Only 500 people are left in Bakhmut, the city in the east of Ukraine which has been subject to heavy fighting in the last year, according to the city’s mayor.
The figure from Oleksii Reva, reported by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, is startling when compared with its prewar population of 70,000.
Both Russia and Ukraine have claimed they are in control of the city in recent weeks.
The forces of Wagner group, the Russian paramilitary organisation headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, have been fighting there on Russia’s behalf. Prigozhin has voiced his fury over a lack of supplies.
It is just approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and here is a roundup of today’s news.
The west may at some stage have to negotiate with Vladimir Putin or the existing Russian leadership even as it pursues international justice against them, Emmanuel Macron has said.
In a speech in Moldova, he said: “The timing issue – and this is where I want to be very transparent and honest with you. The question is if in a few months to come, you have a window for negotiation with the existing Russian political power, the question will be an arbitrage between a trial and a negotiation, I will be very frank with you. And you will have to negotiate with the leaders you have, de facto, even if the day after you will have to judge them in front of them of the international justice. So this is a question of articulation. Because otherwise you can put yourselves just in an impossible situation where you say: ‘I want you to go to jail, but you are the only one I can negotiate with.’”
Macron also said that Ukraine needed security assurances. Leaders will meet in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, in July to discuss Nato membership for Ukraine.
Russia does not plan to declare martial law after Tuesday’s large-scale drone strike on Moscow, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said.
Figures from Russia, including the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said Putin should declare martial law nationwide to “sweep away that terrorist gang”.
Only 500 people are left in Bakhmut, the city in the east of Ukraine which has been subject to heavy fighting in the last year, according to the city’s mayor. The figure from Oleksii Reva, reported by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, is a tiny fraction of its prewar population of 70,000.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, has said he has asked prosecutors to investigate “crimes” committed by senior Russian defence officials before and during the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has claimed it destroyed the last major warship of the Ukrainian naval forces, the Yuri Olefirenko, which it said was stationed in the southern port of Odesa. The Russian air force said it attacked the ship on 29 May. Ukraine has not commented.
Russia has said it will evacuate children from villages near its border with Ukraine, after several days of shelling of the Belgorod region. “The situation in [the border village of] Shebekino is worsening,” the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram.
Analysis from the Kyiv Post has claimed that about 90% of the 500 missiles and drones launched by Russia in May in attacks on Ukraine failed, to the cost of $1.7bn. It said that 533 of them were destroyed by the Ukrainian air force. It includes 401 Shahed-136 drones, which cost about $20,000 each.
The Russian security council deputy chair, Dmitry Medvedev, said on Wednesday that Britain was Moscow’s “eternal enemy” and that any British officials who facilitated the war in Ukraine could be considered legitimate military targets.
A60-year-old man has been killed in the shelling of Vovchansk in Kharkiv.
Germany’s government spokesperson has said Ukraine has the right to attack Russian territory as it qualifies as self-defence. In an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Steffen Hebestreit said: “International law allows Ukraine to carry out strikes on the territory of Russia for the purpose of self-defence.”
The UN has proposed that Kyiv, Moscow and Ankara start preparatory work for the transit of Russian ammonia through Ukraine as it tries to salvage a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a source close to the talks has told Reuters.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry has said it is concerned after four Tatar people from Crimea were jailed in a Russian court in Rostov-on-Don.
They were arrested on “politically motivated” charges, a statement by the ministry said, for alleged “terrorist activities”.
One, Jebbar Bekirov, was jailed for 17 years, and the others, Rustem Tairov, Rustem Murasov and Zavur Abdulayev, were sentenced to 12 years in prison.
“These new falsified and worthless ‘sentences’ only show that Russia is resorting to all kinds of crimes in the temporarily occupied territories with the aim of destroying centres of freedom of thought and religion that are not under the control of its punitive bodies. Violence and repression cannot be the answer to the right to express one’s beliefs and defend one’s identity,” the statement adds.
Russia has said it will respond to what it called Germany’s “provocative” decision to shut down four out of five Russian consulates in the country by revoking their licences.
Berlin’s decision came after Moscow announced it would limit the number of German officials in Russia to 350.
“There can be no doubt in Berlin that these ill-considered, provocative actions will not go unanswered by us,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement, Reuters reports.
The west may at some stage have to negotiate with Vladimir Putin or the existing Russian leadership even as it pursues international justice against them, Emmanuel Macron has said.
In a wide-ranging speech at an EU leaders’ conference in Moldova, the French president also set out plans for a fast enlargement of the EU; reconciliation between the east and west of Europe; and a clear path to Nato membership for Ukraine.
