🔴 Live: Three people including a child killed in fresh aerial assault on Kyiv

12:40pm: Investigation opens in Kyiv into unopened shelter door following deadly missile strike

Russia launched a missile strike on Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least three people including a child. A criminal investigation has opened following a shelter door, under a clinic, that was unopened during the strike. FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg reports that people say it is not the first time the shelter door didn’t open – “but it’s the first time that it had fatal consequences”.

12:04pm: Wagner chief Prigozhin says mercenaries will fight on if Russian army ‘clowns’ leave it be

Russia’s most powerful mercenary chief, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his Wagner Group would fight on in Ukraine if his men got a separate section of the front without having to depend on “clowns” who ran swathes of the Russian armed forces.

Celebrating his 62nd birthday on Thursday at a training camp, Prigozhin also confirmed that his men would finally leave the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on June 5 after handing it to the Russian army. The Wagner mercenaries captured the devastated city in late May after months of grinding warfare.

“If the whole chain (of command) is 100 percent failed and will only be led by clowns who turn people into meat, then we will not participate in it,” said Prigozhin, known for his blunt, often expletive-laced commentary on the conduct of the war.

10:29am: ‘Ukraine is ready to join NATO,’ Zelensky says at European summit

Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday in Moldova that Ukraine was ready to join the NATO military alliance, and that Kyiv was waiting for the bloc to be ready to admit his country.

Zelensky also reiterated Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union after arriving in Moldova, which borders Ukraine, for a summit of the European Political Community (EPC) that is bringing together more than 40 European leaders.

The summit is intended to show support for both Moldova and Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to launch a counter-offensive against Russia’s invasion.

“We support Moldova and its people who are integrating into the EU. You supported our people, our refugees who fled in the first days of the war, and we will never forget it, ” Zelensky said, standing beside Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

“Our future is in the EU. Ukraine is ready to join NATO,” he said.

Moldova is hosting the EPC summit at a castle about 20 kilometres from Ukrainian territory.

9:03am: Young girl among three killed in Russian missile strike on Kyiv

A young girl, her mother and another woman were killed in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv early on Thursday, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine’s air force said that air defences shot down all 10 ballistic and Iskander cruise missiles launched from Russia’s Bryansk region in the 18th attack on the capital since the start of May.

But falling missile debris often causes damage during such attacks. Police said a medical clinic, kindergarten, residential buildings and cars were damaged. and the Kyiv military administration said three people were killed and 10 hurt.

The city authorities did not say how they were killed but police said the victims included the girl and her mother.

“It is international children’s day. At night, Russia again killed a child in Kyiv,” said Andriy Yermak, chief of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office.

The Kyiv military administration had earlier said that two children had been killed in the missile strike.

8:50am: Zelensky arrives in Moldova for European summit to discuss Ukraine defence

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had travelled to Moldova to attend Thursday’s summit of the European Political Community, which is set to be attended by dozens of leaders, and that he would have many bilateral meetings.

Zelensky said he was working on building support for a coalition of powers to supply fighter jets to help Ukraine repel Russian forces, and that he would also discuss his peace plan as well as Kyiv’s aspirations to join NATO and the European Union.

8:41am: Eight wounded in shelling on Russian town in Belgorod region, governor says

Eight people were wounded by overnight shelling that continued into the morning in the Russian town of Shebekino that damaged multiple buildings, the governor of the local Belgorod region said on Thursday.

“In Shebekino district, there is ongoing shelling by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Eight people have been wounded. There are no dead,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a video posted on Telegram.

He said that local authorities would evacuate civilians as soon as the shelling was over.

“Of course, the lives of civilians, of the population is under threat. Primarily in Shebekino and in the surrounding villages”, he added.

The Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, has come under repeated attack from Kyiv’s territory in recent months. 

3:09am: Three dead in night-time attack on Kyiv, city officials say

Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv early Thursday, killing at least three people including two children and bringing fresh terror to the city after a week of strikes.

Moscow’s forces have launched a series of aerial assaults on the Ukrainian capital, including an unusual daytime attack on Monday that sent residents running for shelter.

Thursday’s attack, which began around 3am local time (0000 GMT), killed two children and injured 10 people, officials said.

“Among the three dead in the Desnyansky district, there were two children (aged 5-6 and 12-13),” the Kyiv military administration wrote on Telegram.

Key developments from Wednesday, May 31:

The White House announced the latest in a series of aid packages for Ukraine that includes up to $300 million worth of air defence systems, ammunition and other defence equipment.

The German government said it has told Russia to close four out of five consulates in Germany in a tit-for-tat move after Moscow set a limit on the number of staff at the German embassy and related bodies in Russia.

Five people were killed and 19 wounded in the shelling of a village in the Russian-controlled east Ukrainian region of Luhansk, Russian security authorities in the region said, blaming the attack on “Ukrainian armed groups” in a message on Telegram.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and REUTERS)