Zelensky replaces national security adviser in surprise shake-up
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Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has dismissed Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s security council secretary, in a surprise reshuffle.
Mr Danilov, who has held the post since October 2019 – a few months after the president took office – was replaced by Oleksandr Lytvynenko, the foreign intelligence service chief, under a decree published on the presidential website. No reason was given for the change.
Ukraine’s national security and defence council co-ordinates national security and contains the country’s top political, security and defence chiefs.
The move comes as Mr Zelensky 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.
03:12 PM GMT
That’s all for today
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Key moments from today:
Russia’s internal security chief has accused Britain and the United States of being behind Friday’s terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall, writes Roland Oliphant.
The Kremlin’s insistence that Ukraine is to blame for the Crocus City Hall massacre, the country’s worst terrorist attack in a generation, may be putting Russian lives at risk, the Institute for the Study of War reported.
Russia has started supplying oil directly to North Korea in defiance of UN sanctions as part of an “arms-for-oil” exchange, the Financial Times reported.
More than 20 of the people wounded in the Moscow terror attack, including two children, remain in a serious condition in hospital, Tass, Russia’s state-owned news agency, reported.
Kyiv has “destroyed” two Russian warships with missiles, including one stolen from Ukraine, the ministry of defence reported.
Nato is considering shooting down Russian missiles that stray too close to its borders, Andrzej Szejna, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, has claimed.
A Russian working for Ukrainian security services died when an explosive in his possession detonated while he was being arrested, Moscow has claimed.
Three more suspects have been arrested in connection to Friday’s terrorist attack in Moscow that left 137 people dead.
Kyiv will carry out “more attacks” in Russia and will adapt its tactics to remain “one step ahead”, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of security service, has said.
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter accused by Russia of spying, had his pre-trial detention extended by three months by a Moscow court.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has demanded that the West supply Kyiv with Patriot air defence missiles in a sign of growing impatience at Western aid delays.
Any global peace summit on Ukraine that excludes Russia is simply “absurd” and will fail, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, has said.
03:08 PM GMT
Pictured: Russian and Ukrainian troops pay tribute to the dead
03:05 PM GMT
Russian security chief accuses Britain of concert hall terror attack
Russia’s internal security chief has accused Britain and the United States of being behind Friday’s terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall, Roland Oliphant writes.
Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, said investigators had not yet established who ordered the attack but insisted that the West and Ukraine were linked to it.
Russian news agencies cited Mr Bortnikov as saying: “We believe the action was prepared both by the radical Islamists themselves and, of course, facilitated by Western special services, and Ukraine’s special services themselves have a direct connection to this.
“The one who ordered it has not been identified yet. We understand and see those who organised this process, who recruited and set specific tasks.”
However Mr Bortnikov went on to declare: “The USA, Britain and Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall.”
Read Roland’s full report here.
03:00 PM GMT
EU has delivered 500,000 shells to Ukraine, says chief diplomat
The European Union has delivered half a million shells to Kyiv, Josep Borrell, the bloc’s chief diplomat, said as he renewed his promise to provide a million by the end of the year.
“We have donated 500,000 artillery shells to Ukraine and by the end of the year it will be more than one million,” Mr Borrell said in a blog post.
On top of the million donated shells, another 400,000 shells will be provided to Ukraine through commercial contracts with the European defence industry, Mr Borrell said.
“The Czech initiative to buy ammunition outside the EU comes in addition to these efforts,” he said, referring to the 800,000 shells in countries around the world that Prague identified as potential supplies for Ukraine.
However, Mr Borrell stressed that Europe providing the shells it has promised to Ukraine by the end of the year is a “minimum requirement”. “It is far from being enough and we have to increase both our capacity of production and the financial resources devoted to support Ukraine,” he said.
02:58 PM GMT
Kremlin blaming terrorist attack on Ukraine may ‘cost further civilian lives’
The Kremlin’s insistence that Ukraine is to blame for the Crocus City Hall massacre, the country’s worst terrorist attack in a generation, may be putting Russian lives at risk, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported.
