Russia-Ukraine war live: Russia ‘to increase air defences to counter Finland’s Nato accession’; US investigates intelligence leak

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Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian presidency’s office, has said Russian shelling hit the town of Orikhiv in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.

A bakery was damaged by the shelling but no casualties were reported, he said.

Here’s more from Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who said it was hard to imagine France playing a role in brokering peace in Ukraine.

Paris is “both indirectly and directly involved in this conflict on the side of Ukraine”, he said.

Therefore, it is still difficult to imagine any mediation efforts here.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, visited China last week, where he urged his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to bring Russia “back to reason” over the war in Ukraine. After the meeting, Macron said France and China had agreed nuclear weapons should be excluded from the conflict.

The Kremlin, responding to accusations that Russia may have been behind the leak of classified Pentagon documents, has said there was a general tendency to always blame Moscow for everything.

US officials are scrambling to identify the source of the leak of secret military documents, the authenticity of which has not been verified.

Three US officials on Friday told Reuters that Russia or pro-Russian elements were likely behind the leak, but other US officials have said the breadth addressed in the documents – which touch on the war in Ukraine, China, the Middle East and Africa – suggest they may have been leaked by an American.

When asked about allegations that Russia may have been responsible, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters:

I cannot comment on this in any way. You and I know that there is in fact a tendency to always blame everything on Russia. It is, in general, a disease.

We reported earlier that Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, held a meeting with Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu where he reportedly said he needed guarantees that Moscow will defend Minsk “like its own territory” in the case of aggression.

Kyiv Post has a picture of the pair meeting in the Belarusian capital today:

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Ukraine has been forced to amend some of its military plans ahead of an anticipated counteroffensive due to a leak of highly classified Pentagon documents, according to a report.

One of the documents, citing signals intelligence using intercepted communications, outlines how President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in late February “suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov oblast” using unmanned aerial vehicles.

A source close to the Ukrainian president told CNN that the US spying on Zelenskiy was unsurprising, but that Ukrainian officials were deeply frustrated about the leak.

The intelligence could explain public statements from Washington about not wanting to supply Ukraine with long-range missile systems over fears Kyiv will use them to strike inside Russia. Ukraine has pledged it would not use US-provided weapons to do so.

The authenticity of the Pentagon documents has not been verified. When asked about the CNN report, Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters that Kyiv’s strategic plans remained unchanged but that more specific tactical plans were always subject to change.

He added:

Operational and tactical scenarios are constantly refined, based on an assessment of the situation on the battlefield, resource provision, intelligence data on the enemy’s resources, etc.

“Right now its impossible to reassess plans, because they are only being worked out,” he added.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, told Reuters:

We are working on our own plans … The opinion of people who have nothing to do with this do not interest us … The circle of people who possess information is extremely restricted.

Hello everyone. It’s L?onie Chao-Fong here, taking over the live blog from Jennifer Rankin to bring you all the latest developments from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Here are some of the latest images of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, scene of some of the most intense fighting in Europe since the second world war. A senior Ukrainian commander said on Monday that Russia was using the same scorched earth tactics it had deployed in Syria.

The authoritarian leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, held a meeting in Minsk with Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, on Monday, reports Reuters, citing a Belarusian state-owned news agency.

According to the Belta agency, Lukashenko said he needed guarantees that Russia will defend Belarus “like its own territory” in the case of aggression.

Belarus is Russia’s closest ally and provided a launchpad for the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The meeting follow’s Russia agreement with Minsk last month to station tactical nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, bringing some of its nuclear arsenal closer to Europe. At the time of the Kremlin announcement, the US said it had no indication Russia was planning to use nuclear weapons.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said his country is united in grief with Poland in remembering the 2010 Smolensk air disaster that killed 96 people, including Poland’s then president, Lech Kaczy?ski.

Writing in Ukrainian and Polish, Zelenskiy tweeted:

Today, on the 13th anniversary of the Smolensk disaster, we unite in grief with the Polish people and honour the memory of the President of Poland Lech Kaczy?ski, his wife and all those who died in the name of serving their country. Eternal memory!

Poland entered deep mourning after the 2010 air crash that killed all 96 passengers, including the president, his wife, the central bank chief and senior military figures. Warsaw is now one of Kyiv’s staunchest allies, and since 2014 Russia’s aggression has helped end historic tensions between Poland and Ukraine, especially along their shared border.

The view from the Ukrainian town of Ochakiv appears idyllic. Beyond the beach, a narrow strip of land stretches out across the sea. The peninsula in Mykolaiv province is known as the Kinburn spit. In happier times holidaymakers would take a boat from Ochakiv and camp among the dunes. The nature reserve is home to swans, pelicans and migrating birds.

Last June it got a new and unwelcome visitor: Russia. Soldiers captured the rustic territory, with its summer houses and mini-lakes, and turned it into a military base. Ever since, the Russian army has bombarded Ochakiv, which is 5 miles (8km) away. Truck-mounted launchers release Grad missiles, sending them over the Black Sea. Afterwards the crews speed off and take cover amid the mazy sands.

On Friday, the Russians launched their biggest attack yet. At 5am they hit Ochakiv with 72 rockets. Another 50 fell in the district. The barrage lasted for more than an hour. The town’s 7,000 residents woke in darkness to the sound of explosions. Two people were injured, one badly. Thermite projectiles fell from the sky and bathed the waterfront in a strange white light.

“They are swine, savages. They are killing peaceful people,” Serhii Kaminiev, a 52-year-old coffee shop owner, said. Kaminiev’s cafe is in Ochakiv’s central market. One of the Grads landed on the roof of a business selling clothes, setting it on fire. The pavilion was a twisted ruin. Charred T-shirts lay in a heap. Homeless dogs wandered among alleys of broken glass.

Read Luke Harding’s full report from Ochakiv: ‘Savages’: Ukrainian resort town resisting Russian attempts to repeat past glories

Russia continues to prioritise operations around Donetsk in eastern Ukraine “expending significant resources for minimal gains”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in its daily briefing.

The MoD said that over the past seven days Russia had increased armoured assaults around Marinka, a small town around 12 miles (20km) south-west of Donetsk city.

Marinka has been on the frontline of fighting since 2014 and now lies in ruins. Before 2014 it had a population of around 9,000 people.

Russia plans to increase air defences over its north-western border to counter Finland’s accession to Nato, a commander in its aerospace forces has said, Reuters reports.

Lt Gen Andrei Demin, the deputy commander-in-chief of aerospace forces, also said further reforms of Russian air defences were “undoubtedly planned and will be implemented”.

In an interview published on Monday with the defence ministry’s official Red Star newspaper, Demin said the purpose of upcoming changes was “the development of the armed forces, aimed at improving the air defence system of the Russian Federation”.

Russia shares a 1,300km (800-mile) border with Finland, which joined Nato last week – a decision prompted by the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

“In these conditions, the air defence forces are working out issues of protecting the state border in the north-west of the country in accordance with the increased threat level,” Demin said.

This is Jennifer Rankin, taking over from Helen Livingstone.