Ukraine says it has neutralised Russian hypersonic weapon; head of Ukraine’s supreme court arrested in bribery investigation
Ukraine said it had neutralised the Kremlin’s most potent hypersonic weapon, shooting down six out of six Kinzhal missiles launched at Kyiv during a sweeping and “exceptionally intense” night-time attack.
The attack on Kyiv was one of the biggest since last year’s invasion, and followed Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s three-day trip to Europe. During meetings in London, Berlin, Paris and Rome, Ukraine’s president secured promises of more military assistance, including long-range attack drones from the UK.
The Ukrainian military’s commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, claimed Kyiv’s defenders shot down 18 out of 18 Russian rockets and drones. He said the city had came under an intense and sweeping attack from the “north, south and east”, and the missiles were fired from air, sea and land.
Among the areas affected by falling debris in Kyiv was the city’s zoo.
Russia’s defence ministry said it destroyed a US-built Patriot surface-to-air missile defence system overnight with a Kinzhal missile attack on Ukraine, the Zvezda military news outlet reports. This has not been independently verified by the Guardian.
Ukrainian forces have taken back about 20 sq km of territory from Russian forces around the eastern city of Bakhmut in recent days, the Ukrainian deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said on Tuesday. She said Russian forces had advanced “somewhat” in the city of Bakhmut itself, and that heavy fighting continued.
The head of Ukraine’s supreme court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, has been arrested as part of the biggest bribery investigation in the country’s history, as Kyiv pursues anti-graft measures required for closer integration with the EU. A prosecutor said Kniaziev was one of two people detained; he declined to identify the other.
Six African leaders plan to travel to Russia and Ukraine “as soon as is possible” to help find a resolution to the war, the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said Tuesday. He said Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskiy had “agreed to receive the mission and the African heads of state in both Moscow and Kyiv”.
A bill banning Russian uranium imports to the US gained momentum on Tuesday by passing a committee in the US House of Representatives. After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the US banned imports of its oil and imposed a price cap with other western countries on seaborne exports of its crude and oil products, but it has not banned imports of its uranium.
About 2,000 people who helped defend the Azovstal plant and who were captured and became prisoners of war are still in the hands of the Russians, according to a charity set up to support families and those connected to the factory.
Six people were killed in Kharkiv and Donetsk over the last 24 hours, according to the region’s governors.
Russia has said it is still undecided on an extension of a landmark Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine that was brokered by the UN and Turkey and is due to expire on 18 May. “There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding our part of the deal … now we have to make a decision,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
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