June 21, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine has moved here.

US President Joe Biden says he isn’t afraid of the Western alliance fracturing as Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds ahead.

But he did warn of a protracted conflict and said he would discuss the way forward with allies a next week’s NATO summit in Madrid

“I’m not afraid,” he said when questioned about the potential for fractures among US allies in Europe.

“I do think, at some point, this is going to be a bit of a waiting game,” he added. “What the Russians can sustain and what Europe is going to be prepared to sustain.”

“That’s one of the things we’re going to be speaking in Spain about,” he concluded.

Biden departs Saturday for a G7 summit in Germany followed by the NATO gathering in Spain.

The Military Administration of Kharkiv said 15 people have died and 16 have been injured across the region.

In a post on Telegram, Oleh Syniehubov said the dead included six in Chuhuiv, five in Kharkiv, three in Zolovhiv and an 8-year-old girl from Derhachi.

Russian forces shelling Ukraine’s second largest city of Kharkiv have targeted residential and industrial zones across the city, according to Serhii Bolvinov, head of the Investigative Department of National Police in Kharkiv.

As a result of the shelling, five people were killed and 11 people were injured.

In addition to those who died in Kharkiv, four other people were killed in surrounding towns and villages, including an 8-year-old girl.

Ukrainian officials reported an uptick in Russian shelling overnight around the area.

The White House says it is “appalling” Russia won’t rule out applying the death penalty on two American citizens detained after volunteering to fight in Ukraine.

“We still are trying to learn more about these two individuals,” said John Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council.

“It’s appalling that a public official in Russia would even suggest the death penalty for two American citizens that were in Ukraine. And we’re going to continue to try and learn what we can about this,” he said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Monday the Geneva Convention — the charter which sets out how soldiers and civilians are treated in wartime, including banning execution of prisoners of war — does not apply to the two detained US citizens.

Peskov said the death penalty could not be ruled out, but that it was a decision for a court and not the Kremlin.

Kirby said he wouldn’t try and get into Peskov’s or Vladimir Putin’s heads. But he said no matter whether the prospect of the death penalty was real or hypothetical, it was troubling no matter what.

“Either way, it’s equally alarming, whether they actually mean what they’re saying here and this could be an outcome, that they could levy a death penalty against two Americans in Ukraine,” he said. “Or that they just feel it’s a responsible thing for a major power to do, to talk about doing this as a way of signaling the president of the United States and the American people. Either one of them is equally alarming.”

Russia will “absolutely not” go back to the pre-war status quo, a senior State Department official told reporters Tuesday.

This official did not speak explicitly to the future of diplomatic relations with Russia, noting they were already strained prior to the war starting in February. They said US Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan speaks less frequently with the Russian foreign ministry than before, but there is still contact on the issues of the US Embassy’s “staffing woes” and the detained Americans.

“That’s a frequent topic multiple times a week, on behalf of various detainees and not just the most high-profile ones, which are obviously Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, but there are other Americans who are detained there who deserve the same level of treatment as any American citizen does, who’s detained in a foreign country,” the official said.

The official also explained how challenging it is to work with the Russians on the issue of detained Americans, because the Russians put convoluted processes in place that prevent any quick contact with the detainees.

“Oh, well, we moved detainee X last week. He’s on the other side of Moscow and you’re gonna need a different form, in triplicate, but that but the office that issues it is closed until next Thursday. But if you come after five on Friday, then maybe we’ll take care of you, but only bring blue pens,” the official said, describing the kinds of hoops that the Russians make US officials jump through.

Sullivan has not “engaged on Ukraine policy with the Russian government since mid-February,” the official explained.

The official spoke of the commercial impact the war has had in Russia, noting that there were more than 1,000 US companies that did business in Russia last year and “it’s a fraction of that now.”

The official said the US ambassador had previously dealt a great deal with helping US businesses in Russia that had gotten in trouble over regulatory or potential criminal matters. They said Sullivan had “a lot of interaction” with the minister of Trade and Industry and they “developed a pretty good relationship.” The official said the outcomes weren’t often positive but “the issues were treated seriously and sometimes we got good outcomes, more often than not we didn’t, but that’s all stopped.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a War Crimes Accountability team during an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Tuesday that will work to identify and prosecute anyone who committed war crimes in Ukraine.  

