Ukraine’s army claims to have killed 109 Russian soldiers and wounded a further 188 in one day during fighting around the village of Vuhledar in the eastern Donetsk oblast. Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern operational command of the Ukrainian armed forces, said the bloody death toll was recorded on Thursday, adding “Fierce fighting is ongoing. The enemy is indeed trying to achieve an intermediate success there, but thanks to the efforts of our defenders, they are unsuccessful.”
Poland will send an additional 60 tanks to Ukraine on top of the 14 German-made Leopard 2 tanks it has already pledged, the former’s prime minister has said. Mateusz Morawiecki has told CTV News “we are ready to send 60 of our modernised tanks, 30 of them PT-91. And on top of those tanks, 14 tanks, Leopard 2 tanks, from in our possession.”
Belgium has announced a package of an additional €93.6m (£84.5m / $104.7m) in military aid for Ukraine. Federal prime minister Alexander De Croo said that, taking into account previous spending, it amounted to the biggest ever military aid package given to another country by Belgium. The package will include surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons, machine guns, grenades and munition.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Ukraine last week, said IAEA monitors reported powerful explosions near Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station on Thursday and renewed calls for a security zone around the plant.
Ukrainian civilians had raced for cover on Thursday as Russia fired a barrage of missiles and drones across the country, killing at least 11 people, a day after Kyiv won pledges of battlefield tanks to combat Moscow’s invasion from western countries.
Ukraine’s state broadcaster reported that ten regions of Ukraine are using emergency power outages due to a power shortage in the network after Thursday’s Russian attacks, and the restoration of damaged facilities is ongoing.
The Kremlin said on Friday that US President Joe Biden had the key to end the conflict in Ukraine by directing Kyiv to settle, but that Washington had so far not been willing to use it. “The key to the Kyiv regime is largely in the hands of Washington,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in his usual daily briefing. “Now we see that the current White House leader … does not want to use this key. On the contrary, he chooses the path of further pumping weapons into Ukraine,” he added.
Lynne Tracy, the new US ambassador to Russia, will not improve ties between Washington and Moscow because the former is engaging in a “hybrid war” against the latter, the Russian foreign ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Friday. The ambassador’s appointment comes as relations between Russia and the US are at historical lows. Zakharova said Tracy’s room for manoeuvre would be limited due to what she said was fierce anti-Russian bipartisan feeling in the United States.
The European Union wants swift accountability for “horrific” crimes in Ukraine, EU justice ministers have said. But the member states differ over the methods in a debate about how to bring prosecutions, seek evidence or fund war damage repairs, Reuters reports. The bloc’s 27 justice ministers met in Stockholm, where they discussed collecting evidence as well as setting up a new international tribunal to prosecute Moscow’s aggression. Gunnar Strommer, Sweden’s justice minister, said “Nobody doing this kind of war crimes shall go free. It’s very, very important that we will find a way to hold responsible people accountable.”
Ukrainian government officials who shirk their duties during wartime will be quickly removed, a top aide to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday amid a crack down on corruption. More than a dozen officials have been removed this week after a series of scandals and graft allegations. Political analysts said Zelenskiy needs to show western partners and war-weary Ukrainians that he is serious about punishing misrule.
Russia is violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) chief Filippo Grandi has said. “Giving them nationality or having them adopted goes against the fundamental principles of child protection in situations of war,” Grandi said. Grandi said his agency was unable to estimate the number of children who had been given passports or put up for adoption, as access in Russia was extremely limited. Russia has said accusations Ukrainian children have been abducted are false.
A 74-year-old Spanish man arrested over a spate of letter bombs sent to institutions including the prime minister’s office and the Ukrainian Embassy in Madrid in late 2022 was trying to pressure Spain to drop its support for Ukraine, an investigating magistrate said on Friday. The man was remanded in custody as he was considered a flight risk to Russia.
Tass is reporting that the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson are to be ordered to use Moscow time instead of Kyiv time.
Hungary will veto any European Union sanctions against Russia affecting nuclear energy, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, told state radio on Friday. Ukraine has called on the 27-nation EU to include Russian state nuclear energy company Rosatom in sanctions but Hungary, which has a Russian-built nuclear plant it plans to expand with Rosatom, has blocked that. Reuters reports that Orbán reiterated in an interview that sanctions on nuclear energy “must obviously be vetoed”. “We will not allow the plan to include nuclear energy into the sanctions be implemented,” the Hungarian premier said. “This is out of the question.”
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has met the Eritrean president, Isaias Afwerki, during a tour of African nations to shore up support for Russia, focusing on the “dynamics of the war in Ukraine”, Eritrea’s information minister has said.
Ukraine would not rule out boycotting the Olympic Games if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete in the Paris 2024 Games, its sports minister said.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese on Friday reiterated Australian support for Ukraine and criticised supporters of Russia’s invasion after a video emerged showing Novak Djokovic’s father posing at the Australian Open with fans holding Russian flags, Reuters reports. Police questioned four fans seen with “inappropriate flags and symbols” after a quarter-final match on Wednesday between Russia’s Andrey Rublev and favourite Djokovic, organisers Tennis Australia said.
Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor says it has blocked the websites of the CIA and FBI, accusing the two US government agencies of spreading false information.
Russian authorities designated the independent news outlet Meduza an “undesirable organisation” on Thursday, effectively outlawing the site from operating in Russia and banning any Russian from cooperating with Meduza or its journalists.
