- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calls for more weapons, as he warns Russia wants to destroy “every city” in the Donbas.
- Estonia has summoned the Russian ambassador to condemn President Vladimir Putin’s “completely unacceptable” praise of Peter the Great.
- A Ukrainian governor says the country conducted its 11th prisoner exchange with Russia.
- Amid heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, 300 Ukrainians left the city of Pokrovsk on a special evacuation train heading to Dnipro and other cities further west.
Here are the latest updates:
Mariupol mayor fears thousands may die from cholera
The mayor of the bombed out city of Mariupol has said sanitation systems were broken and some wells had been contaminated by corpses, sparking an “outbreak of dysentery and cholera.”
Vadym Boichenko told national television that the disease was likely to claim thousands more lives on top of the estimated 20,000 residents killed by the conflict.
He called on the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to establish a humanitarian corridor to allow remaining residents to leave the city, which is now under Russian control.
Zelenskyy calls for weapons, says world must not look away
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Kyiv has launched new air strikes in the captured southern region of Kherson, one of the first areas to be taken by Russia after the February 24 invasion, as “very difficult battles” are ongoing in the eastern Donbas region.
“Ukrainian troops are doing everything to stop the offensive of the occupiers,” Zelenskyy said in an address. “As much as the heavy weapons, modern artillery — all that we have asked and continue to ask our partners for — allow them to.”
He added that Ukraine must “not allow the world to divert its attention away from what is happening on the battlefield”.
Zelenskyy to address Shangri-La Dialogue
Zelenskyy is due to address the Shangri-La Dialogue in a few hours.
He’ll speak to the forum in Singapore by video link at 4pm (08:00 GMT).
While the SLD is an Asia Pacific security forum, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has featured prominently with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin warning Putin’s decision to invade a sovereign state was an example of “what happens when oppressors trample on the rules that protect us all”.
Biden says Zelenskyy ‘didn’t want to hear it’ on Russian invasion
US President Joe Biden has said that Zelenskyy “didn’t want to hear it” when US intelligence had information that Russia was preparing to invade, according to the Associated Press.
“Nothing like this has happened since World War II. I know a lot of people thought I was maybe exaggerating. But I knew we had data to sustain he (Russian President Vladimir Putin) was going to go in, off the border,” Biden told Democratic donors in Los Angeles.
“There was no doubt. And Zelenskyy didn’t want to hear it.”
Russia-China military cooperation raises Asia Pacific security concerns: Japan
Japan’s defence minister Nobuo Kishi has warned military cooperation between China and Russia has intensified security concerns concerns in the Asia Pacific.
Last month, China and Russia conducted a joint aerial patrol in waters close to Japan and Taiwan, their first since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Joint military operations between these two strong military powers will undoubtedly increase concern among other countries,” Kishi said.
Security and stability of the Taiwan Strait was also important for the security of Japan and the wider world, Kishi added, calling China a “nation of concern”.
#DMKishi explained implications of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine for the Indo-Pacific and Japan’s efforts to respond to geopolitical competition in the region, emphasizing the importance of solidarity in maintaining and strengthening the rule-based international order.
— Japan Ministry of Defense/Self-Defense Forces (@ModJapan_en) June 11, 2022
US defence secretary warns of ‘chaos and turmoil’
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has given an impassioned defence of the international rules-based order at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
He told delegates at the security summit that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was an “indefensible assault” on a peaceful neighbour.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what happens when oppressors trample on the rules that protect us all,” he said. “It’s what happens when big powers decide their imperial appetites matter more than their smaller neighbours.”
Austin warned such disregard for the rules-based international order risked creating a “world of chaos and turmoil that none of us would want to live in”.
EU unity must not be compromised by Ukraine candidate status: France
A decision to give Ukraine candidate status to the European Union has to be done without weakening the bloc and to ensure Kyiv is not left in limbo for years, a French presidential official has said.
The European Commission will give its opinion on Ukraine’s candidacy request on June 17, and the EU’s heads of state are expected to discuss the issue at a summit a week later.
“We know that there are different sensitivities on the subject within the European Union,” the French presidential source told reporters.
“We will pay attention to the unity of the European Council. We believe also that the European Union must come out of this crisis in Ukraine stronger and must not come out weakened.”
Growing concerns about Russian artillery superiority: ISW
The Institute for the Study of War says Ukraine is making more urgent requests for sophisticated Western weaponry as a result of concerns about Russia’s superiority in artillery.
It cites a senior military intelligence official saying that Russian troops have 10 to 15 artillery pieces for every one held by Ukrainian forces.
“Considering the current prevalence of protracted positional battles, especially in the Severodonetsk- Lysychansk area, Ukrainian forces urgently need fresh supplies of artillery systems,” ISW said in its latest update on the war. “As Ukrainian forces use the last of their stocks of Soviet-era weapon systems and munitions, they will require consistent Western support to transition to new supply chains of ammunition and artillery systems. Effective artillery will be increasingly decisive in the largely static fighting in eastern Ukraine.”