The team, Garland said, will be led by the department’s best-known Nazi Hunter Eli Rosenbaum, and will be made up of experts in investigations involving human rights abuses and war crimes. Rosenbaum, a 36-year veteran of the Justice Department, previously served as the Director of Human Rights Enforcement Strategy and Policy, helped the department over 100 cases to strip citizenship from or deport accused Nazis, according to the Justice Department.

The announcement is a strong signal from the Justice Department that it is interested in investigating war crimes in the ongoing war in Ukraine and follows a previous effort by the Justice Department to lock down the assets of Russian oligarchs.

“There is no hiding place for war criminals. The US Justice Department will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” Garland said in Ukraine. “Working alongside our domestic and international partners, the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable every person complicit in the commission of war crimes, torture, and other grave violations during the unprovoked conflict in Ukraine.”

Garland also said that the Justice Department will send three prosecutors to advise Ukraine, as well as countries in Europe and the Middle East, in fighting Russian efforts to evade global sanctions.

The Ukrainian Army said Tuesday that it had launched some airstrikes on Zmiinyi Island, which is also known as Snake Island. 

The Southern Operational Command of the Ukrainian Army said it had used “aimed strikes with the use of various forces” on the island. 

The military operation is still on going and that “information silence” was required until the end of the operation, the command added.

Zmiinyi Island was the scene of one of the opening salvos of the war in Ukraine and is of strategic importance to both sides. During the opening days of the war, it was the site of a demand from a Russian war ship to Ukrainian defenders to surrender. They replied, infamously, with ”Russian warship, go f**k yourself” – a phrase that become a motif of Ukrainian resistance.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Tuesday, where he met Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova.

The two will discuss efforts by the United States and other countries to help Ukraine “identify, apprehend, and prosecute those individuals involved in war crimes” in Ukraine, according to a statement from a Justice Department official.  

Garland had previously announced a trip to Europe scheduled for this week to meet with European leaders and discuss their joint efforts to combat Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Garland is the most recent top-ranking US official to travel to Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv in April, and a congressional delegation led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell traveled to Kyiv just a few weeks later. 

Appearing alongside Venediktova inside Ukraine, Garland said he was there to “express the unwavering support of the United States for the people of Ukraine in the midst of the unprovoked and unjust Russian invasion.”

Garland also said he wanted to discuss actions the United States “is taking to assist the Ukrainian authorities in holding accountable those responsible for the atrocities, for the war crimes that the entire world has seen.” 

“The United States is sending an unmistakable message – there is no place to hide. We and our partners will pursue every avenue available to make sure that those responsible for these atrocities are held accountable,” Garland said.

The land transit between Kaliningrad and other parts of Russia has not been banned, the High Representative of the European Commission Josep Borrell said on Monday.

“The land transit between Kaliningrad and other parts of Russia has not been stopped nor banned. There is no blockade,” Borrell said in published remarks. “Transit of passengers and goods that are not sanctioned continues.”

Why is the European Commission making this clarification? It comes after Lithuanian Railways, the state-owned railway company, had notified Russia that starting midnight on June 18, transit trains with goods subject to EU sanctions would no longer be allowed to pass through.

The list of the banned goods includes construction material, cement, metals and “a number of other goods important both for construction and for production,” according to the governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov. Kaliningrad is Russia’s exclave in the European Union.

Russia called this decision “unprecedented” and “illegal,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Monday.

Borrell said Lithuania had not taken any unilateral national restrictions and only applied the European Union sanctions. 

“The accusation that ‘Lithuania is implementing Lithuanian sanctions’ is false. Pure propaganda,” he said.

Separately, a European Commission press officer confirmed that European Union representative to Moscow Markus Ederer had been meeting with representatives of the Russian ministry regarding the subject Tuesday.

“We can also confirm that our head of delegation to Russia had a meeting in the Russian ministry where he explained our position and implementation of EU sanctions,” the official said.

The US State Department on Tuesday confirmed the death of an American citizen in Ukraine whose obituary said he died in mid-May while fighting in the war.

“We can confirm the death of U.S. citizen Stephen Zabielski in Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said. 

“We have been in touch with the family and have provided all possible consular assistance. Out of respect to the family during this difficult time, we have nothing further,” the spokesperson said.

