Kharkiv high-rise hit by Russian airstrike

A Russian air strike has hit a high-rise residential building in Kharkiv, local officials said, as Russian forces continued to make deeper advances.

There was no immediate mention of casualties or the extent of the damage, according to the regional governor, who warned there was a threat of more strikes coming.

More than 7,000 people have fled Kharkiv since Russia launched its ground invasion on Friday as Kyiv’s top general warned that while the situation was stabilising, his troops are outgunned and outnumbered.

Gen Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said that when the situation is stabilised in Kharkiv he expects Russia to launch a new attack in the Sumy region.

Russia’s Tass state news agency said that the western and northern parts of Vovchansk, the town that has seen the bulk of the fighting around Kharkiv since Friday, have fallen under the control of Russian forces. Street fighting was ongoing in the town, Tass said. Kyiv said the situation was “under control”.

Moscow later claimed to have captured another village, Bugruvatka, and “advanced deep into the enemy defence.”

03:30 PM BST

Today’s live blog is now closed

That’s all for today, thanks following along. Here are the key developments from the day:

• Ukraine is struggling with troop shortages as it tries to repel an advancing Russian offensive on Kharkiv, its top general has admitted. Gen Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency told The New York Times: “All of our forces are either here or in Chasiv Yar,” referring to a Ukrainian stronghold about 120 miles further south that Russian troops have assaulted in recent weeks. “I’ve used everything we have. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else in the reserves.”

• The sorely needed new US weapons package has started to arrive in Ukraine and more is on its way, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said during a visit to Kyiv this morning. “In the near term, assistance is now on its way and that will make a real difference against the Russian aggression on the battlefield,” Mr Blinken told Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, at the start of their meeting.

• Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday the situation in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region was under control, despite Russian media claims that parts of the embattled town have fallen to Moscow’s forces.

• Vladimir Putin will visit China this week meeting his “dear friend” Xi Jinping as he seeks to win greater support for his war effort in Ukraine and Russia’s isolated economy.

• Another six children have been rescued from Russian-occupied territories by NGO Save Ukraine, the governor of the Kherson region said today. Oleksandr Prokudin said one girl and five boys aged five to 12 had been rescued.

• Russia said Tuesday its forces had captured another village in the Kharkiv region and advanced far behind Ukrainian defensive lines in the border territory.

• Zelensky told Blinken, who was on an unannounced visit to Kyiv to assure support, that Ukraine urgently needs more air defences, a plea that was later reiterated by German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz who urged European countries to do more to help Ukraine.

03:00 PM BST

Russia massing assault force for new northern invasion, Ukraine spy chief warns

Russia has stationed small assault units near Ukraine’s Sumy region, Kyiv’s top general said, anticipating another Russian offensive in the north.

Speaking to Ukrainian TV, Gen Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, said that the situation in the Kharkiv region – where Russia launched a surprise assault on Friday – was moving toward stabilsation.

Gen Budanov earlier told the New York Times that he expects the assault on Sumy as soon as the situation in Kharkiv is stabilised, as Russia attempts to divert Ukrainian resources away from other parts of the frontline.

While the Ukrainian military today said that the situation in Kharkiv was “under control,” Russia claimed to have taken control in parts of Vovchansk where heavy fighting has been underway since Friday.

02:29 PM BST

Watch: Zelensky stresses need for more air defences in Kharkiv

02:15 PM BST

Zelensky expected in Madrid on Friday

Volodymyr Zelensky is expected in Madrid on Friday for an official visit, Spain’s royal palace said on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president is to be received at noon by King Felipe VI before an official lunch in his honour, according to the palace’s agenda, which did not provide further details.

The Spanish government has not provided any details on the visit but daily newspaper El Pais said Zelensky and Pedro Sanchez, the Spanish prime minister, are expected to sign a bilateral agreement on security guarantees between their countries.

The trip comes as Russia’s ground offensive in the Kharkiv region has forced thousands to evacuate and pushed Kyiv to mobilise reinforcements.

