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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Samantha Lock (now); Johana Bhuiyan, Lauren Aratani, Léonie Chao-Fong, Martin Belam and Helen Livingstone (earlier)

Russia warns of an immediate ‘proportional response’ if Britain continues its ‘direct provocation’ of Ukraine – as it happened

Ukraine Sergei Lavrov Russia United Kingdom Moscow Kyiv Germany Ben Wallace NATO Antonio Guterres
Kyiv dismantles ‘Friendship of the Peoples’ statue erected in 1982 to symbolise ties between Ukraine and Russia.
Kyiv dismantles ‘Friendship of the Peoples’ statue erected in 1982 to symbolise ties between Ukraine and Russia. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Thank you for following our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

This blog has now closed. You can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blog in the link below.

Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace, UK MoD says

Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace as Russian air activity focuses primarily on southern and eastern Ukraine, the UK’s ministry of defence has said.

In its latest intelligence report, the ministry said:

Ukraine retains control over the majority of its airspace. Russia has failed to effectively destroy the Ukrainian Air Force or suppress Ukrainian air defences. Ukraine continues to hold Russian air assets at risk.

Russian air activity is primarily focused on southern and eastern Ukraine, providing support to Russian ground forces. Russia has very limited air access to the north and west of Ukraine, limiting offensive actions to deep strikes with stand-off weapons.

Russia continues to target Ukrainian military assets and logistics infrastructure across the country.

The majority of Russian air strikes in Mariupol are likely being conducted using unguided free-falling bombs. These weapons reduce Russia’s ability to effectively discriminate when conducting strikes, increasing the risk of civilian casualties.”

Russian gas supplies have resumed to Poland, according to operator data.

Gas supplies under the Yamal contract to Poland edged up after dropping to zero earlier, data from the European Union network of gas transmission operators seen by Reuters showed on Wednesday.

Physical gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline from Belarus to Poland were at 3,449,688 kWh/hour at 6:22am CET (4:22am GMT).

Updated

US defence chief urges allies to 'move at the speed of war'

The US defence chief has urged Ukraine’s allies to “move at the speed of war” to get more weapons to Kyiv, as reported by Associated Press.

The call comes after Russian forces rained fire on eastern and southern Ukraine, and fears that the conflict could cross the country’s borders.

For the second day, explosions rocked the separatist region of Trans-Dniester in neighbouring Moldova. A Russian missile also hit a strategic bridge linking Ukraine’s Odesa port region to neighbouring Nato member Romania, according to Ukrainian authorities.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin convened a meeting Tuesday of officials from about 40 countries at the US air base at Ramstein, Germany, and said more help is on the way.

We don’t have any time to waste. We’ve got to move at the speed of war.”

He said he wanted officials to leave the meeting “with a common and transparent understanding of Ukraine’s near-term security requirements because we’re going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them.”

Austin added: “Certainly we don’t want to see any spillover” of the conflict.

We would like to make sure, again, that they don’t have the same type of capability to bully their neighbours that we saw at the outset of this conflict.”

Updated

Ukrainian refugees face the ever-present threat of sexual violence as they seek to flee their homeland.

This report from Agence France-Presse sheds some light on the pervasive threat of sexual violence.

The United Nations estimates more than five million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on 24 February.

Around 90% are women and children, with the authorities in Kyiv not allowing men aged 18 to 60 to leave the country.

As the conflict and displacement expands, Colleen Roberts of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Moldova, responds to the most pressing questions about the sexual violence risks facing Ukrainian refugees.

Conflict and displacement can increase risks of sexual violence and trafficking that already exist for women and bring new ones, Roberts says.

The longer that refugees are displaced, the more risks there are for gender-based violence for those living within the host community, especially as resources start to run out. There are definitely high risks of GBV for people who are displaced.”

A refugee camp setup up for people arriving from Ukraine to Moldova at the Palanca border crossing is seen in the image below.

For the second day in a row, explosions rocked the separatist region of Trans-Dniester in Moldova, knocking out two powerful radio antennas close to the Ukrainian border and further heightening fears of a broader conflict erupting across Europe.

A camp setup up for refugees at the Palanca border crossing in Moldova.
A camp setup up for refugees at the Palanca border crossing in Moldova. Photograph: Aurel Obreja/AP

We have a little more detail surrounding reports of a fire at an ammunition depot in the Russian city of Belgorod early this morning.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said he woke “to a loud sound like an explosion” at about 3:35am in an update posted to Telegram.

“So far, not a single duty service of the city and the region has found the cause of this sound,” he added.

The explosions were said to have come from near the village of Staraya Nelidovka which lies about 40km outside the Ukrainian border.

“According to preliminary information, an ammunition depot is on fire. There is no destruction of residential buildings, houses. There were no casualties among the civilian population,” Gladkov said.

Updated

Drone giant DJI Technology Co said it will temporarily suspend business in Russia and Ukraine to ensure its products are not used in combat, making it the first major Chinese firm to halt sales to Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.

“DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions,” the privately held company said in a statement late on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.

“Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine.”

On Wednesday a DJI spokesperson told Reuters that the suspension of business in Russia and Ukraine was “not to make a statement about any country, but to make a statement about our principles”.

DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat.”

Ukrainian officials and citizens have accused DJI, the world’s largest maker of consumer and industrial drones, of leaking data on the Ukrainian military to Russia.

Last month DJI dismissed those accusations as “utterly false”. A German retailer had cited such information as a reason for taking DJI products off shelves.

Ammunition depot on fire in Belgorod, Russia - reports

A series of blasts have reportedly been heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border while an ammunition depot was also reported to be on fire, local officials said according to a Reuters report.

Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said an ammunition depot in the province caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday, the news agency said.

Gladkov said no civilians had been hurt by the fire which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village.

The Belgorod province borders Ukraine’s Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.

Updated

Earlier on Tuesday, United Nations secretary general António Guterres failed to reach a conclusion that would aid the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine after speaking across a long white table to Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Putin described the situation in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as “tragic”, but said the Russian military was no longer active in the city. Putin’s comments come after accusations by Ukraine that Russia has been shelling a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged port city.

Watch the video of the conversation between the pair below.

Summary so far

  • Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes Russia is trying to destabilise the situation in the Transnistrian region, adding that Ukrainian armed forces are ready for a possible escalation by Russian troops in the temporarily occupied territory of Moldova. “The goal is obvious - to destabilise the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address.
  • Zelenskiy said the “free world has the right to self-defence” after predicting that Russia intends to not only seize the territory of Ukraine but to “dismember the entire centre and east of Europe” and “deal a global blow to democracy”.
  • Britain’s foreign minister Elizabeth Truss is expected to call on allies of Ukraine to “ramp up” and “double down” on military production including of planes and tanks in a speech set to be delivered on Wednesday. Truss said the UK’s new approach “will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances”. Russia’s victory will have “terrible consequences across the globe”, Truss is expected to say. “We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.
  • Australia will send six M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine as part of a $26.7m package in its response to “Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion” a statement from prime minister Scott Morrison and defence minster Peter Dutton said on Wednesday.
  • Canada will also ramp up its military aid to Ukraine with aims to send eight armoured vehicles “as quickly as possible”, minister of defence Anita Anand announced.
  • Russia will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday. Warsaw has refused to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roubles and earlier announced that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company. Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of the arrangement.
  • The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, describing the situation as “absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, is heading an expert mission to Chornobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.
  • Zelenskiy said “no one in the world can feel safe” after Russia threatened Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and called for “global control” over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology after meeting with director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi. “No other country in the world since 1986 has posed such a major threat to nuclear security, to Europe and the world” he said.
  • Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the danger of nuclear war is “serious” and the core of any agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine would depend largely on the military situation on the ground.
  • US state department spokesman Ned Price responded, saying Russia’s “loose talk of nuclear weapons ... is the height of irresponsibility” and “a clear attempt to distract from its failure in Ukraine” while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
  • British prime minister Boris Johnson said he does not expect Russian president Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. When asked during an interview with Britain’s Talk TV if he fears that Putin may use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Moscow faced defeat in its ongoing invasion, Johnson said Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre” and could back down.
  • The US Department of Defence has established a control centre in Germany to assist in the distribution of US military aid to Ukraine, a senior US defence official told reporters on Tuesday.
  • A statue known as the ‘Friendship of Peoples’, installed in 1982 and symbolising historic ties between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Russia, was dismantled in Kyiv on Tuesday. “We now see what this “friendship” is - destruction of Ukrainian cities ... killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now,” Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.

Updated

Canada will also ramp up its military aid to Ukraine with aims to send eight armoured vehicles manufactured by Roshel “as quickly as possible”, minister of defence Anita Anand announced.

Last week, Canada delivered M777 howitzers, associated ammunition, and Carl Gustaf weapons to Ukrainian Forces, Anand added.

Australia will send six M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine as part of a $26.7m package in its response to “Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion”.

The six M777 155mm lightweight towed howitzers and howitzer ammunition will be sent to Europe following a request by the United States and the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia to provide heavy artillery weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“This additional military assistance will further support Ukraine in its response to Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion,” a statement from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minster Peter Dutton said on Wednesday.

“The $26.7 million in new support for Ukraine takes Australia’s total contribution to Defensive Military Assistance to Ukraine to over $225 million.”

The M777 marks a “significant advance in Army’s capabilities”, according to the Australian army website.

The 155mm calibre weapon, which weighs 4,100kg and is 10.7 metres in deployed configuration, can fire two rounds per minute (sustained) or five rounds per minute (rapid) and its effective range is 24km for conventional rounds or 30km for improved rounds.

Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda has urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to supply Ukraine with Leopard battle tanks, adding that Germany should speed up the delivery of weapons to Kyiv.

“I am not in the position of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. I can only say what I would do in his place: I would deliver tanks,” Nauseda was quoted by Funke media group as saying on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

Nauseda said Germany was going in the right direction but if it wants to be consistent, it could not stop halfway.

