Closing summary
It is approaching 6pm in Kyiv and Moscow. This blog will be closing shortly, but you can find all the Guardian’s Russia-Ukraine coverage here and Shaun Walker’s latest report from Kyiv below:
Here is a summary of the day’s developments:
Keir Starmer has said there is “absolute unity” of countries around the world on Ukraine. Speaking from Kyiv on Saturday, the prime minister was asked if he believed Vladimir Putin wanted peace and why he thought the threat of sanctions would work. Starmer replied: “There’s only one country that stands between peace, and that’s Russia.” Starmer said “all of us here, together with US, are calling Putin out”, adding that if the Russian president was “serious” about peace then “he has a chance to show it now by extending the VE Day pause into a full, unconditional 30-day ceasefire”.
Starmer also said UK experts and European partners were working to “boost Ukraine’s economy” in an attempt to support the invaded country’s stability long-term. Speaking at the ‘coalition of the willing’ meeting in Kyiv on Saturday, the UK prime minister said “securing Ukraine’s future for the longer term” had been discussed, with measures including the resumption of flights to Ukraine.
French president Emmanuel Macron called on Saturday for “direct talks” between Ukraine and Russia in the event of a ceasefire in Moscow’s three-year invasion. If there is a 30-day truce, as western countries have floated, “we will look to direct talks between Ukraine and Russia, we are ready to help,” Macron said in an interview with French news outlets TF1 and LCI while travelling to Kyiv to meet European leaders.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz warned Russia would face harder sanctions if it refused a 30-day ceasefire demanded by the west, in an interview published on Saturday by the Bild daily. If Putin does not agree to the truce, “there will be a massive hardening of sanctions and the massive aid to Ukraine will continue – politically, of course, but also financially and militarily,” said Merz.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday backed a proposed unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine and said that the EU is ready to impose further “biting” sanctions on Russia in the event of a breach of a ceasefire. “The ball is now in Russia’s court. We stand ready to maintain strong pressure on Russia,” said von der Leyen.
Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Saturday after joining a ‘coalition of the willing’ call with Kyiv’s partners that it was clear the group is committed and continues to stand with Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday that Ukrainian forces had made four more attempts in the past 24 hours to break across the border into Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions, although Reuters could not independently verify the assertion. Ukraine says Russia has continued to attack it and has called the ceasefire a “farce”.
On Saturday morning, local officials in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said Russian shelling over the past day had killed three residents and injured four more. Another civilian man died on the spot on Saturday as a Russian drone struck the southern city of Kherson, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin. An Associated Press tally, based on reports from Ukrainian authorities, found at least 117 civilians had been killed and more than 1,000 injured in Russian aerial attacks since Ukraine announced on 11 March its willingness for a ceasefire.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said North Korea’s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war was justified, calling it an exercise of sovereign rights in defence of a “brother nation,” state media KCNA reported on Saturday. He also said Pyongyang would not hesitate to authorise the use of military force if the United States persisted in military provocations against Russia.
Updated
Away from Ukraine for a moment, Valdimir Putin has attended a working lunch with the leader of Vietman’s Communist party, Tô Lâm, in Moscow today:
