Foreign

Protests and vigils have been held near Russian embassies in many countries following the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian jail

More than 100 street protesters were detained in Russian cities, reports say, as people were warned not to rally

The 47-year-old outspoken critic of President Putin had been in a Russian jail since 2021 on politically-motivated charges

The Russian prison service announced on Friday that he had died, although this has not been confirmed by his family.

US President Joe Biden says Vladimir Putin is “responsible” for Navalny’s death.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaking at the Munich Security Conference described Russian President Vladimir Putin as a man who maintains power through corruption and violence.

Zelensky accused Putin of trying to send the world a “clear message” on the day the Munich Security Conference opened.

The Ukrainian president called on attendees of the conference to “work together to destroy what [Putin] stands for”.

“It is his fate to lose, not the fate of the rules-based world order to vanish.”

In August, Navalny was found guilty of founding and funding an extremist organisation, which he denies, and was given an extra 19 years in jail

He had already been sentenced to nine years for parole violations, fraud and contempt of court.

Meanwhile, across Russia, the authorities have been scooping up flowers and tributes left to Alexei Navalny, to ensure there is no public sign of the extent of support for Vladimir Putin’s biggest rival.

In Moscow, a video showed what looked like men in dark tops, with their hoods raised, moving in to clear the many tributes laid at the Solovetsky Stone, a monument to the victims of political repression in Stalin’s time.

The carnations and roses had been piled high on and around the stone – and at another monument in St Petersburg – as a stream of Navalny’s supporters turned out to remember him. Some left photos of the politician, and small notes of protest and defiance.

The video from Moscow showed police blocking access to the site, while the shrine was removed.

There were similar reports from memorials across Russia.

Men in civilian clothing, again with their hoods up, also removed tributes left on the bridge near the Kremlin where the opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was murdered in February 2015. Again, police stood by and watched.

The authorities don’t want any focal points for protest.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels and also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

A Russian tanker with 11 crew members has been hit in a Ukrainian attack in the Black Sea, Russian officials say.

They said the vessel’s engine room was damaged in the overnight strike in the Kerch Strait. No-one was hurt.

Ukraine has not publicly commented. But a Ukrainian security service source told the BBC a sea drone had been used.

Saturday’s attack is the second in as many days involving such weapons. Russia, however, has not admitted any damage during Friday’s attack.

Naval drones, or sea drones, are small, unmanned vessels which operate on or below the water’s surface. Research by BBC Verify suggests Ukraine has carried out several attacks with sea drones.

The Kerch Strait connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, separating Crimea – Ukraine’s peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 – and Russia’s Taman peninsula.

According to Ukraine’s SBU security service, Saturday’s operation was also conducted jointly with the Ukrainian navy and that 450kg of TNT explosive had been used.

The tanker was loaded with fuel, they said so the “fireworks” were visible from afar.

Russia’s maritime transport agency says the Sig tanker was located 17 miles (27km) south of the Crimean Bridge.

Russia’s state-run Tass news agency quoted an official from the country’s regional Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) as saying that two tugs had already arrived at the scene of the attack – just to the south of the Kerch Strait.

“The engine room was damaged. Not much, but it was damaged,” the official said.

Russia’s maritime transport agency RosMorRechFlot later said the vessel had a hole “in the area of [the] engine room near the waterline from the starboard side, presumably as a result of an attack by a sea drone”.

“The ship is afloat,” it added.

Russian state-run media also reported that lights on the Crimean Bridge – further north – was turned off and all traffic halted amid warnings of an imminent attack.

On Friday, a Russian naval ship suffered a serious breach in a Ukrainian naval drone strike near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, Ukrainian security sources told the BBC.

Footage later emerged purportedly showing the drone hitting the Olenegorsky Gornyak large landing ship. Another unverified video showed a heavily listing vessel being towed to port.

But Russia’s defence ministry said it had repelled a Ukrainian attack on its naval base in Novorossiysk which involved two sea drones, but did not admit any damage.

Novorossiysk, a major hub for Russian exports, lies to the south-east of the Kerch Strait.

