June 1, 2023 Russia-Ukraine news

Ukraine needs “clear” and “positive” decisions on its bid for joining both NATO and the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday at a summit of European leaders in Moldova’s capital Chisinau.

“This year is for decisions,” Zelensky said.

"Positive decisions for Ukraine will be positive decisions for everyone," he added.

Zelensky also restated his calls to not allow the war in Ukraine to become a frozen conflict.

Zelensky also said coalitions of Patriot air defenses and fighter jets would "accelerate peace," and that "every step in air defense enforcement is literally saving lives.”

Moldova is hosting a summit of the EU’s 27 member states and 20 other European countries at a castle deep in Moldova’s wine region just 12 miles (20 km) from Ukrainian territory, according to Reuters.

Every sport in Europe – from soccer to fencing to UFC – has had to grapple with the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Tennis is no exception.

Since the start of the war, Russian and Belarusian players have continued to play at tournaments and grand slams but must do so as neutrals without their flag or country displayed.

The only exception has been Wimbledon, which banned players from those two countries last year – though the ATP and WTA Tours responded by stripping the tournament of ranking points.

The governing bodies of the men’s and women’s tours both said that they oppose “discrimination” against players based on nationality.

Tensions are bubbling on and off the court. For some Ukrainian players, having to face opponents from Russia and Belarus has been a point of frustration.

World No. 39 Marta Kostyuk, who is from Kyiv, said at the start of the year that she would not shake hands with Russian or Belarusian players while the war rages in her country.

She was booed at the French Open when she refused to meet Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka at the net, while Sabalenka condemned the booing and said she understands why Ukrainian players won’t shake her hand.

“How can we support the war? Normal people will never support it.”

Read more here.

The Russian defense ministry claimed Thursday that, together with the Federal Security Service (FSB), it had prevented an incursion across its border by Ukrainian forces, saying tanks and two motorized infantry companies attempted to enter the Belgorod region.

The attempted incursion began at around 3 a.m. Moscow time (8 p.m. ET), spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said.

The Russian military repelled three attacks by Ukrainian terrorist groups, Konashenkov said, adding that “terrorists of the Kyiv regime were pushed back, suffering significant losses.”

“Violations of the state border were not allowed,” he said.

Inflation in Europe has fallen to its slowest pace since Russia invaded Ukraine, bolstering the case for the region's central bank to bring interest rate hikes to an end soon.

Consumer prices in the 20 countries that use the euro rose 6.1% last month compared with a year ago, easing from 7% in April, according to an initial estimate Thursday from the European Union's statistics agency.

That's the lowest rate of inflation since February 2022, when Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor, sending global energy prices soaring.

The pace of food price rises eased for the second month running in May, while energy prices actually fell. Core inflation, which strips out food and energy, slowed to 5.3% — a four-month low.

Inflation has fallen sharply in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, national data published Wednesday showed. Price rises eased across a broad range of product categories in Europe's biggest economies.

That could give the European Central Bank reason to pause interest rate hikes soon, although ECB President Christine Lagarde said Thursday that policymakers still had "ground to cover to bring interest rates to sufficiently restrictive levels."

"Today, inflation is too high and it is set to remain so for too long," Lagarde said at a banking conference in Germany.

Why this matters: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has profoundly altered Europe’s economy, causing food and energy prices to spike dramatically. In an attempt to slow inflation, the ECB has hiked interest rates several times.

Before the war, Europe imported vast quantities of natural gas and oil from Russia. Weaning itself off this cheap supply of energy was a painful and initially sluggish process for many European countries. 

While there was a huge outpouring of sympathy for Ukraine in the early months of the war, some analysts feared that European support might dwindle as the conflict dragged on and inflicted heavy costs on consumers – especially during winter, when high energy costs were expected to bite hardest.

But, due both to Europe’s ability to replenish its gas reserves during the more temperate months and to a raft of support measures implemented by governments, consumers did not have to shoulder costs as severe as first feared.

Today’s news of falling inflation will come as welcome relief to governments and consumers across the continent.

Read more here.

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, has denied the latest border incursion claims by a group of anti-Putin Russian nationals. 

“There is massive shelling. Of course the lives of civilians, the population is under threat. Mainly in Shebekino and in the surrounding villages,” he added.

It comes after the Russian Volunteer Corps, a group of anti-Putin Russian nationals aligned with the Ukrainian army, claimed Thursday that its members were fighting on Russian territory but did not provide any evidence.

In a separate Telegram post, Gladkov said he had reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation at the border.

“It was decided that schoolchildren from the Shebekino urban district will not take exams,” Gladkov added.

Belgorod incursions: Last week, two groups of pro-Ukrainian Russian nationals – the Freedom for Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps – launched a cross-border raid on their motherland, in the neighboring Belgorod region.

One civilian from the village of Kozinka died as a result of the fighting, Gladkov said at the time. He added that six districts of the Belgorod region, as well as the city itself, were targeted, and that a counter-terror operation was launched in response.

Belgorod has also been targeted by a number of drone strikes in recent weeks, as fighting intensified around Ukraine’s eastern border.

