Closing summary
That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war live blog today. Here’s a look at today’s key developments:
At least 10 civilians have been killed and 20 wounded as a result of long-range Russian bombardment in several parts of Ukraine on Friday, according to officials. Among them included two people who died in heavy Russian shelling of the town of Bilopillia in Sumy province in northern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said.
At least five people, including three women, were killed after a Russian missile struck an “invincibility point” set up to offer refuge for Ukrainian civilians in the city of Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, according to local officials. The invincibility point was one of many such shelters created by authorities across Ukraine to provide access to electricity, heating, water and other basic services. Prosecutors said the Russians attacked with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.
The Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was preparing for a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Putin’s powerful security council, further warned that Moscow was ready to use “absolutely any weapon” if Ukraine attempted to retake the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has claimed Russian forces were “running out of steam” in Bakhmut and its commanders have started to raise the prospect of an unlikely turnaround in the largely ravaged city. “Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliia and Kupyansk,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces, said, referring to previous successful Ukrainian attacks.
About 10,000 civilians, many of them elderly and with disabilities, are living in “very dire conditions” in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Several thousand civilians are estimated to remain in the city itself, the ICRC’s Umar Khan said. “They are living in very dire conditions, spending almost the entire days in intense shelling in the shelters,” he said.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said the “friendship” between China and Russia has limits, and that Europe should welcome any attempts by Beijing to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine. He said China “has not crossed any red lines for us”, adding that Beijing’s proposals to end the war showed it did not want to fully align with Russia. The EU should welcome this, Borrell said, even if western officials have made clear they do not regard Beijing’s initiative as a fully-fledged peace plan.
The bodies of 83 Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting in the war have been returned from the Russian side, according to a Ukrainian official. Separately, Ukraine said it handed over an undisclosed number of seriously wounded Russian soldiers.
Seven Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families after being forcibly taken to Russian-occupied Crimea, according to the Kherson regional military administration. As Ukrainian troops advanced into Kherson last autumn to try and retake the region from Russian control, families were being pressured by local Russian officials to send their children away to Russian-occupied Crimea, where they said they would be safer staying at summer camp.
UN human rights monitors have documented dozens of summary killings of prisoners of war (POWs) carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian forces since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new report published today. The report, by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the findings were based on confirmed cases and the actual number was likely higher, and that they “may constitute war crimes”.
The air forces of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have agreed on a goal to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia. Air force commanders of the four Nordic nations signed a declaration of intent to operate their fighter jets as one fleet, based on already known ways of operating under Nato, according to statements by the four countries’ armed forces.
The Kremlin has said it is “critically important” to identify an object that was discovered next to one of the Nord Stream pipelines. The Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, has accepted an invitation by the Danish Energy Agency to help salvage the unidentified object, discovered during an inspection of the only remaining intact gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
The security situation around the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv will have to improve before its ports can be included in a deal allowing the safe export of Ukrainian grain, a senior Ukrainian official has said. The deal was extended this month, but Kyiv and Moscow differ over how long the extension will last.
A Russian security officer who fled the country because he objected to the invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in high-security prison, according to a report. Federal protective service Maj Mikhail Zhilin, 36, fled to Kazakhstan last year when Russia announced a conscription campaign, illegally crossing the border through woods while his wife and children drove through a checkpoint. Kazakhstan handed him over to Russia late last year.
The son of a Russian regional governor who was due to be extradited from Italy to the US has disappeared, according to reports. US authorities have accused Artyom Uss, the son of the governor of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, of illegal oil and weapons trade, money laundering, and sanction violations.
The US treasury has imposed sanctions on three Belarusian state-linked entities and nine individuals in response to an ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy activists after a wave of protests following a presidential election that the west and Belarusian opposition denounced as a sham.
Here are some of the latest images we have received from the news wires from the frontline near Bakhmut.
Seven Ukrainian children have been reunited with their families after being forcibly taken to Russian-occupied Crimea, according to the Kherson regional military administration.
