- The United Kingdom says it will supply Ukraine with M270 multiple-launch rocket systems that can attack targets up to 80km (50 miles) away in a move coordinated with the United States.
- Vladimir Putin stresses long-range missile supplies sent to Ukraine mean “we will … strike targets we haven’t hit before”.
- The governor of Luhansk claims Ukraine has reversed a Russian advance in Severodonetsk and recaptured about 20 percent of the strategic eastern city, meaning Ukraine now controls half.
- A Russian state media journalist reports Moscow’s Major General Roman Kutuzov was killed in eastern Ukraine, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits front-line troops in the Zaporizhia region, as well as the towns of Soledar in the Donetsk region and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, as Russia continues its attack on the Donbas.
Here are the latest updates:
Russian ministry website appears hacked: Reuters
The website of Russia’s Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities appeared to have been hacked, with an internet search for the site leading to a “Glory to Ukraine” sign in Ukrainian, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Russia’s state news agency RIA late on Sunday quoted a ministry representative as saying that the site was down but users’ personal data were protected.
RIA said other media had reported that hackers were demanding a ransom to prevent the public disclosure of users’ data. Reuters was not able to ascertain which media outlets were being cited by RIA.
Many Russian state-owned companies and news organisations have suffered sporadic hacking attempts since Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine in February.
United Kingdom to send Ukraine M270 rocket launchers
The UK has said it will supply Ukraine with multiple-launch rocket systems that can attack targets up to 80km (50 miles) away, in a move coordinated with the US.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said UK support for Ukraine would change as Russia’s tactics evolved, explaining the gift of the M270 multiple-launch systems, which are similar to the systems the US is sending, the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).
“These highly capable multiple-launch rocket systems will enable our Ukrainian friends to better protect themselves against the brutal use of long-range artillery, which [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s forces have used indiscriminately to flatten cities,” Wallace said in a statement.
The UK said Ukrainian troops would be trained on how to use the new launchers in Britain, after it previously announced it would train Ukrainian personnel to use armoured vehicles.
Russian general killed in Ukraine: State media
A Russian general was killed in eastern Ukraine, a Russian state media journalist said on Sunday, adding to the string of high-ranking military casualties sustained by Moscow.
The report, published on the Telegram messaging app by state television reporter Alexander Sladkov, did not say precisely when and where Major General Roman Kutuzov was killed.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian defence ministry.
Russia already classifies military deaths as state secrets even in times of peace and has not updated its official casualty figures in Ukraine since March 25, when it said that 1,351 Russian soldiers had been killed since the start of its military campaign on February 24.
Missiles kill three and injure two in Donetsk: Governor
Russian missile attacks killed three people and injured another two in the Donetsk region on Sunday, the governor has said.
Two people were killed in the town of Avdiivka and one in the town of Druzhkivka, Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote on Telegram.
He added it was impossible to establish the exact number of victims in the occupied city of Mariupol and town of Volnovakha.
Nearly 100 evacuated from Lysychansk: Governor
Evacuations resumed from the Ukrainian-held part of Luhansk province on Sunday, and 98 people had managed to escape the town of Lysychansk, the regional governor has said.
However, Serhiy Haidai said that “evacuation from Severodonetsk is currently impossible”, and about 15,000 people remained in the city.
Russian forces have been trying for weeks to cut off the main road out of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk to encircle Ukrainian troops there, and evacuations were halted last week after a journalist was killed by shelling.
Russia looking to Africa to sell stolen Ukrainian grain: NYT
The US in mid-May sent an alert to 14 countries, mostly in Africa, that Russian cargo vessels were leaving ports near Ukraine laden with what a state department cable described as “stolen Ukrainian grain”, the New York Times has reported.
Russia has been seeking buyers among African countries for the grain stolen in Ukraine, the NYT report also said.
Ukraine says Russia has stolen up to 500,000 tonnes of wheat worth $100m since Moscow invaded in February. Most of the grain has been taken to ports in Russia-controlled Crimea, then transferred to ships, including some under Western sanctions, Ukrainian officials say.
On Friday, Vladimir Putin met with the head of the African Union, President Macky Sall of Senegal, who attempted to find a solution to the grain problem and called on the West to lift sanctions. African countries are acutely affected by the grain shortage crisis driven in large part by Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports, which has sent prices of grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertiliser soaring.
Zelenskyy visits towns near front in eastern Ukraine
Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy has said he visited two towns near the front line of battles against the Russian army after meeting troops in the Zaporizhia region.
“After that I went with the head of [my] office to the east. We were in Lysychansk and Soledar,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video.
“I am proud of everybody I met, everyone I shook hands with, everyone with whom I connected with and had expressed my support.”
Lysychansk is in the Luhansk region and Soledar is in the Donetsk region. Both regions make up the Donbas, which is the focus of Russia’s campaign in eastern Ukraine.
Russia hits Kyiv with missiles
Russia took aim at Western military supplies for Ukraine on Sunday, launching air raids on Kyiv that it claimed destroyed tanks donated from abroad.
Ukraine said missiles aimed at the capital hit a train repair shop. At least one person was hospitalised but no deaths had been reported, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Before the morning attack, Kyiv had not faced any such Russian air raids since the April 28 visit of UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Read more here.
We will ‘use our means of destruction’ over arms supplies: Putin
Putin has lashed out at Western deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, saying they aim to prolong the conflict.
“All this fuss around additional deliveries of weapons, in my opinion, has only one goal: to drag out the armed conflict as much as possible,” the Russian leader said.
He insisted such supplies were unlikely to change the military situation for Ukraine’s government.
If Kyiv gets longer-range rockets, he added, Moscow will “draw appropriate conclusions and use our means of destruction, which we have plenty of, in order to strike at those objects that we haven’t yet struck”.
Read more here.
Russia using proxy forces to limit its own casualties: UK
The United Kingdom’s defence ministry has said Ukrainian counterattacks in Severodonetsk were “likely blunting the operational momentum Russian forces previously gained through concentrating combat units and firepower”.
Russian forces previously made a string of advances in the city, but Ukrainian fighters have pushed back in recent days. The ministry’s intelligence brief also said Russia’s military was partly relying on reserve forces of Luhansk separatists.
“These troops are poorly equipped and trained, and lack heavy equipment in comparison to regular Russian units,” it said, adding the use of these troops likely “indicates a desire to limit casualties suffered by regular Russian forces”.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 5 June 2022
Find out more about the UK government’s response: https://t.co/8afxKwSwSn
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/Sy8NG76Fa8
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) June 5, 2022
Ukraine loses 1-0 to Wales in World Cup qualifier match
It was an agonising end to Ukraine’s mission to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar while remaining under invasion by Russia.
The Ukrainian players appeared heartbroken following the defeat, wanting to give their country a positive after it has endured three months of bombardment.
Ukraine coach Oleksandr Petrakov said he could not utter a word of criticism of his players.
“I think we did everything we could but I want the people of Ukraine to remember our team, our efforts. I want to say sorry we didn’t score. But that is sport, that happens.”
Read more here.
Ukraine says it controls ‘half’ of Severodonetsk
Ukraine has said its forces have retaken control of half of the strategic eastern city of Severodonetsk as a counterattack drove back Russian troops in the critical battle for the Luhansk region.
But Luhansk’s governor Serhiy Haidai said they expect a major counterattack from Russian forces in the coming days.
“Our armed forces have cleaned half” of the industrial hub of Russian forces, Haidai said on his official social media channels. “In the next five days, there will be a large increase in the number of shellings from heavy artillery.”
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Read all the updates from Sunday, June 5 here.
