(Reuters) – President Vladimir Putin said the situation in four areas of Ukraine that Moscow had declared part of Russia was “extremely difficult” and ordered security services to step up surveillance to secure its borders and combat new threats.
Belarus – new front?
* Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s Security Services Day, widely celebrated in Russia, Putin ordered the strengthening of Russia’s borders as Moscow tries to regain momentum in its war against Ukraine.
* On Monday, Putin visited Belarus for the first time since 2019 after Moscow’s recent battlefield setbacks, fuelling Ukrainian fears he would pressure Minsk to open a new invasion front.
* Putin and his Belarusian counterpart, President Alexander Lukashenko, extolled the benefits of cooperation, but they hardly mentioned the Ukraine war at their joint news conference. Both Moscow and Minsk denied that they wanted an active Belarusian role in Ukraine.
United nations
* The United States accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of “apparently yielding to Russian threats” and not sending officials to Ukraine to inspect drones used by Russia that Washington and others say were supplied by Iran.
Support
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asked Western leaders meeting in Latvia to supply a wide range of weapons systems, renewing his longstanding call for more military support.
* The International Monetary Fund said on Monday it had approved a four-month programme for Ukraine aimed at maintaining economic stability.
Conflict
* Russian “kamikaze” drones hit key energy infrastructure in and around Kyiv on Monday, which followed Friday’s missile strikes in one of Russia’s biggest assaults against Ukraine since the start of the war, Ukrainian officials said.
* Ukraine’s atomic energy agency accused Russia of sending a “kamikaze” drone over part of the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant in the Mykolaiv region overnight.
* Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had shot down four U.S.-made HARM anti-radiation missiles over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, in the space of 24 hours, the state-run TASS news agency reported.
* Reuters was not able to independently verify battlefield reports.
Power
* Washington and its allies need do more to help Kyiv keep the power on, a senior U.S. diplomat said, as Ukraine’s energy grid operator described the situation as “difficult”.
(Compiled by Shri Navaratnam; Editing by Bradley Perrett)
