Russia-Ukraine war live: Germany joins US in allowing Kyiv to use its weapons to strike Russia over Kharkiv

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin tried to refocus attention on China’s threat in the Pacific, seeking to alleviate concerns that conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have distracted from America’s security commitments in Asia.

Mr Austin, who was speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, met his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, yesterday in a bid to cool friction over issues from Taiwan to China’s military activity in the South China Sea.

There has been increasing concern that Washington’s focus on helping Ukraine counter Russia’s invasion and support for Israel’s war in Gaza, while trying to ensure that the conflict does not spread, has taken away attention from the Indo-Pacific.

“Despite these historic clashes in Europe and the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific has remained our priority theatre of operations,” Mr Austin said in his speech, which appeared aimed at making the administration’s legacy in the region clear as president Joe Biden’s first term in office nears its end.

Mr Biden is running for re-election in November against former president Donald Trump.

“Let me be clear: The United States can be secure only if Asia is secure. That’s why the United States has long maintained our presence in this region.”

Mr Austin underscored the importance of alliances in the region.

“And … peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue and not coercion or conflict. And certainly not through so-called punishment,” Mr Austin said, taking a shot at China.

South Korean defence minister Shin Won-sik said that more evidence suggests weapons used by Russia in the war in Ukraine were illegally imported from North Korea.

“Military cooperation between Russia and North Korea” is escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and “also affecting the battlefield in Europe”, Mr Shin said.

If North Korea continues to receive military technology transfers from Russia in return, a significant improvement in North Korea’s conventional military capability is an imminent risk, Mr Shin said.

On questions about whether South Korea may seek nuclear weapons of its own, Mr Shin said that South Korea trusts the global nonproliferation treaty (NPT) regime, and that a stronger US-South Korean alliance is the answer to North Korea’s nuclear development.

Mr Shin was speaking during the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s biggest defence forum, under way in Singapore.

Germany has joined Joe Biden in giving Ukraine the green light to strike back with its weapons at Russian military assets targeting Kharkiv.

Germany discussed with its allies Russian attacks on the Kharkiv region from positions in the immediately adjacent Russian border area, a government spokesperson said.

“We are jointly convinced that Ukraine has the right, guaranteed under international law, to defend itself against these attacks,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“To do so, it can also use the weapons supplied for this purpose in accordance with its international legal obligations; including those supplied by us.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday pushed back against some NATO proposals that would allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets within Russia, saying that such plans have Europe “inching closer to destruction.”

The nationalist leader has long opposed Western countries supplying Ukraine with military aid, and threatened to derail European Union financial support to Kyiv and the passing of sanctions against Moscow.

He has also maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while ramping up energy deals with Moscow at a time when most EU countries have sought to limit the use of Russian fossil fuel.

Russia conducted an array of aerial attacks on Ukraine with cruise missiles, drones and ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said Thursday, while the chief of the army said Russia is increasing its troop concentration in the Kharkiv region where Moscow‘s forces have made significant advances in a spring offensive.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence operation claimed that sea drones destroyed two Russian KS-701 patrol boats in the Black Sea off the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.

The air force said the overnight attacks included eight S-300 ballistic missiles, 11 cruise missiles and 32 Shahed drones. All the drones and seven of the cruise missiles were shot down, the air force said but did not give other details.

“The president recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use US weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” a US official said, according to Politico. They added that US policy on longer range strikes inside Russia “has not changed.”

Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Friday, each sending back 75 POWs in the first such swap in the past three months, officials said. The Ukrainian POWs, including four civilians, were returned on several buses that drove into the northern Sumy region. As they disembarked, they shouted joyfully and called their families to tell them they were home. Some knelt and kissed the ground, while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags.Ukrainian POWs are seen in a bus after a swap at an undisclosed location in Ukraine.

NATO foreign ministers were meeting in the Czech capital Friday to prepare for this summer’s leaders’ summit as the alliance boosts support for Ukraine and countries one-by-one remove restrictions on how Kyiv can use western-supplied weaponry to combat Russia’s invasion.

A day after U.S. President Joe Biden gave Ukraine the go-ahead to use American munitions to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, numerous ministers, including those from the Netherlands, Finland, Poland and Germany, expressed approval of the decision, saying that Ukraine has the absolute right to defend itself from attacks originating on Russian soil.

Russia conducted an array of aerial attacks on Ukraine with cruise missiles, drones and ballistic missiles, Ukraine’s air force said Thursday, while the chief of the army said Russia is increasing its troop concentration in the Kharkiv region where Moscow‘s forces have made significant advances in a spring offensive.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence operation claimed that sea drones destroyed two Russian KS-701 patrol boats in the Black Sea off the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.

The air force said the overnight attacks included eight S-300 ballistic missiles, 11 cruise missiles and 32 Shahed drones. All the drones and seven of the cruise missiles were shot down, the air force said but did not give other details.

A non-governmental organization in Georgia said Thursday it is preparing a lawsuit in the country’s constitutional court to challenge a law that critics say will stifle news media and independent organizations.

The law will require media and non-governmental organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as representing the interests of foreign powers. Opponents claim that the law would discredit such organizations and that it will obstruct Georgia’s bid to join the European Union.

Massive demonstrations have filled the streets of the Georgian capital Tbilisi for weeks to protest the measure, whose foes call it “the Russian law” because of similar laws in Russia pushed by the Kremlin.