Russia-Ukraine war LIVE: Putin launches Kyiv missile strikes during UN chief visit as UK to send 8,000 troops to Europe

US warns against its citizens fighting in Ukraine

The US defence department has again warned US citizens that they should not go to Ukraine to fight.

Agence France-Presse reports Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNNL “We continue to urge Americans not to go to Ukraine… this is an active war zone, this is not the place to be travelling to.”

This comes after reports that 22-year-old former US Marine Willy Joseph Cancel was killed on Monday.

Over 600 injured in latest bombing of steel plant in Mariupol

The mayor of the besieged city of Mariupol has said that more than 600 people were injured in the latest Russian bombing of the Azovstal steel plant.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, mayor Vadym Boychenko said the number of wounded had surged. This comes after Kremlin forces dropped bombs on the makeshift hospital facility inside the steelworks.

“You already know that they dropped bombs on the hospital, aerial bombs destroyed the hospital, and that is a sign of a war crime, because the number of wounded before that was 170, and now it is over 600,” he said.

Spanish ship in Poland with arms for Ukraine

The Spanish government said today that its largest shipment of military equipment to Ukraine so far is on track for delivery after a ship carrying 200 tons of material has docked at a port in Poland.

Spains defense ministry confirmed the ships arrival in Poland.

Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing Polish port authorities, said the vessel had docked at the port of Gdynia, where the material would be unloaded and transported some 700 kilometers (435 miles) to a logistics base in Ukraine.

The shipment includes 30 trucks, several special heavy transport vehicles and 10 smaller vehicles that will be used to transfer the military material to Ukraine, according to Spain’s prime minister.

US and Danish fighters killed in Ukraine

It has been reported that two more foreign fighters have reportedly been killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

US media outlets are reporting 22-year-old former US Marine Willy Joseph Cancel was killed on Monday.

His mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN that he had been working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine.

He is the first US citizen confirmed to have been killed in the Ukraine conflict.

Danish media is also reporting a 25-year-old Dane was killed in Mykolaiv on 26 April while fighting for International Legion Ukraine. His name was not given and the foreign ministry in Copenhagen said it could not confirm the report.

BREAKING: Ghost of Kyiv fighter pilot KILLED

THE LEGENDARY Ghost of Kyiv fighter pilot has been killed in battle after Ukraine claimed he shot down 40 Russian warplanes.

The brave fighter became popular at the start of Putin’s invasion when the Ukrainian military shared an image of him claiming he had shot down ten Russian jets.

Dad-of-one Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29, was killed on March 13, while fighting “overwhelming” enemy forces, the Times reported.

Ukrainian sources confirmed the identity and his death adding that they expected his helmet and goggles to go for sale at an auction in London.

The so-called Ghost of Kyiv became a symbol of resistance in the face of Vladimir Putin’s invasion after Ukrainian government officials shared macho propaganda of the masked pilot appearing to shoot down enemy planes.

Putin could declare new world war in DAYS, Defence Secretary warns

VLADIMIR Putin could declare a new world war within days, Britain’s Defence Secretary has warned.

The warning comes after Russia claimed the invasion of Ukraine is likely to end in a nuclear world war.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned that the Russian tyrant might use traditional Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which commemorate the end of World War Two, to call up troops for a “war with the world’s Nazis”.

He also said Russia’s occupation of Ukraine risked becoming “a sort of cancerous growth” that must be cut out.

Mr Wallace told LBC radio’s Nick Ferrari: “I would not be surprised . . . that he is probably going to declare on May Day that ‘We are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilise the Russian people’.”

He went on: “Putin, having failed in nearly all objectives, may seek to consolidate what he’s got . . . and just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country.

“We have to help Ukrainians effectively get the limpet off the rock and keep the momentum pushing them back.”

Elon Musk gives solar panels to Ukraine

Tesla owner Elon Musk has donated solar panels from his company, in order to provide power supply to medical facilities near Kyiv.

The Ukrainian government said it received the panels today. They will be used at healthcare centres in Irpin and Borodyanka.

UK to send war crimes investigators to Ukraine

The UK will send investigators to Ukraine in May. They will focus on investigating allegations of rape as a possible war crime, the UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss has said.

Speaking at The Hague after meeting with officials at the International Criminal Court, Truss told Reuters: “It’s done to subjugate women and destroy communities and we want to see it stopped.”

