Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Ukraine at ‘strategic turning point’, claims Zelenskiy, as Russian airstrikes hit three cities | World news

The Ukrainian president has said his country has reached a strategic turning point in its war with Russia, but added that it was not possible to say how long fighting would continue.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said:

It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it … we are moving towards our goal, towards our victory.

A third Russian major general has been killed in Ukraine, Western officials have confirmed.

From our defence and security editor, Dan Sabbagh:

Russian president Vladimir Putin shows no sign of being willing to engage in “serious diplomacy”, US vice president Kamala Harris said.

Speaking during a visit in Romania, Harris said the US is committed to finding a diplomatic solution and restated her country’s commitment to protecting fellow Nato members.

From the beginning, the United States has been attempting sincerely to engage in diplomacy.

From everything that we know and have witnessed, Putin shows no sign of engaging in serious diplomacy.

Russia is deploying its playbook of lies, misinformation and acts of aggression in Ukraine, Harris said.

Any attack on or targeting of civilians in Ukraine is a war crime, she said.

We are clear that any intentional targeting of civilians is a war crime. Period.

She continued:

It is painful to watch what is happening to innocent people in Ukraine who just want to live in their own country and have pride in themselves as Ukrainians, who want to be home speaking the language they know, going to the church that they know, raising their children in the community where their families have lived for generations and by the millions now, are having to flee with nothing but a backpack.

Ukraine has accused Russian aircraft of firing at a Belarusian settlement near the border from Ukrainian air space in an attempt to drag Belarus into the war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian air force said that at 2.30pm local time (12.30pm GMT), the state border service received information that Russian aircraft had taken off from an airfield in Belarus, crossed into Ukrainian air space and then fired at Kopani, a village in Belarus, reports Reuters.

“This is a PROVOCATION! The goal is to involve the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus in the war with Ukraine!,” Ukraine’s Air Force Command said in an online statement.

The Ukrainian military said that two other Belarusian settlements were also targeted in the operation.

“We officially declare: the Ukrainian military has not planned and does not plan to take any aggressive action against the Republic of Belarus,” the security service said.

The situation in Mariupol is critical, Ukraine’s interior ministry has warned, and it is not known whether aid will be able to reach the encircled city.

Vadym Denysenko, an interior ministry adviser, said it is unclear whether eight trucks carrying humanitarian aid will be able to reach the southern port today, reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian embassy in Ankara said there are 86 Turkish citizens – including 34 children – sheltering in a mosque in the besieged city amid continued Russian shelling.

The embassy said that Russian forces had been shelling the city, including the mosque, since the early hours.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment.

Evgeny Lebedev has said he is “not some agent of Russia” following allegations that a British security services assessment said he posed a national security risk was withdrawn following an intervention by the prime minister.

The Russian-born owner of the Evening Standard and Independent and member of the House of Lords said: “I am not a security risk to this country.”

In a statement on the Evening Standard website he wrote:

I am a British citizen. I first moved here as a child and was educated in the United Kingdom at primary and secondary level. I am proud to be a British citizen and consider Britain my home.

I have publicly made clear my condemnation of the war in Ukraine and called on President Putin to end the invasion of the country in the most public way possible through a letter to him published on the front page of the Evening Standard.

He added:

At the moment many with Russian roots are under scrutiny, including myself. I understand the reason for this as it is inevitable when events of such magnitude occur and the world order as we have known it in recent decades suddenly gets torn up.

But I am not a security risk to this country, which I love. My father a long time ago was a foreign intelligence agent of the KGB, but I am not some agent of Russia.

He said that being Russian “doe not automatically make one an enemy of the state”, adding: “It is crucial we do not descend into Russiaphobia, like any other phobia, bigotry or discrimination.”

The US is to revoke Russia’s “most favoured nation status” in response to the invasion on Ukraine.

US House speaker Nancy Pelosi made the announcement in a press conference today, reports Reuters.

Meanwhile, citing CNBC, Reuters reports that US president Joe Biden is to revoke normal trade relations.

You can follow the latest US developments on Ukraine in our US politics blog:

Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has told Vladimir Putin that an immediate ceasefire is needed to safely evacuate civilians in an hour-long call with the Russian president.

