Russia-Ukraine war: two wounded after Belgorod strike, says governor; investigation into ‘locked’ shelter in Kyiv – as it happened

It is approaching 9pm in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, and here is a roundup of today’s main news.

• Three people including a child were killed and at least 11 people were injured in an early morning missile attack on Kyiv that hit apartment buildings, two schools and a children’s clinic, according to city authorities. The attack, on International Children’s Day, reportedly involved 10 Iskander short-range missiles, and there was only a few minutes’ warning before they hit. Most of the damage appeared to be from falling debris after the incoming missiles were intercepted by the capital’s air defences. Nearly 500 children have been killed in military attacks in Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

• Two people were wounded when an unknown device detonated in the Russian city of Belgorod, the governor of the region said today. On Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said “a drone fell on the road”. Two men were injured and one of them was hospitalised with a suspected concussion.

• The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reiterated his position in favor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, condemning Russia’s invasion.

• The Agence France-Presse news agency held a memorial ceremony at its Paris headquarters today for the journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed last month in Ukraine. AFP’s global news director, Phil Chetwynd, confirmed journalists would be gradually returning to frontline reporting in Ukraine next week.

• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for the transfer of Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine.

• Starlink, the satellite communications service started by Elon Musk, has a Department of Defence contract to buy those satellite services for Ukraine, the Pentagon has said.

• Russian access to Faroe Islands’ north Atlantic ports will be restricted to exclusively fishing in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Faroese government is trying to reduce Russian activities at its ports due to the risk of espionage and after criticism over the renewal of the bilateral fisheries accord at the end of November.

• Tortoise media reports that the owner of the Independent and London’s Evening Standard newspaper, Alexander Lebedev, has been targeted for sanctions by Ukraine.

• The Russian state-owned media agency Tass is reporting that 11 people from the Belgorod region who were affected by shelling today have been admitted to hospital.

• Ukraine’s ministry of renovation and infrastructure has said the UN-brokered Black Sea grain export deal has been halted again because Russia has blocked registration of ships to all Ukrainian ports. The UN and Turkey brokered the grain initiative between Moscow and Kyiv last July to help tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a leading global grain exporter.

• Taiwan has donated more than £4m to Lithuanian-led reconstructions projects in Ukraine, a Lithuanian government investment agency said on Wednesday. The funds will go towards rebuilding a school in Borodianka and a nursery in Irpin, the Central Project Management Agency said.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv wanted to receive a “clear” decision on its future in the Nato military alliance when the bloc’s leaders meet for a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, next month.

• Heavy shelling has prompted a partial evacuation of civilians from the region of Belgorod, Russia, as soldiers repelled three attempted incursions along its border with Ukraine.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked leaders of the European Political Community for their continued support “against Russian aggression” on Twitter. The summit is the second meeting of the EPC, which will bring leaders from across the continent together in Moldova.

• The mayor of Kyiv has asked for a district administrator and the head of a medical facility to be suspended while investigations continue into the circumstances of the deaths. Reports say they were stuck outside a locked air raid shelter when they were struck by falling debris. Law enforcement officers are investigating the claims.

• Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, has announced there will be an inspection of the operation of air shelters in his city tonight.

• Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, announced that events to celebrate International Children’s Day in the city had been cancelled as a result of the overnight barrage.

• Tass reports that authorities in Belgorod are denying there has been a border incursion in Russia.

• Eight people were wounded by overnight shelling that continued into the morning in the Russian town of Shebekino that damaged multiple buildings, the governor of the local Belgorod region said on Thursday. Vyacheslav Gladkov also reported that two teachers at a rural school in Novopetrovka received shrapnel wounds and had been hospitalised after the building was struck by fire from the Ukrainian armed forces, and said state maths exams in Shebekino had been cancelled as a result of continued cross-border shelling.

• The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Thursday that Russia’s defence ministry, border guards, emergency services and local authorities were constantly reporting to Vladimir Putin on the situation in Belgorod.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the international community to put concrete “security guarantees” in place in Ukraine and its neighbour Moldova to give the countries enduring protection against Russia. First to arrive at the summit of 47 European leaders in Moldova, the Ukrainian president said he would also be speaking on Thursday to partner countries about putting in place a “potential air jets coalition” and a coalition providing Patriot missiles.

• Nato foreign ministers are meeting in Oslo, where the French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, said the Nato alliance needed to think about what kind of security guarantees it could give Ukraine, and Lithuania’s foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said the time had come for Nato members to find a concrete answer to the question of how Ukraine could become a member.

• Sweden’s foreign minister, Tobias Billström, also in Oslo, said the time had come for Turkey and Hungary to ratify his nation’s Nato membership application. “We have fulfilled all our commitments,” Billström said. The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he would soon travel to Turkey to discuss Sweden’s Nato membership.

• Russia’s Federal Security Service claimed on Thursday that it had uncovered a US National Security Agency plot using previously unknown malware to penetrate specially made backdoor vulnerabilities in iPhones.

The Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, reiterated his position in favor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, condemning Russia’s invasion.

The comments came after a meeting in Brasília with Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, who is making an official visit to Brazil on 1-2 June 2023.

The Brazilian leader said he also hoped for a “balaced” trade agreement between Mercosur and the EU that could support Brazil’s push for reindustrialisation and sustainable development.

