Category Archives: Ukraine

Ukraine war forcing China to rethink ‘how and when’ it may invade Taiwan, CIA chief says

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Bill Burns says China ‘unsettled’ by Russia’s war in Ukraine and it may influence decisions on the possible use of force against Taiwan

Russia’s experience in Ukraine is affecting China’s calculations on how and when it may decide to invade Taiwan, the head of the CIA said on Wednesday.

Appearing at the Aspen Security Forum, Central Intelligence Agency director Bill Burns played down speculation that Chinese president Xi Jinping could move on Taiwan after a key Communist party meeting later this year.

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Russia may seek to occupy more territory in Ukraine, says foreign minister

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Sergei Lavrov’s televised remarks give signal Kremlin is planning a campaign to annex more regions

Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has said that Moscow wants to permanently occupy broad swaths of southern Ukraine in the clearest signal yet that the Kremlin is preparing to launch a new round of annexations.

In televised remarks, Lavrov also said Russia may seek more territory along the frontlines in Ukraine, calling it a buffer against the Himars long-range rocket artillery provided by the US.

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Ukraine’s first lady pleads with US for more weapons: ‘Help us stop this terror’

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Olena Zelenska makes emotional appeal to Congress and asks for weapons to claim ‘joint great victory’ in war against Russia

The Ukrainian first lady, Olena Zelenska, appealed to US lawmakers on Tuesday to provide more help to her country as it struggles against a five-month-long Russian invasion she called “Russia’s Hunger Games”, saying US weapons could help assure a “joint great victory”.

“We remain completely broken when our world is destroyed by war. Tens of thousands of such worlds have been destroyed in Ukraine,” she said, through a translator, in an emotional 15-minute speech to members of the House and Senate.

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Moscow says peace talks ‘don’t make sense’ and hints at plans for new annexations – as it happened

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This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

The European Union will set out emergency plans later today to reduce gas demand within months, warning countries that without deep cuts now they could struggle for fuel during winter if Russia cuts off deliveries.

Reuters reports:

Europe is racing to fill its gas storage ahead of winter and build a supply buffer in case Moscow further restricts supplies in retaliation for European support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. Russia’s Gazprom has already halted deliveries to some EU states.

The European Commission will urge countries to prepare for possible further cuts by slashing gas use. A draft of the EU plan, seen by Reuters, would propose a voluntary target for countries to cut their gas demand over the next eight months, which could be made legally binding in a supply emergency.

EU officials said the target would be for a 10-15% cut in gas use.

The proposal, which could change before it is published, would need approval from EU countries who are largely responsible for their own energy policies.

There has been resistance from some countries, including Poland, who feel their contingency plans do not need a boost from Brussels.

A Reuters snap suggests Ukraine has shelled Antonivskyi bridge in the Russia-controlled southern Kherson region again, according to reporting from Russia’s Tass news agency citing Russia-installed authorities.

The bridge is badly damaged and likely to be closed to traffic today, Tass added.

Rachel Hall here, taking over from Samantha Lock on the blog – do get in touch if there’s anything you think we’ve missed. You can reach me at rachel.hall@theguardian.com.

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Putin endorsed by Iran for invasion of Ukraine but clashes with Turkey at summit

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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.

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Germany worries about gas rationing as supply from Russia halted

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Temporary closure of Nord Stream 1 prompts fears for private consumers as well as industry

Germans are fretting about the coming winter freeze even while Europe sweats in record temperatures, amid uncertainty over whether a complete stopping of Russian gas deliveries would force energy rationing on private households as well as industry.

Germany, which has managed to reduce its reliance on Russian gas from 55% to about 35% of its demand since the start of the Ukraine war, is still heavily reliant on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which closed down for 10 days from 11 July due to scheduled maintenance works.

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Peace will be on Russia’s terms, says former president – as it happened

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The self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic in occupied Ukraine, which is only recognised as a legitimate authority by Russia, Syria and North Korea, has stated that as a result of shelling by Ukrainian forces, “one resident of Verkhnotoretske was killed, and three people were injured. Twenty-two residential buildings and seven civil infrastructure facilities were damaged.”

The claims have not been independently verified.

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Human rights groups criticise EU’s Azerbaijan gas deal

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Agreement with autocratic ruler to double supplies within five years comes as EU seeks to reduce reliance on Russian energy

Human rights groups have criticised an EU deal to ramp up gas supplies from Azerbaijan, as Europe scrambles to secure non-Russian sources of energy.

The European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on Monday hailed Azerbaijan as a “crucial” and “reliable” energy supplier, as she announced an agreement with Baku to expand the southern gas corridor, the 3,500km pipeline bringing Caspian Sea gas to Europe.

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Putin claims progress made in talks over lifting Ukrainian wheat blockade

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Russian president makes comments in Tehran, where he had a meeting with leaders from Turkey and Iran

Vladimir Putin has claimed on a trip to Tehran that progress has been made that may allow Russia to lift the blockade on Ukrainian wheat, an issue that is threatening famine across Africa.

“I want to thank you for your mediation efforts,” the Russian president told Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his Turkish counterpart, in comments released by the Kremlin.

