Zelenskiy thanks Sunak for supplying long-range missiles
In a tweet, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the British prime minister Rishi Sunak for the provision of long-range cruise missiles.
He said:
Had a phone call with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. Thanked for the significant enhancement of our capabilities with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and other irreplaceable military assistance.
We discussed further defence cooperation and coordinated our positions on the eve of upcoming international events. In particular, we need clear signals about Ukraine’s future with Nato.
Had a phone call with UK Prime Minister @RishiSunak. Thanked for the significant enhancement of our capabilities with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and other irreplaceable military assistance. We discussed further defense cooperation and coordinated our positions on the eve of…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 12, 2023
Yesterday, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace confirmed that the UK would send long-range cruise missiles.
Zelenskiy is expected to attend the next Nato summit in Vilnius in July, but has repeatedly requested for a firmer time table and more concrete steps for Ukraine to join the alliance.
Key events
Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive has good chance of success but may bring high casualties, says Czech president
Ukraine’s planned counteroffensive to win back territory occupied by Russia has a good chance of success but may bring high casualties if Russia uses its prepared defences well, Czech president and former Nato general Petr Pavel said on Friday.
Pavel, 61, said in an interview that Ukraine needs support for Nato and European Union entry but joining either will be a lengthy process, though talks on the EU accession could start this year, Reuters reported.
Pavel, who was Czech army chief and also the principal military adviser to the Nato secretary-general in 2015-2018, said Ukraine would eventually get western fighter jets it has been calling for but it was impossible to deliver them in time for the upcoming offensive, and there were higher priorities such as ammunition.
“There is certainly high hope that the Ukrainian counteroffensive will be successful, because Ukraine is motivated, well prepared, its troops are experienced and certainly do not succumb to such deficiencies as the Russian army,” Pavel said at Prague Castle, the seat of the Czech presidency.
The Russian army had severe problems in logistics and morale, but a collapse of defences should not be expected, he said.
“Russia has had time to prepare a relatively high-quality and in-depth defence in several lines, which, if used effectively, will cost … Ukraine large casualties,” he said.
It was impossible to say what size of territory Ukraine could win back as various scenarios were open, he said. “Things do not always go according to wishes and plans but I think that the chance for a significant Ukrainian success is really high.”
White House national security council spokesperson John Kirby said on Friday that the Biden administration has consistently urged countries not to provide weapons for Russia’s war with Ukraine when asked about US allegations that South Africa sent an arms shipment to Russia.
Kirby declined to talk specifically on the South Africa issue, but said “it’s a serious issue.”
Jennifer Rankin
A Russian defeat in Ukraine will not derail China’s rise, while relations between Beijing and the EU will be “critically affected” if Xi Jinping does not push Vladimir Putin to withdraw his forces, European ministers have been told.
The message comes in a paper drawn up by the EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who is meeting the EU’s 27 foreign ministers on Friday in Stockholm to discuss how the bloc should “recalibrate” its policy towards Beijing.
Along with the war in Ukraine, relations with China have become Europe’s most pressing foreign policy issue, but EU politicians take different approaches on how to respond to an increasingly repressive and nationalistic Beijing – revealed in the furore over Emmanuel Macron’s comments about not being drawn into a US-China clash over Taiwan.
In a letter to ministers to accompany the paper, Borrell highlights at least three reasons to adjust the EU’s approach: China’s internal changes “with nationalism and ideology on the rise”; the “hardening of US-China competition” in all areas and China’s status as a key regional and global player.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Moscow had never refused the “diplomatic track” to resolving the conflict in Ukraine in a phone call with his South African counterpart, the Kremlin said.
Putin said he supported South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proposal to involve African leaders in talks regarding a peace process for Ukraine, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the call.
He also repeated an offer to deliver Russian grain and fertilisers free of charge to African countries, Reuters reported.
It came as South Africa’s foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador over allegations he made that the country had provided arms and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine.
Amid the diplomatic fallout, South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, would also speak with the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement posted on Twitter.
The US ambassador, Reuben Brigety, said at a press conference on Thursday that South Africa had loaded weapons and ammunition on to a sanctioned Russian vessel at the Simon’s Town Naval Base near the city of Cape Town in December last year. The arms were then transported to Russia, Brigety said.
Two dead as Russian military helicopter crashes over Crimea
Two Russian pilots were killed on Friday when a Russian Mi-28 military helicopter crashed in the annexed peninsula of Crimea, Russian news agencies reported, citing the defence ministry.
The defence ministry said it believed the reason for the crash was equipment failure, the TASS news agency reported.
The crash occurred at 3.42pm local time during a training flight, and the helicopter was flying without weapons, news agencies cited the defence ministry as saying in a statement.
An investigation was opened to confirm the cause of the crash, which occurred in the Dzhankoi region of northern Crimea.
Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, whose troops have done the bulk of the fighting in and around Bakhmut, said via his press service that what the defence ministry had described was in fact a “rout” which had seen troops flee.
He said Ukraine had been able to completely regain control of a crucial supply road that links Bakhmut with the town of Chasiv Yar and had seized useful higher ground, Reuters reported.
