Ukraine will destroy Crimea bridge by July, official claims
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Kyiv will destroy the Kerch bridge connecting Russian to occupied Crimea “in the first half of 2024”, a senior official in Ukraine’s military intelligence service has said.
Razing the bridge is “inevitable”, the unnamed source told the Guardian, adding that Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the military intelligence, already had “most of the means to carry out this goal”.
Officials believe that permanently damaging the bridge would significantly impair the Kremlin’s ability to carry out a spring offensive as Moscow would be forced to transport military supplies by road through occupied southern Ukraine, or via a new 450-mile railway line that is under construction.
Ukraine has attacked and severely damaged the Kerch bridge twice since the invasion, while road and rail traffic across the bridge are frequently disrupted by the threat of further attacks.
03:06 PM BST
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 war in Ukraine.
Key moments from today:
France’s president Emmanuel Macron held confidential calls last month with President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to persuade the two world leaders to adopt a more hawkish stance towards Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ukraine’s partners are not providing enough air defence missiles to protect against Russian strikes, despite having plenty in their own arsenals, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has said.
Moscow’s forces have captured around 400sq km of Ukrainian territory in the first three months of 2024, Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, has claimed.
Russia is preparing to mobilise an additional 300,000 troops in the next two months, President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.
Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets due to arrive in Ukraine this summer are “no longer relevant”, a senior Ukrainian military official has said.
Russia has seen a major leap in the number of people joining the armed forces since last month’s deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow, the defence ministry claimed.
Washington told Moscow officials that Crocus City Hall was a potential target of a terrorist attack more than two weeks before last month’s massacre, the Washington Post reported, citing a US official familiar with the matter.
Russian missile strikes on a school in Dnipro yesterday afternoon left 18 people injured, including five children, the regional governor reported.
03:00 PM BST
Macron held secret talks with Biden and Scholz over ploy to wrong-foot Kremlin, reports suggest
France’s president Emmanuel Macron held confidential calls last month with President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to persuade the two world leaders to adopt a more hawkish stance towards Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The French president encouraged his counterparts to adopt a position of strategic ambiguity towards Russia that would leave all military options on the table, blurring the West’s “red lines” to keep the Kremlin guessing, the paper said, citing officials familiar with the matter.
President Biden questioned the need for a change in strategy amid concerns it could lead to military escalation, while Mr Scholz opposed the idea on the grounds that it risked dividing allies and plunging Nato countries into the conflict, should France put boots on the ground in Ukraine.
Despite further objections from Mr Scholz and entreaties from a US envoy in the lead up to February’s security summit in Paris, Mr Macron Macron stunned allies at the close of the conference by telling reporters that no military options should be ruled out, even the deployment of troops from Nato countries.
02:56 PM BST
Western allies’ air defence donations ‘simply insufficient’, says Ukraine
Ukraine’s partners are not providing enough air defence missiles to protect against Russian strikes, despite having plenty in their own arsenals, Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has said.
“Partners did provide us with their different (air defence) systems, we appreciate that, but it’s just simply insufficient, given the scale of the war,” Kuleba said.
Mr Kuleba said he would raise the issue of Patriot missile defence systems in every meeting with Nato counterparts over the next two days in Brussels, adding that Kyiv’s western allies have 100 Patriot systems at their disposal but had so far not been willing to share even five to seven more.
“Is it such a big problem? Is it not feasible to provide Ukraine with the minimum request?” Mr Kuleba said.
02:41 PM BST
Russia has seized ‘400sq km of Ukrainian land’ so far this year
Moscow’s forces have captured around 400sq km of Ukrainian territory in the first three months of 2024, Sergei Shoigu, the Russian defence minister, has claimed.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed that although Mr Shoigu’s estimates may be inflated, acute Ukrainian ammunition shortages are “increasing the risk of a Russian breakthrough in other less-well-provisioned sectors and making the frontline overall more fragile”.
Ukrainian shell hunger also means Russian forces can afford to be more flexible in how they advance, increasing Moscow’s chances of future gains, the think tank said.
Mr Shoigu announced last month that the Russian military will form two new combined armies by the end of the year, as Moscow ramps up its mobilisation efforts ahead of a proposed spring/summer offensive.
02:15 PM BST
Moscow preparing to ‘mobilise 300,000 troops by June’, says Zelensky
Russia is preparing to mobilise an additional 300,000 troops in the next two months, President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned.
“I can say that Russia is preparing to mobilize 300,000 additional troops by June 1,” the Ukrainian president told reporters in Kyiv during a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart, Alexander Stubb.
The president’s comments come after he signed into law three measures aimed at replenishing the ranks of his country’s exhausted and battered army, including lowering the conscription age from 27 to 25.
Asked how many troops Ukraine plans to mobilise this year, Mr Zelensky said that “we don’t need half a million”, but refused to provide a specific figure.
01:56 PM BST
Finland signs ten-year security agreement with Kyiv
Finland’s president Alexander Stubb and Volodymyr Zelensky have signed a long-term security agrreement.
The deal covers a range of topics including political support, backing for Ukraine’s defence and security, as well as support for Ukrainian reforms and reconstruction.
