Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy hails ‘results’ amid heavy fighting in Donetsk; Biden and Sunak reaffirm commitment to Ukraine | Ukraine

White in Washington, Sunak also made the case to Biden for UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace to succeed outgoing Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who is set to end his term leading the 31-member alliance in September.

Stoltenberg is slated to meet with Biden in Washington on Monday, and leaders from the alliance are set to gather in Lithuania on 11-12 July for their annual summit.

Asked if it was time for aUK leader for Nato, Biden said “it may be” but “that remains to be seen.”

“We’re going to have to get a consensus within Nato,” he said.

US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated their commitment to help Ukraine repel Russia’s ongoing invasion after talks at the White House, the Associated Press reports.

The US and UK are the two biggest donors to the Ukraine war effort and play a central role in a long-term effort announced last month to train, and eventually equip, Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets.

Biden reiterated confidence that Congress would continue to provide Ukraine funding as needed despite some hesitation among Republican leaders at the growing cost of the war for American taxpayers.

“The US and the US have stood together to support Ukraine,” Biden said at the start of their meeting.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on Thursday hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

“There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam.

“But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.

Zelenskiy referred to other areas where fighting is going on, but said he would provide no details. Pictures posted on his Telegram account showed him meeting some of the country’s top generals in the field.

Welcome back to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Sullivan.

Our top story this morning: heavy fighting in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

“There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam.

“But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.

And US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated their commitment to help Ukraine repel Russia’s ongoing invasion on Thursday, as Sunak visited the US.

Elsewhere:

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has visited the Kherson region that has been affected by flooding after the destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam. In a post to Telegram, Ukraine’s president said the main issues discussed during the visit were “the operational situation in the region as a result of the disaster, evacuation of the population from potential flood zones, elimination of the emergency caused by the dam explosion, organisation of life support for the flooded areas”.

• Zelenskiy later hailed what he described as “results” in heavy fighting in Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. “There is very heavy fighting in Donetsk region,” Zelenskiy said in his daily video message, delivered in a train after visiting areas affected by the breach of the Kakhovka power dam. “But there are results and I am grateful to those who achieved these results. Well done in Bakhmut. Step by step,” he said.

• A substantial Ukrainian force was pushing an assault against Russian positions in the south on Thursday, in an intensification of fighting that some Ukrainian officials and western analysts said marked the start in earnest of Kyiv’s much-vaunted counteroffensive. The combat against Russian positions south of Zaporizhzhia included western-supplied tanks and armoured vehicles and infantry backed by artillery. There were reports of intense fighting outside the town of Tokmak, a key Russian logistical hub.

• Russia on Thursday denied Ukrainian accusations that it backed pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and discriminates against ethnic Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea, accusing Kyiv of “blatant lies” at the UN’s top court.

• One of Russia’s longest-serving and most respected human rights campaigners Oleg Orlov went on trial on Thursday, facing the prospect of three years in jail if convicted of repeatedly discrediting Russia’s armed forces, his organisation said.

• The cooling pond at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine is in danger of collapse as a result of the destruction of the Kakhovka dam and the draining of its reservoir, according to a French nuclear safety organisation. The UN’s atomic watchdog later said that the plant has months worth of water reserves that can be pumped to the power plant to cool reactors and other areas.

• The World Health Organization has rushed emergency supplies to flood-hit parts of Ukraine and are preparing to respond to an array of health risks including trauma, drowning and waterborne diseases such as cholera, officials said on Thursday.

• Ukraine could lose several million tons of crops because of flooding caused by the destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country, the Ukrainian agriculture ministry said on Thursday.

• Russian shelling killed a civilian in the Ukrainian city of Kherson on Thursday as people were being evacuated because of flooding caused by the collapse of the Kakhovka dam, Ukraine’s prosecutor general claimed. Police reported that an additional three people were injured.

• The investigations team of the jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has released a new video in which it claims to have found a son of Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, whose name was previously not known to the public. Over the past year, Shoigu’s alleged son has been making cheesy pop songs in English while his father is sending tens of thousands of Russians to war in Ukraine, the Guardian’s Shaun Walker reported.

• Two missiles hit sites near the city of Uman in central Ukraine on Thursday, injuring eight people, the regional governor said. Ihor Taburets, governor of Cherkasy region, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that the missiles hit an industrial site and a car wash in the evening. He said two of the injured were seriously hurt, according to preliminary information.

• The Russian embassy has said the responsibility for the “unfolding tragedy” in Kherson due to the destruction of the Kakhovka dam lies with Kyiv and western countries who have supplied Ukraine with weapons, in what they describe as a “terrorist plot” in a statement.

• Britain announced a new sanctions package against Belarus on Thursday for its role in facilitating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including import bans and new measures aimed at preventing internet propaganda.

• About 230 square miles (600 sq km) of the Kherson region was under water on Thursday, the regional governor said. Oleksandr Prokudin said 68% of the flooded territory was on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River. The average level of flooding in the Kherson region on Thursday morning was 5.61m (18.41ft), he said. He said almost 2,000 people had left flooded territory as of Thursday morning.