The United Nations has placed Russia’s military and allied armed groups on its “list of shame” over the killing and maiming of hundreds of children in its war against Ukraine, but Israeli forces have been left off the list despite killing more than 40 Palestinian children last year, according to reports.

Human rights organisations had made repeated requests that Israel be added to the UN blacklist over the killing and maiming of Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour on Thursday called UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s decision to leave Israel off the shame list a “big mistake”.

In the UN’s annual report on the treatment of children in conflict zones, which was distributed to members of the UN Security Council on Thursday, Guterres said that he was “appalled by the high number of grave violations against children in Ukraine” in 2022.

According to news organisations that had seen a copy of the report, 477 children were listed as killed in Ukraine last year, including 136 deaths directly attributed to Russian forces and affiliated groups.

Ukrainian armed forces were responsible for killing 80 children, according to the report. Of the remaining child victims, neither of the two warring sides could be blamed with certainty. The children were mostly killed by air attacks, the UN report said.

The UN also verified that Russian forces and affiliated groups maimed 518 children in Ukraine and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report. Ukrainian armed forces maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. Ukraine’s forces were not placed on the list.

The UN chief said in the report that he was “deeply concerned” by the number of Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces in 2022.

According to the report, 42 Palestinian children were killed and 933 injured in 2022 by Israeli forces. In 2021, Israeli forces killed 78 Palestinian children.

Israel has never been on the UN list of countries shamed for killing children.

Guterres said that he noted a “meaningful decrease in the number of children killed by Israeli forces, including by air strikes” last year compared with the previous report.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the UN’s decision to name Russian forces but criticised the UN chief’s decision to leave Israel off the shame list, saying that he “had failed Palestinian children again”.

“By adding Russia’s forces to his list of shame, the Secretary General is holding them to account for horrific violations against children,” said Jo Becker, the group’s advocacy director for children’s rights.

“His [Guterres’s] unwillingness, year after year, to hold Israeli forces accountable for their grave violations against children has backfired, only emboldening Israeli forces to use unlawful lethal force against Palestinian children,” Becker said.

“From 2015-2020, the UN attributed over 6,700 child casualties to Israeli forces. He has just verified 975 more in 2022. Yet he still omits Israel from his ‘list of shame’,” Becker wrote in a tweet.

UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres has failed Palestinian children again. From 2015-2020, the UN attributed over 6,700 child casualties to Israeli forces. He has just verified 975 more in 2022. Yet he still omits Israel from his “list of shame.”https://t.co/lCMSmkR9cg pic.twitter.com/3d48AOlsvj

— Jo Becker (@jobeckerhrw) June 22, 2023

Mansour, the Palestinian UN ambassador, said leaving Israel off the UN list was “very disappointing to the Palestinian people and to the Palestinian children”.

“The Secretary General made a big mistake in not listing this current Israeli government. This is the most extreme government, loaded with fascist elements. If you do not list this government now, when will you list the Israeli government?” Mansour said. “It’s very unfortunate that he selected not to list them.”

The UN report has long been controversial, with diplomats saying Saudi Arabia and Israel have exerted pressure in recent years in a bid to stay off the list of shame. A Saudi-led military coalition was removed from the list in 2020 several years after it was first named for killing and injuring children in Yemen.

Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays said that Russia’s inclusion marks the first time that “a permanent member of the Security Council has been on that black list”.

“Again the report is controversial. Part of that is because of Israel, which the report said killed 42 children in 2022. Now the Secretary General says that’s a meaningful decline and he’s not putting them on the blacklist,” Bays said, but noting also that Israel’s war in Gaza in 2021 was 11 days long and the war in August 2022 lasted just three days.

“The reality is #Israel is still killing many children,” Bays wrote in a tweet.

BUT this is only because #Gaza war in May 2021 was 11 days long, and in August 2022 lasted three days. The reality is #Israel is still killing many children.

— JAMES BAYS (@baysontheroad) June 22, 2023

The UN report also condemned violence against children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Syria, Haiti and other countries.

As the war enters its 482nd day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Tuesday, June 20, 2023.

