LIVE UPDATES: Russia 'Cracking' US Weapons in Ukraine 'Like Nuts', Putin Says

Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, after the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. Russia said that the aim of its special operation is to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. In response to Russia’s operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine.

Turkey plans to develop a mechanism for addressing the grain issue during a forthcoming visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Ankara, though it will take from three to five weeks to launch the process, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Saturday.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster that there are no obstacles to the export of grain from Ukraine. Ships carrying wheat will be able to leave the Black Sea without any problems, if Kiev clears ports of mines, Putin said.

"During the visit of Mr. Lavrov, we look forward to quickly deal with various aspects of the [grain] issue, make a decision and start the process as soon as possible within the framework of a certain protocol and a memorandum of understanding. It will probably take another three or five weeks to launch the process, even if we agree on the main issues," Kalin said, as quoted by Turkish newspaper Star.

Lavrov will arrive in Ankara on June 8. The Russian foreign minister is expected to discuss the recent developments in Ukraine and other pressing issues with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

World leaders and international organizations have been raising concerns over an imminent and large-scale food crisis since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, citing disruptions in supply chains and derailed crops production in one of the largest gain producers in the world and calling for unblocking Ukraine's sea ports and releasing the grain stuck in warehouses. Russia has denied blocking sea ports and has drawn attention to the mines deployed by Ukraine.

A fragment of the interview, which will be released on Sunday, was published in the Telegram channel of the Smotrim streaming platform.

The EU is working on the next, seventh package of sanctions against Russia, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said on Saturday.

The deputy foreign minister said that he hopes the new sanctions will target gas supplies from Russia and will include the disconnection of remaining Russian banks from SWIFT.

"Sanctions should be even tougher in the context of gas that Russia can still sell, in the context of disconnecting all Russian banks from the SWIFT system. I am talking here primarily about Gazprombank. There is also a need for an embargo on technologies that can still be supplied to Russia and used by Russia in its industry," Jablonski told the Polish Press Agency.

In addition to the official sanctions, Poland considers it necessary to confiscate, and not just freeze, Russian assets in the EU, he said.

On Friday, the EU presented the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow, including a gradual phase-out of Russian oil. The new package will affect only oil deliveries by sea, while oil coming through the Druzhba pipeline is not subject to restrictions. The bloc also decided to de-SWIFT three more Russian banks — Russia's largest bank Sberbank, Credit Bank of Moscow, and Russian Agricultural Bank.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that weakening Russia was a long-term strategy of the West, adding that its sanctions had dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy.

Ukrainian troops set fire to a wooden skete in Sviatogrsk Lavra using incendiary rounds from a machine gun while retreating from the position, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday.

"On 4 June, during the retreat from the city of Sviatogrsk in the Donetsk People’s Republic, units of the 79th Airborne Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces, Ukrainian nationalists set fire to the wooden skete at Sviatogrsk Lavra," the ministry told reporters.

The ministry added that according to information from local residents, the wooden walls of the building near the dome were shelled with incendiary ammunition from a large-caliber machine gun mounted on a Ukrainian armoured vehicle Kozak.

After the attack, the Ukrainian militants left at high speed in a southern direction, toward the Ukraine-controlled village of Sydorove.

The ministry further stressed that that the Russian armed forces located north of Sviatogrsk are not conducting combat operations in the area and are not shelling the territory of the Sviatogrsk historical and architectural zone.

The wooden All Saints skete in Sviatogrsk was built in 2009 on the site of the Vsehsvjatskij Skete, blown up in 1947, in the traditions of Russian wooden architecture of the 16th-17th centuries.

Two houses caught fire and one civilian was injured in a village in the Russian Bryansk region after a shelling by Ukrainian troops, local governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Saturday.

"Today, the Ukrainian armed forces shelled the village of Sluchevsk in Pogarsky district. As a result of the shelling, two houses caught fire. There is a victim among the residents — a man received a slight shrapnel wound," Bogomaz said on Telegram.

The governor added that the victim was taken to the Pogar Central District Hospital and received medical treatment. Emergency services are currently working on the scene.

Russia's anti-aircraft defence systems shot down a Ukrainian military transport aircraft and 17 drones over the past 24 hours, Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.

"Russian air defence systems near Odessa shot down a military transport aircraft of the Ukrainian air force that was delivering weapons and ammunition," Konashenkov told a briefing, adding that 17 drones, including Bayraktar TB2s, were also destroyed in the Luhansk People's Republic, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions over the past 24 hours.

The Russian artillery, in turn, destroyed 33 control centres, 131 firing positions and hit 542 hubs with Ukrainian troops and equipment, according to the briefing. Additionally, Russian high-precision missiles hit an artillery training centre in Ukraine’s Sumy region, where foreign instructors were training Ukrainian soldiers to use American 155mm M777 howitzers.

"As a result of the strikes, more than 400 nationalists were killed, 20 tanks and armoured combat vehicles, four BM-21 Grad missiles and 29 multipurpose vehicles were destroyed," the spokesman said.

In total, over 3,400 units of Ukrainian special military vehicles have been destroyed since the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, Konashenkov added.

"A total of 187 aircraft, 129 helicopters, 1,104 unmanned aerial vehicles, 328 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,406 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 466 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,769 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 3,405 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed since the beginning of the special military operation," Konashenkov said.

"I will be proud of this and I will know that I am a citizen of a free state in which my culture and values ​​are strong. The residents of the Kherson region are grateful to the President of Russia [Vladimir Putin], who made it possible for us all to feel like an integral part of one big whole," Stremousov said.