PARIS: In Paris as in London the chief beauty of the season is the velvety greenness of the lawns. The use of a machine is uncommon even in the public parks, and in front of the Louvre this morning teams of men were sweeping together the mowings while other experts were swinging scythes. It is perhaps the most perfect method of keeping grass, though seldom seen in its perfection, and perhaps pursued here because in the heat of summer grass frequently disappears and has to be resown from year to year. The fine seedling grass, like uncut hair, is a characteristic feature of Paris gardens, and would no doubt be liable to be damaged by a machine.

It is pleasant to be reminded that the largest French town has direct and natural communication with the wildlife of the country. The gulls are a happy accident in London; here, in the Parc Montsouris, comparable to Battersea Park for its distance from the centre, the air is alive with swifts from morning to night; no one put them there or fed them or encouraged them to come; and their company is all the more delightful on that account.

Finland endured exceptionally warm weather in May, with temperatures significantly higher than normal by day and night across large parts of the country. The Nordic nation officially recorded 16 heatwave days, breaking the previous high of 14 set in 2018. According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, heatwave conditions are defined as days when temperatures reach 25C.

Average temperatures were 3-4C higher than normal in the south and west, and 1-3C above normal in the north and east. At the Hattula Lepaa observation station, 29.9C was recorded on 31 May, made it the warmest day of the month.

The high temperatures were the result of a large and persistent area of high pressure that sat across much of northern Europe, with unusually high temperatures also observed in Norway and Sweden. Human-induced climate change is likely to have played a part, with temperatures about 2C higher than they otherwise would have been in a pre-industrial climate, according to the Finnish Meteorological Institute.

It was also extremely dry, with some areas receiving less than 10% of the normal rainfall. There are fears that any sustained dry and warm weather this summer could bring an increased risk of forest fires and drought. The high temperatures have continued into the first few days of June with temperatures in excess of 20C, but they will return close to or slightly below normal by the end of this week as low pressure takes hold.

Meanwhile, prolonged and deadly heatwave conditions that have killed at least 60 people in Mexico are set to continue. A “heat dome” is behind the extreme temperatures the country has been experiencing for more than a month, with many states observing their highest temperatures on record. A heat dome refers to an area of high pressure that stays in the same place for a protracted period of time, trapping very warm air underneath.

The state of Oaxaca recorded its hottest day, with 48C in Valle Nacional on 26 May. Temperatures hit 34.7C at the Tacubaya Observatory in Mexico City on 25 May – its highest May temperature. The same station also hit 33.6C on 1 June, making it the joint warmest June day recorded in the city.

The high temperatures have had a devastating effect on the wildlife, with birds and bats badly affected. Almost 200 howler monkeys succumbed to the extreme conditions, falling from trees in a state of dehydration in the south-eastern state of Tabasco.

Aid shipments into southern Gaza are being squeezed out by commercial convoys, humanitarian organisations say, at a time when Israel’s military push into Rafah has choked off supply routes critical to feeding hundreds of thousands of people.

Deliveries of food, medicine and other aid into Gaza fell by two-thirds after Israel began its ground operation on 7 May, UN figures show. But overall the number of trucks entering Gaza rose in May compared with April, according to Israeli officials.

Part of the reason for the stark difference in accounts of what supplies reached the strip is a rise in commercial shipments.

In May, the Israeli military lifted a ban on the sale of food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Reuters reported last week. Traders got the green light to resume buying fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy and other goods.

Inside Gaza, residents say there is more food in markets, but prices are many times higher than prewar levels, and after months of fighting and displacement few people can afford to buy much.

A group of aid agencies warned this week that there was a “mirage of improved access”, when efforts to feed Palestinians were on the verge of collapse.

“While Kerem Shalom remains officially open, commercial trucks have been prioritised, and the movement of aid remains unpredictable, inconsistent and critically low,” a group of 20 aid agencies warned this week.

In April, about 5,000 truckloads of aid came through Kerem Shalom and Rafah, the two main crossings into southern Gaza, UN data shows. In the last three weeks of May, just a few hundred came through Kerem Shalom; Rafah has been closed.

Overall, however, Israel says the average daily number of trucks going into Gaza rose in May to about 350, from about 300 in April, and the “vast majority” of recent deliveries passed through Kerem Shalom, said Shimon Freedman, spokesperson for Cogat, the Israeli body responsible for humanitarian coordination. There was no priority for commercial shipments, he added.

