Latest news on Russia and the war in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked U.S. President Joe Biden for his support while speaking to an audience in at the NATO summit in Vilnius, acknowledging that the recent and controversial decision to send Ukraine cluster munitions was a “challenge.”

More than 120 countries have bans on them under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, including many NATO member states. There was significant opposition to Biden’s move in Congress.

Cluster munitions have one of the highest failure rates of all classes of weapons, as their bomblets are meant to explode on impact but often do not, instead exploding years later and causing devastating harm to civilians. They also often miss their intended targets and affect areas far beyond their target range.

Russia has been using cluster bombs in its attacks on Ukraine.

— Natasha Turak

The most urgent task now is to ensure Ukraine has enough weapons to defend itself against Russia’s invasion, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.

“Of course, guarantees, documents, councils, meetings are important. But the most urgent task now is to ensure enough weapons to Ukraine and President Zelenskyy and his armed forces,” he said in a press conference alongside the Ukrainian president.

“Therefore it has been extremely important in this meeting that we have seen new announcements from NATO allies. France has decided to deliver its long-range cruise missiles. Germany just announced yesterday a new big package over more air defense systems, more armored vehicles,” he added. “The United States announced a new package of ammunition and weapons and many other allies are also making new announcements.”

“So the most urgent task is to ensure that Ukraine prevails,” Stoltenberg said, “because unless Ukraine prevails, then there’s no [NATO] membership to be discussed at all.”

— Natasha Turak

It is “understandable that Ukraine cannot join NATO when at war,” but an invitation to join the alliance would still have been ideal as a symbolic move, similar to the invitation to join the EU, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his press conference with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy had called NATO’s lack of a timeline for his country to join “absurd.” NATO officials have stressed Ukraine’s future place in NATO but said that it should happen when peace is established and certain security conditions are met.

— Natasha Turak

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced a multi-year, three-part package meant to bring “Ukraine closer to NATO.”

It will set up “a new NATO-Ukraine Council, and re affirming that Ukraine will become a member of NATO and removing the requirement for the Membership Action Plans,” Stoltenberg said during a press conference alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Vilnius.

— Natasha Turak

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy outlined three priorities for his country during the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Speaking to journalists, he named weapons packages, an invitation to join NATO, and a guarantee of security measures from allies as priority items on his agenda.

On the invitation to NATO, he said, “We want to be on the same page with everybody, with all the understanding, and for today what we hear and understand that we’ll have this invitation when security measures will allow, so I want to discuss with our partners all these things.”

Zelenskyy stressed the need for “security guarantees for Ukraine on the way to NATO.” He expressed frustration at the alliance on Tuesday over its lack of a clear timeline for Ukraine’s future accession to NATO, something that several other members have been hesitant about due to the risk of pulling the wider group into war with Russia. Leaders of other NATO states including the U.S. and Germany said that an invitation to join the organization would come after peace in Ukraine was established and certain security conditions had been met.

— Natasha Turak

G7 nations are expected to announce a framework guaranteeing Ukraine’s long-term security on Wednesday, bloc member London said in an emailed statement.

“The joint declaration, expected to be signed by all members of the G7, will set out how allies will support Ukraine over the coming years to end the war and deter and respond to any future attack,” Downing Street said.

“As Ukraine makes strategic progress in their counteroffensive, and the degradation of Russian forces begins to infect Putin’s front line, we are stepping up our formal arrangements to protect Ukraine for the long term,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said.

He is currently attending a July 11-12 NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where members of the defense alliance have set aid to Ukraine at the top of the agenda.

“Supporting their progress on the pathway to NATO membership, coupled with formal, multilateral, and bilateral agreements and the overwhelming support of NATO members will send a strong signal to President Putin and return peace to Europe,” Sunak said.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Russian forces launched an air attack against Ukrainian capital Kyiv for the second consecutive night, the Kyiv military administration said on Telegram, according to a Google translation.

“After a break of more than a week, the enemy launched Iranian drones over Kyiv for the second day in a row. The air alert lasted more than 2 hours,” it said.

The military force claimed it destroyed enemy targets and shared no information on casualties and damage sustained at this time.

In Google-translated comments on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force said that Russian troops attacked Ukraine overnight from the north-eastern direction, using Iranian-made Shahed-136/131. A total of 15 drones participated in the strike, the force detailed, without specifying the number of units involved in the attack against Kyiv.

CNBC could not independently verify developments on the ground.

— Ruxandra Iordache

Russia’s latest military offensives, including air strikes against Ukrainian capital Kyiv, may be a “demonstrative response” to the Vilnius summit of the U.S.-led NATO alliance, which is meeting again today, the Institute for the Study of War said in its Tuesday report.

“Russia’s drone strikes on port infrastructure also coincide with the first day of the NATO summit in Vilnius and are likely intended to discourage NATO members from providing more military aid to Ukraine,” the think tank said.

NATO nations have unanimously expressed support for Ukraine, although Kyiv’s membership bid has yet to progress.

“Russia may be threatening the Black Sea grain deal to message the deal’s original broker, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that his recent statement of support for Ukraine’s NATO membership and the return of the five Ukrainian Azovstal commanders on July 7 has not gone unnoticed and is not appreciated by the Kremlin,” the ISW added.

Turkey on Monday finally endorsed the entry of Sweden into the military coalition — an accession that the Kremlin has warned could have “negative consequences.”

— Ruxandra Iordache

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and first lady Olena Zelenska arrived in Lithuania’s capital on Tuesday as the NATO summit convenes and leaders discuss ongoing support for Kyiv amid Russia’s ongoing war.

The group’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, stressed that Ukraine would receive a “strong, positive message on the path forward” regarding its membership.

But Zelenskyy remains frustrated that NATO has failed to lay out a timeline or give specific details for his country’s future NATO membership, calling it “unprecedented and absurd” on Telegram.

Kyiv has been pushing for accession into NATO following Russia’s full-scale invasion, but officials of the security alliance have previously said its membership is unlikely to proceed while war is waged on Ukrainian territories.

— Michele Luhn and Amanda Macias

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was “struck” by the speed with which “neutral status” countries such as Finland and Sweden opted to join the NATO military alliance.

“We were struck by the speed that both Finland and Sweden renounced their neutral status, renounced the advantages that this neutral status provided them for many decades, provided them with relatively independent role, provided them with a reputation and authority both in Europe and on the international stage,” Lavrov told reporters in Moscow during a press conference with visiting Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi.

Lavrov also said that Finland and Sweden have given up “special trade and economic investment and other relations with the Russian Federation” by joining NATO.

Lavrov’s comments follow NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s announcement that Sweden would become the 32nd member to join the military alliance. Finland became a NATO member in April.

— Amanda Macias

Kyrylo Barashkov, a 43-year-old immigration lawyer, in his own bunker in Kriukivschina, a small town near Kyiv on July 10, 2023. After several missiles exploded near his house outside Kyiv, Kyrylo Barashkov decided the only way to keep his family safe was to build his own bunker.

— Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images