A court in Moscow has sentenced the opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years prison; Slovakia will temporarily halt imports of grains and other selected products from Ukraine
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Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv’s forces in ‘unprecedented’ bloody battles in Bakhmut – as it happened
Intense fighting in middle of eastern city as Russia claims advances; Sloviansk death toll rises to 11 while Russian shelling also kills two in Kherson
More on a story we reported earlier that Poland is to ban imports of Ukrainian grain to protect its own agricultural sector.
A Polish ban on imports of Ukrainian grain and other food will also apply to the transit of these products through the country, the development and technology minister has said, according to Reuters.
Poland and Hungary said on Saturday that they had decided to ban imports from neighbouring Ukraine to protect the local agricultural sector after a flood of supply depressed prices across the region. The Polish ban came into effect on Saturday evening.
Continue reading...Joy and tension as Kyiv marks Orthodox Easter without Moscow clergy
Cathedral service overseen by clerics independent of Russian-affiliated patriarchate for first time since 17th century
Dawn did not break over wartime Kyiv on Orthodox Easter Sunday. It was more that the darkness gradually paled, leaving the pinnacle of the 18th-century bell tower wreathed in a wan mist.
Soon after 5.30am, the faithful began to trickle into Dormition Cathedral, which stands at the heart of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, or Monastery of the Caves.
Continue reading...‘Not losing hope’: jailed Russia reporter Evan Gershkovich writes to his parents
Wall Street Journal reporter on espionage charges jokes about prison food in letter home
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia on espionage charges, has said in his first direct communication to his parents in the US that he is not “losing hope”, and joked in the letter about the quality of the prison food.
Gershkovich, 31, became the first American journalist to be detained in Russia on spying charges since the end of the cold war when he was detained in the city of Ekaterinburg, 1,100 miles (1,800km) east of Moscow, on 29 March.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 417 of the invasion
Death toll from Russian attack on Sloviansk apartment block rises to 11; Moscow claims Wagner forces have captured two more areas of Bakhmut
The death toll from a Russian missile strike on the eastern Ukraine city of Sloviansk has risen to 11. A block of flats was badly damaged and rescue crews were continuing on Saturday to try to rescue people trapped underneath rubble.
Russian shelling in Kherson killed two women on Saturday, the Ukrainian president’s office said.
The Wagner mercenary group has captured two more areas of Bakhmut, Russia’s defence ministry said. Ukraine’s military said pro-Kyiv forces were still holding on amid “bloody and fierce battles”. The claims have not been independently verified.
A Russian official has claimed four people were killed and 10 injured in Ukrainian shelling of a town in Russian-controlled Donetsk. Denis Pushilin said a seven-year-old girl was among those wounded in Yasynuvata.
Russia has been using drones to attack Ukrainian police in Kherson, according to the region’s police force. It said a police car was attacked in the Korabel area, injuring two officers and damaging the car, while in Beryslav one officer was injured and cars damaged.
A new international economic support package of $115bn is giving Ukraine more confidence it can prevail against Russian forces amid growing recognition the war could continue for longer than expected, the Ukrainian finance minister said on Saturday. Serhiy Marchenko said Group of Seven (G7) finance ministers assured him during International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week that they would support Ukraine for as long as needed.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, on Saturday. In two tweets, the Ukrainian president said they had discussed Macron’s recent visit to China to meet President Xi Jinping.
Poland and Hungary have banned imports of grain and other food from Ukraine to protect local farmers, officials from both countries said on Saturday. Ukraine’s grain exports have been transiting through the European Union to other countries since Ukraine’s Black Sea routes were blocked by Russia’s invasion, leading to prices being driven down.
A new Russian law has removed an obstacle that has allowed some men to dodge the draft and suggests Moscow anticipates a lengthy conflict in Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence says. Vladimir Putin was reported to have signed a bill on Friday to create a digital draft system, making it easier to mobilise Russians into the army and stirring fresh fears in the country.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has said the US should stop “encouraging war” in Ukraine “and start talking about peace”. In that way, the international community would be able to “convince” the Russian and Ukrainian presidents that “peace is in the interest of the whole world”, Lula told reporters in Beijing at the end of a visit where he met president Xi Jinping.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war live: new Russian law shows Moscow expects lengthy conflict, warns UK — as it happened
UK Ministry of Defence says Kremlin has made it harder for civilians to avoid being drafted into the army
Five Ukrainians from Russian-occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia oblast will be tried by a Russian court for being part of a “terrorist group”, according to Russian state media.
