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June 13, 2022 Russia-Ukraine war news

By Helen Regan, Andrew Raine, Jack Guy and Amy Woodyatt, CNN

Updated 2:59 a.m. ET, June 14, 2022

What we covered

Russian forces are now in control of most of Severodonetsk, the epicenter of the bloody battle for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, but Ukrainian lines to the city do not yet appear to be totally cut. Russian armed forces have destroyed the second of three bridges between the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Amnesty International has accused Russia of war crimes during its efforts to capture the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, documenting the alleged use of cluster munitions and other indiscriminate means of attack.
A ship carrying 18,000 tons of Ukrainian corn arrived Monday at a port in northwestern Spain, using what a regional animal feed producers group described as a “new maritime route” that aims to avoid Russia’s blockade of Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea.
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4:44 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

Ukrainians in Severodonetsk must "give up or die," says separatist leader

From CNN's Anna Chernova and Mick Krever

Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk must surrender or face death, a leader of the separatist so-called Donetsk Peoples Republic (DPR) in eastern Ukraine said Monday.

“They have two options: either follow the example of their colleagues and give up, or die,” said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the People's Militia Department in the DPR, reports Russian state media outlet RIA Novosti.

“They don't have any other option," he added.

Russian forces are now in control of most of Severodonetsk, the epicenter of the bloody battle for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, but Ukrainian lines to the city do not yet appear to be totally severed.

Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, said Monday that Ukraine was still managing to evacuate some people from the city, but it was limited by the scale of bombardment.

4:43 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

Ukrainian forces pushed back from center of Severodonetsk, says military

From CNN's Oleksandra Ochman and Mick Krever

Russia has pushed Ukrainian forces back from the center of Severodonetsk, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) said Monday morning.

“The enemy, with the support of artillery, carried out assault operations in the city of Severodonetsk, had partial success, pushed our units away from the city center, and hostilities continue,” said the AFU.

Russia was seeing success “due to a significant advantage in artillery,” said Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk region military administration, via Telegram.

Hayday said around 500 civilians, including 40 children, are still sheltering at the city’s Azot chemical plant, which is coming under heavy bombardment “by large caliber enemy artillery,” he said.

Ukrainian forces were trying to evacuate people, said Hayday. “Azot shelters are not as strong as those in Mariupol's Azovstal," he added.

4:15 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

Ukraine appeals for "heavy weapons parity" ahead of defense summit

From CNN's Oleksandra Ochman and Mick Krever

Ukrainian service members fire a BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launch system, near the town of Lysychansk, Luhansk region, Ukraine, on June 12. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Ukraine is appealing for “heavy weapons parity’’ ahead of a summit of defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.

“Being straightforward – to end the war we need heavy weapons parity,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the Ukrainian President, via Twitter.

Podolyak said that Ukraine needed: “1,000 howitzers caliber 155 mm; 300 MLRS; 500 tanks; 2,000 armored vehicles; 1,000 drones.”

NATO will on Wednesday host the Ukrainian defense minister, along with allied ministers and officials from Sweden, Finland, Georgia, and the European Union.

3:34 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

Amnesty accuses Russia of war crimes in Kharkiv

From CNN's Mick Krever in London

An aerial view of completely destroyed settlements after shellings the in northern Saltivka-3 neighbourhood of Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine, on June 12. (Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Amnesty International has accused Russia of war crimes during its efforts to capture the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.

In a new 40-page report, Amnesty has documented the alleged use of cluster munitions and other indiscriminate means of attack.

“The repeated bombardments of residential neighbourhoods in Kharkiv are indiscriminate attacks which killed and injured hundreds of civilians, and as such constitute war crimes,” the report said.
“This is true both for the strikes carried out using cluster as well as those conducted using other types of unguided rockets and unguided artillery shells, which are indiscriminate when used in the vicinity of concentrations of civilians.”

Amnesty’s researchers say they “documented seven strikes in different areas of Kharkiv, where they found fins and pellets of 9N210 or 9N235 cluster munitions.”

