Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow ramping up pressure on Ukrainian forces; major missile attack kills eight in Dnipropetrovsk (2024)

It is "imperative" Ukraine gets more resources immediately to help it fight off Russia's invasion, the US secretary of state has said after a meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) major democracies.

"It needs more air defences, it needs more munitions, it needs more artillery - allies and partners including the G7 countries are committed to delivering on that," Antony Blinken added.

Mr Blinken went on to say that if China wants better relations with Europe it cannot continue helping Russia while it attacks Ukraine, adding that Beijing was the primary contributor to Russia's defence industrial base.

He made the remarks after Kyiv's foreign minister said the G7 had identified "specific steps" needed to help Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Kyiv's foreign minister has said.

Dmytro Kuleba also warned Europe would be engulfed by war if Russia triumphed in its invasion.

"We identified specific steps which Western partners willmake to help Ukraine," Mr Kulebatold reporters on the Italian island of Capri, where G7 foreignministers are meeting.

He said the West had the capacity "to provide Ukraine withall necessary resources as soon as possible to save Europe froma larger war."

Meanwhile, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said the G7 was looking to see if it could use frozen Russian assets held in the West and not just the interest from the funds.

Mr Tajani said there was an established legal basis for using the interest from the frozen funds, but experts were now looking to see if the capital itself could be used to help Ukraine.

The West has frozen some $300bn (£241bn) of sovereign Russian assets, which the UK and US want to be used to pay for the Ukraine war effort - though European Union member states have questioned the legality of such a move.

A Polish man has been arrested over allegations of being ready to help Russia's military intelligence in an alleged plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Polish prosecutors said.

The man, identified only as Pawel K, was accused of being prepared to pass airport security information to Russian agents and was arrested in Poland on Wednesday, the office of Poland's National Prosecutor said in a statement.

The man was seeking contact with Russians directly involved in the war in Ukraine and was expected to pass on detailed information about theRzeszow-Jasionka airport in south-eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine, it said.

The airport is under the control of US troops and serves as a gateway for international military and humanitarian supplies for Ukraine.

If convicted, the man could face up to eight years in prison, the statement said.

It said the arrest was the result of close cooperation with the prosecutors and security services of Ukraine, who tipped them off and provided crucial evidence.

The Kremlin has declined to comment.

It comes after German prosecutors said two German-Russian men had been arrested on suspicion of espionage (see 8.44 post yesterday).

One of them is accused of agreeing to carry out attacks on potential targets including US military facilities in the hopes of sabotaging aid for Ukraine.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited troops near the frontline in the east of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president joined a paratroopers' medical platoon in the Donetsk region.

"Today - Donetsk region. Visited our defenders who are undertreatment," he said on Telegram.

Mr Zelenskyy said he talked with the soldiers and gave them awards, adding: "Thank you for your service and protection of Ukraine! Our country is proud to have such soldiers."

Two people have been detained in Poland on suspicion of a hammer attack on the top aide of the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Lithuania's president has announced.

Leonid Volkov suffered from hammer blows in the attack on 12 March outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.

Lithuanian counterintelligence has said the attack was the work of Russian special services and the Kremlin has declined to comment.

President Gitanas Nauseda said the suspects would be transferred to Lithuania.

Mr Volkov had blamed Vladimir Putin for the attack and he thanked Lithuanian police for working"energetically and persistently" over thepast month on this case.

"I am very glad that this work has been effective", hetweeted. "Well, we'll find out the details soon. Can't wait tofind out!"

Navalny, Mr Putin's most prominent critic, died in a Russian arctic prison in February - his followers believe he was killed by the authorities, which the Kremlin denies.

These pictures show the aftermath of a major Russian missile attack which killed at least eight people and injured over 25 more in the central Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine (see 8.08 post).

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack damaged multiple storeys of a residential building and a train station in the regional capital Dnipro.

A Russian oil and gas company has equipped key facilities at its refineries with anti-drone nets, the RIA news agency has reported.

It comes after a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on refineries in Russia.

RIA cited the head of the Russian republic of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, saying the company, Bashneft, was in talks with Russia's defence ministry about boosting the security of its refineries.

Ukraine has said it shot down a Russian strategic bomber "for the first time".

The Russian defence ministry claimed the Tu-22M3 bomber had crashed in Russia's southern Stavropol region, hundreds of miles from Ukrainian-controlled territory, as it returned to base after carrying out a combat mission.

It said the crash appeared to have been caused by a technical malfunction.

But Ukrainian Air ForceCommander Mykola Oleshchuk said Kyiv had "destroyed" thebomber, which is capable of carrying long-range missiles.

"For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the AirForce, in cooperation with the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine,destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber, a carrier ofKh-22 cruise missiles used by Russian terrorists to attackpeaceful Ukrainian cities," Commander Oleshchuk said.

The Russian regional governor said the bomber's four pilots had ejected but one had died and a rescue operation was ongoing for the fourth.

It comes after Russia conducted a major missile attack on the central Dnipropetrovsk region earlier today, which killed at least eight and injured 25.

Russian air defence units intercepted 25 airborne targets early this morning over the southern Belgorod region, the region's governor said.

Vyacheslav Gladkov said the main target was the city of Belgorod, but there were no injuries.

Several private homes and other buildings were damaged and a small fire in a storage area was quickly extinguished.

Russia is ramping up pressure on exhausted Ukrainian forces as muddy fields dry out and allow tanks and armoured vehicles access to key positions.

Moscow has increasingly turned to using satellite-guided gliding bombs, which allow planes to strike from a safe distance, to hit Ukrainian troops.

Russian military bloggers argue a major ground offensive would be risky and unnecessary if Russian troops can successfully rely on smaller attacks across the front line to further drain Kyiv's military.

After claiming to have captured the Ukrainian stronghold of Avdiivka in February, Russian troops are pushing towards the hill town of Chasiv Yar, which would allow them to move towards Sloviansk and Kramatorsk - key cities in the eastern Donetsk region that remain under Ukrainian control.

Russia illegally annexed Donetsk and three other regions in 2022 and one of the Kremlin's key war aims is to control the region.

Vladimir Putin, who secured another term as Russian president in March, has vowed to carve out a "sanitary zone" to protect Russia's border regions from Ukrainian shelling and incursions.

While he didn't go into specifics, Russian milbloggers and experts have said Moscow could also try to capture Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, which Russia tried and failed to storm in the opening days of the war.

Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A major Russian missile attack has killed at least eight people, injured 25 and damaged infrastructure in Ukraine's central Dnipropetrovsk region, local officials have said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack damaged multiple storeys of a residential building and a train station in the regional capital, Dnipro, as he called for more air defences.

"Russia must be held accountable for its terror, andevery missile, every Shahed must be shot down," the Ukrainian president said, referring to an Iranian-made drone.

"The world can guarantee this, and our partners have thenecessary capabilities."

A Russian attack in the early hours of this morning also injured three and damaged infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, a local official said.

Before we bring you today's updates, here is a reminder of what's happened in the past 24 hours:

• Two men were arrested in Germany on Russian spy charges;
• Ukraine launched an attack on a Russian airfield in Crimea;
• The Kremlin claimed US aid would not help Ukraine;
• Russia claimed Ukraine struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.