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North Korean labour could be sent to rebuild Donbas, Russian ambassador says

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Alexander Matsegora tells Russian newspaper there are ‘a lot of opportunities’ for economic cooperation, despite UN sanctions

North Korea could send workers to two Russian-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine, according to Russia’s ambassador in Pyongyang – a move that would pose a challenge to international sanctions against the North’s nuclear weapons programme.

According to NK News, a Seoul-based website, ambassador Alexander Matsegora said North Korean workers could help rebuild the war-shattered infrastructure in the self-proclaimed people’s republics in Donetsk and Luhansk.

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Costs of Ukraine war pose tests for European leaders – and things may get worse

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Analysis: Vladimir Putin claims time is on his side, but he will have only one shot at making a gas cutoff count

Desperate efforts in Italy to prevent the fall of Mario Draghi’s government are only the latest political firestorm in Europe tied to Vladimir Putin’s tests of the west’s powers of endurance. Draghi’s foreign minister, Luigi di Maio, suggested it will be Putin who celebrated the fall of another western government if Draghi does not survive a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday.

“A boat without a rudder goes adrift,” said Ferruccio Resta, the president of the Conference of Italian University Rectors – a metaphor that could apply, to Putin’s satisfaction, to much of Europe as governments come under growing pressure over the perceived domestic cost of the war in Ukraine.

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Russia’s Gazprom tells European buyers it cannot guarantee gas supplies

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Force majeure declared in letter to customers concerns supplies via Nord Stream 1 pipeline, says source

Russia’s Gazprom has told customers in Europe it cannot guarantee gas supplies because of “extraordinary” circumstances, according to a letter seen by Reuters, upping the ante in an economic tit-for-tat with the west over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Dated 14 July, the letter from the Russian state gas monopoly said it was declaring force majeure on supplies, starting from 14 June.

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Russian shelling leaves six dead in eastern Ukraine, reports say – as it happened

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Reuters has a quick snap that Russian defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has instructed the military to prioritise destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons, according to a defence ministry statement.

The UK’s Ministry of Defence has claimed that Russia is using the private military company Wagner in Ukraine to reinforce its frontline forces, but that losses they have sustained are likely to be impacting their effectiveness.

Russia has used private military company Wagner to reinforce front-line forces and to mitigate manning shortfalls and casualties.

Wagner has almost certainly played a central role in recent fighting, including the capture of Popasna and Lysyschansk. This fighting has inflicted heavy casualties on the group.

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Russian journalist who staged TV protest over Ukraine invasion briefly detained

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Marina Ovsyannikova detained days after she demonstrated near the Kremlin holding placard criticising Putin and Ukraine war

Russian police detained and later released the journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, who in March interrupted a live television broadcast to denounce the military action in Ukraine, posts on her social media channels showed.

Her detention on Sunday came a few days after 44-year-old Ovsyannikova demonstrated alone near the Kremlin holding a placard criticising Russia’s intervention in Ukraine and president Vladimir Putin.

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Zelenskiy fires Ukraine’s spy chief and top state prosecutor

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SBU’s Ivan Bakanov and war crimes prosecutor Iryna Venediktova sacked after their officials found to be collaborating with Russia

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has fired the head of Ukraine’s powerful domestic security agency, the SBU, and the state prosecutor general, citing dozens of cases of collaboration with Russia by officials in their agencies.

Sunday’s abrupt sackings of SBU chief Ivan Bakanov, a childhood friend of Zelenskiy, and the prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, who played a key role in the prosecution of Russian war crimes, were announced in executive orders on the president’s website.

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Russia is preparing for the next stage of its offensive in Ukraine, military officials say – as it happened

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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.

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Ukraine mourners bury four-year-old Liza as Russian attacks intensify

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Rockets and missiles continue to pound Ukrainian towns amid fears of renewed Russian offensive

Mourners in central Ukraine have buried a four-year-old girl who was killed by a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia last week, as officials and analysts warned that Moscow’s operational pause of recent days had come to an end, signalling further death and pain to come.

Twenty-three people were killed in the attack, and one person is still missing.

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Family of captured Ukrainian human rights activist plead for help

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Campaign launched to highlight plight of Maksym Butkevych amid fears he is being singled out over ties to UK

Family and friends of a prominent Ukrainian human rights activist who signed up to fight Russia and was captured have launched a public campaign to highlight his plight over fears he is being wrongly accused of being a “British spy” due to his ties to the UK.

Maksym Butkevych, 45, a former BBC Ukrainian service producer who studied at Sussex University and who sits on the board of Amnesty International’s Ukraine section, is well known as a human rights defender due to his work with refugees in Ukraine.

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Russia-Ukraine war: Russian forces ‘preparing new offensive’ – live

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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.

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‘Russia stole our history’: Ukraine’s bitter struggle to keep memory alive

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Beyond the frontlines, academics are fighting to counter the fake tales of their country’s past that are peddled by the Kremlin

At the entrance to Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, a bronze relief of the face of Mykhailo Hrushevsky stares out towards the red-painted portico. A historian by training, and a key figure in Ukraine’s national revival in the early 20th century, Hrushevsky served briefly as the head of Ukraine’s revolutionary rada – or parliament – in 1918.

Taras Pshenychnyi, deputy dean of the history department, pauses to examine the image of his distinguished forebear, and to reflect on the extraordinary times the university is seeing since the Russian invasion.

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