The children were brought back with the foundation Save Ukraine, a statement from the regional military administration said. It said:
Seven children from the Kherson region, who had been separated from their families for almost six months, have finally arrived in their land liberated from the enemy.
As Ukrainian troops advanced into Kherson last autumn to try and retake the region from Russian control, families were being pressured by local Russian officials to send their children away to Russian-occupied Crimea, where they said they would be safer staying at summer camp.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said the “friendship” between China and Russia has limits, and that Europe should welcome any attempts by Beijing to distance itself from Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Borrell was speaking to reporters, days after a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vladimr Putin in Moscow.
While China had forged close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia, it had not formed a military alliance with Moscow and had not supplied arms to help it in its war in Ukraine, Borrell said. He said:
This unlimited friendship seems to have some limits.
He said China “has not crossed any red lines for us”, adding that Beijing’s proposals to end the war showed it did not want to fully align with Russia. China wanted to play the role of a “facilitator”, rather than a mediator, he said.
The EU should welcome this, Borrell said, even if western officials have made clear they do not regard Beijing’s initiative as a fully-fledged peace plan.
As Russia has welcomed China’s proposals, “China appears in a role that I think we should push,” he said.
Nordic nations agree joint air defence plan to counter Russian threat
The air forces of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark have agreed on a goal to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia.
Air force commanders of the four Nordic nations signed a declaration of intent to operate their fighter jets as one fleet, based on already known ways of operating under Nato, according to statements by the four countries’ armed forces.
Denmark’s air force said:
The ultimate goal is to be able to operate seamlessly together as one force by developing a Nordic concept for joint air operations based on already known Nato methodology.
The cooperation will encompass integrated command and control, operational planning and execution, flexible deployment of forces, joint airspace surveillance and training.
Commander of the Danish air force, Major General Jan Dam, told Reuters:
Our combined fleet can be compared to a large European country.
Norway has 57 F-16 fighter jets and 37 F-35 fighter jets with 15 more of the latter on order. Finland has 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets and 64 F-35s on order, while Denmark has 58 F-16s and 27 F-35s on order. Sweden has more than 90 Gripens jets. It was unclear how many of those planes were operational.
The US treasury has imposed sanctions on three Belarusian state-linked entities and nine individuals in response to an ongoing crackdown on pro-democracy activists after a wave of protests following a presidential election that the west and Belarusian opposition denounced as a sham.
The treasury also identified a US-made Boeing 737 jet as the property of the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin who has been sanctioned by the US.
The sanctions prohibit Americans from doing business with the designated entities and individuals, and could bring similar measures against any financial institutions or persons who conduct transactions with them.
In a statement, the US treasury said it was sanctioning two major Belarusian automotive makers, including the Belarusian Automobile Plant, which it called one of the world’s biggest producers of large trucks and dump trucks, as well as the Minsk Automobile Plant.
Sanctions have also been imposed on seven members of Belarus’ central election commission, as well as the commission itself.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US “will continue to impose costs on the regime and those who support it for their repression of the people of Belarus” and for the Belarusian government’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Maria Mayer and Ludwig Gisch settled in Slovenia’s capital, Ljubljana, in 2017, with their two young children. People who met the couple tended to like them; the new arrivals from Latin America were friendly but never overbearing, inquisitive but never pushy.
Maria opened an online art gallery, while Ludwig ran an IT startup. They told friends that a nagging fear of street crime at home in Argentina had prompted their move to Europe. Peaceful, mountainous Slovenia offered a refreshing change of pace.
In interviews with about a dozen people who knew one or both of the couple, two words kept cropping up: “ordinary” and “nice”. Neighbours insisted the people living at No 35 were a run-of-the-mill family, and said the children could often be heard playing in the garden, shrieking in Spanish.
It therefore came as a shock when, early in December, Maria Mayer and Ludwig Gisch were the targets of one of the most secretive and well-coordinated police and intelligence operations in Slovenia’s recent history.
Officers swarmed the house, arresting the couple and taking their two children into social care. Police also raided an office owned by the couple. Among the finds, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation: an “enormous” amount of cash; so much, in fact, that it took hours to count.
In late January, Slovenian outlets broke news of the arrests, linking the pair to Russian intelligence.
Sources in Ljubljana told the Guardian this week that “Maria and Ludwig” were in fact elite Russian spies known as “illegals”. The arrests came after Slovenia received a tipoff from a foreign intelligence service.
Summary of the day so far
It’s 6pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
At least 10 civilians have been killed and 20 wounded as a result of long-range Russian bombardment in several parts of Ukraine on Friday, according to officials. Among them included two people who died in heavy Russian shelling of the town of Bilopillia in Sumy province in northern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said.
At least five people, including three women, were killed after a Russian missile struck an “invincibility point” set up to offer refuge for Ukrainian civilians in the city of Kostiantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, according to local officials. The invincibility point was one of many such shelters created by authorities across Ukraine to provide access to electricity, heating, water and other basic services. Prosecutors said the Russians attacked with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.
The Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was preparing for a Ukrainian counteroffensive. Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Putin’s powerful security council, further warned that Moscow was ready to use “absolutely any weapon” if Ukraine attempted to retake the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Ukraine has claimed Russian forces were “running out of steam” in Bakhmut and its commanders have started to raise the prospect of an unlikely turnaround in the largely ravaged city. “Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliia and Kupyansk,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s land forces, said, referring to previous successful Ukrainian attacks.
About 10,000 civilians, many of them elderly and with disabilities, are living in “very dire conditions” in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Several thousand civilians are estimated to remain in the city itself, the ICRC’s Umar Khan said. “They are living in very dire conditions, spending almost the entire days in intense shelling in the shelters,” he said.
The bodies of 83 Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting in the war have been returned from the Russian side, according to a Ukrainian official. Separately, Ukraine said it handed over an undisclosed number of seriously wounded Russian soldiers.
UN human rights monitors have documented dozens of summary killings of prisoners of war (POWs) carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian forces since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new report published today. The report, by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), said the findings were based on confirmed cases and the actual number was likely higher, and that they “may constitute war crimes”.
The Kremlin has said it is “critically important” to identify an object that was discovered next to one of the Nord Stream pipelines. The Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, has accepted an invitation by the Danish Energy Agency to help salvage the unidentified object, discovered during an inspection of the only remaining intact gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
The security situation around the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv will have to improve before its ports can be included in a deal allowing the safe export of Ukrainian grain, a senior Ukrainian official has said. The deal was extended this month, but Kyiv and Moscow differ over how long the extension will last.
A Russian security officer who fled the country because he objected to the invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in high-security prison, according to a report. Federal protective service Maj Mikhail Zhilin, 36, fled to Kazakhstan last year when Russia announced a conscription campaign, illegally crossing the border through woods while his wife and children drove through a checkpoint. Kazakhstan handed him over to Russia late last year.
The son of a Russian regional governor who was due to be extradited from Italy to the US has disappeared, according to reports. US authorities have accused Artyom Uss, the son of the governor of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, of illegal oil and weapons trade, money laundering, and sanction violations.
Hello everyone, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong still here with all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.
Updated
UN documents dozens of summary executions of Ukrainian and Russian POWs
UN human rights monitors have documented dozens of summary killings of prisoners of war (POWs) carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian forces, as well as the use of torture, human shields and other abuses against POWs since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new report published today.
The report, by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), was based on interviews with about 400 POWs, half of them Ukrainians who were released and the other half Russians held captive in Ukraine. The team said it had no access to POWs held in Russia or Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
The mission said it documented some 40 summary executions over the course of the 13-month war, and that the findings were based on confirmed cases and the actual number was likely higher.
Matilda Bogner, the head of the UN monitoring mission, laid out abuses allegedly committed by both sides at a news conference in Kyiv. She noted, however, that Russia’s invasion was at the root of violence against civilians and POWs.