Ami Shaked, the manager of the crossing complex where shipments are checked by Israeli security, confirmed that truck deliveries for business were outpacing aid, but said it was driven by the commercial interests of logistics firms.

“This problem is the same on two sides (of the crossing), the Palestinian sides choose to take the goods of the businessmen … the Israelis the same,” he told journalists at Kerem Shalom.

“Because if I have a contract with UNWRA [the UN agency for Palestinian refugees], they will pay, for example, 2,000 shekels for each truck. The market now (for) pure business is between 7,000 and 10,000 for each truck, so they prefer to take the goods of the businessmen.”

Aid organisations dispute that, saying they have long-term contracts for trucks, and when limited capacity to enter Gaza and move through a military zone is allotted to commercial trucks, it exacts a toll on the ability to ship in aid supplies.

Obstacles include lack of permits from Israeli troops to drive to Kerem Shalom, and roads into the collection area that are snarled by commercial vehicles waiting to load and unload.

“The Israeli military operation and activities since 6 May have been crippling to the humanitarian response,” said Juliette Touma, communications director for UNWRA.

“(The reasons) include restrictions imposed on our movement, including to pick up humanitarian supplies from Kerem Shalom. The Israeli authorities have not been giving us enough authorisations to move …. Also the area around Kerem Shalom has very, very quickly become extremely dangerous.”

Aid workers have long called for more trade into Gaza, to complement the supplies they can deliver. Food for sale allows those who can afford it to have a healthier, more varied diet, and potentially take some pressure off the demand for aid.

But if bringing more food to markets comes at the cost of aid deliveries, it will deepen rather than relieve the hunger crisis that is escalating in southern Gaza. Last week, two child deaths from malnutrition were reported in Deir al Balah hospitals.

“For the largest period in the war, Israeli authorities were almost exclusively allowing humanitarian supplies, although not enough of them. This made a whole population of 2 million people rely on humanitarian handouts and relief,” Touma said.

“Then they started bringing in commercial supplies, once people had depleted their resources, and there’s a huge issue of cash shortages in Gaza. Very, very few people will be able to afford those supplies that are coming in.”

After months of war, many Palestinians are running out of money, and almost all have trouble accessing cash. Most have been out of work for months, and those still getting salaries or with savings in the banks cannot use card or electronic payments, because power and communications networks barely function.

The very few ATMs that are still functioning have queues many hours long, a low cap on how much can be withdrawn, and a percentage must be paid to protection groups that prevent theft and rioting at the cash machines.

Claude the koala became Australia’s cutest thief and a viral sensation when he was filmed munching on seedlings at a nursery near Lismore last September.

But fame has only made him more brazen, with the hungry marsupial now helping himself to a weekday feed in front of staff at Eastern Forest Nursery.

New photos show Claude making a meal of eucalyptus seedlings in broad daylight as a nursery worker looks on. He reached the plants after climbing a shade cloth and down a pole.

Previously the koala would raid seedlings at night or on weekends when no one was around.

“We had no idea that a koala would actually come into the nursery and feed directly on our plants. I would never have believed it until I saw Claude sitting there on the pole,” nursery manager Humphrey Herington said.

“We all found it quite amusing, but at the same time, he has caused quite a lot of damage and continues to come back and visit the nursery.”

Adorable though Claude may be, conservationists say his behaviour highlights a serious problem – there isn’t enough food in the heavily cleared local environment in the NSW northern rivers for koalas to eat.

“Claude and his friends raiding the nursery to eat seedlings shows they’re desperate for food trees,” said Maria Borges from WWF Australia.

“This area in the northern rivers, especially around Lismore, is heavily cleared and it’s really missing good quality habitat for them.

“We need to plant more trees and urgently stop tree clearing especially around the northern rivers which is a stronghold for koala populations in New South Wales.”

Five hundred seedlings that Claude had munched on have just been planted in the local area to help provide food for him and his friends.

The seedlings were unsuitable for sale but still viable, so Herington donated them to WWF Australia, which is funding a larger community tree-planting project.

Community groups have planted 400,000 seedlings in the region and are aiming to reach 500,000 by the end of the year.

The property of NSW Greens MLC Sue Higginson is one of the locations for the new tree plantings.

She said it was wonderful Claude had brought so much attention to the area but said his story highlighted the need to take the plight of endangered koala populations in northern NSW seriously. In the Northern Rivers region, koala habitat has been cleared for activities including agriculture, predominantly for the creation of pasture.

