Eight people die in shelling in Kharkiv including a child, local official says

Eight people have died in shelling in Kharkiv including a 13-year-old child, according to Kharkiv governor Oleh Synyehubov.

He said that two children aged 4 and 9 were among 19 people who were injured.

Vereshchuk, deputy PM of Ukraine, says 4,354 people were evacuated on Monday in the east

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, said that 4,354 people were evacuated on Monday.

Around 3,854 people arrived in Zaporizhzhia in their own transport. There were 556 people who arrived from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol.

Russian anti-war protester becomes correspondent for German media

The Russian woman who interrupted a state broadcast with a no-war poster has become a correspondent in Ukraine and Russia for the major German daily Die Welt, the media announced on Monday.

She will write for the newspaper and contribute regularly to its television news channel.

Marina Ovsyannikova "had the courage, at a decisive moment, to confront viewers in Russia with an undiluted picture of reality,” explained Ulf Poschardt, editor-in-chief of the Welt group, in a press release.

"She thus defended the most important journalistic virtues, despite the threat of state repression," the boss of the conservative daily newspaper added.

Some journalists criticised her appointment, stating that other independent journalists had fled Russia and pointed out she had worked in Russian propaganda for years.

(AFP)

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Mariupol, mayor says

More than 10,000 civilians have died in the southeastern port city of Mariupol since the war began in late February, the city's mayor told The Associated Press.

Mayor Vadym Boychenko said corpses were “carpeted through the streets of our city” and that the death toll could be more than 20,000.

Boychenko also repeated claims that Russian forces have brought mobile crematoria to the city to dispose of the bodies and accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to disguise the carnage.

The mayor had previously claimed 5,000 dead. He explained that these data were on March 21, but “thousands more people were lying on the streets, it was just impossible for us to collect them.”

(AP)

French bank ends business in Russia

Société Génerale has announced it is ending its Russian activities -- making it the first big Western bank to announce it’s quitting Russia.

SocGen is also selling its entire stake in Rosbank to a company linked to a Russian oligarch, costing the French bank some 3 billion euros.

Rosbank is a heavyweight in the Russian banking sector, and Société Génerale was the majority shareholder.

“After several weeks of intensive work,” the bank said in a statement, it had signed an agreement with Russian investment fund Interros Capital to sell all of its stake in Rosbank as well as its insurance subsidiaries in Russia.

Interros is one of the largest funds in the country, which holds assets in heavy industry and metallurgy.

(AP)

France declares six Russian diplomats 'persona non grata'

France's foreign affairs ministry said after an intelligence investigation, six Russian diplomats would be expelled from the country.

The ministry said in a statement that the diplomats' activities were "revealed to be contrary to our national interest."

"In the absence of the Russian ambassador, the deputy was summoned to the Quai d'Orsay this evening," France's foreign affairs ministry added.

Italy to import more natural gas from Algeria

Italian PM Mario Draghi secured a deal Monday for more natural gas imports across a Mediterranean pipeline from Algeria, in the latest push by a European Union nation to reduce dependence on Russian energy following its invasion of Ukraine.

Draghi told reporters in the Algerian capital after meeting with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune that an agreement to intensify bilateral cooperation in the energy sector along with the deal to export more gas to Italy “are a significant response to the strategic goal” of quickly replacing Russian energy.

Russia is Italy’s biggest supplier of natural gas, representing 40% of total imports, followed by Algeria, which provides some 21 billion cubic meters of gas via the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline.

The new deal between Italian energy company ENI and Algeria’s Sonatrach would add up to 9 billion cubic meters of gas from Algeria, just eclipsing Russia’s current 29 billion cubic meters a year. The increased flows will start in the fall, ENI said in a statement.

(AP)

Russia is gearing up for an attack in the Donbas, US Pentagon says

The Pentagon’s latest assessment is that Russia is gearing up for, but has not yet begun, an intensified offensive in the Donbas.

A senior U.S. defence official said the Russians are moving more troops and material toward that area and are focusing many of their missile strikes there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal US military assessments.

The official said a lengthy convoy of vehicles that is headed south toward the eastern city of Izyum contains artillery as well as aviation and infantry support, plus battlefield command-and-control elements and other materials.

The official said the convoy appeared to originate from the Belgorod and Valuyki areas in Russia, which are shaping up as key staging and marshalling grounds for the Russian buildup in the Donbas.

The official said the Russians also are bolstering their presence in the Donbas by deploying in recent days more artillery southwest of the city of Donetsk.