The Finnish president’s office said he told Putin that the worsening war in Ukraine was strongly impacting western opinion, reports Reuters.

“President Niinistö emphasised the need to establish an immediate ceasefire and ensure the safe evacuation of civilians along humanitarian corridors,” a statement said.

Earlier in the day Niinistö also spoke with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He tweeted that he was “doing my best for peace”.

WhatsApp will not be affected by Russia’s decision to block services provided by Meta, Russian state-owned outlet RIA Novosti reports.

The power supply to the Chernobyl nuclear plant has not yet been restored despite Russian claims that it was fixed by Belarusian specialists, Ukraine’s state nuclear power regulator said.

In a statement, the state nuclear regulatory inspectorate of Ukraine said:

Attempts to restore the external power supply to the site are in progress.

Ukraine has warned of an increased risk of a radiation leak at Chernobyl, which is occupied by Russian forces, after a high-voltage cable was severed during fighting and electricity to the plant was cut off.

On Thursday, Russia’s energy ministry said Belarusian specialists had restored the electricity supply and Russia’s defence ministry said it had agreed to allow a Ukrainian repair team to access power lines in the area around the plant.

But Ukraine has told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that “all communications” were lost “the day after the Russian-controlled site lost all external power supplies”.

Ukrainian military intelligence said today, without presenting clear evidence, that it was “possible” Russia was preparing an attack on the Chernobyl plant “for which the occupiers will try to shift responsibility to Ukraine”.

Russian armed forces have made no progress in Ukraine in the last 24 hours, according to the Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych.

Russian territorial advances in Ukraine had stalled, Arestovych told a news briefing today.

Our opponent has been halted in practically every direction by airstrikes, rocket fire and ground attacks.

He added that Ukrainian armed forces had staged counter-attacks near the capital, Kyiv, and Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine.

Food prices around the world could rise by up to 20% as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the UN food agency has warned.

International food and feed prices could rise by between 8% and 20% as a result of the war, triggering a jump in global malnourishment, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

In a preliminary assessment of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the FAO said it was not clear if Ukraine would be able to harvest crops during a protracted conflict, while uncertainty also surrounded Russian food exports.

Russia is the world’s largest exporter of wheat and Ukraine is the fifth largest, the FAO said. Together, they provide 19% of the world’s barley supply, 14% of wheat, and 4% of maize, making up more than one-third of global cereal exports.

FAO’s director general Qu Dongyu said in a statement:

The likely disruptions to agricultural activities of these two major exporters of staple commodities could seriously escalate food insecurity globally.

Some 50 countries, including many of the least developed nations, depend on Russia and Ukraine for 30% or more of their wheat supplies, leaving them especially vulnerable, it added.

The global number of undernourished people could increase by 8 to 13 million people in 2022/23.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine had reached a “strategic turning point” in its war with Russia in his latest address to the Ukrainian people.

Speaking outdoors in a street with a Ukrainian flag in the background, the Ukrainian leader said:

It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point. We are already moving towards our goal, our victory.

He added:

Ukrainians are proud people who always defend their land, and will not give the occupier a single piece of this land.

At least 78 children have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion on 24 February, according to Ukrainian human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova.

Denisova said fighting around the besieged city of Mariupol, the eastern town of Volnovakha and the town of Irpin in the Kyiv region meant local authorities had not been able to establish how many people had been killed or wounded in those places.

Note: the Guardian has not been able to independently verify these figures.

Here’s more on the UN human rights office’s claim that it had received “credible reports” of several cases of Russian forces using cluster munitions in populated areas in Ukraine.

UN spokesperson Liz Throssell told journalists in Geneva today that indiscriminate use of cluster munitions may amount to war crimes.

Due to their wide area effects, the use of cluster munitions in populated areas is incompatible with the international humanitarian law principles governing the conduct of hostilities.

She added:

We remind the Russian authorities that directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, as well as so-called area bombardment in towns and villages and other forms of indiscriminate attacks, are prohibited under international law and may amount to war crimes.

Cluster bombs are distinguished by their capacity to explode and release smaller submunitions that scatter over a wide area. Russia is not a party to a 2008 convention banning cluster munitions although is bound by international humanitarian law.