Live blog: African leaders to offer 'confidence-building measures' in talks

Thursday, June 15, 2023

African leaders could propose a series of "confidence-building measures" during their initial efforts to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, according to a draft framework document seen by Reuters news agency.

Those measures could include a Russian troop pull-back, removal of tactical nuclear weapons from Belarus, suspension of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant targeting Russia's Vladimir Putin, and sanctions relief.

A cessation of hostilities agreement could follow and would need to be accompanied by negotiations between Russia and the West, the document stated.

The African states also stressed the need for grain imports to tackle food insecurity as Putin prepares to discuss with the continent's leaders the fate of a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of food and fertiliser from Ukraine.

The leaders could propose to Putin an "unconditional grain and fertiliser deal," according to the draft framework.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hopes for a positive outcome from Russian President Vladimir Putin's planned talks with African leaders on the future of a deal allowing the safe Black Sea export of grain from Ukraine.

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1800 GMT — Chechen fighters sent to Russian border with Ukraine

Chechen fighters have been deployed in Russia's Belgorod region bordering Ukraine to prevent attacks from "Ukrainian sabotage groups", Chechnya ruler Ramzan Kadyrov said, following a series of cross-border incursions from pro-Ukraine Russian partisan groups.

Kadyrov said that fighters from the "Zapad-Akhmat" battalion had been deployed near the border village of Nekhoteevka and a checkpoint in Graivoron district, the site of a cross-border attack in May.

"Residents of the territories adjacent to the border with Ukraine can rest easy ... Whoever encroaches on our borders will receive a lightning response," Kadyrov said in a post on Telegram messaging app.

Ukraine denies involvement in the cross-border attacks.

1559 GMT — UN experts raise 'widespread' torture concerns with Russia

A group of UN experts have written to Moscow raising concerns about the use of torture by Russian military forces on Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war.

The UN experts said in a statement the torture included electric shocks, hoodings and mock executions and had been carried out to extract intelligence, force confessions or in response to alleged support for Ukraine's forces.

While torture allegations have previously been levelled against both sides in the 15-month conflict, the team of UN independent experts said Russian forces' methods may be "state-endorsed".

A spokesperson for Russia's diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moscow has previously denied torturing or mistreating prisoners of war and says it does not deliberately target civilians in Ukraine.

1527 GMT — Ukraine has lot of combat power left for offensive - US

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said Ukraine still has plenty of firepower left to conduct a counter-offensive, despite initial losses inflicted by Russia.

"The Ukrainians still have a lot of combat capability, combat power," he said after a meeting of Ukraine and its Western backers in Brussels, adding that Kiev needed both short-term and long-term support as the war was a "marathon, not a sprint".

"I ask that the members of this Contact Group continue to dig deep to provide Ukraine with the air defence assets and munitions that it so urgently needs to protect its citizens," Austin said in opening remarks.

Top US General Mark Milley said it was still far too early "to put any estimates" on how long the Ukrainian counter-offensive could last.

"Ukraine has begun their attack and they are making steady progress. This is a very difficult fight, it is a very violent fight and it will likely take a considerable amount of time and at high cost," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

1428 GMT — IAEA's Grossi visits Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after dam breach

The head of the UN atomic energy agency has visited the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in Ukraine and said it was unrealistic to expect Moscow and Kiev to sign a document on the site's security while fighting raged nearby.

Rafael Grossi, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), arrived at Europe's biggest nuclear plant to assess potential safety risks after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, which caused huge floods and exacerbated fears for the facility's safety.

The dam formed a reservoir that provided the cooling water for the plant.

"On the one hand, we can see that the situation is serious, the consequences (of the dam's destruction) are there, and they are real," Grossi, said on a visit to the plant.

"At the same time, there are measures that are being taken to stabilise the situation."

1315 GMT — US, UK, Denmark and Netherlands to send air defence missiles to Ukraine

The US, Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark will partner to send air defence equipment including hundreds of missiles to Ukraine to help it fight Russian forces, the nations have said in a joint statement.

Delivery of the equipment has already begun and should be complete "within several weeks", the joint statement provided by the British government said, ahead of a meeting of the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Brussels.

Ukraine will also get a further 14 Leopard-2 battle tanks worth a three-digit million euro sum from Western partners, financed by Denmark and the Netherlands, Handelsblatt business daily reported citing NATO sources.

The vehicles will be supplied and refurbished by the Rheinmetall group. Contracts for the new delivery have already been signed and the German government was involved as it has to agree to the export of vehicles.

1129 GMT — Ukraine says it has retaken 100 square kilometres of land in counteroffensive

Ukraine has regained control of over 100 square kilometres, or 38 square miles, of territory in its counteroffensive against Russian forces, a senior Ukrainian military commander said.

"We are ready to continue fighting to liberate our territory even with our bare hands," Brigadier-General Oleksii Hromov told a media briefing.

He confirmed that in the early stages of the offensive, which Ukraine said had begun last week, seven settlements had been liberated in the eastern region of Donetsk and in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

The army has advanced by to 3 km (1.8 miles) near the village of Mala Tokmachka in the Zaporizhzhia sector and by up to 7 km near a village south of Velyka Novosilka in the Donetsk sector, military officials said.

1108 GMT — Russian forces hit Ukrainian drone production facilities

Russian forces have successfully hit drone production facilities in Ukraine using high-precision, long-range weapons, Russia's Defence Ministry said according to the state-run RIA news agency.

The ministry also said Russian air defences had intercepted five US-built HIMARS-launched missiles and shot down 25 drones, the TASS news agency reported.

