Summary
It is approaching 9pm in Kyiv, here is where things stand.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukrainians must understand that Russia was deploying all possible resources to stop Kyiv’s forces from advancing in the east and south of the country. This comes after reports that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was not advancing quickly. He said: “We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers.”
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, told reporters that the battles were difficult but said western allies were not putting pressure on Kyiv to advance faster. “Today it’s advancing not so quickly. If we are going to see that something is going wrong, we’ll say so. No one is going to embellish,” he said.
Ukraine acknowledged on Friday its troops were advancing “not so quickly” in a counteroffensive to recapture territory in the east and south of the country from Russian forces.
An alleged Russian intelligence operative accused by the US of smuggling American-developed technology and ammunition to Russia to help its war against Ukraine was extradited from Estonia, federal prosecutors said on Friday.
Vladimir Putin has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which expires next week, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Friday. Erdoğan told reporters he had spoken with his Russian counterpart about the crucial deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis. Moscow played down the Erdoğan’s comments, saying an agreement had not yet been reached to extend the deal.
Yevhen Balitsky, the Russian-imposed leader of occupied Zaporizhzhia, has claimed that Russian air defence systems shot down two UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles on Thursday that Ukraine had fired at Melitopol and Berdiansk.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said a request during the Asean regional forum to withdraw troops from Ukraine was part of a western conspiracy, according to the EU foreign policy chief.
Mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the country’s defence ministry said on Friday. The ministry said: “[Wagner] fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines.
A Ukrainian court has jailed a man for 10 years after finding him guilty of plotting with Russia to blow up transport infrastructure to disrupt foreign arms supplies, Ukraine’s domestic security agency said on Friday. The security service of Ukraine said in a statement that it had detained the man in February before he had been able to carry out his mission.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a meeting with the Ukrainian intelligence chief, who ruled out an invasion from Belarus.
Russia has accused the west of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone had struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the Chornobyl plant is located. On Telegram, Roman Starovoit said: “A drone crashed in the town of Kurchatov overnight. Fortunately, none of the residents were injured. Critical facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and its subsequent detonation.”
Ukraine claims overnight to have shot down 16 of 17 drones that were launched by the Russian Federation. Suspilne writes that air defence was in operation in the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. It reports a person was injured and nearby buildings were damaged when a drone hit a utility company in Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia is stonewalling in talks about the renewal of a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea, the UK envoy to the UN has warned. Barbara Woodward accused Moscow of “cynical brinkmanship” that makes it increasingly unlikely that the deal will be renewed before Tuesday’s deadline.
Wagner mercenaries are no longer participating in “any significant capacity” in combat operations in Ukraine, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than two weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia. “At this stage, we do not see Wagner forces participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder told a news briefing
Three Ukrainian drones were intercepted in the Voronezh region. Governor Alexander Gusev posting to Telegram: “Yesterday, a few kilometres from Voronezh, air defence systems detected and destroyed three UAVs. There were no victims, no injuries, no damage.”
A car explosion has injured three people in a residential sector of the Russian city of Belgorod.
A public poll is to be held to decide what to do with the metal Soviet Union insignia that is due to be removed from Kyiv’s monument to the motherland.
France has posthumously awarded AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed while working in Ukraine, the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour).
Poland will respond in kind if Russia closes down its diplomatic missions, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, in response to reports that Moscow had decided to close the Polish consulate in Smolensk.
Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen has said in an interview with the FT that “we in the west need to understand that obviously, this is not charity because Ukraine is fighting for us. They are fighting for our liberty and the European security architecture.” She said that the west remained committed to supporting Ukraine, adding: “I wouldn’t say there’s any fatigue and I hope there never will be.”
That is all for today – thank you for following along. For more updates, follow our live coverage tomorrow.
Updated
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Friday that Ukrainians must understand that Russia was deploying all possible resources to stop Kyiv’s forces from advancing in the east and south of the country. This comes after reports that Ukraine’s counteroffensive was not advancing quickly. [see 16:39 BST]
In a video after a meeting with his top commanders, Zelenskiy said:
We must all understand very clearly, as clearly as possible, that Russian forces in our southern and eastern lands are doing everything they can in order to stop our soldiers.
