Ukraine war latest: Kremlin responds to Biden slip-up - and says West has carried out 'dangerous escalation' (2024)

Ukraine's security service says it is preparing evidence which it will present to the International Criminal Court documenting Russia's continued use of landmines against civilians.

The SBU said in a statement that more than 1,000 Ukrainians have been injured and 297 killed by mines of various types, mostly in the eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions.

It accuses Russian troops of disguising mines in" various common items, including children's toys and boxes of sweets".

The statement also accuses Russian sabotage groups of setting up minefields to cover their retreats from the front line and border areas.

The SBU said it was preparing a "large-scale base ofevidence" and would send it to The Hague once there was enough.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians during its invasion, but thousands have been killed and injured since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Russian forces have carried out "massive shelling" in Kherson, the head of the city's military administration has said.

Speaking on Telegram, Roman Mrochko said the assault had lasted for around half an hour and had damaged houses and administrative buildings, as well as destroying a shop and wrecking cars.

"People are very scared, but alive," he said. "Miraculously, no was injured."

He also shared a video of heavily damaged buildings.

In a later post, Mr Mrochko said restoration work was ongoing to fix a damaged water supply facility.

Berlin has said it is taking reports of a Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of a German arms manufacturer very seriously, adding it won't be intimidated by Moscow's threats.

CNN and the New York Times reported yesterday that US intelligence had discovered and warned Germany of a Russian plot to kill Armin Papperger, chief executive of Rheinmetall.

The German company makes artillery shells and tanks that Ukraine has used in its war against Russia.

The plot was one of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defence industry executives across Europe supporting Ukraine, CNN reported.

After Washington's warning, German security services were able to protect Mr Papperger, it said.

"We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by Russia," said Germany's interior minister Nancy Faeser.

She added that Germany will continue to do "everything we can to prevent Russian threats" within the country.

Rheinmetall has not directly confirmed the reports, while the Kremlin has denied them as fake and based on anonymous sources.

More now on Russia's response to Joe Biden's gaffes at last night's NATO summit.

The US president accidentally introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as "President Putin" before correcting himself.

He later mixed up the names of his Republican rival Donald Trump with that of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Videos of Mr Biden's gaffes featured prominently on news bulletins in Russia, where state TV has long depicted the 81-year-old as a senile old man.

A Kremlin spokesperson called Mr Biden's faux-pas "slips of the tongue" (see 13.10pm post), while a representative of Russia's foreign ministry joked that the US president had shown himself to be a "pro-Russian candidate being controlled by the Kremlin".

Maria Zakharova published a sarcastic commentary that used Mr Biden's error to mock what Moscow says are false US allegations it has meddled in its politics.

"It seems to me that the notorious 'Russian interference in the American elections' cannot be hidden any longer - there is a pro-Russian candidate [Biden] who is controlled by the 'hand of the Kremlin,'" Ms Zakharova joked on Telegram.

Later, at an official news briefing, she accused the "US deep state" of covering up Mr Biden's condition for years.

"The question arises - is this same Biden signing all these cheques [for Ukraine]?," she said.

"The same Biden who doesn't know what country he's talking about. And he is the one signing cheques for billions of dollars?

"Of course, he can be given any piece of paper to sign."

Some European leaders defended Mr Biden, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof all sticking by his side.

"Slips of the tongue happen, and if you always monitor everyone, you will find enough of them," Mr Scholz told reporters.

Mr Biden overcame a childhood stutter and has frequently mangled names and misspoken throughout his political career.

The 81-year-old has said previously that his health is in good shape and that he would take another neurological exam to determine his mental acuity if it is recommended to him by his doctors.

"The only thing age does, it creates a little bit of wisdom if you pay attention," he said.

Russia's foreign ministry has accused South Korea of blackmail and "threatening tactics" over its potential weapons supplies to Ukraine.

South Korea has provided non-lethal aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance equipment, but has so far resistsed Kyiv's requests for weapons.

The country said in June that it is revising this stance, however, in light of deepening cooperation between Russia and North Korea.

That has angered the Kremlin, with Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accusing South Korea of using "NATO narratives" to defend its potential arming of Ukraine.

