Politics

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that a Russian assault had begun along a 400km front line in the east of the country. The attack had long been expected after Russia withdrew its troops from the north in order to concentrate on securing its objectives in the south and east. These are thought to include seizing all of the Donbas region and full control of a “land bridge” connecting Russia with the Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014. Ukraine said it had repelled a number of Russian advances, but expected more. There were also a number of missile strikes on Kyiv and on Lviv, a city in the far west of Ukraine. The number of refugees passed 5m.