EU hopeful of sealing deal to supply Ukraine with €2bn of ammunition

Bloc’s most senior diplomat says procurement needs to be ‘quick, cheap and in the necessary amounts’ to replenish dwindling stocks

EU ministers are hopeful of finalising an agreement to supply Ukraine with €2bn (£1.75bn) of ammunition to bolster its defences against Russia’s invasion.

The EU’s most senior diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he hoped the bloc’s foreign and defence ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday would reach an agreement on replenishing Ukraine’s dwindling stocks. “I hope that the ministers will, all of them, engage in a final discussion and agree on a very important decision,” he told reporters. “Otherwise we will be in difficulties in order to continue to supplying arms to Ukraine.”

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Xi Jinping says China ready to ‘stand guard over world order’ on Moscow visit

Chinese leader expected to position himself as peacemaker but US condemns Xi for providing ‘diplomatic cover’ for atrocities in Ukraine

Xi Jinping said China was ready with Russia “to stand guard over the world order based on international law” as he arrived for a state visit to Moscow that comes days after Vladimir Putin was made the subject of an arrest warrant by the international criminal court.

The Chinese leader is expected to position himself as a potential peacemaker in the Ukraine war during his two-day visit to Russia – his first state visit since Putin’s invasion. For his part, the Russian president will be hoping to project unity in the face of western isolation, as the US condemned Xi for providing “diplomatic cover” for Moscow to continue to commit further crimes in Ukraine.

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‘Good old friend’: Putin offers praise for Xi ahead of first trip to Russia since Ukraine invasion

Russian president lauds Xi ahead of meeting, while Beijing calls for a ‘rational way’ out of the crisis

Vladimir Putin has praised “good old friend” Xi Jinping in a newspaper article published in China on the eve of a state visit by the Chinese president that will reaffirm the leaders’ strong ties and provide Moscow with an opportunity to emphasise that it has not been isolated by the global community.

The two leaders, who are believed to share a strong personal relationship, will meet one-on-one on Monday, followed by an informal lunch, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin visits Mariupol in first trip to occupied eastern Ukraine – as it happened

Russian president flew in by helicopter and then drove a car in several districts of the city, site of one of the war’s bloodiest battles


The Financial Times’ Moscow bureau chief Max Seddon has tweeted that, according to the Kremlin, Putin visited the restored Mariupol philharmonic

Russian state media is reporting that Vladimir Putin has today visited a command post in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. Russian state-owned news agency TASS said Putin held a meeting at a military command and control post in the Russian city.

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Vladimir Putin pays surprise visit to occupied Mariupol in Ukraine

Russian president makes first trip to Donbas region since invasion, in show of defiance after ICC arrest warrant

Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the occupied Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Saturday night in a show of defiance after the international criminal court issued an arrest warrant for him on war crimes charges.

Russian state media released footage showing the president on his first trip to Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine’s Donbas region since he launched a full-scale invasion last year.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 389 of the invasion

Russia accused of using cluster bombs in Kramatorsk strikes that leave two dead after a series of attacks the previous day; Black Sea grain deal renewed

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded eight in Kramatorsk on Saturday, mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said, accusing Moscow of having used cluster bombs in the attack on the eastern Ukrainian city. Agence France-Presse reporters heard about 10 explosions go off nearly simultaneously and saw smoke above a park in the city’s south. A woman died at the scene from her wounds, they said. Soon after, another round of explosions was heard in a neighbourhood 2km away.

Russia launched a series of attacks on Friday, according to the Ukrainian armed forces. Seven homes in the village of Veletenske in the Kherson region were destroyed and a nursery was damaged on Friday, but no one was injured, it said. The update, which the Guardian has not verified, also said 10 Iranian-made Shahed drones had been shot down, and that Ukrainian forces had “repelled more than 100 enemy attacks”.

Ukraine said some of the overnight drone attacks hit the relatively peaceful western region of Lviv. Dnipro was also targeted, as was Kyiv, where air defences shot down all attacking drones. Ukraine’s air force said 11 out of 16 drones were destroyed.

The Black Sea grain deal was renewed, according to parties to the agreement. Turkey and the UN announced the initiative was extended, but did not say for how long. A spokesperson for Russia’s defence ministry said it had notified other parties that the deal was extended for 60 days, while a Ukrainian minister said the deal was extended for 120 days.

Another 880 Russian soldiers were reportedly killed on Friday, according to unverified totals published by the Ukrainian army. Its general staff said that it meant more than 164,000 Russian service personnel had been killed since the outbreak of war in February last year. Another five tanks, seven armoured combat vehicles and eight artillery systems were disabled by Ukrainian forces, it said in an update posted on Facebook.

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group plans to recruit about 30,000 new fighters by the middle of May, its founder has said. In an audio message on Telegram on Saturday, Yevgeny Prigozhin said that Wagner recruitment centres, which he said last week had opened in 42 Russian cities, were hiring an average of 500-800 people a day.

Russia would probably introduce wider conscription to boost its military requirements, the UK Ministry of Defence said. In its latest intelligence update, it said Russian Duma deputies introduced a bill to change the conscription age for men from the current 18-27 to 21-30. The law would probably be passed, it said, and come into force in January 2024.

Senior Ukrainian and US security officials met via video link on Saturday, with representatives of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government asking for further assistance, including more equipment, weapons and ammunition. Zelenskiy joined the call at the end of the meeting and discussed his forces’ hopes to retake areas Russia has captured.

The US president, Joe Biden, said the international criminal court’s (ICC’s) arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “justified”. “But the question is – it’s not recognised internationally by us either,” Biden said, referring to the US not being a member of the ICC. “But I think it makes a very strong point.”

