Russia-Ukraine war live: UN says Russia has committed 'wide range ...

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A little more here from Reuters on that contact between China and Ukraine. “China hopes that all parties will remain calm, rational and restrained, and resume peace talks as soon as possible,” senior Chinese diplomat Qin Gang told Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.

China has refrained from condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and has instead urged both sides to agree to a gradual de-escalation leading to a comprehensive ceasefire in its 12-point paper on the “political resolution of the Ukraine crisis”.

The plan, which received a lukewarm welcome on both sides, called for the protection of civilians and respect for each other’s sovereignty.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to visit Vladimir Putin as soon as next week, and to subsequently hold a virtual meeting with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said he and senior Chinese diplomat Qin Gang had discussed the “significance of the principle of territorial integrity” during a phone call on Thursday.

“I underscored the importance of (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s) peace formula for ending the aggression and restoring just peace in Ukraine,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter.

Reuters reports a Chinese foreign ministry statement quoted Qin as saying Beijing was concerned about an escalation of the war in Ukraine and that it wants Moscow and Kyiv to engage in peace talks.

The head of the UN-backed investigative body the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says it has not found evidence of genocide as it investigates violations of human rights in the conflict with Russia.

Erik Møse told journalists:

We have not found that there has been a genocide within Ukraine.

He said the team was following the evidence and that there were “some aspects which may raise questions” about possible genocide.

A fire at the federal security service (FSB) building in the Russia city of Rostov-on-Don was caused by an electrical short-circuit, according to the region’s governor, Vasily Golubev.

A video clip circulating on social media, showing smoke rising in the air, has been geolocated to the vicinity of a building used by the FSB.

The cause of the fire “was a short circuit in the electrical wiring inside the building. The spreading fire caused explosions of containers with fuel and lubricants,” Golubev said.

The fire spread over an area of 800 sq metres, resulting in the collapse of two walls.

One victim was hospitalised with moderate injuries, he said.

Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said the fire “clearly indicates that this is a manifestation of panic, weakening of power control and [the Russian Federation’s] transition to a major internal conflict”.

Russia has committed ‘wide range’ of war crimes in Ukraine, says UN-backed inquiry

Russia has committed a wide-range of war crimes in Ukraine including wilful killings, systematic torture and the deportation of children, according to a report from a UN-backed inquiry published today.

Russian forces have carried out “indiscriminate and disproportionate” attacks on Ukraine, resorted to torture, killed civilians outside of combat and failed to take measures to safeguard the Ukrainian population, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, a UN-mandated investigative body, said.

The report, released a year to the day after the Russian bombing of a theatre in Ukraine’s south-eastern city of Mariupol that killed hundreds of people, marked a highly unusual condemnation of a member of the UN’s security council.

The commission cited repeated attacks targeting Ukrainian infrastructure that left hundreds of thousands without heat and electricity during the coldest months as potential crimes against humanity.

The report also described the “systematic and widespread” use of torture across multiple regions under Russian occupation, and gave details of torture methods used in Russian detention facilities where victims were subjected to electric shocks with a military phone – a treatment known as a “call to Putin” – or hung from the ceiling in a “parrot position”.

The report, based on more than 500 interviews as well as satellite images and visits to detention sites and graves, comes as the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague is expected to seek the arrest of Russian officials for forcibly deporting children from Ukraine and targeting civilian infrastructure.

The report’s authors also noted a “small number” of apparent violations by Ukrainian forces, including one they said was under criminal investigation by Ukrainian authorities. The vast majority of the report focused however on allegations against Russia. Russia denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine.

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has also announced further arms deliveries to Ukraine today.

Scholz, in a statement to the lower house of parliament on next week’s EU summit, said Berlin will, together with its European partners, ensure that Kyiv receives weapons and equipment to hold out and defend itself. He said:

It is particularly important to quickly provide Ukraine with the necessary ammunition. At the European Council, we will decide on further measures together with our EU partners to achieve an even better, continuous supply.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends a session at the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) in Berlin before the upcoming EU summit. Photograph: Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s a bit more from Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, who has just announced that his country will send Ukraine at least four MiG-29 fighter jets in the coming days.

Speaking at a news conference, Duda said Warsaw would hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes in the coming days.