A 2020 NSW parliamentary inquiry found koalas would be extinct in the state by 2050 without urgent action.

Governments continue to permit the clearing of koala habitat, including for native forest logging operations on the mid-north coast and in areas that have been promised for conservation in a proposed great koala national park.

“We’re in one of the most biodiverse, rich areas on this continent, but historical clearing has seriously degraded the area,” Higginson said.

“I’m privileged to be a custodian of this little patch of the northern rivers. My job, while I’m here, is to make this place better.

“We’re doing this because we have an incredible koala population hanging on for dear survival right here.”

Alessandra Sampaio fell to her knees and wept as she clambered on to the boat’s deck and came face to face with the remote riverside clearing where her husband’s life was extinguished and hers turned upside down.

The sound of Sampaio’s lament mixed with birdsong and the voice of an Indigenous shaman echoed through the jungle where the British journalist, Dom Phillips, and his Brazilian comrade Bruno Pereira were shot dead in June 2022.

“Dom and Bruno are here! Save them! Their spirits are lost here! We can’t see them but they are here!” the 85-year-old medicine man, César Marubo, cried out, imploring his people’s God and creator, Kana Voã, to guide their souls towards paradise.

“Take them by the hand and lift them up into heaven!” Marubo pleaded, his eyes also filling with tears.

On the riverbank before them, framed by Amazonian money trees laden with bright red fruit, two wooden crosses marked the spot where Phillips and Pereira were ambushed and murdered, allegedly by a trio of illegal fishers who are in prison awaiting trial.

“What I most want is to leave this pain behind,” Sampaio had said the previous evening, as she prepared to make her first journey to the place where Phillips’s final reporting mission came to a sudden end.

Sampaio’s visit, marking the two-year anniversary of a crime that shocked the world, was part of a deeply personal quest to come to terms with the loss of her husband, a longtime Guardian reporter who was writing a book about the Amazon when he was killed.

“I’m not angry. I’ve never felt anger, I just miss him so much,” said Sampaio, who wears the wedding ring recovered from her husband’s body around her neck.

But the pilgrimage was also designed to announce the creation of the Dom Phillips Institute, which will honour the journalist’s legacy through educational initiatives raising awareness of the complexities and magnificence of the Amazon and its original inhabitants.

“We don’t want to be frozen in pain and frustration. We want to forge ahead,” Sampaio said as she journeyed by boat along the Itaquaí river towards the shrine activists have built at the scene of the crime. “We must transform this pain into a positive movement – and give new meaning to everything that happened.”

Sampaio said the institute would be guided by the qualities for which her husband was known: tenderness, a burning desire to listen, and respect for diversity and life.

“I think that if Dom was here talking to me now he’d say: ‘Go Alê: move forwards, learn more, make contacts, help to echo this message about this incredible thing that is the Amazon and all of its beauties,’” Sampaio said before travelling to the memorial on the same vessel Indigenous searchers used in their dogged 10-day battle to find Phillips and Pereira after they disappeared while heading to the rivertown of Atalaia do Norte.

Members of those search teams accompanied Sampaio during last week’s visit to pay tributes of their own.

“It was such a tragedy and we are here to celebrate them,” said Binin Carlos Matis, an Indigenous activist who worked with Pereira trying to defend his ancestral home in the Javari valley Indigenous territory, a Portugal-sized sprawl of jungle that is home to the world’s largest concentration of isolated peoples.

Orlando Possuelo, an Indigenous expert who helped coordinate the search operation and continues to work in the region, hoped the memorial would also remind frontline activists of the dangers that their struggle to preserve the Amazon involved. “We don’t want the Javari valley to be filled with crosses,” he said.

The headquarters of Possuelo’s Indigenous monitoring group, Evu, in Atalaia do Norte was the first stop on Sampaio’s two-day tour of the isolated rainforest region near Brazil’s tri-border with Colombia and Peru.

There, she heard distressing reports about the ongoing assault on the Javari valley territory where illegal fishers, poachers, miners and drug traffickers continue to operate despite government pledges to crack down. “There are 300 points of invasion,” Possuelo told Sampaio, pointing to a map peppered with coloured dots denoting the different threats.

Days earlier Evu activists had chased off a gang of five poachers who had invaded the protected Indigenous territory, confiscating tapir and peccary meat and hundreds of tracajá river turtles they were trying to smuggle out and sell. On the eve of Sampaio’s arrival, an Evu member was assaulted at a local bar – an attack members suspect was motivated by their work.

