Francis’s failure to condemn Moscow as aggressor decried as ‘shameful’ and ‘incomprehensible’
Pope Francis has been criticised after saying Ukraine should have the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
Some politicians and commentators in Europe reacted with anger after the pontiff appeared to stay silent on Russia’s crimes as aggressor in the invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, and placed the onus on Ukraine to make peace.
Continue reading...As Russians prepare to give the president another six-year term this week, an ex-rival has gone from protest candidate to grotesque war hawk
Two election cycles ago, in 2012, Sergei Mironov was loudly playing the role of opposition to Russia’s ruling party, wearing the white ribbon of the protest movement in the State Duma and claiming his run against Vladimir Putin was “serious”.
If made president, he said, he would even appoint the now deceased opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the head of Russia’s accounts chamber as an anti-corruption measure.
Continue reading...Former PM apparently met autocratic leader Nicolás Maduro over concerns he may supply weapons to Russia
Boris Johnson flew to Venezuela in February for unofficial talks with its autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, according to reports.
The former prime minister spoke to the Venezuelan president about the war in Ukraine, amid concerns that the socialist republic could supply weapons or military support to Russia, according to the Sunday Times.
Continue reading...Grant Shapps visits Ukraine and urges ‘wake up call for the world’; overnight Russian artillery and mortar attacks kill two women and a man in Kharkiv region
Ukraine’s defence ministry said that “overnight, Ukrainian air defenders shot down 33 our of 37 Russian ‘Shahed’ UAVs.”
Here is footage of a woman pulled from the rubble after Russian missiles hit Kharkiv region.
Continue reading...Drone team has bombed tanks, armoured fighting vehicles and ammunition dumps but still Russians are on the move
At night, Sasha and his drone team go in search of the enemy. They set off in a dirt-covered vehicle towards the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariinka, occupied by Russia since December. They unload a large drone. And then they fly it in darkness across the frontline, above a ghostly landscape of fields and ruined houses, towards the twinkling city of Donetsk. The drone carries a deadly arsenal of six grenades.
Sasha, who uses the call sign “Tourist”, has bombed more than 100 pieces of Russian military equipment. The list includes tanks, armoured fighting vehicles and self-propelled guns, as well as hidden ammunition dumps. Russian howitzers are another key target. Recently his special operations unit forestalled a large-scale attack. It spotted seven Russian tanks massed for a dawn raid and disabled two of them.
Continue reading...Popular national figure given new role after being dismissed by Volodymyr Zelenskiy a month ago
Ukraine’s former commander in chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, is to become the country’s next ambassador to the UK, a month after he was fired by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, from his job leading the military.
The decision makes good on Zelenskiy’s promise to keep the popular former general “as part of the team” but it also removes him from Ukraine, where he is seen as the only realistic challenger to the president if there were to be an election.
Continue reading...Slovakian foreign minister criticises ‘double standards’ in the reaction to his meeting with Sergei Lavrov
Slovakia’s foreign minister has defended a controversial decision to meet his Russian counterpart, after the Czech Republic announced it was suspending intergovernmental consultations with Bratislava amid concerns it is shifting away from western policy on supporting Ukraine.
In a statement emailed to the Guardian on Thursday, Juraj Blanár, who recently met Russia’s Sergei Lavrov in Turkey, hit out at “double standards”, noting that some other Nato foreign ministers had also engaged with the Russian minister.
Continue reading...Russian forces ‘don’t care’ whether targets are military or civilians, says Zelenskiy; Greek PM describes experience as ‘very intense’
A deadly Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian port city of Odesa appeared to land near President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and visiting Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who described the moment of the bombardment as “intense”.
The attack on port infrastructure on Wednesday killed five people and left an unspecified number of wounded, according to Ukraine’s navy.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary repeated request to Benny Gantz for Israel to allow delivery of more aid and refrain from a full-scale assault on Rafah
The UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, has said he had held a “tough but necessary” conversation with Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, repeating calls for more humanitarian aid for Gaza and warning him against a fully fledged offensive in Rafah.