And every thousand metres we advance, every success of every combat brigade deserves our gratitude.
Updated
Here are some images of Ukrainian service personnel of the 24th separate mechanised brigade, named after King Danylo, in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, sent via the newswires.
Updated
Kyiv accepts counteroffensive is not advancing quickly
Ukraine acknowledged on Friday its troops were advancing “not so quickly” in a counteroffensive to recapture territory in the east and south of the country from Russian forces.
The head of the Ukrainian president’s office, Andriy Yermak, told reporters that the battles were difficult but said western allies were not putting pressure on Kyiv to advance faster, AFP reports.
Today it’s advancing not so quickly. If we are going to see that something is going wrong, we’ll say so. No one is going to embellish.
There is no pressure, just a question: how can we help you further?
It’s clear that our successes on the battlefield influence everything that is happening.
At a meeting with Ukrainian armed forces leadership on Friday, “the president informed the military that this is important”, Yermak said.
Kyiv would not negotiate with Russia until it withdrew its troops from Ukraine, he added.
“Even thinking about these talks is only possible after Russian troops leave our territory,” he said.
Updated
An alleged Russian intelligence operative accused by the US of smuggling American-developed technology and ammunition to Russia to help its war against Ukraine was extradited from Estonia, federal prosecutors said on Friday.
The defendant, Vadim Konoshchenok, is expected to make an initial appearance in federal court in Brooklyn later on Friday, Reuters reports.
Prosecutors are requesting that he be detained pending trial, calling him an irremediable flight risk.
Updated
In Kyiv, people have rallied and demanded the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war, who were taken captive in the Mariupol region of Ukraine by Russian forces.
Updated
The US secretary of state Antony Blinken said Friday that his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov “effectively ascribed every problem in the world to the United States”.
Blinken also pressed for Russia to extend a grain deal that expires next week, after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, signalled his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had agreed to do so.
Both Blinken and Lavrov were in the Indonesian capital to meet with Southeast Asian leaders, and both also held direct talks with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi.
The comments from Blinken came after the European Union’s foreign policy chief said Lavrov lashed out against criticism of Moscow’s Ukraine invasion.
Talking to reporters after Asean Regional Forum talks, the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said:
Lavrov responded [to] me very aggressively and explained his point of view, saying everything is a ‘west conspiracy’ and the war will continue … as Russia is not at all ready to stop the aggression and withdraw troops.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Friday that the interventions of Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were “not constructive or productive on any issue”.
Blinken, who did not meet Lavrov on the sidelines of the meeting, told reporters at a news conference that the Russian diplomat was “totally negative” and focused on blaming the US, AFP reports.
Updated
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, pressed on Friday for Russia to extend a grain deal which expires next week, warning that the developing world would suffer if it did not.
After Asean talks in Jakarta, Blinken told reporters:
If Moscow follows through on its threat, developing countries including in the region will pay the price including quite literally with higher food prices, as well as greater food scarcity.
Updated
Moscow plays down Erdoğan claim on grain deal extension
Russia has not made any statements on the extension of the Black Sea grain deal, the Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.
Earlier, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said he was in agreement with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, that the deal, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, should be extended.
Some media said Erdoğan’s comments suggested that an agreement had been reached to extend the deal, which expires on Monday. Russia has said it will only agree to extend it if its own conditions on the implementation are met.
Updated
Erdoğan suggests Putin agreed to grain deal extension
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has agreed to extend the Black Sea grain deal, which expires next week, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Friday.
Erdoğan told reporters he had spoken with his Russian counterpart about the crucial deal allowing for the export of Ukrainian grain to ease a global food crisis.
The deal, signed five months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is set to expire on Monday, and Putin has repeatedly threatened not to renew it because of obstacles to Russia’s own exports.
Erdoğan told reporters:
We are preparing to welcome Putin in August and we agree on the extension of the Black Sea grain corridor.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, this week sent Putin a letter about the extension of the deal. He supports removing hurdles to Russia exporting its fertilisers – another element Moscow has complained is not being respected.
