Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces surrender to army robots in battlefield first, Zelensky says – UK Times

The incoming Hungarian prime minister Peter Magyar has said his country will end its long-standing opposition to the European Union’s €90bn loan for Ukraine.

Magyar said the decision on the loan “was already made in December” and the incoming Tisza administration “would like to be coherent” with previous commitments made.

He said EU leaders would be saved the trouble of having to regroup again in person to unblock the loan.

Magyar added that the decision on the loan’s clearance could be made even before his government takes office, but added that the country would not be able to contribute financially, blaming Orban’s outgoing administration.

“I will discuss with European leaders but I personally agree that Hungary should opt out, Hungary is in a very difficult situation,” Magyar said. “We cannot take out even more loans, the Hungarian budget deficit has tripled since 2010,” he said.

Orban had initially agreed to allow the loan to go ahead but then changed his mind, saying Ukraine must first repair a pipeline carrying Russian oil through the country to Hungary.

Russian hardliners cast Viktor Orban’s defeat in Hungary as a serious blow that would unlock EU funds for Ukraine to fight on against Russia for another year, but the Kremlin played down the outcome, saying it was ready for talks with Orban’s successor.

Orban, Hungary’s veteran nationalist leader who lost power on Sunday to upstart centre-right rival ⁠Peter Magyar after 16 years in office, was a welcome guest in Moscow, where he held talks with president Vladimir Putin as recently as November.

Magyar ⁠is more of an unknown quantity for Moscow. He has combined pro-EU and pro-Nato rhetoric with ​a public ⁠recognition that he will need to hold talks with Putin and continue to buy Russian oil and gas for now despite talk of diversifying and reviewing contracts.

Hardliners and war bloggers inside Russia were almost unanimous, ‌however, that Orban’s defeat was bad news for Moscow.

“Orban’s defeat in the elections will have one ‌consequence for us here in Russia. But it is a very significant one,” said Andrei Medvedev, a blogger and journalist with a large following.

“Now… Ukraine will receive EU funds, and with them, the resources to wage war for at least a year. It goes without saying that the Ukrainian armed forces and numerous contractors will focus on further developing their drone systems and missile capabilities,” he said.

Ramzai, another influential blogger, was equally gloomy.

“It is clear that Hungary will soon ⁠cease to block the adoption of anti-Russian sanctions and the EU’s multi-billion-euro support for Ukraine. Russia’s contracts for the completion of the Paks (II) nuclear power plant and for the supply of gas and oil will also be called into question,” he said.

Russian and Belarusian athletes will be ​permitted to compete in World Aquatics events with their respective uniforms, flags and anthems, the sport’s governing body said on Monday.

Competitors from ⁠both countries were banned from international events following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation”. Belarus has served as a key ⁠staging point for the ​invasion.

However, ⁠some of their athletes competed as neutrals in the Paris 2024 Olympics as the restrictions ⁠were eased.

In December, restrictions ​were lifted for Russian and Belarusian youth ‌athletes.

World Aquatics said Russia ⁠and Belarus will also resume full membership rights.

Ukrainian troops have withdrawn to new defensive lines near the settlement of Myropilske in Sumy Oblast, military officials said, citing Russia’s superiority in manpower and equipment.

“The situation in the area of the settlement of Myropilske in the Krasnopillia hromada in Sumy Oblast remains tense. As a result of intense fighting and the enemy’s superiority in manpower and equipment, units of the defence forces of Ukraine moved to new prepared defensive lines to preserve the lives of personnel, where they continue to hold the defence,” said the 14th Army Corps of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, reported the Ukrainska Pravda.

However, the situation remains under control and the Ukrainian forces are ready for further action, the statement added.

Hungary’s new prime minister Péter Magyar has said he will tell Russian president Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine.

Magyar said everyone knows Ukraine is the victim in this war, breaking away Budapest’s continued silence on the war due to outgoing leader Viktor Orbán’s closeness to the Kremlin.

He added that he would not be calling either US president Donald Trump or Putin in the immediate aftermath of his election victory over Orbán, but would speak to his predecessor’s allies if they wanted.

“If [Putin] does [call], I will ask him to please stop the killing and stop the war. I think that would be a very brief discussion. I hope he will be forced to stop the war soon,” Magyar said in Budapest yesterday.

He celebrated the start of a “new era” in the country after the removal of Orbán, saying: “Our history is not written in Moscow, Brussels or Washington but on Hungarian streets.”

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has said his country’s forces successfully retook land under Russia’s control using only ground robots and drones.

“The future is already on the front line – and Ukraine is building it. These are our ground robotic systems. For the first time in the history of this war, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned platforms – ground systems and drones,” he said on X.

“The occupiers surrendered, and the operation was carried out without infantry and without losses on our side,” he said, without detailing the operation’s location and time.

He added that more than 22,000 missions using ground robotic systems have been carried out in the past three months.

“In other words, lives were saved more than 22,000 times when a robot went into the most dangerous areas instead of a warrior. This is about high technology protecting the highest value – human life,” he said.

Higher oil prices caused by the war in the Middle East could raise inflation rates in Ukraine by 1.5 to 2.8 percentage points, Ukraine’s top central banker has warned.

National Bank of Ukraine gGovernor Andriy Pyshnyi said the central bank would stick to its target of lowering inflation to 5 per cent in three years, using all available tools to ensure that goal was met.

“We’re trying to walk on a razorblade,” Pyshnyi said through a translator, noting prices ⁠have already started to rise.

When asked ​if ⁠the war would lead the bank to amend its economic forecasts, Pyshnyi said the bank has planned meetings for next week that will ⁠assess the full effect on Ukraine’s economy.

The secondary effects of the war, ​including ⁠on fertilizer prices, would also be “quite ‌significant”.

Pyshnyi is part of a large Ukrainian delegation attending the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in hopes of ensuring that Russia’s ‌war on Ukraine, now in its fifth ‌year, remains on the agenda, despite the outbreak of a new war in the Middle East.

He welcomed the election results in Hungary, which saw president Viktor Orban swept from office, and said ⁠he hoped it would resolve delays in the European Union’s €90bn (£78.3bn) loan to Ukraine.

Independent readers have shared sharply divided views on Ukraine’s conscription crisis, reacting to a report from world affairs editor Sam Kiley on widespread draft dodging and rising strain on the armed forces.

Reporting from Izyum, in eastern Ukraine, Kiley’s report detailed the scandal of millions avoiding military call-ups – with hundreds of thousands of soldiers also absent without leave.

Many sympathised with those avoiding service, particularly men with families, describing it as understandable to fear a “one-way ticket” to the front. Some readers reflected on the psychological toll of the conflict, highlighting exhaustion among soldiers and the fear of being sent to the most dangerous areas with little chance of return – points also noted by Kiley on the ground.

Both ‌Russia and Ukraine have ‌accused each ‌other of ⁠breaching the 32-hour ceasefire, which ran from Saturday afternoon ‌until midnight (2100 GMT) ​on ‌Sunday.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said ​it had recorded 10,721 Russian ceasefire violations ‌during the truce, including 1,567 ⁠incidents of artillery shelling, 119 assault operations and ⁠9,035 drone strikes. It said no airstrikes were recorded.

Russia’s defence ministry said ⁠on Monday that Ukraine violated ⁠the ​Easter ⁠ceasefire 6,558 times, ⁠Interfax ​news agency ⁠reported.