US president will take part in an emergency Nato summit, G7 summit and European Council meeting
Joe Biden has arrived in Europe for a four-day trip with the aim of keeping up pressure on Russia in the face of sanctions fatigue and splits over energy sanctions among US allies.
It will also, to some extent, be a lap of honour for the US president’s success so far in keeping allies and partners together in confronting Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Continue reading...Joe Biden’s ambassador to the United Nations warned on Sunday there was little immediate hope of a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine, as pressure continued to build on the US president ahead of a crucial Nato summit in Europe this week.
Biden, who faces growing dissatisfaction over his approach to the war, will travel to Brussels on Thursday and then on to Poland, it was announced on Sunday night. He will hear a proposal from Poland for Nato to send a peacekeeping force into Ukraine, something Linda Thomas-Greenfield said was unlikely.
Continue reading...Three European leaders visit Kyiv amid reports Russian forces have taken patients and staff hostage in a Mariupol hospital
Continue reading...No-fly zones are used to protect populations but implementing one over Ukraine risks sparking a wider, more dangerous conflict
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy again urged Nato on Monday to impose a no-fly zone over his country, saying it would protect not only Ukraine but the countries of the Atlantic alliance from Russian air attacks.
But the United States and Nato allies refused for the same reasons they have been citing since Moscow invaded Ukraine on 24 February: that any attempt to establish a no-fly zone would place them in direct conflict with nuclear-armed Russia and spark a wider, more dangerous conflict.
Continue reading...Analysis: proximity to Nato border may appear unnerving but steps have been taken to reinforce air defences
Russia’s deadly multiple missile strike on Ukraine’s military base in Yavoriv, less than 15 miles from the border with Poland, was clearly designed to send a message.
Not only can Russian forces strike the western limits of Ukraine, killing at least 35 people near where western arms will be crossing into the country, but the Kremlin does not care if US or other volunteer fighters were training there.
Continue reading...Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina urge western leaders to ‘engage more actively and strongly’ in the region
Russia is likely to expand its confrontation with the west by pressuring Serbia into undermining the independence of Kosovo and other western Balkan states, regional leaders have warned in interviews with the Guardian.
They also called for the EU and Nato to speed up their approach to applications for membership from Balkans countries, and bolster defences against Russian interference.
Continue reading...US secretary of state says Russian leader’s ‘clear plan to brutalise Ukraine’ will end in failure
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has said Vladimir Putin will fail in his effort to subjugate Ukraine, and will instead lead Russia into a “strategic defeat” that is already unfolding.
Blinken was talking at a press conference with the UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, at which both pledged to keep up security and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
Continue reading...Hopes of establishing a humanitarian corridor out of besieged city of Mariupol dashed for second day running
The Ukrainian military is reporting that Russia has suffered losses of more than 11,000 military personnel since the invasion began.
A total of 285 Russian tanks and 985 armoured combat vehicles were also reported to have been destroyed as well as 109 artillery systems, 44 aircraft and 48 helicopters, according to a report by the general staff of the armed forces of Ukraine and published to the website of the Ukrainian ministry of defence.
The scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continue to surprise Russia.
[Russia] has responded by targeting populated areas in multiple locations, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol.
Continue reading...Deputy PM says Nato will need ‘strategic stamina’ as Starmer accuses ministers of moving too slowly on sanctions
It may take years for Vladimir Putin to be defeated in his conquest of Ukraine, Britain’s deputy prime minister has admitted, as Labour accused the government of moving too slowly over sanctions.
Dominic Raab said people who thought the crisis could be resolved in days were “deluding themselves” and that Nato would need to “show some strategic stamina” in its bid to force the Russian army to retreat.
Continue reading...Ukraine told: your statehood is in doubt as Russian bombs end ceasefire in Mariupol
Vladimir Putin delivered a chilling warning to the west over the imposition of sanctions on Russia on Saturday, warning that measures designed to cripple his country’s economy were “akin to an act of war”.
In comments that were both defiant and threatening, the Russian president also told Ukraine’s leaders that their nation risked being dismantled as an independent sovereign state if they continued to resist Russia’s invasion.
