Ukraine updates: Russia strikes Odesa for 3rd time this week

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron pledged to provide Ukraine with £3 billion (€3.5 billion; $3.76 billion) in military aid every year for "as long as it takes" during a visit to Kyiv on Thursday. 

"We will give 3 billion pounds every year for as long as is necessary. We've just really emptied all we can in terms of giving equipment," Cameron told Reuters in Kyiv.

"Some of that [equipment] is actually arriving in Ukraine today, while I'm here," he added.

The military aid includes precision-guided bombs, air defense missiles and equipment for 100 mobile air defense teams, his office said in a statement.

"Through our multi-year military funding, weapons provision and vital support to protect and repair Ukraine's energy infrastructure, the UK is standing with Ukraine and we will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," Cameron said.

The former prime minister also met with Ukrainian President Volydymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, and said Ukraine had the right to use these weapons to strike targets in Russia where necessary.

NATO countries have voiced "deep concern" over what they describe as an "intensifying campaign" of "malign activities" by Russia on the alliance's soil.

In a statement Thursday, the group said actions such as disinformation, sabotage, violence and cyber interference threatened their security, adding that these activities would not deter them from supporting Ukraine.

"These incidents are part of an intensifying campaign of activities which Russia continues to carry out across the Euro-Atlantic area, including on Alliance territory and through proxies," they said.

The statement said a number of countries had been affected by Moscow's alleged activities, including Latvia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and the UK.

"We will continue to boost our resilience and to apply and enhance the tools at our disposal to counter and contest Russian hybrid actions and will ensure that the Alliance and Allies are prepared to deter and defend against hybrid actions or attacks," they said.

At least eight children were injured in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region when Russian guided bombs struck a site close to a sports complex where they had been training, local officials said. 

Four of the children were moderately injured and the others suffered minor injuries, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app. An elderly man was also injured.

"The consequences could have been even more tragic," Syniehubov said on national television.

The town of Derhachi, where the incident took place, has been a frequent target of Russian air strikes. Russian forces have increasingly used these guided bombs to target front-line regions. 

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has blamed Russia for jamming GPS signals over the Baltic Sea, after weeks of interference disrupted air travel in the region. 

Estonia has recently seen an increase in the targeted jamming of GPS satellite navigation. Authorities in the Baltic state say the GPS signal jamming is coming from Russian territory and that the problem has worsened since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"We know that Russia has been jamming the GPS signal since the beginning of its attack on Ukraine. Over the last year and a half, this problem has become very serious in our region," Tshanka told Estonian television.  

He said that in addition to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Poland were also struggling with interference.

"If we look at Russia's activities, this attack on GPS is part of a hybrid action that disrupts our lives and breakes all kinds of international agreements," Tsahkna said.

According to an agreement to which Russia is a party, no one should interfere with GPS, he said. Two Finnair planes had to be diverted after GPS interference prevented them from landing in Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu, late last week.

French President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that he did not rule out sending troops to Ukraine. The issue would "legitimately" arise if Russia broke through the Ukrainian front lines and Kyiv made such a request, Macron said in an interview with The Economist.

"I'm not ruling anything out because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out," Macron said when asked if he stood by comments he made earlier this year about the possible deployment of Western troops in Ukraine, which sent shockwaves across Europe.

Macron said "if Russia decided to go further, we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question" of sending troops, describing his refusal to rule out such a move as a "strategic wake-up call for my counterparts."

"I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine," Macron said. "If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe."

Some analysts believe that Russia may be poised to launch a major new offensive in Ukraine.

Russia used more than 300 missiles, some 300 Shahed-type drones and more than 3,200 guided bombs in April attacks on Ukraine, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

He said that many lives were lost in these attacks.

"It is only through strength that we can stop this terror. The strength of our people, the strength of the world's unity, the strength of pressure on Russia, the strength of air defense systems provided to Ukraine, the strength of our soldiers who are holding the front line," Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

This spring, as Kyiv awaited additional help from its allies and its air defenses were stretched thin, Russia intensified its strikes on Ukraine's civilian and energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian exports of wheat and corn are likely to fall by nearly a quarter in the upcoming 2024/25 July-June season after a smaller harvest as a result of the war, Ukraine's first deputy agriculture minister, Taras Vysotskiy, told Reuters news agency.

Giving the first official forecast for 2024/25, he said wheat exports could fall to 14 million tons from 18 million tons in 2023/24.

Corn exports could fall to 20 million to 21 million tons from 27 million, although barley shipments are expected to remain stable at 3 million tons, he added.

Apart from the impact of the war on available arable land, the grain harvest could suffer from frosts in May or drought in May-June, Vysotskiy said.

The forecast of lower exports follows the ministry's forecast of lower production last month. It said Ukraine's grain harvest was likely to fall to about 52 million tons this year from 58 million tons in 2023.

