Toxic fumes warning after airstrike on chemical plant

• Design drones for Ukraine, inventors called in £25m competition ​

• EU bickering about oil ban hands advantage to Putin, says Zelensky

• Russia dismisses speculation over Vladimir Putin’s health

• ‘Suicide mission’ for Russians ordered to capture Severodonetsk

• Listen to the latest episode of our daily Ukraine podcast

A Russian airstrike has hit a nitric acid tank in the frontline city of Severodonetsk, local governor Serhiy Gaidai has said.

In a post on the Telegram app, he urged local residents not to leave bomb shelters due to the risk posed by toxic fumes from the acid tank.

Mr Gaidai added a photo in which a large pink cloud could be seen over apartment buildings.

He did not provide information on any casualties.

It came as Russian troops took control of half of the city, according to the mayor, with "fierce street fighting" under way.

As Kremlin forces advanced towards the city centre earlier on Tuesday, Mr Gaidai told Ukrainian state television that there were some 15,000 civilians left in Severodonetsk, as most of the city's 120,000 people had fled the brutal bombardment by Russian artillery.

06:00 PM

What happened today

Here are the key developments from today:

• A Russian airstrike has hit a nitric acid tank in the frontline city of Severodonetsk, local governor Serhiy Gaidai said, as he urged local residents of the risk posed by toxic fumes.

• Mr Gadai also said that Russian forces now control "most" of eastern Ukraine's Severodonetsk, the scene of fierce battles.

• It came as Two Russian soldiers were sentenced to more than 11 years in jail each on Tuesday after a court in central Ukraine found them guilty of firing artillery at civilian areas.

• Meanwhile, a ship left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia took the city and is headed east to Russia, Interfax quoted the Russian-backed separatist leader of the Ukrainian breakaway region of Donetsk as saying.

• Russia claimed it will hand over the bodies of 152 Ukrainian soldiers found underneath the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, now under Moscow's control.

• European Union leaders handed Hungary concessions to agree an oil embargo on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, sealing a deal in the early hours of Tuesday that aims to cut 90 per cent of Russia's crude imports into the bloc by the end of the year.

05:52 PM

Pope leads international prayer service for peace in Ukraine and elsewhere

Pope Francis led an international prayer service for peace in Ukraine and other places stricken by war on Tuesday, sitting in his wheelchair before a statue that Romans traditionally associate with peace.

The 85-year-old pope visited the Rome basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and prayed before the statue of Mary Queen of Peace. Pope Benedict XV commissioned the work in 1918 to ask God to end World War One.

Worshippers in shrines in Ukraine, Iraq, Syria and other countries were connected by video and Catholics around the world were asked to pray at the same time.

About 1,000 attended the service in Rome, including the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican and a number of people wearing the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Before praying the rosary, Pope Francis asked Mary, who in Christianity is revered as the Mother of God, to "reconcile hearts that are full of violence and vendetta".

05:40 PM

Canada sanctions Putin's alleged girlfriend

Canada on Tuesday added President Vladimir Putin's reputed girlfriend, 21 Russian officials and four financial institutions to its growing sanctions list over Moscow's war in Ukraine.

"We're targeting banks, oligarchs close to the Putin regime as well as his, I don't know what to call her, his partner," Foreign Minister Melanie Joly told reporters in Ottawa, referring to former gymnast Alina Kabaeva.

Those targeted - including Kabaeva, the Russian Agricultural Bank, Investtradebank and two fund management firms - face asset freezes and a ban on entry into Canada.

The European Union has identified Ms Kabaeva as the chairwoman of the board of directors of the National Media Group, a holding company with significant shares in almost all major Russian state media.

Media reports claim that she and the Russian president are romantically involved, which Putin denied when the story was first reported in 2008.

05:33 PM

Russian forces control 'most' of east Ukraine's Severodonetsk, governor says

Russian forces now control "most" of eastern Ukraine's Severodonetsk, the scene of fierce battles for days as the Russian army tries to seize it, the local governor said Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, today, Russian troops control most of the city," governor of the Lugansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said in a video.

He said "90 percent" of the city was destroyed.

05:07 PM

UN had 'constructive' talks in Moscow on Russian grain and fertiliser exports

A senior UN official had "constructive discussions" in Moscow with Russia's first deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports to global markets, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

The UN official, Rebecca Grynspan, is now in Washington for further talks, Ms Dujarric said.