Fighting

• Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said the country’s armed forces had liberated eight settlements in the past two weeks, including Piatykhatky, a village in the southern Zaporizhia region. She said the situation in the east of the country was “difficult” and “hot battles” were continuing.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces repelled 10 Ukrainian assaults in the east of Ukraine.
• The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down four Shahed drones and four Kaliber cruise missiles.
• The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence said Russian troops appeared to have begun relocating from the eastern banks of the Dnipro to shore up defences around Bakhmut and Zaporizhia, perhaps believing that the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse had made a Ukrainian attack across the river much less likely.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said United Nations aid workers who want to visit Russian-occupied areas ravaged by the dam collapse in southern Ukraine cannot go there because fighting makes it unsafe. The UN earlier said Russia had declined its assistance.
• Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed governor of the occupied Donetsk region, accused Ukrainian forces of shelling the town of Volnovakha, injuring 20 people. A six-year-old was also killed by a mine, he added.
• Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, said seven civilians, including a child, were injured in Ukrainian shelling of the Valuyki town.
• Kyiv accused Hungary of barring access to 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were handed over to the country by Russia. Budapest, a member of the European Union, has maintained ties with the Kremlin despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Diplomacy

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed an African mission to broker peace in Ukraine as “historic”. Ramaphosa made the remark on his return from talks in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the Russian city of St Petersburg.
• The Kremlin said it would continue talks with the delegation of African countries seeking to mediate in the conflict at a Russia-Africa summit next month.
• Ukraine is seeking up to $40bn to fund the first part of a “Green Marshall Plan” to rebuild its economy, Rostyslav Shurma, a senior Ukrainian official told the Reuters news agency.
• The UK’s foreign ministry said it introduced legislation to maintain Russian sanctions until Moscow pays compensation to Ukraine.
• NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said members of the military alliance will not issue a formal invitation for Ukraine to join their summit in Lithuania in mid-July.
• An EU report will this week say that Ukraine has met two out of seven conditions to start membership negotiations, two EU sources said.

Weapons

• On a high-profile visit to Beijing, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said China had renewed promises not to send arms to Russia for use in Ukraine and that Washington had asked the Chinese government to be vigilant about Chinese firms possibly providing Russia with technology.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke with UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about Kyiv’s defence needs and further cooperation between the two countries.
• Denmark’s military support for Ukraine will be increased to 21.9 billion Danish kroner ($3.21bn) during 2023-2028, the Danish defence ministry said. The aid will be delivered through a Ukraine fund that was set up in March as part of the small Nordic nation’s ambition “to be among the most significant supporters of Ukraine”.
• There is no time limit to Russia’s deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported, citing Alexei Polishchuk, director of the Russian foreign ministry’s department of former Soviet states.

As the war enters its 481st day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Monday, June 19, 2023.

Fighting

Vladimir Rogov, a Russian-installed official in Ukraine, said Ukrainian forces had captured the village of Piatykhatky in the Zaporizhia region, in Kyiv’s second gain on that front since it launched its counteroffensive earlier this month. Rogov said the Ukrainians had mounted waves of attacks and that “hundreds” of Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces repelled a series of Ukrainian attacks across three sections of the front line. The ministry said Kyiv was pressing most actively in the Zaporizhia region but did not mention Piatykhatky.

Ukraine’s army said its air force carried out 14 raids on Russian positions and destroyed two anti-aircraft missile systems.

Serhiy Bratchuk, the spokesperson for the Odesa military administration, said Ukraine destroyed a “significant” ammunition depot near the Russian-occupied port city of Henichesk in the southern region of Kherson.

The United Kingdom said Russia and Ukraine were suffering high numbers of military casualties as Kyiv fights to dislodge the Kremlin’s forces from occupied areas. The most intense fighting was in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, around Bakhmut and further west in the eastern Donetsk region, the UK said.

The boss of Russia’s Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said 32,000 men recruited from Russian prisons had returned home after the end of their contracts with the mercenary force in Ukraine.

Diplomacy

An African peace mission on the war in Ukraine that failed to prompt enthusiasm from either Moscow or Kyiv was still effective, according to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said the Africans would keep talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on their proposal.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will ask businesses to step up investment to help Ukraine rebuild at the Ukraine Recovery Conference that starts in London on Wednesday. Zelenskyy is expected to make a virtual appearance at the two-day event, organisers said.

Weapons

The European Union’s industry chief, Thierry Breton, said the bloc was speeding up arms deliveries to Ukraine in support of the country’s counteroffensive against Russian forces. Breton told the French daily Le Parisien that the EU was preparing for the war to “last several more months, or even longer”.

As the war enters its 480th day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Sunday, June 18, 2023.

