Russia-Ukraine battle stay information: Zelenskiy fires prime officers; Moscow prepares for subsequent offensive | Ukraine

EU overseas ministers are anticipated to satisfy in Brussels on Monday to carry sanctions discussions, in accordance with a senior EU official.

Among the many measures being thought of is a ban on gold purchases from Russia, a transfer already put in place by worldwide companions.

The EU might additionally act to impose sanctions on extra Russian people.

A senior EU official instructed Agence France-Presse the EU was prone to focus on new sanctions on the assembly however wouldn’t make an instantaneous determination.

The brand new measures come as “Russia’s brutal battle in opposition to Ukraine continues unabated,” Ursula Von der Leyen stated in a press release.

Due to this fact, we’re proposing at present to tighten our hard-hitting EU sanctions in opposition to the Kremlin, implement them extra successfully and lengthen them till January 2023. Moscow should proceed to pay a excessive value for its aggression.”

Josep Borrell, excessive consultant of the European Union for overseas affairs and safety coverage, added:

The EU’s sanctions are robust and hard-hitting. We proceed to focus on these near Putin and the Kremlin … I may even current proposals to Council for the itemizing of extra people and entities, with their belongings frozen and skill to journey curtailed.”

Russian police detained the journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a stay tv broadcast to denounce the army motion in Ukraine, her lawyer stated earlier on Sunday.

No official assertion has been made, however her entourage posted a message on the journalist’s Telegram account on Sunday, in accordance with Agence France-Presse.

Marina has been detained. There isn’t a data on the place she is.”

The message included three photographs of her being led by two law enforcement officials to a white van, after apparently having been stopped whereas biking.

Ovsyannikova additionally posted pictures of herself and two canine on her Fb web page, later revealing she had been launched.

Went for a stroll with the canine, simply stepped exterior the gate, individuals in uniform approached me. Now I’m sitting in Krasnoselsky ministry of inside affairs.

Three hours later, Ovsyannikova stated she had been launched. “I’m house. Every part is okay,” she wrote. “However now I do know it’s at all times finest to carry a suitcase and passport should you exit.”

Her lawyer, Dmitri Zakhvatov, confirmed her arrest to the Ria-Novosti information company, saying he didn’t know the place Ovsyannikova had been taken.

“I assume that it’s linked a technique or one other to her act of protest,” he added.

In March Ovsyannikova, an editor at Channel One tv, barged onto the set of its flagship Vremya (Time) night information programme, holding a poster studying ‘No Warfare’ in English.

On Friday, Ovsyannikova posted photographs of herself on Telegram exhibiting her close to the Kremlin and carrying a protest placard elevating the deaths of kids and denouncing Putin as a “killer”.

Russia is making ready for the following stage of its offensive in Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian and British army officers after its army claimed to have undertaken an “operational pause”.

The Ukrainian army stated Russia gave the impression to be regrouping models for an offensive in the direction of Sloviansk, a symbolically vital metropolis held by Ukraine within the jap area of Donetsk.

The British defence ministry added that Russia was additionally reinforcing its defensive positions throughout the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, ordered Russian army models working in all areas of Ukraine to step up their operations to stop strikes on jap Ukraine and different territories underneath Russian management, the ministry stated in a press release on its web site on Saturday.

It stated Shoigu “gave the required directions to additional enhance the actions of teams in all operational areas in an effort to exclude the potential for the Kyiv regime launching large rocket and artillery strikes on civilian infrastructure and residents of settlements in Donbas and different areas”.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired the top of Ukraine’s highly effective home safety company, the SBU, and the state prosecutor basic, citing dozens of instances of collaboration with Russia by officers of their companies.

Sunday’s abrupt sackings of SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood good friend of Zelenskiy, and the prosecutor basic, Iryna Venediktova, who performed a key position within the prosecution of Russian battle crimes, have been introduced in govt orders on the president’s web site.

Zelenskiy stated he fired the highest officers as a result of it had come to gentle that many members of their companies had collaborated with Russia.

As of at present, 651 prison proceedings have been registered concerning treason and collaboration actions of staff of prosecutor’s places of work, pretrial investigation our bodies, and different regulation enforcement companies.

Specifically, greater than 60 staff of the prosecutor’s workplace and the Safety Service of Ukraine remained within the occupied territory and are working in opposition to our state.

Such an array of crimes in opposition to the foundations of the nationwide safety of the state and the connections detected between the staff of the safety forces of Ukraine and the particular providers of Russia pose very critical inquiries to the related management. Every of those questions will obtain a correct reply.”