04:57 PM

Listen to the latest episode of our daily Ukraine podcast

04:54 PM

Russia oil sanctions could halt Lukoil Italy refinery, Sicily's president says

European sanctions against Russian oil imports could paralyse Lukoil's Italian refinery ISAB and trigger a local jobs crisis, the president of the Sicily region said on Tuesday.

European Union leaders agreed overnight a gradual embargo, with some exemptions, of Russian crude. It will start kicking in towards year end.

The ban on seaborne imports could severely impact ISAB which is Italy's biggest refinery by capacity, Sicily's Nello Musumeci said, calling on the Italian government to deal with the issue.

"There is a deafening silence on the employment catastrophe that could engulf part of the Priolo petrochemical plant, with the embargo and the consequent paralysis of ISAB," Mr Musumeci said in a post on Facebook, asking for an urgent meeting with Rome.

Last month sources told Reuters temporary nationalisation of ISAB was one option the government was considering in case of sanctions on Russian oil.

04:21 PM

Navalny says he faces new criminal case and up to 15 more years in jail

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has said that he has been charged in a new criminal case and faces up to 15 more years on top of his existing sentence if found guilty.

In posts on social media, Mr Navalny said he had been charged with creating an extremist organisation and inciting hate towards the authorities. The charge comes on top of a nine-year sentence he received in March for fraud and contempt of court, before which he was already serving a 2-1/2 year sentence.

"Not even eight days have passed since my nine-year high-security sentence came into force, and today the investigator showed up again and formally charged me with a new case," Mr Navalny said on Twitter.

"It turns out that I created an extremist group in order to incite hatred towards officials and oligarchs. And when they put me in jail, I dared to be disgruntled about it and called for rallies. For that, they're supposed to add up to 15 more years to my sentence," he said.

There was no immediate confirmation of the new charges.

04:14 PM

Zelensky welcomes new sanctions but criticises 'unacceptable' delay

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has welcomed a sixth package of European Union sanctions against Russia but criticised what he called an "unacceptable" delay in the bloc agreeing the latest measures.

"When over 50 days have passed between the 5th and 6th sanction packages, the situation is not acceptable for us," Mr Zelensky said, speaking alongside Slovakia's President Zuzana Caputova in Kyiv.

04:03 PM

Russia playing 'hunger games' with the world, Ukrainian minister says

Russia is playing "hunger games" with the world, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

In a tweet, Mr Kuleba said: "Russia plays hunger games with the world by blocking Ukrainian food exports with one hand and trying to shift the blame on Ukraine with the other.

"Ukraine is working on an international UN-led operation with navies of partners ensuring a safe trade route with no security risks."

03:50 PM

Germany announces swap deal with Greece for tanks to Ukraine

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Tuesday he had agreed a deal with Greece that would see Athens send Soviet-era military vehicles to Ukraine in exchange for more modern armour from Berlin.

"We will provide German armoured personnel carriers," Scholz said after an EU summit in Brussels.

Germany has already struck similar agreements to help supply weaponry to Ukraine with the Czech Republic and is currently negotiating one with Poland.

The goal is to supply Ukraine with vitally needed weapons from old Soviet-era stocks that it can quickly put into battle as it tries to halt Russia's invasion.

Germany wants to deliver 14 Leopard battle tanks and one Leopard armoured vehicle to Prague in exchange for the Czechs sending T-72 tanks to Ukraine.

However, no date has yet been set for the delivery.

03:36 PM

Denmark's energy utility Orsted says Russia to cut its gas supply on June 1

Danish energy company Orsted has said that Russian gas company Gazprom Export will cut gas supplies to Denmark on June 1 after the Danish company refused to pay in rubles.

"Since there is no gas pipeline going directly from Russia to Denmark, Russia will not be able to directly cut off the gas supplies to Denmark, and it will thus still be possible for Denmark to get gas.

"However, this means that the gas for Denmark must, to a larger extent, be purchased on the European gas market", Orsted said in a statement.

03:09 PM

In pictures: The latest from Ukraine

03:01 PM

Macron suggests to Putin UN resolution to end Odessa blockade

French President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday that he and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had urged Vladimir Putin to end Russia's blockade of the Ukrainian port of Odessa under the terms of a UN resolution.

