That's our live blog wrapping up for Monday evening. 

We're back early Tuesday morning with all the latest developments from Ukraine. 

Police investigating killings of 12,000 Ukrainians in war

Police in Ukraine say they've opened 12,000 criminal cases into the killings of Ukrainians during the war.

On Monday investigators uncovered another mass grave near the town of Bucha, with at least seven bodies in it. The hands of several victims were tied behind their backs. 

Workers in white hazmat suits and wearing masks used shovels to exhume bodies from the soil of the forest, marking each section with small yellow numbered signs on the ground. The bodies, covered in cloth and dirt, attracted flies and were dragged by rope.

“Shots to the knees tell us that people were tortured,” said Andriy Nebytov, head of the Kyiv regional police. “The hands tied behind the back with tape say that people had been held (hostage) for a long time and (enemy forces) tried to get any information from them.”

Since the withdrawal of Russian troops from the region at the end of March, the authorities say they have uncovered the bodies of 1,316 people.

One site reporters saw near Bucha on Monday was a mass grave, where the horrors of the killings shocked the world after a regional Russian withdrawal earlier in the war. Reporters on Monday saw a mass grave just behind a trench dug out for a military vehicle. The bodies of seven civilians were retrieved from the mass grave. Two of the bodies were found with their hands tied and gunshot wounds to the knees and the head, Nebytov said.

Complete information about the number of bodies in mass graves or elsewhere isn’t known, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the American Jewish Committee on Sunday. He cited the killings of two children who died with their parents in the basement of an apartment building in Mariupol in a Russian bombing.

Zelenskyy, who is Jewish and lost relatives in the Holocaust, asked:

“Why is this happening in 2022? This is not the 1940s. How could mass killings, torture, burned cities, and filtration camps set up by the Russian military in the occupied territories resembling Nazi concentration camps come true?”

(AP)

NATO chief: Sweden has taken 'important steps' over Turkish demands

Sweden has take important steps to meet Turkey's demands for approving Stockholm's NATO membership application, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday during a visit to Sweden.

Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance last month, in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Their applications have faced unexpected opposition from Turkey, which has been angered by what it deems is Swedish support of Kurdish militants and by a previous decision to withdraw arms export licenses to Turkey.

"I welcome that Sweden has already started to change its counter-terrorism legislation and that Sweden will ensure that the legal framework for arms export will reflect the future status as a NATO member with new commitments to allies," Stoltenberg said during a press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

"These are two important steps to address concerns that Turkey has raised."

Andersson said Sweden had changed its terrorism laws and was in the process of further tightening.

"From the first of July we will also have even stronger legislation when it comes to the fight against terrorism. So here there are no questions about how strongly Sweden sees (on) terrorism and that we are willing to contribute to the fight against terrorism," she said.

Stoltenberg also said the aim was to have Sweden and Finland join NATO "as soon as possible" and that it was inconceivable that NATO allies would not come to Sweden's defence if it were attacked.

(Reuters)

German chancellor coy about a possible Ukraine visit

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz declined to comment Monday on reports that he is planning to visit Ukraine together with his counterparts from France and Italy soon.

Weekly Bild am Sonntag had reported that Scholz would travel to Kyiv with French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Premier Mario Draghi Berlin before this month's summit of leaders from the Group of Seven major economies in Germany.

Several other European leaders, Germany's opposition leader and members of Scholz’s own Cabinet have visited Ukraine in recent weeks to express solidarity with the country in the face of Russia's military assault, raising the pressure on the German chancellor to do likewise.

Scholz fobbed off questions about the reported travel plans, saying that he wouldn't go beyond what his spokesperson had told reporters earlier in the day. The spokesperson had declined to discuss the reports.

While Germany has contributed considerable financial and military aid to Ukraine since the Russian invasion three months ago, Scholz's government has been criticized both at home and abroad for being slower to do so than the United States and some smaller European countries.

Scholz pushed back against such criticism Monday, saying that the advanced howitzers Germany is providing to Ukraine, for example, require extensive training before they can be used.

“I think it would be good if those who express their views on this or that issue spent a moment thinking about it first," he said.

(AP)

American officials meet for talks on basketball player held in Russia

State Department officials met Monday with representatives of Brittney Griner's WNBA team about the Phoenix Mercury star's monthslong detention in Russia and the Biden administration's efforts to secure her release.

