Russia Ukraine war latest update: Putin to visit Iran amid reports it could supply drones

Russian soldiers invading Ukraine do not possess the strategic strength of what they are doing in the besieged country, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Tuesday.

“139 days of such a war, almost 20 weeks… The so-called second army of the world is afraid of Ukrainians and is able to do something only on the basis of bottomless stocks of old Soviet weapons,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.

He added: “They no longer have strategic strength, character, or understanding of what they are doing here on our land. They also don’t have even an iota of courage to admit defeat and withdraw troops from Ukrainian territory.”

Mr Zelensky said that the occupiers have “already felt very well what modern artillery is, and they will not have a safe rear anywhere on our land, which they occupied”.

“They have felt that the operations of our reconnaissance officers to protect their Homeland are much more powerful than any of their “special operations”.

Russian soldiers – and we know this from interceptions of their conversations – are truly afraid of our Armed Forces,” he said.

After getting fired by CNN, news anchor Chris Cuomo is now reporting live from Ukraine, visuals from his social media show.

Mr Cuomo was sacked by the television channel in the wake of revelations that he advised his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, through a sexual misconduct scandal.

He took to his Instagram page on Monday night and shared eight short segments of video showing the position and state of Ukrainian soldiers, weapons, and stored grain, along with interviews with Ukrainian military personnel.

In his caption, Mr Cuomo compared the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to World War II.

“Shelling is destroying homes, schools, adults kids…often with banned weapons say Ukrainians, showing us cluster bombs and describing mines that are tearing through young and old,” Mr Cuomo wrote.

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Volodymyr Zelensky shared the operational update from the ongoing war in Ukraine and said that the Russian shelling has not stopped even for a day since 24 February.

“Every day we receive and experience a lot of painful news. The war continues, Russian shelling does not stop for a single day. Today there were regular strikes at Mykolaiv – missiles, artillery,” Mr Zelensky said.

He added that the Russian soldiers have again hit Kharkiv and the communities of the region – Staryi Saltiv, Zolochiv, Bayrak and others. “There are victims – wounded and killed. In Donbas, offensive attempts do not stop, the situation there does not get easier, and the losses do not get smaller. We must remember this. We must see this, draw attention to this,” the Ukrainian president said.

Mr Zelensky added: “And it should also be remembered that even in such conditions, the state takes steps forward – in cooperation with partners – in institutional development. And, of course, on the frontline.”

A group representing the Ukrainian diaspora said it was seeking a judicial review of the Canadian government’s decision to return a repaired turbine to Germany that is needed for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

The Canadian government on Saturday said it was issuing a “time-limited and revocable permit” to exempt the return of turbines from its Russian sanctions as Europe seeks continued energy flows until it can end its dependency on Russian gas.

Ukraine’s energy and foreign ministries said on Sunday the decision amounted to adjusting sanctions imposed on Moscow “to the whims of Russia” and called for it to be reversed.

Russia last month cited the delayed return of the turbine, which Germany’s Siemens Energy has been servicing in Canada, as the reason behind its reduction of flows to 40% of capacity through the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany.

“This exemption to the sanctions regime against Russia is totally unacceptable,” the Ukrainian World Congress said in a statement. “There are real alternatives to Germany’s gas needs, including buying through Ukraine’s pipeline.”

The Ukrainian World Congress said it had filed a notice of application for judicial review to the Federal Court and was requesting “a declaration that the decision to provide a permit to Siemens was unreasonable and unauthorized and an order quashing the permit.”

Chris Cuomo, the news anchor fired last year by CNN in the wake of revelations that he advised his brother, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, through a sexual misconduct scandal, is now reporting live from Ukraine.

Mr Cuomo posted a report to his Instagram page on Monday night that included eight short segments of video showing the position and state of Ukrainian soldiers, weapons, and stored grain, along with interviews with Ukrainian military personnel.

In his caption, Mr Cuomo compared the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to World War II.

Click here for the full story.

The European Union has so far frozen 13.8 billion euros ($13.83 billion) worth of assets held by Russian oligarchs, other individuals and entities sanctioned for Moscow’s war against Ukraine, the bloc’s top justice official said.

