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

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.

Russia says it has captured two villages in eastern Ukraine.

Moscow's defence ministry said it had taken the settlements of Ivanivka in the Kharkiv region andNetailove in Donetsk.

The Ukrainian military's general staff said on Sunday that its forces had repelled an attack nearIvanivka, eastof the town of Kupiansk.

In a report on Monday evening it said Ukrainian forces had seen off seven Russian advances in the Kupiansk sector.

Russian forces had recorded "partial success" in one ofthe areas of the Kupiansk sector, it added, and Ukrainian forceswere "taking measures to stabilise the situation and prevent theenemy from advancing".

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.

Russian forces have captured two villages in eastern Ukraine, its defence ministry has said.

The settlements were Ivanivka in the Kharkiv region and Netailove in Donetsk.

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

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

Here's the situation on the frontline as of this weekend:

We'll be bringing you the latest updates throughout the day, but here's a quick reminder of the other key events from the last 24 hours:

• Ukraine's top commander has said he has signed paperwork allowing French military instructors to visit Ukrainian training centres soon;
• Russian air defence units downed a drone outside of Moscow, according to the regional governor;
• Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Belgium today to sign a security pact, according to the Belgian government;
• The Ukrainian president secured from Spain a pledge of additional air defence missiles to combat around 3,000 bombs he says Russia launches every month at Ukraine;
• Three people were killed and six wounded in a Russian attack on Ukraine's southern Mykolaiv region, Ukrainian emergency services said;
• Poland has said it will introduce restrictions on the movement of Russian diplomats on its territory, due to what it describes as a hybrid war against the European Union.

We'll be back with live updates on the war tomorrow - but for now, as always, we start the week by taking a few steps back and giving an overview of where the conflict is at right now.

Conflicting claims on the second front

Kharkiv remains a major focus after Russia opened a new front on the northeastern border.

It has been the subject of conflicting reports, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Ukraine had secured "combat control", while the Russian ministry of defence claimed its forces were advancing.

The British defence ministry said Russian gains in the northeast had not been joined up, allowing Ukraine to contain Moscow's momentum.

It assessed Vladimir Putin's attempt to create a buffer zone between Ukraine and Russia had been unsuccessful thus far and further gains were unlikely in the coming week.

But this will be little comfort to those living under the constant threat of Russian shells in the region.

An attack on a DIY store in Kharkiv city this weekend killed at least 16 people, injured more than 40, and the search is still on for others.

A 12-year-old girl was among the dead.

Aid

The US announced a new $275m package of weapons and equipment for Ukraine to help it repel Russia's assault in the Kharkiv region.

Ukrainian troops have been forced to train without firing ammunition due to shortages.

Analysis shared with Sky News revealed the scale of the challenge facing Kyiv, with Russia producing artillery shells around three times faster than Ukraine's Western allies and for about a quarter of the cost.

Across the year, that means Russian factories are forecast to manufacture 3.2 million more shells than European nations and the US combined.

Peace summit

Mr Zelenskyy directly called on his US and Chinese counterparts to join his latest summit for peace in Ukraine.

Speaking from Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Friday, he announced a "global peace summit", co-hosted by Switzerland, starting on 15 June. He claimed 80 countries had already confirmed their attendance.

Putin's 'freeze'

Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a ceasefire that recognises current battlefield lines, four Russian sources told the Reuters news agency.

The narrative is widely viewed as a strategy to consolidate Ukrainian land under Russian control, with little or no guarantees Mr Putin wouldn't use it to launch another attack on what remains of Ukraine. Russian propogandists have previously advocated reducing Ukraine to the size of the Lviv region in the west.

Nuclear drills

Russia's defence ministry said it had begun a round of drills involving tactical nuclear weapons in response to remarks by senior Western officials about the possibility of deeper involvement in the war.

According to the ministry's statement, the first stage of the new drills included nuclear-capable Kinzhal and Iskander missiles in southern Russian regions.

Crimea

Ukraine claimed to have destroyed the last Russian warship armed with cruise missiles that was stationed on the occupied peninsula. It said a long-range attack destroyed the Russian minesweeping navy vessel Tsiklon in Sevastopol.