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Key events
The Kremlin said on Monday it would closely monitor France’s upcoming snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron, given what it called the French leadership’s “open hostility” to Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was monitoring the results of the European Parliament elections, in which far-right and Eurosceptic parties made big gains.
F-16 jets and military airfields outside Ukraine will become legitimate targets for Moscow if they engage in combat missions against Russian forces, state news agency RIA quoted a senior lawmaker as saying on Monday.
Andrey Kartapolov, the quoted deputy, is the head of the lower house of the parliamentary committee on defense of the State Duma.
As previously reported, nearly 90 countries and organizationshalf of Europe have confirmed participation in The peace summit on Ukraine organized by Switzerland has ended over the weekend despite Russia’s refusal to participate in the conference, Switzerland’s president said on Monday.
Viola Amherd told reporters in the Swiss capital that the summit on Saturday and Sunday would aim to chart a path to a possible peace nearly 28 months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine and the war continues.
“This is not propaganda,” Amherd said. “It is about the basis of the humanitarian aid provided by Switzerland … and about starting a dialogue.”
The Swiss president added that most of the participants – about half of whom will be represented at head of state or government level – are state leaders, but a “handful” are from organizations such as the United Nations.
Some, including French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are expected to attend the meeting in the Bürgenstock resort overlooking Lake Lucerne. About 160 invitations have been sent, and Amherd said it was not a “disappointment” for the Swiss government that fewer than 100 had so far announced participation in the first phase of the peace process.
Swiss officials said a final list of participants was expected by Friday, but key developing countries such as Turkey, South Africa and Brazil have not indicated whether they will attend. India has been said to participate, but it is not clear at what level.
Brazil and China have said they will not participate unless both countries — including Russia — are at the table, according to Swiss officials. Beijing is one of the biggest supporters of the Russian president Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the war.
The urban view of the Russian-Ukrainian photographer Boris Savelev – in photos
An extensive retrospective celebrates the work of Boris Savelev, a leading independent Russian-Ukrainian photographer who first worked in the Soviet Union. He lived in Moscow before returning in 2010 to his homeland Ukrainewhere he remained until moving to Spain as a refugee at the start of the 2022 invasion.
Russia’s budget deficit narrowed in May to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 0.8 percent in April, the Finance Ministry said on Monday. supported by higher revenues as Moscow sharply raises spending.
Revenues for the first five months of the year were 45.5 percent higher than the same period in 2023, the ministry said, citing preliminary data. Oil and gas revenue increased 73.5% and oil and gas revenue increased 34.1%, supported by higher-than-planned tax receipts.
At the beginning of 2023, Western sanctions due to the conflict in Ukraine this included an oil price cap and oil embargo, reduced Russia’s energy revenues.
Moscow expects a sharp increase in budget revenues and expenditures this year. The Treasury changed its 2024 budget plan earlier this month, now expecting to spend more and see slightly lower energy revenues to leave a full-year deficit of 1.1% of GDP, or 2.12 trillion rubles ($23.81 billion).
Diane Taylor
A young woman from Ukraine who sought asylum in the UK was asked by Home office to be separated from his parents, who live here, and return to his war-torn home country.
Anastasia Drevinitska20, came to the UK in December 2023 from his home in western Ukraine to join his mother Svitlana and father Vladimir, who had already arrived after finding sponsors under the Homes for Ukraine scheme.
Drevinitska has sought a sponsor to join them under the same scheme. A man from Ukraine offered to arrange her application papers if she paid him, allowing her to travel to the UK to join her parents. But when she arrived, she discovered that the documents her husband had given her were incorrect and that she had been deceived.
A local Ukrainian official denied on Monday a claim by the leader of the Russian region of Chechnya that Russian forces, led by a Chechen-based special forces unit, had seized control of a border village in the country’s northeast. Ukraine.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday that the Akhmat-Chechnya unit was leading Russian troops in taking control of Ryzhivka in Sumy Oblast, Reuters reported. The “large-scale planned offensive” inflicted “significant losses on the Ukrainian side, which was forced to retreat,” Kadyrov said.
However, Yury Zarko, a local official in Sumy, denied the presence of Russian troops in Ryzhivka on Monday in a comment to Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian government’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram that Russian forces tried to test Ukraine’s defenses on the Ryzhivka front. Ukrainian forces are controlling the situation, but the threat of Russian actions in the border area remains, he added.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense did not issue a statement on the action.