“It is extremely important that Ukraine gets the military equipment it needs now. Not tomorrow or the day after, then it could be too late,” he added.

A Leopard 2 A7V battle tank from Bundeswehr training battalion 93 seen during an exercise at the training area in Munster, Germany.
A Leopard 2 A7V battle tank from Bundeswehr training battalion 93 seen during an exercise at the training area in Munster, Germany. Photograph: Philipp Schulze/AP

British prime minister Boris Johnson has said that he does not expect Russian president Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.

When asked during an interview with Britain’s Talk TV if he fears that Putin may use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Moscow faced defeat in its ongoing invasion, Johnson said Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre” and could back down.

Johnson said Putin had the “political space” to be able to back down and withdraw from Ukraine.

Putin has far more political space to back down, to withdraw.

There could come to a point, when he could say to the Russian people ‘the military technical operation that we launched in Ukraine has been accomplished, it’s been technically a success ... we had to go into to accomplish certain protectors to protect the rights of certain people that’s been done’ and I think he has far more political space than people worry about.”

Johnson added that Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre.”

West gearing up to help Ukraine for ‘long haul’: US defence secretary

Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, has said the west is gearing up to help Ukraine for “the long haul” and will take steps to boost rearmament to help the embattled country following a meeting of defence ministers in Germany.

Politicians present also discussed coordinating future arms supplies on top of $5bn (£3.9bn) already committed, but the growing effort has already prompted Russia to accuse the west of engaging in “a proxy war” by arming Ukraine against Moscow.

“We have an important session today on the long term support for Ukraine’s defence including what that will take from our defence industrial bases,” Austin said after a 40-country meeting at the Ramstein airbase in south-west Germany.

The secretary added that that would mean “dealing with the tremendous demand that we’re facing for munitions and weapons platforms” and “redoubling our common efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s military for the long haul”.

Here are some of the latest haunting images to come out of Ukraine today.

From Borodyanka to Mariupol and Chernihiv, Ukrainians continue to resist Russian occupation.

A destroyed neighbourhood in Borodyanka, Ukraine.
A destroyed neighbourhood in Borodyanka, Ukraine. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
Two women sing traditional songs during a burial at a cemetery in Borodyanka, Ukraine.
Two women sing traditional songs during a burial at a cemetery in Borodyanka, Ukraine. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
A building destroyed by Russian missiles in Borodyanka.
A building destroyed by Russian missiles in Borodyanka. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/UPI/REX/Shutterstock
A plastic hand rests against a window in the 11th State Fire and Rescue Unit station in Chernobyl.
A plastic hand rests against a window in the 11th State Fire and Rescue Unit station in Chernobyl. Photograph: Francisco Seco/AP
A man holds a cross after burying a relative killed in Chernihiv, Ukraine.
A man holds a cross after burying a relative killed in Chernihiv, Ukraine. Photograph: Celestino Arce Lavin/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
A woman walks inside the basement of a residential building during a Russian attack in Lyman, Ukraine.
A woman walks inside the basement of a residential building during a Russian attack in Lyman, Ukraine. Photograph: Léo Corrêa/AP
A man sits in front of an apartment building damaged from heavy fighting as he waits for the kettle to boil in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine.
A man sits in front of an apartment building damaged from heavy fighting as he waits for the kettle to boil in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine. Photograph: Alexei Alexandrov/AP

Zelenskiy reiterated Russia’s threat to nuclear security in his national address after meeting with director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi.

No other country in the world since 1986 has posed such a major threat to nuclear security, to Europe and the world, that Russia has posed since February 24.

Russia kept a contingent in the Chernobyl zone with armoured vehicles, which destroyed the soil surface and raised an extraordinary amount of dust into the air, including radioactive particles.”

Zelenskiy added that Russia has “no right to turn nuclear energy into weapons”, as well as to blackmail the world with nuclear weapons.

We called everyone, we wanted a tough reaction from the world. We warned everyone that there could be a new nuclear catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is like six Chernobyls, and that it could simply destroy Europe.”

'The free world has the right to self-defence,' Zelenskiy says

Zelenskiy has said the “free world has the right to self-defence” after predicting that Russia intends to not only seize the territory of Ukraine but to “dismember the entire centre and east of Europe” and “deal a global blow to democracy”.

There are almost no people left in the free world who do not understand that Russia’s war against Ukraine is just the beginning.

The ultimate goal of Russia’s leadership is not just to seize the territory of Ukraine, but to dismember the entire centre and east of Europe and deal a global blow to democracy.

Therefore, the free world has the right to self-defence. And that is why it will help Ukraine even more.”

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said “no one in the world can feel safe” after Russia threatened Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and called for “global control” over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology.

In his national address this evening, Zelenskiy said:

I believe that after all that the Russian military has done in the Chernobyl zone and at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, no one in the world can feel safe knowing how many nuclear facilities, nuclear weapons and related technologies the Russian state has.

If Russia has forgotten what Chernobyl is, it means that global control over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology is needed.”

Addressing the latest threats to nuclear safety, Zelenskiy said Russia launched three missiles against Ukraine on Tuesday so that they “flew directly over the blocks of our nuclear power plants”. “Over three nuclear power plants at once. Over Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and South-Ukrainian NPPs,” he added.

Russian troops that were trying to attack Kyiv through the Chernobyl zone used the restricted area as a military base.

They set up positions on land where it is forbidden to even stand. They drove armoured vehicles through areas where radiation-contaminated materials are buried and where the number of radioactive particles is simply horrendous. They destroyed the dosimetric control points. The Chernobyl radiation monitoring system was broken and looted. They looted a nuclear analytical laboratory...”

US state department spokesman Ned Price responded to Lavrov’s comments, saying they were part of a “pattern of bellicose statements” from Russia, which he branded “irresponsible” and “a clear attempt to distract from its failure in Ukraine.”

Loose talk of nuclear weapons, nuclear escalation is especially irresponsible, it is the height of irresponsibility,” Price told reporters on Tuesday.

Price said the US was paying close attention “to Russia’s activities, to what it’s doing and what it’s not doing” but added that the US saw no reason to change its own nuclear posture.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the danger of nuclear war is “serious” and the core of any agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine would depend largely on the military situation on the ground.

Russia, Lavrov said in an interview broadcast on state television, was doing a lot to uphold the principle of striving to prevent nuclear war at all costs.

This is our key position on which we base everything. The risks now are considerable.

I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it.”

Lavrov, defending Moscow’s actions, also blamed Washington for the lack of dialogue.

“The United States has practically ceased all contacts simply because we were obliged to defend Russians in Ukraine,” Lavrov said, repeating the rationale for Moscow’s invasion of its southern neighbour.

But he said western supplies of sophisticated weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles and advanced drones were provocative measures calculated to prolong the conflict rather than bring it to an end.

“These weapons will be a legitimate target for Russia’s military acting within the context of the special operation,” Lavrov said.

“Storage facilities in western Ukraine have been targeted more than once (by Russian forces). How can it be otherwise?” he added. “Nato, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”

Russia’s war in Ukraine threatens to spill over in dangerous new phase, the Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, writes for us today.

A series of mysterious explosions in Moldova have raised the threat of Russia’s war in Ukraine spilling over into new territory, with unpredictable consequences.

The blasts destroyed radio antennas in a Russian-garrisoned sliver of eastern Moldova along the Ukrainian border, Transnistria, which had been peaceful since a brief conflict in 1992 waged by Kremlin-backed separatists against the Moldovan army.

The separatist authorities blamed the incidents on Ukrainian infiltrators while the Kyiv government alleged they were false-flag attacks designed to provide a pretext for an infusion of Russian troops, to add to the 1,500 already based there, just as similar blasts in the Donbas preceded the 24 February Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Those allegations were given greater weight when residents in Transnistria received fake SMS texts on Tuesday warning of an imminent Ukrainian attack. The Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, convened an emergency meeting of her security council and declared that forces were at play in Transnistria which were “interested in destabilising the region”.

A Russian move into Transnistria would pose an imminent threat to the sovereignty of Moldova, a country of 2.6 million people which, like Ukraine, has shown increasing interest in joining Nato.

It would also menace Odesa, the Ukrainian port city which lies on the Black Sea coast between Moldova and Russian-occupied Kherson.

Read the full story below.

The UN General Assembly took a first step to put the five permanent members of the Security Council under a global spotlight on Tuesday when they use their veto power, a move highlighted by Russia’s veto and threat of future vetoes that has paralysed any action by the UN’s most powerful body on the Ukraine war, the Associated Press is reporting.

The resolution does not eliminate or limit the veto power of the permanent members - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

But for the first time it will require the General Assembly “to hold a debate on the situation” that sparks a veto in the Security Council within 10 working days, and to give precedence on the list of speakers to the permanent member who cast the veto.

The assembly isn’t required to take or consider any action, but the discussion could put veto-wielders on the spot and let a raft of other countries be heard.

Liechtenstein’s UN ambassador, Christian Wenaweser, who spearheaded the resolution, has said it aims “to promote the voice of all of us who are not veto-holders, and who are not on the Security Council, on matters of international peace and security because they affect all of us.”

Presenting the resolution to the assembly on Tuesday morning, Wenaweser alluded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Security Council’s failure to take action saying: “There has never been a stronger need for effective multilateralism than today, and there has never been a stronger need for innovation in order to secure the central role and voice of the United Nations.”

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy believes Russia is trying to destabilise the situation in the Transnistrian region, while Ukrainian armed forces are ready for a possible escalation by Russian troops in the temporarily occupied territory of the Republic of Moldova.

Answering journalists’ questions after a meeting with IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi in Kyiv, Zelenskiy said that he fully shares the assessment of the situation by Moldovan President Maia Sandu.

Zelenskiy also said that he discussed that issue with Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă who was in Kyiv on Tuesday.

