The Mariupol surrender brought an end to the most devastating siege of Russia's war in Ukraine and allowed President Vladimir Putin to claim a rare victory in his faltering campaign, which many military analysts say has stalled. While Russia called it a surrender, the Ukrainians avoided that word.
Finland and Sweden officially applied to join Nato in a move driven by security concerns over Russia's war in Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said Finland and Sweden joining Nato would probably make "not much difference" as the two countries had long participated in the alliance's military drills.
Mariupol appeared on the verge of falling to the Russians on Tuesday as Ukraine moved to abandon the steel plant where hundreds of its fighters had held out for months under relentless bombardment in the last bastion of resistance in the devastated city.
The capture of Mariupol would make it the biggest city to be taken by Moscow's forces and would give the Kremlin a badly needed victory, though the landscape has largely been reduced to rubble.
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters — some of them seriously wounded and taken out on stretchers — left the ruins of the Azovstal plant on Monday and turned themselves over to the Russian side in a deal negotiated by the warring parties.
An additional seven buses carrying an unknown number of Ukrainian soldiers from the plant were seen arriving at a former penal colony Tuesday in the town of Olenivka, approximately 88 kilometres north of Mariupol.
While Russia called it a surrender, the Ukrainians avoided that word and instead said the plant's garrison had successfully completed its mission to tie down Russian forces and was under new orders.
Gaining full control of Mariupol would give Russia an unbroken land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a vital port. It could also free up Russian forces to fight elsewhere in the Donbas, the eastern industrial heartland that the Kremlin is bent on capturing. And it would give Russia a victory after repeated setbacks on the battlefield and the diplomatic front, beginning with the abortive attempt to storm Kyiv, the capital.
This live blog is closed. Follow latest updates on the Russia-Ukraine war here.
1. Russian troops bombarded a riverside city in what appeared to herald a major assault to seize the last remaining Ukrainian-held territory in a province it claims on behalf of separatists.
2. The commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment said in a video that civilians and heavily wounded fighters had been evacuated from Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks, giving no further clue about the fate of the rest of its defenders.
3. Germany will deliver the first 15 Gepard tanks to Ukraine in July, a defence ministry spokesperson in Berlin said.
4. In a sign of Russia's urgent need to bolster its war effort, parliament will consider a bill to allow Russians over 40 and foreigners over 30 to sign up for the military.
5. President Vladimir Putin said that the number of cyber attacks on Russia by foreign "state structures" had increased several times over and that Russia must bolster its cyber defences by reducing the use of foreign software and hardware.
6. Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies said they have mobilised $19.8 billion for Ukraine and pledged to give more if needed.
7. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he will speak to Finland on Saturday, while maintaining his opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership bids over their history of hosting members of groups Ankara deems terrorists.
8. Not all Russians should be blamed for their government's decision to invade Ukraine and that includes Russian members of the International Olympic Committee, IOC president Thomas Bach said, defending his decision not to sanction them. ---Reuters
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Russia will cut off natural gas to Finland after the Nordic country that applied for NATO membership this week refused President Vladimir Putin’s demand to pay in rubles, the Finnish state-owned energy company said Friday, the latest escalation over European energy amid the war in Ukraine. Read more
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow said on Friday that it was surprised but not offended by a proposal to name a nearby intersection "Defenders of Donbas Square", suggesting disingenuously that it was to honour Ukrainian soldiers fighting Russian aggression.
The Moscow city assembly said on Wednesday that its members were considering naming the intersection after soldiers fighting against alleged "Nazism" in the largely Russian-speaking Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Russia says one of the reasons why it sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24 was to protect its Russian-speakers from "Nazi" or "fascist" persecution.
Kyiv and the West say the allegation of fascism is a baseless pretext for an unprovoked act of aggression, and the United States has led Western allies in supporting Ukraine with money and heavy weaponry as well as sanctions against Russia.
