Updates: Western-made arms in Ukraine a ‘priority target’ – Putin

The Wagner mercenary group is not participating in military operations in Ukraine in any significant way, the Pentagon has said, more than two weeks after the group staged a brief armed mutiny in Russia.

“At this stage, we do not see Wagner forces participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine,” Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Brigadier General Patrick Ryder said on Thursday.

Wagner fighters had waged some of the fiercest and bloodiest battles during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But in the wake of the June 23-24 revolt, fighters were given the option of going into exile, joining Russia’s regular forces or going home.

Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Vershinin discussed the Black Sea grain deal with his Turkish counterpart Burak Akcapar in a phone call on Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Ministry has reported.

The ministry said on Thursday that the conversation was initiated by Turkey, and “special attention was paid to the implementation of the ‘Black Sea initiative’ on the export of Ukrainian food”.

Also on Wednesday, Vershinin held a phone call with top UN trade official Rebeca Grynspan.

“The sides exchanged views on the implementation of the Istanbul Package Agreements of July 22, 2022, in the context of global food security challenges.”

Ukraine has received US cluster munitions, a senior Pentagon official says.

The official’s statement on Thursday comes after the US announced on July 7 it would send Kyiv cluster munitions as part of an $800m security package intended to support a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Britain’s United Nations ambassador, Barbara Woodward, has accused Russia of “stonewalling” by delaying attempts by top UN officials to speak to Moscow about the Black Sea grain agreement.

On Thursday, Woodward said that Britain was “doing what [it] can” to keep the grain deal alive and that “the ball really is in [Russia’s] court.”

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to prolong a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine grain, saying the consequence of not doing so would be global food insecurity.

The ball was now in Russia’s court with the whole world watching, von der Leyen told a news conference on Thursday.

President Joe Biden says he’s serious about pursuing a prisoner exchange for a Wall Street Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia for more than 100 days.

The Kremlin earlier this month suggested that it was open to a possible prisoner exchange that could involve Evan Gershkovich, but it underscored that such talks must be held out of the public eye.

Speaking at a news conference in Helsinki, Finland, on Thursday, Biden made clear that the US was interested.

“I’m serious on a prisoner exchange,” he said. “That process is under way.”

Ukrainian officials say air defences shot down 20 Iranian-made drones launched by Russia mostly at the Kyiv region but wreckage fell on four districts of the capital, wounding two people and destroying several homes.

The Ukrainian military said it also intercepted two Russian cruise missiles.

Hungary has signalled it could ratify Sweden’s bid to join NATO in a few months as a ruling party lawmaker says Turkey’s decision to back Sweden’s application opened the door to strengthening the alliance at a time of need.

Hungarian lawmaker Zsolt Nemeth said there was no need to convene an extraordinary session of parliament to approve the decision sooner.

“We will take up work in mid-September,” Nemeth, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, told private broadcaster InfoRadio.

There is no need to move more quickly because Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will not forward the ratification of Sweden’s NATO membership to the Turkish parliament until it reopens in the autumn, he said.

Ankara held out on the ratification for months, accusing Sweden of doing too little against people Turkey sees as “terrorists”. They are mainly Kurdish members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK.

The European Union’s lending arm has unveiled a new fund worth 400 million euros ($447m) to spend on rebuilding Ukraine before the bloc’s longer-term reconstruction plan kicks in.

Sixteen of the EU’s 27 countries said on Thursday they would chip in to the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) Ukraine Trust Fund, which will provide grants and loans, as well as offering guarantees to Ukrainian banks and businesses.

“As the EU, we are financing the resilience of Ukraine,” said EIB Vice-President Teresa Czerwinska. “We provide financing to build the resilience of the society and the economy.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said nothing was done to meet his country’s demands around the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), which expires on July 18 and which Moscow is still hesitating to extend.

“I want to emphasise that nothing was done, nothing at all. It’s all one-sided,” Putin said in a televised interview on Thursday, adding that “We will think about what to do, we have a few more days.”

United States President Joe Biden has said there is overwhelming support for NATO from the American people, Congress and both Democrats and Republicans, “notwithstanding the fact there’s some extreme elements of one party”, referring to Republicans.

“I’m saying as sure as anything could possibly be said about American foreign policy, we will stay connected to NATO,” Biden affirmed.

Two and a half years after the norm-busting US presidency of Donald Trump, who clashed with NATO leaders over funding the alliance and threatened to reduce the number of US troops in Germany, concern still lingers in Europe about the reliability of United States pledges and global alliances.

President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia could withdraw from the Black Sea grain deal until other sides fulfil their promises.

