Ukrainian forces breach Russia’s first defensive line in south, says general; Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky detained on suspicion of fraud
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Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky detained on suspicion of fraud and money laundering
Arrest of one-time ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy comes as Kyiv attempts to crack down on corruption
A Ukrainian court has ordered tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky to be held in custody for two months on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, a striking move against one of the country’s most powerful businessmen.
The detention on Saturday of Kolomoisky, who is under US sanctions and is a one-time supporter of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose election he backed in 2019, comes as Kyiv is trying to signal progress during a wartime crackdown on corruption.
Continue reading...‘Everything is ahead of us’: Ukraine breaks Russian stronghold’s first line of defence
In an exclusive interview, a leading Ukrainian general says his forces have made a vital breakthrough near Zaporizhzhia
Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russia’s first defensive line near Zaporizhzhia after weeks of painstaking mine clearance, and expect faster gains as they press the weaker second line, the general leading the southern counteroffensive has said.
Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy estimated Russia had devoted 60% of its time and resources into building the first defensive line and only 20% each into the second and third lines because Moscow had not expected Ukrainian forces to get through.
Continue reading...Moscow risks dividing its forces to stop Ukrainian breakthrough, says UK – as it happened
Update from UK Ministry of Defence comes as Kyiv claims some small gains in the south
Russian bloggers have been cashing in on their social media coverage of the Ukraine war with paid ads in their feeds worth more than a month’s average wage.
The BBC reports that pro-war influencers known in Russia as “Z-bloggers” share ads, mostly on Telegram – the platform du jour in Russia after the banning of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook – on everything from cryptocurrency to fashion.
The Ministry of Defence often listens to us, and we have a direct channel to privately communicate information to them. It’s all behind the scenes, and I do that.
Continue reading...Ukrainian counteroffensive has made ‘notable’ progress in south over past three days, US says
White House spokesman John Kirby also said reports quoting anonymous US officials criticising Ukrainian effort were ‘not helpful’
Ukraine has made “notable progress” in its southern offensive over the past 72 hours, a top US security official has said, as Kyiv said its troops had broken through Russia’s first line of defences in several places.
In Washington, White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said the US had “noted over the last 72 hours or so some notable progress by Ukrainian armed forces ... in that southern line of advance coming out of the Zaporizhzhia area”.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 556 of the invasion
Russia destroys boat trying to attack Crimea bridge, Moscow claims; US poised to send Kyiv munitions containing depleted uranium, reports say
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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.”
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 554 of the invasion
Alleged co-founder of mercenary group Wagner buried; video surfaces of Yevgeny Prigozhin appearing to show him discussing threats to his life
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...‘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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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