Russia-Ukraine war: Ukrainian hydropower plants attacked in overnight Russian strikes, says Zelenskiy – as it happened

• Russia is outgunning Ukrainian forces sixfold on the front lines, causing losses of troops and positions, Ukraine’s recently appointed commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a rare interview published on Friday.

• Ukraine has received a $1.5 billion (£1.19 billion) tranche of funding under a World Bank programme, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday, helping it pay for its budget and social spending as it defends itself against the Russian invasion.

• Nato member Romania said it had found fragments of what appeared to be a drone on a farm near the river Danube and the border with Ukraine late on Thursday.

• Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said in a statement that energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions had been attacked in Russian missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine’s foreign minister concluded his visit to New Delhi on Friday after talks on bolstering trade and the war with Russia, India’s traditional ally.

India has shied away from explicit condemnation of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, even as it has pursued greater security ties with the United States.

But Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar said on social media that talks with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba had “reiterated our commitment to strengthen the overall relationship with Kyiv”.

“Our immediate goal is to get trade back to earlier levels,” he added.

Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to consider labelling Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent”, a move that would officially designate Russia’s most famous star a foe of the Kremlin.

Pugacheva, known across generations for hits such as the 1982 song “Million Scarlet Roses” and the 1978 film “The Woman who Sings”, has expressed disgust with the Ukraine war.

In 2022, she said the war was killing soldiers for illusory aims, burdening ordinary people and turning Russia into a pariah. Earlier this month, the 74-year-old said that no normal person would return to Russia. She is currently abroad.

Vitaly Borodin, an activist who heads an anti-corruption group and who regularly appears on state television, submitted an official request to recognise Pugacheva as a foreign agent.

Then Borodin published a letter from the prosecutor general’s office showing that a request had been made to the justice ministry to consider that.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had heard no official statements about the issue. Pugacheva, thought to be in Cyprus, did not immediately comment.

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Russia is outgunning Ukrainian forces sixfold on the front lines, causing losses of troops and positions, Ukraine’s recently appointed commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said in a rare interview published on Friday.

“A few days ago, the enemy’s advantage in terms of ammunition fired was about six to one,” Syrsky told the Ukrinform news agency.

“The defence forces are now performing tasks along the entire vast front line, with little or no weapons and ammunition,” he warned, saying the situation was “tense” in some areas.

Syrsky took over as commander-in-chief in February after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fired his popular predecessor, Valery Zaluzhny.

The European Parliament came under pressure on Friday to investigate a Russia-financed network that wielded influence across Europe and involved EU lawmakers.

The Czech Republic said on Wednesday its spies discovered the network had been spreading Russian propaganda through the Prague-based Voice of Europe news site.

The Greens said there needed to be a “swift and thorough” investigation.

“This is how (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is trying to get away with his war in Ukraine.... It’s a direct attack on the very fabric of our democracy,” said Terry Reintke, one of the lead candidates for the Greens in the European elections in June.

“The politicians who have received money from Russia should be severely punished, both politically and legally,” she added in a statement.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine’s Kaniv and Dnister hydropower plants had been attacked in overnight Russian strikes.

“The terrorist country wants to repeat the environmental disaster in the Kherson region. But now not only Ukraine, but also Moldova is under threat,” Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.

One person was killed and two were injured in the Russian city of Belgorod as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Friday.

Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, said he held “sincere” talks with his counterpart in India and “agreed to restore the level of cooperation between our countries that existed prior to the full-scale war launched by Russia.”

Russian prosecutors have asked the justice ministry to label Alla Pugacheva, the queen of Soviet pop music, as a “foreign agent”, Reuters reported citing the state RIA news agency.

Ukraine has received a $1.5 billion tranche of funding under a World Bank programme, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday, helping it pay for its budget and social spending as it defends itself against the Russian invasion.

Ukraine is reliant on financial aid from its Western partners but foreign financing dwindled in the first two months of this year, and a U.S. aid package has been blocked by Republicans in Congress for months.

The new block of World Bank aid was funded by Britain and Japan, Shmyhal said.

“984 million dollars come from Japan and 516 million dollars from the UK. The funds will cover budget spending for social and humanitarian needs and reconstruction,” he wrote on X.

Russia said on Friday that major powers needed a new approach to North Korea, accusing the United States and its allies of ratcheting up military tensions in Asia and seeking to “strangle” the reclusive state.

Since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moscow has gone out of its way to parade a renaissance of its relationship - including military ties - with Pyongyang.

Washington says North Korea has supplied Russia with missiles that it is using against Ukraine, assertions which have been dismissed by the Kremlin and Pygonyang.

For Putin, who says Russia is locked in an existential battle with the west over Ukraine, courting Kim allows him to needle Washington and its Asian allies while securing a deep supply of artillery for the Ukraine war.

Ukraine claims to have shot down 84 aerial targets during the Russian drone and missile offensive.

