Czech foreign minister summons Russian ambassador after deadly Russian missile strikes on Ukraine
The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said he has summoned the Russian ambassador aftera daylight Russian missile barrage hit Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital andkilled dozens of people around the countryon Monday.
Lipavský said:
I have decided to summon the Russian ambassador. Murderers who attack children in hospitals are the dregs of humanity. He has been instructed to deliver the message in Moscow.
I have decided to summon the Russian ambassador. Murderers who attack children in hospitals are the dregs of humanity. He has been instructed to deliver the message in Moscow.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiyarrived in Washington on the first of the three-day Nato summit, which is expected to focus heavily on helping Kyiv fight Russian aggression in the war in Ukraine.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying, a day after a lethal strike on a children’s hospital in Kyiv. “Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity, is pained when there is loss of lives,” Modi said. “But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying.” The deadly hospital strike was likely caused by a direct hit from a Russian missile, Danielle Bell, head of mission for the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine, said.
Modi arrived in Russia on Monday, shortly after Russian missiles struck across Ukraine, killing at least 41 people nationwide, including some children, officials said. The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, on Tuesday said he summoned the Russian ambassador in response to the strikes. The attack prompted the UN security council to hold an emergency meeting after Ukraine requested it to do so.
Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil refinery, military airfield, and electricity substation in an overnight joint operation by Kyiv’s security and military intelligence agencies, a security source told Reuters. The source said the attacks hit the Akhtubinsk airfield in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region, an oil refinery in the Volgograd region and an electricity substation in the Rostov region.
The Kremlin claimed to have captured the village of Yasnobrodivka in eastern Ukraine near the Russian-held city of Donetsk, according to its defence ministry.
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The Ukrainian president is expected to give a speech at the Ronald Reagan Institute later in the day. He has been urging allies to bolster Ukrainian air defence systems and is expected to renew those pleas during the summit.
Observers expect Nato members to pledge at least four additional Patriot missile batteries. Zelenskiy had previously asked Nato for seven batteries, saying that Vladimir Putin “must be brought down to earth, and our sky must become safe again … And it depends fully on your choice … [the] choice whether we are indeed allies.”
Hannah Ellis-Petersen is the Guardian’s south Asia correspondent
As India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, landed in Moscow on Monday, it was straight into the warm embrace of Vladimir Putin. Modi said the visit – his first since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – was to cement the “bonds of friendship” between the two countries, and later effusively described Russia as India’s “all-weather friend and trusted ally”.
The India-Russia relationship runs deep, dating back to the cold war, and Russia has long been the largest supplier of arms to India. Since he was elected in 2014, Modi has built up a much-publicised rapport with Putin, the two leaders having had more than 20 meetings.
However, Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022 put an unprecedented strain on their ties and forced India to tread a tricky path in balancing its relationships with both Putin and the west.
Narendra Modi is in Russia for talks with Vladimir Putin, the first time India’s prime minister has visited Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
India refused to join western countries in condemning Putin’s invasion and abstained from all UN votes denouncing Russia. It also eagerly became the largest buyer of cheap Russian oil, still sending billions to the country’s coffers, which was seen by some to undermine western sanction efforts. Nonetheless, India’s displeasure with Putin’s actions was not entirely concealed, with Modi stating that “now is not the era for war”.
The Indian prime minister’s decision to strengthen his relationship with the western leaders who are Putin’s biggest critics, including the US president, Joe Biden, and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, has been met frostily in the corridors of the Kremlin. Similarly, Putin’s increasingly close ties with Beijing are viewed with great suspicion in New Delhi, where China is viewed as the greatest threat.
But while the geopolitical landscape was markedly different from 2019 when Modi was last in Moscow, the leaders went to great pains to display their continued bonhomie over the two-day visit which ended on Tuesday night.
Czech foreign minister summons Russian ambassador after deadly Russian missile strikes on Ukraine
The Czech foreign minister, Jan Lipavský, said he has summoned the Russian ambassador aftera daylight Russian missile barrage hit Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital andkilled dozens of people around the countryon Monday.
Lipavský said:
I have decided to summon the Russian ambassador. Murderers who attack children in hospitals are the dregs of humanity. He has been instructed to deliver the message in Moscow.
I have decided to summon the Russian ambassador. Murderers who attack children in hospitals are the dregs of humanity. He has been instructed to deliver the message in Moscow.
The UN security council is to hold an emergency meeting after the deadly Russian missile attacks over Ukraine yesterday. You can watch the meeting on the stream at the top of this blog.
“Nammo will be investing in a new production line that can increase production of the defence sector’s most modern artillery shells tenfold,” the Norwegian government said, adding that Nammo had committed to maintaining the new production capacity for at least 15 years.
Norway and its Nato allies have been racing to increase their production of weapons, ammunition and missiles, partly to supply Ukraine but also to replenish stocks and be able to counter new threats.
Norway’s prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said (you can read the press release here):
Ukraine has an enormous and urgent need for ammunition and weapons. The Government has implemented a number of measures to enhance production in the Norwegian defence industry.
This agreement will make it possible for Nammo to expand production of highly sought-after military equipment. This is of great importance for Ukraine, for Allied security and for our own national preparedness.
