Ukraine war news– live: Activists paint giant Ukrainian flag outside Russian embassy in London
A group of activists have poured hundreds of litres of yellow and blue paint onto the road outside the Russian Embassy in London on Thursday to create an enormous Ukrainian flag ahead of the one year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion.
“Ukraine is an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination,” the group said in a statement.
“The existence of a massive Ukrainian flag outside (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) embassy in London will serve to remind him of that.”
The campaign group “Led By Donkeys” halted traffic before spreading more than 300 litres of paint across the road using wheelbarrows and brushes to make the 500 square metre (5382 square feet) flag.
It comes as Vladimir Putin said Russia will pay “increased attention” to boosting its nuclear forces on the eve of the war’s first anniversary.
The Russian president will deploy a much delayed new intercontinental ballistic missile, rolling out hypersonic missiles and adding new nuclear submarines.
Activists paint giant Ukrainian flag outside Russian embassy in London
A group of activists poured hundreds of litres of yellow and blue paint onto the road outside the Russian Embassy in London on Thursday to create an enormous Ukrainian flag ahead of the one year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion.
The campaign group “Led By Donkeys” halted traffic before spreading more than 300 litres of paint across the road using wheelbarrows and brushes to make the 500 square metre (5382 square feet) flag.
“Ukraine is an independent state and a people with every right to self-determination,” the group said in a statement.
“The existence of a massive Ukrainian flag outside (Russian President Vladimir Putin’s) embassy in London will serve to remind him of that.”
Moscow says its invasion was justified by concerns about its security.
London’s Metropolitan Police said three men and one woman had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and obstructing the highway.
The tyres of several vehicles were covered in the paint as they drove over it, leaving colorful markings along the road which borders Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
The group said the non-toxic, solvent-free and fast-dry edible paint was washable and designed for road art.
Ukraine at war a year on: Sign up to our exclusive expert panel event
To mark the year anniversary of the war in Ukraine breaking out, The Independent is bringing together a panel of experts who have been at the forefront of the coverage of the conflict.
Our panel will be looking back at some of the key moments from the past year as well as looking ahead to what is likely to happen next and if any future resolution is in sight.
The Independent’s news editor Steph Cockroft will be hosting the event and she will be joined by Russia expert and columnist for the Independent Mary Dejevsky, The Independent’s international correspondent Bel Trew, who will be joining live from Ukraine, and Tim White a journalist who has been reporting from the war torn country for much of the past 12 months and updating his thousands of followers on Twitter regularly from the ground.
Join our free panel for an hour’s discussion and also exclusive insight into Bel’s upcoming Independent TV Originals documentary on Ukraine’s missing victims ‘Body in the Woods’.
Ukraine has convicted 26 war crimes suspects since invasion
Ukrainian courts have tried and convicted 26 low-ranking suspects since the Russian invasion a year ago and have brought charges against nearly 300 individuals, an official said on Thursday.
Ukraine‘s prosecutor coordinating war crimes cases in The Hague, Myroslava Krasnoborova, said the convictions were for crimes including rape and murder, the shelling of residential buildings, cruel treatment of civilians and pillaging.
So far, Ukraine has registered more than 71,000 alleged war crimes since Feb. 24, 2022, she said.
“Atrocities and destruction caused by Russia are colossal and endless. Millions of people have been forced to leave everything behind. Massive missile attacks are destroying the civilian infrastructure and many tragically lost their lives,” she said.”
“This damage cannot be undone, but what we can do is to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice,” Krasnoborova said during a briefing about efforts to create accountability for the widespread atrocities.
Russia has denied committing atrocities or targeting civilians.
A total of 296 individuals have so far been charged with war crimes, with 99 cases currently being handled by Ukrainian courts, she said.
Ukraine‘s law enforcement agencies are being assisted in war crimes investigations by dozens of countries and institutions.
The figures were released at a briefing by the European prosecuting authority Eurojust, where a Joint Investigation Team for war crimes in Ukraine has been established with the ICC, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine.
No arrest warrants have yet been issued in public by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which began investigating possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine a year ago.
Watch: Giant Ukrainian flag painted on road outside Russian embassy
Putin says Russia will pay more attention to boosting nuclear forces
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would pay increased attention to boosting its nuclear forces by deploying a much delayed new intercontinental ballistic missile, rolling out hypersonic missiles and adding new nuclear submarines.
It comes after he suspended Russia’s participation in the START nuclear arms control treaty earlier this week.
“As before, we will pay increased attention to strengthening the nuclear triad,” said Putin, referring to nuclear missiles based on land, sea and in the air.
