Closing summary...
One of Ukraine’s top generals said that his forces were advancing in the south. “In the Tavria sector, there has been an advance by the defence forces,” General Oleksander Tarnavskyi said in a post on Telegram.
US President, Joe Biden, spoke with US allies and partners to coordinate future support for Ukraine. Poland’s president Andrzej Duda said afterward that Biden had assured the group of continued US support for Ukraine and of his strong conviction that Congress will not walk away.
Western military powers are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine to repel Russian attacks, the UK and Nato have warned.
The Belarusian defence ministry said it had started exercises to check its armed forces’ combat readiness, Reuters reported.
Kyiv’s attempts to penetrate Russian defences on frontlines in the east and south of the country have “failed”, Moscow said.
The UK’s defence minister, James Heappey, has hailed “the functional defeat” of Russia in the Black Sea over past weeks, saying the “Russian navy has been forced to disperse to ports from which it cannot have an effect on Ukraine”.
Kyiv has been told it is “absolutely possible” that EU membership talks could begin this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after a surprise meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Ukrainian capital.
Updated
We have some more details on the call Joe Biden had with western allies earlier (see post at 16:13).
The office of the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, said Biden was “keen to reassure the allies about the continuing American support for Ukraine, also after the recent decisions of the US Congress.”
The Nato leader, Jens Stoltenberg, said the call was “good” while EU chief Charles Michel said the allies “stand united”.
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Russian prosecutors have demanded a nine-and-a-half-year jail sentence for fugitive former state TV journalist Marina Ovsyannikova, famous for bursting into a news broadcast with a placard that read “Stop the war” and “They’re lying to you”.
The foreign-based independent news site Mediazona said the prosecution had made the demand at Ovsyannikova’s trial in absentia for distributing “fake news”, a term that includes any information about Russia’s war in Ukraine that is at odds with the official narrative.
Ovsyannikova, 45, fled Russia with her daughter for an unspecified European country a year ago after escaping from house arrest, according to her lawyer, saying she had no case to answer.
She had staged her original protest less than three weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine last February, in what it called a “special military operation”.
The charge of “fake news” relates to a protest in July last year when she stood on a river embankment opposite the Kremlin and held up a poster calling Vladimir Putin a murderer and his soldiers fascists, Reuters reports.
Russia passed new laws against discrediting or distributing “deliberately false information” about the armed forces on 4 March 2022, eight days after invading Ukraine.
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Danish brewer Carlsberg said that it had cut licensing agreements with its Russian subsidiary, which was seized by authorities in July in response to plans to sell the company after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Several western firms have stopped operating in Russia over the war, which drew sweeping sanctions against Moscow from the US and Europe.
Carlsberg had announced in June that a buyer had been found for Baltika, which it has owned since 2000, and its 8,400 employees, AFP reports.
But a decree the following month signed by Vladimir Putin said the state was taking over the business.
“We currently see no path to a negotiated solution for exiting Russia. We refuse to be forced into a deal on unacceptable terms, justifying the illegitimate takeover of our business,” Carlsberg said in a statement.
Updated
Ukrainian forces advance on southern front, says general
One of Ukraine’s top generals said on Tuesday that his forces were advancing in the south.
“In the Tavria sector, there has been an advance by the defence forces,” General Oleksander Tarnavskyi said in a post on Telegram, using the military’s name for the southern front.
Tarnavskyi, head of the southern group of forces, said troops had conducted 1,198 assignments in the past 24 hours, with Russian forces sustaining losses of 261 men and a further 10 being taken prisoner.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in its evening report that offensive operations were proceeding in the east and south, with little elaboration. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
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The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia had not abandoned a moratorium on nuclear testing, Reuters reports.
Vladimir Putin, who as Russian president rules over the world’s biggest nuclear arsenal, has repeatedly cautioned the west that any attack on Russia could provoke a nuclear response. The Soviet Union’s last nuclear test took place in 1990.
The US’s last nuclear test took place in 1992 and France and China conducted their last nuclear tests in 1996, according to the UN.
“At present, we have not left the regime of abandoning nuclear tests,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Updated
Moldova’s constitutional court has cleared the way for members of a banned pro-Russian party to run in local elections as independent candidates or as members of other parties.
The court’s ban on the opposition Shor party, imposed in June, still stands, Reuters reports.