Ms Truss added: “This is about collecting a wide range of evidence, witness statements, forensic evidence, and video evidence.”

Threat of nuclear attack played down by west

The threat of a nuclear attack has been played down by the West.

UK Armed Forces minister James Heappey said there was no “imminent threat of escalation”, while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wrote off the warnings as Putin “distracting the world and the public from what he’s actually doing in Ukraine”.

But Joseph Cirincione, a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, D.C, said: “The first possibility is you would use a nuclear weapon in a demonstration shot, so you would fire something into the Black Sea, for example.

“The purpose of this is to ‘escalate to de-escalate’ if the war is going badly.

“If the Russians felt they were on the verge of defeat, they would fire off a nuclear shot to indicate the seriousness of the situation, and to cause the West to back off.

“If that were to happen, I would say the reaction would be shock and horror – but it would not require a military response.

“You don’t have to do anything there. I would say the US response would be more diplomatic.”

Kremlin says Biden’s threat to seize Russian assets ‘illegal’

The Kremlin on Friday said that a proposal by U.S. President Joe Biden to allow U.S. officials to seize Russian assets and use the funds to support Ukraine would amount to illegal expropriation.

President Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine, a proposal that would also let U.S. officials seize more Russian oligarchs’ assets, give the cash from those seizures to Ukraine, and further criminalize sanctions dodging.

British national who died in Ukraine named

Yesterday, Brit was killed fighting Russian troops in Ukraine and it has been reported that another one is missing.

Scott Sibley has been named as the Briton who died, while the second Briton’s whereabouts remain unknown.

It is thought the pair had been fighting against Russian troops as volunteers in support of Ukraine’s military, although this has not been confirmed.

It is understood that Mr Sibley is a veteran of British armed forces.

Kremlin: Russia not decided on whether Putin will attend G20 in person

Russia is preparing for this year’s G20 summit in Indonesia but has not yet decided whether President Vladimir Putin will attend in person or virtually, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Indonesia is currently chairing the Group of 20 major economies. It has invited both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to a leaders summit in November, despite pressure from some Western countries to exclude the Russian president.

Two UK aid workers ‘captured’ by Russian forces in Ukraine

Two British men working as aid volunteers in Ukraine have been taken captive by Russian forces on suspicion they are “spies”, a non-profit organisation and the family of one of them said Friday.

Paul Urey and Dylan Healy were “captured” by Russian soldiers on Monday at a checkpoint south of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, according to Presidium Network, a humanitarian organisation.

The pair were said to be operating independently to try to get vulnerable Ukrainians out, and were arrested as they drove to help a woman and her two children in Zaporizhzhia.

Presidium Network said it had offered to help Urey and Healy after hearing of their volunteer efforts, but the pair were not affiliated with the non-governmental organisation, which has been active in Ukraine.

After the checkpoint arrests, the woman’s house “was stormed by armed Russian soldiers”, Presidium co-founder Dominik Byrne said in a statement.

“They made her husband lie on the floor and asked her how she knew these British spies,” he said, insisting that the pair were not spies but humanitarian workers.

Urey, born in 1977, is a Type 1 diabetic and needs regular insulin doses, according to his mother Linda Urey, who said his family was “extremely worried”.

“He was out there on his own accord. We want everyone’s support to bring (my) son home and pray he is safe,” she said.

Russian border checkpoint came under mortar fire from Ukraine

A border checkpoint at a village in Russia’s Bryansk region bordering Ukraine came under mortar fire from Ukrainian territory, the regional governor said on Friday.

There were no casualties as a result of the shelling, Bryansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

Ukraine identified ‘more than 8,000 cases’ of suspected war crimes

Ukrainian investigators have identified more than 8,000 cases of suspected war crimes since Russia’s invasion, Ukraine prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a German TV channel today.

“It’s actually 8,600 cases only about war crimes, and more than 4,000 cases that are connected with war crimes,” Venediktova told the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

Venediktova has been investigating and tallying the mounting cases of suspected crimes by Russian forces since their invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

There are now more than 8,000 investigators gathering evidence on the ground, she said, including state security services, national police and foreign investigators.

The alleged crimes documented include “killing civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture” and “sexual crimes” that are being reported in the “occupied territory of Ukraine”, Venediktova said.

