Ukraine. The most important events of the last hours

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been ongoing for 690 days. Talks between the foreign ministers of Ukraine and France took place in Kyiv. The foreign ministers discussed, among other things, the supply of air defense systems. Prominent Russian priest Alexei Uminsky faces expulsion from the Russian Orthodox Church for refusing to read a prayer asking God to lead Russia to victory over Ukraine. These are the most important events in the last hours of the war in Ukraine.

Talks between the foreign ministers of Ukraine and France took place in Kyiv. "We are grateful to France for its comprehensive support, particularly in strengthening our air defense. Today, we discussed the supply of systems and missiles to defend the Ukrainian sky, as well as drones"
said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kuleba, during a press conference, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine agency.

• Kuleba thanked Ukraine for its support in the process of integration with the EU and NATO, and noted that France played a key role in granting Ukraine the status of an EU candidate and would help Kyiv in the next stages of integration.
  
  The head of the French diplomacy, Stephane Sejourne, declared that his country wants to "jointly increase Ukraine's capabilities in producing weapons on its territory and is ready to help in this field".

"Paris's support for Ukraine's integration with NATO is no less firm. Today we coordinated steps before the NATO summit in Washington"
said the Ukrainian minister.

• The Ukrainian Air Force reported that in the attack carried out on the night from Friday to Saturday, the Russian army used 40 missiles and drones; eight of the missiles were shot down by anti-missile defense.
  Prominent Russian priest Alexei Uminsky faces expulsion from the Russian Orthodox Church for refusing to read a prayer asking God to lead Russia to victory over Ukraine.
  
  In its judgment published on Saturday, the church court stated that Uminsky should be "thrown out" for violating his priestly oath. The decision was submitted for approval to Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian church, who strongly supports President Vladimir Putin.

• Four Ukrainian crew members were among the helicopter passengers kidnapped by Al-Shabab Islamists when the plane had to make an emergency landing in Somalia on Wednesday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. The crashed helicopter allegedly belonged to a Ukrainian company that chartered it to the UN delegation. Apart from the four Ukrainians, informed by the spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenko, there were five foreigners on board. This was reported by the AP agency on Saturday. The circumstances of the helicopter accident are unclear, with different locations, different numbers of passengers, and even different reasons for the landing, which included either a terrorist attack or an engine failure.
• The authorities of the Russian-backed separatist Transnistria are conducting an information operation that may be preparation for false flag operations to destabilize the Republic of Moldova, the Institute for War Studies (ISW) wrote in its report.
• 20,000 civilians completed National Opposition courses last year, organized by the authorities of the Ukrainian capital. They want to prepare for partisan fighting, checking before going to the front whether they can defend themselves in the event of another Russian attack on Kyiv. Free National Opposition courses are conducted by state and local authorities in all regions of Ukraine. They have been ongoing in Kyiv since July last year when three thousand people responded to the first recruitment announcement.