Summary
It’s coming up to 7pm UK time. Here’s a summary of all today’s events:
The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (7.30pm BST), according to investigators.
Ex-Russian MP Ilya Ponomarev claims Russian partisan group the National Republican Army is responsible for the Moscow car bomb.
Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”
British PM Boris Johnson and the leaders of the US, France and Germany stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine in a call, Johnson’s office said. “On a joint call, Johnson, US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz underlined their steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.
Czechs have been sending money to Ukraine in memory of the 1968 invasion. Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops.
Government employees in Kyiv have been told to work from home this week, over fears that the centre will be targeted with Russian missiles.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day on Wednesday. In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule. “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said.
The curfew in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am but extra precautions were required on independence day.
Ukraine launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol earlier on Saturday. Officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down and that the city’s air defence system had been called into action again on Saturday night.
Video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.
Three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested for suspected spying after trying to break into a military base and arms factory in central Albania, the Albanian defence ministry said on Saturday. Two Albanian soldiers were injured in the incident at the Gramsh base, the ministry said, adding the conditions of the soldiers was stable. Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, said the three individuals are “suspected of espionage”.
Updated
Ex-Russian MP claims Russian partisans responsible for Moscow car bomb
Speaking in Kyiv, Ilya Ponomarev alleges that the bomb that killed the daughter of a Vladimir Putin ally earlier on Sunday was the work of underground group the National Republican Army.
The Guardian has not verified the authenticity of Ponomarev’s claims. Russian officials have blamed Ukraine for the attack, a claim Kyiv strongly denies.
Updated
Updated
This week, Kyiv will celebrate independence day, and mark half a year of fighting, with a display of wrecked Russian tanks on its main street. Putin’s hopes of a swift victory have come to nothing. Peace talks have stalled. Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent, examines where we go from here, in his latest piece for the Observer.
Six months of hell in Ukraine: how Putin’s crazy war reached deadlock
Western leaders stress the importance of nuclear safety in Ukraine
British PM Boris Johnson and the leaders of the US, France and Germany on Sunday stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine in a call, Johnson’s office said.
“On a joint call, Johnson, US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz underlined their steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
“They stressed the importance of ensuring the safety and security of nuclear installations and welcomed recent discussions on enabling an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia facility.”
Updated
Albania investigates military factory intruders from Russia and Ukraine
Albania said on Sunday it was investigating why two Russians and a Ukrainian had tried to enter a military factory.
The defence ministry said on Saturday that two of its soldiers had been slightly injured while detaining a 24-year-old man from Russia who had entered the grounds of the Gramsh military factory and was trying to take photos. He resisted arrest and used spray against the soldiers.
Two others, a 33-year-old Russian woman and a Ukrainian man aged 25, were arrested nearby.
Defence Minister Niko Peleshi said on Sunday it was too early to be sure about the motive but referred to geopolitics – apparently indicating a possible link to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has been criticised by the Albanian government.
“In view of the broad regional context and the geopolitical context, this cannot be dismissed as just as an ordinary, civilian incident, but we cannot rush to conclusions,” he said after visiting the injured soldiers in hospital.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said on Saturday the three individuals were “suspected of espionage”, without giving any further details.
Tirana-based media said the three suspects were bloggers who often visited abandoned military bases and other big plants in different countries.
Peleshi said the investigation would show if they were bloggers and what their motives were.
When Albania was under communist rule, the Gramsh plant produced Russian-designed AK 47 rifles.
The ministry’s website says the plant now provides manufacturing services for the defence industry. In the past, it was also used to dismantle small arms and ammunition.
Albania, a member of Nato since 2009, has joined the US and other western countries to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and has introduced sanctions against Moscow.
Updated
Czechs sending money to Ukraine in memory of the 1968 invasion
Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops, the Ukrainian embassy said on Sunday.
The Czechs were using a special payment code to donate 1,968 crowns ($80) to an already existing account set up by Ukraine’s embassy in the Czech Republic to collect funds.
“Even at the weekend, dozens and dozens of payments in the value of 1,968 crowns are arriving to our account, thank you so much, Czech friends!” the embassy said on Twitter.
On 21 August 1968, armies of the Soviet Union and its allies crossed borders into Czechoslovakia, a fellow member of the eastern bloc, to crush a reform movement started earlier that year known as the Prague Spring.
The troops killed dozens of civilians and the subsequent occupation pushed tens of thousands into exile. The troops eventually left after the fall of Communist rule in 1989.
Updated
Key event
Who is Alexander Dugin?
My colleague Pjotr Sauer has written a profile of Alexander Dugin, the Putin ally, father of car bombing victim Darya Dugina, and the apparent intended target of the explosion.
