Russia-Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to hear first war crimes trial; Putin ‘humiliating himself on world stage’, Truss says – live | Russia

Ukraine says it has damaged a Russian navy logistics ship near Snake Island, a small but strategic outpost in the Black Sea, Reuters reports.

“Thanks to the actions of our naval seamen, the support vessel Vsevolod Bobrov caught fire – it is one of the newest in the Russian fleet,” said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa regional military administration.

Reuters could not independently verify the details. Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Satellite imagery provided by Maxar, a private US-based company, showed the aftermath of what it said were probable missile attacks on a Russian Serna-class landing craft near the island, close to Ukraine’s sea border with Romania.

Images also showed recent damage to buildings on the island, which became famous for the foul-mouthed defiance of its Ukrainian defenders early in the invasion.

Renewed fighting around Snake Island in recent days may become a battle for control of the western Black Sea coast, according to some defence officials, as Russian forces struggle to make headway in Ukraine’s north and east.

Russian commander set to go on trial for war crimes in Kyiv

Daniel Boffey

A court in Kyiv will hear the first war crime trial since the invasion began when a Russian soldier accused of murdering a 62-year-old civilian appears in the dock on Friday, the Guardian’s Daniel Boffey reports.

The defendant who will appear at Kyiv’s district court is Vadim Shysimarin, a 21-year-old commander of the Kantemirovskaya tank division, who is currently in Ukrainian custody.

It is alleged Shysimarin, a sergeant, had been fighting in the Sumy region in north-east Ukraine when he killed a civilian on 28 February in the village of Chupakhivka.

He is accused of shooting at a civilian car after his convoy of military vehicles had come under attack from Ukrainian forces. He then drove the car away with four other soldiers as he sought to flee Ukrainian fighters.

Shysimarin shot dead the unarmed man, who was on a bicycle and talking on his phone, after being ordered “to kill a civilian so he would not report them to Ukrainian defenders”, according to prosecutors.

Read on here:

International sanctions on Russia should remain in place until all its troops have left Ukraine, UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has told a meeting of her G7 counterparts in Germany according to the BBC.

“Putin is humiliating himself on the world stage. We must ensure he faces a defeat in Ukraine that denies him any benefit and ultimately constrains further aggression,” she said.

She also said that Ukraine’s allies should commit to more sanctions against Russia and that they should go “further and faster” to support it in its war.

“The best long-term security for Ukraine will come from it being able to defend itself. That means providing Ukraine with a clear pathway to Nato-standard equipment,” she said.

Truss has been accused of taking a risky approach to the war, one that could risk inflaming the situation further and endangering any peace talks or chances of de-escalation.

Hello, this is Helen Livingstone bringing you the latest developments on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Here’s a roundup of the latest:

• A court in Kyiv will hear the first war crime trial of the invasion. Vadim Shysimarin, 21, a commander in Russia’s Kantemirovskaya tank division, is accused of shooting dead an unarmed man, 62, who was on a bicycle and talking on his phone in the village of Chupakhivka, Sumy. Shysimarin was ordered “to kill a civilian so he would not report them to Ukrainian defenders”, according to prosecutors.
• International sanctions on Russia should only be lifted when all its troops have left Ukraine, UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has told a meeting of her G7 counterparts according to the BBC. “We must ensure he [Putin] faces a defeat in Ukraine that denies him any benefit,” she said.
• The Russian foreign ministry in Moscow said it would have to take “military-technical” steps if Helsinki applied for Nato accession, after Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, and prime minister, Sanna Marin, said it must apply to join the military alliance “without delay”. Sweden is expected to follow within days.
• Russia could cut its gas supplies to Finland on Friday, a day after Finnish leaders said they would apply to join Nato, according to reports.
• The Republican senator Rand Paul has blocked the passage of a $40bn aid bill for Ukraine in the US Senate. Paul demanded changes including an inspector general to oversee how it is spent.
• Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said that “at least several thousand Ukrainians” have been sent to so-called “filtration centres” in Russia where they are subject to “brutal interrogations”. Tens of thousands more had been evacuated to Russia or Russia-controlled territory. Carpenter said that one survivor said “everyone was afraid to be taken to Donetsk”, where they could be the victim of “further investigation or murder”.
• Urgent measures to break the Russian blockade of grain exports from Ukraine’s ports, including by trying to open routes through Romania and the Baltic, are being discussed at a three-day meeting of G7 foreign and agriculture ministers in Germany. Before the war, most of the food produced by Ukraine – enough to feed 400 million people – was exported through its seven Black Sea ports.
• Ukraine claimed it had damaged and set on fire a Russian navy logistics ship in the Black Sea. The Vsevolod Bobrov was near Snake Island, said Serhiy Bratchuk, a spokesman for the Odesa regional military administration in southern Ukraine. The Guardian could not independently verify the details and Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said “very difficult negotiations” were ongoing to evacuate 38 seriously wounded fighters from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, in exchange for Russian prisoners of war. “We work step by step,’” he said. “We will exchange 38, then we will move on.”
• The number of people who have fled Ukraine to escape Russia’s invasion has exceeded six million, the UN’s refugee agency has said. A further eight million people have been displaced inside Ukraine.
• The UN’s human rights council has passed a resolution to investigate alleged abuses by Russian troops in parts of Ukraine formerly under their control, with a view to holding those responsible to account. The resolution passed by a strong majority, with 33 members voting in favour and two – China and Eritrea – against. There were 12 abstentions.