Russia Ukraine war live: Kyiv could ‘run out of missiles’ as Moscow uses ‘chemical weapons’ against troops

Pro-Russian candidate Peter Pellegrini has been elected as Slovakia’s new president.

Mr Pellegrini’s election cements pro-Russian prime minister Robert Fico’s hold over the country.

Mr Fico’s coalition, which includes a party headed by Mr Pellegrini, has already halted Slovak official shipments of weapons for Ukraine.

The prime minister has also spoken about western influence in the war leading to Slavic nations killing each other.

However, Mr Pellegrini has held a more moderate stance than the prime minister.

“I will be a president who will support the government in its efforts for improving people’s lives. I will do everything for Slovakia to forever remain on the side of peace and not the side of war,” he said.

More on the presidential election results here

Ukraine says Russia’s use of weapons with prohibited chemicals has become “systemic.”

The command of Ukraine’s Support Forces has recorded 371 uses of munitions containing prohibited chemicals over the past month, many of which included grenades delivered via drones.

The Support Forces’ report noted that Russian troops used weapons banned by the Chemical Weapons Convention 1412 times over the past year.

“Such actions on the part of the Russian Federation are taking on systemic pattern, and this tendency only grows,” the report noted.

Ukrainian forces are still in control of the town of Chasiv Yar in eastern Ukraine despite attempts by Russian troops to break through their defences, Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Saturday.

Russia‘s RIA news agency on Friday cited an official as saying Russian forces had entered the suburbs of the town, which Moscow sees as an important staging point for Kyiv’s troops. Ukrainian military said the report was untrue. “Chasiv Yar remains under our control, and all enemy attempts to break through to the settlement have failed,” Syrskyi said on the Telegram messaging app on Saturday.

A rapid Russian advance on Chasiv Yar, a heavily fortified town with a pre-war population of 12,200 situated west of the ruined Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, would be a grim setback for Kyiv.

Russian forces are inching forward in eastern Ukraine after capturing the bastion town of Avdiivka in February. Kyiv’s soldiers are trying to dig in, facing long-term shortages of artillery shells with U.S. aid stuck in Congress.