Josep Borrell condemns ‘inhumane’ Russia as bloc offers training for soldiers and fighter jet pilots
Ukraine is set to receive billions of euros more in military aid, as well as training for fighter pilots, the EU’s top diplomat has said, after a “historic” meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs, said on Monday the 27-nation bloc remained committed to helping Ukraine defeat a “brutal and inhumane” Russia.
Continue reading...Leadership of populist three-time PM could have ramifications for Ukraine, EU and Slovakia’s rule of law
Slovakia’s president, Zuzana Caputova, on Monday handed the country’s former prime minister Robert Fico a mandate to start negotiations to form a coalition government after his Smer-SD party won almost 23% of the vote in weekend elections.
If he succeeds, the populist, pro-Russian leader’s fourth term as prime minister could have significant ramifications for Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine, EU unity and cohesion, and the rule of law in the central European country.
Continue reading...Meeting takes place amid concerns over cracks in US funding and after a pro-Russian populist party won the most votes Slovakia’s election
The German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has arrived in Kyiv, a spokesperson for her ministry said.
The EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, had said earlier on Monday he was convening a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Ukrainian capital.
Continue reading...US president says he is ‘sick and tired’ of domestic political brinkmanship as Volodymyr Zelenskiy vows to fight on in speech released on Defenders Day
Joe Biden has pressed congressional Republicans to back a deal to provide more aid to Ukraine, after provisions for Kyiv were left out of a bill to avoid a US government shutdown.
The US president said on Sunday he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship, and that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”. Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote, he said.
Continue reading...Russia’s former leader responds to statements by UK defence secretary, who said UK is in talks to move training to Ukraine
Vladimir Putin declared that yesterday was “Reunification Day” in commemoration of commemorating Russia’s illegal annexation of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, Celebrations drew crowds of people to Red Square in Moscow this weekend, but in the occupied regions where residents say they were forced under threats of violence to vote in the sham referendums making their homes part of the Russian Federation?
In the Luhansk oblast, a car rally in honour of the reunification brought in just 11 cars.
Continue reading...Robert Fico’s Smer party moves ahead of Progressive Slovakia in vote that could fuel fears about future foreign policy stance
The Smer party, led by the populist former prime minister Robert Fico, was on course to win Slovakia’s election on Sunday, garnering more support than its rival Progressive Slovakia in a dramatic knife-edge race.
With almost all votes counted, Smer was poised to take nearly 23% of the vote. Michal Šimečka’s Progressive Slovakia (PS) came second with close to 18%, followed by Peter Pellegrini’s Hlas with 14%.
Continue reading...Defence secretary says proposal being discussed would reduce reliance on UK and other Nato members’ bases
The new defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said he has held talks with army leaders about deploying British troops within Ukraine for the first time for a training programme.
Shapps, who met Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, for talks in Kyiv earlier this week, said the proposal being discussed would reduce the reliance on the UK and other Nato members’ bases.
Continue reading...UK intelligence says Andrei Troshev’s meeting with the Russian president will not be viewed positively by Wagner fighters. This blog is now closed
Volodymyr Zelenskiy announced today the creation of the Defence Industries Alliance at Kyiv’s first Defence Industries Forum.
“Right now, the most powerful military-industrial complexes are being determined, as are their priorities and the global standard of defence. All of this is being determined in Ukraine,” Zelenskiy said on Telegram.
Continue reading...Election could decide whether country sticks with liberal, pro-western line or begins to lean more towards Russia
Voting has started in a knife-edge election in Slovakia that could decide whether the country sticks with its liberal, pro-western line or abandons its staunch support for neighbouring Ukraine to lean more towards Moscow.
After a virulent campaign that has included physical brawls and amid a wave of online disinformation, the populist, nationalist three-time prime minister Robert Fico and his Smer-SD party were neck and neck with the newcomers Progressive Slovakia heading into the vote, with PS just ahead in two of the final four opinion polls.
Continue reading...Russia’s invasion has had a major impact on the bloc’s security and energy policies – and even its very raison d’être
“The EU has changed. There is no turning back. We have turned out the lights behind us and there is basically only one way.”
The words of the Danish politician and EU commissioner Margrethe Vestager at a conference in May neatly reflect the mood among the Brussels elite, taken aback at their own ability to shed EU bureaucratic torpor, defend Ukraine, embrace enlargement and move closer to fulfilling Ursula von der Leyen’s ambition for the EU to become a “geopolitical force”.
Continue reading...Russian attack hits Ukrainian infrastructure in west; Putin reaffirms referendums in illegally annexed regions
An infrastructure site was hit in a Russian attack early on Saturday in the western Ukrainian region of Vinnitsya, the regional governor said. Serhiy Borzov’s comments on Telegram came after reports of drones operating in the area. Ukrainian officials sometimes use the “infrastructure” term to refer to facilities involved in power generation or other industries.
Vladimir Putin said residents of Russian-held regions in Ukraine expressed their desire to be part of Russia in recent local elections, reaffirming referendums last year that western countries denounced as illegal. In a video address released early on Saturday on the one-year anniversary of Moscow’s announcement it was annexing four parts of Ukraine, the Russian president said the choice to join Russia was reinforced by this month’s local elections that returned officials supporting Russia’s annexation. Western countries dismissed the outcomes as meaningless, underpinned by mass coercion of voters. Flag-waving Russians gathered for a concert in Red Square on Friday as the Kremlin held celebrations to mark the annexations.