"Surprised but not offended by the Russian government's proposal to rename a part of downtown Moscow near the U.S. Embassy 'Defenders of Donbas Square', presumably in honour of Ukrainian soldiers bravely defending their homeland from Kremlin aggression," the embassy said. "The country should know its heroes." ---Reuters
Russian forces bombarded areas of Ukraine's eastern Donbas region from land and air on Friday, destroying houses in residential districts and killing a number of civilians, Ukrainian officials said. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the assaults had turned the Donbas into "hell".
In the southern port city of Mariupol, scene of the war's bloodiest siege, the last heavily wounded fighters from hold-out Ukrainian units had been evacuated from their bastion, the Azovstal steelworks, their commander said. It was not clear if the remaining defenders there had definitively laid down their arms.
The Kremlin meanwhile said it was bolstering its forces on Russia's western border, saying that moves by Finland and Sweden to join NATO were part of an increase in military threats. As the war neared its three-month mark, the Ukrainian military said massive artillery barrages, including from multiple rocket-launchers, had hit civilian infrastructure in the Donbas region bordering Russia. Russian aircraft had also struck targets, the general staff said in a statement. ---Reuters
A Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since the start of the war in Ukraine testified Thursday that he shot a civilian on orders from two officers and pleaded for his victim’s widow to forgive him.
Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin told the court that the officer insisted that the Ukrainian man, who was speaking on his cellphone, could pinpoint their location to the Ukrainian forces. Read more
OTP Bank will step up lending to Ukraine's farmers this year under a Kyiv-backed programme to help them overcome financing problems due to the Russian invasion, an executive at the Hungarian bank told Reuters.
Central Europe's largest independent lender, which is also present in Russia, has started scaling back its activity there as part of plans for a possible exit, with its chief executive saying prospects for the Russian economy were "not very bright".
The Russian and Ukrainian units together accounted for 15.8% of OTP's profit last year. Lending in Ukraine rose by 5% in the first quarter from the previous three months, while lending in Russia fell by 7%, OTP has said.
The new lending in Ukraine, which OTP expects to amount to some 1 billion hryvnia ($34 million), or about a fifth of total lending expected by the end of the planting season, will go to small businesses previously funded by large conglomerates.
"Part of the market froze up because of the war," said Andras Kuharszki, supervisory board chairman of OTP's Ukrainian unit, which also leases agricultural machinery.
"The war has created a new situation, which meant supplementary financing was needed for this group of clients to stave off the collapse of the entire chain at the first link." ---Reuters
In a sign of Russia's urgent need to bolster its war effort in Ukraine, parliament said on Friday it would consider a bill to allow Russians over 40 and foreigners over 30 to sign up for the military.
The website of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, said the move would enable the military to utilise the skills of older professionals.
"For the use of high-precision weapons, the operation of weapons and military equipment, highly professional specialists are needed. Experience shows that they become such by the age of 40–45," it said. Previously only Russians aged 18-40 and foreigners aged 18-30 could enter into a first contract with the military. (Reuters)
Russian forces attacked the cities of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk in Ukraine's eastern region of Luhansk, the region's governor said Friday.
Serhiy Haidai said in a Telegram messaging app post on Friday that 12 people were killed in Severodonetsk as a result of the assault, and more than 60 houses were destroyed across the region.
He added that the attack on Severodonetsk “was unsuccessful - the Russians suffered personnel losses and retreated.” His remarks could not be independently verified.
Ukraine's General Staff in its morning update on Friday also said that the Russians tried to assault Severodonetsk but suffered losses and retreated. (AP)
The rouble extended recent gains Friday and crossed the 60 mark against the dollar for the first time since April 2018, boosted by capital controls and domestic tax payments that usually lead to increased demand for the Russian currency.
So far this year, the rouble has firmed more than 24% despite a full-scale economic crisis and has become the best-performing currency, artificially supported by controls that Russia imposed in late February to shield its financial sector after it sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.
The stronger rouble helps to put brakes on inflation and is beneficial for importers but hurts exporters who sell goods and services abroad for foreign currency, meaning reduced incomes for Russia's export-dependent budget. (Reuters)
With the number of defenders left holed up in a Mariupol steel factory dwindling, Russian commanders will be coming under increasing pressure to reallocate troops from the strategic southern port city to bolster their offensive in eastern Ukraine, Britain's Defense Ministry said Friday.