“Kremlin officials’ and Russian ultranationalists’ continued insistence on blaming Ukraine for an attack that IS-K very likely committed may come at the expense of Russian internal security and civilian lives,” the ISW said.
The think tank added that Moscow has “likely decided” that blaming Ukraine for the attack is “worth” the security risks and civilian casualties that may stem from failing to address Jihadist terrorist threats within its borders.
The ISW’s analysis comes as Kremlin officials, including Vladimir Putin himself, continue to lay the blame at the feet of Ukraine despite Islamic State militants claiming responsibility for the attack.
02:57 PM GMT
Franco-Polish curbs on Ukrainian imports risk extending war, says Kyiv
A Franco-Polish drive to increase curbs on Ukrainian food imports into the EU risks prolonging Russia’s war in Ukraine, Kyiv’s agriculture minister told the Financial Times.
Mykola Solskyi said that the additional restrictions, designed to placate farmers taking part in protests against EU rules, which permit cheap grain imports from Ukraine, would hit Kyiv’s revenues and “increase the chances that the war will drag on”.
“Eighty per cent of the problems that are usually connected to Ukrainian exports do not exist. They are imaginary,” he added.
Warsaw and Paris have led the charge on efforts to cap many Ukrainian imports in return for extending a tariff-free regime adopted after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
02:32 PM GMT
UN sanctions regime nears ‘collapse’ amid ‘arms-for-oil’ trade between Pyongyang and Moscow
Russia has started supplying oil directly to North Korea in defiance of UN sanctions as part of an “arms-for-oil” exchange, the Financial Times reported.
At least five North Korean tankers travelled this month to collect oil products from Vostochny Port in Russia’s Far East, according to satellite images shared with the Financial Times by the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a UK think-tank.
“These oil deliveries constitute a full-frontal assault against the sanctions regime, which is now on the brink of collapse,” said Hugh Griffiths, a former co-ordinator of the UN panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea.
Vostochny Port has been used as a hub for Russian ships involved in trading arms between the countries, Rusi reported.
“What we can see now is a clear arms-for-oil bartering arrangement in open contravention of sanctions that Vladimir Putin signed off on personally.”
02:25 PM GMT
Kremlin calls Zelensky a ‘peculiar kind of Jew’
The Kremlin has Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, a “peculiar kind of Jew”, when asked how he could be linked to the Moscow terror attack for which Islamic jihadists have claimed responsibility.
“Well, there is a peculiar kind of Jew over there,” Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said in response to a question about how the Ukrainian president, who is Jewish, might be implicated in the massacre at a concert venue outside Moscow.
“A Jew who in many ways shows sympathy and inclination to the nationalist spirit that has permeated the leadership of the Kyiv regime.”
When prompted, Mr Peskov declined to elaborate on his reasoning, citing an ongoing investigation into the concert hall attack.
Moscow has repeatedly tried to depict Mr Zelensky’s pro-Western government as neo-Nazis and used this as a pretext for its invasion of Ukraine.
Last June, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, called Mr Zelensky a “disgrace to the Jewish people”, a comment that drew a swift backlash from Jewish groups.
02:18 PM GMT
Pictured: Russia launches ‘hypersonic missile’ at Kyiv
02:01 PM GMT
Moscow terrorists entered Russia from Turkey, says Ankara official
Two of the Moscow attackers allegedly spent a “short amount of time” in Turkey before travelling together to Russia on March 2, a senior Ankara security official confirmed.
One of the attackers, Shamsidin Fariduni, reportedly entered Turkey on Feb 20, checked into a hotel in Istanbul’s Fatih district the next day and checked out the following week, the official said. The other, Saidakrami Rachabalizoda, checked into a hotel in the same district on Jan 5, checking out on Jan 21.
