EU leaders back Ukraine's membership bid

EPACopyright: EPA

Thanks for joining today's coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here's a quick look back at some of Thursday's key developments.

Kyiv's EU bid backed by four leaders

• Four European Union leaders say Ukraine should be given "immediate" candidate status in its quest to join the European Union
• The leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Romania met Ukraine's President Zelensky in Kyiv - and also travelled to Irpin, a nearby town devastated during Russian occupation earlier in the invasion
• French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged more long-range artillery for Ukraine, as its soldiers fight Russian troops in the east

Lavrov defends invasion

• The Russian foreign minister has defended his country's actions in Ukraine - stressing again it is not an invasion but a "special military operation" that aims to stop the West dragging Ukraine into the Nato military alliance
• Speaking to the BBC, Sergei Lavrov criticised the UK for openly declaring that Russia should be defeated

Other headlines

• Around 10,000 civilians are trapped in the embattled eastern city of Severodonetsk, according to the local governor
• The US says it's working hard to track down a pair of American citizens who are feared to have been captured while fighting for Ukraine in the Kharkiv region
• The UK announced fresh sanctions against Russia - including against the head of the Russian Orthodox Church

EPACopyright: EPA

Russia's aggression in Ukraine is a game-changer, Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said.

Stoltenberg has been speaking in Brussels where defence ministers from member countries of the military alliance and a handful of other allies have been meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

He says progress has been made in many areas and, in a meeting with the Ukrainian defence minister last night, they discussed the "imperative need for our continued support as Russia conducts a relentless war of attrition against Ukraine".

Stoltenberg says Ukraine's allies have announced additional assistance, "including much-needed heavy weapons and long range systems" and also discussed plans to support the country for the longer term and to step up Nato's "presence, capabilities and readiness".

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

The Russian Orthodox Church has dismissed sanctions against its leader, Patriarch Kirill, imposed by Britain for his support of Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine.

It targeted the 75-year-old cleric and ally of President Vladimir Putin two weeks after the EU dropped him from their own sanctions list after opposition from Hungary.

"Attempts to intimidate the primate of the Russian Church with something or to force him to renounce his views are senseless, absurd and unpromising," church spokesman Vladimir Legoyda said on Telegram.

He added that the Church was "the last bridge, a means of communication, which they are trying to destroy for some reason.

"This may be necessary only for those political forces that have the escalation of conflict and the alienation of peace as their important goal," Legoyda said.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

Officials installed by Moscow in recently occupied areas of Ukraine say newly-born children there will be given Russian citizenship.

This will apply to babies born in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February, state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports. Currently, most of the two regions are under Russian occupation.

The deputy head of the Russia-backed administration in the Kherson region, Kirill Stremousov, told RIA Novosti on 16 February that newborns will be given Russian citizenship "automatically".

Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russia-backed administration in occupied parts of the Zaporizhzhia region, told RIA Novosti that the instruction to give Russian citizenship to newborns came from Vladimir Putin's office.

In May, Putin issued a decree simplifying the procedure of obtaining Russian citizenship for residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. The EU called it part of Russia's attempts to "forcefully integrate" parts of Ukrainian territory and said it will not recognise Russian passports issued there.

The Russian military has been focusing its efforts on the Bakhmut area of the Donetsk region and a continued assault on Severodonetsk, Ukraine's General Staff said in a Facebook update earlier today.

"The enemy keeps trying to establish full control over the city of Severodonetsk. They are storming the city, and the fighting continues," the report says.

The Russian army has opened fire on Ukrainian units in various areas in or near Severodonetsk and shelled a number of towns in the Bakhmut area - but also towns and cities in other parts of the country too.

Ukrainian soldiers "uncovered and destroyed an enemy sabotage and reconnaissance group" on the route between Yehorivka and Shevchenko in the Donetsk Region, the General Staff said.

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ReutersCopyright: Reuters

French arms manufacturer Nexter has been asked by President Macron to increase its production of Caesar howitzer weapons, a source close to the defence ministry tells Reuters.

Nexter is being urged to work in a "wartime" mode, the source says.

During a visit to Kyiv earlier, Macron pledged to send Ukraine another six Caesars on top of the 12 previously delivered.

Separately, Macron says it's "up to Ukraine to decide" whether to accept any territorial concessions with a view to ending the war - speaking to French TV station TF1 after today's visit.

BBCCopyright: BBC

The sister of the Moroccan man who has been sentenced to death by a Russian proxy court in eastern Ukraine says she feels his story is being ignored - and that he may be forgotten.

Brahim Saadoune was sentenced alongside Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who have received much more coverage.

Saadoune, 21, was studying in Ukraine but signed up to fight in the defence of Mariupol.

When he surrendered - he was put on trial, along with the other two, not as a soldier but a mercenary.

