Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy thanks Germany for support in Berlin visit

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President Zelenskiy has tweeted his thanks to Germany “for the largest military aid package since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion”.

He stated, in German first and then in English:

German air defense systems, artillery, tanks and infantry fighting vehicles are saving Ukrainian lives and bringing us closer to victory. Germany is a reliable ally! Together we are bringing peace closer!

Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the minister of internal affairs of Ukraine, has posted a short video on Twitter of the security measures in force today in Germany for president Zelenskiy’s visit.

The Washington Post yesterday reported that in private meetings with top military aides, president Zelenskiy had plotted attacks inside Russia, according to leaks from communications intercepted by US spies.

The Post’s diplomacy and national security correspondent John Hudson said Zelenskiy had discussed occupying Russian villages to gain leverage over Moscow, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, a Nato member, and privately pining for long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia’s borders, per leaked documents.

You can read the story here.

Zelenskiy’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak has also tweeted that he has been speaking to the US President Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, today. He said the pair had discussed the current state of the war and “ensuring unity and support” at the meeting of the G7, which will take place in the middle of May in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

Yermak also stated that Russia’s econony had to be “destroyed” with sanctions to “make them pay for their crimes”.

The Kyiv Independent is reporting that an unexploded device left behind by the Russian army has killed five people, after it exploded in Myroliubivka, a village in Kherson Oblast today.

Those killed were between 27 and 68, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak said.

The home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision contestants Tvorchi has been attacked a second time, the Ukraine State Emergency Service has said.

Two people were injured by missile strikes on the Ternopil sparking fires which burned until 2.30am.

The SES has said more explosions damaged civilian buildings and cars at 5am.

“There is currently no information about the victims,” it wrote on Telegram.

After the first attack, the electro-pop duo said:

Ternopil is the name of our hometown, which was bombed by Russia while we sang on the Eurovision stage about our steel hearts, indomitability and will.

This is a message for all cities of Ukraine that are shelled every day.

Kharkiv, Dnipro, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Uman, Sumy, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kherson and all others.

Europe, unite against evil for the sake of peace. Glory to Ukraine.

The UK Ministry of Defence has posted an update on the situation in Ukraine.

It states that while Russian forces retain the same organisational structure to when it invaded Ukraine last February, it is, in fact, a very different military force.

It states that in February 2022 “it consisted of professional soldiers; was largely equipped with reasonably modern vehicles; and had been regularly exercised, aspiring to complex, joint operations”.”

Now, however, it says “the force is mostly poorly trained mobilised reservists and increasingly reliant on antiquated equipment, with many of its units severely under-strength. It routinely only conducts very simple, infantry-based operations.”

Today is Mother’s Day in Ukraine:

Even as Russia attacked Kyiv again last night, young people partied and supported the country’s Eurovision entry. David Pratt, Contributing Foreign Editor at the Herald in Scotland

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Germany for its support as he met with President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday in his first visit to the country since Russia’s invasion.

Zelenskiy flew on a German government plane escorted over German airspace by fighter jets of the Luftwaffe air force, arriving in the middle of the night.

Reuters reports that Zelenskiy wrote in the guest book of the German presidency:

In the most challenging time in the modern history of Ukraine, Germany proud to be our true friend and reliable ally. Together we will win and bring peace back to Europe.

From Reuters:

Zelenskiy is expected to meet later with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his security cabinet before heading to Aachen in west Germany to receive the prestigious Charlemagne prize in honour of services to Europe.

Germany, which is Europe’s largest economy, faced criticism at the start of the war for what some called a hesitant response, but it has become one of Ukraine’s biggest providers of financial and military assistance.

On Saturday the German government announced 2.7 billion euro ($3 billion) of military aid to Ukraine, its biggest package since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year. The country’s leaders pledged to support Kyiv for as long as is necessary.

Zelenskiy hailed this as a “powerful package” in a tweet, indicating that he aimed to discuss weapons supply as well as air defence, reconstruction, Ukraine’s candidacy for membership of the European Union and security with German officials.

Zelenskiy last visited Germany for the Munich Security Council in February last year just before the war broke out.

Germany was constrained in its support for Ukraine at that time both by its energy dependence on Russia and a pacifism rooted in its bloody 20th century history.

This required a major policy upheaval and a shift in mindset that Scholz dubbed a “Zeitenwende” or turn of era, in a landmark speech just days after the war broke out. (Reporting by Andreas Rinke and Sarah Marsh Editing by David Goodman and Frances Kerry)

Here are some of the latest images coming out of Ukraine:

The G7 and European Union will ban Russian gas imports on routes where Moscow cut supplies off last year, according to the Financial Times.

