US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy met top officials in Kyiv on Wednesday, a visit that President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped would yield ’strong’ new decisions to support Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday a ‘victory plan’ he wanted to present to US President Joe Biden this month would strengthen Kyiv and have a ‘psychological’ impact that could push Russia to end its war diplomatically.
The Kremlin told the West on Wednesday that any decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range Western missiles would deepen what it called the direct involvement of the US and Europe in the war and would trigger a response from Moscow.
US’s Blinken, UK’s Lammy visit Ukraine in show of support
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy met top officials in Kyiv on Wednesday, a visit that President Volodymyr Zelensky said he hoped would yield “strong” new decisions to support Ukraine.
With Kyiv at a critical juncture in its struggle against Russia, Blinken has said he wanted to hear directly from Zelensky and others what Kyiv’s goals in the war were and what Washington could do to help it achieve them
Zelensky has been pleading with Kyiv’s allies for months to allow Ukraine to fire Western missiles, including long-range US Atacms and British Storm Shadows, deep into Russian territory to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks.
Blinken and Lammy were expected to push Ukraine for more information on its strategic aims as they consider whether to give the go-ahead, according to Western sources.
There is nervousness in Washington and some European capitals that doing so would provoke Russia towards a direct conflict with the West, while officials also recognise that Ukraine needs more help if it is to swing the war in its favour.
Overnight, US President Joe Biden suggested that there was room for compromise.
Biden said his administration was “working that out now” when asked if the US would lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of long-range weapons in its war against Russia.
Blinken has declined to say whether Washington would give permission, but said multiple factors went into any decision.
“It’s not just the system itself that counts. You have to ask: Can the Ukrainians effectively use it, and sometimes that requires significant training, which we’ve done. Do they have the ability to maintain it?” said Blinken.
Lammy said Britain would provide a further £600-million of support for Ukraine. The funding, he said, would provide “vital support to Ukrainians as they continue to endure relentless Russian attacks”.
On the battlefield, more than 2½ years since the invasion began, Ukrainian forces are being stretched by a better armed and bigger foe, as they try to fend off Russian gains in the east where Moscow is focusing its attacks.
In a bid to seize back some of the initiative and divert Russian forces, Kyiv last month sent troops into Russia’s Kursk region in an audacious large-scale cross-border incursion.
After making rapid progress initially, Ukrainian advances have stalled, and on Wednesday a senior Russian commander said his forces had taken back control of about 10 settlements.
Ukraine has not commented on the latest Russian reported gains and Reuters was not able to independently verify battlefield developments.
The economic damage from the Kursk incursion totalled at least $931-million, regional governor Alexei Smirnov said on Wednesday. More than 150,000 people had been evacuated since the start of Ukraine’s attack, he added.
‘Victory plan’ could push Russia to end war — Zelensky
Zelensky said on Wednesday a “victory plan” he wanted to present to Biden this month would strengthen Kyiv and have a “psychological” impact that could push Russia to end its war diplomatically.
Speaking at Kyiv’s annual Crimean Platform event, Zelensky said it was important that Ukraine presented the plan to its allies before a second international summit on peace that he wants to hold later this year.
“If partners support it [the plan], it will make it easier for Ukraine to force Russia to end the war,” he said.
‘What is this plan for? It is a serious strengthening of Ukraine and, in my opinion, it will have both psychological and political ... influence on Russia’s decision to end this war.”
Zelensky first spoke of the plan last month, saying he wanted to discuss it with Biden and his two potential successors after the US presidential election in November.
Kremlin warns against letting Kyiv hit Russia with Western missiles
The Kremlin told the West on Wednesday that any decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range Western missiles would deepen what it called the direct involvement of the US and Europe in the war and would trigger a response from Moscow.
The warning came as senior Ukrainian government officials pressed Blinken and Lammy, on a joint visit to Kyiv, to allow Ukraine to fire long-range US Atacms missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at targets deep inside Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Moscow suspected a US decision to let Kyiv fire such missiles into Russia had already been taken and that there would be a response if that happened.
“It [our response] will be an appropriate one,” said Peskov.
“The involvement of the United States of America and European countries in the conflict over Ukraine is direct, and each new step increases the degree of this involvement,” he said.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairperson of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and a close ally of President Vladimir Putin, said Moscow would be forced to use “more powerful and destructive weapons” against Ukraine if Kyiv started firing long-range Western missiles at Russia.