02:01 PM BST

EU financial assistance plan a ‘game-changer’

EU leaders today approved a plan that will see a regular flow of payments as part of its Ukraine financial assistance plan, after the bloc determined the Kyiv has met the preconditions required to unlock a financial package of up to $54 billion (£43 billion).

Denys Shmyhal, the Ukrainian prime minister, described the programme, designed to assist Ukraine with the recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of the country, as a “game-changer”.

He said he expects Ukraine to receive $17 billion in the next year under the scheme.

01:46 PM BST

No new mobilisation for Russian troops

Andrei Belousov, Vladimir Putin’s nominee for defence minister, said there will be no new mobilisation of Russian troops, but that the enemy is learning fast and Moscow needed to be ahead, Reuters reported.

He also said it was imperative that Russian soldiers have the most modern equipment.

01:39 PM BST

Ukrainian officials renew pleas for more military aid

Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s Defence Minister, called for more artillery shells on Tuesday as Russia stepped up attacks.

“We need more artillery shells as Russia is still many times ahead,” Mr Umerov told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2024 in an online address. “Under such conditions it’s extremely difficult to hold the ground.”

01:15 PM BST

Tobias Ellwood tweets about new Russian defence minister – with image from comedy movie

Tobias Ellwood has shared a photograph of the new Russian defence chief wearing a military uniform covered in medals – but it was in fact a Photoshopped image of a character from the comedy film The Death of Stalin.

The former defence minister posted the picture of “Andrey Belousov”, the economist who was announced as Russia’s new defence minister on Sunday.

But the image was not all it seemed – Mr Belousov’s face had been Photoshopped onto the body of Jason Isaacs in costume as Georgy Zhukov in The Death of Stalin.

Mr Ellwood, who is also the former chairman of the Commons defence committee, insisted that the now-deleted post on social media was intentionally “tongue in cheek” to underline that a “non-military loyalist with an economic background is now in charge of Russia’s military”.

Read more here

01:00 PM BST

At least eight civilians killed in Kharkiv since Friday, UN says

12:47 PM BST

Russia puts submarine-launched Bulava intercontinental missile into service

Russia has put its submarine-launched Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile into service, state media said on Tuesday, a key element in the modernisation of its nuclear arsenal.

Tass news agency quoted Yuri Solomonov, the missile’s chief designer, as saying its adoption was announced in a decree dated May 7, the same day Vladimir Putin began a new six-year term in the Kremlin.

The Bulava was developed under a programme that started in the 1990s and is designed to be deployed on Russia’s Borei-class submarines.

Last November, the defence ministry said one of those submarines had successfully test-launched the Bulava, firing it from an underwater position in the White Sea off northern Russia and hitting a target thousands of kilometres away on the Kamchatka peninsula in the far east.

12:41 PM BST

Over 7,000 flee Kharkiv in voluntary evacuations

More than 7,000 people have been evacuated from the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, said on Tuesday.

The majority of the evacuations took place in the Chuhuiv and Kharkiv districts, he said.

In the Sumy region, which borders Kharkiv, a “voluntary evacuation” order has been put in place for several towns where attacks have increased and the military expect Russia to launch an assault on next.

Volodymyr Artuikh, the Sumy governor, said on Tuesday: “This is not a forced evacuation, but an early voluntary evacuation from those settlements where the number of attacks has significantly increased.”

The voluntary evacuations are focusing on the areas of  Blopillia and Vorozhba.

11:56 AM BST

Patrushev appointed adviser to Putin

Vladimir Putin has appointed one of the Kremlin’s most hardcore hawks as his personal adviser, writes James Kilner.

The Kremlin said that Nikolai Patrushev will advise Putin on security issues and will also have special responsibility for “shipbuilding issues”.

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said: “Shipbuilding is a strategic industry, huge and very complex. Patrushev’s vast experience will definitely play a big role.”

