Ukraine-Russia war live: Russian troops seize eastern village after Ukrainian forces retreat (2024)

Czech police have shelved the case of two ammunition depot blasts in 2014 involving the Russian secret service, citing Moscow’s unwillingness to cooperate.

The explosions near the eastern Czech village of Vrbetice killed two workers and caused extensive damage.

“The police considers it a proven fact that the explosions of both depots in Vrbetice were carried out by officers of the Russian military intelligence service... GRU,” Czech police said on its website. “Their motivation was to prevent arms and ammunition supplies to areas where the Russian army was conducting its operations.”

The blasts occurred only months after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in early 2014.

Czech intelligence and media said the agents were the same ones suspected of poisoning former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018.

Czech police said the Vrbetice blasts were “a part of long-term diversionary operations by the Russian military intelligence on the territory of the EU and Ukraine”.

“It is not possible to gain the necessary information from the Russian Army and Russian secret services and... the police have decided to shelve the case,” a police statement said.

Two trains have been destroyed in Russia over the past few days, reducing the Kremlin’s logistics capacity, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).

One train was set on fire in Orenburg, 1,100 kilometres east of the Ukrainian border, by “unknown persons” on April 28. Another was destroyed in a fire in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz overnight on April 26.

The train network has been critical for Russia throughout the war, with the Kremlin often relying on rail to carry and supply its convoys.

Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for the destruction and Russia has yet to comment.

The largest western banks that remain in Russia paid the Kremlin more than €800 million of taxes last year – a fourfold increase on prewar levels, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. It reports:

“The seven top European banks by assets in Russia – Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit, ING, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and OTP – reported a combined profit of more than €3bn in 2023.

Those profits were three times more than in 2021 and were partly generated by funds that the banks cannot withdraw from the country.

The jump in profitability resulted in the European banks paying about €800mn in tax, up from €200mn in 2021. It came in addition to profits at US lenders such as Citigroup and JPMorgan.

The taxes paid by European banks, equivalent to about 0.4 per cent of all Russia’s expected non-energy budget revenues for 2024, are an example of how foreign companies remaining in the country help the Kremlin maintain financial stability despite western sanctions.”

Ukraine’s farm minister has welcomed the ending of a months-long border blockade by Polish protesters, which he said followed productive talks with Poland.

“The negotiations that took place were not easy, but the main thing is that we have a result,” Mykola Solsky was quoted as saying in a statement from the ministry.

Several British men were charged under a new national security law for supporting Russia by carrying out an arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business.

Three other men were charged with related offenses “in order to benefit Russia” by conducting “hostile activity in the UK,” the Crown Prosecution Service.

Dylan Earl, 20, is suspected of involvement “in foreign power threat activity” and allegedly planned the arson attack. He has been charged under the National Security Act 2023.

Paul English, 60, and Nii Mensah, 21, were charged with aggravated arson. Jake Reeves, 22, is accused of agreeing to “accept a material benefit from a foreign intelligence service as well as aggravated arson.”

A fifth man, Dmitrijus Paulauska, 22, was charged with having information about terrorist acts.

All the men will appear at London’s Old Bailey Central Criminal Court on May 10.

Russian attacks on Ukraine have injured seven citizens over the past 24 hours, regional authorities said, reported by the Kyiv Independent.

Strikes on the town of Krasnohorivka and the villages of Ptyche and Zhelanne in Donetsk Oblast injured three people, governor Vadym Filashkin said.

In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian troops attacked a house in the town of Kupiansk, injuring a 35-year-old woman and 52-year-old man, according to governor Oleh Syniehubov.

Another 59-year-old man was reportedly wounded in an attack on the village of Strilecha.

In the village of Bairak, a 48-year-old man was hospitalized after being injured by a mine, the governor said.

Polish protesters unblocked all border crossing points with Ukraine on Monday morning, a Ukraine border guard spokesperson said on a Ukrainian TV broadcast.