Kyiv’s Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said police will now patrol bomb shelters in the city during night time air raid alarms to ensure they are open.

An investigation has been launched after three people, including a 9-year-old girl, were killed on Thursday after trying to enter a closed bomb shelter, according to Ukraine’s internal affairs minister.

In a Telegram post, Klitschko said a missile fragment fell near the entrance to a clinic in the Desnianskyi district of the capital,“4 minutes after the air raid alarm was announced. People were running to the shelter”.

“I gave a separate order to the heads of the capital's districts to immediately check all bomb shelters,” he added.

Klitchko said he has asked for the head of the Desnianskyi district to be removed from his duties while the investigation into the shelter at the clinic is underway, adding that the head of the medical institution should also be removed.

“In total, 19 people were affected by the night shelling of the capital. Three of them were killed, including 1 child. 16 people were injured,” he said.

The West is actively pushing Moldova to participate in the Ukraine conflict, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) -- the successor to the Soviet Union's KGB -- said Thursday.

Ukraine has become a springboard for the war against Russia and subversive activities against Belarus, Alexander Bortnikov said at a meeting of security chiefs of the CIS Member States.

Secret documents uncovered in March revealed the FSB had a detailed plan for destabilizing Moldova and preventing it from joining NATO by supporting pro-Russian groups in the former Soviet republic and controlling supplies of natural gas.

Some background: Earlier this year, tensions began mounting in Moldova, a small country on Ukraine’s southwestern border, where Russia has been accused of laying the groundwork for a coup that could drag the nation into the Kremlin’s war

The flashpoint is in Transnistria – a self-proclaimed, unrecognized territory bordering southwestern Ukraine with a predominantly Russian-speaking population that broke away from Moldova in 1990 -- where Russia maintains a military presence and exerts political influence.

Moldova’s President, Maia Sandu, accused Russia in February of using “saboteurs” disguised as civilians to stoke unrest amid a period of political instability, echoing similar warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has meanwhile baselessly accused Kyiv of planning its own assault on the pro-Russian territory in Moldova where Moscow has a military foothold, heightening fears that he is creating a pretext for a Crimea-style annexation.

Moldova has provided huge support for Ukraine since the start of the war – taking in more Ukrainian refugees per capita than any other country – and last year was granted European Union candidate status.

On Thursday, Moldova hosted a summit of the EU’s 27 member states and 20 other European countries at a castle deep in Moldova’s wine region just 12 miles (20 km) from Ukrainian territory near Transnistria, according to Reuters.

At least 484 children have been killed and 992 injured since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Prosecutor General’s Office said Thursday as Ukraine marked International Children's Day. 

Ukraine and most other eastern European post-Communist countries mark June 1 as International Children's Day. Towns, schools and community groups often organize children-focused events like sports days and fun fairs.

Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska tweeted Thursday: "Children's Day has to be about safe childhood, summer, life... But today it is about new crimes of [Russian Federation] against Ukrainian children. A 9-year-old girl was killed in the shelling of Kyiv, and another is now in hospital.”

More than 2,500 educational institutions were damaged, including 256 completely destroyed, the Prosecutor General’s Office also said in its Thursday statement.

It added that more than 19,500 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Russia or temporarily occupied territories. “But these are only the cases that are officially registered,” it said, warning the number could be higher.

War crimes: In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

The ICC charges, which relate to an alleged practice that CNN and others have reported on, were the first to be formally lodged against officials in Moscow since it began its unprovoked attack on Ukraine last year.

ICC President Judge Piotr Hofmanski told CNN in March that all signatory countries are "obliged to execute arrest warrants issued by the court," meaning that "there are 123 states -- two thirds of the states in the world -- in which he (Putin) will not be saved."

The Kremlin labeled the ICC’s actions as “outrageous and unacceptable” and said Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the court.

A child, her mother and another woman were killed in a Russian missile strike on Kyiv after trying to enter a bomb shelter that was closed, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs Ihor Klymenko said in a statement.

Klymenko said Kyiv police have launched an investigation into the incident regarding “negligence that caused grave consequences.”

Ukraine's national police said earlier that a 9-year-old girl, her 34-year-old mother, and a 33-year-old woman were killed in Kyiv on Thursday after missiles that targeted the capital were shot down. Twelve others were injured.

The husband of one of the women told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspline that when they heard the air raid alarm, people ran to the shelter but found it locked.

“I just ran to the other side, calling for them to open. And just at that moment everything happened, at that moment something flew - I don't know, fragments or something,” he added.

Another eyewitness named Kateryna Didukh said: “They ran here to hide but unfortunately it was closed. This is the largest bomb shelter. They were all standing at the entrance. There is a polyclinic and a kindergarten here, and it fell right between them.”

Klymenko said that after “the 16th month of full-scale war,” he believes “responsible officials should have identified and fixed all the flaws in the issue of people's safety. The enemy continues large-scale shelling of cities. But some shelters still remain closed during the air raid alarm.”

“As part of the investigation, we will find and bring to justice all those responsible. In addition, the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, together with the National Police, will regularly inspect the accessibility and condition of bomb shelters in all settlements of the country,” he said.