Russian missiles hit power facilities on Friday across Ukraine, where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy returned from a tour of Western capitals and Ukrainian officials said a long-awaited Russian offensive was underway inthe east. Read our live blog to see how all the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+1).
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9:58pm: Ukraine’s Zelensky sacks top official, says corruption clean-up drive continues
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday issued a decree sacking a senior security figure and said separately that his drive to clean up the government would continue.
Authorities have dismissed dozens of officials in recent weeks and opened probes as part of a widespread drive against wrongdoing. The European Union says addressing corruption is a requirement for Ukraine joining the 27-member bloc.
Zelensky dismissed Ruslan Dziuba as deputy commander of the National Guard, according to a brief decree issued by the presidential office. It did not give any reasons for the move. Zelensky - who has stressed the need for the defence ministry in particular to be cleaned up - did not specifically mention Dziuba in his daily video address.
Instead, he said he had met defence sector and law enforcement officials to discuss ways to protect institutions from what he called attempts from outside or inside to reduce their effectiveness and efficiency. Referring to the crackdown, he said: "All this activity is not just about certain episodes or criminal proceedings ... the state will continue to modernize the institutions themselves. The purity of the work of state structures must be guaranteed."
6:30pm: ‘We will be in danger if Russia wins’: Security concerns drive Poland’s support for Ukraine
The war in Ukraine has conferred a new importance to the Baltic States and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe geographically closest to Russia – particularly Poland. Warsaw is determined to learn from Poland's own history and help Ukraine win the war. Read our exclusive analysis by FRANCE 24’s Sonya Ciesnik.
>>>‘We will be in danger if Russia wins’: Security concerns drive Poland’s support for Ukraine
5:45pm: Moscow declares popular Russian singer 'foreign agent'
Russia's Justice Ministry on Friday placed Zemfira, one of post-Soviet Russia's most popular singers, on a list of foreign agents on grounds that she supported Ukraine and criticised Russia's "special military operation" in that country.
Tass news agency quoted a ministry statement as saying that Zemfira, whose full name is Zemfira Ramazanova, "openly supported Ukraine, held concerts in unfriendly countries while speaking against the special military operation and received support from foreign sources".
Zemfira, an ethnic Volga Tatar born in the central Russian region of Bashkortostan, began performing in 1998 and gained popularity in Russia and other ex-Soviet states. She was known to oppose the conflict with Ukraine and for a time, her website featured the slogan "No to war".
She is reported by numerous websites to have left Russia to settle in France after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Russians labelled foreign agents have often been subjected to police searches and other punitive measures. Many have left the country in the past year.
2:04pm: Russia says it staged major strike on Ukrainian energy facilities
Russia carried out a "massive strike" on critically important energy facilities of Ukraine's military-industrial complex on Friday, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday.
In a daily update, the ministry did not identify the energy facilities it claimed to have hit. It said the strike had also blocked the transport of foreign weapons and ammunition by rail to battlegrounds in Ukraine.
11:55am: Moscow says calls to ban Russian athletes from Olympics 'unacceptable'
Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said on Saturday that calls from ministers of more than 30 countries to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from the 2024 Olympics were unacceptable, TASS news agency reported.
A group of 35 countries, including the United States, Germany and Australia, will demand that Russian and Belarusian athletes are banned from the 2024 Olympics, Lithuania's sports minister said on Friday, deepening the uncertainty over the Paris Games.
The move cranks up the pressure on an International Olympic Committee (IOC) that is desperate to avoid the sporting event being torn asunder by the conflict unfolding in Ukraine.
"This is a direct interference of ministers in the activities of independent international sports organizations, an attempt to dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in international competitions, which is absolutely unacceptable," Matytsin was quoted as saying by TASS.
11:53am: Wagner owner says war in Ukraine will drag on for years
The owner of the Russian Wagner Group private military contractor actively involved in the fighting in Ukraine has predicted that the war could drag on for years.
Yevgeny Prigozhin said in a video interview released late Friday that it could take 18 months to two years for Russia to fully secure control of Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. He added that the war could go on for three years if Moscow decides to capture broader territories east of the Dnieper River.
The statement from Prigozhin, a millionaire who has close links to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was dubbed “Putin’s chef” for his lucrative Kremlin catering contracts, marked a recognition of the difficulties that the Kremlin has faced in the campaign, which it initially expected to wrap up within weeks when Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
7:55am: Attacks reported across Ukraine
Ukraine's armed forces said in an evening update that Russian forces fired more than 100 missiles throughout the country and staged 12 air and 20 shelling attacks. The Facebook post said 61 cruise missiles were destroyed. Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Russia had hit power facilities in six regions with missiles and drones, causing blackouts across most of Ukraine.
After humiliating defeats on the ground, Russia has in recent months targeted Ukraine's energy facilities, leading to power shortages that have left millions in the cold and dark.
Ukraine's energy operator Ukrenergo said "power plants and high voltage network facilities" had been affected in the east, west and south, with the "most difficult situation" in the region of Kharkiv, near the border with Russia.
The country temporarily lost 44 percent of its nuclear generation and 75 percent of the capacity of thermal power plants, Shmyhal said.
The electrical grid instability caused by the shelling also led to the shutting down of one of the reactor units at Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)