The court issued its latest decision after considering a complaint by members of the party, which is headed by exiled businessman Ilan Shor and accused by the west and the Moldovan government of trying to destabilise the country.
Announcing the ruling, a senior court member, Serghei Turcan, said an amendment banning Shor party members from participating in elections “had no objective criteria and was too general” and did not respect the right to be elected.
The local elections, including for city mayors, take place on 5 November. Shor’s allies have registered a new party called Chance, and a party that already existed, Revival, is considered close to Shor.
Marina Tauber, a senior Shor party leader, hopes to run as an independent candidate for mayor in Balti, Moldova’s second largest city.
Russia denied last year wanting to intervene in Moldova, which borders Ukraine and EU member Romania, after authorities in the brekakaway region of Transnistria said they had been targeted by a series of attacks.
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Rishi Sunak told G7 and Nato leaders on Tuesday that the UK was prepared to support Ukraine with military, humanitarian and economic assistance “for as long as it take,” the prime minister’s office said in a readout of a call.
“He outlined the UK’s ongoing military, humanitarian and economic assistance to Ukraine and stressed that this support will continue for as long as it takes,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement.
Updated
Western allies say they are running out of ammunition to give to Ukraine
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 admiral, who chairs Nato’s military committee, was quoted by BBC News as saying:
We need large volumes. The just-in-time, just-enough economy we built together in 30 years in our liberal economies is fine for a lot of things – but not the armed forces when there is a war ongoing.
He said “the bottom of the barrel is now visible”, with Ukraine said to be firing thousands of shells (many of which come from Nato) every day.
The comments came as the US president, Joe Biden, spoke with the leaders of allied countries, the EU and the Nato military alliance on Tuesday about continuing coordinated support for Ukraine.
Biden convened the call amid concerns that support for Kyiv’s war effort against Russia was fading, especially in the US where Congress excluded aid to Ukraine from an emergency bill to prevent a partial government shutdown.
Adding to concerns, the UK’s armed forces minister, James Heappey, said western military stockpiles were “looking a bit thin”, reportedly adding the “just-in-time” model “definitely does not work when you need to be ready for the fight tomorrow”.
“If it’s not the time – when there is a war in Europe – to spend 2% on defence, then when is?” he asked the forum.
Updated
Joe Biden assured leaders of G7 and European states of Washington’s continued support for Ukraine during a video conference, the Polish president said on Tuesday.
“He assured us that support for aid given to Ukraine continues, especially military aid. He said he would secure this support in Congress,” Andrzej Duda told a news conference.
Belarus begins army combat readiness exercises
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.
The manoeuvres will take place in the Minsk and Vitebsk regions and will involve military hardware and aviation.
Military drills in Belarus, which allowed Russia to use its territory as a staging post for its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, periodically raise security concerns in Ukraine, Poland and the Baltic states.
Minsk has denied any hostile plans towards its neighbours, but warned that any incursion against Belarusian territory will invite a response.
Joe Biden spoke with the leaders of allied countries, the EU and the Nato military alliance on Tuesday about continuing coordinated support for Ukraine, the White House said.
Leaders on the call included the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, the White House said in a statement.
Leaders in the Senate, which is narrowly controlled by the Democrats, have promised to take up legislation in the coming weeks to ensure continued US security and economic support for Ukraine.
Washington has sent the Kyiv government $113bn in security, economic and humanitarian aid since Russia invaded in February 2022.
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Here are some of the latest images coming from the newswires:
Moscow says Ukraine has failed to penetrate Russian defences in the east and south
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.
He was using Russian placenames to refer to two villages along the frontline in the south where Ukrainian forces claim to have broken through the toughest points of Russian defences and recaptured several villages.
Shoigu also said the Russian army had “repelled all attacks in the Soledar-Bakhmout direction” on the eastern front in the war-battered Donetsk region. These claims are yet to be independently verified.
The Ukrainian president visited troops fighting in the north-east on Tuesday and met commanders to discuss the battlefield situation on one of the hottest fronts of the war with Russia.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not give the exact location of his visit but said he had met brigades fighting in the Kupiansk-Lyman sector in the north-east, where the Ukrainian military says Russian forces have been staging attacks, Reuters reports.
“We met with brigade and battalion commanders to discuss the battlefield situation, pressing issues, and needs,” he said on X, formerly known as Twitter, above photos of him meeting soldiers in a dimly lit room.