Cameron said ensuring the availability of aid in Gaza would be a factor when the UK assesses whether Israel is acting in line with international law.
Continue reading...Deliberately fashioned chipped stones date back more than 1m years and may have been used by homo erectus
Ancient stone tools found in western Ukraine may offer the oldest known evidence of the presence of humans in Europe, according to new research.
The chipped stones, deliberately fashioned from volcanic rock, were excavated from a quarry in Korolevo in the 1970s. Archaeologists used new methods to date the layers of sedimentary rock surrounding the tools to more than 1m years old.
Continue reading...UK prepared to loan money on basis Russia will be forced to pay reparations to Ukraine at end of war, says foreign secretary David Cameron
International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi said that he would discuss the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, and that talks with other Russian authorities had been “tense”, Russian news agencies reported.
State news agency RIA cited Grossi has saying that he had been able to assess the situation around the Zaporizhzhia plant in southern Ukraine, which has been under Russian control since March 2022, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...Sinking of warship near Kerch strait would deal further blow to Moscow’s naval power and its control over Black Sea
Ukraine has sunk a Russian warship near the Kerch strait in occupied Crimea in a further blow to Moscow’s naval power and its control over the Black Sea, as The Hague accused two senior Russian commanders of carrying out war crimes.
Kyiv’s military intelligence agency said it attacked the Sergei Kotov early on Tuesday using naval drones. The vessel, which was on patrol, suffered damage to the stern, right and left sides, then sank, claimed the agency, known as the HUR.
Continue reading...Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he will not give missiles that could strike at strategic Crimea bridge, as Russia seeks to exploit leak
Britain has urged a reluctant Berlin to supply long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv despite an embarrassing leak to Russian television of a top-secret call involving German air force officers who said UK troops were “on the ground” in Ukraine.
The Kremlin sought to exploit what it saw as a propaganda coup and pressure the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who in turn insisted on Monday he would not donate missiles that could strike at the strategic Kerch bridge linking Russia and occupied Crimea.
Continue reading...German ambassador to Moscow summoned to Russian foreign ministry in order to explain leaked military discussion. This live blog is now closed
Germany’s ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry on Monday in order to explain the leaked discussion between senior military personnel about sending weapons to Ukraine.
Alexander Graf Lamsdorff arrived at the foreign ministry without responding to journalists’ requests for comment, according to reports on Russian news agencies.
Continue reading...Russian drone crashed into nine-storey residential building in Odesa on Saturday. This live blog is now closed
It is 2.30pm in Ukraine. Here is a summary of events
The bodies of a mother and baby found in the rubble of a missile-hit apartment block in Odesa on Sunday have brought the death toll from Saturday’s strike to 10. Two babies and a toddler are amongst those found dead following a Russian drone strike on a nine-storey apartment block in Odesa on Saturday, according to briefings from officials.
Five people were injured overnight by Russian shelling in Myrnohrad and Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, according to the regional prosecutor’s office. A “massive missile attack” on a residential area of Myrnohrad injured two women aged 50 and 33 and a 37-year-old man, Donetsk Oblast’s regional prosecutor’s office posted on Telegram. It said a Russian missile strike in a residential area of Pokrovsk at 6.30 on Sunday morning also left two women with shrapnel wounds.
People are still queueing up to place flowers on Alexei Navalny’s grave in Moscow’s Borisovskoye cemetery. The pile of floral tributes is growing despite state intimidation as Russians pay tribute to the late opposition leader.
Turkey believes it is time for ceasefire talks to start in Ukraine, its foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said at a press conference on Sunday. Fidan said: “A dialogue for a ceasefire (in Ukraine) should start. That doesn’t mean recognising the occupation (by Russia), but issues of sovereignty and ceasefire should be discussed separately.”
The wife of Vladimir Kara-Murza, one of Russia’s most high profile political prisoners, says it has taken two years to secure a meeting with the UK government, despite him being a British citizen. Kara-Murza is serving a 25-year sentence in a Siberian jail and his wife Evgenia told The Observer she met David Cameron on Friday.
