Russia-Ukraine war: Donbas battles ‘most brutal’ Europe has seen, Zelenskiy says; civilians trapped in Sievierodonetsk – live

Donbas battles ‘most brutal’ Europe has seen: Zelenskiy

The intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen and is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening, as Russian forces move closer to capturing the strategic eastern city.

Ukraine’s president made the comment during his nightly address to the nation, noting the fighting was having a severe effect on civilians and his country’s military:

The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying.

The battle for the Donbas will without doubt be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe.

A member of Ukrainian special operations team seen at a woodland in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 13, 2022.
A member of Ukrainian special operations team seen at a woodland in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 13, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Zelenskiy, who has expressed fears of losing support from the west as the conflict drags on, repeated earlier pleas for more and heavier military weapons from allies including the US and UK:

We are dealing with absolute evil. And we have no choice but to move forward and free our territory.

We draw the attention of our partners on a daily basis to the fact that only a sufficient number of modern artillery for Ukraine will ensure our advantage and finally the end of Russian torture of the Ukrainian Donbas.

Zelenskiy reiterated Ukraine’s desire to free its entire territory and “drive the occupiers out of all our regions”.

Although now the width of our front is already more than 2,500km, it is felt that the strategic initiative is still ours.”

Ukraine needs more long-range weapons, Zelenskiy says

Ukraine’s military has enough ammunition and weapons, but needs more long-range weapons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Danish journalists during a press briefing.

Pjotr Sauer

Pjotr Sauer

The Guardian’s Russia affairs correspondent, Pjotr Sauer, has spoken to the Russians who are fighting for Ukraine, including those who have joined a special military unit in the Ukrainian armed forces that is made up entirely of Russian nationals.

One fighter said of his decision:

I made compromises with myself for a long time … But on the 24 February [the day Russia launched its invasion], any talk of compromise became impossible. I could not be part of this crime.

The Kremlin is “sure” that pro-Russian separatist leaders in the Donbas would be willing to listen to an appeal from the UK over the fate of two Britons sentenced to death for fighting for Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in a conference call that London had not contacted Moscow about the issue.

A court in the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine last week sentenced Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun to death, saying they were guilty of “mercenary activities”.

Their families deny the trio, who were contracted by the Ukrainian armed forces, were mercenaries. Russia alone recognises the independence of the DPR.

Peskov also restated one of Moscow’s justifications for sending troops into Ukraine: that it had to protect the mostly Russian speaking people of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, collectively known as the Donbas.

Kyiv rejects the accusation of oppression of Russian-speakers as a baseless pretext for a land grab.

Rachel Hall here taking over the blog for the rest of the day – please do send over anything we’ve missed to [email protected].

Today so far …

  • The intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen and is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening, as Russian forces move closer to capturing the strategic eastern city.
  • Russian forces have cut off all last routes out of Sievierodonetsk by destroying all three bridges to the embattled eastern city, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai. In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control.
  • Russian artillery was hitting an industrial zone where 500 civilians were sheltering in the eastern Ukrainian city, Haidai added. Ukrainian troops in the city must “surrender or die”, a Russian-backed separatist leader in the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk warned.
  • Russia’s ministry of defence has again claimed today that surrendering Ukrainian forces in the Donbas have been fired on by their own side, in a move it described as “the Kyiv nationalist regime trying to stop the retreat and surrender of its units by punitive actions of detachments”. The claims have not been independently verified.
  • The deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration of the occupied Kherson region in Ukraine, Kirill Stremousov, has said it will remain forever Russian.
  • Ukrainian authorities said they discovered a new mass grave of civilians near Bucha in the Kyiv region. Investigators exhumed seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest outside the village of Vorzel, less than 10km from Bucha, the scene of previous alleged Russian atrocities. Kyiv region’s police chief, Andriy Nyebytov, said: “This is another sadistic crime of the Russian army.” One man, he said, “has two injuries. He was shot in the knee with a gun. The second shot was into his temple.”
  • The UK’s ministry of defence has issued its daily assessment of the situation on the ground in Ukraine, suggesting “Russia’s operational main effort remains the assault against the Sievierodonetsk pocket in the Donbas and its Western Group of forces have likely made small advances in the Kharkiv sector for the first time in several weeks.”
  • The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has refused to be drawn on whether she would negotiate directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic over the situation of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner. The two British men have been sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine by what Truss called a “sham trial”.
  • Zelenskiy accused the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, of being too concerned about the repercussions his support for Ukraine would have for Berlin’s ties with Moscow. “We need from Chancellor Scholz the certainty that Germany supports Ukraine,” he said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF. “He and his government must decide: there can’t be a trade-off between Ukraine and relations with Russia.”
  • The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has accused “traitors” of passing on vital information to Russian forces during the bombardment of the southern port city at the beginning of the invasion. Boychenko said the destruction of the city’s critical infrastructure, including power supplies, was well-coordinated because Russia was provided with the coordinates.
  • About 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko. Criminal proceedings had been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead were men, 2% children and the rest women, he said.
  • Russia earned €93bn in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the war, according to research by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). With 61% of these exports, worth €56bn (£48bn), going to the member states of the European Union, the bloc of countries remains Russia’s largest export market.
  • Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since the Russian invasion, notably in the south and east, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said. At a news conference on Monday, Vysotskiy insisted food security for the country’s population was not under immediate threat: “Crop planting this year is more than sufficient [and] the current situation of crop planting areas … does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security”.
  • Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, has said he expects the war in Ukraine could last up to two years. Kasyanov, who championed close ties with the west while prime minister, said he felt that Vladimir Putin was already not thinking properly and that he was convinced Russia could return to a democratic path.

