When the war between Russia and Ukraine reaches its 108th day, let’s take a look at the main events.
These are the key events so far on Saturday, June 11th.
Get the latest updates here.
Fighting
- President Volodymyr Zelenskyy insisted that Ukraine would prevail in its nearly four-month war with Russia.
- The UK Ministry of Defense said “there is intense street fighting” in Severodonetsk, the city that has become the focus of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine, and add that “both sides are likely to suffer a large number of casualties.”
- Ukraine maintains control of the Nitrogen Chemical Plant in Severodonetsk, where hundreds of civilians are taking refuge.
- Earlier, Russian-backed separatists claimed that between 300 and 400 Ukrainian fighters were trapped there.
- Russian forces around Severodonetsk have made no progress south of the city, the UK Defense Ministry said.
- The Ukrainian army command said Russian troops had secured positions in two communities near Severodonetsk, while Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said the Russians had control of “most” of the city.
- Zelenskyy said his army’s ability to curb Russian forces in the Donbas region depended on the supply of Western weapons, and called for modern artillery to be supplied.
- “This is an artillery war now,” Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s chief military intelligence chief, told the British Guardian newspaper. “It simply came to our notice then. Ukraine has between 10 and 15 pieces of Russian artillery.
- Russia is looking for weaknesses in Ukraine’s defenses near the Siversky Donets River in eastern Ukraine, said Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk.
- The Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office said it had learned of the deaths of 24 more children in Mariupol, a total of 287 children killed since the start of the Russian invasion.
- Cholera and other deadly diseases could kill thousands in the southern port of Mariupol as corpses are left uncollected and the summer brings a warmer climate, its mayor said.
Economy
- Zelenskyy said his country could not export enough food due to a Russian blockade, and the world would face “an acute and severe food crisis and famine.”
- Up to 300,000 tonnes of grain stored in the Black Sea port of Mykolaiv may have been destroyed by Russian bombing, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Taras Vysotskyi said.
- Russia’s central bank lowered its key interest rate to pre-crisis levels by 9.5 percent and kept the door open for greater flexibility as inflation slowed, though observe the uncertainty related to external risks such as the Western embargo on Russian oil.
- Germany, the world’s fifth-largest arms exporter, plans to revise its rules on arms exports to facilitate the disarmament of democracies such as Ukraine and make it harder to sell weapons to autocracies, Der Spiegel reported.
- The United Nations Food Agency said the reduction in exports of wheat and other food products from Ukraine and Russia could cause chronic hunger to up to 19 million more people worldwide over the next year.
- Ukraine’s grain exports are rising to close to two million tonnes a month, said European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski.
Diplomacy
- Zelenskyy called for Ukraine to be accepted as a candidate for the EU with binding guarantees for its protection. “The European Union can take a historic step that will show that the words about the people of Ukraine belonging to the European family are not just words,” he told a video conference in Copenhagen.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told Zelenskyy during a visit to Kyiv that the EU executive’s opinion on Ukraine’s bid to join the EU will be ready at the end of next week.
- Russian passports will be distributed to parts of Zaporizhia, which is under Moscow’s control, from Saturday.
- The United Kingdom condemned Russian delegates to the Donbas for what it called a “flagrant breach” of the Geneva Conventions by condemning to death two British captured in the separatist region while fighting for Ukraine.