Russia-Ukraine war latest news: peace talks to resume; deaths as residential building in Kyiv hit by shell – live | World news

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has said assertions from US officials that Russia asked Beijing for military equipment for its campaign in Ukraine were “disinformation” from the US.

The comments came during a regular Chinese foreign ministry briefing in Beijing, Reuters reported.

Tom Ambrose here now until 11am London time, bringing you all the latest news from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Footage published by Ukrainian media outlet NEXTA TV purportedly shows the Antonov aviation industry plant just outside Kyiv on fire.

In the video, thick plumes of smoke can be seen billowing in the distance.

It is 9.30am in Ukraine on day 19 of Russia’s war. Here is where the situation stands:

• Two people were killed and three injured when a shell hit a residential building in north-west Kyiv on Monday morning, Ukraine’s state emergency services said. The nine-storey residential apartment building reportedly caught fire from Russian shelling after 5am.
• The Antonov aircraft plant in Kyiv has been shelled by Russian forces, the Kyiv city administration said in an update on its official Telegram account on Monday morning. The site, also known as Hostomel, is located about 11km north-west of the centre of Kviv and is the country’s most important international cargo airport, as well as a key military airbase.
• Talks will begin shortly between Ukraine and Russia today with officials on both sides offering cautious optimism despite little evidence that Russian president Vladimir Putin’s position has changed. Negotiations are set to begin at 10.30am local time.
• A pregnant woman seen in widely circulated images after Russian bombing of Ukrainian hospital has died with her baby, the Associated Press is reporting. The woman was escaping the bombing of the maternity hospital where she was due to give birth in the besieged city of Mariupol.
• Germany will reportedly purchase up to 35 F-35 fighter jets, a government source told Reuters.
• US officials believe Russia has sought military support from China amid claims that the Russian military is running short on certain kinds of armaments, the Financial Times first reported. The developments have led to fears Beijing may undermine the West’s efforts to help Ukraine.
• The US will try to persuade China not to supply arms to Russia at a high-level meeting in Rome.
• The Ukrainian military is claiming cases of “mass refusals by Russian servicemen” to fight in the war on Ukraine, according the latest operational report.
• The UK defence ministry claims Russian naval forces are “effectively isolating Ukraine from international maritime trade”, its latest defence intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine reads.
• Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, is reportedly in Ukraine alongside Russian forces, according to footage shared by Chechen television channels and posted to Kadyrov’s Telegram account.
• British prime minister Boris Johnson announced that the UK government will donate more than 500 mobile generators to Ukraine to help provide power for key buildings such as hospitals, shelters and water treatment plants.
• Russia’s state media and communication regulator, Rozcomnadzor, says Instagram will be banned, claiming the social networking site “calls for violence against Russians” as the reason behind the embargo.
• The CEO of controversial facial recognition company Clearview AI said the Ukraine defence ministry has started to use its services, according to Reuters.
• Ukrainian president Zelenskiy urged Nato to impose a no-fly zone after the attack on the military base that brought the fighting close to the Polish border. “If you don’t close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian rockets fall on your territory, on Nato territory,” he said.
• Russia’s defence ministry admitted responsibility for a rocket attack on the International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, a military base, near the Polish border on Sunday.
• Desperately needed medical gear and equipment, including trauma kits, is reaching Ukraine to prop up a healthcare system grappling with a shortage of supplies amid Russia’s invasion, the World Health Organization said.

Germany will reportedly purchase up to 35 F-35 fighter jets, a government source said on Monday, after sources told Reuters earlier that the government in Berlin had decided in principle to buy the US fighter jets.

Desperately needed medical gear and equipment, including trauma kits, is reaching Ukraine to prop up a healthcare system grappling with a shortage of supplies amid Russia’s invasion, the World Health Organization has said.

Supply chains have been severely disrupted, with many distributors knocked out, some stockpiles out of reach because of military operations, supplies of medicine running low, as hospitals struggle to care for the sick and wounded, it said.

