Putin claims Moscow could use weapons with depleted uranium – live

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Tuesday that the US was set to approve depleted uranium tank rounds for Ukraine.

Depleted uranium is a dense by-product left over when uranium is enriched for use in nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. The rounds retain some radioactive properties, but cannot generate a nuclear reaction as a nuclear weapon would.

In March 2023, the UK said it would supply armour piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine to help destroy Russian tanks. Putin falsely claimed that these weapons had a “nuclear component.”

UK businesses continuing to operate in Russia are “complicit in the war crimes” committed against the Ukrainian people, MPs have heard.

Labour former minister Sir Chris Bryant told the Commons about the Russian government introducing a new law last year, requiring all businesses, including foreign ones, operating in the Russian Federation to “assist in the war in Ukraine”.

Sir Chris urged the Government to make it “absolutely clear” that all British businesses should “completely and utterly desist from business in Russia immediately”.

Foreign Office minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said there has been a “positive attitude” from British businesses and a “willingness to take financial pain immediately in order to step away” from Russian markets and activity.

The Rhondda MP said: “The Russian government introduced a new law last year which requires all businesses, including foreign businesses that have any footprint in the Russian Federation, to assist in the war in Ukraine.

“That means any British businesses who are still doing business now in Russia are complicit in the war crimes that Russia is perpetrating against the Ukrainian people.

“Would the minister now make it absolutely clear that all British businesses should completely and utterly desist from business in Russia immediately?”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told President Joe Biden at an Oval Office meeting on Tuesday that Ukrainians are “making progress” with their counteroffensive, which could bolster their position when there’s an opportunity to reach a diplomatic end to the war with Russia.

“The support that we are providing together for Ukraine is now making a difference on the battlefield as we speak,” Stoltenberg said. “Because the offensive has launched, and the Ukrainians are making progress, making advances.”

He added, “It’s still early days, but what we do know is that the more land that Ukrainians are able to liberate, the stronger hand they will have at the negotiating table.”

Biden said NATO has grown more unified during the Ukraine war and “we’re going to be building on that momentum” when the alliance holds its annual summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11 and 12.

Ukraine has celebrated the first territorial gains of its long-trailed counteroffensive against the invading Russian forces.

Unverified photographs and video appearing on Sunday and on Monday morning showed Ukrainian soldiers holding their country’s blue and yellow flag aloft in triumph in the eastern villages of Storozheve, Blahodatne, Neskuchne and Makarivka in Donetsk, suggesting they had been recaptured from occupying enemy troops.

Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar posted one of the photos from Storozheve and thanked the 35th Separate Brigade of Marines for liberating it.

The largest nuclear power plant in Europe faces “a relatively dangerous situation” after a dam burst in Ukraine and Kyiv launches a counteroffensive to retake ground occupied by Russia, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Tuesday.

Rafael Moreno Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, spoke to journalists in Kyiv just before leaving on a trip to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. That plant has been repeatedly in the crossfire since Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022 and seized the facility shortly after.

Grossi said he had met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the situation affecting the plant, which grew more serious after the Kakhovka Dam burst last week. The dam, further down the Dnieper River, helped keep water in a reservoir that cools the plant’s reactors. Ukraine has said Russia blew up the dam, something denied by Moscow, though analysts say the flood likely disrupted Kyiv’s counteroffensive plans.

France said on Tuesday a Russia-linked misinformation campaign had faked its foreign ministry website, targeted other government websites and usurped several French media as part of broader efforts to smear Ukraine and its Western allies.

Western nations have repeatedly accused Russian operatives of using social media and the internet to spread false or misleading information to undermine them, promote Russia or attempt to sway public opinion in their countries against backing Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

France has in particular called out Russian activities in Africa, saying that Moscow-linked actors have tried to discredit Paris in West Africa, saturating regular media and social media.

That has prompted France to launch multi-faceted action to reverse an anti-French narrative that has damaged its influence and interests, including with a unit partly dedicated to spotting and dealing with malicious content.

“This campaign is notably based on creating fake internet pages to hack into the identity of national media and government websites, as well as by creating fake accounts on social media networks,” foreign minister Catherine Colonna said in a statement – in what was the first time Paris has publicly called out Russian-linked activities on French soil.

A domain name close to the foreign ministry’s name, a practice known as typosquatting, was used and detected on May 29. While the majority of the content was the same, one article was posted suggesting the French government was preparing to impose a tax to raise funds for military aid to Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, French officials said.

Russia is losing a “staggering” 900 soldiers a day, Ukrainian officials have claimed, urging the West to greenlight delivery of fighter jets for its counteroffensive at a Nato meeting this week.

On Tuesday, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, indicated the long-awaited counteroffensive was making headway, reporting that Ukrainian forces had taken back seven villages opening 90sqkm of land in the last week alone.

However, she said the advance was hard as Russian forces had superior air support and were showering their troops with intense artillery fire.

Yuriy Sak, a key advisor to the defence ministry, told The Independent that while Kyiv was inflicting “heavy” losses on Moscow’s forces, they urgently needed the delivery of fighter jets to keep up the momentum. Mr Sak said that they hoped the decision would be pushed through at a meeting of Nato defence ministers due to take place Thursday in Brussels.

Russia will guarantee full “nuclear safety” at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine in view of the Kakhovka dam breach, the TASS news agency said, citing an adviser to the head of Russian nuclear plant operator Rosenergoatom.