live blog
For IAEA chief Grossi, the attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant mark the beginning of a “new war front.” Poland’s Prime Minister Tusk has called on the EU to provide more help to Ukraine’s neighboring states. All developments in the live blog.
The Ukrainian president wants to demonstrate progress in the construction of fortifications at the front with a video on the short message service X. Securing the front is the top priority, wrote Zelensky and thanked all the emergency services involved in the construction.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that five Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian territory during the night. Four were intercepted and destroyed over Rostov Oblast and one over Belgorod. Both areas lie on the border with Ukraine. The ministry speaks of a series of attempted “terrorist attacks” on targets on Russian territory that were thwarted.
Ukraine said it intercepted 16 of 17 Russian drones overnight. The Russian military also fired a Ch-59 guided missile. The attacks damaged an energy plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region and an important infrastructure facility as well as seven residential buildings in the Kherson region.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Belgium’s Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem has scheduled talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Sergii Marchenko next week, according to the Reuters news agency. The discussions are intended to address further aid for Ukraine in the fight against the Russian war of aggression.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the peace conference planned by Switzerland in the summer. Russia will not be invited, but at the same time it will be admitted that nothing can be decided without Moscow, Putin said at a televised meeting with Belarus’ leader Alexander Lukashenko. It is also claimed that Russia rejects negotiations to end the war. “This is a real panopticon,” said the Kremlin chief.
On Wednesday, however, the Russian embassy in Bern announced that Russia would not take part in the meeting even if invited. The peace conference is scheduled for June 15 and 16.
In the ZDF program “Maybrit Illner”, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, urgently appealed to allied states to support Ukraine with more air defense systems. “This is a war of resources and that is why we need support from our partners,” he emphasized.
Klitschko described the Russian war of aggression as “terror.” Russian President Vladimir Putin started burning the country so that people could no longer live there, because life was impossible without electricity and water. In Kiev alone, Russian attacks have destroyed more than 800 buildings and killed more than 200 civilians.
The Russian military carried out drone strikes on the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk overnight. Debris from a falling drone caused a fire in an energy facility, the Ukrainian army said on the Telegram online service. She did not provide any information about possible victims.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the latest Russian air strikes on the Ukrainian energy grid have, among other things, the “demilitarization” of Ukraine as their aim. “We assume that in this way we will influence the military-industrial complex in Ukraine,” Putin said at a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow.
The attacks are also a response to Kiev’s attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure, particularly refineries. “We have recently observed a number of attacks on our energy facilities and have been forced to respond to them,” Putin continued. However, the Russian armed forces did not target Ukrainian power systems this winter “for humanitarian reasons.” “We didn’t want to cut off the power supply to social institutions and hospitals,” said the Kremlin boss.
In the winter of 2022/2023, Russia carried out numerous air strikes on the Ukrainian energy network. Millions of people were repeatedly without electricity or heating for hours at temperatures below zero degrees Celsius. There were initially fewer attacks this winter, but since the end of March Moscow has been attacking the Ukrainian energy grid almost daily.
Conflict parties as a source
In the current situation, information on the course of the war, shelling and casualties provided by official bodies of the Russian and Ukrainian parties to the conflict cannot be directly verified by an independent body.
Against the background of the threat from Russia, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called on the European Union (EU) to pay more attention to the neighboring countries of Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia. The EU must help Ukraine “as much as possible,” said Tusk after a meeting with EU Council President Charles Michel in Warsaw. But the whole of Europe must “slowly think more actively about how we can help countries like Poland and Estonia, which are on the front line.”
Since the first days of Russia’s war of aggression against its neighboring country, Poland has given Ukraine “everything that was possible and even more,” said Tusk. “Today Poland must build its own security.” In this context, Tusk appealed for Europe’s cohesion. “If we are one Europe, then that means that the war is on our doorstep,” he said. Therefore, ways are being sought “to support Ukraine and the countries most affected by the consequences of this war.”
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has reacted with concern to the recent attacks on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. These marked the beginning of a “new and extremely dangerous war front,” said authority chief Rafael Grossi on Thursday at a special meeting of the authority’s so-called Board of Governors in Vienna. The attacks must stop; attacking a nuclear power plant is “absolutely not an option.” Grossi also called on the parties to the conflict to show restraint.
Russia’s envoy to the IAEA, Mikhail Ulyanov, expressed satisfaction after the three-hour deliberations. He hoped that these would persuade Ukraine to stop “the almost daily dangerous actions,” he said. Ukraine, however, accused Moscow of a “disinformation campaign” in a statement. It said Russia was faking attacks to discredit Ukraine.
The Kharkiv region near the border has ordered the forced evacuation of families with children in several communities. The Netherlands wants to support Ukraine with an additional 400 million euros this year. The developments to read.