Amnesty collects evidence of cluster bomb attack in Kharkov Selenskyj calls for modern air defense systems The news about the war in Ukraine in the star ticker.

Ukraine is urging additional and faster arms shipments from the west amid heavy fighting in the east of the country. After Russian rocket attacks on Monday night, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj again asked for modern air defense systems. According to a media report, the Ukraine is hoping that the forthcoming visit by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Kyiv will result in the immediate delivery of German tanks.

Amnesty International has found that Russia committed war crimes in attacks on Kharkiv. Accordingly, cluster bombs and cluster munitions were used.

9:35 a.m.: Ukrainian army pushed back from center of Sevierodonetsk

After weeks of fierce fighting, the Ukrainian army says it has been pushed back from the center of the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk in the Donbass region. The Russian army, with the support of its artillery, “partially” managed to push back the Ukrainian soldiers in the city center, the Ukrainian general staff said on the online service Facebook on Monday.

The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Hajdaj, also reported a “partial” success of the Russian troops on Monday night. Russian forces continued to “destroy” Sieverodonetsk, Hajday said on Facebook.

8.47 a.m .: Ex-Russian prime minister warns of Ukraine’s defeat

Former Russian Prime Minister and now exile opposition leader Mikhail Kasyanov has warned of the devastating consequences for peace in Europe if Ukraine, which had been attacked by Russia, lost the war. “If Ukraine falls, the Baltic states will be next,” Kasyanov warned in a video interview with the AFP news agency. He appealed to the West not to make any concessions to Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin.

Kasyanov emphasized that he “categorically” rejects French President Emmanuel Macron’s assessment that Putin should not be “humiliated”. He is also extremely critical of demands that Ukraine cede areas to Russia in favor of a peace settlement with Moscow. “What did Putin do to deserve this?” Kasyanov asked. “I think that’s wrong and I hope the West won’t go down that path.”

4.47 a.m .: Since the beginning of the war, Russia has probably earned 93 billion euros from energy exports

According to one analysis, Russia made 93 billion euros in revenues from fossil fuel exports in the first hundred days of its war against Ukraine. The EU is still by far the largest buyer of Russian gas and oil, according to the report released on Monday by the Finland-based Center for Research on Energy and clean Air (CREA).

The EU accounted for 61 percent of Russia’s fossil exports between February 24 and June 3, according to CREA. This corresponds to 57 billion euros. Among the individual countries, China was the most important customer with 12.6 billion euros, followed by Germany with 12.1 billion and Italy with 7.8 billion euros.

Russia’s revenues come primarily from the sale of crude oil at €46 billion, followed by gas in pipelines at €24 billion. The rest of the revenue comes from the sale of petroleum products, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and eventually coal.

4.32 a.m .: Peace researchers expect growing nuclear weapons arsenals

According to estimates by peace researchers, the number of nuclear weapons in the world could soon be increasing again after decades of decline. Despite a slight reduction in the global total number of nuclear warheads to an estimated 12,705, the Stockholm-based peace research institute Sipri expects this number to increase again over the next decade.

“There are clear signs that the declines that have characterized global nuclear arsenals since the end of the Cold War have ended,” said Sipri expert Hans M. Kristensen. His colleague Matt Korda warned that without immediate and concrete disarmament steps by the nine nuclear-armed states, the global inventory of nuclear weapons could soon increase again for the first time since the Cold War.

4.30 a.m .: Melnyk: Scholz should promise tanks when visiting Kyiv

The Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk expects Chancellor Olaf Scholz to promise the delivery of German tanks to Ukraine when he visits Kyiv. “Unfortunately, without German heavy weapons, we will not be able to break Russia’s massive military superiority and save the lives of soldiers and civilians,” Melnyk told the German Press Agency. “The Ukrainians expect that Chancellor Olaf Scholz will announce a new aid package for German armaments during his visit to Kyiv, which should definitely include Leopard 1 main battle tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles that can be delivered immediately.”

According to media reports, Scholz plans to travel to Kyiv this month with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Officially, the visit was neither confirmed nor denied.

4:00 a.m.: German armaments for 350 million euros in Ukraine

In the first three months of the Ukraine war, the federal government approved the delivery of weapons and other armaments worth 350.1 million euros to the country attacked by Russia. This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection to a request from the Left MP Sevim Dagdelen, which is available to the German Press Agency.

