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National Resistance Centre says close to 20,000 children in total have been taken to Russia from the occupied territory of Ukraine
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and we’ll start with a rundown of the latest developments.
One-hundred-and-fifty children have been illegally taken from the Luhansk region to Russia, according to Ukraine’s National Resistance Centre. It said the children were taken from the occupied region’s Starobilsk district on 8 June to two centres in the Prikuban district of Russia’s Karachay-Cherkess republic.
Ukraine has regained control of more than 100 sq km (38 sq miles) of territory in its counteroffensive, senior Ukrainian military commander Brig Gen Oleksii Hromov has claimed. The deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said there was a “gradual but steady advance” but that Russian forces were putting up “powerful resistance” on the southern front.
The UN nuclear watchdog chief has said the situation is “serious” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant but a number of measures have been taken to stabilise it. Rafael Grossi said after visiting Europe’s largest atomic power plant that inspectors would stay at the Russian-occupied facility but that signing a document on security on the site was “unrealistic” while the two sides were still fighting. Ensuring water for cooling the plant was a priority, he said, adding that the station could operate safely for “some time”.
Gunfire briefly halted Grossi’s convoy as it headed back to Ukrainian-held territory following the visit to the Zaporizhzhia plant, but the delegation was in no immediate danger, a spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
Ukrainian fighter pilots are being trained to fly F-16 jets, Nato’s secretary general has revealed. Nato allies have yet to agree on delivering the so-called fourth-generation US fighters to Ukraine, but Jens Stoltenberg said the training of Ukrainian personnel was under way.
A group of UN experts said they had written to Moscow raising concerns about the use of torture by Russian military forces on Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war.
Republican and Democratic members of the US Congress introduced legislation that would make it easier for Ukraine to fund its fight against Russian invaders by using seized and frozen Russian assets.
Russia’s foreign ministry said it had summoned a Canadian diplomat in Moscow in protest over the confiscation of an Antonov plane in Toronto, and warned that Russian-Canadian relations were on the “verge of being severed”.
The Russian and Algerian presidents, Vladimir Putin and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, pledged to deepen their two countries’ “strategic partnership” during a three-day state visit by Tebboune as the Kremlin seeks to pivot towards Asia and Africa.
A Russian anti-war activist died in a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where he had alleged he was being mistreated, his lawyer said.
The US, the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark announced they would partner to send defence equipment, including hundreds of missiles, to Ukraine. A joint statement released by the British government said delivery of the equipment had already begun and should be completed “within several weeks”.
As many as 100 Russian troops gathered for a motivational speech near Ukraine’s eastern frontline may have been killed in a strike earlier this week, prompting fury among Russian military bloggers.
Members of the European Parliament called on Nato allies to honour their commitment to Ukraine by inviting the country to join the defence alliance and support opening EU accession negotiations this year.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, urged Switzerland to allow the re-export of weapons to Ukraine, telling its parliament that the move would be vital in combating the Russian invasion.
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