Putin ‘invokes Cuban Missile Crisis’ as he moves ‘nuclear-capable’ ships to Havana

Foreign secretary Lord David Cameron has been the victim of hoax a video call and messages from someone claiming to be the former president of Ukraine, it has been revealed.

In order to stave off any attempts to manipulate video footage of Lord Cameron from the communications, the government has made public what happened.

A statement from the Foreign Office said a “number of text messages were exchanged followed by a brief video call between the Foreign Secretary and someone purporting to be Petro Poroshenko, former president of Ukraine”.

Mr Poroshenko served as Ukrainian president between 2014 and 2019, and has remained a prominent figure in the country since leaving office.

The Russia-installed governor of Ukraine‘s southern region of Kherson accused Ukrainian forces of killing 22 people and wounding 15 in the shelling of the small town of Sadove.

Governor Vladimir Saldo said Ukrainian forces had deliberately struck the area a second time today, using a US-supplied HIMARS missile to inflict the largest possible number of casualties.

Leonid Pasechnik, another Russia-installed governor in Luhansk, an occupied region northeastern Ukraine, said a Ukrainian strike had killed three people and wounded 35.

Russian Defence Ministry said Ukrainian forces had used US-supplied ATACMS missiles in the attack on the city of Luhansk.

There was no comment from Ukraine on either incident.

Unusual spray-painted images and messages with references to Ukraine appeared on the streets of Paris on Friday as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with US president Joe Biden in the French capital.

It was unclear who sprayed the graffiti that has appeared on several buildings in central Paris near the Parliament complex and various government ministries.

Some depicted coffins with stenciled signs in French that say “A French soldier in Ukraine.” Others include a sign that says in Ukrainian “Return the elections back to Ukrainians.”

Speaking in Normandy at the commemoration of 80th anniversary of D-Day, Joe Biden declared that the US and the West is committed to unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, and robust resistance to Vladimir Putin “a tyrant bent on domination”.

The US president went on to meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris to assure him that $225 million (£176m) in weapons supply is on its way.

It was their first meeting since December when the Ukrainian leader visited Washington during a Congressional impasse over a $60 billion arms package for Kyiv.

The bill in Congress, held up at the time by Republican opposition, has been passed, easing trepidation that Ukraine would face defeat this year without that lifeline.

Importantly, the Biden administration, after prolonged hesitation, has belatedly allowed Ukraine to use American weapons, chiefly ATACAMs missiles, to strike targets inside Russia — as long as its not in Moscow and the Kremlin.

Russia‘s top diplomat pledged help and military assistance while on a whirlwind tour of several countries in Africa‘s sub-Saharan region of Sahel this week, as Moscow seeks to grow its influence in the restive, mineral-rich section of the continent.

Russia is emerging as the security partner of choice for a growing number of African governments in the region, displacing traditional allies like France and the United States.

Sergey Lavrov, who has made several trips to Africa in recent years, this week stopped in Guinea, the Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and Chad.

There is “every possibility” that a conflict on the scale of the Second World War could embroil Europe in the coming years, the outgoing head of the British army has claimed.

General Sir Patrick Sanders, 58, who will step down in the coming days after two years in post, issued the comments in Portsmouth at an event to commemorate the D-Day operation of 6 June 1944.

Having recently returned from a visit to British troops in Poland, Gen Sanders heralded the progression of the British army but added that there was “more to do” and urged the military to ramp up its readiness for war.

An American veteran and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared an emotional moment at a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion to liberate France in World War II, each praising the other as a hero.

Retired Staff Sgt. Melvin Hurwitz, 99, and other veterans were introduced to the foreign dignitaries remembering the landings in Normandy on Thursday.

When he met Zelenskyy, Hurwitz kissed the Ukrainian leader’s hand and pulled him in for an extended hug, exclaiming: “Oh, you’re the savior of the people!”

Nine-year-old Sasha rushed down to the basement as Russian-launched drones buzzed in the sky above him. He was terrified, shivering as he desperately tried to block out the noise of the “Shaheds”, the Iranian-designed drones that have become a deadly feature of Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

The boy was living with his mother and five siblings in the village of Zakharivka, just a few miles from the Russian forces advancing across the border into Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. The region has been the scene of intense fighting for weeks.

This was five days after the Russian attack had started in the middle of May. Poor defensive fortifications and severed communication lines, the result of Russian signal jammers, had caught Ukraine’s forces off guard. Moscow’s troops had then pushed rapidly across the border.