According to his obituary, published on June 1 in “The Recorder,”  a newspaper in New York, said Zabielski “died on Sunday, May 15, 2022, while fighting the war in Village of Dorozhniank, Ukraine.”

He was 52 years old and is survived by his wife and five stepchildren, according to the obituary. 

Zabielski is the second known American to be killed in combat in Ukraine. Marine Corps veteran Willy Cancel was killed in April fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged creative film professionals to do more to “promote Ukrainian bravery,” in an address the Cannes Lions International Festival for creative industry. 

“I believe that the power of human creativity is greater than the power of a nuclear state that is stuck in the past,” Zelensky said. “Speak of Ukraine. Don’t let the world switch to something else.”

In 117 days of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Zelensky has made more than 70 speeches around the world, including at parliaments, international institutions and business forums. 

Russian troops have captured the frontline village of Toshkivka in the Donbas region as they keep trying to seize the strategic city of Severodonetsk.

The head of the Severodonetsk district military administration, Roman Vlasenko, told CNN on Tuesday that the village had not been under Ukrainian control since Monday.

Toshkivka is located south of Severodonetsk, where Ukrainian forces have mounted fierce resistance to Moscow’s armies. 

In the embattled city of Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, attacking Russian forces have enough reserves to launch a large-scale offensive, according to the head of the region’s military Serhiy Hayday.

Here are the latest developments on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

A top Russian official has described Lithuania’s announcement to ban the transit of European Union-sanctioned materials to Russia through Kaliningrad – Russia’s enclave in the EU – as “hostile” and promised retaliation.

As reported by the Ria Novosti state-owned news agency, Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, said: “Russia will certainly respond to such hostile actions. Measures are being worked out in an interdepartmental format and will be taken in the near future.”

Patrushev arrived in Kaliningrad, which is sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic coast, on Tuesday to meet with its governor, Anton Alikhanov.

Lithuanian Railways, the state-owned railway company, had notified Russia that starting midnight on June 18, transit trains with goods subject to EU sanctions would no longer be allowed to pass through, Alikhanov said on his telegram channel Friday.

Included on the list of banned goods published by Kaliningrad’s Ministry of Economic Development are industrial equipment, machine tools, and machines for production and building materials, as well as various luxury goods, works of art and antiques and golf equipment, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Meanwhile, the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs tweeted that the transit of passengers and non-sanctioned goods continues uninterrupted, that the country has not imposed any unilateral, individual or additional restrictions, and that it is acting fully in accordance with EU law.

Germany will continue to support Ukraine with weapons “as long as needed,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said during a speech at the Annual meeting of the Federation of German Industries on Tuesday.

Scholz also reaffirmed Germany’s commitment to stand with Lithuania and other eastern allies.

“Europe and the Western democracies do not accept the violent attack on Ukraine,” Scholz said. Therefore Ukraine was supplied “extensively with weapons” and “unprecedentedly tough sanctions” were imposed on Russia.

“These sanctions do work. Yes, these sanctions are hurting ourselves as well. They hurt our companies, but they are right,” Scholz said.

Scholz said his trip to Irpin near Kyiv last Thursday made clear to him that Ukraine belonged to the European family. “I will never forget the images of horror I saw there,” he said. Scholz emphasized that he will push for a positive decision on Ukraine as an EU accession candidate.

Ukrainian officials have reported an uptick in Russian shelling around the northeastern city of Kharkiv in the past 24 hours, as the evacuation of people from the territories occupied by Russian forces continued.

“Within 24 hours, the occupiers fired on Kyivsky, Industrial, Saltivsky and Nemyshlyansky districts of Kharkiv,” the head of the Kharkiv region military administration Oleh Syniehubov said in his official Telegram channel.

A CNN team in the Kharkiv area heard explosions in the distance around 11 p.m. local time (4 a.m. ET), later confirming they were coming from the educational institution mentioned by Syniehubov – a university – as it was struck.   

According to Syniehubov, three civilians were killed and seven have been injured in the past 24 hours. 

On the line of contact, Ukrainian forces have repelled attacks in the area around Izium while Russia continued to maintain a defensive stance around Kharkiv, trying to prevent a Ukrainian advance, Syniehubov added.

Fighting ensued as 993 people, including 254 children, were evacuated from the temporarily occupied territories in the Kharkiv region, according to Syniehubov. More than 30 buses to Chuhuiv and Kharkiv were used for the evacuation.

