Russia Ukraine war live: Putin faces rare protest as Kyiv fires first US weapon inside Russia

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff has said that using Western weapons to strike inside Russia was a vital step that would impact Moscow’s tactical aviation and its capability to operate in border areas.

Following pressure from Ukraine and some of its European allies, the US agreed last week to change its policy and allow Kyiv to strike inside Russia with Western weapons as part of its campaign to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Kyiv said the move would help push back Russian advances and better defend territory in the northeast Kharkiv region.

“Permission to use Western weapons on the territory of the Russian Federation is a vital decision,” Andriy Yermak said on the Telegram messaging app. “This will impact the conduct of the war, planning of counteroffensive actions, and will weaken Russians’ abilities to use their forces in the border areas.”

The decision would also help to better fend off Russian aerial attacks, Mr Yermak said.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has shared an emotional video depicting some of the children who have been killed since the start of the war.

He said: “Many little Ukrainians will never grow up because they were killed in Russian attacks.”

“Thousands have been kidnapped, transferred from Ukraine to Russia, and scattered among strangers. Most of them are unable to contact their families,” he added.

“The way Russia treats Ukraine and its people is a deliberate and calculated genocide.”

The Ukrainian air force said it downed 22 of the 27 Shahed-type drones launched over five Ukrainian regions in Russia’s overnight attacks.

One person was injured and an industrial facility was damaged in the attack in the region of Poltava, its governor, Filip Pronin, said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Ukrainian military destroyed six drones over the southern region of Mykolaiv, its governor said. Debris from one of them destroyed a private home, and damaged about 10 more, but no casualties were reported, he added.

Four drones were shot down over the southern region of Kherson and four more over the central Dnipropetrovsk region, the regions’ governors said.

The attack also targeted the northern region of Sumy, with no details of damage reported by regional authorities.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces claimed they struck inside Russian territory with Western-supplied weapons and hit a Russian S-300 missile system.

“It burns beautifully. It’s a Russian S-300. On Russian territory. The first days after permission to use Western weapons on enemy territory,” Ukrainian government minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

She posted a picture of the alleged attack on Facebook.

The Paris Olympics are being targeted by a Russian-linked disinformation campaign, according to Microsoft.

Since last summer, efforts have been under way by a hacker group named Storm-1679, according to research.

The hackers “are trying to cultivate an anticipation of violence”, said Clint Watts, the head of Microsoft’s Digital Threat Analysis Centre. “They want people to be fearful of going to the Olympics.”

The American embassy in Ukraine has announced that US-Ukrainian dual citizens will no longer be able to leave the country.

The notification comes after the Ukrainian government reportedly removed the exception that allowed some Ukrainian males between 18 and 60 to leave the country, as long as they could prove they were resident abroad.

“Previously, dual US-Ukrainian citizens in this group could enter and then depart Ukraine if they had deregistered their Ukrainian residency and registered their US residency,” the embassy statement reads. “According to our information, this exception was revoked as of 1 June.”

The Ukrainian government also passed a bill on the mobilisation of men into the military in April as it faces a shortage of manpower amid the ongoing war with Russia.

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine‘s central city Dnipro injured eight people, including two children, and damaged civilian infrastructure yesterday, Ukrainian authorities said.

The Ukrainian air force said it shot down two Iskander-K cruise missiles over the region. The missile debris damaged civilian infrastructure, causing a fire and injuring residents, according to Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor.

A month-old boy and a seventeen-year-old were among those injured, in addition to six adults, based on preliminary information from the governor and the state emergency services.

The attack damaged cars and knocked windows out in residential buildings and a hospital, Lysak wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov added that at least 47 residences and a school were damaged.

Emergency services put out the fire caused by the attack.

Russian forces also launched four drones in the overnight attack. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down two of them over the northern region of Chernihiv.

A missile threat alert was announced across the country after a MiG-31K aircraft took off overnight.

The Ukrainian Air Forces said they monitored the MiG-31K, an aircraft that can carry the Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles that are being used by Russian forces to attack Ukraine.

The Chinese foreign minister has continued to push Beijing’s potential role as a mediator in Ukraine-Russia peace talks, days after China withdrew from an upcoming peace summit in Switzerland.

Wang Yi told reporters that both Russia and Ukraine have separately indicated their support for the peace plan laid out by China and Brazil last month.

Mr Wang said the two countries have “affirmed most of the content” of the plan that called for an international conference, inviting both Russia and Ukraine.

He said 26 nations have agreed or expressed interest in the plan and a total of 45 countries have given “positive feedback” to the idea.

China is seen as a close ally to Russia, a fact that puts into question its ability to serve as an independent mediator, though Ukraine has not entirely ruled out the idea.

US president Joe Biden is set to skip the upcoming Ukraine peace summit in Switzerland despite the Ukrainian president’s direct appeal to his most significant ally.

The US will instead be represented by vice president Kamala Harris and Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan during the two-day event on 15 and 16 June in Lucern, the White House said in a statement.

Mr Zelensky had said that only Vladimir Putin will “applaud” Biden if he fails to show up in Switzerland.

“I believe that the peace summit needs President Biden, and other leaders need President Biden because they will look at the US’s reaction,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference in Brussels last week.

Mr Biden’s absence “would only be met by an applause by Putin – a personal, standing applause,” he added.

China has already pulled out of the summit after it expressed concerns over Russia not being invited.

The Kremlin has pressurised its allies not to take part in the summit, claiming it lacks clear goals and that it was absurd to hold it without Russia.