Summary
Thank you for following the Guardian’s live reporting of the war in Ukraine. Here is a quick wrap-up of today’s developments:
At least six people have been killed and more than 60 wounded in the latest series of Russian airstrikes on Ukraine, Ukrainian officials have said. Russia unleashed a mass airstrike on Ukraine on Tuesday, mostly targeting the country’s two largest cities, the capital Kyiv and Kharkiv in the east.
The Russian military does not target civilians when it hits objects in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday when asked to comment on what Ukraine said were deadly Russian strikes on Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Russia launched 41 missiles at Ukraine early on Tuesday and air defences destroyed 21 of them, the Ukrainian military said.
The jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been placed in solitary confinement for 10 days in a prison above the Arctic Circle for “incorrectly introducing himself” to a guard, his spokesperson said.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said he had invited Sweden’s prime minister to visit and negotiate his country joining the Nato military alliance, a process that Hungary and Turkey have delayed. On X, Orban said: “Today I sent an invitation letter to prime minister Ulf Kristersson for a visit to Hungary to negotiate on Sweden’s Nato accession.”
Russia launched missile strikes on Ukraine’s military production facilities and successfully hit all intended targets, Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, on Tuesday launched the construction of a new unit at Egypt’s El-Dabaa nuclear power plant via video link, the Ria Novosti news agency reported.
Italy will use its presidency of the Group of Seven major democracies to challenge growing perceptions that Russia is winning in Ukraine and that the west is tiring of the war, Reuters reports.
Poland and the Baltic states are calling for import bans on Russian aluminium and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the European Union’s 13th package of sanctions against Moscow over its Ukraine invasion, a Polish official said.
The US has issued cyber-related sanctions against the Russian citizen Aleksandr Ermakov, according to a notice posted on the US Treasury Department website on Tuesday, one day after Australian authorities also targeted him over a breach of the Australian insurer Medibank, Reuters reports.
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, insisted life in the Ukrainian capital was “absolutely normal” and there was no war, a day before his first meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister and just hours after Russian missiles fell on Kyiv.
That’s all for today. Come back tomorrow for continued updates on the war.
Updated
Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, insisted life in the Ukrainian capital was “absolutely normal” and there was no war, a day before his first meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister and just hours after Russian missiles fell on Kyiv.
Fico, who took power in October and reversed course on Slovakia’s foreign policy to halt military support for Ukraine, was speaking at a news briefing in eastern Slovakia, Reuters reports. He is due to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Denys Shmyhal, on Wednesday in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod.
A reporter asked Fico if it would be appropriate for him to travel to Kyiv to better grasp Ukraine’s war with Russia, which is approaching its second year following an invasion by Moscow.
He said:
There is a conflict that is localised. You seriously think there is war in Kyiv? You are joking, please, I hope you are not being serious. Go there and you will find out there is normal life in the city, absolutely normal life.
He added it was more practical to meet in Uzhhorod, which he said the Ukrainian side picked after Fico first wanted to meet on the two countries’ shared border.
Updated
