Russia Ukraine war live: Russian missile systems hit in Crimea as Kyiv faces drone assault – latest

Zelensky says China trying to undermine Ukraine peace summit

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Ukraine’s military hit three Russian surface-to-air missile systems in Moscow-occupied Crimea overnight, its second reported strike on air defences on the peninsula this week.

Strikes targeted an S-300 system and two more advanced S-400 systems near Belbek and Sevastopol, Ukraine‘s general staff said today.

“As a result of the strikes, two radars of the S-300 and S-400 complexes were destroyed. Information about the third radar is being clarified,” it said on Telegram.

It comes as Ukraine repelled a major Russian attack as an onslaught of cruise, ballistic missiles and drones targeted Kyiv and five other regions overnight, including Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Poltava, Kharkiv, and Vinnytsia.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv city military administration, said Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed all weapons on their approach to the capital.

The debris caused a fire at an industrial facility in the Kyiv region, the governor said. One resident was injured after a private residence, a garage, a gas station and a storage unit were damaged, he added.

The Ukrainian military said it shot down five out of six missiles and all 24 drones launched during Russia‘s overnight attack.

Key Points

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Here we have some of the latest photos from Ukraine

Below we have some of the latest photos from Ukraine.

At least nine people have been killed and 29 others injured, including five children, after a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in the city of Kryvyi Rih, central Ukraine (EPA)A handout photo made available by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (EPA)

Tom Watling13 June 2024 05:00

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West’s latest sanctions a message to banks in China, Turkey – US official

The latest wide-ranging sanctions by western nations against Russia are a “paradigm shift”, a former senior White House official said.

These sanctions expose foreign banks to the risk of being cut off from the US financial system if they deal with key large Russian banks, said Peter Harrell, who served as White House senior director for international economics in 2021 and 2022.

“For the first time, the US is shifting towards something that begins to look like… an effort to set up a global financial embargo on Russia,” Mr Harrell said.

“The message here is really one to banks in China and Turkey and the UAE and elsewhere outside of the G7 they face sanctions for continuing to engage in transactions with the big Russian banks and other sanctioned Russian banks,” he added, saying this would likely spark a “major retreat” by those banks from Russia.

“That financial pullback, in turn, is probably going… to complicate the flow of goods from countries that are continuing to trade with Russia,” he said.

The Treasury accomplished this by increasing to 4,500 the universe of Russian companies and individuals who could trigger such sanctions from about 1,200, the senior Treasury official told reporters.

Arpan Rai13 June 2024 04:47

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Russian forces ‘deliberately starved’ Ukrainians in Mariupol, new report claims

Russian forces deliberately starved Ukrainians in Mariupol as a tactic of war by targeting their water, food and medical facilities before taking the strategic port city in 2022, according to an investigation by an international human rights group.

Satellite imagery showing evidence of targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure in the city, including food distribution centres, was collected by Global Rights Compliance’s Starvation Mobile Justice Team, and relate to the first 85 days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine before the fall of Mariupol.

In a report on “Russia’s siege, starvation, and capture of Mariupol city”, the rights group said its investigators analysed reams of satellite imagery as well as pictures, videos, public statements and digital data to make the assessment. The investigation took about a year to complete.

Civilians who couldn’t escape “died silent deaths inside Mariupol”, Olha Matskiv, a Ukrainian legal advisor on the Starvation Mobile Justice Team, told The Independent.

Arpan Rai13 June 2024 04:34

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US expands Russia sanctions, targets chips sent via China

The US has dramatically broadened sanctions on Russia, and now also targeted China-based companies selling semiconductors to Moscow, as part of its effort to undercut the Russian military machine waging war on Ukraine.

Among the steps, the US Treasury said it was raising “the risk of secondary sanctions for foreign financial institutions that deal with Russia’s war economy,” effectively threatening them with losing access to the US financial system.

The US Treasury is also moving to restrict the Russian military industrial base’s ability to exploit certain US software and information technology services and, with the State Department, targeting more than 300 individuals and entities in Russia and beyond, including in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Separately, the Commerce Department said it was targeting shell companies in Hong Kong for diverting semiconductors to Russia, taking steps that would affect nearly $100m of high-priority items for Moscow including such chips.

