Russian-Ukraine war latest: Russian missile explodes near Zelensky’s motorcade

Russia has lost 421,430 troops in the Ukraine war since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022, according to the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

Russia, according to the Ukraine military, has also lost 6,695 tanks, 10,350 artillery systems, 1,009 multiple launch rocket systems, 701 air defence systems, 347 airplanes, 325 helicopters, 26 ships and boats along with one submarine.

The war in Ukraine could escalate into a full-scale war across Europe, a senior Russian military officer has warned, adding the probability of Moscow’s forces becoming involved in a new conflict is increasing “significantly”.

Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of the Russian army’s Military Academy of the General Staff, made the comments in an article for “Military Thought”, state news agency RIA reported.

“The possibility of an escalation of the conflict in Ukraine – from the expansion of participants in ‘proxy forces’ used for military confrontation with Russia to a large-scale war in Europe – cannot be ruled out,” he said.

“The main source of military threats to our state is the anti-Russian policy of the United States and its allies, who are conducting a new type of hybrid warfare in order to weaken Russia in every possible way, limit its sovereignty and destroy its territorial integrity,” he was quoted as saying.

Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine more than two years ago in February 2022, and have since seized significant swathes of land in the eastern and southeastern provinces of the country. Western allies have supplied Ukraine’s defence forces with arms, training and financial aid but have not deployed troops directly in the conflict.

An Indian national has died after being lured to work in Russia as a “helper” for the army and then pushed into fighting.

Mohammed Asfan, 30, from India’s southern city of Hyderabad, arrived in Russia last November on the promise of a job working in Russian government offices.

At least 20 Indian nationals are currently working as support staff to the Russian army, according to India’s foreign ministry.

“We are in touch with the family and Russian authorities. Mission will make efforts to send his mortal remains to India,” the Indian embassy in Russia said on X.

‘Large explosion’ heard during motorcade attackThe sound of a large explosion reverberated around the Ukrainian port of Odesa as President Volodymyr Zelensky and Greece’s prime minister ended a tour of the war-ravaged southern city Wednesday.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the delegations were getting into their vehicles when they heard the blast, which he called a “vivid reminder” that Odesa is gripped by the war with Russia. It is one thing to hear about the war and “quite another to experience war firsthand,” Mitsotakis said.

Zelensky said the explosion caused an unknown number of dead and wounded. “You see who we’re dealing with, they don’t care where to hit,” he told reporters. Russian officials made no immediate comment.

British foreign secretary David Cameron will discuss boosting support for Ukraine and efforts to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza in talks with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock in Berlin.

The pair’s meeting comes days after Russian media last week published an intercepted online call between senior German military officials about Ukraine, which included details of Britain’s operations in the country.

At the second UK-Germany annual Strategic Dialogue on Thursday, the two foreign ministers will discuss further military assistance for Ukraine and how to put more pressure on Russia.

They will also discuss progress towards a ceasefire in Gaza, aid for the Palestinian enclave and preventing illegal migration.

President Zelensky has regularly visited cities and military units on the front line during the war, always in secrecy until after he has left.

Foreign leaders have made numerous trips to Ukraine, and they occasionally have had to take refuge in shelters when air raid sirens sound.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemned on X, formerly Twitter, what she called the “vile attack” during the Greek visit. She called it a “new attempt at terror” by Russia.

Mr Zelensky showed Mitsotakis around the destruction in Odesa, where in the most recent major Russian attack 12 people — including five children — were killed when debris from a Russian drone hit an apartment block on March 2.

Mr Mitsotakis said Odesa held a special place in Greek history as the place where the Filiki Etairia organization was founded that fought for Greek independence from Ottoman rule in the 19th century.

A Russian drone strike in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy injured four people and damaged multiple buildings, including medical centres.

The Sumy administration said nearly 235 buildings were left damaged in Wednesday’s attack.

The Shahed drones also damaged a medical college, a kindergarten, a school and two other medical facilities, it added.

A Russian missile strike on a village in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region killed a 70-year-old man and injured seven other people, including four teenagers, local officials said on Wednesday.

In a separate incident in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine, the top Moscow-installed official in the Luhansk region said five people were killed and three injured when a bus on its way to a cemetery was blown up by a mine.

It was not clear who was responsible for placing the mine. The official, Leonid Pasechnik, called it a tragedy and said an investigation was under way.

The United Nations said last month that its human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine had verified more than 10,000 civilian deaths and nearly 20,000 injuries in the two years since Russia’s full-scale invasion. It said the actual numbers were likely to be significantly higher.