible results.
Western officials admitted that western-supplied jets may not be available in the short term, even if training of Ukrainian pilots is now underway.
The officials also suggested Putin might have taken a truth serum before meeting military correspondents where he said Russia was suffering severe tank losses and suffering problems with its military industrial base.
Even though there was still a huge amount of confusion about exact Russian deployment, the officials said the vast majority of Russian forces are now committed to positions on the line partly due to the sheer size of the line that has to be defended. That gave Russia little room for further manoeuvre to deploy reinforcements if a point in the line became vulnerable.
By contrast Ukraine was holding back some of its heaviest armoury, including Challenger tanks.
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Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has rebuffed growing international pressure on Ankara to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership bid before the western defence alliance meets in July.
Western officials had hoped Erdoğan would soften his position on the diplomatically charged issue after he secured a hard-fought re-election last month (AFP reports).
But Erdoğan signalled no major shift in comments released by his office while Turkish and Swedish officials were locked in last-minute negotiations in Ankara.
Sweden and its Nordic neighbour Finland ended decades of military non-alignment and applied to join the US-led defence bloc in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Turkey and fellow Nato member Hungary ratified Finland’s membership this year. But both countries’ parliaments have yet to approve Sweden’s entry.
Turkey is pushing Sweden to ban and crack down on rallies by Kurdish supporters of a group recognised as a terrorist organisation by Ankara.
Sweden hopes to be able to determine who was behind the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage by the autumn, the prosecutor leading the country’s investigation told Swedish radio, Reuters reports.
In September 2022, several unexplained underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and newly-built Nord Stream 2 pipelines that link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea.
The blasts occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark and both countries say the explosions were deliberate though they have yet to single out who was responsible.
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There has been an update on the fire that broke out on Wednesday at the Novocherkassk power station in Russia’s southern Rostov region, close to the border with Ukraine (See post at 12:54).
Citing reports, the Kyiv Independent tweeted that the fire was said to have started due to “non-compliance with safety precautions during repair work”.
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Here are some pictures of a local clean up effort in Odesa after a missile attack hit the southern Ukrainian city.
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The Duma, the lower house of Russia’s parliament, said on Wednesday it had voted to give its initial backing to legislation that would allow the defence ministry to sign contracts with suspected or convicted criminals to fight in Ukraine.
More than 15 months into its invasion of Ukraine, Russia is trying to recruit more soldiers for Europe’s largest land conflict since the second world war.
Under the proposed changes, a contract could be concluded with someone being investigated for committing a crime, or who is having their case heard in court, or who has been convicted – but before the verdict takes legal effect, according to the database of the Duma.
People convicted of sexual crimes, treason, terrorism or extremism would not be able to sign up, Reuters reports.
Those who do sign up would be exempt from criminal liability upon completion of their contract or if they receive awards for their combat prowess.
The Wagner mercenary group was previously allowed to recruit convicts from prisons to fight in Ukraine, but said in February it had stopped. Prison rights activists say the defence ministry has taken over that process but wanted to make changes.
The new changes being examined by the Duma do not cover recruitment of people already serving their sentences and the defence ministry has not commented.
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Kremlin worried by reports a senior Chechen commander has been injured in Ukraine
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it was concerned by unconfirmed media reports that a senior Chechen commander had been wounded in Ukraine and was awaiting clarification about what had really happened, Reuters reports.
Earlier on Wednesday, the defence ministry’s TV channel reported that Adam Delimkhanov, head of Chechnya’s national guard, had been injured in Ukraine (See post at 10:32am).
Delimkhanov, who is a member of the Duma as well as commander of the Chechen division of the Russian national guard, is widely seen as the Caucasian region’s second most senior official, behind Ramzan Kadyrov.
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Vladimir Putin will hold talks in Moscow on Wednesday with Cuba’s prime minister, Manuel Marrero Cruz, the Kremlin said.
Russia is seeking to bolster relations with Latin American, African and other non-western countries as the west tries to isolate and economically punish it for its invasion of Ukraine.
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Germany enshrined a Nato commitment to spending 2% of its gross domestic product on defence and identified Russia as the biggest threat to European security as the government announced its first ever National Security Strategy on Wednesday.
