In the UK, Labour’s opposition defence spokesperson has described the government’s plan for British armed forces as “embarrassing”. He demanded, in the light of Nato’s new strategic concept, that the government halt planned cuts to the number of British soldiers over the next few years. On Sky News, John Healey told viewers:
The frustration for me is that at a time when you’ve just reported Nato is planning an extra 300,000 combat ready troops, we in Britain are set to cut, over the next three years, another 10,000 soldiers from the British army. Now this is embarrassing. It is not responding to the growing threats we face. And it is putting into question Britain’s ability to fulfil our Nato obligations, where I want Britain to continue to be the leading European nation within Nato.
I want to see the government do what 14 other countries have already done since the invasion started, which is reboot our defence planning, review defence spending, and reform the massive waste that goes on in military procurement. At the moment, the government is refusing to do that and we are lagging behind.
Healey also welcomed the capabilities that prospective new members Sweden and Finland would bring to the alliance, saying:
Finland and Sweden certainly strengthen Nato as a defensive alliance. When you put their fighter jets, for instance, together with the Norwegians, that is 250 of the best fighter jets in the world. This will strengthen the whole alliance. It will be part of the response to the Russian aggression that we have to live with for the next decade.
Former UK representative to Nato, Sir Adam Thomson, has been interviewed on Sky News in the UK, and he said that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine would inevitably drive up defence spending in the west. He said:
It is undeniable that we are in the 21st century version of a cold war – small ‘c’, small ‘w’. The dynamics are all very familiar to anyone who lived through the 20th century cold war, and I’m afraid those dynamics are going to drive rising defence spending.
Thomson also had a warning for his former Nato colleagues over cybersecurity, saying:
Cyber can be dramatically destabilising and disruptive of a society and on the economy. It is a feature of the Ukraine conflict, but although there has been very extensive Russian cyber attacks on Ukraine, the Ukrainians have proved more resilient and Russia doesn’t seem to have extended its cyber activities so far to western Nato countries.
But it is undeniably now a domain of modern warfare. Nato has integrated it as such, along with space, in its military thinking, and it is going to require substantial investment by allies. Nato likes to say that the alliance is only as strong as its weakest link. And not all allies are very strong links as far as cyber resilience is concerned.
One person has been killed and six people have been injured, including an 11-year-old, by Russian attacks in the Kharkiv region according to the latest status update of Oleh Synyehubov, governor of Kharkiv.
The 11-year-old girl has been hospitalised as a result. Synyehubov reports her condition as “average”. He posted to Telegram that:
The fighting continues in the region. In the Kharkiv direction, the occupiers are conducting defensive battles, trying to restrain our military. The enemy is firing from tanks, mortars, artillery and jet artillery on the positions of our military and on peaceful towns and villages.
None of the claims have been independently verified.
Truss: defence underspending by western alliance a factor in allowing Putin to invade Russia
The UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss has said that one of the reasons that Russia was able to invade Ukraine was because of underspending on defence in Europe.
Appearing on Sky News, she said:
I’ve been very clear that the entire free world, the western alliance, does need to focus more on deterrence. We need to focus more on defence. And what we know is prevention is better than cure.
The lesson that Putin learned from underspending on defence was that he could invade a sovereign nation, and we simply can’t let our guard down again, we can’t allow that to happen again.
Asked about the size of British armed forces, and warnings from within the army that it isn’t big enough, she said:
I would say that we need a full range of capabilities to deal with the threats that we face now. Whether those are cyber threats, whether those are land-based threats, naval threats, and we have the balance right. But of course we need to continue to evolve, because we’re seeing, you know, we never expected in our lifetimes to see this kind of war on in Europe.
Truss: Putin ‘has ordered the most appalling crimes’ in Ukraine
UK foreign secretary Liz Truss has described Russian president Vladimir Putin as “an appalling dictator perpetrating a war that was neither legal nor justified” and said that “he has ordered the most appalling crimes to be committed in Ukraine.”
Speaking on Sky News in the UK, she told viewers:
We’ve seen the systematic rape of women. We’ve seen the attacking of civilians, including at the shopping centre this week. And what we need to make sure is not only are the Ukrainians successful in pushing Russia out of Ukraine, but also that people are held to account for these appalling crimes that have been committed.
I’ve not met Vladimir Putin. I do not know the motivations for carrying out this appalling war. All I know is that we have to make it our absolute priority to stop this war, to push Vladimir Putin and the Russian troops out of Ukraine, otherwise we will live in a much less safe Europe.
The frontline eastern city of Lysychansk is under relentless shelling as Russia presses on with its offensive in eastern Ukraine, according to officials.
Regional Governor Serhiy Haidai told Ukrainian television:
Fighting is going on all the time. The Russians are constantly on the offensive. There is no let-up.
Absolutely everything is being shelled.”
Ukrainian authorities said they were trying to evacuate residents from the city, the focus of Russia’s attacks where about 15,000 people remained under relentless shelling.
Russian forces are trying to encircle the city as they try to capture the industrialised eastern Donbas region.
