Russia-Ukraine war live: Putin and Zelenskiy visit troops near frontline

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Security concerns have prompted Russian authorities this year to cancel traditional nationwide victory day processions where people carry portraits of relatives who fought against Nazi Germany in the second world war, Reuters report a lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Since 2012, the “immortal regiment” processions have become a major feature of national celebrations on 9 May, a public holiday when Russia honours the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the struggle to defeat Adolf Hitler’s invasion.

But Tass news agency quoted lawmaker Yelena Tsunayeva as saying the marches would not take place this year since a number of regions, including Russian-annexed Crimea, had pulled out “because of the threat”.

Tsunayeva did not specify a threat, although Russia has claimed that Ukraine has been behind bomb attacks on Russian soil.

Tass quotes Tsunayeva saying “This is still a single indivisible story, the immortal regiment procession, if somewhere people do not have such an opportunity, let’s use other options”. She said everyone is invited to post photos of their veteran relatives on social networks, on clothes, on a car and on the website of the movement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself took part in last year’s march in Moscow, carrying a picture of his father.

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass reports that the ambassadors of the US, UK and Canada have been summoned to the foreign ministry over their comments about the sentencing yesterday of opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Tass quotes the ministry saying:

In connection with gross interference in the internal affairs of Russia and activities that do not correspond to diplomatic status, the ambassadors of the US, Britain and Canada have been summoned to the foreign ministry.

The report also cites Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, saying she “stressed that Moscow considers unacceptable the statements of British ambassador Deborah Bronnert after the sentence of Kara-Murza and warned London against the politicisation of international human rights issues. Zakharova also called ‘the height of cynicism’ the demands of the US and Canadian ambassadors to release Kara-Murza, while in their homeland human rights are shamelessly violated and dissidents are persecuted.”

Russia is “not yet” planning to block Wikipedia, its minister of digital affairs said on Tuesday as a Moscow court handed the online encyclopaedia another fine for failing to remove content Russia deems illegal.

“We are not blocking Wikipedia yet, there are no such plans for now,” Interfax news agency quoted digital affairs minister Maksut Shadaev as saying at a data forum in Moscow.

Reuters reports that on Tuesday, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court fined Wikipedia owner Wikimedia Foundation 800,000 roubles (?7,900 / $9,800) for what Russian news agencies said was a failure to remove information considered to be promoting train hopping, where a person rides on the side or top of a train.

The Wikimiedia Foundation has previously been fined for failing to remove what Russian courts have deemed false information about the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s leading opposition figure, Alexei Navalny, faces the prospect of new criminal charges, one of his lawyers has claimed.

Reuters reports that Vadim Kobzev alleged on Twitter that authorities had provoked Navalny by placing another inmate in his cell, and that Navalny had been given no choice but to drag him out.

He had then been told he would be charged with thwarting prison authorities, which carries a maximum sentence of five years, Kobzev said.

The penitentiary service, which has in the past denied allegations of mistreatment, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Poland this month presented a proposal for a new set of sanctions against Russia for waging war against Ukraine, according to a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday, including a ban on pipeline oil and diamond imports.

The written proposal, which a diplomatic source said was delivered to the EU executive European Commission, marks the opening of what is bound to be long and complex negotiations among the bloc’s 27 countries.

All EU members must agree to impose new sanctions. The bloc has already put in place 10 rounds of punitive steps against Russia since Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Warsaw’s proposal would stop Russian oil imports via the northern leg of the Druzhba pipeline going to Germany. It would end imports of Russian diamonds and natural gas, including LNG, and curb nuclear energy cooperation. Germany and Lithuania are also for nuclear energy sanctions with leniency for those like Hungary and France who trade with Russia.

Hungary, which last week said it had agreed to modify its contract with Russia’s Rosatom for the expansion of the Paks nuclear plant, has so far firmly opposed any sanctions on Russian nuclear energy.

Belgium, home to the world’s biggest diamond trading hub Antwerp, has successfully lobbied against barring Russian imports so far.

A Russian judge has rejected an appeal by the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich against the decision to hold him in detention before his trial on charges of espionage.

