Key events
Opening summary
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine. This is Christine Kearney and here’s a roundup of the latest key developments.
Russia launched another wave of overnight attacks on the Black Sea port of Odesa early on Sunday, killing one and injuring 19 people including four children, and damaging residential and religious infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.
“Odesa: another night attack of the monsters,” said Oleh Kiper, governor of the broader Odesa region, on the Telegram messaging app. “Unfortunately, we have one civilian who was killed.”
Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko are set to meet on Sunday in St Petersburg.
The meeting comes two days after Moscow warned Poland that any aggression against Belarus, its neighbour and staunchest ally, would be considered an attack on Russia. Warsaw had earlier said it would troops to the east, due to concerns over the presence of the Russian mercenary group Wagner in Belarus.
More on those stories shortly. In other news:
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A drone attack on an ammunition depot in Crimea prompted authorities to evacuate everyone within a 3-mile (5km) radius and briefly suspend road traffic on the Kerch Bridge linking the occupied peninsula to Russia on Saturday, the Moscow-installed regional governor said.
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The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the bridge, which was also temporarily closed earlier this week after an attack on it, “brings war not peace” and is therefore a military target.
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Unesco has condemned Russia’s attack on the historic centre of Odesa, which is protected under the World Heritage Convention. Oleh Kiper, governor of the Odesa region, said on the Telegram channel, warning people not to film the air combat.
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Russian president Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will meet on Sunday in St Petersburg, the Kremlin said, two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against its neighbour and staunchest ally would be considered an attack on Russia.
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Russia criticised the US after the alleged death of a war correspondent for Russia’s RIA news agency after what was claimed to have been the use of cluster bombs near the frontline in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region. Moscow called it “a heinous, premeditated crime” committed by western powers and Kyiv, vowing a “response” against those to blame.
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Russia’s arrest of Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer and leading nationalist military blogger, will probably infuriate elements in the military as well as his fellow bloggers, according to UK intelligence.
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The US plans to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $400m as Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds on, it was reported. Zelenskiy also said Ukraine’s counteroffensive was about to “gain pace”.
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The Polish deputy foreign minister, Pawel Jablonski, has said his meeting with the Russian ambassador to Poland – after he was summoned after Vladimir Putin alleged Poland harboured territorial ambitions in western Ukraine – was “very brief”.
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President Zelenskiy said he spoke with Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on the phone about sustaining the Black Sea grain initiative as well as agreements reached during the Vilnius summit and “further actions regarding the integration of Ukraine into Nato”.
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Ukraine’s air defence units shot down five Russian combat and nine reconnaissance drones over the past 24 hours, Euromaidan Press has reported, citing the air force.
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The director of the CIA has been made a cabinet member by the US president, Joe Biden, who said the agency has been providing “good intelligence, delivered with honesty and integrity”.