Russian submarine strikes Ukraine with cruise missiles says defence ministry

Russia used a diesel submarine in the Black Sea to strike Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, the first time Moscow has announced the use of its submarine fleet to hit its former Soviet neighbour.

The Russian defence ministry released a video showing a volley of Kalibr missiles emerging from the sea and soaring off into the horizon – to what the ministry said were Ukrainian military targets.

This is the first time Russia’s military has reported using submarine strikes against Ukrainian targets, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.

Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund

PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.

Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun’s Ukraine Fund.

Give as little as £3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.

Donate here to help The Sun’s fund

Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles

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Pictured: Zelenskyy shakes hands with UN chief Antonio Guterres

Ukrainian president President Volodymyr Zelensky is seen shaking hands with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (right) during his visit to Ukraine.

Mr Guterres toured some of the destruction in and around Kyiv and condemned the attacks on civilians that took place last night.

President Zelenskyy said the Russian strikes that hit a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv were an attempt “to humiliate” the global body.

UN ‘doing everything it can’ to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today his organisation was doing all it could to help evacuate those trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the UN chief said he was in Ukraine to “zero in” on needs on the ground and scale up operations.

“Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis. Thousands of civilians need life saving assistance. Many are elderly in need of medical care or have limited mobility,” he said.

“They need an escape route out of the apocalypse.

“During my visit to Moscow, President Putin agreed in principle to the involvement of the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. 

“Today, President Zelenskyy and I have the opportunity to address this issue and as we speak there are intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality.”

Mr Guterres added: “At the present moment I can only tell you we are doing everything we can to make it happen. I’m not going to enter into any comment that could undermine that possibility.”

Zelensky: Russia strikes on Kyiv aimed at humiliating UN

President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said that the Russian strikes that hit a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv as the UN’s secretary general was visiting were an attempt “to humiliate” the global body.

“Today (Thursday), immediately after the end of our talks in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. Five rockets.

“And this says a lot… about the Russian leadership’s efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organisation represents,” Zelensky said, adding that it required “a correspondingly powerful reaction”.

Body discovered in rubble after Ukrainian capital missile attack

Ukrainian rescue workers have recovered a corpse from the rubble of a building in Kyiv that was hit by a missile, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The death was the first reported in Thursday’s missile strike as the head of the United Nations visited Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said two Russian missiles had struck the capital but Russia has not commented on the incident.

‘Russian forces have abducted two Britons’ says UK aid agency

A British aid group says it believes two Britons have been abducted by Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.

Dominik Byrne, the co-founder and chief operating officer of the Presidium Network, told The Associated Press on Friday that the men were last heard from on Monday.

Byrne said the men were taken while trying to carry out an independent evacuation in Dniprorudne, near the city of Zaporizhzhia, some 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Kyiv.

Byrne said the family that the two men had been trying to evacuate later were interrogated by Russian forces, who asked them about the British spies. Bryne said the family later escaped to Poland.

Byrne identified the men as Paul Urey and Dylan Healy. He said they had been operating on their own in the war zone and hadn’t been associated with any aid group.

The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia hasn’t acknowledged taking the men.

_

Pictured: Firefighters tackle blazing building after Kyiv shelling

The image below shows firefighters tackling a blaze in a building that was hit by Russian shelling.

Strikes were launched on Kyiv “immediately” after talks between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and UN Chief Antonio Guterres.

Ukrainian officials say at least 10 people were wounded in the ‘heinous’ attack

Mariupol steel works evacuation ‘planned for today’ say officials

Kyiv has confirmed plans were are in place to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol where Ukrainian forces and civilians are encircled by Russian troops.

“An operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal factory is planned for today,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.

It comes a day after the head of the UN said the organisation was “doing everything” to facilitate the rescue of civilians from the port city.

US warns against its citizens fighting in Ukraine

The US defence department has again warned US citizens that they should not go to Ukraine to fight.

Agence France-Presse reports Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told CNNL “We continue to urge Americans not to go to Ukraine… this is an active war zone, this is not the place to be travelling to.”

This comes after reports that 22-year-old former US Marine Willy Joseph Cancel was killed on Monday.

Over 600 injured in latest bombing of steel plant in Mariupol

The mayor of the besieged city of Mariupol has said that more than 600 people were injured in the latest Russian bombing of the Azovstal steel plant.

Speaking on Ukrainian television, mayor Vadym Boychenko said the number of wounded had surged. This comes after Kremlin forces dropped bombs on the makeshift hospital facility inside the steelworks.

