Russia-Ukraine war: Moscow threatens ‘retaliatory steps’ over Finnish Nato bid; UN to investigate human rights abuses – live

More than six million have fled Ukraine, says UN

The number of people who have fled Ukraine to escape Russia’s invasion has exceeded six million, the UN’s refugee agency said.

The majority of those who have fled the country have entered the European Union through border points in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

A further eight million people have been forced to flee their homes and are internally displaced inside Ukraine, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Drivers queue at the Polish-Ukrainian border in Zosin village, eastern Poland. Photograph: Wojtek Jargiło/EPA An Ukrainian refugee baby waves from a minibus taking him and his mother further into Moldova after crossing the Ukrainian-Moldovan border in Palanca, southeastern Moldova. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 12.24 EDT

A Ukrainian woman in her house after the 18 missiles hit the civil settlements of Komyshuvakha, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images One person was killed and three others were injured due to the missile attacks, while the bombardment destroyed 60 buildings. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said “very difficult negotiations” are ongoing to evacuate seriously wounded fighters from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.

Vereshchuk said yesterday that Kyiv had proposed to Moscow that badly injured defenders in the plant be swapped for Russian prisoners of war.

Writing on her Telegram, Vereshchuk said:

To be clear: we are currently negotiating only about 38 severely wounded (bedridden) fighters. We work step by step. We will exchange 38, then we will move on.

There are currently no talks on the exchange of 500 or 600 people, which is being reported by some media outlets.

Updated at 11.58 EDT

Today so far…

If you’ve just joined us, here’s a quick roundup of the key events so far:

Good afternoon from London. I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll continue to bring you the news from the war in Ukraine. Feel free to get in touch on Twitter or via email.

Updated at 12.01 EDT

Russia needs denazification, not Ukraine, according to the leader of the anti-Kremlin punk band Pussy Riot, who fled the country earlier this week by disguising herself as a food courier.

Maria Alyokhina, a long-time critic of Vladimir Putin, was speaking as her band was preparing for its anti-war concert tour beginning in Berlin. She said Russians needed to think carefully about the war, telling Reuters:

I have no idea what will be the end of this reflection but without that, the country doesn’t have a right to exist, like Germany after the second world war.

It’s Russia where we should have a denazification, not Ukraine.

There should be a tribunal against Putin and army generals and leaders, Alyokhina added.

Alyokhina told the New York Times this week that she had escaped Russia disguised as a food courier after being ordered to spend 21 days in a penal colony. The 33-year-old was then able to cross into Lithuania with help from an Icelandic artist who secured her travel documents.

Updated at 12.14 EDT

UN votes to set up inquiry into alleged abuses by Russian troops in Ukraine

The UN’s human rights council has passed a resolution to investigate alleged abuses by Russian troops in parts of Ukraine formerly under their control, with a view to holding those responsible to account.

More than 50 countries backed Kyiv’s request for a special session of the council to examine “the deteriorating human rights situation in Ukraine stemming from the Russian aggression”.

The resolution passed by a strong majority, with 33 members voting in favour and two – China and Eritrea – against. There were 12 abstentions.

Updated at 11.06 EDT

A Russian ship carrying grain stolen in Ukraine has been seen in the Syrian port of Latakia after being turned away from at least one Mediterranean port, according to reports.

CNN reports that the vessel, Matros Pozynich, weighed anchor off the coast of Crimea on 27 April and turned off its transponder. Photographs and satellite images show the bulk carrier at the port of Sevastopol, the main port in Crimea, the following day.

The Matros Pozynich is one of three ships involved in the trade of stolen grain, according to open-source research and Ukrainian officials.

This satellite image from Planet Labs PBC shows the harbor of Latakia, Syria, on Tuesday. Photograph: Planet Labs PBC/AP

From Sevastopol, the Matros Pozynich was seen transiting the Bosphorus Strait and making its way to the Egyptian port of Alexandria, where it was turned away. The ship was also turned away from the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

The vessel turned off its transponder again on 5 May but satellite imagery showed it travelled to Latakia.