It will also expand its lists of items Russia cannot import from other nations to cover not just US-origin products but US-branded goods, meaning those made with US intellectual property or technology, a senior Commerce official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Arpan Rai13 June 2024 04:15

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Russia suspected of being behind a recent failed arson attack in Prague, Czech prime minister says

Czech authorities suspect that Russia may have been behind last week’s attempt to set Prague public transport buses on fire, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said Monday.

A 26-year-old suspect was arrested Saturday and charged with terrorism in connection with Thursday’s failed arson attack. The suspect, who is from Latin America, faces up to life in prison if convicted, said police chief officer Martin Vondrášek.

“There’s a suspicion that the attack was likely organized and financed from Russia,” Fiala said. He said the failed attempt was likely part of Russia’s hybrid war against his country.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain13 June 2024 04:00

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Sunak to announce about £242m of Ukraine aid in G7 summit

Rishi Sunak is expected announce up to £242m ($310m) in bilateral assistance to Ukraine at the G7 summit, his office said.

The fresh tranche of aid is to support immediate humanitarian, energy and stabilisation needs for Ukraine.

“We must be decisive and creative in our efforts to support Ukraine and end Putin’s illegal war at this critical moment,” Sunak said ahead of the summit.

The Group of Seven nations and the European Union are also considering how to use profits generated by Russian assets immobilised in the West to provide Ukraine with a large up-front loan to secure Kyiv’s financing for 2025.

Arpan Rai13 June 2024 03:51

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Ukraine troops say firing US weapons into Russia is working and could ‘turn Russian lives into a nightmare’

A decision by Joe Biden to allow the use of weapons across parts of the border has had a ‘large psychological effect’, a colonel tells Askold Krushelnycky, who hears how Kyiv’s forces are holding Putin’s troops back around towns in Kharkiv:

Maryam Zakir-Hussain13 June 2024 03:00

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Japan considers sanctioning firms, including Chinese, for aiding Russia’s Ukraine war, NHK reports

Japan is considering imposing sanctions on companies, including Chinese firms, supporting Russia‘s war on Ukraine by supplying materials that can be used by Moscow’s military, public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday.

The report specifically mentioned the possible sanctions could target “groups that are suspected of providing material aid including domestic Chinese companies” and would forbid them from exporting from Japan.

Preparations are underway for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to announce the sanctions at the G7 summit scheduled later this week if the plans are finalised, NHK said.

United States officials have said China is backing Russia‘s war effort in Ukraine by helping Moscow in its biggest military buildup since the Soviet era, providing drone and missile technology.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on 20 companies based in China and Hong Kong in May and G7 leaders may warn smaller Chinese banks in assisting Russia‘s evasion of Western sanctions.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain13 June 2024 02:00

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One person dies in Ukraine shelling of Russia’s Belgorod region, governor says

A civilian man died and three people were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the town of Shebekino in Russia‘s Belgorod region, the governor of the region bordering Ukraine said on Wednesday.

“The man died from his wounds on the spot before paramedics arrived,” Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding that two wounded people were taken to local hospitals.

The shelling by multiple launch rocket systems also damaged six residential houses and 11 apartment buildings, he said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched against its smaller neighbour in 2022. Kyiv says its attacks on Russian territory at aimed at undermining Moscow’s war efforts by destroying military, energy and transport infrastructure.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain13 June 2024 01:00

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German energy company Uniper says a tribunal awarded it billions in damages from Russia’s Gazprom

German energy company Uniper said Wednesday that a tribunal has awarded it more than 13 billion euros (nearly $14 billion) in damages for gas that Russia‘s Gazprom hasn’t supplied since 2022.

Uniper said the arbitration tribunal based in Stockholm also ruled on June 7 that it has the right to terminate long-term gas supply contracts with state-owned Gazprom Export, and it is now formally ending the relationship.

The German government nationalized Uniper at the end of 2022 after Russia cut gas supplies to the country. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the company bought about half of its gas from Russia, which started cutting deliveries to Germany in June 2022 and stopped supplying it with gas altogether later that summer.

Maryam Zakir-Hussain13 June 2024 00:00