TOP STORIES

• Russia has claimed to have fully captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, which if true would mark an end to the longest and bloodiest battle of the 15-month conflict. READ MORE BELOW

• President Vladimir Putin congratulated the Wagner mercenary force and the Russian army for what he called the city's "liberation." But Kyiv denied Moscow's claims, saying it was still fighting for control of the strategic battleground. 

• Asked before a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Japan if the city was still in Ukraine's hands, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters, "I think no," adding that the city remained "only in our hearts." Zelenskyy's press secretary later clarified that this was not a confirmation of the city's loss.  

• Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations signalled during a summit in Japan their readiness to back Ukraine in the long term, while also giving Zelenskyy a chance to win over neutral countries such as Brazil and India on the last day of the conference. 

• The Ukrainian leader on Sunday was seeking global support for Kyiv's plan to end the conflict, telling G7 leaders it was "an obvious expression of rationality." He held talks with India's Narendra Modi and South Korea's Yoon Suk Yeol, and was due to meet other Global South leaders in a bid to broaden support for his country in the conflict. 

• U.S. President Joe Biden used the meeting to announce a new $375 million package of military aid to Kyiv, telling Zelenskyy during a bilateral meeting that Washington and the G7 were doing all it could to strengthen Ukraine's defenses. "I promise we're not going anywhere," he added. 

• German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said from Japan that potential joint allied training programs for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s – backed by the U.S. – was a message to Russia that it should not expect to succeed in Ukraine. Kyiv has not yet won commitments for delivery of the planes, with Russia's foreign ministry warning Western countries that they would be running "colossal risks" if they supplied the jets.

• British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his country would start training Ukrainian pilots this summer to support its air force in the conflict.

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said G7 decisions at the summit were aimed at the "double containment" of Russia and China.

• U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that in light of the Ukraine conflict it was time to reform both the Security Council and Bretton Woods to align with the "realities of today's world."

• The founder of Georgia's national airline Georgian Airways has banned the country's president from using its services after she said she would boycott the airline over its resumption of flights to Russia.

IN DETAIL

Contrasting claims over Bakhmut's control 

Leaders of the G7 said on Sunday they would not back down from supporting Ukraine, a warning to President Vladimir Putin as he claimed Russian forces had taken the Donetsk city of Bakhmut – something Kyiv denied.

President Zelenskyy made a surprise appearance at the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima, where he has been canvassing for greater global support in the conflict.

The Ukrainian leader told reporters on the sidelines of the summit that the battered eastern city of Bakhmut, the focus of fiercest fighting of the conflict in recent months, was destroyed.

"It is a tragedy," Zelenskyy said. "There is nothing on this place" – what remained was "a lot of dead Russians."

There was confusion over whether he had been asked if the city was still in Kyiv's hands or Russian forces had taken Bakhmut, but a spokesperson said the comments were a denial the city had fallen.

Putin hailed what he said was a victory for his forces in a statement on the Kremlin's website, describing it as the "liberation" of Bakhmut, which Russia calls by its Soviet-era name of Artyomovsk. 

The assault on the largely destroyed but key strategic city was led by troops from the Wagner Group of mercenaries, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said his troops had finally pushed the Ukrainians out of the last built-up area inside the city.

However, Ukraine's Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar on Sunday that Kyiv's forces had partly encircled the besieged eastern city and were still in control of a part of the strategic site. 

"Our forces have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy," she wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Therefore, the enemy has to defend himself in the part of the city he controls."

Maliar added that Ukrainian troops were still defending industrial and infrastructure facilities in Bakhmut as well as a private sector of the city.

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