Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv lowers military draft age as Cameron calls for Nato to bolster defences

Top Russian security official Nikolai Patrushev said on Wednesday that “Ukrainian special services” were behind last month’s deadly concert shooting near Moscow and that Ukraine was under the control of the United States, state media reported.

Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, provided no evidence for Russia‘s latest claim of Ukrainian involvement. Ukraine has denied having anything to do with the attack that killed at least 144 people, and the United States has said Islamic State militants bore sole responsibility.

British Foreign Minister David Cameron on Wednesday will call for Nato allies to bolster defense spending and production in support of Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion.

“Allies need to step up and spend more on defence in the face of continued Russian aggression and a more dangerous world,” Lord Cameron will say in a speech on the occasion of 75 years of NATO history since its founding April 4, 1949.

The British minister will ask the allies to endorse British-led initiatives to procure Nato standard missiles and munitions for the Ukrainian armed forces. The UK has spent billions of dollars in its support for Ukraine since 2022 when the invasion began.

“With Ukraine closer to Nato than ever, we must sustain the critical support Ukraine needs to win the war,” Lord Cameron will say.

Speaking at a meeting of Nato’s foreign ministers, Cameron will also welcome Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom to the Nato alliance.

Sweden officially joined Nato in March, two years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine forced it to rethink its national security policy and conclude that support for the alliance was the Scandinavian nation’s best guarantee of safety.

Lord Cameron also pointed to Nato’s commitment to integrating Ukraine into the alliance, reaffirming all allies’ consensus on Ukraine’s future Nato membership.

In February, Britain had announced a new package of sanctions against Russia and said it was seeking to diminish Russian President Vladimir Putin’s weapons arsenal and war chest.

Ukraine expects significant electricity exports to rebound on Wednesday, but the volumes are still well below levels prior to Russia’s recent missile attacks on the Ukrainian power system, Ukraine‘s energy ministry has said.

Ukraine‘s electricity imports reached a record high at the end on March after a string of Russian missile strikes on critical infrastructure caused blackouts in many regions.

The attacks, the largest of which came on 22 March , have caused major damage to generating and transmission facilities, forcing Kyiv to halt power exports and rely on imports.

“No shortage of electricity is expected. Ukraine‘s energy system is stable and balanced,” the ministry said in a statement.

It said power exports were expected to reach 1,487 megawatt hours (MWh) on Wednesday.

The ministry said Ukraine could also import 5,415 Mwh in periods of maximum consumption.

Ukraine imported 10,867 Mwh on Tuesday with no exports, the ministry said.

The head of national grid company Ukrenergo Volodymyr Kudrytskyi told Reuters on Monday that recent Russian attacks had caused significant damage to the power system, but a total collapse is unlikely.

Ukrainian drones attacked industrial facilities in the province of Tatarstan, Russian authorities said Tuesday, in what would be Kyiv’s deepest strike inside Russian territory since the war began more than two years ago.

Seven people were injured in the attack on facilities near the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk, located some 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) east of Ukraine, Russian regional authorities said.

The strike damaged a hostel for students and workers in a free economic zone where a factory manufacturing Iranian-designed drones is reportedly located, other media reports said. Tatarstan is known for its high level of industrialization.

Below are some of the latest photos from Ukraine.

Ukraine’s air force shot down all four drones used in Russia’s overnight attack on central regions, the Ukrainian military said on Wednesday.

The Shahed drones were destroyed over Kirovohrad, Cherkasy, Khmelnytskyi and Zhytomyr regions. The attack caused a fire in Kirovohrad region which has since been put out, the region’s governor said on Telegram messaging app.

Separately, a Russian missile attack on Tuesday damaged four educational facilities and nine residential buildings in Dnipro, injuring 18 people, the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor reported on Wednesday morning via Telegram.

Russia has recently intensified its attacks on Ukraine, targeting grid infrastructure to deal significant damage to the country’s power system.

More than 100,000 people have enlisted for military service under contract in the Russian armed forces this year, Russia’s defence ministry said today.

“Every day, up to 1,700 volunteers come to contract selection points across the country. Over the past 10 days, about 16,000 citizens have signed contracts to participate in a special military operation,” reported Russian state news agency RIA.

It also claimed that most of those who enlisted themselves in the military over the last week said they wanted to avenge the victims of the 22 March concert hall shooting near Moscow that killed at least 144 people.

Isis claimed responsibility for that attack but Russia has tried to argue that the perpetrators were linked to Ukraine, without providing evidence. Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has proposed a €100bn package of military aid to Ukraine which would give the Western military alliance a more direct role in providing support to Kyiv, five diplomats have told Reuters.

Under the plan, Nato would take over some coordination work from a US-led coalition known as the Ramstein group – a step designed in part to guard against any cut in US support if Donald Trump returns to the White House, diplomats reportedly said.

The proposal is expected to be discussed at a two-day meeting of Nato foreign ministers on Wednesday and Thursday, with the aim of finalising a package in time for a Nato summit in Washington in July, Reuters reported.

Volodymyr Zelensky has signed new legislation to lower the mobilisation age for combat duty from 27 to 25, months after it was approved by parliament in May 2023.

The move expands the number of civilians the army can mobilise into its ranks to fight under martial law, which has been in place since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The signing of the legislation was not immediately announced by the president’s office. Parliament merely updated the entry for the bill on its website to read: “returned with the signature of the president of Ukraine”.

Mr Zelensky said last winter that he would only sign the bill if he was given a strong enough argument of the need to do so. He separately signed a second bill requiring men given waivers from some military service on disability grounds to undergo another medical assessment.

A third bill he also signed aimed to create an online database of those eligible for military service. Both those bills could potentially help the military draft more fighters.

A string of strict measures set out in an earlier draft of that bill were gutted following a public outcry.

Ministers and officials from dozens of countries are gathering in the Netherlands for a conference on restoring justice in Ukraine, as the war sparked by Russia‘s invasion drags on in its third devastating year.

Among speakers will be the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, which has issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and military officers linked to the war.

“The Netherlands believes it is of vital importance that truth and justice be achieved both for Ukraine and for all victims of Russia’s aggression,” the Dutch government said in a statement.