Russia Ukraine war latest: Kyiv ‘is pushing Putin back’, UK’s most senior military officer says

Ukraine’s military has “good news” in the eastern front of the battlefield where heavy fighting is underway to regain ground, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said, saying Kyiv’s forces were making gains near Bakhmut.

“We are moving forward in the Bakhmut direction. The main battles continue in the districts of Andriivka, Kurdyumivka, Klishchiivka. And we have good news there – Andriivka. The situation is very complex and changeable, we keep our fingers crossed,” the deputy defence minister said in her official Telegram channel on Thursday evening.

Key Russian ships by missiles in a Ukrainian strike of the Kremlin’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea suffered “catastrophic damage”, Britain’s Ministry of Defence has said.

The MoD said landing ship ‘Misnk’ has almost certainly been “functionally destroyed” while the Rostov submarine has likely suffered “catastrophic damage”.

This was despite the Kremlin trying to play down the significance of the attacks,the MOD.

A statement said: “Despite the Russian Ministry of Defence downplaying the damage to the vessels, open-source evidence indicates the Minsk has almost certainly been functionally destroyed, while the Rostov has likely suffered catastrophic damage.”

While Kyiv’s counteroffensive in the south and east has been slowed by minefields and Russian defensive lines, fighting has escalated in the Black Sea region where Russia is imposing a de facto blockade on Ukraine‘s seaborne exports.

Russian drones have regularly attacked Ukrainian port infrastructure along the Danube River, a vital alternative export route for the major grain producer. It uses its Black Sea Fleet to rain down missiles on Ukrainian targets from afar.

Ukraine‘s embattled navy has used sea drones to strike back, hitting the Olenegorsky Gornyak landing ship near Russia’s naval base at Novorossiysk early last month and a Russian fuel tanker.

Senior presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine was focused on three key tasks aimed at the de-occupation of the peninsula, which lies far behind the battlelines of southern Ukraine.

Kyiv, he said, was targeting air defence systems to open up the path to more strikes on Russian military and warehouse infrastructure. Kyiv was also attacking transport logistics to “stop the large-scale continuous supply of resources and reserves into the area of active hostilities,” he said

“We need to chase away remnants of the Russian Black Sea fleet from Crimean territorial waters and beyond and reinstate the status of the Black Sea as the sea of external jurisdiction,” he wrote in English.

Russia regards the peninsula as strategically important and uses its Black Sea Fleet to project power.

Ukraine said on Thursday it attacked two Russian patrol ships and destroyed a sophisticated air defence system in the west of occupied Crimea, ramping up its strikes to challenge Moscow’s dominance in the Black Sea region.

The attacks come a day after Kyiv said it seriously damaged a Russian submarine and landing ship undergoing repairs in a missile strike on a shipyard in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

The Ukrainian military, in a post on Telegram messenger, said it hit two Russian patrol boats in the southwest of the Black Sea, causing “certain damage” in a morning attack.

“The (Sergei) Kotov was hit,” military intelligence official Andriy Yusov told Reuters, sharing a grainy video circulated online by a Ukrainian government minister that appeared to show sea drones attacking a vessel at sea.

The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed an attack on the Sergei Kotov in a morning statement, but said the assault involving five sea drones was repelled. It made no mention of damage.

Ukraine’s military has “good news” in the eastern front of the battlefield where heavy fighting is underway to regain ground, deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said, saying Kyiv’s forces were making gains near Bakhmut.

“We are moving forward in the Bakhmut direction. The main battles continue in the districts of Andriivka, Kurdyumivka, Klishchiivka. And we have good news there – Andriivka. The situation is very complex and changeable, we keep our fingers crossed,” the deputy defence minister said in her official Telegram channel on Thursday evening.

Initially, the minister claimed Ukrainian forces had retaken Andriivka village, which falls south of Bakhmut, but the country’s Third Assault Brigade fighting in the region said the report was “premature”.

More details on Ukraine’s advance here:

The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker to coordinate U.S. efforts to channel private sector reconstruction assistance to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the appointment on Thursday, just moments after the Treasury imposed a raft of new sanctions on Russia and Russian operatives for their role in the war on Ukraine.

“Working in lockstep with the Ukrainian government, our allies and partners, international financial institutions, and the private sector, she will drive the United States’ efforts to help rebuild the Ukrainian economy,” Biden said in a statement.

“This includes mobilizing public and private investment, shaping donor priorities, and working to open export markets and businesses shut down by Russia’s brutal attacks and destruction.”

Mary Dejevsky writes: “This may have been a mistake, but I have always regarded Ursula von der Leyen as a rather low-key, matter-of-fact politician in a Merkel-esque mode. This week, she defied that image, delivering her fifth and possibly last State of the (European) Union address in untypically high-flown and futuristic terms.

“It was a wide-ranging, well-organised – and rather good – speech, but little noted, alas, in the post-EU UK. And one of her main themes – how could it not be? – was Ukraine and its place in Europe. “History,” she said, “is now calling us to work on completing our Union”, and she set herself unambiguously on the side of EU enlargement, to include Moldova and the Western Balkans, plus, of course, Ukraine.”

After visiting the Vostochny Cosmodrome, Putin decided to show Kim his armoured Aurus limousine, inviting him to take a seat inside.

Their meeting location shows that Putin is ready to share Russian rocket and space technology with Pyongyang in exchange for access to North Korea’s arms stockpiles for the war in Ukraine.

The talks between the two leaders were expected to focus on expanding military cooperation amid their intensifying confrontations with the West.

Over a sumptuous lunch of Russian “pelmeni” dumplings made with Kamchatka crab, white Amur fish soup and sturgeon, Kim on Wednesday toasted to Putin’s health, to the victory of “great Russia” and to Korean-Russian friendship, predicting victory for Moscow in its “sacred fight” with the West.

North Korea was founded in September 1948 with the backing of the Soviet Union, and Moscow supported it for decades during the Cold War, though support dropped off after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

In recent years, China has been seen as the power with the most influence over Kim, but Pyongyang’s leaders have often tried to balance ties with both Moscow and Beijing.

After taking over from Boris Yeltsin in 1999, Putin visited Pyongyang in July 2000 for a meeting with Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un.

At the summit on Wednesday, it was unclear just how far Putin was prepared to go in fulfilling North Korean wish lists for technology.

Amid artillery battles in Ukraine, Russia has ramped up its shell production, but a North Korean supply line could be useful.

North Korea is believed to have a large stockpile of artillery shells and rockets compatible with Soviet-era weapons, as well as a history of producing such ammunition.

Asked whether Russia could simply remove sanctions on North Korea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia remained a responsible member of the U.N. Security Council.

But Peskov added that Moscow would develop its relations with North Korea in accordance with its own interests.

On Thursday, the top national security officials of the United States, South Korea and Japan discussed the Putin-Kim meeting in a call.

A White House statement said U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and counterparts Takeo Akiba of Japan and Cho Tae-yong of South Korea noted that any North Korean arms exports to Russia “would directly violate multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, including resolutions that Russia itself voted to adopt.”

South Korea’s National Security Council (NSC) said on Thursday North Korea and Russia would “pay a price” if they violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Kim is due to visit military and civilian aviation factories in the Russian city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur and to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet in Vladivostok, Putin said.