We clearly understand that this is one of the steps of the Russian Federation. The special services are working there. It’s not just about fake news. The goal is obvious - to destabilise the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps.”

According to Zelenskiy, Ukraine knows that the Russian troops, which have been present in the territory of the temporarily occupied part of Moldova - Transnistria for many years, are in “constant readiness”.

“But we understand their capabilities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are ready for this and are not afraid of them,” he added.

Updated

Today so far...

That’s all from me today in New York. Our coworkers in Australia will be taking over the blog.

Here’s what’s happened today so far:

  • Poland’s government has been told that the country’s gas supply from Russia will stop from Wednesday following Warsaw’s refusal to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roubles.
    The decision to stop supply had also followed Poland’s announcement earlier that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company.

  • Russia’s gas company Gazprom is also halting gas deliveries to Bulgaria, AFP reported. In addition to Poland, Gazprom has announced that it would stop delivering gas to Bulgaria after demanding that countries pay for gas in rubles.
  • The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl nuclear plant, describing the situation as “absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, is heading an expert mission to Chornobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.

The west must 'double down' on support for Ukraine, UK foreign minister says

Britain’s foreign minister Elizabeth Truss is expected to call on allies of Ukraine to “ramp up” military production including of planes and tanks, the AFP is reporting after reviewing a preview of a speech to be delivered on Wednesday. In her speech, called the new approach, Truss says the UK’s new approach “will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances”.

“We cannot be complacent - the fate of Ukraine remains in the balance,” her speech reads.

Russia’s victory will have “terrible consequences across the globe”, Truss is expected to say. “We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.

“Heavy weapons, tanks, aeroplanes – digging deep into our inventories, ramping up production. We need to do all of this.”

“There must be nowhere for Putin to go to fund this appalling war,” her speech continues.

“The architecture that was designed to guarantee peace and prosperity has failed Ukraine.”

“We must also follow through on the unity shown in this crisis to reboot, recast and remodel our approach to deterring aggressors.”

Truss will also call for “free nations” to be “more assertive and self-confident”, according to AFP.

Updated

A senior US defense official told reporters on Tuesday that the Department of Defense established a control center in Germany to assist in the distribution of US military aid to Ukraine, CNN is reporting.

The control center, called the EUCOM Control Center of Ukraine or ECCU is based within the US European Command area of responsibility in Stuttgart, Germany. It’s run by a two-star military general and works with the international donor coordination center or IDCC.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said while the US doesn’t expect to encounter any food shortages as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the administration is working to “bolster food security around the globe” both independently and with allies.

On Monday, US Deputy Ambassador Richard M Mills told the UN security council that the war in Ukraine may cause food shortages in Palestine.

“Due to President Putin’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine, food insecurity could worsen even further in the coming weeks, both in Gaza and the West Bank as prices of food, fuel and other commodities rise,” Mills told the UNSC.

“We encourage all member states to provide concrete assistance, including financial contributions to UNRWA, to help meet the needs of vulnerable Palestinians,” he continued.

Updated

Russia’s gas company Gazprom is also halting gas deliveries to Bulgaria, AFP reported. In addition to Poland, Gazprom has announced that it would stop delivering gas to Bulgaria after demanding that countries pay for gas in rubles. Gazprom executives were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying “Poland must pay for gas supplies according to the new payment procedure”. However, it was not immediately clear whether Bulgaria has refused to pay in rubles as well.

“Bulgargaz received a notification today, April 26, that natural gas supplies from Gazprom Export will be suspended starting April 27,” Bulgaria’s economy ministry said in a statement.

More from AFP:

Bulgaria’s energy ministry also said Tuesday that its state-owned gas operators Bulgargaz and Bulgartransgaz “have undertaken steps for alternative agreements for natural gas deliveries and for coping with the current situation”.

“At present, there is no need for (imposing) any restrictive measures on consumption,” it added.

Bulgaria is almost completely dependent on Russia for its annual consumption of about 3.0 billion cubic metres of gas.

The Balkan nation receives only small amounts from Azerbaijan that it hopes to increase after completing a key pipe link to neighbouring Greece later this year.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov will be visiting Kyiv this week in an attempt to address opposition from Bulgaria’s pro-Russian groups to the proposition to send Ukraine military aid, AFP is reporting.

Petkov and representatives of all of the parties in the ruling coalition except for the Socialists expect to be in Kyiv on Thursday.

More context from AFP:

Petkov invited his coalition partners to accompany him to Kyiv in a bid to overcome the pro-Russia Socialists’ opposition to providing military aid to Ukraine, as the party threatened to topple the cabinet if such a decision were approved.

“I hope that... everyone will take a step back and will consider how important Bulgaria’s stability is and how important this is for the Ukrainians,” Petkov, who favours giving military aid, told Nova television in an interview last Friday.

But the Socialists decided earlier Tuesday not to send a representative in the delegation, with their leader Kornelia Ninova telling BNT television the visit was “pointless” and “would hardly change our position” against arms donations.

Bulgaria has remained one of the last hold-outs in the EU in turning down Ukraine’s requests for direct military aid.

This remained the case even after Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made a three-day visit to Sofia last week, urging the country “to make a choice” and provide military support.

The Balkan country, which traditionally has close ties with Russia, is a big manufacturer of Soviet-era ammunition, anti-tank missiles and light arms.

Updated

Johana Bhuiyan here taking over from my colleague, Lauren.

Vladimir Putin agrees “in principle” to the UN and the International Committee for the Red Cross on evacuating civilians from a steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, Reuters is reporting. The steel plant, Azovstal, is where the last Ukrainian forces who were defending Mariupol are hunkered down. The discussions about the involvement of the two entities were held in a meeting between Putin and UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres in Moscow on Tuesday.

“Follow-on discussions will be had with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Russian Defence Ministry,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement after the meeting.

More from Reuters:

Earlier on Tuesday, Putin told Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan that there were no military operations underway in Mariupol and that Kyiv should “take responsibility” for the people holed up in the Azovstal steel plant.

Ukraine on Monday appealed for the United Nations and the ICRC to be involved in the evacuation of civilians from Azovstal. Guterres is expected to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv on Thursday.

During a news conference with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, Guterres said he has proposed a “Humanitarian Contact Group” of Russia, Ukraine and UN officials “to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessations of hostilities, and to guarantee that they are actually effective”.

Updated

Ned Price, spokesperson for the US state department, said in a press conference today that the US Embassy team in Ukraine travelled from Poland to Lviv today. On Sunday, during his meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, state secretary Antony Blinken said that the US plans to bolster diplomatic presence in Ukraine.

Updated

Boris Johnson said that Facebook has agreed to take down a video of Aiden Aslin, a British prisoner of war being held in Donetsk by Russian forces. The video is believed to be Russian propaganda, and shows Aslin being accused of serving as a mercenary.

Aslin was captured while fighting in Mariupol. He and Shaun Pinner, another British soldier, surrendered once they ran out of supplies and ammunition. Friends and family of the two men have been speaking out about concerns over their condition in captivity.

Facebook had initially refused to remove the video, despite appeals from Aslin’s family.

Johnson told TalkTV that culture secretary Nadine Dorries personally reached out to Nick Clegg, former deputy prime minister, who currently serves as president for global affairs at Facebook, about the video. Facebook then agreed to remove the video.

Updated

A new report from NBC News reveals the extent to which US intelligence has been assisting Ukrainian forces. The US has given the Ukrainian military detailed intelligence and the location of Russian bomb strikes, giving Ukrainian forces time to react before the bombs hit.

Here’s more from NBC News:

As Russia launched its invasion, the US gave Ukrainian forces detailed intelligence about exactly when and where Russian missiles and bombs were intended to strike, prompting Ukraine to move air defenses and aircraft out of harm’s way, current and former US officials told NBC News.

That near real-time intelligence-sharing also paved the way for Ukraine to shoot down a Russian transport plane carrying hundreds of troops in the early days of the war, the officials say, helping repel a Russian assault on a key airport near Kyiv.

It was part of what American officials call a massive and unprecedented intelligence-sharing operation with a non-NATO partner that they say has played a crucial role in Ukraine’s success to date against the larger and better-equipped Russian military.

The details about the air defenses and the transport plane, which have not previously been reported, underscore why, two months into the war, officials assess that intelligence from US spy agencies and the Pentagon has been an important factor in helping Ukraine thwart Russia’s effort to seize most of the country.

“From the get-go, we leaned pretty heavily forward in sharing both strategic and actionable intelligence with Ukraine,” a US official briefed on the matter told NBC News. “It’s been impactful both at a tactical and strategic level. There are examples where you could tell a pretty clear story that this made a major difference.”

In a statement, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said, “We are regularly providing detailed, timely intelligence to the Ukrainians on the battlefield to help them defend their country against Russian aggression and will continue to do so.”

Updated

This is Lauren Aratani taking over for Léonie Chao-Fong.

Ukrainian officials met with the Romanian prime minister Nicolae Ciuca and speaker Marcel Ciolacu today, Ukrainian prime minister Denys Shmyhal tweeted.

Earlier today, a missile hit a strategic bridge between the two countries that connected the Odesa region across the Dniester estuary.

The Guardian’s Russia affairs correspondent Pjotr Sauer reports:

Russian president Vladimir Putin told the UN secretary-general, António Guterres on Tuesday evening that peace talks with Ukraine are continuing via a video link and that he hopes they would bring “some positive outcome”.

Putin, separated from Guterres by a long table, also repeated his earlier claims that Moscow was not involved in the alleged atrocities that took place in Bucha earlier this month.

“Russia was faced with provocation in Bucha, something the Russian side had nothing to do with,” Putin said during the meeting in the Kremlin.

“Russian forces had no connections to Bucha. We know who did it. We know who prepared this provocation, the means they used. We know who they are.”

Ukraine has accused the Russian military of executing civilians in Bucha that Russian troops occupied for several weeks before withdrawing.

