Summary
Thank you for joining us for today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
It is currently 3am in the capital Kyiv. We will be pausing our live reporting overnight and returning in the morning.
In the meantime, you can read our comprehensive summary of the days’ events in our summary below.
- Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he expects Russia will intensify attacks on Ukraine and possibly other European countries after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” he said in a nightly video address. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”
- Ukraine’s forces remain on the defensive in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting continues in Sievierodonestsk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russia was massing forces in an attempt to take full control of the city after weeks of fighting but maintained that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie”. “They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town,” he told Ukrainian television.
- European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. It is hoped a deal can be struck to resume Ukraine’s sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertiliser exports but remains unclear if the EU would get involved in militarily securing such a deal. “Whether there will be a need in the future for escorting these commercial ships, that’s a question mark and I don’t think we are there yet,” an EU official said.
- The war in Ukraine could last for years and will require long-term military support, according to Nato and other western leaders. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild on Sunday. British prime minister, Boris Johnson, added: “I am afraid that we need to steel ourselves for a long war.”
- Ukraine’s parliament voted through two laws on Sunday which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music. Proposed laws will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens, banning the commercial import of books printed in Russia and prohibiting the playing of music by post-1991 Russian citizens on media and on public transport in the latest attempt to break cultural ties between the two countries.
- The New York Times identified over 2,000 munitions used by Russian forces in Ukraine, “a vast majority of which were unguided.” According to the newspaper, over 210 weapons that were identified were types that have been widely banned under a variety of international treaties.
- Austria’s government announced that it will reopen a mothballed coal power station because of power shortages arising from reduced deliveries of gas from Russia. The authorities would work with the Verbund group, the country’s main electricity supplier, to get the station in the southern city of Mellach back in action, the chancellery said on Sunday.
-
Morocco’s national human rights body has urged Russian authorities to guarantee a “fair trial” for a young national appealing a death sentence imposed by a pro-Russian court in Ukraine. Amina Bouayach, president of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), has contacted the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation and urged the Russian body to take “the necessary steps to ensure Brahim Saadoun receives a fair trial during his appeal.”
Successful Ukrainian counterattacks in the Zaporizhia area are forcing Russian forces to rush reinforcements to this weakened sector of the front line, the institute for the study of war has said in its latest update.
Russian forces focused on maintaining their occupied frontiers north of the city of Kharkiv and fired at Ukrainian positions in the Kharkiv region on Sunday, the report added.
According to the policy research organisation, Russian forces are also likely seek to levy their attempts to interdict the T1302 Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway to support offensive operations in Lysychansk.
Southern Axis Update:
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) June 19, 2022
Successful #Ukrainian counterattacks in the #Zaporizhia area are forcing #Russian forces to rush reinforcements to this weakened sector of the front line.https://t.co/g76fQLkk4k pic.twitter.com/4IhCz0mZJt
Updated
Ukraine to restrict Russian books and music, cutting cultural ties
Ukraine’s parliament has voted through two laws which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music in an attempt to break cultural ties between the two countries.
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, Reuters reports.
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.
Another law will prohibit the playing of music by post-1991 Russian citizens on media and on public transport, while also increasing quotas on Ukrainian-language speech and music content in TV and radio broadcasts.
The laws need to be signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to take effect, and there is no indication that he opposes either. Both received broad support from across the chamber, including from lawmakers who had traditionally been viewed as pro-Kremlin by most of Ukraine’s media and civil society.
Ukraine’s Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said he was “glad to welcome” the new restrictions.
The laws are designed to help Ukrainian authors share quality content with the widest possible audience, which after the Russian invasion do not accept any Russian creative product on a physical level,” the Ukrainian cabinet’s website quoted him as saying.
We continue to open cultural events during the war. An exhibition in Kyiv and international festival "Melpomene of Tavria" online, which should take place in Kherson...
— Tkachenko Oleksandr (@otkachenkoua) June 10, 2022
russians wants to destroy us because of our culture. But they will never be able to defeat us pic.twitter.com/FiYoCdbgDb
The new rules are the latest chapter in Ukraine’s long path to shedding the legacy of hundreds of years of rule by Moscow.
Ukraine says this process, previously referred to as “decommunisation” but now more often called “derussification,” is necessary to undo centuries of policies aimed at crushing Ukrainian identity.
Updated
EU foreign minister to discuss how to free grain stuck in Ukraine
European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to Russia’s Black Sea port blockade at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.
Ukraine is one of the top wheat suppliers globally, but its grain shipments have stalled and more than 20m tonnes have been trapped in silos since Russia’s invaded the country and blocked its ports.
The EU supports efforts by the United Nations to broker a deal to resume Ukraine’s sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertiliser exports, but that would need Moscow’s green light.
Turkey has good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, and has said it is ready to take up a role within an “observation mechanism” based in Istanbul if there is a deal.
It is unclear if the EU would get involved in militarily securing such a deal.
Whether there will be a need in the future for escorting these commercial ships, that’s a question mark and I don’t think we are there yet,” an EU official said.
