12/04/2024 14:00
The Guardian
This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage hereSix Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Belgorod oblast this morning, injuring two and damaging an administrative building, the regional governor said on Telegram.Russian air defence shot down four of the drones, said governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. One caused a grass fire on the outskirts of Belgorod city, while the other struck the administrative building.After months of delay, the US House speaker is negotiating with the White House on advancing wartime funding for Ukraine – a package that would deviate from the Senate’s $95bn foreign security package and include several Republican demands. House Speaker Mike Johnson has been facing mounting pressure regarding a Ukraine aid package, not just from Joe Biden, who has repeatedly chastised Republicans for not helping Ukraine, but from hard-right members of his own party who remain staunchly opposed to additional Ukraine aid. Johnson is set to travel to Mar-a-Lago club in Florida on Friday to meet with Donald Trump – who has said he would negotiate an end to the conflict as he tries to push the US to a more isolationist stance.A Russian drone damaged equipment at a substation in the Dnipropetrovsk oblast overnight, cutting power to a number of households and individual consumers, Ukrainian energy operator Ukrenergo said on Telegram. The attack came after Russian missiles and drones destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine on Thursday, destroying the Trypilska coal-powered thermal power plant near the capital. Ukrenergo said 399 settlements were without power as of Friday morning, with a blackout in the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Kherson oblasts.Thousands of Russian soldiers are fleeing the war in Ukraine, lying low while awaiting the results of their asylum applications to western countries like Germany, France and the US. Asylum claims from Russian citizens have surged, but few are winning protection – policymakers remain divided over whether to consider Russians in exile as potential assets or risks to national security. Fewer than 300 Russians got refugee status in the US in fiscal year 2022 while less than 10% of the 5,246 people whose applications were processed last year got some sort of protection from German authorities. In France, asylum requests rose more than 50% between 2022 and 2023, to a total of around 3,400 people.Ukrainian authorities conducted a search of a high-ranking priest of Moscow-linked church. Sources told the Kyiv Independent that the premises of Archpriest Mykola Danylevych, a senior member of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, was searched this morning by the security service of Ukraine. The Moscow Patriarchate-linked church has repeatedly been accused of aligning with the Russian government, which the church has denied. The church had yet to comment on the search on Danylevych.Five civilians were killed in Russian attacks on the Mykolaiv oblast, said regional governor Vitalii Kim on Telegram.Ukraine’s parliament passed a controversial bill on Thursday that will change the rules on civilian military mobilisation in an effort to address fledgling manpower among its forces. The legislation, which must be signed by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is seen as crucial for Ukraine to address what military analysts say are major manpower problems as it fights a better armed and larger foe.Russian forces outnumber Ukrainian troops seven to ten times in eastern regions, Ukraine’s Gen Yuriy Sodol told parliament on Thursday. “The enemy outnumbers us by 7-10 times, we lack manpower,” said Sodol, who is commanding the troops in Kharkiv, Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine. Continue reading...
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