Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,219
Here is how things stand on Friday, June 27:
Fighting
Russian air strikes killed one person and wounded two others in Ukraine's southern region of Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.
Russian troops have taken control of the village of Shevchenko in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region, which is close to a lithium deposit, after fierce resistance from Ukrainian forces, a Russian-backed official in the occupied region said.
Russian troops also took control of the settlement of Novoserhiivka also in Donetsk, according to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Ukraine's forces stopped Russian advances in the border area of Ukraine's northern region of Sumy this week, the country's top general, Oleksandr Syrskii, said in a statement.
Syrskii has also ordered defensive lines to be built more quickly in the Sumy region, as Russian forces gain ground towards the industrial Dnipropetrovsk region.
Military
North Korea will send more troops to Russia to assist in its war against Ukraine, possibly as early as July, a South Korean lawmaker said, citing information from Seoul's spy agency.
Politics and diplomacy
Ukraine and Russia exchanged a new group of captured soldiers, the latest in a series of prisoner swaps agreed at peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month. Neither side said how many prisoners were released, but they had pledged to swap at least 1,000 soldiers each during their direct meeting in Istanbul on June 2.
Russia said there was no progress yet towards setting a date for the next round of peace talks with Ukraine, Interfax news agency reported. Another state news agency, TASS, quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying Russia was in favour of continued United States efforts to mediate talks.
The European Union's 27 leaders have agreed to extend sanctions on Russia for another six months, resolving fears that Kremlin-friendly Hungary would let the measures lapse, officials said. The sanctions include the continued freezing of more than $234bn in Russian central bank assets until at least early 2026.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged the European Council to send 'a clear political message' that Brussels backs Kyiv in its effort to join the EU.
Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that a state-organised consultation gave him a 'strong mandate' to oppose neighbouring Ukraine's EU accession at the EU summit in Brussels.
The international chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), said that it had found a banned tear gas in seven samples submitted by Ukraine, which has accused Russia of using the riot control agent on the front line. It was the third time the OPCW confirmed the use of CS gas in areas where fighting is taking place in Ukraine.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said a new arms race could lead to the fall of Russian President Vladimir Putin's 'regime', just like it toppled the Soviet Union.
Press freedom
A Russian court said it had found a photographer, Grigory Skvortsov, guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years after he allegedly admitted passing detailed information about once-secret Soviet-era bunkers to a US journalist.
Moscow will summon the German ambassador soon to inform him of retaliatory measures in response to what it sees as the harassment of Russian journalists based in Germany, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
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In an age of abundance and ceasefires, Gaza starves, and the war won't stop
Gaza City – Israel and Iran fought for 12 days, firing bombs, drones and missiles at each other, with the United States even joining in the bombing. Then, earlier this week, it stopped. Last month, India and Pakistan attacked each other, and the world feared the outbreak of an all-out war between the two nuclear powers. But then, after four days, it stopped. In Gaza, we haven't been so lucky. The word 'ceasefire' doesn't apply to us – even after 20 months of slaughter, death, and starvation. Instead, as wars erupt and end elsewhere, Gaza is neglected, slipping down the news agenda, and disconnected from the internet for days. World leaders that can end wars decisively can't deliver medicine to Gaza, can't bring in food aid without daily bloodshed. That inadequacy has left us Palestinians in Gaza isolated, abandoned, and feeling worthless. We feel humiliated and degraded, as if our dignity has been erased. We prayed that the end of the war between Israel and Iran would perhaps help end the one that is being waged on us. But we were wrong. Even as Iran's missiles rained down on Tel Aviv, Israel never stopped bombing us. Its tanks rolled on, its evacuation orders never ceased. And the daily charade of 'humanitarian aid' has continued to kill starving Palestinians as they wait in line at distribution sites. As Israel's bombs continued to fall on us, as they have done since October 2023, we watched as Israelis wept over their own bombed hospitals, damaged cities, and disrupted lives. 'What did we do? Why are we being bombed?' they asked, at the same time as they continued to attack Gaza's hospitals, kill Gaza's children, and murder those trying to get food. Hating food In Gaza, we don't have wishes any more. I don't dare to dream about surviving – my heart can no longer bear the sorrow of being in this world, the absence of any future. We're exhausted from being stories people read, videos they watch. Every minute: bombing, death, and hunger. Especially hunger. During three months of siege and starvation, Israel initially steadfastly refused to allow food in and then allowed distribution only through a shady and militarised organisation, with Israeli forces shooting in. The situation has made me come to hate food. My relationship with it has forever changed, twisted into resentment and bitterness. I crave everything. I ask myself, 'What will we eat? What do we have available?' I imagine myself at a table full of delicacies, throwing everything onto the ground in protest, screaming through tears not out of hunger, but for my wounded dignity. It is this hunger and the basic human instinct to survive that drives tens of thousands of starving men, women and children to the daily slaughter that is the food distribution sites. The hunger dulls every other sense. An empty stomach means an empty mind, a failing body. It makes you do things your brain tells you not to do, to risk everything for a bag of flour, or a bag of lentils. And all of this – the starvation of 2 million people – takes place in the age of global food abundance. The age of pistachio desserts, Dubai chocolates, cheesecakes with layers of cream, gourmet burgers, pizzas, sauces, and creams. For the rest of the world, food is a phone tap away. For us, it taunts us, reminding us of our calamity. Taunted by the tablet Every time I open my phone to see photos, recipes, and trending desserts, I feel a pang in my heart reminding me that we are not living in the same world. My nine-year-old