Two more bodies were recovered from the debris of a residential block, the mayor has said | A Ukrainian artillery strike on the Russian city of Donetsk which took place on Saturday killed at least three people, according to the local authorities. ● Writing on Telegram on Sunday, Mayor Aleksey Kulemzin said that while clearing the debris of a residential block in the northern Kievsky District, the body of a 30-year-old woman was found. Two hours later, he said that another body was uncovered from the rubble, describing the deceased as a man, but providing no further details. ● The Emergencies Ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) confirmed the information, adding that rescue operations are still underway.

Ex-PM says Russian president also agreed not to push for Kyiv’s disarmament; former premier says everything he did was in coordination with US | Former prime minister Naftali Bennett said in a video published Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin assured him, in the early days of the war, that he wouldn’t kill Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 💬 “He gave me two great concessions,” Bennett said of his March 5, 2022, meeting with Putin, when he flew to Moscow in an effort to mediate shortly after Russia began its invasion. “I knew Zelensky was under threat, in a bunker… I said to [Putin], ‘Do you intend to kill Zelensky?’ He said, ‘I won’t kill Zelensky,’” Bennett recalled in the interview, which was published on his own YouTube channel. “I need to understand. Are you giving me your word that you won’t kill Zelensky?” Bennett said he asked Putin. Bennett said the Russian president repeated: “I won’t kill Zelensky.” ● Bennett said he called the Ukrainian president immediately after the three-hour encounter with Putin, and told him, “I’ve just come out of a meeting — [Putin] is not going to kill you. 💬 “[Zelensky] asked me, ‘Are you sure?’ I said 100 percent. [Putin’s] not going to kill you.”

Moscow could retaliate “in any way possible” should Kiev decide to attack Crimea, Dmitry Medvedev has said | Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles and allow Kiev to use them at will can only lead to further escalation, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday. He added that the US appears to not want the Ukraine conflict to end. In an interview with Russian journalist Nadana Fridrikhson, Medvedev denied that Ukrainian strikes against the Crimean peninsula would force Moscow to sit down at the negotiating table. “The result would be exactly the contrary. There would be no talks in such a case. There would only be retaliatory strikes,” he warned.

■ Longer-range rockets included in $2 bln U.S. pledge for Ukraine (Reuters)
■ DMITRY MEDVEDEV @medvedev_telegram replied in writing to several of my questions (02/05/23)