Volodymyr Zelenskiy announces return of Mariupol commanders from Turkey and Rishi Sunak reiterates UK’s ban on cluster munitions
Continue reading...Category Archives: Volodymyr Zelenskiy
‘We have ambitious plans’: Anti-Putin forces plan fresh attacks inside Russia
Leader of cross-border raids from Ukraine says weapons, not words, are needed to overthrow the regime in Moscow
The commander of the Freedom of Russia Legion says his fighters are planning another cross-border raid into Russia and are seeking to capitalise on disarray inside the Kremlin following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“There will be a further surprise in the next month or so,” Caesar, a spokesperson for the anti-Putin paramilitary group, said in an interview with the Observer in Kyiv. “It will be our third operation. After that there will be a fourth, and fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to free all our territory.”
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 490 of the invasion
At least ten killed after Russian strike hits restaurant in Kramatorsk; Ukraine reforms domestic weapons production with appointment of Herman Smetanin
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 489 of the invasion
Russian president Vladimir Putin gives first address since mutiny; Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy claims advances ‘in all directions’
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukrainian forces “advanced in all directions” on Monday following a meeting with his generals. “This is a happy day. I wished the guys [had] more days like this,” he added. His comments come after Ukrainian troops reportedly established a foothold near the Antonovsky bridge on the left bank of the Dnieper and retook the village of Rivnopil.
Zelenskiy also visited two areas along the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine on Monday. The Ukrainian president handed out awards and posed with troops in video footage posted online, including a to unit heavily involved in holding off a Russian advanced in city Bakhmut. “Thank you for protecting our country, sovereignty, our families, children, Ukraine,” he said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has met his generals and security officials following the mutiny by Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner mercenary group. Putin used a Monday night address to accuse Ukraine and its western allies of wanting Russians to “kill each other” and claimed Prigozhin’s uprising was “doomed to fail”, adding that the country showed “unity” in the face of a “treacherous” rebellion. He said he granted amnesty to Wagner fighters so they could either return to their families, be absorbed into the Russian military or go to Belarus. Under an arrangement with the Russian government, Prigozhin has agreed to go into exile in neighbouring Belarus. Putin thanked security officials, including defence minister Sergei Shoigu, who Prigozhin had demanded be removed from his post.
Prigozhin released his first statement since the mutiny in which he denied his forces engaged in an attempted coup. In an 11-minute speech released via Telegram, Prigozhin said he was staging a protest at the treatment of his men and the conduct of the war with a “march for justice”. Wagner forces seized control of the military command in the southern city of Rostov and advanced within 200km of Moscow before pulling back. Prigozhin said his forces had set up artillery south of Moscow but decided that “a demonstration of protest was enough”.
The US has prepared a $500m military aid package for Ukraine. The package will deliver ground vehicles, including Bradley fighting vehicles and Stryker armoured personnel carriers to Ukraine as the country continues its offensive. The announcement follows a pledge by the Australian government to deliver a new $110m military assistance package in the next round of support for Ukraine, including vehicles, ammunition and humanitarian funding.
The defence ministry released footage on Monday that it claimed showed Shoigu “visiting the forward command post of one of the formations of the ‘western’ group of troops”. In the video, Shoigu is shown riding in a vehicle and arriving at a command post, where he listens to reports from officers and pores over a battlefield map. The video was released without sound and it was unclear when and where it was filmed, nonetheless, the footage showed tacit government support for Shoigu.
The aborted Wagner mutiny demonstrates that Moscow committed a strategic mistake by waging war on Ukraine, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday. “The events over the weekend are an internal Russian matter, and yet another demonstration of the big strategic mistake that President Vladimir Putin made with his illegal annexation of Crimea and the war against Ukraine,” he told reporters on a visit to Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.
Events over the weekend show that Russia’s military power is “cracking” and the “monster Putin has created is turning against him”, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs Josep Borrell has said. But he warned the instability in Russia is dangerous for Europe and must be taken into account in the coming days and weeks.
