One dead and 16 injured in Russian strikes on Kharkiv
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One person has been killed and 16 injured, including children, following a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv, local officials reported.
“A blow to the residential microdistrict of Kharkiv in apartment buildings. There are dead and wounded,” Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, posted on Telegram. “Inspection of apartments in affected houses continues. We are looking for those who need help.”
The attack marks the first time that Kharkiv has been hit by aerial bombs since 2022, Serhiy Bolvinov, a regional police chief, said.
Images of the incident, which wounded four children, were posted on social media and show damage to the windows and balconies of a five-storey apartment building with the body of a man lying on the floor outside.
The explosion took place at a playground between two apartment buildings in the northwestern part of the city, local media reported.
Follow the latest updates below
03:30 PM GMT
That’s all for today
Thank you for tuning in to today’s live blog. We’ll be back tomorrow to bring you all the latest from the Russia-Ukraine war.
Key moments from today:
More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians are being held by Russia, with more than 5,600 of them subjected to torture, Kyiv’s prosecutor general has said.
The death toll in last week’s Moscow concert hall attack has risen to 140 after another victim died in hospital, Russian officials reported.
Russia cannot defeat Ukraine or the West - and will likely lose - if the West mobilises its resources, a leading think tank has said.
An assassination campaign “possibly” run by Kyiv’s security services has killed more than a dozen Ukrainian citizens collaborating with the Kremlin in Russian-occupied territory, Ukraine’s spy chief has said.
Emmanuel Macron has infuriated US officials by hinting that Nato troops could be deployed in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
Vladimir Putin’s close allies refuse to believe his claim that Ukraine was involved in the terrorist attack in Moscow last week that left at least 137 people dead.
Ukraine has dug miles of trenches in Kherson to bolster its defences against Russian attacks, regional military officials reported.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has promised a wider shake-up after dismissing Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s security council secretary.
Ukrainian forces have repelled 21 attacks on the Novopavlivka front in Donetsk over the past day, Kyiv’s general staff reported.
Alexander Lukashenko has said the terrorists who gunned down at least 193 people at a Moscow concert venue last week initially tried to flee to Belarus, contradicting Vladimir Putin’s claims.
Ukraine has sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea, Dmytro Pletenchuk, Kyiv’s navy spokesman, said.
03:24 PM GMT
Russia ‘tortures’ more than five thousand Ukrainians
More than 10,000 Ukrainian civilians are being held by Russia, with more than 5,600 of them subjected to torture, Kyiv’s prosecutor general has said.
“There are different figures. We estimate tens of thousands, more than 10,000 for sure,” Andrii Kostin told Interfax-Ukraine. “We are talking only about those who were forcibly relocated, not about those who made this decision at their own discretion.”
As for the victims of torture, Kostin said the true figures may be “much higher”, adding that 164 Russian torture chambers and forced detention centres have been discovered in liberated Ukrainian territories.
His warning comes as least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) were executed in Russia this winter, a UN human rights report has found.
The report, based on interviews with 60 Ukrainian soldiers released from captivity, “verified three of these incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen hors de combat”, it read.
03:23 PM GMT
‘Hard to believe’ Islamic State behind Moscow attack, says Kremlin
It is “extremely hard to believe” that Islamic State had the capacity to launch last Friday’s Moscow terror attack that killed 140 people, the Kremlin has claimed.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, accused Western media of rushing to pin the blame for the attacks on Islamic State, who have claimed responsibility, as a way of deflecting blame from themselves and Ukraine.
“In order to ward off suspicions from the collective West, they urgently needed to come up with something, so they resorted to ISIS, pulled an ace out of their sleeve,” she said. “Literally a few hours after the terrorist attack, the Anglo-Saxon media began disseminating precisely these versions.”
Moscow has repeatedly alleged, without providing evidence, that Ukraine was behind the deadliest terrorist attack on Russian soil in 20 years at Crocus City Hall.
02:52 PM GMT
Moscow terror attack death toll rises to 140
The death toll in last week’s Moscow concert hall attack has risen to 140 after another victim died in hospital, Russian officials reported.
