1h ago
07.00 BST
Opening summary
Welcome
back to our live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. I’m Christine Kearney and
here’s a run through of the latest developments.
Volodymyr
Zelenskiy is attempting to win support from the wider international community
during a furious round of diplomacy on the final day of the G7 summit in
Hiroshima.
He is due
to meet US president Joe Biden for a bilateral meeting on Sunday afternoon amid
speculation that Washington could announce a new weapons package for Ukraine.
French
president Emmanuel Macron said the G7 summit in Japan was an opportunity to
convince big emerging states such as India and Brazil regarding Ukraine. Macron
said Zelenskiy’s surprise visit was a “game changer”. The Ukrainian president
is due to speak at 7.15 pm (1015 GMT) on Sunday.
Meanwhile,
Kyiv has denied a claim by the head of Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, that the Russian
mercenary group has full control of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Neither
statement can be independently verified.
More on the
G7 and other stories shortly. In other news:
- Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin made the Bakhmut victory claim in a video in which he appeared in combat fatigues in front of a line of fighters holding Russian flags and Wagner banners. “Today, at 12 noon, Bakhmut was completely taken,” Prigozhin said. He said that his forces would withdraw from Bakhmut from 25 May for rest and retraining.
- The Russian defence ministry also said the capture of Bakhmut had been ‘completed’ and president Vladimir Putin congratulated troops. He said those who had distinguished themselves would be given awards, domestic Russian news agencies reported.
- Speaking before the Russian ministry’s statement, Ukraine’s military rejected Prigozhin’s claim and said its troops were continuing to fight in the ruined eastern city. “This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut,” military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told Reuters. In its daily update early Sunday, the military also said: ‘Fighting for the city of Bakhmut does not stop.”
- Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said the situation in Bakhmut was critical, with Ukrainian troops maintaining a defence in the south-western part of the city. “Heavy fighting in Bakhmut. The situation is critical,” she said on the Telegram messaging app. “As of now, our defenders control some industrial and infrastructure facilities in the area and the private sector.”
- The G7 has condemned Russia’s “brutal” war on its neighbour Ukraine “in the strongest possible terms”, calling it a “serious violation of international law”, in its final communique from this week’s summit in Japan. The world leaders called for “just and lasting peace” and recommitted their intention to provide Ukraine with military, financial and humanitarian support.
- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had invited India to join Ukraine’s peace formula during his talks with the country’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, on the sidelines of the summit. Zelenskiy said on Telegram that they also discussed Ukraine’s needs in de-mining and mobile hospitals during their first face-to-face meeting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Reuters reported.
- The US president, Joe Biden, will announce a $375m military aid package for Ukraine while in Japan, a US official has said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Friday that the package would include artillery, ammunition and Himars rocket launchers, Reuters reported.
- Joe Biden, walks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of a working session on Ukraine at the G7.
- Joe Biden, walks with Volodymyr Zelenskiy ahead of a working session on Ukraine at the G7. Photograph: Reuters
- Western countries will be running “colossal risks” if they supply Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets, the Tass news agency quoted the Russian deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, as saying on Saturday. Biden has told G7 leaders that Washington supports joint allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighters, senior US officials said.
- Pope Francis has tasked a leading Italian cardinal with a mission in hopes it can “ease tensions” in the Ukraine war and lead to a path of peace, the Vatican said Saturday. In a brief written statement, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that Francis had entrusted the mission to Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who is close to the pontiff. The Associated Press reports that Bruni said the timetable and the mechanics of the mission “are currently under study.”
- The international criminal court said on Saturday that it was “undeterred” after Russia put prosecutor Karim Khan on a wanted list over his issuance of an arrest warrant for president Vladimir Putin. Khan, who is British, issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March on the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children. Khan’s picture could be seen in the Russian interior ministry’s database on Friday.
- An aide to the Polish president, Andrzej Duda,
has said the object that entered Poland’s airspace last year and was found in
April was a Russian-made rocket. Associated Press reports that the aide, Paweł
Szrot, said on Radio RMF FM on Friday that the nose of the rocket had been
found and that it was “peculiar” because it was made of concrete. It was being examined by experts.
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