Summary
It is approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and here is a roundup of today’s main news.
Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people were injured in an early morning missile attack on Kyiv that hit apartment buildings, two schools and a children’s clinic, according to city authorities. The attack, on International Children’s Day, reportedly involved 10 Iskander short-range missiles, and there was only a few minutes’ warning before they hit. Most of the damage appeared to be from falling debris after the incoming missiles were intercepted by the capital’s air defences. Nearly 500 children have been killed in military attacks in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Two people were wounded when an unknown device detonated in the Russian city of Belgorod, the governor of the region said today. On Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said “a drone fell on the road”. Two men were injured and one of them was hospitalised with a suspected concussion.
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reiterated his position in favor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, condemning Russia’s invasion.
The Agence France-Presse news agency held a memorial ceremony at its Paris headquarters today for the journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed last month in Ukraine. AFP’s global news director, Phil Chetwynd, confirmed journalists would be gradually returning to frontline reporting in Ukraine next week.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for the transfer of Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine.
Starlink, the satellite communications service started by Elon Musk, has a Department of Defence contract to buy those satellite services for Ukraine, the Pentagon has said.
Russian access to Faroe Islands’ north Atlantic ports will be restricted to exclusively fishing in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Faroese government is trying to reduce Russian activities at its ports due to the risk of espionage and after criticism over the renewal of the bilateral fisheries accord at the end of November.
Tortoise media reports that the owner of the Independent and London’s Evening Standard newspaper, Alexander Lebedev, has been targeted for sanctions by Ukraine.
The Russian state-owned media agency Tass is reporting that 11 people from the Belgorod region who were affected by shelling today have been admitted to hospital.
Ukraine’s ministry of renovation and infrastructure has said the UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal has been halted again because Russia has blocked registration of ships to all Ukrainian ports. The UN and Turkey brokered the grain initiative between Moscow and Kyiv last July to help tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a leading global grain exporter.
Taiwan has donated more than £4m to Lithuanian-led reconstructions projects in Ukraine, a Lithuanian government investment agency said on Wednesday. The funds will go towards rebuilding a school in Borodianka and a nursery in Irpin, the Central Project Management Agency said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv wanted to receive a “clear” decision on its future in the Nato military alliance when the bloc’s leaders meet for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next month.
Heavy shelling has prompted a partial evacuation of civilians from the region of Belgorod, Russia, as soldiers repelled three attempted incursions along its border with Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked leaders of the European Political Community for their continued support “against Russian aggression” on Twitter. The summit is the second meeting of the EPC, which will bring leaders from across the continent together in Moldova.
The mayor of Kyiv has asked for a district administrator and the head of a medical facility to be suspended while investigations continue into the circumstances of the deaths. Reports say they were stuck outside a locked air raid shelter when they were struck by falling debris. Law enforcement officers are investigating the claims.
Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, has announced there will be an inspection of the operation of air shelters in his city tonight.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, announced that events to celebrate International Children’s Day in the city had been cancelled as a result of the overnight barrage.
Tass reports that authorities in Belgorod are denying there has been a border incursion in Russia.
Eight people were wounded by overnight shelling that continued into the morning in the Russian town of Shebekino that damaged multiple buildings, the governor of the local Belgorod region said on Thursday. Vyacheslav Gladkov also reported that two teachers at a rural school in Novopetrovka received shrapnel wounds and had been hospitalised after the building was struck by fire from the Ukrainian armed forces, and said state maths exams in Shebekino had been cancelled as a result of continued cross-border shelling.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday that Russia’s defence ministry, border guards, emergency services and local authorities were constantly reporting to Vladimir Putin on the situation in Belgorod.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the international community to put concrete “security guarantees” in place in Ukraine and its neighbour Moldova to give the countries enduring protection against Russia. First to arrive at the summit of 47 European leaders in Moldova, the Ukrainian president said he would also be speaking on Thursday to partner countries about putting in place a “potential air jets coalition” and a coalition providing Patriot missiles.
Nato foreign ministers are meeting in Oslo, where the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said the Nato alliance needed to think about what kind of security guarantees it could give Ukraine, and Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said the time had come for Nato members to find a concrete answer to the question of how Ukraine could become a member.
Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, also in Oslo, said the time had come for Turkey and Hungary to ratify his nation’s Nato membership application. “We have fulfilled all our commitments,” Billström said. The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he would soon travel to Turkey to discuss Sweden’s Nato membership.
Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed on Thursday that it had uncovered a US National Security Agency plot using previously unknown malware to penetrate specially made backdoor vulnerabilities in iPhones.
Updated
The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reiterated his position in favor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, condemning Russia’s invasion.
The comments came after a meeting in Brasília with Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, who is making an official visit to Brazil on 1-2 June 2023.
The Brazilian leader said he also hoped for a “balaced” trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU that could support Brazil’s push for reindustrialisation and sustainable development.
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