Rutte ‘offered Orban Ukraine opt out’ in exchange for Nato post backing
Outgoing Dutch PM Mark Rutte spoke to Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban on the sidelines of an EU dinner yesterday and promised him he could opt out of Nato’s activities in support of Ukraine, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Dutch media are also reporting today that Orban has dropped his opposition to Rutte taking over from Jens Stoltenberg as head of Nato.
Orban had reportedly also demanded an apology from Rutte over his ‘problematic’ opinions on Hungary. But that conditon has been quietly dropped.
After Slovakia confirmed today that it will also support Rutte, only Romania is now holding out.
Ukrainian soldiers watch country’s first Euros match
Ukrainian servicemen of the 80th Separate Galician Air Assault Brigade watched their country play its first match of Euro 2024 on Monday evening at a makeshift military base.
Ukraine lost the match 3-0.
Finnish plan to reject migrants at Russian border passes committee
A Finnish government proposal to temporarily reject asylum seekers arriving across the country’s border with Russia can be accepted by parliament if some amendments are made, an influential committee of legislators said on Tuesday.
The announcement by the chair of the Finnish parliament’s constitutional committee paves the way for the controversial proposal to be approved.
Helsinki put forward a bill in May that would allow border guards to prevent migrants arriving across the long, forested border with Russia from seeking asylum.
Zelensky: peace communique still open to signatures
Ukraine’s president has urged more countries to sign the communique that was agreed to at during a peace summit in Switzerland at the weekend.
Over 80 of the countries that attended signed the document but several regional powers including Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and India did not.
Zelensky said on X that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, one of the arms of the eastern orthodox church, had also signed up to the communique.
I am grateful to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for joining the Global Peace Summit communique.
The document remains open for signatures, and I am confident that more countries and international organizations will join it. We continue to work to rally the world around the goal of…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 18, 2024 11:12AM
France to sell howitzers to Armenia
In a sign that Armenia is pivoting away from traditional ally Russia to closer ties to the West, France has signed a contract to sell CAESAR self-propelled howitzers to Yerevan.
French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu posted on X that the contract was signed during a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan.
Armenia is allied with Russia but has accused Moscow of failing to protect it from long-time rival Azerbaijan.
A brief war in September 2023 led to a mass exodus of ethnic Armenians from the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Putin’s visit to Vietnam angers Washington
Putin is set to visit Hanoi for two days after his trip to North Korea, according to state media, in a move that has angered the United States – Vietnam’s largest trading partner, reports Sarah Newey in Bangkok.
“No country should give Putin a platform to promote his war of aggression and otherwise allow him to normalise his atrocities,” a spokesperson for the American embassy in Hanoi told Reuters this week. “If he is able to travel freely, it could normalise Russia’s blatant violations of international law.”
But this attitude is at odds with the general sentiment across the southeast Asian country. In the capital, a city dotted with prominent Soviet-style buildings and statues – many were eagerly anticipating the Russian president’s visit.
“I was very happy when I learned that Mr Putin is coming to Vietnam because he is very talented, truly a world leader,” Tran Xuan Cuong, 57, told Reuters. Nguyen Duy Khanh, a 34-year-old photographer, added: “Mr. Putin is a very talented and powerful president and he is truly my idol.”
Moscow has long enjoyed deep ties with Communist-ruled Vietnam, with thousands of people from the southeast Asian country travelling to study in the former Soviet Union during the Cold War – including the head of the Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong.
Historically, Russia has also been Hanoi’s largest weapons supplier, and today the country continues to extract oil and gas from Vietnamese fields in the disputed South China Sea.
Kyiv’s secret services carried out drone attack on Russian oil depots: sources
A drone attack that set on fire oil storage sites in Russia’s southern Rostov region overnight was conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), an intelligence source has told Reuters.
The source told Reuters the attack struck the Azovskaya and Azovnefteprodukt depots that have a total of 22 fuel tanks.
Russian fire fighters have been battling a huge blaze after the oil depots were struck in the early morning.
Putin thanks North Korea for Ukraine help ahead of rare visit
Vladimir Putin has praised North Korea for “firmly supporting” Moscow’s war in Ukraine ahead of his first visit to Pyongyang in over two decades.
“We highly appreciate that the DPRK (North Korea) is firmly supporting the special military operations of Russia being conducted in Ukraine,” the Russian leader wrote in an article carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Putin is set to arrive in the isolated North late on Tuesday evening local time with a large delegation of ministers in a trip suspected to be about securing more munitions for his war on Ukraine.
The trip “will put bilateral cooperation onto a higher level with our joint efforts and this will contribute to developing reciprocal and equal cooperation between Russia and the DPRK,” the Russian leader wrote.
