A boy waves a Ukrainian national flag atop a seized Russian tank in Kyiv ahead of the country’s Independence Day. Follow for all the latest Russia-Ukraine war updates. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
A boy waves a Ukrainian national flag atop a seized Russian tank in Kyiv ahead of the country’s Independence Day. Follow for all the latest Russia-Ukraine war updates. Photograph: Valentyn Ogirenko/ReutersShow key events onlyPlease turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Live feedSummary so farIt is just after 1pm in Ukraine. Here is what you might have missed:
Russian opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman was shown being detained at his home in a video published on social media on Wednesday, reports Reuters. Video of the arrest showed Roizman, former mayor of the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, being taken away by law enforcement officials. Roizman was seen in the video telling reporters that he was being investigated under a law against discrediting the armed forces. He said he was being arrested “basically for one phrase, ‘the invasion of Ukraine’”.
Pope Francis has called for “concrete steps” to end the war in Ukraine and avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, reports Reuters. IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday it would visit the Russian-occupied plant in Ukraine within days if talks to gain access succeed. Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of firing at the facility, the largest of its kind in Europe and which pro-Moscow forces took over soon after the 24 February invasion. The United Nations has called for the area to be demilitarised.
A Russian-installed head of the town of Mykhailivka in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb on Tuesday, an official said. Ivan Sushko was critically injured when a bomb placed under his car exploded, Zaporizhzhia region administration member Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram.
Norway and Britain will jointly supply micro-drones to Ukraine to aid in its war with Russia, reports Reuters. The cost of the Teledyne Flir Black Hornet drones, used for reconnaissance and target identification, will be up to 90m Norwegian crowns (£7.4m), the Norwegian defence ministry said in a statement.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainians on Wednesday in an emotional speech to mark 31 years of independence that Ukraine was reborn when Russia invaded and would recapture annexed Crimea and occupied areas in the east. In the recorded speech aired on the six-month anniversary of Russia’s 24 February invasion, Zelenskiy said Ukraine no longer saw the war ending when there was peace, but when Kyiv was actually victorious.
Former Conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has disclosed he is in Kyiv as Ukraine marks 31 years since it declared independence from the Soviet Union. “Here in Kyiv we’re in shelters after being woken by the air raid siren,” the Commons foreign affairs committee chair tweeted in response to a post by British journalist John Sweeney. He later posted a video of himself next to destroyed tanks in the centre of Kyiv and praised the commitment of Britain in helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
Ukraine is bracing for possible brutal strikes as it marks its independence day and 31 years since the end of Soviet rule. Authorities have cancelled celebrations in Kyiv as officials warn that Russia is preparing to attack the capital. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had information from Ukraine’s intelligence services and international partners that there was an increased threat as the US said it believed Russia would target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days. Ukraine’s defence ministry advised Ukrainians to be especially careful, citing the threat of missile attacks and “provocations” from Russia.
Many civilians are attempting to leave Kyiv amid fears of a Russian attack, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s president. Alex Rodnyansky said people were worried and that there was “certainly some concern” that an attack may strike the centres of decision-making in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday. Russia and the Putin regime “are really obsessed with dates and symbols, so it would be logical to be on the lookout and be prepared for independence day to be attacked”, Andriy Yusov, the head of the ministry’s intelligence directorate, said.
Zelenskiy has warned Russia of a strong response to any possible independence day attacks. Ukrainian intelligence is working with foreign intelligence, he said in a news conference on Tuesday, warning that Russia “will receive a response, a powerful response”. Zelenskiy also said Ukraine will not agree to any proposal to freeze the current frontlines in its conflict with Russia in order to “calm” Moscow, which now controls about 22% of Ukraine including Crimea.
Zelenskiy also vowed to return Crimea to Ukraine, saying that it would become part of the EU, along with the rest of the country. “We will return Crimea, because it is our territory. In any way we decide. We will decide it on our own, without consulting any other state,” he said. “It all began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea.”
Ukraine is not ready for negotiations with Russia regarding a ceasefire, Zelenskiy said. “At the point where we are, we are not ready for a ceasefire. We explained that there will be no Minsk-3, Minsk-5, or Minsk-7. We will not play these games, we have lost part of our territories this way … it is a trap,” he said during a press conference following a summit of the Crimea Platform in Kyiv.
