Russia-Ukraine war live: man who fled after daughter’s anti-war drawings reportedly arrested; Russia ‘aiming to recruit 400,000’ | Ukraine

The UK Ministry of Defence reports, citing Russian media, that authorities are preparing to launch a major recruitment campaign aimed at signing up 400,000 new troops to fight in Ukraine.

Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday evening, adding that their fighters were still holding on in a battle that has lasted several months.

The US thinktank the Institute for the Study of War’s regular update appears to support this, saying, “geolocated footage published on March 28 and 29 indicates that Russian forces advanced in southern and southwestern Bakhmut.”

The mining city of Bakhmut and surrounding towns in the eastern industrial region of Donetsk have been the focal point of assault for much of the war. Neither side has full control and both have suffered heavy losses.

“Enemy forces had a degree of success in their actions aimed at storming the city of Bakhmut,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a regular nighttime report.

“Our defenders are holding the city and are repelling numerous enemy attacks.”

Pjotr Sauer

Alexei Moskalyo’s family said they had faced pressure from Russian police since last April when his daughter, a sixth-grader, refused to participate in a patriotic class at her school and made several drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag and another that said “Glory to Ukraine!”

School officials at the time summoned the police, who questioned the girl and threatened her father.

Police then began examining Moskalyov’s social media activity and the father was eventually charged with discrediting the armed forces for his posts in which he called the Russian regime “terrorists” and described the Russian army as “rapists”.

The high-profile case was criticised by Russian human rights groups and led to an online campaign to reunite father and daughter.

Police in the Tula region south of Moscow said that Moskalyov had escaped house arrest in the early hours of Tuesday and that they had “started looking for the suspect”.

Here is our story on Moskalyo’s sentencing and escape:

A Russian man who fled house arrest after being sentenced to two years in prison for discrediting Russia in social media posts – following an investigation prompted by his daughter’s anti-war drawings – has reportedly been arrested in Minsk.

Alexei Moskalyo has been separated from his 13-year-old daughter since he was placed under house arrest at the start of March and she was moved to a state-run shelter.

Moskalyo was sentenced to two years in prison as punishment for his criticism of Kremlin policies in social media posts. Police investigated him after his daughter, a sixth-grader, refused to participate in a patriotic class at her school and made several drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag and another that said “Glory to Ukraine!”

Independent Russian news outlet SOTA Project is reporting that police have apprehended Moskalyo in Minsk, Belarus. His lawyer was unable to confirm that Moskalyo had been arrested, but said on Telegram that he could not reach his client and suspected the news was true.

Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine. My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest developments as they happen.

Our top story this morning:

Russian forces have had some success in the eastern frontline city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military officials said on Wednesday evening, adding that their fighters were still holding on in a battle that has lasted several months.

And the Russian man who fled house arrest after being sentenced to two years in prison for discrediting Russia in social media posts, following an investigation prompted by his daughter’s anti-war drawings, has reportedly been arrested in Minsk.

Alexei Moskalyo has been separated from his 13-year-old daughter since he was placed under house arrest at the start of March and she was moved to a state-run shelter.

Moskalyo was sentenced to two years in prison as punishment for his criticism of Kremlin policies in social media posts. Police investigated him after his daughter, a sixth-grader, refused to participate in a patriotic class at her school and made several drawings showing rockets being fired at a family standing under a Ukrainian flag and another that said “Glory to Ukraine!”

Independent Russian news outlet SOTA Project is reporting that police have apprehended Moskalyo in Minsk, Belarus. His lawyer was unable to confirm that Moskalyo had been arrested, but said on Telegram that he could not reach his client and suspected the news was true.

We’ll have more on these stories shortly. In the meantime here are the key recent developments:

• The head of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has made a second visit to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine amid an escalation in the fighting around it. Rafael Mariano Grossi was shown around the plant by Russian occupying forces and officials, telling reporters: “It is obvious that military activity is increasing in this whole region, so every possible measure and precautions should be taken so that the plant is not attacked.”

• Russia has stopped informing the US about its nuclear activities, including missile test launches, after Moscow suspended its participation in the New Start arms control treaty last month, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, has said. The White House on Tuesday said the US had told Russia it would cease exchanging some data on its nuclear forces after Moscow’s refusal to do so.

• Russia began exercises with the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile system and several thousand troops, its defence ministry said on Wednesday. Vladimir Putin has aimed to make the Yars missile system, which replaced the Topol system, part of Russia’s “invincible weapons” and the mainstay of the ground-based component of its nuclear arsenal.

• The German government has agreed to spend an additional €12bn on military support. The Bundestag’s budget committee gave the green light on Wednesday for about €8bn to be spent directly on purchasing weapons and equipment for Ukraine. The other €4bn will go to the German military to replenish stocks. Spain will send six Leopard 2A4 tanks to Ukraine after Easter, the Spanish defence minister, Margarita Robles, has said.

• An explosion was reported near a Russian military airbase in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, according to footage shared on social media. The Russian-appointed head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, posted to Telegram that “a UAV [drone] was shot down in the Simferopol region” and that there were “no casualties or damage”.

• Ukrainian forces reportedly shelled the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol, south of the Zaporizhzhia region, and Russian media reported on Wednesday that as a result the city’s power supply had been cut. Ivan Fedorov, the exiled mayor of Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, said on the Telegram messaging app there had been several explosions.

• Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s mercenary Wagner group, said the battle for the eastern city of Bakhmut had “practically destroyed” the Ukrainian army but his forces had also been “badly damaged”. The Russian-installed leader in the region said Russian forces were moving forward in Bakhmut despite fierce resistance and had almost taken full control of a metals plant there.

• Russian forces trying to encircle the town of Avdiivka in recent days have made only marginal gains despite heavy losses in armoured vehicles, including a tank regiment, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.

• Vladimir Putin conceded that sanctions on Russia could have “negative” consequences for the economy but insisted Moscow was adapting to the penalties and that unemployment “remains at an all-time low”.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has extended an invitation to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to visit Ukraine. In an interview with the Associated Press, Zelenskiy said: “We are ready to see him here. I want to speak with him.”

• Zelenskiy said Ukraine needed 20 Patriot batteries to protect against Russian missiles, and even that may not be enough “as no country in the world was attacked with so many ballistic rockets”. He added that a European nation sent another air defence system to Ukraine, but it didn’t work and they “had to change it again and again”. He did not name the country.

• Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, has urged Russians not to adopt children who she said were “stolen” from her country during the war and deported to Russia. Vereshchuk, posting to Telegram, said orphans had been “stolen in Ukraine” and allegedly given up for adoption in Russia.

• Poland has urged the EU to limit the amount of Ukrainian grain entering the bloc’s market, its prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said, amid anger among farmers over the effect of imports on Polish grain prices.

• Ukraine’s sports ministry has condemned what it said was a partial change of position by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in international competitions as neutrals. Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, described the IOC’s decision as “shameful”.