“Staunch Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol since the start of the war means Russian forces in the area must be re-equipped and refurbished before they can be redeployed effectively," the ministry wrote on Twitter.
“Russian commanders, however, are under pressure to demonstrably achieve operational objectives. That means that Russia will probably redistribute their forces swiftly without adequate preparation, which risks further force attrition.” Analysts have said it is likely that most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the battle there have already left. (AP)
People of Ukraine celebrated the Day of the Embroidered Shirt (Vyshyvanka), an integral part of the national Ukrainian costume, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine on May 19.
Several politicians too joined in, donning their Vyshyvankas in solidarity.
China's efforts to replenish its strategic reserves with Russian oil would not contravene US sanctions, White House officials aboard Air Force One said Thursday.
China is in talks with Russia to buy additional supplies of oil in order to add to its strategic crude inventories, according to a Bloomberg News report on Thursday.
The US has led global efforts to ban the imports of Russian oil amid the county's invasion of Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russian shelling in Ukraine's eastern region of Luhansk has killed 13 civilians over the past 24 hours, the regional governor, Serhiy Gaidai, said Friday.
Twelve were killed in the town of Sievierodonesk, where a Russian assault has been unsuccessful, he said. The town and the city of Lysychansk are in an area where Russian troops have launched an offensive. (Reuters)
Amid fear of Russian reprisals, hundreds of Ukrainian fighters who surrendered after enduring the merciless assault on Mariupol's steel factory were registered as prisoners of war, and the Ukrainian president vowed to seek international help to save them.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday that it had gathered personal information from hundreds of the soldiers — name, date of birth, closest relative — and registered them as prisoners as part of its role in ensuring the humane treatment of POWs under the Geneva Conventions.
More than 1,700 defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have surrendered since Monday, Russian authorities said. At least some of the fighters were taken by the Russians to a former penal colony in territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. Others were hospitalized, according to a separatist official. (AP)
There was no possibility that Imran Khan would have known about Russia's plans to invade Ukraine when he visited Moscow, Pakistan's new Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has said, as he defended the ousted premier's controversial visit to meet President Vladimir Putin nearly three months ago.
“As far as the former Prime Minister's (Khan) trip to Russia, I would absolutely defend the former prime minister of Pakistan. He conducted that trip as part of his foreign policy and without knowing that — no one is psychic, no one has a sixth sense — there's no way we could have possibly known that that would be the time [when] the current conflict will start,” Bilawal said while addressing the press at the UN headquarters on Thursday, and added that “it is very unfair to punish Pakistan for such an innocent action.” (Read more)
Amidst the war, as homes are bombed and lives lost, residents are trying to find moments of normalcy. In the Associated Press photo below, local resident Anatolii Virko plays a piano outside a house likely damaged after a Russian bombing in Velyka Kostromka village, Ukraine on May 19, 2022.
Ukraine’s industrial Donbas region, the focus of recent Russian offensives, has been destroyed, said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Since turning away from Ukraine's capital, Russia is using massed artillery and armour to try to capture more territory in the Donbas, comprised of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas, which Moscow claims on behalf of separatists.
"The occupiers are trying to exert even more pressure. It is hell there - and that is not an exaggeration," Zelenskiy said in a late Thursday address. "(There are) constant strikes on the Odesa region, on the cities of central Ukraine. The Donbas is completely destroyed," he said. (Reuters)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused Russia Thursday of weaponising food and holding grain for millions of people around the world hostage to help accomplish what its invasion of Ukraine has not — "to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people."
He told a UN Security Council meeting called by the United States that the war has halted maritime trade in large areas of the Black Sea and made the region unsafe for navigation, trapping Ukrainian agricultural exports and jeopardising global food supplies.
Blinken said the meeting, which he chaired, was taking place "at a moment of unprecedented global hunger" fuelled by climate change and Covid-19 "and made even worse by conflict." (AP)
A Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since the start of the war in Ukraine testified Thursday that he shot a civilian on orders from two officers and pleaded for his victim’s widow to forgive him.
Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin told the court that the officer insisted that the Ukrainian man, who was speaking on his cellphone, could pinpoint their location to the Ukrainian forces.