Turkish authorities believe that the two suspects “became radicalised in Russia” because they were not in Turkey for long. There was no warrant for their arrest so they were allowed to travel freely between Russia and Turkey, the official told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
01:33 PM GMT
Moscow terror attack victims remain in critical condition
More than 20 people wounded in the Moscow terror attack, including two children, remain in a serious condition in hospital, Tass, Russia’s state-owned news agency, reported.
Russian officials said they detained a total of 11 people over the attack, including Alisher Kasimov, a 32-year-old Kyrgyzstan native with Russian citizenship, who appeared in court today, charged with renting an apartment to the men accused of carrying out the attack.
According to the defendant, he has three young children and runs a cafe in Moscow, Interfax, the independent Russian news agency, reported.
Answering the judge’s question whether he understood the charges, Mr Kasimov said that he was not familiar with the defendants accused of committing the terrorist attack and was simply looking for tenants, Interfax said.
01:01 PM GMT
Ukraine strikes ship captured by Russia in 2014
Kyiv has “destroyed” two Russian warships with missiles, including one stolen from Ukraine, the ministry of defence reported.
Ukraine used a Neptune missile to hit the Konstantin Olshansky, a landing ship which, along with most of Kyiv’s navy, was captured by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea.
“Currently, this ship is not combat-capable,” Dmytro Pletenchuk, a Ukrainian navy spokesman, reported. “It had gone through a renovation and was being prepared for use against Ukraine, so unfortunately the decision was taken to strike this [ship].”
In addition to the landing ship, built in 1985, Ukrainian forces also claimed to have hit the Ivan Hurs, a modern radio ship reportedly added to the Russian navy in 2018.
12:35 PM GMT
Nato may shoot down Russian missiles near its borders, says Polish official
Nato is considering shooting down Russian missiles that stray too close to its borders, Andrzej Szejna, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, has claimed.
“[Russia] knew that if the missile moved further into Poland, it would be shot down,” Mr Szejna told Polish media, referring to a Russian cruise missile that entered Poland’s airspace for 39 seconds last week, forcing Nato fighter jets to scramble.
“Various concepts are being analyzed within Nato, including for such missiles to be shot down when they are very close to the Nato border,” he added.
Sergei Andreev, Russia’s ambassador to Warsaw, was summoned by the country’s foreign ministry over the incident, but he failed to show.
12:13 PM GMT
Pictured: Russian warships sunk by Ukraine
11:51 AM GMT
Pro-Kyiv Russian died in blast during arrest, says Moscow
A Russian working for Ukrainian security services died when an explosive in his possession detonated while he was being arrested, Moscow has claimed.
The suspect was a member of the Russian Volunteer Corps, one of several groups of pro-Kyiv Russian soldiers who have recently launched raids into the Belgorod and Kursk border-regions, Russia’s security service, the FSB, reported.
“When the perpetrator was apprehended, the IED he had seized detonated, leaving him with fatal injuries. Neither security personnel nor civilians were injured,” the FSB said in a statement reported by Russian news agencies.
The FSB said the man who died in Samara, around 600 miles from the Ukrainian border, was born in 1994 and had planned to plant an bomb at a collection point for humanitarian aid.
It said they had found more explosives and materials for producing bombs at the suspect’s home as well as contacts for Ukrainian special services in his phone.
11:31 AM GMT
Three more suspects detained over Russia terrorist attack
Three more suspects have been arrested in connection to Friday’s terrorist attack in Moscow that left 137 people dead.
Brothers Aminchon and Dilovar Islomov, as well as their father, Isroil Islomov, today attended Basmanny Court accused of aiding and abetting terrorism and were sentenced to pre-trial detention at a maximum security facility until May 22.
The defendants, who protested their innocence, are accused of being part of the ISIS Cell that conducted the attack and assisting in planning the escape of the gunmen who opened fire at concert-goers at Crocus City Hall outside Moscow.
Dilovar Islomov is the previous owner of a white Renault car with a black roof that authorities claim was the getaway vehicle for the Crocus City Hall shooters. The family trio are accused of conspiring with one of the other alleged attackers, Shamsidin Fariduni.