Lithuanian president Gitanas Nausėda warned that Nato would need to strengthen its eastern flank if Prigozhin is exiled to Belarus. Following a state security council meeting on the mercenary group’s attempt to revolt against Russian military leadership, Nausėda said: “If Prigozhin or part of the Wagner group ends up in Belarus with unclear plans and unclear intentions, it will only mean that we need to further strengthen the security of our eastern borders.”
Continue reading...China downplays Wagner rebellion as Russia’s ‘internal affairs’
Beijing says it supports Russia in maintaining national stability, without explicitly referring to Vladimir Putin personally
Chinese officials have described an aborted rebellion by the Wagner group of mercenaries as Moscow’s “internal affairs”, while one state media mouthpiece dismissed the divisions in Russia as an “illusion” being exploited by the west.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko held talks in Beijing on Sunday after the most serious challenge to president Vladimir Putin’s grip on power since he came to power in 2000.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy admits counteroffensive may be going ‘slower than desired’
Ukraine president says war is not a Hollywood movie, as Putin announces nuclear-capable ICBMs will soon enter service
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has conceded that Ukraine’s counteroffensive may be going “slower than desired” but has insisted that he will not needlessly risk soldiers’ lives to meet international expectations.
The comments from Ukraine’s president came as Vladimir Putin suggested that there appeared to have been a break in the intensity of Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive.
Continue reading...Nato allies back fast-track membership for Ukraine, says Cleverly
UK foreign secretary says Ukraine has ‘evolved quickly’, as Zelenskiy tells summit it can be engine of green growth
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said all Nato allies are backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year.
Speaking on the margins of the two-day Ukraine Recovery conference in London, Cleverly said the UK was “very, very supportive” of Ukraine being able to join Nato without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan (Map).
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 476 of the invasion
Volodmyr Zelenskiy meets head of UN nuclear watchdog; US House of Representatives votes unanimously to call for return of detained US journalist
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, has met President Volodomyr Zelenskiy to discuss risks to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ahead of a planned visit to the facility on Wednesday.
Zelenskiy has praised Ukrainian troops in his nighttime address and singled out units operating near Bakhmut, saying “there is forward movement in various areas”.
Putin has claimed Ukrainian losses during the conflict are near “catastrophic” and that the counterattack had not been successful in any area. The Russian president made the claim during televised meetings with war correspondents and military bloggers. “This is a massive counteroffensive, using strategic reserves that were prepared for this task,” Putin said. “They lost over 160, we lost 54 tanks, and some of them are subject to restoration and repair.”
The US House of Representatives has voted unanimously on a resolution calling for Russia to immediately release imprisoned US journalist Evan Gershkovich.
Moscow has also flagged it may withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal, after Putin says he has been cheated by the west who have failed to deliver on a promise to help bring Russian agricultural goods to world markets.
A Russian missile strike on an apartment in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine has killed 11 and injured more than 30 people, according to an updated casualty list provided by Volodymr Zelenskiy on Tuesday.
The US government has announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $325m which includes artillery rounds, anti-aircraft systems and 15 new Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles. The UK Ministry of Defence has announced a $115m air defence package for Ukraine. Latvia has allocated another $460,000 in aid to Ukraine following the Kakhova Dam disaster.
Ukrainian forces have been confirmed to have liberated the village of Neskuchne on Tuesday after Reuters journalists were able to reach the area. Russia has yet acknowledge any gains.
Continue reading...Ukraine: Russia launches deadly missile attack on Kryvyi Rih, says mayor
People feared trapped in rubble from attack on five-storey residential building in central Ukrainian city
Six people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, as air attacks were reported in Kyiv and other cities.
“A five-storey building got destroyed” Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk region, said on Telegram. “There are still people under the rubble.”
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 473 of the invasion
Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirms ‘counteroffensive and defensive actions’; president says his generals are in ‘positive mood’ but gives no more details
Continue reading...Zelenskiy appears to confirm Ukraine counteroffensive during Trudeau visit
Ukraine president cites counteroffensive ‘actions’ as Canada PM offers relief funding after dam breach
Volodymyr Zelenskiy appears to have confirmed that Ukraine’s counteroffensive is under way, as Justin Trudeau visited Kyiv and accused Russia over flooding from the breached Kakhovka dam.