The Kremlin denied US accusations that Russian forces in Ukraine violated an international ban on chemical weapons.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow remains committed to its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), the treaty banning chemical weapons.

The United States on Wednesday accused Russia of violating the treaty by using the choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops and of using riot control agents "as a method of warfare" in Ukraine.

Chloropicrin is an oily substance known as a choking agent that was widely used as a form of tear gas during World War I. Its use is prohibited by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the CWC's implementing body.

The Swiss government said Russia has not been invited "at this stage" to talks in Switzerland in mid-June aimed at helping end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"Switzerland is convinced that Russia must be involved in this process," the Swiss government said in a statement. "A peace process without Russia is not possible." 

Swiss President Viola Amherd has invited world leaders to the first summit on peace in Ukraine, to be held June 15-16 at Burgenstock near Lucerne.

"Let's advance dialogue based on the UN Charter towards a path to peace. Global collaboration is key to shape a peaceful future," she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the summit will serve as a platform to discuss ways of achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace for Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter and international law. 

"I am certain that every peace-loving nation in the world is interested in attending the Summit, because its significance extends far beyond Ukraine," he wrote on X.

Ukrainian drones attacked several Russian regions overnight into Thursday, Russian officials said. According to a Russian military statement, Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the territory of the Bryansk, Krasnodar, Rostov, Kursk, and Belgorod regions.

Regional authorities reported at least two more regions not mentioned by the Russian Defense Ministry were also attacked.

A Ukrainian drone attack on energy infrastructure in the western Russian region of Oryol caused power outages Wednesday night, local authorities said.

Regional governor Andrey Klychkov said the damage was caused when local air defenses shot down the drones over the Glazunovsky and Sverdlovsky districts.

Ukrainian drones also attacked energy infrastructure in Russia's Smolensk region, governor Vasily Anokhin said Thursday on the Telegram messaging app.

He did not say what specific facilities had been targeted but said emergency workers had been dispatched. There were no reports of injuries or deaths.

Russian troops continue to advance slowly towards Chasiv Yar, threatening to surround the key hillside town just 10 kilometers west of Bakhmut which Ukrainian commanders believe their Russian counterparts have been ordered to seize by May 9, when Russia celebrates victory in the second world war.

According to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russian soldiers on Wednesday edged through the wooded areas immediately east of the town, the eastern edge of which is defended by a 30m-wide Soviet-era canal with only two crossing points.

Aerial footage viewed by the Associated Press news agency reportedly shows an "apocalyptic vista" with "with barely a building left intact."

A spokesman for the Ukrainian 26th Artillery Brigade, which is deployed in the city, told the Financial Times that the Russian air force has been launching over 30 powerful glide bombs at the town per day.

From a pre-war population of around 12,500, only around 680 civilians remain in the besieged town, living in "very difficult conditions" without power and running water, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin.

Taking Chasiv Yar would be a significant strategic success for the Russian army, allowing it to command the high ground and target key Ukrainian supply lines which are vital to the defense of the parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions which are still under Kyiv's control.

The ISW calculated on Wednesday that Russian forces had gained over 75 square kilometers of territory in the Donetsk region in April.

It also said that elements of the specialist 76th and 7th Russian airborne divisions were being redeployed to eastern Ukraine from Zaporizhzhia in the south, "likely to reinforce and intensify ongoing offensive operations" and "capitalize on the current window of vulnerability before US military aid begins reaching the frontline at scale."

The southwestern Ukrainian port city of Odesa was targeted by Russian missiles for the third time this week on Wednesday night, resulting in around a dozen injuries, according to local authorities.

City mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Telegram that the "ballistics attack" had destroyed "civilian infrastructure" and injured 13 people.

He added that rescuers were fighting a large-scale fire without providing details.

Regional governor Oleh Kiper spoke of 14 injured people and listed one damaged target as a postal depot.

Odesa, a key Black Sea port through which the lion's share of Ukraine's economically vital grain exports passes, has regularly been targeted by Russian rockets and drones.

Five people were killed on Monday morning this week and three more on Wednesday morning.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Wednesday night that several new "bilateral security agreements" with Ukraine's western partners were close to finalization.

"We are preparing seven new security protocols for our country," he said in his daily video message, "including with the USA."

Zelenskyy said the precise details concerning arms deliveries, financial aid and political cooperation were being developed and that the contracts would support Ukraine through this year and into the next.

"Anything which offers more protection from the Russian terror naturally takes priority," he said.

A Ukrainian drone attack on energy infrastructure in the western Russian region of Oryol led to power cuts on Wednesday night, local authorities said.

Regional governor Andrey Klychkov said damage was caused when local air defenses shot down the drones over the Glazunovsky and Sverdlovsky districts.

There were no reports of injuries or fatalities.

The Oryol region is approximately equidistant between the northern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv and the Russian capital, Moscow.