?Live: Wagner group begins transferring Bakhmut positions to Russian army

3:01pm: Finland to send more arms to Ukraine

Finland’s government said on Thursday it would send additional military equipment to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft weaponry and ammunition at an overall cost of EUR109 million.

“For operational reasons and in order to ensure the safe delivery of assistance, no further details are provided on the exact content, method or timetable of assistance,” the government said

2:29pm: Russian prosecutor asks court to recognise Nazi WWII crimes in Moscow region as ‘genocide’

Russian prosecutors have asked a court to recognise crimes committed by Nazi Germany in the Moscow region during World War II as genocide against the peoples of the Soviet Union, they said in a statement.

The move appeared part of a wider effort by Russia to portray its war in Ukraine as an existential struggle like that fought by the Soviet Union, which lost some 27 million people in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.

1:57pm: Ukraine secures release of 106 soldiers in swap with Russia

Ukraine secured the release of 106 captured soldiers in a prisoner exchange with Russia on Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s chief of staff said. The soldiers, including eight officers, were captured fighting in the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut that Russia says it has captured, but where Kyiv’s forces say they still have a small foothold.

“Every one of them is a hero of our state. Many of the ones we are returning from captivity were considered missing. The relatives of these people have gone through a difficult time,” said the senior official, Andriy Yermak. There was no immediate information about the forces Russia received from Ukraine in exchange.

Ukrainian military intelligence says that 2,430 Ukrainians have been freed in prisoner swaps, including 139 civilians.

1:48pm: Ukraine announces diplomatic push for Africa

Ukraine on Thursday said it would open more embassies in Africa and stage a summit with leaders from the continent, where Russia is also carrying out a diplomatic offensive.

“We have recently adopted our first African strategy and intensified our political dialogue with many countries on the continent,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the African Union‘s forerunner.

“This year, we are going to establish new embassies in different parts of the continent and plan to hold the first Ukraine-Africa Summit. I invite the leaders of your countries to take part in this important event.”

He added: “We want to develop a new quality of partnership based on three mutual principles: mutual respect, mutual interests, and mutual benefits.”

Kuleba is currently on a tour of Africa, where he made an appeal from Addis Ababa on Wednesday to Ukraine’s “African friends” to end their declared neutrality in the war.

1:07pm: Russia summons Germany, Denmark, Sweden envoys over Nord Stream investigation

Russia‘s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that it had summoned the ambassadors of Germany, Sweden and Denmark to protest over what it said was the “complete lack of results” of an investigation into blasts that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September last year.

10:35am: Russia shuts down Swedish consulate, expels five diplomats, says ties at ‘unprecedented low’

Russia said on Thursday it will shut down the Swedish consulate and expel five diplomats in what it said was a retaliatory measure for Sweden‘s “confrontational course” in relations with Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said it was responding to the expulsion of five of its diplomatic staff from Sweden last month, which it called an “openly hostile step”. Relations between the two countries have worsened since Sweden last year announced its intention to join NATO following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Russian statement said ties had “reached an unprecedented low”.

10:18am: Russia’s Shoigu says nuclear deployment in Belarus driven by sharp escalation of threats on western border

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Thursday that the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus was driven by rising tensions with the West.

“In the context of an extremely sharp escalation of threats on the western borders of Russia and Belarus, a decision was made to take countermeasures in the military-nuclear sphere,” TASS news agency quoted him as saying.

9:45am: Russia says it said from the start that Ukraine was behind Kremlin drone attack

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said Russia had said from the start that Ukraine was behind a drone attack on the Kremlin in early May, after the New York Times reported that US spy agencies assessed that one of Ukraine’s special military or intelligence units probably orchestrated it.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied at the time that Ukraine was responsible. “We immediately said that the Kyiv regime was behind this. In the end, it doesn’t make much difference which of the units of the Kyiv regime is behind it,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

8:55am: Russia’s Wagner begins withdrawal of units from Bakhmut

Russia’s Wagner mercenary group has started withdrawing its forces from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video published on Thursday.

Prigozhin announced the capture of Bakhmut on Saturday after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war. He said his fighters would pull out and regular Russian troops would move in to replace them.

8:47am: Russia, Belarus sign document on tactical nuclear weapon deployment in Belarus

The defence ministers of Russia and Belarus on Thursday signed a document on the deployment of Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported.

Separately, Russian media reported that Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu said that the West was waging an “undeclared war” against Russia and Belarus. Russia and Belarus, which are close allies over the conflict in Ukraine, agreed earlier this year to deploy part of Moscow’s tactical nuclear arsenal in Belarus.

8:44am: Zelensky says Russia ‘terrorising’ Ukraine as 36 drones downed

President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of terrorising Ukrainians on Thursday, as his military announced it had shot down 36 Iranian-made attack drones deployed by Moscow’s forces.

“The enemy continued to terrorise Ukraine by launching 36 Shaheds. None reached their target,” Zelensky said in a social media post, after the Ukrainian military said it had downed more than two dozen drones.

8:10am: Russia’s FSB says it detained 2 Ukrainians plotting to blow up power lines of Russian nuclear power stations

Russia’s security service on Thursday announced the arrest of two Ukrainians who it said had planned to target nuclear power plants in the country.

“A sabotage group from the Ukrainian foreign intelligence service… tried to blow up some 30 power lines of nuclear power plants in Leningrad and Kalinin” in early May with the aim of stopping the nuclear reactors at the plants, Russian news agencies quoted the FSB as saying in a statement.

8:07am: Six drones shot down in Crimea, no casualties, Russian-backed chief says

The Russian-backed head of Crimea‘s administration said on Thursday that air defences had downed six drones overnight in different areas of the region. There were no casualties, Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.

8:02am: Ukraine probably behind Kremlin drone attack, reports NYT

A drone attack on the Kremlin this month was probably orchestrated by one of Ukraine’s special military or intelligence units, assessments by US spy agencies show, the New York Times said.

The newspaper said the attack appeared to be part of a series of covert operations that have made officials in the United States – Ukraine’s biggest supplier of military equipment – uncomfortable. The US assessment was based on intercepted Russian and Ukrainian communications, the paper said.

5:03am: Kyiv defences repel Russian drone attack

Russian forces carried out overnight drone attacks on Kyiv, officials said Thursday, continuing a month-long campaign of air strikes against the Ukrainian capital. Military chiefs said Kyiv’s air defences destroyed all of the drones during the three-hour air attack, the twelfth this month.

Serhiy Popko, head of the city’s military administration, said in a message on Telegram that Russia “again attacked Kyiv from the air”. “The attack was massive,” the statement added. “The enemy continues to use attack tactics in several waves, with intervals between groups of attacking drones.”

He added that “all detected air targets moving in the direction of Kyiv were destroyed” by Ukrainian air defence systems. The attacks were carried out using Iranian-made Shahed drones, the statement added, citing preliminary information. Air alerts were also reported in the cities of Kharkiv and Chernivtsi.

10:13pm: EU discussed plan to send profits from EUR196.6 billion in frozen Russian assets to Ukraine

The European Union has discussed sending Ukraine the profits from EUR196.6 billion in Russian assets that are stuck in the plumbing of global financial markets, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Key developments from Wednesday, May 25:

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that reports that pro-Ukrainian Russian fighters who crossed into Russia earlier this week had used Western-made military hardware were consistent with the West’s growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict, and that any further attacks would be responded to “extremely harshly”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the supplying of F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine was a signal that Russia would lose in the conflict and called on Western leaders for quicker deliveries.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

Read more analysis on the war in Ukraine (C) France M?dias Monde graphic studio

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)