Russia Ukraine war live: Biden lifts ban on Kyiv using US missiles to defend Kharkiv against Putin attacks

A Russian rocket wrecked the equestrian centre of the Veterinary Academy in Mala Danylivka village near Kharkiv on Thursday.

The Kharkiv Veterinary Academy was founded in 1804 and its equestrian centre is a historical building.

Nobody was killed or injured, according to Kharkiv governor Oleg Synegubov.

Disruptive digital attacks, many of which have been traced to Russia-backed groups, have doubled in the European Union in recent months and are also targeting election-related services, according to the EU’s top cybersecurity official.

Juhan Lepassaar, head of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, or ENISA, told The Associated Press in an interview that attacks with geopolitical motives have steadily risen since Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

“The number of hacktivist attacks (against) European infrastructure — threat actors whose main aim is to cause disruption — has doubled from the fourth quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024,” Lepassaar said late Tuesday at the agency’s headquarters in Athens.

Though the Biden administration has been a staunch supporter of Kyiv, reports suggest President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to miss the summit, which would be a huge blow to Mr Zelensky – even if some form of presence from Washington is expected.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence operation claimed that sea drones destroyed two Russian KS-701 patrol boats in the Black Sea off the Russia-annexed Crimean peninsula. Russian officials did not immediately comment on the claim.

The air force said the overnight attacks included eight S-300 ballistic missiles, 11 cruise missiles and 32 Shahed drones. All the drones and seven of the cruise missiles were shot down, the air force said but did not give other details.

In response to the 18-month investigation, the deputy foreign secretary, Andrew Mitchell, called the practice “despicable” and pledged further support to the disabled community in the war-wracked country.

The Independent’s four-article series revealed evidence that since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, people with disabilities have been held incommunicado, in squalid conditions and even forced into adopting Russian passports in order to secure treatment or care.

A senior U.S. Treasury official is in Kyiv this week to talk with government officials about U.S. financial support for Ukraine, efforts to tighten sanctions on Russia and plans to use immobilized Russian sovereign assets for the benefit of Ukraine as it fends off Russian forces.

Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo’s trip comes as Russia gains territory on the battlefield after an especially lengthy delay in U.S. military aid left Ukraine at the mercy of Russia’s bigger army and as the outlook for Ukraine’s state finances is on shakier ground.

Adeyemo is set to meet with officials in Ukraine’s finance ministry and president’s office. He’s also planning a stop at the Kyiv School of Economics to speak with faculty and civil society groups working on sanctions policy and ways to make sanctions on Russia more effective.

The United States is close to completing negotiations on a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine that President Joe Biden announced last year at a G7 meeting, a U.S. official said on Thursday.

G7 nations, led by the U.S., unveiled a framework in July for the long-term security of Ukraine to boost its defenses against Russia.

The U.S. official’s comment came after the Financial Times reported on Thursday that the U.S. and Ukraine were close to signing a bilateral security pact.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will ask allies to pledge a minimum of 40 billion euros ($43.37 billion) annually to fund military aid for Ukraine, an alliance source told Reuters on Thursday.

“We need to sustain that current level of support as a minimum to provide the predictability Ukraine needs, for as long as necessary,” the NATO source said, adding that allies had provided some 40 billion euros per year since Russia‘s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

NATO foreign ministers were to gather on Thursday evening for a two-day meeting in Prague and were expected to discuss Stoltenberg’s proposal during a working session on Friday.

Hungary‘s top diplomat visited Belarus on Wednesday for talks on expanding ties despite the European Union’s sanctions against the country.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó declared that “our position is clear: the fewer sanctions, the more cooperation!”

The EU has slapped an array of sweeping sanctions on Belarus for the repression, which followed mass protests fueled by the 2020 presidential election that was widely seen by the opposition and the West as rigged. Belarus’ isolation further deepened after authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko allowed Russian troops to use his country’s territory to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The package, announced by defence minister Pal Jonson, is the largest single tranche of support donated by Sweden since Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, valued at 13.3 billion Swedish crowns (£981m).

It comes at a vital time for Ukraine as Russian forces, emboldened by an advantage born from a US military package delayed by more than six months, advance across the 640-mile frontline.