Mr Patrushev, 72, is a longtime ally of Putin from their days working in the Soviet Union’s KGB secret service together and is thought to have advised Putin to invade Ukraine in 2022 and has encouraged more confrontation with Nato.

Between 1999 and 2008, Mr Patrushev was head of Russia’s FSB intelligence service. British intelligence has said that he probably approved the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian security officer who fled to the West, by Russian agents in London in 2006.

Mr Patrushev had been removed as secretary of Russia’s influential National Security Council in a reshuffle on Sunday without immediately being given another job.

11:53 AM BST

Russia says its advanced ‘deep’ into Ukraine’s defensive lines

Russia said Tuesday its forces had captured another village in the Kharkiv region and advanced far behind Ukrainian defensive lines in the border territory.

“Units of the North group of troops liberated the village of Bugruvatka in the Kharkiv region and advanced deep into the enemy defence,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

It came after Russia’s Tass state news agency today said that the western and northern parts of Vovchansk have fallen under the control of Russian forces. Ukraine’s military said that the situation in Vovchansk was “under control”.

The Telegraph were not able to immediately verify the battlefield claims.

Ukrainian troops “changed positions” near the village of Lukiantsi in Kharkiv “to save the lives” of their soldiers, Ukraine’s military said today.

It said the decision was taken due to intense Russian fire and bombardment of Ukrainian positions, adding that “the fighting is ongoing”.

11:33 AM BST

Death toll in Belgorod building collapse rises to 16

The death toll from an apartment building collapse in Belgorod on Saturday has risen to 16, according to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod, claimed that the building was hit by a Ukrainian projectile during an air raid alert in the oblast.

The Kremlin described it as “terrorism”, while Kyiv did not comment on the claims.

11:22 AM BST

Russian snipers halt evacuation of civilians in Ukraine’s border towns –– Telegraph dispatch

During two years as a military policeman in Ukraine’s war, Vlad Yefarov has long wondered whether there might one day be a bullet with his name on it.

On Sunday, while trying to save a pensioner trapped from the north-east border town of Vovchansk, he faced not one such bullet, but half a dozen.

“We were driving past the old shoemaker’s factory when a Russian sniper’s bullet hit the windscreen right in front of me,” he said, pointing to the cracked glass above the steering wheel on his Toyota pick-up.

“We tried to turn around, but as we did so, a Russian machine-gunner opened fire on us, and the sniper put another round in my driver’s side window.”

That Mr Yefarov, 27, is still around to tell the tale is thanks to the fact that last year, foreign donors gave his police force a fleet of armoured Toyotas to replace their standard-issue ones. The two sniper rounds that would otherwise have taken his head off were stopped by bullet-proof glass, while the four machine-gun rounds that punctured the Toyota either side were halted by the steel plating under the bodywork.

“If we’d been in a soft-skinned car, I’d have been killed straight away,” he said, as he stood by the bullet-ridden vehicle in the town of Buhaivka, 10 miles south. “Plus my three comrades who were in the back would be dead too.”

Read more of Colin Freeman’s dispatch from Buhaivka here

10:51 AM BST

Evacuations from Vovchansk, Kharkiv continue

10:35 AM BST

Six more children rescued from Russian-occupied areas

Another six children have been rescued from Russian-occupied territories by NGO Save Ukraine, the governor of the Kherson region said today.

Oleksandr Prokudin said one girl and five boys aged five to 12 had been rescued.

“It was an extremely difficult rescue mission, with delays at checkpoints and intimidation,” he said.

According to Kyiv Independent, more than 19,500 children have been confirmed as abducted by Russia since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and less than 400 of them have been brought back home.

10:24 AM BST

New Kremlin aides: Dyumin to oversee defence industry, Patrushev to handle shipbuilding

Newly promoted Kremlin aide Alexei Dyumin will oversee the defence industry and Nikolai Patrushev will have a remit for shipbuilding, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said on Tuesday.

