Summary of the day
We’re closing this live blog down now. Thanks for reading. Here’s a summary of the day’s main events:
Reviving the Black Sea grain deal is “critical” for food security, Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan said. During a joint media appearance with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, he said: “We underlined its critical role for global food security and stability in the Black Sea.”
The Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko criticised what he called “stupid demands” from Poland and the Baltic states for Wagner fighters sheltering in his country to leave, AFP reported. Wagner fighters took refuge in Belarus after their short-lived rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, prompting concerns from neighbouring countries.
Ukrainian troops achieved some new “successes” in the south and east as they tried to advance their counteroffensive against Russian forces, the deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. Kyiv’s forces have been making slow progress against Russian minefields and trenches that have blocked a Ukrainian push in the south intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces, the Associated Press reported.
The alleged co-founder and military commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Dmitry Utkin, was buried near Moscow on Thursday.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has hit out at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers and should “shut up”.
Royal Navy warships and RAF patrol aircraft have tracked a series of Russian warships as they travelled close to the UK including through the Channel.
Two Ukrainian “saboteurs” were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official reportedly said on Thursday. Separately, Russia reportedly said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea.
A newly released video of Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show the Wagner group boss in Africa addressing rumours about his wellbeing and threats to his life, just days before his death.
The UK government has named ex-energy secretary Grant Shapps as the new defence secretary. A former chief of the general staff of the British army said Shapps knows “very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”.
A military spokesperson said Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.
Russia’s air defences are struggling to detect and destroy Ukrainian drones launched on its territory, judging by how many have reached their targets, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.
Reviving Black Sea grain deal 'critical' for food security, says Turkey at meeting with Russia
Here’s a little more detail on the discussions between Turkey and Russia from the French press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP). The former’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan has said reviving the Black Sea grain deal is “critical” for food security. During a joint media appearance with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, he said:
We underlined its critical role for global food security and stability in the Black Sea.
Moscow pulled out last month from the UN-backed agreement Turkey helped broker. Moscow says the agreement imposed indirect restrictions on its grain and fertiliser exports by limiting Russia’s access to global payment systems and insurance. Lavrov repeated Russia’s position that it will return to the deal once its demands are met.
Everything rests on the fact that the West is hindering the solution of problems that prevent a more active export of Russian grain and fertiliser.
Turkey wants the warring sides to return to the agreement and use it as a basis for broader peace talks. Fidan said Turkey wanted to begin a “process focused on understanding and answering Russia’s demands”.
As the Turkish diplomat visited Moscow, the UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday he had sent a letter to Lavrov with a “set of concrete proposals, allowing to create the conditions for the renewal of the deal”, AFP reports.
Guterres said he had taken “into concern Russian requests” and that the proposal included “some concrete solutions for allowing more effective access of Russian food and fertilisers to global markets at adequate prices”.
Updated
Ambassadors from Russia and Belarus have been invited again to Stockholm’s Nobel prize banquet this year after being left out last year because of the Ukraine invasion, Reuters quotes the Nobel Foundation as saying.
The foundation also invited the leader of the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats to the event for the first time. It has repeatedly snubbed the longtime Sweden Democrats leader Jimmie Akesson, including in 2022 when the party came second in parliamentary elections, arguing his party was not deemed to be in keeping with the prizes’ tenets.
Five of the six Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm every year after a nomination process that is kept secret for the next 50 years. The Nobel peace prize is awarded in Oslo, where separate festivities are held.
The Nobel Foundation said ambassadors from all countries diplomatically represented in Sweden and Norway, respectively, will be invited to the prize award ceremonies in December. Last year, the foundation left out the ambassadors of Russia and its ally Belarus. Vidar Helgesen, the executive director of the Nobel Foundation, said:
The foundation said it sought to include even those who did not share the values of the Nobel prize. It is clear that the world is increasingly divided into spheres, where dialogue between those with differing views is being reduced.
To counter this tendency, we are now broadening our invitations to celebrate and understand the Nobel prize and the importance of free science, free culture and free, peaceful societies.
Updated
Russian-installed authorities are holding regional elections in the parts of Ukraine Moscow has wrested from Kyiv – areas it calls its “new territories” – despite the continuing conflict, Reuters reports.
Russia does not fully control any of the four regions where the votes are being held – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Along with Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, they make up almost a fifth of Ukraine.
Three-quarters of countries at the United Nations general assembly condemned what they termed Russia’s “attempted illegal annexation” of the four regions in a vote last October.
