Hundreds of thousands ‘must evacuate Donetsk’ to avoid falling into enemy hands, says Ukrainian president
Russia has said it has invited United Nations and Red Cross experts to investigate the deaths of dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war held by Moscow-backed separatists, Reuters reports.
At least 50 prisoners of war were killed in an attack on a jail in Olenivka, in Russian-occupied Donetsk, on Friday. Both sides in the war have blamed the blast on each other.
Continue reading...Aide to head of region says it will be liberate by September; minister says preparations to resume grain shipments ongoing as strikes on port draw international condemnation
Without port blockades, Ukraine would be able to export 60m tonnes of grain in eight to nine months, according to Ukraine’s economic adviser, Oleh Ustenko.
Ustenko said Russia’s strike on the port of Odesa showed it would definitely not be that easy, according to Reuters reports of his appearance on television.
Continue reading...We are now pausing our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. We will return in a few hours to bring you all the latest developments.
Three people were killed as 13 Russian missiles hit a military airfield and railway infrastructure in Ukraine’s central Kirovohrad region on Saturday, the local governor said.
Reuters reports that speaking on television, governor Andriy Raikovych said two security guards at an electricity substation had been killed. He also said that one Ukrainian soldier had been killed and nine more wounded.
Russian forces are using artillery fire along the Ingulets River, a tributary of the Dnipro, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said.
“Supply lines of the Russian forces west of the river are increasingly at risk,” the ministry said in an intelligence update.
Continue reading...Tehran meeting saw discord over Erdoğan’s plan to intervene in Syria but ‘progress’ on shipping Ukrainian grain
Vladimir Putin ended his first major summit outside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine with an endorsement from Iran for its response to Nato, a clash with Turkey over Syria and signs of progress over the lifting of the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain.
The White House said the Tehran summit held between Putin, the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, and the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, showed how isolated the Russian leader had become – which was not an observation shared by Moscow, who claimed it showed Russia remained respected in the Middle East.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here
Today is the anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Donetsk in 2014, which killed 298 people onboard, including 196 Dutch nationals and 38 Australians.
With the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s anniversary has hit the international community even harder. Russia denied involvement in the downing of MH17, despite the findings of an international investigation that found multiple witnesses who saw an anti-aircraft missile launcher that had secretly crossed into Ukraine from Russia in the hours before it shot down the commercial flight.
Continue reading...Representative of Ukraine’s defense ministry says ‘preparations for next stage of offensive actions are under way,’ Kyiv Independent reports
Two people were killed in Nikopol on Saturday when heavy Russian shelling hit the southern Ukrainian town, the emergency services and regional governor said.
The regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, Valentyn Reznichenko, said Russia fired 53 Grad rockets at the town, Reuters reports.
We assess [that] an official Russian delegation recently received a showcase of Iranian attack-capable UAVs.
We are releasing these images, captured in June, showing Iranian UAVs that the Russian government delegation saw that day.
Continue reading...Ruling on an attack on a nursing home early in the conflict, UN says no war crimes committed but both sides partially responsible
Earlier we reported on Ukrainian soldiers arriving in UK for training. About 1,050 UK service personnel are running the programme, which will train up to 10,000 Ukrainians over the coming months.
The defence secretary, Ben Wallace, who visited the training this week, said:
This ambitious new training programme is the next phase in the UK’s support to the armed forces of Ukraine in their fight against Russian aggression. Using the world-class expertise of the British army, we will help Ukraine to rebuild its forces and scale up its resistance as they defend their country’s sovereignty and their right to choose their own future.
Continue reading...Defence minister announces move as ‘we have no reason to think Russia will change its behaviour’
Latvia is to reinstate compulsory military service amid growing tension with Russia in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“The current military system of Latvia has reached its limit. Meanwhile, we have no reason to think that Russia will change its behaviour,” the Latvian defence minister, Artis Pabriks, told reporters on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Russia claims major victory by seizing control of entire eastern Luhansk region
A Ukrainian defence ministry spokesperson has denied Moscow’s claims that the southern city of Lysychansk is under “full control” of Russian forces.
Speaking to the BBC, Yuriy Sak admitted, however, that the situation in the area had been “very intense for quite a while now”, with Russian forces attacking “non-stop”.