Sergei Ryabkov, one of Russia’s deputy foreign ministers, was cited by state news agencies as saying Moscow was worried about what it regarded as a potentially dangerous escalatory scenario and would move to destroy any new deliveries of long-range Atacms missiles to Ukraine by the US.
“As was the case with past US arms deliveries to the Kyiv regime, they will all be destroyed,” Tass cited Ryabkov as saying. “But the dangers and risks are growing.”
The long-range US Army Tactical Missile Systems (Atacms) have a range of up to 305km, while the British Storm Shadows have a reach of about 249km.
Ukraine is already firing both at Russian targets on territory internationally recognised as Ukraine but wants to use them to hit bases inside Russia itself.
UK summons Iranian diplomat over transfer of missiles
Britain’s foreign ministry on Wednesday summoned Iran’s charge d’affaires, the country’s most senior diplomat in London, over the transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia.
“Today, in coordination with European partners and upon instruction from the Foreign Secretary, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Iranian Embassy in London was summoned to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
“The UK government was clear in that any transfer of ballistic missiles to Russia would be seen as a dangerous escalation and would face a significant response.”
Blinken said on Tuesday during a visit to London that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran and was likely to use them in its war in Ukraine within weeks.
On Tuesday, Britain, the US and European allies all condemned the move.
Three killed, five injured in Russian attacks on Ukrainian town
Three women were killed and five other people were injured on Wednesday during Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian town of Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region, prosecutors said.
Russian troops shelled a residential part of the town, some 14km from the active combat zone, and killed two elderly women, the Prosecutor-General’s Office said on the Telegram messaging app.
Later, Russian forces hit another residential area, probably with a self-propelled multiple rocket launcher, killing a middle-aged woman and injuring five other civilians, it said.
Russia pushes back Ukrainian troops in Kursk, says commander
Russian forces had begun a significant counteroffensive against Ukrainian troops who smashed their way into western Russia last month, and had taken some territory back, pro-Moscow war bloggers and a senior Russian commander said.
Ukraine on 6 August launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War 2, bursting through the border into the region of Kursk with thousands of troops supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms.
Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces fighting in Kursk, said that Russian troops had gone on the offensive and taken back control of about 10 settlements in Kursk.
“The situation is good for us,” said Alaudinov, who is also deputy head of the Russian defence ministry’s military-political department.
“A total of about 10 settlements in the Kursk region have been liberated,” he said.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports due to reporting restrictions on both sides of the war. Russia’s defence ministry said it had defeated Ukrainian units at several villages in Kursk.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Putin mulls limiting exports of uranium, titanium and nickel
Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow should consider limiting exports of uranium, titanium and nickel in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Putin’s remarks to government ministers prompted a rise in nickel prices and drove shares in uranium mining firms higher.
In televised comments, he said such restrictions could also be introduced for other commodities, and noted that Russia was a major producer of natural gas, diamonds and gold.
But he said that measures did not need to be taken “tomorrow”, and must not cause damage to Russia itself.
“Russia is the leader in reserves of a number of strategic raw materials: for natural gas, this is almost 22% of world reserves, for gold: almost 23%, for diamonds: almost 55%,” said Putin.
“Please take a look at some of the types of goods that we supply to the world market ... Maybe we should think about certain restrictions – uranium, titanium, nickel,” he told Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
“We just mustn’t do anything to harm ourselves,” he added.
UK slaps sanctions on 10 more vessels in Russia’s 'shadow fleet'
Britain has slapped sanctions on 10 further ships in Russia’s “shadow fleet” of vessels which it says use illicit practices to avoid Western restrictions on Russian oil.
Russia rejects Western pressure to limit its oil exports, and in the past year there has been a growth in the number of tankers transporting cargoes that are not regulated or insured by conventional Western providers.
“Today’s sanctions further undermine Russia’s ability to trade in oil via its shadow fleet,” said the UK’s Lammy in a statement on Wednesday.
The UK foreign ministry said the action taken brought the total number of “shadow fleet” vessels designated to 25.
All of the 10 tankers were previously managed by United Arab Emirates company Oil Tankers SCF MGMT FZCO, which was used by Russia’s top shipping company Sovcomflot (SCF) last year, said sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier this year, the 10 vessels were transferred to another UAE-based company, Stream Ship Management FZCO, according to data from the public database Equasis.
The vessels included the SCF Baltica, which according to separate LSEG data was listed as being managed by SCF Management Services.
Earlier this year, the SCF Baltica was listed on Sovcomflot’s website as part of its fleet of tankers. DM