Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin loses over 1,000 soldiers in past 24 hours on frontline, says Ukrainian military

On Wednesday, Nato labelled China a “decisive enabler” of Putin’s war in Ukraine – in the alliance’s strongest rebuke of Beijing.

But Beijing hit back and accused Nato of smearing the country while demanding the transatlantic alliance stay out of Asia.

“Nato keeps playing up the interlink between Europe’s security and the security in Asia-Pacific. We urge it to stay within its role as a regional defensive organisation in the north Atlantic,” Beijing said.

Russian forces have lost 1,030 soldiers killed and wounded in the past 24 hours on the war frontline in Ukraine, the Ukrainian military has said.

The losses for Vladimir Putin’s troops include 48 artillery systems and 23 armoured combat vehicles, said the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Ukraine’s estimates of Russia’s losses since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022 state the Moscow has lost at least 556,650 of its troops to fatalities and injuries on Ukrainian battlefield.

Ukraine urged Nato to lift restrictions on its use of long-range weapons against targets in Russia, saying that would be “game-changer” in the ongoing war while China slammed Nato criticism of its support for Russia as biased and malicious.

Andryi Yermak, president Vlodomyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, told a public forum that Russia had no restrictions on its use of weapons and it would be “a real game-changer” if Ukraine‘s allies could lift all limits on the use of weapons they supply to Ukraine.

Nato members have taken different approaches to how Ukraine can use weapons they send to Kyiv. Some have made clear Kyiv can use them to strike targets deep inside Russia while the United States has taken a narrower approach, allowing its weapons to be used only just inside Russia’s border against targets supporting Russian military operations in Ukraine.

Mr Biden told a press conference the United States had allowed Mr Zelensky to use American weapons in a limited way within Russia’s borders.

“If he had the ability to strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin, would that make sense? It wouldn’t,” he added.

The new defence secretary was speaking to journalists at the Nato summit in Washington DC after a series of meetings with the other 31 allies and Ukraine.

He denied that the UK’s bid to draw back on some of the Tory Brexit arrangements would see the UK joining an EU military force but he confirmed that work on a security pact will start next week when Britain hosts the European Political Council summit.

Four Pacific countries attending the Nato summit issued a joint statement yesterday to “strongly condemn the illicit military cooperation” between Russia and North Korea, showing how the North Atlantic military alliance and its Pacific allies are forging closer ties to counter what they see as shared security threats.

For the third year in a row, leaders or their deputies from Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia — which are not Nato members — attended the summit of the 75-year-old military alliance of European and North American countries. In Washington, they launched cooperative projects on Ukraine, disinformation, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

“We will address our shared security challenges, including Russia’s war against Ukraine, China’s support for Russia’s war economy and the growing alignment of authoritarian powers,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said when meeting officials of the four Pacific partners.

“We must work even more closely together to preserve peace and protect the rules-based international order,” he said. “Our security is not regional. It is global.”

Viktor Orban met with Donald Trump yesterday and the pair discussed the “possibilities of peace”, a spokesperson for the Hungarian prime minister said as he pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump and Orban met at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida “as the next stop of his peace mission”, Orban’s spokesperson said. “The discussion was about the possibilities of peace.”

Orban, a long-time Trump supporter, made surprise visits to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing in the past two weeks on a self-styled “peace mission”, angering Nato allies.

His meeting in Moscow with Russian president Vladimir Putin in particular vexed some other Nato members, who said the trip handed legitimacy to Putin when the West wants to isolate him over his war in Ukraine.

Orban traveled to Kyiv before visiting Moscow but did not tell Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky about his mission to Russia, Zelensky said, dismissing Orban’s ambition of playing the peacemaker.

Joe Biden had a series of verbal slip-ups last night alongside the Nato summit in Washington, an unfortunate development for the 81-year-old as he tries to move past concerns that he is too old to run for re-election.

Verbal gaffes are not unusual in the long political career of Mr Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, but there is closer attention on him amid the fallout from his dismal debate performance against Republican candidate Donald Trump last month.

Mr Biden mistakenly referred to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin”.

“And now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin,” Biden said at the Nato summit, drawing gasps from those in the room.

“Going to beat president Putin, president Zelensky. I am so focused on beating Putin,” Mr Biden said while correcting himself.

Joe Biden said he has no reason to talk to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin right now unless the Russian leader changes his behaviour.

Mr Biden, at a solo news conference ending the Nato summit, said “Putin’s got a problem” because Russia has not been successful in its two-and-a-half year war against Ukraine.

“I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now,” Mr Biden said.

Asked about Mr Zelensky’s appeal for greater freedom in targeting Russian forces, Mr Biden showed no sign of easing the US limits, saying he was following the advice of his defence and intelligence officials.

“If he had the capacity to strike Moscow, strike the Kremlin, would that make sense?” Mr Biden said of Mr Zelensky.

He later added, “We’re making it on a day-to-day basis… how far they should go in” to Russian territory.Ukraine has been the primary focus for European and North American leaders at the summit of the 75-year-old military alliance, with Mr Biden earlier in the day announcing a new military aid package and pledging to Mr Zelensky: “We will stay with you, period.”