She said: "We very much regret that Seoul's foreign policy uses NATO narratives, blackmail and threatening tactics, which is unacceptable to sovereign states."

Finland has passed a law granting border guards the power to blockasylum seekers crossing from Russia - at odds with its international human rights commitments.

Helsinki has accused Moscow of weaponising migration by encouraging 1,3000 migrants from countries such as Syria and Somalia to cross the border.

The Kremlin denies the allegations, but Finland believes it is promoting the crossings inretaliation for joining NATO.

Similar steps have been taken in recent years inother European countries, including Poland and Lithuania, tomake it more difficult for migrants to cross the border fromRussia and ally Belarus.

The Kremlin says the whole world paidattention to Joe Biden's verbal slips at the NATO summit, but it was more concerned with his "unacceptable" comments about Vladimir Putin.

Mr Biden spoke in detail for some time about geopolitics, but all was overshadowed when he mistakenly introduced Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin", before quickly correcting himself.

Separately, the US president referred to Mr Putin as "a murderous madman".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We noticed that the whole world paid attention to whathappened, and there can be no comment here, but it isclear that these were slips of the tongue.

"It is understandable that they probably received such awide resonance given the context of the internal politicaldiscussions that we are now witnessing in the US, butit's not our topic, it's an internal US topic."

He added that the Kremlin had taken note of what itcalled disrespectful comments Mr Biden made about Mr Putin.

"We continue to consider it absolutely unacceptable and impermissible behaviour for a head of state to make suchdisrespectful remarks about other heads of state."

The Kremlin says Western countries carried out a "very dangerous escalation" by permitting Ukraine to use arms to strike Russian territory at the NATO summit.

"We see statements by representatives of some capitals, London and so on, who do not see any restrictions in this regard, and we see countries that are trying to keep the balance and say that they are against such easing of the terms for the use of long-range missiles," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"But in the end, the main thing is that these missiles are already hitting our territory.

"As for increasing this distance, this is pure provocation, a new, very dangerous escalation of tension."

Sir Keir Starmer told Volodymyr Zelenskyy that British missiles can be used for defensive strikes against targets inside Russia.

ButDowning Street followed the comments by saying government policy "had not changed" regarding the deployment of the long-range missiles.

Ukraine's top presidential aide Andriy Yermak has called for an end to restrictions imposed on the use ofally-supplied weapons,saying it would be a "game-changer" in fighting Moscow.

Russian authorities have begun throttling YouTube, degrading its usability in a pattern similar to its censorship of Twitter, according to independent Russian media.

State-owned telecoms operator Rostelecom issued a statement this morning sayingequipment used for caching and loading videos were being overloaded, affecting YouTube download speeds across Russia.

But a source from the telecommunications industry told Meduza this is an excuse while the government's censorship agency acts to deliberately slow down the site.

Separately, Stanislav Shakirov, the technical director of an digital anti-censorship organisationRoskomsvoboda, told the BBC's Russia service the government was forcing users to leave the platform by making it impossible to use.

"The Russian authorities definitely have enough technical means," said Mr Shakirov.

"Why can't YouTube be blocked right away? Because in this case, some other infrastructure may fail and, for example, all Android smartphones in Russia will stop working."

He said authorities stopped pictures from loading on social media site X in February 2021 using the same methods.

The Kremlin has denied reports Russiaplanned to assassinate the chief executive of German armsmanufacturer Rheinmetall, which has been producing artillery shells and military vehicles for Ukraine.

CNN and the New York Times reported yesterday that US intelligence had discovered the plot.

But Moscow says the articles were based on "fake"information from anonymous sources and could not be taken seriously.

This hasn't stopped one of Rheinmetall's competitors, German defence groupHensoldt, from reassessing its safety measures.

"For us, this is an opportunity to review our already highsafety standards once again," said a spokesperson for Hensoldt,which produces radar technology for the IRIS-T air defensesystem used in Ukraine.

The German interior ministry said it cannot comment on details of individual threats coming fromRussia.

"We take the significantly increased threat of Russianaggression very seriously," a spokesperson said.