Russia-Ukraine war: Swedish lawmakers to boycott Nobel ceremony following Russia invitation – as it happened

The Nobel Foundation said invitations for the 2023 events were extended to all countries with diplomatic missions in Sweden and Norway

There cannot be “sustainable peace” in Ukraine unless the country regains control of Crimea, Donbas and other territories occupied by Russia, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said at the European House Ambrosetti business forum in Italy on Friday.

Russia has previously said it is open to peace talks with Kyiv but insists on its claim to four Ukrainian provinces it said it annexed last year and fully or partly controls, as well as Crimea that it annexed in 2014 – a condition Kyiv will not accept.

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British arms maker BAE Systems sets up in Ukraine

Manufacturer of much of the western equipment used against Russian invasion says it aims to produce artillery

The British defence company BAE Systems is setting up a local entity in Ukraine and has signed deals with its government to help ramp up its supply of weapons and equipment.

BAE said it would work directly with Kyiv to explore potential partners for a plan to ultimately produce 105mm light artillery guns in Ukraine and to better understand Ukraine’s requirements.

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Russia-Ukraine war: critics of counteroffensive are ‘spitting in the faces of soldiers’, says Kyiv – as it happened

Ukraine’s foreign minister also says critics of the offensive’s slow progress should ‘shut up’

At a glance: what we know on day 554 of the invasion

A military spokesperson says Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.

The capture of Robotyne was announced earlier this week. Even though just a few miles from where Ukrainian troops were at the start of the counter-offensive, it marked a significant achievement in breaking through an initial line of Russian defences prepared over the winter.

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Top issues in Grant Shapps’ in tray as new UK defence secretary

Ben Wallace’s successor faces major issues on several fronts including Ukraine and a British military seeking more investment

Grant Shapps’ appointment comes at a time of the largest war in Europe since 1945, with Britain a key strategic partner for Ukraine as it seeks to kick out the Russian invaders. A central part of the job is public and private diplomacy, with the UK particularly keen to maintain its position as a bridge between Kyiv, always seeking new weapons, and an often cautious White House, already increasingly mindful of the looming 2024 election battle, most likely with Donald Trump.

Once Boris Johnson had been ousted from Downing Street, Kyiv looked to Wallace as an increasingly important figure, with the former defence secretary central in efforts to find a pathway for Ukraine to eventually join Nato and in ensuring long-term military support continues. Shapps will want to keep the long-term door to Nato membership open, but he may have give Kyiv candid advice and help it temper its not always realistic lobbying.

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‘A success for Kremlin propaganda’: how pro-Putin views permeate Italian media

With pro-Russia commentators regularly appearing on TV, Italians are less likely to back Ukraine than people in most other EU states

Whenever Nello Scavo returns from Ukraine, he is overcome with frustration. As a war correspondent for the Italian national newspaper Avvenire, he knows the first question people will ask him is: “Is it really as bad as they say?”

“Sometimes I think that only if I come back badly injured will people start taking me seriously,” he told the Guardian. “It’s as if they don’t believe that Russia is massacring civilians. The problem is that Vladimir Putin has always enjoyed wide sympathy in Italian politics and public opinion, with the Kremlin always enjoying effective propaganda here.”

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EU imports of Russian liquified gas leap by 40% since Ukraine invasion

Pipeline flows from Russia have fallen to historic lows, but shipments of LNG from all over the world have surged

EU imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) have increased by 40% since the invasion of Ukraine despite efforts to cut down supplies.

Member states have bought more than half of Russia’s LNG on the market in the first seven months of this year, according to analysis of data by Kpler, which tracks marine and tanker traffic.

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US concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea ‘actively advancing’ – as it happened

Sergei Shoigu, Russian defence minister, has recently travelled to North Korea to try to convince them to sell ammunition, says White House. This live blog is closed

Russia’s Tass news agency reports, citing Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, that a drone was “destroyed” in the Ruzsky district of the Moscow region.

“Tonight, an attempt was made to mass attack drones in the Central Federal District. One of the UAVs heading for Moscow was destroyed by air defense forces in the Ruzsky district. There were no preliminary casualties and no damage,” Sobyanin wrote in his Telegram channel.

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Ukrainian drones attack six Russian regions and hit military planes

Kyiv says four cargo planes destroyed in city 500 miles from border with Ukraine

Ukrainian drones have attacked at least six regions deep within Russia, including an airfield where they destroyed military transport planes, in one of the largest-scale attacks on Russia in months.

A drone assault on the city of Pskov in north-western Russia damaged four IL-76 military cargo aircraft, Russian authorities said early on Wednesday, engulfing two of the planes in flames.

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‘Farewell ceremony’ for Yevgeny Prigozhin takes place in St Petersburg – as it happened

Spokesperson says ‘those who wish to bid their farewell’ to the mercenary leader should go to the Porokhovskoye cemetery. This live blog is closed

My colleague Dan Sabbagh has a special dispatch from Kupiansk, a town in the Kharkiv region where some residents have abandoned their homes because of renewed shelling.

