Closing summary
The time in Kyiv is just coming up to 9pm. Here is a roundup of the day’s main news:
António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, called out Russia on Thursday for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, adding its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the UN security council seen by Reuters. Russian armed forces used 91 children as human shields, according to the report.
Ukraine and Moldova have made good progress on their journey to becoming members of the EU, a European commissioner has said. The European Commission reportedly made clear that Ukraine has a way to go to complete the seven steps the EU outlined last year when it granted Kyiv the status of a candidate for membership.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London on Thursday, Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said his country’s counteroffensive would take time but he was optimistic about its success, AFP reported.
Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia is 99.9% certain to quit a UN-brokered deal on the safe wartime passage of Black Sea grain in July as it no longer needs Ukrainian ports to export ammonia, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, reportedly said Ukrainian spies believed Russia was plotting an incident to release radiation from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, an allegation denied by the Kremlin.
Russian-backed officials in southern Ukraine have accused Kyiv of using British-supplied long-range missiles to strike a bridge connecting Kherson province with the Crimean peninsula. A series of photos and videos circulating on Telegram on Thursday showed a large crater on the bridge, and debris littering the roads. There were no casualties reported.
Updated
Ukrainian forces are containing Russian forces on the eastern front and have not allowed “a single metre” of Russian advances, the deputy prime minister Hanna Maliar said on Thursday.
“Our defence forces continue to contain effectively advances by Russian troops,” Maliar wrote on the Telegram app, Reuters reports.
Updated
We have some updates from Reuters about Russia’s supreme court reportedly rejecting a challenge by Alexei Navalny to prison officials’ refusal to give him writing equipment (see earlier post at 16:15).
Navalny has spent much of his time in the IK-6 penal colony in Melekhovo, about 145 miles east of Moscow, in solitary confinement for alleged contraventions of prison regulations, such as failure to do up his top button.
His complaint reportedly alleged that the authorities had no right to deny him the pen and paper that were provided to all inmates, merely because he was in a punishment cell without a table, or because there was no space in his prison schedule for writing.
“I’m not asking for extra food, I’m not asking for a Christmas tree to be put in my cell … we’re talking about the basic human right to have a pen in the cell and a sheet of paper to write a letter or (complaint) to the court,” Mediazona, the Russian independent news site, quoted Navalny as telling the judge.
“In order to have them fetch a can of coffee out of my things and bring it to the cell, I have to write an application.”
Navalny’s complaint had made it through a series of lower courts before being definitively thrown out by the supreme court.
Updated
Senior EU officials said on Thursday that Ukraine was making progress on political reforms to open the way for EU membership talks but still needed to progress in five important areas, Reuters reports.
The assessment, by the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, offered Kyiv hope that it could achieve its aim of getting the green light for membership talks in December.
But it also made clear that Ukraine has a way to go just to complete the seven steps that the EU outlined last year when it granted Kyiv the status of a candidate for membership (see earlier post at 16:36).
“They are on track, they are working hard. After all, the country is under attack,” said Oliver Varhelyi, the European commissioner for relations with the EU’s neighbours. “Compared to that, I think that they are delivering.”
Updated
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, says he had discussed the war between Russia and Ukraine with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa as they met in Paris, Reuters reports.
Ramaphosa recently led a delegation of African leaders to Russia and Kyiv seeking to share the continent’s “perspective on finding peace in Ukraine”, but key elements of their peace plan ended up being rebuffed by Vladimir Putin.
Lula has also pitched himself as a peace broker to end the war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The Brazilian leader irritated western countries earlier this year when he suggested the west had been “encouraging” war by arming Ukraine.
Encontro agora em Paris com o presidente da África do Sul, @CyrilRamaphosa. Conversamos sobre o próximo encontro dos BRICS e sobre a viagem do presidente Ramaphosa a Kiev e São Petersburgo, e as conversas que teve com Zelensky e Putin 🇧🇷🇿🇦
— Lula (@LulaOficial) June 22, 2023
📸: @ricardostuckert pic.twitter.com/73AVz1MCp6
“We talked about the next Brics summit and about President Ramaphosa’s trip to Kyiv and St Petersburg, as well as the conversations he had with Zelenskiy and Putin,” Lula wrote on Twitter after their meeting.
Brazil, South Africa and Russia are all members of the Brics group of emerging nations, which will hold a summit in South Africa in August. The group also includes India and China. Lula and Ramaphosa are in Paris for the New Global Financing Pact summit.
Updated
Vladimir Putin, who has argued that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is a failure, conceded on Thursday that Kyiv’s forces had “an offensive potential”, AFP reports.
“It must be assumed that this offensive potential of the adversary is not exhausted. A series of strategic reserves are not employed, and I ask that this reality be taken into account,” the Russian president said.
Sergei Shoigu, the country’s defence minister, said Ukrainian troops were “currently regrouping” after conducting offensive action over the past 16 days.
He added, according to AFP, that Western military aid for Ukraine was not seriously affecting outcomes on the battlefield.
Updated
UN report says Russian armed forces have used 91 children as human shields
António Guterres, the UN’s secretary general, called out Russia on Thursday for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, adding its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the UN security council seen by Reuters.
The UN also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups injured 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report.
Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine last February. The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.
The report also verified that Ukrainian armed forces killed 80 children, injured 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals, Reuters reports.
Guterres reportedly said in the report that he was “particularly shocked” by the high number of children killed and wounded and attacks on schools and hospitals by Russian armed forces.
He also said he was “particularly disturbed” by the high number of such offences against children by Ukrainian armed forces.
Guterres’ annual report to the 15-member security council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals.
The report was compiled by Virginia Gamba, Guterres’ special representative for children and armed conflict.
Updated
Ukraine and Moldova making good progress towards EU membership, European commissioner says
Ukraine and Moldova have made good progress on their journey to becoming members of the EU, a European commissioner has said, unveiling an interim update to EU ministers.
But Olivér Várhelyi, who is in charge of EU enlargement, said that they would have to “deliver” on undertakings before official accession talks could begin.
While Ukraine, for instance, had made good progress on anti-corruption, it “now needs to build a credible track record of prosecutions and convictions and to ensure a steady fight against corruption”, he said.
Detailing the progress each country had made in the past year, he said Ukraine had made “good progress” on two of the seven conditions laid down: reforms in judicial governance and media.
It has further work to do on anti-corruption, anti oligarchisation, money laundering and protection of national minorities in education and public life.
Moldova had already completed three of nine steps it was asked to take including judicial reform, involvement of civil society in decision making and protection of the rights of vulnerable people.
Ukraine and Moldova were granted candidate status last year, with diplomats eager to ensure alignment in the wake of Russian aggression.
Georgia had completed three of 12 conditions needed to start the official candidate status, including reforms to ensure gender equality, he said.
Updated
Russia’s supreme court on Thursday rejected a challenge by the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to prison officials’ refusal to give him writing equipment, the Russian independent news site Mediazona reported.
Navalny, 47, once mobilised massive anti-Kremlin protests but is now serving a nine-year prison sentence on embezzlement charges that his supporters see as punishment for his political work.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
Denys Shmygal, Ukraine’s prime minister, warned that his country’s counteroffensive against invading Russian forces would “take time” but expressed optimism over its eventual outcome, AFP reported.
Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvy Rih, Ukrainian officials said.
Russia is 99.9% certain to quit a UN-brokered deal on the safe wartime passage of Black Sea grain in July as it no longer needs Ukrainian ports to export ammonia, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, reportedly said that Ukrainian spies believed Russia was plotting an incident to release radiation from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, Europe’s largest nuclear plant, an allegation denied by the Kremlin.
Ukrainian missiles struck the Chonhar Bridge connecting Crimea with Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson region overnight, Russian-appointed officials said on Thursday. Photos show the infrastructure deserted and partially damaged by the missile attack with debris littering the roads. There have been no casualties reported.
Updated
Russia’s state communications regulator Roskomnadzor has added Amazon Web Services and 11 other foreign technology companies to a widened list of firms it wants to open local offices or face penalties and possible bans.
Reuters reports:
Russia in 2021 demanded that 13 firms, mostly US technology companies such as Alphabet’s Google, Meta platforms’ Facebook, Apple and Twitter become officially represented on Russian soil by the end of the year or face restrictions on advertising, data collection or money transfers.
Moscow’s subsequent invasion of Ukraine intensified Russia’s disputes with big tech, ultimately leading to Twitter, Facebook and others being banned from the market.
But despite the initial threats, many other listed web services remain operational and available, such as YouTube, Wikipedia, Telegram and Zoom.
Amazon Web Services and another 11 mostly hosting sites were added on Thursday, Roskomnadzor’s website showed. It was not immediately clear what the listing would mean for Amazon and others.
Updated
We have some more on Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, signing a law banning the import of books from Russia (see earlier post at 11:48).
Zelenskiy’s office said on Twitter that the law would “strengthen the protection of the Ukrainian cultural and information space from anti-Ukrainian Russian propaganda”.
Ukraine has been carrying out what it describes as a “derussification” process, saying it is necessary to undo centuries of policies it considered aimed at crushing the Ukrainian identity.
The culture minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, thanked Zelenskiy for signing the bill, writing on Telegram:
The adoption of this draft law will protect the Ukrainian book publishing and distribution sector from the destructive influence of the ‘Russian world’.
Updated
Foreign donors have pledged €60bn (£52bn) of new financial support for Ukraine, the UK said on Thursday, as an international conference aimed at funding the war-ravaged country’s reconstruction closed.
“We had not envisaged this to be a pledging conference. Nevertheless, today at this conference, we can announce a combined €60bn in support to Ukraine,” James Cleverly, the UK’s foreign secretary, said.
