Russia launch morning missile strikes on Kyiv after overnight barrage

Residents run for shelter during attack that appears to have been part of effort to exhaust air defences

Russian forces have launched an intense and unusual daytime missile barrage at Kyiv, forcing residents to flee to bomb shelters, in what appears to be an effort to exhaust Ukraine’s air defences.

The Ukrainian military said it had intercepted all 11 of the ballistic and cruise missiles fired at the city in the attack that began at 11am. One person was reported to have been injured. Residents who had become accustomed to a string of night-time attacks ran to Kyiv’s metro stations and other shelters after a succession of loud bangs as incoming missiles were intercepted and bursts of smoke from air defences dotted the clear morning sky.

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Jubilant Latvians given national holiday after shock ice hockey win over USA

  • Team won bronze at ice hockey world championship
  • Members of parliament pass bill to commemorate win

Latvians woke up to go to work Monday morning, only to find they didn’t have to. Their parliament had met at midnight to declare a holiday after the national ice hockey team chalked up its best result at the world championship.

Latvia, where hockey is hugely popular, co-hosted the men’s championship with Finland, and the country’s 4-3 overtime victory over the United States for the bronze medal on Sunday was greeted with jubilation.

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Spain’s conservative opposition heading for emphatic win in regional polls

People’s party strengthens hold on Madrid and could take regions of Valencia and Aragón, according to poll

Spain’s opposition conservative People’s party (PP) is heading for an emphatic win in Sunday’s key regional and municipal elections, winning an absolute majority in the city of Madrid and in the surrounding area.

It is poised to wrest the regions of Valencia, Aragón and the Balearic islands from the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE).

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Italy: four bodies found after tourist boat capsized in storm

Boat reportedly carrying more than 20 people was overturned in ‘whirlwind’ on Lake Maggiore on Sunday

Italian firefighters say they have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized and sank in a sudden, violent storm.

The boat was reportedly carrying more than 20 people, including a group of foreign tourists celebrating a birthday, plus two crew members, when a whirlwind overturned the vessel on Sunday.

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West caught between fear and hope as Erdoğan extends 20-year rule in Turkey

Re-elected president could take Nato country further towards Russia, or may instead be more open to alternatives

Western capitals remained silent through Turkey’s presidential campaign – privately hoping Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s erratic 20-year rule would come to a surprise close – but now he has been handed a decisive mandate to serve a third term, the west is caught between fear and hope.

It fears he will exploit the result to take this Nato founder member further from the liberal secular west, but hopes against hope that, not being eligible to run again and thus freed from the need to pander to a nationalist electorate for the rest of his political life, he may at least be open to persuasion and base his foreign policy on something other than self-preservation.

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Protesters accuse Roger Waters of antisemitism ahead of Frankfurt gig

Pink Floyd co-founder rejects accusations before his Sunday night concert in former Nazi site

Several Jewish groups, politicians and an alliance of civil society groups gathered for a memorial ceremony and a protest rally against a concert by Roger Waters in Frankfurt on Sunday evening.

They accuse the Pink Floyd co-founder of antisemitism – an allegation he denies.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: ‘We haven’t started yet to act very seriously,’ says Kremlin ambassador – as it happened to UK

Andrei Kelin tells BBC: ‘It is an idealistic mistake to think that Ukraine will prevail’

The death toll from a Russian missile attack on a clinic in Dnipro has risen from two to four people, according to the region’s governor.

In a post on Telegram, Serhii Lysak said further analysis had confirmed that three missing people had been killed in the attack on Friday.

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Venice police investigate source of bright green liquid in Grand Canal

Speculation climate protesters could be responsible for phosphorescent patch that appeared by Rialto Bridge

Police in Venice are investigating the source of phosphorescent green liquid that appeared on Sunday in the city’s Grand Canal, amid speculation it was caused by climate protesters.

Gondoliers could be seen punting through the phosphorescent waters while tourists took photographs of the green patch, from the Rialto Bridge up and along part of the canal.

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Kyiv: Russian drone strike kills one as Ukraine capital prepares to celebrate founding day

Officials warned residents to stay in shelters in latest round of Russian strikes on the city

Russia unleashed a major two-wave overnight air attack on Kyiv that killed at least one person, officials said, as the Ukrainian capital prepares to celebrate its birthday on Sunday.

Air defence systems downed at least 20 drones moving towards Kyiv, with falling debris killing a 41-year-old man and injuring a 35-year-old woman in the city, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

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More than 1,500 arrested at Extinction Rebellion protest in The Hague

Several Dutch celebrities among protesters, including Game of Thrones actor Carice van Houten

More than 1,500 people were arrested during a protest by the Extinction Rebellion climate group in The Hague on Saturday, Dutch police said.

Activists blocked a section of a motorway during the afternoon in protest against Dutch fossil fuel subsidies.

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‘I’m insanely thankful to the president’: how a Belarus dissident became an apologist for the regime

Raman Pratasevich was dragged off a plane and imprisoned two years ago. Now he praises the regime he used to denounce

Two years ago, Raman Pratasevich, a young Belarusian dissident blogger, was white-knuckled, begging a Ryanair flight crew not to make an emergency landing at Minsk airport.

He said: “Don’t do this, they will kill me, I am a refugee,” according to a fellow passenger. The plane, escorted by a Belarusian Mig-29 fighter jet sent to force it down, landed anyway. Pratasevich was promptly arrested.

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‘The intensity is increasing’: Ukraine says first steps in counteroffensive have begun

Presidential adviser says supply lines and depots already being destroyed as preliminary operations get under way

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates

Preliminary operations have already begun to pave the way for a counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has said.

