Russia-Ukraine war: what we know on day 109 of the invasion
The EU executive will this week make a recommendation on whether Ukraine should be given candidate status, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen has said. In a joint press conference with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday, Von der Leyen said: “We want to support Ukraine in its European journey.” Such a recommendation would be a step on a long road to full membership. Speaking alongside Von der Leyen, Zelenskiy said that the EU’s decision on Ukraine would “determine” the future of Europe.

The US president, Joe Biden, has said that Volodymyr Zelenskiy “didn’t want to hear” warnings of the Russian invasion. Speaking at a fundraising reception in Los Angeles, Biden said “there was no doubt” Vladimir Putin had been planning to “go in”. “Nothing like this has happened since world war two,” he told donors. “I know a lot of people thought I was maybe exaggerating. But I knew we had data to sustain [Putin] was going to go in, off the border. There was no doubt … and Zelenskiy didn’t want to hear it.”

The family of a British man sentenced to death for fighting Russian forces have said they are “devastated” and called for “urgent cooperation” to secure his release. Shaun Pinner, 48, received the death penalty, along with fellow Briton Aiden Aslin, in what the UK government has branded a “sham” sentencing. The pair were captured in April while fighting as part of the Ukrainian army to defend the southern port city of Mariupol against invading Russian troops.

Rolls-Royce Germany has provided two superpower generators to Ukraine, the country’s ministry of health announced on Saturday. In a statement, the ministry of health said, “One such generator is capable of providing the work of not only one building, but all the buildings, if it is a large regional hospital.”

The US has announced that it will be boycotting the St Petersburg International Forum that is set to take place in Russia later this month. “We urge governments and companies to join our boycott and send a clear message that there is no ‘business as usual’ while Russian forces brutalise Ukraine,” said Ned Price, the US state department spokesperson.

Russia’s military has set up another field hospital due to heavy casualties, Kyiv Independent reports. It is in the village of Shebekino in Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, according to the general staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ukraine remains in control of the Azot chemical plant in Sievierodonetsk where hundreds of civilians are sheltering, the region’s governor has said. Ukraine has said about 800 people were hiding in several bomb shelters underneath the Azot plant, including about 200 employees and 600 residents of Sievierodonetsk. A Russia-backed separatist claimed 300 to 400 Ukrainian fighters were also trapped there.

A United Nations commission arrived in Ukraine on Saturday to investigate war crimes. The deputy speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, Olena Kondratyuk, said the commission’s goal was to record war crimes and human rights violations.

Approximately 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Russia’s invasion of the country in February, according to a military adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He added that in terms of daily Ukrainian casualties, around “200 to 300 die, no less”.

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency says 2.5 million Ukrainians have returned there since the war started in February. The agency said 5.5 million Ukrainians have fled to the EU since the war began.

Russia is attempting to repeat the Holodomor, a deliberately induced famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of people under the Soviet regime, the head of the office of the Ukrainian president has said. On Saturday, Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office head, said: “Russians shell Ukrainian fields with firebombs. Those creating global food crisis attempt to reconstruct Holodomor.”

The armed forces of Ukraine have received new Starlink satellite communication systems from SpaceX. The Ukrainian defence ministry said the Starlinks would be used for intelligence missions.