Russian attacks on Kherson Oblast injured nine people and damaged residential infrastructure on June 18-19, according to local authorities. The strikes targeted 34 settlements with artillery and drones.
Russia wants to end the war in Ukraine "as soon as possible," preferably through peaceful means, and is ready to continue negotiations — provided that Kyiv and its Western allies are willing to engage, Vladimir Putin said.
The U.S. Senate is postponing action on a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill until at least July, as other legislative and foreign policy priorities dominate the agenda, Semafor reported on June 18.
Russia’s hardline nationalist elite reportedly argues that only a formal war declaration would permit true escalation—full-scale mobilisation, regular missile strikes, and potentially the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
Mykhailo Hrytsai, a senior collaborator with the Russian occupation authorities, was shot dead in the city with a silenced PM pistol, according to a source.
The Slovak police reportedly also seek to detain a former Defense Ministry official and have detained an ex-head of the Konstrukta Defense state company in a move denounced by Nad's opposition Democrats party as politically motivated.
"Russia uses these vessels to circumvent international sanctions and sustain its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine," Australia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"This issue is certainly not on the NATO agenda and nobody has formulated an expectation that there will be an invitation in The Hague, nor have we heard that from the Ukrainians themselves," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said in comments quoted by the LRT broadcaster.
According to the Guardian, some in Kyiv are unsure if President Volodymyr Zelensky's presence at the summit would be worthwhile without a confirmed meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on June 18 brushed off Moscow's demands for Kyiv to destroy or dismantle Western-supplied weapons as a condition for a ceasefire, saying it shows disregard for U.S. peace efforts.
The legislation passed with the support of 253 lawmakers "after months of obstructions... unblocking 600 million euros ($690 million) in EU funds," lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
Kravchenko, a former military prosecutor and most recently head of Ukraine's tax service, replaces Andrii Kostin, who stepped down in October 2024 following a scandal involving fraudulent disability claims by dozens of prosecutors in Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
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