Putin further blamed Ukraine for stalling the negotiation process, saying he would not sign a security guarantee agreement with Ukraine without the territorial questions of Crimea and Donbas being resolved.

“Nevertheless, talks are ongoing, and they are going in an online format,” Putin said

“I hope this will lead us to some positive outcome.”

The Russian leader also said that there were currently “no direct military operations” going on around the besieged Azovstal steelworks.

“It is simple really … The military operations have ended there. They have stopped. Part of the armed forces of Ukraine who were deployed in other industrial areas have surrendered. Almost 1,300 people,” Putin said.

“Yes we hear there are civilians there, the Ukrainian army must release them or they are acting as terrorists like Isis in Syria.”

Updated

Summary

It is 9pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand now:

  • Poland’s government has been told that the country’s gas supply from Russia will stop from Wednesday following Warsaw’s refusal to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roubles.
    The decision to stop supply had also followed Poland’s announcement earlier that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company.
  • The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl nuclear plant, describing the situation as “absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, is heading an expert mission to Chornobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.

That’s it from me, Léonie Chao-Fong, today as I hand the blog to my US colleagues. I will be back tomorrow. Thank you for reading.

Russia to halt gas supply to Poland, government told

Poland’s government has been told that the country’s gas supply from Russia will stop from Wednesday following Warsaw’s refusal to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roubles.

The decision to stop supply at 8am CET had also followed Poland’s announcement earlier on Tuesday that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company.

In a hastily arranged press conference, Polish ministers said they had sufficient supplies of gas to weather the interruption but accused Gazprom of a breach of contract.

Poland has been pushing the EU and other western allies to go further in punishing the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine.

PGNiG, Poland’s largest gas supplier, has said it would file a breach of contract lawsuit.

Vladimir Putin’s improbably long, white table has made a comeback for the Russian leader’s meeting with the UN’s António Guterres.

From the Financial Times’ Max Seddon:

Here’s more from Vladimir Putin during his meeting with the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, in Moscow.

The Russian president said Moscow still “hoped to achieve agreements through a diplomatic channel” while Russia’s “military operation” was still underway.

Moscow and Kyiv were continuing talks in an online format, Putin said, adding that he hopes the talks would yield a positive result.

A series of incidents in the breakaway Moldovan region of Transnistria and a warning from Moscow that the Russian-backed region could be drawn into the war in Ukraine have put the country’s government on high alert.

Moldovan president, Maia Sandu, said she was following “with caution and vigilance” at a security council meeting on Tuesday.

Transnistria, which borders western Ukraine, is controlled by pro-Russia separatists and permanently hosts 1,500 Russian troops as well as a large arms depot.

Putin says situation in Mariupol is ‘complicated’ and ‘tragic’

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has been speaking with the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, in Moscow, where he described the situation in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as “tragic”.

Putin said:

The situation is complicated there – and tragic. But it’s simple, really. I’ve spoken to (Turkish) President Erdogan today, he said that military operations were taking place there.

No, the military operations have ended there. There are no military operations in Mariupol.

Putin’s comments come after accusations by Ukraine that Russia has been shelling a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged port city.

The Russian leader accused Ukrainian fighters of “hiding behind” civilians in the Azovstal steel works and said the “easiest thing to do is to release them”.

He told Guterres:

You’re talking about the Russian humanitarian corridors, that they are not working. No, they lied to you. They are working with our system.

Putin said more than 100,000 people left Mariupol who were “free to go anywhere”. “Some people want to go to Russia, some to Ukraine,” he said.

Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, the besieged port city on the Sea of Azov where the remaining Ukrainian forces and civilians have been hiding out in a steel works, accused Russian forces of firing their artillery on the exit zone just moments after announcing through loudspeakers that a green corridor had been opened.

Andryushchenko said that over the past 24 hours, there had been 35 airstrikes against the Azovstal plant, with one strike causing a fire to break out in one of the workshops where civilians had been hiding, leaving some under rubble.

Updated

Switzerland has vetoed the re-export of Swiss-made ammunition used in Gepard anti-aircraft systems that Germany is sending to Ukraine, the government said.

The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) confirmed it had blocked Germany from sending munitions for the Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine, Reuters reports.

The agency said it had received two requests from Germany to transfer to Ukraine ammunition it had previously received from Switzerland.

SECO said:

Both inquiries by Germany as to whether the ammunition received from Switzerland may be transferred to Ukraine were answered in the negative with reference to Swiss neutrality and the mandatory rejection criteria of Swiss war material legislation.

According to broadcaster SRF, it was unclear which ammunition Germany was now sending to Ukraine along with the Gepards, following the Swiss veto.

Although Switzerland has adopted EU sanctions designed to punish Russia’s actions in Ukraine, it has said its neutrality does not permit providing arms for use in conflict zones. Last month, it rejected Poland’s request for arms to help Ukraine.

Kyiv has dismantled the statue known as the “Friendship of Peoples”, installed in 1982 and symbolising historic ties between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Russia.

‘’Friends! The dismantling has started today and we plan to finish it in the evening’’, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said on Facebook.

Russia “marked” its attitude to Ukraine with a barbaric desire to destroy our state and peaceful Ukrainians. We are dismantling 8 metres of metal of the so-called “friendship of two peoples”.

And what is symbolic - when they tried to lift the sculpture with a crane, the head of a Russian worker fell off.

Removal of the statue commemorating Ukraine - Russia friendship
Removal of the statue commemorating Ukraine - Russia friendship Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian

Local officials in Kyiv said they are working on plans to demolish around 60 monuments in the capital related to Russia and the Soviet Union, as hundreds of streets could be renamed.

Russia cuts gas supplies to Poland – reports

Russia has reportedly halted gas deliveries to Poland in an escalation of tensions between Moscow and European capitals over crucial energy supplies, according to Polish news website Onet.pl.

The report cited Polish government sources and the country’s state gas company PGNiG. There has been no official confirmation of the news yet.

European gas prices surged as much as 17% after the report, Bloomberg reports.

Without confirming the report, Poland’s minister of climate and environment, Anna Moskwa, said the country has enough gas in storage.

Finland and Sweden may decide together whether or not to apply for Nato membership, Finnish foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, told reporters earlier today.

Haavisto’s comments came after Nordic media reported that the two countries have agreed to submit simultaneous membership applications to the military alliance as early as the middle of next month.

The Finnish daily Iltalehti said on Monday that Stockholm had “suggested the two countries indicate their willingness to join” on the same day, and that Helsinki had agreed “as long as the Swedish government has made its decision”.

The Swedish newspaper Expressen cited government sources as confirming the report. The two countries’ prime ministers said this month they were deliberating the question, arguing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had changed Europe’s “whole security landscape” and “dramatically shaped mindsets” in the Nordic region.

Moscow ‘concerned’ over string of explosions in Moldova's breakaway region, says Russian minister

A Russian minister refused to rule out Moldova’s breakaway region Transnistria being drawn into the Ukraine war, in a potential escalation of the conflict to another European country.

The deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko, said Moscow “was concerned” over the string of recent explosions in Transnistria, saying Russia “would like to avoid a scenario” in which Transnistria would be dragged into the war, deepening fears that the Russian-backed region could soon be drawn into the conflict in Ukraine.

Speaking to journalists in Moscow, Rudenko said the “situation with the explosions” in the region indicated that “certain forces” behind the attacks were interested in creating “another hotbed of tension in Europe” – a reference to two episodes of violence reported in the enclave in as many days.

RIA Novosti cited Rudenko as saying:

An investigation will be carried out accordingly, and we hope that the reasons will be established and those responsible will be punished.

Transnistria, which is controlled by pro-Russian separatists and permanently hosts 1,500 Russian troop bases as well as a large arms depot, borders western Ukraine.

Rudenko’s statements came after Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, convened a meeting of her security council on Tuesday following the two incidents.

On Tuesday morning, local authorities said two antennas that carried Russian radio broadcasts were blown up, while on Monday unknown attackers shelled the region’s state security ministry in Tiraspol with a hand grenade launcher.

After the security council meeting, Sandu said certain unnamed “forces inside Transnistria” were in “favour of war” and were interested in destabilising the situation in the region.

Updated

The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has been speaking at a news conference following a meeting of the US and its allies at the Ramstein airbase in Germany.

The group will meet each month to discuss Ukraine’s defence needs against Russia’s invasion, Austin said.

He thanked countries that have stepped up to meet Ukraine’s needs and said the work has made “a huge difference” on the battlefield.

Austin described Germany’s decision to send 50 Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine as a “significant move” as “those systems will provide real capability for Ukraine”, adding:

I know that all the leaders leave today more resolved than ever to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and atrocities. And I know that we’re all determined to do even more to better coordinate our efforts.

He said the US is still examining the cause of the reported explosions in Moldova and that “certainly we don’t want to see any spillover” of the conflict beyond Ukraine.

In the district of Kharkiv, three young Ukrainians, Alexii (L) Nazar Tishchenko (C) and Oleg Vadimovich (R), deliver humanitarian aid every day in a car stuffed with food, techno music blaring in the speakers.
In the district of Kharkiv, three young Ukrainians, Alexii (L) Nazar Tishchenko (C) and Oleg Vadimovich (R), deliver humanitarian aid every day in a car stuffed with food, techno music blaring in the speakers. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

It’s 6.30pm in Kyiv. If you’ve just joined us, here’s a quick roundup of what’s been happening so far:

  • The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl nuclear plant, describing the situation as “absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, is heading an expert mission to Chornobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.

This is Léonie Chao-Fong bringing you all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has condemned what it said were Russian attempts to drag Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria into its war against Ukraine.

The ministry expressed concern about the situation in the Russian-backed separatist Transnistria region in a statement today, Reuters reports.

Reported incidents in the region, which included explosions, “coincided with the statements of the Russian military command about their plans to occupy the entire south of Ukraine and establish a land corridor to the Transdniestrian region of Moldova”, the statement said.