Ukrainian officials say the elections are also illegal and show why it is impossible to hold any peace talks with Moscow until Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukrainian territory, Reuters says.
In all four regions, Moscow’s handpicked governors, a mix of veteran pro-Russian politicians and others known only locally, are seeking full terms of office in the polls, which conclude on 10 September, when Russia holds regional polls. The governors are all running with Putin’s endorsement and face only nominal opposition.
Updated
A defrocked Russian priest who spoke out against Moscow’s invasion has been jailed after a court declared him guilty of spreading “fake news” about the army, the Associated Press reports.
The Russian Orthodox church, led by Putin ally Patriarch Kirill, has mostly backed the war, and often portrays it in religious terms. But some clergy have spoken out against it. Ioann Kurmoyarov, who ran a YouTube channel called the Orthodox Virtual Parish, was charged after allegedly posting “several videos with false information about the use of the Russian army”.
On Thursday, the court said: “Kurmoyarov fully admitted his guilt and repented”. It said he would serve his three-year sentence in a general regime correctional facility and would be banned from posting on the internet for two years.
Kurmoyarov had already been stripped of his priesthood in April 2022, according to the rights group Amnesty International.
Russia has led an unprecedented crackdown on dissent as troops fight in Ukraine. Moscow has outlawed public opposition to the conflict, jailing or fining dozens of dissidents.
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The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet soon, Moscow’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has said, as it is announced that Russia increasing gas exports to Turkey and creating a “gas hub” there following a sharp fall in shipments to Europe as a result of the war.
Two Turkish sources have told Reuters the meeting would take place at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi on 4 September. The two presidents will primarily discuss Black Sea grain exports, the sources said.
Lavrov said Russia was committed to increasing the gas exports by rerouting them – a proposition of Putin’s that forms part of Russia’s efforts to help a vital industry.
The Turkish foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, also said the UN-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports on the Black Sea was important, but that Russia has demands regarding the export of its own products to revive it.
The Black Sea grain deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey in 2022, ended after Russia withdrew in July. Ankara has since sought to convince Moscow to return to the agreement. Fidan spoke after talks in Moscow with Lavrov, Reuters reports.
Updated
The British arms manufacturer BAE Systems says it has established a local entity in Ukraine and signed deals with the Ukrainian government to increase the supply of weapons, equipment and training, Reuters reports.
The UK is a key defence supplier for Ukraine and BAE, its biggest defence contractor, has manufactured much of the equipment it has provided to Kyiv. The company is also providing training and repair services to Ukraine’s armed forces.
The new agreements will facilitate BAE’s future support by helping it better understand Ukraine’s capability requirements, and they will also allow the company to work directly with Ukrainian partners with a plan to produce 105mm light guns there, Reuters reports. BAE chief executive Charles Woodburn has said:
Signing the agreements and establishing a legal entity in Ukraine builds on our existing trust and support and paves the way for us to work together to provide more direct support to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Updated
A German court has convicted a Russian man of plotting the murder of an exiled Chechen dissident on orders from a cousin of the Russian republic’s Moscow-backed strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.
The Associated Press reports:
The Munich state court sentenced the defendant, whom it identified only as Valid D. in line with German privacy rules, to 10 years in prison and also ordered the confiscation of his car. He was convicted of agreeing to commit murder, preparing a serious act of violence and violations of weapons laws.
Judges found that a cousin of Kadyrov tasked him with killing an opponent who lives in Germany, Mokhmad Abdurakhmanov. They said the aim was to silence Abdurakhmanov’s elder brother, a prominent opponent of the Chechen government who lives in Sweden and had already been targeted there.
The court found that the killing was ordered between March and June 2020, German news agency dpa reported.
Updated
Lukashenko criticises 'stupid' Polish and Baltic calls for Wagner withdrawal from Belarus
The Belarusian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has criticised what he called “stupid demands” from Poland and the Baltic states for Wagner fighters sheltering in his country to leave, AFP reports.
Wagner fighters took refuge in Belarus after they staged a short-lived rebellion against Moscow’s military leadership in June, prompting concerns from neighbouring countries.
“They are whipping up hysteria about the presence of Wagner private military employees on our territory,” Lukashenko told members of his security council.
“They have reached the point where they are already demanding their immediate withdrawal from Belarus,” he said, calling these demands “unreasonable and stupid”.
