Closing summary
This blog is now closing. Below is a roundup of today’s stories:
The US president, Joe Biden, said there was “no real prospect of Putin using nuclear weapons”. He was asked a question about whether the Russian president could escalate actions in Ukraine after the disarray caused by the failed Wagner mutiny during a press conference with the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, in Helsinki following the US-Nordic leaders’ summit.
Biden also said he was “serious about prisoner exchange” when asked about the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in a Moscow prison for more than 100 days.
Three people have been killed by Russian shelling across Ukraine. A man in his 40s was killed by shelling in the Zaporizhzhia region. A 60-year-old in Sumy and an 85-year-old woman in Kherson were also killed by Russian shelling.
Russia’s nuclear chief denies claims Moscow plotted to blow up Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. Alexei Likhachev said that only “a complete idiot” would do such a reckless thing.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, told CNN on Thursday he had “no doubt” that Ukraine would become part of Nato after Russia’s war against the country ends. Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Austin said: “I have no doubt that will happen, and we heard just about every country in the room say as much.”
Ukraine’s top security official has dismissed criticism of Kyiv from the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, suggesting Wallace misspoke due to a surfeit of emotion. “I wouldn’t pay too much attention to what he said,” Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s security council, told the Guardian in Kyiv on Thursday. “Everyone can say something when they are emotional and then regret it … I know for sure this isn’t his actual position.”
Ukraine claims its air defences during the night shot down all 20 Shahed drones and two Kalibr missiles launched by Russia. At least four people in Kyiv were injured by falling debris, and Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk reported eight civilian injuries in the last 24 hours.
A Russian general said he had been fired as a commander after telling the military leadership “the truth” about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, as tensions in the Russian army grow in the aftermath of Wagner’s short-lived mutiny. Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army, which is fighting on the front in Ukraine near Zaporizhzhia, said in a voice message that he had been fired after he brought up problems on the battlefield.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has welcomed a “good result” from the Nato summit. His remark came after Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato. In regular remarks made on Thursday night, Zelenskiy struck a positive note: “For the first time since independence, we have formed a security foundation for Ukraine on its way to Nato.”
A senior Russian official has described Sergei Surovikin, the general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine and hasn’t been seen in public since the Wagner mutiny, as “resting” and “not available”.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he had not heard any new proposals on the Black Sea grain export deal, which is due to expire on Monday.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, reported sustained instances of cross-border shelling from Ukraine, but stated that no injuries were incurred, and there was only minor damage.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested that Russian forces have been using improvised car bombs in Donetsk region, possibly instigated due to the experience of the Chechen forces deployed there.
Updated
Reuters reports that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on Thursday urged Vladimir Putin to prolong a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukrainian grain, saying the consequence of not doing so would be global food insecurity.
The ball was now in Russia’s court with the whole world watching, Von der Leyen told a press conference.
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Ukraine’s top security official has dismissed criticism of Kyiv from the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, suggesting Wallace misspoke due to a surfeit of emotion.
“I wouldn’t pay too much attention to what he said,” Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s security council, told the Guardian in Kyiv on Thursday. “Everyone can say something when they are emotional and then regret it … I know for sure this isn’t his actual position.”
Wallace criticised Ukraine on Wednesday for treating western allies “like Amazon”, providing lists of weapons it required and for not being thankful enough for western military aid. “Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” said Wallace.
The remarks caused surprise and confusion in Kyiv, as they appeared to jar with most British government statements offering unequivocal support for Ukraine, and Wallace had widely been seen as one of Kyiv’s biggest champions among western politicians.
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Putin: supply of weapons to Ukraine will escalate conflict
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that supplies of new weapons to Ukraine would change nothing on the battlefield but would only further escalate the conflict there, Reuters reports.
Putin, speaking on state television, said tanks provided by western powers to Ukraine would be a “priority target” for Russian forces fighting there.
He reiterated his opposition to Ukraine joining Nato, saying this would threaten Russia’s security.
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Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia could withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal until other sides fulfil their promises, Reuters reports.
The deal, which allows for the safe export of Ukrainian grain and fertiliser from Black Sea ports, is due to expire on Monday. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to block its extension over aspects of its implementation affecting Russian exports.
Putin, speaking on state television, said Russia was in contact with the UN on the matter but said he had not seen a message addressed to him from the UN secretary general suggesting a compromise to salvage the deal.