The Holy Father has learned with grave sorrow the news about attacks on two medical centres in Kyiv, including Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital, as well as against a school in Gaza.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, spoke to journalists at an airport in Ankara before flying to Washington to join Nato leaders at a summit meeting. He cautioned Nato allies about taking any step that could escalate the war in Ukraine and potentially drag member states into it directly.
“While designing the steps to be taken to support Ukraine, we also maintain our principled stance not to make Nato a party to the war,” he said.
His comments come a day after Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said that Poland was open to the idea of shooting down Russian missiles that were heading for Nato territory while they were still over Ukrainian soil.
A delegation of North Korean military trainers led by the head of a prestigious military academy in Pyongyang has begun a trip to Russia, according to North Korean state media.
The delegation of North Korean military trainers is led by the president of the Kim Il Sung Military University, Kim Geum Chol, North Korean state media said, without providing any further information about the visit.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol said on 8 June that growing military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a “distinct threat and a grave challenge to the peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in Europe”.
News emerged at the end of May that France could soon send its military trainers to Ukraine, after commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said that he had already signed documents “that will allow the first French instructors to visit training centers soon”.
Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian oil refinery, military airfield, and electricity substation in an overnight joint operation by Kyiv’s security and military intelligence agencies, a security source told Reuters on Tuesday.
The source said the attacks hit the Akhtubinsk airfield in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region, an oil refinery in the Volgograd region and an electricity substation in the Rostov region.
As was mentioned in the opening summary, the Russian aviation authority confirmed that Russia’s Astrakhan and Volgograd airports resumed flights after closing earlier due to a drone attack.
Russia says its forces have taken control of village in eastern Ukraine - report
Russia’s defence ministry has said that its forces have taken control of Yasnobrodivka settlement in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, the Tass news agency reported. This claim has not yet been independently verified by the Guardian.
Ukrainian troops have been trying to fend off an intense Russian offensive focused on the Ukrainian border regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk. Kyiv has reported shortages of ammunition and troops along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) frontline, and is in desperate need of more western military aid, particularly air defence systems.
Austria’s energy minister has appointed a commission of experts to examine whether Austria can scrap a gas-supply contract between Austrian fuel giant OMV and Gazprom to reduce its dependence on Russia, Reuters reported.
Leonore Gewessler of the Greens, which is the junior partner in a conservative-led coalition, said in February she wanted to end the contract that runs until 2040.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s conservatives have said they agree Austria needs to move away from Russian gas. Ahead of a parliamentary election due on Sept. 29, however, the two sides of the coalition increasingly have been at odds.
In May, the latest month for which data is available, 90% of net gas imports came from Russia.
Gewessler said OMV had agreed to grant members of the commission access to the contract, the terms of which are a closely-guarded secret.
Her commission, made up of economists and legal specialists, is headed by retired judge and former lawmaker for the liberal Neos Irmgard Griss and law professor Andreas Kletecka.
“It is a very significant and important question: isn’t there a way to get out of this contract?” Griss told a news conference. “Is there anything you can use legally to get out of this contract?”
The commission’s initial findings are due to be presented “by autumn” before a final report by the end of this year, Gewessler’s ministry said in a statement without specifying whether that could be before the September elections.
The far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which rival parties accuse of being dangerously pro-Russian, has led opinion polls. It says it is merely defending Austria’s neutrality.
The pointed remark by the visiting Indian leader was an implicit rebuke to Putin, who moments earlier had welcomed him to the Kremlin with a warm statement on the importance of the strategic ties between the two countries.
Ukraine says it has recovered fragments of a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile at the children’s hospital, which was hit on Monday during a wave of Russian attacks that killed at least 41 Ukrainians across the country.
Russia said, without providing evidence, that it was a Ukrainian anti-missile system that struck the hospital.
“Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity, is pained when there is loss of lives,” Modi said.
“But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying.”
It was not the first time that Modi has appeared to criticise Russia over its actions in Ukraine. In September 2022, he told Putin that “today’s era is not an era of war”, and Putin said at that time he understood Modi’s concerns.
India, however, has not condemned Russia’s invasion and has taken the opportunity to buy record amounts of discounted Russian oil as sanctions have decimated Moscow’s trade with the west.
Vladimir Putin meets with Narendra Modi in Moscow on 9 July 2024. Photograph: Sergey Bobylev/Reuters
Donations have poured in to help rebuild the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital, one of the largest in Europe and provided treatment for various diseases including cancer. Rescue operations at the hospital ended early on Tuesday, with two people confirmed dead and dozens injured after part of the medical facility was reduced to rubble by Russian strikes.
Reuters calculations based on statements and Ukrainian media reports put the total amount donated to the hospital so far from Ukraine’s corporate sector at about 300 million hryvnia ($7.3m; £5.7m).
Oleh Horokhovskyi, founder of Ukrainian lender Monobank, said they had gathered 100 million hryvnias ($2.4m; £1.9m) from various businesses within just three hours.
A woman’s body has been recovered from the ruins of a residential building in Kyiv where 12 people were killed in the Russian missile attack yesterday, mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram.