“You already know that they dropped bombs on the hospital, aerial bombs destroyed the hospital, and that is a sign of a war crime, because the number of wounded before that was 170, and now it is over 600,” he said.

Spanish ship in Poland with arms for Ukraine

The Spanish government said today that its largest shipment of military equipment to Ukraine so far is on track for delivery after a ship carrying 200 tons of material has docked at a port in Poland.

Spains defense ministry confirmed the ships arrival in Poland.

Spanish newspaper El Pais, citing Polish port authorities, said the vessel had docked at the port of Gdynia, where the material would be unloaded and transported some 700 kilometers (435 miles) to a logistics base in Ukraine.

The shipment includes 30 trucks, several special heavy transport vehicles and 10 smaller vehicles that will be used to transfer the military material to Ukraine, according to Spain’s prime minister.

US and Danish fighters killed in Ukraine

It has been reported that two more foreign fighters have reportedly been killed while fighting alongside Ukrainian forces.

US media outlets are reporting 22-year-old former US Marine Willy Joseph Cancel was killed on Monday.

His mother, Rebecca Cabrera, told CNN that he had been working for a military contracting company that sent him to Ukraine.

He is the first US citizen confirmed to have been killed in the Ukraine conflict.

Danish media is also reporting a 25-year-old Dane was killed in Mykolaiv on 26 April while fighting for International Legion Ukraine. His name was not given and the foreign ministry in Copenhagen said it could not confirm the report.

BREAKING: Ghost of Kyiv fighter pilot KILLED

THE LEGENDARY Ghost of Kyiv fighter pilot has been killed in battle after Ukraine claimed he shot down 40 Russian warplanes.

The brave fighter became popular at the start of Putin’s invasion when the Ukrainian military shared an image of him claiming he had shot down ten Russian jets.

Dad-of-one Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29, was killed on March 13, while fighting “overwhelming” enemy forces, the Times reported.

Ukrainian sources confirmed the identity and his death adding that they expected his helmet and goggles to go for sale at an auction in London.

The so-called Ghost of Kyiv became a symbol of resistance in the face of Vladimir Putin’s invasion after Ukrainian government officials shared macho propaganda of the masked pilot appearing to shoot down enemy planes.

Putin could declare new world war in DAYS, Defence Secretary warns

VLADIMIR Putin could declare a new world war within days, Britain’s Defence Secretary has warned.

The warning comes after Russia claimed the invasion of Ukraine is likely to end in a nuclear world war.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has warned that the Russian tyrant might use traditional Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which commemorate the end of World War Two, to call up troops for a “war with the world’s Nazis”.

He also said Russia’s occupation of Ukraine risked becoming “a sort of cancerous growth” that must be cut out.

Mr Wallace told LBC radio’s Nick Ferrari: “I would not be surprised . . . that he is probably going to declare on May Day that ‘We are now at war with the world’s Nazis and we need to mass mobilise the Russian people’.”

He went on: “Putin, having failed in nearly all objectives, may seek to consolidate what he’s got . . . and just be a sort of cancerous growth within the country.

“We have to help Ukrainians effectively get the limpet off the rock and keep the momentum pushing them back.”

Elon Musk gives solar panels to Ukraine

Tesla owner Elon Musk has donated solar panels from his company, in order to provide power supply to medical facilities near Kyiv.

The Ukrainian government said it received the panels today. They will be used at healthcare centres in Irpin and Borodyanka.

UK to send war crimes investigators to Ukraine

The UK will send investigators to Ukraine in May. They will focus on investigating allegations of rape as a possible war crime, the UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss has said.

Speaking at The Hague after meeting with officials at the International Criminal Court, Truss told Reuters: “It’s done to subjugate women and destroy communities and we want to see it stopped.”

Ms Truss added: “This is about collecting a wide range of evidence, witness statements, forensic evidence, and video evidence.”

Threat of nuclear attack played down by west

The threat of a nuclear attack has been played down by the West.

UK Armed Forces minister James Heappey said there was no “imminent threat of escalation”, while Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wrote off the warnings as Putin “distracting the world and the public from what he’s actually doing in Ukraine”.

But Joseph Cirincione, a distinguished fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in Washington, D.C, said: “The first possibility is you would use a nuclear weapon in a demonstration shot, so you would fire something into the Black Sea, for example.