Clashes in the sea have increased in recent weeks, after Russia abandoned a major UN deal that enabled grain to be safely exported across the Black Sea.

Ukrainian ports have been pummelled by Russian drones and missiles, and Kyiv has threatened to retaliate.

“It is clear that it is impossible to win the war if you are not actively attacking,” said Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, when asked about Western allies who may be becoming nervous about this war spilling well beyond its borders.

He believes the apparent images of damaged Russian vessels will make Moscow “think twice about using the Black Sea for blackmail”.

While Kyiv denies drone strikes deeper inside Russia, it says it sees threats on occupied territories and surrounding waters as fair game.

Russia enjoys complete control of the Black Sea and Sea of Azov and two reportedly damaged ships are unlikely to change that.

But previous Ukrainian counter-offensives have been fuelled by their ability to cut off major Russian supply lines.

If it has indeed been able to immobilise a large Russian warship and oil tanker in two days, it will hope more will follow.

This war’s footprint seems to be getting bigger.

In a separate development, Saudi Arabia is due to host talks later on Saturday on how to end the war in Ukraine.

Invitations have been sent to about 30 countries – but not Russia – to attend the meeting in the Red Sea city of Jeddah.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he does not reject the idea of peace talks on Ukraine.

Speaking after meeting African leaders in St Petersburg, he said African and Chinese initiatives could serve as a basis for finding peace.

President Putin also said it was hard to implement a ceasefire when the Ukrainian army was on the offensive.

Ukraine and Russia have previously said they will not come to the negotiating table without certain preconditions.

Kyiv says it will not concede any territory but Moscow says Kyiv must accept its country’s “new territorial reality”. Russia invaded its neighbour last year and is occupying territory in the country’s south and east.

Mr Putin told the late-night press conference on Saturday that there were no plans to intensify action on the Ukrainian front for now.

He also defended the arrest of critical voices, claiming some people were harming Russia from inside.

Criticism of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is outlawed and most prominent opposition members are behind bars or in exile.

In the wide-ranging briefing, the Russian president also told reporters that Moscow carried out some “preventive strikes” after an explosion on a Crimean bridge earlier this month.

Following the bridge incident – which left two people dead – Mr Putin vowed to respond to what he claimed was a “terrorist” act by Ukraine. Kyiv did not officially say it was responsible for the blast on the bridge, which links the occupied peninsula to Russia.

The Russia-Africa summit comes after an African contingent including leaders and representatives from seven countries met Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr Putin last month.

In the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, one person was killed and five others injured after a rocket attack, the country’s interior ministry said.

The ministry said on Telegram that a Russian missile hit an educational institution on Saturday evening. The BBC has not verified this information.

Elsewhere, two people were killed and another was injured after a missile hit “an open area” in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia on Saturday, an official said.

Anatoliy Kurtiev, secretary of the city council, said the blast wave caused by the “enemy missile” blew out apartment windows and damaged an educational institution and supermarket.

Russia said two office blocks were damaged in a drone attack on Moscow in the early hours of Sunday.

The city’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no one was injured in the attack, which he blamed on Ukraine.

The airspace over Moscow was temporarily closed but Vnukovo Airport has since reopened.

President Zelensky has been visiting Ukrainian special forces near Bakhmut, the city where some of the fiercest fighting of the war has been taking place.

Ukrainian authorities have said Kyiv’s troops are gradually moving forward near the eastern city, which Russian forces seized in May.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

The war in Ukraine must end, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa has told Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin.

Mr Ramaphosa’s remarks came as he met Mr Putin in St Petersburg on Saturday as part of a peace mission with six other African countries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the delegation on Friday that he would not enter talks with Russia while they occupied Ukrainian land.

Mr Putin told the African leaders Ukraine had always refused talks.

At the meeting in St Petersburg, Mr Ramaphosa also called for both parties to return their prisoners of war, and said children removed by Russia should be returned home.

Mr Putin has been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court over the forced removal of hundreds of Ukrainian children from their families during Russia’s occupation of Ukraine.

