Attacks prompt Volodymyr Zelenskyy to issue new call to Kyiv’s allies after number of civilians killed in central city of Dnipro rises to five. What we know on day 977

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A string of Russian attacks killed and injured civilians in widely separated parts of Ukraine, officials said. The number of people killed in the central city of Dnipro after Russian missile attacks rose to five, including a child, local officials said. A Russian glide bomb killed one person and injured three on Saturday in Kostiantynivka, near the frontline in Donetsk region, the regional governor said. Russian shelling also killed two people in a small town west of the southern city of Kherson. And a Russian drone strike killed a teenager in Kyiv during a night-time barrage on the Ukrainian capital that lasted for hours, officials said.

The latest attacks prompted Volodymyr Zelenskyy to issue a new call to Kyiv’s allies on Saturday to intensify pressure on Moscow. In his nightly video address, he said the assaults showed Russia was “determined to continue its aggression”, adding, “these are conditions in which the lack of stronger decisions from partners to support Ukraine only encourages Putin to invest further in terror,” Zelenskyy said. “The world can stop the escalation of war. Abstractions and words are not enough for this. Concrete steps are needed.”

Finance ministers of the G7 nations vowed on Saturday to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine. A December 2022 agreement was intended to limit Russian petroleum sales and revenues without curbing exports so sharply that it would cause global oil prices to soar. But some countries, notably China, have continued to import Russian crude oil without observing the price ceiling. “We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to oil price cap violations,” the group said in a statement after a meeting in Washington. Those further steps were not spelled out in detail.

Zelenskyy is warning that Russia is planning to send North Korean troops into battle against his country. In a post on Telegram, he said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that “the first North Korean military will be used by Russia in combat zones” between Sunday and Monday, and that the deployment was “an obvious escalating move by Russia”. He didn’t provide any further details, including where the North Korean soldiers may be sent.

Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had taken control of the Oleksandropil settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the state-run news agency RIA reported on Saturday, where it has made a string of advances in recent months. The ministry also reported its air defences brought down 17 Ukrainian drones over four regions near the border. But Russia has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region after an incursion almost three months ago.

Georgia’s ruling party is leading in a pivotal parliamentary election that could mean the country is heading for closer ties with neighbouring Russia. The vote is widely seen as a make-or-break vote for the country’s long-held aspiration for EU membership. If the partial results confirm the victory of the Georgian Dream party, the country could be heading for closer ties with neighbouring Russia. Its campaign centred on a conspiracy theory about a “global war party” that controls western institutions and is seeking to drag Georgia into the Russia-Ukraine war.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in seven Italian cities on Saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, the Middle East, and all global conflicts. Peaceful rallies were held in Rome, Turin, Milan, Florence, Bari, Palermo and Cagliari, with the support of hundreds of associations committed to peace, disarmament and human rights.