The commitments from governments and international organisations target supporting Ukraine in the short and medium term, Cleverly said at the closing session of the London conference, AFP reports.
“This provides us with the medium-term predictable support that will unlock the macro-economic stability that Ukraine needs,” he said, adding that efforts were now focused on unlocking “the enormous potential of the private sector”.
Updated
The Wagner PMC group has published adverts on Russian social media seeking to recruit computer video game players to operate its drones in Ukraine, the Kyiv Post has reported.
It reportedly said the ideal candidate for the role would be aged 21 to 35, in good physical shape, and someone who was used to sitting “straight for hours playing”.
Updated
Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s ministry of defence main intelligence directorate, has been asked about the reported damage to the Chonhar Bridge (see earlier post at 09:45).
“If the stars are lit, it means it was done for a reason, right? We can only say that there will be a continuation,” Yusov said, paraphrasing the opening of a well-known work by the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, according to Reuters.
The Russian state news agency RIA-Novosti cited an unnamed representative of Russia’s investigative committee as saying that preliminary information indicates there were four missiles fired and the remains of one of them showed markings of being French-made.
Updated
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group, added fuel to his feud with the top brass on Thursday, accusing them of lying to Vladimir Putin and the Russian people about the scale of Russian losses and setbacks in Ukraine.
Prigozhin, whose private militia spearheaded the Russian capture of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last month, is resisting an order for mercenary groups like his to sign contracts with the defence ministry before 1 July, Reuters reported.
Prigozhin portrays Wagner as Russia’s most effective fighting force, and has enjoyed unusual freedom to publicly criticise Moscow – albeit not Putin, on whose support he and Wagner ultimately depend.
Yet the order to bring militias under Moscow’s direct control suggested to some that he may have outlived his usefulness to Putin in challenging a military hierarchy that has failed to deliver the rapid victory he had hoped for.
In a series of emotional audio messages over two days, Prigozhin escalated his repeated criticism of defence minister Sergei Shoigu, a close Putin ally, and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff – by accusing them of hiding Russia’s “very serious losses on the front” from Putin.
“Total trash is being put on the president’s desk. Shoigu and Gerasimov have a simple approach. The lie must be monstrous for people to believe it. That is what they are doing,” Prigozhin said in one message.
“It’s all being hidden from everyone. Russia will wake up one day and learn that (Russian-annexed) Crimea has been handed over to the Ukrainians …
“They are misleading the Russian people and if it keeps on like this we’ll be left without the most important thing: Russia.”
Updated
Ukrainian authorities have yet to confirm the use of Storm Shadow missiles in the attack on Thursday on the Chonhar Bridge, which connects Russian-held parts of the Kherson region with the Crimean peninsula.
However, when questioned about the strike, Andriy Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s defence intelligence, said:
Work is ongoing and will be continued. This is the planned work of the security forces, the defence forces, the resistance movement and the local population, which is waiting for the return of Ukrainian legal power in these territories.
I can only say: to be continued.
If confirmed, the incident is likely to spark a row in Russia, as the strike comes two days after Moscow threatened to strike Kyiv’s “decision-making centres” if western-supplied missiles were used against Crimea.
Shadow missiles have a range of “in excess of 250km”, according to its manufacturer, the European arms group MBDA, significantly further than the high-precision US Himars rocket launchers that have been used heavily by Ukraine.
Britain confirmed it had provided an undisclosed number to Ukraine last month.
Updated
Evan Gershkovich’s appeal against further pre-trial detention was rejected by a Russian court on Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal reporter was arrested in March on espionage charges and is now expected to remain in detention until at least late August.
Ukraine is carrying out the largest campaign of repairs in modern history to its power system to prepare for another winter of possible Russian air strikes, the country’s energy minister was reported to have said on Thursday.
Missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure following Russia’s full-scale invasion last year caused blackouts and water outages for millions of Ukrainians during the winter.
“The most extensive repair campaign in the history of energy facilities is currently under way in Ukraine,” energy minister German Galushchenko was quoted as saying by his ministry on Telegram.
“Power generation and distribution facilities are being restored, and work is under way to strengthen the power system’s resilience to military challenges.”
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 80% of refugees from Ukraine in Europe express their willingness to go back home, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said.
The IRC is now warning that safe and voluntary returns to Ukraine will only be made possible if displaced people are actively involved in the country’s recovery and reconstruction.
Ganna Dudinska, the IRC’s senior policy officer, said:
Discussions on the reconstruction of Ukraine have been largely centred around rebuilding the critical infrastructure.
The IRC is calling on international donors and the government of Ukraine to shift the focus, and ensure that people affected by this war are truly at the heart of the process.
This should go hand in hand with investment in extensive demining, re-establishment of social infrastructure, and job creation.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital:
Updated
The widespread destruction of homes and the occupation of Ukrainian lands has led to a sharp rise in rough sleepers, my colleague Liz Cookman reports.
The increased demand is stretching the limited resources available to what are already some of society’s most vulnerable people.
