Russia-Ukraine war live: two people dead and 30 injured in Russian attack on Dnipro clinic

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Canadian trade minister Mary Ng said Canada backs Ukraine‘s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Reuters reports.

The CPTPP is a free-trade agreement between 11 countries around the Pacific rim. If Ukraine is accepted, it would reduce some of the barriers to imports and exports of goods between the nations. The UK reached an agreement in principle to join the CPTPP in March 2023.

In a tweet, Ng said:

Following the UK’s accession, as more economies express interest in joining, Canada welcomes Ukraine’s application to join CPTPP.

Mykhailo Podolyak has again reiterated Ukraine’s public position that there can be no compromise over Ukrainian territory in any peace solution to Russia’s invasion. The adviser to the head of the office of president of Ukraine tweeted:

Any “compromise scenario” envisaging the liberation of NOT all territories of Ukraine, which “anonymous sources” in the European and American elites periodically talk about, is tantamount to admitting the defeat of democracy, the victory of Russia, the preservation of the Putin’s regime and as a consequence the sharp increase in conflicts in global politics. All of this is Russia’s cherished dream. The question is rhetorical: Why do individual public actors keep playing the “Russian media scenario” and protracting the conflict?

Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, and then in 2022 claimed to have annexed four other regions – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – despite not fully controlling the territories. The self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic were also established in 2014, and only recognised as legitimate authorities in the region by Russia, and later Syria and North Korea.

President Zelenskiy’s 10-point plan for peace in Ukraine envisages a roll-back to Ukraine’s territorial integrity established in 1991.

The cross-border incursion earlier this week into Belgorod is driving Russian governors in the region to demand a change in the law so that their volunteer border forces can be armed.

At present local volunteer self-defence units cannot be armed, but Reuters reports Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod, said he and others were working to try to change the law.

“We have nearly 3,000 people in seven battalions along the border,” said Gladkov. But he said although they were combat-ready and had been in training since November last year, they remained unarmed because it was illegal to give them weapons under current Russian law.

“We’re now searching for a legal basis. To be able to push back the enemy if necessary for those who are trained, able and professional,” he said. “I think it would be the right decision.”

Roman Starovoit, governor of the Kursk region which also borders Ukraine, said he favoured the idea too, and Reuters reports it has a backer in the form of Andrei Turchak, first deputy speaker of the upper house of parliament.

Turchak is said to have told Vladimir Putin in a Kremlin meeting last month the issue had to be resolved.

“The legal status of these formations is now extremely restricted, and most importantly they do not have the right to carry and use weapons. We propose that this anomaly be eliminated at the legislative level,” Turchak told the Russian Federation president.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that the number of injured in the strike on a Dnipro medical facility has increased to 30. It cited regional governor Serhiy Lysak.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, plans to visit Sweden, Norway and Finland from 29 May to 2 June to deepen cooperation on top national security and economic issues, the US state department said on Friday. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Finland has joined Nato, with Sweden’s bid to join awaiting ratification from Hungary and Turkey.

Here are some of the latest images coming across the wires from Ukraine, showing Ukranian firefighters and rescue workers at the clinic in Dnipro that was bombed by Russia overnight.

Russia‘s foreign ministry has summoned senior US diplomats to protest against remarks by the White House national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, whom it accused of “[in effect] endorsing strikes” on Crimea, Reuters reports.

The peninsula on the Black Sea was seized by Russia and unilaterally annexed from Ukraine in 2014 but is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory.

“It is time for Washington to learn that any form of aggression against Russia will continue to be met with the strongest possible response,” the ministry said.

It did not specify which comments it objected to, but when Sullivan was asked in a CNN interview on Sunday whether Ukraine should have weapons that could reach Russian targets in Crimea, he replied:

Yes. We have not placed limitations on Ukraine being able to strike on its territory within its internationally recognised borders.

What we have said is that we will not enable Ukraine with US systems, western systems, to attack Russia. And we believe Crimea is Ukraine.

The Russian arms company Kalashnikov, the maker of the world’s most widely used assault rifle, is launching a division for the production of kamikaze drones – one of the key weapons used in the Ukraine war, Reuters reports.

After Ukrainian forces used western, Israeli and Turkish uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) with deadly efficiency in the first few months of the war, Russia began using Iranian-made Shahed drones while seeking to boost its own production.

The Izhevsk-based Kalashnikov is Russia’s biggest producer of automatic weapons and guided artillery.

It said: “The main task of the division is the production of complexes with guided loitering munitions. The complexes are designed for high-precision destruction of remote single and group enemy ground targets.”

Kalashnikov, named after Mikhail Kalashnikov, the designer of the AK-47 assault rifle, will also produce launchers, control technology and research and development.

Vladimir Putin said last month that the Russian drone industry could soon be worth more than $12bn (?9.7bn/EUR11.2bn) once a plan to boost production was put into place.

The Russian president has called for a rise in production of drones. The first deputy prime minister, Andrei Belousov, said that by the end of 2026, Russia should be able to make 18,000 drones a year.

Our video team has edited together some of the clips of the aftermath of this morning’s attack on the medical facility in Dnipro, Ukraine.

The death toll from a Russian missile attack in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to two, with 23 people wounded, Reuters reports.

A Russian missile hit a clinic in Dnipro overnight, killing a 69-year-old man had been killed as he was “just passing by”, the regional governor said.

Serhiy Lysak said another man’s body had been pulled out of the rubble, and that 21 of the 23 wounded had been taken to hospital, with three seriously injured.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the attack as a crime against humanity. He tweeted:

Another [Russian] missile attack, another crime against humanity as such. The buildings of a psychological clinic and a veterinary clinic in the city of Dnipro were destroyed.

Only an evil state can fight against clinics. There can be no military purpose in this. It is pure [Russian] terror.