Ukraine updates: Russia says Ukraine attacks repelled

Macron has vowed that “Ukraine will not be conquered” and said “the war of aggression led by Russia is already a strategic and geopolitical failure for the country” during his joint press conference with Polish and German leaders.

“We will ensure that Russia does not emerge victorious, and we will also prevent its withdrawal from this war,” Macron pledged.

Leaders gathered to find a common consensus ahead of an upcoming NATO summit set to take place in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius July 11-12.

During a security conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, in May, Macron urged Western nations to provide Ukraine with “strong, concrete and tangible” security guarantees and also offer the country “a path towards (NATO) membership”.

However, NATO countries have different opinions on how to react to Ukraine’s request to join the military alliance.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has claimed that his forces were making progress on the battlefield and inflicting necessary losses despite rain and fierce fighting.

“The battles are fierce, but we have movement and that is crucial,” he said in his nightly video address.

“The enemy’s losses are exactly what we need,” he added.

“I thank our guys for every Ukrainian flag that is now returning to its rightful place in villages on the newly de-occupied territory,” he said after Kyiv claimed to have recaptured seven villages from Russian forces.

French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed that the Ukrainian counteroffensive has started and said it had been meticulously planned by military leaders with a great tactical sense.

“The Ukrainian counteroffensive started several days ago,” Macron said, speaking alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday.

“It will be deployed over several weeks or even months,” he added.

“We have done everything to help it,” Macron said. “We have intensified the delivery of ammunitions, weapons and armed vehicles … We’ll continue in coming days and weeks.”

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar says the country’s forces have made further advances in a counteroffensive launched last week.

In a Telegram post on Monday, she said seven settlements had been liberated, including three not previously claimed – Lobkove, Levadne and Novodarivka in the southeastern Zaporizhia region.

Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has said 41 people were still missing in the floods caused by the Nova Kakhovka dam breach, which it blamed on Russia and which killed 10 people in the southern Kherson region.

“Currently, we know about 10 dead in Kherson and the region,” Klymenko said on Telegram. “We are also reporting 41 people as missing.”

The governor of the Kherson region, the most affected by the flooding, said two bodies were found on Monday in the regional capital, also called Kherson.

“Today, an unidentified woman and a 50-year-old man were found drowned in one of the city’s districts,” Kherson’s Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

A day earlier, Prokudin said three people were killed as Russia shelled a rescue boat evacuating people after the devastating floods.

Speaking about Travis Leake, a United States citizen detained by Russia, Blinken said the US was working to get in touch with him and his family.

“My number one priority as secretary of state is the safety and security of Americans abroad,” Blinken said. “And this is no exception. So we’re working to gather information to understand exactly what happened.”

Leake, a former musician, was arrested by the Khamovniki District Court of Moscow on Saturday, and was accused by Russia of “engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said it is too soon to say exactly where Ukraine’s counteroffensive is going, but Washington is confident that Kyiv will continue to have success in trying to take back its land seized by Russia.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington, Blinken said the United States was determined to maximise its support for Ukraine so it can succeed on the battlefield.

“Success in the counteroffensive would do two things: it would strengthen its position at any negotiating table that emerges, and it may have the effect as well of actually causing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to finally focus on negotiating an end to the war that he started,” Blinken told reporters.

A “robust” package of political and practical support for Ukraine, Blinken added, can also be expected at the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.

President Vladimir Putin has visited Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine in a rare face-to-face meeting with ordinary troops at the Central Vishnevsky Military Clinic outside Moscow on “Russia Day”.

The Kremlin aired images of Putin wearing a dark suit and accompanied by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in military attire.

The officials stood in front of a row of men in blue hospital outfits, some of them in wheelchairs.

As he pinned a medal on one of the men, the 70-year-old Russian leader said: “I congratulate you.”

“I serve Russia,” the soldier replied, shaking Putin’s hand.

The meeting appeared to take place under heavy security.

The TASS news agency said Putin presented the commander of a rifle platoon with the “Hero of Russia Star” – a Soviet-era medal that is the highest award in Russia.

Lawyers for Ukraine at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have rejected Russia’s account of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (MH17) as a conspiracy theory, in a case laying the blame on Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Kyiv said that Moscow violated a United Nations anti-terrorism treaty by equipping and funding pro-Russian forces, including militias who shot down MH17, killing all 298 passengers and crew nine years ago.

Last November, a court in the Netherlands convicted two Russians and a Ukrainian separatist in absentia for their role in the downing of the airliner and sentenced them to life in prison. It found that Russia had “overall control” over the separatist forces. Russia at the time rejected the decision by the Dutch court.

Last week, in hearings before the ICC, also known as the World Court, Russia said Ukraine’s MH17 case was based on “nonsense” and offered a host of alternative explanations for what happened.

On Monday, Ukraine’s lawyers hit back. One of them, Marney Cheek, told the court it had been “subjected to a rambling conspiracy theory” about the shooting down of MH17 which would be “better relegated to the darkest corners of the internet”.

Kyiv has accused Russia of being a “terrorist state” and said it tried to erase the culture of ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says he is concerned that Russia will leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI) deal on July 17.

“I am concerned, and we are working hard in order to make sure that it will be possible to maintain the Black Sea initiative and at the same time that we are able to go on in our work to facilitate Russian exports,” Guterres told reporters.

Moscow has previously threatened to quit the deal if obstacles to its grain and fertiliser shipments are not removed.

The agreement allows Ukraine to export its farm products from its Black Sea ports during the war.

Ukrainian pilots could begin training on F-16 fighter jets as soon as this summer, the Dutch defence minister has told the Reuters news agency.

The Netherlands and Denmark are leading an international coalition to train pilots and support staff, maintain aircraft and ultimately supply F-16s to Ukraine.

“This summer is our ambition, and we’ll see if that’s realistic” for the start of the training programme, Kajsa Ollongren said.

Ollongren said the aim would be to have the training programme fully operational within six months.

But a final decision has not been taken on Kyiv’s request for its allies to supply it with F-16s, Ollongren added.

At least one person has been killed and another injured in a Russian attack in the town of Orikhiv in the Zaporizhia region, Governor Yuri Malashko says.

Malashko said three bombs had damaged private houses and communications in the town, about 8km (5 miles) from the front lines.

Several hundred residents remain in the town despite the infrastructure being largely destroyed by Russian forces.

The leaders of seven African countries could visit Ukraine and Russia this week to discuss a peace initiative, TASS reports.

A source told the Russian news agency on Monday: “African leaders can make a trip as early as this week. First Ukraine, then Russia.”

“Obviously, they [the presidents] will be in the Russian Federation after the SPIEF [St Petersburg International Economic Forum],” the source added.

Last month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to receive a delegation of African countries to seek an end to the conflict.

The countries represented are Egypt, Zambia, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Uganda, South Africa and the Comoros.

Zelenskyy has thanked those who helped bring back Ukrainian prisoners of war.

In a Twitter post with footage of a group of Ukrainian soldiers celebrating their return home, Zelenskyy said: “Every time we bring our people back from Russian captivity, we remember our fundamental goal: We will not leave anyone of ours, nothing of Ukraine to the enemy.”

“Yesterday, we returned 95 more of our guys, our warriors, from captivity. In total, since February 24 last year, we have already returned 2,526 Ukrainians. I am grateful to our entire team involved in the exchanges! I thank every warrior who ensures that Ukraine has an ‘exchange fund’ for the release of our people,” he added.

Щоразу, коли повертаємо наших людей з російського полону, пам’ятаємо про фундаментальну мету: нікого свого, нічого українського ворогу не залишимо.

Вчора ми повернули з полону ще 95 наших хлопців, наших воїнів. Загалом за час після 24 лютого минулого року вже повернуто 2526… pic.twitter.com/7Votfg6FDp

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 12, 2023

Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud have congratulated Putin for marking Russia Day, the Tass news agency reports.

The crown prince wished Putin “good health and happiness” and the Russian government and people “further success and prosperity”, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

The International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) will allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in competitions from 2024, paving the way for an appearance at the Olympics.

The IFSC banned athletes from the two countries aftet Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and upheld their suspension at the organisation’s general assembly in April.

“The decision to initiate the process of reinstating athletes with Russian and Belarusian passports was not an easy one and was not taken lightly,” IFSC President Marco Scolaris said in a statement.

“Without hesitation, I say that the IFSC remains firm condemning the Russian aggression to Ukraine and continues to stand by our Ukrainian National Federation and climbers and the Ukrainian people.

“At the same time, we consider the mission of sport and the politicisation of the athletes.”

Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 474 of the war.

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Putin has called the former Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi a “true friend” after his death at the age of 86.

“For me, Silvio was a dear person, a true friend. I have always sincerely admired his wisdom, his ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions even in the most difficult situations,” Putin said in a message of condolence.

Russia’s defence ministry says it has repelled attacks by Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions.

Moscow added its forces carried out a strike on Ukrainian army reserve locations using long-range precision weaponry launched from the sea.

On Monday, Ukraine said its troops had recaptured a fourth village from Russian forces, a day after reporting the first small gains of its long-anticipated counteroffensive.

Several Swiss government websites have been targeted in a distributed denial-of-service attack that was claimed by pro-Russian hackers.

Switzerland’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said: “Various websites of the Federal Administration and enterprises affiliated with the Confederation were unavailable.”

“The NCSC is analysing the attack together with the administrative units concerned and defining appropriate measures,” it said in a statement.

The attack comes as the Swiss Federal Assembly prepares for a video address by Zelenskyy on Thursday.

The pro-Russian hacking group NoName said it was behind the attack after also claiming responsibility for an attack last week against the Federal Assembly’s website.

On Telegram, the group said last week’s attack was carried out to “thank Swiss Russophobes” for adopting another sanctions package against Moscow.