Vladimir Putin earlier issued fresh warnings that Russia would respond in kind if Nato set up military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined the US-led alliance.
He said it was inevitable that Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm would sour over Nato membership.
Footage of Putin’s remarks can be viewed in the video below.
Mariupol theatre attack is a war crime, Amnesty says
A theatre sheltering civilians destroyed in March in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol was likely hit by a Russian airstrike in a war crime, Amnesty International says.
Oksana Pokalchuk, head of Amnesty’s Ukraine branch, told AFP:
Until now, we were speaking about an alleged war crime. Now we can clearly say it was one, committed by the Russian armed forces.”
“These explosions were caused by something really big: two 500km (1,100-pound) bombs” dropped from a plane, she added, dismissing Russian claims that the theatre was hit in a false-flag attack by the city’s Ukrainian defenders.
The Amnesty team interviewed 52 survivors and first-hand witnesses, about half of whom were either in the theater or nearby. Using satellite imagery from that morning, they determined that the sky was consistently clear enough for any pilot to see the word “CHILDREN” written in giant Cyrillic letters in the building’s front and back.
The 16 March airstrike devastated the building, collapsing its rear and side walls directly onto a field kitchen used as a community gathering space for food, water and scarce news about evacuations and the war.
Trade through Lithuania to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad could return to normal within days as officials edge towards a compromise deal, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Kaliningrad, which is bordered by EU states and relies on railways and roads through Lithuania for most goods, has been cut off from some freight transport from mainland Russia since 17 June under sanctions imposed by Brussels.
European officials are in talks about exempting the territory from sanctions, paving the way for a deal in early July if EU member Lithuania drops its reservations, said the people, who declined to be named because the discussions are private.
It is proving hard for Europe both to stand by strict sanctions and avoid further escalation with Russia so European officials, with the backing of Germany, are seeking a compromise to resolve one of their many conflicts with Moscow, said one of the people.
If the traditional route for Russian goods to Kaliningrad, first via its ally Belarus and then Lithuania, is not restored, the Baltic state fears Moscow could use military force to plough a land corridor through its territory, the person said.
Germany, meanwhile, has soldiers stationed in Lithuania and could be sucked into a confrontation alongside its Nato allies if that were to happen.
Europe’s biggest economy is also heavily reliant on Russian gas imports and would be vulnerable to any reduction in flows if the Kaliningrad dispute escalated.
“We have to face reality,” said one person with direct knowledge of the EU discussions, describing Kaliningrad as “sacred” for Moscow.
“[Putin] has much more leverage than we have. It’s in our interests to find a compromise,” he said, conceding that the eventual outcome may appear unfair.
One of the people with direct knowledge of the matter said they expected a compromise deal would be found by 10 July and a second person said it could be announced next week.
Inaction on Russian ‘dirty money’ shameful, UK MPs say
British government complacency is allowing Russian “dirty money” to flow into the UK despite the war in Ukraine, MPs have warned.
The Commons Foreign Affairs Committee said the failure of ministers to take effective action meant assets “laundered” through the City of London were being used to finance Putin’s war, according to PA Media.
In a highly critical report, it said the government was slow to impose sanctions, adding it was “shameful” it had taken the war to galvanise the government into action.
It said the measures still “do not go far or fast enough” and did little to address the “fundamental mismatch” between the resources available to the law enforcement agencies and the individuals they are targeting.
PA cites sections of the report as saying:
The Government’s unwillingness to bring forward legislation to stem the flow of dirty money is likely to have contributed to the belief in Russia that the UK is a safe haven for corrupt wealth. It is shameful that it has taken a war to galvanise the Government into action.
Although ministers have spoken eloquently in the House about the need to clamp down on kleptocrats, rhetoric has not been matched by constructive action. Meanwhile, corrupt money has continued to flow into the UK.
Without the necessary means and resources, enforcement agencies are toothless. The threat (that) illicit finance poses to our national security demands a response that is seen to be serious.”
The committee chairman, Tom Tugendhat, said:
For far too long successive governments have allowed malign actors and kleptocrats to wash their dirty money in the London ‘laundromat’.
Complacency has left the door open to corrupt wealth taking root and morally bankrupt billionaires using the UK as a safe deposit box.”
Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, has spoken of his visit to Kyiv to meet with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, describing the visit as a “manifestation of the Indonesian people’s concern for the situation in Ukraine.”
Sharing a photo of the two leaders to Twitter on Thursday, Widodo said:
The visit to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is a manifestation of the Indonesian people’s concern for the situation in Ukraine.
The spirit of peace never fades. I offered to carry a message from President Zelenskiy for President Putin who I would also visit.
Zelenskiy also thanked his Indonesia counterpart during his latest national address:
For the first time in all the years of independence, the President of Indonesia, a very influential state that may suffer significantly from the food crisis provoked by Russia, paid a visit to Kyiv today. Therefore, these were important negotiations that opened for Ukraine another strategic direction of relations with Asia.”