"I proposed, in the discussion we had with Olaf Scholz last Saturday, to President Putin that we take the initiative for a resolution at the United Nations to give a very clear framework to this operation," he declared after a European summit in Brussels.

02:46 PM

Denmark to vote on overturning 30 years of EU defence reticence

Danish voters will on Wednesday decide whether to join the European Union's defence policy, potentially becoming the final hold-out in the bloc to sign up as Russia's invasion of Ukraine forces countries to radically reassess their security.

Denmark is the only member of the 27 nation bloc not in the Common Security and Defence Policy, having secured exemptions from it and the euro currency in a 1993 referendum on the Maastricht Treaty, which laid the groundwork for the modern EU.

If the notoriously EU-critical Danes vote to abolish the opt-out, as polls suggest will be the case, it would mark another significant shift in policy for Europe after Russia launched the invasion in February.

Sweden and Finland this month decided to apply for Nato membership. Both Denmark and Germany have already promised to sharply raise defence spending.

"Nato will of course remain our most important tool, but the EU gives us another tool in securing our defence in the east," said Mogens Jensen, defence spokesman for the ruling Social Democrats.

02:27 PM

Germany to supply IFVs to Greece and Athens to deliver Soviet weapons to Kyiv

Germany will deliver infantry fighting vehicles (IFV) to Greece so that the government in Athens can pass on Soviet-style weapons to Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday.

"We will provide Greece with German infantry fighting vehicles," he told reporters after a two-day EU summit in Brussels, adding he had struck an agreement with the Greek prime minister.

Mr Scholz didn't give any details as to what kind of infantry fighting vehicles Berlin will hand over to Greece - or what kind of weapons Athens will pass on to Kyiv.

"The defence ministries will work out the details and quickly implement this agreement," he said.

Germany has been criticized for dragging its feet on heavy arms deliveries to Kyiv.

02:08 PM

Macron says he is 'not excluding anything' about future EU sanctions against Russia

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that following a sixth European Union package of sanctions against Russia nothing could be ruled out in terms of additional sanctions in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters following an EU summit in Brussels, he also said he hoped that in the next days and weeks an agreement with Russia could be found for Ukrainian food exports, saying that recent talks between the Russian and Turkish presidents on the matter were a "positive sign".

01:40 PM

Ukraine identifies 'few thousand' war crimes cases in Donbas: prosecutor

Ukraine has identified several thousand suspected war crimes in the eastern Donbas region where Russian forces are pressing their offensive, Kyiv's chief prosecutor said Tuesday.

"Of course we started a few thousand cases about what we see in Donbas," prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a news conference in The Hague as she met international counterparts.

01:27 PM

Pictured: Woman reacts outside damaged apartment building in Donbas

01:15 PM

Czech ministry summons Russian ambassador over diplomatic properties

The Czech Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's ambassador on Tuesday to express concerns about the use of Russian diplomatic properties.

The Czech Republic expelled around 100 Russian embassy staff last year in a diplomatic row over Prague's accusations of Russian involvement in a 2014 explosion at an arms depot, and the government has been one of the toughest advocates of sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.

"Diplomatic missions on the territory of a foreign state must respect not only the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but also the rules and laws of the host country," Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in a statement.

"Russia does not do this and does not respect the rule of law," the ministry's statement added, without providing further details.

Russia's Embassy in Prague said it disagreed with the statements, saying usage of Russian real estate in the Czech Republic and Czech real estate in Russia had been a matter of expert discussions for a number of years, and the Czech side had ignored proposals to hold a next round of talks.

"It would be appropriate to refrain from politicisation of and drawing media attention to this sphere of our mutual relations and return to a well-proven negotiation process," it said on its Facebook page.

01:04 PM

African Union leader warns that EU Russian bank sanctions hit food purchases

The chairman of the African Union warned EU leaders Tuesday that their decision to expel Russian banks from the SWIFT financial messaging system risks hurting food supplies to the continent.

The war in Ukraine and Russia's blockade of its neighbour's ports, combined with African conflicts and climate change, have already sent world cereal prices surging and exacerbated food crises in Africa.

On Tuesday, Senegalese President and AU leader Macky Sall warned Europe that its banking sanctions - part of a raft of EU sanctions aimed at forcing Russia to abandon its invasion - aren't helping.

