Ukraine war latest news: Russian rockets destroy Dnipro airport as Kramatorsk train station death toll rises to 57

Volodymyr Zelensky has hit back at Russian attempts to shift blame onto Ukraine for the destruction caused during the war.

“They have destroyed the lives of millions. They started a full-scale war and act as if we are to blame for this,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Sunday.

Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said, is doing all it can to win the war while the Russian leadership is “lying” in a bid to shift the blame for the conflict and its impacts away from themselves.

“The truth will win and Ukraine will win. This is for certain. Glory to Ukraine,” the war-time president said.

Russian forces will capture Kyiv and all other Ukrainian cities, and there should be no doubt about the capital’s seizure, head of Russia’s republic of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said early on Monday.

“There will be an offensive … not only on Mariupol, but also on other places, cities and villages,” Mr Kadyrov said in a video message.

He added: “Luhansk and Donetsk – we will fully liberate in the first place … and then take Kyiv and all other cities.”

There should be no doubt about Kyiv, said the Chechen leader, who described himself as Vladimir Putin’s “foot soldier”.

“I assure you: not one step will be taken back,” Kadyrov said.

A Ukrainian military official says at least 227 civilians have been killed by the invading Russian forces in Donetsk oblast, excluding Mariupol and Volnovakha.

Another 748 civilians have been recorded as wounded in Russian attacks in the eastern Ukrainian region, head of the Donetsk regional military administration Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Sunday, reported The Kyiv Independent.

The British defence ministry says more evidence is emerging of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, including allegations of sexual violence by Moscow’s troops, in its latest intelligence update.

“Further evidence of alleged Russian war crimes continues to emerge following Russian withdrawal from northern Ukraine. This includes the reported discovery of a makeshift grave containing deceased Ukrainian civilians near Burzova,” the defence ministry said on early Monday.

It added: “Allegations of sexual violence perpetrated by Russian military personnel persist.”

The World Bank, in its latest forecast, has said Ukraine’s economic output will likely plummet by around 45.1 per cent this year due to the Russian invasion which has impacted businesses, drastically brought down exports and made economic activity impossible in large swaths of the country.

Russia’s 2022 GDP output, the World Bank said, will fall 11. per cent due to punitive financial sanctions imposed by the United States and its western allies on Russia’s banks, state-owned enterprises and other institutions.

With over half of the businesses closed in Ukraine and others operating at well under normal capacity, Ukraine’s economic crisis is compounded by the closure of Black Sea shipping, from where the war-torn country has slashed nearly 90 per cent of its grain exports and half of its cumulative exports.

The war has rendered economic activity impossible in many areas, and is disrupting agricultural planting and harvest operations, the World Bank said on Sunday.

“As the war has raged on and caused further damage”, estimates of infrastructure damage exceeding $100 billion by early March – about two-thirds of Ukraine‘s 2019 GDP – are well out of date, the global finance body said.

It added that the magnitude of Ukraine‘s contraction is “subject to a high degree of uncertainty” over the war’s duration and intensity.

Volodymyr Zelensky has addressed Ukrainians in his nightly video, in which he blasts Russia for its continued invasion of Ukraine and its “cowardly” propaganda.

In part of his speech, he said:

We are doing everything we can to bring to justice every b****** who came to our land under the Russian flag and killed our people. Who tortured our people. Destroyed our cities. Looted and tormented.

“And what is Russia doing? What are its officials, its propagandists and ordinary people doing who repeat what they have heard on television?

“They are only justifying themselves and denying. They are trying to shift the responsibility. They are lying. And they have already lost connection with reality to a degree that they accuse us of committing what Russian troops have obviously done – obviously for everyone in the world.

“They say about the murders in Bucha that it is not them, but allegedly us. Although it is obvious to everyone that people were killed while the Russian army controlled the city.

“They say about the missile strike at Kramatorsk that it is not them, but allegedly us. Although it was their propagandists who announced this strike. Although missiles flew from the territory under their control. And about any of our destroyed cities, about any of our burned villages, they say the same thing, that it is not them either, but allegedly us.

“The Russian militaries have already lied to the fact that even after more than six weeks of war, they claim that they did not hit any of the civilian objects!

“Do you know why this is so? Because it’s cowardice. Total. Of everyone. Top to bottom.”

Finland and Sweden look poised to join Nato as early as the summer, The Times has reported.

United States officials said that Nato membership for both Nordic countries was “a topic of conversation and multiple sessions” during talks between the alliance’s foreign minsters last week attended by Sweden and Finland.

“How can this be anything but a massive strategic blunder for Putin?”, one senior American official said.

The paper reported that Finland’s application to the security alliance is expected in June, with Sweden expected to follow.

The Independent: Murder, mass graves, and torture: the devastating story of Russia’s retreat

i: Landmines at Chernobyl

The Telegraph: Russia calls up retired soldiers after ‘mounting losses’

Financial Times (International edition): Kyiv urges energy traders to stem ‘blood money’ feeding Putin’s war

The Metro: How Boris took train to Ukraine

The Scotsman: Ukrainians dig in ahead of expected Russian offensive on eastern front

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the US will “not hesitate” to expel additional Russian diplomats from the country for suspected espionage activity after the administration removed 12 Russian officials in February.

Read the full story here by Alex Woodward:

A series of powerful explosions were reportedly heard in Ukraine’s northeastern city of Kharkiv.

Similar blasts were also heard in Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in the southern part of the country, Ukrainian media reported.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify the reports.