“The purpose of this is to ‘escalate to de-escalate’ if the war is going badly.

“If the Russians felt they were on the verge of defeat, they would fire off a nuclear shot to indicate the seriousness of the situation, and to cause the West to back off.

“If that were to happen, I would say the reaction would be shock and horror – but it would not require a military response.

“You don’t have to do anything there. I would say the US response would be more diplomatic.”

Kremlin says Biden’s threat to seize Russian assets ‘illegal’

The Kremlin on Friday said that a proposal by U.S. President Joe Biden to allow U.S. officials to seize Russian assets and use the funds to support Ukraine would amount to illegal expropriation.

President Joe Biden asked Congress for $33 billion to support Ukraine, a proposal that would also let U.S. officials seize more Russian oligarchs’ assets, give the cash from those seizures to Ukraine, and further criminalize sanctions dodging.

British national who died in Ukraine named

Yesterday, Brit was killed fighting Russian troops in Ukraine and it has been reported that another one is missing.

Scott Sibley has been named as the Briton who died, while the second Briton’s whereabouts remain unknown.

It is thought the pair had been fighting against Russian troops as volunteers in support of Ukraine’s military, although this has not been confirmed.

It is understood that Mr Sibley is a veteran of British armed forces.

Kremlin: Russia not decided on whether Putin will attend G20 in person

Russia is preparing for this year’s G20 summit in Indonesia but has not yet decided whether President Vladimir Putin will attend in person or virtually, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Indonesia is currently chairing the Group of 20 major economies. It has invited both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to a leaders summit in November, despite pressure from some Western countries to exclude the Russian president.

Two UK aid workers ‘captured’ by Russian forces in Ukraine

Two British men working as aid volunteers in Ukraine have been taken captive by Russian forces on suspicion they are “spies”, a non-profit organisation and the family of one of them said Friday.

Paul Urey and Dylan Healy were “captured” by Russian soldiers on Monday at a checkpoint south of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, according to Presidium Network, a humanitarian organisation.

The pair were said to be operating independently to try to get vulnerable Ukrainians out, and were arrested as they drove to help a woman and her two children in Zaporizhzhia.

Presidium Network said it had offered to help Urey and Healy after hearing of their volunteer efforts, but the pair were not affiliated with the non-governmental organisation, which has been active in Ukraine.

After the checkpoint arrests, the woman’s house “was stormed by armed Russian soldiers”, Presidium co-founder Dominik Byrne said in a statement.

“They made her husband lie on the floor and asked her how she knew these British spies,” he said, insisting that the pair were not spies but humanitarian workers.

Urey, born in 1977, is a Type 1 diabetic and needs regular insulin doses, according to his mother Linda Urey, who said his family was “extremely worried”.

“He was out there on his own accord. We want everyone’s support to bring (my) son home and pray he is safe,” she said.

Russian border checkpoint came under mortar fire from Ukraine

A border checkpoint at a village in Russia’s Bryansk region bordering Ukraine came under mortar fire from Ukrainian territory, the regional governor said on Friday.

There were no casualties as a result of the shelling, Bryansk region governor Alexander Bogomaz said.

Ukraine identified ‘more than 8,000 cases’ of suspected war crimes

Ukrainian investigators have identified more than 8,000 cases of suspected war crimes since Russia’s invasion, Ukraine prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova told a German TV channel today.

“It’s actually 8,600 cases only about war crimes, and more than 4,000 cases that are connected with war crimes,” Venediktova told the Deutsche Welle broadcaster.

Venediktova has been investigating and tallying the mounting cases of suspected crimes by Russian forces since their invasion of Ukraine on February 24.

There are now more than 8,000 investigators gathering evidence on the ground, she said, including state security services, national police and foreign investigators.

The alleged crimes documented include “killing civilians, bombing of civilian infrastructure, torture” and “sexual crimes” that are being reported in the “occupied territory of Ukraine”, Venediktova said.

Russian submarine strikes Ukraine with cruise missiles says defence ministry

Russia used a diesel submarine in the Black Sea to strike Ukrainian military targets with Kalibr cruise missiles, the first time Moscow has announced the use of its submarine fleet to hit its former Soviet neighbour.

The Russian defence ministry released a video showing a volley of Kalibr missiles emerging from the sea and soaring off into the horizon – to what the ministry said were Ukrainian military targets.