Military delegations from Ukraine, Russia and Turkey will meet UN officials in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss a possible deal to resume safe exports of Ukraine grain from the major Black Sea port of Odesa as a global food crisis worsens.

More than 20 million tonnes of grain are currently stuck in silos in Odesa.

“The occupiers have already felt what modern artillery is like, and their rear will not be safe anywhere on our land that they have occupied,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.

“They have felt that the operations of our intelligence officers for defending their homeland are of a magnitude stronger than any of their special operations.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian shelling over the past 24 hours killed at least 16 civilians and wounded 48 more, Ukraine’s presidential office said in its Tuesday morning update.

Cities and towns in five southeast regions came under Russian fire, the office said.

Nine civilians were killed and two more wounded in Donetsk province, which makes up half of the Donbas.

Russian rocket attacks targeted the cities of Sloviansk and Toretsk, where a kindergarten was hit, the presidential office said.

The British military said Tuesday that Russia was continuing to make “small, incremental gains” in Donetsk, where heavy fighting led the province’s governor last week to urge its 350,000 remaining residents to move to safer places in western Ukraine.

The death toll from a Russian rocket attack that struck a Donetsk apartment building Saturday rose to 41, the emergency services agency said Tuesday afternoon.

It said four more bodies were found and nine people were rescued from the rubble of the building in Chasiv Yar.

Yet many in the Donbas, a fertile industrial region in eastern Ukraine consisting of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces, refuse — or are unable — to flee, despite scores of civilians being killed and wounded each week.

In northeaster Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and its surrounding region, Russian strikes hit residential buildings, killing four civilians and wounding nine, Ukrainian officials said.

“The Russians continue their tactics of intimidating the peaceful population of the Kharkiv region,” Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote Tuesday on Telegram.

The Ukrainian military has reported destroying a Russian ammunition depot in southern Ukraine, resulting in a massive explosion captured on social media.

An overnight rocket strike targeted the depot in Russian-held Nova Kakhovka, the Ukrainian military’s southern command said. Nova Kakhovka is about 35 miles east of the Black Sea port city of Kherson, which is also occupied by Russian forces.

The precision of the strike suggested Ukrainian forces used US-supplied multiple-launch High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS. Ukraine indicated in recent days that it might launch a counteroffensive to reclaim territory in the south as Russia bombards the eastern Donbas region.

Russia’s Tass news agency offered a different account of the blast in Nova Kakhovka, saying that a mineral fertilizer storage facility exploded and that a market, hospital and houses were damaged. Some of the ingredients in fertilizer can be used for ammunition.

A satellite photo taken Tuesday and analyzed by The Associated Press showed significant damage. A huge crater gaped precisely where a large warehouse-like structure once stood.

Ukraine now has eight of the HIMAR systems, a truck-mounted missile launcher with high accuracy, and Washington has promised to send four more.

Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry said 16 ships had passed through the Danube’s newly-reopened Bystre rivermouth in the last four days and that the opening up of the Bystre was an important step towards speeding up grain exports.

Ukraine was also negotiating with Romanian colleagues and European Commission representatives about increasing crossings through the Sulina canal, Yuriy Vaskov, deputy infrastructure minister, said in the statement.

Under such conditions, and with access to the Bystre route, Vaskov added, Ukraine expected congestion to be cleared within a week “and we will be able to increase the monthly export of grain by 500,000 tonnes.”

Russian prosecutors have brought criminal charges against another opposition figure who has criticized the country’s military campaign in Ukraine. Ilya Yashin was due to be released after spending 15 days in jail on charges of failing to obey police.

Instead, Yashin was charged under a new law making it a crime to spread false information about the military, said his lawyer, Vadim Prokhorov. It carries a potential sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors were searching Yashin’s Moscow home on Tuesday evening, Prokhorov said on Facebook.

Russia has cracked down on those who criticism what it calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Vladimir Kara-Muza, a well-known opposition figure, was arrested in April and charged under the same law.