Russia-Ukraine war: concerns over security of captured nuclear plant; three grain ships depart Ukraine – live

It’s 11am in London and 1pm in Kyiv. Here’s a summary of the day’s main developments so far:

• Three ships carrying almost 60,000 tonnes of grain between them have departed Ukrainian Black Sea ports and are on their way to Britain, Ireland and Turkey respectively. Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, said he plans “to ensure ports have the ability to handle more than 100 vessels per month”.
• Russia says it is ready to talk about a prisoner swap with the US following yesterday’s nine-year jail sentence for US basketball player Brittney Griner. However, the Kremlin says any such negotiations should not be played out publicly.
• Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has criticised yesterday’s report by Amnesty International – which suggested Ukrainian forces’ tactics are endangering civilians by using some schools and hospitals as bases. Zelenskiy said the report “cannot be tolerated” as there “cannot be any condition under which any Russian attack on Ukraine becomes justified”.
• The UK’s ministry of defence has raised concerns about the “security and safety” of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is under Russian control. It says Russia has “used artillery units based in these areas to target Ukrainian territory on the western bank of the Dnipro river”.
• Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdoğan are scheduled to meet later today in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Talks between the presidents of Russia and Turkey are expected to focus on Syria, Ukraine and the Russian construction of a nuclear power plant in southern Turkey.
• Canada is sending up to 225 Canadian armed forces to the UK to recommence the training of Ukrainian military recruits, the Canadian defence minister has announced. Since 2015, Canada has trained 33,000 Ukrainian military and security personnel but in February paused aspects of the training.
• A US official has accused Moscow of preparing to plant fake evidence to make it look like the recent mass killing of Ukrainian prisoners in an attack on a Russian-controlled prison was caused by Ukraine. Kyiv and Moscow have traded blame over the strikes on the prison in Kremlin-controlled Olenivka, in eastern Ukraine, last week.

That’s it from me, I’m now handing over to my colleague Nicola Slawson.

Dispatch: the western ex-military training Ukrainian recruits

In the heart of the Donbas, a group of eight highly experienced western ex-military personnel are delivering an intensive 10-day training course for 40 new Ukrainian recruits who have been pulled straight from the fighting.

As the battle for Ukraine’s east grinds on, soldiers in the Donbas have been taking heavy casualties in a vicious artillery battle. Ukraine’s professional fighting force, who have been defending the eastern frontline since 2014, are severely depleted. Since 24 February new recruits have been surging to the frontline, many with shockingly little training.

The recruits on the course have a patchwork of equipment: different weapons, fatigues and body armour of varying quality. Aged between their early 20s and mid 50s, the men are of all shapes, sizes and levels of fitness.

One in 10 was in the military before the war and they have had very little formal training, explains Andy Milburn, founder of the Mozart Group, a new private security company that’s tasked itself with training Ukrainian soldiers.

Milburn, a retired Marine Corps colonel who spent 31 years in the US military, gathered expert volunteers to train civilians fighting in Kyiv’s civil defence force as they defended their capital. Now based in Donbas, the Mozart Group consists of between 20 and 30 volunteers from the US, the UK, Ireland and other western countries.

The Mozart Group’s name was coined by its members as a tongue-in-cheek musical reference to the Wagner Group, a shadowy Russian paramilitary organisation that’s often described as Vladimir Putin’s private army. Milburn says at first he was “a little ambivalent about using the name” but that it has “caught on as a brand now”.

Read the full report here:

Yesterday, a Russian court convicted the US basketball player Brittney Griner on drug charges, sentencing her to nine years in prison and a 1m rouble fine in a politically charged verdict expected to lead to a prisoner swap with the US.

US president Joe Biden released a statement following Griner’s sentencing, calling her detention “unacceptable” and demanding she be released.

Now, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has confirmed Russia would be willing to discuss a prisoner swap, but not publicly.

Speaking at the East Asia summit in Cambodia, Lavrov said:

We are ready to discuss this topic, but within the framework of the channel that was agreed upon by presidents Putin and Biden.

If the Americans decide to once again resort to public diplomacy… that is their business and I would even say that it is their problem.

Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, has walked out during her Russian counterpart’s address to the East Asia summit in Cambodia.

It is understood an Australian official was still present while the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, spoke, and that it was not a pre-planned protest from Wong.

“Minister Wong could not sit through Mr Lavrov’s attempt to justify the murder of innocent Ukrainians,” a spokesperson said.

Last month, at the G20 in Indonesia, Wong said Russia’s aggression “cannot be normalised and it cannot be minimised”.

She added:

Russia’s unprovoked, unjustified and illegal invasion of Ukraine is not only the cause of untold loss of life and damage.

It is not only a primary cause of the global energy and food security crisis wreaking havoc on our economies and pushing millions more of the world’s people into severe food insecurity.

It is also a profound breach of trust. And it is up to all nations to hold this breach to account, or the cost will be borne by all of us.

This was first reported in our Australia news live blog.