Ukraine latest updates: UK sends Kyiv long-range cruise missiles

Zelenskyy is expected to meet Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday, diplomatic sources have said.

The planned trip, which has not been officially announced, comes just two weeks after the pope said the Vatican was involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Lawmakers have accused the Pentagon of effectively undermining war crimes prosecution of Russia by blocking the sharing of US military intelligence with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague.

US Senator Dick Durbin, a Democrat, said at Senate hearing that he had been told by the ICC’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, that the US Departments of State and Justice were both cooperating. But the Department of Defense, under the leadership of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, was refusing, Durbin added.

“Why are you reluctant to share the evidence that we have gathered in the United States through the Department of Defense for those who are holding Vladimir Putin accountable for his war crimes?” Durbin asked Austin, referring to the Russian president.

“Why we would hold back evidence against this war criminal Vladimir Putin and the terrible things he’s doing, I don’t understand at all,” Durbin said.

Austin, a retired Army general who is rarely expansive in his answers to the public, did not deliver a detailed defence of his position at the hearing, where Durbin and another lawmaker urged him to follow a law passed last year allowing international cooperation to hold Russia accountable.

The United States says it has welcomed South Africa’s promise to probe allegations of arms shipments to Russia, after Washington angered Pretoria by going public with a charge of covert weapons.

“It certainly would be a welcome step,” Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters of the promise of a probe made by a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Russia is looking into boycotting fencing qualifying competitions for next year’s Paris Olympic Games after some fencers were not allowed to compete, Russian Olympic Committee President Stanislav Pozdnyakov has said.

Russian Fencing Federation President Ilgar Mammadov had said the International Fencing Federation (FIE) prevented Olympic gold medallists Yana Egorian, Sofya Velikaya, Olga Nikitina and Sofia Pozdniakova – Pozdnyakov’s daughter – from competing.

While Russians and Belarusians have been given the green light to compete as neutrals by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), athletes contracted to the military or national security agencies of both nations cannot do so. All four fencers are affiliated with Central Sports Army Club (CSKA) Moscow.

Alexandra Bilak of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has told Al Jazeera that the group’s latest report highlights the issue of food insecurity, an issue that has come up repeatedly in monitoring activities across the globe.

“We’re seeing a visible overlap between many of the countries with the highest numbers of IDPs and countries currently facing acute levels of food insecurity or higher. The global food crisis that has been partially driven by war in Ukraine has had a dramatic impact on already vulnerable and displaced populations,” she said.

The EU has not observed any significant smuggling of weapons into Europe from wartime Ukraine, the European Commission’s top internal affairs official has said during a visit to Kyiv.

“I must say that we have not seen any industrial smuggling of firearms out of Ukraine,” European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said in an interview with Reuters.

Speaking on a rooftop in central Kyiv after meeting Ukraine’s interior minister, Johansson said that some individual cases of small arms being taken out of Ukraine had been recorded.

They were mostly individuals attempting to take weapons out as trophies or for personal protection and “they’re being taken, of course, at the border by the border guards,” Johansson said.

South Africa has slammed remarks by the US ambassador in Pretoria, who accused the country of having covertly provided arms to Russia despite its professed neutrality in the Ukraine war.

“The Ambassador’s remarks undermine the spirit of cooperation and partnership” between the two countries, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman Vincent Magwenya said in a statement, adding it was “disappointing” that the envoy had “adopted a counter-productive public posture”.

South Africa will hold an independent inquiry led by a retired judge into an alleged arms shipment to Russia, South Africa’s presidency has said.

The statement came after US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety told South African media at a briefing on Thursday that Washington believed a Russian vessel had uploaded weapons and ammunition from South Africa in December.

Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations have discussed UN proposals to extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, which Moscow has threatened to quit on May 18 over obstacles to its grain and fertiliser exports.

The meeting of senior officials in Istanbul appeared to end without Russian agreement to extend the Black Sea deal. The Kremlin said earlier on Thursday Putin could speak with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at short notice if needed, regarding an extension of the deal, but there were no such plans at present.

The US envoy to South Africa says he is confident that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa, in a possible breach of Pretoria’s declared neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa did not confirm or deny the shipment took place but said his government was looking into the matter, when an opposition leader asked him about the issue in parliament.

The US ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, told local journalists in a briefing earlier on Thursday that Washington was confident a Russian vessel had uploaded weapons and ammunition from South Africa in December.

