Russia-Ukraine war live: Biden tells G7 ‘Putin will not break our resolve’; Russian ‘liberation’ of Bakhmut disputed by Ukraine

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Zelenskiy said he was grateful to the US and other western leaders for their support with air defence systems.

We have several months for the training of our pilots and we’ll be working for these people to be as trained and experienced as possible.

I cannot tell you how many aircrafts we will be able to get or when it will take place but we will speed it up because it’s important for us.

Answering questions from journalists, Zelenskiy asserted that Bakhmut has not been captured by Russia and that Ukrainian troops remain in the city, but that he couldn’t give clear information.

He said:

We are fighting thanks to the courage of our people, our warriors.

I clearly understand what has taken place in Bakhmut.

I cannot share with you the tactical views of our military.

Bakhmut is not occupied by Russia Federation as of today. There are no two or three interpretations of those words.

Zelenskiy said it is only a matter of time before other “criminals in public office” want to emulate Russia’s example.

This is why the peace formula is important, he said.

The power of the Ukrainian peace formula is by stopping Russia’s ambitions we will give the world one additional result, we will paralyse other potential aggressors. When everyone who wants war sees how united and determined the world is when it wants peace there will be no point.

Ukraine offers the world salvation from war. To do this we need to unite and make Russia the last aggressor.

Zelenskiy said he dreams of rebuilding “all our cities that are in ruins” similar to Hiroshima’s regeneration.

We dream of returning our territories just as we have regained our northern territories that were occupied by Russia, we must regain our eastern and southern territories. We dream of returning our people now in Russian captivity.

We dream of peace after our victory.

I am here in Hiroshima so the world can hear the Ukrainian call for unity. Russia has trampled on everything that is civilised.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy is speaking now at the G7 summit.

He said:

Our heroic people are turning history around so we can make war itself become a shadow. I believe that war has no place in the world. Humanity has come a very long way and lost many lives in bloody confrontations, death.

Ukraine is in the middle of a war of destruction. Invaders have come to our land.

Biden has said that US-Japan relations have never been stronger, adding that “what’s happening in Ukraine affects everyone, even here in the Pacific basin”.

In his G7 speech, the US president has pledged “our shared and unwavering commitment to stand with the brave people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against this brutal war of aggression and war crimes being committed”.

He said:

Russia started this war and Russia can end it today by withdrawing its troops from internationally recognised borders.

This morning I once more shared and assured President Zelenskiy … that we will not waver. Putin will not break our resolve, as he thought he could two years ago, almost three years ago.

Here’s a summary of the last few hours in Ukraine and at the G7 summit in Tokyo:

US President Joe Biden has announced a new package of military aid of up to $375m to Ukraine, telling President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the US is doing all it can to strengthen Ukraine’s defence. The package includes ammunition, artillery, armoured vehicles and training.

In his G7 speech, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Kyiv’s plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine was “an obvious expression of rationality”, and sought support for his “peace formula”. He thanked western leaders for achieving “a level of cooperation which ensures that democracy, international law, and freedom are respected”, but questioned: “Is this enough?”

There has been some confusion over whether Russia has taken the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Vladimir Putin congratulated troops on its “liberation”. Ukraine’s spokesperson said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy did not confirm Bakhmut’s capture after his comments at the G7 were reported as confirming that Ukraine had lost the city. Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said that Ukrainian forces had partly encircled the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut along the flanks and still maintained control of a private sector in the city.

German police said they were investigating the possible poisoning of two Russian exiles who attended a conference in Berlin at the end of April, organised by Russian Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

Berlin police told Reuters “a file had been opened” after German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, citing Russian investigative media group Agentstvo, said two women reported symptoms that suggested possible poisoning.

Police gave no further details.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has laid flowers at a cenotaph in Hiroshima honouring those who died after the US dropped an atomic bomb on the city in August 1945.

Accompanied by the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, Zelenskiy earlier visited the Peace Memorial Museum, where exhibits show the full horror of the attack, in which an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 people died instantly, with the death toll rising to 140,000 by the end of the year as more succumbed to burns and illnesses caused by exposure to radiation.

The names of more than 300,000 people whose deaths during the past 78 years have been attributed to the bombing are listed at the cenotaph, whose inscription reads: “Let all the souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil.”

After laying bouquets on podiums, Kishida and Zelenskiy lowered their heads and posed for a photograph before listening to an explanation of the memorial from the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui.

Ukrainian forces have partly encircled the besieged eastern city of Bakhmut along the flanks and still maintain control of a private sector in the city, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar has said.

She made the remarks on the Telegram messaging app shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin said the battle had ended with a Russian victory.

Maliar said Ukrainian troops are continuing their advances along Bakhmut’s outskirts and have claimed part of the heights overlooking the city.

She wrote:

Our forces have taken the city in a semi-encirclement, which gives us the opportunity to destroy the enemy. Therefore, the enemy has to defend himself in the part of the city he controls.

Maliar added that Ukrainian troops are still defending industrial and infrastructure facilities in Bakhmut.

Russia’s top lawmaker has called for a ban on Polish trucks transiting Russian territory and for Poland to compensate Moscow financially for what he said was the Soviet rebuilding of the east European country after the second world war.

In a statement, Vyacheslav Volodin, the chair of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, said Poland needed to be punished for having “betrayed the historical memory” of the Soviet Union’s liberation of the country from Nazi Germany with a series of hostile acts against Moscow.

In comments certain to deepen a feud with Warsaw, Volodin said Poland existed as a state only “thanks to our country”, said Warsaw should pay Russia more than $750bn to compensate it for Soviet investment in the country after 1945.

He said Poland should also hand back territory it received after the war.

There was no immediate reaction to his comments from Warsaw.

Volodin said a parliamentary committee would begin considering a ban on Polish trucks entering Russian territory as soon as Monday. Such a move, he said, would cause Poland significant financial pain and job losses.

Russia last month promised it would respond harshly to what it said was Poland’s illegal seizure of its embassy school in Warsaw, an act it called a flagrant violation of the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations.

Reuters has posted a useful summary of the key Ukraine-related developments from the G7:

Volodymyr Zelenskiy sought support for Kyiv’s “peace formula” to end Russia’s war in Ukraine, telling G7 leaders at the summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima it was “an obvious expression of rationality”.

Meeting with Zelenskiy, US President Joe Biden announced a $375m package of military aid to Ukraine, telling him the US was doing all it could to strengthen Ukraine’s defence against Russia.

Potential allied training programmes for Ukrainian pilots on F-16 warplanes were a message to Russia not to expect to succeed in its invasion of Ukraine even in a prolonged conflict, said the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

Biden told G7 leaders that Washington supports the joint allied training programmes, senior US officials said, a significant endorsement as Kyiv seeks to boost its air power against Russia.

The Hiroshima summit gave Zelenskiy a chance to win over countries from the “global south” such as Brazil and India in an attempt to broaden support for his country in its war against Russia.

The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said G7 decisions at the summit were aimed at the “double containment” of Russia and China.

Canada will support Ukraine for as long and as much as necessary in its conflict with Russia, including the training of Ukrainian soldiers and possibly pilots, said the prime minister Justin Trudeau.

Britain published plans to ban imports of Russian diamonds, copper, aluminium and nickel and announced a new wave of sanctions against Russia, targeting companies connected to the alleged theft of Ukrainian grain.

Zelenskiy arrived on a French government-labelled military aircraft for the G7 summit in Hiroshima, after addressing an Arab League summit, marked an achievement for the French president, Emmanuel Macron.