Some background: As of June 7, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported around 7.3 million border crossings from Ukraine, with at least 4.8 million refugees in Europe.

In May, Russian officials said almost 1.1 million people had been evacuated from Ukraine to Russia since the February 24 invasion. Of that figure, around 200,000 were children.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Geneva Convention – the charter which sets out how soldiers and civilians are treated in wartime – does not apply to two detained US citizens.

Two American volunteers fighting for Ukraine – Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama – were taken into detention by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk after being captured last week, according to Russian state media.

Peskov, during a regular call with journalists Tuesday, said the Geneva Convenction does not apply to the two US citizens. Peskov said the death penalty cannot be ruled out but this is a decision for a court. The Kremlin – Peskov said – does not have a right to interfere.

Ukrainian farmers have sown about 25% less land than was in cultivation in 2021, according to officials and independent estimates.

According to Markiyan Dmytrasevych, deputy minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine, a total of 13.5 million hectares had been sown with a variety of crops – 80% of the territory that was sown last year.

In addition, rich agricultural land in southern Ukraine is now under Russian control. This area also produced much of Ukraine’s vegetables.

Another senior official at the Agrarian Policy Ministry, Taras Vysotskyi, said more spring wheat had been sown this year that last, but there had been sharp declines in in the sowing of corn and sunflowers.

As for the expected harvest, Vysotskyi said “there may be about 48-50 million tons of grain. It is less than previous years, when it reached 85 million.” Dmytrasevych gave a similar forecast, saying “We hope to harvest approximately 60 million tons of grain and oilseed crops – a little over a half of what we harvested last year.”

Separately, Maxar Technologies examined satellite imagery of agricultural areas in Ukraine and concluded that Ukrainian farmers planted 30% less spring acreage in 2022.

Maxar predicted that 2022 production of corn will be down 54% and production of sunflowers down 40% when compared with the 2021 growing season.

The conflict has destroyed dozens of grain storage facilities at ports and in rural areas, with around 10 million tonnes now under Russian control while others have been destroyed in missile and artillery attacks. In May, multiple sources also told CNN Russian forces were stealing farm equipment and thousands of tons of grain from Ukrainian farmers in areas they had occupied.

Some Ukrainian officials say that storage difficulties have led farmers to switch crops.  Marchuk additionally cautioned that shortages of fuel could hamper the harvest. And he said farmers faced a financial crisis, with interest on loans rising by up to 35%.

“A compromise needs to be reached to reduce the interest rate. In conditions when there are no exports, when there is no working capital, it is very difficult to repay credit with very high interest, as opposed to the rates that existed before.”

Exporting grain and oilseed crops has been complicated by the blockade of Odessa and other Black Sea ports.

Dmytrasevych said that since the Russian invasion, Ukraine had exported 4 million tons of grain and oilseed crops, compared to a pre-war forecast of between 5 and 6 million tons. Various options for road and rail transport have been developed, with grain traveling by rail to the Romanian port of Constanta, and across the land border into Poland. But the alternatives are more cumbersome than shipping to world markets through the Black Sea.

Four months ago, Viktoria Shishkina and her husband Vladimir were preparing for the birth of their first child. Now, they sit in an unassuming apartment turned hostel in the center of St. Petersburg, Russia, where they are refugees. They escaped from Mariupol, the Black Sea port city now under Russian control, but are permanently scarred by all they have lost.

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Shishkina was in a maternity hospital in Mariupol, resting. She remembers being in a ward full of women approaching their due dates when the bomb struck the hospital.

On March 9, Mariupol’s Maternity Hospital No. 3 was bombed killing four and wounded scores more. For Shishkina, everything changed.

“Whoever caused that explosion, I took a direct hit in the belly – right to my baby – and they weren’t able to save him,” she told CNN, keeping her voice strong even as tears welled in her eyes.

Vladimir had been injured the day before the hospital bombing, and was being treated nearly 70 miles away (112 km) in the separatist-run city of Donetsk.

It was there that Shishkina finally caught up with him and where help came from Reverend Mikhnov-Vaytenko, Archbishop of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, in St. Petersburg, who arranged their passage to St. Petersburg and paid for their shelter, medical care and needs.