As the African delegation called for the return of children to their families, Mr Putin interrupted their speech and claimed Russia was protecting them.

“Children are sacred. We moved them out of the conflict zone, saving their lives and health”, he said. The UN said they have evidence of the illegal transfer of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Mr Ramaphosa also warned Mr Putin of the impacts of the war on Africa, and said it should be settled by diplomacy.

“The war cannot go on forever. All wars have to be settled and come to an end at some stage,” he said. “And we are here to communicate a very clear message that we would like this war to be ended.”

The war has severely restricted the export of grain from Ukraine and fertiliser from Russia, which has affected African countries in particular and intensified global food insecurity.

But Mr Putin blamed the West for the grain crisis – not the war in Ukraine – as he said only 3% of the grain exports permitted under a UN-sponsored deal to ensure its safe passage through the Black Sea had gone to the world’s poorest countries.

Russia has repeatedly complained that Western sanctions are restricting its own agricultural exports. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there were “no grounds for extending” the grain deal, because “so far what we were promised has not been done”.

Mr Putin praised what he described as Africa’s balanced position on the war, which Russia continues to call a “special military operation”.

The African delegation, made up of representatives from South Africa, Egypt, Senegal, Congo-Brazzaville, Comoros, Zambia, and Uganda has been specifically designed for breadth and balance, with members from different parts of Africa with different views on the conflict.

South Africa and Uganda are seen as leaning towards Russia, while Zambia and Comoros are closer to the West. Egypt, Senegal and Congo-Brazzaville have remained largely neutral.

African countries have primarily seen the conflict a confrontation between Russia and the West.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

 Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

News

South Africa’s Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor has said the government will have to discuss the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Russian President Vladimir Putin before considering any action.

Mr Putin is scheduled to travel to South Africa for the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit in August.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) on 17 March issued an arrest warrant against Mr Putin over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

As a signatory to the Rome Statute, South Africa is legally bound to detain Mr Putin and bring him to trial.

Ms Pandor said the South African authorities will first consult with the Russian side regarding the warrant.

“South Africa will have to look at existing provisions of our legislation. We also will have to have a discussion as cabinet, as well as with our colleagues in Russia, and really determine the way forward,” Ms Pandor told state-run SABC News

South Africa enjoys tight relations with Moscow in spite of Western condemnations.

In 2015, the South African government was criticised for letting then Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir leave the country despite an ICC arrest warrant.

Mr Bashir had gone to South Africa for an African Union summit and the government argued he enjoyed diplomatic immunity.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

The US has urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to press Vladimir Putin on ceasing the “war crimes” being carried out by Russia in Ukraine.

The two will meet again on Tuesday for official talks during Mr Xi’s first visit to Moscow since the invasion.

The White House’s National Security Council spokesman called on Mr Xi to urge his Russian counterpart to withdraw troops from Ukraine.

John Kirby said seeking a ceasefire would not be enough.

“We hope that President Xi will press President Putin to cease bombing Ukrainian cities, hospitals and schools, to halt the war crimes and atrocities and to withdraw his troops,” he said.

“But we are concerned that instead, China will reiterate calls for a ceasefire that leaves Russian forces inside Ukraine’s sovereign territory and any ceasefire that does not address the removal of Russian forces from Ukraine would effectively ratify Russia’s illegal conquests.”

Mr Putin has said he will discuss a 12-point plan proposed by Mr Xi to “settle the acute crisis in Ukraine”.

“We’re always open for a negotiation process,” Mr Putin said, as the leaders called each other “dear friend”.

China released its plan to end the war last month – it includes “ceasing hostilities” and resuming peace talks.

China’s plan did not specifically say that Russia must withdraw from Ukraine – which Ukraine has insisted as a precondition for any talks.

Instead, it talked of “respecting the sovereignty of all countries”, adding that “all parties must stay rational and exercise restraint” and “gradually de-escalate the situation”.

The plan also condemned the usage of “unilateral sanctions” – seen as a veiled criticism of Ukraine’s allies in the West.

