𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said he wants Hungary to unite with Moscow to defend Hungarian minorities in Ukraine.

“Today, Russia and Hungary are openly speaking out in defence of their compatriots. We can unite our efforts in this regard,” Mr Lavrov told Hungarian state newspaper Magyar Nemzet in an interview published yesterday.

Hungary’s populist prime minister Viktor Orbán is widely considered to have the warmest relations with the Kremlin among EU leaders.

The only nation in the European Union to be seen as an ally to Moscow, Hungary has found itself isolated in the EU due to its rogue approach to Russia.

Top EU officials have been boycotting informal meetings hosted by Hungary.

Mr Lavrov used the interview to praise the country for its “pragmatic course” even as it apparently faces “constant pressure from Nato and the EU”.

“Today, the body of the former Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, Roman Starovoit, was found with a gunshot wound in his personal car,” Russia‘s investigative committee said in a statement.

Starovoit was replaced with his deputy, Andrei Nikitin. A Kremlin spokesperson said: “At present, in the president’s opinion, Andrei Nikitin’s professional qualities and experience will best contribute to ensuring that this agency, which the president described as extremely important, fulfils its tasks and functions.”

The investigative committee implied that Starovoit took his own life, news which comes hours after Putin fired Starovoit in an unexpected move as Russia’s transport sector faces challenges. Russia’s aviation sector is short of spare parts and Russian Railways, the country’s largest employer, has grappled with soaring interest costs as high rates – needed to curb higher inflation exacerbated by the war – take their toll.

Putin’s decree gave no reason for the dismissal of Starovoit after barely a year in the job. Starovoit was appointed transport minister in May 2024 after spending almost five years as governor of the Kursk region bordering Ukraine.

Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least 11 civilians and injured more than 80 others, including seven children, in the onslaught yesterday, officials said.

One person was killed in the southern city of Odesa, another person was killed and 71 were injured in northeastern Kharkiv and falling drone debris caused damage in two districts of Kyiv, the capital, during nighttime drone attacks, Ukrainian authorities said.

Russian short-range drones also killed two people and injured two others in the northern Sumy region, officials said. Sumy is one of the places where Russia has concentrated large numbers of troops.

Also, seven people were killed and nine people were injured in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, regional head Vadym Filashkin said. He didn’t specify the weapons used.

Regional officials in Kharkiv and southern Zaporizhzhia said at least 17 people were injured.

More Russian long-range drone strikes on Monday targeted military mobilisation centres for the third time in five days, in an apparent attempt to disrupt recruitment, Ukraine’s Army Ground Forces command said.

According to the Ukraine Air Force, Russia fired more than 100 drones at civilian areas of Ukraine overnight.

Russia recently has intensified its airstrikes on civilian areas after more than three years of war. In the past week, Russia launched some 1,270 drones, 39 missiles and almost 1,000 powerful glide bombs at Ukraine, the war-hit country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

The strain of keeping Russia’s invasion at bay, the lack of progress in direct peace talks, and last week’s halt of some promised US weapons shipments has compelled Ukraine to seek more military help from the US and Europe.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Ukraine had signed deals with European allies and a leading US defence company to step up drone production, ensuring Kyiv receives “hundreds of thousands” more this year.

“Air defence is the main thing for protecting life,” Mr Zelensky wrote on Telegram on Monday. That includes developing and manufacturing interceptor drones that can stop Russia’s long-range Shahed drones, he said.

Extensive use of drones has also helped Ukraine compensate for its troop shortages on the frontline.

Britain targeted two Russian individuals and one Russian entity as part of its chemical weapons sanctions regime, in its latest effort to punish Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

The British government said it had imposed asset freezes and travel bans on Aleksey Viktorovich Rtishchev and Andrei Marchenko, the head and deputy head of Russia’s radiological chemical and biological defence troops, for their role in the transfer and use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

It said the Joint Stock Company Federal Scientific and Production Centre Scientific Research Institute of Applied Chemistry was sanctioned for supplying RG-Vo riot control agent grenades to the Russian military.

The grenades have been used as a method of warfare against Ukraine in contravention of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the British government said.

A Ukrainian grandmother was left stranded at Krakow airport after being stopped from boarding a flight to the UK over eVisa issues.

Liudmyla Karpenko, 78, had spent 25 hours travelling by bus from Kyiv to Krakow, from where she was due to catch a flight to visit her daughter in the East Midlands.

But she was not allowed to board the Ryanair flight due to a problem in her electronic visa account, which would not link to her old residency permit.

The Independent’s social affairs correspondent Holly Bancroft reports:

US president Donald Trump, speaking at the start of a dinner he was hosting for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House yesterday evening, vented his growing frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Mr Trump has struggled to find a resolution to the the brutal war. “I’m not happy with President Putin at all,” Mr Trump said.

The US president maintains he’s determined to quickly conclude a conflict that he had promised as candidate to end of Day One of his second term.

Russia’s transport minister has been found dead in what authorities said was an apparent suicide — news that broke hours after the Kremlin announced he had been dismissed by President Vladimir Putin.

The firing of Roman Starovoit followed a weekend of travel chaos when airports grounded hundreds of flights due to the threat of drone attacks from Ukraine, although Russian officials did not give a reason for his dismissal.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed at airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but Russian commentators said the air traffic disruptions have become customary amid frequent Ukrainian drone raids and were unlikely to have triggered his dismissal.

Starovoit, 53, served as Russia’s transport minister since May 2024. Russian media have reported that his dismissal could have been linked to an investigation into the embezzlement of state funds allocated for building fortifications in the Kursk region, where he served as governor before being appointed transportation minister.

The alleged embezzlement has been cited as one of the reasons for deficiencies in Russia’s defensive lines that failed to stem a surprise Ukrainian incursion in the region launched in August 2024.

Donald Trump has said the US will have to send more weapons to Ukraine, just days after ordering a pause in critical weapons deliveries to Kyiv.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Mr Trump said Ukraine was getting hit very hard by Russia and needed to be able to defend itself. The US would be sending primarily defensive weapons, he said.

“We have to,” Mr Trump said. “They have to be able to defend themselves. They’re getting hit very hard now. We’re going to send some more weapons — defensive weapons primarily,” the US president said.

The latest remarks by Mr Trump appeared to be an abrupt change in posture after the Pentagon announced last week that it would hold back delivering to Ukraine some air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons because of what US officials said were concerns that stockpiles have declined too much.

The Pentagon has not issued a comment on whether the paused weapons shipments to Ukraine would resume.