Here are some of the highlights of Germany’s strategy outlined in a policy document and at a government press conference, as reported by Reuters:
Russia is the biggest threat to peace in the Euro-Atlantic area
Russia is trying to destabilise European democracies, weaken EU and Nato
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it is important to continue to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine, including when the war ends
Germany’s military budget was the seventh largest in the world last year behind the US, China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia and the UK.
Nato members pledged in 2014 to move towards spending 2% of GDP on defence by 2024.
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A fire broke out on Wednesday at the Novocherkassk power station in Russia’s southern Rostov region close to the border with Ukraine, state-owned news agency RIA reported.
It did not say what had caused the blaze.
Here is an update on the UN nuclear chief’s trip to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant being delayed due to travel safety concerns (See post at 09:34).
The head of Russian-installed authorities in Zaporizhzhia region, Yevgeny Balitsky, also said the trip was delayed.
“We will wait for Grossi at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on 15 June, the visit is delayed by a day,” he was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
German Galushchenko, Ukraine’s energy minister, said the trip had been pushed back, possibly by days, Reuters reports.
Russian news agency Interfax quoted a Russian-installed local official as saying Grossi would visit on Thursday.
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Ukraine has accused Russian military forces of attacking a car near the two countries’ shared border, and killing six people.
Writing on Telegram, Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office said the attack happened on Tuesday in the Sumy region, in eastern Ukraine.
These claims could not immediately be independently verified. Moscow is yet to officially comment on the allegations.
The International Committee on the Red Cross, under ferocious criticism from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, admitted the principles of neutrality under which it operates have been put under unprecedented strain by the Ukraine war.
It also defended the quality of its response to the floods caused by the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine, saying it had been working tightly with the Ukrainian Red Cross to coordinate efforts to supply drinking water.
Juerg Eglin, ICRC’s head of delegation in Ukraine, also revealed that Russia was continuing to refuse to give the body access to the Russian-occupied side of the Dnipro River, where the ICRC estimates that most of the 50,000 people affected by the floods are living.
Refusing to share the Russian explanation for refusing to grant access since the discussions were not over, he said: “We are ready to intervene on both sides of the river and have made concrete requests.”
The ICRC said hundreds of thousands had been affected in a different way upstream of the dam, and that the risk of mines was becoming a growing threat to the civilian population. He added that ICRC staff were working under the risk of shelling.
More broadly, the ICRC said it had now visited 1,500 prisoners from both sides, and that the visits had led to improvements in conditions in Russia. It had also delivered 2,500 messages between prisoners and relatives.
Defending the ICRC from Zelenskiy’s longstanding criticism, the organisation said the principles under which it operates were not always understood.
Ariane Bauer, ICRC’s regional director for Europe and central Asia, said: “The current environment we are in is extremely mediatised. Our efforts are not always visible. Our discrete approach can sometimes seem out of sync with today’s realities of today’s information space.
“Neutrality and trust remain central to meeting our objectives and they cannot be dissociated one from another. Remaining neutral means we stick to our principles – the very principles that help people that need our support.
“Remaining neutral shows that we care for the mandate we were given by states that were signatory to the Geneva convention. We have seen neutrality under strain and misunderstood in this conflict and many others, but perhaps more in this than others. For us, neutrality is not a moral position, it is a tool that helps us work and get access to prisoners of war and populations in hard-to-reach areas.”
She refused to comment on whether Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia were in worse conditions than Russians held in Ukraine, but said improvements in conditions in Russia had followed ICRC visits to Russia.
Russia had also cooperated with the ICRC by setting up lists of named prisoners held under its authority, she said.
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The water receded by another 32cm in the Kherson Region, in southern Ukraine, overnight, but 28 de-occupied settlements are still flooded, the Kyiv Post cited the regional military administration as saying on Wednesday morning.
❗️Overnight, the water receded by another 32 cm in #Kherson Region, but 28 de-occupied settlements remain flooded, the Regional Military Administration reported.
— KyivPost (@KyivPost) June 14, 2023
As of this morning, the average water level in the flooded areas is 2.13 metres.
📷: Ukraine’s Environmental… pic.twitter.com/KzNNEQeapl
In the early hours on Tuesday last week, footage began to emerge of water spilling from the strategically important Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian army’s southern military command said the dam had been blown up by Russian forces. The local Russian-installed mayor has called it a “terrorist act”.
