Ukraine daily roundup: World leaders show united front at major summits

It was a busy day of international diplomacy, with several major summits that saw leaders from around the world displaying solidarity with Ukraine.

The Nato defensive alliance, as well as the EU and the G7 group of the world’s richest nations held unprecedented emergency summits in Brussels.

Unity and support for Ukraine were the key themes, with leaders pledging military and humanitarian assistance.

Russia, meanwhile, accused the West of wanting the conflict to continue.

“The single most important thing is for us to stay unified and the world to continue to focus on what a brute [Vladimir Putin] is,” US President Joe Biden told reporters.

“Putin has already crossed the red line into barbarism,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

One of the main takeaways of the day came from the Nato defensive alliance, which approved major increases of forces in Eastern Europe.

Four new battlegroups will be sent to Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.

The group has never been more united which is “the opposite of what [Putin] intended”, Mr Biden said.

World leaders also warned that if Russia were to use chemical or nuclear weapons they would be forced to respond. They weren’t, however, willing to say what that response would look like.

One of those in Brussels today was Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who announced that the UK would send 6,000 missiles to Ukraine.

He also pledged £25m ($32m) in aid to help pay his soldiers’ salaries.

“I think [Putin] had literally no idea that the Ukrainians were going to mount the resistance that they are,” Mr Johnson told BBC Newsnight.

“He totally misunderstood what Ukraine is – and, far from extinguishing Ukraine as a nation, he’s solidified it.”

Camped out on Kharkiv’s front line, the BBC’s Quentin Sommerville spoke to two soldiers who have been stationed there since the war began.

They have plenty of cigarettes and ration packs containing 17 different items – including dark chocolate and a blackcurrant drink.

At one moment, a volley of gunfire, followed by Russian shells landing just meters away, interrupts an interview. The soldiers seem untroubled, reacting only to check where the explosion had hit.

Early on Thursday, the Ukrainian military released a video that it said showed it had taken out a large Russian landing vessel – the Orsk – with a sizeable explosion and smoke visibly billowing into the sky.

It also said two other nearby Russian vessels were damaged.

Ukraine’s Deputy Defense minister said the “huge target” was capable of carrying 20 tanks, 45 armored vehicles, and 400 troops. The BBC cannot independently verify the claim.

In Russia, police still haven’t returned one of the anti-war placards they took while arresting Elena Osipova for her protest in St Petersburg.

The 76-year old is now back home, surrounded in her flat by many more mischievous pieces of anti-war art that are yet to be confiscated.

“What’s happening is a disgrace. So many people are being killed. The authorities are trying to arouse patriotic feelings in the public”, Ms Osipova says. “But it’s all a disappointment.”

Ukraine’s military campaign has challenged the odds – it is fighting a more powerful army to a standstill and keeping hold of the capital Kyiv.

Our security correspondent Frank Gardner explains what it is getting right: motivation, effective command, good tactics, and a strong information campaign.