Russia-Ukraine war live: Biden and Sunak set to discuss Ukraine’s Nato bid; Kyiv claims ‘advance’ in Bakhmut | Ukraine

Ukrainian forces have registered “a definite advance” on the southern flank of the eastern city of Bakhmut, according to Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar.

In a Telegram post Maliar said there was no change in positions on the northern flank. She did not give any further details but attention in recent days has focused on the village of Klishchiivka, lying on heights to the south of Bakhmut.

Earlier Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said they were “making progress” around the city. Russian forces captured Bakhmut in May but are thought to be struggling to maintain control of it.

“Fierce fighting” continued in the southern areas of Melitopol and Berdyansk Maliar said, adding that “We are consolidating our gains in those areas.”

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy meanwhile said he felt no “pressure at all” to see success more quickly. “Today, the initiative is on our side,” Zelenskyy told the US broadcaster ABC. “We are advancing, albeit not as fast [as we would like]. But we are advancing.”

Joe Biden is set to hold talks with Rishi Sunak on Monday, the eve of a two-day Nato summit in Vilnius, with Ukraine set to dominate discussions both in London and in the Lithuanian capital.

The US and the UK are among Ukraine’s strongest supporters, but they differ on Ukraine’s wish to join the military alliance, with Washington much more reluctant than London due to concerns it may provoke Russia.

While all sides have agreed Ukraine cannot join until the war is over, and thus be covered by its guarantee that an attack on one is an attack on all, the UK has been pushing for Kyiv to receive fast-track membership, without the need for it to fulfil a Nato membership action plan.

Meanwhile, the US president on Sunday told CNN that Ukraine was “not yet ready” and made it clear that membership was conditional on more than the war’s end.

“Nato is a process that takes some time to meet all the qualifications – from democratisation to a whole range of other issues,” he said, adding that Nato needed to “lay out a rational path” for membership.

He suggested the US could provide military aid similar to the support it has long provided to Israel.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine with me, Helen Livingstone.

US president Joe Biden has landed in London and is set to hold talks with British prime minister Rishi Sunak, ahead of a two-day Nato summit in Vilnius. Ukraine is expected to feature high on the agenda, with discussions focusing on a path for Ukraine’s future membership of the military alliance, and security guarantees for Kyiv in the interim.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s deputy defence minister, Hanna Maliar, said Ukrainian forces had registered “a definite advance” on the southern flank of the eastern city of Bakhmut. Maliar did not give any further details but attention in recent days has focused on the village of Klishchiivka, lying on heights to the south of Bakhmut.

Earlier Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said they were “making progress” around the city. Russian forces captured Bakhmut in May but are thought to be struggling to maintain control of it.

In other key developments:

• Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said he was hoping for “the best possible result” from the summit, after talks with his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda. Zelenskiy has said he does not expect Ukraine to actually join Nato until after the war but that he hopes the summit will give a “clear signal” on the intention to bring Ukraine into the alliance.

• The US president spoke to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by phone on Sunday and “conveyed his desire to welcome Sweden into Nato as soon as possible”, the White House said. Washington has been increasing pressure on Ankara to drop its opposition to Sweden’s all-but-cleared Nato membership bid ahead of the Vilnius summit.

• Erdogan’s office said separately that the Turkish leader had reaffirmed to Biden his longstanding position that Sweden still needed to crack down harder on suspected Kurdish militants to win Turkey’s support. It said the two presidents would meet on the sidelines of the summit.

• The Nato meeting comes as members of Biden’s own Democratic party, rights groups and the UN raised questions about the US decision to send cluster bombs, which have been banned by more than 100 countries, to Ukraine. US senator Tim Kaine told Fox News he had “some real qualms” about the move because it “could give a green light to other nations to do something different as well”.

• Germany’s president has said the country should not “block” the US from sending cluster bombs to Ukraine, while maintaining its opposition to the use of the weapon. “Germany’s position against the use of cluster munitions is as justified as ever. But we cannot, in the current situation, block the United States,” President Frank-Walter Steinmeier told German broadcaster ZDF on Sunday.

• Russian air defence systems shot down four missiles on Sunday, Russian officials said, one over the annexed Crimean peninsula and three over Russia’s Rostov and Bryansk regions that border Ukraine. Several buildings were damaged in Rostov and Bryansk but no casualties were reported. No casualties or damage were reported in Crimea.

• South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has said next month’s Brics summit, which Vladimir Putin has been invited to attend, will be held in-person despite an arrest warrant on the Russian leader. “The Brics summit is going ahead and we are finalising our discussions on the format,” Ramaphosa told South African journalists on Sunday on the sidelines of a conference by the ruling ANC, adding it would be a “physical” meeting.