Troops from Kyiv seem to be losing the ascendancy against those from Moscow, especially in Severodonetsk, a key city in the Donbass, the scene of heavy fighting, even if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assures us that the soldiers are “holding on”.
Here are the latest developments, minute by minute
3:05 p.m. | Russia: Anti-torture NGO designated “foreign agent”
The Russian NGO Committee against Torture was designated a “foreign agent” on Friday by the Russian authorities, in the midst of a crackdown on civil society in Russia.
1:39 p.m. | Scholz urged Belgrade to adopt sanctions against Russia
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has strongly urged Serbia to join sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday.
1:29 p.m. | Moving tribute in Paris to the journalist killed in Ukraine
“Here is Mr. Poutine the beautiful person whom you killed”, declared Friday the mother of the journalist Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, fatally affected by a shrapnel at the end of May in Ukraine, during a rally in Paris to pay tribute to him .
His family, his colleagues from BFMTV, including reporter Maxime Brandstaetter who teamed up with him in Ukraine, his partner Sam Cottet were notably present, alongside Marc-Olivier Fogiel, CEO of BFMTV, and Christophe Deloire, Secretary General of RSF, noted an AFP journalist on the spot.
12:50 | Lotto Max: $70M jackpot winner wants to help rebuild Ukraine
A retiree from Montérégie won the largest jackpot ever awarded in Quebec to a single person by pocketing more than $70 million in the Lotto Max draw last Tuesday.
12:30 | France for a “victory” of Ukraine, ready to help unblock the port of Odessa
France wants Ukraine’s “victory” in the conflict with Russia and is also ready to participate in an “operation” that will allow the blockade of the port of Odessa to be lifted and Ukrainian cereals to be exported, announced the French presidency on Friday.
12:00 | “Ukraine could be the East Asia of tomorrow”, says the Japanese Prime Minister
“Ukraine could be the East Asia of tomorrow,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday at a summit in Singapore, referring to the situation in Taiwan.
9:57 am | Received by Putin, the new Turkmen president advocates strengthening ties
Turkmenistan’s new president, Serdar Berdymoukhamedov, on Friday advocated strengthening ties with Moscow, his “strategic partner”, during a meeting in the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin.
9:50 am | Nine countries want a reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank
Leaders of nine central and eastern European countries gathered in Bucharest on Friday to call for a reinforcement of NATO’s eastern flank in the face of Russian aggression in Ukraine, less than three weeks from a summit of the Alliance scheduled for the end of June in Madrid.
9:29 | Weapons, sanctions: Zelensky thanks UK defense minister for leadership
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked London for its leading role in Western support for Ukraine on Friday, during a visit to Kyiv by British Defense Minister Ben Wallace.
8:22 am | Boris Johnson ‘appalled’ by death sentence for two Britons in Ukraine
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is “appalled” by the death sentences of two Britons by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, Downing Street said on Friday, saying he was working with Kyiv to get them released.
7:45 am | Finland wants to build fences on its border with Russia
Finland plans to build new fences on parts of its border with Russia as a result of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the government said on Friday.
7:17 am | Zelensky pleads for Ukraine’s EU candidacy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded on Friday for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, calling not to leave his country in a “grey zone”, while EU leaders must decide by the end June if they grant him official EU candidate status.
6:47 | UN concerned after foreign fighters sentenced to death in Donetsk
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed concern on Friday after the death sentence by pro-Russian separatist authorities of foreign fighters who fought alongside Ukrainians.
6:44 | Russia: the Central Bank lowers its key rate from 11% to 9.50%
The Russian Central Bank lowered its key rate from 11% to 9.50% on Friday, saying that despite a “difficult” environment for the Russian economy, “inflation is slowing faster and the decline in economic activity is less important” than she had anticipated.
4h15 | Kyiv bombs Russian positions in the Kherson region
The Ukrainian army said on Friday that it had struck Russian positions in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, a region almost entirely under the control of Russian forces where Kyiv fears that Moscow will soon organize a referendum for a annexation to Russia.
1 hour | The Eurosatory exhibition opens on Monday, Ukraine in the backdrop
Eurosatory, the largest international exhibition for land defense and security, opens Monday north of Paris in a context of rising military spending, accentuated by the first lessons of the war in Ukraine.
0h45 | Mariupol Diary: The War in Ukraine as Seen by a Child
It’s one of the bloodiest chapters of the war in Ukraine told in the words and drawings of an eight-year-old boy: Yegor Kravtsov kept a secret diary in Mariupol as the city fell to cut off Russian forces.
Holed up for weeks in a cellar with his family, Iegor kept himself busy filling the pages of his little blue notebook, with an idyllic picture of Greece on the cover.
0h45 | Russia: in the former Stalingrad, a warrior cult in the service of power
Stalingrad! On the banks of the Volga, this city, now called Volgograd and which was the scene of an infernal battle, perpetuates an imaginary warrior invoked by the Kremlin to justify its offensive in Ukraine.
The victory of the USSR against Hitler at Stalingrad in February 1943 marked a turning point in the Second World War. More than a million people died there during the battle, one of the bloodiest in history.