Ukraine-Russia war latest: NATO comments open door to allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with Western weapons (2024)

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for Joe Biden to attend a peace summit organised by Kyiv in Switzerland next month.

The Ukrainian president said if the US president missed the event it would be like a standing ovation for Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine hopes to host as many countries as possible in an effort to unite opinion on how to halt the war and heap pressure on Russia, which has seized almost a fifth of Ukraine's territory.

"I know that the US supports the summit but we don't knowat what level," Mr Zelenskyy said in Brussels at a joint press conference with Belgian Prime MinisterAlexander De Croo.

"[The] peace summit needs President Biden and so do theother leaders who look at the reaction of the United States.

"Hisabsence would be an applause to Putin, a personal standingapplause to Putin."

On Sunday Mr Zelenskyy urged both Mr Biden and his Chinese counterpart and Mr Putin's close ally, Xi Jinping, to attend the summit.

Russia has said it sees no point in the conference.

These pictures show Russian volunteers posing before handing over equipment to an informal military unit consisting of Russians fighting in the armed forces of Ukraine in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The funds are from voluntary donations from Russian citizens and ethnic Russians living in Bulgaria.

More than 1,400 Russian troops have been injured since last Friday, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Defence.

Moscow also lost 21 tanks and 40 armoured combat vehicles, it said.

Although Western estimates of Russian losses differ from Ukraine's, it is nonetheless a sign of the staggering human cost of the war for Moscow.

Russia does not routinely publish numbers of casualties or losses of equipment. Ukraine provides some figures - but infrequently.

In February, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that 31,000 of his troops had been killed in two years of war.

Poland should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine, foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said in comments published today.

It comes as Kyiv struggles to repel Russian advances in eastern Ukraine.

MrSikorski did not specify what role Polish troops would play in the conflict.

Ukraine's NATO allies have vowed to supply the beleaguered nation with weapons and money for as long as it takes to fend off Russia's invasion, but they have generally ruled out the possibility of sending soldiers.

Asked in an interview whether Poland was ready to sendtroops to Ukraine, Mr Sikorski said: "We shouldn't rule it out. Weshould leave Putin guessing as to our intentions".

The interview was published in Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza,Italy's La Repubblica and Spain's El Pais.

Previously, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested Western troops could help with the training of Ukrainians in Ukraine.

It comes after Ukraine's top military commander said he had signed paperwork allowing French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon.

As Russia opens a new front on Ukraine's northeastern border, the war has entered an important phase.

Readers have been sending in their questions to our senior correspondents and military experts for their take on the changing battlefield environment.

Today, Tali-IhanTala asks:

When will F-16s arrive? I truly believe they will mark a turning point in the War.

Military analyst Sean Bellhad this to say:

Although there is growing expectation that the initial tranche ofF-16fighter jets being donated to Ukraine could arrive as soon as early July, it is not clear whether the other ingredients of this powerful air power capability will be in place by that time.

Providing a credible and effective Ukrainian combat air capability requires suitably trained and experienced pilots, ground crew, weapons, defensive aids and radar. All these components need to be in place before the Ukrainian Air Force will be ready to go into battle with the Russian military.

Once theF-16s are place, the challenge facing Ukraine will be when and where to use these valuable resources - and how to avoid them being destroyed before they can contribute to the Ukrainian defensive effort.

They will provide Ukraine with an invaluable - albeit scarce - resource. The F-16s could be used to support the frontline, but they will be very vulnerable in that dynamic and hostile air environment.

They could also be used to conduct strikes against key military targets inside Russian territory, which would certainly force a change in Moscow's tactics. Or, if Ukraine wanted to threaten Crimea, theF-16s could be used in a coordinated attack in support of a wider campaign.

Regardless, with Russia on the front foot in the Donbas, Ukraine needs all the help it can to reverse Russian momentum on the battlefield.

Ukraine's use of weapons supplied by its Western allies to hit targets inside Russia would not make NATO and its members part of the conflict, NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg has said.

His comments come after NATO's Parliamentary Assembly called for member states to support Ukraine's "international right" to defend itself by lifting "some restrictions" on Kyiv's use of Western weapons to strike within Russian territory.

The declaration adopted also called for member states to accelerate their deliveries of critical weapons to Ukraine.

Several NATO states, including the UK, have already lifted such restrictions, but not enough Western states have done so to challenge Moscow's ability to freely conduct airstrikes or stage ground operations against Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has secured a pledge of additional air defence missiles from Spain to combat around 3,000 bombs he says Russia launches every month at Ukraine.

Yesterday the Ukrainian president said Kyiv still needed another seven US-made Patriot air defence systems to stop Russia hitting the power grid and civilian areas, as well as military targets, with devastating glide bombs.

"If we had these modern Patriot systems, [Russian] airplanes wouldn’t be able to fly close enough to drop the (glide) bombs on the civilian population and the military," Mr Zelenskyy told a news conference in the Spanish capital.

Since the meeting, the Netherlands has pledged to deliver parts of a Patriot air defence system to Ukraine and is talking to other countries in order to assemble a complete system (see 8.39am post).

MrZelenskyy and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez signed a bilateral security agreement allocating €1bn (£851m) of military aid to Ukraine this year, and €5bn (£4.3bn) by 2027. The package also features more Leopard tanks and artillery ammunition.

Ukraine's top commander says he has signed paperwork allowing French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon.

"I am pleased to welcome France's initiative to sendinstructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen," OleksandrSyrskyi said on Telegram yesterday after talks via videolink with French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu.

"I have already signed the documents that will enable thefirst French instructors to visit our training centres shortlyand familiarise themselves with their infrastructure andpersonnel."

He said he believed France's determination would encourage other partners to join the "ambitious project".

Ukraine's defence ministry posted a "clarification" lateron X to say Kyiv had been expressing interest in a projectreceiving foreign instructors since February."As of now, we are still in discussions with France andother countries on this issue," it said.

French President Emmanuel Macron had suggested Western troops could help train Ukrainians in Ukraine at a conference in Paris in February.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Belgium's Prime MinisterAlexander De Croo have signed a security pact in Brussels.

Mr De Croo said the pact includes the delivery of 30 F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv and at least€977m (£832m) in Belgian military aid to Ukraine this year.

Separately, the Netherlands had pledged to deliver parts of a Patriot air defence system to Ukraine, its defence minister has said.

It is also talking to other countries in order to assemble a complete system, Dutch defence minister Kajsa Ollongren said.

"With our offer, and if other potential partner countries are able to deliver parts and ammunition, we would be able to supply at least one complete system to Ukraine in the short term," she said.

The Russian-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine came under attack twice within three hours early this morning.

Fires appeared to have broken out at the locations of both strikes.

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed governor of the Luhansk region, said the first attack at around 9pm (6pm UK time) was made with cluster munitions.

Russia's Tass news agency said there had been injuries, quoting emergency services,while Ukrainian media and war bloggers posted a picture ofwhat they described as a large fire in the city.

A second strike hit the city at midnight, according to a Russian foreign ministry official, apparently in the same general area.

Rodion Miroshnik, a special ambassador for the ministry,said local residents had heard two explosions in the samedistrict as the site of the first attack.

"It cannot be ruled out that the repeat strike occurredat the site where rescue teams are dealing with the aftermath ofthe previous missile attack," Mr Miroshnik wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian news outlets said the target of the secondstrike was an airfield and posted a video of a fire spreadingover a wide area.

Ukraine's military has launched at least three attacks onLuhansk and nearby areas in recent weeks, targeting mainly fuelstorage depots.