Russia-Ukraine war: Russian blockade of grain exports is ‘a real war crime’, says EU foreign policy chief – live

Dan Sabbagh

Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, is to be banned from Parliament’s estate in Westminster “until further notice” according to a message sent out by the speakers of the House of Commons and Lords this morning.

The ban, which also applies to all other accredited Russian diplomats and officials in the UK, has been operating informally since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, but has now been confirmed in writing for the first time.

The note to parliamentarians from Lindsay Hoyle and Lord McFall, Commons and Lords speaker respectively, reads:

As the formally accredited representative of the Russian Government, the Ambassador will not be welcomed onto the Parliamentary estate until further notice.

The email was accompanied by a Foreign Office guidance note for the 265 MPs and 154 peers recently banned by the Russian government from entering the country. It said:

We anticipate that if a sanctioned individual applied for a Russian visa it would be refused, and if they arrived at the border they would be prevented from entering Russia and deported at the earliest opportunity.

Travel is also not advised to areas under Russian “control or influence” including Belarus, Transnistria in Moldova, Crimea, along the Armenia/Azerbaijan border and the occupied Donbas region of Ukraine, the note added.

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he expected Russia will intensify attacks on Ukraine and possibly other European countries after the EU Commission proposed it as a candidate for EU membership. “Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities,” he said in a nightly video address. “And not only against Ukraine, but also against other European countries. We are preparing. We are ready. We warn partners.”

• Ukraine’s forces remain on the defensive in the eastern Donbas region, where fighting continues in Sievierodonestsk. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, said Russia was massing forces in an attempt to take full control of the city after weeks of fighting but maintained that “all Russian claims that they control the town are a lie”. “They control the main part of the town, but not the whole town,” he told Ukrainian television.

• Russia’s blockade of the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain is a war crime, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said. “We call on Russia to deblockade the ports … It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger,” he told the media as he arrived at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

• Germany says it supports Poland and Romania in adapting their railways to enable the export of millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to a Russian sea blockade. European Union foreign ministers will discuss ways to free the millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine at today’s meeting

• Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the security council of Russia and long-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has posted to Telegram to advise against nuclear negotiations with the US, saying that the relationship between the two countries is at “zero Kelvin”.

• The UK ministry of defence has said in its latest intelligence report that “In the conflict to date, Russia’s air force has underperformed. Its failure to consistently deliver air power is likely one of the most important factors behind Russia’s very limited campaign success.”

• Russia has become China’s top oil supplier amid Ukraine war sanctions. China’s crude oil imports from Russia soared by 55% from a year earlier to a record level in May, displacing Saudi Arabia as the top supplier, as refiners cashed in on discounted supplies amid sanctions on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

• The war in Ukraine could last for years and will require long-term military support, according to Nato and other western leaders. “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years,” Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said in an interview with the German newspaper Bild on Sunday. British prime minister, Boris Johnson, added: “I am afraid that we need to steel ourselves for a long war.”

• Ukraine’s parliament voted through two laws on Sunday which will place severe restrictions on Russian books and music. Proposed laws will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens, banning the commercial import of books printed in Russia and prohibiting the playing of music by post-1991 Russian citizens on media and on public transport in the latest attempt to break cultural ties between the two countries.

• A German government source has said that the country is “very confident” Nato will successfully reach an agreement with Sweden and Finland over their bid for membership, although possibly not in time for the Madrid summit at the end of June.

• Australia has sent the first four of 14 armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as part of a $285m aid package. The M113AS4s were loaded into a Ukrainian aircraft last week after the former defence minister Peter Dutton promised the personnel carriers and 20 additional Bushmaster protected infantry vehicles in May.

• Germany has said it will limit the use of natural gas for electricity production and increase its reliance on coal-fired power plants amid concerns about possible shortages caused by a cut in supplies from Russia. “That’s bitter, but in this situation it’s almost necessary to reduce gas consumption,” Robert Habeck, minister for economic affairs, said in a statement on Sunday.

• Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov will auction off his Nobel Peace Prize medal later today, pledging the proceeds will go directly to UNICEF in its efforts to help children displaced by the war in Ukraine.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later on. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours.

Germany says it supports Poland and Romania in adapting their railways to enable the export of millions of tonnes of grain stuck in Ukraine due to a Russian sea blockade, German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said.

“The railway tracks need to be modernised, we need the right cargo wagons – the German government is working on this with many other actors,” she told reporters as she arrived for a meeting with her European Union counterparts in Luxembourg.

Reuters reports she added “It is clear that, in the end, we will certainly not be able to get out all grain but if we even just manage to free part of it, on various routes, then this will help as we are facing this global challenge.”

Russia’s blockade of the export of millions of tonnes of Ukrainian grain is a war crime, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.

“We call on Russia to deblockade the ports … It is inconceivable, one cannot imagine that millions of tonnes of wheat remain blocked in Ukraine while in the rest of the world people are suffering hunger,” Reuters reports he told the media.

“This is a real war crime, so I cannot imagine that this will last much longer,” he said on arriving to a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg.