Summary
It is now 6pm in Kyiv. Here is a summary of the day so far:
Russia said 28 people, including one child, have died in Saturday’s shelling of a bakery in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk, which is under Russian occupation. A further 10 people were rescued from under the rubble by emergency services, according to officials. Kyiv has not made any statement on the incident.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has been visiting Ukrainian troops on the southeastern frontline and handing out medals.
Zelensky used the visit to announce a new mayor of the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, Ivan Federov. Federov was once abducted by Russia and was previously mayor of the now temporarily occupied Melitopol since December 2020.
More than two dozen people, mostly journalists, were detained on Saturday at a protest in central Moscow where wives and other relatives of Russian servicemen mobilised to fight in Ukraine called for their return, according to a Reuters witness and independent Russian news reports.
Belgium is asking G7 countries to consider using €260n in seized Russian assets held by the west as collateral for loans to Ukraine, according to a report in the Financial Times. This would avoid questions around the legality of seizing the assets outright, as has also been considered by Ukraine’s allies, according to the paper.
Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko set a world record for the total amount of time spent in space on Sunday. As of 8.30GMT, Kononenko overtook his compatriot Gennady Padalka who logged more than 878 days in orbit, according to Russia’s space corporation, Roscosmos.
Russia’s envoy in Seoul was summoned by the South Korean foreign ministry on Saturday to lodge a complaint over Moscow’s criticism of comments by South Korea President Yoon Suk-yeol on North Korea’s pursuit of a nuclear arsenal.
The US House of Representatives is expected to vote later this week on a standalone $17.6bn aid package for Israel, pointedly excluding proposed military funding for Ukraine. Republicans have refused to support a $61bn military aid package for Ukraine unless aid was tied to domestic border reforms.
Ukraine is close to signing security agreements with France and Germany, with texts being finalised, according to the Ukrainian government.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has rowed back from a statement he made on Saturday in which he cast doubt over Ukraine’s ability to retake Crimea.
Two Ukrainian drones struck the largest oil refinery in southern Russia on Saturday. Local authorities in Russia said a fire broke out at the Volgograd refinery of the Lukoil company.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed a man who was once abducted by Russia as the new mayor of the frontline Zaporizhzhia region, his office said on Sunday.
AFP has more here:
Zelensky made the announcement as he visited the southern front on Sunday, including meeting troops in the frontline village and fighting hotspot of Robotyne, which has been heavily attacked by Russia.
“The head of state introduced the newly appointed head of the Zaporizhzhia regional state administration Ivan Federov, who has been the mayor of the now temporarily occupied Melitopol since December 2020 and was in Russian captivity,” Zelensky’s office said in a statement.
Melitopol, a city 130 kilometres (80 miles) south of Zaporizhzhia, fell to Russian troops in the first weeks of their invasion in 2022.
Fedorov, 35, was abducted in March 2022 by Russian soldiers as they entered his city after refusing to cooperate with Moscow. He was held in captivity before being swapped for a group of young Russian soldiers that same month.
Fedorov replaces previous governor Yuriy Malashko, who on Telegram said he was handing over authority to a “new team”.
