Live text – short and concise on the highlights of Russia’s war in Ukraine on June 2. For the fourth month in a row, Ukraine has been heroically defending its land against the aggressor’s invasion.
22:48. Russia is putting millions of people at risk of starvation around the world in its aggression in Ukraine. She emphasized that “Russia’s aggression is killing the people of Ukraine, destroying cities and infrastructure and at the same time blocking grain exports, putting millions of people around the world at risk of starvation.” The interlocutors expressed their commitment to work together to continue to assist Ukraine, as well as to find solutions to the food supply disruptions caused by Russia.
22:04. Western countries must prepare for a long “war of weakening” in Ukraine, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Thursday after meeting with US President Joe Biden. Stoltenberg pointed out that the Ukrainians “pay a high price for defending their country, but we see that Russia is also suffering heavy losses”. Reiterating that NATO did not want to engage in a direct confrontation with Russia, Stoltenberg acknowledged that the Western Alliance had a “duty” to support Ukraine. “Most wars – including this war – are likely to end at some point at the negotiating table, but we know that what is happening at the negotiating table is very closely linked to the situation on the battlefield,” the alliance’s secretary general added.
21:32. Moldova’s parliament formally banned Russia’s news programs on Thursday to prevent Moscow’s propaganda from spreading in the country.
21:06. The administration of US President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia on Thursday, punishing it for invading Ukraine. Speaking on the state of the country in March, the United States said it was working to confiscate yachts, luxury apartments and private planes owned by wealthy Russians linked to Putin. The purpose of the sanctions is to restrict the Russian army’s access to technology.
20:36. Thursday Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed LETA. The information contained in the mission’s expert report will also be available to international courts and tribunals that currently have or may have jurisdiction over these crimes.
20:02. Military experts predict that the decisive battle for the eastern part of Ukraine could start in the second half of the summer, lsm.lv reports. According to Ben Hodgez, the former commander of the US ground forces in Europe, the culmination of hostilities in eastern Ukraine is likely in August, but the counter-attack by Ukrainian forces could begin in late summer, in September.
18:53. The European Union (EU) surrendered to Hungarian pressure on Thursday and abandoned the idea of imposing sanctions on Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, sources in diplomatic circles said.
18:14. Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine raises questions about European values, said French Ambassador to Latvia Aurelia Rioja-Gunen. She also said that unprecedented sanctions had been imposed on Russia so that Europe could help Ukraine in military, moral and human terms. The ambassador pointed out that Europe had made much more progress in recent months than in previous years.
17:36. In the face of soaring energy prices and the European Union’s (EU) plan to impose a partial ban on Russian oil imports, OPEC + on Thursday decided to boost oil production faster than expected.
16.18. Poland intends to suspend the payment of benefits to Ukrainian war refugees from July 1, the newspaper Rzeczpospolita reports. An exception could be refugees who would find it difficult to support themselves, but other refugees will be encouraged to look for work.
14.38.Turkey has decided to donate a battle-free aircraft “Bayraktar” to Lithuania for handover to Ukraine, Lithuanian journalist Andrjus Tapins announced on Thursday, in whose campaign almost six million euros were donated for the purchase of such a drone.
14.13. The situation in the Luhansk region “remains complicated as the Russian army tries to break our line of defense from all sides,” the governor told Ukrainian TV channel 1 + 1. According to him, the main task of the attacking Russian troops is still the complete capture of Severodonetsk.
13.30. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed solidarity with Ukraine in the “barbaric war” that Russia has waged against the country, speaking out after a long period of silence and criticism of her own policy towards Moscow.
Merkel has said she will not give outside advice, but that she supports the German government’s efforts “to end this barbaric war.”
12.00. After the arrival of the first grain train from Ukraine to the stevedoring company “Bega” in Klaipeda port, the Lithuanian Port Authority has concluded that cargo transportation through Poland is too small to use its full potential, therefore efficient logistics is possible only through Belarus, the business newspaper ” knowledge “.
11.54. The US government plans to sell four drones “MQ-1C Gray Eagle” to Ukraine, which can be equipped with “Hellfire” missiles for use on the battlefield against Russia, said three sources known to the situation.
Gray Eagle drones are vastly different in that they can fly up to 30 hours depending on the mission, as well as gather large amounts of information for intelligence purposes.
11.28. The loss of life force of Russian troops in Ukraine has reached about 30,850 soldiers by Thursday morning, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army reports.
Since the resumption of the invasion on February 24, the Russians have lost 1,363 tanks, 3,354 armored personnel carriers, 661 cannons, 207 multi-barrel jet launchers, 95 anti-aircraft guns, 210 aircraft, 175 helicopters, 521 unmanned aerial vehicles, 120 autopilots and 23 missiles, 23 and 51 specialized equipment units.
09.57. Russia’s Luhansk region is losing 50 to 60 homes every day, and 52 homes have been damaged in the past day, Serhiy Hayday, head of the district’s military administration, told Telegram.
09.50. Ukraine’s wheat harvest could fall by 40% this year due to Russia’s attack on the country, the Ukrainian Grain Association (UGA) predicts. UGA estimates that Ukraine will get a little more than 19 million tons of wheat this season, compared to 33 million tons last year.
09.23. The Russian army has learned from previous mistakes, regrouped and is now concentrating all its forces on capturing Severodonetsk, the National Guard captain Jānis Slaidiņš said in an interview with the magazine “Ir”.
07.59. Ukrainian forces have destroyed two Russian high-speed landing cutters in the Dnieper-Bug estuary, the Southern Command said. Russian cutters have been destroyed by missiles and artillery units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
07.06. In the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian soldiers have reached the border with Russia in several places, said Oleksandr Motuzyanik, a press secretary at the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Although there is no active warfare in the area, Russian troops have begun to build fortifications there, Motuzyan said on the air of a national television marathon.
05.00. Hungary is blocking the approval of new European Union sanctions on Russia, demanding that they not be extended to Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, sources in diplomatic circles told the DPA.
04.25 .Russian troops fired rockets at the railway infrastructure in the Lviv region in western Ukraine on Wednesday night, so train traffic was suspended for several hours, Oleksandr Kamishin, head of the Ukrainian state railway company Ukrzalizniicja, said.
“Russian troops have once again hit the Lviv railway infrastructure. We are finding out the extent of the damage to the infrastructure. There are no casualties among the railwaymen,” Kamishin wrote on the Telegram messaging platform. However, Ukrainian media report that five people were injured. The media also reports that the electrical network has been damaged.
00.10. Almost all of Ukraine is sounding the alarm tonight. The Russian army fired rockets at many cities, reports pravda.com.ua.
Live text for June 1 here: Ukraine heroically defends its land on the 98th day. Latest information
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