Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky gives Belarus stark warning as Kyiv’s drones hit Siberian oil refinery 2,000km away

One person was killed and three were injured after Russia hit Ukraine’s southern Odesa region with an Iskander ballistic missile on Sunday evening, Oleh Kiper, the regional governor, said on Telegram. He said vehicles ‌and fuel storage ⁠tanks caught fire after the strike hit an agricultural facility in the ‌Odesa district.

The details could not be independently verified.

Russia launched a fresh attack on Sumy on Sunday, with several buildings damaged.

Eight people were injured in the overnight attacks, according to Serhii Kryvosheienko, head of Sumy City Military Administration.

A post office, petrol station, apartment blocks and houses were damaged in the attack, he said.

Ukraine’s stronger position in the war with Russia has yet to relieve the humanitarian crisis felt by millions of displaced Ukrainians and worsened by a plunge in aid spending, the head of the International Rescue Committee said.

Ukraine has slowed Russia’s advances on the battlefield to a virtual halt in recent months, prompting G7 leaders to recognise at a summit last week that momentum in the war has shifted.

Speaking during a visit to Ukraine, David Miliband, the IRC’s president and CEO, said it was still vital to recognise the impact of aid cuts, led by the U.S., that has halved the IRC’s budget in the country to a current estimate of $20 million in 2027 from $40 million last year.

“It feels particularly important at a time when there is this new sense of a different geopolitical narrative to recognise the brutality and strain that’s being faced by millions of Ukrainians,” Mr Miliband said on Saturday, World Refugee Day.

At least four people were killed and 28 wounded in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian-controlled peninsula of Crimea, the Russian-installed governor said.

Separately, local ​authorities ⁠in Russia’s ‌Krasnodar region said a Ukrainian drone ‌attack killed ‌one person on a ⁠passenger ferry and set an oil terminal ablaze.

The ferry service across the Kerch Strait, separating Crimea from the Krasnodar region, has been temporarily suspended, the authorities said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged Belarus to dismantle relay stations he claims are crucial for Russian drone attacks on Ukraine.

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Former Ukrainian prime minister Volodymyr Hroisman is the latest Ukrainian politician to return the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland.

Mr Hroisman received the honour in 2011 while serving as mayor of Vinnytsia, for developing regional cooperation with Polish cities during this time.

“I am returning the order as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine and President Zelensky. Not out of resentment towards the Polish people, but with deep respect for them and gratitude for all the years of support, for the millions of Poles who opened their hearts and homes to our people after 24 February,” he said on Facebook.

It comes as part of an ongoing dispute over Poland and Ukraine’s shared history, after Polish president Karol Nawrocki stripped Volodymyr Zelensky of the Order of the White Eagle after he named a Ukrainian military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army – which Warsaw says carried out a genocide of Poles in the 1940s.

Russia has freed 24 Filipinos who were detained for months without charges in a Siberian city, after Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. raised concern for them in a meeting with president Vladimir Putin, Philippine officials said on Saturday.

The 24 arrived in Manila aboard two flights early Sunday, and the first batch was welcomed by Philippine foreign secretary Theresa Lazaro, who accompanied Marcos in his talks with Putin on Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan, the department of foreign affairs in Manila said.

Migrant Workers secretary Hans Cacdac welcomed the final batch of freed workers before dawn. His agency provided unspecified aid to the workers, who were detained in a Russian region known for its extreme winter temperatures.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has accepted an offer from Brazilian ​leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to help work for a peace deal in Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Ukrainian presidential adviser said on Friday.

Zelensky and Lula met ⁠on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in the French resort of Evian-les-Bains on Wednesday, where the Ukrainian leader urged allies to increase pressure on Russia to end the more than four-year-old war.

The ⁠two presidents discussed what could ​reactivate ⁠diplomacy and Lula proposed several ideas, including contacts with permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, presidential communications adviser Dmytro ⁠Lytvyn told reporters.

“They agreed that, in particular, based on such ​ideas ⁠and contacts, they would try to ‌achieve something and later they would discuss it based on the results,” Lytvyn said.