The five Ukrainians were transported from Melitopol to Crimea, which has been occupied by Russia since 2014, and subsequently transferred to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention centre in Moscow, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Continue reading...‘Something special’: same-sex couple wed in UK year on from fleeing Ukraine
Yulia and Tetiana knew they would have to marry abroad – but never in the context of an invasion
Yulia and Tetiana had spent a while deliberating over a date for their wedding before they decided it had to be 1 March – exactly a year to the day they fled the war in Ukraine.
“That date should be a sad anniversary, the anniversary of us leaving our old life behind, but we decided to rewrite this story and made it our special anniversary,” said Tetiana, 42. “We lost a lot and there is a lot of evil in this world, but we’ve turned that evil into something good.”
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 416 of the invasion
Nine killed and 21 wounded in Russian missile attack on apartment blocks in Sloviansk; Vladimir Putin signs bill sparking fears of new wave of mobilisation
Continue reading...Jack Teixeira, suspect in Pentagon leaks, charged under Espionage Act
Government to seek 10 years on each of two charges, says prosecutor in Boston court
Jack Teixeira, the air national guardsman arrested on suspicion of leaking hundreds of secret defence documents, has been charged in a Boston court on two counts under the Espionage Act as Washington reeled from the fallout of the worst leaks of US intelligence in at least a decade.
The clean-cut 21-year-old was brought into court in a beige jumpsuit, and his handcuffs were removed by a bailiff. He sat quietly, turning only once to three family members to smile weakly.
Continue reading...China agreed to secretly arm Russia, leaked Pentagon documents reveal
Intercept of Russian intelligence shows Beijing wanted to disguise lethal aid as civilian items, says report
China approved the provision of lethal aid to Russia for its war in Ukraine but wanted any shipments to remain a secret, according to leaked US government documents.
A top-secret intelligence summary dated 23 February states that Beijing had approved the incremental provision of weapons to Moscow, which it would disguise as civilian items, according to a report in the Washington Post.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war: Zelenskiy and UK prime minister discuss accelerating military support for Ukraine – as it happened
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China’s defence minister, Li Shangfu, will visit Russia from 16 to 19 April, and meet Russian military officials, Reuters reports the Chinese defence ministry said on Friday.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has claimed in its daily intelligence briefing that Ukrainian troops have been forced to make ‘orderly withdrawals’ from positions they previously held in the highly contested town of Bakhmut, and that the last two days have seen an intense artillery bombardment from Russian forces.
Russia has re-energised its assault on the Donetsk oblast town of Bakhmut as forces of the Russian ministry and Wagner group have improved cooperation.
The Ukrainian defence still holds the western districts of the town but has been subjected to particularly intense Russian artillery fire over the previous 48 hours.
Continue reading...Jack Teixeira arrested: what we know so far about Pentagon leak investigation
The 21-year-old air national guardsman was arrested in Massachusetts in connection with the leaking of Pentagon intelligence documents
- US arrests suspect behind leak of Pentagon documents
- Who is Jack Teixeira, the man arrested over Pentagon files leak?
The US Department of Justice arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, a suspect in the recent leaks of Pentagon intelligence online, US attorney general Merrick Garland announced on Thursday. The arrest was made “in connection with an investigation into an alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information,” said Garland.
Teixeira was detained at his home in the town of North Dighton, Massachusetts, by FBI agents. Helicopter news footage showed a young man with shorn dark hair, an olive green T-shirt and red shorts being made to walk backwards towards a team of agents, who were pointing their rifles at him. Teixeira will appear in court in Massachusetts on Friday.
Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder said the leak of classified information was a “deliberate, criminal act.” He added that the Pentagon had taken measures to review distribution lists and make sure that individuals who receive information had a need to know.
The leak is believed to have started on a site called Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games and where Teixeira is believed to have posted for years about guns, games and racist memes.
The investigative website Bellingcat and The New York Times first publicly identified Teixeira, minutes before federal officials confirmed he was a subject of interest in the investigation. They reported tracking profiles on other more obscure sites linked to Teixeira.
Teixeira was a “cyber transport systems specialist”, essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks, including their cabling and hubs. A defence official has told the Associated Press that in that role Teixeira would have had a higher level of security clearance – because he would have also been tasked with ensuring protection for the networks.
