Russia Ukraine news latest: Long-range missiles pledge at Nato summit to help Kyiv push back Putin’s forces

France will join Britain in supplying Ukraine with long-range cruise missiles, which can travel 250 km (155 miles), a move that allows Ukrainian forces to hit Russian troops and supplies deep behind front lines, French officials said on Tuesday.

Emmanuel Macron said he had decided to boost military aid to Ukraine to help its counteroffensive as the French President arrived at a summit of the 31-member NATO alliance in Lithuania.

“I have decided to increase deliveries of weapons and equipment to enable the Ukrainians to have the capacity to strike deeply,” Macron said, while declining to say how many missiles would be sent.

A French diplomatic source said they were talking about 50 SCALP missiles produced by European manufacturer MBDA.

The missiles would come from existing French military stocks, a French military source told reporters, adding that it would be a “significant number”.

Paris has previously supplied Mistral shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine and Crotale short-range anti-air missiles, which are used to intercept low-flying missiles and aircraft.

Ukraine has been asking for months for longer-range missiles but the United States, its main supplier, has yet to agree to supply them.

Britain said in May it was supplying the Franco-British missile, produced by MBDA, that it calls the Storm Shadow.

The French version, known as SCALP, has a range of about 250 km, three times as far as Ukraine’s existing missile capacities.

The missiles were being integrated into Ukrainian Russian-made warplanes, the French military source said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has hit out at delays to inviting Kvyi to become a member of Nato – saying it would be “absurd” if his country is not given a timetable for its bid to join the alliance.

Mr Zelensky’s frustration was obvious in a strongly-worded statement issued as a summit of the alliance’s leaders got underway in Vilnius, Lithuania. Divisions between Nato members are expected to prevent the alliance offering Kyiv a date for accession or a straightforward invitation to join during the conference. The alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said he expects “a clear, united and positive message on the path towards membership for Ukraine” – but Mr Zelensky clearly expects to fall short of what his country needs.

Kate Devlin and Chris Stevenson report:

France has started delivering a significant number of SCALP cruise missiles to Ukraine, which will be integrated into non-Western warplanes, a French military source said on Tuesday.

The missiles, which can reach 250 km (about 160 miles, would only be used within Ukraine’s internationally-recognised borders, the source told reporters in a briefing at a NATO summit in Lithuania.

Paris did not consider it as an escalation given that Russia was firing missiles with a much larger range, the source added.

Russia is taking “appropriate” and timely measures in response to the possible accession of Sweden and Ukraine to the NATO military alliance, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Speaking on the first day of a NATO summit in Vilnius which is expected to send a “positive” message to Ukraine about its future hopes of joining the alliance, Lavrov said Russia would protect its own “legitimate security interests”.

Lavrov did not elaborate.

Russia sees no grounds for peace talks with Ukraine, the Interfax news agency cited Russian upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko as saying on Tuesday during a visit to China.

It looks like Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is not happy with what he is hearing about discussions on his country’s path to NATO membership.

He said it was “unprecedented and absurd” for no time frame to be offered for the invitation to join or Ukraine’s membership.

“It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance,” he tweeted.

“This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine’s membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror.He added: “Uncertainty is weakness. And I will openly discuss this at the summit.”

European leaders do not seem to understand that moving NATO infrastructure towards Russia’s borders is a mistake, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

Peskov, speaking as a NATO summit opens in Vilnius, told a news briefing that the Western military alliance’s advance into central and eastern Europe had led to the current crisis around Ukraine in the first place.

Belarus is waiting for fighters from Russia’s Wagner mercenary group to deploy on its territory and plans to exchange combat experience with them when they do, state news agency BELTA cited the Belarusian defence ministry as saying on Tuesday.

Belarus is also waiting for a new batch of regular Russian troops to arrive to take part in joint training with the Belarusian armed forces, the ministry was cited as saying.

Rishi Sunak said that he hoped Nato allies would agree on “demonstrable progress” towards Ukraine’s membership of Nato.

But the PM did not set out any timetable toward Ukraine joining, or set out any conditions – details not expected to be agreed at this week’s summit in Lithuania.“I think that what’s important at this summit is that commitment is reaffirmed, and also there is demonstrable progress towards that goal,” the PM told reporters on the plane.

Mr Sunak said “Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato” – but said membership was “not a question for right now, whilst they are in the midst of a conflict”.

While the UK strongly favours a clear route to Nato membership, the US remains hesitant, with Joe Biden saying: “I don’t think it’s ready for membership in Nato.”

Mr Sunak is expected to use this week’s Nato summit in Lithuania to push the US and other allies less certain over membership to agree to strong language signalling support for Ukraine joining the organisation at some point.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday Sweden’s expected accession to NATO would have clear negative implications for Russia’s security and that Moscow would respond with similar measures to those it took after Finland joined the Western military alliance.

Spokesman Dmitry Peskov also played down Turkey’s decision to end its opposition to Sweden’s accession to NATO, saying that Ankara has obligations as a member of the alliance and that Moscow had had no illusions on this score.

Peskov said Russia and Turkey had their differences but also shared some common interests, adding that Moscow intended to develop further its relations with Ankara.