The report found that while abuse of POWs took place on both sides, overall Russian POWs “were treated in better fashion” and that abuse was far more common against Ukrainians — more than 9 in 10 of interviewees reported abuse — than against Russians, about half of whom testified to abuse.
The agency said the cases “may constitute war crimes” but that the findings were “influenced in substantial measure by the level and kind of access to detention facilities and POWs”. It said:
Summary executions and attacks against POWs and persons hors de combat are prohibited under international law, and where deliberate, constitute war crimes.
The US treasury has announced a new tranche of sanctions being imposed on three entities and nine individuals from Belarus. On its website, it writes:
The authoritarian Lukashenko regime relies on state-owned enterprises and key officials to generate substantial revenue that enables oppressive acts against the Belarusian people. We remain committed to imposing costs on the Lukashenka regime for its suppression of democracy and support for Putin’s war of choice.
One of the items having restriction imposed on it is a luxury aircraft used by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko.
Reuters has a quick snap that president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, will travel to China in early April. The visit comes soon after China’s president Xi Jinping made a state visit to Moscow.
Updated
The security situation around the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv will have to improve before its ports can be included in a deal allowing the safe export of Ukrainian grain, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday.
The deal was extended this month. But Kyiv and Moscow differ over how long the extension will last, and Ukraine wants the agreement expanded to include Mykolaiv’s ports in addition to the Odesa, Chornomorsk and Pivdennyi ports.
Reuters reports that in comments to the media on Friday, Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Oleksander Kubrakov, reiterated Ukraine’s position that the extension was for 120 days, though Russia says the new extension was only for 60 days.
The government negotiated hard to include new ports in the deal as it was crucial for the economy, Kubrakov said.
“Today the security situation in Mykolaiv is different compared to that in the ports of greater Odesa,” Kubrakov told reporters at Chornomorsk port.
“A lot will depend on our success on the battlefield, as it was at the beginning of the grain initiative.”
Mykolaiv’s ports accounted for about 35% of Ukrainian food exports before the Russian invasion 13 months ago. For ships to leave Mykolaiv and enter the Black Sea, they need to pass the Russia-controlled Kinburn Spit.
Kubrakov, other officials and foreign ambassadors were in Chornomorsk to witness the departure of a vessel with about 30,000 tonnes of grain for Yemen.
Updated
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said the world should listen to China in order to find a way out of the war in Ukraine and for Kyiv to restore its territorial integrity.
Sanchez, who was speaking at a news conference in Brussels after a meeting of the European Council, is set to visit China next week for talks with President Xi Jinping. The meeting is expected to mostly focus on the conflict in Ukraine.
The Spanish PM said:
China is a global actor, so obviously we must listen to its voice to see if between all of us, we can put an end to this war and Ukraine can recover its territorial integrity.
Updated
10,000 civilians ‘pushed to the very limits of existence’ in Bakhmut, says ICRC
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said about 10,000 civilians, many of them elderly and with disabilities, are living in “very dire conditions” in and around the besieged city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.
More than 90% of Bakhmut’s residents have fled and much of the city has been destroyed in the longest and bloodiest battle of Russia’s war. However several thousand civilians are estimated to remain in the city itself, said the ICRC’s Umar Khan in a video briefing from Dnipro. He said:
For the civilians that are stuck there, they are living in very dire conditions, spending almost the entire days in intense shelling in the shelters.
All you see is people pushed to the very limits of their existence and survival and resilience.
He said he had been shocked by the scale of destruction he had witnessed, adding:
Houses are crushed by military firepower, roofs are ripped off, apartment buildings are littered with holes ... the constant threat of exploding shells, bombs - and some people still living in the shelters, trying to survive these intense hostilities.
Updated
Russian forces preparing for Ukrainian counteroffensive, says Medvedev
The Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow was preparing for a Ukrainian counteroffensive, as Kyiv claimed Russian forces were “running out of steam”.
“They [the Ukrainian side] are preparing for an offensive, everyone knows that. Our general staff is calculating this and is preparing its own solutions,” Medvedev said in an interview with Russian media on Friday.
