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Ammunition depot on fire in Belgorod, Russia – reports
A series of blasts have reportedly been heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border while an ammunition depot was also reported to be on fire, local officials said according to a Reuters report.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said an ammunition depot in the province caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday, the news agency said.
Gladkov said no civilians had been hurt by the fire which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village.
The Belgorod province borders Ukraine’s Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.
Drone giant DJI Technology Co said it will temporarily suspend business in Russia and Ukraine to ensure its products are not used in combat, making it the first major Chinese firm to halt sales to Russia since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February.
“DJI is internally reassessing compliance requirements in various jurisdictions,” the privately held company said in a statement late on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.
“Pending the current review, DJI will temporarily suspend all business activities in Russia and Ukraine.”
On Wednesday a DJI spokesperson told Reuters that the suspension of business in Russia and Ukraine was “not to make a statement about any country, but to make a statement about our principles”.
DJI abhors any use of our drones to cause harm, and we are temporarily suspending sales in these countries in order to help ensure no-one uses our drones in combat.”
Ukrainian officials and citizens have accused DJI, the world’s largest maker of consumer and industrial drones, of leaking data on the Ukrainian military to Russia.
Last month DJI dismissed those accusations as “utterly false”. A German retailer had cited such information as a reason for taking DJI products off shelves.
Ammunition depot on fire in Belgorod, Russia – reports
A series of blasts have reportedly been heard in the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border while an ammunition depot was also reported to be on fire, local officials said according to a Reuters report.
Regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said an ammunition depot in the province caught fire in the early hours of Wednesday, the news agency said.
Gladkov said no civilians had been hurt by the fire which broke out at a facility near Staraya Nelidovka village.
The Belgorod province borders Ukraine’s Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions, all of which have seen heavy fighting since Russia invaded Ukraine two months ago.
Earlier on Tuesday, United Nations secretary general António Guterres failed to reach a conclusion that would aid the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine after speaking across a long white table to Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Putin described the situation in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as “tragic”, but said the Russian military was no longer active in the city. Putin’s comments come after accusations by Ukraine that Russia has been shelling a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged port city.
Watch the video of the conversation between the pair below.
Summary so far
- Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes Russia is trying to destabilise the situation in the Transnistrian region, adding that Ukrainian armed forces are ready for a possible escalation by Russian troops in the temporarily occupied territory of Moldova. “The goal is obvious – to destabilise the situation in the region, to threaten Moldova. They show that if Moldova supports Ukraine, there will be certain steps,” Zelenskiy said in his latest national address.
- Zelenskiy said the “free world has the right to self-defence” after predicting that Russia intends to not only seize the territory of Ukraine but to “dismember the entire centre and east of Europe” and “deal a global blow to democracy”.
- Britain’s foreign minister Elizabeth Truss is expected to call on allies of Ukraine to “ramp up” and “double down” on military production including of planes and tanks in a speech set to be delivered on Wednesday. Truss said the UK’s new approach “will be based on three areas: military strength, economic security and deeper global alliances”. Russia’s victory will have “terrible consequences across the globe”, Truss is expected to say. “We must be prepared for the long haul and double down on our support for Ukraine.
- Australia will send six M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine as part of a $26.7m package in its response to “Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion” a statement from prime minister Scott Morrison and defence minster Peter Dutton said on Wednesday.
- Canada will also ramp up its military aid to Ukraine with aims to send eight armoured vehicles “as quickly as possible”, minister of defence Anita Anand announced.
- Russia will stop supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria from Wednesday. Warsaw has refused to pay its supplier, Gazprom, in roubles and earlier announced that it was imposing sanctions on 50 entities and individuals including Russia’s biggest gas company. Bulgaria, which is almost completely reliant on Russian gas imports, said it had fulfilled all its contractual obligations with Gazprom and that the proposed new payment scheme was in breach of the arrangement.