Ukraine’s border with Poland remains blocked at all six checkpoints to trucks because of protests by Polish farmers about the import of grain from Ukraine, according to local reports. State Border Guard spokesperson Andrii Demchenko said on national television that around 2,400 trucks had been waiting to pass the border as of Sunday, according to a report in The Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine launched a mass drone attack on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula early on Sunday, with unconfirmed reports of powerful explosions near the port of Feodosia. Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine launched 38 drones and that its air defences destroyed all of them. It did not say whether any damage or casualties resulted from the attack in a statement on its Telegram channel.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called on the west to rapidly deliver more air-defence systems as a wave of Russian missile, drone and artillery strikes killed at least 11 people. “Russia continues to hit civilians,” the Ukrainian president posted on social media on Saturday. Eight were confirmed dead, including a child and a baby, after an overnight drone strike on an apartment block in the southern port city of Odesa, a regional official said. Zelenskiy said in his post: “We need more air defences from our partners. We need to strengthen the Ukrainian air shield to add more protection for our people from Russian terror.”
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has promised a full investigation after a purported recording of confidential army talks on the Ukraine war was circulated on Russian social media, in a huge embarrassment for Berlin. A German defence ministry believed a conversation in the air force division was “intercepted”, a ministry spokesperson said. The recording apparently showed German officials discussing striking Crimea and delivery of long-range missiles to Kyiv.
Continue reading...Chancellor Olaf Scholz describes as ‘very serious’ the circulation of a recording purportedly showing German officials discussing delivery of long-range missiles to Kyiv
The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has promised a full investigation after a recording purportedly of confidential army talks on the Ukraine war was circulated on Russian social media, in a huge embarrassment for Berlin.
A German defence ministry spokesperson confirmed to Agence France-Presse that the ministry believed a conversation in the air force division was “intercepted”. “We are currently unable to say for certain whether changes were made to the recorded or transcribed version that is circulating on social media,” they said.
Continue reading...Navalny’s mother visits dissident’s grave day after thousands attended funeral in Moscow; three killed and eight injured after Russian drone attack on apartment block in southern port city, authorities say
The German defence ministry is checking whether a confidential videoconference on the Ukraine war had been wiretapped after a recording was posted on Russian social media, in a potentially huge embarrassment for Berlin.
The head of Russia’s state-backed RT channel, Margarita Simonyan, on Friday posted a 38-minute audio recording of what she claimed were German army officers discussing striking Crimea.
Continue reading...Russian president threatens ‘tragic’ consequences for war interventionists during state of the nation speech
Vladimir Putin has told Nato countries that they risk provoking a nuclear war if they send troops to fight in Ukraine, in an annual state of the nation speech ramping up his threats against Europe and the US.
In a reference to Emmanuel Macron’s comments earlier this week in which he opened the door to sending European ground troops to Ukraine, the Russian president said it would lead to “tragic” consequences for the nations who decided to do that.
Continue reading...Sweden, Czech Republic and Poland not considering sending troops to Ukraine after Macron refused to rule it out
The Kremlin has suggested that conflict between Russia and the US-led Nato military alliance would become inevitable if European members of Nato sent troops to fight in Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Sweden, Poland and Czech Republic have distanced themselves from Emmanuel Macron saying on Monday that there was “no consensus” on sending western troops to Ukraine but “nothing should be excluded” (see post at 10am).
Continue reading...Ulf Kristersson distances himself from Macron, saying ‘France’s tradition is not the Swedish tradition’
Sweden’s prime minister has ruled out sending troops to Ukraine for now – saying the subject is “not relevant at all” – putting down a clear marker between himself and Emmanuel Macron as he prepares for his historically neutral country to imminently join Nato.
Ulf Kristersson, who on Monday hailed a “historic day” as Sweden’s Nato membership was finally approved by Hungary, clearing the Nordic country’s path to join the western military alliance, said that while he respected “France’s will to help Ukraine”, Sweden would be following its own path.
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