Firstly, literally within the next few days, we will hand over, as far as I remember, four aircraft to Ukraine in full working order.

The rest are being prepared, serviced.

Duda’s announcement makes Poland the first Nato member country to fulfil Kyiv’s increasingly urgent requests for warplanes. The Polish leader did not say if other countries would be making the same move.

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian president’s office, had hinted at the news that Warsaw will send Kyiv four MiG-29 fighter jets by posting four plane emojis during President Andrzej Duda’s announcement.

Poland to transfer four MIG-29 planes to Ukraine in coming days, says president

Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has said his country will be handing over four MIG-29 planes to Ukraine in the coming days.

Speaking at a news conference just now, Duda said other MIG jets are also being prepared for the transfer, Polskie Radio’s Karol Darmoros reports.

Vladimir Putin has been meeting Russia’s leading billionaires and business elite in person today for the first time since he ordered his troops to invade Ukraine more than a year ago.

The Russian leader urged them to invest in new technology, production facilities and enterprises to help Russia overcome what he said were western attempts to destroy its economy, Reuters reports.

He said Moscow had so far defied these attempts, and the western firms that had decided to stay in Russia had made a smart decision.

Images from the gathering showed those attending included the billionaires Oleg Deripaska, Vladimir Potanin, Alexei Mordashov, German Khan, Viktor Vekselberg, Viktor Rashnikov, Andrei Melnichenko and Dmitry Mazepin, whose interests range from metals and banking to fertilisers.

Many Russian oligarchs have been placed under western sanctions since last February. Speaking today, Putin said he had been left with no choice but to send his forces into Ukraine.

He told the business leaders Russia was facing a “sanctions war” but was swiftly reorienting its economy towards countries that had not imposed sanctions on Russia.

The former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fourth-largest city, has been detained over a social media post in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Yevgeny Roizman, an opposition politician and Kremlin critic, allegedly posted a video clip briefly showing the logo of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, which was outlawed as an “extremist” organization in 2021, the Moscow Times cited Russian police as saying.

Roizman’s lawyer confirmed he had been detained, but rejected the accusations and said his client had not shared the video.

Yevgeny Roizman, former mayor of Russia's fourth-largest city, walks escorted by a police officer in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Photograph: Vladimir Podoksyonov/AP

Roizman, who enjoyed broad popularity as mayor of Yekaterinburg between 2013 and 2018, said on his way to court today:

I do not admit that the event even took place, let alone my guilt.

If convicted, he could face a 15-day arrest or new criminal charges related to the alleged violation of the terms of his sentence last year.

Roizman, one of the last opposition figures still in Russia and not behind bars, is already awaiting trial on charges of “discrediting” the Russian army.

He has been barred from attending public events, using the internet, telephone or mail and communicating with anyone other than his lawyers and close family.

Russian ships 'seen near area where Reaper drone crashed'

Russian ships have been seen near the area where the US MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed two days ago, Reuters has cited a US official as saying.

They did not appear to have recovered any parts of the drone yet, and it is not clear if they are still in the area.

Washington has said that any recovery efforts relating to the drone would be difficult because of the depth of water in the region.

Footage 'absolutely confirms' collision between US drone and Russian jet, says senior US official

Video footage released by the US European Command earlier today which it said shows the moment of impact between a Russian fighter jet and a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea “absolutely confirms” that there was a physical collision and dumping of fuel, CNN’s MJ Lee cites a senior US administration official as saying.

The footage, however, does not confirm whether it was the Russian pilot’s intent and whether they meant to strike the US drone’s propeller, according to the official.

Asked whether the Russian pilot intended to strike the US drone’s propeller, the official replied that they didn’t know, but that there was no question that the footage confirmed the fighter jets were engaging in “aggressive flying” and “recklessness”.

Russian military to decide on retrieving drone from Black Sea, says Kremlin

The Kremlin has said a decision on whether to retrieve the downed US MQ-9 Reaper drone from the Black Sea will come from the Russian military.

Asked if Russia would try to raise the drone from the seabed to examine it, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov replied:

This is the prerogative of the military. If they deem it necessary to do that in the Black Sea for our interests and for our security, they will deal with that.

Peskov added that he did not know what the defence ministry’s plans were.