Meanwhile, talks among EU member states on a new package of sanctions against Russia are continuing, according to the EU official who signalled that fresh measures are not imminent.
The existing sanctions are already extensive and there is not much scope for agreement to impose sanctions on Russia’s gas exports to the EU, the official said.
Ukraine has just thanked Australia for sending four armoured vehicles to the war-torn country.
Ukraine will not forget this. Another batch of Australian armoured vehicles are on their way to Ukraine.
These are four of the 14 M113 armoured personnel carriers promised by the Australian government. A half-world-long aviation aid bridge unites our people in these difficult times for Ukraine.”
🇺🇦 will not forget this. Another batch of 🇦🇺 armored vehicles are on their way to 🇺🇦. These are 4 of the 14 M113 armored personnel carriers promised by the 🇦🇺 government. A half-world-long aviation aid bridge unites our people in these difficult times for 🇺🇦@DefenceAust pic.twitter.com/BerMxA2mun
— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 19, 2022
Summary
It’s 1am in Kyiv. Here’s where things stand:
- Austria’s government announced Sunday that it would reopen a mothballed coal power station because of power shortages arising from reduced deliveries of gas from Russia. The authorities would work with the Verbund group, the country’s main electricity supplier, to get the station in the southern city of Mellach back in action, said the chancellery.
- Russia has deported over 300,000 Ukrainian children since its invasion of Ukraine in February, the Kyiv Independent reports. In total, 1.9 million Ukrainians have been deported to Russia since the invasion, according to the report.
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Sunday that he expects Russia to intensify attacks on Ukraine after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities, as an example,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
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The New York Times has identified over 2,000 munitions used by Russian forces in Ukraine, “a vast majority of which were unguided.” According to the outlet, over 210 weapons that were identified were types that have been widely banned under a variety of international treaties.
- Russia is preparing for an offensive towards the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk, the Kyiv Independent reports. Additionally, according to the general staff of the Ukraine armed forces, Ukrainian troops are repelling a Russian offensive near Berestove, a town approximately 70km from Sloviansk.
- Ukraine’s parliament adopted new laws on Sunday, including a ban on publications imported from Russia and Belarus. Other news laws adopted included prohibition of public performance of music “of the Russian region” and the exemption of military personnel “involved in hostilities” from the country’s special war tax.
- Morocco’s national human rights body has urged Russian authorities to guarantee a “fair trial” for a young national appealing a death sentence imposed by a pro-Russian court in Ukraine. Amina Bouayach, president of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), has contacted the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation and urged the Russian body to take “the necessary steps to ensure Brahim Saadoun receives a fair trial during his appeal.”
• This post was amended on 20 June 2022. The Kyiv Independent reported that 1.9 million Ukrainians have been deported to Russia since the invasion, not from Russia as an earlier version said.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as I hand over the blog to my colleague in Australia, Samantha Lock, who will bring you the latest updates on Ukraine. Thank you.
Updated
Austria’s government announced Sunday that it would reopen a mothballed coal power station because of power shortages arising from reduced deliveries of gas from Russia.
Agence France-Presse reports:
The authorities would work with the Verbund group, the country’s main electricity supplier, to get the station in the southern city of Mellach back in action, said the chancellery.
The statement followed a crisis meeting of the government. The aim is to be able to once again produce electricity from coal, should that be required in an emergency. But the process would likely take several months, the environment ministry told Austria’s APA news agency.
Mellach power station, which was the country’s last coal-fuelled power station, closed in the spring of 2020 as the government phased out polluting energy in a bid to move to 100 percent renewables.
“Our first objective is to secure the country’s supply,” said Austria’s conservative chancellor, Karl Nehammer, who governs with the Greens.
But 80% of the country’s gas supplies come from Russia, he explained.
This is about replacing the missing Russian gas with other sources or suppliers so as to be able to continue to build up reserve.
Moscow has lost several European gas clients after it demanded that all “unfriendly” countries pay for Russian natural gas in rubles in response to a barrage of western sanctions over Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
Gazprom has said exports to countries that did not belong to the former Soviet Union were down 28.9% between January 1 and June 15 compared with the same period last year.
Updated
Russia has deported over 300,000 Ukrainian children since its invasion of Ukraine in February, the Kyiv Independent reports.
⚡️Russia forcibly deports 300,000 Ukrainian children.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 19, 2022
Russian state-controlled news agency Interfax reported, citing the Russian military, that more than 1.9 million Ukrainians have been forcibly deported to Russia since the start of the invasion, over 307,000 of them children.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced on Sunday that he expects Russia to intensify attacks on Ukraine after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership.
Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities, as an example,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready.”
Updated
The New York Times has identified over 2,000 munitions used by Russian forces in Ukraine, “a vast majority of which were unguided”.
According to the outlet, over 210 weapons that were identified were types that have been widely banned under a variety of international treaties.