The State Department confirmed the meeting, which involved officials from its specialized office that advocates for hostages and wrongfully detained Americans, but offered no additional details about what was said or who specifically attended.

The administration has previously said that its working to bring Griner and another American, Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, home from Russia.

Griner was detained on 17 February at an airport in Russia after authorities there said a search of her bag revealed vape cartridges containing a cannabis derivative. In May, the State Department reclassified Griner as wrongfully detained and transferred oversight of her case to the State Department Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, or SPEHA.

(AP)

Mexico's president slams NATO over Ukraine

Mexico’s president slammed NATO’s policy on the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Monday, calling it “immoral.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s did not mention NATO or the United States by name, but his comments were the latest example of his party's ambiguous stance on the invasion.

Mexico has voted to condemn the invasion, but refused to join in sanctions on Russia.

López Obrador said Monday that the allies’ policy was equivalent to saying “I’ll supply the weapons, and you supply the dead. It is immoral.”

“How easy it is to say, ‘Here, I’ll send you this much money for weapons,” Lopez Obrador said. “Couldn't the war in Ukraine have been avoided? Of course it could.”

In March, a half-dozen legislators from López Obrador’s Morena party helped create a congressional “Mexico-Russia Friendship Committee.”

The Morena party said “we respect the freedom of thought of our members” after a youth group apparently affiliated with the party sent an open letter to the Russian ambassador supporting the invasion.

(AP)

EU leaders talk with Israel about energy imports

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Israel on Monday to discuss energy cooperation, as Israel seeks to export some of its gas to Europe amid the war in Ukraine.

Ms von der Leyen is due to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and then on Tuesday with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the European Commission said, adding that the discussions would focus on "energy cooperation".

Announcements about EU cooperation with Israeli and "other partners in the region" are expected within the next few days. 

Von der Leyen will also meet Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. The Palestinian Authority is waiting for millions of euros from the European Union to help curb its budget deficit.

In his first official visit to the Middle East since becoming head of the Italian government in 2021, Mario Draghi will meet Mr Lapid on Monday evening and Prime Ministers Bennett and Shtayyeh on Tuesday.

Mr Draghi's visit should also focus on the war in Ukraine and energy cooperation, according to the Italian press.

Israel is working hard to export some of its offshore gas resources to Europe, which has been seeking to replace Russian fossil fuel purchases since the invasion of Ukraine and sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime.

(AFP)

Bodies found in pit near Bucha 

Kyiv police say that seven bodies were discovered on Monday in a pit near Bucha - the Ukrainian town where scores of bodies were found after the Russian army withdrew in late March.

"Seven civilians were tortured by the Russians and then cowardly executed with a bullet to the head," Kiev police chief Andrey Nebytov said on Facebook, adding that "several victims had their hands tied and their knees bound."

"The pit was discovered today where Russian servicemen were stationed, near the village of Myrotske," he said.

The head of the Kyiv regional police said he was "currently working on identifying the victims".

After the departure of Russian soldiers from the Kyiv area and the discovery of hundreds of bodies of Ukrainian civilians, Bucha has become a symbol of war crimes that Ukraine blames on Russia. 

Moscow has repeatedly rejected these accusations, denouncing "falsifications" orchestrated by Kyiv with Western support.

At the end of April, the bodies of three men visibly tortured and shot dead were found blindfolded in a pit in Myrotské, according to the Kiev police.

(AFP)

Japanese foundation launches Ukraine fundraising drive

A Japanese foundation launched a fundraising drive on Monday to provide support for language studies, and other needs, of the 1200+ Ukrainian evacuees currently living in Japan. 

The Nippon Foundation said it aims to raise 1 billion yen  through cooperation with the US and Ukrainian ambassadors.

The foundation has already pledged 5 billion yen (€35 million) for the transportation and living costs of Ukrainian evacuees. Japan has so far accepted more than 1,200 war-displaced Ukrainians since Russia invaded in late February.

Sasakawa said he was approached by US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel, who asked him to enable ordinary Japanese to help support Ukrainian evacuees.

Japan quickly joined the United States and other major industrialized economies in imposing sanctions on Russia and supporting Ukraine because it fears a similar development in East Asia, where Beijing has become increasingly assertive and has threatened to take military actions against Taiwan if it refuses to unite with China.

Acceptance of the Ukrainian evacuees is unusual for Japan, which has extremely strict refugee and immigration policies despite its own shrinking labor force. Advocates have expressed hope that its support for the Ukrainians will lead to a more lenient immigration policy.

Human rights groups have criticized Japan for neglecting displaced people from other countries such as Afghanistan and Myanmar, who have not received such a warm welcome or a nationally-organized support system.

(Euronews / AFP)

Moroccan sentenced to death in Donetsk has Ukrainian nationality, says father

The father of a Moroccan man sentenced to death by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) on mercenary charges said his son should be treated as a prisoner of war as he is a Ukrainian national who handed himself in voluntarily.

Morocco-born Brahim Saadoun and Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner were found guilty of "mercenary activities and committing actions aimed at seizing power and overthrowing the constitutional order" of the DPR, Russian media said last week.

The three men were captured while fighting for Ukraine against Russia and Russian-backed forces.

The Moroccan fighter received Ukrainian nationality in 2020 after undergoing a year of military training as a requirement to access aerospace technology studies at a university in Kiev, his father Tahar Saadoun said in an email to Reuters.

He handed himself in "voluntarily" and should be treated as a "prisoner of war", the father said, adding: "We as a family suffer from the absence of contact with the lawyer to exchange legal information and this adds to our ordeal."

The sentence will be appealed.

(Reuters)

Evidence of widespread use of cluster munitions in Kharkiv, says Amnesty International

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv by indiscriminate Russian shelling using widely banned cluster munitions and inherently inaccurate rockets, according to Amnesty International. 

In a new report the international aid agency documents how Russian forces have caused widespread death and destruction “by relentlessly bombarding residential neighbourhoods of Kharkiv since their invasion began in late February”. 

It found evidence that Russian forces have repeatedly used 9N210/9N235 cluster munitions as well as scatterable mines, both of which are subject to international treaty bans because of their indiscriminate effects. 

“The people of Kharkiv have faced a relentless barrage of indiscriminate attacks in recent months, which killed and injured hundreds of civilians,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s Senior Crisis Response Adviser. 

“The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking, and a further indication of utter disregard for civilian lives,” she added. “The Russian forces responsible for these horrific attacks must be held accountable for their actions, and victims and their families must receive full reparations.” 

The director of the Medical Department at the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration told Amnesty International that 606 civilians had been killed and 1,248 injured in the Kharkiv region since the conflict began. 

Most of the strikes investigated by Amnesty International inflicted multiple casualties over widespread areas. 

Russia claims to have destroyed US weapons in eastern Ukraine

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Monday its missiles had destroyed a large quantity of weapons and military equipment in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, including some that had been sent by the United States and European nations.

The ministry said high-precision air-based missiles had struck near the Udachne railway station, hitting equipment that had been delivered to Ukrainian forces.

(Reuters)

Wikipedia fights Russian order to remove Ukraine war information

The Wikimedia Foundation, which owns Wikipedia, has filed an appeal against a Moscow court decision demanding that it remove information related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, arguing that people have a right to know the facts of the war.

A Moscow court fined the Wikimedia Foundation 5 million roubles (€84,000) for refusing to remove what it termed disinformation from Russian-language Wikipedia articles on the war including "The Russian Invasion of Ukraine", "War Crimes during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine" and "Massacre in Bucha".

"This decision implies that well-sourced, verified knowledge on Wikipedia that is inconsistent with Russian government accounts constitutes disinformation," Stephen LaPorte, Associate General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement.

Wikipedia, which says it offers "the second draft of history", is one of the few remaining major fact-checked Russian-language sources of information for Russians after a crackdown on media in Moscow.

"The government is targeting information that is vital to people's lives in a time of crisis," LaPorte said. "We urge the court to reconsider in favour of everyone's rights to knowledge access and free expression."

(Reuters)

France to adjust to 'war economy' and reevaluate its military spending, Macron says

France will reevaluate its military spending, entering a "war economy" in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, President Emmanuel Macron said Monday, renewing his call to build a "much stronger" European defence industry.

Macron spoke at the opening of Eurosatory, the largest international land defence and security show in Villepinte, northeast of Paris.

