Russia has condemned a decision by Denmark and the Netherlands to donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying the move would escalate the war.
Denmark and the Netherlands on Sunday announced they would supply F-16s to Ukraine, with the first six due to be delivered around new year.
In a statement cited by the Ritzau news agency, Vladimir Barbin, the Russian ambassador, said:
The fact that Denmark has now decided to donate 19 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine leads to an escalation of the conflict.
By hiding behind a premise that Ukraine itself must determine the conditions for peace, Denmark seeks with its actions and words to leave Ukraine with no other choice but to continue the military confrontation with Russia.
Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, Denmark’s defence minister, said Ukraine may only use the donated F-16s within its own territory, Reuters reports.
“We donate weapons under the condition that they are used to drive the enemy out of the territory of Ukraine. And no further than that,” Ellemann-Jensen said on Monday.
“Those are the conditions, whether it’s tanks, fighter planes or something else,” he added.
Denmark will deliver 19 jets in total; the Netherlands has 42 F-16s available in all, but has yet to decide whether all of them will be donated.
You can read more about the decisions surrounding the F-16 fighter jet donations here:
Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said on Monday that Sweden needs Gripen planes for its own defence, noting that the country’s bid to join Nato has not been finalised.
“We don’t rule anything out in the future,” he told the TV4 channel.
“We will do everything we can to support them also with aircraft. But right now there are no new commitments to provide Swedish aircraft to Ukraine.”
Volodymyr Zelenskiy started his trip on Saturday in Sweden, where he asked Kristersson for Swedish Gripen fighter jets.
Sweden has said it will allow Ukrainian pilots to test the planes but has not made any commitments to hand them over.
Russian attacks against Ukraine killed three civilians and injured 24 people over the past 24 hours, regional authorities said on Monday.
Nine Ukrainian oblasts were targeted during this period: Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, with casualties reported in the last four regions, the Kyiv Independent reports.
These figures are yet to be independently verified.
Russia has condemned a decision by Denmark and the Netherlands to donate F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, saying the move would escalate the war.
Denmark and the Netherlands on Sunday announced they would supply F-16s to Ukraine, with the first six due to be delivered around new year.
In a statement cited by the Ritzau news agency, Vladimir Barbin, the Russian ambassador, said:
The fact that Denmark has now decided to donate 19 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine leads to an escalation of the conflict.
By hiding behind a premise that Ukraine itself must determine the conditions for peace, Denmark seeks with its actions and words to leave Ukraine with no other choice but to continue the military confrontation with Russia.
Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, Denmark’s defence minister, said Ukraine may only use the donated F-16s within its own territory, Reuters reports.
“We donate weapons under the condition that they are used to drive the enemy out of the territory of Ukraine. And no further than that,” Ellemann-Jensen said on Monday.
“Those are the conditions, whether it’s tanks, fighter planes or something else,” he added.
Denmark will deliver 19 jets in total; the Netherlands has 42 F-16s available in all, but has yet to decide whether all of them will be donated.
You can read more about the decisions surrounding the F-16 fighter jet donations here:
Volodymyr Zelenskiy thanked Danish politicians on Monday for helping his country resist Russia’s invasion, a day after Denmark and the Netherlands announced they would provide Kyiv with American-made F-16 fighter jets.
Ukraine’s president said that if Russia’s invasion was successful, other parts of Europe would be at risk from the Kremlin’s military aggression.
“All of Russia’s neighbours are under threat if Ukraine does not prevail,” he said in a speech in Copenhagen.
At least two people were injured on Monday when parts of a Ukrainian drone destroyed by Russian air defences fell on a house in the Moscow region, Reuters has cited the regional governor as saying.
As mentioned in an earlier post, nearly 50 plane flights in and out of the capital were disrupted after Russia said it jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Ruzsky district, west of the capital, and destroyed another one in the Istrinsky district nearby.