Ukraine strongly supports the territorial integrity of Moldova in its internationally recognised borders, condemns attempts to involve the Transdniestrian region of Moldova in Russia’s ... full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and calls for a de-escalation of the situation.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a top Ukrainian presidential adviser, also accused Russia of trying to create unrest in the Transnistria region.

Earlier today, the president of Moldova, Maia Sandu, said the attacks in the Transnistria region were an attempt by pro-war factions to increase tensions.

Meanwhile, the self-styled president of the breakaway Transnistria region – also known as the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic – Vadim Krasnoselsky, was cited by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass as saying the attacks in the territories could be traced back to Ukraine.

Russia warns Britain of immediate 'proportional response' for 'provoking' Ukraine to attack

Russia’s defence ministry has warned of an immediate “proportional response” if Britain continues its “direct provocation” of Ukraine to strike targets in Russia, Reuters reports.

The ministry cited statements from the UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, that said Britain backs Ukrainian troops carrying out strikes in Russian territory. Speaking earlier today, Heappey said it was “not necessarily a problem” if Ukraine uses weapons donated by Britain.

Russia’s defence ministry said:

We would like to underline that London’s direct provocation of the Kiev regime into such actions, if such actions are carried out, will immediately lead to our proportional response.

As we have warned, the Russian Armed Forces are in round-the-clock readiness to launch retaliatory strikes with high-precision long-range weapons at decision-making centers in Kyiv.

The ministry added that if such Russian strikes were made, it would not necessarily be a problem if representatives of a certain Western country were located at those “decision-making centres” in Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile has hit a strategic bridge linking the southern Odesa region with neighbouring Romania.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said the bridge, across the Dniester estuary near the city of Odesa, was damaged in today’s attack. There were no injuries. he added.

The strike has cut off the railway connection to areas of the Odesa region west of the estuary and Romania.

From Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs:

'No point in UN' if there is no Mariupol corridor, says Ukraine's deputy PM

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereschuk, said the UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, should use his visit to Moscow to save the people of the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol and guarantee true humanitarian corridors.

Ukrainian authorities are ready to go if a real humanitarian corridor is confirmed, Vereschuk said, adding:

If this doesn’t happen, then there’s no point to the UN.

Mariupol’s deputy mayor, Serhiy Orlov, said Russian attacks on the Azovstal steel works are continuing, despite Vladimir Putin’s comments today that no military operations were underway in the city.

Speaking to the BBC, Orlov said:

No one is allowed to leave Azovstal. It is a lie that the attack has stopped.

There are still people there, civilians, military, families. The plant is constantly being bombarded.

He claimed authorities had tried repeatedly to organise humanitarian corridors but accused Russian troops of deporting 40,000 people from Mariupol to their own country.

The Euromoney website is today carrying a new interview with Kyrylo Shevchenko, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine. He tells the economics magazine about his daily routine and how it has changed, saying:

My day begins with news about the situation on the frontlines and a quick review of data on the standing of the banking system and financial markets. It used to feel like I had workdays and weekends. The feeling of there being weekends is now gone. My team and I have stopped bothering with dress code and other formalities.

Shevchenko says that the experience of the coronavirus pandemic meant they were already flexible with remote working, and that they had an emergency plan for keeping the banking system running after the 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine by Russia. He says all financial decisions being taken at the bank have the goal of keeping the economy running until the war is won.

All of the central bank’s activities are now guided by the military situation. Our main goal is to ensure Ukraine’s financial stability even as Russian wages its war of aggression, and to help end this war as soon as possible, in particular by weakening the aggressor’s ability to finance it. The stable and uninterrupted operation of the banking system should not be taken for granted. It has come at a price. This resilience has been the result of constant coordinated efforts by the NBU and banks.

However, the most striking part of the interview comes when he is asked if he has a message for his counterpart at Russia’s central bank, Elvira Nabiullina.

“I recommend that she read the biography of Walther Funk,” is all Shevchenko has to say.

As Eric Ellis, who conducted the interview, notes in the piece, Walther Funk was the governor of Germany’s central bank during the second world war. He was tried at Nuremberg and dubbed “the Banker of Gold Teeth” for his role in ensuring the confiscated possessions of holocaust victims, including their gold teeth, made their way back into the Nazi economy. Convicted as a war criminal, he died in 1957 after receiving a life sentence of imprisonment.

You can read the interview in full here: Euromoney – National Bank of Ukraine’s Shevchenko: ‘We will work until Ukraine has victory’

Updated

Kyiv has begun dismantling the statue known as the “Friendship of Peoples” monument which was installed in the 1980s to celebrate the unity of the Ukrainian and Russian people under the auspices of the Soviet Union.

A man stands yesterday next to the ‘Friendship of Peoples’ (left) and the monument dedicated to Pereiaslav agreement (right).
A man stands yesterday next to the ‘Friendship of Peoples’ (left) and the monument dedicated to Pereiaslav agreement (right). Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

The mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, has posted on Facebook to say:

Friends! The dismantling has started today and we plan to finish it in the evening. Russia “marked” its attitude to Ukraine with a barbaric desire to destroy our state and peaceful Ukrainians. We are dismantling 8 meters of metal of the so-called “friendship of two peoples”. And what is symbolic - when they tried to lift the sculpture with a crane, the head of a Russian worker fell off. Let’s rename the arch – old symbols take on a new meaning! And we will highlight it with the colours of the Ukrainian flag.

Kateryna Kruk notes that in 2014, an addition was made to the sculpture – a crack painted on the arch to represent the new tensions between the nations after the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Lorenzo Tondo is in Kyiv for us, and he reports that the morgues in the region are at breaking point:

The first body arrived in late February, a few days after the Russian invasion began. The next day, two more. By the beginning of March, the morgue, on the outskirts of Kyiv, had no more space for the dead who, every day, arrived by the dozen.

Today, more than two months after the war began, bodies are being piled in refrigerated trucks in front of the morgues, as authorities struggle to handle the number of dead.

“We weren’t prepared for this,” said a coroner from a village a few kilometres from the capital. “No one would ever have imagined that it would come to this.”

Survivors of Bucha, Borodyanka, Irpin and Hostomel, where Russians are accused of war crimes against civilians, did not stop to celebrate their liberation, starting immediately instead to count and identify their dead. Each day dozens of people now approach the refrigerated trucks to put the names of their loved ones to the bodies closed in black bags and piled one on top of the other.

Read more of Lorenzo Tondo’s report from Kyiv: ‘We weren’t prepared for this’: Kyiv area morgues at breaking point

Russia has expelled three Swedish diplomats in response to the unfriendly actions of Stockholm, according to a statement on the website of Russia’s foreign ministry.

It says that Sweden’s ambassador to Moscow, Malena Mard, was summoned to the foreign office, and told that the three were being made persona non grata on account of Sweden “groundlessly” expelling three Russian diplomats. The Russian foreign ministry also cited “the provision of military support by Sweden to the Kiev regime and covering up the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists against the civilian population of Donbas and Ukraine” as factors in the decision.

The RAI news agency are carrying some words from Nikolai Patrushev, who is secretary of the security council of Russia and a former director of Russia’s security service, the FSB. He has said that the only thing uniting Ukraine is “fear of the animals of the nationalist battalions.”

The US secretary of defense Lloyd Austin has just tweeted some images from Ramstein air base in Germany where more than 40 countries are gathering to discuss Ukraine. Austin said:

We just kicked off a historic meeting — more than 40 countries gathered together to help Ukraine win the fight against Russia’s unjust invasion. Our goal is to leave here with a common, transparent understanding of Ukraine’s short-term and long-term security requirements.

Moldova’s president, Maia Sandu, has been speaking at a press briefing following a meeting of the country’s security council after a series of blasts were reported in the Russian-backed separatist Transnistria region.

Reuters report some key points from Sandu’s briefing:

  • Sandu condemned any attempts to ruin peace in her country and said Moldova will take all measures to prevent escalation.
  • Recent incidents are an attempt to escalate tensions, with assessments showing pro-war factions within the Transnistria region are responsible for the attacks.
  • The situation in the breakaway region is complex and tense, but Moldova remains open to negotiating a peaceful resolution to issues.
  • Sandu says she has no plans to speak to the Kremlin.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Moldova tweeted that it “condemns all attempts to destabilise (the) situation” in Transnistria and its buffer zone.

Updated

Russia dismisses Ukraine’s call for peace talks in Mariupol

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Russia has dismissed Ukraine’s proposal to stage peace talks in the port city of Mariupol.

Asked about the prospect of talks, Lavrov said it was a “theatrical gesture” from Ukraine and “they probably wanted another heartrending scene”.

He reiterated Russia’s claim that it was still waiting for a response from Volodymyr Zelenskiy on its written proposal. The Ukrainian president has said he has not seen or heard about the document that the Kremlin said it had sent.

Lavrov added:

If we talk about serious attitudes to work as part of the talks, they better answer our proposals as soon as possible.

Lavrov said it was too early to talk about who would mediate in any negotiations, but he added that Moscow was committed to a diplomatic solution via talks on Ukraine.

Updated

The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl nuclear plant, describing the situation as “absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous”.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, spoke to reporters as he arrived at the site of the former nuclear power plant, which was occupied by Russian troops for several weeks.

Grossi is heading an expert mission to Chornobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.

Updated

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said it is too early to talk about mediation in talks between Russia and Ukraine.

But he added that Moscow is committed to a diplomatic solution via talks with Kyiv.

Speaking to journalists, Lavrov said the conflict in Ukraine was a “dangerous wake-up call for the United Nations”.

Russia needs to remind the world of the “equal sovereignty” of different UN member states, Lavrov said.

UN ‘ready to fully mobilise’ in Mariupol, says secretary general

Speaking at a joint press conference with Russia’s foreign ministry, Sergei Lavrov, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said a “violent battle” is under way across Ukraine’s Donbas region with “tremendous death and destruction”.

