Russia-Ukraine war: Belarus to hold tactical nuclear drills; Kyiv detains two Ukrainian officials over plot to kill Zelenskiy – as it happened

This blog is closing for the day. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:

• Ukraine announced it had detained two Ukrainian security officials who they claim were involved in a plot coordinated by Russia to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement that it had exposed a network of agents run by Russia’s Federal Security Service whose aim was to assassinate Zelenskiy and other senior Ukrainian political and military officials.

• Belarus has begun checks on the readiness of its army to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, simultaneously with a drill being carried out by Russia. Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the US.

• During his inauguration, where he sworn in for another term as Russian President, Vladimir Putin did not rule out dialogue with the West but said it needed to be on equal terms. In a short speech, Putin also said that Russia was open to developing relations with other countries he described as “the world’s majority”.

• Russia and Ukraine have accused each other at the global chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague of using banned toxins on the battlefield, the organisation said on Tuesday. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that the accusations were “insufficiently substantiated” but added that “the situation remains volatile and extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons.”

• The EU plans to sanction Viktor Medvedchuk, a former Ukrainian politician and businessman accused of high treason by Kyiv, who was released to Russia in a prisoner exchange in 2022. In addition, the bloc is seeking to ban four more Russian media outlets from the airwaves and internet in its latest round of measures against Russia.

Reuters reports that Britain, the US and Australia have sanctioned a senior Russian leader of the cybercrime gang LockBit, the British government said on Tuesday.

Dmitry Khoroshev will face asset freezes and travel bans after being identified as one of the leaders of LockBit, the ransomware group which has extorted over $1bn from victims globally, Britain said.

“In sanctioning one of the leaders of LockBit we are taking direct action against those who continue to threaten global security, while simultaneously exposing the malicious cybercriminal activity emanating from Russia,” the British minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, said in a statement.

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Here are some clips from Vladimir Putin’s inauguration ceremony earlier on Tuesday.

In a speech made after he swore an oath on the constitution, Putin called on the west to approach dialogue with Russia as “an equal”. He said: ‘The dialogue, including on issues of security and strategic stability, is possible, but not from a position of force’.

“Together with our partners in Eurasian integration, with other sovereign centres of development, we will continue to work on forming a multipolar world order, an equal and indivisible security system.”

2:02

Reuters reports that Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said that in order for Europe to avoid conflicts and be safe it must increase its defence capabilities, and he repeated his call for the construction of a common European air defence system.

In the face of the conflict in Ukraine, Poland is strengthening its defence capabilities, allocating over 4% of its Gross Domestic Product.

Speaking at the European Economic Congress, a meeting of politicians and business figures in Katowice, Tusk said EU countries should take joint action to increase spending on defence by at least 100 billion euros ($107 billion).

"Europe must be prepared in the next dozen or so months and the entire next five years for a situation in which no power in the world will dare raise a hand against it," he said.

"Big money will move the war away from Europe's borders for a long time, perhaps permanently."

A joint air defence "must become a European project that will be a financial effort to build a dome over Europe," he said. "We have many more initiatives and meetings than real actions to defend the European sky."

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who attended the congress, also said Europe must spend more on defence, and declared that if she remains in office for another term she will propose new defence projects.

She promoted a previously announced proposal for the creation of a full-time EU defence commissioner, who would help support the European defence industry.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday that Russia's moratorium on deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles is in question because of the "destructive" approach of the US, Reuters reports citing Russia's state news agency RIA.

Russia and the US occasionally exchange views on strategic stability, Ryabkov said, adding that US ambassador Lynne Tracy had left Russia for a certain period of time, TASS news agency reported.

Reuters is reporting that Belarus will be holding tactical nuclear drills together with Russia, according to the state news agency TASS.

Belarus has begun checks on the readiness of its army to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, simultaneously with a drill being carried out by Russia.

Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.

Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said in April that "several dozen" Russian tactical nuclear weapons had been deployed in Belarus under an agreement announced last year by himself and President Vladimir Putin.

Here’s more from AFP on the alleged plot to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskiy:

Ukraine announced Tuesday it had detained two Ukrainian security officials involved in a plot coordinated by Russia to assassinate senior Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Kyiv says that the Ukrainian leader has been targeted by Russia on multiple occasions, including at the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

The Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement that it had exposed a network of agents run by Russia’s Federal Security Service whose aim was to assassinate Zelenskiy and other senior Ukrainian political and military officials.

“The network, whose activities were supervised by the FSB from Moscow, included two colonels of the State Security Department who were leaking classified information to Russia,” the SBU said.

It said that Russia had worked to identify individuals close to Zelenskiy’s security detail who could take the Ukrainian leader hostage and kill him.

Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors announced last month they had detained a man suspected of aiding a Russian assassination plot on Zelenskiy.

And the SBU said last August that a woman had been arrested for over a plot of kill the Ukrainian leader by trying to uncover details of his movements outside Kyiv.

I’ve corrected a post at 12.27 which erroneously stated that France had summoned Russia’s ambassador, following updated information from the Reuters newswire.

Reuters updated its despatch with the following:

France said on Tuesday that its ambassador to Russia had been summoned on 6 May and accused Moscow’s diplomatic service of manipulating information and intimidation.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned France’s ambassador in Moscow but did not give a reason.

“France notes that diplomatic channels are once again being abused to manipulate information and intimidate,” France’s foreign ministry said, adding “the Russian Ministry has once again engaged in a reversal of responsibilities” and “is pursuing its aggressive maneuvers aimed at destabilizing European countries, notably through cyberattacks and hybrid actions”.

France said on Tuesday that its ambassador to Russia had been summoned on May 6 and accused Moscow’s diplomatic service of manipulating information and intimidation.

Russia’s foreign ministry said on Monday it had summoned France’s ambassador in Moscow but did not give a reason.

“France notes that diplomatic channels are once again being abused to manipulate information and intimidate,” France’s foreign ministry said, adding “the Russian Ministry has once again engaged in a reversal of responsibilities” and “is pursuing its aggressive maneuvers aimed at destabilizing European countries, notably through cyberattacks and hybrid actions”.

Ukraine’s SBU security service claims it has caught a network of Russian agents plotting to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other government officials, Reuters reports.