Speaking by videoconference to EU leaders in Brussels, Mr Sall acknowledged that Russia's blockade of Odessa had harmed Ukrainian food exports, and he backed UN-led efforts to free the port.

"I would also like to tell you that our countries are very concerned about the collateral effects of the disruption caused by the blocking of SWIFT payment system," Mr Sall added.

"When the SWIFT system is disrupted, it means that even if the products exist, payment becomes complicated, if not impossible."

01:02 PM

Investor panel to discuss possible Russia 'credit event' on Wednesday

A panel of investors said on Tuesday it will continue to discuss on June 1 whether missing payment of accrued interest on Russia's foreign sovereign debt constitutes a "credit event", which would bring the nation a step closer to a historic default and could trigger insurance payout.

The EMEA Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee said on its website it will meet at 1pm UTC on Wednesday to continue the discussion.

12:03 PM

Russian cenbank downplays role of dollar, euro at home and globally

The role of the dollar and the euro as global currencies is set to decline as central banks rethink their strategies after the West froze Russian reserves, Russia's central bank said on Tuesday, suggesting it could consider imposing negative rates for dollar and euro deposits.

Unprecedented Western sanctions have frozen around half of Russia's gold and forex reserves that stood near $640 billion before Moscow started what it calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine on Feb. 24.

The Bank of Russia said this precedent along with discussions about a possible seizure of the frozen part of reserves will prompt other central banks, primarily in Asia and the Middle East, to rethink strategies for their savings.

"One could expect an increase in demand for gold and a decline in the U.S. dollar's and the euro's role as reserve assets," the Russian central bank said in a report on financial stability.

As of late 2021, the Russian central bank held $131.5 billion of its reserves in gold, while the rest of the reserves that stood at $612.9 billion back then was held in foreign currency assets. As of May 20, Russia's reserves slipped to $583.4 billion.

12:00 PM

The latest pictures from Ukraine

11:29 AM

EU agrees Russian oil sanctions, gives Hungary exemptions

European Union leaders handed Hungary concessions to agree an oil embargo on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, sealing a deal in the early hours of Tuesday that aims to cut 90% of Russia's crude imports into the bloc by the end of the year.

The deal excludes from the embargo shipments by pipeline, which Hungary relies on for Russian oil. It aims to reduce Moscow's income to finance the war it launched more than three months ago in Ukraine, with some of the toughest EU sanctions yet.

"The important news is that the EU is still united in its purpose; the purpose is to stop Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine," Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said.

The ban on seaborne imports of Russian oil will be imposed with a phase-in period of six months for crude oil and eight months for refined products, a European Commission spokesperson said.

That timeline would kick in once the sanctions are formally adopted, with EU states aiming to do so this week.

Two thirds of the Russian oil imported by the EU comes via tanker and one third by the Druzhba pipeline.

11:21 AM

Russian lawmaker suggests kidnapping Nato defence minister in Ukraine

A senior Russian lawmaker has suggested kidnapping a Nato defence minister in Ukraine and bringing them to Moscow for questioning about what "orders" the West has been giving to Kyiv.

Oleg Morozov, first elected to the Russian parliament in 1993 and a member of the dominant United Russia party, said the supply of Western arms to Ukraine posed a direct threat to Russia and might require Moscow to review its military aims.

"You know, perhaps it is a fantastical plot that I have brewing... that in the near future, at some stage, a war minister of some Nato country will go by train to Kyiv to talk with (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy," Mr Morozov told the "60 Minutes" talk show on Rossiya-1 state TV late on Monday.

"But he would not get there. And would wake up somewhere in Moscow," Mr Morozov said.

"You mean we abduct them?" TV host Olga Skabeyeva, one of the most pro-Kremlin journalists on television, asked with a smile.

"Yes. And then we would sort out who gave which order for what, who is responsible for what exactly," Morozov said. "It is not such a mythical picture... There are new rules in the world now. Let all those war ministers gathering in Kyiv think a little about what it would be like to wake up in Moscow."

Neither Mr Morozov nor Mr Skabeyeva could be reached for comment by Reuters.

