Ukraine-Russia war – live: Macron condemns ‘cowardly’ Putin attack killing two French aid workers

France’s president Emmanuel Macron has condemned a “cowardly and outrageous” alleged Russian strike which killed two French aid workers in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

The strike in the town of Beryslav was followed by an airstrike in the city of Kherson on Friday which local officials said injured two civilians and partially destroyed a three-storey residential building – as Russian drones struck president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine.

A Polish union has announced plans to shut border crossings with Ukraine, while farmers blocked the Dutch-Belgian border and occupied roads in Greece, as European protests over prices and red tape spread.

Protests have erupted in several countries, exposing anger about low prices for produce, rising costs, cheap imports and constraints imposed by the EU’s drive to fight climate change.

Polish farmers’ union Solidarity today announced a general strike starting on next Friday with a blockade of border crossings between Poland and Ukraine. “Our patience has run out,” the union said, referring to the import of Ukrainian produce.

Polish media reported that German farmers, supported by Polish farmers, were blocking parts of the border with Poland.

Russia’s Justice Ministry has designated Oleg Orlov, a veteran Russian human rights campaigner, a “foreign agent”, the ministry said on Friday.

The foreign agent designation requires that people and entities on the list place a disclaimer on items they publish and imposes strict financial reporting and self-disclosure requirements.

Orlov, 70, has been for more than two decades one of the leaders of the Memorial human rights group, which won a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 — a year after it was banned and dissolved in Russia.

Orlov is fighting charges of “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces. In October he was fined in a case based on an article in which he wrote that Russia under President Vladimir Putin had descended into fascism.

He appealed against that verdict and prosecutors then sought a three-year jail sentence, accusing him of “political hatred of Russia”, something he denies.

In December, a Moscow court ordered a retrial in Orlov’s case on a legal technicality after prosecutors shifted their position.

The UN’s top court has ruled that it will hear a case in which Ukraine has asked it to declare its forces did not commit genocide in eastern Ukraine – claims used by Vladimir Putin as pretext for his invasion.

In the highly-charged case, Kyiv says Moscow breached a 1948 convention by using trumped-up claims of genocide in the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk. Ukraine also accuses Moscow of “planning acts of genocide.”

Ukraine brought the case to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) days after 24 February 2022, when the full-scale invasion began. The court already issued emergency measures in March 2022 in this case ordering Russia to immediately halt its war in Ukraine.

As the drumbeat of war continues across the Middle East, with clashes in multiple countries raising fears of a wider conflict, the mercenaries of Russia’s Wagner Group are once again getting back to action.

The snowy fastness of Ukraine has been replaced by the sand and savanna of Africa. There is a new banner to fight under – Africa Corps, a name echoing Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s German Afrika Korps which took part in the momentous campaign against British and allied forces in Libya in the Second World War.

Ukraine is facing a crucial year as it battles Russia’s invasion and if the US fails to pass fresh aid for Kyiv at this critical moment it will be an “own goal of historic proportions”, the CIA director has warned.

“This year is likely to be a tough one on the battlefield in Ukraine,” William Burns said, adding that Kyiv faces a difficult test of its ability to safeguard its sovereignty.

“For the United States to walk away from the conflict at this crucial moment and cut off support to Ukraine would be an own goal of historic proportions,” he wrote in an article for the Foreign Affairs.

French President Emmanuel Macron has criticised Russian military forces for a “cowardly and unworthy” strike on French aid workers operating in Ukraine.

Earlier, we reported that two French humanitarian aid workers were killed in recent Russian drone strikes on the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson. The French foreign ministry said three other aid workers were injured.

“Two French humanitarian workers were killed in Ukraine by a Russian strike,” Mr Macron wrote on X. “Cowardly and unworthy act. I think of their injured loved ones and comrades.”

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne, confirming earlier reports from Kherson officials, said: “Russian barbarity has targeted civilians in Ukraine. Two French aid workers have paid with their lives for their engagement with Ukrainian people, three are injured.”

Russia “will have to answer for its crimes”, he added.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov has suspended a senior official while authorities investigate suspected corruption in the procurement of wepoans, his ministry said on Friday.

Umerov took office last year on a pledge to clean up graft inside the ministry as Ukraine‘s Western partners weighed sending more military aid to Kyiv following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

Toomas Nakhkur, who led the defence ministry’s department for technical policy and weapons development, was suspended after being named an official suspect in an unspecified criminal case, the ministry wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said last week it had uncovered a scheme by current and former officials as well as businessmen to embezzle around $40 million (£32m) by securing advance payment for artillery shells that were never provided.

Mr Umerov’s predecessor was dismissed last September following several corruption scandals at the defence ministry even he had strong relations with Kyiv’s Western allies.

It is clear that the country’s president would like to replace his most popular commander but that is proving more difficult than it looks, writes Askold Krushelnycky. With key Western allies still unable to agree to fresh aid and Russia stepping up both air and ground attacks, the clash has boiled over at a bad time

Russian officials have claimed there are irregularities with anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin’s 100,000 signatures, which are necessary for him to run in the presidential election against Vladimir Putin in March.

The comments, likely untrue, suggest the Kremlin will block Mr Nadezhdin, the only anti-war candidate left, from running in the race.

Mr Nadezhdin this week presented the electoral commission with signatures from more than 100,000 supporters across Russia as part of his bid to get his name on the ballot paper for the March 15-17 election.

But Nikolai Bulayev, deputy chairman of the commission, said some of the purported signatures were those of dead people.

“When we see dozens … of people who are no longer on this earth, and they gave signatures, the question arises about the decency of the ethical standards being applied, including by the person who collected the signature,” he said. “And the candidate to some extent is directly involved in this.”

Nobody expects Nadezhdin, 60, to win even if he is allowed to participate, given Putin’s long dominance and control of the state.

But his campaign has captured people’s attention because of his outright opposition to what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.

The commission will announce next week which candidates have been cleared to run.

You can read more about who Mr Nadezhdin is and why he is trying to challenge Putin below.