Pjotr writes:
“He came to national attention in the 1990s as a writer for the far-right newspaper Den. In a 1991 manifesto published in Den, Dugin first laid out his anti-liberal and ultranationalist vision of Russia, a country he said was destined to face off against an individualistic, materialistic west …
“In the book, Dugin laid out his vision to divide the world, calling for Russia to rebuild its influence through annexations and alliances while proclaiming his opposition to Ukraine as a sovereign state.
“Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness,” he wrote.
“Its certain territorial ambitions represent an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics.”
You can read the full profile here:
Updated
Kharkiv confirms Independence Day curfew
As worries intensify about Russian aggression on and around Ukraine’s Independence Day on 24 August, Ukraine’s Kharkiv region will introduce a 36-hour curfew from 7pm on 23 August – spanning the Independence Day of Ukraine, which commemorates the day in 1991 when the nation’s Declaration of Independence was issued. The railway service is also now advising passengers to reschedule any trips to Ukraine’s second city.
Updated
Government employees in Kyiv have been told to work from home this week, over fears that the centre will be targeted with Russian missiles
The Economist’s foreign correspondent Oliver Carroll tweeted this:
Government workers in Kyiv being told to work from home over 22-26 over fears that the centre will be targeted with Russian missiles. https://t.co/070FLKc0um
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) August 21, 2022
Updated
For those just catching up, a suspected car bomb attack has killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of the ultranationalist Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin.
The Associated Press reports that Dugin is a prominent proponent of the ‘Russian world’ concept, a spiritual and political ideology that emphasises traditional values, restoration of Russia’s power and the unity of all ethnic Russians throughout the world.
He is also a vehement supporter of Russia’s sending of troops into Ukraine.
Our reporter Pjotr Sauer has more information in this profile of Dugin.
Updated
Here is some video footage showing the aftermath of a suspected car bomb attack which killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of the ultranationalist Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin.
Dugina died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was travelling in was ripped apart by an explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the Russian capital on Saturday evening.
Summary
It is coming up to 4pm in Kyiv. Here is a summary of where we are today so far:
The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.
Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”
Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.
Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day on Wednesday. In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule. “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said.
The curfew in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am but extra precautions were required on independence day.
Ukraine launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol earlier on Saturday. Officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down and that the city’s air defence system had been called into action again on Saturday night.
Video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.
Three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested for suspected spying after trying to break into a military base and arms factory in central Albania, the Albanian defense ministry said on Saturday. Two Albanian soldiers were injured in the incident at the Gramsh base, the ministry said, adding the conditions of the soldiers was stable. Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama said the three individuals are “suspected of espionage”.
Even if Vladimir Putin does eventually falter, Russia’s power structure means another Putin will follow, and then another, writes Russian novelist Mikhail Shishkin.
In 2014, shortly after the annexation of Crimea, I wrote, with increasing urgency, that “in the 21st century there is no such thing as a distant, localised war any more. Every war is now a European war. And this European war has already begun.”
I warned that Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea would “create a wave of patriotism. Sooner or later, this wave will break, and then Putin will need a fresh wind.” I wrote of how years of chronic instability in the Balkans would create cripplingly high levels of migration to European countries, with an “inconceivably greater wave of refugees from Ukraine”.
Back then, there was still a chance to stop the aggressor. Yet European politicians closed their eyes to reality in an effort to curry favour with voters. Voters wanted peace then, too; jobs, no price rises and nice holidays. Corrupt Russian experts insisted that we should understand Putin’s point of view and make concessions.
Ukraine denies involvement in Darya Dugina death
Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in a televised statement that Ukraine had no involvement in the death of Dugina, the daughter of Putin confidant Alexander Dugin.
Podolyak told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”
He appeared to blame internal power struggles between “various political factions” in Russia for the killing, and suggested the incident was the “Karmic” payback for supporters of Russia’s actions in Ukraine like Dugina and her father.
Russia orders investigation into Dugina car bomb death after device found under vehicle
More details are emerging about the suspected car bomb attack which killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine.
The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee has ordered the institution’s central branch to take over the investigation.
“An explosive device was placed on the underside of the car on the driver’s side,” the committee said in a statement. “Darya Dugina, who was behind the wheel, died at the scene.
“The investigation believes that the crime was planned in advance and was of a contractual nature,” it added.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, said that if the investigation’s trail led to Ukraine, then it would point to a policy of “state terrorism” being pursued by Kyiv.