“It’s a complicated process, which is not a matter of one day or a certain date or a certain hour,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s an ongoing process of de-occupation, and certain processes are already happening, like destroying supply lines or blowing up depots behind the lines.

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Rows over Eta and racism loom large as Spain holds local elections

Votes will allow the parties to hone their strategies before December’s general election

Spain heads to the polls on Sunday to elect 12 regional governments and 8,000 municipal councils in votes that will allow the governing Socialists and the opposition conservatives to gauge their strengths and hone their strategies before December’s general election.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the rightwing, populist president of the Madrid region, will be aiming to secure an absolute majority for the People’s party (PP), while Barcelona’s leftwing mayor, Ada Colau, will be hoping to see off challenges from the regional branch of the Socialist party and a centre-right Catalan pro-independence party.

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Defeat would leave Russia brutal and vindictive even if Putin ‘disappeared’, says RAF chief – as it happened

Air Chief Marshall Sir Mike Wigston says Russian threat to UK could get worse if Putin was ousted. This blog is now closed

Russian forces have temporarily eased their attacks on the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to regroup and strengthen their capabilities, a senior Kyiv official said on Saturday.

Russia’s Wagner private army began handing over its positions to regular Russian troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, Reuters reported.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 458 of the invasion

Toll from Russian missile attack on Dnipro rises to two; Medvedev says conflict could last decades; Blinken to visit Finland, Sweden and Norway

The death toll from a Russian missile attack on an outpatient clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to two, with 30 people wounded, according to media reports. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: “Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest.”

A deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian Black Sea ports has not yet resumed full operations, the UN said on Friday, having come to a halt before Russia’s decision last week to extend it.

Russia’s deputy security council chair, Dmitry Medvedev, has said the conflict in Ukraine could last for decades and that negotiations with Ukraine were impossible as long as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in power.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, plans to visit Finland, Sweden and Norway from this Monday to deepen cooperation on top national security and economic issues, the US state department has said. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland has joined Nato, with Sweden’s bid to join awaiting ratification from Hungary and Turkey.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has told China’s special envoy Li Hui there are “serious obstacles” to resuming peace talks, blaming Ukraine and western countries.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said in a phone call with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that Russia is open to dialogue over Ukraine. Lula tweeted that he had reiterated Brazil’s willingness to talk to both sides of the war in Ukraine but declined Putin’s invitation to visit.

The former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and former US president Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and “the vital importance of Ukrainian victory” on Thursday, a spokesperson for Johnson said.

Russia has blamed Kyiv for dozens of strikes on its southern Belgorod region. Its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the Ukrainian military was responsible for artillery, mortar and drone attacks across the region over 24 hours but reported no casualties. In a rare attack on the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, east of Crimea, two drones damaged buildings in the city centre, officials said. In the neighbouring Rostov region, the governor said a Ukrainian missile had been shot down near Morozovsk, where there is a Russian airbase.

Canada has said it backs Ukraine’s application to join the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership (CPTPP). Canada’s trade minister, Mary Ng, tweeted: “Following the UK’s accession, as more economies express interest in joining, Canada welcomes Ukraine’s application to join CPTPP.”

The Russian arms company Kalashnikov, maker of the world’s most widely used assault rifle, is launching a division for the production of kamikaze drones – a key weapon used in the Ukraine war

Canada will donate 43 AIM-9 missiles to Ukraine to help the country “secure its skies”, the national defence has said. “Canada’s support for Ukraine is unwavering,” said Canada’s defence minister, Anita Anand.

Moscow’s city court will hold a preliminary hearing next Wednesday in a new criminal case against the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on charges including incitement to extremism.

Ukraine claims to have shot down 10 missiles and 25 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks on the capital of Kyiv, the city of Dnipro and eastern regions. Several drones and missiles hit targets in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, officials said on Friday. There was no immediate word of any deaths.

The city of Donetsk has come under fire from Ukrainian forces, the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has said. As a result, he said, a young woman died and another was injured.

Japan will place additional sanctions on Russia after the Group of Seven (G7) summit the country hosted last week agreed to step up measures to punish Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, has said.

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Ex-fraternity members in Belgium found guilty over death of student

Sanda Dia died in hospital in December 2018 after enduring a degrading two-day initiation ritual

Eighteen former members of an elite university fraternity have been found guilty for their role in the death of a student during a brutal and degrading initiation ritual in 2018.

Sanda Dia was 20 when he died in hospital in December 2018 after he and two other first-year students endured two days of vicious hazing to enter the student fraternity, Reuzegom.

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Russian attack on outpatient clinic in Dnipro kills two people

Volodymyr Zelenskiy describes missile strike as a crime against humanity after 30 people are injured

A Russian missile strike on an outpatient clinic in the city of Dnipro has killed two people and injured 30, in what ​President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as a crime against humanity.

In the latest wave of aerial attacks on Ukraine, a salvo of air-launched missiles aimed at Kyiv were launched by Russian aircraft over the Caspian Sea early on Friday morning but they were all intercepted, according to the capital’s military administration, in what they said was the 13th attack on the city this month.

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Belgium aid worker freed in prisoner swap with Iranian diplomat jailed for bomb plot

Deal to release Olivier Vandecasteele in exchange for Assadollah Assadi raises concerns Tehran’s hostage diplomacy has been rewarded

A Belgian aid worker jailed in Tehran has been released in a prisoner swap with an Iranian diplomat who had been sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role in a plan to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in Paris in 2018.

Assadollah Assadi had served just over two years of his 20-year sentence, and his release will raise questions about whether Iranian hostage diplomacy – the practice of seizing dual nationals as bargaining chips – has been rewarded by the Belgian authorities. The final stages of the deal were negotiated by Oman, but Belgium had been negotiating with Iran over the fate of the diplomat for much longer.

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