Russia’s Donbas offensive is making minimal progress and its forces are suffering from shortages of munitions, vehicles and personnel, according to British intelligence.
Ukraine’s intelligence directorate has claimed Russia is attempting to shell the “ash pits” of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to “raise clouds of radioactive dust”. In an update posted to the agency’s official Telegram channel late last night, officials said that mortar attacks on the surrounding suburbs of Energodar aimed to target the ash pits of the plant.
The US is set to announce a fresh security assistance package for Ukraine of about $3bn (£2.5bn), officials have said, to equip the country for a war of attrition and secure its medium- to long-term defence posture. The money will fund contracts for as many as three types of drones, and other weapons, ammunition and equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two, US officials told the Associated Press.
Germany will also supply Ukraine with a further €500m in military aid, most of it earmarked for delivery next year, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday. The equipment will include three IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems, “around a dozen armed recovery vehicles, 20 rocket-launchers mounted on pick-ups … precision munition and anti-drone equipment,” a spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.
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A former mayor of Russia’s fourth-largest city was arrested Wednesday on charges of discrediting the country’s military, part of a crackdown on dissent of Moscow’s military action.
Police arrested Yevgeny Roizman, a critic of the Kremlin, who served as the mayor of Yekaterinburg in 2013-2018, following searches at his apartment and office, according to AP.
Roizman, 59, told reporters he was charged under a new law adopted after Russia sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Earlier this year, he was fined on similar charges. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.
Police detain Yekaterinburg ex-mayor Yevgeny Roizman in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Photograph: Vladimir Podoksyonov/APPope Francis has renewed called for peace for the “beloved” Ukraine on the country’s independence day and the six-month anniversary of the start of Russia’s invasion.
Following his weekly general audience at the Vatican, Francis directed his address to “the beloved Ukrainian people who for six months today have been suffering the horror of war,” AFP reports.
Referring to the Russian-controlled nuclear plant in souther Ukraine, and Europe’s largest, which has been the target of military strikes, Francis added:
I hope that concrete steps will be taken to put an end to the war and to avert the risk of a nuclear disaster in Zaporizhzhia.
Pope Francis, sits on a wheelchair, leaves after his weekly general audience in the Paul VI hall, Vatican City. Photograph: Ettore Ferrari/ANSA/ZUMA Press/REX/Shutterstock
Harriet Sherwood
A leading UK choir has released a single based on words by the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the poet Serhiy Zhadan to mark six months since Russia launched the war in Ukraine.
A Quiet Night – Tyhoyi Nochi is sung in English and Ukrainian, with music by one of the country’s foremost young composers, Natalia Tsupryk.
Tom Herring, the artistic director of the choir, Sansara, said he hoped the work would be performed by refugees from Ukraine and host communities around the world.
Sansara’s work is rooted in the belief that choral music has a unique potential to bring people together. A Quiet Night is a musical expression of solidarity with the people of Ukraine but it is also a creative vehicle for choirs to meet and sing with all those displaced by conflict.
The celebration of the Independence Day in Kyiv
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena visit the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/ReutersTsupryk said: “President Zelensky’s words about ‘a free people’ not allowing ‘occupation to take root in their land’; show Ukrainians for what we are. Far from being victims and losers, we are warriors and winners.”
The single will raise funds for the Ukrainian Welcome Centre which supports newly-arrived Ukrainian refugees in the UK. Sansara will perform A Quiet Night on Friday at St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London.
David Batty
The government has called on more people to take in Ukrainian refugees on the sixth month anniversary of the Russian invasion of the country.
But ministers have not announced any additional financial support for UK hosts who take part in the Homes for Ukraine scheme, despite warnings that the cost of living crisis is deterring people from signing up or continuing to participate.
Monthly payments to hosts of Ukrainian refugees should double to £700 to help them to provide housing for more than six months due to rising costs, the minister responsible has said.
Launching the appeal for new hosts, refugees minister Lord Harrington said: “I would urge anyone who has the room to come forward and join thousands of others in providing a safe haven for people forced to leave their country.”
Read more on the ‘desperate’ need for Homes for Ukraine hosts as war reaches six-month point here:
UK can ‘toughen up’ visa conditions for Russians says defence secretaryBen Wallace has said the UK can “toughen up” visa conditions for Russians, yet remained uncertain whether an outright ban is the “right way”, PA Media reports.