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Ukraine reports small advances in 'extremely fierce' fighting amid counteroffensive
Ukraine reported incremental advances in its counteroffensive against Russian forces on Wednesday, in what it said was “extremely fierce” fighting Reuters reports.
In a post on Telegram, the deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said the Ukrainian actions had had “partial” success.
In the past day, Ukrainian troops advanced 200-500 metres in various areas near the small eastern city of Bakhmut, and 300-350 metres in the direction of the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, she said.
She reported continuing fighting near the village of Makarivka in the direction of the southern port city of Berdiansk, and said battles were raging in the areas of Novodanylivka and Novopokrovsk in the Mariupol direction.
Maliar said:
Our troops are moving in the face of extremely fierce fighting, and air and artillery superiority of the enemy.
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If you haven’t already seen it, this stark piece from our colleague Lorenzo Tondo is well worth a read …
The war in Ukraine has driven the largest annual increase of people forcibly displaced by persecution, conflict, violence and human rights violations in decades, according to the UN refugee agency.
In 2022, the number of displaced people grew by 21%, standing at an estimated 108.4 million at the end of the year. That is likely have risen to more than 110 million people in May 2023, with Russia’s invasion and the war in Sudan being the biggest drivers of the growth, according to a report released on Wednesday by UNHCR.
“These figures show us that some people are far too quick to rush to conflict, and way too slow to find solutions. The consequence is devastation, displacement, and anguish for each of the millions of people forcibly uprooted from their homes,” said Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees.
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Wagner chief reiterates refusal to sign contracts with Russian defence ministry
Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin on Wednesday reiterated the refusal of his Wagner fighters to sign contracts with the defence ministry, a day after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said the agreements were needed.
In a rare direct show of defiance towards the Russian leader, Prigozhin said: “None of Wagner’s fighters is ready to go down the path of shame again. That’s why they will not sign the contracts.”
In a televised meeting on Tuesday, Putin backed a call by the defence ministry for “volunteer” fighters in Ukraine to sign contracts with the country’s military command, widely seen as a means to assert control over Wagner.
Putin said that contracts were necessary to allow all participants in Russia’s campaign in Ukraine to receive the social support payments to which they are entitled. These include compensation to fighters if they are wounded, and to their families if they are killed in action.
Prigozhin has waged a bitter public feud with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the army top brass since last year, accusing them of failing to provide adequate support and ammunition to Wagner forces in Ukraine and so causing them to suffer higher casualties.
In Wednesday’s remarks, however, he said he thought a “compromise solution” would be found between Putin and parliament to enable Wagner fighters to receive social guarantees and certified status as combatants. (Via Reuters)
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More here on the missing Chechen commander Adam Delimkhanov …
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has made a bizarre appeal for information from Ukrainian intelligence over the location of Adam Delimkhanov, his right hand man and a member of the Russian state Duma.
The message on Kadyrov’s official Telegram account followed reports of a strike on Delimkhanov’s convoy in the Zaporizhzhia region which is at the heart of the Ukrainian counter offensive.
Kadyrov writes: “I myself can’t find Adam Delimkhanov in any way. He doesn’t get in touch. I ask Ukrainian intelligence to provide information on exactly what place and what positions were hit, so that I can still find my dear BROTHER. I promise a generous reward and I ask you to help.”
Russia’s defence ministry quoted the State Duma as confirming Delimkhanov had been injured but they provided no further information.
Kyrylo Sazonov, a Ukrainian military blogger, has claimed on his Facebook account that Delimkhanov was killed in an attack near the city of Prymorsk, west of Mariupol, after Ukrainian intelligence had spotted a motorcade of SUVs.
He writes: “There were no wounded... All the bodies were taken away by helicopters. They arrived in half an hour.”
Senior commander of Russia’s Chechen forces in Ukraine has been wounded – report
A senior commander of Russia’s Chechen forces fighting in Ukraine has been wounded, Russia’s defence ministry television channel Zvezda reported on Wednesday, citing the press service of the state Duma, the lower house of parliament.
Adam Delimkhanov, who is a member of the Duma as well as commander of the Chechen division of the Russian national guard, is widely seen as the Caucasian region’s second most senior official, behind Ramzan Kadyrov.
