Ukraine Russia live news: Putin ‘crazy in his isolation’ as he blames the West for the war

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she had made progress in talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on a possible EU-wide ban on Russian fossil fuels.

“Tonight’s discussion with Prime Minister Viktor Orban was helpful in clarifying issues related to sanctions and energy security,” von der Leyen said in a tweet.

“We have made progress, but there is still work to be done,” she added.

Von der Leyen said she would convene a video conference with other countries in the region to strengthen regional cooperation on oil infrastructure.

The United States has seen indications that some Ukrainians are being moved to Russia against their will, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday, calling the actions “unconscionable.”

President Putin ‘recognized he had no victory to celebrate,’ US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN in response to the lack of announcement major on the war in Ukraine in his VE Day speech earlier today.

“There was no reason for (Putin) to declare victory or to declare a war that he has already been waging for more than two months,” she said.

“His efforts in Ukraine were not successful,” she added. “He was unable to go to Ukraine and bring them to their knees in a matter of days and make them surrender.”

Reactions are pouring in to President Putin’s speech during Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow’s Red Square marking the anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

Here are some reactions to the Victory Day speech and celebrations in Moscow and elsewhere:

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said:

“NATO countries were not going to attack Russia. Ukraine had not planned to attack Crimea.

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled Kremlin critic and ex-Russian oligarch, said in a tweet:

“On May 9, 1945, the Nazis who bombed kyiv at 4 a.m. on June 22, 1941, capitulated. At 4 a.m. on February 24, 2022, under the signs of the evil fascist spirits, Kyiv was again bombed. Descendants of some of the winners. Who have become fascists.

Gennady Gudkov, a former exiled lawmaker and member of the liberal opposition, tweeted:

“Putin repeated quotes from the zombie drawer… So the Kremlin has no more tricks in store. Now Putin’s defeat is only a matter of time!

Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia, tweeted:

“On VE Day, Putin loses his war in Ukraine. It’s time for Russian soldiers to go home.

Sergei Nechaev, Russian Ambassador to Germany, during a Victory Day commemoration at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin:

“At the time, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and Ukrainian soldiers were also heroes who fought in the Red Army. We do not divide this victory into national entities.

A bedridden Ukrainian refugee with lung cancer has been unable to join her son in the UK despite receiving a family visa weeks ago due to a ‘bureaucratic nightmare’.

Rodion Lyashko, 37, has been trying to get his mother, Tetiana Lyashko, 59, who needs a constant supply of oxygen, transferred to Britain for over a month, but found that ” nobody wants to take responsibility” for the situation.

My colleague May Bulman reports:

The international community should “be careful” if Vladimir Putin wins in Ukraine by “brutality”, warned the Secretary of Defense.

Ben Wallace told the Defense of Europe conference at King’s College London on Monday that Russia’s technology, intelligence and leadership had all failed and Mr Putin had been wrong to believe the Ukrainians would welcome his troops.

But the defense secretary said the Russian president still had one option “in his back pocket” – “brutality”.

He said: “If you win your war by killing, by murdering, by raping, by bombing civilian territories, by violating all human rights, all the Geneva conventions, corruption, and that becomes the element winning the battle, the message that sends worldwide to other adversaries around the world is incredibly dangerous.

“That you don’t need to have all the best equipment or the best training or the proper rule of law, you just need to be able to be more brutal than the other person and more ready to destroy everything on your way.”

He added: “That’s why it’s important for the international community, and should be important, that if Putin is successful in Ukraine, then be careful.”

Groups taking legal action against the government over ‘unreasonable’ delays to Homes for Ukraine have accused it of misleading refugees, UK sponsors and MPs about the status of visa applications .

The would-be hosts have sent a legal letter to the Home Office over ‘unexpected, unexplained and unreasonable’ delays in processing hundreds of visa applications lodged in March.

The letter, shared with the PA news agency, reads: ‘No reasonable Secretary of State could operate a visa policy in such a way, where applications are randomly and arbitrarily considered, where MPs are misled by the Home Office, where visas are granted without informing applicants, where the “helpline” has no information about applications and status, where cases are said to be ‘fast tracked’ but languish, or when a notification is sent that visas have been granted but remain unavailable at the relevant visa application centre. »

Vladimir Putin has sparked new rumors about his poor health after he was photographed coughing and huddled under a blanket during Russia’s Victory Day parade.

The Russian president had the thick green blanket draped over his legs as he sat among WWII veterans and senior dignitaries to watch a military procession through Moscow’s Red Square to celebrate the defeat of the Union Soviet against Nazi Germany.

The Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol – the city’s last stronghold for Ukrainian defenders – is being pounded by Russian tanks and artillery, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has claimed.

Russia has declared victory in Mariupol, a strategic city on the Sea of ​​Azov, but the sprawling steelworks remain under the control of Ukrainian fighters.

“The enemy continues to block our units in the area of ​​​​the Azovstal plant and conducts assault operations with the support of tanks and artillery fire,” said the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense , Oleksander Motuzyanyk, during an online briefing.

My colleague Emily Atkinson see you:

A former senior executive at Russian energy company Lukoil has died of suspected toad poisoning, according to reports.

After a session with a local shaman in Mytishchi, a town northeast of the Russian capital Moscow, Lukoil board member Alexander Subbotin is believed to have died in a basement after a hangover session with the healer.

My colleague Emily Atkinson see you: