Ukraine Update…791 Days of the Russian Conflict…Weapons/Ammo on the way…A Hospital attack scare…

• Officials in Ukraine’s capital announced the evacuation of two hospitals – including a children’s hospital – that they fear could be targeted by Russian strikes. Kyiv’s city administration said on Friday that “a video is being widely circulated online, de facto announcing an enemy attack on these medical facilities”. It referred to comments made by the head of the KGB in Moscow-allied Belarus, who said on national TV that the buildings hosted military personnel “hiding behind sick children”, suggesting Russia could regard the facilities a legitimate military target. The city of Kyiv called the claim “an absolute lie”.

• Ukraine’s agriculture minister has been detained after being named as a formal suspect in a multimillion-dollar corruption inquiry. Mykola Solskyi is facing allegations that he took part in illegally seizing state-owned land worth more than $7m when he was head of a major farming company and a member of parliament. He was released on bail. Solskyi denies the allegations and offered his resignation this week, promising to cooperate with the investigation.

• Russian air attacks hit an industrial facility and a residential building in north-eastern Ukraine on Friday, killing two people and wounding at least seven, local officials said. Three children and a woman were hurt when guided bombs hit central Derhachi, a town in the Kharkiv region, the governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said on Telegram. Two bombs struck an industrial facility in the Sumy region, regional authorities said. In a separate artillery strike on the Sumy region, two people were killed and three injured, the national police said.

• The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, announced $6bn in new military aid for Ukraine as Washington rushes to fill gaps left by months of limited American assistance. The package is the second this week, following another valued at $1bn that was announced just after the US president, Joe Biden, signed a much-delayed bill to provide new funding for Ukraine as it struggles to hold back Russian advances.

• Ukraine has said Moscow is ramping up attacks on railways in a bid to disrupt military supplies ahead of a fresh Russian offensive while Kyiv waits for new US weapon deliveries. Kyiv fears Russia is seeking to press its advantage on the battlefield ahead of symbolic 9 May Victory Day celebrations, as both sides continue to launch deadly cross-border strikes.

• A 20-year-old British man has been charged with masterminding an arson plot against a Ukrainian-linked target in London for Russia and Moscow’s ambassador was summoned by the government, authorities said on Friday. Dylan Earl, from Elmesthorpe in Leicestershire, was charged under the National Security Act 2023, the first case to involve alleged offences under the new legislation. Jake Reeves, 22, from Croydon, has also been charged under the act after a fire at a warehouse in east London in March. The British defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the “allegations of Russian malign activity in the UK are deeply concerning”.

• The first reparation payments are to be made in the next few weeks to survivors of wartime rape by Russian soldiers during the invasion of Ukraine, in a move that Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, called “an important step towards restoring justice”. Up to 500 Ukrainian survivors of conflict-related sexual violence are being identified and awarded with interim reparations this year, including financial, medical and psychological support.

• France is working with Germany to convince their European partners to provide more air defence capacities to Kyiv, the French defence minister, Sebastien Lecornu, has said….

More….