Indonesian president Joko Widodo says the spirit of peace does not fade, and he is willing to carry a message from Zelenskiy to Russian President Putin, who he is meeting in Moscow today. https://t.co/nu7NHvd4WU
— Kate Lamb (@_KateLamb) June 30, 2022
Putin issues warning to Finland and Sweden after joining Nato
Andrew Roth
Vladimir Putin has issued fresh warnings that Russia would respond in kind if Nato set up military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined the US-led alliance.
Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying he could not rule out that tensions would emerge in Moscow’s relations with Helsinki and Stockholm over their joining Nato.
The Russian president told a news conference in the Turkmenistan capital of Ashgabat:
We don’t have problems with Sweden and Finland like we do with Ukraine. We don’t have territorial differences.
If Finland and Sweden wish to, they can join. That’s up to them. They can join whatever they want.”
However, he warned “if military contingents and military infrastructure were deployed there, we would be obliged to respond symmetrically and raise the same threats for those territories where threats have arisen for us”.
Russia has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining Nato, saying the “serious military and political consequences” of such a move would oblige it to “restore military balance” by strengthening its defences in the Baltic Sea region, including by deploying nuclear weapons.
Summary and welcome
Hello it’s Samantha Lock back with you as we continue to report all the latest news from Ukraine.
Here are all the major developments as of 8am in Kyiv.
- Nato leaders have announced a new “strategic concept” in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, describing Moscow as “the most significant and direct threat to allies’ security and stability”. Nato has invited Sweden and Finland to become members of the military alliance, according to a communique published by the Nato summit in Madrid. Leaders also pledged further help to Kyiv and agreed on a package of support aimed at modernising the country’s defence sector.
- Russian president Vladimir Putin issued fresh warnings that Russia would respond in kind if Nato set up military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden after they joined the US-led alliance. If Sweden and Finland wanted to join Nato then they should “go ahead” Putin said. “But they must understand there was no threat before, while now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in kind and create the same threats for the territories from which threats towards us are created.”
- Putin also pushed back against allegations that Russian forces were responsible for a strike on a crowded shopping centre in the Ukrainian town of Kremenchuk on Monday in which 18 people were killed. “Our army does not attack any civilian infrastructure site. We have every capability of knowing what is situated where,” Putin said. Moscow said its military fired a “high-precision air attack at hangars where armament and munitions were stored” and the explosion of those weapon caches caused a fire in the nearby shopping centre – a claim discredited by first-hand accounts from survivors and expert analysis.
- Ukraine announced the largest exchange of prisoners of war since Russia invaded, securing the release of 144 of its soldiers, including 95 who defended the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol. Ukrainian military intelligence said that most of the Ukrainians released had serious injuries, including burns and amputations, and are now receiving medical care.
- The frequency of shelling on the eastern Ukrainian city of Lysychansk is “enormous”, the regional governor of Luhansk said on Wednesday. Lysychansk “is constantly being shelled with large calibres. The fighting is continuing at the outskirts of the city. The Russian army is trying to attack constantly,” Serhiy Haidai said.
- At least four people were killed and five wounded by a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Ukraine’s southern city of Mykolaiv, local officials said. Photographs from the scene showed smoke billowing from a four-storey building with its upper floor partly destroyed by the attack on Wednesday morning. Moscow admitted to the strike on the city but said its forces had hit what it called a training base for “foreign mercenaries” in the region.
- US president Joe Biden announced that the US will increase its military forces across Europe with more land, sea and air deployments. During the Nato summit in Madrid, Biden announced the stationing of a brigade of 3,000 combat troops in Romania, two squadrons of F-35 fighters in the UK and two navy destroyers in Spain. Nato members are expected to announce further commitments to a strengthening of forces on the alliance’s eastern flank.
- Britain will also commit an extra 1,000 troops and one of its two new aircraft carriers to the defence of Nato’s eastern flank. The forces will be earmarked for the defence of Estonia, where Britain already has about 1,700 personnel deployed, but they will be based in the UK, ready to fly out to defend the Baltic country if deemed necessary.
- Separately, Downing Street said it has pledged another £1bn ($1.2bn) in military aid, almost doubling the UK commitment to military support. Defence secretary, Ben Wallace, said some money would likely be spent on supplying longer-range rocket artillery. This will be a “first step” to allow Ukraine to move towards “mounting offensive operations” to regain territory,” Downing Street said.
- Zelenskiy announced the end of diplomatic ties between Ukraine and Syria after the Russia-ally recognised the independence of eastern Ukraine’s two separatist republics, Donetsk and Luhansk. “There will no longer be relations between Ukraine and Syria,” Zelenskiy said, adding that the sanctions pressure against Syria “will be even greater.”
- Ukraine and the European Union have signed an agreement that liberalises road transport. According to the agreement, Ukrainian carriers no longer need to obtain permits to enter the European Union.
- Turkey says it will seek the extradition of 33 alleged Kurdish militants and coup plot suspects from Sweden and Finland under a deal to secure Ankara’s support for the Nordic countries’ Nato membership bids. Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dropped weeks of resistance to Sweden and Finland joining Nato after crunch talks ahead this week’s Nato summit.