“All but a handful were cluster munitions, including their submunitions, which can pose a grave risk to civilians for decades after war has ended,” the New York Times said, adding: “More than 330 other weapons appeared to have been used on or near civilian structures.”
The New York Times has identified more than 2,000 munitions used by #Russia in #Ukraine since the beginning of the war and concluded that most of them were unguided.
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) June 19, 2022
At the same time, according to journalists, 210 identified ammunition is prohibited by international treaties. pic.twitter.com/L1FGvMJ1ZW
Updated
Russia is preparing for an offensive towards the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Additionally, according to the general staff of the Ukraine armed forces, Ukrainian troops are repelling a Russian offensive near Berestove, a town approximately 70km from Sloviansk.
⚡️General Staff: Ukrainian troops repel Russian offensive near Berestove, Donetsk Oblast.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 19, 2022
Russia is preparing for an offensive towards the city of Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine’s General Staff said on June 19.
Updated
Ukraine’s parliament adopted new laws on Sunday, including a ban on publications imported from Russia and Belarus.
Other news laws adopted included prohibition of public performance of music “of the Russian region” and the exemption of military personnel “involved in hostilities” from the country’s special war tax.
We are working 💪
— Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - Ukrainian Parliament (@ua_parliament) June 19, 2022
New Laws adopted today by the Verkhovna Rada of #Ukraine.#StopRussia #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/LzGtSLmIkZ
Morocco’s national human rights body has urged Russian authorities to guarantee a “fair trial” for a young national appealing a death sentence imposed by a pro-Russian court in Ukraine.
Agence France-Presse reports:
Brahim Saadoun, a Moroccan citizen born in 2000, was sentenced to death on June 9 along with two British men by a court in Donetsk, a self-proclaimed statelet in eastern Ukraine.
The trio have been accused of acting as mercenaries for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
Amina Bouayach, president of the National Council of Human Rights (CNDH), has contacted the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, a source from the Moroccan rights council told AFP on Sunday.
She has urged the Russian body to take “the necessary steps to ensure Brahim Saadoun receives a fair trial during his appeal,” the source said.
Taher Saadoun, father of the accused, has said his son, who obtained Ukrainian citizenship in 2020, “is not a mercenary”, calling him instead a “victim of manipulation”.
But Dmytro Khrabstov, 20, a friend of Saadoun, has said the Moroccan joined the Ukrainian military last year, telling friends he wanted to “die as a hero”.
The Moroccan government had not responded until last Monday, saying through its embassy in Ukraine that Saadoun “was captured while wearing the uniform of the army of the state of Ukraine, as a member of the Ukrainian marine unit”.
It said he was “currently imprisoned by an entity that is recognised by neither the United Nations nor Morocco”, without commenting further.
Morocco has taken a position of neutrality at the United Nations on the war in Ukraine.
The move reflects Rabat’s desire to avoid alienating Russia, a member of the UN Security Council, on the question of the disputed Western Sahara, a key Moroccan diplomatic priority.
Morocco controls 80 percent of the disputed former Spanish colony and insists the territory must remain under its sovereignty, while the Algeria-backed Polisario Front movement seeks independence.
UK ministers will change visa rules and now allow unaccompanied Ukrainian minors to enter the UK, The Times reports.
The new rule change will allow hundreds of stranded children and teenage refugees to enter the UK.
The change comes to an existing rule that currently prohibits individuals under 18 years old who are without a parent or guardian from entering the UK.
Excl: Ministers will finally change visa rules to allow unaccompanied Ukrainian children and teenagers come to the UK.
— Matt Dathan (@matt_dathan) June 19, 2022
The current rules bar under-18s who aren't with a parent or guardian from coming to the UK, leaving hundreds stranded and in danger of Russian aggression: pic.twitter.com/bUQjO1Ll5q
Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based thinktank, wrote in a note that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize the industrial city of Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area”.
Gaining full control of the Luhansk region – one of the two provinces making up the Donbas – is now a top target for Russian forces, as part of a larger focus on trying to take complete control of the Donbas.
In Sievierodonetsk’s twin city of Lysychansk, residential buildings and private houses had been destroyed, Gaidai said. “People are dying on the streets and in bomb shelters,” he said, adding that 19 people had been evacuated on Sunday.
The mayor of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, Ihor Terekhov, said he would cancel a planned trip to Madrid to discuss the city’s reconstruction with Norman Foster and other architects due to the uncertainty caused by increased bombardment, Reuters reports.
In southern Ukraine, western weaponry had helped Ukrainian forces advance 10km (6 miles) towards Russian-occupied Melitopol, its mayor said in a video posted on Telegram from outside the city.
Updated
Ukraine has hailed the release of a celebrated medic whose footage was smuggled out of the besieged city of Mariupol in a tampon by a team of journalists in mid-March.
“I always believed that everything would be exactly this, and everyone who is now on the other side, they know everything will work out,” Yuliia Paievska said in a video address on Saturday in which she thanked the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for her release.
My colleague Pjotr Sauer has more.
Updated
The Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank president, Loretta Mester, has said it will take two years for inflation to come down to the central bank’s 2% target.
