689 children have been injured or killed in Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion, the Verkhovna Rada – Ukrainian parliament – said this morning, in a post to its official Telegram.
As of the morning of June 1, the official number of child victims was 243, and the number of injured was 446.
It noted that those figures are not final, as work was still underway to try and confirm deaths in occupied territories and areas with active fighting. The true number is likely much higher: in cities like Sievierodonetsk, the mayor has said it is impossible to keep track of civilian casualties amid round-the-clock shelling.
For more insight into why Ukraine has been pleading for arms like the missiles just promised by the US, I recommend our correspondent Luke Harding’s report from Mykolaiv. He spoke there to Ukrainian forces under constant fire, desperate for heavier weaponry. Roman Kostenko, a Ukrainian MP and special forces commander said this:
“Victory now depends on our international friends,” he said. “We have plenty of kalashnikovs and machine guns. If we get enough heavy arms Russia will not be able to go any further.” He stressed: “The west can change the outcome of this war.”
Reuters reports that Russia’s nuclear forces are holding drills in the Ivanovo province, northeast of Moscow. The report comes from Interfax news agency, citing the Russian defence ministry on Wednesday.
Some 1,000 servicemen are exercising in intense manoeuvres using over 100 vehicles including Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, it said.
The report came shortly after Biden announced the US would be sending a $700m package of security assistance, including medium range missiles, to Ukraine.
Biden to send mid-range rockets to bolster Ukraine defences
Some more detail on the military aid package announced by president Joe Biden:
The medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems are part of $700m of security assistance for Ukraine from the US that will include helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, tactical vehicles and more.
Biden said the United States the advanced rocket systems and munitions would allow Ukraine to “more precisely strike key targets on the battlefield”. The US is trying to strike the balance of assisting Ukraine without risking escalating the war further.
Senior US administration officials said Ukraine gave assurances the missiles would not be used to strike inside Russia:
These systems will be used by the Ukrainians to repel Russian advances on Ukrainian territory, but they will not be used on targets in Russian territory.”
Read the full story on that arms package here:
Summary and welcome
Hello. I’m Tess McClure and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
This morning, Joe Biden confirmed he will send more advanced, longer-range rocket systems to Kyiv, a critical weapon that Ukrainian leaders have been asking for as they struggle to stall Russian progress in the Donbas region. The medium-range high mobility artillery rocket systems are part of a new $700m tranche of security assistance from the US.
That missiles package is an attempt for the US to strike a balance – providing meaningful assistance, while avoiding escalating the war by providing weapons that could allow strikes deep into Russia.
It’s just after 7am in Ukraine. If you’re just waking up or dropping in to catch up on what’s been happening, here are some of the latest developments from overnight:
- Russian forces now control of most of the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk. Serhiy Gaidai, the local governor, said in an online post late on Tuesday that Russian shelling had made it impossible to deliver humanitarian supplies or evacuate people. Civilians were told to stay underground.
- President Zelenskiy has blasted the “madness” of bombing a chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk. “Given the presence of large-scale chemical production in Sievierodonetsk, the Russian army’s strikes there, including blind air bombing, are just crazy.” Local officials said a nitric acid tank was hit and posted images of pink smoke billowing.
- Zelenskiy said Ukraine’s military forces have had some successes near Kherson and in parts of the Kharkiv region.
- Ukraine welcomed EU sanctions but criticised the “unacceptable” delay. Speaking alongside Slovakia’s President Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv, Zelenskiy noted that 50 days had passed between the fifth and sixth sanction packages.
- Ukraine was working on an international UN-led operation with naval partners to ensure a safe trade route for food exports, according to Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, who said Russia was playing “hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports”.
- Ukraine’s giant seed bank is in danger of being destroyed. The genetic code for nearly 2,000 crops rests in underground vaults based in Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, which has come under intense bombing. Read more of the Guardian’s coverage how vital seed banks are in the climate crisis here and here.
- The African Union warned EU leaders that Moscow’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports risked “a catastrophic scenario” of food shortages and price rises. Senegal’s president, Macky Sall, who chairs the union, said “the worst is perhaps ahead of us” if current global food supply trends continued.
- Ukraine would prosecute 80 suspected war criminals, said the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova. Representatives of a group of countries investigating Russian war crimes have met with the international criminal court prosecutor, Karim Khan, at The Hague.
- A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister. Oleg Morozov from the United Russia party said on Rossiya-1 state TV he had a “fantastical plot” that a Nato war minister would travel to Kyiv and wake up in Moscow.
- Sanctions against Russia are directed at ordinary citizens and motivated by hatred, the former president, Dmitry Medvedev, has said. Medvedev, who advises Vladimir Putin on national security, said on Telegram that the “endless tango of economic sanctions” won’t touch the political elite but have brought losses for big business.
- Russia has further cut off gas supplies to Europe. Gazprom turned off the taps to a top Dutch trader and halted flows to some companies in Denmark and Germany. The intensification follows the EU’s decision to place an embargo on most Russian oil imports.