11:09
The president of the European Commission has urged member states to supply Ukraine with weapons systems “quickly” and suggested that a next round of EU sanctions could target Russia’s powerful Sberbank and include an embargo on Russian oil.
“It applies to all member states: those who can should deliver quickly, because only that way Ukraine can survive in its acute defensive battle against Russia,” Ursula von der Leyen told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper.
Several European nations appear to be vacillating over the export of heavy weapons such as tanks or fighter jets, amid concerns that such a move could formally escalate the war in Ukraine into a direct conflict between Russia and Nato member states.
10:01
Another missile attack in the early hours of Sunday damaged infrastructure in the city of Brovary, near Kyiv, Igor Sapozhko, mayor of Brovary said in an online post.
It is the third consecutive day of attacks in the capital after 2 weeks of relative calm.
On Friday, Russian forces destroyed a plant which allegedly produced one of the missiles used to sink the Moskva warship in the Black Sea.
Then, on Saturday, Russian rockets allegedly hit a military hardware factory in the capital’s Darnytskyi district.
The sudden development of events is linked to the destruction of the jewel of the Russian fleet by Ukrainian forces during a combat operation in the Black Sea on Wednesday – a blow to Vladimir Putin’s war plans and his military’s prestige.
09:55
Many of the nearly 5 million people who have fled Ukraine will not have homes to return to, the United Nations warned.
When, at the end of January, Poland’s deputy interior minister, Maciej Wąsik, said his country had “to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people” in the event of a major Russian invasion of Ukraine, many thought he was exaggerating.
After 53 days from the Russian invasion, according to UNHCR, almost 5 million Ukrainians have left the country. About 90% of those who fled are women and children, after the government introduced martial law banning men aged 18-60 from leaving.
Early in April, UNHCR reported that more than 7 million people were internally displaced in the country.
Poland remains the main destination for Ukrainian refugees, with the country having received approximately 2.69 million refugees, followed by Romania with about 720,000 people.
Last week the UK home secretary, Priti Patel, apologised for the time it had taken for Ukrainian refugees to arrive in the UK under two visa schemes, after new figures showed just 12,000 had so far reached Britain.
Updated
09:14
Russia says ammunition factory near Kyiv ‘destroyed’
Russian armed forces destroyed an ammunition factory near Kyiv, Russian defence ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said on Sunday.
“Overnight, high-precision air-launched missiles destroyed an ammunition factory near the town of Brovary in Kyiv region,” Konashenkov said, as reported by the Reuters news agency.
Updated
08:13
The city of Kramatorsk feels empty. Only a handful of supermarkets, restaurants and hotels are still open. Windows along the main streets are boarded up. Many residents have moved out of their apartment blocks and into houses in neighbouring villages, where they judge it will be safer.
The few locals walking around behave as if they can’t hear the sirens blaring and appear not to flinch from the occasional thunder of incoming shells.
Russia’s war in Ukraine is moving into a new phase centred on the Donbas region in the east, and most of its citizens are not taking any chances. Regional mayors told the Observer they estimated that about 70% of the population had left since Russia’s offensive began in February.
Ukrainian-controlled Donbas is surrounded by Russian forces from the north, east and south. Ukraine’s authorities believe Russian forces are aiming to encircle the territory by cutting off their supply lines from the west.
Russian-backed forces have held about a third of the region since 2014. Russia had hoped and possibly expected that its attempts to gain more territory would be popular with the mainly Russian-speaking population. But eight years of conflict, and particularly the last eight weeks, have taken their toll.