Death toll from Russian shelling in Kharkiv rises to sevenAt least seven civilians have been killed and 17 wounded during Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, according to local authorities.
Earlier it was reported that five people had died and 10 were injured, including one child, as a result of today’s shelling in Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov, reported heavy fighting to the north and north-east of the city. He said:
The enemy is again insidiously hitting the civilian population, terrorising them.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked Finland for its support during a surprise visit from the Finnish prime minister, Sanna Marin.
Finland’s military assistance is “very valuable”, Zelenskiy wrote on Facebook after talks with Marin, adding:
Weapons, sanctions policy and the unity of our partners in the issue of Ukraine’s accession to the EU – this is what can provide strength in the defence of our land.
Marin visited the Ukrainian capital as well as the towns of Irpin and Bucha, where Ukraine suspects Russian troops carried out atrocities, an allegation denied by Moscow.
Finland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, visits the town of Irpin, outside of Kyiv. Photograph: Reuters Photograph: ReutersRussia’s actions in Ukraine were a “turning point for the entire European family and the whole world”, Marin said after meetings with Zelenskiy and his prime minister.
She described Russia’s actions in Ukraine as “an attempt against the principles of building a common European home”, adding:
What happened, what Russia did is a turning point for the entire European family and the whole world. We see that the old arrangement has been destroyed and there is no return to the former relationship.
A British man who has turned his Polish castle into a makeshift hotel for Ukrainian refugees has accused the UK government of showing “no humanity whatsoever” for not allowing a severely autistic teenager to come to live with an approved foster carer in Lancashire, Helen Pidd and Diane Taylor report.
Pleas are mounting for compassion to be shown to Timothy Tymoshenko, 16, who fled the war in Ukraine without his parents. He is living with his 17-year-old brother, Yurii, in what was once a private palace for the prince-bishop of Wrocław in Piotrowice Nyskie, a tiny Polish village near the Czech border.
Jim Parton, a former stockbroker and writer from London, lives there with his Polish wife, Anna, and their six children, aged seven to 17.
When the Russian invasion began in February, they decided to turn what is usually a guest house and wedding venue into an open house for Ukrainians seeking sanctuary abroad.
Timothy Tymoshenko with Julie Elliot, who wants to care for the 16-year-old in Lancashire. Photograph: Diane TaylorThey are currently hosting 17 people in the sprawling 700-year-old palace, after four left for Canada on Monday. Among those remaining is Timothy, who is severely autistic, non-verbal and needs strong prescription medication to control his changing moods.
Experienced children’s carers in Lancashire have been to visit the boys in Poland and are willing to take the brothers in, but are growing increasingly frustrated that the UK government hasn’t yet granted them visas to enter the country.
Julie Elliot, 61, and her husband, Roger, 66, already have 14 children together – four biological and 10 adopted. Both worked as nurses before becoming full-time carers to their adopted family, and were made MBEs in 2016 for services to children.
Their adopted children, aged between nine and 40, all have disabilities and eight of them still live at the couple’s home in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire.
They and Parton are pleading with the Home Office to let Timothy come to the UK along with his brother. They do not qualify for the Homes for Ukraine scheme as unaccompanied children under 18.
The issue is the subject of a high court challenge and dozens of UK foster carers are anxiously waiting to see if approval is granted for the children they hope to care for to be brought to the UK.
Death toll from Russian shelling in Kharkiv rises to sevenAt least seven civilians have been killed and 17 wounded during Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, according to local authorities.
Earlier it was reported that five people had died and 10 were injured, including one child, as a result of today’s shelling in Ukraine’s second-largest city.
The governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Synehubov, reported heavy fighting to the north and north-east of the city. He said:
The enemy is again insidiously hitting the civilian population, terrorising them.
The claims have not been independently verified.
SummaryIt’s almost 7.30pm in Kyiv. Here’s where we stand:
Officials in Ukraine have admitted that Russia has the “upper hand” in fighting in the country’s east. The governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said just 5% of the area now remained in Ukrainian hands – down from about 10% little more than a week ago – and that Ukrainian forces were retreating in some areas. At least seven civilians were killed and 17 injured, including a child, by Russian shelling in the city of Kharkiv in north-east Ukraine, regional authorities have said. Residents have been urged to go to, or remain in, shelters. The claims have not been independently verified. The Kremlin has rejected claims that Russia has blocked grain exports from Ukraine, blaming the west for creating such a situation by imposing sanctions on Russia. The UK’s foreign minister, Liz Truss, accused Vladimir Putin of “weaponising” hunger through Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports. A senior Turkish official said Ankara was in “ongoing” talks with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus. Two captured Russian soldiers have pleaded guilty to shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, in the second war crimes trial since Russian troops invaded the country. Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov acknowledged being part of an artillery unit that fired at targets in the Kharkiv region from Russia’s Belgorod region. There are about 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war held in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, the Luhansk official Rodion Miroshnik has said. “That’s a lot, and literally hundreds are being added every day,” Miroshnik was quoted by the Russian Tass news agency as saying. The deputy prime minister of the Russian-appointed Crimean government, Georgy Muradov, has said the Sea of Azov is “forever lost to Ukraine”. Russia’s Ria news agency also quoted a Russian-appointed official in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region as saying that the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions would never be returned to the control of the Kyiv. Russia has deployed mobile propaganda vans with large-screen televisions to humanitarian aid points in the captured city of Mariupol. The Orwellian turn comes as the Kremlin continued to push forward with efforts to integrate newly occupied territories across the south of Ukraine.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has said China’s cooperation with Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine “raises alarm bells”. Blinken criticised the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, for defending Putin’s “war to erase Ukraine’s sovereignty” and said it was “a charged moment for the world”. Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president who is a close Putin ally, has ordered the creation of a new military command for the south of the country bordering Ukraine. The Belarusian armed forces previously said they would deploy special operations troops in three areas near its southern border with Ukraine. Lukashenko has also talked up the role of Russian-made missiles in boosting the country’s defences. Hello, it’s Léonie Chao-Fong with you as we unpack all the latest developments on the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, spoke with Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, in a phone call earlier this afternoon.
