Ukrainian troops carry shells to fire at Russian positions on the frontline in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

Tuesday’s Coverage: IAEA — “Grave Situation” at Russian-Occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1700 GMT:

Hoping to broaden participation in next week’s Global Peace Summit, Ukraine President Voldoymyr Zelenskiy is in Qatar for discussions.

Talks will also consider Qatar’s role in the return of Ukrainian children deported by Russia and bilateral economic and security issues.

UPDATE 1048 GMT:

One civilian has been killed and five injured by Russian attacks on the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

The fatality and four of the wounded were near the town of Toretsk. Another person was injured by an aerial attack on the frontline town of Selydove.

UPDATE 1043 GMT:

Russia’s Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by sociologist and activist Boris Kagarlitsky against his five-year prison sentence for “justifying terrorism”.

Kagarlitsky, 65, was seized because of his open opposition to the invasion of Ukraine. A petition calling for his release was signed by intellectuals and politicians from around the world.

UPDATE 0906 GMT:

A leading Ukrainian MP has acknowledged that Kyiv used a US-supplied HIMARS rocket system to hit missile launchers inside Russia.

Yehor Chernev, the deputy chairman of Parliament’s National Security Committee, is the first Ukrainian official to publicly claim the attack on the Belgorod region. The rockets damaged S-300 and S-400 systems last weekend.

The strike came days after the Biden Administration relaxed the ban on US-supplied weapons being used on Russia territory.

See also Ukraine War, Day 828: Biden — Some US-Supplied Weapons Can Be Used Inside Russia

UPDATE 0853 GMT:

The Russian energy giant Gazprom is unlikely to recover gas sales lost because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a report commissioned by the company’s leadership.

The research projects that Gazprom’s exports to Europe will average 50 billion to 75 billion cubic meters a year by 2035, barely a third of the level in February 2022.

Gazprom was hoping to cover the deficit with the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline to China, but the Chinese leadership is putting conditions on the completion of the project. Vladimir Putin failed to break the stalemate in a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing last month.

Even if the pipeline is finished, its capacity will only be 50 billion cubic meters a year and prices in China are much lower than in Europe, the 151-page report noted.

UPDATE 0841 GMT:

Mourners gather at the grave of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who would have been 48 on Tuesday:

Mourners at grave of Alexei Navalny, June 4, 2024

Photo: SotaVision

Navalny, who survived assassination attempts, perished in poor conditions in a Siberian prison from “sudden death syndrome” on February 16. He had been condemned to a sentence of 30 years over his activism.

Police arrested two women near Navalny’s graveside in Moscow’s Borisovsokye Cemetery. Two people were arrested in Novosibirsk for trying to lay flowers at a monument to victims of political repressions.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:

Ukraine air defenses downed 22 of 27 Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The UAVs were fired from Russia’s Kursk region and Cape Chauda in Russian-occupied Crimea. They were shot down over the Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, and Poltava regions.

One person was injured in Poltava when a drone hit an industrial facility.

Russia is turning away from its 27-day cross-border offensive in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskiy said the main effort of Russian forces has returned to the months-long assault on Ukranian-held parts of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

“I am grateful to every unit, commander, and soldier who helped stabilize the Kharkiv direction,” the President said.

Launching its air and ground incursion into Kharkiv on May 10, Russia overran about 12 villages. However, they failed to seize the border town of Vovchansk, despite attacking it from three sides throughout the offensive.

The UK Defense Ministry supported Zelenskiy’s assessment, saying the area north and west of Donetsk city “has remained the probable main effort of Russian forces over the last 72 hours”.

On a wider front, Zelenskiy referred to his efforts for military assistance from partners, including weapons with “more capabilities and a longer range”, and for maximum participation in the first Global Peace Summit in Swtizerland on June 15-16.

It is only the beginning of June, but the coming weeks will define the entire summer and, in many ways, the entire year. Both in terms of the Peace Summit, rallying the world around Ukraine, our relations with the EU, frontline positions, and domestic production.

We make every effort to ensure that Ukraine obtains the results it requires.