On Monday, a military band gave Mr Xi a warm welcome to Moscow at the start of the three-day visit. Mr Putin hailed China for “observing the principles of justice” and pushing for “undivided security for every country”.

He added that China had made” a tremendous leap forward in its development” in recent years, remarking: “We even feel a bit envious.”

In return, Mr Xi told Mr Putin: “Under your strong leadership, Russia has made great strides in its prosperous development. I am confident that the Russian people will continue to give you their firm support.”

Before Mr Xi’s arrival, Mr Putin wrote in China’s People’s Daily newspaper that the two nations would not be weakened by “aggressive” US policy.

Ukrainian leaders have been publicly emphasising the common ground they have with China – respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity – but privately, they have been lobbying for a meeting or telephone call between President Volodymyr Zelensky and Mr Xi.

This was echoed by Mr Kirby, the US security spokesman, who urged Mr Xi “to play a constructive role” in the effort to end the conflict by speaking with Mr Zelensky.

The fear in Kyiv is that China’s support for Russia – currently based around technology and trade – might become military, potentially including artillery shells.

Russia is a source of oil for Beijing’s huge economy and is seen as a partner in standing up to the US.

In another development, Japan has announced that its Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, will visit Kyiv on Tuesday for talks with President Zelensky. He is expected to voice solidarity and support for Ukraine following Russia’s invasion.

Mr Xi’s visit to Moscow comes days after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the Russian president over war crime allegations. This means Mr Putin could technically be arrested in 123 countries – though neither China nor Russia is on that list.

Western leaders have been attempting since last February to isolate Russia, following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But they have been unable to establish a global consensus, with China, India and several African nations reluctant to condemn Mr Putin.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTubeChannels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

US President Joe Biden has welcomed the International Criminal Court’s issuing of an arrest warrant against his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The ICC accused President Putin of committing war crimes in Ukraine – something President Biden said the Russian leader had “clearly” done.

The claims focus on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia since Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

Moscow has denied the allegations and denounced the warrants as “outrageous”.

It is highly unlikely that much will come of the move, as the ICC has no powers to arrest suspects without the co-operation of a country’s government.

Russia is not an ICC member country, meaning the court, located in The Hague, has no authority there.

However, it could affect Mr Putin in other ways, such as being unable to travel internationally. He could now be arrested if he sets foot in any of the court’s 123 member states.

Mr Putin is only the third president to be issued with an ICC arrest warrant.

President Biden said that, while the court also held no sway in the US, the issuing of the warrant “makes a very strong point”.

“He’s clearly committed war crimes,” he told reporters.

His administration had earlier “formally determined” that Russia had committed war crimes during the conflict in Ukraine, with Vice-President Kamala Harris saying in February that those involved would “be held to account”.

The United Nations also released a report earlier this week that found Moscow’s forced removal of Ukrainian children to areas under its control amounted to a war crime.

In a statement on Friday, the ICC said it had reasonable grounds to believe Mr Putin committed the criminal acts directly, as well as working with others. It also accused him of failing to use his presidential powers to stop children being deported.

Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, is also wanted by the ICC for the same crimes.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan has said the warrants were “based upon forensic evidence, scrutiny and what’s been said by those two individuals”.

The court had initially considered keeping the arrest warrants a secret, but decided to make them public to try and stop further crimes being committed.

“Children can’t be treated as the spoils of war, they can’t be deported,” Mr Khan told the BBC.

“This type of crime doesn’t need one to be a lawyer, one needs to be a human being to know how egregious it is.”

Mr Khan also pointed out that nobody thought that Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader who went on trial for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, would end up in The Hague to face justice.

“Those that feel that you can commit a crime in the daytime, and sleep well at night, should perhaps look at history,” Mr Khan said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said any of the court’s decisions were “null and void” and former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev compared the warrant to toilet paper.

Russian opposition activists have welcomed the announcement. Ivan Zhdanov, a close ally of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has tweeted that it was “a symbolic step” but an important one.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his thanks to Mr Khan and the ICC for their decision to press charges against “state evil”.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram and YouTube Channels also join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

The risk of a nuclear “Armageddon” is at its highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, US President Joe Biden has said.

