A banner declaring “Glory to Ukraine” has appeared at the King’s College Chapel at the University of Cambridge.
The sign of support, which reads “Slava Ukraini”, appeared alongside the country’s flag, and was tied between two spires of the church.
King’s College suggested the instalment would be removed from the 80ft historic building, but shared its concern for the those impacted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
A spokesman said:
The King’s community is appalled by the suffering and loss of life inflicted by the Russian military across Ukraine in recent months, and the disastrous effect the hostilities are having on the lives of thousands of people, including displaced students and scholars,
While we regret the risks associated with the installation of a banner hung between the spires of the chapel, both in regard to the physical fabric of the historic building, and to the dangers now posed to those required to remove it, we are fully supportive of its sentiment.
Since the invasion we have been providing assistance to researchers stranded by the outbreak of war, as well as recently appointing the first of three displaced scholars to postdoctoral positions within the College, and establishing a fund for refugee students from all areas of conflict.
A Ukrainian medic who smuggled footage out of the besieged city of Mariupol has been freed by Russian troops three months after being captured.
Yuliia Paievska, known as Taira, used a bodycam to record her team’s efforts tending to the injured, including both Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, reports Associated Press.
The day before she was captured she handed the clips over to the agency’s reporters, one of whom fled the city with it embedded in her tampon.
Taira and a colleague were then taken as prisoners by Russian forces on March 16, the same day an airstrike hit a theatre, killing 600 people.
“It was such a great sense of relief. Those sound like such ordinary words, and I don’t even know what to say,” her husband, Vadim Puzanov, said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday night confirmed the medic was home, adding work would continue to “liberate everyone”.
Russian gas producer Gazprom said its supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine via the Sudzha entry point was seen down to 41.4m cubic metres on Saturday, from 41.9mcm on Friday.
Reuters reported Gazprom as saying an application to supply gas via another major entry point, Sokhranovka, was rejected by Ukraine.
Russia has probably renewed its efforts to advance south of Ukraine’s eastern city of Izium in the past 48 hours, Britain’s defence ministry says.
Russia’s goal was to penetrate deeper into the Donetsk region and envelope the pocket around the embattled city of Sievierodonetsk from the north, it said on Twitter on Saturday.
Reuters reported the ministry adding that if trapped Ukrainian civilians did not take up an offer of leaving via a corridor, Russia was likely to claim justification in making less of a distinction between them and any Ukrainian military targets in the area.
Hello and welcome to our continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine. It’s approaching 10am in Kyiv and these are the latest developments.
- A Ukrainian paramedic has been released from Russian captivity, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, announced on Saturday. He said Ukraine had been able to secure the release of Yulia Payevska, a civilian paramedic who was captured by Russian forces in Mariupol on 16 March.
- The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, tweeted that the bravery of Ukrainians had created the opportunity for Europe to “create a new history of freedom, and finally remove the grey zone in Eastern Europe between the EU and Russia”. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy hailed Brussels’ support for Ukraine’s European Union bid as a “historic achievement”.
- The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said Moscow had “nothing against” Ukraine’s possible membership of the European Union. He said on Friday after the European Commission recommended granting Kyiv candidate status of the 27-member bloc: “It’s their sovereign decision to join economic unions or not … It’s their business, the business of the Ukrainian people.”
- The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said it was “absolutely necessary” for leaders to speak directly with Putin in attempts to end the war. “I will continue to do so, as the French president will also,” Scholz told German news agency DPA on Friday.
- Four civilians died and six were wounded on Friday in Russian bombing in the Donetsk region of the Donbas, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.
- Dozens of Ukrainian civilians performed military exercises on Friday in fortified positions left by Russian troops in Bucha, a town synonymous with war crimes blamed on Moscow’s forces.
- Lithuania has told the Russian region of Kaliningrad it will block the import and export of a large number of goods by rail because of western sanctions, the regional governor said on Friday. The region is home to the Russian Baltic fleet and a deployment location for nuclear-capable Iskander missiles.
- Ukraine received a $733m loan from Canada. Ukraine’s finance ministry said on Friday the funds would be “directed to the state budget to finance priority expenditures – in particular, to ensure priority social and humanitarian expenditures”.
- The Biden administration’s plan to sell four large, armable drones to Ukraine has been paused over the fear its sophisticated surveillance equipment might fall into enemy hands, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
- Russian media has supposedly shown images of two US citizens captured in Ukraine. On Friday, the Izvestia newspaper showed footage of what it said was an interview with Andy Huynh, 27. The Russian channel RT also posted a photo of a man it identified as Alexander Drueke, 39. Drueke’s mother, Lois Drueke, told the Guardian she believed the clip was authentic and it gave her “great hope”.
- US Republican senators on Friday asked the TikTok chief executive, Shou Zi Chew, about reports the social media site had allowed Russian state-approved media content but barred other videos. TikTok said it was looking forward to continuing to engage with members on these issues and answering their questions.
- A group of international investigators and experts have visited war-torn areas near Kyiv, including a burnt-out school, as part of Ukraine’s ongoing investigation into alleged war crimes.
