More than 1,400 cases of treason and collaboration with the Russian army have been brought against citizens
On the third day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the mayor of the city of Kupyansk received a call from a Russian army commander suggesting they talk.
Russian forces were already on the outskirts of the city, in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. Mayor Gennady Matsegora released a video address explaining that he had accepted a Russian offer.
Continue reading...US general in Finland to back Nato bid; 14 million Ukrainians displaced in conflict, says UN; Macron says Putin isolated after ‘historic error’
Continue reading...Moscow has seized about a fifth of Ukrainian territory since its invasion and vows to continue ‘until all goals are achieved’
Ukraine will fight off Russia’s invasion, its president has said, while the Kremlin pledged to persist until “all our goals have been achieved” as Moscow’s war entered its 100th day with Russian troops pounding the Donbas region.
“Victory shall be ours,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a video featuring the same key ministers and advisers who appeared with him in a defiant broadcast on 24 February, the day his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, launched his unprovoked assault.
Continue reading...Ukrainian forces say they have pushed back Russians in the city
Reuters has what it says is an exclusive interview with prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova, who is overseeing multiple war crimes inquiries in Ukraine. It reports that prosecutors investigating war crimes cases in Ukraine are examining allegations of the forcible deportation of children to Russia as they seek to build a genocide indictment.
Venediktova said “We have more than 20 cases about forcible transfer of people. From the first days of the war, we started this case about genocide.”
Task #1 today for Russia — to undermine trust between Ukraine and US. Ukraine is waging a defensive war and does not plan to use the MLRS to attack facilities in Russia. Our partners know where their weapons are used. Any allegations of such intentions - PSYOP of Russian special services.
Continue reading...Some are looking back at weeks before invasion and asking if more could have been done
When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in the early hours of 24 February, with mass missile strikes and the advance of a land force from several directions, many key Ukrainian officials were apparently caught by surprise. Some were fast asleep.
There had been rumours of a Russian invasion for weeks, and the previous evening US and Ukrainian intelligence received information that pointed to an invasion that night with almost certainty. Yet there was little in the way of last-minute efforts to fortify towns close to the border, or to warn citizens to brace for the inevitable.
Continue reading...Effort to win over doubters in Berlin, Paris and other capitals and start accession process
Ukrainian officials are embarking on a concerted diplomatic push to start the country’s journey towards EU membership, as scepticism remains in a number of western European capitals about a fast-track approach.
Since Russia’s invasion, many in Europe, including Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, have spoken in favour of putting Ukraine on a speedy path to EU accession by granting it candidate status.
Continue reading...Adam Bisultanov reportedly killed on 26 May in clash with mercenaries including Ben Grant, son of MP Helen Grant
Russia has accused the son of a Conservative MP of involvement in the killing of a Chechen brigade commander in Ukraine, after footage emerged of the British national fighting in the country.
Russia’s National Guard, a force also known as Rosgvardia, said in a statement posted on its website that one of its commanders, the Chechen fighter Adam Bisultanov, was killed on 26 May in a clash with a “group of mercenaries from the UK and the USA” that included the “son of a British parliamentarian,” Ben Grant.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says 100 Ukrainians dying every day; former German chancellor makes first speech since leaving office
The official Telegram channel of Ukraine’s Mariupol authority has again posted accusations of war crimes being committed by pro-Russian occupation forces since they took full control of the city after the surrender of Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel plant. They say:
In the Mariupol district, the occupiers imprison and shoot Ukrainian volunteers and officials. All of them refused to cooperate with collaborators and the occupation authorities.
The fake Donetsk People’s Republic court sentenced the head of one of the Azov villages to ten years in prison. At least one civil servant was executed by firing squad.
Continue reading...Jürgen Stock urges members to cooperate on arms tracing as weapons will flood hidden economy when war ends
Weapons sent to Ukraine after Russia’s invasion in February will end up in the global hidden economy and in the hands of criminals, the head of Interpol has said.
Jürgen Stock says once the conflict ends, a wave of guns and heavy arms will flood the international market and he urged Interpol’s member states, especially those supplying weapons, to cooperate on arms tracing.
Continue reading...Analysis: the long-delayed US deal offers just four systems that will take weeks to become operational, suggesting concerns about imposing a heavy defeat on Putin
The US decision to supply Ukraine with high-precision multiple launch rocket systems was marked with some fanfare in Washington including a rare newspaper commentary by Joe Biden himself.
The Himars (High mobility artillery rocket system) and the ammunition that Washington is sending with them, will allow Ukrainian forces to hit targets nearly 80km away with high accuracy. That’s twice the range of the US howitzers they have now, and about the same as the most powerful Russian rocket systems. US officials suggested they would help turn the withering artillery duel underway in the Donbas into a fairer fight.
