Ukraine fortifies with 10,000 ‘dragons teeth’ as Putin targets power plants – live

Ukraine’s border guards have raised the nation’s flag over three towns in the “grey zone” on the eastern border with Russia.

Footage shared by the State Border Service of Ukraine shows flags being raised on a number of buildings in the towns of Shabelne, Pischane and Degtyarne.

“The territory of the destroyed villages is densely mined, and due to constant enemy shelling, it is uninhabitable,” a statement, shared alongside the video, read.

“However, border guards of the ‘Steel Border’ offensive guard brigade control the area and remind the enemy that this is our land and he has no place here.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, related the conversation on Twitter and thanked Speaker Mike Johnson for his and the US’s “critical support of Ukraine since the start of Russia‘s full-scale invasion”. He also described briefing the Speaker on an uptick in Russian missile, bombing and drone attacks in the weeks since funding for Ukraine’s defence has stalled in Congress.

A $10 billion battle over more than 200 jets stuck in Russia should be heard in London rather than Moscow, London’s High Court has ruled on Thursday.

The battle is between reinsurers and aircraft leasing companies seeking payouts.

Aircraft lessors, including Ireland’s AerCap and US-listed Carlyle Aviation Partners, are pursuing insurers for losses after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine grounded their jets in Russia.

Europe is in a “pre-war era” reminiscent of 1939 and nobody will feel safe if Ukraine is defeated by Russia, Donald Tusk has warned

“For the first time since 1945, war in Europe is becoming ‘real’ again,” he said.

Mr Tusk, a former president of the European Council and recently elected prime minister of Poland, said Vladimir Putin was escalating his war on Ukraine, attacking Kyiv with hypersonic missiles in daylight for the first time earlier this week.

Russia launched a huge attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Friday, with a barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country, Ukraine’s armed forces said.

Air raid warnings rang out across the nation, with 10 Ukrainian regions coming under fire, the country’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukraine in recent days, launching several missile barrages on the capital, Kyiv, and hitting energy infrastructure across the country in apparent retaliation for recent Ukrainian aerial attacks on the Russian border region of Belgorod. Such sporadic attacks, however, have been common throughout the war.

One of the largest thermal power plants in eastern Ukraine has been completely destroyed by Russian strikes.

The Zmiiv thermal power plant, in Kharkiv Oblast, was targeted on 22 March during one of the Kremlin’s biggest attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.

Centrenergo, the company that runs the plant, said the damage varied from “complete to significant”.

“The enterprise is currently clearing the rubble and has no access to most of the equipment,” it said in a statement.

India‘s foreign minister held talks Friday with his Ukrainian counterpart, who was visiting to strengthen bilateral ties and cooperation with New Delhi, which considers Russia a historic ally from the Cold War-era.

Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said in a post on the social media platform X that he and Dmytro Kuleba discussed “the ongoing conflict and its wider ramifications,” and said the two would work together to boost relations between their countries.

Foreign diplomats in Russia laid flowers on Saturday at the site of last week’s attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people.

Those in attendance included ambassadors from the United States, EU countries, Africa and Latin America. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti noted that the attendees included representatives of “unfriendly states”.

Since the attack, thousands of people have brought bunches of flowers, wreaths and other tokens such as teddy bears, creating a makeshift memorial at the Crocus City Hall.

Ukraine’s border guards have raised the nation’s flag over three towns in the “grey zone” on the eastern border with Russia.

Footage shared by the State Border Service of Ukraine shows flags being raised on a number of buildings in the towns of Shabelne, Pischane and Degtyarne.

“The territory of the destroyed villages is densely mined, and due to constant enemy shelling, it is uninhabitable,” a statement, shared alongside the video, read.

“However, border guards of the ‘Steel Border’ offensive guard brigade control the area and remind the enemy that this is our land and he has no place here.”