F1 seeks distance from Ecclestone after his claim he would ‘take bullet’ for Putin

Former F1 chief calls Russian president ‘first-class person’ in GMB interview and blames war on Zelenskiy

Formula One has sought to distance itself from remarks made by its former chief executive Bernie Ecclestone, who said he would “take a bullet” for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and described him as “a first-class person”.

Ecclestone, who reportedly has been friends with Putin since the introduction of the Russian Grand Prix in 2014, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have been avoided if the latter’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had done more.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Nato calls Moscow ‘the most direct threat to security and stability’ as it welcomes Finland and Sweden – live

Latest updates: Ukraine says at least three people killed and five wounded after eight missiles hit southern city of Mykolaiv

More on the attack in Mykolaiv, in Ukraine’s south, near the Black Sea:

Reuters is also reporting that further east, in Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, a key battleground in Russia’s assault on the industrial heartland of Donbas, the governor reported increased military action.

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Boris Johnson claims Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he was a woman

Prime minister says Russian president’s gender a contributory factor to Ukraine invasion

Boris Johnson has claimed that Vladimir Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he was a woman and believes that the war is a “perfect example of toxic masculinity”.

In an interview with German media following the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau, the prime minister cited the Russian president’s gender as a contributory factor to the conflict.

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Olaf Scholz says world must ‘avoid Putin’s trap’ and claims of discord

German chancellor argues there is more unity in the west and support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said the world is more unified in its support for Ukraine than Russia suggests, as the war dominated a G7 meeting also tasked with crises in food supply, the climate emergency and a breakdown in global order.

“We must not walk into the trap Putin sets of asserting that the world is divided into the global west – the G7 and its friends in the north – and all the rest. That’s not true,” Scholz told Germany’s ZDF television.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: at least 16 killed after missile strike hits busy shopping centre in Kremenchuk

Zelenskiy says over 1,000 civilians were inside mall at time of attack, as eight civilians killed while collecting water in Lysychansk

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy is set to address world leaders at the G7 meeting virtually today. He has just posted to Telegram pictures of damage from missile strikes in Kyiv, with the message:

No Russian missiles, no strikes can break the morale of Ukrainians. And each of their missiles is an argument in our negotiations with partners.

Our armed forces continue to destroy the occupiers on the line of contact. In the Kharkiv direction, the invaders attacked in the direction of Dementiivka and Pitomnyk, suffered losses and retreated. In the area of Izium, the enemy does not stop trying to advance. Our defenders are resisting, destroying the occupiers’ manpower and armoured vehicles.

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Russia-Ukraine war: one killed as Kyiv hit by missile strikes; G7 leaders gather in Germany – live updates

Strikes hit Shevchenkivskiy district of Ukraine capital, says mayor Vitali Klitschko; G7 leaders to discuss energy and food crisis at Bavarian retreat

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, says two people have been taken to hospital after Sunday morning’s missile strikes, with search and rescue operations continuing. In a Telegram post, Klitschko said people may still be trapped under rubble at a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district.

Some of the dozens of long-range Russian missile strikes on Saturday were, for the first time, launched from Tu-22 bombers deployed from Belarus, Ukraine’s military says.

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Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 123 of the invasion

Kyiv under attack as G7 leaders meet in Germany; focus of Russia’s campaign shifts to Lysychansk

Kyiv has come under attack for the first time since 5 June, with Russian missiles striking at residential buildings and a Kindergarten in the Shevchenkivskyi district of the capital. At least five people were injured, including a seven-year-old girl. There are unconfirmed reports that her father was killed in the attack. A Russian woman was among the injured.

Another civilian was killed in a missile attack on Cherkasy south-east of the capital. A bridge over the Dnipro river was also hit.

Both the attacks on Kyiv and Cherkasy are being seen message of defiance by Russia to G7 leaders gathering at a summit in Bavaria, Germany. Russia said it hit military targets in Chernihiv, Zhytomyr and Lviv. Joe Biden condemned the Russian attacks as “more barbarism”. Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz said they showed the importance of G7 unity.

Members of the G7 have confirmed a ban on imports of Russian gold. The move by Britain, the United States, Japan and Canada is part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow. Gold exports were worth $15.2bn to Russia in 2021, and their importance has increased since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The UK and France have agreed to provide more support for Ukraine, according to Downing Street. Leaders of the G7 have spoken of their solidarity for Ukraine. “We have to stay together,” Joe Biden said.

Russian forces are trying to cut off the strategic twin city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine, having reduced Sievierodonetsk to rubble. Lysychansk is set to become the next main focus of fighting, as Moscow has launched massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on areas far from the heart of the eastern battles. Ukraine called its retreat from Sievierodonetsk a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river.

Russian news footage has showed defence minister Sergei Shoigu’s visiting troops involved in the Ukraine war. It is unclear if he visited Ukrainian territory, but the footage appeared to confirm that colonel-general Gennady Zhidko is now commanding troops in Ukraine.

The mayors of several European capitals have been duped into holding video calls with a deepfake of their counterpart in Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko. The mayor of Berlin, Franziska Giffey, took part in a scheduled call on the Webex video conferencing platform on Friday with a person she said looked and sounded like Klitschko. “There were no signs that the video conference call wasn’t being held with a real person,” her office said in a statement.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Saturday that Ukraine will win back all the cities it has lost to Russia, including Sievierodonetsk. “All our cities – Sievierodonetsk, Donetsk, Luhansk – we’ll get them all back,” he said in a late-night video address. Zelenskiy also admitted that the war was becoming difficult to handle emotionally.

