Jens Stoltenberg says lack of ammunition has allowed Russia to push forward; Odesa missile strike kills at least four people. What we know on day 797

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Nato countries have not delivered what they promised to Ukraine in time, which has benefited Russia on the frontline, Jens Stoltenberg has said . “Serious delays in support have meant serious consequences on the battlefield” for Ukraine, the Nato secretary general said in Kyiv while meeting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Ukrainian officials say Russia is assembling forces for a major summer offensive , even if its troops are making only incremental gains at the moment.

“The lack of ammunition has allowed the Russians to push forward along the front line ,” Stoltenberg said. “Lack of air defence has made it possible for more Russian missiles to hit their targets, and the lack of deep strike capabilities has made it possible for the Russians to concentrate more forces.” Zelenskiy said new western supplies have started arriving, but slowly. “This process must be speeded up,” he said.

At least four people were killed and 32 injured in a Russian missile strike on residential buildings and “civil infrastructure” in Odesa on Monday, said regional officials. The attack hit a private law academy situated in a popular seafront park in the southern Ukrainian port city. A turreted Gothic-style building known as the “Harry Potter castle” was seen in flames after the strike. Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said the strike was conducted by an Iskander-M ballistic missile with a cluster warhead. “Monsters. Beasts. Savages. Scum. I don’t know what else to say,” said the Odesa mayor, Hennadii Trukhanov.

Debris showed that an North Korean Hwasong-11 ballistic missile hit Kharkiv on 2 January, UN sanctions monitors have told a security council committee in a report seen by Reuters. The missile was most likely illegally supplied to Russia, they conclude. North Korea is accused of developing such weapons and supplying them to Russia despite being under UN sanctions for its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes since 2006. Ukraine’s allies have accused North Korea of transferring weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine in violation of an arms embargo. The US has accused Russia of launching North Korean-supplied ballistic missiles against Ukraine on at least nine occasions . Russia in March vetoed the renewal of sanctions monitoring against North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Away from the frontline, Polish farmers have lifted blockades at border crossings with Ukraine , officials said on Monday, ending a two-month protest over farm imports and alleged unfair competition. “The traffic through all the border crossings [with Ukraine] is possible,” said Michal Derus, a tax administration spokesman in Poland’s Lublin region after farmers ended the last blockade at the Hrebenne border crossing. “All trucks are allowed to pass as long as they are not carrying sanctioned goods,” Derus added, referring to the grain imports from Ukraine that Poland imposed a temporary embargo on.

German prosecutors are investigating after a Russian citizen was arrested on suspicion of stabbing two Ukrainian soldiers to death . The soldiers – who had been convalescing in southern Germany – were found with serious stab wounds outside a shopping centre in the Bavarian town of Murnau am See on Sunday, according to police. One of them, aged 36, died at the scene, while the other, 23, died in hospital. A 57-year-old Russian citizen was arrested in his home on suspicion of murder, police said. The prosecutor general’s office in Munich said it had since taken over the case and was not able to rule out that the killings were politically motivated.

Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh, on Monday became the first British royal to visit Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion . The British foreign ministry said she met survivors of sexual violence and torture, as well as women displaced by the war, and children who were deported to Russia before recently being returned. “It’s true that women and girls pay the highest price in terms of human cost … Rape is used to demean, to degrade and to destroy, and we have to get better at trying to prevent that from happening,” Sophie said. The Russian army in Ukraine has been accused of numerous incidents of rape and sexual violence

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With US funding stalled in Congress, what are the other schemes to arm and fund Ukraine?

With Ukrainian officials warning the country lacks the arms to defend itself as Russia pushes its offensive, the US Congress has finally announced plans to bring a package on military aid for Ukraine – which has stalled for months due to Republican scepticism – to a vote in the House of Representatives.

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Underwater infrastructure vulnerable to Russian threats, says V Adm Didier Maleterre, after suspected sabotage of gas pipelines

The security of nearly 1 billion people across Europe and North America is under threat from Russian attempts to target the extensive vulnerabilities of underwater infrastructure including windfarms, pipelines and power cables, a Nato commander has warned.

V Adm Didier Maleterre, the deputy commander of Nato’s Allied Maritime Command (Marcom), said the network of underwater cables and pipes on which Europe’s power and communications depend were not built to withstand the “hybrid warfare” being pursued by Moscow and other Nato adversaries.

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In sweeping lecture on Britain’s ‘grand strategic moment’, John Bew warns ‘we cannot just manage risk, we are in a competition’

The UK faces a choice between using statecraft to plan and deepen its international alliances or simply managing relations with its rivals and risk sliding into war, Rishi Sunak’s foreign policy adviser has said.

In a sweeping lecture on Britain’s “grand strategic moment”, John Bew drew on how the national character had been shaped by history, claiming the fundamental assumptions about how British leaders have thought about the world had been shaken by events.

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Former foreign secretary says Britain needs to forge closer political and foreign policy links with Europe if it is to thrive

The UK has lost influence since Brexit to become just one of many “middle powers” in the world, former foreign secretary David Miliband has said.

Writing for the Observer , Miliband, now president and chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, said that in order to reverse the decline, the UK needed to enter new “structures and commitments” with the EU on foreign policy.

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Richard Grenell’s shadow foreign policy campaign is unsettling diplomats and threatens to collapse US interests

For Donald Trump, he is “my envoy”, the man apparently anointed as the former US president’s roving ambassador while he plots a return to the White House.

To critics , he is seen as “an online pest” and “a national disgrace” – and most importantly, the dark embodiment of what foreign policy in a second Trump administration would look like.

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A further 12 people injured in strike on Ukraine’s second-biggest city which has become a frequent Russian target in recent weeks

Foreign ministers from Nato’s 32 members are gathering for a second day in Brussels today. They are marking the 75-year anniversary of the defensive alliance, and will also hold talks with Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba .

Later in the day, the minister will also meet with representatives of Australia, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea and the EU.

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British foreign minister to urge counterparts to step up support for Kyiv and ramp up defence production

Oleg Sinegubov , head of the Kharkiv regional military administration, said this morning on Telegram that an 11-year old boy died in hospital after sustaining injuries in an attack in the region.

His 58-year-old father was killed yesterday, Sinegubov said.

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Polish prime minister urges countries to step up defence spending after Russian missile bound for Ukraine breaches airspace

The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, says Europe is entering a “prewar” era, cautioning that the continent is not ready and urging European countries to step up defence investment.

In an interview with a group of European newspapers reported by the BBC , Tusk said: “I don’t want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past. It’s real and it started over two years ago.”

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