Poland and the Baltic nations on Monday asked Belarus to expel members of the mercenary group, issuing the call days after Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a mysterious plane crash in Russia.
Poland, which shares roughly 250 miles of border with Belarus, says thousands of Wagner fighters are stationed in the country, posing a security threat.
Lithuania said earlier this month it was “temporarily suspending” two of its six border crossings with Belarus, citing the security risk posed by Wagner.
Updated
Igor Girkin, a prominent Russian ultranationalist in custody awaiting trial on charges of inciting extremism, said on Thursday he would make a better president than Vladimir Putin, describing him as gullible and “too kind”.
Girkin’s comments were notable for their direct public criticism of the president, who he called “an extremely gullible person”. In comments reported by Reuters, he added: “The current president is too kind”. He also claimed, Putin had been “led by the nose” by Ukraine and the West as well as by Russia’s security agencies and defence industry.
“It turned out that neither the country, nor the army, nor Russian industry were ready for war,” he said, saying officials “continue to amaze us with their incompetence”.
Since the apparent death of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash last week, Girkin is the most prominent remaining critic of the way Moscow has waged its war in Ukraine. He is a former security officer who helped to start the initial war in Ukraine in 2014 and is best known in the West for his role in shooting down a Malaysian passenger plane over eastern Ukraine in 2014 with the loss of 298 lives, for which he was convicted in absentia by a Dutch court. He denied involvement.
How would the arrival of Ukraine impact the EU budget? Lisa O’Carroll, the Guardian’s Brussels correspondent, has been looking at whether the European Union is ready for Kyiv to join the bloc and the impact it might have on Poland, Greece or Hungary, who could go from net beneficiaries of EU funding to net contributors.
Before the invasion, says Steven Blockmans, the director of research at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), some observers took the view that enlargement was “clinically dead, kept artificially alive by summits within the EU”.
The war changed all of that. As one diplomat said: “Enlargement is not only back on the agenda but it is back as one of the top three issues the leaders are dealing with.”
But the issue of expanding the EU budget, which is already under pressure, could be contentious and would Germany, France and Italy be happy to dig deeper into their pockets to support Ukraine?
“Politically, it will be hard to swallow,” says Blockmans. But he notes that many of the potential net beneficiaries are in the Balkans and want to see “Russia being pushed back even further”, and this may trump the negative arguments around the cost of enlargement.
Ukraine has achieved some new 'successes' in the south and east, minister says
Ukrainian troops have achieved some new “successes” in the south and east as they try to advance their counteroffensive against Russian forces, the deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said on Thursday.
Kyiv’s forces have been making slow progress against Russian minefields and trenches which have blocked a Ukrainian push in the south intended to reach the Sea of Azov and split Russian forces, the Associated Press reports.
“There have been some successes, in particular in the direction of Novodanylivka-Novoprokopivka,” Maliar said on the Telegram messaging app, referring to two southeastern villages in the Zaporizhzhia region. Novoprokopivka lies further south of the strategic settlement of Robotyne, which Ukraine said on Monday it had liberated.
Maliar also said Kyiv’s forces were pressing on with their offensive operations south of the devastated eastern city of Bakhmut, which was captured by Russian troops in May.
Heavy fighting continues in the villages of Klishchiivka, Kurdyumivka and Andriivka, Maliar said, and added that “active” fighting was also under way on the Lyman front in the east, where Russian troops had attempted to advance near the villages of Novoyehorivka and Bilohorivka in the Luhansk region.
Updated
Although Italy’s far-right government is one of Ukraine’s staunchest European supporters, Russian propaganda and disinformation permeates Italian media – something researchers attribute to politics and historical anti-Atlanticism – with openly pro-Russian guests invited on the country’s most popular talkshows. A survey released by Ipsos in April revealed that almost 50% of Italians prefer not to take sides in the conflict. Lorenzo Tondo reports:
Matteo Pugliese, an Italian security and terrorism researcher at the University of Barcelona has tracked the procession of Russian government officials, ideologues and media personalities hosted by Italian TV networks since the Russian invasion. They include the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his spokesperson, Maria Zakharova; the ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin; Olga Belova, a journalist at Russia 24, an outlet that denied the Bucha massacre; and Yulia Vityazeva, a journalist at NewsFront (based in Russia-occupied Crimea and operated by the FSB), who, in a Telegram post, wished a bomb would strike the Eurovision song contest in Turin after Ukraine’s victory.