Medvedev, who is deputy chair of Putin’s powerful security council, further warned that Moscow was ready to use “absolutely any weapon” if Ukraine attempted to retake the Crimean peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.
Medvedev’s latest apparent threat to use nuclear weapons came amid growing acknowledgment in Moscow that its forces may soon find themselves on the defensive in Ukraine as its own winter offensive appears to be slowing down.
In a video interview released on his social media channels Thursday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner group’s head, warned that Ukraine was planning to surround the private military’s forces in Bakhmut and push forward toward the Black Sea in the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia region.
He claimed Ukraine had concentrated more than 80,000 soldiers around the eastern Ukrainian-held city.
Updated
Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukraine presidency’s office, has posted a video on Twitter of what he said was the aftermath of an overnight Russian airstrike in the northeastern Sumy region.
Bilopillia, Summy region. After the night’s Russian airstrike. Debris removal is in progress. pic.twitter.com/fUJxMnjuba
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 24, 2023
Two people have been killed and 10 injured as a result of “massive shelling” of the region, according to the regional military administration.
Among those killed during the nighttime mass shelling of the city of Bilopillia was a 37-year-old senior police lieutenant, officials said.
Kremlin: it is ‘critically important’ to identify object found next to Nord Stream pipeline
The Kremlin has said it is “critically important” to identify an object that was discovered next to one of the Nord Stream pipelines.
Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, during his regular briefing with reporters, said:
It is critically important to determine what kind of object it is, whether it is related to this terrorist act – apparently it is – and to continue this investigation. And this investigation must be transparent.
The Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, has accepted an invitation by the Danish Energy Agency to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the pipeline.
Danish authorities last week said they had discovered the tubular object, protruding about 40cm (16in) from the seabed and 10cm in diameter, during an inspection of the only remaining intact gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
Peskov said it was “certainly positive news” that Denmark had invited Nord Stream 2 AG to take part in the investigation.
Updated
The bodies of 83 Ukrainian soldiers killed fighting in the war have been returned from the Russian side, according to a Ukrainian official.
Oleh Kotenko, Ukraine’s commissioner for missing persons, posted to Telegram:
Every time we transfer the bodies of fallen defenders, we strictly follow the Geneva convention norms. Negotiations with the opposite side do not stop in order to bring everyone back home as soon as possible.
Separately, Ukraine said it handed over an undisclosed number of seriously wounded Russian soldiers.
#Ukraine handed over to #Russia all seriously wounded prisoners of war who could be transported. pic.twitter.com/x5xtF5kYPO
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 24, 2023
Updated
The son of a Russian regional governor who was due to be extradited from Italy to the US has disappeared, according to reports.
Artyom Uss, the son of the governor of the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk, was arrested at Milan’s airport in October 2022, at the request of the US attorney general. He was placed under house arrest and required to wear an electronic bracelet.
US authorities have accused Uss of illegal oil and weapons trade, money laundering, and sanction violations.
On Tuesday, an Italian court agreed to his extradition to the US. The next day he disappeared, AFP reported, citing media reports.
His father, Alexander Uss, who has previously denounced his son’s arrest as “political”, expressed his concern. “As a father, I am very worried about my son,” he told a press conference today. He added:
I don’t know where he is and I don’t know what happened in detail. All I can say is that according to Artyom, the apartment where he was staying was well guarded by police. They even checked on him several times a night. So I don’t really understand how he disappeared.
Uss was one of five Russians arrested on Washington’s request for “unlawful schemes to export powerful” US military technology to Russia. The US justice department said some of these had been “discovered on the battlefields of Ukraine”.
Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine’s top ground forces commander, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said his forces would soon begin a counter offensive after withstanding Russia’s brutal winter campaign.
The overnight death toll in Kostyantynivka has risen to five. Three women and two men were killed in an attack which hit one of Ukraine’s “invincibility points” – humanitarian support centres where residents can charge their phones on generators and access other services.
