Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv officials decry ‘unprecedented’ recent missile strikes; one killed in Odesa attack | Ukraine

The former British prime minister Boris Johnson described Emmanuel Macron as “nauseating” for travelling to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin, a former UK government aide has said.

Johnson also described Macron as “Putin’s lickspittle”, Guto Harri told the latest edition of Unprecedented, his podcast about his time at No 10.

Harri was working as Johnson’s communication chief at the time. He said:

There were tensions early on when people like Emmanuel Macron of France went to Moscow to talk to Putin. I think Boris described it privately as ‘nauseating’. And meanwhile, I think Macron was feeling the tension from Boris seemingly doing the running with helping Ukraine militarily.

So, when the British press was giving the British government a hard time over our response to the refugee crisis, Macron turbocharged it by criticising Boris pretty directly and his words were all over the front page of the Guardian on a Friday, I think.

And much as Boris is not prone to getting really cross, nor using particularly strong language, this was one where he really flipped and at our morning meeting, I think with a small gang of us he just launched into a violent attack on Emmanuel Macron.

Basically, saying ‘He’s a four-letter word that begins with C, he’s a weirdo, he’s Putin’s lickspittle. We need to go studs up on this one’ – a rugby term that basically means, gloves off – ‘We need an orgy of frog bashing. I’m going to have to punch his lights out.’ Pretty strong stuff.

And I’m pleased to say weeks later, of course, they had patched it up. They got on really well. They actually went for a whisky together at the G7 summit.

Summary of the day so far …

Reuters reports the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said on Thursday that the country had increased its food exports last year, and that Russia needed to help farmers in the regions it claims to have annexed from Ukraine last year.

Yesterday Russia agreed to extend the Black Sea grain initiative, after weeks threatening to pull out of the deal, complaining that western sanctions were impeding its ability to export agricultural products.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that a delegation from African countries hoping to present their initiative to end the conflict in Ukraine would visit Moscow.

Reuters reports Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow would be ready to listen to “any proposals” that help resolve the conflict.

Reuters reports the leaders of the G7 countries will discuss the idea of an international peace summit over Ukraine when they meet in Japan this week, an EU official said on Thursday. G7 leaders will meet on 19-21 May in Hiroshima.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the national security and defence council of Ukraine, has described Kyiv as “Putin’s maniacal and unattainable goal” following the latest attacks. He writes:

Symbolic places of Kyiv are the target of Russian missile attacks. The Kremlin needs those senseless and super-expensive attacks for Russia on the capital to raise the degree of patriotic hysteria inside the country. In Russia, a process of despair and disappointment with the authorities is developing against the background of the unsuccessful offensive and failures at the front.

Emine Dzheppar, deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, has posted a picture of the foreign ministry with a lowered Crimean Tatar flag in memory of the Soviet-era displacement which is commemorated on 18 May. She also restated Ukraine’s aim to restore its borders to a pre-2014 state, including retaking Crimea. She wrote:

Today, at Ukraine’s foreign ministry we lowered the Crimean Tatar flag to commemorate victims of the forced deportation of indigenous people of Crimea 79 years ago. On 18 May 1944, the Soviet regime started a genocide of Crimean Tatar people to eliminate them and rewrite history of the peninsula.

History repeated itself in 2014. Modern Russia applies the worst repressive practices in Crimea. But it failed before and it will fail now again. Liberation of the Crimean peninsula will put an end perverted imperialistic ambitions and respect for human rights be restored worldwide.

Moldova is no longer using Russian natural gas or electricity after cutting its dependence since war started in Ukraine, the prime minister, Dorin Recean, said on Thursday.

“If at the start of the war 100% of energy consumed in Moldova originated in Russia, today Moldova can exist with absolutely no natural gas or electricity from Russia,” Reuters reports he told a security conference in Bucharest.

“Moldova no longer consumes Russian gas, it is integrated in the European energy network both technically and commercially.”

Here are some of the latest images to be sent to us from Ukraine over the news wires.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has posted to his social media channels to commemorate 18 May as a day of remembrance for Crimean Tatar people forcibly moved by Soviet authorities, as well as Vyshyvanka Day, when Ukraine celebrates the history of its traditional embroidered clothes. He said:

This year, the two meanings are united by one date, 18 May. 79 years ago on this day, the Soviet authorities began deporting the Crimean Tatar people. A people they wanted to erase. Deprive of their homes, deprive of the right to life. But the people survived. And they will live freely.

Today, I am wearing a special vyshyvanka with ornaments that symbolise the unity of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar peoples. Symbols of our strength and our desire to live in our home.

Let this year’s Vyshyvanka Day in Ukraine be a reminder of what our people have been through and how strong our culture is. Eternal memory to all our people whose lives were taken by totalitarian regimes.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, has posted to its Telegram channel for Donbas to state that:

On the night of 18 May, the Russian army shelled Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region, one person was killed, the ministry of foreign affairs reported. According to preliminary findings, the shelling was conducted from the S-300 complex, several private and apartment buildings, a shop, and administrative buildings were destroyed and damaged.

The claims have not been independently verified.

If you missed it earlier, overnight it has emerged in court documents that Jack Teixeira, the US air national guard member charged with being behind the so-called Pentagon leaks of highly classified military documents, was warned repeatedly over his mishandling of classified material.

Teixeira is accused of sharing highly classified documents about top national security issues in a chatroom on Discord, a social media platform that started as a hangout for gamers. He has not yet entered a plea.

The leaked documents appear to detail US and Nato aid to Ukraine and US intelligence assessments regarding allies that could strain ties with those nations. Some show real-time details from February and March of Ukraine’s and Russia’s battlefield positions and precise numbers of battlefield gear flowing into Ukraine from its allies.

Read more here: Pentagon leaks suspect was warned off viewing classified material – prosecutors

Train derailment in Crimea caused by ‘interference by outsiders’

Crimea’s Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov has posted to Telegram to state that “wagons with grain derailed” in the Simeferopol region. He did not give a cause. It has led to train services being halted.

Tass reports that the train service between Simferopol and Sevastopol in Crimea has been suspended.

Reuters reports that earlier the Baza Telegram channel, which has links to Russian security services, had reported an explosion on a railway line in the region.

The claims have not been independently verified. The Russian Federation unilaterally annexed Crimea in 2014.