Closing summary
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the commander of his special forces on Thursday, the second time in half a year that he has changed the head of the unit which operates in Moscow-occupied territories. The dismissal of colonel Serhiy Lupanchuk and appointment of brigadier general Oleksandr Trepak in his place was announced in two decrees on the president’s website that provided no explanation for the move, Reuters reported.
The West needs to undermine and expose “the malign networks that Russia uses to spread its lies,” according to Britain’s foreign secretary, David Cameron. In his first major speech since taking up the role, he said over the last five years Britain had invested in that project by backing free media and supporting independent journalism in places like Georgia and Moldova, “where Russia seeks to bully and manipulate politics.”
A Ukrainian attack drone struck a Russian oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region on Thursday after flying a “record” distance of 1,500 km (932.06 miles) in an operation conducted by the SBU security service, a Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters. The drone hit a catalytic cracking unit at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex, the source said. Russia confirmed the fact of damage at the plant earlier, but said the facility was functioning as usual.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine could stop Russian forces advancing in the east if allied countries increased the supply of arms. The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a joint news conference in Kyiv with the European Parliament’s visiting president Roberta Metsola, more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russian and Belarus’ forces had started joint preparations for tactical nuclear weapons drills, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday appointed former army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, as Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom. The decree was published on the presidential website. Zaluzhnyi was earlier named a “Hero of Ukraine”, Reuters reported. Ukraine has not had an ambassador in London since Zelenskiy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the president.
Russia president Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world, Reuters reported.
A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday. Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.
Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck two oil depots near the town of Anapa in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region causing large-scale fires, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said the oil depots were used as transshipment points to supply fuel to Russian troops in the nearby occupied peninsula of Crimea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament has voted to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a key government figure who has overseen the wartime reconstruction effort and championed efforts to set up a vital Black Sea shipping lane, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. The 41-year-old’s dismissal comes amid plans to break up his powerful ministry into two separate government portfolios.
Ukraine’s parliament has dismissed agriculture minister Mykola Solsky who tendered his resignation in late April as he faces an investigation into alleged involvement in illegal acquisition of state-owned land, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. Solsky, 44, has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said. The drones were destroyed over the Odesa region in Ukraine’s south, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Lithuania’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of an ad hoc coalition of western countries sending military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, days after Russia took an increasingly strident tone against what it sees as the threat of deeper western involvement in the war. Speaking to the Guardian after meeting his British counterpart, David Cameron, in London, Gabrielius Landsbergis also backed the British foreign secretary for saying that Ukraine could use British-made weapons against Russia; remarks that alongside Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out western troops in Ukraine prompted the Kremlin to threaten UK assets and order a tactical nuclear training exercise.
Ukraine plans to double electricity imports on Thursday after a powerful Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system, the energy ministry said. The imports are expected to rise to 16,699 megawatt hours (Mwh) versus 7,600 Mwh on Wednesday, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. “Today, at Ukraine’s request, emergency electricity supplies have already been made from Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the ministry said.
South Korea’s position remains it will not supply lethal weapons to any country, president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, when asked if Seoul was prepared to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Yoon also said his government intended to continue managing relations with Moscow to “pursue economic cooperation and mutual benefits” even though the two countries’ ties have become “uncomfortable” since the start of the war in Ukraine.
That’s it from the Ukraine live blog for today. Thanks for following along.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine could stop Russian forces advancing in the east if allied countries increased the supply of arms.
The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a joint news conference in Kyiv with the European Parliament’s visiting president Roberta Metsola, more than two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Russia has been making small but steady territorial gains in the east of the country since the start of the year, with Ukraine’s forces depleted and weapons and ammunition running perilously low.
“We are putting maximum pressure on our partners to increase weapon deliveries,” Zelenskiy said at an open air briefing in the centre of the capital.
“If the delivery of weapons is increased, we will be able to stop (Russian forces) in the east, where they have the initiative.”
As he spoke, air raid sirens started to blare, a reminder of the threat of Russian missile and drone attacks which have intensified across the country, causing power outages for hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Zelenskiy replaces special operations chief for second time in six months
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy replaced the commander of his special forces on Thursday, the second time in half a year that he has changed the head of the unit which operates in Moscow-occupied territories.
