A summary of today's developments
Ukraine has said it has neutralised the Kremlin’s most potent hypersonic weapon, shooting down six out of six Kinzhal missiles launched at Kyiv during a sweeping and “exceptionally intense” night-time attack.
The attack on Kyiv was one of the biggest since last year’s invasion and followed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s three-day trip to Europe. During meetings in London, Berlin, Paris and Rome, Ukraine’s president secured promises of more military assistance, including long-range attack drones from the UK.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, claimed Kyiv’s defenders shot down 18 out of 18 Russian rockets and drones. The city had came under an intense and sweeping attack from the “north, south and east”, featuring missiles fired from air, sea and land, he said.
Among the areas affected by falling debris in Kyiv was the city’s zoo.
In response, Russia’s defence ministry has said it has destroyed a US-built Patriot surface-to-air missile defence system overnight with a hypersonic Kinzhal missile attack on Ukraine, the Zvezda military news outlet reports. This has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Ukrainian forces have taken back about 20 square km (7.5 square miles) of territory from Russian forces around the eastern city of Bakhmut in recent days, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Tuesday.
She said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had advanced “somewhat” in the city of Bakhmut itself, and that heavy fighting continued.
The head of Ukraine’s supreme court Vsevolod Kniaziev has been arrested as part of the biggest bribery investigation in the country’s history.
Police detained Knaiziev as part of a $2.7m bribery inquiry, as Kyiv pursues anti-graft measures required for closer integration with the EU. Omelchenko said two people, including Kniaziev, had been detained as part of the investigation but declined to identify the second individual. A group of judges within the supreme court were likened to a “criminal group”.
Six African leaders plan to travel to Russia and Ukraine “as soon as is possible” to help find a resolution to the war, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday. Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy have “agreed to receive the mission and the African heads of state, in both Moscow and Kyiv,” Ramaphosa said.
A bill banning Russian uranium imports to the US gained momentum on Tuesday by passing a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the US banned imports of its oil and imposed a price cap with other Western countries on sea-borne exports of its crude and oil products, but it has not banned imports of its uranium.
About 2,000 people who had helped defend the Azovstal plant who were captured and became prisoners of war are still in the hands of the Russians, according to a charity set up to support families and those connected to the factory.
Six people have been killed in Kharkiv and Donetsk over the last 24 hours, according to the region’s governors. Oleh Syniehubov and Pavlo Kyrylenko confirmed the figures on Tuesday.
Russia has said it is still undecided on the extension of a landmark Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine, brokered by the UN and Turkey and due to expire 18 May. “There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding our part of the deal … now we have to make a decision,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Ukraine does not have enough military equipment to launch a counteroffensive against Russia, the deputy head of President Zelenskyy’s office said.
Ihor Zhovkva said his country needs armoured vehicles and tanks if it is to “liberate” areas captured by Moscow.
He added that the “primary object” of Zelenskyy’s visits to European neighbours including the UK, Germany and Italy in recent days was to request “additional military packages”.
Zhovkva told Sky News: “Unfortunately, the level of equipment we have is not yet enough to start the counteroffensive.
“To start a counteroffensive, with the result being the liberation of Ukrainian territories, you need enough artillery systems and ammunition. You need armoured vehicles and tanks.
“We want this counteroffensive to be as successful as possible.
“Success would be liberating all the captured areas of Ukraine.”
A bill banning Russian uranium imports to the US gained momentum on Tuesday by passing a committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the US banned imports of its oil and imposed a price cap with other Western countries on sea-borne exports of its crude and oil products, but it has not banned imports of its uranium.
“The war in Ukraine has made it abundantly clear we cannot be at the whims of Russia for our fuel supply,” said representative Jeff Duncan, the chair of the committee.
“It should be a bipartisan, national security objective to wean the United States industry off Russian uranium imports.”
A similar bill has been referred to the energy committee in the U.S. Senate. Before becoming law, the legislation would have to pass both chambers of Congress and be signed by president Joe Biden, Reuters reports.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, will step up calls for a special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression.
Speaking ahead of a summit of European leaders in Reykjavik on Tuesday, Von der Leyen said “accountability of Russia for the crime of aggression” would be a big topic. Earlier this week, she promised to “strongly support the creation of a dedicated tribunal to bring Russia’s crime of aggression to trial”.
Leaders from across the continent are meeting in the Icelandic capital for a Council of Europe summit, only the fourth in the body’s 74-year history. Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Olaf Scholz, Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak and Von der Leyen are to give speeches later on Tuesday.
Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe last March after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow had announced its intention to withdraw from the continent’s leading human rights body the day before its expulsion, after the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly called for its withdrawal.
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UK prime minister Rishi Sunak said he will discuss the longer-term security arrangements needed to support Ukraine when he meets other leaders at the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland.
“I’ll be talking to other countries, making sure that we continue to support Ukraine, give them the support that they need to defend themselves against Russian aggression, and also start thinking about the longer term security arrangements that we will want to put in place to support Ukraine in the long term,” he told reporters in Reykjavik.
Six African leaders plan to travel to Russia and Ukraine “as soon as is possible” to help find a resolution to the war, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said Tuesday.
Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy have “agreed to receive the mission and the African heads of state, in both Moscow and Kyiv,” Ramaphosa said.
Ramaphosa said he had held “separate telephone calls” with Putin and Zelensky over the weekend, where he presented an initiative drawn up by Zambia, Senegal, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, Egypt and South Africa.
“I agreed with both President Putin and President Zelensky to commence with preparations for engagements with the African heads of state,” Ramaphosa said.
