Russians near Bakhmut have retreated by up to 2km, Ukrainian official says

Military unit claims to confirm report by Wagner boss that Russian brigade has been routed

A Ukrainian military unit has said it has routed a Russian infantry brigade from frontline territory near Bakhmut, claiming to corroborate an account by the head of Russia’s Wagner group that the Russian forces had fled.

Later on Wednesday, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, said Russian units in some parts of Bakhmut had retreated by up to 2km (1.2 miles) as the result of counterattacks. He did not give details.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Russian forces in Bakhmut pushed back by up to 2km in some areas, claims Ukraine military commander

Ukraine’s military says Russia increasingly relying on regular forces after heavy losses to mercenary group in eastern city

Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, offers this round-up of the latest developments overnight. It writes on its official Telegram channel:

In Bakhmut, fighters of the 3rd brigade of the armed forces of Ukraine advanced 2.6km during the storming of Russian positions for two days and defeated two companies of the 72nd brigade of the Russian Federation, said the commander of the “Azov” regiment.

Air defence forces destroyed three Russian drones over Dnipropetrovsk region on the night of 10 May. Also at night, the Russian army shelled Kherson heavily. More than 350 projectiles were fired in Kherson oblast during the day: one person was injured.

The transformation of our alliance over the last decade has been nothing short of remarkable. Since Russia illegally annexed Crimea and entered into eastern Ukraine in 2014, we have increased the readiness of our forces.

We have deployed combat troops to the east of the alliance for the first time in our history, and European allies and Canada have spent an additional $350bn extra on defence.

As we prepare for a more dangerous future, we must redouble our efforts to keep our one billion citizens safe, and to uphold the rules-based international order.

High intensity warfare is back in Europe, global competition is rising, authoritarian regimes are challenging our values, interests and security, and other threats are also multiplying – from terrorism to cyber-attacks, from nuclear proliferation to climate change. So we need to step up for this new era of strategic competition.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 441 of the invasion

Ukrainian official says Russians in Bakhmut have been pushed back by up to 2km; Russia’s Transneft reports attack on oil pipeline

A Ukrainian military commander said Russian forces in Bakhmut had been pushed back by up to 2km in some areas after counteroffensives. Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, who heads Ukraine’s ground forces, posted on Telegram: “In some areas of the front, the enemy could not resist the onslaught of the Ukrainian defenders and retreated.”

Russia’s oil pipeline operator Transneft said a filling point on the Europe-bound Druzhba pipeline had been targeted in a “terrorist attack” near the border with Ukraine, according to the Tass news agency. Transneft said nobody was injured in the incident.

Ukraine’s military said its forces had seriously damaged Russia’s 72nd independent motorised rifle brigade near Bakhmut, made up of thousands of troops. Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukrainian troops in the east, said the situation remained “difficult” in Bakhmut, but Moscow was increasingly having to use regular army units because of heavy losses among Wagner group fighters.

The Wagner boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, complained that his fighters were still not getting enough shells from the defence ministry. In an audio statement, he said the defence ministry – which has promised to ensure that all combat units have the resources they need – had been holding long meetings on the shell issue, but there had been no breakthrough. “We’re not receiving enough shells, we’re only getting 10%,” Prigozhin said, according to Reuters.

The French parliament called on the EU to formally label the Wagner group as terrorists, as the UK reportedly prepares to do the same. France’s parliament unanimously passed a non-binding resolution aimed at encouraging the 27 members of the EU to put Wagner on its official list of terrorist organisations.

Russian forces plan to evacuate more than 3,000 workers from the town that serves the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, where there is a “catastrophic lack” of qualified personnel, Ukraine’s state-owned Energoatom company said. Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of forcibly deporting its citizens from occupied Ukrainian regions to Russian Federation territory.

Germany’s former chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been criticised again for his links to Russia after attending a Victory Day party at the Russian embassy in Berlin. Schröder was seen at a reception on Tuesday marking the anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in the second world war, along with senior figures from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party and the far-left Linke party.

Russia may formally denounce the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe, which it pulled out of in 2015, according to a decree signed by Vladimir Putin on Wednesday. The decree formally appoints the deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov to represent Putin during parliamentary proceedings on denouncing the treaty, which aimed to regulate the number of forces deployed by Warsaw Pact and Nato countries.