“Counteroffensive and defensive actions are taking place in Ukraine: at which stage I will not talk in detail,” Zelenskiy said at a joint press conference in Kyiv on Saturday with the Canadian prime minister.
Continue reading...Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 472 of the invasion
Putin and Zelenskiy tussle over Ukraine’s counteroffensive narrative; water levels begin to recede in flooded regions near destroyed Kakhovka dam
Russian president Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had begun its counteroffensive against Russian troops but that efforts “so far have failed” after Moscow said it repelled several Ukrainian assaults. However, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy made no formal announcement of specific developments on the battlefield, but praised the “heroism” of his country’s soldiers fighting “tough battles”.
Water levels are gradually receding in parts of southern Ukraine that were flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, according to officials. Meanwhile, evidence is growing that the dam was blown up after seismic data showed there was a blast at the site in the early hours of Tuesday. Norsar, the Norwegian Seismic Array, said signals from a regional station in Romania pointed to an explosion at 2.54am. Norsar did not draw conclusions on who was responsible.
The US said Russia appeared to be deepening its defence cooperation with Iran and had received hundreds of one-way attack drones that it is using to strike Ukraine. Citing newly declassified information, the White House said the drones were built in Iran, shipped across the Caspian Sea and then used by Russian forces against Ukraine.
The Wagner group has been accused of stoking “anarchy” on Russia’s frontlines after one of the Kremlin’s military commanders claimed Yevgeny Prigozhin’s mercenaries had kidnapped and tortured his soldiers during the battle for Bakhmut. In a video posted online, Lt Col Roman Venevitin also accused Wagner soldiers of stealing arms, forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts with Wagner, and attempting to extort weapons from the Russian defence ministry in exchange for releasing kidnapped soldiers.
Iceland announced it would suspend work at its embassy in Russia as of 1 August, the first country to do so, and asked Russia to limit its operations in Reykjavik. “The current situation simply does not make it viable for the small foreign service of Iceland to operate an embassy in Russia,” foreign minister Thordis Gylfadottir said.
Russia will start deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus after the facilities are ready on 7-8 July, Putin told his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday in a meeting in Sochi, Russia.
Nato allies on Friday condemned Russia’s decision to withdraw from the treaty on conventional armed forces in Europe (CFE).
Hungary said on Friday it had received a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia, a release that Ukraine welcomed while expressing concern that it had not been informed.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked Joe Biden for his $2.1bn (£1.6bn) security assistance package. In a tweet, Zelenskiy said the contribution is “more important than ever” since the Kakhovka dam collapse.
The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, told Zelenskiy on Friday that Japan will offer emergency humanitarian aid worth about $5m (£3.9m) after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam, a Japanese government spokesperson has said.
Ukraine’s domestic Security Service (SBU) said on Friday it had intercepted a telephone call proving a Russian “sabotage group” blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric station and dam in southern Ukraine. A one-and-a-half minute audio clip on its Telegram channel of the alleged conversation featured two unidentified men who appeared to be discussing the fallout from the disaster in Russian. One of the men said “Our saboteur group is there. They wanted to cause fear with this dam. It did not go according to the plan. More than they planned.”
The Kremlin on Friday accused Ukrainian forces of killing civilian victims of flooding caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine in repeated shelling attacks, including one pregnant woman. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the purported attacks “barbaric”. Russia did not provide any evidence to back up its claims.
Russian deputy prime minister Marat Khusnullin said on Friday that Crimea’s water supply will not be affected by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, and the peninsula had enough water reserves for 500 days. A canal from the destroyed reservoir fed drinking water to the peninsula. Kyiv cut access to the canal in 2014, after Russia illegally seized Crimea and claimed to annex it.