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Three people killed by Russian shelling across Ukraine
A man in his 40s has been killed by shelling in Orikhiv in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, governor Yuriy Malashko has said.
A 60-year-old resident of the village of Popivka in the northern region of Sumy has also been killed by Russian shelling, the prosecutor general’s office said.
Earlier on Thursday, an 85-year-old woman was killed after Russian shelling in the village of Mykilske in Kherson, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram.
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Allies pledge €1.5bn in military aid to Ukraine, says defence minister
Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, said on Twitter that the country would receive €1.5bn in military aid from packages pledged by western allies.
He says they will receive long-range Scalp missiles, Leopard tanks, additional Patriots and F-16 pilot training.
🚀 Ukraine will receive over €1.5 billion in military aid from its international partners.
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) July 13, 2023
✳️ Long-range SCALP missiles, Leopard tanks, additional Patriots, F-16 pilot training are just some of the things that can be announced publicly.
We can mention at least seven packages…
Updated
Danielle Gershkovich, the sister of Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is currently being detained in a Moscow jail, is due to speak in Washington DC shortly.
We will bring you the top lines.
Updated
Biden: ‘no real prospect of Putin using nuclear weapons’
Biden says there is “no real prospect of Putin using nuclear weapons” when asked about whether the Russian president could escalate actions in Ukraine after the disarray caused by the failed Wagner mutiny.
Updated
Biden says he is ‘serious about prisoner exchange’ for detained WSJ journalist Evan Gershkovich
Biden says he is “serious about prisoner exchange” when asked about Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in a Moscow prison for over 100 days.
Biden says: “I’m serious about doing all we can to free Americans being illegally held in Russia or anywhere else for that matter. That process is under way.”
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Biden is asked what actions he will take to assure Finland that the US will remain a reliable Nato partner for decades to come considering a bipartisan group of senators in Washington attempted to pass a law that would prevent future US presidents from withdrawing from Nato without the Senate’s approval.
Biden says: “There is no question there’s overwhelming support from the American people. There’s overwhelming support from the members of Congress, the House and the Senate. In both parties, notwithstanding the fact of some extreme elements of one party, we will stand together.”
Updated
Biden says: “We will defend every inch of Nato territory, including Finland.”
This is Biden’s first visit to Finland since it became a Nato member.
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The US president, Joe Biden, is holding a press conference with Finnish president Sauli Niinistö in Helsinki following the US-Nordic leaders’ summit.
You can watch live at the top of the page.
Updated
US and Nordic countries 'welcome' Turkey's intention to ratify Sweden's Nato ascension
The White House has released a statement after a meeting between the US president, Joe Biden, and Nordic leaders which said they “welcomed” Turkey’s stated intention to ratify Sweden’s ascension into Nato.
Biden travelled to Helsinki after the Nato summit ended to meet Nordic leaders, including the prime ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden and Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö.
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Reuters reports that the European Commission is helping the UN and Turkey in their efforts to extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain and is open to “explore all solutions that contribute” to ensuring that continues, an EU spokesperson in Brussels said.
Luke Harding has been in Dnipro for the Guardian, speaking to two volunteers fighting for Ukraine:
Standing on a steep grassy hill, a figure in uniform took aim with a rifle. Several shots pinged into a pile of tyres. Nearby, policemen took turns firing from a DShK heavy machine gun, mounted on a green-painted military vehicle. The rounds echoed around a rustic shooting range, scattering swallows. Down a track was a farmstead with cows.
The sniper was not a Ukrainian soldier but a 58-year-old British former marine called Alan, from Plymouth in south-west England. He is one of a small group of foreign volunteers currently fighting in Ukraine, more than 16 months after Russia’s full-scale invasion. Alan declined to give his second name. He arrived last September. Soon he will go back to the frontline.
“You have to keep practising,” he said, gesturing at a row of targets, all of which he hit. “The Russians are not on the whole very good soldiers but they are not stupid. It would be foolhardy to assume there are no decent units or motivated troops. They are potent, very dangerous, and good at artillery and electronic warfare.”
Read more here: ‘It was like in world war one’: the foreign volunteers fighting in Ukraine
Updated
Here are some more images today from Kyiv after a building was damaged by drone debris overnight.