Mikhnov-Vaytenko estimates he and his network of volunteers have helped thousands of Ukrainian refugees since the conflict began, from paying for travel and housing for refugees to medical care or information about where they can go and what they are entitled to in Russia, all often with a kind word or prayer.

Read the full story here.

Russia does not know where the two American volunteers fighting for Ukraine are being held or who will be judging on their case, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN on Tuesday.

“I don’t know where they are being held and who is going to judge them. But the only thing that goes without saying is that they are going to be prosecuted and they will be able to stand in court,” Peskov said in a voice message.

According to Russian state media, the two American volunteers fighting for Ukraine were taken into detention by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk after being captured last week.

US citizens Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama, were interviewed by Russia’s RT channel at a detention center in the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) on June 17, according to a report published on RT.

The two Americans went missing on June 9 during a battle north of Kharkiv and it was feared that they may have been captured by Russian forces, according to their families and a fellow fighter.

There have been several explosions in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, according to the regional administration. Details on casualties and locations have not been released.

Witnesses reported hearing three large blasts and images from the city showed at least one large column of black smoke.

The explosions follow missile attacks on the area around Mykolaiv on Monday.

The area along Mykolaiv’s border with the Kherson region continues to see shelling by Russian forces defending the territory they have seized, according to the Ukrainian military. 

The regional administration said the town of Shyroke, 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Mykolaiv, was shelled Monday night and Tuesday morning.

“According to preliminary information, there are no victims,” it said.

The front lines in the Mykolaiv-Kherson regions have changed little in the past month, although Ukrainian forces made some modest gains in a counter-offensive that began early in June.

In the Luhansk region, the Ukrainian General Staff said Russian units were focused on preventing Ukrainian attacks against “the rear of the Russian group of troops operating in the Sloviansk direction,” and were using artillery against civilian infrastructure in the area. 

Izium: This area, to the west and southwest of Izium, has seen more intense combat in recent days as Ukrainian troops try to carry out a counter-attack against Russian supply lines. 

Sloviansk: Ukrainian forces along the Siverskyi Donets river, north of Sloviansk, continue to resist Russian efforts to break through (around Bohorodychne and Dolyna), according to the General Staff.

Bakhmut: The Ukrainian military also reported Russian offensive operations in several areas south of the town of Bakhmut, a critical supply node for Ukrainian defenses. The Russians appear to have made incremental gains south of Bakhmut recently.

Kherson: In southern Ukraine, the General Staff said Russian units were trying to contain Ukrainian forces that have gone on the offensive along the border of the Kherson region, and had carried out numerous artillery and rocket attacks on settlements behind the front lines.

Ukrainian troops are resisting a heavy Russian offensive in and around the city of Severodonetsk in the Luhansk region, despite continued shelling from several directions, according to the Ukrainian military. 

The General Staff said on Tuesday that “shelling of units of our troops from artillery of various calibers continues.”  

Russia aiming for full control: The Russians were also carrying out airstrikes in several areas south of Severodonesk, and “the enemy does not stop the assault in order to establish full control over the city,” the General Staff said.

Location of fighting: Ukrainian resistance in Severodonetsk is mainly from the large Azot chemical plant on the western edge of the city, where several hundred civilians are also sheltering. 

“Fierce fighting continues in the Severodonetsk industrial zone. The Russians hit the building of the First Entrance of Azot, fired on the territory of the brick factory, and opened fire near three bridges,” said Serhii Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration.

Russian reports have suggested that resistance is ebbing at the Azot plant. CNN cannot independently verify the situation in the area. 

Heavy shelling: Hayday said on Ukrainian television that Russian forces had tried to carry out offensive operations on Monday under cover of heavy shelling.

“There is no electricity, no water, no gas [in Severodonetsk],” he said. “Doctors remained in one of the buildings of the medical campus … We cannot carry out the delivery of humanitarian cargoes, because there are military operations in the active phase.”

Civilians at Azot: Hayday said there are about 568 people at Azot, “who flatly refused to evacuate.”

“We even made videos, talked to people on video — they refuse to leave. Basically, these are employees of the enterprise and their families — a little more than 100 employees with their families. They still have water, food, and the simplest medical supplies …They have supplies for several weeks.”

