A summary of today's developments
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed it has captured another three districts in the western part of the heavily contested city of Bakhmut, in the Donetsk region.
The UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update that Russia was struggling to maintain consistency in a core narrative used to justify the Ukraine war: that the invasion is akin to the Soviet experience during the second world war.
Russia has confirmed it will expel 20 German diplomats in retaliation for its own diplomats being sent home from Berlin, according to the Tass news agency. “As a reaction to the hostile actions of Berlin, the Russian side decided to mirror the expulsion of German diplomats from Russia, as well as to significantly limit the maximum number of employees of German diplomatic missions in our country,” Tass cited the Russian foreign ministry as saying.
Ukraine plans to deploy software from the US data analytics provider Palantir Technologies to help it prosecute alleged war crimes committed by Russia, the company told Reuters.
Ukraine’s operational command has reported that 11 Russian warships are in combat readiness in the Black Sea, including two submarines armed with Kalibr cruise missiles. According to Ukrinform, the press service of Ukraine’s Operational Command South reported this on Facebook.
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, again refused to be drawn into the war in Ukraine, calling for a “negotiated” settlement between Kyiv and Moscow.
Jack Teixeira, the US air national guardsman accused of leaking classified defence documents to a small group of gamers, posted sensitive information months earlier than previously known and to a much larger chat group, according to online postings reviewed by the New York Times.
A Ukrainian soldier who lost his leg and has been fighting on the frontline wearing a prosthesis will run the London Marathon to raise money and share a message of unity against Russian aggression. Roman Kashpur, from Khmelnyk in Vinnytska, lost his leg when he stood on a mine in 2019. He fought on the frontline in Ukraine wearing a prosthesis for six weeks after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The top official in Russian-occupied Crimea said its air defence systems had been activated but there were no reports of damage or casualties. “Air defence forces worked in the sky over Crimea. No damage or casualties. I ask everyone to remain calm and trust only trusted sources of information,” the official, Sergei Aksyonov, said on the messaging app Telegram.
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