Elina Svitolina, the Ukrainian tennis player who could become the first wild card to make it into the final of the ladies’ singles competition at Wimbledon, is playing now.
Wild cards are players whose world ranking is not high enough to qualify automatically for the competition but who are accepted into it at the discretion of Wimbledon’s committee.
On Tuesday, Svitolina pulled off one of the performances of her career in defeating the top seed, Iga Świątek, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2 to return to the Wimbledon semi-finals, which she last reached in 2019 when she lost to Simona Halep.
Afterwards, she spoke about her hope of bringing “a little happiness” to the people of Ukraine. “I know that lots of people back in Ukraine are watching,” she said. “It definitely means a lot.”
The Guardian’s Alexandra Topping has more on Svitolina below:
Updated
Russian nuclear chief denies claims Moscow plotted to blow up Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station
Russia’s nuclear chief on Thursday pushed back against Ukrainian assertions that Moscow had plotted to blow up a nuclear power station it controls, saying no evidence supported the claim and that only “a complete idiot” would do such a reckless thing, Reuters reports.
Kyiv has repeatedly said that Russian forces planned to blow up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station in southern Ukraine.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russian forces had mined the roof of several reactors at the plant, Europe’s largest, which they seized shortly after launching their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Wednesday it had not seen any mines or explosives during an inspection of the plant, though it said it was waiting for access to the rooftops of reactors No 3 and No 4.
“Those who wanted to arrange some sort of provocation there have been exposed,” Alexei Likhachev, the general director of Russia’s state nuclear corporation, Rosatom, told state television, citing the IAEA observations.
He said the Ukrainian claims about Russia’s supposed intentions at the plant were part of an information war against Moscow.
“You would have to be a complete idiot to blow up a nuclear power station where three and a half thousand people work, including a very significant number of people from all over Russia,” Likhachev said.
Likhachev said Russian intelligence and information from captured Ukrainian prisoners indicated that Ukraine had in fact had plans to strike the nuclear power station while repeatedly blaming Russia for the attack.
Reuters was unable to verify the claims of either side. Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of threatening the safety of the plant.
The IAEA has repeatedly said the plant should not be used for storage or as a base for heavy weaponry. It has also said the plant has enough water – used to cool down reactors and spent nuclear fuel – for some months despite the destruction of the nearby Nova Kakhovka dam.
Updated
US defence secretary: 'no doubt' Ukraine will join Nato after war ends
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, told CNN on Thursday he had “no doubt” that Ukraine would become part of Nato after Russia’s war against the country ends.
Speaking to CNN host Wolf Blitzer, Austin said “I have no doubt that will happen, and we heard just about every country in the room say as much,”
When asked how close Ukraine was to meeting Nato standards, Austin said there was still work to be done. He added that others things like “judicial reform” should happen in Ukraine to “make sure that the democracy is in good shape”.
Updated
The Ukrainian parliament has passed the first reading of bill that would legalise medical cannabis, with the draft law saying one of its uses could be to treat war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, spoke in support of the draft law last month when speaking to parliament.
The draft law also proposes to license the economic activity of cultivating hemp for medical, industrial, and scientific purposes. It also aims to help people with cancer and other serious illnesses.
The bill was supported by 268 out of 405 deputies.
Updated
85-year-old killed by shelling in Kherson
An 85-year-old woman has been killed after Russian shelling in the village of Mykilske in Kherson, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram on Thursday.
Prokudin said: “The Russian army killed an 85-year-old resident of the village of Mykilske. At around 12pm [9am GMT], the occupiers launched an artillery attack on the settlement. One of the shells hit the yard of an elderly woman.”
Updated
Reuters reports that the state-owned Ukrainian Railways has set up a new freight operator to operate in Europe to improve trade and logistical connections, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Thursday.
Kubrakov said the new operator, “Ukrainian Railways Cargo Poland”, would provide services for transporting freight, coordinate with European rail operators, freight owners and border crossings, and control Ukrainian rolling stock abroad.
“Today, the European direction of rail transportation for Ukraine is a matter of fast logistics and support for the Ukrainian economy,” Kubrakov said on Facebook.
“Creation of a European operator will enable significant improvement in managing cargo transportation in the European direction. At the same time, we are modernising border infrastructure, increasing its capacity.”
