Ukraine news – live: Russia bombs Kyiv after capturing key Donbas city

Four explosions reported in Kyiv, including two in residential buildings

Ukrainian drone strikes major Russian oil refinery

Several explosions were heard early on Sunday in the Shevchenkivskiy district of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the city’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app.

There was no immediate information on the cause of the explosions or casualties.

“Ambulance crews and rescuers dispatched to the scene. More detailed information - later,” Mr Klitschko said.

“Residents are being rescued and evacuated from two buildings.”

Images and videos posted on social media by residents showed smoke rising up in the sky in several places. Local media reports say the number of blasts this morning stands at four.

Earlier, six missiles were fired from the Black Sea at the Yavoriv base near the border with Poland, the governor of Lviv region in western Ukraine said.

Speaking in a video posted online, Maxim Kozytskyi said that four of the six missiles hit the target, while the other two were destroyed.

It comes as governors of western and northern regions have reported multiple missile attacks, indicating that Russia was not limiting its assault to eastern territories.

Key Points

• Several explosions in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskiy district, says mayor
• Sievierodonetsk now ‘under full Russian occupation’
• G7 to impose import ban on new Russian gold, reports say
• Dozens of Russian missiles hit military facilities

[26 June 2022 07:38 · Aisha Rimi]

Vladimir Putin ally warns London ‘will be bombed first’ if World War 3 breaks out

London will be the first strategic Nato target to be hit by Russian missiles should a third world war erupt, a close ally of president Vladimir Putin has claimed.

Speaking on Russian state TV, Andrey Gurulyov, an MP who sits on Moscow’s defence committee, described how a possible full-scale invasion of Nato’s Baltic state members would work.

Mr Gurulyov, a former military commander and member of the pro-Putin United Russia party, said: “We’ll destroy the entire group of the enemy’s space satellites during the first air operation.

Read the full story:

[26 June 2022 07:04 · Stuti Mishra]

Biden, G-7 leaders huddle on energy, inflation, Ukraine war

President Joe Biden and his G7 allies will huddle today on strategies to secure energy supplies and tackle inflation, aiming to keep the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine from splintering the global coalition working to punish Moscow.

Mr Biden arrived in Germany’s picturesque Bavarian alps early morning today for the annual meeting of the leading democratic economies, where the reverberations from the brutal war in Ukraine will be front and centre in the discussion.

He and the allies aim to present a united front in support of Ukraine as the conflict enters its fourth month.

[26 June 2022 06:30 · Stuti Mishra]

Putin promises Belarus nuclear-capable missiles to counter 'aggressive' West

Russia will supply Belarus with Iskander-M missile systems within a few months, Russian president Vladimir Putin told a televised meeting with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko on Saturday.

At the meeting, held in St Petersburg, Mr Lukashenko told Mr Putin that Belarus was concerned by the “aggressive”, “confrontational” and “repulsive” policies of its neighbours Lithuania and Poland.

He asked Mr Putin to help Belarus mount a “symmetrical response” to what he said were nuclear-armed flights by the US-led Nato alliance near Belarus’s borders.

“Minsk must be ready for anything, even the use of serious weaponry to defend our fatherland from Brest to Vladivostok,” he said, putting Belarus and its close ally Russia under one umbrella.

In particular, he asked for help to make Belarus’s military aircraft nuclear-capable.

Mr Putin said he saw no need at present for a symmetrical response, but that Belarus’s Russian-built Su-25 jets could if necessary be upgraded in Russian factories.

He did, however, promise to supply the Iskander-M, a mobile guided missile system codenamed “SS-26 Stone” by Nato, which replaced the Soviet “Scud”.

Its two guided missiles have a range of up to 500 km (300 miles) and can carry conventional or nuclear warheads.

[26 June 2022 06:00 · Stuti Mishra]

Boris Johnson to urge France and Germany to provide more military support to Ukraine at G7

Boris Johnson will use G7 and Nato summits to urge France and Germany to provide more military support to Ukraine and warn them against any attempt to push president Volodymyr Zelensky into a “bad” peace deal.

This week’s conferences in Germany and Spain offer the beleaguered prime minister – battling to stave off a new leadership challenge at home – the chance to talk about strong British backing for Kyiv.

Mr Johnson said he is not worried about rebel Tory MPs plotting to oust him while he is out of the country until Thursday – rejecting calls to come home and reassert his authority following disastrous by-election defeats.

Read more from Adam Forrest here:

[26 June 2022 05:30 · Stuti Mishra]

Several explosions in Kyiv’s Shevchenkivskiy district, says mayor

Residents in Kyiv woke up to the sound of several explosions early on Sunday in the Shevchenkivskiy district as images and videos posted on social media show smoke rising to the sky.

The mayor of the Ukrainian capital confirmed that some explosions were heard, in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

“Ambulance crews and rescuers dispatched to the scene. More detailed information - later,” Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, has said on the Telegram messaging app.

Initial posts from people suggest there were as many as four explosions. However, officials are yet to share any details about the loss of life or damage to property.

Nika Melkozerova, executive editor of New Voice Ukraine, said two of the explosions took place in a residential building.

[26 June 2022 05:02 · Stuti Mishra]

Sievierodonetsk now ‘under full Russian occupation’

Russian forces have fully occupied the strategic eastern city of Sievierodonetsk after weeks of relentless fighting and bombardment, its mayor has said.

“The city is now under the full occupation of Russia. They are trying to establish their own order, as far as I know they have appointed some kind of commandant,” mayor Oleksandr Stryuk said on national television.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk - once home to more than 100,000 people but now a wasteland - was Russia’s biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had yielded only slow gains.

Russia will now seek to press on and seize more ground on the opposite bank, while Ukraine will hope that the price Moscow paid to capture the ruins of the small city will leave Russia’s forces vulnerable to counterattack.

[26 June 2022 04:19 · Stuti Mishra]

Russian aggression forcing Nato to ‘look again’ at boosting military capability

Russia’s war in Ukraine is forcing Nato to “look again” at boosting its military capability, the UK’s military chief has said.

Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, was asked by LBC’s Nick Ferrari if he was concerned about comments made by defence secretary Ben Wallace that western countries could struggle to mount a long-term offensive against Russia.

Sir Tony said the military alliance was looking at its resources and the speed with which it could respond if there was an escalation with Russia, but added that the “collective defence” of Nato gave the UK and its allies “extraordinary power”.

Joe Middleton has more:

[26 June 2022 03:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Russian strike ‘damages Kharkiv nuclear facility'

Shelling has damaged a nuclear research facility in city of Kharkiv, according to the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate.

It said the Russian strike damaged some of the site’s buildings and infrastructure, but did not affect the area housing nuclear fuel and radiation levels there are within a normal range.

“The probability of new damage ... which can directly affect the state of nuclear and radiation safety, remains high due to shelling by Russian troops,” it said in an online post.

[26 June 2022 02:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Ukraine to see ‘visible results’ of Kherson counteroffensive in two months

Ukraine will see “visible results” of its counteroffensive in the Russian-occupied region of Kherson August, the head of Kyiv’s military intelligence agency has said.

In an interview in Kyiv, Kyrylo Budanov, head of intelligence at Ukraine’s the ministry of defence, said that the counteroffensive there would be difficult, but that it was possible, Reuters reports.

[26 June 2022 01:00 · Emily Atkinson]

Why did Vladimir Putin invade Ukraine? The conflict explained