#Ukrainian officials are increasing the urgency of their requests for Western weapons systems due to #Russia’s artillery superiority. Russian forces are continuing ground assaults within #Severodonetsk but have yet to secure full control of the city.https://t.co/uQcqCI47QJ pic.twitter.com/rEIcEYlglf
— ISW (@TheStudyofWar) June 10, 2022
Russia wants to destroy every city in the Donbas: Zelenskyy
Zelenskyy has said his army’s ability to hold off Russian forces in the Donbas region depends on the supply of Western weapons.
“The Ukrainian troops are doing everything to stop the offensive of the occupiers, as much as is possible. As much as the heavy weapons, modern artillery – all that we have asked for and continue to ask for from our partners – allow them,” he said in his nightly video address.
He said that Russia wants to destroy every city in the region.
“Every city – that’s not an exaggeration. Like Volnovakha, like Mariupol. All of these ruins of once-happy cities, the black traces of fires, the craters from explosions – this is all that Russia can give to its neighbours, to Europe, to the world.”
US inflation at new 40-year high as price increases spread
The prices of gas, food and most other goods and services in the United States jumped in May, the Labor Department has said, raising inflation to a new four-decade high and giving American households no respite from rising costs.
The report underscored fears that inflation is spreading well beyond energy and goods whose prices are being driven up by clogged supply chains and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It also sent stock prices tumbling.
“Virtually every sector has higher-than-normal inflation,” said Ethan Harris, head of global economic research at Bank of America. “It’s made its way into every nook and cranny of the economy. That’s the thing that makes it concerning because it means it’s likely to persist.”
Celebrity chef Jose Andres testifies before Congress subcommittee
Celebrity chef and philanthropist Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen, has testified during a US congressional hearing on efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
Andres told lawmakers that structural changes and reforms are needed to improve how the international community responds to urgent humanitarian needs around the world.
“The best way America and the international community can be helping Ukraine is not by bringing everything from the outside but is making sure that we keep supporting the local economy, the local infrastructure, investing the money locally, creating jobs locally that will keep Ukraine in the fight for freedom of their country,” he said.
Ukraine conducts 11th prisoner exchange with Russia
A Ukrainian governor said on Friday that his country has conducted the 11th prisoner swap with Russia since February, exchanging four Russians for five Ukrainians.
Mykolaiv region governor Vitaliy Kim wrote on Telegram that one of the freed Ukrainians was local village head Oleh Pylypenko, who Kim said was “kidnapped” by Russian forces on March 10.
Estonia summons Russian envoy to protest Putin remarks
Estonia has summoned the Russian ambassador to condemn President Vladimir Putin’s “completely unacceptable” praise of Peter the Great, a Russian ruler who captured a city that is now Estonian.
Estonia’s foreign ministry said Ambassador Vladimir Lipayev had been summoned “to condemn recent statements by President Putin … including his comments on the Estonian city of Narva,” it said in a statement.
“At a time when Russia is … trying to destroy the statehood and people of Ukraine, it is also completely unacceptable,” it added.
Zelenskyy thanks UK for ‘effective support’
Zelenskyy has thanked the United Kingdom for its “effective support” of Kyiv, following an in-person meeting with Britain’s defence chief.
British defence secretary Ben Wallace met Zelenskyy, as well as his Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov, during an unannounced two-day visit to Kyiv.
“The head of state thanked the minister for the effective support of Ukraine by the British government in our fight against Russian aggression,” Zelenskyy’s press service said in a statement.
“The war showed who our real friends and partners are, not only strategic, but effectively acting today. Great Britain is one of such friends.”
Ukraine fears a long war might cause West to lose interest
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grinds on, officials in Kyiv have expressed fears that the spectre of “war fatigue” could erode the West’s resolve to help the country push back against the Russian offensive.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy already has chafed at Western suggestions he should accept some sort of compromise. Ukraine, he said, would decide its own terms for peace.
“The fatigue is growing, people want some kind of outcome [that is beneficial] for themselves, and we want [an] outcome for ourselves,” he said.
Read more here.
Hundreds flee as forces fight for control in Ukraine’s east
Hundreds of people have continued to flee intense fighting in eastern Ukraine as Russian and Ukrainian forces battle for control of key cities and villages in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Ukrainians left the city of Pokrovsk on a special evacuation train heading to Dnipro and other cities further west.
The train carried about 300 people — mostly women, children, and the elderly — who were forced to leave as the fighting neared their homes.
According to the UN refugee agency, as of Thursday, 4.9 million Ukrainians have fled to other countries in Europe in search of safety since the war began.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Read all the updates from Friday, June 10 here.