That is it, from Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Rachel Hall will be with you shortly to continue our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Here are some of the most recent images from Ukraine that have been sent to us over the newswires.

A view yesterday of the completely destroyed and burnt-out local bazaar buildings in Kharkiv.
A view yesterday of the completely destroyed and burnt-out local bazaar buildings in Kharkiv. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
A picture taken during a visit to Mariupol organized by the Russian military shows a Russian serviceman on guard in front of a school.
A picture taken during a visit to Mariupol organized by the Russian military shows a Russian serviceman on guard in front of a school. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA
A still from a video showing a police officer evacuating people at a location given as Pryvillia town, Luhansk.
A still from a video showing a police officer evacuating people at a location given as Pryvillia town, Luhansk. Photograph: National Police Of Ukraine/Reuters
Smoke rises after shelling in Donetsk on 13 June.
Smoke rises after shelling in Donetsk on 13 June. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images
Peter Beaumont

Peter Beaumont

Yesterday evening Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelenskiy claimed that the intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen. Peter Beaumont puts that claim into context here:

The claims by Zeleinskiy that the battles in the Donbas are among the most brutal and violent ever seen in Europe is best described as somewhat hyperbolic with considerable competition for that distinction.

It comes nowhere close to the attrition of some of the battles of the first world war – not least the Somme, where the British suffered almost 58,000 casualties on the first day alone of the battle including 19,240 killed.

In the battle for the Selow Heights outside Berlin in April 1945, the Soviets saw 30,000 killed, most in the space of less than a week. All of which was dwarfed by the losses on both sides at Stalingrad – seen as a key turning point in the war in Europe – which saw some 2 million casualties suffered by both sides during the course of the battle, including 40,000 Soviet civilian deaths.

Russia’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operations briefing for today. In it, they claim:

  • High-precision long-range Kaliber missiles destroyed an arsenal of artillery weapons and ammunition of the armed forces of Ukraine in Chernihiv region
  • Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 101 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment, leading to the loss of 350 lives, three command posts, 13 tanks and other combat armoured vehicles
  • Russian air defence systems shot down a MiG-29 aircraft and a Mi-24 helicopter

The claims have not been independently verified.

In addition to the regular update, today’s operational briefing also carries an additional message, in which the Russian ministry of defence claim that 30 Ukrainians who were in the process of surrendering in the occupied self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic were shot in the back by other Ukrainian forces. The claim has not been independently verified, but the message reads:

This incident, like many others like it, clearly shows that against the backdrop of growing military failures and the demoralisation of Ukrainian troops, the Kyiv nationalist regime is trying to stop the retreat and surrender of its units by punitive actions of detachments.

The lives of Ukrainian servicemen and mobilised fighters of territorial defence units mean nothing to the current leadership of Ukraine.

The deputy head of the Russian-imposed military-civilian administration of the occupied Kherson region in Ukraine has said it will remain forever Russian.

The Russian RIA Novosti news agency reports Kirill Stremousov saying:

We are already irrevocably the Russian Federation. We need to remember this, rebuild, get passports of citizens of the Russian Federation and remember that we will really feel at home there and feel good.

Serhai Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has confirmed that as usual there will be a free evacuation train for civilians from Pokrovsk to Lviv at 4.30pm local time today.

The UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has refused to be drawn on whether she would negotiate directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic over the situation of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner. The two British men have been sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine by what Truss called a “sham trial”. She told listeners of the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme:

The two people were fighting for the Ukrainian army. They were permanently located in Ukraine and they are prisoners of war. And the case is being taken up by the Ukrainians, by the Ukrainian foreign minister.

I am doing everything I can, in the best way I can, in the way that I judge is most effective, to deliver these people’s release.

Pressed on whether that would include direct talks with the pro-Russian group, she said she would not “go into our strategy live on air”, explaining:

These people are prisoners of war, fighting for the Ukrainian army. And it’s important to maintain that principle. And the Russian proxies are violating the Geneva Convention. And we need to be very, very clear about that.

That’s why the best route is through the Ukrainians, and I can’t go into the details of my discussions with the Ukrainians, but I can assure you, and I can assure the families, that we’re working flat out on this.

Russia’s ministry of defence has issued a statement and video this morning about the activities of their air forces in Ukraine. They claim:

Crews of ground attack aviation launched rocket air strikes on military facilities and equipment of units of the armed forces of Ukraine. Missile launches were carried out in pairs from low altitudes. As a result of the combat use of aviation weapons, camouflaged fortified field positions and armoured vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed.

The video depicts a row of Su-25, all marked with the ‘Z’ insignia.

Russian warplanes marked with the ‘Z’ insignia in the Russian ministry of defence video
Russian warplanes marked with the ‘Z’ insignia in the Russian ministry of defence video Photograph: Russian ministry of defence

The claims have not been independently verifed, and the footage does not make clear where or when it was filmed.

Two of Ukraine’s regional leaders have posted status updates this morning on Telegram. Maksym Kozytskyi, governor of Lviv, said that there were no air raid warnings in his region overnight. Oleksandr Syenkevych, mayor of Mykolaiv, reported that there had been shelling on various districts and settlements, but that there had been no casualties.

The UK’s ministry of defence has issued its daily operational report of how it perceives the situation to be on the ground in Ukraine. It writes:

Russia’s operational main effort remains the assault against the Sievierodonetsk pocket in the Donbas and its Western Group of forces have likely made small advances in the Kharkiv sector for the first time in several weeks.

The ministry also passed comment on the economic impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on its own domestic economy, stating:

On 10 June, the first deputy chairman of Russia’s military industrial commission predicted that state defence spending will increase by 600-700bn roubles (£8.5-10bn), which could approach a 20% increase in Russia’s defence budget.

Russian government funding is allowing the country’s defence industrial base to be slowly mobilised to meet demands placed on it by the war in Ukraine.

However, the industry could struggle to meet many of these requirements, partially due to the effects of sanctions and lack of expertise.

Russia’s production of high-quality optics and advanced electronics likely remain troubled and could undermine its efforts to replace equipment lost in Ukraine.

Mass grave of civilians found in Kyiv

In case you missed this disturbing report from earlier, Ukrainian authorities said they have discovered a new mass grave of civilians near Bucha in the Kyiv region.

The bodies of seven civilians were found near the village of Myrotske, many with their “hands tied and their knees shot”, according to Kyiv region police chief, Andrii Niebytov.

The victims had been tortured, he said in a statement.

Work is currently under way to exhume the bodies at the site and to identify the individuals, he added.

Kyiv region, another burial of civilians with tied hands was detected – the investigation has been launched

A war crimes investigation is underway, according to a release from Ukraine’s prosecutors office.

During the investigation in the trenches, the bodies of seven civilians with gunshot wounds and hands tied behind the back were discovered.”

An excavation team and police work in a forest near Bucha, Ukraine to excavate bodies of Ukrainian civilians.
An excavation team and police work in a forest near Bucha, Ukraine to excavate bodies of Ukrainian civilians. Photograph: Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Meanwhile, about 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko.

Criminal proceedings have been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead are men, about 2% are children and the rest are women, he said.

In Bucha, Irpin, Hostomel, Borodianka there were a lot of killed people lying right on the streets – snipers shot them from tanks, from armoured personnel carriers, despite the white armbands that the Russian military forced people to wear.

In Bucha, 116 people were buried in one mass grave, according to Klymenko. Other graves contained between five and seven bodies, he said:

Residents collected the bodies of the dead and buried them in parks.

He added:

About 1,200 bodies have not been identified so far. This is a long process, quite laborious because many bodies are in a state of decay, who were buried, shot, who could not be identified. We take DNA only from direct relatives – father, mother, children. This is the only way we work.”