The UK government has imposed an asset freeze and travel bans on Russian officials in the annexed Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk and Crimea as part of its broader sanctions against Russia.
Seven European Union countries have ordered ammunition under a landmark EU procurement scheme to get urgently needed artillery shells to Ukraine and replenish depleted western stocks, according to the EU agency in charge.
Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine autumn conscription campaign, calling up 130,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the government website showed. Separately, Putin reportedly met Andrei Troshev, formerly a top Wagner mercenary commander, to discuss how voluntary fighting units are used in the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Friday.
German chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of five Central Asian nations on Friday pledged to cooperate closely on sanctions in a carefully worded statement that did not pinpoint Russia. The gathering of Scholz and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan in Berlin was the first of its kind in an EU country.
Top US general Mark Milley was to retire on Friday after a four-year tenure as chair of the US joint chiefs of staff. Milley’s tenure included providing military assistance to Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
A Russian blogger who criticised highway patrol officers was jailed for eight-and-a-half years on Friday after a court alleged he posted “fake news” about Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. Alexander Nozdrinov, 38, ran a small YouTube channel where he posted videos of highway patrol officers from his home region of Krasnodar allegedly breaking the law. He was detained in March 2022 after investigators accused him of posting a photo of destroyed buildings on social media with the caption: “Ukrainian cities after the arrival of liberators”.
Norway says it will start barring Russian-registered passenger cars from entering the country starting next week, in a move that mirrors sanctions already imposed by the European Union against Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
“Very difficult questions” would need to be answered before the EU could start membership talks with Ukraine, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has said.
Romania is moving air defences closer to its Danube villages across the river from Ukraine, where Russian drones have been attacking grain facilities, and is adding more military observation posts and patrols to the area, two senior defence sources told Reuters.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said on Friday that “very difficult questions” would need to be answered before the EU could start membership talks with Ukraine.
EU countries are due to decide in December whether to allow Ukraine to begin accession negotiations, which would require the unanimous backing of all 27 members. Diplomats have said Hungary may be an obstacle.
Continue reading...Comment from Ukraine’s president comes after Jens Stoltenberg’s trip to Kyiv
Suspilne reports, citing the regional authority, that one person has been injured and hospitalised by a Russian attack on Antonivka near Kherson.
British defence secretary Grant Shapps discussed how to bolster Ukraine’s air defences during talks in an unannounced visit to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president’s office said on Thursday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Kyiv says Iranian drones used by Russia in Ukraine have various European components
Iranian kamikaze drones used in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities are filled with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kyiv to its western allies in which it appeals for long-range missiles to attack production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria.
In a 47-page document submitted by Ukraine’s government to the G7 governments in August, it is claimed there were more than 600 raids on cities using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) containing western technology in the previous three months.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here
Germany has welcomed a decision by Switzerland to open the way to sell back some of its German-made Leopard II tanks to help rebuild stocks depleted by aid to Ukraine.
Germany had asked Switzerland in February to sell back some of the 96 Leopard II tanks it has in storage to manufacturer Rheinmetall, Reuters reports.
Continue reading...Researchers in Norway reveal further analysis of 2022 explosions as well as a detailed timeline of events
Scientists investigating the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines have revealed key new details of explosions linked to the event, which remains unsolved on its first anniversary.
Researchers in Norway shared with the Guardian seismic evidence of the four explosions, becoming the first national body to publicly confirm the second two detonations, as well as revealing a detailed timeline of events.
Continue reading...Viktor Sokolov shown in footage released by defence ministry, day after Ukraine said he had been killed in missile strike
Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova has rather sarcastically castigated US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller for deflecting a question about the appearance of a Ukrainian veteran of a Nazi unit in the Canadian parliament. Miller had said that he was attending the UN on Friday.
Zakharova has posted to her Telegram channel to say:
Everyone was at the UN on Friday, Matthew. And everyone saw how nazism triumphed in Canada. The UN has a lot of problems, but the internet works great there.
Continue reading...Russia again strikes at Ukraine’s port and grain infrastructure; border crossing with Romania closed following drone attack
Continue reading...Ukraine says 34 officers were killed including Black Sea fleet admiral Viktor Sokolov in its missile strike on Sevastapol last week
An air alert has been declared in Mykolaiv.
Tass reports that the Russian ministry of defence has reported that it destroyed Ukrainian drones that were over the north-western part of the Black Sea near occupied Crimea, as well as over the Kursk and Bryansk regions. It claims to have shot down eight aircraft-type drones in total.
Continue reading...Ukrainian military says attack that apparently killed Viktor Sokolov was timed to coincide with meeting of naval officials
Ukraine has claimed it killed Adm Viktor Sokolov, the commander of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, along with 33 other officers, in one of Kyiv’s boldest attacks yet on the occupied peninsula of Crimea.
The Ukrainian military said Friday’s attack on the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol was timed to coincide with a meeting of naval officials.
Continue reading...