That person was one of five still hospitalised in an “extremely grave condition”, and the doctors “did everything they could” to save them, Mikhail Murashko, Russia’s health minister, said.
A total of 80 people injured in the attack remain hospitalised, Mr Murashko added, and 205 others have sought outpatient medical assistance.
01:59 PM GMT
Central Asian countries issue travel warnings following Moscow attack
Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry has urged its citizens to put off unnecessary travel to Russia after the Crocus Hall massacre was blamed on migrants from Central Asia.
Last Friday’s attack on a concert venue near Moscow has fanned the flames of anti-immigrant sentiment in Russia after it emerged seven of the suspects originated from Tajikistan while another was from Kyrgyzstan.
In an advisory issued this week, the Kyrgyz foreign ministry urged citizens to visit Russia only if necessary and, if they do, to make sure they have all the required documents on them at all times and comply with lawful orders of Russian police.
Authorities in neighbouring Uzbekistan issued similar advice to any Uzbek citizens currently in Russia or planning to go there, local media reported.
Hundreds of thousands of Central Asians work in Russia, and some have already said it has become tougher for them to do so, with Russian passengers allegedly refusing to ride in taxis with Tajik drivers.
Radio Free Europe reported that many passengers trying to fly to Moscow on Monday from the capital of Turkmenistan, another Central Asian state, were not allowed to board. It said they were told by immigration and law enforcement officials that this was connected to “the recent terrorist attack in Moscow”.
01:23 PM GMT
Russia ‘will likely lose’ to Ukraine if West steps up aid
Russia cannot defeat Ukraine or the West - and will likely lose - if the West mobilises its resources, a leading think tank has said.
The West’s existing capability is more than 33 times greater than that of Russia, the Institute for the Study of War highlighted, arguing that the assumption Ukraine cannot win is a disinformation campaign spread by Moscow.
“The notion that the war is unwinnable because of Russia’s dominance is a Russian information operation,” it said. “Perception manipulation is one of the Kremlin’s core capabilities — now unleashed with full force onto the Western public as the Kremlin’s only strategy for winning in Ukraine.”
The warning comes amid reports of acute ammunition shortages in Ukraine as an aid package worth more than $60 billion remains tied up in US congress.
“The United States must surge its support to Ukraine, and it must do so in time,” the ISW said. “Delays come at the cost of Ukrainian lives, increased risk of failure in Ukraine, and the erosion of the US advantage over Russia.”
12:57 PM GMT
Update: One dead, four wounded in Russian strikes on Ukraine
One woman was killed and four others wounded in Russian attacks on eastern and southern Ukraine, officials have said.
The governor of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, which is partially occupied by Russia, said one woman had been killed in a drone attack on the village of Mykhailivka.
“A 61-year-old local resident was fatally wounded in her own home,” the official, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on social media.
This follows that announcement from Oleg Sinegubov, the governor of the eastern Kharkiv region, that three men and one woman all over the age of 50 were injured in separate strikes on towns and villages in the region with artillery and rockets.
See post at 7.56am for more details on the strikes on Kharkiv.
12:22 PM GMT
Pictured: Russian and Ukrainian troops in action
12:05 PM GMT
Russia looks into alleged US terrorist funding
Russian state investigators have said they will study a request from parliamentarians to investigate what they called the “organisation, financing, and conduct of terrorist acts” against Russia by the United States and other Western countries.
The proposed investigation comes after the director of Russia’s FSB security agency said that he believed Ukraine, along with the United States and Britain, was involved in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack outside Moscow that killed at least 139 people.
David Cameron, Britain’s foreign secretary, posted on Twitter: “Russia’s claims about the West and Ukraine on the Crocus City Hall attack are utter nonsense.”
The Jihadist militant group Islamic State has taken responsibility for the Moscow shooting, a claim that has been backed up by US and French intelligence.
11:49 AM GMT
Kyiv carries out ‘assassination campaign against pro-Kremlin Ukrainian officials’
An assassination campaign “possibly” run by Kyiv’s security services has killed more than a dozen Ukrainian citizens collaborating with the Kremlin in Russian-occupied territory, Ukraine’s spy chief has said.
Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk, the head of Ukraine’s security service (SBU), said that since Russia’s full-scale invasion, secret operatives have targeted “very many” individuals responsible for attacks against Ukrainian citizens, working deep behind “enemy” lines, including in Russia.
He claimed that the assassination campaign, run through networks of secret agents, has prioritised Ukrainian nationals collaborating with Moscow to arrest and torture other Ukrainians, but that formally, Kyiv cannot take responsibility for the killings.
“Officially, we will not admit to this,” he said, speaking in an hour-long interview with ICTV, the national broadcaster. “But at the same time, I can offer some details.”
Lt. Gen. Malyuk went on to list, in precise detail, how several pro-Kremlin officials were killed, including the calibre of bullet and the exact weight of explosives used.
11:22 AM GMT
Senior US officials ‘angered’ by Macron calls to send troops to Ukraine
Emmanuel Macron has infuriated US officials by hinting that Nato troops could be deployed in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.
The French president last month refused to rule out putting boots on the ground in Ukraine, a move that senior US officials say risks triggering direct conflict with Moscow, according to one official familiar with the matter.
Mr Macron’s comments were designed to keep the Kremlin guessing, but officials familiar with Nato discussions on Ukraine said they may have had the opposite effect.
By forcing Berlin to publicly rule out the possibility of sending troops, Macron managed to dispel what lingering ambiguity there had been about the whereabouts of allies’ red lines, it is reported.
Meanwhile, from an operational standpoint, the comments risked jeopardising several countries who already, quietly, have some personnel in Ukraine, separate officials reported.
11:04 AM GMT
Pictured: Ukraine’s war effort at the front and at home
10:31 AM GMT
Putin’s inner circle ‘don’t believe Ukraine behind Moscow attack’
Vladimir Putin’s close allies refuse to believe his claim that Ukraine was involved in the terrorist attack in Moscow last week that left at least 137 people dead.
Kremlin officials were shocked by the failure of the security services to prevent Friday’s massacre when four men opened fire at concert goers at Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, Bloomberg reported, citing four people with close ties to the Kremlin. Barely anyone within Russia’s political or business elite believes Ukraine was behind the attack.
According to one source, Putin was present at discussions where officials agreed there is no connection to Kyiv, yet the president remains determined to use the tragedy to try to rally Russians behind the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has flatly denied any involvement, while the militant group Islamic State has claimed responsibility - a claim backed up by US intelligence.
10:01 AM GMT
Watch: Ukraine digs mass trenches to withstand a Russian offensive
Ukraine has dug miles of trenches in Kherson to bolster its defences against Russian attacks, regional military officials reported.
Footage of the trenches posted on social media shows a web of deep furrows carved into barren fields with vast quantities of earth piled up nearby.
“There are kilometres of anti-tank trenches and non-explosive barriers,” Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson’s military chief, posted on Telegram. “We are building this second line of defence in Kherson Oblast. We are doing this with one goal in mind – to protect the already liberated territories.”
President Zelensky announced earlier this month that Kyiv’s military is on track to construct over 1,200 miles of defensive fortifications aimed at fending off a Russian offensive, which is expected in the Spring.
Кілометри протитанкових ровів та невибухових загороджень на Херсонщині.
Відео: Херсонська ОВА pic.twitter.com/GnxQOCagbR— Українська правда ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) March 26, 2024
09:24 AM GMT
Zelensky pledges further changes following surprise reshuffle
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has promised a wider shake-up after dismissing Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s security council secretary.
“The strengthening of Ukraine and the renewal of our state system in all areas will continue,” Mr Zelensky said in his evening address after replacing Mr Danilov with Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the former foreign intelligence service chief.
The president gave no reason for dismissing Mr Danilov, who has held the post since October 2019 – a few months after the president took office – but thanked him for his service.
Ukraine’s national security and defence council co-ordinates national security and contains the country’s top political, security and defence chiefs.
Mr Zelensky added that Oleh Ivaschenko has been appointed as the new head of foreign intelligence, replacing Mr Lytvynenko, who previously served as the deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR).
The move comes as the president continues to rotate high-ranking security and defence officials, with last month’s dismissal of Ukraine’s top general presaging a wider clear-out of the military’s top brass.