11:11 AM

Ukraine and West must act to resolve food crisis, Russia's Lavrov says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said it is up to the West and Kyiv to resolve a growing global food crisis provoked by the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia's offensive in Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted deliveries of wheat and other commodities from the two countries, fuelling concerns about the risk of hunger around the world.

Western countries "created a lot of artificial problems by closing their ports to Russian ships, disrupting logistics and financial chains," Mr Lavrov told reporters during a visit to Bahrain.

"They need to seriously consider what is more important for them: to do PR on the issue of food security or to take concrete steps to solve this problem," he added.

Mr Lavrov also called on Ukraine to de-mine its territorial waters to allow the safe passage of ships through the Black and Azov seas.

11:02 AM

Russia widens Europe gas cuts as Gazprom halts Dutch trader's supply

Russia widened its gas cuts to Europe on Tuesday with Gazprom turning off supply to top Dutch trader GasTerra escalating the economic battle between Moscow and Brussels and pushing up European gas prices.

The move comes a day after Denmark flagged a potential end to its Russian gas supply and the European Union's toughest measure yet against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, an agreement to halt sea-borne imports of its oil.

GasTerra, which buys and trades gas on behalf of the Dutch government, said it had contracted elsewhere for the 2 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas it had expected to receive from Gazprom through October.

"This is not yet seen as a threat to supplies," said Economy Affairs Ministry spokesperson Pieter ten Bruggencate.

Danish firm Orsted on Monday warned that Gazprom Export could also halt its supply but it too said such a move would not immediately put Denmark's gas supplies at risk.

10:53 AM

Czech ministry summons Russian ambassador over diplomatic property use doubts

The Czech Foreign Ministry summoned Russia's ambassador on Tuesday to express concerns about the use of Russian diplomatic properties.

The Czech Republic expelled around 100 Russian embassy last year in a diplomatic row over Prague's accusations of Russian involvement in a 2014 explosion at an arms depot, and the government has been one of the toughest against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

"Diplomatic missions on the territory of a foreign state must respect not only the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, but also the rules and laws of the host country," Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in a statement.

"Russia does not do this and does not respect the rule of law," the ministry's statement added, without providing further details.

Russia's Embassy in Prague declined to immediately respond to a request for comment.

10:19 AM

Ukraine convicts two Russians for shelling villages, Interfax reports

Two Russian soldiers were sentenced to more than 11 years in jail each on Tuesday after a court in central Ukraine found them guilty of firing artillery at civilian areas.

The verdict after the trial in the Poltava region comes one week after another court, in the capital Kyiv, gave a 21-year-old Russian solider a life sentence - the country's first judicial reckoning on Russia's invasion.

The servicemen convicted on Tuesday - Alexander Bobykin and Alexander Ivanov - were both handed sentences of 11 years and six months under legislation against "violating the laws and customs of war".

They were found guilty of firing Grad missiles on two villages in the northeastern Kharkiv region in the early days of the war.

Interfax reported that both defendants had previously pleaded guilty.

10:13 AM

Croatia ready to increase Adriatic oil pipeline capacity, Hungary says

Croatia is ready to increase the capacity of the Adriatic pipeline to supply Hungary and Slovakia with crude oil in case of any disruptions to imports from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Tuesday.

10:08 AM

Bank cards in Belarus suffer temporary mass outage

Belarus on Tuesday suffered a temporary mass outage of bank cards, its largest payments processor said, as some of its major banks find themselves under Western sanctions.

Card holders across the country reported on social media that in-store card payments were not working and that they were having difficulty withdrawing cash from ATMs.

Belarus's Banking Processing Centre attributed the outage to a technical issue and said all bank cards were now working.

Card payment failures have become a regular occurrence in Belarus in recent months following the introduction of sanctions against several banks by the European Union and United States.

The sanctions are designed to punish Minsk for facilitating Moscow's military intervention in Ukraine.

09:50 AM

Ukrainian court sentences two Russian soldiers to jail for war crimes

A Ukrainian court has sentenced two captured Russian soldiers to 11 and a half years in jail for shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, the second war crimes verdict since the start of Russia's invasion in February.

Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov, who listened to the verdict standing in a reinforced glass box at the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, both pleaded guilty last week.

"The guilt of Bobikin and Ivanov has been proven in full," Judge Evhen Bolybok said.

Both acknowledged last week being part of an artillery unit that fired at targets in the Kharkiv region from the Belgorod region in Russia.

