Ukraine-Russia war latest: Macron demands strong action if Putin continues to refuse peace

Defence secretary John Healey is ready to convene the following assembly of the “coalition of the prepared” subsequent week, as the pinnacle of the British armed forces has been in Kyiv for discussions with Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Healey will host defence ministers in Brussels alongside his French counterpart on Thursday, the Ministry of Defence stated.

He’ll then chair the Ukraine Defence Contact Group along with his reverse quantity from Germany on Friday.

General, 30 nations are anticipated to contribute to the group.

Mr Healey stated on Saturday: “Our coalition of countries, working at tempo and prepared to face with Ukraine for the long-term, is a stark distinction to Russia who stand alone with solely North Korea for a good friend.

“As Putin prevaricates over a ceasefire, we are going to proceed to ramp up our navy planning, exploring the air, sea and land forces that would help a long-lasting peace in Ukraine.

“Nonetheless, we is not going to jeopardise the peace by forgetting concerning the struggle.

“That’s why within the week forward we will even convene the Ukraine Defence Contact Group to produce Ukraine with the navy gear they should put them within the strongest potential place as they battle again brutal, persevering with Russian assaults.”

A Ukrainian drone broken Russian railway tracks within the southwest Krasnodar area, native authorities stated on Monday.

“There have been no casualties, and no fireplace occurred,” the administration of the area stated on Telegram.

Russia’s defence ministry earlier reported that its air defences shot down19 Ukrainian drones in a single day, 4 of which have been over the Krasnodar area.

Russian defences shot down 19 Ukrainian drones in a single day, Moscow’s defence ministry stated on Monday.

13 of the drones have been destroyed over the Sea of Azov bordering southwest Russia, and the remainder of the drones have been downed over the Krasnodar and Bryansk areas and over the Crimean Peninsula.

Moscow doesn’t alway reveal the entire variety of drones fired by Kyiv’s forces.

Russia claimed it had captured the village of Basivka in Ukraine’s Sumy oblast in March this 12 months, however Ukrainian officers have now denied the report, calling it a part of a “disinformation marketing campaign”.

Whereas Moscow stated the transfer might disrupt Ukrainian provide traces, Kyiv confirmed ongoing border clashes however insisted its forces have been repelling Russian assault teams.

“Russia continues its disinformation marketing campaign concerning the seizure of settlements in Sumy Oblast or the breakthrough of the border,” border guard spokesperson Andrii Demchenko instructed Ukrainian Pravda.

Tanks and deeply private objects donated by Ukrainian refugees – together with a hamster cage, home keys from a bombed house in Mariupol, and drawings by an 11-year-old woman – are on the coronary heart of what’s believed to be the UK’s largest exhibition on the Ukraine struggle, now open at The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset.

Opened by Ukraine’s ambassador, Normal Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the exhibition consists of many artefacts of symbolic worth. “It’s concerning the private tales,” the museum’s exhibitions supervisor, Luke Clark, instructed BBC Information.

“In case you come right here and you are taking something away from this exhibition, it’s hopefully that you just’ll have hope for these people who find themselves nonetheless on the market [in Ukraine], the people who find themselves nonetheless within the UK and the hope that they are going to go house.

“We need to give as a lot hope to these individuals as potential.”

The exhibition is because of final for 2 years.

Restarting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant — presently occupied by Russia — can be unsafe and intensely troublesome below wartime situations, based on Ukraine’s nuclear power chief, Petro Kotin.

He warned that restarting even one reactor throughout the struggle is “unimaginable” resulting from an absence of cooling water, personnel, and energy.

If Ukraine regains management, it might take two months to 2 years to securely deliver the plant again on-line after full demilitarisation and security checks, the chief government of Energoatom stated, based on The Guardian.

Russia has stated it intends to restart the plant when situations enable, however specialists have raised severe security issues, particularly given the degraded infrastructure, danger of mines, and untrained employees.

In February this 12 months, Alexey Likhachev, head of Russian nuclear operator Rosatom, stated it will be restarted when “navy and political situations enable”.

Vladimir Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev has stated Moscow and Washington might resume contact this week, based on TASS.

Dmitriev is the Kremlin’s worldwide economic system envoy and final week grew to become probably the most senior Russian official to go to Washington because the begin of the struggle in Ukraine.

He instructed Channel One tv, that there have been “constructive dynamics” however cautioned that “there are undoubtedly nonetheless numerous enemies of Russia within the American authorities”.

Dmitriev, who additionally heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, stated that “there may be now a fragile hope that dialogue has been restored”, whereas stressing the necessity to counter what he described as “info assaults” – a phrase usually utilized by Russian officers to discuss with crucial worldwide media experiences.

Based on the Heart for Civil Liberties — a Ukrainian rights group that received the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize — greater than 20,000 Ukrainian civilians are presently held by Russia in occupied territories and inside Russia itself — a quantity additionally cited by Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets.

The group has claimed that there’s a rising physique of proof that reveals that hundreds of civilians are being held in Russian custody – typically with out fees or below doubtful accusations akin to terrorism and espionage.

The “Folks First” marketing campaign, launched in January by the Heart for Civil Liberties alongside the Russian group Memorial (additionally a Nobel laureate), is demanding that the discharge of all civilian captives be prioritised in any peace talks.

“Whereas politicians talk about pure assets, potential territorial concessions, geopolitical pursuits and even Zelensky’s swimsuit within the Oval Workplace, they’re not speaking about individuals,” Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Heart for Civil Liberties instructed the Related Press.

Memorial says it has verified at the least 1,672 Ukrainian civilians in Russian custody, although the true quantity is believed to be far larger. “There’s a bigger variety of them that we don’t learn about,” Oleg Orlov, co-founder of Memorial stated.