In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said military service in the Russian armed forces has become increasingly lucrative since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

On 4 February 2022 Russian president Vladimir Putin noted that a lieutenant received 81,200 rubles per month. By October 2022, he announced that even mobilised private soldiers would receive 195,000 rubles per month.

Many junior ranks serving in Ukraine are now on over 200,000 rubles per month. This is over 2.7 times the Russian national average salary of 72,851 rubles. By way of comparison, 2.7 times the average UK salary would equate to over £90,000 a year.

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UK foreign secretary to challenge China over support for Russia in Ukraine war

James Cleverly to say during visit to Beijing this week that China has ‘a responsibility on the global stage’

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, will challenge Chinese officials in Beijing on Wednesday over their growing military support for Russia, but is intent that his meetings are seen as the revival of a political dialogue that eventually revives UK trade with China.

Ahead of the meetings, he said that no major international issue could be solved without China but added that the country had to live up to its international commitments and obligations.

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‘I couldn’t take it any more’: holdouts quit Kupiansk after renewed Russian shelling

People who stayed through last year’s occupation are now abandoning the city amid fears of a ‘Bakhmut 2.0’

Antonina Sanina, 75, had spent the last two nights hiding in the basement of her apartment block in Kupiansk. She had endured six and a half months of Russian occupation last year, but now the renewed shelling of the city had prompted her to abandon her home. “I couldn’t take it any more,” she said a few minutes after local volunteers had driven her to safety.

She said eight neighbours hid in the cellar with her as the Russians targeted what they thought, wrongly, was a barracks nearby. “You could barely sleep. It would be on and off. Then you’d just wake up and you wouldn’t know – was that an actual hit or was it a dream?” A day before she took flight, one civilian was killed and 11 injured in a daytime artillery strike on the city centre.

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Russia accused of intimidating US consulate staff with Ukraine war spying charges

State department says allegations against Robert Shonov are ‘wholly without merit’, as rare footage of detained US citizen Paul Whelan emerges

The United States has accused Moscow of attempting to intimidate and harass US employees, after Russian state media reported that a former US consulate worker had been charged with collecting information on the war in Ukraine and other issues for Washington.

The FSB security service has accused Robert Shonov, a Russian national, of relaying to US embassy staffers in Moscow information on how Russia’s conscription campaign was affecting political discontent ahead of the 2024 presidential election in Russia, according to Russian state news agency Tass.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 552 of the invasion

More than 1,300 schools destroyed in Ukraine since war began; ‘farewell ceremony’ held Yevgeny Prigozhin

A “farewell ceremony” for Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash last week, took place behind closed doors, his spokespeople said on Tuesday in a statement on social media.

More than 1,300 schools have been destroyed in government-held areas of Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, Unicef has said.

Vladimir Putin has no plans to attend the funeral of Wagner mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed when his plane crashed last week, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.

An FSB security services helicopter crashed Tuesday in central Russia, leaving three people dead, regional officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter went down near the village of Krasnoe Pole in the Chelyabinsk region.

Ukraine said on Tuesday that its forces had pushed deeper into Russian defensive lines near the village of Robotyne, a day after claiming control over the village on the southern front.

Russian president Vladimir Putin will skip the G20 summit in India next month and will send his foreign minister instead, prime minister Narendra Modi’s office said.

Russian air defences reportedly downed Ukrainian drones over the Tula and Belgorod regions, Moscow’s defence ministry said on Tuesday, without indicating if there had been damage or casualties.

The US on Monday accused Moscow of attempting to intimidate and harass US employees after Russian state media reported that a former US consulate worker had been charged by security services with collecting information on the war in Ukraine and other issues for Washington.

The EU should get ready to admit new members from eastern Europe and the Balkans by 2030, EU chief Charles Michel argued on Monday. With Russia’s war in Ukraine continuing and Moldova’s pro-western government scrambling to reform, senior officials have previously been reluctant to offer precise timetables.

Pope Francis came under criticism on Monday for telling Russian youths to remember that they are the heirs of tsars such as Peter the Great, whom President Vladimir Putin has held up as an example to justify the invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine said the comments, which Francis made on Friday in a live video address to Catholic youths gathered in St. Petersburg, were “deeply regrettable”.

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Poland ‘will close Belarus border’ if there is incident with Wagner; Ukraine troops pushing south – as it happened

Poland and Baltic states demand mercenary group leaves Belarus; Ukraine says it has liberated village of Robotyne as counteroffensive continues. This live blog is closed

Ukraine says troops advancing southeast of Robotyne

Some more now on Ukraine claiming it has captured the village of Robotyne on the southern front.

Robotyne has been liberated. Our forces are advancing south-east of Robotyne and south of Mala Tokmachka.