The defence secretary’s remarks come as Finland, Estonia and the Czech Republic have called for Brussels to implement an EU-wide ban on new tourist visas for Russians to enter the Schengen free travel area as punishment for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Wallace said:
I certainly think we can toughen up the conditions of our visas. I am not sure whether an outright ban is the right way.
He added:
“I think that’s a matter for the home secretary to look at. But I don’t like, and I’m sure none of your listeners like, watching oligarchs’ wives or indeed Russian senior officials’ wives enjoying themselves in Greece or the south of France, or on super-yachts around the world while their army is committing war crimes in Ukraine.”
Here are the latest photos to come out of Ukraine and elsewhere on the nation’s independence day, six months after Russia’s invasion.
A Ukrainian man poses for a photo with a destroyed Russian tank during Ukraine’s independence day in Kyiv. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesA tribute to Ukraine in Brussels. Photograph: REX/ShutterstockPeople look at destroyed Russian military equipment on Khreshchatyk Street in Kyiv. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty ImagesA view of a floral display arch to mark Ukraine’s independence day in front of the door of No 10 Downing Street. Photograph: Kevin Coombs/ReutersUkraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his wife Olena lay flowers at the Memory Wall of Fallen Defenders of Ukraine. Photograph: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/ReutersSummary so farIt is just after 1pm in Ukraine. Here is what you might have missed:
Russian opposition politician Yevgeny Roizman was shown being detained at his home in a video published on social media on Wednesday, reports Reuters. Video of the arrest showed Roizman, former mayor of the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, being taken away by law enforcement officials. Roizman was seen in the video telling reporters that he was being investigated under a law against discrediting the armed forces. He said he was being arrested “basically for one phrase, ‘the invasion of Ukraine’”.
Pope Francis has called for “concrete steps” to end the war in Ukraine and avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, reports Reuters. IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday it would visit the Russian-occupied plant in Ukraine within days if talks to gain access succeed. Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of firing at the facility, the largest of its kind in Europe and which pro-Moscow forces took over soon after the 24 February invasion. The United Nations has called for the area to be demilitarised.
A Russian-installed head of the town of Mykhailivka in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb on Tuesday, an official said. Ivan Sushko was critically injured when a bomb placed under his car exploded, Zaporizhzhia region administration member Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram.
Norway and Britain will jointly supply micro-drones to Ukraine to aid in its war with Russia, reports Reuters. The cost of the Teledyne Flir Black Hornet drones, used for reconnaissance and target identification, will be up to 90m Norwegian crowns (£7.4m), the Norwegian defence ministry said in a statement.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Ukrainians on Wednesday in an emotional speech to mark 31 years of independence that Ukraine was reborn when Russia invaded and would recapture annexed Crimea and occupied areas in the east. In the recorded speech aired on the six-month anniversary of Russia’s 24 February invasion, Zelenskiy said Ukraine no longer saw the war ending when there was peace, but when Kyiv was actually victorious.
Former Conservative leadership contender Tom Tugendhat has disclosed he is in Kyiv as Ukraine marks 31 years since it declared independence from the Soviet Union. “Here in Kyiv we’re in shelters after being woken by the air raid siren,” the Commons foreign affairs committee chair tweeted in response to a post by British journalist John Sweeney. He later posted a video of himself next to destroyed tanks in the centre of Kyiv and praised the commitment of Britain in helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
Ukraine is bracing for possible brutal strikes as it marks its independence day and 31 years since the end of Soviet rule. Authorities have cancelled celebrations in Kyiv as officials warn that Russia is preparing to attack the capital. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had information from Ukraine’s intelligence services and international partners that there was an increased threat as the US said it believed Russia would target civilian and government infrastructure in the next few days. Ukraine’s defence ministry advised Ukrainians to be especially careful, citing the threat of missile attacks and “provocations” from Russia.
Many civilians are attempting to leave Kyiv amid fears of a Russian attack, according to an adviser to Ukraine’s president. Alex Rodnyansky said people were worried and that there was “certainly some concern” that an attack may strike the centres of decision-making in the Ukrainian capital on Wednesday. Russia and the Putin regime “are really obsessed with dates and symbols, so it would be logical to be on the lookout and be prepared for independence day to be attacked”, Andriy Yusov, the head of the ministry’s intelligence directorate, said.