Guterres said:

We recognise that we face a crisis in Mariupol. Thousands of civilians are in dire need of live-saving humanitarian assistance, and many of evacuation.

The United Nations is ready to fully mobilise its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol.

He said his proposal was for a coordinated work of the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and Ukrainian and Russian forces to enable “the safe evacuation of the civilians who want to leave” the Azovstal steel plant and Mariupol city “in any direction they choose”.

Updated

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, is holding a news conference with Russia’s foreign ministry, Sergei Lavrov.

Guterres said his position in visiting Moscow was as a “messenger of peace” and that his objective is “strictly linked to save lives and reduce suffering”.

He said he had a “very frank” discussion with Lavrov, and that it was “clear that there are two different positions on what is happening in Ukraine”.

According to the Russian Federation, what is taking place is a special military operation with the objectives that were announced.

According to the UN, in line with resolutions passed by the general assembly, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and against the charter of the United Nations.

He said it was his “deep conviction” that the war should end as soon as possible for both sides.

Updated

The Pentagon’s press secretary, John Kirby, said Russia has a “weaker military” that has been “depleted in many ways”.

In an interview with CNN, Kirby said:

They are a weaker military. They are a weaker state right now they are and again further isolating themselves.

He added:

Its economy is in tatters. Its military has been depleted in many ways, not completely, but certainly they have suffered casualties and they have suffered losses in this invasion of Ukraine.

US and allies to move ‘heaven and earth’ to help Ukraine, says defence secretary

The United States has vowed to move “heaven and earth” to help Ukraine win its battle against Russia’s invasion as it hosted defence talks in Germany with allies from 40 nations.

Speaking at the Ramstein airbase in southwestern Germany, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, pledged to “help Ukraine win the fight against Russia’s unjust invasion and to build up Ukraine’s defences for tomorrow’s challenges”.

Austin said:

As we see this morning, nations from around the world stand united in our resolve to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s imperial aggression.

Ukraine clearly believes that it can win and so does everyone here.

The US is already the biggest supplier of international military aid to Ukraine, and Austin said Washington will “keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet” Kyiv’s needs.

US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, at a meeting with members of a Ukraine Security Consultative Group at the US Air Base in Ramstein, Germany.
US Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin, at a meeting with members of a Ukraine Security Consultative Group at the US Air Base in Ramstein, Germany. Photograph: Andre Pain/AFP/Getty Images

Austin described Russia’s invasion and “atrocities” in Ukraine as “indefensible”.

We all start today from a position of moral clarity – Russia is waging a war of choice to indulge the ambitions of one man.

Ukraine is fighting a war of necessity to defend its democracy, its sovereignty and its citizens.

Updated

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, told his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that maintaining a “positive momentum” in talks between Ukraine and Russia would benefit all sides, his office said.

In a phone call with Putin, Erdoğan also repeated an offer to host him and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for peace talks, the Turkish presidency said.

In a statement, it said:

President Erdogan, who stated the importance of achieving a ceasefire, of working humanitarian corridors effectively, and of carrying out evacuations in a safe way, noted that Turkey would continue doing its utmost to halt this course of events damaging everyone and ensure lasting peace.

The Kremlin confirmed that the two leaders discussed Ukraine in a phone call, without giving further details.

Germany to send anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine

Germany will authorise the delivery of anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine, the German defence minister has said, in what would be a clear switch in Berlin’s cautious policy on military backing for Kyiv.

The government has agreed to sign off the delivery of used Gepard anti-aircraft weapons systems, Christine Lambrecht told an international meeting of defence ministers at the US Ramstein airbase, according to a draft of her speech seen by Agence France-Presse.

Forty countries are holding emergency talks at the airbase in south-western Germany on bolstering the defence capabilities of Ukraine.

The US-hosted meeting will “focus on doing things to generate additional capability and capacity for the Ukrainian forces”, according to the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin.

France is delivering Caesar cannon with a range of 25 miles (40km) and Britain has provided Starstreak anti-air systems and offered tanks to Poland.

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has come under criticism for refusing to send heavy weapons directly to Ukraine, despite announcing a “turning point” in its defence policy in response to the war.

Critics have accused Scholz of weak leadership and say his Social Democrats (SPD) are too reluctant to break from their policy of detente towards Moscow.

Scholz has also faced criticism from his coalition government, a partnership between the SPD, the Greens and the liberal FDP.

The chancellor has justified his cautious approach by saying he wishes to avoid a direct confrontation between Nato and Russia, a nuclear power.

But according to a draft document seen by Agence France-Presse on Tuesday, the three coalition parties now plan to present a joint proposal in parliament calling for the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine.

  • This post was amended on 26 April 2022. The weapons systems being sent to Ukraine are not tanks as stated in an earlier version. Also, the UK has not provided tanks to Ukraine; it has offered tanks to Poland.

Updated

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has been meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow today.

Guterres, who is making his first visit to the Russian capital since Russian troops invaded Ukraine, said he was looking to find ways to find a “peaceful solution” as quickly as possible.

Guterres said:

We are extremely interested in finding ways in order to create the conditions for effective dialogue, create the conditions for a ceasefire as soon as possible, create the conditions for a peaceful solution.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the talks in Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the talks in Moscow. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/AP
The UN Secretary-General is on a working visit to Moscow.
The UN Secretary-General is on a working visit to Moscow. Photograph: Maxim Shipenkov/EPA

He added:

I know that we have... different interpretations about what’s happening in Ukraine.

That does not limit the possibility to have a very serious dialogue on how best we can work to minimise the suffering of people.

Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region has raised its “terrorist threat level” to red, its official news agency said.

Checkpoints have been introduced at the entrance to the cities of the region, which local authorities claim has been hit by several attacks in the past day, Reuters reports.

The announcement came after the region’s security council reported a “terrorist attack” on a military unit near the city of Tiraspol. Two Soviet-era radio antenna were also reportedly destroyed in the village of Maiac this morning.

The self-declared breakaway region of Transnistria, also known as the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, borders Ukraine. Kyiv fears the region could be used as a launch pad for new attacks on Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters today, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia is closely following events in Transnistria, adding that news from the region was a cause for serious concern.

It comes after a Russian military official last week suggested that Russia’s plan in Ukraine included taking control of the south of Ukraine which would provide a corridor to Transnistria, where a Russian garrison has been stationed since the 1990s.

Hello, I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

Updated

Today so far …

  • UK armed forces minister James Heappey has described Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil that hit supplies and disrupt logistics as “completely legitimate”. He said “The fact Ukraine was a sovereign country living peacefully within its owner borders and then another country decided to violate those borders. In war Ukraine needs to strike into its opponents depth to attack its logistics lines, its fuel supplies, its ammunition depots, and that’s part of it.”
  • European Union energy commissioner Kadri Simson has told a news conference in Warsaw that a sixth package of European Union sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine is expected “very soon”.
  • The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has travelled to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in an attempt to put the UN at the heart of Ukrainian mediation efforts. Guterres has faced criticism from Ukraine for not visiting Kyiv first and for failing to intervene decisively before Russia invaded on 24 February. He is also scheduled to meet the Russian foreign minster, Sergei Lavrov, before travelling to Ukraine.
  • Officials from more than 40 countries are gathering at Germany’s Ramstein airbase on Tuesday, for US-hosted talks expected to focus on how to arm Kyiv against a Russian onslaught in eastern Ukraine. The gathering will be led by US defence secretary Lloyd Austin following his meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.
  • The Russian ministry of defence has claimed that overnight four Ukrainian military facilities were hit by high-precision air-based missiles, including two ammunition depots in Kharkiv. Russia also says that it killed “about 500 enemy personnel” as well as knocking out air-defence systems.
  • Russian forces are likely to attempt to encircle heavily fortified Ukrainian positions in eastern Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update. The city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region has reportedly fallen, it said, and heavy fighting was being reported south of Izium, in the province of Kharkiv, as Russian forces attempted to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east.
  • Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk Oblast, Sergey Gaidai, has appealed again for people in the area to flee when they get the opportunity.
  • A suggestion by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that the world is at risk of descending into a third world war means only that Moscow “senses defeat in Ukraine”, his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba has said.
  • The security council of Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region has reported a “terrorist attack” on a military unit near the city of Tiraspol, as well as the destruction of two Soviet-era radio antenna this morning. Roadblocks are to be set up at the entrances of Transnistria’s cities.
  • The Ukrainian defence ministry said the shelling of a government building in Transnistria was a “planned provocation” by Russia. Transnistria borders Ukraine, and a Russian military official has previously suggested that Russia taking control of the south of Ukraine would provide a corridor to Transnistria, where a Russian garrison has been stationed since the 1990s.
  • Moldovan president Maia Sandu is to convene a meeting of the country’s supreme security council this afternoon over incidents that took place in the breakaway Transnistria region.
  • Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on a Russian talkshow broadcast online that the next phase of Russia’s military intervention was crucial following security incidents outside the region. He cited the blasts that hit Transnistria, as well as Russian allegations of shelling of its border regions by Ukrainian forces.
  • Russia and Belarus will hold joint drills of their air forces and air defence forces in Belarus, Minsk’s defence ministry said in a statement
  • Ukraine’s postal service says it plans to issue a stamp to honour the Antonov-225 Mriya (Mriya means “dream” in Ukrainian), which was the world’s largest cargo plane before it was destroyed in an attack on Hostomel airport near Kyiv shortly after Russia launched its invasion.
  • Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit simultaneous membership applications to the US-led Nato alliance as early as the middle of next month, Nordic media reports.
  • The US has launched a new web portal which will allow a US-based sponsor to apply for Ukrainian refugees and their immediate family members to stay in the US for up to two years.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be with you for the next few hours.

Updated

The security council of Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region has reported a “terrorist attack” on a military unit near the city of Tiraspol. Reuters reports, the ministry said it was one of three such attacks on the region, after blasts tore through the state security HQ and two explosions damaged old Soviet-era radio antennae.

