Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow claims Nato is ‘fighting against Russia’ after drones enter Romanian airspace – UK Times

Cluster munitions have caused more than 1,200 civilian casualties in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, a campaign group said on Monday.

Cluster munitions, which can cause severe injuries, have continued to be used by both sides during the conflict, particularly Russia, causing civilian deaths and injuries, the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor said in a new report.

“There continue to be attacks impacting civilian areas and residential buildings. Individual attacks…have killed dozens of civilians and left hundreds injured,” said Michael Hart, Cluster Munition Monitor Research Specialist.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine is party to the 2008 convention which bans cluster munitions, which currently has 112 member countries.

Cluster munitions, fired from the ground or by aircraft, explode mid-air, spraying smaller bomblets over a wide area.

The Kremlin said on Monday that it was obvious that NATO was fighting against Russia by providing direct and indirect support to Ukraine.

“NATO is de facto involved in this war,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“NATO is providing direct and indirect support to the Kiev regime. It can be said with absolute certainty that NATO is fighting against Russia”.

US military officers observed joint war games between Russia and Belarus on Monday and were told by Belarusian defence minister Viktor Khrenin that they could look at “whatever is of interest for you”.

Russia and Belarus began the “Zapad-2025” exercise at training grounds in both countries on Friday at a time of heightened tension with NATO, two days after Poland shot down Russian drones that crossed into its airspace.

The attendance of the Americans at a training ground in Belarus was presented by the country’s defence ministry as a surprise.

“Who would have thought how the morning of another day of the Zapad-2025 exercise would begin?” it said in a statement noting their presence among representatives from 23 countries including two other NATO member states – Turkey and Hungary.

The ministry released video showing two uniformed U.S. officers thanking Khrenin for the invitation and shaking his hand.

“We will show whatever is of interest for you. Whatever you want. You can go there and see, talk to people,” the minister told the Americans, who declined to speak to reporters.

The presence of the US officers is the latest sign of warming ties between Washington and Belarus, a close Russian ally that allowed Moscow to use its territory to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

John Coale, a Trump representative, was in Minsk last week for talks with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who agreed to release 52 prisoners from his jails, including journalists and political opponents.

The U.S. granted sanctions relief to Belarus’s national airline Belavia in return, allowing it to service and buy components for its fleet, which includes Boeing aircraft. Trump wants to reopen the U.S. embassy in Belarus in the near future, normalise ties, and revive the economic and trade relationship, Coale said.

Trump, who has been trying to broker an end to the war in Ukraine, is cultivating closer ties with Lukashenko, who regularly holds talks with Putin. Last week Trump sent Lukashenko a friendly hand-signed letter via Coale.

The Russian defence ministry said on Monday that Tu-22M3 supersonic missile-carrying bombers had patrolled over neutral waters in the Barents Sea as part of the Russia-Belarus joint ‘Zapad’ military drills.

The bombers’ flight lasted four hours, the ministry said.

Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev warned European states that Russia would go after any state which sought to take its assets after reports that the European Union was floating the idea of spending billions of dollars worth of frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.

After President Vladimir Putin sent his army into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with the Russian central bank and finance ministry and blocked $300-$350 billion of sovereign Russian assets, mostly European, U.S. and British government bonds held in a European securities depository.

Reuters reported that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants the European Union to find a new way to finance Ukraine’s defence against Russia using the cash balances associated with Russian assets frozen in Europe.

Politico reported that the European Commission is mulling the idea of using Russian cash deposits at the European Central Bank from maturing bonds owned by Russia to fund a “Reparations Loan” for Ukraine.

“If this happens, Russia will pursue the EU states, as well as European degenerates from Brussels and individual EU countries who try to seize our property, until the end of the century,” former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Telegram.

Russia will pursue European states in “all possible ways” and in “all possible international and national courts” as well as “out of court”, said Medvedev, who serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council.

Russia says any seizure of its assets amounts to theft by the West and will undermine confidence in the bonds and currencies of the United States and Europe.

As Russia has breached a second Nato member’s airspace, here our global affairs editor Sam Kiley explains just why Russia’s drone incursion over Poland last week is so dangerous for the world.

As wars are increasingly fought with the use of unmanned drones piloted from miles away, Taz Ali looks at what other weapons will shape the conflicts to come.

Russia has lost over one million troops in Ukraine since it started its full-scale invasion, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces has reported.

In its latest report, the General Staff claimed that enemy forces had lost 1,095,520 troops since 24 February 2022, including 910 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

Russia has also lost 11,184 tanks, 23,269 armored fighting vehicles, 61,698 vehicles and fuel tanks, 32,784 artillery systems, 1,488 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,217 air defense systems, 422 airplanes, 341 helicopters, 59,409 drones, 28 ships and boats, and one submarine, according to the report.

Estonia’s prime minister Kristen Michal has warned that Russia is an acute threat to the world called for Nato to start jointly procuring weapons and seize almost €200 billion­ in frozen Russian state ­assets to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction, according to The Times.

“Russia is an acute threat to Europe, to Nato, to every sane country in the world,” he said. “We have even been seen as a little bit paranoid talking about Russia’s threats [in the past]. But right now, everything we in the Baltics or Poland or the Nordics have been talking about has come to life.”