LIVE – Updated at 11:35
Ukrainian spies have claimed to receive information showing Russia was considering a “terrorist” attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant involving a release of radiation, Volodymr Zelensky said.
The Kremlin dismissed the allegation as “another lie”, and said a team of UN nuclear inspectors had visited the plant and rated everything highly.
In a video statement, Ukraine’s president said Kyiv was sharing the information about the Russian-occupied facility in southern Ukraine with all its international partners from Europe and the United States to China and India.
“Intelligence has received information that Russia is considering the scenario of a terrorist act at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant – a terrorist act with the release of radiation,” he said. “They have prepared everything for this.”
Mr Zelensky did not say what evidence the intelligence agencies based their assertion on.
The six-reactor complex, Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, has been under occupation since shortly after Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in February last year.
The two sides have accused each other of shelling the vast complex, and international efforts to establish a demilitarised zone around it have failed so far.
US reporter Evan Gershkovich had a new appeal rejected by a Moscow court on Thursday against his pre-trial detention on charges of espionage, a Reuters reporter at the court said.
The Wall Street Journal reporter denies the spying charge, which could lead to a prison sentence of up to 20 years if he is convicted.
His parents Mikhail Gershkovich and Ella Milman, who left the Soviet Union for the United States in 1979, were in court to support their son. U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy was not allowed inside the room.
Gershkovich, wearing blue jeans and a black T-shirt, stood in a glass box and smiled at journalists who were briefly allowed to film him before the start of the proceedings.
The 31-year-old was arrested in March and accused by Russia‘s FSB security service of collecting military secrets in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
His newspaper vehemently denies the accusation against Gershkovich, who was accredited by the Russian Foreign Ministry. The United States says he was wrongfully detained and is demanding his release.
Gershkovich was appealing against his continued detention in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison ahead of his trial, for which no date has been set.
Emma Tucker, the Wall Street Journal’s editor in chief, told the BBC before the hearing that she had low expectations from the appeal but it was important to go through the legal process.
In April, a court denied a request from Gershkovich’s lawyers that he be transferred to house arrest, agree to restrictions on his movements, or be granted bail.
Gershkovich is being held at a time when relations between Washington and Moscow are at the lowest point since the Cold War after Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine last year in what it called “a special military operation.”
Volodymr Zelensky has claimed Russia is planning a “terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant”.
In a tweet, the president said: “Intelligence has received information that Russia is considering a scenario of a terrorist attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. A terrorist attack with radiation leakage. They have prepared everything for this.”
A view shows the damaged Chonhar bridge connecting Russian-held parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region to the Crimean peninsula, following what Russian-appointed officials say was a Ukrainian missile attack.
Britain will back fast-tracking Ukraine’s Nato membership as momentum builds among Western allies to significantly change their stance over Kyiv’s attempts to join the alliance.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s government may have a quick route to accession, as has been granted recently to Sweden and Finland, rather than continuing with the slower Membership Action Plan (MAP) that has preconditions for entry.
Russia is adamantly opposed to Ukraine joining Nato, and even after Vladimir Putin’s invasion there has been reticence among member states over the speed of Kyiv’s accession.
But as the war enters its 16th month, the position of Western allies appears to be changing.
Britain backs fast-track Nato membership for Ukraine
Sweden’s prosecutor’s office reserves the right to classify material from its investigation into last year’s sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Russia‘s RIA news agency cited it as saying on Thursday.
If the investigation is dropped and no conclusions are made, materials will not be made public, RIA reported.
Russia has unsuccessfully demanded access to investigations by Sweden and other countries into the blasts that severely damaged the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea.
Watch live as Ukraine Recovery Conference goes underway in the second day of meetings in London.
Live: Ukraine Recovery Conference underway in second day of meetings in London
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday pledged long-term security assurances to Ukraine but dashed Kyiv’s hopes for a swift accession to NATO.
“We have to take a sober look at the current situation,” Scholz told German lawmakers in a speech in parliament, adding the government in Kyiv had itself acknowledged the country would not be able to join NATO as long as the war was still going on.
“Therefore, I suggest we focus on the top priority (at the NATO summit) in Vilnius (in mid-July), namely strengthening the combat power of Ukraine,” Scholz said.
Berlin and its partners in the G7 and the European Union were working on long-term security assurances to Kyiv, he said.
“Our goal is … a sustainable military support of Ukraine, including with modern Western weapons, and the strengthening of Ukraine‘s economic resilience as it defends itself against the Russian aggression,” he said.
