World leaders were lining up in support of Ukraine and Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the G7 summit began in France. Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, vowed to “choke off” Russian revenue with further sanctions, writes Alexandra Topping, and to provide hundreds of millions of pounds worth of energy support for Ukraine including enriched uranium for its nuclear power plants.

Summit host Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said as he prepared to meet with Donald Trump that he wanted the US to say “we are with you, we will continue to support Ukraine, and we will increase the pressure on Russia to achieve a meaningful negotiation … The right negotiation is one in which Ukraine and Russia are at the table, but with Europeans and Americans present as well.”

Germany’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, expressed hope that “for the first time, a window can open for diplomacy” on ending the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported. He added that he wanted to discuss this further with Trump. The US president, who arrived for the summit on Monday, said: “We had a very good conversation yesterday with President Zelenskyy and President Putin, and I think maybe we can do something there. I really do. I think they’re both open to it.”

A drone set fire to ⁠an oil depot in the Poltavskaya area of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, authorities said ⁠on Tuesday morning. The regional officials said they ‌closed a local road leading to the bridge across the Kerch strait linking Crimea to the Krasnodar region. On Monday, Ukraine hit two bridges connecting the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region with Crimea. In the Krasnodar region itself, ​a popular ‌summer tourist destination, ​disruptions to ​fuel supplies have triggered panic-buying, the regional governor said last week.

A Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber plane ⁠of the type used to attack Ukraine crashed on Monday in Siberia’s Irkutsk region during a training flight, the Russian defence ⁠ministry said. The ⁠aircraft’s ​four-person crew ejected safely, the ministry said. The bombers are used to fire cruise and ballistic missiles at Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said two Russian drones “deliberately” targeted Kyiv’s monastery quarter in a mass overnight barrage that set the Unesco-listed Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra site ablaze and killed 11 across the country. ⁠Amid a chorus of international condemnation, Zelenskyy described the cathedral attack as “one of Russia’s most serious crimes ​against Christian culture to date” and urged G7 leaders meeting in France on Monday to take “decisive and substantive” action against Moscow. “More pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine’s air defence, especially anti-ballistic capabilities,” the Ukrainian president said.

Russia denied targeting the cathedral and claimed it had been hit with a US-made Patriot air-defence missile. But contradicting the Russian claim, Peter Beaumont writes that outside the Perchersk-Lavra complex on Monday morning a group of state security officers stood over the remains of two Shahed-Geran type drones – as built in Iran and Russia, and used ubiquitously by Moscow’s forces.

Amid Monday’s heavy Russian air raids on Ukraine, a drone struck ⁠the zoo in Kharkiv, killing 10 rabbits while injuring and distressing other animals including an elephant, prosecutors said. The drone hit an area ⁠described as a vivarium in ​which hundreds of ‌rabbits, guinea pigs, ‌rats and mice were housed, the prosecutors said. The elephant’s adjacent enclosure was damaged.

Russia is reportedly being forced to allow the sale of substandard fuel as Ukrainian attacks on oil pipelines, refineries, transport and storage squeeze supplies. The emergency measure were reported by the Russian newspaper Kommersant, which cited a source. Kommersant said refineries were being allowed to sell gasoline and diesel domestically with, for example, levels of sulphur about 15 times the maximum permitted in Europe, China, and India. The concessions also allow a higher share of aromatic hydrocarbons, which are ‌toxic compounds linked to health issues.

On Monday, authorities ​in the Udmurtia region ​east of Moscow said temporary limits would ​be in force on gasoline at stations operated by Tatneft ​from 12 June, Reuters reported, after Tatneft’s major refinery had to completely shut down production because of drone strikes. As long ‌lines of cars queued on Monday in Sevastopol city, Crimea, driver Alyona, who gave only her first name, said: “How can it be solved, how? Only if the special military operation ends.”

A Ukrainian drone ⁠strike ⁠killed three farm ​machine ⁠workers in the ⁠Russian ​border ‌region ‌of Bryansk, the ‌region’s acting governor said on ‌Monday. Yegor Kovalchuk said ​the three ⁠were killed ​while working ​in a ​field ​in ‌Pochepsky ​district ​near the border. There was no independent confirmation. Ukraine denies targeting civilians.

Ukraine was due on Monday to officially begin European Union membership negotiations, launching a process that will require its government to commit to years of political reforms even as it continues to fight a Russian invasion. Ukrainian deputy prime minister Taras Kachka was to attend a conference in Luxembourg to open the talks, and called it a “Rubicon” moment. “All Ukrainian society ​believes that joining the European Union is our dream.” Moldova was also due to officially launch its membership talks.