July 14, 2023 - Russia-Ukraine news

The long-term commitments made at the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week might be the most effective way to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin that he cannot win his war in Ukraine, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

The NATO pledges “may be the best way to disabuse Vladimir Putin of the idea that he could somehow outlast Ukraine, and outlast the dozens of countries that are supporting Ukraine,” Blinken said at a news conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.

"That's the quickest way, probably, to bring this war to an end," Blinken said. The top US diplomat predicted Putin will try to drag out the war "indefinitely," despite the "horrific costs that he's incurred on Russia itself."

“The question now is exactly where and how this ends. Fundamentally, these decisions need to be up to Ukraine, because it's about its future,” Blinken said, repeating a common US refrain about leaving it up to Kyiv how and when to handle any peace negotiations with Russia.

“We haven't seen any signs from Russia that it's actually willing to engage in meaningful diplomacy and end the war that it started,” he added.

What NATO countries pledged to give Kyiv: While Ukraine, as expected, did not leave the Vilnius summit as a member of the military alliance, leading NATO nations gave Kyiv security guarantees and assurances that its future is in the alliance.

A joint declaration agreement from G7 countries committed to long-term investments in Ukraine's fighting forces, both to fend off Russia now and deter attacks in the future. The agreement also vowed to invest in Ukraine's economy and to provide immediate "technical and financial support" for pressing needs brought on by the war.

That came alongside assurances — in writing and in engagements with news media — from leading countries that Ukraine will eventually join NATO.

Remember: The Group of Seven, or G7, is an organization of leaders from some of the world’s largest economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s position in meetings with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, saying that the minister remained immovable in regard to his country's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

At a press conference in Jakarta, Indonesia, Blinken said nothing he heard from Lavrov “suggested any change in direction when it comes to what Russia is doing in Ukraine.”

Blinken also criticized Russia for threatening the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Thursday Russia could quit if his country's demands are not met. If the initiative is allowed to expire on Monday, it would affect food prices across the globe, Blinken said.

Blinken said Lavrov's engagements were “not constructive or productive on any issue.”

“He focused, unlike the United States and unlike many other countries, on a totally negative presentation, an agenda in which he effectively described every problem in the world to the United States,” said Blinken.

Turkey is preparing to host Russian President Vladimir Putin in August and both countries agree the Black Sea grain deal should be extended, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a press conference in Istanbul on Friday, despite Russia's threats that it may quit the deal.

The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres “sent a letter to Mr. Putin. I hope that with this letter and the joint effort by us and Russia, the grain corridor will be extended," Erdogan added.

Remember: The deal is due to expire Monday. Putin said Thursday that Russia may quit the Black Sea grain deal if its demands are not met. A key Russian demand has been to allow access to international payments mechanisms currently out of bounds to Russian banks as part of an international sanctions regime.

Russian private military group Wagner's fighters are training Belarusian fighters near the town of Osipovichi, about 90 kilometers (or about 56 miles) south of the capital Minsk, according to the Defense Ministry of Belarus.

"Conscripts learn the skills of moving on the battlefield and tactical shooting, gaining knowledge in engineering training and tactical medicine," the ministry said Friday, adding that Wagner fighters "acted as instructors in a number of military disciplines"

Following the Wagner group’s failed mutiny, the mercenary fighters were given the option to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense, go to Belarus or return home.

US-supplied cluster munitions got into Ukraine so quickly because they were already prepositioned in Europe, a US official told CNN.

Now that the munitions are in Ukraine, when will they be used? “We’ve made a decision to let the Russians be the first to know,” the official said.

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday the weapons were in Ukraine, after a Ukrainian commander told CNN in an earlier interview that they had been received and could "radically change" the battlefield situation.

The controversial cluster munitions are banned by over 100 countries around the globe.

Joint Staff Director for Operations Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims said Thursday during a press conference that the Ukrainians don’t have “any interest in using the cluster munitions anywhere near the civilian population, unlike the Russians.”

There is "no threat" of invasion from Belarus, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a meeting Friday with military leaders, according to a report given by Ukraine’s military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov.

The remark comes as Belarus' defense ministry this week said it was expecting the arrival of the next Russian military units as well as fighters from the Wagner mercenary group, who will take part in joint training with Belarusian forces. The country's leader Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, late last month claimed to play a key role in stopping the Wagner march toward Moscow and also said tactical nuclear weapons that Russia plans to station in Belarus had arrived.

In a Telegram post Friday, Zelensky also said that the protection of nuclear power plants and Ukraine's northern border were discussed in the staff meeting. 

Ukraine is steadily sealing off and fortifying its northern border with Belarus and Russia, also encouraging civilians in some regions who still live close to the border to leave for safer places. On Thursday, Commander of the Joint Forces Lt. Gen. Serhii Naiev said Ukraine continues to "create engineering barriers directly along the state border; we dig anti-tank ditches and mine the area," adding that the goal is to make that area "impassable."

What else they spoke about: The leaders also discussed the situation on the front lines, new defense aid after this week's NATO summit, the current offensive and improving the Ukrainian military's supply logistics.

Ukraine's Minister of Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin gave a report on increasing domestic production of certain weapons, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and ramping up the volume of equipment repairs. Kyiv was a target of three consecutive overnight airstrikes this week, and there was a drone strike in the city of Kryvyi Rih this morning.

A Russian drone strike showered over the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, as cross-border attacks between Moscow and Kyiv ramped up overnight.

Here are the latest developments:

The European Union and World Health Organization are working to further bolster medevac operations in Ukraine to ensure the country's people get timely medical care, according to an EU statement released Friday. 

“Medical evacuations are an essential part of the European Union’s emergency support to Ukraine. Russia’s full-scale invasion leaves military and civilians heavily wounded while also ruining healthcare infrastructure," said Peter M. Wagner, the head of the European Commission’s Service for Foreign Policy Instruments. 

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, more than 2,350 Ukrainian patients have been transferred to hospitals in 21 European countries to receive treatment for "severe war wounds or conditions that cannot currently be easily treated inside Ukraine, such as specialized cancer treatments and rehabilitation support," according to the EU. 

More than 370 patients have requested and been supported to return to Ukraine following their treatment. 

WHO European Region Emergency Director Dr. Gerald Rockenschaub added: “Safe transfer of patients across borders requires all partners to work together effectively and efficiently to ensure that people can get the life-saving treatment they desperately need. We welcome this opportunity to build on our relationship with our partners, both in the European Union and other institutions."

The Kremlin has said that the Wagner private mercenary group, which led a failed insurrection against Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, was never a legal entity and its legal status needs further consideration.

“Such a legal entity as PMC Wagner does not exist and never existed. This is a legal issue that needs to be explored,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Peskov refused to disclose any further details on the meeting between Wagner head Yengeny Prigozhin and Putin, which reportedly took place several days after the aborted rebellion, in late June.

Separately, Peskov also refused to comment on Russian general Ivan Popov, who said this week that he was suddenly fired after accusing Moscow's defense ministry leadership of betraying its soldiers by providing insufficient support.

Peskov said Popov's dismissal is a "military topic" for the Ministry of Defense to comment on.

CNN's Tim Lister and Anna Chernova contributed reporting.