Closing summary
It’s approaching 9pm in Kyiv. Here is a round-up of the day’s stories:
It will be an “open road” for Russian troops to capture cities in Ukraine should they seize control of Bakhmut, warned president Zelenskiy in an interview with CNN. “This is tactical for us, we understand that after Bakhmut they could go further,” he said.
New intelligence reviewed by US officials suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, the New York Times reported. There was no evidence that president Volodymyr Zelenskiy or his top lieutenants in Ukraine were involved in the operation, or that the perpetrators were acting at the direction of any Ukrainian government officials, the newspaper reported, citing US officials. The German government said it had taken note of the report which said new intelligence suggested a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the Nord Stream pipelines attack last year, but its own investigation has not yet reached results.
A senior aide to Zelenskiy said that Kyiv was “absolutely not involved” in last year’s attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines and has no information about what happened. Russia’s deputy UN envoy said that the report “only proves that our initiative on launching an international investigation under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General is very timely.”
Russia has sustained “20,000 to 30,000 casualties’’ - killed and wounded - in trying to capture Bakhmut, western officials estimated at a briefing on Tuesday. While no firm figure was offered for Ukrainian losses, the official said it was “significantly less”.
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the Ukrainian Presidency, has said 130 prisoners of war have been returned home following an exchange. Russia’s ministry of defence has issued a statement to say that 90 prisoners of war have been returned by Ukraine.
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister told regional media on Tuesday that fewer than 4,000 civilians, including 38 children remain in Bakhmut. The city, the focus of fierce fighting in the Donbas region, had an estimated prewar population of about 70,000 people.
Britain’s defence industry is to be blocked from profiting from the EU’s vast increase in spending on arms for Ukraine, under a leaked plan seen by the Guardian. A “massive order” of ammunition, ranging from small arms to 155mm artillery rounds, is being prepared in Brussels but only EU and Norwegian manufacturers will be able to take advantage.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has denied Kyiv was involved in attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield last month. Alexander Lukashenko alleged that Ukrainian and U.S. intelligence services were involved in the drone attack in late February which was claimed by Belarusian anti-government activists.
A court in Moscow sentenced a student activist to eight and a half years in prison for social media posts criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dmitry Ivanov was convicted on Tuesday of spreading false information about the Russian army, AP reports.
The situation is “stable and controlled” in the Luhansk region the governor, Serhiy Haidai said. In a post on Telegram, Haidai said the number of attacks in the direction of Bilogorivka and Kreminnaya had increased. Today, he said, the Russians have “pulled back to replenish their reserves”.
The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, will meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss extending a deal with Moscow that allows the Black Sea export of Ukraine grains, according to Reuters.
A 14-year-old Ukrainian girl who died after she was found unconscious on a beach in south Devon on Saturday has been named as Albina Yevko. The teenager was found on Dawlish town beach, near where she was living, on Saturday evening after a search involving a police helicopter and HM Coastguard.
Ukraine has named the unarmed prisoner of war who appeared to have been shot dead by Russian soldiers, as the president delivered an overnight message resolving to “find the murderers”. In the graphic 12-second clip that first circulated on Telegram on Monday a detained combatant, named by the Ukrainian military as Tymofiy Mykolayovych Shadura, is seen standing in a shallow trench smoking a cigarette before apparently shot with automatic weapons.
Poland is to send more tanks to Ukraine this week, the country’s defence minister said. Poland had promised to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks in total.
A decision on a permanent deployment of a German brigade to Lithuania will be “up to Nato”, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said in response to calls by Vilnius for a larger Nato presence in the country.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the seizure of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine would allow Moscow’s forces to mount further offensive operations.
Russian forces carried out 50 airstrikes and five missile strikes overnight and Ukrainian forces repelled 37 attacks in the area around Bakhmut, according to the latest update by the General staff of the armed forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian forces claim to have carried out 15 airstrikes against Russian forces, including a strike on an anti-aircraft system. It also claimed to have shot down an SU-25 aircraft, nine Shaheed drones and eight other drones.
Jan Gagin, an adviser to the Russian-installed leaders in the occupied portion of Donetsk, has claimed that Russian forces control about half of Bakhmut and have control over all the asphalt roads in the area. None of the claims about the situation in Bakhmut have been independently verified.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine is committed to defending the embattled city despite a partial encirclement. The Ukrainian president said he had held a meeting with senior generals and commanders in which it was resolved that there was “no part of Ukraine” that “can be abandoned”.
Ukraine’s ongoing defence of Bakhmut is forcing Russian to engage in a costly battle for a city that “isn’t intrinsically important operationally or strategically”, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Zelenskiy paid tribute to a soldier whose execution by machine gun was filmed and uploaded to social media. The graphic video shows a man smoking a cigarette who says “glory to Ukraine” before he is shot at what appears to be close range.
Ukraine has started online talks with partners on extending the Black Sea grain initiative aimed at ensuring Kyiv can keep shipping grain to global markets, a senior Ukrainian government source has said on Tuesday. The source said Ukraine had not held discussions with Russia, which blockaded Ukrainian Black Sea ports after its invasion last year, but that it was Kyiv’s understanding that its partners were talking to Moscow.
A Moscow court has sentenced the student activist Dmitry Ivanov to eight and a half years in prison as the Kremin escalates its crackdown on anti-war dissent.
Belarus detained on Tuesday what it said was a Ukrainian “terrorist group” working with Kyiv’s intelligence services over attempted sabotage at a Belarusian airfield. Belarusian anti-government activists said last month they had blown up a sophisticated Russian military surveillance aircraft in a drone attack at an airfield near the Belarusian capital Minsk, a claim disputed by Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea has denied reports that explosions have been heard near Belbek airbase. Mikhail Razvozhaev posted to Telegram to say “The public is again writing about some kind of explosion near the airfield. This is a lie. Ship crews are training in the outer road. Everything is calm in the city.”
China’s foreign minister Qin Gang says the country must strengthen its relationship with Russia in the face of continued hostility from the US. In a fiery press conference, his first appearance as foreign minister, Qin outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.
Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine sent to us over the news wires:
