That's our Ukraine live blog coming to a close for Thursday evening. 

We're back early Friday morning with all the latest developments. 

Nine dead in new Kharkiv bombing

Nine people are dead after Russian bombardment of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv, which had begun a return to normal life in mid-May.

Writing on Telegram, the regional governor said: "Russian shelling of Kharkiv killed nine civilians."

"A five-month-old baby died, as did his father. The mother was seriously injured and 19 civilians were injured." 

Missiles hit the residential area of ​​the Pavlové Polé district, in the center-north of the city, near a shopping center which was closed at the time of the strike, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. He saw a young man killed and four injured, all taken to hospital, including an older man with a severed leg and arm. 

Other residential areas were also bombed, with extensive destruction of buildings.

The mayor of the city, Igor Terekhov, asked residents to take refuge in safe shelters. 

“Enemy troops are shelling our city again,” he said in a video posted on Telegram. "I ask you to stay in safe places, cellars, shelters and metro stations." 

Since mid-May, relative calm had returned to the city, which is about 50km from the Russian border. Before the war some 1.5 million people lived there.  

Russian forces had ceased their offensive on Kharkiv, to concentrate more troops in eastern and southern Ukraine, and the city was beginning a difficult return to normal, including reopening subway traffic. 

(AFP)

Fighting "maximum intensity" in east Ukraine

Ukraine described a Russian military offensive of "maximum intensity" and an extremely difficult situation in the east of its territory, asking for more heavy weapons and denouncing in advance any "pacifist" concessions to Russia, which has disdainfully rejected an Italian peace plan.

"It's hard, but we are holding on. We are fighting for every inch of the front line, for every village. Western weapons help us push the enemy out of our land," the commander wrote on Telegram. head of the Ukrainian armed forces Valeriï Zalouzhny.

"We badly need weapons that will allow us to strike the enemy at a great distance", he added, stressing that "any delay (in these deliveries of heavy weapons) is paid for by the lives of people who protect the world of Ruscism", the contraction of "Russia" and "fascism" used in Ukraine to designate the regime established in Moscow by Vladimir Putin.

The Russian army has concentrated its efforts on the complete conquest of Donbas, the industrial basin in the East already partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, however their progress has been slow. 

(AFP)

Could Russian oligarchs buy their way out of sanctions?

Western allies are considering whether to allow Russian oligarchs to buy their way out of sanctions and using the money to rebuild Ukraine, according to government officials familiar with the matter.

Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland proposed the idea at a G-7 finance ministers’ meeting in Germany last week.

Freeland raised the issue after oligarchs spoke to her about it, one official said. The Canadian minister knows some Russian oligarchs from her time as a journalist in Moscow.

The official said the Ukrainians were aware of the discussions. The official said it’s also in the West’s interests to have prominent oligarchs dissociate themselves with Russian President Vladimir Putin while at the same time providing funding for Ukraine.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly about internal G-7 discussions.

(AP) 

Belarus sending troops to Ukrainian border

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Thursday he was forming a southern military command and sending battalion tactical groups to the area that borders Ukraine.

Lukashenko did not give details, but battalion tactical groups typically consist of mechanized infantry including tanks. The territory of Belarus was used for rocket attacks on Ukraine, but the military of Belarus did not take part in the Russian ground operation.

Ukrainian authorities have expressed concern that Belarus may agree to a wider participation in the war.

(AP)

Russians broadcast state television in occupied Mariupol

Russia has started broadcasting its state television news in the ravaged port city of Mariupol and other locations it controls in eastern Ukraine, Russian and Ukrainian officials said Thursday.

Russia’s Ministry for Emergency Situations, or MChS, said it has launched “three mobile complexes for informing and alerting the population” that will be “broadcasting news for two hours in different parts of Mariupol.”

Such mobile units also operate in the city of Volnovakha and the Lyman district of Ukraine's Donetsk province, broadcasting state news shows, “practical information” and cartoons for children, Russian state news agency Tass reported Thursday.

Petro Adnryushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol's Ukrainian mayor, posted on his Telegram channel footage of MChS trucks with TV screens broadcasting Russian news shows to crowds of people in the Russian-occupied city.