This is the first time Russia’s military has reported using submarine strikes against Ukrainian targets, Interfax news agency reported on Friday.

Help those fleeing conflict with The Sun’s Ukraine Fund

PICTURES of women and children fleeing the horror of Ukraine’s devastated towns and cities have moved Sun readers to tears.

Many of you want to help the five million caught in the chaos — and now you can, by donating to The Sun’s Ukraine Fund.

Give as little as £3 or as much as you can afford and every penny will be donated to the Red Cross on the ground helping women, children, the old, the infirm and the wounded.

Donate here to help The Sun’s fund

Or text to 70141 from UK mobiles

£3 — text SUN£3
£5 — text SUN£5
£10 — text SUN£10

Texts cost your chosen donation amount (e.g. £5) +1 standard message (we receive 100%). For full T&Cs visit redcross.org.uk/mobile

Pictured: Zelenskyy shakes hands with UN chief Antonio Guterres

Ukrainian president President Volodymyr Zelensky is seen shaking hands with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (right) during his visit to Ukraine.

Mr Guterres toured some of the destruction in and around Kyiv and condemned the attacks on civilians that took place last night.

President Zelenskyy said the Russian strikes that hit a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv were an attempt “to humiliate” the global body.

UN ‘doing everything it can’ to help evacuate civilians from Mariupol

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said today his organisation was doing all it could to help evacuate those trapped inside the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Speaking at a news conference in Kyiv with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the UN chief said he was in Ukraine to “zero in” on needs on the ground and scale up operations.

“Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis. Thousands of civilians need life saving assistance. Many are elderly in need of medical care or have limited mobility,” he said.

“They need an escape route out of the apocalypse.

“During my visit to Moscow, President Putin agreed in principle to the involvement of the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians in the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. 

“Today, President Zelenskyy and I have the opportunity to address this issue and as we speak there are intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality.”

Mr Guterres added: “At the present moment I can only tell you we are doing everything we can to make it happen. I’m not going to enter into any comment that could undermine that possibility.”

Zelensky: Russia strikes on Kyiv aimed at humiliating UN

President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said that the Russian strikes that hit a residential neighbourhood in Kyiv as the UN’s secretary general was visiting were an attempt “to humiliate” the global body.

“Today (Thursday), immediately after the end of our talks in Kyiv, Russian missiles flew into the city. Five rockets.

“And this says a lot… about the Russian leadership’s efforts to humiliate the UN and everything that the organisation represents,” Zelensky said, adding that it required “a correspondingly powerful reaction”.

Body discovered in rubble after Ukrainian capital missile attack

Ukrainian rescue workers have recovered a corpse from the rubble of a building in Kyiv that was hit by a missile, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The death was the first reported in Thursday’s missile strike as the head of the United Nations visited Kyiv.

Ukrainian officials said two Russian missiles had struck the capital but Russia has not commented on the incident.

‘Russian forces have abducted two Britons’ says UK aid agency

A British aid group says it believes two Britons have been abducted by Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine.

Dominik Byrne, the co-founder and chief operating officer of the Presidium Network, told The Associated Press on Friday that the men were last heard from on Monday.

Byrne said the men were taken while trying to carry out an independent evacuation in Dniprorudne, near the city of Zaporizhzhia, some 470 kilometers (290 miles) southeast of Kyiv.

Byrne said the family that the two men had been trying to evacuate later were interrogated by Russian forces, who asked them about the British spies. Bryne said the family later escaped to Poland.

Byrne identified the men as Paul Urey and Dylan Healy. He said they had been operating on their own in the war zone and hadn’t been associated with any aid group.

The British Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia hasn’t acknowledged taking the men.

_

Pictured: Firefighters tackle blazing building after Kyiv shelling

The image below shows firefighters tackling a blaze in a building that was hit by Russian shelling.

Strikes were launched on Kyiv “immediately” after talks between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and UN Chief Antonio Guterres.

Ukrainian officials say at least 10 people were wounded in the ‘heinous’ attack

Mariupol steel works evacuation ‘planned for today’ say officials

Kyiv has confirmed plans were are in place to evacuate civilians from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol where Ukrainian forces and civilians are encircled by Russian troops.

“An operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal factory is planned for today,” the Ukrainian presidency said in a statement.

It comes a day after the head of the UN said the organisation was “doing everything” to facilitate the rescue of civilians from the port city.