Russia-Ukraine war live: international court issues warrants for Russian officials over attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets

The international criminal court issued arrest warrants on Tuesday for Russia’s former defence minister and its military chief of staff for attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.

The court is accusing former defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of staff Valery Gerasimov of war crimes and the crime against humanity of inhumane acts.

The European Union will open membership talks with Ukraine on Tuesday, giving the country a political boost in the midst of its war against Russia’s invasion, although a long and tough road still lies ahead before it could join the bloc.

The ceremony in Luxembourg will be more about symbolism than the nitty-gritty of negotiations, which will start in earnest only after the EU has screened reams of Ukrainian legislation to assess all the reforms needed to meet the bloc’s standards, Reuters reported.

But by marking the start of talks with Ukraine, and with its neighbour Moldova later in the day, the EU is signalling that both countries are on a path away from Russian influence and towards greater integration with the west.

The moment will be poignant for many Ukrainians, who trace their current conflict with Moscow back to the Maidan uprising of 2014, when protesters toppled a pro-Russian president who reneged on a pledge to develop closer ties with the EU.

Two key advisers to Donald Trump have presented him with a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine – if he wins the presidential election – that involves telling Ukraine it will only get more US weapons if it enters into peace talks.

The United States would at the same time warn Moscow that any refusal to negotiate would result in increased US support for Ukraine, retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, one of Trump’s national security advisers, said in an interview.

Under the plan drawn up by Kellogg and Fred Fleitz, who both served as chiefs of staff in Trump’s national security council during his 2017-2021 presidency, there would be a ceasefire based on prevailing battle lines during peace talks.

They have presented their strategy to Trump, and the former president responded favorably, Fleitz said. “I’m not claiming he agreed with it or agreed with every word of it, but we were pleased to get the feedback we did,” he said.

However, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said only statements made by Trump or authorised members of his campaign should be deemed official, Reuters reported.

The strategy outlined by Kellogg and Fleitz is the most detailed plan yet by associates of Trump, who has said he could quickly settle the war in Ukraine if he beats President Joe Biden in the November election, though he has not discussed specifics.

The proposal would mark a big shift in the US position on the war and would face opposition from European allies and within Trump’s own Republican party.

The Kremlin said that any peace plan proposed by a possible future Trump administration would have to reflect the reality on the ground but that Russian president Vladimir Putin remained open to talks.

“The value of any plan lies in the nuances and in taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Reuters.

“President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has been and remains open to negotiations, taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground,” he said. “We remain open to negotiations.”

An elderly woman was killed, four people injured and scores of buildings damaged in multiple air attacks by Ukraine on the Belgorod region, the governor of the southern Russian region that borders Ukraine said on Tuesday.

The Russian defence ministry said that its air defence systems destroyed a total of 29 Ukraine-launched drones over the region’s territory, Reuters reported.

An elderly woman died in a village near the Belgorod city, which is the administrative centre of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the region said on the Telegram messaging app.

At least six of the drones were destroyed over the Yakovlevsky district in the Belgorod region, Glakdov said. Two people were injured there with shrapnel wounds, he added.

Another person was injured after a drone was downed over the city of Belgorod, and another woman was injured in one of the region’s villages, Gladkov said.

He said that scores of buildings and cars across the region were damaged.

Good morning and welcome the the Ukraine live blog. We start with the Kremlin saying today that any peace plan for Ukraine proposed by a possible future US administration of Donald Trump would have to reflect the reality on the ground but that Russian president Vladimir Putin remained open to talks.

Reuters reported that two key advisers to Trump have presented him with a plan to end the war in Ukraine – if he wins the presidential election – that involves telling Ukraine it will only get more US weapons if it enters into peace talks.

“The value of any plan lies in the nuances and in taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Reuters. “We do not know what kind of plan we are talking about, or what is set out in it.”

“President Putin has repeatedly said that Russia has been and remains open to negotiations, taking into account the real state of affairs on the ground,” he said. “We remain open to negotiations, and in order to evaluate the plan, we must first familiarise ourselves with it.”

