kyiv says it has lost a quarter of its farmland to Russian occupation

• Ukraine’s request for European Union (EU) candidate status will soon be answeredpromised on Saturday, Ursula von der Leyen. “We want to support Ukraine on its European journey”assured Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of the European Commission, visiting kyiv.
• In the East, on the front line where the Russian offensive has been intensifying for several days, “the enemy has concentrated most of its efforts in the north of the Luhansk region”, Sunday, where he “uses large-scale artillery and, unfortunately, has a ten to one advantage” on this plan, explained on Facebook Valeri Zalouzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army. “Despite heavy fire, we managed to stop the enemy,” he added. In the morning, the Ukrainian presidency reported“constant assaults and artillery bombardments on Sievierodonetsk and surrounding villages”.
• Amnesty International on Monday (June 13th) accused Russia of war crimes in Ukraine. The organization says hundreds of civilians have died in relentless attacks on Kharkiv, many of which were carried out with cluster bombs. The human rights NGO says it has found evidence showing that in seven attacks on neighborhoods in Ukraine’s second largest city in the northeast of the country, Russian forces used cluster bombs. 9N210 and 9N235 ammunition and cluster mines, two categories prohibited by international treaties.
• President Zelensky pointed out, Saturday nightthe recapture by Ukrainian forces of localities, such as Tavriïsk, in the region of Kherson, and in the oblast of Zaporijia, while the Russian army is still pounding the outskirts of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city. The area around Chortkiv in western Ukraine was also shelled in the evening, regional governor Volodymyr Trouch said.
• During an interview, broadcast on Friday, on the YouTube channel “Feigin live”, Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to President Zelensky, admitted that the Ukrainian army had lost about ten thousand fightersat the rate of a hundred a day.
• Speaking via video to the Asia-Pacific Security Forum, Zelensky reiterated call on international community to press for Russia to end blockade of Ukrainian Black Sea portsotherwise “Scarcity of food will inexorably lead to political chaos, which risks bringing about the overthrow of many governments”.
• Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe, speaking at the forum, said on Sunday that Beijing “supported the peace talks” between the two belligerents and assured that his country had not “never provided material support to Russia” in this conflict.

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