“The ten-year agreement is proof of Finland’s long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine,” Mr Stubb’s office said in a statement.
Mr Stubb also told the Ukrainian president that Finland would send another defence aid package worth 188 million euros (£161 million), taking the total Finnish contribution since 2022 to around 2 billion euros (£1.7 billion).
01:31 PM BST
Russia pounded Ukraine with four thousand bombs in March, says Zelensky
Russia bombarded Ukraine with over 4,000 strikes in March, including guided air bombs, missiles, and Shahed drones, Volodymyr Zelensky has said as he renewed his call for Western missile defence systems.
“Just this March, Russian terrorists have deployed over 400 missiles of various types, over 600 Shahed drones, and over 3,000 guided air bombs against Ukraine,” Mr Zelensky posted on Twitter.
The president noted that the residents of Kharkiv have experienced some of the worst impacts of the strikes. “Our city of over a million people, Kharkiv, has been subjected to missile and drone strikes since the full-scale war began,” he said. “Recently, Russian terrorists also began to use aerial bombs against Kharkiv. The city sees daily humiliation and pain, as well as daily losses,”
Kharkiv has experienced frequent energy outages over the past week after a massive series of Russian strikes targeted the city’s energy infrastructure a fortnight ago.
01:27 PM BST
F-16 fighter jets ‘no longer relevant’
Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets due to arrive in Ukraine this summer are “no longer relevant”, a senior Ukrainian military official has said.
“Often, we just don’t get the weapons systems at the time we need them – they come when they’re no longer relevant,” the high-ranking officer, who was unnamed, told Politico. “Every weapon has its own right time. F-16s were needed in 2023; they won’t be right for 2024.”
A dozen of the US-made aircraft are expected to be delivered to Ukraine in July following months of campaigning from president Volodymyr Zelensky and other senior Kyiv officials.
Instead of the modern jets, which the official said Moscow can now counter, he believes Ukraine now needs more traditional weapons and drones. “We need Howitzers and shells, hundreds of thousands of shells, and rockets,” he said, estimating that Ukraine needed four million shells and two million drones.
01:03 PM BST
Kyiv’s ‘deepest strike inside Russian territory’ used Ukraine-made weapons, says intelligence chief
Ukraine’s drone attack on industrial facilities in Tatarstan did not use weapons provided by Western allies, Kyiv’s military intelligence reported.
“We can state that foreign-made weapons and equipment of our allies were not used in these events,” Andrii Yusov, a military intelligence spokesman, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “The fact that the Ukrainian UAV industry is developing dynamically should not be concealed.”
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, said last week that Ukraine has produced attack drones capable of flying over 1,000 kilometers.
The strike comes as Kyiv ramps up its efforts to boost domestic drone production, aiming to manufacture one million drones in 2024.
See post at 10.43am for more details.
12:42 PM BST
Pictured: Ukrainian forces operate at night
12:19 PM BST
France may be ready to deploy troops to Ukraine later this month, claims the Kremlin
The French military may be ready to deploy 1,500 troops to Ukraine in April, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, has said.
Ms Zakharova claimed the group will be in a state of full combat readiness this month, to deploy to the “Ukrainian theater of military operations”.
Moscow has previously warned Paris that French soldiers on the ground in Ukraine would become priority targets. “Eliminating French military personnel that may appear in Ukraine would be a critical but not particularly difficult mission for the Russian Armed Forces,” Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and Kremlin stooge, said last month.
Moscow has scaled up its rhetoric against Paris in recent weeks, following Emmanuel Macron’s suggestion that France could put boots on the ground in Ukraine.
11:51 AM BST
Ukraine joining Nato ‘a question of when, not if’
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has said there is no doubt that Ukraine will join the alliance as he urged Western countries to commit to long-term financial support for Kyiv.
“Ukraine will become a member of Nato. It is a question of when, not if,” Mr Stoltenberg told foreign ministers in Brussels.
As ministers prepared to discuss a proposal for a 100-billion-euro, five-year fund to support Ukraine, Mr Stoltenberg called on alliance members to guarantee future weapons deliveries.
“Ukraine has urgent needs,” he said. “Any delay in providing support has consequences on the battlefield as we speak.
“Moscow needs to understand that they cannot achieve their goals on the battlefield and they cannot wait us out,” Mr Stoltenberg added, without giving details of his proposal.
11:26 AM BST
Pope deplores deaths in Ukraine caused by ‘folly of war’
Pope Francis paid tribute to a Ukrainian soldier killed in Avdiivka as he issued a fresh appeal for peace in Ukraine and Gaza.
Addressing “martyred” Ukraine, the pontiff told crowds in St Peter’s Square that he was holding in his hands a copy of the New Testament and a set of rosary beads belonging to a slain 23-year-old Ukrainian soldier.
“I would like us all, in this moment, to have a bit of silence, thinking about this young man and many others like him who have died in this folly of war. War always destroys, let’s think about them and pray,” he said.
Francis said the soldier, who he identified only as Oleksandr, died in Avdiivka, an eastern Ukrainian city captured by Russians in February.
He had already mentioned his belongings at another audience last month, after they were given to him by a nun who had been on several charity missions to Ukraine.
