Category Archives: Ukraine

Zelenskiy vows to investigate and prosecute all Russian ‘crimes’ in Ukraine – as it happened

Posted on by

This live blog is now closed. Read the latest live developments in the Russia-Ukraine war here.

Russian chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky has said Russia’s position on Crimea and Donbas remains unchanged and that peace talks had not progressed enough for a leaders’ meeting.

Medinsky’s comments appear to be a rebuttal of earlier reports suggesting Moscow had “verbally” agreed to key Ukrainian proposals.

A Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia told media on Saturday that Russia had “given an official answer to all positions, which is that they accept the (Ukrainian) position, except for the issue of Crimea (which was annexed by Russia in 2014).”

Continue reading...

‘They were all shot’: Russia accused of war crimes as Bucha reveals horror of invasion

Posted on by

Ukrainian forces liberating the town near Kyiv find streets littered with corpses of civilians and burned-out Russian tanks

See all our coverage of the Ukraine war

The retreat of Russian forces around Kyiv has left horrifying evidence of atrocities against civilians littered across the region’s suburbs and towns, turned into hellish war zones by Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

As Ukrainian armoured columns rolled into Bucha, a town north-west of the capital, they found streets blocked by burned-out Russian tanks and military vehicles, and strewn with the bodies of civilians whom locals said had been killed by the invading forces without provocation.

Continue reading...

‘It is a war crime’: two young boys among neighbours shot dead during attempted evacuation

Posted on by

Civilians fleeing in cars mown down in the town of Bucha, north-west of Kyiv, where 20 bodies were found on the streets

Halyna Tovkach, 55, is searching for the body of her husband, Oleg, 62. His death, she says, is part of a war crime in which Russian soldiers also killed two young boys and their mother.

The incident is said to have happened at 7.15 on the morning of 5 March in Bucha, a town north-west of Kyiv, when two families who were neighbours on Ivana Rudenka street tried to escape their hell.

Continue reading...

Ukraine claims Russia has ‘verbally’ accepted peace proposals, except on Crimea – as it happened

Posted on by

Deputy defence minister says territory is ‘liberated from the invader’ as disturbing images in Bucha show bodies had been bound and hooded

At least 158 children have been killed and more than 254 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, the country’s office of the prosecutor general has said.

The office said two of the fatalities were among 13 people killed when Russian forces fired at civilian cars on a highway in Chernihiv around 18 March.

Continue reading...

Ukrainian photographer Maksim Levin killed while covering war

Posted on by

Levin, who worked for Ukrainian news website and contributed to Reuters, found dead in village north of Kyiv

Maksim Levin, a photographer and videographer who was working for a Ukrainian news website and who was a longtime contributor to Reuters, has been killed while covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He leaves behind his wife and four children.

His body was found in a village north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on 1 April, the news website LB.ua, where he worked, said on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Ukraine says it has recaptured city of Brovary but warns of mines left by Russians

Posted on by

Key city east of Kyiv has been liberated, says mayor, as Zelenskiy says Russians withdrawing ‘slowly but noticeably’

A key city east of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, has been recaptured from Russian forces, Ukrainian officials have said, but retreating troops were said to be heavily mining the lost territory in their wake.

The city of Brovary was said by its mayor to have been liberated with Ukrainian forces working to drive out the last Russian troops and clear the area of “military hardware”.

Continue reading...

UK prevents use of private jet linked to Russian oligarchs

Posted on by

After recent seizures of aircraft and yacht, Grant Shapps grounds plane at Luton airport pending investigation

The transport minister, Grant Shapps, has said he has prevented the use of another private jet that has links to Russian oligarchs.

Shapps tweeted on Saturday: “We won’t stand by and watch those who’ve made millions through [Russian president Vladimir] Putin’s patronage live their lives in peace as innocent blood is shed.”

Continue reading...

Pope Francis says visit to Kyiv ‘on the table’ after invitation from Zelenskiy

Posted on by

Move would be highest-profile visit of a world figure since Vladimir Putin began invasion of Ukraine

Pope Francis has said he is considering visiting the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in what would be the most high-profile visit of a world figure since Russia invaded the country.

The head of the Catholic church was invited by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, along with Ukrainian religious leaders on 8 March.

Continue reading...

Russia to halt cooperation over International Space Station

Posted on by

Director of space agency Roscosmos says partnership will be restored only when ‘illegal sanctions’ are removed

Russia says it will end cooperation with western countries over the International Space Station until sanctions are lifted.

Russia’s space director said on Saturday that the restoration of normal ties between partners at the ISS and other joint space projects would be possible only once western sanctions against Moscow were lifted.

Continue reading...

How war in Ukraine is affecting food supply in Africa and the Middle East

Posted on by

Prices of basics such as oil and wheat are shooting up and shortages are showing on supermarket shelves in Lebanon, Somalia and Egypt

When Lebanon’s Muslims sat down to their first iftar of Ramadan tonight, the meal in front of them will have cost significantly more than it did six weeks ago.

Continue reading...