Some context: The United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions, which came into force in 2010, bans the use of cluster munitions. Russia is not party to the treaty (neither is the United States).

“Cluster bombs are inherently indiscriminate,” Amnesty’s report said.
"Rockets release dozens of submunitions in mid-air, scattering them indiscriminately over a large area measuring hundreds of square metres. In addition, cluster munitions have a high dud rate, with a high percentage failing to explode on impact and thus effectively becoming land mines, which pose a threat to civilians long after deployment.”

Amnesty also said that Russia has used the PTM-1S, “a small, scatterable anti-personnel mine.”

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser, said that the investigation was “further indication of utter disregard for civilian lives.”

“People have been killed in their homes and in the streets, in playgrounds and in cemeteries, while queueing for humanitarian aid, or shopping for food and medicine,” she said. “The repeated use of widely banned cluster munitions is shocking.”

Russian officials have repeatedly insisted that they do not target civilians.

2:55 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

IAEA says Russian-occupied Ukrainian nuclear plant has re-started remote data transmission

From CNN's Mick Krever

A Russian serviceman guards in an area of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in territory under Russian military control, southeastern Ukraine, on May 1. (AP)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Sunday that it is once again getting remote data transmission from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently in Russian-held territory.

The transmission of “vital safeguards data” from the plant was cut on May 30 and restored on Sunday, the IAEA said.

“The images recorded by IAEA surveillance cameras during this time period are now being downloaded for review by agency inspectors to confirm that continuity of knowledge has not been lost," it said.

The power plant has been under Russian control since early March, but is still operated by its Ukrainian staff.

IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said on Sunday that he was continuing to appeal for an in-person trip to the power station “as soon as possible to carry out essential nuclear material verification activities which cannot be done remotely.”

Some background: The Zaporizhzhia plant has been the source of some tension between the IAEA and Ukrainian officials. Ukrainian officials have accused the IAEA of legitimizing Russia’s occupation of the plant.

Asked about whether a visit would legitimize Russia’s control of the plant, Grossi told CNN’s Becky Anderson last week that “it is absolutely incorrect. When I go there, I will be going there under the same agreement that Ukraine passed with the IAEA, not the Russian Federation. Ukraine!”

2:35 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

Russians are on the verge of capturing key Ukrainian city. In neighboring Bakhmut those with nowhere else to go brace for their arrival

From CNN's Ben Wedeman in Bakhmut

A local resident stands in front of a destroyed school after a strike in the city of Bakhmut, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, on June 8. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)

At first glance Bakhmut doesn’t look like a city at war.

As we drive into the city in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine on a warm sunny morning, men in orange vests tend to the roses. The tall trees shading the streets are thick with leaves.

Traffic is light because of fuel shortages, so many residents get around on bicycles.

This peaceful façade, however, is deceptive. Explosions regularly echo over Bakhmut: the blasts of outgoing and incoming artillery and rockets outside, and occasionally inside, the city.

Tetyana volunteers with the bread distribution. When I ask if she intends to stay in Bakhmut if Russian forces push closer, her demeanor changes. She shakes her head.

“We love our town. Our graves are here. Our parents lived here. We won’t go anywhere,” she insists, her voice quivering. Tears well up in her eyes. “It’s our land. We won’t give it up to anyone. Even if it’s destroyed, we’ll rebuild. Everything will be…” and here she gives two thumbs up.

Read the full story:

Russians are on the verge of capturing key Ukrainian city. In neighboring Bakhmut those with nowhere else to go brace for their arrival

1:31 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

Analysis: Restoration of empire is the endgame for Russia’s Vladimir Putin

Analysis from CNN's Nathan Hodge

Reading Russian President Vladimir Putin’s mind is rarely a straightforward task, but on occasion the Kremlin leader makes it easy.

