Russia Ukraine war update: Three civilians killed in Donetsk blast as Putin makes ‘absurd attempt to seduce West’

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni on Saturday dismissed a cease-fire offer for Ukraine by Russian President Vladimir Putin as “propaganda,” as she wrapped up a Group of Seven summit that saw a deal reached for a $50 billion loan to Ukraine.

The loan will be provided by the U.S., U.K., Canada and possibly Japan, Meloni said. The frozen Russian assets to be used as collateral are mainly in Europe, “so Europe is already contributing by identifying the guarantee mechanism,” she added.

The loan agreement was reached at the opening Thursday of the two-day annual meeting of leaders from the G7 countries of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States in southern Italy’s Puglia region.

Several hundred LGBT Ukrainian servicemen and their supporters marched in central Kyiv Sunday to demand more rights and highlight their service to their country in its war with Russia.

The servicemembers — many wearing rainbow and unicorn patches on their uniforms — called on the government to grant them official partnership rights. They described the event as a pride march but it did not have the celebratory atmosphere of peacetime events and took place in the rain and under a heavy police guard amid threats from counterprotesters.

The role of LGBT members in the military has been credited with shifting public attitudes toward same-sex partnerships in the socially conservative country.

Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, calls for international action to help bring home children who have been separated from their families by Russia’s invasion:

The move prompted the international criminal court to issue arrest warrants for both Putin and his children’s right’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova.

In a special investigation, Tom Watling tells the story of five teenagers who were taken into Russia or Russian-occupied territory before eventually being rescued. Many others are still believed to be trapped:

Chilean President Gabriel Boric has stressed the need for urgent measures to protect civilians during the war.

It came after The Independent spoke to five teenagers abducted by Russian forces.

“Children everywhere have to be protected. We cannot allow that any country abducts or kidnaps children, as Russia is doing nowadays with Ukrainian children. Civilians must not be damaged. We need urgent action to protect their rights, because they cannot wait,” Boric said.

“This summit represents a beacon of hope and serves as a catalyst for fostering enduring peace dialogues. We totally endorse the joint communique that we have approved, and the purpose of this gathering is really important.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that China should communicate its peace proposals on ending the war with Russia to Ukraine directly, instead of doing so via media outlets.

The Ukrainian leader made the comment at a news conference in Switzerland after an international summit to build consensus on how to end the war.

Zelensky said on Sunday the participants in a Swiss summit on peace in Ukraine had agreed to continue working in special groups afterwards and that once “action plans for peace” were ready, a path to a second summit would be open.

“We agreed to start to work in special after-summit groups on specific ideas, proposals and developments that can restore security in various aspects.”

Canada plans to host a gathering of foreign ministers in the coming months to advance work on the human cost of the war in Ukraine, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Sunday.

Trudeau was speaking alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other leaders at a summit hosted by Switzerland aimed at creating a pathway towards peace in Ukraine

Defiant Ukrainian forces have released a shocking video of the as paratroopers resist Russian advances in Luhansk.

“This is what the outpost of the Luhansk region – Bilohorivka – looks like. Paratroopers of the 81st Separate Slobozhanska Airmobile Brigade continue to hold the defense of this settlement despite the constant statements of the Russians about taking the village under their control,” a message on Instagram says.

It adds: “There are no civilians for a long time. The earth is ripped with explosions from shelling. On the territory of the village there are many units of destroyed Russian equipment.”

Western powers and other nations sought a consensus on the second day of a summit in Switzerland n condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and underscoring the war’s human cost.

A draft of the final summit declaration seen by Reuters refers to Russia’s invasion as a “war” – a label Moscow rejects – and calls for Ukraine’s control over the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and its Azov Sea ports to be restored.

The draft, dated June 13, called for Ukraine’s territorial integrity to be respected.

But – in line with the conference’s more modest stated aims – it omitted knottier issues of what a post-war settlement for Ukraine might look like, whether Ukraine could join the NATO alliance or how troop withdrawals from both sides might be managed.

Many Western leaders voiced forceful condemnation of the invasion and rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands for parts of Ukraine as a condition for peace.

“One thing is clear in this conflict: there is an aggressor, which is Putin, and there is a victim, which is the Ukrainian people,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.