Ukraine-Russia news – live: Putin ‘ready to freeze war’ as Kyiv ‘secures combat control’ around Kharkiv

The deputy head of the Russian army’s General Staff has been accused of taking bribes and arrested, investigators have said – the latest in a slew of high-profile cases of alleged corruption to shake Vladimir Putin’s top brass.

The arrest of Lieutenant-General Vadim Shamarin is the fourth detention of a high-ranking defence figure within a month, starting on 23 April when Deputy Defence Minister Timur Ivanov was placed in pre-trial detention for suspected bribe-taking.

Since then, Lieutenant-General Yuri Kuznetsov, head of personnel at the defence ministry, and Major-General Ivan Popov, former commander of Russia‘s 58th army, have also been arrested.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff, in its evening report on Friday, said the situation in Vovchansk, Kharkiv was “tense but controlled by the defence forces”.

“The Russian army today launched air terror against this town -- eight guided bombs hit the town,” it said. Attacks were launched on at least two other settlements north of Kharkiv.

A late-night report by the General Staff said Ukrainian forces had repelled 10 Russian attacks in the area, including around Vovchansk.

It also noted Russian forces had achieved “partial success” in areas near Kupiansk, further east in Kharkiv region, and the Pokrovsk sector where heavy fighting has been taking place further south in Donetsk region.

Ukrainian military bloggers said Ukrainian troops had been holding their ground around Vovchansk and Russian forces were using less infantry in the area and instead firing from a distance, with limited accuracy.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukrainian forces had secured “combat control” of areas where Russian troops staged an incursion this month in northern parts of Kharkiv region.

“Our soldiers have now managed to take combat control of the border area where the Russian occupiers entered,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

Zelensky’s comments, after holding a meeting of military and regional officials in Kharkiv, Ukraine‘s second largest city, appeared to be at variance with comments by Russian officials.

Viktor Vodolatskiy, a member of Russia‘s State Duma lower house of parliament, was quoted by Tass news agency as saying Russian forces controlled more than half the territory of the town of Vovchansk, 5 km (three miles) inside the border.

Vodolatskiy was quoted as saying that once Vovchansk was secured, Russian forces would target three cities in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region -- Sloviansk, Kramatorsk and Pokrovsk.

The G7 will explore ways of using the future income from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial democracies said on Saturday, according to a draft statement seen by Reuters.

The G7 froze some $300 billion of Russian assets shortly after Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

“We are making progress in our discussions on potential avenues to bring forward the extraordinary profits stemming from immobilized Russian sovereign assets to the benefit of Ukraine,” the draft statement said.

The statement will not undergo significant changes before a final version to be released later on Saturday, a G7 source said.

The ministers will be joined on Saturday by Ukraine‘s Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, whose war-torn country is struggling to contain a Russian offensive in the north and the east, more than two years after Moscow first invaded.

The finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Stresa, northern Italy, aim to present options on the issue of Ukraine funding for G7 heads of government to consider at a summit in mid-June, the statement said.

“Consistent with our respective legal systems, Russia‘s sovereign assets in our jurisdictions will remain immobilized until Russia pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine,” the statement said.

Nato boss Jens Stoltenberg, whose 10-year stint in charge is coming to an end, says it’s high time for allies to reconsider the restrictions they have put on the weapons supplied to Ukraine, to let Kyiv strike inside Russia.

“I think the time has come for allies to consider whether they should lift some of the restrictions they are put on the use of weapons they have donated to Ukraine because, especially now when a lot the fighting is going on in Kharkiv, close to the border,” the NATO chief said in an interview with the Economist.

He said Russia is waging a war of aggression and Ukraine has the right to defend themselves.

“And that includes also striking targets on Russian territory,” the NATO chief said, noting that some allies have already lifted such restrictions and “it is time for other allies” to consider this.

Mr Stoltenberg emphasised that self-defence is “enshrined in the UN Charter”.

“It is legal, it is legitimate, and we are helping Ukraine with upholding that right and that should include the ability to also strike targets on Russian territory,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited the northeast region of Kharkiv amid Russia’s fresh assault in the area.

The Ukrainian leader said he discussed the frontline situation, particularly in the town of Vovchansk, which has become a primary defensive position near the border with Russia.

The governor of the region, Oleh Syniehubov, and the mayor of the region’s namesake capital, Igor Terekhov, were both in attendance.

Ukraine attacked a Russian military complex in Crimea with long-range missiles provided by the US on Thursday night, The Wall Street Journal reported.

A Ukrainian defence official told the newspaper said the missile landed on a communications centre of Russian air defense forces in the city of Alushta.

Crimean social media channels reported several explosions in the coastal city, with one video showing a large blast, but the extent of the damage is not yet known.

The strike is the latest targeting Russian military infrastructure in the region.

The US sought to build support for squeezing more money for Ukraine out of frozen Russian assets and for uniting against China’s trade practices as finance ministers from the Group of Seven rich democracies opened a two-day meeting on Friday on the shores of northern Italy’s scenic Lago Maggiore.

Treasury secretary Janet Yellen is pushing at the meeting in Stresa for “more ambitious options” to unlock money from some $260 billion in Russian central bank reserves frozen in Europe and the US  after the 24 Feb invasion.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky had no legitimacy following the expiry of his five-year term and this would raise a legal obstacle if Russia and Ukraine were to hold peace talks.

With Ukraine under martial law in the third year of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Zelensky has not faced elections despite the expiry of his five-year term this week - something that he and Ukraine’s allies deem the right decision in wartime.

Mr Putin said he is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines, Reuters reported on Friday, citing four Russian sources, but is ready to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond.

In a televised press conference during a visit to Belarus, Putin said Mr Zelensky’s status was problematic.

“But who to negotiate with? That’s not an idle question...Of course we realise the legitimacy of the incumbent head of state is over,” he said.

Ukrainian officials dismiss any notion of Mr Zelensky lacking legitimacy in a time of war. Ruslan Stefanchuk, speaker of Ukraine’s parliament, said this week that anyone questioning the president’s legitimacy was an “enemy of Ukraine” spreading false information.

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian forces had secured “combat control” of areas where Russian troops staged an incursion this month in northern parts of Kharkiv region.

“Our soldiers have now managed to take combat control of the border area where the Russian occupiers entered,” Mr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

His comments, after holding a meeting of military and regional officials in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, appeared to be at variance with comments by Russian officials.

Russian forces pushed into border regions of Ukraine‘s Kharkiv region this month and Russia’s Defence Ministry said they had secured control of about 12 settlements.