Hello everyone. It’s Léonie Chao-Fong here again, taking over the live blog from Martin Belam. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Summary of the day so far …

US European Command on Thursday issued a video which it says shows the moment of impact when a Russian fighter jet struck the propellor of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea, causing the latter to be ditched into the water. The footage, which lasts 42 seconds, shows aircraft making two extremely close passes to the drone, before the image breaks up.

Moscow said Wednesday it would try to retrieve the wreckage of a US military drone that crashed over the Black Sea, in a confrontation Washington blamed on two Russian fighter jets. US officials said the debris could be in such deep water that recovery is impossible, and would have no real intelligence value.

The Russian and US defence ministers and military chiefs held rare phone conversations on Wednesday to discuss the incident. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on Wednesday that operating drone flights near Crimea was provocative and could lead to an escalation, the Russian defence ministry said. Russia, the statement said, “had no interest in such a development but will in future react in due proportion”.

Denis Pushilin, the Russian-installed leader in occupied Donetsk, told state-owned news agency Tass Thursday that he does not see any signs Ukraine is withdrawing from Bakhmut. He is quoted as saying “In Bakhmut, the situation remains complicated, difficult, that is, we do not see that there are any prerequisites there that the enemy is going to simply withdraw units”.

Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv, reports that the Russian military destroyed and damaged private houses and infrastructure facilities in two settlements in the Kharkiv region overnight.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram to commemorate a year since the Mariupol theatre bombing. Ukraine’s president wrote: “A year ago, Russia deliberately and brutally dropped a powerful bomb on the Drama Theatre in Mariupol. Next to the building was the inscription ‘Children’, which was impossible to overlook. Hundreds of people were hiding from the shelling there. Step by step, we are moving towards ensuring that the terrorist state is fully held to account for what it has done to our country and our people.”

A Russian soldier who confessed to killing a civilian in Ukraine last year has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army. Daniil Frolkin is the first known soldier to be sentenced by Russia after admitting to killing civilians. The move is widely seen as a way to deter other servicemen from speaking out.

Both Tass and RIA are reporting that there is a fire at the border department of Russia’s federal security service in Rostov-on-Don. Some news sources are reporting that witness heard explosions or an explosion before the fire began.

State-owned news agency Tass is reporting that Russia’s education minister Sergey Kravtsov has confirmed that he expects by the beginning of the academic year Russian schools will have a new history textbook for high school pupils with a section on the “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Poland claims to have broken up a Russian espionage network operating in the country. Defence minister Mariusz Blaszczak on Thursday said “I would like to emphasise the great success achieved by the officers of the internal security agency, because the whole spy network has been unravelled.”

The British foreign minister, James Cleverly, said on Thursday that the best way to protect Moldova from attack by Russia was to protect Ukraine.

That is it from me, Martin Belam, for now. I will be back later. Léonie Chao-Fong will be here shortly to take you through the next few hours of our live coverage.

A Russian soldier who confessed to killing a civilian in Ukraine last year has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison by a military court in Russia’s far east on charges of spreading “fake news” about the army.

In an interview with the independent news outlet Istories last August, Daniil Frolkin, 21, said he shot and killed a male civilian in Andriivka, a village near Kyiv that was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the start of the invasion.

“I tell him: “Get down on your knees.” And I just put a bullet through his forehead. killed one person,” Frolkin told Istories in a phone conversation published by the outlet.

Istories identified the dead man as 47-year-old Ruslan Yaremchuk.

“I, a military serviceman from military unit 51460, Guards Private First Class, Frolkin Daniel Andreevich, confess to all the crimes I committed in Andreevka, to shooting civilians, stealing from civilians, taking their phones,” Frolkin added.

Frolkin was part of the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade, a notorious unit based in the Khabarovsk region that has been accused of committing war crimes in Bucha.

Vladimir Putin has previously awarded the 64th Motor Rifle Brigade the honorary title of “guards” and praised the unit for its “great heroism and courage”.

Frolkin is the first known soldier to be sentenced by Russia after admitting to killing civilians. The move is widely seen as a way to deter other servicemen from speaking out.

Read more of Pjotr Sauer’s report here: Russian soldier who confessed to killing Ukrainian civilian jailed over ‘fake news’