“It isn’t going to be immediate that we see 2% inflation. It will take a couple of years but it will be moving down,” Mester said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday.
Voices from across the political spectrum bemoaning high inflation and debating its causes in recent weeks have underlined that many fear sanctions against Russia, as well as other support measures for Ukraine, are among the developments that are primarily to blame for the economic turmoil, which suggests that the support from the public the Ukrainian resistance campaign has enjoyed so far across the west could fizzle out.
On social media, many have taken to blaming Joe Biden personally for the high levels of inflation over the past few days, citing unprecedented pandemic stimulus measures he introduced as main causes for the current crisis alongside western sanctions.
President Biden appeared to respond to these critics on Friday, tweeting that the global energy crisis was fuelled by Russia and describing this as the driver of inflation worldwide.
The Major Economies Forum met today at a moment when urgent energy issues demand our action.
— President Biden (@POTUS) June 17, 2022
Russia's brutal assault on Ukraine has fueled a global energy crisis, driving up inflation worldwide.
We must work together to tackle inflation and mitigate the fallout of this crisis.
Updated
Here is an interesting thread from NPR’s Tim Mak on the phenomenon of “Ukraine fatigue”:
When I was back in the states for a short while, I attended the NRA convention in Houston.
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) June 19, 2022
I noticed something: to my ear, Trump's line about how money shouldn't go to Ukraine was the most loudly applauded line of the nighthttps://t.co/udUFovtxNy
While a substantial majority of Americans continue to support financial and military aid to Ukraine, about a third are opposed. https://t.co/348e2ihbZ0 pic.twitter.com/OhWB2pzsBt
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) June 19, 2022
There is evidence that the West's attention is slipping away from this conflict:
— Tim Mak (@timkmak) June 19, 2022
Social media data shows that people are less and less interested in stories about this warhttps://t.co/k77jQHJgFZ pic.twitter.com/27KatlBb9S
Italian foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Sunday accused his own Five Star Movement party of undermining government efforts to support Ukraine and Rome’s international reputation.
Reuters reports:
His outburst could signal an imminent schism in the group he once led, with Five Star officials due to meet later on Sunday to consider Di Maio’s position following other recent broadsides.
The internal party feuding also creates problems for prime minister Mario Draghi as he faces an important vote in parliament on Tuesday over Ukraine, with some Five Star members looking to limit Italy from sending further weapons to Kyiv.
Italy, like many EU countries, has been dispatching arms to Ukraine to help it battle the Russian assault.
In a statement, Di Maio said the government had to defend the values of democracy and freedom, adding that while everyone wanted peace, Russian president Vladimir Putin was pursuing war.Against this backdrop, he said Five Star leaders were attacking him with “hatred” and causing trouble for the government with its European partners. “[This is] an immature attitude that tends to create tensions and instability within the government,” he added.
There was no immediate comment from Five Star leader, former prime minister Giuseppe Conte. Earlier on Sunday, one of Conte’s loyalists, Riccardo Ricciardi, said Di Maio had turned on his political family and should face the consequences.
Five Star is the largest political force in parliament after winning 33% of the vote in 2018 national elections. Its fortunes have however suffered since then as it lost its anti-establishment identity once in government.
Latest opinion polls put it on around 13% and it won barely 3% of the vote in local elections last weekend.
Di Maio blamed the rout on Conte, while the latter said Five Star was paying a price for being in Draghi’s broad coalition.
Party officials said he was lashing out because the Five Star leadership had said it would enforce an old rule that its members cannot stand for re-election after two consecutive terms in parliament - a measure that would stop Di Maio from being a candidate next time around.
If Di Maio leaves the party, a band of supporters might follow him and create a breakaway party inside parliament, bringing fresh turbulence to Draghi’s administration.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and taking back over now for the next few hours.
Updated
AFP has this map showing the latest positions of military forces:
Map of Ukraine showing position of military forces in Ukraine as of June 19, 0700 GMT #AFPgrapics @AFP pic.twitter.com/abWGVHZkie
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) June 19, 2022
A couple in Kharkiv oblast prepare food for people who have been living in a shelter near the frontline for three months as Russian attacks on Ukraine continue:
Updated
Italian company Eni has joined Qatar Energy’s $28.75bn (£23.5bn) project to expand production – just days after Russia reduced gas supplies to Italy.
Eni will have a stake of just over 3% in the North Field East project, Qatar Energy’s CEO said at the signing ceremony in Doha, Reuters reports.
Russia supplies 40% of the European Union’s natural gas, but the EU has pledged to cut gas imports from Russia by two-thirds within a year.
Qatar Energy estimates that the North Field East project contains about 10% of the world’s known gas reserves.
Updated
The UK military must be prepared to “fight in Europe once again”, the new head of the British army has said.
Boris Johnson has ruled out sending British troops in aid of Ukraine, but warned this weekend that the country would have to show support for “the long haul”.
