Russia-Ukraine war live: Kyiv claims it has hit part of Russian air defence system in Crimea; 91-year-old woman ‘killed by Russian shells’

Ukraine’s army said it had overnight “successfully hit” part of Russia’s air defence system located in annexed Crimea, Agence France-Presse reports.

“The armed forces successfully hit a strategic object of the air defence system on the western coast of occupied Crimea,” the army’s strategic communications unit said on social media. It gave no further details and Russia gave no official comment.

But the influential Rybar Telegram channel – which is close to the Russian army – alleged Ukraine had launched two US ATACMS missiles that fell near the village of Olenivka, on the western coast of Crimea.

Rybar said Russian forces were not able to down the missiles “but thanks to measures taken earlier there was no serious damage”.

The social media account alleged that “half an hour later” Black Sea fleet sailors found three Ukrainian naval drones near Sevastopol.

Rybar said one of them was “destroyed”, while another two tried to enter the Bay of Khersones before being shot at and sunk by Russian forces.

These claims are yet to be independently verified.

In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has said a Russian state-backed private military company (PMC) is specifically attempting to recruit women into combat roles in Ukraine for the first time.

Posting to X, formerly Twitter, the MoD wrote:

Recent social media adverts have appealed for female recruits to join Borz Battalion, a part of Russian PMC Redut, to work as snipers and uncrewed aerial vehicle operators. Redut is likely directly sponsored by the Russian main directorate of intelligence.

In March 2023, Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that 1,100 women were deployed in Ukraine, which would equate to only around 0.3 per cent of its force. As Redut’s advert points out, they currently serve in mostly medical support and food service roles.

It remains unclear whether official Russian defence forces will seek to follow suit and open more combat roles to women.

• Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had detained a Russian man in Crimea on suspicion of treason, accusing him of passing military secrets to Ukraine, according to a state news agency. In a statement quoted by RIA, the FSB said the unnamed man had “collected and transmitted information about specified sites with reference to geographic coordinates to a representative of the Ukrainian military”.

• The governor of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region said two people were wounded and buildings were damaged in a Russian missile attack on a ship repair yard on Monday. “In the morning, Russian terrorists attacked Odesa district with rockets. The enemy targeted a shipyard,” Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

• The Russian prime minister said the government would create a simplified procedure for citizens and companies from “friendly” countries to invest there. Mikhail Mishustin said entities from a list of 25 countries would be allowed to open bank accounts in Russia and make deposits via a simplified procedure, Reuters reported. “Creating more convenient conditions for foreign enterprises and entrepreneurs is an important part of the government’s systemic efforts to achieve financial sovereignty as part of the implementation of the national goals set by our president,” he said.

• Russia’s defence minister has accused the US of fuelling geopolitical tensions to uphold its “global dominance by any means” and warned of the risk of confrontation between nuclear-armed countries. Speaking at a defence forum in Beijing, Sergei Shoigu also accused Nato of trying to expand its footprint in the Asia-Pacific under the pretence of seeking dialogue and collaboration with regional countries, AP reported.

• Russian police have taken over an airport in the predominantly Muslim Dagestan region and arrested 60 people after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters stormed the facility on Sunday when a plane from Israel arrived, the interior ministry said. Videos obtained by Reuters from the airport at Makhachkala, the regional capital, showed the protesters, mostly young men, waving Palestinian flags, breaking down glass doors and running through the airport on Sunday evening shouting “Allahu Akbar”, or “God is greatest”. Another group was seen trying to topple over a patrol truck.

• Russia says it has shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. There were claims in local media outlets that a fire at an oil refinery in the early hours of Sunday had been caused by a drone strike or debris from a downed drone. Ukraine has said it shot down five Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones launched from Russia overnight.

• State media in Russia reported that more than 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Yuzhno-Donetsk over the past 24 hours. The 58th motorised infantry, 79th air assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the 128th territorial defence brigade were reportedly involved in the attack by Russian troops.

• Russian forces are believed to have suffered some of the country’s biggest casualty rates so far this year as a result of continued “heavy but inconclusive” fighting around the Donetsk oblast town of Avdiivka, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

• Russia would confiscate assets belonging to EU states it deems unfriendly if the bloc “steals” frozen Russian funds in a drive to fund Ukraine, a top ally of Vladimir Putin said. The comments were made after Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the EU executive was working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine and its postwar reconstruction.

• Ukraine and Russia are locked in a stalemate on the frontlines of their war and the two sides need to sit down and negotiate an end to the conflict, Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus president, said. Lukashenko, a key Putin ally, described the current state of the conflict as “head to head, to the death, entrenched … seriously stalemate.”