But Sampaio also heard heartening accounts of how Evu had ramped up its activities in the two years since her husband was killed while reporting on the group’s fight to protect Indigenous lives. Evu’s membership has doubled to about 40 since Phillips and Pereira were murdered, with plans for a 116-strong force in the coming years patrolling each of the Javari valley’s six main waterways.

The next day Sampaio visited the base of the Indigenous association Univaja, which served as the nerve centre of the 2022 search effort, to discuss her plans for the institute and ask local leaders how it could help their cause. “They will not silence Dom’s voice,” she told them.

Representatives of the Matis, Marubo and Mayoruna peoples took turns to voice their hopes and fears over the region’s future.

Teacher Nilo Marubo spoke gloomily about how a lack of education and opportunities was driving an exodus of young people from Indigenous villages. “When they arrive in the cities they end up getting mixed up in alcoholism, drugs and even [criminal] factions,” he said.

Marina Mayuruna, a 27-year-old activist, denounced the violence affecting Indigenous women and girls. “Some men will tell you this doesn’t happen. But it does – and it’s the women who suffer,” she told Sampaio.

Clóvis Marubo, a 58-year-old leader, feared younger generations were becoming disconnected from traditional ways of life as western culture marched deeper into the region.

“There’s been such a big change in the past 40 years. We are losing our culture. Our culture is becoming folklore,” he said, ruing how many youngsters no longer knew how to hunt monkeys or peccary, use bows and arrows, or speak their native tongues.

Silvana Marubo lamented the unabating threats to Indigenous activists and their non-Indigenous allies. “I worry who the next Doms and Brunos will be,” she said, telling Sampaio: “Your pain is our pain … your tears are our tears. Your struggle is our struggle.”

Sampaio listened intently as her Indigenous hosts spoke, engrossed by their oration just as her journalist husband had been. At times tears rolled down her cheeks. At others she smiled and laughed, radiating hope and admiration as she heard their petitions.

Outside, Phillips’s 53-year-old widow caught constant glimpses of the Amazonian treasures and peculiarities that had so captivated her partner. The boisterous yellow-rumped cacique birds feasting on mangoes in trees lining the rivertown’s streets. Dolphins cavorting in the waters below. The phantasmagoric statues of snakes, jaguars and saints adorning Atalaia do Norte’s squares.

One afternoon Sampaio took part in a Matis whipping ritual called mariwin, where men wearing ceramic masks and covered in fern leaves thrash participants with palm stalks to frighten off evil spirits. Sampaio winced as the lash struck her back but vowed to return to the Javari valley to ensure the Dom Phillips institute’s first project benefited a place he had loved and where he was lost.

“I don’t want to be stuck with this [negative] image of the Javari. For me the Javari is a world waiting to be discovered,” she said, staring out across the bronze-coloured waters where her spouse once roved. “This is a special place for me.”

The last time Igor De Santis ran for mayor in Ingria, a tiny village surrounded by forests and mountains near Turin, he won an easy landslide victory. But he faces a tough challenge in his bid for a fourth mandate, after his mother joined a rival camp.

Ingria, one of the smallest villages in Italy, is home to 46 inhabitants. A further 26 people, registered to vote from abroad, make up the electorate.

De Santis, 42, has led the administration since 2009 and had expected competition in the mayoral race from an opposition councillor, 70-year-old Renato Poletto. The situation became more complicated when Stefano Venuti, a Milan resident who has a second home in Ingria, threw his hat into the ring. “We weren’t expecting that,” said De Santis.

And then the micro-race was fully upended by Poletto announcing that he had secured the support of De Santis’s mother, Milena Crosasso, and had put her forward for a councillor position in the ballot to elect a new council on 8-9 June, as part of a list comprising nine women and one man. In all, 30 people – about two-thirds of the village’s inhabitants – are now competing for positions.

“I did ask [my mother] to join me but after she saw that Poletto’s list was mostly women she decided to go with them,” said De Santis. “They are all volunteers who have worked really hard for the village.”

Crosasso said that the rivalry would not impact family harmony. “Both my son and I want the best for the community and this is an opportunity to give voice to women’s points of view without weakening family bonds,” she said.

Ingria is in Italy’s Soana Valley and experiences similar issues to other mountain villages, such as depopulation, scant services and challenges with snow during winter. Since 2022, when it was named as being among Italy’s “most beautiful” villages, it has also had to deal with an increase in tourism.