In neighboring Lysychansk: A short distance to the south, the Ukrainian General Staff said, “Our soldiers are successfully resisting the assaults in the areas of Syrotyne and Bila Hora,” two settlements near Lysychansk.

The Russians are trying to close in on Lysychansk and cut off remaining Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk to complete the seizure of Luhansk.

Hayday said Tuesday that Lysychansk was being heavily shelled. “More than 10 high-rise buildings, private houses and a police station building were destroyed,” he said.

It’s been nearly two months since Russian forces began their assault on the city of Severodonetsk. But despite overwhelming firepower, they still can’t dislodge determined Ukrainian resistance — nor cut the supply lines that provide the city’s remaining defenders with a drip-feed of weapons and ammunition.

The fierce Ukrainian defense of Severodonetsk, despite heavy losses, has forced the Russians to concentrate firepower on a relatively small area and held up their efforts to seize the 10% of Luhansk region they still do not control.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the seizure of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions as one of the objectives of Moscow’s special military operation that began in February. For now, that operation is largely stalled; a large part of Donetsk remains beyond the Russians’ reach.

Russian forces are making modest gains — the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday that the town of Metelkino just southeast of Severodonetsk had been taken. But the Russians’ goal of encircling the Ukrainian troops defending the twin cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk still appears some way off.

In a campaign lacking agility and imagination, the Russians have resorted to one principal tactic: overwhelming indirect fire against any and all Ukrainian positions, regardless of the collateral destruction.

The aim is to leave nothing standing that can be defended. The use of troops on the ground to take and hold urban areas has been less frequent and less successful.

In a video of Ukrainian special forces in the area released at the weekend, one unidentified Ukrainian soldier says: “They are throwing everything they have, all the munitions they have. It doesn’t matter for them if it’s our positions or civilian areas, they wipe everything from the face of earth and then they use artillery and then they start moving forward little by little.”

Read the full analysis here.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Monday that Ukraine is moving along the path to becoming part of the European Union.

“Step by step, we are moving through this crucial week and doing everything daily, so no one doubts that Ukraine deserves candidacy. We are proving daily that we are already a part of the European Union,” Zelensky said.

The President previously said Ukraine should expect “greater hostile activity” from Russia as the EU considers this week whether the country should be formally considered for candidate status. Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states are meeting to discuss the process.

At least three people were killed on Monday during Russia’s intensified shelling of Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, according to the head of the region’s administration.

“In recent days, the Russian occupiers, who cannot succeed in fighting the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kharkiv region, have intensified shelling of the regional center and other settlements,” said Oleh Synehubov, head of the Kharkiv regional state administration.

Synehubov said three people died in the shelling — a 65-year-old woman in Kutuzivka, a 61-year-old woman and a 49-year-old man in Balaklia. 

On the ground: A CNN team in Kharkiv heard several explosions across the city over the past 48 hours, noting a slight increase in frequency. Air raid sirens went off several times during the day on Monday.

Russians using Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) and other missiles have struck targets in Kharkiv, according to Synehubov.

Synehubov also said about 700,000 people now live in the city of Kharkiv, about half of the population prior to February’s invasion.

Regarding a “new Russian offensive on Kharkiv” Synehubov said: “We are constantly recording the accumulation and movement of troops on the border with our region and are monitoring the situation.”

Some context: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Ukraine should expect “greater hostile activity” from Russia as the European Union considers whether the country should formally be considered for candidate status. Leaders of the EU’s 27 member states are meeting this week to discuss this.

Bunny Drueke, the mother of one of the Americans captured in Ukraine, said she is putting her trust in the US State Department to bring the two men back home.

Who are the Americans? US citizens Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama, were taken into detention by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk after being captured last week, according to Russian state media. They went missing on June 9 during a battle north of Kharkiv.

Speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Monday, Bunny said she had watched some of the videos that have appeared in Russian media of her son. CNN has chosen not to broadcast the videos because they show him speaking under duress.

“The one where he addressed me directly really made me happy. I play it over and over and over again. Especially right before I go to bed. It’s just wonderful to hear his voice and see him,” she said.
“I have chosen not to look at those other videos because they are propaganda. Before Alex left, he told me that he needed to speak very directly and frankly with me, that if he were captured, they would be forcing him to make statements. I was not to believe anything except ‘I love you, mom’.” 

Bunny said US officials told her they are “working behind the scenes” and arranging for “Alex and Andy to come home eventually.”

