Nato has the right to deploy in eastern Europe, deputy chief says
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 Agence France-Presse.
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”. Geoana, speaking in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, said:
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.
So I think that in fact this founding act is basically not functioning because of Russia,” he added.
Russia, he said, 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 is the one referring to collective defence, which says that an attack on one member is an attack on all of them.
Geoana did not give details of any such planned deployment, but said he anticipated “a robust, flexible and sustainable presence”.
We will be pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for the next few hours.
Before we return, here is a comprehensive rundown of where things currently stand.
It is just past 3am in Ukraine on the 96th day of Russia’s war. Here is where the crisis currently stands:
Officials in eastern Ukraine say Russian shelling of Sievierodonetsk has been so intense that it has not been possible to assess casualties and damage, as Moscow closes in on the largest city still held by Ukraine in the Donbas. Fighting is believed to be taking place in the streets and “the entire critical infrastructure” of the city has been destroyed, according to president Zelenskiy. Ukrainian authorities have described conditions in Sievierodonetsk as reminiscent of Mariupol.
The “liberation” of Ukraine’s Donbas region is an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said according to a released from Russia’s foreign ministry.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy visited troops inKharkiv and toured the country’s second-largest city to see damage by Russian forces in his first official appearance outside the Kyiv area since the start of the war. “Kharkiv suffered terrible blows from the occupiers… One third of the Kharkiv region is still under occupation,” he said. According to local officials, over 2,000 apartment blocks have been wholly or partially destroyed by Russian shelling in the region.
About 31% of the Kharkiv region’s territory is temporarily occupied by Russian forces while 5% has been liberated by Ukrainian defenders, the head of the Kharkiv regional military administration said. “We are not yet able to fully inspect some of the liberated settlements, conduct full-fledged de-mining and begin rebuilding critical infrastructure, as shelling continues. Where we can do it remotely - we do it,” Oleg Synegubov said according to a release from the president’s office.
Zelenskiysaid he has fired the head of state security service inKharkivfor not working to defend the city, adding that “law enforcement officers” are now involved. “I came, figured out and fired the head of the security service of Ukraine of the (Kharkiv) region for the fact that he did not work on the defence of the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thought only about himself,” the president said in his daily national address. “On which motives? The law enforcement officers will figure it out,” he added.
The EU failed to agree on an embargo of Russian oil during talks on Sunday while debating whether to water down a ban on Russian oil imports to placate Hungary’s leader,Viktor Orbán, who is blocking the latest European sanctions. However, diplomats said they will still try to make progress ahead of a Monday-Tuesday summit on an exemption for pipeline deliveries to landlocked Central European countries. Zelenskiyis set to speak by video link to European Union leaders in Brussels on Monday.
The German economy minister, Robert Habeck, raised concerns that European Union unity on new sanctions against Russia is “starting to crumble”. “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,” he told a news conference on Sunday.
Russiawill continue to supply gas toSerbia, after a phone call between the Russian presidentand his Serbian counterpart. Aleksandar Vučić said he agreed a three-year gas supply contract with Putin, with further details to be finalised with producer Gazprom.
Russia is continuing to ship gas to Europe through Ukraine, Gazprom has confirmed. The Russian gas producer said its supply via the Sudzha entry point stood at 44.1 million cubic metres, up from 43.95 on Saturday.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has denied speculation that president Vladimir Putin is ill. Answering a question from France’s broadcaster TF1, Agence France-Presse quotes Russia’s top diplomat as saying: “I don’t think that sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment.”
Zelenskiy said he believed Russia would agree to talks if Ukraine could recapture all the territory it has lost since the invasion. However, he ruled out the idea of using force to win back his land. “I do not believe that we can restore all of our territory by military means. If we decide to go that way, we will lose hundreds of thousands of people,” he said.
Ukraine has started receiving Harpoon anti-ship missiles from Denmark and self-propelled howitzers from the United States. “The coastal defence of our country will not only be strengthened by Harpoon missiles – they will be used by trained Ukrainian teams,” Ukrainian defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov said.
Poland has also agreed to send artillery to Ukraine, Polish state media reported.
Ukrainian servicemen park a Russian BMP-2, an infantry combat vehicle, in the Kharkiv area, eastern Ukraine, on Sunday. Photograph: Bernat Armangué/AP
Nato has the right to deploy in eastern Europe, deputy chief says
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 Agence France-Presse.
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”. Geoana, speaking in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, said:
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.
So I think that in fact this founding act is basically not functioning because of Russia,” he added.
Russia, he said, 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 is the one referring to collective defence, which says that an attack on one member is an attack on all of them.
Geoana did not give details of any such planned deployment, but said he anticipated “a robust, flexible and sustainable presence”.
Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a “fundamental task” for Russia as 90% of houses in the city are now damaged, Zelenskiy has said.
As a result of the Russian strikes at Sievierodonetsk, the entire critical infrastructure of the city has already been destroyed. 90% of houses are damaged. More than two-thirds of the city’s housing stock has been completely destroyed. There is no mobile connection. Constant shelling.
Capturing Sievierodonetsk is a fundamental task for the occupying contingent. And they don’t care how many lives they will have to pay for this attempt to raise the Russian flag on 32 Druzhby Narodiv boulevard (Friendship of Nations - ed.) - no matter how bitter the name sounds now - where the Sievierodonetsk administration is located.
Here is a little more on the situation unfolding in Ukraine’s north-eastern city of Kharkiv.
President Zelenskiy noted in his most recent national address:
Kharkiv suffered terrible blows from the occupiers. Black, burnt-out, half-ruined apartment buildings face east and north with their windows - from where Russian artillery was firing. From where Russian combat aircraft arrived...
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. In particular, there, in Saltivka.
One third of the Kharkiv region is still under occupation. We will definitely liberate the entire territory. And everyone should work for this result in positions both at the local level and at the state level.”
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has denied speculation that president Vladimir Putin is ill.
Answering a question from France’s broadcaster TF1, Agence France-Presse quotes Russia’s top diplomat as saying: “I don’t think that sane people can see in this person signs of some kind of illness or ailment.”
Lavrov said that Putin, who will turn 70 in October, appeared in public “every day.
“You can watch him on screens, read and listen to his speeches,” Lavrov said in comments released by the Russian foreign ministry.
“I leave it to the conscience of those who spread such rumours.”
Putin’s health and private life are taboo subjects in Russia, and are almost never discussed in public.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fresh off his first trip to Kharkiv since the invasion, said on Telegram today that he has fired the head of state security service in the Kharkiv region for not working to defend the city and instead thinking “only about himself”. He said law enforcement officers were investigating why the former head of state security was thinking “only about himself”.
Zelenskiy also said Sunday that all critical infrastructure in Sievierodonetsk, the largest city still under Ukrainian control in the eastern Donbas region, has been destroyed.
Meanwhile, Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, went on the French TV channel TF1 to say that the “liberation” of the Donbas is an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own.
Serhiy Haidai, regional governor of the Luhansk oblast, said Sunday that the situation in Lysychansk, a city of 103,000 in the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine, has become “significantly worse”.
In a surreal bid to return to normalcy, the residents of Kyiv rang in Kyiv Day today with children climbing over burned Russian tanks and amid displays of Russian weapon systems that just weeks ago were used to attack this very city.
Russian forces focused heavily on capturing the capital of Kyiv early on in the invasion, laying waste to many of the surrounding cities and towns in the Kyiv oblast as Ukrainian forces held strong. In early April, Ukrainian forces were able to push them back, retaking occupied territories throughout the region and uncovering mass graves and horrific evidence that Russian troops had engaged in widespread torture and killing of civilians.
In the months since, residents have worked to get back to some form of normalcy, returning to restaurants and shops as they reopen in Kyiv even as they watched for news of missile strikes on their compatriots elsewhere in the country.
Children climb on a burned Russian tank, put up on display at Mykhailivska Square, during Kyiv Day celebrations in Kyiv, Ukraine, 29 May 2022. Ukraine’s capital celebrates the anniversary of its foundation every last Sunday of May. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA
Children climb on a burned Russian tank, put on display at Mykhailivska Square during Kyiv Day celebrations in Kyiv, Ukraine, 29 May 2022. Ukraine’s capital celebrates the anniversary of its foundation every last Sunday of May. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA
A girl looks on at a display of Russian weapon systems used in their attacks, outside St Michael’s Cathedral, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Edgar Su/Reuters
People walk across Kontraktova Square during Kyiv Day celebrations in Kyiv. Ukraine’s capital celebrates the anniversary of its foundation on the last Sunday of May. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA
A girl dances as she attends a concert by an orchestra during the Kyiv Day celebrations. Photograph: Natacha Pisarenko/AP
Russia: the 'liberation' of the Donbas is an 'unconditional priority' for Moscow
Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, went on the French TV channel TF1 to say that the “liberation” of the Donbas is an “unconditional priority” for Moscow, while other Ukrainian territories should decide their future on their own, Reuters is reporting.
“The liberation of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, recognized by the Russian Federation as independent states, is an unconditional priority,” Lavrov said in an interview.
For the other territories in Ukraine, “the people should decide their future in these areas,” Lavrov said.
In Kherson, a city in the south of Ukraine, nine out of 10 pharmacies are not operational, leaving its residents in a terrible situation where they cannot access the medications they need to live their lives.
