Russia-Ukraine war – live: Five hypersonic missiles among 180 weapons Putin fired at Kyiv this year, says military

Five hypersonic Zircon missiles are among the 180 weapons Russia has fired at Kyiv since the start of this year, the city’s military administration has said.

A day earlier, on Sunday, shelling from Kharkiv to Lviv killed five people across Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin’s forces launched 23 missile attacks and 61 airstrikes, as well as 41 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems, Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said. It said a total of 49 combat encounters took place along the frontline.

The battlefield update comes amid reports of Russia using barges in a bid to enhance the defences of one of its ports in the Black Sea, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.

It follows a number of successful Ukrainian strikes on navy ships in the region. “Recent imagery analysis has identified four barges positioned at the entrance to the Black Sea fleet facility of Novorossiysk Sea Port,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

“This is an effort to enhance the defence of the port against attacks from Ukrainian Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs).

Key Points

• Five hypersonic missiles among 180 weapons Russia has fired at Kyiv this year, says Ukraine

• Putin using barges to protect Black Sea port

• Two dead after strikes on Lviv and Kharkiv

• Zelensky vows to ‘never give up’ in Easter message

• Musk claims Putin will ‘gain more land’

Five hypersonic missiles among 180 weapons Russia has fired at Kyiv this year, says Ukraine

11:36 , Tara Cobham

Russia has used five hypersonic Zircon missiles to attack Kyiv since the start of the year, the city’s military administration said on Monday.

It said Moscow had in total launched 180 weapons of various types, including missiles and drones, at the Ukrainian capital in the first three months of the year.

Ukraine repels Russian battalion-sized mechanised assault near Avdiivka, says think tank

11:00 , Tara Cobham

Ukrainian forces appear to have repelled a Russian battalion-sized mechanised assault near the key town of Avdiivka, according to a US war think tank.

Story continues

The Institute for the Study of War said the attack is the first battalion-sized mechanised assault since Russian forces began the campaign to seize the Ukrainian town in Donetsk Oblast in late October 2023.

Recap: Zelenskyy fires more aides in Ukraine reshuffle

10:00 , Tara Cobham

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight.

Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months. It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on Feb. 8. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Read more here:

Zelenskyy fires more aides in Ukraine reshuffle

Recap: Watch as Pope Francis appeals for Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap in Easter prayers

09:00 , Tara Cobham

Blast rips through cafe in Russian city Voronezh, reports Russian media

08:40 , Tara Cobham

A blast ripped through a Central Asian-themed cafe in the Russian city of Voronezh on Monday, shattering windows, Russian news agencies reported, citing local police.

The shattered windows of the “Eastern Tea House” on Lenin Street were shown in footage published by the Zvezda news service.

RIA state news agency quoted police as saying they were investigating after reports about damage at the cafe.

It was not immediately clear if there were casualties.

Ukraine says it downed two of three Russian drones overnight

07:58 , Tara Cobham

Ukraine’s air force shot down two out of three Russia-launched Shahed drones overnight, Ukrainian military said on Monday. The General Staff did not provide additional details on the attack in its report on Facebook. It was unclear whether the drone that was not intercepted reached its target.

Monday night was relatively quiet for Ukraine following series of attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure that Russia stepped up over a week ago.

On March 22, Moscow’s troops carried out the largest strike on grid infrastructure in the two-year-old invasion, causing major damage and resulting in massive power outages. It continued targeting Ukraine’s thermal and hydro-power plants last week.

ICYMI: Putin issues decree calling up 150,000 to military service

07:00 , Matt Mathers

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday.

All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.

In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on 1 Jan, 2024.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.

Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilisation in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine – although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.

In September Putin signed an order calling up 130,000 people for the autumn campaign and last spring Russia planned to conscript 147,000.

Ukrainian forces stop Russian sabotage attack

06:04 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said its troops stopped an attempt by a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group to infiltrate the Ukrainian territory yesterday. It added that a total of 49 encounters took place in the combat zone.

Russian forces launched 23 missile attacks and 61 airstrikes, as well as 41 attacks from multiple-launch rocket systems on the positions of Ukrainian forces and populated areas, the top office of the Ukrainian armed forces said.

France to deliver hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine, defense minister says

06:00 , Matt Mathers

French defence minister Sabastien Lecornu said France is to deliver “hundreds” of armored vehicles by the beginning of next year to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid for the country that just entered its third year since the Russian invasion.