“Each of our combat brigades, each warrior who destroys the occupiers with every step forward, asserts that the Ukrainian victory will surely come. They are the power. I thank them for their service!”
The president’s office also posted footage showing Zelenskiy at various times during the visit shaking hands with troops, sitting at a long table with commanders and being briefed by an officer standing in front of a map.
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Two vessels sailing under the flags of the Marshall Islands and Cameroon are heading towards the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Odesa, a Ukrainian lawmaker has reported.
Oleksiy Honcharenko did not provide any details other than their names, Equator and Maranta, but posted images of vessels on the Telegram messaging app.
A senior member of the government said on Sunday five other ships were on their way to Ukrainian Black Sea ports using a new corridor opened for predominantly agricultural exports after Russia’s decision to quit a UN-brokered wartime deal on safe shipments.
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Armenia’s parliament on Tuesday voted to join the international criminal court (ICC), obliging the former Soviet republic to arrest President Vladimir Putin if he were to visit the country.
The decision will further strain relations with Moscow, Armenia’s traditional ally. Ties are already badly damaged over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine and Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Kremlin last week warned Armenia that its decision to join the ICC, which has issued an arrest warrant for Putin for overseeing the abduction of Ukrainian children, was “extremely hostile”.
You can read the full story here:
The Dutch shipbuilder Damen Shipyards has sued the Dutch government over damages it says it has suffered because of European sanctions against Russia, Reuters reports.
Damen, which produces a wide-ranging fleet of industrial and military vessels and luxury yachts, is seeking compensation for business lost due to the sanctions, a company spokesperson, Rick van de Weg, said, confirming an earlier report by Bloomberg.
Damen had delivery contracts for a number of vessels across the company’s portfolio that were scrapped by the sanctions invoked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February, Van de Weg said.
Damen had an engineering branch in Russia, but has severed ties with this operation after the invasion, he added.
The company could not immediately comment on the number of contracts it had for deliveries in Russia or the size of the compensation it is claiming.
The Dutch government in April last year said it was preventing 14 yachts, including 12 under construction, from leaving the Netherlands because of sanctions on Russia.
Updated
The Kremlin said on Tuesday it knew nothing about a report in the Kommersant newspaper that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, could announce next month that he will run for office again in a presidential election set for March.
Its spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was speaking to reporters in a telephone briefing, according to Reuters.
Kommersant, citing unidentified sources close to the presidential administration, earlier reported that, as part of a conference in November, officials suspect that Putin may announce he will take part in the election in March next year.
The newspaper said there were, however, other scenarios for what Putin might do at the conference, and the final decision rested with him.
Putin, who was handed the presidency by Boris Yeltsin on the last day of 1999, has led Russia for longer than any other ruler since Joseph Stalin.
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In its latest intelligence update, the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said new polling suggests that Russian authorities were successfully using the “foreign agent” designation as a tool to manipulate public opinion behind the state’s anti-west pro-war narratives.
The MoD wrote on X:
On 26 September 2023, VTsIOM (Russia’s state-owned Russian Public Opinion Research Centre) reported the results of a poll of Russians’ attitudes towards people and organisations registered as ‘foreign agents’.
VTsIOM claimed 61% of those surveyed said that they considered ‘foreign agents’ to be ‘traitors’ who ‘disseminate lies’ about Russia.
Russia has broadened the foreign agent legislation since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The measures significantly narrow the information space within Russia, making it increasingly difficult to articulate any viewpoint, including dissenting about the war, which deviates from the official line.
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The EU is considering unlocking billions of euros for Hungary that were frozen over rule-of-law concerns as it seeks to win Budapest’s approval for aid to Ukraine including a start to membership talks for Kyiv, according to senior officials.
Reuters reports:
Hungary cultivates closer ties with Russia than other EU states, and is seen as the key potential opponent to a decision due in December on whether to open accession talks with Kyiv, which would require unanimous backing of the union’s 27 members.
At stake also is a bid by the EU executive commission to have member states contribute more to the bloc’s joint coffers, to help fund more aid to Ukraine. That decision is also expected later this year and requires unanimity.
A senior EU official told Reuters that to sway Hungary’s vote, the bloc expects to look at the status of billions of euros worth of EU handouts now frozen over concerns that prime minister Viktor Orbán has restricted the independence of courts.
“I can’t imagine Hungary agreeing without there first being a solution to the blocked funds,” said the official.
