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Four-year-old child and pregnant woman among those in a serious condition after strike on seafront park in Black Sea port city
Good morning and welcome to our Ukraine blog.
A Russian missile attack on an educational institution in a popular seafront park in the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, known locally as ‘Harry Potter castle’, on Monday killed at least five people and injured 32, local officials said. The previous death toll was four.
Nato countries have not delivered what they promised to Ukraine in time, which has benefited Russia on the frontline, Jens Stoltenberg has said. “Serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield” for Ukraine, the Nato secretary general said in Kyiv while meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukrainian officials say Russia is assembling forces for a major summer offensive, even if its troops are making only incremental gains at the moment. “The lack of ammunition has allowed the Russians to push forward along the frontline,” Stoltenberg added. “Lack of air defence has made it possible for more Russian missiles to hit their targets, and the lack of deep strike capabilities has made it possible for the Russians to concentrate more forces.” Zelenskiy said new western supplies have started arriving, but slowly. “This process must be speeded up,” he said.
The head of the southern Kherson region said Russian shelling killed one person in the last 24 hours.
Debris showed that an North Korean Hwasong-11 ballistic missile hit Kharkiv on 2 January, UN sanctions monitors have told a security council committee in a report seen by Reuters. The missile was most likely illegally supplied to Russia, they conclude. North Korea is accused of developing such weapons and supplying them to Russia despite being under UN sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes since 2006. Ukraine’s allies have accused North Korea of transferring weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine in violation of an arms embargo. The US has accused Russia of launching North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles against Ukraine on at least nine occasions.
Away from the frontline, Polish farmers have lifted blockades at border crossings with Ukraine, officials said on Monday, ending a two-month protest over farm imports and alleged unfair competition.
Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh, made an unannounced visit to Ukraine – the first British royal to travel to the country since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion.
Buckingham Palace said on Monday that Sophie, wife of Prince Edward, met Zelenskiy and first lady Olena Zelenska in Kyiv and delivered a message on behalf of King Charles III. It did not disclose the timing or details of the visit. The palace said Sophie made the trip “to demonstrate solidarity with the women, men and children impacted by the war and in a continuation of her work to champion survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.”
