The Dutch government made the move to help individual cases brought by victims’ relatives, the foreign minister said in a letter to Parliament.

A Chechen man shot near Vienna last weekend had spoken publicly of giving Austrian and Ukrainian authorities information about contract killings. He also said there was a price on his head.

Russia’s grievances against what it sees as American bullying and expansion into its own zones of influence have been stacking up for decades.

The International Monetary Fund agreed to lend Ukraine $5 billion over 18 months while stressing the importance of central bank independence. Three weeks later, the central banker quit, citing political pressure.

Environmentalists say illegal logging in the Carpathian Mountains is contributing to flooding. Rising waters forced the partial evacuation of a hospital treating Covid-19 patients.

Status-conscious fast-food joints across Eastern Europe have offered their diners disposable gloves for years. The idea may find a wider audience in the pandemic era.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine won an endorsement for his anti-corruption policies with the approval of a $5 billion lending program from the International Monetary Fund.

Eleven foreign couples, previously barred by coronavirus restrictions, have entered the country to meet their newborns. But births are still outpacing pickups.

The plan is a further blow to America’s weakening European alliances and likely to be welcomed by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

As she endured a difficult recovery from Covid-19, the grandmaster Irina Krush thrived in competition and found familiar support from others in the game.

Fate of soldiers leaving Azovstal site unclear and numbers not confirmed by Ukraine

• Ukraine-Russia war – latest updates

Russia says another 694 Ukrainian troops have surrendered at Mariupol’s besieged Azovstal steel plant in the past day, bringing the total number close to 1,000.

The Russian defence ministry said 29 of the soldiers were wounded. It did not say where the soldiers would be sent, though on Tuesday evening Reuters reported that seven buses carrying Ukrainian soldiers left the plant for a former prison colony in the town of Olenivka in a Russian-controlled area of Donetsk region.

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Vadim Shishimarin, 21, admits killing unarmed civilian; Russia says 694 Ukrainian fighters have surrendered in the last 24 hoursRussian soldier pleads guilty in first war crimes trialHundreds more Ukrainians surrender at Azovstal, Russia claimsProsecutions of Azov fighters could breach Geneva conventionsSweden and Finland formally apply to join NatoRussia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 84 of the invasionRussia’s ministry of defence has issued a statement on Telegram saying it has been requested by the investigative committee of Russia to provide information on “the illegal actions of Ukrainian armed formations related to the use of civilian objects for military purposes”.Without providing evidence, it claims “the Azov Battalion used the buildings of kindergartens and schools to equip barracks” and that members of the ‘Aidar’ battalion also “equip firing positions in places not intended for this, creating a real danger to the civilian population”. Continue ...

Finland and Sweden have submitted applications to join alliance – seven people share their thoughts

Finland and Sweden have submitted their applications for Nato membership triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Seven people share their thoughts on what Nato membership would mean for them, and how they feel about the Russia-Ukraine war.

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Tank commander Vadim Shysimarin, 21, admits shooting dead a 62-year-old civilian who was on a bicycle

A Russian tank commander has pleaded guilty to shooting dead a civilian on a bicycle, in Ukraine’s first trial for war crimes committed during the Russian invasion.

Vadim Shysimarin, 21, sat emotionless as prosecutors detailed charges that he had fired his AK-47 at a 62 year-old man from the window of a car in the north-eastern Sumy region in late February.

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Russian defence ministry issues footage showing what it says are Ukrainian fighters from the Azovstal steel plant surrendering, getting searched by Russian forces and being loaded into ambulances. Russia says a total of 959 combatants have surrendered from the steel plant since Monday 16 May

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• Competitor displayed letter on podium next to Ukrainian
• ‘I just showed my position,’ says unrepentant Kuliak

The Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak has been handed a one-year ban for wearing the letter “Z” supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during an event in Qatar in March, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) has confirmed.

The 20-year-old, who won bronze in the parallel bars at the Apparatus World Cup in Doha, displayed the letter as he stood on the podium next to the Ukrainian gold medallist Illia Kovtun.

