Russia-Ukraine war latest: Vladimir Putin ‘holding the world to ransom’ over food supplies, says UK – live

Turkey is in “ongoing” talks with Russia and Ukraine to open a corridor via the Bosphorus for grain exports from Ukraine, according to a senior Turkish official.

The official, requesting anonymity because the talks were confidential, told Reuters:

Turkey is negotiating with both Russia and Ukraine for the export of grains from Ukraine.

With a corridor to be opened from Turkey, there was a demand for this grain to reach their targeted markets. Negotiations are still ongoing.

Two other sources confirmed that Turkey was in talks to help the grains be shipped out of Ukraine. Although a Nato member, Turkey was seen as more “neutral” than other western alliance members, one person said.

A senior diplomat said yesterday:

Turkey is ready to contribute to a kind of monitoring of these exports from Odesa through the Black Sea because Turkey traditionally is very strong in the Black Sea and they are ready to help.

The UK’s foreign minister, Liz Truss, accused Vladimir Putin of “weaponising” hunger through Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports.

Speaking during a visit to Bosnia Herzegovina, Truss was asked whether she supported lifting sanctions in exchange for grain exports from Ukraine.

Truss replied:

It is completely appalling that Putin is trying to hold the world to ransom. He is essentially weaponising hunger and lack of food amongst the poorest people around the world.

We simply cannot allow this to happen. Putin needs to remove the blockade on Ukrainian grain.

She added:

What we cannot have is any lifting of sanctions, any appeasement, which will simply make Putin stronger in the longer term.

Journalists from western countries will be expelled from Russia if YouTube blocks access to Moscow’s foreign ministry’s briefings, the ministry said.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, who holds a weekly briefing, said the ministry had warned YouTube against blocking her content.

Zakharova was quoted by the Russian state-owned news agency Tass as saying:

We just came and told them: ‘You block another briefing, one journalist or American media outlet goes home. Another briefing is blocked and we will name a specific journalist or specific media outlet that will go home.’

She added that Moscow was working on measures against English-language media in response to what it considered “unfriendly actions” by foreign governments towards Russian news outlets. She did not provide further details.

Zakharova’s comments came after Russian lawmakers approved a bill giving prosecutors powers to shut foreign media bureaus if a western country has been “unfriendly” to Russian media. The measure is meant to retaliate for the closure of some Russian state news outlets in the west.

The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, has been speaking during his regular briefing where he rejected claims that Russia had blocked grain exports from Ukraine.

Instead, Peskov accused the west of creating such a situation by imposing sanctions on Russia.

Peskov told reporters:

We categorically do not accept these accusations. On the contrary, we blame Western countries for taking actions that have led to this.

Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea have been blocked since Russia’s invasion on 24 February, leaving more than 20m tons of grain stuck in silos in the country.

Yesterday, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Rudenko, said the Kremlin would allow ships carrying food to leave Ukrainian ports in exchange for the lifting of sanctions.

Two captured Russian soldiers have pleaded guilty to shelling a town in eastern Ukraine, in the second war crimes trial since Russian troops invaded the country.

Alexander Bobikin and Alexander Ivanov acknowledged being part of an artillery unit that fired at targets in the Kharkiv region from the Belgorod region in Russia.

The shelling destroyed an educational establishment in the town of Derhachi, the prosecutors said.

Bobikin and Ivanov, described as an artillery driver and a gunner, were captured after crossing the border and continuing the shelling, the prosecutor general’s office said.

At the trial in the Kotelevska district court in central Ukraine, Bobikin told the court:

I am completely guilty of the crimes of which I am accused. We fired at Ukraine from Russia.

Ivanov asked not to be handed the maximum jail term, telling the court:

I repent and ask for a reduction in the sentence.

State prosecutors asked for the pair to be jailed for 12 years for violating the laws of war. A defence lawyer asked for leniency, arguing that two soldiers had been following orders and repented.

The verdict is expected on 31 May.

Hello, it is Léonie Chao-Fong here in London taking over from Martin Belam with all the latest news from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to drop me a message if you have anything to flag, you can reach me on Twitter or via email.

