Russia Ukraine war latest news Putin at risk of ‘revolution’ after Belgorod raid, Wagner chief claims

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said that the West saw Russia and China as “adversaries” that posed what he called an existential threat to the West’s “dominance”.

“As evidenced by statements made at the recently concluded G7 summit in Japan, the West views Russia and China as strategic adversaries posing almost an existential threat to its dominance,” Lavrov said.

South Korea has dispatched hundreds of thousands of its artillery rounds and the ammunition package is on its way to Ukraine via the United States, according to a new report.

Seoul had managed a “confidential arrangement” with Washington to transfer the artillery shells to the US to be delivered to Ukraine, reported the Wall Street Journal, citing a source.

This comes after Washington asked its Asian ally last year for artillery support.

Jeon Ha-kyu, spokesperson at South Korea’s defence ministry, confirmed that the country had been in talks with the Pentagon on ammunition exports but that there were “inaccurate parts” in the WSJ report, declining to give details.

“There have been various discussions and requests, and our government will take appropriate measures while comprehensively reviewing the war and humanitarian situation in Ukraine,” Mr Jeon told a briefing.

Up until very recently, South Korea had ruled out sending military aid to Ukraine due to its business relations with Russia in addition to Moscow’s influence over North Korea which has been targeting it in the peninsular region.

The US ally and major producer of artillery ammunition had refused the requests despite the mounting pressure from Washington and Europe to supply weapons.

But in April, president Yoon Suk Yeol signalled the prospect of a change, saying it might be difficult for Seoul to adhere to only providing humanitarian and financial support if Ukraine faced a large-scale civilian attack or a “situation the international community cannot condone.”

Russian officials have rejected reports of a heavy fire at its Ministry of Defence building in central Moscow after visuals showed thick smoke billowing out of its balcony.

“A fire broke out on a balcony at the ministry of defence building on Frunzenskaya Naberezhnaya,” reported TASS news agency, initially quoting an emergency services source as saying.

Emergency services were also reported to be working at the scene.

However, local officials later said a fire had not been detected at the building, TASS reported.

“The presence of a fire has not been confirmed, as no fire was detected by the fire brigade upon arrival. Neither is there any information about victims,” TASS quoted Moscow’s Ministry of Emergency Situations as saying.

Several people took to social media and shared visuals of smoke around the defence ministry building adding that a “toxic smell of burning plastic” was also detected.

Ukraine will not be able to join Nato as long as Russia’s invasion rages on, the head of the alliance says:

Volodymyr Zelensky has said an aviation coalition working to secure modern fighter jets for Ukraine will signal that the Russian forces invading the country will only lose.

He made the remarks in his nightly address after a meeting of his top staff where defence decisions around the aviation coalition were discussed alongside other possible help from Ukraine’s allies.

“…the first Ukrainian F-16 will be one of the strongest signals from the world that Russia will only lose because of its own aggression, becoming weaker and more isolated,” he said.

The move will also be a signal that “Russian terror has lost, and our world, which is based on respect for independent nations and the right of peoples to choose their own path, has endured,” the war-time president said in his nightly address.

Mr Zelensky added: “We are doing everything we can to reduce the time until the result is achieved, until new and powerful aircraft with Ukrainian pilots emerge in the Ukrainian skies. It is clear that this global step will allow us to expand our defence capabilities.

Because it is only with powerful aircraft that an air defence system can be complete.”

We will prepare the necessary basis to ensure that our aviation transition is as quick and efficient as possible, he said.

Members of the Russian Volunteer Corps and Freedom of Russia Legion have claimed they engaged in cross-border raids on the territory of the Belgorod region of Russia starting on Monday.

The Russian fighters, who are aligned with Ukraine, met the media not far from the Ukraine-Russia border in Kharkiv’s area, northeastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has portrayed the incursions by the Russian volunteers as an uprising against the Kremlin and Putin’s regime.

At least 1,000 Russian troops fighting Ukraine have gone awol in the past five months – more than in all of last year, British defence chiefs claim:

The United States is “deeply concerned” by a meeting between a leading UN official for children and Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, who is wanted by the world’s permanent war crimes court, a State Department official says.

Maria Lvova-Belova, who is accused by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor of the war crime of deporting hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia, said on her website last week that she held a working meeting with Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the UN secretary-general for children and armed conflict.

“We are deeply concerned that a senior UN diplomat met with a fugitive subject to an ICC arrest warrant for committing war crimes against children,” the official said.

“Such conduct undermines our shared commitment to protecting children in conflict zones.”

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski has been transferred to a notoriously brutal prison in Belarus and has not been heard from in a month, his wife says:

Germany will buy 18 Leopard 2 tanks and 12 self-propelled howitzers to replenish stocks depleted by deliveries to Ukraine, a member of the parliamentary budget committee said.

The tanks and howitzers are to be delivered by 2026 at the latest, documents showed.

The purchase includes an option for another 105 tanks for about 2.9 billion euros.

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.