A summary of today's developments
Ukrainian forces are working to strengthen defensive lines and positions along the border with Belarus and Russia, the defence ministry has said, citing Lt Gen Serhiy Nayev, commander of the joint forces of Ukraine’s armed forces.
More than 30 children have returned to Ukraine and reunited with their families after they were taken illegally to Russia, according to the Ukrainian organisation Save Ukraine. “Сhildren abducted by Russians from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions have been reunited with their families after several months of separation,” it said.
Russia’s campaign to break down Ukraine’s unified energy system within the past winter period has “highly likely failed”, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. Large-scale long-range attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure have become rare since early March, it said.
Ukraine’s ministry of defence provided the latest figures on the conflict. It said 177,680 Russian troops have been killed and 7,020 armoured combat vehicles have been destroyed.Ukrainians have been marking the first anniversary of a missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station in eastern Ukraine, which killed at least 58 people, including several children. The attack took place on 8 April 2022, when the station was packed with women, children and elderly people waiting to be evacuated.
The Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration, Sergei Aksyonov, said a missile fired from Ukraine was shot down over the Black Sea town of Feodosia. An adviser to Aksyonov was cited as saying that debris had fallen in a Crimean town, but no damage or casualties have been reported.
A Ukrainian government minister is due to visit India on Monday and will seek humanitarian aid and equipment to repair energy infrastructure damaged during Russia’s invasion, the Hindu newspaper said on Saturday. Ukraine’s first deputy foreign minister, Emine Dzhaparova, will make the first visit to India by a Ukrainian government minister since Russia’s invasion.
The US justice department has launched an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents. Documents posted on several social media sites including Twitter appear to detail US and Nato aid to Ukraine, but may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign.
RT France has been put into liquidation by a French court, the organisation’s former president said.
The French arm of Russia’s RT broadcaster’s accounts were frozen over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Xenia Fedorova, RT France ex-president, tweeted: “The court of Nanterre took the decision to put RT France into liquidation - a media outlet which has not pleased Emmanuel Macron since its launch and which was sanctioned by the EU a year ago as [a preventative measure] due to the conflict in Ukraine.”
Fedorova added that more than 100 employees will be made redundant.
The EU banned Russian state-controlled media outlets RT and Sputnik in March 2022 in a bid to crack down on disinformation over the war in Ukraine.
