Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow vows to continue fighting ‘until all goals achieved’ as war enters 100th day – live | Ukraine

The UK has taken in fewer Ukrainian refugees per capita than all but one of 28 European countries, a Guardian analysis of official figures from across the continent has found.

Seven million people have fled Ukraine for other European countries since Russia invaded on 24 February, according to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees (UNHCR).

The Home Office put the number of Ukrainians who had arrived in the UK as of 29 May at 65,700 – equivalent to about 10 refugees per 10,000 population.

As of 11 May, 720,000 Ukrainian refugees had arrived in Germany, which has a population of similar size to the UK’s, working out at 87 per 10,000 population.

France is the only European country with a roughly equivalent per capita figure to the UK’s, with just over 57,500 arrivals as of 25 May, or nine refugees per 10,000 population – although figures from individual prefectures indicate that 93,000 have now arrived in the country, significantly more than the most recently available official figure.

Some much smaller countries by population, including Austria, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, have admitted many more refugees in both absolute and relative terms, according to their governments. Bulgaria, for example, was the initial destination for more than 290,000 people fleeing the war, equating to 423 per 10,000 population.

The countries bordering Ukraine have, as would be expected, admitted many more still: UNHCR data shows that a combined 5 million refugees have entered Poland, Romania and Hungary. Poland has admitted the highest rate of Ukrainian refugees of any EU country, taking in 957 refugees per 10,000 population.

Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has been speaking with reporters at his regular briefing, where he said Russia will continue its military “operation” in Ukraine until all its goals have been achieved.

Referring to the Russian-controlled territories in Luhansk and Donetsk, Peskov said:

One of the main goals of the operation is to protect people in the DNR and LNR. Measures have been taken to ensure their protection and certain results have been achieved.

He also spoke about the meeting between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and the chair of the African Union, Senegal’s president Macky Sall, in Sochi later today.

The visit by Sall and the president of the African Union Commission to Russia has been planned “amid efforts from the presidency to contribute to de-escalation amid the war in Ukraine, and to free stocks of cereals and fertilisers, the blockade of which particularly impacts African countries”, a statement by Sall’s office read.

The agenda of the meeting will include the “deep concern of the African continent about the growing food crisis and lack of fertilisers”, Peskov said.

He added that Putin will give the Senegalese president an “exhaustive” explanation of what is really happening with Ukrainian grain.

The topic of Ukrainian grain will also be high on the agenda when the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, visits Turkey next week, the Kremlin said.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here taking over from Martin Belam to bring you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

• Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said yesterday that Russian forces are occupying about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, in a video address to the Luxembourg parliament. The front lines of battle now stretch across more than 1,000km (620 miles), he said.

• Ukraine has had “some success” in the battles in Sievierodonetsk but it is too early to tell, according to Zelenskiy. “The situation there is the hardest now, just as in the cities and communities nearby – Lysychansk, Bakhmut and others. Many cities are facing a powerful Russian attack,” he said in his latest national address.

• About 60% of the infrastructure and residential buildings in Lysychansk, one of only two cities in the east still under at least partial Ukrainian control, have been destroyed from attacks, according to a local official. Oleksandr Zaika, head of the Lysychansk City military-civil administration, said 20,000 people were left in the city, down from a pre-war population of 97,000.

• Russia is now achieving tactical success in Donbas and controls more than 90% of Luhansk, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence report released early this morning.

• The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak has said Ukraine does not intend to use US-supplied weapons to attack Russian territory, and said it is disinformation from Russia to suggest they would. He said “Our partners know where their weapons are used.”

• Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said he believed the Kremlin was trying to move the war into a “protracted phase” by building layered defences in occupied regions in the south of the country, primarily in Kherson.

• Ukraine’s parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk has pleaded with Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz during a visit to Berlin to supply Kyiv with state-of-the-art weapons systems to help it resist Russia’s advance in the east of the country.

• Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has said the EU stands with Ukraine as she marked 100 days since Russia’s latest invasion of the country. She said she would discuss “the EU’s current & future support to the country” with French president Emmanuel Macron later today.

• Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview with a local newspaper that his country was ready to discuss possible transit of Ukraine’s grain via Belarus.

• Kyiv’s ambassador to Ankara has said Turkey is among the countries that is buying grain that Russia stole from Ukraine.

• Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the alliance was in touch with Turkey to find a “united way” forward to address Ankara’s concerns over Sweden and Finland’s bid to join. Stoltenberg’s latest remarks come after he told reporters yesterday that he would convene senior officials from Finland, Sweden and Turkey in Brussels in the coming days to discuss the issue.

• Russia’s foreign ministry has said it was summoning the heads of US media outlets in Moscow to a meeting next Monday to notify them of measures in response to US restrictions against Russian media.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you for the next few hours.

Philip Oltermann

Ukraine’s parliamentary speaker has pleaded with Germany’s chancellor to supply Kyiv with state-of-the-art weapons systems to help it resist Russia’s advance in the east of the country.

“Of course we above all need modern weapons”, said Ruslan Stefanchuk, the chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada, who is visiting Olaf Scholz and German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin today.

“We can also fight with old weapons from old stocks, but new weapons are more efficient, Stefanchuk said. He specifically asked Germany to supply Marder and Leopard tanks.

On Wednesday Scholz had surprised some of his critics by announcing a delivery of German-produced Iris-T ground-to-air missile systems, a move that was expressly welcomed by Ukraine’s ambassador to Berlin.

Initially wary of shipping heavy weapons to the ongoing conflict, Berlin in recent weeks announced deliveries of 50 Gepard flak tanks and seven Panzerhaubitzen 2000 howitzers – which have yet to arrive in Ukraine, however.

Ukraine’s defence minister Oleksiy Reznikov has said he believed the Kremlin was trying to move the war into a “protracted phase” by building layered defences in occupied regions in the south of the country.

“The Kremlin is trying to move the war into a protracted phase,” Reuters reports he told the Globsex 2022 Bratislava forum by video link.

“Instead of advancing, the Russian armies are constructing layered defences” in southern occupied regions, primarily Kherson, he said.

Reznikov also addressed the issue of potential Nato membership for Ukraine. The alliance is meeting to discuss its’ ten year strategy in June, and Reznikov said “Ukraine will be also part of the strategy, because we also are the part of eastern flank of Europe, the eastern flank of Nato countries, eastern flank of the EU. I think it will be a win-win situation for all countries,” Reznikov said, “if we are talking about the membership of Ukraine with Nato de facto not de jure, it could be the good idea in this strategy.”