At least 34 known to be injured, including five children, after Pavlohrad attack
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, has reported updated casualty figures after the attack on the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad overnight which appeared to have targeted an ammunition depot as well as striking apartment buildings and homes. It reports:
The number of people injured due to a rocket strike on Pavlohrad has increased to 34, including five children, reported the head of the regional authority. Two women are in intensive care.
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The number of people injured due to a rocket strike on Pavlohrad has increased to 34, including five children, reported the head of the regional authority. Two women are in intensive care.
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One person was killed and three others were injured by Russian shelling in the Kherson region over the past 24 hours, the region’s administration said on Telegram. A child was among those injured.
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Residential areas in the region were attacked 39 times using 163 shells while the city was attacked eight times with 41 shells, the administration said in a Telegram post.
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Authorities in Kyiv have issued an “all clear” after air raid sirens sent residents rushing to shelters in the early hours of the morning.
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The Kyiv city administration said:
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Air siren all clear! Please keep an eye on reports and return to shelter if the siren sounds again.
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Earlier, officials reported that the city’s air defence systems had been active in bringing down missiles launched from Russia.
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Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.
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Air raid sirens have sounded in Kyiv and throughout Ukraine, with some reports that Russia has launched a wave of missiles. The armed forces have urged Ukrainians to go to shelters and warned that Kyiv was under “threat of a missile strike”. There was also a “threat to the northern, central and eastern regions”, it said on its Telegram channel. “Kyiv region – air defence works,” it added, as explosions were reported in the capital.
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Elsewhere today:
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The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has warned that an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive could turn into a “tragedy” for Russia, and complained that his fighters lacked ammunition, in an interview with pro-Kremlin war correspondent Semyon Pegov. Prigozhin, whose group is spearheading Russia’s attack on the embattled city of Bakhmut, predicted a Ukrainian counterattack in mid-May and said Wagner had “only 10-15% of the shells that we need.”
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Pope Francis has said that the Vatican is involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “I am willing to do everything that has to be done. There is a mission in course now but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it,” Pope Francis told reporters during a flight home after a three-day visit to Hungary.
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The Russian army replaced its highest ranking general in charge of logistics, after days of rumours about the sacking of Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev. In a statement, the Russian defence ministry said Alexei Kuzmenkov – a former official from the National Guard – had replaced Mizintsev as “deputy defence minister of the Russian Federation, responsible for the logistical support of the Armed Forces.” The statement did not say why Mizintsev was replaced after just seven months in the job.
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Ukraine said its troops were holding on to parts of the eastern city of Bakhmut. “The enemy is unable to take control over the city, despite throwing all its forces into the battle and having some success,” said Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar. Russia’s defence ministry earlier said its forces had taken four blocks in western Bakhmut on Sunday, according to Reuters, which could not independently confirm the claim.
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Four people have been killed from an overnight Ukrainian strike on the Russian border village of Suzemka, the governor of Russia’s western Bryansk region said on Sunday. “Two more civilians have been found and removed from the rubble. Unfortunately, both of them died,” local governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram.
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Russian commanders have likely started “punishing breaches in discipline by detaining the offending troops in ‘Zindans’ which are improvised cells consisting of holes in the ground covered with a metal grille,” the UK Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update. The army is thought to have been using “increasingly draconian” measures to enforce discipline since autumn 2022, the MoD said, and “especially since Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov assumed command of the operation in January 2023.”
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a “long and meaningful” telephone conversation with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron. The French presidency said Macron had reaffirmed France’s support for Ukraine to Zelenskiy, and that Macron had given an update on European coordination to give Ukraine military help.
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Funerals were held for some of the 23 people who were killed on Friday when two Russian missiles hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city Uman. Six children were among the dead.
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Key events
Russian media is reporting this morning on what looks like two separate overnight incidents of sabotage within the Russian Federation.
Tass reports that Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Bryansk, has posted to his Telegram channel to say that a freight train was derailed as a result of an explosive device blowing up on railway tracks in the region.
Meanwhile, Aleksandr Drozdenko, governor of Leningrad region, has claimed on his Telegram channel that a power transmission line support was blown up there. He wrote that an explosive device was also found on a second power pylon, but that electricity supplies had not been disrupted.
The claims have not been independently verified. Authorities in Russia say they are investigating both incidents.
Poland’s ministry of foreign affairs has issued a statement condemning the former children’s ombudsman of Russia, Pavel Astakhov, for comments he made on Russian state TV that murdering ambassadors is “within the framework of international law”, with specific reference to Poland’s ambassador.