The Ukrainian army has warned in recent weeks of a build-up of Russian forces around the Sumy region in preparation for military action. A major Russian push into the northern region would stretch Ukrainian troops and open a new front in the war.
Charlotte Higgins
In case you missed it, here’s Charlotte Higgins’ interview with Ukrainian writer-turned-soldier Alexander Mihed about his powerful account of the past two years
Before February 24, 2022, the writer Alexander Mihed, then 33 years old, and his wife Olena had an enviable life. In 2018, they bought a three-story townhouse in Gostomel, a suburb of Kyiv. On Saturdays, they went out for brunch—poached eggs for him, cottage cheese pancakes for her—and walked their dog, Lisa, in the woods. Their weekend ritual included cleaning the house, and for Mykhed, that often meant a nice distraction from one of their many books. Life was full of things to look forward to: tickets to a Nick Cave concert; his new book on classic Ukrainian authors is almost complete. On weekends, they prepared something delicious. Olena perfected her prawn curry.
A little over two years later, I meet Mihed in a Georgian cafe near Kyiv’s central railway station. He’s late because of an air alert: as the sour notes of the sirens rise through the rush-hour commotion, Kievans, as usual, look at their phones to find that it’s only planes loaded with ballistic missiles taking off Russia, and generally decide to move on with their lives. When Mykhed arrives, wearing a hoodie and cargo pants, he looks pale and tired, his once flowing blond hair shaved into a scalp-revealing military haircut. He volunteered for the armed forces immediately after the full-scale invasion began. He is not allowed to tell me anything about his service except that he has just returned from a grueling 40 days of training. What he can tell me is that his old life is irretrievably lost. “I live with the feeling that I have no past. I live with the feeling that I have no future. I feel like my memories don’t belong to me,” he says. He doesn’t even know how old he is, he says – 36 officially. The war makes him feel both older than that and much younger.
Summary of the opening
Came in at 10.30am Kyiv and in Moscow. This is our latest Guardian blog, covering all the latest developments in the field of Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Ninety countries and organizations have so far registered to participate in the summit aimed at paving the way for peace in Ukraine, which Switzerland will host from June 15-16the Swiss government announced on Monday.
Russia was not invited to the summit, but the government said in a statement that the meeting would aim to “jointly define a road map” on how to include both it and Ukraine in a future peace process.
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The forces of Ukraine have hit an advanced Su-57 fighter jet at an air base in Russia nearly 600 km from the front line, according to Ukrainian military intelligence. GUR shared satellite images that appear to show plane among scorch marks and craters. “The photos show that on June 7, the Su-57 was standing intact, and on the 8th, there were ruptures from the explosion and characteristic foci caused by fires near it,” the GUR said.
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The strike took place on Saturday at Akhtubinsk base in southern Russia, reported the GUR. The aircraft, capable of carrying stealth missiles, was among “countless few” of the type in service. The Russian Su-57 fleet was largely absent from the skies Ukraineand was instead used to launch long-range missiles across the border.
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The UK Ministry of Defense said Russia was likely trying to avoid “reputational damage, reduced export prospects and compromise of sensitive technology” this will come from loss of Su-57 aircraft in enemy territory. For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry said its forces shot down three Ukrainian drones in the Astrakhan region, where the Akhtubinsk airstrip is located. Russian officials routinely say that all enemy threats have been put down, regardless of the actual outcome.
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Russian forces appeared are making progress in their assault on the strategic Ukrainian city of Chasov Yaraccording to reports on Sunday from both sides.
Chasov Yar is on high ground about 20 km (12 miles) west of Bakhmut, a town captured by Russian forces a year ago, and is seen as a potential springboard for Russia to advance on Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. -
Ukrainian media outlet Ukrainska Pravda quoted a military source and a blogger as saying that Russian forces had begun occupying the Chasov Yar neighborhood along a canal. The source said Russian troops were using guided aerial bombs to clear areas along a main road and have begun to move forward and build up their forces.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his late-night video address on Sunday did not mention Chasov Yar, but said the area around the city of Pokrovsk, in the southwest, remains the most difficult sector and “the one where the pressure from the occupiers is greatest.”
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Ukraine’s electricity grid operator Ukrenergo said it would impose one-hour reductions on Mondays from 4 to 10 p.m. The restrictions will not apply to “critical infrastructure” sites providing vital services. The government of Ukraine ordered all ministries and regional authorities last Friday to stop using air conditioning and turn off outside lights.
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