Mr Biden said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was “not joking” when he spoke of using tactical nuclear weapons after suffering setbacks in Ukraine.

The US was “trying to figure out” Mr Putin’s way out of the war, he added.

The US and the EU have previously said Mr Putin’s nuclear sabre-rattling should be taken seriously.

However, the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan last week said that, despite Moscow’s nuclear hints, the US had seen no signs that Russia was imminently preparing to use a nuclear weapon.

Ukraine has been retaking territory occupied by Russia, including in the four regions Russia illegally annexed recently.

For several months US officials have been warning that Russia could resort to the use of weapons of mass destruction if it suffers setbacks on the battlefield.

President Biden said the reason the Russian leader had not been “not joking” when he talked about using tactical nuclear, biological or chemical weapons – “because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming”.

“For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, we have a direct threat to the use of nuclear weapons, if in fact, things continue down the path they’d been going,” Mr Biden told fellow Democrats.

“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis.”

In 1962, the US and the Soviet Union – under President John F Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev – came close to a nuclear showdown over the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons in Cuba.

The confrontation is considered by many experts to be the closest the world has ever come to full-scale nuclear war.

During a speech last Friday, President Putin said the US had created a “precedent” by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War Two – a comment that would not have gone unnoticed by Western governments, our Russia editor Steve Rosenberg points out.

Mr Putin has also threatened to use every means at his disposal to protect Russian territory.

Even as Mr Putin signed the final papers formally annexing four regions of Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – Kyiv’s forces were advancing inside those areas he had claimed.

Hundreds of thousands of men have been fleeing Russia rather than wait to be drafted to fight in Ukraine.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously dismissed Moscow’s nuclear threats as a “constant narrative of Russian officials and propagandists”.

Paul Stronski, of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the BBC that Russia’s “destabilising rhetoric” is aimed at deterring the West.

There has also been some pushback against Moscow’s nuclear threats in Russia itself. An editorial in the country’s mainstream Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper was heavily critical of “senior Russian officials” for “talking about the nuclear button”.

“To allow, in thoughts and words, the possibility of a nuclear conflict is a sure step to allowing it in reality.”

Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters on Thursday that Moscow had not changed its position that nuclear war “must never be waged”.

Mr Biden’s comments came at the New York home of James Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, during a Democratic fundraising event.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Subscribe to our Telegram Channel and join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

President Joe Biden has warned Russia that the United States will not be intimidated by reckless threats after Vladimir Putin declared the annexation of four occupied regions of Ukraine.

On Friday, President Putin appeared to make a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons to defend those regions.

He said they would “forever” be Russian – but Ukraine vowed to liberate them.

Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the Russian move was “the most serious escalation since the start of the war”.

In a speech in Moscow, the Russian leader claimed citizens in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south had voted to be “with their people, their motherland”.

He was referring to so-called referendums held in the regions in recent days, but Ukraine and Western governments have condemned the votes as a sham.

Much of Mr Putin’s speech was used to rail at the West.

He said the US had created a “precedent” by using nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of World War Two, in an apparent threat.

Mr Putin last week said his country had “various weapons of destruction” and would “use all the means available to us”, adding: “I’m not bluffing.”

The Kremlin has made clear that any attack on the regions claimed by Russia would be seen as an attack on Russian soil, signalling an escalation in the war.

Russia does not fully control any of the four regions, and in his speech Mr Putin did not clear define the borders.

President Biden called out his Russian counterpart’s “reckless words and threats”, but added that Mr Putin was “not going to scare us”.

“America and its allies are not going to be intimidated,” President Biden said at the White House.

He then addressed the Russian president directly, pointing his finger into the camera.

“America’s fully prepared, with our Nato allies, to defend every single inch of Nato territory,” he said, in reference to the Western security bloc.

“Mr Putin, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying: every inch.”

Shortly after, Mr Biden’s top national security official said while there was a chance of Moscow resorting to nuclear weapons, there did not appear to be an imminent threat.

