Category Archives: Ukraine

Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy arrives in France to meet Macron after Germany visit

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Ukrainian president will hold talks with French president over dinner following rip to Berlin

The UK Ministry of Defence has posted an update on the situation in Ukraine.

It states that while Russian forces retain the same organisational structure to when it invaded Ukraine last February, it is, in fact, a very different military force.

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Ukraine can defeat Russia by end of year with western help, Zelenskiy says

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President travels to Berlin to meet German chancellor, who announces new military aid package including Leopard tanks

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine can defeat Russia by the end of this year with western help, and thanked Germany during a visit to Berlin for its “big” military and economic support.

Speaking after a meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the Ukrainian president said Germany was the second biggest contributor to Kyiv after the US. Scholz’s coalition government announced a new aid package to coincide with Zelenskiy’s visit, his first to Berlin since last year’s full-scale Russian invasion.

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Ukraine minister ‘confused’ by Eurovision refusal to let Zelenskiy speak

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Exclusive: Culture minister says he was puzzled about reasoning for not allowing president to address song contest

Ukraine’s culture minister has said he was “surprised” and “confused” that Volodymyr Zelenskiy was barred from making a televised speech during the Eurovision grand final.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the owner of Eurovision, said last week that allowing the Ukrainian president to address the contest, which is watched around the world, risked jeopardising its “non-political nature”.

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Russian missiles strike home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision entry during contest

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University town of Ternopil, home of Tvorchi, targeted by missiles with two people injured

The home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision entry came under fire from Russian missiles during the song contest on Saturday.

Ternopil, the university home town of electronic music duo Tvorchi, was among the places targeted, according to Dame Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine.

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Zelenskiy and pope discuss peace in Ukraine as Russia retreats in Bakhmut

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Pope Francis offers help repatriating Ukrainian children from Russia as Volodymyr Zelenskiy meets select leaders in Italy

Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Pope Francis on Saturday to back Kyiv’s peace plan, and the pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.

The Ukrainian president was in Rome for a one-day whistle-stop visit, also meeting Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni.

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Two Russian jets and two helicopters reportedly shot down – as it happened

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Russian reports suggest two warplanes and two helicopters downed on Saturday, though unclear if due to friendly fire or Ukrainian attacks

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has arrived at Rome’s Ciampino airport on Saturday, a political source told Reuters.

Confirming the visit on Twitter, the Ukrainian president said it was important for “approaching victory of Ukraine”.

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Ukraine aims for repeat victory in most political Eurovision in years

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Four-hour broadcast will feature taunts at Putin and a singalong of a Liverpool anthem

There will be rockets, soldiers and moustachioed men in their underpants lampooning Vladimir Putin as a “crocodile psychopath” – and that’s just the Croatian act.

One of the most stridently political Eurovision grand finals in years takes place in Liverpool on Saturday night against a backdrop of a war in Ukraine that shows little sign of ending.

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Sunak and Starmer criticise decision to deny Zelenskiy a Eurovision speech

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Producers of event refuse Ukraine president’s request to speak over fears of politicising contest

Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have voiced their disapproval of a decision to prevent Volodymyr Zelenskiy from being able to address this year’s Eurovision.

The prime minister and the Labour leader were united in criticising the decision to block the Ukrainian president’s request to speak at Saturday evening’s grand final. They were joined in their opposition by the former prime minister Boris Johnson.

PA Media contributed to this report

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Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy thanks UK for Storm Shadow missiles; Kremlin denies ground lost in Bakhmut – as it happened

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Ukrainian president says he thanked Rishi Sunak for long-range missiles in telephone call

The Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Donetsk has reported on Telegram that one person was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the city overnight. Alexei Kulemzin posted “As a result of the shelling of the Kyivskyi district of Donetsk region, a man of 40-50 years old was killed.”

My colleague Archie Bland looks at what a Ukrainian counter-offensive might mean in practice in today’s First Edition newsletter:

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EU tells ministers they must ‘recalibrate’ China policy over support for Russia

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Josep Borrell says relations will worsen if Xi Jinping does not push Putin to withdraw from Ukraine

A Russian defeat in Ukraine will not derail China’s rise, while relations between Beijing and the EU will be “critically affected” if Xi Jinping does not push Vladimir Putin to withdraw his forces, European ministers have been told.

The message comes in a paper drawn up by the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who is meeting the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Friday in Stockholm to discuss how the bloc should “recalibrate” its policy towards Beijing.

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South Africa summons US ambassador over his claims it is arming Russia

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Foreign ministry says there is ‘no record of approved arms sale’ after allegations by Reuben Brigety

South Africa’s foreign ministry has summoned the US ambassador over allegations he made that the country had provided arms and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Amid the diplomatic fallout, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, would also speak with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement posted on Twitter.

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Hosting Ukraine’s Eurovision party – podcast

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Hannah Moore reports from Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena where Britain is preparing to host the Eurovision song contest on behalf of last year’s winners Ukraine

On the eve of the Eurovision song contest finals, Hannah Moore travels to Liverpool to watch the rehearsals and hear from Ukrainians running stalls in ‘Eurovision Village’.

Chris West, the author of Eurovision! A History of Modern Europe Through the World’s Greatest Song Contest explains politics always plays a big part in the event but this year is particularly poignant.

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Eurovision organisers rebuff Zelenskiy request to give video speech at final

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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.

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Russian woman given suspended sentence for ‘insulting’ note on Putin’s parents’ grave

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Case comes amid Kremlin’s growing crackdown on dissent over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A Russian court has given a two-year suspended sentence to a St Petersburg woman who left a note on the grave of President Vladimir Putin’s parents saying they had “raised a freak and a killer”.

The court found Irina Tsybaneva, 60, guilty of desecrating burial places motivated by political hatred. Her lawyer said she didn’t plead guilty because she hadn’t desecrated the grave physically or sought publicity for her action.

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US accuses South Africa of providing arms to Russia

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Ambassador says weapons were brought to Russia on cargo ship from Simon’s Town naval base, local media reports

The US ambassador to South Africa has accused the country of covertly providing arms to Russia – a charge that drew an angry rebuke from Pretoria.

Reuben Brigety told a media briefing on Thursday that the US believed weapons and ammunition had been loaded on to a Russian freighter that docked at a Cape Town naval base in December.

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UK sending long-range Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine, says defence minister

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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”.

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Russia-Ukraine war: UK to send long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine, says defence secretary – as it happened

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Ben Wallace confirms reports that UK is donating Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Yan Gagin, an assistant to the Russian-imposed head of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, has claimed that Ukraine is increasingly using fléchettes shells when attacking targets within the occupied Donetsk region. It quotes him saying:

We are increasingly recording the use by the enemy of artillery shells filled with fléchettes. They have been used especially actively lately.

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Ukraine needs ‘more time’ before its counter-offensive, says Zelenskiy

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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.”

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