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Analysis: prisoners of war are protected under treaties unless accused of war crimesUkraine-Russia war – latest updatesAny Russian moves to prosecute and potentially execute some of the hundreds of Ukrainian fighters who surrendered in Mariupol could be in breach of the Geneva conventions, which state that prisoners of war should not be punished for having taken part in hostilities.The concerns were underlined by the UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey,who told the radio station LBC: “I think there have been enough atrocities in this war already without seeing the execution or whatever of the prisoners of war, which I fear this is a prelude to. I just think we have to be very clear, that sort of atrocity the west would stand in utter condemnation of. Prisoners of war have a status enshrined in the Geneva convention.” Continue ...

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg hails move by Nordic neighbours as ‘historic step’

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest news

Sweden and Finland have formally submitted their applications to join the Nato military alliance, confirming a radical redrawing of Europe’s security landscape triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, accepted the Nordic neighbours’ membership applications, each in a white folder embossed with their national flag, at the headquarters of the US-led defensive alliance in Brussels.

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Kremlin says 694 Ukrainian fighters from Azovstal plant have surrendered; UK says Russia facing ‘resourcing problems’Ukraine-Russia war – latest updatesRussia’s defence ministry said 694 Ukrainian fighters who had been under siege at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol had surrendered over the last 24 hours.The Russians claim 959 combatants have surrendered in total at Azovstal since Monday, and that 80 of those who surrendered were wounded, of whom 51 have been taken to hospital. The numbers have not been independently verified.Denis Pushilin, the head of the self-proclaimed republic of Donetsk, has told local media that a court will decide the fate of the Ukrainian fighters who surrendered at Azovstal.Russia claims 270 Ukrainian fighters were killed and “54 units of military equipment were disabled” overnight. It also claimed to have shot down two planes and 15 drones.The State Emergency Service of Ukraine said it neutralised 685 explosive devices on Ukrainian soil on Tuesday.The latest intelligence update from the UK’s Ministry of Defence highlights Russia’s “significant resourcing problems in Ukraine”, which it says “is likely contributing to a disunited command which continues to hamper Russia’s ...

Announcement at joint press conference comes as Turkey maintains it will not support the applicationsRussia-Ukraine war: latest updatesWhat we know on day 84 of the invasion Sweden and Finland will formally submit simultaneous requests to join Nato on Wednesday, the Swedish prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, has said, in a seismic shift in Europe’s security architecture after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.“Finland and Sweden have agreed to go through this entire process hand in hand, and we will tomorrow file the application together,” Andersson told a joint news conference with the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, in Stockholm.The first war crimes trial since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine starts in Kyiv on Wednesday. Vadim Shishimarin, 21, has been charged over the death of a 62-year-old man in north-eastern Ukraine on 28 February. The soldier from Irkutsk in Siberia faces a possible life sentence. “He understands what he is being accused of,” his lawyer, Viktor Ovsiannikov, told AFP, without revealing the case for the defence. Two Russian servicemen are due to go on trial from Thursday, accused of firing rockets at civilian infrastructure in the Kharkiv region.The chief prosecutor for the international criminal ...

The Finns have long relied on realpolitik and the Swedes on neutrality. Joining the historic military alliance could change everythingFor a long time, the Nordic countries saw themselves as sleekly humanitarian, peace-keeping powers. To an unusual degree, the national identities of Sweden and Finland are bound up with their foreign policy: Swedes identify with a centuries-old tradition of neutrality, whereas Finns point to their talent for realpolitik, making the best of their volatile geography, which includes an 830-mile border with Russia. As both countries now formally submit their applications to join the North Atlantic alliance, each of them will forgo this deviation from the European norm. Finland in particular now seems poised to adopt a more standard-issue foreign policy. But at what price?Since the end of the second world war, Finland’s political elite has nimbly navigated between Russian and western power. In a tight spot, the Finns played their hand with exceptional skill. In the postwar decades, Finland went from being the poorest state in Europe in 1945 to the economic level of the rest of western Europe – and maintained a much more equal society. Now, Finland is abandoning this careful strategy of tacking ...

Fewer than 50 residents have stayed in Kutuzivka since Russian forces invaded. But even when Ukrainian soldiers took it back, some in the village had nowhere to go but underground

Tymofiy Seidov is the only child left in his village near the city of Kharkiv, in north east Ukraine.

The eight-year-old spends much of his time drawing at a little table, dimly illuminated from above by a tiny LED light, in the corner of the otherwise almost completely dark 40-by-five-metre basement that he shares with 23 others including his mum, aunt and grandmother.

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