“Yesterday, the occupiers launched three mobile propaganda cars and additionally installed 12 75-inch TVs in places of mass gathering - humanitarian aid distribution points, paperwork points and water access points,” he wrote. “The practice of ‘nothing to feed, feed lies’ is gaining momentum.”

(AP)

Red Cross: Registering prisoners of war 'amounts to life insurance'

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it has been able to give answers to 300 families in Russia and Ukraine about the fate of their loved ones.

ICRC Director-General Robert Mardini told reporters that the organization’s work trying to clarify the fate of missing persons “is very much on track.” He did not disclose the fate of the 300 Russians and Ukrainians, saying only that their families had provided “very concrete questions about their loved ones.”

Mardini said some progress has also been made on the right of the ICRC to visit prisoners of war, which is part of the Geneva conventions.

“There is agreement on both sides” on this right, “which is good news,” Mardini said, but the major obstacle in the ICRC carrying out visits is the war itself and the logistical constraints.

Mardini said the ICRC registered all the Ukrainian fighters that held out until last week at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol before they were taken to Russian-controlled territory. Russia said there were 2,439 Ukrainian fighters.

“Registering prisoners of war or detainees amounts to nothing short of a life insurance,” Mardini said.

(AP)

Prague strips Soviet commander of honorary citizenship

The Czech capital stripped a Soviet World War II commander of his honorary Prague citizenship Thursday.

The Prague City Council ’s approved Mayor Zdenek Hrib’s proposal to revoke the honour bestowed in June 1945 on Soviet Marshal Ivan Stepanovic Konev.

Konev led the Red Army forces that liberated large parts of Czechoslovakia from Nazi occupation in 1945 and also contributed to Prague's liberation. He died in 1973.

The mayor said the general and his army were welcomed in Prague in 1945 but he based his proposal on Konev's post-war activities.

Hrib cited Konev’s authorization of a Soviet bombardment of the Czech town of Mlada Boleslav a day after World War ended, an attack which killed some 150 Czech citizens, and his role in crushing the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in Hungary.

Two years ago, a Prague district removed a statue of Konev. The action angered Russia.

After communism ended in 1989, Prague authorities stripped honorary citizenship from Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.

Some Ukrainian fighters could still be hiding at vast Mariupol steel works

The head of the Russia-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine says that there may be more Ukrainian fighters hiding at the sprawling Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol, even after Moscow officially declared the operation of taking control over it successful and completed.

Denis Pushilin of the Donetsk People’s Republic said of the Ukrainian fighters on Thursday: “They could be hiding....They could be lost somewhere, lagged behind" the ones who surrendered and were captured.

The Russian military declared Azovstal and all of Mariupol “completely liberated” on May 20 and reported that a total of 2,439 fighters had come out of the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the besieged city.

Pushilin says any Ukrainians left behind at the plant don’t pose a threat to the Russian forces.

Russian officials have said the vast territory of the steel mill is being demined. Pushilin said it will be possible to say there is no one left there only after that process is completed, the rubble is cleared and the plant is thoroughly inspected,

“Unfortunately, we already have wounded sapper," he said. "There are a lot of traps, booby traps. Technically, they had everything for this. Therefore, mine clearance is very thorough.”

(AP)

UK: The West must ensure Russia loses the war in Ukraine

The West must ensure that Russian President Vladimir Putin loses the war in Ukraine and continue to support Kiev without wavering, Britain's top diplomat said Thursday.

"No compromise or appeasement must be offered to Putin," Liz Truss said in Sarajevo where she met her Bosnian counterpart Bisera Turkovic. 

"We have to dig deep into our resources without letting up," she told a press conference. It's about "continuing to provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win and regain its territorial integrity and sovereignty".

Russia, which launched an invasion of Ukraine in late February, is advancing in the east of the country and Kiev, worried about the risk of spillover, is calling for more heavy weapons to match Russian firepower. 

"We need to make sure that Putin loses in Ukraine and Ukraine wins (....), that Russian aggression can never again threaten peace in Europe," Truss said.

She also recalled the inter-communal conflict in Bosnia that left 100,000 people dead in the 1990s, saying the country was "now showing signs of interference by Moscow that risks plunging us back into those dark years". "This must stop".