The defence Ministry of Ukraine said it had shot down 58 Shahed UAVs, 17 Kh-101 cruise missiles, five Kh-59 guided air missiles and four Iskander-K cruise missiles.

Ukraine’s military will need to mobilise fewer people than initially expected to fend off Russia’s two-year-old invasion, Kyiv’s top general said on Friday.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in December that his military had proposed mobilising up to 500,000 more Ukrainians into the armed forces as Russia stepped up attacks along the 1,000-km (621-mile) front line.

Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, who was appointed last month, said in an interview with Ukrainian media published on Friday that the figure had been “significantly reduced” after a review of resources.

He did not name a new figure. “We expect that we will have enough people capable of defending their motherland,” he told the Ukrinform news agency. “I am talking not only about the mobilized but also about volunteer fighters.”

Despite the war, the Ukrainian government continues to spend money on the Vernadsky base, an Antarctic research station.

Some Ukrainians believe government funds would be better spent on the war in Ukraine.

But its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appreciates that the Vernadsky base reminds the world that Ukraine is a global player in science, which contributes to our understanding of the climate crisis, and not just a victim of Russia’s invasion. Read more about those working on the base:

Nato member Romania said it had found fragments of what appeared to be a drone on a farm near the river Danube and the border with Ukraine late on Thursday.

Russia has been striking targets in western and central Ukraine with missile and drone attacks conducted at night.

“In the evening of 28 March 2024, fragments that seem to come from an aerial device (drone) were identified on an agricultural land in Insula Mare a Brailei,” Romania’s defence ministry said in a statement.

“The Ministry of National Defence, together with specialized structures within the National Defence System, public order and national security, is conducting an investigation of the incident.”

Nato has a mutual defence commitment if one of its members comes under attack, but the Atlantic alliance and Romanian officials have said following similar such incidents in the past that they have found no evidence of any deliberate attack targeting Romania.

Romanian authorities found fragments of what appeared to be a drone on a farm near the river Danube and border with Ukraine on Thursday evening, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said in a statement that energy facilities in six Ukrainian regions had been attacked in Russian missile and drone attacks.

The barrage hit thermal and hydro power plants in central and western Ukraine, power grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday.

Shmyhal said Ukraine needs more air defence systems to secure critical infrastructure and protect the population.

Ukrainian state-run Naftogaz oil and gas firm also said its facilities had come under attack on Friday morning.

“(Russian attacks) targeted Naftogaz Group’s facilities, but there was no serious damage,” it said in a statement, giving no more details.

• Russian missile and drone attacks overnight damaged Ukrainian thermal and hydro power plants, electricity grid operator Ukrenergo said on Friday. There were emergency shutdowns in the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. The Dnipropetrovsk governor, Serhii Lysak, said “critical infrastructure” was bombed and a man taken to hospital. Explosions were heard in Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankivsk and Khmelnytskyi regions and the city of Dnipro after Russian cruise missiles were spotted, national media outlet Suspilne reported.

• Poland scrambled planes as Ukraine came under missile attack on Friday morning, the Polish defence force said. The operational command said Polish and allied aircraft were activated due to “intense activity of long-range aviation of the Russian Federation” related to missile strikes against targets in Ukraine.

• A Russian SU-35 Flanker fighter jet has crashed into the sea off Sevastopol, Crimea. Footage online showed a jet on fire, spiralling into the ocean and exploding. The Russian-installed governor of the illegally occupied region, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Thursday the pilot ejected and was picked up by rescuers but gave no details as to the cause of the crash.

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• Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, told the speaker of the US House of Representatives during a phone call on Thursday that it was vital for Congress to pass a new military aid package for Ukraine. Mike Johnson, the speaker, has held up a bill for months that would supply $60bn in military and financial aid.
  “We recognise that there are differing views in the House of Representatives on how to proceed, but the key is to keep the issue of aid to Ukraine as a unifying factor,” Zelenskiy said.

• Zelenskiy said he briefed Johnson about the situation on the battlefield and also spoke about “the dramatic increase in Russia’s air terror”. The Ukrainian military later said that its top commander, Oleksander Syrskyi, spoke to the US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Charles Brown, about battlefield issues.

• Zelenskiy, in a CBS interview, has warned that Vladimir Putin will push Russia’s war “very quickly” on to Nato soil unless he is stopped in Ukraine. Zelenskiy acknowledged that his troops are not prepared to defend against another imminent major Russian offensive, and highlighted the urgency for American Patriot missile defence systems and more artillery.

• The US is telling American companies making and selling parts that can be used in missiles and drones to stop shipping their goods to more than 600 foreign parties who might divert them to Russia. The parts have been found in Russian munitions recovered in Ukraine.

• A Russian court on Thursday sentenced journalist Mikhail Feldman to two years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive on Ukraine.

• Against the backdrop of war in Ukraine, several central and eastern European countries began marking on Thursday the 20th anniversary of the largest expansion of Nato when formerly socialist countries became members.