In an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune’s Sunday edition, Lecornu said that “to hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armored personnel carriers. It’s absolutely key for troop mobility.”

The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armored personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armored vehicles. “This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” Lecornu said.

Lecornu also said France will provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft missiles.

The move comes as France’s government is pushing its military industry to boost its production to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition.

Lecornu on Tuesday said France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will increase its supply of shells.

How a Polish-run convent in Ukraine is providing refuge to war victims

05:36 , Arpan Rai

Acelebration of Easter at a Roman Catholic convent run by Polish nuns in western Ukraine, which has sheltered hundreds of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war, has become a symbol of how the historically troubled relations between Poles and Ukrainians have been transformed.

On Easter Sunday, the church within the convent is crowded with parishioners – some of them refugees who are living here, and others from the surrounding area – for the Roman Catholic mass, said in Ukrainian by Polish and Ukrainian priests.

Among the parishioners are Roman Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, and members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – most of them refugees from eastern Ukraine.

Sister Julia, the most senior of the three nuns – two Polish, one Ukrainian – who run the convent, was born in Poland and has been in Yazlovets, the village that is home to the convent, since shortly after Ukraine became independent in 1991.

Askold Krushelnycky reports:

Peace, shelter and hope: How a Polish-run convent in Ukraine is helping war victims

‘Building destroyers’: The Russian glide bombs changing the face of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front

05:32 , Arpan Rai

In a Ukrainian stronghold near the front line, less than 20 miles from the eastern city of Donetsk, a winged bomb is seen hurtling towards a multistorey building.

The 1,500-kilogram explosive hits the structure in the town of Krasnohorivka, erupting into a fireball before engulfing the whole building in a plume of grey and black smoke.

The camera, filming from several hundred metres away, shakes as the ground beneath it rocks from the aftereffects of the explosion.

When the smoke subsides, the building has been completely destroyed.

This footage is one of the latest examples of Russia’s deadly new weapon, one that is proving devastating for Ukrainian defensive positions on or near the front line.

Tom Watling reports:

The glide bombs changing the face of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front lines

France will deliver hundreds of armoured vehicles to Ukraine, defence minister says

05:22 , Arpan Rai

French defence minister Sébastien Lecornu said France is set to deliver “hundreds” of armoured vehicles by the beginning of next year to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid for the war-hit nation.

Mr Lecornu said that “to hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armoured personnel carriers”.

“It’s absolutely key for troop mobility,” he said in an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune’s Sunday edition.

He also said that France will provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft missiles. The move comes as France’s government is pushing its military industry to boost its production to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition.

Last week, Mr Lecornu said France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will increase its supply of shells.

The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armoured personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armoured vehicles.

“This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” the French defence minister said.

Ukraine’s opposition leader says we ‘must use Putin’s money against him’

05:12 , Arpan Rai

After more than two years of all-out war with Russia – and a decade of fighting in the eastern regions – the time has come for a new approach to fighting Vladimir Putin: spending his money against him. For Ukrainian opposition leader Kira Rudik who is in London right now, this is the ultimate option.

A $60bn (£47bn) aid package to Ukraine has been trapped in US Congress for seven months, hostage to disagreements between a handful of hardline Republicans and the remainder of the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Congress. In Europe, stockpiles of artillery shells are running dry and leaders are only now belatedly trying to remedy this problem.

“We need to figure out how to get the support that we need without getting into people’s pockets,” Ms Rudik tells The Independent during a sit-down in the lobby of a west London hotel. “And we have a solution.”

The politician is championing a plan to seize roughly $300bn (£238bn) in Russian assets frozen in Europe, the US and Japan, and redirecting them to Ukraine to be used in its war effort. It is hers – and her country’s – bid to make Ukraine at least partially self-reliant at a time when they do not know when, or from where, the next tranche of Western support will come.

Read Tom Watling’s exclusive report here:

Ukraine’s opposition leader: The way to fight Putin is to use his money against him

Russia using barges to bolster defence of port in Black Sea

05:00 , Matt Mathers

Russia is using barges in a bid to enhance the defence of one of its ports in the Black Sea, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.

It comes following a number of successful Ukrainian strikes on navy ships in the region.