“They’re still working at verifying where they are and who has them,” she said.

Asked what message she would send to her son, Bunny said: “I would like to tell Alex that I’m taking good care of his dog and that I’m being brave and doing exactly what he asked me to do. And that I love him with all of my heart.”

Russian forces attacking the key city of Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, have enough reserved to launch a large-scale offensive, the head of the region’s military, Serhiy Hayday, said.

Here are the latest developments on Russia’s war in Ukraine:

The daughter of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny says the maximum high-security prison where he was recently moved to is “one of the most dangerous” in Russia with conditions akin to “psychological torture.”

Dasha Navalnaya spoke to CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Monday after her father was transferred from the penal colony where he was serving his term.

Some background: In March, a Moscow court sentenced Navalny to a further nine years in a maximum-security prison. He was convicted on fraud charges over allegations that he stole from his Anti-Corruption Foundation. Navalny had spent several months in Berlin, Germany in 2020 recovering from poisoning with nerve agent Novichok — an attack he blames on Russian security services and on Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.

“No one notified the attorneys or the family about his transfer. And it, of course, is very concerning because he is one-on-one with the same people in government that tried to kill him in 2020,” Navalnaya said.

Navalnaya said her father is being kept isolated so he cannot communicate with anyone.

“This is one of the most dangerous and famous high-security prisons in Russia known for torturing and murdering inmates. They fenced off a separate barrack in the area to really create a prison within the prison, so that he can’t speak publicly and isolate him from any information. They don’t let him go anywhere. People are not allowed to communicate with him. And this kind of isolation has really — purely psychological torture for anyone,” she said.

Asked whether she believes the trials are for show, Navalnaya said, “Yes, absolutely. Putin doesn’t want him out.”

“Putin doesn’t want him speaking. Putin doesn’t want everyone knowing his government is corrupt. And, you know, the most important thing that we like to communicate is that no one should associate Putin with Russia because Putin — he doesn’t represent Russia and Russia is not Putin.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said the Geneva Conventions for the protection of prisoners of war do not apply to two Americans captured in Ukraine, accusing them of being “involved in illegal activities.”

Peskov made the comments during an exclusive interview with NBC News on Monday night. 

Who are the Americans? US citizens Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, from Hartselle, Alabama, were taken into detention by Russian-backed separatists in Donetsk after being captured last week, according to Russian state media. They went missing on June 9 during a battle north of Kharkiv.

Peskov called Drueke and Huynh “soldiers of fortune.”

“They were involved in firing and shelling our military personnel. They were endangering their lives. And they should be responsible. They should be held responsible for those — for those crimes that they have committed. Those crimes have to be investigated,” he told NBC News. 

Peskov wouldn’t clarify whether the pair were being held by Russian or Donetsk authorities.

“So they’re being held in a new place, a new place to ensure that the investigation of their crimes is being completed,” he said. 

Peskov said their case would be “investigated in due course” but said “Geneva Conventions cannot be applied for soldiers of fortune.”

“They are in not in the Ukrainian Army. They are not subject to Geneva Convention,” he said. 

Some context: Geneva Convention protections include that prisoners of war “must at all times be humanely treated.”

“Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention,” Article 13 of the convention states.

Russian forces attacking the key city of Severodonetsk, in the Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, have enough reserved to launch a large-scale offensive, the head of the region’s military, Serhiy Hayday, said.

Speaking on Monday evening, Hayday said dozens of pieces of Russian heavy military equipment had been brought into the region and were already deployed on the battlefield.

In the city itself, Hayday said fighting is underway in the industrial area, but “most of the city is under control [of Russian army]. Now the Ukrainian military controls only the industrial zone and the territory of the Azot plant.”

Hayday also provided an update on the fighting in the neighboring city of Lysychansk. He said there was fighting along the highway between Lysychansk and Bakhmut and that all the towns in that area are being shelled. Lysychansk “had been shelled almost all day” on Monday, he added. 

Dmitry Muratov, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, auctioned off his medal for $103.5 million on Monday, with all proceeds going to benefit Ukrainian child refugees.

Heritage Auctions tweeted that Muratov “auctioned his 2021 #NobelPeacePrize to benefit UNICEF’s child refugee fund. It sold for $103,500,000.”

