Oleksiy Danilov: Latest News

Russia has started its long-awaited offensive in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in an effort to cut off the territory and finally obtain a battlefield victory.

FILE - (L to R) European Council President Charles Michel, Italys Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Canadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Frances President Emmanuel Macron, Japans Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, US President Joe Biden, Germanys Chancello HIROSHIMA, Japan - Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday."Our support for Ukraine will not waver," the G7 leaders said in a statement released after closed-door meetings, vowing "to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.""Russia started this war and can end this war," they said.Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, confirmed on national television that Zelenskyy would attend the summit."We were sure that our president would be where Ukraine needed him, in any part of the world, to solve the issue of stability of our country," Danilov said Friday. "There will be very important matters decided there, so physical presence is a crucial thing to defend our interests."Zelenskyy on Friday opened a visit to Saudi Arabia, where Arab leaders were holding a separate summit, he announced.Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear threats against Ukraine, along with North Korea's months-long barrage of missile tests and China’s rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, have resonated with Japan’s push to make nuclear disarmament a major part of the summit.

Russia has begun its anticipated large-scale offensive operation in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine, officials said Monday, marking a new phase in the nearly two-month-long war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has survived at least one assassination attempt since Russia invaded his country over a week ago, according to official accounts, with media reports suggesting he may have dodged two more.Ukrainian officials have confirmed one of the attempts, which they say was to be carried out by a unit of Kadyrovites, an elite special forces team based in Chechnya that serves the country’s president Ramzan Kadyrov.Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told a media briefing on Tuesday that the plot was foiled last weekend after anti-war agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) — the successor to the KGB — tipped the Ukrainians off.“We are well aware of the special operation that was to take place directly by the Kadyrovites to eliminate our president,” Danilov said.“I can say that we have received information from the FSB, who today do not want to take part in this bloody war. And thanks to this, I can say that Kadyrov’s elite group was directly destroyed, which came here to eliminate our president.” Zelenskyy criticizes NATO for refusing to impose no-fly zone over Ukraine The Times of London reported Thursday that two more attempts to kill Zelenskyy have been carried out in recent days by members of the Wagner Group, a private mercenary group whose leader is tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin.Those attempts were also stopped by Ukrainian forces protecting the president, the paper reported, with the mercenary groups suffering losses.

a feared invasion from neighboring Russia was not imminent, even as they acknowledged the threat is real and prepared to accept a shipment of American military equipment Tuesday to shore up their defenses.Russia has denied it is planning an assault, but it has massed an estimated 100,000 troops near Ukraine in recent weeks, leading the United States and its NATO allies to rush to prepare for a possible war.Several rounds of high stakes diplomacy have failed to yield any breakthroughs, and this week tensions escalated further. NATO said it was bolstering its deterrence in the Baltic Sea region, and the U.S.