Key events
Air raid alerts sounded for several hours overnight into early Sunday over roughly two-thirds of Ukraine, with officials saying air defence systems shot down a number of drones, including one over Kyiv’s airspace.
Reuters reported that the military administration of Ukraine’s capital said on Telegram:
During the last air alert, an enemy reconnaissance UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] was detected in the airspace of Kyiv. The drone was destroyed … Preliminarily, there have been no casualties or destruction.
The alerts extended from Kyiv and regions to the west of it through to all regions in the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea.
Local officials in several Ukrainian regions reported that air defence systems were deployed overnight, but there was no immediate information early on Sunday on potential casualties or damages.
Ukraine launches wave of drones at Crimea, says governor
Ukraine launched more than 10 drones overnight on the Crimean Peninsula, including three on the port of Sevastopol, a Russian-installed official said early on Sunday, adding that air defence systems repelled all the attacks on Sevastopol.
Reuters reports that the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram: “No objects [in Sevastopol] were damaged.”
There were no immediate details of any damage from the strikes elsewhere on the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Baza, a Telegram channel with links to Russia’s law enforcement agencies, reported earlier on Sunday that according to the channel’s preliminary information, there were no casualties in what it said was a series of attacks on Crimea.
According to Ukrainian monitoring of Telegram channels, explosions took place in Sevastopol and Saki – where Russia has an air base – as well as a few other places.
Strikes on Russian-held targets have intensified in the past two weeks, especially in Crimea. Ukraine, without confirming any role in those attacks, says destroying infrastructure is preparation for its planned ground assault.
Opening summary
Welcome back to live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. I’m Adam Fulton and here’s a roundup of the latest developments.
Ukraine launched more than 10 drones overnight on the Crimean peninsula, including three on the port of Sevastopol, according to a Russian-installed official. Air defence systems repelled all the attacks on Sevastopol, the governor said.
There were no immediate details of any damage from the attacks elsewhere on the Crimean peninsula.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
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A prominent Russian nationalist writer, Zakhar Prilepin, was wounded in a car bombing that killed his driver. The attack took place on Saturday in the Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400km (250 miles) east of Moscow. Russia’s foreign ministry accused Ukraine, while Ukraine’s security services refused to confirm or deny involvement. A senior Ukrainian official accused Russia of staging the attack.
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Ukrainian officials issued air raid alerts on Saturday evening for areas covering about two-thirds of the country. The alerts extended from the capital, Kyiv, and regions to the west of it through all regions in the east as well as south to Kherson region and Russian-annexed Crimea.
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Ukraine hailed the return of 45 Azov battalion fighters captured during the battle for Mariupol while Russia said three of its pilots had been released by Kyiv. The freed Ukrainian prisoners included 42 men and three women from the Azov battalion, said Andriy Yermak, the head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.
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Russia has been accused of attacking the besieged city of Bakhmut with incendiary phosphorus weapons, BBC News reported. Ukraine’s military shared drone footage of what appeared to be fires in Bakhmut as white phosphorus rained down.
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Ukraine’s air force claims to have downed a Russian hypersonic missile over Kyiv using newly acquired American Patriot defence systems, the first known time the country has been able to intercept one of Moscow’s most modern missiles. Air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said the Kinzhal-type ballistic missile was intercepted over the Ukrainian capital during the week.
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Russian shelling killed six Ukrainian demining experts in the southern Kherson region, Ukrainian emergency services has said. Two others members of the team were injured, along with a nurse, and were being treated in hospital.
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A 56-hour curfew is in place in Kherson, which saw some residents leaving the southern Ukrainian city on Friday before it came into effect. The announcement of the curfew, lasting until Monday morning, prompted speculation in the city that it was about to be used as a launch point for Ukraine’s much-anticipated counterattack.
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Russia is “still not satisfied” with how the issue of Russian agricultural exports as part of the Black Sea grain deal is being resolved, Tass news agency quoted the deputy foreign minister, Sergey Vershinin, as saying on Saturday after the latest talks with a top UN official.
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Poland will demand European Union sanctions on imports of Russian farm products, its ambassador to the EU has said. “Europe isn’t threatened by disruptions in supply chain of farm products now – contrary, we have a problem of surpluses,” Andrzej Sadoś was quoted by PAP news agency as saying. “We are resolving a problem of increased imports of farm products from Ukraine.”
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Switzerland’s parliament has approved a request from Ukrainian authorities for Volodymyr Zelenskiy to address it. The invitation comes amid pressure on Switzerland’s government to break with a centuries-old tradition of neutrality and end a ban of exports of Swiss weapons to conflict zones such as Ukraine.
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Ukraine sent its first lady, Olena Zelenska, and the Ukrainian prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, as the country’s representatives to King Charles’s coronation in London on Saturday. Zelenska posted on Facebook: “It is an honour for us and prime minister Denys Shmyhal to attend the coronation … to wish on behalf of all of Ukraine successful governance and prosperity to the country.”