“Compared to other western European countries, Italy gave disproportionate exposure to Russian propaganda, in my opinion simply because TV producers wanted to increase their share of certain shows with heated debates,” Pugliese said.
A British volunteer has been killed in action while fighting in Ukraine, his brother has said. Sam Newey was killed in eastern Ukraine.
“Sam you gave your life for people you never knew and acted with courage, morality and honour,” said his brother Dan Newey in a Facebook post.
Updated
Summary of the day so far...
The alleged co-founder and military commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner, Dmitry Utkin, was buried near Moscow on Thursday.
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has hit out at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers and should “shut up”.
Royal Navy warships and RAF patrol aircraft have tracked a series of Russian warships as they travelled close to the UK including through the Channel.
Two Ukrainian “saboteurs” were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official reportedly said on Thursday. Separately, Russia reportedly said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea.
A newly released video of Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show the Wagner group boss in Africa addressing rumours about his wellbeing and threats to his life, just days before his death.
The UK government has named ex-energy secretary Grant Shapps as the new defence secretary. A former chief of the general staff of the British army said Shapps knows “very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”.
A military spokesperson said Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.
Russia’s air defences are struggling to detect and destroy Ukrainian drones launched on its territory, judging by how many have reached their targets, the UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its latest intelligence update.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.
Updated
Dmitry Utkin: Prigozhin's 'right-hand man' in Wagner buried quietly near Moscow
The alleged co-founder and military commander of the Russian mercenary group Wagner was buried near Moscow on Thursday, after dying in an unexplained plane crash that also killed his boss Yevgeny Prigozhin.
Reuters reports:
Dmitry Utkin, 53, whose call-sign “Wagner” gave the private army its name, was buried in Mytishchi, on the outskirts of the capital, in a ceremony cordoned off by Russian military police, according to the popular online news channel Shot.
Prigozhin had been buried on Tuesday in an equally discreet ceremony in his home town of St Petersburg that contrasted starkly with his loud and often foul-mouthed presence on social media.
Before helping to found Wagner as Prigozhin’s right-hand man, Utkin served as a special forces officer in the GRU military intelligence service, where he held the rank of lieutenant colonel.
He fought for Wagner to support Moscow’s military campaigns in Syria and Ukraine, and was photographed in 2016 at the Kremlin with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Updated
Ukrainian minister tells critics of counteroffensive they are spitting in the faces of soldiers
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has hit out at critics of Kyiv’s tactics in its counteroffensive against Russia’s invasion, saying they were spitting in the faces of Ukrainian soldiers and should “shut up”.
Kuleba told reporters at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Toledo, Spain:
Criticising the slow pace of (the) counter-offensive equals … spitting into the face of (the) Ukrainian soldier who sacrifices his life every day, moving forward and liberating one kilometre of Ukrainian soil after another.
The New York Times last week quoted western officials as saying that the offensive had made limited progress because Ukraine had too many troops in the wrong places.
“I would recommend all critics to shut up, come to Ukraine and try to liberate one square centimetre by themselves,” Kuleba said, standing alongside Spanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares.
Ukraine came under pressure from the US earlier this month to concentrate its counteroffensive on the southern front amid concerns that the effort had been too spread out. As well as trying to press at two main points in the south, Ukraine had been attacking around Bakhmut in the east, baffling Washington.
Military insiders in Kyiv argue that Ukraine has to fight on a broad front, without significant air support, and has to respond to fresh Russian attacks.
Updated
Russia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that one of its fighter jets was scrambled to intercept a Norwegian military plane approaching its airspace, in the latest of a string of similar incidents.
In a statement, it said the Norwegian plane U-turned and moved away from Russian airspace after being approached by the Russian MiG-31 fighter over the Barents Sea, Reuters reports.
Royal Navy and RAF track Russian warships close to UK waters
Royal Navy warships and RAF patrol aircraft have tracked a series of Russian warships as they travelled close to the UK including through the English Channel, PA media reports.
HMS Tyne, HMS Portland and P8 Poseidon aircraft from RAF Lossiemouth carried out the monitoring operation of the Russian navy movements in waters close to the UK including in the North Sea and north Atlantic.
Plymouth-based HMS Portland and the Poseidons worked together to monitor Russian vessels, including corvettes Boikiy and Grad, cruiser Marshal Ustinov, the Udaloy-class destroyer Severomorsk and others.
