Key events
Patrick Wintour
Patrick Wintour, the Guardian diplomatic editor, reports on the thorny issue of corruption in Ukraine:
A fierce debate has broken out in Ukraine over allegations that a clampdown on corruption is being used to frame high profile business advocates of state reform, raising wider doubts about Ukraine’s internal political trajectory – and its ability to absorb billions in European reconstruction funds once the war ends.
The concerns have been expressed to the US Department of State and UK Foreign Office, and are shared in part by Ukrainian anti-corruption campaigners.
The issue is diplomatically sensitive since critics are wary of playing into a Russian narrative that Ukraine is endemically corrupt, or suggesting that anti-corruption institutions, which western allies and Ukrainian civil society played a large part in establishing, have gone off the rails.
Katya Ryzhenko, from Transparency International Ukraine, called for a review of the anti-corruption authority of Ukraine (known by its Ukrainian acronym Nabu).
“It is a good sign that despite being in the middle of a war, Ukraine’s anti-corruption ecosystem is not afraid to go after the big names and to have these cases transparently adjudicated by independent judges.” But, she added “the cases have highlighted serious problems in how Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies operate”.
A former Ukrainian official who was instrumental in campaigning for the establishment of Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies said that officials appeared to be targeting people for corporate governance breaches, rather than overt corruption . “This is a tragedy in which there will be no winners,” the former official said.
Read more of Patrick Wintour’s report here: High stakes for Ukraine as clampdown on corruption comes under scrutiny
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Poland and Ukraine to resume grain transit talks
Poland and Ukraine will resume negotiations early on Tuesday to try to reopen the transit of food and grains, the Polish agriculture minister told public radio station PR1.
The two countries held talks on Monday over bans by central eastern European countries seeking to shelter their farmers from the impact of an influx of cheaper Ukrainian grain.
“We are talking with the EU as well as with Ukraine to find solutions. We want these products to go to Europe, but go deep into Europe,” Reuters reports agriculture minister Robert Telus said.
“We talked yesterday, there were long talks. Today we are also sitting down for talks. These are typically technical talks to find a solution and let this transit go to Europe,” he added.
Some farmers in countries bordering Ukraine have complained that the additional availability of grain that the Ukrainians have not been able to export via sea routes has flooded the European market and depressed prices.
Reuters reports, citing Tass, that Russia’s defence ministry said on Tuesday two Russian strategic bombers – those capable of carrying nuclear warheads – carried out what it described as routine patrol flights over the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea, off Russia’s eastern coast, as part of the military exercises currently being carried out in Russia’s Pacific zone.
On Monday, Japan lodged a protest with Russia over its military activity near the disputed Hokkaido islands.
The exact sequencing of any major drawdown of forces in Bakhmut has become a “critical question” for both sides, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has said in its latest intelligence update.
Ukraine wants “to free-up an offensive force while Russia likely aspires to regenerate an operational reserve,” the update said, adding that Russian forces continue to make “creeping advances” in the devastated eastern city.
It also noted that heavy fighting was continuing along the Donbas front line.
“However, there is a realistic possibility that Russia has reduced troop numbers and is decreasing offensive action around Donetsk city, most likely to divert resources towards the Bakhmut sector.”
Russian news agency Ria has posted footage of Putin’s trip to Ukraine, during which he also visited Russia’s national guard headquarters in the Luhansk region.
The footage shows him arriving by helicopter, before attending a meeting with military officials.
Kherson and Luhansk were among four regions annexed by Russia last year, a move unrecognised by the west.
Russian troops retreated from Kherson, the regional capital, last November, and have been reinforcing their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro river in anticipation of a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
G7 foreign ministers have condemned Russia’s “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric” and its threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus as “unacceptable”, after a three-day meeting in the Japanese resort town of Karuizawa.
“Any use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons by Russia would be met with severe consequences,” they warned.
Russia last month said it had reached an agreement with Belarus to station tactical nuclear weapons on its smaller neighbour’s territory, so bringing some of its arsenal closer to the rest of Europe.
The G7 group also called on Russian ally China “to act as a responsible member of the international community”. Leaked US government documents have revealed that China has approved the provision of weapons to Moscow but wants shipments to remain a secret.
Inspections of ships moving grains from Ukraine have restarted after a pause which threatened to shut down the Black Sea shipping corridor, the RIA news agency cited the Russian foreign ministry as saying on Tuesday.
A ministry official quoted by RIA blamed Monday’s interruption on Ukraine’s failure to observe agreed procedures but said the issue has been resolved, Reuters reported.
Kyiv said on Monday the UN-brokered initiative allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain was in danger of shutting down after Russia blocked inspections of participating ships in Turkish waters.
Pyotr Ilyichyov, head of the international organisations department at Russia’s foreign ministry, told RIA that the passage of grain ships depended both on the weather and on how well they observed the procedures.
It remains unclear if the grain deal, in place since last July, will be renewed, as Russia complains another agreement, aimed at facilitating its own agricultural and fertilizer exports, has not been upheld.
Speaking at a G7 meeting in Japan, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accused Russia of breaking its promises to countries around the world that are dependent on grain that has not been able to get out of Ukraine over the last few days.
Putin attends military meeting in Kherson
Russian president Vladimir Putin has attended a military command meeting in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region which is partly held by Russia, the Kremlin has said.
Putin heard reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the “Dnieper” army group as well as other senior officers who briefed him on the situation in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia, Reuters reported.
Russian troops retreated from Kherson, the regional capital, last November, and have been reinforcing their positions on the opposite bank of the Dnipro river in anticipation of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Kremlin did not say when Putin attended the military command meeting.
