European Broadcasting Union, which oversees song contest, says appearance by Ukrainian president could politicise the event
The owners of the Eurovision song contest have turned down a request from Volodymyr Zelenskiy to make a video appearance during the final on Saturday in Liverpool.
The Ukrainian president had hoped to appeal to the global audience of about 160 million people to continue their support for his country in the war with Russia.
Continue reading...Britain donating arms capable of striking targets in occupied Crimea as Kyiv prepares counteroffensive against Russia
Britain has become the first western country to provide Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Kyiv wants to boost its chances in a much-anticipated counteroffensive, prompting a threat from the Kremlin of a military response.
Hours after Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he needed more western weapons to be confident of a victory this summer, Ben Wallace, the UK defence secretary, told MPs that the missiles – which cost more than £2m each – were “now going in, or are in the country itself”.
Continue reading...Losses would be ‘unacceptable’ without more heavy weapons promised by west, says president
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine needs “more time” before it can launch its much-anticipated counter-offensive against Russia, adding that some armoured vehicles promised by the west had yet to arrive.
The president said that newly formed brigades were ready to attack: “We can go forward and be successful. But we’d lose a lot of people. I think that’s unacceptable. So we need to wait. We still need a bit more time.”
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin had criticised the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of the general staff, Valery Gerasimov
When Vladimir Putin takes to the stage on Tuesday to commemorate the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany, his speech on Red Square will have been preceded by a turbulent week in which drones attacked the Kremlin and one of his top war leaders threatened mutiny.
The dramatic footage early last Wednesday of two drones flying over the walls of the Kremlin, its historical seat of power, exposed vulnerabilities in the heart of the Russian capital, putting Moscow on edge.
Continue reading...Zakhar Prilepin wounded in explosion in the region of Nizhny Novgorod, Russian state news agency says. This blog is now closed
A prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing in the region of Nizhny Novgorod on Saturday, the Russian state news agency Tass said, in an attack that Russia immediately blamed on Ukraine and the West.
Tass quoted a source in the emergency services as saying the writer’s car was blown up. “He survived, but was wounded and is conscious,” the source was quoted as saying.
The fact has come true: Washington and Nato fed another international terrorist cell – the Kyiv regime.
Continue reading...Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has a history of dramatic statements, says troops will leave fiercely contested city on 10 May. This live blog is closed
The UK Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update that “a recent uptick in Russian rail accidents in areas bordering Ukraine, attributed to sabotage committed by unknown actors, has almost certainly caused short-term localised disruption to Russian military rail movements”.
It adds: “Although its Railway Troop Brigades are capable of restoring lines quickly, these incidents will increase pressure on Russia’s internal security forces, who will highly likely remain unable to fully protect Russia’s vast and vulnerable rail networks from attack.”
Continue reading...Zelenskiy adviser denies Ukrainian involvement after Kremlin says two attack drones were disabled by Russian defences
Moscow has accused Kyiv of staging a drone attack intended to kill the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, in the Kremlin, and vowed to retaliate.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that two drones had been used in the attack, but that they had been disabled by Russian defences.
Continue reading...Ukraine president says Discord server leaks were ‘not beneficial’ to the reputation of the US but still values Washington’s support for Kyiv
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the White House did not advise him about the leak of highly classified US intelligence documents that received widespread attention around the world last month.
“I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand,” Zelenskiy was quoted as saying in an interview with the Washington Post published on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Two injured by rocket attacks in Kherson after heavy shelling and homes hit by anti-aircraft missiles in Kharkiv
Shelling through the night in the city of Kherson has injured two people, deputy head of Kherson Oblast Council Yuriy Sobolevsky said this morning.
More than 27 attacks were reported on residential areas of the wider Kherson region on Saturday, according to its authorities, with some 135 shells fired.
Continue reading...With concern among allies seemingly growing, there is a lot riding on an imminent counter-assault on the Russians in the south
The last time “Luh” served in the military, he was a Soviet conscript, sailing the Arctic Ocean with the USSR’s northern fleet over four decades ago.
When Russia seized the Crimean peninsula and Russian-backed proxies moved into his home region of Luhansk nearly a decade ago, he cheered on the Ukrainian army but thought his fighting days were behind him.
Continue reading...Moscow-installed governor in Sevastopol says blaze, attributed to Ukrainian drone strike, now under control
Ukraine’s president said on Friday that he had asked his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to help bring back Ukrainian children deported by Russia.
In his evening address, AFP reports that Volodymyr Zelenskiy as saying:
We need to involve everyone ... to put pressure on the Russian aggressor and the terrorists who kidnapped so many of our children.
The UN, many others want to do something, but so far the results have been poor. So I have appealed to the leader of China.
Now, with regard to the need in general for shells at the front, what we want. Today we are coming to the point where Wagner is ending.
Wagner, in a short period of time, will cease to exist. We will become history, nothing to worry about, things like this happen.
Continue reading...The Chinese leader’s surprise contact with his Ukrainian counterpart is suspected to be a corrective move
A long-awaited phone call between Xi Jinping and Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been cautiously welcomed, but China analysts say the timing suggests it could be partly an act of damage control after controversial comments by China’s ambassador to France.
Ambassador Lu Shaye, one of China’s “wolf warrior” diplomats with a history of fiery remarks, caused outrage across Europe this week when he denied the sovereignty of former Soviet states, saying they “did not have effective status”. The comments were roundly condemned, with several European nations summoning Chinese envoys for rebuke, and politicians suggesting it demonstrated China’s untrustworthiness as a neutral party in the Ukraine war.