“We’re hoping we will have intensive discussions,” he said, speaking at a press conference in Cape Town during a state visit by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loon according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Ramaphosa did not give a specific timeline for the visit or other details, saying only that the conflict had been “devastating” and Africa “is also suffering a great deal” from it.
African countries have been badly hit by rising prices of grain and by the impact to world trade.
Luke Harding has an updated dispatch from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, the night after a barrage of missile attacks by Russia.
Ukraine has said it has neutralised the Kremlin’s most potent hypersonic weapon, shooting down six out of six Kinzhal missiles launched at Kyiv during a sweeping and “exceptionally intense” night-time attack.
Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s air command, said Moscow had also bombarded the capital with nine Kalibr missiles and three ballistic rockets, as well as six attack drones and three reconnaissance drones. All were shot down, he said, thwarting what he called “air terrorism”.
The attack on Kyiv was one of the biggest since last year’s invasion and followed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s three-day trip to Europe. During meetings in London, Berlin, Paris and Rome, Ukraine’s president secured promises of more military assistance, including long-range attack drones from the UK.
Russia’s furious response came at 2.30am local time. Emergency sirens woke residents. Soon afterwards there were loud booms as Ukrainian air defences engaged incoming missiles. Tracer fire illuminated the sky and car alarms went off. There were growling explosions. A further air raid warning sounded at 4am.
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A plenary meeting of Ukraine’s supreme court voted no-confidence in the court’s head on Tuesday after he was detained by anti-corruption authorities as part of a $2.7m bribery investigation, the biggest in Ukraine’s history.
The 140-2 vote move paves the way for chief justice Vsevolod Kniaziev dismissal from the court but does not strip him of his status as a judge, Ukrainian media said according to Reuters.
About 2,000 people who had helped defend the Azovstal plant who were captured and became prisoners of war are still in the hands of the Russians, according to a charity set up to support families and those connected to the factory.
Natalka Zarytska, who is in charge of the council of wives and mothers, women of Steel said on the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal from the plant that 500 had returned home, but many are still prisoners of war.
She said: “Despite all efforts, only 20% of the defenders, who stood to the death until they received an order from the command to lay down their arms and save their lives, were able to return over the past 12 months.
“Only the defenders of Azovstal received such an order during the war. According to information from open sources, fulfilling the order, about 2,500 defenders left the territory of the plant.
“Over the year, about 500 defenders were returned. This means that about 2,000 boys and girls are still in the hell of captivity, and together with them, their relatives and friends have been in the hell of uncertainty for the whole year.”
According to the Ukrinform news website she said that servicemen had been tortured and starved in captivity. Those who returned in a prisoner swap in September returned having lost about 40kg in weight.
Ukraine claims to have retaken 20km of land around Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces have taken back about 20 square km (7.5 square miles) of territory from Russian forces around the eastern city of Bakhmut in recent days, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar said on Tuesday.
She said on the Telegram messaging app that Russian forces had advanced “somewhat” in the city of Bakhmut itself, and that heavy fighting continued.
She said: “The enemy is advancing somewhat in Bakhmut itself, completely destroying the city with artillery. In addition, the enemy is raising units of professional paratroopers.
“Heavy battles continue with different results. In the current situation, our troops are doing their best and even more.
“The fact that the defence of Bakhmut lasts for so many months and there are advances in certain areas is the strength of our fighters and the high level of professionalism of the defence command.
“I will remind you that the enemy has an advantage in the number of people and weapons. At the same time, thanks to the actions of our military, he has not been able to implement his plans in the Bakhmut direction since last summer.”
The International Rescue Committee has urged Russia and Ukraine to extend the Black Sea grain deal, with a wider access to more Ukrainian ports.
The humanitarian aid charity said it would reduce pressure on food prices, with the situation particularly affecting east Africa.
The extension of the agreement is “critical” for the Ukrainian farmers, the IRC said. It said they are still facing difficulties selling their grain due to disruptions in logistics chains, and blockage of seaports.
Shashwat Saraf east Africa emergency director at the IRC said
Shortages of food in the system and lack of affordable fertiliser continues to push up prices, making it difficult for families in countries like Somalia to predict if they will be able to afford a meal the next day.
Agricultural production is in decline – farmers in Ukraine are struggling to keep their harvests alive amidst active shelling, while climate change is killing crops in other parts of the world that need them most.
Any shock to the markets can cause massive harm with catastrophic ripple effects in countries balancing on the brink of famine. The expiration of the Black Sea Grain Initiative is likely to trigger increased levels of hunger and malnutrition, spelling further disaster for east Africa.
Here’s an insight into the feeling Kyiv after Russia’s large-scale rocket attacks on the Ukrainian capital overnight. A mixture of bewilderment and euphoria, according to the Economist’s Oliver Carroll.
Remarkable atmosphere in Kyiv today. People walking around like sleep deprived zombies, but occasionally smiling maniacally at each other for having got through * that * night. Hopefully it continues.
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) May 16, 2023
Agence France-Presse (AFP) has more on the arrest of the head of the supreme court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, in Ukraine as part of the biggest bribery investigation in the country’s history.
Police have detained the head of Ukraine’s supreme court in a $2.7m bribery inquiry, as Kyiv pursues anti-graft measures required for closer integration with the EU.
“The head of the supreme court has been detained,” Oleksandr Omelchenko, a prosecutor with Ukraine’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, told reporters in Kyiv.
Omelchenko said two people, including Kniaziev, had been detained as part of the investigation but declined to identify the second individual.