(AP)

The arsenal being sent to Ukraine to fight Russia - and the weapons Kyiv is still asking for

Ukraine has some cutting-edge military hardware at its disposal in its fight against Russia’s invading forces.

That’s largely thanks to deliveries of weaponry from allies looking to help the country bolster its defence.

From anti-aircraft MANPADS, to anti-tank missiles, to a drone so beloved by Ukrainian forces they are singing about it, countries are continuing to send critical equipment to the war-torn country.

Read the full story here.

Austrian Chancellor evokes 'difficult' discussion with Putin

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer was received by Vladimir Putin on Monday, a first for a European leader since the start of the intervention in Ukraine, according to a press release issued by his cabinet after the meeting.

“The discussion with President Putin was frank, open and difficult,” Nehammer said after the meeting, which lasted just over an hour and did not result in a handshake, according to Austrian press.

"I spoke about the serious war crimes in Bucha and other places, saying that all those responsible must be brought to justice," added the Austrian Chancellor.

Bucha is a locality near Kyiv that has become a symbol of atrocities, where Karl Nehammer went this weekend like other Western officials. Moscow has firmly rejected any involvement.

"I made it clear to the Russian President the urgency of setting up humanitarian corridors to bring water and food and to evacuate women, children and the wounded from besieged cities," the Chancellor said, insisting it was "not a friendly visit".

(AFP)

Many Ukrainian children lack food and water, UNICEF says

The UN children’s agency says nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, and the United Nations has verified that 142 children have been killed and 229 injured though these numbers are likely much higher.

Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s emergency programmes director who returned from Ukraine last week, told the UN Security Council on Monday that of the 3.2 million children estimated to have remained in their homes “nearly half may be at risk of not having enough food,” and attacks on water system infrastructure and power outages have left an estimated 1.4 million people in the country without access to water.

He said the situation is worse in cities like Mariupol and Kherson in the south, which have been besieged by Russian forces where children and their families have spent weeks without running water, sanitation or a regular supply of food.

“Hundreds of schools and educational facilities have been attacked or used for military purposes,” Fontaine said. “Others are serving as shelters for civilians.”

He said school closings are affecting the education of 5.7 million school-age children and 1.5 million students in higher education.

(AP)

Warsaw seizes Russian compound, mayor says

The mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski said the city took over a disputed compound administered by the Russian diplomatic mission. 

"It is extremely symbolic that we are closing this long process now, in the age of Russian aggression," Trzaskowski tweeted.

Russia’s Embassy, which had the tall apartment blocks built in the 1970s, has been refusing court orders to pay lease or to hand it over. Once busy, the buildings became empty in the 1990s, after Poland shed its communist rule and dependence from Moscow and after the Soviet Union dissolved.

Ever since, Poland has been saying that lease on the plot of land had expired and demanded it be returned.

(with AP)

Russian invasion will shrink Ukraine's economy by 45% this year, World Bank says

Ukraine's economy is expected to shrink by 45% due to Russia's war, the World Bank said, adding that the magnitude of the economic contraction would depend on the duration and intensity of the war.

"The Russian invasion is delivering a massive blow to Ukraine’s economy and it has inflicted enormous damage to infrastructure,” said Anna Bjerde, World Bank Vice President for the Europe and Central Asia region.

The World Bank said the region's economy is now forecast to shrink by 4.1% whereas it had been expected to grow before the war.

Hungary plans to pay for gas in roubles, says it doesn't violate sanctions

Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said the country has a solution that "does not violate any sanctions" while securing Hungary's gas supply after Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted gas payments be carried out in roubles.

Hungary plans to pay for Russian gas in euros through Gazprombank which will convert the payment into roubles, Szijjarto said.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban had said last week that Hungary was prepared to pay roubles for Russian gas, against the line from the European Union.

(with Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Nehammer meeting begins

The Austrian Chancellor travelled to Moscow on Monday for talks with the Russian president, the first such visit for an EU leader since the war began.

(AFP)

Croatian foreign ministry expels 24 employees of Russian embassy

The Croatian foreign ministry said that 24 staff at the Russian embassy in Zagreb would be expelled from the country.

The staff include 18 diplomats and 6 members of the administrative and technical staff of the Russian embassy.

Croatia's foreign ministry said they had expressed "the strongest condemnation of the brutal aggression against Ukraine and numerous crimes committed" to the Russian ambassador who was summoned to the ministry.

Many EU countries have expelled Russian diplomats since the war in Ukraine began in late February, stating that they posed a threat to the countries' national security.

Slovakia denies air defence is destroyed

Slovakia has denied its S-300 air defence missile system it transported to Ukraine has been destroyed by the Russian armed forces.

