Russia’s spy claims about expelled diplomats are ‘baseless’, UK says, as Putin ramps up row over Ukraine weapons – live

The European Commission has presented to EU ambassadors three new options to extend the sanctions renewal period covering Russia’s central bank assets, crucial to secure a $50bn G7 loan for Ukraine, Reuters reports EU diplomats said on Friday.

Nato said on Friday it strongly condemned a Russian missile strike on a civilian grain ship in the Black Sea on Thursday.

“There is no justification for such attacks. Yesterday’s strike shows once again the reckless nature of Russia’s war,” Reuters reports Nato spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said.

Ukraine accused Russia on Thursday of using strategic bombers to strike a civilian grain vessel in Black Sea waters near Nato member Romania. It was the first time a missile has struck a civilian vessel transporting grains at sea since the start of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.

Gabrielius Landsbergis, Lithuania’s minister of foreign affairs, has been in Kyiv today meeting sneior Ukraine leaders including Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and has just posted to social media that he is not there to offer “thoughts and prayers”, instead, he says he is there “to commit to victory, as short as it takes.”

The Russian embassy in London has said in a social media post that “the investments that the UK promised to send to Ukraine, like all the previous ones, will likely go up in smoke in the Special Military Operation zone or, more probably, disappear down the bottomless pockets of the corrupt Ukrainian elites.”

Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that the Kursk offensive “slowed” Russia’s advance in east Ukraine, AFP reported.

It gave the results we expected, to be honest. In Kharkiv region, the enemy has been stopped, the progress in Donetsk region has been slowed down, although it is very difficult there.

The Ukrainian president said there are 40,000 Russian troops fighting in the Kursk region.

Earlier my colleagues Archie Bland and Dan Sabbagh put together this explainer on the issue of deploying “Storm Shadow” missiles in Ukraine for use against targets inside Russia.

The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region has claimed that air defences there have shot down seven Ukrainian drones in a day.

In his most recent update, Alexander Bogomaz wrote on Telegram “An attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using a UAV on the territory of the Bryansk region has been thwarted. There are no casualties or damage.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has posted to Telegram about the latest prisoner exchange with Russia. Ukraine’s president said:

Another return of our people, for which we always wait and work for. 49 Ukrainian men and women at home. These are soldiers of the armed forces of Ukraine, the national guard, the national police, the state border service, as well as our civilians.

I thank our entire team, which ensures the release of prisoners and hostages from Russian captivity. We have to bring home all our soldiers and civilians.

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, is reporting that 49 captured Ukrainian service personnel and civilians have been returned from captivity by Russia.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament commissioner for human rights is quoted in reports saying “the state of health of the prisoners is very serious.”

Ukrainian news sources are reporting that two people have been killed in an Russian airstrike in Yampil in Sumy region. Six others were injured, including a child.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has been giving his daily media briefing, during which Reuters reports he said president Vladimir Putin had delivered a clear message to the west about the consequences of allowing Ukraine to hit Russian territory with western long-range missiles, and that there was no doubt that Putin’s message had reached those it was intended for.

UK: Russian spying claims about six expelled Moscow diplomats are ‘baseless’

In an operational update on its official Telegram channel, Russia’s ministry of defence has claimed, without providing evidence, that Ukraine has lost over 12,000 service personnel during its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

It claims that Russia has repelled three attempts by Ukrainian forces to break through in the Kursk region in the past day. It also claims that 12 members of Ukrainian forces inside Russia surrendered.

The claims have not been independently verified.

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The Sky News security and defence editor Deborah Haynes has posted to social media to say that Whitehall sources have told her that the British government “strongly rejected a claim by Russia’s security service that the officials [expelled by Russia] had been involved in spying and sabotage.”

Haynes said the source told her that the expulsion of six British diplomats happened last month, and “is linked to a set of tit-for-tat expulsions”, suggesting it was not a direct Russian response to the British prime minister’s trip to Washington today or the threat that Ukraine will be authorised to use long-range British-supplied “Storm Shadow” missiles against targets inside Russia.

Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform is carrying news of damages and injuries overnight. In Odesa region “falling debris from enemy drones” damaged windows in 20 residential buildings and a 74-year-old man was injured. In Kherson region two civilians were injured after explosives were dropped from a Russian drone.

Russia’s ministry of defence has said that its service personnel carrying out exercises in the Barents Sea have conducted tests of firing cruise missiles, and have also participated in exercises to simulate hunting and tracking down enemy submarines. It described the exercises as a success. Russia is conducting its largest naval set of exercises since the Soviet era.