The dismissal of colonel Serhiy Lupanchuk and appointment of brigadier general Oleksandr Trepak in his place was announced in two decrees on the president’s website that provided no explanation for the move, Reuters reported.
Since 2014, Trepak has been actively participating in defence operations in east Ukraine against Russian-backed separatists. He was engaged in leading the push to repel the Russian assault on Donetsk airport, one of the biggest operations back then.
The Ukrainian military’s chain of command has been changed at different levels since February when Zelenskiy replaced his top commander, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, with then-ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi in a major shake up.
At the time, Zelenskiy said a new military leadership was taking control of the armed forces and promised to “reboot” the system by bringing in experienced commanders who understood the daily needs of the troops.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Russian and Belarus’ forces had started joint preparations for tactical nuclear weapons drills, Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday appointed former army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, as Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
The decree was published on the presidential website. Zaluzhnyi was earlier named a “Hero of Ukraine”, Reuters reported.
Ukraine has not had an ambassador in London since Zelenskiy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the president.
Zaluzhnyi is very popular among many Ukrainians for leading the army in the first hours of Russia’s invasion and for planning a counteroffensive that helped liberate significant swathes of territory seized by Moscow.
Ukraine says attack drone flew 'record' 1,500km
A Ukrainian attack drone struck a Russian oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region on Thursday after flying a “record” distance of 1,500 km (932.06 miles) in an operation conducted by the SBU security service, a Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters.
The drone hit a catalytic cracking unit at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex, the source said. Russia confirmed the fact of damage at the plant earlier, but said the facility was functioning as usual.
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More images and reports are coming in from Russia’s events to mark victory in the Second World War.
Although the US and UK ambassadors did not attend, AP reports that Vladimir Putin was joined by other dignitaries and presidents of several former Soviet nations along with a few other Moscow allies, including the leaders of Cuba, Guinea-Bissau and Laos.
Many observers see Putin’s focus on World War II as part of his efforts to revive the USSR’s clout and prestige and his reliance on Soviet practices, AP adds.
“It’s the continuous self-identification with the USSR as the victor of Nazism and the lack of any other strong legitimacy that forced the Kremlin to declare ‘denazification’ as the goal of the war,” Nikolay Epplee said in a commentary for Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
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Cameron said Britain had imposed unprecedented sanctions against Russia and was continuing to call on allies to maintain military support for Ukraine.
“To persuade we need to be active,” he added, referring to trips he had recently undertaken to central Asia, saying that potential partners all over the world needed to be told they could be helped to make a choice to “be more open, more independent”
Cameron also announced a new £1m programme for the British Council to teach English to Ukrainian civil servants, saying that Britain should also not hold back on championing the language around the world.
Some reaction and analysis is coming through from those who eager to pick up on policy nuances from the speech, which happened to go ahed with some embarrassing technical glitches.
Lord Cameron explicitly linking foreign, immigration, and economic policy in his speech this morning - the whole country needs to share in the benefits of globalisation, foreign policy is about prosperity too pic.twitter.com/drfXjpCy5z
— Olivia O'Sullivan (@LivJOSullivan) May 9, 2024
Cameron himself had also tweeted a ‘speed version’ of the speech
Cameron was one of the biggest champions behind overthrowing Gaddafi in Libya, resulting in it becoming a failed state.
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) May 9, 2024
David Cameron’s foreign policy single handily led to a country reinstating slavery and more than 4 million refugees pouring into Europe.
Shut up David. https://t.co/bTdSU4HfbT
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The West needs to undermine and expose “the malign networks that Russia uses to spread its lies,” according to Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Cameron.
In his first major speech since taking up the role, he said over the last five years Britain had invested in that project by backing free media and supporting independent journalism in places like Georgia and Moldova, “where Russia seeks to bully and manipulate politics.”
Adversaries like Russia also sought to undermine the UK by attacking its record.
They gleefully accused the west of double standards, and I think we should be frank in our response. Yes, the suffering in Gaza is appalling, but an unprovoked war against an independent country like Ukraine that poses no threat is wholly different from the conflict that has grown from the brutal attacks of October the seventh.
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Cameron said that the UK needed to be bolder in standing up for what it believes in.
It is profoundly in our national interest to defend those core beliefs. Freedom, the rule of law, respect or human rights and dignity, and to defend the core principles of an open international order, right not might, sovereignty and territorial integrity, freedom of navigation.