“Recent imagery analysis has identified four barges positioned at the entrance to the Black Sea fleet facility of Novorossiysk Sea Port,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

“This is an effort to enhance the defence of the port against attacks from Ukrainian Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs).

Read the statement in full here:

Russia wants Ukraine security service chief arrested and extradited to Moscow

04:57 , Arpan Rai

Russia is asking Kyiv to hand over the head of Ukraine’s SBU Security Service among a list of people it claims are connected with terrorist acts committed in Russia, its foreign ministry said. It has threatened to arrest the top Ukrainian official.

Officials in Ukraine called the demand “cynical” and “pointless”, suggesting the Kremlin appeared to have forgotten about the arrest warrant against Russian president Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court in connection with the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and said “the tribunal in The Hague is waiting for him.”

Ukraine’s SBU head Vasyl Maliuk has previously acknowledged his service was behind attacks on the bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland since the Kremlin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Russia illegally seized control of Crimea in 2014; the bridge was built after the region was annexed.

The foreign ministry in Moscow listed violent incidents that have occurred in Russia since the Kremlin’s forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, including bombings that killed the daughter of a prominent nationalist and a war blogger, and an incident in which a writer was seriously hurt.

At the same time Russia has not acknowledged the hundreds of deadly missile strikes it has conducted against civilian targets in Ukraine, such as hospitals, schools, shelter homes, railway stations and museums, which have killed thousands of people in the course of its invasion.

“The Russian side demands that the Kyiv regime immediately cease all support for terrorist activity, extradite guilty parties and compensate the victims for damages,” the ministry statement said.

“Ukraine’s violation of its obligations under anti-terrorist conventions will result in it being held to account in international legal terms.”

The Russia foreign ministry said investigation of these incidents showed that “the traces of these crimes lead to Ukraine.”

“Russia has turned over to Ukrainian authorities its demands… for the immediate arrest and extradition of all those connected to the terrorist acts in question,” the statement said.

Ukraine calls Russian extradition demand ‘cynical’ citing Putin’s ICC arrest warrant

04:35 , Arpan Rai

Ukraine’s security agency has said Russian demands to extradite its top official are “cynical” and “pointless”.

Russia on Sunday asked Kyiv to hand over the Ukrainian head of its SBU Security Service, among all other people it has listed to be connected with terrorist acts committed in Russia. It has threatened the arrest of the top Ukrainian official.

The Russian demands “sound particularly cynical coming from the terrorist state itself… Therefore, any words from the Russian foreign ministry are pointless,” the Ukrainian SBU said.

The SBU said the Kremlin appeared to have forgotten about the arrest warrant against Russian president Vladimir Putin issued by the International Criminal Court in connection with the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and said “the tribunal in The Hague is waiting for him.”

The Russian statement referred to the mass shooting this month at a concert hall outside Moscow in which 144 people died, but only in an oblique sense.

‘Building destroyers’: The Russian glide bombs changing the face of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front

04:00 , Matt Mathers

Winged explosives weighing up to 1,500 kilograms – and nicknamed the ‘building destroyer’ – have had a devastating impact wherever they have been used, writes Tom Watling.

Kyiv is battling them as best it can but needs Western allies to step up and provide more weapons, air defences and ammunition.

Read Tom’s article in full here:

The glide bombs changing the face of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front lines

Russian shelling kills five in Ukraine

03:59 , Arpan Rai

Russian shelling attacks killed at least three people in different regions of eastern Ukraine near the war frontline and two more in Lviv region, far from the thick of the conflict.

Parts of Ukraine remained under Russian attack on Monday morning as Kharkiv witnessed intensifying assaults on energy and other infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said.

Yesterday heavy shelling killed a man in the town of Borova, southeast of Kharkiv, local prosecutors said.

Two more were reported dead in Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk, police officials in the southeastern part of the war-hit country said.

In Lviv, two bodies were pulled from rubble after cruise missile strikes, regional governor Maksym Kozitskyi said, adding that rescue work continued through the day at the attack site.

ICYNI: Ukraine security service says Russia’s ‘terrorism’ demands are ‘pointless’

03:00 , Matt Mathers

Ukraine’s SBU security service dismissed as “pointless” a Russian demand on Sunday to hand over individuals it accused of links to terrorism and said Moscow had “forgotten” that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

“Statements about terrorism sound particularly cynical coming from the terrorist state itself,” the SBU said in a statement, referring to the demands issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Therefore, any words from the Russian Foreign Ministry are pointless.”