The French president said that the war in Ukraine has forced France into "an entry into a war economy in which I believe we will have to organize ourselves permanently" and where "we can no longer live according to the rules [which existed] one year ago."

Macron said that he now wanted a "reassessment" of the existing military planning which runs until 2005 to "adjust the means to the threats."

"I have asked the minister [of the Armed Forces] and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces to conduct a re-evaluation of this Military Programming Law in the coming weeks in the light of the geopolitical context," he said.

Zelenskyy advisor publishes list of weapons Ukraine needs to 'end the war'

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has issued a call to arms to the West, putting a list on Twitter of heavy weaponry Ukraine needs to "end the war".

This list includes 1,000 155mm calibre howitzers, 300 Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, and 500 tanks.

Global nuclear arsenal to grow for first time since Cold War

The global nuclear arsenal is expected to grow in the coming years for the first time since the Cold War while the risk of such weapons being used is the greatest in decades, a leading conflict and armaments think-tank said on Monday.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Western support for Kyiv has heightened tensions among the world's nine nuclear-armed states, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) think-tank said in a new set of research.

While the number of nuclear weapons fell slightly between January 2021 and January 2022, SIPRI said that unless immediate action was taken by the nuclear powers, global inventories of warheads could soon begin rising for the first time in decades.

"All of the nuclear-armed states are increasing or upgrading their arsenals and most are sharpening nuclear rhetoric and the role nuclear weapons play in their military strategies," Wilfred Wan, Director of SIPRI's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programme, said. "This is a very worrying trend."

Russia has the world's biggest nuclear arsenal with a total of 5,977 warheads, some 550 more than the United States.

Three days after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, which the Kremlin calls a "special military operation", President Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrent on high alert.

The US and Russia possess more than 90% of the world's warheads, though SIPRI said China was in the middle of an expansion with an estimated more than 300 new missile silos.

SIPRI said the global number of nuclear warheads fell to 12,705 in January 2022 from 13,080 in January 2021. 

(Euronews / Reuters)

Russian forces push Ukrainian army from centre of Sievierodonetsk

Russian troops have pushed the Ukrainian army out from the centre of Sievierodonetsk, the Ukrainian general staff announced on Monday.

“With artillery support, the enemy carried out an assault on Sievierodonetsk, achieving partial success and pushing our units back from the city centre. Hostilities are continuing,” the army said in its published morning update.

Serhiy Gaidai, governor of the Luhansk region, confirmed that Ukrainian forces had been pushed back from the city centre.

"The street fighting continues (...) the Russians continue to destroy the city,” he wrote on Facebook on Monday, posting images of buildings in ruin or still burning.

Russian shelling targeted the Azot chemical plant where civilians are sheltering, and hit sewage treatment plants in the city, he added.

In the nearby town of Lysychansk, three civilians including a six-year-old boy were killed in shelling over the past 24 hours, according to the governor.

Taking Sievierodonetsk would open up Moscow's route to another major Donbas city, Kramatorsk, an important step in conquering the entire region.

(AFP)

Agreeing on Ukraine's candidate status a major hurdle for EU, writes FT

Bringing all 27 EU member states on the same page on Ukraine’s EU candidate status may be the biggest challenge yet for Ursula von der Leyen, writes the Financial Times.

While von der Leyen is a strong backer of the proposal, the commission president is acutely aware of the risks of a blowout at next week’s EU summit and of publicly disappointing Ukraine, the British publication reports.

The FT understands "that the recommendation on the table for commissioners to discuss today, before adoption on Friday, is for Ukraine to be granted candidate status, with a list of reforms attached, particularly on the rule of law," it writes, adding that what is unclear is whether the reforms will be a precondition for granting candidate status or a checklist that needs to be completed before the next step in the accession process can start.

That step would require unanimity among the 27 governments, and would kickstart EU accession talks, a process where the conformity with EU law and values is assessed across 35 different areas, including areas like rule of law and public procurement. 

Russia solidifies rule in occupied territories

Kremlin-installed officials in occupied southern Ukraine celebrated Russia Day on Sunday and began issuing Russian passports to residents, as Moscow sought to solidify its rule over captured parts of the country.

In one of the central squares in Kherson, Russian bands played a concert to celebrate Russia Day, the holiday that marks Russia’s emergence as a sovereign state after the collapse of the Soviet Union, according to Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.