Video: Russian oil tanks burn after drone attack
Local authorities in the town of Azov, southern Russia, said several oil storage facilities were hit by a drone attack overnight. Here is video of the blaze.
Ukrainian woman jailed for Moscow anti-war protest
A Ukrainian woman has been sentenced by a Russian military court to 12 years in prison for playing anti-war songs and releasing balloons with a Russian opposition flag in Moscow, the Kyiv Independent reports.
The mother of two was found guilty of “spreading disinformation about the war” and “taking part in a terrorist organization.”
Her defence team claimed that a neighbour blackmailed her into carrying out the protest.
The woman found asylum in Switzerland after the war broke out but was convinced to return to Russia to carry out the protest in exchange for money, her lawyers said.
China accuses Nato of ‘shifting blame’ on Ukraine war
China has told Nato to “stop shifting the blame” over the Ukraine war after Jens Stoltenberg called for Beijing to face consequences over alleged efforts to rebuild Russia’s defence industry.
“We advise (Nato) to stop shifting blame and sowing discord, not add fuel to the fire and instigate confrontation, but rather do something practical for the political settlement of the crisis,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
He said that Nato “should engage in self-reflection rather than arbitrary smear and attacks on China”.
China presents itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine war, and says it is not sending lethal assistance to either side.
23 Nato members on track for defense spending pledge
Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said that 23 of the alliance’s 32 members were on track to meet a decade-old pledge to spend at least two percent of GDP on defense.
“Twenty-three allies are going to spend two percent of GDP or more on defense this year,” Stoltenberg said at a meeting with US President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
“Nato allies are this year increasing defense spending by 18 percent. That’s the biggest increase in decades,” he said.
Russian troops ‘gradually’ being driven back in Kharkiv region, says Zelensky
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily message to Ukrainians on Monday evening that the army was repelling the Russian offensive in the Kkarkiv region.
“Our forces are gradually pushing the occupier out of the Kharkiv region, and I thank every warrior and every unit for this, who are clearly fulfilling their tasks,” he said.
Pictures of released Ukrainian soldiers show hardship of captivity
This photo story shows soldiers receiving treatment at an undisclosed location in Ukraine after an exchange of prisoners with Russia on May 31.
A total of 75 Ukrainian captives were returned in the exchange.
Most of the Ukrainian soldiers lost a lot of weight in Russian captivity, and by the time these pictures were taken each of them had put back on about 10 kg.
Swedish MPs vote today on US defence deal
Swedish MPs are voting today on a defence deal with the US, which critics fear could ‘open’ Sweden to the deployment of nukes on its soil.
Signed by Stockholm and Washington in December, the deal would give the US access to 17 military bases and training areas in Sweden, and allow the storage of weapons, military equipment and ammunition in the country.
It is a major step for a country that ended two centuries of neutrality by joining Nato after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Sweden is a sovereign nation and it will always be Sweden that decides what type of weapons we allow,” Defence Minister Pal Jonson said.
Criticism came from the Greens who said that: “The agreement has no limits… “It opens up nuclear weapons on Swedish soil.”
Ukraine destroys 10 Russian drones overnight
Ukraine’s air force has said that its air defence systems destroyed all 10 drones that Russia launched overnight.
The drones were destroyed over the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
Biden administration warns of ‘reciprocity’ between Putin and Kim
Joe Biden’s National Security Council spokesman, John Kirby, has told reporters that: “We know North Korean ballistic missiles are still being used to hit Ukrainian targets (and) there could be some reciprocity here that could affect security on the Korean peninsula.”
Highlighting those concerns, South Korea has said its troops fired at soldiers from the North who briefly crossed the border on Tuesday before retreating.
The South believes the North Korean soldiers accidentally crossed as they were fortifying the border. Some of them were injured after detonating landmines.
Putin makes rare visit to Russia’s diamond region
Putin made a stop-off in Russia’s far east on Tuesday en route to his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later in the day.
Putin’s trip to the diamond-producing Republic of Sakha, Russia’s largest region by area, is his first since 2014, TASS news agency said.
He was due to hold a series of meetings, including with the regional leader.
Drone attack sets oil tanks ablaze in southern Russia
An overnight drone attack has set several oil storage tanks ablaze near the town of Azov in southern Russia, sparking a large fire.
Ukraine did not immediately claim responsibility but has carried out similar attacks on Russian energy facilities before.
“Oil product tanks caught fire in Azov as a result of a drone attack. According to preliminary data, there were no casualties,” the local governor said.
Video showed thick smoke and flames billowing out of what appeared to be multiple oil storage tanks in an undisclosed location.