Live blog | Ukrainian security service: Russian soldiers arrested who wanted to kill Zelensky

This live blog is no longer updated. Follow the new developments in it live blog from May 8.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to release 100 billion within the European Union for a joint defense and anti-aircraft apparatus. This means that the member states are better protected against Russian aggression, he says.

Tusk made these statements in the Polish city of Katowice in the presence of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. He believes that the long-running debate about higher European defense spending should come to an end.

Also read | Polish Prime Minister Tusk wants to invest 100 billion in European air defense

Ukrainian authorities are investigating 21 North Korean-made ballistic missiles that Russia fired into Ukraine. About fifty rockets are said to have been fired, Ukrainian chief prosecutor Andri Kostin told Reuters.

The missiles were fired from Russia’s western regions of Belgorod, Voronezh and Kursk, Ukraine said. According to Kostin, about half of the rockets exploded prematurely in mid-air. It is unclear to what extent the missiles were downed by anti-aircraft fire. Ballistic missiles like these are relatively difficult to disable. Ukraine is also looking into whether the North Korean government has sent instructors to monitor the missile launches.

Russia’s territorial gains are due to supplies to Ukraine, which have been at a standstill for a long time, says defense specialist Peter Wijninga of think tank HCSS. The shortages were so great that Ukraine had to ration ammunition. “For every shell Ukraine fires, Russia can fire ten.”

Russia has taken full advantage of the Ukrainian military’s shortages. ‘The ratio – ten to one – translates into results on the ground.’ In recent weeks, the Russian army has gained ground in various places in the country. Wijninga now fears that the army is gathering its troops for a major battle near Kharkiv.

New supplies of ammunition are on their way, but it will take quite some time before they are distributed among all Ukrainian troops. ‘It will take several weeks before you see the effect.’

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other at the chemical weapons watchdog (OPCW) in The Hague of using banned poisons on the battlefield, the organization said on Tuesday. The OPCW said the allegations were “insufficiently substantiated” but added that “the situation remains volatile and extremely worrying regarding the possible resurgence of the use of toxic chemicals as weapons.”

Vladimir Putin has been sworn in as president of Russia for the fifth time. He has thus started a new six-year term. He said in a short speech that his country is now going through a complicated time. “We will get through this difficult period with dignity and come out even stronger.”

“We are a united and great nation and together we can overcome all obstacles, achieve everything we have planned and we will conquer together,” the president said before thousands of people at a Kremlin palace. The swearing-in ceremony was also accompanied by a military parade and a prayer and blessing with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Ukraine’s security service SBU claims it has captured a network of Russian agents plotting to assassinate Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other senior government officials, Reuters reports.

“Counterintelligence services and SBU investigators have thwarted the plans of the FSB (the Russian security service) to eliminate the President of Ukraine and other representatives of the highest military and political leadership,” the SBU wrote on Telegram.

“Russia is trying to scare us and sow division, that is the main objective.” This is what defense specialist Dick Zandee of the Clingendael Institute said after Moscow’s announcement that it will conduct exercises in the south of the country that will also test tactical nuclear weapons. However, according to defense specialist Zandee, there is no ‘escalation in warfare’.

Also read | Russia nuclear exercise is ‘not an escalation in warfare’

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be sworn in later today, beginning his fifth term in office. In March he was given a new mandate after convincingly winning what Western observers considered an unfair election. After being sworn in, Putin will be president of Russia until 2030.

Ukraine is urging Western allies not to recognize Putin as Russia’s “legitimate president.” Many Western countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, are not sending representation to Putin’s inauguration. France does send its ambassador Pierre Levy.

This live blog is based on reporting by BNR’s own correspondents and editors, The Guardian, ANP, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Associated Press, CNN, BBC, CNBC, Sky News and Agence France-Presse. BNR also uses online messages from the news agencies Tass, RIA Novosti and Interfax (Russia) and Belta (Belarus). Because reporting from these agencies is not verifiable and cannot be qualified as independent, in these cases it is explicitly stated where the reporting comes from.