Such was the case on Thursday, when Putin met with a group of young Russian entrepreneurs. Anyone looking for clues as to what Putin’s endgame for Ukraine might be should read the transcript, helpfully released here in English.

Putin’s words speak for themselves: What he is aiming for in Ukraine is the restoration of Russia as an imperial power.

Many observers quickly picked up on one of Putin’s more provocative lines, in which he compared himself to Peter the Great, Russia’s modernizing tsar and the founder of St. Petersburg – Putin’s own birthplace – who came to power in the late 17th century.

“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years,” a relaxed and apparently self-satisfied Putin said. “On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it… He was not taking away anything, he was returning. This is how it was.”

It didn’t matter that European countries didn’t recognize Peter the Great’s seizure of territory by force, Putin added.

Read the full analysis here:

Restoration of empire is the endgame for Russia's Vladimir Putin | CNN

1:00 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

It's 8 a.m. in Kyiv. Here's what you need to know

Russia could encircle Severodonetsk within days and plans to "completely cut off" the key eastern city, according to Ukrainian military officials.

Here are the latest headlines on the war in Ukraine:

The battle for Luhansk: The Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine is at the epicenter of the conflict with much of area already under Russian control. The focus of the fighting is on the twin cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. Russian forces have destroyed the second of three bridges between the cities and is heavily shelling the third, with the aim to "completely cut off" Severodonetsk, Serhiy Hayday, head of the Luhansk regional military administration said.
Long front line: Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces said there is a 2,450 kilometer-long (1,522 miles) frontline and that Russia was concentrating its main efforts in the northern part of the Luhansk region. Meanwhile, in northern and northeastern Ukraine, Russian forces “resumed shelling the residential areas of Kharkiv, which requires us to take adequate action," Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.
Grain crisis: Russian President Vladimir Putin “absolutely has weaponized food” by blockading grain exports out of Ukraine, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said. Russia's war in Ukraine could push up to 49 million people into famine or famine-like conditions because of its devastating impact on global food supply and prices. Countries are scrambling to find a way around the blockade. On Sunday, a Ukrainian government official told Reuters Ukraine has identified alternate routes to export grain stores.
Briton killed in Ukraine: Former British Army soldier Jordan Gatley was shot and killed while fighting in Ukraine's Severodonetsk, his father wrote on Facebook. The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told CNN it is supporting the family. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak tweeted that Gatley was a "true hero."
Russian missiles: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 2,606 cruise missiles have hit Ukraine since the start of the war in his nightly address on Sunday. Zelensky described a recent missile strike on the western Ternopil region that left 10 people in hospital as “pure terror.” On Sunday, Russians fired on two areas of central Ukraine: on Kryvyi Rih, and on Synelnykivsky in Dnipropetrovsk region, according to the head of the local military administration.
Ukrainian resistance: Ukrainian forces have repelled Russian assaults in various parts of the country’s eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Sunday. They include offensives northwest of the city of Sloviansk and near villages northeast of the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk, AFU spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said.

12:50 a.m. ET, June 13, 2022

White House says Putin "absolutely has weaponized food" by blockading grain exports from Ukraine

From CNN’s DJ Judd

US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks with CNN on Sunday June 12. (CNN)

US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “absolutely has weaponized food” in his invasion of Ukraine.

Kirby said the administration of US President Joe Biden and partner nations are working to overcome an export blockade that’s causing a global food shortage.

“It absolutely has weaponized food — Mr. Putin has weaponized food, and we are working hard with the international community and the UN to find ways to be able to get that grain out there and on the market where it belongs,” Kirby told CNN in an interview.

Russia’s export blockade, Kirby acknowledged, “is going to have a global impact.”

“We're going to feel some of that probably here as well, which is why we're working so hard on trying to find out find alternative routes to get some of that grain out," he said.

Earlier this week, CNN reported Russia's war in Ukraine could push up to 49 million people into famine or famine-like conditions because of its devastating impact on global food supply and prices, per UN estimates.