The Ambassador of Kyiv has called on more people in the UK to take in refugees fleeing the Russian invasion on the one-year anniversary of the Homes for Ukraine programme.

Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko thanked the British for standing “shoulder to shoulder” with Ukraine and said in a video message that 160,000 Ukrainian women and children had arrived under the program since Vladimir Putin’s invasion last February – but warned that “some still need your help”.

Refugee aid organizations told The Independent that Homes for Ukraine was “riddled with failures” in its first year, while councils warned that “significant challenges remain” to ensure Ukrainian refugees “can be supported over the long term”.

More than 5,000 Russian prisoners who fought in Ukraine have been pardoned after ending their contracts for the war, the founder of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group said.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group, reportedly recruited thousands of men from prisons and offered them a chance at freedom in exchange for serving in some of Ukraine’s most dangerous battles.

“Currently, more than 5,000 people have been pardoned after completing their contracts with Wagner,” Prigozhin said.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said he would urge a fair peace that includes “territorial integrity” in the war in Ukraine during a state visit to China next week.

Speaking to reporters at the Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic, Mr Sanchez said he would discuss prospects for peace with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is trying to position himself as a mediator in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“The most important thing…is that if this peace is achieved in Ukraine, it will be fair and lasting…and when we say fair, I mean that the territorial integrity of Ukraine, which has been violated by Putin , is respected,” Mr. Sanchez said in a news conference.

The commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military said his forces were pushing back against Russian troops in the long and bitter battle for the town of Bakhmut.

“The Bachmut direction is the most difficult. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the Defense Forces, the situation is being stabilized,” General Valerii Zaluzhnyi said in a Telegram post, providing a summary of a phone conversation with Adm Sir Tony Radakin, the British Chief of Defense Staff.

The seven-month battle for Bakhmut, with Russian troops approaching from three sides, is the longest engagement of the war, with Russia using both regular soldiers and fighters from the Wagner mercenary group.

Russian troops must pass through Bakhmut to advance deeper into parts of the eastern Donbass region, although Western officials say capturing the city would have limited impact on the course of the war.

Russia is waiving its arms supply obligations to India, according to the Indian Air Force (IAF), as arms shipments have hit a roadblock due to the war in Ukraine.

The comments appear to be the first sign that India may be recalibrating its reliance on Russia amid ongoing border challenges from its nuclear neighbors Pakistan and China.

The IAF, in a released statement, told a committee of India’s lower house of parliament that Russia was planning a “large shipment” this year, without specifying which shipment it was.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has spoken out against Vladimir Putin’s decision to stockpile nuclear weapons in Belarus.

“As long as President Putin has nuclear weapons, Europe cannot be safe,” Daniel Hoegsta, ICAN’s interim executive director, said in a statement on Saturday.

“He justifies this dangerous escalation with NATO’s decades of nuclear sharing. As long as countries continue their complicity in treating nuclear weapons as something other than a global problem, it helps provide Putin with cover to get away with this type of behavior.”

The Russian state gas supplier Gazprom wants to reduce its exports to the EU by 15 percent.

The Kyiv Independent news site reported on Saturday that Gazprom on March 24

“On March 25, volume dropped to 36.2 million cubic meters, according to RBC,” added a tweet.

Russia’s attack on the Donbass city of Bakhmut has largely stalled, the British government said in a tweet.

The Defense Ministry wrote on Saturday that both sides have suffered heavy casualties but that Russia’s own spending has caused things to stall.

The statement added: “The Russian situation has also likely been aggravated by tensions between the Russian Defense Ministry and the Wagner Group, both of which are deploying troops to the sector.”

“Russia has likely shifted its operational focus to Avdiivka south of Bakhmut and to the Kremina-Svatove sector to the north, areas where Russia is likely only striving to stabilize its front line.

“This indicates a general return to a more defensive operational design following the inconclusive results of his attempts to conduct a general offensive since January 2023.”