Ukraine-Russia war latest: North Korea preparing to send 30,000 more troops to support Moscow, claims Kyiv

The halt of some weapons shipments from the US is a blow to Ukraine at a time when Russia has ramped up its attacks, launching its biggest aerial raids of the war so far in recent weeks.

Talks to try and agree a ceasefire between the two sides, efforts championed by US president Donald Trump, have ground to a halt.

To date, the US has provided Ukraine more than $66bn worth of weapons and military assistance since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

Over the course of the war, the US has routinely pressed for allies to provide air defence systems to Ukraine. But many are reluctant to give up the high-tech systems, particularly countries in Eastern Europe that also feel threatened by Russia.

The US Defense Department did not provide details on what specific weapons were being held back.

“America’s military has never been more ready and more capable,” spokesperson Sean Parnell said, adding that the major tax cut and spending package moving through Congress “ensures that our weapons and defence systems are modernised to protect against 21st century threats for generations to come”.

The pause in shipments of weapons to Ukraine reflects a new set of priorities under president Donald Trump and came after Defense Department officials scrutinised current US stockpiles and raised concerns.

The Pentagon review determined that stocks were too low on some weapons previously pledged, so pending shipments of some items won’t be sent, according to a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide information that has not yet been made public.

“This decision was made to put America’s interests first following a review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

“The strength of the United States Armed Forces remains unquestioned – just ask Iran.”That was a reference to Trump recently ordering US missile strikes against nuclear sites in Iran.

Germany’s foreign ministry has hit out at Russia for allegedly using the online media outlet Red to sow discontent in German society.

It is part of a disinformation campaign which Moscow is waging in Europe alongside its war in Ukraine, Berlin said.

“Red presents itself as a revolutionary platform for independent journalists. However, it has close links with the Russian state media outlet RT,” a spokesperson for the foreign ministry told reporters in Berlin.

“Today we can confirm that Red is being used by Russia specifically to manipulate information,” the spokesperson added.

Red is run by Turkish media company AFA Medya, which together with its founder Huseyin Dogru is already the subject of EU sanctions targeting Russia and is accused of “undermining the democratic political process” in Germany.

After they were sanctioned, Red announced on May 16 that it was closing down.

Lithuanian prosecutors have accused Moscow of ordering the defacement of a monument to an anti-Soviet resistance leader in January 2024.

Three residents of Estonia have been charged with travelling to fellow Baltic state Lithuania to carry out the act, prosecutor Rimas Bradunas told a press conference.

The statue in southern Lithuanian town Merkine of Adolfas Ramanauskas, kneeling with his rifle in hand, was covered in red paint. Ramanauskas led armed resistance to the Soviet occupation of Lithuania after World War Two before being executed in 1957.

“Our investigation determined that these people, acting in an organised group, were executing the orders of Russian special services, in particular GRU, to destabilise the country,” Bradunas said.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Two of the three charged are dual Estonian-Russian citizens, while one is a Russian citizen. They were arrested in Estonia and handed over to Lithuania after an investigation involving the intelligence services of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the prosecutor said.

An emboldened Russia has ramped up military offensives on two fronts in Ukraine, scattering Kyiv’s precious reserve troops and threatening to expand the fighting to a new Ukrainian region as each side seeks an advantage before the fighting season wanes in the autumn.

Moscow aims to maximize its territorial gains before seriously considering a full ceasefire, analysts and military commanders said. Ukraine wants to slow the Russian advance for as long as possible and extract heavy losses.

Read more on the state of play on the Ukrainian battlefield here:

The US has imposed sanctions on a major Russian cyber group for “supporting cybercriminal activity”.

The Aeza Group, two related companies and four individuals who serve as executives in the group were all sanctioned by US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has also designated a shell compahy of Aeza Group registered in the United Kingdom. 

Headquartered in St Petersburg, Russia, the group operates as a Bulletproof Hosting (BHP) provider. This is a service which helps cybercriminals evade detection from law enforcement.

Russian forces have summarily executed 273 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), the office of Kyiv’s prosecutor general has claimed.

Ukraine and the UN accuse Russia of a systematic policy to murder Ukrainian captives, with half of the documented cases recorded this year.

A total of 77 criminal cases have been launched in connection with the killings of POWs, with just two people so far convicted.

In May, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) reported that it had documented 150 cases of Ukrainian soldiers being executed after surrendering to Russian forces, The Kyiv Independent reported.

Further intelligence reports have suggested that Russian soldiers have been explicitly ordered to kill POWs in some cases.

The Kremlin has said it was France that asked for president Emmanuel Macron to speak by phone with Vladimir Putin after a pause of nearly three years and that the two leaders had a “very substantive” discussion.

The two leaders spoke on Tuesday and discussed the Iran-Israel conflict and Ukraine, the first such exchange between the two men since September 2022.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the call had lasted for more than two hours.