Moscow claims to have pushed back the fighters it says launched a cross-border attack from Ukraine into the Belgorod region. There has been little clarity about who ordered the attack. Russia has claimed it was carried out by “Ukrainian militants”, dismissing reports they had self-identified as an ethnic Russian, anti-Kremlin militia. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said there were many ethnic Russians inside Ukraine, but that this did not mean they were not Ukrainian militants. Kyiv has disavowed any connection to the Russian partisan fighters, saying they act independently and are not subject to military control.
Russia’s defence ministry claims that remnants of the units it blamed for the attack have now been forced back into Ukrainian territory. In its daily briefing, the ministry said more than 70 attackers were killed. Russia’s investigative committee has opened an investigation into terrorism over the incident.
Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov had earlier warned residents against returning to their homes, saying that “The cleaning of the territory by the ministry of defence together with law enforcement agencies continues”. He confirmed that residents of nine settlements had been resettled as a result of the fighting.
Video footage posted online by one of the groups of Russian “partisans” appeared to show US manufactured military vehicles were involved in the raid including Humvees and what appeared to be International Maxxpro 1224 mine resistant vehicles. On Monday a US state department official reiterated the US policy that it did not support military action by Ukraine beyond Ukraine’s borders. The events of the past 48 hours appear to confirm assessments in US intelligence documents – leaked by US airman Jack Teixeira to Discord – that Ukraine has trained and armed Russian volunteers with Nato equipment.
Ukrainian forces still control the south-western edge of the city of Bakhmut and fighting in the city itself has decreased, deputy Ukrainian defence minister Hanna Maliar claimed on Tuesday. She wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Kyiv’s forces had made some progress “on the flanks to the north and south of Bakhmut” and that Russian forces, which say they have taken the city itself, were continuing to clear areas they control.
The Ukrainian port of Pivdennyi has halted operations because Russia is not allowing ships to enter it, in effect cutting it out of a deal allowing safe Black Sea grain exports, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday. Ukrainian deputy renovation minister Yuriy Vaskov said that Tuesday’s inspections plan showed Russia had included only three of the 13 ships that had been submitted. All ships bound for Pivdenniy had been excluded, he said, as well as some meant to go to Odesa and Chornomorsk, calling it a “gross violation” of the Black Sea grain initiative.
Belarus has taken part in the illegal deportation of children from Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, according to a preliminary report compiled by exiled Belarusian opposition leaders. The National Anti-Crisis Management, a group of political opponents to the government of Alexander Lukashenko, said 2,150 Ukrainian children – including orphans aged six to 15 – were taken to so-called recreation camps and sanatoriums on Belarusian territory.
The training of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets has begun in Poland, the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said, after the US gave its green light.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy visited marines on Tuesday on the Vuhledar-Maryinka defence line in the Donetsk region, as part of celebrations for the national day of Ukrainian marines.
Pavlo Kyrylenko, Ukraine’s governor of Donetsk, one of the occupied regions of the Donbas which the Russian Federation claims to have annexed, has reported that the city of Toretsk was struck without casualties.
Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, reports that there has been an interruption in power supplies in Kherson as a result of Russian military action.
Ukraine’s general staff said that on Monday Russia carried out 20 missile strikes against Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv oblasts, using cruise missiles, Iskander-M ballistic missiles, and S-300 anti-aircraft missiles over the past day. It also claimed that Russia launched 48 airstrikes using Shahed drones, and targeted both civilian and military targets with up to 90 strikes using multiple-launch rocket systems.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has arrived in China, Moscow’s foreign ministry said, for a visit in which he will meet with President Xi Jinping and ink a series of deals on infrastructure and trade
A top Russian official who faces sanctions in the west over Moscow’s war on Ukraine visited Saudi Arabia early Tuesday and held talks with his counterpart in the kingdom. Russian interior minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev’s visit to Riyadh came days after Zelenskiy addressed an Arab League summit held in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port city of Jeddah
Germany is looking into options to support a coalition of countries that plan to train Ukrainian pilots in flying F-16 fighter jets, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday. He added that any potential German contribution could be minor only, as Germany itself does not own any of the US-built jets.
Twelve northern European countries met Monday to discuss stepping up deterrence and security on Nato’s eastern flank and strengthening Ukraine’s defences. Defence ministers from the Northern Group met in Poland on Monday where talks described as “very good” by the Polish defence minister were focused on coordinating ways of providing security to countries in the group.
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer both reaffirmed their support for Ukraine in the UK’s House of Commons on Monday. The Labour leader also noted that Labour “[welcomes] the decision by our partners on F-16 fighter jets” and said “whichever party is in power in the UK, there will be no letup in Britain’s resolve. We will continue to support Ukraine’s military and its people in its quest for freedom, peace and justice.”
The US State Department on Monday said Russia’s Wagner Group is trying to obscure the mercenary group’s efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine, adding that Washington has been informed that Wagner is seeking to move those acquisitions through Mali to aid Russia in its war.