From the first day of the war, February 24, to June 1, the government gave the go-ahead for the delivery of weapons of war for 219.8 million euros and other armaments such as helmets and protective vests for 85.2 million euros. In addition, there are weapons and equipment for the Bundeswehr for 45.1 million euros, which were approved in a simplified procedure from April 1st. There is no breakdown into weapons of war and other armaments for this.

State Secretary Udo Philipp points out in the letter to Dagdelen that it is mostly used material from the Bundeswehr and that its “current value” has been calculated – not the sometimes significantly higher new value.

2.23: Amnesty collects evidence of cluster bomb attack in Kharkiv

The human rights organization Amnesty International has accused the Russian armed forces of numerous war crimes in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. According to Amnesty on Monday, it has evidence that Russian troops used cluster bombs and cluster mines in at least seven attacks on the country’s second largest city. These weapons are banned by international treaties.

Amnesty investigated a total of 41 attacks that killed at least 62 people and injured at least 196. Organization members spoke to 160 people in Kharkiv in April and May, including survivors of attacks, victims’ families and witnesses. Cluster munitions release dozens of smaller explosive devices into the air that spread over an area of ​​hundreds of square meters, indiscriminately killing and injuring people.

“People have been killed in their homes and on the streets, in playgrounds and cemeteries while waiting in line to receive humanitarian aid or to buy food and medicine,” Amnesty researcher Donatella Rovera said. “The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking and shows a total disregard for the lives of civilians.”

2:00 a.m.: Hackers hijack Russian state television websites

Unknown hackers placed a message against the war in Ukraine on Russian state television websites. On the streaming portal “Smotrim.ru”, for example, on Sunday evening next to photos of destruction in Ukraine there was “Putin destroys Russians and Ukrainians! Stop the war!”, as numerous Internet users reported on the Internet.

Russian state television later admitted to a hacker attack on “Smotrim” and the website of the news program “Vesti”. As a result, “unauthorized content with extremist calls” was displayed for less than an hour.

In Russia, the war of aggression in Ukraine is officially referred to as a military special operation. Deviating from the official line is punishable as spreading alleged false information about Russian armed forces.

On Monday night, the “Smotrim” website again showed links to propaganda material, for example about the “liberation” of the embattled eastern Ukrainian industrial region of Donbass and the award of the “Hero of Labor” award by Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin.

0.44 a.m .: The nuclear authority is again in contact with the nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia

According to Ukrainian information, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has regained contact with Europe’s largest nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhia. The connection between the data servers in Zaporizhia and the IAEA has been “restored”, the Ukrainian atomic energy agency Energoatom announced on Saturday evening in the messenger service Telegram. The IAEA later confirmed the information on Twitter.

“Thanks to the joint efforts” of Energoatom and the mobile network operator Vodafone it was possible to restore data transmission. Vodafone has a contract with the IAEA to transmit data from Zaporizhia. Since the end of May, all data has been stored on secure servers and immediately transferred to the IAEA after the connection has been restored, Energoatom said.

Zaporizhia nuclear plant has been occupied since early March by Russian troops, who took control of it a few days after they began invading Ukraine. In 2021, the power plant contributed around a fifth to electricity production in Ukraine. IAEA boss Rafael Grossi had already described the situation on the ground as “untenable”. Important maintenance work on the nuclear vehicle is constantly being postponed and essential equipment is not delivered, which leads to an increased risk of accidents.

0.31 a.m .: Selenskyj calls for modern air defense systems

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has again asked the West to supply modern air defense systems. Since the Russian invasion in February, Ukrainian cities have been hit by more than 2,600 enemy missiles, Zelenskyy said in his daily video address on Sunday. “These are lives that could have been saved, tragedies that could have been prevented – if Ukraine had been heard.” The country asked for modern air defense systems before the war, which could have been delivered years ago, Zelensky said.

In the embattled areas of eastern Ukraine, Russian troops continued to try to advance toward cities like Bakhmut, Slovyansk and Lysychansk, Zelenskyy said. In the strategically important city of Sievjerodonetsk, “every meter is literally being fought over”. According to information from Saturday, Ukrainian troops controlled around a third of the city at the time.