The 21-year-old sergeant could get life in prison if convicted of shooting the Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in a village in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb. 28, four days into the Russian invasion. (Read more)
The Senate whisked a $40 billion package of military, economic and food aid for Ukraine and US allies to final congressional approval Thursday, putting a bipartisan stamp on America's biggest commitment yet to turning Russia's invasion into a painful quagmire for Moscow.
The legislation, approved 86-11, was backed by every voting Democrat and most Republicans. While many issues under President Joe Biden have collapsed under party-line gridlock, Thursday's lopsided vote signalled that both parties were largely unified about sending Ukraine the materiel it needs to fend off Russian President Vladimir Putin's more numerous forces.
"I applaud the Congress for sending a clear bipartisan message to the world that the people of the United States stand together with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their democracy and freedom," Biden said in a written statement. (AP)
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a $40 billion infusion of military and economic aid for Ukraine and its allies on Thursday as both parties rallied behind America's latest, and quite possibly not last, financial salvo against Russia's invasion.
The 86-11 vote gave final congressional approval to the package, three weeks after President Joe Biden requested a smaller $33 billion version and after a lone Republican opponent delayed Senate passage for a week. Every Democrat and all but 11 Republicans _ many of them supporters of former President Donald Trump's isolationist agenda _ backed the measure.
Biden's quick signature was certain as Russia's attack, which has mauled Ukraine's forces and cities, slogs into a fourth month with no obvious end ahead. That means more casualties and destruction in Ukraine, which has relied heavily on US and Western assistance for its survival, especially advanced arms, with requests for more aid potentially looming. (AP)
President Joe Biden on Thursday hailed the 'momentous' applications of once-neutral Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, as the three countries worked to address continued opposition from Turkey for the two to join the alliance.
Biden greeted Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson of Sweden and President Sauli Niinisto of Finland at the White House with handshakes and laughter as they met for trilateral conversations on the NATO mutual defense pact as well as broader European security concerns. His administration has professed optimism for their applications to join the alliance, which would mark a significant embarrassment to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
'Today I'm proud to welcome and offer the strong support in the United States for the applications of two great democracies, and two close, highly capable partners to join the strongest, most powerful defensive alliance in the history of the world,' Biden said after escorting his fellow leaders to the Rose Garden.
'They meet every NATO requirement and then some,' he said, and 'having two new NATO members in the high north will enhance the security of our alliance.' Russian President Vladimir Putin has demanded that the alliance stop expanding toward Russia's borders, and several NATO allies, led by the United States and Britain, have signaled that they stand ready to provide security support to Finland and Sweden should the Kremlin try to provoke or destabilize them during the time it takes to become full members. Putin cited Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO as one reason for his invasion of the country. (AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron said he wanted the European Union (EU) to give a "quick opinion" to Moldova's request for membership of the EU, as he hosted a meeting with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Paris.
Macron added that a risk that the conflict between Ukraine and Russia could spread to other neighbouring countries could not be ruled out.
Fears have grown that Moldova could be drawn into the conflict in Ukraine, after pro-Russian separatists in Moldova's Transdniestria region blamed Kyiv for what they said were shootings, explosions and cross-border drone incursions.
Last week, Moldova's Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu told Reuters there were internal elements in Moldova's pro-Russian separatist region trying to destabilise the area and stoke tensions, as his country presses ahead with efforts to join the European Union. (Reuters)
In March Ukrainian Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry made a target for spring crop plantations which was 5,990 thousand hectares in 11 regions of Ukraine.
In eastern Ukraine sowing has initiated with protect of Ukrainian army.
Moscow said on Thursday that 1,730 Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol over three days, including 771 in the past 24 hours, claiming a surrender on a far bigger scale than Kyiv has acknowledged since ordering its garrison to stand down.
The ultimate outcome of Europe’s bloodiest battle for decades remained publicly unresolved, with no confirmation of the fate of the hundreds of Ukrainian troops who had held out in a vast steelworks at the end of a near three-month siege.