A second EU official confirmed there was a link between releasing funds to Hungary and EU plans requiring unanimity, including enlargement and budget talks.
Sources stressed, however, a deal was not a foregone conclusion and much also depended on Orbán, who is faced with economic stagnation and a widening budget deficit at home.
We reported earlier (see post at 10.20) that Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said Russia had no plans for an additional mobilisation of men to fight in Ukraine.
Here are some of his quotes, as published by Reuters.
“The armed forces have the necessary number of military personnel to conduct the special military operation,” Shoigu was shown telling top generals on state television.
He continued:
Since the start of the year, more than 335,000 people have entered military service under contract and in volunteer formations. In September alone, more than 50,000 citizens signed contracts.
Those figures indicate that Russia has made significant progress in signing recruits and absorbing many fighters from the Wagner mercenary force into “voluntary formations”.
Putin ordered a “partial mobilisation” of 300,000 reservists in September last year, prompting hundreds of thousands of young men to flee Russia to avoid being sent to fight.
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Warsaw and Kyiv announced on Tuesday they had agreed to speed up the transit of Ukrainian cereal exports through Poland to third countries.
It is the first breakthrough since the start of a diplomatic spat between the two allies that was triggered when Poland imposed a ban on imports of Ukrainian grain.
The populist government in Warsaw, which faces a general election on 15 October, said the embargo was designed to protect local farmers against a collapse in cereal prices.
Ukrainian exports transiting Poland en route to world markets – in Africa and the Middle East in particular – remain authorised, Agence France-Presse reports.
Under Tuesday’s agreement, which also involves Lithuania, some Ukrainian grain destined for world markets will transit directly through Poland without undergoing quality checks at the Polish border.
“We have agreed on an important question,” the Polish agriculture minister, Robert Telus, was quoted as telling journalists after an online meeting with ministers from Ukraine and Lithuania.
“From tomorrow, grains that transit (to world markets) via Lithuania will undergo checks at a Lithuanian port and not at the Poland-Ukraine border.”
The Ukrainian agriculture ministry said the deal would “speed up transit through Poland”.
Updated
Burger King remains open as usual in Russia despite the brand’s owner pledging to leave in March 2022, the BBC reports.
Restaurant Brands International, which owns 15% of the fast-food’s franchise business in the country, told the broadcaster it had “no new updates to share at this time” on its exit.
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Ukraine’s central bank said it would allow controlled currency fluctuations starting on Tuesday, AFP reports.
At the beginning of the war, Kyiv suspended all currency trading, and set a fixed exchange rate to defend its currency – the hryvnia – and stabilise the markets.
In a statement, the central bank said:
The National Bank of Ukraine is implementing managed exchange rate flexibility, which will strengthen the stability of the foreign exchange market and the economy.
Under a managed flexible rate, a country’s central bank intervenes on the markets to maintain the currency around a chosen level.
Morning summary
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 message 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.
Updated
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.
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin on suspicion of the war crime of illegally deporting hundreds or more children from Ukraine, a claim dismissed by the Kremlin as meaningless. Joining the ICC means Armenia will be obliged to arrest Putin if he sets foot there.
Armenia says it has been discussing its plans with Russia, after Moscow warned it in March of “serious consequences” if it submitted to ICC jurisdiction, Reuters reported.
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.
UK defence minister hails 'functional defeat' of Russia in the Black Sea over recent weeks
The UK’s defence minister James Heappey has hailed “the functional defeat” of Russia in the Black Sea over past weeks saying the “Russian navy has been forced to disperse to ports from which it cannot have an effect on Ukraine”.
Speaking at at a security event in Warsaw he said, despite allied disappointment about the pace of Ukraine’s land offensive, the naval success was “every bit as important” as the Ukrainian land breakthrough in Kharkiv oblast.
There was also interesting speculation about the UK needing an offshore arms manufacturing capacity from Heappey.
He made the familiar argument that over the past 20 to 30 years Europe has run down its arms stockpiles and manufacturing capacity, something that has been revealed by the “constant drumbeat” of demand made by Ukraine.
But he added the UK was a post industrial economy and that had implications for the Ministry of Defence’s thinking on how to conduct a big war. He said there simply was no means in the UK to repurpose its locomotive factories into tank manufacturing, or civilian aircraft manufacturing into military manufacturing.
“We don’t have a lot of that stuff anymore before” he explained, implying a large UK defence industrial base cannot be reconstructed in tiem required.
