Closing summary
We’re pausing our live coverage new, here’s a round-up of the day’s main developments:
Western allies are taking too long to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told Reuters as Russia is expected to step up its offensive in the north-east.
Ukrainian air defences shot down 28 of the 29 drones launched during a Russian attack overnight, air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram.
Ukraine urgently needs to boost its air defences in the face of relentless Russian attacks, Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, warned as she arrived in Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is asking the west to become more involved in the war in Ukraine because of the extremely unfavourable situation of Ukrainian troops on the frontline, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told journalists.
Ten Ukrainian soldiers have completed training for the F-16 aircraft maintenance in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch defence ministry.
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Ukrainian soldiers complete F-16 aircraft maintenance training in the Netherlands
Ten Ukrainian soldiers have completed training for the F-16 aircraft maintenance in the Netherlands, according to the Dutch defence ministry.
The Netherlands has agreed to make at least 24 F-16s available to Ukraine, as Kyiv seeks to bolster its air force in the face of relentless Russian attacks.
The soldiers practised servicing oxygen systems, helmets and onboard parachutes, the ministry said in a press release.
“The training also included the composition and inspection of the survival pack,” the defence ministry said.
“This allows the pilot to survive for several days after an emergency landing. It contains food and medicine, among other things.
“Their training prepares the trainees for all possible risks of an F-16 mission. This will ultimately also provide better protection for Ukrainian pilots.”
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a lightweight fighter aircraft that can travel twice the speed of sound.
Kyiv’s allies hope the modern aircraft can push Russian aircraft further from the frontlines, target radar transmitters more effectively and hunt down more cruise missiles.
During the war, Ukraine has operated a small air force based on Soviet standard aircraft, but it has been no match for its larger Russian equivalent.
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A 77-year-old Russian physicist has been sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony for treason, the latest in a string of cases against experts working on the science that underpins Russia’s development of hypersonic missiles.
Anatoly Maslov was convicted by a St Petersburg court following a trial that was closed to the press, according to Reuters. He had protested his innocence.
Maslov is one of three scientists from the same Siberian institute, all specialists in hypersonics, who have been arrested since 2022 on treason charges. The other two, Alexander Shiplyuk and Valery Zvegintsev, are awaiting trial.
They – along with a number of other scientists accused in similar cases – had conducted theoretical work in areas connected to the development of hypersonic missiles.
These missiles are cutting-edge weapons capable of carrying payloads at up to 10 times the speed of sound to punch through air defence systems.
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Ukraine’s general staff said the frequency of Russian attacks in Kharkiv slowed on Monday, though fighting continued.
Russian troops are also conducting reconnaissance and sabotage raids in Ukraine’s northern Sumy and Chernihiv regions, shelling border settlements and laying more minefields, according to Dmytro Lykhovii, Ukraine’s general staff spokesperson.
Moscow launched a surprise major ground assault on the Kharkiv region in early May as it sought to advance while Kyiv is struggling for arms and manpower.
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Here are some of the latest images of Ukraine coming out from the newswires:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is asking the west to become more involved in the war in Ukraine because of the extremely unfavourable situation of Ukrainian troops on the frontline, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has told journalists.
At the same time, Kyiv realises that even growing arms supplies will not be able to change the dynamic on the battlefield, Peskov added.
Speaking as Ukraine’s outgunned forces attempt to shore up a weakened frontline, Zelenskiy said earlier that armed forces of neighbouring Nato countries could intercept incoming Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory.
He also said Kyiv was negotiating with international partners to use their weapons to strike Russian military hardware at the border and further inside Russian territory.
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A man was killed by Ukrainian shelling in the city of Donetsk, the Russian-installed mayor Alexei Kulemzin wrote on Telegram.
“Residential buildings, a shopping centre and infrastructure facilities were also damaged. Windows were blown out, walls and roofs of buildings and a gas pipe were hit by fragments,” he said.
As we mentioned in the opening summary, the US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has urged German bank executives to step up efforts to comply with sanctions against Russia.
Here are some of her comments at the start of a meeting with bankers in Frankfurt:
Russia continues to procure sensitive goods and to expand its ability to domestically manufacture these goods. We must remain vigilant and be more ambitious.
I urge all institutions here to take heightened compliance measures and to increase your focus on Russian evasion attempts …
Russia is desperate to obtain critical goods from advanced economies like Germany and the United States.
We must remain vigilant to prevent the Kremlin’s ability to supply its defence industrial base, and to access our financial systems to do so.
Yellen said the most concerning Russian sanctions evasion activity was coming through China, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
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Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, had planned to visit Kharkiv on Tuesday but the trip had to be called off for security reasons, German news agency dpa reported.
