Ukraine latest: Russia to supply Iskander missiles to Belarus, Putin says

The Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on Feb. 24 continues, with casualties mounting on both sides.

Ukrainian forces are putting up resistance in the east, where the focus of the war has shifted, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regularly calls on the world to do more to help. Governments around the globe have imposed heavy sanctions against Moscow but have stopped short of direct intervention for fear of sparking a wider conflict.

Meanwhile, rising geopolitical risk and volatile energy and financial markets are rocking Asia.

For all our coverage, visit our Ukraine war page.

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Entries include material from wire services and other sources.

Note: Nikkei Asia on March 5 decided to temporarily suspend its reporting from Russia until further information becomes available regarding the scope of the revised criminal code.

Here are the latest developments:

Sunday, June 26 (Tokyo time)

2:45 a.m. Russia will provide Belarus with the Iskander missile system in the “next few months,” President Vladimir Putin tells Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at a meeting.

The system can launch both cruise and short-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying conventional and nuclear warheads, Putin says, according to a readout on the Russian presidential website.

Lukashenko claims concerns about “training flights of aircraft of the United States of America and NATO, which are trained to carry nuclear warheads.”

The meeting in St. Petersburg comes as a Ukrainian defense official accuses Russia of trying to drag Belarus into the war.

1:52 a.m. The U.S. and other Group of Seven rich countries will agree on an import ban on new gold from Russia when they meet for a three-day summit in Germany that begins later today, a source tells Reuters.

The U.S. Treasury Department will issue a determination to prohibit the import of new gold into the U.S. on Tuesday, which will further isolate Russia from the global economy by preventing its participation in the gold market, the source says. 

1:00 a.m. Sweden still has not resolved Turkey’s concerns over support for “terrorism” and an arms embargo, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tells Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in a phone call on the Scandinavian nation’s bid to join NATO.

Erdogan, who has expressed opposition to Sweden and Finland becoming NATO members, says he wants to see binding commitments on these matters. Ankara accuses the two countries of supporting organizations affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed group that is outlawed in Turkey.

The NATO chief also had a phone call with Erdogan.

Saturday, June 25

11:45 p.m. Russian forces are in full control of Sievierodonetsk, marking Kyiv’s biggest setback on the battlefield in more than a month. The eastern city was under attack for weeks in some of the heaviest fighting of the war.

“The city is now under the full occupation of Russia. They are trying to establish their own order, as far as I know they have appointed some kind of commandant,” Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Stryuk says on national television, according to Reuters, confirming Russian control of the ruined city once home to 100,000 people.

Pro-Russian separatists say Moscow’s forces are now attacking the last major Ukrainian-held bastion in eastern Luhansk province, Sievierodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets River.

4:15 a.m. At the Uniting for Global Food Security Conference in Berlin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoes fellow Group of Seven top diplomats’ statement on Russia’s role in worsening food supply instability.

“The Russian military is laying waste to Ukrainian farms and grain silos, stealing Ukrainian grain and the equipment needed to harvest it, blocking access to and from Ukrainian ports by the sea,” Blinken says.

Moscow has rejected such accusations and says it is ready to help. The Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka, now in the throes of an economic crisis, puts out the following message.

3:00 a.m. European Union leaders’ decision to grant EU candidate member status to Ukraine and Moldova continues a policy of Russian “containment,” Moscow says.

“Such an aggressive approach of the European Union obviously carries the potential for the emergence of new deeper lines of division and crises in Europe as a whole,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova says in a statement. “This policy of Brussels has nothing to do with the real needs of the inhabitants of Ukraine and the EU countries.”

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tells reporters that Moscow believes it is unlikely that the EU’s “Russophobic” policy will disappear in the near or long term. “That’s the path chosen by the Europeans,” he says.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova speaks during a session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 16.

  © Reuters

1:00 a.m. Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven nations have held a meeting “focused on Russia’s culpability for aggravating the global food crisis as a result of the war.”

“G-7 foreign ministers made clear that Russia’s war against Ukraine is exacerbating food insecurity, including by blocking the Black Sea, bombing grain silos and ports, and damaging Ukraine’s agricultural infrastructure,” according to a chair’s statement.

Ukrainian soldiers patrol an area in the city of Sievierodonetsk on June 20.

  © Reuters

Friday, June 24

3:00 p.m. Ukrainian troops will “have to be withdrawn” from the mostly Russian-occupied battleground city of Sievierodonetsk, the regional governor says. Some of the heaviest fighting of the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken place in Sievierodonetsk, where street-by-street battles have been going on for a month, with Russia slowly and painstakingly taking more ground. “Remaining in positions smashed to pieces over many months just for the sake of staying there does not make sense,” Gov. Serhiy Gaidai said on television.

A launch truck fires a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System at the Yakima Training Center in Washington state, U.S. (The Olympian via AP)

7:30 a.m. The United States will send another $450 million in military aid to Ukraine, including additional medium-range rocket systems, to help reverse Russian progress in the war, officials say. The latest package includes four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, which will double the number Ukraine has now. All four were pre-positioned in Europe and training on them has begun, said a Pentagon spokesman. The first four HIMARS that the U.S. sent have already gone to the battlefield in Ukraine.

4:50 a.m. Ukraine may be on the path to EU membership, but that does not mean the journey will be a short one. EU leaders say Ukraine must meet conditions on the rule of law, corruption and the judiciary in order to advance to the next stage of accession negotiations, the Financial Times reports. Croatia, the most recent country to join the EU, took nine years to go from candidate status to membership, the FT reports. Ukraine applied for EU membership in February.

3:45 a.m. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacts to the European Council decision.

3:25 a.m. Ukraine has been granted European Union candidate status, European Council President Charles Michel says. Moldova’s candidate status is also now official. “Today marks a crucial step on your path towards the EU,” Michel says in a tweet.

12:45 a.m. BRICS leaders gingerly weigh in on Ukraine at a summit where Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin push back against Western pressure.

“We have discussed the situation in Ukraine and recall our national positions as expressed at the appropriate fora, namely the UNSC [United Nations Security Council] and UNGA [United Nations General Assembly],” the BRICS leaders say in a joint declaration marking their latest summit. They stop short of using the words “war” or “invasion” to describe Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

“We support talks between Russia and Ukraine,” the leaders say, adding that they have also discussed concerns about the humanitarian situation in and around Ukraine.

The BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Thursday, June 23

10:20 p.m. Germany has moved to the second stage of its natural gas emergency plan in response to cuts in the supply from Russia.

“We are in a gas crisis,” says Robert Habeck, the economy minister, accusing Moscow of using gas as a weapon against Germany.

10:10 p.m. Nike will make a full withdrawal from the Russian market, Reuters reports, citing a statement from the sportswear company.

Nike stores in Russia had been suspended in response to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. The decision to leave the Russian market is mostly symbolic, since Russia and Ukraine account for less than 1% of Nike’s revenue, Reuters reports.

6:00 p.m. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says Ankara is investigating claims that Ukrainian grain has been stolen by Russia and would not allow any such grain to be brought to Turkey. Kyiv’s ambassador to Ankara said in early June that Turkish buyers were among those receiving grain that Russia had stolen from Ukraine, adding he had sought Turkey’s help to identify and capture individuals responsible for the alleged shipments.

“We take every claim seriously and are investigating them seriously. We notify especially the Ukrainian side of the result every time,” Cavusoglu said.

British citizens Aiden Aslin, left, and Shaun Pinner,…