Continue reading...US president claims supply of rockets move will enable Ukraine ‘to more precisely strike key targets’; Ukraine’s president says 500 wounded each day
Away from the war in their homeland, Ukraine’s men’s football team are competing for a place in this year’s Fifa World Cup in Qatar. Nick Ames writes for us:
When Ukraine face Scotland at Hampden Park tonight it will be less a rebirth than a reminder that, much as Russia might wish to erase the country’s cultural identity, its football heritage remains truly alive. The act of playing for a World Cup place on Wednesday night, and over the next five days if all goes well, is both one of defiance and of expectation that, despite everything, good things can lie ahead.
Continue reading...Exit polls show majority of voters in favour of removing opt-out after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Denmark appears poised to join the EU’s common defence policy, becoming the last of the bloc’s members to sign up, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to reshape Europe’s security landscape.
Exit polls published as polling stations closed showed 69% of voters in favour of removing an opt-out to the EU’s common security and defence policy (CSDP). Thirty-one per cent of voters opposed the measure.
Continue reading...Supporters of both teams sing Ukrainian national anthem before Wednesday night’s World Cup qualifier in Glasgow
Standing on the steps of Hampden in the late afternoon sunlight, Jim Struthers is wearing the same Scotland top he wore in 1998 – the last time his team qualified for the World Cup – but his heart is with Ukraine.
“It’s a very poignant evening,” says the Tartan Army stalwart, who has been supporting the Scottish national team for nearly half a century, and has come together with other fans to perform the Ukrainian national anthem – led by the opera singer Vasyl Savenko – on the steps of the Glasgow stadium as the crowds stream in for Wednesday’s qualifier.
Continue reading...Washington says it has assurances as Moscow warns supply risks ‘third country’ being drawn into war
Ukraine has promised Washington it will not use advanced rocket systems supplied by the US to hit targets inside Russian territory, as Moscow warned that the move risked a “third country” being drawn into the war.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Wednesday that after Joe Biden’s agreement to provide Ukraine with multiple-launch rocket systems, Ukraine had “given us assurances that they will not use these systems against targets on Russian territory”.
Continue reading...Mayor of besieged Ukrainian city tells residents to stay in cellars as Russian forces advance ‘block by block’
Russian forces have taken control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but have not surrounded it, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk province has said as heavy fighting continued in and around the key city and civilians were told to stay underground.
Serhiy Gaidai said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people.
Continue reading...Gazprom raises stakes in sanctions war after EU move to embargo most Russian oil imports and companies miss deadline to pay in roubles
Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe, after state energy giant Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany.
The intensification of the economic battle on Tuesday over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine follows the EU’s overnight decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports as part of its financial sanctions against the Kremlin.
Continue reading...Estonian PM says gas sanctions would be more difficult because it would affect whole of Europe
EU leaders suggested Russian gas was unlikely to be part of the next round of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s war machine, hours after agreeing a historic but incomplete oil embargo.
After nearly a month of wrangling, the EU agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, with an exemption for Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. These landlocked central European countries, heavily dependent on Russian oil, can continue being supplied via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline for an indeterminate period.
Continue reading...German rockers’ most famous song now includes lyrics: ‘Now listen to my heart / It says Ukrainia’
The lead singer of German hard rockers Scorpions has revealed he changed the lyrics of Wind of Change because he no longer wanted to “romanticise Russia” with his chart-topping perestroika power ballad, after Putin’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
“To sing Wind of Changeas we have always sung it, that’s not something I could imagine any more,” Klaus Meine told Die Zeit. “It simply isn’t right to romanticise Russia with lyrics like: ‘I follow the Moskva / Down to Gorky Park … Let your balalaika sing’”.
Continue reading...Ukraine president calls bombing of major chemical plant ‘madness’; Gazprom halts gas flows to companies in three western European countries
Oleg Kryuchkov, who is an advisor to the Russian-appointed government in annexed Crimea, has told the RIA Novosti news agency that the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions have switched to using Russian mobile communications and internet networks. It quotes him saying:
Another terrorist attack in Kyiv brought down communications in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Russia played ahead of the curve. In the liberated territories, it is now exclusively Russian internet and communications. In fact, this is the end of Ukrainian propaganda, Zelenskiy’s towers of lies have fallen.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Lawyers to target assets of Russian state, military contractors and affiliated business figures across globe
A consortium of Ukrainian and international lawyers is preparing to launch a mass civil legal action against the Russian state, as well as private military contractors and businesspeople backing the Russian war effort, in an attempt to gain financial compensation for millions of Ukrainian victims of the war, the Guardian can reveal.
The team, made up of hundreds of lawyers and several major law firms, plans to bring “multiple actions in different jurisdictions against different targets”, including the UK and the US, said Jason McCue, a London-based lawyer who is coordinating the initiative, in an interview in Kyiv.
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