11:05 AM GMT
‘Russia should expect more attacks,’ warns Ukrainian spy chief
Kyiv will carry out “more attacks” in Russia, and will adapt its tactics to remain “one step ahead”, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of security service (SBU), has said.
Mr Maliuk said the nature of the strikes will change because “Ukraine never repeats itself”, adding that since the beginning of the full-scale war, Ukraine has destroyed over 800 Russian tanks.
He also said Russia no longer uses the Crimean Bridge to supply weapons to the front following repeated Ukrainian strikes on the crossing.
Before the bridge came under attack, “42 to 46 trains carrying weapons and ammunition passed there per day,” he said. “Today there are four or five in a day”, of which four are for passenger traffic, and one is for consumer goods.
The Telegraph spoke to one of the general’s behind the original Crimean bridge strike here.
Although Russia is currently restoring the bridge, Mr Maliuk hinted that Ukraine plans to then carry out another attack. “Everything has its time,” he said.
Based on his comments, Mr Maliuk was today charged in absentia with “terrorism” by a Moscow court.
10:50 AM GMT
Pictured: Damage caused by missiles strikes on Odesa
10:13 AM GMT
Five wounded by Ukrainian shelling on Russian border region
Ukrainian bombardments have left five people wounded in the Russian border region of Belgorod, the regional governor said, in the latest exchange of fire in cross-border attacks inside Russia.
Recent weeks have seen a sharp uptick in Ukrainian attacks on the frontier territory amid incursions by rogue Russian soldiers in support of Kyiv.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, posted on Telegram that five people had been wounded in separate bombardments of two villages.
Russia’s defence ministry said air defence systems had downed 13 Vampire rockets fired by Ukrainian forces.
09:48 AM GMT
US journalist imprisoned in Russia has detention extended
Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter accused by Russia of spying, had his pre-trial detention extended by three months, a Moscow court has ruled.
Mr Gershkovich, his paper and the US government all strongly deny the charges, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years.
Russia Lynne Tracy, the US ambassador to Moscow, told reporters outside the courthouse: “They are not a different interpretation of circumstances. They are fiction.
“No justification for Evan’s continued detention, and no explanation as to why Evan doing his job as a journalist constituted a crime. Evan’s case is not about evidence, due process or rule of law. It is about using American citizens as pawns to achieve political ends.”
Friday will mark the first anniversary of the 32-year-old’s arrest while on a reporting trip in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
Mr Gershkovich is being held at Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which is notorious for its harsh conditions, and his detention has already been extended several times. No date has been set for his trial.
09:24 AM GMT
275,000 without power in Ukraine’s second largest city
Around 275,000 people are without power in Kharkiv as officials have warned that repairs are “not a task of just a few weeks, or even months”.
Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv, has issued a stark warning about the state of damage to Kharkiv’s energy grid following a massive wave of targeted Russian strikes last week.
Mr Syniehubov said the restoration process “may take quite some time”, adding that “specialists are working on sites around the clock. We are bringing in experts from other region.”
Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo, which operate’s Ukraine’s transmission lines, described the situation as critical in Kharkiv “where the enemy with ballistic missiles has been trying to destroy all sites of trunk lines supplying the city”.
Volodymr Zelensky urged residents of Kharkiv to look after themselves and their neighbours in his nightly address.
09:10 AM GMT
Four injured in Russian missile strikes on Odesa
Four people have been wounded following a Russian ballistic missile attack on Odesa, regional officials reported.
The strikes, which took place at around 5.20pm yesterday, destroyed two buildings and shattered the windows in the surrounding area.
Oleh Kiper, the regional governor of Odesa, said the wounds of three women were “not serious”, adding that 300,000 people are currently cut off from electricity in Odesa due to previous strikes on the city’s energy grid.
The attack comes as Kyiv shot down all 12 Shahed drones launched by Russia overnight, the air force reported.
The drones - launched from Crimea, along with two S-300 anti-aircraft guided missiles - were downed over the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions.