Updated
Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor, notes that the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, failed to namecheck Ben Wallace when responding to a praiseworthy statement about the UK defence secretary from a fellow MP.
Tory MP Mark Francois praises Ben Wallace by name for his support for Ukraine during the PM's report back on the Nato summit. But no name check from Rishi Sunak in reply. The UK "should be proud of the leadership we've shown on Ukraine" PM says
— Dan Sabbagh (@dansabbagh) July 13, 2023
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Summary of the day so far …
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has welcomed a “good result” from the Nato summit. His remark came after Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato. In regular remarks made on Thursday night, Zelenskiy struck a positive note, saying: “For the first time since independence, we have formed a security foundation for Ukraine on its way to Nato.”
The US president, Joe Biden, concluded a Nato summit on Wednesday denouncing Vladimir Putin as “craven” and promising Zelenskiy full support even without membership in the military alliance. Biden, who has made unifying Nato countries a foreign policy priority, said Putin had badly underestimated their resolve.
Ukraine claims its air defences during the night shot down all 20 “Shahed” drones and two Kalibr missiles launched by Russia. At least four people in Kyiv were injured by falling debris, and Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk reported eight civilian injuries in the last 24 hours.
A Russian general said he had been fired as a commander after telling the military leadership “the truth” about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, as tensions in the Russian army grow in the aftermath of Wagner’s short-lived mutiny. Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army which is fighting on the front in Ukraine near Zaporizhzhia, said in a voice message that he had been fired after he brought up problems on the battlefield.
A senior Russian official has described Sergei Surovikin, the general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine and hasn’t been seen in public since the Wagner mutiny, as “resting” and “not available”.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he had not heard any new proposals on the Black Sea grain export deal, which is due to expire on Monday.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, reported sustained instances of cross-border shelling from Ukraine, but stated that no injuries were incurred, and there was only minor damage.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has suggested that Russian forces have been using improvised car bombs in Donetsk region, possibly instigated due to the experience of the Chechen forces deployed there.
Updated
Rishi Sunak’s statement in the Commons had a lengthy section detailing what he claimed were several “firsts” by the UK – notable for coming a day after his defence secretary, Ben Wallace, suggested that Ukraine could have showed more gratitude, in comments which have created a diplomatic ripple.
He said:
There is no better example of our ability to bring all these elements together and lead on the world stage than our response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Our diplomats have led the unprecedented effort to coordinate sanctions against Russia’s economy.
Last month we hosted the Ukraine recovery conference, raising over $16bn to help rebuild Ukraine’s economy and bringing in the private sector to help unlock their economic potential.
And as the house knows, we have backed Ukraine’s fight for their freedom and sovereignty since the start. As the first country in the world to train Ukrainian troops. First in Europe to provide lethal weapons. First to commit tanks. First to provide long range missiles. And now we’re at the forefront of a coalition to equip the Ukrainian air force, with Ukrainian pilots starting their training here in just a few weeks time.
We do all of this because it’s right. Because it protects our values and our interests. Because it keeps our people and our allies safe. And because quite simply, it is who we are as a country.
We were there at the start of the Nato alliance. And this week, we’ve shown once again that we remain at its heart, leading it into the future.
Replying to the statement, the leader of the opposition Labour party, Keir Starmer, said that even if there was a change of government in the UK – an election is expected next year – nothing would change the country’s resolve to support Ukraine.
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Sunak has praised the resilience of the Ukrainian people, and also stated that the British people should be proud that the UK is at the heart of Nato.
With the additional of a couple of more detailed paragraphs for the domestic audience and his own party’s MPs in parliament, the speech is fundamentally the same as this statement from yesterday.
Rishi Sunak is making an almost indentical statement to the one that he gave in Vilnius yesterday. He has praised Nato as the most successful alliance in history, and said it is more united than ever before.
The UK prime minister Rishi Sunak is about to make a post-Nato summit statement in the House of Commons in London. You should be able to watch it live in the blog. You may have to refresh the page for the play button to appear. We will bring you the key lines that emerge.
Updated
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the Belgorod region in Russia, has used his Telegram channel to report sustained instances of cross-border shelling from Ukraine, but states that no injuries were incurred, and there was only minor damage. The claims have not been independently verified.
