🔴 Live: Measures under way to stabilise ‘serious’ situation at Zaporizhzhia plant, IAEA chief says

6:10pm: African leaders to propose “confidence building measure” to Russia, Ukraine

African leaders could propose a series of “confidence building measures” during their initial efforts to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to a draft framework document seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Those measures could include a Russian troop pull-back, removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant targeting Russia’s Vladimir Putin and sanctions relief.

A cessation of hostilities agreement could follow and would need to be accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West, the document stated.

5:59pm: UN expert concerned over Russian state-backed torture in Ukraine

A United Nations expert voiced alarm Thursday over alleged widespread torture by Russian military forces in Ukraine, saying it pointed to “state-endorsed” abuse.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, said the alleged victims included both Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war, adding that she and UN rights experts had voiced their concerns in a letter to Moscow.

She cited reports and testimonies that torture was being consistently used to extract intelligence, to force confessions or used to punish former membership or support of Ukrainian armed forces.

“The alleged practices include electric shocks, beatings, hooding, mock executions and other threats of death,” she said in a statement.

In the letter, she said the consistency and methods of the alleged torture suggests “a level of coordination, planning and organisation, as well as the direct authorisation, deliberate policy or official tolerance from superior authorities”.

5:03pm: Algerian president on 3-day state visit to Kremlin

President Vladimir Putin and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune pledged to deepen their two countries’ “strategic partnership” as the Kremlin seeks to pivot Russia towards Asia and Africa.

Tebboune’s three-day state visit comes as Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine stretches into a second year. Amid ruptured ties with the West, Putin is seeking to bolster relationships with countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

“We are really happy to receive our friend, the President of Algeria, Mr. Tebboune, in the Kremlin,” Putin said after talks. “Algeria is a key partner for us in the Arab world and in Africa,” he said, adding Russia wanted to ramp up energy and military ties. The two leaders signed a declaration on “deep strategic partnership”, among other agreements.

The Kremlin plans a new Africa summit in July in Russia’s second city of Saint Petersburg, and Putin repeatedly stressed that he hoped to see Tebboune there.

4:55pm: NATO members must increase defence spending, Stoltenberg says

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that member countries needed to increase defence spending to “sustain and step up support for Ukraine” and to strengthen “deterrents and defence” within the military alliance.

Stoltenburg was speaking from the NATO headquarters in Brussels, joined by US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

NATO members have a target of contributing spending 2% of GDP to defence spending, which was met by just seven states in 2022, according to the organisation’s annual report.

Despite this, overall defence spending across the alliance increased by 2.2% in real terms compared with the previous year; Stoltenberg praised efforts from members to “step up” spending overall.

The current 2% GDP target is set to be reviewed at NATO’s Heads of State Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.

4:33pm: US says Ukraine making steady progress in difficult, violent counter-offensive

Ukraine is making steady progress in its still nascent counter-offensive against Russian forces, but the cost is likely to be high in what is proving to be a difficult, bloody battle, the top US general said on Thursday.

“Ukraine has begun their attack and they are making steady progress. This is a very difficult fight. It’s a very violent fight, and it will likely take a considerable amount of time at a high cost,” Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

Milley praised the leadership, skill and morale of Ukrainian forces, and contrasted that with Russia, saying: “Their leadership is not necessarily coherent, their troops’ morale is not high, and they’re sitting in defensive positions and many of them don’t even know why they’re there.”

4:01pm: Czech leader says Russians abroad should be monitored

Czech President Petr Pavel said Thursday that Russians living abroad in Western countries should be closely monitored by security services, given Moscow’s “aggressive war” in Ukraine.

The pro-Western Czech leader said he had sympathy for Russians outside the country finding it hard to cope with the invasion. But “when there is an ongoing war, the security measures related to Russian nationals should be stricter than in normal times”, he told the Prague-based, US-financed Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

“All Russians living in Western countries should be monitored much more than in the past because they are citizens of a nation that leads an aggressive war,” Pavel said.

He said the situation was similar to World War II when more than 100,000 Japanese descendants based in the United States were under “a strict monitoring regime as well” as they were placed in local internment camps.

3:36pm: IAEA’s Grossi says ‘number of measures’ taken to stabilise Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Thursday that “a number of measures” had been taken to stabilise the situation at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine, Russian state news agency RIA reported, but the situation at the plant remained “serious”.

“On the one hand, we can see that the situation is serious, the consequences (of the dam’s destruction) are there, and they are real,” Grossi said on a visit to the plant. “At the same time, there are measures that are being taken to stabilise the situation.”

During a visit to the plant, which is close to the military front line, Grossi was also cited by TASS news agency as saying that IAEA inspectors would remain at the plant, and that Russia and Ukraine signing a document on the plant’s security remained “unrealistic” while the two sides were still fighting.

His visit follows a disastrous breach last week in the massive Kakhovka dam nearby, which jeopardised reservoirs from which the reactors get cooling water. RIA quoted Grossi as saying the level of cooling water was still sufficient.

3:15pm: US, UK, Denmark and Netherlands to send air defence missiles to Ukraine

The United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark will partner to send air defence equipment including hundreds of missiles to Ukraine to help it fight Russian forces, the nations said in a joint statement.

Delivery of the equipment has already begun and should be complete “within several weeks”, the joint statement provided by the British government said, ahead of a meeting of the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels.

2:37pm: Hungary cannot secure energy needs without Russian imports, says Hungarian foreign minister

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Thursday during a visit to Russia it was “physically impossible” to ensure his country’s energy security without Russian energy imports.

Speaking at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Szijjarto also said he expected next winter to be more difficult, taking into account more limited Russian energy supplies and the lack of any guarantee that the weather will be mild.