08:59 AM GMT
Pictured: A Russian fighter jet firing rockets
08:27 AM GMT
Ukraine repels ‘tens of attacks’ on Novopavlivka front
Ukrainian forces have repelled 21 attacks on the Novopavlivka front in Donetsk over the past day, Kyiv’s general staff reported.
Of particular concern is the settlement of Novomykhailivka, 30 miles southwest of Avdiivka, where Russian ground troops and aircraft have focused the the majority of their efforts, repeatedly attempting to breach Ukrainian defences.
Russian forces are thought to control up to 50 percent of the settlement, the Institute for the Study of War think tank reported.
“In total, the enemy carried out four missiles...52 air strikes [and] 43 shelling [attacks]...on the positions of our troops and settlements,” Ukraine’s general staff said in its daily report.
08:08 AM GMT
Belarus undermines Putin’s claim that Moscow terror suspects were linked to Ukraine
Alexander Lukashenko has said the terrorists who gunned down at least 193 people at a Moscow concert venue last week initially tried to flee to Belarus, contradicting Vladimir Putin’s claims.
Belarus’s strongman president, and Putin’s arch ally, claimed that Minsk heavily beefed up security on its border with Russia immediately after the attack, which meant the terrorists “understood that it was impossible to enter Belarus”.
After seeing the security at the border, they changed their plans and “turned away and went to the section of the Ukrainian-Russian border,” Lukashenko claimed.
Mr Lukashenko’s comments appear to be at odds with those of Putin, who has repeatedly claimed, without providing evidence, that the terrorists planned to flee to the Ukrainian border.
07:56 AM GMT
Four wounded by Russian strikes on Kharkiv
Four people were wounded by Russian strikes on Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, officials said.
Oleg Sinegubov, the local governor, said on social media that three men and one woman all over the age of 50 were injured in separate strikes on towns and villages in the region with artillery and rockets.
The Ukrainian air force said separately that Russian forces had launched 13 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight and that 10 were downed over Kharkiv, Sumy and near the capital Kyiv.
Sumy also came under heavy fire yesterday with at least 181 explosions reported in the region, the local administration reported.
Russia meanwhile announced that its air defence systems had shot down 18 rockets near the border city of Belgorod, which has recently seen an uptick in Ukrainian strikes. The Belgorod governor said one person was wounded.
07:50 AM GMT
Pictured: Ukraine launches mortars on the front lines
07:46 AM GMT
Ukraine has sunk ‘one third’ of Putin’s Black Sea Fleet
Ukraine has sunk or disabled a third of all Russian warships in the Black Sea, Dmytro Pletenchuk, Kyiv’s navy spokesman, said.
Mr Pletenchuk’s comments came after Ukraine on Saturday “destroyed” the Kostiantyn Olshansky, a Russian landing ship, that was resting in port in Sevastopol. The ship was part of the Ukrainian navy before Russia captured it while annexing the Black Sea peninsula in 2014.
Kyiv previously announced that two other landing ships of the same type, the Azov and the Yamal, were also damaged in Saturday’s Neptune missile strike, along with the Ivan Khurs intelligence ship.
Mr Pletenchuk pledged that Ukraine will continue the strikes that have forced Moscow to retreat to the eastern Black Sea, stating: “Our ultimate goal is complete absence of military ships of the so-called Russian Federation in the Azov and Black Sea regions.”
07:34 AM GMT
UK military ‘couldn’t fight Russia for longer than two months’
Britain could not fight Russia for more than two months, the Deputy Chief of Defence Staff has admitted, writes Danielle Sheridan.
Lt Gen Sir Rob Magowan said the Armed Forces would have to manage the “operational risk” that came with not having the resources he would like in future wars.
It comes after Grant Shapps, the Defence Secretary, told MPs that he had lobbied Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt for more money to be spent on defence in the recent Budget, but failed to secure an increase.
Appearing before MPs at the Commons defence committee, the senior Royal Marines officer said: “We’ve been very clear that the amount of money we’re spending on munitions at the moment ... which is significant ... does not meet, in all areas, the threats that we face.
“We’ve been clear that we need to spend more money, above the programme of record, on what we call integrated air missile defence.”
Read Danielle’s full report here.