A navy spokesperson said many of the Russian vessels were associated with the Russian Navy Day, which was held in St Petersburg on 30 July.
He said:
With their collective array of powerful sensors for locating and tracking, the British submarine-hunting frigate and maritime patrol aircraft are a formidable duo for locating and monitoring operations, allowing for constant surveillance from the sea and air.
Having detected a ship or submarine, the aircraft can communicate the position, allowing a warship to intercept and track.
Portsmouth-based HMS Tyne shadowed three Russian ships in separate tasks, including Merkury, a Steregushchiy-class corvette and research ship Akademik Nikolaj Strakhov.
Grant Shapps knows “very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”, a former chief of the general staff of the British army has said (see earlier post at 09.39 on Shapps being announced as the UK’s new defence secretary).
Lord Dannatt told Sky News Ben Wallace “did a good job, but he leaves with work in progress”, adding:
And now we have a new defence secretary who knows very little about defence, and it’s a complex portfolio. It will take him quite some time to get up to speed.
I think there is a risk that certainly the debate on resources for defence stagnates, at least until Grant Shapps can get his head around his portfolio.
He went on:
I think what the chief of defence staff and the single service chiefs will be hoping from the new secretary of state for defence is that he will listen to the concerns that they have within the wider context of the insecurity of the world.
And although he may well have been appointed as someone who is going to support the prime minister and help the Conservative party in its general election campaign, they will be hoping that he will really understand defence and push the case for defence, not just for the Ministry of Defence’s own benefit, but for the benefit of the whole country.
Because there is a very strong case that we should be investing more in defence than we currently are. Ben Wallace knew that. Ben Wallace was arguing for it. Is that discussion going to continue? Or will Grant Shapps choose to go quietly?
You can keep up with the latest political coverage from the UK on this live blog:
Russia says it intends to deepen ties with North Korea
Russia said on Thursday it intended to develop ties with North Korea, Reuters reports.
The White House said on Wednesday it was concerned that arms negotiations between Russia and North Korea were actively advancing, and said Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un had written to each other, pledging to increase their cooperation.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not answer directly when asked by reporters if the letter exchange had taken place.
“Moscow and Pyongyang maintain good, mutually respectful relations. We intend to develop them further. Contacts are being made at various levels,” he said, calling North Korea “a very important neighbour”.
Washington has warned before that North Korea could provide more weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine.
Earlier this month, the US imposed sanctions on three entities it accused of being tied to arms deals between North Korea and Russia.
Updated
Here are some of the latest images coming in from the newswires:
The Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, said demands for the withdrawal of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group from Belarus were “groundless and stupid”, the Belarusian state news agency Belta reported on Thursday.
Wagner, whose leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last week, relocated some of its fighters to Belarus under a deal brokered by Lukashenko after the mercenary army launched a failed mutiny aimed at ousting Prigozhin’s rivals from the Russian defence ministry in June.
Updated
The Kremlin said Russia remained a reliable supplier of grain despite obstacles created by the US and the EU, and that food shortages in Africa were nothing to do with Russia, Reuters reports.
The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, had been asked in a briefing for a response to a reported accusation by the head of Ukraine’s security council that Moscow was causing hunger in Africa.
The number of people going hungry in the world has risen by 122 million to 735 million since 2019 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the UN said in July.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a major producer of wheat, maize and sunflower oil, has led to a steep rise in food prices globally.
Updated
Russia says two Ukrainian 'saboteurs' killed in incursion into Bryansk
Two Ukrainian “saboteurs” were killed and five captured during an incursion into the region of Bryansk, a Russian official said on Thursday.
AFP reports:
Russian regions bordering Ukraine have reported repeated shelling and attacks from Kyiv’s forces, including occasional cross-border incursions.
Bryansk governor Alexander Bogomaz said that a group of Ukrainian special forces tried to carry out a series of “terrorist acts on military and energy infrastructure facilities” on Wednesday.
“In the course of operational and combat measures in the Navlinsky district, two militants were liquidated, five were detained, three of whom were wounded,” he said in a post on social media.
The Navlinsky district is 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Bogomaz said that the group used US-made automatic rifles and Nato-standard ammunition and grenades to carry out the attack, sharing an image of what appeared to be seized weapons.
He said in a later post that three drones were shot down over the region Thursday, and that there were no casualties.
Russia’s Federal Security Service confirmed it had “suppressed” Wednesday’s border incursion in a statement, and said it was looking at “criminal proceedings”.
