Ukraine-Russia war: Putin’s troops ‘creating hedgehog defences’ in south

Canada will contribute nearly £20m to a British-led partnership that is buying air defence equipment for Ukraine to help it fend off Russian missile and drone attacks.

The partnership, which also includes the United States, the Netherlands and Denmark, aims to buy hundreds of short and medium-range air defence missiles and associated systems.

In a statement, defence minister Bill Blair said the contribution was part of the £300m of military aid for Kyiv that prime minister Justin Trudeau had announced in June.

Ottawa has committed close to £5bn in aid to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion.

The world must recommit to the United Nations’ sustainable development goals if the ambitious targets are to be met, UK ministers and diplomats will urge at a UN summit next week, reports Dominic McGrath.

Prime ministerRishi Sunak has been accused of snubbing the gathering in New York, blaming diary pressures for his absence and instead sending a team headed by his deputy Oliver Dowden.

He is not the only world leader expected to miss the summit, which is set to see discussions on the war in Ukraine, artificial intelligence and the threat of climate change.

French president Emmanuel Macron is not expected to attend, while neither is China’s Xi Jinping and Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Russia and Ukraine will square off at the UN’s highest court tomorrow, in hearings set to run until 27 September.

Ukraine brought the case to the International Court of Justice just days after Russia’s invasion, accusing Moscow of abusing international law by saying the invasion was justified to prevent an alleged genocide in eastern Ukraine.

The upcoming hearings will not delve into the merits of the case and are instead focused on legal arguments about the court’s jurisdiction – to which Russia objects.

Based on a preliminary hearing in March, the court ordered Russia to cease military actions in Ukraine immediately – to no avail, given the court has no way of enforcing its decisions. Nevertheless, experts say an eventual ruling in favour of Ukraine could be important for any future reparations claims.

Russia claims to have thwarted a coordinated Ukrainian attack on Crimea, while drones also targeted Moscow, disrupting air traffic in the capital, and caused a fire at an oil depot in the southwest of the country, Reuters reports.

Russian air defence systems destroyed at least six drones targeting Crimea from different directions, Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday, without mentioning whether there had been any damage or casualties.

In the Moscow region, a drone was destroyed over the Istra district and another over the Ramensky district, Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, adding there were no casualties or damage from drone debris.

At least 30 flights were delayed and six cancelled at Moscow’s major airports, Russian state news agencies said.

In southwestern Russia, a Ukrainian drone damaged an oil depot early on Sunday, sparking a fire at a fuel tank that was later extinguished, the regional governor said, reporting no casualties.

Another drone was downed in Russia’s Voronezh region, local governor Aleksandr Gusev and the ministry of defence claimed, while authorities in Tula also reported a drone crashing on the grounds of a logistics centre.

Poland has begun enforcing a European Union ban on all Russian-registered passenger cars seeking to enter the country, days after neighbouring Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia did the same.

The move is in line with a recent interpretation of the EU’s sanctions on Moscow. Announcing the imminent imposition of the ban on Saturday, Polish interior minister Mariusz Kaminski said: “A car registered in Russia has no right to enter Poland.

“This is another element of the sanctions imposed on Russia and its citizens in connection with the brutal war in Ukraine, due to the fact that the Russian state today constitutes a threat to international security.”

In addition to Kaliningrad, Poland has Belarus and Ukraine on its eastern borders. It is otherwise bordered by EU and Nato allies Germany, Slovakia, Czechia and Lithuania, where there are no border checks.

The Border Guard’s website said Russian-tagged cars “will be returned to the non-EU country from which they came, regardless of whether it is Russia or another country”. It added: “Such actions will be carried out even if the driver of the car is not a citizen of the Russian Federation.”

Foreign secretary James Cleverly has said Boris Johnson was “wrong” to say the UK has not moved fast enough on support for Ukraine.

Listing the UK’s support, he said: “During my time as foreign secretary under Rishi Sunak as prime minister, we were the first in the world to commit main battle tanks.

“Other countries in the world then followed our example. We were the first to commit to the training of fast jet pilots. Then other countries followed our example.

“We were the first to commit … to those long-range missiles that have been instrumental in helping the Ukrainians in their battle in the south and the south-east of Ukraine.

“I take his comments seriously, but I’ve just given you evidence the fact is that he’s wrong on this issue, because we continue to take the lead on the battle-winning equipment that the Ukrainians have specifically asked for,” he told Sky News.

Kim Jong Un is on board a train bound for North Korea, wrapping up his days-long visit to Russia, state news agencies have reported.

It departed from the railway station in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Artyom, and was travelling to Khasan station on Russia’s border with North Korea – a distance of more than 200 kilometres.

Footage published by Russia’s state-run RIA news agency showed Mr Kim walking along a red carpet to the train carriage to the music of a military band and waving goodbye.

Russian natural resources minister Alexander Kozlov, Moscow’s ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, and the governor of the Primorye region, Oleg Kozhemyako, saw off the North Korean leader, RIA reported.

Earlier, Russian media said Mr Kim and Russia’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu had discussed practical issues to boost military cooperation, in what Pyongyang called a “fresh heyday” for bilateral relations.

A grain silo and agricultural fields were damaged in a Russian drone and missile barrage early this morning, Odesa’s regional governor has said.

“Fortunately, there were no casualties,” Odesa governor Oleh Kiper said of the strikes in the Berezivsky district in the eastern part of the region.

With the entire territory of Ukraine under air raid alerts for several hours, Ukraine’s Air Force claimed to have shot down six Iranian-made Shahed drones and six cruise missiles, with a further four of the latter slipping through their defences.

“Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups and other means of attack were involved in repelling the air attack,” the Air Force said.

Armenia has sent “proposals” to Russia on its plans to come under the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction, Russian state news outlets have claimed.

Relations between the traditional allies have frayed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Moscow has warned of “serious consequences” if Yerevan presses ahead with the plans, after the court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes.

The warrant, concerning the forcible transfer of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia, obliges the court’s 123 member states to detain and transfer Putin if he sets foot on their territory.

The ambassador-at-large of Armenia’s foreign ministry, Edmon Marukyan, said Yereven has sent “proposals” on the issue to Moscow, Tass reported. “A meeting was held and the process is underway,” it quoted him as saying.

Mr Marukyan said Armenia’s plan to become a party to the Rome Statute, bringing it under the international court’s remit, was “not against the Russian Federation but because of war crimes committed on territory of the Republic of Armenia by the Azerbaijani side”, Tass reported.

“Our Russian partners are well aware of this.”

Russia launched a combined drone and missile attack on Ukraine early this morning, largely targeting the southern parts of Odesa and hitting an agriculture facility there, Ukraine’s Air Forces said.

Russia used six Iranian-made Shahed drones and 10 cruise missiles in the attack, with Ukraine’s forces destroying six drones and six missiles before they hit their target, Kyiv’s troops claimed.

The situation in Odesa and its ports has been watched carefully by grain markets, as Kyiv said on Saturday that two cargo vessels arrived there to use a temporary corridor to sail into Black Sea ports and load grain for African and Asian markets.

“Fighter aircraft, anti-aircraft missile units, mobile fire groups and other means of attack were involved in repelling the air attack,” the Air Force said.

The extent of the damage was not immediately known and it was not clear what facility was hit. The Air Force said only that emergency services were on the site. The entire territory of Ukraine was under air raid alerts for several hours.