The risk, he said, was that if more ground was lost Ukrainian forces could gradually encircle Bakhmut.
Prigozhin, who has been openly feuding with Russia’s defence ministry for months, has repeatedly accused the top brass of sabotaging Wagner’s push for Bakhmut and this week accused them of doing too little to protect Bakhmut’s flanks.
The ministry appeared to push back against that assertion on Friday, saying that Ukrainian attempts to counterattack Bakhmut’s flanks were being repelled.
Prigozhin complained his men were still not getting enough shells and equipment, but said they were still advancing in Bakhmut and only needed to capture around a further 20 buildings to take full control of the city.
Bakhmut, much of which now lies in ruins, has been the focus of fierce fighting for months.
Zelenskiy thanks Sunak for supplying long-range missiles
In a tweet, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has thanked the British prime minister Rishi Sunak for the provision of long-range cruise missiles.
He said:
Had a phone call with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak. Thanked for the significant enhancement of our capabilities with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and other irreplaceable military assistance.
We discussed further defence cooperation and coordinated our positions on the eve of upcoming international events. In particular, we need clear signals about Ukraine’s future with Nato.
Had a phone call with UK Prime Minister @RishiSunak. Thanked for the significant enhancement of our capabilities with long-range Storm Shadow missiles and other irreplaceable military assistance. We discussed further defense cooperation and coordinated our positions on the eve of…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) May 12, 2023
Yesterday, the UK defence secretary Ben Wallace confirmed that the UK would send long-range cruise missiles.
Zelenskiy is expected to attend the next Nato summit in Vilnius in July, but has repeatedly requested for a firmer time table and more concrete steps for Ukraine to join the alliance.
Belgium will use €92m (£81m/$101m) it has received in taxes on frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, its government said on Friday, Reuters reports.
Half of the amount will be used to deliver military goods such as armoured vehicles, weapons and munition. The rest is earmarked for humanitarian support, the future reconstruction of Ukraine and strengthening Belgium’s diplomatic presence in the country, the government said.
Rishi Sunak is disappointed that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s request to address the Eurovision song contest was refused, the UK prime minister’s spokesperson said on Friday.
Ukraine’s president had requested to make a video appearance during the final on Saturday in Liverpool. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said on Thursday that while Zelenskiy’s request was made with “laudable intentions”, granting it would be against the non-political nature of the event and its rules prohibiting making political statements.
“The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelenskiy to address the event and we are disappointed by the decision,” Sunak’s spokesperson said.
“The value and freedoms that President Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political, they are fundamental. Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.”
Police in the Russian city of St Petersburg have created an anti-drone unit to detect unmanned drones after a suspected attack on the Kremlin earlier this month, Reuters reports.
The unit launched on 9 May during the annual the second world war victory day celebrations on St Petersburg’s Palace Square, the city’s interior ministry said.
In a video message, Roman Uvarov, the department’s head, said it will “ensure the protection of public order” during large public events.
The unit will include officers armed with snipers and carbines, groups trained to neutralise unmanned drones, and mobile patrols to detain those suspected of operating drones.
Two Russian strategic bombers have conducted routine flights over the Chukchi Sea between Siberia and Alaska, the Tass news agency said on Friday.
“In the course of the flight, the crews of the long-range aircraft carried out aerial refuelling,” Tass quoted the defence ministry as saying.
Luke Harding
At a secret location in southern Ukraine, Roman Kostenko watched a drone rise into the sky. It ascended to a height of 100 metres, buzzing above a yellow rapeseed field. The drone dropped a dummy anti-tank grenade on to a pile of tyres. The test worked. That night Kostenko’s team repeated the exercise over occupied territory. Two bombs fell on a Russian armoured fighting vehicle. It blew up, smoke pluming into darkness.
Kostenko, a decorated special forces colonel, said his unit had destroyed dozens of Russian military objects. They included tanks and howitzer guns. These operations took place every night on “a tactical level”, he said, close to the frontline. This stretches for 900 miles, from the eastern city of Bakhmut where Ukrainian troops launched a local counterattack this week, to the southern provinces of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
There has been intense speculation that Kyiv is about to launch a major counteroffensive. On Thursday night, Russian military bloggers erroneously reported that it had already started. Speaking earlier the same day, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said his forces needed “some more time”. According to Kostenko, Ukraine’s long-anticipated push should be understood as a rolling “spring-summer campaign” against an entrenched and powerful adversary.
Kostenko said the campaign was already unfolding in stages. The first saw the step-by-step elimination of Russia’s military potential, with strikes against logistical targets such as weapons depots and fuel dumps. This has begun, he said. A second stage involved seeking out and eliminating Russian command and control centres, causing a breakdown of communications with troops in the field. “That’s already happening too, probably,” he said.
Ukraine’s armed forces were unlikely to embark on a major frontal offensive until they had weakened Moscow’s battlefield capability, he indicated. “Our army won’t go forward until this preparation work is done. We can’t win if they have large amounts of ammunition and resources,” he said. He acknowledged that Ukraine was playing a disinformation game about when and where it might strike, with signs that it was working, and that Moscow was beginning to panic.
