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Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged international leaders to act after disturbing video emerged on Wednesday of Russian soldiers apparently beheading a Ukrainian prisoner of war lying on the ground. Ukraine’s president said the world could not ignore the “evil” footage, which has not been verified by the Guardian.
Belarus has extradited a Russian man who was separated from his daughter and sentenced to two years in prison after she drew anti-war pictures at school. Alexei Moskalyov, a 54-year-old single parent from the town of Yefremov, 150 miles south of Moscow, fled house arrest last month, hours before a court handed him a two-year sentence for “discrediting” the Russian army.
The EU has pledged to hold those responsible for war crimes in Ukraine to account, a spokesperson said, while the UN said it was “appalled by particularly gruesome videos” circulating on social media.
The World Bank said on Wednesday it would finance $200m to help fix Ukraine’s energy and heating infrastructure, with partners and others to provide another $300 million as the project expands.
The UK government has imposed sanctions on the “financial fixers” who have allegedly helped Russian oligarchs Roman Abramovich and Alisher Usmanov hide their assets.
Britain is ready to provide an extra $500 million of loan guarantees to Ukraine, taking the total this year to $1bn, British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Wednesday. Hunt said the British loan guarantees had been important to underwrite a broader $15.6 billion IMF four-year package of support.
The US also imposed sanctions on more than 120 individuals and entities around the world over their ties to Russia’s war in Ukraine. The sanctions targeted people and entities across more than 20 countries and jurisdictions.
Russia has hit 333 Canadian officials and public figures with sanctions in what it said was a tit-for-tat move in response to Canada’s sanctions against Moscow and support for Ukraine.
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Ukraine’s military has again rejected claims by Russia that Russian troops have captured more than 80% of the embattled city of Bakhmut. Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the eastern military command, insisted on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces controlled “considerably” more than 20% of it in the east.
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its forces struck Ukrainian army reserves attempting to break through to Bakhmut. It also claimed that fighters from Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group had captured three more blocks in their attempt to seize control of the city. The claims were not verified.
Russia has tightened its conscription law, including introducing electronic military draft papers, before a widely anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive in the coming weeks. The lower and upper houses of parliament rushed through legislation that will make it significantly harder for Russians to dodge the draft while automatically banning registered conscripts from leaving the country.
Russian-installed authorities in annexed Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have cancelled traditional military parades to celebrate Victory Day and May Day, the Russian-appointed leader of Crimea has said, citing security reasons. Sergei Aksyonov’s statement on Wednesday came a day after he said Crimea was on guard and that Russian forces had built “modern, in-depth defences”.
Serbia has agreed to supply arms to Kyiv or has sent them already, according to a classified Pentagon document. Serbia is one of the only countries in Europe that has refused to sanction Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
South Korea has reportedly agreed to “lend” the US 500,000 rounds of artillery, as Seoul attempts to minimise the possibility that the ammunition could end up in Ukraine – a move that could spark domestic criticism of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
South Africa has said that an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over the Ukraine war was a “spanner in the works” before a Brics summit in the country in August. The Russian president is due to attend a summit of Brics countries but the host nation is a member of the International Criminal Court and would be expected to make the arrest if Putin steps foot in the country.
The German government is very worried about the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s worsening health condition, a government spokesperson has said. Navalny’s spokesperson on Tuesday said he had lost 8kg in 16 days while in solitary confinement, and that he was not receiving any treatment.
