Russia-Ukraine live news: Kyiv says Moscow to intensify attacks

• NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warns that the war in Ukraine could drag on for years and calls for the supply of more state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reveals he expects Russia to intensify attacks on Ukraine as Kyiv waits for the European Union’s decision to grant it the status of a candidate state.
• Luhansk’s Governor Serhiy Haidai says he is preparing “for the worst” as Russian forces intensify their assault on eastern cities.
• Russia claims its offensive against Severodonetsk is proceeding successfully after it took control of Metyolkine, a district on the eastern outskirts of the city.
• Moscow-backed separatist say Ukrainian forces in Metyolkine surrendered, together with their commander, and were now testifying against their Severodonetsk colleagues.

Here are all the latest updates:

11 mins ago (01:39 GMT)

Top EU human rights official on a fact-finding mission in Ukraine

A European Union top human rights official have said that war crimes committed in Ukraine will be thoroughly investigated.

“When we talk about war crimes we talk not only about those who committed the crime […] They of course have responsibility. But we are also talking about those who are in the chain of command, if necessary right to the very top,” Eamon Gilmore, EU Special Human Rights Representative said.

Gilmore, spoke after walking around ruined buildings and wrecked cars of Irpin, a town near Kyiv which became the scene of heavy fighting early in the invasion.

The Irpin tour was designed to highlight what Ukraine and its backers say were large-scale atrocities committed by Russian troops, what Scholz described as the scene of “unimaginable cruelty” and “senseless violence”.

22 mins ago (01:28 GMT)

Japan PM eyes meeting with S.Korea, Australia, NZ to counter China: Reports

Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is considering a summit with leaders of South Korea, Australia and New Zealand on the sidelines of a June NATO meeting in a show of solidarity against a more assertive China, the Yomiuri daily has reported.

Leaders of the four Asia-Pacific nations have been invited to the NATO meeting in Madrid, where members are aiming to deliver a message of international solidarity on the Ukraine crisis.

25 mins ago (01:25 GMT)

Surrendered Ukrainian fighters testifying against colleagues: Russian-backed militants

Ukrainian fighters who surrendered to Russian-backed troops in the settlement of Metyolkine, which Moscow says its forces now control, are testifying against colleagues holed up in a chemical plant in the eastern city of Severodonetsk, Russia’s state news agency Tass has reported.

Militants from the self-proclaimed, Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) on Sunday said that soldiers from Ukraine’s Luhansk-based Aidar Battalion surrendered to the LPR on June 18, during Russia’s capture of Metyolkine on the outskirts of Severodonetsk, according to Russia’s news agencies. The militants didn’t say how many of Ukraine’s troops had surrendered, but claimed the unit’s commander was among them.

Tass on Monday quoted a source close to the LPR saying that Russian-backed separatists are now using information given to them by the Aidar Battalion in negotiations with Ukraine’s soldiers at the Azot chemical plant.

Hundreds of civilians and some Ukrainian forces have been sheltering inside the Severodonetsk plant, which the Luhansk governor says is being pounded daily by Russian forces.

58 mins ago (00:52 GMT)

Gennady Burbulis, top Yeltsin aide and official, dies at 76

Gennady Burbulis, a top aide to former Russian President Boris Yeltsin who helped prepare and sign the 1991 pact that led to the formal breakup of the Soviet Union, has died. He was 76.

As secretary of state and first deputy chairman of the government from 1991-1992, Burbulis was instrumental in steering the new, post-Soviet Russian state.

With Yeltsin, he was a signatory for Russia to the agreement reached on December 8, 1991, with the leaders of Ukraine and Belarus to disband the Soviet Union. The pact was signed in the Belovezha forest, in what is now Belarus.

Burbulis is the third key player to the agreement who has died in the past several weeks. Former Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk and former Belarusian President Stanislav Shushkevich both died in May.

2 hours ago (23:52 GMT)

Ukraine investigating Russian soldiers for sexual violence

Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general has said Kyiv has launched 19 criminal proceedings against Russian soldiers for the rape of at least 14 women in the temporarily occupied territories.

“Every culprit must be punished,” Gyunduz Mamedov said in a tweet.

The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Osnat Lubrani, on Saturday said that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has verified cases of sexual violence against both women and men in Ukraine.

“Due to active hostilities, mass internal displacement, the stigma associated with sexual violence and the breakdown of the referral pathways, survivors are often unable or unwilling to report to law enforcement authorities or service providers,” Lubrani said.

1/2 Today’s the @UN International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Sexual violence is still used as a method of warfare. 19 criminal proceedings have already been launched for the rape of at least 14 women in the 🇺🇦TOT which is the case due to 🇷🇺aggression.

— Гюндуз Мамедов/Gyunduz Mamedov (@MamedovGyunduz) June 19, 2022

2 hours ago (23:36 GMT)

UK, NATO warn of long Ukraine war as Zelenskyy visits front lines

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg have warned Western allies to prepare for the long haul in Ukraine.

The separate warnings from Johnson and Stoltenberg on Saturday came as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited front lines in the southern regions of Mykolaiv and Odesa, where he declared that Ukrainians “will definitely” win against invading Russian troops.

Johnson, writing in The Sunday Times newspaper, called for sustained support for Ukraine, saying the country’s foreign backers should hold their nerve to ensure it has “the strategic endurance to survive and eventually prevail”.

Read more here.

3 hours ago (23:18 GMT)

EU seeks to release Ukrainian grain stuck due to Russia’s sea blockade

EU foreign ministers will discuss ways to free millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to Russia’s Black Sea port blockade at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

The EU supports United Nations efforts to broker a deal to resume Ukraine’s sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertiliser exports, but that would need Moscow’s green light.

Turkey has good relations with both Kyiv and Moscow and has said it is ready to take up a role within an “observation mechanism” based in Istanbul if there is a deal. It is unclear if the EU would get involved in militarily securing such a deal.

“Whether there will be a need in the future for escorting these commercial ships, that’s a question mark and I don’t think we are there yet,” an EU official told the Reuters news agency.

3 hours ago (23:12 GMT)

Russia advances in battle for key eastern Ukraine city

Russia has said its forces seized a village near Ukraine’s industrial city of Severodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s campaign to control the country’s east.

The defence ministry said on Sunday it had won Metyolkine, a settlement of fewer than 800 people before the war began. Russian state news agency TASS reported that many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there.

Moscow said on Sunday its offensive to win Severdonetsk itself was proceeding successfully.

Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian TV that fighting made evacuations from the city impossible, but that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie. They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town”.

Read more here.

5 hours ago (20:33 GMT)

Zelenskyy expects Russia to intensify attacks on Ukraine

Zelenskyy has said that he expects Russia to intensify attacks on Ukraine as Kyiv waits for the EU’s decision to grant it the status of a candidate state.

“Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities, as an example,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

“And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready.”

Read all updates for June 19 here.