The Guardian has not yet been able to verify these claims.
Grant Shapps appointed as new UK defence secretary
The UK government has named ex-energy secretary Grant Shapps as the new defence secretary, replacing Ben Wallace who said he wanted to step down after four years in the role.
Shapps has previously served as home secretary (for six days in former prime minister Liz Truss’s short-lived cabinet), business secretary, transport secretary and chairman of the Tory party, among a number of junior ministerial roles since 2010.
He has never held a role in the Ministry of Defence before.
Following his appointment as the new defence secretary, Shapps tweeted: “As I get to work at @DefenceHQ I am looking forward to working with the brave men and women of our armed forces who defend our nation’s security. And continuing the UK’s support for Ukraine in their fight against Putin’s barbaric invasion.”
I’m honoured to be appointed as Defence Secretary by @RishiSunak
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) August 31, 2023
I’d like to pay tribute to the enormous contribution Ben Wallace has made to UK defence & global security over the last 4 years https://t.co/CXWOaYnmUJ
Wallace, who had been touted as a potential successor to Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, had taken a leading role in shaping Britain’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year.
Under him, Britain provided £2.3bn of military aid to Kyiv in 2022 and became the first country to start supplying Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles in May this year to help end Europe’s biggest land war since the second world war.
He caused controversy in July after suggesting Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it had received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country had not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.
Wallace said that “whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude”, when asked about Zelenskiy’s frustration at not being presented with a formal invitation to join Nato.
In Ukraine there was uncertainty as to whether Wallace’s intervention reflected No 10 policy – something Rishi Sunak later made clear was not the case. One former deputy from Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, asked the Observer if the “lack of gratitude” comment was a manifestation of England’s baffling class system? “We don’t understand,” they admitted. Ukrainian Twitter, meanwhile, lit up with joking memes.
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Late Wagner mercenary chief Prigozhin spoke of security in newly surfaced video
A newly released video of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin purports to show him in Africa only days before his death.
Reuters reports:
For those who are discussing whether I’m alive or not, how I’m doing – right now it’s the weekend, second half of August 2023, I’m in Africa,” Prigozhin says in the short video published by the Grey Zone Telegram channel which is linked to his Wagner group.
“So for people who like to discuss wiping me out, or my private life, how much I earn or whatever else – everything’s OK,” he adds with a wave of his hand.
Reuters was not able to verify the location or the date of the video, which was filmed in a moving vehicle. Prigozhin’s camouflage clothing and hat, as well as the watch on his right hand, matched his appearance in a video released on 21 August, which he also claimed was filmed in Africa.
His “weekend” reference implied the latest clip must have been made on 19 or 20 August, only three or four days before he and other top Wagner figures and bodyguards were killed in a plane crash north of Moscow on 23 August.
In June, Prigozhin staged an aborted mutiny against Russian military commanders in which his Wagner troops briefly took control of the southern city of Rostov and advanced towards Moscow.
He was buried at the Porokhovskoye cemetery in his home town of St Petersburg on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, is likely to soon be dismissed from his role, Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing government sources.
His potential replacement is Rustem Umerov, the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, sources told the outlet.
Ben Wallace confirms resignation as UK defence secretary in letter to Rishi Sunak
Ben Wallace has confirmed his resignation as defence secretary after four years in the post.
In a letter to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, Wallace said:
The Ministry of Defence is back on the path to being once again world class with world class people.
The United Kingdom is respected around the world for our armed forces and that respect has only grown more since the war in Ukraine.
I know you agree with me that we must not return to the days where defence was viewed as a discretionary spend by government and savings were achieved by hollowing out.
Sunak praised Wallace, telling him he leaves office with the prime minister’s “thanks and respect”.
Wallace played a key role in the UK’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was a close ally of Boris Johnson.
In May, Britain became the first western country to provide Ukraine with the long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles that Kyiv wanted to boost its chances in its counteroffensive.
Updated
The UK’s prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will reportedly appoint a new defence secretary later on Thursday, replacing Ben Wallace.
Wallace announced last month he would resign from the senior Cabinet role at the next reshuffle, bringing to an end his four years in the job.
The armed forces minister, James Heappey, and, chief secretary to the Treasury, John Glen, have both been linked with the role.
The Daily Telegraph also suggested former defence secretary Liam Fox is a possibility.
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Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has met with his Spanish counterpart, José Manuel Albares. He said expanding Spanish military aid to Ukraine was among the topics discussed.
Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said the war in Ukraine and its consequences would be a priority for Spain’s EU presidency.
Countries holding the presidency traditionally try to set the agenda within the bloc, though the results ultimately depend on all member states.
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Ukraine makes progress towards Novoprokopivka, military spokesperson says
A military spokesperson says Ukrainian armed forces are making progress in the direction of Novoprokopivka – the village beyond Robotyne, in the direction of Melitopol.
The capture of Robotyne was announced earlier this week. Even though just a few miles from where Ukrainian troops were at the start of the counter-offensive, it marked a significant achievement in breaking through an initial line of Russian defences prepared over the winter.
This is very preliminary, but suggests they are consolidating those gains and moving further south.
The ultimate goal is to break through to the Azov sea, severing Russian logistics and communications lines with troops in Kherson and Crimea.
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Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 3pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
Ukraine is using a US rocket system designed to combat drones, according to Bloomberg.
The Vampire rockets, short for Vehicle Agnostic Modular Palletised ISR Rocket Equipment, can be mounted on trucks and carry fuses designed to detonate near drones.
“Initial Vampire systems have been delivered and are in operation by Ukrainian Armed Forces,” the Pentagon’s Acquisition and Sustainment Office was quoted as saying.
Four of the 14 Vampire systems ordered in January under a $40m contract arrived in Ukraine midyear, Bloomberg reported, citing a newsletter by the manufacturer, L3Harris, to investors.
A large majority of elite and ordinary Russians would accept a ceasefire in Ukraine, Anatol Lieven writes in the Guardian, but there is still a general unwillingness to see Russia defeated and humiliated.
Complete defeat in Ukraine would lead to the fall of the Putin regime and this in turn could lead to a period of chaos. Fears of a new Time of Troubles have very deep roots in Russian culture and were strongly revived by the disastrous experience of the 1990s.
At the heart of this fear on the part of the elites is a fear of each other, or even one might say of themselves. The chaos of the 1990s included vicious struggles among the so-called oligarchs including, in some cases, murder.
It would seem that the elites of today believe that without a strong leader like Putin to keep them in order, they would be unable to mediate their differences and hold the state together.
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Russia struggling to detect Ukrainian drones, MoD says
Russia’s air defences are struggling to detect and destroy Ukrainian drones launched on its territory, judging by how many have reached their targets, according to the UK Ministry of Defence.
In its latest intelligence assessment, the MoD said the Ukrainian drone strikes on Wednesday were “the largest attack on Russia since the start of the conflict”, while it experienced 25 drone attacks in August alone.
“Russia is likely rethinking its air defence posture in the area between Ukraine and Moscow to better deal with these attacks,” the MoD said.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 31 August 2023
— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) August 31, 2023
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/rALXTH8zhl
🇺🇦 #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/zgmtfOkElT
Russian Domino's renamed Domino under new ownership
A Russian restaurateur and a pro-Kremlin rapper who together bought Starbucks’ business in Russia last year have taken over the assets of Domino’s Pizza in the country.
Anton Pinskiy and Timati said on Wednesday they would run the restaurants under the barely changed brand Domino Pizza, replacing the “I” with the Cyrillic equivalent “И” and retaining the franchise’s partners, 120 restaurants and more than 2,000 employees in Russia.
The announcement came nine days after DP Eurasia, the operator of the Domino’s Pizza brand in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, said it would file for bankruptcy for its Russian business after giving up attempts to sell it.
Western companies that pulled out of Russia when it sent its army into Ukraine last year have in many cases had to write off the value of their business there or sell their operations at huge discounts.
In July, the government seized control of the Russian subsidiaries of French yoghurt maker Danone and Danish brewer Carlsberg. Dutch brewer Heineken said last week it had sold its Russian operations for a symbolic one euro.
The shakeout has led to several high-profile rebrandings, with Lego stores becoming World of Cubes, Krispy Kreme morphing into Krunchy Dream and McDonald’s restaurants being relaunched as Vkusno & Tochka, or “Tasty and that’s it”. Pinskiy and Timati rebranded Starbucks as Stars Coffee.
Timati, whose real name is Timur Yunusov, already owns a big burger chain called Black Star. He has a long track record of support for the Kremlin, appearing with another performer, Sasha Chest, in a 2015 song with the lyric “My best friend is President Putin”.
EU imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) have increased by 40% since the invasion of Ukraine despite efforts to cut down supplies, the Guardian reports.
Member states have bought more than half of Russia’s LNG on the market in the first seven months of this year, according to analysis of data by Kpler, which tracks marine and tanker traffic.
Spain and Belgium, which acts as major gateways for LNG supplies to the bloc, have emerged as the second and third-biggest customers of Russian LNG respectively after China.
“EU countries now buy the majority of Russia’s supply, propping up one of the Kremlin’s most important sources of revenue,” said Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior fossil fuel campaigner at the anti-corruption group Global Witness, which did the analysis.
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Drone approaching Moscow shot down, says mayor
Russian air defences shot down a drone that was approaching Moscow on Thursday morning, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russian media reported that more than 40 flights were delayed on Thursday morning at the capital’s Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, citing a flight tracking website.
Airports in Moscow have in the past weeks suspended flights repeatedly due to what Russian authorities said were Ukrainian drone attacks on the city.
Earlier, Russia said it had downed two Ukrainian drones in its southern Bryansk region a day after drones struck targets in at least six regions deep within Russia.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian drones struck targets deep within Russia, in one of the largest-scale attacks on Russia in months.
As well as Bryansk, drones hit an airport in the western Pskov region and were shot down over Moscow, Oryol, Ryazan and Kaluga.
The chief official in Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, said a cruise missile was also fired at the peninsula on Wednesday.
“Anti-aircraft forces in eastern Crimea have downed a cruise missile,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.
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Zelenskiy denounces corrupt medical exemptions
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.
Zelenskiy said the National Security and Defence Council had considered data showing the extent of false exemptions, bribe-taking and flight abroad since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. The investigation of dubious medical exemptions was still being conducted, he said.
“There are examples of regions where the number of exemptions from military service due to medical commission decisions has increased tenfold since February last year,” Zelenskiy said on Wednesday in his nightly video address.
“It is absolutely clear what sort of decisions these are. Corrupt decisions.”
He said the investigation had exposed corrupt practices in different regions and by officials in different positions, involving bribes ranging from $3,000 to $15,000.
Zelenskiy said a separate analysis was needed to determine the numbers of people who had fled abroad, largely on the basis of medical commission decisions.
“We are talking about at least thousands of individuals,” he said.
Zelenskiy this month dismissed all the heads of Ukraine’s regional army recruitment centres.
He said more than 100 criminal cases had been opened in a wide-ranging investigation launched after a graft scandal at a recruitment office in southern Odesa region last month.
Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine. This is Mark Gerts bringing you the latest news.
Our top story this morning: Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has decried corrupt medical exemptions that have enabled people to avoid military service, saying the system was subject to bribes and mass departures abroad.
Meanwhile, Russian air defences shot down a drone that was approaching Moscow on Thursday morning, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said and Russia has claimed to have thwarted new Ukrainian attacks in its southern Bryansk region a day after drones struck targets in at least six areas deep within Russia.
More on these shortly. In other news:
At least two people were reported killed in Kyiv in what authorities described as the heaviest series of Russian airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital for months. Air defences shot down all 28 Russian missiles and 15 out of 16 drones, Gen Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said on Wednesday.
Six Ukrainian pilots were reportedly killed when two military helicopters crashed in the eastern Donetsk region. According to the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper, the two Mi-8 helicopters crashed in Kramatorsk on Tuesday. The aircraft were completely destroyed and the bodies of six dead servicemen were found.
Russian investigators are considering the possibility that the plane carrying the Wagner mercenary head Yevgeny Prigozhin was shot down on purpose, the Kremlin said on Wednesday in the first explicit acknowledgment of what most already believed to have been an assassination. “It is obvious that different versions are being considered, including … a deliberate atrocity,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia is in secret, active talks with North Korea to acquire a range of munitions and supplies, the White House has said. “Arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing,” the White House national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said, adding that a key focus of the talks was artillery ammunition.
Tech companies including TikTok and Twitter failed to effectively tackle Russian disinformation online during the first year of the war in Ukraine, according to a study published on Wednesday by the EU. The independent study for the EU comes after tougher rules under its Digital Services Act kicked in this month for the world’s biggest online platforms.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart will discuss a proposal by Moscow for an alternative to the Black Sea grain deal when they meet this week, Lavrov’s ministry has said. Under the plan, Russia would send a million tonnes of grain to Turkey at a discounted price, with financial support from Qatar, to be processed in Turkey and sent to countries most in need, the foreign ministry said.
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