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1h ago
07.09 BST
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Hello and
welcome back to our coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton
with the latest developments to bring you up to speed.
A fuel tank
was on fire in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol in what appeared to be a
drone strike, the Moscow-installed governor said on Saturday.
“According
to preliminary information, the fire was caused by a drone hit,” Mikhail
Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile,
five children are among the dead as the toll from Russia’s wave of missile
attacks on cities across Ukraine rose to 25.
Rescue
workers were searching for survivors and bodies amid the smouldering rubble of
a nine-storey block of flats hit in Uman, central Ukraine. The barrage of more
than 20 missiles early on Friday is Russia’s first large-scale air strike in
almost two months.
The
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, described Uman as “absolutely
peaceful” and condemned the attacks, saying: “Only absolute evil can unleash
such terror against Ukraine.”
He added:
“Our air force managed to shoot down most of the Russian missiles – 21 out of
23. If not for this, the terrorist state would have managed to claim many more
casualties, more lives.”
More on
those stories shortly. In other news:
- Five EU countries have agreed on a deal to allow the transit of Ukrainian food exports, the European Commission has said, after temporary bans were imposed on the foodstuffs amid protests by farmers. The agreement with Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia comes as limits on Ukraine grain’s export channel via the Black Sea necessitate export overland via the country’s neighbours.
- A leaked internal review commissioned by Amnesty International is said to have concluded there were significant shortcomings in a controversial report prepared by the rights group that accused Ukraine of illegally endangering citizens by placing armed forces in civilian areas. The report last August prompted widespread anger in Ukraine, leading to an apology from Amnesty and a promise of a review by external experts.
- Ukraine’s forces are concluding their preparations for a long-expected spring counteroffensive against invading Russian troops and are ready, broadly speaking, the country’s defence minister has said. Oleksii Reznikov told an online briefing on Friday: “As soon as there is God’s will, the weather and a decision by commanders, we will do it.” He gave no date for the start of the counteroffensive, aimed at repelling Russian forces from the east and south, but said: “Globally speaking, we are to a high percentage ready.”
- Ukrainian troops put bullets into clips for use with light machine-guns in training as its forces ready for the spring counteroffensive
- Ukrainian troops put bullets into clips for use with light machine-guns in training as its forces ready for the spring counteroffensive. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty Images
- President Vladimir Putin has said Russia needs to act quickly and as a “cohesive team” to counter the west’s “economic aggression”, adding that Moscow would expand ties with countries in Eurasia, Africa and Latin America.
- A Ukrainian journalist, who formerly worked for the BBC, has been killed fighting on the frontline. Oleksandr Bondarenko volunteered for Ukraine’s territorial defence after Russia’s invasion in February 2022 and later became part of the military. Details of how he was killed in action are not yet known, BBC News reports. Bondarenko, known as Sasha or Sashko, worked from 2007 to 2011 at the BBC’s Ukrainian service, broadcasting from Kyiv. His colleagues paid tribute to the “extraordinary” reporter and news presenter.
- A Russian navy vessel specialising in submarine operations was photographed near the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines just days before the mysterious blasts last September, according to the Danish daily newspaper Information. The prosecutor leading Sweden’s investigation into the sabotage of the pipelines linking Russia to Germany confirmed the existence of the previously publicly unknown photographs.
- The UK has signed a £1.9bn ($2.4bn) deal with Poland to provide the country with a British-designed air defence system. About 22 Polish air defence batteries will be equipped with common anti-air modular missiles (Camms) and launchers as part of the arrangement. It expands on pre-existing defence ties with Poland, where Camms are already deployed with the British army following Russia’s invasion.
- Russia informed the UN’s nuclear watchdog that equipment spotted at Ukraine’s Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant would be used to fix a power transmission line that leads to Russian-held territory, the watchdog said on Friday. The planned restoration of the downed power line could heighten Ukrainian fears that Russia is preparing to connect Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, to the power grid of territory that it controls.
- International Atomic Energy Agency arrive under Russian escort at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in late March
- International Atomic Energy Agency experts arrive under Russian escort at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in late March. Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters
- Vladimir Putin has signed a decree giving people living in parts of Ukraine that are under Moscow’s control a route to Russian citizenship – but it also means that those who decline it, or do not legalise their status, potentially face deportation. The decree – which covers Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – sets out ways that Ukrainian citizens living there can start the process of becoming Russian citizens or legalise their status.
- Spain’s foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador over a video shared on the embassy’s social media accounts that falsely portrayed Spanish troops fighting in Ukraine. Spanish media said the video, which has now been taken down, showed what the embassy claimed were Spanish soldiers on the battlefield, set against a clip of Spain’s defence minister, Margarita Robles, saying Spanish troops would never fight in Ukraine.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
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