Russia Ukraine war latest: Kyiv makes ‘breakthrough’ on Dnipro river

Mr Lavrov is in North Korea for meetings viewed as preparatory efforts ahead of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit as Moscow and Pyongyang slide closer in diplomatic cooperation against Ukraine and the West.

Moscow “deeply” valued Pyongyang’s “unwavering and principled support” for Russia in the war, Mr Lavrov said, speaking at a reception hosted by North Korean officials on Wednesday.

Ukrainian special forces reported on Tuesday that they had struck two Russian military airfields, following the first-time deployment of long-range ballistic missiles supplied by the US.

The details of the weapons’ delivery has been shrouded in secrecy – unlike previous aid provided to Ukraine from the Biden Administration.

The missiles – which Ukraine has reportedly been petitioning the US to deliver for months – may prove key to helping Ukrainian forces in the months of conflict ahead.

Vladimir Putin lashed out at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for effectively suspending Russia from the Olympic movement, accusing it of using the Games as a tool of politics and racism.

Last week the IOC banned the Russian Olympic Committee for recognising regional bodies from four territories that Moscow claims to have annexed from Ukraine.

“Thanks to some of the leaders of the modern International Olympic Committee, we learned that an invitation to the Games is not an unconditional right of the best athletes, but a kind of privilege, and can be earned not by sporting results, but by political gestures that have nothing to do with sport at all,” Putin told the “Russia – Sporting Power” conference in the Urals city of Perm.

“And that the Games themselves can be used as an instrument of political pressure against people who have nothing to do with politics. And as gross, and in fact racist, ethnic discrimination.”

Russia has been at odds with the Olympic movement ever since its own Sochi Winter Games in 2014, where its athletes were found to have benefited for years from a large-scale state-sponsored doping programme – something Moscow denied.

As a result, since 2018, Russians considered to be doping-free have been allowed to compete at the Olympics only under neutral flags. The IOC did not say last week whether they would be admitted to Paris 2024.

Ukrainian defence forces have made use of US-made long-range ATACMS missiles in operations against Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Mr Zelensky said Tuesday that the long-range weapon, formally known as the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System, was recently used on the battlefield against Russia and “executed very accurately”.

The US-built missile system, which is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, can be fired from the M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers which have been in use by Ukrainian forces for some time. But unlike other missiles, the ATACMS can be used to strike targets as far away as 180 miles, which would allow Ukrainian defence forces to strike command and control and supply locations well behind Russia’s front lines.

Finland had blocked three planned property transactions involving Russian buyers, the ministry of defence said today.

The move was made on grounds that allowing the acquisitions to take place could hamper the defence of Finnish territory.

“The real estate acquisitions in question can be considered to hinder the organisation of national defence or the surveillance and safeguarding of territorial integrity,” the ministry said in a statement.

The decision concerns two properties in Ruokolahti and one in Kitee, the ministry of defence said, both near the Russian border in southern Finland.

Finland in recent weeks sought to speed up its confiscation of Russian-owned real estate, citing Russian owners’ struggle to pay their expenses and taxes after the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

The Finnish government is planning to simplify regulations on notifying Russian owners, as it is currently illegal to oust owners over unpaid bills if an official notification cannot be delivered to them.

Finland, which joined the NATO military alliance in April in response to Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine, is also assessing how to take control of Helsinki’s biggest sports and events arena which has been shut since last year due to sanctions against its billionaire Russian owners.

Russia has learnt that the Olympics can be used as a tool of political pressure and ethnic discrimination, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.

“The Games can be used as an instrument of political pressure against people who have nothing to do with politics. And as gross and in fact ethnic discrimination,” Putin said.

Last week the Russian Olympic Committee was banned by the International Olympic Committee for recognising regional organisations from four territories that Russia said it had annexed from Ukraine.

Although the IOC said the Olympic committees of Russia and Belarus would not receive an official invitation to the Paris Games like other countries later this month, a decision on their participation would be made at a later date.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russia‘s foreign ministry said on Thursday, as the two countries forge closer ties in the face of what they see as a hostile and aggressive U.S.-led Western camp.

Russia‘s state-run TASS news agency reported that Lavrov’s meeting with Kim had lasted over an hour but the ministry did not provide further details.

Lavrov, who arrived in Pyongyang on Wednesday, earlier thanked North Korea for backing Russia‘s military actions in Ukraine and pledged Moscow’s “complete support and solidarity” for Kim, Russia‘s foreign ministry said.

Lavrov’s visit is seen as setting the stage for a visit by President Vladimir Putin, who has stepped up cooperation with politically isolated North Korea.

Speaking at a reception hosted by the North on Wednesday, Lavrov said Moscow strongly valued Pyongyang’s “unwavering and principled support” for Russia in the Ukraine war, which it calls a “special military operation”.

“Likewise the Russian Federation extends its complete support and solidarity with the aspirations of the DPRK,” Lavrov said, according to the transcript of the speech released on his ministry’s website.

DPRK are the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

While the Army Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, result in an additional threat, the weapon would not change the situation along the 1,500km (932 mile) frontline, Mr Putin told reporters in Beijing. He said his forces will be able to repel attacks by the top-tier missile system.

“For Ukraine, in this sense, there’s nothing good… it only prolongs the agony,” the Russian president said during his visit to China.

“Alsu is a highly respected colleague, devoted wife, and dedicated mother to two children,” Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty Acting President Jeffrey Gedmin said.

“She needs to be released so she can return to her family immediately.”

Ms Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague with her family, was stopped at Kazan International Airport on June 2 after travelling to Russia for a family emergency on May 20, according to RFE/RL.

Officials at the airport confiscated her US and Russian passports and she was later fined for failing to register her US passport with Russian authorities.

She was waiting for her passports to be returned when the new charge of failing to register as a foreign agent was announced on Wednesday, RFE/RL said.

Ms Kurmasheva reported on ethnic minority communities in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan in Russia, including projects to protect and preserve the Tatar language and culture despite “increased pressure” on Tatars from Russian authorities, her employer said.

Analysts have pointed out that Moscow may be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips after US-Russian tensions soared when Russia sent troops into Ukraine.

A Russian-American journalist working for a US government-funded media company has been detained in Russia and charged with failing to register as a foreign agent, according to her employer.

Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty editor Alsu Kurmasheva is the second US journalist to be detained in Russia this year.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested for alleged spying in March.

Ms Kurmasheva, an editor with RFE/RL’s Tatar-Bashkir service, is being held in a temporary detention centre, the Committee to Protect Journalists said, citing a Russian state news agency.

The Tatar-Inform agency posted video showing Ms Kurmasheva being marched into an administrative building accompanied by four men, two of whom held her arms and wore balaclavas.

Tatar-Inform said authorities accused Ms Kurmasheva of collecting information about Russia‘s military activities “in order to transmit information to foreign sources”, suggesting she received information about university teachers who were mobilised into the Russian army.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said she was charged with failing to register as a foreign agent in her capacity as a person collecting information on Russian military activities.

If convicted, Ms Kurmasheva could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, the New York-based press freedom group said.