LIVE. Poland moves more than 1,000 soldiers to border with Belarus – Spain and United Kingdom critical of delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine | War Ukraine and Russia

Spain and the United Kingdom oppose the supply of cluster munitions to Ukraine. Both NATO countries made this clear on Saturday, after Washington decided on Friday to send the controversial ammunition to Kiev after all.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has ruled out supplying cluster munitions to Ukraine. The United Kingdom has signed a convention banning the production and use of cluster munitions.

Britain will “continue to do its part to support Ukraine against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion,” but with different weapons, Sunak says.

Madrid has also rejected the delivery of cluster munitions to Ukraine. Spain believes that such weapons should not be used, even when there is “legitimate defense”, Defense Minister Margarita Robles told public broadcaster RTVE on Saturday.

“Spain stands by the commitments it has made to Ukraine, but also that certain weapons and bombs may not be delivered under any circumstances,” Robles said. She emphasizes that the delivery is a sovereign decision of the US, but not of NATO.

The White House confirmed on Friday that the US will supply Ukraine with cluster munitions. Cluster munition refers to rockets and bombs that detonate above the target in several smaller explosive devices or sub-munitions. The ammunition is controversial, because a large part does not explode immediately, which means that there is still a risk of dangerous explosions in the longer term.

Since 2008, more than a hundred countries – in addition to Spain and the United Kingdom, including Belgium – have signed a treaty against the use, production and movement of cluster munitions. But the United States, Russia and Ukraine did not join that treaty.

Poland stepped up military reinforcements on the border with Belarus on Saturday. More than 1,000 additional soldiers and 200 military vehicles are being moved to the border area.

The troop move – under the name ‘Operation Podlaskie’ – was announced on Saturday by Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak. In this way, Poland wants to demonstrate that it is prepared for any “attempts at destabilization” along the border.

Tensions between Belarus and NATO country Poland have increased following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year. Belarus is a close ally of Russia. Moscow recently announced that it plans to place nuclear weapons in Belarus. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko’s announcement that he is prepared to receive thousands of mercenaries from the Wagner militia has also caused concern in Poland.

The leaders of NATO countries Lithuania, Poland and Latvia have expressed their concern about developments in Belarus in a letter to the other NATO allies. A NATO summit will take place in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In an interview with the British newspaper ‘The Observer’, a spokesman for the Freedom for Russia Legion – which is fighting against the regime in the Kremlin – announces a new attack on Russian territory.

According to the spokesman, his fighters are “trying to plan a new invasion of Russia and try to capitalize on the chaos within the Kremlin after the failed Wagner uprising”.

“Another surprise is coming in the next month or so,” said the spokesman for the anti-Putin militia. “It will be our third operation. Then comes a fourth and a fifth. We have ambitious plans. We want to liberate our entire territory.”

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said today that the cluster munitions Kiev will receive will only be used to liberate occupied territories. He swears that the ammunition will not be deployed on Russian soil.

“Our position is simple – we must liberate our temporarily occupied territories and save the lives of our people,” Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

The minister went on to say that the military would not use cluster munitions in urban areas and would only use them “to break through enemy defenses.” Ukraine will also strictly register the use of the ammunition, said Reznikov. That information would also be shared with international partners. Based on the registers, the right areas can be prioritized for post-conflict demining.

Cluster munitions are banned by more than a hundred countries. However, this ban does not apply in Russia, Ukraine and the US. This type of ammunition usually releases large numbers of smaller explosives that can kill over a wide area. The explosives that fail to detonate pose a threat for decades to come.

That the United States will supply cluster munitions to Ukraine in the war against Russia is a sign of weakness. At least that is what the Russian Ministry of Defense thinks. The US will be “compliant” in the civilian deaths caused by the use of such controversial munitions, it said.

“The delivery of cluster munitions is a gesture of desperation and a sign of weakness against the background of the failure of the so-called Ukrainian counter-offensive,” the Russian ministry said.

Russian former president Dmitry Medvedev was even sharper on Saturday. He accuses the US of wanting to provoke a nuclear war by supplying cluster munitions. “Maybe the dying grandpa plagued by sick fantasies (meaning US President Joe Biden, ed.) just decided to resign in a nice way, provoke a nuclear armageddon and take half of humanity with him to death. drag,” the vice chairman of the Russian National Security Council wrote on Telegram. According to Medvedev, a Third World War is getting closer in this way.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he has brought several high-ranking officers who took part in the defense of the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol back to Ukraine from Turkey. “Home,” Zelensky captioned a photo on his Telegram channel. The photo shows the Ukrainian president in the plane together with, among others, three commanders of the infamous ultra-nationalist Azov battalion.

Zelensky was in Istanbul on Friday night for a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The officers had been captured by the Russians after the capture of Azovstal, but were subsequently extradited to Turkey. They have now been returned to their homeland “after negotiations with the Turkish side,” the Ukrainian presidential administration’s website said.

Shortly after the start of Russia’s offensive war against Ukraine, the port city of Mariupol became the epicenter of fierce fighting. The fighting around the besieged city by Russian troops lasted for months. By the end, thousands of Ukrainian soldiers, including fighters from the Azov battalion, had holed up in Azovstal. It was not until May 2022 that the last defenders surrendered.

Russia actually wanted to bring the Ukrainian fighters to justice. Moscow repeatedly used the Azov battalion as a justification for its invasion of Ukraine and for its claim that the country needed to be “liberated” from a “fascist” regime. However, several Azov battalion commanders were extradited to Turkey. According to Russia, they were only released on the condition that they would remain there until the end of the war.

The Kremlin has reacted furiously that that agreement has been violated. “The return of the Azov commanders from Turkey to Ukraine is nothing but a direct violation of the terms of existing agreements,” Russian news agencies quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. According to him, both Ukraine and Turkey have flouted the conditions. He also links the return of the commanders to “the failure of the counter-offensive” that Ukraine has been engaged in since the beginning of June.