• Ukraine’s president and foreign minister have pleaded with the west to send more weapons to their military in the face of Russia’s intensifying assault on the eastern Donbas region. “We need the help of our partners – above all, weapons for Ukraine. Full help, without exceptions, without limits, enough to win,” Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly address on Wednesday. Earlier in the day, Dmytro Kuleba told the World Economic Forum in Davos that Nato was doing “virtually nothing” to help Ukraine.
• Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Andrei Rudenko, said Moscow was ready to provide a humanitarian corridor for vessels carrying food to leave Ukraine, in return for the lifting of some sanctions. Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have been blocked since Russia invaded, with more than 20m tonnes of grain stuck in silos in the country. Kuleba poured scorn on Moscow’s claim and accused Russia of trying to “blackmail the world”.
• There are about 8,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war held in the Russian-backed self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, Luhansk official Rodion Miroshnik was quoted by the Russian Tass news agency as saying.
• Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, has said they cannot yet be 100% sure they have flushed every last Ukrainian fighter out of the Azovstal steel plant.
• The deputy prime minister of the Russian-appointed Crimean government, Georgy Muradov, has said: “The Sea of Azov is forever lost to Ukraine.” He is reported to have said: “Ports in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions will never again be Ukrainian. I am sure that after the reunification of our regions with Russia, the Sea of Azov will again, as it was before, become exclusively an inland sea of the Russian Federation.”
• Russia’s ministry of defence claims that as a result of their operations in the last 24 hours, more than 350 Ukrainian fighters were killed, and 96 units of weapons and military equipment were disabled.
• Russian forces shelled more than 40 other towns in Donbas on Wednesday, Ukraine’s military said, threatening to shut off the last main escape route for civilians trapped in the path of their invasion.
• Russia’s failure to anticipate Ukrainian resistance and the subsequent complacency of Russian commanders has led to significant losses across many of Russia’s more elite units, according to Britain’s Ministry of Defence in its latest intelligence update on the war.
• Ukraine’s governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synyehubov, has said fighting is most intense in the Izyum region. He claimed: “The Russians are trying to improve the tactical situation in the area of the city of Izyum and resume the offensive on Slovyansk.”
• Maksym Kozytskyi, the governor of Lviv, said that for the first time since Lviv started accepting displaced people from elsewhere in Ukraine, there was not a single person who registered for temporary accommodation yesterday.
• Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, has told the World Economic Forum in Davos that he believes Russia still hopes to take control of the Ukrainian capital. He said everyone in the world understands it is not “a special operation”, but that it is a genocide against the Ukrainian people.
• The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has told the World Economic Forum that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a thunderbolt, and that Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to win or to dictate peace terms.
• British foreign secretary Liz Truss is expected to urge Britain’s allies to remain strong in support of Ukraine and not to appease Putin, in a speech later today.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I am handing over to my colleague Léonie Chao-Fong.

Graeme Wearden

My colleague Graeme Wearden is in Davos, where the German chancellor Olaf Scholz is speaking:

Olaf Scholz has told the World Economic Forum that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February was a thunderbolt, and that Vladimir Putin cannot be allowed to win or to dictate peace terms.

A nuclear power is acting as if it has the right to redraw borders, he said. This is imperialism, threatening to to take us back to a time when war was a common instrument of politics.

We cannot allow Putin to win this war, and I firmly believe he will not win it, Scholz said.

The prospect of Russia capturing all of Ukraine seems less likely than at the start of the war, Germany’s chancellor says, thanks to the Ukrainian forces and support from international community.

Finland and Sweden are looking to join Nato, and we would welcome them with open arms, Scholz says.

He says Germany is providing heavy weapons to Ukraine, and Scholz believes that Putin will only seriously negotiate peace when he believes he cannot break Ukraine’s defences.

Russia must not be allowed to dictate the peace terms, Scholz said.

Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of Luhansk, has posted a situation update to Telegram. He states:

On 25 May the Russians lead a powerful and long-lasting artillery attack on Lysychansk. They attempted to storm our defence near Ustynivka at the same time destroying this village and Lysychansk nearby by artillery

As a result, two died in Ustynivka and one in Lysychansk.

A shell hit the humanitarian aid centre, and a volunteer car that delivered food to Luhansk region was damaged. Eleven high-rises, the building of ‘Impulse’ in Sievierodonetsk, eight high-rises and private houses, a house of culture and the Administration Services Centre in Lysychansk, four houses in Privillya, two in Novodruzhesk and Hirske each were destroyed. Now the enemy is trying to gain a foothold near Sievierodonetsk.

On 25 May overall, 10 Russian attacks were repelled, four tanks, two artillery systems, an armoured personnel carrier, a motor vehicle and one unit of special equipment were destroyed. Air defence units shot down five UAVs ‘Orlan-10’.

The claims have not been independently verified.

Isobel Koshiw reports for us from Kyiv on the anarchists joining Ukraine’s struggle against Russia:

In an unnamed basement bar in central Kyiv, Ukrainian anarchists have created a headquarters where they gather supplies to send to their peers on the frontlines and welcome anarchists from abroad who have come to fight.

It is unusual to see anarchists supporting state structures, but they say taking action against Russia is necessary for their own survival. “We are fighting to protect the more or less free society that exists in Ukraine,” said an activist, Dmytro. “Without which there would be no space for activism or underground movements.”

