Russia serves chicken ‘Kiev’ at UN dinner after striking children’s hospital in Ukraine’s capital

Thank you for following today’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. 

We’ll be back soon with more updates and analysis from the conflict.

Poland must prepare its soldiers for “full-scale conflict”, its armed forces chief of staff has warned.

General Wieslaw Kukula said the country must find a balance between army training and border security, as it boosts the number of troops on its border with Russia and Belarus from 6,000 to 8,000 by August.

“Today, we need to prepare our forces for full-scale conflict, not an asymmetric-type conflict,” said General Kukula.

In May, Poland announced details of “East Shield”, a major $2.5bn programme to bolster its physcial border with Belarus and Russia.

Ukrainian military on Wednesday denied reports that Russian forces had captured the village of Yasnobrodivka in the eastern Donetsk region, military spokesperson Nazar Voloshyn has said.

The announcement comes after the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Tuesday that its forces had captured Yasnobrodivka, a front-line village located around 45 km from the town of Pokrovsk.

Lieutenant Colonel Nazar Voloshyn, the spokesperson of the Khortytsia group of forces, dismissed these claims.

“The published information does not correspond to reality: Yasnobrodivka is under the full control of the (Ukrainian) defence forces,” Mr Voloshyn said.

Mr Voloshyn said that some 274 Russian soldiers were killed and injured in the area.

Ukraine also reportedly destroyed two cannons, a mortar, and eight vehicles.

The claims have not been independently verified.

We reported earlier that Norway announced it will donate six F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine (see post at 1:07 pm).

Now, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that Denmark and the Netherlands will follow suit.

The planes are en route to Ukraine from the two national right now, he said at the NATO summit in Washington, and will be flying in Ukrainian skies by this summer.

An incredibly robust package for Ukraine will be unveiled over the next couple of days, he added.

The plan is expected to lay out a clear and strong bridge for Ukraine’s NATO membership.

President Zelenskyy said he expected further decisions on more F-16 jet deliveries to be made today.

“We are increasing the number of aircraft available to Ukraine,” he said.

The Kremlin has said it will respond if Sir Keir Starmer allows Ukraine to strike Russia with UK-supplied weapons. 

Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman said that allowing Kyiv to strike Russia with British weapons would be “an absolutely irresponsible step towards escalating tensions and seriously escalating the situation.”

He added:“We will carefully record all of this and, of course, take appropriate measures.”

The Labour leader told reporters en route to the Nato summit in Washington that military aid supplied by Britain, including Storm Shadow missiles, are “for defensive purposes” but Kyiv can “decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes.”

Mr Starmer added that the long-range missiles should “obviously to be used in accordance with international humanitarian law as you would expect.”

Former foreign secretary Lord Cameron made similar comments about Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow missiles earlier this year. 

At the time, Russia called it a “very dangerous statement”.

Nato allies will announce at its summit today a minimum baseline of €40bn (£33.8bn) in funding for Ukraine within the next year, the White House confirmed on Wednesday.

The nations aim to “provide sustainable levels of security assistance for Ukraine to prevail,” Washington said in a statement.

A senior civilian NATO representative will be stationed in Kyiv as part of its bridge to membership, it added.

Russia sent a MiG-31 fighter jet to escort a Norwegian patrol plane away from Russian airspace over the Barents Sea, the Russian defence ministry has said.

There was no violation of the air border by the Norwegian patrol plane, according to the ministry.

Moscow has reported similar incidents before when its planes have confronted military aircraft from Nato countries.

Norway will donate six American F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, daily newspaper Verdens Gang reported, citing the Norwegian prime minister at the Nato summit in Washington.

Prime minister Jonas Gahr Stoere told reporters that the deliveries are planned to begin in 2024.

The American jets have been the object of Ukraine’s desires for months, with President Volodymyr Zelensky hailing them as potential “war-winners.”

The jets, which cost $43 million and can reach speeds of 1,500mph, are among the most advanced in the world.

At least one person has been killed and three injured in a Russian strike on the southern Ukrainian city of Nikopol, the state emergency service has reported.

“As a result of an enemy attack in the morning in Nikopol, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a man was killed and three more people were injured,” the service said on X. 

“Rescuers extinguished all fires.”

A Russian man has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of evading sanctions for the first time, according to Japanese news outlet Nikkei.

Andrei Sova, 38, was suspected of illegally exporting dual-use items worth 43 million yen (£208,000) to be used by the Russian military, Nikkei reported.