A view of the damaged building of the Ministry of State Security in Tiraspol seen in a photo released by the interior ministry.
A view of the damaged building of the ministry of state security in Tiraspol seen in a photo released by the interior ministry. Photograph: AP

The ministry has also released clearer pictures of the toppled Pridnestrovian radio centre antennas, also known as the “Grigoriopol transmitter”, near Maiac, Grigoriopol.

A view of toppled Pridnestrovian radio centre antennas.
A view of the toppled Pridnestrovian radio centre antennas. Photograph: Transdniestrian Interior Ministry/Reuters
A view of toppled Pridnestrovian radio centre antennas.
A view of toppled Pridnestrovian radio centre antennas. Photograph: Transdniestrian Interior Ministry/Reuters

The RIA news agency is carrying a line that checkpoints are to be set up at the entrance to the cities of self-declared breakaway region of Transnistria, which is also known as the self-proclaimed Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic.

Updated

EU energy commissioner: sixth package of EU sanctions on Russia 'very soon'

European Union energy commissioner Kadri Simson has told a news conference in Warsaw that a sixth package of European Union sanctions against Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine is expected “very soon”.

Reuters reports that the exact date of the package is not yet confirmed, and as with the previous rounds of EU sanctions it would need approval from EU countries.

Viktor Orbán’s Hungarian government has already suggested that it has red lines on energy sanctions, claiming blocking off the country’s access to Russian energy imports would destabilise the economy.

Updated

Russia and Belarus will hold joint drills of their air forces and air defence forces in Belarus, Minsk’s defence ministry said in a statement this morning. Reuters reports the drills will take place from 26-29 April. In the buildup to the invasion of Ukraine masses of Russian troops moved into Belarus under the pretext of joint military exercises.

In a separate development, Moldovan president Maia Sandu is to convene a meeting of the country’s supreme security council this afternoon over incidents that took place in the breakaway Transnistria region – presumably a reference to the reports of the destruction of two radio towers this morning [see 8.08am]. Sandu will hold a press briefing at noon GMT after the meeting.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Denis Pushilin, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said on a Russian talkshow broadcast online that the next phase of Russia’s military intervention was crucial following security incidents outside the region. He cited the blasts that hit Transnistria, as well as Russian allegations of shelling of its border regions by Ukrainian forces.

Updated

The United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, has travelled to Moscow to meet Vladimir Putin in an attempt to put the UN at the heart of Ukrainian mediation efforts.

Guterres has faced criticism from Ukraine for not visiting Kyiv first and for failing to intervene decisively before Russia invaded on 24 February. He is also scheduled to meet the Russian foreign minster, Sergei Lavrov, before travelling to Ukraine.

“It is simply wrong to go first to Russia and then to Ukraine,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymr Zelenskiy, told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday. “There is no justice and no logic in this order. The war is in Ukraine, there are no bodies in the streets of Moscow. It would be logical to go first to Ukraine, to see the people there, the consequences of the occupation”.

Some of Zelenskiy’s advisers have said Guterres has no mandate to talk to Russia on their behalf.

The best hope for the Guterres mission is to make progress on ceasefires to help civilians leave trapped cities, and to start to lay the groundwork for how Ukraine’s neutrality could be protected by the major powers once the fighting has ended.

Guterres announced his mediation effort after more than 200 former United Nations officials sent him a letter urging him to try to intervene and warning the UN was being marginalised in the crisis to the point of extinction.

Read more of our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour’s report here: United Nations chief heads to Moscow amid criticism from Ukraine

Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko has a simple message for the meeting at Ramstein air base today in which defence ministers and defence chiefs of a large number of nations meet to discuss the situation in Ukraine.

We say again and again: weapon, weapons, weapons! We need weapons to keep standing and defending the values of humankind.

Updated

Russia claims to have killed 'about 500 enemy personnel' in overnight attacks

The Russian ministry of defence has issued its latest operational briefing across social media channels including Telegram. It claims that overnight:

  • Four Ukrainian military facilities were hit by high-precision air-based missiles, including two ammunition depots in Kharkiv.
  • Russia hit 87 military facilities in Ukraine, claiming to destroy 59 armoured vehicles, artillery pieces and vehicles and kill “about 500 enemy personnel”.
  • Two Ukrainian launchers of Buk-M1 and Osa AKM anti-aircraft missile systems were destroyed.
  • Two Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, a Tochka-U tactical missile launcher and an electronic warfare station were destroyed near the village of Barvinkove.
  • Russian air defence systems shot down 13 Ukrainian drones.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Updated

The opening week of the BBC Proms in London will feature a newly formed Ukrainian orchestra that includes refugees and musicians who have been exempt from fighting, in a move the event organisers say will be a “powerful statement”.

The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, which will play on 21 July led by the conductor Keri-Lynn Wilson, includes 75 military-age musicians from European orchestras who have been granted military exemptions from Ukraine’s ministry for culture.

David Pickard, the Proms director, said many in the British arts world have felt helpless as the conflict in Ukraine has escalated but that the orchestra’s presence would help. “I think everybody who’s involved in this project believes that is such a powerful statement to put these people together,” he said. Pickard also confirmed that unlike some other cultural events, Russian musicians and conductors have not been banned from performing at the Proms.

Read more of Lanre Bakare’s report here: Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra to perform at 2022 BBC Proms

Updated

Two radio towers destroyed in Transnistria – reports

Details are scant, but there are reports that the ministry of internal affairs in Transnistria says that two radio antenna that relayed Russian radio have been destroyed in Transnistria, the breakaway eastern region of Moldova.

Reuters quotes the ministry saying: “In the early morning of 26 April, two explosions occurred in the village of Maiac, Grigoriopol district: the first at 6.40 and the second at 7.05”

No residents were injured, the ministry said.

Nexta is carrying this unverified image that purports to show the radio towers on the ground.

Transnistria borders Ukraine, and a Russian military official has previously suggested that Russia taking control of the south of Ukraine would provide a corridor to Transnistria, where a Russian garrison has been stationed since the 1990s.

Updated

UK minister: 'completely legitimate' for Ukraine to attack targets within Russia

The UK armed forces minister James Heappey has been continuing his media appearances this morning, and on Times Radio appears to have endorsed Ukraine firing on targets within Russia’s borders.

PA Media quotes him telling listeners:

The fact is that Ukraine was a sovereign country that was living peacefully within its owner borders and then another country decided to violate those borders and bring 130,000 troops across into their country.

That started a war between Ukraine and Russia, and in war Ukraine needs to strike into its opponents depth to attack its logistics lines, its fuel supplies, its ammunition depots, and that’s part of it.

He added that it is “completely legitimate for Ukraine to be targeting in Russia’s depth in order to disrupt the logistics that if they weren’t disrupted would directly contribute to death and carnage on Ukrainian soil”.

He stressed that he didn’t feel that was an example of the UK – or Nato – firing on Russia directly.

Russia has accused Ukraine of firing on targets in the Belgorod and Bryansk regions, and yesterday claimed to have shot down two Ukrainian drones that were over-flying the Kursk region. All three Russian regions border Ukraine to the east.

Updated

The governor of Luhansk Oblast, Sergey Gaidai, has appealed again for people in the area to flee when they get the opportunity. He posted to Telegram within the last hour, repeating his frequent message:

I understand that it is difficult to evacuate those who have never been outside Luhansk region – but leave, in other regions of Ukraine there is life, life in safety.

He said that five locations – Severodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, Popasna, Gorskoye – would attempt evacuations today. He gave some unverified details of attacks yesterday on evacuation efforts, telling his Telegram followers:

Yesterday the border guards did not wait for the bus – the transport was fired upon by the Russians. People wanted to escape, but the enemy thought otherwise. Every day we try to get to every meeting place, as we do today. I understand that it is difficult to evacuate those who have never been outside Luhansk region. There are thousands of such people, including in cities. But leave, in other regions of Ukraine there is life, life in safety. Buses are already on the way. Evacuation is free.

Updated

UK minister: Russia seizing territory in the Donbas not 'inevitable'

In the UK, the armed forces minister, James Heappey has been interviewed on Sky News. He said that Russia seizing territory in the Donbas was not inevitable.

He pointed out that fighters in Mariupol continued to hold out against Russian forces despite suggestions the city would completely fall, but said the situation across eastern Ukraine would be different.

I think that what we will see in the Donbas is a very different type of conflict to the one that we saw around Kyiv. I think we’ll see a conflict between two forces that are much more evenly balanced, where the Ukrainians have the advantage of defensive positions that have been dug in and prepared over the last eight years, and that’s going to make it an extraordinarily difficult nut for the Russians to crack. And I think that with all of the support that the Ukrainians are getting from around the world, there’s every chance the Ukrainians can see them off.

On the high reported number of Russian casualties claimed by the Ukrainian armed forces, Heappey said:

Nobody should rejoice that that’s 15,000 Russian families who haven’t got their son or husband or brother coming home.

He said that one of the problems Russia had faced in their mission in Ukraine was political interference in the military planning. He said

People in Russia should be clear the Russian plan has been defined by incredible hubris, massive political interference in military plan making, and we’re seeing exactly the same now where there is pressure from Moscow to deliver a victory by the ninth of May so that Putin can have a nice parade through Red Square, even though that makes no military sense.

On the suggestion by Sergei Lavrov that the world is at risk of descending into a third world war and that the conflict is already actively between Russia and Nato, he said:

Firstly, the donor community is not Nato. Nato has been involved in reinforcing its eastern flank so a lot of the deployments of our troops ships and aircraft to Eastern Europe are very much under the Nato flag. The donor effort is something that has been brought together by countries that are from yes, many of them are from Nato, but others are from beyond.

Heappey also said that, with the arming of Ukraine, “Russia only has itself to blame”. He went on to say:

Every time we have gone up a gear in terms of what we are providing, it is a direct consequence of the way that Russia has conducted its operations in Ukraine.