Erdoğan said he hopes “that with this letter we will ensure the extension of the grain corridor with our joint efforts and those of Russia.”
Putin on Thursday warned that “not one” of Moscow’s conditions for the deal to function had been met, AFP reports.
In an interview, Putin said:
I want to emphasise that nothing was done, nothing at all. It’s all one-sided.
We will think about what to do, we have a few more days.”
The deal, which Erdoğan helped broker, has allowed Ukraine to ship more than 32m tonnes of grain past Russian warships in the Black Sea.
Updated
Yevhen Balitsky, the Russian-imposed leader of occupied Zaporizhzhia, has claimed that Russian air defence systems shot down two UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles on Thursday that Ukraine had fired at Melitopol and Berdiansk.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported he posted to Telegram on Friday to make the claim, stating “there were no casualties, the infrastructure was not damaged either”.
Updated
Adding to earlier reports from the Belarus defence ministry that mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers [See 13.07 BST] Reuters is now reporting that some of them have been there since at least Tuesday. It reported that two sources close to the fighters gave the information to Reuters on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the situation.
Interfax in Russia is carrying a short quote from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in which he says: “We hope that the Black Sea grain deal will be extended” without providing any further detail.
The deal expires next week, and Russia has repeatedly said it is unwilling to extend it unless western sanctions it considers to be hampering its own agricultural exports are lifted.
Updated
Here are some photographs of life in Kyiv amid the invasion sent over the news wires.
Updated
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said a request during the Asean regional forum to withdraw troops from Ukraine was part of a western conspiracy, according to the European Union foreign policy chief.
Josep Borrell made the comment to reporters on the sidelines of the forum in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday.
Updated
Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign affairs minister, has said the US and Nato satellites are creating risks of a “direct armed clash with Russia”.
In a tweet from the Russian Embassy in the UK, Lavrov also warned of the potential “catastrophic consequences” of direct conflict.
FM #Lavrov: The #US and its #NATO satellites are creating risks of a direct armed clash with #Russia, and this is fraught with catastrophic consequences. pic.twitter.com/RKMwGDEgU3
— Russian Embassy, UK (@RussianEmbassy) July 14, 2023
Mercenary fighters from Russia’s Wagner group are training Belarusian soldiers in Belarus, the country’s defence ministry said on Friday.
The ministry said the training was taking place near the town of Osipovichi, about 90 km (56 miles) south of the capital Minsk, Reuters reports.
The ministry said:
[Wagner] fighters acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines.
A Ukrainian court has jailed a man for 10 years after finding him guilty of plotting with Russia to blow up transport infrastructure to disrupt foreign arms supplies, Ukraine’s domestic security agency said on Friday.
The security service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement that it had detained the man in February before he had been able to carry out his mission.
After fighting against Ukrainian forces in southern Ukraine, he was tasked by Russian military intelligence with blowing up two infrastructure objects, according to Reuters.
It did not identify the intended targets but said they were in the Rivne region in western Ukraine, where there are several important, and largely secret, road and railway links with Poland.
The SBU said:
In order to carry out the enemy’s task, the criminal conducted reconnaissance of the territory around infrastructure facilities and prepared to place explosives in the most vulnerable places of both transport routes.
However, the SBU employees worked ahead of time and detained the attacker as a result of a multi-stage special operation at the end of February this year.
The security service of Ukraine (SBU) did not identify the man but said he had fought with Russia-backed militant groups in eastern Ukraine before and since Moscow’s full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.
Updated
Ukraine intelligence chief rules out invasion from Belarus
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, held a meeting with the Ukrainian intelligence chief, who ruled out an invasion from Belarus.
According to intelligence data, there is no threat of invasion from Belarus, Ukraine’s president said on Telegram.
Updated
Russia accuses west of aiding ‘nuclear terrorism’ after drone strike in Kurchatov
Russia has accused the west of sponsoring “nuclear terrorism” after authorities said a Ukrainian drone had struck the western Russian town of Kurchatov, where a nuclear power station similar to the Chornobyl plant is located.
