EU leadership condemns self-styled peacemaker Orbán’s visit to Moscow; Russian attacks kill eight in Donetsk, say Ukrainian officials. What we know on day 864

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, has said after the election of a new UK government : “I am grateful to Keir Starmer for his assurances that Britain’s support for Ukraine will remain unchanged in principle.” Starmer’s office said he told Zelenskiy in a phone call that the Labour government would keep providing “unwavering” support for Kyiv in its war against Russia . Zelenskiy said he had wished the new PM success in fulfilling the expectations of the British people. Zelenskiy also thanked the outgoing Conservative PM, Rishi Sunak, for his steadfast support.

Zelenskiy said he and Starmer had “coordinated our positions” ahead of next week’s Nato summit at which Ukraine hopes to hear of possible steps to membership. A senior US official said Nato allies at their summit in Washington would unveil a “bridge to membership” for Ukraine and announce steps to bolster its air defences.

Zelenskiy said on Friday that he sought to double Ukraine’s air defence capacity over the summer “and now we are starting to see results” . Ukraine has received its third German-supplied Patriot system, adding to those given or pledged by other countries. It also operates US Hawk, German Iris and other systems to shoot down Russian drones, missiles and aircraft. Zelenskiy said Ukraine had also received on Friday “additional support” from the US but gave no details.

Ukraine and its western allies have hit out at the pro-Kremlin Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, after Vladimir Putin hosted him in Moscow . The visit came a few days after Orbán made a similar unannounced trip to Kyiv, as he tries to position himself as a peace broker. Orbán this week assumed the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year and told reporters in Moscow that he viewed his six-month tenure as a peace mission.

The EU leadership in Brussels was quick to denounce the visit, stressing that Orbán had “not received any mandate from the EU council to visit Moscow” and did not speak for the EU, writes Pjotr Sauer . “Prime minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Moscow takes place exclusively in the framework of the bilateral relations between Hungary and Russia. The Hungarian prime minister is thus not representing the EU in any form ,” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

Russian attacks on Friday killed eight people and injured at least 28 in Ukraine’s eastern frontline Donetsk region, the regional governor said. Five people were killed, and eight were injured when two Russian guided bombs struck the town of Selydove, west of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk, said Vadym Filashkin. Separately, Russian troops dropped three guided bombs on the village of Komar, further south-west, killing a 32-year-old woman. Twenty others were injured, Filashkin said. Thirteen private houses, four shops and two residential buildings were damaged in the attack, he added, alongside two infrastructure facilities.

War in Gaza, Britain’s general election, fires in California and the Tour de France: the last seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Brussels disassociates itself from Hungarian PM’s Moscow trip, which he has tried to cast as a peace mission

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Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most pro-Russia leader, arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Vladimir Putin, days after making his first visit to Kyiv , as the Hungarian prime minister attempts to position himself as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine.

Orbán’s trip to Moscow has drawn strong rebukes from fellow EU leaders and comes in the week that Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year.

First hearing of journalist, who denies charges of spying for the US, scheduled for 26 June in Yekaterinburg

Russia will hold the espionage trial of detained American reporter Evan Gershkovich, who denies charges of collecting secrets for the CIA, behind closed doors later in June, a court in the city of Yekaterinburg said on Monday.

Gershkovich, 32, was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) on 29 March 2023 in a steak house in Yekaterinburg on charges of espionage that carry up to 20 years in prison.

Secretary general says move would ‘communicate the direct message’ to Russia that Nato is a nuclear alliance

A building was destroyed after Russian troops attacked a children’s recreation facility in the Shevchenkiv district of Kharkiv , the mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, said last night. No casualties were reported.

Speaking at the end of the two-day Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy , yesterday suggested the military situation had “stabilised” in Kharkiv, the north-eastern region subject to fierce bombardment from advancing Russian forces .

I won’t go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

Transparency helps to communicate the direct message that we, of course, are a nuclear alliance.

States are on course to spend $100bn a year, driven by a sharp increase in US defence budgets

Global spending on nuclear weapons is estimated to have increased by 13% to a record $91.4bn during 2023, according to calculations from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican) pressure group.

The new total , which is up $10.7bn from the previous year, is driven largely by sharply increased defence budgets in the US, at a time of wider geopolitical uncertainty caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war.

From ancient Greece to modern Russia, sanctions are now the go-to option for policy-makers – so why do they so rarely achieve their aims?

In the year 432BCE, the Athenian empire sought to teach its smaller neighbour, Megara, a punitive lesson after various acts of defiance. Instead of going to war, which would break the peace with Sparta, Athens took the novel path of blocking the Megarians from using all the ports in the region.

It was known as the Megarian decree, and it was arguably the first recorded case of economic sanctions. It was also a failure, at least when it came to fending off a conflict. The Peloponnesian war, pitting Athens against Sparta, erupted a year later, and some ancient historians believe it was triggered by the Megarian sanctions.

China snubs event in Switzerland, while countries including Brazil and India do not endorse text

Key regional powers including Brazil, India, South Africa and Saudi Arabia have failed to sign up to a joint communique issued at the end of a Ukraine peace conference in which more than 80 countries and international organisations endorsed its territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s invasion.

Speaking at the end of the two-day summit in Switzerland, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the “first steps toward peace” but acknowledged that not all attenders had come onboard. “Unfortunately there are people who are still balancing,” he said, adding that Russia was trying to divide the world.

Men linked to militant group took two guards hostage at facility in southern city of Rostov

Russian special forces have freed two guards and killed six men linked to Islamic State who had taken them hostage at a detention centre in the southern city of Rostov, the prison service said.

State media said that some of the men had been convicted of terrorism offences and were accused of affiliation with IS, which claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March.