Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a summary of today’s stories:
A Ukrainian military spy official said on Tuesday that Russia was showing no willingness to return the bodies of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war Moscow says died in a military plane crash in Belgorod region last week. “It’s a statement from Russia that our prisoners were there, and so far we can analyse only their words. Now there is no readiness to transfer the bodies from the other side,” Andriy Yusov, the spokesperson, was quoted as saying by Suspilne broadcaster.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has reiterated calls for an “air shield” to protect the country from missiles and drone attacks.
Josep Borrell, vice-president of the European Commission and EU foreign policy chief, has said Europe’s safety is at stake if Vladimir Putin wins the war in Ukraine. In a piece written in the French publication L’Obs, Borell said: “We hear again that Ukraine cannot win and that western support will not hold. And once again, the temptations of conciliation resurface. These ideas were wrong in 2022, and they remain wrong today. We must not let them shape our policy towards Ukraine.”
Twenty-one Ukrainian drones reached Crimea and several Russian regions, Russian media have said this morning. Sevastopol in illegally Russian-held Crimea was targeted, along with the Bryansk, Kaluga and Tula regions, according to Russian officials, who as usual claimed all drones were intercepted and/or destroyed.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, warned on Monday that Ukraine’s gains over two years of fighting were in doubt without new US funding, as Nato’s chief visited to lobby Congress.
The European parliament is investigating claims that one of its members has spied for Russia’s FSB since at least 2004. Tatjana Ždanoka, a Latvian MEP, has denied allegations published by the Insider, a Russian investigative newspaper, which put together the story along with Estonia’s Delfi, Latvia’s Re:Baltica and Sweden’s Expressen.
Insider alleged emails between Ždanoka and Russian case officers included reports on her work as a European legislator including fostering pro-Kremlin sentiment. In March 2022, Ždanoka was one of 13 MEPs – out of 705 in the parliament – who voted against condemning Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Politico quoted a European parliament official as saying “investigations … have been opened” into the allegations, which were taken “very seriously”. In a video on Facebook, Ždanoka said: “I have never been associated with the KGB … and I have not cooperated with any other intelligence agencies.”
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that its forces had taken control of the village of Tabaivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, but Ukraine denied this. Volodymyr Fityo, the head of communications for Ukraine’s ground forces, said: “This does not correspond to reality. There are battles taking place near this locality.”
Representatives of the EU member states will meet on Monday evening to discuss funding for Ukraine as pressure mounts on Viktor Orbán to agree. An aide to Orbán said the Hungarian PM said he was open to a proposed €50bn ($54bn) aid package and had sent a proposal with “caveats” to Brussels. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, met his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, in western Ukraine on Monday.
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Russia is increasing production of air defence missiles,the country’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said in video footage released on Tuesday, adding there were “key issues” that needed to be addressed, Reuters reports.
The release of the footage by the defence ministry follows drone strikes launched from Ukraine on Russian cities and energy infrastructure while Moscow presses on with its military campaign against Kyiv.
Shoigu was shown inspecting defence industry facilities in the Urals industrial city of Ekaterinburg and touring factories producing sea- and ground-launched cruise missiles and air defence systems.
“There has been a significant increase in the volume of production. We have more than doubled production of the missiles we need for air defence,” he said at one factory.
“But there are some key issues we need to address. And we need to address them quite vigorously. There is the question of engines, and there is the question of the establishment of launcher production.”
The defence ministry published the videos on its Telegram messenger channel.
Russian officials have in recent months flagged rapid improvements in the country’s military industrial capacity, aimed at bolstering Russia’s military in its deadlocked campaign against Ukraine.
Over the recent weeks, attacks, some of which have been claimed by Ukrainian officials or blamed on Kyiv by the Kremlin, have hit Russian cities and oil and gas facilities.
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