Putin lauds ‘friendship’ with China as Zelensky visits Kharkiv – Ukraine war live

As Maksym – a Ukrainian man with a disability who was disappeared into Russia early on in the war – told me, those with disabilities are the last to be remembered and the first to be left behind.

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The United States announced sanctions on Thursday on two Russian individuals and three Russian companies for facilitating arms transfers between Russia and North Korea, including ballistic missiles for use in Ukraine.

It is the latest round of sanctions imposed by the Treasury and State departments to disrupt and expose arms transfers between the two countries, a Treasury Department statement said.

“Today’s action reflects our commitment to disrupt the DPRK’s (Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea) deepening military cooperation with Russia,” Brian Nelson, the under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in the statement.

“The United States will continue to take action to hold accountable those who seek to facilitate the shipment of weapons and other materiel to enable Russia’s war,” Nelson added.

Russia has expelled the defence attache at the British Embassy in Moscow in a tit-for-tat response to the expulsion of one of its own diplomats from London last week.

The Russian foreign ministry said an embassy official had been summoned on Thursday and told Captain Adrian Coghill must leave the country within seven days.

The move follows the expulsion of Russian defence attache Colonel Maxim Elovik on May 8, whom the Home Secretary said was an “undeclared military intelligence officer”.

In a statement on its Telegram channel, the Russian foreign ministry said the expulsion of Col Elovik had been politically motivated and caused significant damage to relations between the two countries.

The International Monetary Fund will start a new Ukraine mission in coming weeks to assess the war-torn country’s economy and performance under a $15.6 billion loan program, IMF spokesperson Julie Kozack said on Thursday.

Kozack told a regular press briefing that the mission on the next loan program review will assess the latest economic developments in Ukraine and revise its macroeconomic framework and analysis of the country’s debt sustainability.

President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the northeastern city of Kharkiv on Thursday to boost morale and reinforce Ukraine’s troops in the region where Russian forces are trying to press their new offensive beyond the border areas.

Moscow has made inroads of at least several kilometres into the north of Kharkiv region since Friday, forcing Kyiv’s outmanned troops to try to hold the line on a new front as Russia mounts more pressure on the front in the east.

“The direction remains extremely difficult – we are strengthening our units,” Zelensky said after holding a meeting in the city with his top commander and senior military leaders.

The Ukrainian leader, who has cancelled all his upcoming foreign trips as the battlefield situation deteriorates, met wounded soldiers recovering at a medical facility and posed for photographs with troops at another location.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has thanked Chinese leader Xi Jinping for China’s proposals on ending the war in Ukraine, which have been rejected by Ukraine and its western supporters as largely following the Kremlin’s line.

At their summit, Mr Putin and Mr Xi reaffirmed a “no-limits” partnership that has grown deeper as both countries face deepening tensions with the West, and criticised US military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region.

China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed Moscow’s contentions that Russia was provoked into attacking Ukraine by the West, and continues to supply Russia with key components that Moscow needs for its productions of weapons.

A joint statement after Mr Putin and Mr Xi met said that both sides believe that for “a sustainable settlement of the Ukrainian crisis, it is necessary to eliminate its root causes”.

Denmark will send a new military aid package to Ukraine, including primarily air defense and artillery, worth around 5.6 billion Danish crowns (£644 million), the Danish Defence Minister wrote on social media platform X on Thursday.

Russian forces have “executed” civilians desperately trying to flee the battered Ukrainian town of Vovchansk, Ukraine’s Interior Minister has claimed.

Ihor Klymenko, writing on the Telegram messenger service, said Russian soldiers were killing civilians who were trying to flee Vovchansk on foot after the soldiers entered the north and northwest suburbs of the town. He added that they were “kidnapping” civilians that remained in the town and “herding [them] into basements”.

“As of now, according to operational information, the Russian military, who were trying to gain a foothold in the city, did not allow local residents to evacuate: people began to be kidnapped and herded into basements,” he wrote.

“It is known about the first executions of civilians by the Russian military. In particular, one of the inhabitants of Vovchansk tried to escape on foot, refused to obey the commands of the invaders – the Russians killed him.”

Ukrainian units locked in street battles with the Kremlin’s forces in a key northeastern Ukraine town have halted the Russian advance, military officials in Kyiv claimed Thursday, though a senior Moscow official said the frontline push had enough resources to keep going.

Russian attempts to establish a foothold in the town of Vovchansk, which is among the largest towns in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region with a prewar population of 17,000, “have been foiled,” Ukraine’s general staff said in a midday report.

Sri Lanka will dispatch a high-level delegation to Russia to investigate the fate of hundreds of nationals reportedly fighting in the war in Ukraine, a top official said on Thursday.

Social media campaigns via WhatsApp have targeted ex-military personnel with promises of lucrative salaries and promises of citizenship, the Defence Ministry has said, warning its nationals not to be duped.

The messages, sent by Sri Lankan nationals, provide a number to agents, who then arrange the documentation and the flights.

The campaigns have proved appealing as Sri Lanka struggles to emerge from its worst financial crisis in more than seven decades, which has doubled poverty rates from pre-pandemic levels and pushed hundreds of people to migrate.

Earlier this month, Sri Lankan authorities launched investigations into reports of its citizens, mostly with military training, being trafficked to fight in the war in Ukraine, said State Minister for Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya.

“The primary challenge lies in determining the exact number of individuals in Russia. As per unofficial sources, approximately 600-800 Sri Lankan individuals are in Russia,” he told reporters.