Newly homeless people struggle to cope, while the long-term homeless risk being sidelined as resources dwindle. Meanwhile, much of the humanitarian help that used to be on offer is being redirected to the war effort.
You can read her full story here:
Western defence companies are interested in making weapons in Ukraine, but not until after the war, according to half a dozen executives contacted by Reuters at the Paris airshow.
Ukraine is desperate to boost its weapons arsenal, from drones and munitions to tanks, as it battles to repel Russia’s invasion.
On Monday, a Ukrainian deputy minister told Reuters that Kyiv was in talks with defence companies in Germany, France, Italy and eastern Europe to potentially make weapons in Ukraine.
But company executives at the world’s biggest aerospace industry gathering said there was currently too much risk.
Updated
Ukraine PM says counteroffensive 'will take time'
Denys Shmygal, Ukraine’s prime minister, on Thursday warned that his country’s counteroffensive against invading Russian forces “will take time” but said he was “optimistic” about its success, AFP reports.
Speaking on the sidelines of a Ukraine reconstruction conference in London, he said:
We will do very smart, offensive operations. And because of this, it (the counter offensive) will take time.
But we have the intention to move and go ahead. We are going to go ahead... and I’m absolutely optimistic for the liberation of all our lands occupied by Russians.
Shmygal added that the counter-offensive “is a number of military operations. Sometimes it’s offensive. Sometimes it’s defensive”.
“Unfortunately, during our preparation for this counter-offensive Russians were preparing too, so there are so many minefields, which really makes it slower to move,” he said.
His comments came after Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, said in a BBC interview on Wednesday admitted that battlefield progress had been “slower than desired”.
Ukraine has announced the liberation of only eight villages as a result of its two weeks of offensive operations with heavy mining and Russian air superiority proving to be a major obstacle to progress, my colleague Daniel Boffey reported on Wednesday.
You can read his full story here:
Updated
Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles at targets in Ukraine overnight, officials say
Russia fired cruise and ballistic missiles and strike drones at targets in Ukraine in the early hours of Thursday, causing damage in the cities of Odesa and Kryvy Rih, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukrainian air defences downed three of the four drones fired in the overnight attack involving three Kinzhal hypersonic and three cruise missiles, the air force said.
“The enemy rockets did not reach their targets in the Dnipropetrovsk region … the occupiers are continuing their terror against the Ukrainian people, attacking Ukraine’s critical infrastructure facilities,” the air force said.
The drones were shot down over the Black Sea region of Odesa in south-western Ukraine, but one of them struck a warehouse, a regional administration spokesperson, Serhiy Bratchuk, said, according to Reuters.
In the Kryvy Rih area, a Russian missile strike damaged at least 10 homes, the regional administration said. These claims could not immediately be independently verified.
Updated
Moldova’s foreign ministry has tweeted (as a reply): “Moldova strongly condemns threats made by a Russian representative in the occupied part of Ukraine to attack a bridge between Moldova and Romania. This is not acceptable.” We will provide more updates on this as we get them.
⛔️ UNACCEPTABLE ⛔️
— 🇲🇩 MFA Moldova (@MoldovaMFA) June 22, 2023
The Republic of Moldova vehemently condemns threats directed at Moldova made by a Russian representative in the ocupied part of Ukraine.
Direct threats against our country are utterly unacceptable. @embrus_md will offer explanations today at @MoldovaMFA.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Moldova, a former Soviet Republic of 2.6 million people that borders Ukraine and Romania, has had to contend with large numbers of refugees, soaring inflation, power cuts, and instability in the breakaway region of Transnistria, which is controlled by Russian separatists.
Russia denied last year wanting to intervene in Moldova, after authorities in Transnistria said they had been targeted by a series of attacks.
Updated
Ukraine 99.9% certain Russia will quit Black Sea grain deal in July, diplomat says
Russia is 99.9% certain to quit a UN-brokered deal on the safe wartime passage of Black Sea grain next month because it no longer needs Ukrainian ports to export ammonia, a senior Ukrainian diplomat said.
The UN and Turkey brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Moscow and Kyiv last July to help tackle a global food crisis worsened by Russia’s invasion of its neighbour and a blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
Moscow has threatened not to extend the agreement beyond 18 July unless a series of demands, including the removal of obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports, are met.
The Black Sea export deal also allows for the safe export of ammonia – an important ingredient in nitrate fertiliser – but none has been shipped under the initiative.
Russia has been pushing for the resumption of ammonia supplies via a pipeline through Ukraine to the Black Sea port of Odesa that has lain idle since last year, Reuters reports.
Olha Trofimtseva, Ukraine’s foreign ministry ambassador at large, said Russian ammonia producer Uralchem had found an alternative route and does not need to export ammonia via Odesa.
“The grain corridor. 99.9% that Russia will leave it in July,” Trofimtseva was reported to have said on Telegram late on Wednesday.
Updated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has signed a law banning the import and distribution of books from Russia and Belarus, the Kyiv Post reports.