- The head of the UN’s atomic watchdog has condemned the Russian occupation of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, describing the situation as “absolutely abnormal and very, very dangerous”. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general, Rafael Grossi, is heading an expert mission to Chornobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.
- Zelenskiy said “no one in the world can feel safe” after Russia threatened Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and called for “global control” over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology after meeting with director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi. “No other country in the world since 1986 has posed such a major threat to nuclear security, to Europe and the world” he said.
- Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the danger of nuclear war is “serious” and the core of any agreement to end the conflict in Ukraine would depend largely on the military situation on the ground.
- US state department spokesman Ned Price responded, saying Russia’s “loose talk of nuclear weapons … is the height of irresponsibility” and “a clear attempt to distract from its failure in Ukraine” while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson said he does not expect Russian president Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. When asked during an interview with Britain’s Talk TV if he fears that Putin may use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Moscow faced defeat in its ongoing invasion, Johnson said Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre” and could back down.
- The US Department of Defence has established a control centre in Germany to assist in the distribution of US military aid to Ukraine, a senior US defence official told reporters on Tuesday.
- A statue known as the ‘Friendship of Peoples’, installed in 1982 and symbolising historic ties between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Russia, was dismantled in Kyiv on Tuesday. “We now see what this “friendship” is – destruction of Ukrainian cities … killing tens of thousands of peaceful people. I am convinced such a monument has an entirely different meaning now,” Kyiv mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
Canada will also ramp up its military aid to Ukraine with aims to send eight armoured vehicles manufactured by Roshel “as quickly as possible”, minister of defence Anita Anand announced.
Last week, Canada delivered M777 howitzers, associated ammunition, and Carl Gustaf weapons to Ukrainian Forces, Anand added.
Australia will send six M777 howitzers and ammunition to Ukraine as part of a $26.7m package in its response to “Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion”.
The six M777 155mm lightweight towed howitzers and howitzer ammunition will be sent to Europe following a request by the United States and the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia to provide heavy artillery weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
“This additional military assistance will further support Ukraine in its response to Russia’s brutal, unrelenting and illegal invasion,” a statement from Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minster Peter Dutton said on Wednesday.
“The $26.7 million in new support for Ukraine takes Australia’s total contribution to Defensive Military Assistance to Ukraine to over $225 million.”
The M777 marks a “significant advance in Army’s capabilities”, according to the Australian army website.
The 155mm calibre weapon, which weighs 4,100kg and is 10.7 metres in deployed configuration, can fire two rounds per minute (sustained) or five rounds per minute (rapid) and its effective range is 24km for conventional rounds or 30km for improved rounds.
Lithuania’s president Gitanas Nauseda has urged German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to supply Ukraine with Leopard battle tanks, adding that Germany should speed up the delivery of weapons to Kyiv.
“I am not in the position of Chancellor Olaf Scholz. I can only say what I would do in his place: I would deliver tanks,” Nauseda was quoted by Funke media group as saying on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Germany announced its first delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine.
Nauseda said Germany was going in the right direction but if it wants to be consistent, it could not stop halfway.
“It is extremely important that Ukraine gets the military equipment it needs now. Not tomorrow or the day after, then it could be too late,” he added.
British prime minister Boris Johnson has said that he does not expect Russian president Vladimir Putin to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
When asked during an interview with Britain’s Talk TV if he fears that Putin may use nuclear weapons in Ukraine if Moscow faced defeat in its ongoing invasion, Johnson said Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre” and could back down.
Johnson said Putin had the “political space” to be able to back down and withdraw from Ukraine.
Putin has far more political space to back down, to withdraw.
There could come to a point, when he could say to the Russian people ‘the military technical operation that we launched in Ukraine has been accomplished, it’s been technically a success … we had to go into to accomplish certain protectors to protect the rights of certain people that’s been done’ and I think he has far more political space than people worry about.”
Johnson added that Putin “has a lot of room for manoeuvre.”