The shelling destroyed an educational facility in the town of Derhachi, but caused no casualties, the prosecutors said.

Bobikin and Ivanov, described as an artillery driver and a gunner, were captured after crossing the border and continuing the shelling.

09:41 AM

Life inside post-siege Mariupol as residents attempt to live under Russian occupation

09:27 AM

Russia to hand over bodies of Ukrainian fighters from Azovstal

Russia has said it will hand over the bodies of 152 Ukrainian soldiers found underneath the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol, now under Moscow's control.

Russia's defence ministry said its troops found "152 bodies of dead militants and servicemen of Ukraine's armed forces" that it claims were stored inside a cooling unit and that "four mines" were found underneath the bodies.

"The Russian side plans to hand over the bodies of Ukrainian militants and servicemen found on the territory of the Azovstal plant to representatives in Ukraine," the ministry added.

After Moscow took control of Mariupol in late April, the city's remaining defenders were for weeks holed up in the underground tunnels beneath the giant Azovstal steelworks.

09:14 AM

Refugees evacuated from Kharkiv, in pictures

08:55 AM

Senior Ukraine official says EU sanctions still 'not enough'

The latest European Union sanctions on Russia are "not enough" and the pace of sanctions so far has been too slow, a senior official in Ukraine president's office has said in a speech in Madrid.

"If you ask me, I would say far too slow, far too late and definitely not enough," Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, said.

Ukraine is also not happy with the pace of weapons deliveries from the West, he said.

"We are definitely not satisfied," Zhovkva said in response to a question after his speech.

"Had we been satisfied, we would have begun the liberation of Mariupol immediately and thrown away Russian forces from Donbas," he said. "We believe in promises."

European Union leaders agreed a new sanction package in Brussels on Monday.

08:39 AM

Ukraine's teenage girls making equestrian history amid bombs and shots from Russia

In this amazing tale, Eleanore Kelly speaks with young Ukrainian women who saw their stables bombed and horses shot - but still took part in their first international equestrian event.

You can read Eleanore's remarkable story in full here.

08:20 AM

Ukraine today, in pictures

08:01 AM

Austria against gas embargo in next EU sanctions

The European Union would not discuss a gas embargo as part of a next round of sanctions against Russia for waging a war against Ukraine, Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer has said.

"The gas embargo will not be a topic, (German Chancellor) Olaf Scholz has made this clear as well," he told reporters on a second day of talks at a summit in Brussels of the 27 national EU leaders.

"Russian oil is much easier to compensate ... gas is completely different, which is why a gas embargo will not be an issue in the next sanctions package," he added after the leaders agreed to cut most Russian oil imports to the bloc.

07:45 AM

Evacuations from Severodonetsk 'not possible' at present

Ukraine is still in control of Severodonetsk city and its soldiers are fighting slowly advancing Russian troops but evacuations of civilians are not currently possible, the head of the city's administration has said.

"The city is still in Ukrainian hands and it's putting up a fight... (but) evacuations are not possible due to the fighting," Oleksandr Stryuk told Ukrainian television.

07:25 AM

Gazprom suspends gas supplies to Netherlands

Russia's Gazprom has said it has halted gas supplies to the Netherlands after Dutch energy firm GasTerra refused to pay in roubles following the Russian military offensive in Ukraine.

"Gazprom has completely stopped gas supplies to GasTerra due to non-payment in rubles," the Russian gas giant said in a statement.

Gazprom said that as of May 30 it had received no payments for Dutch gas supplies in April, despite notifying GasTerra that payments for gas supplied from April 1 needed to be made in rubles.

Partly state-owned GasTerra on Monday said it expected to be cut off after it "decided not to comply with Gazprom's unilateral payment requirements" as they would breach EU sanctions.

The cutoff means that two billion cubic metres of gas will not be supplied to the Netherlands between now and October, GasTerra said, adding that it "has anticipated this by purchasing gas elsewhere."

07:01 AM

Latest MoD update

06:35 AM

First ship leaves Mariupol since Russia took the city

A ship has left the Ukrainian port of Mariupol for the first time since Russia took the city and is headed east to Russia, Interfax has quoted the Russian-backed separatist leader of the Ukrainian breakaway region of Donetsk as saying.