Separately, the governor of Russia’s Kaluga region, south of Moscow, said on Monday that a drone attack had been repelled without casualties or damage.
These claims could not immediately be independently verified.
Ukraine is considering using its newly-tested wartime Black Sea export corridor for grain shipments, a senior agricultural official said on Monday.
Russia has blockaded Ukrainian ports since it invaded Ukraine last year, and threatened to treat all vessels as potential military targets after pulling out of a UN-backed safe passage deal last month.
In response, Ukraine announced a “humanitarian corridor” hugging the sea’s western coastline near Romania and Bulgaria.
A Hong Kong-flagged container ship stuck in Odesa port since the invasion travelled the route last week without being fired upon, Reuters reports.
“Only one commercial vessel has passed through so far, it has shown readiness to move by alternative routes,” Denys Marchuk, deputy head of the Agrarian Council, Ukraine’s largest agribusiness organisation, said.
“Further, there should be a movement of potentially seven to eight more ships... then perhaps in the future these alternative routes will become a corridor for the movement of ships that are travelling with cargoes of grain and oilseeds,” he added.
The Financial Times reported that Kyiv was finalising a scheme with global insurers to cover grain ships travelling to and from its Black Sea ports, citing Ukraine’s deputy economy minister Oleksandr Gryban.
Moscow has prepared a “development plan” for occupied Mariupol, which includes an increase in population by around 300,000 via migration from Russia, the National Resistance Center, an organisation operated by Ukraine’s special forces, reported.
An excerpt from the rest of the Kyiv Independent’s report reads:
Moscow reportedly intends on completing the transfer by 2035, the centre wrote, citing sources in local underground resistance who obtained the occupation administration’s documents.
The Kremlin started a programme of cheap mortgages on properties in occupied parts of Ukraine, such as Donetsk oblast’s Mariupol, to encourage Russians to move there, reads the report.
In addition, Moscow purportedly sends work migrants and civil servants from Russia’s “depressed” regions to the occupied territories.
At the same time, residents of Mariupol and other occupied settlements are forcibly deported to Russia, the National Resistance Center added.
More details have emerged over the reports of the drone attacks in Russia (see post at 06:25).
Russia said it foiled attacks by two Ukrainian drones in the Moscow region on Monday, but nearly 50 plane flights in and out of the capital were disrupted, Reuters reports.
Russia’s defence ministry said it jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Ruzsky district, west of the capital, and later destroyed another one in the Istrinsky district nearby.
Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s four main airports: Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky, were restricted, disrupting 45 passenger planes and two cargo planes, Russian aviation authority Rosaviatsia said.
Ukraine’s forces are repelling Russian attacks and have retaken several square kilometres on the eastern front over the past week, a deputy defence minister said on Monday.
Hanna Maliar also said that Ukrainian forces were advancing south of Bakhmut, the city occupied by Russian forces in May after a bloody months-long struggle, and had liberated another three square kilometres over the past week.
The Ukrainian military said last week that Russia was attacking towards Kupiansk, a town in the Kharkiv region, Reuters reports.
Speaking to the Ukrainian national television broadcaster, Maliar said:
The situation in the Kupiansk direction is difficult. The enemy is not leaving plans to move forward, the enemy is pulling up additional forces.
We are confident in our defenders, but it is very difficult for them there and the enemy is not advancing there.
These claims have not yet been independently verified.
Maliar said there were no significant changes in the situation in the south, where Ukrainian forces are trying to split Russian forces and reach the Sea of Azov.
The Ukrainian military said on Thursday it had made gains on the south-eastern front, pushing forward from the newly liberated village of Urozhaine.
However, a US official said last week Ukrainian forces did not appear likely to be able to reach and retake the Russian-occupied strategic south-eastern city of Melitopol during their counteroffensive.
