Attacks more than 800 miles from border were first in Tatarstan region since beginning of war

• Ukraine war – live updates

Ukraine has launched a series of drone strikes against targets in Russia more than 800 miles from the border, in some of its deepest attacks into Russia’s industrial heartland since the beginning of the war.

The Ukrainian drones targeted one of Russia’s largest oil refineries and a factory that produces Iranian-designed Shahed drones that have been used on the frontlines of the war.

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Factories in Tatarstan attacked overnight

Ministers and officials from dozens of countries are gathering in the Netherlands on Tuesday for a conference on restoring justice in Ukraine, as the war reaches its third year.

The Dutch government said in a statement, “The Netherlands believes it is of vital importance that truth and justice be achieved both for Ukraine and for all victims of Russia’s aggression.”

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A biologist, a postal worker and a farmer are a charismatic trio at the heart of a documentary that builds an emotional connection between film-maker and subject

Bordering Poland and Slovakia, Stuzhytsya is a remote, sleepy village situated near the Carpathian mountains in Ukraine; it literally means “cold place”. Within the already tiny local population, there exists a gender imbalance: most of the men have left for better job opportunities in the EU and elsewhere. Centring on the women who have stayed behind, Maksym Melnyk’s documentary is an intimate exploration of the hopes, dreams and loneliness that swell in a place seemingly forgotten by the outside world.

Initially observational in style, the film introduces us to a charismatic trio of women. Nelya, a biologist, sweetly lights up whenever she comes across a pile of animal excrement, rich with valuable samples for her sadly underfunded research into the ecosystem of insects. The lack of government support also plagues Maria, Stuzhytsya’s only postal worker. In charge of distributing meagre pensions to the villagers, she is constantly anxious about the lack of stamps provided by the state. Such a shortage would mean a delay in welfare support, which would be catastrophic for the residents.

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‘We are convinced there will be no lasting peace if it is not negotiated with the Ukrainians,’ says France’s foreign minister Stéphane Séjourné

Welcome to our live coverage on Ukraine . It is just after 10am in Kyiv and in Moscow and I’m Donna Ferguson . Here are the headlines:

France’s top diplomat has said China must speak clearly to Russia over its war in Ukraine. “We expect China to send very clear messages to Russia,” said Emmanuel Macron’s foreign minister, Stephane Sejourne, after meeting his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in Beijing. “We are convinced that there will be no lasting peace if it is not negotiated with the Ukrainians. “There will be no security for Europeans if there is no peace in accordance with international law.”

Ukraine’s air force shot down two out of three Russia-launched Shahed drones on Sunday night , the Ukrainian military said on Monday. The general staff did not provide additional details.

Russian attacks killed at least three people in different regions of eastern Ukraine, local officials said on Sunday, and two more in Lviv region , far from the frontlines. In the centre of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv , a frequent target of Russia’s attacks on energy and other infrastructure, a strike hit civilian targets in the evening, said the regional governor, Oleh Synehubov. Regional news outlets said bombs were dropped on different areas of the region. No injuries were reported. Earlier on Sunday, heavy shelling killed a man in the town of Borova, south-east of Kharkiv , local prosecutors said.

Police in the Donetsk region, in Ukraine’s south-east, said Russian shelling hit 14 towns and villages, with two dead reported in Krasnohorivka , west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

Russian attacks on infrastructure extended well behind the frontlines. The Lviv regional governor, Maksym Kozitskyi, said two bodies were pulled from rubble after cruise missile strikes.

Russian forces bombed the border territories and settlements of the Sumy region 39 times on Sunday, the Ukrainian local regional military administration said. There were 157 explosions recorded from ordnance including artillery shells, mortars, exploding drones, drone-dropped mines and grenades, and rockets fired from helicopters. Sumy has been pounded by Russian attacks in recent weeks, forcing evacuations .

Over the border in Russia’s Belgorod region , the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed when a border village came under attack . The accounts of military action from either side were not independently confirmed.

“Our spirit does not give up,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in an Easter message. “There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Zelenskiy wrote to Ukrainians on social media, following Russian missile strikes.

Zelenskiy was in Bucha on Sunday alongside the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, and several foreign ambassadors to mark two years since the city and surrounding areas’ were liberated from a brutal month-long occupation by Russia at the start of the war. The Ukrainian leader laid a lamp at the town’s wall of remembrance, which names the 509 civilians who have so far been identified of those killed during Bucha’s occupation.

