Closing summary
It has gone 6.15pm in Kyiv and in Moscow. We will be closing this blog soon, but you can stay up to date on the Guardian’s Russia and Ukraine coverage here.
Here is a recap of today’s latest developments:
At a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken announced an additional $2bn in foreign military financing for Ukraine. He said new support from the US was coming at a “critical time”. He was speaking alongside Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, and added that the support would be aimed at investing in Ukraine’s industrial base.
Blinken said that the US does not encourage Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia with US-supplied weapons but believes it is a decision Kyiv should make for itself. He said the US was focused on sending Patriot missile systems and other forms of critical air defence to Ukraine. Blinken added: “We’re rushing ammunition, armoured vehicles, missiles, [and] air defences to get them to the frontlines.”
The US could sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine within weeks, Blinken said on Wednesday. During a press conference in Kyiv, he said that the “heavy lifting” on the deal had already been done.
The US will continue to levy sanctions against enterprises involved in China’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, Blinken said on Wednesday. He told the press briefing in Kyiv that the US was “deeply concerned” about China’s support for Russia’s defence industry.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has postponed all foreign visits. “Volodymyr Zelenskiy has instructed that all international events scheduled for the coming days be postponed and new dates coordinated,” Sergii Nykyforov said on Facebook. On Wednesday morning it was announced that Zelenskiy had cancelled trips to Spain and Portugal.
EU member states on Wednesday agreed to impose a broadcast ban on online outlet Voice of Europe, accused of spreading Kremlin propaganda, diplomats said. According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said bans would also be applied to three Russian media outlets: Izvestiya, Rossiiskaya Gazeta and Ria Novosti.
Russia on Wednesday warned the EU that if the bloc imposed restrictions on Russian media then western reporters in Russia would feel a swift, harsh and painful response from the Russian state. “If these measures are taken against the Russian media, Russian journalists, then, despite the fact that western correspondents will not want to, they will also have to feel our retaliatory measures,” Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
Russian airstrikes on Ukraine’s southern cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson injured at least 17 people, local officials said on Wednesday. Eleven people, including at least one teenager, received injuries when Russia struck Kherson using aviation, the regional governor said on Telegram. Separately, a Russian missile attack caused a heavy fire in a car repair service in Mykolaiv, emergency services said on Telegram. At least six people were injured.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said his regime is prepared to negotiate over the conflict in Ukraine, in an interview with Chinese media on the eve of his planned visit to Beijing. “We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours,” Putin was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency on Wednesday.
Putin said on Wednesday that the Russian leadership must do everything in its power to ensure that troops have all the necessary resources to successfully carry out their tasks in Ukraine. Putin was speaking at a meeting dedicated to the development of the Russian defence industry.
Putin also said on Wednesday that Russian forces were improving their positions every day along the front in Ukraine in all directions and that the advance was going to plan. The Russian president was at a meeting in the Kremlin with defence minister Andrei Belousov, secretary of the security council Sergei Shoigu and top generals.
Ukraine’s forces “partially pushed back” Russian forces from the town of Vovchansk in Kharkiv region on Wednesday, the Ukrainian military said. In an update on the battlefield situation it said that active combat clashes raged on in north and northwestern parts of the town and a total of 18 Russian assaults were repelled.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its forces had taken control of two more settlements in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and one in the Zaporizhzhia region. The ministry said that Russian troops had captured Hlyboke and Lukiantsi in Kharkiv and Robotyne in Zaporizhzhia. Reuters could not independently verify battlefield reports. The Ukrainian military dismissed the Russian claim about Robotyne.
Ukraine pulled back troops near several villages in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, where Russian forces have been advancing and pounding settlements along the border since last week, Kyiv announced. “In some areas, around Lukyantsi and Vovchansk, in response to enemy fire and assaults from ground troops, and to save the lives of our servicemen and avoid losses, our units manoeuvred and moved to more advantageous positions,” the Ukrainian military announced overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed Putin’s comments on possible negotiations over his war in Ukraine as “hypocritical” on Wednesday. “Once again, Putin’s hypocritical ‘negotiation’ activity … At the same time, Russia continues to burn cities in Donbas and is trying to break through in Kharkiv region, while simultaneously scaling up crimes against civilians,” he said on X.
US President Joe Biden could meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the coming weeks, Blinken said. The US secretary of state said during the press conference in Kyiv that Washington strongly supported a planned Ukrainian peace summit in Switzerland set for next month and would be “robustly represented” there.
The Ukrainian interior ministry said that three civilians were killed in the Kharkiv region over the last 24 hours and that a Russian drone had injured two policemen.
Putin said on Wednesday that Russia’s total defence and security spending may reach a little more than 8.7% of gross domestic product in 2024, and that the money should be used carefully and effectively.
Portugal’s new government is keen on ramping up sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, environment and energy minister Maria da Graca Carvalho said on Wednesday.
Britain’s shadow foreign and defence ministers completed a visit to Kyiv to deliver a message that little would change when it came to British support for Ukraine if Labour won the general election expected later this year. “We wanted to come now, in the run-up to the UK election, to ensure we take politics out of the UK’s support for Ukraine,” said John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, in an interview with the Guardian in Kyiv before leaving Ukraine.
During the same visit, David Lammy, the UK’s shadow foreign secretary said he believed Putin, represented a “new fascism in Europe” and that other nations had to stand firm in defending Ukraine. Lammy and Healey met Ukraine’s defence and foreign ministers as well as Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff of the president.
Estonia’s parliament approved a proposal allowing the use of frozen Russian assets to pay compensation for war damage in Ukraine, the Baltic nation’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday. “We took a big step towards creating a precedent Europe could follow,” foreign minister Margus Tsahkna said.
Ukraine’s war-torn economy faces a renewed threat as Russia’s intensifying war takes its toll on power plants and forces Kyiv to send key workers to the frontline, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has warned. In its latest economic update, the EBRD cut its growth forecasts and said more than two years of fighting in Ukraine was affecting not only the warring countries but also their neighbours.
Russia said on Wednesday that a major airport near the city of Kazan, 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from Ukraine, had been temporarily closed after the region was targeted by a Ukrainian attack drone. The defence ministry said it had downed a Ukrainian drone over the central region of Tatarstan but did not specify what was the target of the attack.
Maxim Timchenko, the CEO of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy producer, described a dire situation on the ground as Russia steps up attacks. He said he hopes for a massive increase in western aid at a recovery conference in Berlin next month. I couldn’t imagine that after three attacks we can lose more than 90% of our generation capacity,” he told an online briefing from Kyiv. “That’s what’s happened after the winter season.”
Updated
EU agrees to sanction pro-Russian outlet 'Voice of Europe'
EU member states on Wednesday agreed to impose a broadcast ban on online outlet Voice of Europe, accused of spreading Kremlin propaganda, diplomats said.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports that the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said bans would also be applied to three Russian media outlets: Izvestiya, Rossiiskaya Gazeta and Ria Novosti.
The intelligence service in the Czech Republic in March busted an alleged Moscow-financed network using Prague-based outlet Voice of Europe to spread Russian propaganda.
According to AFP, Belgian authorities have also opened a probe into accusations that the outlet was used to pay European lawmakers to spread Moscow’s talking points.
The EU has already imposed broadcast bans on over a dozen Russian media outlets over the war in Ukraine.
According to AFP, diplomats said the four latest outlets should be formally added to the blacklist soon. The EU is at the same time working on a new package of sanctions against Russia over the invasion, that for the first time include targeting its liquefied natural gas sector.
Updated