“Fortunately, we have unblocked all directions on the border with Poland,” the border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko said of Polish farmers ending the blockade. He added that the trucks transporting grain products will still face restrictions.

The farmers have been blocking border crossings with Ukraine to protest what they say is unfair competition from goods from Ukraine since a duty-free deal was announced by the EU in the wake of Russia’s invasion.

Since 2023, there has been a record 30 per cent increase in Russian men aged 31-59 with disabilities, according to the British Ministry of Defence.

Russian demographers claim the increase is most likely due to the growth in military casualties following the invasion.

Chinese president Xi Jinping will visit France, Serbia and Hungary from May 5-10, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry announced, with war in Ukraine and the Middle East expected to be high on the agenda.

“China looks forward to working with France to further enhance political mutual trust, solidarity and cooperation,” Lin said.

He also said Xi will hold talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to exchange views on bilateral relations and discuss upgrading the China-Serbia relationship.

Two Russian journalists have been arrested on “extremism” charges and ordered to remain in custody pending investigation and trial on accusations of working for a group founded by the late Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin both denied the charges. They will be detained for a minimum of two months before any trials begin, and each face a minimum of two years in prison and a maximum of six years for alleged “participation in an extremist organisation”.

Mr Gabov and Mr Karelin are accused of preparing materials for a YouTube channel run by Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption, which has been outlawed by Russian authorities. Navalny died in an Arctic penal colony in February.

Mr Gabov is a freelance producer who has worked for multiple organisations, including Reuters, the court press service said.

Mr Karelin, 41 and who has dual citizenship with Israel, has worked for a number of outlets, including for The Associated Press. He was a cameraman for German media outlet Deutsche Welle until the Kremlin banned the outlet from operating in Russia in February

They are just the latest journalists arrested amid a Russian government crackdown on dissent and independent media that intensified after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than two years ago.

A German former soldier will go on trial today accused of spying for Russia, as Berlin faces a surge in Moscow-linked espionage cases amid the Ukraine war.

The suspect, identified only as Thomas H, was arrested in August last year in the western city of Koblenz.

He is accused of passing information to Russian intelligence services that he obtained while working in the procurement unit of the German military, or Bundeswehr.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, Germany – the second-largest supplier of military aid to Kyiv – has seen a jump in alleged spying cases linked to Moscow.

Thomas H. had been a career soldier, working at the army’s Equipment, Information Technology and In-Service Support Department.

In May 2023, the suspect “approached the Russian general consulate in Bonn and the Russian embassy in Berlin and offered his cooperation”, prosecutors said in a statement when he was arrested. “In the process, he passed on information he had obtained in the course of his professional activities for it to be passed on to a Russian intelligence service.”

After his arrest, media reports suggested he had access to sensitive information as the department he worked in counted among its tasks the procurement of highly modern systems for electronic warfare.These included technology for the surveillance and disruption of opponents’ radio systems and the shutting down of enemy radio or airshield systems.

Thomas H. faces charges of being an intelligence agent and violating rules on official secrecy. He is standing trial in the western city of Duesseldorf, with hearings set to last until late June.

Ukraine’s military spy agency GUR said that the management of the Telegram messaging platform has blocked a number of official bots that opposed Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine.

“Today, the management of the Telegram platform unreasonably blocked a number of official bots that opposed Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, including the main Intelligence bot,” GUR said in a statement posted on the Telegram.

“Despite the blocking of our bot – your personal data is safe.”

Telegram’s press service did not immediately reply to Reuters’ request to comment.

Ukraine said it has foiled 55 Russian attacks in the eastern Donetsk region, a day after it admitted to a worsening situation on the front line.

Moscow over the weekend claimed another eastern village, Novobakhmutivka, as struggling Ukrainian forces await the arrival of crucial US weapons.

The Ukrainian army said it had “repulsed 55 attacks” in several villages north and west of Novobakhmutivka.

These included Ocheretyne, where heavy fighting was reported on Sunday.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Sunday his troops had retreated to new defensive lines further to the west in some areas.