A spokesperson for the port said last week that the ship would be loading 2,700 tonnes of metal in Mariupol before travelling east to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Ukraine said the shipment of metal to Russia from Mariupol amounted to looting.

06:18 AM

Viktor Orban hails exemption in EU Russian oil ban

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has hailed the exemption in an EU Russian oil ban that allowed his country to keep receiving cheap crude from Moscow.

After weeks of negotiations between EU and Budapest, bloc leaders late Monday struck a compromise deal that banned Russian oil imports delivered by tankers, but left in place those received via pipelines - which is how landlocked Hungary gets the Russian crude key to its economy.

"Families can sleep peacefully tonight, we kept out the most hair-raising idea," Mr Orban said in a video message posted on his Facebook page.

"We have reached an agreement that states that countries that receive oil through pipelines can continue to operate their economies under the previous conditions," he said.

Mr Orban had threatened to veto the deal and warned that halting supplies would wreck his country's economy.

A blanket import ban "would have been unbearable for us...like an atomic bomb, but we managed to avoid this," said Mr Orban.

05:47 AM

Germany agrees 100bn euros fund to modernise army amid Russia threat

Germany's government and conservative opposition have agreed a deal that will release 100 billion euros to modernise the army in the face of the Russian threat.

An agreement was reached late Sunday to create a special fund for military procurement that will also allow Berlin to achieve Nato's target of spending two percent of GDP on defence.

The deal, which involves amending budgetary rules in the national constitution, was struck after weeks of difficult negotiations between the parties in the governing coalition and the conservatives of former chancellor Angela Merkel, representatives of these groups told AFP.

Three days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged a special budget of 100 billion euros to rearm the German military and modernise its outdated equipment over the next few years.

05:28 AM

Denmark votes on scrapping EU defence opt-out

After staying out of the European Union's common defence policy for 30 years, Denmark votes on Wednesday in a referendum on whether to overturn its opt-out after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

More than 65 per cent of the country's 4.3 million eligible voters are expected to vote in favour of dropping the exemption, the latest opinion poll published on Sunday suggested.

Analysts' predictions have however been cautious, given the low voter turnout expected in a country that has often said "no" to further EU integration, most recently in 2015.

"We must always cast our ballots when there is a vote", Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen urged Danes in the final televised debate of the campaign on Sunday.

"I believe with all my heart that we have to vote yes. At a time when we need to fight for security in Europe, we need to be more united with our neighbours", she said.

05:07 AM

Pictured: Latest scenes from the fighting in the Donbas

04:59 AM

Donbas in 'extremely difficult' situation

Ukraine's Donbas is in an "extremely difficult" situation, President Volodymyr Zelensky said as Russian forces advance in the eastern region that has been under relentless bombardment.

"The situation in Donbas remains extremely difficult. The Russian army is trying to gather overwhelming forces in certain areas to put more and more pressure on our defenders. There, in Donbas, the maximum combat power of the Russian army is now gathered," Mr Zelensky says in his nightly address.

04:40 AM

'Assault on Severodonetsk taking longer than Russian forces hoped'

Russian forces have seized control of about a third of the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk, but their assault was taking longer than they had hoped, according to a Moscow-backed separatist leader quoted in a TASS news agency report.

Russian shelling has reduced much of Severodonetsk to ruins and Russian troops have entered the city's southeastern and northeastern fringes, but the Ukrainian defence has slowed the wider Russian campaign across the Donbas region.

"We can say already that a third of Severodonetsk is already under our control," TASS quoted Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the Luhansk People's Republic, as saying in a report on Tuesday morning.

Mr Pasechnik told the Russian state news agency that fighting was raging in the city, but Russian forces were not advancing as rapidly as might have been hoped.

04:38 AM

Today's Top Stories

• British inventors have been called upon to create new drones to help Ukraine in a new competition. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has launched a £25 million campaign fund for the design and delivery of equipment that can be used in battle.

• Volodymyr Zelensky has accused the EU of strengthening Vladimir Putin’s hand by refusing to back a full ban on Russian oil.

• Russia’s foreign minister on Monday denied speculation that Vladimir Putin was ill, saying the country’s president was entirely healthy.

• Russia’s offensive reached the centre of Severodonetsk on Monday, with Ukrainian officials warning the battle over the Donbas had reached its “maximum intensity”.