The Friday night attack on the warehouse in Myla, a village in the Bucha district, came on the second of three days of nearly round-the-clock Russian strikes that have severely disrupted life in and around the Ukrainian capital.

Three vessels and a helicopter deployed to monitor four ships travelling through the North Sea to the Channel

The Royal Navy spent three days tracking Russian vessels as they passed through UK waters, it has emerged.

The “intense” 72-hour operation took place last week, with radars used to monitor four ships that made their way from the North Sea through to the Channel.

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© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

Three vessels and a helicopter deployed to monitor four ships travelling through the North Sea to the Channel

The Royal Navy spent three days tracking Russian vessels as they passed through UK waters, it has emerged.

The “intense” 72-hour operation took place last week, with radars used to monitor four ships that made their way from the North Sea through to the Channel.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

Ukrainian prosecutors open investigation into why munitions were stored so close to residential buildings

At least 37 people have been killed after a Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv’s western suburbs that was storing “explosive objects”.

The attack damaged at least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, and sparked a huge fire and explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. The regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko, said a further 42 people, including four children, had been injured in the strike.

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© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Ukrainian prosecutors open investigation into why munitions were stored so close to residential buildings

At least 37 people have been killed after a Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv’s western suburbs that was storing “explosive objects”.

The attack damaged at least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, and sparked a huge fire and explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. The regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko, said a further 42 people, including four children, had been injured in the strike.

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© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

The depot, which was in a civilian area near Kyiv, “definitely shouldn’t have been there,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

‘At a time when Russia is trying to spread gloom and darkness … it is important to create something beautiful,’ says combat medic Tetiana as she weds army captain Oleksandr

In the bright early afternoon sun of Kramatorsk’s central and now ironically named Peace Square, Tetiana, in her bridal dress, and Oleksandr, in his military uniform, are holding up their phones at the ready. It is a public holiday, 35 years since Ukraine’s declaration of independence, and a popular day for a wedding, though the open-air location is not obviously ideal.

Three days earlier, Kramatorsk, perhaps Vladimir Putin’s principal target, was formally designated part of the combat zone, the front inching towards the city as Russia closes in on the parts of the Donetsk region it does not control. It is quiet at 2pm though; the ceremony brief. There are no guests other than the Guardian team.

Tetiana and Oleksandr pose for a wedding photo on Mount Karachun, near Sloviansk, the scene of fierce fighting in 2014.

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© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

There is little sign that public exhaustion, economic headwinds or increased Ukrainian strikes are changing the Russian leader’s view that he will eventually achieve victory.

© Pool photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko

Moscow recruits an estimated 1,000 people a day but western officials say it cannot keep up with casualty level

Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit, western officials have said.

While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured.

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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

President denies visit was to gain support for Iran sanctions or due to fears that Putin plans to ‘test Nato resolve’

Donald Trump has downplayed a visit to Moscow by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, as “semi-routine” after he turned up in the Russian capital unannounced, triggering a wave of speculation about the reasons for his trip.

Ratcliffe was reported to have flown to Moscow on a government transport plane on Tuesday in a rare visit after taking off from the Andrews air force base in Maryland.

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© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

© Photograph: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

For many countries in Europe that recall living under Soviet occupation, the specter of the Russian threat is never far from mind. Many of those nations are now part of NATO, the alliance built to repel that threat. One of those states that was occupied for half a century is Latvia, a NATO member that borders Russia. Nick Schifrin spoke with its foreign minister after an active week of diplomacy.

John Ratcliffe’s meeting this week with a Russian intelligence chief was aimed at pushing the Kremlin to pursue a peace deal with Ukraine.

© Kenny Holston/The New York Times

Russia is the largest destination for stolen Canadian cars. Smugglers are meeting the demand of a booming black market.

© Nasuna Stuart-Ulin for The New York Times

The Kremlin said Wednesday that CIA Director John Ratcliffe held talks in Moscow with his intelligence counterparts, a rare and secretive visit at a time when relations with Washington remain strained over Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has decreed that the state can temporarily seize control of critical infrastructure facilities if private owners fail to protect them from Ukrainian drone attacks or rebuild them after the strikes.

Missiles hit facility holding 62 million prevention items earmarked for the country’s harm reduction programmes