July 11, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

A senior Russian commander, Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsokov, has been killed near the Russian-occupied city of Berdiansk in the southern Zaporizhzhia region on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.

"It is reported that today, in the area of Berdiansk, Russian Lieutenant General Tsokov Oleg Yurievich was killed," said Petro Andriushchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boichenko. The mayor does not currently reside in Mariupol, which is under Russian control.

"In September 2022, he [Tsokov] was already injured, but he survived," Andriushchenko said, adding that now the Russian commander's death "is completed." 

Another Ukrainian official, Yurii Mysyagin, who is a member of Ukraine's parliament, also commented on the commander's death.

"In the South, in the area of occupied Berdiansk, on July 11, 2023, Russian Lieutenant General Oleg Yurievich Tsokov was killed," Mysyagin said. "The British 'Storm Shadow' [missile] came to visit accurately," he added without elaborating further. In May, the UK delivered the Storm Shadows, long-range cruise missiles with stealth capabilities that were jointly developed by the UK and France.

CNN is unable to independently verify the reports about Tsokov's death. 

The commander, who is among the individuals sanctioned by the United Kingdom over Russia's war in Ukraine, was with Russia's 144th Motorized Rifle Division back in 2022, according to Russian state news outlet TASS. 

Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store underscored the historic nature of the NATO summit in Vilnius in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"For the first time in history the entire Nordic region will be inside NATO," he said Tuesday, following Turkey's agreement to back Sweden's bid to join the alliance.

How we got here: Norway was one of the 12 founding members of NATO in 1949, along with Iceland and Denmark.

More than 70 years later, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, neighboring Nordic countries Finland and Sweden also applied to join the alliance.

Finland became NATO's 31st member in April of this year — greatly expanding the alliance's border with Russia — but Sweden's membership bid was long frustrated by Turkey, which refused to green-light its application due to what it claimed was Sweden's soft stance on Kurdish terror groups and it permitting anti-Islamic protests.

The day before the Vilnius summit was set to start, Sweden's membership prospects were still uncertain. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday even tabled a bargain of sorts, claiming that Turkey would only "clear the way" for Sweden to join NATO if Brussels would "clear the way" for Turkey to join the European Union.

However, after talks with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg later Monday, Turkey finally agreed to permit Sweden's accession to the alliance.

Hungarian President Katalin Novák also said on Tuesday that she welcomes Turkey’s decision to support Sweden’s accession to NATO.

Hungary has also objected to the possibility of Sweden joining NATO in the past. Late last month, Hungary’s leading political party Fidesz told CNN that it expected Sweden to “allay its concerns” before the country voted on Sweden’s accession into NATO.

“In recent years, Swedish government figures have regularly insulted Hungarian voters and Hungary as a whole,” Fidesz’s press office told CNN. “It is objectionable to bring disputes between countries into NATO, so we expect those involved to allay the concerns of the Hungarian parliament, so that we can vote for their accession with the largest possible majority.”

CNN's Catherine Nicholls contributed reporting to this post.

US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he agreed on proposed language for Ukraine’s future ability to join NATO, comments that came moments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a blistering statement about that expected language, suggesting it did not go far enough toward his accession goals.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is among the top agenda items for NATO leaders along with discussing a future pathway for the war-torn country to join the alliance, which has prompted some division among leaders.

Zelensky said in a tweeted statement moments earlier that he has “received signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine,” emphasizing that the “wording is about the invitation to become NATO member, not about Ukraine's membership.”

Zelensky will attend meetings with NATO leaders Wednesday in Vilnius and will meet one-on-one with Biden. 

Biden has emphasized that Ukraine is not ready to enter NATO, telling CNN in an exclusive interview last week that Russia’s war in Ukraine needs to end before the alliance can consider adding Kyiv to its ranks.

Stoltenberg earlier Tuesday said he is "confident" that the summit will send "a positive and strong message" on Ukraine's path to membership to the alliance.

When asked whether NATO will issue an invitation to Ukraine, Stoltenberg replied, "You will see the language in a few hours because we are now finalizing the communique."

The "uncertainty" over Ukraine's NATO membership is motivation for Russia to "continue its terror," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a strongly worded statement Tuesday on his official Twitter account. 

"We value our allies. We value our shared security. And we always appreciate an open conversation. Ukraine will be represented at the NATO summit in Vilnius. Because it is about respect," Zelensky said in a lengthy message posted in English. 

Zelensky is set to attend meetings with NATO leaders Wednesday in Vilnius, Lithuania.

"It’s unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine's membership. While at the same time vague wording about 'conditions' is added even for inviting Ukraine," Zelensky said. 

"It seems there is no readiness neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the Alliance. This means that a window of opportunity is being left to bargain Ukraine's membership in NATO in negotiations with Russia. And for Russia, this means motivation to continue its terror," he added. 

"Uncertainty is weakness. And I will openly discuss this at the summit," Zelensky said.

