July 7, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres is against the use of cluster munitions, his deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said at a news briefing on Friday.

Defense officials told CNN that the US is expected to announce a new military aid package to Ukraine on Friday that will include cluster munitions for the first time.

“The Secretary General supports the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM), which, as you know, was adopted 15 years ago, and he wants countries to abide by the terms of that convention,” Haq said. 

The convention prohibits all use, stockpiling, production and transfer of cluster munitions. 

About the weapons: Cluster munitions are banned by over 100 countries because they scatter “bomblets” across large areas that can fail to explode on impact and can pose a long-term risk to anyone who encounters them, similar to landmines. The US and Ukraine are not signatories to that ban, however. 

CNN's Natasha Bertrand contributed reporting to this post.

US Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said Friday that he is working on a bipartisan resolution that would urge Ukraine's admittance to the NATO defense alliance. 

This comes ahead of a critical NATO summit next week where Ukraine will be at the top of the agenda. Kyiv itself has long sought membership in the alliance, though Ukraine has acknowledged that its accession would have to wait until after the war with Russia concludes.

Graham has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine, and earlier this week said he supported sending the controversial cluster munitions from the United States.

Sen. James Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters that he supports Ukraine joining NATO but not until the war is over. 

“I'm like everybody else, I want them in, I want them in as soon as possible. On the other hand, there are some practical problems with them coming in, and those need to be ironed out,” Risch told reporters. 

He said the major sticking point right now is the obvious: “The war being over. And having their territory back. Once that happens, I am all in.”

Risch didn’t express concern about the Biden administration’s approach to the NATO summit next week, where it is not expected that the US will back language officially inviting Ukraine into NATO despite that push from some members of the alliance.

The United States’ intention to provide cluster munitions to Ukraine is "a move of desperation" as Kyiv’s counteroffensive did not go according to plan, Russia's Ambassador to Belarus Boris Gryzlov said Friday. 

CNN first reported last week that US President Joe Biden’s administration was strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial weapons to Ukraine. The Russian ambassador claimed the US has been talking about potentially sending the weapons since the spring.

If the US decides to proceed with the move, it would once again prove that "neither Washington nor its NATO allies want peace, and they will stop at literally nothing in their bid to achieve the elusive goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia," he added. 

What the weapons do: Also called cluster bombs, cluster munitions are canisters that carry tens to hundreds of smaller bomblets, also known as submunitions. The canisters break open at a prescribed height, depending upon the area of the intended target, and the bomblets inside spread out over that area.

They are fused by a timer to explode closer to or on the ground, spreading shrapnel that is designed to kill troops or take out armored vehicles such as tanks.

The use of cluster munitions in the war: Both the Ukrainians and the Russians have used cluster bombs since Moscow’s forces invaded in February 2022. More recently, Ukrainian forces have begun using Turkish-provided cluster munitions on the battlefield.

But Ukrainian officials have been pushing the US to provide its cluster munitions since last year, arguing that they would provide more ammunition for Western-provided artillery and rocket systems, and help narrow Russia’s numerical superiority in artillery.

CNN's Brad Lendon contributed reporting to this post. 

The NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, is fast approaching while the future of the Black Sea grain deal remains uncertain and the whereabouts of Wagner founder Yevgeny Prighozhin are still unknown.

Here's what you need to know:

US expected to announce cluster munitions for Ukraine: The United States is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine on Friday that will include cluster munitions for the first time, defense officials have told CNN. US President Joe Biden’s administration has reportedly been strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial weapons to Kyiv as its forces struggle to make major gains in the counteroffensive. Meanwhile, Germany will not send cluster munitions to Ukraine as it is a signatory to a convention banning the production and use of that type of weapon, the country's defense minister Boris Pistorius said earlier Friday.

Deadly Lviv strikes: The death toll from Thursday's Russian strike in the western city of Lviv rose to at least 10. More than 9,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia's full-scale invasion, according to the UN. The UN warned that the true number of fatalities could be much higher than what they have been able to confirm.