Updated
For the second time in less than a month, Russia’s naval base at Sevastopol has come under a drone attack. Plumes of smoke were seen rising after the incident on Saturday morning, which the Russian-appointed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said came after a drone flew over the sensitive military site.
In narrow military terms the attack is not significant. Razvozhaev said it involved a single drone. Footage from a local Telegram channel appears to back that up. But a key question is how a drone was able to evade Russian electronic warfare defences and fly right over the naval base.
What sounds like small arms fire, not air defence systems, can be heard on some of the videos and the drone may have been shot down before delivering a payload. Razvozhaev said initially the drone had not been hit, before saying it was. At the very least, though, it is embarrassing for Russia, which is struggling to show it can defend what it considers its own back yard.
Russia says is has destroyed Odesa ammunition depot
Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.
The ministry also said it had destroyed two M777 Howitzers in combat positions in the Kherson region, and a fuel depot in the Zaporizhzhia region that it said was storing more than 100 tonnes of diesel fuel.
A spokesman for Odesa’s regional administration said two missiles had been shot down over the sea, but that three had struck agricultural targets.
There were no casualties, the spokesman, Serhiy Bratchuk, said. An explosives expert and investigators were working at the granary, he said.
Reuters was not able to immediately verify the battlefield reports.
Updated
Russia has deployed hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles three times over the course of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu has said.
The Kinzhal missiles are part of an array of new hypersonic weapons president Vladimir Putin unveiled in 2018 in a speech in which he said they could hit almost any point in the world and evade a US-built missile shield.
Shoigu, speaking on state television, said the missiles had proved effective in hitting high-value targets on all three occasions, hailing them as without compare and as almost impossible to take down when in flight.
“We have deployed it three times during the special military operation,” Shoigu said in an interview broadcast on Rossiya 1. “And three times it showed brilliant characteristics.”
Russia first used the Kinzhal system in Ukraine about a month after sending tens of thousands of troops into the country, striking a large weapons depot in Ukraine’s western Ivano-Frankivsk region.
This week, Russia’s defence ministry said three MiG-31E warplanes equipped with Kinzhal missiles had been relocated to the Kaliningrad region, a Russian Baltic coast exclave located between NATO and European Union members Poland and Lithuania.
On Russia’s Navy Day late last month, Putin announced that the navy would receive what he called “formidable” hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in coming months. The missiles can travel at nine times the speed of sound, outrunning air defences.
The war in Ukraine will reach a grim anniversary on 24 August, when we will be six months into a conflict whose terminus we still cannot see.
Can history offer any clues? Vladimir Putin likes to talk about the second world war, Russia’s best war, but the closest parallel is probably the Crimean war, which dragged on for two and a half years, from 1853 to 1856, before the exhausted belligerents worked out a peace agreement.
An underachieving Russian military failed to achieve any of its goals. But the British and French, who forged an alliance with the Turks, encountered frustrations of their own as they groped toward a victory that felt pyrrhic at times. Surprisingly, one of the war’s great legacies was felt in the US, where an unexpected chain of events, tied to Russia’s defeat, helped to end slavery.
Can any lessons be drawn from the Crimean war today?
Guardian football writer Nick Ames reports on FC Kryvbas, a Ukrainian football club refusing to leave their city despite the threat of attack from Russia.
FC Kryvbas will not relocate to Kyiv, as others have done, even if areas on the city’s periphery are frequently being shelled and the troubling spectre of the Enerhodar nuclear power station looms 60 miles to the south-east.
The city is protected by four lines of defence and cannot be entered without passing a series of army checkpoints.
In June, the club told its rivals to forget any idea of playing league games abroad, saying there is “no other option, neither from a moral point of view nor from sporting principle” than to compete domestically.
The same month, Vernydub became manager. “It has to happen here, in our land,” he says. “It’s very important to our soldiers, our warriors, that we do it.”
Read the full report:
In more cheerful news for Ukraine, boxer Oleksandr Usyk retained his heavyweight world titles with a points victory over Britain’s Anthony Joshua in Saudi Arabia on Saturday night.
Usyk, who spent time before this fight serving in his country’s armed forces as part of their defence the Russian invasion, paid tribute to his comrades in his victory speech.
“I devote this victory to my country, to my family, to my team, to all the military defending this country,” the 35-year-old Usyk said through a translator. “Thank you very, very much.”
Read our fight report here:
Updated
Daughter of Putin ally killed in a car bomb
A very interesting story is developing in Moscow where the daughter of a key ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb, according to multiple reports.
Darya Dugina, daughter of Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin – dubbed “Putin’s brain” – died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 20km west of the capital at around 9.30pm local time.
Andrey Krasnov, a friend of Dugina and the head of the Russian Horizon social movement, confirmed the reports, according to the news agency Tass.
