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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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeks to dislodge Ekrem İmamoğlu and bring city back under control of Justice and Development party

Voters in Turkey have gone to the polls for local elections as the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, seeks to bring Istanbul back under his party’s control in a showdown with his last major challenger, the incumbent mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.

“Let Istanbul return to its rightful owners … You need to rescue this ancient city from the oppression of the CHP,” Erdoğan told attenders at one of two pre-election rallies he held in Turkey’s largest city, referring to the opposition Republican People’s party (CHP).

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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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Other endangered animals rescued in 2023 included a burrowing parrot, an African spurred tortoise and a blood-eared parakeet

Specialist wildlife police in eastern Spain have rescued an exotic list of endangered animals over the past year, including a pair of Nile crocodiles, an African spurred tortoise weighing 25kg and a two-metre Burmese python.

The Seprona division of the Guardia Civil said in a statement on Sunday that its officers had recovered “numerous examples” of species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora during 2023.

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New track features lyrics ‘It’s them that don’t like me’ after far-right backlash against idea she could cover Édith Piaf song

The French-Malian superstar Aya Nakamura, who has been subjected to racist abuse after it emerged that she could perform an Édith Piaf song at this summer’s Paris Olympics, has used a new single to hit back at her far-right critics.

In the track Doggy, released on Friday, the 28-year-old musician sings: “I don’t have enemies, me/It’s them that don’t like me,” adding: “A load of enemies but I don’t even know them.”

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Spain is hit by strong winds and rain from Storm Nelson and four drown on storm-battered coasts

Easter processions in southern Spain have been cancelled after heavy rain from Storm Nelson, as the country was hit by strong winds and four people drowned on its storm-battered coasts.

All of the big processions in Seville on Holy Thursday were cancelled because of the rainstorms that were otherwise welcome in a region that has been experiencing a severe drought.

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Online footage show jet on fire as Ukrainian security expert claims it was shot down

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.

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.

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When the research team at Vernadsky base are not defending their homeland, they are on the frontline of the climate crisis

When Ukraine’s Antarctic research and supply vessel Noosfera left Odesa on its maiden voyage on 28 January 2022, it passed Russian warships in the Black Sea. A month later, Vladimir Putin launched Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour. Noosfera has not been back since.

“A few weeks later, and Noosfera would have been an important symbolic target for Russia,” said Vadym Tkachenko, a biologist who recently completed his second Antarctic winter at Ukraine’s Vernadsky base. The ship now supplies both Ukrainian and Polish Antarctic bases from Chile and South Africa twice a year, at the start and end of the winter.

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Women say being fitted with IUDs without their consent left them with pain, shame and lasting reproductive difficulties

• Danish minister urged to meet Greenland coil scandal women

Hedvig Frederiksen had been at her new school in Paamiut, Greenland, for only a couple of days when she was summoned from her dorm to the local hospital by a Danish caretaker.

She was 14 and had no idea what was going on. “But back then [1974], when a Danish person said something, their word was law, you had to listen to them,” said Frederiksen, speaking from her home in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital.

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