Almost 11,000 people have been evacuated from Kharkiv border areas since Russia launched an assault there on 10 May.
A Russian overnight drone attack hit transport infrastructure in Kharkiv city, the regional capital, damaging over 25 trucks, buses, and other vehicles, injuring seven people, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Tuesday.
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Ukraine 'urgently' needs more air defences to protect itself from 'rain of Russian missiles', Germany's foreign minister warns
Ukraine urgently needs to boost its air defences in the face of relentless Russian attacks, Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, warned as she arrived in Kyiv.
Her unannounced visit came as more than two dozen Russian drones targeted Ukraine overnight, in a reported attack that left several people injured in the eastern Kharkiv region.
“The situation in Ukraine has once more dramatically deteriorated with the massive Russian aerial attacks on civilian infrastructure, and the brutal Russian offensive in the Kharkiv region,” Baerbock said.
To protect itself from the “rain of Russian drones and missiles”, Ukraine “urgently needs a boosted air defence”, she said.
“Our support is based on the deep conviction that Ukraine will win this war,” Baerbock added.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock arrives on a visit to Kyiv pic.twitter.com/Hi6q7BUbcA
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) May 21, 2024
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has reiterated pleas for allies to send more air defence and fighter jets to combat Russia’s air superiority as the war grinds through its third year.
He said Ukraine needed “120 to 130” F-16 fighter jets or other advanced aircraft to achieve “parity” with Russia.
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Ukrainian air defences shot down 28 of the 29 drones launched during a Russian attack overnight, air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram.
The drones were shot down in Odesa, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Kherson and Kirovohrad regions, he said.
They were reportedly launched from Primorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region, from Cape Chauda in occupied Crimea, and from Russia’s Kursk region.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. The time has just gone past 10:30am in Kyiv.
Western allies are taking too long to make key decisions on military support for Ukraine, the country’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has told Reuters as Russia is expected to step up its offensive in the north-east.
He also said he was pushing partners to get more directly in the war by helping to intercept Russian missiles over Ukraine and allowing Kyiv to use western weapons against enemy military equipment amassing near the border.
“Russians are using 300 planes on the territory of Ukraine. We need at least 120, 130 planes to resist in the sky,” Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine is waiting for the delivery of F-16 fighter jets. Zelenskiy said that if countries could not supply the planes straight away, they could still fly them from neighbouring Nato states and shoot down Russian missiles.
The Ukrainian president said Kyiv was negotiating with international partners to use their weapons to strike Russian military hardware at the border and further inside Russian territory. “So far, there is nothing positive,” he said. Zelenskiy reiterated that he had not broken agreements with allies not to use their weapons inside Russia. “We can’t put the whole volume of weapons at risk.”
Ukraine’s allies should lift such restrictions, the Lithuanian foreign minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, said.
“From the beginning we have made the mistake of limiting the Ukrainians because it could be seen as an escalation,” he said, adding that Ukraine’s supporters were “dominated by fear of Russia … the Ukrainians must be allowed to use the equipment provided to them so that they can achieve strategic objectives. They must be able to strike Russian territory, supply lines, and military units preparing to attack Ukraine. Only one side has rules imposed on it,” he said. “We must abandon these rules that we created.”
In other news:
One person was killed and three injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the village of Oktyabrsky in Russia’s Belgorod region, governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. Belgorod lies close to the border and is considered a vital stop for Russian supply lines.
The US treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, has urged European bank executives to step up their efforts to comply with moves to shut down Russia’s evasion of sanctions.
A Russian delegation arrived in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Monday, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, and will reportedly stay until Thursday. The delegation is led by Grigoriy Rapota, a member of the International Affairs Committee of Russia’s Federation Council and chairman of the Russia-North Korea friendship parliamentary group, the Korean Central news agency said.
Poland has arrested nine members of an alleged Russian spy ring in connection with alleged sabotage plots, prime minister Donald Tusk said on Monday. “We currently have nine suspects detained and indicted, who have been directly implicated in the name of Russian (intelligence) services in acts of sabotage in Poland,” Tusk told private broadcaster TVN24. “These are Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish citizens,” Tusk said, suggesting some may have been recruited from criminal circles. Those detained are accused of “beatings, arson and attempted arson,” according to Tusk, who said the Russian plots concern not just Poland, but also Lithuania, Latvia and possibly Sweden.
Humanitarian aid to Ukraine is falling back even though it needs more, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has warned. Karolina Lindholm Billing, its representative in Ukraine, said the four million people displaced included “some very, very vulnerable people”.
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