Russia Ukraine war live: Zelensky reshuffles cabinet as Moscow bizarrely claims UK and US had role in terror attack

Ukraine’s air force chief said on Wednesday that Russia launched 13 Shahed drones at Ukraine overnight, 10 of which were downed in Kharkiv, Sumy and Kyiv regions.

“Anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups, electronic warfare equipment … were involved in repelling the air attack,” Mykola Oleshchuk said.

Ukraine needs any edge it can get to repel Russia from its territory. One emerging bright spot is its small but fast-growing defense industry, which the government is flooding with money in hopes that a surge of homemade weapons and ammunition can help turn the tide.

The effort ramped up sharply over the past year as the U.S. and Europe strained to deliver weapons and other aid to Ukraine, which is up against a much bigger Russian military backed by a thriving domestic defense industry.

The Ukrainian government budgeted nearly $1.4 billion in 2024 to buy and develop weapons at home — 20 times more than before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The suspects, identified by Russian authorities as being from Tajikistan, a Central Asian nation bordering Afghanistan, were allegedly picked up in the Bryansk region about 210 miles southwest of Moscow hours after the attack.

Both Ukraine and its western allies, including the US, have denied any involvement in the attack.

The 32-year-old US citizen was arrested in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent nearly a year behind bars. His arrest was extended until June 30.

Gershkovich and his employer have denied the allegations, and the US government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

Production at a weapons plant in Northern Ireland has doubled, and is set to double again following Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Thales UK operate two sites in the region – with high precision missiles designed and produced at a plant in east Belfast, and final missile assembly at another plant in Crossgar, Co Down.

It designs and produces missiles including Starstreak, Lightweight Multi-role Missile (LMM) systems as well as final assembly of the Saab designed NLAW.

They have also trained UK and Ukraine soldiers in the south of England.

A Moscow court has ordered Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich to remain in jail on espionage charges until at least late June, court officials said.

The 32-year-old US citizen was arrested in late March 2023 while on a reporting trip and has spent nearly a year behind bars. His arrest was extended until 30 June.

Mr Gershkovich and The Journal have denied the allegations from Moscow, and the US government has declared him to be wrongfully detained.

His arrest in the city of Yekaterinburg rattled journalists in Russia, where authorities have not detailed what, if any, evidence they have to support the espionage charges.

Russia has executed at least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) it had recently captured, a report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said yesterday.

The executions were carried out between 1 December 2023 and 29 February this year.

OHCHR said it recorded 12 cases of executions of at least 32 captured Ukrainian POWs during the winter, indicating that the Russian officials carried out these killings in groups.

“OHCHR has verified three of these incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen hors de combat,” according to the report, which is based on interviews with 60 Ukrainian soldiers released from captivity.

Ukraine has flagged reports of torture or killings of Ukrainian POWs in Russian captivity since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2024.

Twenty-two victims of the Russia concert hall attack that killed more than 130 people remain in serious condition in the hospital, Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said Tuesday, according to state news agency Tass. Two of them are children, it said.

Russia is still reeling from the attack Friday in which gunmen killed 139 people in a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that the gunmen are “radical Islamists,” but despite all evidence pointing to the involvement of Islamic State, Putin repeated his accusation that Ukraine could have played a role. Kyiv has strongly denied any link to the attack.

Four men accused of carrying out the attack appeared before a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.

The World Bank will give $1.5bn in development loans to Ukraine under its Growth Foundations Development Policy Loan (DPL) program, officials in Kyiv said.

The loan will reach Ukraine by the end of March, a statement from the Ukraine’s finance ministry said.

It added that the funding will be backed by guarantees from Japan and the UK, and will be provided through the World Bank Trust Fund (ADVANCE Ukraine).

“The funds raised will be used to support the state budget of Ukraine and economic recovery, as well as to finance the priority social and humanitarian expenditures of the state budget,” Ukraine’s finance minister Serhii Marchenko said.

Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the secretary of Ukraine’s national security council and replaced him with the head of his foreign spy agency yesterday in a new shake-up that follows the overhaul of the military high command last month.

Mr Zelensky, speaking later in his nightly video address, said Oleksiy Danilov was being transferred to new duties, with details to be made public later.

The Ukrainian president did not provide a reason for the reshuffle as his presidential website showed a series of plainly worded decrees.

Danilov, the outgoing secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, had held his position since October 2019, just months after Mr Zelensky took office.

Mr Zelensky said he expected “a strengthening of our state’s strategic capabilities to forecast and influence the processes upon which our national security depends.

“The strengthening of Ukraine and the renewal of our state system in all sectors will continue.”

Mr Zelensky appointed Oleksandr Lytvynenko, 51, head of the foreign intelligence service, who has no public profile whatsoever, to head the council.