Ukrainian drones operated by the GUR military intelligence agency attacked the Engels airbase deep inside Russian territory early on Wednesday and Kyiv was assessing the damage, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters.

The governor of the Saratov region, where the base is located, said Ukrainian drones had been downed near the city of Engels but did not report any damage.

“The results are being verified,” the Ukrainian source said of the attack.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Russia will ensure the security of its border regions, which have been frequently shelled from Ukraine.

According to a report by Reuters, Putin told a meeting with activists in the Kremlin that Russia has its own plans how to respond but will not attack population and civilian targets in Ukraine.

“The primary task is to guarantee security. There are different methods here, they aren’t easy but we will do this,” he said in televised comments.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s proposals to use revenues from frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine amount to banditism and theft, reports Reuters.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said he will propose the EU use 90% of revenue from Russian assets frozen in Europe to buy arms for Ukraine via the European Peace Facility fund.

Borrell said he would propose the remaining 10% be transferred to the EU budget, to be used to boost the capacity of the Ukrainian defence industry. He would submit the proposal to EU member states on Wednesday, ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that a decision by the European Organization for Nuclear Research to cut cooperation with Russian scientists was politicised and unacceptable, reports Reuters.

The organisation, better known as Cern, said in December it would cut cooperation with Russia from November 2024.

“We consider such actions to be politicised and absolutely unacceptable,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow. “The west is increasing pressure on our country in the field of fundamental science.”

Zakharova said the decision by Cern was discriminatory against Russian scientists.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, will visit India next week as Kyiv looks to build support for its peace plan, two Indian officials aware of the matter told Reuters. It would be the first visit to India by a top Ukrainian leader since Russia’s invasion more than two years ago.

New Delhi, which has traditionally had close economic and defence ties with Moscow, has so far refused to criticise Russia for the February 2022 invasion, instead stepping up purchases of Russian oil to record levels.

Kuleba’s visit comes at the invitation of his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, after a telephone call between the leaders of the two nations at the beginning of the year, said one of the officials.
Both officials spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

Ukraine’s peace plan, as presented by president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, calls for removing all Russian troops, restoring Ukraine’s 1991 post-Soviet borders and a process to make Russia accountable for its actions.

Apart from talks with Indian officials, Kuleba will “review the India-Ukraine inter-governmental commission”, one of the officials said, referring to a panel charged with keeping up the two nations’ economic, cultural and technological ties.

India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request by Reuters for comment.

One of the officials told the news agency that a formal announcement of the visit was expected next week. Indian media first reported it on Tuesday.

Ukraine has also pitched for New Delhi to help rebuild its war-ravaged economy, inviting investment from Indian companies at a January business summit in India.

Kuleba’s visit will come about two weeks after Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukraine president’s office, spoke to India’s national security adviser Ajit Doval on 15 March.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has spoken several times to the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, having met Zelenskiy in May on the sidelines of a G7 summit in Hiroshima.

India has insisted on the need for both sides to talk, with Modi telling Russian president Vladimir Putin during a meeting in September 2022 that this is not an era of war.

The Czech Republic says it is on the verge of delivering thousands of extra artillery shells to Ukraine, just weeks after it announced an initiative to source the much-needed supplies from outside the EU.

Its foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said it had so far secured 300,000 shells and that the ammunition would provide a vital “few months’ breathing space” on the frontline. Sources added that the first deliveries would come before June.

“We have a direct experience with 40 years of being a satellite of Moscow, being a country which was invaded in 1968 by Russian tanks to curb the Prague Spring,” said Lipavský, adding that his country could not stand by and watch Ukraine go without help. “No one really wants to bring back those [Soviet] times, and I have to say that the population is very sensitive to that.”

Ukraine has said it is falling short of ammunition against Russia; the EU has said it expects to meet only 52% of a target set last year to deliver a million shells by March, and a bill to fund US military aid to Kyiv has been held up in Congress.

Russia is ‘‘outshelling’’ Ukraine by a five-to-one ratio and Kyiv’s forces are gradually being pushed back on the battlefield. Last month Avdiivka, a frontline town, fell to the Russians after a four-month battle.

You can read the full piece by Lisa O’Carroll and Dan Sabbagh here:

France’s defence ministry on Tuesday called remarks made by the chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service disinformation and irresponsible after he suggested Paris was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine, reports Reuters.

“The manoeuvre orchestrated by Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russian foreign intelligence, once again illustrates Russia’s systematic use of disinformation,” the defence ministry said in a statement. “We consider this type of provocation irresponsible.”

Naryshkin was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying France was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine and that French troops would be a legitimate target for Russian forces if they “ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword”.

Franco-Russian relations have deteriorated further in recent weeks as Paris has increased its support to Ukraine, including signing a bilateral long-term security accord and promising to send more long-range cruise missiles.

President Emmanuel Macron has also adopted a tougher position on Russia, vowing that Moscow must be defeated. He has not ruled out that European troops may one day have to go to Ukraine, although has made clear that France has no intention of instigating hostilities against Russia.