Ukraine, which says it aims to secure a prisoner swap, has declined to say how many were inside the plant or comment on the fate of the rest, since confirming that just over 250 had surrendered in the initial hours after it ordered them to yield. Read more
As per Interfax news reports, on Thursday Russia's Foreign Minister stated that if it has to pay attention to UN's appeal which is to open access to Ukraine's Black sea ports, then it also has to remove sanctions against Russia. Ukraine used to export grains and other goods through its seaports, but due to Russian invasion the export is carried out via train or small Danube river ports.
According to Reuters, UN food chief David Beasley appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin saying "If you have any heart at all, please open these ports." Beasley's World Food Programme feeds some 125 million people and buys 50% of its grain from Ukraine."
The future is uncertain for hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who late on Monday night left the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Zelenskyy wants them released in a prisoner exchange. However, an agreement seems far off.
Should there be a prisoner swap after all, it would not be the first exchange since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Since the start of the war in eastern Ukraine in 2014, hundreds of prisoners have been exchanged between the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian separatist areas. Vladimir Putin at the time spoke of “a good step forward, toward normalisation.”
Despite numerous examples, the number of overall exchanges has become “more rare during conflict,” Paul J. Springer, a US author, professor and military historian told Time magazine in an interview last month. “More and more prisoners tend to be held until the end of the fighting. There are often wartime swaps of sick and wounded prisoners, where there’s no possibility they’re going to go back into conflict,” he said. (Read more)
Russia will finance the reconstruction of territories in Ukraine that it has taken control of and will repair roads that link those areas with Russia, RIA quoted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin as saying on Wednesday.
Khusnullin said Russia had “freed” the territories.
He also said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe by capacity, will supply energy to Russia and to Ukraine if the latter pays for it, RIA reported. Russian troops seized the Zaporizhzhia plant from Ukraine. (Read more)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s life story – from comedian to war-time leader – has been given the graphic novel treatment in TidalWave Comics’ latest biography, “Political Power: Volodymyr Zelenskyy.”
The 22-page glossy, released on Wednesday, tells the story of how Zelenskyy, who once played a fictional president in a TV show, swept to power in 2019 promising to end a war with Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. He had no political experience when he took office as the country’s sixth president. (Read more)
More than half of the Ukrainian fighters who were inside Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant have now left, Russia's TASS news agency cited the leader of pro-Russian separatists in control of the area, Denis Pushilin, as saying Thursday.
It was not immediately clear how many fighters Pushilin was referring to. Ukraine and Russia have given conflicting accounts of how many fighters have left the plant. (Reuters)
Former US president George W Bush was momentarily embarrassed after he termed the invasion of Iraq as “wholly unjustified and brutal”. Bush quickly corrected himself: “I mean, [invasion] of Ukraine.”
The mix-up occurred while Bush was speaking at an event in Dallas on Wednesday.
While condemning Russia’s “rigged elections” and “elimination of political opponents”, Bush said: “The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq”. (Read here)
Moscow said nearly 700 more Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Russian-held Mariupol as it shored up a key gain in the south. Ukraine has ordered its garrison in Mariupol to stand down, but the ultimate outcome of Europe's bloodiest battle for decades remains unresolved.
Ukraine confirmed the surrender of more than 250 fighters on Tuesday but did not say how many more were inside.
Russia said on Wednesday an additional 694 more fighters had surrendered, bringing the total number to 959. Its defence ministry posted videos of what it said were Ukrainian fighters receiving hospital treatment after surrendering at Azovstal. (Reuters)
G7 financial leaders are likely to focus Thursday and Friday on how to help Ukraine pay its bills, with reconstruction after the war, surging global inflation, climate change, supply chains and the impending food crisis also high on the agenda.
Finance ministers and central bank governors of the United States, Japan, Canada, Britain, Germany, France and Italy (the G7) will hold talks as Ukraine is struggling to fend off the Russian attack.
"Ukraine is overshadowing these meetings. But there are other issues that must be discussed," a G7 official, who asked not to be named, said, adding that debt, international taxation, climate change and global health were all up for debate. Ukraine estimates its financial needs at $5 billion a month to keep public employees' salaries paid and the administration working despite the daily destruction wrought by Russia. (Reuters)
Ukrainian forces shelled a border village in Russia's western region of Kursk at dawn on Thursday, killing at least one civilian, regional governor Roman Starovoit said.