“Our S-300 system has not been destroyed,” Lubica Janikova, spokeswoman for Slovakia’s Prime Minister Eduard Heger said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

She said any other claim is not true.

Earlier on Monday, the Russian military said it destroyed a shipment of air defence missile system provided by the West on the southern outskirts of the city of Dnipro.

The Russian side said Ukraine had received the air defence system from a European country that he didn’t name. Last week, Slovakia said it has handed over its Soviet-designed S-300 air defence systems to Ukraine, which has pleaded with the West to give it more weapons, including long-range air defence systems.

(AP)

Ukrainian army says they expect Russian offensive in the east to begin 'very soon'

The Ukrainian army said on Monday that they expect a Russian offensive "very soon" in the east.

Many officials think eastern Ukraine has become the Kremlin's main target, after Russian troops retreated in the northern region of the country and around Kyiv.

“According to our information, the enemy has almost completed its preparation for an assault on the east. The attack will take place very soon,” said defence ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk.

(AFP)

Ireland backs Russian oil sanctions

Ireland’s foreign minister says the European Union should consider imposing sanctions on Russia’s oil industry but cautions that it’s most important for the 27-nation bloc to remain unified.

Several EU countries are dependent on Russian oil and gas imports. After much debate, the bloc agreed last week to a phase-in of restrictions on imports of coal over Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney says that “we need to take a maximalist approach to sanctions to offer the strongest possible deterrents to the continuation of this war and brutality.”

Speaking as EU foreign ministers gathered Monday in Luxembourg, Coveney said “that should include, in our view, oil. We know that that’s very difficult for some member states and we have to keep a united position across the EU.”

The EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, is assessing what more can be done with a fresh package of sanctions.

Coveney says “the European Union is spending hundreds of millions of euros on importing oil from Russia. That is certainly contributing to financing this war. And in our view, we need to cut off that financing of war.”

(AP)

'Tens of thousands of citizens must have been killed in Mariupol'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he believed the Russian military had killed "tens of thousands" of people in the besieged city of Mariupol and asked South Korea for military assistance.

Addressing South Korea's National Assembly via video conference, Zelensky said Russia had "completely destroyed" the port in southeastern Ukraine.

"It was a city of half a million people. The occupiers besieged it and did not even allow water and food to be brought there. The Russians completely destroyed Mariupol and reduced it to ashes. At least tens of thousands of citizens of Mariupol must have been killed," he said.

The Ukrainian president accused Russia of wanting to make Mariupol "an example", calling on South Korea to help his country fight the Russian invasion by providing it with military equipment, "from planes to tanks".

'Magnitude of the humanitarian crisis staggering'

The World Bank says Ukraine's economy will shrink by 45.1% this year because of Russia's invasion, which has shut down half of the country's businesses, choked off imports and exports, and damaged a vast amount of critical infrastructure.

Unprecedented sanctions imposed by Western allies in response to the war, meanwhile, are plunging Russia into a deep recession, lopping off more than a tenth of its economic growth, the World Bank said in a report.

The war is set to inflict twice the amount of economic damage across Europe and Central Asia that the COVID-19 pandemic did, the Washington-based lender said in its “War in the Region” economic report.

“The magnitude of the humanitarian crisis unleashed by the war is staggering," said Anna Bjerde, the World Bank's vice president for the Europe and Central Asia region. "The Russian invasion is delivering a massive blow to Ukraine’s economy and it has inflicted enormous damage to infrastructure.”

The report said economic activity is impossible in "large swathes of areas" in Ukraine because productive infrastructure like roads, bridges, ports and train tracks have been destroyed.

The World Bank said the humanitarian catastrophe will be the biggest shockwave from the war and likely its most enduring legacy, as the wave of refugees fleeing Ukraine is "anticipated to dwarf previous crises."

More than 4 million people have fled Ukraine, with more than half going to Poland and others heading to countries like Moldova, Romania and Hungary. An additional 6.5 million have been displaced internally. Those numbers are expected to swell as the war drags on, the World Bank said.

(AP)

'We must seize every chance to end the humanitarian hell in Ukraine'

Austria’s foreign minister says Chancellor Karl Nehammer is taking “very clear messages of a humanitarian and political kind” to a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Monday that Nehammer decided to make the trip after meeting in Kyiv on Saturday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and following contacts with the leaders of Turkey, Germany and the European Union.

Schallenberg said ahead of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg that “we don’t want to leave any opportunity unused and must seize every chance to end the humanitarian hell in Ukraine.”

