The Kremlin has hit out at Emmanuel Macron after he said plans to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine were “ready” should Moscow and Kyiv agree to a ceasefire.
“The presence of foreign troops near our borders is unacceptable to us,” Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said, accusing European leaders of a “pattern of militaristic anti-Russian sentiment”.
It comes after Britain and France announced on Thursday plans to police Ukraine’s skies and seas in the event of a ceasefire.
The two nations will also help train Kyiv’s troops under scaled-back proposals for a new “Multinational Force Ukraine”.
Announcing the plans, Sir Keir Starmer said the mission would be headquartered in Paris for the first year of operations, before being rotated to London.
The measures are a step down from the original plans tabled for the “Coalition of the Willing” of nations, which would have seen tens of thousands of European troops deployed to protect Ukraine’s cities, critical infrastructure and nuclear power plants.
Nato will need more long-range missiles in its arsenal to deter Russia from attacking Europe because Moscow is expected to increase production of long-range weapons, a US army general told Reuters.
Russia’s use of long-range missiles in its war in Ukraine has convinced Western military officials of their importance for destroying command posts, transportation hubs and missile launchers far behind enemy lines.
“The Russian army is bigger today than it was when they started the war in Ukraine,” Major General John Rafferty said in an interview at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany.
“And we know that they’re going to continue to invest in long-range rockets and missiles and sophisticated air defences. So more alliance capability is really, really important.”
Donald Trump has said he will make a “major statement” about Russia on Monday after growing increasingly frustrated with Vladimir Putin in recent weeks.
Amid a ramp up of Russian aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities, the US president labelled his Russian counterpart “crazy” and accused him of speaking “bulls—”.
“I think I’ll have a major statement to make on Russia on Monday,” he told NBC News, without elaborating further.
Mr Trump could be referring to a major sanctions bill, drawn up by pro-Ukraine senator Lindsey Graham, which is expected to soon come to a vote in Congress.
The president also confirmed that the US would send a new weapons package to Ukraine, the first of his administration.
He described what he saw as a new deal between the US and Nato, which would buy weapons from Washington before sending them to Ukraine.
“So what we’re doing is the weapons that are going out are going to Nato, and then Nato is going to be giving those weapons to Ukraine, and Nato is paying for those weapons,” Mr Trump said.
The Kremlin has singled out Emmanuel Macron after he said plans to send a peacekeeping force to Ukraine were “ready” should Moscow and Kyiv agree to a ceasefire.
“The presence of foreign troops near our borders is unacceptable to us,” Peskov said, accusing European leaders of a “pattern of militaristic anti-Russian sentiment”.
We reported earlier that Britain and France will police Ukraine’s skies and seas in the event of a ceasefire deal being signed with Russia (see 8.01 post).
Russia is awaiting the “major statement” that Donald Trump announced he would deliver on Monday, a Kremlin spokesman said this morning.
The US president told NBC News on Thursday that he will make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday, without elaborating what it will be about.
When asked about the new Nato weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, called it “just business” as Kyiv had already been receiving weapons prior to this development.
Peskov also said Moscow was waiting for proposals from Ukraine ahead of a new round of talks.
Mystslav Chernov made his name through reporting from inside Mariupol as the Russians besieged the city. 20 Days in Mariupol, the film he produced from that time, won the Oscar for best documentary last year.
His latest centres on the failed Ukrainian counter-offensive of 2023, reaching right to the front line and revealing the agonies of the soldiers tasked with breaking through Russia’s defences.
‘2000 meters to Andriivka’ premieres on August 1 in the UK, but tickets are still available for a Q+A with the director on July 17 in London.
In the trailer, Chernov’s eye for detail immediately comes to the fore: a soldier’s eyes are wet, illuminated by the thin window slit in an armoured vehicle. Another’s hands shake as he picks up bullets. This former Associated Press reporter’s films bring us about as close as it is possible to get to the war, and the people who fight it.
I’m looking forward to taking my seat. Films like this are rare for good reason.
Finally, the trailer for ‘2000 METERS TO ANDRIIVKA’ by @mstyslavchernov— I was honored to work on this as a translator, with @frontlinepbs.
The film will be screening in UK and Irish cinemas starting August 1st.
Tickets: https://t.co/EuwJgptbwQ pic.twitter.com/xEYMhUgapO
Russian defence ministry said on Friday its forces captured the village of Zelena Dolyna in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
Sergei Lavrov said this morning that he outlined Vladimir Putin’s position on settling the Ukraine war during a meeting with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, the day before.
“We discussed Ukraine. We confirmed the position that President Putin had outlined, including in his July 3 conversation with President Trump,” the Russian foreign minister told state media on the sidelines of an Asean meeting in Kuala Lumpur.
For his part, Mr Rubio said he told Mr Lavrov that he was disappointed with progress to end the war in a “frank” conversation.
Germany plans to buy 15 additional F-35 fighter jets from the US, according to a report in Politico.
So far, Germany has ordered 35 F-35s to replace a total of 85 ageing Tornado fighter jets that will be decommissioned.
A military source told Reuters that the figure of 15 additional F-35 jets had been part of previous considerations, but that the numbers needed to be adapted after Nato’s new targets for weapons and troop numbers.
Ukraine’s overnight and early morning drone attacks killed two people in Russia and attempted to hit targets in Moscow, authorities have said.
Russian air defences downed 155 Ukrainian drones between 11pm Thursday and 7am Friday, including 11 bound for Moscow, the Russian defence ministry said.
Three of the four airports serving the Russian capital, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, temporarily suspended operations but later resumed.
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