Continue reading...Vladimir Putin criticises economic sanctions imposed on Russia, and warns western countries against implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said 66,224 Ukrainian men had returned from abroad to help fight against Russia’s invasion.
That’s how many men returned from abroad at this moment to defend their country from the horde. These are 12 more combat and motivated brigades! Ukrainians, we are invincible,” Reznikov said in statement posted online.
Continue reading...Local authorities in Ukrainian city ask residents to return to shelters and wait for further information
Authorities in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol have said an evacuation of civilians has been postponed because Russian forces encircling the city were not respecting an agreed ceasefire.
In a statement, the city council asked residents to return to shelters in the city and wait for further information on evacuation.
Continue reading...The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has criticised Nato for refusing to implement a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying the decision gave 'the green light for further bombing' of the country.
In an emotional nighttime address, he said: 'All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your lack of unity.'
Nato warned on Friday that imposing a no-fly zone could provoke full-fledged war in Europe with Russia.
Zelenskiy said Nato countries had created a narrative that a no-fly zone would provoke Russian aggression against Nato
Volodymyr Zelenskiy criticises Nato for refusing to introduce a no-fly zone over Ukraine; UN security council condemns Russia nuclear power plant attack
Continue reading...Putin forces intensify strikes on civilian areas as Zelenskiy issues furious rebuke to Nato over no-fly zone refusal
The US envoy to the UN said the world had narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe in Russia’s attack on Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, as Moscow’s forces intensified their devastating campaign of artillery and airstrikes against civilian areas of Ukraine.
Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaking at an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York on Friday, the US envoy said Russia’s actions, which caused a major fire at the Zaporizhzhia compound, reflected a “dangerous new escalation” in its invasion of Ukraine. “Russia’s attack last night put Europe’s largest nuclear power plant at grave risk,” she said. “It was incredibly reckless and dangerous. And it threatened the safety of civilians across Russia, Ukraine and Europe.”
Continue reading...Ukrainian president tells Russian leader direct talks are ‘only way to stop this war’; French president tells Russian president ‘you are lying to yourself’
A compilation of video footage taken by those currently in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson show Russian troops patrolling the city streets.
Kherson’s mayor, Igor Kolykhaiev, confirmed Russian forces had landed in the city in a Facebook post written about 10pm on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Negotiations come as western nations agree to send advanced arms to Ukraine and rouble enters free fall
Russian rocket attacks killed “dozens” of people in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv as officials from both countries met for ceasefire talks, with Moscow facing unprecedented western sanctions that it said had created “a new economic reality”.
The Élysée Palace said after a call between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin that the Russian president had said he was “willing to commit” to ending attacks on civilians and civil infrastructure while the talks were taking place.
Continue reading...Russian troops facing fierce resistance as Germany abandons its postwar military stance to supply arms to Ukraine
Vladimir Putin was facing growing international isolation and the prospect of pariah status on Saturday night as long-term allies dramatically turned against him following the invasion of Ukraine, and western nations planned further decisive military and financial action against Moscow.
As his hopes of a quick victory evaporated in the face of fierce resistance by Ukrainian soldiers and armies of citizen volunteers, Russia’s president was deserted by his key ally, China, and had his ultimatum demanding Kyiv’s surrender defiantly brushed aside by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Continue reading...Forces not being sent to Ukraine itself to avoid ‘existential’ war with Russia, say UK ministers
Nato will deploy significant extra troops to countries in eastern Europe which are part of the alliance, but UK ministers warned there would be no forces going to Ukraine itself to avoid an “existential” war between Russia and the west.
Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, chaired a virtual summit of 30 leaders on Friday, where the agreement was made to amass forces in eastern Europe.
Continue reading...Analysis: Immediate options seem limited and fraught with risk, but if Putin wants less Nato, he may ultimately end up with more
In the wake of what the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, described as Russia’s “fully fledged invasion of Ukraine”, the west has to decide how to respond to what France’s Emmanuel Macron has called a turning point in European history.
Yet can the west now offer Ukraine more than a mixture of prayers, sanctions and diplomatic demarches? Throughout this conflict western intelligence has shown it has been able to predict Putin’s next step, but less capable of stopping it. Boris Johnson told the Ukrainian people “we are with you”, but what this western solidarity means in practice is now up for debate.
Continue reading...