🔴Live: Russia seeks UN Security Council meeting on Nord Stream blasts

2:52pm: UK part of convention discouraging use of cluster munitions, says PM

Britain is signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Saturday after the United States said it was planning to supply Ukraine with them.

“We will continue to do our part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion,” Sunak told reporters.

The US drew sharp criticism from rights groups due to the danger unexploded bomblets pose even after a conflict has ended.

2:31pm: Ukraine vows to use cluster bombs to de-occupy only-defence minister

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov welcomed the US decision to send cluster bombs to Kyiv, saying it would help to de-occupy the Ukrainian territory but vowed that the munitions would be not used in Russia.

The US announced on Friday that it would supply Ukraine with widely banned cluster munitions for its counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces.

Reznikov said the munitions would help save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers, adding that Ukraine would keep a strict record of their use and exchange information with its partners.

“Our position is simple – we need to liberate our temporarily occupied territories and save the lives of our people,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

“Ukraine will use these munitions only for the de-occupation of our internationally recognised territories. These munitions will not be used on the officially recognised territory of Russia.”

2:28pm: Spain deplores supplying Ukraine with cluster bombs

Cluster bombs should not be sent to help Ukraine, the Spanish defence minister said on Saturday, a day after the United States announced the weapons would be sent to Kyiv to help with its counter-offensive against Russian forces.

Cluster munitions are prohibited by more than 100 countries, including Spain. They typically release large numbers of smaller bomblets that can kill indiscriminately over a wide area. Those that fail to explode pose a danger for decades.

“Spain, based on the firm commitment it has with Ukraine, also has a firm commitment that certain weapons and bombs cannot be delivered under any circumstances,” Margarita Robles told reporters during a rally in Madrid ahead of the July 23 national election.

“No to cluster bombs and yes to the legitimate defence of Ukraine, which we understand should not be carried out with cluster bombs.”

1:09pm: Wagner commander says fighters preparing to move to Belarus

Mercenary fighters of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group are preparing to move to Belarus under the terms of a deal that defused their mutiny against Russia’s military leadership, a senior commander of the group was quoted as saying.

Anton Yelizarov, whose nom de guerre is “Lotus”, was quoted on Saturday by a channel on the Telegram messaging app as saying the fighters were now taking vacation until early August, on Prigozhin’s orders, before moving to Belarus.

“We have to prepare bases, training grounds, coordinate with local governments and administrations, organise interaction with the law enforcement agencies of Belarus and establish logistics,” he was quoted by the “Yevgeny Prigozhin on Telegram” channel as saying.

However, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that Prigozhin and thousands of his fighters were still in Russia, raising questions about Russian strategy.

1:02pm: US cluster munitions come as a ‘relief’ to Ukrainians

The Biden administration confirmed it will supply Ukraine with controversial cluster munitions Friday. 

FRANCE 24’s Emmanuelle Chaze has the Ukrainian reaction from the ground in Kyiv. “Here there is relief (…) Ukrainians are acutely aware that their army, as good as it is, is a smaller army than that of the aggressor,” Chaze says.

11:41am: Russia seeks UN Security Council meeting on Nord Stream blasts

Russia has requested a new meeting of the UN Security Council for July 11 to discuss last September’s explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, a senior Russian diplomat at the United Nations said on Saturday.

Russia has unsuccessfully demanded access to investigations by Sweden and other countries into the blasts, which severely damaged the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea.

“We requested a new open meeting of the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream blasts for July 11,” Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, said on the Telegram messaging platform.

He also said Russia would invite “a couple of interesting impartial speakers” to the meeting.

Russia failed in March to get the UN Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry.

11:15am: Six killed in Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine city Lyman, says governor 

Six people were killed on Saturday in Lyman in eastern Ukraine after the town came under fire from Russian rockets, the regional governor said.

“At least six people were killed and five injured … At around 10:00 am, the Russians struck the town with multiple rocket launchers,” Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on social media.

9:12am: Zelensky visits symbolic Snake Island on 500th day of invasion

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday visited a tiny Black Sea island whose few defenders famously defied a Russian warship at the beginning of the invasion, as the conflict reaches its 500th day.

“500 days of the full-scale war. Snake Island. The free island of free Ukraine. I am grateful to everyone who fought here against the occupiers,” Zelensky said on social media.

8:12am: Kyiv wins Ankara’s support for NATO bid

FRANCE 24’s Jasper Mortimer is in Ankara on Saturday, the morning after discussions between Ukraine’s President Zelensky and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“President Erdogan declared Turkey’s support for Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. That is exactly what President Zelensky wanted to hear,” says Mortimer.

Mortimer also discussed the likelihood of Russia renewing the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a perennial issue in the war that could have repercussions for global food supplies.

03:55

6:20am: ‘The decision was made reluctantly by Joe Biden’

US President Joe Biden on Friday said sending cluster munitions to Ukraine was a “difficult decision”.

“[Biden] admitted it took him a while to be convinced to send cluster munitions to Ukraine,” says FRANCE 24’s Kethevane Gorjestani reporting from Washington.

01:34

4:31am: UN slams civilian toll as Russia’s war in Ukraine reaches day 500

The United Nations condemned the civilian cost inflicted by Russia’s war in Ukraine as the fighting passed the 500-day mark with no end to the conflict in sight.

More than 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, have been killed since Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion, the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said in a statement on Friday, though UN representatives have previously said the real count is likely to be much higher.

“Today we mark another grim milestone in the war that continues to exact a horrific toll on Ukraine’s civilians,” Noel Calhoun, the deputy head of HRMMU, said in the statement marking the 500th day since the invasion.

• Key developments from Thursday, July 7:

The United States announced that it will provide cluster munitions to Ukraine for the first time as Kyiv’s forces push ahead with a counteroffensive against Russian forces.

In an interview with FRANCE 24, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, “we are moving Ukraine closer to NATO, the final decisions are still to be negotiated and agreed by allies.” He added that he expected important decisions to be made during the NATO summit in Vilnius next week.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday described the deals allowing the safe Black Sea export of food and fertilizer from Ukrainian ports and facilitating Russia’s own such exports as playing an “indispensable role” in global food security.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how all the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP and Reuters)