The items included jet skis, boat engines and second-hand motorcycle.

Mr Sova is expected to have illegally transported the items on a shipping container to South Korea in January 2023 “despite knowing that the items were subject to export restrictions”, local reports have said.

Mr Sova was reportedly arrested in the Osaka Prefecture, the site of Japan’s second largest airport, Kansai Airport.

Hungarian opposition politician Peter Magyar, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s main challenger, delivered aid on Wednesday to the Kyiv children’s hospital hit during Russian airstrikes earlier this week.

Magyar’s Tisza party raised more than $41,000 (£35,000) and collected medical supplies and food supplies donated by Hungarians.

“This was a sudden decision after we saw the brutal Russian missile attack,” Mr Magyar told reporters before leaving for Kyiv.

A UN rights mission said on Tuesday there was a “high likelihood” Kyiv’s main children’s hospital was hit directly from a Russian missile. 

The Kremlin claimed that the hospital was hit by Ukrainian anti-missile fire, but failed to provide evidence.

The European Commission has welcomed the extension of a unified roaming system between the European Union and Ukraine for another year.

“In times of war, a phone line is a lifeline, connecting people who sought refuge in Europe to those who stayed on the front”, European Commission President, Ursula Von der Leyen, said on X on Wednesday.

It is the fifth extension of a voluntary agreement between 22 European and seven Ukrainian telecommunications operators, ensuring that Ukrainian refugees can stay connected across borders for another twelve months, the Commission said in a statement.

The Ukrainian military has launched a new ‘legion’ to entice fighting-age men living abroad to enlist, as Kyiv desperately tries to bolster its manpower on the front lines.

The establishment of the initiative comes after more than two years of relentless fighting, where the military has incurred a large number of casualties that drained its ability to hold off Russia’s advancing forces.

The creation of the new unit was part of a wider security agreement signed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk earlier this week.

“We call on all Ukrainians in Europe to join the Ukrainian Legion. Your contribution is invaluable in our struggle for freedom and independence,” Defence Minister Rustem Umerov announced on social media.

It aims to recruit volunteers from the pool of Ukrainian men living in Europe, especially Poland and Germany, where the largest numbers of Ukrainians have sought refuge.

An estimated 300,000 Ukrainian men of fighting age are believed to be living in Poland alone.

The Kremlin said that Russia’s military is still working to create a defensive “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, but that it requires more time.

President Vladimir Putin said in May that Russian forces advancing in Ukraine’s northeast were carving out such a zone that would limit Ukrainian strikes on cities and towns in Russia.

It comes amid reports that Russian troops invading the Kharkiv region are short of food and water, Ukrainian soldiers have said, citing intercepted communications and interrogations of POWs.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he does not know if Donald Trump will support Ukraine if he is elected US president in November. 

Mr Zelensky, speaking in Washington ahead of this week’s Nato summit, said he hoped Trump would not leave the 75-year-old Nato alliance and that America would continue to aid its defence against the bloody Russian invasion that has been raging for more than two years.

“I don’t know (him) very well,” Mr Zelensky said of his relationship with Trump , the presumptive republican nominee for presidency. 

He added that he had “good meetings” with him during Trump’s first presidency, but added that it was before Russia’s invasion in 2022.

“I can’t tell you what he will do, if he will be the president of the United States. I don’t know.”

Trump has frequently criticised the extent of US military support for Ukraine - some $60 billion (£46.9 billion) since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 - and called Mr Zelensky “the greatest salesman ever.”

Sir Keir Starmer has said it’s up to Ukraine to decide how it uses UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles, in a suggestion that its forces would be allowed to attack targets inside Russia.

The UK prime minister said that aid supplied by Britain was “for defensive purposes” but Kyiv can “decide how to deploy it for those defensive purposes”, he told reporters en route to the Nato summit in Washington.

The Labour leader added that the long-range missiles should “obviously to be used in accordance with international humanitarian law as you would expect.”

Former foreign secretary Lord Cameron made similar comments about Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow missiles earlier this year. 

At the time, Russia called it a “very dangerous statement”.

The purpose of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), its first secretary-general once remarked, is to “keep the Russians out, the Americans in and the Germans down”.

But as Nato leaders gather in Washington to mark the 75th anniversary of the alliance this week, the aphorism feels more relevant than ever.

The Russians are banging on Europe’s door in a way they have not for years. The Germans, no longer in need of keeping down, are now under pressure from allies to raise themselves to the occasion.

