🔴 Live: NATO launches largest-ever European air drill in ‘show of strength’

9:35am: Chechen force signs contract with Russia’s defence ministry that Wagner’s Prigozhin refused

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday it has signed a contract with the Akhmat group of Chechen special forces, a day after Russia’s powerful mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin refused to do so.

The signing followed an order that all “volunteer units” should sign contracts by July 1 bringing them under the control of Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, as Moscow tries to assert its control over private armies fighting on its behalf in Ukraine.

In return, volunteer fighters would get the same benefits and protections as regular troops, including support for them and their families if they are wounded or killed.

The Akhmat paramilitary group that has often been called the private army of Ramzan Kadyrov, leader of Russia’s Chechnya region.

Akhmat commander Apty Alaudinov, who took part in the signing of the contract, said the unit has “prepared and sent tens of thousands of volunteers” to Ukraine in the past 15 months.

8:21am: Ukraine’s recaptured villages ‘symbolically significant’ at start of counteroffensive

Ukraine reported territorial advances on three villages in its southeast on Sunday, marking the first liberated settlements of its counteroffensive. “Symbolically, it’s definitely very significant for Ukraine,” says FRANCE 24’s Gulliver Cragg, reporting from Zaporizhzhia, “But the Russians have been saying these villages were really in the grey zone… and they are ahead of the Russian lines of defence.”

7:33am: NATO begins unprecedented air drill in ‘show of strength’

NATO will begin the largest air force deployment exercise in Europe in the alliance’s history on Monday in a display of unity toward partners and potential threats such as Russia.

The German-led “Air Defender 23” will run until June 23 and include some 250 military aircraft from 25 NATO and partner countries including Japan and Sweden, which is bidding to join the alliance.

Up to 10,000 people will participate in the drills intended to boost interoperability and preparedness to protect against drones and cruise missiles in the case of an attack on cities, airports or sea ports within NATO territory.

Presenting the plans last week, Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz of the German Luftwaffe said “Air Defender” was conceived in 2018 in part as a response to the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine four years before, though he said it was “not targeted at anyone”.

He said that while NATO would defend “every centimetre” of its territory, the exercise would not “send any flights, for example, in the direction of Kaliningrad,” the Russian enclave bordering alliance member states Poland and Lithuania.

“We are a defensive alliance and that is how this exercise is planned,” he said.

7:15am: Ukraine says heavy fighting under way after first counteroffensive gains

Ukraine’s top military command said on Monday its forces were engaged in heavy battles in frontline hot spots, a day after Kyiv said it had made the first modest gains in reclaiming territory from Russia as part of its counteroffensive.

Some 25 battles had taken place over the past day near the eastern town of Bakhmut, and further south near Avdiivka and Maryinka, all in the Donetsk region, but also near Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region, Ukraine’s armed forces general staff said.

“Over the last week in the Bakhmut direction, the Russian invaders suffered significant losses,” the general staff said on Monday.

Ukraine said on Sunday its troops had made advances on three villages in Donetsk: Blahodatne, Neskuchne and Makarivka.

4:52am: North Korea’s Kim offers ‘full support’ to Putin on Russia Day

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered his country’s “full support and solidarity” to Moscow in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, state media reported.

Kim sent the message of congratulations on the national day of Russia, one of a handful of nations that maintain friendly relations with Pyongyang.

His is message, published by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), did not directly mention the invasion of Ukraine or Moscow’s involvement in an armed conflict, but praised Putin’s “correct decision and guidance… to foil the hostile forces’ escalating threats”.

2:38am: UN nuclear watchdog concerned over water levels at Ukraine plant

The UN atomic watchdog said on Sunday that it needs wider access around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to check “a significant discrepancy” in water level data at the breached Kakhovka dam used for cooling the plant’s reactors.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi, who is to visit the plant this week, said that measurements the agency received from the inlet of the plant showed that the dam’s water levels were stable for about a day over the weekend.

“However, the height is reportedly continuing to fall elsewhere in the huge reservoir, causing a possible difference of about two metres,” Grossi said in a statement.

“The height of the water level is a key parameter for the continued operability of the water pumps.”

1:11am: Ukraine announces gains in “first results” of counterattack against Russia

Ukraine said on Sunday its troops had made territorial advances on three villages in its southeast, the first liberated settlements it has reported since launching a counter-offensive this past week. 

Kyiv’s forces posted unverified videos showing soldiers hoisting the Ukrainian flag at a bombed-out building in the village of Blahodatne in Donetsk region and posing with their unit’s flag in the adjacent village of Neskuchne. 

“We’re seeing the first results of the counter-offensive actions, localized results,” Valeryi Shershen, spokesperson for Ukraine’s “Tavria” military sector, said on television. 

Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar later said Ukrainian forces had “deoccupied” Makarivka, the next village to the south, and advanced between 300 and 1,500 metres in two directions on the southern front.

“No positions were lost on the directions where our forces are on the defensive,” Maliar added on Telegram.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that a Ukrainian military push was underway, but that it had failed to breach Russian defensive lines and taken heavy casualties.

Key developments from Sunday, June 11:

Kyiv announced on Sunday that Ukrainian forces have retaken three villages in the war-torn country’s south as it continues military operations in Russian-occupied territories. 

Work has already started into an investigation by the International Criminal Court of the breach of the Kakhovka dam and the vast flood it triggered, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday. Thirty-five people, including seven children, were missing in southern Ukraine on Sunday as a result of the dam breach.

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

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)