Russian forces were edging closer to the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk despite fierce resistance, Luhansk’s regional governor has said.
“The Russians are advancing into the middle of Severodonetsk. The fighting continues. The situation is very difficult,” the Luhansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a statement on social media, adding gas and water has been cut off with “no possibility” of restoring them.
Describing the Russian tactics, Mr Gaiday said: “They would be shelling for three, four, five hours and then advance. Those who are attacking are being killed, and then shelling starts again, and then another attack. And this would be happening until they are able to break through our positions somewhere.
“The weather is quite hot right now. And all over Severodonetsk’s outskirts, we have this persistent corpse stench because they [Russians] are not taking the bodies.”
Mr Gaiday also issued a statement, criticising Germany and Hungary for “slowing down” the supply of weapons from Europe to Ukraine.
Follow the latest updates below.
07:22 AM
Ukraine counterattacks around Kherson
Ukrainian forces counterattack in the south, claiming to have pushed back Russian troops in Kherson, the only region fully controlled by Russian forces.
“Kherson, hold on. We’re close!” Ukraine’s general staff tweet.
Kherson, which borders Crimea, was taken by Russian forces in March and Moscow-backed officials in the region have recently pushed for annexation.
Meanwhile, visiting the war-torn east for the first time since the Russian invasion, Volodymyr Zelensky says he has sacked Kharkiv’s security chief “for not working to defend the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thinking only of himself”.
Mr Zelensky’s office posts a video on Telegram of him wearing a bulletproof vest and being shown heavily destroyed buildings in Kharkiv and its surroundings.
07:05 AM
EU hopeful of deal on Russian oil ban
European Union members should be able to reach an agreement on imposing restrictions on Russian oil imports, the bloc’s foreign policy chief has said.
“We need to decide unanimously. There were tough talks yesterday afternoon, as well as this morning”, Josep Borrell told broadcaster France Info, adding: “I think that this afternoon, we will be able to offer to the heads of the member states an agreement.”
Asked if plans to include a ban to import Russian oil could fail over the resistance from Hungary and other eastern European states, Mr Borrell said: “No, I don’t think so … there will be an agreement in the end.”
A proposal under discussion among EU countries on Sunday evening would ban Russian oil delivered to the EU by sea by the end of the year but exempt oil delivered by the Russian Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Hungary, Slovakia and Czechia.
“We have to take the individual circumstances of everybody (EU member) into account,” Mr Borrell said, adding that a EU-wide solution should give the three countries which accounted for 7-8 per cent of Russian oil imports “more time to adjust.”
06:29 AM
French foreign minister to visit Kyiv
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna will visit Kyiv on Monday for talks with President Volodymyr Zelensky, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The minister wants to show France’s solidarity with the Ukrainian people and its full determination to reinforce its support… from a humanitarian and financial point of view as well as in terms of supplying defence equipment,” it said.
06:08 AM
Russia suffered ‘devastating losses to officer class’: MoD
04:58 AM
Ukrainian defenders hold out in Sievierodonetsk
Russian forces ramped up attacks to capture Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the southeastern Donbas region that Moscow has prioritised taking full control over.
Ceaseless shelling has left Ukrainian forces defending ruins in Sievierodonetsk, but their refusal to withdraw is stalling a massive Russian offensive across the Donbas.
“Some 90 per cent of buildings are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no telecommunication,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a televised speech.
“Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a fundamental task for the occupiers. We do all we can to hold this advance.”
04:34 AM
Ukraine counterattacks in Kherson
Ukrainian forces have counterattacked in the country’s south, claiming to have pushed back Russian troops near three villages in the Kherson region.
Russian troops were forced into “unfavourable positions” around the villages of Andriyivka, Lozovo and Bilohorka in Kherson, Ukraine’s military leadership said in a statement.
“Kherson, hold on. We’re close,” Ukraine’s general staff tweeted Sunday as their forces counterattacked in the only region of the country fully controlled by Russian troops.
03:05 AM
Kharkiv suffered ‘terrible blows’ from Russian forces, says Zelensky
Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv has suffered “terrible blows” from Russian occupiers, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The president visited the embattled city on Sunday, including the frontline positions of the military in the region.
“Black, burnt-out, half-ruined apartment buildings face east and north with their windows – from where Russian artillery was firing,” he said in his nightly video address.
“From where Russian combat aircraft arrived. They face Russia. And in them now, like in a mirror, the Russian state can see itself. See how much it lost during these 95 days of full-scale war against Ukraine.
“Russia has already lost not only the battle for Kharkiv, not only the battle for Kyiv and the north of our country. It lost its own future and any cultural ties to the free world. They all burned down.”
02:55 AM
Germany agrees to 100 billion euro fund to modernise military
Germany’s government and conservative opposition have agreed to a fund worth 100 billion euros that would modernise its army in the face of the Russian threat.
The government reached an agreement late on Sunday to create a special fund for military procurement that will also allow Berlin to achieve NATO’s target of spending two percent of GDP on defence.
