🔴 Live: Zelensky says Kyiv not warned of US secret docs leak

Issued on: 03/05/2023 – 07:08Modified: 03/05/2023 – 07:11

8:17am: Russia, Ukraine, Turkey deputy defence ministers to discuss grain deal

The deputy defence ministers of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey will meet in Istanbul on Friday to discuss a deal that allows the exports of Ukrainian grains on the Black Sea, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

“During the meeting, some issues starting with the grain initiative will be discussed,” state-owned Anadolu Agency quoted him as saying about the meeting scheduled to take place in Istanbul.

“In this regard, we can say that the sides are looking warmly at the extension of the duration. Our wish is that this initiative is extended without any trouble,” he said.

7:21am: Ukraine says Russian strikes hit Dnipro but most drones destroyed

Russia launched a third nightly round of attacks on Kyiv in six days, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said on Wednesday, but a drone hit a building in the Dnipropetrovsk region as Moscow steps up attacks on its neighbour.

Ukraine’s Air Force Command said its forces destroyed 21 of the 26 Iranian-made Shahed drones launched by Russia, while Kyiv officials said air defence systems eliminated those sent over the city, with no initial reports of casualties or destruction.

“All enemy targets were identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital,” Kyiv’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app, citing initial details.

6am: Russia launches unsuccessful strikes on Kyiv 

Russia launched a third nightly round of attacks on Kyiv in six days, city authorities said early on Wednesday, but air defence systems destroyed all its drones, with no immediate reports of casualties or destruction.

Air raid sirens blared for several hours in Kyiv, the surrounding region and most of eastern Ukraine, with the skies clearing only at dawn.

“All enemy targets were identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital,” Kyiv’s military administration said on the Telegram messaging app, citing initial details.

3:49am: Fuel storage facility in Russia’s Krasnodar on fire, governor says

A fuel storage facility in Russia’s Krasnodar region was on fire in the early hours on Wednesday, the region’s governor said, adding that according to preliminary information there are no casualties.

“The fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty,” Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region which lies in Russia’s southwest across the Sea of Azov from Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app.

2:33am: Zelensky says Kyiv not warned of US secret docs leak

Washington did not warn Kyiv about the top-secret documents leaked to internet chat rooms – containing sensitive information about Ukraine’s war effort – before the news broke in the media last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Washington Post.

The embarrassing security breach revealed US unease about a coming counteroffensive by Kyiv’s forces against Russian troops as well as concerns about Ukrainian air defenses.

“I did not receive information from the White House or the Pentagon beforehand,” Zelensky told the newspaper in an interview in Kyiv Monday.

“We did not have that information. I personally did not. It’s definitely a bad story,” he said, calling the situation “unprofitable”.

• Key developments from Tuesday, May 2

Ukrainian forces shelled a village in the Russian Bryansk region bordering Ukraine early on Tuesday, the local governor said in a social media post, a day after an explosion derailed a freight train in the region.

Meanwhile the EU announced it will put forward a plan to boost its production capacity of artillery shells to one million a year, as it scrambles to arm Ukraine and replenish its own stocks after decades of under-investment in defence.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)