 

Fighting

• Ukrainian forces advanced in southern sectors of their counteroffensive, according to Ukrainian military officials, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said movement in the counteroffensive was “the most important thing”.
• Kharkiv regional Governor Oleh Synehubov said two people were killed after a Russian missile hit a car driving towards the village of Huriyv Kozachok, which is near the border with Russia.
• Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region which borders Ukraine, said air defence units repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on a pumping station on the Druzhba oil pipeline.
• Ukrainian authorities reported 16 dead and 31 missing from the floods triggered by the destruction of the Russian-held Nova Kakhovka dam. “Sixteen people died: 14 in the Kherson region and two in the Mykolaiv region. Thirty-one people are still missing,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said. Russia previously announced 29 dead in areas it controls.

Diplomacy

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – who is in Russia as part of a peace-seeking delegation – told his Moscow counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that the war in Ukraine must stop. Ramaphosa laid out the 10 points of the African peace initiative, which is seeking agreement on a series of “confidence-building measures”.
• Putin challenged the assumptions of the African plan – predicated on acceptance of internationally-recognised borders – reiterating his position that Ukraine and its allies had started the conflict long before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February last year. Putin claimed it was the West, not Russia, that was responsible for last year’s sharp rise in global food prices and claimed it was Kyiv rather than Moscow that had refused peace talks.
• United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington had not changed its nuclear stance as Putin confirmed for the first time that Russia had positioned nuclear weapons in Belarus.
• Jens Stoltenberg is likely to be asked to remain as NATO secretary general for a further year, the Reuters news agency reported, citing a source familiar with the discussions and a US official.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia will take into account the “behaviour” of Western media and their countries’ “attitude” towards Russian reporters abroad when deciding whether to accredit their journalists for major forums in Russia, the state-owned TASS news agency reported.

As the war enters its 479th day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Saturday, June 17, 2023.

Fighting

• The Commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said the situation in the east of the country remains “tense” and plans for the ongoing counteroffensive against Russian forces need to be adjusted. “Despite the advance of our troops in the south and the loss of territory and settlements in this direction, the enemy continues to move some of the most combat-capable units to the Bakhmut direction, combining these actions with powerful artillery fire and strikes by assault and army aircraft on the positions of our troops,” he said.
• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces repelled numerous attempts by Ukrainian forces in their ongoing counterattacks over the last 24 hours and inflicted significant losses in the south Donetsk and Donetsk directions. More than 500 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and five tanks were destroyed, the ministry said.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin again rejected reports of Ukrainian counteroffensive successes on the front lines in Ukraine, saying that at “no point have they achieved their goals”. He also said Ukraine will soon run out of its own military equipment and will be totally reliant on the West.
• Ukraine will send several dozen combat pilots to train on US-made F-16 fighter jets, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said. NATO members the Netherlands and Denmark are leading efforts in an international coalition to train pilots and support staff, maintain aircraft and ultimately supply the F-16s.
• A team of legal experts assisting Ukraine’s prosecutors said that preliminary findings made it “highly likely” that the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine was caused by explosives planted by Russia.

Politics

• Putin proclaimed the end of “neo-colonialism” in international politics and praised Russia’s economic strategy following its ruptured ties with the West. “The ugly neo-colonial system of international relations has ceased to exist, while the multi-polar global order is strengthening,” he said at an annual economic forum in Saint Petersburg.
• Putin confirmed that Russia has sent nuclear arms to its ally Belarus. He also said that Russia could “theoretically” use nuclear weapons if there was a threat to its territorial integrity or existence.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it “ironic” that Putin had placed Russian nuclear arms in Belarus when Putin justified his invasion of Ukraine as an action to prevent Kyiv from obtaining nuclear weapons.
• The White House denounced the comments from Putin on the possible use of nuclear weapons, adding that the US had made no adjustments to its own nuclear posture in response to the rhetoric.

• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is ready for further talks on nuclear arms control, the Interfax news agency reported.
• A delegation of African leaders visited Kyiv on a peace mission where they called on Russia and Ukraine to de-escalate and negotiate. Shortly after their arrival, air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine as Russian missiles were detected. “The launching of the missiles today does not deter us and has not stopped us from continuing to call for de-escalation,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ruled out peace talks with Russia until a full withdrawal of Moscow’s forces from Ukraine.
• United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told Putin that his nation wished to strengthen ties with Russia. The Gulf state has not joined the West in placing sanctions on Moscow and has maintained what it says is a neutral position on the Ukraine war.
• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said NATO allies may be ready to remove hurdles from Ukraine’s path to joining the NATO military alliance amid reports that the US is open to allowing Kyiv to forgo a formal candidacy process.