Germany aims to buy 18 Leopard 2 tanks for €525m (£457m) to replace tanks delivered to Ukraine, a defence source told Reuters on Friday.
The total price including an option for another 105 tanks will be €2.9bn (£2.5bn) and the German parliament’s budget committee is expected to sign off on the deal at the end of May, the source said.
Germany has supplied 18 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine since the Russian invasion last year and has said it intends to plug the gap with new tanks as soon as possible.
The Leopard is jointly manufactured by KMW and Rheinmetall.
The British prime minister, Rishi Sunak, is “disappointed” in the decision of the European Broadcasting Union, Downing Street has said, after it was reported that the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was blocked from addressing Eurovision.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson said:
The prime minister believes it would be fitting for President Zelenskiy to address the event and we’re disappointed by the decision from the European Broadcasting Union.
The values and freedoms that President Zelenskiy and the people of Ukraine are fighting for are not political, they’re fundamental, and Eurovision themselves recognised that last year when they rightly suspended Russia’s participation from the competition.
There are no plans to intervene and ask broadcasters to change their mind, Downing Street suggested.
The Kremlin said on Friday that a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and the Chinese special envoy Li Hui, who is to tour European countries next week to discuss Ukraine, had not yet been set up.
“There is no such meeting in the schedule yet. This will all be worked out through diplomatic channels,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian forces carried out “offensive operations” on Thursday along the entire line of contact near Soledar, the ministry’s official Zvezda news outlet reported.
More than a thousand troops and up to 40 tanks were used in the assault, it said, adding that the attacks were “repulsed”.
The Kremlin said on Friday that there was nothing new to report after talks on possible renewal of the Black Sea grain deal in Istanbul, and that a potential conversation between the leaders of Turkey and Russia would not help clinch an agreement, Reuters reports.
In one of his regular calls with reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that only full implementation of the deal would facilitate its renewal.
Russia has repeatedly insisted that western sanctions are impeding its export of agricultural products, and that it is unwilling to extend the deal to allow Ukraine to export grain unless this changes. It cites the disconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank from the Swift payment system and difficulties in being able to insure export vessels as being among factors that need to be addressed.
Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said earlier on Friday that parties to the Black Sea grain pact were nearing a deal to extend it.
Summary of the day so far …
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Russia’s defence ministry has denied reports that Ukrainian forces had broken through in various places along the frontlines and said the military situation was under control. Moscow was reacting after Russian military bloggers, writing on the Telegram messaging app, reported apparent Ukrainian advances north and south of the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, with some suggesting a long-awaited counteroffensive by pro-Kyiv forces had started. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, had earlier said the offensive had yet to start.
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Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, has said that parties to the Black Sea grain initiative are approaching an extension. Akar’s comment was released by his ministry in a statement on Friday, after talks in Istanbul.
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Ukrainian military analyst Oleksandr Musiyenko says Kyiv’s backers understand that a counteroffensive “may not result in the complete eviction of Russian troops and the definitive defeat of Russia in all occupied areas”. “We have to be ready for the war to continue into next year – or it could end this year,” Musiyenko told Ukrainian NV Radio. “It all depends on how the battles develop. We can’t guarantee how the counter-offensive will develop.”
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The Russian-imposed mayor of occupied Donetsk has reported on Telegram that one person was killed by Ukrainian shelling of the city overnight.
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The commander of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet has said its defences are being tightened amid a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting its home base, the Crimean port of Sevastopol. V-Adm Viktor Sokolov told Friday’s edition of the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda: “In connection with the threat of attacks by robotic surface and underwater systems, we have increased the technical defences of the fleet’s main base and of the ships’ anchorages”. Sokolov said the Black Sea Fleet, whose flagship, the cruiser Moskva, was sunk by Ukraine in April 2022, would receive four new ships in 2023.
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China’s foreign ministry has announced that its special representative of Eurasian affairs will visit Ukraine, Poland, France, Germany and Russia from Monday in what it calls “an effort to promote peace talks”,
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US President Joe Biden and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez will discuss Ukraine, defence cooperation, and migration on Friday during a meeting at the White House. While Madrid agrees with Washington on the illegality of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Sánchez will convey the divergent views of China and Brazil and propose giving greater weight to the views of non-Nato nations hurt by the war, a Spanish diplomatic source told Reuters.
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US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen met German finance minister Christian Lindner on Friday, to underscore the importance of working together to counter evasion of sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine, the US Treasury has said.
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The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Friday they are considering speeding up a plan to disconnect the Baltic region’s electricity supply from Russia’s power grid.
South Africa did not approve any arms shipment to Russia, the minister who chairs the country’s national conventional arms control committee, Mondli Gungubele, told local radio station 702 on Friday, Reuters reports.
The United States envoy to South Africa said on Thursday he was confident that a Russian ship had picked up weapons in South Africa last year, in a possible breach of Pretoria’s declared neutrality in the Ukraine conflict.
The ambassador’s assertion saw the rand and South African government bonds sell-off, as currency traders said they were worried that South Africa could now face western sanctions.
The South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said on Thursday that his government would open an inquiry led by a retired judge into the allegation that arms had been shipped to Russia.