Maxim Oreshkin, the deputy chief of staff, will have a mandate including economic issues as well as transport, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said.

Referring to Mr Patrushev’s appointment, Mr Peskov said shipbuilding was a big complex, strategic sector where his experience would play a big role.

Mr Patrushev is a close Putin ally who previously served as secretary of the Security Council.

10:17 AM BST

Russia has taken control of several villages in the Kharkiv region, the MoD says

10:14 AM BST

Russia defence ministry bribery scandal deepens

We reported earlier that a Russian general in charge of personnel issues has been detained on suspicion of engaging in criminal activity, just a day after Putin unexpectedly removed Sergei Shoigu from the post of defence minister.

Now, the state investigative committee has said that Yuri Kuznetsov, the head of personnel at Russia’s defence ministry, was suspected of “receiving a bribe on an especially large scale”.

Investigators said searches at Kuznetsov’s properties uncovered the equivalent of more than $1 million in roubles and foreign currency, as well as gold coins, watches and luxury items.

At least five people have been arrested in the scandal, starting with the detention of deputy minister Timur Ivanov on the same charge on April 23.

The Kremlin on Tuesday said that it did not believe that a change of defence minister and ongoing corruption scandals within the ministry would negatively affect the way Russia is conducting what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine.

Read the full story here

10:04 AM BST

Putin to visit ‘dear friend’ Xi Jinping this week

Vladimir Putin will visit China this week meeting his “dear friend” Xi Jinping as he seeks to win greater support for his war effort in Ukraine and Russia’s isolated economy.

The trip will mark the president’s first trip abroad since his sham re-election in March and the second trip to China in just over six months, an indication of the economic lifeline it gives Russia in the aftermath of western sanctions.

Putin will be in Beijing from Thursday to Friday, Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.

Wang Wenbin, another foreign ministry spokesman told a briefing: “President Xi Jinping will exchange views with President Putin on bilateral ties, cooperation in various fields, and international and regional issues of common interest,”

The Kremlin said the two leaders would discuss their “comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation” as well as “define key areas of development of Russian-Chinese cooperation and exchange views on international and regional issues”.

09:54 AM BST

Ukraine says Vovchansk is under control despite Russia’s claims to the contrary

Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday the situation in the town of Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region was under control, despite Russian media claims that parts of the embattled town have fallen to Moscow’s forces.

It said in its daily readout on the battlefield situation that the number of Russian attacks in the northern part of the Kharkiv region decreased significantly but that Ukrainian troops had to withdraw to new positions near the village of Lukyantsi due to heavy Russian air strikes.

The comments came after Russia’s Tass state news agency said that the western and northern parts of Vovchansk have fallen under the control of Russian forces.

Street fighting was ongoing in the town, Tass reported.

Since Friday, Vovchansk has been the focal point of the fighting in Russia’s new ground assault.

09:30 AM BST

Zelensky stresses need for more air defences in Kharkiv

The sorely needed new US weapons package has started to arrive in Ukraine and more is on its way, Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said during a visit to Kyiv this morning.

“In the near term, assistance is now on its way and that will make a real difference against the Russian aggression on the battlefield,” Mr Blinken told Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, at the start of their meeting.

Mr Zelensky lauded the “crucial” US aid and asked Mr Blinken for two air defence batteries for the north eastern city of Kharkiv, which is being pummelled by Russian air strikes. Air defences, he stressed, are their biggest deficit.

09:09 AM BST

Ukrainian drone derails a Russian train and mangles the track

A Russian freight train has derailed and a fire sparked in the diesel tank, in a suspicious incident that Russian media is blaming on a Ukrainian drone attack.

Russian Railways said simply that the derailment in the southern region of Volgograd was caused by interference by unauthorised persons, in a suspected sabotage.

Footage published by Baza, a Telegram channel linked to Russia’s security services, showed freight wagons strewn alongside a railway line.

There were no casualties in the incident which happened at 22.15 GMT on Monday, the railways said, adding that train services resumed a few hours later.