“Amongst the things we noted were the docking of the Russian cargo ship Lady R in Simon’s Town between December 6 and December 8, 2022, which we are confident uploaded weapons, ammunitions … as it made its way back to Russia,” Brigety said.

Alexandra Bilak of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has told Al Jazeera that their global report on internal displacement this year paints “a rather bleak picture of the world today.

“There have never been this many people internally displaced globally. We’re counting now over 70 million IDPs (internally displaced people) which is roughly twice the number they were a decade ago and 20 percent more than just last year alone,” Bilak said.

“Much of this increase has been driven by the war in Ukraine, where we’re looking at nearly six million people still living internally displaced across the country today, but also by major floods in Pakistan, the drought in the horn of Africa and a number of other new and ongoing conflicts, as well as sudden and slow onset disasters from the Americas to the Pacific.

“Our report makes for a rather grim reading but also reflects the fact that internal displacement is increasingly being caused by a combination of political instability, social, economic and environmental factors.”

A Ukrainian commander in Bakhmut says Russian mercenary forces have stepped up attacks recently and are not facing a munitions shortage.

Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin has complained that Russia’s army has deprived his forces of ammunition during its battle for Bakhmut.

But Ukrainian Colonel Roman Hryshchenko, the commander of Ukraine’s 127th Territorial Defence Brigade, rejected Prigozhin’s claims in an interview with the Reuters news agency.

“They haven’t had anything even close to a munitions deficit. In the last few days, the intensity of shelling and rocket artillery has increased,” Hryshchenko said.

“The situation is difficult. The enemy is throwing a great deal of its forces at us, constant waves of assaults,” he said, adding that Russian forces were suffering casualties several times higher than his unit.

Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko says that Ukraine has received $16.7bn in financial aid from its Western allies so far this year.

“In 2023, Ukraine has already received $16.7bn in budget aid from foreign donors. We also have assurances from partners regarding further support in financing the state budget deficit in 2023,” Marchenko’s ministry quoted him as saying.

The minister commented during a meeting that included finance ministers and central bankers from G7 countries.

He thanked those participating for their “unprecedented efforts” to mobilise the financing.

Ukraine faces a $38bn budget deficit this year, and the government is also asking for another $14bn to reconstruct critical infrastructure and the energy sector.

Officials from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations discussed recent UN proposals on the Black Sea grain deal.

“The meeting discussed the recent proposals by the United Nations, namely the resumption of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, the longer extension of the deal, improvements at the Joint Coordination Centre for stable operations and exports, as well as other issues raised by the parties,” the UN said.

“The parties presented their views and agreed to engage with those elements going forward.”

Russian mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin says the situation on the flanks in Bakhmut was unfolding to be one of the “worst of all expected scenarios”.

In an audio message, Prigozhin complained that territory captured over the course of months was being “thrown away” by those who should be guarding the flanks.

“The situation on the flanks is developing according to the worst predicted scenario,” Prigozhin said.

“All the territories that were taken with the blood and lives of our comrades over many months, advancing tens or hundreds of metres a day, are now being thrown away practically without a fight by those who should be holding our flanks.”

Prigozhin also said his fighters were 625 metres (680 yards) from the western outskirts of the city.

Click here for a roundup of the key events from day 442 of the war.

KEEP READING

• Ukraine strikes back in Bakhmut, as Russia wrangles with Wagner
• US approves first transfer of seized Russian funds to Ukraine
• ‘Another provocation!’: Georgia balks as Russia ends visa regime
• To achieve peace, both Ukraine and Russia must feel secure

Spanish diplomatic source said that Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez would urge the US to give more weight to the opinions of Brazil and China on the Ukraine war when he meets President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday.

While Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the need to arm Kyiv’s forces, it is positioning itself as an intermediary due to its close ties.

Sanchez visited Beijing in March and received Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in Madrid last month.

The source said that the Spanish leader is expected to convey to Biden, Beijing and Brasilia’s views and proposes that greater weight be given to non-NATO members that are also impacted by the war.

Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence says progress has been made during talks on the Black Sea grain by representatives of Russia, Ukraine and UN officials.

The ministry said in a statement that the parties agreed to continue four-way technical meetings on the deal, which is set to expire on May 18.

Russia has said it will not extend the deal unless obstacles are removed to its grain and fertilizer exports.

The deputy defence ministers and UN officials held two days of talks on the deal in Istanbul on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Wednesday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said he thought the Black Sea grain deal could be extended for at least two more months.

Here are four maps that chart the latest developments in the war.