Photograph: Reuters
Closing summary
Ukraine said it had identified almost 37,000 people, including military personnel, who are unaccounted for since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signed a mobilisation bill into law with the aim of boosting troop numbers. The parliament’s website said the bill had been “returned with the signature of the president” on Tuesday, after receiving final approval from lawmakers last week. The new law toughens penalties on draft dodgers, incentivises conscription and obliges men to keep their military registration details with the authorities up to date.
Polish President Andrzej Duda may meet Donald Trump during a visit to New York this week, he said on Tuesday. “If there is such a possibility, because it also depends on the schedule, I will also meet socially with … Donald Trump,” Duda, whose term in office expires in 2025, told reporters before boarding his plane. An informal meeting could reportedly take place on a visit to New York during which Duda is scheduled to meet the UN secretary-general António Guterres.
Lithuania and German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall has agreed to build an ammunition plant in the Baltic state, in a new sign of Europe re-arming to counter any threat from Russia. Germany’s largest military equipment maker and the Lithuanian government signed a letter of intent to set up a factory to make 155mm artillery shells in the EU and Nato member.
In a wide-ranging interview with PBS NewsHour, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said a lack of air defence missiles prevented Ukraine from thwarting a Russian missile attack last week that destroyed the Trypilska thermal power plant. His comments gave fresh urgency to Kyiv’s pleas to be sent more military weapons from its allies as the war appears to have turned in the Kremlin’s favour over recent months.
Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, has unveiled a complicated proposal for passing wartime aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. Facing an outright rebellion from conservatives who fiercely oppose aiding Ukraine, Johnson said he would push to get the package to the House floor under a single debate rule, then hold separate votes on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and several foreign policy proposals, according to Republican lawmakers.
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said he hoped Berlin and Beijing could help achieve a “just peace” in Ukraine, as he met his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, in the Chinese capital.
Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, has accused Russia of a “a well-planned false-flag operation” endangering the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as the two countries traded accusations at the UN security council over alleged attacks on Europe’s largest nuclear power station. The Zaporizhzia nuclear power plant reportedly suffered at least three direct strikes on 7 April and another drone attack at the plant’s nearby training centre on 9 April. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said, without attributing blame, that the “reckless” attacks had put the world “dangerously close to a nuclear accident”.
The Kremlin reacted coolly to France’s president Emmanuel Macron’s call for a truce in international conflicts during the Paris Olympics, saying Ukraine might use it as an opportunity to regroup and rearm.
Russia and Ukraine negotiated for two months with Turkey on a deal to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea and reached agreement on a text that was to be announced by Ankara last month, but then Kyiv suddenly pulled out, sources told Reuters.
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Updated
Ukraine identifies 37,000 people missing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion
Ukraine said it had identified almost 37,000 people, including military personnel, who are unaccounted for since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Calculating the exact number of missing is difficult, as Russian forces still occupy around a fifth of the country and neither side regularly releases data on military casualties.
“Almost 37,000 people are considered missing – children, civilians and military. These figures may be much higher,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said.
He said Ukraine and the Red Cross had identified about 1,700 people “illegally detained” by Russia, which he accused of “abducting civilians” since 2014, when war with Moscow-backed separatists in the country’s east first broke out.
Human rights groups have accused Russia of forced disappearances and abducting children in occupied areas, accusations the Kremlin has rejected.