On Monday it was reported that Ukraine’s parliament had voted through two laws that will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music.
One law will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens, unless they renounce their Russian passport and take Ukrainian citizenship. The ban will only apply to those who held Russian citizenship after the 1991 collapse of Soviet rule.
It will also ban the commercial import of books printed in Russia, Belarus and occupied Ukrainian territory, while also requiring special permission for the import of books in Russian from any other country.
The number of victims of a gas explosion in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, has risen to three, with rescuers having pulled a woman’s body from the rubble, the Kyiv Post has cited the state emergency service as reporting (See earlier post at 06:11).
Repairing the Chonhar road bridge after a missile strike Russia has blamed on Ukraine could take up to several weeks, a Russian-installed transport ministry official in Crimea was cited as saying on Thursday (See post at 05:53).
Russian-appointed officials said earlier on Thursday that Ukrainian missiles had struck the bridge connecting Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, with Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson region, Reuters reports.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed head of the occupied parts of Kherson province, said the explosion appeared to have been caused by a type of long-range cruise missile that both France and the UK have given to Ukraine’s military, AP reports.
The claim could not be independently verified. Ukrainian authorities did not immediately comment on the bridge and typically do not confirm specific attacks.
Updated
A Russian court on Thursday rejected Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s appeal against his pre-trial detention on charges of espionage that he denies, a Reuters reporter at the court said.
Gershkovich, a US citizen, was arrested in March on espionage charges after Russia’s FSB security service accused him of collecting military secrets in the city of Ekaterinburg. Gershkovich and his employer deny the charges.
Gershkovich was appealing against his continued detention in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison ahead of his trial, for which no date has been set, Reuters reports.
Emma Tucker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor in chief, told the BBC before the hearing that she had low expectations from the appeal but it was important to go through the legal process.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier on Thursday that Moscow was considering a request from the US to visit the journalist, the Interfax news agency reported.
Gershkovich, 31, is the first American journalist to be detained in Russia on spying charges since the end of the cold war.
Updated
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.
Morning summary
The time in Kyiv is 1pm. Here is a round-up of the day’s headlines so far:
A series of photos and videos circulating on Telegram showed a huge crater on the Chonhar Bridge connecting Russian-held parts of the Kherson region with the Crimean peninsula, after an alleged attack by Ukrainian forces with Storm Shadow missiles, which Britain confirmed it had provided to Ukraine last month. Photos show the infrastructure deserted and partially damaged by the missile attack with debris littering the roads. There were no casualties reported so far.
Ukraine’s military reported “partial success” in fighting in the south-east and east, where it said its troops were continuing to conduct offensive operations. Kyiv’s forces, which began a military push against Russian forces this month, were reinforcing the positions they reached after attacking towards the south-eastern villages of Rivnopil and Staromayorske, said general staff spokesperson Andriy Kovaliov.
The daily intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence today focuses on the Russian creation of a parliamentary committee to investigate alleged crimes committed by the Ukrainian government against juveniles in the Donbas since 2014. “The Duma is almost certainly responding to the international condemnation of Russia’s deportation of children from occupied Ukraine since its full-scale invasion,” the MoD says.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukrainian intelligence agencies had received information showing Russia is considering carrying out a “terrorist” attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant involving a release of radiation. In a video statement on the Telegram messenger, he said Ukraine was sharing the intelligence with all its international partners.
A Ukrainian allegation that Russia is preparing to carry out a “terrorist” attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is “another lie”, the Kremlin said on Thursday. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence agencies had received information showing Russia is considering an attack at the plant involving a release of radiation, Reuters reported.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday said Ukrainian forces were decreasing their activity on the frontline and regrouping, but still have potential for offensive actions. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted on Wednesday as saying progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces was “slower than desired”, but Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Thursday pledged long-term security assurances to Ukraine but dashed Kyiv’s hopes for a swift accession to Nato. “We have to take a sober look at the current situation,” Scholz told German lawmakers in a speech in parliament, adding the government in Kyiv had itself acknowledged the country would not be able to join Nato as long as the war was still going on.
There have been concerns that the Storm Shadow missiles could be used to strike targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognised borders and after the UK announcement last month the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was taking a “rather negative” view of the UK’s move. “This will require an adequate response from our military, who … will make appropriate decisions,” he said.
Two people have died after an explosion and subsequent fire at a 16-storey building in the Dnipro district of the capital Kyiv, mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has said on the Telegram messaging app. Another two people were in hospital and another two were treated at the scene, he said. Experts were investigating the cause of the explosion, he said. The Kyiv Independent reported that the cause was a powerful gas explosion.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that Moscow was considering a request from the United States to visit journalist Evan Gershkovich who is being held on spying charges he denies, the Interfax news agency reported. A hearing in Gershkovich’s case is due later on Thursday.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will visit Russia on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported. Grossi is likely to hold talks about the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
The slower than expected pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not emblematic” of its “wider offensive potential”, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict, hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy conceded that it was proceeding “slower than desired”. “Ukrainian forces are likely successfully setting conditions for a future main effort despite initial setbacks,” the thinktank argued.