Addressing Lavrov’s point directly, the minister said:

Sergey Lavrov might also reflect that the reason that there is a war in Ukraine right now is because Russia rolled over the borders of a sovereign country and started to invade their territory.

Nato is not an expansionist offensive Alliance. Nato is a defensive alliance. And all of this noise from Moscow about somehow their attack on Ukraine being a response to Nato aggression is just utter, utter nonsense.

Updated

The towns around Kyiv are slowly picking up the pieces after Russian forces withdrew from the area earlier this month. Some images from around the region:

A tow truck removes a heavily damaged car in Ozera.
A tow truck removes a heavily damaged car in Ozera. Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images
People pose for a picture in front of the debris of Russian military machinery in the village of Rusaniv.
People pose for a picture in front of the debris of Russian military machinery in the village of Rusaniv. Photograph: Reuters
A truck passes a destroyed Russian tank in Rusaniv.
A truck passes a destroyed Russian tank in Rusaniv. Photograph: Oleg Petrasyuk/EPA
People remove rubble outside the Cheshskyi Dvir (Czech Court) housing estate in Hostomel.
People remove rubble outside the Cheshskyi Dvir (Czech Court) housing estate in Hostomel. Photograph: Ukrinform/REX/Shutterstock
Inna, 53, smokes inside her burnt house in Ozera.
Inna, 53, smokes inside her burnt house in Ozera. Photograph: Alexey Furman/Getty Images

Ukraine’s postal service says it plans to issue a new stamp to honour the Antonov-225 Mriya (Mriya means “dream” in Ukrainian), which was the world’s largest cargo plane before it was destroyed in an attack on Hostomel airport near Kyiv just after Russia launched its invasion.

The stamp was designed by 11-year-old Sofia Kravchuk, who took part in a competition before the war in which children were asked “What is Ukraine for me?”, Ukrposhta said in a post on its Telegram channel.

Two weeks ago, Ukrainians began queuing up to buy the postal service’s latest stamp, showing a Ukrainian soldier giving the finger to the Russian Black Sea cruiser the Moskva.

The stamp was inspired by Roman Hrybov, who infamously told the flagship “Russian warship, go fuck yourself!” when its crew asked him and his fellow border guards on Snake Island, south of the port of Odesa, to surrender in the early hours of the Russian invasion. The phrase has since gone global.

Ukrainians queue to buy stamps commemorating the Snake Island incident outside the main post office in Kyiv.
Ukrainians queue to buy stamps commemorating the Snake Island incident outside the main post office in Kyiv. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Updated

Russian forces are likely attempting to encircle heavily fortified Ukrainian positions in eastern Ukraine, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.

The city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, has reportedly fallen, it said, and heavy fighting was being reported south of Izium, in the province of Kharkiv, as Russian forces attempted to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east.

Ukrainian forces were preparing defences in Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine, in preparation for a potential Russian attack from the south, the ministry said.

In case you missed it, the Guardian’s Isobel Koshiw filed this report on Monday on how Zaporizhzhia is preparing for a Russian advance:

US-hosted talks on arming Ukraine set to begin in Germany

Officials from more than 40 countries are set to gather at Germany’s Ramstein airbase on Tuesday, for US-hosted talks expected to focus on how to arm Kyiv against a Russian onslaught in eastern Ukraine.

The gathering will be led by US defense secretary Lloyd Austin following his meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday.

US army general Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters traveling with him that a key goal of the talks was to synchronize and coordinate mounting security assistance to Kyiv that includes heavy weaponry, like howitzer artillery, as well armed drones and ammunition, according to Reuters.

The next several weeks will be very, very critical. They need continued support in order to be successful on the battlefield. And that’s really the purpose of this conference.”

Driven back by Ukrainian forces from a failed assault on Kyiv in the north, Moscow has redeployed its troops into the east for a ground offensive in two provinces known as the Donbas.

US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, assess that Russia will rely heavily on artillery strikes, trying to pound Ukrainian positions as Moscow moves in ground forces from multiple directions to try to envelop and wipe out a significant chunk of Ukraine’s military.

Airmen and civilians from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron palletize ammunition, weapons and other equipment bound for Ukraine during a foreign military sales mission at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.
Airmen and civilians from the 436th Aerial Port Squadron palletize ammunition, weapons and other equipment bound for Ukraine during a foreign military sales mission at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. Photograph: Mauricio Campino/AP

But the United States also estimates many Russian units are depleted, with some operating with personnel losses as high as 30% - a level considered by the US military to be too high to keep fighting, officials say.

US officials cite anecdotes like Russian tanks with sole drivers and no crew and substandard equipment that is either prone to breakdowns or out of date.

British assessments showed that around 15,000 Russian personnel had been killed in the conflict while 2,000 armoured vehicles including some 530 tanks had been destroyed, along with 60 helicopters and fighter jets, defence secretary Ben Wallace said on Monday.

Russia has so far acknowledged only 1,351 troops killed and 3,825 wounded.

Russia losing 'last hope' to scare world away from Ukraine, Ukrainian foreign minister says

A suggestion by Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov that the world is at risk of descending into a third world war only means that Moscow “senses defeat in Ukraine,” his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba has said.

Russia loses last hope to scare the world off supporting Ukraine. Thus the talk of a ‘real’ danger of WWIII. This only means Moscow senses defeat in Ukraine. Therefore, the world must double down on supporting Ukraine so that we prevail and safeguard European and global security, the foreign minister said in a tweet.

Lavrov had warned the west on Monday not to underestimate the elevated risks of nuclear conflict over Ukraine and said he viewed Nato as being “in essence” engaged in a proxy war with Russia by supplying Kyiv with weaponry, in an interview broadcast on state television.

Lavrov was asked about the importance of avoiding World War Three and whether the current situation was comparable to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, a low point in U.S-Soviet relations, according to Reuters.

Russia, Lavrov said, was doing a lot to uphold the principle of striving to prevent nuclear war at all costs.

This is our key position on which we base everything. The risks now are considerable. I would not want to elevate those risks artificially. Many would like that. The danger is serious, real. And we must not underestimate it.

Lavrov, defending Moscow’s actions, also blamed Washington for a lack of dialogue.

“The United States has practically ceased all contacts simply because we were obliged to defend Russians in Ukraine,” Lavrov said, repeating the rationale for Moscow’s invasion of its southern neighbour.

But he said Western supplies of sophisticated weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles and advanced drones were provocative measures calculated to prolong the conflict rather than bring it to an end.

These weapons will be a legitimate target for Russia’s military acting within the context of the special operation. Storage facilities in western Ukraine have been targeted more than once (by Russian forces). How can it be otherwise?” he added. “NATO, in essence, is engaged in a war with Russia through a proxy and is arming that proxy. War means war.”

He said that Kyiv authorities were not negotiating in good faith and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a former actor, was like British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in playing to the public rather than addressing the task at hand - negotiations.

“They are similar in a way in their ability to play to the gallery. For example, they imitate negotiations,” Lavrov said.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. Photograph: Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry/EPA

Summary

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.

Here’s a roundup of the latest developments:

  • Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that deliveries of western weaponry to Ukraine mean that the Nato alliance is “in essence engaged in war with Russia”. In interviews with Russian media, he also warned that there remains a “real” danger of a third world war. Ukrainian foreign minister Dymtro Kuleba said the comments meant only that Moscow “senses defeat in Ukraine”.
  • Officials from more than 40 countries are set to gather at Germany’s Ramstein airbase on Tuesday, for US-hosted talks expected to focus on how to arm Kyiv against a Russian onslaught in eastern Ukraine. US army general Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said a key goal of the talks was to synchronise and coordinate mounting security assistance to Kyiv that includes heavy weaponry.
  • Ukraine’s foreign minister has urged UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to press Russia for an evacuation of the besieged port of Mariupol when he visits Moscow on Tuesday. In an interview with AP, Dymtro Kuleba also said he was concerned that by visiting Moscow before travelling to Kyiv, Guterres could be falling into a Kremlin “trap” and be “played around”.
  • About 15,000 Russian troops have been killed since start of the invasion, the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace has said. Speaking in parliament on Monday afternoon, he added that alongside the death toll, 2,000 armoured vehicles had been destroyed or captured, including 530 tanks. Russia is believed to have lost more than 60 helicopters and fighter jets.
  • Wallace also confirmed that the UK will send a small number of Stormer missile launching vehicles to Ukraine, and that the overall amount of military aid could rise to £500m. The UK has sent 5,361 NLAWs, 200 Javelins and will provide 250 Starstreak anti-air missiles.
  • Russia’s foreign ministry said it had expelled 40 German diplomatic staff in a retaliatory move after Berlin expelled the same number of Russian diplomats. In a statement, Russia’s foreign ministry said it had taken the decision after Germany declared a “significant number” of officials at the Russian embassy in Berlin “undesirable” on 4 April.
  • A senior Russian diplomat has been quoted as saying that a ceasefire in Ukraine would not be “a good option” as Kyiv may use it to “stage provocations”. Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia’s first deputy permanent representative to the UN, said: “Ukraine is undermining our efforts to open humanitarian corridors so we don’t think a ceasefire is a good option now.”
  • The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said the shelling of a government building in Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria was a “planned provocation” by Russia. “Obviously, this case is one of a number of provocative measures organized by the FSB [the Russian security service] to instill panic and anti-Ukrainian sentiment,” the ministry’s defense intelligence department said, according to CNN.
  • Sweden and Finland have agreed to submit simultaneous membership applications to the US-led Nato alliance as early as the middle of next month, Nordic media reports. The story was broken by Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, and Swedish government sources appeared to confirm the news to domestic media in the country.
  • The US has launched a new web portal which will allow a US-based sponsor to apply for Ukrainian refugees and their immediate family members to stay in the US for up to two years.
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