In a statement after the call, Rome said the pair discussed the situation in Ukraine, the food crisis and its impact on poor countries. No further details of the call were given.
In the Kremlin’s readout of the call, it said Putin told Draghi that Russia was ready to significantly contribute to solving the international food crisis but only if the west lifts sanctions.
The Russian leader also said Moscow was ready to continue uninterrupted gas supplies to Italy, the Kremlin said.
Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said China’s cooperation with Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine “raises alarm bells”.
In a speech on the Biden administration’s policy towards China at George Washington University, Blinken criticised the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, for defending Putin’s war on Ukraine.
Blinken said:
Even while Russia was clearly mobilising to invade Ukraine, President Xi and President Putin declared that the friendship between their countries was, and I quote, ‘without limits’.
Antony Blinken at George Washington University in Washington. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/APHe emphasised that the US did not want another cold war and did not support Taiwanese independence.
But he said:
Beijing’s defence of President Putin’s war to erase Ukraine’s sovereignty and secure a sphere of influence in Europe should raise alarm bells for all of us who call the Indo-Pacific region home.
This is a charged moment for the world.
Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarusian president who is a close Putin ally, has ordered the creation of a new military command for the south of the country bordering Ukraine, Belarus’s state-owned news agency Belta reports.
Lukashenko was quoted by Belta as saying:
Regretfully, a new direction has opened, a new front as they say, and we cannot neglect it.
Earlier this month, the Belarusian armed forces said it would deploy special operations troops in three areas near its southern border with Ukraine.
Minsk has complained about Nato allies amassing soldiers near its borders – Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are all members of the alliance – and is increasing the amount and intensity of its own military exercises in response.
Lukashenko has also talked up the role of Russian-made missiles in boosting the country’s defences.
Russia uses Orwellian propaganda news vans in Mariupol
Andrew Roth
Russia has deployed mobile propaganda vans with large-screen televisions to humanitarian aid points in the captured city of Mariupol as the Kremlin has pushed forward with efforts to integrate newly occupied territories across the south of Ukraine.
Videos published by the Russian ministry of emergency situations showed the vans, which it called “mobile information complexes”, playing state TV news segments and political chatshows where pundits support the invasion to locals in the ruined city that still lacks electricity and running water.
The Orwellian turn comes as much of Mariupol was destroyed in an artillery bombardment that left thousands dead. One of the vans was deployed near the ruins of the Mariupol drama theatre, where hundreds were killed in an airstrike in March.
The Kremlin’s ‘mobile information complexes’ play state TV news segments and political chat shows. Photograph: TwitterSeveral of the trucks now patrol the city, mainly playing Russian television news segments. “The people of Mariupol have been held in a virtual informational vacuum for three months due to the lack of electricity,” wrote the emergencies ministry in a statement.
The mobile screens have reportedly been deployed to places where Mariupol residents are receiving humanitarian aid, Russian documents, and at points in the city where drinking water is available.
“The practice of ‘there is nothing to eat, so feed them lies’ is gaining momentum,” wrote Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol. It’s “cynicism of the highest level”.
“The truth and the propaganda,” wrote Anton Gerashenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior ministry, posting a video of the trucks superimposed over images of the ruins of the city. This is “the Russian world”, he added.
The UK government introduced legislation on Thursday to help councils, NHS trusts and other public bodies exit contracts with Gazprom and other Russian companies, Alex Lawson and Pamela Duncan report.
Councils have been keen to withdraw from contracts amid concerns they were helping to fund Vladimir Putin’s regime. They had been prohibited from taking “non-commercial considerations” into account when procuring or terminating contracts, and they have a statutory duty to find the cheapest deal on behalf of the taxpayer.
Many councils had been forced to select Gazprom as a supplier because it offered the greatest value for money. They paid £29m to Gazprom from 2016 to 2021, data firm Tussell has said.
In March the Cabinet Office asked central government to review all contracts with Russia and Belarus-linked firms and to consider terminating those contracts. This process has been extended to local councils.
Michael Gove will write to all councils informing them of changes to legislation. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesCouncils including Merton and Telford and Wrekin have said they are keen to cut ties with Russia.
A government source said: “Local authorities are not obliged to terminate contracts, but our message is clear: Putin’s barbaric regime should not benefit from taxpayers’ money.”
Michael Gove will write to all councils to make them aware of the changes.
The government has said any costs incurred from exiting contracts will have to be covered by existing budgets.
The west is attempting to choke off the Russian economy to damage Putin’s war coffers and fuel anti-war sentiment among the Russian public.
Natalia Popova, adviser to the head of the Kharkiv regional council, has posted an updated set of casualty figures for the shelling of Kharkiv today. She said on Facebook: “Ten wounded. Among the wounded, one child. Five people died.”
She urged people to go to or to remain in shelters. The claims have not been independently verified.