“At first, when they captured all of them, then it was like different news about every person,” Imane Saadoune says.

“There wasn't much attention on my brother… he was left aside a little bit.”

The three men do have a chance to appeal but the separatists have said they see no reason not to put them to death.

It has been left to Brahim's friends to campaign for his life.

“He has a lot of support. His friends, they are real friends, just starting many campaigns for him. I just want to tell him that he is loved. He's really loved.”

Morocco's main national rights body has now condemned the sentencing, calling for Brahim Saadoune to be extradited to Morocco. Meanwhile, state-run MAP news agency is reporting comments by Morocco's diplomatic sources noting that he was being held by a body not recognised by either the UN or Morocco.

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

More now from the BBC interview with Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Lavrov has insisted that courts in an area of eastern Ukraine run by Russian-backed separatists are truly independent.

He was being questioned about two Britons recently given death sentences by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic – after being captured while fighting alongside Ukrainian troops.

Lavrov says he is “not interested” in whether the West views Russia as responsible for their fate.

“I am only interested in international law,” he says. “According to international law, mercenaries are not recognised as combatants.”

The families of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner deny that the two men were mercenaries, instead saying they are long-serving members of the Ukrainian military.

Challenged with that claim, Lavrov responds “this should be decided by a court".

Ukrainian Presidential Press ServiceCopyright: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service

Ukraine's hopes of swiftly joining the European Union received a boost earlier, as the leaders of the EU's three largest economies agreed during a visit to Kyiv that the country should get "immediate" candidate status.

But that would be just the start of what's expected to be a long journey towards accession for Ukraine.

The country's candidacy itself is something that would need to be agreed by all 27 of the EU's member states, following today's positive signals from Germany, France, Italy and Romania. That could happen during an EU summit on 23-24 June.

There would then follow a negotiation stage, during which Ukraine could be asked to agree to reforms. These could see Kyiv asked to sign up to a set of values that align with the EU's own.

It would likely be asked to stamp out corruption; an issue for which the country was notorious before the invasion.

Other hopeful joiners, including a number of Balkan countries, have been stuck at the negotiating stage for years.

And EU officials - as well as France's President Macron, who visited Kyiv today - have previously cautioned that it could even take decades for the process to be completed in Ukraine's case.

You can read our latest story here.

EPACopyright: EPA

Ukraine's deputy prime minister says warm scenes during a visit by leaders of four EU nations earlier represent a "historic breakthrough" - but warns that Western countries have shown a "gap [...] between promises and actions" so far.

Those leaders "now know the price" of not delivering the right weapons to Ukraine in a timely way, Olha Stefanishyna tells the BBC, in reference to the group's trip to the decimated city of Irpin.

Following their visit, a refusal to grant Ukraine candidate status to join the European Union would cause "enormous frustration amongst Ukrainian people," she tells Stephen Sackur on the HARDtalk programme.

Audiences in the UK can watch her full interview on the BBC News Channel at 00:30 tonight - or on iPlayer afterwards.

Those overseas can watch on BBC World at 21:30 GMT today, 16 June - or at 03:30, 08:30, 14:30 and 21:30 GMT tomorrow.

European Union leaders have publicly backed Ukraine's "immediate" candidate status to join the bloc, following Russia's invasion of the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke at a news conference in Kyiv, where they all reaffirmed their support for Ukraine joining the European Union.

The White House says it is "working very hard to learn more" about two US citizens who are missing in Ukraine.

Alexander Drueke, 39, and Andy Huynh, 27, both from Alabama, are feared by their families to have been captured after reportedly volunteering to fight as part of a Ukrainian army unit.

Reuters reports the pair are thought to have been involved in an operation around the Kharkiv region, but did not return. They are said to have been out of contact with their relatives since 8 June.

US officials say there is no confirmation that the two men have been captured by Russian forces.

During questioning over the reports on Wednesday, a National Security Council spokesman advised Americans against travelling to Ukraine - urging them to find other ways to support the country.

Russia's foreign minister has again defended Moscow’s actions in neighbouring Ukraine, during an exclusive interview with the BBC.

“Russia is not squeaky clean,” Sergei Lavrov admits in answer to a question from Steve Rosenberg. “Russia is what it is. And we are not ashamed of showing who we are.”

The minister claimed the United Nations is “being used to amplify fake news from the West,” after being read quotes from a UN report detailing alleged Russian war crimes.

Of the invasion itself, Lavrov says: “We had absolutely no other way of explaining to the West that dragging Ukraine into Nato was a criminal act.”

Russia has opposed the eastward expansion of Nato, a 30-member military alliance of Western nations.

Read Steve Rosenberg's story here.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dared the UK government to try to “defeat” Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC’s Russia Editor, Steve Rosenberg, he says he doesn’t think there’s “room for manoeuvre anymore” in terms of relations between Russia and the UK.

