US supports international inquiry into war crimes in Ukraine as it happened | Ukraine

Today so far...

It is 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:

• Ukraine has staged a counterattack on the frontline city of Sievierodonetsk and recaptured a fifth of the city it had previously lost to Russian invaders, according to the head of the region, Serhiy Haidai. He said Russian forces were forfeiting recent gains in the city and Ukraine’s military had pushed them back by 20%. His claims are hard to verify amid the heavy fighting.

• Russian forces have combined airstrikes and massed artillery fires to bring its “overwhelming” firepower to bear in Donbas, the UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence report. This combined use of air and artillery strikes has been a key factor in Russia’s recent tactical successes in the region, the report reads.

• A famous monastery in eastern Ukraine, Svyatohirsk Lavra, caught fire after it was hit by Russian shelling. The monastery is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, which is run by Putin’s ally Patriarch Kirill. There are reports that four monks were killed as a result of the attack but this has not been verified.

• France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said it is vital that Russia is not humiliated so that a diplomatic solution can be found once fighting stops in Ukraine. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, reacted angrily to Macron’s comments and said such calls would “only humiliate France” and others taking the same view.

• Negotiations with Russia will only resume after new weapons arrive from the west and Ukraine’s position is “strengthened,” said David Arakhamia, a member of Ukraine’s negotiation group with Russia. Another negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said there was no point in talks with Russia until Moscow’s forces are pushed back as far as possible towards Ukraine’s borders.

• The world faces a critical food shortage unless Russia lifts its blockade on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Oleksandr Kubrakov, has warned. Efforts to improve other transport options in order to get its grains out by road, river and rail would be insufficient for Ukraine to deliver a fraction of its total grain stockpile, Kubrakov told the Financial Times.

• Ukraine’s intelligence services are in communication with the captured Azovstal steelworks fighters and Kyiv is doing all it can to ensure their release, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Denys Monastyrskiy. Hundreds of fighters were taken into Russian custody in mid-May after being ordered to stand down. Ukraine wants the fighters to be returned in a prisoner swap. However, some Russian officials have said forces could be tried or executed.
  

• Ukraine’s volunteer brigade announced the deaths of four foreign military volunteers fighting Russian forces. The International Legion of Defence of Ukraine, an official volunteer brigade, announced the four men were from Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and France. They did not specify when or under what circumstances the deaths took place.
  

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand the blog over to Nadeem Badshah, who will continue to bring you all the latest news from the war in Ukraine.

Ukraine slams Macron's call not to 'humiliate' Russia

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has dismissed calls by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, not to “humiliate” Russia for the sake of diplomacy.

In an interview, Macron offered to mediate in the war and warned against humiliating Moscow so as to keep the door open to a diplomatic solution.

In response, Kuleba said such calls “could only humiliate France and every other country that calls for it”.

Kuleba tweeted:

It is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives.

Our Shaun Walker reports on how in towns near Russia’s border, Moscow’s influence was strong and Ukrainian was rarely spoken. The war has changed that:

Gamlet Zinkivskyi grew up speaking Russian in the city of Kharkiv, just like his parents. But when Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, it was the final push for him to switch fully to Ukrainian.

“Unfortunately, I grew up speaking Russian, but it’s not pleasant to speak the same language as the army that is destroying whole areas of our country,” said Zinkivskyi, a 35-year-old street artist widely known to Kharkiv residents, who usually refer to him by his first name.

The switch of language is part of a broader journey towards a more pronounced Ukrainian identity for Zinkivskyi, something shared by many in the largely Russian-speaking areas of east and south Ukraine. It is a process which has become more pronounced in the past three months, but it has been brewing for some years.

As a young artist, Zinkivskyi had a longstanding dream: an exhibition in Moscow. Kharkiv is just a few dozen miles from the border with Russia and has long been almost entirely Russian-speaking. Culturally, Moscow felt like the centre of the universe. But when Zinkivskyi finally made it to a gallery there in 2012, he was horrified. He said:

They were obnoxious and patronising about Kharkiv and Ukraine, and frankly I thought: fuck them.

He returned to Kharkiv and became more focused on the Ukrainian art scene.

After the annexation of Crimea, in 2014, Zinkivskyi started trying to speak some Ukrainian with a few friends. Now he has fully switched, and for the first time is also introducing political and patriotic themes into his art.

The language issue is something that comes up again and again in Kharkiv. Oleksandra Panchenko, a 22-year-old interior designer, said that since 2014 she had been trying hard to improve her Ukrainian, but conceded that she still often speaks Russian with friends.

However, she is adamant that by the time she has children, she will be fluent enough to speak only Ukrainian at home. “I grew up in a Russian-language family, my kids will grow up in a Ukrainian-language family,” she said.

Read the full story here: Enemy tongue: eastern Ukrainians reject their Russian birth language

Here’s more on the fire at the Svyatohirsk Lavra in eastern Ukraine after it was hit by shelling this afternoon.