11:00 AM BST
Nato may send weapons directly to Ukraine to ‘shield’ support if Trump wins presidency
Nato could send weapons and ammunition to Ukraine for the first time under a plan to “Trump-proof” Western support for the war-torn nation, writes Joe Barnes.
The $100 billion (£79.5 billion) “trust fund” scheme would see the transatlantic military alliance take charge of donations previously sent on an individual basis.
It would likely require European Nato members to commit a greater proportion of money and weapons than they currently do, which officials believe will help placate Donald Trump.
Trump supporters have blocked a major tranche of aid to Ukraine from passing Congress as he rails against Nato members who do not spend enough on defence. Officials fear Ukraine funding could further dry up if Mr Trump is re-elected in November.
10:43 AM BST
750 mile drone attack marks ‘inflection point’ in Ukraine strike capacity
Ukraine’s drone attack on industrial facilities in Tatarstan marks a substantial turning point in Kyiv’s ability to conduct long-range strikes deep within Russian territory, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported.
“The distance of the targets from Ukraine’s borders represents a significant inflection in Ukraine’s demonstrated capability to conduct long-range strikes far into the Russian rear,” the ISW said.
Ukraine flew what is thought to be a light aircraft packed with explosives into a factory assembling drones in Russia’s central Tartasan region, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) reported, which lie 750 miles away from the Russia-Ukraine border.
The strike is thought to be the deepest inside Russian territory since the start of the war.
10:25 AM BST
Pictured: Kyiv troops on the front lines
10:22 AM BST
‘Thousands’ join Russian army after Moscow terror attack
Russia has seen a major leap in the number of people joining the armed forces since last month’s deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow, the defence ministry claimed.
In a statement, it said more than 100,000 recruits have signed up since the start of the year, including around 16,000 in the past 10 days alone.
“During interviews conducted over the past week at selection points in Russian cities, most candidates indicated the desire to avenge those killed in the tragedy that occurred on March 22, 2024 in the Moscow region as the main motive for concluding a contract,” the ministry said.
The Kremlin has repeatedly sought to blame Ukraine for the mass shooting - in which 144 people were killed at Crocus City Hall - a claim Kyiv and US intelligence have denied. The militant group Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.
09:26 AM BST
US warned Russia that concert hall was potential terrorist target
Washington told Moscow officials that Crocus City Hall was a potential target of a terrorist attack more than two weeks before last month’s massacre, the Washington Post reported, citing a US official familiar with the matter.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, previously told reporters that the information supplied by the US was “too general and did not allow us to fully identify those who committed this terrible crime,” the state-run Interfax news agency reported.
Mr Naryshkin added that Russia acted on US intelligence and “took appropriate measures to prevent” an attack.
The specificity of Washington’s report raises fresh questions about why Russian security services were unprepared when four gunmen opened fire on concertgoers on March 22, killing at least 144 people.
08:40 AM BST
Pictured: A mural of Alexei Navalny in Austria
08:18 AM BST
Russian missile attack on Dnipro ‘kindergarten’ injures 18, including 5 children
Russian missile strikes on a school in Dnipro yesterday afternoon left 18 people injured, including five children, the regional governor reported.
“Russians committed a crime against the most precious - children! They gutted a kindergarten in Dnipro. And also - college,” Serhii Lysak posted on Telegram.
To the north in Kharkiv, a 58-year-old man was killed and his 11-year-old son later died in hospital after Russia shelled a village in Kupiansk, Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor, reported.
Further north in Sumy, 226 explosions were reported over the past 24 hours as Russia struck 11 communities in 51 separate attacks throughout the day, the regional administration said.
The strikes come as Kyiv shot down all four Shahed drones used in Russia’s overnight attacks on central Ukraine, the Air Force reported.
07:42 AM BST
Watch: Ukraine flies aircraft packed with explosives into Russian drone factory
Ukraine flew what is thought to be a light aircraft packed with explosives into a factory assembling drones in the “deepest strike inside Russian territory” since the start of the war, writes Henry Samuel.
The “drone aircraft” strike on Russia’s central Tatarstan region – hundreds of miles from the countries’ shared border – hit a building believed to contain dormitories for workers near a factory assembling Iranian Shahed explosive drones in the town of Yelabuga.
It wounded 13 people, including two students and two minors, according to local health officials.
Another attack targeted an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk. The sites are more than 800 miles (1,300km) from the border.
07:27 AM BST
Ukraine lowers conscription age to fight acute soldier shortage
Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a bill to lower the mobilisation age for combat duty from 27 to 25 in a move expected to help Ukraine generate more fighting power in its war with Russia.
The bill has been on the Ukrainian president’s table since it was approved by lawmakers in May 2023. It was not immediately clear on Tuesday what prompted him to sign it. Parliament has been discussing a separate bill to broadly tighten draft rules for months.
The move expands the number of civilians the army can mobilise into its ranks to fight under martial law, which has been in place since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Ukrainian troops are on the back foot on the battlefield, facing a shortage of ammunition supplies with vital funding from the US blocked by Republicans in Congress for months and the European Union failing to deliver promised ammunition on time.