Patrick Sanders, who took command of the British army this month, is quoted in the i newspaper to have told troops:
We are the generation that must prepare the army to fight in Europe once again. There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting alongside our allies and defeating Russia in battle.
I am the first Chief of the General Staff since 1941 to take command of the Army in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a continental power.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine underlines our core purpose – to protect the UK by being ready to fight and win wars on land.”
Hello, I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’m covering the blog for the next hour while Jedidajah has a break.
Updated
The UN’s World Food Programme has warned on Sunday that food rations for refugees in east and west Africa have had to be reduced due to a surge in demand and insufficient funding.
Three-quarters of refugees in east Africa supported by the United Nations’ programme have seen their rations reduced by up to 50%, WFP said, with those in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda the worst affected.
“We are being forced to make the heartbreaking decision to cut food rations for refugees who rely on us for their survival,” said WFP executive director David Beasley.
Available resources could not keep up with the soaring demand for food around the globe, he said.
In west Africa - specifically Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger - WFP had “significantly” reduced rations.
It warned of imminent disruptions in Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
On Tuesday, the WFP appealed for $426m to stave off famine in South Sudan, where years of conflict and floods have forced millions of people from their homes.
It said more than two-thirds of the population required humanitarian assistance, with 8.3 million people, including refugees, expected to face “severe acute hunger” this year.
The war in Ukraine has significantly worsened the global refugee crisis and the risk of famine, as it created six million additional refugees fleeing conflict zones, and has driven up commodity prices, especially the cost of grain.
On Saturday, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell accused Russia of choosing to “weaponise” grain exports by blocking grain from Ukraine destined for poor countries, AFP reports.
Updated
Germany will adopt emergency measures to ensure its energy needs are met after the drop in supply of Russian gas, including increased use of coal, the government said Sunday.
“To reduce gas consumption, less gas must be used to generate electricity. Coal-fired power plants will have to be used more instead,” the economy ministry said in a statement.
Robert Habeck, the minister for economic affairs and climate action, said bringing back coal-fired power plants was “painful, but it is a sheer necessity”.
In addition, an auction model for the sale of gas to manufacturers is to be launched in the summer, intended to encourage industrial gas consumers to save gas - which is then to be stored, the dpa reports.
Coal-fired power plants that are currently only operating to a limited extent, will soon be shut down or are in reserve are to be used to supply energy.
The move follows a warning by Russian energy giant Gazprom last week that it would sharply cut deliveries to Europe.
The decision by Berlin marks a turnaround by the ruling coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and the liberal FDP, which has vowed to wind down its coal usage by 2030.
So far, Germany has managed to reduce the share of its natural gas supplied by Russia from 55 percent before the invasion to 35 percent - thanks to increased deliveries from countries like Norway and the Netherlands, and through liquefied natural gas contracts (LNG).
Updated
Russia said on Sunday its offensive against Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine was proceeding successfully after it took control of a district in the outskirts of the city.
“The offensive in the Sievierodonetsk direction is developing successfully,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video statement. He said the settlement of Metyolkine, on the eastern outskirts of the city, had been taken.
“The armed forces of the Russian Federation continue to strike military targets on the territory of Ukraine,” he said.
Konashenkov said long-range Kalibr cruise missiles struck a command centre in the Dnipropetrovsk region, killing Ukrainian generals and officers, including from the general staff.
Updated
Kyiv has been attacked from the air again, with the sound of air raid alarms and explosions ringing through the Ukrainian capital.
“Explosions were heard in Vyshhorod district this morning. Air defence fired at enemy targets,” the military governor of the Kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, said on his Telegram channel on Sunday.
He said the shelling had not caused damage or injuries in the city, but asked Kyiv residents to continue taking refuge in shelters.
Russia’s defence ministry said it had hit a tank repair plant in Kharkiv with its Iskander missiles, and destroyed ten howitzers as well as up to 20 military vehicles in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv that had been supplied by Western countries over the past 10 days, Reuters reports.
Updated
This from Francis Scarr from BBC Monitoring:
Russian schools have begun to put up plaques in memory of former pupils killed in the "special military operation"
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) June 19, 2022
These three are all in Belgorod Region, which borders Ukraine pic.twitter.com/gTCzUTYiUq
The Japanese low-cost airline Zipair Tokyo Inc had said it will ditch its logo featuring the letter Z, a pro-war symbol often seen on Russian military vehicles, to avoid misunderstanding.
The president of the subsidiary of Japan Airlines Co. told a press conference at Narita airport near Tokyo that some people might see the current logo as indicating the company approves of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Mainichi newspaper reported.
“I think some people might feel that way when they see it without any explanation,” Shingo Nishida said.
The new logo will be a geometric pattern in green, black and white, the company said.
Updated
War in Ukraine could last for years, Nato chief says
The head of Nato has warned that the war in Ukraine could go on “for years” as president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed Sunday that his forces would not give up the south of the country to Russia after his first visit to the frontline there.
While Ukraine remained defiant, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned Western countries must be ready to offer long-term support to Kyiv.