A statement on the Ukrainian Orthodox church website said:

As a result of hostilities, a large-scale fire broke out on the territory of the All Saints Hermitage of the Holy Dormition Sviatohirsk Lavra. The flames engulfed the main shrine of the monastery.

Videos published on social media show flames engulfing the monastery.

A tweet from the Ukrainian government shows the monastery, located near the town of Sviatohirsk in the Donetsk region, before and after it was hit.

The monastery is affiliated with the Moscow Patriarchate, which is run by Patriarch Kirill. Kirill is a long-serving Putin ally who has given his blessing to the war in Ukraine.

The tweet claims that four monks were killed as a result of a Russian attack on the monastery. It has not been possible to verify this.

Ukrainian negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, said there was no point in talks with Russia until Moscow’s forces are pushed back as far as possible towards Ukraine’s borders.

Asked about an offer from France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, to mediate talks between Kyiv and Moscow to end the war in Ukraine, Podolyak said:

...Until we receive weapons in their full amount, until we strengthen our positions, until we push them (Russia’s forces) back as far as possible to the borders of Ukraine, there is no point in holding negotiations.

Podolyak’s remarks come after another member of Ukraine’s negotiation team, David Arakhamia, said Kyiv wanted to strengthen its positions on the ground with the help of new weapons deliveries from the west before it resumes peace talks with Russia.

Ukraine announces deaths of four foreign military volunteers

Ukraine’s volunteer brigade announced the deaths of four foreign military volunteers fighting Russian forces and paid tribute to “their bravery, their memory and legacy”.

The International Legion of Defence of Ukraine, an official volunteer brigade, announced the four men were from Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and France. They did not specify when or under what circumstances the deaths took place.

In a statement, it said:

We lost our brothers in combat but their bravery, their memory and legacy will forever inspire us.

A Dutch citizen, Ronald Vogelaar, was buried on 21 May in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city, according to AFP. Colleagues said he had been killed several days earlier by artillery.

An Australian was reported killed in May and his death was confirmed by a foreign affairs department spokesperson. He was identified as Michael Charles O’Neill, 47, in a local Tasmania newspaper.

On Friday, Paris confirmed that a French volunteer fighter had been killed in combat in Ukraine, following reports that the man died in artillery fire in the Kharkiv region.

In a briefing on Thursday, the Russian ministry of defence said it had “eliminated hundreds of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine”, adding that 3,500 foreign fighters were currently in the country.

The ministry also warned that captured foreign soldiers would not be treated under the standards of international humanitarian law.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has urged the US to cut ties with Russian cities on the basis that “tyrants must not be allowed to enjoy ties to the free world”.

Zelenskiy was addressing the 90th annual conference of US mayors via video link, where he called on his audience to cut their connections with “twin” or “sister” city relationships.

Using the examples of Chicago, which names Moscow as its sister city, as well as Jacksonville and Murmansk, San Diego and Vladivostok, as well as Albany and Tula, Zelenskiy said:

Dozens of American cities maintain the so-called ‘brotherhood’ with the cities of the Russian Federation. What do these connections give you? Probably nothing. But they give Russia the opportunity to say that it is not isolated, even after beginning such a war.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, 3,620 settlements have “faced Russian occupation” and Russia has aimed almost 2,500 missiles at Ukraine, Zelenskiy said.

He urged mayors to take part in “the largest economic project of our time” by helping to rebuild Ukraine after the war.

Zelenskiy said:

I invite you, your cities, your companies, your business and professionals, to take part in this project. You can also become the people who choose to defend freedom and thus put an end to the history of tyranny.

Take patronage over a city, region, or industry that has been destroyed by Russian strikes. And rebuild them with the latest technology. This may be the largest economic project of our time, which will strengthen Ukraine, each country and each company that will participate in the post-war reconstruction.

A church in Donetsk has been hit by Russian shelling and has caught fire, with footage and photos circulating of the aftermath.

The Skete of All Saints of Svyatohirsk Lavra was built in 1526.

Macron: Russia must not be humiliated despite Putin’s ‘mistake’

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, said it is vital that Russia is not humiliated so that a diplomatic solution can be found once fighting stops in Ukraine.

He said that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, had made a “historic and fundamental mistake” by invading Ukraine and was now “isolated”.

Macron said he told Putin that he had “made a historic and fundamental error for his people, for himself and for history” in an interview with regional newspapers.

Macron said:

I think he has isolated himself. Isolating oneself is one thing, but being able to get out of it is a difficult path.

Russia should not be “humiliated... so that the day the fighting stops we can pave a way out through diplomatic means”, he said, adding that he was “convinced that it is France’s role to be a mediating power”.

Macron has spoken with Putin regularly since the Russian president ordered his troops into Ukraine. France has supported Ukraine militarily and financially but unlike many other EU leaders, Macron has not yet travelled to Ukraine to show his support.

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