Zelenskiy has warned Russia of a strong response to any possible independence day attacks. Ukrainian intelligence is working with foreign intelligence, he said in a news conference on Tuesday, warning that Russia “will receive a response, a powerful response”. Zelenskiy also said Ukraine will not agree to any proposal to freeze the current frontlines in its conflict with Russia in order to “calm” Moscow, which now controls about 22% of Ukraine including Crimea.
Zelenskiy also vowed to return Crimea to Ukraine, saying that it would become part of the EU, along with the rest of the country. “We will return Crimea, because it is our territory. In any way we decide. We will decide it on our own, without consulting any other state,” he said. “It all began with Crimea, and it will end with Crimea.”
Ukraine is not ready for negotiations with Russia regarding a ceasefire, Zelenskiy said. “At the point where we are, we are not ready for a ceasefire. We explained that there will be no Minsk-3, Minsk-5, or Minsk-7. We will not play these games, we have lost part of our territories this way … it is a trap,” he said during a press conference following a summit of the Crimea Platform in Kyiv.
Russia’s Donbas offensive is making minimal progress and its forces are suffering from shortages of munitions, vehicles and personnel, according to British intelligence.
Ukraine’s intelligence directorate has claimed Russia is attempting to shell the “ash pits” of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to “raise clouds of radioactive dust”. In an update posted to the agency’s official Telegram channel late last night, officials said that mortar attacks on the surrounding suburbs of Energodar aimed to target the ash pits of the plant.
The US is set to announce a fresh security assistance package for Ukraine of about $3bn (£2.5bn), officials have said, to equip the country for a war of attrition and secure its medium- to long-term defence posture. The money will fund contracts for as many as three types of drones, and other weapons, ammunition and equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two, US officials told the Associated Press.
Germany will also supply Ukraine with a further €500m in military aid, most of it earmarked for delivery next year, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday. The equipment will include three IRIS-T anti-aircraft systems, “around a dozen armed recovery vehicles, 20 rocket-launchers mounted on pick-ups … precision munition and anti-drone equipment,” a spokesperson told Agence France-Presse.
Russia detains opposition leader over criticism of Ukraine war
Andrew Roth
Andrew Roth reports for us from Moscow:
Russian police have detained Yevgeny Roizman, a prominent opposition politician and former mayor of Ekaterinburg, for his public criticism of the Russian war in Ukraine.
Roizman, a popular political activist in Ekaterinburg, the fourth largest city in Russia, said he was being charged for his use of the word “invasion” under strict new laws that ban criticism of the Russian armed forces.
He could face five years in prison if convicted, Russian state news media reported.
Video released by a pro-Kremlin news outlet showed masked police in bulletproof vests storming into the apartment building where Roizman lives. After a search, Roizman was led from the flat past journalists waiting in the stairwell. When asked where he had used the word “invasion”, he replied: “I say it everywhere.”
Read more: Russia detains opposition leader over criticism of Ukraine war
A Russian-installed head of the town of Mykhailivka in the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporizhzhia region in south-eastern Ukraine was killed in a car bomb on Tuesday, an official said.
Ivan Sushko was critically injured when a bomb placed under his car exploded, Zaporizhzhia region administration member Vladimir Rogov said on Telegram.
Rogov said:
As a result of the explosion, Ivan Sushko was wounded and taken to the hospital in critical condition, where he soon died.
The Ministry of Defence has posted the latest map on Russian troop placements and attack locations in Ukraine.
Pope Francis warns of nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia power plantPope Francis has called for “concrete steps” to end the war in Ukraine and avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at the Zaporizhzhia power plant, reports Reuters.
IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, said on Tuesday it would visit the Russian-occupied plant in Ukraine within days if talks to gain access succeed.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of firing at the facility, the largest of its kind in Europe and which pro-Moscow forces took over soon after the 24 February invasion.
The United Nations has called for the area to be demilitarised.
Francis said at his weekly audience:
I hope that concrete steps will be taken to bring an end to the war and to avert the risk of a nuclear disaster at Zaporizhzhia.
Francis also called arms merchants who profit from war “delinquents who kill humanity”.
The Scots Guard band has paid tribute to Ukraine with a rendition of the country’s Eurovision winning entry Stefania.
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