Airstrike hits chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, officials sayAn airstrike has hit a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, Ukrainian officials wrote on Telegram late Tuesday afternoon.
Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s regional governor said Russians hit “a tank with nitric acid at a chemical plant”, while urging residents not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, shared a similar message on Telegram, alongside an image of large, pink clouds of smoke rising overhead buildings.
Earlier we reported Russian forces control “around half” of the city, a day after officials said Russian shelling had been so intense that it was not possible to assess casualties and damage.
The US announced today that it will not be sending long-range rockets for use beyond Ukraine, reports Reuters.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said today that the US is currently considering sending rocket systems to Ukraine as it faces military losses against Russia, but clarified that long-range rockets will not be sent for use beyond the battlefield in Ukraine.
Russia’s foreign minister said today that Ukraine and western countries need to act to address food shortage concerns, reports AFP.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday it was up to the West and Kyiv to resolve a growing global food crisis provoked by the conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted deliveries of wheat and other commodities from the two countries, fuelling concerns about the risk of hunger around the world.
Western countries “created a lot of artificial problems by closing their ports to Russian ships, disrupting logistics and financial chains,” Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Bahrain.
“They need to seriously consider what is more important for them: to do PR on the issue of food security or to take concrete steps to solve this problem,” he added.
Lavrov also called on Ukraine to de-mine its territorial waters to allow the safe passage of ships through the Black and Azov seas.
“If the problem of de-mining is resolved… Russia’s naval forces will ensure the unhindered passage of these ship into the Mediterranean and onwards to (their) destinations,” Lavrov said.
Russia and Ukraine produce around 30 percent of the global wheat supply.
President Vladimir Putin told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday that Moscow was ready to work with Ankara to free up maritime shipping from Ukraine and blamed global food shortages on “short-sighted” Western policies.
Turkey’s top diplomat said Tuesday that Lavrov would arrive in Turkey on June 8 for talks on unblocking grain exports from Ukraine…
The US will be providing additional details on new security assistance for Ukraine, announced the state department today, reports Reuters.
New details on the security assistance will be announced “before too long”, said state separtment spokesperson Ned Price today during a press briefing.
Price added that the US is still concerned over Russian attempts to institutionalize its control over Ukrainian territory it has seized, including the city of Kherson.
The US is ready to give “comfort letters” to companies to help facilitate exports of Russian grain and fertilizer, reports Reuters.
US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said today that “comfort letters” will be given to shipping and insurance companies to help export the grain and fertilizer.
She noted that Russian grain and fertilizer are not under US sanctions but that “companies are a little nervous and we’re prepared to give them comfort letters if that will help to encourage them.”
A “comfort letter” is a document that assures the financial obligations of a company can be met.
Canada announced sanctions today on Vladimir Putin’s reputed girlfriend, former gymnast Alina Kabaeva, as well as other Russian officials and institutions over Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, reports AFP.
Canada foreign minister Mélanie Joly announced the sanctions today to reporters in Ottawa:
We’re targeting banks, oligarchs close to the Putin regime as well as his, I don’t know what to call her, his partner.
Those targeted in the new round of sanctions include Kabaeva, the Russian Agricultural Bank, Investtradebank and two fund management firms. Those affected will have their assets frozen and be banned from entering Canada, reports AFP.
Media has widely reported that Kabaeva and Putin are romantically involved, though Putin denied their involvement when it was first reported in 2008.
Nearly 1,000 people attended a service in Rome, as Pope Francis led an international prayer service for peace in Ukraine and other war-stricken places on Tuesday.
Worshippers around the world in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and countries elsewhere joined in prayer over video. Attending the service in Rome was Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican, according to Reuters.
Pope Francis leaves after leading a rosary for peace at St Mary Major Basilica, in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Fabio Frustaci/EPAVisiting the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the 85-year-old pope prayed before the statue of Mary Queen of Peace. Romans traditionally associate the statue, commissioned by Pope Benedict XV in 1918 to ask God to end the first world war, with peace.
A prayer with Pope Francis during a rosary for peace at the St Mary Major Basilica, in Rome, Italy. Photograph: Fabio Frustaci/EPAThat is it from me, Geneva Abdul. Gloria Oladipo will take you through the next few hours coverage from New York.
Germany has agreed to provide infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) to Greece, so Athens can send Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine.
Speaking after the two-day EU summit in Brussels, German chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters:
We will provide Greece with German infantry fighting vehicles. The defence ministries will work out the details and quickly implement this agreement.
Defence sources told Reuters that Berlin aims to deliver 100 old Marder IFVs owned by arms-maker Rheinmetall to Greece. In return, Athens would supply Soviet-style BMP IFVs to Ukraine.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesMost of the city of Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, is controlled by the Russians, according to Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s regional governor.
On Telgram, Haidai wrote:
The city is not surrounded, and there are no prerequisites for this. The regional centre is approaching the level of destruction of Rubizhne and Popasna. The city’s critical infrastructure has been destroyed by almost 100%, 90% of the housing stock has been damaged, 60% of which is critical, i.e. it cannot be restored.
Haidai added that Russian shelling has made it impossible to transport humanitarian goods and evacuate people.
The message comes after Ukrainian officials said an airstrike has hit a chemical plant in the city Tuesday evening. Residents were urged not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes.
SummaryIt’s past 8pm in Ukraine. Here’s where things stand:
An airstrike has hit a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, Ukrainian officials wrote on Telegram late Tuesday. Residents were urged not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes. Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions, but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s president Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted that 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages. Ukraine is working on an international United Nations-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba who said Russia is playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”. Ukraine’s giant seed bank near battlefields is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing from Russia forces. Read more of The Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here. The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risks “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continue. Ukraine to prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. It was announced Tuesday as representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes and international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, met at The Hague. A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. In an interview late on Monday, Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said on Rossiya-1 state TV he has a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister will travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow. Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president Dmitry Medvedev has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security matters, said in a post on Telegram on Tuesday that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have incurred losses for big business.
Ukraine is still in control of some parts of Sievierodonetsk city. Its soldiers are fighting slowly advancing Russian troops, but civilian evacuations are not currently possible, the head of the city’s administration has said. Russians now control “around half” according to reports on national television in Ukraine. mapAirstrike hits chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, officials sayAn airstrike has hit a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk, a city in east Ukraine, Ukrainian officials wrote on Telegram late Tuesday afternoon.
Serhiy Haidai, Luhansk’s regional governor said Russians hit “a tank with nitric acid at a chemical plant”, while urging residents not to come out of hiding due to toxic fumes.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Kyiv’s ministry of internal affairs, shared a similar message on Telegram, alongside an image of large, pink clouds of smoke rising overhead buildings.
Earlier we reported Russian forces control “around half” of the city, a day after officials said Russian shelling had been so intense that it was not possible to assess casualties and damage.