The Agence France-Presse news agency held a memorial ceremony at its Paris headquarters today for the journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed last month in Ukraine.

AFP’s chair, Fabrice Fries, said:

Since the announcement of Arman’s death on 9 May, the emotion has not subsided. I even have the feeling it has grown as we all become aware of Arman’s extremely endearing and sunny personality.

Soldin, a video coordinator in Ukraine, was killed in a rocket attack in the east of the country.

His death sparked an outpouring of sympathy and tributes across the world.

“Arman had the rare ability to find moments of life and even poetry amid the horror,” France’s culture minister, Rima Abdul Malak, said at the ceremony.

Soldin, 32, was part of a team of AFP reporters embedded with Ukrainian soldiers near the besieged city of Bakhmut. They were walking back to their car near the village of Chasiv Yar when they were targeted by a series of Grad rockets that grew increasingly close.

AFP’s global news director, Phil Chetwynd, confirmed journalists would be gradually returning to frontline reporting in Ukraine next week and that the company was investigating how best to adapt to the changing situation on the ground.

He said:

We assume a certain level of risk by choosing to report on this conflict, as we have done with conflicts throughout history.

At least 11 journalists have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on 24 February 2022, according to figures from Reporters Without Borders and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, thanked the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, for the transfer of Storm Shadow long-range missiles to Ukraine.

In a tweet, he said:

I thank you Britain and Mr Prime Minister personally for the assistance provided to Ukraine. For the leadership in creating a tank and aviation coalition, in particular in readiness to start training Ukrainian pilots.

Sunak said it is “always a privilege to meet my friend Volodymyr Zelenskiy” and posted a photo of them together on Twitter.

This map shows the Belgorod, a region and city in Russia near the border of Ukraine. Two people were wounded when an unknown device detonated in the city today. Belgorod is more than 600km from Moscow but is just over half an hour’s drive from the border with Ukraine, making it a vital stop for Russian supply lines and vulnerable to conflict.

Starlink, the satellite communications service started by Elon Musk, now has a Department of Defence contract to buy those satellite services for Ukraine, the Pentagon said in a statement.

The US defence department statement said:

We continue to work with a range of global partners to ensure Ukraine has the resilient satellite and communication capabilities they need. Satellite communications constitute a vital layer in Ukraine’s overall communications network and the department contracts with Starlink for services of this type.

An anti-Kremlin group released drone footage it claimed showed Russian military equipment being destroyed in Russia’s Belgorod region. The video was released by the Freedom of Russia Legion, which says it was formed in spring 2022 “out of the wish of Russians to fight in the ranks of the armed forces of Ukraine against Putin’s armed gang”.

1:08

Russian access to Faroe Islands’ north Atlantic ports will be restricted to exclusively fishing in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The government said:

Only fishing vessels exclusively conducting fisheries under the bilateral agreement between the Faroe Islands and Russia will be allowed to enter Faroese ports.

The activities of Russian fishing vessels in port will be restricted to crew change, bunkering, provisioning, landing and transshipment.

Maintenance services will be prohibited and the purchase of goods restricted.

The Faroe Islands are a Danish autonomous territory, sitting between Scotland and Iceland.

The Faroese government is trying to reduce Russian activities at its ports due to the risk of espionage and after criticism over the renewal of the bilateral fisheries accord at the end of November.

The agreement, renewed annually since 1977, lays out quotas on several species, including cod, haddock, whiting and herring in the Barents Sea for Faroese fishers and off the Faroe Islands for Russians.

According to the fisheries ministry, the fish caught under the accord accounts for 5% of gross domestic product.

Russia became a key commercial partner of the Faroes since they and neighbouring Iceland fell out with the European Union – including Denmark – between 2010 and 2014 over mackerel and herring quotas.

Two people were wounded when an unknown device detonated in Russia’s city of Belgorod, the governor of the region said today.

On Telegram, the Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said:

According to preliminary data, a drone fell on the roadway.

The governor said two men were injured and one of them was hospitalised with a suspected concussion.

The Belgorod mayor Valentin Demidov said the explosion went off near a petrol station, adding the blast took place “not far from the ground,” AFP reports.

Local officials were inspecting nearby buildings to see if they were damaged, Demidov said.

Tortoise media reports that the owner of the Independent and London’s Evening Standard newspaper, Alexander Lebedev, has been targeted for sanctions by Ukraine.

It states that Ukraine’s decision to impose sanctions on Lebedev was “made by the country’s national security and defence council on 19 October 2022, but has not previously been reported.”

It writes:

Lebedev, a Russian citizen who has not been sanctioned by the UK in its efforts to stop the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, bought the Evening Standard and Independent newspapers more than a decade ago. He has hosted former UK prime minister Boris Johnson at lavish parties in London and at a villa in Umbria.

Johnson gave Lebedev’s son a seat for life in the UK’s upper house of parliament despite security warnings from MI5, according to previous reporting by Tortoise. The Cabinet Office has told parliament that “Lord Lebedev is a man of good standing.” Lord Lebedev has said that he has “no links to the Kremlin”.

The sanctions block Lebedev, who owns substantial tourism assets in occupied Crimea, from moving funds out of Ukraine and from making financial transactions within the country.

The designation suggests that Lebedev is a “person directly or indirectly controlled by residents of a foreign state or acting in their interests”.