Gershkovich, 31, is the first US journalist to be detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war and, if found guilty, could face up to 20 years in prison.

Russia’s FSB security service has accused him of collecting state secrets about Russia’s military for the benefit of US intelligence, charges that have been roundly condemned as political and unfounded.

Hearings in his case are being held in closed sessions because of the nature of the charges, but cameras were briefly allowed into the courtroom before Tuesday’s hearing started. The court was only deciding whether to hold Gershkovich in pre-trial detention, not on the substance of the case.

It was the first time the outside world has seen proper footage of Gershkovich since his arrest at the end of March. The reporter was standing inside a glass case known informally as an “aquarium”, where defendants in Russian court cases are often held. He appeared calm and was pictured smiling. Marks on one of his wrists appeared to show where he had been kept in handcuffs.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, visited Ukrainian troops on Tuesday in Avdiivka, Donetsk region, his office have said.

Zelenskiy listened to commanders’ reports on the battlefield situation and gave awards to soldiers, it said.

“I have the honour to be here today, to thank you for your service, for defending our land, Ukraine, our families,” Zelenskiy was quoted as saying.

Ukraine has denied that Russian inspectors have restarted ship inspections under the Black Sea grain deal.

Speaking to Reuters, a senior Ukrainian official who asked not to be identified said: “Nothing has been resolved. There are no inspections.”

Russia’s RIA news agency reported earlier on Tuesday that inspections of ships moving grain from Ukraine had restarted, citing a senior Russian foreign ministry official.

The US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who denies a Russian accusation that he is a spy, appeared in a Moscow courtroom today at a hearing to appeal against a decision to keep him in pre-trial detention in a former KGB prison until at least 29 May.

Reuters reports:

Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, looked calm and smiled as he stood in a glass and metal cage, wearing a checked shirt with his arms folded in front of him.

He did not say anything, but turned around when one of the Russian reporters in the courtroom told him to “Hold fast!” and relayed to him that everyone said “Hi”. U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy stood nearby.

Russia’s FSB security service arrested Gershkovich on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg on espionage charges that carry a possible 20-year prison sentence for collecting what it said were state secrets about the military industrial complex, a charge he denies.

The Kremlin has said Gershkovich, the first U.S. journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the Cold War, was caught “red-handed.”

The United States has deemed him “wrongfully detained,” his employer and colleagues have said he is innocent, and President Joe Biden has called his detention illegal.

Tuesday’s hearing is essentially procedural, covering how Gershkovich should be detained as he awaits trial, not about the substance of the charges against him as investigators are still working on the details of the case.

Court documents gave nothing more than basic details about the case. The court said it was forbidden to publish some documents. A Russian lawyer for Gershkovich did not respond to a request for comment.

Gershkovich, the American son of Soviet emigres, is being held at the Lefortovo prison, which in Soviet times was run by the KGB but is now operated by the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Traditionally it has been used to hold those suspected by the FSB of spying and other grave crimes.

Tracy, the US ambassador, said on Monday she had made her first visit to Gershkovich.

“He feels well and is holding up. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release,” Tracy said in a statement.

In Washington, the White House said it hopes to get regular consular access to Gershkovich.

“It was good to get to see him today and again we want to make sure we can continue to do that,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said.

The United States last week designated Gershkovich as “wrongfully detained”, in effect saying that the spy charges were bogus and the case was political.

The US hostage envoy has pledged to do “whatever it takes” to bring home Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, an American ex-Marine who was convicted of espionage in 2020 and has also been designated by Washington as wrongfully detained.

A spokesperson for The Wall Street Journal did not respond on Monday to a request for comment.

Vladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in Russian-controlled Ukraine’s Kherson and Luhansk regions, the Kremlin has said. The president attended a military command meeting in the Kherson region to hear reports of the airborne forces and the ‘Dnieper’ army group and other senior officers on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia.

Russian troops retreated from Kherson, the regional capital, in November, and have been reinforcing their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River in anticipation of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. The Kremlin did not say when Putin attended the meetings.