The EU pledged a further €50bn in loans and grants, while the UK and the US promised $3bn and $1.3bn respectively in financial support at a conference in London focusing on the reconstruction of Ukraine. The World Bank, in conjunction with the government of Ukraine, the European Commission and the UN, has put the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411bn (£323bn) after a year of war.
Delegates at the summit, from Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, to the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the Kremlin would ultimately foot the bill. “Let’s be clear: Russia is causing Ukraine’s destruction and Russia will eventually bear the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction,” Blinken said.
All Nato allies were backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year, the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said on the sidelines of the conference. Cleverly said the UK was “very, very supportive” of Ukraine being able to join without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan (Map).
Ukraine expects to be invited to join Nato with an “open date” at the military alliance’s summit in Vilnius next month, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff has told a webinar held by the Atlantic Council thinktank. Andriy Yermak said the failure of the alliance to deliver a “strong” decision at the 11-12 July summit would demoralise Ukrainians and that Ukraine had demonstrated it was ready to join Nato with its fighting on the battlefield.
The chief of mercenary group Wagner has accused the Russian defence ministry of deceiving Russians about the course of Ukraine’s offensive, pointing to Kyiv’s progress on the battlefield. “They are misleading the Russian people,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message released by his spokespeople. “Huge chunks [of territory] have been handed over to the enemy.”
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has accused opponents of waging a campaign to discredit him and force him out of office after a rift with Zelenskiy. The former boxing champion had been criticised after a public outcry over the deaths of three people locked out of an air raid shelter during a Russian attack on Kyiv this month.
Updated
The Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, on Thursday said Ukrainian forces were decreasing their activity on the frontline and regrouping, but still have potential for offensive actions.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was quoted on Wednesday as saying progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces was “slower than desired” but Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.
Updated
Ukraine says Russia considering nuclear plant attack
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian intelligence agencies had received information showing Russia is considering an attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant involving a release of radiation, Reuters reported.
A Ukrainian allegation that Russia is preparing to carry out a “terrorist” attack at the plant is “another lie”, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency had just visited the plant and rated everything highly.
Updated
Ukraine’s military reported “partial success” in fighting in the south-east and east, where it said its troops were continuing to conduct offensive operations.
Kyiv’s forces, which began a military push against Russian forces this month, were reinforcing the positions they reached after attacking towards the south-eastern villages of Rivnopil and Staromayorske, said general staff spokesperson Andriy Kovaliov.
The two villages in Donetsk region lie near a string of small settlements recaptured by Ukraine earlier this month, Reuters reported.
Kovaliov, in remarks reported by Ukraine’s military media centre, also said Kyiv’s troops were attacking towards the small settlements of Bilohorivka and Dibrova in the east.
“Particularly heavy fighting continues in the (eastern) Lyman direction in the areas north-west of Dibrova, near Serebryansk forestry and north of Hryhorivka in the Donetsk region,” he was quoted as saying.
Ukrainian troops were also resisting Russian attacks in the areas of Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka and Mariinka, he said.
Updated
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukrainian intelligence agencies had received information showing Russia is considering carrying out a “terrorist” attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant involving a release of radiation.
In a video statement on the Telegram messenger, he said Ukraine was sharing the intelligence with all its international partners.
Updated
Ukraine strikes key bridge between mainland and Crimea – Russia-appointed officials
A series of photos and videos circulating on Telegram showed a huge crater on the Chonhar Bridge connecting Russian-held parts of the Kherson region with the Crimean peninsula, after an alleged attack by Ukrainian forces with Storm Shadow missiles, which Britain confirmed it had provided to Ukraine last month.
Photos show the infrastructure deserted and partially damaged by the missile attack with debris littering the roads. There were no casualties reported so far.
Known as “the gate to Crimea”, the Chonhar Bridge is one of a handful of bridges linking Crimea – which was annexed by Russia in 2014 – with the mainland. Ukraine is determined to retake the Crimean peninsula and one of the key objectives of its recently launched counteroffensive is to isolate Russian troops there.
The news was reported early on Thursday by Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed Kherson governor, who said the traffic had been diverted to a different route. All the traffic from Russia has to now go through Armiansk or the Kerch Bridge, which Kyiv blew up last year.
The Kerch Bridge is a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsula, one of Vladimir Putin’s prestige projects and a vital logistical link for the Russian military.
The use of Shadow missiles, which have a range of “in excess of 250km”, according to its manufacturer, the European arms group MBDA, is likely to spark a row in Russia.
Last month, Britain became the first western country to provide Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles, with the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, saying Russia was taking a “rather negative” view of the UK’s move.
“This will require an adequate response from our military, who … will make appropriate decisions,” he said back in May.