Bosnia has been divided along ethnic lines since the conflict, between a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serbian entity, Republika Srpska (RS), the vast majority of whose inhabitants feel very close to the Russian "big brother".

In recent months, the political leader of the Bosnian Serbs, Milorad Dodik, who does not hide his closeness to Vladimir Putin, has multiplied secessionist threats.

Accused of "threatening the stability" of the Balkans, Milorad Dodik has been sanctioned by both Washington and London.

(AFP)

Putin: West will fail in its attempts to isolate Russia

Russian President Vladimir Putin says the West will fail in its attempts to isolate Russia and face growing economic problems.

Speaking Thursday via video link to members of the Eurasian Economic Forum, Putin said Russia wasn’t going to shut itself off from international cooperation. The forum includes several ex-Soviet nations.

Putin said that trying to isolate Russia is “impossible, utterly unrealistic in the modern world” and “those who try to do it primarily hurt themselves.”

The Russian leader cited growing economic challenges in the West, including “inflation unseen in 40 years, growing unemployment, rupture of supply chains and the worsening of global crises in such sensitive spheres as food.”

“This is not a joke," he said. "This is a serious thing that will have an impact on the entire system of economic and political relations.”

He lambasted the West for seizing Russian reserves, saying that “the theft of others’ assets never brought any good.”

(AP)

Kyrgyz police remove Ukraine flag from "Putin Peak" 

Police in Kyrgyzstan said on Thursday they were investigating a Ukrainian flag that was planted on a peak named after Russian President Vladimir Putin.

An Internet user posing as a mountain climber posted a video on Twitter on Thursday showing a Ukrainian flag flying near a plaque identifying a peak as "Putin Peak" at 4,446 metres above sea level.

"Vandals brought it and planted it here, we have no idea who they are," the user said, adding an emoticon suggesting sarcasm.

Kyrgyzstan, a poor, mountainous country in Central Asia, is a staunch ally of Russia. 

Police in the capital Bishkek told AFP on Thursday they had been in contact with two climbers who a ranger said were heading for Putin Peak on Tuesday night.

The police spokesman told AFP: "When they were interviewed as witnesses, they explained that they had discovered the flag after climbing the peak and had filmed it on a phone," adding that the culprits could be fined for "vandalism".

The climber who posted the video wrote on Twitter that she and her climbing partner had been questioned by police on Thursday and summoned on Friday, adding that those responsible for removing the flag had contacted them to ask how to get there. 

The previously unnamed peak in question was named "Putin" after the Russian president in 2011, during a strengthening of Kyrgyzstan's relations with Moscow that followed a revolution in the Central Asian country the previous year. 

(AFP)

Russian bombardment of civilian targets kills three in Luhansk, two in Kharkiv regions

The Ukrainian governor of the eastern Luhansk region says Russian bombardments killed three people in and around the city of Lysychansk -- a key focus of fighting.

Serhiy Haidai said Thursday that one person was killed in Lysychansk and two in the nearby village of Ustynivka the day before amid a Russian artillery bombardment.

He said strikes in the region had hit various targets including private houses and a humanitarian aid centre, without specifying how the people died.

In the northern Kharkiv region, governor Oleh Synehubov said two men ages 64 and 82 had been killed in the shelling of the town of Balakliya and 10 other people were injured, including a 9-year-old girl.

Five other people were injured in various other places in the region, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Kremlin 'expects Ukraine to recognise existing situation'

Asked Thursday if Russia expects Ukraine to make territorial concessions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “Moscow expects the acceptance of its demands and the understanding of the real situation that exists de-facto.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the possibility of ceding parts of the country's territory to Russia as part of a peace deal earlier on Wednesday night.

Finnish PM visits Bucha, discusses help in reconstruction

Finland's Prime Minister Sanna Marin visited the Kyiv suburb of Bucha on Thursday as part of her first visit to Ukraine after the Russian invasion on 24 February.

During her tour of the town that became known for the atrocities against civilians committed by the Russian troops during their hold over the 35,000-strong town in March, Marin is said to have discussed the possibilities for Finland to contribute to its reconstruction according to the local press.