Shells have hit an alcohol factory in the village of Tyotkino and several other buildings, Starovoit wrote on messaging app Telegram. (Reuters)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mockingly compared news of Russia's 'secret' lasers to the so-called wonder weapons that Nazi Germany unveiled in a bid to prevent defeat in World War Two.
"The clearer it became that they had no chance in the war, the more propaganda there was about an amazing weapon that would be so powerful as to ensure a turning point," he said in a late-night video address. "And so we see that in the third month of a full-scale war, Russia is trying to find its 'wonder weapon' ... this all clearly shows the complete failure of the mission." (AP)
Russia Wednesday said it was using a new generation of powerful lasers in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow's secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 unveiled an intercontinental ballistic missile, underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon and a laser weapon. Little is known about the specifics of the new laser. Yury Borisov, the deputy prime minister in charge of military development, told a conference in Moscow that its first prototypes, called Zadira, are already being used in Ukraine.
Almost nothing is publicly known about Zadira but in 2017 Russian media said state nuclear corporation Rosatom helped develop it as part of a programme to create weapons-based new physical principles. (Reuters)
Some of the surrendered Ukrainian fighters who emerged from the ruined Azovstal steelworks plant in Mariupol in the past two days were taken by the Russians to a former penal colony in territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, reported the news agency Associated Press. While Ukraine said it hopes to get the soldiers back in a prisoner swap, Russia threatened to put some of them on trial for war crimes.
It was unclear how many fighters remained inside the plant's labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers, where 2,000 were believed to be holed up at one point. A separatist leader in the region said no top commanders had emerged from the steelworks. Concerns for the welfare of the Ukrainian troops had mounted after a Russian lawmaker said Tuesday that Russia should consider the death penalty for what he called nationalist fighters from Ukraine's Azov regiment. (AP)
A military analyst on one of Russian state television’s most popular networks left his fellow panellists in stunned silence Monday when he said that the conflict in Ukraine was deteriorating for Russia, giving the kind of honest assessment that is virtually banished from the official airwaves.
“The situation for us will clearly get worse,” Mikhail M. Khodaryonok, a retired colonel and a conservative columnist on military affairs, said during the “60 Minutes” talk-show program on the Rossiya network.
It was a rare moment of frank analysis in a country where criticising the war effort can result in a prison sentence and broadcasters have generally adhered to the Kremlin’s talking points. (Read more)
The Senate confirmed Bridget Brink late Wednesday as US ambassador to Ukraine, filling the post as officials plan to return American diplomats to Kyiv during the nation's continuing battle against the Russian invasion.
The veteran foreign service officer, who has spent most of her career in the shadow of the former Soviet Union, was nominated to the position last month by President Joe Biden. She was confirmed unanimously by the Senate without a formal roll call vote.
American diplomats evacuated Kyiv when the war began three months ago, but the US reopened the embassy Wednesday. The ambassador's post has been vacant since former President Donald Trump abruptly forced out Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch in 2019. She later became a key figure in the first impeachment proceedings against Trump. (AP)
The United States has officially resumed operations from Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv. The embassy offices had briefly shifted locations as Vladimir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The U.S. embassy in Kyiv reopened on Wednesday after a three-month closure due to Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
"We are officially reopening operations," spokesperson Daniel Langenkamp told Reuters shortly before the U.S. flag was raised above the embassy.
He said a small number of diplomats would return initially to staff the mission. (Reuters)
Exiled Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov spoke out against the war in Ukraine following the global premiere of his film "Tchaikovsky's wife," at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.
"No to the war," he said in Russian, as he received a standing ovation for his 19th century drama, the only film entry by a Russian director.
Festival organizers banned official Russian delegations from the event and invited Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address the opening ceremony live from Kyiv. He urged the industry not to be silent about the conflict.
One of 21 films vying for the coveted Palme d'Or prize, Serebrennikov's movie highlights the destructive marriage of Russian composer Piotr Tchaikovsky to a young woman. (Reuters)
Russia said on Wednesday nearly 700 more Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol but Kyiv was silent about their fate, while a pro-Russian separatist leader said commanders were still holed up in tunnels beneath the Azovstal steelworks.