Continue reading...Dam collapse a global problem as waters may poison Black Sea, Zelenskiy says
Ukrainian president warns flood waters contaminated with sewage, oil, chemicals and possibly anthrax
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said the ecological disaster triggered by the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam has become a global problem as severely contaminated waters flow into the Black Sea.
The Ukrainian president said the flood waters raging through the lower Dnipro River valley brought with them sewage, oil, chemicals and possibly anthrax from animal burial sites.
Continue reading...Devastation from Kakhovka dam collapse could take decades to heal
Hundreds of thousands of mines and debris are flowing into towns downstream, while lack of water upstream will hit food production
The people living along Ukraine’s lower Dnipro River must contend with the immediate consequences of the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and flee for safety with whatever they can salvage, but the wider impact could make itself felt for generations.
Downstream, the flood waters will subside somewhat as the surge reaches the Black Sea, but many of the villages and towns along the course of the Dnipro may not be habitable again unless and until a new dam is built. Thousands of homes and livelihoods have been swept away, along with countless domesticated and wild animals.
Continue reading...Russia claims to have fought off ‘major Ukrainian offensive’ in Donetsk
Russian defence ministry says 250 Ukrainian troops killed in attack, in claims that could not be independently verified
Russia has claimed its forces thwarted a “major offensive” in the south-eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk and killed hundreds of pro-Kyiv troops, but its statement could not be verified by news agencies and Ukrainian officials made no comment.
Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had attacked with six mechanised and two tank battalions at five points along the front in southern Donetsk, where Moscow has long suspected Ukraine would seek to drive a wedge through Russian-controlled territory.
Continue reading...Pro-Ukraine group of partisans captures Russian soldiers
Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion say they ‘will hand captured soldiers to Kyiv’
A pro-Ukraine group of Russian partisans has said it captured several soldiers during a cross-border raid into southern Russia and will hand them over to Ukrainian authorities.
The Russian Volunteer Corps made the claim in a video statement released on Telegram on Sunday after a raid into the Russian region of Belgorod.
Continue reading...‘We will succeed’: Zelenskiy says Ukraine ready to launch counteroffensive
Ukraine’s president hints at concern over a possible Trump return in 2024 in Wall Street Journal interview
Ukraine’s president has declared his country’s military is ready to launch a long-awaited counteroffensive and hinted at concern about the possibility of Donald Trump retaking the White House.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, giving an interview to the Wall Street Journal, suggested that a significant attack could come soon and said he hoped a change in the US presidency would not impact military aid to Kyiv.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy orders audit of Ukrainian air-raid shelters after civilian deaths
A rift widened between the president and Kyiv’s mayor after witness reports that three people were locked out on the street during Russian attack
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has ordered an audit of all Ukrainian air-raid shelters as a rift widened with Kyiv’s mayor after the deaths of three people who were locked out on the street during a Russian attack.
A nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were killed by falling debris after rushing to a Kyiv shelter on Thursday morning and finding it was shut. Later that day, the Ukrainian president accused Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, and other city leaders of negligence. Klitschko responded by saying the responsibility for the tragedy should be shared between them.
Continue reading...Zelenskiy hails ‘powerful support’ for Ukraine at Moldova summit
Ukrainian president speaks of the importance of overturning Russia’s air supremacy with Patriot missiles and F-16s
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had received “powerful support” from allies attending a summit in Moldova as it emerged F-16 fighter jets could be made available to Ukraine within six months.
Closing the conference of 46 European leaders held at a castle 12 miles (19km) from the border with Ukraine, the country’s president spoke of the importance of overturning Russian’s supremacy in the air with a “sky shield” involving a combination of Patriot missiles and F-16s.
Continue reading...US announces $300m arms package for Ukraine – with a caveat
The shipment comes with a warning that the weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia
The United States has announced a new $300m arms package for Ukraine, including air defense systems and tens of millions of rounds of ammunition – but warned Kyiv that US weaponry should not be used to attack within Russia.
“We have been very clear with the Ukrainians privately – we’ve certainly been clear publicly – that we do not support attacks inside Russia. We do not enable and we do not encourage attacks inside Russia,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
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