Russian-Ukrainian War Live: Russian rebels behind Belgorod attack say ‘you’ll see us again’; Kyiv repels drone strikes | Russia

The Russian commander of a militia that raided a Russian border region this week said Wednesday his group would soon launch more incursions into Russian territory.

Denis Kapustin, who described himself as the commander of the Russian Volunteer Corps, spoke to reporters on the Ukrainian side of the border with Russia a day after Moscow said it had repelled the raid on the Belgorod region.

kyiv said the attack was carried out by Russian citizens, calling it an internal Russian conflict. Two groups operating in Ukraine – the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom Legion of Russia – have claimed responsibility.

“I think you’ll see us on that side again,” said Kapustin, who introduced himself by his call sign White Rex. “I can’t reveal these things to come, I can’t even reveal the direction. The … border is quite long. Again, there will be a place where things will get hot.

Russian forces carried out overnight drone attacks on kyiv, officials said Thursday, continuing a month-long campaign of airstrikes against the Ukrainian capital.

Military leaders said Kyiv’s air defenses destroyed all drones in the three-hour airstrike, 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 multi-wave attack tactics, with gaps between groups of attacking drones.”

He added that “all detected air targets moving in the direction of kyiv were destroyed” by Ukrainian air defense 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.

Welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. Here’s Helen Sullivan with the latest.

Our top stories this morning: The Russian commander of a militia that raided a Russian border region this week said Wednesday that his group would soon launch more incursions into Russian territory.

And Russian forces carried out overnight drone attacks on kyiv, officials said Thursday, continuing a month-long campaign of airstrikes against the Ukrainian capital. Military leaders said Kyiv’s air defenses destroyed all drones in the three-hour airstrike, the twelfth this month.

Here are the other key developments:

• Washington is reviewing reports that U.S. vehicles were used by Ukraine inside Russia, White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday. He said the United States had made it clear to Kyiv that it did not support such use of US-made equipment.

• The Kremlin said the use of American-made military equipment by pro-Ukrainian fighters who raided a Russian border region this week was a testament to the West’s growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict. The Russian military said on Tuesday it had routed militants who had attacked Russia’s border region of Belgorod with armored vehicles the day before, killing more than 70 “Ukrainian nationalists” and pushing the rest back into Ukraine.

• In Belgorod, nine people remain hospitalized, the supply of public services continues to be interrupted and more than 500 people remain displaced after the cross-border incursion of anti-Russian supporters on Monday, according to Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Russian region.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday urged the Iranians to reconsider supplying deadly drones to Russia. Iranian-made Shahed drones supplied to Moscow have played a major role in Russian attacks on cities and infrastructure. “The simple question is this: what is your interest in being an accomplice to Russian terror? Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address. “What is the benefit to Iran of such a cynical murder?”

• Ukraine will not be able to join NATO as long as the war continues, alliance leader Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. “I think everyone has realized that becoming a member in the middle of a war is not on the agenda,” Reuters reports, he said at an event organized by the German Marshall Fund from the United States to Brussels. “The question is what happens when the war ends.”

• Russia’s Private Wagner Army lost 20,000 fighters in the long battle for Bakhmut, according to group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. He said around 20% of the 50,000 Russian prisoners recruited to fight in the 15-month war had died in the eastern Ukrainian town, and a similar number of his regular troops. The figure contrasts sharply with Moscow’s claims that it lost just over 6,000 soldiers in the war and is higher than the official estimate of Soviet losses in the Afghanistan war of 15,000 troops between 1979 and 1989.

• The assembly of the World Health Organization on Wednesday adopted a motion condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on health facilities. The motion passed by 80 votes to nine, with 52 abstentions and 36 countries absent, Reuters reported.

• The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development plans to spend €1.5bn (£1.3bn) in Ukraine next year to support infrastructure and the economy, said a senior source at the bank. It comes on top of the €3 billion already earmarked for 2022 and the rest of 2023. The funds have helped the economy to keep functioning and to ensure that there are no runs on the banks and that the civil servants continued to be paid.

• The European Union discussed sending the profits of 196.6 billion euros of Russian assets to Ukraine who are stuck in the plumbing of global financial markets, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

• Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR, has accused Washington and London of thwarting efforts to reach a settlement over the conflict in Ukraine and turn a blind eye to what he called an increase in “terrorism and violence” inflicted on civilians by Ukraine.

• The first of three Russian hypersonic missile specialists to be arrested on suspicion of treason will go on trial next week, the court hearing the case said Wednesday. The criminal case against Anatoly Maslov, 76, will open in St Petersburg City Court on June 1, the court said on its website.

• The Netherlands wants to give Ukrainian pilots F-16 training as soon as possible, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said in a letter to parliament on Wednesday. The training would be coordinated with Belgium, Denmark and the UK, and other countries could join, Ollongren added.

• Russia has announced that a court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don will try five foreign men, including three British nationals, accused of having fought alongside Ukrainian forces against Moscow. The trial will open on May 31 on terrorism-related allegations and other charges. The men would be tried in absentia.

• Ukraine’s main Orthodox church said on Wednesday it had decided to switch to a calendar in which Christmas is celebrated on December 25, a move that takes him away from Russia. Ukrainian Christians, the majority of whom are Orthodox, have traditionally celebrated Christmas on January 7 alongside other predominantly Orthodox Christian countries.

• Germany will purchase 18 Leopard 2 tanks and 12 self-propelled howitzers to replenish stocks depleted by deliveries to Ukraine, a member of the parliamentary budget committee that approved the purchase on Wednesday told Reuters. The tank order will be worth €525.6m (£457m) while the howitzers are priced at €190.7m; all are to be delivered by 2026 at the latest, according to finance ministry documents for parliament.