West gearing up to help Ukraine for ‘long haul’: US defence secretary
Dan Sabbagh
Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, has said the west is gearing up to help Ukraine for “the long haul” and will take steps to boost rearmament to help the embattled country following a meeting of defence ministers in Germany.
Politicians present also discussed coordinating future arms supplies on top of $5bn (£3.9bn) already committed, but the growing effort has already prompted Russia to accuse the west of engaging in “a proxy war” by arming Ukraine against Moscow.
“We have an important session today on the long term support for Ukraine’s defence including what that will take from our defence industrial bases,” Austin said after a 40-country meeting at the Ramstein airbase in south-west Germany.
The secretary added that that would mean “dealing with the tremendous demand that we’re facing for munitions and weapons platforms” and “redoubling our common efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s military for the long haul”.
Here are some of the latest haunting images to come out of Ukraine today.
From Borodyanka to Mariupol and Chernihiv, Ukrainians continue to resist Russian occupation.
Zelenskiy reiterated Russia’s threat to nuclear security in his national address after meeting with director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi.
No other country in the world since 1986 has posed such a major threat to nuclear security, to Europe and the world, that Russia has posed since February 24.
Russia kept a contingent in the Chernobyl zone with armoured vehicles, which destroyed the soil surface and raised an extraordinary amount of dust into the air, including radioactive particles.”
Zelenskiy added that Russia has “no right to turn nuclear energy into weapons”, as well as to blackmail the world with nuclear weapons.
We called everyone, we wanted a tough reaction from the world. We warned everyone that there could be a new nuclear catastrophe at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is like six Chernobyls, and that it could simply destroy Europe.”
‘The free world has the right to self-defence,’ Zelenskiy says
Zelenskiy has said the “free world has the right to self-defence” after predicting that Russia intends to not only seize the territory of Ukraine but to “dismember the entire centre and east of Europe” and “deal a global blow to democracy”.
There are almost no people left in the free world who do not understand that Russia’s war against Ukraine is just the beginning.
The ultimate goal of Russia’s leadership is not just to seize the territory of Ukraine, but to dismember the entire centre and east of Europe and deal a global blow to democracy.
Therefore, the free world has the right to self-defence. And that is why it will help Ukraine even more.”
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said “no one in the world can feel safe” after Russia threatened Ukraine’s nuclear facilities and called for “global control” over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology.
In his national address this evening, Zelenskiy said:
I believe that after all that the Russian military has done in the Chernobyl zone and at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, no one in the world can feel safe knowing how many nuclear facilities, nuclear weapons and related technologies the Russian state has.
If Russia has forgotten what Chernobyl is, it means that global control over Russia’s nuclear facilities and nuclear technology is needed.”
Addressing the latest threats to nuclear safety, Zelenskiy said Russia launched three missiles against Ukraine on Tuesday so that they “flew directly over the blocks of our nuclear power plants”. “Over three nuclear power plants at once. Over Zaporizhzhia, Khmelnytskyi and South-Ukrainian NPPs,” he added.
Russian troops that were trying to attack Kyiv through the Chernobyl zone used the restricted area as a military base.
They set up positions on land where it is forbidden to even stand. They drove armoured vehicles through areas where radiation-contaminated materials are buried and where the number of radioactive particles is simply horrendous. They destroyed the dosimetric control points. The Chernobyl radiation monitoring system was broken and looted. They looted a nuclear analytical laboratory…”
US state department spokesman Ned Price responded to Lavrov’s comments, saying they were part of a “pattern of bellicose statements” from Russia, which he branded “irresponsible” and “a clear attempt to distract from its failure in Ukraine.”
Loose talk of nuclear weapons, nuclear escalation is especially irresponsible, it is the height of irresponsibility,” Price told reporters on Tuesday.
Price said the US was paying close attention “to Russia’s activities, to what it’s doing and what it’s not doing” but added that the US saw no reason to change its own nuclear posture.
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