Seven bodies were reportedly excavated from a mass grave.
Seven bodies were reportedly excavated from a mass grave. Photograph: Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Satellite images obtained by Maxar Technologies purport to show the three bridges destroyed by Russian forces in Sievierodonetsk.

The images are reported to have been taken on 11 June.

A satellite image shows a closer view of damaged Proletarsky bridge in northern Lysychansk, Ukraine.
A satellite image shows a closer view of damaged Proletarsky bridge in northern Lysychansk, Ukraine. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters
A satellite image shows damaged railroad bridges in the northwest of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine.
A satellite image shows damaged railroad bridges in the northwest of Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters
An overview of a damaged bridge in Rubizhne, Ukraine.
An overview of a damaged bridge in Rubizhne, Ukraine. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters
A satellite image shows damaged Pavlograd Bridge in western Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine on June 11, 2022.
A satellite image shows damaged Pavlograd Bridge in western Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine on June 11, 2022. Photograph: Maxar Technologies/Reuters

All bridges out of Sievierodonetsk destroyed, says governor

Russian forces have cut off all last routes out of Sievierodonetsk by destroying all three bridges to the embattled eastern city, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai.

In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control.

Earlier in the day, Haidai said Russians were continuing to storm the embattled city and “having a significant advantage in artillery” pushed back Ukrainian soldiers. “The Russians are destroying quarter after quarter,” Haidai said, adding that the Russian army had been “partially successful at night” and controlled 70% of the city.

Russian forces have cut off all last routes out of Sievierodonetsk by destroying all three bridges
Russian forces have cut off all last routes out of Sievierodonetsk by destroying all three bridges

The destruction by Russian forces of the remaining two bridges over the Siverskyi Donets River over the last two days leaves stranded civilians with no escape west to the neighbouring city of Lysychansk, which is also being shelled but remains in Ukrainian hands.

“Evacuation and transport of human cargo is now impossible,” Haidai said.

Donbas battles ‘most brutal’ Europe has seen: Zelenskiy

The intense battle for Sievierodonetsk will be remembered as one of the “most brutal” Europe has ever seen and is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday evening, as Russian forces move closer to capturing the strategic eastern city.

Ukraine’s president made the comment during his nightly address to the nation, noting the fighting was having a severe effect on civilians and his country’s military:

The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying.

The battle for the Donbas will without doubt be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe.

A member of Ukrainian special operations team seen at a woodland in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 13, 2022.
A member of Ukrainian special operations team seen at a woodland in Kharkiv, Ukraine on June 13, 2022. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Zelenskiy, who has expressed fears of losing support from the west as the conflict drags on, repeated earlier pleas for more and heavier military weapons from allies including the US and UK:

We are dealing with absolute evil. And we have no choice but to move forward and free our territory.

We draw the attention of our partners on a daily basis to the fact that only a sufficient number of modern artillery for Ukraine will ensure our advantage and finally the end of Russian torture of the Ukrainian Donbas.

Zelenskiy reiterated Ukraine’s desire to free its entire territory and “drive the occupiers out of all our regions”.

Although now the width of our front is already more than 2,500km, it is felt that the strategic initiative is still ours.”

Lithuania to buy howitzers from France

Lithuania has agreed to buy 18 howitzers from France, both sides’ defence ministers announced on Monday.

Lithuania, a European Union and Nato member, will inject an additional €300m ($312m) into its 2022 defence budget as the Ukraine war ramped up security fears.

Lithuanian defence minister Arvydas Anusauskas tweeted alongside a photo with his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu:

Lithuania will buy 18 Caesar MarktII howitzers from France.

They will significantly strengthen the Lithuanian armed forces’ defence capabilities.”

🇱🇹 will buy 18 Caesar MarktII howitzers from 🇫🇷. Today me and my colleague DefMin of 🇫🇷 @SebLecornu signed a letter of intent for acquisition of the systems. They will significantly strengthen @LTU_Army defence capabilities. ✅ It is the largest acquisition project of 🇱🇹 with 🇫🇷. pic.twitter.com/wHNHCl3gEW

— Arvydas Anušauskas (@a_anusauskas) June 13, 2022

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – all Nato members and part of the former Soviet Union – have come to Ukraine’s defence with military hardware and humanitarian aid.

Lithuania has said it sent military supplies worth “tens of millions” of euros, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, mortars, rifles, ammunition and other equipment. Lithuanians also crowdfunded over five million euros to buy Ukraine another Bayraktar drone.