In the show, Astakhov recalled how red paint was poured over Russia’s ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreev, last year. Astakhov then said he wondered why Poland’s ambassador to Russia was yet to be “found floating in the Moskva River”.
Łukasz Jasina, spokesperson for Poland’s ministry of foreign affairs, said in the statement:
The ministry of foreign affairs of the Republic of Poland condemns Pavel Astakhov’s statement that the murder of the Polish ambassador is admissible. We call on Russia to ensure the safety of all diplomats in accordance with the Vienna Convention.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to say that he has spoken to New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins.
Ukraine’s president said:
Had a phone call with prime minister of New Zealand Chris Hipkins. Thanked New Zealand for the participation in the training of our military. We count on its continuation, as well as on further cooperation on defence and humanitarian issues. We discussed the need for further consolidation of the countries of the Pacific region in supporting Ukraine.
Streaks of tracer fire lit up the sky last night over Kyiv as Ukrainian air defence systems repelled Russian missile attacks and air raid sirens blared across the country for more than three hours. Here is a short video clip of what that looked like.
The US ambassador to Ukraine has condemned the latest overnight attack by Russia as “barbaric” in a tweet. Bridget Brink wrote:
Russia again launched missiles in the deep of night at Ukrainian cities where civilians, including children, should be able to sleep safely and peacefully. I am grateful for those who protect Ukraine’s skies, and the US will continue to work hard and fast to support them and their ability to defeat Russia’s barbaric attacks on the people of Ukraine.
At least 34 known to be injured, including five children, after Pavlohrad attack
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, has reported updated casualty figures after the attack on the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad overnight which appeared to have targeted an ammunition depot as well as striking apartment buildings and homes. It reports:
The number of people injured due to a rocket strike on Pavlohrad has increased to 34, including five children, reported the head of the regional authority. Two women are in intensive care.
Alicia Kearns, the Conservative MP who is chair of the foreign affairs select committee at the House of Commons in London, has tweeted in favour of what she calls “an ‘economic “Ramstein”’ of those fighting for Ukraine’s freedom.”
Responding to a thread of figures showing that sanctions have not had as a big an impact on Russia’s economy as western nations had intended, she said:
This highly detailed thread gives even more credence to the need for an ‘Economic “Ramstein”’ of those fighting for Ukraine’s freedom. It is clear we have failed to adequately financially suffocate Putin’s war machine, and we must prevent him being able to fund his attacks on civilians. We can only do that if we mobilise as governments to coordinate economically as well as militarily.
Kearns embedded in her tweet a link to thread by the Institute of International Finance’s chief economist Robin Brooks, which you read here.
Ramstein is the US military base in Germany where members of the Ukraine defence contact group have repeatedly met to discuss arming and supplying Ukraine’s military.
Dmitry Medvedev, long-term ally of Vladimir Putin, and currently deputy chair of the Security Council of Russia, has delivered a May day broadside against Twitter, which has removed one of his recent posts. In the message he issued a threat to a wide range of targets outside Russia. In his Telegram post, the former president and prime minister of Russia wrote:
Seriously, we can do without [Twitter]. After all, this is just a foreign social network operating in the interests of the American establishment. We quite cynically used it to advance our propaganda goals.
Our main task is completely different: to inflict a devastating defeat on all enemies – the Ukronazis, the US, their minions in Nato, including vile Poland, and other western nits.
We must finally return all our lands. Forever protect all of our people. We will work hard for this.
Happy 1 May everyone!
Since last summer Russia has built “some of the most extensive systems of military defensive works seen anywhere in the world for many decades” in the areas it controls in Ukraine as well as in its own border regions, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has written in its latest intelligence update on the conflict.
Imagery shows that Russia has made a particular effort to fortify the northern border of occupied Crimea, it said, adding that Russia had also dug “hundreds of miles of trenches well inside internationally recognised Russian territory including in the Belgorod and Kursk regions”.
The defences “highlight Russian leaders’ deep concern that Ukraine could achieve a major breakthrough,” the MoD said, although it added that “some works have likely been ordered by local commanders and civil leaders in attempts to promote the official narrative that Russia is ‘threatened’ by Ukraine and NATO”.
One person killed and three injured in Kherson shelling
One person was killed and three others were injured by Russian shelling in the Kherson region over the past 24 hours, the region’s administration said on Telegram. A child was among those injured.
Residential areas in the region were attacked 39 times using 163 shells while the city was attacked eight times with 41 shells, the administration said in a Telegram post.
