Western military powers are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine to repel Russian attacks, the UK and Nato have warned. Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum, Adm Rob Bauer, Nato’s most senior military official, said governments and defence manufacturers now had to “ramp up production in a much higher tempo”.
The Belarusian defence ministry said it had started exercises to check its armed forces’ combat readiness, Reuters reports. “The troops will march as soon as possible to the designated areas, followed by the performance of normative standards on the subjects of combat training,” the ministry said. It did not specify when the exercises would end.
Kyiv’s attempts to penetrate Russian defences on frontlines in the east and south of the country have “failed”, Moscow said on Tuesday. Kyiv launched its counteroffensive in June but has acknowledged slow progress. “The enemy’s attempts to break through our defences in the areas of Verbovoye and Rabotino on the Zaporizhzhia front have failed,” defence minister Sergei Shoigu told senior Russian military officials, according to AFP.
Kyiv has been told it is “absolutely possible” that EU membership talks could begin this year, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said after a surprise meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Ukrainian capital. “Our key integration goal is to hammer out a decision this year to start membership negotiations,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “And today I heard once again at the meetings and negotiations that this is absolutely possible.” The president said it was “only a matter of time” before Ukraine joined the bloc and that it would “definitely fulfil” its part of the prerequisite work.
Reuters is reporting the governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has said Ukraine fired cluster munitions at a Russian village near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, damaging several houses. According to preliminary information, there were no casualties in the shelling of the village of Klimovo, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine destroyed 29 of 31 drones launched by Russia and one cruise missile, its air force said on Tuesday via Reuters, most of them targeting the regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk. The overnight attacks came in several waves and lasted more than three hours, the southern command of Ukraine’s forces had said earlier.
Falling debris caused a fire at a private firm in the south-eastern city of Dnipro that was quickly doused, said Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Damage to manufacturing facilities at an industrial enterprise in the city of Pavlohrad led to a fire that was also put out, he added on the Telegram messaging app. Sixteen drones were destroyed over the southern region of Mykolaiv, its governor, Vitaliy Kim, said.
Ukraine’s troops would soon run short of essential ammunition and equipment if Republican hardliners succeed in stopping US military aid, undermining operations on the ground and reducing their ability to defend against Russian strikes, experts have told AFP. The US has committed more than $43 billion in security aid since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but due to opposition from hard-right Republicans Congress removed new funding for Ukraine from a compromise bill to avoid a US government shutdown on Saturday.
Russia’s military has no plans for an additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine as the army has enough servicemen, defence minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA. “In the general staff, there are no plans for an additional mobilisation,” Shoigu was quoted as saying by RIA.
Armenia’s parliament on Tuesday ratified the founding statute of the International Criminal Court, subjecting itself to the jurisdiction of the court in The Hague, Russian state news agencies said. The plan had been strongly opposed by Russia, Armenia’s formal ally, with which ties have become badly strained over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and Azerbaijan’s recapture of a region controlled for three decades by ethnic Armenians.
Ukraine’s eastern metropolis of Kharkiv will build the country’s first fully underground school to shield pupils from Russia’s frequent bomb and missile attacks, the city’s mayor has said. “Such a shelter will enable thousands of Kharkiv children to continue their safe face-to-face education even during missile threats,” Mayor Ihor Terekhov wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
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.
Veterinary and sanitary controls of Ukrainian agricultural cargo bound for the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda will in the next two days be transferred from the Polish-Ukrainian border directly to Klaipeda under a deal reached by Kyiv, Warsaw and Vilnius, the Ukrainian farm ministry said on Tuesday. A ministry statement quoted agriculture minister Mykola Solsky as saying the move was aimed at speeding up transit.
A Ukrainian victory in the war with Russia depends on cooperation with the EU, Zelenskiy told the ministers gathered in Kyiv. Zelenskiy, who was speaking after the US Congress left Ukraine war aid out of a spending bill, also underlined the importance of “defence support” for Ukraine during the war.
Zelenskiy’s 10-point peace plan is “the only game in town”, Borrell said at a press conference after the meeting. The summit of EU foreign ministers was “sending a strong missile to Russia that we are not intimidated by your missiles or your drones”, he added.
Borrell also dismissed the idea – floated by Roberta Metsola, the president of the European parliament, and academics recently – that Kyiv might join the EU in stages, with access to the single market first, followed by political integration. “Membership is membership,” Borrell said. There could be no talk of half, or 25% membership, he said, adding: “[It’s] the strongest security commitment we can give to Ukraine.”
The US Pentagon has warned Congress that it is running low on funding to replace weapons the US has sent to Ukraine and has already been forced to slow down resupplying some troops. The warning from the Pentagon comptroller came in a letter sent to congressional leaders and was obtained by the Associated Press. It urges Congress to replenish funding for Ukraine.
The White House has been in touch with allies and partners about continued funding for Ukraine and those conversations will continue, the White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Monday. Congress passed a stopgap bill on Saturday that extended government funding for more than a month and avoided a government shutdown but did not contain any new aid for Ukraine.
Ukraine accused Elon Musk of encouraging Russian propaganda after the billionaire owner of X, posted a meme of Zelenskiy with the caption, “When it’s been five minutes and you haven’t asked for a billion dollars in aid.” “Any silence or irony towards Ukraine today is a direct encouragement of Russian propaganda that justifies mass violence and destruction,” presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak answered on the same platform.
The Kremlin said it believed that fatigue with the Ukraine war would grow in the US and Europe, but that Washington would continue to be directly involved in the conflict. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was commenting on athe US Congress decision to pass a stopgap funding bill that omitted aid for Kyiv.
The Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on Monday panned US military spending on Ukraine as “irrational”, stepping up criticism of the war effort as he urged Washington to devote more resources to helping Latin American countries. “So they do have to modify their strategy and learn respect. It’s not the time for them to ignore Mexican authorities,” Lopez Obrador said.