Russian general says he was fired after telling 'the truth' about situation in Ukraine
A Russian general said he had been fired as a commander after telling the military leadership “the truth” about the dire situation at the front in Ukraine, as tensions in the Russian army grow in the aftermath of Wagner’s short-lived mutiny.
Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms Army which is fighting on the front in Ukraine near Zaporizhzhia, said in a voice message that he had been fired after he brought up problems on the battlefield, including the lack of counter-battery fire as well as deaths and injuries the army is suffering from Ukrainian attacks.
Popov’s emotional address was published late Wednesday by Andrei Gurulyov, a retired Russian colonel general and Duma deputy.
Without naming them, Popov appeared to attack army head Valery Gerasimov and defence minister Sergei Shoigu, two of the country’s most powerful military men, accusing them of stabbing the country in the back.
The open criticism of the military leadership by a senior Russian commander is rare and will dent the sense of unity that the Kremlin has been eager to project following Yevgeney Prigozhin’s aboard rebellion.
Deborah Haynes, the Sky News security and defence editor, offers this analysis this morning on the diplomatic impact of the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace’s words yesterday about whether Ukraine had shown enough gratitude for being armed. She writes:
Wallace was not being critical about a lack of gratitude specifically to the UK for its support.
Instead, he had been attempting to make a wider point about the wisdom of persuasion when dealing with certain politicians in Washington and other Nato capitals who would rather spend taxpayers’ money on domestic issues than a war in a distant part of Europe.
Countries that do not feel in existential peril cannot be guaranteed to maintain their support for Ukraine for as long as the war rages on.
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Here are some of the latest images sent to us over the news wires from Kyiv, showing the impact of drone debris on a high-rise building.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has reported that the person killed earlier in Kyiv died as a result of a domestic fire, and not as a result of action by the Russian Federation.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko had earlier said the body of one resident was recovered when emergency services put out a fire in the capital’s historic Podil district, and it had been assumed that the fire had been started by falling drone debris, but according to the state emergency services this is not the case.
UK's MoD claims Russia using vehicles as improvised explosive devices in Donetsk
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has this morning published its latest intelligence briefing on how it sees the situation on the ground in Ukraine, and it suggests that Russian forces have been using improvised car bombs in Donetsk region, possibly instigated due to the experience of the Chechen forces deployed there.
It writes:
In June 2023, there have been several reports of Russian forces using antiquated armoured vehicles packed with several tonnes of explosives as vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices (VBIEDs). The crew likely bail out of the vehicle after setting it on its course.
Most Russian VBIED cases have been reported around Marinka, near Donetsk city, and started days after Chechen units reinforced the area: there is a realistic possibility that Chechen forces are pioneering the tactic.
There is a heritage of Chechen fighters being skilled in IED use, dating back to the Chechen Wars from the 1990s. Chechens fighting for Ukraine were also reported to have made similar VBIEDs in January 2023.
Most of Russia’s VBIEDs have almost certainly detonated before they reached their target through a combination of anti-tank mines and direct fire, bringing into question the viability of the capability.
However, these VBIEDs cause extremely large explosions, which are still likely to have a psychological effect on defending forces.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Reuters has a quick snap that on Thursday the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said he had not heard any new proposals on the Black Sea grain export deal, which is due to expire on Monday.
Russia has repeatedly threatened to pull out of the deal, citing western sanctions limiting its own agricultural exports. The country also claims to have recorded record grain exports over the last year.
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Ukraine reports numerous regions hit by strikes overnight
The overnight news summary from Suspilne has just been published on its Telegram channel. It reports:
Air defence during the night shot down all 20 “Shahed” drones and two Kalibr missiles. The consequences of the launch of the Iskander-M ballistic missile are being clarified.
In Kyiv, debris from downed drones damaged houses – four people were injured.
At night, the Russian army attacked Antonivka and Kherson. Over the past day, three people were killed and two were injured in the Kherson region. Eight people were injured in Donetsk region, one in Kharkiv region.
The number of people injured due to the fall of an explosive object in Zaporizhzhia on 12 July increased to 21 people, including eight children.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, has posted an operational update listing a number of settlements that suffered bombardment and “massive artillery shelling” damaging houses and residential buildings. He stated that “In total, the Russians wounded 8 residents of Donetsk region in one day.”
The claims have not been independently verified. Donetsk is one of the partially occupied regions of Ukraine which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed.
