Ukraine

Top European leaders want to send “a strong signal of support for Ukraine” at the NATO summit in Ankara in July, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says. “The message to Russia is: Ukraine remains strong,” Merz said on Wednesday as he hosted the leaders of Britain, France, Italy and Poland at a summit for the European Group of Five (E5) in Berlin.

Ukraine has stepped up its strikes on Crimea as part of a strategy to isolate the occupied peninsula from mainland Russia and raise the cost of the occupation.

Ukraine’s wartime resilience is due in no small part to its ‘whole-of-society’ model of defence – which requires a high level of mobilization among citizens, local community leaders, philanthropic organizations and the private sector. Civil society stands willing to apply this innovative and collaborative spirit to the post-war recovery.

G7 leaders hailed on Wednesday, June 17, a newfound unity on increasing pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine, sensing a shift by US President Donald Trump to take a tougher line against Moscow. 

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) has verified that at least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured last month – a 93 per cent increase compared with May 2025 and a 23 per cent increase over April 2026. 

[…] The leaders “supported the proposal for a direct dialogue between Ukraine and Russia — with active US and European participation — to bring about a ceasefire and support further negotiations,” they said in a joint statement with Zelensky.

The war in Ukraine is deadlier today than at any point since the start of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion in 2022, top UN officials warned the Security Council today, as Council members repeatedly stressed “enough is enough” and pleaded for an immediate ceasefire and a return to diplomacy. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday ruled out meeting his Ukrainian counterpart any time soon, a day after Volodymyr Zelensky called for a sit-down between the leaders to end the four-year war.

[…] The news was announced by Cyprus, which is currently chairing the rotating six-month presidency of the Council of the EU: “Today the Cyprus Presidency initiated the preparation for the formal opening of cluster one in the accession negotiations of Ukraine and Moldova.”

Ukrainian drones attacked energy and military sites in St. Petersburg ahead of a major economic forum in the city and a day after Moscow killed 23 people across Ukraine in devastating air attacks. … The attack comes as Ukraine has stepped up strikes on energy and military targets deep inside Russia, hampering the country's ability to profit from sharp increases in oil prices resulting from the US-Israeli war with Iran.