NATO countries are squabbling over what to offer Kyiv when the alliance’s leaders meet in Vilnius on July 11-12.
While Kyiv and its closest allies in Eastern Europe call for concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to membership, Western governments such as the United States and Germany are wary of any move that might take the alliance closer to war with Russia.
Ukrainian missiles struck the Chonhar road bridge connecting Crimea with Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson region overnight, forcing traffic to be diverted to a different route, Russian-appointed officials said on Thursday.
The so-called “gate to Crimea”, known by Russians with a different spelling as the Chongar Bridge, is one of a handful of links between Crimea – which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – and mainland Ukraine.
It is on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine under its control.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv, which has said it wants to retake Crimea and drive all Russian forces from its territory.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor of Kherson, parts of which Russian forces have captured during what Moscow calls its “special military operation”, said the road bridge had been damaged but that there were no casualties.
One picture Saldo posted on Telegram showed a large hole in the bridge’s surface with water visible beneath it and debris scattered nearby. Saldo said initial information suggested Ukraine was likely to have used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles for the strike.
“The Kyiv terrorists want to intimidate Kherson residents and sow panic among the population, but they will not succeed. We know how to repair bridges quickly: vehicle passage will be restored in the very near future,” he said.
“We have an answer to every move by the enemy. A link between the Kherson region and Crimea continues to operate – a reserve route has been temporarily organised for vehicular traffic.”
Sergey Aksyonov, Crimea’s Russian-appointed governor, told people to stay calm and said specialists were examining the site to determine when traffic over the bridge could resume.
Ukrainian missiles struck the Chonhar road bridge connecting Crimea with Russian-held parts of the southern Kherson region overnight, forcing traffic to be diverted to a different route, Russian-appointed officials said on Thursday.
The so-called “gate to Crimea”, known by Russians with a different spelling as the Chongar Bridge, is one of a handful of links between Crimea – which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – and mainland Ukraine.
It is on a route used by the Russian military to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine under its control.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv, which has said it wants to retake Crimea and drive all Russian forces from its territory.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-appointed governor of Kherson, parts of which Russian forces have captured during what Moscow calls its “special military operation”, said the road bridge had been damaged but that there were no casualties.
One picture Saldo posted on Telegram showed a large hole in the bridge’s surface with water visible beneath it and debris scattered nearby. Saldo said initial information suggested Ukraine was likely to have used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles for the strike.
“The Kyiv terrorists want to intimidate Kherson residents and sow panic among the population, but they will not succeed. We know how to repair bridges quickly: vehicle passage will be restored in the very near future,” he said.
“We have an answer to every move by the enemy. A link between the Kherson region and Crimea continues to operate – a reserve route has been temporarily organised for vehicular traffic.”
Sergey Aksyonov, Crimea’s Russian-appointed governor, told people to stay calm and said specialists were examining the site to determine when traffic over the bridge could resume.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, will visit Russia on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
Grossi is likely to hold talks about the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Thursday that Moscow was considering a request from the United States to visit journalist Evan Gershkovich who is being held on spying charges he denies, the Interfax news agency reported.
A hearing in Gershkovich’s case is due later on Thursday.
Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, was arrested in March on espionage charges after Russia‘s FSB security service accused him of collecting military secrets in the city of Yekaterinburg.
Gershkovich and his employer, the Wall Street Journal, strongly deny the charges.
He was initially remanded in custody until May 29, but a court last month extended his detention until Aug. 30.
The United States says he has been wrongfully detained and has called for his immediate release. The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on Tuesday for a resolution calling on Russia to release him.
Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukrainian troops are advancing in all the continuing fights along the battlefield front lines, calling on his forces to shoot down each Russian helicopter.
“Front. Fierce battles. South – we’re destroying the enemy. Donetsk direction – we’re destroying the enemy. The Kupiansk direction – whatever the Russian terrorists are planning there, we will destroy the enemy,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address.
He added: “In the South, we are advancing. Thank you, warriors! In the East, our defenses are firming. And I am especially grateful, guys, for every shot down Russian helicopter… Each shooting down is important.”
Ukrainian forces have launched a missile strike on a bridge connecting Ukraine‘s Kherson region and Crimea, Russia-appointed officials in both regions said today.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russia-appointed Kherson governor, said the bridge was likely to have been attacked by Storm Shadow missiles that damaged the road, but traffic has been diverted to a different route.
No casualty has been reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin, said Moscow had observed a “lull” in Ukraine‘s counteroffensive, which began early this month. Although Ukraine still had some offensive potential, Kyiv understood it had “no chance”, Putin said in televised remarks.
This comes as Volodymyr Zelensky said progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces was “slower than desired”, but Kyiv would not be pressured into speeding it up.
“Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not,” Britain’s BBC quoted him as saying in an interview. “What’s at stake is people’s lives.”
The Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine plans to resume pumping water from what remains of the massive reservoir behind a nearby dam that burst two weeks ago, the UN nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said last week it was unclear whether it would be possible to pump water from the reservoir to cool reactors and spent fuel at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant given how much the reservoir’s level has fallen.
While the plant can fall back on other water sources, including a cooling pond with what the IAEA says is months’ worth of water in it, whatever can be pumped from the reservoir should buy more time before stocks have to be replenished.
“Ukraine‘s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) is planning to resume pumping water that still remains accessible despite a major loss of water in the Kakhovka reservoir caused by the destruction of the downstream dam earlier this month,” the IAEA said in a statement.
Russia-aligned hackers could seek to disrupt Canada’s powerful oil and natural gas sector, especially since Ottawa is a strong backer of Ukraine, a Canadian spy agency has said.
The Communications Security Establishment (CSE) signals intelligence agency said Russia had repeatedly deployed destructive cyber attacks against its adversaries as geopolitical crises escalate.
“We assess there is an even chance of a disruptive incident in the oil and gas sector in Canada caused by Russia-aligned actors, due to their higher tolerance for risk, the increase in their numbers and activity, as well as the number of vulnerable targets in the sector overall,” it said in a threat assessment.
Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil producer. CSE said the oil and gas sector employed about 600,000 people and accounted for 5% of gross domestic product.
CSE said the most likely target for cyber attacks by pro-Russian hackers was operational technology networks that monitor and control large industrial assets.
The UK has pledged to offer new virtual-reality (VR) training for at-sea Ukrainian cadets, as part of a new package of support.
Announced on Wednesday to coincide with a major conference in London on how Ukraine recovers from the Russian invasion, the Government said the training would be provided through VR headsets to help participants practise for real-life scenarios.
Ukrainians will also be sponsored to take part in three-year cadetships to UK container ships and other large vessels, with the new package confirmed as Transport Secretary Mark Harper appeared at the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
“Our support for Ukraine and its people is unwavering, and we’re not going to let Russia’s abhorrent actions sink Ukraine’s great reputation in areas like seafaring,” he said.
“By sharing the UK’s world-renowned expertise in aviation and seafaring, we are steadfast in our commitment to ensuring Ukraine’s transport system recovers from Putin’s illegal invasion.”
The Department for Transport will also support secondments for Ukraine’s air traffic controllers to train in the UK, with the latest funding following on from £10 million previously announced to help repair Ukraine’s rail infrastructure.
A court in Belarus has handed lengthy prison sentences 18 participants of mass anti-government protests which challenged the grip of president Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian regime in 2020 – in part of Minsk’s continued attempts to crack down on any and all dissent.
Multiple charges against the activists, three of whom had left the country and were tried in absentia, included assault on law enforcement officers, conspiracy to overthrow the government, committing a terrorist act and others.
According to the authorities, the protesters formed a resistance movement, attacked law enforcement officers, carried out acts of sabotage and set police stations in Minsk on fire. Some of them were also accused of attempting to set fire to the house of a pro-government politician by throwing Molotov cocktails at it.
Sentences handed to the demonstrators ranged from two to 25 years in prison.
Rishi Sunak has used today’s London conference to unveil measures including $3bn of additional UK guarantees to unlock a World Bank loan for Ukraine.
This includes pledge of £20m to boost access to the World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantees Agency, which provides political risk insurance for projects.
Additionally, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would provide Ukraine with €50bn for 2024-27, while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered $1.3bn in additional aid.
German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock said Berlin was offering an additional €381m in humanitarian assistance in 2023.
Ukraine expects to be invited to join Nato at the alliance’s summit in Vilnius next month, president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff has said.
“We expect that Ukraine will be invited to Nato with an open date,” Andre Yermak told a webinar held by the Atlantic Council think-tank.
Here are more of Vladimir Putin’s remarks on Russia’s new generation of Sarmat nuclear-capable ballistic missiles being ready for combat duy in the “near future”.
In a speech to new graduates of military academies, the president said the “most important task” was the development of Russia’s “triad” of nuclear forces – those launched from land, sea or air – which he described as “a key guarantee of Russia’s military security and global stability”.
“Already about half of the units and formations of the Strategic Missile Forces are equipped with the latest Yars systems, and the troops are being re-equipped with modern missile systems with the Avangard hypersonic warhead,” Mr Putin said. The first Sarmat launchers will be put on combat duty “in the near future”, he added.
Despite Russian nuclear doctrine stating that Moscow should not strike first unless the state’s “very existence” is threatened, Mr Putin has frequently issued nuclear threats since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February. As recently as last week, however, Mr Putin said Ukrainian forces had “no chance” in their current counteroffensive, and Russia had no need to resort to nuclear weapons.
The new Sarmat missile is designed to carry out nuclear strikes on targets thousands of missiles away in the United States or Europe. But its deployment has proceeded slower than planned, with Russia having said last April that it would be in place by autumn 2022.
Dmitry Rogozin, then head of Russia’s space agency, said at that time that the missiles would be deployed with a unit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, about 1,860 miles east of Moscow.
Mr Rogozin said they would be placed at the same sites and in the same silos as the Soviet-era Voyevoda missiles they are replacing, hailing the new “super-weapon” as a historic event that would guarantee the security of Russia’s children and grandchildren for the next 30-40 years.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken has urged Turkey to stop blocking Sweden in its bid to join Nato, a spokesperson has said. in a meeting with on Wednesday, a State Department spokesperson said.
In a meeting with new Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Summit in London, Blinken stressed the importance of Nato unity at a critical time, the spokesperson said.
Mr Blinken also “encouraged Turkey’s support for Sweden to join the Nato Alliance now” and welcomed Ankara’s support for Kyiv and its work on the Black Sea grain export deal, the spokesperson said.
Boris Johnson was spotted at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London on Wednesday.
The former prime minister is a vocal supporter of Kyiv’s fight against the Russian invasion and repeated his call earlier for the West to focus on “ensuring a Ukrainian victory” and equip Kyiv with F-16 fighter jets.
Russia’s emergency situations minister has said that 41 people have been killed and 121 hospitalised as a result of the breach of the Kakhovka dam in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine earlier this month.
Speaking during a televised government meeting chaired by Vladimir Putin, Alexander Kurenkov said that more than 8,000 people were evacuated from the flood zone.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly has suggested that the UK would be “very supportive” if Ukraine was not required to go through the membership action plan stage of joining Nato.
Speaking at a press conference at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, he said: “We have seen Ukraine evolve, and evolve incredibly quickly.
Jens Stoltenberg at the Nato informal foreign ministers [summit] said that, actually, many of the requirements of membership action plan are actually being delivered. The reform of their armed forces is happening whilst engaged in conflict.
“I think the UK’s position would be very, very supportive if we moved on from the membership action plan recognising that the offer to both Sweden and Finland didn’t require that and Ukrainians have demonstrated their commitment to reform the military for requirement of Nato membership through their actions on the battlefield.
“And I think all Nato allies recognise that.”
Vladimir Putin claims that Moscow has observed a “lull” in Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which began early this month.
Although Ukraine still has some offensive potential, Kyiv understands it has “no chance”, the Russian president claimed in televised remarks.
Progress in Ukraine’s counteroffensive against Russian forces is “slower than desired” but Kyiv will not be pressured into speeding it up as its troops advance through dangerous minefields, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“Some people believe this is a Hollywood movie and expect results now. It’s not,” he told the BBC, after speaking remotely at an event in London. “What’s at stake is people’s lives.”
The BBC cited Mr Zelensky as saying the military push was not going easily because 77,220 square miles of Ukrainian territory had been mined by Russian forces.
“Whatever some might want, including attempts to pressure us, with all due respect, we will advance on the battlefield the way we deem best,” he added.
Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu has told graduating military academy students today that the “collective West” is waging a “real war” against Russia.
Speaking alongside Vladimir Putin at an event in the Kremlin, Mr Shoigu added that the Russia military would do everything to ensure the security of the country.
Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia’s new generation of Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which are capable of carrying 10 or more nuclear warheads, would soon be deployed for combat duty.
My colleague Joe Sommerland has more details on the weapons here:
What is Russia’s ‘Satan II’ intercontinental nuclear missile?
A United Nations official has warned that the mines dislodged by the flood waters from Kakhovka dam in Ukraine could float downstream and reach as far as beaches on the Black Sea.
Paul Heslop, head of UN Mine Action at the UN Development Programme in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva that PMF-1 mines, also known as “butterfly” mines, were light enough to float downstream for a large distance.
“I would not be surprised to see that those mines have either got down as far as the sea or over the coming months, as the water is continuing to flow, will be transported down there,” he said. “Unfortunately, we could see anti-personnel pressure mines washing up on beaches around the Black Sea.”
Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the Soviet-era dam earlier this month, which has been under Russian control since the early days of its invasion. The Kremlin has accused Kyiv of sabotaging the hydroelectric facility.
Addressing the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, French foreign minister Catherine Colonna set out a new war insurance mechanism to support Kyiv.
“I’m announcing today the establishment of an insurance mechanism to cover investments in Ukraine against war-related risks via the French public investment bank,” Ms Colonna said.
The French government’s plan was consistent with the insurance mechanism proposed by Britain and Ukraine, Ms Colonna added.
The “eyes of the world” are on Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky told the conference in London this morning.
“The eyes of the world are looking at us and whether we will defeat Russian aggression exactly as freedom deserves to win, that is without compromising our values,” said the Ukrainian president.
“Also, the world is watching to see if we will restore normal life in such a way that our transformation will land an ideological defeat on the aggressor. We protect Ukraine, and thus we protect freedom. And when we build Ukraine, we’ll build freedom.”
Ukraine is “holding back a large-scale assault” by Russian forces near Bakhmut and Lyman, Kyiv’s deputy defence minister has claimed.
Kyiv, meanwhile, has reported recapturing eight villages in the south in the last two weeks, representing the largest gains by the Ukrainian military since November, as they push into heavily fortified and mined Russian-held areas.
“They had partial success over the past day, they have consolidated at the boundaries that were reached and they have evened up the front line,” deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar claimed on Wednesday.
Kyiv’s forces were continuing offensive operations towards the city of Melitopol, a Russian stronghold deep in occupied territory, and towards Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov, Ms Maliar said.
Russia has been building “elaborate” defences near Crimea, highlighting the strength of concerns in Moscow that Ukrainian forces are capable of directly assaulting the occupied peninsula, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.
“Intense fighting continues in sectors of southern Ukraine,” the ministry said. “However, over recent weeks, Russia has continued to expend significant effort building defensive lines deep in rear areas, especially on the approaches to occupied Crimea.
This includes an extensive zone of defences 9km in length, 3.5km north of the town Armyansk, on the narrow bridge of land connecting Crimea to the Kherson region.
These elaborate defences highlight the Russian command’s assessment that Ukrainian forces are capable of directly assaulting Crimea. Russia continues to see maintaining control of the peninsula as a top political priority.
Germany has confirmed the appointment of Alexander Graf Lambsdorff as its new ambassador to Russia, weeks after the two countries announced a downgrading of diplomatic ties after relations collapsed in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Graf Lambsdorff, a 56-year-old diplomat and member of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) in the ruling coalition, will take up his post in the summer after Russia gave the green light for the move.
He replaces Geza Andreas von Geyr, who has represented Germany in Russia since September 2019 and is now set to become Germany’s ambassador to Nato in Brussels.
Germany last month said it would shut down four out of five Russian consulates by revoking their licences, a tit-for-tat move after Moscow’s decision to limit the number of German officials in Russia.
Mr Graf Lambsdorff has sharply criticised Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and backed Germany shoring up Ukraine’s armed forces with military aid. He is a descendent of a political and aristocratic family that traces its roots to Baltic Germans living in the Russian tsarist empire.
The United States will provide more than $1.3bn (£1bn) in additional aid to Ukraine to help the country recover and rebuild its energy grid, secretary of state Antony Blinken has told the conference in London.
Of that amount, $520m will go towards helping Kyiv overhaul its battered energy grid, while $657m will be used to help modernise its border crossings, ports, rail lines and other critical infrastructure, Mr Blinken said.
Some $100m will be used to help digitise Ukraine’s customs and other systems “to boost speed and to cut corruption”, and another $35m to help Ukrainian businesses through financing and insurance.
“Recovery is about laying the foundation for Ukraine to thrive as a secure, independent country, fully intergrated with Europe, connected to markets around the world,” Mr Blinken told delegates.
The European Union has a “special responsibility” towards Ukraine in the long term, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen has told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London.
“This is for Ukraine’s immediate needs. But let’s talk about the future. I believe the European Union has a special responsibility,” Ms von der Leyen said.
Addressing the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she had “no doubt” that Ukraine would join the EU, adding: “We can never match their sacrifice, but we can and we do stand united.”
Praising the progress and speed of reform in the country, Ms von der Leyen said she hoped Ukraine would become a “country that attracts foreign investment, a country that is master of its future, a country that is a member of the European Union”.
“Together we gather here to tell Ukrainians that their dream is also our dream,” she told the conference. “Ukrainians tell us, when they imagine their future, they see Europe’s flag flying over their cities. I have no doubt that Ukraine will be part of our union.”
“Ukraine has accelerated its reform agenda with impressive speed and resolve,” she said.
Volodymyr Zelensky, who is pushing for Ukraine to join Nato and the European Union, urged Western leaders to have the “courage” to acknowledge that his country is already a key part of their economic and defence alliances.
He told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London: “We are only waiting for the courage of the alliance leaders to recognise this reality, politically.”
Mr Zelensky highlighted Ukraine’s importance in global food supply and its potential to become a major green energy power.
He said the country could be “the largest source of economic, industrial and technological growth in Europe for decades and decades”.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London that it was necessary to move towards real projects for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
“We must move from agreement to real projects,” the Ukrainian president said. “There is a Ukrainian delegation that will present concrete things and we propose to do them together during my tour,” he said.
Speaking at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London, Rishi Sunak highlighted Ukraine’s technological expertise, saying IT experts and the military have developed a mobile app to track the Shahed drones being used by Russia.
The prime minister said that, when he visited Kyiv in November, he saw the people’s spirit of “ingenuity and innovation”, adding: “In a converted office block I met tech experts – civilian and military – who were working together to find new ways to bolster the country’s defences.
“They were networking mobile phones so that people across Ukraine could download an app which would allow their phone to pick up the sound of the Shahed drones and feed back the location so that Ukrainian air defence could track them and shoot them down.”
Ukraine represents an investment opportunity, with its resistance to the Russian invasion demonstrating its people’s capacity for innovation, Rishi Sunak said as he opened the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London.
“Before this terrible war, Ukraine’s economy was becoming a huge investment opportunity,” the prime minister told delegates.
“It was the breadbasket of Europe, exporting millions of tonnes of food and grain each month, a top-five exporter of iron ore and steel, a leader in energy – pushing forward renewables, hydrogen and electric vehicles – and a start-up nation which helped spark names like PayPal, WhatsApp and Revolut, with a thriving tech sector which actually had a record year in 2022.
“The truth is, that opportunity is still there today – in fact the war has only proved how much Ukraine has to offer.”
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claims to have detained a resident of Russia’s eastern Khabarovsk region for treason for attempting to send money to the Ukrainian military.
State news agency Tass quoted the FSB as saying that the detainee had attempted to send money to Ukraine for drones, thermal imaging cameras, munitions and medical supplies “by way of cryptocurrency instruments”.
Another state news agency published FSB footage purporting to show a man being detained by two officers on a country road, and a subsequent search of his house.
Tass separately claimed the FSB had arrested a group of “saboteurs” in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol who were preparing an assassination attempt against officials. It did not say how many people had been detained, or who their alleged targets were.
Russian air defences downed three drones in the Moscow region on Wednesday, its defence ministry has claimed, in what it called an attempted Ukrainian attack.
The ministry claimed that Russian defences had used electronic jamming to cause the drones to lose control and crash, without causing any casualties or damage.
Regional governor Andrei Vorobyov said two of the drones were intercepted as they approached military warehouses. The state-owned Tass news agency said they were aimed at the Taman Division of Russia’s Ground Forces which is based in Kalininets, some 37 miles from the Kremlin.
Separately, the governor of Russian-annexed Crimea reported unspecified damage to the railway network in the eastern town of Feodosia, without stating the cause. He said train traffic had been suspended but would be restored within two hours.
“I ask everyone to remain calm and trust only verified sources of information,” Sergei Aksyonov, the governor, said.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) scrambled its fighter jets in Estonia after a Russian Navy airplane was seen flying near Nato airspace, officials said today.
“This evening [Tuesday], RAF Typhoons from 140 EAW in Estonia were scrambled to intercept a Russian Navy Tu-134 and 2x Su-27 ‘FLANKER’ Bs flying close to @NATO airspace,” the air force said on Twitter, sharing photos of the two planes flying alongside in the Estonian skies.
The RAF warplane is seen alongside the intercepted Russian navy airplane.
“The Russian aircraft failed to comply with international norms by not liaising with regional airspace control agencies,” the RAF added.