As usual, there will be more meetings with staff this week. The agenda is already set. In particular; there will be decisions that will allow us to further strengthen our warriors, that allow military commanders to prepare the infrastructure for new Ukrainian aircraft more accurately, and allow diplomats to promote everything that our warriors need more actively in communication with partners. The requests from each of the units are very clear.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 551 of the invasion

Russian committee confirms Yevgeny Prigozhin killed in plane crash; Ukraine says a second vessel has safely travelled through the Black Sea from Odesa

Russia’s investigative committee, which looks into serious crimes, said it had confirmed that the head of the Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was among the people killed in Wednesday’s plane crash. After forensic testing, all 10 bodies recovered at the site had been identified, and their identities “conform to the manifest”. The committee did not offer any details as to what might have caused the crash.

A senior Ukrainian government official has confirmed the safe passage of a second vessel through the Black Sea from Ukraine’s port of Odesa, after Russia’s withdrawal in July from a UN-brokered deal allowing the export of grain.

Russia’s defence ministry said it sent a fighter plane in response to a US air force reconnaissance drone over the Black Sea. The Tass news agency said the drone had not breached Russia’s state border.

Ukrainian authorities have launched an investigation after a midair collision between two warplanes in the west of the country killed three pilots. One of the pilots, Andriy “Juice” Pilshchykov, had travelled to Washington DC last summer to meet members of the US Cоngress and lobby for F-16 planes.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said national elections could take place during wartime if international partners shared the cost, legislators approved, and everyone got to the polls. Zelenskiy was responding to comments from the US senator Lindsey Graham who, while praising the war effort, said Ukraine needed to show it was different by holding elections in wartime.

The co-founder of Russian tech company Yandex has made a formal request to have EU sanctions on him lifted, in a potential test of whether the EU will take a more sympathetic view of figures who distance themselves from the Kremlin.

Russia reported another series of drone attacks on its territory in the early hours of Sunday. Officials said the strikes killed at least one person in a region bordering Ukraine and again forced the temporary closure of three major airports serving the capital, Moscow.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Yevgeny Prigozhin’s death confirmed by Russian investigators – as it happened

Genetic testing confirms identities of 10 people killed in plane crash including Wagner mercenary group boss, says Russia’s investigation committee

On the International Space Station (ISS), astronauts from Russia and the west share a craft the size of a large family home. So what happened when Moscow started a conflict 250 miles below on Earth?

Stephen Walker reports that while the US and its allies are imposing the biggest sanctions package in history on Russia, the space station remains immune, a sanctions-free zone.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 550 of the invasion

Kremlin orders Wagner fighters to sign oath of allegiance; three Ukrainian pilots die in mid-air collision

Vladimir Putin has ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state after the plane crash that the Kremlin said killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary group.

Joe Biden said US officials were trying to determine how Prigozhin’s plane was brought down, leaving no survivors. Russia criticised Biden for expressing his lack of surprise that Prigozhin had been killed and said it was not appropriate for Washington to make such remarks.

Russia reported a drone attack on Moscow in the early hours of Saturday forcing authorities to again shut down all three major airports serving the capital.

Ukraine said on Saturday that three of its air force pilots including a renowned pilot with the callsign Juice were killed in a mid-air collision on Friday.

Pope Francis urged young Russians to be “sowers of seeds of reconciliation” in a virtual address to a congregation of 400 in St Petersburg that gathered for the annual Catholic youth day.

Russian forces struck a cafe in a key frontline area in north-eastern Ukraine, killing two civilians and wounding a third, regional officials said. The shelling near the city of Kupiansk took place amid warnings from UK officials that Russia may try to retake the area.

US reporter Evan Gershkovich appealed against a Russian court’s decision to extend his pre-trial detention by three months after his detention under spying charges which he denies, according to documents published by a Moscow court. Unlike many western reporters, he had continued to report from Russia during Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

German magazine Der Spiegel published a lengthy and detailed investigation into the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline. It cites German investigators – who are undertaking “the most important investigation of Germany’s postwar history because of its potential political implications” – and reported that “a striking number of clues point to Ukraine”.

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Ukrainian pilot ‘Juice’ among three killed in jet collision, says Volodymyr Zelenskiy

Two L-39 training planes came down west of Kyiv, says air force, with Andriy Pilshchykov, advocate of Ukraine getting F-16s, among the dead

Three Ukrainian military pilots, including one nicknamed Juice who campaigned for the supply of F-16s, were killed on Friday when two combat training aircraft collided over a region west of Kyiv, Ukraine’s air force said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is counting on swift training of crews to fly F-16 fighter jets promised by western allies, said in his nightly video address that the three men included Andriy Pilshchykov, callsign Juice, “a Ukrainian officer, one of those who greatly helped our state”.

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Patriot, traitor, martyr … legacy of Prigozhin is still unwritten

The mercenary leader’s reputation as patriot, martyr or traitor will be dictated by two linked factors – Putin and the result of the war

In a 2018 documentary, Vladimir Putin answers instantly when asked if there is anything he cannot forgive. “Betrayal,” he says with no hesitation.

Wagner mercenary group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a probable assassination last week on board his Embraer private jet, held a similar belief. One of his fighters’ tactics to punish deserters was to tape their heads to a block of concrete and then bludgeon them to death with a sledgehammer. The hammer became their symbol.

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