“This is the biggest-ever case” implicating the judiciary, said the head of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), Semen Kryvonos.
Kryvonos likened a group of judges within the supreme court who were implicated in the investigation to a “criminal group”.
Anti-corruption officials say the Ukrainian billionaire Kostiantyn Zhevago had offered the bribe to court officials, with a law firm acting as intermediary.
Anti-corruption officials said Zhevago had transferred $2.7m to the lawyers, of which $1.8m was to be paid to supreme court justices and $900,000 to lawyers for their “services as intermediaries”.
They said Zhevago had hoped to bribe the court to issue a ruling allowing him to keep control of the shares of a mining company that is at the centre of a dispute with former shareholders.
Zhevago, a former member of the Ukrainian parliament and one of the country’s richest men, is currently in France, and Kyiv is attempting to secure his extradition.
He was detained in France in December on suspicion of money laundering and embezzling funds linked to his banking business at home.
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The South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said on Tuesday that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy had agreed to meet a group of African leaders to discuss a potential peace plan for the conflict.
Reuters reports that details of the plan have not been publicly divulged, although Ukraine’s stated position for any peace deal is that all Russian troops must withdraw from its territory.
“My discussions with the two leaders demonstrated that they are both ready to receive the African leaders and to have discussion on how this conflict can be brought to an end,” Ramaphosa told a joint press briefing with the Singaporean prime minister in Cape Town.
“Whether that will succeed or not is going to depend on the discussions that will be held,” he said.
Putin and Zelenskiy had agreed to receive the mission in their respective capitals Moscow and Kyiv, a South African Presidency statement said. The peace plan is also backed by leaders of Senegal, Uganda, Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, and Zambia.
Ramaphosa said the US and Britain had expressed “cautious” support for the plan and the UN secretary general had also been briefed about the initiative.
In recent days South Africa has become embroiled in a row about whether it had allowed a Russian arms shipment to depart from Cape Town, which South Africa denies.
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Andriy Yermak, part of Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, has publicly criticised the normalisation of some relations between Russia and Georgia. He posted to Telegram to say:
Georgia allowed one more airline to operate direct flights to Russia. The Georgian people constantly demonstrate solidarity with Ukraine. We have a common enemy that has been killing Georgians since the 90s and then in 2008, and since 2014 it has been killing Ukrainians. For our peoples, this enemy is existential.
But some seem to be trying to ignore the rocket attacks on Kyiv, the destroyed Marinka, the people killed in Buch, Irpen, Izium, the abduction of children … Some seem to have forgotten the tragedy in Gori.
Perhaps it seems to some that it does not concern them. And interaction with terrorists and murderers is normal. Wrong position, history will put everything in its place, people will definitely do it too.
France has issued a diplomatic communiqué about the overnight attack on Kyiv, describing the targeting of civilians as “war crimes” which “cannot go unpunished”.
France condemns in the strongest terms the high-intensity missile and drone strikes that once again targeted the Ukrainian capital last night.
These strikes have once again deliberately targeted civilian targets, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, and demonstrate Russia’s determination to continue to escalate its war of aggression against Ukraine.
As the Minister for Europe and foreign affairs, Catherine Colonna, has repeatedly pointed out, these unacceptable acts constitute war crimes and cannot go unpunished. France will continue to provide support to the Ukrainian courts and to the international criminal court in order to fight against impunity for such crimes.
As recalled again by the President of the Republic last night, France will continue to help Ukraine to resist this illegal aggression, both militarily and humanitarianly.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has decided to hand over the historic 15th-century Trinity icon from a museum to the Russian Orthodox church because of its importance to believers, the Kremlin’s spokesperson has said.
The church, whose conservatism Putin has espoused as part of his vision for Russia’s national identity, is one of the most ardent institutional supporters of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Its head, Patriarch Kirill, has urged Russians to rally behind Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and said last year that those who died fighting in Ukraine would be purged of their sins.
Icons are stylised, often gilded religious paintings considered sacred in Eastern Orthodox churches.
Andrei Rublev’s Trinity, one of the holiest and most artistically important Russian icons, is thought to have been painted to honour Saint Sergius of Radonezh in Sergiyev Posad, near Moscow. It depicts three angels who visited Abraham at the Oak of Mamre in the Book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
The icon has been transferred several times during periods of internal strife.
In 2022, the work was moved for religious celebrations back to a monastery in Sergiyev Posad: the Trinity Lavra of St Sergius, spiritual centre of the Russian church and a Unesco world heritage site.
The Moscow Patriarchate said in a statement that it would be displayed for a year at the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in central Moscow before returning to Sergiyev Posad.
The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “This concerns a large number of believers in our country, for whom this is a very sacred object. For these, our believers, of course, hiding it in a museum doesn’t fulfil their desire.”
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Russia has said it is still undecided on the extension of a landmark Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine, brokered by the UN and Turkey and due to expire 18 May.
“There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding our part of the deal … now we have to make a decision,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine – both major grain exporters – triggered fears of a global food crisis when major Ukrainian ports were blocked by Moscow’s warships.
In July 2022, the agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports to restart was signed, as well as a parallel memorandum on unhindered Russian food and fertiliser exports.
Russia has however repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the deal, claiming that obstacles remain to its own food exports.
During recent talks in Istanbul, the Turkish defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said: “We are heading toward an agreement on the extension of the grain deal.”
Russia has laid out a list of conditions for it to agree to an extension, including allowing the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to reconnect to the Swift payment system.
Supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services also have to be resumed, and obstacles to granting Russian vessels insurance and access to foreign ports must be lifted, it says.
Moscow’s conditions also include the resumption of ammonia exports for fertilisers through a major pipeline that goes through Ukraine.
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🇺🇦Today the National Flag of Ukraine is officially raised at the Headquarters of the #NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, marking official accession of Ukraine to the @ccdcoe pic.twitter.com/etVKyDiGIp
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) May 16, 2023
Here’s another sign of the deepening partnership between Nato and Ukraine, as the country’s flag has been raised at the cyber defence centre of excellence in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.
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Six people have been killed in Kharkiv and Donetsk over the last 24 hours, according to the region’s governors.
Oleh Syniehubov and Pavlo Kyrylenko confirmed the figures on Tuesday.
A man and a woman were killed in shelling in the village of Dvorichna in Kharkiv, with another man taken to hospital because of his injuries.
Meanwhile in Donetsk four were killed by Russian attacks in Avdiivka.
Another three were injured in Chasiv Yar, a town about 15km to the west of Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska’s diplomatic world tour continued as she met the South Korean president, Yoon Suk Yeol, in Seoul on Tuesday.
Zelenska said she was seeking “more radical” backing for Ukraine in its fight against Russia, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
South Korea, the world’s ninth-largest arms exporter, has sent humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland.
However, it has a longstanding policy of not providing weapons to active conflict zones.
In her interview with Yonhap, Zelenska also responded favourably when asked if Ukraine planned to invite Yoon to Kyiv. She said Ukraine was “always waiting for its friends”.
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Head of Ukraine's supreme court arrested over bribery claims
The head of Ukraine’s supreme court has been detained over an alleged bribery scheme, according to a prosecutor from the specialised anti-corruption prosecutor’s office.
The prosecutor did not name the official detained but told reporters, including from Reuters, he was the head of the supreme court and had not yet been served with a formal “notice of suspicion”.
The supreme court is headed by Chief Justice Vsevolod Kniaziev, who could not be reached for comment
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Russia claims it has destroyed Patriot air defence system
Russia’s defence ministry has said it has destroyed a US-built Patriot surface-to-air missile defence system overnight with a hypersonic Kinzhal missile attack on Ukraine, the Zvezda military news outlet reports.
It quoted the ministry as saying the overnight strikes had also been aimed at Ukrainian fighting units and ammunition storage sites, Reuters reported.
Ukraine said earlier that it had shot down 18 Russian missiles overnight, including an entire volley of six Kinzhals.
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China’s special Ukraine envoy, Li Hui, will visit Warsaw on Friday after his two-day trip to Kyiv, Poland’s ministry of foreign affairs said on Tuesday.
“That will be the case,” Łukasz Jasina, a spokesperson for the ministry, told AFP, confirming earlier reports in Polish media and adding that the envoy would meet a Polish deputy foreign minister in Warsaw.
Beijing had announced Li’s visit last week, saying that apart from Ukraine and Poland he would also visit Russia, France and Germany.
China said the aim of the tour was to “communicate with all parties on the political settlement of the Ukrainian crisis”.
China, which has close ties with Russia, has tried to position itself as a mediator in the war in Ukraine.
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Luke Harding has visited Kyiv’s zoo in the aftermath of the rocket strikes.
A Russian rocket from last night’s missile attack on Kyiv fell on the city’s zoo, slicing through trees and landing next to enclosures containing vultures and a family of racoons.
Ukraine’s air defences shot down the missile, together with 17 others. The zoo’s director, Kirill Trantin, was in a shelter a few hundred metres away, with about 20 other employees, as the “exceptionally intense” attack unfolded.
“It was 2.50am. It was very loud and very bright. We heard a boom. There was no fire and fortunately no humans or animals were hurt,” he told the Guardian. “Police arrived and took away a part of the missile, which was shot down.” Asked what type, he replied: “That’s secret”.
Trantin said the debris had already been swept up, with the zoo opening to visitors as usual at 10am. The animals did not appear distressed but would be monitored over the coming days and if necessary given anti-depressants in their water, he said. In the meantime they would get extra apples and nuts.
He added: “The Russians are not humans. They want to punish and scare us. They don’t give a shit about international law or norms. But we’ve held on for more than a year already and won’t give in. Ten of my zoo colleagues are fighting with the Ukrainian army, including three in Bakhmut.”
The zoo is a popular Kyiv attraction. One mother, Maryna, said she had taken her 11-year-old son Serhii to see the chimpanzees as a birthday treat. “He’s 11 today. Last night’s attack was terrible. But I promised to take him to the zoo and a promise is a promise.”
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Ukrainian counter-offensives are continuing around Bakhmut, according to the commander of the ground forces of Ukraine’s army.
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi visited troops and officers in the city on Monday. He posted on Telegram on Tuesday morning: “Wagner fighters got into Bakhmut like rats into a mousetrap. Using the principle of active defense, we resort to counteroffensive operations in some directions near Bakhmut. The enemy has more resources, but we are destroying their plans.”
He said that further plans and precautions were discussed during the meeting. Syrskyi also commended a number of brigades for their efforts during the conflict.
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The wife of the German ex-chancellor Gerhard Schröder has been sacked from her role as a trade representative for a German state-owned business agency over her attendance at a Victory Day reception at the Russian embassy in Berlin.
Employment relations between Soyeon Schröder-Kim and NRW.Global Business have been terminated “without notice and with immediate effect”, a spokesperson for the economic ministry in the western German state of North-Rhine Westphalia said on Tuesday.