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has an update on the damage in Kyiv after yet another night where Russia has struck at Ukraine’s capital – the third night in a row. It reports:
In the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, during a night attack, a fragment of a downed drone hit the 25th floor of a building, destroying one of the apartments.
The man whose apartment was hit was at home – he was wounded by shrapnel, he was given help, now he is in a stable condition, reports our correspondent, who managed to talk to him.
According to the police officer on the spot, a girl in a neighbouring house was also injured and was hospitalised.
The claims have not been independently verified.
If the Nato summit was marked by what could be considered some frustrated and undiplomatic words by Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday, then the UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, also appeared to make some candid and forthright assertions – that Ukrainians could show a bit more gratitude and that the west was not an “Amazon” for weapon supplies. As my colleague Dan Sabbagh reported yesterday:
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, and he advised Ukraine that it might help if it took a different approach.
Wallace said it was not the first time he had spoken to Kyiv about this.
“I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list, that I’m not like Amazon,” he said, and he observed that Ukraine had a habit of, once it had obtained one type of weapon, immediately starting to lobby for another.
You could have anticipated some response to this in Kyiv and beyond in Ukraine, and this morning the Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko is one who has struck a conciliatory tone on the remarks on social media. He posted:
I want to say that we are really grateful to Ben Wallace for everything he has done for Ukraine. The United Kingdom has always supported us, they are one of our most important allies. They helped us with weapons (a lot of weapons) and provided humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, such words were said yesterday. But Ben Wallace did a lot for our country.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Updated
Ukrainian authorities have released more details about the overnight attack by Russia, saying defence forces downed 20 Russian attack drones and two cruise missiles in the attack that killed one and wounded at least four in Ukraine’s capital.
“We have a successful air defense operation,” the air force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat told national television.
“Twenty Shaheds were destroyed – all those flying were downed.”
The 20 Iran-made Shahed attack drones were destroyed “mainly in the Kyiv region”, Ukraine’s air force said in a separate statement on Telegram.
The drones had “entered the capital from different directions”, Kyiv’s military administration said on Telegram earlier, adding air defences had destroyed “about a dozen” in the city’s airspace.
Updated
The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, has proposed to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that he extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia’s agricultural bank to the Swift international payment system, sources have told Reuters.
Russia has threatened to ditch the grain deal, which expires on Monday, because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertiliser abroad have not been met. The last two ships traveling under the Black Sea agreement are currently loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa ahead of the deadline.
A key demand by Moscow is the reconnection of the Russian agricultural bank Rosselkhozbank to the Swift international payment network. It was cut off by the European Union in June 2022 over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. An EU spokesperson said in May the EU was not considering reinstating Russian banks.
However, the EU is considering connecting to Swift a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to allow specifically for grain and fertiliser transactions, three sources familiar with discussions told Reuters on Wednesday. The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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It was, by the standards of international summits, an undiplomatic intervention. A clearly frustrated Volodymyr Zelenskiy tweeted that Nato allies were showing Ukraine disrespect, that they were discussing his country’s hopes of joining the military alliance without him. “It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to Nato nor to make it a member of the alliance,” he wrote.
The outburst was certainly last minute, coming less than an hour before Joe Biden, Rishi Sunak and Nato other’s 29 leaders were due to sign off a final summit declaration on the topic. It turned out to be a communique that did not spell out a timeline by which Ukraine could join, nor a list of conditions it would have to meet, nor even extend an invitation to join at an unspecified future date once the war with Russia is over.
In truth, the public lobbying was always going to be far too late:
Missing Russian general with links to Wagner boss is ‘resting’ says official
A senior Russian official has described Sergei Surovikin, the general who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine and hasn’t been seen in public since the Wagner mutiny, as “resting” and “not available”.
Asked by Russian media outlet Shot if he had communicated with Surovikin, Andrei Kartapolov, a retired general who heads the defence affairs committee in the lower house of the Russian parliament, said, “No. He is resting now. Not available.”
Surovikin reportedly has close ties to Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin. Last month, US intelligence reportedly claimed that Surovikin had prior knowledge of the armed uprising led by Prigozhin, during which Wagner mercenaries captured the city of Rostov and moved on Moscow before cutting an amnesty deal.
Zelenskiy welcomes ‘good result’ from Nato summit
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has welcomed a “good result” from the Nato summit.