The deal, which allows for the safe export of Ukrainian grain and fertiliser from Black Sea ports, is due to expire on Monday. Moscow has repeatedly threatened to block its extension over aspects of its implementation affecting Russia’s own exports.

Putin, speaking on state television on Thursday, said Russia was in contact with the United Nations on the matter, but he had not seen a message addressed to him from the UN secretary-general suggesting a compromise to salvage the deal.

“We can suspend our participation in the deal, and if everyone once again says that all the promises made to us will be fulfilled, then let them fulfil this promise. We will immediately rejoin this deal,” Putin said.

Russia’s Putin has said tanks provided by Western powers to Ukraine would be a “priority target” for Russian forces fighting there.

Putin, speaking on state television on Thursday, also said that supplies of new weapons to Ukraine would change nothing on the battlefield, but would only further escalate the conflict.

He reiterated his opposition to Ukraine joining NATO, saying this would threaten Russia’s own security.

Sweden’s top court has blocked the extradition of two Turks who Ankara says are part of a “terrorist” group, potentially complicating Stockholm’s bid to join NATO just days after Turkey dropped objections to Sweden’s membership.

“If the Supreme Court said that extradition cannot happen because there are legal challenges that contradict it, the government is not allowed to extradite the person,” Justice of the Supreme Court Cecilia Renfors told Reuters on Thursday.

The court said in a statement that in Turkey’s view, the two committed a criminal act by joining the Gulen movement via a mobile application used by its members.

These actions alone did not equate to participation in a “terrorist” organisation under Swedish law, the court said, adding that extradition must be based on actions that constitute a crime in both Sweden and Turkey.

Russian shelling in Ukraine has killed three people and injured four after the capital came under attack for the third successive night, Ukrainian officials say.

An 85-year-old woman was killed when Russian forces shelled the village of Mykilske in the southern region of Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

A man in his 40s was killed in shelling of the town of Orikhiv in the southern Zaporizhia region, Governor Yuriy Malashko said.

The third person killed was a 60-year-old resident of the village of Popivka in the northern region of Sumy, the prosecutor general’s office said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says he discussed Ukraine with China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Indonesia.

“An exchange of views took place on the current situation around the Ukrainian crisis. Attention was paid to assessing the efforts of the international community to launch a peaceful negotiation process on Ukraine,” the ministry said in a statement.

Ukraine’s allies have pledged more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.68bn) in military aid for Kyiv during a two-day NATO summit this week, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov says.

“Meetings in Vilnius were very productive,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

“Ukraine will receive over €1.5 billion in military aid from its international partners,” he said.

Among those that pledged aid was Germany, which plans to send a 700-million-euro ($785m) aid package, which he said included 25 Leopard 1A5 tanks.

Reznikov also hailed aid packages from France, Britain, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway and from non-NATO member Australia.

NATO leaders said Ukraine should be able to join the military alliance at some point in the future.

🚀 Ukraine will receive over €1.5 billion in military aid from its international partners.

✳️ Long-range SCALP missiles, Leopard tanks, additional Patriots, F-16 pilot training are just some of the things that can be announced publicly.

We can mention at least seven packages…

— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) July 13, 2023

US President Joe Biden predicts Ukraine will join NATO and Putin will eventually decide it is not in the interests of Russia to continue the war.

Ukraine’s NATO membership, though, must be timed right, he said.

“No one can join NATO while a war is going on” because it would guarantee a third world war, Biden said.

Biden made the comments at a news conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki after a US-Nordic summit.

The European Commission is helping the United Nations and Turkey try to extend the Black Sea grain export deal, which could expire on Monday unless an agreement is negotiated.

Anonymous sources familiar with the discussions told the Reuters news agency that the EU is considering connecting a subsidiary of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the international payment network SWIFT to allow for grain and fertilizer transactions.

An EU spokesperson said the commission’s priority is to ensure that Ukrainian grain can reach the world market and it calls on all parties to extend the deal. Heavily sanctioned Russia has baulked at renewing it.

“We are, of course, open to explore all solutions that contribute to our objective whilst continuing to ensure that Russia’s ability to wage war in Ukraine is hampered as much as possible,” the EU spokesperson said.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it is confronted with the “irreconcilable positions” of Russia and Ukraine on the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes at next year’s Olympics.

In March, the IOC published a set of recommendations for international sports federations to allow the athletes to return since being banned for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

In an updated version of these recommendations, the IOC said: “We are still confronted with two irreconcilable positions. The Russian side wants the IOC to ignore the war. The Ukrainian side wants the IOC to totally isolate anyone with a Russian and Belarusian passport.”

“The IOC will take this decision at the appropriate time, at its full discretion, and without being bound by the results of previous Olympic qualification competitions,” it said.