Just this week, Russia threatened to strike Kyiv’s “decision-making centres” if western-supplied missiles were used against Crimea.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said on Tuesday that the potential use of Himars and Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Crimea would mark the west’s “full involvement in the conflict and would entail immediate strikes upon decision-making centres in Ukrainian territory”.
Updated
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, on Thursday pledged long-term security assurances to Ukraine but dashed Kyiv’s hopes for a swift accession to Nato.
“We have to take a sober look at the current situation,” Scholz told German lawmakers in a speech in parliament, adding the government in Kyiv had itself acknowledged the country would not be able to join Nato as long as the war was still going on.
“Therefore, I suggest we focus on the top priority (at the Nato summit) in Vilnius (in mid-July), namely strengthening the combat power of Ukraine,” Scholz said.
Berlin and its partners in the G7 and the European Union were working on long-term security assurances to Kyiv, he said.
“Our goal is … a sustainable military support of Ukraine, including with modern western weapons, and the strengthening of Ukraine’s economic resilience as it defends itself against the Russian aggression,” he said.
Updated
Damage caused by Russian shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that Moscow was considering a request from the United States to visit journalist Evan Gershkovich who is being held on spying charges he denies, the Interfax news agency reported.
A hearing in Gershkovich’s case is due later on Thursday.
Gershkovich, a US citizen, was arrested in March on espionage charges after Russia’s FSB security service accused him of collecting military secrets in the city of Ekaterinburg.
Gershkovich and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, strongly deny the charges.
He was initially remanded in custody until 29 May, but a court last month extended his detention until 30 August.
The US says he has been wrongfully detained and has called for his immediate release. The US House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday for a resolution calling on Russia to release him, Reuters reported.
Updated
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will visit Russia on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported.
Grossi is likely to hold talks about the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
The daily intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence today focuses on the Russian creation of a parliamentary committee to investigate alleged crimes committed by the Ukrainian government against juveniles in the Donbas since 2014.
“The Duma is almost certainly responding to the international condemnation of Russia’s deportation of children from occupied Ukraine since its full-scale invasion,” the MoD says.
“The move is highly likely both a form of ‘lawfare’ and contributes to Russian information operations, weaponising legislation by attempting to muddy the narrative around its own egregious actions.
“Messaging around children’s rights is likely an important communications theme for the Kremlin because alleged child deportations formed the basis of the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant against President Putin issued in March 2023.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine - 22 June 2023.
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 22, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/y1fx7IpGF6
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/NzSOWUw8BM
There have been concerns that the Storm Shadow missiles could be used to strike targets deep inside Russia’s internationally recognised borders and after the UK announcement last month the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Russia was taking a “rather negative” view of the UK’s move.
“This will require an adequate response from our military, who … will make appropriate decisions,” he said.
Just this week, Russia threatened to strike Kyiv’s “decision-making centres” if western-supplied missiles were used against Crimea.
Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, said on Tuesday that the potential use of Himars and Storm Shadow missiles against targets in Crimea would mark the west’s “full involvement in the conflict and would entail immediate strikes upon decision-making centres in Ukrainian territory”.
Those are seen to include the Ukrainian presidential administration and intelligence headquarters.
Updated
Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed governor of occupied Kherson, suggested the bridge was targeted by Storm Shadow missiles. These are long-range cruise missiles which Britain confirmed it had provided to Ukraine last month.
They have a range of “in excess of 250km”, according to its manufacturer, the European arms group MBDA, significantly further than the high-precision US Himars rocket launchers which have been used heavily by Ukraine.
The shorter-range missiles have become less effective as Russia moves its troop and supply reserves further from the frontlines and the Storm Shadow missiles should allow Ukraine to strike at targets previously out of reach.
Updated
We’ll bring you more information about the bridge attack in Kherson/Crimea as soon as we have it, but in the meantime some background.
Ukraine is determined to retake the Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in 2014. One of the key objectives of its recently launched counteroffensive is to cut off Russia’s so-called land bridge to Crimea and isolate Russian troops there.
Last year Ukraine blew up the Kerch bridge, which links Crimea directly to mainland Russia.
Reports suggest the bridge struck this time was the Chonhar bridge, which crosses the strait between Crimea and occupied Kherson.
Two people have died after an explosion and subsequent fire at a 16-storey building in the Dnipro district of the capital Kyiv, mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has said on the Telegram messaging app.
Another two people were in hospital and another two were treated at the scene, he said. Experts were investigating the cause of the explosion, he said. The Kyiv Independent reported that the cause was a powerful gas explosion.
The ISW analysis adds that “the observation that current Ukrainian operations may have objectives that are not simply territorial is an important one”.
Ukrainian forces may be conducting several offensive operations across the entire theater in order to gradually attrit Russian forces and set conditions for a future main effort.
Losses are inevitable on both sides, but careful operational planning on the Ukrainian side likely seeks to mitigate and balance this reality with the equally important observation that the degradation of Russian manpower is a valuable objective.
Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin voiced his concern that Russian forces are suffering major manpower and equipment losses as a result of ongoing Ukrainian attacks, especially in southern Ukraine.
The success of Ukrainian counteroffensives should not be judged solely on day-to-day changes in control of terrain, as the wider operational intentions of Ukrainian attacks along the entire frontline may be premised on gradually degrading, exhausting, and expending Russian capabilities in preparation for additional offensive pushes.
Ukrainian forces strike bridge linking Kherson to Crimea
Ukrainian forces have carried out a missile strike on a bridge connecting Ukraine’s Kherson region and Crimea, Russia-appointed officials in both regions have said according to Reuters.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed Kherson governor, said the bridge was likely to have been attacked by Storm Shadow missiles that damaged the road, but traffic has been diverted to a different route. No casualties have been reported.
Slow pace of counteroffensive 'not emblematic' of wider potential, ISW says
The slower than expected pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not emblematic” of its “wider offensive potential”, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest analysis of the conflict, hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy conceded that it was proceeding “slower than desired”.
“Ukrainian forces are likely successfully setting conditions for a future main effort despite initial setbacks,” the think tank argued. It said:
Ukrainian officials have long signaled that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would be a series of gradual and sequential offensive actions and have more recently offered the observation that currently ongoing operations do not represent the main thrust of Ukraine’s counteroffensive planning
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar emphasized on June 20 that it is not useful to gauge the success of military actions based “solely by kilometers or the number of liberated settlements.”
In an interview with the BBC, Zelenskiy said he would not rush the offensive to meet western expectations. “Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not. What’s at stake is people’s lives.”
He said the counteroffensive was not easy because 200,000 sq km of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
“Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best,” he said.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
The slower than expected pace of Ukraine’s counteroffensive is “not emblematic” of its wider offensive potential, the Institute for the Study of War has said in its latest assessment of the conflict, hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that it was proceeding “slower than desired”.
“Ukrainian forces are likely successfully setting conditions for a future main effort despite initial setbacks,” the prominent US thinktank argued.
“Ukrainian officials have long signaled that the Ukrainian counteroffensive would be a series of gradual and sequential offensive actions and have more recently offered the observation that currently ongoing operations do not represent the main thrust of Ukraine’s counteroffensive planning.”
Zelenskiy had told the BBC that Ukraine did not wish to risk soldiers’ lives to meet international expectations. “Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not,” he said.
In other developments:
The EU pledged a further €50bn in loans and grants, while the UK and the US promised $3bn and $1.3bn respectively in financial support at a conference in London focusing on the reconstruction of Ukraine. The World Bank, in conjunction with the government of Ukraine, the European Commission and the UN, has put the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411bn (£323bn) after a year of war.
Delegates at the summit, from Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, to the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, and the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the Kremlin would ultimately foot the bill. “Let’s be clear: Russia is causing Ukraine’s destruction and Russia will eventually bear the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction,” Blinken said.
All Nato allies were backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year, the UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, said on the sidelines of the conference. Cleverly said the UK was “very, very supportive” of Ukraine being able to join without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan (Map).
Ukraine expects to be invited to join Nato with an “open date” at the military alliance’s summit in Vilnius next month, the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff has told a webinar held by the Atlantic Council thinktank. Andriy Yermak said the failure of the alliance to deliver a “strong” decision at the 11-12 July summit would demoralise Ukrainians and that Ukraine had demonstrated it was ready to join Nato with its fighting on the battlefield.
The chief of mercenary group Wagner has accused the Russian defence ministry of deceiving Russians about the course of Ukraine’s offensive, pointing to Kyiv’s progress on the battlefield. “They are misleading the Russian people,” Yevgeny Prigozhin said in an audio message released by his spokespeople. “Huge chunks [of territory] have been handed over to the enemy.”
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has accused opponents of waging a campaign to discredit him and force him out of office after a rift with Zelenskiy. The former boxing champion had been criticised after a public outcry over the deaths of three people locked out of an air raid shelter during a Russian attack on Kyiv this month.
Russia’s constitutional court has rejected an attempt by rights groups to seek the repeal of a law that bans people from speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Campaigners including legal defence group OVD-Info and the banned human rights organisation Memorial had filed the case in April, saying it violated articles of Russia’s constitution including on free speech and freedom of conscience.
EU governments agreed to an 11th package of sanctions against Russia, aimed at stopping other countries and companies from circumventing existing measures. The new package forbids transit via Russia of an expanded list of goods and technology which might aid Russia’s military or security sector.
Putin announced that new Sarmat nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles would soon enter service. The missiles are designed to carry out nuclear strikes on targets thousands of miles away and can be launched from land, sea or air but their deployment has proceeded slower than planned.
Russia’s top investigator, Alexander Bastrykin, told state-owned Tass news that more than 30 Ukrainians had been given long jail terms in Russian-held Ukraine for “crimes against peace and human security, including the killing of civilians”.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
