Russia Ukraine news latest: Putin has amassed more troops than before war, EU official warns

Russia will not be willing to negotiate while it is still trying to win the war in Ukraine, the European Union’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said, adding that he was “not optimistic” about what could happen to change the situation this summer.

“I see a concentration of troops on both sides, the clear will of Russia to try to win the war,” Mr Borrell said at an event in Barcelona.

“(Russia) will not go to a negotiation until it has tried to win the war.”

Mr Borrell added that Russia has repeatedly signalled it would not cease the campaign until its military goals have been achieved.

“I’m afraid that between now and the summer, the war is going to continue. [Vladimir] Putin has amassed over 300,000 men there, twice as many as he had when he launched the invasion,” he told reporters after the event.

He pointed to the “enormous” Russian military presence in Ukraine and that it was still bombing Ukraine daily and destroying civilian infrastructure.

Several buildings in Moscow suffered “minor” damage after a swarm of drones was fired on the city, officials there said.

No serious injuries have been recorded so far, the mayor of the Russian capital said in the early hours today.

“All emergency services of the city are at the scene of incidents,” mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement.

Some residents of a building in southern Moscow’s Profsoyuznaya street were being evacuated, reported Russia’s RIA state news agency.

According to Russia’s Telegram messaging channels, between four and 10 drones were shot down in the early morning today.

The Independent has not verified the claims.

Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk was booed after she refused to shake hands with her Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabalenka following her defeat in the French Open first round.

Kostyuk has been the most outspoken Ukrainian tennis player about the sport’s response to the invasion of her home country by Russia, and believes Russian and Belarusian players should have been willing to condemn the actions of their countries.

It was a dominant win for world number 2 Sabalenka to begin a Roland Garros campaign which could see her become world number one, but it came against a player who “hates” her.

Russia has dispatched units of its airborne troops and motorised rifle division to Bakhmut as private mercenaries from Wagner Group started to exit the frontline city, according to a Ukrainian military spokesperson.

Ukrainian forces are aware of the names of Russian commanders and combat potential, said Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesperson of the Eastern Group of Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“Yes, there (in Bakhmut) rotational measures are taking place due primarily to the large losses of the Wagner criminal group. They are forced to do this,” he said, reported Ukraine’s Interfax news agency.

He added: “Units of the occupier’s airborne troops and motorised rifle units are coming in. We know their names, we know their commanders and combat potential.”

The official said the mentioned Russian units also fought in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February last year and suffered heavy losses, following which they had to be supplemented by the mobilised forces.

“For the most part, this is already the second or third of their staff,” the spokesman said.

The dynamics of the war have remained mostly the same in recent days, the military spokesperson added. Ukraine killed 155 Russian soldiers and injured another 116, he said.

“The enemy, however, does not stop combat damage to our positions. During these days, [Russia] made 373 hits with various types of barrel and rocket artillery, six air raids on our combat positions,” the spokesperson said.

Ukrainian forces also destroyed two D-30 cannons, an infantry fighting vehicle, an electronic warfare station, three cars and six field warehouses with ammunition, the spokesperson said.

At least one person has died and four were injured as a result of Russia’s third attack on Kyiv in just 24 hours, an official said today.

Tuesday morning’s attack is only the second deadly incident in Kyiv confirmed by the Ukrainian authorities this month, but the 17th airstrike on the capital overall.

One person died when falling drone debris hit a high-rise apartment building, sparking a fire, officials said.

“The attack was massive, came from different directions, in several waves,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging channel.

Another four people were injured and 20 were evacuated, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

The top two floors of the building in Holosiivskyi district were seen engulfed in flames and emergency services were continuing to look for people under the rubble.

Preliminary visuals shared on social media showed flames bursting out from the top floors of the building and smoke rising from the roof.

Volodymyr Zelensky said using US-provided Patriot anti-missile systems has ensured a 100 per cent interception rate for the besieged country’s air defences from Russian attacks.

The top-tier anti-missile system would play a role in pushing forward against Russia’s invasion, Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

“When Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a 100 per cent interception rate of any Russian missile, terror will be defeated,” he said, adding that with military successes “and with our Patriots, we have to continue responding to Russia and all its manifestations of evil”.

This comes after Ukraine repelled more than 160 Russian missiles and drones in 16 combined munitions attack this month, mostly fired overnight.

The US-made Patriot anti-missile system was to thank for Ukraine’s recent successes against incoming Russian Iskander-M ballistic missiles, Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine‘s air force, indicated.

“I think you can guess. If Iskander-M missiles are intercepted, you can draw conclusions about the means that specifically targeted the objectives – ballistic targets,” he had told Ukrainian television.

Ukraine’s air defence forces shot down more than 20 drones that were deployed in an overnight air bombardment on Kyiv by Russia, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said today.

The head of Kyiv’s military administration, Serhiy Popko, said the attack on the capital city was “massive” and carried out in several waves. He added that Russia conducted the assault using only Iranian-made Shahed drones.

Attacks in previous days have included a mixture of drones and missiles, designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.
It was the third attack on the city in the space of just 24 hours. No casualties have been reported so far.

Elina Svitolina urged tennis to focus on the suffering in Ukraine rather than issues the war is causing within the sport after reaching the second round of the French Open.

One of Ukraine’s highest-profile sports stars, Svitolina is playing her first grand slam since the Australian Open last year after giving birth to baby Skai in October.

Her comments come as locker room tensions have brewed over the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian players to continue competing.

Zelensky acknowledged that there were “several Russian terrorist attacks in one day on Monday”, as Russia bombed Kyiv, the port of Odesa, and a military target in Western Ukraine. But he nonetheless struck a note of defiance.

“Today was a very long day, and it started very early for many of our people”, said the President.

“But each […] terrorist attack brings us and the whole world to an obvious conclusion: Russia wants to follow the path of evil to the end, that is, to its defeat, because evil cannot have any other end but defeat.”

Russia put five aircraft out of action in an attack on a military target in western Ukraine and caused a fire at the Black Sea port of Odesa in heavy air strikes early on Monday, Ukrainian officials said.

The attacks were part of a new wave of increasingly frequent and intense air strikes launched by Moscow this month as Kyiv prepares to launch a counteroffensive to try to take back territory occupied by Russian forces.

In a rare acknowledgement of damage suffered at a military “target”, Ukraine did not name the site or sites hit in the western region of Khmelnitskiy but said work was under way to restore a runway and five aircraft were taken out of service.

Russia also launched air attacks on Kyiv in the early hours of Monday using drones and cruise missiles. Ukrainian officials said defence forces shot down more than 40 targets.