9 out of 10 pharmacies are not operational in the southern #Kherson region of #Ukraine, reports @KRYMSOS
Prices have also gone up, creating significant challenges for people with chronic and other health conditions to get a hold of desperately-needed medication. v @OCHA_Ukrainepic.twitter.com/LWBep6KHBI
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram today that he has fired the head of state security service in Kharkiv for not working to defend the city.
AFP is reporting that Zelenskiy said in his daily national address that “law enforcement officers” are involved in his reason for dismissing the head of security service.
“I came, figured out and fired the head of the security service of Ukraine of the (Kharkiv) region for the fact that he did not work on the defense of the city from the first days of the full-scale war, but thought only about himself,” Zelensky said in his daily national address.
“On which motives? The law enforcement officers will figure it out,” he added.
Today Zelenskiy visited Kharkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine. Though much of the Kremlin’s focus has turned to the southeast region of the country, Russian forces are still shelling Kharkiv regularly.
Zelenskiy’s office said 2,229 buildings have been destroyed in Kharkiv and the region. “We will restore, rebuild and bring back life. In Kharkiv and all other towns and villages where evil came,” it said on his Telegram account.
Zelenskiy spent his trip meeting with local officials - the governor of Kharkiv region and the mayor of the city - to discuss reconstruction programmes for the region, calling on them to “find cool projects” to rebuild destroyed areas. “This is a chance for such districts to have a new face,” Zelenskiy said.
“In this war, the occupiers are trying to squeeze out at least some result,” Zelenskiy said in a later post.
“But they should have understood long ago that we will defend our land to the last man. They have no chance. We will fight and we will definitely win.”
Bakhmut, a city of 72,000 in the Donetsk region in the Donbas, was heavily hit this weekend - and its residents are preparing for even more heavy shelling from Russian forces in the days to come.
A local resident walks next to a building destroyed by a Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
A view shows a residential building destroyed by Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
A cat walks on debris of a residential building destroyed by a Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
A view shows buildings damaged by a Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
A destroyed factory is seen after a bomb strike, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 29, 2022. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
Here’s a look at the situation in the Donbas at the moment:
Seeing some commentary that Ukraine's position in Donbas is improving and renewed optimism. While Russia's advance from Popasna has slowed, it feels more tense here if anything here. Drivers who would work last week are now afraid to do so and more people have left.
The road from Bakhmut to Lysychansk is a deathtrap at best and even the road from Siversk sounds very dangerous now. After capture of Lyman, there's fear for the next stage of the Russian offensive. A sense of the calm before the storm now.
Reports of many civilian evacuations from Bakhmut today amid expectation that Russia will begin shelling the city heavily in the coming days, now that it is well within artillery range
In the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian servicemen and women readied themselves for the worst. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that Ukraine could lose 50 to 100 soldiers a day defending the eastern region of the country.
A Ukrainian serviceman stands at a position near a frontline, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
Ukrainian servicemen patrol an area near a frontline, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
A Ukrainian servicewoman Nataliia looks out of a trench at a position near a frontline, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
Ukrainian servicemen walk in a trench at a position near a frontline, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. Photograph: Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters
Ukrainian service members ride on top of a military vehicle, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, May 29, 2022 Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
Zelenskiy: All critical infrastructure in Sievierodonetsk destroyed
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Sunday that all critical infrastructure in Sievierodonetsk, the largest city still under Ukrainian control in the eastern Donbas region, has been destroyed, Reuters is reporting.
The Ukrainian president confirmed that taking Sievierodonetsk is Russia’s principal aim. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War had previously noted that the Kremlin’s fixation on Sievierodonetskhad drawn resources from other battlefronts, resulting in little progress elsewhere.
Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, Donbas, says #Ukraine had driven Russian troops back from a highway, allowing Kyiv’s forces to supply the key city of #Sievierodonetsk but in desperate need of weapons and ammunition to hold on.
The situation in Lysychansk, a city of 103,000 in the Luhansk oblast in eastern Ukraine, has become “significantly worse”, Serhiy Haidai, regional governor of the Luhansk oblast, said Sunday.
“A Russian shell fell on a residential building, a girl died and four people were hospitalized,” he said on Telegram.
According to AFP, Haidai said that fighting in the city of Severodonetsk was advancing street by street. An estimated 15,000 civilians remained in Severodonetsk, but a local official said the “constant shelling” was making it increasingly difficult to get in or out.
“Evacuation is very unsafe, it’s isolated cases when we manage to get people out. Now the priority is for the wounded and people who need serious medical assistance,” Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the city’s military and civil administration, told AFP.
Residents have also gone more than two weeks without a mobile phone connection, Stryuk said, and the water supply was becoming increasingly unstable.
