Ukraine war latest: Putin 'to hold talks with Xi Jinping and Erdogan'; attempt to 'overthrow Ukraine government' foiled (2024)

Lithuania's foreign ministry has made a diplomatic protest to Russia after a Russian civilian aircraft entered its airspace without permission.

The Pobeda airline aircraft entered Lithuanian airspace over the Baltic sea for a minute on Sunday evening, on its way from Moscow Vnukovo airport to Kaliningrad airport, the ministry said.

Lithuania, neighbour to both Russia and its ally Belarus, was once ruled from Moscow but is now a member of NATO and the EU.

The country has shown its backing for Ukraine during the war and provided military support to the country.

Belarus will not allow any clashes on the border with Ukraine, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said according to the country's state-run Belta news agency.

"I guarantee you that we will not allow any clashes on the border with Ukraine. There won't be any," Mr Lukashenko said.

Last week, Belarus announced that it had deployed additional air defence forces to its border with Ukraine to protect "critical infrastructure facilities" due to increased Ukrainian drone activity in the area.

President Lukashenko, who has been the head of state of Belarus since 1994, is a longstanding ally of Mr Putin.

At the onset of Russia's invasion, Belarus provided logistical support for Russia, with Russian forces entering Ukraine from Belarusian territory.

But Mr Lukashenko has not sent any troops.

Two women have been killed after Russian attacks on the central Ukrainian city of Nikopol.

Regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Telegramthe women were aged 61 and 86.

Another nine people were wounded.

"There is a lot of destruction in the district centre," he said.

"Local housing, educational institutions and a dispensary were damaged. Shops, beauty salons and cars were also affected."

Nikopol has been subjected to aerial attacks since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Russia denies targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has said Washington will soon announce an additional £1.8bn in security assistance for Ukraine.

The package will include anti-tank weapons, interceptors and munitions for Patriot and other air defence systems.

It marks a strong response to pleas from Kyiv for help in battling Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region.

On Sunday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had dropped more than 800 powerful glide bombs in Ukraine in the last week alone.

He urged national leaders to relax restrictions on the use of Western weapons to strike military targets inside Russia, adding that Ukraine needed the "necessary means to destroy the carriers of these bombs, including Russian combat aircraft, wherever they are".

Vladimir Putin will hold meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tomorrow during a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kazakhstan's capital Astana, Russian state news agency TASS reports.

Mr Putin last met Mr Xi in May when he visited China on his first foreign trip after being inaugurated for a fifth term as Russian president.

The SCO is a Eurasian political, economic, international security and defence organisation established by China and Russia in 2001.

The other full members are India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Turkey, though not a member, often takes part in its meetings as a "dialogue partner".

Ukraine is expected to get "good news" in its quest for more air defence systems at a NATO summit in Washington next week, a senior US state department official has said.

The official told Reuters: "We hope we'll be able to get to the summit and make some new announcements on air defence.

"You've heard that the Ukrainians are keen to secure additional Patriots or similar systems. And I think we'll have some additional good news for them on that front."

The official did not provide any further details.

For context: Ukrainian officials have been urging their allies for months to supply more air defence systems to defend against frequent missile and drone attacks from Russian forces.

The upcoming NATO summit in Washington, which will be held from 9-11 July, is intended in part to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the military alliance.

Four settlements in the Russian region of Belgorod have been attacked by Ukrainian drones, the region's governor has said.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, reporting the news on his Telegram channel, said there were no civilian casualties according to preliminary data.

"In the Graivoron urban district, in the city of Graivoron, as a result of a drone crash with subsequent detonation, a parked passenger car caught fire," he wrote.

"Fire crews quickly extinguished the source of the fire. In the village of Bezymeno, five private houses were destroyed after several attacks."

Ukraine carried out a "destructive strike" on a Russian ammunition depot in Crimea yesterday, according to the country's air force commander.

It comes following Russia's claims that they managed to destroy five Ukrainian SU-27 fighter jets today on an airfield in the Poltava region.

Ukraine's air force commander, MykolaOleshchuk, said on Telegram: "Once again, Ukrainian aircraft 'destroyed' by enemypropaganda continue to successfully perform combat missions."

Mr Oleshchuk did not specify the exact location of the ammunition depot targeted, but posted avideo from a local Ukraine-linked Telegram channel allegedly showing the strike on Balaklava, nearSevastopol.

The video's authenticity has not been independently verified by Sky News.

The Kremlin has said that an upcoming visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Moscow was "very important".

The final details of the visit are being worked out, though Mr Modi, who recently won a third term in office, is expected to visit between 8-9 July.

Regional and global security are likely to be on the agenda for discussions, as will the trade partnership between the two countries.

India is the world's third-largest crude consumer and a major buyer of Russian oil, increasing its purchase more than 20 times compared with 2021 as Russia discounts its barrels amid Western energy restrictions.

"I can only confirm once again that the visit is in thefinal stage of preparation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskovtold reporters.

"A very important visit."

Mr Peskov added that both Mr Modi and Vladimir Putin had a "very trusting" relationship and said that regional security and global securityissues were always high on the agenda of such meetings.

"In addition, our trade and economic cooperation is alsoone of the main issues that is being discussed, the most diverseareas of cooperation that we intend to develop, for which thereis mutual political will," he said.

Russia can't comment on Donald Trump's idea of ending the conflict in Ukraine as it has not seen any proposals, according to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov.

The former president said last week that if he won the upcoming US election, he would have the war settled before he took office in January 2025.

"This is not Trump's first statement on this, and he hasmade statements along these lines before," Mr Peskov said.

"Without knowing theessence of what this is about, we cannot comment on it."

During last week's debate with US President Joe Biden, Trump claimed that if he won the upcoming election he would have the war settled before he took office.

"As far as Russia and Ukraine, if we had a real president, a president... that was respected by Putin... he would have never invaded Ukraine," Trump said.

Mr Biden responded: "Go ahead, let Putin go in and control Ukraine, and then move on to Poland and other places. See what happens then. He has no idea what the hell he's talking about."