“There has been an incredible spike and we have to manage this,” said De Santis. “There are few residents, but a lot of second homes. Our main aim is to preserve Ingria’s beauty.”

Venuti told Corriere della Sera newspaper that he decided to run for mayor after being urged to do so by locals. “I’ve integrated very well,” he said.

Despite the competition, De Santis, whose grandfather was mayor of Ingria for 30 years, said he was “optimistic” that he could win.

College students celebrating Memorial Day weekend by California’s Shasta Lake left behind hoard of trash, according to US Forest Service officials.

Last weekend, approximately 3,000 students from the University of California, Davis and the University of Oregon partied at Shasta Lake, a 30,000-acre reservoir in the golden state, and left piles of debris cluttered around the lake.

According to forest service officials, despite being asked to clean up after themselves, the students left behind trash including cups, cans, plastic wrappers and pool floats.

Speaking to CBS, Shasta-Trinity National Forest recreation staff officer Deborah Carlisi said that staff members handed out trash bags to students for them to pack up their items.

“Some students used them, some students didn’t,” Carlisi said. A three-person cleanup crew ultimately spent six hours picking up the trash around the lake. Nevertheless, not all the trash was removed.

Due to rocky beaches, high water levels and dangerous water conditions, cleanup crews will not be able to pick up the trash at the bottom of the lake “until late next month or early July”, said Carlisi.

“What was left behind in the lake could be damaging to our fish and wildlife, which is a big problem. If a deer goes down to the water and eats a plastic wrapper, that would make them sick,” she added.

In response to the litter, the University of Oregon issued a statement in which it apologized for its students’ actions.

“The garbage left behind does not represent the values of our institution. We are sorry for the impact to the island and extra work for the forest service,” the statement said, KGW 8 reports.

“We are investigating this event and working with the US Forest Service and our students to remediate the damage and hopefully prevent similar actions in the future. This is not a university sanctioned or sponsored event but is attended by university students, many of whom are members of university-recognized fraternities and sororities,” the university added.

Similarly, the University of California, Davis announced that it was investigating the incident, saying, “The university was disappointed to learn of this conduct, and is exploring ways of working with students to help restore the site or otherwise address the situation. We are still assessing information from the forest service.

“Students are expected to comply with all laws, and failure to do so may result in discipline under the university policy on student conduct. Student visits to Shasta Lake over Memorial Day weekend are not sanctioned or sponsored by the university,” it continued.

The Guardian has reached out to the forest service for comment.

A New York City couple who were “magnet fishing” in a lake caught more than they had bargained for when they pulled out a safe that had $100,000 cash inside.

James Kane and Barbie Agostini tossed a line with a strong magnet attached to the end into a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on 31 May, Friday afternoon.

The couple managed to open the safe and found the cash, bundles of $100 bills, with an estimated value of $100,000, though the money was damaged by the water.

In an interview with NY1, James Kane explained they began magnet fishing during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the allure of treasure-hunting without having to spend a lot of money on equipment. Magnet fishing simply involves putting a rope with a strong magnet on it into water with the hopes of retrieving metal objects.

No one expected a safe to be on the end of the line though. Let alone one stuffed with cash.

“We pulled out and it was two stacks of freaking hundreds,” said Kane.

The couple said they contacted the New York police department about the find and said they were told there was no crime attached to the cash and there was no way to identify the original owner of the safe, meaning they were allowed to keep it.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Agostini. “I lost it.”

The couple said they’ve never found anything like this, citing some of their previous finds, including old guns, World War II grenades, a full-sized motorcycle, foreign coins, and jewellery.

The billionaire rightwing media mogul Rupert Murdoch has married for the fifth time, this time to retired molecular biologist Elena Zhukova.

The 93-year-old married 67-year-old Zhukova on Sunday at his Moraga vineyard in California. Pictures released by the Sun, a Murdoch-owned British tabloid newspaper, showed the couple smiling next to each other as Murdoch wore a yellow tie while Zhukova wore a long-sleeve white dress.

Murdoch’s fifth wedding comes a little over a year after reports emerged last April of him dating Zhukova four months after he ended his two-week long engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, a 67-year-old conservative radio host.

Murdoch met Zhukova through a large family gathering hosted by his third ex-wife, Wendi Deng, to whom he was married for 14 years before their divorce in 2013.

Her 42-year-old daughter, Dasha Zhukova, is a Russian-American art collector and philanthropist who was previously married to Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch and former owner of the Premier League football club Chelsea.

