Authorities posted photographs and video on Telegram channel after authoritarian ruler missed events
Belarusian authorities have released photographs and video of Alexander Lukashenko, attempting to put an end to a week of speculation about the authoritarian leader’s health.
The footage showed Lukashenko visiting an army control point, but the ruler’s heavily bandaged arm and hoarse, exhausted voice appeared to confirm rumours that he has been in poor health.
Continue reading...Ukraine president meets British prime minister in UK; Iran has sent more than 400 attack drones to Russia since August, US says. This live blog is closed
Ukraine’s president has announced that he will arrive in London on Monday for talks with UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak. In a tweet, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:
Today – London. The UK is a leader when it comes to expanding our capabilities on the ground and in the air. This cooperation will continue today. I will meet my friend Rishi. We will conduct substantive negotiations face-to-face and in delegations.
Continue reading...Surprise visit to UK by Ukrainian president for ‘substantive negotiations’ follows announcement of further military aid
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has arrived at Chequers for “substantive negotiations” with the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
In an early morning message as he landed in the UK, Zelenskiy confirmed he would “meet my friend Rishi”. He tweeted:
Continue reading...Zelenskiy visits UK for talks with Sunak as Britain announces it will send hundreds of long-range drones to Ukraine; Russia claims it downed UK-supplied Storm Shadow missile
Continue reading...Leader has not been seen publicly in nearly a week, as opposition news outlet says he was taken to an elite clinic on weekend
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, who has not been seen in public since 8 May, did not appear at a ceremony in the capital of Minsk on Sunday, triggering speculation the longtime leader is seriously ill.
The prime minister, Roman Golovchenko, read a message from Lukashenko during an annual ceremony at which young people swear allegiance to the ex-Soviet state’s flag, the BelTA state news agency reported.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy lands in Berlin to shore up support; Russian missiles strike home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision entry during song contest
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...Russia admits to Ukrainian advances in Bakhmut; two Russian pilots killed as helicopter crashes in Crimea
Continue reading...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
Continue reading...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:
Continue reading...Exclusive: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is chasing hundreds of overdue fines amid repeated requests to respect the law
Russian diplomats have refused to pay hundreds of overdue speeding, parking and traffic fines dating back more than 15 years, frustrating Australian officials who can only politely ask that they respect local laws.
Freedom of information documents obtained by Guardian Australia indicate the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) is chasing almost $90,000 from the Russian embassy for fines dating back to 2007, despite repeated requests for diplomats to respect the law.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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”.
Continue reading...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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