“We must be prepared for this to last for years,” Stoltenberg told German daily newspaper Bild.
“We must not weaken in our support of Ukraine, even if the costs are high - not only in terms of military support but also because of rising energy and food prices.”
Stoltenberg added that he believes a supply of modern weapons would increase Kyiv’s chances to weaken the Russian grip on the Donbas region.
“Although the fight in the Donbas is being waged ever more brutally by Russia, Ukrainian soldiers are putting up a brave resistance. With more modern weapons, the likelihood increases that Ukraine will be able to drive Putin’s troops out of the Donbas again as well,” he said.
His comments echo remarks by British prime minister Boris Johnson, who has urged other Western leaders to provide sustained support for Kyiv or risk “the greatest victory for aggression” since the second world war.
“Time is now the vital factor,” Johnson wrote in an article for the Sunday Times after returning from his second visit to Kyiv, calling for the West to ensure Ukraine has the “strategic endurance to survive and eventually prevail”.
Updated
Tensions between Russia and the west are aggravating talks about the future of one of the United Nations’ biggest and most perilous peacekeeping operations aimed at helping Mali resist a decade-long Islamic extremist insurgency.
The UN’s mission, known as Minusma, in the West African nation, where extremist attacks are intensifying, is up for renewal this month, while France and the European Union are ending their own military operations in Mali.
Three UN peacekeepers have been killed this month, and Mali’s economy is choking on sanctions imposed by neighbouring countries after its military rulers postponed a promised election.
UN Security Council members widely agree the peacekeeping mission, which began in 2013, needs to continue, but a council debate this week was laced with friction over France’s future role in Mali and the presence of Russian military contractors, the Associated Press reports.
“The situation has become very complex for negotiations,” said Rama Yade, senior director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based thinktank.
“The international context has a role, and Mali is part of the Russian game on the international stage,” she said.
Minusma now counts roughly 12,000 troops, plus about 2,000 police and other officers. More than 270 peacekeepers have died since the mission began.
France is leading negotiations on extending the mission’s mandate and is proposing to continue providing French aerial support, which Mali strongly objects to.
Mali asked France, its former colonial ruler, for military help in 2013. The French military was credited with helping to push insurgents out of Timbuktu and other northern centres, but they regrouped elsewhere and began attacking the Malian army and its allies.
Patience with the French military presence is waning amid a rising number of extremist attacks, and ties between Mali and Russia have tightened in recent years, in part due to both countries’ animosity towards the West.
There have been a series of anti-French demonstrations in the capital, which some observers suggest have been promoted by the government and a Russian mercenary company, the Wagner Group.
The Kremlin denies any connection to the company, but Western analysts say it’s a tool of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s campaign to gain influence in Africa.
The Wagner Group has committed serious human rights and international humanitarian law violations, according to allegations by the EU and human rights organisations.
In Mali, Human Rights Watch has accused Russian fighters and Mali’s army of killing hundreds of mostly civilian men in the town of Moura, while Mali said those killed were “terrorists.”
The UN peacekeeping force and the Malian government is investigating.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in a TV interview in May that the Wagner Group was in Mali “on a commercial basis,” and Russian deputy UN ambassador Anna Evstigneeva told the security council that African countries have every right to engage soldiers-for-hire.
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Ukrainian troops have “successfully repulsed” Russian attacks on villages near the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, where bloody battles have been raging for weeks, Kyiv’s armed forces said Sunday.
The UN warned this week that remaining civilians in Sievierodonetsk, in the eastern region of Donbas, are running out of clean water, food and sanitation.
“Our units repulsed the assault in the area of Toshkivka,” the Ukrainian army said on Facebook. “The enemy has retreated and is regrouping.”
It said an attack from Russian forces who were “storming” towards the village of Orikhove had been warded off.
Sievierodonetsk is mostly, but not entirely, under Russian control, according Ukrainian officials, AFP reports.
“All declarations by Russians that they control Sievierodonetsk are lies. Indeed, they control the majority of the city but they do not control it entirely,” local governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram Sunday.
He said Russian forces are “constantly replenishing their army with reserves”.
“They are now using so-called crawling tactics, they are trying to push through step by step, metre by metre,” he added.
Authorities continue evacuations from Lysychansk, across a river from Sievierodonetsk and heavily hit by shelling, he said, but evacuations from Sievierodonetsk have not been possible for days, after a last bridge connecting it to Lysychansk was blown up.
Ukrainian authorities say hundreds of people are hiding from shelling in the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, which Haidai said was “hit twice” in 24 hours.
I’m Jedidajah Otte and now taking over the blog for the next few hours.
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Hundreds gathered on Saturday to mourn campaigner Roman Ratushnyi, after the political and environmental activist was killed fighting near Ukraine’s second-biggest city, Kharkiv.
“All our brightest, bravest guys are dying. The war’s toll on society is immense,” said activist Ivana Sanina, 23, on Thursday during an earlier remembrance ceremony for Ratushnyi.