He added that “every voice that makes clear to President Putin what reality looks like outside the walls of Kremlin is not a wasted voice.”

Schallenberg said that Nehammer and Putin will meet one-on-one without media opportunities. He insisted that Austria has done everything to ensure that the visit isn’t abused, “and I think he (Putin) himself should have an interest in someone telling him the truth and really finding out what’s going on outside."

(AP)

Further sanctions on Russia 'always on the table'

European Union foreign ministers are meeting to weigh the effectiveness of the bloc’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine amid concern about Moscow’s preparations for a major attack in the east.

The ministers will hold talks with the International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor-General Karim A.A. Khan as Western pressure mounts to hold to account those responsible for any war crimes in Ukraine.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who is chairing Monday’s meeting in Luxembourg, deplored what he called the “brutal, brutal aggression” of Russian troops.

Borrell, who was in Ukraine over the weekend, says further EU sanctions against Russia “are always on the table.”

He says he’s “afraid the Russian troops are massing on the east to launch an attack on the Donbas,” region in the east after Moscow withdrew its forces from around the capital Kyiv last week.

UK defence ministry: Ukraine repelled Russian attacks in Donbas

Britain’s Ministry of Defence says Ukraine has beaten back several assaults by Kremlin forces in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, resulting in the destruction of Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery.

In an intelligence update released Monday morning, the ministry says Russian shelling in the two eastern regions is continuing.

“Russia’s continued reliance on unguided bombs decreases their ability to discriminate when targeting and conducting strikes, while greatly increasing the risk of civilian casualties,” the ministry said.

The ministry also said Russia’s “prior use” of phosphorus munitions in the Donetsk region raises the possibility they may be used in Mariupol as the battle for the city on Ukraine’s south coast intensifies.

Austrian leader to meet Putin in Moscow

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is set to be the first European leader to hold face-to-face talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Moscow invaded Ukraine.

Nehammer is travelling to the Russian capital on Monday and said that he aimed to act as a "bridge-builder" between Moscow and Kyiv.

He said he is hoping to "do everything possible to make (the war) stop" and to "ensure that steps are taken in the direction of peace".

Read more here: 

Nehammer to be first European leader to visit Putin since war began

euronewsNehammer said he wants to be a "bridge-builder" between Moscow and Kyiv.

Russian troops might try to capture the capital again, Klitschko says

Mayor of Kyiv Vitali Klitschko repeated on Sunday night that he believes the Russian troops will attempt to capture the Ukrainian capital again.

"The fact that the enemy has withdrawn from Kyiv doesn’t mean that they have relinquished their desire to capture the capital," he said on Telegram.

Klitschko emphasised that the possibility of Moscow trying "'to capture Kyiv in 2 days' again" cannot be ruled out.

Earlier, Klitschko has advised the citizens of Kyiv who fled the city to wait before returning due to uncertainties over their safety and the Kremlin's plans for a renewed offensive.

Zelenskyy says Russian troops to conduct 'even larger' operations in eastern Ukraine

Ukraine’s president warned his nation Sunday night that the coming week would be as crucial as any in the war.

“Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

He accused Russia of trying to evade responsibility for war crimes.

“When people lack the courage to admit their mistakes, apologise, adapt to reality and learn, they turn into monsters."

"And when the world ignores it, the monsters decide that it is the world that has to adapt to them. Ukraine will stop all this,” Zelenskyy said.

“The day will come when they will have to admit everything. Accept the truth,” he said.

Bombardment, explosions continue throughout Ukraine

A large explosion was reported in Mykolaiv overnight on Monday, with one person injured so far.

Head of the Mykolaiv regional administration Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that "a security guard was injured by broken glass after a big explosion". 

The explosion in Mykolaiv came after the Ukrainian military command said Russian forces also kept shelling Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, on Sunday, killing at least 10 and injuring 11.

Also, the governor of the region that includes Ukraine’s fourth-largest city, Dnipro, said its airport was hit twice by missile attacks on Sunday.

The Russian Defense Ministry says its air-launched missiles hit Ukraine’s S-300 air defence missile systems in two locations, while sea-launched cruise missiles destroyed a Ukrainian unit’s headquarters in the Dnipro region.

Neither side’s military claims could be independently verified.

Russia can still count on 'vast majority' of its combat power, Pentagon says

The Pentagon said Russia has a clear advantage in armoured forces for its next phase in its war on Ukraine.

Press secretary John Kirby said Friday that the Russians spread themselves too thin to take the capital, but now they’re more focused on a smaller region and still have the vast majority of their combat power.

A major effort by Ukrainian defences and more Western assistance will be needed to push them back.