Continue reading...At least 18 dead after Russian missile strikes multi-story apartment building in Odesa; Russian forces withdraw from Snake Island in Black Sea
Continue reading...Nato says Moscow ‘most direct threat’ to security; Putin warns over installing military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden
Continue reading...PM says mark will be reached by end of decade as UK needs to adapt to more dangerous world
Boris Johnson has said the UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by the end of this decade, after a cabinet row over defence spending and claims the government would ditch a key manifesto commitment on the issue.
Speaking at the end of the Nato conference in Madrid, the prime minister said: “We need to invest for the long term in vital capabilities like future combat air, while simultaneously adapting to a more dangerous and more competitive world.
Continue reading...Hungarian leader was criticised by Xavier Bettel in 2021 for introducing homophobic law
The dozens of invitees were carefully seated along the lengthy table, flanked by columns fashioned out of Bagnères marble and surrounded by paintings from Spain’s Francisco de Goya.
As photos of the Nato dinner at Spain’s royal palace filtered out, many were swift to spot what one Spanish news site described as the image of the summit: the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, seated next to Gauthier Destenay, the first same-sex spouse of a leader of an EU member state.
Continue reading...Beijing’s efforts to build up nuclear forces, hacking operations and increasingly close ties to Moscow are ‘serious challenges’, says Nato secretary general
China is not an adversary but it does represent serious challenges, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, said on Wednesday, as the alliance agreed for the first time to include threats posed by Beijing into a blueprint guiding its future strategy.
While Russia’s war against Ukraine has dominated discussions at the Nato summit, China earned a place among the western alliance’s most worrying security concerns.
Continue reading...Latest updates: Ukraine says at least three people killed and five wounded after eight missiles hit southern city of Mykolaiv
More on the attack in Mykolaiv, in Ukraine’s south, near the Black Sea:
Reuters is also reporting that further east, in Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, a key battleground in Russia’s assault on the industrial heartland of Donbas, the governor reported increased military action.
Continue reading...Analysis: deal between Biden and Erdoğan is sealed in Madrid after Nordic countries vow to control support for Kurdish terrorism
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, immediately started to reap the rewards for lifting the block on allowing Sweden and Finland to join Nato when the Biden administration said it backed the potential sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.
Speaking at a briefing call on Wednesday, Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary for defence for international security affairs at the Pentagon, told reporters that strong Turkish defence capabilities would reinforce Nato’s defences.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry accuses Nato of ‘focusing on efforts to destabilise Russian society’
Russian officials have reacted angrily to Nato’s offer of membership to Finland and Sweden, calling it a “destabilising” effort that will increase tensions in the region.
“We condemn the irresponsible course of the North Atlantic Alliance that is ruining the European architecture, or what’s left of it,” Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Trade should be directed at countries who can be trusted, says British foreign secretary Liz Truss
China would be making “a catastrophic miscalculation” if it invaded Taiwan, Liz Truss has said, telling the Nato summit that the UK and other countries should reconsider trading relationships with countries that used economic power in “coercive” ways.
In a sign of how far UK government attitudes towards China have shifted since the self-declared “golden decade” under David Cameron, the British foreign secretary said trade should be directed at countries that could be trusted.
Continue reading...Defence minister blames Coalition for submarine delay; NSW parliamentary inquiry into Barilaro appointment begins; David Hurley apologises for promoting builder; Chris Bowen addresses National Press Club; NSW records 11 Covid deaths, Tasmania one. Follow live
Turnbull says Albanese ‘is not Scott Morrison and that’s a big advantage’
Australia’s new prime minister will have an easier time mending relations with the French “because he is not Scott Morrison and that’s a big advantage”, the former leader Malcolm Turnbull has told journalists in Paris.
Continue reading...President Zelenskiy has urged G7 leaders to urgently send more heavy weapons to Ukraine to bring the war to an end before winter. But, as Dan Sabbagh reports, there is no clear resolution in sight
World leaders are gathering in Madrid today for the Nato conference, and one issue will loom above all else: the war in Ukraine. The conflict has been described as the biggest security challenge to the west since 9/11 and, alongside practical considerations of military aid, leaders are desperate to project an image of unity.
The Guardian’s Dan Sabbagh, who is in Madrid for the conference, has just returned from eastern Ukraine, where he witnessed the relentless shelling of Ukrainian troops. He talks to Michael Safi about a frontline that has come to resemble the battlefields of the first world war.
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