Putin accuses ‘arrogant’ west of risking global conflict and says forces are at ‘combat readiness’
Russia president Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.
As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world, Reuters reported.
“We know what the exorbitance of such ambitions leads to. Russia will do everything to prevent a global clash,” Putin said on Red Square after defence minister Sergei Shoigu reviewed troops lined up in a blizzard.
“But at the same time, we will not allow anyone to threaten us. Our strategic forces are always in a state of combat readiness.”
Key events
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday appointed former army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, who led Ukraine’s defence in the first two years of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, as Kyiv’s ambassador to the United Kingdom.
The decree was published on the presidential website. Zaluzhnyi was earlier named a “Hero of Ukraine”, Reuters reported.
Ukraine has not had an ambassador in London since Zelenskiy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the president.
Zaluzhnyi is very popular among many Ukrainians for leading the army in the first hours of Russia’s invasion and for planning a counteroffensive that helped liberate significant swathes of territory seized by Moscow.
Ukraine says attack drone flew ‘record’ 1,500km
A Ukrainian attack drone struck a Russian oil processing plant in the Bashkiria region on Thursday after flying a “record” distance of 1,500 km (932.06 miles) in an operation conducted by the SBU security service, a Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters.
The drone hit a catalytic cracking unit at the Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat oil processing, petrochemical and fertiliser complex, the source said. Russia confirmed the fact of damage at the plant earlier, but said the facility was functioning as usual.
More images and reports are coming in from Russia’s events to mark victory in the Second World War.
Although the US and UK ambassadors did not attend, AP reports that Vladimir Putin was joined by other dignitaries and presidents of several former Soviet nations along with a few other Moscow allies, including the leaders of Cuba, Guinea-Bissau and Laos.
Many observers see Putin’s focus on World War II as part of his efforts to revive the USSR’s clout and prestige and his reliance on Soviet practices, AP adds.
“It’s the continuous self-identification with the USSR as the victor of Nazism and the lack of any other strong legitimacy that forced the Kremlin to declare ‘denazification’ as the goal of the war,” Nikolay Epplee said in a commentary for Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.
Cameron said Britain had imposed unprecedented sanctions against Russia and was continuing to call on allies to maintain military support for Ukraine.
“To persuade we need to be active,” he added, referring to trips he had recently undertaken to central Asia, saying that potential partners all over the world needed to be told they could be helped to make a choice to “be more open, more independent”
Cameron also announced a new £1m programme for the British Council to teach English to Ukrainian civil servants, saying that Britain should also not hold back on championing the language around the world.
Some reaction and analysis is coming through from those who eager to pick up on policy nuances from the speech, which happened to go ahed with some embarrassing technical glitches.
Lord Cameron explicitly linking foreign, immigration, and economic policy in his speech this morning – the whole country needs to share in the benefits of globalisation, foreign policy is about prosperity too pic.twitter.com/drfXjpCy5z
— Olivia O’Sullivan (@LivJOSullivan) May 9, 2024
Cameron himself had also tweeted a ‘speed version’ of the speech
Cameron was one of the biggest champions behind overthrowing Gaddafi in Libya, resulting in it becoming a failed state.
David Cameron’s foreign policy single handily led to a country reinstating slavery and more than 4 million refugees pouring into Europe.
Shut up David. https://t.co/bTdSU4HfbT
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) May 9, 2024
The West needs to undermine and expose “the malign networks that Russia uses to spread its lies,” according to Britain’s Foreign Secretary, David Cameron.
In his first major speech since taking up the role, he said over the last five years Britain had invested in that project by backing free media and supporting independent journalism in places like Georgia and Moldova, “where Russia seeks to bully and manipulate politics.”
Adversaries like Russia also sought to undermine the UK by attacking its record.
They gleefully accused the west of double standards, and I think we should be frank in our response. Yes, the suffering in Gaza is appalling, but an unprovoked war against an independent country like Ukraine that poses no threat is wholly different from the conflict that has grown from the brutal attacks of October the seventh.
Cameron said that the UK needed to be bolder in standing up for what it believes in.
It is profoundly in our national interest to defend those core beliefs. Freedom, the rule of law, respect or human rights and dignity, and to defend the core principles of an open international order, right not might, sovereignty and territorial integrity, freedom of navigation.
Cameron said these were vital foundations for British and global security and prosperity.
The adversaries of Britain and its allies had no hesitation about using outright lies and were using new tools to distract and mislead, he add.
We must be bolder in combating their combating their poisonous methods of deceit,” said Cameron, saying that this was what Britain and the US did when they publicised intelligence about Russia’s intention to invade Ukraine before it happened.
It was an unprecedented step and it made it clear what Putin was planning to do, assault a neighbour without a scrap of justification.
Cameron: UK must have the ‘courage to act’
Ben Quinn
The UK must have the “courage to act,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said in his first major speech in the role.
Too many “adopt a kind of defensive crouch” instead of taking action, but Britain can choose to make a difference together with its partners, he said.
We in Britain and the wider West have agency – the question is if we have the courage to use it – the courage to act,” Lord Cameron said in his address at the National Cyber Security Centre.
He said the Government needs to do more to prioritise security than when he was prime minister to bolster resilience against covert foreign influences.
Cameron instanced attacks on Britain’s democracy in the UK and referred to a suspected Russian operations in the UK.
Afternoon summary
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Russia president Vladimir Putin has accused the West of risking a global conflict and said no one would be allowed to threaten the world’s biggest nuclear power as Russia marked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two. As Russian troops advance against Ukraine’s Western-backed forces, Putin accused “arrogant” Western elites of forgetting the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany, and of stoking conflicts across the world, Reuters reported.