The likely charges, if proved, could each carry up to 10 years’ imprisonment, even if the leaker did not intend to cause harm, said Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor. Prosecutors could treat each leaked document as a separate count in his indictment.
Among the clues that lead to Teixeira’s arrest were the kitchen countertop and floor tiles in his childhood home – the surfaces appeared in the background of pictures of the leaked documents.
Teixeira is believed to have been the leader of an online chat group where hundreds of photographs of secret and top-secret documents were first uploaded, from late last year to March. The online group called itself Thug Shaker Central, made up of 20 to 30 young men and teenagers brought together by an enthusiasm for guns, military gear and video games. Racist language was a common feature of the group.
Speaking in Ireland, Joe Biden sought to play down the impact of the breach. “I’m not concerned about the leak,” Biden said. “I’m concerned that it happened. But there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that’s of great consequence.”
Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene sought to cast Teixeira as a right-wing hero, writing on Twitter, “Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and anti-war. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.”
Continue reading...Russian ally Serbia denies supplying weapons to Ukraine
President says Belgrade ‘has not nor will it’ send Kyiv arms, after leaked Pentagon paper claimed Serbia had agreed to send weapons
The Serbian president says his country has not sold arms to Ukraine and would not do so, after a leaked Pentagon report said Belgrade had agreed to provide arms to Kyiv, according to foreign media reports.
“Serbia has not nor will it export weapons to Ukraine,” Aleksandar Vučić told reporters on Thursday, according to the Beta news agency.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 415 of the invasion
MoD says Russian and Wagner troops are making gains in Donetsk frontline town; US arrests 21-year-old air national guardsman over Pentagon leaks
Continue reading...US attorney general confirms arrest of air national guardsman suspected of being behind intelligence leaks – as it happened
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Overnight the Times of London has reported that MPs have warned that British lives have been put at risk by the leak of classified US intelligence documents. It writes:
Tobias Ellwood, [the Conservative MP] who chairs the defence select committee, said the US leaks could “endanger lives”.
“Given our long-established lead in scale and capability when it comes to elite forces it will come as no surprise that our special forces are doing much of the heavy lifting,” he said.
Continue reading...Viktor Orbán’s political allies in Hungary in sights of US sanctions
Congress group drafts legislation targeting officials and government supporters, mainly affiliated to Fidesz party
A bipartisan group in Congress is drafting US sanctions that would target leading Hungarian political figures tied to the Orbán government, as the relationship between the two countries continues to spiral downwards.
The sanctions bill would name former officials and government supporters, mostly affiliated with the Fidesz party of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán.
Continue reading...UK imposes sanctions on ‘enablers’ accused of helping Russian oligarchs
‘Financial fixers’ alleged to have helped Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov to hide assets are among those targeted
The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped the Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets.
The sanctions, announced by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as “oligarch enablers”, whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war live: US sanctions over 120 people and entities supporting Russia’s invasion — as it happened
Latest sanctions target a wide network tied to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov
Associated Press today has a feature on people in Ukraine who are in need of mental health treatment after months of war.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in this situation, experts say, and the number of people needing psychological help is only expected to rise as the war continues.
Continue reading...US feared Ukraine could fall ‘well short’ in spring counter-offensive, leaks reveal
‘Top secret’ document reportedly warned Kyiv faced shortfalls in troops and weaponry and suggested any gains would be modest
US intelligence reportedly warned in February that Ukraine might fail to amass sufficient troops and weaponry for its planned spring counter-offensive, and might fall “well short” of Kyiv’s goals for recapturing territory seized by Russia, according to one of a trove of leaked defence documents.
A document tagged as “top secret” quoted by the Washington Post said that Kyiv was facing significant “force generation and sustainment shortfalls” and was therefore only likely to achieve “modest territorial gains”. The document is a snapshot of the situation in early February, and it is unclear how far Ukraine, with the support of Nato member states, has been able to make up the shortfalls since then.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war live: Hungary signs new energy deals with Russia; UN tally of Ukraine civilian deaths approaches 8,500
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The RIA Novosti news agency in Russia reports on its Telegram channel that yesterday an unknown drone fell near Belgorod airport. Citing emergency services, it said “there were no casualties, the fence was slightly damaged”.
The claims have not been independently verified.
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