Ukrainian counterattacks have ousted Russian forces from some positions in the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut, but the situation remains “difficult”, a top Ukrainian general has said, according to Reuters.
During the past few months the battle for Bakhmut has become the fulcrum of a conflict that has seen little shift in front lines since late last year, leaving both sides looking for a breakthrough.
“The situation is quite difficult,” said Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of ground forces, in a statement on Telegram.
“At the same time, in certain parts of the city, the enemy was counterattacked by our units and left some positions.”
Syrskyi made the remarks while visiting frontline troops on Sunday, the military said. He added that new Russian units, including paratroopers and fighters from the Wagner mercenary group, were being “constantly thrown into battle” despite taking heavy losses.
“But the enemy is unable to take control of the city,” Syrskyi said.
Russian forces have steadily made incremental gains in Bakhmut, but a Ukrainian military spokesperson said on Sunday it was still possible to supply the defenders with food, ammunition and medicine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regular command changes have undermined Moscow’s ability to conduct a cohesive campaign in Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War has written in its latest assessment of the conflict.
The president’s reluctance to appoint an overall theater commander for his invasion had had “cascading effects on the Russian military including fueling intense factionalization, disorganizing command structures, and feeding unattainable expectations,” the think tank wrote.
His initial reluctance to appoint an overall commander may have been linked to Moscow’s expectation at the start of the invasion that it would capture Kyiv within days, it said: “Putin had likely wanted to declare this speedy invasion a personal geopolitical victory.”
Subsequent changes have either been “obscured or carefully announced” by Putin and his Ministry of Defence “to shield themselves from criticism, set up scapegoats for military failures, appease certain voices within the Russian information space, or compound efforts to sell marginal territorial gains as operational victories to the Russian public.”
The thinktank further notes:
Putin has long rotated personnel in government positions as a way to ensure that no one figure amasses too much political influence and to maintain support among competing factions.
Putin also routinely avoids outright dismissing officials and instead temporarily demotes them in order to encourage them to seek to regain his favor and to retain options for future appointments …
The regularity of the command changes is disruptive to efforts to formalize command and control and the return of formerly demoted commanders (who had failed badly) is likely exacerbating the MoD’s pervasive reputational problems as well as its operational effectiveness.
Russian missiles struck warehouses reportedly storing ammunition at a railway depot in the Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, in an apparent effort to slow Kyiv’s preparations for its much anticipated counteroffensive expected to start shortly, the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont reports from Kyiv hours after air raid sirens rang out across the country.
Video posted on social media showed secondary detonations amid a significant blaze at the site of the strike.
Pavlohrad was struck twice during the night. Among the buildings damaged or destroyed were an industrial zone, 19 apartment buildings and 25 homes, according to Mykola Lukashuk, the head of the Dnipro region council.
The size of the fire in Pavlohrad suggests Russia may have hit an important arms depot and comes after Ukraine’s recent attack on an oil storage facility in Sevastopol, Crimea.
For more, read on here:
Tess McClure
New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins will speak with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy tonight, and says the country will make further commitments to support Ukraine’s defence in the coming days.
“I’ll be restating New Zealand’s solidarity with Ukraine, and our ongoing condemnation of Russia’s egregious actions,” Hipkins said.
Hipkins is due to fly to the UK for King Charles’ coronation shortly, and said “while there we’ll be making announcements about additional support New Zealand will make to the defence of Ukraine.”
He said he would also be visiting New Zealand Defence Force personnel training Ukrainian troops outside London.
He would not share specifics on the amount of funding or nature of the support New Zealand would be offering on Monday afternoon, saying details would be announced after the conversation with Zelenskiy. Hipkins also said he had no current plans to visit Ukraine in person.
In some lighter news, plans are well under way to create the world’s biggest sing-along as an expression of solidarity with Ukraine during the Eurovision song contest next week, according to the Guardian’s North of England correspondent Mark Brown.
The #HelpUkraineSong project is aiming to “unite the world through music” by getting as many people as possible to sing the Beatles’ With a Little Help from My Friends at noon on Saturday 13 May.
Valerie Bounds, 47, who co-founded and runs a creative agency in Liverpool, thought of the idea while in London last year. She said:
I came up with this idea while I was watching someone play the piano in Euston station at Christmas time, and thought ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to do an incredible moment in public spaces?’
“I’m a big fan of Eurovision, I also volunteer with the Red Cross and [I] have worked with Ukrainian refugees, so it kind of all melded together.”
To find out more about it, read Mark’s report here: