🔴 Live: Russia agrees to extend Ukraine grain deal for two months

4:11pm: Russia agrees to extend Ukraine grain deal, Erdogan says

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Russia has agreed to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine to ship grain through the Black Sea.

Erdogan said the deal would be extended for two months.

The deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last summer. It came with a separate agreement to ease shipments of Russian food and fertiliser that Moscow insists hasn’t been applied.

Russia had set a Thursday deadline for its concerns to be ironed out or had threatened to bow out of the deal

3:44pm: Ukraine reports new advances near Bakhmut

Ukraine’s military said it had made new advances on Wednesday in heavy fighting near the eastern city of Bakhmut, and that Russia was continuing to send in new units including paratroopers.

“We are successfully conducting a defensive operation, counterattacking and during this day our units have penetrated up to 500 metres in some parts of the Bakhmut front,” military spokesperson Serhiy Cherevatyi told Ukrainian television.

He said he saw no sign that Russian forces were short of ammunition, contradicting statements by the head of the Russian mercenary group Wagner which is spearheading the assault on Bakhmut.

“The enemy is seeking to take over the city at will, striking with all systems and calibres. There can be no talk of any kind of shell hunger,” Cherevatyi said. “They are moving new units there (to Bakhmut), primarily paratroopers, in an attempt to achieve some kind of intermediate success.

3:36pm: Britain, Germany say US must decide on jets for Ukraine

Any decision to send F16 fighter jets to Ukraine will fall on the White House, the UK and German defence ministers say, despite a jet “coalition” announced by Britain and the Netherlands this week.

“This is up to the White House to decide whether it wants to release that technology,” British Defence Minister Ben Wallace said after talks with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius in Berlin.

Wallace pointed out that Britain has no F16 jets and stressed that it was not planning to send anything from its Typhoon fleet. “But we can help the pipeline… we can enable other people who wish to,” he said.

Pistorius said Germany could not “play an active role” in such an alliance “because we don’t have the training capacity, the skills, or the aircraft”

3:03pm: Iran, Russia ink deal to complete major transport network

Iran and Russia agreed Wednesday to collaborate on the construction of the final part of a commercial transport network linking to the Gulf and India while avoiding Western sea lanes.

Iranian Transport Minister Mehrdad Bazrpash, who signed the agreement with his Russian counterpart in Tehran, said the 164-kilometre (102-mile) railway in Iran’s north would be completed within three years.

It is the only missing link in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) from northeast Russia via Azerbaijan to Iran’s southern coastline and on to India by sea.

Russia and Iran are both under international sanctions that restrict trade

12:53pm: Hungary stalls new EU funds for Ukraine arms

Hungary is blocking the release of another 500 million euros from EU funds to cover the cost of weapons for Ukraine, Budapest and European diplomats said.

Budapest – which has the closest ties in the EU to Russia – says it is opposing a new disbursement as the funds were meant to support partners around the world, not just Ukraine.

“The Hungarian government does not agree that the European Union – having other instruments at its disposal – should use the European Peace Facility exclusively for Ukraine,” the Hungarian government told AFP on Tuesday.

EU countries have unlocked some 5.6 billion euros in common funding to help arm Ukraine in its fight against Russia since Moscow invaded last February. Member states recently signed off on using two billion euros for a plan aimed at getting one million artillery shells to Ukraine over the next year.

12:23pm: Russian assets could be used to pay for Ukraine war damages, German government says

The German government is looking into mechanisms to secure war damages for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including the possibility of using Russian assets to compensate the country, a government spokesperson said on Wednesday.

11:48am: European leaders sign war register for Ukraine

European leaders on Wednesday hailed a new “register of damage” for Ukraine they signed on to as “historic” and a first step to making Russia pay for its war.

The instrument, created by the 46-nation Council of Europe, sets up an evidentiary record ahead of a possible future prosecution of Russian leaders, thus laying the groundwork for compensation.

It was a “first, necessary, urgent step” ensuring “justice that is centred on the victims” of the war, said council head Marija Pejcinovic Buric on arrival at the second day of the summit in Iceland.

She said that by early Wednesday 40 countries had signed onto the creation of the register, including the United States and all other G7 nations

11:34am: Ukraine says US-supplied Patriot ‘in service’

Ukraine said on Wednesday that a US-supplied Patriot air defence system continued to operate in Ukraine, after Moscow claimed it had struck the powerful weapon.

“Don’t worry, all is fine with the Patriot,” air force spokesman Yury Ignat told AFP. He declined to say if the sophisticated system had been damaged. 

“The Patriot is in service,” Ignat added. “All is well.”

Kyiv received the first shipments of the American-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system in April.

11:04am: Russia orders arrest of prominent producer, director who criticised Ukraine war

A Moscow court has ordered the arrest of prominent film producer Alexander Rodnyansky and theatre director Ivan Vyrypaev for “spreading false information” about the Russian army. 

The initial court hearings against Rodnyansky and Vyrypaev were held on 27 April, but not reported by the court until Wednesday.

According to the court’s press service, Rodnyansky and Vyrypaev, who are outside Russia, will be placed in custody once Russian authorities manage to detain them or to get them extradited. Russia’s Interior Ministry additionally put Vyrypaev on the federal wanted list.