The deal, which involves amending budgetary rules in the national constitution, was struck after weeks of difficult negotiations between the parties in the governing coalition and the conservatives of former chancellor Angela Merkel.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged the special budget of 100 billion euros to rearm the German military and modernise its outdated equipment in February, three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
01:32 AM
EU to pledge support for Ukraine
European Union leaders will meet on Monday to declare continued support for Ukraine to help it fend off Russia’s assault, but the talks will be overshadowed by their failure to agree on a new sanctions package against Moscow.
Leaders of the 27-nation bloc over two days will discuss how best to aid Ukraine four months into Russia’s invasion and how to deal with the conflict’s impacts, including high energy prices, an impending food shortage and the EU’s defence needs.
Draft conclusions of the meeting showed that while the EU will be generous with verbal support for the government in Kyiv, there will be little in terms of new decisions on any of the main topics.
“After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let’s hope it continues like this. But it is already starting to crumble and crumble again,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Sunday.
The most achievable will be support for a 9 billion euro package of EU loans, with a small grants component to cover part of the interest, so Ukraine can keep its government going and pay wages for around two months.
EU governments have not been able to agree on the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow because one of the elements – an embargo on buying Russian oil – is not acceptable to Hungary and a big problem for Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
12:16 AM
Zelensky fires Kharkiv’s security chief
Volodymyr Zelensky has fired Kharkiv’s security chief.
The dismissal came on Sunday after the Ukrainian President’s first trip to the war-torn east since Moscow invaded in February.
After visiting Kharkiv, Mr Zelensky announced that he had fired the northeastern city’s security chief in a rare public rebuke.
Mr Zelensky said the man was dismissed “for not working to defend the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thinking only of himself”.
While others had toiled “very effectively”, the former chief had not.
Although the President did not name the official, Ukrainian media reports identified him as Roman Dudin, the head of the Kharkiv region’s SBU security service.
11:37 PM
Nato has right to deploy in eastern Europe: deputy chief
Nato is no longer bound by past commitments to hold back from deploying its forces in eastern Europe, the US-led alliance’s deputy secretary general has said.
Moscow itself has “voided of any content” the Nato-Russia Founding Act, by attacking Ukraine and halting dialogue with the alliance, Mircea Geoana told AFP.
Under the 1997 Founding Act, intended to reset the relationship between Russia and the Alliance, both sides agreed to work to “prevent any potentially threatening build-up of conventional forces in agreed regions of Europe, to include Central and Eastern Europe”.
“They took decisions, they made obligations there not to aggress neighbours, which they are doing, and to have regular consultations with Nato, which they don’t,” Mr Geoana said.
“So I think that in fact this founding act is basically not functioning because of Russia.”
He said Russia had effectively moved away from the terms of the 1997 agreement: “Now we have no restrictions to have robust posture in the eastern flank and to ensure that every square inch of Nato’s territory is protected by Article 5 and our allies.”
Nato’s article 5 refers to collective defence – an attack on one member is an attack on all of them.
Mr Geoana did not give details of any such planned deployment, but said he anticipated “a robust, flexible and sustainable presence”.
11:24 PM
‘Very strict’ rules in use of nuclear weapons
Russian President Vladimir Putin will not use nuclear weapons in the conflict in Ukraine, Russia’s ambassador to the UK claims.
Andrei Kelin told the BBC that there were “very strict” rules on their use, with nuclear missiles only allowed to be deployed “when the existence of the state is endangered”.
“It has nothing to do with the current operation,” he said.
11:20 PM
Russian official claims Britain’s encouragement will delay peace
Britain’s encouragement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his troops will only delay a peace deal, the Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed.
On the “stalemate” between Kyiv and Moscow over a ceasefire, Andrei Kelin told the BBC: “And what we have from London, it is not the desire to finalise it or to negotiate it.
“We hear every day new appeals to send more weapons to Ukraine, to fight until the last Ukrainian soldier, to continue the conflict. And no negotiation until Russia will be beaten.”
The diplomat said Russian troops were involved in a “limited operation” and not a war in eastern Ukraine.
11:12 PM
Russia’s ambassador says Truss’s stance ‘no good for Ukraine’
Russia’s ambassador to the UK has accused Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, of being very belligerent and wanting to prolong the conflict in Ukraine.
Andrei Kelin said Ms Truss wanted to “instigate the conflict” by pushing for the West to continue supplying Kyiv, a position he argued would be “no good for Ukraine”.
Kelin said her stance showed that London was not interested in bringing about an end to the conflict.
“She’s very belligerent, your minister of foreign affairs, Liz Truss,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme.
“She’s neither a professional military man or she’s not (been) for a long time at this position.
“But she’s very belligerent. If she would like to continue the war she will prolongate the conflict.
“And it is up to her of course to make this statement or to make these deeds. But it will be no good for Ukraine, it will be no good for European peace and stability, and Europe itself.”
