Ukraine-Russia war latest: 'Putin did not order Navalny death,' - US report; Russian oil refinery suspends operations after 'Ukrainian drone attack' (2024)

One person has died and 14 have been injured after attacks on several regions in Ukraine, local authorities have said.

The areas ofKherson, Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk were all targeted overnight.

Kherson

In the Kherson region, one person died and eight others were injured, according togovernor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Kharkiv

While in Kharkiv, Russian forces hit a psychiatric hospital, injuring a 53-year-old patient.

Governor Oleh Syniehubov said 60 patients and five employees were in the hospital at the time.

Donetsk

Russian troops launched a total of 16 attacks against settlements in the Donetsk region, destroying or damaging 12 houses and five other unnamed buildings,Vadym Filashkin, the regional governor, said.

Three people were injured.

Dnipropetrovsk

An 82-year-old woman was injured during several strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk area.

Governor Serhii Lysak said seven blocks of flats, a market and a beauty salon were amongst the buildings damaged.

Following on from our last post, the Kremlin has said China and Russia will continue to develop ties after efforts by the US to curb relations between the two nations.

It follows US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying he had reiterated to China's top diplomat Wang Yi the serious concerns the US has about the country providing dual-use goods that are "powering Russia's brutal war of aggression against Ukraine".

Those weapons are being used to "demolish a power grid and other civilian infrastructure and to kill innocent children, women and men", Mr Blinken said.

When asked about Mr Blinken's comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said China is an "absolutely sovereign state".

He added: "At the same time, it [China] is our close partner. Wewill further develop our co-operation."

China maintains that it has not provided weaponry to any partyand is "not a producer of or party involved in the Ukrainecrisis".

The Kremlin has said there are currently no grounds for peace talks with Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, said the two nations would not discuss an end to the conflict after Kyiv put in place a formal refusal to negotiate.

The comments refer to a 2022 decree signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy which declared the prospect of any talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin "impossible".

The decree states that the possibility for a discussion is still open to what Mr Zelenskyy called "another president ofRussia".

Russia launched a barrage of missiles against Ukraine overnight, appearing to target the country's energy infrastructure.

Ukraine's air force said that it had intercepted 21 out of 34 drones launched across the country.

Energy minister Herman Halushchenko said energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk in the south of the country and Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv in the west had been attacked.

An engineer was reportedly injured, Mr Halushchenko said.

Private energy operator DTEK said four of its thermal power plants were damaged and that there were "casualties" but did not provide any further detail.

It comes after the security service of Ukraine confirmed that it had launched drones at the Slavyansk and Ilsky oil refineries in Russia'sKrasnoyarsk region.

The source said drones also targeted Russia's Kushchevsk military airfield in the same region.

Intelligence agencies in the US have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin most likely did not order opposition leaderAlexei Navalny to be killed, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Mr Navalny, one of Mr Putin's fiercest critics, died atanArctic prison camp in February at the age of 47.

His allies, including his wife, accused the Russian leader of having him murdered - an accusation the Kremlin has always denied.

But after a recent assessment based on a range of information - including some classified intelligence and an analysis ofpublic facts - US intelligence agencies do not believe Mr Putin ordered the death of his opponent.

The assessment also took into account the timing of the death and how itovershadowed Mr Putin's presidential re-election in March, the WSJ cited someof its sources as saying.

The paper quoted sources as saying the finding had been "broadlyaccepted within the intelligence community and shared by severalagencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Officeof the Director of National Intelligence and the StateDepartment's intelligence unit".

Responding to the report, Leonid Volkov, a senior Navalny aide, called the findings naive and ridiculous, the WSJ reported.

A Russian oil refinery has partially suspended operations after being damaged in a suspected Ukrainian drone attack, the Russian TASS news agency says.

A large fire broke out at the Slavyansk oil refinery in the Krasnoyarsk region after being hit with 10 Ukrainian drones, thesecurity director at Slavyansk ECO Group, was quoted as saying.

They said some of the damage caused may be hidden so the "work of the plant has been partially suspended".

Earlier today, Roman Siniagovskyi, head of the Slavyansk administrative district said the distillation column was damaged during the alleged strike.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 66 Ukrainian drones over the Krasnoyarsk region, and two more over the Crimean Peninsula.

A source from the Security Service of Ukraine confirmed that Ukrainian drones had been launched at the Slavyansk and Ilsky oil refineries and had caused fires at the facilities.

The source said drones also targeted Russia's Kushchevsk military airfield in the same region.

A Ukrainian court has ordered the detention of the country's farm minister in the latest high-profile corruption investigation.

The country's High Anti-Corruption Court ruled that agriculture minister Oleksandr Solskyi should be held in custody for 60 days, but he was released after paying bail of 75 million hryvnias (£1.5m), a statement said.

He is alleged to have led an organised crime group that unlawfully obtained land worth 291 million hryvnias (£5.87m) and attempted to obtain other land worth 190 million hryvnias (£3.83m) between 2017 and 2021.

Over the past two years, a number of senior Ukrainian officials have lost their jobs, causing embarrassment as they receive thousands in foreign aid.

US military aid is currently on the way to Ukraine, which may take several weeks to arrive.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) says due to this, it will be a little while until any of the much-needed aid makes much of an impact on the battlefield.

It says forces in Ukraine will first have to use the aid to stabilise the frontlines and try to stop ongoing Russian advances, particularly in the areas of Avdiivka and Chasiv Yar in theDonetsk region.

No matter what way Ukraine uses the new aid, the US has not claimed that it would be enough to allow the country to regain all of its territory.

The ISW also warns of a potential summer Russian offensive operation that may begin as soon as June.

"Ukraine's ability to regain all of its territory in the long term rests on numerous future decisions in the West, in the Kremlin, and in Kyiv," the ISW says.

A Russian court has placed a journalist - who works for the Russian edition of Forbes - under house arrest, Russian state-news agency RIA has reported.

Sergei Mingazov is believed to have been detained yesterday on suspicion of spreading false information about the Russian army, his magazine said at the time.

Forbes is an American business magazine.

It is currently owned by Hong Kong-based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Yesterday, the US announced even more aid for Ukraine in the form of a $6bn (£4.8bn) package.

The new package includes more Patriot missiles for the country's air defence systems.

It is in addition to the$61bn (£49bn) aid package that was finally passed by Congress following a long delay.

Before we resume our live coverage and regular updates, here is a recap of the other key moments from the last 24 hours.

• Ukrainian air defences shot down 21 out of 34 Russian missiles in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said;
• A Russian oil refinery has been damaged in a suspected Ukrainian attack, local authorities said;
• A 20-year-old British man has been charged with conducting hostile state activity to benefit Russia, prosecutors have said.