Hello everyone, this is Yohannes Lowe. I’ll be running the blog until 3pm (UK time). Please do feel free to get in touch on Twitter if you have any story tips.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has welcomed a “historic” decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to provide Ukraine with up to 61 F-16 fighter jets between them, the latest move by western allies to bolster his country’s efforts to fend off Russia’s invasion.
Agence France-Presse reports that the Ukrainian president had been seeking the US-made advanced jets for months, to strengthen Ukraine’s Soviet-era air force in its grinding counteroffensive against Russian forces in the east.
The decision was “absolutely historic, powerful and inspiring for us”, Zelensky said alongside the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, during a visit to Eindhoven air force base in the Netherlands on Sunday.
The approval to supply the jets drew a warning from Russia. The foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would consider the F-16s a “nuclear” threat because of their capacity to carry atomic weapons.
Washington announced its approval of the F-16 transfers on Friday and training of Ukraine pilots is set to begin this month, which may allow Ukraine to begin deploying the jets in early 2024.
Moscow’s Domodedovo airport has restricted arrivals and departures, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.
The step was taken “in order to ensure additional flight safety measures”, Tass and RIA said, citing the airport’s press service.
Reuters also reports that arrivals and departures from Moscow’s Vnukovo airport were suspended on Monday after a Ukrainian drone had been jammed over the Moscow region.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday it had thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow region, with no casualties reported.
An attempt by Kyiv to carry out an “attack with an aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicle was thwarted” on Monday morning, Agence France-Presse reported the ministry as saying.
The drone was “suppressed by means of electronic warfare” and crashed in Odintsovo district, the ministry said in a statement, adding there were no casualties.
Odintsovo is to the capital’s south-west.
In recent weeks two drone attacks were repelled over Moscow’s financial district, each causing minor damage to the facades of high-rise buildings. In May, drones were shot down near the Kremlin.
Welcome back to our live coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine. This is Adam Fulton with the latest.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has welcomed a “historic” decision by the Netherlands and Denmark to provide Kyiv with US-made F-16 fighter jets in the latest move by western allies to bolster Ukraine’s efforts against Russian forces.
The decision was “absolutely historic, powerful and inspiring for us”, the Ukrainian president said on Sunday while visiting the Netherlands.
The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Moscow would consider the F-16s a “nuclear” threat because of their capacity to carry atomic weapons.
The Netherlands and Denmark have announced they will donate up to 61 F-16 fighter jets between them to Ukraine once pilot training has been satisfactorily completed.
More on that story shortly. In other news:
The Ukrainian president also said during a visit to Sweden that Kyiv was “getting closer” to obtaining Swedish Gripen fighter jets. “Our soldiers are already starting to test them,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address, adding that he had discussed the matter with Sweden’s prime minister, Ulf Kristersson.
Zelenskiy vowed retaliation after at least seven people were killed and 144 injured in a “vile” Russian missile strike that hit a theatre and a central square in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday. “I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack,” he said. “A notable response.”
Russia said Ukrainian drones had attacked four separate regions in a flurry of attempted strikes on Sunday, injuring five people and forcing two of Moscow’s airports to briefly divert flights. Russia’s Kursk, Rostov and Belgorod regions, all of which border Ukraine, reported attempted drone strikes, while Russia’s defence ministry said it had jammed a Ukrainian drone in the Moscow region, forcing it to crash in an unpopulated area.
A day earlier a Ukrainian drone targeted a military airfield in Russia’s Novgorod region, causing a fire and damaging one warplane, Russia’s defence ministry said. The ministry said nobody was hurt.
There have been increasing reports of SA-5 Gammon missiles striking Russia, with drones regularly hitting Moscow, the UK Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update. The leadership of Russia’s aerospace forces was likely under considerable pressure to improve air defences over the western parts of the country, the ministry added.
South Africa will not be “drawn into a contest between global powers”, President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed as he prepared to host a summit of Brics emerging nations including Russia. Pretoria is officially non-aligned in the conflict but has been accused of siding with Moscow.
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2023-08-21 09:23:24Z
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