Mayor says no damage or casualties reported as 11 drones are downed
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify the Rome Statute, a senior lawmaker said, paving the way for Kyiv to join the International Criminal Court.
In a Telegram post, Yaroslav Zhelezniak said 281 deputies had voted for the measure, a key requirement for Ukraine to eventually join the European Union.
Continue reading...Russian forces advancing so fast families are under orders to leave nearby towns and villages
Ukraine’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill that paves the way for a ban of the Russia-linked minority Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), lawmakers said.
The legislation prohibits the Russian Orthodox Church on Ukrainian territory and envisages a ban, to be approved by a court decision, on religious organisations “affiliated” with it.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president says troops meeting their objectives and have taken more prisoners
An update to that earlier map, showing the three bridges hit by the Ukrainian air force:
Ukrainian forces have struck and damaged a third bridge over the River Seym, near the village of Karyzh in the Kursk region of Russia, according to a member of Russia’s Investigative Committee. The hit could seriously complicate Russian military logistics as Moscow attempts to fend off Ukraine’s incursion into the region.
Yuri Ushakov, an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has said that Ukraine’s attack on Kursk means Moscow is not ready to hold peace talks for now. Proposed discussions aimed at negotiating a halt to strikes on energy and power infrastructure between the two sides had been planned to be held in Qatar.
RIA News, a state-owned news agency, says Russian forces have captured 19 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region. The report has not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday morning that the country’s air defence units had repelled an overnight Russian drone attack on multiple cities including Kyiv, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv and Cherkasy.
Continue reading...North Korean weaponry believed to have been used in Kyiv attack as Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk continues
Russia has denied a report that Ukraine’s attack on the Kursk region had derailed indirect talks with Kyiv on halting strikes on energy and power targets, saying there had been no talks with Kyiv about civilian infrastructure facilities.
The Washington Post reported on Saturday that Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Qatar this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides
The Post said the agreement would have amounted to a partial ceasefire but that the talks were derailed due to Ukraine’s attack on Russian sovereign territory
“No one broke anything off because there was nothing to break off,” Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said of the Post report.
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Russia has lost 598,180 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
This number includes 1,230 casualties Russian forces suffered over the past day.
8,501 tanks
16,473 armoured fighting vehicles
22,913 vehicles and fuel tanks
16,985 artillery systems
1,160 multiple-launch rocket systems
923 air defence systems
367 aircraft
328 helicopters
13,714 drones
28 warships and boats
1 submarine
Continue reading...The UK’s Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were initially disorganised following Ukraine’s lightning offensive
Russian forces took control of Serhiivka, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Reuters reported citing the TASS state news agency.
Joe Biden has met with Vladimir Kara-Murza and his family in the White House.
Continue reading...President says military commandant’s office being established in city. This live blog is closed
Russia’s defence ministry said today that its forces had regained control of the settlement of Krupets in the Kursk region, Reuters reported.
Here are some of the latest images from eastern Ukraine.
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Ukraine’s military has said its forces in the Kursk region shot down a Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber.
Kristen Michal, the Estonian prime minister, has said “we must continue to show our steadfast support to Ukraine and further raise the cost of war for Russia.”
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Romania’s navy has carried out a controlled explosion of a mine that had drifted to its Black Sea shore, its defence ministry said. Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have a joint taskforce to defuse stray mines, which began floating in the Black Sea after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The ministry said the navy was alerted by local officials early on Tuesday about an unidentified object that had washed up on shore near Grindul Chituc in southeastern Romania. The area is part of the Danube Delta, which Romania shares with Ukraine.
Continue reading...While thousands have had to flee their homes, there is widespread feeling that the attack is a justified defence
Last Tuesday, Oksana and her family could not escape fast enough. Though they did not know it, Ukrainian regular forces had entered Russia for the first time, and Moscow’s military wasted little time in hitting back, bombing their village around seven miles from the border.
“It was 9am and the first glide bomb hit the village,” she said, and its ferocity – “very scary, much bigger” than ordinary shelling – was such that they immediately knew they had to escape. “Our neighbour drove his children first and then came back and picked me and my sister and family,” the mother of two explained.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy aide says ‘root cause of any escalation’, including into Kursk, is Moscow’s ‘unequivocal aggression’
Ukraine has publicly justified its attack into Russian territory for the first time, amid reports that its forces are advancing towards a village 13 miles (20km) inside the Kursk region on the third day of its incursion.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to the president’s office, said “the root cause of any escalation”, including into Kursk, was “unequivocal aggression” on the part of Russia in believing it could invade Ukraine with impunity.
Continue reading...Leaders expect a military response over Hamas assassination but fears grow of escalation into regional war
Vladimir Putin has reportedly told Iran to avoid civilian casualties in any retaliatory attack on Israel for the assassination of the Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, an underlining of the constraints it faces as it frames its response.