Peskov said that Putin’s recent proposals for peace had not been accepted by the West or Ukraine. “You know that Putin recently came up with a peace initiative, which unfortunately was not accepted by either the West or by the Ukrainians themselves,” he added.

In other news:

• The Kremlin on Monday blamed Washington for an attack on Crimea with US-supplied Atacms missiles that killed at least four people and injured 151 a day earlier, and formally warned the US ambassador that retaliation would follow. Russia’s foreign ministry summoned US ambassador Lynne Tracy and told her Washington was “waging a hybrid war against Russia and has actually become a party to the conflict”. It added: “Retaliatory measures will definitely follow.”

• In response Maj Charlie Dietz, a Pentagon spokesperson, said Ukraine “makes its own targeting decisions and conducts its own military operations”. A White House national security council spokesperson said any loss of civilian life was a tragedy: “That certainly includes the thousands of innocent Ukrainians who have been killed by Russian forces since this Russian war of aggression began.”

• The EU will open membership talks with Ukraine on Tuesday, giving the country a political boost in the midst of its war against Russia’s invasion, although a long and tough road still lies ahead before it could join the bloc. The ceremony in Luxembourg will be more about symbolism than the nitty-gritty of negotiations, which will start in earnest only after the EU has screened reams of Ukrainian legislation to assess all the reforms needed to meet the bloc’s standards.

• President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has replaced the commander of the Joint Forces Command of Ukraine’s military, after a well-known soldier accused the commander of causing mass casualties in the war with Russia. In his nightly video address on Monday, Zelenskiy said Lt Gen Yuriy Sodol had been replaced by Brig Gen Andriy Hnatov, without giving a reason for the shake up.

• Sodol was removed shortly after Bohdan Krotevych, the leader of Ukraine’s revered Azov regiment, accused the general of causing significant military setbacks and major losses in personnel. In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Krotevych did not identify Sodol by name, but said an unnamed general “has killed more Ukrainian soldiers than any Russian general”.

• Zelenskiy also said on Monday that Ukraine has hit more than 30 Russian oil processing and storage facilities. More than 30 oil refineries, terminals, and oil depots of the terrorist state have been hit,” Zelenskiy told officers of Special Operations Centre “A” of the State Security Service (SBU) involved in attacks, without providing any additional details or giving a time period.

• A Russian double-tap missile attack – in which two missiles hit the same spot half an hour apart – killed at least five people and wounded 41 others, including four children, in the eastern Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk on Monday, regional officials said. Regional governor Vadym Filashkin said it was one of the largest enemy attacks on civilians recently” while Zelenskiy said Ukraine would respond to the attack “in an absolutely fair manner”.

• The EU on Monday imposed sanctions on 19 Chinese companies aimed at punishing what the west believes is Beijing’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. A list published in the EU’s Official Journal includes several companies located in Hong Kong as well as two global satellite giants. The 14th package of sanctions against Russia added 61 new companies to the list of entities accused of directly “supporting Russia’s military-industrial complex” in the war in Ukraine, bringing the total to 675 firms.

• EU governments also agreed to use 1.4bn euros ($1.50bn) in profits from Russian frozen assets for arms and other aid to Ukraine, prompting Hungary to accuse fellow EU members of a “shameless” rule breach to bypass its objections. EU members had already decided in May to use profits from the assets frozen in the EU to help Ukraine, with 90% of funds earmarked for military aid. But Hungary has been holding up approval of the necessary legal measures, diplomats say. Hungary maintains warmer relations with Moscow than any other EU country.

• The US is expected to announce Tuesday it is sending an additional $150m in critically needed munitions to Ukraine, according to two US officials. The upcoming shipment is expected to include munitions for the high mobility artillery rocket systems, or Himars. That system is also capable of firing the longer-range missiles from the Army Tactical Missile System, or Atacms, used by Ukraine in a Sunday attack on Ukraine which Russia has said would prompt retaliation.