Kyiv-born Rodnyansky has been among the most influential figures in Russian cinema in recent decades. He left Russia after the start of the country’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has repeatedly spoken openly against the war. In October 2022, Russia’s Justice Ministry declared Rodnyansky a “foreign agent”.

10:46am: White House has called Kremlin to seek release of Gershkovich and Whelan, Lavrov says 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that White House officials had requested the release of detained Americans Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan in conversations with a Kremlin official.

In an interview with a Russian TV channel, Lavrov said White House officials “sometimes call” Yury Ushakov, a presidential aide specialising in foreign affairs, and send “one and the same signal” demanding the release of the two men.

He did not say how Ushakov responded. Wall Street Journal reporter Gershkovich was arrested on March on suspicion of spying, which he and his newspaper deny.

Whelan, a former US marine, was arrested in December 2018, held for 18 months in Lefortovo prison in Moscow, and jailed for 16 years in June 2020 on spying charges. He too has denied the accusations, and Washington has designated both men as “wrongfully detained”.

10:26am: Ukraine denies Russia destroyed Patriot missile defence system

Ukraine denied on Wednesday that a Russian hypersonic missile had destroyed a US-made Patriot missile defence system during an air strike on Kyiv.

Russia’s defence ministry made the assertion on Tuesday after an overnight air attack on the Ukrainian capital. Two US officials later said a Patriot system had probably suffered damage but that it did not appear to have been destroyed.

“I want to say: do not worry about the fate of the Patriot,” Ukrainian air force spokesperson Yuriy Ihnat told Ukrainian television. He ruled out the possibility of a Russian “Kinzhal” missile knocking out a Patriot system.

“Destroying the system with some kind of ‘Kinzhal’, it’s impossible. Everything that they say there, it can remain in their propaganda archive,” he said.

10:15am: Finnish embassy bank accounts frozen in Russia, foreign ministry says

Bank accounts of Finland’s embassies in Russia have been frozen, the Finnish foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

A ministry spokesperson told Reuters the bank accounts of both Finland’s Moscow embassy and its Saint Petersburg consulate were not functioning but declined to comment further.

Russia’s central bank did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

7:52am: China asks foreign missions displaying Ukraine flags to remove ‘propaganda’

China has notified several foreign missions in Beijing not to display “politicised propaganda” on their buildings, diplomats told Reuters, adding the request appeared aimed at Ukrainian flags they have displayed since Russia’s invasion.

Several foreign missions in China raised the Ukrainian flag, or displayed its image in posters and lights, following the February 2022 invasion that sparked international condemnation of Russia, a close ally of China.

“We and others got a letter calling on embassies and representative offices to refrain from using the outer walls of their buildings for ‘politicised propaganda’,” one diplomat, whose embassy is displaying a Ukraine flag image, told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Three other Beijing-based diplomats confirmed that there had been a notification, adding that while it did not directly mention the Ukraine flag it was clearly aimed at that.

China’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

6:01am: Last ship to leave Ukraine under Black Sea grain deal

The last ship is due to leave a port in Ukraine on Wednesday under a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, said a UN spokesperson, a day before Russia could quit the pact over obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea deal for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain exporters.

Moscow later agreed to extend the Black Sea pact until May 18 – as long as a list of demands regarding its own agricultural exports was met. “There are still a lot of open questions regarding our part of the deal. Now a decision will have to be taken,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday, according to Russian media.

Senior officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met in Istanbul last week to discuss the Black Sea pact. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday: “Contacts are going on at different levels. We’re obviously in a delicate stage.”

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week he thought the deal could be extended for at least two more months.

2:00am: US volunteer fighter killed in Ukraine, Wagner chief says

The head of Russia’s private Wagner mercenary group on Tuesday said a US volunteer had died fighting alongside Ukrainian troops in the country’s east.

In a video shared by Russian military bloggers, Yevgeny Prigozhin showed the body of what he said was an American laying in the rubble of a building.

The clip shows the Wagner chief walking with his men at night, and explosions can be heard – but it is not clear where or when it was filmed.

Standing beside the body, which appears to have suffered a stomach wound, Prigozhin said: “He came to meet us. Citizen of the United States of America.”

Prigozhin shows the camera what appears to be the soldier’s identity documents, without giving a full name.

12:55am: Patriot missile defence system in Ukraine likely damaged

A US-made Patriot missile defence system being used by Ukraine likely suffered some damage from a Russian strike, two US officials said on Tuesday, adding that it did not appear to have been destroyed.

The Patriot system is one of an array of sophisticated air defence units supplied by the West to help Ukraine repel a Russian campaign of air strikes that has targeted critical infrastructure, power facilities and other sites.

One US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity and citing initial information, said Washington and Kyiv were already talking about the best way to repair the system and at this point it did not appear the system would have to be removed from Ukraine.

Key developments from Tuesday, May 16:

Ukraine said on Tuesday it had shot down six Russian Kinzhal missiles in a single night, thwarting a weapon Moscow has touted as a next-generation hypersonic missile that was all but unstoppable.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have agreed to separate meetings with a delegation of leaders from six African countries to discuss a possible plan to end the war in Ukraine, South Africa’s president said Tuesday.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Tuesday pledged to build an “international coalition” to provide fighter jet support for Ukraine.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded. 

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)