Pjotr Sauer reports from Kyiv:
The Kyiv Independent has this graphic showing the Ukrainian military’s estimates of Russian losses.
These are the indicative estimates of Russia’s combat losses as of June 19, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/Fkn6ZFDrwg
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) June 19, 2022
Germany making a 'big mistake' by not providing heavy weaponry, Ukrainian MP says
Ukrainian MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintzadze has singled out Germany for not having provided enough military aid to her country’s military.
While Klympush-Tsintzadze, who is chair of the parliamentary committee on integration of Ukraine to the EU, welcomed EU leaders backing candidate status for Ukraine, she called on the bloc to provide “major humanitarian aid” and weaponry. “That decision ... should not dismiss the other needs of our country,” she said, calling for weaponry. “Unfortunately, we are not getting enough from those particular states.”
She pointed to Germany in particular, saying it has “been giving smaller weaponry”. “We understand that that was already a big change in their policy. But so far heavy weaponry does not come really from that country. And I think it’s a big mistake of Germany, trying to kind of postpone those decisions.”
Klympush-Tsintzadze added that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Kyiv will convince him to provide more aid, now that he and other leaders “have actually seen the ruins and destruction that Russians have have brought on our land near Kyiv with their own eyes”. “Maybe that could change their personal readiness to take the decisions on additional weaponry for us to protect – because we are protecting ourselves.”
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Ukraine is losing territories and struggling to regain them since Russia began concentrating its military attacks on the country’s east, Ukrainian MP Ivanna Klympush-Tsintzadze has said.
Klympush-Tsintzadze told Sky News that she hopes the military situation in eastern Ukraine will change soon. “Unfortunately, at this particular moment, Russia has gathered all this military capacity in the in the east of the country.
“We are losing some of the territories and and they are staying in this particular moment in the hands of occupiers. We hope there will be a moment and the possibility for us to to get those territories and people back.”
The MP thanked allies for providing Ukraine with military aid but said the country requires further assistance. In some areas, Ukraine’s military capability is outnumbered 1-10 by Russia, she said.
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Allies must provide Ukraine with major humanitarian aid and weaponry, a Ukrainian MP has said.
Appearing on Sky News, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintzadze said the situation for Ukrainians is not improving. “The situation is not getting easier on us and that’s why it’s extremely important that there’s a continuous stream of military aid,” she said.
Klympush-Tsintzadze said that the country has no option but to win the war if it is to survive as a state. “We don’t have many options on the table – we have to survive,” she said.
“In this war, the aggressor has come to erase us from the map of the world, and we we want to live, build our country and preserve our nation. So therefore we have to win.”
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Ukraine: Russia trying to make Kharkiv frontline city
Reuters has this line from a Ukrainian official about the situation near Kharkiv, the country’s second largest city:
Russia is trying to make Kharkiv a frontline city,” Vadym Denysenko, an adviser to the interior minister, told Ukraine’s national television.
It comes after Amnesty International this week accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine, saying attacks on Kharkiv - many using banned cluster bombs - had killed hundreds of civilians.
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The US has transferred 1,400 anti-aircraft Stinger systems and 6,500 Javelin anti-armor systems to Ukraine, the leader of the Ukrainian political party Golos has said.
It comes after the US department of defence announced a further $1bn in weapons aid for Ukraine earlier this week. Ukrainian MP and Golos party leader Kira Rudik tweeted:
US transfers over 1,400 Stinger systems and 6,500 Javelin systems to Ukraine - @DeptofDefense. The published list aid includes anti-armour systems, Switchblade drones, howitzers, Mi-17 helicopters, Harpoon systems. All handed over shall be used for its intended purpose!
— Kira Rudik (@kiraincongress) June 19, 2022
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As EU leaders prepare to decide on whether to grant Ukraine candidate status, Politico has this Venn diagram showing which states are applying to join the bloc and Nato:
One epic Venn diagram showing who's in, who's out and who's keen to join the EU and NATO membership clubs 👇 pic.twitter.com/4xB2svlihh
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) June 19, 2022
Alongside Ukraine, EU leaders will also decide next week whether to grant Moldova and Georgia EU candidate status, although full membership would be probably take years. The European Commission has already said Ukraine should be given candidate status, and recommended it for Moldova, but has been more guarded in the case of Georgia.
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Ukrainians being hosted by Britons under the Homes for Ukraine scheme face a “cliff edge” of crumbling support when their placements end, and could be blocked from renting privately, refugee organisations have warned.
They said it could be impossible for many refugees to pass checks on prospective tenants in the private sector.
- Families have already reported being frozen out after failing reference tests due to lacking evidence of work or tax history stretching back years
- Even those with secure jobs, savings and no history of debt have been blocked
- Thousands could be affected in the months to come as placements end
- Opora, a network assisting Ukrainians, urged the government to act now to avert problems
Read the full report, by Shanti Das and Mark Townsend, here:
Hello, I’m Clea Skopeliti and I’ll be updating the blog for the next few hours. It’s 10.15am in Kyiv.
