???? Live: Russia launches deadly missile strike on Ukraine’s Mykolaiv

Issued on: 27/04/2023 – 08:49

8:10am: Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s Mykolaiv kills one, wounds 23

One person was killed and 23 people, including a child, were wounded in a Russian missile strike on an apartment block and houses in the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv in the early hours of Thursday, officials said.

“At night, Russia bombarded Mykolaiv with four Kalibr missiles launched from the Black Sea,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the Telegram app. “The high-precision weapons were aimed at private houses, a historic building, and a high-rise building. For now, we know about one dead and 23 wounded, including a child.”

Regional Governor Vitaliy Kim said the emergency services put out several fires caused by the missile debris and that they were clearing the rubble.

3:10am: Russians pound frontline positions in Bakhmut, Ukraine military says 

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, in a report on Facebook, said fighting gripped Bakhmut and nearby areas. It said Russian forces had failed to advance on two villages to the northwest. At least a dozen localities came under Russian fire.

Separately, Serhiy Cherevatiy, spokesman for Ukraine’s eastern group of forces, told national television on Wednesday that in the past 24 hours, Russian forces had attacked 324 times using artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

“The Russians are destroying buildings in Bakhmut to prevent our soldiers from using them as fortifications,” Cherevatiy said.

10:07pm: Kyiv wants to get China ‘on side’

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke to his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, FRANCE 24’s Ukraine correspondent Gulliver Cragg commented on the two leaders’ first conversation since the Russian invasion.

“Ukrainians are just very very diplomatic with the Chinese; they can be extremely sharp-tongued sometimes with their Western allies, but with the Chinese it’s very much the standard diplomatic language,” Cragg noted. “The Ukrainians, I think, still hope that China’s role in this conflict could be a positive one. They fear that China might start arming the Russians […] so they want to get the Chinese on side, partly with a view to a possible mediation; partly of course they are also thinking about the contribution that China will be able to make to the eventual reconstruction of Ukraine after hostilities cease.

“But it has to be said that the page China is currently on is very much not the one that the Ukrainians would like it to be on,” Cragg added.

02:17

8:55pm: US, Europe looking at ways to improve Ukraine’s grain exports

US and European officials on Wednesday toured Ukraine’s southern port of Izmail that’s important in bringing Ukrainian grain to the world – and could become critical if a deal with Russia to allow grain exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports expires.

From Izmail, which has been upgraded since the start of the war with the help of US and other funding, grain is taken by barge down a branch of the Danube through Romania to its Black Sea port of Constanta for shipment onward.

US Ambassador Bridget Brink told AP after looking over the port facilities with Ukrainian and EU officials, as well as Ukrainian grain companies, that they were exploring ways to increase the exports from Danube ports.

8:28pm: EU welcomes Xi-Zelensky talks

Brussels welcomed Wednesday’s conversation between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, thought to be their first call since Russia invaded Ukraine.

“It is an important, long overdue first step by China in exercising its responsibilities as a member of the UN Security Council,” said European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer.

“China’s leadership needs to use its influence to bring Russia to end its war of aggression, restore Ukraine’s territorial integrity and respect its sovereignty, as a basis for a just peace.”

• Key developments from Tuesday, April 26

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping had had a “long and meaningful” phone conversation on Wednesday, their first known contact since Russia invaded Ukraine more than a year ago.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed a new ambassador to Beijing on Wednesday after his first call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping since Moscow’s invasion.

Ukraine’s military will get the weaponry it needs in time for an upcoming counter-offensive against invading Russian forces, the top US general in Europe told Congress on Wednesday.

Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny said Wednesday that he was facing new extremism and terrorism charges that could keep him behind bars for life, as authorities set the stage for a new trial against the Kremlin’s leading critic.

Ukraine has repatriated 44 prisoners of war from Russian custody, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Wednesday.

Russia warned Wednesday that “no progress” had been made towards meeting the conditions it has set for extending a Ukraine grain exports deal aimed at easing the global food crisis.

Germany and Britain intercepted three Russian military reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, the German air force said on Wednesday.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)