4h ago
05.58 BST
Opening summary
Welcome
back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with
the latest.
Our top
stories this morning:
Russian air defences downed a Ukrainian military drone
before it could attack its targets near Moscow on Friday, the RIA news agency
cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying.
The ministry said the incident caused no casualties or
damage to buildings.
And China’s economic ties with Russia have helped
limit the effect of punishing western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion
of Ukraine, a US intelligence report said on Thursday.
Elsewhere:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy posted a video showing
Ukrainian soldiers saying they had recaptured the village of Staromaiorske. In
the video, the fighters say they have “liberated the village”, located east of
Zaporizhzhia city.
Vladimir Putin said Ukrainian attacks had
intensified in recent days, primarily on the frontline running through
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Speaking to Russian TV on the margins of the
Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Putin said Ukraine had not had success
on any part of the front.
Putin used the Russia-Africa summit in St
Petersburg to announce that Russia could replace Ukraine as a supplier of grain
to African nations. Having pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative and
accused by Ukraine of blocking ships reaching Ukrainian ports, Putin said
Moscow would be ready to start supplying grain for free to six African
countries within three to four months. He named Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali,
Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea as recipients.
Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to be among the
attenders at the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg. Late on Wednesday, a
close ally of Prigozhin posted a picture purportedly showing the Wagner group
leader meeting African officials. In the unverified photograph, Prigozhin is
seen standing next to a senior official from Central African Republic (CAR),
which has welcomed thousands of Wagner mercenaries over the last few years.
The British government has allowed Russian
oligarchs under sanctions to spend hundreds of thousands on perks such as
private chefs, chauffeurs and housekeepers thanks to numerous sanction
exemptions, according to a New York Times report.
The European Commission has no money to help
Ukraine with extra transport costs after the Black Sea deal collapse, reports
suggest. Sources told Reuters that the commission had no immediate money in the
budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs that
Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal.
Russia has granted debt relief on more than $684m
owed by Somalia in a deal finalised on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa
summit, Somali officials have said. “This step will play a big role in the
completion of the country’s debt forgiveness process,” the Somali finance
minister, Bihi Egeh, said of the deal with Moscow in a post on the ministry’s
Facebook page.
Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-born British
newspaper owner, has claimed he was a victim of “Russophobia” in the UK amid
the war in Ukraine. In an article in the Evening Standard newspaper – of which
he is the owner – Lebedev said the UK was “long overdue” a reckoning with
“corporate hypocrisy”.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário