Closing summary
It’s nearly 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged international leaders to act after disturbing video emerged on Wednesday of Russian soldiers apparently beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war lying on the ground. One clip appears to show a member of the Russian army using a knife to cut the head off the soldier. A second video appears to show the beheaded corpses of two Ukrainian service personnel lying next to a destroyed military vehicle. Ukraine’s president said the world could not ignore the “evil” footage, which has not been verified by the Guardian.
The EU has pledged to hold those responsible for war crimes in Ukraine to account, a spokesperson said, while the UN said it was “appalled by particularly gruesome videos” circulating on social media.
The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets. The new sanctions, unveiled by the Foreign Office on Wednesday, are targeted at what officials describe as “oligarch enablers” whom they accuse of knowingly assisting the billionaire businessmen to shield their wealth.
The US also imposed sanctions on more than 120 individuals and entities around the world over their ties to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The sanctions targeted people and entities across more than 20 countries and jurisdictions, including a private military company, a China-based firm and entities linked to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom.
Russia has hit 333 Canadian officials and public figures with sanctions in what it said was a tit-for-tat move in response to Canada’s sanctions against Moscow and support for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military has rejected claims by Russia that Russian troops have captured more than 80% of the embattled city of Bakhmut. On Tuesday, the head of Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his forces controlled most of Bakhmut including the whole administrative centre, factories, warehouses and municipality buildings. Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern military command, insisted on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces controlled “considerably” more than 20% of it in the east.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces struck Ukrainian army reserves attempting to break through to the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut. It also claimed that fighters from Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group had captured three more blocks in their attempt to seize control of the city. The claims were not verified.
Russia has tightened its conscription law, including introducing electronic military draft papers, before a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks. The lower and upper houses of parliament rushed through legislation that will make it significantly harder for Russians to dodge the draft while automatically banning registered conscripts from leaving the country.
Russian-installed authorities in annexed Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have cancelled traditional military parades to celebrate Victory Day and May Day, the Russian-appointed leader of Crimea has said, citing security reasons. Sergei Aksyonov’s statement on Wednesday came a day after he said Crimea was on guard and that Russian forces had built “modern, in-depth defences” and had more than enough troops and equipment to repel a possible Ukrainian assault.
Serbia has agreed to supply arms to Kyiv or has sent them already, according to a classified Pentagon document. The document, a summary of European governments’ responses to Ukraine’s requests for military training and “lethal aid” or weapons, was among dozens of classified documents posted online in recent weeks in what could be the most serious leak of US secrets in years. Serbia is one of the only countries in Europe that has refused to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
US intelligence reportedly warned Ukraine in February that it might fail to amass sufficient troops and weaponry for its planned spring counter-offensive, and might fall “well short” of Kyiv’s goals for recapturing territory seized by Russia, according to a trove of leaked defence documents.
South Korea has agreed to “lend” the US 500,000 rounds of artillery, a newspaper reported on Wednesday, as Seoul attempts to minimise the possibility that the ammunition could end up in Ukraine - a move that could spark domestic criticism of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
South Africa has said that an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war was a “spanner in the works” before a Brics summit in the country in August. The Russian president is due to attend a summit of Brics countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – but the host nation is a member of the international criminal court and would be expected to make the arrest if Putin steps foot in the country. The ICC warrant against Putin stems from accusations that Russia unlawfully deported Ukrainian children.
Belarus has extradited a Russian man who was separated from his daughter and sentenced to two years in prison after she drew anti-war pictures at school. Alexei Moskalyov, a 54-year-old single parent from the town of Yefremov, 150 miles south of Moscow, fled house arrest last month, hours before a court handed him a two-year sentence for “discrediting” the Russian army. The high-profile case was criticised by Russian human rights groups and led to an online campaign to reunite father and daughter.
The German government is very worried about the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s worsening health condition, a government spokesperson has said. Navalny’s spokesperson on Tuesday said he had lost 8kg in 16 days while in solitary confinement, and that he was not receiving any treatment.
More than 120 people and entities added to US sanctions list for supporting invasion of Ukraine
The US imposed sanctions on more than 120 individuals and entities around the world over their ties to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The sanctions, imposed by the US treasury and state departments, targeted people and entities across more than 20 countries and jurisdictions, including a private military company, a China-based firm and entities linked to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company Rosatom.
The latest sanctions target a wide network tied to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, including his company, USM Holdings, along with multiple firms under it.
Also targeted was the Patriot private military company, which the US state department said was associated with Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and competed with the Wagner mercenary group.
Separately, the US treasury said it imposed sanctions on Russian financial facilitators and sanctions evaders around the world, including Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and China-based people and companies.
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