Russia prioritizes the Belgorod deal; Kyiv accuses Moscow of suspending grain agreement.

Europe is providing an additional 1 billion Euro in aid to Kyiv, Budapest is stating its position on Kyiv's accession at the NATO Summit... these are some of the latest news on the situation in Ukraine.

Tình hình Ukraine: Nga nêu ưu tiên ở Belgorod, Kiev cáo buộc Moscow đình chỉ thỏa thuận ngũ cốc

Ukraine criticizes Russia for suspending the grain deal. (Illustrative image. Source: Reuters)

On June 1st, the Kremlin stated that Russians support President Vladimir Putin and the “special military operation” in Ukraine. At the same time, Moscow said its priority in the Belgorod border region is to help residents and support those needing temporary resettlement, after its military thwarted three cross-border incursions from Ukraine and intense shelling of the area.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin is currently receiving updates on the situation in the town of Shebekino, a hotspot recently hit by heavy shelling in Belgorod.

Meanwhile, writing on Facebook on the same day, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure and Reconstruction announced on June 1 that the UN-brokered Black Sea grain export agreement had been suspended once again: “The Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul announced that they could not schedule inspections on June 1 because the Russian delegation had again arbitrarily refused to allow registration for ships coming to participate in this initiative.” Russia has not yet commented on this information.

* Also on June 1st, the Council of the European Union (EU) approved a decision to allocate 1 billion euros under the European Peace Mechanism (EFP) to ensure the immediate supply of artillery ammunition to Ukraine. This measure will allow the EU to reimburse member states that supplied ammunition to Ukraine from existing stockpiles or from rearranging existing orders between February 9th and May 31st, 2023.

EU High Commissioner for Foreign Policy and Security Josep Borrell said: “With today’s decision, we are deploying the first part of the historic agreement reached by EU leaders to support the immediate transfer of €1 billion worth of artillery shells to the Ukrainian armed forces. There is no better proof of the EU’s unity and determination to continue to support Ukraine’s right to self-defense.”

Previously, the EU approved a decision to expedite the supply of 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine. To achieve this goal, EU countries agreed to allocate €1 billion from the European Peace Fund to reimburse EU members for existing ammunition supplies and another €1 billion to increase the artillery shell production capacity of the European defense industry to supply Ukraine and to replenish EU stockpiles. This decision brings the total amount of financial support under the EFP for arms purchases for Ukraine to €4.6 billion.

* In related news, on June 1st, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated that Ukraine's accession to NATO cannot be on the agenda of the bloc's summit in July.

Writing on his personal Facebook page , he stated: “We must be clear about this. The accession of a country in conflict to NATO cannot be on this agenda.” The Hungarian Foreign Minister argued that there should be no discussion about the timeframe for NATO's admission of Ukraine.

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