But it is keeping the Americans in that will be the unspoken priority.

“[Donald] Trump will be talked about a lot, despite the fact he is not at the summit, and that demonstrates the power he has over the alliance despite not being a head of state,” Ed Senior, a research fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute, told The Telegraph.

Read the full story here

Sir Keir Starmer will meet the US president and other Nato leaders at a summit later today, where he will continue to press for European nations to increase defence spending. 

Mr Starmer has refused to guarantee that he will meet his flagship commitment on defence spending within his first term in office, despite a “cast iron” promise to get there.

Speaking to reporters, Sir Keir was repeatedly pressed on whether the goal of spending 2.5 per cent of GDP would be reached.

“We are committed to the 2.5 per cent, as I have said before the election and I say again after the election. That is obviously subject to our fiscal rules, but the commitment is there,” he said.

He said that the details of their commitment will be “set out” with the strategic review next week.

Russia has promised an early release of all Indian citizens fighting in its army, India’s foreign ministry has said.

The announcement follows a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s to Moscow, during which he raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin.

Delhi has been seeking the release of Indians, who say they were duped by agents, on the promise of non-combat jobs in the army, into fighting for Russian forces in the country’s war with Ukraine.

At least four Indians have been killed in the fighting.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had thwarted a plan for a “terrorist attack” on a Russian warship and detained a Ukrainian special services agent, state media reported on Wednesday.

According to the media, the targeted warship was Russia’s only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, which has suffered a series of repair delays in the port of Murmansk.

The FSB said that one of the warship’s servicemen was contacted by a Ukrainian citizen who tried to persuade him to commit an attack on the ship but was detained.

The Telegraph could not independently verify the report.

US president Joe Biden has welcomed Nato leaders to Washington DC with a forceful speech where he called the military alliance “more powerful than ever” as it faced a “pivotal moment” with the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Warning that “autocrats” had overturned global order”, Mr Biden announced more military aid for Kyiv.

The US president and the leaders of Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Romania are donating Patriot missile batteries and other systems to strengthen Ukraine’s ravaged air defences.

In total, Nato plans to donate five strategic air defence systems and dozens of smaller, strategic anti-air batteries over the coming year, the White House said.

The announcement comes two days after a Russian missile levelled a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. 

Russia lacks the amount of munition and troops to mount a major offensive in Ukraine, a senior Nato official has said.

The official said Moscow would been to secure a significant supply of munitions from other countries beyond the stocks it already has in order to do so.

However, he warned Russia would be able to keep its economy on a war footing for several more years.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told reporters that recent arson attacks, assassination plots and sabotage in Europe are part of a covert drive by Russian President Vladimir Putin to undermine public support for Ukraine.

“What they are having to do is order undermanned, inexperienced units to move into areas to achieve unrealistic objectives,” the official said.

“To sustain real offensive operations, we think that Russia would have to secure significant ammunition supplies from countries beyond what it is already getting from Iran and from North Korea.”

Iranian efforts to covertly whip up American outrage over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza ahead of the November presidential election are “unacceptable,” the nation’s top intelligence official said on Tuesday.

Groups linked to Tehran have used popular social media platforms in the US to pose as activists, encourage American protests and provide financial support to some opposition groups, Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, said in a statement.

“Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” Ms Haines said.

She warned Iran that “meddling in our politics and seeking to stoke division is unacceptable.”

It comes amid refined efforts by America’s opponents - particularly Iran, Russia and China - to exploit the internet to widen political divides in and disfigure domestic debates in the US in recent years.

Russia remains the greatest threat, according to the officials, who said the Kremlin is mounting a government-wide effort to spread election disinformation ahead of the 2024 race. 

Russia-launched drones attacked an energy facility in Ukraine’s Rivne region, national grid operator Ukrenergo said on Wednesday.

Fire has been localized at the site and no casualties were reported, according to Rivne regional governor Oleksandr Koval.

The attack caused temporary power cuts for consumers in the region, Ukrenergo said.

Russia launched five missiles and 20 drones to attack Ukraine overnight with Odesa port infrastructure as one of the targets, the Ukrainian air force said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian air force shot down 14 out of 20 drones launched in the attack, it said, but the Russian missile attack killed two people and damaged port infrastructure on Wednesday, according to the region’s governor.

The attack damaged warehouses, trucks and a civilian ship, the governor said. 

One person was also injured, he added.

We’re bringing you the latest updates from the Ukraine war.