• Turkey and Hungary must ratify Sweden’s NATO membership before the alliance meets at a summit in July, France said, adding that any further delays were not understandable and risked the security of the 31-member alliance.
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also urged Turkey’s new defence minister to approve Sweden’s NATO membership.
• Putin said there was a “serious danger” that NATO could be pulled further into the Ukraine conflict.
• Canada said it would bolster its force in Latvia as part of NATO with the deployment of 15 Leopard 2A4M tanks.
• Russia’s foreign ministry said it summoned the Australian ambassador after authorities in Australia cancelled the lease of a land plot where a new Russian embassy complex was being built in Canberra.

Humanitarian aid

• The United Nations estimates an “extraordinary” 700,000 people require drinking water in eastern Ukraine following the collapse of the Kakhovka dam.
• The US will provide an additional $205m in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, Secretary of State Blinken said.
• It is unlikely that Russia will quit the Black Sea grain deal before it comes up for renewal on July 17, Russian media reported. But Russian officials said they see no grounds to extend the agreement beyond that date. “How can you extend something that doesn’t work?” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

As the war enters its 474th day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Monday, June 11, 2023

Fighting

• Ukraine said its troops recaptured three villages from Russian forces in its southeast, the first liberated settlements Ukraine has reported since the start of its latest counteroffensive.
• Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet in the Kherson region and repelled three Ukrainian attacks in the Zaporizhia region.
• Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko confirmed six people were killed by flooding in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions after last week’s explosion at the Nova Kakhovka dam, which was under Russian control. Some 35 people, including seven children, are considered missing, he added.
• The governor of the Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said three people were killed and 10 injured after Russia shelled a rescue boat evacuating people from the floods.
• Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine tried to attack one of its navy vessels guarding major gas pipelines in the Black Sea with six undersea drones. It said all were destroyed.

• Russia and Ukraine announced simultaneously the exchange of nearly 100 prisoners of war from each side.
• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the chief of the mercenary Wagner Group, said his soldiers would not sign any contracts with Russia’s defence ministry after it issued orders for all independent forces to do so by the end of June.

Diplomacy

• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said an investigation into the breach of the Nova Kakhovka dam was under way with officials from the International Criminal Court visiting the Kherson region in recent days.
• Zelenskyy approved a proposal by the country’s National Security and Defence Council to sanction 178 Russian citizens, including 81 people who also hold Ukrainian citizenship.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was currently no foundation for any possible dialogue with Ukraine.

As the war enters its 472nd day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Saturday, June 10, 2023

Nova Kakhovka dam collapse

• European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “everything indicates” that Russia was responsible for the Kakhovka dam blast. “The dam was not bombed. It was destroyed by explosives installed in the areas where the turbines are located. This area is under Russian control,” Borrell told Spanish public television.
• United States spy satellites detected an explosion at the Kakhovka dam before it collapsed, The New York Times reported, citing an unnamed US official. The official said satellites with infrared sensors detected a heat signature consistent with a significant explosion.
• Ukraine’s security service said it intercepted a telephone call between Russian military personnel in which they discussed the Kakhovka dam explosion and how a sabotage team from Russia had destroyed the site. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) posted a short audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation.

• Ukraine continued to evacuate people in areas affected by flooding from the dam collapse and reported that at least five people had been killed. Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram that four people had died and 13 people were missing in the Kherson region and one person had died in the Mykolaiv region due to the flooding.
• Floodwater levels in some parts of southern Ukraine had begun to fall, officials said.
• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Japan would provide emergency humanitarian aid worth some $5m following the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson said.
• United Nations aid chief Martin Griffiths said it would take time to determine the full extent of the environmental damage caused by the Nova Kakhovka dam’s destruction. “But we all know … this is an absolute calamity,” he said, describing the reservoir as a “bread basket” that was important for the livelihoods of people living in southern Ukraine.

• Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg accused Russia of causing the collapse of the dam in Ukraine, calling it an act of “ecocide” by Moscow.
• Russia accused Ukrainian forces of shelling that had killed citizens affected by flooding from the dam in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the attacks “more than barbaric”. A day earlier, Ukraine accused Russian forces of shelling civilians and Ukrainian rescue workers in the flooded territory it controls.

Fighting

• Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine has started its expected counteroffensive against Russian forces but without success. “Ukrainian troops did not achieve their goals in any sector – thanks to the courage of Russian soldiers, proper organisation of troops,” he said.
• Ukraine’s Zelenskyy hailed the heroism of his armed forces amid reports of intensified fighting in the east and south, in what is seen as the likely start of Kyiv’s long-expected counteroffensive. “We see your heroism, and we are grateful to you for every minute of your life,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address.