He said that led to an interesting question “Where is near to the UK with defendable air and sea lines of communication where we can have an offshore manufacturing base that is more resilient and more reachable for the UK than where we manufacture now?”
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Updated
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.
In case you missed it, 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.
“I don’t see any member state faltering,” he said, reinforcing a declaration by the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, on Friday that he was confident Slovakia and Poland would continue to support the fight against Russia despite political wavering in both countries.
Borrell said the EU had proposed a “bilateral envelope” worth €5bn (£4.3bn) for Ukraine’s armed forces. EU countries would train 40,000 soldiers, provide “special training” for fighter pilots and deepen ties between EU and Ukrainian defence companies.
His comments came after EU foreign ministers held talks with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Apart from meetings at the United Nations, it was the first time they had gathered outside EU territory and the first informal summit to take place in a war zone, Borrell said.
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.
Updated
Kharkiv to build Ukraine’s first underground school to protect children
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.
While many schools in the frontline regions have been forced to teach online throughout the war, Kharkiv has organised about 60 separate classrooms throughout its metro stations before the school year that started 1 September, creating space for more than 1,000 children to study there.
Parts of the city lie less than 35km (20 miles) from the Russian border and it has been subject to near-daily Russian rocket and missile attacks that can hit before residents can reach shelters.
More on this story here:
Ukraine downs 29 Russia-launched drones, one cruise missile
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.
Reuters could not independently verify the reports.
Ukraine shells Russian village with cluster munitions
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.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the governor’s statement, which he made without providing visual evidence. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukraine has received cluster munitions from the United States, but it has pledged to use them only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers.
Russian officials in Bryansk and other regions bordering Ukraine have repeatedly accused Kyiv of an indiscriminate shelling by Ukraine’s armed forces.
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.
More from the AFP report:
“It would be devastating for the Ukrainians” if US aid is halted, said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The Ukrainian military would weaken and then ultimately perhaps collapse,” though it “might be able to just hold on on the defensive,” he said.
“Militaries in conflict need a continuous flow of weapons and supplies and munitions to replace what’s destroyed and gets used up,” Cancian said.
If US aid were completely cut off - something the White House insists will not happen - the impact would not be immediate, given that previously authorized assistance is still in the pipeline.
“It would take probably a couple of weeks before we see effects on the battlefield,” he said, and Moscow might not be able to capitalize even then as “the Russians are pretty exhausted at this point.”
Away from the front lines, an end to US aid would leave gaps in Ukraine’s air defenses, which are made up of systems from multiple countries that cover different altitudes and must be continually resupplied with munitions.
“You can’t really just... replace one system with another system if they operate in slightly different ways and deal with different threats,” said James Black, assistant director of the defense and security research group at RAND Europe.
“If you took out the kind of US component of that, then you necessarily degrade the... effectiveness” of the entire integrated system, he said.
It would require a “years and decades-long effort to get Europe to a place where (it) could fully replace the US as a kind of military power, or a defense industrial power,” Black said.
Ukraine could begin EU membership talks this year, Zelenskiy says
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. He added:
Our country is a leader in protecting the very foundations on which European unity rests. The unity of modern Europe, which values human freedom and equality of nations, values international law.
He said the talks had also included Russia’s attempt to circumvent international sanctions, security in the Black Sea and the operation of Ukrainian ports and the bolstering of Ukrainian air defences.
And he said that Italy had committed to the rebuild the cathedral in Odesa, which was destroyed by a Russian missile strike in July.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Jordyn Beazley.
It is “only a matter of time” before Ukraine joins the European Union, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said after a surprise meeting of EU foreign ministers in Kyiv.
“Objectively, our country is a leader in protecting the very foundations on which European unity rests,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “The unity of modern Europe, which values human freedom and equality of nations, values international law.”
He said Kyiv aimed to “hammer out a decision” to start membership negotiations this year, and said he had been told at Monday’s meetings “this is absolutely possible.”
Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat, said the EU would give Kyiv a new military aid package worth €5bn (£4.3bn) after what he termed a “historic” meeting.
The Kyiv gathering came at an especially difficult time for Ukraine, with the slow pace of its counteroffensive against Russia criticised by some in the west and as Republicans in the US Congress prevented military aid for Ukraine from being included in a spending bill.
In other key developments:
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 message 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.
Updated
