Summary
That’s all from our live coverage of the war in Ukraine for today. In case you missed anything, here’s a quick round-up of all the latest developments.
The US president, Joe Biden, has said Ukraine is “not ready” for Nato membership. Speaking to CNN, he said Nato needed to “lay out a rational path” that Ukraine could follow in order to join the bloc, but that it would take time before the country met “all the qualifications – from democratisation to a whole range of other issues”.
The comments come as the leaders of Nato’s member states prepare to gather for a summit in Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.
The Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, has said that, if Ukraine is not invited to join Nato, it would have to “reconsider its strategy” and work to obtain more security guarantees.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been in the north-western Ukrainian city of Lutsk for talks with the Polish president, Andrzej Duda. Writing on Twitter, he said the pair had a “brief but very substantive discussion” about the Vilnius summit and “agreed to work together to get the best possible result for Ukraine”.
Ukrainian forces are “making progress” around the eastern city of Bakhmut, Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, has said. Russian forces captured Bakhmut in May after months of heavy fighting, but are thought to be struggling to maintain control of it.
A 66-year-old woman is being treated for concussion after Russian forces shelled a residential area in the southern city of Kherson, according to local authorities.
The financial secretary to the Treasury, Victoria Atkins, has reiterated the UK government’s opposition to sending cluster munitions to Ukraine. Speaking to Sky News, she said the UK had “signed the convention that prohibits their use and discourages their use. Of course we stick by that convention.”
It comes after the US announced it would provide Ukraine with the weapons. Cluster munitions are the subject of an international convention prohibiting their use, although none of the US, Ukraine or Russia are signatories.
The shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, also said on Sunday that cluster munitions were not the “appropriate weapons” to provide. She said Ukraine needed to be “properly armed to fight Russia and their illegal invasion” but that cluster bombs “can have an impact, not just on the battlefield that time, on that day, but for months and years afterwards”.
President Biden is expected to land in the UK late on Sunday for meetings with the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, as well as King Charles, ahead of the Vilnius summit.
Updated
Ukraine ‘not ready for Nato membership’, says Biden
Ukraine is “not yet ready” to become a member of Nato, the US president, Joe Biden, has said.
Speaking to CNN, he said Nato needed to “lay out a rational path” that Ukraine could follow in order to join the bloc, but added: “Nato is a process that takes some time to meet all the qualifications – from democratisation to a whole range of other issues.”
He also said it would be difficult to get unanimous support for Ukraine’s ascension among the bloc’s existing members while the war is ongoing and that calls for a vote on the issue in the near future were “premature”.
He added that, while Ukraine worked to meet the criteria for membership, the US could provide military aid similar to the support it has long provided to Israel.
The question of whether to offer Nato membership to Ukraine is expected to be high on the agenda when the bloc’s leaders gather for a summit in Lithuanian capital Vilnius this week.
EXCLUSIVE: Biden says Ukraine is not yet ready for NATO membership, saying the war with Russia must end before the alliance can consider adding Kyiv to its ranks. https://t.co/2M6TRh9viK pic.twitter.com/KQROXXe3qc
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 9, 2023
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