Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv fires US weapon Himars inside Russia for the first time

Sri Lanka and Russia are starting talks to resolve the issue of Sri Lankans fighting alongside Russians in the war against Ukraine, after at least 16 people were reported missing in action.

On Thursday, Junior Foreign Minister Tharaka Balasuriya said that the Sri Lankans, mostly retired soldiers, had been duped into traveling to Russia with promises of good salaries and privileges including Russian citizenship.

“The situation in Russia is very unfortunate,” Balasuriya told reporters, adding that he is working with the defense ministry to ascertain the number of people fighting in Russia.

Italy will likely send a second SAMP/T air defence system to Ukraine, a source close to the matter told Reuters on Monday, responding to Kyiv’s demands for greater help to fend off Russian missile attacks.

The system, also known as MAMBA, is a Franco-Italian battery that can track dozens of targets and intercept 10 at once. It is the only European-made system that can intercept ballistic missiles.

Rome and Paris jointly delivered a first system in 2023, but in recent months Ukraine has repeatedly called on partners to provide more help with air defence as it faces an increasing barrage of attacks on cities and energy infrastructure.

The source, who declined to be named, confirmed newspaper reports that Italy was preparing to send a SAMP/T system which is deployed in Kuwait, but is soon due to return to Italy.

However, he did not give a timeframe for any delivery.

Corriere della Sera newspaper reported on Monday that the government could green light the new supplies after a summit of leaders of the Group of Seven major democracies, which Italy will host on June 13-15.

It will be unsafe to restart the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine as long as war rages around it despite Moscow’s hopes to fire up the complex, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Monday.

Grossi held a meeting with Russia on the issue last week after officials including President Vladimir Putin told him Moscow hopes to restart Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, where the six reactors are now shut down as the International Atomic Energy Agency has recommended on safety grounds.

“The idea, of course, they have is to restart at some point. They are not planning to decommission this nuclear power plant. So this is what prompts the need to have a discussion about that,” Grossi told a news conference on the first day of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA’s 35-nation Board of Governors.

Russia said after last week’s meeting it is not currently planning to reactivate the plant. Grossi said some important steps need to be taken before it can restart safely.

“In terms of what needs to happen …, there shouldn’t be any bombing or any activity of this type,” Grossi said.

“Then there should be a more stable assurance of external power supply. This requires repairs, important repairs of existing lines, which at the moment, and because of the military activity, are very difficult to envisage.”

Russia‘s foreign ministry has added a number of British “establishment figures”, journalists and experts to the list of people barred from entering Russia, it said on Monday, over their “hostile” actions.

The ministry said in a statement it urged London to abandon its support of Ukraine which it said caused more civilian casualties.

A drone view shows damaged property, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine.

A disease which has been largely eradicated from Europe, rabies is suddenly raising its head in Ukraine where millions of abandoned pets are now running wild.

Ahead of a film exposing the public health crisis, Joe Shute talks to Khrystyna Drahomaretska who caught the disease during her work inoculating feral cats and dogs roaming the streets in the wartorn country:

One person died and two were injured in an overnight Russian attack on Kharkiv, the governor of the eastern Ukrainian region said on Monday.

The civilian was killed and the two people were injured when a recreation complex was hit in the Zmiiv district, Oleh Synehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. Both Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war that Moscow launched against its smaller neighbour in 2022 and which has no end in sight.

The Kharkiv region, which borders Russia, and the Kharkiv city which is administrative centre of the region, have been battered nearly daily, with attacks intensifying in recent weeks after Russian forces launched a new offensive in the area.

Askold Krushelnycky visits the concealed base of the ‘Barney Unit’ in eastern Ukraine. Created by Stepan Barna in the wake of the death on the front line of his older brother Oleh, its drone operators claim to have achieved more than 100 kills:

Ukraine plans record electricity imports from European countries on Monday after reporting significant energy infrastructure damage from Russian strikes this weekend, the energy ministry said.

Imports are expected to rise to 27,178 megawatt hours (Mwh), beating the weekend records after another wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine‘s energy sector.

The Russian city of Kazan’s airport imposed temporary flight restrictions for safety reasons on Monday, which were lifted about an hour later, Russia‘s aviation watchdog said.

Such a decision is often made because of expected or actual Ukrainian drone attacks.