Leaked photographs revealed Schröder and his spouse were at a reception at the Russian embassy in Berlin on 9 May, drawing further criticism for the disgraced former Social Democrat head of government, who has refused to deny his friendship with Vladimir Putin and business ties to Russia in spite of the Kremlin’s attack on Ukraine.
Schröder-Kim, 55, has been employed as a representative for South Korea at the foreign trade promotion agency of North-Rhine Westphalia for eleven years, a role that she still listed as her primary employment on her LinkedIn profile on Tuesday.
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Earlier today the Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes spoke to viewers about the overnight attacks in Kyiv. She said:
We know that three people so far have been injured from falling debris. Because even when you shoot these missiles out the sky, of course there are big chunks of metal that come down, and can really damage buildings and of course, kill and injure people.
She also spoke of the strategic difference new weapons from the UK could make to Ukraine’s war effort, explaining:
[The UK has] sent Storm Shadow cruise missiles to Ukraine. These are missiles that are capable of hitting Russian positions deep in Ukrainian territory. Because we know that the Ukrainians have been using their multiple launch rocket systems, which have a smaller range, to hit Russian position.
So the Russians are moving their suppliers and people out the way. But these missiles now, that the UK has given, will mean that everywhere in Ukraine is within reach of the Ukrainians. So no Russian tank is safe.
Kim Willsher reports for the Guardian from Paris:
Emmanuel Macron has said France is open to training Ukrainian fighter jet pilots in France.
In a televised interview on Monday evening, the French president, who dined with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy at the Elysée on Sunday evening, said the training programmes could start right away, but appeared to rule out sending warplanes to Kyiv.
“We have opened the door to training pilots, and this with several other European countries who are also ready (to do so). I think discussions are under way with the Americans,” Macron told TF1 television.
“I have not talked about planes. I have talked about missiles, I have talked about training,” he added.
France will also help train Ukrainian troops from “the battalions that will be in charge of the counter offensive … and repair vehicles and cannon”, Macron said. “France retains the same position: to help Ukraine to resist. Much is at stake right now because the success of this counter-offensive will be decisive for the ability to build lasting piece”.
After the two presidents met, they issued a joint statement saying: “In the coming weeks, France will train and equip several battalions with tens of armoured vehicles and light tanks including AMX-10RC.”
Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s commissioner for human rights, has said that she has sent more than 100 appeals to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) so far this year after receiving reports of mistreatment against Russian prisoners in Ukraine.
Tass reports she said: “More than 100 appeals this year alone, evidence of violence, violation of the Geneva conventions, humiliation of our prisoners.”
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Ukraine assessing damage after 'exceptional intensity' of overnight attack on Kyiv
Luke Harding reports for the Guardian from Kyiv:
Ukraine was assessing the damage after Russian forces carried out a massive strike of “exceptional intensity” on Kyiv overnight, in one of the biggest attacks on the capital since last year’s invasion.
Emergency sirens woke residents at 2.30am local time and soon afterwards there were loud booms as Ukrainian air defences engaged incoming missiles. Tracer fire lit up the sky and car alarms went off. There were explosions. A further air raid warning sounded at 4am.
Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said Kyiv’s defenders shot down 18 out of 18 Russian rockets and drones. The city had came under an intense and sweeping attack from the “north, south and east”, featuring missiles fired from air, sea and land, he said.
Air defence batteries successfully intercepted six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, the most potent long-range weapon in the Kremlin’s arsenal. They also downed nine cruise missiles, three ballistic missiles, six kamikaze drones and three unmanned aerial vehicles, Ukraine’s military high command said.
After a sleepless night in which many locals sought refuge in bomb shelters, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, gave an update on damage. He said there were three victims in the Solomyan district, which was hit by falling rocket debris. Rescuers extinguished blazes after vehicles caught fire.
Monday night’s Russian strikes appear to have been a complex attempt to destroy Ukraine’s new US-made Patriot air defence systems. According to US officials, speaking to CNN, Moscow has been trying to knock out the Patriots, which arrived in the country a few weeks ago.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government has received at least two Patriot systems, from Washington and Berlin. They have significantly enhanced Ukraine’s air defences before an expected counter-offensive, and allow Kyiv to intercept more modern Russian missiles such as the Kinzhal.
Read more of Luke Harding’s report from Kyiv here: Russia targets Kyiv with massive overnight airstrike
People in Ukraine’s capital are today attempting to carry on as normal after a night attack by Russia. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has stated on Telegram that no workers or animals were injured by debris falling on Kyiv’s zoo overnight, but that some trees were damaged. He has posted to Telegram to say:
The rocket fragment damaged the greenery, but all the broken branches have already been removed. Anti-stress measures are now being conducted with the animals. And today, as usual, at 10am the zoo will open for visitors. So come to calm down, and support the residents of Kyiv Zoo!
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The Russian-installed leader in occupied Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, has said that shelling of the region by Ukrainian forces has intensified.
“The enemy has intensified shelling at settlements. And everything would be fine, with buildings and structures we understand what to do, but when civilians get injured and die, it’s always very hard,” Tass reports he said on the Soloviev Live programme.
The claims have not been independently verified.
The British ambassador to Ukraine has said in a tweet that it has not been “an easy night” in Kyiv. Dame Melinda Simmons wrote:
A full on aerial attack on Kyiv last night, pretty intense. Bangs and shaking walls are not an easy night. Hope everyone is OK.
A full on aerial attack on Kyiv last night, pretty intense. Bangs and shaking walls are not an easy night. Hope everyone is ok.