“As a result of interference by unauthorised persons into the operation of railway transport, cars of a freight train derailed at the Kotluban station,” Russian Railways added.

The storage tank and cars with lumber caught fire and the blaze was extinguished, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported, citing the emergency ministry.

Tass, another state news agency, cited emergency services as saying that 300 metres of track had been damaged in the incident.

08:41 AM BST

All 18 Russian drones launched overnight destroyed, Ukraine claims

Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed all 18 attack drones that Russia launched overnight at Ukrainian territory, its air force said.

The drones were downed over several regions, including the Kyiv region and the front line regions, the air force said on its Telegram messaging channel.

The air force also said that Russia launched one Iskander-M ballistic missile but did not say whether it was intercepted.

08:32 AM BST

Pictured: Blinken arrives in Kyiv early this morning

08:13 AM BST

Russian general detained in suspected criminal prosecution

A Russian general in charge of personnel issues has been detained on suspicion of engaging in criminal activity, Tass news agency reported.

The arrest of Lt Gen Yuri Kuznetsov came after Vladimir Putin oversaw major changes in Russia’s defence establishment, including the dismissal and transfer of Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister.

A security source told Tass that Kuznetsov had been detained “on suspicion of criminal activity”.

“The investigation of the case is being conducted by the main military investigative body of Russia’s investigative committee,” the source told Tass, referring to Russia’s most important investigative institution.

“The investigator has already approached the court on selecting preventive conditions for the general in the form of upholding his detention.”

07:57 AM BST

Blinken in Ukraine to assure US support amid new Russian offensive

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, arrived Tuesday in Kyiv on an unannounced visit to assure Ukraine of continued American support and the flow of much-needed weapons as Russia presses on with its new offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region.

A senior US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters aboard the train: “This trip is to send a strong signal of reassurance to the Ukrainians who are obviously in a very difficult moment both with grinding battle on the Eastern Front but also with the Russians now expanding some cross-border attacks into Kharkiv,”

Mr Blinken intends to detail how US aid will “be executed in a fashion to help shore up their defences and enable them to increasingly take back the initiative on the battlefield,” the official said.

The White House said Monday it was doing “everything” possible to rush weapons to Ukraine.

Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, told reporters a new arms package would be announced “in the coming days.”

07:46 AM BST

Four injured in Russian shelling of Kharkiv

Four people were injured in fresh Russian attacks on the battered city of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s north-east, Ukrainian officials said this morning.

A man and three women were injured in shelling by Russian forces early on Tuesday, Oleh Sinehubov, the governor of the broader Kharkiv region of which Kharkiv city is the administrative centre, said on Telegram.

Sinehubov said that Russia attacked Ukraine’s second largest city with its new UMPB D-30 bombs, Soviet-era retrofitted high-precision guided bombs that behave like a cruise missile.

The Telegraph could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Moscow.

07:43 AM BST

Good morning

Hello and welcome to The Telegraph’s live blog on the war in Ukraine. Follow along as we bring you all of the latest developments.

First up this morning:

Ukraine ‘has no reserves’ to push back Kharkiv assault, top general admits

Ukraine is struggling with troop shortages as it tries to repel an advancing Russian offensive on Kharkiv, its top general has admitted.

Gen Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency told The New York Times: “All of our forces are either here or in Chasiv Yar,” referring to a Ukrainian stronghold about 120 miles further south that Russian troops have assaulted in recent weeks. “I’ve used everything we have. Unfortunately, we don’t have anyone else in the reserves.”

The general said that Ukraine was outnumbered as well as outgunned, with the latest US military aid package signed three weeks ago only just beginning to arrive.

The coming days would be important, he said, with Kyiv believing it can shore up its defensive lines. He believes though that Russia may launch a new attack further north of Kharkiv, in the Sumy region.

Ukrainian troops have been battling the new Russian offensive since Friday, with Moscow claiming that it has already captured nine villages.

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