Almost 1,000 mourners gathered in central Kyiv on Sunday for the funeral of a high-profile journalist and volunteer combat medic who was killed in action last week. Iryna Tsybukh, known as Cheka, was a 25-year-old paramedic who was on rotation in Kharkiv. Last year while serving on the frontlines in the eastern Donetsk region, she wrote a farewell letter to be published in the case of her death. “I am not sorry to die, because I am finally living the life I would like,” it read in part.
Donald Trump risks being a “loser president” if he wins November’s election and imposes a bad peace deal on Ukraine, Zelenskiy has said, saying it would mean the end of the US as a global “player”. In an interview with the Guardian in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he had “no strategy yet” for what to do if Trump returned to the White House, and that the former British prime minister Boris Johnson had approached him on his behalf.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged world leaders to come to a peace conference in Switzerland this month, and accused China of discouraging attendance at the meeting. “We are disappointed that some world leaders have not yet confirmed their participation in the peace summit,” Zelenskiy told delegates on the last day of the Shangri-La Dialogue forum in Singapore during an unscheduled appearance. US President Joe Biden has as yet given no indication he will attend the summit. Zelenskiy added: “Regrettably, Russia, using Chinese influence on the region, using Chinese diplomats also, does everything to disrupt the peace summit. It is unfortunate that such a big, independent, powerful country as China is an instrument in the hands of Putin.”
Zelenskiy meanwhile said he had a “very good” meeting with US defence secretary Lloyd Austin in Singapore. The meeting came after Washington decided to partially lift restrictions on using US-provided weapons to strike inside Russia, which Zelensky has hailed as a “step forward”. Austin made no comment.
After the Singapore conference Zelenskiy travelled to Manila, where he met the Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and thanked him for his support and “clear position” on Russia’s invasion of Ukrainian territory. Ukraine will also open an embassy in Manila this year, Zelenskiy said. Marcos told Zelenskiy he was “honoured” by the visit.
Ukraine imposed emergency power shutdowns in most of the country on Sunday, a day after Russia unleashed large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure. The shutdowns were in place in all but three regions of Ukraine following Saturday’s drone and missile attack on energy targets that injured at least 19 people. Ukraine’s state-owned power grid operator Ukrenergo said the shutdowns affected both industrial and household consumers.
Russian forces had taken over the village of Umanske in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday. The claim could not be independently verified.
A local official in Belgorod died when some ammunition detonated, while six people were injured in Ukrainian shelling of the southern Russian region, Belgorod’s governor said on Sunday. Igor Nechiporenko, deputy head of Korochansky district administration, was killed as a result of ammunition detonating, said Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Telegram.
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who fled Russia a decade ago for fear of persecution, may face a criminal case in Moscow for violating the Kremlin’s “foreign agent” law, Tass news agency reported on Sunday. Russian law enforcement officials, the state news agency reported, said there is “every reason” to charge Kasparov, without providing further details. Russia added Kasparov to the list of individuals acting as foreign agents, which includes dozens of critics of Vladimir Putin, soon after the Russian president launched his full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022.
