Closing Summary
It is now 11pm in Kyiv. Here is a wrap-up of today’s developments:
Officials of the Kharkiv oblast have ordered a partial mandatory evacuation in Kupiansk for families with children and residents with physical with physical disabilities. The evacuation was ordered “in light of the unstable security situation caused by the constant shelling of the community by Russian troops,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
US president Joe Biden and German chancellor Olaf Scholz met at the White House on Friday where both leaders praised each other’s country’s support towards Ukraine. “As NATO allies, we’re making the alliance stronger and more capable,” said Biden. Meanwhile, Scholz told Biden that it was important that the US and Germany organized in “lockstep” following the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.
US Attorney general Merrick Garland has made an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Friday, according to Department of Justice officials. Garland had traveled to Lviv, Ukraine following an invitation from the Ukrainian prosecutor general, USA Today reports officials saying.
Serbia has denied that it has supplied weapons to Ukraine, its foreign minister said on Friday. Following Russia’s demand on Thursday to know whether Serbia provided thousands of rockets to Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Serbia foreign minister Ivica Dacic said that zero weapons have been exported from the country to any parties involved in the “conflict.”
The US has announced a new military aid package of ammunition and other support for Ukraine worth $400m (£333m). The package will be funded using presidential drawdown authority, which authorises the president to transfer articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval during an emergency, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said.
Russia is deploying the most experienced units of the mercenary Wagner group and the country’s army in an attempt to seize the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, the Ukrainian military has said. The commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, was pictured visiting the frontline city today for briefings with local commanders on how to boost defence capacity.
The chief of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner has said his fighters have “practically encircled” Bakhmut. Only one road remains under Ukrainian control, Yevgeny Prigozhin added in a video posted online in which he called on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to abandon the city. His claims could not be verified.
The situation in Bakhmut appeared to be extremely precarious amid evidence that Ukraine was preparing extensive new defensive positions, including around the nearby city of Kramatorsk. Video posted online showed the blowing up of a railway bridge over the Bakhmutka River to the east of the city, while other footage purported to show damage to a small road bridge.
Ukraine has ordered a mandatory evacuation of families and vulnerable residents from the frontline city of Kupiansk and adjacent northeastern territories. The evacuation order was due to the “unstable security situation” caused by Russia’s constant shelling of the town and its surroundings, it said. Russian troops retreated from key cities in the northeastern Kharkiv region, including Kupiansk, and Ukraine recaptured it last September.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, has said he is confident that western countries will supply fighter jets to Kyiv, and that he is optimistic that the war will end this year. Reznikov, in an interview with the German newspaper Bild, said Ukraine expects to receive “two to three different types” of fighter jets and that he believed it would be “done through a kind of coalition again”, referring to the “tank coalition” of Leopard 2 tanks from western allies.
Foreign ministers of the so-called Quad group denounced Russia’s threat to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine war as unacceptable, according to a statement issued after a meeting on Friday. The ministers also said they opposed any unilateral actions to increase tensions in the South China Sea, and expressed concerns about the “militarisation” of disputed territories, in a thinly veiled reference to China. The Quad group comprises India, Australia, Japan and the United States.
The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he saw a “small improvement” in diplomacy with Russia after a meeting of G20 foreign ministers in New Delhi. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, remained in the room when western countries criticised Russia – unlike at the last G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali last year, when he stormed out – said Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, has again issued a denial that Ukraine has mounted any attacks within Russian territory. Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had been hit by a “terrorist attack” in Bryansk, and vowed to crush what he said was a Ukrainian sabotage group that had fired at civilians. Ukraine accused Russia of staging a false “provocation”. The Kremlin said Friday it would take measures to prevent a repeat of what it described as a border incursion.
Switzerland’s defence ministry has said it received a request from its German counterparts to allow Rheinmetall AG to acquire some of Switzerland’s mothballed Leopard 2 battle tanks. A German defence ministry spokesperson said it would not send Switzerland’s Leopard 2 tanks onwards to Ukraine if Bern agreed to send them to Berlin.
The US has imposed sanctions on a number of Russian individuals connected to the arbitrary detention of the prominent Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza, who has been jailed in Moscow for nearly a year after speaking out against the war in Ukraine.
That’s it from me, Maya Yang, as we wrap up the blog for today. Thank you for following along.
Officials of the Kharkiv oblast have ordered a partial mandatory evacuation in Kupiansk for families with children and residents with physical with physical disabilities.
The evacuation was ordered “in light of the unstable security situation caused by the constant shelling of the community by Russian troops,” the Kyiv Independent reports.
“Residents of Kupiansk will be provided with accommodation and food. They will also be provided with humanitarian aid and medical support. Appropriate social services will help in obtaining the status of internally displaced persons, financial support under state programs and assistance from international organizations,” said Kharkiv Oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov.
According to he Kyiv Independent, 812 children, as well as 724 people with disabilities are currently registered Kupiansk residents.