France will deliver hundreds of old armoured vehicles and new surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. The French defence minister, Sebastien Lecornu, told a French newspaper that the president, Emmanuel Macron, had asked him to prepare a new aid package, which will include old but still functional equipment, as well as new missiles.

Protesters in Kyiv have demonstrated for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov brigade. Relatives and friends of captured soldiers, some dressed in military clothing, waved placards at passing traffic.

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Heavy bombing continues in Sumy oblast; two dead in cruise missile attack in Lviv, far behind the frontlines. What we know on day 768

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Russian attacks killed at least three people in different regions of eastern Ukraine, local officials said on Sunday, and two more in Lviv region , far from the frontlines. In the centre of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv , a frequent target of Russia’s attacks on energy and other infrastructure, a strike hit civilian targets in the evening, said the regional governor, Oleh Synehubov. Regional news outlets said bombs were dropped on different areas of the region. No injuries were reported. Earlier on Sunday, heavy shelling killed a man in the town of Borova, south-east of Kharkiv , local prosecutors said.

Police in the Donetsk region, in Ukraine’s south-east, said Russian shelling hit 14 towns and villages, with two dead reported in Krasnohorivka , west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

Russian attacks on infrastructure extended well behind the frontlines. The Lviv regional governor, Maksym Kozitskyi, said two bodies were pulled from rubble after cruise missile strikes.

Russian forces bombed the border territories and settlements of the Sumy region 39 times on Sunday, the Ukrainian local regional military administration said. There were 157 explosions recorded from ordnance including artillery shells, mortars, exploding drones, drone-dropped mines and grenades, and rockets fired from helicopters. Sumy has been pounded by Russian attacks in recent weeks, forcing evacuations .

Over the border in Russia’s Belgorod region , the regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a woman was killed when a border village came under attack . The accounts of military action from either side were not independently confirmed.

“Our spirit does not give up,” Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in an Easter message. “There is no night or day when Russian terror does not try to break our lives,” Zelenskiy wrote to Ukrainians on social media, following Russian missile strikes.

Zelenskiy was in Bucha on Sunday alongside the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, and several foreign ambassadors to mark two years since the city and surrounding areas’ were liberated from a brutal month-long occupation by Russia at the start of the war. The Ukrainian leader laid a lamp at the town’s wall of remembrance, which names the 509 civilians who have so far been identified of those killed during Bucha’s occupation.

France will deliver hundreds of old armoured vehicles and new surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. The French defence minister, Sebastien Lecornu, told a French newspaper that the president, Emmanuel Macron, had asked him to prepare a new aid package, which will include old but still functional equipment, as well as new missiles.

Protesters in Kyiv have demonstrated for the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov brigade. Relatives and friends of captured soldiers, some dressed in military clothing, waved placards at passing traffic.

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Alex Lidagovsky was forced to leave Ukraine with his family when his studio was bombed during the Russian invasion

A Ukrainian sculptor who fled to the UK when his studio was destroyed has been accepted into the Royal Society of British Artists.

Alex Lidagovsky was forced to leave Kyiv with his wife, Dasha Nepochatova, and 16-year-old stepdaughter after the Russian invasion began on 24 February 2022.

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SBU dismisses demand as pointless and hypocritical, ‘coming from the terrorist state itself’

Russia has demanded that Ukraine extradite a number of people, including the head of the country’s SBU security service, over claims they are connected with “terrorist” acts.

The SBU immediately dismissed the Russian demand as “pointless” and said the Russian foreign ministry had “forgotten” that Vladimir Putin was the subject of an international arrest warrant.

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Lviv governor says more people may be under rubble after cruise-missile attack as Moscow ratchets up targeting of infrastructure

• Ukraine war – live updates

Russia has carried out another round of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine’s much-depleted energy network, killing at least two people.

One man died in a cruise-missile attack on infrastructure in the western Lviv region, while another was killed after a projectile hit a petrol station in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, officials said on Sunday.

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Ukraine president issues Easter message to nation after night marked by Russian missile strikes

AP reports that Ukraine launched ten Czech-made Vampire rockets at the Russian border region of Belgorod , according to Russia’s Ministry of Defence.

One woman was injured when a fire broke out following the attack, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

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