He said Russia had lost all legitimacy, but that if the coming Ukrainian counter-offensive did not meet its military objectives, there would have to be an assessment of the nature of future European support for Ukraine. At the same time, he said that Ukraine was defending not just its own borders, but those of Europe.
He called for continuity in US policy towards Ukraine, but said the EU had to prepare for the possibility of a Republican administration being elected by strengthening its own defences.
In the frankest remarks yet by a European leader about the need to negotiate with Putin, Macron said: “The timing issue – and this is where I want to be very transparent and honest with you. The question is if in a few months to come, you have a window for negotiation with the existing Russian political power, the question will be an arbitrage between a trial and a negotiation, I will be very frank with you.
“And you will have to negotiate with the leaders you have, de facto, even if the day after you will have to judge them in front of them of the international justice. So this is a question of articulation. Because otherwise you can put yourselves just in an impossible situation where you say: ‘I want you to go to jail, but you are the only one I can negotiate with.’”
The UN has proposed that Kyiv, Moscow and Ankara start preparatory work for the transit of Russian ammonia through Ukraine as it tries to salvage a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a source close to the talks has told Reuters.
As the preparatory work starts, the UN wants parallel talks to be held on widening the Black Sea deal that was agreed last July to include more Ukrainian ports and other cargoes, said the source.
Russia agreed this month to a two-month extension of the deal, but has said the initiative will cease unless an agreement aimed at overcoming obstacles to Russian grain and fertiliser exports is fulfilled.
Ukraine and Turkey have agreed to the new proposal, intended to improve operations in the Black Sea grain export corridor, but Russia has not yet responded, the source said.
The UN had no immediate comment.
The UN and Turkey brokered the Black Sea grain initiative between Russia and Ukraine last July to help tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a leading global grain exporter.
Only 500 people are left in Bakhmut, the city in the east of Ukraine which has been subject to heavy fighting in the last year, according to the city’s mayor.
The figure from Oleksii Reva, reported by the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, is startling when compared with its prewar population of 70,000.
Both Russia and Ukraine have claimed they are in control of the city in recent weeks.
The forces of Wagner group, the Russian paramilitary organisation headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, have been fighting there on Russia’s behalf. Prigozhin has voiced his fury over a lack of supplies.
A great piece of analysis here from the Kyiv Post, which has looked into the cost of Russian missile attacks launched on Ukraine in May.
Its investigation found that about 90% of the 500 missiles and drones launched at Ukraine failed, at a cost to the Russians of more than $1.7bn.
The news website said that after looking at day-to-day information released by Ukraine’s air force, 563 missiles and Iranian-made Shahed drones were used to attack Ukraine.
It said that 533 of them were destroyed by the Ukrainian air force. It includes 401 Shahed-136 drones, which cost about $20,000 each.
The bulk of the apparent cost to the Russian government as part of the wider war effort came from the amount spent on missiles.
The website admits that it is only data that has been released by Ukraine and has not been independently verified. It adds that it made “conservative assumptions where it was necessary”.
Germany’s government spokesperson has said Ukraine has the right to attack Russian territory as it qualifies as self-defence.
In an interview with German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, Steffen Hebestreit said: “International law allows Ukraine to carry out strikes on the territory of Russia for the purpose of self-defence.”
However, Hebestreit said he did not believe German weapons should be used for the attacks.
The statement comes a day after a drone attack on Moscow damaged several high-rise buildings. Russia accused Ukraine of orchestrating the attack, but Ukrainian officials have denied responsibility.
That morning, Russia launched yet another drone attack against Kyiv, targeting the capital for the 17th time in May. One person was killed and at least 13 others were injured.
A 60-year-old man has been killed in the shelling of Vovchansk in Kharkiv.
A statement by the region’s military administration posted on Telegram said: “A 60-year-old man died today in Vovchansk as a result of enemy shelling.”
The cityis north-east of Kharkiv city and less than 4 miles from the Russian border.
The administration also reported that a 52-year-old woman was taken to hospital with shrapnel wounds.
More from Emmanuel Macron’s speech to the security forum in Bratislava in Slovakia, as he called on the west to give Ukraine “tangible and credible” security guarantees.
Stressing that Ukraine “is today protecting Europe”, Macron said it was in the west’s interest that Kyiv have security assurances from Nato, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.
“That is why I’m in favour, and this will be the subject of collective talks in the following weeks … to offer tangible and credible security guarantees to Ukraine,” he added.
He said various Nato members could provide these guarantees for the time being as Ukraine waits to join the alliance.
“We have to build something between the security provided to Israel and full-fledged membership,” Macron said.