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also welcomed the ICC’s decision, saying: “The international criminal court is the right institution to investigate war crimes … The fact is nobody is above the law and that’s what’s becoming clear right now.”

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, visited the annexed peninsula of Crimea to mark nine years since Russia seized it. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said Putin visited an art school and a children’s centre. These locations appear to have been chosen in response to the ICC’s arrest warrant, which accuses Putin of being responsible for the abduction of children.

The Biden administration has quietly resumed deportations to Russia, an apparent reversal of the position adopted after Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago, when such removals were suspended, the Guardian has learned

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Joe Biden hails decision to issue ICC arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin

US president joined by German chancellor in support of action taken after Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children

The US president, Joe Biden, has backed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over his role in the abduction of Ukrainian children, saying it was “justified”.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was among other international leaders who welcomed the decision, saying on Saturdayyesterday that it showed “nobody is above the law”.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin visits Crimea to mark anniversary of annexation – as it happened

Russia seized Crimea in 2014, eight years before launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This blog is now closed

Ukraine has released details of overnight drone attacks by Russia.

Some hit the relatively peaceful region of Lviv in the west of Ukraine. Dnipro was also targeted, as was Kyiv, where air defences shot down all attacking drones.

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‘It’s justified’: Joe Biden welcomes ICC arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin

US president says Russian leader has clearly committed war crimes and move makes ‘a very strong point’

Joe Biden has welcomed the international criminal court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian president for war crimes in Ukraine.

The US president said Vladimir Putin had clearly committed war crimes and that the arrest warrant for the Russian leader made a “very strong point”.

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Biden administration quietly resumes deportations to Russia

Exclusive: Apparent reversal of position adopted after invasion of Ukraine sends men fleeing Putin’s draft back to Russia

The Biden administration has quietly resumed deportations to Russia, an apparent reversal of the position adopted after Russia invaded Ukraine just over a year ago, when such removals were suspended, the Guardian has learned.

Immigration advocates were taken by surprise when a young Russian man, who came to the US fleeing Vladimir Putin’s efforts to mobilize citizens to fight in Ukraine, was abruptly deported at the weekend from the US back to Russia.

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Kremlin likely to spin ICC arrest warrant as proof west wants to remove Putin

Supporters of the invasion of Ukraine are portraying the court’s decision as a sign of western antagonism to Russia

The international criminal court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin will probably be portrayed as a point of no return in Russia, where the Kremlin will spin the court’s decision as proof that the west is seeking nothing short of regime change.

While Putin has already been preparing his public for a long war, the arrest warrant will for the first time raise the concrete possibility that Russia’s leaders and other prominent supporters of the war could face justice at The Hague if they ever find themselves under arrest.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Putin’s ‘travel options extremely limited’ after international criminal court warrant – as it happened

Russian president accused of ‘unlawful deportation’ of children ‘from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation’

The state-owned Russian news agency RIA is reporting that Russia’s defence secretary, Sergei Shoigu, has presented state awards to the pilots of the Su-27 planes involved in the drone incident over the Black Sea for “preventing the violation of the borders of the special operation area by the American MQ-9 Reaper drone”.

More details soon …

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Putin’s alleged war crimes: who are the Ukrainian children being taken by Russia?

What we know about the children behind the indictment of Vladimir Putin and his children’s commissioner for abduction

Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

The international criminal court in The Hague has indicted the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the mass abduction of Ukrainian children.

This means there is now an international arrest warrant out for Putin, a reflection of the speed with which the international legal community has pursued allegations of war crimes during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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Xi Jinping to visit Russia in show of support for Vladimir Putin

China says president will meet Russian leader next week with aim of deepening partnership

China’s president is to visit Russia next week in an apparent show of support for Vladimir Putin, the Chinese foreign ministry has said.

The Kremlin also announced the visit, scheduled for 20-22 March, saying it would take place “at the invitation of Vladimir Putin”.

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One person dead in FSB centre blast in Rostov-on-Don, Russian agencies say

Footage shows thick black smoke billowing from security service building near eastern Ukraine

At least one person has been killed and two people injured in a blast and fire at a building belonging to Russia’s FSB security service in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, according to officials quoted by Russian news agencies.

Footage captured on Thursday by Reuters showed thick black smoke billowing into the air near residential buildings and a shopping centre in Rostov, the capital of a region that adjoins parts of eastern Ukraine where battles with Russia are raging.

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Russia-Ukraine war: UN says Russia has committed ‘wide range’ of war crimes; Poland to transfer four MIG-29 planes to Ukraine – as it happened

War crimes in Ukraine include wilful killings, systematic torture and deportation of children, says UN report; Polish president says handover to come within days

Suspilne correspondents are reporting that explosions have been heard in Kherson this morning.

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, reports that the Russian military destroyed and damaged private houses and infrastructure facilities in two settlements in the Kharkiv region overnight. The claim has not been independently verified.

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US releases footage of Russian jet crashing into American drone over Black Sea

Pentagon says video has been edited for length but shows events in sequential order

A remarkable video released by the Pentagon shows the moments before a Russian fighter crashed into a $32m US Reaper drone after spraying it with jet fuel on Tuesday morning over the Black Sea.

The declassified footage shows an Su-27 Flanker jet making two exceptionally close passes of the uncrewed drone, spraying fuel in front of it, a harassment tactic that US experts say has not been seen before.

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Russian soldier who confessed to killing Ukrainian civilian jailed over ‘fake news’

Daniil Frolkin handed 5.5-year sentence in move widely seen as attempt to silence other servicemen

A Russian soldier who confessed to killing a civilian in Ukraine last year has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army.

In an interview with the independent news outlet Istories last August, Daniil Frolkin, 21, said he shot and killed a male civilian in Andriivka, a village near Kyiv that was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the start of the invasion.

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