Ukraine repels more attacks and claims advances in east: Ukraine's air defenses intercepted 12 of 18 Iran-made Shahed attack drones launched by Russia overnight into Thursday, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that the drones came from the southeast. The statement did not mention what happened to the six drones that were not destroyed nor any damage they may have caused. Meanwhile, Ukraine's military claimed troops have moved forward by more than a kilometer (0.6 miles) around the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut in the past 24 hours as it continues to apply pressure on Russian forces in the area. 

NATO discussions: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday he expects leaders at the US-led alliance's summit next week to "reaffirm that Ukraine will become a member of NATO." Meanwhile, some hurdles still remain to be overcome for Sweden to accede to NATO as Turkey remains opposed, he said. As NATO prepares for its summit, Zelensky is expected to likely discuss the Black Sea grain deal with his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul on Friday. The deal, which is vital for global food security, is set to expire July 17.

Prigozhin's whereabouts unclear: Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko was noncommittal in an answer to CNN during a news conference in Minsk on Thursday, saying the Wagner boss "is in St Petersburg," or perhaps "would travel to Moscow." When asked if the Kremlin is aware of Prigozhin's whereabouts, spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he was "not commenting on that right now.” Prigozhin has not been seen in public since his short-lived uprising ended on June 24.

Here's a look at where things stand in Ukraine:

Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi said the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's reaction to Thursday's deadly Russian attack on the western Ukrainian city didn't go far enough.

On Thursday, UNESCO issued an official statement about hitting a historic building in Lviv, which is located in the buffer zone of the city's Historic Centre Ensemble, a World Heritage Site. It said that the missile strike was a violation of the World Heritage Convention and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The attack was the first to take place in an area protected by the convention since the start of the full-scale invasion, the agency said.

However, the statement did not specify who was behind the attack. 

Sadovyi said a UNESCO representatives should have visited the site of the attack, which has killed at least 10 people and injured 42 others.

The lack of unity among NATO members on Sweden and Ukraine’s accession is threatening the strength of the US-led alliance, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says.

Ahead of the NATO summit next week in Vilnius, Lithuania, Zelensky said he is looking for "steps towards these positive results. This is very important for the safety of the whole world."

Presidents of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia wrote a letter to the NATO Secretary General and the heads of the NATO alliance, warning them about the threat "posed by Russia’s aggressive actions and the evolving situation in Belarus."

They pointed to Russia's use of Belarusian territory in its war against Ukraine, and Moscow stationing tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Belarus, calling it "an escalatory move" and "a direct threat to the security of our community."

The United States is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine on Friday that will include cluster munitions for the first time, defense officials have told CNN.

CNN first reported last week that US President Joe Biden’s administration was strongly considering approving the transfer of the controversial weapons to Ukraine, whose forces have been struggling to make major gains in a weeks-long counteroffensive.

Here’s what you need to know:

Read more about the controversial weapons here.

The Belarusian government on Friday showed CNN and other foreign media outlets a disused military camp about an hour outside Minsk that they say could be used to house Wagner fighters, should they come to the country.

The plan to host Wagner in Belarus is on hold, President Alexander Lukashenko told CNN during a news conference on Friday.

Neither Wagner mercenary fighters nor their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin are in Belarus, Lukashenko said, adding "it doesn’t depend on me, but on Russian authorities and Wagner PMC (private military company) itself whether they come to Belarus or not."

The foreign media outlets were given a brief tour on Friday of a tent city erected on a military base near Osipovichi.

“There is absolutely no connection between this camp and Wagner,” Maj. Gen. Leonid Kasinsky told CNN. “Yesterday the President said that if Yevgeny Prigozhin makes a decision together with his commanders to come to Belarus to set up, then this camp among other places could be offered to them.”

The camp can house around 5,000 personnel, he said, but is currently occupied by only around a dozen troops. The large canvas tents, baking in the hot summer sun, are currently outfitted with little more than rough and ready lumber bunks and no mattresses.

When asked whether he had been told to prepare the camp for Wagner, Kasinsky demurred. “We prepared this camp within for the training of (Belarusian) territorial defense and militia,” he said.