A Tu-95 bomber pilot has been shot in the Russian city of Engels, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate, the GUR. “The commander of the crew of the Tu-95 strategic bomber, Maj Oleg Sergeevich Stegachyov, was shot … he is directly involved in launching missile strikes on civilian objects in Ukraine and killing our people.” The GUR said it was clarifying whether he survived. “We remind you that retribution awaits all war criminals – we know your names, addresses, car numbers, usual routes and habits.”
More than two dozen people, mostly journalists, were detained on Saturday at a protest in central Moscow where wives and other relatives of Russian servicemen mobilised to fight in Ukraine called for their return, according to a Reuters witness and independent Russian news reports.
Belgium is asking G7 countries to consider using €260bn in seized Russian assets held by the west as collateral for loans to Ukraine, according to a report in the Financial Times. This would avoid questions around the legality of seizing the assets outright, as has also been considered by Ukraine’s allies, according to the paper.
In the US, Republicans in the House of Representatives have put forward a bill funding military aid to Israel, but pointedly excluding Ukraine. The US Senate has already put together a bipartisan compromise bill that covers Israel, Ukraine and US-Mexico border security.
Ukraine is close to signing security agreements with France and Germany, with texts being finalised, according to the Ukrainian government.
Russia said 20 people died after shelling of the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, which is under Russian occupation. Ukrainian officials have not made any statement on the incident, but Ukraine has previously stated that it deliberately attacks only military sites, in contrast with Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of civilians.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has rowed back from a statement he made on Saturday in which he cast doubt over Ukraine’s ability to retake Crimea.
The actor Milos Bikovic has been dropped from the cast of popular TV series The White Lotus, according to the HBO network, after the Serbian’s ties to Russia drew rebukes from Ukraine.
Two Ukrainian drones struck the largest oil refinery in southern Russia on Saturday. Local authorities in Russia said a fire broke out at the Volgograd refinery of the Lukoil company.
Ukraine’s air defences downed nine of 14 Russian drones in an attack on Saturday morning that hit energy infrastructure in the city of Kryvyi Rih, the air force and regional officials said.