• Russia’s defence ministry reported repelling Ukrainian attacks in the southeastern region of Zaporizhia and thwarting repeated attempts by the Ukrainian army this week to break through the front line. A spokesman for Russia’s Vostok group of forces said 13 Ukrainian tanks were destroyed in battles in the Zaporizhia region, and eight in the Donetsk region.
• Ukraine’s Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said the situation on the front lines is tense and heavy fighting is concentrated in the Donetsk region in the east. “The situation is tense in all areas of the front. The enemy continues to focus its main efforts on the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiiv and Marin directions. Heavy fighting continues,” Maliar said on Telegram.
• Russia unleashed air attacks on Ukraine overnight, killing at least one person in a combined assault of cruise missiles and attack drones, according to Ukrainian authorities. Ukraine said it shot down four out of six missiles launched during the attack and 10 out of 16 drones.

• Three people were injured by shards of broken glass caused by a drone strike on a residential building in the southern Russian city of Voronezh, regional Governor Aleksandr Gusev says. Gusev said the three people had received medical attention on the spot and declined hospital treatment.
• Russia will deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after facilities there are ready on July 7-8, Putin told his Belarusian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, at a meeting in Sochi.
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said a blast at an ammonia pipeline will be considered during consultations on the Black Sea grain export deal with Ukraine. Russia accused Ukraine of blowing up part of the pipeline in northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. Kharkiv’s governor said Russian forces shelled their own pipeline.

Military aid

• Russia has received materials from Iran to build a drone factory, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said. The White House released a satellite image of the location of the prospective plant in the Alabuga special economic zone, some 900km (560 miles) east of Moscow.
• The US Department of Defense announced an additional $2.1bn military package for Ukraine that includes Raytheon HAWK air defence systems and missiles, AeroVironment Puma unmanned aerial systems, laser-guided rockets and other munitions.

• Belgium will supply Ukraine with 105mm artillery rounds worth 32.4 million euros ($35m), a spokesperson for Belgium’s defence ministry says.
• Russia’s foreign ministry summoned the Japanese ambassador over Tokyo’s announced decision to supply military equipment to Ukraine.

Diplomacy

• Iceland will suspend embassy operations in Moscow from August 1 and has asked Russia to scale back its diplomatic activities in Reykjavik, the foreign ministry says in a statement. The suspension is due to an “all-time low” level of commercial, cultural and political relations between the two countries, the ministry said. Diplomatic relations between the two nations have not been severed.
• The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra will tour eight cities in Europe and the United Kingdom for the second summer in a row. The tour to support the war effort in Ukraine runs from August 20 to September 3.

Humanitarian

• Hungary said it received a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia, a release that Ukraine welcomed but expressed concern about not being informed. The POWs were from the western part of Ukraine that borders Hungary, according to both the Russian Orthodox Church, which said it had assisted in the release, and Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen.

As the war enters its 468th day, these are the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Tuesday, June 6, 2023.

Fighting

• Russia claimed its forces thwarted a “large-scale” offensive in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, killing 250 soldiers and destroying tanks and armoured vehicles.
• Hanna Maliar, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, said Russia’s claims that Ukraine had begun its counteroffensive were meant to direct attention away from Moscow’s losses around Bakhmut, which remained the “epicentre of hostilities”.
• Oleksandr Syrsky, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said Ukrainian forces were “moving forward” near Bakhmut, which Russia claims to have captured last month.
• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Russia’s Wagner Group, said Ukrainian forces had retaken part of the settlement of Berkhivka, north of Bakhmut. Speaking in an audio message, Prigozhin, who has lambasted Russia’s military leadership, said the loss was a “disgrace”.
• Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region that borders Ukraine, said there were clashes on the Russian side of the border after armed groups launched more cross-border attacks from Ukraine. Moscow said it targeted the “terrorists” with artillery fire.
• The anti-Kremlin Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion released a video saying they had taken Russian prisoners of war during their incursions. The one-minute and 26-second clip showed what appeared to be about a dozen Russian soldiers, with two lying on hospital beds. Gladkov said he was ready for talks to retrieve “our guys”.
• Russia’s defence ministry said it repelled a Ukrainian attempt to cross into the Belgorod region, according to the Russian RIA Novosti news agency. Moscow said “more than 10” Ukrainian fighters had been killed in air and artillery strikes.
• Two drones fell on a highway in Russia’s Kaluga region, which lies south of Moscow, with the governor saying on Monday that no explosives detonated.

Diplomacy

• Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said a statement by United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan calling for bilateral arms control discussions was “positive”. On Friday, Sullivan said the US would abide by the nuclear weapons limits set in the New START Treaty until it expires in 2026 if Russia did the same.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met United Kingdom Foreign Secretary James Cleverly in Kyiv and discussed preparations for a NATO summit in July as well as Ukraine’s formula for ending Russia’s invasion.

• The European Union imposed sanctions on nine Russian officials involved in the jailing of opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza. He was jailed in April for 25 years after being found guilty of treason and denigrating the military after he criticised Russia’s war in Ukraine.
• Russia’s foreign ministry said it saw no prospect of extending the Black Sea grain export deal, which is set to expire in mid-July, Russian news agencies reported.
• The EU will extend to September 15, restrictions on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products imposed by five member states seeking to protect their farmers.
• Italian cardinal Matteo Zuppi arrived in Kyiv on a two-day “peace mission”, the Vatican said in a statement.

Weapons

• Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said he would ask Ukraine for clarification on reports that rifles made in Belgium had been used by pro-Ukrainian forces in Belgorod.
• Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Ukraine had enough weapons for its counteroffensive against Russia and that the operation will give the country the victory it needs to join NATO.

As the war enters its 467th day, here’s a look at the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Fighting

• The Ukrainian Ministry of Defence renewed its plea for operational silence around a long-awaited counteroffensive against Russia, posting a video with the words: “plans love silence”.
• Russia’s defence ministry said it repelled a cross-border incursion by a group of pro-Ukrainian “saboteurs”, the Interfax news agency reported.
• Pro-Ukraine groups of Russian partisans said they had captured several soldiers during a cross-border raid into southern Russia and would hand them over to Ukrainian authorities.
• Russia launched a new wave of air assaults on Ukraine, striking an airfield in a central region but failing to hit the capital Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said.
• A Russian air raid hit a residential district in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing a two-year-old girl and injuring 22 residents, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 500 Ukrainian children had been killed since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
• Alexander Kamyshin, a senior Ukrainian government official, expressed “disbelief” after learning that nearly half of Kyiv bomb shelters inspected in an internal audit were closed or unfit for use.
• Fighting continued around Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine that has seen the longest and bloodiest battle since the war began.

Diplomacy

• Ukraine Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov rejected an Indonesian peace plan its defence minister suggested during a Singapore security summit. “It sounds like a Russian plan, not (an) Indonesian plan,” Reznikov said.
• NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said representatives from Turkey and Sweden will meet on June 12 to try to bridge their differences about the Nordic country joining the security alliance.
• China’s Defence Minister Li Shangfu warned against establishing “NATO-like” military alliances in the Asia-Pacific, saying they would plunge the region into a “whirlpool” of conflict.

Weapons

• Zelenskyy said Russia was using a network of suppliers to evade international sanctions designed to prevent it from making missiles and other weapons. He accused unnamed countries and companies of helping Russia acquire technology with an emphasis on producing missiles.
• The Kremlin said France and Germany’s supply of long-range missiles to Kyiv would lead to a further round of “spiralling tension”. Ukraine has asked Germany for Taurus cruise missiles, which have a range of 500km (310 miles), while President Emmanuel Macron has said France will give Ukraine missiles with a range that would allow it to carry out its long-anticipated counteroffensive.

As the war enters its 466th day, here’s a look at the main developments.

This is the situation as it stands on Sunday, June 4, 2023.

Fighting

• Russia launched a new wave of air strikes against Ukraine early on Sunday, striking an airfield in the central region but failing to hit capital Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities said.
• Shelling by Ukrainian forces on Russia’s Belgorod continued overnight on Saturday after two people were killed the previous night, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
• An air raid hit a residential district in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing a two-year-old girl and injuring 22 others, the region’s governor said.
• Five drones were shot down over the city of Dhzankoi in Crimea, the Moscow-installed governor of the region said.

Diplomacy

• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius called on the states in the Indo-Pacific to take a clear stance against attacks on the international security architecture, such as Russia’s war in Ukraine.
• France can hardly be a “moderator” in the Ukrainian conflict due to its active participation in it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
• The Kremlin said journalists from “unfriendly countries” would not get accreditation for the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, TASS news agency reported.
• Moscow and Washington discuss prisoner swaps “from time to time”, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yury Ushakov said.