Zelenskiy welcomes approval of Ukraine’s application to join EU as ‘historic moment’ while battle for two key cities in eastern Ukraine edges towards ‘fearsome climax’
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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.
Continue reading...UK offers expertise to help Ukraine export grain under UN plan
Liz Truss makes offer after meeting Turkish foreign minister to discuss how safe passage for convoy can be achieved
The UK is offering its expertise to help escort Ukraine’s grain from its ports under a UN plan designed to prevent a mass famine across Africa, the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, said in Ankara on Thursday after meeting Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Turkey has been trying to negotiate the terms of an escort for more than 20m tonnes of urgently needed Ukrainian grain, but Çavuşoğlu admitted he had not been able to secure a date for a meeting between Ukraine and Russia – a sign that an agreement on safe passage for the convoy has not been reached.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war: EU leaders to decide on Kyiv bid; Russia aims to turn Donbas cities into a Mariupol, Zelenskiy says – live news
Historic decision from the EU brings Ukraine a huge step closer to full membership; Reports say missiles hit southern port city
- British citizens and Moroccan sentenced to death preparing appeal
- Finland ready to fight Russian attack, says armed forces chief
- British man facing death sentence told: ‘Time is running out’
- At a glance: what we know on day 120 of the invasion
Russia’s Tass news agency is carrying a report that British citizens Sean Pinner and Aiden Aslin, alongside Moroccan Saadoun Brahim, are preparing an appeal against their death sentences.
Tass quotes Pinner’s lawyer Yulia Tserkovnikova saying “my colleagues and I are preparing the full text of the appeal against the verdict in the interests of our clients.”
Continue reading...British man facing death sentence in Donetsk told: ‘Time is running out’
Aiden Aslin has been told his execution in Russian-occupied Ukraine will be carried out, his family say
A British man sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court for fighting in Ukraine has been told the execution will be carried out, his family have said.
Aiden Aslin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, were sentenced on charges of “terrorism” by a court that is not internationally recognised earlier this month in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Continue reading...Finland’s armed forces chief says his country is prepared for a Russian attack and ready to fight – as it happened
This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
One of the leaders of the authorities imposed in occupied Ukraine has described the border between Russia and Ukraine as “worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans”, according to a report from RIA Novosti.
It quotes Vladimir Rogov saying:
For us, the border with Russia is worse than the Berlin Wall for the Germans. According to various estimates, 60-68 per cent of the inhabitants of East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic [East Germany] had relatives in West Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany [West Germany]. In Ukraine, depending on the region, 73-85 percent residents have relatives in Russia. Accordingly, this border should not exist.
Continue reading...Russia bears down on Lysychansk, targeting police and judicial buildings
Moscow’s troops move on to city neighbouring Sievierodonetsk, after capturing all but chemical plant there
Sievierodonetsk and its neighbouring city, Lysychansk, continue to be battered by intense Russian shelling as Moscow edges closer to seizing the last pocket of resistance in Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region.
Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, said on Wednesday that Russian forces were moving towards Lysychansk, targeting the buildings of police, state security and prosecutors.
Continue reading...Drone crashes into Russian oil refinery in possible attack
Video shared on social media shows an explosion at the Novoshakhtinsk plant
Dramatic footage has emerged from Russia of what appears to be a drone crashing into an oil refinery and setting off a fiery explosion in what could be an attack inside Russia’s borders.
Video shared on social media showed the unmanned aerial vehicle crashing into the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, in Rostov, in what would be an embarrassing penetration of Russia’s air defence systems in its ongoing war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...Russian forces capture settlements near Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk – as it happened
This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
Reuters reports the Georgian prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, has said at an economic conference in Qatar that his country is committed to joining Nato, but must solve its territorial problems with Russia first.
Georgia is sandwiched between Russia in the north, with Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan to its south. The breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are internationally recognised as part of Georgia’s territory, although a handful of states, including Russia, officially recognise them.
Continue reading...US volunteer fighters captured in Ukraine could face death penalty, says Russia
Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Alabama have been taken into detention in Donetsk
The Kremlin has said that two captured US volunteers are not covered by the Geneva conventions and could face the death penalty.
The remarks were made by Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, following claims in the Russian media that two of three US volunteers missing in Ukraine had been captured and were being held by pro-Russian separatist forces.
Continue reading...Russian mercenaries accused of deadly attacks on mines on Sudan-CAR border
Dozens of people said to have been killed in attacks allegedly involving Wagner Group fighters
Russian mercenaries have mounted a series of bloody attacks on artisanal mines in the lawless border zones between Sudan and Central African Republic (CAR) in an effort to plunder the region’s valuable gold trade, witnesses and experts have said.
Dozens of miners are thought to have died in at least three major attacks this year allegedly involving mercenaries working for the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been linked to the Kremlin by western officials. There are also reports of further attacks on mines in at least six other places across CAR.
