Live: Deadly Russian missile strike slams Ukrainian museum

Issued on: 25/04/2023 – 11:57Modified: 25/04/2023 – 12:04

12:42pm: Ukraine says grain corridor needs global pressures on Russia

A proposal by UN chief Antonio Guterres on improving and extending a deal on the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain can succeed only if the international community collectively pressures Russia, a senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday.

Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also denied an assertion by Russia’s defence ministry that Kyiv was trying to attack its ships in the Black Sea, actions which it said threatened prospects for the extension of the grain export deal.

11:55am: Ex-Wagner Group member faces Norway court for bar brawl

A former member of the Russian private military contractor Wagner Group who’s seeking asylum in Norway has admitted charges of resisting arrest after a bar brawl and carrying an air gun.

Andrey Medvedev appeared in court in Oslo on Tuesday. He denied using violence against police officers who handcuffed him outside an Oslo pub in February, the Norwegian news agency NTB reported.

Medvedev has also pleaded guilty to carrying an air gun in another episode in March when he went to a pub in downtown Oslo.

In an interview with FRANCE 24 last month from Norway, Medvedev “apologised” to the Ukrainian people and said said he “witnessed many things” in Ukraine.

9:13am: One killed, 10 wounded in Russian attack on museum in Kharkiv region

Russian forces struck a museum in the centre of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kupiansk during an attack on Tuesday, killing one person, wounding 10 more and burying others under rubble, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

“So far we know of a dead museum worker and 10 injured. There are more people under the rubble. The recovery from the shelling continues. All necessary agencies are involved,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram messenger. Russia is “killing Ukrainians with absolutely barbaric methods,” he said, accusing Moscow of “doing everything to destroy us completely. Our history, our culture, our people”.

Ukraine regained Kupiansk, a key rail hub in northeastern Ukraine, in September. As fear mounted that Russia may be pushing to retake the city, Ukraine ordered vulnerable residents to evacuate at the beginning of March.

8:49am: Russia summons Moldovan ambassador over diplomatic expulsion

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned the Moldovan ambassador in Russia over the expulsion last week of a Russian diplomat in Moldova, state-owned news agency RIA reported.

The foreign ministry said in a statement it had summoned Moldova’s ambassador in Moscow to announce the expulsion, as well as to protest against what it called “unfriendly steps towards Russia” and “regular anti-Russian statements” from Chisinau.

4:45am: Russia may withdraw from intermediate and shorter-range nuclear missiles treaty

Russia, due to the actions of the US, may retreat from the moratorium on the deployment of intermediate and shorter-range missiles, the TASS news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Tuesday.

Vladimir Yermakov, the foreign ministry’s head of nuclear non-proliferation, told the Russian state news agency that Moscow will evaluate the range of American-made missiles that, he said, are capable of reaching the Asian-Pacific region.

“But even now we can say with confidence that the destabilising US military programmes and their allies make our moratorium more and more fragile,  both in the Asia-Pacific region and in Europe,” Yermakov said.

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A new round of European Union sanctions against Russia for waging war against Ukraine is under discussion but adoption of the package is unlikely earlier than “deep into May”, Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said late on Monday.

It would be unrealistic to expect anything earlier, the Polish state-run news agency PAP cited Rau as saying.

Poland this month presented a proposal for a new set of sanctions against Russia, including a ban on pipeline oil and diamond imports. The proposal marked an opening salvo in what is expected to be long and complex negotiations among the bloc’s 27 members.

1:30am: Russia needs $6 billion to develop Putin’s drone project

Russia needs an estimated 500 billion roubles ($6.1 billion) for the development of a drone project announced by President Vladimir Putin in February, the Russian RBC news outlet reported late on Monday.

RBC, citing unnamed sources close to the project, said the strategy for the development of unmanned aircraft for the period up to 2030 must be approved by June 1 and include details on production and financing.

In February, Putin said Russia must increase its own production of drones and create infrastructure for their widespread use.

Key developments on Monday, April 24

UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutterres told a meeting chaired by Russia’s foreign minister that the invasion of Ukraine is “causing massive suffering and devastation” while Moscow warned global risks were possibly worse than during the Cold War.

Russia convened the ministerial meeting on making “multilateralism” — when countries work together — more effective through the defense of the UN Charter, calling it the high point of its month-long presidency of the Security Council.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)