Ukraine launched a new, fast-track bid to join Nato soon after Mr Putin’s speech.

After a crisis meeting of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had long been a “de facto” member of the security bloc and accused Moscow of redrawing borders “using murder, blackmail, mistreatment and lies”.

Mr Zelensky vowed to liberate all Ukrainian territories, including Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. And he also ruled out any further negotiations with Mr Putin.

Meanwhile, Mr Stoltenberg of Nato was reluctant to be drawn on the bid, saying the decision rested with the bloc’s 30 members.

The alliance’s members “do not and will not” recognise any of the annexed territories as part of Russia, Mr Stoltenberg told reporters, accusing Mr Putin of “irresponsible nuclear sabre-rattling”.

He called the annexation a “pivotal moment” in the war.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “the illegal annexation proclaimed by Putin won’t change anything”.

“All territories illegally occupied by Russian invaders are Ukrainian land and will always be part of this sovereign nation.”

Turkey described the Russian move as a “grave violation” of international law.

South Korea said it did not recognise the attempted annexations, adding that Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial security and independence must be protected.

As Mr Putin spoke in Moscow, 750km (466 miles) to the south, his forces were being surrounded by Ukrainian troops in Lyman, a strategically important town in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Ukraine’s military has been keen to conceal the pace of its troops’ advance in the area, but one video on social media appeared to show Kyiv’s forces in the centre of Yampil, just 16km (9 miles) southeast of Lyman.

And late on Friday night, Kyiv’s defence ministry said it had taken the village of Drobysheve, 8km (4 miles) north-west of Lyman.

Elsewhere, Ukraine reported on Saturday morning that the director of Zaporizhzhia’s nuclear power plant – Europe’s biggest – has been detained by Russians and taken “in an unknown direction”. Russia occupied the plant shortly after launching its invasion on 24 February.

This comes just hours after Ukraine accused Russia of killing 30 people in a rocket strike on a civilian convoy in the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Russia blamed Ukraine for that attack – one of the deadliest in recent weeks.

In another development on Friday, Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution which would have condemned its annexation of the four occupied regions. Moscow’s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzia, complained that it was unprecedented to seek the condemnation of a permanent member of the body.

While the Kremlin’s blocking of the motion was anticipated, both India and China abstained.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodvon

Subscribe to our Telegram Channel and join our Whatsapp Update Group

Foreign

Dozens of people are feared dead after a bomb hit a school in east Ukraine, where government forces are battling Russian troops and separatists.

Luhansk region’s governor, Serhiy Gaidai, confirmed two deaths, saying 60 people were feared dead under the rubble of the school in Bilohorivka.

About 90 people had been sheltering in the building and 30 were rescued, seven of them wounded, he added.

Mr Gaidai said a Russian plane had dropped the bomb on Saturday.

His accusation could not be verified independently and there was no immediate response from Russia.

Luhansk has seen fierce combat as Russian troops and separatist fighters seek to surround government forces, just over two months since the start of the Russian invasion.

Bilohorivka is close to the government-held city of Severodonetsk, where heavy fighting was reported in the suburbs on Saturday.

The blast brought down the building which caught fire and it took firefighters three hours to extinguish the blaze, according to the governor, writing on Telegram.

He said almost the entire village had been sheltering in the basement of the school.

The final death toll would only be known when the rubble had been cleared, the governor said.

Since the invasion began on 24 February, the UN has recorded at least 2,345 civilian deaths and 2,919 injured in Ukraine, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in an update last month. Thousands of combatants are also believed to have been killed or injured on both sides.

More than 12 million people are said to have fled their homes since the conflict began, with 5.7 million leaving for neighbouring countries and another 6.5 million people thought to be displaced inside the war-torn country itself.

Much of Luhansk, which is part of the Donbas region, has been under the control of the separatists for the past eight years.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Foreign

Defenders of the besieged city of Mariupol will fight to the end against Russian forces, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal says.

The port city has not fallen despite an ultimatum from Moscow to remaining fighters to give up, he said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia has chosen to raze Mariupol to the ground.