Hey and welcome again to the Guardian’s stay protection of the battle in Ukraine.

I’m Samantha Lock and I might be bringing you all the most recent developments for the following brief whereas.

In a reasonably explosive new improvement, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, fired the nation’s head of the safety service and the prosecutor basic on Sunday, citing dozens of instances of collaboration with Russia by officers of their companies.

Army officers in each Ukraine and the UK have additionally warned Russia is making ready for the following stage of its offensive.

It’s 7.30am in Kyiv and right here is the place issues at the moment stand:

• The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has fired the nation’s head of the safety service and the prosecutor basic, claiming greater than 60 of their staff have been “working in opposition to” Ukraine in Russian-occupied territory. He added that 651 prison proceedings had been registered regarding excessive treason and collaboration by staff of prosecutors’ places of work, pretrial investigation our bodies and different regulation enforcement companies.

• Russia is making ready for the following stage of its offensive in Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian army officers, after Moscow stated its forces would step up army operations in “all operational areas”. The Ukrainian army stated Russia gave the impression to be regrouping models for an offensive in the direction of Sloviansk, a symbolically vital metropolis held by Ukraine within the jap area of Donetsk. The British defence ministry added that Russia was additionally reinforcing its defensive positions throughout the occupied areas in southern Ukraine.

• 1,346 civilians have been discovered useless within the Kyiv area after the retreat of Russian forces, in accordance with the area’s police chief. Andriy Nebytov stated about 300 people have been nonetheless lacking, and that 700 of these killed have been shot with small arms reminiscent of a handgun.

• Russia has misplaced greater than 30% of its land fight effectiveness and 50,000 of its troopers have both died or been injured within the battle, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, the chief of the UK defence workers, instructed the BBC. The army chief added that Russia posed “the most important risk” to the UK and that its problem would endure for many years.

• Mourners have buried a four-year-old lady who was killed by a Russian missile strike within the metropolis of Vinnytsia, in central Ukraine, final week. The killing of Liza Dmitrieva, who had Down’s syndrome, as she was pushed in a stroller by means of a crowded sq. was reported across the globe, changing into a poignant image of the heavy civilian price of Russia’s invasion.

• Russian missiles hit an industrial and infrastructure facility in Mykolaiv, a shipbuilding centre and metropolis close to the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. Oleksandr Senkevych, the town’s mayor, stated there was no speedy details about casualties.

• A Russian assault on the jap Ukrainian metropolis of Bakhmut in Donetsk has injured six individuals, together with three youngsters, in accordance with native media experiences. The three injured youngsters have shrapnel wounds, the Donetsk prosecutor’s workplace stated.

• A British man apparently being held captive by Russian forces in Ukraine has been proven in a video interesting to Boris Johnson for assist, saying he might face the loss of life penalty. “I might say to Boris Johnson, should you will help, should you can affect President Zelenskiy … or should you can affect President Putin, then please do,” John Harding, in his 50s and initially from Sunderland, stated whereas interviewed by a Russian journalist. “Folks’s lives are relying on this. So should you can, please assist.”
• Russian police have detained journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a stay TV broadcast to denounce the army motion in Ukraine, her lawyer has stated. No official assertion has been made, however her entourage posted a message on the journalist’s Telegram account on Sunday, in accordance with Agence France-Presse. “Marina has been detained,” it learn. “There isn’t a data on the place she is.”

• Sunday marked the eighth anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airways flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 individuals onboard. Russia denied involvement within the aircraft’s downing, regardless of the findings of a world investigation that discovered witnesses who noticed an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia within the hours earlier than it shot down the business flight. Iryna Venediktova, the prosecutor basic of Ukraine, referred to as for worldwide motion in opposition to Russia.

• A Ukrainian cargo aircraft transporting munitions from Serbia to Bangladesh crashed and exploded in northern Greece, killing all eight crew onboard. Serbia’s defence minister, Nebojša Stefanović, stated the aircraft was carrying 11.5 tonnes of army merchandise, together with illuminating mortar shells and coaching shells, and the customer was the Bangladesh defence ministry. A Ukrainian overseas ministry spokesperson stated all eight crew members onboard have been Ukrainian residents.

• The European Fee president, Ursula von der Leyen, will journey to Baku on Monday to hunt extra pure fuel from Azerbaijan, the EU’s govt stated, because the EU seeks to cut back its reliance on Russian power.

• The European Union is to debate tightening sanctions in opposition to Russia on Monday, as Moscow is accused of utilizing the captured Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant to retailer weapons and launch missiles on the encircling areas of southern Ukraine.