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A Ukrainian air attack on Russia’s Belgorod region injured eight people and damaged scores of residential buildings and cars, the governor of the region bordering with Ukraine said on Thursday. Among the wounded is an 11-year-old girl who was taken to a hospital, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. About 34 flats in 19 apartment buildings were damaged, as well as three dozen cars in the city of Belgorod, the region’s administrative centre, Gladkov added.
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Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck two oil depots near the town of Anapa in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region causing large-scale fires, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday. The source said the oil depots were used as transshipment points to supply fuel to Russian troops in the nearby occupied peninsula of Crimea.
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Meanwhile, Ukraine’s parliament has voted to dismiss deputy prime minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, a key government figure who has overseen the wartime reconstruction effort and championed efforts to set up a vital Black Sea shipping lane, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. The 41-year-old’s dismissal comes amid plans to break up his powerful ministry into two separate government portfolios.
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Ukraine’s parliament has dismissed agriculture minister Mykola Solsky who tendered his resignation in late April as he faces an investigation into alleged involvement in illegal acquisition of state-owned land, Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said on Telegram. Solsky, 44, has denied the allegations, Reuters reported.
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Ukraine’s air defence systems destroyed 17 out of 20 attack drones that Russia launched targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s air force said. The drones were destroyed over the Odesa region in Ukraine’s south, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app.
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Lithuania’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of an ad hoc coalition of western countries sending military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, days after Russia took an increasingly strident tone against what it sees as the threat of deeper western involvement in the war. Speaking to the Guardian after meeting his British counterpart, David Cameron, in London, Gabrielius Landsbergis also backed the British foreign secretary for saying that Ukraine could use British-made weapons against Russia; remarks that alongside Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out western troops in Ukraine prompted the Kremlin to threaten UK assets and order a tactical nuclear training exercise.
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Ukraine plans to double electricity imports on Thursday after a powerful Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system, the energy ministry said. The imports are expected to rise to 16,699 megawatt hours (Mwh) versus 7,600 Mwh on Wednesday, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported. “Today, at Ukraine’s request, emergency electricity supplies have already been made from Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the ministry said.
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South Korea’s position remains it will not supply lethal weapons to any country, president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Thursday, when asked if Seoul was prepared to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia. Yoon also said his government intended to continue managing relations with Moscow to “pursue economic cooperation and mutual benefits” even though the two countries’ ties have become “uncomfortable” since the start of the war in Ukraine.
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David Cameron is to warn that the west is not learning the lesson of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that authoritarian adversaries will only be spurred on if the west shows hesitation or caution. The foreign secretary will call for the west to be tougher and more assertive and realise it is locked in a battle of wills in which “we all must prove our adversaries wrong – Britain, and our allies and partners around the world”.
Drones launched by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) struck two oil depots near the town of Anapa in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region causing large-scale fires, a Ukrainian intelligence source told Reuters on Thursday.
The source said the oil depots were used as transshipment points to supply fuel to Russian troops in the nearby occupied peninsula of Crimea.
“The SBU will continue to reduce Russia’s economic and logistics potential for waging war,” the source said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin said in remarks released on Thursday that there was nothing unusual in a planned exercise involving the practice deployment of tactical nuclear weapons.
“There is nothing unusual here, this is a planned work,” Putin said in the remarks which the Kremlin said were made on 7 May, Russian news agencies reported.
Russia said on Monday it would practise the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what the Moscow said were threats from France, Britain and the United States.
Ukraine plans to double electricity imports on Thursday after a powerful Russian attack on Ukraine’s energy system, the energy ministry said.
The imports are expected to rise to 16,699 megawatt hours (Mwh) versus 7,600 Mwh on Wednesday, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, Reuters reported.
“Today, at Ukraine’s request, emergency electricity supplies have already been made from Poland, Romania and Slovakia,” the ministry said.
Emergency assistance will also be provided during evening peak hours of electricity consumption, it noted.
Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo said in a separate statement it expected a significant deficit of electricity for almost the entire day.
“Industrial consumption will be limited from 18:00 to 24:00. With an increase in consumption, emergency shutdowns are possible,” Ukrenergo said.
Russia is warning the West and the United States that it feels obliged to boost its nuclear deterrent due to what it regards as the West’s escalalatory trajectory, Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, was cited by the RIA news agency a saying.
Ryabkov was quoted on Thursday as also saying that Russia was not changing its own nuclear doctrine but that the global situation was changing.
Western military trainers could go to Ukraine, Lithuania minister says
Patrick Wintour
Lithuania’s foreign minister has raised the prospect of an ad hoc coalition of western countries sending military training personnel into Ukraine backed by ground-based air defence, days after Russia took an increasingly strident tone against what it sees as the threat of deeper western involvement in the war.
Speaking to the Guardian after meeting his British counterpart, David Cameron, in London, Gabrielius Landsbergis also backed the British foreign secretary for saying that Ukraine could use British-made weapons against Russia; remarks that alongside Emmanuel Macron refusing to rule out western troops in Ukraine prompted the Kremlin to threaten UK assets and order a tactical nuclear training exercise.
Foreign secretary in Lithuania for four years, Landsbergis has long called for tougher action against Russia, but his latest remarks have shown that there is support in parts of Europe for the muscular line recently adopted by the French president.
Macron has shocked some European colleagues and infuriated Russia by saying the west should not rule out sending troops to Ukraine.
“Our troops have been training Ukrainians in Ukraine before the war, and we’ve been doing that for many years. So returning to this tradition might be quite doable,” Landsbergis said. “This could be a first step in president Macron’s initiative”.
He said a proposal to train Ukrainians inside their own country was “more practical” than the training taking place on the territory of Nato members.