“We will continue mass production of air-based hypersonic Kinzhal systems and will start mass supplies of sea-based Zircon hypersonic missiles,” Putin said in the remarks issued by the Kremlin early on Thursday.
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Destruction and defiance: Inside Putin’s year-long war on Ukraine
Vladimir Putin’s war has raged across Ukraine since early 2022, sparking an international crisis and raising tensions between the West and Russia to a point not seen in decades.
During the past 12 months, territories in the Eastern European country have been lost and gained back, and thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed.
Gas and oil prices have rocketed, and millions have been left seeking refuge but, throughout it all, Ukraine has stood strong and defended its land.
The Independent has closely covered the conflict, and, using our reporting both on the ground and remotely, we have revisited the past year’s key moments — from footage of possible Russian war crimes to soldiers being reunited with their families.
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Destruction and defiance: Inside Putin’s year-long war on Ukraine
It has been one year since Russia launched their invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin’s war has raged across Ukraine since early 2022, sparking an international crisis and raising tensions between the West and Russia to a point not seen in decades. During the past 12 months, territories in the Eastern European country have been lost and gained back, and thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed. Gas and oil prices have rocketed, and millions have been left seeking refuge but, throughout it all, Ukraine has stood strong and defended its land. The Independent has closely covered the conflict, and, using our reporting both on the ground and remotely, we have revisited the past year’s key moments — from footage of possible Russian war crimes to soldiers being reunited with their families.
Russia intensifies attacks ahead of the one year anniversary of war on Friday
Russia is intensifying hostilities in Ukraine a year after its invasion in a deliberate attempt to deplete Ukrainian forces, the Ukrainian military said on Thursday.
Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov said Russia had set the goal of capturing all the territory it does not control in the two regions that make up the industrial Donbas area of eastern Ukraine by summer.
The fiercest fighting remained around the eastern city of Bakhmut, he told a military briefing on the eve of Friday’s anniversary of the invasion on Feb. 24 last year.
“The enemy, having an advantage in the resource of human mobilisation, is deliberately intensifying hostilities in an effort to deplete the units of the armed forces of Ukraine,” Gromov said.
“In the short term, it is important for the Kremlin to capture the key settlements in the Donetsk region, and in the future to capture (all of) the Donetsk and Luhansk regions before the summer.”
Kyiv says Russia is suffering heavy casualties as it throws recently mobilised troops into battle, but Gromov said Moscow was using better prepared soldiers from regular units in the already months-long battle for Bakhmut.
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Moscow agrees to give Wagner more Ukraine battle shells after row
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia‘s Wagner mercenary force, said on Thursday that much-needed ammunition for his troops had been dispatched, after a public row in which he accused the military leadership of treason.
Prigozhin had on Wednesday published a grisly image of dozens of men who he said had been killed because commanders including Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov had withheld ammunition to spite him. Neither man commented but the ministry rejected the charge.
In an audio clip on Thursday, Prigozhin said he felt the pressure he and others had put on the Defence Ministry had paid off, and that he had been told ammunition was now on its way.
“So far, it’s all on paper but, so we have been told, the principal documents have already been signed,” said Prigozhin.
“I would like to thank all those who helped us do this. You saved hundreds, maybe thousands of lives of guys who are defending their homeland, gave them a chance to move on with their lives.”
The ministry, in a statement late on Tuesday, said allegations that “assault troops” fighting in Ukraine were being starved of shells were “completely untrue” and complained – without mentioning Prigozhin by name – about attempts to create splits that worked “solely to the benefit of the enemy”.
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” height=”3983″ width=”5975″ layout=”responsive” class=”i-amphtml-layout-responsive i-amphtml-layout-size-defined” i-amphtml-layout=”responsive”> Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Russia‘s Wagner mercenary force
Watch: Ukrainian refugees in UK reunited with dog they had to leave behind
Footage captures the moment Ukrainian refugees in the UK were reunited with a dog they had to leave behind.
‘Me and Jack Nicholson were put in a convoy to meet Putin’: Sean Penn on his Zelensky film and the future of Ukraine
The actor and director talks to Geoffrey Macnab about the war in Ukraine and how the US lost its way under Trump:
Sean Penn once met Vladimir Putin. Back in 2001, when he and Jack Nicholson went to the Moscow Film Festival for the Russian premiere of Penn’s film, The Pledge, the president turned up to meet them. Even then, more than 20 years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Penn had a very bad feeling about the politician he now calls a “creepy little bully”.
During their time in Russia, Penn and Nicholson were driven to the dacha (or country house) belonging to Oscar-winning Russian filmmaker and Putin cheerleader, Nikita Mikhalkov.
Source: independent.co.uk