The French head of state delivered the speech during a visit to Slovakia. At the Globsec event, focused on regional security issues, comes in the long runup to the Nato summit in Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on 11 and 12 July.
Macron recalled that he once called the western defence alliance “brain dead”, but said Russia’s invasion last year “had jolted Nato awake”.
“We need to help Ukraine today with all means to carry out an effective counter-offensive” against Russian forces, Macron said.
“It’s what we are currently doing. We have to intensify our efforts because what will happen in the next few months offers a chance even for … a lasting peace.”
Macron also called on EU nations to buy European arms and acquire in-depth strike capabilities.
“It is up to us Europeans to in the future have our own ability to defend ourselves,” he said.
“A Europe of defence, a European pillar within Nato, is indispensable. It’s the only way to be credible … in the long-term,” he said.
Macron will next visit Moldova on Thursday where he will meet with fellow European leaders, including from outside the EU.
Ukrainian authorities have claimed that 27,000 Ukrainian civilians are being held on Russian territory.
The Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, said during a briefing, reported by the Ukrinform news website: “According to our data, more than 27,000 civilian hostages are being held by the Russian Federation. This is a huge number of our citizens who are actually held captive by the Russians.”
Asked whether there had been any progress on the release of UNIAN news agency journalist Dmytro Khilyuk from Russian captivity, the press conference said that there had been no progress.
“Unfortunately, he has not returned to Ukraine yet. I will not say that we will return him in the near future. I am used to saying real things,” the ombudsman said.
Lubinets said he had repeatedly raised this issue with the Russian side and would continue to raise it.
Russia does not plan to declare martial law after Tuesday’s large-scale drone strike on Moscow, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has said.
His comments came after several leading Russian officials and pro-war figures urged the president, Vladimir Putin, to respond to the attacks by declaring a state of total war.
On Tuesday, Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman head of Chechnya whose forces have been fighting in Ukraine, said the Kremlin should declare martial law nationwide and use all its resources in Ukraine “to sweep away that terrorist gang”.
The Wagner mercenary group chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, similarly said Moscow had to “mobilise the whole of society right now”.
Hardline nationalists have for weeks called on the Kremlin to announce a new round of mobilisation, a widely unpopular move that the Kremlin has so far cavoided.
Putin appeared to play down the attack, and Russian state media touted that there was “no panic” in the city after the unprecedented incident.
Tuesday’s raids on Moscow were the latest in a series of drone strikes and sabotage operations behind enemy lines that have intensified in recent weeks before a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive. The attacks pale in comparison with Russia’s deadly assaults on Ukrainian cities that have hit large residential buildings or crowded business centres and killed dozens.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, has dismissed US statements that it does not want to see the situation in Ukraine escalate, after this week’s drone attack on Moscow. On her Telegram channel, Zakharova said:
That’s funny. They broke the house themselves, doused it with gasoline, set fire to it themselves, planted fireworks and firewood themselves, and now they are declaring an ‘unwillingness to escalate’. The ‘war of the west’ in a hybrid format has been going on for a long time.
Sweden should become a full member of the Nato military alliance as soon as possible and before the Nato Vilnius summit in July, the Norwegian foreign minister, Anniken Huitfeldt, said on Wednesday.
“There is absolutely no reason for holding Sweden back,” Reuters reports she said on the eve of a two-day Nato meeting of foreign ministers in Oslo.
Anniken Huitfeldt speaks during a media conference prior to a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Oslo. Photograph: Sergei Grits/AP
A dispatch from Shaun Walker at the Globsec forum in Bratislava, which the French president has addressed this afternoon.
It’s the third and final day of the Globsec forum and Emmanuel Macron has given a keynote speech on Ukraine and European security.
The speech, as my colleague Patrick Wintour reported this morning, was intended to reassure sceptical central and eastern and European elites that France is not looking to force Ukraine to make concessions at the negotiating table, noting that any peace deal should not involve the acceptance of lost territory.
After speaking in French, Macron answered questions from the audience of politicians and diplomats in English. Asked by the Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva how the international community should go about ensuring justice is done for Russian war crimes, up to and including the political elite, Macron first said the international community should support attempts to gather evidence, but injected a note of realism when it came to the international criminal court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin.
“The timing issue – and this is where I want to be very transparent and honest with you,” he said. “The question is if in a few months to come, you have a window for negotiation with the existing Russian political power, the question will be an arbitrage between a trial and a negotiation, I will be very frank with you.
“And you will have to negotiate with the leaders you have, de facto, even if the day after you will have to judge them in front of them of the international justice. So this is a question of articulation. Because otherwise you can put yourselves just in an impossible situation where you say: ‘I want you to go to jail, but you are the only one I can negotiate with.’”