Murdoch divorced his fourth wife, 67-year old actress and model Jerry Hall, in 2022. Hall was apparently waiting to meet Murdoch at their Oxfordshire home when she received an email from him which allegedly said, “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage … We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do. My New York lawyer will be contacting yours immediately.”

Last September, following a seven-decade career of helming a media empire, Murdoch stepped down as chair of Fox and News Corp.

Murdoch’s publicly traded and New York-based company News Corp owns hundreds of local, national and international digital news outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and Sky News Australia, as well as the book publisher HarperCollins.

According to Forbes, Murdoch’s net worth is approximately $19.5bn.

Donald Trump risks being a “loser president” if he wins November’s election and imposes a bad peace deal on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said, saying it would mean the end of the US as a global “player”.

In an interview with the Guardian in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said he had “no strategy yet” for what to do if Trump returned to the White House, and that the former British prime minister Boris Johnson had approached him on his behalf.

If Trump beats Joe Biden, he is widely expected to cut off US military support to Ukraine. Last year Trump boasted he could end the war in “24 hours”.

Trump’s aides have previously sketched out a possible plan that would involve giving Ukraine’s eastern regions to Russia, as well as Crimea. But Zelenskiy made clear that “Ukrainians would not put up with that”. Nor would they accept a Russian “ultimatum” that forced Ukraine to abandon integration with Europe and future membership of Nato, he said.

Zelenskiy acknowledged that a re-elected Trump could, if he really wanted to, impose a crushing military defeat on Ukraine. He could cut off “support, weapons and money”, and even “make deals” with Kyiv’s partners so they stop deliveries of vital arms.

“Ukraine, barehanded, without weapons, will not be able to fight a multimillion [Russian] army,” Zelenskiy told the Guardian.

Speaking inside his presidential headquarters, he said he thought this scenario was unlikely. But he said if it happened there would be grave consequences for the US’s standing in the world – as well as for Trump personally. “Does he want to become a loser president? Do you understand what can happen?” Zelenskiy said.

He predicted that Vladimir Putin would violate any Trump-brokered deal. “A ceasefire is a trap,” he said. After a pause Putin would “go further”, humiliating Trump and making him look “very weak” in the eyes of the world, he said.

Zelenskiy continued: “This is not about him [Trump], as a person but about the institutions of the United States. They will become very weak. The US will not be the leader of the world any more. Yes, it will be powerful, first of all, in the domestic economy because it has a powerful economy without a doubt. But in terms of international influence it will be equal to zero.”

Realising that Washington was no longer “a player”, other mostly authoritarian countries and leaders would “come into the arena” and emulate Putin’s aggressive “approach”, Zelenskiy suggested.

And this would ultimately end in global disaster: “The beginning of what everyone is so afraid to talk about. This is reality. And this is the real third world war.”

Asked whether Johnson had spoken to Trump on Ukraine’s behalf, Zelenskiy said: “I think he tried, and I think he spoke to him. I think so, yes, as far as I know.”

He added: “I am sorry that I am using Boris as an instrument.”

The initiative came as Kyiv lobbied pro-Trump Republicans in Congress and tried to persuade them to drop their opposition to Ukraine aid. The $61bn military aid package passed in April after a six-month delay.

Zelenskiy made his comments a day before a New York jury on Thursday convicted Trump of all 34 counts of falsifying business records. The verdict in the hush-money trial made him the first former president to be found guilty of felony crimes in the US’s near 250-year history.

In 2019, as president, Trump rang Zelenskiy and asked him to investigate his election rival Biden and Biden’s son Hunter. If Zelenskiy failed to find dirt on Hunter Biden, US security assistance to Ukraine would be withheld, Trump suggested, according to a leak of the call. The scandal led to Trump’s first impeachment.

Zelenskiy said he had invited Trump to visit Ukraine. “I want to talk to him openly. I want him to come and see the war for himself. And then to talk to him. I think he would need it to understand the situation better,” he said.

Zelenskiy said he understood that Trump “knows” Putin, based on the former president’s own “statements”. The pair have met at diplomatic summits. Trump has previously called Russia’s leader “a genius” and described his 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine as “pretty savvy”.

Communicating with Putin was not the same as knowing him, Zelenskiy said, adding that to understand him better Trump should “see the results of what he brought to Ukraine” – a reference to the destruction of towns and cities, murders of civilians and the daily bombardment from Russian missiles.