The decision, to be finalised by G7 leaders at a summit in Hiroshima starting on Friday, will prevent the resumption of Russian pipeline gas exports on routes to countries such as Poland and Germany.

The home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision entry came under fire from Russian missiles during the song contest on Saturday.

Ternopil, the university home town of electronic music duo Tvorchi, was among the places targeted, with local authorities confirming two people had been injured.

The band was performing on stage as air raid sirens rang out across Ternopil and later posted a message of solidarity to their Instagram: “Europe, unite against evil for the sake of peace! GLORY TO UKRAINE!”

For more on this story:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy landed in Berlin overnight as he seeks to shore up support from key allies. “Already in Berlin,” Zelenskiy tweeted shortly after midnight on Sunday, arriving from Italy where he met with Italian officials and Pope Francis.

The trip comes after the German government announced a new military package worth EUR2.7bn as Ukrainian forces prepare for a counter-offensive to reclaim territory captured by Russia.

According to local media reports, Zelenskiy is expected to meet in the morning with German chancellor Olaf Scholz and president Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

He may also head to the western German city of Aachen, which is awarding him and the Ukrainian people the Charlemagne prize – an honour awarded for efforts to foster European unity.

Welcome back to our continuing coverage the war in Ukraine, I’m Yang Tian bringing you the latest.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has landed in Berlin, according to a post on his Twitter feed. “Already in Berlin,” Zelenskiy tweeted shortly after midnight on Sunday after the German government announced a further EUR2.7bn of military aid to Ukraine, its biggest such package since the Russian invasion.

Russian missilesstruck the home town of Ukraine’s Eurovision entry Tvorchi during the song contest. Authorities in Ternopil said the strike had hit warehouses and injured two people.

More details coming shortly. In other key developments:

The Russian news outlet Kommersant reported that two Russian fighter jets and two military helicopters had been shot down on Saturday close to the Ukrainian border. Kommersant said on its website that the Su-34 fighter-bomber, Su-35 fighter and two Mi-8 helicopters had made up a raiding party, and had been “shot down almost simultaneously” in an ambush in the Bryansk region, adjoining north-east Ukraine.

The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will push other global leaders to pledge more support for Ukraine when he attends international summits next week, according to his office. Sunak will travel to Iceland on Tuesday to meet other European leaders attending a Council of Europe summit.

South Africa’s presidential security adviser said the country was “actively non-aligned” in Russia’s war against Ukraine, after US allegations it had supplied weapons to Moscow led to a diplomatic crisis. Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had spoken to the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and urged him to help implement Kyiv’s peace plan to end the war.

Ukrainian forces have regained at least a kilometre of territory in Bakhmut amid a Russian withdrawal that reflects Moscow’s “severe shortage of credible combat units”, the UK Ministry of Defence has said in an intelligence briefing. It said elements of a Russian brigade withdrew “in bad order” from their positions on the southern flank of the eastern Ukrainian city, the scene of the war’s longest battle.

Japan has expressed concern about Russian and Chinese military cooperation in Asia and believes the two countries are strengthening their joint exercises. Foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the security situation in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region was indivisible since the war in Ukraine started and that Russia’s invasion had “shaken the very foundation of the international order”.

Russian attacks injured three people in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv, the city’s mayor said. The strikes occurred early on Saturday, Oleksandr Sienkevych said on his Telegram channel. Russian forces targeted a factory, also damaging nearby residential buildings, causing fires in three apartments and damaging an educational institution, he said.

A 15-year-old girl was among two people killed while 10 more were injured in a Russian shelling attack, Ukraine’s defence ministry said. The eastern city of Kostyantynivka was targeted by Smerch rocket launchers.

Russian-installed officials in Luhansk have said missiles fired by Ukrainian forces injured six children and a Russian parliamentarian and damaged two disused factories in the eastern Ukrainian region’s main city, about 100km (60 miles) behind the frontlines.

An unidentified object that entered Polish airspace from the direction of Belarus was probably an observation balloon, Poland’s defence ministry said on Saturday. A spokesperson for Poland’s territorial defence force said a search for the object was under way.

Police in the Russian city of St Petersburg have created an anti-drone unit after a suspected attack on the Kremlin last week. The unit was launched on Tuesday during the annual second world war Victory Day celebrations on St Petersburg’s Palace Square, the city’s interior ministry said.

The UN nuclear watchdog chief, Rafael Grossi, plans to present an agreement with Russia and Ukraine on protecting the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the UN security council this month, indicating a deal is close, four diplomats have said. Grossi has been trying for months to secure an agreement to reduce the risk of a catastrophic accident from shelling at the Russian-occupied nuclear power station, Europe’s biggest.