Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, tells visiting Rishi Sunak, the British PM: ‘Both our nations know what it means to stand up for freedom’
Welcome back to our continuing live coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Here’s a brief look at the latest developments as it approaches 9.15am in Kyiv.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said at least 437 Ukrainian children have been killed and more than 837 injured as a result of Russia’s invasion.
Five people were injured in a Russian strike on a humanitarian station in southern Ukraine, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior aide to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president.
Nine people, including four children, died after a suspected gas explosion in a residential building in Russia’s Sakhalin island, the local governor said.
Around 60 Russian soldiers were killed this week in a long-range Ukrainian artillery attack on their positions in the town of Mykhailkva, 40km to the south of Kherson, Ukraine’s military said on Saturday.
Rishi Sunak made a surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday to meet Zelenskiy – Sunak’s first visit to the country since taking office.
Sunak announced that Britain will provide a £50m air defence package for Ukraine, including anti-aircraft guns and technology to counter Iranian-supplied drones.
Ukrainian electricity supplies are under control despite Russian attacks on power-generating infrastructure and there is no need to panic, the energy ministry said a day after the government stated that almost half of Ukraine’s energy system had been crippled, and authorities in Kyiv warned that the capital could face a “complete shutdown” of the power grid as winter sets in.
Zelenskiy said on Saturday that the supply problems were worst in and around Kyiv as well as in six other regions. “We are working throughout the country to stabilise the situation,” he said in a video address.
Ukrainian forces could be in Crimea by the end of December, the country’s deputy defence minister, Volodymyr Havrylov, has said.
Jubilant Ukrainians rolled into Kherson by train for the first time in more than eight months as residents of the newly liberated southern city greeted them on the platform with flowers and national flags. Citing damage done by Russian forces, deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk announced evacuations of people who want to leave Kherson and the surrounding areas would soon begin.
The funeral took place on Saturday of a Polish man who was one of two victims killed when a missile crashed into a grain storage facility in the Polish village of Przewodow.
Asia-Pacific leaders added their voices on Saturday to international pressure on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, issuing a summit statement saying “most” of them condemned the war.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin said China and Russia were seeking a world where force is used to resolve disputes and he vowed the United States would continue to defend humanitarian principles and international law.
Peace in Ukraine will only be possible if the country’s 1991 borders are restored, a senior aide to Zelenskiy said.