He added: “Putin’s terror is happening [in Ukraine] and it is indiscriminate. It is happening against every part of the population, but especially against the Russian-speaking parts of the population that Putin supposedly came here to liberate,” referring to the fact that the war has been heaviest in eastern and southern Ukraine.

“His regime is an ultraconservative, rightwing dictatorship that represses anarchists in Russia, the free press, LGBT networks. It scares even the most banal, grass-roots initiatives, like animal rights activists. We see the conflict between Ukraine and Russia as a conflict between a more or less democratic state and a totalitarian one.”

Read more of Isobel Koshiw’s report from Kyiv: ‘Putin’s terror affects everyone’ – anarchists join Ukraine’s war effort

Russia’s military have issued their operational briefing for the day. Among the claims – which have not been independently verified – are:

• “High-precision air-based missiles hit 48 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine.”
• “In the area of the settlement of Dneprovskoe, Mykolaiv region, the Ukrainian center of electronic intelligence was destroyed, including 11 military personnel of the combat crew, as well as 15 foreign specialists who arrived with the protection of engineering and operational staff.”
• “Russian air defence systems shot down one Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter over the village of Gusarovka, Kharkiv region. Also, a military transport aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force, which was delivering ammunition and weapons, was shot down in the air in the Kremidovka region of the Odessa region.”

The Russians also claim that as a result of their operations in the last 24 hours, more than 350 Ukrainian fighters were killed, and 96 units of weapons and military equipment were disabled.

The Russian ministry of defence have also published two videos this morning. One of which claims to show a series of Ukrainian defence trenches which had been seized by Russian forces. The other shows the launching of an OTRK “Iskander” missile, which Russia claims can hit targets up to 500km away and is “impossible” to detect.

The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Synyehubov, has issued an update on his region on Telegram. He reported:

A 62-year-old man was injured in the shelling in the Pyatihatok district of Kharkiv last night. Balakliya was shelled: ten people, including a nine-year-old child, were injured. Two people died: men aged 64 and 82. Only a nine-year-old girl was taken from Balaklia to Kharkiv, she is in stable serious condition. Other patients were hospitalised in Kupyansk CDH. Russian occupiers fired on Zircons, burned houses, one victim. Also one victim of shelling of Chuguiv district. This morning Zolochiv community and Slatine were fired upon again, Dergachiv community - two wounded.

He went on to say:

Our armed forces of Ukraine are fighting intensively against the Russian occupiers. The hottest in the Izyum region. The Russians are trying to improve the tactical situation in the area of the city of Izyum and resume the offensive on Slovyansk.

Denis Pushilin, head of the self-proclaimed breakaway Donetsk People’s Republic, has given an interview to Russia’s RIA Novosti in which he has said he cannot be certain that all Ukrainian forces have been expelled from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. They quote him saying:

No, it’s impossible. They could hide physically, they could be lost somewhere. For now, we thoroughly check every nook and cranny of Azovstal, and there the territory is quite serious. I will not say that they are 100% there, or 100% have already been cleared. After our units check everything, clear mines, after they clear all the rubble that is there, after that we can say … there is absolutely no one left.

Graeme Wearden

Graeme Wearden is in Davos, where Kyiv’s mayor is speaking:

Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, begins his briefing by saying that Russia still hopes to take control of the Ukrainian capital.

It is clear that it is not a special military operation, as Russia claims, but war, one of the biggest since the second world war, he says.

Thousands of people have died, including a lot of children, Klitschko says, with a huge battle raging in the East of Ukraine.

It is no secret that Russia’s priority is to occupy the whole country, and their main target is still the capital of Ukraine, the heart of the country, the former heavyweight champion says.

He says the whole world has seen the evidence from satellite cities such as Bucha.

Everyone understands, it’s not a special operation.. it is the genocide of the Ukranian people, Klitschko says, with children, women, and old people killed.

And he explains the human suffering, saying it is difficult to understand how people can lose their home in a moment - or suddenly lose friends, relatives, or parents.

Graeme Wearden

Dr Svitlana Krakovska, head of the Ukrainian delegation to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), believes the reconstruction of cities bombed in the invasion can be an example to the rest of Europe.

Speaking yesterday at a panel session in Davos organised by the Arctic Basecamp group of climate scientists, Dr Krakovska said:

We have a big disaster in our country, we have so many people killed, our cities destroyed.

But these destroyed cities are our opportunity, to rebuild them in a climate-resilient way.

To do this we will need the support of all the international community, financial support and technology support as well.

So we are looking forward to having Ukraine as a role model for Europe.

Dr Krakovska received a medal from Ukraine’s Volodymyr president Zelenskiy last year for her work on rising global temperatures, including visiting the Antarctic to monitor the impact of climate change there.