“Both [UK PM Boris] Johnson and [Foreign Secretary Liz] Truss say openly that we should defeat Russia, we should force Russia to its knees,” says Lavrov.

“Go on then, do it!” he adds.

Lavrov goes on to accuse the UK of “once again sacrificing the interests of its people for the sake of political ambitions.”

He continues: “Their politicians think only about the next election and nothing else.”

Like other Western nations, the UK has provided Ukraine with weapons to fight Russian invaders – and has also targeted Moscow with sanctions.

Britain’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has said “the momentum is still in Ukraine’s favour” in its fight with Russia.

“That doesn’t mean the big Russian war machine is going backwards,” he said, “but it is not advancing according to their plans".

In an interview with the BBC at a Nato ministerial meeting in Brussels, Mr Wallace said that in some places, Russian artillery outnumbered Ukraine’s by as much as 20 to one. But he said that western nations were now sending more heavy weapons to address the imbalance.

Britain has already announced it will be sending Ukraine a small number of multiple rocket launchers – taken from the British Army’s stock. But Mr Wallace confirmed that Britain would also be sending 20 self-propelled artillery guns to Ukraine. Those artillery guns have been bought from a Belgian arms company to send directly to Ukraine.

Mr Wallace said that Britain was still determined to help lead the contributions of weapons to Ukraine. But he said “we don’t have everything in our armed forces”.

The defence secretary said western nations were also learning lessons about their own “vulnerabilities” from the war in Ukraine - one of them was the need for stocks of ammunition. He added that one of the limiting factors for supplying Ukraine with weapons was “what people have on their shelves”.

BBCCopyright: BBC

In a field about six miles from the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, the J9 army unit is doing its grim job - digging up bodies of Russian soldiers.

In a shallow mass grave under a tree, there are six dead, piled on top of one another in a rough heap. No one here knows who buried them - local residents or retreating Russians.

The bodies are swarmed by flies and the smell is overpowering, but the members of the J9 unit and the two diggers who help them are unfazed. They are used to it.

BBCCopyright: BBC

Yurii, one of the gravediggers, got this job after he found five bodies buried in his own garden in a different village, and called the J9 unit to dig them up.

"I helped them dig and they liked the way I worked, because I was a gravedigger before, so now I'm helping them," he said.

That means going from village to village, every day, exhuming bodies - Ukrainians and Russians. These dead Russians will be taken to the morgue, sampled for identification, and eventually swapped for Ukrainian dead.

Yurii served in the army in the Soviet Union. "Someone is waiting for these men – their fathers and mothers, children," he said. “I understand that.”

EPACopyright: EPA

On the fringe of the joint press conference, I caught up with Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister.

I asked him whether the latest weapons announced today are too little, too late considering we’re told up to as many as 200 Ukrainian soldiers are being lost every day in Donbas.

"The announcements of new weapons delivered to Ukraine should be made on a weekly basis. And these weapons should be delivered in sufficient quantities. This is the reality. We appreciate everything that has been done, we do not complain," he told me.

"But the truth is that we're still outnumbered when it comes to artillery, multiple launch rocket systems and defence systems, and we cannot make any big progress until we strike a balance with Russia in the numbers on these three positions.

"So do not get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I appreciate everything that has been done. I appreciate these announcements, but just to strike the balance, as I said, these announcements should be made a weekly basis and in sufficient quantities."

ReutersCopyright: Reuters

We've been hearing from Ukraine's president and the leaders of Germany, France, Italy and Romania who've been in Kyiv for talks.

Here's what we learned from their joint press conference:

• The leaders said they support Ukraine's bid to join the European Union, and the country should be given immediate candidate status
• Chancellor Scholz of Germany said Ukraine and Moldova belonged in the European family - but would still have to meet the criteria for accession
• Scholz also promised that Germany would continue to support Kyiv financially and militarily as long as it needed
• Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said that in their fight against Russia's invasion, the Ukrainian people were defending the values of democracy and freedom that underpin the European project
• French President Emmanuel Macron said Ukraine could count on its allies for support. He also said some sort of communication channel was needed with Russian President Vladimir Putin

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia's invasion was an attack on all of Europe - and only united action could stop it. He also said the leaders' visit showed Ukraine was not alone in its struggle
• The leaders also said more weapons were being sent to Ukraine, including six more long-range Ceasar guns from France

EPACopyright: EPA

Ukraine is "ready to work" to become a full European Union member, President Zelensky said after meeting four visiting EU leaders for talks in Kyiv.

At a news conference in the Ukrainian capital French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis all publicly backed Kyiv's bid to join the bloc.

EU leaders are holding a summit next week at which Kyiv's application to become a candidate for membership is likely to be given a green light.

Zelensky said: "Ukrainians have already earned the right to go down this road and obtain this candidate status."