Ukraine war latest: Putin 'to hold talks with Xi Jinping and Erdogan'; attempt to 'overthrow Ukraine government' foiled (2024)

Sanctions imposed against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine have failed to achieve any of their aims, the country's ambassador has told Sky News.

Andrei Kelin was speaking to Sky News as an investigation by Sky's Ed Conway revealed glaring loopholes in the restrictions regime, which has allowed British companies - legally - to help keep Russian gas flowing and generate huge revenues for the Kremlin's war machine.

He defended the continued trade with Europe despite the heightened tensions, arguing "business is pure business".

He also argued the supply of weapons by the West, including Britain, to Ukrainewas "bad", as it perpetuated the conflict, which he claimed would be worse for Kyiv in the long term.

Speaking toThe World With Yalda Hakimprogramme, Mr Kelin said: "The goal of the sanctions was first of all to spoil [the] normal life of Russians so they will say that [Vladimir] Putin is wrong.

"The second point of sanctions was to damage the Russian economy as much as possible.

"The third point was to change the political personnel.

"So none of these goals have been reached by the sanctions."

US secretary of state Antony Blinken and the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak have discussed NATO members' intention to bring Ukraine closer to the alliance.

Mr Blinken has said Ukraine will become a member of NATO and that the summit will "help build a bridge" to that outcome, state department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said.

"They spoke about a number of issues, including the upcoming Washington NATO summit and allies' intention to bring Ukraine closer to NATO membership and helping to strengthen Ukraine's ability to defend against Russian aggression," Mr Patel told
reporters.

Their meeting in Washington comes before a NATO summit in the US capital next week, at which Ukraine hopes to secure more assurances from the alliance on its membership bid.

Apartment buildings have been left destroyed in the rural settlement of Toshkivka, in the eastern Luhansk region, amid fierce fighting in the region.

Luhansk - along with the Donetsk area - forms part of the Donbas region.

The region is one which Russia is trying to seize.

Lithuania's foreign ministry has made a diplomatic protest to Russia after a Russian civilian aircraft entered its airspace without permission.

The Pobeda airline aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace over the Baltic sea for a minute on Sunday evening, on its way from Moscow Vnukovo airport to Kaliningrad airport, the ministry said.

Lithuania, neighbour to both Russia and its ally Belarus, was once ruled from Moscow but is now a member of NATO and the EU.

The country has shown its backing for Ukraine during the war and provided military support to the country.

Belarus will not allow any clashes on the border with Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said according to the country's state-run Belta news agency.

"I guarantee you that we will not allow any clashes on the border with Ukraine. There won't be any," Mr Lukashenko said.

Last week, Belarus announced that it had deployed additional air defence forces to its border with Ukraine to protect "critical infrastructure facilities" due to increased Ukrainian drone activity in the area.

President Lukashenko, who has been the head of state of Belarus since 1994, is a longstanding ally of Mr Putin.

At the onset of Russia's invasion, Belarus provided logistical support for Russia, with Russian forces entering Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

But Mr Lukashenko has not sent any troops.

Two women have been killed after Russian attacks on the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol.

Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegramthe women were aged 61 and 86.

Another nine people were wounded.

"There is a lot of destruction in the district centre," he said.

"Local housing, educational institutions and a dispensary were damaged. Shops, beauty salons and cars were also affected."

Nikopol has been subjected to aerial attacks since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has said Washington will soon announce an additional £1.8bn in security assistance for Ukraine.

The package will include anti-tank weapons, interceptors and munitions for Patriot and other air defence systems.

It marks a strong response to pleas from Kyiv for help in battling Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region.

On Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had dropped more than 800 powerful glide bombs in Ukraine in the last week alone.

He urged national leaders to relax restrictions on the use of Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia, adding that Ukraine needed the "necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian combat aircraft, wherever they are".

Vladimir Putin will hold meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tomorrow during a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, Russian state news agency TASS reports.

Mr Putin last met Mr Xi in May when he visited China on his first foreign trip after being inaugurated for a fifth term as Russian president.

The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defence organisation established by China and Russia in 2001.

The other full members are India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Turkey, though not a member, often takes part in its meetings as a "dialogue partner".

Ukraine is expected to get "good news" in its quest for more air defence systems at a NATO summit in Washington next week, a senior US state department official has said.

The official told Reuters: "We hope we'll be able to get to the summit and make some new announcements on air defence.

"You've heard that the Ukrainians are keen to secure additional Patriots or similar systems. And I think we'll have some additional good news for them on that front."

The official did not provide any further details.

For context: Ukrainian officials have been urging their allies for months to supply more air defence systems to defend against frequent missile and drone attacks from Russian forces.

The upcoming NATO summit in Washington, which will be held from 9-11 July, is intended in part to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the military alliance.

Four settlements in the Russian region of Belgorod have been attacked by Ukrainian drones, the region's governor has said.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, reporting the news on his Telegram channel, said there were no civilian casualties according to preliminary data.

"In the Graivoron urban district, in the city of Graivoron, as a result of a drone crash with subsequent detonation, a parked passenger car caught fire," he wrote.

"Fire crews quickly extinguished the source of the fire. In the village of Bezymeno, five private houses were destroyed after several attacks."