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Prada fashion boss rescues historic newsstand in Tuscany

Piero Scartoni, 91, who has been running stand in Arezzo since 1953, can now retire after former customer Patrizio Bertelli steps in

The owner of a historic newsstand in a Tuscan city said he was “delighted” the business has been saved by one of his old customers – Patrizio Bertelli, the chair of the Italian fashion house Prada.

Piero Scartoni, 91, who has been getting up at 5am to run the newsstand in Piazza San Jacopo in the centre of Arezzo since 1953, can finally retire after it was bought by Bertelli, who was born in the city and is the husband of the fashion designer Miuccia Prada.

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At least 21 dead as wildfires rage across Urals and Siberia

Dead are mainly elderly people unable to flee, Russia media report

At least 21 people have died in wildfires in Russia’s Ural mountains, state media reported.

Wildfires have raged in the Kurgan region of the Urals and in Siberia all week. Local media reported that most of the dead were older people unable to leave their homes. According to local authorities, many of the deaths occurred on Sunday in the village of Yuldus, in Kurgan province on the border between the Urals and Siberia.

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Risk of cyber-attack is main Eurovision worry, says BBC executive

Cybersecurity experts drafted in to help thwart any sabotage attempt as UK stands in as host for Ukraine

The risk of a cyber-attack by pro-Russian hackers is the “main worry” for broadcasters staging the Eurovision song contest on behalf of war-torn Ukraine, a BBC executive has said.

Experts from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre have been drafted in to help thwart any attempts to sabotage the competition’s public vote on Saturday.

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Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin files for divorce

Marin filed jointly with her husband of three years, Markus Raikkonen, they announced on Instagram

Finland’s outgoing prime minister, Sanna Marin, has filed for divorce jointly with her husband of three years, Markus Raikkonen, they said on Instagram on Wednesday.

“We are grateful for the 19 years together and our beloved daughter. We will remain best friends,” they said in separate Instagram stories.

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Former Rwanda police officer on trial in Paris accused of taking part in genocide

Philippe Hategekimana, 66, who started new life in France under false identity, is charged with crimes against humanity

A former Rwandan military police officer who fled to France after the 1994 genocide and started a new life under a false identity is going on trial in Paris charged with crimes against humanity.

Philippe Hategekimana, 66, fled to France five years after the genocide, obtaining refugee status under a fake name. He became a university security guard in the city of Rennes and gained French citizenship in 2005.

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French journalist killed in Russian rocket strike in Ukraine

AFP video coordinator Arman Soldin, 32, who was ‘totally dedicated to his craft’, died in attack near Bakhmut

A French journalist working for Agence France-Presse news agency has been killed in Ukraine in a Russian rocket strike near the battle-torn eastern city of Bakhmut.

Arman Soldin, a 32-year-old video coordinator, died on Monday when a Grad missile landed close to where he was lying. Soldin was with Ukrainian soldiers in the town of Chasiv Yar, six miles (10km) from Bakhmut, where fighting has raged for months.

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Cyprus handed 800-page US dossier on Russia sanctions breaches

Report details how local people and firms helped Alisher Usmanov’s conceal immense wealth

Cyprus has received an 800-page dossier from the US government detailing sanctions breaches by local individuals and entities that are alleged to have enabled the Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, to conceal his immense wealth.

As the island’s leader Nikos Christodoulides vowed to push ahead with the prosecution of law and audit firms that had aided the oligarch, Washington released documents that amounted to a toolkit to facilitate the process. At least two other dossiers are expected to follow.

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British-led coalition hopes to supply longer-range missiles to Ukraine

UK opens tender for rockets akin to those denied by US, which could enable strikes deep into Crimea

Britain and a group of European allies are hoping to supply long-distance cruise missiles to Ukraine, similar in range to those the US has so far refused to supply Kyiv, which could allow its army to strike deep into Russian-occupied Crimea.

A tender document quietly released by the UK calls for western arms makers to offer “missiles or rockets with a range 100-300km” (62 to 186 miles) to the International Fund for Ukraine, run jointly with Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

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Auction of £120m of jewels to go ahead despite Jewish groups’ concerns

Critics say collection derives from fortune made by buying businesses from Jews who were forced to sell in Nazi Germany

Christie’s, the famed British auction house, has said it will go ahead with an auction of £120m of jewels on Wednesday despite calls from Jewish groups to stop the sale over concerns the collection belonged to a German billionaire who made a fortune buying businesses from Jews who were forced to sell in Nazi Germany.

