Russia’s defence ministry warned of an immediate “proportional response” if Britain continued its “direct provocation”, after the UK armed forces minister, James Heappey, described Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil that hit supplies and disrupted logistics as “completely legitimate”.
A Russian minister refused to rule out Moldova’s breakaway region, Transnistria, being drawn into the Ukraine war, in a potential escalation of the conflict to another European country. The deputy foreign minister, Andrey Rudenko, said on Tuesday that Moscow “was concerned” about the string of recent explosions in Transnistria, saying Russia “would like to avoid a scenario” in which Transnistria was dragged into the war.
A Russian missile has hit a strategic bridge linking the southern Odesa region with neighbouring Romania, Ukrainian officials said. The strike on the bridge, across the Dniester estuary near the city of Odesa, has cut off the railway connection to areas of the Odesa region west of the estuary and Romania, the head of Ukraine’s railways said.
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has travelled to Moscow in an attempt to put the UN at the heart of Ukrainian mediation efforts. In a joint press conference with Russia’s foreign minister, Guterres said the UN was “ready to fully mobilise its human and logistical resources to help save lives in Mariupol”. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereschuk said there was “no point” in the UN if there was no real humanitarian corridor from Mariupol.
During his joint press conference with Guterres, Russia’s foreign secretary, Sergei Lavrov, said Russia had dismissed Ukraine’s proposal to stage peace talks in the port city of Mariupol. Lavrov said it was too early to talk about who would mediate in any negotiations, but he said Moscow was committed to a diplomatic solution via talks on Ukraine.
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 Chernobyl to “deliver equipment, conduct radiological assessments and restore safeguards monitoring systems”, the IAEA said.
The US has vowed to move “heaven and earth” to help Ukraine win its battle against Russia’s invasion as it hosted defence talks in Germany with allies from 40 nations. The gathering is being led by the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, after his meeting with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Sunday.
Germany will authorise the delivery of anti-aircraft systems to Ukraine, the German defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, said at the meeting of defence ministers at the US Ramstein airbase. In a clear switch in Berlin’s cautious policy on military backing for Kyiv, Lambrecht said the government had agreed to sign off the delivery of used Gepard anti-aircraft weapons systems.