Elsewhere in Sumy, Russian forces launched five strikes targeting border settlements with artillery and mortar shelling. No casualties were reported.
08:54 AM GMT
‘Give us the damn Patriots,’ says Ukraine
Ukrainie’s foreign minister has demanded that the West supply Kyiv with Patriot air defence missiles in a sign of growing impatience at Western aid delays.
Dmytro Kuleba told Politico: “Give us the damn Patriots. If we had enough air defence systems, namely Patriots, we would be able to protect not only the lives of our people, but also our economy from destruction.”
His comments come after Russia launched a suspected hypersonic missile strike on Kyiv yesterday that left 10 people injured, including a teenage girl.
Mr Kuleba added that the missiles would improve the situation on the frontlines, where Russian aircraft have used guided bombs on a massive scale to help infantry troops advance.
He said: “It just falls on your head and destroys everything. This is how we’re losing positions and the only way to prevent this is to shoot down the planes carrying the bombs. We need air-defence systems on the frontlines.”
08:44 AM GMT
Ukraine peace talks without Russia will fail, says Kremlin
Any global peace summit on Ukraine that excludes Russia is simply “absurd” and will fail, Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, has said.
Mr Peskov said: “Can the Ukrainian problem be resolved without Russia’s participation? The reply is clear - it cannot.”
He added: “Ukraine has been turned into an instrument in the hands of the collective West with whose help it intends, so it seems to them, to put more pressure on Russia.”
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has called for an international peace summit to end the war in Ukraine, with Switzerland earlier this year agreeing to host the meeting.
Kyiv has previously suggested that the terms of a peace agreement could be brokered at the meeting and then presented to Russia.
However, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has denounced any settlement that calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Kyiv’s 1991 borders as unworkable.
08:33 AM GMT
Pictured: Father and two sons charged over Moscow terror attack
08:15 AM GMT
Stolen Russian warship hit with missile, says Ukraine
Ukraine has struck a Russian landing ship with a neptune missile, Dmytro Pletenchuk, a Ukrainian navy spokesman, reported.
The Konstantin Olshansky landing ship was captured by Russia from Ukraine, along with most of Kyiv’s navy, in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea.
“Currently, this ship is not combat-capable,” Mr Pletenchuk said on national television. “It had gone through a renovation and was being prepared for use against Ukraine, so unfortunately the decision was taken to strike this [ship].”
The strike last night, which also targeted Black Sea Fleet infrastructure in Crimea, marks the third Russian landing ship Ukraine has hit this week.
08:03 AM GMT
Putin acknowledges radical Islamists carried out attack
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, has acknowledged for the first time that radical Islamists carried out the worst terrorist attack in Russia in two decades but repeated his unproven claim that Ukraine was also involved.
It comes as the Kremlin faces calls to bring back the death penalty with videos emerging of Russian security officers torturing suspected attackers who were detained over the weekend, including cutting off one man’s ear and force feeding it to him.
Speaking at a televised video conference with senior officials on Monday evening, Putin suggested that the murderous attack is “just a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime”.
He added: “Of course, it is necessary to answer the question, why after committing the crime the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine? Who was waiting for them there?”
The Islamic State terrorist group has claimed responsibility for the Friday night attack that killed at least 139 people.
Read Roland Oliphant’s report here.
08:00 AM GMT
Moscow concert hall accused of locking emergency exits before attack
Emergency exits at the Moscow concert hall where gunmen killed 137 people could not be opened, some of the survivors have claimed.
Russian media have reported that more people may have died from smoke inhalation than gunshot wounds during the attack on Friday.
Some 28 bodies are thought to have been found in a lavatory and another 14 in the stairwell of an emergency exit.
Trapped people hiding from the gunmen reportedly called emergency services pleading to be rescued as thick smoke filled the building.
James Kilner has the full report here.
07:55 AM GMT
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We’re bringing you the latest updates from the Russia-Ukraine war today.