His remark came after Britain’s defence secretary and the US national security adviser suggested Ukraine ought to show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west, in response to Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s complaints that his country has not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato.
In regular remarks made on Thursday night, Zelenskiy struck a positive note, saying, “for the first time since independence, we have formed a security foundation for Ukraine on its way to Nato.”
“Very importantly, during these two days of the Summit, we have put to rest any doubts and ambiguities about whether Ukraine will be in Nato. It will!”
He added that he was “grateful to all those who have worked for unity in Vilnius”.
Person killed in ‘massive’ overnight strikes on Kyiv
A Russian drone strike on Kyiv killed one person and wounded at least four others, authorities said on Thursday, with AFP reporting that explosions were heard across the Ukrainian capital in the third night of attacks.
“Tonight, a massive attack by Iranian drones took place,” Kyiv’s military administration said on Telegram.
Iran-made Shahed explosive drones had “entered the capital from different directions,” it said, adding “about a dozen” had been downed in the city’s airspace.
Falling debris was reported in five districts, it said, adding that a 19-year-old woman and 23-year-old man had been hospitalised with shrapnel wounds.
Two people were wounded in Darnytsky district “as a result of falling debris,” Sergiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, wrote on Telegram.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on Telegram, said the body of one resident was recovered when emergency services put out a fire in the capital’s historic Podil district. State emergency services later clarified that this was due to a domestic fire, and not the actions of the Russian Federation.
This block and the live blog headline were edited to clarify that Ukraine’s state emergency services later stated the death in Kyiv had been caused by a domestic fire, and not as a result of enemy action.
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Opening summary
Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story this morning: a Russian drone strike on Kyiv killed one person and wounded at least four others, authorities said on Thursday, with explosions heard across the Ukrainian capital in the third night of attacks.
The attack came hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy welcomed renewed commitments from Nato and G7 leaders, saying, “We are returning home with a good result for our country” and that, “for the first time since independence, we have formed a security foundation for Ukraine on its way to Nato.”
Other recent developments include:
The US president, Joe Biden, concluded a Nato summit on Wednesday denouncing Russian president Vladimir Putin as “craven” and promising Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy full support even without membership in the military alliance. Biden, who has made unifying Nato countries a foreign policy priority, said Putin had badly underestimated their resolve.
Ben Wallace, the British defence secretary said “people want to see a bit of gratitude” and Ukraine needed to put more emphasis on saying thank you for western help when he was asked about president Zelenskiy’s complaints on Tuesday that the country had not been issued a firm timetable or set of conditions for joining Nato. Wallace said Ukrainians’ haste to get all the help they could meant they did not always say they were grateful for the help received.
The UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak, distanced himself from Wallace’s comments, saying Zelenskiy has expressed gratitude for UK support. He highlighted that president Zelenskiy had expressed gratitude on multiple occasions, including his address to parliament earlier this year. “I know he and his people are grateful to the UK,” said Sunak.
Zelenskiy said he “didn’t understand” Wallace’s comments. He also said “we could express our words of gratitude personally to the minister”.
The G7 signed a declaration outlining support for Ukraine and help towards governance reforms needed for “Euro-Atlantic aspirations”. The member nations said they would provide security and economic support, including modern military equipment, across land, air, and sea, intelligence sharing and the training of Ukrainian forces in exchange for Ukraine committing to reforms “to underscore its commitments to democracy, the rule of law, respect for human rights and media freedoms”, “put its economy on a sustainable path” and strengthen “democratic civilian control of the military”.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Sweden’s Nato accession will not be put to Turkish parliament until autumn when it reopens. Speaking at a news conference after the Nato summit in Vilnius, Erdogan said that Sweden would provide a roadmap for Turkey regarding the steps to take against purported terrorism before the ratification.
UN secretary-general António Guterres has proposed to Russian president Vladimir Putin that he extend a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine in return for connecting a subsidiary of Russia’s agricultural bank to the SWIFT international payment system, sources told Reuters. The last two ships traveling under the Black Sea agreement are currently loading cargoes at the Ukrainian port of Odesa ahead of the deadline.
An 81-year-old man was killed after shelling in Kherson. His 82-year-old wife was wounded in shelling of the southern city of Kherson, the region’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram on Wednesday.
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