Summary and welcome

Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you on the Guardian’s live blog as we cover all the latest developments from Ukraine.

Ukrainian defenders are being pushed further out of Sievierodonetsk – a key eastern city that has become the epicentre of the wider battle for control over Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.

Russian forces have destroyed all three bridges out of the city, leaving stranded civilians trapped.

If you’re just waking up, or dropping in to find the latest information, here’s a summary of the main points you might have missed:

  • Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said the intense battle for Sievierodonetsk is taking a “terrifying” toll on Ukraine. “The human cost of this battle is very high for us. It is simply terrifying. The battle for the Donbas will without doubt be remembered in military history as one of the most violent battles in Europe,” he said in an address to the nation late on Monday.
  • All three bridges to the embattled eastern city of Sievierodonetsk have been destroyed, according to the governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai. In a video update, Haidai said Russia had not “completely captured” the city and “a part of the city” was under Ukrainian control. Russian artillery was hitting an industrial zone where 500 civilians were sheltering in the eastern Ukrainian city, Haidai added. Ukrainian troops in the city must “surrender or die”, a Russian-backed separatist leader in the self-proclaimed republic in Donetsk warned.
  • Ukrainian authorities said they discovered a new mass grave of civilians near Bucha in the Kyiv region. Investigators exhumed seven bodies from makeshift graves in a forest outside the village of Vorzel, less than 10km from Bucha, the scene of previous alleged Russian atrocities. Kyiv region’s police chief, Andriy Nyebytov, said: “This is another sadistic crime of the Russian army.” One man, he said, “has two injuries. He was shot in the knee with a gun. The second shot was into his temple.”
  • Ukraine has called on the west to supply 300 rocket launchers, 500 tanks and 1,000 howitzers before a key meeting on Wednesday. The request was made publicly by Mykhailo Podolyak, a key presidential adviser, amid concern in some quarters it is pushing its demands for Nato-standard weapons to the limit.
  • Zelenskiy accused the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, of being too concerned about the repercussions his support for Ukraine would have for Berlin’s ties with Moscow. “We need from Chancellor Scholz the certainty that Germany supports Ukraine,” he said in an interview with German public broadcaster ZDF. “He and his government must decide: there can’t be a trade-off between Ukraine and relations with Russia.” Local media reports have speculated that Scholz could on Thursday make his first trip to Kyiv since the start of the war.
  • The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has accused “traitors” of passing on vital information to Russian forces during the bombardment of the southern port city at the beginning of the invasion. Boychenko said the destruction of the city’s critical infrastructure, including power supplies, was well-coordinated because Russia was provided with the coordinates.
  • About 1,200 bodies, including those found in mass graves, have not yet been identified, according to the head of the national police in Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko. Criminal proceedings had been opened over the deaths of more than 12,000 Ukrainians, Klymenko said. About 75% of the dead were men, 2% children and the rest women, he said.
  • Russia earned €93bn in revenue from fossil fuel exports in the first 100 days of the war, according to research by Finland’s Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea). With 61% of these exports, worth €56bn (£48bn), going to the member states of the European Union, the bloc of countries remains Russia’s largest export market.
  • Ukraine has lost a quarter of its arable land since the Russian invasion, notably in the south and east, deputy agriculture minister Taras Vysotskiy said. At a news conference on Monday, Vysotskiy insisted food security for the country’s population was not under immediate threat: “Crop planting this year is more than sufficient [and] the current situation of crop planting areas … does not pose a threat to Ukraine’s food security”.
  • The UN’s rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, described the “arbitrary arrests” of a “large number” of anti-war protesters in Russia as “worrying”. Speaking at the UN’s human rights council in Geneva, Bachelet also expressed concern about the “increase of censorship and restrictions on independent media” in Russia.
  • Mikhail Kasyanov, Russia’s prime minister from 2000 to 2004, has said he expects the war in Ukraine could last up to two years. Kasyanov, who championed close ties with the west while prime minister, said he felt that Vladimir Putin was already not thinking properly and that he was convinced Russia could return to a democratic path.
  • More than 15,000 millionaires are expected to flee Russia this year, as wealthy citizens turn their back on Putin’s regime, according to an analysis of migration data by London-based firm Henley & Partners.
  • The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The foundation arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war and that removing information is a violation of human rights.
An aerial view of completely destroyed settlements from Russian shells in northern Saltivka, about 40km from the Russian border in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.
An aerial view of completely destroyed settlements from Russian shells in northern Saltivka, about 40km from the Russian border in Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

source: theguardian.com