Roman Starovoit, the governor of Russia’s Kursk region that borders Ukraine, said the Ukrainian drone had struck a residential apartment building in Kurchatov, a Soviet-era town built on the banks of a cooling pond for the Kursk nuclear power station, which is still in service.
On Telegram, Starovoit said:
A drone crashed in the town of Kurchatov overnight.
Fortunately, none of the residents were injured. Critical facilities were not damaged as a result of the drone crash and its subsequent detonation.
The only damage was to the facade and glazing of one block of flats, he added, saying the authorities would help residents restore their homes.
Updated
The EU and the World Health Organization (WHO) are joining forces to further strengthen Medevac operations in Ukraine and to ensure Ukrainians can access crucial medical care.
According to the European Commission, more than 2,350 Ukrainian patients have been transferred to hospitals in 21 European countries to get medical treatment.
🇪🇺 Medical evacuations save lives.@eu_echo has already helped 2,350 🇺🇦 patients get treatment in 21 European countries.
— EU in Ukraine (@EUDelegationUA) July 14, 2023
Now, #EU & @WHO join forces to ensure even more Ukrainians get timely medical care.
📍Find out more:https://t.co/qO0AT4z3WB pic.twitter.com/BPeP4qzj5n
Updated
Summary of the day so far …
Ukraine claims overnight to have shot down 16 out of 17 drones that were launched by the Russian Federation. Suspilne writes that air defence was in operation in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions. It reports a person was injured and nearby buildings were damaged when a drone hit a utility company in Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region.
Russia is stonewalling in talks about the renewal of a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea, the UK envoy to the UN has warned. Barbara Woodward accused Moscow of “cynical brinkmanship” that makes it increasingly unlikely that the deal will be renewed before Tuesday’s deadline.
Wagner mercenaries are no longer participating in “any significant capacity” in combat operations in Ukraine, the Pentagon said on Thursday, more than two weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia. “At this stage, we do not see Wagner forces participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder told a news briefing
Three Ukrainian drones were intercepted in the Voronezh region. Governor Alexander Gusev posting to Telegram: “Yesterday, a few kilometres from Voronezh, air defence systems detected and destroyed three UAVs. There were no victims, no injuries, no damage.”
Roman Starovoit, head of the Kursk region in Russia, has reported that a Ukrainian drone fell on the city of Kurchatov. He stated there were no injuries.
A car explosion has injured three people in a residential sector of Russia’s city of Belgorod.
A public poll is to be held to decide what to do with the metal Soviet Union insignia that is due to be removed from Kyiv’s monument to the motherland.
France has posthumously awarded AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed while working in Ukraine, the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour).
Poland will respond in kind if Russia closes down its diplomatic missions, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, in response to reports that Moscow had decided to close the Polish consulate in Smolensk.
Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen has said in an interview with the FT that “we in the west need to understand that obviously, this is not charity because Ukraine is fighting for us. They are fighting for our liberty and the European security architecture.” She said that the west remains committed to supporting Ukraine, adding: “I wouldn’t say there’s any fatigue and I hope there never will be.”
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine’s national broadcaster, reports that Ukraine has received the bodies of 62 soldiers from occupying Russian forces.
Here are some recent images of Ukrainian service personnel sent over the news wires from near the frontline in Donbas.
Roman Starovoit, head of the Kursk region in Russia, has reported that a Ukrainian drone fell on the city of Kurchatov.
On Telegram he posted that there were no injuries and “critical infrastructure objects were not damaged”. He reported partial damage to an apartment building.
The claims have not been independently verified.
Finland’s foreign minister, Elina Valtonen, has said in an interview with the FT that “we in the west need to understand that obviously, this is not charity because Ukraine is fighting for us. They are fighting for our liberty and the European security architecture.”
She said that the west remains committed to supporting Ukraine, adding “I wouldn’t say there’s any fatigue and I hope there never will be”.
Updated
Car explosion injures three in Russian city of Belgorod
A car explosion has injured three people in a residential sector of Russia’s city of Belgorod.
Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted to Telegram to say
Unfortunately, there are three victims: a man who was in the car at the time of the explosion, and two bystanders – a mother with a child. All the victims were taken to the city hospitals with shrapnel wounds to the lower extremities. Doctors assess their condition as moderate.
Gladkov stressed that the situation was under control, and said: “There is no threat to residents of neighbouring houses and apartments. Emergency services are on site. The investigating authorities are taking all measures in order to understand the causes of the incident.”
More details soon …
Updated
Poland will respond in kind if Russia closes down its diplomatic missions, the Polish prime minister said on Friday, in response to reports that Moscow had decided to close the Polish consulate in Smolensk.
“We regularly receive information about aggressive diplomatic actions from Russia”, Reuters reports Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference. “If in the end it comes to it that Russia starts to liquidate our offices we will respond in kind.”
A public poll is to be held to decide what to do with the metal Soviet Union insignia that is due to be removed from Kyiv’s monument to the motherland.
Interfax in Ukraine reports that the minister of culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, said: “I think that we will conduct a survey on what to do with the Soviet coat of arms. I think that it is easiest to use it to protect our country. If not a survey, then at least consultations with the public, regarding what to do with this small amount of kilograms of steel of the Soviet coat of arms.”
The minister has already announced that the USSR emblem is to be replaced with the coat of arms of Ukraine by 24 August, Ukraine’s independence day.
Updated
Reuters has a quick snap that Russia has closed Poland’s consulate in the city of Smolensk, due, it said, to Poland’s “anti-Russian” activities.
Updated
Ukraine claims to have shot down 16 Russian drones launched overnight
Ukraine claims overnight to have shot down 16 out of 17 drones that were launched by the Russian Federation. Suspilne writes that air defence was in operation in Odesa, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
It reports a person was injured and nearby buildings were damaged when a drone hit a utility company in Kryvyi Rih in Dnipropetrovsk region.
Updated
Oleg Kiper, governor of Odesa region, reports on Telegram this morning that several settlements within the region are currently without power. However, he states this is due to adverse weather conditions overnight, rather than action by Russian Federation forces, who struck the port city earlier this week with drones causing a fire in a grain facility.
In Russia the Interfax news agency reports that three Ukrainian drones (UAVs) were intercepted in the Voronezh region.
It cites governor Alexander Gusev posting to Telegram that “Yesterday, a few kilometres from Voronezh, air defence systems detected and destroyed three UAVs. There were no victims, no injuries, no damage.”
Voronezh is to the east of Kharkiv region in Ukraine. The claims have not been independently verified.
Updated
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that in the Chernihiv region, three border communities have been shelled. Chernihiv borders both Belarus and Russia.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com
Russia is stonewalling in talks about the renewal of a deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain through the Black Sea, the UK envoy to the UN has warned.
Barbara Woodward accused Moscow of “cynical brinkmanship” that makes it increasingly unlikely that the deal will be renewed before Tuesday’s deadline.
She said failure to renew the deal would cause global food prices to rise, as the deal had allowed more than 32m tonnes of grain and food exports to leave Ukraine over the past year – with two-thirds going to low to middle-income countries, and some going to countries on the brink of starvation such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia.
Updated
Financial leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced countries will hold talks on July 16 on the sidelines of the broader G20 meeting in India, the Japanese finance minister, Shunichi Suzuki, said on Friday.
The G7 groups Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
“Support for Ukraine, MDBs (multilateral development banks) reform and international taxation will be discussed at this meeting,” Suzuki added. “We have no plan to issue a statement but we will lead debates to resolve problems the world faces.”
Updated
France has posthumously awarded AFP video journalist Arman Soldin, who was killed while working in Ukraine, the Legion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour), AFP reports.
Soldin was given the top honour with effect from 28 June 2023 by a presidential decree issued on Thursday, according to France’s official gazette.
Soldin, AFP’s video coordinator in Ukraine, was killed in a rocket attack in the country’s east on 9 May, more than a year after the Russian invasion. He was 32 years old.