Cameron said these were vital foundations for British and global security and prosperity.
The adversaries of Britain and its allies had no hesitation about using outright lies and were using new tools to distract and mislead, he add.
We must be bolder in combating their combating their poisonous methods of deceit,” said Cameron, saying that this was what Britain and the US did when they publicised intelligence about Russia’s intention to invade Ukraine before it happened.
It was an unprecedented step and it made it clear what Putin was planning to do, assault a neighbour without a scrap of justification.
Cameron: UK must have the 'courage to act'
The UK must have the “courage to act,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said in his first major speech in the role.
Too many “adopt a kind of defensive crouch” instead of taking action, but Britain can choose to make a difference together with its partners, he said.
We in Britain and the wider West have agency - the question is if we have the courage to use it - the courage to act,” Lord Cameron said in his address at the National Cyber Security Centre.
He said the Government needs to do more to prioritise security than when he was prime minister to bolster resilience against covert foreign influences.
Cameron instanced attacks on Britain’s democracy in the UK and referred to a suspected Russian operations in the UK.
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Afternoon summary
Russia president Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world, Reuters reported.
A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday. Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.
Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck two oil depots near the town of Anapa in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region causing large-scale fires, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said the oil depots were used as transshipment points to supply fuel to Russian troops in the nearby occupied peninsula of Crimea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament has voted to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a key government figure who has overseen the wartime reconstruction effort and championed efforts to set up a vital Black Sea shipping lane, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. The 41-year-old’s dismissal comes amid plans to break up his powerful ministry into two separate government portfolios.
Ukraine’s parliament has dismissed agriculture minister Mykola Solsky who tendered his resignation in late April as he faces an investigation into alleged involvement in illegal acquisition of state-owned land, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. Solsky, 44, has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said. The drones were destroyed over the Odesa region in Ukraine’s south, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Lithuania’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of an ad hoc coalition of western countries sending military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, days after Russia took an increasingly strident tone against what it sees as the threat of deeper western involvement in the war. Speaking to the Guardian after meeting his British counterpart, David Cameron, in London, Gabrielius Landsbergis also backed the British foreign secretary for saying that Ukraine could use British-made weapons against Russia; remarks that alongside Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out western troops in Ukraine prompted the Kremlin to threaten UK assets and order a tactical nuclear training exercise.
Ukraine plans to double electricity imports on Thursday after a powerful Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system, the energy ministry said. The imports are expected to rise to 16,699 megawatt hours (Mwh) versus 7,600 Mwh on Wednesday, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. “Today, at Ukraine’s request, emergency electricity supplies have already been made from Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the ministry said.
South Korea’s position remains it will not supply lethal weapons to any country, president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, when asked if Seoul was prepared to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Yoon also said his government intended to continue managing relations with Moscow to “pursue economic cooperation and mutual benefits” even though the two countries’ ties have become “uncomfortable” since the start of the war in Ukraine.
David Cameron is to warn that the west is not learning the lesson of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that authoritarian adversaries will only be spurred on if the west shows hesitation or caution. The foreign secretary will call for the west to be tougher and more assertive and realise it is locked in a battle of wills in which “we all must prove our adversaries wrong – Britain, and our allies and partners around the world”.
Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck two oil depots near the town of Anapa in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region causing large-scale fires, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday.
The source said the oil depots were used as transshipment points to supply fuel to Russian troops in the nearby occupied peninsula of Crimea.
“The SBU will continue to reduce Russia’s economic and logistics potential for waging war,” the source said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said in remarks released on Thursday that there was nothing unusual in a planned exercise involving the practice deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.
“There is nothing unusual here, this is a planned work,” Putin said in the remarks which the Kremlin said were made on 7 May, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.
Ukraine plans to double electricity imports on Thursday after a powerful Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system, the energy ministry said.
The imports are expected to rise to 16,699 megawatt hours (Mwh) versus 7,600 Mwh on Wednesday, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported.
“Today, at Ukraine’s request, emergency electricity supplies have already been made from Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the ministry said.
Emergency assistance will also be provided during evening peak hours of electricity consumption, it noted.
Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo said in a separate statement it expected a significant deficit of electricity for almost the entire day.
