Russia-Ukraine war: Russia reinforcing in south in response to anticipated Ukrainian offensives, UK intelligence says – live | Ukraine

With Moscow saying its forces will step up military operations in “all operational areas”, Russia is now reinforcing its defensive positions across the occupied areas in southern Ukraine, the British defence ministry said on Sunday.

Russian force are moving manpower and equipment and defensive stores between Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia, and in Kherson, all the while increasing security measures in Melitopol.

“Russian defensive moves are likely a response to anticipated Ukrainian offensives, to demands made by defence minister (Sergei Shoigu) on a recent visit to the Donbas, and also to the attacks Ukraine is launching against command posts, logistic nodes and troop concentrations,” the ministry wrote on Twitter.

“Given the pressures on Russian manpower, the reinforcement of the south whilst the fight for the Donbas continues likely indicates the seriousness with which Russian commanders view the threat.”

Many nations in the Group of 20 major economies condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for it to end the war during ministerial talks in Indonesia, the host said in its closing statement early on Sunday.

Agence France-Presse reports that the two-day gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors on the resort island of Bali ended without a joint communique because of disagreements with Russia about the war.

But western nations pressed Russia over the military assault, accusing Moscow of sending a shockwave through the global economy and its technocrats of complicity in alleged war crimes committed during the invasion.

Indonesia said: “Many members agreed that the recovery of the global economy has slowed and is facing a major setback as a result of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which was strongly condemned, and called for an end to the war.”

However, Canada said earlier that Russia’s participation in the forum was inappropriate and “absurd”.

“Russia’s presence at this meeting was like inviting an arsonist to a meeting of firefighters,” the Canadian finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, said on Saturday in Bali, adding that her government protested at the gathering that it did not want Russia to be there.

“That is because Russia is directly and solely responsible for the illegal invasion of Ukraine, and its economic consequences, which are being felt by us all.”

Jakarta, which has been balancing its neutral foreign policy stance with hosting the G20 summit in November, replaced a joint communique with a 14-paragraph chair’s statement that did not fall under the forum’s banner and included two sections on members’ differences.

“One member expressed the view that the sanctions are adding to existing challenges,” it said, in an apparent reference to Russia, which has denied blame for the global economic headwinds.

Ukraine’s atomic energy agency has accused Russia of using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant to store weapons and shell the surrounding regions of Nikopol and Dnipro, which were hit on Saturday.

Petro Kotin, president of Ukrainian nuclear agency Energoatom, called the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant “extremely tense”, with up to 500 Russian soldiers controlling it, Agence France-Presse reports.

The plant in south-east Ukraine has been under Russian control since the early weeks of Moscow’s invasion but is still operated by Ukrainian staff.

Russian missiles struck residential buildings in the city of Nikopol on Saturday, killing two people, said the Dnipro regional governor, Valentin Reznichenko.

In the north-east region around Ukraine’s second city of Kharkiv, the governor, Oleg Synegubov, said an overnight Russian missile attack killed three in the town of Chuguiv.

Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military official, after Moscow said its forces would step up military operations in “all operational areas”.

Russian rockets and missiles have pounded cities in strikes that Kyiv says have killed at least 40 people in the past three days.

“It is not only missile strikes from the air and sea,” Reuters reported Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence, as saying on Saturday.

“We can see shelling along the entire line of contact, along the entire frontline. There is an active use of tactical aviation and attack helicopters … Clearly preparations are now under way for the next stage of the offensive.”

The Ukrainian military said Russia appeared to be regrouping units for an offensive towards Sloviansk, a symbolically important city held by Ukraine in the eastern region of Donetsk.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. As it approaches 10am in Kyiv, here’s a summary of the latest developments.

• Seven civilians have been evacuated from Sviatohirsk Lavra in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk. Among those evacuated include a family with three children and two elderly people, according to Ukraine’s defence ministry intelligence directorate. The youngest evacuee was born just a few days earlier at a monastery.
• The Ukraine armed forces are advancing “confidently” towards Kherson in south-east Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian military spokesperson. Natalia Hemeniuk, the head of the press centre at Operation Command South, “speaking about what is happening directly in Kherson direction, we are advancing there”, she said. “Maybe we are not moving as fast as those who present positive news would like, but believe me, these steps are very confident.”
• Russian forces are preparing for a new offensive, the Kyiv Independent reports. According to Vadym Skibitsky, a representative of the intelligence directorate at Ukraine’s defence ministry, Russian activity signals that “undoubtedly, preparations for the next stage of offensive actions are under way”.
• The war in Ukraine “concerns the west as a whole” but at the same time must not lead to “forgetting Africa’s security” needs, France’s armed forces minister, Sebastien Lecornu, said. “We have a form of myopia in Europe and France, where the Ukraine war mobilises all our energy, and that is natural – it is a conflict that concerns the west as a whole,” Lecornu said in Ivory Coast on Saturday after visiting Niger.
• “No Russian missiles or artillery can break our unity,” the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a statement on Saturday. In an address on the anniversary of the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine, he added: “It should be equally obvious that it cannot be broken with lies or intimidation, fakes or conspiracy theories.”
• All bodies have been identified after Russia’s missile strike on Vinnytsia, the region’s governor announced. According to the Vinnytsia oblast governor, Serhii Borzov, 68 people are currently hospitalised, 14 of them are in serious condition. Rescue operations after the attack have concluded. Twenty-three people were killed, 202 injured, one person is missing and three others have been rescued in the central-west Ukrainian city, according to the country’s state emergency service.
• Around 100 to 150 civilians were killed by Russian military strikes in Ukraine over the past two weeks, according to the Pentagon. In a briefing on Friday, a senior US military official said: “I think all told over the week … we’re looking at between 100, 150, somewhere in there, civilian casualties, civilian deaths, this week in Ukraine as a result of Russian strikes.”