— Dame Melinda Simmons (@MelSimmonsFCDO) May 16, 2023
Ukraine’s emergency services have also issued some handout photos to the media showing some of the damage caused overnight in Ukraine’s capital.
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Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region, has claimed on Telegram that overnight air defence shot down a Ukrainian drone over Klintsy. He reported “There were no casualties. The balcony of a residential building was damaged.”
The claims have not been independently verified. The Bryansk region border both Belarus and Ukraine, and is to the north of Chernihiv.
Here is one of the images we have been sent over the news wires of the scenes overnight in Kyiv, where Ukraine claims to have shot down all 18 missiles launched at the country by Russia.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
All missiles shot down
Ukraine shot down all of the missiles launched at the country last night, the head of Ukraine’s Armed Forces has just said on Telegram.
A total of 18 “air, sea, and land-based missiles of various types” were launched at the country, said Valeriy Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
“All 18 missiles were destroyed by the forces and means of air defense of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” he wrote.
Updated
There are no encouraging prospects for extending the Black Sea grain export initiative at the moment, a source familiar with the negotiations told the Russian RIA state news agency in remarks published early on Tuesday.
The UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday efforts would continue in coming days to extend a deal allowing for the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, a pact Russia has threatened to quit on 18 May over obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports.
“Technical-level” discussions would continue, the unidentified source told RIA, but when asked about the prospects for extending the grain deal, the source said that “at the moment there are no encouraging prospects”.
“It’s hard for me to say what will happen tomorrow. Perhaps progress will be made, but if we are talking about today, there are no [prospects]” RIA cited the source as saying.
“But we all want and are determined to ensure that the work of the mechanism does not stop.”
Updated
EU chief diplomat calls for crackdown on India's resales of Russian oil
The EU should crack down on India reselling Russian oil into Europe as refined fuels including diesel, the EU’s high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, said in an interview with the Financial Times.
India has in the past year emerged as a top buyer of Russian oil, Reuters reports, which has been rejected by Western nations amid sanctions.
Access to cheap Russian crude has boosted output and profits at Indian refineries, enabling them to export refined products competitively to Europe and take bigger market share.
“If diesel or gasoline is entering Europe ... coming from India and being produced with Russian oil, that is certainly a circumvention of sanctions and member states have to take measures,” the bloc’s chief diplomat said.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said falling debris from Russian strikes set several cars on fire and damaged a building in the Solomyanskyi district in the capital’s west. Three people were injured.
Klitschko said that south of Boryspil, air defence systems were repelling a drone attack. Boryspil, a city just southeast of Kyiv, is home to the capital’s main passenger airport, which is now closed.
The damage in other districts was not significant and there was no immediate information on potential casualties there, the military administration said. Air raid sirens blared across nearly all of Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, and were heard over Kyiv and its region for more than three hours.
European leaders meet in Iceland
European leaders will travel to Iceland on Tuesday for a two-day summit meant to show their support for Ukraine, Reuters reports.
In only the fourth summit of the Council of Europe (CoE) since it was founded after the second world war, the 46 members of the leading human rights body, which is entirely separate from the EU, will gather to discuss emerging threats as the war in Ukraine rages on.
“The Council of Europe is often underestimated in its importance,” Frank Schwabe, a German lawmaker who was closely involved in the planning of the summit told Reuters.
The Council of Europe’s democratic values are upheld by the Strasbourg-based European court of human rights, where citizens can take governments to court in case of human rights violations.
Russia’s membership was suspended the day after it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow then left the watchdog hours before a vote to expel it.
“The summit will also be about saying what happens if you don’t respect the rules,” Schwabe said. “The threat of expulsion is already a sharp sword. Even Russia didn’t want to leave the Council of Europe, Turkey doesn’t want to leave either.”
Updated
‘Exceptionally’ intense air atacks on Kyiv overnight
Russia launched an exceptionally intense air attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, using drones, cruise and probably ballistic missiles, city officials said, as the Ukrainian capital suffered its eighth air raid this month.
“It was exceptional in its density - the maximum number of attack missiles in the shortest period of time,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s city military administration, said in comments posted on the Telegram messaging app.
“According to preliminary information, the vast majority of enemy targets in the airspace of Kyiv were detected and destroyed!”
It was not immediately known how many objects were shot down over the city and if any of them managed to hit their target.
On Tuesday, falling debris was reported in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Solomyanskyi and Darnytskyi districts, Reuters said, citing officials.
Summary
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Helen Sullivan with the latest.
Our top stories this morning: Russia launched an exceptionally intense air attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday, using drones, cruise and probably ballistic missiles, city officials said, as the Ukrainian capital suffered its eighth air raid this month.
The attack comes as European leaders travel to Iceland today for a two-day summit meant to show their support for Ukraine.
Falling debris was reported in Kyiv’s Obolonskyi, Shevchenkivskyi, Solomyanskyi and Darnytskyi districts, officials said.
We’ll bring you more on these stories shortly. Here are the other key recent developments:
British prime minister Rishi Sunak said Britain would provide Ukraine with hundreds of air defence missiles and further unmanned aerial systems, including new long-range attack drones with a range of more than 200km in the coming months, during a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy’s visit comes off the back of trips to Berlin and Paris.
The Ukrainian leader said he was also “very positive” about creating a “jets coalition” in the war against Russia, with a decision on the provision of western fighter jets expected soon. Sunak said the UK was preparing to open a flight school to train Ukrainian pilots and France has also now offered to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, president Emmanuel Macron said in Paris, though he ruled out sending war planes to Kyiv.