In a message posted on Telegram, Kadyrov wrote that he could not contact Delimkhanov, and asked for help finding his “dear brother”.
Delimkhanov, a former Chechen separatist who eventually switched sides to Moscow along with much of the region’s leadership, had taken a prominent role in Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, commanding Chechen forces in Mariupol in the conflict’s early days.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian media reported that Delimkhanov had been killed in an artillery strike in southern Ukraine. (Via Reuters)
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Reuters has a useful explainer on the Russian tactical nuclear weapons that are to be stationed in Belarus, and which the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, mentioned earlier (see here).
Putin said that “tactical” nuclear weapons – so called as they are designed for battlefield use – would be sent to Belarus, but did not say exactly which warheads would be deployed or where.
Lukashenko said the warheads were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.
The Hiroshima bomb, made from highly enriched uranium-235, was about 16 kilotons (equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT), while the Nagasaki bomb, made from plutonium-239, was about 21 kilotons, according to the World Nuclear Association.
If Lukashenko is correct, the Russian warheads would have a yield of about 48 to 63 kilotons each. Russia has about 1,816 non-strategic nuclear warheads, according to analysis of Russia’s nuclear weapons by Bulletin of Atomic Scientists magazine.
Putin said Iskander mobile short-range ballistic missiles, which can deliver nuclear warheads, had already been handed over to Belarus. Russian sources say the Iskander has a range of 500km (310 miles).
Putin also said 10 Belarusian aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. Belarus said Su-25 aircraft had been adapted to carry the warheads. The Sukhoi-25 jet has a range of up to 1,000km (621 miles), according to Russian sources.
The Federation of American Scientists has said the weapons could be based at Lida airbase, 40km (25 miles) from the Lithuanian border.
If so, the delivery vehicles could reach most of Ukraine, almost all of eastern Europe, including the Baltic states, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Romania, a swathe of Germany, as well as some of Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Cities such as Berlin and Stockholm would be in range.
Putin said Russia would finish the construction of a special storage facility in Belarus on 7-8 July and that the weapons would be deployed soon afterwards. Lukashenko has made different comments. He seemed to indicate last month that the weapons were already on the move while on 13 June he said the weapons would be deployed in “several days”.
He has also said that there could be “nuclear weapons for everyone” who joined the Russia-Belarus union. In a video published on 14 June, Lukashenko said his country had started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons.
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Germany is aiming to reduce its dependence on commodities through diversification of supply, and to create incentives for firms to hold strategic reserves, according to a summary of its new national security strategy.
The strategy, which is expected to be published in full later on Wednesday, comes a year and a half after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which exposed Germany’s reliance on Russia for energy.
It also contains a commitment for Germany to spend an average of 2% of economic output on defence, according to the summary – a weaker pledge, however, than the one made by chancellor Olaf Scholz days after the Russian invasion in a landmark speech heralding a “turning of era” or Zeitenwende in German foreign policy.
Scholz had said Germany would start to invest more than 2% of economic output on defence, up from about 1.5%, after years of resisting pleas from Nato allies to do so. (Via Reuters)
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Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry, has shared a video which purports to be an interview with a woman who was trapped under rubble after a Russian strike overnight, whose husband did not survive the attack.
Russia attacked Kramatorsk and Kostiantynivka in Donetsk region last night. Three people dead, three wounded. People had to be digged out from the debris.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) June 14, 2023
Many homes were destroyed or damaged.
A local resident shares her story - she and her husband were trapped under the… pic.twitter.com/3qOQY55jA5
Grossi trip to Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant delayed due to travel safety concerns
The UN nuclear chief, Rafael Grossi, has delayed a planned trip to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant until it is safer to travel, a senior Ukrainian government official said on Wednesday.
Grossi had been expected to visit the facility on Wednesday after talks in Kyiv on Tuesday, but a diplomatic source said the visit would be delayed by “some hours”. The Russian news agency Interfax quoted a Russian-imposed local official as saying Grossi would visit the plant on Thursday.
“He’s waiting to be able to travel safely,” said the senior Ukrainian government official, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity. The official did not say when Grossi would arrive at the plant in southeastern Ukraine.
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Here are some more images from the news wires showing the damage in Odesa, where at least three people have been killed and 13 wounded.