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German chancellor Olaf Scholz says the Group of Seven leading democracies will make clear at their coming summit that Ukraine can expect to receive the support it needs “for as long as necessary”.
In an interview with Germany’s dpa news agency published on Saturday, Scholz said he wanted to use next week’s meeting with fellow G7 leaders in the Bavarian village of Elmau to discuss Ukraine’s long-term prospects.
“We will continue to support Ukraine for as long as necessary,” Scholz said. “We want to make sure that Russian president [Vladimir Putin’s] calculations do not work out.
“Putin obviously hopes that everything will fall into place once he has conquered enough land and the international community will return to business as usual,” he added. “That is an illusion.”
Associated Press reported Scholz as saying he and his counterparts from France, Italy and Romania had discussed further weapons supplies for Ukraine, specifically ammunition and artillery, with president Volodymyr Zelenskiy during their visit to Kyiv on Thursday.
The four leaders also backed Ukraine’s bid for membership of the European Union, a stance Scholz said he hoped all of the bloc’s countries would support at a gathering in Brussels next week.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had visited soldiers on the southern frontline in the Mykolaiv region, about 550km (340 miles) south of Kyiv.
“I talked to our defenders – the military, the police, the national guard,” he said in a video on Telegram on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train.
“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” Zelenskiy said. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.”
Another video showed Zelenskiy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen.
Reuters reported Zelenskiy’s office as saying he had also visited national guard positions in the southern region of Odesa to the west of Mykolaiv. The timing of the trips was not revealed.
Zelenskiy has stayed mostly in Kyiv since Russia invaded, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkiv and two eastern cities near battles.
The besieged city of Sievierodonetsk faced heavy artillery and rocket fire again as Russian forces attacked areas around it, the Ukrainian military said.
The military’s general staff acknowledged its forces had suffered a setback in the settlement of Metolkine, just south-east of Sievierodonetsk, as the battle for the industrial city in eastern Ukraine continued.
“As a result of artillery fire and an assault, the enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine, trying to gain a foothold,” it said in a Facebook post late on Saturday.
Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, referred in a separate online post to “tough battles” in Metolkine, Reuters reported.
Russia’s Tass news agency, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists, said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine.
Summary
It is approaching 10am in Kyiv and here’s a summary of the latest developments.
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Russia’s war in Ukraine could take years, the Nato secretary general said. Jens Stoltenberg said the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukraine would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Stoltenberg said. “We must not let up in supporting Ukraine, even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”
- Russia was sending a large number of reserve troops to Sievierodonetsk from other battle zones to try to gain full control of the besieged eastern city, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region said on Sunday. “Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, they will throw in all the reserves they have … because there are so many of them there already, they’re at critical mass,” Serhiy Gaidai said on national television.
- Two top commanders of fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for investigation, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported. Citing an unnamed Russian law enforcement source, Tass said late on Saturday that Svyatoslav Palamar, a deputy commander of the Azov battalion, and Serhiy Volynsky, the commander of the 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces, were moved to Russia.
- A big explosion rocked an area near Sievierodonetsk on Saturday. Rodion Miroshnik, an official in the self-styled separatist administration of the Luhansk People’s Republic, posted a video of what he said was the cloud on the Telegram messaging app.
- Five civilians were killed on Saturday in Ukrainian strikes on the eastern separatist city of Donetsk, according to local authorities. “As a result of the bombardment by Ukrainian forces, five people were killed and 12 others were wounded in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” the authorities said in a statement posted on Telegram.
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Several Russian missiles hit a gasworks in the Izium district in eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv region governor Oleh Synehubov said. “A large-scale fire broke out, rescuers localised the fire,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday. Reuters reported him adding that some other buildings had also been damaged.
- Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in Novomoskovsk, a town in eastern Ukraine. According to the head of the regional administration on Saturday, three people have been sent to the hospital.
- The Pentagon is considering sending four additional rocket launchers to Ukraine, Politico reports. According to US defence department officials, speaking to the outlet on condition of anonymity, the US may likely send four more high mobility artillery rocket systems, making their total number about eight. The decision would be “based on Ukrainian immediate needs”, one official said.
- Russia and Ukraine have carried out a prisoner exchange, the Kyiv Independent reports. Five captured Ukrainian individuals were returned to Ukraine on 18 June in exchange for five captured Russian individuals, according to the Ukrainian defence ministry’s intelligence directorate.
- Yuliia Paievska AKA “Taira”, the Ukrainian captured paramedic who was freed from Russian captivity during the week, released a video thanking Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for her release. “I always believed that everything would be exactly this, and everyone who is now on the other side, they know everything will work out,” she said.
- Zelenskiy presented state awards to border guards in Odesa as he visited troops in southern Ukraine. “I want to thank you from the people of Ukraine, from our state, for the great work you are doing, for your heroic service,” the president said on Saturday. “It is important that you are alive. As long as you live, there is a strong Ukrainian wall that protects our country.”
Hello, I’m Adam Fulton in Sydney and welcome to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
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