The White House has hit back after Brazil’s president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on a trip to China that the US should stop “encouraging” the war in Ukraine
“In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts,” the US’s national security council spokesperson John Kirby said, adding that Lula’s comments were “deeply problematic”.
The spat came as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov began a tour of Latin America in Brazil where he met Lula and thanked “our Brazilian friends for their clear understanding of the genesis of the situation [in Ukraine]”.
Lula also said the US and Europe “need to start talking about peace,” and that Kyiv shares the blame for the conflict, which began in February 2022 when Russian forces invaded Ukraine.
His remarks echoed a line frequently used by Moscow and Beijing, which blame the West for the war.
Brazilian foreign minister Mauro Vieira, who also met with his Russian counterpart earlier in the day, shot back, saying: “I don’t know how or why he reached that conclusion but I do not agree at all.”
AFP reports on the background to the spat:
Despite Lula‘s comments about the United States, the 77-year-old, who returned to power in January after serving two terms from 2003 to 2010, is also seeking closer ties with Washington.
His visit to China and the UAE, postponed by a bout of pneumonia, came after a White House meeting in February with US president Joe Biden.
Brazil has not joined Western nations in imposing sanctions on Russia for its invasion, and has refused requests to supply ammunition to Ukraine.
After meeting with his Brazilian counterpart on Monday, Lavrov said: “We are grateful to our Brazilian friends for their clear understanding of the genesis of the situation (in Ukraine). We are grateful for their desire to contribute to finding ways of settling this situation.”
“We are interested in resolving the conflict as soon as possible,” Lavrov said.
But he added that any solution would have to be based on “multipolarity,” accusing the West of “trying to dominate the international arena.”
Washington doesn’t have “any objection to any country that wants to try to bring an end to the war,” Kirby said.
“That could happen right now, today, if Mr (Russian President Vladimir) Putin would stop attacking Ukraine and pull its troops out.”
Lavrov’s trip to Brazil comes after Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, Celso Amorim, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in March to discuss opening peace talks.
Brazil is Lavrov’s first stop on a weeklong Latin American tour that will also include Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba – countries whose leftist governments have hostile relations with the United States.
Lavrov and Vieira said their talks had also focused on energy and trade.
About a quarter of agricultural powerhouse Brazil’s fertilizer imports come from Russia, while the two countries engaged in a record $9.8 billion in bilateral trade last year.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone. Our top story today:
The US has accused Brazil of parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda on the war in Ukraine after president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on a trip to China that the US “needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace”.
“In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts,” the US’s national security council spokesperson John Kirby said, adding that Lula’s comments were “deeply problematic”.
The spat came as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov began a tour of Latin America in Brazil where he met Lula and thanked “our Brazilian friends for their clear understanding of the genesis of the situation [in Ukraine]”.
Other key developments:
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Inspections of ships moving grains from Ukraine have restarted after a pause which threatened to shut down the Black Sea corridor, the RIA news agency, citing the Russian foreign ministry, said. A ministry official quoted by RIA blamed Monday’s interruption on Ukraine’s failure to observe agreed procedures but said the issue has been resolved.
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The UK has condemned the sentencing of Russian opposition activist Vladimir Kara-Murza, who was jailed for 25 years for opposing the war in Ukraine. UK foreign secretary James Cleverly summoned the Russian ambassador, Andrei Kelin, for an explanation. Kara-Murza holds dual Russian-British citizenship.
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Kara-Murza’s wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, told British broadcaster LBC that she was “baffled” by the UK government’s “weak” response. “Introducing sanctions against his perpetrators would actually be a very practical step that I would very much like to see,” she said.
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The UN’s human rights head, Volker Türk, urged Russia to release him, while Baltic neighbour Latvia sanctioned 10 Russian officials and lawyers involved in the case.
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US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said she had made her first visit to jailed Wall Street reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia two weeks ago on charges of spying. “He feels well and is holding up. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release,” Tracy said.
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The United States and more than 40 other countries said in a joint statement that they were deeply concerned over Russia’s detainment of a Wall Street Journal reporter and protested Moscow’s “efforts to limit and intimidate the media.” The statement read further: “We urge Russian Federation authorities to release those they hold on political grounds, and to end the draconian crackdown on freedom of expression, including against members of the media.”
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Two Russian fighter jets and a spy plane flying close to Nato airspace have been intercepted by the UK and German air forces. Eurofighter typhoons from the RAF and the German air force’s 71 Richtofen Wing were scrambled to intercept the jets as they flew over the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland.
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The Pentagon said it expected findings within 45 days from a review into how the US military handles classified information after last week’s arrest of an airman over the leak a trove of highly classified documents online.
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Russia said it had repelled an “illegal” Ukrainian attempt to infiltrate Russian territory in the southern border region of Bryansk, 11 days after reporting a similar incident. “The intruder stepped on a mined protection line,” said regional governor Alexander Bogomaz on Telegram.
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Slovakia will temporarily halt imports of grains and other selected products from Ukraine to protect its farmers, joining Poland and Hungary in the move, a government spokesperson said on Monday. Ukraine and Poland meanwhile began talks aimed at reaching an agreement on imports.
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Slovakia has handed over all 13 MiG-29 fighter jets it had pledged to Ukraine, the Slovak defence ministry.
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Almost 500 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, according to a report by the Ukrainian prosecutor general. As of Monday, 470 children had been killed and 948 injured, it said, adding that the department believes that the number of injured children is higher.
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