Russia Ukraine war live: Putin’s forces ‘drop 200 bombs’ near border as Kyiv ‘attacks air base in Russia’

The Kremlin claimed that President Putin won more than 87 per cent of the vote, by far the biggest landslide in post-Soviet Russian history. That follows years of repression and a crackdown on dissent that has accelerated since Moscow invaded Ukraine two years ago and the whole election process being controlled.

In claiming victory, Putin again sought to threaten the West against deploying troops to Ukraine, saying that a possible conflict between Russia and Nato would put the world “a step away” from a third world war.

Russia on Wednesday said a proposal by European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to take 90 per cent of revenues from Russian assets frozen in Europe and transfer them to buy weapons for Ukraine was “banditry and theft”.

Under Borrell’s plan, proceeds from the assets such as interest payments would go to the European Peace Facility, an off-budget fund that provides military aid to countries outside the EU and has been used mainly for Ukraine.

The Kremlin said such plans – if implemented – would destroy Europe’s reputation as a reliable guardian of property rights and lead to years of litigation.

“Europeans are well aware of the damage such decisions can do to their economy, their image, and their reputation as reliable, so to speak, guarantors of the inviolability of property,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

“The damage will be inevitable. The persons who will be involved in making such decisions, the states that will decide this, of course, they will become the objects of prosecution for many decades.”

Ukrainian drones operated by the GUR military intelligence agency attacked the Engels air base deep inside Russian territory early on Wednesday and Kyiv was assessing the damage, a Ukrainian intelligence source said.

The governor of the Saratov region, where the base is located, said Ukrainian drones had been downed near the city of Engels but did not report any damage.

“The results are being verified,” the Ukrainian source said of the attack.

The base is the main home of Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet and is located near the city of Saratov – about 730 km (450 miles) southeast of Moscow and hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

Three Russian air force personnel died in December 2022 when a drone believed to be Ukrainian was shot down at the Saratov base.

Askold Krushelnycky has spoken to soldiers on the front line around the city of Kupiansk as they face an increasingly intense assault by Russia, including glide bombs that can destroy bunkers.

Kyiv’s forces are fortifying their defences with razor wire, trenches and metal ‘dragon’s teeth’ to ensnare any tanks that seek to break through.

As Captain Maksym Radchenko of the 123rd Kupiansk Battalion of the 113 Kharkiv Territorial Defence Brigade explains, the Oskil River on the eastern edge of the city has helped Ukrainian forces keep the Russians at bay.

“The river is a natural defence system for us because crossing water is very difficult for an attacking enemy force,” says Radchenko.

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President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia will ensure the security of its border regions, which have been frequently shelled from Ukraine.

He told a meeting with activists in the Kremlin that Russia has its own plans how to respond but will not attack population and civilian targets in Ukraine.

“The primary task is to guarantee security. There are different methods here, they aren’t easy but we will do this,” he said in televised comments.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday that European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s proposal to use revenues from frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine would undermine the foundations of international law.

In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Europeans were aware of the damage being done to their reputation by the proposals.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has criticised the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) for their decision to cut cooperation with Russian scientists.

CERN said in December it would cut cooperation with Russia from November 2024 and Belarus from June due to the war in Ukraine.

“We consider such actions to be politicised and absolutely unacceptable,” Ms Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. “The West is increasing pressure on our country in the field of fundamental science.”

She added that the decision by CERN was discriminatory against Russian scientists.

CERN, which provides a unique range of particle accelerator facilities, formalised cooperation with the Soviet Union in 1967.

Watch live as Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova discusses topical foreign policy issues:

A Russian border region plans to evacuate some 9,000 children from the area as it is continuously shelled from the Ukrainian side, an official said Tuesday. Kyiv’s forces have increasingly been striking at targets behind the extensive front line that has changed little after more than two years of war.

The children are to be moved further east, away from the Ukraine border, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod border region, Vyacheslev Gladkov, said.

The announcement came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin wants to create a buffer zone to help protect border regions from long-range Ukrainian strikes and cross-border raids.

The European Union reached a provisional agreement on Wednesday to grant Ukrainian food producers tariff-free access to its markets until June 2025, albeit with new limits on imports of grains.

The European Commission proposed in January to suspend duties and quotas on Ukrainian farm produce for a further year, with an “emergency brake” for poultry, eggs and sugar leading to tariffs if imports exceed the average levels of 2022 and 2023.

However, after months of protests from farmers over EU environmental rules and cheap imports, EU lawmakers pushed to extend the emergency list to other farm produce and add 2021 as a reference year. This was before Russia‘s invasion, when Ukrainian exports to the EU were curbed by tariffs and quotas.

Negotiators for the European Parliament and the Belgian EU presidency agreed in the early hours of Wednesday to add oats, maize, groats and honey to the list, while keeping the limit as the average of 2022 and 2023 imports.

Negotiators ensured the Commission would act within 14 days, instead of an initially envisaged 21 days, if trigger levels were reached.

They also added a commitment from the Commission to monitor imports of Ukrainian wheat and other cereals and to take action if they disrupt EU markets.