Ukraine war: ‘No plan B’ if Kyiv falls, says Nato state bordering Russia

China said it would be “’hard to meet” calls for discussions on the Russia-Ukraine war, citing problems with arrangements that appear to point to Beijing’s strongly pro-Moscow stance.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said that “China’s hopes appear to be hard to meet at the meeting.

“There is still a clear gap between the arrangements for the meeting and the demands of the Chinese side, as well as the general expectations of the international community,” Mr Mao said.

A fake news report that appeared on Poland’s national news agency saying that prime minister Donald Tusk was mobilising 200,000 men starting on 1 July was probably the work of Russia-sponsored hackers and was designed to interfere with the upcoming European Parliament election, authorities said.

“Everything indicates that we are dealing with a cyberattack directed from the Russian side,” said Krzysztof Gawkowski, a deputy prime minister who also holds the digital affairs portfolio. “The goal is disinformation ahead of (European Parliament) elections and a paralysis of the society.”

Mr Tusk said on X that it was “Another very dangerous hacker attack which well illustrates Russia’s destabilization strategy on the eve of the European elections. … It is increasingly clear how important these elections are for us.”

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Shelling by the Ukrainian military killed five civilians and wounded several others in different districts of the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine yesterday, the Russia-installed leader of the region said.

Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, proclaimed long before Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app that three people died in the city’s Kirov district.

Two more were killed in the village of Luhanske just outside Donetsk. The assertions could not be independently verified.

Estonia has called upon fellow Nato members to pledge one per cent of their GDP to supporting Ukraine in its war effort, as it raised concerns of an existential threat from Russia if Kyiv falls.

“If every Nato country did this,” Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas told the BBC, “Ukraine would win.

“We have no Plan B for a Russian victory,” she said, “because then we would stop focussing on Plan A.

“We should not give in to pessimism. Victory in Ukraine is not just about territory. If Ukraine joins Nato, even without some territory, then that’s a victory because it will be placed under the Nato umbrella.”

Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Friday, each sending back 75 POWs in the first such swap in the past three months, officials said. A few hours earlier and at the same location, the two sides also handed over bodies of their fallen soldiers.

The Ukrainian POWs, including four civilians, were returned on several buses that drove into the northern Sumy region. As they disembarked, they shouted joyfully and called their families to tell them they were home. Some knelt and kissed the ground while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags and hugged one another, breaking into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed.

The exchange of the 150 POWs in all was the fourth swap this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The United Arab Emirates said it helped negotiate this latest exchange.

The two sides have traded blame for what they say is a slowdown in the swaps.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin tried to refocus attention on China’s threat in the Pacific, seeking to alleviate concerns that conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have distracted from America’s security commitments in Asia.

Mr Austin, who was speaking at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security summit in Singapore, met his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, yesterday in a bid to cool friction over issues from Taiwan to China’s military activity in the South China Sea.

There has been increasing concern that Washington’s focus on helping Ukraine counter Russia’s invasion and support for Israel’s war in Gaza, while trying to ensure that the conflict does not spread, has taken away attention from the Indo-Pacific.

“Despite these historic clashes in Europe and the Middle East, the Indo-Pacific has remained our priority theatre of operations,” Mr Austin said in his speech, which appeared aimed at making the administration’s legacy in the region clear as president Joe Biden’s first term in office nears its end.

Mr Biden is running for re-election in November against former president Donald Trump.

“Let me be clear: The United States can be secure only if Asia is secure. That’s why the United States has long maintained our presence in this region.”

Mr Austin underscored the importance of alliances in the region.

“And … peaceful resolution of disputes through dialogue and not coercion or conflict. And certainly not through so-called punishment,” Mr Austin said, taking a shot at China.

South Korean defence minister Shin Won-sik said that more evidence suggests weapons used by Russia in the war in Ukraine were illegally imported from North Korea.

“Military cooperation between Russia and North Korea” is escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula and “also affecting the battlefield in Europe”, Mr Shin said.

If North Korea continues to receive military technology transfers from Russia in return, a significant improvement in North Korea’s conventional military capability is an imminent risk, Mr Shin said.

On questions about whether South Korea may seek nuclear weapons of its own, Mr Shin said that South Korea trusts the global nonproliferation treaty (NPT) regime, and that a stronger US-South Korean alliance is the answer to North Korea’s nuclear development.

Mr Shin was speaking during the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s biggest defence forum, under way in Singapore.

Germany has joined Joe Biden in giving Ukraine the green light to strike back with its weapons at Russian military assets targeting Kharkiv.

Germany discussed with its allies Russian attacks on the Kharkiv region from positions in the immediately adjacent Russian border area, a government spokesperson said.

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

“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.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday pushed back against some NATO proposals that would allow Ukraine to use Western weapons to strike targets within Russia, saying that such plans have Europe “inching closer to destruction.”

The nationalist leader has long opposed Western countries supplying Ukraine with military aid, and threatened to derail European Union financial support to Kyiv and the passing of sanctions against Moscow.

He has also maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin despite his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, while ramping up energy deals with Moscow at a time when most EU countries have sought to limit the use of Russian fossil fuel.