Risk of using nuclear weapons is higher now than in decades: think thank

Amnesty International says that Russia’s killing of hundreds of civilians in Kharkiv, many of them by cluster bombs, is tantamount to war crimes.

Russian forces are destroying the key city of Severodonetsk “place by place” and gaining ground because of significant advantage in artillery, says the governor of Luhansk.

According to a weapons research institute, the risk of nuclear war is higher today than at any other time since the peak of the Cold War.

Russian forces blew up a bridge on Siverskyi’s Donets River, which links the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, cutting off a possible evacuation route for civilians, say the local authorities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russian casualties since the start of the war could rise to 40,000 in June.