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The Russian President Wladimir Putin has accused NATO of “imperial ambitions”. The military alliance is trying to assert its “supremacy” through the Ukraine conflict, Putin told journalists in the Turkmen capital of Ashkhabad on Wednesday. “Ukraine and the well-being of the Ukrainian people are not the goal of the collective West and NATO, but a means of defending their own interests.”

Russia has “no problem” with the planned NATO accession of Finland and Sweden, said Putin. “We don’t have problems with Sweden and Finland like we have with Ukraine.” There are no “territorial differences” between the two countries, said the Kremlin boss. “There is nothing that would worry us regarding Finland and Sweden joining NATO. If you want, please.”

Prepare for a reaction

In the event of a threat to Russia, however, the countries would have to prepare for a reaction. “They need to get a clear picture of the fact that there were no threats to them before – but if troops are stationed there and infrastructure is put in place, we will have to respond in a mirrored manner and create the same threats on the territory from which we are being threatened,” Putin was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency. “Everything was good between us, but now there will be some tension – that’s obvious, without a doubt, it can’t be done without.” The accession of Finland and Sweden was officially launched at the NATO summit on Wednesday.

8:50 a.m.: Ukrainian authorities – 40 tons of grain destroyed in attack

According to the authorities, large quantities of grain were destroyed in an attack in eastern Ukraine. A fire broke out in the affected warehouse in the city of Zelenodolsk, the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Valentyn Resnichenko, wrote today in the Telegram news service. 40 tons of grain were destroyed. The governor blamed Russia for this. Information from the war zone is difficult or impossible to independently verify.

8:21 a.m .: US secret services predict the course of the war

US intelligence services expect Russia to tighten control of southern Ukraine in its war of aggression by the fall. The most likely scenario is that this will happen as part of a “grueling struggle,” intelligence coordinator Avril Haines said at an event in Washington. Russia may feel that time is playing into its hands amid escalating costs shared by the West and war-weariness, she said.

7:52 a.m .: EU countries want to make circumventing sanctions a criminal offense

The expropriation of Russian oligarchs trying to circumvent EU sanctions is drawing near. The permanent representatives of the EU states in Brussels agreed to the proposal to define such attempts as a criminal offense throughout the EU. This would make it possible to prosecute violations in all EU countries equally and to set minimum penalties. As the French EU Council Presidency announced on Wednesday evening, the necessary approval from the European Parliament is still pending.

07:39: Kyiv – Russian troops want to block the city of Lysychansk

According to information from Kyiv, heavy fighting for the strategically important city of Lysychansk is continuing in eastern Ukraine. The enemy is trying to blockade the city with the support of artillery, the Ukrainian general staff said in its situation report on Thursday morning. There are attacks around the city’s oil refinery. “The fighting continues.” The representative of the Luhansk separatists in Moscow, Rodion Miroshnik, wrote on Telegram that the area around the plant is under its own control.

5:06 a.m .: Zelenskyj – The situation is very difficult

The Russian military is relying on massive artillery fire in the Donbass industrial area to weaken Ukrainian positions. Ukrainian artillery is outnumbered despite some modern guns arriving from the west. Fighting is currently going on for the city of Lysychansk, and Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from neighboring Sievjerodonetsk.

Despite Western arms deliveries, the situation of Ukrainian troops in the heavily contested areas in the east of the country remains extremely difficult, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “We are doing everything we can to equip our military with modern artillery systems and to respond appropriately to the occupiers,” Zelenskyj said in his daily video speech on Thursday night. The previous pressure on Russia is not enough, said Zelenskyj, pointing out that ten Russian rockets were fired at the Ukrainian city of Mikolajiv on Wednesday alone. “And all were aimed at civilian targets,” he said.

5 a.m.: Dispute over Kaliningrad – Lithuania accuses Russia of disinformation

Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda sees Moscow’s complaints regarding transit restrictions for Russia’s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad as part of a disinformation campaign. “Russia is trying to use this opportunity to create a propaganda bubble and of course trying to scare us, to threaten us,” Nauseda told the German Press Agency in Vilnius. But don’t let that intimidate you. “We are not afraid for our safety.” Lithuania trusts in the NATO states’ obligation to provide assistance and in the strength of the military alliance as a collective defense alliance.

1:55 am: US fighter captured in Ukraine – Did not shoot

A former US soldier captured in eastern Ukraine says he did not fire during the fighting. “I didn’t fire a shot,” said the man from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a video interview distributed by the Russian state news agency RIA. “My combat experience here was a single mission in a single day,” he said. Two British citizens and a Moroccan had been sentenced to death in the pro-Russian separatist region of Donetsk. The Russian side sees foreign fighters as mercenaries who are not protected as prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention.

1:40 a.m.: £1 billion British military aid to Ukraine

Britain plans to send another billion pounds (EUR 1.15 billion) worth of military aid to Ukraine. This should strengthen Ukraine’s defense capability, including through air defense systems, unmanned missiles and electronic equipment. This brings the value of British military aid to Ukraine to £3.8 billion this year.