China accused of launching cyber-attacks on Ukraine before Russian invasion

Posted on by

UK government confirmed that the National Cyber Security Centre is investigating the allegations

China launched cyber-attacks on Ukrainian military and nuclear targets shortly before the Russian invasion, according to a report.

The UK government confirmed that the National Cyber Security Centre is investigating the allegations, which claim that more than 600 websites, including Ukraine’s defence ministry, were subjected to thousands of hacking attempts coordinated by the Chinese government.

Continue reading...

US ends Trump-era policy of blocking asylum seekers on Covid grounds – live

Posted on by

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention terminates Title 42 from 23 May, ending policy widely criticized as pretext to keep migrants out

• Senate deal on drastically pared-down Covid aid package may be imminent

US adds 431,000 jobs as hiring spree cuts unemployment rate to 3.6%

• Disney staff stage walkouts over ‘don’t say gay’ bill

• Sign up to receive First Thing – our daily briefing by email

The late supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to be honoured by having a US navy ship named after her.

The yet-to-be-built fuel tanker will join a fleet of John Lewis-class “replenishment oilers” named for historical figures in human and civil rights. The navy took delivery of the first of the fleet, a tribute to the former Democratic congressman, last summer.

Continue reading...

At least 53 culturally important sites damaged in Ukraine – Unesco

Posted on by

True list of casualties of war, which include museums, churches and a Holocaust memorial, likely to be much longer

The UN’s cultural agency has confirmed that at least 53 historical sites, religious buildings and museums have sustained damage during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This is the latest list, but it is not exhaustive, as our experts are continuing to verify a number of reports” filed by Ukrainian authorities, a Unesco spokesperson told AFP as the body published a list of the 53 damaged sites in the north and east of the country.

Continue reading...

Ukraine rejects Kremlin claim it sent helicopters to attack oil depot in Russia

Posted on by

If Moscow’s accusation is true, the airstrike would be first raid on Russian territory so far in the war

Russia has claimed that Ukraine sent attack helicopters across the border to strike an oil storage facility in what, if confirmed, would be the first raid on Russian soil since it launched its invasion.

Ukraine denied that it launched the attack, raising questions about whether Russian negligence may be to blame.

Continue reading...

London-based port operator accused over Abramovich $600m superyacht

Posted on by

Global Ports Holding facility in Turkey may be breaching UK sanctions by letting vessel dock, say lawyers

A London-headquartered port operator could be breaching sanctions laws by allowing Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to dock his $600m (£460m) superyacht Solaris at a port that it operates in Turkey.

Legal experts said Global Ports Holding, which has been listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2007, was taking “a very big risk” by allowing a superyacht owned by a sanctioned individual to use one of its ports.

Continue reading...

Infosys to ‘urgently’ shut Moscow office as pressure grows on Rishi Sunak

Posted on by

Chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murthy, has £690m stake in Indian IT firm, which is now moving staff out of Russia

Indian IT services company Infosys, in which the chancellor Rishi Sunak’s wife owns an estimated £690m stake and collects about £11.5m in annual dividends, is “urgently” closing its office in Russia.

Infosys’s decision to shut its Moscow office comes as pressure mounts on Sunak to answer accusations that his family is collecting “blood money” dividends from the firm’s continued operation in Russia despite the invasion of Ukraine.

Continue reading...

Watch the Ukrainian drama Bad Roads at the Royal Court

Posted on by

The live stream of Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s acclaimed drama has ended but will be available to watch again from 2 April

The Royal Court theatre in London is presenting a day of solidarity with Ukraine that includes a reading on its main stage of Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s play Bad Roads, which explores the brutal effects of war on personal relationships. The reading, at 8pm on 1 April, will be livestreamed on the Guardian website – including in a captioned version – and available again on 2 April to watch for a week.

Bad Roads was first staged at the Royal Court in 2017 in a translation by Sasha Dugdale. Vorozhbit, an acclaimed Ukrainian playwright whose work has also been performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company, wove documentary stories of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea and Donbas into its impressionistic scenes. Bad Roads explores daily life under siege, hostage-taking, journalism on the frontline, PTSD and sex at a time of war.

Continue reading...

Russia and India will find ways to trade despite sanctions, says Lavrov

Posted on by

Russian foreign minister meets Narendra Modi and praises India’s refusal to condemn Ukraine invasion

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has afforded Russia’s foreign minister the honour of a meeting as Sergei Lavrov praised India’s refusal to condemn the Ukraine invasion.

Lavrov, who is visiting the country, predicted Moscow and Delhi would find ways to circumvent “illegal” western sanctions and continue to trade.

Continue reading...

Russia-Ukraine war latest: Kyiv says Ukraine not behind attack on Russian oil depot; exchange of captured troops reported – live

Posted on by

Ukraine has denied responsibility for an attack on Russian soil, while Kyiv officials say captured troops from both sides have been exchanged today

EU and Chinese leaders will meet for a first summit in two years on Friday with Brussels keen for assurances from Beijing that it will neither supply Russia with arms nor help Moscow circumvent western sanctions imposed over the invasion of Ukraine.

EU officials close to the preparations of the summit said any help given to Russia would damage China’s international reputation and jeopardise relations with its biggest trade partners – Europe and the US.

Continue reading...