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Sweden hopes to be able to determine who was behind the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage by the autumn, the prosecutor leading the country’s investigation told Swedish radio.
Reuters reports that Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor leading the Swedish investigation, told Swedish Radio he had met the German prosecutor and that they were working together but declined to give further details.
“I hope that we at least this autumn will be able to make a decision regarding indictments, at least that is the ambition as things stand now,” Ljungqvist told Swedish public service broadcaster SR. “I think, actually, in time, [who carried out the sabotage] will be brought to light.”
Germany has confirmed its investigators raided a ship in January that may have been used to transport the explosives used to blow up the pipelines. German media reported the boat could have been used by a small Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian group.
Ljungqvist told Reuters in April that the main scenario was that a state or a state-backed group was behind the attack.
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A former campaign leader for the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison on Wednesday for “creating an extremist organisation”, Reuters reports, citing the rights group OVD-Info.
Navalny supporters reacted with outrage to the sentence against Liliya Chanysheva.
Navalny, Putin’s best-known opponent, is serving sentences totalling more than 11 years in a penal colony for fraud and other charges that he says were trumped up to silence him. He faces further “extremism” charges that could extend his term by decades. Human rights groups and western governments view Navalny as a political prisoner.
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Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has used the strike on Odesa to reiterate Ukraine’s frequent calls for a tightening of economic sanctions on Russia. In a post on Telegram, he said:
The Russians shelled the city with Kalibr cruise missiles. Civilians died.
Each of these missiles has at least 40 foreign components. Without microelectronics, Russia will not be able to produce them.
Sanctions must be strengthened, in particular, against those who help the terrorist country to obtain components for weapons.
A planned visit by the UN nuclear chief, Rafael Grossi, to Ukraine’s Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant has been delayed by “some hours”, a diplomatic source has told Reuters. No reason has been given for the delay.
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Suspilne reports that the number of people killed due to the rocket attack on Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday has increased to 12.
Citing the city authority, it said a 67-year-old wounded man died in the hospital overnight.
Dmitry Medvedev, long-term ally of Vladimir Putin and currently deputy chair of the security council of Russia, has said on Telegram that Russia needs to put in a demilitarised zone as far west as Ukraine’s Lviv, which he referred to by its Russian name Lvov and German name Lemberg.
He went on to say that, as a result of the Nord Stream sabotage, for which he cited “western complicity”, that Russia should have “no restrictions left to refrain from destroying the cable communications of our enemies, laid along the ocean floor”.
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Here are some images released by the emergency services in Ukraine showing the aftermath of strikes in Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region.
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Three people have been killed and another three injured in an early morning Russian attack on Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka in Donetsk, according to the regional governor.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that at least five houses were destroyed and about 20 more were damaged in Kramatorsk, while two houses were destroyed and 55 were damaged in Kostyantynivka. It cites the regional governor, Pavlo Kyrylenko.
He stated that the attack happened at 5am local time (3am BST).
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The UK’s Ministry of Defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing on how it sees the situation on the ground in Ukraine. It claims:
In the last two weeks, there has been an uptick in Russian tactical combat air sorties, especially over southern Ukraine. This has almost certainly been in response to reports of increased Ukrainian offensive operations, as the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) attempt to support ground troops with airstrikes. Despite the uptick, VKS’ daily sortie rate remains much lower than the peak of up to 300 daily missions early in the war.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 14 June 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 14, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/90P42VA3t1
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This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Russian-installed administrators of Nova Kakhovka have accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a residential area in the city, injuring one person.
Last week the Kakhovka dam in the city was destroyed, flooding swaths of land and forcing thousands to flee one of the biggest environmental disasters in Europe for decades.
The administration also said that shelling of the nearby village of Plodovoye disrupted power supply there.
Reuters could not independently verify the report.
Ukraine and Russia deny targeting civilians in their military operations. Each side has accused the other of shelling the flooded areas in the aftermath of the dam blast.
Separately, the administration said 7,200 people had been evacuated from the flooded areas in the past week, including 421 children.
– Reuters
Updated
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, says he won’t hesitate to use Russian tactical nuclear weapons if faced with an act of aggression.
Lukashenko’s comment contradicts earlier statements by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who has said that nuclear weapons stationed in Belarus would remain exclusively under the control of Moscow.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko said “everything is ready” for the Russian nuclear weapons’ deployment, adding that “it could take just a few days for us to get what we had asked for and even a bit more”.