It feels like 1939 again in Europe, says Poland’s Donald Tusk

02:00 , Matt Mathers

Europe is in a “pre-war era” reminiscent of 1939 and nobody will feel safe if Ukraine is defeated by Russia, Donald Tusk has warned

“For the first time since 1945, war in Europe is becoming ‘real’ again,” he said.

Full report:

It feels like 1939 again in Europe, says Poland’s Donald Tusk

ICYMI: Zelensky vows to ‘never give up’ in Easter message

Monday 1 April 2024 00:01 , Matt Mathers

Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to not give up on defending his country in a poignant Easter message.

The Ukrainian president said Easter is a holiday that “reminds us of the power of the spirit that will not allow darkness to prevail. It will not allow the will to be overshadowed”.

He added: “We defend ourselves, we endure, our spirit does not give up and knows that it is possible to avert death. Life can prevail.”

ICYMI: Ukraine says Russia fired 16 missiles, 11 drones overnight

Sunday 31 March 2024 21:19 , Matt Mathers

Russia launched 16 missiles and 11 drones at Ukraine in an overnight air attack, Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday morning.

In a statement on Telegram, the air force said it had managed to down nine of the drones and nine of the missiles. It did not identify their targets.

For over a week, Russia has significantly stepped up an air strike campaign against Ukrainian energy facilities, causing significant damage and leaving Ukrainians fearing a return to the blackouts seen in the first winter of the full-scale war.

Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK, said on Saturday that five of its six plants had been damaged or destroyed with 80 per cent of its generating capacity lost, and that repairs could take up to 18 months.

2 dead as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Sunday 31 March 2024 20:51 , Matt Mathers

A Russian cruise missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Lviv region killed one man, while another died in an attack in the northeast, officials said Sunday.

The attack in Lviv destroyed a building and sparked a fire, governor Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on social media app Telegram. He said that rescue operations were being conducted.

In the Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Syniehubov said that an air attack killed an 19-year-old man after a missile hit a gas station.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were left without power Sunday after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility, governor Oleh Kiper said. Some 170,000 homes suffered power outages as a result of the attack, said Ukraine’s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.

The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down nine of the 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine out of 14 cruise missiles.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest in the northeastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

Peace, shelter and hope: How a Polish-run convent in Ukraine is providing refuge to war victims

Sunday 31 March 2024 20:30 , Matt Mathers

Faith in the future can be found in the village of Yazlovets on Easter Sunday as those displaced by Putin’s war gather to find comfort. Askold Krushelnycky is there to hear their stories.

Read Askold’s piece in full here:

Peace, shelter and hope: How a Polish-run convent in Ukraine is helping war victims

Ukraine security service says Russia’s ‘terrorism’ demands are ‘pointless’

Sunday 31 March 2024 20:00 , Matt Mathers

Ukraine’s SBU security service dismissed as “pointless” a Russian demand on Sunday to hand over individuals it accused of links to terrorism and said Moscow had “forgotten” that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

“Statements about terrorism sound particularly cynical coming from the terrorist state itself,” the SBU said in a statement, referring to the demands issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry.

“Therefore, any words from the Russian Foreign Ministry are pointless.”

Russia using barges to bolster defence of port in Black Sea

Sunday 31 March 2024 19:30 , Matt Mathers

Russia is using barges in a bid to enhance the defence of one of its ports in the Black Sea, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.

It comes following a number of successful Ukrainian strikes on navy ships in the region.

“Recent imagery analysis has identified four barges positioned at the entrance to the Black Sea fleet facility of Novorossiysk Sea Port,” the MoD said in its latest intelligence update.

“This is an effort to enhance the defence of the port against attacks from Ukrainian Uncrewed Surface Vessels (USVs).

Read the statement in full here:

ICYMI: 1 dead as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Sunday 31 March 2024 19:30 , Matt Mathers

A Russian cruise missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Lviv region killed one man, officials said Sunday.

The attack destroyed a building and sparked a fire, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on social media app Telegram. He said that rescue operations were ongoing.