According to a statement from Heritage Auctions, Norwegian Nobel Institute Director Olav Njølstad supported the auction, calling it a “generous act of humanitarianism.”

Muratov is the editor-in-chief of Russia’s independent news outlet, Novaya Gazeta. He criticized Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the government’s use of military force, both in and outside Russia, according to the Nobel Peace Prize organization.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Monday that “the struggle is very difficult” in the eastern Luhansk region, making any predictions “extremely difficult” given the “dynamic” nature of the fighting.

She added that information is changing rapidly “every half an hour the situation changes.” She said that unless either Ukrainian or Russian forces are in total control of a town or village border, “it is impossible to say what the situation is.”

On the battle for Severodonetsk, Mailar said she was not going to make any predictions as to the outcome of the battle for the key strategic city in Luhansk region. 

Maliar added that Russian forces in the region have an advantage in number of personnel and weapons.

US President Joe Biden said Monday he is “not likely” to visit Ukraine when he travels to Europe this weekend.

“That depends,” Biden said when asked if he was still planning to visit Ukraine, adding he doesn’t want to “cause more difficulty for Ukrainians.”

Asked again if he was expected to travel there while he’s in Germany and Spain for the G7 and NATO summits, Biden said: “On this trip, not likely.”

Biden has not visited Ukraine since the country has been under Russian invasion. Instead, he has sent US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, as well as first lady Jill Biden. 

On whether he’s confident Ukraine will become a member of the European Union, Biden told reporters he thinks it’s “very likely” to happen.

Lithuania’s decision to ban the transit of sanctioned materials to Russia through the Kaliningrad region — Russia’s exclave in the European Union — is “unprecedented” and Russia considers it “illegal,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“We also consider it illegal,” Peskov said, adding the Kremlin will need to analyze the situation carefully. “It is part of a blockade, of course,” he said.

Lithuanian Railways, the state-owned railway company, had notified Russia that starting midnight on June 18, transit trains with goods subject to EU sanctions would no longer be allowed to pass through, the governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov said on his telegram channel Friday.

The list of the banned goods includes construction material, cement, metals and “a number of other goods important both for construction and for production,” according to Alikhanov.

Some background: Lithuania’s decision is the latest by an EU member state to sanction Russia following its invasion of Ukraine in February.

At the end of May, the EU agreed to ban 90% of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, alongside other measures, European Council leaders said at the time.

“Agreement to ban export of Russian oil to the EU. This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine,” Michel announced in a tweet.

Meanwhile in the United States, the White House announced another round of sanctions targeting Russian government officials and elites close to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a series of new financial and diplomatic sanctions at the start of June.

The White House said in a statement that the latest sanctions are designed “to crack down on evasion and tighten our sanctions to enhance enforcement and increase pressure on Putin and his enablers.”

CNN’s Niamh Kennedy, Jeremy Diamond, Betsy Klein and Kate Sullivan contributed reporting to this post.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, Western leaders have made clear that the country, and the rest of the world, must brace itself for the long haul.

Who said what? In separate comments published Sunday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated that Western governments must continue to support Ukraine to deter future aggression by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Stoltenberg told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag that nobody knew how long the conflict would last but “we need to prepare for the fact that it could take years.”

“We must not cease to support Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, but also because of rising energy and food prices.”

Johnson, writing in the Sunday Times after his second visit to Kyiv on Friday, said Western allies must “steel ourselves for a long war, as Putin resorts to a campaign of attrition, trying to grind down Ukraine by sheer brutality.”

Both men stressed the need to avert future Russian aggression.

Stoltenberg said: “If Putin learns the lesson from this war that he can just carry on as he did after the Georgia war in 2008 and the occupation of Crimea in 2014, then we will pay a much higher price.”

Johnson asked what would happen if Putin was free to keep all the areas of Ukraine now controlled by Russian forces. “What if no one was willing to lift a finger as he annexed this conquered territory and its fearful people into a greater Russia? Would this bring peace?”

The British Prime Minister added that through firm long-term support for Ukraine, “we and our allies will be protecting our own security as much as Ukraine’s and safeguarding the world from the lethal dreams of Putin and those who might seek to copy them.”

Johnson wrote: “Time is the vital factor. Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack. Our task is to enlist time on Ukraine’s side.”

Read the full story here.