Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow warns US of 'fatal consequences'; 1,300 Russian casualties in 24 hours, Ukraine claims

А group of Russian women have staged a small but rare protest outside the Russian defence ministry.

They demand the return of some mobilised soldiers from the front in Ukraine. 

For months, different groups of Russian women have organised sporadic demonstrations to exert pressure on authorities to return their husbands, sons and brothers.

One of the woman at the protest, Paulina, said the women wanted strict limits on how long soldiers can serve before they must rotate out of active duty.

Pictures and videos Paulina published on the Telegram app showed women holding signs with slogans including "please bring Papa home". 

Several had brought along their school-aged children and toddlers in pushchairs. 

No ministry officials came out of the building to speak with the women, Paulina said. 

Poland has arrested 18 people accused of pursuing hostile activities or sabotage on behalf of Russia and Belarus.

One of the schemes allegedly included plans to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the interior minister said.

Ten of those arrested since December were directly involved in planning various forms of sabotage across Poland, Tomasz Siemoniak told a news conference.

Authorities in Poland have linked some recent arsons or attempted arsons to Russian-sponsored agents.

Mr Siemoniak said that acts of sabotage were apparently part of a wider plan that also includes cyberattacks, pushing migrants in Belarus to cross into Poland and threatening the security of the country.

"We have no doubt that on the bidding of a foreign country, Russia, there are some people active who are ready to threaten the life, health and property of the Polish citizens," Mr Siemoniak said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy will participate in the G7 summit in Italy late this month, either online or in person, his spokesman said.

The summit, set to take place in southern Italy from 13 to 15 June, will have as a key agenda item ways to use profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, I cannot confirm or deny that the President will physically participate in the G7 summit, but in any case, whether online or physically, there is no doubt that he will be there,” the president’s spokesman, Sergey Nikiforov told Ukrainian television.

A Russian has been killed by Ukrainian shelling in Belgorod, according to the local governor.

Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel: "A munition detonated in the Korocha district, as a result of which one person was killed and three were injured.

"Nine people received various injuries in two shelling attacks; five of them were hospitalised. One of the injured persons, a woman wounded in the village of Voznesenovka, is in grave condition. She is currently in intensive care, on artificial lung ventilation."

One person was also injured in the Graivoron district, the governor said.  

Russia added several British "establishment figures", journalists and experts to the list of people barred from entering the country.

Moscow's foreign ministry says the decision was made due to their "hostile" actions. 

In a statement, the ministry also urged Britain to drop its support for Ukraine which it claimed was causing more civilian casualties. 

The names of those sanctioned have not been published.

 It will be unsafe to restart the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine as long as war rages around it, the UN nuclear watchdog chief has said.

Rafael Grossi held a meeting with Russia on the issue last week after officials including Vladimir Putin told him Moscow wanted to restart Europe's biggest nuclear power plant.

The six reactors are shut down on safety grounds at the recommendation of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). 

"The idea, of course, they have is to restart at some point," Mr Grossi told a news conference on the first day of a quarterly meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors. 

"They are not planning to decommission this nuclear power plant. So this is what prompts the need to have a discussion about that."

Russia said after last week's meeting that it was not currently planning to reactivate the plant. 

Mr Grossi said some important steps needed 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," he 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."

At least 12 people, including a pregnant woman and eight children, were injured in the attack on Balakliaa over the weekend, according to Kharkiv police.

The head of the Balakliaa military administration, Vitaliy Karabanov, said: "Preliminary reports suggest that an Iskander missile hit the area. 

"Experts say it exploded a few meters from the house, causing damage and igniting a fire due to the wooden structures. 

"A family of six lived there: father, mother, and four children.

"Another family with four children was visiting, so a total of eight children and four adults were injured. 

"They were all in the house at the time of the explosion."

A Russian strike on a village in Kherson has injured a man in his 70s, according to the regional military administration.

He was left with concussion and injuries to his back and head, and was treated at the scene.

The village, Tomyna Balka, is a few miles north of the Dnipro River delta across the Russian-occupied territories of Kherson and around 12 miles west of the regional capital of the same name.

Ukraine retook Kherson and other settlements on the west bank of the Dnipro River during a counteroffensive in the autumn of 2022.

Allowing Ukraine to use Western air defence systems against targets in Russia is crucial if Kyiv is going to repel Russian glide bomb and missile strikes against Kharkiv, a leading thinktank has said.  

After Joe Biden's partial lifting of restrictions on how Ukraine can use military supplies sent by the US, Kyiv can now use American weapons to strike inside Russia.

Eleven other Western countries have also recently partially or completely lifted restrictions on Ukraine's use of Western-provided weapons to strike military targets inside Russia.

"These policy changes will allow Ukrainian forces to use Western-provided systems to strike Russian firing and staging areas in Russia's border areas and airspace," according to the Institute for the Study of War, which is based in the US.

"Ukrainian officials reported that Ukrainian forces downed a number of Russian military aircraft in February 2024, many of which were conducting glide bomb strikes in the Avdiivka direction.

"Ukrainian forces' ability to down Russian military aircraft in a frontline area indicates that Ukrainian forces will likely be able to replicate the same effects with both Ukrainian and Western-provided systems to protect northern Kharkiv Oblast and Kharkiv City from Russian glide bomb strikes launched from Russian airspace."

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously said that Russian forces would not be able to seize Kharkiv City if Ukrainian forces received two Patriot air defence systems to deploy to the region.

According to the ISW, deployment of these defence systems would have limited effectiveness, were they not able to strike targets in Russian airspace. 

Around 1.5 million men have registered for conscription in Ukraine, the defence ministry has said.

After the new law on mobilisation came into force on 18 May, military-aged men were given 60 days to update their personal data so that the state could locate them.

According to a video posted on the ministry's YouTube channel, the majority of the updates were done on the new Reserve+ online app.

In addition to using the app, Ukrainians can update their data in person at public service centres or enlistment offices.

The ministry added that 14,000 men living abroad across 124 countries had updated their credentials.