Continue reading...‘He’s been betrayed’: sister of Moroccan man captured in Ukraine pleads for help
Brahim Saadoun’s sister Iman says marine sentenced to death by Russian proxies has been abandoned by his own government
The sister of Brahim Saadoun, the Moroccan man who was captured while serving in the Ukrainian military, has said she feared he has been abandoned by his own government and has called on the international community to “claim my brother”.
“I just want any authority, anybody who is willing to help, to come and help,” Iman Saadoun said in an interview with the Guardian, describing being left in limbo while seeking government support for him.
Continue reading...Nobel peace prize auctioned by Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov fetches record $103.5m
Muratov, who was awarded the gold medal in October 2021, said proceeds would go to Unicef to help children displaced by Ukraine war
The Nobel Peace Prize that Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov was auctioning off to raise money for Ukrainian child refugees has sold for $103.5m (£84.5m), shattering the record for a Nobel.
“I was hoping that there was going to be an enormous amount of solidarity,” Muratov said after the sale. “But I was not expecting this to be such a huge amount.”
Continue reading...Ukrainian missiles hit Black Sea gas platforms, say Russian officials
Reports of strikes come as Russian forces said to be gathering for final assault on Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk
• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
Russian officials have said Ukraine launched missile strikes against three gas rigs in the Black Sea south of Odesa, in an apparent escalation of Kyiv’s attempts to weaken Russia’s maritime dominance.
Seven people were missing and three injured after the strikes, according to the head of occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, who said a “rescue operation with the participation of patrol ships and aviation” was under way.
Continue reading...Russia threatens retaliation as Lithuania bans goods transit to Kaliningrad
EU concerned over Moscow’s comments as people panic-buy in Baltic Sea exclave
Russia has provoked concern in Brussels after threatening to retaliate over Lithuania’s ban on the transit of some goods across its territory to Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.
The move by the government in Vilnius was described as “unprecedented” in Moscow, where the Russian foreign office said they reserved the right to respond to protect their national interest.
Continue reading...Russian editor auctions Nobel medal to raise money for Ukraine refugees
Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov will sell 23-carat gold medal in US on Monday, donating proceeds to charity
The editor of the Russian independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta is auctioning his Nobel peace prize medal, with the proceeds to go to helping children displaced by the war in Ukraine.
Dmitry Muratov led one of the last major independent media outlets critical of Vladimir Putin’s government after others either closed or had their websites blocked after the invasion of Ukraine. In March, Novaya Gazeta announced it was suspending operations for the duration of the war after it became a crime to report anything on the conflict that veered from the government line.
Continue reading...Russia gathering its forces to storm settlements near Sievierodonetsk, says Ukraine – as it happened
This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
In the weeks after the Russian invasion, the Guardian spoke to five Ukrainian families who had fled the country. Nearly four months on from the invasion, the families talk about the realities of their new lives.
Back in March, Liudmyla Abdo was fresh out of a war zone. Fatigued, dazed and suffering from acute stress, she sat in Paris’s Buttes-Chaumont park and recounted her experience of fleeing Kyiv in the dead of night.
Russian ground and tactical air operations have remained focussed on the central Donbas sector over the weekend.
In the conflict to date, Russia’s air force has underperformed. Its failure to consistently deliver air power is likely one of the most important factors behind Russia’s very limited campaign success.
It cannot gain full air superiority and has operated in a risk-adverse style, rarely penetrating deep behind Ukrainian lines. Some of the underlying causes of its difficulties echo those of Russian ground forces.
Continue reading...Russia becomes China’s top oil supplier amid Ukraine war sanctions
Chinese refiners cash in on heavily discounted Russian oil supplies, boosting imports by 55%
China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared by 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Imports of Russian oil, including supplies pumped via the east Siberia Pacific pipeline and seaborne shipments, totalled nearly 8.42m tonnes, according to data on Monday from the Chinese general administration of customs.
Continue reading...‘We’re tired of being scared’: Kyiv residents take steps towards normality
Restaurants are filling up again as clubs welcome daytime revellers, but the city remains under a cloud of war
Walking around a small outdoor street market in a pretty Kyiv courtyard, one could be forgiven for forgetting for a brief moment that Ukraine is in the midst of a brutal war that not long ago saw some of its bloodiest fighting just a few miles from the capital.
A DJ is playing techno tunes, so beloved in a city that has been proudly calling itself the new Berlin, as locals sell vintage clothes.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy warns Europe at risk of Russian hostilities over EU candidacy
‘We are ready. We warn partners,’ says Ukraine president, ahead of decision on membership application
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has predicted Russia will intensify its attacks this week, warning European partners that they too should be prepared for an increase in hostilities as Kyiv awaits a decision on its bid to join the EU.
The caution follows a European Commission recommendation to grant Kyiv candidate status to join – a diplomatic blow to Moscow.
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