Emergency services reported that rubble was being dismantled after a night shelling on Bilopillya in the Sumy region, during which it is claimed Russian planes dropped several aerial bombs on the city. One of them hit the police building, and a local school was also damaged. A police officer and a school guard were killed; nine more people were injured.
In Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, it is reported that overnight there were five hits by “Shahed” drones, and that air defence forces managed to shoot one down.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector.
A Russian security officer who fled the country and entered Kazakhstan because he objected to the invasion of Ukraine, has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in high-security prison.
Estonia’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it had decided to expel a Russian diplomat working at Moscow’s embassy in Tallinn.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that the use of depleted uranium shells in Ukraine would harm Ukrainian troops, the wider population and negatively affect the country’s agriculture sector, Reuters reports, citing the Interfax news agency.
Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has shared on Twitter a video which shows the aftermath of the attack in Bilopillya.
Білопілля. Сумщина. Після нічного обстрілу російськими авіабомбами триває розбір завалів. pic.twitter.com/muBPOkOFa3
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 24, 2023
More details are being reported of the overnight attack on Bilopillya, with Suspilne posting a video and writing:
Rubble is being dismantled after a night [of] shelling, during which Russian planes dropped several aerial bombs on the city. One of them hit the police building, and a local school was also damaged. A policeman and a school guard were killed, nine more people were injured.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that according to emergency services in Kherson, “pyrotechnicians neutralised 31 explosive objects in the de-occupied settlements of Kherson region”.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap saying that Estonia’s foreign ministry said on Friday it had decided to expel one Russian diplomat working at Moscow’s embassy in Tallinn.
Updated
Death toll in Kostyantynivka rises to five
Agence France-Presse reports, citing local emergency services, that the overnight death toll in Kostyantynivka had risen to five.
In addition to the three women known to have died earlier, AFP states that two additional men were killed in a strike that hit what it described as a “humanitarian support centre”.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, earlier said an “invincibility point” had been struck. Many such points have been set up around Ukraine which provide generators for charging mobile phones and other services.
Updated
A Russian security officer who fled the country because he objected to the invasion of Ukraine has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in high-security prison, Reuters reports, citing Tayga Info, a news website based in Novosibirsk.
Federal protective service Maj Mikhail Zhilin, 36, fled to Kazakhstan last year when Russia announced a conscription campaign, illegally crossing the border through woods while his wife and children drove through a checkpoint.
Zhilin sought refugee status in the former Soviet republic but his request was denied and authorities stopped him from leaving for Armenia.
Kazakhstan handed him over to Russia late last year, leading to the rare conviction of an officer for desertion.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, offers this news summary of overnight developments to subscribers of its official Telegram channel:
At night, Russian troops shelled a “point of invincibility” in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region. Three resettled women from other settlements of the region died under the rubble, and two more people were injured.
Sumy district came under massive fire at night: the Russian Federation used about 10 fighter jets, artillery and “Shahed” drones. Two people were killed in the city of Bilopillya, nine others were injured.
In Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, there were five hits by “Shahed” drones. Air defence forces managed to shoot down one.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
The UK Ministry of Defence has issued its daily intelligence briefing on Ukraine, in which it suggests Russia has been training troops in Belarus for both practical and political reasons. It writes:
As of mid-March 2023, Russia had likely redeployed at least 1,000 troops who had been training at the Obuz-Lesnovsky training ground in south-western Belarus.
Although no new rotation of troops has been noted, Russia has highly likely left the tented camp in place, suggesting it is considering continuing the training programme.
The fact that Russia has resorted to training its personnel under the much less experienced Belarusian army highlights how Russia’s “special military operation” has severely dislocated the Russian military’s training system – instructors have largely been deployed in Ukraine.
Russia likely also views Belarus’s continued indirect support to the operation as important political messaging.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that about 300 households were left without electricity overnight in Velyka Pysarivka in the Sumy region after Russian shelling damaged power lines. Citing the regional energy company, it reports that “emergency crews are working to restore electricity supply, and some consumers have already been reconnected”.
