Russia Ukraine war live: Pope criticised for saying Kyiv should raise ‘the white flag’

Pulkovo airport in St Petersburg has resumed operations after the Russian defence ministry said a Ukrainian drone was shot down in the neighbouring Leningrad region on Sunday

.Alexander Drozdenko, the Leningrad region’s governor, said Pulkovo’s airspace was sealed off due to the drone, which did not inflict any damage or casualties.

The airport and Rosaviatsia, the country’s aviation watchdog, did not say why the restrictions had been imposed.

An oil and gas trade group has ended a recruitment program that brought Ukrainians from their war-torn country to North Dakota‘s oil field to fill jobs.

The North Dakota Petroleum Council shelved the Bakken Global Recruitment of Oilfield Workers program after placing about 60 Ukrainians with 16 employers from July to November 2023, the group’s president, Ron Ness, said. The goal had been to recruit 100 workers by the end of last year and 400 within the first 12 months of the program, not all of them from Ukraine.

At least two bodies were pulled out from under the rubble after Russian drones hit residential buildings in Dobropillia, Donetsk Oblast.

The Russian military targeted the residential area with Shahed drones on Sunday, governor Vadym Filashkin said.

Another person was killed in the Russian shelling of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast on Sunday morning. “The situation in the city is consistently difficult. There are many attacks during the day,” said Serhiy Chaus, the city’s military administration head.

A lonely man jailed for criticizing the government on his ham radio. A poet assaulted by police after he recited a poem objecting to Russia’s war in Ukraine. A low-profile woman committed to a psychiatric facility for condemning the invasion on social media.

President Vladimir Putin’s 24 years in power are almost certain to be extended six more by this month’s presidential election. That leadership has transformed Russia. A country that tolerated some dissent is now one that ruthlessly suppresses it.

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky criticised Pope Francis’s call to negotiate with Russia.

The Pope over the weekend said Kyiv should have the “courage of the white flag”. Some of the Ukrainian officials compared the statement to a few Catholic churches collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II.

Mr Zelensky in his evening address responded by saying that Ukrainians of all faiths stood up to defend their country when Russia invaded in February 2022.

“Russian murderers and torturers are not moving further into Europe only because they are being held back by Ukrainians with weapons in their hands and under the blue and yellow flag,” he said.

“Christians, Muslims, Jews — everyone… They support us with prayer, conversation, and deeds.

“This is what the church is — with people. And not two and a half thousand kilometres away, somewhere to mediate virtually between someone who wants to live and someone who wants to destroy you,” Mr Zelensky said.

Filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days in Mariupol, a harrowing first-person account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has won the best documentary Oscar.

A joint production of The Associated Press and PBS’ “Frontline”, statuettes were awarded to Chernov, producer and editor Michelle Mizner and producer Raney Aronson-Rat.

“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honored,” an emotional Chernov said. “Probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I’d never made this film, I wish to be able to exchange this to Russia never attacking Ukraine.”

He called on Russia to cease aggression in Ukraine. “I wish for them to release all the hostages, all the soldiers who are protecting their land, all the civilians who are in their jails,” he said.

“We can make sure that the history record is set straight and the truth will prevail, and that the people of Mariupol, and those who have given their lives, will never be forgotten. Because cinema forms memories and memories form history.”

Pushed by poverty, now desperate to return, Narendra Shrestha speaks with the families of men who enlisted to fund a better life – only to quickly discover how easily they might lose the one they have.

Read Narendra’s piece in full here:

The past two years have been the hardest and most tumultuous for European Union candidate Moldova in more than three decades as it faces threats from Russia in multiple spheres of public life, the country’s foreign minister says.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, its neighbor Moldova has faced a litany of crises that have at times raised fears the country is also in Russia’s crosshairs. These included errant missiles landing on its territory; a severe energy crisis after Moscow dramatically reduced gas supplies; rampant inflation; and protests by pro-Russia parties against the pro-Western government. Moldova has also taken in the highest number of Ukrainian refugees per capita of any country.

Large NATO drills in the frigid fjords of northern Norway may be just war games meant to hone the fighting skills of the newly expanded 32-nation military alliance. But for troops taking part, they are very real.

And that’s the whole point.

Russia has appointed Admiral Alexander Moiseev as acting commander-in-chief of the Russian navy, the Fontanka news outlet reported on Sunday, citing unidentified sources.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Fontanka report which said that Moiseev, 61, currently commander of the Northern Fleet, will soon be appointed as naval commander-in-chief on a permanent basis.

Fontanka, a private news service based in St Petersburg, did not mention any reason for the appointment. It said the navy’s press service redirected its request for a comment to the defence ministry which did not respond to a request for comment.

Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, navy commander-in-chief since May 2019, is still listed in that role on the defence ministry’s website.

Ukraine has in recent months stepped up attacks in the Black Sea and on Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.

Kyiv has reported a series of strikes, including the sinking of a large landing ship by naval drones in mid-February and a patrol ship this week. Russia has not acknowledged any such losses.