Paris has accused Russia of habitually spreading false information. According to Reuters, in January it dismissed any notion that Paris had mercenaries in Ukraine a day after Russian lawmakers adopted a resolution condemning French mercenaries there.

It has gone 10am in Kyiv and 11am in Moscow. This is our latest Guardian blog covering all the latest developments over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

France’s defence ministry have called remarks made by the chief of Russia’s foreign intelligence service disinformation and irresponsible after he suggested Paris was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine.

“The manoeuvre orchestrated by Sergei Naryshkin, director of Russian foreign intelligence, once again illustrates Russia’s systematic use of disinformation,” the defence ministry said in a statement, reports Reuters. “We consider this type of provocation irresponsible.”

Naryshkin was quoted by the Russian state news agency Tass as saying France was preparing to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine and that French troops would be a legitimate target for Russian forces if they “ever come to the territory of the Russian world with a sword”.

More on this story in a moment, but first, here are the other latest developments:

• The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, has said he will propose the EU use 90% of revenue from Russian assets frozen in Europe to buy arms for Ukraine via the European Peace Facility fund. Borrell said he would propose the remaining 10% be transferred to the EU budget, to be used to boost the capacity of the Ukrainian defence industry. He would submit the proposal to EU member states on Wednesday, ahead of a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

• Russia and Ukraine both reported air attacks in border areas on Tuesday. Russia’s defence ministry said 10 projectiles were fired by Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and one Tochka-U missile over Belgorod region at about 10pm on Tuesday, and two more missiles including a Patriot over the neighbouring Kursk region. The Belgorod regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said there was heavy shelling in the community of Kozinka, and about 9,000 children would be evacuated from the Russian border city of Belgorod and from several districts in the wider Belgorod region

• Intense Russian bombing of Ukraine’s north-eastern border region of Sumy has prompted an order for mass evacuations. Russia has launched 130 missiles of various types, more than 320 Shahed attack drones and almost 900 guided bombs in attacks on Ukraine so far this month, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has said. He decried “constant terrorist attacks and strikes” in the Sumy region, where on Tuesday one person was killed in the border community of Velyka Pysarivka, the focal point of evacuations.

• A Russian energy ministry official revealed plans to defend oil and gas facilities with missile systems. Successful Ukrainian attacks on refineries within Russia have caused extensive damage in recent days. “We are jointly working, including with colleagues from the Russian National Guard, to cover objects, on installing, accordingly, protection systems such as Pantsir,” Artyom Verkhov told a Russian parliamentary meeting.

• Ukraine’s survival is in danger, the US defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said, as he sought to convince allies that the US was committed to arming Ukrainian forces. The Republican speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is refusing to call a vote on a bill that would provide another $60bn in assistance. On Tuesday, Austin, leading the monthly Ramstein group meeting at the airbase of that name in Germany, told its 50 member countries that he was “fully determined to keep US security assistance and ammunition flowing. And that’s a matter of survival and sovereignty for Ukraine and it’s a matter of honour and security for America.”

• Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe centre in Washington, said: “It’s becoming harder and harder for US leaders to travel to Europe, with the message that the United States is committed to Ukraine in the long term. The message of this long-term financial, military, economic commitment flies in the face of the reality of what’s happening on Capitol Hill.”

• The Ukrainian defence minister, Rustem Umerov, who attended the gathering, said participants had “demonstrated their unity and resolve in helping Ukraine. Our forces are critically in need of ammunition. The ammo will be delivered!”

• Ukraine hopes to have enough ammunition from April to push back Russian invaders thanks to a Czech-led initiative to source shells, Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, has said. “We also count on the supplying of long-range and middle-range missiles to cut Russian logistics on the occupied territories. It is also crucially important, [just] as the artillery shells are for us.” Finland has joined the Czech initiative.

• Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, called on Nato allies to increase their defence spending to over 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), saying her country is already investing more than 3%.

• Ukraine is working to secure “a strong and far-reaching step” towards membership of Nato at its Washington summit in July, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has said. Ukraine’s leadership was left bitterly disappointed when, under US and German pressure, Nato at its summit in 2023 issued a statement saying Ukraine would be offered an invitation when conditions allowed – when Ukraine wanted a specific date.

• Russia appointed Adm Alexander Moiseyev as acting navy chief, replacing Nikolai Yevmenov, according to the state RIA news agency, which confirmed earlier reports of the reshuffle.

• Ahead of the EU leaders’ summit, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he had spoken with the European Council president, Charles Michel. “We focused on further steps toward the actual start of Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, as well as further comprehensive EU support for Ukraine. We also identified potential ways to increase the supply of artillery ammunition to Ukraine. We discussed the importance of extending autonomous trade benefits for Ukraine for another year. I emphasised that maintaining the trade liberalisation regime with the EU is critical to supporting Ukraine’s economy during the war.”

• Vladimir Putin will travel to China in May for talks with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, sources have told Reuters.