Ukrainian officials said the Matros Pozynich was laden with nearly 30,000 tonnes of Ukrainian wheat. Ukraine’s defence ministry has estimate that at least 400,000 tonnes of grain has been stolen and taken out of Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on 24 February.

Updated at 12.18 EDT

Germany may be able to cope with a boycott of Russian gas imports as soon as the coming winter, its economy minister, Robert Habeck, said.

Speaking in an interview with WirtschaftsWoche translated by Reuters, Habeck said:

If we have full storage facilities at the turn of the year, if two of the four floating LNG tankers we have leased are connected to the grid, and if we make significant energy savings, we can to some extent get through the winter if Russian gas supplies collapse.

Everyone could play a part, he said, adding that if industries and private individuals could reduce gas consumption by 10%, it would help avoid an emergency. Gas prices would increase further, he warned.

Germany has boosted efforts to reduce its reliance on Russian energy supplies but has said it expects to be largely dependent on its gas until 2024.

Updated at 12.19 EDT

Russia could cut Finland’s gas supply tomorrow, media reports suggest

Russia could cut its gas supplies to Finland tomorrow, a day after Finnish leaders said they should apply to join Nato “without delay”, according to the local newspaper Iltalehti.

Key Finnish politicians have been warned that Russia could halt its gas supplies on Friday, the newspaper reports, citing unnamed sources and without specifying where the warning came from.

If Russian gas was cut off, it would cause major problems for some Finnish industries, and food production, Iltalehti reports.

Updated at 10.17 EDT

Urgent measures to break the Russian blockade of grain exports from Ukraine’s ports, including by trying to open routes through Romanian and Baltic ports, will be discussed by G7 foreign and agriculture ministers at meetings in Germany.

The grain exports blockade is fast becoming one of the most urgent diplomatic and humanitarian crises in Ukraine. On Tuesday, the US president, Joe Biden, said the US was working on solutions “to get this food out into the world so that it could help bring down prices.”

G7 foreign ministers are meeting in the Baltic Sea resort of Weissenhaus, north-east of Hamburg, and the agriculture ministers in Stuttgart.

Cem Özdemir, the German agriculture minister and a Green party member, has for months been looking with the EU at alternative train routes through Poland and Belarus to Baltic ports, but the different train gauges between Ukraine and Poland, a pre-existing backlog of traffic, and a shortage of suitable rail wagons all count against this option.

By one Ukrainian estimate, only 20% of the exports it normally sends through the Black Sea ports by ship could be transported by rail to the Baltic ports. The cost of road transport has risen five-fold in the past year.

Read more of our diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour’s report here: G7 to discuss action to break Russian blockade of Ukraine grain exports

Updated at 10.17 EDT

Here are some of the recent images that have been sent to us over the newswires depicting the impact of the war in Ukraine.

A man shows a part of a missile found in a residential area after Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photograph: Andriy Andriyenko/AP Zorik (L) and Kristina (R), volunteers from the Poland-based charity Front Pomocy Ukrainie, sending humanitarian aid parcels to families in need from a post office in Ukraine. Photograph: Hesther Ng/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock A baby bed is seen inside an apartment building damaged by Russian shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk region. Photograph: Andriy Andriyenko/AP A woman waits with her pet dog on board a train leaving Kyiv for neighbouring Poland. Photograph: Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 09.52 EDT

Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has tweeted his support of the Finnish move towards Nato membership today, saying he had spoken to Finland’s president:

I welcome Finland’s decision to support the country’s accession to Nato without delay. In a phone call with President Niinistö, I assured the full support of the federal government.

Updated at 09.52 EDT

Antony Blinken to travel to Europe for Nato meetings at weekend

The US state department has announced that Joe Biden’s top diplomat, Antony Blinken, will travel to Europe on Saturday for the informal meeting of Nato foreign ministers. The statement says:

On 14 May, the secretary will travel to Berlin to attend an informal meeting of Nato Foreign Ministers where Allies and partners will discuss their unified response to Russia’s continuing brutal war against Ukraine and the upcoming Leaders’ Summit in Madrid.

The following day he will have trade meetings with EU leaders in Paris, alongside the US trade representative Katherine Tai and the secretary of commerce, Gina Raimondo.

Updated at 09.48 EDT