Ukraine war: Putin’s forces hit Kharkiv as Biden lifts total ban on using US missiles

Germany on Friday suggested Ukraine could use weapons supplied by Western countries to defend itself against attacks launched from just inside Russia against the northern border region around the city of Kharkiv in accordance with international law.

Germany discussed with allies the fact that Russia has carried out strikes on the Kharkiv region from positions in the immediately adjacent Russian border area, a government spokesperson said in a statement.

“We are jointly convinced that Ukraine has the right, guaranteed under international law, to defend itself against these attacks,” the spokesperson said.

“To do so, it can also use the weapons supplied for this purpose in accordance with its international legal obligations; including those supplied by us.”

The statement comes after days of scrutiny on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government on whether it had changed its stance on allowing Kyiv to use German weapons to strike into Russian territory.

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the NATO Secretary General’s comments on Western arms supplied to Ukraine show they have been used against targets on Russian soil all along.

Ms Zakharova was commenting on Jens Stoltenberg’s remarks about there being no restrictions on Kyiv’s use of British Storm Shadow cruise missiles and some other weapons supplied by NATO countries.

Russian ballistic missiles have slammed into an apartment block in Kharkiv, killing at least four people, Ukrainian officials said.

The night-time attack came a day after President Joe Biden gave Kyiv the green light to strike back with American weapons at Russian military assets targeting Kharkiv, which is Ukraine’s second-largest city.

Russia launched five S-300/S-400 ballistic missiles at Kharkiv overnight, Ukraine’s air force said.

One of them struck a residential building close to midnight and was followed by another missile 25 minutes later that hit first responders, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. At least 25 people were injured, he said.

Ukrainian officials have previously accused Russia of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles – the first one to draw emergency crews to the scene and the second one to wound or kill them.

The tactic is called a “double tap” in military jargon, and Russia used the same method in Syria’s civil war.

A Russian onslaught this month in the north-eastern Kharkiv region, including a Russian aerial bomb attack on a large construction supplies store that killed 18 people on May 25, has forced the evacuation of thousands of people and has stretched Ukraine’s depleted forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue security conference in Singapore this weekend, six sources said, as Ukraine faces a renewed assault two years after Russian forces invaded.

Security assistance for Ukraine is expected to be one of the key issues discussed at this year’s dialogue, Asia’s premier security conference. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the Chinese defence minister, Dong Jun, are among those attending.

Two of the sources said Zelensky would address delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue on Saturday. All of the sources declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Ukrainian embassy in Singapore did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Zelensky’s office in Kyiv did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There has been no Russian delegation at the Singapore security meetings since 2022.

Zelensky, who is currently in Sweden, said on Wednesday that Russia was still trying to disrupt a separate world “peace summit” next month devoted to the invasion and that it was putting pressure on countries to stay away from the gathering.

Zelensky wants the peace summit, scheduled for June 15-16 in Switzerland, to produce a front to support the withdrawal of Russian troops and the restoration of Ukraine‘s 1991 borders.

China will not attend a Ukraine peace conference in Switzerland next month because it does not meet its expectations, which include both Russia and Ukraine taking part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Friday, confirming an exclusive Reuters report.

Switzerland is seeking a broad-based turnout from different parts of the world for the summit in mid-June, which Bern hopes will lay the groundwork for a peace process in Ukraine.

Moscow was not invited and dismisses the talks as meaningless without its participation.

“The arrangements for the meeting still fall far short of China’s requests and the general expectations of the international community, making it difficult for China to participate,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a routine briefing.

“China has always insisted that an international peace conference should be endorsed by both Russia and Ukraine, with the equal participation of all parties, and that all peace proposals should be discussed in a fair and equal manner. Otherwise it will be difficult for it to play a substantive role in restoring peace.”

China briefed some diplomats this week that it had declined the invitation, saying that its conditions had not been met, four sources told Reuters earlier.

US president Joe Biden has secretly given Ukraine permission to strike inside Russia’s borders using US weapons, officials have claimed.

Ukraine will now be able to use US rockets and rocket launchers to take down Russian missiles moving toward Kharkiv, to attack troops gathering just over the border close to the city, as well as Russian bombers, it is claimed.

My colleague Gustaf Kilander reports from Washington, DC:

Russia will retaliate asymmetrically to Ukrainian attacks on its territory using weapons provided by the United States, the head of the Russian lower house’s defence committee Andrei Kartapolov has claimed, according to reports by the state-owned RIA news agency.

Mr Kartapolov insisted Joe Biden’s decision to allow limited missile strikes inside Russia with US weapons would not impact Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

Poland is currently organising its 45th package of aid for Ukraine, the country’s foreign minister has said.

“Poland has sent 44 packages of aid to Ukraine, we are now organising our 45th … we think we’ve contributed in military assistance alone around €4bn,” Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters at a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in Prague.

A Pentagon intelligence agency says analysis of debris imagery confirms that Russia has fielded North Korean missiles in its war in Ukraine, according to a report summary released in an unclassified form on Thursday.

The conclusions of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) follow US assertions that Russia received ballistic missiles and artillery rounds from North Korea after the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, met Russian president Vladimir Putin for a rare summit last September.

The DIA report showed different aspects of North Korean solid-propellant short-range ballistic missiles, comparing images published by North Korean state media to others showing missile debris in Ukraine‘s Kharkiv region in January.

“Analysis confirms that Russia used ballistic missiles produced in North Korea in its war against Ukraine. North Korean missile debris was found throughout Ukraine,” the DIA said in a statement accompanying the release of an unclassified summary of the report.

Russia’s embassy in Washington and North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied accusations that North Korea transferred weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022.

The Czech Republic will ask countries for further contributions to its drive to source ammunition supplies for Ukraine from around the world, foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said.

Earlier this week, Prague said it had contributions of more than €1.6 billion which could cover half a million shells this year.