Updated
This morning we have a piece telling the story of Olha, who fled Kherson a year ago this week and has faced many challenges in relocating to the UK, including enrolling her children in school:
Last February, I was preparing to shoot a short film about Kherson’s streets. A rehearsal was scheduled – but it never took place.
That was the day they bombed airports simultaneously across the country. Public transport stopped running from our city. The frontline ran straight to our city and a week later we found ourselves under occupation. One morning changed our lives, and that of every Ukrainian family, for ever.
We are refugees now, even our cat, Venera. When we arrived in Britain, we never expected such kind support. When people find out we are from Ukraine, they often say: “I’m sorry,” or “Ukraine will win.” Some of them tell how they felt when Russia first invaded and how they bought humanitarian aid, such as food and diapers.
I have found a safe space in London, at a project for women and refugees. There we reveal our experience, do drama exercises and put on shows. For me it’s a kind of healing and I am happy to be a part of that community.
My children have had to abruptly switch to learning in a foreign language. For the first six months at school, my daughter did not understand anything at all. Struck by the difference in the curriculum, the gap only increased.
Read more here: ‘We are refugees now, even our cat’: a Kherson mother’s UK diary
Updated
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has posted to Telegram video clips of himself being interviewed by journalists and social media users. Yesterday he threatened to attack any state that allowed the current president, Vladimir Putin, to be arrested. Today, Tass is carrying quotes from him about the stability of the Russian economy despite western sanctions. It quotes him saying:
If something similar [to the current anti-Russian sanctions of the west] happened in the Soviet period, it would be very difficult for us, it would not be clear at all how it would cope.
But now we have created our own modern, competitive agricultural sector. I am very proud of it. Therefore, we can feed ourselves. We are now feeding others. Now we are not turning to anyone, they are turning to us.
And civil industry lives. Some things are faster, some things are slower, but on the whole everything is going on quite normally.
Medvedev made the point that the official inflation figure in Russia is lower than in some European countries, saying: “Feel the difference. They ignited this campaign, they began to fight us, and now inflation is 15-20% in some countries. Well, that’s what they need.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
Credit Suisse AG and UBS group AG are under scrutiny in a US Department of Justice probe into whether financial professionals helped Russian oligarchs evade sanctions, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.
The DOJ also sent subpoenas to employees of some major US banks, the Bloomberg report said, adding that the Swiss banks were included in a wave of subpoenas sent before Credit Suisse’s takeover by UBS.
The DOJ inquiries are to identify which bank employees dealt with sanctioned clients and how those clients were vetted over past years, Bloomberg reported.
The bankers may then be further investigated to determine if they broke any laws, the report added.
Updated
Here is some analysis of what is happening in Bakhmut, via Reuters:
A slowdown by Russia in Bakhmut could mean it is diverting its troops and resources to other areas. Britain said on Thursday that Russian troops had made gains farther north this month, partially regaining control over the approaches to the town of Kreminna. Intense battles were also under way farther south.
The Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov agreed with that assessment. He said on YouTube that Russia’s attacks on Bakhmut were decreasing, and it was shifting its efforts south to the town of Avdiivka.
Russia’s forces have become more active in areas to the north in the Kharkiv and Luhansk regions as well as central Zaporizhzhia and southern Kherson regions, he said.
Any shift in momentum in Bakhmut, if confirmed, would be remarkable given the city’s symbolic importance as the focus of Russia’s offensive, and the scale of the losses on both sides there in Europe’s bloodiest infantry battle since the second world war.
On the ground in Ukraine, frontlines have largely been frozen since November. Ukraine had looked likely to pull out of Bakhmut weeks ago but decided to fight on.
Updated
Russian forces may have to advance as far as Kyiv or Lviv in Ukraine, Russia’s former president Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview to Russian news agencies.
“Nothing can be ruled out here. If you need to get to Kyiv, then you need to go to Kyiv, if to Lviv, then you need to go to Lviv in order to destroy this infection,” RIA Novosti quoted Medvedev as saying on Friday.