UK MOD: Russian forces experience considerable losses due to tactical failures

Russia has suffered substantial losses among its elite units because of “complacency” among commanders and failure to anticipate strong Ukrainian resistance, UK's military says.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense says the airborne VDV has been involved in “several notable tactical failures” since the 24 February invasion, including the attempt to capture and hold Hostomel Airfield near Kyiv early in the war and failed attempts to cross the Siverskyi Donets river in eastern Ukraine.

In its daily intelligence update, the defence ministry said the VDV had been sent on missions “better suited to heavier armoured infantry and has sustained heavy casualties during the campaign." 

"Its mixed performance likely reflects strategic mismanagement of this capability and Russia’s failure to secure air superiority.”

Ukrainian refugees bring new life to Spain's rural villages

Svetlana peers over the balcony of her new home onto the empty square in Aguilafuente, a village of barely 600 inhabitants in the depths of Castilla y León. 

The once-thriving heartland of Spain is now scattered with deserted and slowly emptying villages, spread across sweeping, arable plains.

“Jesus has brought me to paradise,” Svetlana says just as her younger son Miroslav, 7, bursts into tears for the fifth time in the space of an hour.

It's better than the bunker that was the family’s home back in March, in Sarata, Ukraine after the war broke out.

The boys now go to the village school, boosting its student body to 38. On Sundays, they go to mass and join locals for an aperitivo at the bar in the square.

But it's been a difficult adjustment as they speak no Spanish and the boys struggle to fit in. “It’s not a change they chose and they’re still resistant to it,” said the boys' teacher, María Jesús Garrido.

But Svetlana says they're planning to stay.

Read the full story here.

German chancellor Scholz 'convinced' Putin won't win Ukraine war

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was "convinced" on Thursday that Russia would not win the war in Ukraine, adding that President Vladimir Putin would not be allowed to "dictate" peace.

"Putin must not win his war. And I am convinced of it: he will not win it," said Scholz during a speech delivered at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Putin "has already missed his strategic objectives," Scholz estimated, judging that an "invasion of the whole of the Ukraine" seems "more distant today than at the start of the offensive".

"We are not doing anything that can bring NATO into the war because that would mean a direct confrontation between nuclear powers," he said.

But "it's about making Putin understand that he can't dictate peace. Ukraine won't accept it, and neither will we," he said.

“For me, it is clear that Putin will only seriously negotiate on peace if he realises that he cannot break the resistance of Ukraine,” the German chancellor added.

(AFP)

Giant mural of armed saint painted on Kyiv building

A giant work of street art of a Saint with an anti-tank weapon has emerged on a multi-storey building in Kyiv.

The graffiti dubbed "Saint Javelin" first appeared on Thursday in the Ukrainian capital.

Kailas-V art group, which is behind the mural, said the graffiti was "designed to fundraise money for Ukraine" as it continued its fight against the Russian invasion.

Spokesperson Yana Volk said that $2 million had been raised so far.

On Tuesday, artists were seen working on the mural.

Volk said that a projector is used in the evenings to help with the sketch of the 160-square-metre big graffiti.

(AP)

'I saw that she was falling', Bucha resident says of her mother being shot

Tetiana, a 20-year-old resident of Bucha, Ukraine, saw her mother being shot by a sniper in front of her and her father.

"I heard a very loud shot and my mother fell," she said.

The city of Bucha in the region surrounding the capital Kyiv was one of the places where civilians were found lying dead on the street and mass graves were uncovered.

“I cannot keep silent”, she says. “I want the world to know what happened. Maybe one day we will know who did it. And so there will be justice.”

Her testimony is part of the Euronews Witness documentary which you can watch in full here.

Russian forces press offensive in Donbas, claim to hold 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers captive

The General Staff of the Ukrainian military said Thursday that the Russian forces have continued attempts to press their offensive in several sections of the frontline in the east and also launched missile and air strikes at infrastructure facilities across the country.

Rodion Miroshnik, a representative of the separatist Luhansk region in Russia, said that about 8,000 Ukrainian soldiers are currently in captivity in the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk regions and their number is growing daily by “hundreds.”

His claims couldn’t be independently verified.

