Russia-Ukraine war live: one killed and cathedral in Odesa hit as Moscow launches fresh strikes | World news

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has called for more air defence systems “for our entire territory, for all our cities and communities” following the latest attack on Odesa.

Russia and China have ended their joint naval exercises in the Sea of Japan, the Russian defence ministry has announced, as the two allies seek to deepen their military ties.

The two countries, which share a common desire to counter American hegemony, have grown closer in the military sphere since Russia launched its Ukraine offensive last year, a move China has not condemned, AFP reports.

The Russian defence ministry previously said the main goal of the latest exercises, which began on Thursday, was to “strengthen naval cooperation” between the two countries and “maintain stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific region”.

“The joint Russian-Chinese naval exercises … have ended in the Sea of Japan,” the Russian military said today. “Some 20 combat exercises were carried out … including joint artillery fire on maritime, coastal and air targets.”

Last month China and Russia carried out a joint air patrol over the Japan and East China seas which prompted South Korea to deploy fighter jets as a precaution.

Summary

The British ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, has said there are no military installations in the centre of Odesa, as she condemned the strikes last night.

“This is just a beautiful Ukrainian city, a Unesco World Heritage Site, whose ports export vital food products around the world,” she said, according to the BBC.

EU representative for foreign and security policy Josep Borrell tweeted:

The Ukrainian defence ministry has alleged Russia this morning shelled a cultural centre in Donetsk with cluster munitions.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has said Ukraine has taken back about 50% of the territory that Russia seized since the rapid advances it made following the invasion before being pushed back.

“It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized,” Blinken told CNN today. “These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough … It will not play out over the next week or two. We*re still looking I think at several months.”

Some people became trapped in their apartments following the Odesa attack last night, which left rubble strewn in the street and partly blocking the road.

Svitlana Molcharova, 85, was rescued by emergency workers. But after she received first aid, she refused to leave her destroyed apartment. “I will stay here,” she said to the worker who advised her to leave, AP reports.

“I woke up when the ceiling started to fall on me. I rushed into the corridor,” said Ivan Kovalenko, 19, another resident of the building. “That’s how I lost my home in Mykolaiv, and here, I lost my rented apartment.”

His unit revealed a partially collapsed ceiling and the balcony that came off the side of the building. All the windows were blown out.

Anton Gerashchenko, a Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, digests a new report by the Black Sea Strategic Research Institute.

Some key takeaways:

• “The war will not end with reaching the 1991 state borders of Ukraine. A peace agreement with Russia will mark the end of the war. Ukraine will not become a NATO member until then.”

• “Even partial isolation of Russia seems impossible in the current global economy. Russia has renewed and even surpassed its 2021 figures for imports of complex goods/devices/dual-use components.”

• “The global world seems to be getting more and more divided into 2 parts based on its attitude to the Great War.”

• “It is premature to hope for a rapid disintegration of Russia.”

• “Unless there is a “black swan,” we should assume that the war will last for a long time. Being a warrior state becomes Ukraine’s historical mission.”