The US is seeing more indications that Russia and Iran are expanding an unprecedented defence partnership that will help Moscow prolong its war in Ukraine as well as pose a threat to Iran’s neighbours. Iran has reportedly provided Russia with one-way attack drones, including more than 400 since august, US national security adviser John Kirby said at a news briefing.
Ukraine hailed its first substantial battlefield advances for six months. Since last week, the Ukrainian military has started to push Russian forces back in and around the embattled city of Bakhmut, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.
The World Health Organization’s European office decided to close a specialised WHO office in Moscow and move its functions to Denmark. Calls from members to shut the office came last year over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, inadvertently confirmed that four military aircraft had been shot down over Russia last week near the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, saying the capital city Minsk had responded by putting its armed forces on high alert. Photos also emerged of Lukashenko today visiting an air force installation. The president had not been seen since 9 May, causing speculation about his health.
Data published on the Federal Treasury’s online budget portal shows Russia spent 2tn roubles (£21bn) on defence in January and February alone. This is a 282% jump on the same period a year ago, illustrating the spiralling costs for Moscow of its conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s top army general, Gen. Oleg Salyukov, and his South African counterpart, Lt. Gen. Lawrence Mbatha discussed “military cooperation” at a meeting in Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The announcement came hours after South African president Cyril Ramaphosa denied US accusations that his country was siding with Russia in Ukraine and had sent weapons to help it.
Seven people including a Russian-installed senior official and a teenager were wounded when an explosion ripped through a beauty salon in the centre of Russian-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Monday, officials said.
UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said that efforts will continue to extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, a pact Moscow has threatened to quit on 18 May over obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy issued a new appeal to Nato to make a “positive political decision” on Kyiv’s membership at its July summit. Zelenskiy made his remarks in a video address to the Copenhagen democracy summit. He said that Finland joining Nato showed the strength of security guarantees, and thanked Denmark and other allies for their resolve in assisting Ukraine against Russia.
We’re going to pause the blog here but will be back to bring you any breaking news as it happens.
Tonight’s attack on Kyiv was the eighth since the beginning of May and it was “exceptional in its density,” the head of the city’s military administration, Serhii Popko, has said in a post on Telegram.
“This time, the enemy launched a complex attack from different directions simultaneously, using UAVs, cruise missiles and probably ballistic missiles. It was exceptional in its density – the maximum number of attacking missiles in the shortest period of time,” he said.
The “vast majority” of missiles and rockets aimed at Kyiv had been destroyed, he said, adding that more information about the number and type of missiles used in the attack would be available soon.
Rockets debris had fallen in the Solomyansky, Shevchenkivskyi, Svyatoshynskyi, Obolonskyi and Darnytskyi districts, with the most damage recorded in Solomyansk, where there was a fire in a non-residential building.
Damage elsewhere was mostly “not significant”, he said, with most rocket debris falling on parked cars, or parks. There was currently no information about injuries or deaths, he said.
Updated
Kyiv authorities give all-clear
Kyiv’s military administration has once again given the all-clear, after a night in which Russia launched a series of strikes on the Ukrainian capital.
The Institute for the Study of War has been looking into a Washington Post report based on US intelligence which said that Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin offered to reveal Russian positions in exchange for a Ukrainian withdrawal from the devastated city of Bakhmut back in January.
The thinktank says that an attempt to cooperate with Ukrainian intelligence would have been part of his feud with the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) rather than an attack on president Vladimir Putin.
ISW assessed on March 12 that Prigozhin is competing with the Russian MoD for Putin’s favor but had unintentionally alarmed Putin with his military-political ambitions.
Prigozhin’s reported outreach to Ukranian intelligence would likely have been part of an effort to win Putin’s favor, in fact, by facilitating a rapid Wagner victory in Bakhmut while harming Russian conventional forces behind the scenes.
Prigozhin recently retracted his May 9 comments that indirectly mocked Putin, further indicating that Prigozhin is aware of his dependence on Putin and does not mean to antagonize him.
There are no encouraging prospects for extending the Black Sea grain export initiative at the moment, a source familiar with the negotiations told the Russian RIA state news agency in remarks published early on Tuesday. Reuters reports:
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said on Monday efforts will continue in coming days to extend a deal allowing for the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, a pact Russia has threatened to quit on 18 May over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports.
“Technical-level” discussions will continue, the unidentified source told RIA, but when asked about the prospects for extending the grain deal, the source said that “at the moment there are no encouraging prospects”.
“It’s hard for me to say what will happen tomorrow. Perhaps progress will be made, but if we are talking about today, there are no (prospects),” RIA cited the source as saying.
“But we all want and are determined to ensure that the work of the mechanism does not stop.”
The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea grain deal in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain exporters. At the same time, the United Nations agreed to help Moscow facilitate its own agricultural shipments.
While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have amounted to a barrier to shipments.
Agencies are beginning to send through some pictures from Kyiv, where residents have rushed to shelters.
More details on damage to the capital from falling debris. Kyiv Mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, says that in the suburb of Darnytskyi, the wreckage of a UAV fell, without catching fire.
UAV stands for unmanned aerial vehicle and often refers to the drones that are regularly used to attack Ukraine from Russia.
Klitschko goes on to say that air defences are at work outside the capital as well.
South of the city of Boryspil, in the Kyiv oblast, “air defense forces are working on UAVs … Stay in shelters!” the mayor wrote on his Telegram channel.