Zelenskyy slams Kissinger for suggesting Ukraine should cede some of its territories for peace

In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strongly condemned suggestions that Ukraine should cede some of its territories to Russia in order to negotiate a peace deal.

Zelenskyy was particularly critical of the former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who said in Davos that Kyiv should cede the likes of the Donbas and Crimea in order to bring the war to an end.

"Kissinger emerges from the deep past and says that a piece of Ukraine should be given to Russia. So that there is no alienation of Russia from Europe," Zelenskyy said.

"It seems that Mr. Kissinger's calendar is not 2022, but 1938, and he thought he was talking to an audience not in Davos, but in Munich of that time."

School year in Mariupol extended until September to prepare children for Russian curriculum, Ukrainian authorities claim

Moscow authorities have extended the current school year in Mariupol until the end of the summer in order to prepare Ukrainian schoolchildren for the Russian curriculum, mayor's advisor Petro Andriushchenko said on Telegram.

"The occupiers have announced the extension of the school year until 1 September. No holidays," he said, according to Ukrainska Pravda. 

"Their main goal is to de-Ukrainianise schoolchildren and to prepare them for the Russian curriculum they will have to study next school year."

"Throughout the summer, they will have to study Russian language, literature, history, and maths in Russian," Andriushchenko said.

Mariupol is considered to be under complete control by Russian troops since last week when the last Ukrainian soldiers surrendered from the Azovstal steel mill.

In Zaporizhzhia, Russian troops bring in 'an echelon' of outdated T-62 tanks

An echelon of obsolete T-62 tanks "which the Russians had taken out of storage" arrived in Melitopol on Wednesday night, Zaporizhzhia region's military administration said on Telegram.

The T-62 is a Soviet-era main battle tank first introduced in the early 1960s. Although Russia inherited some 2,000 tanks of this particular model after the breakup of the Soviet Union, all were thought to have been scrapped. 

Additionally, "30 units of Russian military equipment entered the village of Kyrylivka," the authorities said. 

"Armoured personnel carriers are stationed at virtually almost every intersection, according to local residents."

The local authorities fear looting and have warned the local residents to be cautious. The Russian forces are also reportedly tasked with issuing Russian documents, including passports, to the Ukrainian locals.

"They have begun to prepare infrastructure and staff for the distribution of Russian passports to residents of the Zaporizhzhia region," the military administration stated.

Russia preparing for major offensive against Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk

The ferocity of Russian air and artillery attacks on and around Sievierodonetsk suggests that Moscow forces are preparing for an offensive and a heavy battle in a bid to take control of the eastern Ukrainian city, the Institute for the Study of War said.

The strategically important city on the Siversky Donets river is considered to be the next big target after the fall of Mariupol, but previous Russian attempts to seize it have so far failed.

The institute's Wednesday assessment stated that the Russian troops "may need to conduct a ground offensive on Sievierodonetsk in the upcoming days to maintain their pace after committing a significant portion of personnel, artillery, aviation, and logistics to the front."

Sievierodonetsk and the nearby city of Lysychansk are the largest remaining settlements held by Ukraine in the Luhansk region. The region is “more than 90%” controlled by Russia, regional governor Sergiy Haidai said.

The road between Lysychansk and the city of Bakhmut to the southwest is widely considered crucial to keeping Ukrainian troops in the area supplied.

Haidai said it was “constantly being shelled” and that Russian sabotage and reconnaissance teams were approaching the area.

Russian authorities promise to open corridor for foreign ships to leave Mariupol, other ports

The Russian Defence Ministry is promising to open a safe corridor to allow foreign ships to leave Black Sea ports.

A separate corridor will be open to allow ships to leave Mariupol by sailing from the port on the Sea of Azov port to the Black Sea.

Mikhail Mizintsev, who heads the National Defense Control Center under the General Staff, said 70 foreign vessels from 16 countries are now in six ports on the Black Sea including Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv.

Earlier Wednesday, the Russian military said Mariupol’s port was functioning again after three months of fighting. 

The Russian military, which maintains a naval fleet in the Black Sea, has effectively blocked commercial shipping at Ukrainian ports.

The blockade has endangered the world's food supply by preventing Ukraine from shipping its agricultural products. Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.