Soldin was part of a team of AFP reporters embedded with Ukrainian soldiers near the besieged city of Bakhmut, at that point an epicentre of fighting that was targeted daily by Russian forces.
The team was walking back to their car near the village of Chasiv Yar when they came under fire by Grad rockets.
Updated
In case you missed it: Cluster munitions provided by the United States have now arrived in Ukraine, the Pentagon confirmed on Thursday.
The munitions – bombs that open in the air and release scores of smaller bomblets – are seen by the US as a way to get Kyiv critically needed ammunition to help bolster its offensive and push through Russian frontlines. US leaders debated the thorny issue for months, before President Joe Biden made the final decision last week.
US leaders have said the US will send a version of the munition that has a reduced “dud rate”, meaning fewer of the smaller bomblets fail to explode. These unexploded rounds, which often litter battlefields and populated civilian areas, cause unintended deaths. US officials said Washington will provide thousands of the rounds, but provided no specific numbers.
Wagner has played a crucial combat role in Ukraine, especially in the grinding battle for Bakhmut.
In June its fighters sought to topple Russia’s military leadership during the brief rebellion, before backing down.
The seeds of the Wagner’s failed insurrection were sown nearly a decade ago when Russia illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula and sent proxy forces into eastern Ukraine. Yevgeny Prigozhin then founded the Wagner mercenary group, which gave Putin a tool for more active military intervention and some degree of plausible deniability.
Before the war, Wagner had about 5,000 fighters, but that has since grown to 25,000, according to Prigozhin.
Prigozhin’s whereabouts are largely unknown in the wake of an agreement with the Kremlin that allowed for him to be exiled to neighbouring Belarus.
Since the failed mutiny, speculation has been rife that there could be a reshuffle among Russia’s military leadership, while details about the deal that ended the Wagner rebellion remain uncertain.
The Kremlin has said that President Vladimir Putin met with Prigozhin during an hours-long meeting in Moscow days after the mutiny.
On Wednesday, Russia announced that its army had received more than 2,000 pieces of military hardware, including tanks, from Wagner, following the rebellion.
Wagner not participating in Ukraine fighting in any significant way: Pentagon
Wagner mercenaries are no longer participating in “any significant capacity” in combat operations in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday, more than two weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia.
“At this stage, we do not see Wagner forces participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder told a news briefing, per AFP.
Ryder said the the United States assessed that “the majority” of Wagner fighters were still in areas of Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Updated
Opening summary
Welcome back to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.
Our top story this morning: Wagner mercenaries are no longer participating in “any significant capacity” in combat operations in Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday, more than two weeks after the group’s aborted mutiny in Russia.
“At this stage, we do not see Wagner forces participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine,” Pentagon press secretary Pat Ryder told a news briefing.
Elsewhere today:
The US president, Joe Biden, has said he doesn’t believe there is “any real prospect” of Vladimir Putin using nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Biden made the comment in response to a question about whether the Russian president could escalate actions in Ukraine after the disarray caused by last month’s failed Wagner mutiny. The US president was speaking during a press conference with the Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, in Helsinki after 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.
The European Commission is helping the UN and Turkey try to extend a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine grain and is open to “explore all solutions”, an EU spokesperson said on Thursday, ahead of the deal’s possible expiration on Monday.
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 has plotted to blow up Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. Alexei Likhachev said that only “a complete idiot” would do such a reckless thing.
Ukraine’s armed forces have received cluster munitions promised by the US to help boost Kyiv’s slow-moving counteroffensive, senior military officials from the two countries say. “We just got them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can radically change [the battlefield],” Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Tarnavskyi told CNN on Thursday.
The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, has said he is certain Ukraine will become part of Nato after Russia’s war against the country ends. Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Austin said on Thursday: “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 after Wallace said Ukraine should show more gratitude for the help it has received from the west. “Everyone can say something when they are emotional and then regret it … I know for sure this isn’t his actual position.”
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 Gen Sergei Surovikin as “resting” and “not available”. The general, who previously led the invasion force in Ukraine, hasn’t been seen in public since the Wagner mutiny.
