Pentagon says it will help Ukrainians to adopt tactics that use M1A1 tanks more effectively. What we know on day 793

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Strong rhetoric boosts Ukraine’s effort to reinforce frontlines, but mechanism by which émigrés could be sent back remains unclear

Poland and Lithuania have said they are prepared to help Ukrainian authorities return men subject to military conscription to the country, after Kyiv announced this week that it is suspending consular services for such men who are now abroad.

“We have suggested for a long time that we can help the Ukrainian side ensure that people subject to [compulsory] military service go to Ukraine,” Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Poland’s defence minister, told the television channel Polsat, though he did not elaborate on what mechanisms could be used.

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Plan ‘betrayal’ of values, says French president in speech covering defence, Europe’s waning influence and negative effects of Brexit

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Emmanuel Macron has criticised migration policies that involve sending migrants to African countries as “a betrayal of our [European] values”, just days after the UK government passed its Rwanda deportation bill.

The French president made the remarks in a wide-ranging speech on Thursday aimed at warning Europe against over-dependence on other countries for security and trade.

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Human Rights Watch demands investigation into killings in two villages just weeks after Russian troops fly in, amid intensifying conflict

Burkina Faso’s military summarily executed 223 civilians, including at least 56 children, in a single day in late February, according to an investigation into one of the worst abuses by the country’s armed forces for years.

The mass killings have been linked to a widening military campaign to tackle jihadist violence and happened weeks after Russian troops landed in the west African country to help improve security.

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Moscow described the security council resolution, which would have called on countries not to deploy weapons of mass destruction in outer space, a ‘dirty spectacle’

Russia has vetoed a UN resolution calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space, describing it as “a dirty spectacle”.

The resolution, sponsored by the United States and Japan , would have called on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, which are already banned under a 1967 international treaty.

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Joe Biden gave missiles to Ukraine under prior funding, after the US reportedly warned Russia against using long-range missiles in Ukraine. What we know on day 792

Atacms long-ranges missiles capable of hitting targets 300km away had already arrived in Ukraine this month at the president’s direction, before the US security package was passed by Congress on Wednesday, the state department has said. Vedant Patel, a state department spokesperson, explained that the weapons were part of a March aid package for Ukraine – not the one just approved by Congress and signed by Joe Biden. “We did not announce this at the onset in order to maintain operational security for Ukraine at their request.”

Ukraine has begun using the long-range Atacms , bombing a Russian military airfield in Crimea last week and Russian forces in another occupied area in recent days, two US officials have told the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. One of them said the Biden administration previously warned Russia that if it used long-range ballistic missiles in Ukraine, Washington would provide the same capability to the Ukrainians. Russia has since done so.

Separately, Adm Christopher Grady, vice-chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, told the Associated Press that long-range weapons would help Ukraine take out Russian logistics and troop concentrations behind the frontlines . He explained how the decision to supply them was considered carefully and at length. “I think the time is right, and the boss [Biden] made the decision the time is right to provide these based on where the fight is right now.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister has praised US politicians for approving the long-delayed $61bn military aid package for Ukraine , but said western allies needed to recognise that “the era of peace in Europe is over” and that Kyiv would inevitably need more help to fight off Russia, Dan Sabbagh and Luke Harding write from Kyiv.

Ukraine has stopped issuing new passports at offices abroad to some military-aged male citizens , according to legislation published on Wednesday, as part of measures to push them to return home amid manpower shortages in the army. The announcement came a day after the suspension of consular services for men aged 18 to 60 living abroad until the new law on mobilisation is implemented. Ukraine’s foreign ministry said the passport suspension applied only to new applications and that any requests previously submitted would be honoured.

In Warsaw, Poland, hundreds of Ukrainians crowded outside a closed passport office in a confused scene. There was anger among those who felt they were being unfairly targeted. “This is a fight against people who are fleeing the army,” said Maksym, a 38-year-old truck driver. “We are not asked on what grounds we went abroad … Why am I a draft dodger if I went abroad legally?” Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Zvarych, told AFP that “all applications submitted to the consular offices of Ukraine before April 23 … will be processed in full and passport documents will be issued to such people”.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said a group of Ukrainian children were “in Qatar for medical, mental, and social recovery”, after Russia claimed an exchange of displaced children was taking place . “All of them had previously been forcibly deported to Russia, but thanks to our friendly Qatar’s mediation efforts, they have been released,” said Zelenskiy, without addressing Russia’s claim that 48 children were involved in an exchange . Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvov a-Belova, who is wanted for war crimes by the international criminal court , claimed Russia was handing over 29 children to Ukraine and 19 were going to Russia.

Ukrainian drones attacked oil facilities in western Russia, defence sources in Kyiv confirmed on Wednesday. Officials in the western Russian regions of Smolensk and Lipetsk first announced the attacks, blaming Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles for starting fires at energy sites. Another drone attack targeted the Lipetsk region further south, which houses metallurgical and pharmaceutical sites , governor Igor Artamonov said. Russian forces hit a Ukrainian drone production facility and a Ukrainian army fuel depot , Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.

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US House of Representatives moves closer to passing Ukraine aid; bureaucracy delays £500m in foreign assistance channelled through UK Ministry of Defence. What we know on day 787

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

Ukraine said it shot down a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber from a distance of 308km (180 miles) after it took part in a long-range airstrike that killed eight people including two children in Dnipro. “I can only say the plane was hit at a distance of 308km, quite far away,” said Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military spy agency, the GUR.

An intelligence source told Reuters the plane was hit with a modified S-200 Soviet-era long-range surface-to-air missile system . Unconfirmed social media footage showed a warplane with its tail on fire spiralling towards the ground. The Russian defence ministry confirmed the crash in Russia’s southern Stavropol region but claimed it appeared to have been caused by a technical malfunction. Four aircrew ejected with one dead, two rescued and another missing, the Russian regional governor said.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, visited the site of the strike in Dnipro and again called on Ukraine’s allies to rush in more air defences . Zelenskiy said Russian missiles also struck the Black Sea port of Pivdennyi in the southern Odesa region on Friday afternoon, destroying grain storage facilities and the food inside.

In the US, the House of Representatives has pushed ahead through procedural hurdles towards passing a foreign aid package that includes $61bn for Ukraine, Joanna Walters writes . The House is expected to vote on Saturday on the legislation. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic party leader in the Senate, has told senators to be prepared to return this weekend if the package passes the House and goes back to the Senate. If passed by the Senate, it must be signed into law by president Joe Biden – after which the US would ship arms to Ukraine “right away” , the White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, told reporters on Friday.

More than half of an international £900m military fund for Ukraine run by the British Ministry of Defence has not been used because of bureaucratic delays in handing out contracts , Daniel Boffey reports . Critics claim slow provision of weapons to the frontline by the International Fund for Ukraine, with just £404m spent and ministers admitting some of the equipment is not expected to reach Ukraine until spring next year .

The fund was set up in August 2022 and was designed to be “flexible” and “low-bureaucracy” . Delays are said by MoD officials to have been caused by a need to assess each of the huge number of defence companies that have tendered for contracts. An MoD spokesperson said: “Thousands of responses have been received from industry to International Fund for Ukraine requirements, each of which have had to be individually reviewed. We make no excuses for having made sure this was done properly and in a way that most effectively helps Ukraine.”

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Russell Bentley, 64, reported killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk by Russian state media and confirmed by his battalion

A US citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media reports.

Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American – 64-year-old Russell Bentley – as missing.

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