It is a call for restraint that is likely to be echoed by many foreign ministers from the 57 countries inside the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at a meeting in Jeddah on Wednesday as tensions in the Middle East grow.
Continue reading...Activists say they never agreed to leave their homeland and vow to continue fighting for democracy in Russia
Russian dissidents freed as part of a prisoner swap between Moscow and the west have shared their mixed feelings about the deal and vowed to continue their political activity from abroad.
The exchange represented a “difficult dilemma”, said the Russian liberal opposition politician Ilya Yashin at an emotional press conference in Bonn.
Continue reading...Negotiations, which began months earlier, originally included release of late opposition leader
At Cologne airport on Thursday evening, a group of associates of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny gathered waiting for a plane to arrive from Ankara. On board were 13 people who, until that morning, had been incarcerated in Russian prisons, including three people who had worked as Navalny’s regional coordinators in various Russian cities and been jailed for “extremism”.
After a swap in Turkey, they were now free, along with the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other Americans, who were heading back home on a separate plane.
Continue reading...Spokesperson hints killer exchanged in prisoner swap was linked to Putin’s personal guard
The Kremlin has admitted that Vadim Krasikov, the assassin freed by Germany in a historic prisoner swap on Thursday, is a serving officer of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), essentially an acknowledgment that his 2019 murder of a Chechen exile in Berlin was a state-ordered hit.
It also hinted that he was linked to Vladimir Putin’s personal guard.
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Yesterday evening, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris met Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and two other freed American prisoners just hours after Washington and Moscow completed their largest prisoner exchange since the cold war.
Gershkovich spoke about his feelings boarding the bus with the other freed detainees on Thursday and said he was happy to see Russians on board as well.
He also said: “I spent a month in prison in Yekaterinburg where everyone I sat with was a political prisoner. Nobody knows them publicly, they have various political beliefs, they are not all connected with Navalny supporters, who everyone knows about. I would potentially like to see if we could do something about them as well.”
The Kremlin said that Vladimir Putin’s decision to meet released prisoners as they arrived by plane in Russia “was a tribute to people who serve their country and who after very difficult trials, and thanks to the hard work of many people, have been able to return to the Motherland.”
The Kremlin also confirmed that Vadim Krasikov, a hitman returned by Germany as part of yesterday’s major prisoner swap, was an employee of Russia’s FSB security service and had served in Alpha Group, the FSB’s special forces unit.
France urged Moscow to set free French citizen Laurent Vinatier and other people still “arbitrarily” detained.
Amnesty International has welcomed the release of people held in Russia but stressed that “this isn’t the end” and “Russia must free all persons jailed for peaceful dissent.”
For a few seconds, no one even noticed that Evan Gershkovich had taken his first steps back on US soil as a free man.
Continue reading...Several foreigners and Russian political prisoners released as Germany frees hitman Vadim Krasikov as part of deal
The largest prisoner swap between Russia and the US since the cold war has taken place, as 16 people were freed from Russian custody including the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. Several other foreign citizens held in Russia and numerous Russian political prisoners were also freed.
The exchange took place at Ankara airport on Thursday in a complicated operation in which planes arrived from and departed to multiple countries.
Continue reading...Deepening military and trade links between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are making western powers uneasy
Gen Roly Walker, the head of the British army, has described it as the “axis of upheaval”. George Robertson, the new head of the UK’s defence review, has called the countries the “deadly quartet”. Either way, less than a month into a Labour government, an emerging geopolitical alignment is being highlighted as a threat.
The concerns centre on the growing military and trade links between Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Though the four are some way from a cold war-style bloc acting in concert, they have enhanced bilateral ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in a manner that has fuelled anxiety among defence officials and policymakers.
Continue reading...Russian leader says Washington risks triggering cold war-style missile crisis and promises to respond in kind
Vladimir Putin has warned the US that if Washington deploys long-range missiles in Germany from 2026, Russia will station similar missiles within striking distance of the west.
The US would start deploying long-range fire capabilities in Germany in 2026 in an effort to demonstrate its commitment to Nato and European defence, Washington and Germany said earlier this month.
Continue reading...Group of finance ministers call for sanctions to be ratcheted up amid signs Moscow’s war machine is weakening
Vladimir Putin is “peddling lies” about the strength of the Russian economy that must be refuted, finance ministers from eight EU member states have said, with growing signs of deterioration in the face of biting sanctions.
They say there are signs that the economy is being “sovietised” with many hallmarks of the former USSR including expropriation of private assets to fund public spending, a “total disregard to the social and economic wellbeing of the population” and reorientation of the economy towards its war in Ukraine.
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