Closing summary
It’s nearly 11pm in Kyiv. That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, and the Russia-Ukraine war blog today.
Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a video showing Ukrainian soldiers saying they have recaptured the village of Staromaiorske. In the video, Ukrainian fighters say they have “liberated the village”, located east of Zaporizhzhia city.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, said Ukrainian attacks have intensified in recent days, primarily on the frontline running through Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. Speaking to Russian TV on the margins of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Putin said that Ukraine had not enjoyed success on any part of the front.
Putin used the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg to announce that Russia can replace Ukraine as a supplier of grain to African nations. Having pulled out of the Black Sea grain initiative, and accused by Ukraine of actively blocking ships reaching Ukrainian ports, Putin said Moscow would be ready to start supplying grain for free to six African countries within three to four months, and named Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea as recipients.
Yevgeny Prigozhin appeared to attend the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, according to reports. Late on Wednesday, a close ally of Prigozhin posted a picture purportedly showing the Wagner group leader meeting African officials. In the unverified photograph, Prigozhin is seen standing next to a senior official from Central African Republic (CAR), which has welcomed thousands of Wagner mercenaries over the last few years.
Russia again struck at the port city of Odesa overnight, with the Ukrainian air force reporting that eight Shahed drones and two Kalibr cruise missiles were fired over Ukraine. The air force reported a security guard was killed when a rocket hit the administration building of the port, and the equipment of one of the cargo terminals was damaged.
The British government has allowed sanctioned Russian oligarchs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on perks such as private chefs, chauffeurs and housekeepers, thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, according to a New York Times report.
The European Commission has no money to help Ukraine with extra transport costs after Black Sea deal collapse, sources have said. Sources told Reuters that the Commission had no immediate money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal.
China is helping Russia evade western sanctions and likely providing Moscow with military technology for use in Ukraine, according to an unclassified US intelligence report released on Thursday. “The PRC is providing some dual-use technology that Moscow’s military uses to continue the war in Ukraine, despite an international cordon of sanctions and export controls,” the report said.
Russia has granted debt relief on over $684m owed by Somalia in a deal finalised on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa summit in St Petersburg, Somali officials have said. “This step will play a big role in the completion of the country’s debt forgiveness process,” Somali Finance Minister Bihi Egeh said of the deal with Moscow in a post on the ministry’s Facebook page.
Evgeny Lebedev, the Russian-born British newspaper owner, has claimed he was a victim of “Russophobia” in the UK amid the war in Ukraine. In an article in the Evening Standard newspaper – of which he is the owner – Lebedev said the country was “long overdue” a reckoning with “corporate hypocrisy”.
The British government has allowed sanctioned Russian oligarchs to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on perks such as private chefs, chauffeurs and housekeepers, thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, according to a New York Times report.
In some cases, oligarchs were allowed more than $1m a year in living expenses, documents showed. In others, sanctioned were removed after legal battles.
Despite vowing to increase “pressure on Putin and cut off funding for the Russian war machine”, Britain granted the Russian banking tycoon Mikhail Fridman an exemption, known as a licence, to pay for 19 members of staff, including drivers, private chefs, housekeepers and handymen, during the first year of the war, the paper said.
Fridman’s former business partner, Petr Aven, received a monthly allowance of £60,000, the paper wrote. Fridman and Aven have both been described by the UK government as “pro-Kremlin oligarchs” who are closely associated with President Vladimir Putin.
The British Treasury granted at least 82 licenses last year and many more applications are pending, according to official figures seen by the paper.
