Ukraine-Russia war live: Major power plant destroyed as Kyiv has zero missiles to protect it, Zelensky says

Askold Krushelnycky travels from Kramatorsk to Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s eastern frontline and hears from soldiers who say they cannot hold on much longer as they run out of ammunition. Even if their own drone attacks are so far keeping the waves of assaults at bay for now.

Some 37,000 Ukrainians have been registered missing since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the chief ombudsman has said.

The figure includes civilians, children, and military personnel. About 1,700 people have been illegally detained by Russia, Dmytro Lubinets said, speaking at an event in Kyiv on Tuesday.

Mr Lubinets added that his office was doing everything it could to return the missing and abducted civilians, the Kyiv independent reported.

“Based on an initiative of our office, Ukraine has established an international platform for the release of civilians illegally detained by Russia,” he said.

The US ambassador to Japan urged Tokyo on Tuesday to take a greater role in developing, producing and supplying weapons “to enhance our collective security” amid conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere.

Ambassador Rahm Emanuel visited a Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ F-35 fighter jet factory and stressed the importance of stronger defense industry cooperation between the allies. The United States alone can no longer supply all democracies, he said.

Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday it had detained a man it claimed had tried to kill an ex-employee of Ukraine’s main security service in Moscow last week with a car bomb on Kyiv’s orders.

A powerful explosion ripped through a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado belonging to Vasily Prozorov, a former Lieutenant-Colonel in Ukraine’s SBU security service, on 12 April, leaving Prozorov with wounds to his legs and arms.

Prozorov, who now lives in Russia, had told Russian state news agency RIA how he used his SBU position in Ukraine to pass sensitive information to Russian intelligence agencies from 2014 onwards for ideological reasons.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine on Tuesday.

One of the good decisions made by Michael Gove, who as housing and communities secretary was responsible for the Homes for Ukraine scheme when it was set up two years ago, was to allow the project to be driven from the bottom up.

The scheme was an expression of solidarity from the British people to the Ukrainian people, and the role of the British government, as Mr Gove saw it, was to enable and support it – but mainly to get out of the way.

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A US citizen arrested on drug charges in Moscow amid soaring Russia-US tensions over Ukraine appeared in court on Monday.

Robert Woodland Romanov is facing charges of trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group — a criminal offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

He was remanded into custody in January, and the trial began in the Ostankino District Court in late March. A new court hearing is scheduled for next week.

Some 15 Ukrainian civilians have been injured in a Russian airstrike on the city of Beryslav in the Kherson Oblast region.

The region’s prosecutor’s office said the 15 suffered concussions following a strike that damaged residential buildings, shops, a pharmacy and other buildings at around 11:30 local time.

All 15 received medical treatment at the scene.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky signed into law a bill overhauling army mobilization rules, according to the parliamentary website.

The law will come into force a month after it is officially published.

It obliges men to update their draft data with the authorities, boosts payments to those who volunteer, and adds new punishment for draft dodging.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday said he had asked Chinese president Xi Jinping to exert influence over Russia to end the war in Ukraine, adding that both leaders rejected attacks on nuclear facilities.

Speaking on the final day of his trip to China, Scholz also said China had agreed to open up beef and apple imports from Germany and facilitate pork imports.

Speaking on economic issues, Scholz said Europe wanted to reduce risks, intensify existing contacts and build new ones.

Russian blogger Anastasia Ivleeva, the organiser of a “Nearly Naked” party that caused a major scandal, has been charged with discrediting the Russian army, according to the Moscow court service.

Ivleeva has been charged with an administrative offence, which could lead to a fine, and the hearing has been set for 25 April, the court service said.