Reuters news agency could not immediately verify the claims.

1104 GMT — Russia hits industrial facilities in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih

Russian missiles have hit two industrial facilities in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, and an elderly woman was killed by Russian fire in the southern Kherson region, local officials said.

"The destruction is significant," Kryvyi Rih mayor Oleksandr Vilkul wrote on the Telegram messaging app, while there were no deaths in the latest attack on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown.

Ukraine's military also reported a new Russian attack on the southern port city of Odessa overnight but said all 18 drones launched by Russia had been shot down.

1018 GMT — Russia sets date of elections in newly annexed territories

Russia's central election commission has set the date for regional elections in four Ukrainian provinces that Moscow claims to have annexed for September 10, coinciding with votes in other Russian regions, state news agency RIA reported.

TASS, another state news agency, cited election chief Ella Pamfilova as saying that Russia's Defence Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) considered it possible to hold the votes in September.

Russia does not fully control the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions in eastern and southern Ukraine and fighting is ongoing in all four regions. The regions are scheduled to elect local governors in September.

Russia declared the regions part of its own territory after conducting what it called referendums in occupied areas of Ukraine last September that Kiev and the West denounced as illegal and coercive.

0823 GMT — Child killed by Ukrainian shelling in Kherson region: Russian officials

A child has been killed by Ukrainian shelling in Ukraine's partly Russian-held southern Kherson region, the TASS news agency has reported, citing Moscow-backed authorities there.

0647 GMT — Too soon to assess agriculture losses from Ukraine dam explosion: Russian deputy PM

A senior Russian official said it was too soon to assess agricultural losses in Russian-controlled areas from the breaching of Ukraine's Kakhovka dam, state news agency TASS said.

The dam burst flooded huge areas of Kherson region, one of four that Russia claimed last year as its own territory after launching its full-scale offensive in Ukraine.

"Unfortunately, we cannot yet estimate the total amount of losses for agriculture. We need all the water to drain. And then we will be able to understand which farmers have suffered this damage and to what extent," TASS quoted Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko as saying.

Russian forces control about 18 percent of the territory of Ukraine, one of the world's leading grain producers. A majority of countries at the UN General Assembly have rejected the annexations as illegal.

TASS quoted Abramchenko as saying the flood would not affect Russia's crop forecasts overall.

0645 GMT — Belarusian border guards shoot down Ukrainian drone - TASS cites border service

Belarusian border guards shot down a Ukrainian drone over Gomel region, which borders Ukraine, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported the Belarusian border service as saying on Thursday.

0638 GMT — NATO's support to Ukraine makes a difference: Stoltenberg

NATO's support for Ukraine is making a difference on the battlefield, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has said, as Ukraine embarks on its counteroffensive against Russia.

"The support NATO allies have been giving Ukraine now for many, many months actually makes a difference on the battlefield," Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels.

His statement comes as Ukrainian forces intercepted one cruise missile and 20 explosive drones launched by Russia in its latest nighttime attack.

But three other missiles struck "industrial installations in the Dnipropetrovsk region" in the centre-east of Ukraine, the military said on Thursday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

0629 GMT — Russia claims to down nine drones over Crimea

Russian forces have downed nine drones over the Crimean peninsula, which it illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014, its Moscow-backed governor Sergei Aksionov said Thursday.

"Last night and this morning, nine drones were detected above Republic of Crimea territory," Aksionov said on Telegram.

"Six devices were shot down by air-defence forces" while three others were "deactivated" before hitting the ground, he said, adding that there were no victims.

However, one of the drones exploded in a village in the centre of the peninsula, breaking windows in several homes, he said.

Drone attacks in Crimea, whose annexation by Moscow has not been recognised by the international community, have increased in recent weeks as Ukraine pursues a counter-offensive against Russian forces.

0611 GMT — Norway, Denmark to donate 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine

Norway and Denmark have agreed to donate an additional 9,000 rounds of artillery to Ukraine, the Norwegian ministry of defence said in a statement on Thursday.

Norway will provide the shells, while Denmark will donate fuses and propellant charges, the Norwegian ministry said.

0120 GMT - Zelenskyy vows Ukraine reconstruction as he seeks more support in Europe

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country has been preparing substantively for Ukraine Recovery Conference, which will be held in London next week.

"This will be a significant event, very representative, which will unite both political and business efforts to restore our country and normal life for our people," Zelenskyy said.

"The key Ukrainian principle is simple and fair, namely: no ruins will be left in Ukraine."

In his address, Zelenskyy stated that they know the steps needed to rebuild and restore everything within an appropriate timeframe, and the forces needed to defeat Russia.

"When the ruins disappear, it is not just the aggressor who loses, but the idea of aggression itself. And it will happen," Zelenskyy added.

0042 GMT — Australia moves to stop Russia embassy near parliament

Australia has said it would introduce legislation to parliament to cancel Russia's lease to build a new embassy in the national capital of Canberra, citing national security.

The move follows the conclusion of a long-running litigation regarding the leased site after the federal court ruled last month that an eviction order made by the National Capital Authority — a government body tasked with the planning of the national capital — was invalid.

"The government has received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a new Russian presence so close to parliament house," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.

"To be clear, today's decision is one taken in the national security interests of Australia."

Albanese said his government acted quickly to ensure the leased site did not become an official diplomatic presence.

The termination of the lease would have no impact on Russia's existing embassy in Canberra.

For our live updates from Wednesday (June 14), click here.