Ukrainian home town of country’s Eurovision act comes under Russian missile fire during contest
Ukraine came under fire from Russian missiles during the Eurovision Song Contest.
Ternopil, the university home town of the Ukrainian act Tvorchi was among the places targeted, according to Dame Melinda Simmons, the British Ambassador to Ukraine.
“Meanwhile, this #Eurovision night Ukraine is under another Russian missile attack,” Dame Melinda tweeted.
Praising Ukraine’s entrants in the song contest, Dame Melinda added: “Tvorchi (definitely) win the prize for graphics. The staging was brilliant.
“And poignant as their university home town of Ternopil was targeted by (Russian) missiles this eve.”
Earlier, localised Ukrainian advances are continuing in the fiercely-contested city of Bakhmut, where the battle has ground on for months and claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Defenders are seeking to cut off Russian troops by surrounding them from the north and south, a defence and security analyst told Sky News.
Ukraine war latest updates
Disorganised’ Russian retreat highlights ‘severe shortage’ of effective soldiers –
Much of the city has been raised to the ground, leaving behind vast smoking ruins that have been compared to First World War battlefields.
It comes as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Vatican and met with Pope Francis on Saturday.
Ukrainian advances in Bakhmut continue
Defenders forced Russian troops to withdraw from the southern flank of the Bakhmut operation “in bad order”, highlighting a “severe shortage of credible combat units”, according to British military intelligence.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister says Ukrainian troops are advancing in two directions in Bakhmut but the situation in the city centre is more complicated.
“Thanks to the competent planning of the command and the courage of our fighters, the enemy is not able to take the city under its control”, Hanna Malyar added.
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Has Ukraine’s offensive begun?
Russia has acknowledged that its forces have been pushed back in and around the city, blunting a months-long offensive by Kremlin troops that has failed to make significant territorial gains and suffered huge numbers of casualties.
Military analyst Michael Clarke told Sky News that Ukrainian forces appear to be attempting to cut off Russian troops positioned in the centre of Bakhmut by surrounding them from the north and south.
Two Russian army brigades “look as if they have given up the high ground” which the leader of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin was “furious with” for leaving his men exposed inside the city, said Mr Clarke.
“He may have to withdraw from Bakhmut, having taken seven-eighths of the city.”
This is just one of many military probes we can expect to see over the next two weeks, before it becomes clear where Ukraine is really trying to break through the frontline, Mr Clarke said.
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UK sees giving Ukraine long-range missiles as risk worth taking
President Zelenskyy meets the Pope
Zelenskyy meets Pope Francis
Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy visited the Vatican on Saturday, presenting Pope Francis with a bulletproof vest painted with an icon of the Madonna.
He asked the pontiff to back Kyiv’s peace plan and the Pope indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.
“It is a great honour,” Zelenskyy told Francis, putting his hand to his heart and bowing his head as he greeted the 86-year-old Pope, who stood with a cane.
Earlier on, President Zelenskyy met with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni who promised that Italy would support Ukraine for all the time that is necessary.
The Italian premier vowed that she would not call “peace” anything that resembles an invasion.
This is the highest stakes diplomacy via social media.
The American president just posted on his Truth Social platform: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding.
“He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now. But we don’t want missiles shot at civilians, or American soldiers.
“Our patience is wearing thin. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
Israel-Iran live: Trump says US knows where Iran’s supreme leader is ‘hiding’
It was followed minutes later by “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
In real-time, we are witnessing Donald Trump’s extreme version of maximum pressure diplomacy.
He’d probably call it the ‘art of the deal’, but bunker busters are the tool, and it comes with such huge consequences, intended and unintended, known and unknown.
Read more:
The bunker buster bomb which could destroy Iran’s nuclear ambitions
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Nuclear sites targeted in Iran
There is intentional ambiguity in the president’s messaging. His assumption is that he can apply his ‘art of the deal’ strategy to a deeply ideological geopolitical challenge.
It’s all playing out publicly. Overnight, the New York Times, via two of its best-sourced reporters, had been told that Mr Trump is weighing whether to use B-2 aircraft to drop bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Axios was reporting that a meeting is possible between Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi.
The reporting came just as Mr Trump warned “everyone in Tehran to evacuate”. The nuclear sites being threatened with bunker busters are not in Tehran, but Trump’s words are designed to stoke tension, to confuse and to apply intense pressure.
His actions are too. He left the G7 in Canada early and asked his teams to gather in the White House Situation Room.
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Trump: ‘I want an end, not a ceasefire’
This is a game of smoke, mirrors, brinkmanship and – maybe – bluff. In Tehran, what’s left of the leadership is watching and reading closely as they consider what’s next.
Maybe the Supreme Leader and his regime’s days are numbered. Things remain very unpredictable.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
From history, though, regime change, even when it comes with a plan – and there is certainly not one here, spells civil war and from that comes a refugee crisis.
These are truly tense and chaotic times.
World
Ukraine war: 14 killed as Russian missile and drone attacks strike Kyiv – including American citizen
Russian missile and drone attacks have killed 14 people in Kyiv overnight, according to Ukrainian officials.
A 62-year-old US citizen who suffered shrapnel wounds is among the dead.
At least 99 others were wounded in strikes that hollowed out a residential building and destroyed dozens of apartments.
Pic: AP
Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble.
Images show a firefighter was among those hurt, with injured residents evacuated from their homes.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as “one of the most terrifying attacks on Kyiv” – and said Russian forces had fired 440 drones and 32 missiles as civilians slept in their homes.
“[Putin] wants the war to go on,” he said. “It is troubling when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it.”
Pic: AP
Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said 27 locations across the capital have been hit – including educational institutions and critical infrastructure.
He claimed the attack, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, was one of the largest on the capital since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Drones swarmed over the city, with an air raid alert remaining in force for seven hours.
One person was killed and 17 others injured as a result of separate Russian drone strikes in the port city of Odesa.
Pic: Reuters
It comes as the G7 summit in Canada continues, which Ukraine’s leader is expected to attend.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy was due to hold talks with Donald Trump – but the president has announced he is unexpectedly returning to Washington because of tensions in the Middle East.
Ukraine’s foreign minister says Moscow’s decision to attack Kyiv during the summit is a signal of disrespect to the US.
Moscow has launched a record number of drones and missiles in recent weeks, and says the attacks are in retaliation for a Ukrainian operation that targeted warplanes in airbases deep within Russian territory.
Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko says fires broke out in two of the city’s districts as a result of debris from drones shot down by the nation’s air defences.
Read more from Sky News:
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US-UK trade deal is ‘done’, Donald Trump says
Pic: AP
On X, Ukraine’s foreign ministry wrote: “Russia’s campaign of terror against civilians continues. Its war against Ukraine escalates with increased brutality.
“The only way to stop Russia is tighter pressure – through sanctions, more defence support for Ukraine, and limiting Russia’s ability to keep sowing war.”
Olena Lapyshnak, who lived in one of the destroyed buildings, said: “It’s horrible, it’s scary, in one moment there is no life. I can only curse the Russians, that’s all I can say. They shouldn’t exist in this world.”
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