Germany has pledged to send Ukraine a weapons and military package worth €700 million ($769.9 million), according to the country's Ministry of Defense on Tuesday.

In the statement, the German defense ministry said some of the equipment they would be delivering include two patriot launchers and 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles. In addition, they would also send 25 Leopard 1 A5 main battle tanks and five Bergepanzer 2 from industrial stocks or industrial refurbishment.

The statement added that Germany pledged 31 items in total from Bundeswehr stocks, including 20,000 rounds of artillery ammunition and 5,000 rounds of 155mm smoke ammunition.

In addition, Germany will send a LUNA drone system and a mine interdiction package, the statement said.

On Tuesday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said in a statement that the weapons package is designed to “support Ukraine in its defense against Russia.”

The White House sought to make clear that US President Joe Biden’s controversial decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine was a “temporary” measure, with national security adviser Jake Sullivan telling reporters that it will be a matter of “months” as Ukraine bridges a munitions gap.

He continued, “We were not prepared to leave Ukraine defenseless, period. So for us, when it came down to the choice, our choice was, despite the difficulty, despite the challenges, despite the risks of civilian harm associated with cluster munitions, the risk to civilian harm of leaving Ukraine without the ammo it needed was, from our perspective, greater," Sullivan said.

Biden told CNN's Fareed Zaharia Friday that he took the "difficult decision" to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions because "the Ukrainians are running out of ammunition" needed to sustain its counteroffensive against Russia.

Sullivan added that the US views the provision of cluster munitions as “temporary” until more unitary rounds can be produced.

“We view that as temporary because many months ago, we began the intensive process of ramping up our unitary round production. Once it hits a level where unitary round production can satisfy Ukraine's needs, then there will be no need to continue giving cluster munitions,” he said, declining to provide a timeline due to questions of usage rates and the defense industrial base hitting its production marks.

Pressed again on timing, he said, “It's months, but the question is, how many?”

Why are cluster munitions controversial?: Cluster munitions are canisters that carry tens to hundreds of smaller bomblets. The canisters break open at a prescribed height, depending upon the area of the intended target, and the bomblets inside are dispersed over that area.

Because bomblets fall over a wide area, they can endanger non-combatants.

Over 100 countries, including the UK, France and Germany, have outlawed the munitions under the Convention on Cluster Munitions, but the US and Ukraine are not signatories to the ban.

NATO has not seen any movement of Wagner mercenary fighters to Belarus, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.

There has been widespread speculation about where the Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin has been since the aborted mutiny on June 23-24.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko brokered an agreement for him to move to Belarus, but said last week Prigozhin was not in the country. 

Last week, the 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.”

According to the Lithuanian President’s Communication Group, the three leaders also pointed out that “the relocation of the Russian Wagner Group mercenaries and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin to Belarus would generate risks for the political stability in Belarus and in consequence a potential loss of control over conventional and nuclear weapons.”

The Polish Defense minister Mariusz Blaszczak tweeted on Friday that over 1,000 soldiers and almost 200 units of equipment from the 12th and 17th Mechanized Brigades were starting to move to the east of the country."

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence has disclosed what it says are the details of how a Russian submarine commander was shot dead in the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, but stopped short of explicitly claiming responsibility for his death.

Stanislav Rzhitsky was killed on Monday by an “unknown person” according to Russia’s TASS news service, adding that “the motive for the crime is being investigated. Suspects are identified.”

In an unusually detailed statement on Telegram early Tuesday, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence disclosed how it had apparently happened.

“Due to heavy rain, the park was deserted, so there were no witnesses who could provide details or identify the attacker,” the statement added.

Rzhitsky commanded one of Russia’s Kilo-class submarine of the Black Sea fleet, capable of firing Kalibr cruise missiles, according to the Ukrainian statement and Russian news reports.

Submarine-launched missile attacks have been responsible for some of the most destructive strikes on Ukrainian cities, including one almost exactly a year ago on the central city of Vinnytsia which killed dozens of people, including three children. 

The presence of four Asia-Pacific leaders at the NATO summit this week suggests that Ukraine is not the only major security issue on the agenda of the European-North American defense alliance.

The war in Ukraine has brought members of the US-led alliance closer than at any time since the Cold War, and on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg summed up their collective concerns that what is happening in Ukraine today could occur in Asia tomorrow.

“Beijing is threatening its neighbors and bullying other countries,” he said, adding that the Chinese threat extends directly into the homelands of the 31 countries in the alliance as the ruling Chinese Communist Party attempts “to take control of critical supply chains and infrastructure in NATO states.”

Autocratic nations, including China, were looking at Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and weighing the costs and benefits of offensive action, he said.

While not naming the island of Taiwan, the self-governing democracy is the most obvious point of comparison given China’s ruling Communist Party remains committed to unifying it with the mainland – by force if necessary.

For its part, China says Taiwan is an internal matter and it sees no role for countries in the region, let alone NATO members, to be interfering.

Read the full analysis here.