More than a day after Kyiv announced it had ordered its garrison in Mariupol to stand down, the ultimate outcome of Europe's bloodiest battle for decades remained unresolved. Ukrainian officials halted all public discussion of the fate of fighters who had made their last stand there.
"The state is making utmost efforts to carry out the rescue of our servicemen. Let's wait. Currently, the most important thing is to save the lives of our heroes," military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzaynik told a news conference. "Any information to the public could endanger that process." (Reuters)
The Kremlin said on Wednesday Ukraine was showing no willingness to continue peace talks, but officials in Kyiv blamed Russia for the lack of progress Russia. The last known face-to-face peace negotiations were on March 29. Officials said contacts had continued remotely but both sides said on Tuesday that the talks had stagnated.
"Negotiations are not progressing and we note the complete unwillingness of Ukrainian negotiators to continue this process", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko as saying on Tuesday that Russia and Ukraine were not holding talks "in any form", and that Kyiv had "practically withdrawn from the negotiation process". Ukrainian interior ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the situation. (Reuters)
Russia on Wednesday said it was using a new generation of powerful laser weapons in Ukraine to burn up drones, deploying some of Moscow's secret weapons to counter a flood of Western arms supplied to its former Soviet neighbour.
President Vladimir Putin in 2018 unveiled an array of new weapons including a new intercontinental ballistic missile, underwater nuclear drones, a supersonic weapon and a new laser weapon.
Little is known about the specifics of the new laser weapons. Putin mentioned one called Peresvet, named after a medieval Orthodox warrior monk Alexander Peresvet who perished in mortal combat. (Reuters)
Russia's defence ministry posted videos on Wednesday of what it said were Ukrainian fighters receiving hospital treatment after surrendering at the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. In one video, a group of men were shown lying on beds in a room, and two spoke briefly to camera. One said he had access to food and doctors, while the second said he had been bandaged and had no complaints about his treatment.
In a second video, a man with a head wound said he was being well fed and looked after, and was not under any physical or psychological pressure. It was not possible to establish if the men were speaking freely. Russia said earlier that a total of 959 Azovstal fighters had surrendered since Monday, including 80 wounded men who were being treated at Novoazovsk in the breakaway Donetsk republic.
Ukrainian officials have halted all public discussion of the fate of fighters who had made their last stand at Azovstal, holding out for many weeks in its tunnels and bunkers in the face of heavy Russian bombardment. (Reuters)
The Russian economy expanded by 3.5% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022 after growing 5% in the previous quarter, data from federal statistics service Rosstat showed on Wednesday.
The first quarter is expected to have been the last with sound growth before the Russian economy took a hit from sweeping sanctions for Moscow's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24.
The economy ministry said this week it expected gross domestic product (GDP) to contract by 7.8% in 2022. (Reuters)
A Russian soldier accused of war crimes in Ukraine pleaded guilty on Wednesday to killing an elderly unarmed civilian. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old Russian tank commander, entered his plea in a Kyiv district court hearing its first war crimes trial against a Russian soldier who took part in Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion.
In a trial that has huge symbolic importance for Kyiv, Shishimarin is charged with murdering a 62-year-old civilian in the northeast Ukrainian village of Chupakhivka on Feb. 28. If convicted, he faces up to life imprisonment.
Ukraine has accused Russia of atrocities and brutality against civilians during the invasion and said it has identified more than 10,000 possible war crimes. Russia has denied targeting civilians or involvement in war crimes and accused Kyiv of staging them to smear its forces. (Reuters)
Finland and Sweden on Wednesday submitted a joint application to join NATO in a reversal of the Nordic countries' longstanding policy of non-alignment as Russia's invasion of Ukraine forces a dramatic reappraisal of security in Europe.
U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday the United States would work with Finland and Sweden to stay vigilant against any threats to their shared security while the two countries' NATO membership is being considered.