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‘Ukraine’s future is in the EU’: Zelenskiy welcomes granting of candidate status

Move opens door to EU membership amid outrage over the brutality of the unprovoked Russian attack

European leaders have granted Ukraine candidate status, in a historic decision that opens the door to EU membership for the war-torn country and deals a blow to Vladimir Putin.

EU leaders meeting in Brussels approved Ukraine’s candidate status on Thursday night, nearly four months after the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, launched his country’s bid to join the bloc in the early days of the Russian invasion. Moldova was also given candidate status.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy expects Russian attacks to intensify over EU decision — live

Adviser to interior minister gives warning after Amnesty accused Russia of war crimes in country’s second largest city

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.

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Moscow’s war in Ukraine could take years, Stoltenberg says –as it happened

This blog is now closed – we will return in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments

Rockets hit a southern district of Ukraine’s central city of Kryvyi Rih on Saturday leading to at least two casualties, local authorities said in posts on messaging app Telegram.

The attack came as it was confirmed that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had visited the southern city of Mykolaiv during a working trip to the region, Reuters reported.

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Putin calls Ukraine war sanctions ‘insane’ in combative speech

President claims Russia can ‘cope with any challenge’ in address delayed by cyber-attack, but largely avoids discussing Ukraine

Vladimir Putin has delivered a combative speech repeating his critique of the west and saying the sanctions “blitzkrieg” against Moscow never had any chance of succeeding.

“If they are exceptional, then that means that everyone else is second class,” the Russian president said of the US. “They live in the past on their own under their own delusions.”

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Blacklist Dubai over failure to crack down on Russian oligarchs, say campaigners

UAE has become haven for superyachts, private jets and ‘dirty money’ since invasion of Ukraine, but has taken no action

Campaigners and politicians are calling for the United Arab Emirates to be blacklisted over its failures to combat the flow of “dirty money” and to enforce sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs.

The Gulf state has emerged as a key refuge for the Russian super-rich fleeing the impact of global sanctions, with private jets and superyachts linked to oligarchs heading to the UAE after the invasion of Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Scholz, Macron and Draghi to visit Kyiv; fierce fighting continues in Sievierodonetsk – live

German, French and Italian leaders to meet with Zelenskiy ahead of G7 summit in June; Ursula von der Leyen says EU decision to come within days

Returning to Kyiv on Saturday for a meeting with Ukrainian president Zelenskiy, she said they will discuss Ukraine’s reconstruction and progress towards European Union membership.

Russian air defence forces have shot down three Ukrainian war planes, according to the country’s defence ministry.

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Putin compares himself to Peter the Great in quest to take back Russian lands

President draws parallel with tsar who waged war on Sweden and says campaign in Ukraine stems from Russia’s ‘basic values’

Russian president Vladimir Putin has paid tribute to tsar Peter the Great on the 350th anniversary of his birth, drawing a parallel between what he portrayed as their twin historic quests to win back Russian lands.

“Peter the Great waged the great northern war for 21 years. It would seem that he was at war with Sweden, he took something from them. He did not take anything from them, he returned [what was Russia’s],” Putin said on Thursday after a visiting an exhibition dedicated to the tsar.

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No regrets over handling of Vladimir Putin, says Angela Merkel

Former German chancellor claims her opposition to Ukraine’s Nato membership helped country

Angela Merkel has said she feels no regrets for her handling of Vladimir Putin during her time in power, arguing that Russia’s president would have perceived a 2008 Nato membership plan for Ukraine that was blocked by her government as a “declaration of war”.

The former German chancellor also claimed that an oligarch-run and democratically immature Ukraine would have been less prepared for an invasion then than it is now.

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Putin warns that Moscow will hit new targets if the west supplies Ukraine with long-range missiles – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

President Vladimir Putin said Russia would strike new targets if the United States started supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles, the TASS news agency reported on Sunday.

The TASS news agency reports:

Putin said that if such missiles are supplied, that Russia will strike at those targets which we have not yet been hitting”, in an Rossiya-1 state television channel

Putin did not name the targets Russia planned to pursue if western countries began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles.

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Russia claims to have targeted western-supplied tanks in Kyiv airstrikes

Putin warns of more strikes if deliveries continue, as Ukrainian railways chief says ‘no such tanks’ were at targeted plant

Russia launched airstrikes on Kyiv for the first time in five weeks on Sunday, claiming it had targeted western-supplied tanks – while the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, warned more targets would be struck if weapons deliveries continued.

Several explosions were heard around the eastern Kyiv suburbs of Darnytskyi and Dniprovskyi early on Sunday morning, wounding one person. The strikes represented a change of tack on the part of the invading forces.

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Ukraine counterattack recaptures parts of Sievierodonetsk in Donbas

Russians ‘suffering huge losses’, region’s governor claims, amid heavy fighting

Ukraine has staged a counterattack on the frontline city of Sievierodonetsk and recaptured a fifth of the city it had previously lost to the Russian invaders, according to the head of the region.

Serhiy Haidai, governor of Luhansk, said Russian forces were giving up recent gains in the city, as reports also emerged of foreign fighters joining the battle for the easternmost city held by Kyiv in the fiercely contested Donbas.

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Alexander Litvinenko assassination suspect dies of Covid

Dmitry Kovtun was one of two Russian men accused over poisoning death of ex-spy in London in 2006

Dmitry Kovtun, one of the two Russian men accused of assassinating the former spy and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London, died of Covid in a Moscow hospital on Saturday.

Litvinenko died in 2006, weeks after drinking tea laced with the radioactive isotope polonium 210 at a London hotel, where he met Kovtun and the other suspect, Andrei Lugovoi. The case has since weighed on relations between Britain and Russia.

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