Ukraine war latest: Ukrainians imprisoned in Russia released after Vatican mediation - as five people killed in drone strike on Russian village (2024)

US officials told Reuters news agency late last night that the Biden administration would provide Ukraine with $150m (£118.6m)worth of weapons andammunition, including HAWK air defence interceptors and 155millimetre artillery munitions.

The weapons aid package is expected be unveiled on Monday, the officials said.

Ukraine has urgently requested air defence support as Russia has pounded its energy facilities in recent weeks via aerial attacks.

The US began shipping HAWK interceptor missiles to Ukrainein 2022 as an upgrade to the shoulder-launched Stinger airdefence missile systems - a smaller, shorter-range system.

The support package will include other munitionsand equipment to support Ukraine's defence needs, the officials added.

The US has provided Ukraine with more than $50bn (£39.5bn) in military aid since 2022.

We reported earlier on the 10 Ukrainian civilians who were released from Russian captivity earlier today after years of imprisonment (see 8.49am post).

Watch them reunite with their loved ones in Kyiv's international airport in newly released footage.

A report by the Ukrainian military's centre for strategic communications has found that the country's forces have damaged or destroyed more than 30 Russian military aircraft in the first six months of 2024.

Most of the strikes against the aircraft have taken place in occupied Ukraine except for a handful of strikes over the Sea of Azov and within Russia, the centre said, as reported by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The centre did not specify what portion of these Ukrainian strikes were air defence interceptions of Russian aircraft in flight and what percentage were strikes against Russian aircraft at airfields.

The ISW said they were unable to verify the report.

But it said the downing of Russian aircraft, especially critical aircraft like the A-50 and Il-22, has temporarily constrained Russian aviation activities over occupied Ukraine, but added Ukrainian forces "have yet to be able to significantly attempt to contest the air domain".

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has revealed that Russian strikes have resulted in Ukraine losing around 80% of its thermal power and one third of its hydroelectric power.

Discussing the attack in Dnipro, Mr Zelenskyy said it was a reminder to Ukraine's allies that the country needed more air defence systems.

He said: "This is why we constantly remind all of our partners: only a sufficient amount of high quality of air defence systems, only a sufficient amount of determination from the world at large can stop Russian terror."

Kyivhas also struck back at Russia with its own attacks, which also often target energy infrastructure.

Belarushas deployed additional airdefence forces to its border with Ukraine to protect "criticalinfrastructure facilities" due to increased Ukrainian droneactivity, a Belarusian military commander has said.

Belarus, an ally of Russia, saidearlier this week it had shot down a quadcopter that hadillegally crossed the border from Ukraine "to collectinformation about the Belarusian border infrastructure".

The situation in the airspace over the border remains tense,Andrei Severinchik, commander of the Belarusian Air DefenceForces, said.

"We are ready to decisively use all available forces andmeans to protect our territory and the population of theRepublic of Belarus from possible provocations in the airspace,"he said.

Belarus' defence ministry said earlier today it hadinformation showing Ukraine had been moving more troops, weaponsand military equipment to the northern Zhytomyr region, whichborders Belarus.

There was no immediate response from Ukraine.

Russian elites and oligarchs have reportedly moved from criticising the country's war effort in Ukraine to supporting it, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has reported.

Mikhail Zygar, the founder of the Russian opposition television channel TV Rain, reported that many elites who were opposed to the war in 2022 started to support the war in 2023 because they "believe Russia is prevailing".

Mr Zygar said these people made this assessment due to Russia's slow but steady battlefield gains, a persisting Ukrainian munitions disadvantage, and perceived "waning" Western security assistance to Ukraine.

One anonymous Russian oligarch who previously criticised the war reportedly told Mr Zygar that Russia must win the war otherwise "they won't allow us to live... and Russia would collapse".

The ISW said it cannot independently verify Mr Zygar's reporting but it is consistent with the institute's assessment that this section of Russian society came to heel behind Vladimir Putin in support of the war after his government intensified crackdowns against elites in the wake of the 2022 invasion.

As Russia announces it has captured a second village in 24 hours (see 12.26pm post), let's take a look at where Russia has advanced along the frontline with Ukraine.

As well as pockets of advances on the border north of Kharkiv, Russia appears to have captured areas along the length of the front, from the Donetsk region right up to the western edge of Luhansk.

Russia has said it has taken control of the village of Shumy in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian defence ministry captured the settlement today, state news agency RIA reported.

Shumy is a small village 35.7 miles (57.4km) northwest of Donetsk.

It comes just 24 hours after the ministry said it had taken control of the village of Rozdolivka, around 31 miles (50km) north of Shumy.

But Ukraine'smilitary said heavy fighting was raging in areas around Rozdolivka.

Russian forces pressing forward along the 600-mile (1,000km) frontline have captured several villages in easternregions since they took control of the strategic town of Avdiivka inFebruary.

A weapons expert has told the United Nations Security Council that ballistic missile remnants found in Ukraine "irrefutably" came from North Korea.

The research resulted in a clash between the US and Western allies with Russia and North Korea at the council meeting.

Russia dismissed the "baseless accusations", and North Korea dismissed the meeting as "an extremely brazen act" to discuss "someone's alleged 'weapon transfers'".

Jonah Leff is executive director of Conflict Armament Research, which has been tracing weapons used in attacks in Ukraine since 2018.

In an analysis of a 2 January missile that hit Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, Mr Leff and his organisation documented the missile's rocket motor, tail section and almost 300 components manufactured by 26 companies from eight countries and territories.

It determined the missile was either a KN-23 or KN-24 manufactured in 2023 in North Korea.

The organisation reached its conclusion based on the missile's unique characteristics - its diameter, distinct jet vane actuators that direct the missile's thrust and trajectory, the pattern around the igniter, the presence of Korean characters on some rocket components, and other marks and components dating back to 2023, Mr Leff said.

"Following the initial documentation, our teams inspected three additional identical DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name] missiles that struck Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia earlier this year," Mr Leff said.

They also observed additional conventional weapons, including an artillery rocket produced in 1977, "that had been seized on the front lines and had not been observed on the battlefield previously in Ukraine" that were manufactured by North Korea, and might have been part of a recent larger consignment of rockets.

The council discussed illegal arms transfers from North Korea at the request of the UK, France, Japan, South Korea, and the US.

The meeting followed Russia's 28 March veto that ended the monitoring of sanctions against North Korea over its expanding nuclear program by a UN panel of experts.

The US and its European and Asian allies accused Moscow of seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang to use in Ukraine.

Russia has said it will not send a judo team to the Paris Olympics this summer after just four of its 17 participants - known as judokas - received permission to compete from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Russia and Belarus have been barred from sending national teams to the Games becuase of Putin's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Belarus, Russia's closest ally, allowed its territory to be used to carry out the invasion.

But several athletes from the two countries are being allowed to participate as individual neutral athletes (AINs) without their flags, anthems and emblems, subject to vetting by the IOC to ensure they have no connection to the military.

Russia's judo federation said in a statement on its website that it would not accept the IOC ruling.

"Until the very end, we had hoped that common sense and a desire to hold full-fledged Olympic Games with athletes from Russia and Belarus would prevail over political intrigues," the statement said.

"Unfortunately, our hopes were not realised... Under the circ*mstances, the presidium of the Russian Judo Federation has decided unanimously that the Russian judo team will not accept the humiliating conditions and will take no part in the Paris Games in the form proposed by IOC officials."

The federation had long pledged to sign no declarations "discrediting the policies of our country" and rejected any selection method "aimed at...breaking the spirit of Russian athletes".

Putin, a judo blackbelt, has often sparred with his country's judokas. The International Judo Federation in 2022 said it had suspended Putin's status as an honorary president.