Russia-Ukraine live news: US slams Putin for ?disinformation?

The three other new names are Heroes of Ukraine, Warsaw and Botanical.Officials said more than 170,000 votes had been cast in the online poll on renaming the sites.Reporting by Mansur Mirovalev in Kyiv.43 mins ago (10:20 GMT)President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the international community to take immediate steps to help end the Russian blockade of Ukraine’s ports.His plea came as fears rise over a possible global food crisis, with Kyiv currently prevented from exporting vast quantities of foodstuffs to global buyers.Read more here.1 hour ago (09:57 GMT)At least 15 civilians have been wounded in the past 24 hours amid Russian attacks in Ukraine’s southern region of Mykolaiv, a local official says.“Fortunately, there are no children among the victims,” Hanna Zamazeeva, chair of the Mykolaiv Regional Council, said in a Telegram post.Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the report.Reporting by Mansur Mirovalev in Kyiv.1 hour ago (09:50 GMT)Tokyo has said it intends to phase out Russian oil in a way that “minimises adverse effects” after agreeing on such an embargo with other Group of Seven nations.Read more here.2 hours ago (09:27 GMT)The head of the United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine says that thousands more civilians have been killed in the country since the war began than its official toll of 3,381.“We have been working on estimates, but all I can say for now is that it is thousands higher than the numbers we have currently given to you,” Matilda Bogner told a media briefing in Geneva when asked about the total number of deaths and injuries.“The big black hole is really Mariupol where it has been difficult for us to fully access and to get fully corroborated information,” she added.The UN team, which includes 55 monitors in Ukraine, said most of the deaths had occurred from the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area.2 hours ago (09:10 GMT)German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has arrived in Ukraine, becoming the highest-ranking German government official to visit the country since Russia’s invasion began on February 24.Her first stop was in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv, where Russian forces are accused of having committed war crimes.Moscow, which has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in Ukraine, has called allegations that its forces executed civilians in Bucha while they occupied the town a “monstrous forgery” aimed at denigrating the Russian army.2 hours ago (09:00 GMT)Ukraine’s central bank says it had increased its portfolio of domestic war bonds to 100 billion hryvnias ($3.3bn) after buying a further 30 billion to help the government finance the budget amid the war with Russia.“Given the significant defence, humanitarian and social needs, the support of the budget by the National Bank remains a necessary measure in the context of the war unleashed by Russia,” it said in a statement.Ukraine’s finance minister said tax revenues covered only 54 percent of budget expenditures.3 hours ago (08:10 GMT)Due to “catastrophic losses” in Ukraine, the Kremlin is changing the tone of its propaganda, Ukrainian intelligence has said.To prepare average Russians for a possible defeat, Kremlin-controlled media started to present the war as Moscow’s confrontation with the European Union and NATO members, the Chief Intelligence Department of Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Facebook.“This will reduce the shame of losing to a more powerful opponent,” it said.In his May 9 speech on Moscow’s Red Square, Putin said Ukraine received “regular deliveries of modern weapons” from NATO member states.Reporting by Mansur Mirovalev in Kyiv.3 hours ago (07:50 GMT)A Ukrainian official says the bodies of 44 civilians have been found in the rubble of a five-storey building that collapsed in March in Izyum, in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region.“This is another horrible war crime of the Russian occupiers against the civilian population,” Oleh Synehubov, the region’s governor, said in a Telegram post.Synehubov added that the bodies were discovered by local volunteers because Ukrainian emergency services no longer operate in Izyum after it was seized by Russians on April 1.“This isn’t the only house of this kind there, unfortunately, and there is no specialised equipment to remove the debris, so everything is being done by hand,” he said.Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify the report.4 hours ago (07:30 GMT)At least 100 civilians remain holed up in Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks, an aide to the city’s mayor says.“In addition to the military, at least 100 civilians remain in the [Azovstal] shelters. Multiple areas of the Sumy region were shelled, including the villages of Belopolye, Bolshaya Pisarevka, Krasnopolye and Yunakivka.The post also said Ukraine’s forces destroyed one Russian anti-aircraft missile system, nine tanks, three artillery systems, 25 units of armoured combat vehicles, three units of special engineering equipment and three other vehicles.6 hours ago (04:35 GMT)When Iskandar found himself caught in the middle of the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the end of February, the factory worker reckoned he had a 10 percent chance of survival.“I had just a thin sliver of hope that I would live, of the line between life and death,” the 46-year-old Indonesian, who was working as a quality control officer at a plastic factory when the war started, told Al Jazeera from his home in the city of Binjai in North Sumatra, Indonesia.Iskandar, who was based in the northern city of Chernihiv, first found out about the invasion on YouTube on the morning of February 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine.Read more here.7 hours ago (03:59 GMT)One of the Ukrainian fighters holding out in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol has said they were still defending the city.Valeri Paditel, who heads the border guards in the Donetsk region, said the fighters were “doing everything to make those who defend the city in the future proud”.In a video address, released by the national border guard service, Paditel said the fighters include border guards, soldiers, national police and members of the national guard.7 hours ago (03:51 GMT)Russian shelling over the past day killed one person and injured three others in the southern city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s Channel 24 has reported citing the city’s mayor.Alexander Senkevich said the shelling was directed at residential areas.He added that 95 people had died in Mykolaiv since Russia’s invasion on February 24, with one of them being a child. The US president has been urging legislators to act on his request, warning that his administration is almost “out of money”.The House of Representatives could vote on the plan as early as Tuesday, Reuters said.15 hours ago (20:25 GMT)French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged “full support” for Ukraine, as he stood alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under the historic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.The monument was illuminated in blue and white, the colours of the Ukrainian flag.“Full support to Ukraine,” said Macron as he walked over to the gate, where about 200 people had gathered.15 hours ago (20:20 GMT)The White House has slammed Putin’s Victory Day speech, accusing the Russian president of spreading “disinformation”.In a speech marking the defeat of the Nazis during World War II, Putin had said the invasion of Ukraine was in response to an “unacceptable” Western threat to Russia.“What we saw President Putin do is give a version of revisionist history that took the form of disinformation that we have seen too commonly as the Russian playbook,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.15 hours ago (20:16 GMT)The Pulitzer Prize board has honoured Ukrainian journalists for their war coverage, awarding them with a special citation in recognition of their “courage, endurance and commitment to truth reporting” during the Russian invasion.“Despite bombardment abductions, occupation and even deaths in their ranks, they have persisted in their effort to provide an accurate picture of a terrible reality, doing honour to Ukraine and to journalists around the world,” board member Marjorie Miller said as the prizes were announced.Seven journalists, including three from Ukraine, have been killed since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in late February, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.Read more here.15 hours ago (20:12 GMT)Zelenskyy has thanked Biden and US legislators for passing legislation reviving a WWII-era weapons programme that will allow Washington to more easily export arms to Ukraine.“Today’s signing of the law on Lend-Lease is a historic step,” Zelenskyy tweeted.