Biden said in a statement that he strongly supports Finland and Sweden's applications to join NATO which he said would "further strengthen our defense cooperation and benefit the entire Transatlantic Alliance." (Reuters)
Russia says it told Sweden on Wednesday that its response to the Nordic nation joining NATO will be based on how the alliance deploys its military strength in the future.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said officials met with Swedish Ambassador Malena Mard at her request and that she notified Moscow about Sweden's NATO ambitions.
The Foreign Ministry said it responded that “the choice of ways to ensure national security is the sovereign right of each state, but together with that, it should not create threats to the security of other countries.” The ministry added that Moscow's reaction would depend on NATO weapons deployments to Sweden. (AP)
Russia will finance the reconstruction of territories in Ukraine that it has taken control of and will repair roads that link those areas with Russia, RIA quoted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin as saying on Wednesday.
Khusnullin said Russia had "freed" the territories.
He also said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe by capacity, will supply energy to Russia and to Ukraine if the latter pays for it, RIA reported. Russian troops seized the Zaporizhzhia plant from Ukraine. (Reuters)
Russia's defence spending was up nearly 40% in the first four months of the year, according to preliminary data released by the finance ministry on Wednesday, almost three months into Moscow's large-scale military campaign in Ukraine.
Russia spent 1.7 trillion roubles ($26.4 billion) on defence between January and April, almost half the 3.5 trillion roubles, or 2.6% of GDP, budgeted for all of 2022.
The ministry had initially forecast a budget surplus of 1% of GDP, or 1.3 trillion roubles, for 2022, but now expects a deficit of at least 1.6 trillion roubles, allowing for support payouts to counter the effect of an unprecedented barrage of Western economic sanctions. (Reuters)
Russia has given 15 companies including metals giant Nornickel and liquefied natural gas producer Novatek approval to remain listed on foreign exchanges, the finance ministry said on Wednesday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill in April requiring Russian companies to delist their depositary receipts to reduce the influence foreign countries could over them, except if they were granted permission to remain listed. The finance ministry said that out of the 36 Russian companies with depositary receipts, 19 had requested permission and 15 were successful.
So far, Nornickel, Novatek, Russia's largest gold producer, Polyus, steel producers NLMK, Severstal and Mechel, as well as oil producer Tatneft have said they have the green light to remain listed. Russian gas company Gazprom has previously said its request was rejected and it expects its depositary receipts to be delisted on May 31. (Reuters)
A leading human rights watchdog said on Wednesday it had documented further cases of "apparent war crimes" by Russian troops in two regions in Ukraine.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report that Russian forces controlling much of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions from late February through March had subjected civilians to summary executions, torture and other grave abuses.
The report pointed to what HRW said were 22 apparent summary executions, nine other unlawful killings, six possible enforced disappearances and seven cases of torture. Twenty-one civilians told HRW about unlawful confinement in inhuman and degrading conditions, it said. HRW called for the alleged abuses to be "impartially investigated and appropriately prosecuted". (Reuters)
The European Union's executive proposed on Wednesday a 500 million euro ($525.70 million) defence fund that would help EU governments develop and buy more weapons together, saying that Russia's war in Ukraine showed the need to modernise.
The money, which would come from the EU's long-term budget and could also increase with private sector funding, would meet the most pressing weakness in air, land and sea defences.
It would require the bloc's governments to make purchases jointly as a means to boost collaboration, one of the EU's long-term goals to overcome years of wasted spending as governments pursued national projects leading to duplication. (Reuters)
Russia's decision to expel Italian diplomats is an "hostile act", Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Wednesday, warning diplomatic channels with Moscow must not be interrupted.
Russia will expel 24 Italian diplomats in a retaliatory move, news agency RIA cited the foreign ministry as saying - the latest in a series of tit-for-tat responses to European countries that have ordered out Russian staff.
"This absolutely must not lead to an interruption of diplomatic channels because it is through those channels that, if we succeed, peace will be achieved and that is certainly what we want," Draghi said. (Reuters)
Russia will expel 24 Italian diplomats in a retaliatory move, news agency RIA cited the foreign ministry as saying on Wednesday - the latest in a series of tit-for-tat responses to European countries that have ordered out Russian staff. (Reuters)