Continue reading...Constant attacks from Russian troops have made it impossible for Kherson residents to return to their normal lives
Ukraine’s military have set up positions on the eastern side of Dnipro river near Kherson city. Infiltrating the area could be a first step towards trying to dislodge Russians from positions they are using to shell and shoot at Kherson.
France and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania expressed dismay that China’s ambassador in Paris questioned whether Crimea is part of Ukraine. France stated its “full solidarity” on Sunday, with all the allied countries affected, which it said had acquired their independence “after decades of oppression”.
Russia is advising citizens to avoid travel to Canada. Russia cited what it calls numerous cases of discrimination against its citizens, including physical violence, its foreign ministry has said.
Russia appeals for “real men” in new military recruitment drive. Russia’s defence ministry has launched a major drive for volunteer recruits, pitching to their masculine pride and appealing for “real men” amid a limited pool of fighting-age men in Russia, the UK Ministry of Defence says.
Evacuations in Russian city of Belgorod after bomb scare. More than 3,000 people in the Russian city of Belgorod were returning to their homes on Saturday after being evacuated while an explosive was disposed of, the local governor said.
At least five Russian missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and surrounding districts late on Saturday night, damaging civilian buildings, local officials said. One missile hit a house in the village of Kotliary, just to the south of Kharkiv, while another caused a fire in the city itself, said the regional governor, Oleh Sinegubov.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed it had captured another three districts in the western part of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. Troops who have continued into the heavily contested city are thought to be part of the Wagner group of mercenaries.
Russia confirmed it would expel 20 German diplomats in retaliation for its own diplomats being sent home from Berlin, the Tass news agency said, citing Russia’s foreign ministry.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has again refused to take sides in the war in Ukraine, calling for a “negotiated political solution” between Kyiv and Moscow. “We urgently need a group of countries to sit round a table with both Ukraine and Russia,” he said after a meeting with the Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, in Lisbon.
The former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday that if the G7 moved to ban exports to Russia, Moscow would respond by terminating the Black Sea Grain deal that enables vital exports of grain from Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...UK Ministry of Defence says Kremlin has made it harder for civilians to avoid being drafted into the army
Five Ukrainians from Russian-occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia oblast will be tried by a Russian court for being part of a “terrorist group”, according to Russian state media.
The five Ukrainians were transported from Melitopol to Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014, and subsequently transferred to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre in Moscow, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Continue reading...‘Top secret’ document reportedly warned Kyiv faced shortfalls in troops and weaponry and suggested any gains would be modest
US intelligence reportedly warned in February that Ukraine might fail to amass sufficient troops and weaponry for its planned spring counter-offensive, and might fall “well short” of Kyiv’s goals for recapturing territory seized by Russia, according to one of a trove of leaked defence documents.
A document tagged as “top secret” quoted by the Washington Post said that Kyiv was facing significant “force generation and sustainment shortfalls” and was therefore only likely to achieve “modest territorial gains”. The document is a snapshot of the situation in early February, and it is unclear how far Ukraine, with the support of Nato member states, has been able to make up the shortfalls since then.
Continue reading...Near miss occurred off coast of Crimea in September 2022, according to apparent leak of Pentagon documents
Continue reading...Man and his young daughter killed after forces strike residential building in the south-eastern city; Francis references war in Easter message
Pope Francis appeared to ask Russians to seek the truth about their country’s invasion of Ukraine in his Easter message to the world, in which he called for an end to all conflict.
Francis, 86, presided over the solemn Easter day Mass in St Peter’s Square and delivered his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message and blessing from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia.
… comfort the wounded and all those who have lost loved ones because of the war, and grant that prisoners may return safe and sound to their families.
Open the hearts of the entire international community to strive to end this war and all conflict and bloodshed in our world.
There are no French forces engaged in operation in Ukraine. The documents cited do not come from the French armies. We do not comment on documents whose source is uncertain.
Continue reading...Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of Ukraine’s joint armed forces, announced the decision on social media
The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia in Russian-controlled Crimea.
Russian state-run Tass news agency quoted an adviser to Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties have been reported.
Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation.
Continue reading...Classified papers said to contain details of military aid and battalion strengths before potential Ukrainian counteroffensive
The Pentagon is investigating a security breach in which classified war documents detailing secret American and Nato plans for supplying aid to Ukraine before its prospective offensive against Russia were leaked to social media platforms.
The top secret documents were spread on Twitter and Telegram, and reportedly contain charts and details about anticipated weapons deliveries, battalion strengths and other sensitive information, the New York Times reported. According to military analysts, the papers appear to have been altered in certain parts from their original format, overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed, citing how the modifications could point to an effort of disinformation by Moscow.
Continue reading...Andriy Sybiha expresses Kyiv’s interest in negotiations with Moscow should Ukrainian forces reach region
Ukraine may be willing to discuss the future of Crimea with Moscow if its forces reach the border of the Russian-occupied peninsula, an adviser to Volodymyr Zelenskiy has suggested.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Andriy Sybiha, the deputy head of the president’s office, expressed Kyiv’s interest in negotiations should Ukrainian forces reach the region’s administrative border as a result of an anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive many expect will begin in the coming months.
Continue reading...