Switzerland has condemned Russia’s war against Ukraine in the strongest terms, it is very much committed to humanitarian aid for Ukraine and is doing everything possible to seriously implement sanctions against Russia, its president has said today.

At a joint news conference with Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, Alain Berset said: “We adopted the (EU) sanctions and of course we take this completely seriously and we are simply doing everything that can be done in order to enforce them seriously.”

Romania’s ruling Social Democrat party (PSD) has said it will ask the coalition government to approve an emergency decree enforcing a temporary ban on Ukrainian grain imports, mirroring similar moves by countries in central and eastern Europe.

Reuters reports:

On Monday, Slovakia joined Poland and Hungary in banning grain imports from Ukraine as even Kyiv’s staunchest allies come under domestic pressure to shield their agriculture markets.

“PSD will ask the governing coalition to make a political decision to enable … the government to issue the decree,” the party, to which the agriculture minister belongs, said in a statement.

“At the same time, Romania must continue to support Ukraine by facilitating the transit of farm products to other European Union states or to Black Sea commercial routes.”

Vladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in Russian-occupied areas Ukraine, the Kremlin has said. Putin was shown on Russian state television disembarking a military helicopter in Russian-held Ukraine and greeting senior military commanders. It was not stated when the visit took place.

The Kremlin said Putin attended a military command meeting in the Kherson region. He heard reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the “Dnieper” army group and other senior officers on the situation in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia. The Russian president also visited national guard headquarters in Ukraine’s Luhansk region in the eastern Donbas, which Moscow also claims to have annexed along with adjacent Donetsk region.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appeared in court to appeal on Tuesday against his detention in Moscow on charges of espionage. The court will hear a complaint filed by Gershkovich against the decision to keep him in custody in Lefortovo prison while the case is being investigated. The hearing is essentially procedural covering how Gershkovich should be detained as he awaits trial, not about the substance of the charges.

Poland and Ukraine will resume negotiations early on Tuesday to try to reopen the transit of food and grains, the Polish agriculture minister told public radio station PR1. The two countries held talks on Monday over bans by central eastern European countries seeking to shelter their farmers from the impact of an influx of cheaper Ukrainian grain.

Russian forces are stepping up their use of heavy artillery and air strikes in the devastated eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces said on Tuesday.

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday that their countries’ military cooperation was a “stabilising” force in the world and helped to reduce the chances of conflict.

The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, held a meeting with the Russian-installed head of Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, on Tuesday.

The FT’s Max Seddon has published video from inside the court, noting that “media are allowed to take photos and videos of Evan [Gershkovich] in the cage, but not speak to him. He can’t say anything back either.”

Here is the first picture that has come through of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich in court in Moscow.

US Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy is also present.

Max Seddon, the FT’s Moscow bureau chief, has tweeted:

The first proper picture of Evan Gershkovich, the WSJ reporter arrested in Russia on absurd charges, in court ahead of his appeal against his jailing today. So surreal to see Evan, who’s covered so many Kafkaesque hearings as a reporter, in the cage

Reuters has just snapped that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appeared in person in a Moscow court, where he is appealing against being detained while awaiting trial.

More details soon …

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday that their countries’ military cooperation was a “stabilising” force in the world and helped to reduce the chances of conflict. The Chinese defence minister, Li Shangfu, is in Moscow as the countries look to deepen their military cooperation.

Reuters cites Interfax quoting Shoigu saying: “The coordination of our efforts in the international arena has a stabilising effect on the global situation and helps to reduce the potential for conflict.”

Russia’s state-owned news agency Tass is carrying further details of the meeting between the Belarusian leader Alexander, Lukashenko, and the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, in Minsk.

Tass quotes Lukashenko saying:

I would like, as they say, first-hand, to hear the situation in the Donetsk People’s Republic, if possible. How are we doing there at the front? There are very intense battles going on. Both to the north and to the south. Yes, and in the direction of Donetsk. Shelling, it’s hard for people. And in this situation, what can Belarus do for Donetsk, how can we help? There is a lot of work ahead. We need to recover, we need to revive industrial enterprises, agriculture. In the end, people will live there. This is 100%. And people need to be fed.