Ukraine war: Zelensky fires commander leading troops in east as EU to open Kyiv talks

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two senior Russian officials, accusing them of overseeing war crimes against civilians.

Former Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, and military chief Valery Gerasimov have been accused of “directing attacks at civilian objects”, “causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects” and perpetrating the crime against humanity of inhumane acts”.

They are the fifth and sixth Russian officials to be handed an arrest warrant since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin is among those six.

At least 11 civilians have been killed in the past 24 hours in Ukraine while an additional 87 have been injured, according to an open-source intelligence outfit.

The Conflict Intelligence Team, based in Georgia, reported there had been deaths in Ukraine’s northeast Kharkiv region, eastern Donetsk region and southern Kherson region.

All deaths were the result of Russian strikes or the detonation of anti-personnel mines.

The first shipment of ammunition from a Czech initiative has arrived in Ukraine, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a post on social media platform X on Tuesday.

The Czech Republic has led an effort to buy ammunition, with funding from NATO allies, to make up for shortage on the frontlines with Russia.

“The first shipment of ammunition from our initiative arrived in Ukraine some time ago,” Fiala said on X. “We are doing what it takes.”

The Czechs said in May that the first 50,000 to 100,000 artillery shells would reach Ukraine in June.

They said they so far had around 1.7 billion euros in payments or firm commitments from 15 donor countries, which was enough for half a million artillery rounds to be delivered to Ukraine by the end of the year.

About 20 countries have pledged to take part in the Czech initiative, but only five had delivered payments by the end of May: Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Canada.

The head of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s party has posted images of the country’s first underground school as the nation looks to ensure children can still partake of in-person education without the interruption of Russian missile attacks.

Olena Shuliak, head of the Servant of the People political party, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that a second underground school is under construction in Zaporizhzhia. The first, in Kharkiv, is already operational.

“Missiles reach these regions faster than air raid alerts,” she wrote. “But children will have an opportunity to study in safety no matter what. And everyone should have this opportunity.”

Ukraine wants to see a “strong” decision taken at the Nato summit in Washington next month as Kyiv tries to advance its strategic goal of joining the military alliance, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s foreign policy adviser told Reuters.

Ihor Zhovkva, who spoke in an interview before travelling to Luxembourg for a European Union meeting that will formally launch accession talks for Ukraine, said that Kyiv wanted the Nato summit to end with concrete results.

“I think this summit deserves to have a strong decision, including on Ukraine. Because, I mean, if you’re having a lack of strong decisions on Ukraine, the summit will be useless,” he said in Kyiv late on Monday.

He did not specify what he thought such a decision would entail.

Mr Zelensky, who lobbied unsuccessfully for a political invitation to join the alliance at its summit in Vilnius last summer, has said that this year’s summit should resolve the matter of inviting Kyiv to join.

While Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg and Washington have both said they do not expect the alliance’s 32 members at the July 9-11 summit to invite wartime Kyiv to join, Mr Stoltenberg has said he hopes to show Ukraine is moving closer to membership.