Full report:

1 dead as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

‘Building destroyers’: The Russian glide bombs changing the face of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front

Sunday 31 March 2024 19:00 , Matt Mathers

Winged explosives weighing up to 1,500 kilograms – and nicknamed the ‘building destroyer’ – have had a devastating impact wherever they have been used, writes Tom Watling. Kyiv is battling them as best it can but needs Western allies to step up and provide more weapons, air defences and ammunition

Read Tom’s piece in full here:

The glide bombs changing the face of the war on Ukraine’s eastern front lines

France to deliver hundreds of armored vehicles to Ukraine, defense minister says

Sunday 31 March 2024 18:30 , Matt Mathers

French defence minister Sabastien Lecornu said France is to deliver “hundreds” of armored vehicles by the beginning of next year to Ukraine as part of a new package of military aid for the country that just entered its third year since the Russian invasion.

In an interview with the French newspaper La Tribune’s Sunday edition, Lecornu said that “to hold such an extensive front line, the Ukrainian army needs, for example, our armored personnel carriers. It’s absolutely key for troop mobility.”

The French military is currently replacing its old VAB armored personnel carriers that started being used in 1979 by a new generation of armored vehicles. “This old equipment, still operational, is going directly to Ukraine in large quantities. We’re talking about hundreds (of vehicles) in 2024 and early 2025,” Lecornu said.

Lecornu also said France will provide Ukraine with more anti-aircraft missiles.

The move comes as France’s government is pushing its military industry to boost its production to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition.

Lecornu on Tuesday said France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will increase its supply of shells.

Putin issues decree calling up 150,000 to military service

Sunday 31 March 2024 18:00 , Matt Mathers

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday.

All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.

In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on 1 Jan, 2024.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.

Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilisation in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine – although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.

In September Putin signed an order calling up 130,000 people for the autumn campaign and last spring Russia planned to conscript 147,000.

ICYMI: It feels like 1939 again in Europe, says Poland’s Donald Tusk

Sunday 31 March 2024 17:30 , Matt Mathers

Europe is in a “pre-war era” reminiscent of 1939 and nobody will feel safe if Ukraine is defeated by Russia, Donald Tusk has warned

“For the first time since 1945, war in Europe is becoming ‘real’ again,” he said.

Full report:

It feels like 1939 again in Europe, says Poland’s Donald Tusk

ICYMI: Zelensky fires more aides in Ukraine reshuffle

Sunday 31 March 2024 17:00 , Matt Mathers

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight.

Zelensky dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

Full report:

Zelenskyy fires more aides in Ukraine reshuffle

ICYMI: Ukrainian flag raised by soldiers after ‘grey zone’ towns on border reclaimed

Sunday 31 March 2024 16:34 , Matt Mathers

Ukrainian flag raised by soldiers after ‘grey zone’ towns on border reclaimed

Sunday 31 March 2024 15:45 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

The Moscow concert massacre was a major security blunder. What’s behind that failure?

Sunday 31 March 2024 15:15 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Hours before gunmen last week carried out the bloodiest attack in two decades in Russia, authorities made an addition to a government register of extremist and terrorist groups: They included the international LGBTQ+ “movement.”

That addition to the register followed a Russian Supreme Court court ruling last year that cracked down on gay and transgender people in the country.

While the register also lists al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, an affiliate of which claimed responsibility for the concert hall attack, the inclusion of LGBTQ+ activists raised questions about how Russia’s vast security services evaluate threats to the country.

The Moscow concert massacre was a major security blunder. What’s behind that failure?

‘Journalism is not a crime’: Joe Biden backs Evan Gershkovich, US journalist jailed in Russia a year ago

Sunday 31 March 2024 14:45 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Joe Biden said he is working “every day” to secure the release of Evan Gershkovich, a jailed Wall Street Journal reporter the US president said is being held by Russia as a “bargaining chip”, as the journalist marked one year behind bars.

Mr Gershkovich, 32, became the first US journalist arrested on spying charges in Russia since the Cold War when he was detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) last March during a reporting trip in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Despite being a fully accredited journalist, he was accused of spying for the US by the Russian authorities – an accusation that he, The Wall Street Journal and the US government vociferously deny.

‘Journalism is not a crime’: Joe Biden back Evan Gershkovich, jailed in Russia

Zelenskyy fires more aides in Ukraine reshuffle

Sunday 31 March 2024 14:13 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday in a continuing reshuffle while Russia unleashed fresh attacks overnight.

Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

No explanation was given immediately for the latest changes in a wide-reaching personnel shakeup over recent months.

