Germany’s foreign minister has said Ukraine’s place is in the EU, during an unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday morning. Annalena Baerbock said Ukraine could “rely on us and on our understanding of EU enlargement as a necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war”.. Ukraine already has candidate status. “And now we are preparing to take a decision on opening EU accession talks,” Baerbock said.
Ukrainian intelligence services claim the country has recaptured oil and gas drilling platforms near the shores of occupied Crimea in the Black Sea.
The Russian news agency Tass reports that Vladimir Putin has arrived on a two-day trip to Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum. Kim Jong-un is reported to be on train to Russia to meet Putin while he is in the region. Citing unidentified South Korean government sources, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported that the North Korean leader’s train was likely to have left Pyongyang on Sunday evening and that a Kim-Putin meeting was possible as early as Tuesday.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy paid his condolences to the families of two foreign aid workers whose van was hit by a Russian anti-tank missile in Donetsk. The Ukrainian president said Anthony Ignat of Canada was killed on Sunday, and it was likely that Emma Igual of Spain also died in the attack. Two other volunteers – Mawick Ruben, a German citizen, and Johan Mathias, a Swedish citizen – were seriously injured and are being treated in hospitals in Dnipro. The four volunteers were trapped inside the van as it flipped over and caught fire after being struck by shells near the town of Chasiv Yar.
Serhiy Lysak, the governor of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, reported on Monday that there were no casualties in the region overnight despite Russian attacks. He posted on Telegram that some residential buildings and gas pipes were damaged after “the enemy attacked Dnipropetrovsk region with attack drones, guided missiles from tactical aircraft, and artillery”. He claimed Ukrainian air defences shot down 11 Shahed drones over the region.
An adviser to the acting head of the Russian-controlled occupied region of Donetsk told Tass that Ukrainian forces had transferred a lot of equipment to Avdiivka. Yan Gagin said: “A large amount of Nato equipment, heavy weapons and a large number of Ukrainian armed forces personnel have now been transferred there. The enemy is preparing attacks in the Donetsk direction.”
Russia is sticking to plans to reduce its budget deficit in the coming years, the finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has said. Reuters reports that he said the country would ensure key areas, including national security and the armed forces, would remain well funded.
Rheinmetall has reached an agreement to supply Ukraine with a further 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
Ukraine’s summer offensive probably has a “reasonable amount of time, probably about 30 to 45 days’ worth of fighting weather left”, the head of the US military has said. Speaking to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Gen Mark Milley said: “That offensive kicked off about 90 days ago. It has gone slower than the planners anticipated. But that is a difference between what Clausewitz called war on paper and real war. So these are real people in real vehicles that are fighting through real minefields, and there’s real death and destruction, and there’s real friction.”
The US deputy secretary of state has said Washington is “impressed” by the Ukrainian counteroffensive. Victoria Nuland, the deputy to Antony Blinken, said Russia’s defences were on the largest scale seen in 100 years. “We need to understand what Ukraine needs to clear these defences, and we cannot do that until Ukraine confronts the defences. We got a good sense of what was needed when we were here.” She added: “If Ukraine does not win, if Putin succeeds, this type of evil will be normalised across the world. Ukraine stands on the right side of democracy and needs our support.”
Ukraine’s newly nominated defence minister, Rustem Umerov, has called on Kyiv’s partners to increase deliveries of heavy weapons, amid a long and difficult counteroffensive against Russian forces. “We are grateful for all the support provided … we need more heavy weapons,” Umerov said in an embargoed speech released on Saturday.
Residents and Ukrainian activists have alleged that Russian poll workers made house calls with armed soldiers detaining those who refuse to vote in the sham elections that Russia is imposing in occupied regions of Ukraine. People are put under pressure to write “explanatory statements” that could be used as grounds for a criminal case.
Putin can attend next year’s G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro without fear of arrest, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said as he took leadership of the forum.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has warned of a potential threat to nuclear safety after a sharp increase in fighting near the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The UN atomic watchdog said its experts at Europe’s largest nuclear power plant reported hearing explosions in the past week.