• Four Ukrainian police officers were wounded when a shell fired by Russian troops exploded by their police car in the city of Siversk, located in the partly occupied Donetsk oblast.

• A third round of Ukrainian-backed peace talks opened in Malta, but without Moscow. In a statement, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said 66 countries had taken part, proof that his plan “has gradually become global”. Ukraine’s deputy foreign minister Mykola Tochytskyi has said his country aims to hold a global “peace summit” of world leaders this year.

• About 2,000 Ukrainians ran a 1km race on Sunday in Kyiv, wearing bibs displaying the name of a person instead of a number. Each runner chose one person to whom they dedicated their run. Spouses, children, friends, siblings, neighbours and colleagues ran for someone they knew who had been killed, taken captive or injured during the war.

The governor of Ukraine’s southern Odesa region said two people were wounded and buildings damaged in a Russian missile attack on a ship repair yard on Monday.

“In the morning, Russian terrorists attacked Odesa district with rockets. The enemy targeted a shipyard,” Oleh Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app.

“The attack caused a fire, which was quickly extinguished by our rescuers. The administrative building and equipment of the enterprise were damaged.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had detained a Russian man in Crimea on suspicion of treason, accusing him of passing military secrets to Ukraine, according to a state news agency.

In a statement quoted by RIA, the FSB said that the unnamed man had “collected and transmitted information about specified sites with reference to geographic coordinates to a representative of the Ukrainian military”.

Crimea, which is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine, has been under de facto Russian control since 2014.

Welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here is a summary of some of the latest developments.

Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has spoken at a Beijing defence forum on Monday, claiming that Moscow was ready for talks on the post-conflict settlement of the Ukraine crisis, and on further “coexistence” with the west, but that western countries needed to stop seeking Russia’s strategic defeat. The conditions for talks had not yet been met, he said.

He accused the west of promoting an arms race in the Asia-Pacific region, Russian state media reported, saying the west’s “ostentatious desire for dialogue” was covering up a build-up of forces in that region.

Shoigu also appeared to play down Russia’s decision to revoke its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, claiming it did not mean the end of the agreement, and that Russia was not lowering its threshold for the use of nuclear weapons.

“We are only seeking to restore parity with the United States, who have not ratified this treaty,” Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Shoigu as saying. “We are not talking about its destruction.”

In other developments:

• Russia says it has shot down 36 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and the Crimean peninsula. There were claims in local media outlets that a fire at an oil refinery in the early hours of Sunday had been caused by a drone strike or debris from a downed drone. Ukraine has said it shot down five Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones launched from Russia overnight.

• State media in Russia has reported that more than 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in Yuzhno-Donetsk over the past 24 hours. The 58th motorised infantry, 79th air assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the 128th territorial defence brigade were reportedly involved in the attack by Russian troops.

• Russian forces are believed to have suffered some of the country’s biggest casualty rates so far this year as a result of continued “heavy but inconclusive” fighting around the Donetsk oblast town of Avdiivka, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

• Russia would confiscate assets belonging to EU states it deems unfriendly if the bloc “steals” frozen Russian funds in a drive to fund Ukraine, a top ally of Vladimir Putin said. The comments were made after Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said that the EU executive was working on a proposal to pool some of the profits derived from frozen Russian state assets to help Ukraine and its postwar reconstruction.

• Ukraine and Russia are locked in a stalemate on the frontlines of their war and the two sides need to sit down and negotiate an end to the conflict, Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus president, said. Lukashenko, a key Putin ally, described the current state of the conflict as “head-to-head, to the death, entrenched … seriously stalemate.”

• Four Ukrainian police officers were wounded when a shell fired by Russian troops exploded by their police car in the city of Siversk, located in the partly occupied Donetsk oblast.

• A third round of Ukrainian-backed peace talks opened in Malta, but without Moscow. In a statement, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said 66 countries had taken part, proof that his plan “has gradually become global”. Ukraine’s deputy minister Mykola Tochytskyi has said his country aims to hold a global “peace summit” of world leaders this year.

• A mob in Russia’s mostly Muslim region of Dagestan has stormed the airport in Makhachkala in search of Jewish passengers arriving from Israel, after reports emerged that a flight from Tel Aviv was arriving in the city. There were reports of some injuries at the airport, while some passengers were forced to take refuge in planes or hide in the airport for fear of being attacked.

• About 2,000 Ukrainians ran a 1km race on Sunday in Kyiv, wearing bibs displaying the name of a person instead of a number. Each runner chose one person to whom they dedicated their run. Spouses, children, friends, siblings, neighbours, and colleagues ran for someone they knew who either was killed, taken captive or injured during the war.