Russia defaults on debt for first time since 1998 – reports

Kremlin owes about $40bn but has been shut out of international financial system since invasion of Ukraine

Russia is poised to default on its debt for the first time since 1998, further alienating the country from the global financial system after sanctions imposed over its war in Ukraine.

The country missed a deadline of Sunday night to meet a 30-day grace period on interest payments of $100m (£81.2m) on two eurobonds due originally on 27 May, Bloomberg reported on Monday morning.

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Prince Charles’s charities are no stranger to controversy

Analysis: Reports that prince accepted €3m from a former Qatari prime minister again throws spotlight on donations

• Charles given €3m by Qatari politician, according to report

Claims by the Sunday Times of alleged cash donations given to the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund by a former Qatari prime minister are the latest to throw a spotlight on fundraising for the heir to the throne’s charities.

The billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, who was Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister between 2007 and 2013, is a contentious figure.

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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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Concerns that India is ‘back door’ into Europe for Russian oil

Volume of Russian crude bought and then exported by India suggests some of it may end up in European petrol stations

The huge blue and red hull of the SCF Primorye came into port at Vadinar, western Gujarat, India, earlier this month. The 84,000-tonne oil tanker, built in 2009 and sailing under the Liberian flag, had arrived from the port at Ust-Luga, a settlement in Russia near the border with Estonia.

Until 2017, the Vadinar oil refinery was controlled by Essar – the Indian owner of the Stanlow refinery in Ellesmere Port. Since then a consortium including the sanctioned Russian state-owned oil firm Rosneft and the commodities trader Trafigura, which holds a 24.5% stake, have owned Nayara Energy, which runs the refinery.

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Boris Johnson warns of risk of fatigue in west’s support for Ukraine

At G7 summit, PM pushes for renewed sanctions and says he would welcome a visit to UK by Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Boris Johnson has warned about the likelihood of “fatigue” among western nations over continued support for Ukraine, as he began talks at the G7 summit in Germany, where he hopes to push for renewed sanctions against Russia.

Before the first day of the annual gathering of political leaders, held amid ultra-tight security in the Bavarian countryside, Johnson also hailed a new international ban on importing Russia gold.

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G7 grapples with packed agenda of world turned upside down

Analysis: A price cap on Russian oil and potential famine in Africa are among issues pressing for attention

A price cap on Russian oil, deferral of climate change commitments, a potential famine in Africa and the further supply of weapons to Ukraine are to crowd into a meeting of G7 world leaders over the next three days held against the backdrop of the biggest geopolitical crisis since 1945.

The agenda reveals how the world has been turned upside down since leaders of the industrialised nations last met in Cornwall a year ago in a summit chaired by Britain, largely to focus on the threat posed by China.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russia takes full control over Sievierodonetsk – live

Ukrainian soldiers have left strategic frontline city

Russian missiles have hit military infrastructure in northern Ukraine, local officials have said.

Reuters reports that Vitaliy Bunechko, governor of the Zhytomyr region in the north of the country, said strikes on a military target killed at least one soldier.

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‘It’s a horror show’: defiant Kharkiv residents return home despite new Russian offensive

No running water, gas or electricity and apartment blocks destroyed at random… Now civilians in Ukraine’s second biggest city are facing a new Russian offensive

When Tatyana Marchenko, 63, returned to her home in Kharkiv earlier this month, she entered a world of destruction.

Clothes and children’s toys were scattered over the paths between the burned-out buildings, many of which had massive holes where shells had smashed through.

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Russia ‘turning wave of food crises into tsunami’ by blocking grain exports

Germany’s foreign minister says preventing movement of 25m tonnes of supply is ‘using hunger as a weapon of war’

Russia has transformed an existing life-threatening wave of food crises into a tsunami by blocking the export of 25m tonnes of grain from Ukraine’s ports, the Germany’s foreign minister has said.

Speaking at the start of an inter-ministerial food conference in Berlin, a precursor to the G7 meeting in Germany starting this weekend where aid groups will demand a big financial commitment to help Africa, Annalena Baerbock said 345 million people worldwide were currently threatened by food shortages.

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Kyiv orders troops to pull out of Sievierodonetsk – as it happened

This live blog is now closed. We will be returning in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments

The military channel of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) has posted to Telegram to to say that the Russian Federation has opened up criminal cases against large numbers of commanders of brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces. It then goes on to say:

As a result of the shelling of the cities of Donetsk, Dokuchaevsk, Makeevka, Gorlovka and Svetlodarsk, as well as the settlements of Vladimirovka, Zaitsevo, Yasinovka and Ivanovka of the DPR, two civilians were killed, five civilians were injured, 30 houses and civilian infrastructure were damaged, including a school building

As a result of artillery attacks in the cities of Popasnaya and Stakhanov, a civilian was injured in the LPR [the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic], and the equipment of a water pumping station was damaged.

The occupiers begin to build alleged residential buildings. The works are underway in the north-western part, almost on the outskirts of the city. That is, from the approximate direction of a counter-offensive. There is information from Mariupol residents that the occupiers are immediately digging trenches and deploying equipment behind these new buildings.

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German gas prices could triple as Russia reduces supply, expert says

Fears consumers may have to pay up to three times as much after Nord Stream 1 pipeline flow cut by 40%

German consumers could face a tripling of gas prices in the coming months after Russia’s throttling of deliveries to Europe, a senior energy official has said.

Moscow reduced the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 40% last week, citing technical reasons that Berlin dismisses as a pretext, prompting a four to six-fold rise in market prices, said the head of Germany’s federal network agency, Klaus Müller.

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Last Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk ordered to withdraw

Neighbouring city of Lysychansk could fall within days as Russia continues slow advance in Donbas

The last Ukrainian forces fighting in the heavily contested eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been ordered to withdraw in order to avoid being encircled, as fears grow that the neighbouring city of Lysychansk could also fall to Russia within days.

The anticipated loss of Sievierodonetsk is the latest battlefield reverse for Kyiv after its defeat in the port city of Mariupol. According to some estimates, about 12,000 civilians remain in Sievierodonetsk, out of a prewar population of 160,000.

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Why the west risks condemning Ukraine to slow strangulation

Before war fatigue sets in further, a rethink needed to avoid a years-long conflict

Speaking at a private dinner in London recently, a senior serving British military officer argued the west had no choice but to see Ukraine as just one phase in a decade-long battle with Russia. “If Ukraine wins, Russia will never accept that. If Russia wins, it will go further,” he warned.

Yet in Whitehall they fear the “F word” – fatigue – and worry that the west with its TikTok-attention span and bias towards instant gratification does not have the resolve for the years-long sacrifice required to defeat Russia, or even stem the military tide in the villages of eastern Ukraine.

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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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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.

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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

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.”

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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).

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