It included the dismissal on Tuesday of Oleksii Danilov, who served as secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, and Valerii Zaluzhnyi as head of the armed forces on Feb. 8. He was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom earlier this month.

Zelenskyy fires more aides in Ukraine reshuffle

Sunday 31 March 2024 13:41 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Ukrainian flag raised by soldiers after ‘grey zone’ towns on border reclaimed

Ambassadors lay flowers at site of Moscow concert hall massacre

Sunday 31 March 2024 13:15 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Foreign diplomats in Russia laid flowers on Saturday at the site of last week’s attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people.

Those in attendance included ambassadors from the United States, EU countries, Africa and Latin America. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti noted that the attendees included representatives of “unfriendly states”.

Since the attack, thousands of people have brought bunches of flowers, wreaths and other tokens such as teddy bears, creating a makeshift memorial at the Crocus City Hall.

Ambassadors lay flowers at site of Moscow concert hall massacre

Russia says it hits Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and gas production facilities

Sunday 31 March 2024 12:44 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

The Russian air force has conducted a massive strike on objects of energy infrastructure and the gas industry in Ukraine, Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry said that it used “high-precision long-range air-based weapons” and drones.

“As a result of this strike, the operation of defence industry enterprises involved in the manufacture and repair of weapons, equipment and ammunition has been disrupted. All the goals of the strike have been achieved. The assigned objects were hit,” the ministry said.

Zelensky vows to ‘never give up’ in Easter message

Sunday 31 March 2024 11:58 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to not give up on defending his country in a poignant Easter message.

The Ukrainian president said Easter is a holiday that “reminds us of the power of the spirit that will not allow darkness to prevail. It will not allow the will to be overshadowed”.

He added: “We defend ourselves, we endure, our spirit does not give up and knows that it is possible to avert death. Life can prevail.”

Musk claims Putin will ‘gain more land’

Sunday 31 March 2024 11:43 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Elon Musk has claimed Russia will “gain more land” in Ukraine in an outlandish post on social media.

Writing on X, Mr Musk said: “It was a tragic waste of life for Ukraine to attack a larger army that had defense in depth, minefields and stronger artillery when Ukraine lacked armor or air superiority! Any fool could have predicted that.”

He added: “There is no chance of Russia taking all of Ukraine, as the local resistance would be extreme in the west, but Russia will certainly gain more land than they have today.

“The longer the war goes on, the more territory Russia will gain until they hit the Dnepr, which is tough to overcome. However, if the war lasts long enough, Odessa will fall too.”

One dead as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Sunday 31 March 2024 10:54 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

A Russian cruise missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine‘s western Lviv region killed one man, officials said Sunday.

The attack destroyed a building and sparked a fire, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on social media app Telegram. He said that rescue operations were ongoing.

Meanwhile, thousands in Ukraine‘s Odesa region were temporarily left without power Sunday after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility, Gov. Oleh Kiper said.

Some 170,000 homes were left with temporary power outages as a result of the attack, said Ukraine‘s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.

The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down nine of the 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine out of 14 cruise missiles.

A growing number of Americans end up in Russian jails. The prospects for their release are unclear

Sunday 31 March 2024 10:26 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

A journalist on a reporting trip in a Ural Mountains city. A corporate security executive traveling to Moscow for a wedding. A dual national returning to her hometown in Tatarstan to visit her family.

All of them are U.S. citizens, and all are behind bars in Russia on charges of varying severity.

Arrests of Americans in Russia have become increasingly common as relations between Moscow and Washington sink to Cold War lows. Washington accuses Moscow of targeting its citizens and using them as political bargaining chips, but Russian officials insist they all broke the law.

A growing number of Americans end up in Russian jails. What happens next?

It feels like 1939 again in Europe, says Poland’s Donald Tusk

Sunday 31 March 2024 10:03 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain

Europe is in a “pre-war era” reminiscent of 1939 and nobody will feel safe if Ukraine is defeated by Russia, Donald Tusk has warned

“For the first time since 1945, war in Europe is becoming ‘real’ again,” he said.

Mr Tusk, a former president of the European Council and recently elected prime minister of Poland, said Vladimir Putin was escalating his war on Ukraine, attacking Kyiv with hypersonic missiles in daylight for the first time earlier this week.

It feels like 1939 again in Europe, says Poland’s Donald Tusk

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