Russia-Ukraine live news: War driven by several ’empires’ – Pope

• The war in Ukraine is fuelled by the interests of several “empires”, not just Russia’s, Pope Francis said in an interview.
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov says Russia and the United States remain in contact over the New START nuclear arms treaty despite having suspended its participation in the deal, RIA Novosti reported.
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• Wagner chief is becoming ‘very significant’: Russian analystPavel Felgenhauer, a defence and military analyst based in Moscow, said the Wagner Group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was becoming “very significant” as the war progressed.“He has this private army that has dramatically expanded during the last year from several thousand deployed somewhere in Syria or the Central African Republican to tens of thousands of fighters with its own tanks and artillery,” Felgenhauer said.“He is a very vocal political figure in modern Russia with his own private army fighting out there and with connections in the Kremlin,” he added.But, Felgenhauer said there is a lot of “infighting” in Russia as Prigozhin continues to criticise the defence ministry for its failures.“For him [Prigozhin], its high importance to take over Bakhmut and for the defence ministry in Moscow, they don’t want him to take over Bakhmut and get the laurels of victory because he’s their political opponent, so there’s a lot of infighting happening,” he said.
• Lithuania calls on IOC to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes
• Lithuania’s parliament has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other sports bodies to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes until the war in Ukraine ends, war criminals are prosecuted, and reparations are paid.
• The parliamentary motion, which passed unanimously, said it was confident any victories by Russian or Belarusian athletes would be exploited for propaganda purposes by the governments in Moscow and Minsk.
• Ukraine has spearheaded a call to ban athletes from Russia and its close ally Belarus from the Paris 2024 Games after the IOC said in January it was open to including Russian and Belarusian athletes as neutrals.
• Last week, African Olympic committees passed a resolution supporting the participation of the athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics as neutrals.
• Olympic rings to celebrate the IOC’s official announcement that Paris won the 2024 Olympic bid
• Talk with Blinken was ‘constructive’, says Lavrov
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says a conversation with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi last week was “constructive”, the TASS news agency reported.
• In an interview on Russian state TV, Lavrov said the pair spoke for 10 minutes and discussed nuclear arms issues and the conflict in Ukraine.
• “We spoke constructively, without emotions, we shook hands,” Lavrov said.
• “Everything I heard was a position that has already been expressed and underlined in public many times before. I gave my honest, detailed assessment about the New START treaty, and why we saw it necessary to suspend it,” he said.
• Energy supply in Kharkiv ‘difficult’, says governorGovernor Oleh Synyehubov says while the energy supply in Kharkiv “is difficult” after sustaining damage, infrastructure has been restored.“Nevertheless, critical infrastructure has already been restored in the city, and water supply has been almost completely restored. The region is more than 90 percent healed. Electric transport does not yet have enough voltage and does not work,” he said in an interview posted on Telegram.Synyehubov said the “most intense fighting” was going on in the Kupiansk direction, where Russian forces were trying to “restore previously lost positions”.Rescuers work at the site of a residential building damaged by a Russian missile strike in central Kharkiv, Ukraine [File: Vitalii Hnidyi/Reuters]
• 1h ago (11:15 GMT)Russia deployed ‘at least 80 long-range strikes’: UKThe British Ministry of Defence says Russia deployed “at least 80 long-range strikes” in Thursday morning’s missile barrage on Ukrainian infrastructure.“This was the first major wave of long-range strikes since 16 February 2023 and likely one of the largest since December 2022. Ukrainian officials reported at least 11 civilians killed,” the ministry said in its daily intelligence update.It added that the gap between strikes was likely due to Russia needing to “stockpile a critical mass of newly produced missiles directly from industry before it can resource a strike big enough to credibly overwhelm Ukrainian air defences”.
• Wimbledon yet to decide on Russian and Belarusian players
• Wimbledon has not taken a decision on the participation of Russian and Belarusian players at the competition this year, organisers told the Reuters news agency.
• “We have not yet made a decision on entries for the championships 2023,” a spokesperson for the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which organises Wimbledon, told Reuters.
• “We are continuing to work very closely with the UK government and key stakeholders in tennis on this matter.”
• The AELTC and the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) had banned players from the two countries from tournaments held in the UK following Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
• Two times Wimbledon champion Andy Murray said this week he expected Wimbledon organisers to allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete at the Grand Slam.
• How far can Russia and China’s ‘no limits’ partnership go?
• Before the war began in Ukraine, Russia and China signed a “no limits” partnership agreement.
• During a meeting with China’s top diplomat, Russian President Vladimir Putin said “cooperation between the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation on the global arena is particularly important for stabilising the international situation”.
• Ties between the two had reached “new frontiers”, he said. ​
• Al Jazeera’s The Take questions how far the relationship between the two countries can go as China re-emerges from its zero-COVID lockdowns.
• Putin congratulates China’s Xi Jinping on third term
• Putin has congratulated Xi Jinping on his third term as China’s leader, hailing the strengthening ties between the two countries.
• “Dear friend, please accept sincere congratulations on the occasion of your reelection,” Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.
• “Russia highly values your personal contribution toward the strengthening of ties … and strategic cooperation between our nations.”
• Throughout the war, Russian and Chinese relations stood the test of time and have reiterated its “no limits” partnership.
• IAEA backs Rafael Grossi for second term as director general
• The UN nuclear watchdog’s board of governors has backed the reappointment of Rafael Grossi to a second four-year term as director general.
• Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board approved his reappointment by acclamation, meaning that no vote was held and no country expressed opposition.
• The decision is subject to approval by the IAEA’s general conference held later this year.
• War in Ukraine driven by the interests of ’empires’: Pope
• Pope Francis says the war in Ukraine is driven by the interests of several “empires” and not just Russia’s.
• In interview excerpts published by Italian dailies La Repubblica, La Stampa and Corriere della Sera, Francis said the conflict was fuelled by “imperial interests, not just of the Russian empire, but of empires from elsewhere”.
• The pope also expressed a readiness to talk to Putin to call for peace.
• The pontiff was speaking to Italian Swiss television RSI in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday.
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• Russia, US in contact over nuclear treaty: Russian minister
• Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says Russia and the US remain in contact over the New START nuclear arms treaty despite suspending participation in the deal, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
• Ryabkov said he had no expectations for significant progress.
• The 2010 nuclear agreement limits the number of strategic warheads each side can deploy.
• President Vladimir Putin announced last month that Moscow was suspending it, accusing the US of trying to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia in Ukraine.

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