• 7:48 a.m .: a fire broke out on the Crimean bridge, traffic interrupted

A fire broke out on the vast automobile and rail bridge linking Ukrainian Crimea annexed by Russia and Russian territory, forcing traffic to stop, according to Russian authorities.

"A fuel tanker caught fire at the back of a train," Crimean Railways said.

This bridge, built at great expense on the orders of Vladimir Putin, is used in particular to transport Russian military equipment for the Russian army fighting in Ukraine.

  • 5:43 a.m .: US military aid reaches its limits

The US military will soon no longer be able to provide Ukraine with the advanced equipment it has given it so far, as its reserves are reaching their limits, particularly in terms of ammunition, according to US officials and experts.

But US stocks of some equipment "reach minimum levels necessary for planning and training", and replenishing stocks to pre-invasion levels could take "several years", according to Mark Cancian of the Center for strategic and international studies. (CSIS).

Older equipment is available and "they will represent an increasingly important part of the transfers" in the future, added in a recent note this former colonel of the Marine Corps who was responsible for the Pentagon's arms purchases from 2008 to 2015.

The United States is by far the largest arms donor to Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on February 24, with over $16.8 billion in military assistance to kyiv.

  • 1:03 am: IMF releases $1.3 billion in emergency financing for Ukraine

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will release $1.3 billion in emergency financing for Ukraine through its new food shocks aid instrument, the institution said in a statement.

This new envelope aims to "support Ukraine in the face of its urgent needs in terms of balance of payment" but also "to play a catalytic role for future financial support from donors and creditors of Ukraine", explained the IMF.

“The scale and intensity of the war launched by Russia against Ukraine more than seven months ago has caused considerable human suffering and strongly affected the Ukrainian economy”, estimated the institution in its press release, adding: "GDP is expected to decline by 35% in 2022 compared to 2021 and financing needs remain very high."

  • 12:00 a.m.: Mass grave found in Lyman recently liberated, Kyiv says 

Ukrainian authorities have discovered a mass grave in Lyman, recently liberated in eastern Ukraine, and the number of bodies it contains is unclear, said Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk province, in a message published Friday on the Internet.

Separately, the Ukrainian national news agency, Ukrinform, quoting a senior Ukrainian police official, reported that the mass grave contained 180 bodies.

Ukrainian forces liberated the town of Lyman this weekend.

With Reuters and AFP

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