“Industrial consumption will be limited from 18:00 to 24:00. With an increase in consumption, emergency shutdowns are possible,” Ukrenergo said.
Russia is warning the West and the United States that it feels obliged to boost its nuclear deterrent due to what it regards as the West’s escalalatory trajectory, Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was cited by the RIA news agency a saying.
Ryabkov was quoted on Thursday as also saying that Russia was not changing its own nuclear doctrine but that the global situation was changing.
Western military trainers could go to Ukraine, Lithuania minister says
Lithuania’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of an ad hoc coalition of western countries sending military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, days after Russia took an increasingly strident tone against what it sees as the threat of deeper western involvement in the war.
Speaking to the Guardian after meeting his British counterpart, David Cameron, in London, Gabrielius Landsbergis also backed the British foreign secretary for saying that Ukraine could use British-made weapons against Russia; remarks that alongside Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out western troops in Ukraine prompted the Kremlin to threaten UK assets and order a tactical nuclear training exercise.
Foreign secretary in Lithuania for four years, Landsbergis has long called for tougher action against Russia, but his latest remarks have shown that there is support in parts of Europe for the muscular line recently adopted by the French president.
Macron has shocked some European colleagues and infuriated Russia by saying the west should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine.
“Our troops have been training Ukrainians in Ukraine before the war, and we’ve been doing that for many years. So returning to this tradition might be quite doable,” Landsbergis said. “This could be a first step in president Macron’s initiative”.
He said a proposal to train Ukrainians inside their own country was “more practical” than the training taking place on the territory of Nato members.
South Korea’s position remains it will not supply lethal weapons to any country, president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, when asked if Seoul was prepared to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia.
Yoon also said his government intended to continue managing relations with Moscow to “pursue economic cooperation and mutual benefits” even though the two countries’ ties have become “uncomfortable” since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine-launched drone attack sparked fire and damaged several oil tanks at a refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the region’s crisis administration said on Thursday.
About six drones were destroyed, but debris fell on the refinery near the village of Yurovka, sparking fire, the administration said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported.
“Several tanks were damaged,” the administration said.
Ukraine agriculture minister Mykola Solsky dismissed by parliament
Ukraine’s parliament has dismissed agriculture minister Mykola Solsky who tendered his resignation in late April as he faces an investigation into alleged involvement in illegal acquisition of state-owned land, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram.
Solsky, 44, has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.
He has been at the centre of Ukraine’s effort to keep its grain industry going as Russia’s full-scale invasion has blocked Black Sea export routes, strewn fields with landmines and seen farmland occupied.
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David Cameron: west has not learned lesson of Ukraine and must get tougher
David Cameron is to warn that the west is not learning the lesson of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that authoritarian adversaries will only be spurred on if the west shows hesitation or caution.
The foreign secretary will call for the west to be tougher and more assertive and realise it is locked in a battle of wills in which “we all must prove our adversaries wrong – Britain, and our allies and partners around the world”.
In his first set-piece speech as foreign secretary outside parliament and after a whirlwind six months in the job, Cameron will argue not enough allies have stepped up to the challenge of a more hard-edged world, whether by increasing defence spending, facing down Iranian proxy forces or championing women’s rights in the Islamic world.
He will say: “We need to adopt a harder edge for a tougher world. If Putin’s illegal invasion teaches us anything, it must be that doing too little, too late, only spurs an aggressor on. I see too many examples in this job of this lesson not having been learned.”
Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said.
The drones were destroyed over the Odesa region in Ukraine’s south, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Putin accuses 'arrogant' west of risking global conflict and says forces are at 'combat readiness'
Russia president Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world, Reuters reported.
“We know what the exorbitance of such ambitions leads to. Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash,” Putin said on Red Square after defence minister Sergei Shoigu reviewed troops lined up in a blizzard.
“But at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in a state of combat readiness.”
Updated
Ukraine parliament votes to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament has voted to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a key government figure who has overseen the wartime reconstruction effort and championed efforts to set up a vital Black Sea shipping lane, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram.
The 41-year-old’s dismissal comes amid plans to break up his powerful ministry into two separate government portfolios.
It was not immediately clear who would replace him, Reuters reported.
Updated
Here are some images from the Victory Day celebrations taking place across Russia today, amid the backdrop of its invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine air attack on Belgorod injures eight, governor says
A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday.
Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported.
About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.
Russia’s air defence systems destroyed 15 rockets launched from the RM-70 Vampir system, and one drone over the region, Russia’s defence ministry said.
Three drones were also downed over Russia’s Kursk region and two over the Bryansk region, the ministry said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. All regions border Ukraine.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has said often that destroying military, energy and transport infrastructure inside Russia undermines Moscow’s overall war efforts.
Russia to mark second world war Victory Day as relations with west spiral towards crisis
Hello and welcome to the Ukraine live blog. We start with news that Russia is today marking the former Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
It comes as relations with the West spiral deeper into crisis over the advance of Russian troops against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces.
Vladimir Putin, who rose to power just eight years after the Soviet Union broke up, will speak at the Victory Day parade on Red Square though there will be less military hardware on display than in parades before Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Putin now casts the war as part of a holy struggle with the West, which he says has forgotten the role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany and the lesson that neither Napoleon Bonaparte nor Adolf Hitler could defeat Russia.
“I want to bow to our heroes, the participants of the special military operation, to all those who are fighting for the Fatherland,” Putin said as he was sworn in for a new term as president on Tuesday.
In other news:
The EU has reached a deal to arm Ukraine using seized profits from Russia’s frozen assets. EU senior diplomats meeting on Wednesday agreed on using the €4.4bn windfall profits, smoothing over a dispute about taxation and management costs in Belgium where most of the frozen assets are held.
A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire and damaged an oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the area’s crisis administration said on Thursday. Several oil tanks were damaged at the refinery near the village of Yurovka, the administration said.
Ukraine’s air defences destroyed 17 out of 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting the Odesa region into Thursday morning, the Ukrainian air force said.
Officials from Belgorod, close to the border inside Russia, said there were eight people injured including a girl, 11, after what was variously described on Telegram channels as a missile attack or shelling by Ukrainian forces. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, said on Telegram that apartments and vehicles were damaged. Ukraine has previously targeted Belgorod which has served as a base of operations and staging post for Russia’s military and security forces.
Rajeev Syal writes that an “undeclared” Russian military intelligence officer, named as Col Maxim Elovik, will be expelled from the UK. James Cleverly, the British home secretary, also announced the closure of several Russian diplomatic premises in retaliation for “malign activity” across Britain and Europe. The Russian properties that have had diplomatic status removed include Seacox Heath in Ticehurst, East Sussex, and the Russian embassy’s trade and defence section in Highgate, north London.
The measures come after a suspected arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked business in east London which authorities suspect was organised by the Kremlin, and over which charges have been laid. Russia has denied involvement. In a separate case, six Bulgarian nationals have been charged with conspiring to commit espionage on behalf of Russia in the UK.
Russian missiles and drones struck nearly a dozen Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities on Wednesday, causing serious damage at three thermal power plants and blackouts in multiple regions, officials said. Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 39 of 55 missiles and 20 of 21 drones. Two people were injured in the Kyiv region and one was hurt in the Kirovohrad region, said the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. National power grid operator Ukrenergo said it was forced to introduce electricity cuts in nine regions and expanded them nationwide for businesses during the peak evening hours of Wednesday.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted the attacks were launched on the day Ukraine marks the end of the second world war. Ukraine’s president singled out what he said was the west’s limited progress in curbing energy revenue to Vladimir Putin’s regime. Fighting nazism back then, he said, was “when humanity unites, opposes Hitler, instead of buying his oil and coming to his inauguration”.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, estimated that more than 800 heating facilities had been damaged and up to 8GW of power generation lost so far, adding the government needed $1bn to fund repair work.
Ukraine said it was producing the same number of deep strike drones as Russia, claiming to have reached parity on a key type of weapon.
Russian forces have taken over the village of Kyslivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and the village of Novokalynove in the Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry said.
Ukraine’s parliament has passed a bill allowing mobilisation of some categories of convicts but not those convicted of premeditated murder, rape, sexual violence, and crimes against national security.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, stressed Berlin’s support for a Ukraine peace summit to be held in Switzerland in mid-June during a phone call with Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, a government spokesperson in Berlin said. “They agreed to work towards the broadest possible global participation,” Reuters reported from a statement.
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