There was no immediate response from Moscow to suggestions its forces in Bakhmut were losing momentum, but Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin issued statements in recent days, warning of a Ukrainian counterassault.
On Monday, Prigozhin published a letter to the Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, saying Ukraine aimed to cut off Wagner’s forces from Russia’s regular troops.
Reuters journalists near the frontline north of Bakhmut saw signs consistent with the suggestion that the Russian offensive in the area could be waning. At a Ukrainian-held village west of Soledar, on Bakhmut’s northern outskirts, the intensity of the Russian bombardment noticeably lessened from two days earlier.
“It was really hot here a week ago, but in the last three days it has been more quiet,” said a Ukrainian soldier who used the call sign Kamin (Stone).
“We can see this in the enemy’s airstrikes. If before there were five-six air raids in a day, today we had only one helicopter attack,” said the soldier.
Updated
Counteroffensive starts soon, says Ukrainian ground forces commander
Ukraine’s top ground forces commander, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, said his forces would soon begin a counter offensive after withstanding Russia’s brutal winter campaign.
He said Russia’s Wagner mercenaries, who have been at the frontline of Moscow’s assault on eastern and southern Ukraine, “are losing considerable strength and are running out of steam”.
“Very soon, we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we did in the past near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balakliia and Kupiansk,” he said, listing Ukrainian counteroffensives last year that recaptured swathes of land.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story this morning: Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will soon launch a counterassault, Ukraine’s top ground forces commander has said, as Russia’s winter offensive weakens without capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut.
We’ll have more on this shortly. In the meantime here are the key recent developments:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has renewed his call for more long-range weapons from western allies on Thursday. Speaking to an EU summit via video link, the Ukrainian president recounted the “devastating” scenes he had witnessed close to the frontlines, where fighting has been fiercest. The EU leaders endorsed a plan – agreed by foreign ministers on Monday – to send a million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year.
Zelenskiy visited the southern region of Kherson, where he toured infrastructure and promised to rebuild following Russia’s invasion. Ukraine’s military said Russian forces had left the Kherson town of Nova Kakhovka but a Russian-installed official there denied it.
The EU leaders held talks on Thursday with the UN secretary general, António Guterres, focused on global food security and sanctions imposed on Russia. Guterres’ participation came after the renewal of a deal brokered by the UN and Turkey on the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea – seen as crucial to overcoming a global food crisis.
The EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said the EU would work to find 16,200 Ukrainian children deported to Russia. Calling it a reminder of “the darkest times in our history”, she said only 300 had been returned so far.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s security council, said Moscow’s relations with the west had hit an all-time low. Asked whether the threat of a nuclear conflict had eased, he said: “No, it hasn’t decreased, it has grown. Every day when they provide Ukraine with foreign weapons brings the nuclear apocalypse closer.” Medvedev said any attempt to arrest Vladimir Putin a would amount to a declaration of war against Russia.
Hungary would not arrest Putin if he entered the country, said prime minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff said.
Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, signed legislation to make his country part of the Nato. Last year, Finland applied to join in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Legislation incorporating Nato’s founding treaties was passed in parliament in Helsinki on 1 March.
The UN nuclear agency’s chief has said the situation at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia power plant “remains perilous” after a Russian missile strike disconnected it from the grid. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant needs a reliable electricity supply to operate pumps that circulate water to cool reactors and pools holding nuclear fuel.
Ukraine’s state emergency service said on Thursday that it had ended rescue attempts in Rzhyshchiv, Kyiv region, where nine people died in a Russian drone attack in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reported that on Wednesday shelling in the Donetsk region killed two people and injured four others, while one person was killed and two were wounded in Kherson.
British military intelligence said Russia had partially regained control over the approaches to the eastern Ukrainian town of Kreminna after its troops were pushed back earlier this year.
Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said he will discuss a peace plan for Ukraine with the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, during an official visit to China next week.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has reversed his position on Ukraine after facing widespread criticism for calling the Russian invasion a “territorial dispute”. The likely contender for the Republican presidential nomination said his remark had been “mischaracterised”.