He said that the bomb could have been intended for her father.
“This was the father’s vehicle. Darya was driving another car but she took his car today, while Alexander went in a different way. He returned, he was at the site of the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were the target,” Krasnov said.
The head of the self-proclaimed, pro-Kremlin Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, blamed the Ukrainian government.
Full story here:
Two Russians and Ukrainian arrested in Albania 'spy' raid
Another intriguing story comes from Albania today where two Russians and a Ukrainian have been arrested after what appears to have been a spying raid gone wrong at a military base and arms factory in central Albania.
The Albanian defence ministry said on Saturday night that one of the suspects tried to disable guards with a paralysing spray when he was caught taking photographs at the factory.
Albania’s prime minister called it “suspected espionage”.
The full story is here:
Fighting has continued on several fronts across Ukraine in the past 24 hours, including new strikes on the Russian-annexed region of Crimea.
Authorities in Sevastapol said they had shot down a Ukrainian drone over the city on Saturday after what appeared to be a drone attack on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters.
Video appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the drone and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.
Also on Saturday, a Russian missile hit a residential area of a southern Ukrainian town not far from a nuclear power station, wounding 14 civilians, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.
The strike at the Pivdennoukrainsk (South Ukraine) nuclear station and fresh shelling near the Zaporizhzhia station, Europe’s largest, revived fears of a nuclear accident, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack on Voznesensk was “another act of Russian nuclear terrorism,” said state-run Energoatom, which manages Ukraine’s four nuclear energy generators.
“It is possible that this missile was aimed specifically at the Pivdennoukrainsk plant, which the Russian military tried to seize back at the beginning of March,” it said in a statement.
Zelenskiy warns Ukrainians to be vigilant ahead of independence day
An exhibition of destroyed Russian military vehicles adorns the streets of Kyiv ahead of Ukrainian independence day on Wednesday. Ukrainians are saying that Vladimir Putin got his wish for a parade in their capital, but just not the one he wanted.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is obviously worried that Russia is going to try to spoil the celebrations and has warned his countrymen and women that Putin might try something “ugly” or “vicious” ahead of Wednesday.
“We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly remarks on video on Saturday.
Security has been stepped up in the second city, Kharkiv, with the city’s curfew extended on Wednesday.
Full report here:
Welcome
Good morning/afternoon/evening wherever you are and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
The coming week looks set to be dominated – one way or another – by Ukraine’s celebrations of its independence from Soviet rule 31 years ago. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned on Saturday night that Russia might try to do something “ugly” to spoil the show.
Fighting continues to rage across the country with Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea, and Russia missile strikes injured several people in an attack near Mykolaiv.
And there’s an intriguing story from Albania where three people carrying Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested after what appears to be a bungled spying raid on a military base.
Anyway, here are the main developments over the last few hours:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day on Wednesday. In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule. “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said.
The curfew in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am but extra precautions were required on independence day.
Ukraine launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol earlier on Saturday. Officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down and that the city’s air defence system had been called into action again on Saturday night.
Video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.
Three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested for suspected spying after trying to break into a military base and arms factory in central Albania, the Albanian defense ministry said on Saturday. Two Albanian soldiers were injured in the incident at the Gramsh base, the ministry said, adding the conditions of the soldiers was stable. Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama said the three individuals are “suspected of espionage”.
The US is planning to buy about 150,000 metric tonnes of grain from Ukraine in the next few weeks for an upcoming shipment of food aid from ports no longer blockaded by war, the World Food Programme chief has said. The planned shipment, one of several the U.N. agency that fights hunger is pursuing, is more than six times the amount of grain that the first WFP-arranged ship from Ukraine is now carrying toward people in the Horn of Africa at risk of starvation.
António Guterres, the UN secretary general, said he was moved by the sight of Ukrainian wheat being shipped from Turkey. Russian fertilisers and agricultural products must be able to reach world markets “unimpeded” or a global food crisis could strike as early as next year, he said.
Four children have reportedly been injured following a Russian strike on a residential building in the Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.
Russian entities and individuals were attempting to use Turkey to bypass western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, the US deputy treasury secretary, Wally Adeyemo, told Turkey’s deputy finance minister, Yunus Elitas, that the US treasury department said. In a phone call, the department said, the two also discussed efforts to implement and enforce sanctions against Russia, Reuters reports.
Ukraine’s defence ministry on Saturday said its forces had killed a total of 44,900 Russian personnel – a rise of 200 on the day before.
Olaf Scholz has praised Alexei Navalny on the second anniversary of the jailed Russian opposition politician’s attempted poisoning.