The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (Crif), the American Jewish Committee and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group, have demanded that Christie’s halt the auction of the jewellery collection of the Austrian billionaire Heidi Horten.

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Putin recycles old grievances on Victory Day as Russian army battered in Ukraine

President uses speech to again draw false parallels between invasion and defeat of Nazi Germany

A tumultuous year of fighting has passed since Vladimir Putin last addressed Russian soldiers on Red Square in Moscow to mark the country’s victory over the Nazis.

But the Russian leader’s Victory Day message to the nation on Tuesday was nearly identical to that of last year as he cast the war in Ukraine as an existential battle against an aggressive, Russophobic and woke west.

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‘We need to be heard’: Ukrainian soldiers struggle with post-traumatic stress

Therapists are helping veterans, as well as families and children, who are psychologically affected by the war

Volodomyr Kucherenko’s problems with post-traumatic stress began not with the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, but eight years ago when the war began in the Donbas. In the midst of what was supposed to be a truce, he was resting with his unit, which included his brother-in-law, when they were mortared in the yard of a village house.

Injured in the leg during the first strike, his brother-in-law threw himself over Kucherenko to protect him from shrapnel as more rounds came in. The wounds he sustained protecting his comrade would prove fatal.

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US and UK tell Russia to stop using hunger as leverage in Ukraine conflict – as it happened

UK foreign secretary and US secretary of state have urged Russia not to use global hunger as a tool of war. This live blog is closed

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, said Russia “will prevail” in its fight against what he described as “imperialists”, the state news agency KCNA said on Tuesday, in remarks seen to be aimed at Ukraine and its western supporters such as the US.

North Korea has forged closer ties with the Kremlin and backed Moscow after it invaded Ukraine last year, including its proclamation later of having annexed parts of Ukraine, which most UN members condemned as illegal.

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EU parliament report calls for tighter regulation of spyware

Non-binding vote bans surveillance software after concluding Hungary and Poland used it to track journalists and opponents

The EU needs tighter regulation of the spyware industry, a European parliament special committee has said, after concluding that Hungary and Poland had used surveillance software to illegally monitor journalists, politicians and activists.

A special European parliament committee voted on Monday for a temporary ban on the sale, acquisition and use of spyware while the bloc draws up common EU standards based on international law. The moratorium would be lifted only on strict conditions, including independent investigations into the abuse of spyware in the EU.

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Germany’s regional leaders demand more financial support for refugees

Leaders of country’s 16 states will call on Chancellor Scholz to increase daily rate for feeding, housing and schooling asylum seekers

German lawmakers are at loggerheads over how to manage the number of refugees coming into the country, with regional leaders calling on the government to provide more financial support.

On Wednesday, the leaders of Germany’s 16 states will meet Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, in Berlin, and call on him to ensure that the federal government takes on more responsibility for immigration, including increasing the daily rate allocated to cover the costs of individuals.

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EU leaders set out hopes for post-Brexit relations with Britain

Representatives of 27 member states mark Europe Day by calling for further strengthening of trust rebuilt by Windsor framework

EU leaders have signalled their desire to reset relations with the UK, seven turbulent years on from the seismic Brexit vote.

Representatives from all 27 member states said on Monday that they wanted to “develop further ties between the EU and the UK” after a deal sealed on Brexit trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.

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Serbians march in silent protest against gun violence after last week’s shootings

Protesters condemn gun culture and call for officials to resign after 17 people were killed in under 48 hours

Tens of thousands of Serbians have rallied in the capital, Belgrade, with the protesters calling for the resignation of top officials and the curtailing of violence in the media, after back-to-back shootings stunned the Balkan country.

The “Serbia against violence” demonstration saw members from across the country’s political divide come together after last week’s shootings in which 17 people were killed in less than 48 hours – including nine at an elementary school in the capital.

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Italians condemn ‘insult’ of Austrian-Chinese ‘European mozzarella’

Brothers of Italy councillor in Veneto reports package featuring gondola and Tower of Pisa for ‘counterfeiting’

Sliced mozzarella cheese produced in Austria by a Chinese company and wrapped in packaging featuring images of a gondola and the Leaning Tower of Pisa has been branded the umpteenth “insult to Italian food excellence”.

Tommaso Razzolini, a councillor in the Veneto region for Brothers of Italy, the party leading Italy’s rightwing ruling coalition government, said he reported the existence of the offending mozzarella to the ministry of agriculture and food sovereignty after coming across a photo of it online.

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