A summary of today's developments

 

26m ago

18.48 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/apr/02/russia-ukraine-war-live-absurd-and-destructive-for-russia-to-chair-security-council-says-zelenskiy

 

A summary of today's developments

• A prominent pro-war Russian military blogger has been killed in a blast in a cafe in central St Petersburg, Russia’s interior ministry has said. Vladlen Tatarsky, whose real name was Maxim Fomin, had more than 560,000 followers on Telegram and was one of the country’s most influential military bloggers. The interior ministry said 19 people were injured in the blast on Sunday. Tatarsky was among the attendees at a Kremlin ceremony last September where Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russia’s annexation of four partly occupied regions of Ukraine, a move widely condemned by the international community. It is unclear whether the blast was directly linked to the conflict with Ukraine.
• Russian forces have seen an “extremely high” number of incidents – including deaths – attributed to drunkenness during the war, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its daily briefing. “While Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a significant minority of these have been due to non-combat causes. On 27 March 2023, a Russian Telegram news channel reported there have been ‘extremely high’ numbers of incidents, crimes and deaths linked to alcohol consumption amongst the deployed Russian forces.”
• At least three civilians have been killed and six wounded in Russian shelling of Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine on Sunday morning, Reuters quotes a senior Ukrainian official as saying.
• The European Union will stand against any abuse during Russia’s leadership of the United Nations security council over the next month, its top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said. Borrell told Agence France-Presse: “Despite being a permanent member of the security council, Russia continuously violates the very essence of the UN legal framework. The EU will stand against any abuse by [the] Russian presidency.”
• The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, held a phone call with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, Reuters reports. Lavrov reportedly claimed that Washington was trying to politicise the case of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been accused of spying in Russia, calling this unacceptable. The Russian foreign ministry said Lavrov told Blinken that Gershkovich’s fate would be determined by a court.
• Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s electricity transmission operator, said it has fully restored power to the country after a “massive missile attack” on 9 March. The company said there were no restrictions on energy consumption after it finished its work in the central region, Sky News reported.