daugher Banias watches Instagram reels with me and says, 'Mom, every chef says the ingredients are easy and found in every home … but not ours.' Her words pierce me. She says them with sorrow, not complaint. Banias never complains. She accepts the pasta or lentils I offer. But the pain is there. My children watch kids' shows on a device I bought at great cost, with a backup battery to offset the two-year power blackout. I did it so they could have some joy, some escape. But I didn't consider what that screen would show them. They play songs and videos all day long about apples, bananas, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, milk, eggs, pizza, chicken, ice cream. All the things I can't give them. The device started playing a song: 'Are you hungry?' My heart can't take it. What is this cursed screen doing? I rushed out of the kitchen, where I had just finished cooking the same pasta with canned sauce – maybe for the 50th time. I looked into my children's eyes. Iyas, turning two this month, has never tasted any of these fruits or foods. Banias watches and casually says while eating her pasta, 'See, Mama? Even the dolls get to eat fruit and grapes and yummy stuff.' Every moment here reminds me that the world lives in one reality, and we live in another. Even children's songs aren't made for us any more. We've become an exception to life. An exception to joy. The fear of what comes next And yet, we are still among the 'lucky' ones, because others have run out of food entirely. I felt that growing dread last week when I opened my last kilo of rice. Fear and despair overwhelmed me. Then, it was the last spoon of milk, then lentils, chickpeas, cornstarch, halva, tomato sauce, the last cans of beans, peas, bulghur. Our stocks are vanishing. There are no replacements. Every empty shelf feels like a blow to the soul. If this famine continues, what comes next? It's like walking step by step towards death. Every day without a solution brings us closer to a deeper mass starvation. Every trip to the market that ends empty-handed feels like a dagger to the heart. And that is just the food struggle. What if I told you about cooking on firewood? Fetching water from distant desalination stations, most of which have shut down? Walking for hours without transport? The cash shortage? Skyrocketing fees and prices? All this, under the shadow of constant Israeli air strikes. We've disappeared from the headlines, but our suffering remains — layered, worsening by the day. What did Gaza do to deserve this erasure, this merciless genocide? Wars end everywhere, ceasefires are possible anywhere. But for Gaza, we need a miracle for the war to stop. Gaza will not forgive the world. The blood of our children and their starving bellies will not forget. We write to record what is happening, not to plead with anyone. Gaza, the land of dignity and generosity, lives a daily horror to survive. And all while the world watches on.
Al Jazeera
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Americans detained trying to send rice, Bibles, dollar bills to North Korea
South Korean authorities have detained six United States citizens who were attempting to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to news reports. The US suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after they were caught trying to release the bottles into the sea from Gwanghwa island, near a restricted front-line border area with North Korea, South Korea's official Yonhap news agency reports. The six were taken into custody after a coastal military unit guarding the area reported them to the police. The area in question is restricted to the public after being designated a danger zone in November due to its proximity to the north. Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across South Korea's border with the north have long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula. An administrative order banning the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect for the area, according to Yonhap. On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island. Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press news agency but gave no further details. In 2023, South Korea's Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech. But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of front-line South Korean residents. Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and similar North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then. It remains unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee's conciliatory gesture after it pledged last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification. Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearisation derailed.
Al Jazeera
10 hours ago
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Russian photographer gets 16 years prison for Soviet-era bunker details
A Russian court found a photographer guilty of treason and jailed him for 16 years for allegedly sharing information about Soviet-era underground bunkers to an American journalist. The court in the western city of Perm sentenced Grigory Skvortsov on Thursday after a closed-door trial, without giving more details on the charges. Skvortsov, who was arrested by Russian authorities in 2023, has denied any wrongdoing. The court said Skvortsov would serve his sentence in a maximum-security corrective prison camp. It also published a photograph of him in a glass courtroom cage dressed in black as he listened to the verdict being read out. In a December 2024 interview with Pervy Otdel, a group of exiled Russian lawyers, Skvortsov said he had passed on information that was either publicly available online or available to buy from the Russian author of a book about Soviet-era underground facilities for use in the event of a nuclear war. Skvortsov did not name the US journalist he was working with in the interview with Pervy Otdel. Since its invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022, Russia has radically expanded its definition of what constitutes state secrets and has jailed academics, scientists and journalists it deems to have contravened the new rules. Skvortsov, who specialises in architecture photography, has also spoken out publicly against Moscow's military offensive on Ukraine. He has alleged that Federal Security Service (FSB) officers beat him during his arrest in November 2023 and said they tried to force him under duress to admit guilt to treason. An online support group for Skvortsov said on Telegram after the verdict that 'a miracle had not happened' and the photographer's only hope of getting out of jail was to be exchanged as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights organisation Memorial has listed Skvortsov as among those subjected to criminal prosecution that is likely 'politically motivated and marked by serious legal violations'. Earlier this year, a Russian court sentenced four journalists to five and a half years in prison each after convicting them of 'extremism' linked to their alleged work with an organisation founded by the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
