Russia-Ukraine war live: Moscow spy chief makes bizarre claim US, UK and Ukraine were behind Moscow attack

Russia has executed at least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) it had recently captured, a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said yesterday.

The executions were carried out between 1 December 2023 and 29 February this year.

OHCHR said it recorded 12 cases of executions of at least 32 captured Ukrainian POWs during the winter, indicating that the Russian officials carried out these killings in groups.

“OHCHR has verified three of these incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen hors de combat,” according to the report, which is based on interviews with 60 Ukrainian soldiers released from captivity.

Ukraine has flagged reports of torture or killings of Ukrainian POWs in Russian captivity since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2024.

Twenty-two victims of the Russia concert hall attack that killed more than 130 people remain in serious condition in the hospital, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Tuesday, according to state news agency Tass. Two of them are children, it said.

Russia is still reeling from the attack Friday in which gunmen killed 139 people in a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the gunmen are “radical Islamists,” but despite all evidence pointing to the involvement of Islamic State, Putin repeated his accusation that Ukraine could have played a role. Kyiv has strongly denied any link to the attack.

Four men accused of carrying out the attack appeared before a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.

The World Bank will give $1.5bn in development loans to Ukraine under its Growth Foundations Development Policy Loan (DPL) program, officials in Kyiv said.

The loan will reach Ukraine by the end of March, a statement from the Ukraine’s finance ministry said.

It added that the funding will be backed by guarantees from Japan and the UK, and will be provided through the World Bank Trust Fund (ADVANCE Ukraine).

“The funds raised will be used to support the state budget of Ukraine and economic recovery, as well as to finance the priority social and humanitarian expenditures of the state budget,” Ukraine’s finance minister Serhii Marchenko said.

Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council and replaced him with the head of his foreign spy agency yesterday in a new shake-up that follows the overhaul of the military high command last month.

Mr Zelensky, speaking later in his nightly video address, said Oleksiy Danilov was being transferred to new duties, with details to be made public later.

The Ukrainian president did not provide a reason for the reshuffle as his presidential website showed a series of plainly worded decrees.

Danilov, the outgoing secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, had held his position since October 2019, just months after Mr Zelensky took office.

Mr Zelensky said he expected “a strengthening of our state’s strategic capabilities to forecast and influence the processes upon which our national security depends.

“The strengthening of Ukraine and the renewal of our state system in all sectors will continue.”

Mr Zelensky appointed Oleksandr Lytvynenko, 51, head of the foreign intelligence service, who has no public profile whatsoever, to head the council.

“This ship was supposed to be used by Ukraine. That’s why it was decided to destroy this unit with our Neptune,” Mr Pletenchuk said, adding that it had been sitting in the Crimea port of Sevastopol waiting to be stripped for parts. “It was being prepared for use against Ukraine… so unfortunately the decision was taken to strike this [ship].”

“This ship was supposed to be used by Ukraine. That’s why it was decided to destroy this unit with our Neptune,” Mr Pletenchuk said, adding that it had been sitting in the Crimea port of Sevastopol waiting to be stripped for parts. “It was being prepared for use against Ukraine… so unfortunately the decision was taken to strike this [ship].”

France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine, its defence minister announced, with plans to boost its supply of shells to meet Kyiv’s urgent needs for ammunition to fight Russia’s continuing invasion.

Defence minister Sébastien Lecornu said an agreement was reached among France, Ukraine and Denmark to finance the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzers, which will enable France to “quickly deliver” them.

France has also set a goal to deliver 80,000 shells for 155 mm guns to Ukraine this year – up from 30,000 delivered since the beginning of the war in February 2022, the minister said.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly requested his allies send more ammunition and other military aid as the war grinds on in the country’s east.

Russia has also pummelled Ukraine with several massive aerial attacks in the past week in what it calls revenge for the Moscow concert attack, despite the Isis militant group claiming responsibility.

In a sign of the Kremlin’s increasing desperation to drag its invasion of Ukraine into the Moscow concert hall attack, the director of Russia’s powerful Federal Security Service (the FSB) has claimed that Kyiv, the US and the UK were behind the incident.

The bizarre claim comes despite a branch of the Isis terror group having claimed responsibility for the attack and published graphic video footage of the shooting, and the US, France and a number of other nations saying they believed the jihadists were behind it.

Russia says 139 people were killed when four armed men burst into the Crocus City Hall concert complex on Friday evening. Another 22 remain in a serious condition, including two children, officials say.

Russian air defence units downed 18 airborne targets over the southern region of Belgorod bordering Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in the early hours of this morning.

One person was injured and there was damage to private homes and cars, the official said, adding that the attack was carried out by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Ukraine has yet to comment on the incident, but has been staging air attacks for months on Belgorod and two nearby regions, Kursk and Voronezh. About 25 were killed in the biggest attack on the region at the beginning of the year.

There have also been a number of incursions into Belgorod region.

France will soon be able to deliver 78 Caesar howitzers to Ukraine and will boost its supply of shells to meet Kyiv‘s urgent needs for ammunition to fight Russia‘s full-scale invasion, the defense minister said Tuesday.

Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu said at a news conference that an agreement was reached among France, Ukraine and Denmark to finance the Caesar self-propelled 155 mm howitzers, which will enable France to “quickly deliver” them.

France has also set a goal to deliver 80,000 shells for 155 mm guns to Ukraine this year — up from 30,000 delivered since the beginning of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, he said.