In the neighbouring Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow-installed officials raised a Russian flag in Melitopol’s city centre.

Ukrainian media reported that few, if any, local residents attended the Russia Day festivities in the two cities.

Russia Day was also celebrated in other occupied parts of Ukraine, including the ravaged southern port of Mariupol, where a new city sign painted in the colours of the Russian flag was unveiled on the outskirts and Russian flags were flown on a highway leading into the city.

The Russia-aligned administration in Melitopol, meanwhile, started handing out Russian passports to those who applied for Russian citizenship. 

RIA Novosti posted video of a Moscow-backed official congratulating new Russian citizens and telling them: “Russia will not go anywhere. We are here for good.”

(AP)

River crossing operations could be key, says British MoD

In its latest Defence Intelligence update, the British Ministry of Defence has highlighted the continued battle around Sieverodonetsk and said that over the coming months river crossing operations are likely to be amongst the most important determining factors in the course of the war.

The 90km long central sector of Russia’s frontline in the Donbas lies to the west of the Siverskyy Donets River. “To achieve success in the current operational phase of its Donbas offensive, Russia is either going to have to complete ambitious flanking actions, or conduct assault river crossings,” it said, adding: “Ukrainian forces have often managed to demolish bridges before they withdraw, while Russia has struggled to put in place the complex coordination necessary to conduct successful, large scale river crossings under fire.”

Russia destroys bridge over Ukrainian river, cutting escape route

Ukrainian and Russian forces were still fighting street-by-street in Sievierodonetsk on Sunday, the governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Gaidai, said.

Russian forces have taken most of the city but Ukrainian troops remain in control of an industrial area and the Azot chemical plant where hundreds of civilians are sheltering.

"About 500 civilians remain on the territory of the Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk, 40 of them are children. Sometimes the military manages to evacuate someone," Gaidai said.

But the Russians had destroyed a bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River linking Sievierodonetsk with its twin city of Lysychansk, Gaidai said.

That left just one of three bridges still standing.

"If after new shelling the bridge collapses, the city will truly be cut off. There will be no way of leaving Sievierodonetsk in a vehicle," Gaidai said, noting the lack of a cease-fire agreement and no agreed evacuation corridors.

The fall of Sievierodonetsk, the last pocket of Ukrainian land held in the strategic Luhansk region, would move Russia a big step closer to one of the stated goals of what Putin calls a "special military operation."

(Reuters)

Wounded 12-year-old now enduring image of Russia, says Zelenskyy

"The key tactical goal of the occupiers has not changed: they are pressing in Sievierodonetsk, severe fighting is ongoing there – literally for every metre," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Sunday, adding that Russia's military was now trying to deploy reserves in the Donbas.

Zelenskiy said the image of a 12-year-old wounded in a Russian strike was now the enduring worldwide face of Russia.

"These very facts will underscore the way in which Russia is seen by the world," he said.

"Not Peter the Great, not Lev Tolstoy, but children injured and killed in Russian attacks," he said, in an apparent reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin's remarks last week comparing Moscow's military campaign to Russian emperor Peter the Great's 18th century conquest of lands held by Sweden.

(Euronews / Reuters)

Ukraine grain exports via Poland, Romania face bottlenecks

Ukraine has established two routes through Poland and Romania to export grain and avert a global food crisis although bottlenecks have slowed the supply chain, Kyiv's deputy foreign minister said on Sunday.

Dmytro Senik said global food security was at risk because Russia's invasion of Ukraine had halted Kyiv's Black Sea grain exports, causing widespread shortages and soaring prices.

Ukraine is the world's fourth-largest grain exporter and it says there are some 30 million tonnes of grain stored in Ukrainian-held territory which it is trying to export via road, river and rail.

Ukraine was in talks with Baltic states to add a third corridor for food exports, Senik said.

"Those routes are not perfect because it creates certain bottlenecks, but we are doing our best to develop those routes in the meantime," he told Reuters on the sidelines of an Asian security summit in Singapore.

The Ukrainian rail system operates on a different gauge from European neighbours such as Poland, so the grain has to be transferred to different trains at the border where there are not many transfer or storage facilities.

Re-routing grain to Romania involves transport by rail to ports on the Danube river and loading cargoes onto barges for sailing towards the port of Constanta, a complex and costly process. 

(Reuters)