“The current estimated number of people impacted in Ukraine is 18 million, of which 6.7 million are internally displaced,” the agency said in a statement. “Nearly 3 million people have fled the country.”

WHO was working with partners to alleviate shortages of critical equipment and medication such as oxygen and insulin, surgical supplies, anaesthetics, and transfusion kits, it added.

Items being shipped included oxygen generators, electrical generators, defibrillators, monitors, anaesthesia drugs, rehydration salts, gauze and bandages.

WHO said supplies were being distributed in coordination with Ukraine’s health ministry, backed by a support hub in neighbouring Poland.

The coming days and weeks will see a constant flow of medical supplies, as part of an effort to ensure people’s access to essential drugs and medical care.”

The Antonov aircraft plant in Kyiv has been shelled by Russian forces, the Kyiv city administration said in an update on its official Telegram account on Monday morning.

The site, also known as Hostomel, is located about 11km north-west of the centre of Kviv and is the country’s most important international cargo airport, as well as a key military airbase.

A series of videos uploaded on social media show a thick plume of smoke rising from above the airport. The Guardian has been unable to verify the authenticity of the footage.

Two people were killed and three injured when a shell hit a residential building in north-west Kyiv on Monday morning, Ukraine’s state emergency services has said.

“As of 07:40, the bodies of two people were found in a nine-storey residential building, three people were hospitalised, nine people were treated on the spot,” the agency said in a statement just after 8am.

A further 15 people were reportedly rescued from the blaze and 63 evacuated with the fire extinguished just before 8am.

The nine-storey residential apartment building reportedly caught fire from Russian shelling after 5am.

Ukraine’s state emergency service published an update at 7.30am local time, saying they received a report of a fire that broke out shortly after 5am in the Obolonskyi district of the capital.

A pregnant woman seen in widely circulated images after Russian bombing of Ukrainian hospital has died with her baby, the Associated Press is reporting.

The woman was escaping the bombing of the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth in the besieged city of Mariupol.

Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher had circled the world as rescuers rushed her through the rubble.

The woman was rushed to another hospital where doctors laboured to keep her alive. Medics delivered the baby via cesarean section, but it showed “no signs of life”, surgeon Timur Marin said.

“More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said on Saturday. “Both died.”

In the chaos after Wednesday’s airstrike, medics did not have time to get the woman’s name before her husband and father came to take away her body, AP reports.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war in Ukraine will continue with Ukrainian and Russian negotiators to resume talks, reportedly set to begin at 10.30am local time.

An adviser to Ukraine’s interior ministry, Anton Herashchenko, confirmed the start time in an update posted to his official Telegram account this morning.

“Negotiations with Russia will take place this morning via video link. They will start at 10.30,” he said.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region, is reportedly in Ukraine alongside Russian forces, according to footage shared by Chechen television channels and posted to Kadyrov’s Telegram account.

Kadyrov posted a video on Telegram of himself on Monday in military uniform studying plans around a table with soldiers in a room.

In a message, he said that the video had been taken at Hostomel, an airfield near Kyiv, Agence France-Presse reports.

“The other day we were about 20km from you Kyiv Nazis and now we are even closer,” Kadyrov reportedly wrote as he called on Ukrainian forces to surrender “or you will be finished”.

“We will show you that Russian practice teaches warfare better than foreign theory and the recommendations of military advisers,” he added.

The Chechen television channel Grozny also posted a video on its Telegram channel earlier on Sunday that showed Kadyrov in a darkened room discussing with Chechen troops a military operation they said took place 7km (4.3 miles) from the Ukrainian capital.

The videos could not be independently verified.

Kadyrov and his forces have been accused by international NGOs of serious human rights violations in the tightly controlled Caucasus republic. He is a former rebel turned Kremlin ally who has previously described himself as Putin’s “foot soldier” with a paramilitary force at his command.