Updated
Air alert reapplied in Kyiv
An air alert has been announced in Kyiv just 20 minutes after the last one ended.
“We ask everyone to urgently go to the shelters of civil protection!” the Kyiv City State Administration said.
This is the third air alert in Kyiv in the last 12 hours.
There were air alert sirens in the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Kherson as well. Both have now been given the all clear according to local authorities.
There are no reports of injuries in either city at the moment.
Officials announce 'all clear' in Kyiv
The air alert in Kyiv has been turned off and officials have announced the “all clear” for now.
The Kyiv City State Administration has asked residents to “keep an eye on reports and return to shelter if the siren sounds again.”
Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko continues to warn of rocket debris that has fallen in multiple locations across the city, injuring at least three.
In another update, Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klitschko says three people have been injured in the Solomyan area.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, says rocket debris has fallen in the Solomyan, Shevchenkivskyi and Darnytsia districts and has warned residents to stay in shelters in a series of posts on the Telegram messaging app.
He said several cars had caught fire in Solomyan and that a building had been damaged. Rescuers were at the scene, he said. Cars had also been damaged in Darnytsia. In Shevchenkivskyi rocket debris had fallen on the zoo.
Russia attacks Kyiv, series of explosions heard
Another Russian attack is underway in Kyiv, with a series of explosions at 3am local time.
Ukrainian air defences lit up the night sky. There was tracer fire and car alarms went off across the capital. Several loud booms could be heard.
It was unclear if the explosions came from enemy missiles, or from rockets being shot down.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the conflict in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
Air raid sirens have been going off in Ukraine as locals reported multiple explosions across Kyiv. Officials said air defence systems were repelling attacks on the capital and other areas of the country.
“Air defence is working on targets,” the head of president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, Andriy Yermak, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app without giving any further details.
Other key developments:
British prime minister Rishi Sunak said Britain would provide Ukraine with hundreds of air defence missiles and further unmanned aerial systems, including new long-range attack drones with a range of more than 200km in the coming months, during a visit by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Zelenskiy’s visit comes off the back of trips to Berlin and Paris.
The Ukrainian leader said he was also “very positive” about creating a “jets coalition” in the war against Russia, with a decision on the provision of western fighter jets expected soon. Sunak said the UK was preparing to open a flight school to train Ukrainian pilots and France has also now offered to train Ukrainian fighter pilots, president Emmanuel Macron said in Paris, though he ruled out sending war planes to Kyiv.
The US is seeing more indications that Russia and Iran are expanding an unprecedented defence partnership that will help Moscow prolong its war in Ukraine as well as pose a threat to Iran’s neighbours. Iran has reportedly provided Russia with one-way attack drones, including more than 400 since august, US national security adviser John Kirby said at a news briefing.
Ukraine hailed its first substantial battlefield advances for six months. Since last week, the Ukrainian military has started to push Russian forces back in and around the embattled city of Bakhmut, its first significant offensive operations since its troops recaptured the southern city of Kherson in November.
“The advance of our troops along the Bakhmut direction is the first success of offensive actions in the defence of Bakhmut,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander of Ground Forces, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.The World Health Organization’s European office decided to close a specialised WHO office in Moscow and move its functions to Denmark. Calls from members to shut the office came last year over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, inadvertently confirmed that four military aircraft had been shot down over Russia last week near the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, saying the capital city Minsk had responded by putting its armed forces on high alert. Photos also emerged of Lukashenko today visiting an air force installation. The president had not been seen since 9 May, causing speculation about his health.
Data published on the Federal Treasury’s online budget portal shows Russia spent 2tn roubles (£21bn) on defence in January and February alone. This is a 282% jump on the same period a year ago, illustrating the spiralling costs for Moscow of its conflict in Ukraine.
Russia’s top army general, Gen. Oleg Salyukov, and his South African counterpart, Lt. Gen. Lawrence Mbatha discussed “military cooperation” at a meeting in Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said. The announcement came hours after South African president Cyril Ramaphosa denied US accusations that his country was siding with Russia in Ukraine and had sent weapons to help it.
Russia’s defence ministry said it scrambled a fighter jet to prevent French and German patrol aircraft from entering its airspace over the Baltic Sea after it detected them flying towards Russia. Russia said the flights were being conducted by a German P-3C patrol aircraft and a French Atlantic-2 maritime patrol jet.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed for the first time that it had downed a long-range Storm Shadow missile supplied to Ukraine by Britain, which announced last week that it was providing them. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Monday that Russia viewed Britain’s decision to supply the missiles “extremely negatively”.
Ukraine’s state security agency served businessman Dmytro Firtash and top managers of companies he controls with “notices of suspicion” of embezzlement, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement. The SBU said that, acting with the Economic Security Bureau, it had uncovered the alleged theft of up to $485m between 2016 and 2022 as part of a “large-scale scheme” involving Ukraine’s gas transit system.
Seven people including a Russian-installed senior official and a teenager were wounded when an explosion ripped through a beauty salon in the centre of Russian-controlled Luhansk in eastern Ukraine on Monday, officials said.
UN aid chief, Martin Griffiths, said that efforts will continue to extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, a pact Moscow has threatened to quit on 18 May over obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports, Reuters reports.
Zelenskiy issued a new appeal to Nato to make a “positive political decision” on Kyiv’s membership at its July summit. Zelenskiy made his remarks in a video address to the Copenhagen democracy summit. He said that Finland joining Nato showed the strength of security guarantees, and thanked Denmark and other allies for their resolve in assisting Ukraine against Russia.