2:24pm: ‘Vital’ for Switzerland to allow re-export of weapons to Ukraine, Zelensky says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Switzerland on Thursday to allow the re-export of war material to Ukraine, saying the move would be vital in combating the Russian invasion.

“I know there is a discussion in Switzerland about the exportation of war material to protect and defend Ukraine. That would be vital,” Zelensky said. “We need weapons so we can restore peace in Ukraine.”

Switzerland has a long-standing policy of barring any country that buys Swiss arms from re-exporting them to the parties in a conflict. The country also imposed a specific Swiss embargo on munitions going to either Russia or Ukraine in November last year.

1:32pm: Ukraine regains over 100 square kilometres of territory, says military

Ukraine has regained control of over 100 square kilometres, or 38 square miles, of territory in its counteroffensive against Russian forces, a senior Ukrainian military commander said on Thursday.

“We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory even with our bare hands,” Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov told a media briefing.

He confirmed that in the early stages of the offensive, which Ukraine said had begun last week, seven settlements had been liberated in the eastern region of Donetsk and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The army has advanced by to 3 km (1.8 miles) near the village of Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia sector and by up to 7 km near a village south of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk sector, military officials said.

1:09pm: Russian forces hit drone production facilities in Ukraine, says defence ministry

Russian forces successfully hit drone production facilities in Ukraine using high-precision, long-range weapons, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday, according to the state-run RIA news agency.

The ministry also said Russian air defences had intercepted five US-built HIMARS-launched missiles and shot down 25 drones, the TASS news agency reported.

12:48pm: Russia to stage local elections in annexed Ukrainian regions

Russia said Thursday that it would stage local elections in September in four Ukrainian regions that it claimed to have annexed last year. 

“Elections in the new territories of the Russian Federation will take place on a single voting day on September 10, 2023,” Russia’s election commission said on Telegram. 

11:37am: IAEA chief Rafael Rossi starts Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant visit

UN nuclear chief Rafael Grossi has started a visit to the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, Ukrainian nuclear energy company Energoatom said on Thursday.

10:38am: Child killed by Ukrainian shelling in Kherson region

A child was killed by Ukrainian shelling in Ukraine’s partly Russian-held southern Kherson region, the TASS news agency reported on Thursday, citing Russian-installed authorities there.

Kherson is one of four regions Russia claims to have annexed from Ukraine last year, though its forces do not fully control the territory.

9:45am: Belarus shoots down Ukrainian drone over border region

Belarusian border guards shot down a Ukrainian drone over Gomel region, which borders Ukraine, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported the Belarusian border service as saying on Thursday.

9:12am: Ukraine intercepts one cruise missile and 20 explosive drones

Ukrainian forces intercepted one cruise missile and 20 explosive drones launched by Russia in its latest nighttime attack, the military said Thursday.

But three other missiles struck “industrial installations in the Dnipropetrovsk region” in the centre-east of Ukraine, it said.

8:53am: Ukrainian forces making small advances in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk

Ukrainian forces have advanced by several hundred metres both in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions, FRANCE 24’s correspondent Gulliver Cragg reports from Zaporizhzhia.

“They’re attacking along a very, very long frontline in multiple locations,” Cragg said, explaining that for analysts the small advances were “in a sense probing operations”. 

“When the Ukrainians sense that there is one place along the frontline where the Russian defences – the main Russian defence line – can be more easily breached, they will start concentrating more forces in one place.” 

Click on the video player below to watch the report in full.

8:20am: Norway and Denmark to donate 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine

Norway and Denmark have agreed to donate an additional 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine, the Norwegian ministry of defence said in a statement on Thursday.

Norway will provide the shells, while Denmark will donate fuses and propellant charges, the Norwegian ministry said.

7:00am: IAEA chief Rafael Rossi to visit Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi will visit the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Thursday, a day later than previously planned, Interfax news agency cited a Russian-installed local official as saying on Wednesday.

The delay was attributed to safety concerns, according to a senior official.

6:48am: Russia strikes industrial facilities in Kryvyi Rih

Russian missiles hit two industrial facilities in the central Ukrainian city Kryvyi Rih in the early hours of Thursday, city mayor Oleksandr Vilkul said, with an drone attack also reported in Odesa.

Vilku said three rockets hit two industrial enterprises “that had nothing to do with the military”, injuring one 38-year-old man. One car was damaged with debris of missiles downed by air defences.

“The destruction is significant,” Vilkul wrote on Telegram messaging app.

9:15pm: Captured Ukrainian soldiers face trial in Russia

More than 20 Ukrainian soldiers who were taken prisoner during fighting in Ukraine went on trial in southern Russia on Wednesday.

The captured soldiers were members of the Azov battalion, an elite Ukrainian armed forces unit that fought Russian troops in the Sea of Azov port of Mariupol. Russia captured Mariupol last year after a three-month battle that reduced most of the city to smoldering ruins.

The last remaining Ukrainian defenders who holed up at a giant steel mill in Mariupol surrendered to Russian forces in May 2022. 

Russian authorities have designated the Azov battalion as a terrorist group. The defendants are facing charges of involvement in a terrorist organisation and taking part in action to overthrow the Russia-backed authorities in the Donetsk region.

They face sentences ranging from 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

Key developments from Wednesday, June 14:

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country has started taking delivery of Russian tactical nuclear weapons, some of which he said were three times more powerful than the atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. “We have missiles and bombs that we have received from Russia,” Lukashenko said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 Russian state TV channel which was posted on the Belarusian Belta state news agency’s Telegram channel.

At least three people were killed and 13 wounded in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa early Wednesday, authorities said. Russia fired four Kalibr missiles from a ship in the Black Sea, Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the region’s military administration, said on Telegram.

Read yesterday’s liveblog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)