Asked later by a Russian state TV host whether Belarus had already received some of the weapons, Lukashenko responded: “Not all of them, little by little.”
He appeared to confirm that his government had taken possession of some weapons from Russia and added that they were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
God forbid I have to make a decision to use those weapons today, but there would be no hesitation if we face an aggression.
But in a later media appearance on Russian TV on Tuesday, he clarified he would consult with Putin before using any of the weapons.
Listen, if a war starts, do you think I will look around? I pick up the phone, and wherever he is, he picks it up. If he calls, I pick it up any time. It’s no problem at all to coordinate launching a strike.
Russian officials had no immediate comment on Lukashenko’s remarks.
– AP
Updated
The International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Rafael Grossi, is expected to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to “make his own assessment” on the risks posed to the operation by the war in Ukraine.
Before his site visit, Grossi met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Tuesday night to discuss the issue after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which formed a reservoir that provided cooling water for the plant.
Speaking to journalists before his visit, Grossi said the situation complicated “an already precarious nuclear safety and security situation”.
It is a step in the wrong direction, it is yet another step in the weakening of the safety net that one has in any nuclear power plant.
Grossi said he would assess the integrity of the station’s water channels and cooling pond, and clarify whether the pond has been mined.
I would say – again without having visited and on the basis of what my team there is informing me – there will be water (in the pond) for a few weeks, or maybe a month or two.
There is no immediate situation: there is water there, but it could be going down.
He also said that even if the reservoir empties “there are alternatives” such as pumping in water or drilling for groundwater.
Updated
Updated
Three killed in missile attack on Odesa
Three people have been killed and at least 13 injured in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, Ukrainian forces have said.
Air defences downed two Kalibr cruise missiles, but authorities said the attack still struck civilian infrastructure including a business centre, an educational institution, a residential complex, restaurants and shops.
The warehouse of a retail chain was also hit in the attack, causing a fire to break out.
Work is under way to clear the debris and a search is taking place for people trapped under the rubble.
Updated
Opening Summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine – this is Royce Kurmelovs bringing you the latest developments.
Three people have been killed and at least 13 injured during a missile attack on the city of Odesa, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday. Authorities say the attack struck civilian infrastructure in the southern port city and work is under way to pick through the rubble in the search for survivors.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, has met the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to discuss risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant before a planned visit to the facility. After the meeting, Grossi told journalists that he planned to travel to the plant on Wednesday so he could “make [his] own assessment” as to “what kind of danger we have”.
Zelenskiy has praised the courage of Ukrainian troops during the early stages of his country’s counteroffensive and singled out units operating near the besieged city of Bakhmut, saying: “There is forward movement in various areas.” Zelenskiy also praised several other units, thanking them “for your strength”.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, claimed that Ukrainian losses during the conflict were near “catastrophic” and that the counterattack had not been successful in any area. The Russian president made the claim during televised meetings with war correspondents and military bloggers. “This is a massive counteroffensive, using strategic reserves that were prepared for this task,” Putin said. “They lost over 160, we lost 54 tanks, and some of them are subject to restoration and repair.”
In other news:
Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, has said his country won’t hesitate to use Russian nuclear weapons in the event his country is threatened with repression.
The US House of Representatives has voted unanimously on a resolution calling for Russia to immediately release the imprisoned US journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Moscow has flagged that it may withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, after Putin said he had been cheated by the west, who had failed to deliver on a promise to help bring Russian agricultural goods to world markets.
A Russian missile strike on a block of flats in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine has killed 11 and injured more than 30 people, according to an updated casualty list provided by Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday.
The US president, Joe Biden, has met Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg before a major meeting of the alliance next month in Lithuania where questions about Ukraine’s membership are expected to be addressed.
The US government has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $325m which includes artillery rounds, anti-aircraft systems and 15 new Bradley infantry fighting vehicles. The UK Ministry of Defence has announced a $115m air defence package for Ukraine. Latvia has allocated another $460,000 in aid to Ukraine after the Kakhova dam disaster.
Ukrainian forces have been confirmed to have liberated the village of Neskuchne on Tuesday after Reuters journalists were able to reach the area. Russia has not yet acknowledge any gains.
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