Local officials said Russian forces have announced they will stop anyone from entering or leaving the city.

Capturing the whole of the city is seen as a major strategic prize for Russia, leaving it in control of a vast swathe of southern and eastern Ukraine.

An advisor to the mayor of Mariupol said residents would be forced to queue for a pass to enable them to move between districts and some could have their phones confiscated or be taken against their will to Russia.

In an interview with the US network ABC, Mr Shmyhal said a Russian deadline for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to surrender by Sunday had been ignored.

“The city still has not fallen,” he said. “There is still our military forces, our soldiers, so they will fight until the end. And as for now, they still are in Mariupol.”

Russia’s military says it controls almost all of Mariupol, while Ukraine’s Azov Battalion is still holding out in Azovstal, a huge steelworks overlooking the Azov Sea.

Justin Crump, a military expert at security consultancy Sybilline, told the BBC there could be 500-800 Ukrainian troops holding out in the city.

“[The steelworks] have nuclear bunkers, tunnels, it’s built to survive a nuclear conflict – they are really well set for defence,” he said.

“They have had more than 50 days to fortify it and build escape routes,” Mr Crump added. “I suspect that unless they are wiped out they’ll be there a long time. It’s credible there would be guerrilla resistance.”

Ukraine has demanded that Russian forces open humanitarian corridors from Mariupol to allow civilians and wounded Ukrainian troops to leave, but no large-scale evacuations have taken place for several weeks.

The situation for civilians in the city is desperate, with homes destroyed and widespread water shortages.

As Mariupol defenders continue to hold out, Ukrainian officials still deny any possibility of territorial concessions to Russia.

In an interview broadcast on Sunday by CNN, President Volodymyr Zelensky brushed aside the idea of letting Moscow take over parts of eastern Ukraine to stop the conflict.

“Ukraine and its people are clear. We have no claim to anyone else’s territories but we are not going to give up ours,” he said.

Meanwhile, authorities in the western city of Lviv said six people were killed in rocket strikes on Monday morning.

It is not yet clear what the strikes were targeting. In recent weeks, Russia has focused its offensive on eastern Ukraine.

In other developments:

  • Ukraine says five people died after Russia shelled Kharkiv on Sunday, and another two were killed in the town of Zolote in the Luhansk region, where residents have been told to leave
  • In Mykolaiv in the south – where fighters have been holding off a Russian advance on the port of Odesa – the governor said there had been continuous rocket attacks
  • Russian and Belarusian lorries are queuing to return home via the Polish-Belarusian border after an EU deadline banning them from its territory passed
  • Russian officials confirmed the death of Major-General Vladimir Frolov, deputy commander of the 8th Army, the latest of several senior officers to die in the conflict
  • In his Easter Sunday address, Pope Francis called for peace in Ukraine, saying “the flexing of muscle while people are suffering” had to end

              BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

Foreign

In a bid to avert a feared Russian invasion of Ukraine, French President, Emmanuel Macron will meet Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Monday afternoon.

The French leader said the meeting was aimed at dialoguing with Russia to reduce escalating tension.

Macron had said “it is essential to prevent a degradation of the situation” and that it is legitimate for Russia to raise security concerns.

“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” Macron said on Sunday.

France has played a central role in attempting to mediate between Kyiv and Moscow in the past. Alongside Germany.

 It helped broker a 2015 peace deal for Eastern Ukraine to end hostilities between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists that erupted the previous year following Moscow’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

.Putin and his officials have urged France, Germany and other Western allies to encourage Ukraine to fulfill its obligations under the 2015 agreement, which envisaged a broad autonomy for the rebel-held east and a sweeping amnesty for the separatists.

The agreement stipulated that only after those conditions are met would Ukraine be able to restore control of its border with Russia in rebel regions.

But many in Ukraine see the Minsk deal as a betrayal of national interests and authorities have strongly warned the West against pressuring Kyiv to implement the agreement amid the current tensions.

 Mnt/ Jeffery Ahonmisin