US President Joe Biden said on Thursday that he did not believe there was a “real possibility” that Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. The US President spoke during a press conference with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Helsinki following the two leaders’ summit.
War in UkrainePhoto: Anatolii STEPANOV / AFP / Profimedia
Asked about Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovich, who has been held in a Moscow jail for more than 100 days, Biden also said he was “serious about a prisoner exchange.”
Summary of the day
- US President Joe Biden sent a clear message to Ukraine on Thursday that no country at war could join NATO because doing so would “guarantee” World War III. He also said he did not believe there was a “real possibility” that Vladimir Putin would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
- A recent attack on a Russian base killed 200 soldiers and the commander of the Russian-occupied town of Dokmok, a Ukrainian official said.
- The European Commission is helping the UN and Turkey extend a deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports to the Black Sea and is open to “exploring all solutions,” an EU spokesman said Thursday.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Western-supplied weapons to Ukraine would not change anything on the battlefield but escalate the conflict, saying foreign-made tanks were a “priority target” for Moscow’s forces, Reuters reported.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in a speech to his compatriots on Thursday evening, announced that six countries have already joined the framework agreement proposed by the G7 – a group of democracies with strong economies – announced at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Provides security guarantees up to actual access to the Western military alliance.
- The Pentagon said on Thursday that the Wagner mercenary group had not significantly participated in Russian military operations in Ukraine, after the group staged a brief armed insurgency in Russia for more than two weeks, according to Reuters.
- Rosatom CEO: “You’d have to be a complete idiot” to blow up Zaporozhye plant
Ukraine War Highlights, Day 506, Live:
06:50In the past 24 hours, about 30 clashes took place on the front, the General Staff reported that the Defense Forces of Ukraine successfully repelled enemy attacks in the direction of Pakmut near Berkovka and in the direction of Avdiyevsky in the Bervomaisky region.
06:30 During the occupation of Kherson by Russian forces, they tortured the women held in the detention center. Beatings, electric shocks, water torture, threats and humiliation – all were used, as shown in the presentation of the report on Ukrainian women detained by Russia, organized by the Ukrainian media center – Ukrinform and the ZMINA human rights center.
06:17Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, allocated 573.883 million UAH (about 14 million euros) to complete the National Genocide Museum.
06:10Hours after Russian paramilitary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin began a brief march in Moscow last month, the country’s internal security service, the FSB, detained several top military officials, including space chief Gen. Sergey Churovikhin, people familiar with the situation said. Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
06:03 In July, Russian invaders took 280 children from the Andrashidovsky District of the temporarily occupied Luhansk Region to the Russian Republic of Kalmykia. Center for National Resistance
05:45Zhang Jun, Permanent Representative of the People’s Republic of China to the UN, said China denies the accusations leveled at Beijing at the NATO summit in Vilnius. “NATO is a product of the Cold War, which has played a role in destabilizing the situation in the world,” he said, according to pravda.ru.
01:18Cluster munitions “will only be used to destroy occupied territories”
The US-supplied cluster munitions will definitely be used to clear territory against concentrated Russian defense positions, Valery Shershen, spokesman for the Tavria-Strategic Task Force, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Sky News reported.
He added that the controversial missiles would not be used in cities, populated areas or Russian territories.
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